other as appendices. But the convenience to the public of compressing this history into three volumes seemed to outbalance the disadvantage of a partial alteration of the printed letter. As it now stands, it presents the reader with the History of England from the earliest known period to the time of the Norman conquest. It would have been desirable, for the gratification of the curious student, that the original Anglo-Saxon of the various passages that are cited and given in English should have been added; but this would have extended the work into a fourth volume, and have made it more expensive than the author desired. The public may rely on his assurance, that he has endeavoured to make the translations literally faithful, in order that the style, as well as the sense, of the Anglo-Saxon writer may be perceived. LONDON, March, 1820. PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION. In this edition the general catalogue of the affinities of the Anglo-Saxon language has been enlarged; and lists are added of those which the author has observed between many of its words and the corresponding terms in the Arabic, the Hebrew, the Chinese, the Sanscrit, the Georgian, the Malay, the Mantchou, the Japanese, the Caribbee, the Turkish, the Susoo, the Angola, the Tonga, and the Lapland tongues. The analogies he traced with the Persian, Zend, and Pehlvi are not inserted with the above in these volumes, because they were sent to the. Royal Society of Literature, and may be printed in the next publication of its Transactions. THE Vindication of the antient Welsh Bards, and the Essay on the Antiquity of Rime, were printed with the fourth edition of this work, and are also added to the present, because they are both connected with that portion of the British History which this work comprises. 32. Red Lion Square, October 1. 1827. TABLE OF CONTENTS ΤΟ THE FIRST VOLUME. The Keltic distinguished from the Gothic tribes Dr. Percy's table of their different languages Three great streams of population in Europe Manners of the Kimmerians and Cimbri The Kelts sprang from the Kimmerians On the Knowledge which the GREEKS had of the BRITISH Islands; and on the Tradition of the TROJAN Colony. The Manners of the ancient BRITONS.-The Druids. |