Page:Will of King Alfred.djvu/10

vi King Alfred's Will, in an entire and correct form, was published for the first time, in 1788, under the able superintendence of the Rev. Owen Manning. This edition, printed at the Clarendon Press, in quarto, exhibited the Saxon text, with notes, and no less than three distinct versions, of which we have preferred the first and most literal: the others - a 'free' English translation and a Latin rendering - as their utility is not altogether obvious, we have thought it unnecessary to retain. The original was at that time in the possession of Mr. Astle, and had been preserved in a Register of the Abbey of Newminster, founded at Winchester by Alfred not long before his death.

“This Register” it is stated in the original preface, “commences with an account of the first foundation of the Abbey in the Cemetery on the north-west side of the Cathedral of Winchester, which about the year 1110 was removed to Hyde. The greatest part of the Register, and particularly that in which the Will is inserted, appears to have been written between the years 1028 and 1032, so that the entry in the Register could not have been later than one hundred and thirty-two years after the foundation of the Abbey, though it was probably earlier; and it may reasonably be supposed, that care would be taken