rcumstance is the subject of the following Fragment
of a curious Poem preserved in the archives of the Corporation of the
City of London, in the MS. entitled _Liber Custumarium_, fol. 84; from
which it has been extracted by the obliging permission of Henry
Woodthorpe, Esq. the Town Clerk. The leaf which contained the
concluding stanzas has been lost; but judging from the number of those
which remain, it originally consisted of about nine more verses. It is
written in the hand of the period in which the events to which it
alludes took place, and as the documents in the volume from which it
is copied end in the succeeding reign, there is every reason to
presume that it was entered in the Records of the City of London
within a short period after it was composed. Every line of each verse
contains the same letter in the middle of the line, and every line
ends with the same letter: these two letters are placed in the middle
and at the end of each verse, separated from the words to which they
belong, but connected with them by lines in the manner in which the
first verse of the Poem is here printed, and which has been considered
sufficient to show the singular manner in which it was originally
written.

HIC INCIPIT QUIDA' RISMUS F'TUS DE P'DIC'ONE VASCON' ET DE RIUSD'
CONQUESTU P' R' E' FILIU' REG' H'.

Satis novit seculu______ ____De lingua Galloru_____
\_ _/ \_
Qualiter fit speculu___ \ / ___Patens traditoru_____ \
\===m===/ \===m
Quia p' p'fidia________/ _/ \_ \___Pessimam ip'oru______/ _/
_/ \_ _/
Jam p'dit Vasconia____/ \__Princeps Anglicoru__/

Rex fidem adhibuit Dictus Gallicorum
Egit quod non debuit Nam fraus miserorum
Seriem composuit Quorumdam verborum
Que Regi transposuit Cetus nunciorum

Per verba credencie Nuncii dixerunt
Q'd magnates Francie Simul tractaverunt
Qdq; Regi Anglie Dare voluerunt
Natam Regis Gallie Heu q'd hic venerunt

Ad hec dux Burgundie Quidam nunciorum
Ait q'd in flumine Multi Northmannorum
Perierunt pridie Per nautas Anglorum
Additis hastucie Causis Bayonorum

Ut ergo concordia Pacis jam addatur
Et omnis discordia