In this study, rather than taking a single topic, such as settlement, or monasticism, or literature, and pursuing it across the country up to the Norman Conquest, I have examined a small area over two centuries from as many points of view as the available data suggested. From a purely practical point of view, some geographical and chronological limitation was necessary if I was to handle, and understand the transmission of, very disparate primary material. More positively, a regional approach has made it possible to perceive significant connections between varied types of evidence. Moreover, even where I have not linked up the pieces of the jigsaw, I believe that their juxtaposition in these pages will stimulate the imagination of readers with knowledge, interests and assumptions which differ from my own (which is, surely, one purpose of historical writing).

At present it is probably not practical or useful to generalize about the seven centuries of pre-Conquest England as a whole. Further rounded portraits of restricted areas and periods are likely to shed more light on the Anglo-Saxons than the selectivity and generalization necessitated by broader canvases. Admittedly, by concentrating on a particular area, the historian forgoes the opportunity of demonstrating whether it was a microcosm of the rest of England or was significantly atypical. Only comparative studies can settle such questions and lead towards a future synthesis. Such comparisons, however, would be provisional or even premature before detailed interdisciplinary studies of other regions and periods have been completed.