The first point which suggests itself to the inquirer, concerns the form in which so valuable a national monument has come down to us. I shall not deem it necessary to delay the reader's attention by an account of the mode in which our large public and private collections of manuscripts have been formed. It is sufficient to observe that in all our collections of MSS. there are now only six ancient copies of the Saxon Chronicle known to be in existence. proceed to enumerate and describe them in order.

We will

I. The first copy of this Chronicle is generally known by the name of the Benet or Plegmund MS., so called because it is preserved in Benet [now Corpus Christi] College, Cambridge, and because Plegmund, archbishop of Canterbury, in the reign of king Alfred, is thought to have had some hand in compiling the first part of it.

"From internal evidence of an indirect nature," says Dr. Ingram, "there is great reason to presume that archbishop Plegmund transcribed or superintended this very copy of the Saxon Annals to the year 891, the year in which he came to the see. Wanley observes it is written in one and the same hand to this year, and in hands equally ancient to the year 924, after which it is continued in different hands to the end.

"At the end of the year 890 is added, in a neat but imitative hand, the following interpolation, which is betrayed by the faintness of the ink, as well as by the Norman cast of the dialect and orthography:

"Her was Plegemund gecoron of gode and of eallen his halechen.

"There are many other interpolations in this MS.;* a par ticular account of which, however curious, would necessarily become tedious. A few only are here selected, with a view to illustrate the critical apparatus of this work, and the progressive accumulation of historical facts. They are generally very short, except where an erasure has been made to find room for them. The notice of the birth of St. Dunstan, as of every thing else relating to him, appears to be a monastic interpolation. His death is mentioned in the margin, in a very minute hand, in Latin. There seems to be nothing of any great value in this MS. beyond the time of Alfric, whose * The death of Plegmund for instance.

death is recorded, after a considerable chasm, in the year 1006. After this period the notices of events and transactions are very scanty and defective. The royal donation of the haven of Sandwich to Christ Church, Canterbury, is placed to the year 1031, but evidently written after the conquest, and left unfinished. The Saxon part ends in the year 1070, with the words, bletsungan underfeng; after describing at full length the dispute between the archbishops of Canterbury and York."*

II. The second copy of the Saxon Chronicle is in the British Museum. [MS. COTTON, TIBERIUS A. vi.] It is "written in the same hand with much neatness and accuracy, from the beginning to the end," and "is of very high authority and antiquity. It was probably written c. 977, where it terminates. The hand-writing resembles that ascribed to St. Dunstan. It narrowly escaped destruction in the fire at Westminster, previous to its removal to its present place of custody, being one of Sir R. Cotton's MSS., formerly belonging to the monastery of St. Augustine's, Canterbury."†

III. A third MS. is also in the British Museum. [Cott. Tib. B. i.]

"This MS., though frequently quoted by Somner in his Dictionary under the title of Chronica Abbendoniæ,' or the Abingdon Chronicle, and said to have been transcribed by him, seems not to have been known to Gibson, though noticed by Nicolson within a few years after the appearance of his edition. It contains many important additions to the former Chronicles, some of which are confirmed by C.T. B. iv.; but many are not to be found in any other MS., particularly those in the latter part of it. These are now incorporated with the old materials. Wanley considers the handwriting to be the same to the end of the year 1048. The orthography, however, varies about the year 890 (889 of the printed Chronicle). The writer seems to have been startled at Offæ for Oththan, i. e. Othoni, A.D. 925; for there is a chasm from that place to the year 934, when a slight notice is introduced of the expedition of Athelstan into Scotland.§

Dr. Ingram's preface, p. xx.

+Ibid.

English Historical Library, Part I. p. 116. Most of the MSS. are defective here; and the thread of history, during this turbulent period, appears to have been often disturbed. Bu

In the year 982 are some curious particulars respecting the wars of Otho II. in Greece, and his victories there over the Saracens, now first printed. From the same source, and from C.T. B. iv., we have been enabled to present to the reader of English history a more copious and accurate account than has hitherto appeared, of the Danish invasions, the civil wars in the reign of Edward the Confessor, and the battles of Harold previous to the Norman Conquest. The MS. terminates imperfectly in 1066, after describing most minutely the battle of Stanford-bridge; the few lines which appear in the last page being supplied by a much later hand." IV. A fourth copy of the Saxon Chronicle occurs also in the British Museum. [Cott. Tiberius B. iv.]

"This MS. like the preceding, though of invaluable authority, was unknown to Gibson. It is written in a plain and beautiful hand, with few abbreviations, and apparently copied in the early part, with the exception of the introductory description of Britain, from a very ancient MS. The defective parts, from A.D. 261 to 693, were long since supplied from four excellent MSS. by Josselyn; who also collated it throughout with the same; inserting from them, both in the text and in the margin, such passages as came within his notice; which are so numerous, that very few seem to have eluded his vigilant search. A smaller but elegant hand commences fol. 68, A.D. 1016; and it is continued to the end, A.D. 1079, in a similar hand, though by different writers. Wanley notices a difference in the year 1052. The value and importance of this MS., as well as of the preceding, will be best exemplified by a reference to the notes and various readings in the present edition. The last notice of it will be found in page 456."

