in almost every quarter of the field , but have overlooked that it could scarcely be elsewhere than to the rear of the ground on which we are. Now it happens that directly in our rear, at a point to which we will now proceed , there is a sudden fall in the ground and I think, I shall be able to prove that there is no ground hereabout which so well answers all the conditions and requirements as that which I am now describing.
We then fell back , leaving the park and crossing the lane and entered a field bearing to the south -east,where we came upon a precipitous descent looking down upon a deep ravine. " This ravine," I remarked , " or deep valley runs parallel to the lane at some distance to its rear, becoming shallower higher up towards the Norman centre, where it can easily be crossed. I identify this ravine with the Mal Fosse or Sevil ditch,' or, as some old writers have termed it, " the great chasm between the two armies ' into which the routed Nor mans fell, man and horse; and accoutred as they were in heavy armour, and coming upon this place without being previously aware of its existence , (as WACE expressly tells us ) 'they must have rolled over in utter confusion, and with no power of recovering themselves."" I asked my auditors to look well at the position, bearing in mind, moreover, that steep as the hill side is now , the effect of eight hundred years would be to make it much less steep than it then was ; for as the soil crumbled from the hill top during the long centuries that had elapsed, it would form a much more easy and gradual slope at the hill foot. With -
