London / by Walter Besant.

  • Walter Besant
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: London / by Walter Besant. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    21/460
    AFTER THE ROMANS The only real authorities for the events which took place in Britain during the fifth and sixth centuries are Gildas and the Anglo-Saxon ‘ Chronicle.’ There are other writers —Ethelwerd, for instance, who copied the * Chronicle,’ and adds nothing; and Nennius, whose work, edited by one Mark, the Hermit, in the tenth century, was found in the Vatican. The first edition was published in London in the year 1819, in the original Latin, by the Rev. William Gunn. Nennius gives a brief account of King Arthur and his exploits, but he affords little or no information that is of use to us. The work of Richard of Cirencester is extremely valuable on account of its topo- graphy ; it is also interesting as the work of the first English antiquary. But he belonged to the fourteenth century, and has added nothing to the history, of which he knew no more—less, indeed —than we ourselves can discover. The book named after *, STOWE’S MONUMENT, IN NORTH AISLE OF ST. ANDREW UNDER- SHAFT B
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