33 



found; nor do we know whether they belonged to Danes 

 English, or Welsh, but it is hardly probable that the 

 victors would knowingly give Christian burial to their 

 heathen adversaries. The commanding position offered by 

 the camp caused it to be chosen by the monks of the neigh- 

 bouring Abbey of Strata Marcella for the site of the present 

 church, and it is very probable that they discovered the 

 relics of the battle, and arranged them in the pits in the 

 church-yard, after the same fashion as is seen in many 

 crypts and catacombs. 



There is another point of interest in this passage of the 

 Chronicle. Buttington is said to be on the east bank of the 

 Severn. Since that time the river course has jmssed to 

 the westward, at a distance of about a quarter of a mile. 

 Its ancient course however is still marked by a small brook 

 running close under the churchyard, and which finds its 

 way into the Severn by " the main ditch." In connexion 

 with this I may remark that Col. Lane Fox and myself, 

 when examining Offa's dyke in the year 1869, lost all trace 

 of it in passing from Forden northwards, when we arrived 

 at this stream. The Severn, flowing at that time close to 

 Buttington Church, would form a natural barrier between 

 the Mercians and the Welsh, and render the erection of a 

 dyke unnecessary. There is no material fact added to this 

 account in the Chronicle of Ethel werd, or in that of 

 Florence of Worcester, or Hemy of Huntingdon. 



It is quite possible to trace at the present time the boun- 

 daries of the Danish camp. It was defended on the north- 

 west by the river Severn; on the east by a rampart running 

 parallel, or nearly so, with the road to Forden; on the north- 

 east by the church-yard wall; and on the south by the 

 depression which runs down from the present line of the 

 Forden road behind the Vicarage garden down to what was 

 then the old course of the Severn. It may also have 

 included the site of the out-buildings, opposite to the Green 

 Dragon Inn. 



