Long after this period, “<g>Henry</g> the Eighth invested <g>Anne</g> Bollen, to whom he was affianced, Marchioness of Penbroke, with a mantle and coronet, in regard both of her nobility and also her virtues--for so runne the wordes of the patent. At length King <g>Edward</g> the Sixth adorned Sir William Herbert, lord of <g>Caerdiff</g>, with the title of Earl of Penbroke, after whom succeeded his sonne Henry, who was Lord President of <g>Wales</g> under Queen Elizabeth. And now”--says our old <g>King-at-arms</g>, speaking courteously of his contemporaries--“his sonne, richly accomplished with all laudable endowments of body and minde, enjoyeth the same title. And this family of Herberts, he concludes, is honourable, and of great antiquity in these parts of Wales, as lineally propagated from Henry Fitz-Herbert, Chamberlayne to King Henry the First, who married the said King’s <g>Paramour</g>, the mother of Reginald, Earle of Cornwall, as I was first informed by Robert <g>Glover</g>, a man passing skilfull in the study of genealogies, by whose untimely death that knowledge hath sustained a great losse.” So much for the Genealogy of the old lords of Pembroke. In this department of history--the tracing of genealogies--in which the Cambrian families are proverbially expert, but which others affect to ridicule, we must not omit the defence of a learned Welshman: “That there have been,” says he, “parasites in the art, must be acknowledged; and family pride may sometimes have been flattered. However, upon the whole, much credit is due to our ancient genealogists, who were appointed and patronized by Royalty, and professed that art prior to their initiation into the higher mysteries of <g>Bardism</g>. Their records are still extant, and bear every mark of authenticity. A bard and a _genealogist_ were synonymous; and though a bard can plead _licentia poetica_, yet fiction was not allowed in recording the actions of their heroes,[379] nor in registering the descent of families. The Welsh bards continued their genealogical pursuits down to the reign of Elizabeth; therefore, as Humphrey Lwyd, a learned antiquary and historian, observes: “Let such disdainful heads as cant know their own grandfathers, leave their scoffing and taunting of Welshmen for that thing that all other nations in the world do glory in.” Yet, in justice to the ancient Saxons on this point, it must be allowed that they themselves were not altogether indifferent to the study of genealogy, since their deducing of their King Ethelwulph from <g>Adam</g> is an instance of their _accuracy_ in the art-- “Can Bourbon or Nassau go higher?”[380]