And whey they were running by the distance chair All the gentlemen called Skewball ab??r fear
The first word is probably meant to be when. The second I can't guess. The first two letters seem to be definitely ab, the last r, but possibly t. The middle two look like small rounded letters (a,e,o,u,s). I presume the word was meant to be never as suggested above (and on one of the others at Bodleian), but could possibly be something else.