By Geo. Matcham, Esq. 183 



of Domesday, and its popular recognition is daily stamped, not in 

 Yatton, but in Edington. Moreover, the last mentioned document 

 supplies us with the veritable "Simon Pure"; and Ettone, (not 

 Edendune) as Dr. Thurnam truly saj's, is the representative of 

 Yatton. Let him produce a document where the ancient name of 

 Ettone stands forth as the site of the battle, and then he will have 

 contributed greatly to the strength of his position. But indepen- 

 dently of these considerations, the addition of dun to Ettone would 

 be mere surplusage and repetition. It is true, that a distinction 

 may be made between dun, a hill or down, and tun, a residence ; 

 but the one is so often resolved into the other, (as in the ease of 

 Ethandun and Edington,) that they are usually convertible terms, 

 and the one termination may stand for either description. I will 

 not further press this argument, but conclude it with another quo- 

 tation of Dr. Thurnam himself, merely requesting your readers to 

 place it in juxtaposition with his own ingenious transformation 

 of Yatton into Ethandun. " Little difficulty, it must be admitted, 

 exists on the ground of orthography, in accepting Edington as the 

 representative of Ethandun ; Edington being clearly the EdenfZone 

 of Domesday, and being written Edyndon, at least as late as the 

 time of Henry the Vlth, (1449.)" 



We are now arrived at Bury Wood camp, which Whitaker 

 and his followers identify with the fortress to which the defeated 

 Danes returned : and here I may suggest, that if, as is stated, 

 the Saxons attacked their enemy from the south, (they themselves 

 marching from the east,) since Bury Wood lies south west of 

 Yatton, the Danes in their retreat, must in this case, have passed 

 nearly through the lines of the victorious army, crossing Slaugh- 

 terford with the stream in their rear, and their conquerors in 

 their front. Circumstances no doubt might possibly have so 

 happened, but I cannot conceive with Dr. Thurnam, that this 

 Ib a very "probable position." I must leave to those more intimate- 

 ly acquainted with that neighbourhood, as well as Bratton camp, 

 a comparison between the two entrenchments, with reference 

 to the amount of probability per ,se in the identification of one or 

 the other with the retreat of the Danes; with the observation, 

 that the description of the former place given in "Ancient AYilt- 



