[1] His. Preston, viii.

[2] Mr. Haigh's ingenious hypothesis, however, is not accepted by historical students generally.

[3] "It was twenty-six feet high, and had inscribed on it these names, and two others, Bregored and Beorward. Centwine became King of the West Saxons, and Hedde, Bishop of Winchester, in A.D. 676; the former became a monk in A.D. 683, the latter died in A.D. 705. Bregored was an Abbot of Glastonbury (but not in the times of the Britons, as William of Malmsbury concluded from his name, for it is clearly Saxon), and Beorward may be the Abbot Beornwald who attested a charter of Ine in A.D. 704. The larger pyramid, twenty-eight feet high, which stood at the head of the grave, is said to have been in a very ruinous condition, and the only intelligible words in the inscription upon it (as given by William of Malmsbury), are the names of Wulfred and Eanfled. The discovery of these trunk coffins at Glastonbury has not been noticed by Mr. Wright, in his account of the similar discoveries at Gristhorpe, Beverley, Driffield, and Selby (Gent. Mag. 1857. vol. ii. p. 114), nor by Mr. Wylie in his paper on the Oberflacht graves (ArchÆologia, vol. xxxvi., p. 129), but deserves to be mentioned in connection with them."

[4] The Rev. E. Sibson says:—"A piece of high ground near the Scholes is called King Arthur's camp."—Man. Lit. and Phil. Soc. Transactions, April, 1845.

[5] Giving a man "wigan," in the present vernacular of the county, is synonymous to giving him a good threshing.

Jacob Grimm, in his "Deutsche Mythologie," says the Old High German wig, pugna, seems occasionally to denote the personal god of war.

The modern English word "vie," to contend, to fight, to strive for superiority, is derived from the Anglo-Saxon wigian, wiggan, which are cognate to the Gothic veigan (Collins's Dic. Der.) Wig, war, warfare, battle (Bosworth, A.S. Dic.)

[6] The district referred to is variously written Linuis, Cinuis, and Inniis.

[7] Nennius calls him "Catgublaun, king of Guenedot," Gwynedd, North Wales.

[8] Anglo-Saxon Chron. and Bede.

[9] Dr. Giles, Mr. Green, and others, say—"Hatfield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, about seven miles to the north-east of Doncaster," and this seems the most probable site.

[10] Variation, Brocmail.

[11] Dean Howson, in an address delivered at Chester, in 1873, in reference to the disputed site of Oswald's death, said—"He was not going to decide between the claims of the two places, but he was inclined to think both views might be reconciled. Oswald had a palace at Winwick, and there was a well there that bore his name, and an inscription that recorded his attachment to the locality. Oswestry was said to mean Oswald's tree. There was no reason why they should not believe that he was killed at Winwick, and that his head and arms were taken away and put on a stump of wood at Oswestry. The conflicting statements would then be reconciled." Such an act would, in no way, be inconsistent with the character of Penda. He might send the remains to his Welsh allies as trophies of his victory over the vanquisher of their great chief, Cadwalla.[** this is note p62]

[12] Bosworth, in his Anglo-Saxon dictionary, under the letter K, says, "Though the A. S. generally used c, even before e, i, and y, yet as k is sometimes found," he gives a list of words commencing with that consonant under such conditions. The Anglo-Saxon "Cymen's ora" is now represented by Keynor. Kemble says the homes of the Elsingas and Elcinghas, are now represented by Elsing and Elkington, in Northamptonshire. Mr. Green speaks of "those Gewissas, the Hwiccas, as they were called," and Peille says, "Indo-European ky and ty become ss, as in 'prasso' for 'prack-yo' (root 'prack,' formative suffix 'yo.')"

