livion, or dropped into
unhonoured graves without leaving a single representative, had not a
monumental inscription revealed the fact, that a descendant of the
Caesars had found a retreat and a tomb in an obscure parish in
England. In the small church of Landulph, in Cornwall, the following
inscription upon a small metal tablet, fixed in the wall, removes
all doubt as to the identity and royal pedigree of the person whose
memory it records. In its original spelling it runs thus:--'Here
lyeth the body of Theodoro Paleologvs of Pesaro in Italye, descended
from ye Imperiall lyne of ye last Christian Emperors of Greece,
being the sonne of Prosper, the sonne of Theodoro, the sonne of
John, the sonne of Thomas, second brother to Constantine Paleologvs,
the eighth of that name, and last of ye lyne yt raygned in
Constantinople vntill svbdeued by the Turkes; who married with Mary
ye davghter of William Balls of Hadlye in Sorffolke Gent., and had
issu five children, Theodoro, John, Ferdinando, Maria, and Dorothy,
and departed this life at Clyfton ye 21st of Janvary 1636.'[1] It
appears, then, that Theodore, who married and died in Cornwall, was
the fourth in direct descent from Thomas, younger brother of the
Emperor Constantine, and who fled 'with some naked adherents to
Italy,' where his children were educated.[2] The truth of the story
related in the inscription was corroborated by a circumstance which
happened upwards of twenty years ago. The vault in which Palaeologus
was interred having been accidently opened, curiosity prompted the
lifting of the lid. The coffin, which was made of oak, was in an
entire state, and the body sufficiently perfect to shew that the
dead man exceeded the common stature. The head was a long oval, and
the nose believed to have been aquiline; a long white beard reached
down the breast--another symbol of his Greek extraction.

Of his family little is known: Theodore, the eldest son, was a
sailor, and died on board the _Charles II._, as is proved by his
will, dated 1693. He appears to have possessed landed property, and
to have left a widow named Martha, but no issue. The younger
daughter, Dorothy, was married at Landulph to William Arundell in
1636, and died in 1681.[3] Maria died unmarried, and was buried in
the same church in 1674. Of John and Ferdinando, the other sons, no
memorial seems to have been preserved in this country; and it was
believed as highly probable that the church of Landulph cont