46 PAPERS, ETC. 



Mr. Turner, likevvise, in Ins " History of the Anglo- 

 Saxons," considers " this poem as descrlbing the conflict 

 at Portsmouth, when Porta landed."* M. de la Ville- 

 marque, the distinguished Breton antiquarian, advocates 

 the same opinion. 



With all due deference to these high authorities, I 

 would submit that there are considerations of great weight 

 derived from the physical characteristics of the locality ; 

 from incidents mentioned in the poem ; and from the 

 knowledge we have of the relative position sustained, about 

 that time, by the Cymri and the Saxons, which go far to 

 prove that the battle, celebrated by Llywarch Hen, was 

 fought at Langport, in this county, and not at Portsmouth. 

 If this couclusion prove to be well-founded, it foUoAvs 

 that Langport occupies the site, and still bears the name of 

 the ancient British town of Llongborth, and that it was a 

 port of some importance, during, if not before, the time of 

 the Roman occupation. 



The Celtic Llongborth, is compounded of Llong, a ship ; 

 and PORTH, a haven ; and signifies a port or haven for ships. 

 It is well known that Celtic names of places are, invariably, 

 descriptive. Hence the necessity of ascertaining whether 

 the site of the present town of Langport could ever have 

 answered to the description involved in the word Llong- 

 borth. If it did, then the testuary now confined (mainly 

 by means of artificial embankments) to Bridgwater Bay, 

 must at one time have extended towards Langport, making 

 that place easily accessible to such vessels as the foreign 

 tvaders and the inhabitants of the land at that time 

 possessed. Similar, if not greater, changes have taken 

 place in the coast-line of this country, even within the 

 period of historic record. 



* His. Ang. Sax., b. iii., c. 3. 



