but be interesting to your Grace, as the great Family, which you so nobly represent, derived their origin from one of the Northern Chiefs, who assisted in that conquest. From the place of their residence in Lower Normandy[1], they took the name of Percy; a name, which was afterwards eminently celebrated in our English annals, and which you have revived with additional lustre.
Among the many shining and amiable qualities which distinguish your Grace and the Dutchess of Northumberland, none have appeared to me more truly admirable than that high respect and reverence, which you both of you show for the heroic Race whose possessions you inherit.
Superior to the mean and selfish jealousy of those, who, conscious of their own want of dignity or worth, consign to oblivion the illustrious dead, and wish to blot out all remembrance of them from the earth; you, my Lord, have, with a more than filial piety, been employed for many years in restoring and reviving every memorial of the Percy name.
Descended, yourself, from a most ancient and respectable Family; and not afraid to be compared with your noble predecessors the Earls of Northumberland, you
- ↑ Near Villedieu, in the district of St. Lo.
