history down to the Conquest, but for nearly a century beyond it, to
the year 1154. The language of the latter part, as extant in the
(Midland) Laud MS., belongs to the twelfth century, and shows
considerable changes in the spelling and grammar as compared with
the Parker MS., which (not counting in a few later entries) ends
with the year 1001.

After the Conquest, the Southern dialect continued to be the literary
language, and we have several examples of it. Extracts from some of
the chief works are given in Part I of Morris's _Specimens of Early
English_. They are selected from the following: (1) _Old English
Homilies_, 1150-1200, as printed for the Early English Text Society,
and edited by Dr Morris, 1867-8. (2) _Old English Homilies, Second
Series_, before 1200, ed. Morris (E.E.T.S.), 1873. (3) _The Brut_,
being a versified chronicle of the legendary history of Britain,
compiled by Layamon, a Worcestershire priest, and extending to 32,240
(short) lines; in two versions, the date of the earlier being about
1205. (4) _A Life of St Juliana_, in two versions, about 1210; ed.
Cockayne and Brock (E.E.T.S.), 1872. (5) _The Ancren Riwle_, or Rule
of anchorite nuns (Camden Society), ed. Morton, 1853; the date of
composition is about 1210. (6) _The Proverbs of Alfred_, about 1250;
printed in Dr Morris's _Old English Miscellany_ (E.E.T.S.), 1872.
A later edition, by myself, was printed at Oxford in 1907. (7) A poem
by Nicholas de Guildford, entitled _The Owl and the Nightingale_,
about 1250; ed. Rev. J. Stevenson, 1838; ed. T. Wright, 1843; ed. F.H.
Stratmann, of Krefeld, 1868. (8) A curious poem of nearly 400 long
lines, usually known as _A Moral Ode_, which seems to have been
originally written at Christchurch, Hampshire, and frequently printed;
one version is in Morris's _Old English Homilies_, and another in the
Second Series of the same. (9) _The Romance of King Horn_; before