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which are claimed as the site of the battle of Daegsastan, fought 
in 603 between Hdelfrid, king of the Northumbrians and the 
Scots, or the Scots, as allies of the Cumbrian Britons, in which 
the latter were signally defeated. The other claimant to be the 
site of the battle is Dalston, near Carlisle. I am not in a posi- 
tion to discuss the question which of the two sites has the better 
case in its favour, though I think modern antiquarians are more 
partial to Dawston Rigg than to the other ; and, in any case, 
most certainly a great early battle has been fought on Dawston 
Rigg; whilst, as already said, a halo of tradition has always 
surrounded the locality. Of this battle of Daegsastan we know 
nothing whatever beyond what is contained in Bede’s “ Ecclesi- 
astical History,” and in the ‘Saxon Chronicle,” which may very 
well have been borrowed on Bede’s authority. The passiuge is as 
follows :—“ a.p. 603 — Edelfrid, king of the Northumbrians, 
having vanquished the nation of the Scots, expels them from the 
country of the Angles. At this time Edelfrid, a most valiant 
king, and ambitious of glory, governed the kingdom of the 
Northumbrians, and ravaged the Britons more than all the great 
men of the Angles, inasmuch as he might be compared to Saul, 
once king of the Israelites, excepting only that he was ignorant 
of the true religion. For he conquered more victories from the 
Britons, either making them tributary, or expelling the inhabi- 
tants and planting Angles in their places, than any other king or 
tribune. To him might justly be attributed the saying of the 
Patriarch—‘ Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf; in the morning he 
shall devour the prey, and in the evening he shall divide tke 
spoil.’ Hereupon Aidan, king of the Scots that inhabit Britain, 
being concerned at this success, came against him with a 
numerous and brave army, but was beaten by an inferior force 
and put to flight, escaping with only a few of his followers, for 
most all his army was slain at a famous place called Daegsastan, 
that is Degestone. In that battle also Theobald, brother to 
Edelfrid, was killed, with all the forces he’ commanded. To this 
war Edelfrid put an end in the year 603 after the incarnation of 
our Lord, and in the eleventh of his reign, which lasted twenty- 
four years, and the first year of the reign of Phocas, who then 
governed the Roman Empire. From that time no King of the 
Scots durst come into Britain to make war on the Angles to this 
day (730).” 
Bede, it will be seen from these dates, was writing a century 
