83 
I have kept back this Paper for some time. I am glad it 
is so, as I have first read it where local knowledge can supply 
the severest criticism. It has always seemed so strange to 
me that the change of name of Pontefract could never be 
accounted for.* The associations of the place have ever had 
a fascination for the historian, and, if I am right, not without 
reason. If, further north, Scone was ever the place where 
Piets and Scots and their successors in turn were crowned, 
so here, it may be, did each successive sovereign, tyrant, or 
usurper renew the kingdom. 
Not far from here, at least, was Camulodunum; here, 
it may be, was Tate’s Yilla Begia ; and here Edred and 
Harold reckoned on receiving the allegiance of the dwellers 
in Northumbria. Hither, in post-Norman times, came 
Lancaster to strike a blow for the people’s rights; up yon 
hill he was followed and hounded to his death by the roughs 
of Pontefract, though in after years they changed their note 
and considered him as a saint. 
I will just ask you to follow my ruler as I point to the 
places which local nomenclature identifies (see map): — Bicall, 
King’s Budding Lane, Dane’s Hills, Brayton St. Wilfrid’s, 
Bub with Battle Flat, Cridland (Krid, Danish for chalk), 
King’s Standard Wood, King’s Standard Hill, King’s Land 
Wood, Castle Hill, Standing Flat Bridge, Standing Flat, 
Greave Field, Greave Wood, Greave, Boman road or Boman 
rig, crossing the Went (mark how it makes a bend towards 
the bridge, showing how the old Watling Street crossed the 
ford) ; “ King’s Yilla ” (not a bad translation of Yilla Begia), 
and, finally, Pontefract, still bearing the name which tells of 
that desperate fight and fearful slaughter which was so long 
delayed by the nameless Norwegian, who slew one after 
another of those who tried to cross that broken bridge : an 
* P. lxxxii, Domesday Book, Tateshalle. Sal or Saal, chief residence, as 
Kursaal~Hal or Hall, 
