ENGLISH CHANNEL

ENGLISH CHANNEL, the Oceanus Britannicus of the Romans, and La Manche of the French, is that narrow sea or channel which separates the southern shores of England from the northern shores of France. It communicates on the west with the Atlantic Ocean, and on the east with the North Sea. It is narrowest at its eastern extremity where it forms the Strait of Dover, being only 18 miles across between Dover and Cape Gris-Nez. West of this strait it rapidly increases in width; and between Brighton and Havre it is more than 90 miles across. Farther west, however, the peninsula of Cotentin projects from the French coast into the Channel; and between Cape Barfleur, its eastern extremity, and Catherine's Point on the Isle of Wight, the distance is scarcely 60 miles. Between Sidmouth and St Malo it attains its greatest width, being about 130 miles. At its western mouth, between Land's End in Cornwall and the island of Ushant on the French coast, the width is about 100 miles. The general average breadth is about 70 miles; east of Beachy Head it is 38, thence to Portland 67, and west of Portland 83 miles. It is estimated to have an area of 23,900 square miles; and includes the Channel Islands, the Isle of Wight, and the Scilly Islands. The ports on the French coast are shallow, none of them having naturally

sufficient depth of water to admit men-of-war, while England, on the contrary, has some of its finest harbours on this part of its coast. To remedy this, the French have, at great expense, constructed at Cherbourg two harbours, a naval and a commercial, the former excavated out of the solid rock, and having a depth of 50 feet at high water. (See CHERBOURG.) The English coast is 390, and the French 570 miles in length. A chalk ridge at the depth generally of from 12 to 30 fathoms crosses the channel at Dover, along which the submarine telegraph is laid. Hence the depth gradually increases, but it is at no part considerable. Westerly winds are prevalent, and render the navigation of the channel at times difficult. In stormy weather the surface is raised two feet or more above that of the North Sea, and the ports have several feet more of water in strong westerly winds than at ordinary occasions. The current, though not perceptible in any part, is generally, if not constantly, running from west to east, as is evident from the eastern tides being stronger than the western or ebb tides, and their running longer in stormy weather from the west. The channel abounds in fish, and the fisheries give employment to a considerable number of men on both coasts, the most important branch being the pilchard fishery along the coasts of Cornwall and Devonshire, and the oyster fisheries in the bay of Cancale.

English Language. ENGLISH LANGUAGE. When the Romans invaded the south of Britain, they found the country possessed by a people of Celtic origin, and speaking a dialect of the Celtic tongue. This invasion took place about fifty-five years before the birth of Christ, and the invaders retained their ascendancy till the commencement of the fifth century. During this interval, the Romans imparted to the rude natives some tincture of their own intellectual refinement, but must have left the British language as they found it: the foreign settlers were not sufficiently numerous to produce any change in the speech of the original inhabitants. When the huge fabric of the Roman empire began to decay, the Britons, who had the advantage of a remote and insular situation, found means to assert their independence. They however divided themselves into many petty states, and exercised many petty animosities, which impaired the national strength, and rendered them an easy prey to foreign invaders. The pirates of Saxony had long been accustomed to make occasional depredations on their coasts. The Picts and Scots, that is, the Goths and Celts of North Britain, infested them on the frontier; and at length the sense of common danger produced some degree of union in their councils and exertions. In this condition of their affairs, the Saxons obtained a permanent footing in the country. In the year 449, Vortigern, king of the Britons, had recourse to the aid of Hengest and Horsa, who first appeared as allies, but were soon converted into the most formidable enemies.¹

The Saxons, like other Gothic tribes, derive their origin from a mighty horde which wandered from the east, and gradually overran the best portions of Europe. So early as the time of Ptolemy the geographer, this particular tribe had proceeded as far to the westward as the banks of the Elbe, and their primitive seat was between that river and the Eyder. Although at first they were not very formidable for their numbers, they gradually obtained a powerful ascendancy in Germany. Towards the middle of the third century, they entered into a league with the Franks for the purpose of opposing the Roman arms; and they afterwards enlarged their connexions and increased their influence till it predominated in a territory of great extent, reaching from the Eyder to the Rhine. This wide tract of country was not entirely peopled by Saxons: it included various nations, united by the ties of a kindred origin, and actuated by a sense of common interest or danger; but such was the ascendancy of the Saxons that they communicated their name to the entire confederacy, which, among other nations, comprehended the Jutes, who inhabited the south of Jutland, and the Angles, who inhabited the adjacent district of Anglen. Hengest and Horsa, the leaders whom we have already mentioned, were not Saxons, but Jutes. The subsequent emigrants were for the most part Angles, and their descendants were long distinguished by the name of Anglo-Saxons. The first part of the name denotes the predominant tribe, the second denotes the original relation of that tribe to the Saxon confederacy. The new country which they acquired was denominated Engla-land, or the land of the Angles. These German invaders established themselves in the most fertile districts, and gradually displaced the Celtic inhabitants, till at length they were chiefly con-

