154 THE ORIGIN OF THE SHIRLEYS AND OF THE GRESLEYS. 



appears to consider that a text and its English translation 

 are much the same thing.* 



While fully agreeing with Mr. Yeatman on the great 

 importance of these records, I cannot accept a translation 

 as a substitute for the original text. I must, therefore, print 

 side by side the opening portion of the Ferrers carta in the 

 original Latin and in Mr. Yeatman's translation before we 

 can estimate the justice of his rejection of the Shirley pedigree, 

 which is based upon that translation. To avoid any possibility 

 of dispute I will take the official version of the Red Book 

 text, not any version of my own f : — 



OFFICIAL TEXT. MR. YEATMAN. 



Henrico Re^-?' Anglarum domino Henry, King of England, to his 



suo carissimo Willelniz/j- Comes de beloved baron William Earl de 



Ferariis salutem. Mando vobis Ferrars' health. We command 



quod tempore Henrici Regis avi you that in the time of King 



vestri Henry, our grandfather. . . . 



Henricus filius Sawaldi tenuit Henry fil Sewell (Sawaldi) held five 



feoda v. militum Fulcherus frater knights' fees, Fulcher, his brother, 



ejusj feoda iiij or militum ; et modo four, and now the heirs of Saswaldi 



Sewald^j heres utrorumque tenet held nine fees together, 

 eosdem IX. milites. 



Now, apart from the fact that this translation converts the 

 opening portion from an address of the Earl to the King into 

 an address of the King to the Earl, what are we to say to 

 the rendering of " Sewaldus heres utrorumque " by " the heirs 

 of Saswaldi " ? For on the strength, we find, of this trans- 

 lation, and of this alone, Mr. Yeatman rejects the Shirley 

 pedigree. 



"This," he writes, "is a curious statement" (it is indeed, 

 in his own version), "... and from the fact that the 



* For on pp. 368-370 of his first volume he makes some amazing 

 remarks on the famous Rolls Series of Chronicles and Memorials, in 

 which he treats a Latin text as merely a reprint of the English translation 

 in Bohn's Antiquarian Library. "Professor Stubbs," he writes, "the 

 learned editor of Hoveden for the Master of the Rolls ^r. Riley had 

 previously very ably edited (sic) this work for Mr. Bonn). . . . We 

 learn the details of the measure from Hoveden (see Bohn's Antiquarian 

 Library and the reprint (sic) under the direction of the M.R.)." Imagine 

 describing Dr. Stubbs' famous edition of the text as a " reprint " of the 

 Bohn translation ! 



t The italics are my own throughout. 



j" suus"in Black Book. 



