ssion. Drawn from the
authentic family records, it is not without interest that we toil
through its copious pages; we trace with a romantic sympathy the
fortunes of the descendants of the House of Yvery, from that
not-forgotten hero _le vaillant Perceval chevalier de la Table Ronde_,
to the Norman Baron Asselin, surnamed the Wolf, for his bravery or his
ferocity; thence to the Cavalier of Charles the First, Sir Philip
Perceval, who, having gloriously defended his castle, was at length
deprived of his lordly possessions, but never of his loyalty, and died
obscurely in the metropolis of a broken heart, till we reach the
polished nobleman, the Lord Egmont of the Georges.

The nation has lost many a noble example of men and women acting a great
part on great occasions, and then retreating to the shade of privacy;
and we may be confident that many a name has not been inscribed on the
roll of national glory only from wanting a few drops of ink! Such
domestic annals may yet be viewed in the family records at Appleby
Castle! Anne, Countess of Pembroke, was a glorious woman, the descendant
of two potent northern families, the Veteriponts and the Cliffords.--She
lived in a state of regal magnificence and independence, inhabiting five
or seven castles; yet though her magnificent spirit poured itself out in
her extended charities, and though her independence mated that of
monarchs, yet she herself, in her domestic habits, lived as a hermit in
her own castles; and though only acquainted with her native language,
she had cultivated her mind in many parts of learning; and as Donne, in
his way, observes, "she knew how to converse of everything, from
predestination to slea-silk." Her favourite design was to have materials
collected for the history of those two potent northern families to whom
she was allied; and at a considerable expense she employed learned
persons to make collections for this purpose from the records in the
Tower, the Rolls, and other depositories of manuscripts: Gilpin had seen
three large volumes fairly transcribed. Anecdotes of a great variety of
characters, who had exerted themselves on very important occasions,
compose these family records--and induce one to wish that the public
were in possession of such annals of the domestic life of heroes and of
sages, who have only failed in obtaining an historian![268]

A biographical monument of this nature, which has passed through the
press, will sufficiently prove the