as that of a slave. The so-called Nennius tells us that Elmet in
Yorkshire, long an intrusive Welsh principality, was not subdued by the
English till the reign of Eadwine of Northumbria; when, we learn, the
Northumbrian prince "seized Elmet, and expelled Cerdic its king:" but
nothing is said as to any extermination of its people. As Bæda
incidentally mentions this Cerdic, "king of the Britons," Nennius may
probably be trusted upon the point. As late as the beginning of the
tenth century, King Ælfred in his will describes the people of Devon,
Dorset, Somerset, and Wilts, as "Welsh kin." The physical appearance of
the peasantry in the Severn valley, and especially in Shropshire,
Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, and Herefordshire, indicates that the
western parts of Mercia were equally Celtic in blood. The dialect of
Lancashire contains a large Celtic infusion. Similarly, the English
clan-villages decrease gradually in numbers as we move westward, till
they almost disappear beyond the central dividing ridge. We learn from
Domesday Book that at the date of the Norman conquest the number of
serfs was greater from east to west, and largest on the Welsh border.
Mr. Isaac Taylor points out that a similar argument may be derived from
the area of the hundreds in various counties. The hundred was originally
a body of one hundred English families (more or less), bound together by
mutual pledge, and answerable for one another's conduct. In Sussex, the
average number of square miles in each hundred is only twenty-three; in
Kent, twenty-four; in Surrey, fifty-eight; and in Herts, seventy-nine:
but in Gloucester it is ninety-seven; in Derby, one hundred and
sixty-two; in Warwick, one hundred and seventy-nine; and in Lancashire,
three hundred and two. These facts imply that the English population
clustered thickest in the old settled east, but grew thinner and thinner
towards the Welsh and Cumbrian border. Altogether, the historical
evidence regarding the western slopes of England bears out Professor
Huxley's dictum as to the thoroughly Celtic character of their