The Outpost Vol 1 - The Royal Highland Fusiliers

THE OUTPOST. 155
P.T.GOD
OF ISCOYD.
I AM one of those nearly extinct relics of a
bygone age, namely, a retired Volunteer
Adjutant; and my hobby is a keen desire to
get to understand how the English race came
to establish itself in the British Isles, as far west
as a line from Exeter to Edinburgh, to the
temporary exclusion of our Welsh and Gaelic
friends, and the permanent abolition of their
language, customs and place-names east of that
line. From my profession and training I have
naturally approached this question from the
military standpoint, and I find everything
explained, and from Hengist and Horsa down to
the founder of Edinburgh, a coherent and lucid
story evolves itself. This story may not be in
accordance with the patchwork of literary
quotations which University professors have
made to pass muster as history, but at anyrate
it is coherent, which is more than can be said of
more academical versions.
The most interesting feature of the neighbourhood
of Whitchurch is that it contains the
frontier where this great conquest was first
permanently checked, and that is why we find
Wales and Welsh names within three miles of
Whitchurch, and we shall see that, as we are
dealing with the vestiges of a conquest, military
science explains everything. Though there is
evidence that the site of \Vhitchurch was
occupied in Roman times, I have not space to
deal with that period beyond pointing out that
it lay near the route by which the Romans must
have travelled from Uriconium on the Severn to
Chester, their great fortress on the Dee.
Near Whitchurch more districts or territorial
divisions meet at one point than anywhere else in
the world. Where Judbrook and Grindley Brook
join the Wych Brook we find meeting, 2 Countries
-England and Wales, 3 Counties-Shropshire,
Cheshire and Flintshire, 2 Dioceses-Lichfield
a::ld Chester (in fact there will be 3 if the Welsh
Church Bill ever becomes law, since that will
put Iscoyd into St. Asaph), 2 Provinces-Canterbury
and York, 3 Hundreds-East Bradford,
Broxton and Maelor, 3 parishes, 3 townships,
3 properties, 3 farms, 3 brooks, etc., etc. Any
one of the first eighteen of these names might
head a chapter on national history, as the rest
might on locaL How has it come about that
so many divisions of sterling historical interest
meet at such a quiet and unassuming spot in a
pastoral district, and so many vestiges of
ancient conflicts in such an abode of peace?
Local people who see these topograph:cal
phenomena everyday cannot be expected to
take an interest in the questions they raise; in
fact 1 don't want them to, as they are far too
busy making cheese, without which we should
not get our rents, and, besides, we all wish the
neighbourhood of Whitchurch to retain the
position it holds as, facile princeps, the premier
cheese district of the world.
But r have some hopes that our local
arch