On the Battle of Hastings.
By Mark Antony Lower, M.A., F.S.A.
Read at Battel Abbey, 23, July, 1852.
"At nunc horrentia Martis."
"Κάρτιστοι μὲν ἔσαν, καὶ καρτίστοις ὲμάχοντο."
Few things are more difficult to describe than the events of the battle-field. To say nothing of that lack of coolness which is essential to accurate observation, an individual spectator commonly sees only a small portion of the engagement, and is apt to overrate the incidents occurring, in the foreground of his view, while those which take place in the distance are but: slightly noticed. Acts comparatively insignificant, thus become magnified, whale those of far greater importance are occasionally either much distorted, or altogether overlooked. Allowances must also be made for party prejudices, and for the flowers of rhetoric almost inseparable from such descriptions. Now if even contemporary accounts of modern battles are found to differ inter sese in some essential particulars, it must be a matter of great difficulty to frame an intelligible history, of the sanguinary conflicts of ancient times from the materials furnished us by partial and often incompetent chroniclers, and written from oral traditions at periods considerably subsequent to the transactions themselves. It is only by a collation of many descriptions, and a competent acquaintance with the field whereon the battle took place, that a writer can hope to convey a moderately accurate idea of such a scene. Many popular accounts exist of the tremendous struggle which occurred on, and gave name to, the spot where we are to-day assembled, but they are chiefly copied one from another with little or no reference to original documents, and written in total ignorance of the geographical features of
