from which it is by the river disjoined, the parish authorities go over once a year, make a hole in the ground, into which a boy puts his head, to keep its possession in rememberance.

There is only another circumstance connected with the Trent bridge to which we feel it necessary to solicit a few moments attention, and that is, to the origin of the name of lady-bay, at which place there is now a toll-bar, called lady-bay bar. The opinion of Mr. Blackner, that the name was given it from the circumstance of its being the pasture of my lady's bay mare, or a mare pasturing there called lady bay, is ridiculous. Surely a more unfounded opinion was never hazarded on any subject, by any person, than this. Now are we not told that the bridge itself took its name from certain baths which were there erected, and can we suppose there were gentlemen's baths, and none for the ladies? If the gentlemen's baths, of which we have so frequent mention, were on the north end, is it not very likely that the ladies' baths would be at the end opposite? As at that place in the river opened out wide, forming a natural bay or port in miniature, such a place would be chosen for erecting the ladies' baths.

Besides, as it is usual for ancient churches, &c., to give name to places adjacent, so it would not be wonderful if the chapel on the bridge should give name to this remarkable port in the river, and as this was St. Mary's or ladies' chapel, this place, which was so near, would naturally be denominated lady's bay.

CHAPTER VI.

Athelstan, 925. Edward died soon after he had completed his works in this town, in 925, and was succeeded by his natural son, Athelstan, the younger children, though legitimate, were of too tender years to rule a nation so much exposed to foreign invasions, and subject to internal convulsion, as Britain then was. In his reign Nottingham was threatened with another Danish invasion, for in 937, and the twelfth of Athelstan's reign, under Anlaf, the Danes sailed up the Humber with a large fleet of 620 ships, casting anchor on the Lincolnshire coast. Athelstan marched with his army against them, and gained over the enemy one of the most splendid victories at Brun, in South Lincolnshire, ever recorded in the annals of British warfare, in which seven Danish earls and five of their kings were slain. To encourage commerce Athelstan

NOTTINGHAM AGAIN TAKEN BY THE DANES.

93

passed a law that any merchant who made three long sea voyages on his own account should be admitted to the rank of a thane, or gentleman. This prince greatly extended his dominions, expelling or supressing the Danes in every part of the kingdom, deservedly enjoying the sovereignty, and established a brilliant throne, from which he descended to be gathered to his fathers, A.D. 941, aged 47 years, after a prosperous reign. In his days Nottingham had

peace sixteen years.

Edmund the Magnificent, A.D. 941, was not quite eighteen when he ascended the throne of his deceased and illustrious brother. Scarcely had he begun to reign, when the Danes in Northumbria recalled Anlaf from his exile in Ireland, whom Athelstan had defeated at Brunnaburgh, the Danish prince not having the fear of Athelstan before his eyes, he being now dead, came in great force, marched a large army into the south, and gave Edmund battle. The result of the war was, that Edmund was obliged to resign in separate sovereignty to Anlaf the whole kingdom, north of Watling-street, and again Nottingham fell under the iron oppression of the haughty Danes. But Anlaf did not many months enjoy these advantages, for he died, and then Edmund re-possessed himself of all the territory he had before ceded to his enemy. The Danes who fixed themselves in Derby, Leicester, and Nottingham, were allowed to remain there in considerable numbers, but he removed the five Danish burghers, and restored the authority to the Saxon inhabitants. Edmund was stabbed by Leof, the robber, when carousing with his nobles on the feast of Augustine, A.D. 946, after a reign of only six years.

Edred, A. D. 946.-This was another brother of Edward the Elder, and brother of Athelstan and Edmund, was not 23 when he succeeded to the throne, and is said to have been afflicted with a disease which induced premature old age. He lost his teeth and hair, had a constant cough, and was so weak in the legs and feet that he was called Edredus, debilis padibus, (Edward weak in the feet). He humbled the Danes; was a determined and severe man; marched his army through Nottingham when on his way to chastise the Northumbrians, a great part of whose country he ravaged with fire and sword; returning home, he died soon afterward, after a reign of nine years, and leaving no issue, was succeeded by his nephew, son of Edmund. Edwy, A. D. 955, who having a quarrel with Odo, archbishop of Canterbury, and St. Dunstan, abbot of Glastonbury, had a part of the kingdom wrested from him, and Edgar reigned over Mercia, till the premature death of the youthful Edwy, who, in his unequal contest

with the ecclesiastics, died of a broken heart, soon following to the grave the beautiful Elgiva, his martyred queen.

Egbert then succeeded to the government of the whole kingdom, and was one of the most active and illustrious monarchs that ever graced the British throne; he avoided war by means of the vast armaments which he always had on foot, both on sea and land. The Danes he kept at a distance, and cleared the seas of pirates, having 3600 stout vessels, which scoured the seas in three divisions s; he over-awed the Scottish and Welsh princes, and by requiring them to attend his court prevented them from combining against his person, as they had done in the time of Athelstan.

