[59] Canon Thompson writes to me, ‘The old sexton used to show visitors a bone, which he said was taken from the tomb in 1832. I tried to have this buried in the tomb on the occasion of the last removal, but I was told it had disappeared.’ [60] vol. ii. p. 91. [61] _Bp. Braybrooke’s Register_, f. 84. [62] _Braybrooke Register_, f. 151. [63] The date of the resignation by John Gower of the rectory of Great Braxted is nearly a year earlier than the marriage of Gower the poet. [64] I do not know on what authority Rendle states that ‘His apartment seems to have been in what was afterwards known as Montague Close, between the church of St. Mary Overey and the river,’ _Old Southwark_, p. 182. [65] At the same time I am disposed to attach some weight to the expression in _Mir._ 21774, where the author says that some may blame him for handling sacred subjects, because he is no ‘clerk,’ ‘Ainz ai vestu la raye manche.’ This may possibly mean only to indicate the dress of a layman, but on the other hand it seems clear that some lawyers, perhaps especially the ‘apprenticii ad legem,’ were distinguished by stripes upon their sleeves; see for example the painting reproduced in Pulling’s _Order of the Coif_ (ed. 1897); and serjeants-at-law are referred to in _Piers Plowman_, A text, Pass. iii. 277, as wearing a ‘ray robe with rich pelure.’ We must admit, therefore, the possibility that Gower was bred to the law, though he may not have practised it for a living. [66] The Lincoln MS. has the same feature, but it is evidently copied from Laud 719. [67] There seems also to have been an alternative numbering, which proceeded on the principle of making five books, beginning with the third, the second being treated as a general prologue to the whole poem. In connexion with this we may take the special invocation of divine assistance in the prologue of the third book, which ends with the couplet, ‘His tibi libatis nouus intro nauta profundum, Sacrum pneuma rogans vt mea vela regas.’ [68] Fuller’s spirited translation of these lines is well known, but may here be quoted again: ‘Tom comes thereat, when called by Wat, and Simm as forward we find, Bet calls as quick to Gibb and to Hykk, that neither would tarry behind. Gibb, a good whelp of that litter, doth help mad Coll more mischief to do, And Will he does vow, the time is come now, he’ll join in their company too. Davie complains, whiles Grigg gets the gains, and Hobb with them does partake, Lorkin aloud in the midst of the crowd conceiveth as deep is his stake. Hudde doth spoil whom Judde doth foil, and Tebb lends his helping hand, But Jack the mad patch men and houses does snatch, and kills all at his command.’ _Church History_, Book iv. (p. 139).