124 Four-in-Hand in Britain, 



ownership of the old Saxon stronghold saw their interest 

 in adopting the victor as an ancestor. In time these 

 Normans came to believe implicitly in the family tree 

 with Guy at the root, just as some silly people pin their 

 faith to the parchment evidences of the professional 

 genealogists proving their descent from some fabulous 

 hero who followed William and his crew from Normandy. 

 They named their sons after Guy, called the tower his 

 tower, and hung up his arms ahd armor in the great 

 hall, while their wives and daughters worked his exploits 

 in tapestry. 



These proud descendants of a fabulous ancestor re- 

 mind one of the general in the " Pirates of Penzance " who 

 is found weeping at the tomb in the abbey belonging to 

 the property he has purchased. When it is suggested 

 to him that his tears are misplaced, he replies : " Sir, 

 when I bought this property I bought this abbey and 

 this tomb with its contents. I do not know whose an- 

 cestors these were, but I do know whose ancestors they 

 arcT And he falls to sobbing again, bound to have an 

 ancestry of some kind, the more important the more to 

 belittle himself by comparison. But the general is very 

 English for all that. Tennyson's lines, 



" Trust me, Clara Vere de Vere, 

 From yon blue heavens above us bent 

 The grand old gardener and his wife 

 Smile at the claims of long descent," 



are well known and repeated by the school children all 



