&c. With regard to armorial bearings, whilst we are of the number who can fully appreciate the honest pride and satisfaction with which the lineal descendant of one who has deserved well of his country contemplates or displays the escutcheon which has through centuries been handed down to him untarnished, and can understand the natural desire of even the most remotely connected with ancient and honourable families to enjoy the reflected lustre of the quartered achievement, we have no hesitation in expressing our opinion that the absurd vanity which induces nearly every person who possesses a gold scal, or a silver spoon, to decorate it with a crest to which not one in a hundred-we had almost said, a thousand--has any shadow of pretension, is a fair subject for investigation and taxation in a form and on a scale differing from those at present prescribed, and that here again the herald might be employed with equal benefit to himself and the revenue.

Another service of great trust and high consideration, belonging of ancient right to the Officers of Arms, is the bearing of letters and messages to sovereign princes and persons in authority. Abandoning their claim to a much higher rank, viz. that of the K nguxe and Faciales of the Greeks and Romans (the venerable ambassadors who had the privilege of denouncing war or concluding peace, on their own responsibilities), none will attempt to deny that they were, from the carliest periods in which mention is made of them, the chosen and respected messengers of their royal or noble masters. Legh, quoting "Upton's own words" (the earliest writer extant on the science of heraldry), says, "It is necessary that all estates should have currours, as suer messengers, for the expedicion of their businesse, whose office is to passe and repasse on foote theis are knights

in their offices, but not nobles, and are called Knightes caligate of Armes, because they weare startuppes (a sort of boot-stocking) to the middle-leg. Theis when they have behaved themselves wisely and served worshipfully in this roome ye space of vii yeres: then were they sett on horsebacke, and called Chivalers of Armës” (or Knight Riders), "for that they rodd on their soveraignes messages. Theis must be so vertuous as not to be reproved when he hath served in that rome vii yeares, if his soveraigne please he may exalt him one degree higher, whiche is to be created a Purcevaunte and when he hath served any time he may, at the pleasure of the prince, be created an Hereaught, even the next day after he is created Pourcevaunt:" and then he adds, "An Hercaught is an high office in all his services, as in message," being "messengirs from Emperour to Emperour, from Kyng to Kynge, and so from one prince to another; sometyme declarynge peace, and sometyme againe pronouncing warre. Theis like Mercury runne up and downe, havying on them not only Aaron's surcot, but his eloquence, which Moses lacked." This honourable and important service has in modern times been most unceremoniously transferred from the Officers of Arms to certain persons appointed by the Secretary of State, and termed King's (or, as now, Queen's) Messengers. Before the elevation of Mr. Canning to the premiership, these appointments were generally given to nominees. of the nobility-their valets, butlers, or sons of such domestics; persons without any recommendations except those of their masters. Mr. Canning very properly put a stop to this practice; and justly considering that the bearers of important dispatches (of necessity admitted to the presence of the highest personages in their

