ix The appellations Wiltshire and Berkshire are of course of later date.

x The early name of Abingdon.

Johnson, the compiler of the famous collection of English canons, is of opinion that Cloveshoo, where the famous provincial council was held A.D. 803, is identical with Abingdon, and that the town lost its ancient name simply owing to the growing notoriety of the famous abbey; for “no one,” says he, “can doubt that the name Abingdon was taken from the abbey.”  The first memorial, he adds, in which he finds the name Abingdon, is in the Chronicle wherein the burial of Bishop Sidesman, A.D. 977, in St. Mary’s Minster, “which is at Abingdon,” is mentioned, who was honourably buried on the north side of that fane in St. Paul’s Chapel.

On the other hand, some learned antiquarians have maintained the opposite opinion, that the name Abingdon existed even prior to the foundation of the monastery; thus the Rev. Joseph Stevenson, in his edition of the “Chronicle of the Abbey of Abingdon,” says—­“Abingdon derives its name, not, as might at first sight be supposed, from the abbey there founded—­Abbey dune or Abbots dune:  philology forbids it.  The place was so called from Abba, one of the early colonists of Berkshire.”

xi Bishops of Dorchester.

There appears to have been much uncertainty concerning the succession of the bishops of this important see, owing, perhaps, to the confusion caused by its having been the seat of two totally distinct jurisdictions—­the one over Wessex, the other over great part of Mercia.

The names of the bishops in the narrative are taken from a list kindly furnished by the Rev. W. Macfarlane, the present vicar of the Abbey Church, whose indefatigable efforts have restored to the ancient fane much of the glory of its ancient days.

According to this list, Ednoth was bishop from 1006 to 1016, when he was slain by the Danes as recorded in the text; and Ethelm succeeding, ruled the see till A.D. 1034, through the comparatively happy days of Canute.

xii End of the Campaign of 1006.

The following extract from the “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” gives the further history of the campaign very concisely: 

“Then went the Danes to Wallingford, and that all burned, and were then one day in Cholsey:  and they went then along Ashdown to Cuckamsley hill, and there abode, as a daring boast; for it had been often said, if they should reach Cuckamsley hill, that they would never again get to the sea:  then they went homewards another way.  Then were forces assembled at Kennet, and they there joined battle:  and they soon put that band to flight, and afterwards brought their booty to the sea.  But there might the Winchester men see an army daring and fearless, as they went by their gates towards the sea, and fetched themselves food and treasures over fifty miles from thence.  Then had the king gone over Thames into Shropshire, and there took up his abode during the