Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/9

 ii s. iv. JULY i, Mil.] NOTES AND QUERIES. of defence, and the attack was expected to come by water, on the south coast or by the Bristol Channel. In such an emergency there seems nothing arbitrary in supposing that inland Berkshire might be assigned 'to support Sussex and Hampshire, or that Gloucestershire might join in defending Bath, Malmesbury, and Cricklade, which lay as near to it as to the bulk of Somerset and Wiltshire. The eastern and western parts of the Burghal Hidage show a division fairly equal, for Sussex and Oxford (first and last sections above) have 14,100 hides, and Dorset, Devon, &c., 13,070. The concluding figures of the Hidage, after the Wessex total, indicate that a similar plan was contemplated for other parts of England. They are : " Astsexum " 30 (? 3000), Worcester 1200, Warwick 4 and 2400 hides. The Worcester figures agree with the Domesday Book hidage of the county, and prove that Gloucester was not then associated with it ; those for Warwick show that a wider area than the county (D.B. 1300' hides) must have been summoned to aid it possibly Staffordshire and part of Shropshire. On the other hand, the East Saxon figures are much below the hidage tof that province. Kent and Cornwall are entirely outside the plan ; the former probably retained its own administration. The ' A.-S. Chronicle ' has several indica- tions that the scheme belongs substantially to Alfred's time. Thus in 878 the king and his band constructed a fort at Athelney, from which he made attacks on the Danes, being assisted by the men of Somerset adjacent to that fort. The Burghal Hidage is an obvious development of this germ into a defence of Wessex as a whole. In the same year Alfred overcame Guthrun, and made the treaty by which Watling Street became the boundary between his kingdom and the Danes. The shortage of the Bucking- hamshire hides above noticed shows that the treaty was in force at the time this table was compiled. It is reasonable to suppose that Alfred's first care was to organize the government of Wessex and make plans for its defence. On the land side there was no further trouble, but, in accordance with the indications of the Burghal Hidage, the king seems to have dreaded attacks by sea. Maturing his plans he was able in 882 to sail out with his own ships and fight four Danish vessels, gaining a complete victory. In 886 he repaired London, and all the English outside the Danelagh submitted to him. This may explain the inclusion of the East Saxons, Worcester, and Warwick in the supplementary part of our table ; if so, it gives a limit for the main portion. In 893-4 the Danish host crossed over from Boulogne and landed in Kent, just outside the protected district ; but Wessex, though attacked at various points, was pre- served from devastation. " Those whose duty it was to defend the burghs " are mentioned in the ' Chronicle's ' record of those trying years. The host at length made a rapid march up the Thames valley to the upper waters of the Severn, but that seems to have been the only part in which they were able to break through the defence. In view of all these occurrences, it is tempting to suppose that the defence scheme of the Burghal Hidage was drawn up 'by Alfred between 878 and 886 ; that it was tested by the invasion of 893-4 ; and that,, proving effective, it was placed on record for future use. On the other hand, if the fortification of Buckingham in 918 was the first employment of that place as a burgh,, this table cannot, of course, be earlier than that year. What the ' Chronicle ' says is that in the year named Edward the Elder made both burghs there, on either side of the river. In the * Hidage' another name is given with Buckingham. But in 918 the supplementary part of the table ought to> have included the numerous burghs which* Ethelfleda had been erecting all over Mercia. On the whole, the earlier date seems more- probable. The hypothesis that the original list was used as a "working document" ins Wessex will account for some difficulties. It is observable that, if the entry " Buck- ingham 1500 hides " is a later interpolation, there is no need to regard the hidage of Tisbury and Shaftesbury as involved in that of Wilton ; but the total will be reduced to 27,070, while the symmetry of the table, and its correspondence with the Domesday Book hidages, will be greatly impaired J. BROWNBILL. CROMWELLIANA. III. OLIVER CROMWELL'S BURIAL* (See US. iii. 341.) WHEN was Cromwell buried ? After the* Restoration, stories were set on foot by his partisans with the object of proving that it was not Cromwell's body that was exposed on the gallows at Tyburn. All these stories are easily refuted, but the fact remains that the cause of their being set on foot was that