The three last chapters of the fecond volume are devoted to the delineation of Alfred's intellectual and moral character, and to the examination of his public conduct. These chapters have rather difappointed us: inftead of condenfing the fcattered traits. of our older hiftorians into a diftinct and characteristic portrait, Mr Turner enters into a minute and tedious detail, which leaves no distinct and individual impreffion on the mind. A determi nation to enlarge his volume, or to difplay his learning, has led him not only to tranflate the voyages of Ohthere and Wulfftan, but alfo to favour his readers with the original Anglo-Saxon. We shall not difpute his ability to tranflate directly from this language, especially as he informs us that he has collated the text of Mr Barrington's edition with a manufcript, and that his tranflation differs in fome places from that gentleman's; but we may be allowed to fmile, when he attempts the conjectural emendation of the Saxon text. The following paffage is certainly obfcure and perplexing; and we fhall not attempt to explain or correct it: Thara he fæde that he fyxa fum ofsloge fyxta on twam dagum.' Mr Turner fuppofes that fyxa is an error in the MS., and fhould be fyxa, and translates it, There he faid that, of fome fish, he flew fixty in two days.' From this tranflation, it appears that he confiders fyxa as the genitive plural: how, then, can fum, which occurs only in the nominative fingular, agree with it? If fum be the genuine reading, then fyxa must be the nominative fingular; in which case, his translation is incorrect, and his propofed reading contrary to sense and the rules of grammar.

In the reign of Athelftan was fought the battle of Brunanburgh. It would be difficult to name a battle, during the Saxon heptarchy, which tended fo much as this to raise the dignity and ftrengthen the influence of the English nation among the Continental powers. As its pofition is not afcertained by Mr Turner, or any other Bb 2 writer,

The context alfo fhews, that Ohthere is fpeaking exclufively of whales. In his own country, he says, they are taken eafily, and in great numbers. As an inftance, he adds the fentence which Mr Turner

has attempted to correct. In Buffæus's edition of Ohthere, (published along with Arius Frode, Havniæ 1733), which, we believe, is the fame as Spelman's, it is rendered, Dixit fe fextum fuiffe, qui fexaginta bidui fpatio interfecerit.' (1.) Adelung, in his Effay on the English Language, tranflates it, Er verficherte, dafs er felb fechfte (d. i. mit noch fuinfen) ihrer in zwey Tagen fechzig erleget habe.

He faid

that he was the fixth of thofe (i. e. along with five others) who flew fixty in two days.' But the Anglo-Saxon will not bear either of thefe tranflations, especially if fum, which is entirely omitted by Buffeus and Adelung, be a part of the genuine text.

writer, we may be allowed to indulge a little in antiquarian conjecture, not with the expectation of fixing it exactly, but only to fhew that the opinions which have been hitherto advanced are all contradicted by undifputed and direct evidence, and to circumfcribe the limits within which conjecture must hereafter range, and investigation be directed. Cambden thought it was Ford, near Bromeridge, in Northumberland. Gibfon mentions, that in Chethire there is a place called Brunburgh. Mr Turner has found, in the Villare, Brunton in Northumberland, which he fufpects to have been the place. All thefe conjectures are founded on the fuppofition that the place still retains fome refemblance to its ancient name. Hence, antiquarians have been led aftray from the proper object of inquiry. None of thefe places, however fimilar in name, can poflibly have been the scene of action. They are all at a confiderable distance from the fea; whereas, we are told exprefsly by the Saxon Chronicle, and Florence of Worcester, that the Northmen and Scots fled to their fhips. In the Polychronicon of Ralph of Higden, Anlaf and Conftantine are faid to have entered the Humber with a fleet; † and Fordun informs us that they invaded the southern parts of the kingdom, and laid wafte all the country, till they reached the place where Althelftan was encamped. If we connect thefe accounts, we fhall be led to conclude that the battle was fought near the Humber, on the Lincolnfhire fide. Ingulph, indeed, exprefsly fays, that the place was to the north of the Humber, (in Northanhumbria §); but it is by no means probable that the invading armies, after having failed fo far fouth, would direct their march to the northern and lefs important part of the kingdom, or that Athelftan would be fo imprudent as to leave expofed the fouthern district, by collecting his force on the north fide of the river.

