The popular errors and misstatements that exist in history are
innumerable. The writers of the early annals of England, as those of
other countries, have generally had a strong feeling for the marvellous,
and where different versions of an event obtained, have chosen rather
that which was most striking and dramatic, than that which was most
true, or best supported by contemporary evidence. Later historians have
but too often adopted their stories without doubt or examination.
One of such narratives is that of the death of King Richard II., which
represents that unfortunate but vicious monarch as being murdered in
Pomfret Castle by Sir Piers of Exton and his assistants, but not till he
had made a most heroic resistance, snatching a battle-axe from one of
his assailants, and with it laying no less than four of them dead at his
feet.
This was the account inserted in all our current histories, and learnt
by every school-boy in Goldsmith’s Abridgement: but within these few
years the ingenious Mr. Tytler, in his History of Scotland, has inserted
a very different one, and maintains,--“that Richard contrived to effect
his escape from Pomfret Castle; that he travelled in disguise to the
Scottish Isles; and that he was there discovered, in the kitchen of
Donald, the Lord of the Isles, by a jester, who had been bred up at his
court;--that Donald, Lord of the Isles, sent him, under the charge of
the Lord Montgomery, to Robert III., King of Scotland, by whom he was
supported as became his rank, so long as that monarch lived;--that he
was; after the death of the king, delivered to the Duke of Albany, the
governor of the kingdom, by whom he was honourably treated;--and that he
finally died in the castle of Stirling, in the year 1419, and was buried
on the north side of the altar, in the church of the preaching friars,
in the town of that name.”
Now this story, which has been adopted by Sir Walter Scott in his
epitome of Scottish History, and which is as romantic as our popular
version, seems to be, like it, decidedly incorrect. All contemporary
historians of the death of Richard II. give a totally different account
from either of the preceding. “Of these, Thomas of Walsingham, Thomas
Otterbourne, the Monk of Evesham, who wrote the life of Richard, and the
continuator of the Chronicle of Croyland, all relate that Richard
_voluntarily starved himself to death, in a fit of despair, in his
prison at Pomfret_. To these must also be added the testimony of Gower
the poet to the same effect, who was not only a contemporary, but had
been himself patronised by Richard.”
The last sentence is extracted from an interesting paper lately read by
Lord Dover before the Royal Society of Literature. By comparing the
different authorities Lord Dover has clearly proved the incorrectness of
the two stories; and though evidence is wanting to substantiate the
fact, that Richard was _not “for-hungered_,” or starved to death by his
keepers, “the probabilities of the case would appear to be very strongly
in favour of his voluntary starvation.”
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_Courts of Justice among Crows._--Those extraordinary assemblies, which
may be called crow-courts, are observed here (in the Feroe Islands) as
well as in the Scotch Isles; they collect in great numbers as if they
had been all summoned for the occasion. A few of the flock sit with
drooping heads; others seem as grave as if they were judges, and some
are exceedingly active and noisy, like lawyers and witnesses; in the
course of about an hour the company generally disperse, and it is not
uncommon, after they have flown away, to find one or two left dead on
the spot.--_Landt’s Description of Feroe Islands._
Dr. Edmonstone, in his view of the Shetland Islands, says that sometimes
the crow-court, or meeting, does not appear to be complete before the
expiration of a day or two, crows coming from all quarters to the
session. As soon as they are all arrived, a very general noise ensues,
the business of the court is opened, and shortly after, they all fall
upon one or two individual crows (who are supposed to have been
condemned by their peers) and put them to death. When the execution is
over, they quietly disperse.
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A Persian philosopher, being asked by what method he had acquired so
much knowledge, answered, “By not being prevented by shame from asking
questions when I was ignorant.”
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