ANGLO-SAXON 

 REMAINS 



THE meagre entries of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that describe 

 the over-running of Britain by the EngHsh afford no clue to the 

 early history of Northamptonshire ; and as in the case of most 

 other counties, recourse must be had to the actual remains 

 recovered from the soil in order to determine the condition of the district 

 and its inhabitants in the years when Roman Britain was passing gradually 

 into a Christian England. The lack of record or tradition may be 

 remedied to some extent by a careful analysis of place-names, by a classi- 

 fication of the dialects still to be met with in the county, and by 

 observing the physical characteristics of the population. Each of these 

 three methods of inquiry is however open to the objection that changes 

 from within and without during many centuries must have done much 

 to obscure or obliterate the traces of the earliest Teutonic settlers ; while 

 the investigation of their graves furnishes a certain amount of infor- 

 mation, slight it may be but direct, regarding the pagan peoples who 

 mastered this outlying province of the Roman Empire. 



It must be admitted at the outset that such deductions rest upon 

 a series of accidents, and that any day may bring fresh and conflicting 

 evidence to light. But the value of every fresh discovery has a direct 

 relation to the amount and nature of pre-existing material ; and in this 

 way a collection and classification of archaeological details may be of 

 service not only to the excavator, but to the professed historian. Much 

 has undoubtedly been lost in the past through lack of interest or super- 

 vision, but there is no reason to suppose that all the early Anglo-Saxon 

 sites have been discovered or that those already known have been 

 exhaustively examined ; and it is likely that the spread of local archaeo- 

 logical societies will do something to prevent the destruction of objects 

 that may demonstrate in course of time the character and nationality of 

 the folk whose property these objects were some thirteen hundred years 

 ago. 



A sketch of the condition of the county may be found in the 

 chapter of the Making of England which deals with the conquests of the 

 English. From what is there stated, it would be easy to conclude that 

 the territory comprised in the present county was largely covered with 

 forest, and on that account formed an impenetrable barrier against the 

 various tribes that advanced from all directions to its borders. This 



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