55 



of Caerlleon-upon-Usk, in the middle of the 6th century, — but those who hold 

 this idea will have to show first that Hereford itself had an existence in the 

 middle of the 6th century, beyond what it has been here represented, as simply 

 an encamped station of the ancient Britons, afterwards held by the Saxons. 



Mr. Sharon Turner, in his " History of the Anglo Saxons," referring 

 to the ancient Saxon Chronicles for his authority, states that Hereford remained 

 a mere station for guarding the "Hare " or ancient way across the river Wye to 

 Haywood or elsewhere, until the notorious and treacherous murder at Sutton, of 

 Ethelbert, king of the East Saxon, by Offa. Or, in other words, Haywood 

 Forest, as a hunting locality in those ancient times was better known than Here- 

 ford itself. 



The murder, however, and the treacherous manner in which it was carried 

 out, brought such a scandal upon Offa and his whole Court, that Putta, a pious 

 Bishop of South Mercia [it will perhaps be better to call him, since there was at 

 that time neither county nor town of Hereford in existence], pronounced a 

 sort of malediction upon Sutton. 



At the death of Offa in 794, the Saxon Chronicle gives the total popula- 

 tion of Hereford at only 70 souls, including the encampment ; and yet we are 

 distinctly told that Mercia at this time was divided into two dioceses for religious 

 purposes. This Putta, who was Bishop of the Southern diocese of Mercia, and 

 probably resided at Sutton, delivered a sort of prophecy [and local and unautho- 

 rised prophecies were not uncommon in those superstitious times] that Egfrid, 

 the son of Offa, should not live to reign three years over Mercia, as a judgment 

 or visitation of the sin of the father upon the son, for his having murdered 

 Ethelbert. This prophecy proved true. Egfrid died within the specified time, 

 and Milfride, who was a prince of royal blood, and succeeded to the rule of South 

 Mercia, resolved upon moving his Court from blood-stained Sutton to Hereford, 

 which was then "a beginning"; and then, and not till then, as it seems to 

 me, could Hereford have been either a City or a Bishop's See. 



Offa, before his death, had obtained absolution from Pope Adrian I. , on 

 these conditions, 1st, that he should erect a church at Marden, an adjoining 

 parish to that of Sutton, over the grave of the murdered Ethelbert ; 2ndly, that 

 he should erect a church of stone at Hereford dedicated to him ; and, having 

 done so, he was, 3rdly, to translate the body of Ethelbert to this church of 

 stone or cathedral ( Archceologia Cambrensis). And Ethelbert himself, because 

 he was murdered, seems to have been sainted. 



Be this as it may, the task and duty of erecting a church of stone at 

 Hereford seem thus to have fallen upon Milfride ; and he, as we learn from 

 Blount's MSS. [kindly allowed to be seen in the library of St. Michael s Priory 

 at Belmont], feeling the responsibility of his task, " ordered a certain devout 

 bishop to come to his aid ; but he being at the time in a distant part of the 

 kingdom of Mercia, and travelling then being very difficult, he sent a great sum 

 of money to Milfride, who, with this and other contributions, began with great 



