838 On the Study of Anglo-Saxon and 
London. For dictionary I believe Dr. Bosworth’s (the Ainsworth 
of Anglo-Saxon) to be the best for general use by Englishmen who 
do not wish to spend much time on Anglo-Saxon. It gives com- 
parisons with words in kindred languages, and also most useful 
quotations and references. It has been out of print for many years, 
and is very scarce as an old book, costing more than the published 
price, which was two guineas. A new edition is expected to appear 
shortly, from the Oxford Clarendon Press. In the meantime there 
is a smaller compendious dictionary, by Dr. Bosworth, which I 
believe is still in print, costing about eight shillings. 
When you are fairly initiated you will be glad to refer to the 
American philological grammar of Anglo-Saxon, by March, and to 
the German works, Grimm’s Teutonic Grammars, the Lexicon of 
Ettmiiller, and the Poetry and Glossary of Grein. 
For commencement it is not necessary to master the so-called 
Anglo-Saxon character, which is not really formidable, and is merely 
the character which prevailed at the time, not only in England, but 
in Ireland, and elsewhere. It is discarded with the exception of the 
th and dé (the northern forms of the Greek Theta and Delta) in 
Thorpe’s Anglo-Saxon Gospels, and in many other of the best recent 
editions of Anglo-Saxon texts. It is of course necessary for reading 
MSS., but is not nearly so difficult as the various forms of court- 
hand which must be mastered by every antiquary and lawyer who 
wishes to read for himself any English manuscript from the Conquest 
to the Reformation. Pronunciation is, to some extent, important, 
and is best attended to at the first beginning of the study, but it is 
not necessary that the student should make any formal entry into 
the world of phonetics. 
A very few hints are sufficient. It would be an absurd anach- 
ronism, and would only lead to confusion, to attempt to carry back 
into Anglo-Saxon the present English pronunciation. The vowels, 
with the exception of 0, ought not to be sounded in imitation of 
their present English names: a2, ee, ei, 0, ew; but more in what I 
would call continental, cosmopolitan, or archeological fashion, viz: 
ah, eh, ee, 0, 00. C and g ought always to be sounded hard. In ~ 
fact the pronunciation should be very much like that advocated as 
