Page:The Romance of Isabel, Lady Burton.djvu/29



BIRTH AND LINEAGE

SABEL, Lady Burton, was by birth an Arundell of Wardour, a daughter of one of the oldest  and proudest houses of England. The Arundells of Wardour are a branch of the great family of whom it was sung:

The Earls of Arundell before the Conquest are somewhat lost in the mists of antiquity, and they do not affect the branch of the family from which Lady  Burton sprang. This branch traces its descent in a straight line from one Roger de Arundell, who, according to Domesday, had estates in Dorset and Somerset, and was possessed of twenty-eight lordships. The Knights of Arundell were an adventurous race. One of the most famous was Sir John Arundell, a valiant