[13] The etymology on which Mr. Howel W. Lloyd, the recent able advocate for the Shropshire site, and others, rely, (Earwaker's Local Gatherings relating to Lancashire, vol. i., 1876, and the summary, by Mr. Askew Roberts, in his "Contributions to Oswestry History,") is as follows:—Referring to Mr. Lloyd's paper, Mr. Roberts states his position thus:—"Mesbury (now Maesbury, called in Domesday Meresbury), a hamlet in the parish of Oswestry, is now called 'Llysfeisir or Llys feisydd.'" He adds—"Thus a basis is supplied for a correct inference as to the order of nomenclature. 1. The Welsh Te-fesen, corrupted by the Saxons into Mesafelth or Maserfelth, and then into Maserfield, the name of the district in which is Oswestry, as Winwick is in Makerfield. 2. The monastery founded on the spot in honour of St. Oswald, called Album Monasterium, Candida Ecclesia Y Fonachlog Wen (by the Welsh according to Davies), and Blancmonster and Blancminster by the Normans, all meaning the same thing, viz.:—White Monastery, applied latterly also to the town, which grew up around the monastery. 3. Mesbury, corrupted into Maesbury, when the town in Trefesen, to which a Fitzalan granted a charter, grew into a borough; and 4, Oswaldestree or Oswestry, from the 'tre' or district, or else possibly from the traditional tree, on which the king's arm was recorded to have been hung. A further basis is supplied for reconciling the statement of Nennius, that the battle was fought at Codoy, with that of the Saxon historian that it was fought at Maserfield. For just as Winwick is in Mackerfield, so may Codoy have been in the larger locality of Maserfield; and Nennius, as a British historian, representing, as his editors believe him to do, a much earlier author, gives, as might naturally be expected, the precise situation of the spot, the territorial appellation only for which reached the foreign and more distant chroniclers. From all this it is certain that Oswestry had its Maserfield as Winwick its Mackerfield, the former, however, more nearly reflecting the ancient British name, as well as character of the place, but both alike designating a district rather than a town, that being the ancient meaning of the word 'tre.' Maserfelth is, therefore, Oak-field, a translation of the original British name of Trefesen (compare English 'mast,') and the arms connected St. Oswald with the Oak."

[14] There is great difficulty in reconciling the various statements respecting this Cadwalla. Mr. Skene ("Four Ancient Books of Wales") thinks it not improbable that it was his father, Cadvan, who fell at Heavenfield, and not himself. If Cadwalla fought at Maserfeld, Dean Howson's conjecture is rendered more probable. See Ante, p. 62. Revenge for his father's death might induce him to display his trophies of victory over his previously successful rival before his Brit-Welsh subjects at a locality afterwards named Oswestry.

[15] Mr. Hartshorne, however, refers to this story in connection with his claim of "Maesbrook, a place in a direct line between Maesbury and Coedway, and about five miles from Oswestry," as the site of Oswald's defeat, and connects a local legend with it.

[16] For a long time after the death of Oswald, the present Shropshire remained British, or as Professor Boyd Dawkins appropriately terms it, "Brit-Welsh," territory.—See Mr. Green's maps.

[17] The Welsh authorities write this word "Codoy." The Rev. W. Gunn and Dr. Giles, "Cocboy."

[18] The martyrdom is a very doubtful matter; indeed, it is more than probable this name of the field, and its presumed etymology, gave birth to the legend, or it may have been an ancient burial place. A Lancashire peasant pronounces the word neither, nather and nother, at the present day, while some clergymen pronounce it nigh-ther. The Lancashire contraction for James is Jim not Jem, as in the South of England. I have often heard China pronounced "Chaney" by Lancashire people. The number of ancient burial tumuli to the north of the ford may possibly have influenced the local nomenclature. In Webster's dictionary a third meaning to the word "latch" is thus described: "3. [Fr. lÉcher, to lick, pour. O. H. Ger. lecchÔn. See Lick.] To smear [Obs.]"

[19] The Rev. E. Sibson says—"The streams which unite at this barrow are the Dene and the Sankey." Mr. Beamont says the tumulus is situated on the Golbourne brook.

[20] "Siculus Flaccus says that it was the practice of some agrimensores to place under termini ashes, or charcoal, or pieces of broken glass or pottery, or asses, or lime, or plaster (gypsum).... The writer of a later treatise, or rather compilation, attributed to BoËthius, speaking upon the same subject, enumerates as the objects to be so placed, ashes, or charcoals, or potsherds, or bones, or glass, or assÆ of iron, or brass, or lime, or plaster, or a fictile vessel."—"The Romans of Britain," by H. C. Coote F.S.A.

[21] This, of course, is disputed by other authorities. Mr. Thorpe regards the only copy now extant as an Anglo-Saxon version of an older Scandinavian poem.