*

The 3d and 4th chapters of the 2d volume, contain a furvey of those states on the Continent with which Athelstan was connected,-Bretagne, France, Germany, Norway, and Normandy. Thefe chapters, particularly the first, which treats of Armorica, the favourite abode, if not the birth-place of Romance, will have the attraction of novelty to most readers; and even thofe who have perused the feveral works from which the account is drawn,

* Gibson's Saxon Chron. 113. Floren. Vignor. Chron. 348. + Polychron. Ranulph. Higden. 262. apud Gale, I.

Fordun, 672. apud Gale, I.

will

Ingulfi Hiftor. 37. apud Fell. I. In the Saga of Egill Skallagrim, the battle is faid to have been fought at Vinheida: apud Johnfton. Antiq. Celto-Scan. 37.

will acknowledge that Mr Turner has given a connexion and completeness to his narrative, not easily attainable where the materials are fo fcanty, the details fo inaccurate and incomplete, and the authorities, in general, fo indirect and fufpicious. In one point, however, Mr Turner is certainly mistaken. He affirms, that the people of Vannes in Bretagne conquered the Venetian territory; and he even fixes the date of the conqueft A. U C. 164. We know of no authority for the date; and the truth of the event itfelf is very fufpicious. Polybius fays, that the Venetians differed from the other Cifalpine Gauls in their language, and conjectures that they came from Paphlagonia, where, according to Homer, there was a nation called Veneti. * thinks that the people of Vannes in Bretagne may have given name to the Venetian territory; but, at the fame time, expressly fays, that he is not confirmed in his opinion; and mentions feveral other fuppofitions, all refting merely on a fimilarity of name. Cato afcribed a Trojan origin to the Venetians. Cæfar particularly notices the maritime power of the people of Vannes; but he is entirely filent on this point. Mr Turner, in making this unfounded affertion, appears to have trufted implicitly to Lobineau; but he ought to have been roused to fufpicion, and incited to inquiry, where national partiality, and especially Celtic partiality, was concerned. It is not often, however, that Lobineau is mistaken or partial in his Hiftoire de Bretagne; which Mr Turner has judicioufly chofen for his direct and leading authority. There is in that work a more conftant and clofe union of laborious research, luminous arrangement, and difcriminating knowledge, than the writings of antiquarians generally exhibit.

Mr Turner proves that tournaments were first regulated, if not invented, by Henry the Fowler; and thus fixes their exiftence a century before the date affigned them by Du Frefne and St Palaye. We know not whether our author be acquainted Bb3

with

Polybius, II. 48.-Homer's Iliad, B. 852.-Nepos Cornelius, apud Plinii Nat. Hiit. VI. c. 2.—Livy, I. c. 1.

+ Strabo, IV. 195. V. 212.-Euftathii Scholia in Dionyf. Perier. verf. 380.

Cato, apud Plin. II. c. 19. This question is difcuffed with much learning, but evidently with much partiality, by Lorenzo Pignoria, Le Origini di Padova, cap V. p. 30-33.

Cæfar, Bell. Gall. 111. 50. Edit. Plant.

Du Frefne Gloff. Latin. IV. 398.-St Palaye, I. 182 -TourLaments, however, appear to have been familiar in the Eaft, long before they were known in Europe.-Richardfon's Differt. on the Manners, c. of the Eastern Nations, 198.

with the authority on which Pinkerton traces them to the Moors, in the eighth century; but if he be, we think him justified in rejecting it. The Hiftoria Verdadera' is generally confidered by the learned in Spain neither to be ancient, nor to have been written originally in Arabic. There are many internal marks that it is the comparatively modern production of a Spaniard. +

Our author has difpelled the mist of fable which hung round the character of the famous Rollo, by confulting the fober and impartial narrative of Snorro; but he might have rendered his information more authentic and complete, if he had perufed the differtation on Rollo in the 2d volume of Torfæus's History of Norway. The life and character of Dunstan, the tyrannical bigot of Edwin's reign, are introduced by an account of the origin, progrefs, and inftitutions of the Benedictine order, into which he entered, and thus fanctified and affifted the projects of his ambition. Our author has derived confiderable information from a MS. life of this prelate, preferved in the Cotton Library, written by one apparently his contemporary. In it is the fimple. and natural truth of that circumftance, which has been converted, by pious fraud, or enthufiaftic credulity, into a ridiculous miracle. (135) The 13th Chapter contains a view of the laft ftate of Northern piracy. In the ninth century, it was an established custom in the North, that all the fons of kings, except the oldeft, fhould be furnished with fhips properly equipped, in order to carry on the dangerous, but not dishonourable profef, fion of piracy.

