84 On the Barrow at Lanhill near Chippenham; 
known. Camden, however, unhesitatingly places it on the north 
coast of Devon, near where the Taw and Torridge fall into the 
sea. ‘On this coast,” says he, “there was a castle of that name, 
(Kinwith) where Hubba the Dane, who had so frequently ravaged 
England, died of his wounds. The place was ever since called 
by our historians Hubbestow.’”! Risdon, a cotemporary of Camden, 
is still more precise in his statement respecting “the Castle of 
Kenwith, where,” he says, “the Danes where so valiantly repulsed, 
that they lost 1200 men, with their captain, Hubba. After which 
their overthrow, they buried him on the shore; and, according to 
the manner of northern nations, piled on him a heape of copped 
stones, as a trophy to his memorial; whereof the place took to 
name Hubbastone. And though the stones were long since swept 
away by the sea’s incroaching, the name still remaineth on the 
strand near Appledore, as I conjecture; for more than the shadow, 
yea, even the very substance, with small alteration, being to this 
day known by the name of Whibblestone. This is in the parish 
of Northam.” Risdon further conjectures that the Castle of 
Kenwith itself may have been an [earthen ?] fort, not far from 
Appledore, called Hennaborough. In the largest modern maps 
of Devon, including that of the ordnance survey, no such sites 
as Whibblestone or Hennaborough are marked. 
Gaimar’s statement that Hubba fell in the “‘ wood of Pene,”’ 
demands the attention of the topographers of Devonshire, in their 
search for Cynuit. The fortress itself was almost certainly an 
earthwork; for Asser, who had seen it, says that it was “unfortified 
except that it had walls after our fashion, though the spot by 
nature was most secure on all sides except the east.”?- Asser 
was a Briton, writing for the use of Britons, and his phrase 
“walls after our fashion,” most probably refers to the earthen 
ramparts, such as the Britons of Wales at that period chiefly 
relied on, in their defensive works. Another statement of Asser, 
that there was no spring or water near the fortress, may assist 
topographers in their identification of the precise spot. 
1 “ Britannia,” (Ed. 1806,) vol. I, p. 38. 
2 “Arcem imparatam atque omnino immunitam, nisi quod meenia nostro more 
erecta solummodo haberet.”’ 
