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S^ittssttuties of ifamiUes, 
 
 OTHEE ESSAYS. 
 
 SIE BEENAED BUEKE, 
 
 ULSTER KING OF ARMS. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 LONaMAN, GEEEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS, 
 
 PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 1859. 
 
 wA 
 
BILLIKG, STEAM PRINl F.R AND STEREOTVPEK, GUILDFORD, SITRREV. 
 
I ^51 
 
 TO 
 
 THE COUNTESS OE EGLINTON AND WINTON, 
 
 %\n littU M%m, 
 
 THE PEODUCTIOIJT OE WHICH OEIGINATED IN A 
 SUGGESTION OE HEB EXCELLENCY'S, 
 
 is insaihi, 
 
 WITH THE AUTHOE'S HIGHEST EESPECT 
 AND SINCEEEST ESTEEM. 
 
 EeCOED ToWEE, DlJBlilN CASTIiE, 
 
 Sept. 26th, 1859. 
 
 ivi37p46S 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 
 
 
 PAGK 
 
 CISSITUDES OF TaMILIES . • . . . 1 
 
 The Percys . . . . 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 The Nevilles ... 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 Else and Fall of the Cromwells 
 
 
 
 26 
 
 The Bairds of Gartsherrie 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 Kirkpatrick of Closeburne 
 
 
 
 46 
 
 Anstruther of Anstruther . 
 
 
 
 50 
 
 Macdonell of Glengarry . 
 
 
 
 54 
 
 The Princess of Connemara 
 
 
 
 65 
 
 The Doom of Buckingham 
 
 
 
 74 
 
 The Eoyal Stuarts ... 
 
 
 
 83 
 
 The House of Albany 
 
 
 
 86 
 
 Earls of Strath erne and Menteith . 
 
 
 
 101 
 
 Lindsay of Edzell . 
 
 
 
 113 
 
 St. Clair of Eoslyn .... 
 
 
 
 117 
 
 Stewart of Craigiehall . 
 
 
 . 
 
 135 
 
 Gargrave and Eeresby 
 
 
 
 142 
 
VI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 VicissiTTJDES OF FAMILIES — Continued. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A Dethroned Monarch .... 
 
 144 
 
 The O'Neills 
 
 149 
 
 MaeCarthy More 
 
 162 
 
 The Maguires of Tempo .... 
 
 171 
 
 The Fall of Desmond , . . . . 
 
 186 
 
 TJmfraville 
 
 192 
 
 Hungerford, the Spendthrift . . . . 
 
 195 
 
 Sir Edward Castleton, Bt. . . . 
 
 197 
 
 Lady Koche . . . • ■ • 
 
 197 
 
 Theodore Palaeologus 
 
 199 
 
 Landmarks of Genealogy .... 
 
 203 
 
 The Double Sojourn of Genius at Beaconsfield 
 
 238 
 
 Recollections of English Counties 
 
 257 
 
 Heraldry ....... 
 
 340 
 
 The Geraldines 
 
 406 
 
VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 The " vicissitudes of great families^^ form a curious chapter 
 in the general history of mankind ; in fact, the interest 
 attaching to individual fortunes is of a more human cha- 
 racter, and excites more of human sympathy, than that 
 which belongs to the fate of kingdoms. But such details 
 are seldom to be found close at hand. They lie for the 
 most part scattered about in unread chronicles and private 
 papers, overwhelmed, buried, as it were, under the dryness 
 or the weight of the superincumbent materials, from 
 which they must be disinterred, and the dust swept off, 
 before they can be fitly presented to the public at large. 
 The absence of such epitomizing aids may be considered 
 as one reason for these domestic stories having excited so 
 little general notice. Another cause must, no doubt, be 
 sought in the multitude of subjects that press upon the 
 reader's time and attention, from every side, leaving but a 
 narrow space for the development of any particular study. 
 The history even of kingdoms has, in the course of ages, 
 grown to a size so monstrous, that a lifetime is scarcely 
 sufficient to grapple with it. Every day we are more and 
 
 B 
 
3 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 more compelled to take refuge in abridgment, omitting all 
 minor details, and recording only the salient portions of 
 events, though even then, it may be said, that nearly as 
 much of every reader's time is employed in forgetting as 
 in learning. As, however, in spite of all this, books go 
 on flooding the world with the rapidity of a winter torrent, 
 there appears to be no valid reason why a few drops from 
 the sourch from which I am about to draw should not be 
 thrown into the general rush of waters. They wall hardly 
 cause the stream to overflow. Besides, dropping all meta- 
 phor, the decline and fall of illustrious houses is a subject 
 that cannot fail to amuse those who delight in " moving 
 accidents by land and flood," while to minds of another 
 cast it may supply something more solid than mere 
 amusement. That spirit of emulation and perseverance, 
 which so mainly contributes to success, may be awakened 
 by the example of greatness built up from the lowest 
 gi'ounds by well-directed energy, while pride may derive a 
 no less useful lesson from seeing how little stability there 
 is in the highest gifts of fortune, and that family trees, 
 like all other trees, must eventually perish, the question 
 being only one of time. Truly does Dr. Borlase remark, that 
 " the most lasting houses have their seasons, more or 
 less, of a certain constitutional strength : they have their 
 spring, and summer sunshine glare, their wane, dechne, and 
 death." What race in Europe surpassed in royal position, 
 personal achievement, and romantic adventure, our own 
 Plantagenets— equally wise as valiant, and no less re- 
 nowned in the Cabinet than in the Field ? But let us look 
 back only so far as the year 1637, and we shall find the 
 
VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 3 
 
 great-great grandson of Margaret Plantagenet, herself the 
 daughter and heiress of George, Duke of Clarence, following 
 the cobbler's craft at Newport, a little town in Shropshire ! 
 Nor is this the only branch from the tree of royalty that 
 has dwarfed and withered. If we were to closely investi- 
 gate the fortunes of the many inheritors of the royal arms, 
 it would soon be shown that, in sober truth, 
 
 ** The aspiring blood of Lancaster 
 Had sunk into the ground ;" 
 
 aye, and deeply too. The princely stream flows through 
 very humble veins. Among the lineal descendants of 
 Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of Kent, sixth son of Ed- 
 ward I., King of England, entitled to quarter the royal 
 arms, occur a butcher, and a toll gatherer; the first, 
 a Mr. Joseph Smart, of Hales Owen ; the latter, a Mr, 
 George Wilmot, keeper of the turnpike gate at Cooper's 
 Bank, near Dudley. Then, again, among the descendants 
 of Thomas Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester, fifth son of 
 Edward III., we discover Mr. Stephen James Penny, the 
 late sexton at Saint George's, Hanover Square — a strange 
 descent, from sword and sceptre to the spade and the 
 pickaxe ! 
 
 In the ranks of the unennobled aristocracy, time has 
 eff'ected wondrous changes. The most stately and gor- 
 geous houses have crumbled under its withering touch. 
 Let us cast our eye on what county we please in England, 
 and the same view will present itself. Few, very few, of 
 those old historic names that once held paramount sway, 
 and adorned by their brilliancy a particular locality, still 
 exist in a male descendant. It has been asserted, I know 
 
 B 2 
 
4 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 not exactly with what truth, that in Herefordshire, a 
 county peculiarly rich in ancient families, there are but 
 two or three county gentlemen who can show a male de- 
 scent from the proprietors recorded in the Visitations. In 
 the North, these genealogical vicissitudes have been has- 
 tened by the influence of commercial success, which has 
 done so much to uproot the old proprietary of the soil, 
 that one marvels how, in Lancashire, and the West Riding 
 of Yorkshire, such families as Towneley, Hulton, Gerard, 
 Blackburne, Blundell, Trafford, Ramsden, Tempest, and 
 Wentworth, " have stood against the waves and weathers 
 of time." Others, of no less fame and fortune, have 
 passed altogether away, and others have dwindled from 
 then proud estate to beggary and want : 
 
 " Eversse domus tristes reliquiae." 
 
 It has often been remarked, that the more distant a 
 county is from London, the more lasting are its old fami- 
 lies. The merchant's or manufacturer's gold tends to 
 displace the ancient aristocracy; but its action is most 
 generally felt within a limited circle round the metropolis, 
 or the great city wherein its accumulation has been made. 
 The aim of the prosperous trader is to fix himself on some 
 estate in his own immediate neighbourhood. Thus" it is 
 that few old resident families are to be found in Middle- 
 sex, Surrey, or Essex ; while in Northumberland, Cheshire, 
 Shropshire, Devon, and Cornwall— all remote from London 
 — many a stem is still flourishing, planted in the Planta- 
 genet times. Quaint old EuUer is not altogether of my 
 way of thinking. Here are his own words : 
 
 '^It is the observation of Vitruvius, alleged and ap- 
 
VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 5 
 
 proved by Master Camden, that northern men advancing 
 southward cannot endure the heat, but their strength 
 melteth away, and is dissolved, whilst southern people re- 
 moving northward, are not only not subject to sickness 
 through the change of place, but are the more confirmed in 
 their strength and health. Sure I am that northern gentry 
 transplanted into the south by marriage, purchance, or 
 otherwise, do languish and fade away within few genera- 
 tions; whereas southern men, on the like occasions, re- 
 moving northward, acquire a settlement in their estates with 
 long continuance. Some peevish natures (delighting to 
 comment all things in the worst sense) impute this to the 
 position of their country, as secured from sale by their 
 distance from London (the staple place of pleasure), whilst 
 I would willingly behold it as the effect and reward of 
 their discreet thrift and moderate expense.^^ 
 
 This is a curious subject, and I may be pardoned for 
 giving another extract from the same agreeable author : — 
 
 " The fable is sufficiently known of the contest betwixt 
 the wind and the sun, which first should force the tra- 
 veller to put off his clothes. The wind made him wrap 
 them the closer about him; whilst the heat of the sun 
 soon made him to part with them. This is moralized in 
 onr English gentry. Such who live southward near 
 London (which, for the lustre thereof, I may fitly call the 
 sun of our nation), in the warmth of wealth, and plenty of 
 pleasures, quickly strip and disrobe themselves of their 
 estates and inheritance ; w^hilst the gentry living in this 
 north country on the confines of Scotland, in the wind of 
 war (daily alarmed with their blustering enemies) buckel 
 
6 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 their estates (as their armour) the closer unto them ; and 
 since have no less thriftily defended their patrimony in 
 peace than formerly valiantly maintained it in war/' 
 
 It must not be imagined for a moment that such al- 
 ternations of fortune are confined to England. North 
 of the Tweed, the same results occur. Scotland has 
 had her full share of family vicissitudes. Her na- 
 tional and civil wars, her rehgious strifes, and her 
 chivalric devotion to the feeling of loyalty, produced in 
 many instances disastrous consequences. The royal house 
 of Stuart affords in itself so many striking examples, 
 that I shall have to devote a whole chapter to it. 
 During the Usurpation, Anne, Duchess of Hamilton, the 
 proudest, and richest, and best born heiress in Scotland, 
 was at one time so reduced in circumstances as to be de- 
 pendent for her daily subsistence on the industry of a 
 young companion and friend, Miss Maxwell, of Calder- 
 wood, who was an expert sempstress, and maintained 
 herself and her ruined mistress by the produce of her 
 needle. Better times, however, came, and the Duchess, 
 restored to her lost estate, rewarded her preserver with 
 the gift of Craignethan Castle, in Lanarkshire, which, after 
 Miss Maxwell's marriage to a Mr. Hay, gave designation 
 to the respectable Scottish family of Hay of Craignethan. 
 But we need not travel so far back. Not very long ago, 
 indeed, within the memory of many still alive, Ur- 
 quhart, laird of Burdsyards, a scion of the famous family 
 of Urquhart of Cromarty, after passing many years as an 
 officer in a distinguished regiment, and mixing in the first 
 society of London and Edinburgh, was necessitated, by his 
 
VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 7 
 
 extravagance, to sell his estate, sank, step by step, to the 
 lowest depth of misery, and came at last a wandering beggar 
 to his own door — or rather to that door which had once 
 been his own. 
 
 A somewhat similar story is told of a Scottish peer. 
 Eraser of Kirkhill relates that he saw John, Earl of Tra- 
 quair, the cousin and courtier of King James VI., " begging 
 in the streets of Edinburgh, in the year 1661. He 
 was" — (these are Eraser's own words) — "in an antique 
 garb, and wore a broad old hat, short cloak, and pannier's 
 breeches, and I contributed, in my quarters in the Can- 
 nongate, towards his relief. We gave him a noble. He was 
 standing with his hat off. The Master of Lovatt, Cul- 
 brockie, Glenmoriston, and myself, were there, and he 
 received the piece of money from my hand as humbly and 
 thankfully as the poorest supplicant." 
 
 Across the Irish channel, the story is even more signi- 
 ficant. There is, perhaps, no part of the world where 
 such violent and almost incessant internal convulsions 
 have disorganised society, and overturned all social 
 happiness and prosperity, as in Ireland. The attentive 
 reader of Irish history rises from his studies wearied with 
 the record of perpetual wars. From the earliest period of 
 its history until within our own memory, that fine country 
 was the scene of civil discord, and for more than ten cen- 
 turies it can scarcely be said to have enjoyed fifty con- 
 secutive years of calm. As a necessary consequence, the 
 Irish annals present a series of the most striking vicissi- 
 tudes ; and there is scarcely a family or a seat that has 
 not shared deeply in those feverish changes and calamities. 
 
8 VICISSITTTDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 An Insh. "Peerage" gives a very inadequate account 
 of the royal and noble blood of Ireland. But few of the 
 Milesian races hare found their way into the peerage,* 
 though some still inherit a portion of their ancient posses- 
 sions J and it is in the Austrian, French, or Spanish ser\ice,t 
 
 * The only Mflesian families, granted Peerages by the soTe- 
 reigns of England, hare been the O'lS'eills, earls of Tyrone, and 
 barons of Dungannon, and, in modem times, viscounts and earl 
 O'Neill, in Antrim ; the O'Donnells, earls of Tyrconnel ; the 
 MacDonells, earls of Antrim, who were Scots of Irish descent ; 
 the Magiiires, barons of Enniskillen : the Magenisses, yiscounts 
 of Iveagh, in the comity of Down; the O'Haras, barons of 
 Tyrawly, in Mayo ; the O'Dalys, barons of Dansandle, in 
 Galway ; the O'Malones, barons of Sunderhn, in "Westmeath ; 
 the O'CarroUs, barons of Ely, in the King's County and co. 
 Tipperary ; Kavanagh of Carlow, baron of Ballyane far life ; 
 the MacGHpatricks, or Fitzpatricks, barons of Crowran in Kil- 
 kenny, and earls of Upper Ossory in the Queen's County ; the 
 O'Dempseys, viscounts of Clanmalier and barons of Philipstown, 
 in the King's and Queen's Counties ; the O'Briens of Clare and 
 Limerick, earls and marquesses of Thomond, earls of Inchiquin, 
 viscounts of Clare, &c.; the MacCarthys of Cork and Kerry, 
 earls of Clancare and Clancarty, and viscounts of Muskerry and 
 Mountcashell ; the O'CaUaghans of Cork and Tipperary, vis- 
 counts Lismore, in "Waterford ; the O 'Quins of Clare, barons 
 of Adare, and earls of Dunraven, in Limerick, and the O'Gradyg 
 of Clare and Limerick, viscounts Guillamore. 
 
 t The army list of Austria exhibits a long roll of officers of 
 Irish ancestry : — The First Aide-de-Camp to the Emperor is 
 ^Maximilian, Count O'Donnell, and the Senior Field Marshal, Laval, 
 Count, and Prince liugent, K.C.B., on whom the Emperor of 
 Austria conferred the Order of the Golden Fleece, transmitting the 
 very ribbon worn by Kadetzky. Among the Field Marshals Lieu- 
 tenant are Simon Fitzgerald, Colonel 6th Chasseurs ; Felix Count 
 Moyna, and Constantine, Baron Herbert of Eathkeale ; and 
 among the Major-Generals, Peter Yon MulhoUand and Ambrose 
 O'Ferrali. Ilie catalogue of Colonels includes Count Albert 
 
VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 9 
 
 among tlie middle -classes, or, perchance, in the mud- walled 
 cabins of the Irish peasant, that search should be made for 
 the real representatives of the ancient reguli. The territories 
 of most of the old princes, and the lordships of very many 
 of the old chieftains, are now enjoyed by the descendants of 
 Henry the Second's barons, of the knights and gentlemen 
 of Elizabeth and James, of the shrewd countrymen of the 
 latter monarch, of the staid soldiers of Cromwell, and of the 
 troopers of Wilham III. A Psalter of Tara and an Irish 
 '* Peerage*' have little in common ; still, the descendants of 
 some of the aboriginal royal races hold their own* even to 
 
 Kugent (eldest son of the Field Marshal), Daniel O'Connor of 
 Kerry, Count Charles Taaffe (Viscount Taaffe, in the peerage of 
 Ireland), &c. &c. 
 
 France has also a formidable array of officers of Irish descent. 
 First and foremost are the gallant Marshal MacMahon Due de 
 Magenta, and his equally distinguished companion in arms, Mar- 
 shal Tsiel, both sprung from Milesian ancestry, the one, a descen- 
 dant of the MacMahons, Lords of Corca Baiscinn, co. Clare, 
 sprung from the famous Bryan Boru, King of Munster ; the other, 
 a scion of the royal and illustrious O'^Xeills. I have seen a very 
 interesting letter of Marshal ^N^iel's, addressed to a kinsman in 
 Ireland, Mr. Charles H. O'^N'eill, Barrister, of Dublin, in which 
 the gallant officer refers with no inconsiderable pride to his Mile- 
 sian ancestry. Among the officers of the Cuirassiers of the Im- 
 perial Guard, lately serving in Italy, is Lucius O'Brien, the lineal 
 descendant of the O'Briens of Munfin, co. of "Wexford, a branch 
 of the once royal O'Briens. 
 
 In Eussian history, De Lacy and O'Eorke are as famous as 
 they were in the Irish annals ; and in Spain, O'DonneU, Ma- 
 gennis (Conde de Iveagh), Sarsfield, O'^XeiU, and O'Eeilly, have 
 not forfeited their old renown. 
 
 * A valuable, and probably unique collection of the Eentals 
 of the various estates sold in the Encumbered Estates' Court, 
 has been made by Joseph Burke, Esq., of FitzwiUiam Place, 
 
10 "VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 this day. Kavanagh of Borris, in the county of Carlow, 
 male representative of MacMurrough, King of Leinster, 
 retains a splendid estate in the very heart of MacMur- 
 rough's kingdom ; Mr. O'Neill of Shane's Castle, the heir 
 general of the Kings of Ulster, has succeeded to full 
 30,000 acres of the old Clanaboy principality, stretching 
 for miles along the banks of Loughneagh ; and it was 
 only within the last two years that the vast Thomond 
 property passed from the regally derived O'Briens. 
 Many of the descendants of the minor dynasts could pro- 
 bably be discovered under the frieze coats of the peasants ; 
 and a genealogical enquirer might trace in the sunburnt 
 mendicant the representative of the O'Rorkes, the O'Reillys, 
 the O'Ryans, or the O'Sullivans, who were of fame 
 
 " Ere the emerald gem of the western world 
 Was set in the crown of a stranger." 
 
 Ireland is, indeed, the Tadmor in the desert of family 
 vicissitude : time out of mind it has been the prey of the 
 spoiler. Strongbow, Cromwell, and William III. spared 
 
 Dublin, Barrister-at-Law, so long associated with the administra- 
 tion of the Poor Law in Ireland. These Rentals may be consi- 
 dered the fullest history of Irish landed property ever brought 
 together. They contain a description of the lands under sale, 
 the tenants' names, descriptions of the demesnes, and frequently' 
 views of the mansion houses, with maps and local statistics, much 
 more important than the particulars of sales at Chichester House 
 under the direction of the Court of Claims. 
 
 Mr. Burke has also collected reports of the sales, the names of 
 the purchasers, and the amount of purchase money : — in fine, 
 this collection is, I believe, the sole perfect series of papers con- 
 nected with the Encumbered Estates' Court. The Court itself 
 does not possess so complete a set, and I doubt if the British 
 Museum possess any. 
 
VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 11 
 
 few of the aboriginal lords of the soil, and the recent 
 alienation of property, under the Encumbered Estates' 
 Court, has eflPected a fearful revolution amongst the landed 
 gentlemen of English descent. Confiscation, civil war, 
 and legal transfer have torn asunder those associations 
 between " the local habitation and the name,'' which have 
 for centuries wound round each other. The gentry of 
 Ireland are now, in many cases, dispossessed ; new man- 
 ners and new men are filling the land, and the old time- 
 honoured houses are passing rapidly away. Whoever 
 collects instances of fallen families, some thirty years hence, 
 will have a fruitful field to gather in. No one will gain- 
 say the beneficial influence the Encumbered Estates' Court 
 has exercised in a national point of view, or fail to trace 
 to its introduction into Ireland the dawn of the prosperity 
 which is now shining on that most improving of countries. 
 That it has worked infinite public good is undeniable ; but 
 it is equally certain, that the general benefit has been 
 eff'ected at the cost of much individual misery. The 
 condition of the country is increased by it, as the 
 state of a boat's crew, tempest-tossed, with only a slen- 
 der basket of provisions, is improved by some of the 
 unhappy sufferers being^ thrown overboard and drowned. 
 But the relatives of the doomed cannot but lament, and 
 even the unconnected spectators of such stern and sharp 
 justice cannot remain unconcerned. No cases of vicissi- 
 tudes would be so pathetic, no episodes of decadence so 
 lamentable as those that could be told, in connection with 
 the transfer of land in Ireland ; but the wounds are too 
 fresh, and the ruin too recent, for me to enter on so pain- 
 
13 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 ful a theme. Many a well-born gentleman — torn from his 
 patrimony — has sought and found on the hospitable 
 shores of Australia and America^ the shelter and happi- 
 ness denied to him in the land of his birth ; while some I 
 might mention, who stayed at home in the vain hope of 
 retrieving the past, or who were too old to enter on a new 
 career, ended their days in the Poor House. What story of 
 fiction is more striking than that of Mr. D'Arcy, of Kiltul- 
 lagh and Clifden Castle, in the county of Galway, who, 
 after the ruinous sale of his estates, took orders and 
 became a missionary in the very district which used to be 
 his own ; or, what more marvellous instance of the de- 
 preciation of property, than in the sale of Castle Hyde, 
 in the county of Cork, the inheritance of Mr. Hyde, a 
 scion of the Clarendon Hydes, and cousin of the Duke of 
 Devonshire, who was deprived of his fine old place in 
 the worst times of the famine ? 
 
 One tale only of those tragic times I will in a future 
 page venture to relate, and that will be the story of the 
 heiress of Connemara. I can do so, as no one remains 
 alive to whom the narrative will bring a pang. 
 
THE PERCYS. 13 
 
 ^t |n'i:p. 
 
 "Now tlie Percy's crescent is set in blood." 
 
 Old Ballad. ' 
 
 The Percys and the Nevilles held almost regal sway in 
 Northumberland and Durham. " The two great Princes 
 of the North were Northumberland at Alnwick, and West- 
 moreland at Raby Castle." Yet, how strikingly unfortu- 
 nate were the Percys during the reign of the Tudors, and, 
 indeed, long before ! Sprung from the marriage of Josce- 
 line of Lovaine, (son of Godfrey Barbatus, Duke of Lower 
 Brabant, and brother of Adeliza, second Queen of Henry I.) 
 with Agnes de Percy, daughter and eventual heiress of 
 William, third Lord Percy, this illustrious and eminently 
 historical family is conspicuous alike for its achievements 
 and its sufferings. Henry, first Earl of Northumberland, 
 was slain at Bramham Moor, and his brother. Sir Thomas 
 Percy, K.G., the early companion in arms of the Black 
 Prince, and subsequently the renowned Earl of Worcester, 
 was beheaded in 1402. The first EarPs son, the gallant 
 " Hotspur," the best captain of a martial epoch, had al- 
 ready fallen at Shrewsbury. Henry, second Earl of Nor- 
 thumberland (Hotspur^s son), passed his youth, attainted 
 and despoiled of estate, an exile in Scotland ; subsequently 
 restored by Henry V., he returned to England, and, true 
 
J4l VICISSITUDES or FAMILIES. 
 
 to the tradition of his race, achieved martial fame, and 
 found a soldier's death at the battle of St. Alban's. In the 
 same wars, his two sons. Sir Thomas Percy Lord Egre- 
 mont, and Sir Ralph Percy, were also both killed ; Egre- 
 mont at Northampton, and his brother at Hedgeley Moor. 
 None were more chivalrously true to the Lancastrian cause 
 than the Percys. " I have saved the bird in my bosom \" 
 that is, " my faith to my king," were the last words of the 
 dying Sir Ralph. 
 
 The next and third possessor of the title, Henry, Earl 
 of Northumberland, the husband of the great heiress of 
 Poynings, was slain at Towton in 1461, still on the side of 
 the Red Rose; and his son, Henry, the fourth Earl, endea- 
 vouring to enforce one of King Henry VII/s taxes, was 
 murdered by a mob at Thirsk, in 1480.* Henry, the fifth 
 Earl, died a natural death, but his second son. Sir Thomas 
 Percy, was executed at Tyburn, in 1537, for his concern 
 in Aske's rebellion. Henry, the sixth Earl, the first lover 
 of Anna Boleyn, compelled by his father to marry against 
 his own wish the Lady Mary Talbot, lived a most unhappy 
 
 * The funeral of this Earl is a memorable instance of the 
 lavish expenditure of the time ; at the present valuation of money, 
 the cost was £12,080 ! Of his magnificent monument in Bever- 
 ley Minster, a few vestiges only remain, although that erected^to 
 his Countess is still in the highest preservation, and is one of 
 the most beautiful sepulchral remains in this kingdom. Dugdale 
 has a memorandum that the grave of this lady, in the church at 
 Beverley, was opened on the 15th Sept. 1678, — nearly two hun- 
 dred years after her death,— and that " her body was found in a 
 fair coffin of stone, embalmed and covered with cloth of gold ; 
 and on her feet slippers embroidered with, silke ; and therewith 
 a wax lampe, a candle and plate candlestick." 
 
THE PERCYS. 15 
 
 life, childless and separate ; at last, sinking under a broken 
 constitution, he could not bear up against the sorrow 
 brought on by his brother's execution, and his house's 
 attainder, but died in the very same month in which Sir 
 Thomas had been consigned to the block. This Earl, 
 known as "Henry the Unthrifty,^' disposed of some of 
 the fairest lands of his inheritance. After his decease, 
 the peerage honours of the Percys were obscured by Sir 
 Thomas's attainder, and during the period of their for- 
 feiture the rightful heirs had the mortification to see the 
 Dukedom of Northumberland conferred on John Dudley, 
 Earl of Warwick. This nobleman, however, being him 
 self attainted in 1553, the Earldom was restored, in 1557, 
 to Thomas Percy, in consideration that his ancestors, " ab 
 antiquo de tempore in tempus," had been Earls of North- 
 umberland, but the sunshine of his prosperity was soon 
 eclipsed. He joined the Rising of the North against 
 Queen Elizabeth, and ended his life on the scaffold, 
 August, 1572. His brother Henry, eighth Earl of North- 
 umberland, still blind to the hereditary sufferings of his 
 race, intrigued in favour of Mary, Queen of Scots, and, 
 being imprisoned in the Tower, was shot, or shot himself 
 there. His son Henry, ninth Earl, was convicted on a 
 groundless suspicion of being concerned in the Gunpowder 
 plot, stripped of all his offices, adjudged by the Star 
 Chamber to pay a fine of ^830,000, and sentenced to im- 
 prisonment for life in the Tower. His grandson, Joscelyn, 
 eleventh Earl of Northumberland, left an only daughter, 
 and thus ended the male line of the greatest, perhaps, of 
 all our English families. 
 
16 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 After the death of Joscelyn, the eleventh Earlj whose 
 only child, Lady Elizabeth Percy, the greatest heiress of 
 her time, became the wife of Charles Seymour, the proud 
 Duke of Somerset, a singular claimant arose to the here- 
 ditary renown, broad lands, and nobility of the illustrious 
 deceased, in the person of a humble trunk-maker of the 
 city of Dublin, one James Percy, who went over in 1670, 
 the very year the earl died, especially to prefer his claim, 
 which he subsequently pursued with all the enduring 
 boldness of a Percy against the might and wealth of the 
 most powerful nobleman in the kingdom. The trunk- 
 maker contended against the Duke of Somerset for full 
 fifteen years, and obtained during the contest some tem- 
 porary triumphs, although I firmly believe that he had no 
 right whatsoever to the title he sought ; but he was hardly 
 dealt by, and of consequence excited no little sympathy 
 pending the affair; nor did his defeat and total annihi- 
 lation finally set his pretensions at rest, for it is even still 
 believed by many, that the trunk-maker was the true 
 Percy. Certain it is, that the poor claimant was absolutely 
 treated as criminal for presuming to " trouble the House 
 of Lords,^^ and daring to enter the lists with the potent 
 and haughty Duke of Somerset. 
 
 During the struggle, between the years 1674 and 1781, 
 no less than five suits connected with the matter were tried 
 in the Courts of Law. The first action brought by Percy 
 was against one James Clark for scandal in having declared 
 that he, Percy, was an impostor ; but in this he suffered a 
 nonsuit — a result he attributed to the venality of his 
 attorney, in a printed pamphlet, in which he further states 
 
THE PERCYS. 17 
 
 that Lord Hale^ the Chief Justice^ had declared that James 
 Percy had as much right to the Earldom of Northumber- 
 land, as he, Lord Hales, had to his coach and horses, 
 which he had bought and paid for. The claimant next 
 brought an action against one John Wright, another of 
 his adversaries, also for slander, for having declared that 
 he was illegitimate, and the case was tried before Chief 
 Justice Rainsford, when, having proved his legitimacy and 
 pedigree, he had a verdict for £300. Subsequently Percy 
 had protracted litigation with the sheriff of Northumber- 
 land for the twenty pounds granted out of the revenues of 
 the county to the earldom, by the patent of creation. 
 During these lawsuits, several proceedings were instituted 
 in the House of Lords ; and at length, in 1689, the 
 Lords' Committee for Privileges declared Percy's conduct 
 to be insolent in persisting to call himself Earl of North- 
 umberland, after the former decisions of the House, and 
 finally adjudged that " the pretensions of the said James 
 Percy to the Earldom of Northumberland are groundless, 
 false, and scandalous,'' and ordered that the said claimant 
 be brought before the four courts of Westminster Hall, 
 wearing a paper upon his breast, on which these words 
 were written, " The false and impudent pretender to the 
 Earldom of Northumberland." Thus ended the attempt 
 of the trunk-maker, and nothing further was ever heard of 
 the unfortunate man or his family, beyond the fact that 
 his son, or supposed son. Sir Anthony Percy, filled the 
 office of Lord Mayor of Dublin, in 1699. 
 
18 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 €\t ftliillts. 
 
 " The sun shone bright, and the birds sung sweet. 
 The day we left the North countrie. 
 But cold is the wind, and sharp is the sleet 
 That beat on the exile over the sea." 
 
 Old Ballad. 
 
