Page:The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Giles).djvu/11



The work which is commonly known as the Saxon or Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a chronological record of important events, chiefly relating to the English race, from the earliest period of the Christian era to the XII. century. It is of a composite character, and has been preserved to the present day in the form of six more or less complete ancient MSS., some of which appear to be independent of each other though traceable to some common original, whilst others are apparently more nearly related by obvious similarities. Four of these are in the British Museum, one in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and another in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. In addition to these, there is, in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, a copy made in 1563–4, by William Lambard, of a MS. which now exists only in the shape of three disfigured leaves. It is one of the Cottonian MSS. in the British Museum, some of which were damaged or destroyed by a fire in Little Dean's Yard, Westminster, in the year 1731. Before its destruction this MS. was printed by Abraham Wheloc in 1633–4; and it is evident that, as far as it goes, it is a copy of the Cambridge MS. These seven MSS., including the