Higden, Ranulph

, the author of an old chronicle, not in much estimation, was a Benedictine of St. Werberg’s monastery in Chester, where he died about 1360, aged between eighty and ninety. He is thought to have borrowed much from another monk of his monastery, Roger Cestrensis, but probably both were indebted to the same original materials, and both were sufficiently admirers of the marvellous to compile works rather of curiosity than of use, unless where they present us with the transactions of their own time. Higden’s work was entitled “Polychronicon;” Dr. Gale published that part which relates to the Britons and Saxons among his“Quindecem Scriptores, &c.” But the greatest curiosity among collectors is the English translation of the “Polychronicon,” by John de Trevisa, printed by Caxton in 14S2, folio, in seven books, to which Caxton added an eighth. The most magnificent copy of this work extant is in the library of earl Spencer. There are also copies in his majesty’s collection, in the Bodleian and British Museum, and in Mr. Heber’s library. The “Chester Mysteries,” exhibited in that city in 1328, at the expence of the several trading corporations, have been ascribed to our Chronicler. ²