[22] Mr. Askew Roberts, in his "Contributions to Oswestry History," has the following:—"Is not all the alluvial tract of country which lies between Buttington and Oswestry, called in the Welsh tongue 'Ystrad Marchell.' = Strata Marcella, at one end of which stood the once famous monastery of Ystrad Marchell or Strata Marcella? Is it not more likely that Oswald should have been overwhelmed by a combined force of Mercians, Welsh, and Angles somewhere in the large plain of Ystradmarchell, which lies on the boundary of the Welsh and Mercian territories, than at Winwick, in Lancashire, and does not the above line prove that 'Oswald from Marchelldy [Marcelde the House or Monastery of Marchell] did to Heaven remove.'—Bonion, writing in Bygones, August 6, 1873." This would have more value had the inscription been on Oswestry Church. It is not very probable the Cleric of Winwick would be a Welsh scholar, or that he would translate the Welsh word into Latin in preference to the English one by which the locality was well known. What business had Oswald "somewhere in the large plain of Ystradmarchell, which lies on the boundary of the Welsh and Mercian territory," if Penda were the aggressor, as Geoffrey and others testify. Besides, as Mr. Green's maps show, the district in question was, in the seventh century, a long way from either the Mercian or Northumbrian boundary. To be in the locality at all would constitute Oswald the attacking and not the defending party, as Bede's expression, "pro patria dimicans," seems to imply.

[23] This is a very daring assertion, and is by no means confirmed by a visit to the locality.

[24] "Were there no other record of the existence of our own Richard I. than the Romaunt bearing his name, and composed within a century of his death, he would unquestionably have been numbered by the Mythists among their shadowy heroes; for among the superhuman feats performed by that pious crusader, we read, in the above mentioned authority, that having torn out the heart of a lion, he pressed out the blood, dipt it in salt, and ate it without bread; that being sick, and longing after pork (which in a land of Moslems and Jews was not to be had),

Of this Apician dish 'the kyng eet the flesh and gnew the bones.' Richard afterwards feasts his infidel prisoners on a Saracen's head each, every head having the name of its late owner attached to it on a slip of parchment. Surely all this is as mythic as it is possible to be, and yet Richard is a really historic earth-born personage."

Yes, there was a truly historical Richard, as there doubtless was an Arthur, but the Richard and Arthur of romance, nevertheless, are not historical characters, in the strict sense of the word, and ought not to be confounded with them.

[25] At the meeting of the British Association, held at York, in 1861, Dr. Phene, F.S.A., &c., read a paper on Scandinavian and Pictish customs on the Anglo-Scottish Border. He spoke of the persistent retention of curious customs, and the handing down from generation to generation of the traditionary lore of ages long past, and then referred to some of those which were corroborated by ancient monuments of an unusual kind still famous on the Scottish border. These consisted of sculptured stones, earth works, and actual ceremonies. Quoting from former writers, from family pedigrees, and other documents, he showed that the estates to which this traditionary lore pertained, had been held alternately by those claiming under the respective nationalities, or more local powers, and which from their natural defensive features must have been places of border importance earlier than history records. The district was occupied by the descendants—often still traceable—of Danes, Jutes, Frisians, Picts, Scots, Angles, and Normans; and by a comparison of several of the languages of these people, as well ancient as now existing, and also of the Gothic, it was shown in relation to a particular class of the most curious monuments, that the Norse "ormr," Anglo-Saxon "vyrm," old German "wurm," Gothic "vaÚrms," pronounced like our word worm; and the word "lint," or "lind," also German, and the Norse "linni," are all equivalent, and mean serpent; and in some cases the two words are united as in modern German "lindwurm," and the Danish and Swedish "lindorm." On this apparently rested the names of some of the places having these strange traditions, as Linton or serpent town, Wormiston or worm's (ormr's) town, Lindisfarne, the Farne serpent island, now Holy Island, &c., and also the various worm hills, or serpent mounds of those localities. It was curious that the contests to which the traditions referred (like that of St. George) were sometimes with two dragons, as shown on a sculptured stone in Linton Church, and on a similar stone at Lyngby, in Denmark, in the churchyard, where there was a tradition that two dragons had their haunt near the church. From these and other facts, the author concluded that the contests were international, and in the case of two dragons, an allied foe, either national, religious, or both, was overcome. He showed from the Scottish seals that Scotland used the dragon as an emblem, apparently deriving it from the Picts; that the Scandinavians also used it, and that these nationalities were antagonistic to the Saxon. In the time of David the First of Scotland, the first great centralisation of Saxon power took place, and the powerful family of the Cumyns took, apparently by conquest, at least two of the localities having these strange traditions. And as the political object was to suppress the Celtic and Scandinavian, or other local national feeling, there could be little doubt that however they obtained them, the persons dispossessed were of one or other of the Northern tribes. Hence probably the middle-age tradition of the slaying of the serpent or dragon, or the serpent or dragon bearer, on the Anglo-Scottish border. But he considered such traditions would hardly have originated through such conquests, had not previous marvellous stories existed of the prowess and conquest by the dragon (bearers) of the lands they invaded, all the wonders of which would be transferred to the conqueror's conqueror. Hence these stories were not to be set aside with a sneer, as in them was a germ of history, giving us, perhaps, the only insight we could obtain of the prehistoric customs and mythology of some of the ancient tribes of Britain. Earthen mounds, tumuli, standing stones, &c., still existed in some of these localities, with all of which the dragon serpent or worm was associated in the legends. The author described his personal experiences in the still existing dragon ceremonies in the south of France and Spain, which were always either on the present national or former less important provincial frontiers, and which still formed the subjects of great ecclesiastical ceremonies. One of the high ecclesiastical dignitaries of the north of England—the Bishop of Durham—is in the position of having to take part in such a ceremony. Whenever a bishop of that diocese enters the manor of Sockburn for the first time, the Lord of the Manor, who holds under the see of Durham, subject to the following tenure, has to present the Bishop, "in the middle of the river Tees, if the river is fordable, with the falchion wherewith the champion Conyers destroyed the worm, dragon, or fiery flying serpent which destroyed man, woman, and child" in that district, and an ancient altar called "Greystone" still marks where the dragon was buried.—Manchester Examiner.

