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diff --git a/old/52389-0.txt b/old/52389-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index b0a84bd..0000000 --- a/old/52389-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3034 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Vestiges of the supremacy of Mercia in the -south of England during the eighth century, by Thomas Kerslake - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Vestiges of the supremacy of Mercia in the south of England during the eighth century - -Author: Thomas Kerslake - -Release Date: June 21, 2016 [EBook #52389] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VESTIGES OF SUPREMACY OF MERCIA *** - - - - -Produced by MWS and the Online Distributed Proofreading -Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from -images generously made available by The Internet Archive) - - - - - -Transcriber’s Note: Minor errors of punctuation and printing have been -repaired, but the transcriber does not fancy she knows the writer’s -meaning better than he knows it himself, and has left the rest alone. - - - - - VESTIGES OF - - THE SUPREMACY OF MERCIA - - IN THE SOUTH OF ENGLAND - - DURING THE EIGHTH CENTURY - - _With T. Kerslake’s Compliments, - Bristol, 1879._ - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - PAGES - - 1-8-9, &c. ST. WERBURGH. - - 2-14, &c. BRISTOL. - - 3-5. WICCIA. - - 6-7. ANGLO-SAXON. - - 10. FEMALE NATIONAL SAINTS. - - 11, &c. ÆTHELBALD. OFFA. - - 11-12. 50. ST. BONIFACE. - - 13. AVON FRONTIER. - - 14. 56. BATH. HENBURY. - - 15-17. NORTH DEVON. - - 18. 22. CORNWALL. - - 19-21. ST. CUTHBERT. - - 23. 25. 36, &c. KENTISH HOO. - - 26-39, &c. CLOVESHOE. - - 28-29, &c. CLIFFE AT HOO. - - 40. HIGHAM FERRY. - - 41-42. MIDDLESEX. - - 43. CEALCHYTHE. - - 44-45. ACLEAH. - - 46. PARISHES. - - 47. WERBURGHWICK. - - 49-51. HAETHFELTH. HERUTFORD. &C. - - 53-58. ST. HELEN. OFFA. - - 56-58. HASTINGS. SUSSEX. - - 59. LONDON. - - 60-63. DEDICATIONS. - - 61. HOLY ROOD. - - 62. ST. ETHELBERT. MARDEN. ST. MARY. - - -ERRORS. - - Pages 24, 25 in Notes; _for_ p. 119-121, 125 _read_ 15-17, 22. - - ” 27. Note _for_ 1565 _read_ 1863. - - ” 7, line 3, _for_ “knut--” _read_ “Knut--”. - - ” 11, 12, 34, _for_ Bonifatius _prefer_ Bonifacius. - - ” 47, _for_ appanage _read_ apanage. - -Various others, including some introduced after the proofs had been -finally revised by the writer, by some one who fancied he knew the -writer’s meaning better than he knows it himself. - - - - - VESTIGES OF THE - - SUPREMACY OF MERCIA - - IN THE SOUTH OF ENGLAND - - DURING THE EIGHTH CENTURY. - - (_Reprinted from the Transactions of the - Bristol and Gloucestershire - Archæological Society_). - - _Bristol_, 1879. - - - - -VESTIGES OF THE SUPREMACY OF MERCIA IN THE SOUTH OF ENGLAND, DURING THE -EIGHTH CENTURY. - -By THOMAS KERSLAKE. - - “… residual phenomena …, the small concentrated residues - of great operations in the arts are almost sure to be the - lurking-places of new chemical ingredients.… It was a happy - thought of Glauber to examine what everybody else threw - away.”--SIR J. F. W. HERSCHELL. - - -Having sometimes said that the date of the original foundation of the -lately-demolished church of St. Werburgh, in the centre of the ancient -walled town of Bristol, was the year 741, and that a building so called -has, from that early date, always stood on that spot, I have been asked -how I know it. I have answered; by the same evidence--and the best -class of it--as the most important events of our national history, of -the three centuries in which that date occurs, are known. That is, -by necessary inference from the very scanty records of those times, -confirmed by such topical monumental evidence as may have survived. But -this fact in itself is, also, of considerable importance to our own -local history; because, if it should be realized, it would be the very -earliest solid date that has yet been attached to the place that we -now call Bristol. We are accustomed to speak, with a certain amount of -popular pride, of “Old Bristol,” and in like manner of “Old England,” -but without considering which is the oldest of the two. The position -here attempted would give that precedence to Bristol. - - * * * * * - -It need scarcely be mentioned that what we now call England is no other -than an enlargement of the ancient kingdom of the West Saxons, by the -subjugation and annexation of the other kingdoms of the southern part -of the island. A subjugation of which the result is that our now -ruling sovereign is the successor, as well as descendant, of the Saxon -Kings of Wessex, and of the supremacy which they ultimately achieved. -Of course this was only the final effect of a long series of political -revolutions. It was preceded by others that had promised a different -upshot: one of which was the long-threatened supremacy of the Anglian -kingdom of Mercia; by Penda, a Pagan king, and afterwards, during the -long reigns of Æthelbald and Offa, his Christian successors in his -kingdom and aggressive policy. - -One of two fates awaits a supplanted dynasty: to be traduced, or to be -forgotten. Although this milder one has been the lot of the Mercian -Empire, yet it is believed that distinct, and even extensive, traces -can still be discerned, beyond the original seat of its own kingdom, of -its former supremacy over the other kingdoms of England. In fact, this -name itself of “England,” still co-extensive with this former Anglian -supremacy over the Saxons, is a glorious monumental legacy of that -supremacy, which their later Saxon over-rulers never renounced, and -which has become their password to the uttermost parts of the earth. - -But it is with the encroachments of Æthelbald upon Wessex that we are -in the first instance concerned. South of Mercia proper was another -nation called Huiccia, extending over the present counties of Worcester -and Gloucester, with part of Warwickshire and Herefordshire, and having -the Bristol river Avon for its southern boundary. It is barely possible -that it may have included a narrow margin between that river and the -Wansdyke, which runs along the south of that river, at a parallel of -from two to three miles from it; but of this no distinct evidence -has been found. Some land, between the river and Wansdyke, did in -fact belong to the Abbey of Bath, which is itself on the north of the -river, but that this is said to have been bought--“mercati sumus digno -praetio”--from Kenulf, King of the West Saxons[1], makes it likely that -it was the river that had been the tribal boundary. - -Until divided from Gloucester by King Henry VIII., the Bishopric -of Worcester substantially continued the territory, and the present -name of Worcester = Wigorceaster = Wigorniæ civitas (A.D. 789), no -doubt transmits, although obscurely, the name of Huiccia; and the -church there contained (A.D. 774) “pontificalis Cathedra Huicciorum.” -The name may even remain in “Warwick,” and especially in “Wickwar” = -Huiccanwaru; but such instances must not be too much trusted, as there -are other fruitful sources of “wick,” in names. In Worcestershire -names, however, “-wick” and “-wich” as testimonials are abundant. -Droitwich = “Uuiccium emptorium” (A.D. 715), almost certainly is so -derived, in spite of its ambiguous contact with the great etymological -puzzle of the “Saltwiches.”[2] - -At all events, within a hundred years from Ceawlin’s first subjugation -of it, Saxon Wiccia had become entirely subject to Anglian Mercia. But -there can be no doubt that its earliest Teutonic settlers were West -Saxons. Even now, any one of us West Saxons, who should wander through -Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, would recognise his own dialect. -He would, perhaps, say they “speak finer” up here, but he would feel -that his ears are still at home. If he should, however, advance into -Derbyshire, or Staffordshire, or Eastern Shropshire, he would encounter -a musical cadence, or song, which, though far from being unpleasant -from an agreeable voice, would be very strange to him. He would, in -fact, have passed out of Wiccia into Mercia proper: from a West-Saxon -population into one of original Anglian substratum. - -What was the earlier political condition of Wiccia before it fell under -the dominion of Mercia: whether it was ever for any time an integral -part of the kingdom of Wessex, or a distinct subregulate of it, is -uncertain. Two of the earlier pagan West-Saxon inroads (A.D. 577-584) -were of this region, and happened long before that race had penetrated -Somerset. It is not to be believed that any part of later Somerset, -south of Avon, was included in either of these two pagan conquests -of Ceawlin; nor even the south-west angle of Gloucestershire itself, -that forms the separate elevated limestone ridges between the Bristol -Frome and the Severn. There are some other reasons for believing that -these heights immediately west of Bristol--say, Clifton, Henbury, and -northward along the Ridgeway to about Tortworth--remained, both Welsh -and Christian, for nearly a century afterwards; and that they were only -reduced to Teutonic rule along with the subjection of Saxon Wiccia -itself to Anglian Mercia. The record in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle -of the conquest of A.D. 577 plainly indicates the course of it, by -the names of the places concerned--Bath, Dyrham, Cirencester, and -Gloucester. It was not any river that was the instrument of advance; -but, flanked and supported by the ancient Foss-way, the continuous -elevated table-land of the southern limb of the Cotswolds, still -abounding with remains of military occupations of yet earlier peoples. -This is separated from the more western height by a broad belt of low -land, then a weald or forest, since known as Kingswood; which, the line -of the places named in the annal of the conquest, plainly indicates -to have been purposely avoided: the district west of it, therefore -still continued British. As to Ceawlin’s second expedition, A.D. 584, -it most probably extended from Gloucester to the country between -Severn and Wye, as far as Hereford,[3] and into the now Saxon-speaking -Worcestershire. But that Ceawlin followed the Severn, and penetrated -Cheshire to an unimportant place called “Faddiley,” is not only -unlikely, but rests entirely on a single philological argument, -concerning that name, too refined and unpractical for the burden laid -upon it[4], and inconsistent with the later associations of the name -itself. - -But if Wiccia became West-Saxon in 577-584, it did not long remain -undisturbed by its Anglian northern neighbour. About fifty years later -(A.D. 628), it is recorded in the Chronicle, that the rulers of Wessex -and Mercia, fought at Cirencester, “and then compromised.” This shews -that hitherto, for fifty years, all Wiccia had been ruled by Wessex: -also that, except what reduction of territory may be represented by -a Mercian inroad as far as Cirencester, it still continued under -Wessex. But although this exception itself did not last many years -longer, this is enough to account for our finding a Saxon people under -Anglian government. In another fifty years, Wiccia is found to have -become a subregulate, governed by Mercian sub-kings, and constituted a -separate Bishopric, an offshoot from Mercian Lichfield; and from that -time the kings of Mercia and their sub-reguli are found dealing with -lands in various parts of Wiccia, even to the southern frontier, as -at Malmesbury and Bath; and by a charter of Æthelred, King of Mercia, -dated by Dr. Hickes, A.D. 692, the newly instituted cathedral in the -city of Weogorna, is endowed with land at a place well-known to us by -what was, even then said to be an “ancient name,” Henbury (“vetusto -vocabulo nuncupatur heanburg.”[5]) - -Much needless demur, if not excitement, has of late years been stirred -up by some of the learned,[6] at the name “Anglo-Saxon,” for the oldest -condition of English. They allege that this designation is “a most -unlucky one,” and that in the first half of this century it was the -cause of a “crass ignorance” of the true relations of continuity in -this nation before and after the Norman conquest. Those who remember -that time, well know that this imputed ignorance did not prevail: that -if the most ordinary schoolboy, had then been asked, why William was -called “the Conqueror,” he would have at once, rightly or wrongly, -answered “because he conquered us,” and that he was only less detested -than “Buonaparte,” because he was at that time farther away. They have -now lived to be astonished to find that, by their own confession, the -higher scholars of this later age are terrified by a fear of confusion -in this rudimentary piece of learning. So these learned men put -themselves into the most ludicrous passions, and--let us try to humour -them--King “knut”-like scoldings at the tide, and Dame Partingtonian -mop-twirlings, to cure us of such a dangerous old heresy. For old -it is, and deeply rooted. Those “Anglo-Saxon” kings who assumed the -supreme rule of the kingdoms of both races, so called themselves: -and the entire “Anglo-Saxon” literature has been only so known in -modern Europe, for the last three centuries; not only at home, but in -Germany, Denmark, France, and wherever it has ever appeared in print. -Yet another most learned and acute and sober Professor has been lately -tempted to join the “unlucky” cry: saying that “It is like calling -Greek, Attico-Ionian.”[7] Why “Greek?” Why not “Hellenic?” Is not -“Greek” an exotic, and as barbarous as “Attico-Ionian” or “Anglo-Saxon?” - -But in our concern with the Wiccians we are exempt from this newly -raised dispute. Here we have a great colony of a Saxon people who very -soon fell under the dominion of Anglian kings, and so remained until a -later revolution, the final supremacy of Wessex, made them once more -Saxon subjects. The Wiccians, at any rate however, had become literally -Anglo-Saxon: a Saxon people under Anglian rule. Shakespear was a -Wiccian, born and bred--if one, who has taught us so much more than any -breeding could have taught him, can be said to have been bred amongst -us--at any rate he was born a Wiccian, and thereby an Anglo-Saxon, in -the natural and indisputable sense: a sense earlier, stricter, and -more real than that which afterwards extended the phrase to the entire -kingdom. Wiccia was no doubt colonized by the Saxons, while the Saxons -were yet pagan; and afterwards christianized by their Anglian Mercian -subjugators. Not so the Saxons of Somerset, who were already Christians -when they first penetrated that province.[8] - -Subsequent annals of the Chronicle shew that Wessex long remained -impatient of the loss of Wiccia. In A.D. 715, a battle is shortly -mentioned at a place, usually, and not impossibly, said to be -Wanborough, a remarkable elevation within the fork of two great Roman -ways a few miles south of Swindon. But our business is with three later -entries in the Chronicle, for the three successive years 741, 742, and -743; of which the first for A.D. 741, will be first here submitted as -the record of the final subjection of Wiccia, and the establishment -of the Bristol Avon as the permanent southern frontier of Mercia. The -other two Annals will then be otherwise disposed of. - -These are the words of the Chronicle:-- - - A.D. 741. Now Cuthred succeeded to the West-Saxon kingdom, and - held it sixteen years, and he contended hardly with Æthelbald, - King of the Mercians. - - A.D. 742. Now was a great Synod gathered at Cloveshou, and - Æthelbald, King of the Mercians was there, and Cutbert, - Archbishop [of Canterbury], and many other wise men. - - A.D. 743. Now Æthelbald, King of the Mercians, and Cuthred, - King of the West-Saxons fought with the Welsh. - -We have in these three Annals a specimen of that condensed form and -style, that is common to this ancient text and still more venerable -primæval records; and which invites and justifies attempts to interpret -them by the help of any existing external monuments. - -There are still known in England thirteen dedications of churches or -chapels in the name of St. Werburgh, although, perhaps, not more than -half of them are any longer above ground.[9] Seven, however, out of the -thirteen are within the counties of Stafford, Chester, Shropshire, and -Derbyshire: that is, they are within the original kingdom of Mercia, -wherein, as the posthumous renown of the saint never extended beyond -a nation, or rather a dynasty, that long since has been extinct and -forgotten, we might have expected to have found them all. But the -other six are extraneous, and three of them great stragglers. These -must have owed their origin to political and military extensions of -the influence of that kingdom, and these, it is intended to show, are -found in places where Æthelbald, one of the three Mercian aspirants -for English empire, has made good a conquest. This dedication may, -therefore, be believed to have been his usual method of making his mark -of possession. - -St. Werburgh was the daughter of Wulfhere, the second Christian King -of Mercia, who was the son of Penda, the last pagan King. Æthelbald -was the grandson of Eawa, a brother of Penda, probably the Eoba, who, -in the Annales Cambriæ, A.D. 644, is himself called “rex Merciorum;” -so that Æthelbald and Werburgh were what we should call second -cousins.