from Eseye; Gornall is Gor-on-al; &c. all of which were titles of the Sun.*

When Wulfere first mounted the throne of Mercia, only eighty or ninety years had elapsed since the Britons had been dispossessed of their ancient territory; it is quite clear, therefore, that the race could be by no means extinct; and indeed it is an historical fact, that this part of the country was thickly peopled with them, although they occupied only an inferior station in society, being mostly reduced to an abject state of slavery; and their

* Many other places have derived their names from the British; as Hatherton, originally called Hagger-thorn-den; (charter of Wulfruna) from Agger (Brit.) a bank or mound of earth, and Thorn, (Sax.) a tower, the whole compound word meaning an ancient dwelling near a tower on the hill. The same may be said of Goldthorn hill; for the first syllable is a corruption of the British word Godo, which signified an open temple, protected by a bank of earth; and here was doubtless a small circle of stones, a cromlech, kistvaen, or some other appendage to the druidical worship: although from the accidental circumstance of a thorn bush existing there, it was called by the Saxons Holy Thorn; and afterwards by a combination of both names, Golthorn or Goldthorne. Dead Lad's Lane at Meridale is derived from Ead (Gael.) water, and Llád (Brit.) a name of Ceridwen; signifying the lane of the diluvian goddess; and is an ancient road leading to the above hill, where she was worshipped. Cannock is derived from Cantrev a hundred; Penn, from Pen, the cliff of a hill; Pelshall, from Pel a distant point; Kinvaston (Kin-waldes-tuna, Dom.) from Cun or Kyn, (Brit.) a chief; the residence probably of a British chieftain; and from being then a place of consequence, it was subsequently put at the head of the list of prebends.

+ Vide ut supra, p. 4.

The system of slavery in the times above referred to is most revolting to our civilized ideas. "In the Anglo-Saxon wills these wretched beings are given away precisely as we now dispose of our plate, or furniture, or our money. An archbishop bequeaths some land to an abbey, with ten oxen and two men. Ælfhelin bequeaths his chief mansion at Gyrstingthorpe, with all the property that stood thereon, both in provisions and men. Wynfleda, in her will, gives to her daughter the land at Ebbelesburn, and those men her property, and all that thereon be; afterwards she gives to Eadmær as much property, and as many men, as to him had been bequeathed before at Hafene. In another part of her will, she says-of those Theowan men at Cinnuc she bequeaths to Eadwold, Ceolstan, the son

barrow and beacon hills remain amongst us unto this day.*

When Wulfere therefore erected his temple at Wolverhampton in honour of Thor or Woden, it is more than probable that he would attach to it a splendid pedestal for the statue of the deity, in commemoration of the victory which he had obtained over the Northumbrians. And the site which he selected for this unholy purpose, was the commanding eminence of Huan or Hautune, where existed probably a druidical stone temple. And as the artificers in this work would be mostly Britons, with a natural predilection for their own system,

of Elstan, and the son of Effa, and Burwhyn Martin; and she bequeaths to Eadgyfer, Elfrige the cook, and Telf, the daughter of Wareburga & Herestan and his wife, and their child, and Cynestan and Wynsige, and the son of Bryhtric, and Edwyn, and the son of Bunel, and the daughter of Elfever. Their servile state was attended with all the horrors of slavery, descending on the posterity of the subjugated individuals." (Turn. Angl. Sax. p. 128.)

There are a great number of antiquities in this neighbourhood, which our best antiquaries have pronounced to be British." The tumuli are very numerous. The chief are in Watling-street, at Cat's-hill, Calves Heath, Sardon, Offlow, near Swinfen, Harlow Grave, Calwich, near Okeover church, on Wever hills, near Leek and Warslow, on Eaton hill, Elford, Barrow hill, Borrowcop hill, Lichfield, Kinver, and Compton, and Cauldon. At Ashwood heath King's Swinford, is a Roman camp called Wolverhampton churchyard." (Harw. Staff. Pref. xii.) 'Near Seisdon on the borders of Shropshire, is Apewood Castle, a very ancient and lofty fortification situated on a round promontory, and continued for a mile in length. This Dr. Plot believes to have been a British work, raised for defence against invaders. To these may be added, the large fortification of earth in Beaudesert Park, which Mr. Pennant asserts to be of British origin." (Pitt. Staff. p. 2.)

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† Accordingly this column, at its first erection, would be a most magnificent object.

f Mr. Davies says, "That a people so strongly attached to their national customs, as the ancient Britons are known to have been, should have pertinaciously adhered to the religion of their ancestors; that the British Ceres should have maintained her honours in the obscure corners of the country, as late as the sixth century; and that her votaries should have appeared in public during that age, or in the interval between the dominion of the Romans and that of the

and in a place which had been consecrated by their ancestors to the practice of the sublimest mysteries of their religion, they carved upon it the significant emblems of the Celtic worship, although it was probably intended as a pedestal for the Saxon deity Woden, from whom the king deduced his own descent.*

