SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

Hisxony,

A History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings. Translated from the German of Dr. J. Si. Lappenberg, For. F.S.A., Keeper of the Archives of the City of Ham- burg, by Benjamin Thorpe, F.S.A. With Additions and Corrections by the Author

and the Translator. In two volumes Murray. Miasma,

Spain, Tangier, ac. VisitedLin 1840 and 1841. By X. Y. Z. Pomace'. ECONOMY,

On certain Tests of a Thriving Population.. Four Lectures delivered befbre the Uni- versity of Oxford, in Lent Term, 1845. By Travers Twiss, D.C.L., F.R.S., Pro- lessor of Political Economy, and Fellow of University College, Oxford.

Longman and CO.

THORPE'S TRANSLATION OF LAPPENBERG'S ANGLO- SAXON KINGS.

Tins work was originally published at Hamburg, in 1834; and formed part of an historical series called "The History of the European States." Niebuhr at one time had entertained the idea of treating the subject ; and Ranke had actually began it, when "another direction was• given to his investigations." Dr. Lappenberg, the Keeper of the Archives of the city of Hamburg, well known in Germany for some historical and juri- dical works, was then applied to, and undertook the task. On its com- pletion, Mr. Thorpe the arclueologist, a personal friend of Lappenberg, conceived the idea of publishing it in an English dress : but, ten years ago, no bookseller could be found to ran the risk of a publication on Anglo-Saion affairs. This misgiving the present Mr. Murray has over- come - and the lapse of time has been so far favourable, that the archa;o- logical works relating to the subject which have appeared during the last ten years have been consulted both by Dr. Lappenberg and Mr. Thorpe. The additional information they have furnished has been used by both authors to correct the text or enlarge the notes. Mr. Thorpe has also made some additions to the text; but as he has not adopted any ty- pographical indications, the reader has only the uncertain guide of inter- nal evidence to conjecture what they are.

The work is rather more extensive than the title implies. It is in some degree a history of Britain (save the Highlands of Scotland) from the first glimmer of historical conjecture to the battle of Hastings. Dr. Lappenberg exhibits, with such lights as ancient notices and modern re- searches have supplied, the early commercial connexion of the Phoenicians and Carthaginians with the island—the probable sources whence 'it was peopled—the social state of Britain at the time of the Roman in- vasion, as well as a history of the Roman conquest and its subsequent dominion. He has also added, what is a desideratum to most historical works, a critical account of the principal writers from whom the history is composed.

The most striking characteristic of this workis the pertinacious industry

of the author. Every available source of information has been explored, from the classical historians, geographers, and philosophers, the Northern Sagas and the German chronicles, to the works on Anglo-Saxon times published in this country by English antiquarians, and the jobs printed by the Record Commissioners. The next most remarkable feature is what Lappenberg calls a critical examination of the authorities; an art which he seems to limit to the modern Germans, though every historian uses it, if not so pompously or systematically. He submits the Saxon and British authors to the same sort of test which Bauer and others of his countrymen applied to the composition of the Old Testament; the object of Lappenberg being to discover from internal evidence what is real, what is poetical, what is fabulous in these ancient authors. He also pursues a comparison between different chroniclers, to ascertain when one writer is copying from another, or drawing from the same original sources, so as to melt down as it were fable, poetry, and repetition, till he reaches the original elements. The consequence of this industry operating in this direction, is an immense amount of materials, and an enormous accumulation of particulars. Perhaps in that respect Lappen- berg'S History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings is, for its extent, without a rivaL