[10] Wulfhere, A.D. 675, was succeeded by his brother Æthelred, -who placed his niece Werburgh at the head of three great convents of -women, with a sort of general spiritual charge of the female portion -of the newly christianised kingdom. She is said to have died about -A.D. 700, for it is noted that on opening her coffin in the year 708, -her body, after eight years, was found unaltered, and her vestments -undefiled; and from this time, sealed by this reputed miracle, the -renown of her sanctity soon grew to beatification; and when, eight -years afterwards, her kinsman Æthelbald began his reign, she had -achieved the reputation and precedence of the latest national saint. -She was, however, one of a family of whom many of the women have -transmitted their names, from immediately after their deaths to our -own times, attached to religious foundations. Among these, that of her -aunt, St. Audry, still lives in Ely Cathedral: and this example may -serve as a crutch to those who find it hard to realise the unbroken -duration of churches, with these names, direct from the very ages in -which the persons who bore them lived; for the continuity of this -name at Ely is a matter of open and undisputed history, unaided by -mere inference, such as our less conspicuous case requires. There are -some, also, who stumble at finding all the female saints of particular -provinces to have been members of one royal family. But of this we -have an analogy pervading the entire area of our own every-day life, -in the active assistance in all benevolent purposes, received by the -clergyman of nearly every parish, from the leisured daughters of the -more wealthy families. In those missionary days, the kingdoms of the -newly-converted rulers were the only parishes, and the king and his -family were as the squire and his family are now; and the greater -lustre, which then shone out around the name of each, was as that of a -little candle, in their wider world, compared with what would be its -effect in a general illumination now. The earlier British churches -have presented us with the same phenomenon. The numerous progeny, of -children and grand-children, of Brychan of Brecknock, have nearly all -left their names in many churches in South Wales, and even in the -opposite promontory of Cornwall and Devon. - -The historical facts of the name and local fame of this royal personage -are all that we are concerned with. Otherwise, in some later times, it -has been adorned with the usual amount of miraculous fable. The most -notable of the miracles credited to her is, that one of her corn-fields -being continually ravaged by flocks of geese, at her mere command -they went into voluntary exile. As this is said to have happened near -Chester, it is easy to refer the story to the monks there, who alone -were interested in gilding her shrine with it; and her relics were not -translated there till nearly two hundred years after her death. At any -rate, the citizens of Bristol are living witnesses that her name is no -safeguard of her heritage against the devastations of wasteful bipeds, -who are not only unwise, but also unfledged. This imputed miracle is -more transparent than is always the case with such embellishments of -the lives of those who were the first to accept the new faith, and to -promote it with active earnestness. In it may, at once, be discerned an -ordinary incident of her pastoral or predial economy, exaggerated to a -miracle in an age which preferred supernatural to natural causes. - -The career of Æthelbald is, of course, more widely known, holding, -as it does, a prominent place in the general history of the times. -His reign extended from A.D. 716 to 755, and was chiefly employed in -extending his sovereignty by the subjugation of neighbouring kingdoms, -and by his munificent patronage of the church. In the first year of -his reign, he at once showed a disposition to commemorate his own -friends, by dedicating churches in their names, by using this method of -perpetuating, at Croyland, the recent memory of Guthlac, his kinsman -and protector in exile. It seems, however, that the pagan manners of -the northern mythology are not purged for several generations after -conversion: but, as appears from another example, of the practical -paganism of the Dukes of Normandy, down to our William the Mamzer, -unless attended with more than the average cruelty and injustice of the -times, meet with only a qualified reproach, until they are in conflict -with church discipline and law. The celebrated severe, but friendly and -respectful epistolary rebuke from Bonifatius,[11] Archbishop of Mainz, -contains a heavy indictment against both Æthelbald and his predecessor -Coelred, and their courts, while it acknowledges his prosperity, -munificence to the church, and his just administration. - - * * * * * - -Having these specially national or tribal circumstances in view, it -is thought that the six dedications of St. Werburgh that are found -beyond the original Mercia must have had special causes, which it is -believed can be found in the transactions that are recorded in the -three successive Annals of the Chronicle above recited; and that the -dedications and the Annals will therefore be found to mutually account -for each other. The seven churches within Mercia, without any doubt -each has its own history, mostly connected with Æthelbald: perhaps -all except the present Chester Cathedral, which arose out of the -translation, nearly two hundred years later, of her relics to that -place, from her original shrine in one of her three convents. But these -home dedications do not fall within our purview, which is limited to -the wanderers. - -When the Chronicle, A.D. 741, says that Cuthred of Wessex contended -with Æthelbald of Mercia, it can only mean that he attempted a reprisal -of some portion of Wiccia: but it appears from the Annal of 743, that -in the two years the combatants had become allies. The frontier between -Mercia and Wessex had been finally determined; and there we find the -name of Æthelbald’s recently beatified kinswoman, thrice repeated, -along his own north bank of the Avon--at Bath, at Bristol, and at -Henbury. It should be noticed that otherwise than these three, thus -placed with an obvious purpose, none whatever are found throughout the -whole length and breadth of Wiccia, the other seven being scattered -within Mercia proper.[12] It is hence inferred that these three -dedications are contemporary with each other, and the immediate result -of the transaction of A.D. 741. It may also be worth noting that one -of the still surviving dedications of St. Werburgh within Mercia, at -Warburton, is similarly situated within the northern frontier, the -river Mersey; and probably records a similar result of Æthelbald’s -inroad of Northumbria, entered in the Chronicle at the earlier date of -737: also, according to Bæda, A.D. 740.[13] - -The St. Werburgh at Bath is no longer in existence, but its site is -still on record. It was less than a quarter of a mile north of the -Roman town, and about a quarter of a mile from the departure of the -western Roman road, now called Via Julia, from the Foss Way, and -between them, and very near to both.[14] - -What was the condition of the spot now occupied by Bristol, in the -centre of which, until yesterday, for nearly eleven hundred and fifty -years, the church with this name has stood, when it was first planted -there, this is not the place to discuss. A century-and-a-half earlier -(A.D. 577), Bath, as we have seen, had been occupied by the West -Saxons, and had no doubt so continued, until this advance southward -of Æthelbald’s frontier also absorbed that city, or certainly its -northern suburb, into Mercia. A great highway, of much earlier date -than the times here being considered, skirted the southern edge of -the weald that we only know as Kingswood; and at least approached the -neck of the peninsula--projecting into a land-locked tidal lagoon, -not a swamp, flooded by the confluence, at the crest of the tide, of -Frome and Avon--upon which stands Bristol, and which has been hitherto -crowned with Æthelbald’s usual symbol of Mercian dominion. As long ago -as ships frequented the estuary of the Severn--ages before the times -we are considering--it is inconceivable that the uncommon advantages -of this haven could have been unknown. A British city had, no doubt, -already existed for unknown ages on the neighbouring heights west -of the lagoon; and there is a reason, too long to set forth here, -to believe that the sheltered Bristol peninsula itself was used, -by the West-Saxons of Ceawlin’s settlement at Bath, as an advanced -frontier towards the Welsh of West Gloucestershire, long before it -was appropriated by Mercia. It was, perhaps, already a town before -Æthelbald planted upon it one of his limitary sanctuaries, having, -_more Saxonico_, a fortress on the isthmus, upon which the great -square Norman tower of Robert the Consul was afterwards raised. - -All that is known of the sanctuary at Henbury is, that it was one -of the chapels to Westbury, confirmed to Worcester Cathedral by Bp. -Simon (A.D. 1125-50), and is described in his charter as “capella -sancte Wereburge super montem Hembirie sita.”[15] This is in that -south-western limb of Gloucestershire, bounded by the Frome, Avon, and -Severn, and separated by Kingswood Forest, which it has already been -suggested was never Saxon, but remained Welsh until subdued by Mercia. - -So that as the only examples of this dedication to be found south -of Staffordshire and Derbyshire, are the three which line the north -shore of the Avon, the new frontier of Wessex and Mercia; the entire -district of Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, and all the intervening -country, from east to west, being totally without them; these three -are manifestly arrayed in one line for a special purpose. The record, -of the contest of Wessex and Mercia, contained in the Annal of A.D. -741, is thus accounted for in this monument of its result. Three more -distant St. Werburghs remain, of which two will now be appropriated to -that of A.D. 743. The one for A.D. 742, passed over for the present, -will afterwards be shewn to involve the remaining sixth. - - * * * * * - -It will be remembered that, in the year 743, the Chronicle shews -Æthelbald and Cuthred, who two years earlier had been fighting each -other, now united, by perhaps an analogue of a Russo-Turkish alliance, -against an enemy who, while Cuthred had been engaged with his Teutonic -rival, had become troublesome in his rear, and dangerous to both. -Under this year, 743, it says “Now Æthelbald King of the Mercians and -Cuthred King of the West Saxons fought with the Welsh.” It does not -say which of the then surviving three great bodies of the Welsh, who -had been pressed into the great western limbs of the island, that are -geographically divided from each other by the estuary of the Severn -and the great bay of Lancashire; but none can be meant but the -Damnonian or Cornish Britons--the “Welsh” of the West Saxon Cuthred. -No more of Devon could then have been held by the West Saxons than the -fruitful southern lowlands, easily accessible from Somerset and Dorset, -and from the south-coast. Most or all of Cornwall, and the highlands of -Dartmoor and Exmoor, extending into north-west Somerset, still remained -British or Welsh; as for the most part in blood, though not in speech, -they do to this day. - -Written history is silent as to the parts separately taken by the -allies in this contest; but other tokens of that of the Mercian are -extant; and the two dedications of St. Werburgh that will next engage -us are among the most significant. A glance at Mercia and the extent of -the provinces annexed thereto by conquest, betrays a ruling political -aim at obtaining access to the great seaports. Besides the Humber with -Trent, and the Mersey, and, as we shall see below, the Medway, and the -Thames itself; what is more to our purpose, we have found it already in -possession of Bristol, added to Gloucester and the mouth of the Wye. -An aggressive kingdom, with this policy, needs no chronicle to tell -us that ships were abundant; and that at least it must have been able -to command the transport service of a large mercantile fleet. It will -readily be understood that one of Æthelbald’s strategies, in aid of his -ally against his Damnonian insurgents, would be, to outflank the ally -himself; and establish a cordon across his rear. This was effected by -transporting, from his Wiccian ports on the Severn, to the north coast -of Devon, a large migration of his own people; who not only occupied -the district between the Dartmoor highlands and the north coast, not -yet Teutonized by Wessex; but possessed themselves of the entire line -across the western promontory, between Dartmoor and the Tamar, as far -as the south sea near Plymouth. - -Of this strategic movement several strong indications remain upon the -face of the district; which it is thought, mutually derive increased -force from their accumulation. One of them is the existence, at -the outposts of this expedition, of two of Æthelbald’s favourite -dedications of his kinswoman. One, at Warbstow, stands at the western -extremity of an incroachment of about eight miles beyond the Tamar, -near Launceston, into Cornwall--still visible in our county maps, -in the abstraction of an entire parish from the western side of the -otherwise frontier river, by an abnormal projection beyond it. The -other is at Wembury, where the church is finely situated on the -sea-cliff of the eastern lip of Plymouth Sound. These two examples of -the dedication, which was the favourite stamp of the conqueror’s heel, -mark therefore the western and southern extremities of the assumed -invasion. - -Another trace of this great unwritten Mercian descent upon Damnonia, -may be discerned in the structure, as well as the constituents, of -the place-names that cover the invaded district. The country, between -the central highlands of Devon and the north-west coast of Devon and -north-east of Cornwall, is not only secluded into an angular area -bounded by the sea; but lies quite out of the course of the torrent of -West Saxon advance westward: which indeed had been evidently checked -by the Dartmoor heights. It might have been expected, therefore, -except for the explanation now offered, that this district would have -retained a strong tincture of its original Celtic condition, in that -lasting index of race-occupancy its place-names. In this respect it -might have presented the appearance of having been conquered, but -not of a complete replacement of population. On the contrary, at the -first glance of a full-named map, or in a passage through it, the -entire district is surprisingly English. Besides this, the place-names -have not only conspicuous peculiarities of structure, that at once -distinguish this district from that of the West Saxons south and -east of Dartmoor; but these recur with such uncommon frequency and -uniformity, stopped by almost arbitrary limits, as to be manifestly due -to a simultaneous descent of a very large population, at once spreading -themselves over the whole of an extensive region. - -One of these notes of a great and simultaneous in-migration, is the -termination of names in “-worthy;” which literally swarms over the -entire tract of country between the Torridge and the Tamar. It is -continued with no less frequency into that abnormal loop of the Devon -frontier, which having crossed the Tamar stretches away towards -the St. Werburgh dedication at Warbstow, and may be assumed to have -been afterwards conceded to a condensed English speaking population -already in possession; when, two hundred years later, King Athelstan -determined that frontier. Others of these names are found scattered -down southwards, over the western foot of Dartmoor, towards the -southern St. Werburgh at Wembury, near Plymouth Sound. It is thought -that this Devonshire “-worthy” is a transplant of the “-wardine” or -“-uerdin” so frequent on the higher Severn and the Wye; changed during -the long weaning from its cradle. In Domesday Book the orthography -of the Devonshire “-worthys” and the “-wardines” of Worcestershire, -Herefordshire, and Shropshire, was still almost identical, and their -orthographical variations flit round one centre common to both. There -is a “Hene_verdon_” at Plympton, close to Wembury. - -Another ending of names, also noticeable on the score of constant -repetition over this large though limited area, is “-stow,” found -annexed to the names of church-towns as the equivalent of the Cornish -prefix “Lan-” and the Welsh “Llan-.” Another very numerous termination -is “-cot.” But, with regard to these two, it should be mentioned, as -a remarkable difference from the case of “-worthy,” that “-worthy” -almost ceases abruptly with the Tamar boundary, except that it follows -the Devon encroachments above mentioned across that river; whilst the -“-stow” and “-cot” continue over the north-east angle of Cornwall -itself to the sea. Although this observation does not conflict with our -Mercian in-migration, it is not accounted for by it. It may indicate -successive expeditions or reinforcements, after Æthelbald’s; occurring -as they do beyond his Warbstow outpost. One incident of this disregard -of the frontier, occurs in a difference of the behaviour of “-stow” -on the two sides of it, and may be worth noting for its own sake. On -the Devon side of the Tamar is a “Virginstow,” with a dedication of -St. Bridget: on the Cornish side of the boundary is “Morwenstow,” -preserving “morwen,” understood to be the Cornish word for “virgin.” So -that this English “-stow” is found added to both the English and the -Cornish name, each derived from a pre-existent church, dedicated to a -female saint. The dedication of the present Morwenstow church appears -to be uncertain; but Dr. Borlase and Dr. Oliver have both found, in -Bishop Stafford’s Register, note of a former chapel of St. Mary in the -parish. - -It is not meant that these three name-marks are not to be found in -other parts of England: on the contrary, we shall hereafter see Mercian -operations in other counties sufficient to account for a very wide -sprinkling of them. What is here dwelt upon is the unexampled crowding -of them, showing simultaneous colonisation upon a great scale. Another, -but smaller, group of “-worthy” and “-cot,” occurs on the Severn -coast of Somerset, about Minehead, indicating another naval descent -of Mercia. In fact, although the great swarm above described occurs -between the Torridge and the Tamar, two distinct trains flow from it: -one, as before said, over the west foot of Dartmoor to the south sea: -another along the Severn coast, eastward, ending with the Minehead or -Selworthy group; and does not crop up again until in Gloucestershire it -is found in its home midland form of Sheepwardine, and Miserden. - -Another example of this sort of connection of Mercia with Cornwall and -south-west England may be briefly cited. Among the few--not more than -six or eight--non-Celtic, but national or non-Catholic, dedications -in Cornwall, is one of St. Cuthbert; a name that is also continued in -“Cubert,” the secular name of the town. It is situated in one of the -promontories that so boldly project into the sea on the north coast -of Cornwall, but farther westward than the English footsteps above -noted. A very learned and acute writer[16] could not make out how -“St. Cuthbert has made his way from Lindisfarn to Wells;” and says, -perhaps truly, that it “does not imply a Northumbrian settlement in -Somerset.” But St. Cuthbert at Wells, might reasonably be left to the -cross-examination of historians, or neighbours, of that place; and if -judiciously and reverently questioned, by the help of what is here -said, would possibly give a good account of himself. - -It is quite true, as might have been expected, that St. Cuthbert is -much more often found at his home in Northumbria than in the south-west -of England. In the south-eastern counties he has not been found at -all: but over the midland counties, and all down through the western -ones he is thinly sprinkled all the way. Between Humber and Mersey, -and Tweed and Solway, forty-three can be named if required, and Bishop -Forbes adds many from his side of the border. Derbyshire has one at -Doveridge, near the Mercian royal castle of Tutbury; Warwickshire one -at Shustoke, eight miles south of another villa regia at Tamworth; -Leicestershire, Notts, Beds, have each one; Lincoln and Norfolk two -each; Worcestershire perhaps one in the name “Cudbergelawe;”[17] -Gloucestershire, one at Siston by Pucklechurch, and probably a second -in the name “Cuberley;” Herefordshire two, or three? Somerset one at -Wells; Dorset one, or two? Devon one, Cornwall one. - -This condensed statement of a series of facts, constitutes one of -the phenomena of our argument; and shall here be accounted for by an -observation, to which there will, further on, be occasion to revert. -Whatever may have been the causes, there was a more intimate earlier -intercourse between the Anglian kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia, -than between them and the more southern or Saxon kingdoms; so that, -in fact, the hagiology of Northumberland is found to have infiltrated -into that of Mercia. Sometimes the intercourse was hostile, and of -this St. Oswald’s prevalence in Cheshire, Shropshire, &c., is an -instance historically known. Another cause might be collected from -a study of any pedigree tables of the rulers of the two kingdoms. -A later action of this mutuality appears in the dedications of the -Northumbrian Alkmond, found in towns built by Æthelfled, who, Amazon -though she be reputed, confessed her womanhood in her _cultus_ of the -child-martyr, as at her town of Derby and Shrewsbury. When, therefore, -we find Northumbrian dedications in these unlikely southern regions, we -are not driven to “imply a Northumbrian settlement,” but a sprout of -Northumbrian hagiology, replanted along with a Mercian settlement. - -Midway between Wells and Somerton is Glastonbury. The Chronicle -published by Hearne as John of Glastonbury, says that Æthelbald -“rex Merciorum,” A.D. 744, gave to Abbot Tumbert, and the Familia -at Glaston, lands at “Gassing and Bradelegh.”