LEAGUE OF THE FOUR TOWNS 9 



could gather news of the foray, and an engagement 

 took place, when the victory fell, as of old, to the 

 Freebooters ; and the success of Cuthwulfs men 

 was followed by the ruin of the " League of the Four 

 owns. 

 ' As one looks westward from the Chilterns, now- 

 a-days, over Aylesbury Vale, the district of the " Four 

 Towns " which formed the league consisted of Eyn- 

 sham, Bensington, Aylesbury, and Lenborough, 

 now a small hamlet near Buckingham. This lies 

 stretched before you as far as Brill. Then, as now, 

 the country was fertile and well peopled. A 

 stream, the Thame, runs through Aylesbury, a 

 town crowned with a church, or " Eglwys" — to which 

 it probably owes its English name. A line close by 

 the town of Thame, marks the present shire line of 

 Bucks and Oxon, and marked the boundary of 

 Aylesbury, and of that ruled by Bensington. The 

 district of Lenborough lay along the Ouse, probably 

 to Olney, and bounded by the territories of 

 Towcester and Aylesbury. It was from the south 

 that the West Saxons struck the country of the 

 " Four Towns." They fought their way along the 

 range of the Chilterns to Bedford and there halted.' 

 Brown Willis, the antiquary, says that Whiteleaf 

 Cross is a corruption of ' White Cliff' Cross, but 

 investigations have proved that it is from the 

 Saxon chief ' Wiglife,' the grandson of Woden, 

 and father of Hengist, who commanded the Saxons 

 in a great batde fought at the foot of the hill, 

 over the remaining portion of the Britons, who 