fined to the fastnesses of Wales, where the prevalence of the ancient language still indicates the continuance of their race. Eight new states were formed by the Anglo-Saxons, who maintained their independence till the year 1016, when they were subjected to the yoke of a Danish conqueror. Canute, and his two sons, Harold and Hardicanute, reigned in England for the space of twenty-six years. A Danish court, and a Danish army, with other settlers, must have had some influence on the common speech, especially as the language of the conquerors was not very dissimilar to that of the conquered. But the laws and other public documents continued to be written in the Saxon tongue, and this new dynasty soon finished its course. The Saxon line of kings, which was restored in 1042, terminated in 1066, when Harold the Second was slain at the battle of Hastings, and William duke of Normandy ascended the throne of England. The Saxon dominion had thus continued for the best part of three centuries; and as the great body of the people was still of this race, it is obvious that their national language must have survived their political power. A writ in the Anglo-Saxon tongue was issued by Henry the Third, who began his reign in the year 1216.

In the language spoken by this ancient people, a great variety of literary relics has been preserved. "The Anglo-Saxon literature," says Professor Rask, "possesses in many respects, even for its own sake, no small degree of interest. The numerous ancient laws throw considerable light upon the laws of the old Germans and Scandinavians, as well as upon their customs and civil institutions. The old chronicles and genealogies are important sources for the ancient history of the Low German and the Scandinavian nations. The various documents illustrate much in English history. Even the theological remains, shewing the constitution and doctrine of the ancient church, are not devoid of value for ecclesiastical history, especially to the modern English and Scottish churches. The translation of several parts of Scripture may likewise be advantageously employed in biblical researches. But of all, the poetical pieces are the most interesting, especially the great Anglo-Saxon poem in forty-three cantos, published at Copenhagen in 1815, by the Royal Archivarius G. J. Thorkelin,² which, from its commencement, he has aptly entitled Seyddingis. This is perhaps the only Anglo-Saxon piece possessing value on account both of its matter and style, particularly for the nations of the north; the principal hero being Swedish or Gothic, though the action lies in Denmark.³ This ancient poem, more generally known by the name of Beowulf, has been translated into Danish verse by Dr Grundtvig, and ably illustrated by Mr Conybeare.⁴

The language of the conquerors became the language of the king's court and of all the courts of law. The pleadings of counsel and the decisions of judges were couched in a dialect which is commonly described as Norman French, but which in the mouths of English lawyers became utterly barbarous; and more curious specimens of composition are scarcely to be found than those which occur in the reports of cases written in a jargon half-French half-English. Lawyers have in all ages been conspicuous for their stiff adherence, with or without reason, to those forms and maxims in which they themselves have

been duly trained. Long after French had ceased to be the language of legal proceedings, they adhered to the practice of reporting cases in the motley dialect used by their predecessors; for, as Blackstone remarks, "the practitioners being used to the Norman language, and therefore imagining that they could express their thoughts more aptly and more concisely in that than in any other, still continued to take their notes in law French; and of course, when those notes came to be published, under the denomination of reports, they were printed in that barbarous dialect; which, joined to the additional terrors of a Gothic black letter, has occasioned many a student to throw away his Plowden and Littleton, without venturing to attack a page of them."¹ By the 36 Edw. III. c. 15. it was enacted that for the future all pleas should be pleaded, shewn, defended, answered, debated, and judged in the English tongue, but should be entered and enrolled in Latin. The statutes of the realm long continued to be promulgated in French; and it was only from the accession of Richard the Third that Englishmen were governed by laws written in their native tongue.