 Bright as is the halo which romance and song have shed 
 round the name of Percy, I question much whether any- 
 one of that illustrious race ever reached the pinnacle of 
 power attained by Ralph Nevill, the first Earl of West- 
 moreland, or by Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, " the 
 greatest and last of the old Norman chivalry — kinglier in 
 pride, in state, in possessions, and in renown than the king 
 himself/' A recent writer remarks with much truth, that 
 " the Neville was to mediaeval England what the Douglas 
 was to Scotland/' No family surpassed it in the brilliancy 
 of its alliances and honours, or the vastness of its estates. 
 Of the house of Neville, there have been six Earls of 
 Westmoreland, two Earls of Salisbury — one of whom, and 
 the more renowned, was also Earl of Warwick — eighteen 
 Barons, and four Earls of Abergavenny, one Earl of Kent, 
 two Marquesses of Montacute — one of whom was also 
 Duke of Bedford — five Barons Latimer, one Lord Fur- 
 nival, and one Lord Fauconberg. The illustrious names 
 that adorn the family tree of the Neville are numerous 
 beyond all precedent. A Neville was Queen of England, 
 
THE NEVILLES. 19 
 
 and a Neville, mother of two of our English monarchs. 
 Twice was a Neville consecrated Archbishop of York, and 
 twice did a Neville fill the dignified office of Lord High 
 Chancellor: seven Nevilles were Duchesses, nine Nevilles 
 were Knights of the Garter, a Neville presided over the 
 Commons as Speaker, and Nevilles without end pervade our 
 national records as warriors and statesmen. The annual 
 income in land of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, inde- 
 pendently of his own patrimony, would be calculated in our 
 present money at full £^00,000. Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton 
 has vividly pourtrayed " the last of the Barons." " His 
 wealth," says the novelist, "was enormous, but it was 
 equalled by his magnificence, and rendered popular by his 
 lavish hospitality. No less than thirty thousand persons 
 are stated to have feasted daily at the open tables with 
 which he allured to his countless castles the strong hands 
 and grateful hearts of a martial and unsettled population." 
 The genealogist will recollect that, when Josceline de 
 Louvaine received in marriage the heiress of the Percys, 
 the proud condition was imposed on the Flemish Prince, 
 on his accepting the Norman alliance, that he should re- 
 linquish either his own name or coat of arms in favour of 
 that of his bride, and that he decided the option by as- 
 suming the name of Percy. Whether in performance of 
 some similar agreement, or out of gratitude for their large 
 maternal inheritance, or from the mere fashion of that day 
 to Normanize, the descendants of Robert Fitz Maldred, the 
 Saxon Lord of Raby, by Isabel Neville, his wife, the Nor- 
 man Lady of Brancepeth, assumed the surname of Neville. 
 The vast estates thus united devolved in due course of time 
 
 c % 
 
20 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 on Robert Neville of Eaby, who married Mary, daughter 
 and sole heiress of Ralph Fitz Randolph, Lord of Middle - 
 ham, and thus added the famous castle and estates of Mid- 
 dleham to his already overgrown possessions. The issue 
 of this — if the narrative of contemporary historians be 
 correct — unfortunate marriage was Ralph de Neville, a 
 noble baron, careless in the management of his affairs, and 
 fonder of residing with the monks of Coverham and Mar- 
 ton than in his own castles. He married twice, and by his 
 first wife, Euphemia Clavering, had two sons, on the elder 
 of whom, Robert, called from his love and show of finery 
 " the Peacock of the North,'^ his grandmother settled the 
 castle and lordship of Middleham, with all its appendages 
 in fee ; but dying before his father, who survived until the 
 year 1331, and was buried on the south side of the altar 
 at Coverham, he was succeeded by his only brother, 
 Ralph, Lord Neville of Raby, who in the fifth year of Ed- 
 ward III. obtained a fresh charter of free warren in all his 
 lands and lordships in the county of York. At one time 
 he was Ambassador to treat with Philip of Valois, in the 
 presence of the Pope, and on various occasions he was 
 engaged in the Scottish and French wars. At length, 
 having spent a long and active life, he died in 1341, and 
 was buried in Durham Cathedral, where his monument still 
 remains, he having been the first layman who had sepul- 
 ture there. His son and heir, John, third Lord Neville 
 of Raby, who fought in Scotland, France, and Turkey, was 
 such a gallant soldier that Joh;n of Gaunt, in consideration 
 of fifty marks a year, charged on his estates in Danby and 
 Forcett, Yorkshire, retained him in his service for life. By 
 
THE NEVILLES. 21 
 
 his first marriage with Maud, daughter of Lord Percy, 
 he had Ralph, his heir ; by his second union with EHza- 
 beth, heiress of WiUiam Lord Latimer, he had John, sub- 
 sequently Lord Latimer. John, third Jjord Neville of 
 Raby, died on St. Luke's day, anno 12 Rich. IL, and 
 was interred near his father at Durham. His eldest son 
 and successor, Ralph de Neville, having first won the 
 golden spurs of knighthood, was, in the 21st year Rich. 
 II., created Earl of Westmoreland, and subsequently re- 
 ceived from Henry IV. a grant of the Earldom of Rich- 
 mond (which title, however, he never assumed). During 
 the time of this — the great Earl of Westmoreland — the 
 power and grandeur of his race seem to have attained a 
 very high degree of eminence. He was a Knight of the 
 Garter, Warden of the West Marches, and Earl Marshal 
 of England, and died possessed of the honours and 
 castles of Richmond, Middleham, and Sheriff Hutton, 
 with many a dependant manor, and many a fair southern 
 lordship. His eldest son (by the Lady Margaret Stafford, 
 his first wife, daughter of Hugh, Earl of Stafford, K.G.), 
 John, Lord Neville, who died before him, was the direct 
 ancestor of Charles, sixth Earl of Westmoreland, whose 
 miserable end we will by and by narrate. The eldest son 
 of the second princely alliance of the first Earl of West- 
 moreland with John Beaufort, daughter of John of Gaunt, 
 Duke of Lancaster, was Richard Neville, Lord of Middle- 
 ham, who, by his marriage with Alice, daughter and 
 heiress of Thomas Montagu, Earl of Salisbury, acquired 
 that title, and having joined the standard of Richard Plan- 
 tagenet, Duke of York, who had married his sister, the 
 
:i"cl VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Lady Cecilia Neville, was beheaded after the disastrous 
 battle of Wakefield, a.d. 1460, when his estates became 
 forfeited to the crown. But in the following year Edward 
 IV. regained the throne of his ancestors, and Middleham 
 Castle, with all its vast domains and wide-spread manors, 
 reverted to their rightful owner, the renowned " King 
 Maker," Richard, Earl of SaUsbury, K.G., and (by his 
 union with Anne, sole heiress of her brother Henry, Duke 
 of Warwick) Earl also of Warwick : 
 
 " For who liv'd king, but he could dig his grave, 
 And who durst smile when Warwick bent his brow" ? 
 
 Under him the ancient fortress of Middleham seems to 
 have reached the height of its magnificence, and within its 
 walls he kept all but royal state. To quote the words 
 of the gifted author of " the Last of the Barons," " the 
 most renowned statesmen, the mightiest Lords flocked to 
 his Hall : Middleham — not Windsor, nor Shene, nor West- 
 minster, nor the Tower— seemed the Court of England." 
 Here it was that the Duke of Gloucester, his future son-in- 
 law, learned the art of war from the princely Earl : here 
 it was that the fourth Edward, conducted as a prisoner- 
 guest, by his gallant bearing and soul- stirring address, 
 bowed the barons, knights, and retainers of his overgrown 
 subject to his will. Hence, (being left, as tradition states, 
 under the surveillance of Warwick's brother, the Archbishop 
 of York, and indulged with the privilege of hunting in the 
 park,) Edward escaped on a fleet horse and resumed the 
 reins of government. But I must not dilate too much. 
 That mighty earl, who had made and unmade kings, found 
 a bloody grave at Barnet ; and Middleham, with its de- 
 
THE NEVILLES. 23 
 
 pendencies, was allotted to Richard, Duke of Gloucester, in 
 right of his wife, the Lady Anne Neville, Warwick's 
 youngest daughter. 
 
 In 1469, the House of Neville attained the acme of its 
 glory. Within exactly one hundred years, its ruin was ac- 
 complished. In 1569, Charles Neville, sixth Earl of West- 
 moreland, received at his castle of Brancepeth his neigh- 
 bour the Earl of Northumberland, and there was concocted 
 " the Rising of the North :" 
 
 " And now the inlj-working North 
 Was ripe to send its thousands forth, 
 A potent vassalage to fight 
 In Percy's and in Neville's right." 
 
 But the insurrection was ill-planned and rashly determined 
 on. It resulted in total defeat and in the utter destruc- 
 tion of the Nevilles of Raby. Lord Westmoreland fled to 
 Scotland, and found protection and concealment for a long 
 time at Eernyhurst Castle, Lord Kerr's house, in Roxburgh- 
 shire. Meanwhile, the Earl's cousin, Robert Constable, 
 was hired by Sir Ralph Sadler to endeavour to track the 
 unfortunate nobleman, and, under the guise of friendship, 
 to betray him. Constable's correspondence appears among 
 the Sadleir State Papers — an infamous memorial of 
 treachery and baseness. Despite, however, the efforts of 
 Government, the Earl succeeded in effecting his escape to 
 Planders ; but his vast inheritance was confiscated, and he 
 suffered the extremity of poverty. Brancepeth, the strong- 
 hold of the Nevilles in war, and Raby, their festive Hall 
 in peace, had passed into strangers' hands, and nothing re- 
 mained for the exiled lord. He was living in the Low 
 
24 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Countries in 1572, on a miserable pittance allowed him by 
 the bounty of the King of Spain, and so deplorable had been 
 his previous condition, that Lord Seton, writing two years 
 before to Mary Queen of Scots, states that " the Earl of 
 Westmoreland had neither penny nor half-penny." The 
 petition to the Spanish Monarch which obtained the 
 trifling pension, gives a pathetic description of the poor 
 nobleman^s wretchedness, and sets forth that the estates of 
 which he had been deprived were worth 400,000 doubloons 
 per annum (that is £150,000 of our money). His lord- 
 ship survived his flight from Scotland more than thirty 
 years, eking out a wretched existence, and dying penniless 
 and almost forgotten in Flanders in 1601. By his high- 
 spirited and devoted wife, the Lady Jane Howard, the 
 worthy daughter of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, he left 
 four children, viz., Catherine, married to Sir Thomas Grey 
 of Chillingham; EHzabeth, who died unmarried; Mar- 
 garet, married to Sir Nicholas Pudsey ; and Anne, mar- 
 ried to David Ingleby of Ripley. Pecuniary pressure and 
 severe sufi'ering were the lot of these ladies ; the third, 
 Margaret, endured persecution and oppression. There is 
 a letter from Hutton, Bishop of Durham, to Lord Burgh- 
 ley, dated 1594, suing for the Lady Margaret's pardon, 
 wherein he says : — " I sent up in the beginning of the 
 term to sue for the pardon of the Ladye Margaret Neville, 
 taken in company with Boast, the seminary priest. She 
 lamented with tears that she hath oficnded God and her 
 sovereign. She is wholly reclaymed from Popery. Dr. 
 Aubrey hath had her pardon drawn since the beginning of 
 term. If it come not quickly I fear she will die with 
 
THE NEVILLES. 25 
 
 sorrow. It were very honourable for your good lordship 
 to take the case of a most distressed maydeiij descended 
 as your lordship knoweth of great nobilitie, the house of 
 Norfolk, the House of "Westmoreland, and the House of 
 Rutland, in memory of man, and was but a child of five 
 years old when her unfortunate father did enter into the 
 rebellion ; and now she is a condemned person, having not 
 one penny by year to live upon since the death of her mother, 
 who gave her £33 6s. 8d. a-year, part of that £300 which 
 her Majesty did allow her. It were well that her Majesty 
 were informed of her miserable state : she is virtuously 
 given, humble, modest, and of verie good behaviours." 
 
 Thus tragically closed the last act of the eventful drama 
 of the Nevilles of Raby. The Bishop of Durham's sup- 
 plicatory letter in behalf of " the distressed maiden," is 
 indeed a sad end to the history of the mightiest and 
 noblest race in our English annals. "What a different 
 scene does the Bishop's petition disclose from the gor- 
 geous display of power and wealth of the preceding 
 century. The crowd of retainers has dispersed, the castles 
 are dismantled, and the broad lands parcelled out among 
 strangers. In their stead is the poor desolate lady, dwelling 
 in a lowly residence in a foreign land, and suing for some 
 small pittance to stave off actual want : 
 
 " As highest hilles with tempests be most touched, 
 And tops of trees must subject unto winde, 
 And as great towers with stones strongly couched, 
 Have heavy falls when they be under mynde, 
 E'en so by proofe in worldly things we finde, 
 That such as clime the top of high degree, 
 From perill of falling never can be free," 
 
26 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 ** Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust ?" 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 Long before the time of the great Oliver, the Cromwells 
 were of consideration and high county standing in Hunt- 
 ingdonshire, seated at their fine old mansion of Hinchin- 
 broke. 
 
 They came originally from Wales, and bore the 
 surname of Williams : the first who took that of Crom- 
 well was Sir Richard Williams, and he did so, as nephew 
 of Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, the " malleus mona- 
 chorum," or, as old Fuller renders it, "the mauler of 
 monasteries." The alteration was made at the express 
 desire of Henry VIII., and, through the favourite's influ- 
 ence, great wealth and station were conferred on Sir 
 Richard. 
 
 "As Vicar-general of all things spiritual, (we quote 
 from Thomas CromwelVs memoirs), the Earl of Essex had 
 an opportunity of obliging his kinsman, then Richard 
 Williams, alias Cromwell, Esq., and others, with the sale 
 of the lately- dissolved religious houses, at sums infinitely 
 below their very great value, some of the most advantageous 
 purchases were made by this ancestor of the Huntingdon- 
 
RISE AND FALL OF THE CROMWELLS. 27 
 
 shire Cromwells ; and amongst others, those of the nun- 
 nery of Hinchinbroke, and the monastery of Saltry- 
 Judith in that county, together with the site of the rich 
 abbey of Ramsey. Additions were made to his possessions 
 by the king, even after the fall of the favourite Cromwell . 
 so that at the period of his death, Sir Richard's estates 
 probably equalled (allowing for the alteration in the value 
 of money) those of the wealthiest peers of the present day 
 At a tournament held by his royal master in 1540, and 
 described by Stowe, Richard Cromwell, Esq., is named as 
 one of the Challengers ; all of whom were rewarded on the 
 occasion by the king, with an annual income of an hun- 
 dred marks granted out of the dissolved Franciscan mo- 
 nastery of Stamford, and with houses each to reside in. 
 His majesty was more particularly delighted with the gal- 
 lantry of Sir Richard Cromwell (whom he had knighted 
 on the second day of the tournament), and exclaiming, 
 ' formerly thou wast my Dickj but hereafter thou shalt be 
 my Diamond/ presented him with a diamond ring, bidding 
 him for the future to wear such an one in the fore-gamb 
 of the demi lion in his crest, instead of a javelin, as here- 
 tofore. The arms of Sir Richard, with this alteration, 
 were ever afterwards borne by the elder branch of the 
 family, and by Oliver himself on his assuming the Pro- 
 tectorate, although previously he had borne the javelin/' 
 
 In 1541, Sir Richard Cromwell served as High Sheriff 
 of Cambridgeshire and Hunts ; in 1542, was returned 
 knight of the latter shire to Parliament, and in 1543, 
 became one of the gentlemen of the privy chamber to the 
 king. In this year, a war breaking out with Prance, 
 
28 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Sir Richard proceeded to that kingdom as General of the 
 EngUsh infantry, and joined the army of the Emperor, 
 then engaged in the siege of Landrecy ; but after a few 
 months' service, the auxiliary force returned to England, 
 and Sir Richard Cromwell received, as a mark of royal 
 favour, the office of constable of Berkeley Castle. The 
 date of the death of this renowned soldier has not been 
 ascertained, but certain it is that he left a prodigiously 
 large estate, derived chiefly from ecclesiastical confiscation. 
 He had married early in life, a.d. 1518, Frances, daughter 
 and coheir of Sir Thomas Myrffin, the then Lord Mayor 
 of London, by Elizabeth, his wife, daughter and heir of 
 Alderman Sir Angel Don, whose wife was a descendant of 
 the ancient Cheshire house of Hawardine. This alliance 
 brought several quarterings into the Cromwell family. 
 Sir Richard's son and heir. Sir Henry Cromwell, called 
 from his liberality and opulence, " The Golden Knight,^^ 
 rebuilt, or, at all events, remodelled and as good as built 
 the mansion of Hinchinbrook. Here he resided in princely 
 state, and here he received a visit from Queen Elizabeth, 
 on her progress from the university of Cambridge. In 
 1563, he was elected M.P. for his native county, and 
 served as high sheriff no less than four times. At 
 length, 7th January, 1603, at a good old age, he died, 
 leaving the character of " a worthy gentleman, both in 
 court and country." By Joan, his first wife, daughter of 
 Sir Robert Warren, Knt., he had several sons and 
 daughters ; the latter were, I. Joan, married to Sir Francis 
 Barrington, Bart. ; IL EHzabeth, who married WiUiam 
 Hampden, Esq. of Great Hampden, and was mother of John 
 
RISE AND FALL OF THE CROMWELLS. 59 
 
 Hampden, the patriot ; III. Frances, who married Richard 
 Whalley, Esq. of Kirkton, Notts, and had three sons : 
 1 . Thomas Whalley, father of an only son, Peniston, of 
 Screveton, (who, after dissipating a considerable fortune, 
 passed the latter years of his life a prisoner for debt in 
 London) ; 2. Edward Whalley, the regicide, who died an 
 exile, after the Restoration ; and 3. Henry Whalley, Judge 
 Advocate, whose ultimate fate is unknown ; IV. Mary, who 
 married Sir William Dunch, of Little Whittenham, Berks, 
 and had a son, Edmund, whose representatives are the 
 present Sir H. C. Oxen den, Bart., and the Duke of Man- 
 chester ; and V. Dorothy, who married Sir Thomas Flem- 
 ing, son of the Lord Chief Justice Fleming, ancestor of the 
 Flemings of Stoneham, in Hampshire. The sons of Sir 
 Henry Cromwell, the Golden Knight, were Oliver, his 
 heir ; Robert, father of the Lord Protector ; Henry of Up- 
 wood ;* Richard, M.P., who died unmarried, and Philip. 
 The eldest. Sir Oliver Cromwell, who succeeded to 
 the family estates, magnificently entertained King James I. 
 at Hinchinbrooke, on his Majesty^s journey from Scotland 
 to London, and was made a Knight of the Bath, previously 
 to the coronation. At the outbreak of the civil war. Sir 
 Oliver remained not an idle spectator, but enrolling him- 
 
 * Henry Cromwell, of Upwood, third son of Sir Henry, of 
 Hinchinbrooke, left one son, Richard (whose only surviving 
 child, Anne, a poetess, married her kinsman, Henry Williams, 
 alias Cromwell of Ramsey), and two daughters ; Elizabeth, mar- 
 ried to the Lord Chief Justice Oliver St. John, and Anna, mar- 
 ried to John Neale, Esq. of Dean, co. Bedford, ancestor, by her, 
 of the Rev. Edward Vansittart, who inherited the estate of Al- 
 lesley, and assumed the surname of Neale. 
 
30 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 self under the royal banner, raised men, and gave large 
 sums of money to support tlie king's cause. This devo- 
 tion to an unfortunate party obliged him to sell Hinchin- 
 brooke to the Montagues, since Earls of Sandwich, whose 
 stately pleasant house it still is, on the left bank of the 
 Ouse, and a short half mile west of Huntingdon. Sir 
 OHver retired to Ramsey Abbey, and there ended his days, 
 on the 28th August, 1655, in his 93rd year, impoverished 
 and broken-hearted, but still unshaken in his allegiance. 
 He married, first, Elizabeth, daughter of the Lord Chan- 
 cellor Bromley ; and secondly, Anne, widow of Sir Horatio 
 Palavicini; by the former, he had issue, four sons, Henry^ 
 Thomas, John, and William, and four daughters. The 
 sons were all cavalier officers, and suiFered much in con- 
 sequence. The eldest, Colonel Henry Cromwell, who 
 inherited the wreck of his ancestors' vast estates, took 
 a very active part for the king, and had his property 
 sequestered, but on a petition to parliament, 9th July, 
 1649, the sequestration was discharged and the fines 
 for delinquency remitted, "at the request of the Lord 
 Lieutenant of Ireland, Oliver Cromwell.'' From this time, 
 Henry Cromwell appears to have led a private life, harassed, 
 however, by debt and difficulties, the consequence of his 
 family's devotion to the royal cause, and the hereditary 
 misfortune — extravagance and ostentation. He died 18th 
 September, 1657, and was interred in the chancel of 
 Ramsey church the day following, to prevent, it was 
 reported, the seizure of the corpse by his creditors. By 
 his second wife, Battina, daughter of Sir Horatio Pala- 
 
RISE AND FALL OF THE CROMWELLS. 31 
 
 vicini, Coloney Henry Cromwell left a son, Henry Crom- 
 well, Esq. of Ramsey, baptized there 22nd June, 1625. 
 This gentleman, either swayad by interested motives, or 
 won by the favour of the Protector (who in the worst of 
 times, was a kind and considerate kinsman), gave in his 
 adhesion to the new order of things, and took his seat in 
 parliament. The moment, however, the proposal for the 
 restoration of the monarchy was mooted, it had his hearty 
 support, and fearing that the name of Cromwell would 
 prove distasteful at the court of King Charles, he resumed 
 the original patronymic of his ancestors, and styled him- 
 self Henry Williams. Under this designation, we find 
 him set down as one of the intended knights of the 
 Royal Oak. He died 3rd August, 1673, leaving no issue ; 
 and thus expired the great Huntingdonshire line of 
 Cromwell, for a long series of years the most opulent 
 family in that part of England. Their estate of Ramsey 
 alone, with the lands and manors annexed, would now be 
 valued at ^80,000 per annum; and besides that, they 
 had extensive possessions in other parts of the county, 
 and in Essex. From the last Henry Cromwell, alias 
 Williams, the abbey of Ramsey passed by sale to the fa- 
 mous Colonel Titus, and became afterwards, by purchase 
 also, the property of Coulson Fellowes, Esq., whose de- 
 scendant still enjoys it. 
 
 The second son of Sir Henry Cromwell, " the Golden 
 Knight,^' of Hinchinbrooke, was Robert Cromwell, 
 Esq., at one time M.P. for Huntingdon, who, by the will 
 of his father, had as his portion an estate in and near 
 that town, which, at our present valuation, would be worth 
 
32 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 about £1000 per annum. On this, he resided as a country 
 gentleman, managing his own lands and acting as a jus- 
 tice of the peace for the county. His wife was Elizabeth, 
 daughter of William Steward, of Ely, an opulent man, a 
 kind of hereditary farmer of the cathedral tithes and 
 church lands round that city, in which capacity his son, 
 Sir Thomas Steward, Knt,, in due time succeeded him, 
 resident also in Ely. Elizabeth was a young widow when 
 Robert Cromwell married her ; the first marriage, to " one 
 William Lynne, Esq. of Bassingbourne, in Cambridge- 
 shire,^' had lasted but a year ; her husband and an only 
 child are buried in Ely cathedral, where their monuments 
 still stand. By this lady (whose descent Noble and 
 Brooke both derive, with little or no proof, from the royal 
 house of Stuart) , Mr. Robert Cromwell left at his decease, 
 in 1617, (his widow survived until 1654, when she died 
 at her apartments in the Palace, Whitehall), one son, the 
 renowned Oliver, and five daughters : Catherine, married 
 first, to Captain Roger Whetstone, and secondly, to Co- 
 lonel John Jones, one of King Charles' judges; Margaret, 
 married to Colonel Valentine Waughton, another of the 
 regicides; Anne, married to John Sewster, Esq. of Wistow; 
 Jane, married to Major-General John Desborough, and 
 Robina, married first, to Dr. Peter French, Canon of 
 Christ Church, Oxford, (by whom she w^as mother of 
 Elizabeth French, wife of Archbishop Tillotson), and 
 secondly, to Dr. John Wilkins, Bishop of Chester. 
 
 Oliver Cromwell was born in St. John's parish, 
 Huntingdon, 25th April, 1599, and christened there, on 
 the 29th of the same month, receiving his baptismal name 
 
RISE AND FALL OF THE CEOMWELLS. 33 
 
 from his uncle and godfather, Sir Oliver Cromwell, of 
 Ramsey.* At the age of twenty-one, he married a lady 
 of fortune, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir James Bourchier, of 
 Felsted, in Essex, a civic gentleman of some wealth, and 
 had with four daughters f as many sons, viz. : Robert, 
 born in 1621, who died unmarried; Oliver, born in 
 1622, killed in 1648, fighting under the parliamentary 
 banner ; Richard, who succeeded to the Protectorate, and 
 Henry, Lord Deputy of Ireland. 
 
 Oliver Cromwell, who was declared Lord Protector, 12th 
 December, 1653, died in 1658, at Whitehall, at four 
 o'clock in the afternoon, on " his beloved and victorious 
 third of September,^' and was buried with more than regal 
 pomp, in Henry VIII.'s chapel, on the 23rd November 
 following. His remains, with those of Ireton and Brad- 
 shaw, were dug up after the Restoration, and, being pulled 
 out of their coffins, were hanged at Tyburn, 30th January, 
 
 * The fiction of Oliver Cromwell having been a brewer rests 
 upon no better authority than this : — the little brook of Hinchin, 
 flowing through the court-yard of the house towards the Ouse, 
 offered every convenience for malting or brewing ; and there is a 
 vague tradition that at some remote time before the place came 
 into possession of the Cromwells, it had been used as a brewery. 
 
 t The Lord Protector's daughters were, 1. Beidget, married 
 first to Lieutenant-General Henry Ireton, and secondly to Ge- 
 neral Charles Fleetwood ; 2. Elizabeth, married to John Clay- 
 pole, Esq. ; 3. Masy, married to Thomas Belasyse, Viscount 
 Fauconberg : and 4. Feances, married first to the Right Hon. 
 Robert Rich, and secondly, to Sir John Russell, Bart. Since 
 the first edition of this Work appeared, an esteemed corre- 
 spondent informs me that a lineal descendant of General Ireton's 
 eldest son is at this present time a basket-man in the Cork 
 market.] 
 
 D 
 
34 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 1661, until sunset; when they were taken down, beheaded, 
 and flung into a deep hole under the gallows. On Crom- 
 well's coffin being broken open, a leaden canister was found 
 lying on his breast, and within it a copper plate gilt, 
 with the arms of England impaling those of Cromwell on 
 one side, and on the other, the following inscription : — 
 "Oliverius Protector Reipublicse, AngHse, Scotise, et Hiber- 
 iii8e,natus 25 Aprilis,anno 1599; inauguratus 16 Decembris, 
 1653 : mortuus 3 Septembris, anno 1658, hie situs est.'' 
 Oliver's widow survived her husband fourteen years, living 
 in great obscurity, and died 8th of October, 1672, aged 
 74, at Norborough, her son-in-law, Claypole's house. 
 
 At the decease of his father, Oliver, Richard Cromwell 
 succeeded to the sovereign power, as tranquilly and as un- 
 opposedly, it has been remarked, as though he had beeix 
 the descendant of a long line of princes ; yet his reign 
 lasted but seven months and twenty-eight days. He sub- 
 sequently resided abroad until about 1680 ; but where his 
 various peregrinations led him is not known with any 
 degree of certainty. On his return to England, he appears 
 to have assumed the name of Clark, and to have resided 
 at Serjeant Pengelly's house at Cheshunt to the end of 
 his hfe, courting privacy and retirement, and cautiously 
 avoiding so much as the mention of his former elevation, 
 even to his most intimate acquaintance. He died at Ches- 
 hunt, 13th July, 1712, in the 88th year of his age. Pen- 
 nant mentions, that his father had told him that he used 
 often to see, at the Don Saltero Coffee House at Chelsea, 
 poor Richard Cromwell, " a Httle and very neat old man, 
 with a most placid countenance, the effect of his innocent 
 
RISE AND FALL OF THE CROMWELLS. 35 
 
 and unambitious life/^ By Dorothy, his wife, daughter 
 of Richard Major, Esq., of Hursley, Hampshire, he had 
 three daughters, the youngest of whom, the wife of John 
 Mortimer, Esq., F.R.S., died at the age of twenty, with- 
 out issue j of the other two. Miss EHzabeth Cromwell and 
 Mrs. Gibson, Mr. Luson says, " I have several times been 
 in company with these ladies ; they were well-bred, well- 
 dressed, stately women, exactly punctilious; but they 
 seemed, especially Mistress Cromwell, to carry about them 
 a consciousness of high rank, accompanied with a secret 
 dread that those with whom they conversed should not 
 observe and acknowledge it. They had neither the great 
 sense nor the great enthusiasm of Mrs. Bendysh ; but, as 
 the daughter of Ireton had dignity without pride, so they 
 had pride without dignity.'* Their unfilial conduct to 
 their father remains a sad blot on their memory ,• and the 
 meekness of poor Richard Cromwell makes their want of 
 feeling more especially painful. 
 
 The male representation of the Lord Protector Oliver's 
 family, vested, at the decease of this his eldest son, in the 
 descendant of his second, Henry Cromwell, of Spinney 
 Abbey, at one time Lord Deputy of Ireland, who, on the 
 death of his father, quietly resigned his government, and 
 returned to England, where he continued afterwards to 
 reside as a countiy gentleman, at Spinney Abbey, in Cam- 
 bridgeshire, unconcerned in the various changes of the 
 State, and unembittered by the ills of ambition. By 
 Elizabeth, his wife, eldest daughter of Sir Francis Russell, 
 Bart., of Chippenham, he left, at his decease, in 1673, five 
 sons and one daughter. To the latter, Elizabeth, wife of 
 
 d2 
 
36 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 William Russell, Esq., of Fordham Abbey, I shall refer in 
 the sequel. Of the sons, all died without issue except the 
 second, Henry Cromwell, Esq., who was born in Dublin 
 Castle, during his father's government of Ireland, 3rd ". 
 March, 1658. He inherited eventually the estate of 
 Spinney Abbey, but was compelled, by the pressure of 
 circumstances, to sell that property, and experienced great 
 vicissitudes and pecuniary distress. A letter of his is still 
 preserved, in which he deplores his condition. " Our 
 family," he writes to Lady Fauconberg, his aunt, " is low, 
 and some are willing it should be kept so ; yet I know we 
 are a far ancienter family than many others ; Sir Oliver 
 Cromwell, my grandfather's uncle and godfather's estate 
 that was, is now let for above i650,000 a-year." Shortly 
 after, so deep was his distress, that he petitioned the Lord 
 Lieutenant of Ireland to give him some employment, but 
 prayed to be excused from going over with his Excellency, 
 as he was in want of the necessaries of a gentleman to 
 appear in the Viceroy's suite. At length, the Duke of Or- 
 monde procured for him the commission of Major of Foot, 
 and he joined Lord Galway's army in the Peninsula, where 
 he died of a fever in 1711. By Hannah, his wife, daughter 
 of Benjamin Hewling, a Turkey merchant, he had a large 
 family, of which the only son, whose descendants still 
 exist, was Thomas Cromwell, who, " sic transit gloria 
 mundi,'' carried on the business of a grocer, on Snow 
 Hill, and died in Bridgwater Square, London, Oct. 2, 
 1748. He married first, Frances Tidman, the daughter of 
 a London tradesman, and by her was father of a daughter, 
 
RISE AND PALL OF THE CROMWELLS. 37 
 
 Anne, the wife of John Field, of London.* He married, 
 secondly, Mary, daughter of Nicholas Skinner, a merchant 
 of the city, and had, to leave issue, an only son, Oliver 
 Cromwell, a solicitor, and clerk to St. Thomas's Hospital, 
 who succeeded, under the will of his cousins, the Miss 
 Cromwells, to an estate at Theobalds, Herts, which had 
 been granted by Charles II. to General Monk, for his 
 services in restoring the monarchy. Mr. Ohver Cromwell 
 married, in 1 771, Mary, daughter and co-heir of Morgan 
 Morse, and left an only daughter and heir, Elizabeth 
 Oliveria Cromwell, of Cheshunt Park, born in 1777, 
 who married, in 1801, Thomas Artemidorus Russell, Esq., 
 and had several children. With this Oliver Cromwell, 
 who died in 1821, the attorney, and the son of the grocer, 
 the male line of the Lord Protector's family expired. 
 Thus, the house of Cromwell, which, even before the great 
 Oliver's time, possessed estates in Huntingdonshire and 
 other counties of immense value, dwindled from its high 
 and princely station, and, within four generations, sank 
 into absolute obscurity, and became altogether extinct. No 
 better destiny awaited many of the female descendants 
 of the Lord Protector. 
 
 Elizabeth Cromwell (daughter of Henry Cromwell, Lord 
 Deputy of Ireland) left, by her husband, William Russell, 
 Esq., of Eordham Abbey, seven sons and six daughters. 
 Of the former, Francis Russell, Esq., baptized at Fordham 
 
 * The issue of Anne Cromwell and John Field were, 1. Henry, 
 of Woodford, Essex ; 2. Oliver ; 3. John, an officer in the Mint ; 
 4. William ; 5. Anne, married to Thomas Gwinnell ; 6. Eliza- 
 beth ; 7. Sophia ; 8. Mary ; and 9. Letitia, married to the Rev. 
 John Wilkina. 
 
