[1] Cod. Dip. CXLIII.

[2] Dr. Lappenburg (I. 38) describes the people of Warwickshire and Worcestershire as the “Gewissi.” But the “GevissÆ” was the ancient name of the southern main stem of the West Saxons, who made their way into Somerset and Devon (BÆda. H. E. III. 7), and plainly a name of distinction from the Huiccii. All the pre-Christian pedigrees of the West Saxon leaders have an early name “Gewis,” which has been, with great likelihood, supposed to have been the origin of the name of the GevissÆ. In some only of the pedigrees, this name is next preceded by “Wig.” This seems to point to a division of the leadership between two kinsmen, perhaps brothers; and the Wiccii or Wigornians to be derived from the latter.

[3] A.S. Chron., “Feathan leag”—Welsh Chronicles, “Ffery llwg.”

[4] Dr. Guest in ArchÆological Journal, vol. xix., p. 197.

[5] Thesaurus, I. 169.

[6] Dr. Guest and Mr. Freeman, and their followers, as the Saturday Review, and the various school histories, which, having adopted the innovation, are lauded in that journal.

[7] Prof. W. W. Skeat, Macmillan, Feb. 1879, p. 313.

[8] See “A PrimÆval British Metropolis,” Bristol, 1877, pp. 45-80.

[9] One of the obsolete ones was brought to mind by a paper read by Mr. C. E. Davis, at Bath, in 1857: another is printed from the Register of Worcester Cathedral in Thomas’s Survey, kindly pointed out by Mr. John Taylor; so that others, unreckoned, may possibly be brought to light.

There is one, in addition to all those above mentioned, at Dublin; but, as the dedications in Strongbow’s Dublin are no more than a post-Norman colonisation of those at Bristol, it does not enter into our reckoning.

[10] The genealogical relation of St. Werburgh and Æthelbald will be seen in this extract from Dr. Lappenberg’s Pedigree of the Kings of Mercia:

[11] The birth, in the West of England, of this assiduous propagator of the great mediÆval embodiment of civilisation, zealous devotee of the Church, and prominent European statesman, is so important a fact in our ethnical topography as to deserve a passing, though attentive, glance. On the authority of those who personally knew him, he was born near Exeter, about the year 680; but, although no Saxon Conquest had yet extended so far westward, he bore a Saxon name, although in the midst of a Celtic people. From this, and from other circumstances also mentioned of his early life, it may be inferred that his father was a peaceful Saxon colonist, in advance of conquest, and still a pagan; and that his mother was a British Christian. He is, therefore, the earliest recorded example of that irrepressible compound of the two races that has since made so many deep and broad marks upon the outer world. This fact, of a pacific international intercourse antecedent to conquest, was so directly in conflict with evolved history, that it has provoked an ineffectual attempt to subvert the testimony of it, by questioning the undoubted reading of the name as being that of Exeter. (E. A. Freeman, Esq., in ArchÆol. Journal, vol. xxx., or Macmillan M., Sep. 1873, p. 474).

Another, but later, testimony gives us the name of the place near Exeter where he was born: Crediton, in a deep and most fertile valley of that middle district in Devon which is the interval between the highlands of Dartmoor and Exmoor, but rather to the south-west of that district. Here there is reason to believe Christianity had already been established at a much earlier time, by Croyde, or Creed, an Irish missionary virgin, who has left her name at other places throughout both Devon and Cornwall. The incredulity, that Crediton was the birthplace of S. Bonifatius, was vindicated by saying that it has “no ancient authority whatever.” It has not contemporary authority like that for “near Exeter,” which, however, it strongly confirms, and which, for English topography of so early a date, is almost unique in its explicitness, but it has an authority as ancient as we are obliged to be content with for nearly all we know of those times, and far more respectable than most of it. The authority is a church-service book, still preserved in Exeter Cathedral, compiled by Bp. Grandisson (died A.D. 1366), and attested by his autograph. If this had been a mere outdoor tradition, and had rested upon no more than the personal authority of this most distinguished man, it would even then have been the very highest evidence of its kind. But it does no such thing. Bp. Grandisson is not the author of the book any more than St. Osmund is the author of the Usages of Sarum. He is the codifier of the immemorial observances of the church, at which the contemporary biographer of St. Boniface attests that he received his earliest teaching; and of the very existence of which church their irreproachable attestation is by a long interval the earliest record.

But there is another evidence that this great man of his age was known, to his compatriots in his own province, as one of themselves. Of this they have left a substantial monument in the dedications of two churches still remaining in Devon, not in his ecclesiastical name, by which the rest of the world knew him, but in his birth-name of “Winfrid” by which they had remembered him. The two more distant extant dedications of Bonchurch, Isle of Wight, and Banbury, Cheshire, on the contrary, in their dedications of “St. Boniface” are mere reflections of his realised continental greatness back upon his own island.

Winfrith, near Lulworth, in Dorset, probably had a third western example of the dedication, for although the present church is of Norman structure, and with a different dedication (St. Christopher), most likely, as in many other cases, an earlier sanctuary existed in Winfrid’s name.

