THE ANGLO-SAXON METEOR;

OR

LETTERS, IN DEFENCE OF OXFORD,

TREATING OF

THE WONDERFUL GOTHIC ATTAINMENTS

OF

JOHN M. KEMBLE,

OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

Ficta omnia celeriter, tanquam flosculi,
decidunt. Cicero
E Coelo descendit, xyz xyz
Juvenal

A 15-page pamphlet known as The Anglo-Saxon Meteor, published in 1835, was intended by its anonymous author to defend the Anglo-Saxon scholars of Oxford against the aspersions cast upon them by John Mitchell Kemble, of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Although presented in the form of an exchange of letters between 'R', in Cambridge, and 'I.J.' (citing notes by his friend 'T.W.') in Oxford, the pamphlet was presumed, by Kemble himself, to have been produced by the Rev'd Joseph Bosworth (compiler of a standard Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, and later the founder of the Elrington and Bosworth Chair of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Cambridge), with whom he did not get on.

In a letter to Jakob Grimm, dated 10 May 1835, Kemble describes the pamphlet and explains why his suspicions point to Bosworth as its author. He also remarks that it had been sent 'to most of the members of the Senate of Cambridge'; and one imagines that copies were addressed and despatched from Oxford to many others. Only three copies of the pamphlet have yet been traced: one in London, one in Oxford, and one in Cambridge. In each case, the pamphlet was folded twice, and the name and address of the intended recipient written on one side, by one or other of at least two people; Bosworth himself, who was in Holland at the time, was seemingly not involved. All three copies are postmarked Oxford, 30 March 1835.

Form of address (after two horizontal folds) on the copy sent to Sir Frederic Madden at the British Museum (postmarked Oxford March 30 1835):

Form of address (after two horizontal folds) on the copy sent to Dr Bandinell at the Bodleian Library (postmarked Oxford March 30 1835):

Form of address (after two horizontal folds) on the copy sent to The Rev. William Whewell, Master, Trinity College, Cambridge (postmarked Oxford March 30 1835):

No other copies of the pamphlet have yet been traced.

A copy in The Johns Hopkins University Library is merely an old photographic copy of the copy sent to Madden.

Please send details of any other copies to S. D. Keynes, at <sdk13@cam.ac.uk>.

1 January 2005