Roger of Wendover

“ He is included by Roger of Wendover (1211) with his father, Robert Braybroc, in the list of the evil counsellors of John in his struggle with the pope. He remained loyal until 1215, when the insurgent barons induced him to join their party. His estates, which were extensive, were immediately confiscated, and on John's making his peace with the pope, Braybroc was one of those who were excommunicated as enemies to the king (Roger de Wendover, ed. Coxe, iii. 237) . In 1217 he defended the castle of Montsorel, near Dunstable, against the protector, William Marshall, until relieved by Louis ”

“ W. Coventry, vol. ii. p. 226; R. Wendover, vol. iii. p. 333. [1115] W. Coventry, l.c. [1116] R. Wendover, l.c. [1117] W. Coventry, l.c. [1118] M. Paris, Hist. Angl. vol. ii. p. 165. It is Matthew alone who gives the name of the leader of the party. His version of the expedition is important, as he—notwithstanding his strong anti-royalist feeling—shows up the cowardice of the barons, and especially of Fitz-Walter, on this occasion, quite as strongly, and is quite as sarcastic upon it, as the royalist Roger of Wendover. [1119] R. Wendover, vol. iii. p. 333. [1120] W. Coventry, vol. ii. p. ”

“ From 1188 to 1202 Wendover's work is similar in character to the earlier St. Albans compilation, but from 1202, that is after the end of the chronicle of Roger of Hoveden [q. v.] , he may be considered as a first-hand authority (ib. vol. ii. pref. xix) , for thenceforward he does not appear to use the work of any earlier historian for English affairs, except in a few places the chronicle of Ralph of Coggeshall [q. v.] ”

“ If you have any such high-flown idea, abandon it. The Wendovers are not a mercenary tribe. We shall welcome Brian's bride, whoever she be, for her own sake, and not for her dowry.'
'It is no such reason. I cannot tell you. You must forgive me, and let me go.'
'Then I forgive you, and you can go,' replied Miss Wendover, coldly. 'I am deeply disappointed in you. If you cared for me as you say you do, you would trust me. Love without faith is an impossibility. ”

“ Wendover appeared greatly impressed with Lady Davenant's antiquity, though he confessed to his companion on a subsequent occasion that he thought her a little flippant, a little frivolous even for her years. 'Oh yes,' said the girl, on that occasion, 'I have no doubt that you considered she talked too much, for one so old. In America old ladies sit silent and listen to the young.' Mr. Wendover stared a little and replied to this that with her—with Laura Wing—it was impossible to tell which side she was on, the American or the English: sometimes she seemed to take one, sometimes the other. ”

“ It is picturesquely situated in a shallow defile of the Chiltem Hills, towards their western face. Wendover is a quiet town of no great activity. Its church of St Mary is mainly Decorated, and a few old houses remain.
Wendover (Wendovre, Wandovre, Wendoura) is on the Upper Icknield Way, which was probably an ancient British road, and various traces of a British settlement have been found in the town and neighbourhood. In 1087 the king held the manor of Wendover, and therefore it belonged to the ancient demesne of the crown. There is no trace of any incorporation of the town. ”

“ Mr. Wendover still stood there, exceedingly agitated, as well he might be, by this inconceivable scene. Unaccustomed feelings possessed him and they moved him in different directions. Her command that he should take himself off was passionate, yet he attempted to resist, to speak. How would she get home—would she see him to-morrow—would she let him wait for her outside? To this Laura only replied: 'Oh dear, oh dear, if you would only go!' and at the same instant she sprang up, gathering her cloak around her as if to escape from him, to rush away herself. ”

“ A week later she heard from Laura Wing, from Antwerp, that she was sailing to America from that port—a letter containing no mention whatever of Selina or of the reception she had found at Brussels. To America Mr. Wendover followed his young compatriot (that at least she had no right to forbid) , and there, for the moment, he has had a chance to practise the humble virtue recommended by Lady Davenant. He knows she has no money and that she is staying with some [Pg 158] distant relatives in Virginia; a situation that he—perhaps too superficially—figures as unspeakably dreary. ”

