England from the last of his numerous visits to the continent. He was well received at the court of Charles the Second, but was never afterwards engaged in any state transactions. The remaining portion of his remarkable life was spent in the learned leisure which he had always loved. He was a member and councillor of the Royal Society, before whom he read a very curious paper upon the Vegetation of Plants.

Upon his birthday, the 11th of June, 1665, died this extraordinary man, who, with all his faults, was possessed of qualities which justify the praises wherewith Sir Harris Nicolas concludes his introduction to the "Private Memoirs."

"Whether contemplated as a philosopher, a theologian, an orator, a courtier, or a soldier, his exquisite talents are alike conspicuous. Endowed by nature with an understanding of great depth and versatility, he studied almost every branch of human science,

and to whatever he gave his attention he illustrated and adorned it. His philosophical speculations have survived the bickerings with which they were assailed his solitary essay as a military commander was crowned with signal success; his eloquence is conspicuous in every production of his pen; and to the extent of his knowledge of divinity his works on the subject bear ample testimony. The politeness for which he was eminent was not artificial, but arose from the only true source, an amiable disposition; and in an age distinguished above all others for political as well as polemical controversy, he has the enviable merit of having conveyed his arguments in language wholly free from bigotry and personal vituperation. In the most comprehensive meaning of the term, Sir Kenelme Digby was a gentleman."

We shall complete this sketch in our next number, by giving a brief account of Digby's principal writings, with occasional quotations from them.

MR. URBAN, IN his edition of Layamon, Sir Frederic Madden has given a list of the writers who preceded him in their comments upon his author. After alluding to the imperfect or erroneous statements of our older critics-Usher, Nicolson, Wanley, and Tanner,-he adds,

"And although many writers of later date, as Tyrwhitt, Ellis, Ritson, Mitford, Campbell, Turner, and Conybeare, have severally commented on, or quoted from, Layamon's poem, yet its peculiar value in a philological point of view appears to have remained but little known up to the period when the Society of Antiquaries determined on its publication. Having premised thus much, it is requisite to turn to the work itself, and inquire, as far as we are able, 1. Who was the author. From what sources his work was compiled. 3. The period of its composition; and lastly, the style and metrical structure of the poem, as well as the dialect in which it is written, and grammatical forms." Pref. viii.

2.

As some years ago I expended much thought and labour on matters con

nected with the personal history of Layamon, and the peculiarities of his grammar and dialect, perhaps I may be allowed to ask the attention of your readers, while I examine how far the results of Sir Frederic Madden's labours are entitled to the praise of originality, which he thus claims for them.

Layamon's dialect exhibits all the leading features of our Western English; but at the same time is distinguished by peculiarities, which make it a matter of great interest to ascertain the district in which it was spoken. He tells us that he lived at Ernleyof Gloucestershire is the only district upon-Severn; and, as the southern part near the Severn in which any remains of a Western dialect now linger, the historians of our literature have generally fixed his residence in this county. Here Layamon was located by Mr. Hallam, Lit. of Eur. i. 60, and by Mr. Stevenson in his edition of the Hule and Niztengale, a work which appeared in the year 1838, and I believe a month or two after the History of English Rhythms was published,

In writing the latter work I felt the fill importance of this question, and divenly sought fe Eley in the distri ́t where the puperal ernsent of ear antiquaries had hitherto placed it. Bat, theagh the South of Gloucestershire was not unfamilar to me, no trace of Eruley or of Radestone (another locality mentioned by Layamon) could be met with. Accordingly, in noticing the peculiarities of Lavation's language. I stated with hesitation, that it might perhaps (at least in substance) be considered as the dialect of South Gloucestershire, Engl. Rh. ii. 111; and in mentioning Ernley observed, that I could find no parish or hamlet of this name on the banks of the Severn," ii. 113, note. Afterwards, however, I renewed the search, and at last succeeded in finding Layamon's residence, and in a locality which gave the discovery a high degree of historical value. As my last chapter contained a list of our early poets, anterior to the fifteenth century, I had an opportunity afforded me of laying before the reader the results I had arrived at.

