"There is likewise extant a couple of Norwegian Histories of good Authentic Credit; which explains a great many particulars relating to the Exploits of the Danish Kings in Great Britain, which our own Historians have either wholly omitted or very darkly recorded. The former of these was written soon after the year 1130, by one Theodoric a Monk, who acknowledges his whole Fabrick to be built upon Tradition, and that the old Northern History is no where now to be had save only ab Islendingorum antiquis Carminibus. " 'Tis a very discouraging Censure which Sir William Temple passes upon all the Accounts given us of the Affairs of this Island, before the Romans came and Invaded it. The Tales (says he) we have of what pass'd before Caesar's Time, of Brute and his Trojans, of many Adventures and Successions, are cover'd with the Rust of Time, or Involv'd in the Vanity of Fables or pretended Traditions; which seem to all Men obscure or uncertain, but to be forged at pleasure by the Wit or Folly of their first Authors, and not to be regarded. And again; I know few ancient Authors upon this Subject (of the British History) worth the pains of perusal, and of Dividing or Refining so little Gold out of so much course Oar, or from so much Dross. But some other Inferiour People may think this worth their pains; since all Men are not born to be Ambassadors: And, accordingly, we are told of a very Eminent Antiquary who has thought fit to give his Labours in this kind the Title of Aurum, ex Stercore. There's a deal of Servile Drudgery requir'd to the Discovery of these riches, and such as every Body will not stoop to: for few Statesmen and Courtiers (as one is lately said to have observ'd in his own Case) care for travelling in Ireland, or Wales, purely to learn the Language. "A diligent Enquirer into our old British Antiquities would rather observe (with Industrious Leland) that the poor Britains, being harass'd by those Roman Conquerours with continual Wars, could neither have leisure nor thought for the penning of a Regular History: and that afterwards their Back-Friends, the Saxons, were (for a good while) an Illiterate Generation; and minded nothing but Killing and taking Possession. So that 'tis a wonder that even so much remains of the Story of those Times as the sorry Fragments of Gildas; who appears to have written in such a Consternation, that what he has left us looks more like the Declamation of an Orator, hired to expose the miserable Wretches, than any Historical Account of their Sufferings." Palgrave asserts that reading and writing were no longer mysteries after the pagan age, but were still acquirements almost wholly confined to the clergy.