Sharon Turner (1768–1847) practised as a solicitor in London, specialising in the law of copyright, but devoted his free time to studying Anglo-Saxon literature and history. In 1799–1805 he published this four-volume work, still acknowledged as a turning point in Anglo-Saxon studies and a benchmark in historiography. Turner was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1800, soon after the first volume appeared. His approach of contrasting 'Anglo-Saxon freedom' with 'the Norman yoke' held particular appeal at a time of deteriorating political relations with France. Turner's lasting achievement, however, was to draw public attention to the rich and fascinating material contained in the Anglo-Saxon manuscripts he had studied at the British Museum. This work went through many editions, but was eventually superseded by Kemble's The Saxons in England (1849, also reissued). Volume 4 (1805) is a survey of Anglo-Saxon culture, including domestic life, law, religion, and literature.

Table of Contents:
Preface; Part I. Of the Saxons in their Pagan State: 1. The character and persons of the more ancient Saxons; 2. The government and laws of the more ancient Saxons; 3. The religion of the Saxons in their pagan state; 4. On the menology and literature of the pagan Saxons; Part II. Of the Manners of the Anglo-Saxons: 1. On their infancy, childhood, and names; 2. Their education; 3. Their food; 4. Their drinks and cookery; 5. Their dress; 6. Their houses, furniture, and luxuries; 7. Their conviviality and amusements; 8. Their marriages; 9. Classes and conditions of society; 10. Their gilds or clubs; 11. Their trades, mechanical arts, and foreign commerce; 12. Their money; 13. Their chivalry; 14. Their superstitions; 15. Their funerals; Part III. Their Landed Property: 1. Their husbandry; 2. The proprietorship in land, and their tenures; 3. The burdens to which lands were liable, and their privileges; 4. Their conveyances; 5. Some particulars of the names of places in Middlesex and London, in the Saxon times; 6. Law suits abound; 7. Their denominations of land; Part IV. The Government of the Anglo-Saxons: 1. The king's election and coronation; 2. His family and officers; 3. The dignity and prerogatives of the Anglo-Saxon cyning; 4. The Witena-gemot; 5. Their official dignities; Part V. The History of the Laws of the Anglo-Saxon: 1. Homicide; 2. Personal injuries; 3. Theft; 4. Adultery; 5. The were and the mund; 6. Their bohr or sureties; 7. Their legal tribunals; 8. Their ordeals and legal punishments; 9. The trial by jury; Part VI. Their Poetry, Literature, Arts and Sciences: 1. The Latin poetry of Aldhelm; 2. The Latin poetry of Bede; 3. The Latin poetry of Boniface, Alcuin, and others; 4. The vernacular poetry of the Anglo-Saxons; 5. On the Anglo-Saxon versification; 6. Of the literature of the Anglo-Saxons; 7. The arts of the Anglo-Saxons; 8. Their sciences; Part VII. Their Religion: 1. The propagation of Christianity; 2. The Anglo-Saxon Te deum and Jubilate; Part VIII. Their Language: 1. On the structure or mechanism of the Anglo-Saxon language; 2. On the originality of the Anglo-Saxon language; 3. On the copiousness of the Saxon language.