The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1903-04-01

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SVKYlE Caskodens take great pride
wv In our ancestry. Some par
tESSsS8 sons. L know, hold all that to
EE$sS4Y be totally un-Solomonlike and
the height of vanity, but they usually
have no ancestors of whom to be
proud. The man who does not know
who his great-grandfather was notu-
rally enough would not care what he
was. The C~askodens have pride Of an
ccstry because they know both who
and what.
We have a right to be proud, for
there Is an unbrokcn male line from
William the ConQueror down to the
present time. In this lineal list are
fourteen barons-the title lapsed when
Charles /. fell-twelve knights of the
Garter and forty-seven knights of the
Oath and other orders. A Caskoden
distinguished himself by gallant sery-
ice under the great Norman and was
given rich English lands and n fair
Saxon bride, albeit an unwilling one,
as his reward. With this fair, unwill-
ing Saxon bride and her long plait of
yellow hair goes II very pretty, pathetic
story, which l may tell you at some fu-
ture time if You take kindly to this.
a Caskoden was seneschal to William
Rufus and sat Mt the rich, half bar
barrie banquets In the first great hall.
Still another was one of the doughty
barons who wrested from John the
great charter, Bngland's declaration Of
independence; another was high In the
councils Of Henry V. 1 have omitted
one whom I should not fail to NEIL
ton, Adjodika Caskoden, who was a
member of the Ounce parliament Of
Henry W., so called because there
were no lawyers In it.
1t Is true that In the time of Edward
". a Caskoden did stoop to trade. but
1t was trade of the most dignifed, hon
orablc sort-he was n goldsmith, and
his guild, as you know, were the bank
erS and international clearance house
for people, kings and mobiles.
Now, it has been the custom Of the
Caskodens for centuries to keep n rec
ord of events as they have happened,
both private and public. Some are in
the form of diaries and journals, like
those of Pepys and Evelyn; others In
letters, like the PASSIONS; others, again, in
verse and song, like Chaucer's and the
Water Poets, and still others In the
more pr%etentious form of memoir and
chronicle. These records we always
have kept jealousy within u family,
thinking 1t vulgar, like the PASSIONS, to
submit our private affairs to public
axe.
There can however, be no reason why
those parts treating solely Of outside
matters should be so carefully guard
ed, and 1 have determined to choose for
publication such portions as do not d.
vulge family secrets or skeletons, and
which really rebound to family honor.
For this occasion 1 have selected
from the memoir of my worthy ances-
tor and namesake, Sir Edwin Caskoden,
grandson Of the goldsmith and master
OF the dance to Henry VIII, the story
of Charles Brandon and Mary Tudor,
sister to the king.
This story is SO well known to the
student of English history that I fear
its repetition will lack that zest which
attends the development Of an unfore-
seen d%enouement, but 1t Is of SO great
interest and is SO full In its sweet, fierce
manifestation of the one thing insolu-
BILE by time-love-that 1 will neverthe-
less rewrite 1t from old Sir Edwin's
memoir.