38 "' VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Abbey, 1691, was father of Thomas Russell, Esq., a mili- 
 tary officer, whose daughter, Rebecca, married, first, James 
 Harley, Esq., by whom she had no issue, and secondly, 
 William Dyer, Esq., of Ilford, a magistrate and deputy- 
 lieutenant for Essex, by whom she had William Andrew 
 Dyer, Esq., two other sons, and two daughters. Of the 
 daughters of Elizabeth Cromwell and William Russell, the 
 eldest, Elizabeth, married Robert D'Aye, Esq., of Soham, 
 a gentleman of ancient family, who dissipated his fortune, 
 and became so reduced that he died in a workhouse, 
 leaving his widow (the great granddaughter of the Lord 
 Protector) dependent on an annual present from the 
 daughters of Richard Cromwell ; this ceasing towards the 
 latter years of her life, she endured the severest hardships 
 and the bitterest penury. She survived until 1765 ; 
 her only surviving daughters were both married, one to 
 Thomas Addeson, a shoemaker at Soham, and the other 
 to one Saunders, a butcher's son, who was a fellow-servant 
 in the family in which she lived, 
 
 Mary (the fourth daughter of Elizabeth Cromwell and 
 William Russell) was left a poor, destitute, and forsaken 
 child, in the village of Fordham, until Sir Charles Wager, 
 who purchased her ancestral estate of Fordham Abbey, 
 heard of her miserable condition, and had her educated. 
 Eventually she married a Mr. Martin Wilkins, a respectable 
 resident of Soham, and died without children. The fifth 
 daughter,' Margaret, formed a very humble connection ; 
 and the youngest married Mr. Nelson, of Mildenhall, by 
 whom she had a son, a jeweller, and a daughter, who, 
 after the death of her husband, Mr. Redderock, an at- 
 
RISE AND FALL OP THE CROMWELLS. 39 
 
 toraey, kept a school at Mildenhall. How pointedly does 
 this story of the downfall of OHver CromwelPs family tell 
 of the instability of all human greatness ! Within the 
 scope of a single century, and after the lapse of a few 
 generations, we find the descendants of one, who in power 
 equalled the mightiest princes of the earth, reduced to 
 the depths of poverty, and almost begging their daily 
 bread. To sum up : — Thomas Cromwell, the Lord 
 Protector's great grandson, was a grocer on Snow 
 Hill, and his son, Oliver Cromwell, the last male heir of 
 the family, an attorney of London. But it was in the 
 female line that the fall was most striking. Several of 
 the Lord Protector's granddaughters' children sank to the 
 lowest class of society* One, after seeing her husband 
 die in the workhouse of a little Sufiblk town, died herself 
 a pauper, leaving two daughters ; the elder, the wife of a 
 shoemaker, and the younger^ of a butcher's son, who had 
 been her fellow-servant. Another of Oliver Cromwell's greai 
 granddaughters had two children, who earned their scanty 
 bread by the humblest industry; the son as a small 
 working jeweller, and the daughter as the mistress of a 
 little school at Mildenhall. 
 
40 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 " He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted 
 them of low degree.*' 
 
 About the end of last century, there lived in the parish 
 of Monkland, near Glasgow, a small farmer, in humble 
 circumstances, of the name of Baird. By his wife, who 
 had been employed in a neighbouring farm house, he had 
 a numerous family of sons, who, between the year 1820 
 and the present year, 1859, have, by dint of ability, judg- 
 ment, honesty, and frugality, raised themselves to the posi- 
 tion of the first mercantile men in Scotland. To this must 
 be added the advantage of rare good fortune and propi- 
 tious circumstances, which does not diminish their merit, 
 for there is no use in a ball being placed at a man's feet, 
 if he has not strength and dexterity to kick it, and to keep 
 it up. The coal and iron trade in the Monklands had no^^ 
 yet been developed. The sagacity and enterprise of the 
 Bairds were devoted to that object, and in the course of a 
 few years, they rose from the position of farmers to that 
 of thriving ironmasters, and then gradually advanced until 
 they distanced all others in the same line in Scotland, and 
 
THE BAIRDS OF GARTSHERRIE IRONWORKS. 41 
 
 placed themselves on a footing with the Guests and Baillies 
 of South Wales. 
 
 Merchants are proverbially princes to-day and beggars 
 to-morrow ; and as long as enormous capital is invested in 
 speculation, however prosperous and apparently secure, 
 permanency can never be certain. Those who are alive 
 in the year 1900 will be in a condition to know whether 
 or not the heirs of the Bairds belong to the richest landed 
 aristocracy of Great Britain ; and whether or not the im- 
 mense estates already acquired by them have been pre- 
 served so as to found great territorial families. 
 
 In the meantime, these numerous and enterprising 
 brothers have acted with praiseworthy ambition in acquir- 
 ing landed possessions, which give them an influence in 
 the country far beyond the mere accumulation of pounds, 
 shillings, and pence. Within the last twelve or fifteen 
 years they have secured by purchase magnificent estates, 
 which, if preserved, will, before two generations are over, 
 raise their descendants to a place among the magnates of 
 the land. 
 
 The present generation of Bairds, regarded as they are 
 by the public among the richest commoners of Scotland^ 
 have reason to be proud of the lowly origin from which 
 prudence and industry have raised them. Possibly their 
 grand-children may desire to cover that origin with the 
 blazon of pedigree ; but the fabricators of a colossal for- 
 tune have good cause to glory, with thankfulness, in a rise 
 which has been mainly owing to their own merit. 
 
 The brothers Baird have been too busy in trans- 
 muting iron into gold, to have time, or probably in- 
 
42 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 clination, to think of pedigree, or to care for ancient blood. 
 Possibly, however, in one or two descents, a family already 
 founded, and by that time allied among the aristocracy, may 
 think it worth while to seek out a generous stem for their 
 golden branches ; and it is a matter of fact, that Lanark- 
 shire, which has witnessed the gradual rise of these brothers 
 to wealth, numbered, many centuries ago, among its 
 most considerable barons, an ancient race of their name. 
 
 In the reign of Alexander III., Richard Baird had a 
 charter of lands from Robert, son of Waldeve de Biggar, 
 and King Robert Bruce gave a grant of the barony of 
 Camnethan to Robert Baird. In the ancient mansion of 
 Camnethan, as it existed in the days of the lordly Somer- 
 villes, the most ancient portion was called the Bairds^ Tower. 
 The prosperity of this race was, however, speedily bhghted 
 by treason. Baird of Carnwath, and three or four other 
 barons of that name, being convicted of a conspiracy 
 against King Robert Bruce, in the Parliament held at Perth, 
 were forfeited and put to death. 
 
 Baird of Auchmedden in Banffshire has long been con- 
 sidered the principal family of the name;* and it is a 
 curious circumstance, that among the many estates which 
 the brothers Baird have acquired, Auchmedden is one* 
 The main line of Auchmedden is extinct, but there are two 
 baronets' families descended from it, viz., Baird of Saugh- 
 ton Hall, and Baird of Newbyth. 
 
 I must leave to some genealogist of a future genera- 
 tion the task of connecting the many-millioned brothers 
 
 * A still older line of Bairds in Banffshire, viz. of Ordinhuiff, 
 died out in the 16th century. 
 
THE BAIRDS OF GARTSHERRIE IRONWORKS. 43 
 
 of Gartsherrie Ironworks with the races of then* name 
 which have been distinguished in old time, or which now 
 claim a place among our well-descended gentry. My in- 
 tention is to record the rise of this most remarkable and 
 meritorious family, and, while I congratulate them on 
 their present prosperity, to cast a look of regret on one or 
 two of the ancient races which have passed away and 
 given place to them. Nothing can more strikingly depict 
 the vicissitudes of fortune in considerable families than the 
 transfer of hereditary property ; and therefore T will at* 
 tempt to trace the fortunes of one or two of the Bairds' 
 predecessors. 
 
 I trust that I shall not wound aristocratic feelings — I 
 will not call them prejudices (for such feelings are good 
 in their proper place and within due bounds) — when I say 
 that such transfer of great estates from the old to the new 
 races is an immense benefit to the country. Not that the 
 new man is a better landlord, neighbour, magistrate, or 
 member of Parliament than the man of ancient lineage ; 
 generally quite the reverse. Not that the individual in- 
 stances of a noble and time-honoured race being forced to 
 give way to one fresh from the ranks of the people, are 
 otherwise than repugnant to our tastes and habits of 
 thought. But such changes serve as the props and bul- 
 warks of the existing social and political institutions of 
 Great Britain. In this country there is happily no con- 
 ventional barrier raised against the admission of a man of 
 the people into the ranks of the aristocracy. Industry 
 and good conduct, favoured by providence, in the acquisi- 
 tion of wealth, may raise a poor man to a place among 
 
44 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 the rich landed' gentry of the country, and another gene- 
 ration may see him not only in the House of Lords, but 
 allied by blood to the highest families of the land. 
 
 Therefore it is the true interest of the people to main- 
 tain those social and political institutions which are thus 
 liberal towards them. 
 
 If the insurmountable barrier of a proud nobility of 
 sixteen quarters existed in England, as it did, and as it 
 still does, in some continental countries, our government 
 and constitution would not be worth six months' purchase. 
 It is the safeguard of English institutions that admission 
 to the aristocracy is not exclusively barred against the am- 
 bition of a man of humble birth, and that a place there, 
 when once obtained, is jealously guarded by the right of 
 primogeniture. Each generation witnesses the ascent of 
 numbers of men of the people among the upper ten 
 thousand of English aristocracy, and when there, they 
 generally become the most exclusive preservers of the 
 footing which they have gained. It is well for England 
 ■that men like the Bairds hasten to invest their hundred 
 thousand -or their million in great landed estates; and 
 moreover, that they centre their wealth on their eldest 
 sons. What a contrast does this rich, flourishing, popular 
 aristocracy exhibit to the poverty-stricken nobility of most 
 continental countries, which, on the one hand, rarely 
 admits of accessions from the people, and on the other, 
 fritters away its possessions by eternal subdivisions of 
 titles and estates among every branch of its race, however 
 remote. 
 
 This forms one of the most striking and beneficial 
 
THE BAIRDS OF GARTSHERRIE IRONWORKS. 45 
 
 discrepancies between our social institutions and those of 
 most of the great continental states. With us, a mer- 
 chant no sooner realizes a fortune than his ambition is 
 to be a country gentleman, and to push upwards among 
 the old families of a county. He sends his son to Eton 
 and Oxford, where he associates on equal terms with young 
 men of birth. He seeks matrimonial alliances for his 
 children among those of a superior class : and, unless 
 there is something ridiculous or forbidding about him 
 and his family, his efforts are generally successful, and the 
 next generation sees the Liverpool merchant or the Man- 
 chester cotton- spinner's son or grandson associated and 
 allied with houses which were founded at the conquest or 
 during the barons' wars. There is scarcely a peer, how- 
 ever exalted his rank may be, who has not some degree 
 of cousinhood with families of very ordinary pretensions ; 
 and not a few of our Cabinet ministers in modern times 
 are but one remove from the counting-house, through the 
 intermediate step of a merchant or cotton-spinner turned 
 squire. 
 
 Having thus paid tribute to the beneficial influence of 
 new blood on our political institutions, let us indemnify 
 ourselves by dwelling for a few moments on one or two of 
 the great landed families who have been supplanted for 
 the present by the Gartsherrie Iron Kings. 
 
 The estates which these brothers have purchased are 
 numerous, valuable, and wide-spread in every direction 
 throughout Scotland. In the north, Strichen has been 
 acquired from Lord Lovat, Urie from Mr. Barclay-AUar- 
 dice, and Auchmedden, the patrimony of the ancient 
 
46 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 family of Baird. In the south, Stichill has been bought 
 from Sir John Pringle, and Closeburne from Sir James 
 Stuart Menteath. In the East, Elie and the ancient 
 barony of Anstruther have been purchased from Sir Wind- 
 ham Anstruther ; and in the west, Knoydart, the last 
 remnant of the territories of the chieftain of Glengarry, 
 has added to the victories of the prosperous Iron Kings 
 over the old lords of the soil. 
 
 I believe that I have only enumerated a portion of their 
 purchases; for proprietors, small as well as great, have 
 been swallowed up. 
 
 With a view to mark the vicissitudes of fortune, I will 
 give a sketch of the history of the principal families 
 whose estates have been transferred to these prosperous 
 men : — Kirkpatrick of Closeburne, Anstruther of Ans- 
 truther, and Macdonell of Glengarry, chieftain of Clan- 
 ran aid. 
 
 h ^irlt{jatrtclt of Closefeutne, Baronets 
 
 The Kirkpatricks were proprietors of Closeburne from a 
 very early period. John de Kirkpatrick obtained a royal 
 charter for those lands which had formerly belonged to 
 his ancestors from King Alexander II. His descendant, 
 Roger Kirkpatrick, was one of the first who stoutly main- 
 tained the cause of King Robert Bruce ; and he proved 
 his zeal by murder and sacrilege. 
 
 Bruce met his powerful rival, " the red Comyn," in the 
 town of Dumfries, and burning with ill-dissembled indig- 
 nation at the treachery of which he had discovered him 
 
KIRKPATRICK OF CLOSEBURNE. 47 
 
 to be guilty, he requested a private interview with him in 
 the church of the Minorite Friars. Comyn agreed, and 
 they had not reached the high altar before Bruce arraigned 
 him of treachery. " You lie/' said Comyn ; on which 
 Bruce stabbed him with his dagger ; and, hurrying from 
 the sanctuary, he met Kirkpatrick in the street. " I 
 doubt,^' said Bruce, as he hastily mounted his horse, 
 "that I have slain Comyn.'* "Do you doubt?" said 
 Kirkpatrick, fiercely j " I'll make sure !" — and, immedi- 
 ately entering the convent, he found the victim weltering 
 in his blood, and writhing in agony in front of the high 
 altar. Having despatched him as he lay helpless on the 
 steps of the altar, he speedily joined Bruce. This achieve- 
 ment has been ever since the proud boast of the family ; 
 and in memory of the murderous sacrilege, they adopted 
 for their crest a hand grasping a sword, dropping blood, 
 with "I make sicker" (or sure) for their motto. 
 
 The Barons of Closeburne continued to flourish among 
 the principal gentry of the south of Scotland for many 
 centuries. In the year 1685 Thomas Kirkpatrick was 
 created a Baronet of Nova Scotia by Charles IL, to reward 
 him for his fidelity to his royal father. The present is the 
 sixth baronet of the family ; but they have been, for three 
 generations, deprived of their family estates; for in the 
 latter part of last century, Closeburne was sold to the Rev, 
 James Stuart Menteath, rector of Barrowby, in Lincoln- 
 shire. His son, Charles, was created a baronet in 1838; 
 and his son. Sir James, sold the ancient inheritance of the 
 Kirkpatricks to one of the brothers Baird for upwards of 
 two hundred thousand pounds. 
 
48 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 The family of Kirkpatrick of Closeburne has been re- 
 cently brought from the profound obscurity into which it 
 had fallen, and presented to the public under very pecu- 
 liar circumstances. The complaisance of genealogists has 
 attributed to Eugenie, Empress of the French, the Spanish 
 Countess of Theba, a maternal descent from this ancient 
 race. The mother of her Imperial majesty was certainly a 
 Kirkpatrick, and of Dumfrieshire origin ; but if the Kirk- 
 patricks from whom the Empress is descended are of the 
 family of Closeburne, it remains yet to be ascertained and 
 proved when and how they diverged from the ancient 
 tree. They held the rank of mere provincial gentry, and 
 all their alliances that can be traced are with families of 
 name and station far inferior to those with whom the 
 house of Closeburne intermarried. 
 
 Robert Kirkpatrick, of Glenkiln, married Henrietta 
 Gillespie, and was father of William Kirkpatrick, of 
 Conheath in Dumfrieshire, who married Mary Wilson, 
 by whom he had several children. One of his sons, Wil- 
 liam, settled as a merchant in Malaga, and married the 
 daughter of a foreign consul there, by whom he had three 
 daughters. The eldest, who was very beautiful, attracted 
 the notice and became the wife of the youngest son of the 
 great family of Montijo, grandees of Spain of the first 
 class. The daughter of the Scottish merchant was con- 
 sidered a mesalliance for a young man of so distinguished 
 a family, and her inferior birth was stated as a reason for 
 consent being refused. An application was made here- 
 upon by the friends of the family to the late ingenious 
 Mr. Charles Kitzpatrick Sharpe, a gentleman who, from 
 
KIRKPATRICK OF CLOSEBURNE. 49 
 
 his wit and fondness for virtu, was called by Sir Walter 
 Scott the Horace Walpole of Edinburgh. Mr. Sharpe, it 
 is said, undertook, with considerable zest, the task of sup- 
 plying his fair countrywoman with a long and flourishing 
 genealogical tree, in which the dagger dripping the heart's 
 blood of "the red Comyn^' made a conspicuous figure. 
 The pedigree was, it is asserted, beautifully drawn up, and 
 sent to Spain. When it was submitted to King Ferdi- 
 nand VII., he indulged in a joke on the occasion. Look- 
 ing at the document, where the origin of the Kirkpatricks 
 seemed lost in the mists of ancient Caledonia, his Majesty 
 said, *' by all means let the young Montijo marry the 
 daughter of Fingal.^^ 
 
 The husband of Miss Kirkpatrick eventually suc- 
 ceeded to the titles and estates of his family, and left two 
 daughters, of whom the elder espoused the Duke of Ber- 
 wick and Alva, representative of the Marechal Due de 
 Berwick, natural son of King James II., and the younger, 
 long celebrated for her beauty and grace as Countess de 
 Theba, is now Eugenie, Empress of the French. Until 
 within the last few years, a Miss Kirkpatrick, grand aunt 
 of the Empress, resided in the county town of Dumfries ; 
 and her Imperial Majesty has several first cousins of the 
 name of Kirkpatrick, sons of her mother's sister, who 
 married a cousin of her own name. One of them was 
 not long ago settled as a merchant at Havre. 
 
50 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 M* 'Kmtvuthtv of TLmtvuthtu 
 
 In the year 1100, William de Candela was Lord of Ans- 
 truther. At that early period it was customary for nobles 
 to adopt their surnames from their lands, and it was rare 
 to find a Scottish baron who possessed a family name be- 
 sides his territorial designation. One of the few ancient 
 Scottish nobles of the time of King David 1., who enjoyed 
 this distinction, was William, Lord of Anstruther. He had 
 already a noble name. He was not the founder of his 
 family. He was a son of the noble race of De Candela, 
 and in the year 1100 he was one of the most considerable 
 of the barons of Fife. It is not known how long his an- 
 cestors had possessed the barony of Anstruther before that 
 l^eriod. It is more probable that he was a foreign noble- 
 man, who obtained a grant of lands from King David I., as 
 was the case with so many distinguished strangers at that 
 period. Few, however, brought with them a family name. 
 The greater number of the ancient races in Scotland spring 
 from ancestors who had no name except that of their lands, 
 and it is an honour to the house of Anstruther to be de- 
 scended from an ancestor already noble so early as 1100; 
 a fact which determines the ascertained nobility of the 
 family for eight hundred years. 
 
 William de Candela is known to have been Lord of Ans- 
 truther about the year 1100, but there is no original grant 
 of the barony to show the exact year in which it was first 
 conferred on him or on his ancestor. He lived through the 
 reign of David I., and did not die until the commencement 
 
ANSTRUTHER OF ANSTRUTHER. 51 
 
 of that of Malcolm IV., wlio ascended the Scottish throne 
 in the year 1153. His son William, Lord of Anstruther, 
 was a pious benefactor to the Abbey of Balmerino, and died 
 in the reign of King William the Lion, which commenced 
 in 1165. His son Henry, in compliance with the usage 
 of Scotland, assumed the name of his lands as his surname, 
 and disused that of De Candela. He is styled Henricus 
 de Anstruther Dominus de Anstruther in a charter 
 wherein he confirms his father's pious donations to the 
 Abbey of Balmerino, in 1221, in the reign of Alexander 
 II. His son Henry, Lord of Anstruther, was also a pious 
 benefactor to religious houses in charters granted during 
 the reign of Alexander III. He was a crusader, and ac- 
 companied St. Louis to the East. He assumed for his 
 arms the three nails of the cross, now represented by three 
 piles sable on a silver shield. In his old age he was com- 
 pelled to swear fealty for his barony of Anstruther to Ed- 
 ward I,, in 1292 and 1296. 
 
 For many generations the chiefs of this family were 
 munificent benefactors to religious houses. In the reign 
 of Louis XII. of France two sons of the family held high 
 commands in the Scottish guards, attending the person of 
 that monarch and his successor. In 1513 Andrew, Baron 
 of Anstruther, was killed, along with King James IV., at 
 Flodden. His grandson of the same name was killed at 
 Pinkie in 1547. Sir James, the thirteenth in descent 
 from William de Candela, was high in favour with King 
 James VI., by whom he was knighted, in 1585 ap- 
 pointed hereditary Grand Carver to his Majesty, an office 
 still held by his descendant. In 1592 he was the Master 
 
 E 2 
 
52 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 of the royal household. Sir William, his son, was gentle- 
 man of the bedchamber to James VI., and was made a 
 Knight of the Bath at his coronation in London in 1603. 
 His brother. Sir Robert, was a diplomatist of great 
 eminence. He was employed by James I. and Charles I. 
 on many important embassies. In 1628 he was sent as 
 Ambassador Extraordinary to his master's near connection, 
 the King of Denmark, with whom he was in especial favour 
 as a boon companion no less than as a diplomatist. In a 
 protracted revel the Danish King was so much delighted 
 with his company that he actually resigned the Danish 
 crown to him, with which Sir Robert was invested during 
 the remaining days of the feast. In 1629 he was Ambas- 
 sador to the Emperor of Germany ; and he was sent by 
 Charles I. and the Elector Palatiue as their Plenipoten- 
 tiary to the Germanic Diet at Ratisbonne, and in 1630 
 he was Ambassador to the princes of Germany at Heil- 
 bronn. 
 
 The ambassador's son, Sir Philip, was a most zealous 
 and devoted royahst. He had a high command in the 
 King's army, and was taken prisoner at the battle of 
 Worcester. He was severely fined by Cromwell, and his 
 estates were sequestered until the Restoration. He lived 
 until 1702, and saw two of his sons created, in the same 
 year, 1694, baronets of Nova Scotia. He had five sons, 
 two of whom were baronets, and three knights. 1. Sir 
 Philip carried on the line of the family. 2. Sir James, 
 whose line is extinct. 3. Sir Robert, ancestor to the 
 baronets of Balcaskie. 4. Sir Philip, who had a daughter 
 married to the Earl of Traquair. 5. Sir Alexander, who 
 
ANSTRUTHER OF ANSTRUTHER. 53 
 
 married the Baroness of Newark, and was father of the 
 third and fourth Lords Newark. Sir Robert, the third 
 son, was created a baronet in 1694. His son. Sir Philip, 
 second Baronet of Balcaskie, married a grand-daughter of 
 the Marquis of Tweeddale, by a daughter of the Earl of 
 Buccleuch, and had issue, I. Sir Robert, who carried on 
 the line of his family, and was grandfather to Sir Ralph, 
 the present baronet ; II. Colonel John Anstruther, 
 whose son, John Anstruther, took the name of Thomson 
 for the estate of Charleton, and was father of the present 
 Mr. Anstruther Thomson of Charleton, w^ho is twenty-first 
 in direct male descent from the founder of the house of 
 Anstruther. 
 
 Sir William Anstruther, the old royalist's eldest son, 
 was created a baronet in 1694. By a daughter of the 
 Earl of Haddington he had a son. Sir John, who married 
 Lady Margaret Carmichael, eldest daughter of the second 
 Earl of Hyndford ; a most fortunate alliance, as it has saved 
 the eldest branch of the house of Anstruther from beggary. 
 On the extinction of the house of Hyndford by the death 
 of Andrew, last Earl, in 1817, the great Carmichael estates 
 devolved upon the Baronet of Anstruther as heir-general 
 of the family, and these estates are now all that remain to 
 the present Baronet, who is the twenty-first in direct male 
 descent from the founder of the family, and who succeeded 
 his youthful nephew in 1831. He was not long in pos- 
 session before he became inextricably involved, and at 
 length, after many years, he succeeded in breaking the 
 entail of his Anstruther estates, and sold them in 1856, 
 together with the mansion of Elie House, to one of the 
 
54 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 brothers Baird, who has thus come into possession of one of 
 the most ancient family properties in Scotland. Sir Wind- 
 ham Anstruther is still possessed of the great Carmichael 
 estates in Lanarkshire,, which are in value equal to those he 
 has alienated. But had he not inherited them^ he would 
 have been as much the landless representative of a fallen 
 house, as the other great proprietors who have yielded to 
 the colossal wealth of the Bairds. 
 
 Mt i^actjonell of (Slengarrp, €hitl ot ©lengarrp. " 
 
 The possessions of the house of Somerled, King of Inis- 
 gael, have, in the course of centuries, been strangely scat- 
 tered. Without attempting to enumerate other alienations, 
 I may state that the great island of Isla, which formed one 
 of the important territories of the old Hebridian Kings, 
 has in later times passed to Mr. Morrison, the rich London 
 merchant ; and the estates of Somerled^s du-ect descendant, 
 the chief of Clanranald, have become the spoil of two iron 
 kings ; the one patrician, and the other plebeian. Glen- 
 garry was purchased some years ago by the prince of Staf- 
 fordshire ironmasters. Lord Ward; and Knoydart, still 
 more recently, by the iron potentate of Gartsherrie. 
 
 In the middle of the twelfth century, the " Orkneyinga 
 Saga" calls Somerled and his sons (who were the chiefs 
 of the Gallgael) the Dalverian family; a term derived 
 from Dala, the Norse name for, the district of Argyle, and 
 which implies that they had been for some time indige- 
 nous in the district. In fact, Somerled was the descendant 
 
MACDONELL OF GLENGARRY. 55 
 
 of a long line of chiefs, of whom the names are on record ; 
 but it is unnecessary to trace them, for a direct male de- 
 scent from a renowned warrior-king, who died in the year 
 1164, is honour enough, without a further search into the 
 mists of antiquity. 
 
 Somerled was already Lord of Argyle. He married 
 Efrica, daughter of the King of Man and the Southern 
 islands. In 1156, he attacked his brother-in-law. King 
 Godred, who was obliged to detach the Southern Hebrides 
 from Man, and to cede them to the conqueror. Somerled 
 hereupon styled himself King of the Isles, or King of 
 Inisgael. Next year, he invaded Scotland, and made 
 terms, as an equal, with King Malcolm IV. He then ex- 
 pelled his brother-in-law from Man, and took possession 
 of the whole of the Isles. In 1164, he again invaded 
 Scotland with one hundred and fifty-three galleys ; but he 
 was slain, and his fleet was repulsed. 
 
 On his death there was a division of his territories. A 
 portion of the mainland devolved on his son Dougal, who 
 was ancestor of the great house of De Ergadia, Lord of 
 Lorn, which was ruined by its adherence to the English 
 interest against King Robert Bruce, and which is now re- 
 presented by Macdougald, of DunoUy Castle. 
 
 The principal portion of Somerled^s insular dominions 
 was inherited by his son, Reginald, who, like his father 
 was styled King of the Isles, and King of Man, under 
 which title he was acknowledged by John, King of Eng- 
 land, to whom he swore fealty as a vassal king, in 1212. 
 He was succeeded by a line of island princes, who generally 
 styled themselves King, and never acknowledged the su- 
 
56 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 premacy of the monarchs of Scotland, excepting when 
 compelled to do so by force of arms. They always courted 
 the English alliance, and were considered by the successive 
 Plantagenet monarchs in the light of valuable confederates 
 to undermine the integrity of the Scottish kingdom. 
 
 A diflferent line of policy, however, was pursued by Angus 
 More or the great. Lord of the Isles, the fourth in descent 
 from Reginald, who succeeded his father in 1 303, for he 
 sheltered King Robert Bruce, when a fugitive, in his castle 
 of Dunavarty, when no other would incur the risk. He 
 afterwards helped to maintain him on the Scottish throne, 
 by fighting for him at Bannockburn, with two thousand 
 men under his banner. And for these good deeds, he was 
 rewarded by the grateful monarch with large grants of 
 lands. He died before 1337. 
 
 John, his son, followed a wavering policy. He was at 
 first tempted by the offers of King Edward Balliol to for- 
 sake the party of the Bruces, and he went to England very 
 soon after his father^s death, and made terms with King 
 Edward III. in 1337. But when King David Bruce re- 
 gained the crown, he made his peace with him, was admitted 
 to favour in 1344, and continued in undisturbed possession 
 of his vast territories. 
 
 There has been a great controversy concerning the 
 family of John, Lord of the Isles. And it will be neces- 
 sary to pay some attention to it, in order to understand 
 the claims of the diff'erent branches, who trace themselves 
 to him as their common ancestor, and several of whom 
 claim to be his representative. In 1337, John, Lord of 
 the Isles, (for that was now the title of the family, the 
 
MACDONELL OF GLENGARRY. 57 
 
 style of King having been long disused), had a papal dis- 
 pensation for marrying one of his cousins, Annie Mac Rory, 
 a daughter of Roderick of the Isles, the head of an impor- 
 tant branch of his family. By her he had three sons : 1. 
 John; 2. Godfrey; 3. Ronald. John, Lord of the 
 Isles, afterwards married the Princess Margaret, daughter 
 of Robert II., the first Scottish king of the House of Stuart, 
 and by her, also, he had three sons ; 1. Donald ; 2. John ; 
 3. Alexander. 
 
 From that day to the present, there has been a fierce 
 controversy as to which of these two sets of sons was the 
 legitimate inheritor of the blood and the honours of the 
 Hebridian princes. The partisans of the sons of the first 
 marriage maintained, that they were not only elder, but 
 lawfully born ; that their mother was divorced in order to 
 make way for the second and royal marriage of their father, 
 and that their rights were sacrificed to those of the eldest 
 son of the Scottish princess. On the other side it is ad- 
 mitted, indeed, that they were the elder sons ; but it is 
 contended, that they were not born in lawful wedlock, and 
 that none of them succeeded to the dignity of Lord of the 
 Isles, while Donald, the eldest son of the princess, from 
 whom they themselves held their lands, was their father^s 
 acknowledged heir. 
 
 Without presuming to decide on so difiicult a question, 
 which has served for five centuries as a subject of fierce 
 dispute, we will observe, that the contest has been carried 
 on between the descendants of Donald, the eldest son of 
 the Princess, and those of Ronald, the youngest son of 
 Annie MacRory. Now, this Ronald had two elder bro- 
 
58 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 thers, John and Godfrey^ both of whom are known to have 
 had issue, and there is no positive proof that the descen- 
 dants of either are extinct ; so that, even if Ronald, the 
 third son of the first marriage, was legitimate, it would 
 be impossible to prove that his descendants are the true 
 representatives of John, Lord of the Isles. Be this, how- 
 ever, as it may, the fact is, that Donald, the eldest son of 
 John, Lord of the Isles, by the Princess Margaret, was ac- 
 knowledged to be his heir, and he accordingly succeeded as 
 " Dominus Insularum,^' on the death of John, in 1380. 
 
 Of these six sons, John, the eldest, died before his father, 
 leaving a son Angus, of whom little is known ; Godfrey, 
 the second, was Lord of Uist and Garmoran, whose de- 
 scendants are traced in history for several generations, when 
 they seem to have sunk into obscurity. Ronald is the 
 ancestor of the great house of Clanronald. Donald, the 
 fourth son, but eldest son of the royal marriage, was his 
 father's heir. John More was ancestor of Macdonald of 
 Isla, Kintyre, and the Glens, and the Earls and Marquises 
 of Antrim in Ireland. Alexander was Lord of Lochaber, 
 and ancestor of Macdonald of Keppoch. 
 
 Donald, Lord of the Isles, who succeeded in 1380, 
 carried on the old line of his family policy, intriguing 
 with the English king, and endeavouring to shake off the 
 allegiance which he owed to the King of Scotland. He 
 invaded Scotland with ten thousand men, and fought the 
 famous battle of Harlow, in 1411, against Robert, Duke 
 of Albany, the Regent, who was his uncle. In right of his 
 wife, Donald became Earl of Ross. He died in 1420, and 
 was succeeded by Alexander, Lord of the Isles, and Earl 
 
MACDONELL OF GLENGARRY. 59 
 
 of Ross, whose early years of rule were spent in intrigues 
 and treaties with the English, and in wars against his 
 Scottish sovereign, to whom he was at last forced to sub- 
 mit. In 1429, he threw himself on the king's mercy, and 
 in his shirt and drawers, and on his knees, before the altar 
 of Holyrood, in the presence of the queen and nobles, he 
 presented his sword to the king. His Hfe was spared, and 
 he was shut up in the Castle of Tantallon. In 1431, he 
 was pardoned, and restored to his dominions. He died 
 in 1449. He had three sons : John, his successor ; 
 Hugh, ancestor of Macdonald of Sleat, now Lord Mac- 
 donald; Celestine, Lord of Lochalsh, whose grand- 
 daughter and coheir, Margaret, carried great possessions 
 to her husband, Alexander of Glengarry, which raised the 
 fortunes of that family. 
 
 John, Lord of the Isles, and Earl of Ross, succeeded 
 his father in 1449. His life and reign are similar to those 
 of his predecessors : — an invasion of Scotland with one 
 hundred galleys and five thousand men; a treasonable 
 treaty with Edward IV. of England, in 1462, on the 
 footing of an independent prince; a submission, and a 
 pardon from the Scottish king ; a deprivation of his earl- 
 dom of Ross, and the conversion of this great insular 
 lordship into a Scottish peerage. He again entered into 
 a treasonable treaty with Edward IV. in 1481 ; but he 
 was permitted to resume possession of his estates after the 
 violent death of his son, who was a sacrilegious plunderer 
 and rebel to the Scottish king. The old lord's nephew, 
 Alexander of Lochalch, made an insurrection in 1491, but 
 was wounded and defeated. He himself was forfeited in 
 
60 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 1493, but he submitted, surrendered, and finally died in 
 the abbey of Paisley, in 1498. 
 
