bury and Athelney; he called from other lands learned men to help him, the best he could get-Phlegmund from Mercia, Asser from Wales, Grimbald from St. Omers, and John from Corbei, in Saxony. He himself translated into English such Latin works as he thought would be most useful to his people, translating freely, omitting much, and adding much from himself in the way of comment and reflection and illustration.

Translation of 'Pastoral Care.'- One of these works was the Pastoral Care' of the Pope Gregory who sent missionaries to Britain. To the translation Alfred prefixed a preface which is extremely interesting. A copy was sent to each bishop, and the one sent to Wærferth, bishop of Worcester, is preserved in the Bodleian Library. In it the king speaks thus:--

Elfréd kyning hateð grétan Wærferd biscep his wordum luflice ond fréondlice; ond dé cyồan háte æt mé com swide oft on gemynd, hwelce wiotan iu wæron giond Angeloynn, ægðer ge godcundra háda ge woruldcundra, ond hú gesæliglica tida dá wæron giond Angelcynn; ond hú man útan bordes wísdóm ond láre hieder on lond sóhte, ond hú wé hie nú sceoldan úte begietan, gif wé hie habban sceoldan.

Swæ cláne hió was odfeallenu on Angelcynne dætte swide feawa weron behionan Humbre de hiora deninga cúden understondan on Englisc; ond ic wéne dette noht monige begiondan Humbre næren.

Alfred, king, biddeth greet Wærferth, bishop, with his words in loving and friendly wise; and I would have you know that it has come very often into my mind, what wise men formerly there were among the English race, both of the sacred orders and of the secular, and how happy times those were throughout the English race; and how people from abroad for wisdom and learning sought hither to this land, and how we now should have to get them abroad, if we would have them.

So clean was it fallen away in the English race that there were very few on this side Humber who would know how to render their services into English; and I ween that not many would be on the

Swæ feáwa hiora wæron Sæt ic furðum ánne ánlépne ne mæg gedencean be súðan Temese, da da ic to rice feng. Gode ælmihtigum sie donc dat we nu ænigne on stal habbað lareowa.

other side of Humber. So few of them were there that I not even a single one can think of south of Thames when I took to the realm. God almighty be thanked that we now have in office any teachers.

Translation of Orosius.-Another work chosen for translation by Alfred was the Chronicles' of Orosius. Orosius was a Spanish monk, a friend of St. Augustine, and his work in those early ages had great repute as a compendium of universal history and geography. Alfred, as was his wont, added valuable matter of his own, and among these additions is an account of the land of the Northmen given to the king by Othere and Wulfstan, two strangers from those regions whom Alfred gladly entertained at his court.

Othere sæde his hláforde Elfréde cyninge, Sæt he ealra Norðmonna nordmest búde. Hé cwæð dæt hé búde on dæm lande nordweardum wid da Westsæ. Hé sede deáh Sæt dæt land sie swide lang nord donan; ac hit is eall wéste, búton on feáwum stowum wicia Finnas, on huntode on wintra, ond on sumera on fiscade be dære sæ.

He was swide spédig mann on dám æhtum de hiora spéda on béoồ, Xæt is, on wildrum. Hé hæfde dagit, da he done cyning sóhte, tamra deóra six hund. Đá deór hie hátað hránas'; Sara weron six stælhránas, da beod swide dyre mid Finnum for dæm hie od da wildan hránas mid.

Othere said to his lord king Alfred that he of all the Northmen abode northmost. He said that he dwelt in the land to the northward along the West Sea. He said, however, that that land is very long north from thence, but it is all waste, except that in a few places Finns dwell for hunting in winter, and in summer for fishing in that sea.

He was a very wealthy man in those possessions in which their wealth consists, that is in wild deer. He had at the time that he came to the king, of tame deer, six hundred. These deer they call reindeer, of which there were six decoy reindeer, which are very valuable among the Finns, for with them they catch the reindeer.

THE SAXON CHRONICLES.