The use of thematerials is not entitled to the same praise as their

collection. Though possessing in a "high degree the criticism which enables men patiently to inquire or conjecture as to the nature of records, Lappenberg does not possess the higher faculty that estimates their value either In themselves or for their results. From some occasional specimens of involved and lumbering periods, we suspect Mr. Thorpe has improved the composition of his friend ; but there are tedious narratives of ;ni- nate particulars to which no style could impart attraction, and which if perused alone would induce the idea that Lappenberg was a mere German plodder. Such, however, is not the case. Wanting in his- torical imagination, he succeeds better in disquisitional deduction than in rapid narrative or elevated portraiture ; but where the originals possess weight and interest they lose little by passing through his mind. He fails from deficiency in that higher criticism which he depreciates in cen- suring the decision of Milton on the brawls of the Heptarchy, " that such bickerings to recount, met often in these our writers, what more worth is it than to chronicle the wars of kites or crows, flocking and fighting in the air ? " To Dr. Lappenberg, we opine, the wars of kites and crows would be as good as any other wars, 3f the facts were fully re- corded. He has logical acumen enough to reach a conclusion, but not critical acumen enough to make, a selection. Hence he gives a vast variety of particular information, which few save Anglo-Saxon antiqua- rians care about having, as the general result would suffice for the general reader. Hence, after getting through a tedious and involved or com- plicated story, it is found that part of it is clearly false, and though part of it is doubtless true, it is difficult to tell how much. In short, Dr. Lappenberg is like those animals who feed better when the supply of provisions is limited The early part of his work is the broadest and most interesting, because the lack of authorities compels him to be brief and comprehensive. Something, however, may be due to the classical

writers whom be has chiefly to follow, and we are never sure as to how much of the merit Mr. Thorpe is entitled to claim. The following may be taken as a good example of condensed historical deduction.

BRITAIN BEFORE THE ROMANS.

In the Southern parts of England, which had become more civilized through commerce, the cultivation of grain, to which the mildness of the climate was favourable, had been greatly unproved by the art of marling. The daily con- sumption was taken from the unthrashed corn, preserved in caves; which they prepared for food, but did not bake as bread. Worticulture was not in use among them, nor the hit of making cheese; yet the great number of buildings, of people, and of cattle, appeared sing to the Romans. Copper and bits of iron, accord- ing to weight, served as money. Their custom of painting themselves with blue and green, for the purpose of terrifying their enemies, as well as that of tattooing, was retained till alater period by the Picts of the North. At certain sacrifices, even the women, painted in a similar manner, resembling Ethiopians, went about without clothinp;. Long locks and mustachios were general. Like the Gauls, they decorated the middle finger with a ring. Their round simple huts of reeds or wood resembled those of that people; and the Gaulish checquered coloured mantles are still in common use in the Scottish Highlands. Their clothing, more especially that of the Belgic tribes of the South, enveloped the whole body; a ggirrrdle encircled the waist, and chains of metal hung about the breast. The hilts of their huge pointless swords were adorned with the teeth of marine animals; their shields were small. The custom of fighting in chariots, (called by them esseda, covini,) on the axles of which scithea were fastened, and in the manage- ment of which they showed great skill, was peculiar to this and some other of tlae Celtic _nations, in a generally level country, and where the horses were not sufficiently powerful to be used for cavalry. The charioteer was the superior person, the stfrvant bore the weapons. They began their attacks with taunting songs and deatenbig howls. Their fortresses or towns consisted in the natural defence of impenetrable forests. In the interior of the country were found only the more rugged characteristics of a people engaged in the rearing of cattle; which, together with the chase, supplied skins for clothing, and milk and fles for food. The Northern part of the country seems in great measure to have been abandoned to the shaft and javelin of the roving hunter, as skilful as he was bold. That every ten or twelve men of near relationship possessed their wives in common, but that the one earliest married was regarded as the father of all the children, is probably a mere Roman fable. Simplicity, integrity, temperance, with a proneness to dissension, are mentioned as the leading characteristics of the nation. The reputation of bravery was more especially ascribed to the Northern races.

The following is by .Mr. Thorpe; as it forms a note with his initials, on the causes of piracy among the Northmen.

YOUNGER BROTHERS IN ANCIENT TIMES.

The pernicious law of primogeniture was a chief cause of the miseries endured by this and other countries of Europe from the pirates of Scandinavia. The eld- est son of an aristocratic house inherited the family property; the younger ones were not indeed quartered on their own country, but were sent forth in.shheiga„. for the purpose of plundering the happier lands of the South. From these e lions the idea first sprang of making permanent conquests; which ended in the esta- blishment of Scandinavian dynasties in England, and in the Frankish province of Neustria, and in the South of Italy. This picture of English agriculture at the close of the Anglo-Saxon rule may be taken as a pendant to the state of the country upwards of a thousand years before.

AGRICULTURE OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS.

