The younger line of the Stanleys, with whose fortunes we are more immediately concerned, commences properly with a younger brother of Sir William Stanley of Hooton, Sir John Stanley, who married Isabel, the daughter and sole heir of Sir Thomas Lathom, lord of Lathom, whose ancestress had also been heir of Sir Thomas de Knowsley, lord of Knowsley, and who thus, in right of his wife, became master of the extensive estates around which his descendants' princely property has accreted. By the marriage with the heiress of Bamville the Stanleys acquired the three bucks' heads which have continued ever since to be the distinguishing charge on their heraldic coat; and in like manner, by the marriage with the heiress of Lathom, they obtained the remarkable crest which to the present day continues to surmount their arms, the well-known Eagle and Child, in heraldic language described as--on a chapeau _gules_ turned up ermine, an eagle with wings elevated _or_, preying upon an infant swaddled of the first, banded _argent_. Many are the stories that are told respecting Sir John's elopement with the heiress of Lathom, and great is the amount of legendary lore that gathers round the crest which he adopted in her honour. The tradition has often been related, and the curious who wish to know more respecting it will find much interesting information in the _Miscellanea Palatina_ (1851) and in a contribution to Nichol's _Collectanea_ by the learned historian of Cheshire. The greatness of the Stanleys may be said to have commenced with Sir John--a cool, shrewd, and efficient man--who in his lifetime raised the family from the rank of simple country gentlemen. We need not recount all the honours and distinctions bestowed, or the steady shower of royal benefactions that descended upon him. A knight _sans peur et sans reproche_, he was a rare instance of a courtier who could carry himself through four successive reigns with ever increasing prosperity--and without once sustaining a reverse. His eldest son, Sir John Stanley, fully sustained the dignity of the family, and his grandson, Sir Thomas, in whose person the elevation of the Stanleys to the peerage took place, increased it. But it remained for the son of the last-named Sir Thomas to carry the fortunes of the house to heights before unknown. Living in an age when the spirit of chivalry had given place to a policy of subtlety and success depending less on strength of arm than astuteness of head, he ran a career of successful faithlessness that has scarcely a parallel in English history. Looking always to his own interest, fighting always for his own hand, and changing sides at his own discretion, but always changing to the dominant party, he received as the reward of his consummate tact enormous royal grants which went to swell the originally great possessions of his house; and, finally, by the boldest and most adroit stroke of his whole life--when