Note 14 — PART II HISTORICAL STUDIES

The word 'fenestres', for instance, which Mr Archer first rendered 'ash', out of deference to Mr Freeman and his predecessors, but subsequently 'windows' (English Historical Review, ix. 18), is either a corruption or quite inexplicable. 'If it pleases Mr Archer,' as I wrote (Ibid., 236), 'to construct a barricade, of which "windows" are the chief ingredient, on an uninhabited Sussex down, in 1066, he is perfectly welcome to do so.' I may add that the rendering adopted by the two French scholars does not in the least alter my view as to the improbability, or rather absurdity, of the suggestion.