The letter is authentic and right here in front of me. Also here is the list that Edith enclosed with the letter, somewhat yellowed with age, but with enormous detail of ancestors.

 Muriel took up May’s suggestion and wrote to her half-cousin Edith Wood for the addresses of others who were related through the Marquis of Winchester.

After some time she had this letter back,

‘My dear Muriel,

‘Now you say you want to know something of your family, so I enclose a list. I do not say dates are accurate. In the main I believe it to be so but of course I have never had time or money to spend on verifying. You see I have not put Elizabeth’s maiden name in – it is always said to have been Paulet but I have never traced it – so leave it as it stands. You will see the many families sprang from Mr. and Mrs. Burgess’s family of daughters, four of whom married. Thom Stanford comes in two ways. Our grandfather’s first wife was Frances Stanford, sister to William Stanford who married Rebecca Botting, a cousin of our grandfather’s.

'You will find James Robinson underlined. Auntie Jeanie did not quite approve of him, because having run through all his money, he was taken in by Alfred Carter and he and his family; just as well, we all thought, he made a good thing of it; perhaps we should have done the same in similar circumstances, at any rate it was lucky for them to have a cousin Alfred King to fall back on.

'You asked about the name Linacre, which you say you have given to your house in Worcester. That was the name of our great grandfather, Michael King’s house in Cranleigh, Surrey. But the name Linacre goes back much farther than that.
There was a John King of ‘Longacre’ or Linacre mentioned in deeds in 1663. But as early as 1615 Longacre farm and lands in Cranleigh Surrey then in the hands of Stedman, Yeoman of Cranleigh, according to an old deed. And in 1759 a James Stedman married an Ann King. I have never connected them up but no doubt they are all in the family circle.

'You mentioned Mrs. Michell, née King. She married her cousin Matthew Michell as his second wife. It was she that was so interested in the Paulet connection.
It is sometime since I wrote all those things and I have half forgotten what it was I said. However, I now think that perhaps our relative wasn’t the 5th son of a Marquis after all, but a grandson. I have had another look in my book of peers of the realm, and I cannot trace Peter Paulet. I don’t suppose we shall ever know more, and I don’t suppose it makes any difference.

'You specifically asked about the ring. As far as I understand, it is now the possession of Mrs. Mary Michell Eager’s husband’s sister – Mrs. William Eager who I understand gave it to her daughter, Blanche Eager. She is now married to a Mr. Sharp. So who knows where it is now, but certainly not now in our immediate family.

Yours affectionately,

Edith M. Wood'

Muriel decided that the time had come to draw a line under her quest for the ring. But she was pleased that she had written and found out about the name of this house. Her father hadn’t known any of that information when she asked him. He just remembered it as the name of his grandfather, Michael King’s house. His grandfather died in 1821, long before he was born.

She also was pleased that she and May had done the research into the Marquis of Winchester’s family, (and she fully intended to write up the details of the interesting relatives she had found, perhaps to share with others at her WEA history course.)

She still firmly believed to be related to the Marquis of Winchester, but in an even less direct line than she had thought previously. Never the less, she still claimed that she must have at least one drop of noble blood.

Nothing else much happened worth noting for that year and it wasn’t until Christmas of 1903 that John proposed to May. But they were still very cautious, postponing their wedding plans until John finished at Oxford and found employment and they saw how things were going on. May was frustrated by having the delay, but she loved John, so she said she was prepared to wait for as long as it took.