Irish history.'[1] There is a touch, surely, of Hibernian humour in suggesting that any such research is needed, when an Irish herald is able to state that the ancestor of an Irish baronet landed at Bannow with Strongbow, though history has forgotten to record the fact, and has further shown that, if the ancestor was there, Strongbow himself was not.
But I have now to deal with the developed story in Burke for 1902. Attempting to ignore my book and the demonstrations it contained of the true character of his production, the editor assures his readers, more loudly, if possible, than ever, that they may take its statements as 'authoritative.' I am obliged to quote his very words:—
It is gratifying to the Editor to know … by the flattering comments of the Press, and the host of letters from critics well versed in genealogy and heraldry, that Burke's Peerage not merely maintains its high position of so many years' standing, but is gaining in reputation from year to year, and is considered authoritative on the subjects with which it deals …
To keep this huge mass of information abreast of the times and to make it complete and accurate in every particular has been my endeavour, and no trouble or labour has been spared to accomplish this aim …
My especial care has been to achieve accuracy and completeness, and the testing of all facts by research and investigation has been an undertaking of much labour difficult to realise.
We are now going to test by research the authority at last vouchsafed for the fact that Sir 'Geoffrey de Estmonte' ever existed. One has only to refer to the 'Monasticon' under Stixwold (v. 275) to find that a document professedly printed from a Hundred Roll of 3 Edward I. (1274–5) states that land at Honington had been given, sixty years before, to Stixwold by Geoffrey 'de Ezmondeys'; but as this document is immediately followed by another version in which the name is given as 'Ermondeys' and as, moreover, there is no trace of any Esmonde having ever had anything to do with Honington, we are led to investigate the matter. So we turn to the 'authoritative' Hundred Rolls published by the Record Commission. We there at once discover that the name is 'Ermondeys.'[2] Having thus obtained the correct reading we examine the 'Monasticon' narrative and find that it makes Honington consist of twelve carucates, of which seven and a half had been
