Herefordshire liills wore liclil liy IJritisli princes, who had on the whole held 

 their own against the IMercian kings, although no doubt occasionally reduced to 

 t'le condition of tributaries. After the destruction of the Romano-British city 

 of Magna, Caer-ffawydd was founded or enlarged, and became the Saxon city 

 of Ferulege, and Sutton "Walls became the residence of the Mercian kings. These 

 facts imply the settlement of the vales of Wye and Lugg by Saxon chiefs or 

 thanes ; and the predominance of Saxon names in the lowland parishes shows 

 that the invaders completely overpowered the British element. The loftier hills, 

 however, such as Croft Ambury, Malvern, Dinmore, Fownhope, and Dinedor, 

 retain more or less piuely their British names, which is merely sajdng that the 

 British population stiU held the hiU country. Where the Romans had created 

 fortifications, they were no doubt still made available against the Saxons ; 

 when the new exigencies demanded new camps, as at Bisbury, they were formed. 

 Ever and anon, the dispossessed Britons, descending from their hills, would 

 make a foray upon the herds of a Saxon settler in the vales, and would retire 

 with their booty to their hiU retreat. The nursery rhyme of " Taffy" is a mere 

 condensation of the history of these Marches for many centuries : 



Taffy was a AVelshman, 

 Taffy was a thief. 



Here is Saxon prejudice, abusing by wholesale the people whom Saxon invasion 



had dispossessed. 



Taflfy came to my house. 

 And stole a leg of beef. 



Here was the raid upon the Saxon's homestead, and the capttu'e of his cattle. 

 By and bye, the visit would be repaid : 



I went to Taffy's house. 

 Taffy wasn't at home. 



He was too prudent to await his visitors when they came in inconveniently large 

 numbers ; but whilst they were seeking for him he sometimes made a wide 

 detour, came down like a thunderbolt upon the homesteads which had been left 

 unguarded, and canied off all that remained of the herds which he had pre- 

 viously thinned : 



Taffy came to my house, 



And stole a marrow bone — 



that is, all that was left worth taking. It is unnecessary to pivrsue the story, as 

 told in the ballad with the characteristic coarseness of mediasval tunes. The 

 substantial meaning is enough for our purpose. It teaches us how Taffy's 

 retaliation hurried on the catastrophe. Probably, in all such cases, there would 

 be a grand gathering of the Saxon settlers, to which every man who was not a 

 "ruddering," or utterly worthless, would be summoned on pain of being harried 

 out of house and home by his comjiatriots ; and then the hills would be sur- 

 rounded and stormed, and the troublesome hill-men captured for slaves or 

 slaughtered. Against such du-e eventualities, the Britons would guard by the 

 formation or careful maintenance of camps like Risbury. 



The natural question, why should the enemy be expected to approach 

 from the S. or "West, is answered by two facts : the vale of Lugg, which lies to 



