during the early part of the Anglo-Saxon period, which can be traced anywhere in England, is that on the east of Somerset and the north-west of Wiltshire, and comprised the country which forms the valley of the Frome and that of the upper part of the Bristol Avon. The name Devizes may indicate the frontier of this British province, which extended from near Wells to Bredon Forest, north-east of Malmesbury. Guest recognises Devizes as having been situated on its eastern border, and traces the name to this circumstance.[1] It was a projecting strip of British territory extending northward, that was left under its native rulers for a considerable time after the West Saxon King Ceawlin had defeated the Britons at Deorham in south Gloucestershire. There must have been a commingling of race in and near to this district, and, as Beddoe’s researches show, the result of this racial fusion may be traced at the present day in the darker complexion of the people in the north-west of Wiltshire.
In Dorset the darker hues of the people that have been observed in the Gillingham district may be due to descent from settlers of a darker race near the fairer people in the valley of the Stour. They were, no doubt, for the most part of Teutonic origin, but among them were others of the Wendish race who came into Wilts and Dorset among the Gewissas. The evidence of the black-haired Vikings of the ninth century is from contemporary records certain, and as the English place-names denoting settlers of a dark or black complexion are names which were in use in the Saxon period, there appears to be no reason to doubt that there were among the Anglo-Saxon settlers people of a darker race than the fair-haired Angles and Scandians, or the fair-complexioned Saxons and Germans. The anthropological researches of Beddoe and others have, however,
- ↑ Journal Archæol. Inst., xvi. 116.
