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An Ancient Saxon Poem of a City in ruins supposed to he Bath. 

 By Rev. J. Earle, M.A. Read March 15, 1871. 

 "WrsBtlic is i5es -wealstan, &c. 

 In the Chapter Library at Exeter there is a book that may be 

 regarded as a symbol of the stability of our institutions. Leofric, 

 •who was the last Bishop of Crediton and the first who moved the 

 see to Exeter, and who died in 1072, gave this book to Exeter 

 Cathedral, and there it has been ever since. Now the will of this 

 Leofric is extant, and has been often printed. It is in Saxon, and 

 contains a list of books and other objects which he bequeathed 

 to his new Cathedral. Among them this book is named, and so 

 descriptively named that its identity is unquestioned. It is thus 

 expressed : I mycel Englisc boc be gehwilcum thingum on 

 leoth-wisan geworht : — " One big Englisc book of various matters 

 in lay-wise wrought," or, to put it in modern phrase, " One large 

 Anglo-Saxon volume containing a variety of poetical compositions." 

 This book has kept its place for eight hundred years unremoved. 



On the 123rd leaf of this volume is the fragment which I have 

 now to speak of. It describes, in the most archaic form of Saxon 

 poetry, the aspect of a ruined city. Of this there can be no doubt ; 

 on this point there is a consent of independent critics. Although 

 the word " burh" is one that might be applicable to a stronghold, 

 or fortress, or royal castle : yet this interpretation is excluded by 

 the general tenor of the description, and I rest this assertion not on 

 my own judgment but on a consent of critics like Conybeare in 

 England, a scholar of fifty years ago, and Grein in Germany, an 

 editor of the present day. And not only is the subject of the piece 

 a ruined city, but it is some particular • city. We know that ruin 

 has always been a favourite subject with painter and with poet. 

 Thus Mrs. Norton, in the prologue to Tlie Lady of La Garaye : — 

 Ruins ! a charm is in the word : 



It makes us smile, it makes us sigh, 

 'Tis like the note of some spring bird 

 Recalling other springs gone by,— 

 • *•***« 



Ruins ! they were not desolate 



To us, — the ruins we remember ; 

 Early we came and lingered late, 

 Vol. II., No. 3. 



