it, and on the north, is the ocean, on the south the Mediterranean Sea, and on the east the nearer Spain; on the north of which are the Aquitani, and on the north-east the forest. of the Pyrenees, and on the east Narbonensis, and on the south the Mediterranean Sea.

28. The island BRITAIN: It extends a long way north-east: it is eight hundred miles long and two hundred miles broad On the south of it, and on the other side of the arm of the sea, is Gallia Belgica; and on the west part, on the other side of the sea, is the island Hibernia; * and, on the north part, the Orkney Islands. Ireland, which we call Scotland, is on every side surrounded by the ocean; and, because it is nearer the setting of the sun than other lands, the weather is milder there than in Britain. Then on the north-west of Ireland is that outmost land called Thule; and it is known to few because of its great distance. Thus have we spoken about the boundaries of all Europe as they lie.

29. Now we will [speak] of AFRICA, and how the boundaries lie around it. Our elders said that it was the third part of this mid-earth, not because there was so much of the land, but because the Mediterranean Sea has so divided it; because it breaks more into the south part than it does into the north, and the heat has taken more hold on the south part than the cold has on the north; and because every creature can better withstand cold than heat; for these reasons Africa is less than Europe, both in land and in men.

30. On the east Africa begins, as we said before, westward of Egypt, at the river Nile. Then the most easterly country is called LIBYA CYRENAICA; on the east of it is the nearer Egypt, and on the north the Mediterranean Sea, [and on the south the country] that is called Libya Ethiopum, and on the west the Syrtis Major.

31. On the west of Libya Æthiopum is the farther EGYPT; and on the south the sea which is called Æthiopic; and on the west the Troglodytæ. The country Tripolitana, which is also called Arzuges: it has, on the east of it, the Syrtis Major and the country of the Troglodytæ; and on the north

the only part of his description which can be strictly considered as a translation. The division also of all Europe into the countries lying north and south of the Danube, so clear and simple, which is completely original, shows how much we owe to King Alfred.

* Ibernia, Hibernia, Igbernia, now Ireland, was denominated Scotland from about the fifth to the eleventh century. The Scoti were first heard of as inhabiting Ireland. As they imposed their name on Hibernia, so in settling in North Britain they gave it the name of Scotland, which it still retains.

the [part of the] Mediterranean Sea which is called Adriatic, and the country which is called Syrtis Minor; and on the west, to the salt lake, Byzacium; and on the south of it to the ocean, the Natobres and Getuli and Garamantes.

32. The country BYZACIUM, in which is the city Adrumetus and Seuges and the great city Carthage and the region of Numidia. They have on the east of them the country Syrtis Minor and the salt lake; and on the north of them is the Mediterranean Sea; and, on the west of them, Mauretania; and, on the south of them, the mountains Uzera; and, on the south of the mountains to the ocean, the ever-wandering Æthiopians. Mauretania. On the east of it is Numidia; and, on the north, the Mediterranean Sea; and, on the west, the river Malva; and, on the south, Astria, about the mountains, which separate the fruit-bearing land and the barren whirling-sand, which then lies south all the way to the ocean. Mauretania is

called also Tingitana. On the east of it is the river Malva; and, on the north, the mountains Albenas, and Calpe, another mountain, where the end shoots up from the ocean, between the mountains eastward, where the pillars of Hercules stand; and on the west of them to the ocean is the mountain Atlas; and, on the south, the mountain called Hesperium; and, on the south of them to the ocean, the country Aulolum. Thus have we spoken about the landmarks of Africa.

33. Now we will speak about the islands which are in the Mediterranean Sea. The island CYPRUS lies opposite Cilicia and Isauria, on the arm of the sea which is called Issicus. It is a hundred and seventy-five miles long and a hundred and twenty-two miles broad. The island CRETE: on the east of it is the sea which is called Carpathian; and westerly, and on the north, the Cretan Sea; and, on the west, the Sicilian, which is also called the Adriatic. It is a hundred and seventy miles long and fifty miles broad.

34. Of the islands called CYCLADES there are fifty-three. On the east of them is the Icarian Sea; and, on the south, the Cretan; and, on the north, the Ægæan; and, on the west, the Adriatic.

At each corner

35. The island SICILY is three-cornered. there are hills: the north corner is called Pelorus, near to which is the city Messina; the south corner is called Pachynum, near which is the city Syracuse; and the west corner is called Lilybæum, near which is the city Lilybæum. On

the north and south it is a hundred and fifty-seven miles long; and the third side, along the [east], is a hundred and seventyseven. On the east of the land is [that part of] the Mediterranean Sea which is called Adriatic; and, on the south, that which is called African; and, on the west, what is called Tyrrhenian; and, on the north, is the sea, which is both narrow and rough, towards Italy.

36. The islands Sardinia and Corsica are separated by a little arm of the sea, which is twenty-two miles broad. SARDINIA is thirty-three miles long and twenty-two miles broad. On the east of it is [that part of] the Mediterranean Sea which is called Tyrrhenian, into which the river Tiber flows. On the south is the sea which lies towards the country of Numidia ; and, on the west, the two islands which are called Baleares; and, on the north, the island Corsica.

37. CORSICA: on the east of it is the city of Rome; and, on the south, Sardinia; and, on the west, the Balearic Islands; and, on the north, the country of Tuscany. It is sixteen miles long and nine miles broad.

