EARLY SAXON TIMES
1. The conquest of Britain by the Saxons took a long time--considerably
over one hundred and fifty years. A great many people are born, and
live their lives, and die, in such a period of time as that. It was
only little by little that the various tribes of Saxons got a footing
in England. They were the stronger and fiercer race, and the Britons
were gradually subdued or driven into the mountainous regions by them.
2. Those early tribes of Saxons, who came to Britain, brought with
them their own special manners and customs. As they settled down, the
face of the country was gradually changed by them. They disliked and
suspected everything Roman, and destroyed the towns and villas. They
hated the idea of walled towns. These, therefore, were left in ruins;
and the great highways, being neglected in most places, were, in the
course of years, overgrown with brushwood and hidden in thick forests.
3. In some parts of the country the Saxons seem to have completely
swept the Britons away, and almost all traces of them vanished; but, in
other parts, there certainly were some of them left, because we have
still their marks upon our language. Although most of the =place-names=
in use now are Saxon or Danish, there are still a good many of British,
or partly British, origin.
4. The names of many of our rivers are British or Celtic, such as Axe,
Exe, Stour, Ouse, and Yare. So are many names of hills; and, in some
parts of the country, the names of the villages are partly British
and partly Saxon. Take, for instance, such a common name as Ashwell.
Some learned men think that it is made up of two words, =Ash= and
=Well=, both meaning pretty much the same thing, _ash_ being British
for "water", and _well_ being Saxon for "watering-place". Now, if the
Saxons had quite got rid of the Britons, they would not have known that
a particular place was called "Ash"--they learned to call it "Ash" from
the natives, but they did not know what it meant. They knew that there
was a spring of water there, which they called a "well"; and so, to
distinguish it from other wells in the neighbourhood, they got into the
habit of calling it "Ashwell"--and the name has stuck to the place.
5. In some such way as this many other place-names, partly British and
partly Saxon, were formed; and they teach us this, that Saxons and
Britons must have lived near each other closely enough for the Saxons
to take up and use some British names.
6. There are some English counties in which you will hardly find
one place-name which is not Saxon. This shows us that the Britons
were either killed or completely driven away. That is the case in
Hertfordshire. But in Hampshire, while most of the names are Saxon,
there are many partly Saxon and partly British. This same thing can be
noticed in the county of Gloucester. The Britons, then, must have been
in these districts long enough for the Saxons to pick up a good many
place-names. They did not understand the meaning of them, and so tacked
on to them names which they _did_ understand.
7. The Saxons made their settlements at first away from the Roman towns
and British villages. In the course of time, in a good many cases, they
made settlements very close to these old sites, and we know that Saxons
lived in such places as Winchester, Gloucester, and London. We find,
especially in Hampshire and Gloucestershire, that near, or in, certain
villages with Saxon names, Roman remains have from time to time been
dug up.
=Summary.=--The Saxon conquest was gradual. At first the invaders
destroyed and avoided the remains of Roman cities. In some parts
of the country the Britons were swept quite away, and British
names forgotten. The old place names in some places show that the
Britons and Saxons must have lived side by side, as was the case
in Hampshire and Gloucestershire. In others, as in Hertfordshire,
the Britons quite disappeared, as nearly all the place-names are
Saxon. Roman remains have been found in some places with Saxon
names, which seems to show that after a time the Saxons took to
some old Roman sites for their dwelling-places.