Page:The Ancestor Number 1.djvu/299

 THE ANCESTOR 239 in the year 41 and could trace his ancestry through Diomedes, who was present at the siege of Troy, to ' Meleager who slew the Caledonian boar.' Probably the boar had a rival claim to be Lord Great Chamberlain. From a single number of an illustrated weekly we glean the interesting information that ' the name of Lytton is indeed a proud one, going back to the Conquest/ but that ' Mr. Townley can trace his descent back to a remote past compared with which the Norman Conquest is but an event of yester- day.' This latter statement appears to be based on the authority of Burkes Landed Gentry^ according to which 'the great and ancient family of Towneley,' of which Mr. Townley claims to be a cadet, 'as deduced by ancient charters and other authenticated documentary evidence, derives from Spart- lingus, first Dean of Whalley, living about the year 896, when Alfred reigned over England.' Can such a pedigree as this be surpassed } Surpassed ! Why the same organ reminds us that the Burrells are ' of Gothic antiquity,' and that ' they claim kindred with one Borrell, a Goth, who figured at Barce- lona in the first century.' Here surely we have reached the limits of genealogy. But no. On the opposite page, in a paragraph headed ' A pedigree of 4,000 years,' we learn that ' not many people ' (we can well believe it) ' are aware ' that the Chichesters, lords O'Neill, 'can boast of perhaps' (observe that cautious word) 'the oldest descent in the United King- dom,' as their pedigree is traced back 'to Niul son of the King of Scythia {circa 1890 B.C.).' We must certainly agree that ' such a pedigree as this is indeed rare, and rivals that of the noblest Rajput if not those of the " Son of Heaven " and the Emperor of Japan.' But as this pedigree, though ' rare,' is not described as unique, we are encouraged by the word ' perhaps ' to hope that the heir-male of Prester John may yet be found in Ireland, and even the descendants of another distinguished alien immigrant, the Prophet Jeremiah, who arrived there, we believe, in the company of an Egyptian princess and in charge of the Ark of the Covenant. The following appeared in a fashionable London morning paper shortly before the opening of the present Exhibition at the New Gallery : —