., verbatim.

[148] Hume.

[149] "The chaste who blameless keep unsullied fame,
Transcend all other worth, all other praise.
The Spirit, high enthroned, has made their hearts
His sacred temple."

SHARON TURNER's Translation of Aldhelm, vol. iii. p. 366. It is curious
to see how, even in Latin, the poet preserves the alliterations that
characterised the Saxon muse.

[150] Slightly altered from Aldhelm.

[151] It is impossible to form any just view of the state of parties,
and the position of Harold in the later portions of this work, unless the
reader will bear constantly in mind the fact that, from the earliest
period, minors were set aside as a matter of course, by the Saxon
customs. Henry observes that, in the whole history of the Heptarchy,
there is but one example of a minority, and that a short and unfortunate
one; so, in the later times, the great Alfred takes the throne, to the
exclusion of the infant son of his elder brother. Only under very
peculiar circumstances, backed, as in the case of Edmund Ironsides, by
precocious talents and manhood on the part of the minor, were there
exceptions to the general laws of succession. The same rule obtained
with the earldoms; the fame, power, and popularity of Siward could not
transmit his Northumbrian earldom to his infant son Waltheof, so gloomily
renowned in a subsequent reign.

[152] Bayeux Tapestry.

[153] Indeed, apparently the only monastic order in England.

[154] See Note to Robert of Gloucester, vol. ii. p. 372.

[155] The Saxon priests were strictly forbidden to bear arms.--SPELM.
Concil. p. 238.

It is mentioned in the English Chronicles, as a very extraordinary
circumstance, that a bishop of Hereford, who had been Harold's chaplain,
did actually take sword and shield against the Welch. Unluckily, this
valiant prelate was slain so soon, that it was no encouraging example.

[156] See Note (K), at the end of the volume.

[157] The Normans and French detested each other; and it was the Norman
who taught to the Saxon his own animosities against the Frank. A very
eminent antiquary, indeed, De la Rue, considered that the Bayeux tapestry
could not be the work of Matilda, or her age, because in it the Normans
are called French. But that is a gross blunder on his part; for William,
in his own charters, calls the Normans "Franci." Wace, in his "Roman de
Rou," often styles the Normans "French;" and William of Poitiers,