A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



view would be perhaps supported by a glance at the map of England at 

 the present day. Rutland must for the present purpose be excluded, for 

 its existence as a county only dates from the twelfth century ; but even 

 with this proviso, as many as eight counties are found abutting on the 

 district in question, which seems to run from the Wash and fenland as a 

 great dividing wedge into the heart of the country. 



That this aspect of Northamptonshire is in some respects fanciful is 

 shown by the undoubted existence of at least three important Roman roads 

 through the county, one of them crossing the huge woodland of Rocking- 

 ham itself, which ' even as late as the Middle Ages was still one of the largest 

 forests of the island.' ' The county therefore presented no impassable 

 barrier in the direction of its length, but there are some indications that 

 the present western border represents a dividing line of very old standing. 

 In pre-Saxon times a line of strongholds seems to have existed between 

 Kirtlington in Oxfordshire and Aston-le-Walls, perhaps reaching a point 

 still further northwards in the county.^ Traces of several of these earth- 

 works are to be seen to-day, not on the spurs thrown out by the high 

 ground forming the watershed of west Northamptonshire, but at the 

 head of the valleys leading to the upper Cherwell ; and all were evidently 

 intended to prevent a hostile advance from the south-west. But though 

 these fastnesses may have occasionally served the same purpose in Saxon 

 times, they belong as a class to an earlier period ; and reasons will 

 presently be given for supposing that a line of cleavage in the sixth 

 century roughly coincided with the Watling Street, though it may have 

 struck a little north-east from Towcester and thus included the Tove 

 valley in the southern district. 



In striking contrast to the entries concerning the mythical heroes of 

 Wessex, there occurs in the Chronicle under the year 571 the record of 

 an all-important battle, about the site of which there can be little doubt. 

 The victory of Ceawlin's lieutenant at Bedford seems to have at once 

 resulted in the acquisition of much territory to the south-east of 

 Northamptonshire, and it may here be suggested that the semicircular 

 indentation of the extreme southern boundary of the county indicates the 

 area over which Buckingham, the town lying at its centre, originally 

 exercised control. Ceolwulf, king of Wessex, is twenty-six years later 

 described as continually fighting against either the Angles or the Welsh or 

 the Picts or the Scots. This particular entry does not inspire confidence, 

 but it is conceivable that by this date Wessex had expanded far enough 

 to the north to come into conflict with Anglian tribes advancing from 

 the Trent valley or elsewhere. That the conflict or conflicts took place 

 within the borders of the present county is entirely problematical. It 

 will be found from an examination of the geological map that Northamp- 

 tonshire lies between two broad bands of clay, which during the period 

 now under consideration must have been densely wooded marshland, 

 presenting an obstacle much more formidable than the forests on the 

 inferior oolite to invaders either from the north-west or the south- 



> J. R. Green, Making of England, i. 94. ^ Beesley, History of Banbury, p. 14. 



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