Garnett is as far above that of Horne Tooke as Stephenson's engine outstrips Pharaoh's chariot. It is a loss to mankind that Garnett has left so little behind him. He seems to have been the nearest approach England ever made to bringing forth a Mezzofanti, and he combined in himself qualities not often found in the same man. When his toilsome industry is amassing facts, he plods like a German; when his playful wit is unmasking quackery, he flashes like a Frenchman. He it was who first called attention to the varying dialects of England and who first endeavoured to classify them. This work has since his death been most ably achieved by Dr. Morris.
To this gentleman I am under the greatest obligations, since he has looked over my proof-sheets as far as page 240; and many a correction do I owe to him. I have sometimes dared to differ from him, not without fear and trembling. As to what he has done for English Philology, I may perhaps be looked upon as a prejudiced witness; I therefore prefer to quote from Mr. Murray's ‘Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland,’ p. 40, published in 1873 (Transactions of the Philological Society): ‘Very recent is our knowledge of any facts connected with the distribution and distinguishing characteristics of the dialects of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries — a region
