The History of Ludlow and its neighbourhood; forming a popular sketch of the history of the Welsh Border

Front matter

THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW , ,y Y,,,>7 77'<„/7 . '7Y77fr7/7 THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD: FORMING A POPULAR SKETCH or the HISTORY OF THE WELSH BORDER. v.\ THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq. M.A.,F.S.A., Hon. M.R.S.L., Of Trinity College, Cambridge; Correspondent of the Institute of France (Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres J ; Corresponding Member of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland ; foreign Member of the Societe des Antiquaires de France; the Societe des Antiquaries de Normandie; tlie Academie des Sciences, Arts, et Belles-Lettres de Caen; the Soci7t7 Ethnologkjue of Paris ; the Historical and Geographical Societies of Hesse-Darmstadt , de Svenska Fornskrift-Sdllskapet, Stockholm; the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries of Copenhagen; fye. fye.; and Corresponding Member of tie Committees appointed by the French Government for ihe publication oj Historical Monuments. L U D L O W PUBLISHED BY R. JONES, BEOAD STREET LONDON: LONGMAN AND CO, PATERNOSTER KOW AND J. E.USSELL SMITH, S0110 SQU-UiE. M.DCCC LH V

Preface

. THE historical sketch comprised in the following pages was commenced some years ago, with the desire of giving a popular account of the past condition of a district which is endeared to the writer as that in which he was born, and in which he received his earher education. Many causes have since com bined to retard its completion, and many parts of it have bien written under circumstances which renders it necessary to ask for the indulgence of the readers. It was the author's wish, as far as he could, to show that the old dull fashion of compUing local histories might be laid aside, without making them less serious or less accurate, and it must be confessed that it would be difficult to find any district in England which offered A better opportunity of doing so than the borders of Wales.

For ages the scene of many of the most important events in English history, and connected in a peculiar degree with the great revolutions in the pohtical and social condition of English men, the border districts present such a combination of beautiful scenery and historical associations as is seldom to be met with. Under the Romans a miUtary road ran through them from north to south, which was lined with flourishing towns and cities ; they were afterwards the favourite residence of the Mercian princes ; and at a stUl later period, when the Saxons had given way to the Normans, they were the stronghold of the great baronial houses whose influence contributed so extensively to most of the great events of the middle ages. AVe find in that dark period poetry and literature establishing themselve* here in a very marked manner, and as the age of the refor-

PREFACE.

. II mation approached we trace here also in theh earlier development the principles of religious freedom. It has been attempted in the present volume to describe these events more minutely and continuously than in any former work, and a considerable mass of materials have been brought together for that purpose which had not been used before. It was the writer's first intention to conclude with a history of the great civU wars of the seventeenth century, as far as they affected this district ; but finding that that subject has occupied for some time the attention of a distinguished border antiquary, the Rev. J. Webb, of Tretire, who is much better qualified to do it justice, he wiUingly and gladly resigns it into his hands. With this only omission from his original plan, he now takes leave of a work which, taken up at leisure moments, has always been one of pleasure and love.

Brompton, London. July, 1852. THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD; FORMING A POPULAR SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE WELSH BORDER. BV THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq., M. A., F. S. A., &c. CF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE ; CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND ; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OP NORTHERN ANTIQUARIES OF COPENHAGEN ; AND CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEES APPOINTED BY THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT FOR THE PUBLICATION OF HISTORICAL MONUMENTS. LUDLOW: PUBLISHED BY R. JONES, BROAD-STREET. LONDON J LONGMAN AND CO. PATERNOSTER ROW, AND W. PICKERING, CHANCERY LANE. M.DCCC.XLI. R. JonM, Printer, Broad-street, Ludlow.

ADVERTISEMENT.

. THE foUowing pages have no further pretensions than that of giving a popular sketch of the History of the Border of Wales, and more particularly of the immediate neighbourhood of Ludlow, one of tbe most interesting localities in England. In this first part the writer has endeavoured to bring into use some materials hitherto httle attended to, illustrative of the History and Antiquities of this district under the Saxons and the Normans, and he lays the result before the pubhc with the hope that it may be found in teresting to his readers. The second part will include the History of the great baronial struggle during the thirteenth century, the lesser movements of the fourteenth, and pro bably tbe subsequent wars between the rival houses of York and Lancaster, as far as they were connected with the Border.