V. The fifth MS. is in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. [Laud E, 80.]

It is so "well known, from being made the basis of Gibson's edition where Wheloc's was deficient, that it will not be so necessary to enlarge on it here. It is a fair copy of older Chronicles, with a few inaccuracies, omissions, and interpolations, to the year 1122; therefore no part of it was written

poetry took advantage of the circumstance, and occasionally filled a chasm with some of the earliest specimens of the northern muse; the preservation of which we owe exclusively to the Saxon Chronicle.

d

before that period. The next ten years rather exhibit different ink than a different writer. From 1132 to the end, A.D. 1154, the language and orthography became gradually more Normanized, particularly in the reign of king Stephen; the account of which was not written till the close of it. The dates not being regularly affixed to the last ten years, Wanley has inadvertently described this MS. as ending A.D. 1143; whereas it is continued eleven years afterwards."

VI. The sixth and last copy is in the British Museum. [Cotton, Domitian A. viii.]

"This is a singularly curious MS., attributed generally to a monk of Christ Church, Canterbury, on account of the monastic interpolations. It is often quoted and commended by H. Wharton, in his Anglia Sacra, because it contains much ecclesiastical and local information. We consider it, however, of the least authority among the Cotton MSS., because the writer has taken greater liberties in abridging former Chronicles, and inserting translations of Latin documents in his own Normanized dialect. Frithstan, bishop of Winchester, who died A.D. 931 according to this Chronicle, is called biscop Wentanus; and Byrnstanus [Brinstan] is said to have been consecrated on his loh-in ejus locum. lieu, Fr. Its very peculiarities, nevertheless, stamp a great value on it; and its frauds are harmless, if possible, because they are easily detected. Towards the end the writer intended to say something about prince Edward, the father of Edgar and Margaret; but it is nearly obliterated, and the MS. soon after concludes, A.D. 1058. It is remarkable for being written both in Latin and Saxon; but for what purpose it is now needless to conjecture. It is said to have been given to Sir Robert Cotton by Camden. The passages printed from it by Gibson, and the variations in the margin, marked Cot., are from the collations of Junius inserted in his copy of Wheloc. There does not appear to have been any entire transcript of the MS., as we find it sometimes stated.* Gibson takes no notice of the introductory description of Britain as being in this MS., and he dates its termination in the wrong place. We have therefore had recourse to it again in the British Museum, where it is deposited."

Vid. Wanl. Cat. p. 220.

Besides these six, no other ancient copy is known to exist; but there is a single leaf of an ancient copy in the British Museum. [Cotton, Tiberius A iii.] There are also three modern transcripts, two of which are in the Bodleian library, [Junian MSS. and Laud G. 36,] and one in the Dublin library. [E 5, 15.] The Bodleian transcripts are taken from two of the Cotton MSS., and therefore are of little critical value; but the Dublin transcript appears to be taken from an original, now lost, [Cott. Otho B. xi.] and therefore it possesses an independent authority.

6

"At the end of the Dublin transcript is this note, in the hand-writing of archbishop Usher: These Annales are extant in Sr R. Cotton's Librarye at the ende of Bede's Historye in the Saxon Tongue.' This accords with the description of the MS. in Wanley's Catalogue, p. 219; to which the reader is referred for more minute particulars. As this MS. was therefore in existence so late as 1705, when Wanley published his Catalogue, there can be little doubt that it perished in the lamentable fire of 1731, which either destroyed or damaged so many of the Cotton MSS. while deposited in a house in Little Dean's Yard, Westminster."

"This transcript is become more valuable from the loss of the original. It appears from dates by Lambard himself, at the beginning and end, that it was begun by him in 1563, and finished in 1564, when he was about the age of twentyfive. In the front is this inscription in Saxon characters: Willm lambarde, 1563; and, wulfhelm lambheord; with this addition, wæccath thine leoht-fæt; which may be thus translated:

'Lambard, arise; awake thy lamp.'

At the end is the following memorandum: Finis: 9 Aprilis, 1564. W. L. propria manu.' I am informed by several gentlemen of Trinity College, Dublin, to whom I am indebted for most of the particulars relating to this transcript, that it was once in the possession of archbishop Usher, and is the same mentioned in his Ecclesiastical History, p. 182, which Nicolson says 'is worth the inquiring after.'* It came into the Dublin Library with the other MSS. of the archbishop, according to his original intention, after the restoration of Charles II."

* English Historical Library, Part I. p. 117.