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give any more particular description of its whereabouts. 

 One reason for its being famous might be the* number 

 of native remains to be found in the locality, as well as the fact 

 that it was the meeting place of the Picts' Work and the Maiden 

 Way. On the face of the slope, looking to the south, and down 

 upon the railway, there exist three large British camps close 

 together. One, which lies on the shoulder of the hill, has been 

 converted into a sheepfold, and the other two, situated close to 

 the railway, are side by side. They are both remarkably perfect, 

 and one in particular has been stated to be one of the most 

 perfectly preserved examples of a British hut circle to be found 

 in the country. They have all been inhabited camps — that is, in 

 fact, British villages ; and in the case of one it is evident that 

 the outer rampart has been materially strengthened at a period 

 anterior to its original construction. It is more than probable 

 that as late as the pei'iod of this battle these hut circles would be 

 habitable, and would form the main encampment of Aidan's 

 army. 



Right above these camps was the field of battle. The hill 

 side bears traces of escarpments raised for defence, and is full of 

 small stone mounds, which may have covered the burial-places of 

 the slain warriors. Numerous arrow-heads and other implements 

 have from time to time been picked up on the spot, mo.st of which 

 unfortunately have been scattered, or preserved without any 

 particular record of where they were found. But it requires no 

 elaborate demonstration to convince the visitor that he is certainly 

 standing on the scene of an ancient battlefield — a battlefield of 

 the Saxon epoch, which was in all probability one of the spots on 

 which the great controversy between the Teutonic and the Celtic 

 race for the possession of this island was fought out. 



How it was fought out still remains, and is likely to remain, 

 one of the obscurest passages in history. Bede has little informa- 

 tion to give us, partly because his field of vision is limited by the 

 beginnings of the Anglian settlement in Northumbria, which was 

 his nation and people, and partly because even in his time the record 

 had grown dim and undecipherable. It may amuse or inspire the 

 antiquarian imagination to build upon the slender and not very 

 trustworthy foundation of the Chronicle of Gildas, ornamented 

 by the poems and legends of Cymric bards, a more or less heroic 

 conception of the struggles of the Britons with the Saxon race. 

 But we have to acknowledge all the while that it is not history, and 



