| [154] | According to the Anglo-Saxon chronicle, Knut went to Rome in 1031, returned the same year and wrote a letter to the clergy and magnates of the land; Egelnoth (or Æthelnoth) was Abp. of Canterbury from 1020 to 1038; (Ælfric was Abp. from 995 to 1006, the same as referred to in [Note] p. [58]). The Ælfric coupled with Egelnoth, above, was Abp. of York from 1023 to 1052. Knut’s letter is in Chron. Florence of Worcester, I, p. 185, ed. Eng. His. Soc. |
| [155] | Over-worked, from Sax. swincan, to toil. |
| [156] | Dooms (from Sax. dom, trial, sentence, &c.; verb, doeman, to judge,) used in the sense of decrees, laws, or precedents in law. Knut’s Laws (found in Thorpe’s Laws and Institutes, vol. i.) were enacted by the Witan. “A.D. 1016-1020.—Probably between these years was the great gemót at Winchester, in which Cnut promulgated his laws.”—Kemble’s Saxons in England, ii. 259. See also p. 209 above. |
| [157] | If Abbat Brand of Peterborough knighted Hereward there is some discrepancy of dates, for Brand died 27th Nov., 1069, and Hereward must then have landed earlier than Dec., 1069, (page 109). It was not Dec., 1068, as this was the year of William’s first campaign in the north—the Conqueror spent Christmas, 1069, at York, and the revolt of the fen country took place in May, 1070,—that is, after Brand’s successor, Torold, was appointed. Ingulph asserts that Hereward came over to be knighted by Brand, and then returned to Flanders to fetch his wife Torfrida. The matter is so far important that knighthood was essential to Hereward’s being a leader of men, and to conceive the ceremony done by Brand was more grateful than if it had been at the hand of the Abbat of Crowland. Further on the reader will find the 24th April, 1071, as the date assigned to Hereward’s arrival with his forces at Ely. Peterborough Abbey, Appendix, [Note L]. |
| [158] | Leofric fought at the battle of Hastings (Oct. 14th, 1066,) and died at Peterborough in November. The monks choose their Provost Brand, and he was confirmed in the Abbacy by Eadgar Ætheling. |
| [159] | The Gift of Brand, Appendix, [Note M]. |
| [160] | “The story of the sunbeam belongs of course to the realm of pure fable. But myths have an origin as well as a meaning, and it would not be surprising if this same story should hereafter be traced, as many others have been, to the cradle of Aryan mythology, and the miracle of Saint Chad prove to have been performed by some far more ancient seer at the foot of the Himalayas, or on the banks of the Ganges.”—See p. 108, Legends of St. Chad, by Rev. R. H. Warner. Wisbech: Leach and Son. |
| [161] | South Lincolnshire. The spelling Hoiland often occurs in the text. Dugdale sometimes wrote Holand and Hoyland. The word Holland means hollow land—the Hol is allied to German hohl. Was not the Hoi or Hoy in Hoiland derived from the low German holig? See “The Fenland,” note, page 27. |
| [162] | Boys mounted on stilts may occasionally be seen at the present day. This stilt-walking, however, is merely boyish amusement. |
| [163] | The Cross or Crucifix. The holy rood was generally a life size figure of the Saviour on the Cross. |