ON SOME ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE and their Historical, Legendary, and Aesthetic Associations. BY CHARLES HARDWICK, Author of a "History of Preston and its Environs," "Traditions, Superstitions and Folk-Lore," "Manual for Patrons and Members of Friendly Societies," &c. MANCHESTER: ABEL HEYWOOD & SON, OLDHAM STREET. LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & Co., STATIONERS' HALL COURT. 1882. [Pg iv] [Pg v] TO GEORGE MILNER, Esq., President , AND TO THE COUNCIL AND MEMBERS OF

To the transactions of the Manchester Literary Club (1875-8) I contributed four papers on "Some Ancient Battle-fields in Lancashire." These essays form the nuclei of the four chapters of the present volume. Their original scope, however, has been much extended, and the evidences there adduced largely augmented. I have likewise endeavoured to still further fortify and illustrate my several positions, by citations from well-known, and many recent, labourers in similar or cognate fields of enquiry.

The Arthur of History and Legend. King Arthur's presumed Victories on the Douglas, near Wigan and Blackrod. Historical works are chiefly records of battles, squabbles and intrigues of diplomatists and politicians. More details now required as to the domestic habits and conditions of the people, and the degree and kind of intellectual and moral culture which obtained at any given period of their history. Progress of man from the savage to a more civilized condition. Records of many battles surviv

The Legend of the Wild Boar, "the Monster in former ages which prowled over the neighbourhood of Winwick, inflicting injury on Man and Beast." The Venerable Bede and the Saxon Chronicle's account of the battle. The site disputed. Some suggest Winwick, in Lancashire, others Oswestry, in Shropshire. Dean Howson's suggestion. Different orthographies and etymologies of the name Maserfeld. The subject phonetically and topographically considered. Views of Mr. Roberts and Mr. Howell W. Lloyd. St. Oswal

Wada's Defeat by King Eardulph, at Billangahoh (Langho,) A.D. 798, and Contemporary Prophetic Superstitions. The Victory of the Scots at Edisford Bridge in 1138. Civil War Incidents during the struggle between Charles I. and the English Parliament. Wada's defeat recorded in the Saxon Chronicle and by Simeon of Durham. The Murder of Ethelred ( A.D. 794) by Wada and other conspirators. The murderous and lawless characteristics of the age illustrated. Sharon-Turner's summary of these characteristic

Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian invasions of Britain. First arrival of the Danes, A.D. 787. The Anglo-Saxons and Ancient British inhabitants Christians, the Scandinavians Pagans. Savage warfare of the period. Progress of the invasion. Ella, king of Northumbria and Ragnar Lodbrog. The real and mythic Ragnar. Halfden's settlements in Northumbria. Athelstan succeeds to the throne of Wessex and its dependencies. Submission of the Welsh and Scots. Marriage of Editha, Athelstan's sister, to Sihtric, king

The disposal of St. Oswald's remains. The dun bull, the badge of the Nevilles. The Genesis of Myths. Anglo-Saxon Helmet....

On page 51, line 21, insert marks of quotation (") after—" or without it ." Transpose the note on page 65, beginning—" Bosworth, in his Anglo-Saxon Dictionary ," to page 64, and place the * after " massacre, etc. ," at the end of the sixth line from the bottom of the text. Transpose the note commencing on page 64 to page 65. For " Downham IN Yorkshire " (page 143, fourteenth line from the bottom), read " Downham INTO Yorkshire ." [Pg xx] [Pg 1]...

THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY, LEGEND, AND ART. KING ARTHUR'S PRESUMED VICTORIES ON THE DOUGLAS, NEAR WIGAN AND BLACKROD. t has often been remarked, and with some truth, that our standard historical works, until very recent times at least, contained little more than the details of battles, the squabbles and intrigues of diplomatists and politicians, and the pedigrees of potentates, imperial or otherwise. Now-a-days we seek to know more of the domestic habits and conditions of the mass of the population,

THE LEGEND OF THE WILD BOAR, "THE MONSTER IN FORMER AGES, WHICH PROWLED OVER THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF WINWICK, INFLICTING INJURY ON MAN AND BEAST." he Venerable Bede, in the ninth chapter of his "Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation," says, in the year 642—"Oswald was killed in a great battle, by the same Pagan nation and Pagan king of the Mercians who had slain his predecessor, Edwin, at a place called in the English tongue, Maserfelth, in the thirty-eighth year of his age, on the fifth day

WADA'S DEFEAT BY KING EARDULPH, AT BILLANGAHOH, A.D. 798, AND CONTEMPORARY PROPHETIC SUPERSTITIONS. THE VICTORY OF THE SCOTS AT EDISFORD BRIDGE IN 1138. CIVIL WAR INCIDENTS BETWEEN CHARLES I. AND THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. he Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, under the date 798, says—"This year there was a great fight at Hwelleage (Whalley), in the land of the Northumbrians, during Lent, on the 4th before the Nones of April, and there Alric, the son of Herbert, was slain, and many others with him." Simeon of

Harold —(On the morn of the battle of Senlac or Hastings)—Our guardsmen have slept well since we came in? Leofwin. —    *    *    They are up again And chanting that old song of Brunanburg, Where England conquer'd. Tennyson's Harold. pwards of three centuries had elapsed since the departure of the Roman legions from Britain, and the presumedly first regularly organised invasion of the island by the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, when a new enemy of the same Teutonic blood and language appeared upon

The number of the troops engaged in this short but brilliant campaign is stated variously by different authorities. There is an entry in the records of the Corporation of Preston which says "Decimo Septimo die Augustie, 1648, 24 Car,—That Henry Blundell, gent., being mayor of this town of Preston, the daie and yeare aforesaid, Oliver Cromwell, lieutenant-general of the forces of the Parliament of England, with an army of about 10,000 at the most, (whereof 1500 were Lancashire men, under the comm

Mr. John Ingram, in his "Claimants to Royalty," referring to the defeat of Don Sebastian, King of Portugal, in 1578, by the Moors, says—"After the fight, a corse, recognised by one of the survivors as the king's, was discovered by the victorious Moors, and forwarded by the Emperor of Morocco as a present to his ally, Philip the Second of Spain. In 1583, this monarch restored it to the Portuguese, by whom it was interred with all due solemnity in the royal mausoleum in the church of Our Lady of B

Mr. W. Brailsford, in "The Antiquary" (August, 1882), referring to the marriage which united the properties of the Bulmers and the Nevilles, in 1190, says—"The dun bull, which is the badge of the Norman Nevilles, was in reality derived from the Saxon Bulmers, though it has been thought by some antiquarian searchers to have had its origin from the wild cattle which, once on a time, like those still existing at Chillingham, roamed in the park here, then and at a later date."...

When the preceding pages were nearly all in type, I ordered a copy of the then just published essay entitled "Myth and Science," by Signor Tito Vignoli, in which the gradual development of mythic thought and expression is expounded with great clearness and precision. He says, p. 87-93: "Doubtless it is difficult for us to picture for ourselves the psychical conditions of primitive men, at a time when the objects of perception and the apprehension of things were presented by an effort of memory t

The remains of a very fine example of the Anglo-Saxon helmet referred to in chapter ii., was found by the late Mr. Bateman, in 1848, at Benty Grange, in Derbyshire. He says—"It was our good fortune to open a barrow which afforded a more instructive collection of relics than has ever been discovered in the country, and which are not surpassed in interest by any remains hitherto recovered from any Anglo-Saxon burial place in the kingdom." Amongst these remains was the head-piece referred to. After