In the third and fourth parts, which will complete the work, it is intended to give the History of the Council for the Government of Wales which was established at Ludlow during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the History of the great Civil Wars of the middle of the latter century as far as they affected this district. London, June 1, 1841. INTERIOR OF LUDLOW CASTLE. WITH THE CHAPEL OF Si MAH) MAGDALEN t..,Hnlianj ANT) ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD.

Section I

Border History prerious to tke Conquest. AS we ascend the stream of history, the monuments of our forefathers are continually becoming more rare, until we find no other memorial of their existence than the earth on which they lived. The historical monuments, indeed, vary not only in quantity, but in their character, and their variations to a certain degree may be defined by hmits. From the beginning of the thirteenth century to the present time, historical events may be verified hy the official records which are still preserved in our public offices; and they are detailed in numerous contemporary chronicles. During the Anglo-Norman period, from the conquest to the end of the twelfth century, a very large portion of the official records of the kingdom have perished • but their place is in some measure supplied by an unusual number of interesting historical narratives written by those who witnessed the events which they describe.

Under the Anglo-Saxons, the written memorials of history, though much fewer, are still authentic and valuable: but at this period, owing to the divisions of the country and the local b . 7 . A Ao o THE HISTORY OF Lt'DLOW. character of the chronicles, we know much more of some parts of the country than of others. Of the Roman period we have a few scattered notices in foreign writers; but we may trace the history of that people by their roads and their camps. The only definite memorials of the earlier Britons are theh graves. We know httle of the border history before the times of the Anglo-Saxons. The numerous traces of entrench ments and fortifications of a remote date, prove that this district was frequently the scene of warfare. It is probable that before the Roman invasion, the tribes who inhabited the wilds of what we now call Wales, were accustomed to make predatory excursions against the Britons hi the neighbouring plains, whilst the latter, exposed also to piratical invasions from the north and the south, provided for the temporary safety of themselves and as much of their property as they could carry away, by forming strong holds at the tops of the loftiest hills.

We have no means of judging how far the spirit of the mountain tribes was tamed by the Roman arms ; although the remains of roads and stations show that at least the coasts and the more accessible parts were reduced under the dominion of that extraordinary people. A Roman road may still be distinctly traced running from Wroxeter near Shrewsbury (the Uriconium or Viri conium of the Romans) to Kenchester near Hereford (the Roman Magna), accompanied, like all such roads, by nu merous tumuh, and skirted by a continued line of strong camps. The formidable entrenchments which crown the hills that overlook this route, particularly in the narrow mountain passes like that of Aymestry, and which were doubtlessly intended to protect it from the incursions of the mountaineers to whom its position here exposed it, are convincing proofs of the unquiet state of this portion of the Roman province.

The neighbourhood is supposed to have been the scene of the last actions of the war against Caractacus; but it would be difficult or impossible now to point out the positions which were occupied by the rival armies. There can be no doubt that the road just mentioned, which, prolonged in its opposite directions, was the line of communication between Deva (Chester) and Blestiuni (Monmouth), was the one indicated in the Itinerary of Antoninus. From Wroxeter it runs, not south (as the old Antiquaries drew the road), but in a south-westerly direction to Church-Stretton, whence it takes a more southerly direction and crosses the Oney at Stretford Bridge, passing on by Rowton to Leintwardine, and thence by Wigmore to Aymestry and to Street (about three miles south of Aymestry), and thus having made a considerable curve proceeds in a more easterly course by Legion Cross, near Burton, to another Stretford Bridge, and so on towards Kenchester.

On this line of road lay an intermediate station, between Uriconium and Magna, twenty-seven Roman miles from the former and twenty-four from the latter place. This town, named by the Romans Bravinium, must have been situated in the immediate neighbourhood of Ludlow, perhaps nearer to the road, at or near Leintwardine ; though it may be doubted how far it is necessary to suppose that the smaller Roman towns were situated on the roads. The geo grapher Manners places Bravinium at Bromfield.* The httle historical information that we possess relating to the invasion of our island by the Saxons, is obscured by much fable ; through the mist of tradition we can only discern the indefinite traces of battles and ravages by which their conquests were founded and assured. It is certain, that long before this land had ceased to be a Roman * "In die Niihe von Ludlow, eigentlich etwas nordwesllicher, wo sich der Ony in den Teme-Fluss ergiesst, an die Slelle des Dorses Bromfield."

