Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/299

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the intolerable tyranny of the Mercians; when their gallant prince Cuthred suddenly threw the yoke from trie necks of his galled subjects, de- feated king Kthelbald in a pitched battle in the year 752, and tore from him the magic standard which, bore a golden dragon on its folds. The scene of conflict is pointed out by the name of a field a littte westward of the town, Battk-Edge; and the memory of it is said still to be retained in a procession which the inhabitants make on the eve preceding Midsummer-day. Here, too, an eccle- siastical synod was held in the conclusion of the seventh century, to determine the time when Easter

.id be held; when it was decreed that Aldhelm, who was then present, should announce to the British church the proper period for the celebration of this festival, and exhort them to correct the error in which they had hitherto been in this respect. Again we entered the conntv of Glocester, and


 * r several miles through a country rich

ni the productions of the earth, particularly beans, pease, and clover; ornamented with the neatest and


 * judicious agriculture, but by no means re-

markable for picturesque scenery. At Lechlade, we met the Thames; here, indeed, oub an in hint, but a; the same time superior in magnitude and son.seouence to the hole Lech, which arrocrantlv

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