[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,