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part of the southern boundary of the district, to which 
he gave the name of Loidis et Elmete. Indeed, his wwk 
includes very much the same country as that ascribed in this 
Paper to Elmet. Taking Sherburn as the east point, 
Bingley as the west, the breadth required (16 miles) would 
include the lower portions of the valleys of the Wharfe, 
Aire, and Calder. The town of Leeds either gave the name 
to the country of Loidis , mentioned by Bede, or took its 
name from it as its capital. 
Let us now consider for a few moments the question of the 
state of Leeds prior to the Conquest. Thoresby believes that 
Caer Loid Coit, one of the twenty-eight British cities 
enumerated by Nennius, was Leeds, not Lincoln , as many 
have supposed, and adduced, among other good reasons, the 
great authority of Dean Gale for this opinion. Dr. Whitaker, 
that prince of topographers, in a note to the passage in 
Thoresby, says:' — “ On a cooler consideration than our 
author’s partiality to the subject would allow him to bestow 
on it, I cannot but think that Leeds has a fairer claim to be 
the Caer Loid Coit of Nennius than any other place.” That 
Leeds was a very important place in the Saxon times is 
satisfactorily proved by Domesday Survey; for seven Thanes 
held it of King Edward the Confessor for seven manors, 
valued at the large sum of £6. Besides, there were there a 
church, a priest, and a mill, several classes of occupiers 
representing a considerable population for the age, and many 
other indications of a place of importance; in fact, the chief 
town of the district. Singularly enough, the Conqueror, 
though he devastated the neighbourhood, spared Leeds, and 
hence its rapid growth soon after, whereby it eventually 
obtained a great charter from the Paganels, its lords, and 
became large and prosperous. 
