the locality.[1] In attempting to lay before you some general remarks on the subject, in order to invest this day and this place with some little additional interest, I shall adopt an opposite course, and deduce nearly or quite all my materials from authorities who lived near the times in which the battle occurred, and from personal surveys of the scene of action.[2]
On the political causes of the battle I shall say nothing: they are well known to all. And on the events which succeeded William's landing at Pevensey on the 28th of September up to the fatal day—October the 14th, 1066, I have already contributed some remarks which have been published in the Society's transactions.[3] You will therefore have the goodness to consider the Norman duke as intrenched in his temporary castellum at Hastings, and the unfortunate Harold as having erected his standard and fixed his gonfanon upon this spot. Short as had been the interval between the arrival of the Saxons from the north and the morning of the battle, they had not neglected to fortify this naturally strong and well-chosen position. According to the Roman de Rou, Harold "had the place well examined, and surrounded by a good fosse, leaving an entrance on each of three sides, which were ordered to be kept well guarded."[4] Upon the vallum his soldiery erected a barricade, composed of their shields and of wood from the adjoining forests, principally ash, the whole being so joined and wattled together as to form an almost impenetrable wall.[5] We can well understand how the army could in a few hours erect a fortification of some strength by such means, when we remember that the ordinary mode of constructing houses of the meaner sort in
- ↑ Henry of Huntingdon, also (in other respects a valuable authority, as living in times not very remote from the Conquest,) tells us that William "aciem suam construxit in planis Hastinges."
- ↑ I would here record my obligations to my friend, the Rev. John Collingwood Bruce, m.a., f.s.a., author of 'The Roman Wall,' &c.,—with whom I lately had the pleasure of reviewing the localities of the battle—for several useful suggestions and memoranda.
- ↑ Suss. Arch, Collections, vol. II, p. 58 et seq.
- ↑ Taylor's Edition, London, 1837, p. 143. The Roman de Rou, a chronicle of the Dukes of Normandy, is a Norman-French poem of the twelfth century, of great historical interest and importance. It was written by Master Wace, a native of Jersey, whose christian name is unknown. He lived and wrote as late as the year 1173, yet from incidental notices in the work it appears that he had gathered much of his information from eye-witnesses.
- ↑ Rom. de Rou, p. 176.