It remains to shew how it could happen that the obelisk or pillar, being the vestige of a debased worship was allowed to remain within the sacred precinct, after the cross of Christ had been triumphant here, and the temple converted to a Christian church. The establishment of a regular hierarchy in Britain was not attempted till the time of Pope Gregory the Great, A.D. 597, who sent Augustine to convert the Saxons, and he became their first bishop. He had, however, difficulties to surmount, and obstacles to encounter, which appeared insuperable. The old inhabitants of the island practised the Celtic system of idolatry, and worshipped in woods and groves without the aid of covered temples; while the Saxons used sculptured

Saxons, is not greatly to be wondered at; but that the Welsh princes, to the latest period of their government, should not only tolerate but patronize the old superstition; and that the mysteries of Ceres should be celebrated in South Britain, as late as the middle of the twelfth century, are facts, as singular as they are indisputable. Many of the most offensive ceremonies must, of course, have been either retrenched or concealed; but there is authentic proof that the honours and the mysteries of Ceridwen did remain."

* Respecting the above deity old Verstegan quaintly says, "he was whyle somtyme hee liued amongst them, a most valiant and victorious prince and captain; and his idol was after his death honored, prayed, and sacrifysed vnto that by his ayd and furtherance they might obtain victorie ouer their enimyes; which when they had obtained, they sacrificed vnto him such prisoners as in batail they had taken. The name Woden signifieth fiers or furious, and in lyke sence wee yet retayn it, saying when one is in a great rage, that hee is wood, or taketh on as yf hee were wood. And after this idol wee do yet call that day of the week Wednesday, instead of Woden's day, upon which he was chiefly honored."

↑ Vide ut supra. p. 7.

images of their gods, and built their temples in the most exposed situations, protecting them from the weather by roofs. Hence the two systems were in constant collision, fomented by the mutual jealousy arising from their different positions of conquerors and conquered, masters and slaves; and in many quarters of the island they were too intently occupied with their own respective superstitions, to bestow a thought on the introduction of a new religion, though it promised in the end to extirpate both. This disagreement operated forcibly against the success of Christianity in the island. If one party expressed a disposition to embrace it, the other would instinctively display the most inveterate symptoms of hostility, which frequently produced open war, and caused a great effusion of blood; for no species of hatred is so deadly as that which emanates from a difference of opinion in matters of religious belief. And even when the monarchs and nobles had received Christian baptism, and openly patronized its ministers, it was found difficult to wean the people from a series of beloved superstitions, which while they were attracted by the splendour of their ceremonies, had become interwoven, by the effect of habit, into the very constitutions of the worshippers so firmly, as to make the eradication of them a matter of extreme difficulty. And considering the imbecility of human nature in a state of almost savage ignorance, this is not sur

* The public festivals were a great obstacle to the success of Christianity; for no persuasions could induce the people to part with them.

↑ And the ignorance of the Saxon nobility, even under the influence of Christianity, is evidenced in their charters, Thus Wigtred, king of Kent, A.D. 700, thus executes a Grant: "I put the sign of the Holy Cross, because I cannot write." (pro ignorantia litterarum. Astle's Charters. No. 1.) The same thing occurs several times in the Autograph of Sigeric respecting Wolverhampton College. And it may be remarked that this ignorance was not peculiar to the Saxons; for at the same period neither Theodoric, king of

prising. It constituted a difficulty, however, which required the exercise of consummate judgement, blended with great delicacy, to surmount. Augustine was not ignorant of the peculiarity of his situation; though he remained in considerable doubt as to the application of a legitimate remedy; and at length determined formally to state the circumstances to Gregory at Rome.

The pontiff, whose enlightened mind saw immediately that without some judicious adaptation of Christianity to the prevailing superstitions, success could scarcely be anticipated, did not withhold his prompt advice on the occasion; but at once issued directions to allow the natives the indulgence of some of their ancient peculiarities, by incorporating into Christianity, in every practicable point, the less offensive tenets of their own superstitions. He directed Augustine to convert their temples into Christian churches,* by merely destroying the idols,

Italy, nor Justin in Constantinople, could write their own names. (Merford on Licences. p. 12.) Charlemagne attempted this accomplishment, nocturna manu as well as diurna, but failed. The Emperor Frederick Barbarossa could not read; neither could John, king of Bohemia; nor Philip the Hardy, king of France, in the 14th century. (Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. ii. p. 434.)

* It is clear from Bede. (1. i. c. 26.) that the existing heathen temples were made use of after a formal dedication to some Christian saint; for one at Canterbury is mentioned as having been dedicated by Augustine himself to St. Martin, though baptism was at that period solemnized in rivers. (Bede. 1. ii. c. 14.) The principle thus introduced was subsequently carried to an extent which would scarcely have elicited Gregory's approbation; for, not to mention that tenures de Deo et Sole, existed long in our English law, instances occur in this island, where the temples contained two altars, one for the use of the Christians, and the other for the rites of Scandinavian worship, offered to the triad Woden, Thor, Frea. (Bede. 1. ii. c. 15.) The above piece of Christian politeness to the demon gods, is only equalled by the story which is told of Gregory, bishop of Neocæsarea, a city of Cappadocia, in the middle of the third century; who, as he was returning home from the wilderness, being benighted and overtaken by a storm, he, together with his company, turned aside to shelter themselves in a heathen temple famous for oracles and divinations, where they spent the night in