On one occasion, when he would visit the monastery of St. John, he caused eight vassal princes to row his royal barge down the Dee, then holding his court at Chester, while he sat at the helm and guided it whithersoever he pleased. The tribute which he imposed on Ludwell, one of the Welsh princes, serves to illustrate his wisdom and attention to his people's welfare. On Ludwell he imposed a tribute of three hundred wolves heads every year, which he had to deposit at the palace of the bishop of Winchester; which, from that circumstance derived the name of Wolvesy. The consequence was, that after paying this tribute three years, he was unable to procure any more wolves heads, either in England or Wales. Every year Edgar went through the whole of his dominions to administer justice, and to inquire into the condition of the poor. (a) One of his regulations is of a very singular nature, and is descriptive of the manner of the times, the Danes were now dispersed through all the kingdom, and were excessively addicted to drinking, and were infecting the inhabitants of this country with this unnatural and baneful vice to a lamentable extent, so that it became a subject of contest, in the taverns where they used to assemble, who could sup the deepest out of the common wooden drinking cup, which passed through the company. Edgar made an ordinance that certain pegs should be placed at equal distances, forbidding any person to drink below his proper peg. (b)

The royal bargemen who rowed Edgar down the Dee, are said to have been Kenneth, king of Scotland; Malcolm, his son, king of Cumbria; Maccus, the Danish king of Anglesey, the Isle of Man, and the Hebrides; the Scottish kings of Galloway, and Westmere; and the three Welsh kings of Dynwall, Siferth, and Edwall. Edgar certainly bore prouder and more sounding titles

(a) Rog. Horneden. (b) Chron. J. Bromp. p. 869, Ed. Twysed.

ECCLESIASTICAL COMMOTION.

95

than any of his predecessors had done. He styled himself Basileus, or emperor of Albion, king of the English, and of all the nations and islands around, &c. His titles sometimes ran to the length of fifteen or eighteen lines. Edgar died A. D. 975, aged 33, in the 16th year of his reign, and was succeeded by his son Edward the Martyr, 975, whom he had by his first marriage with the daughter of Earl Ordmer, when he was only fifteen years old. That which more particularly concerns Nottingham, and the places round, during the short reign of Edward, is the internal commotion, particularly in these parts which was attended with great heat on both sides, it being an ecclesiastical contest between the Monks and the married, as they were called secular clergy. The former of whom had been introduced into the kingdom by St. Dunstan, in the previous reign, and through the fostering power of Edgar, had by this time established themselves in these parts. Now that Edgar was dead, Alfere, the powerful duke of Mercia, espoused the cause of the married clergy, and expelled the Monks from all the monasteries lying in his jurisdiction. (a) This was not the end, but only the beginning of sorrows; Edward being murdered by Elfrida, his mother-in-law, at Corfe castle, in Dorsetshire, when out one day hunting; was succeeded by his half brother, after a short but troubled reign of three years.

Ethelred, 978. Under this king, who was only ten years of age at the time of his accession, Nottingham was once more made subject to the profligate Danes. Ethelred, seeing the sad condition of the country, and unable to resist, offered the Danes large sums of money to leave the country. Five times did this pusillanimous king buy off the Danes, giving them sums of gold, varying from £16,000 to £36,000, and even as much as £48,000 at a time, for which purpose he imposed a new tax on the people, called Dane gelt, or Dane gold, and it was not long, ere all the strength and glory of England lay prostrate, eclipsed and humbled, beneath its spoilers feet. In this state of degraded vassalage and slavery were held the inhabitants of Nottingham and the places round, till the overthrow of the Danish power in this country, which continued till near the time of the Norman conquest, when they were made captives by strangers in their own land.

Who can wonder that after the Danes had departed the country in the time of Edward the Confessor, A.D. 1641, that Nottingham, which had been so often the scene of war, so long trodden

(a) Chron. Sax. p. 123.

under foot by the Vandal Danes, it should have been left so weakened that it had only 38 burgesses. When we reflect on the great antiquity of this town, even in those days, the former wealth and multitude of its inhabitants in the time of the Saxons and Britons, before they had so often been called to endure the desolating scourgings attendant upon the horrors of war, as their descendants, we may be pardoned the lamentation,-how are the mighty fallen on the high places. The country desolate, the city burnt with fire, the land strangers had devoured it in their presence, and desolate as overthrown by strangers.

BOOK VI.

CHAPTER I.

We come now to consider Nottingham as an old Saxon borough, which we shall narrate in the following order:-1st, The extent of the borough and its liberties, which were pretty nearly the same as after the conquest;-2nd, The manner in which society was then constituted;-3rd, The manners, customs, &c. of those early times; -4th, The laws by which it was governed;-5th, The property and privileges of the burgesses. 1st, The extent of the borough of Nottingham, &c.

It does not, like some borough towns, owe its distinction and privileges to king John, as has many times been erroneously stated by Deering, Blackner, &c. nor to any other sovereign that ever ruled over this land. Every historian who has written its history has admitted that Nottingham was inhabited by the Britons, and the platform or foundation of its immunities as a Saxon borough, were laid in the very early period when it was a British city. (a) Nottingham has always been a borough, and as such recognized in every charter of privilege which does now, or is known ever to have existed, and is therefore very properly denominated a borough by prescription. While we claim for

(a) B. II. chap. II. p. 20.