Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“

circular-moated camp of about three acres, near a mile west from Seaton. Lysons, about 1822, informed by the Bishop of Cloyne, says that much wrought stone had been dug up there, and that in his time nearly all the traces of the former works had been destroyed, and the place brought under cultivation; so that its true site soon became forgotten and lost. In company with our late member, Mr. Heineken, I have examined the district on two or three different occasions, and we soon came to the conclusion that the entrenched place most likely to have been occupied by Hanna the Dane was on the crown of an elevation, situated at the distance of a mile west of this town, and known as Little Coochill. What did much to confirm us in this impression was the information afforded by a labouring man, whom we met and questioned in the road near it. He told us that in or about 1862 he had been employed to form or improve the surface of the ground on that hill, and that in digging to clear the land he removed a large quantity of stones, which lay in lines, as if they had been thrown into a ditch and covered over, or had followed the course of walls.

In the time of Athelstan, or, to be more exact, in the year 937, a very memorable encounter took place, which has been known in history as the battle of Brunanburgh. On this occasion the chief in command amongst the Danes was Olaf, or Anlaf. The true site of the battle of Brunanburgh has never with certainty been ascertained. Some have placed it in Yorkshire, whilst others have mentioned the valley of the Axe river as having claims to have been the hostile field in question. The Saxon Chronicle briefly speaks thus:

"937. In this year King Athelstan, and Edmund his brother, led a force to Brunanburgh, and there fought against Olaf; and Christ aiding, had victory: and they there slew five Kings and seven Jarls.'

Now the kings and earls so slain must have been Danes, because it says that Athelstan, the Saxon king, killed them. Subsequent writers, quoted by the late Mr. James Davidson, of Secktor, near Axminster, in his Notes on the Antiquities of Devonshire, his History of Axminster Church, and other works, inform us that on the occurrence of a bloody and decisive battle, fought at this date in the valley of the Axe, seven earls were killed, and that their bodies were buried at Axminster. These, at all events, were Saxon earls; for on this point Mr. Davidson further adds, that after this event Athelstan founded a college of priests, to pray for

their souls, by an endowment which remains to this day.* I have said that these latter, at all events, were Saxon earls. The presumption is very strong that they were so, seeing that the Saxon king founded and endowed a permanent memorial of their deaths, which he would scarcely have done over the bodies of his Danish enemies. One point is very convincing, and that is this, That if seven earls were killed in Yorkshire, it is not likely that their bodies would have been brought to Devonshire to be buried. The notion indeed seems to be wholly untenable when we bear in mind the remoteness of the age in which the events took place, the rudeness of the times, the badness of the roads, the difficulties of transport, and the slowness and the tediousness of so long a journey. The conviction therefore is forced. upon us, that the seven earls buried at Axminster had been killed in this neighbourhood, and at no great distance from that place; that two separate batches of earls are mentioned by historians; that one batch was Danish, as having been killed by the Saxon king; and that the other batch was Saxon, as having by the same king been piously interred, and afterwards endowed with post-mortem honours.

The arguments bearing on the battle of Brunanburgh, and the probable site of that encounter, would be too intricate and too lengthy to be treated of here. I shall therefore allow them to sleep for the present.

The

Among the number of Danish attacks on this coast, it is impossible to fix the exact date in which Hanna may have landed here and posted himself on Little Coochill. There is proof, however, that preparations were being made to receive and to resist the invader. A mile north of Coochill, and close to the great east and west road from Colyford, towards Exeter, there are two lines of bold earthworks drawn across the ridge of a hill known as Seaton Down. The milestone -eight from Sidmouth, and seven from Lyme-stands by the roadside, some 300 yards east from this hill. longest vallum is drawn parallel to the road, and to the north of it, and extends to 770 feet. The fosse is on the south side of the agger; that is to say, on the side from which the enemy was expected; and it may be taken as a general rule, that the fosse, with rare exceptions, is always on the side of the enemy. I measured the slope of the agger on one occasion and found it to be 33 feet. At 466 feet behind, or to the north of this, a second is drawn; but it is only 130 feet long, and looks unfinished. Perhaps the Antiq. Dev. in voce Axminster.

constructors of it were attacked and driven out before they had had time to complete their work, or possibly the battle may have surged away in another direction, so that these defences were not required. The combatants during the struggle are believed to have moved up the valley; and a mile beyond Musbury, on the Axminster road, and a short distance from Ash, a brook comes down, which goes by the name of War-Lake, and the country people have a tradition, that on the occasion of a great slaughter this brook ran blood. I was told the tradition on the spot.