[18] Bradley is known -and plain enough, and adjoins the Foss Way, near Glastonbury and -Somerton; the other place is variously, and very corruptly written: -once “Seacescet.” But there is still better evidence that at this -time the supremacy of Æthelbald of Mercia was acknowledged in this -district of Wessex. A charter, also dated A.D. 744, of a gift of land -at “Baldheresberge et Scobbanuuirthe”--Baltonsburg and, as some say, -Shapwick--to Glastonbury, by a lady called Lulla, with the licence of -Æthelbald, “qui Britannicæ insulæ monarchiam dispensat.” The first -signature is Æthelbald’s, followed by Cuthred of Wessex “annuens;” -after which other witnesses, including Herewald, Bishop of Sherborne. -It is printed in the Monasticon[19] and by Mr. Kemble,[20] both from -the same manuscript, but with many slight variations in orthography -which seem to be arbitrary in either. Mr. Kemble prints “Hilla,” but -John of Glastonbury has “Lulla,” and so have both Dugdale and the -new Monasticon. Mr. Kemble puts his star stigma but, although not -of contemporary clerkships, it must transmit, in substance, a more -ancient deed, and is at least an accumulative ancient and written -confirmation of the external evidence already given of the supremacy -of Mercia in this part of Wessex, and the subordination of Cuthred, -even within the territory allotted to him at the contest of A.D. 741. -Observe, in passing, an example, in the name “Scobbanuuirthe,” of the -Mercian--“-uuerdin”--in a transition form towards the “-worthy” of -North Devon. - -At all events, it is not to be wondered at that we should find a St. -Cuthbert on the north coast of Cornwall, among the other symptoms -that have been given of a Mercian settlement there. But one in Devon -deserves some particular notice; because it is found identified with -one of the examples of “-worthy” which is an outlier, and far away -from the crowd that has been so much dwelt upon. These two tests of -Mercian influence have indeed travelled far away from their fellows, -but travelled together. It is at Widworthy, in the eastern corner of -the county, between Honiton and Axminster, where the dedication and -the termination, although compatriots, are both strangers together. -No chronicle explains this, though no doubt it has a story never yet -written. But it seems cruel to forsake the St. Cuthbert at Wells to -account for itself, unhelped. After all that has been lately said, and -insisted upon, to the contrary, what if it should turn out that the -“Sumertun” of the Annal of A.D. 733, was Somerton in Somersetshire, -twelve miles south of Wells, as our deprecated obsolete schoolbooks -used to teach us? Another twenty-five miles reaches Widworthy. The then -existing Foss-Way, which, even in its grass-grown abandoned fragments, -is still a broad and practicable travelling road, passes within a very -few miles of Wells, Glastonbury, Somerton, and Widworthy. - - * * * * * - -But a more substantial evidence, of a long continuance of Mercian -influence beyond the Tamar, is not wanting: and even of its great -extension farther westward, down to the time of King Alfred. A large -hoard of coins and gold and silver ornaments was found near St. Austell -in 1774; and a description and tabulation was lately published, by -Mr. Rashleigh of Menabilly, of 114 coins that were rescued from the -scramble.[21] Of these, no less than 60 were of Mercian Kings (A.D. -757-874), whilst only seventeen belong to the then dominant West-Saxon -sole monarchs (A.D. 800 to Alfred), and one to Northumbria. - -Add to these notes of the Anglian--and not Saxon--kinship of the -English population of north-east Cornwall, the recurrence in that -county of what, to uncritical ears, has a great likeness to the song or -musical cadence already mentioned as met with in Mercia proper. West -Saxons who had seen the first production of the comedy of “John Bull,” -used to tell us with much relish, how this peculiarity was imitated -upon the stage: and, in spite of the friction of an active scholastic -career, it is still occasionally discernible in cathedral pulpits. It -has even maintained, to recent times, a feeling among the West Saxons -of Devon that a Cornishman is, in some degree, a foreigner. What again -about the “Cornish hug” in wrestling?[22] so strongly contrasted with -the hold-off grip of the collar or shoulders, and the “fair back-fall” -which is the pride of the Devonshire champion. It has nothing to do -with the erudite difference of Celt and Teuton. The men of Devon--such -as Drake and Raleigh[23]--have nearly as much Celtic blood as those -of Cornwall. Cornishmen are fond of saying that their English speech -is more correct than that of Devon: by which they mean, that their -dialect is nearer to the one that has had the luck to run into printed -books. Perhaps it is more Anglian and less Saxon. After a neighbourship -of nearly twelve hundred years, let them now shake hands and be -Anglo-Saxons: or Englishmen, if they prefer it, and wish to include the -super-critics in their greeting. - - * * * * * - -Five out of the six extraneous dedications of St. Werburgh have now -been referred to the active presence of Æthelbald, at the places where -they are found, especially in connection with his exploits as they -are obscurely recorded in the two Anglo-Saxon Annals of the years 741 -and 743. The sixth, and last, of them remains, in like manner, to be -brought into contact with him, and with the other recited Annal of the -intermediate year, 742. We left three of the dedications as sentinels -of their founder’s conquest of his southern frontier of Wiccia. Two -more were at the more distant duty, of keeping guard over his strategic -settlement, on the western rear of Wessex. The one yet to be dealt with -is that of a church still known by the name of that saint, yet more -distant from her Mercian home; in the extreme south-eastern county of -Kent: and it only remains to enquire what business it has had; not only -so far away from its midland cradle, but also from the abiding places -of its fellow wanderers. - -Perhaps this would have been a much shorter task than either of the -others, but that, at this part of the enquiry, our path is crossed by -a controversy that began nearly three centuries ago, and has been ever -since maintained with more or less warmth; and with so much learning, -and variety of opinion, that the only point of approach, to unanimity -among the contenders seems to be an acknowledgment that they have each -left it unsettled. Yet this includes the question before us; whether -or not the Annal 742 of the Chronicle really concerns that part of the -island wherein the last of our outlying series of St. Werburghs has -come to our hands. It is, indeed, believed that the newly-imported fact -itself, of our finding this dedication where it is, may be a weighty -contribution to the settlement of the question; yet the controversy -has been so long carried on, and has involved so great an array of -authoritative and orthodox scholarship; that we can only presume to -pass it, by carefully and respectfully over-climbing it, and not by a -contemptuous Remusian leap. - -This remaining sixth St. Werburgh is situated within that small -peninsula of the north shore of Kent, which is insulated by the mouths -of the Thames and Medway. In fact, it is not unlike a tongue in a -mouth, of which Essex and the Isle of Sheppey are as the teeth or -gums. A line from Rochester bridge to Gravesend would separate more -than the entire district from the mainland: indeed it is all of the -county of Kent that is north of Rochester. It consists of an elevated -chalk promontory, about ten or twelve miles from east to west, and -four from north to south, inclosing several small fertile valleys: -added to which, on the north or Thames front, is a broad alluvial -level or marsh, within the estuary of that river, of several miles -in width. Camden says of this peninsula, “HO enim vocatur ilia quasi -Chersonessus.” It is, accordingly, a large specimen of that sort of -configuration of a tract of land in its relation to water, of which -the name is often found to contain the descriptive syllable, “-holm,” -“-ham,” or “-hoe.” Whether or not these three are dialectic varieties -of one word, need not here be considered: it is certain, however, -that the names of such peninsular tracts are very often found to be -marked with “-hoe;” and “Hoo”[24] is the name of the hundred which -still constitutes the largest and most prominent portion of this -peninsula. So it was already called, even before the early time with -which we shall find our own concern with it; for in a charter, dated -A.D. 738,[25] it is already mentioned as “regio quæ vocatur Hohg.” In -the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 902, it is mentioned as “Holme.” In -Domesday,[26] the hundred which constitutes the peninsular portion, is -called “_HOV_;” the isthmus portion having already, however, become a -separate hundred, then called “Essamele,” now “Shamwell.” The towns in -the district have their proper names added to “Hoo,” as “Hoo-St.-Mary,” -and “Hoo-St.-Werburgh:” and this last has the church above referred to. -This is situated on the southern or Medway shore of the Hoo; but on the -cliff of the northern side of the elevated core of the peninsula, and -over-looking the great reach of the estuary of the Thames, and the -broad alluvial level embraced by it, is the town of “Cliffe;” of which -the church has the dedication St. Helen. The two churches are just four -miles apart. There are several other churches now in the peninsula, -but the others have been attributed to these two, of St. Werburgh and -St. Helen, as their mother churches, of which the other parishes are -ancient offshoots or chapelries. - - * * * * * - -Among the most famous names of places in England, during the long -aggressive reigns of Æthelbald and Offa, when, for the largest part of -the eighth century, the other kingdoms were more or less threatened -with the supremacy of Mercia, was that of a place called Cloveshoe or -Clovesham.[27] Its celebrity has been, no doubt, much enhanced by its -intimate connection with the Church History of that period; but it has -shared, with many of the names of the localities of the most important -events of the history of those times, in a great deal of uncertainty -and controversy as to the actual place. - -Few monuments of those ages are preserved to us in such multitude as -names of places, and in such apparent entireness; but few are of such -uncertain and doubtful appropriation. Although we are living in the -midst of the scenes of the greatest events of our early history; yet -one of the most surprising circumstances is, that of the number of -the names of the places that have remained almost unaltered, during -the interval of twelve centuries, so few of them can, with any degree -of certainty, be identified: so that, although a Gazetteer or Index -Locorum of those times would be a most valuable help it would be -the most difficult to compile; and, judging from past attempts at -contributions to it, impossible to be done with any reasonable approach -to trustworthiness. The visible monuments have almost entirely been -swept from off the face of the earth. Towns, then of importance and -even magnitude, if not now entirely subject to the plough, are only -represented by the merest villages; and religious institutions have -had their identity drowned by the importation of later monastic -orders; and generally by more catholic, but less national or local, -dedications. The names of the places, in some few cases identified -by immemorial traditions, are often the only indications of the -whereabouts of some of the greatest events; but even the names -themselves are obscured by the different methods, used in that age -and in ours, of distinguishing them from other similar names; and the -traditions, which should have preserved them, are interrupted by the -long interval, between the events themselves, and the time at which the -names first come again into our sight. - -But this Clovesho = Clofeshoum = or Clobesham[28] had necessarily -retained its hold upon the public memory of the ages from the eighth to -the sixteenth centuries, from the importance to the Church of the great -acts of councils, both royal and pontifical, there held; and the memory -or tradition of the National Church, was, of all others, the most vivid -and tenacious of any, during that long period--perhaps the only one -which may be said to have bridged it, unbroken by interruptions, such -as dynastic revolutions. When the tradition of the actual whereabouts -of this famous place comes first into our view, we find it attached to -the “Hoo” of Kent above described, and to the place called “Cliffe” -there situated. The name now current is “Cliffe-at-Hoo,” and this -appears to have been the form in which it came to Camden’s knowledge: -at any rate, in the earlier editions of Britannia (1587), he mentions -this place as “Cliues at Ho Bedæ dictum.” - -There is, however, extant a still earlier record, that the tradition -had not yet been doubted by the learned. The Rev. Prebendary Earle, -Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, has most judiciously preserved -some marginal notes of the 16th century, that he found in that MS. of -the Saxon Chronicle,[29] which he distinguishes as “C.;” which notes -he considers to be “written in an Elizabethan hand:” but as will be -presently seen they must have been of the reign of Henry VIII. One -of these is written in the margin against one of the occurrences of -the name “Clofes hoo” in the Chronicle, and reads “doctor Hethe’s -benyffyce;” and Mr. Earle asks, “where may Dr. Hethe’s benefice -have been?”[30] To this question of the Professor’s, two more may -be added: Who was Dr. Hethe? And who was--evidently his intimate -acquaintance--the writer of the marginal notes to the Chronicle? - -The answers to these three questions will shew what sort of men these -were whom we find in possession of this historical tradition concerning -the actual place of those famous synods; and who, long before any -question about it had been raised, by the incipient critical scepticism -of the 17th century, out of fancied probabilities, are here seen -treating it as an undoubted fact. These answers will also shew what -advantages, of time and local associations, they had for judgment of -the fact. - -The benefice, then, was the Rectory of the Cliffe above mentioned, -situated in the peninsula, or Hoo, north of Rochester. This living was -held, from 1543 to 1548, by Dr. Nicholas Heath: it was, therefore, -during these years that the marginal notes were written. He was -afterwards Bishop of Rochester, and of Worcester, and Archbishop of -York, and Lord Chancellor; and during the reign of Henry VIII., and to -the accession of Elizabeth, took leading parts in most affairs, both in -Church and State. Wood calls him “a most wise and learned Man, of great -Policy, and of as great Integrity.” - -As to Dr. Heath’s friend, the writer of the marginal notes, there can -be no doubt that he was Dr. Nicholas Wotton: one of the small knot -of revivers of Anglo-Saxon literature, and of those, named by Mr. -Earle,[31] as a few persons who then had the handling of Saxon MSS. -It is found that the long active and distinguished career, of each of -these two men, ran both in the same groove:--through the same period, -in the same rank and line of affairs, and locally together.[32] They -were both part authors of the well-known Institution of a Christian -Man, 1537. Wotton was the first Dean of Canterbury, and so continued -for more than twenty-five years: also Dean of York. During two -intervals he administered, by commission, the Province of Canterbury; -and was named, along with Parker, as successor to that Primacy. - -These are the two men, who are first found in possession of the -historical tradition, that the famous place where the Mercian kings, -with the Archbishops, the Bishop of Rochester, and the Mercian and -other Bishops, held their councils; the acts of which must, in all -ages, have been most conspicuous to learned English Canonists, was -no other than this very Cliffe-at-Hoo; and it is evident, from the -directness of the marginal note, that they held it as an unquestioned -fact. So, about fifty years afterwards, when he published Britannia, -it was as we have seen, also without reserve, accepted by Camden.