WARWICKSHIRE :—ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD.
THE two counties which we include in this Province became, after the Anglo-Saxon conquest, part of the kingdom of the 3fercians. Of this kingdom Mr. Freeman observes that "it appears at the end of the sixth century as a powerful State, but has no distinctly recorded founder, no distinctly recorded date of origin. It seems to have grown up from the joining together of a great number of small principalities, probably of more varied origin than the different portions of the other kingdoms." "Marcia throughout its history appears far more divided than any other part of England. A crowd of wholly independent principalities seem to have been gradually united under one common rule." The name Mercians has been generally interpreted to mean the March-men, or inhabitants of the March or border land towards the Welsh frontier. Their group of principalities indeed stretched between the partially or wholly submerged dis- trict of the Fens on the south-east and the Severn on the west, the Mersey and the Humber defining their boundary on the north, and the German Ocean on the north-east. Among these princi- palities we have already had to mention that or those of the Ilwiccas, who are said to have occupied Gloucestershire, Worces- tershire, and part of Warwickshire. Perhaps their territories may have been bounded on the east by the Foss-Way, and on. the north by the Watling Street. Waeringawic (Warwick) appears at One time to have been their capital.
Proceeding with the few substantial historical materials that remain, we next come to consider the Marks or early settlements of the Anglo-Saxons, which are to be found in old Saxon records or may be inferred from existing local names. Of the 1,329 which Mr. Kemble has thus collected, Northamptonshire supplies 35 and Warwickabire 31, a medium position among the counties of England. Among those which belong to Northamptonshire are the Anningas, Bydeliugas, Cytringas, Cnyllingas, Dentuningas, Eastringas, Eoforduningas, Heningas, Suntingas, and Woodunin- gas ; and (inferred) the Arthingas (Arthingworth), Binges (Bing- ham), Boddingas (Boddington), Bringaa (Brington)„ Cypingas (Chipping), Cyslingas (Iiislingbury)—peculiar to this counky,— Collingas (Collingtree), Cotingaa (Cottingham), Daellingaa (Dallington), Dodingas (Doddingtou), Eleingas (Elkington), Fotheringas (Fotheringay) —peculiar to this county, — Ged- dingas (Geddington), Haningas (liannington), Heardingas (Hardingstone), Hearingas (Harrington), Irthliugas (Irthling- borough) —peculiar to this county,—Lodingas (Loddington), Ludingas (Luddington), Naeasingas (Nassington), Orlingas (Orlingbury)—peculiar to this county,—Pidingas (Piddington), Rocingas or Hrocingas (Rockinghatn)—peculiar to this county,— Theodingas (Thedingworth), Thurningas (Thurning), Wealingaa (Wellingborough), Wearmingas (Warmington), Waeringas (Wer- rington), and the iViteringas or liwiteringas ( Whittering)—pecu- liar to this county. In Warwickshire we find in early Saxon documents the Byrlingas and Stoppingas, and we may deduce the following additional marks from existing names in that county :— The Aeimiugas (Almington), Beormingas (Birmingham),—seem- ingly an offshoot from an original settlement at Banning in Kent,—Beoffingas (Bevington)—peculiar to this county, —aa are also the Bridingaa (Birdingbury), Bulcingas (Bulkingtou),
Burmingas (Burmington)—peculiar to this county,—Cubingas (Cubbington)—also peculiar to this county,—Deorsingas (Dor- sington), Eardingas (Erdington), Haestingas (Hastings), Hem- lingas (Hemlingford), Honingas (Honington)—seemingly an off- shoot from Honing, in Norfolk,—Ilmingas (Ilmington), Iccingas (Itchington), Leamingas (Leamington), Lillingas (Lillingtou), Ludingas (Luddington), Mollingas (Mollington), Paeccingas (Packington)—seemingly an offshoot from Patching, in Sussex,— Secgingas (Seckington)—peculiar to this county,—as are also the Scytingas (Shuttington), Wearmingas (Warmington), Wittingas, or Hwitingas (Whittington), and the Willingas (Willington).
Our readers will scarcely have failed to mark in the present names from which we deduce these early settlements of the occupiers of Warwickshire the great prevalence of the termina- tion ton, which is more decided even than in Northamptonshire. This is an essentially Saxon or German termination, indicating a race cognate with those which dwelt to the south of the Eyder and Sleswick. Whatever, therefore, may be our decision as to any difference between the Angle and Saxon races in England (which we ourselves do not believe in), the non-Scandinavian orgin of the Mercian settlers seems established. It will be observed also that these original settlements were most of them enclosed, but unfortified—itins, not barks. Peterborough, on the border of the Fen country, was originally called Medeshamstede ; then it became a bark or fortified town, and from its wealth was called Gylden-burh. We find mention of Hatntun (North- ampton) as a town or port (market) in the Saxon Chronicle ; of Tofeceaster (Towcester) as a civitas walled with atone; and of Waeringawic (Warwick) as an urbs.
