_by weste_ = _westward_. A good old expression, which was once very common
as late as the sixteenth century.
389. Dartmouth was once a very considerable port; see Essays on Chaucer, p.
456. Compare the account of the Shipman's Gild at Lynn; E. Gilds, p. 54.
390. _rouncy_, a common hackney horse, a nag. Cf. _Rozinante_.
'_Rocinante_--significativo de lo que habia sido cuando fué _rocin, antes_
de lo que ahora era.' Don Quijote, cap. 1. 'From _Rozin_, a drudge-horse,
and _ante_, before.' Jarvis's note. The O. F. form is _roncin_; Low Lat.
_runcinus_. The _rouncy_ was chiefly used for agricultural work; see Essays
on Chaucer, p. 494.
_as he couthe_, as he knew how; but, as a sailor, his knowledge this way
was deficient.
391. _a goune of falding_, a gown (robe) of coarse cloth. The term
_falding_ signifies 'a kind of frieze or rough-napped cloth,' which was
probably 'supplied from the North of Europe, and identical with the woollen
wrappers of which Hermoldus speaks, "_quos nos appellamus
Faldones_."'--Way. '_Falding_ was a coarse serge cloth, very rough and
durable,' &c.; Essays on Chaucer, p. 438. In MS. O. 5. 4, in Trinity
College, Cambridge, occurs the entry--'Amphibulus, vestis equi villosa,
anglice _a sclauayn or faldyng_'; cited in Furnivall's Temporary Preface,
p. 99. In 1392, I find a mention of 'unam tunicam de nigro _faldyng_
lineatam'; Testamenta Eboracensia, i. 173. Hence its colour was sometimes
black, and the Shipman's gown is so coloured in the drawing in the
Ellesmere MS.; but see A. 3212. See the whole of Way's long note in the
Prompt. Parvulorum. [39]