general history being mostly of a trivial nature,
and not at all interfering with the facts developed by the historians
and rhymers who have illustrated the annals of the house of Stanley.
These accounts, exaggerated and distorted as they inevitably must have
been, may yet, in the absence of more authentic testimony, afford a
pretty accurate glimpse at the real nature of those events, however they
may have been disguised by fiction and misstatement. Where tradition is
our only guide we must follow implicitly, satisfied that her taper was
lighted at the torch of Truth, though it may gleam doubtfully and
partially through the mists and errors of succeeding ages.

One source from whence we have derived some information, though well
known to the comparative few who have explored these by-paths of
history, may not be thought uninteresting to the general reader,
especially as it is connected with the most eventful portion of our
narrative.

An ancient metrical account of the Stanleys, Earls of Derby, is
contained in some uncouth rhymes, written about the year 1562, by
Thomas Stanley, Bishop of Sodor and Man,[12] and son of that Sir Edward
Stanley, who, for his valour at Flodden, was created Lord Monteagle.
There are two copies of these verses in the British Museum: one amongst
Cole's papers (vol. xxix. page 104), and the other in the Harleian MSS.
(541). Mr Cole prefaces his transcript with the following notice:--"The
History of the family of Stanley, Earls of Derby, wrote in verse about
the reign of King Henry the Eighth from a MS. now in possession of Lady
Margaret Stanley, copied for me by a person who has made many mistakes,
and sent to me by my friend Mr Allen, Rector of Tarporley, in 1758.--W.
Cole."

The MS. formerly belonged to Sir John Crewe, of Utkinton, and was given
by Mr Ardern, in 1757, to Lady Margaret Stanley.

The commencement of this metrical history is occupied in dilating upon
the pleasure resulting from such an undertaking; and although the flow
of the verse is not of remarkable smoothness, yet it hardly furnishes an
apology for Seacome's mistake, who, in his "History of the House of
Stanley," printed the first fifty lines as prose. The reverend versifier
rehearses how Stanley sprang from Audley, and then shows the manner in
which his ancestors became possessors of Stourton and Hooton. He dwells
upon the joust betwixt the Admiral of Hainault and Sir John Stanley, the
second brother of the house of Sta