38. The two islands BALEARES: on the [south] of them is Africa; and Cadiz on the west, and Spain on the north. We have now spoken shortly about the inhabited islands that are in the Mediterranean Sea.

KING ALFRED AS A GEOGRAPHER.

It is a striking and suggestive fact that a ruler who surpassed all others that the world has ever seen in wisdom and insight should have given so high a place to geography. Alfred knew by experience that an acquaintance with the relative positions of places on the earth's surface was the necessary foundation of the kind of knowledge required equally by the statesman, the soldier, and the merchant; and he therefore gave its due place to geography in his grand scheme for the enlightenment of Englishmen. In this he was centuries in advance of his age. As was his wont, when he had resolved to bring knowledge on any particular subject within the reach of his people, he diligently sought out the best authority on geography. Ptolemy, Strabo, and Pliny were unknown to his generation, still hidden away in dark repositories and not to be unearthed until the dawn of the Renaissance. In the ninth century the best geographical work was that of Orosius, who had lived in the days of the Emperor Honorius. His work was a summary of the

world's history from the creation to the days of Honorius, with a sketch of all that was then known of geography.

Alfred brought high qualifications to the task of translating and editing Orosius. In his boyhood he had twice made journeys to Rome, which, as regards dangers and hardships, may be compared to an expedition to Lhasa at the present day. In after life he had become very intimately acquainted with the topography of his native island, from the Humber to the shores of the Channel and from the Severn to the East Anglian coast. As a military tactician, he knew each river, valley, hill-range, and plain; as an administrator, he had examined the capabilities of every district; and, as a naval commander, the harbors and estuaries, the tides and currents were familiar to him. So far as his personal knowledge extended, Alfred was a trained geographer. He was also in a position to increase the information derived from his own personal experiences by diligently collecting materials from those foreigners who frequented his court, and by reading. He had the gift of assimilating the knowledge thus acquired, and he studied most diligently. Above all, he was eager to investigate unknown things for the great end he always had in view, the good of his people. Alfred's design was to collect the best and most extensive geographical information, without confining himself to the text of Orosius. Thus he commences his geographical work with a very lucid account of the peoples of central Europe and of their relative positions, which is not the work of Orosius, but was composed by the king himself from his own sources of information. It is the only account from which such details in that age can be derived.

When we consider the ignorance which prevailed in England before Alfred's time, we can form an idea of the immense importance of his geographical labors and of the brightness of the light with which he dispelled outer darkness in the minds of his countrymen. His work was more especially useful in his own time, owing to the intercourse he encouraged with foreign lands and to the frequent missions he despatched and received. Both through his promotion of intercourse with distant lands and through his literary work, our great king enlightened his people by disseminating geographical knowledge. The first to encourage Arctic exploration, the first to point the way to eastern trade by the Baltic, the first to open communication with India, his literary labors in the cause of geography are even more astonishing. There have been literary sovereigns since the days of Timæus of Sicily writing for their own glory or for their own edification or amusement. Alfred alone wrote with the sole object of his people's good; while in his methods, his scientific accuracy, and in his aims he was several centuries in advance of his time. After his death there was a dreary waste of ignorance, with scarcely even a sign of dawn on the distant horizon. A few Englishmen of ability, such as Roger Bacon and Sacrobosco, speculated

and wrote on questions de sphærâ; but there was no practical geography until Eden and Hakluyt rose up, nearly seven centuries after the death of our great king. Richard Hakluyt was indebted to Alfred for portions of his work, and he resembled his illustrious precursor somewhat in his zeal, his patriotism, and his diligence. Alfred the Great was, in the truest sense of the term, a man of science; and we hail him as one who stands alone and unrivalled,— the founder of the science of geography in England.— Sir Clements Markham, President of the Royal Geographical Society.

KING ALFRED'S PREFACE TO GREGORY'S "PASTORAL CARE."

King Alfred bids greet Bishop Waerferth, lovingly and friendly in his words; and I bid thee to make it known that it hath very often come into my mind what wise men formerly were throughout the English race, both of the spiritual and of the secular condition, and how happy the times then were through the English race, and how the kings, who then had the government of this folk, obeyed God and his messengers, and how they held both their peace, their customs, and their government at home, and also increased their country abroad, and how they then sped both in war and in wisdom, and also the religious orders, how earnest they were, both about their doctrine and about their learning, and about all the services that they should do to God, and how men from abroad sought wisdom and instruction in this land, and how we must now get them from without, if we would have them. So clean was it (learning) now fallen off among the English race that there were very few on this side of the Humber that were able to understand their service in English, or even to turn a sent writing (an epistle) from Latin into English; and I think that there were not many beyond the Humber. So few there were of them that I cannot think of even one on the south of the Thames, when I first took to the kingdom. To God Almighty be thanks that we now have any teacher in the stall; and therefore I have commanded thee that thou do as I believe thou wilt - that thou, who from the things of this world art at leisure for this, as thou often mayest, that thou bestow the wisdom that God has given thee wherever thou mayest bestow it. Think what punishment shall come upon us for this world, when we have not ourselves loved it in the least degree, and also have not left it to other men to do so. We have had the name alone that we were Christians, and very few the virtues. When I then called to mind all this, then I remembered how I saw, ere that all in them was laid waste and burnt up, how the churches throughout all the English race stood filled with treasures and books, and also a great multitude of God's servants, but they knew very little use of those books, for that they could not understand anything of