As regards the camp on Little Coochill, so entirely had all obvious traces of it got obliterated by the plough and the harrow, that its name of Hannaditches, or Honeyditches, became transferred to the ruins of a Roman villa lying half a mile north of Little Coochill in a pasture field. Where Lysons speaks of "wrought stone," I think he is speaking of the more architectural Roman villa, and not of the camp made of earthworks and rough stone, but somewhat confused in his localities. From the site of the villa the late Sir Walter Trevelyan exhumed many interesting Roman remains; and I have there dug up Roman tiles and bricks, more or less in fragments, slices of blue lias roofing-stone, with holes for pegs to hold them on the roof, and mortar mixed with pounded brick.

ON EARTHQUAKES IN DEVONSHIRE.

SUPPLEMENT.

BY EDWARD PARFITT.

(Read at Seaton, July, 1885.)

As a supplement to the paper I had the honour of reading to the Association last year on "Earthquakes in Devonshire,' I now mention two or three that escaped my investigation. These have been very kindly pointed out to me by a gentleman with whom I have been in correspondenceMr. William White, who, in connection with Mr. R. Meldola, has been collecting and investigating all the particulars of the earthquake which occurred in East Anglia on April 22nd, 1884. The first of those which now remain to be recorded as felt in Devonshire occurred on

July 1st, 1747.-This was felt in many parts of the West of England, and appeared of an extensive character; it was felt at Exeter, and is recorded in the London Magazine, v. xix. p. 124.

May 5th, 1789.-A shock was experienced at Barnstaple at 3.15 a.m. It began with a rumbling noise, and continued for near a minute; direction said to have been from east to This is recorded in the Gentleman's Magazine, v. lix.

p. 457.

October 6th, 1863.-In addition to those places mentioned under this date in my paper add Seaton, Colyton, Bridport, Yeovil, neighbourhood of Tavistock and Ilfracombe; recorded in the Times.

October 30th, 1868.-In addition to the places under this date add Honiton; in Times, November 2nd, 1868.

January 22nd, 1885.-A shock occurred at Taunton, and was heard and felt by many persons in North Town, Bradford, Creech, Lydeard St. Laurence, Handy Cross, Stogumber,

Monksilver, Charlinch, near Bridgwater, Coombe Florey, and along the line of hills forming the southern boundary against the Quantocks. It was also heard and felt at Exbridge, in Brushford parish, Bury, in Kingsbrompton, several places in Morebath, and at Shillingford. Through the kindness of

[ocr errors]

Mr. H. S. Gill, who made enquiries, and also sent me cuttings from the Tiverton Gazette, and also of the Rev. G. Molyneux, who made enquiries for me along the line of the earth wave, I obtained useful information. The Tiverton Gazette of January 27th, 1885, under the heading of "District News, Bampton,' says, "A Shock.-On Thursday evening, about eighteen minutes to nine, what is said to have been a shock of earthquake was felt here by several persons. The vicar says that at the vicarage it sounded to him like a heavy traction-engine, and the servants distinctly heard a rumbling noise under the floor. At South View Capt. and Mrs. Gataker heard a noise like a heavy report, and everything in the house rattled. A report was spread in the town [Bampton] that there had been a heavy fall of rocks and stones in Mr. Periam's quarries, but no damage had been done there. Several considered it was the train passing very late that evening; but the fact is the 8.20 train leaving Bampton for Tiverton left punctually. The shock was felt also at Shillingford, and a vibration was felt in the schoolroom at Morebath." Part of this last paragraph is scarcely correct, as I have a letter from the schoolmaster stating that the children were that evening having their treat, and that from the noise made and the tramping of feet just then, he did not either hear or feel anything more than what was going on in the room. "Mr. Capron, of Shillingford, thought he heard the rumbling of thunder, and felt so sure that it was so that he went out to see the state of the weather: he found a bright and clear sky. Another inhabitant of Shillingford heard a noise, and likened it to a very sudden and violent blast of wind down the chimney of his house." This was kindly communicated by the Rev. W. Harpley.

In reply to a letter of mine, the Rev. O. C. Wright very obligingly gave me the following experience he had at the vicarage at Bampton: "The time was eighteen minutes to nine, and the effect in the drawing-room was like a heavy body, say a traction-engine, passing under the window, which looks east, the motion, I imagine, passing east to west. In the kitchen the servants were alarmed by a rumbling noise and shaking under the floor. Some of my neighbours heard a report, and houses with cellars under them and higher felt

« AnkstesnisTęsti »