

312 A TOUR ROUND NORTH WALES. 



Q //z/V tons were driven out of Mercia, many 

 neverthelefs remained in the country, 

 from whom thofe invaders firft had 

 their letters. AfTerus, and Scotus, who 

 A #* jnftructed Alfred, and the Englifh, were 

 / fc both Welfhmen, and it is very poflible 



"7 



that at that time they claimed the Sax- 

 t <T on alphabet, as their own.* 



* Dr. Johnfon, who fully examined 



^ 

 ^ 1 ever y record extant on thefubjecl:, can- 



^ didly confefles, in his hiflory of the 

 ^* Engijfh language, that when the Sax- 



*^ 



<J/*'^ ons fi r ft entered Britain, about the year 



m v I 



4>5> tne y feemed " to have been a peo- 

 p] e without learning, and very pro- 

 " bably without an alphabet." 



If they brought thefe letters with 

 them from Saxony, or wherever they 

 came from, there muft have been fome 

 remains of them in infcriptions, and 

 books left behind them in that country, 



* Afierus raenevenfis de reb, geft. Alfred i. 



unlefg 