We have no special historical events recorded in connection with the conquest and early possession of this Province by the Anglo-Saxons. The general basis of the Mercian social constitu- tion was, it will be remembered, very similar to that of the West Saxons—the King being rated at the same value with respect to the ceorl—viz., 72 to 1—and the Mercian noble standing with respect to the ceorl at 6 to 1—which was the value of the West- Saxon noble of the first class,—the Northumbrian social constitu- tion being much more aristocratic, and the Kentish much more democratic. The noble class, it will be observed, were in Mercia all on one level, which agrees very well with the present social position of the gentry. In other respects we see that the West- Saxon and Mercian completely agree.
There are but few entrenchments and military positions in North- amptonshire which may be possibly or probably Saxon ; there are still fewer in Warwickshire. In the former county we have more clear traces of Saxon occupation in church architecture. In the church at Brixworth we have "the earliest and most complete example in the kingdom. The Roman bricks rebuilt up in the walls and the basilican plan are embodied into that earliest ecclesias- tical style in England which a foregone theory only (says the writer in the Quarterly already quoted) would hesitate to pro- nounce as Saxon. "Mr. Poole has demonstrated two distinct ante-Norman periods in the existing church. There is a singular Saxon monument still preserved in the Cathedral at Peterborough, originally standing in the graveyard, erected to record the murder of Abbot Heddon and eighty-four of his monks, killed by the Danes in 870, which is the oldest existing Christian monument in Britain. Besides the rude transitional work of Brixworth, there are Saxon works of higher finish in the tower of Earl's Barton, and in the tower and chancel arches of Brig- stock and Whittering ; but it is Barnack that affords the grandest example of this period, not only in de county, but in the kingdom. The noble tower-arch displays, with the windows, doorway, niches, and ornaments of the tower, the singular transitionary work of builders passing for the first time from the use of wood to that of stone, and cutting their unwonted material and employing it in construction like joiners rather than masons. Out of the quarries of Barnack ray was dug the stone which built Peterborough and Croyland, Thorney and Ramsey, Ely and Bury St. Edmund's. The two stones in Caistor Field, on a land still called St. Edmund's Balk, but popularly said to mark the flight of Robin Hood's arrows, were probably connected with tolls paid in the conveyance of Barnack stone." Of Medesham- stede or Peterborough Abbey we shall have something to
say hereafter in speaking of that little city. Warwickshire cannot boast of such remains of Saxon architecture. The most striking are those of Poles worth Nunnery, which "principally con- sist of a fine arch and a gateway carved in several divisions. Roundheaded door-cases occur in the churches of Badgeley, Kenil- worth, Stretton on Dunsmoor, Ryton, Shuttendon, Honingham, Wolston, and Burton-Dassett. The remaining portions of More-
vale Abbey contain some interesting though ruinous specimens of the Saxon style ; and there are likewise some fragments in the churches of Salford-Priors and Beaudesert."
The Northman invasion, it is well known, overwhelmed the Afercitin principalities or kingdom. Hamtun (Northampton), among the rest, fell into their hands, and the encaftopment south of that place called Hantsborough Camp is said by tradition to have been then formed. Towcester and Medeshamstede Abbey were burnt by the invaders. When Alfred of the West Saxons suc- ceeded in stemming the tide of Northman conquest, a division of Mercia was made between the two races, all to the north-east of Watling Street being assigned to the Dane; and all to the south- west to the Saxons. The more permanent Scandinavian settle- ment is to be traced very distinctly by the prevalence of the ter- mination by instead of the Saxon ton. "Leicestershire is full of the former ; but as we approach Warwickshire they decrease, and there is none south of Rug-by. More than this, the form changes. suddenly, and three miles below this last-named town we have the Saxon form Dun-church (instead of the Scandinavian kirk), and Coach-batch. Tradition, too, indicates the existence of an old march or debateable land, for south of Rugby begins the scene of the deeds of Guy, Earl of Warwick, the slayer of the Dun Cow_ Dr. Latham, from whom we borrow this ethnological note, is of opinion that probably the Bevis of Hampton was a similar North- amptonshire hero, notwithstanding the claim of Southampton, "The old belief in Danish sacking and burning," says the writer in the Quarterly, "still holds among the common people [of Northamptonshire], and the trace of their power is discovered in the name Danes-nioney, given to the old coins found by the rustics ; and in the Dane-weed (Eryngium campestre), which, from its only known habitat, is oftener called the IVatling-Street thistle." And thus a wild flower preserves the memory of a historical demar- cation! Edward the Elder rebuilt Towcester ; he marched with his army to Passenham, in order to expel the Danes from this part of the country. It has been conjectured that on this occasion he caused a small squareoencampment to be made on the Ouse at Passenharn. During the latter part of the reign of Alfred the Saxon part of Warwickshire and Northamptonshire was under the government of the Ealdorman lEthered, and after his death, of his wife, the Lady Ethelfleda, Alfred's daughter. Northampton- shire was subsequently again exposed to the ravages of the Danes, under Sweyn and Canute, Northampton being once more occupied by them. In the Saxon division of the kingdom into great Earldoms, it seems to have sometimes formed part of that of Mercia ; at other times to have been attached to Northumbria ; and again held, together with Huntingdonshire, as a separate earldom, with Northampton as the capital, Coventry being sometimes the capital of another earldom, which included Warwickshire.
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