254 OSMUNDA. 



About 50 yards above the first lynn, the sides of the burn heave 

 on each side with mounds and parallel fosses that have evidently an 

 artificial origin, and that in a far-away time. They are green with 

 sward, and too imperfect to permit their plan to be restored ; but 

 it has been conjectured that they are the traces of what had been 

 strongholds and encampments of the Danes, — the savage warriors of 

 the far Norrowaie. From the remains, it has been also inferred that 

 the encampment must have been extensive, and intended for per- 

 manency. A little apart, on the south, there juts above the level of 

 the moor a rounded sandstone rock. The scalp of this rock is about 

 20 feet across, concave, rather smooth, irregulai'ly cracked, and with 

 even spaces ; and these are engraved all over with figures each con- 

 sisting of a series of grooved rings, often dotted in the bottom of the 

 grooves. The figures are scattered, and vary in size, the largest 

 being Uttle more than a foot in diameter, but they are alike in form 

 and in sculpture. Short parallel lines lead away, for a few inches, 

 from some of them ; but no two circles appear to have been con- 

 nected. See Plate VIII. 



Such is the spot ; and I wish that I could penetrate the mystery 

 of its history. Some portion is easily read. Long — long ago, the 

 bog was a lake. Thither the Red-Deer and the Roes of the wide 

 moor, and the White-Cattle of the forest, came to drink, and, in the 

 encircling wood, to find shelter from the fervour of the summer sun. 

 The Osmuuda probably grew abundantly in this wood. Centuries 

 came and went, and each marked its reign by usurpations on the 

 water, until what was lake became a swamp, — a bog, — and a wooded 

 basin ; — such is the force and sure result of unchecked vegetation. 

 When a lake, the burn that relieved it from an overflow was much 

 more considerable than that which now is ; and it may have been 

 the impassable lake behind, and the plentiful supply of water it fur- 

 nished, that led the northern invaders to select this locality for the 

 site of their Camp. In front the precipices of the lyrms were good 

 defence ; and thence the warder's eye could scan the country all 

 around. Presuming the erections to have been Danish, we may date 

 their foundation somewhere about the year 870, when "King Healf- 

 dene reigned in Northumbria; " and seventy years and five afterwards, 

 the Camp was wrested from the conquerors in one of the most 

 memorable battles on record*. While you, gentlemen of the Club, 

 bask there on the sculptured rock, let me read to you this narrative 

 of the battle : — 



" In the year of grace 945, and in the fourth year of his reign. 

 King Athelstan fought at Brunesburh, one of the greatest battles on 

 record against Anlaf king of Ireland, who had united his forces to 

 those of the Scots and Danes settled in England. Of the grandeur of 

 this conflict, English writers have expatiated in a sort of poetical 

 description, in which they have employed both foreign words and 



* The grounds on which we believe that this was the field of the battle 

 of Brimanburg or Brunesburh are stated by Mr. Home in the Trans. Berw. 

 N. Club, ii. p. 115. 



