Note 18 — Chapter I · HAMPSTEAD AND THE HEATH.

‘Planché, who has gone deeper into the subject of the Peverels than either Eyton, the Shropshire historian, or Mr. E. Freeman (who rejects this supposition with contempt and indignation), puts it in this wise: “During all the battles and commotions in Normandy preceding the Conquest, we hear nothing of the Peverels. No land is called by their name, nor do we hear of it till that of Ranulph, in Domesday Book, when he figures as the lord of sixty-four manors. Planché suggests what Mr. Eyton has overlooked that the Saxon lady of rank might have visited Normandy before 1051, a circumstance that would remove the only serious difficulty in the story. The latter Ranulph Peverel was the founder of Hatfield Peverel, in Essex, as shown by Camden, Glover, Dugdale, Sandford, Weever and others.”’ The author of the ‘Roman de la Rose’ makes no mention of Peverel.