[344] Persius, Sat. i. 85.
[345] On their own lands, it should seem from Sax. Chron., p. 465.
[346] Nidering is supposed by Somner to denote such as were infamous enough to rifle a dead body. Gavelk. 65. Lye renders it, nequam, exlex,—infamous, outlaw. MS. Nithing. Spelman derives it from nidus: but there is no authority for either interpretation; and in such cases it is safer, to confess ignorance than to mislead the reader by fanciful etymologies.
[347] This crucifix was very celebrated; it being pretended that it was the work of Nicodemus. “See further on this subject in the Rev. J. E. Tyler’s interesting volume, entitled, ‘Oaths, their origin, nature, and history.’ London: 8vo, pp. 289–296.”—Hardy.
[348] Cicero de Officiis, ii. 15. Much of the argument is borrowed from the same source.
[349] Some read, “The king used to laugh,” &c.
[350] This is unintelligible to the English reader. The author uses the word “firmarius,” which certainly would not have conveyed the idea of a “farmer” to the mind of either Cicero or Horace.
[351] Those who followed the court, being under no kind of control, were in the habit of plundering and devastating the country wherever they went. When they were unable to consume whatever they found in their lodgings, they would sell it to the best bidder, or destroy it with fire; or if it were liquor, after washing their horses’ legs with a part, they let the remainder run. “As to their cruelty towards their hosts, or their unseemly conduct towards their wives and daughters, it is shameful even to remember.”—Edmer. Hist. Nov. p. 94.
[352] These shoes, which gave occasion for various ordinances for their regulation or abolition, during several successive centuries, are said to have owed their invention to Fulk, earl of Anjou, in order to hide his ill-formed feet. Orderic. Vitalis, p. 682: who also observes, that the first improver, by adding the long curved termination, was a fellow (quidam nebulo) in the court of William Rufus, named Robert.
[353] Others read, “The palace of the king was not the abode of majesty, but the stews of pathics.”