Mannert, Britannia, p. 140. This conjecture of Manners is rather singular when coupled with another circumstance. I am strongly inclined to believe that the present race-course (adjacent to Bromfield), which bears the name of the Old-Field, and around which there are several tumuli, was the site of a Roman settlement of some kind ; and if the tumuli were opened, their contents would probably be found to be pure Roman. province, its coasts were infested by tbe Saxon rovers ; and it is probable that their depredations increased as the Roman power dechned, until in the middle of the fifth century (a. d. 449) a party who came from Jutland entered the Thames and estabhshed themselves in Kent. Eight-and twenty years later Ælla with his Saxons landed on the southern coast, and founded the kingdom of the South Saxons, or Sussex.

Another party of his countrymen un der Cerdic formed, in 494, the adjacent kingdom of the West Saxons, or Wessex. The Angles, a kindred race, were at the same time beginning to settle on the eastern coast, so that vvhen Ida founded the powerful kingdom of Northumberland in 547, the maritime districts of England, from Cornwall to the Forth, including much of the low lands of Scotland, were portioned out into petty Saxon states. While these states were establishing and strengthening themselves, a number of apparently independent chieftains were gradually taking possession of the territory which lay on then borders towards the interior of the island. The lands which they thus occupied were called the mearce, i. e. borders or marches, and the people who held them were Myrce, or Meree, borderers.

As the inland Britons were in this manner by degrees reduced to subjection, the whole of the interior as far as the feet of the Welsh mountains became one extensive Saxon state, and was known by the name of Myrcna-land or Myrcna-rice, the land or king dom of the borderers, Latinised into Mercia. The name is still preserved in that of the Marches of Wales. It is a commonly received, but very erroneous, notion, that as the Saxon conquerors advanced, the British population quitted the land, and left it open to the invaders, ta king refuge themselves in the highlands and parts not yet subdued. In the fifth century the inhabitants of the part of the island we now call England must have become es sentially Roman ; it was covered with Roman towns and villages ; a large portion of the landholders were no doubt Romans by family ; those of the higher caste and the inhabitants of towns who were of British origin, had be come Romans in manners and by alhance of blood ; and the only pure British part of the population were the lovver classes and the cultivators of the land — in fact, the serfs.* It may fairly be doubted whether any other but the Roman language was in use.

The picture of the Anglo-Saxon in vasion resembled that of the irruption of the Franks into Gaul. Their fury was directed chiefly against the higher caste, a large portion of which fell in battle ; the towns were plundered and burnt, and their inhabitants massa cred ; but the mass of the population became the serfs of the conquerors as they had previously been of the van quished — it was but a change of masters. Wealh in Anglo-Saxon (and its equivalent in other Germanic tongues) signified generally a foreigner, but was more particularly applied to the people who spoke the Latin tongue, or dialects derived from it. In German, Italy is still called Welschland. The Anglo-Saxons gave the name of Wedlas or Wylisc menn to the British population in their own territory, as well as to the population of the then independent districts in the names of which it is still preserved, Wales and Corn wall (the country of the Corn-wealas).

This is the origin of our word Welsh. The existence of a Welsh population in the Saxon kingdoms, more particularly in Mercia and Wessex, is distinctly acknowledged in the Anglo-Saxon laws. In the eye of the law, the Welshman, even vvhen he became a landholder (which seems to have been a case that was rare and never to any great extent), was much in ferior in value to an Englishman. The learned editor of the Anglo-Saxon Laws, Mr. Thorpe, compares the Wealh under the Saxons with the Romanus tributarius of the Salic law. In the laws of Ine, king of the West-Saxons, * The British soldiers who fought against the Saxons, were formed by Roman discipline. Henry of Huntingdon, sneaking of the battle of Wodnesburh, says "cum autem Brittones more Romanorum acics distincte admoverent, Saxones vero audacter et confuse irruerent."

