XXX. Observations on the Metre of the Anglo Saxon Poetry, by the Rev. J.J. Conybeare, M.A. Professor of Poetry in the University of Oxford, in a Letter to Henry Ellis, Esq. F.R.S. & S.A

The contradictory opinions, which our ablest philological antiquaries have advanced with respect to the leading characteristics by which the poetry of our Anglo Saxon ancestors was distinguished from their prose, will I trust plead my excuse for trespassing upon the time of the Society of Antiquaries, by offering to its attention a few cursory observations on that subject. They are suggested principally by the perusal of two very interesting documents contained in the Exeter Manuscript, some extracts from which I have already had the honour of transmitting through your kind intervention.