The Medallions need no further explanation than that given in the preceding pages.

The following lines from "The Floure and the Leafe"1 are given in illustration of the upper groups.

At last out of a grove even by,

That was right goodly and pleasaunt to sight,

I sie (saw) where there came singing lustily

A world of ladies.

But one there yede (went) in mid the company
Sole by herself; &c.

And everich had a chapelet on hor hed,
Which did right well upon the shining here,
Made of goodly floures white and red.

1 Mr Bradshaw does not allow this Poem to be Chaucer's.-F.

And so dauncing unto the mede they fare
In mid the which they found a tuft that was
All overspred with floures in compas,

And at the last there began anon
A Lady for to sing right womanly
A bargaret in praising the daisie:

For, as me thought, among her notes swete,
She saide, Si douce est la Margarete.

And when the storm was clean passed away,
Tho in white that stood under the tre,
They felt nothing of the great affray,
That they in grene without had in ybè;
To them they yede, for routhe and pite.

When I was ware how one of them in grene
Had on a crowne rich and well fitting;
Wherefor I demed well she was a Quene
And tho in grene on her wer awaiting.

Then the Nightingale, that all the day
Had in the laurer sate, and did her might
The whole service to sing longing to May,
All sodainly began to take her flight;
And to the lady of the Leaf forth right
She flew, and set on her hond softly,
Which was a thing I marveled of greatly.

The Goldfinch eke, that fro the medler tre
Was fled for heat into the bushes cold,
Unto the Lady of the Floure gan fle
And on her hond he set him.

APPENDIX IV.

ROADS AND JOURNEYS IN THE 14TH CENTURY.

Mr Thorold Rogers thinks better of the roads than I do (p. 15-17, above). He says (History, i. 138).

Habitual pilgrimage needed safe roads and the ordinary conveniences of shelter. . . The roads repaired by common law at the charge of all owners of property, were in all likelihood far better than existed after the Reformation, when the necessity for easy and convenient communication was annulled by the abandonment of the custom of making these religious journeys, and by the fact that estates were more compact, and, therefore, the visitation of remote properties was less frequent. The monasteries, too, whose interest on many grounds was bound up with the existence of easy and safe communication, must have done their best to keep roads open and in good repair.

Page 39 above. The journey from Oxford to Ponteland (North-west of Newcastle), beginning on Sunday (a vigilia Epiphanie), Jan. 5, 133. (Rogers, ii. 635-6. The sidenotes are mine.)

Sunday,
Jan. 5,

Expense in victualibus prima septimana. Item computat in diversis rebus emptis per Thomam Odiam ante recessum primo die nostrum v s. xj d. ob. ut patet per cedulam. Item computat iiij d. qr. in pane pro equis, et cerevisia pro magistris et famulis, apud Mudel- Middleton ington.

Stony,

Brackley
(20 miles).

Item illa nocte apud Brakele iij s. x d. ob. qr.
Item ibidem jd. in potu pro famulis die lunæ, Monday,
videlicet, in die Epiphaniæ

Item xviij apud Davyntre eodem die

Jan. 6,

Daventry (20 miles).

Item iij s. iij d. de nocte apud Lillebourne

Lilbourn (10 miles)

Item vs. ijd ob. apud Lecestram die Mercurii (Tuesday), [? Martis] et illa nocte.

Item v s. viij d. apud Preswolde die Mercurii

Item iiij 8. j d. illa nocte apud Betyngham.

Item ix d. apud Alresford, die Jovis.

Item iij s. ix d.ob. illa nocte apud Blith.
Item vj d. apud Donkastre, die Veneris.

Leicester
(19 miles).
Wednesday,
Prestwold
(13 miles).
Betyngham.
Thursday,
Alresford,

Blithe.

Friday,
Doncaster.

Item iiijs. iij d.qr. nocte sequente1 apud Feri- Ferrybridge. brygg.

Cawood.

Item die Sabbati in passagio apud Kawode Saturday, iij d., et ibidem, et nocte sequente Eboraci York. iiij s. iij d.

Summa xxxviij s. vij d.

Secunda septimana.

Item die dominico sequente, apud Eboracum, in jantaculo 2 ijs. ijd.ob. Item in oblatione custodis ibidem j d.

Sunday.
York.

breakfast at

Item nocte sequente apud Esyngwolde xvj d. in Easingwold. cibo, potu, et lectis. Item in equis ibidem xxij d.

Item die Lunæ apud Thriske, in pane et potu Monday, ii d.

Item ibidem in equis iiij d.

Thirsk,

Item nocte sequente in equis apud Yarme Yaim.
ij 8. j d.

Item ibidem in prandio et potu ij s. vj d.
Item die Martis apud Dunelmam in equis xxd.
Item in prandio et potu ibidem xxij d. Item in
barbitonsori ibidem ij d. Item in oblatione
Custodis ij d.

Item die Mercurii ibidem in expensis equorum
xxij d. Item in cibo, et potu, et lectis xix d. ob.
Item die Jovis apud Novum Castrum in equis
iiij d. ob. qr. Item ibidem in pane, carne, et
potu, xiij d.

Item Thomæ le Bakere, ut expectaret Dunelmæ, et Akland, pro commissione xij d.

Tuesday,

Durham.

(barber 2d.)

Wednesday

(Durham).

Thursday,

Newcastle.

Item die veneris apud Ponthelande, in pisce Friday, xiiij d. ob., in allece, ob.

Summa xxi s. ix d. ob. qr.

Ponteland.

1 I suppose the nox sequens to be that following the dies Veneris,

and so with the other cases below.

2 Jantaculum, cibus quo solvitur jejunium ante prandium: Fr. dejeuner.-D'Arnis.

The same journey back in 1305 A.D., say 256 miles in 8 days, or 32 miles a day, with 5 men and 3 horses (Rogers,

The same journey in 6 days travelling, and 1 of rest (if rightly given by Mr Rogers1), at nearly 43 miles a day (Rogers, ii. 614, col. 1).

Other journeys in 1283: Clare. (Rogers, ii. 609, col. 2.) London to Leicester, 3 days (99 miles, 33 miles a day). Lichfield to Leicester, 1 day (say 33 miles). London, 3 days (106 miles, 35 miles a day).

Melton to

The other

cross-country places, Tresgruk, &c., mentioned by Mr. Rogers, I have not time to look up.

Page 39, note.-MULCASTER'S OPINION, IN 1581 a.d.,

ON TROTTING.

"Of

Thus writes Mulcaster in his Positions, p. 97: trotting, it is said euen as we see, that it shaketh the bodie to violently, that it causeth & encreaseth marueilous

I say this because he states (i. 140) that the journey to Newcastle in 1332,-the first in this Appendix IV.,-was done in 10 days, while I, from his document, make it 11. He may be right, and I wrong. Let the reader do the sum.