Page

ART.

V.-1. Winchester, and a few other Compositions, in Prose

and Verse. By the Reverend Charles Townsend.

2. Epistle to the Right Honourable John Hookham Frere

in Malta. By William Stewart Rose -

VI.-Herinneringen uit Japan. Van Hendrik Doeff, ond Op-

perhoofd der Nederlanders in Japan, op het Eiland

Decima.

(Recollections of Japan. By Hendrik Doeff, formerly

President of the Dutch Factory at Decima)

400

VII. History of the War in the Peninsula, &c. By Lieut.-
Colonel W. F. P. Napier, C.B. Article Second.

VIII-1. The Chinese: a General Description of the Empire

of China and its Inhabitants. By John Francis Davis,

Esq., late his Majesty's Chief Superintendent in China.

2. An Historical and Descriptive Account of China. By

Hugh Murray, F.R.S.E.; J. Crawfurd, Esq; P. Gor-

don, Esq.; Capt. T. Lynn; W. Wallace, F.R S. E.,

Professor of Mathematics in the University of Edin-

burgh; and G. Burnett, Esq., late Professor of Bo-

tany, King's College, London. With a Map, &c.

- 489

415

4.37

IX-A Popular and Practical Introduction to Law Studies.

By Samuel Warren, Esq., F.R.S., of the Inner Temple 521

X.-1. England im jahre 1935. Von Friedrich von Raumer.

2. England in 1835: being a Series of Letters written

to Friends in Germany, during a Residence in London,

and Excursions into the Provinces. By Frederick von

Raumer, Professor of History at the University of Ber-

lin; Author of the History of the Hohenstauffen;' of

the History of Europe from the End of the 15th Cen-

tury;' of Illustrations of the History of the 16th and

17th Centuries,' &c. Translated from the German by

Sarah Austin and H. E. Lloyd

"

"

530

THE

QUARTERLY REVIEW.

APRIL, 1836.

ART. I.-The Controversy between Sir Richard Scrope and Sir
Robert Grosvenor, in the Court of Chivalry, A.D. MCCCLXXXV
-MCCCXC. Vols. 1 and 2. By Sir N. Harris Nicolas,
Folio. London. 1832.

K.C.M.G.

'IN

N our days,' says Bailey-writing at the beginning of the last century all are accounted gentlemen that have money; and if a man have no coat of arms, the King of Arms can sell him one.' This is equally true, at least, in the present day. The aristocracy of wealth, to speak modestly, closely rivals that of rank; but our estimable friends, Garter, Clarencieux, Norroy, Lyon, and Ulster, with their dependent heralds and pursuivants, are, we believe, still fully occupied in supplying its members, as they spring up, with a variety of ingenious devices, in imitation of the coat armour of olden time, for emblazonment on the pannels of carriages and the covers of side-dishes.

The fashion of armorial bearings is one which some may be surprised to find still maintaining itself in defiance of the Utilitarians. It would seem, at first view, a task of difficulty to account for its resistance to that 'reforming spirit of the age,' which announces such a philosophical scorn for hereditary honours of any kind. For, in truth, besides its apparent inutility,' the noble science of blazon, with its quaint language and strange symbols,the chiefs, pales, bends, fesses, chevrons, saltires, and so forth,is such an unknown tongue to the million, nay, even to the thousands who inscribe these hieroglyphs on their equipages, that it really is almost a matter of marvel how so antiquated, and, with our present habits, incongruous a practice, should not long since have gone out of use, with the jousts and tournaments of the age of chivalry to which it appropriately belonged; whereas, on the contrary, it has not, that we are aware of, been in the least degree relaxed.

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It is a strong example of the tenacity of associations once generally adopted. The bearing of heraldic arms,' when the arms they represent were really borne by knight and squire, was the distinctive mark of gentility-none being permitted to assume them who was not entitled to them by his rank. And so enduring is a notion which has once rooted itself in the mind of a people, that even now, though centuries have elapsed since the armour of

VOL. LVI. NO. CX1.

B

chivalry

chivalry was consigned to the museums of the curious, no one who lays claim to gentility would like to be supposed deficient in his due attributes of helmet, crest, shield, and motto.

6.

