“Such, then, are the particulars of this memorable event, as related by Boethius, and supported by proofs from the most undoubted records, which fix it in the Year 1390; illustrated also by the addition of some curious particulars from Stow’s translation of the passage given in his ‘_Annals_,’ which I have already cited; though it is far beyond my ability to give you either the elegance or strength of expression, which the original author has infused into his narrative. Now, for the time when this Justing took place, let me observe that Boethius does not mention any year; Stow has called it 1395 and 1396; Raphael Holinshed, who professed to have translated the Scottish Historian in the Second part of his ‘_Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland_,’ London, 1585-86, volume i., page 252, makes it 1398; and James Howell, whose account of London Bridge is a verbatim reprint of Stow’s, in his ‘_Londinopolis_,’ London, 1657, folio, page 22, sets it down as 1381. So far, then, all are at variance: but these are only the later and English Authors; whilst, on the other hand, we have the following positive assurance of John de Fordun, a Scottish Priest, who is said in 1377 to have dedicated his History of Scotland to the Cardinal Walter Wardlaw, Bishop of Glasgow; the best edition of whose work, ‘_Johannis de Fordun Scotichronicon_,’ with the Continuation of Walter Bower, Abbot of St. Columb’s Isle, in 1424, is that of Walter Goodall, Edinburgh, 1759, folio; where, in volume ii., book xv., chapter iv., page 422, is the passage to which I have alluded. ‘In the same year, and on the 21st of the month,’--it commences, these being 1390, and April,--‘the Lord David Lindesay is made first Earl of Crawfurd, a valiant Knight, and in all warlike virtues most highly commended; who, with other proofs of them, had a glorious triumph over the Lord Wells of England, in his days a most famous soldier, at London, in the presence of King Richard II., in the year 1390, in a warlike pastime with spears: of which proof of military prowess, the fame hath hitherto been widely celebrated throughout England.’ “The next authority which I shall adduce is that of Andrew of Wyntoun, a Scottish Chronicler, who was Canon Regular of St. Andrews, and Prior of the Monastery of St. Serf in Loch-leven; and who died about the year 1420. The best edition of his labours is that beautiful one, entitled ‘_The Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland, be Androw of Wyntown, Priowr of Sanct Serfis Ynche_,’--that is Isle,--‘_in Loch levyn. Now first published with Notes and a Glossary, by David Macpherson_,’ London, 1815, 8vo., 2 volumes. In the Second Volume of this work then, at page 353, the commencement of Chapter xi. reads thus,-- ‘Qwhen Schyr David the Lyndyssay rade Til Lundyn, and thare Tourné made. _A thowsand thre hyndyr and nynty yhere Frà the Byrth of oure Lord dere_