Note 487 — Chapter XIII · WILLIAM THE LION—1165–1214.

Hoveden 1200, p. 461. William swore upon the archbishop’s cross, because there was no “sacred book” at hand, says the Bridlington Chronicle in Documents, etc., relating to Hist. Scot., No. xxi., sec. 35, p. 66. The decision of the question about the counties was again put off till the following Michaelmas, and it is difficult to say whether it was ever again raised during the reign of William, as after the conclusion of Hoveden’s work, no other chronicler alludes to the subject. Wendover succeeds to Hoveden, whose loss is great for the historian of Scotland; as the manner in which Wendover supplies his place can be appreciated from the description of the meeting at Lincoln, in which the latter, after copying the account of his predecessor, characteristically omits the reservation, “Salvo jure suo!” The want of a northern chronicler is very much felt, as it will be generally found that the monastic writers are most accurate in their narration of events that occurred in their own neighbourhood. From exalting Brompton, who wrote at the close of the fourteenth century, to the position of a contemporary writer, and from some other similar oversights, Dr. Lingard’s version of these transactions is singularly inaccurate. Vide Appendix L, pt. 2.