 The power of the Isles was now broken. The old lord's 
 grandson, Donald-Dhu, was the last of the direct line, 
 and was set up by the Islesmen as their Lord, in 1603. 
 But he was, ere long, taken and shut up for forty years in 
 the castle of Edinburgh. In the meantime, various pre- 
 tenders, of the race of the Isles, claimed the Insular sove- 
 reignty, but without permanent success. Donald-Dhu 
 at length escaped from his long captivity, and made an 
 insurrection in 1544, when he made a treaty with Eng- 
 land, as Earl of Ross, and sovereign Lord of the Isles. 
 He crossed over with one hundred and eighty galleys to 
 Ireland, in order to raise more men, but died of a fever 
 at Drogheda, in 1545. With him ended the direct male 
 line, and he may be considered as the last "Dominus 
 Insularum.^' 
 
 The descent of Clanronald is derived from Ronald, the 
 third son of John, Lord of the Isles, by Amie Macrory ; 
 and those who contend for the right of Glengarry to be 
 chief of all the Macdonalds, maintain that the issue of 
 John and Godfrey, Ronald's two elder brothers, became 
 extinct. But whether or not he is to be regarded as chief of 
 Clan Donald, he is, at all events, chieftain of Clan Ronald ; 
 and that is no mean distinction. From Donald, the eldest 
 son of Ronald, descended the family of Knoydart and its 
 cadet. Glengarry, while from Allan, his second son, de- 
 scended the family of Moydart. There appears to have 
 existed an inveterate animosity between the Lords of the 
 Isles, Earls of Ross, and the family of Knoydart, chiefs of 
 
MACDONELL OP GLENGARRY. 61 
 
 Clanronald, who for several generations became depressed, 
 and were deprived of many of their territorial possessions. 
 They were in the course of a few generations completely 
 reduced, and, on their extinction, Glengarry, the next 
 branch, succeeded to their rights, and he was the better 
 able to maintain his pretensions, from having, about the 
 beginning of the sixteenth century, acquired great posses- 
 sions by marriage with the granddaughter and coheiress 
 of Celestine, Lord of Lochalsh. 
 
 But, in the depression of the elder branch of Knoydart, 
 the descendant of Allan of Moydart found an opportunity 
 of exalting himself to power at the expense of the rights of 
 his chieftain, and placed himself at the head of Clanronald, 
 a proceeding to which the representative of the family was 
 not at that time in a situation to offer any resistance. But 
 the character of this usurpation, by the head of the family 
 of Moydart, is sufficiently marked by the title of Captain 
 of Clanronald, which, alone, he ventured to assume, and 
 which his descendants retained until the latter part of the 
 last century, when the Highland title of Captain of Clan- 
 ronald was most improperly abandoned, and that mere 
 leadership of the clan, which the title of captain implies, 
 was converted into the rank of chief; Macdonald of Moy- 
 dart, Captain of Clanronald, having transformed himself 
 into Macdonald of Clanronald. 
 
 At the time of the extinction of the Lords of the Isles, 
 the family of Knoydart consisted of two branches, Knoy- 
 dart and Glengarry ; and while the former never recovered 
 from the depressed state to which it had been reduced, 
 and soon became extinct, the latter continued to flourish, 
 
62 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 •with an accession of wealth and influence, and always 
 vehemently opposed the usurpation of Moydart. The 
 successive chieftains of Glengarry have ever loudly asserted 
 their right to be the chiefs of Clanronald, and have main- 
 tained their claims to the present day. But it is, alas ! 
 an empty claim, both on the part of Knoydart and Moy- 
 dart. For the representatives of both families have not 
 an acre of land between them ; and the vast possessions 
 over which their ancestors bore sway, are subdivided among 
 strangers and aliens. 
 
 It is a circumstance, perhaps, not generally known, that 
 the adoption of Macdonald as a family name is compara- 
 tively recent. The clan was, doubtless, anciently called 
 Clanronald, from a remote ancestor. The old family 
 name, however, was '^ de Insulis,'' or " of the Isles,'' or 
 " de Yla,'' and the distinctive denomination of the chief 
 was "Dominus Insularum.'' But, about four hundred 
 years ago, when the great chiefs were extinguished, the 
 custom of designation by patronymics superseded the old 
 name of " de Insuhs,'' or " de Yla,'' and continued down 
 to the time of King James VI. The inconvenience of this 
 custom was manifest, and caused it to be disused in the 
 beginning of the seventeenth century. And it so hap- 
 pened, that in the three chief families of the Clandonald 
 existing at that time in the Highlands, the Christian name 
 Donald having occurred in all of them, they all adopted 
 the surname of Macdonald. I'hus, Sir Donald of 
 Sleat became Sir Donald Macdonald, in 1625, when he 
 was created a Baronet; Donald MacAngus Mac Alister 
 of Glengarry, and Donald Mac Allan Mac Ian, Captain 
 
MACDONELL OF GLENGARRY. 63 
 
 of Clanronald, were the cotemporary heads of the other 
 two most potent families of the race in Scotland, and 
 Konald Mac Sorlie, afterwards Earl of Antrim, was first 
 called Macdonnell in 1618, when he was created Viscount 
 Dunluce. 
 
 The undoubted representative of the later Lords of the 
 Isles was the Lord of Sleat, as he was descended from 
 Hugh, son of Alexander, Lord of the Isles, and grandson 
 of Donald, the eldest son of John and Princess Margaret ; 
 and his descendant, the present Lord Macdonald, is gene- 
 rally regarded as head of the Clan. However, this is most 
 vehemently disputed by the chieftain of Clanronald, the 
 unfortunate Glengarry, whose last territorial possessions 
 have passed into the hands of the many-millioned Bairds. 
 
 I have stated, that the third son of John, Lord of the 
 Isles, and his first wife, Amie MacRory, was Ronald or 
 Ranald, the ancestor of a great and powerful race, called, 
 from his name, Clanronald, and which has branched into 
 several families, of whom Glengarry was the undoubted, 
 although not undisputed chief. It is probable, that if the 
 power of the Lords of the Isles had been handed down to 
 successors in a direct line, the pretensions of the chieftains 
 of Clanronald to be chiefs of the great Clan of Macdonald 
 might never have been advanced. But the extinction of 
 the direct line of the reigning family of the Isles produced 
 a confusion in the succession, and excited the ambition of 
 a powerful branch to dispute the claims of the more im- 
 mediate representative of the later island lords. 
 
 The power of Macdonald, or as it is called Macdonell of 
 Glengarry, seems to have attained to its culminating point 
 
64 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 in the reign of King Charles II., when a Scottish peerage 
 was conferred on its representative, Angus, in 1660, with 
 the style and title of Lord Macdonnell and Aross. But 
 he died without issue in 1682, and his peerage became ex- 
 tinct. He was succeeded as chief of Clanronald by his 
 cousin, Ronald Macdonell of Glengarry, from whom the 
 present representative of the family traces his direct 
 descent. 
 
 In the beginning of the present century, Alexander 
 Ranaldson Macdonell, of Glengarry, was the chief of Clan- 
 ranald, and as he was ambitious of being recognized as 
 head of the Clan Macdonald, he revived, with considerable 
 ardour, the ancient controversy ; and he accordingly put 
 forth his pretensions in a letter addressed to Alexander 
 Wentworth, second Lord Macdonald. To this the peer 
 very tersely replied, — "Till you prove that you are my 
 chief, I am yours, Macdonald.^' 
 
 Glengarry died in 1828; and since then all his estates 
 have been sold, and are now held partly by Lord Ward, 
 and partly by one of the Bairds of the Gartsherrie iron- 
 works. 
 
THE PRINCESS OF CONNEMAEA. 65 
 
 " Good Heaven ! what sorrows gloom'd that parting day 
 That called her from her native walks away ; 
 When the poor exile, every pleasure pass'd, 
 Hung round the bowers, and fondly looked her last, 
 And took a long farewell, and wish'd in vain 
 For seat like this beyond the western main." 
 
 Goldsmith. 
 
 Who has not heard of the eccentric but benevolent Richard 
 Martin, the Lord of Connemara, the renowned for hospi- 
 tality in a land of hospitality, and for many years the re- 
 presentative of the county of Gal way in the British house 
 of Commons ? Weighed accurately in the scales of merit, 
 he may have fallen short of his ancestors. Most certainly 
 he was not the man to have accumulated the family estates, 
 but somehow his name stands out to the eclipse of those 
 who went before him, and I am thus tempted to give him 
 a momentary precedence. 
 
 Even those who have forgotten the eccentricities of this 
 singular character, will yet recollect him in connection 
 with a certain act for "preventing or punishing cruelty to 
 animals,^^ an act which is still popularly known under his 
 
 F 
 
66 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 name, " Dick Martinis Act/' Nor did he content him- 
 self with having obtained this parliamentary defence for his 
 four-footed clients, and then leaving the carrying of it out 
 toothers; he was equally strenuous in seeing that they 
 had the full benefit of the law enacted for their protection, 
 and when he was in London never failed to bring up 
 before the police-magistrates such delinquents as had the 
 ill-luck to come under his eye, when he would press the 
 law against them to the utmost. There was something of 
 the TO yeXaiov — of the ridiculous — which for a long time 
 accompanied his best efforts, but eventually the cause of 
 humanity was triumphant. 
 
 In Connemara, where, like Selkirk upon the island of 
 Juan Fernandez, he was " monarch of all he surveyed,'^ 
 and could do pretty well as he pleased, without the inter- 
 vention of a magistrate, his benevolence took a shorter 
 cut to its object, and the memory of his doings in behalf 
 of his dumb friends is perpetuated in the ruins of an an- 
 cient fortalice upon the shores of Ballinahinch Lake. The 
 peasants of the neighbourhood still know these mouldering 
 fragments by the name of Dick Martin's Prison, and will 
 tell how the Lord of Connemara used, in the somewhat 
 doubtful exercise of his feudal rights, to confine therein 
 such of his tenants as sinned against the laws of humanity 
 towards the brute creation. But I must now leave this 
 redresser of animal grievances, and trace my steps back to 
 the commencement of my story. 
 
 The founder of the Martin family in Ireland was Oliver 
 ;Martyn, who accompanied the first English army, under 
 Strongbow, and settling in Gal way, originated one of the 
 
THE PRINCESS OF CONNEMARA. Q7 
 
 thirteen tribes in that ancient town. But the prosperity 
 of the race would seem to have been greatly increased in 
 the time of Captain Richard Martin of Donegan, who 
 received large grants from the confiscated possessions 
 of the O'Flaherties of Ire Connaught. He was a warm 
 partizan of James the Second, and after the abdication, or 
 more properly the flight, of that monarch, joined for a 
 time the so-called Irish army. It seems, however, that he 
 knew how to trim his sails to the wind, for upon the Jaco- 
 bite cause becoming manifestly hopeless, he submitted to 
 King William, and had the good fortune to retain his lands. 
 He then petitioned the reigning sovereign that he might 
 be allowed to erect his estates into a manor, urging as a 
 ground for this request his desire to improve the property 
 by encouraging dealers and handicraftsmen of every kind 
 to become settlers upon it. His prayer was accordingly 
 granted by a patent dated July 5, 1698, which, moreover, 
 ratified the title of all his previous acquisitions. Nor was 
 it probably any drawback to his satisfaction that he had 
 constantly to fight with some one or other for the main- 
 tenance of these new rights, which, in proportion as they 
 enlarged his bounds, had curtailed those of his neighbours. 
 Amongst the most troublesome of the enemies so raised 
 up against him was Edmund 'Flaherty, surnamed Laider, 
 or the Stony, who was far from tamely acquiescing in the 
 alienation of his paternal territories. Many and desperate 
 were the conflicts between the feudal chieftains, for the 
 most part sword in hand, on horseback. But the praise 
 of chivalry must, we think, in fairness be awarded to the 
 Laider, who seems to have trusted in a great measure to 
 
 f2 
 
68 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 his own good right arm. Martin, being always surrounded 
 by a troop of followers, ran comparatively little risk, 
 while the more adventurous 'Flaherty had often to cut 
 his way to safety through opposing numbers by dint of 
 superior strength. 
 
 The estate of the Martins might well be called a prin- 
 cipality. Situated in the county of the town of Gal way 
 and the baronies of Moycullen, Ballynahinch, and the half- 
 barony of Ross, in the county of Galway, it contained up- 
 wards of one hundred and ninety- two thousand statute acres, 
 and extended almost uninterruptedly from the town of 
 Oughterard to Clifden and Claggan Bays, a distance of at 
 least thirty miles, having the navigable Lough Corrib on the 
 north of the Bay of Gaiway, and the Atlantic ocean as the 
 south and south-western boundaries. Yet their dwelling 
 of Ballynahinch, although styled a castle, was unworthy 
 of the surrounding land. The prodigious extent of the 
 demesne may be imagined from the fact that the grand- 
 father of the last possessor could boast to George the 
 Fourth, " he had an approach from his gate-house to his 
 hall of thirty miles length.^' Were the greater part of 
 these enormous domains either waste, rock, or moorland, 
 there would be less matter for surprise ; but such is not 
 altogether the fact ; the whole is infinitely diversified with 
 glens, lakes, rivers, and some portion of cultivated land, 
 though far below what the soil would naturally admit of. 
 Many of these waters exhibit scenes of surpassing beauty, 
 their wide surface being broken by beautifully wooded islets. 
 There are about sixty-four of the larger of such watery 
 oases, not to mention a multitude of islets that occur singly 
 
THE PRINCESS OF CONNEMARA. 69 
 
 or in clusters, and are not the less lovely from oftentimes 
 presenting themselves in the midst of desolation. More- 
 over the whole coast, washed by the Atlantic, is indented 
 with numerous bays, offering the same panorama of islands 
 that seem to float upon the reflecting element. And then, 
 as might be expected from the natural history of Ireland, 
 the waters abound in salmon and trout, while the land is 
 not less amply provided with grouse, woodcocks, and divers 
 sorts of waterfowl, which make a country-life so delectable 
 to sportsmen. At the same time, amidst all these 
 agreeable attractions, there is no want of the useful. The 
 sea affords an abundant supply of manure for agricultural 
 purposes, various parts are rich in blue. limestone, and in 
 the Twelve Pin Mountains are inexhaustible quarries of 
 marble. Nothing is wanted but the hand of industry, 
 aided by modern science, to render Connemara equal to 
 some of the favoured regions of the earth, unless I must 
 add thereto a healthier social system, and a better educa- 
 tion of the people. 
 
 Within this prodigious extent of territory the Martins 
 exercised something very nearly akin to feudal rule, the 
 arms of the law being much too short on most occasions 
 to stretch into the wilds of Connaught. They were lords 
 paramount. Every head was bared in submission to the 
 owners of so many thousands upon thousands of acres, 
 which, if not generally remarkable for cultivation, at least 
 impressed the imagination by extent. Yet, immense and 
 almost unbounded as the estate was, the seeds'' of decay 
 had been sown in it by the profuse hospitality of its im- 
 provident owners ; and with such marvellous rapidity did 
 
70 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 they spread, that when Richard Martin ceased to be re- 
 turned to parliament, he was fain to seek refuge from his 
 creditors by flying to the continent, where, at Boulogne, 
 he died, January 6th, 1834. 
 
 Aff'airs do not seem to have much improved under his 
 immediate successor. Perhaps the evil was already too 
 deeply rooted to admit of cure. At all events, when, upon 
 the death of Thomas Barnewall Martin, Esq., M.P., of Bal- 
 linahinch Castle, the property descended to his daughter, 
 popularly styled " the Princess of Connemara," she found 
 it so encumbered by the prodigality of her ancestors that 
 it became a serious question in what way she was to keep 
 her inheritance together. Still she struggled on bravely, 
 and for some time maintained a decent appearance upon 
 the balance that remained after paying off the interest of 
 the various mortgages. A continuation in the same line 
 of prudence might perhaps eventually have restored the 
 family estates to something of their former splendour; 
 but, though sought in marriage by many of wealth and 
 name, she gave her hand in preference to a near relation — 
 Mr. Gonne Bell — who, whatever else might be his gifts, 
 had not the gift of fortune. In this case, as in so many 
 others, it was " all for love, or the world well lost," a 
 poetical creed which is seldom very strongly beUeved in, 
 when the heyday of life is over. 
 
 On the day of marriage Mr. Gonne Bell assumed by 
 royal license, dated 15th Sept. 1847, the name of his 
 bride, and shortly afterwards both parties united in bor- 
 rowing a large sum of money from the Law Life Assurance 
 Company, in order to consolidate the incumbrances upon 
 
THE PRINCESS OF CONNEMARA. 71 
 
 the estate at a lower rate of interest. But this attempt 
 to save themselves was defeated by events over which they 
 had no control. The year of famine came on, govern- 
 ment works were commenced, and the tenants soon ceased 
 to pay any rents whatever, and as a natural consequence the 
 owners of so many thousand acres were no longer able to 
 pay up the instalments due upon their mortgage. Men 
 acting in large bodies are seldom so merciful as when they 
 are individually responsible for their deeds, and the Law 
 Life Assurance Society formed no exception to this rule of 
 general experience. They insisted upon the due per- 
 formance of their bond, and that being under the circum- 
 stances impossible, this vast Connemara property came 
 into the Encumbered Estates Court, and the famous old 
 race of Martin of Ballinahinch was sold out : the times 
 were the worst possible for an advantageous sale ; and the 
 Assurance Company bought in almost the entire of the 
 estate, at a sum immeasurably below its real value, and 
 quite inadequate, even with the produce of the remnant 
 of the lands bought by other parties, to the liquidation of 
 its heavy liabilities. Not a single acre remained for the 
 poor heiress of what was once a princely estate, and while 
 others were thus fattening upon her ancient inheritance, 
 the "Princess of Connemara," without any fault of her 
 own, became an absolute pauper. The home of her fathers 
 had passed away to strangers, leaving nothing behind but 
 debts and the bitter recollection of what she had lately 
 been. A more painful example of family decadence will 
 not easily be found, though the roll of such events, as I 
 have already shown, is sufficiently extensive. In most 
 
72 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 cases the fall is more or less gradual, the downward course 
 speeding on with each descendant. But here, although 
 the worm of decay had for some time been at work, eating 
 and undermining what seemed from its size to be inde- 
 structible, yet its progress was almost too rapid for notice, 
 and when the building fell it seemed to fall at once, sweep- 
 ing everything before it. 
 
 In this total wreck of all her fortunes the ill-starred 
 " Princess of Connemara^^ retired to Fontaine I'Eveque in 
 Belgium, where for a short while she supported herself by 
 her pen ; but so scanty were the means thus obtained that 
 she at length resolved to abandon the continent for America, 
 hoping to find in the New World an ampler field for her 
 exertions. Some friends of the family now came forward 
 with a small subscription to enable her to carry out this 
 object. Much it could not have been, for we find her 
 embarking on the voyage in a sailing vessel, although she 
 was far advanced in pregnancy. A premature confinement 
 was the result in this den of misery, without medical 
 attendant, without a nurse, without any one of the aids so 
 indispensable at such a moment of danger and sufifering. 
 Can it be a matter of surprize to any one that she died 
 soon after she touched the shore ; or, as some will have it, 
 before she left the boat ? 
 
 With her has perished the last direct representative of 
 her race, though even now the echo of their name has not 
 passed away among the peasants. The people of Conne- 
 mara yet speak of the Martins as being the legitimate 
 lords of the soil, and never mention them but with afibc- 
 tionate regret. 
 
THE PRINCESS OF CONNEMARA. 73 
 
 It only remains to add that this unfortunate lady has 
 left behind her several works that prove her to have pos- 
 sessed more than the ordinary degree of accomplishments 
 belonging even to her elevated condition. Of these the 
 most popular are " Canvassing," which was published in 
 connection with Banim's " Mayor of Winugap," and a 
 work in three volumes called "St. Etienne." She was 
 also said to have been a good Greek and Latin scholar, 
 and must certauily have been familiar with French, since 
 she contributed to French periodicals during her residence 
 in Belgium. But, beyond all this, she was kind-hearted 
 and of a most independent character. 
 
 " Pride, bend thine eye from heav'n to thine estate ; 
 See how the mighty sink into a song ! 
 Can volume, pillar, pile, preserve the great P 
 Or must thou trust Tradition's tongue. 
 When flatt'ry sleeps with thee, and history does thee wrong ?" 
 
74 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Clje ^00m of ^Kcliiiigljam. 
 
 •' So mucli for Buckingham." 
 
 The Dukes of Buckingham afford one of the most sin- 
 gular pages in the misfortunes of great families ; the title, 
 by whatever race it was borne, uniformly ending in the 
 same disastrous result. To begin with the Staffords, the 
 earliest bearers of this ill-omened but honourable dis- 
 tinction : — 
 
 Humphrey de Stafford, the sixth Earl of that name, 
 and first Duke of Buckingham, closely allied to the royal 
 house of Lancaster, may be said to have opened that tra- 
 gedy, which deepened as it progressed towards a catas- 
 trophe with his successors. His eldest son was killed at 
 the fatal battle of St. Albans, in which the Yorkists so sig- 
 nally defeated their opponents, and he himself fell gallantly 
 fighting for the Lancastrians at the battle of Northampton, 
 in 1459. Such a death, however, was much too common in 
 those times of civil warfare, to have deserved of itself any 
 particular notice ; but it acquires a deep significance from 
 after-circumstances, as if being an omen of misfortune. 
 
 The second Duke of Buckingham, Henry de Stafford, 
 thus becoming, according to the custom of the times, a 
 ward to the reigning monarch, was naturally brought up, 
 
THE DOOM OF BUCKINGHAM. 75 
 
 SO far as education could influence him, in attachment to 
 the house of York. He was even a main instrument in 
 elevating to the throne King Richard III., who made him 
 a Knight of the Garter and Lord High Constable of Eng- 
 land. But, as every reader of Shakspeare knows, — 
 
 " High-reaching Buckingham grew circumspect. 
 The deep, revolving, witty Buckingham 
 No more shall be the neighbour to my counsels ; 
 Hath he so long held out with me untired. 
 And stops he now for breath?" 
 
 Whatever might be the cause— whether the old family 
 attachment, or the neglect of King Richard — the Duke 
 collected a force to join Richmond ; but his army being 
 defeated, he himself fled, and was finally taken, when, all 
 other services forgotten, it was — ■ 
 
 " Off with his head ! so much for Buckingham." 
 
 The Duke was decapitated in the market-place of Salis- 
 bury in 1483, and so recently as 1838, his headless ske- 
 leton was exhumed in the yard of the Blue Boar Inn in 
 that city. 
 
 The success of the Lancastrians restored the next heir 
 of this house, Edward de Staffbrd, to the family honours, 
 and he became the third Duke of Buckingham. The 
 favour this nobleman found with Henry VIL, was rather 
 increased than diminished with his despotic successor. 
 But he had the misfortune to offbnd the all-powerful 
 Wolsey — who, if Buckingham was proud, was yet prouder. 
 The first occasion of dispute between them, according to 
 the gossip of the day, was this : — It chanced on one 
 occasion, that Buckingham held a basin for the King to 
 
76 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 wash his hands, when Henry, having completed his 
 ablutions, the prelate dipped his fingers into the water. 
 Buckingham was so ofifended at this, which he considered 
 derogatory to his rank, that he flung the contents of the 
 basin into the cardinal's shoes ; and the latter being no 
 less incensed in his turn, declared aloud, that he " would 
 stick upon the Duke's skirts." To show his contempt 
 for such a menace, the Duke came to court soon after- 
 wards richly dressed, but without any skirts; and the 
 king demanded the reason of so strange a costume ; he 
 replied it was " to prevent the cardinal from sticking, as 
 he had threatened, in his skirts.^^ How the bluff mo- 
 narch received this jest we are not told, but, from subse- 
 quent events, we may only too well infer how little pala- 
 table it was to the haughty cardinal, who had long before 
 
 resolved that 
 
 *' Buckingham 
 Should lessen his big looks." 
 
 It seems that the Duke had dismissed from his employ a 
 steward named Knevet, — not, as Shakspeare has it, a sur- 
 veyor, — the man having oppressed the tenants. Wolsey 
 made use of this renegade^s agency to accuse Buckingham 
 of a design against King Henry^s life ; and, being tried 
 at Westminster, before Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, who sat 
 as Lord High Steward of England for the occasion, the 
 duke was found guilty, and beheaded upon Tower Hill. 
 When the Emperor Charles V. heard of this atrocious 
 murder, he is said to have exclaimed, " A butcher's dog 
 has killed the finest Buck in England V — the allusion being 
 to the occupation of Wolsey's father. 
 
 The title of Duke of Buckingham fell, at the same time, 
 
THE DOOM OF BUCKINGHAM. "^^ 
 
 under attainder ; but, in the reign of Edward VI. an act 
 passed, by which the then heir of the house was " taken and 
 reputed as Lord Stafford, wdth a seat and voice in parliament 
 as a baron.^' The original curse, however, of the ducal family- 
 slept only for a few generations. In Roger Stafford, born 
 at Malpas, in 1572, the old disasters of this house broke 
 out, and with him the male line of the Staffords became 
 extinct. " This unfortunate man,^^ says Banks, " in his 
 youth went by the name of Fludd, or Floyde, for what 
 reason has not yet been expressed — perhaps, with the in- 
 dignant pride that the very name of Stafford should not 
 be associated with the obscurity of such a lot. However, 
 one rioyde, a servant of Mr. George Corbett, of Cowles- 
 more, near Lee, in Shropshire, his mother^s brother, is 
 recorded in a manuscript, which was once part of the col- 
 lections of the Stafford family ; and it is not improbable 
 that this was some faithful servant, under whose roof he 
 might have been reared, or found a shelter from misfor- 
 tunes, when all his great alliances, with a cowardly and 
 detestable selfishness, might have forsaken him, and that 
 he might have preferred the generous, though humble 
 name of Floyde, to one that had brought him nothing but 
 a keener memorial of his misfortunes.^^ 
 
 At the age of sixty -five, the sun of fortune seemed for a 
 moment to shine upon him ; but it was only for a mo- 
 ment. By the early death of Henry, Lord Stafford, the 
 great grandson of his father^s eldest brother, in 1637, he 
 became the male heir of the family, and petitioned parlia- 
 ment accordingly. With his usual ill-luck, he was per- 
 suaded to refer his claim to King Charles, who decided, 
 ^' that the said Roger Stafford, having no part of the in- 
 
78 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 heritance of the said Lord Stafford, nor any other lands 
 nor means whatever, should make a resignation of all 
 claims and title to the said barony of Stafford, for his 
 majesty to dispose of as he should see fit.'^ With this 
 mandate the unfortunate Roger complied, and the king, 
 by patent, dated 7th December, 1640, created Sir William 
 Howard, and Mary Stafford, his wife. Baron and Baroness 
 Stafford. 
 
 Jane Stafford, the sister of the luckless Roger, married 
 a joiner, and had a son, a cobbler, living at Newport, in 
 Shropshire, in 1637 ! 
 
 The title of the Duke of Buckingham, which we have 
 thus seen sleeping for so many years, was once again 
 revived in the person of George Villiers, the son of Sir 
 George Villiers, Knight, of Brokesby. Although the favour- 
 ite of two monarchs, he was heartily detested by the 
 nation, and seems to have been under the usual malignant 
 star of all who had hitherto borne the same title. His 
 expedition to the island of Rhee, for the relief of the 
 Rochellers, proved a most inglorious failure, from the con- 
 sequences of which he was only saved by the ill-judged 
 favour of the sovereign. He then endeavoured to regain 
 his lost credit with the nation by a second and more 
 fortunate attempt. With this view he repaired to Ports- 
 mouth, to hasten the necessary preparations by his 
 presence. Here, while passing through a lobby after 
 breakfast, with Sir Thomas Fryer, and other persons of 
 distinction, he was stabbed to the heart with a penknife, 
 by one John Felton, a lieutenant in Sir John Ramsey's 
 regiment. He died almost instantly of the wound, being 
 then only in his thirty-sixth year. 
 
THE DOOM OF BUCKINGHAM. 79 
 
 The son of this unfortunate man, George Villiers, 2nd 
 Duke of Buckingham, was no less remarkable for the 
 absolute perfection of his form, than for the extent and 
 variety of his talents. He had a command in the royal 
 army at the battle of Worcester, and, upon the king's 
 defeat, made his escape to Holland. When, through the 
 agency of Monk, royalty was restored, he returned to 
 England, and, by his admirable versatility, mingled, no 
 doubt, with some degree of falsehood, he managed, at one 
 and the same time, to ingratiate himself with Charles and 
 the Presbyterians. But his vices would seem to have been 
 more than equal to his abilities. He formed one of the 
 unpopular administration called the Cabal, from the initials 
 of the names of those composing it; and, having first 
 seduced the wife of Francis Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, 
 he killed that nobleman in a duel. It is said that the no 
 less profligate countess was a looker-on at this bloody 
 scene, and held the Duke's horse by the bridle while he 
 killed her husband. 
 
 This singular compound of vice and talent has thus 
 been characterized by Walpole, in his "Catalogue of 
 Noble Authors :" — " When this extraordinary man, with 
 the figure and genius of Alcibiades, could equally charm 
 the Presbyterian Fairfax and the dissolute Charles ; when 
 he alike ridiculed the witty king and his solemn chan- 
 cellor j when he plotted the ruin of his country by a cabal 
 of bad ministers, or, equally unprincipled, supported its 
 cause with bad patriots ; one laments that a man of such 
 parts should be devoid of every virtue. But when Alci- 
 biades turns chemist, when he is a real bubble and a 
 
80 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 visionary miser, when ambition is but a frolic, when the 
 worst designs are for the foolishest ends, contempt extin- 
 guishes all reflections on his character/' 
 
 Such a career could hardly terminate otherwise than it 
 did. He forfeited his friends, wasted his estate, com- 
 pletely lost his reputation with the world, and died, it is 
 said, as miserably and as destitute as the meanest beggar. 
 Pope thus describes his death, which he affirms to have 
 taken place at a remote inn in Yorkshire : — 
 
 " Behold what blessings wealth to life can lend, 
 And see what comfort it affords our end ! 
 In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hung, 
 The floors of plaster, and the walls of dung, 
 On once a flock-bed, but repaired with straw. 
 With tape-tied curtains never meant to draw, 
 The George and Garter dangling from that bed 
 "Where tawdry yellow strove with dirty red. 
 Great Yilliers lies : alas ! how changed from him 
 That life of pleasure, and that soul of whim ! 
 Gallant and gay in Cliveden's proud alcove. 
 The bower of wanton Shrewsbury and love ; 
 Or just as gay, at council, in a ring 
 Of mimic statesmen, and their merry king. 
 No wit to flatter left of aU his store ! 
 No fool to laugh at, which he valued more ! 
 There, victor of his health, of fortune, friends. 
 And fame, this lord of useless thousands ends." 
 
 In the Parish Register of Kirby Moorside, the entry of 
 the Duke's death occurs in these words — I give the exact 
 spelling — " George Vilaus, Lord dooke of bookingham." 
 
 John Villiers, who assumed, on questionable right, the 
 dignities of Viscount Purbeck and Earl of Buckingham, 
 had his share of the evil destinies that seem for ever at- 
 
THE DOOM OF BUCKINGHAM. 81 
 
 tached to the name of Buckingham. He became the as- 
 sociate of gamesters, and having lived a life of debauchery 
 and squandered his fortune, he married Frances, the 
 daughter of the Rev. Mr. Moyser, and widow of George 
 Heneage, Esq., of Lincolnshire, a woman of dissolute 
 character, whose only recommendation was her large 
 jointure. By her he had two daughters, who, pursuing 
 the course of their mother, sank to the lowest state of degra- 
 dation. The last survivor, "Lady Elizabeth Villiers,'' 
 died in a disreputable purlieu, Tavistock Court, near 
 Covent Garden, 4th July, 1768. 
 
 The next possessor of the dukedom of Buckingham was 
 John Sheffield, third Earl of Mulgrave, and 1st Marquess 
 of Normandy, who attained the Ducal dignity in 1703. 
 He was both a soldier and a statesman, and affecte?d the 
 character of a poet. 
 
 His race did not escape the doom of Buckingham ; his 
 grace^s successor, Edmund, second Duke, died at Rome, 
 of a rapid consumption, before he reached his majority. 
 With him the honours and male line of the ducal house 
 of Sheffield expired. 
 
 The last family, that of Grenville, on whom the Ducal 
 coronet of Buckingham has been conferred, adds the final 
 link to the chain of this Dukedom^s disasters. 
 