The Norman conquest proved fatal to the entire race of Anglo-Saxon nobility, many of whom lost their lives, and almost all of them their property. Not a few of the number sought refuge in different monasteries. Some of them became abbots, and others closed their career as monks. The lands of the Saxon earls were occupied by the Norman barons, who found it necessary to consult their personal safety by inhabiting fortified towns and castles. They must have had but little intercourse with their vassals, whom they probably did not respect, and whom they had much reason to fear. They retained their native tongue, and seldom acquired any other. For a long period of time, the peasantry continued unmixed with foreign settlers; they continued to cultivate the same soil; and when the written language of the kingdom had received many foreign accretions, the rustic dialect preserved its primitive elements with very few material changes. Much of the patois of different countries consists, not in adulterations of the modern, but in remnants of the ancient language. Many Anglo-Saxon words and idioms, unintelligible to persons of a refined education, are still current among the rural population of particular districts of England.

The English monarchs of the Norman race were liberal patrons of such literature as they themselves understood. French poetry seems to have been much relished at the court of England; and, according to a very competent judge, M. de la Rue, it was from England and Normandy that the French received the first works which deserve to be cited in their language. The works of many Anglo-Norman poets have been preserved, and they certainly form a curious subject of literary research. In this department, a learned lady, Marie de France, makes a prominent figure. Her poems have been recently edited by M. de Roquefort; and one of the historical poems of Wace still more recently by M. Pluquet. A history of the Anglo-Norman poets and poetry is speedily expected from M. de la Rue, who has already exhibited sufficient evidence of his being well qualified for such an undertaking.

Of the language spoken by the great body of the people about a century after the conquest, the reader may in some degree be enabled to judge from the following specimen of Lyamons translation of Wace's Brut d'Angle-

terre. The translator describes himself as a priest of Ern-
lye upon Severn, and he is supposed to have completed
his task about the year 1180.

Tha the masse wes isungen,
Of chirecken heo thrungen.
The king mid his folke
To his mete verde,
And muelo his duyethe:
Drem wes on hirede.
Tha quene, an other halve,
Hire hereberwe isolte:
Heo hafde of wif-monne
Wunder ane moni en.²

"When the mass was sung, out of the church they thronged. The king amid his folk to his meat fared, and many of his nobility: joy was in the household. The queen, on the other side, sought her harbour (or lodging): she had wonderfully many women." Here, and in a much more ample specimen of the same work, we perceive no mixture of French words. The idiom is essentially Anglo-Saxon, but with some indications of its being already in a state of transition: the vestiges of the language, in its more modern form of English, may be distinctly traced. Of the language in a state more considerably advanced, we find a specimen in a facetious poem published by Dr. Hickes.

Far in sea, by West Spain,
Is a land hote Cockaygne,
There n'is land under heaven-rich
Of wel of goodness it y-like.
Though Paradise be merry and bright,
Cockaygne is of fairer sight.
What is there in Paradise
But grass, and flower, and green rise?
Though there be joy and great dute,
There n'is meat but fruit;
There n'is hall, bare, no bench,
But water mannis thirst to quench.³

In this poem, which apparently belongs to the thirteenth century, we perceive a further deviation from the Anglo-Saxon idiom. In the preceding extract, the obsolete spelling is not retained, and the language is thus rendered more intelligible. The subsequent quotation is from a metrical history of England, written by Robert, a monk of Gloucester, who appears to have lived about the year 1278. This rhyming chronicle, as Mr. Warton has remarked, is totally destitute of art or imagination. The author thus describes the island of Ireland, nor does he fail to mention its exemption from venomous reptiles.

Yrlond ys aler yle best with oute Engelonde.
The sea goth al abouten hym eke as ich vnderstonde.
More be ys than Engolond, and in the south half he ys
Bradder and more of ynow than in the north ende y wys.
Aseyn the lond of Spayne he stond in the north syde ryst.
Selde snowe ther inne lith, and nameliche thre nyst.
So euene hot that loud ys, that men durre selde
Here orf in howse awynter bryng out of the felde.
Lese lasteth ther al the wynter: bute lyt tho more wonder be,
Selde me schal in the lond eny foule wormes se:
For nedres ny other wormes be now ther be noyt;
And sef he beth thider bi cas from other landes y brost,
Heo dyeth thorv smel of the lond, other thorv towchyrng y wys:
Eche gras that ther inne wexelh a seyn venym yt ys.
For men that ben venymed, thorv grasses of Yrlond
Y dronke he beth y clased sone, thoru Gedes sonde.
Hony and mylk ther ys muche, mony folk and bolde.
This ys the stat of Yrlond, as icke habbe y tolde.⁴

