NOTES TO THE 



" He is said to have attracted the royal notice by foretelling in 

 Cheshire the result of the battle of Bosworth, on recovering from 

 sudden stupor with which he was seized while the battle was fighting 

 in Leicestershire, and to have been sent for to Court shortly after- 

 wards, where he was starved (or, to use his own expression, clemmed) 

 to death through forgetfulness, in a manner which he himself had 

 predicted." 



Note 25, p. 19. 



" A foot with two heels, and a hand with three thumbs I " 



Amongst the prophecies of Nixon are the following : — 



" There shall be a miller named Peter, 

 With two heels on one foot." . . . 



" A boy shall be born with three thumbs on one hand, 

 Who shall hold three Kings' horses, 

 Whilst England is three times won and lost in one day. 

 But after this shall be happy days." 



" Twenty hundred horses shall want masters. 

 Till their girths rot under their bellies." 



Note 26, p. 19. 



Here hunted the Scot whom, too wise to show fight. 



King James' diversion in the forest of Delamere, when returning 

 from Scotland, is thus described in Webb's Itinerary : — 



" Making the house of Vale Royal four days his royal court, he 

 solaced himself and took pleasing entertainment in his disports in the 

 forest. . . . And where his Majesty, the day following, had such 

 successful pleasure in the hunting of his own hounds of a stag to 

 death, as it pleased him graciously to calculate the hours, and confer 

 with the keepers, and his honourable attendants, of the particular 

 events in that sport, and to question them whether they ever saw or 

 heard of the like expedition, and true performance of hounds well 

 hunting. At which his Highness Princely contentment we had much 



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