184 The Battle of Ethandim. 



shire," does not present the formidable appearance of a fortification, 

 which for fourteen days would deter, perhaps defy, the assault of 

 an army flushed with victory.^ 



It is not inconsistent with the practice of controversy, that Dr. 

 Thurnam, like his predecessor Whitaker, should press into his ser- 

 vice the appropriate name of Slaughterford in the neighbourhood 

 of Yatton, and even the name of Dane's blood given to a vulnerary 

 herb, found in that neighbourhood : both of which may possibly 

 have reference to contests, and with the same enemy, although not 

 to the battle in question. The term "slaughter," is imhappily very 

 frequently found in the nomenclature of all parts of the country, 

 indicating the thousand contests which have disturbed or dismayed 

 our island ; and if we are reminded of the violence of the Danes in 

 their conquest and occupation of Chippenham and the neighbour- 

 hood, not only in the reign of Alfred, but subsequently, when the 

 important battle of Sherston, at a short distance, was fought, a 

 peculiar identification of these facts with the battle of Ethandun 

 must fail. I should scarcely have mentioned the spot called "Danes 

 Leys," at Edington, but for a counterpoise to these minor argumen- 

 tative auxiliaries. 

 Your readers, then, weighing the opposite statements which have 



1 Returning to Castle Combe, I pursued the direct road towards Bath, and 

 having passed the village of Slaughterford on the left, I observed an old bank 

 and ditch upon some high ground, in the parish of Colerne, as I was informed. 

 A little further on the right was a long strip of wood, in which is an earthenwork, 

 noticed by Aubrey under the diiferent titles of North "Wood, and Bury Wood 

 camp. Being entirely covered with a thick copse, the investigation of it in 

 summer was impossible ; but Mr. Edmund Crocker, engaged in the Government 

 survey of England, measured it in winter and gave me a rough outline of the 

 camp, which was corrected on the spot by my own surveyor. Its shape resem- 

 bles that of a heart, having the narrow or pointed part extended towards the 

 north east, in an angle between two streams. Its area comprehends twenty-five 

 acres, and it appears to have had only entrance towards the south west, and that 

 placed exactly in the centre of the ramparts, which on this side are double and 

 rectilinear, the ground being level and most accessible on this side. On the 

 north west side, but vrithin the area of the camp, and at a short distance from 

 the outward vallum is a small earthenwork, single ditched, with an entrance to 

 the west. The whole of this work is so obscured by thick copse wood, that a 

 regular investigation of it, except in winter, is impossible." — Ancient Wilts, 

 vol. ii., p. 103. 