Another chronicler, who however belongs to a period

somewhat more recent, was Robert Manning, more commonly called Robert of Brunne. He has himself stated that he had resided fifteen years at Brunne, or Bourne, in the priory of black canons, when, in the year 1303, he began his translation of Grosteste's Manuel des Pechés. This version still continues in manuscript; but one portion of his historical work, his translation from Langtoft, has been edited by the indefatigable Hearne, who rendered a similar service to Robert of Gloucester. The inedited portion consists of a translation from Wace's Brut. Peter Langtoft was an Augustine canon of Bridlington in Yorkshire, and is supposed to have died in the reign of Edward the Second. The subsequent passage relates to Sir William Wallace.

Whan Sir Jon of Warene the soth vnderstode,
That the Wales gane brenne, an oste he gadred gode,
And went to Struelyne sgayne Wales William,
Bot the erle with mykelle pyne disconfite away nam;
And that was his folie, so long in his bed gan ligge,
Untill the Wales partie had vmbilaid the brigge;
With gaulokes and dartes sulik ore was non sene.
Myght no man tham departe, ne ride ne go bituene.
Thore first tham taucht how thei did fawe kirke:
Alle gate the brigge he raucht, of nought our men were irke.
Whan the erle herd say, the brigge how William toke,
He douted to die that day, that bataille he forsoke.
The Inglis were alle slayn, the Scottis bare tham wele,
The Wales had the wayn, als maistre of that eschele.
At that ilk stoure was slayn on our side
God men of honour, that wald to the bataile bide.¹

A more curious specimen of composition is to be found in the Vision of Piers Plowman, which appears to have been written about the year 1362, and which is commonly ascribed to Robert Langland, a secular priest. The work, which comprehends a series of visions, is replete with satire on the different orders of men, especially on the clergy, both regular and secular; but it is likewise diversified by a succession of incidents, and furnishes abundant evidence of the author's talents for description. His mode of versification is not unworthy of particular notice. Alliteration supplies the place of rhyme; the corresponding sounds are at the commencement, not at the termination of words. Our extract from this remarkable work must necessarily be very brief.

And to the church gan ich go, God to honourie,
By for the erois on my knees knocked ich my breast,
Sykinge for my sennes, segginge my pater noster,
Weping and wailinge tyl ich was a slepe;
Thenne mete me moche more than ich by for tolde
Of the mater that ich mete fyrst on Malverne hulles.
Ich sawe the feld ful of folk fram ende to the other,
And Reson revested ryght as a pope,
And Conscience his eecor by fore the kynge stande.
Reson reverentliche by for al the reame
Prechede and provede that these pestilences
Was for pure synne to panyse the purple,
And the south west wynd on Saturday at eve
Was pertliche for prude, and for no poynt elles.
Pirles and plomtes were poffid to the erthe,
In ensample to syggen ous we sholde do the betere;
Bees and brode okes weren blowe to the grounde,
And turned upward here tayl, in tokenyng of drede
That dedlych synne er domys day shal for do us alle.²

After these specimens of verse, we shall exhibit a specimen of prose, selected from the seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, as translated by John Wycliffe. The translator, who was born about the year 1324, and died in the year 1384, may be regarded as the father of

English prose. He was the author of various works in Latin as well as English; but the most important of his literary labours was a complete version of the Scriptures. He was the great precursor of Luther, who appeared after an interval of one hundred and fifty years; and it may perhaps be safely affirmed, that to him the cause of reformation was more deeply indebted than to Luther himself.