ANOTHER work of King Alfred was the trutha
Bæda's noble history, ani it is poselle that to me we
owe the most precious remnant of surve item
Chronicles. There are seveD

existing; they are desimated by the lettere & B 1.2
E, F, G, and the one markei A la prote); the puzet
of all the rest. At the time of the kefirmation EVL
in the library of Christ Church monastery at Canterburg
Archbishop Parker gained possession of its und bequeathed
it to Benet now Corpus Christl Coleg in Camı
and there it now is. Internal exilezse est
Winchester rather than Canterbury, and la le ofre e ad
as the Winchester Chronicle. It is the voor die
of
scribes, and the first handwriting ceases at end, the pear
in which Phlegmund became archbishop, & 3 leer-
tremely probable that so far at least it is the wor
King Alfred's reign.

The Chronicle begins with the year 60 10.. and from thence to A.D. 449 it is compiled from various La authors, and chiefly from Bada From a w

(where Bæda ceases) there are many surt erre mingled, however, with geaning from the bu history of Wessex and Kent, gazed bow on stones, and rolls of kings. for the year 473 :—

Her Hengest and Ese gefchton wid Walas, and genamon unarimedlico here reaf, and a Walas flugon da Englan swa fyr.

Here

The period of thirty years ending with 855 bears. marks of contemporary freshness. It records among other things Alfred's visit to Rome with his father, and it may, perhaps, be the work of the saintly Swithun, bishop of Winchester, who also went with the king to Rome. The period closes with the death of Ethelwulf, and with a great genealogy of the Wessex kings, ascending up to Wodin, thence to 'Hrathra, who was born in the ark,' thence to Adam primus homo et pater noster, id est Christus. Amen.'

The period from 894 to 897 is described as 'the most remarkable piece of writing in the whole series of Chronicles. It is a warm, vigorous, earnest narrative, free from the rigidity of the other annals, full of life and originality. It reads more like a narrative of our own time than Alfred's.' 1

The following is part of the entry for 896

On by ylcan gere worhte se fore sprecene here geweorc be Lygan xx mila bufan Lunden byrig. Da dæs on sumera foron micel dæl Sara burgwara, and eac swa odres folces. Dat hie gedydon æt dara Deniscana geweorc, and dær wurdon gefliemde, and sume feower cyninges egnas ofslægene. Da Sæs on hærfæste a wicode se cyng on neaweste dare byrig, da hwile de hie hira corn gerypon, Sæt da Deniscan him ne mehton Sæs ripes forwiernan.

In the same year wrought the before-mentioned army a fort by the Lea twenty miles above London town. Then in the summer went forth a great part of the townsmen, and also of other folk. Thus they did to the Danish fort, and there they were put to flight, and some four king's thanes were slain. Then after this, in harvest, the king encamped in the neighbourhood of the town the while they reaped their corn, that the Danes might not prevent them from the reaping.

Down to the year 924 the narrative is of the same

i Earle.

character but more subdued, but the record from 925 to 975 is extremely meagre. The years 937, 942, 973, 975 have no prose entry, but a poetical piece is inserted in each of these years, and the first is the noble ode on the Battle of Brunanburg, which begins thus :

At the end of the year 1001 the handwriting again changes, and from thence to the close of the Chronicle in 1079 there are only eleven scattered entries, consisting of matters interesting to Canterbury rather than to Winchester. It has therefore been thought that the Winchester Chronicle ceased in 1001, and that when Lanfranc became archbishop in 1079 it was brought to Canterbury and that the few additional entries were made there.

The Chronicles marked B, C, F, G are little more than copies of A, though each has some entries peculiar to itself. Chronicle D, the Worcester Chronicle, is specially rich in entries relating to Mercian and Northumbrian affairs during the eighth and ninth centuries, and it is thought to owe its origin to Wærferth, the Bishop of Worcester, the friend of King Alfred. In recording the events of Edward the Confessor's reign it has a strong and distinct character of its own, and it is the only one of the Chronicles which gives an account of the Battle of Hastings.