Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/80

liv are so frequent in the Gesta Romanorum, that they might lead to a supposition quite the reverse of Mr. Douce's idea; but, I rather conceive them the necessary consequence of transcription; and that the manuscript was thought to require verbal flourishes, as well as gilded margins and illuminated initials. In like manner, I account for the Saxon names of dogs [ Tale. Vol. .] which are quite unnecessary, and seem introduced in the most arbitrary manner. The incidents of one story [ Tale. Vol. . page 305,] are said to occur in the bishopric of Ely. "This fact," says the writer of the Gest, "related upon the faith of many to whom it was well known, I have myself heard) both from the inhabitants of the place and others." The inference, therefore is, that the narrator was either an Englishman, or one well acquainted with the localities of the place he describes.