by John Mason Neale, illustrated by Arthur Gaskin

“ Mediæval history in all its detail, with all its enthusiasms, legends, and superstitions, is now cultivated by many who have no ecclesiastical bias as a portion of the great progress of the life of man on the earth, the discovery of which as an unbroken chain belongs almost entirely to our own days. ”

“ Neale must be awarded the honour of being the chief figure of the history lovers, or shall we say the Mediævalists in the movement in question, and the poem before us is a good specimen of his manner & its limitations. The legend itself is pleasing and a genuine one, and the Christmas-like quality of it, recalling the times of my boyhood, appeals to me at least as a happy memory of past days. ”