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people, and being constantly " contauiinated,"' by influences of 

 various kinds, a great deal of it remains, as may be seen by the 

 diligent searcher, in words, idioms, and forms of thought, that is 

 well deserving of attention. We in Scotland owe a deep debt of 

 gratitude to such writers as Burns, Scott, and many others, 

 whose immortal writings will for ages keep alive amongst us 

 many of the words and idiomatic turns of language current in 

 the old Northumbrian kingdom. In this respect, Yorkshire has 

 not been so fortunate ; there appear to be no great authors from 

 that district, such as 1 have mentioned we have, whose writings 

 in the vernacular are at all likely to be perpetuated. Our coun- 

 try, too, has been more prolific in ballads and songs than any 

 other part of the kingdom, containing abundant remains of the 

 old language, which can never be lost ; and so, although the 

 spoken language, the remains of tlie Old Northvimbrian tongue, 

 which was in almost general use in the time of our grand and 

 great-grandfathers, is a thing nearly of the past, and is fast 

 disappearing even amongst the country folks, yet our ballads, 

 songs, Burns, Scott, and the works of many other Scottish 

 authors will for ever keep it alive as a written language. Tiie 

 ancient kingdom of Northumbria, at one time the greatest and 

 mo.st powerful of the kingdoms into which the country was 

 divided, extended from the Humber to the Forth. Tlie Teutonic 

 races, Engles, Saxons, and others, who invaded the country after 

 the Boman evacuation utterly annihilated or drove the remnants 

 of tiie inhabitants into the most inaccessible parts of tlie land 

 and founded the kingdom of Nortiiumbria, wiiich existed for 

 more than 300 years. The Danes and Norsemen, other branches 

 of the Teutonic race, in their turn occupied the country until 

 subdued by the Norman conquest. The Normans, however 

 made little or no impression on the language of the northern 

 parts of the country. At various times the kingdom was ex- 

 tended in sundry directions, or, at all events, they exercised 

 supremacy over other parts of Britain for longer or shorter 

 periods. We find at one time the country from the German 

 Ocean to the island of Anglesea under their sway ; cuttino' off" 

 the southern part of the Strathclyde kingdom, which at one time 

 extended as far south as Warwick, they invaded and occupied 

 the south-west part of Scotland — Ayrshire, Dumfriesshire, and 

 Galloway. How long they occupied this part of the country is 



