necessary to destroy Taunton during a South Saxon war unless there had been a South Saxon colony in and around it. On the very probable supposition that the people in and around that town took part against Wessex in the South Saxon war its destruction becomes intelligible. It is difficult to see how the remarkable similarity in the customs of the people around Lewes and Taunton can be explained except by a South Saxon migration. It is difficult also to see why Taunton should have been destroyed in 722 except as part of the military operations of a South Saxon war.
The evidence which appears to connect the settlers around Lewes with the Wendish Lutitzer or Wilte tribe has been stated, and whether a coincidence or not, we find a place named Wilton was an old suburb of Taunton.[1] The Saxon charters[2] also tell us of a stream named Willite and of a place named Ruganbeorh, or Ruwanborg, apparently named after one or more settlers of Rugian descent, in the Vale of Taunton. The old place-names of Somerset afford traces of settlers of various races: Godeneie[3] and Gateneberghe[4] are apparently old names denoting Goths or Geats—i.e., Jutes. Godeworth,[5] Godecumbe, Guttona,[6] and Godele[7] point also to settlers of the same name and probably the same race.
The hundred of Winterstoke, named after a decayed village so called, was one of the old hundreds of the county extending along the coast from Clevedon to Weston-super-Mare, and inland to Axbridge. On the north this hundred adjoined that of Portbury, which contained the district known now as Gordano. In the north-east of Somerset a range of hills extending generally from east to west finds its western termination near Clevedon. From this place another hilly ridge stretches
