264 ROGER OP WENDOVEn. [A.D. 97S. monastery of St. John the Baptist, where divine service was performed ; after which he returned with the same pomp to the palace ; and as he entered the vessel, he is reported to have said to his nobles, that now at length each of his successors could boast that he was king of England, having been so honoured by so many obsequious kings. In the same year a great earthquake convulsed the whole of England. King Eadgar'ι prudence and munificence. A.D . 975. KiDg Eadgar the Pacific, for the advantage and quiet of his kingdom, assembled four thousand eight hundred strong vessels ; twelve hundred of which he stationed on the east coast of England, twelve hundred on the west, twelve hundred on the south, and twelve hundred in the north sea, for the defence of the realm from foreign nations. He was accustomed during his whole life to visit all the provinces of his kingdom, and to observe diligently how the laws and statutes were kept by the nobles, and that the poor did not suffer from the oppression of the mighty, commending the courage of one and the justice of another, and studying the good of his realm.and kingdom in everything. Hence he was feared by his enemies on every side, and beloved by all his subjects. He next ordered a new coinage for the whole of England, for the old was so debased by clipping that its weight was become very inconsiderable. At the same time, bishop Alfsey and earl Eadulf conducted Kinred king of Scots to king Eadgar, who made him many presents of his royal bounty ; among the rest a. hundred ounces of the purest gold, many ornaments of silk, rings, and precious stones. He gave him, moreover, the whole of the district called Laudian [Lothian] in the native tongue, on this condition, that every year, on particular festivals, when the king and his successors wore the crown, he should come to court and celebrate the festival with the other princes of the realm. The king gave him besides many mansions on the road, that he and his successors might find entertainment in going to the feast, and returning ; and these houses continued to belong to the kings of Scotland, until the times of king Henry the second.