[12] What may be presumed to be another dedication of St. Werburgh has since been traced to its place, and may be reckoned as an eighth of those in the home kingdom, at its southern frontier. Among the land-marks (A.D. 849) of a place called “Coftun,” is Werburgh’s cross (“in WÆrburge rode”) Cod. Dip. CCLXII. This has been found to be Cofton Hackett, in that north point of Worcestershire that abuts upon Staffordshire and Shropshire.

[13] Lib. v.

[14] See Warner p. 228. Collinson’s Som., vol. I. Bath, p. 53.

[15] Thomas, Worc. Cath., 1736, Append. No. 9. p. 6. It might be worth while to search for remains of it in plantations thereabout. It is distinct from the chapel of St. Blaise, and on a different eminence.

[16] Saturday Rev., Ap. 24, 1875, p. 533.

[17] Reg. Worc. Priory, Camden Soc.

[18] Page 105.

[19] 1846. Glaston. No. LXXXV.

[20] Cod. Dip., No. XCII.

[21] An account of A.S. Coins, &c. Communicated to the Numismatic Society of London, by Jonathan Rashleigh, Esq., 1868.

[22] WessexonicÈ “vvrasseling.”

[23] No matter about their names. Their ethnical pedigree is distinctly blazoned in their portraits.

[24] A remarkable cluster of four or five names, with the form “-hoe,” occurs on the coast of North Devon, in that part where we have already pointed to the unrecorded Mercian descents upon the Damnonian Britons (see before pp. 119-121). This is very faraway from the much more numerous assemblages of it, which are in the Anglian parts of England. It has been contended that this name-form is a vestige of the Danes, and, on this North Devon coast, the Danes might quite as likely have left their mark, as the Mercians. But one of them, “Martinhoe,” is formed by the addition of “-hoe” to the Christian dedication of the church: not likely, therefore, to have been named by a pagan colony. Another place, in East Devon not many miles from the Mercian Widworthy-St. Cuthbert already mentioned, (p. 125), called “Pinhoe,” is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 1001, to have been burnt by the Danes in revenge of a Saxon defeat. Would this revenge have fallen upon their own countrymen? Also, close to the South Devon dedication of St. Werburgh (p. 121), at Wembury, before mentioned, are two examples of this name-form. One, the well-known “Hoe,” of Plymouth; another, the village of “Hooe,” in the promontory itself, where Wembury stands. Again, we have seen above that this very “regio,” in Kent, which now engages us, was so named “Hogh” so early as A.D. 738. Very early for the Danes. Add to this: contemporary with the first appearance of the Danes in Northumbria, at Lindisfarne, there was already a place called “Billingahoh,” now “Billingham,” near Stockton.

It is, therefore, evident that “-hoe” was here before the Danes, and can be no other than an Anglian peculiarity. It is, therefore, an additional evidence, and very strong confirmation, of what has been already said of the great Mercian descent upon Devon, that this Anglianism is found strewed in the very path of it.

It will presently be seen that, besides Simeon of Durham, and other early chroniclers, both Somner and Camden took it for granted that “-hoe” is only another form, or dialect of “-ham.” It is however not unlikely, that, as in many other cases, a second mark of names “-haw” or “-haugh,” said to be Danish, has been concurrent with and undistinguished from this.

[25] Cod. Dip., No. LXXXV.

[26] 8b.

[27] First mentioned by Beda as “Clofeshoch,” and in K. Alfred’s translation “Clofeshooh.”

[28] See Cod. Dip. passim, for other varieties of the name.

[29] Two S. Chronicles, Oxford, 1565.

[30] It is to be regretted that editors of ancient texts, have not more generally extended their care to the preservation of marginal and other adventitious notes, even when they are of comparatively much later date than the texts, which of course are their chief care. Such valuable fragments are in imminent peril at the present day; for whenever a new discovery of ancient books or records is now brought to the notice of the most distinguished experts, the very first piece of advice is that they shall be “cleaned,” “repaired,” and “skilfully” rebound. See, among others, examples in the Historical Manuscripts Commission, passim. Why the binding, and even the status quo itself, is a part of the essence of such things, as monuments. But manuscripts, with far less excuse, are following the churches on the broad way to refaction, as it may be mildly called.

When the fanciers of books, especially in London, as well as experts in manuscripts, make a fortunate acquisition of anything, both fine and unique; after the usual notes of admiration, such as “truly marvellous,” etc., they go on to say, “but it deserves a better jacket.” And at once order it to be stripped of its monumental covering, and scoured of the autumnal tints of many ages; its pedigree, contained in ancient shelf-marks, and autographs, is discarded; often valuable notarial records of events that have for safety, like monuments in churches, been entered on the covers and fly-leaves, are lost; and it is finally converted into a monument of nineteenth century skill in smooth morocco, “antique style,” &c. All that is really wanted, however, is either a box-case, or other apparatus for protection. Keep charters or papers nearly as you do Bank of England Notes. These are never bound for safe-keeping. On the outsides of these unattached bindings, or other provisions for safe-keeping, can be lavished whatever munificence, or luxury of modern art, may be thought to be a sufficient tribute of admiration to the object contained.