[26] "Klunzinger: Upper Egypt, 184."

[27] "There exists yet a traditionary superstition very prevalent in Lancashire and its neighbourhood to the effect that pigs can 'see the wind.' I accidentally heard the observation made, not long ago, in the city of Manchester, in what is termed 'respectable society,' and no one present audibly dissented. One or two individuals, indeed, remarked that they had often heard such was the case, and seemed to regard the phenomenon as related to the strong scent and other instincts peculiar to animals of the chase. Indeed, Dr. Kuhn says that in Westphalia this phase of the superstition is the prevalent one. There pigs are said to smell the wind."—Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-Lore, p. 69.

[28] The Rev. Jno. Williams, in a note to his translation of "The Gododin," says:—"Beli, son of Benlli, a famous warrior in North Wales."

[29] See Chapter I., page 25.

[30] Warksworth Chronicle.

[31] Several cannon balls, fired during Cromwell's military operations in this short but decisive campaign, have been found in the neighbourhood of Ribbleton, Ashton, and Walton-le-dale. They are about eight pounds weight each. One of them is in my possession at the present time.

[32] This is an error, excusable under the circumstances. Stonyhurst is about twelve miles from Preston.

[33] So savage a critic as Joseph Ritson seems to have entertained a much higher opinion of Captain Hodgson's literary qualities than the "seer of Chelsea." In his preface to the memoir he says—"Without meaning to dispute the merit of Defoe, in his peculiarly happy manner of telling a story, or, in other words, in the art of book-making, it will probably be found, that, truth or falsehood being out of the question, in point of importance, interest, and even pleasantry, Captain Hodgson's narrative is infinitely superior to the 'Memoirs of a Cavalier.'"

[34] He had overcome a cavalry officer, and "appropriated" his horse.

[35] Mr. F. Metcalfe, in his "Englishman and Scandinavian," says,—"It is this same historian (William of Malmesbury), and not Asser, who relates the story of Alfred masquerading as a minstrel, and so gaining free access to the Danish camp, meanwhile learning their plans. It is not mentioned in the most ancient Saxon accounts. Indeed, it sounds more like a Scandinavian than a Saxon story, an echo of which has reached us in the tale of King Estmere, who adopted a similar disguise. A story was current of Olaf Cuaran entering Athelstan's camp disguised as a harper two days before the battle of Brunanburh."

[36] Some writers say two days intervened, and Sir Francis Palgrave says the main battle was but a continuation of the night attack, and was therefore fought on the following day.

[37] Mr. Thompson Watkins, His. Soc. Trans., says the metal is bronze.

[38] In Herman Moll's map, the Etherow, before its junction with the Goyt and Tame, is written Mersey.

[39] For details of this battle see "History of Preston and its Environs."

[40] For details respecting this siege, see His. Preston, c. v.

[41] Mr. J. P. Morris, in Notes and Queries, says—"Many collectors have endeavoured, but in vain, to find more of this old Lancashire ballad than the two verses given by Dr. Dixon, in his 'Songs and Ballads of the English Peasantry,' and by Mr. Harland, in his 'Ballads and Songs of Lancashire.' I have much pleasure in forwarding to Notes and Queries the following version, which is much more complete than any yet given:

[42] "See Gaussin's Langue PolynÉsienne."