[33] -Up to this time the tradition--not among men who accept Geoffrey -of Monmouth’s stories and the like, but among the learned--was yet -undisturbed. But twenty years later we find Camden wavering; influenced -only by speculations on the nature of the district, and a then -prevalent distorted perspective of the remote historical circumstances -of the time concerned. In the edition of Britannia, which received -his latest revision,[34] he qualifies his former statement, by saying -that he no longer dares to affirm, as others do, whether or not the -Cliffe in the little country called Ho, may be the “Cliues at Ho,” so -celebrated in the infancy of the Anglican Church; because the place -seems not to be a convenient one for holding the Synod; and that the -actual place seems to have been within the kingdom of Mercia, rather -than Kent. From that time to this present day the place, indicated by -this name, has ranked among the most disputed and unsettled questions -of early English topography. - -It also happened, that Camden, when treating of Berkshire, had quoted -from the Chronicle of Abingdon, a passage which set forth, that, -before the abbey was founded at, or removed to, that place, its name -had been “Sheouesham,” and was a royal residence. This name, thus -brought forward by Camden, struck the fancy of Somner the learned -compiler of the earliest Anglo-Saxon Dictionary,[35] who, collating -it with Camden’s hesitation at the Cliffe-at-Hoo tradition, thought -he saw in “Sheouesham” a scriptorial erroneous variation of “Clouesho -or -ham;” Abingdon being, in accordance with the conception of the -greater constancy of the frontiers of the “Heptarchy” then prevalent, -more likely to be the place of councils, at which the Mercian kings -so often presided. And this seemed to be the more likely; because -the Abingdon Chronicle also said, that Abingdon had hitherto been a -royal residence, when the abbey was founded, from which it got its -new name. The Abingdon Chronicle is, of course, good for its proper -uses, but where it says that “Seouescham civitas” had been a “sedes -regia,” although the name has an English colouring, it is evidently -speaking of British or ante-Saxon times. If a royal residence during -the reign of Æthelbald, it must have been of the West Saxons, and not -of the Mercians. It could not, therefore, have been the Cloveshoe where -Æthelbald presided. - -If this liberty of interpretation should be permitted, it is plain -that it would be enough to shake almost any recorded name. Indeed -another example of its use, if also tolerated, would reverse the one -itself that had been proposed: would, if the other was enough to carry -it to Abingdon, be strong enough to bring it back again to Hoo. In the -charter, dated A.D. 738,[36] four years before the earliest recorded -Cloveshoe Council, a piece of land is called “Andscohesham.” This is -certainly within the very Hoo district itself, which is the site of -the Cloveshoe of the tradition; being described as “in regione quæ -uocatur Hohg.” Mr. Kemble prints the charter from the Textus Roffensis, -but omits the title or endorsement that fixes the very spot in the -Hoo that it refers to. This is, however, preserved in Monasticon -Anglicanum:[37] “De Stokes, que antiquitus vocabatur Andscohesham;” -and Stoke is now a parish in the Hoo, and close to Cliffe. There can -be no doubt that the “And-” stands for, or is a corrupt reading of, -“aed-” or the preposition “æt,-” so continually carried, along with -vernacular Anglo-Saxon names, into Latin documents; and the name of -this “Scohesham” of the Kentish Hoo would thus be practically identical -with that of the “Scheouesham”--also written “Seuekesham”[38]--the -alleged ancient name of Abingdon. Not that it is intended here to -say that “Andscohesham” is a corruption of “Clovesham,” although it -would have been just as reasonable as Somner’s inference; but that -Somner’s conjecture for removing the place, might be retorted by one -equally efficient to bring it back again. But even this might be -worth farther scrutiny: for if this identity, of “Andscohesham” and -“Clovesham,” should prove to be the case, the ancient controversy -would be determined at once, without the further trouble here being -bestowed. This Andscohesham or Stoke is close also to Hoo-St.-Werburgh, -and probably identical with “Godgeocesham,” the place where “Eanmundus -rex,” or Eahlmund (= Alcmund, father of Egbert of Wessex) was living, -when he added his form of approval to a gift,[39] of land at Islingham -also close adjoining, by his co-rex of Kent, Sigered, to Earduulf -Bishop of Rochester, (A.D. 759-765.) - -The likeness of the name Clovesho and Cliff-at-Hoo, is not of a sort -likely to suggest identity, except first prompted externally, such as -by an actual independent tradition; but after having been thus brought -together by external evidence, the structure of the old name can -thoroughly justify the identity. - -But, however slender may have been this original philological cause -of disturbance, it served to carry the question, of the actual place, -out into the expansive region of conjecture; where it has been ever -since rolling and rebounding, from one end of the land to the other, -from that time to this. Every succeeding writer treating the matter as -if it had been commissioned to him to choose the place of the synods, -according to his own views of the fitness of things. Bishop Gibson -first accepted Somner’s conjecture, and so adopting Abingdon, concludes -that “no sane man,” who admits the authority of the Abingdon Chronicle, -“can stick at it:”[40] the Abingdon Chronicle having never said it -except through Somner’s distortion. Smith’s gloss, on the name in Beda -is, “Vulgo Cliff, juxta Hrofes caester.” But he continues, in a note, -that Somner’s opinion in preferring Abingdon seems not unworthy of -observation. He recites Camden, but concludes, “Sed in his nihil ultra -conjecturam, & illam certe valde fluctuantem.”[41] A conclusion which -is even prophetic. In Dr. Geo. Smith’s map to Beda it is, however, -placed at Abingdon. Smith’s note is transcribed as it stands by -Wilkins;[42] and again by Sir T. D. Hardy.[43] - -Capt. John Stevens, in a note in his translation of Bede, (A.D. 1723,) -says, as to the true place being Cliffe, “Of this opinion are the two -great antiquarians, Spelman and Talbot, to which Lambard likewise -gives in, though with caution.” This must be Dr. Robert Talbot, Canon -of Norwich, another early Saxon scholar, reign Henry VIII., who left -transcripts of charters of Abingdon,[44] and is, therefore, another -early learned witness of the tradition. Spelman’s interpretation is -“Cloveshoviæ (vulgo Clyff).”[45] The Rev. Joseph Stevenson[46] recites -the option of Cliffe and Abingdon. Of the church historians, Fuller -remonstrates against Camden’s doubts, with his usual moderation. -Collier merely calls it “Clovesho, or Clyff, near Rochester.” - -By this time the Abingdon speculation had become strong enough to carry -double: to be able to be called in to the help of other theories, on -outside matters. The ingenious Welsh philologer, William Baxter,[47] -gets from it an offspring _ergo_. He makes Abingdon the “Caleva -Attrebatum,” _because_ it had been “Clovesho:” upon which, by a sort -of “To-my-love and from-my-love” formula, Dr. W. Thomas[48] completes -the symmetry of a logical circle, by citing “Calleva Attrebatum” as -evidence that Cloveshoe is near Henley-on-Thames, then thought to be -Calleva. - -R. Gough, in Additions to Camden, leaves it at Abingdon on Bp. Gibson’s -argument: and, throughout the eighteenth century, Abingdon seems to -have been favoured; the writers being much given to copy each other. -Dr. Lingard, 1803, quoting Capt. Stevens’s translation of Bede, says -“probably Abingdon,” and so also puts it in his Anglo-Saxon map; but -Capt. Stevens had only quoted both views, without adopting either. - -The later editors of the Saxon Chronicle, Dr. Ingram and Mr. Thorpe, -return to the tradition, contenting themselves with the simple gloss -“Cliff-at-Hoo, Kent,” “Cliff near Rochester.” Miss Gurney, however, -prudently says, “Cliff in Kent, or Abingdon.” Professor Earle gives -the valuable note and question about Dr. Heath, before mentioned, but -leaves the main question, of the place, open. On the other hand, the -Dictionaries, since Somner: Lye says “fortasse Abbingdon,” and Dr. -Bosworth follows with “perhaps Abingdon,” quoting both Somner and Lye. - -But the nineteenth century took a fresh stride away from the start of -the seventeenth. Whilst accepting from the eighteenth the inheritance -of the doubt, it next renounced the claim itself for which the doubt -had been raised. It is no longer Abingdon, but wherever it may be -thought likely--Dr. Lappenberg[49] places it in Oxfordshire; Mr. -N.E.S.A. Hamilton[50] “co. Berks.” Mr. Kemble more boldly carries it -to “the hundred of Westminster, and county of Gloucester, perhaps near -Tewksbury.”[51] Next year,[52] he more firmly says “Doubts have been -lavished upon the situation of this place, which I do not share,” and -concludes that it was “not far from Deerhurst, Tewksbury, and Bishop’s -Cleeve; not at all improbably in Tewksbury itself, which may have been -called Clofeshoas, before the erection of a noble abbey at a later -period gave it the name it now bears.” - -Messrs. Haddan and Stubbs[53] accept the objections of their -forerunners against Cliff-at-Hoo, thinking that this place “rests -solely on the resemblance of the name.” They say of the Abingdon -= Sheovesham theory, that it is also “the merest conjecture.” -They also reject Mr. Kemble’s Tewkesbury as founded on a mistaken -identity of Westminster hundred with another place sometimes called -“Westminster,” in the Mercian charters, (A.D. 804-824). This is, -indeed, Westbury-on-Trym. But why was the minster there called “west,” -and where was the minster that was east of it? At an earlier date -(A.D. 794) it had already got its present name, “Uuestburg.” Messrs. -Haddan and Stubbs leave the question of the true place of Cloveshoe as -they find it, neither endorsing the original tradition, nor indulging -in the freedom of choice which had been established for them. In -another work,[54] however, Mr. Haddan has said, “On the locality of -Cloveshoo itself, unfortunately, we can throw no more light than may -be contained in the observation, that St. Boniface invariably styles -the English synod, ‘Synodus _Londinensis_;’ and that … the immediate -vicinity of that city--in all other respects the most probable of -all localities--seems consequently the place where antiquarians must -hunt for traces of the lost Cloveshoo.” How far Cliffe, situated near -the mouth of the Thames, may satisfy or contradict the “Londinensis” -of S. Bonifatius must be left to be judged. Dean Hook recites his -fore-goers, but not quite understanding them:--“Where Cloveshoo was -it is impossible to say, some antiquarians placing it at Cliff-at-Hoo, -in Kent; some in the neighbourhood of Rochester; others contending for -Abingdon; others again for Tewkesbury.”[55] But Cliff-at-Hoo in Kent -_is_ in the _near_ neighbourhood of Rochester. The present state of the -question, therefore, seems to be, that it is given up as hopeless. - -But the most strenuous renunciator of the Kentish tradition, in favour -of the Berkshire conjecture, was a learned and distinguished native -of the Kentish locality itself: the Rev. John Johnson. He is usually -reckoned among the learned and suffering body of the Nonjurors, but, -by personal merits and some concessions, he appears to have escaped -their political ordeal; having retained his preferments throughout -a long life. He is commonly distinguished, from the other Johnsons -of literature, as “Johnson of Cranbrook.” His remarks deserve all -the more careful consideration, because he was born at Frindsbury, -immediately adjoining Cliffe, and the intermediate parish between -it and Rochester. At Frindsbury, in fact, was the “Aeslingham” of -the Textus Roffensis, in one of the charters that concern the Hoo -and the locality now in question. He printed a Collection of Canons -of the English Church, in 1720.[56] In his preface and notes to the -Synod at which was ratified the submission of the usurped primacy of -Lichfield to that of Canterbury, A.D. 803, which is one of those held -at “clofeshoas;”[57] he oddly brings it, as an argument that Abingdon -was the place, that the triumphant Archbishop of Canterbury “was -willing to meet” his reconciled insubordinant rival, half way between -Lichfield and Canterbury. Converting what is a very strong presumption -against Abingdon, into an act of extreme humility on the part of the -Archbishop. The learned writer must have felt the difficulty, which he -thus strove so hard to liquidate into a virtue. After this, he goes -on to allege that “there is not a more unhealthy spot in the whole -province, I may say in all Christendom,” than this district of the Hoo. -With deference, however, to such a writer, and a native of the spot, -this account of it does, to a mere visitor, seem to be exaggerated. -The Gads-Hill, of Falstaff, will bring the neighbourhood to the -remembrance of many; and it has become more widely known of late years, -by the last residence of another great master of humour and fiction, -which is less than four miles from the church of Cliffe, and the -outlook from which would be about identical with that from any Mercian -Villa Regia that may have existed here. An ungrateful remembrance of -the inflictions of schoolmasters, or other childish griefs, is often -observed to haunt the later career of those to whose distinguished -position they may have contributed. - -In his “Addenda,” Johnson afterwards says, “I find some worthy -gentlemen still of opinion, that Cliff … was not unhealthy in the -age of the Councils:” and he truly quotes charters from the Textus -Roffensis, to show that the northern marshes, or levels, then already -existed; and he urges that it “was, therefore, altogether unfit for -a stated place of synod.” That “As Cliff in Hoo was never a place of -great note itself, so it lies, and ever did lie, out of the road to any -place of note;” and he goes on to recite Somner and Camden’s plea of -the greater likelihood of Abingdon, for synods limited to the times of -Mercian domination. - -But the marshes are not in question, they are but an appendage to the -Hoo. This peninsula is formed of a large fragment of the chalk at -the eastern end of the North Kentish downs, called by geologists an -“inlier” into the Thames basin; upon the heights, and in the valleys, -of which the places concerned in this enquiry were situated. The -marshes are a broad fringe of level pasture land,[58] advanced into the -Thames estuary, beyond its north chalk cliff. In Kent the word “marsh” -signifies the same as “more” in Somersetshire: which, although even -Dr. Jamieson confounds the two, is a totally different word and thing, -from the “muir,” or “moor,” for waste lands of a highland character. -It is to such land as this that we owe the dairies of Cheddar; and if -this objection should be good, Glastonbury and Wells, not to mention -Ely and Croyland, must resign their venerable places in history. A very -similar projection of alluvial level pasture extends from Henbury and -Shirehampton to the Bristol Channel, without disparagement of their -salubrity. Mr. Johnson, having suffered much in health by a residence -of a year or two at Appledore, in Kent, obtained the vicarage of -Cranbrook, where he lived for eighteen years. It is likely that he was -sensitive of climatal influences, and shy of those breezes that reach -this island after passing over the great plains of central Europe: a -tenderness, which neither Æthelbald nor Offa can be supposed to have -shared with him. - -It is plain, however, that this broad alluvial margin, extending -from the northern edge of the heights, which are the substantial -constituents of the Hoo peninsula, already existed, A.D. 779, at -least a very large extent of it; for the first charter, so dated,[59] -describes it as then “habentem quasi quinquaginta iugerum.” In a later -charter, A.D. 789,[60] the name of the projecting level appears as -“Scaga.”[61] It must already have become land of value to be granted in -these charters; and its identity is certain from the limits--Yantlet -(“Jaenlade”) water to “Bromgeheg,” now “Bromey,” on the higher land at -Cooling. Does not the word “jugeru,” used in the charter, indicate that -this “marsh” was already cultivated or pasture land? How it had been -originally caused is, however, not hard to discern. It is, evidently, a -large portion of the delta of the Thames, intercepted by the confluence -of the other great river, the Medway, and thrown back behind the chalk -promontory of the Hoo. Inside, and westward of this deposit, the tidal -estuary makes a bold reach southward; sweeping the western side of -this level, and approaching the heights, so as, at Cliffe, Higham, and -Chalk, to leave only a comparatively narrow fringe of level; and it is -on the heights at the southern bend of this reach, that are situated -these three villages, which will presently be found, it is thought, to -be interesting to us. - -As to the most substantial objection, which of course has continued to -be a constantly recurring ingredient of this controversy, that the -place of the synods must have been within the kingdom of Mercia, it -seems a little oblique of the mark aimed at. They were royal councils, -and these must be expected to have followed the presence of the king -and his court, as was the case in much later times than those now -under consideration. Most of the remaining records of these synods -at Cloveshoe, and of the other national ones during the same period, -show the king to have presided; and it is true that it is the Mercian -King, who is so found, during both of the long reigns of Æthelbald and -Offa; and throughout the time of the domination of the Mercians in -Kent. The policy of the Mercian aggressors, during their long continued -contention for empire, to grasp the great estuaries of the island, has -already been referred to, and a glance at sheets I. and VI. of the -Ordinance survey will show how desirable was this Chersonesus for the -head quarters of a power, which made a chief point of the possession -of the Thames, and its only less valuable and smaller sister, the -Medway. The opposite coast of the East Saxons had already, for several -reigns, been subjected to Mercia. A.D. 704, Suebræd, the regulus of -the East Saxons, could not grant lands at Twickenham, then in Essex, -but “in prouincia quæ nuncupatur middelseaxan,” to Waldhere, Bishop -of London, except “cum licentia Æthelredi regis” of Mercia.