So reputable was the purfuit, that parents were even anxious to compel their children into the dangerous and malevolent occupation, By an extraordinary enthufiafm for it, they would not fuffer their children to inherit the wealth which they had gained by it. It was their practice to command their gold, filver, and other property to be buried with them. Inherited property was defpifed; that affluence only was esteemed, which danger had endeared.' (II. c. 11.)

When commerce and agriculture became more followed and efteemed, the profeflion of piracy loft many of its followers, and fome of its honour; but the glory which cuftom had attached to it might still have rendered them powerful, and fecured them from deftruction, if they had not neglected the disinterested maxims of their ancestors, and regarded their plunder rather as the object of avarice, than the proof of valour. Mr Turner

enters

* Pinkerton's Scotish Poems, II. 439. Note. We perceive that Mr Turner, in his firft volume, refers to the authority of this fuppofititious work of Abulcazim.

Piracy feems to have been equally honourable, but not pursued with an enthufiafm equally difinterefted by many of the ancient maritime nations. Thucyd. I. § 5. and Hudfon in loc.

enters very fully into the difcuffion of a much difputed point, -whether Edward the Confeffor fent Harold to William of Normandy, in order to appoint him his heir, or whether Harold went on other bufinefs, and was himself the legal fucceffor of Edward. Too much stress is laid on the Tapestry of Bayeux. It is certainly a valuable document for the hiftorian, and we are furprised that it fhould fo long have been regarded only as an object of antiquarian curiofity. Its evidence, however, ought to be fufpected of partiality. It may be ufed to illuftrate, but it ought not to be allowed to fet afide, the teftimony of pofitive and concurring documents.

Every page of Mr Turner's history manifefts his extensive research, and minute investigation. It would be difficult to point out many authors that have treated exprefsly or incidentally on the subject of his work, whom he has not carefully confulted, and accurately quoted. But he has been more anxious that his authorities fhould be numerous, than felect. His ignorance or his vanity has led him to fwell his lift with names of doubtful reputation for learning and accuracy. There is very little dif crimination difplayed. Authors are referred to for important facts, who, from the recentnefs of the time in which they lived, ought to have been confulted folely for their opinions, not for their teftimony. An acquaintance with the Gothic dialects, both ancient and modern, more extenfive, and lefs dependent on the Latin verfion, than what he seems to have poffeffed, would have corrected fome mistakes, fupplied fome deficiencies, and procured for his hiftory more confidence and respect.

Bb 4

We

* We fhall mention fome works which may be of ufe to Mr Turner, in correcting mistakes, and supplying deficiencies, if his hiftory should -come to a fecond edition; or which will enable him to illustrate, in his concluding part, the laws, &c. of the Saxons.-H. Meibomii ad Saxonia inferioris inprimis hiftoriam introductio, Helmeft. 1687, 4to.-This was followed, in 1688, by Meibomii Rerum Germanicarum Scriptores, 3 vol. fol.; the 3d vol. contains the Saxon annals of Witichind, and fome curious information respecting the early history of the Saxons.-Ritratti Hiftorici, &c. dell Cafa fereniffima di Saffonia, di G. Leti, 4to, 1688.Pauli Hachenbergi Germania Media, 1676, Heidel, et Edit. 2da, 1687, Amftel. This work contains twelve distinct and elaborate differtations on the government of the ancient Germans, the diftinction of ranks, their laws, their mode of warfare, their marriages, their literature, their language, their religion, their fiefs, their money, their drefs and cuftoms, and their funeral rites.-Sprengel's Gefchichte von Grofsbrittanien. — Schlætzer's Allgemeine nordifche Gefchichte.-Mæfer's Ofnabrueckische Gefchichte.