Bede's English book; 2ndly, the Latin book of St. Albin and St. Austin; and 3rdly, the book of the Frankish clerk Ware. The English book is probably Aifred's translation of the Ecclesiastical History, but I do not know what work of St. Austin is here referred to. When the two MSS. are published, as they shortly anthor was indebted to Wace's History. will be, we may perhaps learn how far the

In my first notice of Layamon's poem I was in doubt as to the locality of Ernley, bat on further search there was found a Redstone Ferry, close to Areley Regis, in North Worcestershire. On turning to Nash, it appeared that similarity of names had already led him to claim Layamon as a Worcestershire poet, and doubtless with good reason, as Areley was formerly written Armleag.

"It may now perhaps be a question, in Worcestershire? Layamon may have what kind of dialect was originally spoken brought his peculiarities of speech from Gloucestershire; but, if he were a native of Ernley or its neighbourhood, the Southern Dialect probably reached to the line of watershed between the Trent and Severn, and one of the most distinguished of the Mercian tribes, the Wicware, must have been Serein origin." Engl. Rh. ii. 408.

The "History of English Rhythms" was published in the beginning of the year 1838, and the writers who interested themselves in the history of our literature quickly availed themselves of the information contained in the preceding extract. Among the earliest was Mr. Hallam. In 1839 appeared the three last volumes of his work on the Literature of Europe, con

*The reader will bear with me while I

amendment of all the four volumes, the first of which had already been published in 1837. Nearly at the

to give anything like a continuous account of our earlier literature; and that, as a first attempt, it was attended with no inconsiderable difficulties. I may add that every one of my statements (even to my blunders) has been pillaged, or, in other words, appropriated, without acknowledgment by subsequent writers.

I was as much puzzled as Sir Frederick Madden himself to discover the "Latin book of St. Albin;" and it seemed to me that some of the difficulties attending the inquiry might be got over by assuming the Albinus, here mentioned, to be the celebrated Alewin, who sometimes bore that name. The notion however has been long since given up.

also venture to suggest that it would have been as well if the work which furnished him with the information had been referred to.

The following are the principal points in Layamon's story as gathered by Sir Frederic Madden from "the work itself:"

"Of the author we possess, unfortunately, only the scanty information given us by himself in the prefatory lines to his poem. In these he tells us that his name was Lazamon (in the later text broadened in sound to Laweman), and the name of his father Leovenath (Leuca in the later text), that he was a priest, and lived (wonede) at Ernleze, at a church on the banks of the Severn, near Radstone, where he read books.' Several writers have inferred from this passage that Ernley or Redstone was the place of his birth, but there seems no ground whatever for such a supposition. His profession as a priest, and his residence at the church of Ernley, are both explained by the line which follows,-ther he bock radde,'-i. e. where he was accustomed to read the services of the church; and, unless we so interpret it, there will appear no apparent connection between his occupation and the place of his abode. From the mention of Redstone, it might perhaps be inferred that the church alluded to was the ancient chapel attached to the hermitage overhanging the western bank of the Severn, at Redstone Ferry," &c.

"Before quitting this branch of the inquiry it must be observed that the later text of the poem omits all mention of the church, and substitutes the reading-' he dwelt at Ernley with the good knight upon Severn.' This reading has been adopted by Mr. Guest; but it would seem to be altogether a false interpretation, or a mere invention of the compiler of the later text. At all events, it is not of sufficient authority to supersede the statement in the earlier copy.t

It will be time enough to examine Sir Frederic Madden's philology, when he adduces examples in which "to read books" signifies to read the church service. As to his logic, I would ask, Why may we not as well connect Layamon's reading of books with his desire to write a history, as with the purposes of his residence at Ernley?

† I would ask Sir Frederic Madden, why are these two statements necessarily inconsistent with each other? Why may not the parson of Arley have lived as an inmate with "the good knight" at the manor-house? The monk who wrote the GENT, MAG. VOL. XXIX.