own or other countries-nay, it has happened, to that of the Sovereign himself) should have the education and manners of gentlemen, took every opportunity of filling up the vacancies as they occurred with a very superior class of young and intelligent men, possessing a sufficient knowledge of the principal European languages, accustomed to good society, and capable of acting in any emergency with the spirit and discretion that usually accompany such advantages. This was a great improvement; but the injustice done to the Heralds remained unredressed. The same jealousy of patronage prevented most likely the acute and accomplished minister from employing, as of old, the Pursuivant or the Herald-the Knight Caligate, or the Knight Rider. (The latter no longer, alas, remembered by the present generation, who pass down "Knight Rider Street," within sight of the College, n utter ignorance of the origin of its appellation.) Yet such were the original King's Messengers-men of great learning, of good conduct, admissible to knighthood and nobility-whose persons were sacred, and whose services were liberally rewarded by prince and peer, whether they were the bearers of a cartel of defiance, a treaty of peace, an order of knighthood, or an autograph letter of congratulation or condolence. Thus it is in this age of reformation and utilitarianism, an ancient institution is abolished or neglected, as obsolete, without one consideration as to the possibility of adapting it to the spirit or the necessity of the time. Having gradually deprived the heralds of all important business, and wholesome authority, the very despoilers are the first to comment upon the utter inutility of the establishment! Let us look at the 6th article of the admonition given to the herald on his creation-" You shall not suffer one gentleman to malign another, and raylynge you shall let (i. e. stop) to the uttermost of your power." Here is useful employment, heaven knows, and sufficient, too, for a College possessing a hundred times as many members. We beg to call the attention of "the General Peace Society," and "the Society for the Suppression of Duelling" (the New Court of Honour and Chivalry), to this peculiar portion of the duty and office of the heralds. Nay, the Noble and Learned Lord who has so lately amended the Law of Libel might have fairly claimed the assistance of Garter and the Officers of Arms in his praiseworthy undertaking. In all questions affecting the honour of noblemen and gentlemen, the heralds are certainly privileged to form the Court of Review.

We cannot conclude this necessarily brief and cursory notice of the Heralds' College without chronicling a few of the worthies who have shed lustre on the Institution, and are also ornaments of the general literature of Great Britain. Earliest and highest, perhaps, stands "the learned Camden," the son of a painter-stainer in the Old Bailey, where he was born May 21st, 1551; educated at Christ's Hospital and St. Paul's School, and then sent to Magdalen College,

...

* In Henry VII.'s reign there appear to have been twenty Pursuivants ordinary and extraordinary; and Noble says "the reason why Henry VII. had so many officers at arms at some parts of his reign was the great correspondence upon the Continent he kept more than his predecessors. At this period Pursuivants were the regular messengers of our Sovereigns. Sometimes the extraordinary ones were created to be sent on a sudden emergency, without any expectation of further promotion: if they showed peculiar adroitness, they were sometimes made in ordinary, and from thence might become Heralds and Kings at Arms. . . . . Henry had Berwick Pursuivant on the borders of Scotland, two for Ireland, several for our dominions in France, Jersey, and such as were yielded to Henry in Bretagne. These probably were often residents upon the spot whence the names of *heir office were taken; they were chiefly employed in carrying messages to and from the Governors to the Sove reign."-Hist. Coll. of Arms, p. 100.

Oxford, from whence he removed to Broadgate Hall, now Pembroke College, where, in 1573, he took his degree of Bachelor of Arts. He returned to London at the age of twenty, and, after rendering himself conspicuous as Second Master of Westminster School, gained the Head-Mastership in the year 1592. His Britannia,' his Annals of Queen Elizabeth,' and his Remains concerning Britain,' will satisfy posterity that his reputation has not exceeded his desert, but that he was "worthily admired for his great learning, wisdom, and virtue, through the Christian world." He was created Clarencieux King of Arms, in 1597, without having served as herald or pursuivant, though for "fashion sake,” says Wood, " he was created Herald of Arms called Richmond, because no person can be King before he is a Herald," the day previous to his elevation. 66 This was done," he adds, " by the singular favour of Queen Elizabeth, at the incessant supplication of Foulk Greville, afterwards Lord Brook; both of them having an especial respect for him and his great learning in English and other antiquities.' Camden died at Chiselhurst, in Kent, on the 9th of November, 1623, at the age of seventy-two, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Sir William Dugdale, author of the celebrated Monasticon,' and 'the Antiquities of Warwickshire,' was born at Shustoke, near Coleshill, in that county, on the 12th of September, 1605. He was the only son of John Dugdale, Esq., of Shustoke, and of Elizabeth, daughter of Arthur Swynfin, Esq., of Staffordshire. Introduced by Sir Symon Archer, of Tamworth, to Sir Christopher Hatton and Sir Henry Spelman, he was by their joint interest with the Earl of Arundel, then Earl Marshal, created a Pursuivant of Arms Extraordinary, by the name of Blanche Lyon, September, 1638 March 18th, 1639-40, he was made Rouge Croix Pursuivant in Ordinary; and April 16th, 1644, Chester Herald. He attended Charles I. at the battle of Edgehill, and remained with him till the surrender of Oxford to the Parliament, in 1646. Upon the restoration of Charles II. he was advanced to the office of Norroy King of Arms, by recommendation of Chancellor Hyde; and in 1677 he was created Garter Principal King of Arms, and knighted much against his own inclination, "on account of the smallness of his estate." He died at Blythe Hall, in Warwickshire, on the 10th of February, 1686, aged eighty, and was buried at Shustoke. "He possessed," in the words of Dallaway, "talents entirely adapted to the pursuits of an antiquary, and exerted indefatigable industry, directed to valuable objects by consummate judgment.

