The Boar made them ful law to lout, gert tham ftumbell that war ftowt. Stedes ftrong bileved still Bifide Creffy opon the grene. Sir Philip wanted all his will That was wele on his fembland" fene, With spere and schelde, and helmis schene1, When kinges fuld them tell' counfaill call. The fame boar, that is, Edward the third, is introduced by Minot as refifting the Scottish invasion in 1347, at Nevil's cross near Durham ". The reader will recollect, that this verfification is in the structure of that of the LIVES OF THE SAINTS, where two lines are thrown into one. [See fupr. Vol. ii. EM. ADD. at p. 14.] viz. VNDECIM MILLIA VIRGINUM. MSS. Coll. Trin. Oxon. 57. Ellevene thousand virgines, that fair companye was, Imartird wer for godis fone, ich wille telle that cas. A kyng ther was in Bretaygne, Maur was his name, A douzter he hadde that het Vrfe, a mayde of guod fame. So fair woman me nyfte non, ne fo guod in none poynte, Criftene was al hire ken, fwithe noble and queynte: Of hire fairhede and guodneffe me told in eche fonde fide, That the word com into Engelonde, and elles wher wide. A kyng ther was in Engelonde, man of gret power, Of this maide he herde telle gret nobleize far and ner. The minstrel, who used the perpetual return of a kind of plain chant, made his pause or close at every hemiftic. In the fame manner, the verfes of the following poem were divided by the minstrel. MSS. Cott. JUL. V. fol. 175. Pergamen. [The transcript is not later than the year 1300.] Als y yod on a Monday, by twene Wittingdon and Walle, Me ane after brade way, a litel man y mette withalle, The left man that ever y fathe, to fay owther in boure other in halle, His robe was nother grene ne gray, bot alle yt was of riche palle. On me he cald and bade me bide, well still y ftoode ay little space; Fro Lanchester the Parke fyde, then he come wel faire his pace: I biheld that litell man, bi the ftrete als we gon gae, His berde was fyde ay large fpan, and glided als the fether of paeb. с d His heved was whyte as any fnawe, his higehen were gret and grai, &c. His robe was al golde biganne, well criftlik made i undurftande, Botones afurd everwick ane, from his elbouthe to his hande *. 'They enter a caftle. The bankers on the binkes lay f, and faire lordes fette y fonde, In ilk ay hirn ý herd ay lay, and levedys fouthe me loud fonges. David Bruce, king of Scotland. See P. LANGTOFT, p. 116. · Warlike. Rode. e Buttons, every one of them azure, from his elbow ro his hand. f Cushions, or tapestry, on the benches laid, In every corner I heard a Lay, and ladies, &c. The Alfo in Edward's victory over the Spaniards in a fea-fight, in 1350, a part of Minot's general fubject. I have seen one of Merlin's PROPHESIES, probably translated from the French, which begins thus. Listeneth now to Merlin's faw, What he wrat for men to come, Nother by greffe ne by plume*. The public pageantries of this reign are proofs of the growing familiarity and national diffufion of claffical learning. I I know not when this piece was written. But the word greffe is old French for Graphium, or Stylus. It is generally fuppofed, and it has been pofitively afferted by an able French antiquary, that the antient Roman practice of writing with a ftyle on waxen tablets, lafted not longer than the fifth century. Hearne alfo fup. poses that the pen had fucceeded to the ftyle long before the age of Alfred. Lel. ITIN. Vol. vii. PREF. p. xxi. I will produce an inftance of this practice in England fo late as the year 1395. In an accompt-roll of Winchefter college, of that year, is the following difbursement. "Et "in i tabula ceranda cum viridi cera pro VOL. III. "intitulatione capellanorum et clericorum "Capelle ad miffas et alia pfallenda, "viijd." This very curious and remarkable article fignifies, that a tablet covered with green wax was kept in the chapel, for noting down with a ftyle, the refpective courfes of daily or weekly portions of duty, alternately affigned to the officers of the choir. So far, indeed, from having ceased in the fifth century, it appears that this mode of writing continued throughout all the dark ages. Among many exprefs proofs that might be produced of the centuries after that period, Du Cange cites thefe verfes from a French metrical will select an instance, among others, from the fhews exhibited with great magnificence at the coronation of queen Anne Boleyn, in the year 1533. The proceffion to Westminster abbey, began from the Tower; and the queen, in paffing through Gracechurch ftreet, was entertained with a reprefentation of mount Parnaffus. The fountain of Helicon, by a bold fiction unknown to the bards of antiquity, ran in four ftreams of Rhenish wine from a bafon of white marble. On the fummit of the mountain fate Apollo, and at his feet Calliope. On either fide of the declivity were arranged four of the Muses, playing on their re romance, written about the year 1376. Lat. GLoss. V. GRAPHIUM”. с Les uns fe prennent a ecrire, Des greffes en tables de cire; Les autres fuivent la couftume De fournir lettres a la plume. Many ample and authentic records of the royal houshold of France, of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, written on waxen tablets, are fill preferved. Waxen tablets were conftantly kept in the French religious houfes, for the fame purpose as at Winchefter college. Thus in the Ordinary of the Priour of faint Lo at Rouen, printed at Rouen, written about the year 1250. Qui, ad miffam, lectiones aut tractus "dicturi funt, in tabula cerea primitus re"citentur." pag. 261. Even to this day, feveral of the collegiate bodies in France, more especially the chapter of the cathedral of Rouen, retain this ufage of marking the fucceffive rotation of the minifters of the choir. See the Sieur le Brun's VOYAGE LITURGIQUE, 1718. p. 275. The fame mode of writing was used for registering the capitular acts of the monaf teries in France. Du Cange, in reciting from an antient manufcript the Signs injoined to the monks of the order of faint Victor at Paris, where the rule of filence was rigorously obferved, gives us, among others, the tacit fignals by which they called for the style and tablet. "Pro SIGNO See ibid. STYLISONUS. "Grafii. Signo metalli præmiffo, extenfo 66 pollice cum indice fimila [fimula] fcri"bentem. Pro SIGNO Tabularum.-Manus "ambas complica, et ita disjunge quafi aperiens Tabulas." GLoss. ut fupr. V. SIGNA. tom. iii. p. 866. col. 2. edit. vet. Among the implements of writing allowed to the Carthufians, Tabule and Graphium are enumerated. Statut. Antiq. CARTHUSIAN. 2 part. cap. xvi. §. 8. This, however, at Winchester college, is the only exprefs fpecification which I have found of the practice, in the religious houses of England. Yet in many of our old collegiate establishments it feems to be pointed out by implication: and the article here extracted from the roll at Winchester college, explains the manner of keeping the following injunction in the Statutes of faint Elifabeth's college at Winchester, now deftroyed, which is a direction of the fame kind, and cannot be well understood without fuppofing a waxen tablet. These ftatutes were given in 1301. "Habeat ita 66 que idem præcentor unam Tabulam "femper in capella appeníam, in qua "fcribat quolibet die fabbati poft pran"dium, et ordinet, qualem Miffam quis "eorum capellanorum in fequenti fepti |