But the land aforesaid appears to be circumscribed by these boundaries, &c. a 12. (no date) Codex, ii, 130. •Whatever is to be granted by a king's gift to his faithful servants, ought to be fortified by a document in writing, because the frail memory of man fades and the delivery of writings always brings it back to memory. WHEREFORE I Ælfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, give and grant to my faithful servant named Deormod, one vill of five manses, named Aeppelford, for another piece of land which the inhabitants name Harandun. I therefore deliver and grant it to him on such hereditary right, that after the end of his life, he may deliver it, for a perpetual inheritance, to any one whoever may be his heir, or to any monastery of holy men, as he may think good. But the aforesaid land shall be free from all secular services, except three, a popular expedition, the building of a high-way bridge and of a royal fortress. But if any one excited by the heat of covetousness, shall attempt to break through this our charter, let him be damned and buried in the lowest hell with the apostle Judas and Pilate, and with all who unjustly possess the sanctuary of God. And let this writing ever have inviolable authority. I the king first confirm this with my royal seal, and command my faithful servants to be witnesses to its confirmation. + The sign of king Aelfred. 5 Probably not authentic. IX. KING ALFRED'S WILL. King Alfred's will, in an entire and correct form, was first published, in 1788, under the able superintendence of the Rev. Owen Manning. This edition, printed at the Clarendon Press, in quarto, exhibited the Saxon text, with notes, and no less than three distinct versions, a free English translation, a literal one, and a third in Latin. The original was at that time in the possession of Mr Astle, and had been preserved in a register of the abbey of Newminster, founded at Winchester by Alfred not long before his death. “ This Register,” it is stated in the original preface," commences with an account of the first foundation of the Abbey in the Cemetery on the north-west side of the Cathedral of Winchester, which about the year 1110 was removed to Hyde. The greatest part of the register, and particularly that in which the will is inserted, appears to have been written between the years 1028 and 1032, so that the entry in the register could not have been written later than one hundred and thirty-two years after the foundation of the abbey, though it was probably earlier ; and it may reasonably be supposed, that care would be taken by the abbot and convent to exemplify the will of their great and munificent founder, in the most correct manner.” The will itself might be made the text of a far from uninteresting dissertation on antiquarian points of considerable importance. The rights of succession, both regal and concerning private property—the modes of tenure—the gift and maintenance of personal privileges—the forms of bequest—with other circumstances relating to ancient habits and localities—may derive incidental elucidation from this valuable relic. Its disclosures manifest the jealousy with which the Anglo-Saxon monarchs watched and 6 secured the transmission of their private possessions to their families and friends ; it illustrates the commencement of that complicated state of property on which the Norman genius for chicane afterwards impressed a still more vexatious character of intricacy; and it exhibits in a very striking light, the magnanimous forbearance of Alfred under the selfish evasions of his brother, and his anxiety to act justly when himself placed in similar circumstances. It may assist in giving a clearer view of the scope and bearing of this testamentary record, if we insert the former editor's Introductory Remarks. • It appears, by the Preface or Introduction to this will, that king Ethelwolf left certain manors and other estates in land (besides what he had given them in his life-time) to his three sons Ethelbald, Ethelred, and Alfred, and to the survivor of them. • That, on Ethelbald's decease, Ethelred and Alfred made over their joint interest herein to king Ethelbert their then eldest brother, in trust, to release it to them again in the same condition in which he received it: with a covenant to do the same by such estates also as he had obtained by their joint assistance and such as he should have acquired himself. That, on Ethelbert's decease, and Ethelred's succeeding to the crown, Alfred applied to him in witena-gemot, to make partition of the estates, and to assign him his share : but that Ethelred refused; alledging in his excuse, that it was a mixed property, which he had entered upon at different times, and that he could not easily distinguish the lands one from another :That however he would make him his heir :with which declaration Alfred was satisfied. • That, shortly after, in a witena-gemot at Swinburgh, it was agreed between Ethelred and Alfred, that the survivor should give to the children of the other, 1. All such lands as they two themselves should have acquired; and, 2. All such as Ethelwolf their father had given to them two in Ethelbald's life-time; but not, 3. Those which he had bequeathed by will to the three; which, together with the personal estate of him of the two that should die first, was to go to the survivor. 6 6 6 • That finally, therefore, this third sort of lands, viz. such as King Ethelwolf the father had devised by will to the three brothers and the survivor of them, and which had now devolved on Alfred, was the subject of the following bequest; which, in the witena-gemot at Langden (King Ethelwolf's will being first produced and read) it was unanimously agreed that Alfred had un a doubted authority to make ; and which the nobility there assembled pledged themselves to see carried into execution.' Independently of the wish to render generally accessible an - important illustration of English history, we may advert to the general interest that has been recently awakened to every thing connected with the literature of the Anglo-Saxons. The singu larly clear and comprehensive grammatical elucidations of Dr Bos· worth have rendered the access easy, and even attractive ; and it may be hoped that henceforward a knowledge not only of the acts and institutions of our ancestors, but of their habits of thought and expression, will be considered as amongst the indispensable elements of a liberal education. The true genius of our tongue, the legitimate clue to its richest treasures, can never be ascertained but by ascending to its source. Shakespeare and the giants of Shakespeare's day, are only to be adequately understood by the man who has traced up the derivation of that unrivalled medium, through which their feelings and conceptions have been transmitted to these later times.-Langland also, Chaucer, Wycliff, cannot be fairly estimated, nor, indeed, satisfactorily comprehended, but by readers who have secured a competent acquaintance with the Anglo-Saxon idiom. Were it not for the risk of lapsing into protracted dissertation, reference might be made to the value of these studies to all who would trace the history of English law up to its primary sources, and to those who would examine our national annals in their earliest and least contaminated authorities—but enough has been said in explanation of the present publication, and from more protracted comment we are withheld by considerations of expediency. 1. I Ælfred king, with God's grace, and with the counsel of Ætherede' archbishop, and all the West-Saxon witan's witness, have considered about my soul's health, and about my inheritance that God and my elders gave me, and about that inheritance which king Athulf’ my father bequeathed to us three brothers, Athel (1) Ethelred, archbishop of Canterbury; who died A. D. 888. (2) Ethelwolf, the father of Alfred, died Jan. 13, A. D. 857-8, leaving four sons, 1. Ethelbald, 2. Ethelbert, 3. Ethelred, 4. Alfred, who were successively kings of England; and one daughter, Ethelswith, who, in 851, married Burhred king of Mercia ; and, after his death in 874, became a nun at Padua, where she died in 888. See Harmony of the Chron, |