thwards, defeated the
Britons in =571= at Bedford, and occupied the valleys of the Thame and
Cherwell and the upper valley of the Ouse. They are next heard of much
further west, and it has been supposed that they turned in that
direction because they found the lower Ouse already held by Angle
tribes. However this may have been, they crossed the Cotswolds in
=577= under two brothers, Ceawlin and Cutha, and at Deorham defeated
and slew three kings who ruled over the cities of Glevum
(_Gloucester_), Corinium (_Cirencester_), and Aquae Sulis (_Bath_).
They seized on the fertile valley of the Severn, and during the next
few years they pressed gradually northwards. In =584= they destroyed
and sacked the old Roman station of Viriconium. This was their last
victory for many a year. They attempted to reach Chester, but were
defeated at Faddiley by the Britons, who slew Cutha in the battle.

[Illustration: Old Sarum from an engraving published in 1843, showing
mound. (It is now obscured by trees from this point of view.)]

20. =Repulse of the West Saxons.=--After the defeat at Faddiley the
West Saxons split up into two peoples. Those of them who settled in
the lower Severn valley took the name of Hwiccan, and joined the
Britons against their own kindred. This alliance could hardly have
taken place if the Hwiccan, in settling in the Severn valley, had
destroyed the whole, or even a considerable part, of the Celtic
population, though there can be little doubt that there was still
slaughter when a battle was fought or a town taken by storm; as it is
known that the magnificent Roman buildings at Bath were standing in
ruins and the city untenanted many years after the capture of the
city. At all events, the Britons, now allied with the Hwiccan,
defeated Ceawlin at Wanborough. After this disaster, though the West
Saxon kingdom retained its independence, it was independent within
smaller limits than those which Ceawlin had wished to give to it. If
he had seized Chester he would have been on the way to gain the
mastery over all England, but he had tried to do too much in a short
time. His people can hardly have been numerous enough to occupy in
force a territory reaching from Southampton Water to Bedford on one
side and to Chester on another.

21. =The Advance of the Angles.=--Whilst the West Saxons were
enlarging their boundaries in the south, the Angles were gradually
spreading in the centre and the north. The East Anglians were sto