[12] Frithestan’s stole is a wonderful example of weaving in gold-wire, beaten flat like narrow tape. It is woven with selvedged openings for the insertion of the prophets, etc., these figures being made in tapestry-work. [13] This is variously stated. [14] Here as elsewhere we may suppose that the various races in these islands are meant. The list of countries given under the fourth head is probably a sufficient guide to the meaning of the phrase. [15] A mediæval editor proposes to read Hiberiæ instead of Hiberniæ, Spain instead of Ireland. But the English Chronicle tells of a visit to Alfred in 891 of three Scots, that is, Irishmen, smitten with the desire to wander. A later Chronicle assigns their departure from their own land to the death of their favourite teacher Swifneh. He was known as the most wise, or most skilled, of the Scots, and the English Chronicle mentions his death. His beautiful Celtic grave slab is at Clonmacnoise. The close connection which existed between the early Anglo-Saxons and the Irish schools of learning had now ceased. [16] We have lost the sense of paganism in the names of our days, but it comes out quaintly in the Saxon form, _on thone Halgan Thunres dæg_. [17] Still called in Yorkshire, as in Alfred’s Ecclesiastical Law, gang-days. [18] Even of the famous scholar Aldhelm, 200 years before, it was said that when he became bishop he was absorbed, as the manner of bishops was, in the secular cares of his position. [19] His translation of this book is much closer to the original than is the case with his History (Bede), Geography (Orosius), and Philosophy (Boethius). [20] Perhaps a desk and pointer. See Professor Earle’s remarks in this volume. [21] The words in the Saxon will are _sec man eac on cwicum ceape_; in the Latin will, _imploretur deus viventi pretio_. [22] Saxon, _swa hit beon mæge_; Latin, _quantum fieri possit_. [23] in Shropshire, and not to be identified with Boddington in Gloucestershire. [24] Now Quatford, in Shropshire, like their former stronghold at Buttington. [25] The manuscripts of Alfred’s _Orosius_ are in the Cottonian collection and in the Lauderdale MS. They were used by Hakluyt. The work was first edited by Daines Barrington and Reinhold Foster in 1773; and in 1855 a literal English translation, with a facsimile, and the Anglo-Saxon text, were published by the Rev. Joseph Bosworth, D.D. [26] It is a noted character of this book that while it contains much that is acceptable to the Christian spirit and nothing that is repugnant to it, there is not a word in it which might not have been written by a pagan of the sixth century who had inherited the influences of centuries of Christianity. Those who desire to know more about Boethius, and the various ancient translations of his last work, and his influence upon mediæval thought, and the controversies of which he has been the occasion, should consult _Boethius, An Essay_, by Hugh Fraser Stewart, M.A.; Blackwood and Son, 1891.