Ou oyront ou lirront ou veront.
Prieut a ihesu su deyte.
De Richard de Haldingdam e de Lafford eyt pite.
Ki lat fet e compasse.
Ki ioie eu cel li seit donc."
Which may be thus translated:—
"All who have, or shall have, or shall read, or shall see this history—pray to Jesu in deity (or as God) that he may have pity on Richard of Haldingham and of Lafford, who has made and contrived it, that joy in heaven may be given unto him."
Richard of Haldingham, or Holdingham, whose real name was Richard de la Battayle, or de Bello,[2] held the prebend of Lafford (now Sleaford), in Lincoln Cathedral up to the year 1283, and afterwards held the prebend of Norton, in Hereford Cathedral. Hardy, in his edition of Le Neve's Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, says he was appointed to this stall in 1305. He was afterwards preferred to the Archidiaconate of Berkshire. Perhaps the best description of this map is in a paper read before the Geographical Society of Paris, 30th November, 1861, by M. D'Avezac, President of the Society, a translation of which may be found in the Gentleman's Magazine of May, 1863. He considers it to have been executed early in the year 1314, because Lyons was not annexed to France till the 30th of April, 1313, and gives other reasons, equally strong, in support of his argument.
Thus, then, we have a contemporary map as a guide, and on this Hereford map are portrayed all the monsters described by Mandeville—the one-eyed men, those with their heads in their breasts, even the big-footed one-legged man—all those things which are regarded as fable in Mandeville—are here drawn, and evidently must have been currently believed in. So that when Mandeville, or some subsequent editor, challenged the Mappa Mundi as confirmatory evidence, he clearly knew what he was about.
A strong presumption of his personal being is drawn from the fact that Liège is said to be the place of his burial, see Appendix Harl., 3589. 2, "qui obiit Leodii a.d. 1382." That he was believed to have lived at Liège is also shown in Appendix Grenville, 6728/3, where he is said to have written his book in the year 1355; and if Weever[3] is to believed, he died there, but at an earlier date, namely, 1371. Speaking of St. Albans, he says: "This Towne vaunts her selfe very much of the birth and buriall of Sir Iohn Mandeuill Knight, the famous Trauailer, who writ in Latine, French, and in the English tongue, his Itinerary of three and thirty yeares. And that you may beleeue the report of the Inhabitants to bee true, they haue lately pensild a rare piece of Poetry, or an Epitaph for him, vpon a piller; neere to which, they suppose his body to haue beene buried, which I think not much amisse to set downe; for although it will not bee worth the reading, yet do but set it to some lofty tune, as to the Hunting of Antichrist, or the leke, I know it will be well worth the singing: marke how it runs.