Bede, in the earliest times of our history, equated _burh_ with _urbs_, a city; Alfred in his _Orosius_ translates _civitas_ by _burh_;[36] the Anglo-Saxon gospels of the 11th century do the same;[36] and the confederacy of five Danish towns which existed in Mercia in the 10th century is called in contemporary records _fif burga_, the five boroughs.[37] _Burh_ is a noun derived from the word _beorgan_, to protect. Undoubtedly its primitive meaning was that of a _protective enclosure_. As in the case of the words _tun_, _yard_, or _garth_, and _worth_ or _ward_, the sense of the word became extended from the protecting bulwark to the place protected. In this sense of a _fortified enclosure_, the word was naturally applied by the Anglo-Saxons to the prehistoric and British "camps" which they found in Britain, such as Cissbury. Moreover, it is clear that some kind of enclosure must have existed round every farmstead in Saxon times, if only as a protection against wolves. The illustrated Saxon manuscripts show that the hall in which the thane dwelt, the ladies' bower, the chapel and other buildings dependent on the hall, were enclosed in a stockade, and had gates which without doubt were closed at night.[38] This enclosure may have been called a _burh_, and the innumerable place-names in England ending in _borough_ or _bury_[39] seem to suggest that the _burh_ was often nothing more than a stockade, as in so many of these sites not a vestige of defensive works remains.[40] We may concede that the original meaning of an _enclosure_ was never entirely lost, and that it appears to be preserved in a few passages in the Anglo-Saxon laws. Thus Edmund speaks of _mine burh_ as an asylum, the violation of which brings its special punishment; and Ethelred II. ordains that every compurgation shall take place in _thaes kyninges byrig_; and the _Rectitudines Singularum Personum_ tells us that one of the duties of the geneat was to build for his lord, and to hedge his _burh_.[41] But it is absolutely clear that even in these cases a _burh_ was an enclosure and not a tump; and it is equally clear from the general use of the word that its main meaning was a _fortified town_. Athelstan ordains that there shall be a mint in every _burh_; and his laws show that already the _burh_ has its _gemot_ or meeting, and its _reeve_ or mayor.[42] He ordains that all _burhs_ are to be repaired fourteen days after Rogations, and that no market shall be held outside the town.[43] In the laws of Edgar's time not only the borough-moot and the borough-reeve are spoken of, but the _burh-waru_ or burgesses.[44] _Burh_ is contrasted with wapentake as town with country.[45] [Illustration: FIG. 2.--ANGLO-SAXON MS. OF PRUDENTIUS.