in the Anglo-Saxon or Southern dialect are fairly numerous, and it is mainly to them that we owe our knowledge of the grammar, the metre, and the pronunciation of the older forms of English.

Sweet's _Anglo-Saxon Primer_ will enable any one to begin the study of this dialect, and to learn something valuable about it in the course of a month or two.
The famous _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, beginning with a note concerning the year 1, when Augustus was emperor of Rome, not only continues our history down to the Conquest, but for nearly a century beyond it, to the year 1154.

The language of the latter part, as extant in the (Midland) Laud MS., belongs to the twelfth century, and shows considerable changes in the spelling and grammar as compared with the Parker MS., which (not counting in a few later entries) ends with the year 1001.
After the Conquest, the Southern dialect continued to be the literary language, and we have several examples of it.

Extracts from some of the chief works are given in Part I of Morris's _Specimens of Early English_.

They are selected from the following: (1) _Old English Homilies_, 1150-1200, as printed for the Early English Text Society, and edited by Dr Morris, 1867-8.