274 Inaugural Address of the 
a friendship between the Gloucestershire Saxons, called as we well 
know the Hwiccas, and the Britons of the Malmesbury regions. 
So far are ordinary historians from realising the true state of 
things, that they bring the Britons all the way from the parts we 
now call Wales to fight the battle of the Hwiccas in North Wilts, 
their connection with which was very remote. ‘T'o our Malmesbury 
Britons the fight was of vital importance. 
This alliance appears to have led to an undisturbed possession 
by the Britons here. This is very clearly shown by one historical ; 
fact. About 637, that is, nearly fifty years after the battle of 
Wanborough, an Irish Christian teacher, the well-known Maildubh, 
desiring a perfectly peaceable place for the exercise of his work as 
a teacher, found that Malmesbury was the only suitable place — 
accessible to him as anasylum. There was a sufficient population — 
for his teaching purposes. The pagan Saxons were not there. He 
was free from the quarrels of the Scots. From ravages of marauders, 
which had driven him out of one abode and another, the nature of : 
the place was a safeguard. Here, then, he settled; gathered 
companions of like mind; and built a small basilica which still — 
existed in the time of William of Malmesbury, 1140, and was : 
called St. Michael’s. Maildubh’s dwelling-place is understood to — 
have been in Burnvale, nestling under the precipitous side of the © 
narrow neck by which the fortress was approached. If you are — 
approaching the Abbey Church from the west, and look down to — 
the right of the road at the narrowest part, when you are getting 
near the Church, you will see where Maildubh lived. 
This principal stronghold of the Britons continued undisturbed — 
for some years more, and Maildubh’s teaching progressed. It was ' 
not the Hwiccas who disturbed them when at last their time came. — 
The Hwiccas had before that time become Mercian. It was the 
West Saxons proper, the people of Kast Wiltshire and Hampshire, 
who broke through the forest wedge. They did not attack 
Malmesbury itself, but cut the forest lower down, and so isolated 
it. The battle of Bradford-on-Avon in 652 cut off this northern 
part of Selwood; and the battle of Pens on the Parrett in 656 
opened the way through to the wuccupation of Somersetshire. 
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