Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

gwh&fcotajgta: ($>nmbrtMh. TT THIRD SERIES, No. XXVIIL—OCTOBER, 1861. [Reprinted from the " Archaeological Journal" by permission of the Arch. Inst, of Great Britain and Ireland.] ON THE BOUNDARIES THAT SEPARATED THE WELSH AND ENGLISH RACES DURING THE SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS WHICH FOLLOWED THE CAPTURE OF BATH, a.d. 577; with SPECULATIONS AS TO THE WELSH PRINCES WHO DURING THAT PERIOD WERE REIGNING OVER SOMERSETSHIRE. By EDWIN GUEST, LL.D., Master of Gontillb and Caius College, Cambridge. Some years back I laid before the Archaeological Institute1 certain opinions I had been led to form with reference to the districts respectively occupied by the Welsh and English races subsequently to the Treaty of the Mons Badonicus. I would now call attention to the boundaries that separated the two races at another important epoch of our history: I mean after the settlement which necessarily followed the battle fought at Deorham, ad. 577. This battle was one of those events which change the fortunes of a people. It led, as we learn from the Chronicle, to the surrender of the three great cities of Glouces¬ ter, Cirencester, and Bath; and must have left our ancestors in quiet possession of the whole basin of the Severn—at least, on this side of the river—from the walls of Bath to the woodlands of Arden. The Welshmen living south of Bath seem to have come early into an arrangement with the conquerors; but we know that these restless soldiers were carrying on their desolat¬ ing inroads in other directions for several years afterwards. The following entry refers to one of these inroads : "a. 584. Now Ceawlin and Cutha fought with the Brits at the place that is called Fethanleah j and there Cutha was slain, and Ceawlin took many towns and countless booty, and angry (yrre) he returned to his own country." 1 Vid. "The Early English Settlements in South Britain," Salisbury Volume, Arch. Institute, p. 28. 3RD SER., VOL. VII. 19