(p. 315.) composed in the latter years of the seventh century, the Wealh is distinguished into the tvvo classes of gafol-gelda (rent-payer, or tenant) and theow, (serf). The two peoples gradually melted into one; but even as late as the reign of Henry I, the distinction is admitted in the laws, and it appears not unfrequently in Doomsday in the districts near the borders. It was probably from this intermixture of people that originated the common English names of Jones, Davies, Price, &c. By the Saxons, as well as by the Franks, the Roman towns (and all towns they found were Roman) were redu ced to heaps of ruins, and became the haunts of wild beasts and birds of prey. After the conversion of the Ger manic tribes, these nuns offered inviting situations for monastic establishments, not only on account of the melan choly sohtude winch reigned there, but also because they offered .ready materials for building, and these monastic foundations were frequently the origin of new towns which at a later period occupied the ancient sites.

Thus the monastery of St. Alban's was built amid the massy ruins of the ancient Verulamium, which were but imperfectly cleared even in the thirteenth century. But the invaders seldom repaired the towns they had destroyed. It was pro bably in the latter half of the sixth century that the Mer cians passed the Severn and destroyed the towns along the Roman road which we have aheady described. The fate of Uriconium is perhaps indicated in its modern name of Wroxeter (Wrace-ceaster, the town of vengeance?). The remains of this place are still a proof of its former strength and importance ; the site of Magna at Kenchester was co vered with ruins so late as the time of Leland ; but the last definite traces of Bravinium have long disappeared.* Both * The Saxons gave to the Roman towns and fortresses the name of ceaste r, probably formed from the Latin castrum : and wherever we find the name of a place composed of cester, or Chester, we may be sure it is the site of a Roman station.

The Saxons gave to the forts or towns which they built themselves generally the name of burh, or burgh. Uriconium and Magna were important positions to check the inroads of the "mountain-dwellers" (dun-sœtas) as the Saxons termed the people who only have since borne the name of Welsh ; and very shortly after their destruction, the conquerors erected two new towns in their immediate vicinity : one they named Scrobbes-burh, the town of shrubs, from the wooded appearance of the neighbourhood, now softened to Shrewsbury ;* the other Here-ford, the ford of the army, because it was the point at which the hostile armies were in the habit of passing the Wye in their excursions. We have no account of the earlier period of Mercian history. That people appears to have been composed of different tribes, each governed originally by its independent chieftain.

The tribe of the Hwiccas was seated in the modern counties of Worcester and Gloucester; its chief town, named Wicwara-ceaster, or Wigra-ceaster,' (Wor cester) had been a Roman station, the name of which has not been ascertained with certainty. Herefordshire and Shropshire were possessed by a tribe named Hecanas ; the residence of their chief was in the immediate neigh bourhood of the modern town of Leominster, and is supposed to have been Kingsland, a village which derives its present name from having been a manor of the Anglo- Saxon kings. The first king of Mercia who holds an important place in history was Penda, who obtained the supreme power in 626, and during a reign of twenty-nine years was engaged in continual wars with his neighbours. The ' mountain-dwellers' of Wales were his allies, and at this early period often fought under the same banners with the Saxons.

In 642 they gained a great victory over the Northumbrians at a place then called Maserfield, and the pious king Oswald was slain: he fell near a tree which was afterwards named from him Oswaldes-treow, now Oswestry. Penda was himself slain in 655, in another * I am inclined to take the British origin of Shrewsbury for a mere fable : the Welsh Pengwerne is probably a partial translation of the Saxon name. war with the Northumbrians. Mercia was the last of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which received Christianity. Penda was a pagan, and had been constantly at war with the Christian kings ; and the monkish chronicler exults in the belief that vvhen he fell another soul was added to the number of the damned.* Yet the wicked Penda was the father of a familyof saints. His daughters, Kineburga and Kineswitha, became nuns.

Tvvo of his sons, Wulfere and Ethelred, reigned in succession after him : the former introduced the Christian religion among the Mercians, and his daughter St. Werburga became a nun at Chester : the latter, after a short reign, quitted his throne to enter a monastery. Another brother, Peada, was ealderman of the Middle Angles, and was the means of their conversion. Merewald the fourth Son of Penda, was ealderman or chieftain of the Hecanas, and resided, as has been said, near Kingsland. It was here that he was visited by the Nor thumbrian priest Eadfrid, or Otfrid, at whose persuasion he quitted the errors of paganism; and, as a proof of the warmth of his zeal, he built a church in honour of St. Peter, and • founded a monastery of which he made Eadfrid first abbot, and to which he gave the name of Leof -minster , or the beloved monastery.

