[487] Vol. i. p. 275. A list of all these Danish invasions may be consulted in Sir H. Nicolas’s “Hist. Royal Navy,” vol. i. pp. 10-28.
[488] This was the well-known tax called “Dane geld,” imposed, apparently for the first time, about A.D. 991; see also Saxon Chron., A.D. 994, 1002, 1007. Stow, p. 114, ed. 1600.
[489] Mr. Kemble, in an elaborate chapter on the “Hide,” has determined that it was probably a little less than 100 statute acres of arable land. (“Anglo-Saxons,” vol. i. c. 4, p. 88-121.) It is clear, however, that the word was often used for a much smaller, though indefinite extent of land. In Bosworth’s Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (in voc. Hyde) many examples are quoted, showing that it was popularly held to be as much land as “could be tilled in a year by one plough.”
[490] Saxon Chron., A.D. 1009.
[491] London Bridge is noticed in the Saxon Chronicle under A.D. 1016, The first stone bridge is said to have been commenced, A.D. 1176, and finished, A.D. 1209.—Stow’s Survey, pp. 50, 52, 682.
[492] Then called “Emperor’s men,” the forerunners, probably, of the “Merchants of the Steel-yard.” See also Brompton, p. 897, quoted by Macpherson, p. 277, and “Ancient Laws,” p. 127; Prynne, “Annales,” p. 105.
[493] Snorro, “Hist. Olaf. Trygv.” cc. 124-8.
[494] “Heimskringla,” vol. ii. p. 125. Cf. Reginæ Emmæ Encomium, ap. Script. Rer. Normann. pp. 166, 170.
[495] “Florence of Worcester,” p. 623, who calls the vessel a “trierem.”
[496] “Annals of Commerce,” vol. i. p. 279.