_b_ 27-8. _Iohan Cornwal, a mayster of gramere._ A 'master of grammar' was a licensed teacher of grammar. Mr. Stevenson points out that in 1347-8 John of Cornwall received payment from Merton College, Oxford, for teaching the boys of the founder's kin. His countryman Trevisa probably had personal knowledge of his methods of teaching. _b_ 39-40. _and a scholle passe þe se_, 'if they should cross the sea'. _b_ 47-8. The bracketed words are introduced by Trevisa. _b_ 50 f. _and ys gret wondur_: _and_ is superfluous and should perhaps be deleted. _b_ 58-65. Though still often quoted as a fourteenth-century witness to the pronunciation of Northern English (e.g. by K. Luick, _Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache_, 1914, pp. 40 f.), this passage, as Higden acknowledges, comes from the Prologue to Book iii of William of Malmesbury's _Gesta Pontificum_, completed in the year 1125: see the Rolls Series edition, p. 209. XIV _a_ 2. _Bannokburn._ Minot's subject is not so much the defeat of the English at Bannockburn in 1314, as the English victory at Halidon Hill on 19 July 1333, which he regards as a vengeance for Bannockburn. _a_ 7. _Saint Iohnes toune_: Perth, so called from its church of St. John the Baptist. It was occupied by the English in 1332 after the defeat of the Scots at Dupplin Moor. _a_ 13. _Striflin_, 'Stirling'. _a_ 15. Hall suggests that this refers to Scotch raids on the North of England undertaken to distract Edward III from the siege of Berwick. _a_ 19 f. _Rughfute riueling... Berebag_: nicknames for the Scots, the first because they wore brogues (_riuelings_) of rough hide; the second because, to allow of greater mobility, each man carried his own bag of provisions instead of relying on a baggage train. _a_ 22. _Brig_ = _Burghes_ l. 25, 'Bruges'. At this time Scots, English, and French had all close connexions with the Netherlands. Observe that John Crab, who aided the Scots in the defence of Berwick (note to X 15), was a Fleming. _a_ 35. _at Berwik._ Berwick fell as a result of the battle of Halidon Hill which the Scots fought with the object of raising the siege. For an earlier siege of Berwick, in 1319, see No. X. _a_ 36. _get_, 'watch', 'be on the look out' (ON. _gǽta_). _b_ 5-6. Calais was at this time a convenient base for piracy in the Channel. _b_ 19. _A bare_: Edward III, whom Minot often refers to as 'the boar'. _b_ 24-6. In preparation for the long siege Edward III had built a regular camp beside Calais.