Social life in Britain from the conquest to the reformation / compiled by G.G. Coulton.

  • Coulton, G. G. (George Gordon), 1858-1947.
Date:
1918
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Social life in Britain from the conquest to the reformation / compiled by G.G. Coulton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    whiche dwelle abowte the Yle callede Tyle under that pole artike1. Gervase of Tilbury, c. XLV. p. 24. In Britain there is a castle among the mountains, which the people call Peak. Its bulwarks are almost impregnable ; and in the bowels of the mountain is a cavern which, at times, belcheth forth gusts of wind as one who bloweth on a pipe. Folk wonder whence this wind cometh ; and, among many marvels told of that cave, I have heard the following from that most religious man Robert, prior of [Kenilworth], who was born in those parts. In the days when the noble William Peverel held this castle and barony—a strong and mighty man, and rich in flocks and herds—one day his swineherd, through negligence in his office, lost his noblest sow, a beast of choice ancestry, while she was big with young. Therefore, fearing the bitter words of his lord’s steward at this loss, he began to think within himself whether the beast had crept into that famous Hole of the Peak, hitherto unexplored. He resolved therefore to explore that mysterious place, and crept into the cave at a time when the blast was quiet; thence, having proceeded far on his way, he at length came out of the darkness into the open air, at a place where the passage opened out into a wide plain. Here he found the land tilled far and wide, and reapers harvesting the ripe corn, and among the drooping ears his own sow, with her numerous litter of pigs. At this the swineherd marvelled, and rejoiced thus to make good his loss. Therefore he told the whole tale to the reeve of that field, who gave him his sow and sent him home rejoicing to his own herd. And, wondrous to relate ! having left these subterranean folk in the harvest-field, he came back to find winter still reigning in our hemisphere. 1 i.e. “For these men, as they walk, stand at an obtuse angle to those who live in the island of Thule.” This still leaves room for the general belief that the southern hemisphere was almost all ocean.