Page:The dialect of the southern counties of Scotland - Murray - 1873.djvu/23

Rh either making them tributary, exterminating or expelling the inhabitants, and planting Angles in their room, than any other king or tribune." The Cymry in their straits called in the aid of Aedan, king of the Scots of Dalriada, who, passing south of the Firths with an immense army, joined in the struggle against the Angles. The war ended in 603 with the decisive battle of Dægsastan (understood to be Dalston, near Carlisle, if not Dawstone Rigg, in Liddesdale), in which the Britons and Scots sustained such a crushing defeat that the latter never again ventured south of the Forth, till after their union with the Picts in the 9th century.

For some years after the battle of Dægsastan, the attention of the Northumbrian rulers was directed more towards the south than the north; but when Eadwin ascended the throne in 617, he seemed destined to reduce beneath his sway the whole island. According to the Chronicle, "he became supreme over all Britain, the Kent-ware alone excepted," and in the north he firmly established the Angle dominion as far as the Forth, where he is said to have erected his strong fortress of Eadwines-burh, which was at a later date to become the far-famed metropolis of Scotland. The reign of Eadwin is memorable for the adoption of Christianity by the Angles of the north, he and his people, being baptized by Paulinus in 627. The Scots, Picts, and Strathclyde Britons had been Christians long before. Eadwin was succeeded by Oswald and Oswiu, during whose reign the Angle power was still further extended in what is now the south of Scotland, their supremacy being apparently recognized by the Cumbrian Britons. Witnesses to this extension of the Northumbrian area, at or shortly after this period, exist in the Cross at Bewcastle, in Cumberland, with a Runic inscription commemorating Alchfrid, son of Oswiu, who was associated with his father in the government about 660, and the Runic Cross at Ruthwell in Dumfriesshire, of the same high antiquity.

The reign of Ecgfrid was marked by still more ambitious designs, being occupied by incessant wars with the Picts, and efforts to extend the Northumbrian dominion beyond the Forth. In these he was at first successful, and gained such an extension of territory in the north, that it was deemed proper to form a new bishopric, the seat of which was fixed at Abercorn, on the upper estuary of the Forth, and, according to the Chronicle, 681, "Trumbriht was consecrated bishop of Hexham, and Trumwine of the Picts; for at that time they were subject to this country." In 685 "Ecgfrid made war upon the Pictish king Bredei, and