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injurious to the advancement of historical inquiry. Whilst some receive the grave and musing reveries of dull erudition without hesitation, others, offended at the manifest inconsistencies. which these dreams involve, are induced to regard every ancient relic in which imagination has a share, as entirely unworthy of notice or credibility. As usual, the middle path, so difficult to be discovered, is the only path which is safe and sure, That the traditions of the early times may, if due caution be observed, afford considerable aid in explaining many difficult passages in the history of nations, will not be denied; but the sober use of the materials will alone give them real importance and utility.

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Anglo-Saxon history, properly so called, begins with the treatise in which Gildas the Wise' laments and describes the destruction of Britain, together with the epistle which may be considered as its appendix. Legends, comparatively of late date, have given particulars of the life and virtues of this writer. From the style and tenor of his works it may be ascertained that they were composed at a period when an obstinate warfare was yet raging between the Britons and their invaders. And none of the few facts hinted rather than narrated by the British Abbot can be placed lower than the beginning of the sixth century. From hence, until the eighth century, a period intervenes in which we are entirely destitute of any contemporary guides, excepting so far as the odes of the British bards may be considered as elucidating English history. The first Anglo-Saxon chronicle now extant to which any certain date or certain origin can be ascribed is the ecclesiastical history of Venerable Bede, compiled by him in the year 731, a short time only before his decease.. Bede is not only. the earliest annalist of the English nation, but perhaps the most trustworthy and faithful which any country in a similar state of cultivation ever possessed. By the diligent study of classical writers he had formed his taste and matured his judgment, and the best mode of estimating the value of his work is afforded by comparing the sober dignity of his style, and the critical selection of his materials, with the rude Chronicle of Gregory of Tours. On perusing the ecclesiastical history we are convinced that the writer was thoroughly impressed with the truth of his narration; and his diligence in the search of facts was equal to the fidelity with which they are recorded. Bede removes all uncertainty with respect to materials. In the dedication, addressed to the most glorious' Ceolwulph, king of Northumberland, the authorities are quoted with most scrupulous minuteness. His information was derived, partly from the communications of his contemporaries, and partly from historical documents. His living witnesses were the venerable elders of the church, amongst whom Nothelm

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and Daniel, the Bishops of London and of the West Saxons, and Albinus, Abbot of Tours, are particularly distinguished by name. From the latter, the disciple of Theodore of Tarsus, Bede: received the most copious and trustworthy account of the conversion of Ethelbyrht and the Kentish kingdom. In Northumbria 'the individuals whom he consulted were innumerable; with some The corresponded, from others he received oral information. The historical muniments which he used are stated in general terms. The events anterior to the introduction of the Gospel were narrated from the writings of his predecessors. For the diplomacy of the mission of St. Augustine, he was furnished with the most authentic documents. Nothelm, a presbyter of the church of London, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, searched 'the papal archives, and obtained transcripts of the Epistles of Pope Gregory and other pontiffs, which he transmitted to Bede, who, by the advice of Albinus, inserted them in his work. Lastly, the actions of St. Cuthbert are taken from a life of the Saint, which Bede obtained from the monks of Lindisfairn. No mention whatever is made of any Saxon chronicles. It might perhaps be considered that such are indicated in the acknowledgment relating to the earliest portion of this history. But a considerable portion of the narrative, which begins with the landing of Julius Cæsar, is taken from Orosius; another portion may be traced to the life of St. Germanus; and the only facts relating to AngloSaxon and British history, the landing of Hengist and Horsa, the battles with Aurelius Ambrosius, and the Halleluja victory, are derived from Gildas the Briton. Now, when we reflect upon the critical acumen displayed by Bede, as well as his diligence, it will appear probable that the absence of any facts which can be traced to any chronicle of Saxon history, affords a strong reason for supposing that no Anglo-Saxon chronicle was then in being. Had a chronicle existed, it would scarcely have escaped his researches. No depository could have contained such a document, except a monastery, and the zeal which enabled him to explore the Roman archives would scarcely have failed to have made him acquainted with all the contents of the libraries of his own country. It may be admitted, therefore, that no Saxon chronicle bearing the character of a continuous history was in being at the time when Bede wrote: that the Saxon chronicles claiming higher autiquity which now exist, either in the original language or in Latin translations, are the productions of a subsequent age.

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Every English monastery of royal foundation, according to an ancient tradition, was provided with a scribe or chronographer, charged with the task of recording all the important events of the time, both at home and abroad. At the first national council

which was held after the death of a king, all these official historians produced their verdicts', before the assembly, and a committee of the wisest being appointed, they compared the statements, which were reduced into a chronicle; and the volume, thus. sanctioned, was deposited in the archives of the religious houses, as an enduring and authentic memorial.* This tale, however, is an unfounded fable. It was natural that the few who could write should occasionally be inclined to commemorate the events of; their times, but there is not the slightest evidence that the writers of monastic chronicles were ever invested with any public or official character.

The earliest monastic chronicles were extremely brief. A phrase, a line, a word, were considered as sufficient memorials of the birth or death of a King, the appearance of a comet, or of an eclipse, the erection of a minster, or the calamities of a storm, a plague, a famine. Events like these were alone recorded, and the transactions of centuries could be included in the vacant leaf of the Liturgy or the Bible. Some of these germs of histories, mere chronological tables, are still extant in their first naked form, without addition or interpolation. In these, from time to time, the diligence of a monk inserted other facts which he acquired by reading or by oral information. The enlarged edition was often transcribed and transmitted to a newly-founded monastery, and then again it received fresh additions, until, by degrees, the compilation began to acquire the bulk and consequence of a history. Although it is impossible to pronounce, with certainty,, where the existing text of the Saxon Chronicle was first formed, still the evident preference, which is given to the affairs of Wessex,. indicates that the work originated in that kingdom or its dependencies. A biography of Archbishop Lanfranc is appended to the most ancient manuscript of the chronicle now existing. This circumstance leads to the supposition that the manuscript. belonged to the church of Canterbury, and it seems most probable that the work was first compiled in the metropolitan Cathe dral of all England. The period of the formation of this parent

* Contin. Scotichronici Joannis de Fordun, p. 1348, Edit. Hearne.