“ No, it is not the custom for young ladies here to [Pg 76] take strange gentlemen off to call on their friends the first time they see them.'
'So that Lady Davenant will think it rather extraordinary?' Mr. Wendover eagerly inquired; not as if that idea frightened him, but so that his observation on this point should also be well founded. He had entered into Laura's proposal with complete serenity. ”

“ Brian stifled a yawn.
'No; I'm afraid I have never worked hard enough for that. The need will come, perhaps, later—when the work comes.'
On more than one occasion when Ida talked of the Abbey, Mr. Wendover replied in the same tone. It was evident that he was indifferent to the family seat, or that he even disliked it. He had no pride in surroundings which might have inspired another man. ”

“ You'll never see him; if he is a gentleman he'll rush away.'
'Bless me, what a rushing away!' murmured the old woman. Then passing her arm round Laura she added, 'You'll please to come upstairs with me.'
Half an hour later she had some conversation with her butler which led to his consulting a little register into which it was his law to transcribe with great neatness, from their cards, the addresses of new visitors. This volume, kept in the drawer of the hall table, revealed the fact that Mr. Wendover was staying in George Street, Hanover Square. ”

“ Wendover, of Wendover Abbey—a gentleman with an estate worth something like seven thousand a year, young ladies—has engaged himself to the youngest of my pupil-teachers, whose acquaintance he has cultivated while trespassing on my meadow? Miss Palliser, when a gentleman of Mr. Wendover's means and social status wishes to marry a young person in your position—a concatenation which occurs very rarely in the history of the human race—he comes to the hall door. Mr. Wendover no more means to marry you than he means to marry the moon. ”

“ When he was indoors his stentorian voice penetrated from garret to cellar; when he was out of doors the same deep-toned thunder could be heard across a couple of paddocks. He pervaded the gardens and stables, supervised the home farm, and had a finger in every pie.
Mrs. Wendover was sitting in her own particular arm-chair, close to her husband's sofa—they were seldom seen far apart—with a large basket of crewel-work beside her, containing sundry squares of kitchen towelling and a chaos of many-coloured wools, which never seemed to arrive at any result. ”

“ The Abbey was the ancestral home of the Wendovers, now in possession of Brian Wendover, only son of the Colonel's eldest brother, and head of the house.
'Well, don't upset her oftener than you can help,' replied the father. 'I suppose you don't much mind being spilt off an outside car, Miss Palliser? I believe young ladies of your age rather relish the excitement.'
'She needn't be afraid,' said Reginald; 'I am going to drive.'
'Then we are very likely to find ourselves reposing in a ditch before the day is over,' retorted Bessie. ”

“ Wendover was evidently anything but a reading man.
'No wonder he does not like the Abbey,' she thought. 'The country must always seem dull to a man who does not care for books.'
And then she reminded herself remorsefully of his generous affection, his single-minded devotion to her, and how much gratitude she owed him.
She read all that was worth reading in the magazines, she laughed at all that was laughable in Punch, and the long, slow day wore on somehow. Mrs. Topman brought her lunch, and consulted her about dinner. ”

“ Wendover, while an outspoken and honest writer, is more moderate in his language than Paris, and therefore probably more trustworthy where personal character is concerned; but his chronicle, partly because it reveals less strong feeling, lacks the vigour and brightness that distinguish the work of Paris. A fairly complete picture of the younger historian can be gained from his writings, but the ‘Flores’ do not enable us to become acquainted with Wendover. ”

“ Ida's occupation at the table gave her an excuse for silence. She had only to attend to her cups and saucers, and to listen to Miss Wendover and her nephew, who had plenty to talk about. To hear that deep full voice, with its perfect intonation, was in itself a pleasure—pleasant, also, to discover that Brian Wendover, albeit a famous Balliol man and a Greek scholar after the Porsonian ideal, could still be warmly interested in simple things and lowly folk. ”

“ Wendover—that's you, you know—not Mrs. Wendover at Kingthorpe.'
'Oh, Vernie, you were not listening?'
'Of course not. I wasn't listening on purpose; but I was in the lobby outside the housekeeper's room, waiting for some grease for my shooting boots. I always grease them myself, you know, for nobody else does it properly; and Rogers said the brandy Mr. Wendover had drunk in three weeks would make Mrs. Moggs' hair stand on end ”

