ENG
294
ENG
we are indebted for bread, the roots and greens of our tables, andall our garden fruits. The barley and hops of our malt liquors,and apples for cider, are ciiually the gifts of other lands. Themeanest labourer is now fed with more wholesome and dclienlealiments, than the ancient petty kings of the country could obtainin its savage and uncultivated state. Originally this great islandseems to have been like the wilds ofAmerica, almost entirely over-run with wood. Here formerly roamed the bear, the wolf, andthe wild hoar, now totally extirpated. Large herds of stags rangedthrough the woods, roe-bucks bounded over the hills, and wildbulls grazed in the marshy pastures. By degrees the woods weredestroyed, to make way for cultivation ; the marshes were drained ;and the wild animals invaded in their rctreals, gradually disap-peared. England now possesses no other wild beasts but the fox,the wild cat, the badger, the martin, and othersofthe weasel kind;the otter, the hedge-fiog, the hare and rabbit; the squirrel, dor-mouse, mole, &c. and several other species of the rat and mouse.On the other hand, every kind of domestic animal, imported fromabroad, has been reared to the greatest degree of perfection. Thehorse lias been trained up so as to excel in strength and swiftnessthe same animal in every other country. The horned cattle havebeen brought to the largest size and greatest justness of shape.The different races of sheep, in England, arc variously distinguish-ed, either for uncommon size, goodness of flesh, and plenty orlineness of wool. The rivers are numerous; but the compara-tively small extent of England will not allow them to vie, in lengthof course, with the great rivers on the continent. The most con-siderable of them arc the Thames, Severn, Medway, Trent, Ouse,Tyne, Tees, Eden, Avon, Derwent, Dee, Mersev, &c. which,with many others, will be found described under tlieir respectiveheads. The rivers and seas of England are stocked with a greatvariety of fish, which yield a plentiful article of provision to allranks of people. The river fish, from the populousness of thecountry, and the number of fishers, arc, in many parts much di-minished. But the sea is an inexhaustible source; and the wholesea-coast is enlivened by numerous inhabitants, who gain theirchief subsistence from it. “ The face of the country in England,”says Dr. Aikin, in his England Delineated, “ affords all thatbeautiful variety which can be found iu the most extensive tractsof the globe. In some parts, verdant plains extend as far as theeye can reach, watered by copious streams, and covered by in-numerable cattle. In others, the pleasing vicissitudes of gentlyrising hills and bending vales, fertile in corn, waving with wood,and interspersed with meadows, offer the most delightful land-scapes of rural opulence and beauty. Some tracts abound withprospects of a more romantic kind; lofty mountains, craggy rocks,deep narrow dells, and rumbling torrents. Nor are there wanting,as a contrast to so many agreeable scenes, the gloomy features ofblack barren moors and wild uncultivated heaths. On the whole,however, few countries have a smaller proportion of land abso-lutely sterile and incapable of culture.” The richest parts are, ingeneral, the middle and southern. Towards the N. it is less fer-tile. The E. coast is, in many parts, sandy and marshy. A rangeof rude and elevated land, sometimes rising into lofty mountains,extends from the borders of Scotland to the very heart of Eng-land, running from N. to S. and forming a natural division betweenthe E. and W. sides of the kihgdom. Cornwall is also a roughhilly tract, as well as part of the adjacent counties. Theestablished religion of England is the Reformed or Protestant , audits doctrines are contained in the 31) Articles. The liturgy, andhomilies are evidently formed according to the Lutheran ratherthan the rigid Calvinistic doctrines. Toleration in matters of religionis allowed to all the inhabitants, so that every one is at liberty toworship God , according to the dictates of his own conscience.
Engi.and New. See New England.
ENGLECERIE, ENGLESlilRE, or ENGLISIIERY, anancient word signifying the being an Englishman, which was usedin the time of kingCanutus, to distinguish the English from theDanes, especially in the case of murder, and its punishment.
ENGLISH, or the ENGLISH-TONGUE , the language-spoken by the people of England, and, with some variation, bythose of Scotland, as well as part of Ireland , and the rest of theBritish dominions. “Though, says Dr. Johnson, the Britons orWelsh were the first possessors of this island, whose names are re-•ordtd, and are therefore in civil history always considered as the
| predecessors of the present inhabitants ; yet the deduction of the[ English language, trom the earliest times of which we have anyknowledge to its present state, requires no mention of them : forwe have sc few words which can, with any probability, be referredto British roots, that we justly regard the Saxons aiul Welsh as na-tions totally distinct. It has been conjectured, that when theSaxons seized this country, they sutlered the Britons to live amongthem in a state of vassalage, employed in the culture of the groundand other laborious and ignoble services. But it is scarcely pos-sible, that a nation, however depressed, should have been mixedwith another in considerable numbers without some communica-tion of their tongue, and therefore, it may, with great reason.beimagined, that those, who were not sheltered in the mountains,perished by the sword. The whole fabric ami scheme of tUeEnglish language, is Gothic or Teutonic : it is a dialect of thattongue, which prevails over all the northern countries of Europe ,except those w here the Selavonian is spoken. Of these language*Dr. llickes has thus exhibited the genealogy:
G O T II 1 C,
„ _ * __
“ Of the Gothic , the only monument remaining is a copy of theGospels somewhat mutilated, which from the silver with which thecharacters are adorned, is called the silver hook. It is now pre-served at Upsal, and having been twice published before, has beenlately reprinted at Oxford, under the inspection of Mr. Lye , theeditor of Junius. Whether the diction of this venerable manu-script be purely Gothic , has been doubted; it seems however toexhibit the most ancient dialect now to be found of the Teutonicrace; and the Saxon, which is the original of the present Eng-lish , was either derived from it, or both have descended from somecommon parent.
“ The first poetry of the Saxons was w ithout rhyme, and con-sequently must have depended upon the quantity of their sylla-bles: but they began in time to imitate their neighbours, amiclose their verses with correspondent sounds. The two passageswhich I have selected, contain apparently the rudiments of ourpresent lyric measures, and the w riters may be justly consideredas the genuine ancestors of the English poets.”
“ He mai him sore adreden,
Tha:t he thanne ore bidde ne mil gen,
Vor that bilimfeth ilome.
Thai is wis tliat bit and boteAnd bet bivoren dome.
Death com on this midelardThurth thais defies ontle,
And senne and sosge and iswinc,
On se and on londe.”
“About the year 1150, the Saxon began to take a form inwhich the beginning of the present English may be plainly dico-vered ; this change seems not to have been the effects of the Nor-man conquest, for very few French words are found to have beenintroduced in the first hundred years after it; the language musttherefore have been altered by causes like those which, notwith-standing the care of writers and societies instituted to obviate them,are even now daily making innovations in every living language.
I have exhibited a specimen of the language ot this age from theyear 1135 to 1140 of the Saxon chronicle, of which the latter partwas apparently written near the time to which it relates.”
Of this chronicle a few lines may here suffice to gratify the an-tiquarian :—"Thisza-re for the king Stephne ofer s* to Nor-mandi. And tlier wes undcr-fangem forthi that he wendcu thathe sculde ben alsuic alsc the eom wes. And for he hadde get histresor. ac he to deld it and scateredsotlice. Micel hadde ilenriking gadered gold and sylver. and ne god ne didde me for hissaulc tour of. 'I lia the king Stephne to Engla-land com thainacod
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