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Rh The settlements of Gewissas, by the victories of Ceawlin in the Severn Valley, extended not only over parts of East Gloucestershire, but probably further northwards. Ceawlin’s victories opened the country more or less as far as Shropshire. The earliest colonists into this part of England must have come either up the river or along the Roman roads, the Fosse way from the north-east, the Watling Street from the south-east, or from Wessex by the road from Winchester to Cirencester, and thence by the Fosse way to the north-east of Gloucestershire, and northwards by the Ryknield Street. It was probably about A.D. 583 that the Roman city of Uriconium was destroyed. It was situated where Wroxeter now is, close to the lowest ford across the Severn, south of Shrewsbury, where Watling Street crossed the river. Its remains show its importance, and probably many buildings of the Saxon time in its neighbourhood were constructed from its ruins. In the Severn Valley there is historical evidence of the settlement of West Saxons, and that about 590 an independent State of Gewissas was formed in Gloucestershire under Ceolric, a nephew of Ceawlin. The dialect also points to its settlers having largely come from Wessex. Ellis groups it with Wilts, Berks, and parts of Hants and Dorset, as districts having much in common.

Anglian settlers from Mercia or others who had a knowledge of runic letters appear to have reached the south-east of Shropshire by the end of the sixth century, for a runic inscription discovered at Cleobury Mortimer has been assigned by Stephens to that period.

It may have been from the circumstance of the ruined condition of the Roman city Uriconium that the Saxon colonists near it got their name of Wrocensetna, as Camden suggested. It may, perhaps, have arisen partly 25