+ This manuscript, which belonged to Archbishop Parker, is now in the library of: Bennet, or Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Another manuscript, apparently an, aucient transcript, but agreeing almost literally with the Bennet MS., was formerly in the Cottonian library. Otho. B. xi. From these manuscripts Wheloc formed the text' which he has printed under the title of Chronologia Saxonica. The Bennet manuscript is continued by various hands until 1069; but after 1004 the entries are very scanty. A detailed and accurate account of all the manuscripts will be found in the preface to the new edition of the Saxon Chronicle, lately published by the Rev. J. Ingram, which comprehends all the matter of all the texts. Two valuable manuscripts, (Bib.. Cott. Tiberius, B. i.) and (Tiberius, B. iv.) were not consulted by Gibson; and they afford many important additions to the other manuscripts. $ 3

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text cannot be placed earlier than the close of the ninth century. When noticing the accession of thelbald (860) the chronicler proceeds and he reigned five years, and his body lies at Sherborn. In the passages where such expressions are employed, the text (as it now exists) cannot be a contemporaneous narrative; but after the reign of Alfred these anticipations do not appear, Other copies are found of greater extent, all of which, however, are evidently enlarged editions of the Canterbury Chronicle, and probably copied in different monasteries when the kingdom began to recover from the effects of the Danish invasions, no manuscript being anterior to the tenth century. Of these the most ample is the copy which appears to have belonged to Medhamstede or Peterborough. Its manner betrays the method of its composition. Some passages are taken from Bede. Long fragments of historical poems are quoted without preface or introduction, their turgid style contrasting forcibly with the plainness of the other portions of the narrative. Many events are unquestionably noted down from common fame, others perhaps from the personal knowledge of the writers. Until the accession of Egbert the original narrative, except when borrowed from Bede, is extremely brief. The history of the period which closes with the reign of Offa, a period of the most obstinate warfare, and during which the Saxous spread themselves from the English Channel to the Firth of Forth and the mountains of Caledonia, offers little more than a barren catalogue of names and battles. The events relating to the kingdoms of Essex and East-Anglia seem to have been almost wholly unknown to the chroniclers. These omissions may be perhaps explained, by recollecting that there were no monasteries in these kingdoms until the ninth century. The events of Mercia are imperfectly told, except when in connection with the history of Wessex: and the narrative relating to Northumbria is extremely jejune. Yet the imperfections of the Chronicle are the vouchers for its fidelity. It would have been no difficult task to have supplied these blanks from the stores of poetical invention or the tales of mythology, disguised under the semblance of authentic history. Such eras of ancient wars and conquests are those in which the chroniclers of most countries have thought it almost a duty to raise up long successions of shadowy forms and glorious visions, for the purpose of ministering to national pride or individual vanity. But the compilers of the Chronicle seem to have exercised the most conscientious caution in the selection of their materials, and the narration bears ample testimony to their judgment. With the exception of the notice of certain fiery dragons' at a period before the conquest, and of the apparition of the wild huntsman' afterwards, the work does not contain a single statement which can be

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considered as improbable or fictitious, or as subjecting the writers to the charges of invention or credulity. After the accession of Egbert, a striking change is observable in the manner of the Chronicle. Minúter details are related, and the style becomes more historical and flowing, but still the absence of matter relating to the eastern and northern parts of the kingdom remains obvious. Continued, from time to time, by various writers, in the manner before indicated, the texts conclude at different periods. In that manuscript, which is usually designated as the Peterborough Chronicle, the narrative is continued till the accession of Henry II. The dialect gradually loses the peculiarities of the Saxon language and softens into English, and the narrative becomes more diffuse, until it breaks off abruptly at an era which, in fact, is the real termination of Anglo-Saxon history.

The works of which the materials are more or less derived from the Saxon Chronicle, which appears to have been considered as the primary source of English history, must now be considered. While we find traces, in all these, that there were other texts then existing more ample in particular eras than the chronicles now exfant; yet, at the same time, it is evident that they were all founded upon the same basis, differing only in their respective additions and interpolations. The first, in point of date, of these derivative histories, is the history of the life. and actions of Alfred, by his friend and contemporary, Asser, bishop of Shirburne. But Asser's composition by no means answers to the title prefixed by modern editors. It is not a life of Alfred. It is a history of English affairs from the birth of Alfred, in which are inserted some particulars respecting the life and conversation of the English king. Many of the historical notices correspond exactly with the Saxon Chronicle; others, which are not found in the existing text, are evidently taken from another a little more ample, but entirely agreeing in character. The particulars stated by Asser, from his personal knowledge, are extremely curious and valuable; but they must not be confounded with the interpolations of later date. The much contested passages concerning the dissensions of the University of Oxford cannot easily be defended by her sons; and we must expunge also, though with much more reluctance, the well-known anecdote of the monarch and the wife of the neatherd. This incident is borrowed from the life of St. Neot, a legend written at least one hundred and fifty years after Alfred's death; and which may be justly characterized as a tissue of legendary garrulity entirely undeserving of credit.* The life of St. Neot begins by stating

that

This legend has been published by Mr. Gorham in his History of St. Neot's. The following extract will exemplify our remarks. The translation was communicated to

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Mr.

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