[62] Kent, -less fortunate, was still contended for by both Wessex and Mercia, as -well as by Sussex, and by all three it was successively ravaged; and it -even looks as if the three contending invaders maintained, as clients, -rival pretenders, as kings of the parts of Kent at the time under their -power. The division of Kent into Lathes may be a so-to-speak fossil, -or rather an archaic autograph upon the surface of the county, of this -state of it. It is, however, certain that Mercia ultimately made good a -permanent domination of Kent; and the kings of Kent acknowledged that -supremacy in their government, by merely counter-subscribing the acts -of the kings of Mercia.[63] - -The mass of chalk, of which the body of the Hoo consists, is said to -pass under the Thames; and a small continuation of it reappears on -the Essex side, directly opposite Cliffe and Higham and Chalk, at East -Tilbury; and having continued four miles westward, behind the marsh -marked by Tilbury Fort, dies out at Purfleet.[64] It forms an elevated -promontory at East Tilbury, penetrating the levels on that side to the -river. The present chief traject of the river is about three miles -westward, from Gravesend to the fort: but the chalk promontory is the -terminus of an ancient straight chain of roads, which, although in -some places interrupted by later breaks and divergencies, indicates a -traffic of ages, from this terminus on the river, in a north-western -direction, striking the Iknield Street at Brentwood, and apparently -afterwards still continuing the same line: probably to Watling Street; -any rate to the heart of the Mercian dominions: say, to Hertford, if -you like. - -There are various other substantial evidences of great ancient -intercourse of Essex with the Hoo of Kent, by a trajectus at this -place, between East Tilbury and Higham; and Higham is only five miles -from Rochester bridge, by which the Watling Street entered that city. -Morant says, of the manor of Southall in East Tilbury, “This estate -goes now to the repair of Rochester bridge: when and by whom given -we do not find.”[65] He also mentions the “famous Higham Causeway” -in connection with Tilbury.[66] Until the reign of Stephen, the -church at Higham had belonged to the Abbot and Convents of St. John, -Colchester.[67] The importance of this Essex traject to the kingdoms -north of the Thames, when the domination of Mercia in Essex and Kent -was beginning, may be inferred from the fact that one of the two -colleges, or capitular churches, founded by Cedda, A.D. 653, in Essex, -was at Tilbury.[68] There is a place called Chadwell by West Tilbury. -Some years later, A.D. 676, when Æthelred of Mercia first devastated -Kent, it is evident that he used this passage; for the destruction -of Rochester, five miles south of Higham and Cliffe, is the only -one of his exploits, on that expedition, specified by name.[69] So -late as A.D. 1203, Giraldus Cambrensis passed from Kent to Essex by -Tilbury. These incidents, connecting Tilbury and Higham, may qualify -the surprise that has hitherto troubled church historians at finding -that “Clofeshoch,” at so early a date as A.D. 673, was appointed, at -“Herutford,” as the place for future councils, even if Herutford had -been Hertford, as some say. - -The conclusion that the line of approach, and of the first invasion of -Kent by the Mercians, was by a passage from the Essex coast to Higham -or Cliffe; and that the peninsula of Hoo, adjoining Rochester, had then -and long after been the basis of their domination of that kingdom; -had been already formed, from what has been already said. And it was -at this point, that it was thought worth while to see what the chief -county historians say about the two termini of the trajectus. - -This is Hasted’s statement:-- - - “_Plautius_, the _Roman_ General under the _Emperor - Claudius_, in the year of Christ, 43, is said to have passed - the river _Thames_ from _Essex_ into _Kent_, near the mouth - of it, with his army, in pursuit of the flying _Britons_ who - being acquainted with the firm and fordable places of it passed - it easily. (Dion. Cass., lib. lx.) The place of this passage - is, by many, supposed to have been from _East Tilbury_, in - _Essex_, across the river to _Higham_. (By Dr. Thorpe, Dr. - Plott, and others.) Between these places there was a _ferry_ on - the river for many ages after, the usual method of intercourse - between the two counties of Kent and Essex for all these parts, - and it continued so till the dissolution of the abbey here; - before which time Higham was likewise the place for shipping - and unshipping corn and goods in great quantities from this - part of the country, to and from _London_ and elsewhere. The - probability of this having been a frequented ford or passage - in the time of the _Romans_, is strengthened by the visible - remains of a raised causeway or road, near 30 feet wide, - leading from the _Thames_ side through the marshes by _Higham - southward_ to this _Ridgway_ above mentioned, and thence across - the _London_ highroad on _Gads-hill_ to _Shorne-ridgway_, about - half-a-mile beyond which adjoins the _Roman Watling-street_ - road near the entrance into _Cobham-park_. In the pleas of the - crown in the 21st year of K. Edward I., the _Prioress_ of the - nunnery of _Higham_ was found liable to maintain a bridge and - causeway that led from _Higham_ down to the river _Thames_, in - order to give the better and easier passage to such as would - ferry from thence into Essex.”[70] - -It may be added that the Hoo peninsula has other marks of having been, -at much earlier times, a district of great transit. There is, perhaps, -no other part of England, of so small an extent, which has so many and -clustered examples of “Street” in names of secluded spots--including -the almost ubiquitous “Silver Street”[71]--quite disengaged from those -that follow the line itself of Watling-street. Yet Mr. Johnson of -Cranbrook goes on to say, “As Cliffe in Hoo was never a place of note -itself, so it lies, and ever did lie, out of the road to any place of -note.” It is believed that he has greatly under-rated the substantial -results of such a dynastic change as we are now considering; followed, -for a thousand years, by its sequential changes on the material surface -of the earth. - -At all events, this was, evidently, the earliest line of approach, by -which Mercia, with its contingents, the other Anglian nations and the -East Saxons, whom it had either subdued or otherwise allied, invaded -Kent; and this continued to be its chief or only access for some years. -A single glance, at the geography of the Hoo, will show the value of -such an advanced peninsula, as the basis of such an incursion upon the -centre of Kent; and as the stronghold from which the subjection of that -kingdom could be maintained. We have other means of knowing that it was -probably, at least, thirty years before a second or optional approach -was secured by way of the east of Kent. This second access must have -been a much coveted one, and when it came into hand must have been of -great value; particularly in regard to the occasional, or at least -frequent, royal residence already established at the Hoo. The Watling -Street, the greatest and most frequented of all the highways then -existing, led from the very heart of Mercia, in a direct line through -Middlesex, to the very isthmus of the peninsula itself. Although Kent -had been already invaded, A.D. 676, yet so late as A.D. 695,[72] London -remained subject to Essex; but, as we have already seen, only nine -years afterwards Twickenham, in the province called “Middelseaxan,” had -become subject to Mercia. - -Some of our most learned historians describe the “Middle Saxons” as -a very small people, forming a part of the East Saxons; but they are -obliged to confess that they find very little to say about them. It is -believed that there never was a separate people called Middle Saxons. -They have been created out of a snatched analogy, of the mere name -“Middlesex,” with “Essex,” “Sussex,” and “Wessex.” There can be little -doubt that Middlesex represents the original civitas, or territory, of -the local government, of its urbs or burgh of London, the capital of -the kingdom of Essex. Like other great commercial seaports or staples, -this already great mart had maintained much of the condition of a -free city; and, in passing, along with its territory from Essex to -the ascendant power of Mercia, it may not have been by conquest, but -by a voluntary exercise of that instinct, to unite in the fortunes of -an advancing supremacy, which is often associated with, and perhaps -closely allied to, commercial habits. At all events, it is at this time -that the name, Middlesex, first comes to light;[73] and it is believed -that instead of being, like the names of the Saxon nations, formed by -the addition of an adjective; the “middle” of this newer name is a -preposition, and that it means, that Anglian acquisition which had now -thrust itself _between_ the East Saxons and the South and West Saxons. -The Anglo-Saxon Dictionaries produce an example, from one of the -glossaries of Ælfric, of “Middel-gesculdru” = the space _between_ the -shoulders. - -But although, in the existing records of the series of Councils and -Synods that were held during the ascendancy of Mercia, and often -presided over by the Mercian kings in person, the name of Cloveshoe -is frequent, as the place of convention; other places, as “Cealchythe” -and “Acle,” are also frequent and continuous. And the names of the -councillors, who sign the acts as witnesses, have a certain current -identity, with only such changes as may be expected by lapse of time, -rather than of change of the region where the assemblies had been -convened. After the king, usually follows the Archbishop of Canterbury; -then the Bishop of Lichfield, followed by the other Mercian Bishops; -and then of the other subject kingdoms. - -These two places, Cealchythe and Acle, have been as great puzzles to -enquirers as Clovesho itself; and they also have been placed in very -distant regions; the sounds of their names being apparently thought -to be the only consideration. Cealchythe was thought by Archbishop -Parker to be in Northumbria; but Alford said Chelsea; Spelman that -it was within the kingdom of Mercia.[74] Gibson suggests Culcheth -in Lancashire, as although in Northumbria, not far from Mercia. -Miss Gurney also says “Perhaps Kilcheth on the southern border of -Lancashire.” Dr. W. Thomas gives it to Henley-on-Thames, partly because -he considered it “near” Cloveshoe; Wilkins nor Kemble make any venture; -others, adopted by Messrs. Haddan and Stubbs, and, as far as the name -alone would have settled it, with a very great deal of apparent reason, -would have placed it at Chelsea. The ancient forms of the name of -Chelsea, of which examples are by no means scarce, seem all directly -to lead up to an identity with that of the councils. One of these, of -the baptism, A.D. 1448, of John, son of Richard, Duke of York, recorded -in Will. Wyrcester’s Anecdota, is, for example, at “Chelchiethe.” But -the name of the council seems to resolve itself into “Chalk-hythe,” and -there is no chalk at Chelsea. But even this has been got over by taking -the first portion of “Chelsey” for “chesil” or gravel; and this favours -the ancient forms of Chelsea = Chelchythe, rather more than it does the -variations in the name of the council; which on the whole lean towards -“chalk” or “Chalkhythe.” Dr. Ingram[75] adopts “Challock, or Chalk, in -Kent;” and Mr. Thorpe repeats that suggestion, with the addition of a -“?” - -As to this “Chalk,” it is also in the district of the Hoo, and is the -adjoining parish westward of Higham; on the same chalk ridge, whereon -both Higham and Cliff-at-Hoo are situated. The village is two miles -west of Higham church, and all three are practically the same place, -within a space of four miles; of which the ancient trajectus above -mentioned is at the centre. The face of the cliff, upon which Cliffe -stands, is still quarried for chalk, which is shipped in a small creek -that runs up to the cliff. It will at once come to mind, how constantly -such wharfs are called “hythe,” throughout the navigable portion of -the Thames; and how frequently that word forms a part of the names of -them. That river has, indeed, almost--not quite--a monopoly of this -name-form. But the Ordnance Surveyors[76] show an eastward detachment -of Chalk parish, within half a mile of Higham church, and close to that -point of the shore which would have been the hythe of the traject. -There can be little doubt that this detachment is a survival of the -“Chalkhythe” at which some of the councils were dated, whilst others -were at Cliffe-at-Hoo adjoining. An endorsed confirmation,[77] under -Coenulf, has the formula, “in synodali conciliabulo _juxta_ locum qui -dicitur caelichyth.” - - * * * * * - -Another frequent name, of the place of convention of some of this -series of councils during Mercian ascendancy, is “Acle” or “Acleah,” -which has been as great a puzzle as the others. This name may be -expected to appear in any such modern forms as Oakley, Okeley, Ockley, -or Ackley, which are very numerous in nearly every part of England; -indeed, wherever the oak has grown: and rather a free use of this wide -choice has been made in the attempts to find the place of the councils -so dated. The most accepted one seems to be Ockley, south of Dorking, -near the confines of Surrey and Sussex; apparently attracted by a -battle with the Danes there, A.D. 851. But this happened in later and -Wessexian times. Lambarde (about A.D. 1577) thought it likely to be -somewhere in the Deanery of Ackley, in Leicestershire: Spelman, in the -Bishopric of Durham. Dr. Ingram says, “Oakley in Surrey.” Professor -Stubbs says of one act of Offa so dated that it “is unquestionably -Ockley in Surrey,” and affords “a strong presumption that the other -councils of the southern province said to be at Acleah, were held at -the same place,” apparently because the charter before him is a grant -to Chertsey. But the substance of these royal grants does not show the -place where they were executed. They are the Acts of the Supreme Court -of Appeal. Ingram and Thorpe give Ockley, Surrey. Miss Gurney, “Acley, -Durham?” Kemble, “Oakley or Ackley, Kent, or Ockley, Surrey,” Sir T. D. -Hardy says “in Dunelmia;” no doubt adopting Spelman’s judgment. - -Turning again to the Ordnance Survey,[78] at one mile-and-a-half from -the church at Cliff-at-Hoo, and rather nearer to it than Higham church -itself, will be seen a building marked “Oakly;” or, in the six-inch -scale, two: Oakley and Little Oakley. Reverting to Hasted’s account of -the parish of Higham,[79] we also find that it contained two manors, -Great and Little Okeley; and he quotes the Book of Knight’s Fees, -K. John, where it is written, “Acle.”[80] Oakley lies in the direct -way from the ancient traject to Rochester bridge, and has been held -liable to repair the fourth pier of it. In Domesday it appears as -“Arclei.” But the existence of this very place can be realised at a -date eight years earlier than the first recorded Synod at Aclea. Mr. -Kemble has printed[81] a grant of Offa, dated A.D. 774, to Jaenberht -the Archbishop, of a piece of land in a place called “Hehham,” now -Higham; of which one portion is conterminous with Acleag--“per confinia -acleage”,--another part touches “ad colling”--now Cooling with its -Castle,--afterwards bounded by “mersctun,” since Merston, and other -lands “Sc̄i andree,” _i.e._ of Rochester Cathedral. This piece of land, -although granted by Offa to the Archbishop of Canterbury, is not only -situated within the diocese of Rochester, but is immediately surrounded -by the demesnes of Rochester Church. From a realization of the above -three land-marks of the charter, it is certain that, although Cliffe is -not named, the site of the church and town of Cliffe itself, as well as -Higham, is included within the land-marks of the grant; and that the -granted manor is identical with those parishes, as they have afterwards -become. Cooling adjoins the granted land to the east; Acleag, now -Oakley, to the south; Merston, is described by Hasted as a forgotten -parish, and no longer appears even in his own map of the Hundred, -but he identifies the ruined church among the buildings of “Green -Farm,” close to Gads-hill. From this he represents it to have reached -the Shorne Marshes; that is to the Thames shore; forming, therefore, -the western boundary of Cliffe and Higham, and including the already -mentioned detachment of Chalk parish, and having Acleag named as one of -its boundaries.[82] - -In this charter of Offa, we see one of the examples of those first -separations of land, which afterwards became what we call a parish. -What we now call a parish, is not an invention or institution by -Archbishop Honorius, or Archbishop Theodore, nor of any individual -genius; any more than shires and hundreds were invented by King Alfred. -Our parishes are the natural and exigent result of the variety of -causes that have planted churches; to the use of which, and to the -privileges of the cures vested in them, neighbours have acquired -customary or other rights. Territorial parishes are definitions and -ratifications of these emergent rights, that pre-existed, as other -political results do pre-exist, such confirmations of them. Their -multiplication may have been promoted, more or less, by different men -in different ages, including our own age. We shall presently see, -that it is most likely that Offa founded the church at Cliffe; and -this charter no doubt fixes the date of it. Higham must have been -separated from it, into another parish, at a later time. The Archbishop -of Canterbury continued to be the owner of Cliffe until K. Henry -VIII.; and the rectory is still in the gift of the Archbishop, and -exempt from Rochester which encompasses it. As Johnson of Cranbrook -himself admits, “It is indeed a parish most singularly exempt; for the -incumbent is the Archbishop’s immediate surrogate.” - - * * * * * - -But there is a much later Mercian council, which deserves to be -noticed; not for its intrinsic importance, but on account of the -place from which it is dated.