“ Thou shouldst be glad that the fiat has gone forth, and that the end may not be far off -- the end of trouble and sorrow; for of the glory that shall follow there shall be no end."
But Wendot broke in hoarsely and impetuously.
"If he must die, let him at least die in freedom, with the old hills around him; let him be laid to rest beneath their shadow. You say that he might well escape; that no cry would be made after him so long as I were in the king's safe keeping. Let him then fly. ”

“ That is what I wished to say to thee. Remember that the English are not always cruel, always rapacious. There are generous, noble, honourable men amongst them, of whom I am sure our guest is one."
"Ay, he has a grand face," said Wendot. "A face one can both love and trust. And all that the little one tells me of the king and his family inclines my heart towards him and his. I will remember what you have said, mother, and will ponder your words. Methinks it is no lovely thing to hate as Llewelyn and Howel hate; it makes men act rather as fiends than as honourable soldiers should." ”

“ The best edition of Wendover is that of H. O. Coxe (4 vols., London, 1841-42) ; there is another (from 1154) in the Rolls Series by H. G. Hewlett (3 vols., 1886–89) . Wendover is a copious but inaccurate writer, less prejudiced but also less graphic than Matthew Paris. Where he is the sole authority for an event, he is to be used with caution. ”

“ He did not [105] work for himself but at the command of others, and thus it was that a monastery chronicle grew, like a monastery house, at different times, and by the labour of different hands.”
Of the heads that planned such chronicles or of the hands that executed them, or of the exact proportion contributed by the several writers, no satisfactory record has been preserved. The individual is lost in the community.
In the earlier divisions of Wendover’s chronicle, covering the centuries from 231 down to about 1000, Wendover certainly relied, says Hardy, upon some previous compilation. ”

“ Which speech being interpreted meant that Miss Wendover had not had a new frock or an invitation to a garden party for the last fortnight.
'Still,' she argued,' one ought to make the best of one's life even at Kingthorpe, and picnics and rambles help one to endure existence. You used to be such a delightful companion, and now no one but little Vernie ever seems to get any fun out of you. He is always talking of the larks he has at the Abbey.'
'Sir Vernon is good enough to call the mildest form of diversion a lark!' said Brian Wendover, smiling at her. ”

“ He wished no evil to the young baronet, he bore no grudge against him for Ida's idiotic fondness; but the fact remained that the boy's death would make Brian Walford Wendover's wife a rich woman. It is not in the nature of a man living among sharp-witted lawyers and men about town to ignore a fact of this kind. His friends had talked to him about it after the publication of Sir Reginald Palliser's will. ”

“ It would be a bad business if the wrong person got hanged by mistake.”
Before Wendover could reply, the car drew up before the front of the hotel.
“You can get out here, squire. There's no need to go round with me to the garage.”
But as Wendover was prepared to get down, they saw the Australian, Cargill, hurrying towards them. He had been sitting on one of the garden-seats, evidently on the look-out for their arrival.
“I've been hunting for you for ever so long, Sir Clinton,” he explained as he came up to the car. “I missed you at lunch-time ”

“ I ask for no prouder distinction, than to be trusted by your mother and by you."
"Roger has settled that question, and shown himself a sensible fellow," resumed Mr. Wentworth, with an emphatic and approving nod. "Since you have spoken of a subject so deeply painful, I will speak plainly too. There are plenty of people, I admit, who treat the family of wrong-doers as if their unspeakable misfortune were their fault; and in a certain sense this tendency is wholesome, for it has a great restraining influence on those tempted to give way to evil. ”

“ It is a day for basking rather than work. Shall we go to the end of the lane—there is a lovely view from there—and sit and bask?'
'With all my heart,' replied Mr. Wendover. 'Come, Miss Palliser, of course you'll join the basking detachment.'
Urania would have liked to leave Ida out of the business, but she smiled sweetly at Mr. Wendover's speech, and they all three strolled to the end of the lane, which ascended all the way, till they found themselves upon a fine upland, with a lovely view of woodland and valley stretching away towards Alresford. ”