premiss, he must also abandon his conclusion. But this is not Mr. Rye's way. Forced to abandon his premiss, which he now dismisses as a 'guess', he thinks, we read,[1] that he will be able 'to prove, in a paper now in preparation', that his 'guess [sic] that the Cleres of Ormesby were offshoots of the Baronial family was a correct one, although founded on a mistaken premiss'![2] The reader may be safely left to draw his own conclusion from the endless gyrations of this elusive antiquary, who first admits that he is 'doubly wrong', and then announces that he is going to prove that his 'guess' was right!
Mr. Rye's treatment of Freeman is a very serious matter. If and where it can be proved that Freeman has erred in his statements, let them by all means be corrected; I myself should be the last to deny one's right to do so. Considering, however, that 'Freeman is dead'[3] and cannot vindicate himself, denunciation of his statements in this reckless manner is, surely, inconsistent with the decencies of controversy. I have shown, in case after case, that it is not he, but his critic, whose errors need correction and whose charges, when they are tested, again and again collapse. To test them, one by one, needs infinite patience and a grievous expenditure of time. Mr. Rye, no doubt, is right, at least, in relying on the fact that few historians would test them at such a cost; for 'luckily', in his own words, 'people don't often verify their own references, let alone yours'. This, however, is precisely what I have here done.
When one has made all allowance for his incorrigible carelessness, for haste, and for mental confusion, there remains a residue of statement, which can only be accounted for by his curious vehemence. Those who have read my paper will have realized that this is so. It is his avowed object to vindicate the 'Chronicle', as he terms it, and, in order to attain this object, he does not hesitate to allege that 'Freeman, before he died, practically withdrew his case against the Chronicle'.[4] As this is absolutely contrary to fact, he built up a theory that Freeman began by rejecting its evidence, but 'later on' changed his view.[5] Twice over he cited passages from William Rufus, as setting forth the view originally held by Freeman, and then relied on his Norman Conquest[6] as proving his recantation! In order to conceal the fact that the latter was the earlier (not the later) of these two works, he was careful to leave unmentioned the date and even the name of Freeman's William Rufus! 'Freeman', he writes, 'in his first edition [sic] expressed himself fiercely against the
