26 JULY 1884, Page 24

The Early Ancestors of the Prince of Wales : an

Historical Tour. By Shepherd T. Taylor, M.B. (Williams and Norgate.)—These " ancestors " are the princes, majores on the father's side, the Electors of Saxony, and the Landgraves and Margraves from whom these were descended. The first name in the pedigree in the "House of Wettin " (Wettin is an old Schloss on the Seale, about nine miles from Halle, and left, by tho way, by the present rulers of Saxony, in a condition of disgraceful neglect) is a certain Marg,rave Theodorie, in the early part of the eleventh century. Conrad the Great (d. 1157), Margrave of Austria, may be called the "authentic founder." The line descends through a long list of princes, each with his proper cog. nomen—" Otho the Rich," " Theodoric the Oppressed," Henry the Illustrious," "Albert the Unnatural," "Frederick the Bitten" (his mother bit him when he was a child, in the agony of her grief at being compelled to leave him), "Frederick the Serious," &c. The best known of the line are the Electors who lived in the Reformation period—" Frederic the Wise," "John the Steadfast," and "John Frederic the Magnanimous." It is from these that our Prince of Wales is descended. The Kings of Saxony come from Augustus, brother of Maurice—Maurice the Diplomatic, as he might have been called. Dr. Taylor tells the story of these potentates and his own experience of travel in a very pleasant fashion. It would not be a bad idea to follow his steps with his book in band.