ne fact,
that William the Conqueror has always been Duke William to the Sussex
folk. He was Duke William to the fen folk, too. They fought for their
belief and were compelled to accept his kingship. The Sussex folk
fought, too, and they handed down their conception of the great fight
to their children.

A good example of a slightly different kind occurs in connection with
Kett's rebellion in Norfolk. It was associated with a prophecy that
said, "there shulde lande at Walborne hope the proudest prince of
Christendome, and so shall come to Moshold heethe, and there shuld
mete with other ij kinges, and shall fyght and shalbe put down: and
the whyte lyon shuld optayne" the mastery. And yet this prophecy goes
much further back, for the Danes are said to have landed at Weybourne
Hope in their invasions, and the old rhyme is still remembered in the
county:--

"He that would England win
Must at Weybourn Hope begin."[46]

This is an example of the forcible revival of an ancient tradition to
suit a later fact, and is evidence of the enormous impression which
the event to which it refers had upon the locality. Kett's rebellion
was one thing to the nation at large and quite another thing to this
district of Norfolk, and the great events of the tenth century
preserved in legend were equated with the minor events of the
sixteenth century, thus enabling us to understand better the depth of
the local feeling which produced these events.

[Illustration: PLAN OF THE SITE OF THE "HEAVEN WALLS" AT LITLINGTON,
ROYSTON, CAMBRIDGESHIRE]

Both local and personal traditions are of interest in the unravelling
of the meaning of historical events, and the forces at the back of
them, and I will add a note of one or two examples of those humbler
traditions which confirm or enhance the value of the historical
record. They are of the greatest importance if correctly understood.
They include such examples, for instance, as Mr. Kemble notes when he
says, "I have more than once walked, ridden, or rowed, as land and
stream required, round the bounds of Anglo-Saxon estates, and have
learned with astonishment that the names recorded in my charter were
those still used by the woodcutter or the shepherd of the
neighbourhood."[47] This is remarkable testimony to the persistence of
tradition. It is the commencing point of a whole series of examples
which go to show that embedded in the memories of the people, and
supported by no other force