St. Lucia.
* * * * *
Minor Queries.
_Prophecy in Hoveden._--I should be extremely obliged if any one of your
numerous readers would give me the following information. In the account
given by Hoveden (p. 678. of the Frankfort edition of Sir H. Savile's
_Scriptores post Bedam_) of the proceedings during the stay of Richard I.
at Messina, that author says:
"Then was fulfilled the prophecy which was found written in ancient
characters on tablets of stone, near a vill of the King of England,
which is called 'Here,' and which King Henry gave to William
Fitz-Stephen. Here the said William built a new house on a pinnacle, on
which he placed the figure of a stag, which is supposed to have been
done that the said prophecy might be fulfilled, which was to the
following effect:
'Whan thu seches in Here hert yreret.
Than sulen Engles in three be ydeled.
That han sal into Yrland altolate waie,
That other into Puille mid prude bi seue,
The thridde into Airhahen herd alle wreken drechegen.'"
This is evidently full of typographical errors, and may be more correctly
set forth in the English edition of 1596, which I have not at hand. I
therefore wish for information on these points: