By Nevil Story Maskelyne, Esq., M.P. 193 



held but a single division of it. The battle of Barbury, is also 

 stated in Ethel werd's Chronicle to have been near, not at, Beran 

 Byrig. The Brit general, then, may have arranged his nine divisions 

 in a position covering Barbury, or, what is more likely, leaving a 

 garrison to hold the rampart, he would have drawn them up in a 

 position to defend the roads to the north and the old British trackway 

 over the downs. The slope of the down on the west side of the Og 

 valley between Barbury and the Swindon road would on this view 

 have been the probable scene of the struggle. The other approach 

 from the direction of Pewsey and Marlborough would have led 

 Ceawlin over the open down by Rockley towards the height of 

 Hakpen. In this case the battle might have been in the bottom to 

 the north-east of Rockley and across the line of the present road 

 from Wroughton by Prior's Hill to Marlborough, the British lines 

 being in this case drawn up in a position to prevent Ceawlin from 

 advancing by the ridge of Hakpen, and so to reach the gap between 

 that ridge and Barbury. Obviously it was for the Briton to choose 

 his battlefield on that side on which Ceawlin might approach his 

 position, so soon as he was aware of the direction of that approach, 

 and of this he would have timely warning while the Saxon host was 

 marching over the open country. For Ceawlin could not mask the 

 position, and move onwards to the north, leaving the Briton army 

 jfn his rear at Barbury. He came to fight, and his enemy had the 

 choice of the ground. But neither chosen ground, nor cavalry, nor 

 the tradition of Roman tactics, nor even impulsive Celtic valour, were 

 of avail against the steady, unrelenting rush and stern fighting of 

 those terrible West Saxon foot soldiers. So that day's sun set with 

 the defeat of the Britons, with the presage of doom for their homes 

 and polity in central Britain: and the next day's sun rose on the 

 birthday of Wessex as the dominant power in England. It was 

 this battle that in effect gave Ceawlin the imperial title of Bretwalda 

 of all the Anglo-Saxon polities within the seas, which enabled him 

 to sweep the land from the Thames to Bedford and back again over 

 the vale of Aylesbury, and finally to win the crushing victory at 

 Deorbam which drove part of the Welsh to what has ever since 

 been Wales, and cut them off from their kindred in Devon and 



VOL. XXIII. — NO. LXVIII. 