This Moises ledde hem out, and dide wondrous and signes in the lond of Egipte and in the Reed See, and in desert fourti gheeris. This is Moises that seide to the sones of Israel, God schal reise to ghoul a prophete of ghoure britheren; as me ghe schulen heere him. This it is that was in the chirche in wildirnesse with the aungel that spak to him in the mount Syna and with oure fadir, which took wordis of lyf to ghyue to us: to whom oure fadir wolden not obeie, but puttiden him awei, and weren turned awei in hertis into Egipte, seiyng to Aaron, Make thou to us goddis that schulen go before us; for to this Moises that ledde us out of the lond of Egipte, we wite not what is don to hym. And thei maden a calf in tho daies, and offriden a sacrifice to the mawmet, and thei weren glad in the werkis of her hondis; and God turnyde and bi-took hem to serue to the knyghthood of heuene; as it is written in the book of prophetis, Whether ghe hous of Israel offriden to me slayn sacrifices, either sacrifices of oostis fourti gheer in desert? And ghe han take the tabernacle of Moloch, and the sterre of ghioure god Renfam, figuris that ghe han maad to worschipe hem: and I schal translate ghoul into Babiloyne. The tabernacle of witnessyng was with our fadir in desert, as God dispose to hem, and spak to Moises, that he schulde make it aftir the fourme that he saigh: which also oure fadir tooken with Ihesu, and broughten into the possessioun of hethene men, which God puttide awei fro the face of our fadir til into the daies of Dauid, that foond grace anentis God, and axide that he schulde fynde a tabernacle to God of Iacob. But Salamon bildide the hous to him. But the high God dwellith not in thingis maad bi hond, as he seith bi the prophete, Heuene is a seete to me, and the erthe is the stool of my feet: what hous schulen ghe bilde to me? seith the Lord; either what place is of my restyng? whether myn hond made not alle these thingis?³

Contemporary with Wycliffe was Geoffrey Chaucer, who is commonly regarded as the father of English poetry, and who closed his life in the year 1400. Dr Johnson has remarked that "he may, perhaps, with justice, be styled the first of our versifiers who wrote poetically."⁴ He was a man of original genius, improved by a familiar acquaintance with writers in several languages. For the native poets who preceded him, he appears to have entertained but little respect: he sought for better models among the Latin, Italian, and French writers, and in all these languages he found works which he either translated or imitated. He possessed a lively fancy, and was a shrewd observer of life and manners. He improved the language, and refined the taste of his contemporaries. He taught them to write, if not with new harmony, at least with new terseness. The work by which he is best known are his Canterbury Tales; and in these he not only exhibits many characteristic delineations of manners, but likewise evinces a rich vein of native humour. They commence with the following verses, which we have selected on account of the elaborate analysis to which they have been subjected by Mr Tyrwhit.⁵

Whanne that April with his shoures sote
The drought of March hath pierced to the rote,
And bathed every veine in swiche licour,
Of whiche vertue engendred is the flour ;
Whan Zephirus eke with his sote brethe
Enspired hath in every holt and bethe
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sounne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yroune,
And smale foules maken melodye,
That sleepen alle night with open eye,
So præketh hem nature in hir corages ;
Than longen folk to gon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken strange strondes,
To serve halwes couthe in sondry londes ;
And specially, from every shires ende
Of Engleland, to Canterbury they wende,
The holy blisful martyr for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seke.

In the English language, as it thus appeared in the fourteenth century, the Anglo-Saxon vocabulary was still predominant, but the words had been greatly curtailed in their inflexions. This plan of simplifying the structure of speech is to be traced in other instances, where a rude or a strange race is mingled with a people who have cultivated a more complex language, bearing little or no resemblance to their own. The most essential part of the vocabulary may be acquired without difficulty; but it is not so easy to become acquainted with the inflexions of nouns and verbs, or with some other niceties which belong to language in its more complicated form. Many French words had now been incorporated with the English language; but the compositions of this period began to be marked by an affection of words derived immediately from the Latin. If Chaucer did not set the example, he at least followed it; and when he aims at a more ornamented style, his use of such phraseology is sufficiently copious. In this respect, he was however exceeded by some of his successors, particularly Hoccleve, Lydgate, and Hawes, who inherited no portion of his strength and originality. Being deficient in taste as well as genius, they devised a verbose and languid style, interspersed with many sonorous and polysyllabic terms, with terms "aureate and mellifluous," which did not assimilate with their native tongue. The same false taste was at length communicated to the Scottish poets. Dr Nott has remarked that Barbour had given his countrymen a fine example of the simple energetic style, which resembled Chaucer's best manner, and wanted little to make it the genuine language of poetry; and that other poets of the same nation, particularly James the First and Henryson, adhered to this model of a simple diction, and affected no other ornament than what the proper use of their language supplied.¹ But ultimately the false taste, which had infected the English poets, was communicated to their brethren of the north.

