[1] 'Tho the service was ydo:' when the service was done. [2] 'Meinie:' attendants. [3] 'Nome': brought. [4] 'Druery.' modesty, decorum. [5] 'Thrye:' thrice. [6] 'Bachlery:' chivalry, courage, or youth. [7] 'Chekere:' chess. [8] 'With casting, other with setting:' different ways of playing at chess. [9] 'Alurs:' walks made within the battlements of the castle. [10] 'Exte dayes:' high, or chief days. AN OLD TRADITION. It was a tradition invented by the old fablers that giants brought the stones of Stonehenge from the most sequestered deserts of Africa, and placed them in Ireland; that every stone was washed with juices of herbs, and contained a medical power; and that Merlin, the magician, at the request of King Arthur, transported them from Ireland, and erected them in circles on the plain of Amesbury, as a sepulchral monument for the Britons treacherously slain by Hengist. This fable is thus delivered, without decoration, by Robert of Glocester:-- 'Sir king,' quoth Merlin then, 'such thinge's ywis Ne be for to shew nought, but when great need is, For if I said in bismare, other but it need were, Soon from me he would wend, the ghost that doth me lere.'[1] The king, then none other n'as, bid him some quaintise Bethink about thilk cors that so noble were and wise.[2] 'Sir King,' quoth Merlin then, 'if thou wilt here cast In the honour of men, a work that ever shall ylast, To the hill of Kylar[3] send in to Ireland, After the noble stones that there habbet[4] long ystand; That was the treche of giants,[5] for a quainte work there is Of stones all with art ymade, in the world such none is. Ne there n'is nothing that me should myd[6] strength adowne cast. Stood they here, as they doth there, ever a woulde last.' The king somdeal to-lygh[7], when he hearde this tale: 'How might,' he said, 'such stones, so great and so fale,[8] Be ybrought of so far land? And yet mist of were, Me would ween that in this lande no stone to wonke n'ere.' Sir king,' quoth Merlin, 'ne make nought an idle such laughing; For it n'is an idle nought that I tell this tiding. For in the farrest stude of Afric giants while fet [9] These stones for medicine and in Ireland them set, While they wonenden in Ireland to make their bathe's there, There under for to bathe when they sick were. For they would the stones wash and therein bathe ywis; For is no stone there among that of great virtue n'is.' The king and his counsel rode the stones for to fet, And with great power of battle if any more them let. Uther, the kinge's brother, that Ambrose hett[10] also, In another name ychose was thereto, And fifteen thousand men, this deede for to do, And Merlin for his quaintise thither went also.