“ Quoth shee: 'It likes me than;
Here dwells a knight who never was
Yet matcht with any man.
'Who has in prison threescore knights
And four, that he did wound;
Knights of King Arthur's court they be,
And of his Table Round.'
She brought him to the [Irwell] side,
And also to a tree,
Whereon a copper bason hung,
And many shields to see. ”

“ After the Romans left the country, their camp on the Irwell was occupied by the native Britons, who had again to give place to the victorious Saxons. These hardy warriors appear to have become masters of Lancashire about A.D. 618, when they seized the old Roman station at Mamecestre, which more than a century before is fabled to have been occupied by a semi-mythic personage named Sir Tarquin. Tradition states that he was "a giant in size and a monster in brutality." Be this as it may, the Britons made two desperate attempts under King Arthur and his knights, to retake this stronghold ”

“ After the death of King Arthur, the Saxons and Danes regained their ascendancy; but the tradition has outlived the success of the Britons. The combat between the two knights not only forms an interesting incident in the "Morte d'Arthur;" ”