456 
of the most Reverend Abbot and Priest, Thrydwulf, men- 
tioned by Bede to stand in the “ Wood of Elmet,” be placed 
more appropriately than at Tadcaster, for there or there- 
abouts a monastery existed in the Saxon times, the only one 
in that part of the country which can be considered as 
included in the territory of Elmet. That this territory 
could not extend to the north further at the most than 
Tadcaster, may be concluded from the circumstance of York 
being the capital of Deira from the time of its subjugation 
by the Saxons, and that the district between the Wharfe and 
the city incontestably belonged to it. It is clear that the 
country contiguous to Tadcaster on the south belonged to 
Elmet, because Berwick-in-Elmet lies in that quarter. And 
here, most likely, from the remains still seen, stood the royal 
villa or residence of the later Kings of Northumbria, men- 
tioned by Bede as lying in “ the country of Loidis” As to 
the boundaries of Elmet on the west, there seems but little 
material to form even a probable opinion. 
Lappenberg thinks that the district called Cumbria 
extended into the later kingdom of Northumbria, and that 
“ the little state of Elmet” belonged to it. This conjecture, 
for it is only one, does not seem very plausible, for the voice 
of history is plain that Elmet was an independent state 
under its own king. Besides, Lappenberg’s theory would 
require Craven to have been included in Cumbria, and the 
evidence is strong that it belonged to Deira. It is, however, 
not improbable that the state of Elmet extended on the west 
to the confines of the Deanery of Craven (about 25 miles 
from Sherburn), where there seems to have existed from a 
remote period a strong line of demarcation. On the south 
there are no means of forming a judgment as to the situa- 
tion of the boundary line. 
Dr. Whitaker, by including the parish of Halifax under 
the title of his great work, apparently thought that it formed 
