[512] ‘Erat enim statura ejus quasi cubitis xx., facies erat longa quasi unius cubiti, et nasus illius unius palmi mensurati, et brachia et crura ejus quatuor cubitorum erant, et digiti ejus tribus palmis,’ p. 40.
[513] De Vita Caroli, p. 40.
[514] Ibid. pp. 43–47.
[515] De Vita Caroli, p. 52. On the twelve peers of Charlemagne, in connexion with Turpin, see Sismondi, Hist. des Français, vol. v. pp. 246, 537, 538, vol. vi. p. 534.
[516] The Welsh, however, accused Gildas of having thrown his history ‘into the sea.’ Palgrave's Anglo-Saxon Commonwealth, vol. i. p. 453. The industrious Sharon Turner (Hist. of England, vol. i. pp. 282–295) has collected a great deal of evidence respecting Arthur; of whose existence he, of course, entertains no doubt. Indeed, at p. 292, he gives us an account of the discovery, in the twelfth century, of Arthur's body!
[517] In Turner's Hist. of England, vol. vii. pp. 269, 270, it is said to have appeared in 1128; but Mr. Wright (Biog. Brit. Lit. vol. ii. p. 144) seems to have proved that the real date is 1147.
[518] Geoffrey says, ‘A Gualtero Oxinefordensi in multis historiis peritissimo viro audivit’ (i.e. ille Geoffrey) ‘vili licet stylo, breviter tamen propalabit, quæ prœlia inclytus ille rex post victoriam istam, in Britanniam reversus, cum nepote suo commiserit.’ Galfredi Monumetensis Historia Britonum, lib. xi. sec. i. p. 200. And in the dedication to the Earl of Gloucester, p. 1, he says, ‘Walterus Oxinefordensis archidiaconus, vir in oratoria arte atque in exoticis historiis eruditus.’ Compare Matthæi Westmonast. Flores Historiarum, part i. p. 248.
[519] Galfredi Historia Britonum, pp. 3, 4.
[520] ‘Erat tunc nomen insulæ Albion, quæ a nemine, exceptis paucis gigantibus, inhabitabatur…. Denique Brutus de nomine suo insulam Britanniam, sociosque suos Britones appellat.’ Galf. Hist. Britonum, p. 20.
[521] ‘In tempore ejus tribus diebus cecidit pluvia sanguinea, et muscarum affluentia; quibus homines moriebantur.’ Hist. Brit. p. 36.