MSS. has supplied a text of great purity for the fi six Books of Huntingdon's History which only are print in his collection. He observes, that the variations obtain by the collation of the first seven Books were, on the whol very few, and those mostly verbal; but that in the eigh Book they were much more valuable, rectifying many mi takes of Savile's printed text, and affording several additions Mr. Petrie's notes of these variations having been lost, it w deemed advisable that a fresh collation of the eighth Boc should be made with two valuable MSS. in the British M seum, Arundel, No. 48, and Royal 13, B. 6, both on vellur and of the thirteenth or fourteenth century. This collation some of the results of which are referred to in the note has not only served to improve the present version of th eighth Book, but an examination of the MSS. has supplie the means of forming correct conclusions as to the order Huntingdon's works and the dates of their publication. Th "Letter to Walter" was printed in Wharton's " Angli Sacra, ,"2 and in Dacher's "Spicilegium;" both of whic editions have been consulted for the present translation. Th Henry of Huntingdon's merits as an historical write were, perhaps, overrated by the old bibliographers, Pitts Polydore Virgil, and John Leland, while modern critic have done him but scanty justice. The value of hi History varies, of course, with its different epochs. earlier Books being, as he informs us in the Preface, a com pilation from Bede's Ecclesiastical History and the Chroni cles, meaning the Saxon Chronicle, they are of little worth although occasionally supplying additional facts. The thir Book, describing the conversion to Christianity of the several kingdoms of the Heptarchy, though wholly compiled from Bede, has the merit of being a well-digested epitome and of omitting the greater part of the miraculous account: which break the thread of the venerable historian's narrative our author judiciously reserving them for a separate book Indeed, Henry of Huntingdon's works in general are inter spersed with very few of those sacred legends which, howeve characteristic of the age, mar the historical effect, though they Preface to the "Monumenta Historica Britannica," p. 81. may not weaken our reliance on the general truthfulness of the narrative. In this respect he contrasts favourably not only with Bede, but with Roger de Wendover and most other chroniclers, not excepting his illustrious contemporary William of Malmesbury. His frequent references to the immediate interposition of Providence may be unsuited to the taste of many readers of the present day, but it must not be forgotten, that while he sometimes claims the divine interference for very questionable objects, he generally takes just views of the human means employed in working out the dispensations of Providence. Approaching his own times, our author assumes the character of an original historian, and, at the commencement of his seventh Book, tells us that now he has to deal with events which had passed under his own observation, or which had been related to him by eye-witnesses... Still, however, the Saxon Chronicle seems to have been the basis of his History for the reign of William II., although additional matter is frequently introduced. But the latter part of the seventh, and the whole of the eighth Book, containing the reigns of Henry I. and Stephen, are more valuable, the author having been contemporary with the events he describes, and possessing singular opportunities of being well informed on all that passed, from his familiar intercourse with Bishops Bloet and Alexander de Blois, the nephew of Roger Bishop of Salisbury, the greatest statesmen of the time; as well as from his personal knowledge of many other eminent characters, as we learn from his "Letter to Walter." Borrowing large portions of his materials from the Chronicles, it was natural that Huntingdon's History, which Matthew of Westminster, indeed, calls "his Chronicles," should partake of the same character. Although the science of history may be considered as then in a transition state, Henry of Huntingdon has the merit of being among the earliest of our national Historians, as distinguished from Chroniclers. The skeleton of history now began to be invested with consistency of form and proportions, the scattered limbs to be united, and life breathed into the dry bones. Political changes were traced to their origin, events connected with their causes, and developed in the effects, and the lines of individual character fully and v gorously drawn. Huntingdon's colouring is often florid but he was too much of a chronicler to fall into the erro of some of our most esteemed modern historians, who under a specious guise, and in polished sentences, conve a very small amount of exact information. The genius however, which enabled him to form the plan of his ex tended work, distributing it into the successive period of the Roman, the Saxon, the Danish, and the Norma occupations of England, and the sagacity of his observa tions, while tracing the origin of some of these revo lutions, distinguish him from the mere recorder of passing events. The climax of the long series of events is wrough out with dramatic effect, when, in glowing language but without losing sight of historical truth, he pictures England as panting for a deliverer from her ruined distracted state, hailing, with exultation, the accession o Henry II., and entering on an era of peace