OfOXFO\T>~SHI\E. 33? 



the higheft of them all about nine Toot alfo ; meeting formerly at 

 the top (as drawn by Mr. Camden) with their tapering ends, al- 

 moft in fhape of a wedge, fince whofe time there are two of them 

 fallen down from the reft. Of which ancient Monument (or what 

 ever elfe it be) he gives us in brief this following account k . - 



8 2. Not far from Burford (he {hould have faid Chipping-norton^ 

 for Bu rford cannot be lefs then 7 or 8 miles from it) upon the ve- 

 ry border of Qxford-flAre, is an ancient Monument, to wit, cer- 

 tain huge (tones placed in a circle : the common people call them 

 Rollrich-ftones, and dream they were fomtimes men, by a mira- 

 culous Metamorphofis turned into hard ftones. The higheft of 

 them all, which without the circle looketh into the Earth, they call 

 the King,becaufe he (hould have been King of England (forfooth) 

 if he had once feen Long-Compton, a little Town lying beneath, 

 and which one may fee if he go fome few paces forward. 



83. Other/z/eftanding on the other fide, touching as it were 

 one another, they imagin to have been Knights mounted on horfe- 

 hack., and the reft the Army. Thefe would I verily think* 

 fays he, to have been the Monument of fome Victory, and happily 

 cre&ed by Rollo the Dane, who afterward conquer 'd Normandy ; 

 for what time he with his Vanes troubled England with depredati* 

 ons,we read that the Danes joyned Battle with the EngliJ/j at Hoch- 

 norton, a place for no one thing more famous in old time, than for 

 the woful (laughter of the Engliflj in that foughten Field under 

 the Raign of King Edward the elder. 



84. That this Monument might be erefted by Rollo the Dane, or 

 rather Norwegian, perhaps may be true , but by no means about 

 the time of Edward the elder ; for though it be true enough that 

 he troubled England with depredations, yet that he made them in 

 the days of King Alfred, I think all the ancient Hijlorians agree, 

 An. 897. according to Florilegus \ but according to Abbot Brom* 

 ton m a much better Author, in the year 875, near 40 years before 

 that (laughter of the Englijb in King Edwards days, as will plain- 

 ly appear, upon comparifon of this with the 75. . of the fame 

 Chapter. 



85. Therefore much rather thanfo, (hould I think he ere&ed 

 them, upon a fecond Expedition he made into England-, when he 



* Britannia iaOxford/h. \ Matth. Wefimonaft. in An. citato. m Joban. Bromten A&b.Jorn. in vita 

 A-uredi. 



Uu wa9 