• Agriculture in England under the Anglo-Saxmis did not again reach the de- gree at which it had arrived under the Roman dominion; though towards the close of the period of which we have been treating the difference does not appear very considerable. Cities and commerce, even when by the latter more is received than exported, presuppose a soil not uncultivated, and native productions of the earth. The coast, especially towards the South, contained the greatest number of towns, and offers the most numerous proofs of agriculture; though East Anglia and the neighbouring marsh-districts must also be mentioned, the draining and embanking of which the Anglo-Saxons began, and rendered a memorable triumph of human industry practicable, by which what had been marshes and swamps became transformed into a garden. Though many undertakings, usages, and precepts of the Romans may have continued to exist, we must, nevertheless, at the same time bear in mind, that the German denominations for almost every- thing connected with agrictiltlire and the breeding of cattle sufficiently prove that the Angle and Saxon conquerors were not inexperienced in those arts. The chief occupation of the Anglo-Saxons was the rearing of cattle, for which nature seems to have especially designed the country. Both the "hilly West and the flat Eastern parts of England. are particularly fitted foe this purpose; while the North-western elevation of the strata secures to its slopes and plains the en- livening beams of the inornibg sun. The moist atmosphere of England sheds a blessing over its surface in the rich fertility of its fields, the vivid green of which continues a never-perishing ornament. Every husbandman (gebid) received, on being settled on the land of his hlaford, seven sown acres on his yard of land, two oxen, a cow, and six sheep. The cattle of the villeins was driven with that of the fords to graze on the common pasture. The milk, including that of the goat, was applied to various purposes besides that of making cheese. The fleece, which might not be shorn before Midsummer, supplied clothing for winter; and also a principal article of exportation, which the skilful artisans of the Netherlands and the Rhenish countries sent back to us in the form of woollen manufactures. Leather was used not only for shoes and breeches but also for gloves, which even those of the humblest class were in the habit of wearing.

No branch of rural economy was more sedulously followed than the rearing of swine; which in all parts where the old oak and beech woods were still undecayed yielded to the swineherds a profitable occupation. Besides these swineherds who attended to the herds of the lord, (sehte-swan,) there was another class, (gafol- swan,) each of whom paid a yearly rent of ten swine and five pigs, reserving all above this number for himself; but was bound to keep a horse for the service of the lord. The rearing of bea was also a branch of industry. The condition of the bee-master (bee-ceorl) was nearly similar to that of the swineherd, and, like him, he sometimes possessed a free property. Many horses were bred, every man being obliged to have two to his plough: hence it is not surprising that the pirates of the North were so soon able to transform themselves into cavalry, after their landing on the coast. Horses appear also to have been an article' f exporta- tion, from the law of sEthelstan by which it is forbidden to send them beyond sea. .Agriculture seems to have been adequate to the wants of the people as we find no mention either of the export or import of grain; and of famine add iteattend- ant, disease, less is recorded among the Anglo-Saxons than other contemporary nations. , William of roitiers calls England a storehouse of Ceres, from its great abundance of corn in the time of the last Eadward. The law enjoined, that of all the larger landed possessions the greater part shoidd be kept in cultivation. The several kinds of grain, viz. rye, bailey, wheat,- and oats, were grown. The great cultivation of the last leads us to the supposition that, as in Scotland at the present day, it was made into cakes for food; whence its Anglo-Saxon name of

arse" *

At the c,ose of this period, frequent mention of gardens occurs among the Anglo-Saxons, under the name of wyrtgeard, ortgeard, whence the modem orchard. These must'be distinguished from the vineyards so frequently noticed; and which in Gloucestershire and other Southern counties we find attached to) almost every monastic establishment. Smithfield, within the circuit of the ciV's of London, was formerly covered with vineyards. Holborne also had a vineyar&,- From the grapes of these vines, the introduction of which has been ascribed to the Emperor Yrobus, (ax). 280,) a wine was pressed, particularly in the fruitful county of Gloucester, which was not thought too rough and acid for consumption in those days. We have information of the quantity of wine to be rendered yearly- in Essex by the tenant to the lord. -It seems needless, in explanation of this ex- tensive cultivation of the vine in England, to attribute it to a greater milduesa-of climate at that period, or to a change in the soil caused by constant tillage. I.L. may suffice", perhaps, to call to mind, that here, as in other Northern countries, among others the Mark of Brandenburg, where the vine, it is said, formerly flourished not very long ago, much rougher and sourer wines were drunk than those now in use, either mingled with sweet ingredients or made into various pre- parations.

