The first book of this history contains 60 chapters, the first of which begins with P, the second with R, and so on.

If all these initials are copied out in their actual order, we obtain a complete sentence, as follows:--"Presentem cronicam compilavit Frater Ranulphus Cestrensis monachus"; i.e.Brother Ralph, monk of Chester, compiled the present chronicle.

I mention this curious device on the part of Higden because another similar acrostic occurs elsewhere.

It so happens that Higden's _Polychronicon_ was continued, after his death, by John Malverne, who brought down the history to a later date, and included in it an account of a certain Thomas Usk, with whom he seems to have been acquainted.

Now, in a lengthy prose work of about 1387, called _The Testament of Love_, I one day discovered that its author had adopted a similar device--no doubt imitating Higden--and had so arranged that the initial letters of his chapters should form a sentence, as follows:--"Margarete of virtw, have merci on Thsknvi." There is no difficulty about the expression "Margarete of virtw," because the treatise itself explains that it means Holy Church, but I could make nothing of _Thsknvi_, as the letters evidently require rearrangement.