of towns and cities, recalls that rude state of society, when the fortress upon the rock or the beetling crag furnished the only security for life or possessions. It is the conclusion of some of the best writers on the subject that the oldest topographical nomenclature in Britain is Celtic.1 Inquirers are by no means agreed as to the number of words on other subjects, some reckoning them by hundreds and even thousands, while others would reduce them to a comparatively small number. Among those commonly cited as of Celtic origin are the following: basket, barrow, button, cart, crook, gown, pan, solder, wain; all of which Mr. Marsh has shown to be derived from other sources, or at least to have a common existence in other languages. "The probability is that most of the words in question belong to an earlier period of human speech than that of the existence of any language identifiable as distinctly Celtic, Gothic, or Italic." 2

The Roman Element.

The term Roman is here used to mark the influence exerted on the English character and language by the Roman occupation of Britain for five centuries, as distinguished from that of the Latin language and literature of a later date. The period under review begins with the invasion of Julius Cæsar, 55 B. C. and closes with the year 449 A. D., the year of the first German immigration into the Island, though the Roman dominion ceased to be acknowledged as early as the year 409 A. D.

The influence of the Romans upon the language and

1 Craik's Outlines of the History of the English Language, p. 5. 2 Second Series of Lectures, p. 86.

character of the subsequent periods of English history was no greater than that of the original Celtic population. No Breto-Roman dialect was ever developed akin to the Romance languages of the Continent. The language of the Romans disappeared with their legions, or was immediately supplanted by that of the Saxon invaders. And though we must suppose some degree of Roman civilization to have been obtained during this long period, yet we have no certain information as to the prevalence of the Latin language. Whatever Roman colonists may have settled in the country were probably soon lost in the surrounding population. The only traces of the Roman dominion surviving in the language are found in the names of places, as the terminations chester, cester, in Dorchester, Leicester, from castra, a camp; and coln in Lincoln, from colonia terms revealing the very superficial character of Roman influence upon the country. The vital organizing force of the Roman character was wellnigh lost. Yet we should not be in haste to say that we have received no advantage from the sway of the Romans in England. The arts and the civilization of Rome ever followed in the train of her armies, and the Britons were no exception to their influence, notwithstanding the hatred of race, and unlikeness of language and character. Whatever of civilization was attained was not lost upon men of so intensely practical a spirit as our Saxon ancestors, and could not have failed to secure in them the earlier adoption of the settled order and habits of civilized life.

CHAPTER II.

THE ANGLO-SAXON OR GOTHIC ELEMEA 1.

Course of Gothic Migrations - Different Branches of the Gothic Family Modern English - Different Saxon Tribes represented among the Saxon Conquerors of England - Dialects in England Saxons embrace Christianity Character Change in this respect Homogeneousness of Language — Relation to High and Low German - Vulgar Language Saxon-Use of the Terms England and English - Opinions of Craik and Marsh - Degree of Development of the AngloSaxon Language - Literature in their Pagan State - Songs After the Adoption of Christianity - Bede Alcuin - From Bede to Alfred Anglo-Saxon Literature different from that of other Nations - The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - Verse Beowulf - Cadmon-Longfellow's Judgment-Saxon Prose - Alfred.

THE different tribes that, under the name of Saxons, Jutes, or Angles, overrun the most of South Britain during the fifth and sixth centuries of our era, belonged to the great Gothic family of nations. They are supposed to have entered Europe to the north of the Black Sea, and following the course of the Danube, to have taken possession of the countries drained by its waters and the region adjacent to the Baltic and the North Seas, including the Scandinavian peninsula. This family was early divided into three great divisions: the High German in the southern portion, represented in

the present language of Germany; Low German in the north, on the lowlands about the Elbe and on the North Sea, represented in the modern Dutch and the old Saxon; and the Scandinavian, best known in the Scandinavian peninsula and in Iceland. Modern English is the result of a fusion of the various dialects of the Low German with the incorporation of some foreign elements, as the Celtic and the Latin.

Much as in later times with the colored races on the coast of Guinea, a number of small tribes or fragments of tribes were crowded about the mouth of the Elbe, and into the low grounds of what is now known as Holland, Northern Hanover, and Denmark. Traces of these are manifest in the great number of dialects that still prevail in that neighborhood and in the evidently composite character of the so-called Anglo-Saxon language of Britain. It is possible that the dialectic peculiarities noticeable in different parts of England to this day may in part be due to the same source.1 Wellnigh driven into the sea by their more powerful neighbors, they had learned to make use of it as a means of securing a subsistence, and developed a spirit of enterprise and daring that prepared them for the conquest of Britain. The acknowledged presence of the Jutes would lead us to expect adventurers from Scandinavia as well as other German tribes, attracted by the hope of plunder or of bettering their condition. The Britons were either driven away or exterminated. The invaders introduced a new language, new institutions, and a new religion;

1 NOTE. The stranger, in merely going from Liverpool to London, if he takes one of the cheap accommodation trains, will not fail to observe a great difference of dialect in the different sections through which he passes.

and though they embraced Christianity about the close of the sixth century, they accepted it not from the former occupants of the soil, but from missionaries sent among them from Rome.

Some of the same elements of character that have been displayed in their descendants on both hemispheres are worthy of note: the enterprise and daring that shrink at no obstacles, physical or moral, in the way of their progress or aggrandizement, and the love of law and order at home, at once aggressive and conservative. These two elements are the prime constituents of the foreign and domestic policy of the Saxon race.

Yet the invaders seem soon to have settled down to the quiet enjoyment of their new homes, and to have relapsed into an inglorious ease, greatly in contrast with their earlier character. The general inactivity and ignorance that prevailed at the opening of Alfred's career are very remarkable, and furnish little occasion of glorying in our Anglo-Saxon ancestry. The new life he awakened soon passed away. His people submitted first to their kinsmen, the Danes, and later to the Normans, who were destined to infuse new life and activity into the Saxon character, and by the infusion of their blood and intellectual traits to give rise to a new nationality.1

However great the number of dialects among the original invaders of England, their language soon attained a fair degree of homogeneousness, yet never sufficiently so to conceal the diversity of its origin. This appears in the variations of inflection and orthography to be observed in different writers and in the same writer at different times. "Its syntax is irregular and

1 See Marsh, Third Lectur, Second Series.