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give any more particular description of its whereabouts. 
One reason for its being famous might be the number 
of native remains to be found in the locality, as well as the fact 
that it was the meeting place of the Picts’ Work and the Maiden 
Way. On the face of the slope, looking to the south, and down 
upon the railway, there exist three large British camps close 
together. One, which lies on the shoulder of the hill, has been 
converted into a sheepfold, and the other two, situated close to 
the railway, are side by side. They are both remarkably perfect, 
and one in particular has been stated to be one of the most 
perfectly preserved examples of a British hut circle to be found 
in the country. They have all been inhabited camps—that is, in 
fact, British villages; and in the case of one it is evident that 
the outer rampart has been materially strengthened at a period 
anterior to its original construction. It is more than probable 
that as late as the period of this battle these hut circles would be 
habitable, and would form the main encampment of Aidan’s 
army. 
Right above these camps was the field of battle. The hill 
side bears traces of escarpments raised for defence, and is full of 
small stone mounds, which may have covered the burial-places of 
the slain warriors. Numerous arrow-heads and other implements 
have from time to time been picked up on the spot, most of which 
unfortunately have been scattered, or preserved without any 
particular record of where they were found. But it requires no 
elaborate demonstration to convince the visitor that he is certainly 
standing on the scene of an ancient battlefield—a battlefield of 
the Saxon epoch, which was in all probability one of the spots on 
which the great controversy between the Teutonic and the Celtic 
race for the possession of this island was fought out. 
How it was fought out still remains, and is likely to remain, 
one of the obscurest passages in history. Bede has little informa- 
tion to give us, partly because his field of vision is limited by the 
beginnings of the Anglian settlement in Northumbria, which was 
his nation and people, and partly because even in his time the record 
had grown dim and undecipherable. It may amuse or inspire the 
antiquarian imagination to build upon the slender and not very 
trustworthy foundation of the Chronicle of Gildas, ornamented 
by the poems and legends of Cymric bards, a more or less heroic 
conception of the struggles of the Britons with the Saxon race. 
But we have to acknowledge all the while that itis not history, and 
