Note 362 — Chapter V · THE FOUR KINGDOMS.

Bede’s expression in referring to Candida Casa or Whitherne as ‘locus ad provinciam Berniciorum pertinens’ (B. iii. c. iv.), implies that it still belonged to the Northumbrians; and Simeon of Durham, in his history of St. Cuthbert, says that King Ecgfrid gave him in 685 ‘villam quæ vocatur Creca ... et quia videbatur parva terra, adjecit civitatem quæ vocatur Luel, quæ habet in circuitu quindecim milliaria, et in eadem civitate posuit congregationem sanctimonialium, et abbatissam ordinavit et scholas constituit.’‘—Ed. Surtees, p. 141. The Angles would have been entirely separated from Galloway, and could not have communicated with it, if they had not possessed the south shore of the Solway Firth also.