A British burial mound was often found convenient for an Anglian _mōt_, or meeting,—whence the name ‘Moot Hill’—and its purpose was marked by a large trench in the form of a cross cut through the mound down into the chalk. The four arms of the trench were made roughly equal, and always pointed north, south, east, and west. Cowlam Cross, near which the village church was afterwards erected, is cut seven feet deep in the solid chalk, and another similar cross with arms twenty-one feet long has been discovered at Helperthorpe. [Illustration: TWO SIDES OF AN ANGLIAN CROSS SHAFT AT LEVEN.] Where no convenient mound existed, the place of meeting was sometimes marked in the opposite way. Instead of cutting a deep trench they raised at right angles two ridges of earth and stones, entirely surrounded by a shallow ditch. Such crosses have been named _Embankment Crosses_, and eleven have been discovered within a radius of fifteen miles from Driffield. A favourite name for them among the country folk is that of _bield_, or shelter, because they were supposed to have been built up to serve as shelters for the cattle. There is one near East Heslerton, known locally as the ‘Old Bield,’ the arms of which measure 45 yards each, north and south, and 50 yards east and west. Another formerly existed near the site of the ancient village of Haywold. Ploughing operations have caused this—and probably many others—to be destroyed; but its name, ‘Christ Cross,’ is still preserved. With the introduction of Christianity there took place great development of the arts of peace in home and village life. ‘The English forged the ploughshare rather than the sword. They built weirs, and fished, and set up watermills by the rivers. Boat-building, brewing, leather-tanning, pottery, dyeing, weaving, the working of gold and silver, and embroidery, grew and soon began to flourish. The days of merchandise succeeded the days of plunder; life became gentler, nearer in spirit to the homes of England as we now conceive them.’ VIII. THE COMING OF THE NORTHMEN. Two hundred years pass onwards from the coming of Saint Aidan to Northumbria, and we are again among scenes of famine, sword, and fire. Let us see what the records of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles have to tell. A.D. 787. In these days first came three ships of the Northmen, and when the bailiff rode down to them, and would take the men to the king’s town—for he knew not who they were—he was slain. Those were the first ships of the Danish men that came to the land of the Angles. A.D. 833. In this year King Egbert fought against the crews of thirty-five ships at Charmouth, and there was great slaughter, and the Danish men possessed the battlefield.