Bootless are plaints, and cureless are my wounds; No way to fly, nor strength to hold out flight: The foe is merciless, and will not pity; For at their hands I have deserv’d no pity. The air hath got into my deadly wounds, And much effuse of blood doth make me faint.” {90c} The elevated land begins to rise about a quarter of a mile on the north side of Saxton village, from which a public road proceeds from thence in a northwardly direction, and continues to rise until within little more than half a mile to the southward of the village of Towton, where there is a considerable depression or descent in the road, and in the ground on each side of it. At this place, and on the left or westward of the road, the depression in the ground deepens through a large meadow, where it forms a valley, which contracts, and extends through an opening in the eminence or cliff before mentioned, to the belt of meadow land extending to the river Cock. On the right or eastward side of the public road, the depression which is called Towton Dale, extends some little distance into the adjoining fields, and then becomes a mere undulation in the fields; and the ground is nearly level from thence towards the eastward. This place is easily known—not merely by the large meadow and valley, but by a stone quarry called Towton Dale Quarry, worked close to, and on the westward or left side of, the road, and which is passed on leaving the depression, and ascending towards Towton village. {91} Those marks will enable the visitor to find the scene of action, without difficulty. The battle of Towton was fought on the spot now occupied by the large meadow and valley before mentioned (on the west side of the road), the depression called Towton Dale, the fields extending a considerable distance to the eastward of the road, and the ground in the neighbourhood of the stone quarry. The large meadow is remarkable for producing rich rank grass, and also for three or four extensive irregularly shaped patches of very small wild dwarf rose-bushes, which I was told, were both red and white; it forms the west end of Towton Dale. The meadow is not unfrequently called the Bloody Meadow, and was, according to tradition, a scene of great slaughter, and it is said that considerable numbers of the dead were buried there. The distance across the fields, from the public road at that spot to the turnpike road leading from Ferrybridge, is about a mile, and the whole tract of ground between them is enclosed and cultivated.