A HISTORY OF DORSET 



for Somerset and Wiltshire are lower.^ But such evidence as can be safely- 

 drawn from place-names does not give much support to the theory of a 

 widespread and persisting Celtic remnant.* 



Typical house-grouping is regarded as a constant race-characteristic,' 

 nucleated villages being considered Germanic in their origin, while ' in the 

 land of hamlets and scattered steads ' Celtic communities are traced. The 

 accompanying map shows the disposition of nucleated and hamleted tenements. 



The later hidation may also show Celtic influence still surviving, the 

 relation between the hides and team-lands of Domesday being the basis of 

 calculation. ' Where the Saxon was thick on the ground, the hides were 

 more,' * for the Saxon is the better agriculturist, and can make a smaller area 

 support himself and his family, and pay Danegeld as well." The ratio of team- 

 lands to hides changes gradually throughout southern England, rising steadily 

 towards the west. It has been held to correspond to the waves of Saxon 

 conquest, ' in each successive conquest the hides are fewer.' In the West 

 Dorset hundreds of Whitchurch and Beaminster there are 249 team-lands 

 to 200 hides, or 1-25 per hide. The county average is practically one to one.* 

 This would seem to show a fair clearance of Welsh in West Dorset ; and 

 their survival in the east of the county goes to support the traditional view of 

 the conquest of Dorset, not by sea, by way of the Frome valley, but by 

 land, west before east, by way of Somerset and the vale of Blackmoor. 



Once conquered, the speedy political absorption of Dorset in Wessex 

 had been assured by the division of the West Saxon diocese and erection of a 

 bishop's stool at Sherborne.^ But far more influential in removing any 

 remnants of old ' folk ' feeling, as opposed to sentiment already semi-national, 

 were the invasions of the Danes. These, both by chronology and by char- 

 acter, fall into two distinct groups — those of the ninth century which were 

 mere plunder-raids (though not less dreaded on that account), and those of the 

 later tenth and early eleventh centuries. The eff^ect of these was political 

 suzerainty, involving even in Wessex supersession of the old aristocracy, and 

 in the non-noble classes admixture of blood. Both series of descents were 

 made coastwise, thus differing materially, in method and conduct, from 

 previous invasions. Unlike the Romans, whose normal method was to seize 

 a point of coast and overrun the country thence with land forces, the Danes, 

 attacked all round the coast, their superior seamanship enabling them to. 

 make use of landing-places hitherto impracticable, such as Ringstead, Arish- 

 mill and Portland.^ The civilization of the West Saxons, and consequent 

 abundance of provisions and value of booty, both facilitated and encouraged 

 attacks from many points, and by many different war-bands. 



Resistance was of a nature calculated to be ultimately successful. Naval 

 battles were frequent. Ethelwulf was defeated (840) off Charmouth, but in 



' W. Z. Ripley, Races of Europe, 327. ^Taylor, JVords an J Places ; Proc. Anthrop. Inst. (1885), 66. 



• Maitland, Dom. Bk. and Beyond, 222, 15 ; Meitzen, Siedelung u. Agraruesen der Germanen, ii, 119 ;, 

 Enqulte sur ks Conditions de P habitation en France. ' Les Maisons Types.' Paris, 1894, pp. 9-18 ; Cotta, 

 Deutschland's Boden ... a. dessen Eintviriung (Leipzig, 1858), ii, 63, 599 ; W. Z. Ripley, Races 0/ Europe, 

 8, 9, 10 ; J. Loth, Uemigration bretonne, 104, 1 18, 599. 



* F. Baring in Engl. Hist. Rev. 1899, p. 297. ' Maitland, op. cit. 436-43. 

 ° Eyton : hides, 2,321 ; team-lands, 2,332. Pearson : hides, 2,277 ; carucates, 2,303. 



^ Angl.-Sax. Chron. i, 68-9 ; ii, 38 ; Wm. of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 175 ; Haddan,. 

 Counc. and Docts. iii, 276 ; W. H. Jones, Episcopate in Dorset and U'ills. 



' See Warne's Map oj Ancient Dorset ; Jng/.-Sax. Chron. i, 118 ; Hutchins, Hist. Dors, ii, 813. 



126 