At a later period the name became Latinised into Leonis-monasterium ; and a legend was in vented, according to which Eadfrid in his journey to the court of Merewald, arrived in the dusk of the evening, faint and weary, at the spot where Leominster now stands, and there seated himself beneath a tree, and began to cat the bread which he had brought with him. Suddenly he be held a fierce lion approaching towards him, ready, as he thought, to spring forward and devour him ; but vvhen he offered his bread to the savage animal, it became tame as a lamb, and, after eating, disappeared. The traveller accep ted the omen, — he conceived the visionary hon to be em blematical of the unchristian ealderman of the Hecanas ; in * Iufernalium numerum animarum auxit. W. Malmsb. Hist. p. 27. the morning he presented himself at the palace, and was received with kindness ; Merewald also had had a vision during the night, and was easily converted.

The date of this event, and of the foundation of the monastery, is said to have been a. d. 660. Merewald married Ermenberga, daughter of the king of Kent, and had by her three daughters, Milburga, Mildritha, and Milgitha, who became nuns. St. Milburga was placed over the abbey which her father founded at a place then called Wimnicas, but since known by the name of Wenlock. She had lands at a village named " Stokes" (Stoke St. Milburgh), which she often visited, and where she is said to have performed many miracles. Her fields were believed for centuries afterwards to be miraculously defended from the depredations of the wild fowl, which it appears infested the lands of her neighbours. The beauty of Milburga attracted many suitors ; but she had made a vow of chastity, and rejected them all.

The son of a king (perhaps a Welsh king) who was among the number, determined to carry her off by force, and laid a plan to surprise her while she was on a visit to Stoke ; but St. Milburga was informed of her danger, and fled hastily towards Wenlock. When she reached the httle river Corve, which was there a trifling stream,* her pursuers were close at her heels ; but she had no sooner leaped over it, than the rivulet suddenly became a torrent, and put an effectual stop to the designs of her lover. Such are the legends which fill up the barren page of history in these remote ages. In the seventh and eighth centuries the modern counties of Salop and Hereford, as well as that of Gloucester and a great part of Monmouthshhe, were firmly occupied by the Saxons. The independent Welsh were sometimes in alliance with their Mercian neighbours, and fought under the same banners, in their contests with the other Saxon * Erat ibi amnis quidam nomine Corf, vado meabilis et alveo mediocris.

Capgrave, Nova Legenda Angliæ ; where are given the legends of Merewald and Milburga. C or Angle kings. But such alliances were not of long duration, and, among the scanty notices of the older chro nicles, we meet with indications of sanguinary battles between the Mercians and the Welsh. Offa, the greatest of the Anglo-Saxon monarchs before Alfred, drove the latter from the border, and made the wonderful earth-work, which is still known as Offa's Dyke, to defend the land of the Hecanas from their incursions. An old tradition says that every Welshman, who passed this boundary, was to lose his life. The vales of Herefordshire seem to have been a favourite resort of the Mercian king ; he is supposed to have had a palace at Sutton, four miles north of Hereford, where remarkable earth-works, now known by the name of Sutton Walls, still exist.

It was here, according to some, that in 792 the unfortunate king of the East Angles, Ethelbert, was murdered. His body was deposited at Hereford, where his shrine long gave celebrity to the church. The inhabitants of the border, hardened by their fre quent wars with the Welsh, shewed an exemplary courage in their resistance to the Danish invaders. In 894 the Danish army penetrated westward to the banks of the Severn, and followed its course, as it appears, till they reached the neighbourhood of Welshpool, where they in trenched themselves at a spot then called Butdigingtune, now Buttington ; but they were besieged by the Enghsh, and, after having suffered greatly from famine, were nearly destroyed in their attempt to force a way through the be siegers. In the year following the Danes again crossed the border, and are said to have penetrated into Wales.

