260 



Be this as it may, Offa began liis reign in 754, and ended it, 

 according to the "Saxon Chronicle," in 793. The "Welsh 

 Chronicle," which speaks of his deeds with good reason to 

 remember them, says he died 796. 



As he did not begin the dyke until some little time after 

 the commencement of his reign, and a work of such magnitude 

 could not have been accomplished in a day, we may take it to 

 be just 1100 years since this rampart was made. 



As an historical landmark then, Opfa's Dyke carries us back 

 more than half way to the epoch of Julius Cesar's landing in 

 Britain ; and very nearly half way to the taking of Babylon by 

 Cteus in the fall of the first great empire of the world. 



It is to be wished that some members of the Cotteswold Club 

 would devote further time to the examination, in detail, of 

 these oldest and most firmly established, Royal British Banks. 



