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merely introduce a letter from Sir William Dugdale on a "prescriptive right" to arms, because a great part of the article on banners is of an heraldic nature. Before inserting the letter to which we allude, a few remarks are necessary in explanation of its importance. With the same freedom with which we shall discuss every question that may come before us, we must speak of the present practice of the College of Arms with respect to allowing the right to armorial ensigns; and whilst we are unfortunate enough to question the justice of that practice, we are assured that we shall be credited by its intelligent members for having agitated it with no hostile feelings. On the contrary, we believe that the opinions of some of those Officers on the subject are strictly in unison with our own; and we are convinced that the admission of the principle for which we contend would do more to benefit that institution than any other measure it could adopt. It is known to most of our heraldic readers that the right to armorial bearings is derived in two ways-a descent from a man entitled to them, or a grant from the Kings of Arms. Of the former, the Heralds allow of no other evidence than their own records, which consist either of their Visitations, that commenced in 1530, and ceased in 1687, though of some counties the last were made in 1620; or of Grants. Thus, whatever may be the antiquity of a man's family, or the proofs he may possess that his ancestors used arms, unless they are recorded in the Heralds' College, he must submit to the same process to establish his right as the veriest parvenu that has just emerged from a counter. There is at least moral, if not legal, injustice in such a regulation, which those who are acquainted with the manner in which entries were made at the Visitations will at once understand; for absence from the county, caprice, pride, minority, illness, and several other causes, might operate to prevent an obedience being paid to the summons of the visiting Herald. But we contend, that where an individual can show, by indisputable evidence, that his family have borne arms for several centuries, and cases may occur in which such proof can be adduced from a period long before the institution of the Heralds' College itself, he ought to be allowed, as a matter of right, to have those arms confirmed to him, and to the descendants of the first ancestor to whom they can be traced. To subject a man so situated to the indignity of receiving a grant of arms; to place him on a level with those who know not the names of their grandfathers; to fix upon armorial bearings which have been borne for centuries the impression of modern manufacture, and perhaps too to "spiflicate" them with all the bedaubery of modern invention, is both an injury and an insult. Should -he, however, be created a baronet, or receive the first class of the order of the Bath, he has no choice; since, to be eligible to

either he must be entitled to coat armour: and thus, whilst he is honoured by his sovereign, he is dishonoured in his own opinion, by being compelled to undergo the process of being made, according to the statutes of chivalry, a gentleman. We know numerous persons so situated who would willingly have their arms confirmed or registered, but who properly shrink with horror from submitting to the degradation of a modern gift. The opinion which we have long entertained is, that where a man can show that his ancestors have borne arms for a certain number of years, for instance, from the accession of Charles the Second, such usage ought to be held as sufficient proof of his right to them. Being impressed with this conviction, we were much gratified in finding evidence that such was once the practice; and that too under the most distinguished of the heraldic monarchs-Sir William Dugdale. The following letter shows, that about 1668 the College had agreed to consider the usage of arms from the early part of the reign of Elizabeth, i. e. for the preceding hundred years, as a prescriptive right to them; a decision founded upon the soundest principles of equity and justice. When, and by what authority, we would venture to ask, was this principle abandoned? Has every Garter king of arms the power to dispense with the existing laws of the College, and to make others? And hence, are the public subjected to the caprice of every temporary occupier of the throne of St. Bennet's Hill? Surely Garter king of arms cannot possess more despotic powers than are vested in the sovereign of the empire; but, be this as it may, it is really desirable that the laws of the College of Arms should be certain and invariable. We mean no disrespect to the present Garter, or to any of his immediate predecessors, when we say that the abandonment of a regulation laid down by such a man as Dugdale reflects as little credit upon their judgment as it was unfair to the community at large; and it appears to us that the public are entitled to be governed by regulations, on this and all other similar subjects, which can neither be altered nor abrogated by the individuals who from time to time may succeed to the supremacy of the Corporation of Heralds. Potentates of every description are, we know, not very likely to adopt suggestions; but we take the liberty of recommending it to the earnest attention of the Kings and others members of the College of Arms, to advocate the true interest of which our pen will ever be cheerfully devoted, to recur again to the practice sanctioned and adopted by Sir William Dugdale; to fix upon a period when the usage of arms shall constitute a prescriptive right in the descendants; and as, in 1668, the preceding hundred years was deemed sufficient, let the right now be held to commence before the accession of Charles the Second; but the most rigid proofs should be re

quired of such usage. If, however, the arms then borne are notoriously those of another family, whose ensigns are recorded at an earlier date than the claimant can establish them to have been used by his ancestors, a distinction might be adopted in such cases, and which, to avoid disputes, should be always the same; whilst the fee ought not to be a tithe of the expense of a Grant. By this practice we are convinced the funds of the College would be materially benefited; and justice would be rendered to many families who now join the common herd in abusing an institution which, whether from its innate respectability, or the private characters and high literary attainments of a large majority of its members, merits an elevated place in public esteem.

It is singular that this letter is not inserted in Mr. Hampers's recent Collection of Dugdale's Correspondence; but from a note to p. 367, it seems, that the editor unfortunately trusted to the opinion of some friend on its merits, who reported that it and some others, of which we shall give extracts," were merely on business connected with his heraldic visitations ;" he being probably totally ignorant of its great value in illustration of the subject which has induced us to insert it, though it is otherwise of at least equal importance to many which occur in that volume,

Mr. Horsley,

[Lansdown MSS. 870.]