and prosperity the anticipation of which forms a happy conclusion to the work. and The freedom with which he canvasses the conduct of the great men of the time, both in his History and his "Letter to Walter," not sparing even his patron, King Henry I., and the two Williams, his immediate predeces sors, gives a favourable idea of our author's independence of character, and exhibits, what we should call, the liberty of the press, in a light we should hardly have expected under the iron sway of the Norman kings. But suspicion is thrown on parts of his narrative which are unsupported by concurrent testimony. That would, however, be a singular canon of criticism which should, on such ground, discard the statements of an old writer, whose general credit is unimpeach able, where there is no improbability in the circumstances related; and Huntingdon's History contains several inci dents, unnoticed by other contemporaneous writers, which we should be reluctant to surrender 1. No one could have clearer views of the duty of an historian, as we have For examples see the notes pp. 195 and 199. See also the note, p. 189. 66 already shown, and as is also apparent in the Preface to his "Letter to Walter:" I shall relate nothing," he says, "that has not been told before, except what is within my own knowledge"-in which expression he evidently includes the testimony of other credible persons'the only evidence," he adds, "which can be deemed authentic." He appears, on the whole, to have faithfully adhered to this sound principle, but his great fault being amplification, it occasionally leads him to exaggeration in details, which the careful reader will easily distinguish from the fabrication of facts. There are very few instances in which any serious doubts of his veracity can be entertained, and in these it is fair to suppose that he has been misled by the authorities on which he relied. A fervid imagination, and a diffuse style of composition, naturally betrayed our historian into these occasional errors. Such was his poetical temperament, which, as we have already learnt, he cultivated from his earliest years, that even his own vivid prose sometimes failed of giving expression to his feelings, and he vents them in verse. In an age when it might have been little expected, the court of Henry Beauclerc was the resort of the learned; our author dedicated his first historical work to that patron of letters; William of Malmesbury found a Mecenas in the king's natural son, the Earl of Gloucester, and his two accomplished queens, Matilda and Alice, successively, extended their favour to men of genius. Geoffrey Gaimar and his brother, minnesingers of Normandy, flocked to their presence to celebrate their praises and partake of their bounty. Nor were there wanting scholars who paid their homage to the Latin Muse, and made their offerings at the royal shrine. In most instances, alliteration and rhyme disfigure the metres, and fanciful conceits and quaint antithesis mark the wide departure of the versifiers of those times from the classical models they professed to follow. Henry of Huntingdon, though not entirely free from these faults, was one of the few composers of Latin verse, in that or preceding centuries, who rose above the common level. He occasionally writes with a freedom and elegance, a pathos and poetic feeling, which have lightened the task of making b .. a version of his poems suited to the taste of mode times. The chronology of the History is very defective. Duri the Saxon period, it is based on the reigns of the kings Wessex, with reference to which the series of events the other kingdoms of the Heptarchy is calculated, and t whole is adapted rather unsatisfactorily to the reckoni of the Saxon Chronicle. This cumbrous system occasio great confusion, His subsequent chronological referend are scanty and erroneous. Some of the errors are point out in the notes, and the dates have been generally rectifi from the Saxon Chronicle, and, when that fails, from lat authorities. The subject is fully discussed in the Prefa to the "Monumenta Historica Britannica," and the int ductory remarks on the chronology of the medieval hist rians prefixed to that work. "The Acts of King Stephen," now first translated in English, forms an appropriate sequel to Henry of Hu tingdon's History. Nothing is known of the anonymo author of this valuable fragment; for such it is, time a neglect having so injured the only MS. copy extant, th several portions of the narrative are obliterated, and t concluding pages entirely lost. The work, however, bes internal evidence of having been written by an author co temporaneous with the events related, an eye-witness many of them, and not only present at the councils whe affairs of state were debated, but privy to the king's mo secret designs and springs of action. As he also appea to have been an ecclesiastic, it has been conjectured th he was the king's confessor. The ancient MS. referred preserved in the library of the duke-bishop of Laon, w brought to the notice of Duchesne, who printed it in 1 collection of the Norman Historians, published at Pa in the year 1619: it has been lately republished by t Historical Society of London, under the careful editorsh of Dr. Sewell, from whose improved text the present tra lation has been made. Singularly enough, "The Acts of Stephen" do not conta a single date, but, as far as can be ascertained (a variety events being related which have found no place in a |