in the libretto sydney grundy wrote, "the clock of time has been put forward a century, and other liberties have been taken with history." the actual sir george vernon had two daughters, margaret and dorothy. in the opera, the vernons are supposed to have had an older son, who died in naval service, leaving dorothy as his sole heir. the potential husband her father prefers, their cousin rupert vernon, is grundy's invention. the changes to the opera's plot bear many similarities to another 1892 comic opera, "the warlock", composed by edgar e. little, libretto by alfred smythe, produced in dublin, ireland.