[6] The author of the 'Chronicles of London Bridge' has missed recording this notice of the early history of that structure; which seems till the reign of Hen. I, to have been of a very fragile character, probably a bridge of boats.
[7] William of Poitiers and William of Malmsbury mention three horses, as killed under William. William of Poitiers states his prowess to have been hailed in songs, as well as verbal applause; 'plausibus et dulcibus cantilenis efferebant.'
[8] William of Jumieges makes it the middle of the night, before William returned from the pursuit; though his subsequent expression would rather imply daylight: 'ad aream belli regressus, reperit stragem, quam non absque miseratione conspexit.'
[9] Other authority supplies the fact that free leave was given, expressly for the purpose of seeking and interring the dead; see William of Poitiers, and Benoit de Sainte-More on the same subject.
[10] WALTHAM ABBEY, founded or restored by Harold. According to William of Poitiers, and Ordericus, the body was brought to William; and being refused to Ghita, Harold's mother, was committed to William Malet, to be buried on the sea shore. William of Malmsbury has a different account: he says the body was given to Ghita, who bore it to Waltham. Perhaps this and other variations of the story were subsequent inventions, to suppress the dishonourable truth, as to William's revenge. The accounts in Benoit, the Brut, and L'Estoire de Seint Ædward, are in our appendix. The story told in the Waltham MS. (Cott. Jul. D. vi.) as to the pious offices of Osgod Cnoppe, and Ailric the childemaister, two of its monks, and the more romantic legend, in Harold's life, (Harl. MS. 3776),—see our appendix,—are both quoted in Palgrave's History of England, 1831. As to the Editha brought to Osgod's aid in discerning the body, and as to her being different from 'Eddeva pulchra' of Domesday, see Introd. Dom. ii. 79.
