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ANCESTORS OE THE ENGLISH ARISTOCRACY. 289
could trace their lineage far enough, they would find
the farms of their ancestors among the " gaards" of
Norway, with nearly the same boundaries as they had
a thousand years ago; and in many instances the
present bonder would be the direct descendant of the
elder son of the common ancestor, while the prince or
nobleman would have descended from a younger son:
for then, as now, when the farms were too small for
subdivision, the elder sons inherited them intact, while
the younger went to seek their fortunes on the seas and
in distant lands. Then they manned the vessels of the
terrible sea-kings, and settled on the shores of England,
Scotland, France, Spain, Portugal, and even of the
Mediterranean; besides colonizing Greenland and the
shores of the unknown Western world, which they
called Vinland. Now they help to man the ships of the
British and American navy and merchant service, and
are among the most successful agricultural emigrants to
that New World which their ancestors discovered.
The proud beauty I met walking through the valley
of the Otta in the parish of Lom, and so near to the
farm of Blakar where the king slept, may be as nearly
related to some of our proudest Norman families as her
Norman features and bearing indicate; but hers would
be far purer Norman blood than theirs, just as her face
and figure were finer, and more typical of that style of
beauty, than any I have seen among our nobility.
After waiting and watching the horse-racing for above
half an hour, the bonder, or possible cousin of
half-a-dozen kings, approached. He was informed of my
u
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