A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE view would be perhaps supported by a glance at the map of England at the present day. Rutland must for the present purpose be excluded, for its existence as a county only dates from the twelfth century ; but even with this proviso, as many as eight counties are found abutting on the district in question, which seems to run from the Wash and fenland as a great dividing wedge into the heart of the country. That this aspect of Northamptonshire is in some respects fanciful is shown by the undoubted existence of at least three important Roman roads through the county, one of them crossing the huge woodland of Rocking- ham itself, which ' even as late as the Middle Ages was still one of the largest forests of the island.' ' The county therefore presented no impassable barrier in the direction of its length, but there are some indications that the present western border represents a dividing line of very old standing. In pre-Saxon times a line of strongholds seems to have existed between Kirtlington in Oxfordshire and Aston-le-Walls, perhaps reaching a point still further northwards in the county.^ Traces of several of these earth- works are to be seen to-day, not on the spurs thrown out by the high ground forming the watershed of west Northamptonshire, but at the head of the valleys leading to the upper Cherwell ; and all were evidently intended to prevent a hostile advance from the south-west. But though these fastnesses may have occasionally served the same purpose in Saxon times, they belong as a class to an earlier period ; and reasons will presently be given for supposing that a line of cleavage in the sixth century roughly coincided with the Watling Street, though it may have struck a little north-east from Towcester and thus included the Tove valley in the southern district. In striking contrast to the entries concerning the mythical heroes of Wessex, there occurs in the Chronicle under the year 571 the record of an all-important battle, about the site of which there can be little doubt. The victory of Ceawlin's lieutenant at Bedford seems to have at once resulted in the acquisition of much territory to the south-east of Northamptonshire, and it may here be suggested that the semicircular indentation of the extreme southern boundary of the county indicates the area over which Buckingham, the town lying at its centre, originally exercised control. Ceolwulf, king of Wessex, is twenty-six years later described as continually fighting against either the Angles or the Welsh or the Picts or the Scots. This particular entry does not inspire confidence, but it is conceivable that by this date Wessex had expanded far enough to the north to come into conflict with Anglian tribes advancing from the Trent valley or elsewhere. That the conflict or conflicts took place within the borders of the present county is entirely problematical. It will be found from an examination of the geological map that Northamp- tonshire lies between two broad bands of clay, which during the period now under consideration must have been densely wooded marshland, presenting an obstacle much more formidable than the forests on the inferior oolite to invaders either from the north-west or the south- > J. R. Green, Making of England, i. 94. ^ Beesley, History of Banbury, p. 14. 224
