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CASTLES AND ABBEYS OF ENGLAND.

[Appendix to

garments sent by the king to this haughty prisoner, they are understood bycommentators on the original passage to have consisted of—First, an outer

garment or coat; secondly, an inner gar-ment or waistcoat, made of silk; andthirdly, a short cloak to be thrown overthe shoulders, and that reached only to thewaist, made of the rich furs of some foreignanimals, which the author calls mice(murium), and were probably eitherermines or martins. It is also conjecturedthat the present thus sent to the earl wasa set of robes, suited to the rank and officeof Earl of Hereford, which he had latelyHeld, and to which it might have been KingWilliam’s intention to restore him, “ if hisinconceivable pride had not prevented it.”

In his interesting notice of the lives and fortunes of this great family, thelearned monk of Utica concludes with these striking moral reflections on thetransitory nature of all human grandeur:—“Verb gloria mundi, ut flos feenidecidit et arescit; ac, velut fumus deficit et transit. Ubi est (GultcllU US©sbernt Jptlius, Herefordensis Comes, et Regis Vicarius, Normanniaj dapifer,et magister militum bellicosus? Hie nimirhm primus et maximus oppressorAnglorum fuit, et enormem causam per temeritatem suam enutrivit, perquam millibus ruina miserse mortis incubuit. Vcriim justus Judex omniavidet, et unicuique, prout meretur, redhibet. Proh dolor! ecce (fiiuHcliltUScorruit, audax athleta recipit quod promeruit. Ut multos ense trucidavit,ipse quoque ferro repentb interiit. Denique post ejus occasum antequamlustrum compleretur annorum, spiritus discordiai filium ejus et generumcontra dominum suum et cognatum hostiliter excivit, qui Sichimitas contrllAbimelech (quern occicis lxx. filiis Jerobaal sibi prsefecerant) commovit!En veracitur il me descripta est offensa, pro qua (SutllclltU progenies eradicatasic est de Anglia, ut nec passum pedis, nisi fallor, jam nanciscatur inilia.” Duchesne—Excerp. Order. Vital. De Gul. primo rege Anglorum 322.Selecta Monumenta.

That the Conqueror’s philosophy was not proof against any little dis-appointment of the palate is evident from the following anecdote:—“Whenhis prime favourite, William Fitz-Osbome, steward of his household, servedhim with the flesh of a crane scarcely half roasted, he was so highly exas-perated that he lifted up his fist, and would have struck him had not Eudo,appointed ‘ dapifer,’ immediately after warded off the blow.”—Warner, i. 307.