Pagina:Annales monastici Vol IV.djvu/58

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the Annals. 1 PREFACE. (p. 409), of the new bells in 1220 (p. 412), of the fall of the two lesser towers by a storm in 1222 (p. 415), and of the la3dng the foundation of the new front of the cathedral in 1224 (p. 415). As to ornaments in the church, two new pictures, of which the priory were evidently very proud, as the annalist mentions they contained " multarum imaginum pulcherrimam comi- " tivam," were placed in the church in 1292 by the sacrist (p. 510), and a new one over the high altar in 1293 (p. 513). Style of ^ The style of the Worcester Annals is for the most part clear and unambitious ; sometimes the author uses verse, as for the description of storms, or the births of the royal children, &c. Sometimes a local event, as the drowning of three boys in the Severn, or a new vessel being launched on the river, is commemorated by a line or two ; this occasionally causes obscurity, the writer giving an allusion probably well enough imder- stood when he wrote, but now difficult or impossible to be understood ; for instance in p. 507, " Fraude capel- lani caput asportatur Alani," and p. 495, " Plm*ibus expensis est facta domus Beverensis, " Ante fuit camera sic parva, capella coquina." See also the verses in pp. 503, 513. There is a cmious account of a sacrilege done in Pershore chui'ch in 1299, obscurely written: "quia custos ecclesise, muliebri consilio " infatuatus, in loco sacrato ignem obtulit alienum " (p. 541). Among events of general interest may be mentioned the various attempts at a wife for Henry III. (p. 420), the first stone of the pavement of Worcester being laid by the bishop in 1280 (p. 479), the annoyance of the prelates at having to go to London for the anniversary of queen Eleanor's funeral (p. 506), which the chronicler says will make the day memorable for many years. There are several important allusions to the amount of bad money in circulation towards the end of the