Again the provincial dialects of the present time can be shown to graduate into each other—at least, to a great extent. This is because we have specimens from nearly every county. For the Anglo-Saxon dialects we have a great gap. $ 129. Northumbrian Division.-Premising that Northumbrian means North of the Humber, and that (so doing) it includes Yorkshire, I draw attention to the fragmentary or rudimentary character of the class denoted by the term. Compared with the West Saxon in respect to its literature, it is little more than a local dialect. Indeed, its extant literature, in the higher sense of the word, is nil. It consists, if we limit ourselves to the records of which the time and place are ascertained, and the translation is satisfactory, to little more than three sets of glosses, and one inscription. 1. The Glosses of the Rushworth Gospels.-The glosses on the Rushworth Gospels are referred by Wanley, whose opinion is adopted by Mr. Garnett, to the end of the ninth, or to the beginning of the tenth, century. This, however, is by no means certain. The place at which, at least, a portion of them was written seems to have been Harwood, in Wharfdale. If so, they give us the most southern sample of the division to which they belong. The names of the writers are known. There were two-one of them being named Farmenn. He it is who describes himself as a priest at Harawuda. The first part of the interlineation is his, and it is remarkable that the Northumbrian character is less marked in Farmenn's part than it is in his coadjutor's: whose name was Owen-a British designation. The following specimen is from Mr. Garnett's paper on the Languages and Dialects of the British Islands; the peculiar forms being in Italics. The Rev. B. Bandinel has kindly collated each sample. with the original MS. in the Bodleian. RUSHWORTH GOSPELS. JOHN, chap. iv. þæt forbon [be hælend] ongætt [pætte] giherdon þa alde wearas þætte the hæl[end] monige thegnas wyrceth and fulwath ponne Ioh' [annes]: (peh pe, l' swa he, pe hæl' ne fulwade ah þegnas his :) forleort Judeam corpo and foerde efter sona in Galileam. wæs gi dæfendlic wutudl'[ice] hine þætte of'[er] foerde perh tha burig [Samaria]. com forþon in tha castre Samar', þio is gicweden Sichar, neh þær byrig pætte salde Jacob Josepes suno his. was wutudl' ther wælla Jacobes. The hæl' forpon woerig was of gonge, sitende wæs, and sæt, swa ofer þæm wælla: tid was swelce pio sexta. wif [com] of thær byrig to hladanne þæt water, cwæth him þe hæl'; sel me drinca. þegnas wutudl'. foerdun in castre pætte mete bohtun him. cwath f'thon to him þæet wif pio Samaritanesca, hu thu Judesc mith thy arp drincende from me giowes tu pa pe mith thy wif's [sie?] Samaritanesc? ne for þon gibyrelic bip Judea to Samaritaniscum. giondswarade the hæl' and cwæp him, gif þu wistes hus Godes and hwelc were se the cwæth the sel me drinca þu wutudl'.and woenis mara, gif thu georwades [giowades?] from him and [he] gisalde the water cwic welle. cwæth to him þæt wif, driht [en] ne m [in?] hwon tha hlado hæfest pu, and the pytt neh is: hwona, and hwer, forthon hæfest þu wæter cwicw elle? ah ne arþu mara feder usum Jacobe sepe salde us thiosne pytt, and walla, and he of him dranc and suno his and feoporfoto, and neæno [netenu], his? HATTON GOSPELS. JOHN, chap. iv. Da se hælend wiste þæt þa pharisei gehyrden. þæt he hæfdeema leorning enihta bonne johannes peah se hælend ne fullode ac hys leorning enihtas. Da forlet he judea land and for eft on galilea. hým ge byrode pæt he seolde faran þurh samaria land Wicelice he com on samarian cestre. þe ys ge nemneth sichar. neah pam tune pe jacob sealde Josepe hys sune. þær was jacobes wylle. Se hælend sæt æt på welle. þa he was weri gegan and hyt was middayg. Da com þær an wif of samaria wolde water fecca. Da cwæð se hælend to hyre. gyf me drincan. Hys leorning