TO MR. WILLIAM HORSLEY.

I did receive your letter, dated May 30th, with that sume of 21. 5s. which was from Sir Miles Stapleton, of Weyhill, since which I wrote you by the post to let you know so much as for Mr. Raynes. If I can find anything in our books at the office to justifye the arms you drew with his descent, I will do it; but I have allready perused some books, and can find nothing out; therefore it will be requisite that he do look over his own evidences for some seals of arms, for perhaps it appears in them; and if so, and that they have used it from the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reigne, or about that time, I shall then allowe thereof, for our directions are limiting us so to do, and not a shorter prescription of usage.

I hear nothing as yet from your brother at Newcastle as to those descents, and the money which he promised to send before the end of this last term. I think I shall not go from hence before to-morrow fortnight.

Having an opportunity and this bearer, I have now sent you a trick of the arms which are entered in my visitation of Yorkshire, wherein you will see which are not yet proved; such other as I shall enter, I shall send you a trick of hereafter.

I pray you present my most hearty service to worthy Sir Thomas

VOL. I.-PART 1.

L

Herbert; here is nothing of consequence to impart to him, otherwise I would have written to him myself; so wishing you good health, I rest Your affectionate friend,

London, 15 Junii, 1668.

WILL. DUGDALE, İ

In the same volume is another letter dated, Durham, 15th August, 1666, in which Dugdale begs Horsley to write to him before the commission "leave Newcastle, whereby I may understand the name of the signe at Stokesley, which is the bailiff's house, and at Kilham, Malton, and Beverley, where we are to sit;" and in the next, from Pomfret, 19th September, 1666, he speaks of having borrowed books from Lord Fairfax, with which he intended to send a special messenger." That messenger conveyed the third letter, of which a copy occurs in the Lansdown MS. before cited, dated at Blyth Hall, near Coleshill, 9th October, 1666, in which he says,

“This letter which I send you here inclosed, came not to my hands till I returned out of the North lately: it is from your neighbour Mr. Kitchell, who, as you will see, charges you with abusing him grossly. I pray you, therefore, for the better vindication of yourself, and so consequently me, that you will discourse the business with Mr. Kitchell, in the presence of my worthy and honored friend Sir Thomas Herbert, that it may appear you have not wronged him, otherwise I shall have a clamour upon me, as well as yourself. If Mr. Kitchell can make it appear that he is of that family unto which the arms are allowed in Kent, upon proof made there, I shall be willing to assigne him a fit difference upon certifying his descent under his hand, and payment of my fee to you for my use."

He then observes, that he intended to be at London on the 24th, but expected to make but a short stay,

"In regard we can have no proper settlement there as formerly, considering our lodgings are destroyed at the Heralds' office by the late woful fire. If you have any occasion to write to me before I write to you from thence, direct your letter to my son, Mr. John 'Dugdale, at Clarendon-House, for my Lord Chancellor is now fixt there, and it will soon come safe to my hands. When I come to London I intend to lodge at Mr. Ashmole's chamber, over Serjeant Maynard's lodgings, in the Middle Temple-lane. I hope you will desire your son William (to whom I pray you recommend my kind respects) to be very careful and punctual in the takeing notice of the marriages and issue in those descents he shall enter for any of the gentlemen. I presume he will not now erre as he hath formerly done, and be sure to rectify what is deficient in that of Sir Watkinson Payler, and to take notice of those particulars which are exprest in the paper I last delivered to him."

In a postscript, Sir William adds,

"These parcels of descents I now send you are only of those families which are in the North and East Riding, Dr. Johnson taking care for those in the West Riding. You are to take notice, that there is not in the old visitations any particular descent of Metham, of North Cave. Quere: therefore of his descent from Metham, nor is there any thing of Tankard of Bramton: see therefore how he is descended from those of Borrougbrigg. Ellerker of Yolton did enter his descent with me in April last. I believe the Lord Fairfax, of Gilling, will enter his descent if you send to him, for I hear he is a great lover of antiquities."

EARLY ENGLISH POETRY.

Ir is the plan of the New Series of the "Retrospective Review" to devote a few pages of each number to the publication of inedited pieces of English poetry; but on this occasion we are induced slightly to deviate from that intention, because we shall be enabled at the same time to perform another part of our labours, by noticing the proceedings of a literary association. Nor, we flatter ourselves, will either of the objects of our attention be considered undeserving of that of our readers; since all have heard of the unfortunate Charles d'Orleans, the hero both of war and poesy in the fifteenth century; and few of them can be ignorant of the existence of the Roxburghe Club. The name of the duke of Orleans, his bravery, his misfortunes, and his literary taste, are too universally known to require any further observations; but it may be necessary to state that the "Roxburghe Club" is a society of gentlemen, many of whom are "to fame unknown," and whose principal literary pretensions consist of a soi disant attachment to early literature and scarce books in its members; the one manifested by an absurd veneration for useless volumes, simply because they cannot be easily procured; and the latter by occasionally reprinting an old author, not, however, with the liberal and honourable view of extending the knowledge of his merits by an impression accessible to the public, but by confining it to the members of the Club, few of whom have the disposition, and still fewer the ability, to make the least practical use of the contents of the precious gift, even, which is but rarely the case, if the article itself be deserving of a higher destiny than to light a fire.

The poetry of Charles d'Orleans was considered to have remained in the original until some of his pieces were beautifully translated in the "London Magazine '.' It appears, however,

1 For September, 1823. These elegant translations have been at

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