276 Inaugural Address of the 
Even in these days of express trains we should not hesitate about 
the reply. When we consider the labours and dangers of journeys 
then, and the large amount of time which they cost, it is quite 
inconceivable that he would pass by the nearest Britons, those in 
immediate contact with the Saxons along a very extended frontier, 
and push on a long way further to a very remote branch of the 
British race. Bede settles the matter for us. By the help of the 
. King of Kent, who had a sort of over-lordship of the West Saxons, 
Augustine set out for an interview with the people of ‘“ the nearest 
province of the Britons.’ This was certainly not the inhabitants 
of modern Wales. It was certainly the people of the nearer parts 
of Damnonia. As a matter of geography it cannot be disputed 
that the British inhabitants of that part of Selwood which lay 
north of Frome, up as far as Cricklade, were to Augustine “ the 
nearest province of the Britons.” 
The. Britons were of course bitterly hostile to the pagan West 
Saxons, and a place must be found for the interview to which both 
Britons and Augustine’s Saxon party could safely go. Ethelbert’s 
over-lordship made it safe for Augustine to go to any Saxon 
territory, and the Britons’ recent and successful alliance with the 
Hwiccas made it safe for the Britons to visit any suitable place in 
Hwiccian territory. There you have all the conditions of the 
problem stated. You only have to turn upon it the further question, 
what about theroads? ‘The answer settles the whole thing. The 
Ermine Street stared Augustine in the face. He went along it till he 
crossed from West Saxon territory to Hwiccian territory at the 
bridge or ford of Cricklade. There, on ground safe to him and his 
escort as being Saxon soil, and safe to the Britons as being in the 
land of the friendly Hwiccas, he met his fellow Christians. They no 
doubt had collected at Malmesbury, and emerged from their forest 
by ways known to themselves on to the open ground held by their 
Hwiccian allies. This is really the only spot in the world which 
fulfils all the conditions of the problem, without any forced in- 
terpretation or any departure from common-sense considerations. 
We have got into the way of supposing that “ Britons,” in the 
time of which we are speaking, must of course mean what we now 
