Cirrus@Austlit

Epigraph: "If it be a generous desire in men to know from whence their immediate Forefathers have come, it cannot be displeasing to investigate the place of their first Ancestor." - Raleigh's History of the Creation.

Epigraph: "O who shall lightly say that Fame / Is nothing but an empty name! / Whilst in that sound there is a charm / The nerves to brace, the heart to warm, / As, thinking of the Mighty Dead / The young from slothful couch will start, / And vow, with lifted hands outspread, / Like them to act a noble part!" Joanna Baillie: Columbus.

"It is an honour 'longing to our House, / Bequeathed down from many Ancestors; / Which were the greatest obloquy i' the world / In me to lose. - All's Well That Ends Well: Act IV; Scene II.

This work comprises a poem attributed to Historicus Loquitur, followed by an extensive prose passage including the 'patent of Nobility confered by the British Sovereign, about a century and a half ago, upon Robert Molesworth, the then Chief of the Family ...'