the West Saxon without the intervention of a third dialect; and in order
to appreciate this it is necessary for us to review that more spacious
culture of which the scene was laid in the country of the Northern
Angles.


FOOTNOTES:

[57] "Ecclesiastical History," iii., 18.

[58] Aldhelm speaks of the study of Roman law in connexion with other
scholastic studies, as Latin verses and music. But then that was after
the new start given to education by Theodore and Hadrian. A century
later, Alcuin described the studies at V York in this order,--grammar,
rhetoric, law.--Wharton, "Anglia Sacra," ii. 6; Alcuin's poem, "De
Pontificibus &c."

[59] They are in Kemble, "Codex Diplomaticus," Nos. 226, 228, 229, 231,
235, 238.

[60] Aldhelm's "Works," ed. Giles, p. 228.

[61] Seventeen consonants and six vowels; made with iron style and
erased with the same, or else made with a bird's quill; whatever the
instrument, three fingers are the agents; and we can convey answer
without delay even in situations where it would be inconvenient to
speak.

[62] I have given the _th_, or þ, or ð, as in the manuscript. This is
done in the present instance because a peculiar interest attaches to it