Gower and Lydgate, whose names are very frequently mentioned with that of Chaucer, are well known to the readers of early English poetry. Thomas Hoccleve, whom his editor supposes to have been born about the year 1370, makes a more inconsiderable figure in the literary annals of that age, but seems nevertheless to claim a passing notice. He was deficient in the essential qualifications of a poet; and, in the opinion of Mr Warton, "his chief merit seems to be, that his writings contributed to propagate and establish those improvements in our language which were now beginning to take place."

The greater part of the fifteenth century was highly

unfavourable to the progress of literature in England. The repeated contests for the crown, and the civil wars which they occasioned, were attended with a great waste of human blood, and with that uncertainty of possession, and those reverses of fortune, which leave the mind but little relish for such pursuits as are chiefly calculated to gratify the taste. Some individuals, Sir John Fortescue, and a few other writers, have left favourable specimens of prose composition; and they were succeeded by others, who made further improvements in style. Among these we must include Sir Thomas More, Archbishop Cranmer, Sir Thomas Elyot, and Roger Ascham. But from the death of Chaucer, more than a century elapsed before another writer, deserving the name of a poet, appeared in England. This writer was Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, son and heir apparent to the duke of Norfolk, whom however he did not survive. He was beheaded in 1547, in the thirtieth year of his age. Although thus cut off before the full maturity of intellectual vigour, he lived long enough to effect some very material improvements in English poetry. The versification of preceding poets was more properly rhythmical than metrical. Although some improvements had been introduced by Chaucer, he left the number of syllables too indefinite, and did not reach the harmony and compression, of which this noble poet afterwards exhibited an example. One of the changes which he introduced was the use of the heroic blank verse. Langland and other poets had indeed dispensed with rhyme; but their alliterative lines were constructed in a very different manner. In the following sonnet, he bewails the death of another eminent poet, Sir Thomas Wyatt.

Divers thy death do diversely bemoan:
Some, that in presence of thy livelied
Lurked, whose breasts envy with hate had swoln,
Yield Caesar's tears upon Pompeius' head.
Some that watched with the murder's knife,
With eager thirst to drink thy guiltless blood,
Whose practice brake by happy end of life,
Weep envious tears to hear thy fame so good.
But I, that knew what harboured in that head,
What virtues rare were tempered in that breast,
Honour the place that such a jewel bred,
And kiss the ground whereas thy corpse doth rest,
With vapoured eyes, from whence such streams avail
As Pyramus did on Thisbe's breast bewail.

Before the close of the sixteenth century, the English language had in a great measure attained that form and structure which it continues to exhibit. A great improvement of taste had been introduced by a more critical and more general study of the ancient classics. William Lilly, the famous grammarian, who had learned Greek at Rhodes, and who had afterwards acquired a polished Latinity at Rome, became the first teacher of Greek at any public school in England. This was at St Paul's school in London, of which he was appointed the first master about the year 1500.² The language soon began to be more regularly taught in the universities. At Cambridge the study of it was zealously and successfully recommended by Smith, Cheke, and Ascham, who were themselves distinguished by their proficiency. The elegancies of Latin style began to be better understood, and monkish barbarism was gradually banished. Ascham and Haddon acquired distinction by the style of their Latin prose; and some of the verses of Leland discover a classical vein previously unknown to his countrymen. Before the close of the century, many of the Greek and Latin writers appeared in an English dress, and classical story, with classical

English Language. mythology, was rendered familiar to the common reader. In addition to the French, the Italian and Spanish languages attracted a great degree of attention; and from all these languages, especially the two former, many works were likewise translated. New sources of knowledge, as well as of fancy, were thus opened, and the English tongue was enriched with a more copious and variegated phraseology. Surrey and Wyatt were succeeded by poets of great genius, by Shakespeare and Spenser, as well as by many others who, though of inferior powers, were yet possessed of a vigorous and brilliant imagination. The prose compositions of Bacon and Raleigh, partaking of the native energy of their authors, exhibited specimens of a condensed and forcible style, to which the preceding age had never attained. During the earlier part of the seventeenth century, ancient learning was assiduously cultivated; and men of great erudition, Selden, Gataker, and others, adorned the literary annals of their country. The prevailing taste of scholars had however a strong tendency to what was scholastic, if not pedantic; and even the poets, such as Donne and Cowley, substituted the subtleties of metaphysical conceits for flights of poetic fancy. Many words, derived immediately from the Latin, were introduced by the learned writers of the period to which we now refer. A considerable number of these has been subsequently rejected, while others are incorporated in the vocabulary. In the mean time, English poetry had nearly reached its highest limits. Milton's Paradise Lost, so eminently distinguished as a work of creative genius, affords the most remarkable illustration of the compass, power, and harmony of the language. Nor is Dryden unworthy of being mentioned with this mighty master of the English lyre. His powers of mind were no doubt different in kind and degree, but he was possessed of a genius truly poetical; and his prose, as well as his verse, exhibits a rich and copious vein of English phraseology.

