The East-Saxons could never pierce the woods of their western border.

The Fens proved impassable to the Northfolk and the Southfolk of East-Anglia.

It was only after a long and terrible struggle that the West-Saxons could hew their way through the forests which sheltered the "Gwent" of the southern coast.

Their attempt to break out of the circle of woodland which girt in the downs was in fact fruitless for thirty years; and in the height of their later power they were thrown back from the forests of Cheshire.
[Sidenote: Withdrawal of the Britons] It is only by realizing in this way the physical as well as the moral circumstances of Britain that we can understand the character of its earlier conquest.

Field by field, town by town, forest by forest, the land was won.