8 A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



buried their money. The Scots and Picts now became trouble- 

 some visitors; and Vortigern, the British king, was compelled to 

 apply to his German neighbours for assistance. These invaders, 

 under the general name of Saxons and Angles, after repeated in- 

 cursions, discovered the weakness of the Britons, at first drove them 

 to the extremities of the Island, and ultimately forced them to re- 

 tire into Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall, where their posterity has 

 ever since continued. It is very probable, that upon this occasion, 

 the Britons hid or buried their treasure. Some years afterwards, 

 the Danes, encouraged by the success of the Saxons, came hither 

 for the purpose of plunder; but the Saxons, under Hengist and 

 Horsa, after assisting Vortigern to clear his kingdom of foreign 

 enemies, seized it for themselves, and by degrees established the 

 Heptarchy, or Seven Saxon Kingdoms:* Staffordshire was compre- 

 hended in Mercia, one of the largest. Egbert, King of the West 

 Saxons, having, about the year 800, conquered tl^e other six 

 Kings, became the first Saxon Monarch ; but the kingdoms re- 

 tained their names much longer, and Mercia continued to have its 

 own governors, though subject to the monarch of the whole. f 



The Saxon Antiquities in this county are numerous. . Dr. Plot 

 commences with Berry-bank (formerly Wolferchester, the work of 

 Wolfer), near Stone, where, on the top of a hill, are remains of 

 the ruins of a large castle, fortified with a double vallum and en- 

 trenchments 250 yards in diameter : on the south side was a round 

 conical hill, resembling a tumulus, which, according to tradition, 

 was the seat of Wulferus, king of Mercia, who put his two sons to 

 death for embracing Christianity.! 



Dudley Castle, built upon a lofty hill about the year 700, by one 

 Dudo, an Anglo-Saxon, will be again referred to ; it ranks next 

 in antiquity. 



In the parish of Mere there is an old fortification, called the 

 Burgh, of an irregular oval form, (like the figure of the hill), and 



* Many of the Lows and Camps now visible were undoubtedly the work of 

 those troublesome times j though, for want of historians, we neither know the 

 authors nor cause of their appearance. 



f Mercia, (says Dr. Wilkes), whereof Staffordshire always formed a part, 

 and in which some of the Kings had their places of abode, was the best erected, 

 and was so called because it was marked out or Hunted by several of the other 

 kingdoms : but these people being heathens, were constantly warring against 

 each other. 



J Wulferus is said to have governed Mercia from the year 657 to 676 : the 

 Low adjoining, is probably Hie place of his sepulture. 



