"; the Southern plural was often
_hond-en_, and the Midland form was _hond-{`e}s_ or _hand-{`e}s_. Note
also the characteristic long _a_; as in _swa_ for _swo_, so; _gast_,
ghost; _fra_, fro; _faas_, foes. It was pronounced like the _a_ in
_father_.

A much longer specimen of the _Metrical English Psalter_ will be
found in _Specimens of Early English_, ed. Morris and Skeat, Part II,
pp. 23-34, and is easily accessible. In the same volume, the Specimens
numbered VII, VIII, X, XI, and XVI are also in Northumbrian, and can
easily be examined. It will therefore suffice to give a very brief
account of each.

VII. _Cursor Mundi_, or _Cursor o Werld_, i.e. Over-runner of the
World; so called because it rehearses a great part of the world's
history, from the creation onwards. It is a poem of portentous length,
extending to 29,655 lines, and recounts many of the events found in
the Old and New Testaments, with the addition of legends from many
other sources, one of them, for example, being the _Historia
Scholastica_ of Peter Comestor. Dr Murray thinks it may have been
written in the neighbourhood of Durham. The specimen given (pp. 69-82)
corresponds to lines 11373-11796.

VIII. _Sunday Homilies in Verse_; about 1330. The extracts are taken
from _English Metrical Homilies_, edited by J. Small (Edinburgh, 1862)
from a MS. in Edinburgh. The Northern dialect is well marked, but I do
not know to what locality to assign it.

X. Richard Rolle, of Hampole, near Doncaster, wrote a poem called
_The Prick of Conscience_, about 1340. It extends to 9624 lines,
and was edited by Dr Morris for the Philological Society in 1863.
The Preface to this edition is of especial value, as it carefully
describes the characteristics of Northumbrian, and practically laid
the foundation of our knowledge of the old dialects as exhibited in
MSS. Lists are given of orthographical differences between the
Northern dialect and others, and an analysis is added giving the
grammatical details which determine its Northern character. Much of
this information is repeated in the Introduction to the _Specimens
of English_, Part II, pp. xviii-xxxviii.

XI. _The Poems of Laurence Minot_ belong to the middle of the
fourteenth century. He composed eleven poems in celebration of events
that occurred between the years 1333 and 1352. They were first printed
by Ritson in 1795; and subsequently by T. Wright, in his _Political
Poems and Songs_ (London, 1859); and are now ve