SPECIMENS OF THE LANGUAGE. A glance at the following selections will show how Anglo-Saxon was slowly approaching our English speech of to-day. The first is from a religious book called _Ancren Riwle_ (Rule of the Anchoresses, _cir_. 1225). The second, written about a century later, is from the riming chronicle, or verse history, of Robert Manning or Robert of Brunne. In it we note the appearance of rime, a new thing in English poetry, borrowed from the French, and also a few words, such as "solace," which are of foreign origin: "Hwoso hevide iseid to Eve, theo heo werp hire eien therone, 'A! wend te awei; thu worpest eien o thi death!' hwat heved heo ionswered? 'Me leove sire, ther havest wouh. Hwarof kalenges tu me? The eppel that ich loke on is forbode me to etene, and nout forto biholden.'" "Whoso had said (or, if anyone had said) to Eve when she cast her eye theron (i.e. on the apple) 'Ah! turn thou away; thou castest eyes on thy death!' what would she have answered? 'My dear sir, thou art wrong. Of what blamest thou me? The apple which I look upon is forbidden me to eat, not to behold.'" Lordynges that be now here, If ye wille listene and lere [1] All the story of Inglande, Als Robert Mannyng wryten it fand, And on Inglysch has it schewed, Not for the lered [2] but for the lewed, [3] For tho that on this land wonn [4] That ne Latin ne Frankys conn, [5] For to hauf solace and gamen In felauschip when they sitt samen; [6] And it is wisdom for to wytten [7] The state of the land, and haf it wryten. [Footnote 1: learn] [Footnote 2: learned] [Footnote 3: simple or ignorant] [Footnote 4: those that dwell] [Footnote 5: That neither Latin nor French know] [Footnote 6: together] [Footnote 7: know] THE NORMAN CONQUEST. For a century after the Norman conquest native poetry disappeared from England, as a river may sink into the earth to reappear elsewhere with added volume and new characteristics. During all this time French was the language not only of literature but of society and business; and if anyone had declared at the beginning of the twelfth century, when Norman institutions were firmly established in England, that the time was approaching when the conquerors would forget their fatherland and their mother tongue, he would surely have been called dreamer or madman. Yet the unexpected was precisely what happened, and the Norman conquest is remarkable alike for what it did and for what it failed to do. [Illustration: DOMESDAY BOOK From a facsimile edition published in 1862. The volumes, two in number, were kept in the chest here shown]