an army, and the Welsh came to meet him, and made a treaty with him on his own terms. This year the earl of Anjou returned from Jerusalem to his own land, and after this he sent hither to fetch away his daughter who had been married to the king's son William. And on the night of Christmas eve there was a very high wind throughout this land, as might be seen plainly in its effects.
A. 1122. This year king Henry was at Norwich at Christmas, and at Easter he was at Northampton. And the town of Gloucester was burned the Lent before, for while the monks were singing mass, the deacon having begun the gospel "Præteriens Jesus," the fire fell on the top of the steeple,[1] and burned the whole monastery, and all the treasures in it, excepting a few books and three vestments: this happened on the eighth before the Ides of March. And there was a very high wind on the Tuesday after Palm Sunday, the eleventh before the Kalends of April: after this many strange tokens were noticed throughout England, and many ghosts were seen and heard. And on the night of the eighth before the Kalends of August, there was a great earthquake throughout Somersetshire and Gloucestershire. Again on the sixth before the Ides of September, St. Mary's day, there was a very high wind, which continued from nine in the morning till dark night. The same year Ralph archbishop of Canterbury died on the thirteenth before the Kalends of November. After this many shipmen were at sea, and on the water, and said that they saw a fire in the north-east, large and broad, near the earth, and that it grew in height unto the welkin, and the welkin divided into four parts and fought against it, as it would have quenched it; nevertheless the fire flamed up to heaven. They observed this fire at day-break, and it lasted until it was light every where: this was on the seventh before the Ides of December.
A. 1123. This year king Henry was at Dunstable at Christmas, and the messengers from the earl of Anjou came to him there, and he proceeded thence to Woodstock, and his
- ↑ By steeple we are here to understand not a spire, but a tower; spires not bring then invented. I believe 'spear' is the word in Saxon to express what we mean by a spire; 'stepel,' or 'steopel,' signifying only a sleep, loity, or perpendicular structure; and our old antiquarians very properly make a distinction between a spire-steeple and a tower-steeple."—Ingram.