[83] It is a sale of two bits of land at -Canterbury to the Archbishop, A.D. 823, by Ceoluulf, “rex merciorum -seu etiam cantwariorum.” The price seems to have been, a pot of gold -and silver money, by estimation five pounds and-a-half (or ? four -and-a-half); more portable and convenient to Ceoluulf under Beornuulf’s -usurpation of Mercia. This was just when Mercia was waning, and Wessex -ascendant. The date is “in uillo regali, qui dicitur werburging wic.” -It will be remembered what was the business that first called us to the -Kentish Hoo: the finding one of our St. Werburgh dedications there. - -That this Werburghwick was in the Hoo, will become more likely by -comparison with another charter.[84] This is, a grant of a privilege -to the Bishop of Rochester, by Æthelbald, A.D. 734, which has an -endorsed confirmation, by Beorhtuulf “regi merciorū in uico regali -uuerbergeuuic,” which endorsement must have been added about A.D. 844. -Turn also to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 851 or 853, where it is -said that the Heathen men having held their winter in Thanet; in the -same year came 350 ships into Thames mouth, and broke Canterbury, and -London, and made this same Beorhtuulf King of the Mercians fly with his -army, and went south over Thames into Surrey.[85] It is thought more -likely that he was at his villa regalis, in the Hoo, than at Tamworth; -where however he sometimes is also found. - -The truth seems to be, that, when Mercia relapsed into a mere province -or Ealdormanship, it still retained its hold in Kent as an appanage. -Thus we have seen Ceoluulf at our Werburghwick in the Hoo, A.D. 823; -and Beorhtwulf in the same place, A.D. 844, and again, apparently -disturbed by the Danes, A.D. 853. In the paper, before referred to, -Mr. Rashleigh has given an analytical table of a hoard of about 550 -Anglo-Saxon Coins found at or near Gravesend in 1838, which must have -been buried so late as A.D. 874-5. Of these 429 are of Burgred king -of Mercia A.D. 852-874, and one of Ceoluulf (II.) of Mercia, A.D. -874. Probably the boundary of the latest holding of Mercians in Kent, -answers to that of the diocese of Rochester, as it came down to the -middle of the present century; somewhat abnormally consisting of only -a part of a county. Dioceses were originally identical with civil -provinces; and have been dormantly conservative of their boundaries, -during those very times when political revolutions have been most -active upon those of civil states. - - * * * * * - -It thus appears, that the three most frequent of the names, from which -the series of Mercian synods are dated, can be accounted for as of -places practically in the same locality; and that, the one to which -tradition, before it had been tampered with by philological evolution, -had already directly pointed; and on a piece of land, exceptionally -given to Canterbury, encompassed by the lands of Rochester, for -a purpose of which the circumstances here adduced are the only -explanation and index. It is not inferred that all three names indicate -the same building: probably not; for, in a later synod, “ad Clobeham,” -(A.D. 825)[86] a judgment “prius at Cælchythe” is referred to. But so -might, up to our time, a judgment at Westminster, or at Guildhall, be -quoted in the Chancellor’s Court at Lincoln’s Inn; but all three would -be at London. - - * * * * * - -Although the synods of the series are most frequently dated from -Cloveshoe, Chalkhythe, and Acleah, other places have one or two each. -There is “Berhford,” A.D. 685, usually placed at Burford, Oxon., for -no other reason than the sound of the name, connected with the old -prejudice for that neighbourhood as central for Mercia. “Baccanceld,” -A.D. 798, was certainly in Kent, since there was also a council of -the still self-acting king of Kent held there, A.D. 694. Another -name “Bregentforda,” very doubtfully, upon no better ground, placed -at Brentford. All these deserve to be closely re-considered; and if -possible supported by some reason, added to these guesses from the -merest outside likeness in the names. - -Already, A.D. 680, Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, had presided -at a general Council of the Bishops of England, said by Ven. Beda to -be “in loco qui Saxonico vocabulo _Haethfelth_ nominatur.” Some have -placed this at one of the various Hatfields or Heathfields that may -have struck the taste of either; whether in Yorkshire, Herts, Essex, -Sussex, or Somerset. But Archbishop Parker[87] says that it was “juxta -Roffam,” apparently quoting “Roff. Histor.” This, at any rate, shews -that near Rochester was at least not thought an unlikely place for -a great general Council. Collier also gives the marginal title “The -synod at Hatfield _or_ Clyff, near Rochester.” So much for Heathfelth. -But where, after all, was “Herutford,” the place of the earlier synod -(A.D. 673), also convened by Archbishop Theodore? This may be looked -upon as the initial one of the long series of “Clofeshoch” synods: -at which that series was first appointed. Mr. Kemble says[88] that -it was “presided over by Hlothari the sovereign of Kent,” and this -was probably the case, although Beda does not expressly say so. Beda -only adds, to his account of the decrees of the council, a paragraph -beginning with a statement that it was held A.D. 673, the year in which -king Ecgberct had died and been succeeded by his brother Hlothere. Kent -was still an independent kingdom; and, not only in the primacy, but in -its instrument, the series of synods thus instituted, possessed within -itself the heart of the now established church; which, having become -an active political function of concentration, was a much coveted -constituent of empire; and invited the impending aggression of Mercia. -Within three years of the first institution and localisation of these -councils, Æthered made a direct swoop upon this quarry, when he entered -Kent at this very Hoo, the appointed place of the future councils. - -The only reason for “Hertford,” as the usual interpretation of -“Herutford,” is again the mere likeness of the name; and is not a -strong one even of its kind. Any place with “Rod-,” “Reed-,” “Rote-,” -and many the like initial syllable, would have a better claim. It is -very much suspected that the method, hitherto practised of placing -these old place-names, has been far too hasty. It may fairly be -expected that some of them are no longer represented by any existing -names. We have seen above by how close a shaving several have survived. -But of this name “Herutford,” “Heorotford,” or “Heortford,” it might -safely be assumed that the initial “He-,” is no more than a prefixed -aspirate: that it is not of the essence of the name. And so Beda -himself evidently thought; for when[89] he mentions a name, almost -identical with this one, in Hampshire; he gives it with a Latin -explanation, “_Hreutford_, id est _Vadum harundinis_,” evidently -taking it for Reed or Rodford.[90] We might also expect to find such -a name represented by a modern name beginning with “Wr-;” but an -inconsiderable “Redham,” a farm, in Gloucestershire, is found written -“Hreodham” in the tenth century. - -The above had already been written, when it seemed to be at least a -formal obligation to test this principle, by a direct application of it -to the district under consideration; which has unexpectedly yielded, -what is at any rate, an example of the principle. Whether or not it -indicates an actual trace of the place “Herutford” itself, shall not -at present be ventured to say. However,[91] in the charter, dated 778, -already quoted, in which the level land north of Cliffe is called -“Scaga;” the land-marks begin with the words “Huic uero terrae adiacent -pratae ubi dicitur Hreodham.” The land itself, to which it is adjacent, -is called “Bromgeheg;” a name which now remains as “Broomey,” a house -only, at Cooling; and the chief land-limits are “Clifwara gemære” and -“Culinga gemære.” The land is granted to the Bishop of Rochester, but -evidently adjoins the eastern side of that including Cliffe itself, -which had already been given to the Archbishop, as above quoted. - -Even at first sight it would seem unaccountable, that, at a synod -held at Hertford; what appears to amount to a periodical series of -repetitions or continuations, or in fact adjournments of it should have -been determined upon at so distant a place as Clofeshoch,--wherever -that may prove to have been--must have been from Hertford. It would -seem more likely, that the future place of assembly in view, would have -been practically in the same place. This initial council was under the -presidency of the Primate; and so were those that followed, except that -when the King of Mercia was present the Primate yielded the first place -to him. The permanently appointed place would also be likely to have in -view the convenience of access, to the Primate, of his suffragans, from -all the sub-kingdoms; and to this the Watling-street contributed, not -only his own ready approach from Canterbury, to the very place where -tradition has fixed it; but also, for those who were to meet him there; -the most perfect road from London, and the entire north-west of the -island; whilst immediate access from East Saxony, East Anglia, and the -northern dioceses, has been shewn in the well frequented ferry, also to -this very place. The Church of England is seen to have had an earlier -approximation towards political unity than the Kingdom of England. The -former was, in fact, contributory to the latter as, perhaps, one of its -most efficient causes. This was not lost sight of by those who aimed at -the supremacy; whose policy, therefore, was to have the Primate at his -right hand in his councils; and to cultivate an identity of interest -with him. Offa’s attempt to set up an Archbishop at Lichfield, only -seven miles from his home-court at Tamworth, was in this direction. - - * * * * * - -This attempt to determine the true place of these synods, during the -continuance of Mercian supremacy in England; was intended to confirm -the statement, that wherever extraneous dedications of St. Werburgh are -found, traces are also found of the energetic or active presence of -Æthelbald. It may seem to be rather an elaborate implement for so small -a purpose. It has been more extensive than was contemplated: but, if -once successfully constructed, it may serve a greater purpose of its -own: the setting at rest of a long dispute. And this purpose of its own -will itself receive back all that it gives to ours: for if the presence -of Æthelbald, accounts for our having found a St. Werburgh in this -now secluded peninsula; the presence of that dedication, is a weighty -confirmation of the much disputed fact, that he was busy and much -resident there; and that we might reasonably expect his most important -acts to be dated thence. At all events, it is hoped that our sixth and -last remaining of the wandering dedications of St. Werburgh, in the -Kentish Hoo, has been thus discovered to have been in the immediate -company of Æthelbald; when, as it is said in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: - - “A.D. 742. Now was a great synod gathered at Cloueshou, and - there was Æthelbald, King of the Mercians, and Cutbert, - Archbishop, and many other wise men.” - -But something more is to be said concerning this passage itself of -the Chronicle. It appears to be only contained in one manuscript; -consequently in the five-column edition, this year is only filled in -in the fifth column; the other four being blank. Sir T. D. Hardy says -of this solitary manuscript, that it is “apparently of the twelfth -century;” and that it contains “various peculiar additions, chiefly -relating to Kentish ecclesiastical affairs.”[92] Professor Earle also -says of it: “There is no external tradition informing us as to what -home it belonged, but the internal evidence assigns it to Christ -Church, Canterbury.”[93] This is much more to our purpose than if it -had been in all the manuscripts: for if it had been a part of the -usual and received text of the Chronicle, it would have here been a -mere retranscription, for ages, with an indefinite locality. As it is, -standing only in a Chronicle of Canterbury; it had evidently claimed -the special attention of the Annalist, from its direct local Kentish -interest; and especially its concern with a piece of land, which, -we have seen, was owned by the Cathedral Church to which the writer -belonged. What has been already said about the “Dr. Hethe” note[94] -applies with still greater force to this; which is indeed the same -Canterbury tradition; only that it is in hand-writing of four hundred -years earlier date. - -But “Hoo-St.-Werburgh” is a parish adjoining to Cliffe; and our -argument is, that when, as recorded in the Canterbury copy of the -Chronicle, A.D. 742, there was a synod at Cloueshou, and that -“Æthelbald was there;” he founded and dedicated this church, as we have -found him to have done elsewhere. Added to this, we have seen reason, -and shall presently see more, that the neighbouring church of Cliffe -itself was founded by his great successor Offa, A.D. 774. It has been -said, and with great likelihood, that Cliffe and Hoo-St.-Werburgh -were the two most ancient churches in the Hoo; and that they are the -mother churches of the five or six others in the peninsula, that have -sprung up at some later times; their segregated portions, which, in due -course, have consolidated into separate parishes. - -As before said, the church at Cliffe-at-Hoo itself, has the dedication -of St. Helen; and it is believed that, by a similar foretaste of -chivalry, to that of Æthelbald’s for St. Werburgh; Offa habitually -planted his standard under the name of this other female saint. It is, -therefore, no wonder that we find these two, close together, in that -very district wherein, during two long reigns, Æthelbald and Offa are -recorded as constantly performing acts of sovereignty. Of this there -are many evidences, besides the councils about which we are engaged, -in the accounts of their dealings, in this district, and along the -Medway, and throughout Kent, in the manner in which conquerors usually -deal with newly-acquired land; as shewn in their numerous charters. - -The reputed British-Roman nativity of St. Helen in Deira, appears to -have given her name a prevalence in that province, with which the -Anglian successors of the northern Britons were infected; like that -of St. Alban, and the Kentish St. Martin, with his prolific eastern -grafts.[95] And they accepted and improved the legacy. But the remains, -of this acceptance, of a local aspect of religion, are the most -conspicuous in Deira; and in Lindisse or Southumbria, a constituent -of that kingdom. It did not extend to Bernicia. Of the known existing -dedications of St. Helen, Durham contains only two, Northumberland one, -Westmoreland and Cumberland none; and we learn from Bp. Forbes, that -the name thinly re-appears beyond the border in Scottish Northumbria. -But in Yorkshire we find twenty-two, and in Lincolnshire thirty; and -these last, except two a little south of it, are all in Lindsey proper: -Nottinghamshire also has ten. Lancashire has four or five. The tendency -of Northumbrian hagiology to spread into Mercia proper, has been -already mentioned; and a still pretty free, but reduced, scattering -of St. Helens is found in that kingdom. Derbyshire has 5, Cheshire 3, -Northants 6, Leicestershire 4, but Staffordshire none, Salop one--being -near to [H]Elle[n]smere. Bedfordshire one at [H]El[len]stow. Herts -one at Wheathampstead--near Offa’s St. Alban, and Essex (Colchester) -one. The Wiccian counties, Warwick two, Worcester (city), and -Gloucestershire (north) each one. - -The above examples, of this dedication in England--about 96--have been -recited, chiefly for the purpose of exhaustion. The residual seven -or eight, still more scattered over the more southern counties, are -what our lesson must be chiefly read from; that they are found in the -footsteps of Offa, as marks of new possession; in a similar manner -to the St. Werburghs in the tract of Æthelbald. No doubt each of the -ninety six has its own story to tell, but it does not now concern us. - -As we have already seen,[96] A.D. 774, Offa granted the land at Higham -in Hoo, which includes the site of the church and town of Cliffe, to -Jaenberht, Archbishop of Canterbury; exceptionally surrounded by lands -of the Bishop of Rochester. At the same time, there can be no doubt, -he founded and dedicated the church, which still bears the name of St. -Helen. Again, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 777, it is written, -“Now Cynewulf”--of Wessex--“and Offa fought around Bensington, and Offa -took that town.” The church at Bensington on the left--or Offa’s--shore -of the Thames is also a St. Helen at this day. At Albury, also in -Oxfordshire, about nine miles north of Bensington, on the smaller river -Thame, the church is St. Helen. Also, on the Thames, at Abingdon, as is -well known, there is a St. Helen. With regard, however, to this last, -the local monastic tradition gives an earlier origin, founded on a -miraculous discovery of a Holy Rood. This must stand, against our use -of this example, for whatever the tradition may be worth. Perhaps a -fourth “Sancta Helena” is recorded,[97] as the sanctuary of a fugitive -who had stolen a bridle, A.D. 995. The land, given in conciliation, -must have been close to the chalk ridge south of the White Horse Vale, -Berks; as, among the boundaries, is “Cwicelmes hlæw,” well known to -be on this ridge; and the “grenanweg,” still called by the neighbours -“the Green Way;” being a part of what is called “the Drover’s Road,” by -which, until outdone by the rail, cattle from the west were driven, for -many miles, turnpike free, and with peripatetic grazing. The St. Helen -here referred to may, however, have been Abingdon itself. - -At any rate, here are three, out of the few existing southern St. -Helens, in the line of frontier then realised by Offa against Wessex. -The same line of St. Helens, both eastward and westward, is also -extended across the island, from the extreme north of Kent, as we -have seen; by the well-known one in London; and another formerly at -Malmsebury, and another at Bath. These last three--making six--also -probably resulted from the same campaign of Offa as the Berkshire and -Oxfordshire ones. - -That at Bath, however, has a special claim to our attention; having -been in that same suburb outside the north gate, where also was found -the St. Werburgh, within the fork of the Foss-way and that now called -Via Julia. Here then, as already in the Hoo of Kent, we once more find -a St. Werburgh and a St. Helen in immediate companionship. The seal of -Æthelbald endorsed by that of Offa, the inheritor of his policy.