THE ORIGIN OF THE SHIRLEYS AND OF THE GRESLEYS. 1 83 



charters. He has not scrupled to help himself (of course without proper 

 acknowledgment) to the works of the great Breton historians, Lobineau 

 and Morice.* 



Of this absolutely false and most malicious statement I need 

 only say that I give the full and exact references for the 

 present repositories of the charters of St. Florent in my 

 Calendar (pp. 395-416), having visited Angers for the purpose; 

 and that when, in my Peerage Studies, I have occasion to 

 use Lobineau's work, I give the full reference to him, by 

 name, at the foot of the page.t If I do not speak, as 

 Mr. Yeatman does, of " the Biblioteque (sic) Nationale of 

 Angers," it is because, when I was in France, the Bibliotheque 

 Nationale was in Paris, as the British Museum is (or was 

 when I last saw it) in London. 



One word more. Mr. Yeatman asserts that Eyton did 



" summarily reject the madcap conclusions of the author of 



The Norman People"^ Now, Eyton's work was published in 



1858,11 and it was not till 1874 that Tke Norman People saw 



the light ! This topsy-turvy chronology is indeed worthy of 



a writer who can speak of — 



A very valuable document (see page 109 of The History of the Mouse 

 of Arundel), said to be of the date of the Conquest, in which Wace of 

 Jersey is styled — " engenieur charpentier de Marine. "^ 



For it was more than a century after the Conquest when 



Wace of Jersey wrote ! And if my critic believes that a 



document of the date of the Conquest would speak of a 



"charpentier de marine," he would obviously believe anything. 



Such, then, is the character of that section of The Feudal 



History of Derbyshire, of which " a good deal " is devoted 



to exposing my own " crass ignorance." I do but cite my 



critic's words when I say that he " may possibly discover 



* Sec. vii., p. 189. 



t Peerage Studies, pp. 121, 122, 123, T26, 127. Morice's work I did 

 not even use. 



X Sec. vii., p. 167. 

 § Ibid., p. 224. 

 || Shropshire, vol. vii. 

 IT Sec. vii., p. 115. 



