| [14] | The writer of the text does not profess to be strictly historical, and as there does not appear to be any record of the names of the early priors of Spalding, he borrows one in vogue at the time about which he writes. One Aldhelm or Aldelm was abbot of Malmsbury or bishop of Sherborne (715-719). Spalding cell was founded in 1052, and the first recorded name of a prior was Herbertus, 1149. |
| [15] | This was really Ulfcytel, not Ingulphus. |
| [16] | For “Old Fisheries,” see “Fenland, Past and Present.” |
| [17] | According to Ingulph, the king confirmed to the monastery the charter of Ædred. |
| [18] | We may assume there were no spectacles in those days. |
| [19] | The Pike has been a noted fish in the Fen-waters. |
| [20] | It is noteable that the old monks experienced that mental worry retarded digestion. |
| [21] | Archbishop Stigand suffered deprivation in April, 1070, through the influence of the Conqueror, and Lanfranc, Abbot of Caen, became Metropolitan in August of the same year. “Lanfranc yielded to the combined prayers and commands of all Normandy. With a heavy heart, as he himself tells us, he forsook the monastic life which he loved above all other lives.” (Norm. Conq., vol. iv., p. 346.) We wonder which of the two felt the greater “deprivation?” |
| [22] | William had conquered the north of England before the elevation of Lanfranc, but the news may not have reached the Fen country for some months. Chester had fallen—the counties south of that stronghold were devastated, and many thousands of refugees found their way as far south as Evesham Abbey, where they received succour at the hands of Abbot Æthelwig. There, too, was one bearing the name of the novice (Elfric, in the text)—Prior Ælfric who cared for the dying fugitives. |
| [23] | See [note] on Lady Lucia, [chapter II]., p. [22]. |