Note 136 — PART II HISTORICAL STUDIES

But one of the most singular flaws in the late Professor's work was his evident tendency to confuse two or more persons bearing the same name. Three or four Leofstans of London were rolled by him into one; Henry of Essex was identified with a Henry who had a different father and who lived in Cumberland; while a whole string of erroneous conclusions followed, we saw, from identifying Osbern 'filius Ricardi' with Osbern 'cognomine Pentecost'.136 It is strange that one who was so severe on confusion of identity where places were concerned137 should have been, in the case of persons, guilty of that confusion.