[129] M. Michaud says, we must consider this Itinerary as the first account of the voyage to the Holy Land that we are in possession of.
Bordeaux, at the time of the pilgrims’ departure, was one of the principal cities of the Gauls. It is situated at the mouth of the Garonne, in the Bay of Biscay, and is strongly associated with English history, as having been for a long time the residence of the Black Prince, and the birth-place of the unfortunate Richard II.—Trans.
[130] Our readers will judge, by two or three humorous traits in this description, that our monk of Malmesbury had no objection to a joke. The national characteristics here mentioned are curious, as proving how long our northern friends have been jeered at for their scratching propensities, and that the love of drinking was peculiar to the Dane before it was reprobated by Hamlet:—
“This heavy-headed revel, east and west,
Makes us traduced, and taxed of other nations:
They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase
Soil our addition,”
[131] This was St. Hugh, consecrated in the year 1081, by Pope Gregory VII., the same who, a short time after, received St. Bruno and his companions, and gave them the solitude of the Chartreuse, to found a new order there. The church of Tours was then governed by Rodolph II.
[132] Saladin here speaks of the battle of Tiberias.
[133] The count of Tripoli.
[134] To understand this phrase, we must remember that the author of the letter compares the fortifications of Jerusalem to a necklace.
[135] This is a most extraordinary circumstance and proclaims to us not only the fame of Saladin, the monarch of such a distant country, but likewise the fear in which he was held in Europe. Notwithstanding his greater proximity, we did not call our income-tax the Buonaparte tax, as we might have done.—Trans.
[136] Here is a little bit for the antiquaries of Clerkenwell, which is, no doubt, meant by this.—Trans.