b 50 f. and ys gret wondur: and is superfluous and should perhaps be deleted.
b 58-65. Though still often quoted as a fourteenth-century witness to the pronunciation of Northern English (e.g. by K. Luick, Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache, 1914, pp. 40 f.), this passage, as Higden acknowledges, comes from the Prologue to Book iii of William of Malmesbury's Gesta Pontificum, completed in the year 1125: see the Rolls Series edition, p. 209.
[XIV]
a 2. Bannokburn. Minot's subject is not so much the defeat of the English at Bannockburn in 1314, as the English victory at Halidon Hill on 19 July 1333, which he regards as a vengeance for Bannockburn.
a 7. Saint Iohnes toune: Perth, so called from its church of St. John the Baptist. It was occupied by the English in 1332 after the defeat of the Scots at Dupplin Moor.
a 13. Striflin, 'Stirling'.
a 15. Hall suggests that this refers to Scotch raids on the North of England undertaken to distract Edward III from the siege of Berwick.
a 19 f. Rughfute riueling... Berebag: nicknames for the Scots, the first because they wore brogues (riuelings) of rough hide; the second because, to allow of greater mobility, each man carried his own bag of provisions instead of relying on a baggage train.
a 22. Brig = Burghes l. 25, 'Bruges'. At this time Scots, English, and French had all close connexions with the Netherlands. Observe that John Crab, who aided the Scots in the defence of Berwick (note to X 15), was a Fleming.