We are fortunately able to confirm and illustrate it by reference to actual local instances. «Manor of Tidenham.» The first example is that of the manor of _Tidenham_, and it derives a more than ordinary value from its peculiar geographical position. The parish of Tidenham comprises the wedge-shaped corner of Gloucestershire, shut in between the Wye and the Severn, where they join and widen into the Bristol Channel; while to the north-east, on its land side, it was surrounded by the Forest of Dean. In the belief of local antiquaries, the Roman road from Gloucester to Caerleon-upon-Usk--the key to South Wales--passed through it as well as the western continuation of the old British road of Akeman Street from the landing-place of the Severn, opposite Aust (where St. Augustine is said to have met the Welsh Christians) to the further crossing-place on the Wye. Lastly, upon it was the southern end of _Offa's Dyke_, the mysterious rampart which, commencing thus at the mouth of the Wye, extended to the mouth of the Dee.[180] «Saxon since A.D. 577,» The manor probably has been in English hands ever since about the time when, according to the Saxon Chronicle, after Deorham battle in A.D. 577, Bath, Gloucester, and Cirencester were wrested from [p149] the Welsh by Ceawlin, king of the West Saxons. According to the Welsh legends of the _Liber Landavensis_[181] this was about the time when the diocese of Llandaff was curtailed by the Wye instead of the Severn becoming the boundary between the two kingdoms. It may therefore have been for nearly five centuries before the Norman Conquest the extreme corner of West Saxon England on the side of South Wales. [Illustration: THE MANOR OF TIDENHAM.] «was a royal manor,» Conquered probably by Ceawlin, or soon after the year 577, the manor of Tidenham seems to have remained folkland or _terra regis_ of the West Saxon kings, till Offa conquered it from them and gave his name to the dyke upon it. One of its hamlets bore, as we shall find, the name of _Cinges tune_, and Tidenham Chase remained a royal chase till after the Norman Conquest. «given by King Edwy, A.D. 956, to the Abbey of Bath.» The manor itself was granted by King Edwy in A.D. 956 by charter[182] to the Abbot of Bath, under whose name it is registered in the Domesday Survey. It is in this charter of King Edwy that the description of the manor and of the services of the tenants is contained. The services must be regarded, therefore, as those of a royal manor before it was handed over to ecclesiastical hands. «The boundaries still to be traced.» The boundaries as appended to the charter are given below,[183] and may still, with slight exceptions, be traced on the Ordnance Survey. [p150]