constructed a complete network of roads in all parts of the island-in fact, it is said the roads were "innumerable, many of them wide, and all of excellent construction, which formed a communication between a multitude of flourishing cities and towns, and that they were constructed and regulated at an enormous expense.'

With so many facts before us to lead to a right conclusion, it is almost needless to quote opinions. Were it otherwise, a long list of many of our most learned antiquaries and topographers, as indeed we have already shown in the first chapter, could be given, who, if they have not gone so far as to declare in favour of the Calleva-Wallingford theory, have pronounced the town to be undoubtedly Roman. They all echo, in substance, the opinion of the great Camden, that "the town was begun by the Romans, and afterwards destroyed by the Saxons and Danes, when Suene ravaged the country hereabouts," or of the learned Bishop Kennett, who speaks with great decision, "It was certainly a place of great figure and resort while the Roman arms prevailed."

* Wright, pp. 145-223.

CHAPTER VI.

SAXONS AND DANES.

FOR nearly four hundred years the Roman government held sway in this country; but before the end of that period, signs were not wanting of an approaching dissolution. Soon after the accession of Jovianus, A.D. 363, the island was fearfully harassed by the joint attacks of the Picts and Scots from the north, and the Saxons from the sea. This condition of things appears to have continued till the beginning of the fifth century, when the country threw off all subjection to Rome. Lawlessness and disorder followed the withdrawal of Roman rule, and the country was reduced to a state of perfect helplessness. On two occasions the aid of Rome was obtained, and the aggressors defeated with terrible slaughter. No sooner was this temporary protection withdrawn, than the Picts and Scots reappeared, and obtained the mastery over the powerless Britons, who then secured the assistance of the heathen Saxons from the continent of Europe, under the advice of their King Vortigern. The Saxon Chronicle gives the year 449 as that in which they landed in Britain in great force as the protectors of the island; but Camden gives an earlier date, and in an edition of Bede the year 409 is stated. At first the Saxons assumed a ready friendship for the distressed Britons, whom they afterwards treacherously deserted, and, having allied themselves to the Scots, ultimately established their own power throughout the land, upon the ruins of Roman civilization.

Still, a long period intervened before the dispersion of the Britons was effected, and during that period many sanguinary wars took place; but history, particularly during the first half of the fifth century, does not enable us, so far as I can

discover, to connect the belligerents with any place in this neighbourhood by name, till the year 571. Gildas, Nennius, and Bede are the principal ancient historians to whom we must look; but their narratives are vague, and it is in the Saxon Chronicle, which was composed ages afterwards, that more detailed though brief accounts of the wars between the Saxons and the Britons appear. There are those, however, who go so far as to intimate that some of these accounts, founded on Anglo-Saxon traditions, are partly romance. Chiefly from these sources we learn that the Saxons arrived in this country from three tribes in Germany, namely, from the Old Saxons, from the Angles, and from the Jutes.

The year 519 is given as that in which the kingdom of the West Saxons, comprehending soon afterwards, if not then, the counties of Hants, Dorset, Wilts, Berks, and the Isle of Wight, was established. Dr. Henry remarks that it took forty years and a long and bloody struggle to subdue these counties.

Long after its establishment, the Britons succeeded in resisting the encroaching Saxons in the midland counties, on the Oxfordshire side of the river Thames; but for five years following the year 551, they sustained several defeats.

In 556, the Britons, uniting all their strength, fought* with great valour against King Cynric, and Ceawlin his son, at Banbury, in Oxfordshire. Success attended the Brito-Welsh, who kept their fortified places in these parts till the year 571, when the neighbouring Bensington and other adjacent places were gained by the Saxons under Cuthwulf. Dr. Freeman observes, "Wallingford must have been taken in this expedition, when Cuthwulf crossed the Thames."+ Referring to the capture, he says, "As the name of the earlier conquerors still lives in the neighbourhood of Englefield, so the Ford of the Sons of the Welsh proclaims itself as a spot which placed a check on their path, and whose capture must have been marked as a bright day in the annals of West Saxon victory."

No express mention is made of Wallingford till the time of the Danes, nor of Bensington till the above year. These opinions, may, therefore, to a great extent be based on conjecture. It is natural to suppose that the boundary line of Wessex, as constituted at the earlier date, was the river Thames, and if so, Wallingford and its county of Berks would † Vol. iii. p. 542.

Saxon Chronicle.