Research Notes


Map Group -- HIGDEN 1352?

Higden 1352?
These notes, relevent to Hampshire and Wiltshire, are from Polychronicon, a chronicle of the ages from Creation to 1352, writen by Ralph Higden, translated into Middle English by John Trevisa, 1387.

THE AUTHORS
BOOK 1 CHAPTER 42

THE AUTHORS
Ralph Higden was a monk of St Werburgh's at Chester, Cheshire, died 1364. He is believed to have travelled to Rome to get papal permission for the performance of the Chester Miracle plays in English.
John Trevisa came from Cornwall, and was a fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, 1362-65. He was later vicar of Berkeley and died there 1402. He translated the Polychronicon at the request of Sir Thomas Berkeley.
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BOOK 1 CHAPTER 42
The first book of the Polychronicon is about geography, and includes references to place in Hampshire and Wiltshire, chapter 42:-
... Yn Brytayn bu[p] meny wondres. No[p]eles foure bu[p] most wonderfol. ... [P]e secunde ys at Stonhenge bysydes Salesbury. [P]ar gret stones and wondur huge bu[p] arered an hy[z], as hyt were [z]ates, so [p]at [p]er seme[p] [z]ates yset apon o[p]er [z]ates. No[p]eles hyt ys no[z]t clerlych yknowe no[p]er perceyuet hou[z] and wharfore a bu[p] so arered and so wonderlych yhonged. ... QUOTATION Yn [p]e contray aboute Wynchestre ys a den. Out of [p]at den alwey blowe[p] a strong wynd, so [p]at no man may endure for to stonde tofor [p]at den. [P]ar ys also a pond [p]at turne[p] tre into yre and hyt be [p]erynne al a [z]er, and so tren bu[p] yschape into whestones. Also [p]er ys yn [p]e cop of an hul a buryel. Euerych man [p]at come[p] and mete[p] [p]at buriel a schal fynde hyt euene ry[z]t of hys oune meete; and [z]ef a pylgrym o[p]er eny wery man kneole[p] [p]erto, anon a schal be al fersch, and of werynes schal feele non nuy.
...
Caxton modernised the text, printed in 1482.
My [poor] rendering of the text is:-
In Britain there are many wonders. Naytheless four are most wonderful. ... The second is at Stonehenge besides Salisbury. There great stones, wonderful huge, are set up on high, as it were gates, so that there seem to be gates set upon gates. Naytheless it is neither clearly known nor understood how and wherefore they are so set up and so wonderfully raised. ...
In the country about Winchester is a cave. Out of that cave always blows a strong wind, so that a no man may endure standing before that cave. There is also a pond that turneth wood into iron and if it is therein all a year, so wood is shaped into whetstones. Also there is on the top of a hill a tomb. Every man that comes and measures that tomb shall find it right to his own size; and if a pilgrim or other weary man kneels before it, immediately he shall be refreshed, and weariness shall feel no more. ..

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