29 
Brit- W elsh of Strathclyde, after such a defeat as that at 
Chester, could have maintained any position in the plains 
of Lancashire. The hilly districts, however, of the middle 
and northern portions of the county, would offer positions 
from which a defence might be successfully maintained. 
We may therefore infer that the boundary of the English 
dominion in Lancashire, after the fall of Chester, was marked 
by the line of hills extending from Bury and sweeping 
round to join those in the neighbourhood of Oldham and the 
axis of the Pennine chain. 
This western advance of the Northumbrians was com- 
pleted by the conquest of Elmet in 616,* by Eadwine, the 
successor of iEthelfrith, and in all probability then, or about 
that time, not merely the valley of the Aire, but also Bibbles- 
dale and the hills of Derbyshire and the district extending 
between Elmet and Chester became subject to Northumbria. 
The remaining fragment of Strathclyde in the north 
still unconquered, embracing Cumberland and Westmore- 
land, was finally subdued by Ecfrith, about the years 
670 — 685, -f* and with its fall the whole of this county 
was absorbed into the Northumbrian kingdom. A passage 
in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under the year 923 proves 
that the south Lancashire was called Northumbria. “In 
this year after harvest King Eadward went with his forces 
to Thelwal and commanded the ‘burli’ to be built and 
occupied and manned, and commanded another force also of 
Mercians, the while he sate there to take possession of Man- 
chester (Mameceaster) in N orth-Humbria, and repair and 
man it/’ This passage is of particular interest, because it 
presents us with the first notice of Manchester that is to be 
found in any English record. At that time it was clearly 
not so important as the town of Thelwal near Warrington. 
From these notices it may fairly be concluded that south 
* Nennius, c. 66, circa 616, 633 a.d. Annales Cambrise, a.d. 616. 
f Bseda, Yita St. Cuthbert, c. 37. For this notice I have to thank the Key. 
J. E, Gtreen. 
