58 



had crossed the dyke, and now the fires on the hills tell the Saxon settlements 

 where the raid has been successful, and so they know where to make for. There 

 is no chance of half their numbers being sent in the wrong direction by their (the 

 marauders') Welsh friends, left as peaceful citizens in the country. They assemble 

 quietly on the dyke and await the enemy's return, keepinj,' as close a 'touch' upon 

 him as they can, but not troubling to attack him until he arrives at the dyke. 

 Now what is he to do ? He can cross the dyke anywhere, but the cattle cannot 

 cross, and if he cannot get them over, he might as well, or better, have not come. 

 To make a way down the steep scarp would take some hours. The easiest way 

 would be to fill up the ditch with branches and brushwood ; but he cannot work 

 and fight too, and so finally he thinks it better to escape over the border with any 

 valuables he can carry easily and leave the cattle, the object of the whole attack, 

 to be re-captured. Thus, after a few attempts, he would think the game was not 

 good enough and give it up, or, at least, only attack in bands large enough to 

 leave a party to defend a passage over the dyke, and against whom the Saxons 

 knew pretty well how to defend themselves. It vi^as against the small marauder, 

 who harrowed them and made their lives one continual worry, that the dyke was 

 intended. Of course, during a regular attack of the whole army, the dyke would 

 be crossed and re-crossed as easily as a mole hill. Offa himself once crossed the 

 dyke with his army, and later on it was often crossed ; but it was never intended 

 to be an obstacle to the advance of the regular armies of either side. 



The Saxons, no doubt, were fond of a little raiding, too, against the Welsh, 

 and as they had their friends behind the dyke to make a passage on an agreed-upon 

 spot, their raids were more likely to be successful, and so the Welsh, seeing the 

 advantage of the dyke, proceed to construct one in North Wales, parallel to Offa's, 

 for themselves. This explains the existence of the second <lyke made by the 

 Welsh. On this theory, the turns and twists the dyke makes are intelligible. As 

 they did not care what particular ground they went over, they chose the easiest 

 direction for shaping the scarp wall, and so, if they found the rock in one place 

 very hard, they turned off and followed a softer vein, or, if they found it would 

 stand better in one direction than another, they followed it, utterly regardless of 

 the ground as long as it went tolerably well in the direction they wanted. On 

 this theory, it is perfectly intelligible why it took the Welsh side of the hills, and 

 why it went along the slope of the hill, instead of the top or bottom. This explains 

 why the parish boundary does not always go along the dyke, but overlaps it so 

 often. The dyke was there, and so it often became the boundary of the manor, 

 but the land in the immediate neighbourhood of the dyke, on the Welsh side, 

 would still be in the possession of the Saxons. No doubt the cattle would be more 

 carefully guarded there ; but it would be Saxon for some distance, and so the 

 manors, and consequently afterwards, the parishes, extended over the dyke, 

 which never was the boundary between the two nations, except for a very few 

 miles. 



Had Offa's dyke been for a boundary or any other purpose than a simple 

 military obstacle, it might better be described as Offa's folly, instead of being, as 

 it is, a well-made, admirably designed, and skilfully-executed military work. 



