SAXON. 
to Rome; and Rome, in return, sent her emissaries to Britain. 
The first step of their intellectual progress was the introduc¬ 
tion into England of the Latin and Greek languages; and 
the next was the collection of the authors who used these 
languages. St. Augustin, and the monks who accompanied 
him, not only succeeded in establishing Christianity, but 
also occasioned a desire of knowledge to spread among the 
Anglo-Saxons, in the seventh century. At this period, 
Ireland was distinguished for its religious literature; and 
many of the Anglo-Saxons, both of the higher and lower 
ranks, retired into it to pursue their studies or their devotion. 
In the Jewish and Christian scriptures, to which the Anglo- 
Saxons had access, they would find a rich treasury of general 
knowledge. Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, and 
Adrian, an abbot of a monastery near Naples, and an 
African, visited England about this time, A.D. 668; and 
nothing could be more fortunate for the Anlgo-Saxon litera¬ 
ture than the settlement of these men in the country. Their 
conversation and exhortations excited among the Anglo- 
Saxons a great emulation for literary studies. Benedict, who 
founded the abbey at Weremouth, must in this connection 
be mentioned with applause. Egbert also, who was arch¬ 
bishop of York in 712, was famous in his day. Wilfrid was 
another benefactor to Anglo-Saxon literature, by favouring 
the collection of books. The three great luminaries of the 
Anglo-Saxons, whose attainments contributed so much to 
increase intellectual cultivation among their countrymen, in 
the century preceding Alfred the Great, wereAldhelm, Bede, 
and Alcum. In the days of Alfred, a great accession of 
knowledge was introduced among the Anglo-Saxons by the 
taste and patronage of that illustrious king. It is certain that 
literature was at its height among our Saxon ancestors about 
the eighth century; and this was almost entirely owing to 
the attention of king Alfred, who encouraged learning by 
his own example, by founding seminaries of instruction, 
and by rewarding the labours of scholars. 
Among the arts and sciences of the Anglo-Saxons we may 
mention music, the art of design and painting, and architecture. 
Besides the rules of Latin poetry and rhetoric, the Anglo- 
Saxons studied arithmetic and astronomy as laborious sciences. 
Their geography and topography, though not wholly neglect¬ 
ed, were not much studied. To the science of medicine the 
Anglo-Saxons directed their attention as early as the seventh 
century; and some of them practised it as a profession. With 
surgery they were little conversant. On the establishment of 
Christianity among the Anglo-Saxons, after its introduction 
into Kent by St. Augustine, it is needless to enlarge; nor 
need we trace its beneficial effects on the dispositions and 
manners of the people. Of the Anglo-Saxon language we 
shall give as ample an account as our limits will allow, under 
the next articles. 
SAXON, or the Saxon Language, as it. is spoken in 
England, is distinguished by three several epochs, and may 
therefore be divided into three dialects. The first of these is 
that which the Saxons used, from their entrance into this 
island, till the irruption of the Danes, for the space of three 
hundred and thirty years. This has been called the British 
Saxon; and no monument of it remains, except a small 
metrical fragment of the genuine Caedmon, inserted in 
Alfred’s version of the Venerable Bede’s Ecclesiastical His¬ 
tory. The second is the Danish Saxon, which prevailed from 
the Danish to the Norman invasion, A. D. 1066; and of which 
many considerable specimens, both in verse and prose, are 
still preserved ; particularly, two literal versions of the four 
gospels, (MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Oxon. Cod. merabran. in Pyxid. 
4to. grand, quadrat And MSS. Cotton. Otho. Nor. D. 4; 
both these manuscripts, which were written and ornamented 
in the Saxon times, are of the highest curiosity and anti¬ 
quity) ; and the spurious Caedmon’s beautiful poetical pa¬ 
raphrase of the Book of Genesis, printed by Junius, Amst. 
1655; and the prophet Daniel. The third may be properly 
styled the Norman Saxon; which began about the time of 
the Norman accession, and continued beyond the reign of 
Henry II. who died in 1189. 
