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which are claimed as the site of the battle of Daegsastan, fouglit 

 ill 603 between Edelfrid, king of the Northumbrians and tiie 

 Scots, or the Scots, as allies of the Cumbrian Britons, in which 

 the latter were signally defeated. The other claimant to be the 

 site of the battle is D;ilstoii, near Carlisle. I am not in a posi- 

 tion to discuss tlie question which of the two sites has the better 

 case in its favour, though I think modern antiquarians are more 

 partial to Dawston Rigg than to the other ; and, in any case, 

 most certainly a great early battle has been fought on Dawston 

 Rigg ; whilst, as already said, a halo of tradition has always 

 surrounded the locality.- Of this battle of Daegsastan we know 

 notliing wiiatever beyond what is cont:iined in Bede's " Ecclesi- 

 astical History," and in the " Saxon Chronicle," which may very 

 well have been borrowed on Bede's authority. The passage is as 

 follows : — " A.D. 603 — Edelfrid, king of the Northumbrians, 

 having vanquished the nation of the Scots, expels them from the 

 country of the Angles. At this time Edelfrid, a most valiant 

 king, and ambitious of glory, governed tlie kingdom of the 

 Northumbrians, and ravaged the Britons more than all the great 

 men of the Angles, inasmuch as he might be compared to Saul, 

 once king of the Israelites, excepting only that lie was ignorant 

 of the true religion. For he conquered more victories from the 

 Britons, either making them tributary, or expelling the inhabi- 

 tants and planting Angles in their places, than any other king or 

 tribune. To him might justly be attributed the saying of the 

 Patriarch — ' Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf ; in the morning he 

 shall devour the prey, and in the evening he shall divide tLe 

 spoil.' Hereupon Aidan, king of the Scots that inhabit Britain 

 being concerned at this success, came against him with a 

 numerous and brave army, but was beaten by an inferior force 

 and put to flight, escaping with only a few of his followers, for 

 most all his army was slain at a famous place called Daegsastan, 

 that is Degestone. In that battle also Theobald, brother to 

 Edelfrid, was killed, with all the forces he commanded. To this 

 war Edelfrid put an end in the year 603 after the incarnation of 

 our Lord, and in the eleventh of his reign, which lasted twenty- 

 four years, and the lirst year of the reign of Phocas, who then 

 governed the Roman Empire. From that time no King of the 

 Scots durst come into Britain to make war on the Angles to this 

 day (730)." 



Bede, it will be seen from these dates, was writing a century 



