The districts north of the Humber.—There is so large an amount of specimens of the dialects of this area in the Anglo-Saxon stage of our language, the area itself so closely coincides with the political division of the kingdom of Northumberland, whilst the present arrangement (more or less provisional) of the Anglo-Saxon dialects consists of the divisions of them into the, 1, West-Saxon; 2, Mercian; and 3, Northumbrian, that it is best to give a general view of the whole tract before the minuter details of the different counties which compose them are noticed. The data for the Northumbrian division of the Anglo-Saxon dialects are as follows:—

1. Wanley's Fragment of Cædmon.—The north-east of Yorkshire was the birth-place of the Anglo-Saxon monk Cædmon. Nevertheless, the form in which his poems in full have come down to us is that of a West-Saxon composition. This indicates the probability of the original work having first been re-cast, and afterwards lost. Be this as it may, the

following short fragment has been printed by Wanley, from an ancient MS., and by Hickes from Bede, Hist. Eccl., 4, 24, and it is considered, in the first form, to approach or, perhaps, to represent the Northumbrian of the original poem.

1.
Wanley.
Nu seylun hergan
Herfaen-ricaes uard,
Metudes mæcti,
End his modgethanc.
Uerc uuldur fadur,
Sue he uundra gihuaes,
Eci drictin,
Ord stelidæ.
He ærist scopa,
Elda barnum,
Heben til hrofe;
Haleg scepen:
Tha mittungeard,
Moncynnæs uard,
Eci drictin,
Æfter tiaðæ,
Firum foldu,
Frea allmectig. 		2.
Hickes.
Nú we sceolan herigean
Heofon-ríces weard,
Metodes mihte,
And his módgethanc.
Weorc wuldor-fæder,
Sva he wundra gewæs,
Ecé driten,
Ord onstealde.
Ne ǽrest scóp,
Eorðan bearnum,
Heofon tó rófe;
Hálig scyppend:
Dá middangeard,
Moncynnes weard,
Ece drihten,
Æfter teóde,
Firum foldan,
Freá almihtig.

Translation.

Now we should praise
The heaven-kingdom's preserver,
The might of the Creator,
And his mood-thought.
The glory-father of works,
As he, of wonders, each
Eternal Lord,
Originally established.
He erst shaped, 		For earth's bairns,
Heaven to roof;
Holy shaper;
Then mid-earth,
Mankind's home,
Eternal Lord,
After formed,
For the homes of men,
Lord Almighty.

2. The death-bed verses of Bede.

Fore the neidfaerae,
Naenig uuiurthit
Thoc-snotturra
Than him tharf sie
To ymbhycganne,
Aer his hionongae,
Huaet, his gastae,
Godaes aeththa yflaes,
Æfter deothdaege,
Doemid uuieorthae. 		Before the necessary journey,
No one is
Wiser of thought
Than he hath need
To consider,
Before his departure,
What, for his spirit,
Of good or evil,
After the death-day,
Shall be doomed.

From a MS. at St. Gallen; quoted by Mr. Kemble, Archæologia, vol. xxviii.

3. The Ruthwell Runes.—The inscription in Anglo-Saxon Runic letters, on the Ruthwell Cross, is thus deciphered and translated by Mr. Kemble:—