Transactions. 5D 
people, and being constantly ‘‘ contaminated,” 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 I 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 the Old Northumbrian 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 baliads, 
songs, Burns, Scott, and the works of many other Scottish 
authors will for ever keep it alive as a written language. The 
ancient kingdom of Northumbria, at one time the greatest and 
most powerful of the kingdoms into which the country was 
divided, extended from the Humber to the Forth. The Teutonic 
races, Engles, Saxons, and others, who invaded the country after 
the Roman evacuation utterly annihilated or drove the remnants 
of the inhabitants into the most inaccessible parts of the land, 
and founded the kingdom of Northumbria, which 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 ; cutting 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 
