VOL. XVI. (1) EXCURSION—-BOURTON & BURFORD 31 
Wulfhere, the whole territory of the Hwiccas had become part of the 
Mercian realm; and there is no recorded event by which we can 
account for this great change of boundaries save the battle of 
Cirencester.” 
Wulfhere, by whose conquests what is now Gloucestershire east 
of the Severn was transferred from Wessex to Mercia, became ruler 
of the Mercian Kingdom in 659. An attempt to bring Northumbria 
under his subjection ended in a disastrous defeat, and soon afterwards 
he died. A few years later the organisation of the Church in England 
by Theodore made the Hwiccian sub-Kingdom a diocese, and the 
national unity of the Hwiccas was still further recognised in the 
provision which Ethelred, King of Mercia, made for the administration 
of the Hwiccian realm.. By race West-Saxon, and with West-Saxon 
land on their eastern and southern frontiers, it was desirable that their - 
ruler should not be of Mercian blood, but it was also essential that he 
should have no ties with Wessex. In Northumbria Ethelred found 
just such a ruler as was needed; and from 656 to the middle of 
the eighth century Northumbrian princes ruled over the Hwiccas. 
“¢The names of Eanfrith, Eabba, Oswald, Osric, Oslaf, Osred,” 
says Bishop Stubbs, ‘‘are common to both [the royal houses of 
Northumbria and Hwicca]. aba, the wife of Ethelweah, of Sussex, 
had been baptized in the court of her brothers Eanferth and Eanhere 
of the Hwiccas; Eaba, the Abbess of Coldingham, uterine sister 
of Oswald of Northumbria, had a brother Eanferth, who, as son 
of Ethelfrith and Acha, belongs to the pedigrees of Bernicia and Deira. 
Without contending that the persons designated by these names 
are identical, the juxtaposition of them points to a family relation 
at least.” 
In 752 or 754 came the great battle of Burford. Cuthred, King 
of the West-Saxons, there met Ethelbald, King of Mercia, defeated 
him, and put him to flight. The battle made Wessex the supreme 
power south of the Thames, but her new western boundary stopped 
short of the Hwiccian Kingdom. Offa, who succeeded Ethelbald 
on the Mercian throne, not only retained Hwicca as part of Mercia, 
but also carried the western frontier of his kingdom from the Severn 
to the Wye. His Welsh enemies were, however, strong enough 
to keep full control of the Wye, for the great earthwork he erected to 
mark the limits of Mercian and Welsh territory, and which still bears 
the name of Offa’s Dyke, is on the eastern bank of the river. Con- 
quered and conquerors seem to have settled peacefully together; ‘ it 
was probably,” says Green, ‘‘ to regulate the relations of the two races 
on the border he had won that Offa drew up the code which bore his 
name;” and in the Forest of Dean to-day, as pointed out by Dr 
Beddoe, ‘‘the compact frame, broad cheek-bones, high-arched 
eyebrows, and almond-shaped eyes, which seem to have been Silurian, 
are very common, and occur in fair as well as in very dark people ; ” 
while the Cotteswold region is occupied by a breed of men ‘‘ in whom 
on the whole Saxon or Frisian types may be said to predominate, with 
smooth features and lightish-brown hair.” 
