The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. I.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.

Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Deuile : for Deauville or D'Eivill;^[1] also a duplicate. (See Denaville.)

1. ↑ This unpleasant form of D'Eivill occurs in the Parliamentary Rolls: and furnished many a mediaeval jest. Dean Milman, in his History of the Jews, quotes the following story. "A certain Jew, travelling towards Shrewsbury in company with Richard Peche', Archdeacon of Malpas in Cheshire, and a reverend dean whose name was Deville, was told amongst other things by the former, that his 'jurisdiction was so large as to reach from a place called 111 Street all along till they came to Malpas, a wide circumference of country.' To which the infidel, being more witty than wise, immediately replied, 'Say you so, sir? God grant me then a good deliverance! For it seems I am riding in a country where Sin (Peche) is the Archdeacon, and the Devil himself the Dean; where the entrance into the archdeaconry is in 111 Street, and the going from it Bad Steps (Malpas).'"