74 THE RHYMED CHRONICLE OF JOHN HARESTAFFE. 



" I'll bringe them together as I may 

 Lesse reckoninge method, soe y' truth I say " 



is a couplet very characteristic of the whole chronicle. 



Two and a half centuries after it was penned, we are very grate- 

 ful for the leisure that came to John Harestaffe when there was 

 peace from the warfare of the courts of law, for thus it was that 

 he found time to be the quaint family historian : — 



" Yet since I now have store of idle tyme, 

 Although but harsh and forced be my ryme, 

 I'll borrow leave to treat thereof a whyle 

 To please myself, and idle houres beguyle." 



But still, towards the end of his rhymes, in his riper age, John 

 Harestaffe had some perception that this faithful mirror of the part 

 he had played for half a century in sustaining the honour of a 

 noble family might be of some interest to coming generations, 

 though we suspect that his vainest dreams never pictured that his 

 records would be printed : — 



" And nowe because I thinke there wilbe some, 

 (Though yet unborne) y t in the tyme to come 

 Wilbe content to read what here I wryte, 

 Although but rudely I the same indyte, 

 Yet being done in ayde of memorie, 

 And for to gratifye Posteritie, 

 A Iitle more I will my ryme inlarge," etc. 



There is not a single line of this vivid tale of byegone days that 

 the intelligent reader would wish left unwritten, and no one can 

 grudge Master Harestaffe the leisure that he put to so pleasant 

 a use. 



As to the subject of his poetic efforts, Derbyshire men can 

 readily find, and many of them well know, the particulars of the 

 early history of the ancient family of Vernon, that derives its 

 name from its primitive domicile in Normandy. Richard de 

 Vernon, who came over at the Conquest, was soon after created 

 Baron of Shipbroke, in Cheshire. In the thirteenth century a 

 younger son of one of the Barons of Shipbroke married a 

 co-heiress of Avenell, of Haddon, and hence obtained a footing 



