126 Swindon and its Neighbourhood. 



Barbury Castle, then across the valley, and so by Liddington Castle 

 into Berkshire. It is said that this is part of a road which has 

 been for ages, and is to this day, used for driving cattle all the way 

 from Anglesey into Kent : and yet that there is no turnpike gate 

 to pay, nor bridge to cross, for several hundred miles. 



The Welsh cattle-drivers along that ancient ridgeway probably 

 know very little about the matter ; but if they do happen to be 

 familiar with the traditions of their race, it must be with some 

 suppressed regrets that they look down from those heights upon 

 the plains of Wilts. Those plains, and Swindon itself under some 

 other name, once belonged to the older people whom we now call 

 Welsh ; and long did they fight to save their lands from the grasp 

 of us the invading Saxons. One very celebrated battle took place, 

 according to some opinions, very near the town. 



The Saxon kingdom of Wessex, of which Wiltshire was a prin- 

 cipal part, was formed by the two kings, Cenric and Cerdic ; but 

 the old Britons still held their own to the north of it, and their 

 principal line of defence lay between Gloucester, Cirencester, and 

 Bath. It remained for the third and next king of Wessex, Ceawlin, 

 to expel them beyond those places, still farther forwards towards 

 Wales. He succeeded in doing so, and all seemed to be going on 

 well for him, when, says the historian William of Malmesbury, 

 " about that time, A.D. 592, an unlucky throw of the dice on the 

 tables of human life " turned those tables against King Ceawlin. 

 He had so mismanaged matters as to make himself an object of 

 detestation to both parties, not only the Britons, but his own people 

 the Saxons. They accordingly combined, and in that year destroyed 

 his forces in a great battle, in which he lost his kingdom, went 

 into exile and died. 



William of Malmesbury, taking his account, as he says, from 

 older writers, places that battle at Wodensf/f/ce. One copy of the 

 Anglo Saxon Chronicle calls the place Woodsbergh, and another 

 copy of the same Chronicle calls it Wodensbergh. Supposing the 

 battle to have taken place in Wiltshire, then if it was at Wodens- 

 dike it would be at what we now call Wansdyke. If it was at 

 Woodsbergh, it may have been at Woodborough, which is very 