The last of these three dialects formed a language extremely 
Vol. XXII. No. 1535. 
721 
barbarous, irregular, and intractable; and consequently pro¬ 
mises no very striking specimens in any species of composi¬ 
tion. Its substance was the Danish Saxon, adulterated with 
French. The Saxon, indeed, a language subsisting on uni¬ 
form principles, and polished by poets and theologists, how¬ 
ever corrupted by the Danes, had much perspicuity, strength, 
and harmony: but the French imported by the Conquerorand 
his people, was a confused jargon of Teutonic, Gaulish, and 
vitiated Latin. In this fluctuating state of our national speech, 
the French predominated. Even before the conquest the 
Saxon language began to fall into contempt, and the French, 
or Frankish, to be substituted in its stead. In the year 652, 
it was the common practice of the Anglo-Saxons to send 
their youth to the monasteries of France for education : and 
not only the language, but the manners of the French, 
were esteemed the most polite accomplishments. In the 
reign of Edward the Confessor, the resort of Normans to 
the English court was so frequent, that the affectation of 
imitating the Frankish customs became almost universal: and 
even the lower class of people was ambitious of catching the 
Frankish idiom. It wasno ditficulttask for the Norman lords 
to banish that language of which the natives began to be 
absurdly ashamed. The new invaders commanded the laws 
to be administered in French. Many charters of monasteries 
were forged in Latin by the Saxon monks for the present secu¬ 
rity of their possessions, in consequence of that aversion which 
the Normans professed to the Saxon tongue. Even children 
at school were forbidden to read in their native language, 
and instructed in a knowledge of the Norman only. In the 
mean time we should have some regard to the general and 
political state of the nation. The natives were so universally 
reduced to the lowest condition of neglect and indigence, that 
the English name became a term of reproach : and several 
generations elapsed, before one family of Saxon pedigree 
was raised to any distinguished honours, or could so much as 
attain the rank of baronage. Among other instances of 
that absolute and voluntary submission, with which our 
Saxon ancestors received a foreign yoke, it appears that they 
suffered their hand-writing to fall into discredit and disuse; 
which by degrees became so difficult and obsolete, that few 
beside the oldest men could understand the characters. In 
the year 1095, Wolstan, bishop of Worcester, was deposed 
by the arbitrary Normans: it was objected against him, that 
he was “ a superannuated English idiot, who could not speak 
French.” It is true, that in some of the monasteries, par¬ 
ticularly at Croyland and Tavistock, founded by Saxon 
rinces, there were regular preceptors in the Saxon language : 
ut this institution was suffered to remain after the conquest, 
as a matter only of interest and necessity. The religious 
could not otherwise have understood their original charters. 
William’s successor, Henry I., gave an instrument of con¬ 
firmation to William archbishop of Canterbury, which was 
written in the Saxon language and letters. 
The Saxon was probably spoken in the country, yet not 
without various adulterations from the French: the courtly 
language was French, yet perhaps with some vestiges of the 
vernacular Saxon. But the nobles, in the reign of Henry II. 
constantly sent their children into France, lest they should 
contract habits of barbarism in their speech, which could 
not have been avoided in an English education. From 
the declension of the barons, and prevalence of the com¬ 
mons, most of whom were of English ancestry, the na¬ 
tive language of England gradually gained ground : till at 
length the interest of the commons so far succeeded with 
Edward III., that an act of parliament was passed, ap¬ 
pointing all pleas and proceedings in law to be carried on in 
English: although the same statute decrees, in the true 
Norman spirit, that all such pleas and proceedings should 
be enrolled in Latin. Yet this change did not restore either 
the Saxon alphabet or language. It abolished a token of 
subjection and disgrace: and, in some degree, contributed to 
prevent further French innovations in the language then 
used, which yet remained in a compound state, and retained 
a considerable mixture of foreign phraseology. In the 
mean time, it must be remembered, that this corruption of 
8 X the 
