In Roger de Hoveden's account of the accident which proved fatal to
Leopold, Duke of Austria, the jailer of Richard I. (Bohn's edit., vol. ii.
p. 345.), St. Stephen's Day, on which it occurred, is twice stated to be
_before_ Christmas Day, instead of after it. Is this an error of the
author, or of translator?[1] or are they right, and was St. Stephen's
martyrdom in those times commemorated on a different day from what it now
is? I cannot find, on reference to the authorities within my reach, that
this last was the case. Mr. Riley does not notice the discrepancy at all.
In the translation of this Volume, a few errors have come under my
observation, to which I beg to call Mr. R.'s attention: 1. In his note on
Corumphira's prophecy, at p. 36., he seems to forget that the Mahometan
year differs from the Julian by eleven or twelve days, and that in
consequence A. D. 1186 does not correspond to A. H. 564; in fact, the old
astrologer is perfectly correct in his chronology, more so than in his
predictions, many of which were signally falsified in the course of the
next few years. 2. A mountain frequently mentioned by his author as
projecting into the sea at the boundary of Catalonia and Valencia, and
called "Muncian," he says in a note at p. 151. is "probably Montserrat,"
which is far from either the sea or the frontier; the maps of Spain all
show, near the town of Vinaros on the east coast, a hill on the sea-shore
called "Monte Sia," which still, as then, forms the boundary in that
direction between the two provinces. 3. In his note at p. 156. on "Mount
Gebel," the translator says, "he (the author) probably means Stromboli;"
surely the name of Mongibello, and the mention of Catania a few lines
farther down should have shown him that Etna only could be meant, although
part of the mistake is due to Hoveden himself, who talks of it as a
separate island from Sicily. Mr. Riley's other geographical notes are
generally {638} correct, though a little more pains might have greatly
increased their number, to the elucidation of his author's account of the
Crusaders' proceedings in the East. 4. At p. 249. a well-known passage from
Horace is ascribed to Juvenal.