A TOt T R ROUND NORTH WALLS, 



tion, was confrdered as the line which 

 divided the tw6v countries ; and it ap- 

 pears to have been continued as fuch, 

 till near the Conqiieft; for, in 1064, a 

 law was made by Earl Harold, enact- 

 ing, that if any WeHhman, coming into 

 England without licence, was taken on 

 that fide of Offa's Dyke, he fhould be 

 punifned with the lofs of his right-* 

 hand*. It was fuppofed by Speed -^ 

 and fome other hiftorians, that this 

 rampart was made to protecl the king- 

 dom of Mercia from the inroads of the 

 Welfh; but this has been fufficiently 

 anfwered, in an entertaining manner, 

 by Mr. Lewis Morris J. " How came 

 "the King of Mercia to build this wall 

 " -acrofs the ifland? There mull have 



* Speed's Chronicle. Gibfon's Camb. 585. Warring- 

 ton's Hiftory of Wales, p. 225. 



+ Chronicle, p. 401. 



| See a Letter of Mr. Lewis Morris to Mr. Robert 

 Vaughan of Nannau. Camb. Reg. II. 498. 



A been 