enihtes ferdon þa to pare ceastre woldon heom mete beggen. Da cwæð þæt samaritanisse wif to hým. Hu mete bydst þu at me drenken. ponne þu ert Judeisc. and ic em samaritanise wyf. Ne brucað Judeas and samaritanissee metes at gadere. Da answerede se hælend and cwæd to hyre. Gif þu wistes godes gyfe and hwæt se ys þe cwa to be sele me drinken. witodlice bu bede hyne þæt he sealde pe lyfes water. þa cwæð þæt wif to hým. Leof ne þu næfst nan þing mid to hladene, and pet ys deop. hwanen hafst þu lyfes wæter cwest du þæt þu mare sy ponne ure fader iacob. Se pe us pisne pyt sealde, and he hys bearn and hys nýtanu of þam druncan. 2. The Glosses of the Durham, or Lindisfarn, Gospels.Quatuor Evangelia Latina, ex translatione S. Hieronymi, cum glossá interlineatá Saxonicá.-Cotton MSS. Nero, D. 4. in MATTHEW, cap. 2. middy arod (?) gecenned were Cum ergo natus esset Jesus in Bethleem Judææ dagum Herodes cyninges heonu da tungulcraeftga of eustdael in diebus Herodis Regis, ecce cwomun to hierusalem magi ab oriente huer is de acenned stellam ejus in geherde wiototlice cweo donde hiu cwoedon is cynig Judeunu gesegon we fordon sterru his in Hierosolyma cum mesapreusti alle da aldormenn biscopa (sic) omnes principes sacerdotum geascode and a uɣuutta as folces georne gefragnde fra him huer crist sciscitabatur ab iis ubi Christus 3. The Glosses of the Durham Ritual.—Rituale Ecclesiæ Dunhelmensis. 1145, c. 10. Rituale Ecclesiæ Dunhelmensis.—Hæ sunt capitulæ in Litania Majore, þat is, on fifa dagas.* vias Hierusalem, et bihaldað and gisceawað and soecað in plaegiword and on plaecvm and aspicite et considerate, et querite in gimoeton gie woer doend dom and soecende lvfv and inveniatis virum facientem judicium et querentem fidem et milsend ic biom his propitius stondað of' ero ejus. woegas and gisead and gifraignað of sedvm State super vias et videte et interrogate de semitis * Rituale Ecclesiæ Dunhelmensis, published by the Surtees Society, pp. 36, 37. rædo ivr' and ic bya ivih mi in stove dissvm on eorde þe stadia vestra, et habitabo vobiscum in loco patribus vestris a Deus, qui diem seculo gisceadas from naehte discernis а isto in terra quam and w' worvlde et usque in seculum dedo vssa from Diostra giscead miste patte symle da de tenebrarum distingue caligine ut semper quæ nocte actus nostros a haelgo aron sancta sunt driht' haelga faeder allm' Vencendo meditantes, Gratias gidoe ve ece god v de vsig oferdoene naehtes rume to morgenlicum æterne Deus, qui nos, transacto noctis spatio, ad matutinas tidvm derhlaede gimoedvmad ar ve bid' patte geafo eft ve brenga gratias referamus, per Dominum. Ov gefe vs [dæg] dones nobis diem efenne de gode vesperum tibi Deo 4. The Ruthwell Runes.-The inscription in AngloSaxon Runic letters, on the Ruthwell Cross, is thus deciphered and translated by Mr. Kemble: * This dual occurs in the present provincial dialect of the parts about Essen. Thus-Q."Wät deit hä do?" A. Ek segg et ink nich--Git mögget sä mi awer jagen.-Q. What does he there? A. I will not say to you ye two so may not chase me. It has often, perhaps generally, a plural power. $130. So much for our materials for the Northumbrian dialect of the Anglo-Saxon; at least for the most unexceptionable portion of them. The characteristics they supply are as follows: 1. The article is pe rather than se; and pio rather than seo, &c. In the modern English the is used without respect to either gender or case. There is a tendency to this in the Northumbrian. Again-the use of they, &c., instead of hi, hem, heora, as the plural forms of he and heo, sets in earlier in Northumbria than in Wessex. 2, 3. The -n, or -an, both in the oblique cases and in the Nominative Plural, is dropped. Sometimes the termination is -u; as witgu W. S., witegan=prophets. Sometimes it is -0; as ego: = W. S., eagan = eyes. Generally, however, it is -a or -e, as = |