ch we have already made an extract. To
his friend Arno at Salzburg he writes about a little treatise on
orthography, which he would have liked to have recited in person. 'Oh
that I could turn the sentences into speech, and embrace my brother with
a warmth that cannot be sent in a book; but since I cannot come myself I
send my rough letters, that they may speak for me instead of the words of
my mouth.' To the Emperor he sent a description of his life at Tours: 'In
the house of St. Martin I deal out the honey of the Scriptures, and some
I excite with the ancient wine of wisdom, and others I fill full with the
fruits of grammatical learning.'

Very few book-lovers could be found in England while the country was
being ravaged by the Danes. The Northern Abbeys were burned, and their
libraries destroyed. The books at York perished, though the Minster was
saved; the same fate befell the valuable collections at Croyland and
Peterborough. The royal library at Stockholm contains the interesting
'Golden Gospels,' decorated in the same style as the _Book of
Lindisfarne_, and perhaps written at the same place. An inscription of
the ninth century shows that it was bought from a crew of pirates by Duke
Alfred, a nobleman of Wessex, and was presented by him and his wife
Werburga to the Church at Canterbury.

It seems possible that literature was kept alive in our country by King
Alfred's affection for the old English songs. We know that he used to
recite them himself and would make his children get them by heart. He was
not much of a scholar himself, but he had all the learning of Mercia to
help him. Archbishop Plegmund and his chaplains were the King's
secretaries, 'and night and day, whenever he had time, he commanded these
men to read to him.' From France came Provost Grimbald, a scholar and a
sweet singer, and Brother John of Corbei, a paragon in all kinds of
science. Asser came to the Court from his home in Wales: 'I remained
there,' he says, 'for about eight months, and all that time I used to
read to him whatever books were at hand; for it was his regular habit by
day and night, amidst all his other occupations, either to read to
himself or to listen while others read to him.' St. Dunstan was an ardent
admirer of the old battle-chaunts and funeral-lays. He was, it need
hardly be said, the friend of all kinds of learning. The Saint was an
expert scribe and a painter of miniatures; and specimens of his exquisite
handiwork may sti