The Saxon Chronicles, during the period anterior to the reign of Ælfred, seem to know only the old general divisions: thus we have Cantwara land, Kent[[130]]; Westseaxan, Súðseaxan, Eástseaxan, Middleseaxan, Wessex, Sussex, Essex, Middlesex: Eástengle, Eastanglia: Norðanhymbra land, Súðanhymbra land, Myrcna land, Northumberland, Southumberland, Mercia: Lindisware and Lindisse, Lincolnshire: Súðrige, Surrey; Wiht, the Isle of Wight; Hwiccas, the Hwiccii in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire[[131]]; Merscware, the people of Romney Marsh: Wilsætan, Dornsætan and Sumorsætan, Wiltshire, Dorsetshire and Somersetshire[[132]]. But after the time of Ælfred, the different manuscripts of the Chronicles usually adopt the word Scír, in the same places as we do, and with the same meaning. Thus we find, Bearrucscír, Bedanfordscír, Buccingahámscír, Defenascír, Deórabyscír, Eoforwícscír, Gleáwanceasterscír, Grantabrycgscír, Hámtúnscír (Southampton), Hámtúnscír (Northampton), Heortfordscír, Herefordscír, Huntandúnscír, Legeceasterscír, Lindicolnascír, Oxnafordscír, Scrobbesbyrigscír (but also Scrobsetan), Snotingahámscír, Stæffordscír, Wæringwícscír or Wæringscír, Wigraceasterscír, and Wiltunscír: Middelseaxe, Eástseaxe, Súðseaxe, Súðrige and Cent remain: Eástengle is not divided into Norfolk and Suffolk. Thus, out of the thirty-two shires south of the Humber, which Florence and William of Malmesbury mention, the Chronicles note twenty-six, of which twenty-one are distinguished as shires by the word scír.

In Beda nothing of the kind is to be found: the general scope of his Ecclesiastical History rendered it unnecessary for him to descend to minute details, and besides the names of races and kingdoms, he mentions few divisions of the land. Still he notices the Provincia Huicciorum: the Middelangli or Angli Mediterranei, a portion of the Mercians: the Mercii Australes and Aquilonales: the Regio Sudergeona or Surrey: the Regio Loidis or Elmet near York: the Provincia Meanwarorum, or Hundreds of East and West Meon in Southampton; the Regio Gyrwiorum in which Peterborough lies, and distinct from this, the Australes Gyrwii or South Gyrwians.

The Appendix to the Chronicles of Florence of Worcester supplies us with one or two names of small districts, not commonly found in other authors. One of these is the Mercian district of the Westangles or West Hecan, ruled over by Merewald; in whose country were the Mægsetan, or people of Hereford, who are sometimes reckoned to the Hwiccas, or inhabitants of Worcester and Gloucester[[133]]. Another, the Middleangles, had its bishopric in Leicester: the Southangles, whose bishop sat at Dorchester in Oxfordshire, consequently comprised the counties down to the Thames. The Northangles or Mercians proper had their bishop in Lichfield. Lastly it has been recorded that Malmesbury in Wiltshire was in Provincia Septonia[[134]].

But we are not altogether without the means of carrying this enquiry further. We have a record of the divisions which must have preceded the distribution of this country into shires: they are unfortunately not numerous, and the names are generally very difficult to explain: they have so long become obsolete, that it is now scarcely possible to identify them. Nor need this cause surprise, when we compare the oblivion into which they have fallen with the sturdy resistance offered by the names of the Marks, and their long continuance throughout all the changes which have befallen our race. The Gás, which were only political bodies, became readily swallowed up and lost in shires and kingdoms: the Marks, which had an individual being, and as it were personality of their own, passed easily from one system of aggregations to another, without losing anything of their peculiar character: and at a later period it will be seen that this individuality became perpetuated by the operation of our ecclesiastical institutions.