There must needs be consolation in the inveterate obstinacy of these ancient though mysterious attachments, for such persons as believe them to guarantee the continued veneration of the people of this country for some at least of those more intrinsically valuable institutions and opinions, from an association with which the former derive all their importance. These will entertain no serious fears for the Peerage, whilst radical tailors sport coat armour on their dennetts, and believe in the endurance of a general respect for blood and title so long as wealthy cottonspinners write themselves armigero,' and sue out their liveries and arms at the Herald's Office. How we ourselves view this question, we shall not at present say; but we certainly never have seen anything at all ridiculous or irrational in the desire of those among the middle classes, who have attained wealth by honourable exertions, to distinguish themselves from the common herd, who bear perhaps the same surname with themselves, by heraldic devices. Several of the most powerful families of our titled aristocracy, and some even of the oldest, inherit their wealth and consequence from a clothier, a goldsmith, or a merchant of a former age, who felt as much pride in bequeathing to them the armorial bearings he had obtained from the Herald's College, as the property accumulated by his prudence and industry. It is the peculiar boast of this country that, almost from the foundation of the monarchy, the ranks of her aristocracy have been thus gradually fed, and their numbers kept up, by addition of the eminent and enterprising from the general mass; so that no one has ever been so lowly in birth or station that he might not aspire, by the exercise of his talents and energies, to become the founder of a family which should eventually take rank with the direct descendants of the Knights of Battle-Abbey, or the Barons of Runnymede. Are they, then, right who would ridicule, as childish pageantry, objects which have engaged so much of the attention. and affections of mankind? Or can those things be justly called useless, the desire of which has often stimulated the flagging spirit of industry, and called forth the latent energies of genius?

But there is more to be said, even than this, on the matter. The inheritance of heraldic honours is usually coupled with that of substantial advantages-manors and messuages, lands and tenements. The rules of descent are the same for an estate as for a coat of arms. The elder son carries off the honours of the 'entire' family escutcheon with the patrimonial acres ;-the younger branches taking it only with a difference,' or mark of

6

inferiority.

sword, which the same chivalrous monarch fixed in their scutcheon to show his gratitude for their support of his tottering throne? or the humblest Mr. Howard in the land, on the magnificent addition which records the victory of Flodden? Examples are numerous in which 'entire arms' or 'honourable augmentations' of this kind have been granted as a special memorial of noble actions, or of a life replete with them. And is it strange that the descendants of men thus distinguished should set a value on the heraldic honours which, whether with or without a title, they have inherited from so proud a source?

For these reasons, while illustrious descent, and gentle blood, and territorial property are held in any estimation (and the day, we still hope, will not soon arrive, in spite of the levelling propensities of certain sages, when they will cease to be so held in this country), so long will heraldic insignia be prized as their outward symbols and representations.

(

It has been long a matter of dispute, among antiquaries, from what period the adoption of armorial bearings is to be dated. Some of the more zealous illustrators of the Arte of Armorye' would carry it back to the heroic ages, because Achilles and Æneas are represented to have borne some device upon their shields. By more than one writer the hieroglyphs of the Heralds are deduced from those of Ancient Egypt; while others, more rationally, see their origin in the symbols borne by commanders of all ages on their banners, or impressed by sovereigns and states upon their coins. Sir George Mackenzie attributes their invention to the Patriarch Jacob. Robison, and, after him, Gwillim, to Alexander the Great. Several heraldic writers affect to discover much mysterious allegory hid under the different bearings of shields, which are said to represent the whole ancient mythology, or the virtues personified, or the presumed moral or mental qualifications of their bearers. The author of the Armorie of King Arthur and the Round Table' (1586) translated from the French a Treatise on Armoryes and Ensignes Military; their peculiar seavenfolde significations, planets, signes, proprietyes, vertues, and fortunities quotidian.' But the Treatise on Armourye' of the learned Prioress of Sopewell, the Lady Juliana Berners, in the 'Boke of St. Albans,' as it is our most ancient, is also perhaps the most curious disquisition on the subject. It discusses the questions of how gentylmen began, and how the law of armys was first ordaynt ;" and, in the fashion of the old chronicles, commencing with the fall of the angels, and proceeding through that of man and the Deluge, it makes out Our Saviour to be a gentylman on his moder's side;' and goes on to show, 'by the lynage of coote armuris, how gentylmen are to be known from ungen

tylmen.'