The subsequent progress of the language our narrow limits will not permit us to trace. The history of the Scottish language is involved in more obscurity. The Celtic tongue is supposed to have been originally spoken in every district of this kingdom; nor has it been found an easy task to account for the introduction of a Gothic dialect, bearing a very close affinity to English. That the Scottish language is merely a dialect of the English, seems indeed to be the more prevalent opinion; and this foreign speech is supposed to have been gradually adopted by the Picts, who are at the same time described as a people of Celtic origin. The ancient history of every race of men which is possessed of no ancient records, and which has not attracted much attention from more enlightened nations, must ever be involved in doubt and uncertainty. In the present instance, we have little to guide our enquiries, besides a few scattered and contradictory notices, added to the ordinary and well-ascertained progress of human speech. When other records fail, the history of a nation may sometimes be traced in the history of its language; and a very moderate degree of reflection will enable us to determine the probability of a Celtic people thus unlearning their native tongue, and from deliberate choice adopting another speech completely and radically different.

Dr Geddes, in a Dissertation on the Scoto-Saxon Dialect, has strenuously maintained this extraordinary opinion, which has likewise been adopted by a more recent writer, possessing no portion of his acuteness or learning. "The names," it is stated, "of all the rivers, mountains, towns, villages, and castles, of any note or antiquity, from

Berwick-law to Buchanness, and from Buchanness to Arder-Sier, are all evidently Celtic. We must then either suppose that the language of the Picts was a dialect of the Celtic; or that they were not the original inhabitants of the country; or, in fine, that, after the extinction of the Pictish empire, or rather its union with the Irish-Scots, the language of these latter universally prevailed, and effaced the very remembrance of its Gothic predecessor. The second of these suppositions is contrary to history; the third is belied by experience; the first then is the only one that is founded in probability." This observation with respect to the prevalence of Celtic names, though too strongly stated, is not without foundation. We may therefore admit that the south of Scotland was at some remote period inhabited by a Celtic people; but it is not a necessary inference that this people must be identified with the Picts. Whatever hypothesis may be adopted, it is not denied that many Celtic names of places have been retained where the inhabitants have long ceased to speak any dialect of the Celtic language. It may very easily be conjectured that this primitive race of Celts was finally supplanted by new settlers; and that those settlers, whether Scandinavians or some other Gothic tribe, adopted many of the names which the original inhabitants had applied to mountains, rivers, and other conspicuous objects. That a similar process has been followed in innumerable instances, must be obvious to every person acquainted with the history of European settlements in other quarters of the globe: the native appellations are almost always retained to a certain extent, and are mingled with other names, borrowed from the language of the colonists.

If we should suppose the Picts to have been a Celtic people, a very hard problem will remain to be solved:—by what extraordinary means could a distinct race of men, placed in such circumstances, be induced to reject one language, and to adopt another? This radical and unprecedented change Dr Geddes is disposed to ascribe to the operation of such causes as the following: to the temporary subjection of the southern provinces of Scotland by the Northumbrians; to the immense number of captives seized during the ancient wars with the English; to the planting of English garrisons in several of the Scottish towns; to the amicable intercourse of the Picts with the English; and, finally, to the influence of Malcolm Canmore's courtiers, whom he supposes to have learned the English language from Queen Margaret and her retinue. But it may without temerity be affirmed that, in the entire annals of the human race, such an effect was never produced by such causes. In a more refined state of society, the love of knowledge, the hope of gain, or the influence of fashion, may induce many individuals to be take themselves to the acquisition of foreign languages; but the great body of the people will ever be disposed to rest perfectly satisfied with the speech, whether rude or cultivated, which they have derived from their parents. It is only by some great revolution, by a total conquest, or by an overwhelming extent of colonization, that the current language of a country can be materially changed. After the Norman conquest, when French became the language of the court and of the law, and when Norman barons were planted in almost every corner of England, did the combined operation of such causes eradicate the old, and establish a new language in its place? Many new words were unquestionably introduced, but these were merely engrafted on the old stock of the Anglo-Saxon. "Had the Saxon," as Dr Jamieson well observes, "found

