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the very best troops—the Guards, as it were—of the world’s great 
conquerors. But at last, as we know, towards the middle of the 
fifth century, they left us altogether. The British tribes, more or 
less Romanized, as the case may be, were left to protect themselves 
as best they could against their other foes—Picts and Scots and 
Angles, as the case might be. 
It is in the course of their struggles against the latter in the 
century following the departure of the Romans, that an interesting 
problem presents itself to us for solution in this locality—a problem 
which, if we could only solve in favour of the locality, connects us 
here with another famous name. We all know how large a part of 
the sentiment and imaginings of medizeval romance and poetry is 
centred on the story cf King Arthur and his table round; how, 
instead of being, as he was once supposed to be, a mere mythical 
hero, suited to adorn the nursery rhyme with which we used to be 
familiar, or the poetic stories that have delighted our maturer days, 
modern authorities have decided in favour of his real existence as 
a great leader of the native Britons in their sturdy endeavour to 
maintain their independence against the foes who pressed upon 
them. It is agreed then that Arthur was a real leader of the people 
—the dispute is as to the locality which was the scene of his 
operations—and there being on this head a conflict of opinion 
among equally high authorities, I think we who live here are fully 
justified in claiming him for our own, and giving our vote with 
those who hold him to have been the great chief of the northern 
Cymri of Strathclyde and Cumberland, and the great assertor 
of their liberties. It may be that the name Arthuret itself is con- 
nected with his presence in our midst; but, however this may be, 
there seems, at any rate, fair grounds for the assumption that this 
district was the scene of the exploits of one whose great achievements 
and personal qualities so impressed themselves upon his contem- 
poraries that he was handed down to posterity as the very model 
of a christian knight—a true leader of the people. 
It was here too a little later that is said to have been fought the 
great battle of Arderydd—a battle waged between the Christian and 
the pagan Cymri—between those who had come under the influence 
