When Dane had fought Englishman, The Danes ... formed their the battle had always shield wall.... The shield been between _serried bodies_ wall (testudo, as Asser [80] of foot soldiery, meeting pedantically calls it) is _of fairly face to face _in the course not a wedged mass_,[80] wedge_ or column, with its but only a line of shielded shield wall of warriors warriors[81] (History of the standing elbow to elbow, etc. Art of War,’ p. 99). (‘Social England,’ p. 299). The writer’s “of course” is delightful. * * * * * This contradiction of himself, however, is as nothing compared with that to which we are now coming. In his first work Mr. Oman wrote under Mr. Freeman’s influence. The Normans, he held, at the Battle of Hastings, were confronted by “impregnable palisades.” Nine years later, in his second description of the battle, he substituted for these “impregnable palisades” an “impenetrable shield wall.” 1885. 1894. The Norman knights, if unsupported His archers, if unsupported by by their light infantry, cavalry, might have been driven _might have surged for ever around off the field by a single the_ IMPREGNABLE PALISADES. charge; his cavalry, if The archers, if unsupported by unsupported by archers, _might the knights, could easily have have surged for ever around been DRIVEN OFF THE FIELD BY A the_ IMPENETRABLE SHIELD WALL GENERAL charge. United, however, of the English. But by by the skilled tactics of William, combining the two armies the two divisions of the invading (_sic_) with perfect skill, he army won the day (‘Art of War,’ won his crowning victory p. 25). (‘Social England,’p. 299). The faithful _réchauffé_ of his former narrative only renders the more significant Mr. Oman’s change of “impregnable palisades” to “impenetrable shield wall.” For what had happened in the meanwhile to account for this change being made? In July, 1892, there had appeared in the ‘Quarterly Review’ my well-known article on “Professor Freeman,” in which I had maintained that the English defence consisted, _not_ of impregnable “palisades,” but only of an impenetrable “shield wall.” On the furious and famous controversy upon this topic which followed, it is quite unnecessary to dwell. Mr. Oman, we have seen himself adopted the view I had advanced, and not, I hasten to add, on this point alone, for with his whole description of the battle, as given in ‘Social England,’ I am in complete agreement. The “shield wall” he mentions twice.[82] Of “palisades,” intrenchments, or breastworks there is not a word. And yet Mr. Oman, now, is not ashamed to write: I fear that I must plead that I was never converted. This being so, Mr. Round cannot prove that I was.[83]