 How strange, that he who bore the noble name of 
 Chandos should so soon forget the fate of Canons, where 
 the Duke of Chandos expended a fortune in raising an 
 immense structure, which his heirs dared not inhabit, and 
 which vanished from earth almost as soon as the extra- 
 vagant builder! Much more than Canons did Stowe 
 
82 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 deserve to be preserved. The whole British nation had a 
 species of property in that seat of a family pre-eminently 
 distinguished among our statesmen. The names of Pitt, 
 Buckingham, and Grenville, would of themselves call forth 
 many a sigh from us, at the fall of that Stowe, with which 
 they were connected ; but when, in addition, we remember 
 the superb library, and the chefs d'ceuvre of art, with 
 which successive generations had enriched the mansion, 
 and when we think of the change in the future position of 
 the generous and noble-hearted Marquess of Chandos, who 
 should be heir to these riches as truly as he is to the 
 blood of Plantagenet, our national regret is absorbed in 
 our personal sorrow. 
 
 May I not be allowed to express a fervent prayer, that 
 the l(Jng stream of misfortune has now run its course, and 
 that a bright future may even yet attend the fortunes of 
 this illustrious title ? 
 
THE ROYAL STUARTS. 83 
 
 " All a true Stuart's heritage of woe." 
 
 Agnes StricMand. 
 
 The royal Stuarts had no precedent in misfortune, and 
 their vicissitudes form the most touching and romantic 
 episode in the story of Sovereign Houses. Sprung ori- 
 ginally from a Norman ancestor, Alan, Lord of Oswestry 
 in Shropshire, they became, almost immediately after their 
 settlement in North Britain, completely identified with the 
 nationality of their new country, and were associated with 
 all the bright achievements and all the deep calamities 
 of Scotland. James I., sent to France by his father to save 
 him from the animosity of Albany, was unjustifiably seized 
 by Henry IV. on his passage; suffered eighteen years cap- 
 tivity in the Tower of London ; and was at last murdered 
 by his uncle, Walter, Earl of Atholl, at Perth. James II., 
 his son, fell at the early age of twenty-nine, at the siege of 
 Roxburgh Castle, being killed by the accidental discharge 
 of bis own artillery, which, in the exuberance of his joy, he 
 ordered to be fired in honour of the arrival of one of his 
 own Scottish earls with a reinforcement. James III., 
 thrown into prison by his rebellious subjects, was assas- 
 sinated by the confederated nobility, involuntarily headed by 
 his son, the Duke of Rothsay, who became in consequence 
 
 Q 2 
 
84 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 King James IV. The hereditary mischance of his race at- 
 tended the fourth James to Flodden, where he perished, de- 
 spite of all warning, with the flower of the Scottish chivalry. 
 His son, James V., broken-hearted at the rout of Solway 
 Moss, where his army surrendered in disgust, without 
 striking a blow, to a vastly inferior force, took to his bed, 
 and never rose from it again. Just before he breathed his 
 last, news came that the Queen had given birth to a daugh- 
 ter : " Farewell V exclaimed pathetically the dymg mo- 
 narch, ^'farewell to Scotland's crown ! it came with a lass 
 and it will pass with a lass. Alas ! alas !" The child — 
 thus born at the moment almost of her father^s death^ — 
 was the beautiful and ill-fated Mary Stuart, who, after 
 nineteen years of unwarranted and unmitigated captivity, 
 was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle ; and her grand- 
 son, the royal martyr, Charles I., perished in like manner 
 on the scaffold. Charleses son, James II., forfeited the 
 proudest crown in Christendom, and his son's attempt to 
 regain it brought only death and destruction to the gallant 
 and loyal men that ventured life and fortune in the cause, 
 and involved his heir, " Bonny Prince Charlie," in perils 
 almost incredible. A few lines more are all that are re- 
 quired to close the record of this unfortunate race. The 
 right line of the royal Stuarts terminated with the late 
 Cardinal York. He was the second son of the old " Pre- 
 tender," and was born at Rome, 26th March, 1725, where 
 he was baptised by the name of Henry Benedict Maria 
 Clemens. In 1745, he went to France to head an army of 
 15,000 men assembled at Dunkirk for the invasion of Eng- 
 land, but the news of Culloden's fatal contest counteracted 
 
THE ROYAL STUARTS. 85 
 
 the proposed plan. Henry Benedict returned to Rome, 
 and exchanging the sword for the priest^s stole, was made 
 a cardinal by Pope Benedict XIV. 
 
 Eventually, after the expulsion of Pius VI. by the French, 
 Cardinal York fled from his splendid residences at Rome 
 and Frascati to Venice, infirm in health, distressed in cir- 
 cumstances, and borne down by the weight of seventy-five 
 years. For a while he subsisted on the produce of some 
 silver plate, which he had rescued from the ruin of his pro- 
 perty, but soon privation and poverty pressed upou him, 
 and his situation became so deplorable, that Sir John Cox 
 Hippisley deemed it right to have it made known to the 
 King of England. George III. immediately gave orders 
 that a present of £2,000 should be remitted to the last of 
 the Stuarts, with an intimation that he might draw for a 
 similar amount in the following July, and that an annuity 
 of j84,000 would be at his service so long as his circum- 
 stances might require it. This liberality was accepted, and 
 acknowledged by the Cardinal in terms of gratitude, and 
 made a deep impression on the Papal court. The pension 
 Cardinal York continued to receive until his decease in 
 June, 1807, at the age of eighty-two. From the time he en- 
 tered into holy orders, his Eminence took no part in politics, 
 and seems to have laid aside all worldly views. The only 
 exception to this line of conduct was his having medals 
 struck at his brother's death, in 1788, bearing on the face 
 a representation of his head, with this inscription — " Hen- 
 ricus Nonus Magnse Britannise Rex ; non voluntate homi- 
 num, sed Dei gratia." 
 
 With Cardinal York expired all the descendants of King 
 
86 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 James II., and the representation of the Royal Houses of 
 Plantagenet, Tudor, and Stuart thereupon vested, by in- 
 heritance, in Charles-Emanuel IV., King of Sardinia, 
 who was eldest son of Victor-Amadeus III., the grand- 
 son of Victor-Amadeus, King of Sardinia, by Anne, his 
 wife, daughter of Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, daugh- 
 ter of King Charles I. of England. Charles Ema- 
 nuel IV. died s. p. in 1819, and was succeeded by 
 his brother, Victor-Emanuel I., King of Sardinia, whose 
 eldest daughter and coheiress, Beatrice, Duchess of Modena, 
 was mother of Francis V., Duke of Modena, present 
 Heir of the Royal House of Stuart. Mr. Townend, 
 who has written a very curious and interesting work on 
 "The Descendants of the Stuarts," remarks on the 
 curious coincidence, that in the ducal family of the little 
 State of Modena are combined the representations of 
 three of the greatest dynasties in Europe ; the Duke is 
 himself the heir of the Royal Stuarts of England; his 
 elder sister, Theresa, is married to Henri, Comte de Cham- 
 bord, de jure King of France; and his youngest sister, 
 Mary, wife of John of Spain, is mother of the infant 
 Charles, who stands in the position of heir-presumptive, in 
 the male line, to the monarchy of Spain. 
 
 Having thus summed up the vicissitudes of the royal 
 line of Stuart, I will give more at length — as the details 
 are less generally known — the history of the Houses of 
 Albany and Stratherne. 
 
 Ehe i^ouse of aibang* 
 Robert Bruce is justly revered by the grateful enthu- 
 siasm of Scotland as the founder of its national indepen- 
 
THE HOUSE OF ALBANY. 87 
 
 dence, but his grandson^ Robert II , has scarcely met with 
 due appreciation from posterity. If the former placed the 
 liberties of his country on a more solid foundation than in 
 past ages, the latter had the merit of preserving and con- 
 firming them. During the wretched reign of the degenerate 
 David, Robert the High Steward was the unflinching 
 asserter of national independence, and when at length, in 
 mature years, he ascended the throne of the country which 
 he had so long ably governed as Regent, his reign was 
 alike creditable to himself and beneficial to the people. 
 
 During the most stirring epoch of the dread struggle 
 which the heroic Bruce carried on for his crown and his 
 country, his only child, the Princess Marjory, was united 
 to the bravest and worthiest of the Scottish magnates, 
 Walter, the youthful hereditary Lord High Steward. This 
 marriage, which gave birth to the long and hapless line of 
 Stuart kings, took place in 1315 ; and the death of the 
 bride and the birth of her son occurred within the year, on 
 the 2nd of March, 1316. Tradition records a tale of an 
 accident to the Princess while hunting, which resulted in 
 a premature confinement, the lady's death, and the pre- 
 servation of the child by the Csesarean operation. The 
 bloodshot eyes of King Robert the Second have been 
 accounted for by a mishap in this violent birth. In his 
 infancy he was declared heir to the Scottish crown, and it 
 was not until some years after that his royal prospects were 
 blighted by the birth of his uncle David, the child of the 
 Bruce's second marriage. The historian Fordun describes 
 him while a youth as " comely, tall, robust, modest, liberal, 
 gay, and courteous.'^ In 1338 he was appointed Regent, 
 
88 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 and he held that high office until King David's return from 
 his French asylum in 1341. He was again placed at the 
 head of the realm when David was taken prisoner by the 
 English at the battle of Durham in 1346 ; and so he con- 
 tinued until the unworthy King's liberation from captivity 
 in 1357. During the remainder of his uncle's reign he 
 had a continual struggle to maintain his own rights and 
 the independence of his country against the King's trea- 
 sonable intrigues to place an English prince as his successor 
 on the throne of Scotland, and against the cowardly 
 promptitude with which both David and a large party of 
 the Scottish nobles desired to answer the call of Edward 
 III., by paying him homage. 
 
 At length, fortunately for Scotlaad, David II. died in 
 February, 1371, and the succession to the crown opened to 
 the Lord High Steward, then a grey-headed and experienced 
 veteran, in his fifty-fifth year. His title was acknowledged 
 in the most solemn manner at his coronation at Scone, on 
 the 26th of the following month. Thus commenced the 
 reign of the Stuarts, and it would have been well for them 
 if they had inherited the wisdom and vigour of the founder 
 of their dynasty. King Robert's first wife was Elizabeth, 
 daughter of Sir Adam Mure, Lord of Rowallan in the 
 shire of Ayr; for which marriage, as the parties were 
 distantly related, a dispensation was obtained from Pope 
 Clement VI., dated at Avignon, 22nd Nov., 1347, by 
 which it appears that they had then several children of 
 both sexes, who were thereby legitimated. This does not 
 imply that Elizabeth had been the mistress of the Lord 
 High Steward ; but that they were married irregularly, so 
 
THE HOUSE OF ALBANY. 89 
 
 that without this dispensation and legitimation their issue 
 would have forfeited their right to the crown. This came 
 afterwards to be a subject of much serious anxiety, and for 
 many generations the royal posterity of King Robert II.'s 
 first marriage were branded with the suspicion of illegiti- 
 macy. No one was bold enough actually to dispute the 
 succession of the Stuart Kings ; but the succeeding gene- 
 rations of a great family descended from the eldest son of 
 King Robert II.'s second marriage were in the habit of 
 boasting of their preferable claim to the crown. Indeed, it 
 is a curious circumstance that the absolute right of the 
 Stuarts to reign was only clearly proved exactly one hundred 
 years after their reign had ceased, and when the direct line 
 was on the verge of extinction. In 1789 the learned and 
 talented Andrew Stewart of Castlemilk and Torrance, dis- 
 covered, after a long search in the Vatican at Rome, the dis- 
 pensation of Pope Clement VI. which legalized the marriage 
 between the Lord High Steward and Elizabeth Mure. 
 King Robert was father of a very numerous family by both 
 his marriages, as well as of several illegitimate sons, who 
 were the founders of distinguished families. But it is con- 
 cerning the fortunes of his second surviving son and his 
 descendants that it is my purpose here to treat. 
 
 Robert, the third but second surviving son of the Lord 
 High Steward and Elizabeth Mure, was born in 1339, and 
 while yet a very young man, obtained the great Earldom 
 of Menteith by his marriage with its heiress, the Countess 
 Margaret. He subsequently became Earl of Fife, and in 
 1383 he was appointed Great Chamberlain of Scotland, 
 His father, Robert II., died at a good old age in 1390, 
 
90 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 and for several years previously, the Earl of Fife and Men- 
 teith exercised the office of Regent of the kingdom, which 
 his father from age, and his elder brother John, Earl of 
 Carrick, from bodily infirmity, were incapable of governing 
 with vigour. 
 
 The Earl of Carrick, on ascending the throne, i-elin- 
 quished his baptismal name of John, which the remem- 
 brance of Balliol had made unpopular with the country, 
 and ill-omened in the royal family, and assumed that of 
 Robert, as being connected with more glorious associations. 
 But the change of name could not render Robert III. fitted 
 for governing a turbulent and disturbed country. The 
 King was amiable, prudent, and sensible. His Queen, 
 Anabella, daughter of the Lord of Stobhall, of the house 
 of Drummond, was virtuous, wise, and affectionate. But 
 their domestic virtues were buried beneath a load of adverse 
 circumstances. The King was incurably lame, and unable 
 to lead his barons to war, or to join with them in the tour- 
 nament or the chase. As the second King of a new race, 
 he had the same difficulty to contend against which beset 
 the first Capetian monarchs, — a proud and haughty no- 
 bility, many of whom reckoned themselves great as the 
 King, and some a little greater. He was not allied either 
 by mother or wife to any of the puissant native magnates, 
 nor to a foreign prince ; and in a position which would 
 have required great vigour both of body and mind, he had 
 nothing to depend upon but piety, sound sense, and kind- 
 ness of heart. His marriage had been long unfruitful, as 
 his eldest son that lived, the miserable Duke of Rothsay, 
 was born, after twenty years, in 1378, and his son James, 
 
THE HOUSE OF ALBANY. 91 
 
 who afterwards reigned, not until sixteen years after, in 
 1394. He must have been fifty-two or three years old 
 when he mounted the throne, in 1390. Unsupported by 
 powerful alliances, infirm of body and mild in spirit, with 
 a son in boyhood, he was quite incapable of wielding the 
 strong sceptre of the Bruce. It is not, therefore, to be 
 wondered at, that he gladly left the supreme power of the 
 state in the vigorous hands in which his father had already 
 placed it, and was thankful to devolve his authority on 
 his brother, Robert, Earl of Fife and Menteith, whom, in 
 1398, he still further dignified with the high-sounding 
 and imposing title of Duke of Albany, i.e. of all Scotland 
 north of the Frith of Forth and Clyde. It was a fortunate 
 circumstance for Robert III. and his descendants, that the 
 Duke of Albany was his full brother, and was thus involved 
 in the same suspicion of spurious birth with himself, as 
 son of Elizabeth Mure, born before her marriage was 
 legalized. There can be little doubt, that if Albany had 
 been the eldest son of Robert II.'s second marriage, his 
 elder brother would never have reigned, or his reign would 
 have been brief. But Albany had a common interest with 
 the King in repressing the ambitious aspirations of the 
 sons of their father^ s second marriage, the Earls of Strath- 
 erne and Athol. 
 
 In his irresolution, timidity, and anxious desire to con- 
 ciliate the goodwill of all parties, the King commanded 
 the respect and allegiance of none ; and, accordingly, from 
 the moment of his accession to the crown, he surrendered 
 himself entirely to the guidance of his strong-minded and 
 able brother, who was in every way, but one, fitted to 
 
92 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 be a good master to the bold and lawless barons. He 
 was entirely wanting in justice, honour, and generosity. 
 
 The year 1402 was marked by the tragical death of 
 David, Duke of Rothsay, the King^s eldest son, at the age 
 of twenty-four ; a tale of which the romantic interest can 
 scarcely be said to have been heightened by the faithful 
 colouring of the first of Scottish writers. It is sufficient 
 here to say, that this young Prince, who had been for the 
 moment deprived of his liberty by the King, in order to 
 punish him for some youthful excesses, was, at the insti- 
 gation of Albany, delivered into his keeping, and was 
 most barbarously starved to death in the Regent^s castle 
 of Falkland, in March, 1402. No one should visit the 
 county of Fife without reading Walter Scott's masterly 
 description of the last days of this unhappy Prince, and 
 afterwards visiting Falkland palace, where he will see a 
 locality which, whether or not it is the vrai, is, at all 
 events, the vraisemblable. Two months after, a parliament 
 held at Edinburgh went through the form of investigating 
 the facts of the case. Albany, and his ally the Earl of 
 Douglas, admitted the imprisonment, but denied the 
 murder. The Prince, they said, had died a natural death. 
 However, their crime is proved by the words of the act of 
 remission which was granted them, and w^hich was given 
 them in terms quite as ample as if they had actually 
 murdered the heir of the erown. 
 
 Three years after Rothsay's murder, in 1405, the poor 
 king, anxious to save his remaining son James, Earl of 
 Carrick, then a boy in his twelfth year, from the plots of 
 his cruel uncle, confided him to the care of Henry Sin- 
 
THE HOUSE OF ALBANY. 93 
 
 clair, second Earl of Orkney, Fleming of Cumbernauld, 
 Halyburton of Dirleton, and Sinclair of Hermandston, 
 who conducted him to North Berwick, where he embarked 
 for France. But they had been only a few days at sea, 
 when their vessel was captured by an armed English ship, 
 and the Scottish Prince and his suite were conveyed to 
 London and shut up in the Tower. The old King, worn 
 out by infirmity, and broken by sorrow, did not long sur- 
 vive his child's captivity, and died in April, 1406. 
 
 On the King's death, the estates of the realm assembled 
 at Perth, and declared the Earl of Carrick to be King, as 
 James I. The Duke of Albany was chosen Regent. The 
 young King, in the meantime, continued a prisoner at the 
 English court, where he was treated with great distinction, 
 where he received a most finished education, and where, 
 above all, he was in security. During his absence, the 
 chief power of the state remained in the hands of Albany, 
 who continued to be Regent or governor of Scotland until 
 his death, which happened at Stirling, at the age of eighty, 
 in 1419. He had ruled supreme over Scotland during 
 thirty-four years, commencing with the latter years of his 
 father's reign. And so effectually had he secured the 
 favour of the nobility, or subdued them by terror, that 
 his son, a quiet, unambitious man, succeeded without 
 challenge to the power which he had so artfully and 
 wickedly wielded. By his first marriage with the Countess 
 of Menteith he had his son and successor, Duke Murdoch, 
 and several daughters married to the greatest of the Scot- 
 tish nobility. By his second marriage, with Muriella 
 Keith, daughter of the Great Marischal, he had, with 
 
94 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 two younger sons who died without issue, a son John, 
 Earl of Buchan, born 1380, appointed Constable of France 
 after the battle of Beauge in 1421. He afterwards died 
 in the bed of honour at the bloody battle of Verneuil, in 
 August, 1424 ; and he was thus spared the pain of wit- 
 nessing the utter ruin of his family, which took place in 
 the following year. Buchan married Elizabeth, daughter 
 of Archibald, fourth Earl of Douglas, Duke of Touraine, by 
 whom he had an only child, Margaret, who married George, 
 second Lord Seton, and her lineal descendant and represen- 
 tative, Archibald William, present Earl of Eglinton and 
 WiNTON, K.T., is one of the very few entitled to quarter 
 the Royal Stuart Arms. Buchan^s widow married 
 William Sinclair, third Earl of Orkney, and was ancestress* 
 of a long line of Lords Sinclair, from whom the existing 
 holder of that title is not even remotely descended. 
 
 In 1423, King James I. was restored to his kingdom, 
 through the intervention of the new regent, Duke Mur- 
 doch, whose gentleness seems to have deserved a better 
 fate than to expiate with his blood the offences of his 
 father. The country fell into great disorder as soon as the 
 vigorous arm of Duke Robert was unnerved by death. 
 Murdoch was unable to control the turbulence of his own 
 family, much less that of the haughty Scottish barons and 
 chiefs. 
 
 In illustration of the insubordination of his family, a 
 tale is told of a falcon, which was coveted by his son 
 Walter, but which the Regent loved too well to part with. 
 
 * Ehzabeth, Countess of Buchan and Orkney, was ancestress 
 to Mr. Anstruther-Thomson and the Earl of Eosslyn. 
 
THE HOUSE OF ALBANY. 95 
 
 One day the unruly youth tore the bird from his father's 
 wrist, and twisted off its head in a fit of spite. The Re- 
 gent's remark was fraught with the fate of Scotland, and 
 with that of his race : " Since I cannot govern you, I will 
 send for one who can." This is supposed to allude to the 
 negociation which restored the captive King to his country. 
 
 In the year 1391, Murdoch, son and heir of Robert, 
 Duke of Albany, the Regent, was married to Isabella, the 
 eldest daughter and heir of Duncan, Earl of Lennox, one 
 of the most noble and powerful of the native magnates of 
 Scotland, and this union was for many years eminently 
 happy and prosperous, as well as fruitful. They had four 
 sons, who, as is said by a contemporary writer (Cupar MSS. 
 of the Scotichronicon), were men of "princely stature and 
 lovely person, eloquent, wise, agreeable, and beloved." 
 Robert, the eldest, died without issue before him, in 1421. 
 Walter and Alexander were beheaded along with their 
 father, and James survived to transmit the blood of his 
 race, through many lines, to our own day. 
 
 The restored King was not slow in commencing the work 
 of vengeance on the race by whom he had been so long sup- 
 planted. The first victim was Walter, the Regent's eldest 
 surviving son, who was called Walter of the Lennox, as 
 heir to the earldom of his maternal grandfather. He was 
 carried off, before the King's coronation, and confined in 
 the rock of the Eass. Soon after, the aged grandfather, 
 Duncan, Earl of Lennox, was seized with Sir Robert Gra- 
 ham, and confined in the castle of Edinburgh. In March, 
 1425, James felt himself sufficiently secure on his throne 
 to order the arrest of the late Regent himself, along with 
 
96 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 twenty-six of the most illustrious men in Scotland, many 
 of whom, however, were immediately released, and were, 
 in fact, compelled to sit in judgment on the distinguished 
 and fore- doomed victims. When the Regent was arrested 
 the Duchess Isabella was also seized, at their castle of 
 Doune, and dragged to the fortress of Tantallon. James, 
 the youngest son, alone escaped, and being a daring youth, 
 he made one desperate eifort to succour or avenge his 
 family. With a body of armed followers he sacked Dum- 
 barton, and put to death its commander, John Stewart of 
 Dundonald, natural son of King Robert II.; but his 
 struggle was unavailing, and he fled to Ireland, where he 
 became father of many families, which have been great in 
 the history of their country. 
 
 In a parliament, where the King presided, in ^May, 
 1425, Walter Stewart of the Lennox was tried by his 
 peers, convicted, and instantly beheaded. On the next 
 day his brother, Alexander, had his head struck off; and 
 he was followed to the scaffold, a few hours later, by Duke 
 Murdoch, his father; and the Earl of Lennox also perished, 
 at the age of eighty. They were all put to death on the 
 castle hill of Stirling, from which high position the un- 
 happy ex- regent was enabled to cast a last look on his 
 rich and romantic territory of Menteith, and the hills of 
 Lennox, to which his Duchess was heir ; and he could 
 even descry the stately castle of Doune, which had been 
 his own vice-regal palace. The companion of those most 
 unhappy princes. Sir Robert Graham, was released, and 
 he lived to consummate his long-planned vengeance on 
 the King, in 1437. He it was who, when James cried for 
 
THE HOUSE OF ALBANY. 97 
 
 mercy, in his extremity, replied, ^^ Thou cruel tyrant, thou 
 never hadst any mercy on lords born of thy blood, there- 
 fore no mercy shalt thou have here V 
 
 This ruin seems to have smitten the house of Albany 
 most unexpectedly. On May, 1424, Duke Murdock, as 
 Earl of Fife, seated his royal cousin on the throne, to re- 
 ceive the unction and the crown. His son, Alexander, 
 then was made a belted knight by the king^s hands, and 
 the Duchess appeared as the greatest lady at the court ; 
 but in the commencement of the following year she had 
 to mourn the violent deaths of her husband, her father, 
 and two sons. 
 
 It is said that when the relentless monarch had wreaked 
 his vengeance on Albany and Lennox, and the young 
 men, he sent all their bloody heads to the Duchess ! to try 
 whether, in the distraction of her grief, she might not 
 reveal political secrets. But she endured the horrid spec- 
 tacle with unshaken calmness, allowing no other words to 
 pass her lips than these : " If they were guilty, the king 
 has acted wisely, and done justice V^ 
 
 The widowhood of the Duchess of Albany was long and 
 dreary, though rich and great. She inherited the vast 
 estates of her father, which were not confiscated, and his 
 earldom, which was not forfeited. She retired within her 
 princely domains to her feudal castle of Inchmurran, in 
 an island of Loch Lomond, where she bore, with puncti- 
 lious ceremony, the lofty names of Albany and Lennox, 
 and possessed all the broad and fair domains around that 
 beautiful lake. Yet, widowed and childless, she was 
 haunted by the recollection that her race was extinguished 
 
98 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 by the liand of the executioner, and that her fair and 
 handsome sons would never return at her call 
 
 " To renew the wild pomp of the chase and the hall." 
 
 The widowed Duchess outlived the destroyer of her family 
 for twenty-three years ; and if she harboured feelings of 
 revenge against him, they were amply gratified by his 
 murder, in 1437, which was attended by every circum- 
 stance of horror. 
 
 There are many charters of the Duchess of Albany, 
 which prove her to have lived at her castle in Loch Lo- 
 mond, and in possession of the power and wealth of her 
 family until the year 1460. A very interesting one, con- 
 veying lands for the pious purpose of offering prayers for 
 the souls of her murdered husband, father, and sons, and 
 dated 18 May, 1451, is attested by Murdoch, Arthur, and 
 Robert Stewart of Albany, who all seem at that time to 
 have been domesticated with her at Inchmuryne castle. 
 
 Who were these three Stewarts of Albany ? They were 
 three of the seven illegitimate children of James Stewart, 
 the Duke^s youngest son, who fled to Ireland, and who 
 there formed a connection with a lady of the house of the 
 Lord of the Isles, which produced a flourishing progeny. 
 These youths seem to have been adopted, after their 
 father^s death, by their grandmother, to bear her company 
 in the melancholy, deserted halls of her feudal castle. 
 These seven sons are all well known to history. Many of 
 them were legitimated, which, however, did not entitle 
 them to succeed to the great possessions of their family, 
 though some of them and their descendants reached the 
 
THE HOUSE or ALBANY. 99 
 
 highest rank and offices in the state, and founded great 
 families. When the Duchess Isabella died, in 1460, her 
 title of Lennox seems to have become dormant. She 
 had no legitimate descendants, and those of her two sisters 
 had each some claim to the succession. Her second 
 sister, Margaret, was wife of Sir Robert Menteith of Rus- 
 key, and her daughters carried her claims into the families 
 of Napier and Haldane. Her third sister, Elizabeth, was 
 wife of Sir John Stewart of Darnley, and her grandson, 
 John, created a Lord of Parliament, as Lord Darnley, 
 assumed the title of Earl of Lennox in 1478, and was 
 the direct paternal ancestor of James I., King of Great 
 Britain. 
 
 I will conclude with a rapid review of the varied for- 
 tunes of the seven sons of James Stewart of Albany, the 
 youngest of the fair and noble princes of the House of 
 Albany, and heir of the line of Lennox. 
 
 I. Andrew, invited from Ireland by King James IF., 
 raised to high honors, and created Lord Avandale 
 in 1459, was appointed in 1460 Lord High Chan- 
 cellor of Scotland, (which office he held for twenty- 
 two years), and had a grant for life of the landed es- 
 tates belonging to the Earldom of Lennox. He died 
 childless in 1488. 
 VI. Walter was father of Andrew Stewart, who was 
 Lord Avandale in 1501 ; and he was the father of 
 three distinguished sons ; 
 
 A. Andrew, third Lord Avandale, exchanged his 
 title for that of Ochiltree. His direct represen- 
 tative, Andrew, third Lord Ochiltree, resigned 
 
 h2 
 
TOO VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 his Scottish title, settled in Ireland, and was 
 created a peer as Lord Castlestewart in 1619. 
 His descendant is the present Earl of Castle- 
 stewart, who is the representative of the House 
 of Albany. A younger son of the second Lord 
 Ochiltree, Captain James Stewart, achieved a 
 bad notoriety under King James VI., when for 
 a few years he was all-powerful as Earl of Arran 
 and Lord High Chancellor ; but his fall was as 
 sudden as his rise had been. 
 
 B. Henry Stewart was created Lord Methven in 
 1528, and married in 1526, Princess Margaret 
 of England, widow of King James IV. He had 
 no issue by the Queen, and his issue by a second 
 wife failed. 
 
 C. James Stewart of Beath. His son, James, was 
 created Lord Doun in 1581. His grandson, 
 James Lord Doun, married the daughter and 
 heir of the Regent Earl of Moray, natural son of 
 King James V., and the descendant of this mar- 
 riage is the present Earl of Moray. 
 
 The four intermediate sons between Andrew and Walter 
 were less distinguished, and do not appear to have left 
 issue. They were Murdoch, Arthur, Robert, and 
 Alexander; and three of them seem to have been the 
 companions of their widowed grandmother. 
 
 VII. James Stewart, the youngest, was ancestor to 
 the still existing families of Stewart of Ardvohrlich, 
 and Stewart of Glenbuckey. 
 
EARLS OF STRATHERNE AND MENTEITH. lOl 
 
 Robert II., King of Scotland, married for the second 
 time, in 1355, the Lady Euphemia Ross, daughter of Hugh, 
 sixth Earl of Ross, by Lady Matilda Bruce, daughter of 
 Robert Bruce, earl of Carrick, sister of King Robert I., 
 and widow of John Randolph, Earl of Moray. This lady 
 was Robertas near relation, being the first cousin of his 
 mother ; and a dispensation was obtained for the marriage 
 from Pope Innocent VI., dated at Avignon, 2 May, 1355. 
 The issue consisted of several daughters and two sons. 
 I. David, Earl Palatine of Stratherne, of whose posterity 
 I am about to treat, and II. Walter, Earl of Athol. 
 The fate of the latter was singular and tragical. Hatred 
 against King James I. rankled deeply in the hearts of 
 some of the principal nobility, who resented his severity, 
 and especially the relentless rigour with which he had 
 destroyed the illustrious princes of the House of Albany. 
 The King's uncles, sons of the second marriage of his 
 grandfather, had escaped at that time, and the Earl of 
 Athol had been distinguished by his nephew's favour. 
 He had even been benefitted at the expense of his grand- 
 nephew, Malise, Earl of Stratherne, son of the daughter 
 
102 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 of his elder brother^ David : for under pretence that Stra- 
 therne was a male fief, the king deprived Malise of that 
 earldom in 1427, and conferred it on Walter, Earl of 
 Athol, for life. 
 
 Notwithstanding the high favour in which Athol and his 
 grandson and heir, Sir Kobert Stewart, were held by the 
 King, they were deeply concerned in the conspiracy which 
 terminated in his murder, in the monastery of the Domi- 
 nicans at Perth, on the night of the 20th of February, 
 1436. Sir Robert Stewart, who was chamberlain, availed 
 himself of the privileges of his office, in preparing for the 
 admission of the conspirators; and he and his grand- 
 father were in the king's company up to the very moment 
 when the murder took place. Sir Robert Stewart was 
 taken, and, after cruel tortures, was beheaded. The aged 
 Earl was also taken, tried, and condemned ; and although he 
 protested his own innocence, he admitted that he had know- 
 ledge of his grandson^s complicity in the conspiracy, from 
 which he had vainly attempted to dissuade him. The 
 cross on which his grandson had been tortured previous 
 to his death, was taken down, and a pillar was set up in 
 its stead, to which the earl was bound, with a paper 
 crown fastened on his head, inscribed with the title 
 " Traitor !^' His head was then struck off, and having 
 been adorned with an iron crown, was stuck on the point 
 of a spear. His extensive estates were forfeited, and 
 among them the spoils of his elder brother. The earldom 
 of Stratherne reverted to the crown, and it was annexed 
 thereto by Act of Parliament in 1455. 
 
 David, Earl Palatine of Stratherne, seems to have had 
 
EARLS OF STRATHERNE AND MENTEITH. 103 
 
 the good fortune to escape the horrors in which so many 
 of the members of his family were involved. The earl- 
 dom of Stratherne was conferred on him by his father 
 immediately after he ascended the throne, in 1371. He 
 does not appear to have filled a prominent place in the 
 world, and the time of his death is uncertain. He left a 
 daughter, Euphemia, who succeeded to his titles and pos- 
 sessions, and became Countess of Stratherne. She mar- 
 ried Sir Patrick Graham, second son of Sir Patrick 
 Graham. of Kincardine, ancestor to the Duke of Montrose, 
 and immediate elder brother of Sir Robert Graham, who, 
 with his own hands, murdered King James I. Patrick 
 became, in right of his wife. Earl of Stratherne, and he 
 was assassinated by his own brother- in-law. Sir John 
 Drummond, in 1413. They had issue two daughters : 
 I. Euphemia, wife, first of Archibald, fifth Earl of Douglas, 
 Duke of Touraine, and secondly, of James, first Lord 
 Hamilton ; II. EUzabeth, wife of Sir John Lyon of Glamis ; 
 and a son, Malise, who succeeded his mother as Earl of 
 Stratherne. 
 
