Scandinavian-Britain

CUMBERLAND AND WESTMORLAND 209only the Danes of Northumbria, but the Northmen (ofthis coast) submitted to Eadward, and in 926 thekings of Scotland and Strathclyde met ^Ethelstan atDacre, which must have been the Cumberland Dacre,outside Northumbria, but not far within the boundaryof the Cumbrian kingdom.It is usual in historicalto draw a hard and fast line along the Derwentmapsas the southern limit of this mysterious realm, assumingthat the later bishopric represented the old kingdom ;but the whole of the mountainous Lake District musthave been at this period practically a wilderness. Aline of road went throughit from Penrith by way ofKeswick, near which St. Herbert had his hermitagein the wilds ;but the old Roman route throughAmbleside and Hardknott shows no traces of Anglianhabitation, and the central moors of Westmorland(Westmoringaland, compare Vestrmaeri in Norway," land of folk of the western meer," or boundary, notof western " meres," nor the Guasmoric of Nennius,42, nor the realm of Geoffrey's Marius) must have beenequally uncivilised until the overflow of Norse settlementfilled them with population. The interests ofthe Strathclyde king were in the north ;his capitalwas on the Clyde, and Cumberland, thoughstillCymric, was a no-man's-land.Through this region, again, Owain of Strathclydeand Constantine's army must have marched toBrunanburh, possibly joined by the Vikings settledhere ;for while there were no reprisals made uponthe. Danelaw for participation in that attack, in 945king Eadmund " ravaged all Cumberland and grantedo