directed the burh at Wigmore to be built, and in August the whole Danish army spent a day before Towcester, but failed to take it by storm. In that year the Danes abandoned their work at Huntingdon and wrought one at Tempsford, and thence moved to Bedford, whence they were repulsed. They also attacked the burh at Wigmore for a day, but without success. This was a busy year. In it the English stormed Tempsford burh, and beset Colchester burh, and slew there all but one man who escaped over the wall. Maldon burh also was attacked by the Danish army, but without success. In November, Eadward repaired the burhs at Huntingdon and Colchester and raised that at Cledemutha. In 922, the same great English leader, between May and midsummer, "wrought" a burh at Stamford on the south bank of the Welland, opposite to that already existing. He reduced the burh at Nottingham, repaired it, and garrisoned it with Englishmen and Danes. In 923, Eadward erected a burh at Thelwall, and in 924 one at Bakewell, and a second at Nottingham, opposite to the existing one, the Trent flowing between them. In 943, Olaf the Dane took Tamworth by storm. In 952, mention is made of the fastness of Jedburgh, and of the town of Thetford. In 993, Bamborough was stormed.
Of the fifty burhs named in the chronicle, about forty-one have been identified, and of these about twenty-nine still exist. Of this number, twenty-two are moated mounds, mostly with base courts also moated. At Taunton, as at Chirbury, there is reason to suppose that there was a mound, and the works at Exeter, Rochester, Colchester, and Pevensey, which are Roman, possibly succeeding earlier British works, have been taken possession of and altered by the English, as is the case also at Chester, where was, and at Pevensey, where still is, a mound. At Rochester is a large mound, though outside the fortress. Rougemont in Exeter is itself a natural mound, and Bamborough, from its great height and steepness, needed neither mound nor earthwork of any kind. Of double burhs, commanding the passage of a river, the chronicle mentions Nottingham and those on the Lea, and others at Hertford, Bedford, Stamford, and Buckingham. Unfortunately, none of these are perfect. At Nottingham and on the Lea both mounds have long been removed; one is remembered at Stamford and Buckingham, and one may still be seen at Hertford. But the only double mounds remaining to show how, in the tenth century, the English defended the passage of a river, are those at York, which are not mentioned in the chronicle.
It appears then, that setting aside works that have not