[98] -But what is the significance of these emblems of Mercian territory, -being both found outside the Roman walled town on the north side? Did -this suburb become specially a Mercian quarter? The monastery, of -which Offa was a reputed founder or re-founder about this very time, -must have been a chief occupant of the area within the walls; and its -possessions extended, in the opposite direction, beyond the river, on -the Wessex side. We have already seen[99] signs of Æthelbald’s further -south-west progress along the Foss-way as far as into East Devon. - -Besides this line of St. Helens, along the frontier, which was the -result of the campaign recorded in the Chronicle, under A.D. 777; -there are still three outlying southward, along the south coast: the -extreme natural limit of the Saxon nations. Although not recorded in -the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, an earlier excursion of Offa is mentioned -by others. A.D. 771, Simeon of Durham[100] says “His diebus Offa, rex -Merciorum, Hestingorum gentem armis subegerat.” Dr. Lappenberg, in -relating this feat of Offa’s, calls “the Hestingas, a people whose -locality, like that of so many others among the Saxons, is not known -with certainty. They have been sought for about Hastings in Sussex, and -most probably inhabited the district around that town to which they -gave their name.”[101] Roger of Wendover, however, reads “Anglorum -gentem.”[102] Upon this, Sir F. Palgrave had already noted: “It is -not easy to ascertain what people are meant. The name has inclined -many writers to suppose that they were the inhabitants of Hastings, -but they could scarcely be of sufficient importance. Perhaps we should -read _East Anglorum_.”[103] Other recent historians, with or without -hesitation, adopt the present town of Hastings as the scene of the -conquest. - -Here then we have another fully ripe historic doubt; so evenly balanced -in the judgments of the most specifically learned, that after what has -already been shewn, of the local coincidences of dedications of St. -Helen with the feats of Offa; if the like should be found also to apply -to the one here recorded, would be sufficient to give a considerable -bias to the scale. And this is what we do find. - -About a mile north of the town, which still bears a name that has since -acquired other claims to places in history, Hastings; is a village -called Ore; of which the church has another of our southern outlying -dedications of St. Helen. If Offa’s conquest, as recorded by Simeon of -Durham, refers to Sussex, it needs only to say so much, in order to -account for this one; and to fulfil the promise of our theory; that -the name of this saint and the written witnesses of Offa’s progress, -shall be found to mutually confirm each other as evidence of his active -presence. This village is situated on an elevation commanding the town -itself; and on the southern edge of a ridge, along which, and close -to the village, runs one of those great roads, of which the straight -line is significant of a long, ancient, and arterial use. In fact it -must have been always the almost sole approach to the town, whether -from Kent or from the centre of England. Moreover, at whatever point -of the neighbouring beach, at a later time, William landed; this road -must have been his principal means of reaching Battle. Here, therefore, -upon the door itself of the town, still remains the usual seal of -Offa’s conquests. Sir Francis Palgrave’s objection, of the insufficient -importance of the Gens Hestingorum, would not, it is thought, have been -raised, if he had remembered that the large territory, called the “Rap -de Hastings” of Domesday, and the Rape of Hastings of our own time, -most likely had already existed from the first settlement of the South -Saxons. Two or three years later, Offa is still found busy in that part -of Kent which adjoins this most eastern of the Rapes of Sussex. - -But although the Hæstingas only are mentioned, as the people first -encountered, there are other evidences that he extended his conquests -westward throughout Sussex. One of his St. Helens remains on the foot -of the South Downs, between the peninsulated stronghold called The -Devil’s Dike and the sea; and, within actual eyeshot, is another, on -the opposite eastern coast of the Isle of Wight. Moreover he has, as -was his practice in many parts of England, also left his own name along -the line, in Offham, near Lewes, Offington, near Worthing, Offham, -close to Arundel Park. - -There are also one or two St. Helens or Elens, both in Cornwall and -Wales: which would be in accordance with what otherwise has been said -above, but as several local Celtic saints have names liable to become -more familiar by corruption into this one, they will not be here called -into evidence. - - * * * * * - -For the series of synods of which the acts are dated from Cloveshoe -did not cease with the reign of Æthelbald. These, interspersed with -occasional dates of Cealchythe and Aclea, continued throughout the -other long and dominant Mercian reign of his successor Offa. Indeed -they continued as long as Mercia remained supreme, and far into the -ninth century: the date of “Clofeshoe” being last met with for a synod -under Beornuulf, A.D. 825: about the time when both Kent and Essex are -found to have been annexed by Wessex. - -It may seem difficult to realise that what is a small detached -region--almost practically an island--now containing only four or five -villages or decayed towns; was, for about a century and a half, the -seat of one of the royal residences, where a succession of powerful -kings held so many of their courts to which were convened the magnates -of their own and of subject kingdoms. The truth is, that political -centrality is not coincident with geographical; and is only partially -dependent upon natural aspect or condition. London is very far from a -geographical centre; and, if we could bring into view its original -natural aspect; London, with its marshes would be as incredible as the -place here concerned. Its present greatness is the outgrowth of the -later supremacy of Wessex; and London was as much an outpost of Saxony -into Mercia, as the Hoo had been of Anglia into Centland. - -Those who expect a confirmation of this regal occupation of the Hoo, -from substantial remains there, may remember that a thousand years of -desertion have passed over it. As Fuller said, when writing of this -controversy about Cloveshoe, already warm in his day:[104] “Nor doth -the modern Meanness of the Place make anything against it; it might be -a Gallant in that Age, which is a Beggar now-a-dayes.” Geographical -and natural conditions have much to do with the choice and permanence -of the seats of governments; but political needs and fortunes often -over-rule or reverse them. The rise of Wessex turned the preference to -other centres; and the exposure of this peninsula to the ravages of -the Danes, just then becoming active, is sufficient to have brought -desolation upon it. The site of New York seems very much like this; -but its growth was not prevented by such a constant peril as this last -in its front, nor by the ascendancy of a rival power in its rear. It -is political causes that have surrounded the circular mound at Windsor -with the regal associations, which have forsaken that of Tamworth; and -the same political causes have covered with houses and palaces, not -only the elevated spot upon which London was first planted, but the -many miles of swamp that encompassed it. When cities, or settlements -upon elevations, take to growing great, they no longer despise the -alluvial levels which skirt them; but cover even these with buildings. -This is the case with London itself, where even the supreme Aula Regia -of the Saxon empire, that has inherited the “England” of Æthelbald and -Offa; stands upon a similar alluvial appendage of the higher ground -of the original settlement; to that which, projecting from the chalky -heights of the Hoo, has been declared to be inconsistent with its -history. - -Again, are there preserved, anywhere at all, any fragments whatever, -of masonry of the time of Æthelbald and Offa, even under the most -favourable circumstances? We have seen that many churches were founded -in that age, that have continued in vital existence to this day. In -these, if anywhere, remains of the first structures might have been -found. Instead of this, the few præ-Norman relics that do exist can -scarcely be said to approach that date; and when, later, they do -crop up; they seem to bring with them an indication, why they are -the earliest. They are found in places where stone is as plenty and -as easily hewn as wood; and they appear to be worked and constructed -by hands and heads that had been accustomed to work and construct in -wood; and often with adze-like tool marks. The angry question whether -the word “timber” was, by birth, a verb or a noun--a question of which -some of the most eminent Anglo-Saxon scholars seem, on waking, to have -found themselves on the wrong side--shall not here be roused; but the -absence of earlier remains may be accounted for, by taking for granted, -wood to have been, at the earlier time, the material mostly used. What -then can we expect to find in a tract of land, ever since abandoned to -its ordinary rural and pastoral condition? The cartular evidence of the -importance of this small territory, during the time in question, is -most abundant; and the many traces of antiquity, in the names of now -inconsiderable spots, has been already referred to. - - * * * * * - -As the inferences, from the surviving examples of these dedications, -and their topographical distribution, may have assumed the tone of -exact or statistical inductions; it is but right that they should be -qualified by an admission that, from that point of view, they are -subject to some elements of discount. It has been already admitted -that more extinct St. Werburghs may come to light; and of course it -is impossible to foresee to what extent the inferences may be thereby -disturbed; although it is not expected that they can be substantially -over-balanced. Indeed, there are not wanting other spots which have -names with a suspicious possibility of being corruptions of the name of -Werburgh, similar to those that we have seen, where they are confirmed -by the actual survival of the dedication itself; as in the cases of -Warburton and Warbstow. Of these are two eminences, the situations of -which are strikingly similar to that at Wembury, as if chosen by the -same eye. They are close to the sea shore, but in other parts of the -south coast. These are a hill, called “Warberrys,” close to Torquay; -and another called “Warbarrow,” in the isle of Purbeck. But neither of -these have traces of the dedication, and both names are quite likely to -have had other causes; nor can the places be directly connected with -any known record of Æthelbald. Therefore they shall not be enlisted -into the present enquiry. There is also a Wareberrewe near Wallingford, -with the present dedication of S. Laurence. - -The indications, that have been above induced, however, from the -occurrences of the dedications of St. Werburgh in south England, as -well as those of St. Cuthbert in Wessex, are very distinct and definite -as guide-posts in historical topography; being strictly national -or dynastic. But St. Helen, as compared with them, has the great -disadvantage of being catholic and illustrious; and the possibility, -of course, exists, for a catholic dedication to have had sometimes -other causes besides that here attributed--the personal veneration of a -conqueror. It is, however, thought that the comparative numbers in the -different provinces, that have been offered, may help any judgment upon -this point. One cause of aberration, in the case of the St. Helens may -be, that some examples may have been “St. Helen and Holy Rood;” and, as -often happens to a joint dedication, one half may have been worn off by -grinding time: sometimes the first, sometimes the last; so that some -of what are now only known as Holy Rood, or Holy Cross, may have been -originally St. Helens. On the other hand, the dedication of Holy Rood -may, in some cases, have been independently attached to churches, that -have arisen where there had already been a cross of a martyr, which -had brought a great resort to a spot of reputed eminent sanctity.[105] -Or, as in the legend of Abingdon, where a cross, or a piece of -the True Cross has been said to have been miraculously found: or a -wonder-working Crucifix, as at Waltham Abbey. The local distribution of -Holy Roods does not shew any estimable counter-balance of that of the -St. Helens; and the Holy Roods themselves are believed to have had a -tendency to pass into St. Saviour, or Christchurch. - - * * * * * - -One very general agent in the obliteration of those dedications that -are national, or otherwise capable of rendering historical indications, -has been particularly active in the English part of this island. This -is the tendency to depose them, in favour of the greater saints, who -are recognized and honoured throughout Christendom. This, as might have -been expected, is more particularly the case of St. Mary. It is likely -that many of the churches with this dedication are amplifications of -sanctuaries of the more ancient and national kind. So strong was this -tendency that, where it did not drown out the original tutelar name -of a church; it must at least be satisfied by the addition of a “Lady -Chapel.” Such a process of change may often be seen actually at work. -The fine large church at Marden, Herefordshire, is said, both by Leland -and Browne Willis, to have the dedication of St. Ethelbert; and so -no doubt it has: but the present officers of the church, if asked, -pronounce it to be of St. Mary. A glance at the building accounts -for this. Within the church, at, perhaps, about twenty feet from -the western wall, is preserved an uncommon relique, the well of St. -Ethelbert; murdered by Offa, about a mile off, but whose shrine was at -Marden, until translated to Hereford Cathedral. There can be no doubt -that the well occupied the focus of the original small sanctuary that -was first raised over the reliques of the martyr; and which was on the -brink of the river, that flows near the western front of the church, -and so prevented enlargement in that direction. The large increase of -the church eastward, in accordance with the practice of the later age, -having been devoted to the name of St. Mary. Another similar case, of -Middleham in Richmondshire, has been kindly brought to notice by Mr. -W. H. D. Longstaffe. The original dedication is St. Alkelda, whose -martyrdom, being strangled by two female servants, is represented on -glass. Her traditional altar-tomb, is westward of the chancel arch of -the collegiate choir of St. Mary, founded by King Richard III. The only -other traces of St. Alkelda is a church in her name at Giggleswick, -some miles westward. - - * * * * * - -That sort of conviction, which arises from a gradual accumulation -of facts, upon what had at first started as a suspicion or a guess; -cannot be so vividly imparted to a reader. But even if what has been -said above should have been successful; it will be very far from -having exhausted the materials of this kind of enquiry: will only -have served, by one or two examples, to shew the value of a neglected -class of monuments, which, it is thought, have not yet been made to -yield up their teaching. At the best, what has here been done, can be -no more than the exposure of two or three fragments of a vast ruin, -co-extensive with the land; of which the plan should be restored by a -comparative registration or cartography of the whole. In the Celtic -portions of these islands, the dedications of the churches retain much -of their original or primitive topical distribution; shewing, as they -have sometimes already been made to do, the maternity of missionary -centres to offshoot churches. In the Teutonized portions of England, it -is likely that they have another and greater lesson. They are here, in -addition, believed to be able to shew, to a certain extent, what may -be called an ethnical stratification; which, if carefully observed, -would often mark out the extension of revolutions or conquests: more -especially in those early times, of which written history is scanty or -altogether wanting. - - - - -FOOTNOTES - - -[1] Cod. Dip. CXLIII. - -[2] Dr. Lappenburg (I. 38) describes the people of Warwickshire and -Worcestershire as the “Gewissi.” But the “Gevissæ” was the ancient -name of the southern main stem of the West Saxons, who made their way -into Somerset and Devon (Bæda. H. E. III. 7), and plainly a name of -distinction from the Huiccii. All the pre-Christian pedigrees of the -West Saxon leaders have an early name “Gewis,” which has been, with -great likelihood, supposed to have been the origin of the name of the -Gevissæ. In some only of the pedigrees, this name is next preceded by -“Wig.” This seems to point to a division of the leadership between two -kinsmen, perhaps brothers; and the Wiccii or Wigornians to be derived -from the latter. - -[3] A.S. Chron., “Feathan leag”--Welsh Chronicles, “_Ffery llwg_.” - -[4] Dr. Guest in Archæological Journal, vol. xix., p. 197. - -[5] Thesaurus, I. 169. - -[6] Dr. Guest and Mr. Freeman, and their followers, as the Saturday -Review, and the various school histories, which, having adopted the -innovation, are lauded in that journal. - -[7] Prof. W. W. Skeat, Macmillan, Feb. 1879, p. 313. - -[8] See “A Primæval British Metropolis,” Bristol, 1877, pp. 45-80. - -[9] One of the obsolete ones was brought to mind by a paper read by Mr. -C. E. Davis, at Bath, in 1857: another is printed from the Register of -Worcester Cathedral in Thomas’s Survey, kindly pointed out by Mr. John -Taylor; so that others, unreckoned, may possibly be brought to light. - -There is one, in addition to all those above mentioned, at Dublin; but, -as the dedications in Strongbow’s Dublin are no more than a post-Norman -colonisation of those at Bristol, it does not enter into our reckoning. - -[10] The genealogical relation of St. Werburgh and Æthelbald will be -seen in this extract from Dr. Lappenberg’s Pedigree of the Kings of -Mercia: - - Wybba. - | - +--------+--------------------------------+ - | | - Penda, last Pagan King of Eawa, died A.D. 642. - Mercia, reigned A.D. 626-655. (Called “Rex Merciorum.”