184 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 



ever known. Ask him a question about — say a pedigree : 

 and after a little chat he would go away saying he would 

 " look into it and let you know." In a week he would 

 come with a sheet of foolscap ruled and tabulated with all 

 the family tree from the time of Charles the Second, if 

 not from that of Edward the Third, " from whoifl^^m* 

 know, my cousin Yates says we are all sprung. Edward 

 had a lot of daughters that married among the nobility : 

 and their descendants married into all the famiUes in the 

 country — so that my cousin will have it there is not even 

 a peasant, of English blood, who is not of Royal descent. 

 It is a fad of Yates's, you know. He once wrote to my 

 mother a letter beginning ' Madam — you are descended 

 from Charlemagne ! ' She read as far as this, and laid 

 down the letter, and said ' I don't care whether I am or 

 not ! ' " 



I have somewhere in my possession the life-sized 

 portrait of a still older sovereign of this country than 

 Edward III., drawn by John Niblett from a likeness found 

 in Gloucester : and had it been done during the life-time 

 of the monarch, I feel sure he would have complimented 

 the Cotteswold Club on having such a member, and would 

 not improbably have invited the Club to lunch at the 

 palace to see their colleague invested with equestrian 

 rank. 



" That's a sketch of Vespasian that I took from a coin, 

 for a lecture I gave. It shows better on the large scale. 

 You see his bull-neck : you know^ those fellows — those 

 early Emperors — generally had great bull-necks like that." 



Twice only, in the long period during which it was my 

 privilege to receive help from John Niblett in archreology, 

 it was my fortune to find him wrong. He used to 

 come daily while we were opening up the Roman Wall at 

 Eastgate, to examine the pottery, &.c. that turned up : but 

 he insisted that the masonry itself could not be Roman, 

 because there was no pounded brick in the mortar. He 