 As already mentioned. King James I. considering this 
 earldom to be a desu'able acquisition for the crown, de- 
 prived Earl Malise of it in 1427, under pretence that it was 
 a male fief, and he transferred it for life to his aged uncle, 
 the Earl of Athol, with a view that it should ultimately 
 revert to himself. By way of compensation, he gave 
 Malise sundry lands, which he erected into an earldom, 
 with the title of Menteith, in 1427, and with this honour 
 he and his heirs were forced to be contented ; and it con- 
 tinued to be their portion for two centuries, until a sin- 
 
104 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 gular revolution took place in their family history, in 
 consequence of the talent and ambition of a very remark- 
 able man who held the earldom in the reign of King 
 Charles I. 
 
 Although no actual attempt was ever made to set aside 
 the royal family of Stuart on the ground of illegitimacy, 
 there was a very general impression in the country, that 
 the whole issue of the first marriage of King Robert II. 
 were not born in lawful wedlock, owing to a relationship 
 with Elizabeth Mure within the prohibited degrees, and 
 the want of a papal dispensation. Indeed, King Robert 
 III. and the Duke of Albany were said to have been born 
 previous to the marriage of their parents. In the dispen- 
 sation granted by Pope Clement VI., found by Andrew 
 Stewart in the Vatican in 1789, it is stated, that at that 
 time several children had been born; but it may be 
 doubted whether Robert and Elizabeth had ever lived in 
 a state of concubinage without marriage. It may be, that 
 they were married and had children ; but that the papal 
 court would not recognise the marriage as existing pre- 
 vious to the dispensation being granted. At all events, 
 evei;i in the unlikely case that those two princes had been 
 born out of wedlock, the subsequent marriage of their 
 parents would have rendered them legitimate. 
 
 The subject was an obscure one. It was very well known 
 that an irregularity existed ; and those who were hostile 
 to the royal family kept up, from generation to generation, 
 the assertion that they had no well-founded right to the 
 throne. The question then came to be considered, who 
 was the rightful heir to the crown, setting aside the so- 
 
EARLS OF STRATHERNE AND MENTEITH. 105 
 
 called spurious offspring of King Robert II. and Elizabeth 
 Mure ? He, of course, had the best right who was eldest 
 son of the king by his second marriage, viz. Prince David, 
 Earl of Stratheme. He, as already stated, had a daughter 
 and sole heir, Euphemia, wife of Sir Patrick Graham ; and 
 her son, Malise, Earl of Menteith, and his descendants, 
 were, according to this view, the rightful sovereigns of 
 Scotland. One might have supposed such a claim to 
 have been formidable to the reigning monarch in the 
 days of King Robert III. or James I. ; and if David of 
 Stratherne had been an able or popular man, or if so 
 talented and powerful a regent as Robert, Duke of Albany, 
 had not existed, the royalty of the earlier kings of the 
 Stuart dynasty might have been endangered. And it 
 would even seem probable that the conspiracy against 
 James I. had some such object in view ; for it was said to 
 be the intention of the conspirators to raise Sir Robert 
 Stewart, the chamberlain, Athol's grandson, to the throne, 
 and he was then the male representative of Robert II.'s 
 second marrage, David of Stratherne's heir being in the 
 female line. 
 
 But the progress of time and the uninterrupted succession 
 of many Stuart kings had turned this question of the right 
 of succession into a curious matter of genealogical specu- 
 lation, like the rival claims of Balliol and Bruce. At 
 least, I should have imagined such to have been the case ; 
 for it seems almost incredible, that, at the end of two 
 hundred years, an Earl of Menteith should have considered 
 himself to be the rightful heir of the crown of Scotland, 
 or that such fantastic and visionary claims should have 
 
106 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 given real uneasiness to the monarcli of Great Britain. 
 Yet so it was. 
 
 From Malise, the deprived Earl of Stratherne and Earl 
 of Menteith, there was a regular succession of earls from 
 father to son during seven generations. They had sent 
 forth several younger branches, such as Graham of Gart- 
 more, Graham Viscount Preston, Graham of Netherby, 
 Graham of Gartur, &c. In the year 1589, an heir was 
 born who was destined to raise the family to consi- 
 derable importance, and to sink it again into greater 
 obscurity. 
 
 This was William, son of John Graham, sixth Earl of 
 Menteith, by Mary, daughter of Sir Colin Campbell, of 
 Glenurchy. He succeeded to his family honours when he 
 was only nine years of age, in 1598. The superiority of his 
 talents attracted the notice and gained the esteem of 
 King Charles I., who, in 1628, made him Lord Justice 
 General of Scotland, and in the following year President 
 of the Privy Council. Lord Menteith very naturally 
 wished to avail himself of the royal favour in order to 
 regain for his family the high honors which his ancestor had 
 forfeited by what he regarded as an act of tyranny. As he 
 was heir male of Malise, Earl of Stratherne, he desired to 
 have that distinguished title restored to him ; and his ambi- 
 tion was stimulated by the consciousness of royal blood, for 
 he knew that he was heir-general of Prince David, Earl Pa- 
 latine of Stratherne, and representative of a branch of the 
 reigning family. He therefore, in 1630, went through 
 the legal form, which in Scotland is common to all on 
 succeeding to a father or other ancestor ; he had himself 
 
EARLS OF STRATHERNE AND MENTEITH. 107 
 
 served heir to Malise, Earl of Menteith, Patrick^ Earl of 
 Stratherne, and Prince David, Earl of Stratherne. This 
 was done by the advice and with the concurrence of one 
 of the most distinguished lawyers of the day, Sir Thomas 
 Hope, the Lord Advocate of Scotland. 
 
 King Charles, not foreseeing the consequences, and mis- 
 led by his favour for the earl, was induced to ratify this 
 service, and to admit his claim to the higher honor of 
 Stratherne, in virtue of the charter granted by King 
 Robert II. to the eldest son of his second marriage, 
 David, the ancestor of the earl, who thereupon, in 1621, 
 became Earl of Stratherne and Menteith. 
 
 At that time, the fable that Elizabeth Mure was not the 
 wife, but the concubine of King Robert II., was very 
 generally credited as an article of unenquiring popular 
 belief, though it has for the last eighty years been proved 
 on the clearest evidence, from the actual dispensation 
 found in the Vatican, that she was his wife. But, if the 
 marriage with Elizabeth Mure had been set aside, the whole 
 royal race became at once illegitimate, and consequently 
 the children of the second marriage with Euphemia Ross 
 became entitled to the crown ; and thus to William Gra- 
 ham, the direct heir of the only child of the eldest son of 
 that marriage, would, of course, have devolved the right 
 of the Scottish throne. 
 
 The earl was perfectly aware of all those circumstances, 
 and his ambition or vanity so far got the better of his 
 prudence, that it is said that in his service for the Earldom 
 of Stratherne, he solemnly renounced his right to the 
 crown, reserving the right of his blood, which he rashly 
 
108 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 and vain-gloriously asserted to be " the reddest in Scot- 
 land." 
 
 It is difficult for us now to conceive the importance 
 which at the commencement of the seventeenth century was 
 attached to such a question. Every person^ however, who 
 is versed in Scottish history knows what discordant opi- 
 nions were entertained on the subject of King Robertas 
 marriages, and with what acrimony the contest was car- 
 ried on by disputants in private, from generation to gene- 
 ration. And now this unlucky service of Lord Menteith, 
 and his imprudent expressions, and the restoration of the 
 princely earldom by the king to so ambitious a claimant, 
 brought these controversies to a point. A search in the 
 Vatican would have set everything right. But this was 
 not thought of at the time ; and there were very few who 
 did not give credit to the false tale. Even in the genea- 
 logical table of the Scottish kings, published along with 
 the acts of parliament, Euphemia Ross is expressly stated 
 to have been the first wife of Robert II. This was con- 
 fusion worse confounded ; for if Elizabeth Mure was wife 
 at all, she must have been the first. 
 
 King Charles now began to view the earVs claims with 
 considerable uneasiness. Strong remonstrances were made 
 to him by his Scottish ministers; and the learned and 
 ingenious Sir William Drummond of Hawthornden ad- 
 dressed a special memorial to him on this subject in 1632, 
 in which he said " that the restoring of the Earl of Mon- 
 teith in blood, and allowing his descent and title to the 
 Earldom of Stratherne, is thought to be disadvantageous 
 to the king's majesty," &c. &c. He then goes on to shew 
 
EARLS OF STRATHERNE AND MENTEITH. 109 
 
 the danger of a disputed succession ; he regards Graham's 
 ostentatious resignation of his claim to the crown to be 
 highly dishonouring to his majesty, and he adds, that he 
 might, notwithstanding, dispose of his right to some great 
 foreign prince, or that seditious subjects might avail them- 
 selves of it ; and he urges, that as the posterity of Eu- 
 phemia Koss had been depressed for two centuries, they 
 ought to continue under depression. 
 
 Charles, alarmed at a danger of which he had never 
 thought, and which I am apt to regard as visionary, but 
 which in those times seemed real, immediately ordered a 
 law form to be gone through, to reduce the earFs service 
 and patent ; and the court did accordingly set them aside, 
 and deprived him of his patent, not only of Earl of 
 Stratherne, but also of Earl of Menteith ; and he was thus 
 stripped of all his honours in 1633. In this proceeding 
 they acted not only unjustly but ignorantly, for they 
 assigned as the reason a manifest falsehood, viz. that 
 David, Earl of Stratherne, had died without issue. At 
 the same time, the king deprived him of his high office 
 of Lord Justice General. However, in order not entirely 
 to crush him, a new title was, in 1633, conferred on him; 
 but a title mean and hitherto unknown, that of Earl of 
 Airth. He was thereafter styled Earl of Airth and Men- 
 teith. According to Scott of Scotstarvet, a cotemporary, 
 he was confined in the isle of Menteith, where he was 
 when he wrote, in 1654. This, however, is probably an 
 exaggeration of the fact, that the earl, after this unhappy 
 shipwreck of his grandeur, spent the remainder of his days 
 in seclusion. 
 
110 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 His son, John, Lord Kinport, so far from seeking to 
 avenge his father's injuries, was a noble cavalier, and an 
 attached adherent of the great Montrose ; and he was 
 stabbed with a highland dirk in 1644, in Montrose^s camp, 
 by James Stewart of Ardvorlich. This incident has been 
 introduced by Sir Walter Scott, in his Legend of Mon- 
 trose. 
 
 Lord Kinport left a son, William, second Earl of Airth, 
 who succeeded his grandfather, and died without issue, in 
 1694, and two daughters : — 
 
 I. Mary, wife of Sir John Allardice of Allardice. ' 
 
 II. Elizabeth, wife of Sir William Graham, Bart, of 
 Gartmore. 
 
 These ladies were the coheirs of Prince David, Earl of 
 Stratherne, and, in conclusion, I may briefly state the 
 circumstances of their direct representatives, which add 
 two more examples of the extraordinary vicissitudes to 
 which even royal races are so liable. 
 
 Mary, or, as she was styled, Lady Mary Graham, the 
 eldest daughter of Lord Kinport, married, in 1662, Sir 
 John Allardice of Allardice, a gentleman of very ancient 
 family. She died in 1720. Her great grandson, James 
 Allardice of Allardice, died in 1765, leaving an only child, 
 Sarah-Anne, his sole heir, who married Robert Barclay 
 of Ury, the representative of a family which is traced back 
 to the reign of King David I. The son of this marriage, 
 Robert Barclay Allardice of Ury and Allardice, was a man 
 celebrated in the sporting world, distinguished for his 
 athletic powers, and highly esteemed in general society. 
 He claimed the earldoms of Stratherne, Menteith, and 
 
EARLS OF STRATHERNE AND MENTEITH. Ill 
 
 Airth, as heir of line of William, Earl of Airth, and of his 
 ancestor Prince David, Earl of Stratherne. His death is 
 very recent, and his ancient paternal inheritance of Ury 
 has passed into the hands of one of the memhers of the 
 firm of Baird, the successful iron-masters at Gartsherrie. 
 
 It is painful to allude to a mesalliance of one nobly and 
 even royally descended, and that too in our own day. But 
 it is a fact too well known to render it indelicate to make 
 mention of it, that the only daughter and heir of Mr. 
 Barclay-Allardice united herself in marriage with a man 
 of low degree of the name of Ritchie. However lament- 
 able this degradation of ancient blood may be, the heir of 
 this marriage has the singular advantage of possessing 
 what is believed to be a well-founded claim to one of the 
 oldest and greatest of the earldoms of Scotland, and to 
 the honor of being representative of one of the Princes of 
 the blood royal of that country. 
 
 Elizabeth, or Lady Elizabeth Graham, the second 
 daughter and coheir of John, Lord Kinport, married, in 
 1663, Sir William Graham, Baronet, of Gartmore, a cadet 
 of the house of Menteith. She had a son. Sir John Gra- 
 ham, Baronet, of Gartmore, who died in 1708 without 
 issue, and a daughter, Mary, who married James Hodge, 
 of Gladsmuir. Her only child, Mary Hodge, married, in 
 3 701, William Graham, younger brother of Robert Graham, 
 who in 1708 succeeded to Gartmore as heir male. The 
 issue of this marriage was : 1st. A son, William Graham, 
 who was junior coheir of the Earls of Airth and Menteith; 
 and who, although he had no right to do so (while the line 
 of AUardice existed), assumed the title of Earl of Men- 
 
113 VICISSITUDES or FAMILIES. 
 
 teith, and, as such, voted at various elections of Scottish 
 peers, from 1744 to 1761, when the committee of privi- 
 leges ordered him to discontinue the title. He died un- 
 married in 1783. 2nd. A daughter, Mary Graham, wife 
 of John Bogle, employed in the excise, at Glasgow, by 
 whom she had issue, a son, who lived in great poverty, 
 and is said to have died somewhere about the close of last 
 century, a houseless and homeless wanderer, subsisting on 
 charity. Such have been the strange vicissitudes of the 
 two coheirs and representatives of Prince David of Scotland, 
 Earl Palatine of Stratherne, in whose line a right to the 
 crown was, according to the popular belief of many centu- 
 ries, supposed to be vested. 
 
LINDSAY OF EDZELL. 113 
 
 f inhag of (f ^^tll. 
 
 " Bright star of the morning, that beamed on the brow 
 Of our chief of ten thousand, O where art thou now ? 
 The sword of our fathers is cankered with rust, 
 And the race of Clan Lindsay is bowed to the dust." 
 
 Earl Crawford' s Coronach. 
 
 Second only to the Royal Stuarts were the Lindsays, 
 Earls of Crawford. Their Earldom, like those of Orkney, 
 Douglas, March, &c., formed a petty principality, an " im- 
 perium in imperio." The Earls affected a royal state, held 
 their courts, had their heralds, and assumed the style of 
 Princes. The magnificence kept up in the castle of Fin- 
 haven befitted a great potentate. The Earl was waited on 
 by pages of noble birth, trained up under his eye as aspi- 
 rants for the honours of chivalry. He had his domestic 
 officers, all of them gentlemen of quality; his chamber- 
 lain, chaplains, secretary, chief marischal, and armour- 
 bearer. The property that supported this expense was 
 very considerable. The Earls of Crawford possessed more 
 than twenty great baronies and lordships, and many other 
 lands in the counties of Forfar, Perth, Kincardine, Fife,; 
 Aberdeen, Inverness, Banff, Lanark, Dumfries, Kircud- 
 bright, and Wigton. The family alliances were of a dig- 
 
 I 
 
114 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 nity suited to this high estate. Thrice did the head of 
 this great house match immediately with the royal blood. 
 
 Such was the dignity of the Earl of Crawford^ and such 
 the extent of his power and the grandeur of his alliances 
 in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. Let 
 us now contemplate the fortunes of two of the principal 
 members of this illustrious race, in the course of revolving 
 generations. 
 
 On the 9th of February, in the year 1621, died a pri- 
 soner in Edinburgh Castle, David, twelfth Earl of Craw- 
 ford. Reckless, prodigal, and desperate, he had alienated 
 the possessions of his earldom, so as to reduce the family 
 to the brink of ruin. He had no sons, and, to prevent 
 further dilapidation, the agnates of the house deter- 
 mined, in solemn council, to imprison him for life. He 
 was accordingly confined, the victim of his own folly and 
 of this family conspiracy, in the castle of Edinburgh until 
 his death. He left an only orphan child, the Lady Jean, 
 heiress of line of the Earl of Crawford. This wretched 
 girl, destitute and uncared for, was doomed to undergo 
 the deepest humiliation. She received no education, and 
 was allowed to run about little better than a tinker or 
 gipsy ; she eloped with a common crier, and at one period 
 lived entirely by mendicancy, as a sturdy beggar or 
 *' tramp.^' The case of this high-born pauper was made 
 known to King Charles II. soon after the Restoration, 
 and that monarch very kindly granted her a pension of a 
 hundred a-year — then a very considerable sum — in conside- 
 ration of her illustrious birth, so that she must have ended 
 her days in pecuniary comfort, at all events ; though it is 
 
LINDSAY OF EDZELL. 115 
 
 probable, that the miserable habits she had acquired pre- 
 cluded the possibility of the enjoyment of her amended 
 position. 
 
 In little more than a century after the death of the 
 spendthrift, imprisoned lord — in the year 1744, died at 
 the age of eighty, in the capacity of hostler in an inn at 
 Kirkwall, in the Orkney Islands, David Lindsay, late of 
 Edzell, unquestionably head of the great house of Lindsay ; 
 and Lord Lindsay, as representative of David and Ludovic, 
 Earls of Crawford. It would be tedious to explain how 
 the earldom had gone to another branch, but such is the 
 fact; and, provided the claim to the Dukedom of Mon- 
 trose brought forward by the present Earl of Crawford and 
 Balcarres were admitted, the poor hostler would be one in 
 the series of the premier dukes of Scotland. 
 
 One day, this David Lindsay, ruined and broken-hearted, 
 departed from Edzell Castle, unobserved and unattended. 
 He said farewell to no one, and turning round to take a 
 last look at the old towers, he drew a long sigh and wept. 
 He was never more seen in the place of his ancestors. 
 With the wreck of his fortune, he bought a small estate 
 on which he resided for some years ; but this, too, was 
 spent ere long, and the landless and houseless outcast 
 retired to the Orkney Islands, where he became hostler in 
 the Kirkwall inn ! 
 
 The Earldom of Crawford is now most worthily pos- 
 sessed by the true head of the great house of Lindsay, the 
 Earl of Balcarres, whose ample fortune enables him to 
 maintain the splendour of its dignity, while his worth and 
 high character add lustre to its name. His learned and 
 
 I 'Z 
 
116 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 accomplislied son, Lord Lindsay, has recorded the heroic 
 deeds and varying fortunes of his race in a work, every 
 page of which reflects his pure and chivalrous nature, 
 and which is enHvened by his charming fancy and playful 
 wit, while his historical research has made it a most valu- 
 able or rather indispensable acquisition to the library of 
 every Scottish gentleman. 
 
ST. CLAIR OP ROSLYN. 117 
 
 Bt €lm of |losIp. ' 
 
 " Seemed all on fire that chapel proud 
 Where Eoslyn's chiefs uncoflBned lie, 
 Each baron for a sable shroud 
 Sheathed in his iron panoply. 
 
 " Blazed battlement and pinnet, high 
 
 Blazed every rose- carved buttress fair : 
 So still they blaze when fate is nigh 
 The Lordly line of high St. Clair. 
 
 " There are twenty of Eoslyn's barons bold 
 Lie buried within that proud chajpelle. 
 Each one the holy vault doth hold. 
 But the sea holds lovely Eosabelle." 
 
 No family in Europe beneath the rank of royalty boasts a 
 higher antiquity, a nobler illustration, or a more romantic 
 interest than that of St. Clair. Cradled in the baronial 
 castle whose towers crown the brink of the most preci- 
 pitous and wooded glen in the Lothians, and buried under 
 the florid arches of the richly-decorated chapel which 
 crowns the adjacent bank, the Lords of Roslyn made 
 Scotland ring with the renown of their deeds, which 
 needed not to be enhanced by romance and poetry — for 
 both are outdone by the vicissitudes of their fortunes. 
 
118 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 The St. Clairs are descended from a noble Norman race, 
 and came into Scotland in the days of King Malcolm Can- 
 more. William St. Clair was the son of a great baron in 
 Normandy, whom tradition has styled " Count de St. 
 Clair '." and his mother is said to have been a daughter of 
 Richard, Duke of Normandy. He obtained a grant of 
 extensive estates in Midlothian, and was seated in the 
 castle of Roslyn, which has ever since belonged to his 
 descendants. 
 
 There were two families of the name settled in the 
 neighbouring counties of Mid Lothian and East Lothian, 
 of equal antiquity, but between whom we are unable to 
 trace any connection by blood. St. Clair of Roslyn was 
 distinguished by more splendid alliances and larger pos- 
 sessions ; but St. Clair of Hermandston can scarcely be 
 said to have come behind it in ancient nobility or in 
 martial prowess. 
 
 During the days of the great struggle for national in- 
 dependence, the Lords of Roslyn were distinguished for 
 their patriotism. In 1303, Sir Henry St. Clair was one 
 of the principal leaders of the gallant band of 8000 men, 
 who, issuing from the caves and romantic glens of Roslyn, 
 defeated three English armies successively in one day, 
 though they each mustered 10,000 strong. He, or his 
 son. Sir William, obtained from King Robert Bruce a 
 grant of all the royal lands in Pentland in 1317. It is 
 probably in relation to this acquisition that the romantic 
 story is told of the hunt of Pentland, where St. Clair is 
 said to have wagered his head that his hounds, " Help,'' 
 and " Hold,'' would kill a stag that had often baffled the 
 
ST. CLAIR OF ROSLYN. 119 
 
 king's favourite dogs, before it could cross the March 
 Burn. King Robert took him at his word, and staked 
 Pentland against his head. The stag was actually in the 
 March Burn when ''Hold" stopped it, and ''Help'' 
 turned it, and then they killed it, and saved their 
 master's life and got him an estate. 
 
 Sir William St. Clair of Roslyn was the companion-in- 
 arms of King Robert Bruce, and he had a worthy com- 
 petitor for renown in his namesake and neighbour. Sir 
 William of Hermandston, who fought so bravely at the 
 battle of Bannockburn, that King Robert bestowed upon 
 him his own sword, with which he had won that glorious 
 day. It was long possessed in the House of Hermandston, 
 and was inscribed with the French motto, " Le Roi me 
 donne St. Clair me porte." 
 
 When King Robert died. Sir William of Roslyn had 
 the honour of being one of the Scottish lords who were 
 selected to accompany Sir James, the Lord of Douglas, on 
 his romantic expedition, with his master's heart, to the 
 holy sepulchre at Jerusalem. Their crusade was attended 
 with all the circumstance of royal pomp and solemn 
 chivalry, and their gallantry alone caused them to fall 
 short of their pious and loyal purpose ; for, passing 
 through Spain on their way to Palestine, the Scottish 
 knights could not resist the ardour which impelled them 
 to join the chivalry of Spain in the battle against the 
 Moors ; and both the lords of Douglas and of Roslyn 
 perished on the bloody field of Theba, in Andalusia, in 
 1330. 
 
 The son of this crusader, who was also called Sir Wil- 
 
120 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 liam, may be said to have founded the grandeur of the 
 Sinclair family by a most illustrious alliance. He and his 
 ancestors were, it is true, among the greatest of the feudal 
 nobility ; but, in consequence of his marriage with Isa- 
 bella of Stratheme, he and his descendants became for 
 several generations little less than princely. This lady 
 was the eldest daughter and heir of Malise, seventh Earl 
 of Stratherne and Earl of Orkney and Caithness, and she 
 inherited the right to her father's great Orcadian earldom, 
 which she transmitted to her son. 
 
 The illustrious race of Scandinavian Earls, of which 
 Isabella was the heir, was founded in the ninth century, 
 by Earl Rogenwald, a great Norwegian chief, the common 
 ancestor of the Earls of Orkney and the Dukes of Nor- 
 mandy, who were descended from two brothers, Eynar 
 and Rollo, so that William the Conqueror, and his con- 
 temporary, Thorfin, Earl of Orkney, were cousins in no 
 very remote degree. The Earls of Orkney boasted the 
 intermixture of a large share of royal blood. Earl Sigurd 
 II., who was killed at the battle of Clontarf in 1014, was 
 married to one of the daughters and co-heirs of Malcolm 
 II., King of Scotland : so that the subsequents Earls of 
 Orkney and their representatives, are joint co-heirs with 
 the reigning family of the ancient Scoto-Pictish monarchs. 
 Earl Paul, who began to reign in 1064, married the 
 granddaughter of Magnus the Good, King of Norway, who 
 died in 1047. Margaret, Countess of Orkney, daughter 
 and eventual heir of Earl Haco, in 1136 married Madoch, 
 Earl of Athol, a prince of the royal race of Scotland, 
 being nephew of King Malcolm III. ; and her descendant. 
 
ST. CLAIR OF ROSLYN. 121 
 
 Earl John, in the year 1300 married a daughter of Mag- 
 nus, King of Norway, who died in 1 289. The son of this 
 marriage. Earl Magnus, whose reign commenced in 1305, 
 had the same rank and dignity conceded to him in 1308, 
 by Haco, King of Norway, that belonged to the princes of 
 the royal family. His daughter, Isabella, carried the 
 earldom of Orkney to Malise VI., Earl of Stratherne ; and 
 her son, Malise, the seventh earl, was father of another 
 heiress, Isabella, who wedded William St. Clair. 
 
 Thus the princely earldom of Orkney came to be in- 
 herited by Henry St. Clair, Lord of Roslyn, who, in 1379, 
 had his rights fully admitted by Haco VI., King of Nor- 
 way, and was invested by him with the earldom ; and his 
 dignity of earl was immediately after recognized and con- 
 firmed by his native sovereign, Robert II., King of Scot- 
 land. Tradition says that this Henry St. Clair married 
 Florentia, a lady of the royal House of Denmark. 
 
 The son and grandson of Earl Henry, successively Earls 
 of Orkney and Lords Sinclair, married ladies of royal 
 race, the granddaughters of two Scottish kings, Egidia, 
 daughter of William Douglas, Lord of Nithesdale, by 
 Princess Egidia, daughter of King Robert IL, and Eliza- 
 beth, Countess-dowager of Buchan (widow of the Con- 
 stable of France) and daughter of Archibald, fourth Earl 
 of Douglas, Duke of Touraine, by the Princess Margaret, 
 daughter of King Robert III. The St. Clairs continued 
 to be Earls of Orkney, vassals of the crown of Norway, 
 and recognized as Scottish earls by their native monarchs, 
 until 1471, when the Orkney and Shetland isles were 
 annexed to the Scottish crown, on the marriage of King 
 
122 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 James III. with Princess Margaret of Denmark. The 
 object of that monarch was to humble the pride, and to 
 diminish the overgrown power of William, third Earl of 
 Orkney, of the line of St. Clair. He accordingly com- 
 pelled him to exchange the lordship of Nithesdale for the 
 earldom of Caithness, and the earldom of Orkney for the 
 great estates of Dysart and Raven sheugh, with the castle 
 of Ravenscraig, in the county of Fife. 
 
 In the full zenith of his power, William, third Earl of 
 Orkney, united in his own person the highest offices in 
 the realm ; for he was Lord Admiral, Lord Justice General, 
 and Lord Chancellor of Scotland, and Lord Warden of 
 the three Marches. He built and endowed the beautiful 
 chapel of Roslyn, which is still admired as the architec- 
 tural gem of Scotland. He also greatly enlarged his 
 castle of Roslyn, where he resided in princely splendour, 
 and was waited on by some of the chief nobles of the land 
 as officers of his household — Lords Dirleton, Borthwick, 
 and Fleming, and the Barons of Drumlanrig, Drumelzier, 
 and Calder. The daughter of this great potentate was 
 wedded to a prince of the blood, Alexander, Duke of Al- 
 bany, son of James II. The marriage, however, was dis- 
 solved, and its sole issue, a son, was made Bishop of 
 Dunkeld, in order to cut short his succession. 
 
 There is a curious tradition connected with the chapel 
 of Roslyn in relation to the noble race of its founder. Im- 
 mediately before the death of one of the family, the beau- 
 tiful building appears to be brilliantly illuminated. This 
 superstition Sir Walter Scott conjectures to be of Scandi- 
 navian origin, and to have been imported by the Earls of 
 
ST. CLAIR OF ROSLYN. 123 
 
 the house of St. Clair from their Orcadian Principality to 
 their domains in the Lothians. The many generations of 
 barons of Roslyn are buried in the vaults beneath the 
 chapel pavement, each chief clothed in complete armour. 
 
 As the family of St. Clair had attained to its highest 
 power and eminence in the person of William, third Earl 
 of Orkney, it may also be said from him to date its 
 decline. I have already stated, that after the possession 
 of the Orkneys and Shetland Islands for nearly a century, 
 this Earl was compelled to resign them to the crown in 
 1471, having previously resigned his great lordship of 
 Nithesdale. For these he obtained the very inadequate 
 compensation of the Earldom of Caithness and the estates 
 of Dysart and Ravensheugh, with the castle of Ravens- 
 craig, in the county of Fife. The Earl died in 1480, en- 
 joying the titles of Earl of Caithness, together with the 
 inferior title of Lord Sinclair (which had also been held by 
 his father Henry, along with his earldom), and possessed 
 of very great estates, of which the principal messuages 
 were Roslyn Castle in Mid-Lothian, and Ravenscraig 
 Castle on the coast of Fife. 
 
 At the close of his life, the Earl made settlements of 
 his large possessions, which were still more destructive to 
 the prosperity of his family than the oppression at the 
 hands of the King, of which he had been the victim. By 
 splitting his estates into fragments, he speedily broke 
 down the grandeur of his race ; but it seems uncertain 
 whether this was done under royal coercion or from mere 
 parental caprice. 
 
 By his first marriage, with EHzabeth Douglas, Countess 
 
124 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 of Buchan, grand- daughter of King Robert III., he had a 
 son, William, who, while his father held his two earldoms, 
 was styled " Master of Orkney and Caithness," according 
 to Scottish usage, as heir to both, although in fact he suc- 
 ceeded to neither. His father, during his lifetime, gave 
 him the estate of Newburgh in Aberdeenshire, and no- 
 thing more at his death. By his second wife, Marjory 
 Sutherland, the Earl had a large family ; and particularly 
 two sons, between whom, in 1476, he most unjustly di- 
 vided his whole inheritance, to the exclusion of his eldest 
 sou. 
 
 To the elder of the two. Sir Oliver, he gave the ancient 
 family estate of Roslyn, and all his great possessions in the 
 Lothians and in the counties of Stirling and Fife. To his 
 younger son, named like his first-bom, "William, he con- 
 veyed the earldom of Caithness, with the King^s consent, so 
 that when his father died, he succeeded to that title with 
 the estates annexed to it. This arbitrary arrangement has 
 been a great puzzle to antiquaries. It is evident that the 
 Earl meant entirely to disinherit his eldest son ; but why 
 the second, though most splendidly endowed, was left a 
 mere Baron, not a peer, while the youngest was made an 
 Earl, is matter of curious speculation. Some have con- 
 jectured that this arose from partiality to the third son ; 
 while others have surmised that Oliver was the real fa- 
 vourite, because he obtained by far the most valuable portion 
 of the heritage, for the estates annexed to the Caithness 
 earldom were in a remote country, and comparatively poor. 
 
 William, the disinherited eldest son, became Lord Sin- 
 clair, a title which had not been surrendered to the crown, 
 
ST. CLAIR OF ROSLYN. 125 
 
 and which had been held by three previous generations 
 of the family. His life was spent in a struggle with his 
 younger brothers, and he forced Sir Oliver to disgorge all 
 the Fifeshire estates, while he was solemnly acknowledged 
 by him and the Earl of Caithness to be their chief and the 
 head of their house. He died very soonj after this family 
 arrangement was concluded, in 1488. 
 
 From these three brothers are descended the three great 
 branches of the House of Sinclair or St. Clair, for the two 
 forms of the name are indifferent, and have been used arbi- 
 trarily by different families of the name as a matter of taste. 
 
