4io

NOTES TO THE FIRST VOLUME.

NOTE [C], p. i S 6.

Many ot the English historians make Edgar’s shipsamount to an extravagant number, to $000 , or 5600:See Hoveden, p. 426. Flor. Wigorn. p. 607. AbbasRieval. p. ;6o. Brompton, p. 869, fays that Edgar had4000 vessels. How can these accounts be reconciled toprobability, and to the state of the navy in the time ofAlfred? W. Thome makes the whole number amountonly to zoo, which is more probable. The fleet ofEthelred, Edgar’s son, must have been short of 1000ships; yet the Saxon Chronicle, p. 157. , says it was thegreatest navy that ever had been seen in England.

NOTE [D] , p. 187.

JrVLMOST all the ancient historians speak of thismassacre of the Danes as if it had been universal, and as ifevery individual of that nation throughout England hadbeen put to death. But the Danes were almost the soleinhabitants in the kingdoms of Northumberland and EastAnglia , and were very numerous in Mercia. This repre,-sentation therefore of the matter is absolutely impossible.Great resistance must have been made, and violent warsensued; which was not the cafe. This account given by"Wallingford, though he stands single , must be admittedas the only true one. YC'e are told , that the nameLurdane , lord Dane , for an idle lazy fellow, who livesat other people’s expence , came from the conduct of theDanes, who were put to death. But the English princeshad been intirely masters for several generations ; and onlysupported a military corps of that nation. It seems pro-bable , therefore, that it was these Danes only that wereput to death.

NOTE [E] , p. 22i.

r J.'HE ingenious author of the article Godwin , in theEiographia Britannica , has endeavoured to clear the