Note 99 — PART II HISTORICAL STUDIES

The charge, in short, that I have brought throughout against the disposition of the English in Mr Freeman's narrative is that his view, 'with all that it involves, was based on no authority, was merely the offspring of his own imagination, and was directly at variance with the only precedent that he vouched for the purpose'.99 There is absolutely not a scrap of evidence that—as shown on the 'accurate' ground-plan—the English army was drawn up in three divisions, the 'housecarls' forming the centre, and the 'light-armed' the two wings. We do not even know that it formed an almost straight line.100 The whole arrangement is sheer guesswork, and analogy, here our only guide, is wholly against it.