Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Bristol. 273 



strong place was a residence of the Kings of Damnonia before the 

 advent of the Saxons. It was well fitted to be the northern 

 fortress of that powerful kingdom, guarding the great forest which 

 must have been so useful as the protection of their frontier. 



We need not on this occasion enter upon a discussion of what 

 are called Welsh traditions. It is a confusing phrase, for it tends 

 to make us suppose that the traditions are Welsh and not British. 

 Our thoughts to-day are turned to a time when the Welsh, as we 

 now call them, occupied the whole of the south-west of England 

 as well as the central west, now called Wales, and occupied also 

 the north-west. The Saxons had not penetrated the barrier which 

 the great forest, Selwood, presented to their further progress 

 westward. The place where we find ourselves to-day was near the 

 northern point of that great forest, which ran up to the head- 

 waters of the Thames at Cricklade. Roughly speaking, with the 

 exception of the southern part of Gloucestershire down to the 

 mouth of the Avon, the Britons were still in possession of the land 

 from some miles east of Malmesbury right through to St. David's, 

 and from Cricklade to the Land's End. It was this impenetrable 

 wedge of forest territory which forced the Saxons in their progress 

 up the Thames to make a detour, leaving us all undisturbed. They 

 turned south-west again when they got round the point of the 

 forest, and won the battle of Deorham (Dyrham) in 577. That 

 battle gave them Cirencester and Bath and Gloucester, and thus 

 made more marked than ever the wedge of forest territory in 

 which Malmesbury stood. It did not touch the continuance of the 

 British hold here. 



Thirteen or fourteen years after that battle a very important 

 alliance was made between the Britons and one branch of the 

 West Saxons, those, namely, who had occupied Gloucestershire. 

 They made an alliance against the chief king of the West Saxons ; 

 marched upon him together down the Ermine Street, a few miles 

 east of us, just outside the eastern boundary of the Britons ; found 

 him in North Wilts at Wanborough ; and finally defeated him 

 there. The battle of Wanborough made the Saxons of Gloucester- 

 shire independent of the West Saxon kingdom ; and it cemented 



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