that sufficient has been said to convince those who may not have
leisure or opportunity to examine the matter themselves, that
however numerous are the Latin historians of English affairs,
almost everything original and authentic, and essentially
conducive to a correct knowledge of our general history, to the
period above mentioned, may be traced to the "Saxon Annals".

It is now time to examine, who were probably the writers of these
"Annals". I say probably, because we have very little more than
rational conjecture to guide us.

The period antecedent to the times of Bede, except where passages
were afterwards inserted, was perhaps little else, originally,
than a kind of chronological table of events, with a few
genealogies, and notices of the death and succession of kings and
other distinguished personages. But it is evident from the
preface of Bede and from many passages in his work, that he
received considerable assistance from Saxon bishops, abbots, and
others; who not only communicated certain traditionary facts
"viva voce", but also transmitted to him many written documents.
These, therefore, must have been the early chronicles of Wessex,
of Kent, and of the other provinces of the Heptarchy; which
formed together the ground-work of his history. With greater
honesty than most of his followers, he has given us the names of
those learned persons who assisted him with this local
information. The first is Alcuinus or Albinus, an abbot of
Canterbury, at whose instigation he undertook the work; who sent
by Nothelm, afterwards archbishop of that province, a full
account of all ecclesiastical transactions in Kent, and in the
contiguous districts, from the first conversion of the Saxons.