Note 11 — Chapter XXIII

The British Museum MS. changes the number of the pronoun, and reads cil de BRIUS; not cels, as in the case of the three preceding names. M. Le Prevost considers Brieux—Broicæ—three leagues from Falaise, to be intended. But this is doubtful. We are now clearly in the Cotentin; and Brix, near Valognes, (spelt Brus in John's Itinerary, Archæol. xxiv, and Brucius, in the latin legend, mentioned by M. de Gerville on Portbail, and in Mém. Ant. Norm. v. 318), seems more appropriate to the connection. See M. de Gerville's Recherches, No. 9 and 10, as to Brix and chateau d'Adam. Moreover the next place mentioned is Hommet, and the family of that name had a fief in Brix. There is strong probability in M. de Gerville's derivation thence of the Scotch Bruces, Adam being a common name with the Skelton line; but there were several names so nearly approaching in sound, though variously spelt in Latin, French, and English, that the subject may well be involved in some obscurity. Robertus de Bruis is in Domesday, Introd. i. 387.