In 896, they went to a place named in the Saxon Chronicle Cwatbricge, on the Severn, probably the present village of Quatford, a little to the south of Bridgenorth ; there they built a fortress (and ]?ær ge-weorc worhton), and passed the winter. But this was the last struggle of the invaders against the talents and fortunes of Alfred, which restored peace at least for a time to England. The children of Alfred were worthy of theh father. While they cherished literature and the arts, and loved the elegance and splendour of peace, their vigour and courage preserved the kingdom from the horrors of war. It was the pohcy of Edward, who succeeded bis father on the throne, to strengthen the parts most exposed to the inroads of the Danes by erecting fortresses and garrison towns. In this he was aided by the wisdom and enterprising sphit of his magnanimous sister Ethelfleda, the widow of the ealderman of Mercia, — for Mercia was now no more than a province under the West- Saxon dynasty.

In 912, the lady of the Mercians, (Myrcna hlæfdige) as she was called by her admiring countrymen, built the fortress at Bridgenorth, then named simply Bricge. The Danes had been defeated on the banks of the Severn by her brother in the preceding year. Ethelfleda also built a fort at Cyric-byrig or Chirbury, in 915, at no great distance from the spot where the Danes had wintered in 896. The Welsh seem to have taken advantage of the terror inspired by tbe Danish ravages, to invade the border. In 916, Ethelfleda led an army into Wales, which repressed the turbulent mountaineers, and she took by storm the town of Brecenan-mere, or Brecknock. In 918, the Danes again invaded the borders of Wales. Leaving theh ships hi the Severn, they had advanced as far as Yrchiga-feld (the field of hedge-hogs), now Archenfield, in Herefordshhe, where they were encountered by the men of that county and of Gloucestershire, who defeated them, slew some of theh chiefs, and drove them to their ships.

In 920 Ethelfleda died, and was buried at Gloucester. In 921 king Edward built Wicinga-mere (Wigmore); which was attacked the same year by the Danes, who had again entered the Marches of Wales. They besieged the town one day from morning till evening, but it was gallantly defended, and they were obhged to leave it, after having plundered the country around, and carried off the cattle. It was not till towards the end of this century, vvhen the strength of the Anglo-Saxons had been wasted in religious factions and domestic quarrels, that the Danes became again formidable. While Svvegn with his Northmen were ravaging the fairest districts of the south, the indolent Ethehed, as we learn from one of the old historians, was hving in retirement at a manor he possessed in Shropshire* The best proof of the sufferings of the borderers during the many years of devastation which followed, is the circumstance that the nunnery at Wenlock, the resting-place of the relics of St. Milburga, presented for many years afterwards nothing but heaps of ruins.

Yet the courage of the people seems not to have been enthely broken, and vvhen the Danish king Hardicnut attempted to exact from them an odious impost, the men of Worcester arose and slew the taxgatherers. Then Hardicnut in his resentment ordered the county to be ravaged with fire and sword. The inhabitants, apprised of the danger which threatened them, quitted their homes, and took shelter on the Borders. The city of Worcester was reduced to ashes ; but the citizens also had quitted their houses, and fortified themselves in an island in the river Severn then named Bever-ege, or the Isle of Beavers, and successfully defied the attempts of theh assailants, who were obhged to leave theh mission of vengeance only half executed. The destruction of Worces ter occurred in a. d. 1041. The Danish wars have left memorials in the names of many places on the Welsh borders.

After landing hi the south, the invaders seem generally to have foUowed the course of the ancient Roman road, and they appear to have estabhshed themselves frequently in the valley which it traverses between Aymestry and Leintwardine. The name of Wigmore, in Anglo-Saxon Wicinga-mere, signifies the moor of the pirates. Wicingas, (in Danish, vicingr) or sons of war, was the name adopted especially by the Danish rovers. Dhimore, in like manner, is perhaps Dena-mere, * Rex autem Adclred cum mœstitia ct confusione erat ad firmam suam in Salopschire. Hen. Huntingd. Hist. p. 360. This was in a. d 985. the moor of the Danes. I am inclined to think that a party of Danes had also estabhshed themselves on the brow of the hill which is now occupied by the castle of Ludlow, and that from their fortifications it took the name of Dena-ham, the residence or home of the Danes, still preserved in that of Dinham.