_The Frozen Horn_ (Vol. iii., p. 25.).--I am quite angry with J.M.G. for
supposing my old friend Sir John Maundevile guilty of such a _flam_ as that
which he quotes from memory as the worthy knight's own statement. There is
no such story in the _Voiage and Travaile_: nay more, there is not in the
whole of that "ryght merveillous" book, a single passage given on the
authority of Sir John as eyewitness that is not perfectly credible. When he
quotes Pliny for monsters, the Chronicles for legends, and the romances of
his time for narratives of an extraordinary character, he does so in
evident good faith as a compiler. His most improbable statements, too, are
always qualified with some such phrase as "men seyn, but I have not sene
it." In a word, I believe Sir John Maundevile to have been as truthful in
intention as any writer of his age. I am afraid that J.M.G.'s knowledge of
our old "voiager" is limited to some jest-book of more modern times, which
attributes to him sayings and doings of which he is perfectly guiltless.