may note, about the time of his creation (1611).[1] But it might be that of his father. A hint as to its date is afforded by the rings in his ears—two, it will be seen, in each—the more elaborate earrings worn by his younger brother Walsingham being possibly due to his residence in Spain, where he was attached to the British Embassy from 1619 to 1624.[2] Sir George, who sat in the Parliament of 1628–9, was 'the only gentleman of qualety' in Derbyshire who sided strongly against the king. He joined Sir John Cell's regiment, and the Royalists plundered his estates. These estates had been grievously diminished in the days of James I., the family having suffered doubtless, like others, from Elizabethan extravagance.
Of his great grandson the third baronet, whose portrait we give, we read in a letter written in 1696 that 'Esquire Bill of Drakelowe went a wooing into a far country, but his mistress was not much smitten with either his phiz or beau meene; however he made shift to captivate the heart of a widow; … the knighterrant is resolved, and says, "Zuns will have her and that quickly too, for hunting is coming in and cannot awhile."' It is from a brother of this baronet, who received his mother's manor of Seile in Leicestershire, that is descended the present line, who only succeeded to the title in 1837, but had intermarried with the elder line a generation previously. For the last two centuries the history of this ancient house has been mainly of private or local interest, its chief incidents being found in spirited but unsuccessful attempts to promote the industries of the district, with the result of further diminishing their once wide estates.
Nearly half of this elaborate work consists of Appendixes and Index. The first Appendix deals with the castle, church and priory of Cresley, of which the last was a house of Augustinian canons founded by the family, while residing at Cresley, not later than the middle of the twelfth century. A ground-plan of the priory is given, and Mr. Madan's untiring industry has enabled him to work out the succession of
- ↑ A high authority has attributed the two portraits named 'Sir George Gresley' to the latter end of the Elizabethan period. Federigo Zuccaro, to whom the portrait of 'Sir George Gresley, K.B.' (d. 1548) is assigned, was a child at the date of his supposed sitter's death. — ED.
- ↑ Students of costume will observe the same fashion in the portraits of Prince Henry and Prince Charles (1614 ?) among the Belvoir miniatures illustrated in this number.
