which I do not think, it would certainly be at Holt or Farndon, for the distance, nine English or ten Roman miles, exactly agrees, whilst Bangor is at least fifteen Roman miles from Chester.” If this were the case, Farndon would derive considerable importance from its nearness to the place, and would in some measure be a kind of outwork and protection to it. Coming on to a later period, Farndon, from its position, must often have been the scene of stirring events. It was, as will have been gathered, not far from Bangor Monachorum, and communications between the two places must have been frequent. It is conceivable that the first Christian church was planted at Farndon, or the first preaching of Christianity given, by the monks from that monastery, but this must be a matter of conjecture. But when Ethelfrith, the pagan King of Northumbria, having conquered Chester, invaded Wales, A.D. 613, he must have passed through Farndon, or been in its immediate neighbourhood. It was then that the “Battle of Chester” was fought, and that the King massacred 1200 monks upon the field, because, though not bearing arms, they were praying for his defeat, and afterwards burnt down the monastic buildings, murdered the remnant of the monks, and destroyed their libraries. Those must have been anxious times for the dwellers in Farndon. No doubt in the years that followed they were continually being roused to activity, and had to protect themselves from constant attacks from their neighbours, the Welsh; but all this we must imagine, for we have no definite record of it. We are told that Edward the Elder, son of King Alfred, died at Farndon in 925, on his way south from fighting at Chester. He was carried to Winchester and buried in the Cathedral. The quotation from William of Malmesbury is as follows: After the battle at Chester “paucis diebus apud Ferenduna mortuus est Edvardus.” Some think that this refers to Farndon in Nottinghamshire, though the wounded monarch could hardly have accomplished so long a ride in a few days. The statement or tradition is an interesting one, and it would be well if further confirmatory information were forthcoming. It is curious (though it may have no connection with this event) that there was afterwards at Farndon one of the Cheshire sanctuaries called King’s Marsh. “It was a wild, desolate district, surrounded by a ditch to mark the limit of safety for fugitives and ‘foreigners’; for any who sought the protection of the Earl of Chester, or who were acting as mercenaries against his enemies, might reside here in safety for a year and day, provided they used no nails or pins in the erection of their squatter’s tent.”[50] [50] Coward’s _Picturesque Cheshire_, p. 278. The title may perhaps be due to the fact that King Richard III. granted Over-Marsh to Sir William Stanley, the name being subsequently changed to King’s Marsh.