| [234] | Mereham probably means Ramsey, for which see account in Dugdale’s Imbanking, 2nd ed., p. 364. Livermere was west of Outwell, near the Old Nene river. The abbot of St. Edmundsbury had a right of fishery in that mere. There is a Livermere in Suffolk to the north of Bury St. Edmund’s—perhaps this formerly belonged to the same monastery and derived its name from the mere in the Fens. |
| [235] | Wilfric conveys these estates to his brother. See Lib. Elien. II, p. 218. See Sharon Turner’s History of Anglo-Saxons, Vol. II., p. 22. |
| [236] | “The treachery of the monks of Ely soon received its reward; forty men-at-arms occupied their convent as a military post, and lived there in free quarter. Every morning the cellarist was obliged to distribute among them their pay and provisions in the great hall of the chapter.”—Thierry’s Norm. Conq. |
| [237] | See page [77]. |
| [238] | The monks may not have completed their treasonable designs at this juncture; however, Thierry says—“The offer of the monks was accepted; and two Norman barons, Gilbert de Clare and William de Warrenne, pledged their word for the execution of the treaty.” |
| [239] | It does not appear from the History of Ely that the monks approached William till they went in company with Thurstan to make submission at Warwick. See [Appendix K]. |
| [240] | See this spot marked on the [Map]. |
| [241] | This is properly unaneled (Sax. æl, oil); so it is intended to mean that he had not received extreme unction—as in Shakespeare— “Cut off, ev’n in the blossoms of my sin, Unhousel’d, unanointed, unanel’d.” |
| [242] | Hereward is said (in Vita Herewardi) to have made his way to the sea shore. Wells in Norfolk is supposed to be the spot where he embarked, and the supposition rests upon the phrase “Mare wide vocatum juxta Welle.” But Hereward could much more easily have reached Welle in the Fens—(there are now Upwell and Outwell in Norfolk); Welle in the Fens was not so far from the sea then as it is now, and if vessels were ready, Hereward could have entered the Wellestream which at that time ran past Lynn. The Ouse flowed past Wisbech then, and the Normans appear to have been in force at the “Turf Castle” in that town. If it were necessary to evade the Normans, supposing they were in force, off the mouth of the Ouse, in the Wash, he could take to the open sea—and if the course were open he could enter the Welland and approach Spalding or Bourn. Whatever may have been the course pursued, the fugitives could not have arrived at either place in so short a time as is represented at the commencement of Chap. XXVI. From Ely to Spalding by railway is some 36 miles. |
| [243] | It is said to have been on 27th Oct., 1071, that William went to Ely. |