the whole sovereignty--the wise men of Northumberland, with Wulfstan
at their head, swore submission to him, but in 948 rebelled and chose
for their king Eric of Denmark. Edred marched at once against them, and
subdued the rebellion with great vigour, not to say riqour. He threw the
archbishop into prison at Jedburgh in Bernicia. After a time he was
released, but only upon the condition of banishment from Northumbria,
and he was made Bishop of Dorchester, a place familiar to the tourist on
the Thames, famed for the noble abbey church which still exists, and has
been grandly restored.

Although Dorchester is now only a village, it derives its origin from a
period so remote that it is lost in the mist of ages. It was probably a
British village under the name Cair Dauri, the camp on the waters; and
coins of Cunobelin, or Cassivellaunus, have been found in good
preservation. Bede mentions it as a Roman station, and Richard of
Cirencester marks it as such in the xviii. Iter, under the name Durocina.

Its bishopric was founded by Birinus, the apostle of the West Saxons;
and the present bishoprics of Winchester, Salisbury, Exeter, Bath and
Wells, Worcester and Hereford, were successively taken from it, after
which it still extended from the Thames to the Humber.

Suffering grievously from the ravages of the Danes, it became a small
town, and it suffered again grievously at the Conquest, when the
inhabited houses were reduced by the Norman ravages from 172 to 100, and
perhaps the inhabitants were reduced in proportion. In consequence,
Remigius, the first Norman bishop, removed the see to Lincoln, because
Dorchester, on account of its size and small population, did not suit
his ideas, as John of Brompton observes. From this period its decline
was rapid, in spite of its famous abbey, which Remigius partially