1 68 THE ORIGIN OF THE SHIRLEYS AND OF THE GRESLEYS. 



not acquainted with the special meaning of the phrase " eandem " 

 in these returns. The result is that he actually omits 

 the tenure of Gresley by Geoffrey de Gresley at the date of 

 this return.* Shall I follow his own example, and exclaim 

 that " it is amazing to find anyone so ignorant of mediaeval 

 documents"!? On no account. My readers may form their 

 own opinions from the facts. 



And now having prepared the ground by examining 

 Mr. Yeatman's work, we are at length in a position to approach 

 his attack on the Gresley pedigree. Of that pedigree the late 

 Mr. Eyton, of whose "master mind" Mr. Yeatman speaks, J 

 asserted that it was " a genealogy second to none among the 

 commoners of England. "§ General Wrottesley, whose work is 

 highly praised by Mr. Yeatman, || invariably accepts it in his 

 papers for the Salt Society. Mr. Jeayes,H who has compiled 

 an account of the charters and muniments at Drakelowe,** duly 

 accepts it in a passage which evokes from Mr. Yeatman " severe 

 comment " and the denunciation of the passage as " wholly 

 inaccurate." ft Of my own condemnation for accepting the 

 pedigree I have already spoken ; but the treatment of 

 Mr. Madan's work is the most surprising thing, and calls, as 

 Mr. Yeatman would say, for " severe comment." 



Triumphantly citing against us Mr. Madan's work, Mr. Yeat- 

 man exclaims : — 



What does Mr. Falconer Madan, another, and a more cautious, " and 

 a very able author, who has written upon the Gresleys, think of it? He 

 writes : — " The first few Gresleys are shadowy persons, the dates of whose 

 births and deaths are unrecorded, and of whom no personal traits are 

 preserved." This is strictly accurate. ++ 



Who would believe, after reading this, that the pedigree so 



* See, for its importance, p. 166. 



t See p. 161. 



+ Sec. vii., p. 224. 



§ Salt Society's publications, i., 223. 



|| Sec. i., p. vii. 



T Of the Department of MSS., British Museum. 

 ** Mr. Yeatman, with curious inaccuracy, gives the title of his book 

 as " History of Gresley." 

 ft. Sec. vii., p. 121. 

 X+ Ibid., p. 121. 



