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The Battle of Brunanhurg, By Robert Home, Esq. 



The place where the last meeting was held (in September 1843), be- 

 sides being favourable to the usual pursuits of the Club, is remarkable as 

 the scene of events which both history and poetr}'' have loved to deal 

 with. There are considerable pickings, also, for the mere antiquary ; 

 and though destitute equally of taste and qualifications for antiquarian 

 researches, it is to a theme of that sort I presume, for a few moments, 

 to call your attention. 



Bromeridge (a hill opposite to Flodden, on the other side of the Till), 

 over which our party walked, is supposed to be near the field of the 

 great Battle of Brunanburg. Though little is known about it (the place 

 and precise date being both controverted), it may, in one respect, be 

 ranked with the Platsea's, Arbela's,'Zama'8, Tours', and Hastings's, for it 

 decided an important issue, t. e., whether the Anglo-Saxons or Celts and 

 Cymry were to be the prevailing race in Britain. And an Anglo-Saxon 

 ode, one of the very earliest original poems in that language which have 

 come down to us, still remains to celebrate the victory, which, according 

 to the best accounts, took place A. D. 934. 



Athelstan, the grandson of Alfred, was.the leader on one side; Anlaf, 

 the Dane (with a mixture of Celtish, Cumbrian, and Danish warriors), 

 and Constantine of Scotland, were the opposite leaders. It was a fierce 

 and obstinate struggle, beginning at sunrise, and not ending till sunset. 

 " And never," says the Saxon ode by a cotemporary poet, " had there 

 been a greater slaughter by the edges of swords, since the Angles and 

 Saxons from the East, over the broad waves, sought Britain." 



The actual scene of conflict cannot now be fixed. Turner, a great 

 authority in Anglo-Saxon matters, says, " It is singular that the position 

 of this famous battle cannot be ascertained," — 2 Ang.-Sax. 337 ; and 

 I am not so presumptuous as to attempt what he was not equal to. All 

 I mean is, to endeavour to shew that Bromeridge, near Ford, has as 

 fair a pretence to the honour of being the bloody spot, as any of the 

 other places to which it has been assigned. As none has any strong 

 claims, I cannot be said to have undertaken a difficult task. I am quite 

 aware that it is not a useful one. 



The greatest objection made to Bromeridge arises from an assertion 

 in Florence of Worcester, that Anlaf made the invasion by entering the 

 Humber with 615 ships; and, therefore, say the objectors, the battle must 

 have been fought near the Humber ; but Florence was, by no means, a 

 contemporary writer (he lived in the 12tb century), and may have con- 

 founded this with a subsequent invasion of the same Anlaf, when un- 

 questionably, he did enter the Humber ; 2 Turn. A, S., 367. But though 

 be had disembarked at the Humber, it by no means follows that the 

 battle was fought near that river ; for many things were done after he 