 From William, the youngest of the three, who had the 
 higher title of Earl of Caithness, is descended the long 
 line of holders of that Earldom, together with their nume- 
 rous younger branches ; and it is a very remarkable fact 
 that this title has never been long held in any one direct 
 line, but has gone four times to very remote collaterals — 
 the most distant of all having been the grandfather of 
 the present Earl. 
 
 The second son, Sir Oliver, was the ancestor of the 
 Baron of Roslyn, of whom I am about to treat. 
 
 The eldest son, William, the disinherited master of 
 Orkney and Caithness, was the acnestor of a long line of 
 Lords Sinclair, concerning whom it may not be improper to 
 say something before we proceed with the later Eoslyn line. 
 On his death in 1488, his son Henry was recognized by 
 the King and Parliament of Scotland as Lord Sinclair. He 
 was in reality the fourth Lord, although he is improperly 
 reckoned the first, because he was the first of the family 
 who held that title alone. He fell at Flodden in 1513. 
 
126 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 His daughter Agnes, Countess of Both well, was the mother 
 of the thu'd husband of Queen Mary, who, when raised to 
 ducal rank, selected the title of Orkney from regard to his 
 maternal ancestry. William, second Lord Sinclair, was the 
 leader of a romantic expedition, which he undertook in con- 
 junction with his relation, John, Earl Caithness, in 1529, 
 during the stormy minority of King James V., with a view 
 to recover the Orkney Islands as his family inheritance^ 
 He was vanquished and taken prisoner, and the Earl was 
 killed. 
 
 The Lords Sinclair kept up the dignity of their former 
 greatness by high alliances ; as their successive intermar- 
 riages were with daughters of the Earl of Bothwell, ^Earl 
 Marischal, Earl of Rothes, twice over, Lord Lindsay, and 
 Earl of ^Wemyss. John, seventh Lord Sinclair, died in 
 1676, without male issue, and with his affairs in consider- 
 able embarrassment. He was under great pecuniary obli- 
 gations to Sir John St. Clair of Hermanston, a rich and 
 ambitious man, the head of a very ancient family, but of an 
 entirely different stock, having the engrailed cross blue in- 
 stead of black, and being in no way descended from any 
 of the Lords Sinclair. A marriage was arranged between 
 this gentleman's eldest son and the seventh Lord Sinclair's 
 only daughter and heir. Both husband and wife prede- 
 ceased their respective fathers, and their son, Henry St. 
 Clair, was heir apparent both to his maternal grandfather. 
 Lord Sinclair, and his paternal. Sir John St. Clair. On 
 the death of the former, he inherited the Sinclair peerage, 
 as eighth Lord in right of his mother ; and although the 
 undoubted heir male of the family, John Sinclair of Bal- 
 
ST. CLAIR OF ROSLYN. 127 
 
 greggie, lived four-and-thirty years after, he never claimed 
 the title, because it went in the female line. 
 
 Young Lord Sinclair, then a youth of seventeen, under 
 the control of his paternal grandfather and uncles, ob- 
 tained, through their means, a new patent of his peerage 
 in 1677, from King Charles II., which totally changed 
 the ancient line of succession, cutting out the female heirs 
 of the body of the young lord, and settling the title on the 
 family of St. Clair of Hermanston. Henry, eighth Lord 
 Sinclair, died in 1723. His two sons, the Master of Sin- 
 clair and General St. Clair, a distinguished diplomatist, 
 had no issue ; and his daughters were passed over in con- 
 sequence of the new patent which was obtained in favour 
 of the family of Hermanston, and according to which the 
 present Lord Sinclair holds his peerage. He is not de- 
 scended in any way from the original family, and is as 
 complete a stranger to the old Lords Sinclair as if he was 
 of an entirely different name. According to the Scottish 
 saying, " He is not a drop^s blood to them," although he 
 holds their title by a capricious remainder in the new 
 patent. But it should be observed that when that new 
 patent of the title was obtained, the original peerage was 
 not resigned to the crown, so it is presumed still to exist, 
 although dormant. 
 
 Henry, eighth Lord, had several daughters. The 
 eldest was the ancestress of Mr. Anstruther-Thomson of 
 Charleton, who is heir general and representative of the 
 ancient Earls of Orkney and Lords Sinclair. The second 
 daughter was the ancestress of Sir James Erskine, Bart., 
 on whom the Sinclair estates of Dysart and Roslyn 
 
128 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 (which had been purchased from the last of the later barons 
 of Roslyn by the master of Sinclair) were settled by a 
 special entail ; and who moreover became second Earl of 
 Roslyn on the death of his maternal uncle, the Lord Chan- 
 cellor Wedderburne, Lord Loughborough, who had been 
 created Earl of Roslyn, with remainder to his nephew, the 
 heir of Roslyn Castle. 
 
 Thus the succession of the Sinclair family is curiously 
 apportioned. The heirship of blood and lineal represent- 
 ation of the Lords Sinclair belong to Mr. Anstruther 
 Thomson, as descendant of the eldest daughter. The 
 succession to the estates of Dysart and Roslyn has been 
 conveyed, by special destination, to the Earl of Roslyn, 
 the descendant of the younger daughter; and the title 
 of Lord Sinclair has been claimed and awarded to the 
 actual holder of that dignity, who is of a totally different 
 family, and not even remotely connected with the original 
 lords. 
 
 I must now follow the fortunes of the later Barons 
 of Roslyn of the cadet branch. 
 
 Sir Oliver inherited his father's splendid domain in 
 1480, and as Lord of Roslyn Castle and all the great 
 estates annexed to that princely manorial seat, he made a 
 great figure among the Barons of Scotland, and held a 
 prouder place than most of the lords of parliament. His 
 younger son, Oliver Sinclair, was the favourite of King 
 James V., and was called " his great minion.^' The king 
 utterly disgusted all his principal nobles by suddenly 
 raising Oliver to the command of the army for the inva- 
 sion of England in 1543, and the most lamentable disasters 
 
ST. CLAIR OP ROSLYN. 129 
 
 ensued ; for these unpatriotic men refused to fight under 
 him, and preferred the disgraceful alternative of a sur- 
 render to the enemy. The tidings of this shameful catas- 
 trophe broke the king's heart. He continued to exclaim, 
 " fled Oliver ! Is Oliver taken ? All is lost V And 
 he only lived to hear the further disappointing news, that 
 his queen had given birth to a daughter, the unfortunate 
 Mary. Oliver Sinclair was taken prisoner to London, and 
 soon released. He fell into obscurity, but his line con- 
 tinued for some generations, until its last female descend- 
 ant carried the blood of Oliver, the king's unhappy minion, 
 into the house of Dalhousie, and he is lineally represented 
 by the ex-Governor-General of India. Sir Oliver had 
 another son, who was Bishop of Ross, and a man of some 
 note. It was he who began the long feud with Lord 
 Borthwick, his neighbour, which endured during four 
 generations. Tradition says that he threw one of the 
 Borthwick family over the drawbridge of Roslyn Castle 
 after dinner ! The quarrel thus inhospitably commenced 
 was continued about some lands which Lord Borthwick 
 held of Roslyn as a vassal. 
 
 Sir Oliver was succeeded by his son Sir William, who 
 in the civil wars of Scotland espoused the party of the 
 Queen Dowager and Regent. He died in 1554, and the 
 family difficulties began in his time, and went on increasing 
 during the next two centuries, until they ended in the 
 alienation of the castle and chapel of Roslyn, all that at 
 length remained of the princely estates, to the elder line of 
 Sinclair. 
 
 Sir William's son, of his own name, was appointed 
 
 K 
 
130 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Lord Justice General of Scotland in 1559, by Prancis and 
 Mary, and in 1568 he fought gallantly for the Queen at 
 Langside, for which he was forfeited. And although his 
 estates were afterwards restored to him, they were so deeply 
 involved that he was compelled to sell one of the best of 
 them — Herbertshire, near Stirling. 
 
 A romantic adventure happened to Sir William, which 
 introduced the future Barons of Roslyn to singular allies. 
 One day, when he was riding from Edinburgh to Roslyn 
 Castle, he rescued a gipsy from the gibbet, and restored 
 him alive and well to his own people. This excited the 
 lasting gratitude of the wandering tribe, and they placed 
 themselves under the special protection of the barons of 
 Roslyn, who do not seem to have shrank from the con- 
 nection. When the whole gipsy race in Scotland acknow- 
 ledged Sir WilHam as their patron, he allowed them, at cer- 
 tain seasons, to come and nestle under his wing, and he had 
 two of the towers of Roslyn Castle allotted to them. About 
 this time, also, commenced the connection of the barons of 
 Roslyn with the renowned fraternity of free-masons, which 
 lasted as long as the race continued to exist ; a St. Clair 
 of Roslyn being always at the head of the Scottish free- 
 masonry. 
 
 During the time of his son. Sir William, who lived in 
 the end of the sixteenth century, considerable additions 
 were made to the ancient castle in buildings erected in the 
 style of that period. He had a son. Sir William, who, 
 being a Roman Catholic, was persecuted by the Presby- 
 terians, and fled to Ireland. Other motives have been 
 assigned for his precipitate departure, for, though he had a 
 
ST. CLAIR OF ROSLYN. 131 
 
 wife and numerous family, he carried off with him in his 
 flight a beautiful girl of the lower ranks. 
 
 Father Hay, who was the stepson of one of the subse- 
 quent Barons of Roslyn, thus writes. " His son (the son 
 of the former Sir William), Sir William, died during the 
 troubles, and was interred in the chapel of Roslyn, the 
 very same day that the battle of Dunbar was fought. 
 When my good father (that is, father-in-law or stepfather) 
 was buried. Sir William's corpse seemed to be entire at 
 the opening of the door of the vault ; but when they came 
 to touch the body, it fell into dust. He was lying in his 
 armour, with a red velvet cap on his head, on a flat stone. 
 Nothing was decayed except a piece of the white furring 
 that went round the cap, and answered to the hinder part 
 of the head. All his predecessors, the former barons of 
 Roslyn, were buried after the same manner, in their armour. 
 The late Roslyn, my good father (father-in-law), was the 
 first that was buried in a coffin, against the sentiments of 
 King James YIL, who was then in Scotland, and several 
 other persons well versed in antiquity, to whom my mother 
 (the widow) would not hearken, thinking it beggarly to 
 be buried in that manner. The great expense that she 
 was at in burying her husband occasioned the sumptuary 
 laws which were made in the following parliaments.'^ 
 
 The Roslyn who was buried after this royal fashion was 
 James St. Clair, a member of the Church of Rome, who 
 had lived a great deal in France, where he enjoyed con- 
 siderable distinction. His widow endeavoured to obtain 
 redress from King James II. for the great losses which 
 the family had sustained on account of their loyalty to 
 
132 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Charles I. But she had very little success, as the powerful 
 minister, the Earl of Melfort, was against her. She, how- 
 ever, obtained considerable sums from parliament for the 
 woods that had been destroyed. During the minority of 
 her son Alexander, while this lady managed the family 
 affairs, a very valuable seam of coal was discovered on the 
 estate, which had, however, no permanent effect in arresting 
 the ruin of the falling house. 
 
 About this time, in 1688, the beautiful chapel atRoslyn 
 was defaced and desecrated by the Presbyterians. The 
 fabric, however, is now in perfectly good order, consider- 
 able sums having been spent in its restoration. It is 
 not at present used for public worship, but it is the 
 never-failing object of intense admiration to all lovers 
 of beautiful architecture, and its vaults are still the last 
 resting-place of the members of some branches of the 
 family. 
 
 Alexander St. Clair and William St. Clair were the two 
 last Barons of Boslyn. Their affairs were in a very em- 
 barrassed condition. The estate had gradually dwindled 
 to nothing, and all that remained to the last lord of Roslyn 
 was the site of the splendid castle which contained the 
 halls of his fathers, and that of the elaborately adorned 
 chapel which attested their munificence. 
 
 William St. Clair, the last Roslyn, was weighed down 
 by so heavy a load of debt from the old encumbrances 
 . which pressed upon him, that while yet in the prime of 
 hfe, in 1735, he was obliged to sell the last remnant of 
 his noble inheritance. He lived nearly forty years after- 
 wards, and was a very well known member of Scottish 
 
 I 
 
ST. CLAIR OF ROSLYN. 138 
 
 society, until the year 1772, when he died without issue. 
 With him expired the whole male line of Sir Oliver St. 
 Clair, the founder of the later family of Barons of Roslyn. 
 There exist, however, collateral representatives of the 
 family in the female line. 
 
 But Roslyn Castle, although it was alienated by the last 
 Baron of the junior line, is still possessed by the family ; 
 and, in fact, it reverted, in 1735, to the eldest branch of 
 the original house, who had been so unjustly deprived of 
 it in 1476, two hundred and fifty years before. When 
 William St. Clair of Roslyn sold his ancient castle, in 
 1735, it was purchased by John Master of Sinclair and 
 the Hon. General St. Clair, sons of Henry, eighth Lord 
 Sinclair, and grandsons of the heiress of the rightful elder 
 line, which was disinherited by their common ancestor in 
 order to enrich his favourite younger son. 
 
 Roslyn was then joined to Dysart, as part and parcel of 
 the Sinclair estates, and is now the property of the Earl 
 of Roslyn, who is the lineal descendant of the Master of 
 Sinclair's younger sister, while Anstruther Thoaison of 
 Charleton is the lineal descendant of the elder. The Earl 
 of Roslyn had added some adjacent property to this moit 
 picturesque possession, and the castle and chapel are 
 preserved by him, in excellent repair, as a noble monumenr 
 of fallen greatness. 
 
134 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Sttfoart of Craigidjall. 
 
 ** Scion of chiefs and monarchs, where art thou ?" 
 
 Byeon. 
 
 While the descent of some families from greatness to 
 obscurity has been striking and sudden, others have fallen 
 by slow degrees, and by a downward progress which has 
 endured for generations. A branch of a race of illus- 
 trious Magnates flourishes for centuries in honour and 
 affluence as a baronial and knightly house ; it then sinks 
 to the condition of moderate country gentry ; it next 
 subsides into the trader and petty magistrate of a small 
 provincial town ; and at length utterly dies out in poverty 
 and obscurity. 
 
 Such is the not uncommon fate of a great family ; and 
 I am about to furnish an instance of it, which claims 
 our interest not on account of any strange vicissitudes, 
 but because it illustrates the gradual decay produced by 
 the alienation of landed property. An hereditary estate, 
 however small, associates the owner with the existing 
 lords of the soil, and connects him with his ancestry 
 in byegone times. But no sooner is this link broken 
 than he sinks to an inferior station, and all his boasted 
 ancestry is forgotten, or is, at least, regarded as an uncer- 
 tain dream. 
 
STEWART OF CRAIGIEHALL. 135 
 
 This is forcibly exemplified in the fate of a branch of 
 the illustrious line of the Steward of Scotland, which 
 came ofi* as an early cadet of the Lords of Innermeath, 
 flourished for centuries as Barons of Durisdeer and 
 Knights of Craigiehall, then sank to be inconsiderable 
 "Lairds" of Newhall, whence it dwindled into mer- 
 chants of the petty town of Queensferry, and finally died 
 out in the person of a poor country surgeon ! Hence 
 there are no remarkable vicissitudes of fortune. But, on 
 the other hand, there is the instructive lesson of gradual 
 decay, which teaches all landed proprietors that with loss 
 of land, station also is lost ; and that a baronial house 
 will probably dwindle into the most profound obscurity in 
 the course of a couple of generations, if deprived of all 
 territorial distinction. 
 
 In the course of another quarter of a century this 
 truth will be manifested in the children of the victims of 
 the Encumbered Estates' Court in Ireland. We have 
 already seen the heir of the D^Arcys of Kiltullagh tra- 
 versing as a pious but poor missionary the broad lands 
 which once owned him as a master, and the heiress of the 
 vast estates of Ballynahinch dying miserably on board 
 an American packet! The House of Durisdeer existed 
 in an age and country where the Encumbered Es- 
 tates' Court was unknown ; and therefore they have not 
 been hurried to execution like Martin of Galway, and 
 others, but have been suffered to perish by a more linger- 
 ing decay. 
 
 It is a curious fact that neither the Bruces nor Stewarts 
 can boast of a participation in the royal blood which entitled 
 
136 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES, 
 
 the holders of those noble names to a seat on the Scot- 
 tish throne. After the marriage of Robert de Bruce with 
 Isabella of Huntington, only one younger branch di- 
 verged from the parent stem, viz., Bruce of Exton, which 
 almost immediately ended in a series of heiresses, who 
 conveyed the royal blood and the inheritance to the an- 
 cient family of Harington, afterwards Lord Harington of 
 Exton. Not one of the existing families of Bruce can 
 even trace their descent from the original family before its 
 intermarriage with royalty. There is, indeed, every reason 
 to suppose that they possess a common origin with the 
 royal Braces ; but it is impossible actually to prove it, 
 further than by the complimentary expression bestowed 
 by King David Bruce on Robert Bruce, the first of Clack- 
 manan, of " Dilecto et fideli Consanguineo." 
 
 The case of the Stewarts, however, is different. Many 
 of their great lines can be distinctly traced to younger sons 
 of the successive Lord High Stewards ; and thus they can 
 prove a common origin with the royal family. But none 
 are descended in the male line from that family after it 
 became royal, except through links of illegitimacy, Hke 
 the Earls of Castlestewart and Moray, who are sprung 
 from James, son of Murdoch, Duke of Albany ; and the 
 Marquisses of Bute, who trace their descent from King 
 Robert II. 
 
 The family of Craigiehall is descended from Alex- 
 ander, the fourth Lord High Steward of Scotland, who 
 died in the year 1283. He had two sons — I. James, his 
 successor in the dignified office of Lord High Steward of 
 Scotland, and grandfather of Robert II., the first of the. 
 
STEWART OF CRAIGIEHALL. 137 
 
 race of Stewart who ascended the Scottish throne; and 
 II. Sir John Stewart of Bonkyl. The latter acquired his 
 estate by marriage with Margaret^ daughter and heir of 
 Sir Alexander Bonkyl of Bonkyl ; and on account of this 
 alliance all the families of Stewart who are descended from 
 him bear the buckles of Bonkyl, in addition to the paternal 
 coat of Stewart. 
 
 Sir John of Bonkyl was a noble patriot, a brother-in- 
 arms of the illustrious Wallace, and perished gloriously 
 at the battle of Falkirk, in defence of the liberties of his 
 country, against the English, in 1298. No Scotsman 
 should ever forget the title to honour and respect which 
 the family of Stewart acquired before they began to reign, 
 by their undeviating and zealous defence of the inde- 
 pendence of their native land against the aggressions of 
 the English. Whenever the banner of liberty was un- 
 furled, it was sure to be bravely defended by the Lord 
 High Steward and all the nobles of his race. And cer- 
 tainly there never was a more devoted patriot than Alex- 
 ander, the Steward's son. Sir John of Bonkyl. 
 
 This noble knight is the patriarch from whom many 
 distinguished branches of Stewart derive their descent. 
 His eldest son, Alexander, was father of John Stewart, 
 Earl of Angus. His second son, Alan, was ancestor of the 
 Earls and Dukes of Lennox and of the later Stewart kings 
 who ascended the throne of Great Britain. His fourth 
 son was the ancestor of the Lords of Lorn and Inner- 
 meath, the Earls of Athol, Buchan, and Traquair, and also 
 of the baronial family whose gradual fall I am about to 
 notice. 
 
138 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Sir James Stewart, the fourth son of Sir John of 
 Bonkyl, fell at the battle of Halidon Hill, in 1333. His 
 son, Sir Robert Stewart of Innermeath, had two sons. 
 I. Sir John, who became Lord of Lorn, and was ancestor 
 to a long line of Earls of Athol. IL Robert, who had 
 a charter of the lands of Durisdeer in 1388, and who fell 
 at the battle of Shrewsbury in 1409. Robert Stewart of 
 Durisdeer had a daughter, Isabella Stewart, who married 
 Robert Bruce, the first of Clackmanan, ancestor of the 
 Earls of Ailesbury and Elgin, and a son who succeeded 
 him as Baron of Durisdeer. 
 
 I will not give a long list of the inheritors of his blood 
 and honors. Suffice it to say, that the descendants of 
 Robert Stewart of Durisdeer held baronial and knightly 
 rank for many generations, and were seated at Rossythe 
 Castle on the coast of Fife, and the shores of the Firth of 
 Forth. It is stated that the mother of Oliver Cromwell, the 
 Lord Protector, was the daughter of a younger branch of 
 this family which had settled in the town of Ely. 
 
 The representative of Stewart of Durisdeer and Ros- 
 sythe became possessed of the great estate of Craigie Hall, 
 in the county of Linlithgow, by marriage with the heiress 
 of the ancient family of Craig, of Craigie Hall, and his 
 descendant Sir John Stewart, of Craigie Hall, bore for his 
 arms quarterly 1 and 4, or a fess cheque azure and argent, 
 in chief three buckles azure for Stewart of Bonkyl ; 2 and 
 3, ermine on a fess sable three crescents argent for Craig 
 of Craigie Hall. 
 
 After several generations of Knights of Craigie Hall, 
 this fine estate was sold in the seventeenth century to an 
 
STEWART OF CRAIGIEHALL. 139 
 
 opulent merchant in Edinburgh, named John Fairholm. 
 This person purchased the estate of Craigie Hall from Sir 
 John Stewart in 1643. His son, John Fairholm of 
 Craigie Hall, had an only daughter and heiress Sophia, 
 born in 1668, and married in 1682 to William Johnstone, 
 first Marquess of Annandale. She was the Marquess's 
 first wife, and the only surviving issue of this marriage 
 was Lady Henrietta Johnstone, married in 1699 to Charles 
 Hope, created Earl of Hopetoun in 1703. Her second 
 son, Charles, inherited her estate, and was the great grand- 
 father of the present Mr. Hope-Vere of Craigie Hall. 
 
 When Sir John Stewart sold his principal estate, he 
 still preserved a small adjoining property called Newhall, 
 which was inherited by his grandson, Alexander Stewart. 
 This gentleman married a lady of distinguished birth, a 
 daughter of Sir David Carmichael of Balmedie. But mis- 
 fortune continued to pursue his family. In the next 
 generation Newhall also was sold, and came into the pos- 
 session of a near relative, Dun das of Duddingston, and has 
 finally been acquired by the Earl of Roseberry, and now 
 forms a portion of his beautiful domain of Dalmeney Park. 
 
 Stewart of Newhall then retired to the neighbouring 
 petty borough of Queensferry, where his family engaged 
 in commerce, and for a generation or two held the position 
 of principal merchants in that very obscure country town. 
 The last heir of the family, Archibald Stewart, went out 
 to the East Indies, with a view to seek his fortune. But 
 his health failed, and he returned to his native town, where 
 he established himself as a surgeon, and for many years 
 gained a hard livelihood as a country practitioner, riding 
 
140 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 over the broad and fair lands which had owned his an- 
 cestors as lords, and gathering a few shillings per visit 
 from the descendants of the vassals of his fathers. He 
 died somewhere about the year 1830, leaving an unmar- 
 ried sister, the last of his ancient and noble race. 
 
 It may be mentioned that Archibald Stewart, the sur- 
 geon of Queensferry, and direct heir of the wealthy and 
 high-born knights of Craigie Hall, possessed the distin- 
 guished illustration of being coheir to the princely house 
 of De Ergadia, Lord of Lorn, and the still greater honour 
 of being one of the coheirs of the line of the royal Bruce. 
 King Robert I. was twice married. By his first wife, the 
 daughter of the Earl of Marr, he had one daughter, Mar- 
 jory, the wife of Walter, the High Steward of Scotland, 
 and ancestress of the long line of Stewart Kings. By his 
 second wife, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Richard de 
 Burgo, Earl of Ulster, he had issue, his son and unworthy 
 successor. King David IT. ; Margaret, wife of William, 4th 
 Earl of Sutherland, and ancestress of the Earls of^Suther- 
 land; and Matilda, the wife of Thomas de Izac. The 
 daughter of this marriage, Joanna de Izac, who was coheir 
 of the royal blood of the [Bruce, along with her cousins, 
 Robert II., King of Scotland, and William, 5th Earl of 
 Sutherland, married John de Ergadia, Lord of Lorn, the 
 descendant and representative of a branch of the Kings of 
 the Isles. The Lords of Lorn had sided with the Baliols, 
 and were the firm adherents of the English interest ; and 
 John, Lord of Lorn, was imprisoned and forfeited by King 
 Robert Bruce. His son John was restored in 1346, and 
 became the husband of that monarch's granddaughter,. 
 
[§TEWART OP CRAIGIEHALL. 141 
 
 Johanna de Izac. The issue of this marriage was two 
 daughters. 1. Isabel de Ergadia, who carried the lord- 
 ship of Lorn to her husband, John Stewart of Innermeath, 
 and was ancestress to the long line of Stewarts, Lords of 
 Lorn and Innermeath, and Earls of Athol. 3. Janet De 
 Ergadia, who married Robert Stewart of Durisdeer, the 
 brother of her sister's husband. She was ancestress of 
 the Stewarts of Rossythe in Fifeshire, and of the Stewarts 
 of Craigie Hall in Linlithgowshire ; and one of her last 
 descendants, coheir of the ancient Lords of Lorn and 
 Princes of the Isles, as well as of the Kings of Scotland, 
 was Archibald Stewart, surgeon in Queensferry. 
 
 This is not a fitting place for the discussion of questions 
 of disputed genealogy. It may nevertheless be mentioned 
 that there is, to say the least, a high probability that the 
 heir male of Stewart of Craigie Hall, if such there be, is 
 also heir male of the great house of the Lord High 
 Stewards of Scotland ; in short, is " the Stewart." 
 
143 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 " *Twere long to tell, and sad to trace. 
 Each step from splendour to disgrace." — Bteon. 
 
 The story of the Gargraves is a melancholy chapter in the 
 romance of real life. For full two centuries or more, 
 scarcely a family in Yorkshire enjoyed a higher position. 
 Its chiefs earned distinction in peace and war ; one died 
 in France, Master of the Ordnance to King Henry V. ; 
 another, a soldier too, fell with Salisbury at the siege of 
 Orleans ; and a third filled the Speaker^s chair of the 
 House of Commons. What an awful contrast to this fair 
 picture does the sequel offer. Thomas Gargrave, the 
 Speaker^s eldest son, was hung at York for murder ; and 
 his half-brother, Sir Richard, endured a fate only less 
 miserable. The splendid estate he inherited he wasted by 
 the most wanton extravagance, and at length reduced him- 
 self to abject want. " His excesses,^^ says Mr. Hunter, in 
 his History of Doncaster, " are still, at the expiration of 
 two centuries, the subject of village tradition, and his 
 attachment to gaming is commemorated in an old paint- 
 ing, long preserved in the neighbouring mansion of Bads- 
 worth, in which he is represented playing at the old game 
 of put, the right hand against the left, for the stake of a 
 cup of ale.^' 
 
 The close of Sir Richard's story is as lamentable as its 
 
GARGRAVE AND RERESBY. 143 
 
 course. An utter bankrupt in means and reputation, he 
 is stated to have been reduced to travel with the pack- 
 horses to London, and was at last found dead in an old 
 hostelry ! He had married Catherine, sister of Lord Dan- 
 vers, and by her he left three daughters. Of the descend- 
 ants of his brothers, few particulars can be ascertained. 
 Not many years since, a Mr. Gargrave, believed to be one 
 of them, filled the mean employment of parish clerk at 
 Kippax. 
 
 A similar melancholy narrative applies to another great 
 Yorkshire house. Sir William Reresby, Bart., son and 
 heir of the celebrated author, succeeded, at the death of 
 his father, in 1689, to the beautiful estate of Thrybergh, 
 in Yorkshire, where his ancestors had been seated unin- 
 terruptedly from the time of the Conquest, and he lived 
 to see himself denuded of every acre of his broad lands. 
 Le Neve states in his MSS., preserved in the Heralds' 
 College, that he became a tapster in the King's Bench 
 prison, and was tried and imprisoned for cheating in 1711. 
 He was alive in 1727, when Wotton's account of the Baro« 
 nets was published. In that work he is said to be re- 
 duced to a wretched condition. At length he died in great 
 obscurity, a melancholy instance how low pursuits and 
 base pleasures may sully the noblest name, and waste an 
 estate gathered with labour and preserved by the care of 
 a race of distinguished progenitors. Gaming was amongst 
 Sir William's follies — particularly that worst specimen of 
 the folly, the fights of game-cocks. The tradition of Thry- 
 bergh is (for his name is not quite forgotten) that the fine 
 estate of Bennaby was staked and lost on a single main. 
 
144 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES, 
 
 % M\xan)i 'famuli. 
 
 " Thy place is filled, thy sceptre wrung from thee." 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 On a marble monument, in the church of St. Anne's, 
 Soho, there is a slab placed to the memory of the King of 
 Corsica, with this inscription by Horace Walpole : — 
 
 " Near this place is interred 
 
 Theodore, King of Corsica, 
 Who died in this parish, Dec. 11, 1756, 
 
 Immediately after leaving 
 
 The King's Bench Prison 
 By the benefit of the Act of Insolvency. 
 
 In consequence of which, 
 He registered his Kingdom of Corsica 
 
 For the use of his Creditors." 
 
 ** The grave, great teacher, to a level brings. 
 Heroes and beggars, galley-slaves and kings ; 
 But Theodore this moral learned, ere dead, 
 Fate poured its lessons on his living head, 
 Bestow'd a kingdom and denied him bread." 
 
 The King of Corsica was by birth a Prussian, and by 
 name Theodore Anthony NeuhoflP. Early in the spring 
 of 1736, an unknown adventurer, he was landed in Cor- 
 sica, from an English vessel, with a considerable supply 
 of arms and money, and he placed himself immediately 
 at the head of the islanders, then in revolt against the 
 Genoese. A successful campaign ensued, and on the 15th 
 
A DETHRONED MONARCH. 145 
 
 of the April following, Theodore was crowned King of 
 Corsica, with the consent, and amid the acclamations, of 
 the whole people. He held his court at Bastea, and dis- 
 tributed honours and rewards amongst his followers. The 
 calm endured, however, but for a short period : the Ge- 
 noese gaining ground again, it became necessary to seek 
 for foreign supplies and foreign aid, and Theodore under- 
 took at once the mission. Laying aside his kingly charac- 
 ter, he assumed the habit of an Abbe, and proceeded to 
 Livonia; but what success attended his efforts, we are 
 unable to state; for, during several months after his arri- 
 val in that country, no one knew what had become of him. 
 The next year he appeared at Paris, but, being instantly 
 ordered out of France, he journeyed to Amsterdam, and 
 was there enabled, by the assistance of some merchants, 
 to equip a frigate of thirty-two guns and one hundred and 
 fifty men. But an evil destiny seems to have thwarted all 
 his plans. Arrested by the Neapolitan government, he 
 was detained a prisoner in the fortress of Cueta; and 
 though eventually liberated, he does not seem ever to 
 have made way afterwards. His exertions to assist his 
 island subjects were unremitting : but disappointment and 
 ruin were the only results. At last, broken down by fate, 
 he retired to England — then, as now, the refuge of fallen 
 politicians — but here, too, suffering and misery awaited 
 him. Day by day his situation became more deplorable, 
 and the closing years of his unhappy life were passed in 
 the King's Bench prison, from which a general Act of 
 Insolvency only released him to die. 
 
 "This prince,^' (I quote from Horace Walpole) '^ after 
 
 L 
 
146 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 having bravely exposed his life and crown in defence of 
 the rights of his subjects, miscarried, as Cato and other 
 patriot-heroes had done before him. For many years he 
 struggled with fortune, and left no means untried, which 
 indefatigable policy or solicitation of succours could attempt, 
 to recover his crown. At last, when he had discharged 
 his duty to his subjects and himself, he chose this country 
 for his retirement : not to indulge a voluptuous, inglorious 
 ease, but to enjoy the participation of those blessings which 
 he had so vainly endeavoured to fix on the Corsicans. 
 Here, for some months, he bore with more philosophic 
 dignity the loss of his crown, than Charles V., Casimir of 
 Poland, or any of those philosophic visionaries who wan- 
 tonly resigned them in order to partake the sluggish in- 
 dolence and at length the disquiets of a cloister.^' 
 
 After comparing Theodore with James II., and giving 
 him the preference, Walpole adds, " The veracity of an 
 historian obliges me not to disguise the bad situation of 
 his Corsican Majesty's revenue, which has reduced him to 
 be a prisoner for debt in the King's Bench prison : and 
 so cruelly has fortune exercised her rigours upon him, that 
 last session of Parliament he was examined before a com- 
 mittee of the House of Commons on the hardships to 
 which the prisoners in that gaol had been^ subject. Yet 
 let not ill-nature make sport with these misfortunes ! His 
 Majesty had nothing td blush at, nothing to palliate in 
 the recapitulation of his distresses. The debts on his civil 
 list were owing to no misapplication, no improvidence of 
 his own, no corruption of his ministers, no indulgence to 
 favourites or mistresses. His Hfe was philosophic, his diet 
 
A DETHRONED MONARCH. 147 
 
 humble, his robes decent ; yet his butcher, his landlady, 
 and his tailor, could not continue to supply an establish- 
 ment which had no demesnes to support it, no taxes to 
 maintain it, no excises, no lotteries, to provide funds for 
 its deficiencies and emergencies." 
 
