Life of Sir William Wallace of Elderslie, Vol. 1 (of 2)Carrick, John D. (John Donald)
History
Life of Sir William Wallace of Elderslie, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Carrick, John D. (John Donald)
Wallace, William, Sir, -1305
“Quhen the Kyng Edward of Ingland
Had herd of this deidfull Tythand,
All breme he belyd in-to berth,
And wrythyd all in wedand werth,
Alsá kobbyd in his crope
As he had ettin are Attyrcope.”
_Wyntown_, vol. ii. p. 81.
[54] Before the attack, Antony Bek, Bishop of Durham, joined the
English army, with 140 knights, 500 horse, and 1000 foot, accompanied
by the consecrated banners of St Cuthbert and St John of Beverley;
the former carried by Henry de Horncester, a stout monk of Durham,
and the latter by Gilbert de Grymmesby (so called by the English), a
Scottish Vicar of Beverley College, born in the district of Kyle in
Ayrshire,--who had spent a great part of his life in the service of
Edward in France, where he had acted as a pursuivant. The banner of
St Cuthbert accompanied the King only on extraordinary occasions. The
following description of it may not be unacceptable.
“This banner was fastened to a staff, five yards in length. All the
pipes were of silver, to be sliven (_slipt_) on along the banner-staff;
and on the uppermost pipe, on the height of it, was a little silver
cross, and a goodly banner-cloth pertaining to it, and in the midst of
the banner-cloth was a white velvet, half a yard square every way, and
a cross of crimson velvet over it, and within the said white velvet was
the holy relique, wherewith St Cuthbert covered the chalice when he
said mass, and the residue of the banner-cloth was of crimson velvet,
embroidered all over with gold and green silk most sumptuously. It
was not carried out but on his anniversary, and some other principal
festivals in procession. It was the clerk’s office to wait on it in his
surplice, with a fair red-painted staff, having a fork or cleft at the
upper end, which cleft was lined with soft silk, having a down under
the silk to prevent it hurting or bruising the pipes of the banner,
which were of silver, to take it down and raise it up again, by reason
of the weightiness thereof. There were always four men to wait on it,
besides the clerk, and divers who carried it. This last wore a strong
girdle of white leather, to which the banner was fastened by two pieces
of the same, having at each end of them a socket of horn to put the end
of the banner-staff into.”--_Hist. and Antiq. of Durham Abbey, p. 118,
120._
By the Wardrobe Accounts, it appears that the monk who carried the
banner of St Cuthbert into Scotland, was paid 1s. per day,--while he
who carried that of St John was allowed 8½d., and _one penny_ per day
to bring it back.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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