78 On the Barrow at Lanhill near Chippenham; 
but also by an earthen rampart and hedge, or palisade;! but that 
it was sufficiently strong, either by nature or art, to resist a siege 
for fourteen days, seems hardly probable. 
On the whole, a third view, suggested by Mr. Whitaker, seems 
most probable; viz., that the battle was fought near Yatton, about five 
miles to the north west of Chippenham, in which place he finds 
“the fair representative of the Ethandun of the history.” Aicglea, 
he places at Highley Common, near Melksham, giving about 
eighteen miles for the second day’s march, and ten for that of the 
third. ‘But the battle,” says Whitaker, ‘was a little lower, on 
the Avon, even at Slaughterford; the very name of which denotes, 
what the tradition of the inhabitants has handed down, concerning 
a great slaughter of the Danes in this place. So happily do the 
local circumstances accord with the historical representation. Yet 
where was the fortress to which the routed Danes fled? It was 
undoubtedly that double entrenchment in Bury Wood, betwixt 
Colerne and North Wraxall.’’? Aubrey, in writing of Yatton 
field, says “the country people have a tradition that here was a 
fight with the Danes, as also another at Slaughterford, about a 
mile and a half hence; it is likely it took its denomination from the 
flight and slaughter. Hereabout groweth great plenty of a good 
vulnerary herb, called Dane’s blood. They doe believe it sprang 
from the blood of the Danes shed here in battle.’ 
Bury Wood camp, or North Wood camp, referred to by Whit- 
aker as the probable Danish fortress, is in the parish of Colerne, 
1See under “Ham,” 
1852, p. 39. 
2“ Tife of St. Neot,” 1809, p. 269. In this passage, Mr. Whitaker adopts 
statements, as regards Slaughterford and Bury Wood, to be found in the 
additions to Camden, by Bishop Gibson, (vol I, p. 141,) which were clearly 
taken from Aubrey. See ‘Collections for North Wilts,” Part 2, 1838, pp. 17. 
31. 33. 
3 Aubrey ‘‘Mon. Brit.” This passage is erroneously attributed to Stow, by 
Sir R. C. Hoare.— Ancient Wilts,” vol. II, p. 100. See also Aubrey’s 
“Natural History of Wiltshire,” 1848, p. 50. The plant called Dane’s Blood 
or Danewort, Sambucus Ebulus, is said, to occur in various sites where 
traditions as to the Danes exist, particularly in Essex and Norfolk.—Camden, 
‘‘ Britannia,” vol. II, pp. 125, 135. 197. This plant is still to be found about 
Slaughterford. 
Leo’s ‘‘Local Nomenclature of the Anglo-Saxons,” 
