Up rise the wounded, down theire
arms Both Towne and Gowne do lie; The kinge's approache ye people
charmes, And alle looke merrilie. For howe'er Towne and Gowne may
fighte, Yet bothe are true to ye kinge. So on bothe may learning and
honour lighte, Let all men gailie singe.{1}
~265~~
1 The above imitation of the style of the ancient ballad is
founded on traditional circumstances said to have occurred
when the pacific king James visited Oxford.--_Bernard
Blackmantle_.
_Intestine broils and civil wars of Oxford_.--Anthony Wood,
the faithful historian of Oxford, gives an account of a
quarrel between the partisans of St. Guinbald and the
residents of Oxford, in the days of Alfred, on his
refounding the university, A.D. 886. After his death the
continual inroads of the Danes kept the Oxonians in
perpetual alarm, and in the year 979 they destroyed the town
by fire, and repeated their outrage upon the new built town
in 1002. Seven years after, Swein, the Danish leader, was
repulsed by the inhabitants in a similar attempt, who took
vengeance on their im-placable enemy by a general massacre
on the feast of St. Brice. In the civil commotions under the
Saxon prince, Oxford had again its full share of the evils
of war.
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