Let us go up to the top of the main street, and sit down on the ancient oak bench high up on the hill, whence we can look down on the old-world place and get a birdseye view of the quaint houses and the surrounding country.  And now we may exclaim with Ossian, “A tale of the times of old!  The deeds of days of other years!” For yonder, a mile away from the town, the kings of Mercia and Wessex fought a desperate battle in the year A.D. 685.  Quite recently a tomb was found there containing a stone coffin weighing nearly a ton.  The bones of the warrior who fought and died there were marvellously complete when disturbed in their resting-place—­in fact, the skeleton was a perfect one.

“Whose fame is in that dark green tomb?  Four stones with their heads of moss stand there.  They mark the narrow house of death.  Some chief of fame is here!  Raise the songs of old!  Awake their memory in the tomb.” [4]

[Footnote 4:  Ossian.]

Tradition has it that this was the body of a great Saxon chief, Aethelhum, the mighty standard-bearer of the Mercian King Ethelbald.  It was in honour of this great warrior that the people of Burford carried a standard emblazoned with a golden dragon through the old streets on midsummer eve, annually, for nigh on a thousand years.  We are told that it was only during last century that the custom died out.

How beautiful are some of the old houses in the broad and stately High Street!

The ancient building in the centre of the town is called the “Tolsey”; it must be more than four hundred years old.  The name originated in the custom of paying tolls due to the lord of the manor in the building.  There are some grand old iron chests here; one of these old boxes contains many interesting charters and deeds, some of them bearing the signatures of chancellors Morton, Stephen Gardiner, and Ellesmere.  There are letters from Elizabeth, and an order from the Privy Council with Arlington’s signature attached.  “The stocks” used to stand on the north side of this building, but have lately been removed.  Then the houses opposite the Tolsey are as beautiful as they possibly can be.  They are fifteenth century, and have oak verge-boards round their gables, carved in very delicate tracery.

Another house has a wonderful cellar, filled with grandly carved stonework, like the aisle of a church; this crypt is probably more than five hundred years old.  Perhaps this vaulted Gothic chamber is a remnant of the old monastery, the site of which is not known.  Close by is an ancient building, now turned into an inn; and this also may have been part of the dwelling-place of the monks of Burford.  From the vaulted cellar beneath the house, now occupied by Mr. Chandler, ran an underground passage, evidently connected with some other building.

How sweetly pretty is the house at the foot of the bridge, as seen from the High Street above!  The following inscription stands out prominently on the front:—­