81 
Standing Bridge! It is strange how Mr. Freeman in his 
history has been mis-led by the writer of this article, and 
blindly followed him in his errors. How the Yorkshireman 
must have chuckled and put his tongue in his cheek as he 
told the seekers after traditions the story of the pears and the 
pies ! 
How different where tradition has a foundation in fact ! 
I go to Bicall, I find King’s-lane ; I go to search the neigh- 
bourhood of Pontefract, and at once on asking about a battle 
at Cridland, person after person is forward to explain, “ Do I 
mean King’s Standard, or Standard Hill?” (Krid is Danish 
for chalk : is this the old Calcaria ?) I ask if there are 
any barrows or places where bones have been found ? a man 
comes forward to tell me that in the clefts of a quarry near 
Grove (or Greave) he had, when chalk-burning, come upon 
lots of bones in the fissures of the rock. I drive off to the 
quarry, and the wife of another quarryman tells me her 
husband had often found them and brought them unto her to 
show them — (I dare say she said, “ T’meester is not in hoose,” 
as you are startled to hear in Norway, “Is t’meester in 
huusen?”). I go to Stapleton to look for earthworks, and find 
them everywhere. I am directed to Castle Hill, and there I 
found a mound and series of excavations around, answering 
in every way to the description of the Thing mound — 
Laing’s Preface, p. 88, vol. i. “ Hpsal Tings hogen or Tings 
mound, flattened at the top ; circumference at base, 350 
paces; ascent, 70 steps; height, about 90 feet.” May not 
Knottingley be the meadows or “ leys ” of the Nord-thing, 
through the which (the meadows ) Peter Langtoft tells us 
Harold Hardrada and his followers were marching to the 
thing which had been agreed upon, on that day, when 
by the treachery of those who had promised to meet him in 
peaceful guise and give hostages as proof of faith, he was 
surprised “ unarmed and unawares ”? 
6 
