Page "belles_lettres" Paragraph 1221

Almost inevitably, the first result of this technological revolution was a reaction against the methods and in many cases the conclusions of the Oxford school of Stubbs, Freeman and ( particularly ) Green regarding the nature of the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain.

Even before the century was out the tide of reaction had set in.

Charles Plummer in the introduction and notes to his splendid edition of Bede voiced some early doubts concerning the `` elaborate superstructure '' they raised up over the slim foundations afforded by the traditional narratives of the conquest.

It was Plummer, in fact, who coined the much quoted remark: `` Mr. Green indeed writes as if he had been present at the landing of the Saxons and had watched every step of their subsequent progress ''.

Sir Henry Howorth, writing in 1898, put himself firmly in the Lappenburg-Kemble tradition by attacking the veracity of the West Saxon annals.