stones.

it being a treatise on birds, beasts, and precious Another translation of a work, on an equally unpromising subject, was also made by the same hand, the "Liber de Creaturis;" a kind of astronomical treatise, which he however dedicated to his uncle, Humphrey du Than. Of the same order, but possessing far superior talents, was the anonymous author of that "Voyage of St. Brandan," already alluded to; and David, another trouvère, whose works are believed to be lost; both of whom, as well as Geffroi Gaimar, a third, undertook their respective works at the instance and under the express patronage of the fair Adelais.

The example of the queen seems to have awakened a spirit of literary emulation among the nobles of her court. Robert, earl of Gloucester, Beauclerc's favourite son, was distinguished greatly for his patronage of literary men; and Walter l'Espec, lord of Hamlake (the afterwards celebrated hero of the battle of the Standard), and Nicol de Trailli, his son-in-law, are both mentioned by Gaimar as aiding him to complete his history of the British king. And ladies, too, eagerly emulated the example of the queen; the lady Custance Fitz Gilbert was the especial assistant of Gaimar. She sent into Yorkshire, to Walter l'Espec, to borrow a precious volume which Gaimar thought necessary to the completion of his undertaking; and she also greatly patronized David, the trouvère before mentioned, who it appears wrote a metrical life of Beauclerc; and this work "Custance la gentil," as he calls her, valued so highly, that she wil

lingly gave "a mark of silver, tried and weighed," to obtain its transcription. The lady Alice de Condé, wife of Osbert de Condé, the lord of Horncastle, was also a liberal patroness of letters: Sampson de Nanteuil, who probably was an ecclesiastic, undertook, at her express request, a translation of the Proverbs of Solomon, "with a gloss more ample than the text," into Norman French verse; and the huge volume still remains a proof of the laborious skill, if not of the poetical talents of the trouvère, and a noble specimen of Anglo-Norman calligraphy.

Although this list of these Anglo-Norman works, with the single exception of the "Voyage of St. Brandan," presents little to attract the modern reader, we may judge, from that alone, with what eager and importunate longings the awakened mind sought after knowledge, in whatever form it was presented. A general and rapid advancement in intellectual pursuits seems indeed to have peculiarly characterized the nation at this period, and these seeds of improvement during Beauclerc's reign were scattered so abundantly and had taken such deep root, that the desolations of the succeeding reign were unable to prevent the future harvest.

In the August of 1135 Beauclerc quitted England to visit Normandy; "and the next day, as he lay asleep on the ship," says the venerable Saxon Chronicle, the day darkened over all lands, and the

* The reader is probably not aware that the mark was never a coin, but a weight (eight ounces.) The silver might be either in pennies, or uncoined, since it was always weighed; and the value in the present day would be about £12.

sun was, as it were, a three-nights'-old moon, and the stars about him at mid-day. Men were very much astonished and terrified, and said that some great event should come hereafter; and so it did; " although we may consider that the same would have happened even though the sun might not appear like a three-nights'-old moon; but the meaning of the prognostic was soon revealed, when "on the next day after St. Andrew's mass day" king Henry died.

The account that his death was occasioned by eating lampreys, contrary to the advice of his physicians, is to be found in several of the chroniclers. Whatever were the exciting cause, fever appears to have been the result; and on the third day, giving up all expectation of recovery, he sent to the archbishop of Rouen, and to the earls of Gloster, Surrey, and Leicester, and pronounced to them his last will. By this he bequeathed all his dominions to the empress Maude and her heirs; desired the payment of all his debts, and the wages of all his servants, and that the remainder of his treasure should be distributed to the poor on the seventh day he died. After some delay the royal corpse, rudely embalmed, was transmitted to England; and, according to his express desire, it was placed " in a marble tomb in the principal church of the most blessed and glorious Virgin Mary," in his splendidly endowed abbey of Reading. Most of the nobility attended his obsequies, and, after the usage of the day, offered liberally both to the church, and in alms to "the multitudinous number of poor; "while his nephew,

Stephen, already the successor to his throne, and the possessor of his treasures, himself aided in supporting the royal bier.

Whether Adelais were with him in Normandy, or whether she attended the splendid rites that graced the obsequies of Beauclerc at Reading, we have no information; but we find that on the first anniversary of his death she made a donation, to the abbey of Reading, of the manor of Eston in Hertfordshire, (this forming part of her dower,) "for the health of her soul and that of king Henry; also for our lord king Stephen, by the grace of God king of England, his wife Maude, and for all the progeny of the most noble king Henry, and for my father and mother, and all relations living or dead: "—a tolerably comprehensive bead-roll. In this document, it may be observed, that she still calls herself " queen;" and she concludes by declaring, that she has confirmed the above donation by the gift of a pall which "she herself had placed upon the altar." We also find that subsequently she gave one hundred shillings per annum, from lands at Stanton-Harcourt, to provide "a lamp to burn continually before the tomb."*

Ere we pass onward, we may pause to remark upon the great advantages which England derived from the sway of the first Henry. While in his private character we seek in vain for any virtue-in vain, almost, for any even redeeming quality, in his public character there is much to approve. The principle of equal justice to Saxon and Norman, seems to have been rigidly adhered to in the whole course of his

• Monasticon.

*

No man durst

administration; while the protection which he afforded to commerce, directly by charters to various towns, and indirectly by the encouragement which he gave to merchants both foreign and English and the severity with which he visited crimes committed against property, together with the general uprightness of his administration, at a period when bribe-taking seems scarcely to have been considered a crime,† were each most important to the interests of the nation. The simple eulogy of the Saxon Chronicle is very emphatic: "A good man was he, and there was great dread of him. do wrong to another in his day. Peace he made for man and beast; whoso bare his burthen of gold and silver durst no man say him aught but good.‡ In many of his plans Beauclerc, like his father, seems to have been in advance of his age. tronage of those Flemings, who, toward the close of his reign, fled hither in consequence of an inundation, was marked by profound policy. Well knowing the hostility of his English subjects to foreigners, and yet willing to avail himself of the manufacturing skill of these strangers, he placed them, not in English towns, but in the marches on the borders of Pembrokeshire, where they formed an effective barrier against the incursions of the Welch. With similar far-reaching policy, perceiving that the * Vide Pipe Roll, 31st Henry.

His pa

+ Malmsbury relates that if Henry had been prevailed upon to remit the sentence passed against the ninety-four mint-masters for debasing the coin, “he would have been richer by many thousand talents. William of umieges remarks, that the coin was so greatly deteriorated during this reign, that it was two-thirds tin and scarcely one third silver.

↑ Saxon Chronicle (Ingram's), page 364.