?) - | | - +--------------+------------+ +-------+-----+ - | | | | | - Peada, K. of M. | Æthelred, K. of Alweo. Osmod. - A.D. 655-656. | M. A.D. 675-704, | | - | died A.D. 715. | | - | | | Eanwulf. - Wulfhere, K. of M. | | | - A.D. 656-675. | | | - | | | Thingferth. - +---------------+----+ | | | - | | | | | | - Cenred, K. of M. | Beorhtwald, | | | - A.D. 704-709. | Sub-King of | | | - | Wiccia A.D. | | | - | 636. | | OFFA, - | Coelred, K. ÆTHELBALD, K. of M. - St. WERBURGH, of M., A.D. K. of M. A.D. 757-798. - died about 709-716. A.D. 716-757 - A.D. 700. - -[11] The birth, in the West of England, of this assiduous propagator -of the great mediæval embodiment of civilisation, zealous devotee of -the Church, and prominent European statesman, is so important a fact -in our ethnical topography as to deserve a passing, though attentive, -glance. On the authority of those who personally knew him, he was born -near Exeter, about the year 680; but, although no Saxon Conquest had -yet extended so far westward, he bore a Saxon name, although in the -midst of a Celtic people. From this, and from other circumstances also -mentioned of his early life, it may be inferred that his father was a -peaceful Saxon colonist, in advance of conquest, and still a pagan; and -that his mother was a British Christian. He is, therefore, the earliest -recorded example of that irrepressible compound of the two races that -has since made so many deep and broad marks upon the outer world. This -fact, of a pacific international intercourse antecedent to conquest, -was so directly in conflict with evolved history, that it has provoked -an ineffectual attempt to subvert the testimony of it, by questioning -the undoubted reading of the name as being that of Exeter. (E. A. -Freeman, Esq., in Archæol. Journal, vol. xxx., or Macmillan M., Sep. -1873, p. 474). - -Another, but later, testimony gives us the name of the place near -Exeter where he was born: Crediton, in a deep and most fertile valley -of that middle district in Devon which is the interval between the -highlands of Dartmoor and Exmoor, but rather to the south-west of that -district. Here there is reason to believe Christianity had already -been established at a much earlier time, by Croyde, or Creed, an Irish -missionary virgin, who has left her name at other places throughout -both Devon and Cornwall. The incredulity, that Crediton was the -birthplace of S. Bonifatius, was vindicated by saying that it has “no -_ancient_ authority whatever.” It has not contemporary authority like -that for “near Exeter,” which, however, it strongly confirms, and -which, for English topography of so early a date, is almost unique in -its explicitness, but it has an authority as ancient as we are obliged -to be content with for nearly all we know of those times, and far -more respectable than most of it. The authority is a church-service -book, still preserved in Exeter Cathedral, compiled by Bp. Grandisson -(died A.D. 1366), and attested by his autograph. If this had been a -mere outdoor tradition, and had rested upon no more than the personal -authority of this most distinguished man, it would even then have been -the very highest evidence of its kind. But it does no such thing. Bp. -Grandisson is not the _author_ of the book any more than St. Osmund is -the author of the Usages of Sarum. He is the codifier of the immemorial -observances of the church, at which the contemporary biographer of St. -Boniface attests that he received his earliest teaching; and of the -very existence of which church their irreproachable attestation is by a -long interval the earliest record. - -But there is another evidence that this great man of his age was -known, to his compatriots in his own province, as one of themselves. -Of this they have left a substantial monument in the dedications of -two churches still remaining in Devon, not in his ecclesiastical name, -by which the rest of the world knew him, but in his birth-name of -“Winfrid” by which they had remembered him. The two more distant extant -dedications of Bonchurch, Isle of Wight, and Banbury, Cheshire, on the -contrary, in their dedications of “St. Boniface” are mere reflections -of his realised continental greatness back upon his own island. - -Winfrith, near Lulworth, in Dorset, probably had a third western -example of the dedication, for although the present church is of -Norman structure, and with a different dedication (St. Christopher), -most likely, as in many other cases, an earlier sanctuary existed in -Winfrid’s name. - -[12] What may be presumed to be another dedication of St. Werburgh -has since been traced to its place, and may be reckoned as an eighth -of those in the home kingdom, at its southern frontier. Among the -land-marks (A.D. 849) of a place called “Coftun,” is Werburgh’s cross -(“in Wærburge rode”) Cod. Dip. CCLXII. This has been found to be -Cofton Hackett, in that north point of Worcestershire that abuts upon -Staffordshire and Shropshire. - -[13] Lib. v. - -[14] See Warner p. 228. Collinson’s Som., vol. I. Bath, p. 53. - -[15] Thomas, Worc. Cath., 1736, Append. No. 9. p. 6. It might be worth -while to search for remains of it in plantations thereabout. It is -distinct from the chapel of St. Blaise, and on a different eminence. - -[16] Saturday Rev., Ap. 24, 1875, p. 533. - -[17] Reg. Worc. Priory, Camden Soc. - -[18] Page 105. - -[19] 1846. Glaston. No. LXXXV. - -[20] Cod. Dip., No. XCII. - -[21] An account of A.S. Coins, &c. Communicated to the Numismatic -Society of London, by Jonathan Rashleigh, Esq., 1868. - -[22] _Wessexonicè_ “vvrasseling.” - -[23] No matter about their names. Their ethnical pedigree is distinctly -blazoned in their portraits. - -[24] A remarkable cluster of four or five names, with the form “-hoe,” -occurs on the coast of North Devon, in that part where we have already -pointed to the unrecorded Mercian descents upon the Damnonian Britons -(see before pp. 119-121). This is very faraway from the much more -numerous assemblages of it, which are in the Anglian parts of England. -It has been contended that this name-form is a vestige of the Danes, -and, on this North Devon coast, the Danes might quite as likely have -left their mark, as the Mercians. But one of them, “Martinhoe,” is -formed by the addition of “-hoe” to the Christian dedication of -the church: not likely, therefore, to have been named by a pagan -colony. Another place, in East Devon not many miles from the Mercian -Widworthy-St. Cuthbert already mentioned, (p. 125), called “Pinhoe,” -is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 1001, to have been -burnt _by_ the Danes in revenge of a Saxon defeat. Would this revenge -have fallen upon their own countrymen? Also, close to the South Devon -dedication of St. Werburgh (p. 121), at Wembury, before mentioned, -are two examples of this name-form. One, the well-known “Hoe,” of -Plymouth; another, the village of “Hooe,” in the promontory itself, -where Wembury stands. Again, we have seen above that this very “regio,” -in Kent, which now engages us, was so named “Hogh” so early as A.D. -738. Very early for the Danes. Add to this: contemporary with the first -appearance of the Danes in Northumbria, at Lindisfarne, there was -already a place called “Billingahoh,” now “Billing_ham_,” near Stockton. - -It is, therefore, evident that “-hoe” was here before the Danes, -and can be no other than an Anglian peculiarity. It is, therefore, -an additional evidence, and very strong confirmation, of what has -been already said of the great Mercian descent upon Devon, that this -Anglianism is found strewed in the very path of it. - -It will presently be seen that, besides Simeon of Durham, and other -early chroniclers, both Somner and Camden took it for granted that -“-hoe” is only another form, or dialect of “-ham.” It is however -not unlikely, that, as in many other cases, a second mark of names -“-haw” or “-haugh,” said to be Danish, has been concurrent with and -undistinguished from this. - -[25] Cod. Dip., No. LXXXV. - -[26] 8_b_. - -[27] First mentioned by Beda as “Clofeshoch,” and in K. Alfred’s -translation “Clofeshooh.” - -[28] See Cod. Dip. _passim_, for other varieties of the name. - -[29] Two S. Chronicles, Oxford, 1565. - -[30] It is to be regretted that editors of ancient texts, have not more -generally extended their care to the preservation of marginal and other -adventitious notes, even when they are of comparatively much later date -than the texts, which of course are their chief care. Such valuable -fragments are in imminent peril at the present day; for whenever a new -discovery of ancient books or records is now brought to the notice -of the most distinguished experts, the very first piece of advice is -that they shall be “cleaned,” “repaired,” and “skilfully” rebound. -See, among others, examples in the Historical Manuscripts Commission, -_passim_. Why the binding, and even the _status quo_ itself, is a part -of the essence of such things, as monuments. But manuscripts, with far -less excuse, are following the churches on the broad way to refaction, -as it may be mildly called. - -When the fanciers of books, especially in London, as well as experts -in manuscripts, make a fortunate acquisition of anything, both fine -and unique; after the usual notes of admiration, such as “truly -marvellous,” etc., they go on to say, “but it deserves a better -jacket.” And at once order it to be stripped of its monumental -covering, and scoured of the autumnal tints of many ages; its pedigree, -contained in ancient shelf-marks, and autographs, is discarded; -often valuable notarial records of events that have for safety, like -monuments in churches, been entered on the covers and fly-leaves, -are lost; and it is finally converted into a monument of nineteenth -century skill in smooth morocco, “antique style,” &c. All that is -really wanted, however, is either a box-case, or other apparatus for -protection. Keep charters or papers nearly as you do Bank of England -Notes. These are never bound for safe-keeping. On the outsides of these -unattached bindings, or other provisions for safe-keeping, can be -lavished whatever munificence, or luxury of modern art, may be thought -to be a sufficient tribute of admiration to the object contained. - -[31] Introd. LXVIII. - -[32] See Strype’s Works _passim_, where above 100 transactions of Heath -are referred to, and above 50 of Wotton. - -[33] Edn. 1587, p. 196. - -[34] 1607, folio. - -[35] Oxon, 1659. - -[36] Cod. Dip., No. LXXXV. - -[37] Rochester, Num. IV. - -[38] Chron. of Abingdon. - -[39] Cod. D., No. CXIV. - -[40] Chron. Sax. Oxon. 1692. - -[41] Bæda H. E., cura Jo. Smith, Cant. 722, p. 1748. - -[42] Concilia, I., 161. - -[43] Monumenta Hist. Brit. - -[44] Tanner Bibl. Brit., p. 703. - -[45] Concilia, 1639, p. 242. - -[46] Beda, 1838, p. 200. - -[47] Gloss. Ant. Brit., 1733. - -[48] Account of Worc. Cath., 1736, p. 120. - -[49] A.S.K., I. 225. - -[50] Will. Malm., G.P. 1870. - -[51] Cod. Dip., 1848. - -[52] Saxons in E., 1849, I, 191. The _name_, of Tewkesbury is, however, -apparently older than even this ancient monastery. - -[53] Councils, Vol. III., Oxf., 1871, p. 122. - -[54] Remains, p. 326. - -[55] A-B. C., I., 224. - -[56] New edition, by Rev. J. Baron, Oxford, 1850. - -[57] C.D. CLXXXV. - -[58] “Bercaria” is a synonym for the East Marsh at Cliffe.--Monasticon -Angl. V.I., p. 177, No. 52. - -[59] Cod. D. CXXXV. - -[60] Cod. D. CLVII. - -[61] See Cleasby and Vigfusson, v. “Skaga.” The northern pagans, -afterwards such pests of Rochester, must have already landed here. - -[62] Cod. D., No. LII. - -[63] For example, Cod. D. No. CXI., which grants lands in the Hoo -itself, viz.: Islingham in Frindsbury, adjoining Cliffe, to Rochester -Cathedral. - -[64] Geol. Surv. of E. & W., vol. IV., London Basin, 1872, pp. 34, 35. - -[65] H. of Essex, I., 235. - -[66] P. 236. - -[67] Mon. Anglic. Lillechurch (alias Higham), Nos. IV. and V. - -[68] Beda, H. E. III., 22. - -[69] Beda, H. E., IV., 12. - -[70] Hist. Kent, I., p. 528. - -[71] See Dr. J. H. Pring, in the Somerset Arch. Soc. - -[72] Cod. Dip., No. XXXVIII. - -[73] One copy of the A.-S. Chronicle has “Middelseaxe” as early as A.D. -653, the other four testify this to be miswritten for “Middelengle.” - -[74] Conc. pp. 291, 313, 314. - -[75] A. Sax. Chron. - -[76] 6-inch scale. - -[77] C.D., No. CXVI. - -[78] Sheet 1. - -[79] Hist. of Kent, vol. I., p. 526-7. - -[80] See also “Willelmus de Cloeville duas partes decime de Acle.” -(Mon. Angl., vol. I., 169.) - -[81] Cod. Dip. CXXI. - -[82] Hasted (vol. I. p. 531.) quotes a charter of Æthelred, A.D. -1001, granting to the Priory of Canterbury “Terram Clofiæ.” That is, -apparently, regranting to his newly instituted monks, this very piece -of land which Offa had earlier granted to the secular church. If so, -the orthography “Clofia,” points to its identity with “Cloveshoe.” -The nature of the document quoted by Hasted, may be gathered from a -contemporary one of the same kind, printed in the Monasticon. Vol. I. -p. 99. No. V. - -[83] Cod. Dip., No. CCXVII. - -[84] C. D., No. LXXVIII. - -[85] There is some difference of this statement among the six texts. -Some include London, and some do not. - -[86] Cod. Dip., No. MXXXIV. - -[87] De Ant. Brit. Eccl., ed. Drake., p. 81. - -[88] C.D., vol. I., Int. p. cvii. - -[89] Lib. IV., ch. 15. - -[90] Looking at this again, a fresh and interesting association arises. -This must have been at or close to “_Red_bridge,” at the head of the -Southampton estuary. Beda is telling the story of the two young pagan -Jutish princes, from the Isle of Wight, being baptised, preparatory to -their martyrdom, by Cyniberet abbot of Hreutford. Close to Redbridge -is Nutshalling, the monastery to which the young Winfred, afterwards -St. Bonifatius, passed from Exeter to the care of the abbot “Wynbert.” -There can be no doubt that Beda’s monastery of Hrentford is identical -with the Nutschalling of the biographers of Winfred; and that Beda’s -“Cyniberet” is the same as their “Wynbert.” - -If this identification, both of a place and a person, that have both -been known by different names for above a thousand years, should be -justified; it will be all the more remarkable, because Beda’s text has -been in English keeping; whilst that of the biographers of Bonifatius -has been chiefly in foreign literary custody. - -[91] Cod. Dip., No. CXXXII. - -[92] M.H.B., Pref. 77. - -[93] Two Chron., Introd., lii. - -[94] P. 28. - -[95] Kent has 15 extant St. Martins, Lincoln 14, Norfolk 14, Suffolk 7, -Essex 4, Middlesex 8. - -[96] P. 45. - -[97] Cod. Dip., No. MCCLXXXIX. - -[98] These were both in that suburb, still called “Ladymead.” But it -would be one of the rash things, that are so often committed in these -matters, to connect this name with the two Lady dedications. In fact -there is a tolerable alternative. It may have been a mead that belonged -to one “Godric Ladda,” a witness to an Anglo-Saxon manumission of a -Bondsman, in Bath Abbey. (Hickes, Dissert., 8 Epist., p. 22). - -[99] P. 124-5. - -[100] Mon. Hist. Brit., p. 664. - -[101] A.-S. K., I., 229-30. - -[102] Flores Hist., 1601. p. 143. - -[103] Eng. Com., Proofs, cclxxix. - -[104] Ch. H., 1655, II., VIII., 21. - -[105] The contemporary authoress of the life of St. Willibald, says -that (about A.D. 703), it was the custom among the Saxons--_i.e._ -Willibald’s compatriots in Wessex--for some noble or substantial men, -not to erect a church upon their estates, but to hold in honour a lofty -Holy Cross. This seems a strong confirmation of a recent suggestion -of Prof. Earle, that the English word “Church” is a transliteration, -and scarcely that, of the word “crux.” It seems to be a more likely -word for the churches of Augustine and Birinus, than the usual one -more distantly derived. Leland in one place has “curx” for “crux.” In -planting these crosses, these old Lords of Manors were sowing the seeds -of what are to us parishes. - - - - -ALSO ALREADY PUBLISHED. - - -A PRIMÆVAL BRITISH METROPOLIS. With Notes on the Ancient Topography of -the South-Western Peninsula of Britain. 1877. - - _Bristol: Thomas Kerslake & Co._ (1_s._, _postage_ 2_d._) - - _Contents_: The Pen-Pits and Stourhead. Cair Pensauelcoit. - Penselwood. The Nennian Catalogue of Cities. Totnais or - Talnas, of the Welsh “Bruts.” Æt Peonnum, A.D. 658 and 1016. - Pointington Down, near Sherborne. Celtic Hagiography of - Somerset. Vespasian’s Incursion, A.D. 47. Alauna Sylva. Dolbury - and Exeter. Sceorstan, A.D. 1016, &c. - -THE CELT AND THE TEUTON IN EXETER. _With Plan._ A.D. 927. - - _Printed in the Archæological Journal (Institute)_, _Vol._ xxx. - 1874. - -SAINT EWEN. BRISTOL AND THE WELSH BORDER. Circiter A.D. 577-926. 1875. - - _Bristol: Thomas Kerslake & Co._ (1_s._ _Post free_.) - -THE ANCIENT KINGDOM OF DAMNONIA. In Remains of the Celtic Hagiology. - - _Printed in the Journal of the British Archæological - Association._ 1876. _Vol._ xxxiii. - -WHAT IS A TOWN? - - _Printed in the Archæological Journal (Institute)_, _Vol._ - xxxiv. 1877. - -VARIOUS PAPERS, NOTES, &c. - -SANCTUS VEDASTUS = SAINT FOSTER. - -ATHELNEY (Before Alfred.) - -ANTIQUARIAN LEGISLATION. - -CATHERINE BOVEY, of Flaxley, Gloucestershire, the “Perverse Widow” of -Sir Roger de Coverley. With Notes on the Correspondence of ALEXANDER -POPE. (1856.) - -PROPERTY IN OLD MANUSCRIPTS. - - PERHAPS MAY FOLLOW: - -Notes on the Place, “AUGUSTINE’S OAK,” of Ven. Beda. - - Perhaps also: - -The DEDICATIONS of the Churches and Chapels in BRISTOL and -GLOUCESTERSHIRE. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Vestiges of the supremacy of Mercia in -the south of England during the eighth, by Thomas Kerslake - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VESTIGES OF SUPREMACY OF MERCIA *** - -***** This file should be named 52389-0.txt or 52389-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/3/8/52389/ - -Produced by MWS and the Online Distributed Proofreading -Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from -images generously made available by The Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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