owerful, armed bands. Having for a time assisted the Britons they began
to seek excuses for quarrels, and gradually the Britons with brief periods
of success were beaten and dispossessed of their lands until they were
driven into the western parts of the island. The Angles occupied most of
northern England, including the kingdom of Northumbria, of which Yorkshire
formed a large part. These fierce Anglo-Saxon people, with an intermixing
of Danish blood, a few centuries later were the ancestors of a great part
of the present population of the county. Sidonius Apollinaris, a Bishop of
Gaul, who wrote in the fifth century, says, "We have not a more cruel and
more dangerous enemy than the Saxons: they overcome all who have the
courage to oppose them; they surprise all who are so imprudent as not to
be prepared for their attack. When they pursue they infallibly overtake;
when they are pursued their escape is certain. They despise danger; they
are inured to shipwreck; they are eager to purchase booty with the peril
of their lives. Tempests, which to others are so dreadful, to them are
subjects of joy; the storm is their protection when they are pressed by
the enemy, and a cover for their operations when they meditate an attack.
Before they quit their own shores, they devote to the altars of their gods
the tenth part of the principal captives; and when they are on the point
of returning, the lots are cast with an affectation of equity, and the
impious vow is fulfilled."

Gradually these invaders settled down in Britain, which soon ceased to be
called Britain, and assumed the name Angle-land or England. In A.D. 547
Ida founded the kingdom of Northumbria, one of the divisions forming the
Saxon Heptarchy, and among the villages and families that owed allegiance
to him were those of the neighbourhood of Pickering. The first
fortifications by the Anglo-Saxons were known as _buhrs_ or _burgs_. Some
of them were no doubt Roman or British camps adapted to their own needs,
but generally these earth works were required as the fortified home of
some lord and his household, and there can be little doubt that in most
instances new entrenchments were made, large enough to afford a refuge for
the tenants as well as their flocks and herds.

Pickering itself must have been an Anglo-Saxon village of some importance,
and the artificial mound on which the keep of the castle now stands would
probably have been raised during this period if it had not