this comparative table reveals a peculiarity of the
Wessex dialect which properly belongs neither to Mercian nor to Modern
English, viz. the use of the diphthong _ea_ (in which each vowel was
pronounced separately) instead of simple _a_, before the sounds
denoted by _l_, _r_, _h_, especially when another consonant follows.
We find accordingly such Wessex forms as _eall_, _ceald_, _fealleth_,
_-feald_, _gealla_, _healf_, _healt_, _nearu_, _eald_, _seald_,
_weall_, _gearo_, where the Old Mercian has simply _all_, _cald_,
_falleth_, _-fald_, _galla_, _half_, _halt_, _naru_, _ald_, _sald_,
_wall_, _iara_. Similarly, Wessex has the diphthongs _{-e}a_, _{-e}o_,
in which the former element is long, where the Old Mercian has simply
_{-e}_ or _{-i}_. We find accordingly the Wessex _c{-e}ace_, _{-e}ac_,
_{-e}age_, _sc{-e}ap_, as against the Mercian _c{-e}ke_, _{-e}k_,
_{-e}ge_, _sc{-e}p_; and the Wessex _l{-e}ogan_, _l{-e}oht_, as
against the Mercian _l{-i}gan_, _l{-i}ht_.

I have now mentioned nearly all the examples of Old Mercian to be
found before the Conquest. After that event it was still the Southern
dialect that prevailed, and there is scarcely any Mercian (or Midland)
to be found except in the Laud MS. of the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_,
which was written at Peterborough. See the extract, describing the
miserable state of England during the reign of Stephen, in _Specimens
of Early English_, Part I.

It was about the year 1200 that the remarkable work appeared that is
known by the name of _The Ormulum_, written in the North-East Midland
of Lincolnshire, which is the first clear example of the form which
our literary language was destined to assume. It is an extremely
long and dreary poem of about 10,000 long lines, written in a sadly
monotonous unrimed metre; and it contains an introduction, paraphrases
relating to the gospels read in the church during the year, and
homilies upon the same. It was named _Ormulum_ by the author after his
own name, which was Orm; and the sole existing MS. is probably in the
handwriting of Orm himself, who employed a phonetic spelling of his
own invention which he strongly recommends. Owing to this circumstance
and to the fact that his very regular metre leaves no doubt as to
his grammatical forms, this otherwise uninviting poem has a high
philological value. In my book entitled _The Chaucer Canon_, published
at Oxford in 1900, I quote 78 long lines from the _Ormulum_, reduced
to a simpler syst