82 On the Barrow at Lanhill near Chippenham; 
of Ethandun, which he places under the year 877. He describes 
the Danes as going from Exeter to Chippenham, and being 
pursued by Alfred; who, after slaying Hubba, Inguar, and Bruen 
Bocard, is at last defeated. ‘The Danes,’ says Brompton, ‘‘finding 
the body of Hubba among the slain, interred it with great 
lamentations, raising over it a mound which they called Hubbelow, 
which place is so called to this day, and is in Devonshire.”! The 
discrepancies of this narrative of Brompton, are sufficiently 
apparent, and he is commented on, by the learned Spelman, as 
being inconsistent with himself, and in opposition to other — 
historians.2 Caxton, in his chronicle, the earliest printed History 
of England, (1480,) has in this passage, copied Brompton, or 
Brompton’s authority, almost verbatim ;? and Stow, writing a century 
later, follows him in the main circumstances; though they both 
differ so far as to represent the Danes as reaching Chippenham, 
not from Exeter, but from Reading; and in describing the battle 
they place at Chippenham, as following immediately that of 
Agscesdun, (a.p. 871.) Caxton concludes his narrative with the 
statement of Brompton, that Hubbaslowe is in Devonshire; whilst 
1 “*Decem Scriptores,” Twysden, 1652, p. 1809. 
2‘ Vita Allfredi,” 1678, p. 31. 
3 Caxton’s Chronicle is said to have had for its basis the Chronicle of Douglas 
of Glastonbury, a writer like Brompton of the fourteenth century, but whose 
chronicle has not been printed. Douglas and Brompton, for the period before us, 
both seem to have formed their chronicles on the basis of the Norman Gaimar, 
as the names disfigured like those in Gaimar, clearly shew the use of a Norman 
authority. See Lappenberg, ‘‘ Anglo-Saxons,” Lit. Int., p. lix, lxii; also 
‘‘Mon. Hist. Brit.” Gen. Int. p. 3. 
4 Dr, Pauli, referring to this supposed battle at Chippenham, says, ‘‘no older 
historical work (than that of Brompton) contains the slightest allusion to such an 
event; and Brompton’s account, as is so often the case with him, is founded simply 
on a mistake of the dates, and the consequent confusion of facts.” ‘* Life of 
Alfred,” 1852, p. 163. From Brompton, seems clearly to have been derived 
the narrative of these events to be found in Hardyng’s ‘‘ Metrical Chronicle,” 
written about the middle of the fifteenth century, (see ‘‘ Hardyng,” by Sir H. 
Ellis, 1812, p. 201;) and also that in the ‘‘ Scala Chronica,” written probably 
in the same century, and printed in Leland’s ‘‘Collectanea.” “After they fought 
(at) Chipenham, and there was Hubba slayne, and a great Hepe of stones layed 
coppid up where he was buried. (Hubbeslaw.)” (See Leland, ‘‘ Collectanea,” 
vol. I, part 2, pp. 509, 521.) 