its way into Scotland in the manner supposed, it would necessarily have been superinduced on the Gaelic. This has always been the case, where one language prevailed over another; unless the people who spoke the original language were either completely or nearly exterminated. Thus was the Norman gradually incorporated with the Saxon, as the Frankish had been with the Latinized Celtic of France. But the number of Gaelic words to be found in what is called Broad Scots bears a very small proportion to the body of the language.¹ And this solitary fact is indeed sufficient to evince that the inhabitants of the south of Scotland cannot be sprung from Celtic ancestors. Dr Geddes has ventured to specify the reign of Malcolm the Third, which commenced in the year 1057, as the period of a general denization of the Saxon tongue in Scotland. "That monarch," he remarks, "had been bred in England, and married an English princess. Her retinue were all English. English, in consequence, would become the language of the court. The courtiers would carry it to their respective homes; their domestics would be ambitious to speak the language of their masters; and thus it would be gradually introduced into every fashionable circle."² But to introduce a language into every fashionable circle, is somewhat different from rendering it the current speech of the people: French has long been the court language, and the language of fashionable circles in England, and yet the great body of the people still persist in speaking English.

The insuperable difficulty of accounting for such a transition as has thus been supposed, a transition from a Celtic to a Gothic dialect, renders the conclusion obvious and unavoidable, that the Gothic speech of Scotland was derived from a Gothic race of ancestors. Nor is this conclusion altogether free from difficulties, though they are of very inferior weight to those which are to be deposited in the opposite scale. It is the opinion of a late writer, who has investigated the subject with much ability, that the Picts emigrated from Scandinavia,³ and, according to this opinion, the Picts and Saxons must have spoken two dialects of the same original tongue. The history of these kindred dialects may be illustrated from that of some others, derived from the same Gothic origin. The Icelandic, Swedish, and Danish languages are all descended from the ancient Scandinavian. Island, which, as the learned Bishop Müller has remarked, is entitled to particular attention as the foster-mother of northern history,⁴ was peopled by a colony of Norwegians in the year 874.

This race of men, confined to a remote island, and maintaining but little intercourse, either of peace or war, with other nations, has preserved its ancient language with singular purity.⁵ The Swedes and Danes, more extensively engaged in the pursuits of commerce, and more closely connected with the rest of mankind, have exhibited a different progress: but while both languages have receded very widely from the Icelandic, they have not receded very widely from each other; a similar state of society, similar relations with other countries, and the study of the same foreign authors, have produced corresponding changes in both. In the history of these two languages, we do not find a complete parallel with that of the Scottish and English. The Swedish and Danish are both dialects of the ancient Scandinavian, while the Scottish is derived from the Scandinavian, and the English from the ancient German. But the Scandinavian and the German proceeded from the same common stock; and when we ascend to a period sufficiently remote, they are only to be regarded as dialects of the same language.

It is not to be concealed that Barbour, Winton, Henry the Minstrel, and other early poets of Scotland, have described their native language as English.⁶ This application of the name has been explained, with at least some degree of plausibility, by referring to the circumstance of the Gaelic being then denominated the Scottish language.⁷ A Celtic and a Gothic dialect could not well be described by the same term; and "when, by a necessary contingency, the Gothic language had in the same space, though in different nations, retained much the same hues, the name of that dialect, which was spoken by the greater and politer people, was imparted to the other, inhabiting a contiguous part of the very same island."⁸ Mr Pinkerton is less fortunate in another suggestion; namely, that it is not more strange to perceive that the Italian, French, and Spanish languages were originally termed Romance. They were all described by this common name, because they were all derived from the language of the Romans; but we are not inclined to believe that the Scottish and the English tongues stand in precisely the same relation to each other. (D. I.)