Note 772 — Chapter V · THE DANISH CONQUEST OF ENGLAND.[464] 975–1016. (continued 3)

The first ditch is recorded in the Chronicles, which say expressly, “Hi ða dulfon áne mycle díc on suð healfe.” William of Malmesbury (ii. 18o), though he places the work later, after the battle of Sherstone, speaks of the other ditch which surrounded the city, reaching no doubt from the river to the river again; “fossa etiam urbem, qua fluvio Tamensi non alluitur, foris totam cinxerat.” That these are not two descriptions of the same ditch appears from the account in Florence, which takes in both; “in australi parte Tamensis magnam scrobem foderunt, et naves suas in occidentalem plagam pontis traxerunt; dein urbem alta lataque fossa et obsidione cingentes,” &c. &c. I therefore, with Lappenberg (ii. 188), understand the story as I have told it in the text; the phrase “traxerunt” (so in the Chronicles “drogon”) seems to mean that the ships were towed along the new-made canal.