ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS between Hwiccia and the unsubdued marauding Britons of what is now alone called Wales. From the neighbourhood of Bath as far as Ciren- cester, the diocesan boundary in some parts follows the Fosse Way, though it is generally rather to the west of the hne. After passing the important junction of Cirencester it ran eastward, and no doubt bore some close relation to the present border between Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, though there is no conspicuous natural feature to mark its course. An important point for the purposes of archaeology is that Fairford would thus be included in the Hwiccan kingdom, and the extensive remains discovered there may throw some light on the scanty relics of the pagan period in Worcestershire itself. The escarpment of the Cotswolds, along which are yet to be seen remains of many prehistoric strongholds, apparently had nothing to do with the limits of Hwiccia ; and in the absence of any other obvious line of demarcation, the Fosse Way was in all probability utilized as such by the early Teutonic settlers of these parts. There are some indications in Northamptonshire that the Roman roads which crossed that county served to mark out the territories of tribes which roughly correspond to the dialects ; and this view has also been put forward with regard to the Fosse Way by the author of a paper on ancient roads on the Cots- wolds.^ From a consideration of the diocesan boundary, which extends far into Warwickshire, it seems Hkely that all between the Fosse Way and the forest of Arden was included in the Hwiccan kingdom ; and if this can be established, the relics of Worcestershire can be further illustrated by discoveries in the Avon valley, as at Longbridge, near Warwick, and Bidford, 4 miles south of Alcester. Interments of the pagan period have come to light near Evesham, and it seems hard to resist the conclusion that those further up the river belonged to the same tribe, for the valley of the Avon would have been the natural and almost the only practicable opening at the time for the increasing population of the lower Severn valley. What is now Oxfordshire was certainly one of the principal seats of the West Saxons, and was therefore not available for occupation by the Hwiccans. The Britons to the south and west forbade expansion in those directions and the forest belt at the north checked advance long enough to leave a trace in the dialects of the adjoining settlers. The north-east alone remained, and here were no natural impediments: A writer with considerable local knowledge states^ his belief that ' the district afterwards known civilly as the Hwiccan realm, and ecclesi- astically as the diocese of Worcester, represented the extent of Ceawlin's conquest after the battles of Dyrham and Fethanleah, and that if ever the site of Fethanleah is fixed, it will be found to lie in the northern part of this district,' and not at Faddiley in Cheshire nor Fretherne in Gloucester- shire. Mr. Taylor goes on to suggest that the conflict probably took place near Stratford-on-Avon, in the neighbourhood of which was a
- Mr. John Sawyer, Transactions of Bristol and Gloucs. Arch^ological Society, 1896-7, p. 254.
« Rev. C. S. Taylor, op. cit. p. 270. T 225 Q