"The sources from which Layamon compiled his work are stated by himself to be three in number, namely, a book in English, made by Saint Bede, another in Latin, made by Saint Albin and Austin, &c. The first of the authorities here menand a third, made by a French clerk, Wace, tioned is generally understood to be the Anglo-Saxon translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History, attributed to Alfred, &c. The second work, ascribed to Saint Albin and Austin, is more difficult to identify, &c. The third authority named is the Anglo-Norman metrical chronicle of the Brut, translated from the well-known Historia Britonum of Geoffrey of Monmouth, by Wace," &c. (Pref. viii.)

"In respect to the dialect in which Layamon's work is written, we can have little difficulty in assuming it to be that of North Worcestershire, the locality in which he lived. But as both texts of the poem in their present state exhibit the forms of a strong Western idiom, the following interesting question immediately arises: How such a dialect should have been current in one of the chief counties of the kingdom of Mercia? The origin of this kingdom, as Sir Francis Palgrave has remarked, is very obscure; but there is reason to believe that a mixed race of people contributed to form and occupy it. We may therefore conclude either that the Hwiccas were of Saxon rather than Angle origin, or that, subsequent to the union of Mercia with the kingdom of Wessex, the Western dialect gradually extended itself from the south of the Thames as far as the courses of the Severn, the Wye, the Tame, and the Avon, and more or less pervaded the counties of Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Warwickshire, and Oxfordshire." (Pref. xxv.)

Although Sir Frederic Madden has teresting question" which he raises forgotten to inform us that "the inhad been already raised and answered, the reader will hardly need to be reminded how close is the correspondence which exists between these two accounts. It may, however, be well to enter somewhat into detail.

Sir Frederic Madden tells us that several writers supposed "Ernley or Redstone" to be the birth-place of Layamon. Now of the five writers whom he quotes only one mentions the

MS. in the thirteenth century may surely have been as well acquainted with Layamon's personal history as Sir Frederic Madden in the nineteenth.

3 R

name of Redstone, and the reference to him Sir Frederic Madden found in the History of English Rhythms. The motive which prompted the statement is a tolerably obvious one. Sir Frederie Madden wished it to appear as if the connexion between Layamon's Ernley and our modern Redstone had been long well-known and familiar to English antiquaries. I meet the insinuation at once by asking Sir Frederie Madden to point out a single writer, save the one I have myself quoted, who, previously to the year 1888, ever thought of connecting these two localities. How a man like Nash came to stumble on a fact which had escaped all those who had specially devoted themselves to the history of our early literature, or how it came to pass that the fact, when once pointed out, remained so long unheeded, it would be difficult to say.

There are passages in the preface strangely inconsistent with the one last referred to, from which we might infer that it was to the sagacity of Sir Frederic Madden himself that we owe this addition to our literary history; and in the notice of his work which appeared in the Literary Gazette, and which was, I believe, written by his friend Mr. Thomas Wright, this merit is directly ascribed to him:-"Sir Frederic Madden has established Layamon's place of residence at Lower Arley, near Bewdley in Worcestershire, and we think there is no doubt he is right."-Lit. Gaz. No. 1573, p. 210. It is not for me to reconcile these inconsistencies. It would almost appear as if Sir Frederic Madden had purposely placed the question in different points of view, in order to meet different contingencies; in one to catch the eye of the public, in the other to meet the objections of the more critical reader; so that if he failed in appropriating the discovery to himself, he might at any rate succeed in annihilating the claims of any other party.

It will be observed that Sir Francis Palgrave is quoted to explain the existence of a southern dialect in Worcestershire. As I well knew how liberal Sir Frederic Madden was in his references when they did not betray the sources from which he drew his information, I was not surprised to find on turning to the Rise and Progress of

the Engl. Com. that the author makes no allusion whatever to any mixture of the northern and the southern English, but is merely speculating on a mixture of race between the English and the Welsh. As regards any relevancy to his subject, Sir Frederic Madden might as well have quoted the Principia or the Paradise Lost; and it will not, perhaps, be any great breach of charity to suppose that Sir Francis Palgrave's name is introduced less to acknowledge than to conceal an obligation.

