the water-system of the Ouse, Nene, and Welland to those spoken along the lower course of the Thames.
These, to a certain extent, may be dealt with like those to the north of the Humber. Just as the latter were, in the first instance, and in the more general way, thrown into a single class (the Northumbrian), so may the dialects in question form the provisional centre of another separate class. For this we have no very convenient name. The dialects, however, which it contains agree in the following points.
1. These are considered to be derived from that variety of the Anglo-Saxon which is represented by the chief remains of the Anglo-Saxon literature, i.e., the so-called standard or classical language of Alfred, Ælfric, the present text of Cædmon, &c.
2. About half their present eastern area consists of the counties ending in -sex; viz., Sussex, Essex, and Middlesex.
3. Nearly the whole of their original area consisted in kingdoms (or sub-kingdoms) ending in -sex; viz., the districts just enumerated, and the kingdom of Wessex.
Hence they are—
a.—Considered with reference to their literary history.—They are dialects whereof the literary development began early, but ceased at the time of the Norman Conquest, being superseded by that of the central dialects (Mercian so-called) of the island. The truth of this view depends on the truth of Mr. Guest's doctrine noticed in page [555]. If true, it is by no means an isolated phænomenon. In Holland the present Dutch is the descendant of some dialect (or dialects) which was uncultivated in the earlier periods of the language; whereas the Old Frisian, which was then the written language, is now represented by a provincial dialect only.
"In speaking of the Anglo-Saxon language, scholars universally intend that particular form of speech in which all the principal monuments of our most ancient literature are composed, and which, with very slight variations, is found in Beowulf and Cædmon, in the Exeter and Vercelli Codices, in the translation of the Gospels and Homilies, and in the works
of Ælfred the Great. For all general purposes this nomenclature is sufficiently exact; and in this point of view, the prevalent dialect, which contains the greatest number of literary remains, may be fairly called the Anglo-Saxon language, of which all varying forms were dialects. It is, however, obvious that this is in fact an erroneous way of considering the subject; the utmost that can be asserted is, that Ælfred wrote his own language, viz., that which was current in Wessex; and that this, having partly through the devastations of heathen enemies in other parts of the island, partly through the preponderance of the West-Saxon power and extinction of the other royal families, become the language of the one supreme court, soon became that of literature and the pulpit also."—Kemble. Phil. Trans. No. 35.
b.—Considered in respect to their political relations.—Subject to the influence of the Wessex portion of the so-called Heptarchy, rather than to the Mercian,