CHAPTER VI 



THE RISE OF FAMILIES 



THE rise and fall of families is an ancient theme. 

 Poets, ballad-mongers, writers of romance, heralds, 

 historians, have made it their own. The Percys, 

 Bohuns, Mowbrays, Plantagenets have passed away 

 in the direct male line ; the star of the Veres, the 

 bend or of the Scropes, the chevron of the Clares, 

 can no longer be carried in the first quarter of any 

 shield in the Peerage. Families get used up, we are 

 told, and go to seed. Or they are pursued by ill-luck, 

 and fight in vain against the stars in their courses. 

 Last in the field among the chroniclers of family history 

 have come the men of science, to pick up and arrange 

 the crumbs left by the earlier gleaners. 



Now science does not accept ill-luck as an a priori 

 argument, and the plea of being " used up " is met by 

 the inquiry as to what steps were taken to replenish 

 the soil and improve the seed. Here the chroniclers 

 are silent, or at best unwittingly give information in 

 roundabout ways. Still, if a record has been kept 

 with any substantial amount of accuracy, there is a 

 great deal to be extracted from the perusal of it. It 

 does not require a very profound study of the Peerage 



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