for he received not
much honour from him; but may the Almighty God give him honour
hereafter. And Christina, the sister of the etheling, went into
the monastery of Rumsey, and received the holy veil. And the
same year there was a very heavy season, and a swinkful and
sorrowful year in England, in murrain of cattle, and corn and
fruits were at a stand, and so much untowardness in the weather,
as a man may not easily think; so tremendous was the thunder and
lightning, that it killed many men; and it continually grew worse
and worse with men. May God Almighty better it whenever it be
his will.

A.D. 1087. After the birth of our Lord and Saviour Christ, one
thousand and eighty-seven winters; in the one and twentieth year
after William began to govern and direct England, as God granted
him, was a very heavy and pestilent season in this land. Such a
sickness came on men, that full nigh every other man was in the
worst disorder, that is, in the diarrhoea; and that so
dreadfully, that many men died in the disorder. Afterwards came,
through the badness of the weather as we before mentioned, so
great a famine over all England, that many hundreds of men died a
miserable death through hunger. Alas! how wretched and how
rueful a time was there! When the poor wretches lay full nigh
driven to death prematurely, and afterwards came sharp hunger,
and dispatched them withall! Who will not be penetrated with
grief at such a season? or who is so hardhearted as not to weep
at such misfortune? Yet such things happen for folks' sins, that
they will not love God and righteousness. So it was in those
days, that little righteousness was in this land with any men but
with the monks alone, wherever they fared well. The king and the
head men loved much, and overmuch, covetousness in gold and in
silver; and recked not how sinfully it was got, provided it came
to them. The king let his land at as high a rate as he possibly
could; then came some other person, and bade more than the former
one gave, and the king let it to the men that bade him more.
Then came the third, and bade yet more; and the king let it to
hand to the men that bade him most of all: and he recked not how
very sinfully the stewards got it of wretched men, nor how many
unlawful deeds they did; but the more men spake about right law,
the more unlawfully they acted. They erected unjust tolls, and
many other unjust things they did, that are difficult to reckon.
Also