Note 1268 — Chapter XV · THE NORMAN INVASION AND THE CAMPAIGN OF HASTINGS.[1055] (continued 2)

Will. Malms. iii. 239. Harold’s spies, as in the former case (see above, p. 388), are well received and shown everything. They then make their report, and “serio addiderunt, penè omnes in exercitu illo presbyteros videri, quod totam faciem cum utroque labio rasam haberent.... Subrisit Rex fatuitatem referentium, lepido insequutus cachinno, quia non essent presbyteri, sed milites armis validi, animis invicti.” So Roman de Rou, 12238–12253. William of Malmesbury here comments on the English custom of wearing the moustache (see vol. ii. p. 27), which he oddly connects with Cæsar’s account of the Welsh of his day.