showing, it was really quite possible. Now, had this man been asked anything about William of Orange, he would probably have professed entire ignorance of that personage. But, even although he had never opened a book in his life, he would have stoutly maintained that in or about the seventeenth century a certain king came over from Holland to ascend the British throne. Which was undoubtedly the case. Thus, what we know from books, he knew from tradition. Similarly, I have read of a peasant in Sussex, who, within the last few years, when in conversation with an archaeologist, referred to William the Conqueror as "Duke William" This term, we may be sure, he never learned in any school but that of tradition. Yet, by using this expression, he preserved the memory of an actual historical fact—the arrival in Sussex of "Duke "William of Normandy", not "William I of England". In both of these cases, then, tradition, or folk-lore, was history.
But in these two cases folk-lore has only preserved what was otherwise known by written chronicle. The latter substantiates the former. Yet, if the popular memory may be trusted so far, ought it not to be trusted farther? May tradition not have preserved some things, perhaps many things, that written history has overlooked? One interesting piece of evidence in this direction is supplied in my own experience.
Some years ago I was engaged in tracing the genealogy of a certain family, which I may call Family A. This family was socially of too little importance, during the past seven or eight generations, to find a place in even local history—that is to say, printed history. But it had retained, together with various family papers dating back to the year 1685, a certain family tradition, handed down from father to son. This was to the effect that the family was descended from an important clan, which I shall call B., and that the surname borne by Family A. had previously been that of the chiefs of the Clan B., from whom they believed themselves descended. Owing, it was said, to some family feud, the ancestors of this minor family had relinquished their former surname, and assumed that of A., now borne by their descendants. Now, although the history of this important clan. Clan B., had recently been written by a gentleman very well qualified for the task, that history contained no reference to anyone of the