Elias Ashmole, founder of the Museum which bears his name at Oxford, was the only child of Simon Ashmole, a saddler at Lichfield, an improvident man, who "loved war better than making saddles and bridles." Elias was born the 23rd of May, 1617. From a chorister in Lichfield Cathedral he became a student in law and music, a solicitor in Chancery, an attorney of the Common Pleas, a gentleman of the ordnance in the garrison of Oxford, and a student of natural philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy, in Brazennose College, at that University; a commissioner, and afterwards receiver and registrar of excise at Worcester; a captain in Lord Ashley's regiment, and comptroller of the ordnance; a botanist, a chymist, and an astrologer! He also acquired a knowledge of several manual arts, such as seal engraving, casting in sand, and "the mystery of a working goldsmith." In 1652 he began to study Hebrew, and shortly afterwards general antiquities, which recommended him to the notice of Sir William Dugdale. In

1658 this extraordinary man applied himself to the collecting of materials for "the History of the Order of the Garter."

Upon the Restoration, Charles II. made him Windsor Herald, June 18, 1660; and on the 3rd of September in that year he was appointed Commissioner of Excise in London. On the 2nd of November he was called to the bar in the Middle Temple Hall; and in January, 1661, admitted F.R.S. In February, he was appointed by warrant to the secretaryship of Surinam, and preferment followed preferment. He received his diploma as M.D. from Oxford, in 1669; finished his history of "the Order of the Garter" in 1672, and was presented by the King with 400/ as a mark of his special approbation. In 1675 he resigned his place of Windsor Herald, and after twice declining the office of Garter King of Arms, and the honour of representing the city of Lichfield in Parliament, terminated his days in honourable retirement, May 18, 1692, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. He was buried at Lambeth.

John Austis, an eminent English antiquary, was born at St. Neots, in Cornwall, September 28th or 29th, 1669, educated at Oxford, and became a student of the Middle Temple. In 1702 he represented the borough of St. Germains in Parliament, and in 1714 Queen Anne presented him with a reversionary patent for the place of Garter King of Arms. In the last Parliament of Anne, he was returned member for Dunhead or Launceston; and he sat in the first parliament of George I. He afterwards fell under the suspicion of Government as being a favourer of the exiled family, and was imprisoned at the very time that the place of Garter became vacant by the death of the venerable Sir Henry St. George. After a long and bold struggle for his right as holder of the reversionary patent, he was created Garter in 1718. He died March 4th, 1744-5, aged 76. His most celebrated published works are, "The Register of the Most Noble Order of the Garter," and "Observations introductory to an Historical Essay on the Knighthood of the Bath;" but he left behind him some most valuable materials in MS. for the History of the College of Arms, which are now in the Library. Francis Sandford, first Rouge Dragon Pursuivant, and then Lancaster Herald, temp. Charles II. and James II., has acquired a right to honourable mention as the author of a most excellent genealogical History of England.' He also published the Ceremonial and Procession at the Coronation of James II.,' in conjunction with Gregory King, Rouge Croix Pursuivant, and the Funeral of General Monk.' He was descended from a very ancient and respectable family, seated at Sandford, in the county of Salop, and was third son of Francis Sandford, Esq., and of Elizabeth, daughter of Calcot Chambre, of Williamscot, in Oxfordshire, and of Carnow, in Wicklow, Ireland. Francis Sandford was born in the Castle of Carnow, and at eleven years of age was driven by the Rebellion to take fuge at Sandford. At the Restoration, as some recompence for the hardships he and his family had experienced as adherents to Charles I., he was admitted into th College of Arms. Sandford was so attached to King James that he resign his office on the Revolution in 1668, and died " advanced in age, poor, and ne lected," in Bloomsbury or its vicinity, January 16, 1693, and was buried in s Bride's Upper Churchyard.

