164 



Exoniensis, a MS. given to Exeter Cathedral by its first bishop, 

 Leofric, in the beginning of the eleventh century, which had lain 

 in the Chapter library ever since. The volume contained a collec- 

 tion of pieces and poems ; this one, called by modern editors 

 " Ruin," described a noble city lying waste — ruined temples, 

 broken paintings, a place where proud men had once walked 

 abroad, where there were baths of natural hot water, which 

 gushed forth in streams, and the poem concluded with the words 

 " that is a king-like thing." He had for years believed and he 

 still believed that it was exceedingly probable that the occasion 

 of this poem was the ruined city of Bath. He would not confine 

 the poet to this country, but he did not know where in civilised 

 Europe they would find another city answering to that description. 

 The}' had the statement in the Chronicles that in 577 the Saxons took 

 Cirencestei", Gloucester and Akemanceaster, and drove the British 

 further west. That was the presumed date for the beginning of 

 the desolation. They were passing through an obscure period 

 of history, and he was liable to appear as disagreeing from others ; 

 he would therefore say that they might be right, but in such 

 matters considerable liberty must be allowed to eveiy attempt at 

 clearing up the difiiculties, each one must be allowed to form his 

 theory, and the theory itself must be judged by its fitness to 

 supply a reasonable interpretation of the facts. The next appear- 

 ance of Bath in the documents was that on the sixth of November, 

 676. Osric, king of the Hwiccas, founded a monastery here. 

 Tliey had now come down to historical times ; our first historian, 

 Bede, was then young, and Osric was a perfectly historical per- 

 sonage — he was king, he might say, of Worcestershire and 

 Gloucestershire, and the word Hwiccas stUl remained in the first 

 syllable of Worcester, Avhich was Hwiccraceaster. About one 

 hundred years later Off'a founded the Abbey here. He felt com- 

 pelled to doubt, Mr. Earle went on to say, the fact ot Osric's 

 foundation. What Livy said of nations was true of monasteries — 

 they tried to push their origin back as far as possible. He had 



