gaged in battle with fury, and the slaughter was great on either side. The prime of East Anglia fell there, but if all their forces had been collected, the Danes, as they acknowledged, would never have returned to their ships. 1010 This year, after Easter, the aforesaid army (Danes) invaded the Angles; they landed at GIPPESWIC, and marched strait forward to the place where, as they heard, Ulfkytel was with the troops. This was This was on the morning of Ascension-day, and the East Anglians took to flight, but the men of Cambridgeshire stood their ground firmly. The king's son-in-law Æthelstow was slain there, and Oswi and his sons, and Wulfric the son of Leofwin, and Eadwig the brother of Æfic, and many other good Thanes, and more than can be numbered of the common people *** and after this they (Danes) were masters of East Anglia, and they continued to burn and plunder the country for the space of three months, and they even penetrated into the wild fens, and slew both men and cattle, and they set all on fire, and they burned the towns of Thetford and Cambridge. *** So far the Saxon Chronicle. It is probable that the Danish chief who led his army against Gippeswic was Anlaf, a Northumbrian, a ruler, if not a native of that kingdom. It is clear that if not the projector of the first attack, he was of the second. This Dane has been confounded with another of the same name, Anlaf the black, but the latter was slain in his marauding exploits many years Rushmere, near Ipswich. previously. The name of Anlaf was borne by several monarchs of Northumbria, one of whom was converted to Christianity, and died in 942. The chief Guthrum, mentioned in this record, lived after his conversion at Hadleigh, or Head-leige, and died in the year 889. Converted to the Christian faith, by Alfred, he was baptised and given the name of Athelstan. He reigned over the whole province, and the Saxon town of Gippes wic became subject to the laws promulgated by him.* Guthrum is supposed to have been buried in a spot now covered by the church of Hadleigh, and an arch is shewn in the south wall said to stand above his grave. This arch is gothic however, and cannot mark his place of sepulture. In 1767 the floor and earth beneath were opened, when a grave was discovered of ancient character, the bottom tessalated with small glazed tiles, on which remained a slight quantity of light blue ashes-" circumstances which," says a wellinformed writer, "seem to corroborate the record, and the local appropriation of antiquity." A dispute has arisen upon the probability of the burial place of Guthrum being that described, and it is contended that this grave must be rejected as that of the Danish leader, from the circumstance that these people either burnt or buried their chieftains in tumuli. Such however was not the mode followed by those converted to Christianity. Olaus Wormius, distinguishes three epochs, in each of which a different mode of sepulture prevailed. The first Roisold or Brende-tiid, the age of burning-Hoigold, when the body was not burnt, but buried entire in the midst of a circle of stones, and the third Christen *It is stated that this Chief in one of his marauding exploits crossed the Orwell to or from Chelmondiston, and that this name is but a corruption of Guthulues fordham-Guthrum's ford. dom's Old, which commenced when Christianity prevailed. The mode of interment then practised, of depositing the body in the grave unburnt and without any incumbent barrow, has been continued ever since.* The accounts herewith given of the several pillages of Gippeswic by the Danes, are probably not all which the town suffered. In the year 1003 an army of these people made its appearance in this country, to attempt the retrieval of disasters which had befallen their fellows in Britain on the 13th of November, 1002, when on the festival of St. Brice, multitudes of Danes were treacherously murdered by an arrangement of the Saxons. The new army sent to avenge the death of their brethren, sworn to the task, visited, burnt, and ravaged almost every town of note in the kingdom, those of East Anglia among others. It is not unlikely therefore that Gippeswic felt on this occasion the hand of its former remorseless enemy. Composed of the flower of the Danish nation, this army, not encumbered by the presence of a single aged person, and unpolluted by a slave, traversed the country in every direction, retracing its steps by the ashes of the towns it had plundered and consumed. No record, however, distinctly names Gippeswic as having fallen under the direful infliction of a visit in this particular irruption. Of the actual state and magnitude of Gippeswic, in the days of the Saxons, but little is known, though there can be no doubt it was a place of consequence, having a mint, was surrounded by a wall and ditch, and paying, like all towns of importance, a fee-farm rent to the king. The coins of this period which have been found minted at Gippeswic are as follows: *Bloxam's Glimpse. Information upon the subject of these early provincial mints is exceedingly scanty. What time the mint at Ipswich ceased working is with no degree of certainty ascertained, or perhaps ascertainable, though specimens of the Ipswich mint down to Henry III have been found. In the 9th of king John we find the moneyers called to London with their dies sealed, to receive the king's command. In the writ calling the Ipswich moneyers to the king, were included also those of Bury St. Edmunds, Norwich, and Lynn. We now arrive at a period when written history affords information that cannot mislead. The Saxons having conquered the Danes, were in their turn conquered by the Normans, and the Conqueror, anxious to ascertain the most minute account of his newlyacquired kingdom, caused the survey known as Domesday-book to be commenced in 1080. In this invaluable record is the following information connected with Ipswich. H THE KING'S LANDS OF THE ROYALTY WHICH ROGER BIGOT HOLDS IN SUFFOLK. The Half Hundred of Ipswich. In the town of Ipswich, Stigand had in King Edward's time 2 burgesses with soc. and sac. and the king used to have the custom. Now they are dead and the king hath custom and soc. and sac. Roger Bigot holds this in manor of the king. Of the Half Hundred of Ipswich, and of the town, queen Edeva had in king Edward's time two parts, and Earl Guert the third part. The same queen used to have in her demense one grange, to which used to belong in K. Ed. time iiij carucates of land and the same now. Of this land xij free-men dwelling on their own proper land always hold lxxx acres to service and custom of the king. And there are x other men borderers, who have not their own proper land, but dwell on lxxxvj acres of the above-mentioned land. There belong still to the demense of the above-mentioned grange two burgesses, who pay to the king vjd. for custom. And then ij ploughs in the demense and afterwards the same, now j. Then iij bond-women, now viij. Then ij horses, now j. Then xiiij goats, now vij. Then xl sheep, now xiij, and the villains always have vj ploughs. This land contains in length viij quarenta, and the same in breadth, and pays nothing in tax to the king. In the town there were (in K. Ed. time) dxxxviij burgesses paying custom to the king, and had xl acres of land. But now there are cx burgesses who pay custom, and c poor burgesses who are not able to pay to the tax of the king except one penny in capite. And amongst the whole of the same they have xl acres of land. And there are cccxxviij wasted dwellings in the town, which in K. Ed. time contributed to the king's tax. In the |