and their Historic Teachings. 73 



to time have ruled more or less permanently in these parts of England. 

 Each — whether Briton, Roman, or Englishman — has left behind 

 him characteristic memorials in the place-names that remain, — 

 " foot-prints " which may easily be identified, as first of all impressed 

 by one or other of the three different races. 



One point I would fain hope to have established, — namely, the 

 abiding influence exercised by the original British tribes long after the 

 English had obtained a footing in these parts. The theory of their 

 entire destruction seems to me to be entirely a modern invention. 

 The earliest assertor of it was, I believe, William of Newbury, who 

 wrote his chronicle many centuries after the Celt and Teuton had 

 been blended into one people. Doubtless the British chieftains 

 were either slain in battle or forced into exile, but the bulk of the 

 people remained. By degrees they were made subject to the con- 

 querors, — as Malmesbury says " famulabantur Anglis," — ^that is, 

 they became their servants, or tillers of the ground for them, and 

 were gradually absorbed into the general population. But des- 

 troyed they never were, — for in that "tongue of land^^ which stretches 

 from Cricklade to Malmesbury, southwards, some fifty miles long 

 and fourteen broad, they held their ground for many years, and ther« 

 at all events was still spoken the Celtic tongue long after the 

 English gained a footing in it. "Vulnerati sed non wic^j "—which 

 we may freely translate as " cast down but not destroyed,'^ — this is 

 the motto of one of the ancient city companies, and it may also be 

 taken as descriptive of the Britons who fought so long and so bravely 

 for their native land. Indeed they maintained the conflict even till 

 the seventh century j nor were they fully subdued, or their nationality 

 destroyed, till a century later, when the Norman conquest bent Celt 

 and Teuton alike under the yoke of the Conqueror. 



And all the traditions, that cluster round this deeply interesting 

 place, point to similar results. Put what trust you please in the 

 story of the very early monastery here, under the control of Dinoth, 

 Abbot of Bangor, still I claim for it an establishment of the fact of 

 early communication between Wales and Cser-dur-burg. Bear in 

 mind too what we are told concerning Maildulf, a Scotch or Irish 

 hermit, who came here to settle a century or two later, and may we 



