Lincoln was the British Caer-Lind-coit, the “Fortress (or City) of River and Wood,” these being the chief features of the position; the river, a sacred British stream, which carved out for itself its channel through “the Lincoln Gap”; and the woods (Welsh, or British, ‘coed,’ a wood) which stretched far away for miles around it; of the remains of which De la Prime says, “infinite millions of roots and bodies of trees have been found, of 30 yards length and above, and have been sold to make masts and keels for ships . . . as black as ebony, and very durable.” {118a} Then, as the city took the last element of its name from its woods (coeds), so the people who dwelt around were called Coitani, or woodmen {118b}; corresponding to the name given to the dwellers in the fens, Gir-vii, or men of the cars. Lincoln was the royal city of the Coitani. During the Roman occupation the Britons were christianized. After the Romans left the country, the people having, through the long period of peace, almost lost the art of war, the British chief Vortigern called in the Saxons from the continent to aid him against the inroads of the Picts and Scots; and Hengist and Horsa, Saxon chiefs, came with a large following and settled in the country (circa A.D. 450). Vortigern, with their assistance, repelled those northern marauders, and himself married Rowena, daughter of Hengist, giving to Hengist, in return for his aid, considerable lands—“multos agros,” says Matthew of Westminster {118c}—in Lindsey. But these so-called friends soon proved to be enemies, and, in 462, seized London, York, and Lincoln. Vortimer, son of Vortigern, died and was buried at Lincoln. Vortigern himself retired into Wales, and was burnt in his castle there, in 485. Matthew of Westminster records that King Arthur of “the round table” pursued a Saxon army as far as Lincoln, having defeated them, with a loss of 6,000 men, in a wood near Barlings. The Saxons, being ultimately victorious, re-introduced Paganism, the names of their gods still surviving in our day-names, Tuesday (Tuisco), Wednesday (Woden), Thursday (Thor), Friday (Friga), Saturday (Seater). Among the kingdoms of the Saxon Heptarchy, Mercia was the largest and most important division, {118d} founded by the chief Crida in A.D. 584, and Lincoln is said to have been its capital city. Paulinus preached Christianity among the Saxons (circa A.D. 630), and converted Blecca, the governor of Lincoln, where a stone church was built, said by some to have been the first stone church in the kingdom, {119a} that at Glastonbury being made of wattles. The Venerable Bede says it was of excellent workmanship. {119b} Two churches in Lincoln have claimed to represent this ancient fabric.