"Milton could not be wholly unacquainted with Junius; and if he conversed with him, Junius was very likely to have made Cædmon the topic of his discourse, and may have read enough in English to Milton, to have fastened upon his imagination, without his being a Saxon scholar."—Turner's Anglo-Saxons, vol. iii., p. 316.
Both Mr. Turner and Mr. Todd, however, appear to lean to the opinion that Milton was not unskilled in Saxon literature, and mention, as an argument in its favour, the frequent quotations from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which occur in the History. It is also worthy of note that Alexander Gill, his schoolmaster, and whose friendship Milton possessed in no small degree, had pursued his researches somewhat deep into the "well of English undefiled," as appears from that extremely curious, though little known work, the Logonomia Anglica.
SAXONICUS.
English Sapphics.
—I admired the verses quoted by H. E. H. (Vol. iii., p. 525.) so much that I have had them printed, but unfortunately have no copy by me to send you. I quote them from memory:
"PSALM CXXXVII.
By a Schoolboy.
"Fast by thy stream, O Babylon! reclining,
Woe-begone exile, to the gale of evening
Only responsive, my forsaken harp I