The name is absent

of East and West Meon in Southampton; the Eegio
Gyrwiorum in which Peterborough lies, and dis-
tinct from this, the Australes Gyrwii or South
Gyrwians.

The Appendix to the Chronicles of Florence of
Worcester supplies us with one or two names of
small districts, not commonly found in other au-
thors. One of these is the Mercian district of the
Westangles or West Hecan, ruled over by Mere-
wald; in whose country were the Mægsetan, or
people of Hereford, who are sometimes reckoned
to the Hwiccas, or inhabitants of Worcester and
Gloucester¹. Another, the Middleangles, had its
bishopric in Leicester : the Southangles, whose bi-
shop sat at Dorchester in Oxfordshire, consequently
comprised the counties down to the Thames. The
Northangles or Mercians proper had their bishop in
Lichfield. Lastly it has been recorded that Malmes-
bury in Wiltshire was in Provincia Septonia².

But we are not altogether without the means of
carrying this enquiry further. We have a record
of the divisions which must have preceded the dis-
tribution of this country into shires : they are un-
fortunately not numerous, and the names are gene-
rally very difficult to explain : they have so long
become obsolete, that it is now scarcely possible to
identify them. Nor need this cause surprise, when
we compare the oblivion into which they have fal-

¹ 'ⁱCivitasWigornia . . . . et tunc et nunc totius HwicciaevelMage-
setaniae metropolis extitit famosa.” App. l^,'lor. Wigorn., Episc. Hwic-
ciorum.

² V^rit. Aldh. Whart. Ang. Sacr. ii. 3, and MS. Harl. 366 ; but the
autograph MS., Ed. Hamilton in Rolls Series, reads rightly Saxonia.

Ien with the sturdy resistance offered by the names
of the Marks, and their long continuance through-
out all the changes which have befallen our race.
The Gas, which were only political bodies, became
readily swallowed up and lost in shires and king-
doms : the Marks, which had an individual being,
and as it were personality of their own, passed
easily from one system of aggregations to another,
without losing anything of their peculiar character :
and at a later period it will be seen that this indi-
viduality became perpetuated by the operation of
our ecclesiastical institutions.

A very important document is printed by Sir
Henry Spelman in his Glossary, under the head
Hida. In its present condition it is comparatively
modern, but many of the entries supply us with
information obviously derived from the most re-
mote antiquity, and these it becomes proper to
take into consideration. The document seems to
have been intended as a guide either to the taxation
or the military force of the kingdom, and professes
to give the number of hides of land contained in
the various districts. It runs as follows¹ :

ɪ I have not adhered strictly to Spelman’s copy, the details of which
are in several cases incorrect, but have collated others where it seemed
necessary.

VOL. I.                                    G

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