no 



Strap lucres on Sir licrbcrt maxiDCirs recent 



translation of tbe ** Scalacronica '' of 



Sir Cbomas 6rap* of fteton* 



By William Maddan, Berwick-on-Tweed. 



The grand old Chronicle of the courtly and ^'aliant Knight, 

 compiled in durance in Edinburgh Castle a.d. 1355, has long 

 lain perdu to the general readei' among the learned and 

 ponderous volumes of the Maitland Club. That accomplished 

 and learned Scotsman, Sir Herbert Eustace Maxwell, has laid 

 the reading public, and all Borderers in particular, under a 

 deep debt of gratitude by making this valuable and pictur- 

 esque narrative open to all interested in our early history. 

 All Borderers who have any intei-est, however slight, in the 

 romance of history will join in thanking the translator for 

 the pleasure of ha\'ing this unique work for perusal, without 

 the worry and fatigue of wrestling with the ambiguous and 

 crabbed Norman-French of the original. Our old Chronicler 

 is better than Froissai't, as he and his father were not mere 

 outsiders like the reverend canon of Lille, but were both 

 in the thick of fight wherever possible. They were both 

 worthy of the proud motto of the Grays : — De hon vouloir 

 servir le Hoi. They wei-e no daring moss-ti'ooping Border 

 laii-ds, but veiy perfect knights, as witness the brave and 

 marvellous adventures by flood and field, by fire and sword, 



* The old spelling of the name was Gray, as is still the custom 

 north of the Tweed. 



