[24] The Fen people of old often eluded their enemies by taking to the reeds and rushes which grew luxuriantly in the fens, towering above a man’s head: and willows grew abundantly by the water-courses as they do now in some parts of the Fens.
[25] It was customary, in olden times, to place a “Salt Vat” in the centre of the dinner table. This vessel was often highly ornamented like Archbishop’s Parker’s Salt Vat, still preserved in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Appendix, [Note E]. Persons of rank sat between the Salt Vat and the head of the table—while dependents or inferior persons sat below it. An old English Ballad says— “Thou art a carle of mean degree, The salt it doth stand between me and thee.” And in Bishop Hall’s Satires— ... “That he do, on no default, Even presume to sit above the salt.”
[26] Venerable brothers.
[27] There was a general ejection of the Saxon Abbots and Priors—save some few like the Abbot of Evesham who made submission.
[28] Aldred had placed the crown on the head of William (as he had done on that of Harold) and was faithful to William’s cause. The tales of Aldred rebuking the conqueror for wrong doing are well told in Freeman’s Norm. Conquest, vol. IV., p. 260. Aldred succumbed to the stress of sorrow and died 11th Sept., 1069.
[29] The accounts of Stigand fleeing to the Camp of Refuge rest upon no good authority. Mr. Freeman thinks that from authentic narratives it is conclusive that Stigand was imprisoned at Winchester from the time of his deposition till his death.
[30] Morcar (or Morkere) appears to have gone to the camp after the death of his brother Edwin, who on making his way to Scotland was slain by traitors. The idea of Edwin’s having taken refuge there probably arose from the fact that the boss of a shield bearing a name similar to his was found in the Isle. (See the figure of this in “The Fenland Past and Present;” also a reference to it in the note on St. Godric, p. 436.)
[31] The people were terrified.
[32] The history of Abbot Frithric (Fredericus) appears to be largely mythical. He became Abbot of St. Albans in 1064 and was a favorite with Edward the Confessor. The tale of blocking the road with trees is told by Thierry. Frithric may have sought refuge at Ely—but Mr. Freeman remarks “all that certain history has to say about Frithric is that he was Abbot of St. Albans, and that he died or was deposed some time between 1075 and 1077.” Paul, a Norman monk, then became Abbot. Paul, aided by Lanfranc reared the great church of St. Albans, and the ruins of Verulam, the Roman city, were used in the construction of this wondrous pile—548 feet long—in the transept of which may still be seen Roman bricks in the arches. The restoration of this Abbey church is now complete; but the reader must visit it in order to realize the solemn grandeur of the pile. He will see that there was artistic beauty in the work but will regret that “Goths” as well as time made ravages upon it. (See Appendix, [Note F].)
[33] Lady Lucia was daughter of Algar; Leofric, Earl of Mercia (who died in 1057), and Lady Godiva were the parents of Algar, and Hereward is thought to have been the second son of the same parents, and, therefore, uncle of Lucia. Kingsley (Hereward the Wake, p. 426) assumes that Ivo Taille-Bois wedded this Lucia, and says he “rode forth through Spalding and Bourne having announced to Lucia, his bride, that he was going to slay her remaining relative; and when she wept, cursed and kicked her, as he did once a week.” That Ivo married the sister of Edwin and Morcar is not veritable history—but “he really had a wife, who on Norman lips was spoken of as Lucy.”