29 May

Monday 29^th. Wet again, but my brother & myself walked back to town,

and after going to Bedfd St., I bent my steps to the Heralds’ Offices^College,

altho’ now pouring with rain, which never ceased the whole day.

Mr. Young received me in the politest manner, & took me to the

library, where I looked over the whole of the MSS. contained in

the cupboard, & marked E.D.N. (Edw^d Duke of Norfolk). They were

covered with dust, & are, I am told, seldom or never molested. M^r.

Petrie is the only person acquainted with their contents, & it was

from him I received the hint, which led me to suppose the

French orig^l. of Havelock lay buried here; nor was I deceived,

as the event proved. Most of the MSS. here are valuable, many

are ancient, & all in good condition. I selected three, & these

Mr Young obligingly took up into his own rooms, where, being

supplied with pens & ink, I fell to work, & wrote without interruption

till five oC. The MSS. which occupied my attention & time, were

as follows. No. 11. contains: a “Chronicon terræ sanctæ & Radulpho

Coggeshale Cisterc. monach. compositum“; ############^{also the Chronicle of Ralph}

################################^{Niger, with the additions of Coggeshale; and the Chronicle of Ralph Coggeshale from}

######^{the Conquest.} to the year 1224. Written in doub. col. Sæc. XIV. vell.

4 to. But what attracted my notice in this MS. was not the

Chronicles #####, but ######^some verses written ^on## the fly-leaf at

the end, in _^^a hand of the _^^the 13th cent^y. i.e.  circ. 1290–1300. which on

reading them, proved to be a copy of th^e# poem on Chess I copied

in the Bodln. liby. & which was^is printed by Hyde, _^^{“Hist. Shahiludii, p. 181.} It is the

earliest composition on the subject I have yet discovered in

Latin, and commences: “Hic fit formosa sn̄ sāg’ne pugna

iocosa”. Des. “Omīs hō matum clamat. matū sⁱ matūn”.

The 2d MS. _^^{No. 27} I inspected was a tall narrow folio on vell. Sæc. 14. init.

 With this title by a late hand, “Historia Guidonis Warwici Gallice

vers”. My attention was drawn to this, from poor Conybeare’s having

so often spoken to me of the Romance in question. He was

completely ignorant of its existence in French, so much so, that

on meeting with a small fragment of it by chance, he sent

it to the “British Bibliographer” as a great rarity! The present

poem extends through 127 folios and 27 lines. Reckoning

52 lines in a page (which is the average) we find the number

of lines contained in the entire poem amounts to 8631.

It commences thus:

Estably fu la x’ente,

Muld des avente^rs s’avenuz

It concludes:

“Sy combaty od le fiz h’rand

Coment leur chaustement pristrunt

En le seruise deu p’ vesquirunt

Sy puissum n’ ensement.

Ces prium deu omīpotent. Amen.

Explicit Ritmus Guidonis de Warewyk

Et Reynbrun filii sui.

On the blank space at the end were written by another

hand two short ballads in Old English, which I copied, but

I can make but little of them. The first begins: “A levedy

ad my loue leyt ye bole bigan to belle”. The second: “As i

But the prize of all, & which I was more delighted to meet

with, than if I had found a mine of wealth, was _^^{No. 14.} a thick

vell. MS. in 4 to. of the 13th. Cent^y. written in a fine clear

squarish letter, in two columns, with rubrics, & containing  ##^an

invaluable collection of French poems. I had no time to make

a correct list of _^^the contents, for I saw enough to #####^convince me I must

come again, so I deferred this till my next visit. But

what at once arrested my sight was the Haveloc itself,

& I set about copying it with an avidity not inferior to that

^{felt in}## meeting a bride. My satisfaction increased as I proceeded

to find, that it differed essentially from the English

version, & was the very text, which Gaimar had incorporated

into his continuation of Wace, & from which Warner _^^{(in his “Albion’s England”)} had not only

borrowed the story of Argentille & Curran, but the names themselves,

for Haveloc is here called Cuaran, & Goldeborough is named

Argentille. The other names differ as much, but yet the prin=

cipal features of the story are the same both in the French and

English ## Versions. I had not time to finish it, but shall

come again ére I leave London. Mr Young was polite enough to

invite me to dine with him, which I did, & ## in the course of

conversation I ascertained what I have always been in doubt

respect’g viz. that arms descend by blood & not with property,

so that altho’ a girl has not a shilling, her husband has a

right to take her arms as ## an escutcheon of pretence, provided

she has no brothers; & therefore represents the family either by herself,

or as a co-heiress. M^r. Y. mentioned to me a curious entry made

in the Register of Whicchingham in Norfolk, where Peter le Neve was

buried, made by the Rector: “I this day buried Peter Neve, a

King at Arms,” – & then proceeded to abuse poor Peter in the

grossest terms! This ##^would just do for Bliss’s collections. On my

return home I changed my ####^dress, & went to drink tea with

Mr Urwin at Gautherol’s, where I played for the first time on

a chess-board of 144 squares, and with 4 sets of men; consequently

with four players. It renders the game more complicated, and is

inferior to the single game, because the interest is divided, but as

a change, it is very amusing. The rules are the same as at

the other game. The opposite players are partners, & the game

does not terminate without both being checkmated. The

form of the board is as follows; & the pawns which touch each

Queen Black

White Queen

Urwin mentioned to me having heard through his brother (who was

told it by Allan Hay,- a man well known at the Mus^m.) that

an unpublished letter of Mary Q. of Scots existed ##### there,

relat^~g an attempt of hers to escape ###^from the Castle of Lochleven,

but was discovered by the wind ####^blowing her veil on one side, &

was compelled by the boatman to return. I ###^should hardly

suppose Ellis would have overlooked it,-  but unless I cd^could

learn the reference, all search wd^would be useless.