Were I to stop here, I apprehend I should have ample ground of complaint against Sir Frederic Madden. The determining Layamon's place of residence has an important bearing upon the history of our language and our literature, and promises to place in an entirely new light the English colonization of this island; and what Sir Frederic Madden thinks it worth his while to appropriate, may certainly be worth my while to claim. I had, however, been often subjected to this species of injustice, and I should probably not have troubled the reader with any remarks upon the subject, but for a statement which I own astonished me, and the precise object and motive for which are even now in some measure a mystery to me. I can only conjecture that in an unguarded moment Sir Frederic Madden yielded to his infirmity-an opportunity of wounding at the same time Mr. Stevenson and myself holding out a temptation which was too strong both for his virtue and his prudence.

408. There is no evidence whatever that he came from Gloucestershire, or ever was resident there. Pref. xxv. note."

As I never saw Mr. Stevenson's work till years after the History of English Rhythms was published, I cannot avail myself of the excuse with which Sir Frederic Madden has so kindly provided me; and the insinuation, that I was enabled to correct my "error" by some casual reference to Nash, has just as good a foundation as the unhappy influence supposed to have been exercised by Mr. Stevenson. Sir Frederic Madden must have known for his knowledge on the subject can only have been gathered from my statement-that the reference to Nash resulted from, instead of leading to, the discovery. But these are minor matters. Here we have a writer, who finds two different statements in a con

temporary work. In the first the author acknowledges that his search after a particular fact has resulted in failure, and, as the only course open to him, follows, though with hesitation, the current opinion of the day. In the second, he lays before his reader the

results of a later and more successful

inquiry. These results Sir Frederic Madden adopts as his own, and then calls the reader's attention specially to the "error" contained in the preceding statement-an error which at this mo

ment would have been Sir Frederic

Madden's own but for the information which was subsequently furnished him. I leave the reader to form his own opi

*This was no suggestion of mine; and it is hardly possible that Sir Frederic Madden could have drawn any such inference from my language. The word may was printed in italics, expressly to show that the prevalent opinion on the subject was merely adopted by me hypothetically. Sir Frederic Madden's hypothesis is substantially the same as mine. I stated that although Layamon might have brought his Western speech from the South of Gloucestershire, yet, if he were a native of Ernley, a Western dialect must have been spoken in that neighbourhood. Sir Frederick Madden suggests that the Western dialect was either the vernacular speech of Worcestershire, or introduced into that quarter from the southern counties. In every third of his quotations from my works my opinions are misrepresented after the same fashion.

nion of Sir Frederic Madden's candour: were I to express mine, I must use a severity of language which I much the occasion might call for it. should be sorry to employ, however

My extracts from Layamon were preceded by a "sketch" of his grammar; and Sir Frederic Madden appends to his preface "a grammatical analysis of the language." In the latter are constant references, either relevant or irrelevant, to almost every individual who during the last ten his study;-with the single exception years has made the English language of him who alone had anticipated the writer.* As far as can be gathered from the "Analysis," Sir Frederic Madden would appear to be the first person who paid any special attention to the subject.

I was prepared to find no allusion to my sketch, but I own I was surprised when I discovered how very little had been added to the information it contained. I had directed the at

tention of my readers to Sir Frederic Madden, as the man from whom they might expect a more elaborate and correct account of Layamon's grammar; and I certainly looked forward to his edition of that author for the solution of many interesting and diffiAfter a careful perusal of his Analysis, cult questions. But I looked in vain. I hardly know a correction or an addi

tion that I could wish to introduce into my own confessedly imperfect to the investigation of Layamon's penotice. Instead of confining himself culiarities, he wanders over the wide field of English grammar, and in this * way has succeeded in swelling out my three into ten closely-printed pages. Whenever he approaches the real difficulties of his subject he does his best to present them to the reader in a light different from that in which I had placed them; and in one or two instances I really thought I had obtained new and important truths, till on proceeding further I found the assertions so frittered away by subsequent ad

*The History of English Rhythms is once mentioned, not in any reference to my sketch of Layamon's grammar, but in a reference to a statement contained in an isolated note appended to one of my ex

tracts.