, Sir
Thomas Ashton of Ashton, and Sir Edmund Trafford of Trafford. These
worthy knights obtained a patent for changing metals, 24 Hen. VI. The
philosophers, probably imposing upon themselves as well as others, kept
the king's expectation wound up to the highest pitch; and in the
following year he actually informed his people that the happy hour was
approaching when, by means of the _stone_, he should _be able to pay off
his debts_[55]
With regard to the prophecy or denunciation made by him against the
Talbots, recorded in our legend, Dr Whitaker observes,--"Something like
these hereditary alternations of sense and folly might have happened,
and have given rise to a prophecy fabricated after the event; a real
prediction to this effect would have negatived the words of
Solomon,--'Yea, I have hated all my labour which I had taken under the
sun; because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me; and
who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool?'
"This, however, is not the only instance in which Henry is reported to
have displayed that singular faculty, the _Vaticinium Stultorum_."[56]
In 798, this place was noted for the defeat of Wada, the Saxon chief, by
Aldred, king of Northumberland.
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