Note 83 — VI. PREPARATIONS.

“This standard ... was sumptuously embroidered with gold and precious stones, in the form of a man fighting.” Can Malmesbury have had in view here the description which Æschylus gives us of the shield of Polynices?

[84] Florence of Worcester distinctly states that it was “contrary to the custom of the English to fight on horseback.”—Bohn’s Ed. p. 157.

[85] Meyrick, vol. i., p. 27.

[86] Akerman, in the Archæologia, vol. xxxiv.

[87] A stream which enters the sea a few miles to the east of the river Orne, upon which the city of Caen is situated.

[88] Roger de Hoveden, vol. i., 134. Ordericus Vitalis, vol. i., p. 464.

[89] Perhaps this is an elipsis for ad litus Pevensæ; more probably, however, these irregularities of construction are to be ascribed to the low state of Latinity at the period.

[90] A stroke has probably been over the last A in Hastinga, so as to make it Hastingam, which the construction requires. Raperentur seems to have been used as a deponent verb, contrary to classical usage.

[91] This was not the first occasion on which a similar occurrence took place. The following passage bearing upon the subject may interest the reader:—“Thou sayest well Sancho (quoth Don Quixote), but I must tell thee that times are wont to vary and change their course; and what are commonly accounted omens by the vulgar, though not within the scope of reason, the wise will nevertheless regard as incidents of lucky aspect. Your watcher of omens rises betimes, and going abroad, meets a Franciscan friar, whereupon he hurries back again, as if a furious dragon had crossed his way. Another happens to spill the salt upon the table, and straightway his soul is overcast with the dread of coming evil: as if nature had willed that such trivial accidents should give notice of ensuing mischances. The wise man and good christian will not, however, pry too curiously into the counsels of heaven. Scipio, on arriving in Africa, stumbled as he leapt on shore; his soldiers took it for an ill omen, but he, embracing the ground, said, ‘Africa, thou canst not escape me—I have thee fast.’”—Don Quixote, Part II. chap. lviii.

[92] It has been argued from the occurrence of AT instead of AD, and of CEASTRA for CASTRA, in these inscriptions, that the clerk who wrote them was an Englishman. It must, however, be borne in mind that the original Norman language, which had a common origin with the Saxon, was at the period of the Conquest spoken in comparative purity at Bayeux. In other parts of the duchy French prevailed.

[93] It was my privilege when wandering over the ground rendered memorable by the battle of Hastings to enjoy the companionship of Mr. Lower, of Lewes. To his local knowledge, his extensive acquaintance with antiquarian science, and his friendly attention, I am largely indebted.

[94] Lower on the Battle of Hastings, ‘Sussex Arch. Col.,’ vi. 18.

[95] During the middle ages the English were much given to the irreverent use of this great name; so much so was this the case, that Godamites became, in France, synonymous with English. Joan of Arc usually designates her enemies by this term.

[96] Vol. xix., p. 206. Mr. Amyot does not profess to adhere strictly to the text of Gaimar, but has introduced into his translation some incidents mentioned by other writers.

[97] On accompanying Mr. Lower to the spot, in January, 1853, I was satisfied of the correctness of his views.

[98] Sussex Archæological Collections, vol. vi., p. 27.

[99] There has been a discussion respecting the word pueros, some supposing that the parties thus addressed were young soldiers, inexperienced recruits. It is probable, however, that the word is equivalent to the phrase, “lads” among us, or the word “boys” in the lines which carried so much terror to the heart of James the Second, after he had seen a specimen of the stalwart youth which Cornwall produces—

[100] Benoit de Saint-More. Taylor’s Wace, 193.

[101] The special correspondent of The Times, writing from the Heights of Alma, Sep. 21st, 1854, says, “The attitudes of some of the dead were awful. One man might be seen resting on one knee, with the arms extended in the form of taking aim, the brow compressed, the lips clinched—the very expression of firing at an enemy stamped on the face and fixed there by death; a ball had struck this man in the neck. Physiologists or anatomists must settle the rest. Another was lying on his back with the same expression, and his arms raised in a similar attitude, the Minié musket still grasped in his hands undischarged. Another lay in a perfect arch, his head resting on one part of the ground and his feet on the other, but his back raised high above it.—The Times, Oct. 11th, 1854. See also Sir Charles Bell’s Anatomy of Expression, 3rd edition, p. 160.

[102] M. A. Lower’s Battle Abbey Chronicle, p. 7.

[103] Ibid.

[104] The Tapestry represents the death of Harold as rapidly succeeding the infliction of the wound in his eye. The impression left by a perusal of Wace is, that at least an hour or two elapsed between the one event and the other. The diversity of statement between these authorities is probably more apparent than real. After Harold was wounded in so important an organ as the eye, it was impossible that he could long withstand the onset of William’s troops; his defeat, or, in other words, his death, was certain. However manfully Harold may have borne up under the inconvenience and pain of his wound, the artist of the Tapestry is logically correct in at once bringing us to the conclusion of the scene.

[105] Ingulph’s Chronicle, p. 139.

[106] Lower’s Chronicle of Battle Abbey, p. 11.

[107] Sussex Archæological Collections, vol. 1., page 33.—For some years the public have been admitted to the Abbey grounds only on one day of the week, and that the day (Monday) most inconvenient to those who reside at a distance from Battle. Let us hope that henceforth no one respectfully requesting permission to muse upon the spot where the deed was done on which the modern history of the world has turned, will meet with a denial.

[108] History of the Anglo-Saxons (European Library), p. 337.

[109] Lingard’s Hist. Eng., vol. i., p. 313.

[110] Vol. i., p. 487.

[111] General Introduction to Domesday, vol. i. p. 311. In all probability William obtained the title of Conqueror from the Latin word conquiro, which in its legal acceptation signified to acquire. It is still used in this sense by the Scottish lawyers.

[112] Saxon Chronicle, Bohn’s edition, p. 462.

[113] Ingulph’s Chronicle, p. 140.

[114] Henry of Huntingdon, vol. i. p. 216.

[115] William of Malmesbury, p. 279.

[116] See Wright’s Biographia Britannica, vol. ii., p. 10.

[117] Would not the United States of America do well to notice this?

[118] Hodgson’s Northumberland, Vol. III., Part iii., pp. 3, 11.

[119] Raine’s St. Cuthbert, p. 88.