"To avoid giving the impression, - most particularly here at the very gatehouse of this, for the most part, linear narrating of what is believed a remarkable enough history, one that may, - making its slow but inexorable way to credit, - challenge the very tenets of traditional biography, - that words, - generally believed good-fellows, merry men nearly all, - are already right eager, - by building a labyrinth of intricable mystery, - to confound the unwary reader at the very onset : it will prove very useful if a few, simple, but important facts, concerning the family Troke, and their seat, are first supplied."