Ethnological History. 



old Celtic ecclesiastical foundation. There 



Celtic Element. 



may seem to have been something, so late 

 as the days of Athelstan, which marked off the freemen of 

 Malmesbury from their neighbours ; else why the unique 

 gift of land which rewarded their valour at Brunanburgh ? 

 Chippenham was probably the centre of a strong Saxon 

 colony ; and its capture by the Danes brought about the 

 temporary ruin of the West Saxon kingdom. Calne seems 

 to have longer remained Celtic. In these cases the physical 

 aspect of the population still gives some confirmation to these 

 conjectures. Further south, the vale of the Wiley has a very 

 blond Teutoniform population, and further still the observa- 

 tions of General Pitt Rivers concur with my own, in shewing 

 that the physical type changes as one passes from the tribu- 

 tary valleys of the Southern Avon towards those of the Stour. 



Central Dorsetshire was politically Saxon, we may suppose, 

 in A.D. 636, when Cynegils was baptized at Dorchester. It 

 was from this side, according to Mr. Kerslake, if I understand 

 him rightly, that the conquest of central Somerset was effected : 

 in any case, it can hardly have been later in date than 658, 

 when Kenwalh fought the Britons at Peonna, and pursued 

 them to the Parret. The invaders settled pretty thickly in 

 many parts of eastern and central Somerset ; but less so,'^I 

 think, in Mendip, and within the old forest of Selwood, and 

 towards Wincanton. 



Norman The Norman conquest did not apparentl}- 



Element. affect the ethnological constitution of the three 

 counties with which we have to do, so much as it did that of 

 some other parts of England. Wiltshire is especially remark- 

 able for the extent to which the Saxon owners retained their 

 estates under the new regime. 



At a much later period there was a considerable immigra- 



