i :
184 CRANIA BRITANNIOA. [CHAP. VI.
without exhausting those which may be collected, of similar local names, whence other Marks
may be inferred. The number of such family names, ending in -ingas, in these tables, as
^scingas, from the Anglo-Saxon -mg, son of, is more than 1300. They cannot be used as any
index of the density of the Anglo-Saxon population, but they point unequivocaUy to the districts
in which the settlements were most numerous, and in which they were fewest. As instants
of the former we may name, on the eastern and southern coasts, Northumberland 48, Yorkshire
172, Lincolnshire 76, Norfolk 97, Suffolk 56, Essex 48, Kent 60, Sussex 68; in the midland
district, Warwick 31, Oxford 31, Gloucester 46. As examples of the smaUest numbers, Cumberland
6, Westmoreland 2, Cornwall 2.
In after times, in the eleventh century, the Domesday-book affords materials for estimating m
a great degree, not only the extent of the Anglo-Saxon population, but its condition also. Mr.
Sharon Turner has employed it for tHs purpose, and has been at considerable pains in analysing
it. He states that there arc 300,785 persons mentioned in Domesday, which excluded Northumberland
and Dui-ham, and parts of Cumberland and Westmoreland. Of these, 199,091 were
emimerated in the Anglo-Saxon counties, and 100,794 in those five eastern counties in which,
before this time, the Danes had settled so extensively. This number of 300,785 he regards as so
many families, and aUows five persons as an average for each. He then points out the numerous
omissions in Domesday, some whole classes, as the monks and nearly aU the parochial clergy,
being omitted, and a large proportion of the actual freemen, who were whoUy exempted from
payil^ent or other service to the state. Mr. Turner deduces the general conclusion from this
calculation, that the Anglo-Saxon population in the period just before the Norman Conquest must
have exceeded 2,000,000 *. After an analysis of the condition of this population as presented in
the Survey, he concludes that " there can be no doubt that neai-ly three-fourths of the Anglo-
Saxon population were in a state of slavery " t ,—a picture of things in this island which is not
favoui-able to the state of society estabUshed by the forefathers of a people now so unmeasurably
opposed to the servitude of a race distinguished in all times for their vast and irreclaimable
inferiority. Mr. Wright has remarked that, in a number of cases of manumission of serfs of a
date posterior to the Norman Conquest, " in every instance the name of the serf manumitted is
Saxon, and that the seller only is sometimes a Norman" t-
It becomes a question of considerable interest, to what degree the imperfectly Eomanized
Britons during the Anglo-Saxon conquest were extermhiated, or eradicated from the eastern
portions of the island. In wars which lasted 150 years and were marked on both sides by
ferocity and blood-thirstiness, a great destruction of the vanquished Britons must have taken
place, especially when we consider the Saxon object of rooting out their enemies. Some
retreated before irresistible foes and found safety in Wales and hi Domnania; but the greater
portion either perished, or were subdued to the services of theii- conquerors. That a portion
should escape in this way, to remain m the hands of their Saxon masters attached to the land,
as their serfs, seems highly probable, and receives confirmation from aU that we learn concerning
the Wealhas who continued among the EngHsh. We read of them in various positions ; and the
Saxon Chronicle even mentions a Wealhgerefa, or Welsh-reeve, who appears to have been
attached to the palace §.
* Hist, of the Anglo-Saxons, oth ed. 1828, iii. 258. by the Anglo-Saxons from the continent, and considers that
Jl^ 259 their earlier kingdoms, Kent, Essex, Wessex, &c., would cont
Archteoiogia, vol. xxx. p. 223. tain the largest proportion of these transported theows ; whilst
§ Mr Wright argues for the introduction of a seryile class their later conquests, Mercia, the extreme parts of Northumhria
CHAP. VI . ] ETHNOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OE SUCCESSIVE POPULATIONS. 185
A great mixture of races took place during the Anglo-Saxon conquest, to wliich contributed
materially the peculiar position of the youtUul invaders, who generally came alone. When
settled, there would be constant intercourse with the coasts from which they took theii- departure;
and their connexions and aUiances would assui-edly follow, although, it is probable, in numbers too
small to keep up the equaUty of the sexes. It is believed that some traces of the difl-erent proportions
of the two races, and of the preponderance of the blood of the one or of the other, may
still be perceived in several counties of Great Britain.