A very important document is printed by Sir Henry Spelman in his Glossary, under the head Hida. In its present condition it is comparatively modern, but many of the entries supply us with information obviously derived from the most remote antiquity, and these it becomes proper to take into consideration. The document seems to have been intended as a guide either to the taxation or the military force of the kingdom, and professes to give the number of hides of land contained in the various districts. It runs as follows[[135]]:

Hydas. Hydas.
Myrcna continet30000Lindesfarona 7000
Wokensetna7000Súð Gyrwa 600
Westerna7000Norð Gyrwa 600
Pecsetna1200Eást Wixna 300
Elmedsetna600West Wixna 600
Spalda600Unecunga 1200
Wigesta900Arosetna 600
Herefinna1200Fearfinga 300
Sweordora300Belmiga 600
Eysla300Wiðeringa 600
Hwicca300Eást Willa 600
Wihtgara600West Willa 600
Noxga gá5000Eást Engle 30000
Ohtga gá2000Eást Seaxna 7000
Hwynca7000Cantwarena 15000
Cilternsetna4000Súð Seaxna 7000
Hendrica3000West Seaxna100000[[136]]

The entries respecting Mercia, Eastanglia and Wessex could hardly belong to any period anterior to that of Ælfred. For Mercia previous to the Danish wars must certainly have contained more than 30,000 hides: while Eastanglia cannot have reached so large a sum till settled by Guðorm’s Danes: nor is it easy to believe that Wessex, apart from Kent and Sussex, should have numbered one hundred thousand in the counties of Surrey, Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, with parts of Berkshire, Somerset and Devon, much before the time of Æðelstán[[137]]. A remarkable variation is found between the amounts stated in this list and those given by Beda, as respects some of the entries: thus Mercia, here valued at 30,000 hides, is reckoned in the Ecclesiastical History at 12,000 only[[138]]: Hwiccas are reckoned at 300: they contained 600 hides; Wight, reckoned at 600, contained 1200. On the other hand Kent and Sussex are retained at the ancient valuation.

It is nevertheless impossible to doubt that the greater number of the names recorded in this list are genuine, and of the highest antiquity. A few of them can be recognized in the pages of very early writers: thus Gyrwa, Elmet, Lindisfaran, Wihtgare, and Hwiccas, are mentioned by Beda in the eighth century. Some we are still able to identify with modern districts.

Mercia I imagine to be that portion of Burgred’s kingdom, which upon its division by the victorious Danes in 874, they committed as a tributary royalty to Ceólwulf; which subsequently came into the hands of Ælfred, by the treaty of Wedmor in 878, and was by him erected into a duchy under his daughter Æðelflǽd, and her husband. Wokensetna may possibly be the Gá of the Wrocensetan, the people about the Wrekin or hill-country of Somerset, Dorset and Devon. The Pecsetan appear to be the inhabitants of the Peakland, or Derbyshire: the Elmedsetan, those of Elmet, the ancient British Loidis, an independent district in Yorkshire: Lindisfaran are the people of Lindisse, a portion of Lincolnshire: North and South Gyrwa were probably in the Mark between Eastanglia and Mercia: as Peterborough was in North Gyrwa land, this must have comprised a part of Northamptonshire: and Æðelðrýð derived her right to Ely from her first husband, a prince of the South Gyrwians; this district is therefore supposed to have extended over a part of Cambridgeshire and the isle of Ely. Spalda may be the tract stretching to the north-east of these, upon the river Welland, in which still lies Spalding. The Hwiccas occupied Worcestershire and Gloucestershire[[139]], and perhaps extended into Herefordshire, to the west of the Severn. The Wihtgaras are the inhabitants of the Isle of Wight; and the Cilternsetan were the people who owned the hill and forest land about the Chilterns, verging towards Oxfordshire, and very probably in the Mark between Mercia and Wessex.

I fear that it will be impossible to identify any more of these names, and it does not appear probable that they supply us with anything like a complete catalogue of the English Gás. Setting aside the fact, that no notice seems to be taken of Northumberland, save the mention of the little principality of Elmet, and that the local divisions of Eastanglia, Kent, Essex, Sussex and Wessex are passed over in the general names of the kingdoms, we look in vain among them for names known to us from other sources, and which can hardly have been other than those of Gás. Thus we have no mention of the Tonsetan, whose district lay apparently upon the banks of the Severn[[140]]; of the Meanware, or land of the Jutes, in Hampshire; of the Mægsetan, or West Hecan, in Herefordshire; of the Merscware in West Kent; or of the Gedingas, who occupied a tract in the province of Middlesex[[141]]. Although it is possible that these divisions are included in some of the larger units mentioned in our list, they still furnish an argument that the names of the Gás were much more numerous than they would appear from the list itself, and that this marks only a period of transition.