... But I have need of the most excellent books
of scholastic learning, which I had procured in my own
country, either by the devoted care of my master, or by
my own labours. I therefore beseech your majesty . . .
to permit me to send certain of our household to bring
over into France the flowers of Britain, that the garden of
Paradise may not be confined to York, but may send some
of its scions to Tours." What the "flowers of Britain"
were at this time Alcuin has told us in Latin verse. At
York, "where he sowed the seeds of knowledge in the
morning of his life," thou shalt find, he rimes:--
"The volumes that contain
All the ancient fathers who remain;
There all the Latin writers make their home
With those that glorious Greece transferred to Rome,--
The Hebrews draw from their celestial stream,
And Africa is bright with learning's beam."
Then, after including in his metrical catalogue the names
of forty writers, he proceeds:--
"There shalt thou find, O reader, many more
Famed for their style, the masters of old lore,
Whose many volumes singly to rehearse
Were far too tedious for our present verse.
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