Of the greatly purer British populations, that of Cornwall we have already aUuded to, in
which region the two races were distinct and inimical to each other, especially in matters of reUgion
The people of this region extending into Somersetshire, formed at the end of the sixth
and commencement of the seventh centm-y the important kingdom of Domnania, under native
British princes *. The Anglo-Saxon name wealhas, foreigners, or Welshmen, came to be generally
applied to the aboriginal Britons in then- own land; and as these were the serfs of the
Anglo-Saxons, it became the homonym of slaves. The next occupied, and still, in a more or less
unmixed state, occupies Wales (a term imposed by the Anglo-Saxons themselves), extending mto
a wide border land, the Marches of Mercia and Wales, long the field of mutual animositfes
and much strife. This is the district of country in which the Mercians constructed the fortifications
against the Britons, known under the appeUations of Ofi'a's Dyke and Wat's Dyke.
EoUowing the same side of the island, we soon approach the domains of the Cumbrian Britons.
These were the inhabitants of the western portion of the Roman province of Valentia, situated
between the two WaUs, including the Selgovse, the Novantse, and the Daninii, and those of the
modern Cumberland and Westmoreland, the Brigantes. These western Britons, at an early
period of their history, constituted a number of distinct governments having distinguishing
names, among the more important of which was that of the kingdom of Strath-clyde. In the subsequent
century the Britons of Strath-clyde, Galloway, and a portion of the country south of the
Solway were united in the kingdom of Cumbria. The present county of Cumberland, mostly to
the south of the lower rampart, still retains this appeUation, conferred upon it by Anglo-Saxons of
yet more southern regions f . Some authorities extend the Cumbrian kingdom to the southern
boundaries of Lancashii-e J. A charter of the Northumbrian king Ecgfrith, in which he grants
Caitmel in this county to St. Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, conveys over at the same time " all
and the western parts of the island, would have a greater,
sometimes a preponderating, mixture of the older British population.—
Archaeologia, vol. xxx. p. 210.
* The river Tamar, which separates Cornwall from Devonshire,
ultimately became the hmit of the two races, of which
Lappenberg observes, "That river for some centuries continued
to form one of the most remarkable boundaries between
two nations and two languages in all Europe."—Vol. ii. p. 5.
At the opening of the eighth century, Aldhelm, the Saxon
bishop of Sherborne, addressed a letter to the British king of
Cornwall, from which it appears that the Wealas would not
pray in the same church, nor eat at the same table with a
Saxon : they would throw the food which a Saxon had cooked
to the dogs, and rinse the cup which a Saxon had used with
sand or ashes, before they would drink out of it: and if a
Saxon went to sojourn among them, they put him to a penance
of forty days before they would show him any act of kindness.
A Geography of Cornwall, by John J. Dauiell, 1854, p. 43.
t Cumberland: from Anglo-Saxon comb, a valley, the land
of valleys, is its immediate derivation ; in which it is congenerous
with the geographical names "Westmoreland and Northumberland.
Camden, " Britannia," vol. iii. p. 421, makes the
word to be of ethnological origin, and refers its etymology to
the name of its British inhabitants, who, in their own language,
called themselves Kimiri and Kambri. This latter view has
been more generally received. The former appears to be preferable.
The earliest application of the term Cumbri to the
Britons in this region is in Ethelwerd's Chronicle, in 875 ;
and that this ia the same as Cymry, the name of the Welsh,
is an entire assumption. The Welsh designation itself is not
of great antiquity. Cumberland is the name of a place in
Cheshire, another valley region, in which Cumber or Comber
occurs in combination at least three times.
t Palgrave, Hist, of Engl. 1831, p. 46. See Mr. G. V.
Irving's criticism upon the opposite opinions which have been
held on this point; from which it appears that regio Cumbrerisis