Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/13

1922 To the readers of this Review there could be no more ludicrous suggestion than that of a 'quasi-literary partnership' between Freeman and myself. It illustrates the reckless character of Mr. Rye's assertions. I need only add that, as a matter of fact, I was still of schoolboy age in 1871 and had never even heard of the 'Chronicle'.

One has, in present conditions, to cut down as closely as possible what one commits to the press; but it is absolutely necessary to expose the worst, at least, of Mr. Rye's statements, in order to vindicate the truth. According to him,

"Freeman says: (a) It is a family legend devised in honour of the house of Rye. (b) The story of the way in which Eudo gained the office of dapifer is almost too silly to tell. Later on, as will be seen in the following pages, he trims and modifies this opinion very greatly."

Is this allegation true? It is not and could not be true. For the two statements here attributed by Mr. Rye to Freeman are taken—though he does not say so—from The Reign of William Rufus (ii. 463), which appeared in 1882. His fullest and most decisive rejection of the Colchester 'Chronicle' is there found, nor is Mr. Rye able to cite any later verdict. Freeman, therefore cannot have trimmed or modified his opinion, as Mr. Rye alleges, 'later on'. His critic, however, goes further; he even writes, on the same page, as follows:

"That Freeman, before he died, practically withdrew his case against the Chronicle can be shown in many places, e.g. vol. v, p. 39, … he goes out of his way to say: 'Here we see the lands which Eudo de Rye Eudo of Colchester the son of the faithful Hubert, received as the reward of his own and his father's loyalty.' A more complete volte face cannot be imagined!"

The meaning of this is that Freeman, when he thus wrote, was thinking of the tale he had rejected, and that he 'practically' accepted it 'before he died' by declaring these lands to be the reward of the services set forth in that tale. It can obviously have no other meaning. This, however, I shall now show, was not what Freeman meant. The passage quoted by Mr. Rye and stated, with his strange inaccuracy, to come from 'vol. v, p. 39, of The Norman Conquest', is found on p. 39 of vol. iv (not v ). We there find that Freeman appended to this passage a foot-note, in which the reader is referred to 'vol. ii, p. 249'. On looking up this reference, we at once discover that what the