fied, was to be a "bachelor and single man" so long as he held the professorship; he must be a regular, not a created graduate, and have duly performed the usual exercises for a degree. By a subsequent codicil, dated July 25, 1754, natives of Scotland, Ireland, and of the Plantations abroad, or any of their sons, and all present or future members of the Royal and Antiquary Societies, were excluded. From the fourth and last codicil, dated Feb. 14, 1755, the period of ten years, in which (according to a previous clause in the will) the professorship could be held by any one individual, was limited to five years. To give every publicity to his intentions, and to ensure their being duly carried into effect, he required that a copy of his will, and of the several codicils, be given by his executors to Mr. James Fletcher of Oxford, bookseller, to whom he gave permission to print them, "in order to perpetuate the same, and be a check upon all concerned, as well as to be a direction to them.”*

* Rawlinson's Will. Ingram's Lectures, 4to, 1807, p. 38, App. II.

CHAPTER VIL

WITH the nineteenth century began a new era in Saxon literature. The publication of the first edition of Sharon Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons in successive volumes between the years 1799 and 1805, appears to have excited an attention not only towards their history, but by the addition to it of an account of their language and literature, a slow but gradually increasing attention has been awakened; a deep, and, from time to time, a still deeper interest has been created amongst us, as one after another of the literary productions of our simple and unpretending ancestors have been brought into view from their sleep of ages, till at last we forget the dim glimmerings of light which appeared in the sixteenth century in the effulgence which now surrounds our path.

Although we have reason to believe that this increasing attention would have been given to these subjects, from the ordinary progression attendant on human productions when accompanied by favourable circumstances, at the same time a careful examination of the subject must satisfy us that the research which, within a few years past, has characterized the inquiries into the institutions, laws, and polity of the AngloSaxons, has been in a great degree the offspring of a previous acquaintance with the pages of Sharon Turner's highly interesting and instructive work. "The Anglo-Saxon MSS.,” says Mr. Turner in the Preface to his third volume of AngloSaxon History, "lay still unexamined, and neither their contents, nor the important facts which the ancient writers

and records of other nations had preserved of the transactions and fortunes of our ancestors, had been ever made a part of our general history. The Quida, or death-song of Lodbrog, first led the present author to perceive the deficiency, and excited his wish to supply it. A series of careful researches into every original document that he had the opportunity of examining was immediately begun and steadily pursued, till all that was most worth preserving was collected from the Anglo-Saxon MSS. and other ancient books. The valuable information thus obtained the author endeavoured to give the public in a readable form in this work, of which two-thirds have not before appeared in English."*

In Ellis's" Specimens of the Early English Poets, to which is prefixed an Historical Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the English Poetry and Language,” 3 vols. 8vo, 1801, appeared some account of Saxon poetry, with a specimen, being the "Ode on Athelstan's Victory at Brunanburh," to which a metrical version by Henshall was added. A very interesting account of the origin and progress of writing in England, with fac-similes from Anglo-Saxon and other MSS., was given, in a work by Mr. Astle, in the year 1803, the first edition of which appeared in 1784. The following year, a second and much enlarged edition of Mitford's " Inquiry into the Principles of Harmony in Language, and of the Mechanism of Verse, modern and ancient," gave us specimens from Alfred's metrical version of Boethius and other Saxon poems, useful to us, perhaps, as displaying how very little sound criticism at that period had been brought to bear on Anglo-Saxon poetry.

66

66

An "Inaugural Lecture on the Utility of Anglo-Saxon Literature," by the Rev. James Ingram, Anglo-Saxon professor, was printed at Oxford in 4to, 1807. To this he added the Geography of Europe, by King Alfred, including his account of the discovery of the North Cape in the ninth century. He has first printed the Anglo-Saxon text, (in Roman letter,) and afterwards his English translation, together with the notes

• Turner's Hist. Anglo-Saxons, vol. iii. Introd. A more detailed account of this work will be given in a subsequent page. Successive editions in 1807, 1818, 1823, 1828, and 1838, show the estimation in which it has been held by that best of all possible judges, the many-headed public.

of J. Reinhold Forster, from Barrington's Orosius, 1773. The author appears to have entered on his office with zeal, but when he tells us that "a few hours attentively dedicated to Saxon literature will be sufficient to overthrow the authority of every dictionary and grammar of the English language that has been hitherto published,"* we feel bound to state that it far outruns discretion. He determined, however, to aid as far as lay in his power the cause of Saxon learning. Besides the Saxon, he was under the necessity of cultivating an acquaintance with other Northern languages, to carry his plans fully into effect, of which he has left on record the following account: "I am now preparing a few essays on the following subjects:

1. On the Saxon Chronicle, with Specimens of an English Translation of that original document.

II. On the Gradual Formation of the English Language upon the foundation of the Anglo-Saxon.

III. On Saxon Poetry, comprehending the Dano-Saxon and Norman-Saxon.

IV. On the Laws, Government, Religion, Manners, &c. of the Saxons.

V. On what is called Saxon-Architecture."+

Being satisfied that, in giving in his Inaugural Lecture an account of the many eminent scholars who had promoted Saxon literature, he had not done them the justice which their exertions so well merited, he tells us that if health and leisure permit, it is his intention to publish a kind of "Biographia Anglo-Saxonica, or Select Lives of Anglo-Saxon Scholars."+ Another work, which, from the Preface to his Inaugural Lecture, he appears to have had some intention of publishing, was Alfred's Orosius. "The translation of Orosius," says he, "is one of the most extraordinary productions of this kind; and as an epitome of ancient history, it well deserves to be more generally known, but for that purpose it ought to be

* Ingram's Lecture on the Study of Anglo-Saxon. † Ibid. p. 33.

Ibid. p. 8, Note.

correctly printed, which has not yet been done. If, however, the public should think it important enough, I can only say, that, as far as it depends on me, it shall be done. It is time that the fame of Alfred, and the unvarnished language of our Saxon ancestors, should no longer be sullied by the errors of later ages, and the ignorance of superficial pretenders to refinement."*

Samuel Henshall's "Etymological Organic Reasoner, containing the Gothic Gospel of St. Matthew, with the corresponding English, or Saxon, from the Durham Book of the eighth century;" with Observations on the works of Whiter and Horne Tooke, was published in numbers during the year 1807. Some proposals appear to have been issued for a work in three volumes, of which only four numbers (included in the above work) came out. During the course of publication, finding that persecution still followed his steps, on the recommendation of some literary friends, he added to the fourth number an "Occasional Preface," with a title-page. The work he dedicated to the late Richard Heber, Esq. whose valuable collections were freely opened to him, as they were afterwards to hundreds of others, with most praiseworthy liberality by their truly liberal owner.

In his preface, Henshall tells us that the obstacles and falsehood that he encountered in the publication of his Gothic Gospel, from Antiquarians, Blackstonians, Electioneering Oxonians, Reviewers, Low Churchmen, Presbyterians, Methodists, and others, are almost incredible. A bookseller opposite the Exchange returned the numbers he had to Mr. White, (his publisher,) and would not sell them; and he complains that Mr. Cook of Oxford had written two discouraging letters from the University, where a Saxon professor is established; and the minor critics reported in the Bibliopolite circle that he should never edit a second number. From these circumstances he declares himself unable to gratify the wishes of his friends, who were desirous of having his disquisitions on Saxon literature in one volume; but he adds,

*

Ingram's Lecture on the Study of Anglo-Saxon. Preface.