Sir John Vanbrugh, the well-known dramatic author, and the architect Blenheim and Castle Howard, received, as a compliment for his services!

building the latter edifice, the office of Clarencieux King of Arms, then vacant, from Charles, Earl of Carlisle, Deputy Earl Marshal; and notwithstanding very spirited remonstrances by the heralds over whose heads he had been appointed, he was confirmed in the situation, which he afterwards sold, for 20007., to Knox Ward, Esq., avowing ignorance of his new profession, and neglect of all its duties. Of course, we do not notice Sir John as a herald who has done honour to the College, but as a person distinguished in literature and the arts, who has been registered as a member of it.

Francis Grose, Richmond Herald, the good-humoured and convivial writer on British antiquities, was the son of a Swiss who settled in England as a jeweller. He was born at Greenford in Middlesex, in 1731, and at an early period of his life, obtained a situation in the College of Arms, where he eventually reached the office of Richmond Herald, which he resigned in 1763, when he became adjutant and paymaster of the Hampshire Militia, and afterwards captain in the Surrey Militia. His numerous works are to be found in almost every library. The principal are Views of Antiquities in England and Wales;' Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue;' Military Antiquities; History of Dover Castle;' Rules for Drawing Caricatures;' The Guide to Health, Beauty, Honour, and Riches;' and 'The Antiquities of Ireland,' completed by Ledwich, Captain Grose being suddenly carried off by an apoplectic fit soon after his arrival in Dublin, May 12, 1791.

Edmund Lodge, Lancaster Herald, has left his name to us connected with the most beautiful and interesting series of Portraits of Illustrious British Personages' ever published. The genealogical and biographical memoirs by which they are accompanied are highly creditable to his talents, of which the College was too soon deprived. Mr. Lodge was made Lancaster Herald in December, 1793, and died 16th of January, 1839.

Death has lately also robbed the College of another highly respectable and accomplished author and antiquary in the person of George Frederick Beltz, Esq., Lancaster Herald, F.S.A.: and the only Officer of Arms now living whose name is connected with British literature is not a member of the English College, but Ulster King of Arms for Ireland (Sir William Betham), who has contributed several most erudite and interesting works to the history of the language and general antiquities of Ireland. Be it remembered that we have not included in this list the heralds who have written on their own science only, but such as have shed more or less lustre over the whole world of letters. Amongst the former are to be found many learned and industrious writers:-William Wyrley, Rouge Croix Pursuivant, 1604; Sir William Segar, Garter; William Smith, Rouge Dragon Pursuivant; Ralph Brooke, York Herald; Augustine Vincent, Rouge Croix Pursuivant; Robert Glover, Somerset Herald, and his nephew and successor, Thomas Milles; John Guillim, Rouge Dragon Pursuivant; Gregory King, Lancaster Herald and Deputy Garter; Sir Edward Byshe, Garter; John Gibon, Blue Mantle Pursuivant; Sir Edward Walker, Garter; Joseph Edmondson, Mowbray Herald Extraordinary; &c. &c. But few of these names are known o any but the students of heraldry, whereas most of the others are as “familiar n our mouths as household words," and hold high and deserved place amongst