As East Midland was spread over a wide area, there are, as might be expected, some varieties of it.  The dialects of Lincolnshire and of Norfolk were not quite the same, and both differed somewhat from that of Essex and Middlesex; but the general characteristics of all three sub-dialects are very much alike.  As time went on, the speech of the students of Oxford and Cambridge was closely assimilated to that of the court as held in London; and this “educated” type was naturally that to which Caxton and the great writers of the sixteenth century endeavoured to conform.

We have one ancient specimen of the London dialect which is eminently authentic and valuable, and has the additional advantage of being exactly dated.  This is the document known as “The only English Proclamation of Henry III,” issued on Oct. 18, 1258.  Its intention was to confirm to the people the “Provisions of Oxford,” a charter of rights that had been wrested from the king, from which we may conclude that the Proclamation was issued by Henry rather by compulsion than by his own free will.  There is a note at the end which tells us that a copy was sent to every shire in England and to Ireland.  If every copy had been preserved, we should have a plentiful supply.  As it is, only two copies have survived.  One is the copy which found its way to Oxford; and the other is the original from which the copies were made, which has been carefully preserved for six centuries and a half in the Public Record Office in London.  I here give the contents of the original, substituting y (at the beginning of a word) or gh (elsewhere) for the symbol _{g}_, and th for the symbol _{th}_, and v for u when between two vowels.

{P} Henri, thurgh Godes fultume king on Engleneloande, Lhoaverd on Yrloande, Duk on Norm(andi), on Aquitaine, and Eorl on Aniow, send igretinge to alle hise holde il{ae}rde and ileawede on Huntendoneschire:  th{ae}t witen ye wel alle, th{ae}t we willen and unnen th{ae}t, th{ae}t ure r{ae}desmen alle, other the moare d{ae}l of heom th{ae}t beoth ichosen thurgh us and thurgh th{ae}t loandes folk on ure kuneriche, habbeth idon and schullen don in the worthnesse of Gode and on ure treowthe, for the freme of the loande, thurgh the besighte of than to-foren iseide redesmen, beo stedefaest and ilestinde in alle thinge, abuten {ae}nde.

And we hoaten alle ure treowe, in the treowthe th{ae}t heo us ogen, th{ae}t heo stedef{ae}stliche healden, and swerien to healden and to werien, tho isetnesses th{ae}t beon imakede and beon to makien, thurgh than to-foren iseide r{ae}desmen, other thurgh the moare d{ae}l of hem, alswo also hit is biforen iseid; And th{ae}t {ae}hc other helpe th{ae}t for to done bi than ilche othe, ayenes alle men, right for to done and to foangen.  And noan ne nime of loande ne of eghte, wherthurgh this besighte mughe beon ilet other iwersed on onie wise.

And yif oni other onie cumen her onyenes,