There is philosophy in the following reflections on the treasons of Edrio, the last of which consisted in the murder of Edmund Ironside, to prepare the way for the sole sovereignty of Canute.

" Eadric the traitor, as well as his predecessor in wiles and dignities, /Elfric, are difficult to comprehend, notwithstanding the familiarity of modern history with numerous traitors of our own days, who have fought under a dozen banners. and signed treaties for a dozen governments with the calmness of the inured, who, regard a banner only as any indifferent shred of Cloth, and all Words whatever as' the mere vibrations of the air, but despise as weak and ignorant all who believe. in the sanctity of banners or of words. Were Ethelred and Eadmund really so* weak as to allow themselves constantly to be blinded by crafty intriguers, and always to receive their worst enemy again into favour?. Deception was, without, doubt, easier in those times, (as it was also newer and rarer,) when the-coninon- , est mountebank of our days would have passed for a magician. But must not: the When, who were parties to every measure of importance have been either as weak as their lag or as treacherous as Eadric andhis adherents? Or is it nor possible that, powerfill as Eadric's personality, vast as his demoniacal influence' certainly was, he may nevertheless have been made a scapegoat;- and that much may have been falsely imputed to him, both by his contemporaries and by pass tenty, as certain substances attract all kinds of pernicious poisonous vapours?, And was he not, at the same time, like his predecessors in the Ealdonnansbip of Mercies, in great measure only the organ of that province, where many of the nobles were of Danish origin, and where both the nobles and the commonalty had never proved themselves particularly devoted to the West Saxon royal family ? This solution of the enigma seems the more reasonable, as Eadric never lost the confidence of his province, which followed him among the Danes as well as among. the West Saxons. But even the Ealdormen of Wessex had sometimes declared in- favour of the Danish Raven. In fact, faith in the posterity of Woden had long been extinguished; with that the higher families had also abandoned themselves, first to sensuality, then to cowardice; and the political importance both of the' royal and noble races was violently shaken to its very roots. The state no longer consisted in the joint interests of the sovereignty, the irobility,aud the church, by which the worthiest of the nation were united, but in certain individuals who pretended to represent them : a set of courtiers connected by blood or marriage, and accidentally brought together by the humour of the King, formed an associa- tion which was looked upon as the state, and with respect to its influence really was so. We have already became sufficiently acquainted with Anglo-Saxon court history, with the idle vanity and dissoluteness of the princes, the ambition of the prelates, the atrocious murders and base treachery even among the nearest kindred, to pronounce this court as Byzantine as ever that was on the shores of the Bos- phorus, and to comprehend the fall of a state-polity supported by it."

The men lived in a time of transition and fermentation, when those who would not be crushed by the age must move with events, and when treachery to persons was probably forced upon political leaders under the Anglo-Saxons, as desertion of principles seems to be a practical necessity now for those who would "get on in the world." To get something done, and to avoid public confusion as far as possible, swayed the Wit= then, as the Parliament now; for safe and successful is a tempting banner. The power at his back explains what is otherwise so inexplicable, du* different sovereigns trusted Edrio, and did not attempt to punish hhe; just as the Protestant party are powerless to punish -Peel. • At the same time, the facts induce us to hug our civilirAtimi, in despite of Young England. While transitions were going on in those days, sovereigns were murdered, people massacred, and counties devastatedr At present, somebody loses a place, which somebody else gets, whilst/ constituencies are " deceived" instead of being harried. It may be that our Anglo-Saxon ancestors thought no more of being killed than we do of being done, as-the former was the custom of the country: but if we put the alternative even into a philosophical alembic, the result is oer- tainly in favour of the modern mode.

We have already intimated the obligations that the work is under to Mr. Thorpe : but why adopt the pedantic mode of spelling indicated in our last extract, even if Lappenbcrg thought fit to practise it ? Alfred the Great himself is no longer recognized when he figures in the masque- rade of Alfred.