 Another quotation — one from a modern writer,* whose 
 wit and fancy give a charm to all he writes — will appro- 
 priately end this strange eventful history : — 
 
 " Nearly forty years," says Dr. Doran, " after King 
 Theodore was consigned to the grave in St. Anne's, an 
 old man, one night in "February 1796, walked from a 
 coffee-house at Storey's Gate to Westminster Abbey. Under 
 one of the porches there he put a pistol to his head, pulled 
 the trigger, and fell dead. The old man was the son of 
 Theodore, Colonel Frederick. The latter had been for 
 many years familiar to the inhabitants of London, and re- 
 markable for his gentlemanlike bearing and his striking 
 eccentricities. He had fulfilled many employments, and 
 had witnessed many strange incidents. Not the least 
 strange, perhaps, was his once dining at Dolly's, with 
 Count Poniatowski, when neither the son of the late King 
 of Corsica, nor he who was the future King of Poland, 
 had enough between them to discharge their reckoning. 
 Distress drove him to suicide, and his remains rest by the 
 side of those of his father. He left a daughter, who was 
 married to a Mr. Clark, of the Dartmouth Custom House. 
 A daughter, one of the four children of this marriage, 
 was established in London at the beginning of this century, 
 
 * Dr. Doran, " Monarchs retired from Business." 
 
 L 2 
 
148 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 where she earned a modest livelihood as an authoress and 
 an artist. Her card ran thus : — 
 
 MISS CLARK, 
 
 Granddaughter of the late Colonel Frederick, son of 
 Theodore, King of Corsica, 
 
 PAINTS LIKENESSES IN MINIATURE, 
 
 From two to three Guineas. 
 
 No. 116, New Bond Street. 
 
 Hours of Attendance from twelve in the morning 
 
 until four.^^ 
 
149 
 
 ** Gens antiqua fuit multos dominata per annos." 
 " O'Neill of the Hostages, Conn, whose high name 
 On a hundred red battles has floated to fame ; 
 Let the long grass still sigh undisturbed o'er thy sleep. 
 Arise not to shame us, awake not to weep !" 
 
 Lament of 0' Gnive, bard of O'Neill, of Clanahoy, 
 in the Sixteenth Century* 
 
 What visions of the past of Ireland in the olden times, 
 long, long ago, are recalled to memory by the royal name 
 of O'Neill ! How often have the aged bards and Sean- 
 achies sat in the banquet hall, and by the funeral bier, 
 and recounted in song and story the deeds of the heroes 
 of the Lamh derg Eirin ! Penetrating into the mists of 
 time, far beyond the period generally assigned for the 
 commencement of authentic history, they point out with 
 exultation, in the dim vista, the prince schoolmaster, 
 NiUL, of Scythia, fountain of the race. And a right 
 noble origin it was — that trained student from the public 
 schools of his royal father. King Phenius, at Magh- 
 Senair; more illustrious by far than that of modern 
 princes and nobles who proudly claim descent from some 
 fierce warrior, who, after all, was but the herald of devas- 
 
150 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 tation and misery, not, as Niul, the harbinger of peace 
 and civiHzation. 
 
 With affectionate care and minuteness, these same old 
 chroniclers trace the voyages of the sons of Niul, by his 
 wife the Egyptian Princess, Scota, from the time they 
 leave Egypt until they reach Spain, in search of their 
 " land of promise,^^ the western isle ; and these old 
 bards paint, with all the glow and fresh warm tints of an 
 eastern imagination, the mighty deeds and renown of the 
 royal warrior, Milesius, King in Spain, and second great 
 chief of the race of Niul. And from Heremon his son, 
 first monarch of Ireland, they unroll a long line of illus- 
 trious Kings and Princes, warriors, legislators, and men 
 of learning. 
 
 NiALL the Great, Noigallach^ or of the "nine hos~ 
 tages,^' grandson of Mortough, is, however, the special 
 object of the praise of the bards and seanachies, next to 
 Conn of "the hundred battles." They point out, with 
 pride and exultation, the glories of their beloved land of 
 the Gael, under his rule, of his renown in war both at 
 home and abroad, and of his triumphant train, graced by 
 nine Princes of royal blood, as hostages from different 
 states and kingdoms that he had conquered. 
 
 With the death of NiaPs descendant, Malachy, who 
 succeeded Mortough, " the great O'Neill," in 987, com- 
 mences the decadence of the ancient dynasty — the royal 
 and once powerful House of O'Neill, — and with it the fall 
 of Ireland as a distinct and independent nation. At his 
 death contending Princes of other races — the O'Briens 
 and O'Connors — following the example so fatally set by 
 
THE o'nETLLS. 151 
 
 the ambitious views of Brian Boru, contested for tlie so- 
 vereignty, and weakened tbe national resources and power. 
 Eventually their pretensions were crushed by Murtough 
 Mac Neill, a South Hy-Niall Prince, who closed his 
 reign and his life in the year 1168, one year only pre- 
 ceding the Anglo-Norman invasion. He was the last 
 monarch of the race of Niall the Great, whose posterity 
 had thus exclusively occupied the throne of Ireland for 
 upwards of six hundred years. 
 
 His heroic efforts, crowned ultimately with success, to 
 redeem the falling fortunes of his house, and to restore the 
 sceptre which had slipped from it, are deserving of all 
 praise. His brief presidency in the Hall of Tara was but 
 the flickering of that regal lamp, which had shone in 
 Ireland full two thousand years as a beacon and light to 
 the Gael, and which was extinguished at his death ; for 
 his successor, Roderick O'Connor, who assumed the crown, 
 and resigned it to the English, was but partially acknow- 
 ledged by the nation. 
 
 Any further notice of this ancient sept would be but 
 to trace, step by step, its decadence and its fall — marking, 
 from era to era, the heroic efforts of its successive chiefs, ill 
 supported and frequently opposed by their countrymen, in 
 unavailing struggles with the English, to avert its inevit- 
 able destiny. First, they were Monarehs in Ireland, then 
 Princes, next Chiefs, now nobles of English creation, again 
 Anghcised ^'squires,'' and finally, confiscated, crushed, 
 and scattered, they became wanderers in, or exiles from 
 the land of their inheritance. In that land, those who 
 remained, except a few — and those few^unimportant, save 
 
152 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 one — became literally "hewers of wood and drawers of 
 water," where their great fathers reigned. Such is the 
 destiny and decadence of the royal house of O'Neill ! 
 
 In the twelfth century the family tree became divided 
 into two chief stems, which threw out minor branches. 
 The two leading lines are popularly known as the 
 O^Neills of Clanaboy, descendants of Hugh Duff 
 O'Neill, King of Ulster, and the O'Neills of Tyrone, 
 descendants of his younger brother. Prince Neill Roe 
 O'Neill. Of the latter house w^ere Con Baceagh O'Neill, 
 first Earl of Tyrone, who cursed those of his kinsmen 
 who would build stone houses and live in the English 
 fashion, and Shane a Diomus O'Neill, " John the proud," 
 who waged war against Elizabeth, and, when he visited the 
 Queen at her Court to arrange the terms of peace, aston- 
 ished the good citizens of London, in his march through 
 their streets at the head of his unshaven Galloglasses, or 
 battle-axe guards, with long flowing hair, and saffron-dyed 
 mantles. To this line belonged Hugh, Earl of Tyrone, 
 the accomplished statesman and general, who also for 
 many years was at war with the English Queen, and at 
 Bealanaboy and other places foiled her best generals and 
 worsted her choicest troops : submitting to James the First, 
 and fearing arrest, he fled to Spain in 1607, and died at 
 Rome, aged and blind. Of this same branch were Sir 
 Phelim Roe O'Neill, whose reputed character for cruelties 
 perpetrated in the '^ great rebellion" of 1611, was partially 
 redeemed by his stern refusal on the scaffold in 1652, to 
 save his life and preserve his estates by bearing false tes- 
 timony against the ill-fated Charles the First; General 
 
153 
 
 Owen Roe O'Neill, the gallant defender of Arras for 
 the Spaniards, and victor of Benburb, where General 
 Monroe and the flower of the English army were defeated, 
 and Major-General Hugh Duff O'Neill, his nephew, who 
 baffled Cromwell at Clonmel, and worsted Ireton at 
 Limerick. But of the race of those illustrious men, 
 patriots or rebels as they may be, who sustained by their 
 brilliant deeds of arms the reputation of their house, I have 
 now no concern ; it is to a branch of the O'Neills of Clana- 
 boy, the elder line, that the subject of my sketch relates. 
 Hugh boy O'Neill, " yellow Hugh," grandson of 
 Hugh Duff, was King of Ulster in the thirteenth century, 
 and recovered from the English their extensive territories 
 in the counties of Antrim and Down, called after him 
 " Clanaboy," which his descendants held until the reign 
 of James the First ; they had their chief seats at Edinduff- 
 carrick, now Shane's castle, in the county of Antrim, and 
 Castlereagh in the county of Down. Bryan Balaf O'Neill, 
 fourth in descent from Hugh boy, was so powerful as to 
 impose a tribute upon the English of the adjoining dis- 
 tricts called "Bryan Balaf's eiric," which continued to 
 be paid or exacted until put down by proclamation in the 
 reign of Elizabeth. Sir Henry O'Neill, the descendant of 
 his eldest son. Con, conformed, and saved out of the com- 
 mon wreck of the lands of the O'Neills during the confis- 
 cations of James the First, the present noble estates of 
 Shane's castle, thirty thousand acres, which are in posses- 
 sion of the heir general, the E-everend William O'Neill, 
 while the heir male, Charles Henry O'Neill, Esq., barris- 
 ter-at-law, who claims the honourable distinction of " The 
 
154 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 O'Neill of Clanaboy/' rents from the heir-general sixty 
 acres of the lands of his ancestors ! 
 
 The second son of Bryan Balaf, namely, Henry Caoch 
 O'Neill, possessed that territory — part of Clanaboy — called 
 after him, '^Slucht Henry Caoch." Bryan O'Neill was 
 the seventh in descent from Henry Caoch. The confisca- 
 tions of James the First, and the " settlement of Ulster,'' by 
 the introduction of " English and Scotch Protestants," had 
 swept away his inheritance, and, like many of his kinsmen 
 and others of proscribed houses in Ulster and other parts 
 of Ireland, he became a soldier of fortune on the continent. 
 He served for some time in Holland under the Prince of 
 Orange ; and on the rupture between Charles the First and 
 his Parliament he tendered his services to the King, by 
 whom they were gladly accepted. He was present under 
 Lord Conway at the '^rout of Newburn," where "the 
 Scots," says the old chronicler Hooper, "having crossed 
 the river, put the royal forces to the most shameful and con- 
 founding flight that was ever heard of, our foot making no 
 less haste from Newcastle than our horse from Newburn 
 — the Lord Conway never afterwards turning his face 
 towards the enemy;" but he adds, "there were in 
 that infamous rout at Newburn two or three officers of 
 quality taken prisoners, who, endeavouring to charge the 
 enemy with the courage they ought to do, being deserted 
 by their troops, could not avoid falling into the Scots' 
 hands, namely, Wilmot, who was commissary-general, and 
 O'Neill, who was a Major of a regiment, both officers of 
 name and reputation, and of good esteem in the court with 
 all those who were incensed against the Earl of Strafford, 
 
155 
 
 towards whom they were both undevoted/' Major Bryan 
 O^Neill and Wilmot had, however, fallen into the hands of 
 old friends ; for, as Hooper adds, "those gentlemen were well 
 known to several of the principal commanders in the Scots' 
 army who had served together with them in Holland, under 
 the Prince of Orange, and were treated with good civility 
 in their camp." Afterwards, at the treaty of Rippon, they 
 were released, as thus quaintly told by Hooper: — "When 
 they (the Scots) came to Rippon they brought them Wilmot 
 and O^Neill with them, and presented them to the King 
 by his commissioners, to whom they were very acceptable." 
 After the King had raised at Nottingham, on the 25th of 
 August, 1643, the royal standard, which was "blown down 
 the same night it had been set up by a very strong and 
 unruly wind," the royal army, on the 23rd October fol- 
 lowing, under Prince Rupert, bivouacked on Edge-hill, 
 and fought the famous battle of that name against the 
 Parliament forces commanded by the Earl of Essex. In 
 this battle Colonel Bryan O'Neill distinguished himself 
 in the highest degree, leading on his dragoons, rallying 
 them when broken, charging again into the serried ranks 
 of the enemy, and breaking and pursuing them, but never 
 losing sight of the King's person; for at that critical 
 moment when the dragoons had pursued too far the routed 
 horse of the Roundheads, and left his Majesty exposed to 
 the fate that befel his predecessor, Henry the Third, at the 
 battle of Lewes, when in the hour of victory over his 
 barons he was taken prisoner, O'Neill was among the 
 small but Spartan band that guarded his Majesty's person. 
 For his bravery on that occasion, the honour of an En- 
 
156 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 glish Baronetcy was conferred upon him by his Majesty, on 
 the 13th Nov. 1643, by the title of " Sir Bryan O'Neill of 
 Upper Clanaboy." He was twice married; first to 
 Jane Finch, of the Earl of Nottingham's family, and 
 secondly to Sarah, daughter and co-heir of Hugh Savage, 
 of Portaferry, Esq. By the latter marriage, he had Hugh, 
 appointed one of the Justices of the King's Bench in 
 1687: this learned Judge married Martha, daughter of 
 William Lord Howth, and left Bernard and Mary. The 
 daughter married Charles O'Neill, Esq., of the Feeva, 
 county of Antrim, and died in 1790, aged one hundred 
 years ; and her brother, Bernard, having also married, died 
 in the year 1798, leaving two daughters. Sir Bryan O'Neill 
 died about the year 1670, and left by his first marriage an 
 only son, Sir Bryan O'Neill, second baronet. Baron of the 
 Exchequer in 1687. He and his half brother, the Hon. 
 Justice Hugh O'Neill, adhered to the cause of James the 
 Second, and lost all the landed estates which their family 
 had acquired after the previous confiscations. Sir Bryan, 
 the second baronet, married Mary, daughter of Edward 
 Plunket, Lord Dunsaiiy, by whom he left an only son. Sir 
 Henry O'Neill, of Kellystown, in the county of Meath, 
 third baronet, who married twice ; first, Mary, daughter 
 of Mark Bagot, Esq., and secondly, Rose, daughter of 
 James Brabazon, Esq., of the noble house of Meath, by 
 Mary, daughter of Dudley Colley, of Castle Carbery, 
 and aunt of Richard, Lord Mornington, grandfather of 
 the Duke of WelHngton. 
 
 By his first marriage Sir Henry O'Neill had Sir Bryan, 
 fourth baronet, who died without issue, and Sir Randall, 
 
157 
 
 fifth baronet, who was surveyor of customs at Rush, in 
 the county of Dublin, and died without issue male. Sir 
 Henry O'Neill, by his second marriage, [left Sir Francis 
 O'Neill, of Kellystown, in the county of Meath, sixth 
 baronet, who married Miss Fleming, of the county of 
 Louth. 
 
 And here I have to notice one of the many social wrongs 
 inflicted by the penal laws in Ireland on those who hap- 
 pened to retain any remnant of property preserved from the 
 various confiscations of James, Cromwell, and William, or 
 obtained by subsequent acquisitions. Those laws happily 
 no longer sully the pages of the Statute book, but as long 
 as they remained, they legally disqualified from possessing 
 real estate all persons of the proscribed faith ; who were 
 obliged in consequence to resort to the common expedient 
 of getting leases in the names of those friends of the 
 favoured creed whom they could trust. It was thus Sir 
 Francis O'Neill held the lands of Kellystown. The lease 
 was in the name of Mr. Brabazon of Mornington, and in 
 the simplicity of his nature and the confidence of friend- 
 ship. Sir Francis surrendered it to his landlord, for a new 
 lease made directly to himself, on better terms. Casting 
 aside the mask he had worn, his landlord caused the 
 simple and too confiding baronet to be served with eject- 
 ment, and had him evicted ; for his lease was void in law, 
 under the " popery acts.'' Removing for temporary con- 
 venience, under pressure of the sheriff's warrant, to a small 
 farm called Cradh, adjoining Dowth Hall, on the estate 
 of Lord Netterville, Sir Francis O'Neill shortly after left 
 it, and took the farm of Knockanmooney, opposite to 
 
158 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Kellystown, his former residence — the river dividing them. 
 But here, encumbered with a large family — he had fourteen 
 or fifteen children, — he became embarrassed in circum- 
 stances, let his rent fall into arrear, was ejected for non- 
 payment, sold out, and turned adrift once more. 
 
 Ketiring into the village of Slane, Sir Francis O'Neilb 
 sixth baronet, the descendant of a race of the Kings, repre- 
 sentative of the dashing dragoon of Edge Hill, and the 
 cousin of three Peers, Mornington, Dunsany, and Meath, 
 rents a cabin of four apartments, and keeps in it a small 
 huckster's shop and dairy, the produce of two cows, while 
 his two horses and carts, last remnant of his stock, attended 
 by his second son, John O^Neill, cart flour for hire from the 
 mills of Slane to Dublin ! In that humble cabin the aged 
 and poverty-stricken baronet was visited in the month of 
 May, 1798, by John, the first Viscount O'Neill, and his two 
 sons, Charles and John, the late earl and the last viscount, 
 on their way to Shane's Castle ; for John, the first Lord 
 O'Neill, princely in mind as he was exalted in station, 
 never turned his face from a poor relation. On that occa- 
 sion Sir Francis O'Neill took a melancholy pleasure in 
 shewing to his lordship the last remnant of his. family 
 plate, a silver cream ewer and tablespoon, engraven with 
 his crest, the hand and dagger, also the Patent of Baro- 
 netcy, with its large, old-fashioned wax seal, and his 
 parchment pedigree, tracing his descent from the prince 
 schoolmaster, Niul of Scythia and Egypt, And in a little 
 outhouse or shed, open at three sides, in that humble 
 yard, he also pointed out his broken carriage, emblazoned 
 with his arms, the red hand of O'Neill, which was almost 
 
159 
 
 effaced and illegible from exposure to wind and rain. Fit 
 emblem it was of the broken fortunes of his house ! The 
 noble Viscount did not live to fulfil the promise he then 
 made to better the condition of this reduced gentleman of 
 his house, for in a short month afterwards he was in his 
 grave — barbarously and treacherously murdered at Antrim 
 by the rebels of Killead. Sir Francis O'Neill himself, 
 shocked by the event, and by the feeling that the last reed 
 on which he depended was broken, soon followed, and in 
 the year 1799 was placed beside his father. Sir Henry, in 
 the grave, inside the ruins of the old church of Mount 
 Newton. In a year and a half after his interment, his 
 wife, the Lady O'Neill, was laid by his side. 
 
 It is almost needless to follow the fortunes of his chil- 
 dren. One only retained the rank and position of a gen- 
 tleman. His eldest son, Henry, when his father had 
 began to fail in circumstances, went out to Spain to his 
 relative. Colonel Con O'Neill, formerly of Carlyan in the 
 Freeva, who procured a commission for him in his own 
 regiment. The last letter received from him by his rela- 
 tives in Ireland was dated in 1798. John, the second 
 son, married Catherine Murtagh, who kept a small dyer's 
 shop in West Street, Drogheda, and died in very humble 
 circumstances indeed, about sixteen or seventeen years 
 ago. Francis O'Neill, the eldest son of John, is now a 
 working millwright in Drogheda. James, another son of 
 Sir Francis, was a working baker in Dublin, and died 
 about the year 1800. 
 
 Bryan, the youngest, and only surviving son of Sir 
 Francis O'Neill, had an eventful life. Born in Kellys- 
 town, shortly before they left it, he went with his father 
 
160 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 to Cradh, Knockamooney, and Slane. Here lie grew up 
 in poverty, but fortunately received a fair mercantile educa- 
 tion. He enlisted, when about eighteen years of age, in 
 the Louth Militia, in which he rose to the rank of ser- 
 geant, and volunteered in 1812 into the 88th or Connaught 
 Rangers, commanded by Colonel O'Malley, whose sister, 
 Dora, had married John O'Neill, Esq., of Ballyshannon. 
 He was promoted in 1813 to the rank of sergeant-major, 
 which he held for seventeen years, until his discharge in 
 1830. He joined the 88th at Castlebar, went thence to 
 Gibraltar and Portugal, and returning to Gibraltar, was sent 
 to Cadiz, to strengthen the garrison there. He afterwards 
 passed again into Portugal, where he was at the storming of 
 Badajos, and the battles of Fuentez D'Onore and Rodrigo, 
 and subsequently accompanied the army of occupation to 
 France in 1816 : he returned home in 1818, and in 1830 
 was discharged at Langard Port, in England, on a pension 
 of two shillings and twopence a day. In all his campaigns 
 he did not receive a single wound, or as he expressed it him- 
 self, " a single scratch,'^ although he did his duty, in battle, 
 as one of the " fighting eighty-eighth knew how to do it." 
 In 1830 he was appointed by the corporation of the city 
 of Dublin chief officer of the Newgate guard — a quaint- 
 looking corps, dressed up in costume not unlike the 
 Royal Artillery, who required a strict disciplinarian like 
 Serjeant-Major O'Neill to preside over them. He was 
 discontinued in this office at the break-up of the guard 
 in 1836, when he took two houses in Cook Street, Dubhn, 
 in one of which, number 95, he now resides, with his 
 eldest son, Prancis O'Neill, a coffin maker ! 
 
THE O'NEILLS. 161 
 
 Sergeant-Major Bryan O'Neill, youngest son of Sir 
 Francis O^Neill, the sixth baronet, is now in his seventy- 
 fifth year, and is a tall and distinguished-looking man, 
 in whose appearance and manners, notwithstanding his 
 age and poverty, and the ordeal through which he has 
 passed, may be traced the high lineage and noble blood of 
 Clanaboy. 
 
 And thus I close this sketch of the decadence of 
 a branch of the royal house of O'Neill, in which the 
 mutability of fortune is signally displayed. The de- 
 scendant of Prince Niul of Scythia and Egypt, of 
 Milesius, King in Spain, of the royal author, Cormac 
 Udfadha, of Con of "the hundred battles/' and Niall the 
 Great, of the chivalrous Niall Caille, and Hugh Boy, and 
 Brian Balv, and Henry Caoch, and the gallant and dash- 
 ing Colonel of Charles the First's dragoons at the battle of 
 Edge Hill, the cousin of three peers and of a duke, and the 
 lineal descendant of a hundred kings, is reduced to the 
 humble lot of a discharged pensioner of the crown, at two 
 shillings and twopence a day, and occupies a room in a 
 small shop in an obscure street, where his eldest son is u 
 coffinmaker ! 
 
162 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 atCartlj^i Pirrt. 
 
 " How cliang'd ! Those oaks that tower'd so high, 
 Dismember'd, stript, extended lie." 
 
 The decay of great families is generally to be traced either 
 to personal extravagance or to attainder and forfeiture, 
 consequent on political commotions ; but in Ireland, the 
 causes of decadence are manifold, in addition to those I 
 have just alluded to. When it is remembered how per- 
 petually that country has been the scene of civil strife, 
 dynastic contests, and English confiscations, one can hardly 
 believe that any of the old houses have survived, and con- 
 tinue, even unto this time, to be lords of some part of 
 their original patrimony. Yet there are many such : the 
 Geraldines, who 
 
 " royally once reigned 
 
 O'erDesmond broad and richKildare, and English arts disdained," 
 
 still stand foremost in the Irish peerage, and have pre- 
 served, with national love and national accord, the first 
 place among the Anglo-Norman races, ever since the day 
 when Maurice FitzGerald, the renowned companion in 
 arms of Strongbow, set foot on Irish ground, at Wexford, 
 in 1169. Of the other families established in Ireland 
 
MACCARTHY MORE. 163 
 
 at the same period, some few besides have succeeded in 
 escaping destruction, and may be reckoned among the 
 present nobles of the land ; the principal of these are the 
 De Burghs of Clanricarde, the FitzMaurices, the Butlers, 
 the DeCourcys, the St. Lawrences, the Talbots of Malahide, 
 the Brabazons, the Prendergasts, &c. Among the native 
 Irish, there are few traceable descendants of the minor 
 dynasts now in the enjoyment of their ancient possessions 
 but, of the five royal families which divided the island, all 
 excepting the O'Melaghlins, who disappear at a very early 
 epoch, may, I am inclined to think, be carried down to 
 some existing representative. 
 
 M^Murrough, King of Leinster, has for male heir Ka- 
 vanagh of Borris, co. Carlow, who possesses a splendid 
 estate in the heart of Leinster. Of the O^Neills, one branch 
 exists on the continent ; the present Mr. O^Neill, of Shane's 
 Castle, is heir general of the Princes of Clanaboy, and Mr. 
 C. H. O'Neill, Barrister, Dublin, claims the high honour 
 of being their male representative. The O'Briens were 
 Kings of Thomond or North Munster. The extinct Earls 
 of Thomond derived their earldom, and the present Lord 
 Inchiquin, his barony, from the last monarch of their name, 
 who resigned his crown to Henry VIIL, and received those 
 titles and a regrant of his estate as some compensation. 
 The O'Connors, last monarchs of L-eland, have still an 
 heir male in Connaught, and the MacCarthy-Mores, Kings 
 of Desmond or South Munster, and the MacCarthy-Reaghs, 
 Princes of Muskerry, are in all probability represented in 
 the male line by Mr. MacCarthy of Carrignavar. 
 
 Of the minor dynasts, the Ulster plantation has left few. 
 
 M 2 
 
164 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 or none in that province. In that part of Leinster which 
 formed the old territory of the Pale, the 'Byrnes of 
 Wicklow, protected by their mountains, were the last 
 sept to preserve their independence. Lord de Tabley, 
 their present chief, has laid aside his ancient warrior name, 
 and cannot be counted amongst Irishmen ; but a branch 
 of the family still reside on a very valuable portion of their 
 old lands at Cabinteely, on the borders of Wicklow and 
 Dublin. The central district of Ireland, including the 
 old kingdom of Meath, is better provided with true 
 Milesian blood. O^Moore of Cloghan, chief of his name, 
 was, until recently, seated in the centre of Leix ; and 
 though an English reader might take the surname of 
 the late Earl of Upper Ossory to be Anglo-Norman, yet 
 the fine estates of that nobleman, now held by the Right 
 Hon. John W. Fitzpatrick, were his as heir to the younger 
 branch of the clan Mac Giolla Phadruig. The Foxes of 
 Foxhall in Longford have in like manner anglicised 
 O^Sionach, to which clan their family and estates be- 
 longed. Cavan and its borders in Meath were, and are 
 partly still, the share of the O^Reillys, a Westmeath branch 
 of which has taken the name of Nugent. In the province 
 of Connaught, forfeitures and Elizabethan or Cromwellian 
 blood are less common than in other parts of the island ; 
 and with the exception of the noble house of Browne, the 
 formerly ennobled Eyres, the Knoxes, (and perhaps, despite 
 the Sarsfield connectionship^ I could add the Bingharas,) 
 all the great proprietors derive the whole or the greater 
 part of their blood and estates from ancestors of Milesian 
 or Anglo-Norman descent, but chiefly the latter. Of the 
 
MACCARTHY MOKE. 165 
 
 undoubted Milesians, I find Charles K. O^Hara Esq. 
 holding his ancient patrimony in Sligo, Sir Samuel 
 O'Malley, owning lands so bravely preserved by his 
 celebrated kinswoman, Grace O'Malley, in the rapacious 
 days of Queen Elizabeth ; and Mr. O'Elahertie of Lemon- 
 field become a peaceful neighbour of that town of Galway, 
 whose timid merchants used to suffer so much from the 
 turbulent clan from which he springs, that over their 
 western gate appeared the prayerful inscription : 
 
 " From the ferocious O'Elaherties, Good Lord, deliver us." 
 
 Sir Richard O'Donneirs branch of the house of Tyrconnel 
 is said to have settled in Mayo on the marriage of its 
 founder with the heiress ; the same cause, a richly dowered 
 heiress, certainly brought the O^Dalys from Burreen to Gal- 
 way, a damsel in whose honour the charming air of Aileen 
 Aroon is said to have been composed, having given them 
 the broad lands of Carrownekelly, now the valuable estate 
 of their lineal descendant, Lord Dunsandle. The eastern 
 portion of Connaught was anciently the principality of the 
 O'Kellys; and members of that sept, Mr. Kelly of Castle 
 Kelly, in particular, still retain a large part of the lands 
 which were held by that historical family. 
 
 In Munster, between the rapacity of the Desmond 
 family at its first settlement, which devoured the substance 
 of many of its Hibernian neighbours, and its immense 
 power and influence just before its ruin, which induced 
 most- of the remaining ones to join and perish with it, 
 the greater or princely families are not numerous. But 
 . many of the minor ones exist in affluence. The M'Nama- 
 
166 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 ras; or Sons of the Sea^ so called from claiming a mermaid 
 as their mother^ are well represented by Lieut. Col. 
 M^Namara^ and by Mr. M'Namara of Ayle, in that^ 
 their original county. Mr. O^Loghlen, of Port, nephew to 
 the late eminent Sir Michael O^Loghlen_, is the direct de- 
 scendant of the chieftains of Burren. The O'Grads have 
 divided : and whilst one branch, under the name of Brady, 
 still retains a beautiful park, a fine estate in their old terri- 
 tory at ScarifF on the banks of the Shannon, a fair southern 
 heiress, (these heiresses seem ever to have been favourites 
 in Ireland,) tempted the other, at the close of the thirteenth 
 century, across that river to the county of Limerick, where 
 it has formed several influential families. The O'Grady of 
 Kilballyowen is chief of the name; and a younger branch 
 was raised to the peerage in the person of the late 
 eminent Chief Baron, Viscount Guillamore. The O^Quins 
 also left Clare for Limerick, but at a more recent date. The 
 estate of Adair, confirmed to them by the Act of Settle- 
 ment, is now the picturesque residence of their representa- 
 tive, the Earl of Dunraven. The chief branch of the 
 O^SuUivans of Kerry is probably extinct ; but some of the 
 minor ones are extant ; and the wild mountains that give 
 him his title are still the property of one of their chiefs, 
 Mac Gillycuddy of the Keeks. We find the O'Donoghues 
 of the Glyns still in the same neighbourhood. Mr. Ryan, 
 of Inch, is probably the chief, certainly a descendant, of 
 the ancient sept of his name. And the district of which 
 his estates form part was the ancient " O^Ryan^s country.^' 
 Whilst the O'Meaghers of Kilmoyler, and some other 
 members of that family, are yet proprietors where their 
 
MACCARTHY MORE. 167 
 
 clan was once seated in Tipperary. But that county was 
 too fertile, and too near the other possessions of the great 
 rival houses of Ormonde and Desmond not to have been 
 early appropriated by the Anglo-Norman conquerors, to 
 whose descendants much of it and of its neighbouring 
 counties of Kilkenny and Waterford still belong. 
 
 The MacCarthys, to whom I have already alluded, were 
 a regal and princely house : and, on the arrival of the 
 English invaders in the twelfth century, were styled the 
 Kings of Desmond and Cork. No family claims a higher 
 ancestry than this. The curious in long genealogies will 
 find in Keating^ s " History of Ireland " the whole pedi- 
 gree, derived, through Heber, the fair son of Milesius, the 
 Spanish hero, from the patriarch Noah himself ! In all 
 those civil contests and warlike encounters which shed so 
 melancholy a hue over the annals of their ever-distracted 
 country, the MacCarthys bore a distinguished part. From 
 Cormac More, who lived in the beginning of the twelfth 
 century, sprang two sons : Daniel, the elder, succeeded 
 his father as " the MacCarthy-More," and Diarmid, the 
 younger, founded the powerful house of Muskerry. The 
 descendant of Daniel was created Earl of Glencare by 
 Queen Elizabeth, in 1565, but as he died without 
 legitimate issue, his honours died with him. His 
 last collateral male representative was Charles MacCarthy- 
 More, an ofiicer in the Guards, who died in 1770. The 
 dwindled possessions of this branch of the family became 
 vested in his cousin, Herbert, of Mucruss. I have some- 
 where seen a curious anecdote regarding a late descendant 
 of this illustrious race. One MacCarthy, a poor farmer in 
 
168 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 the county of Cork, who deemed himself, and perhaps 
 correctly, the rightful heir of the Kings of Desmond, kept 
 up, in his humble homestead^ all the semblance of royal 
 state that his lowly condition would permit. His simple 
 meals were supplied to him at a table apart from the rest 
 of his family, a custom invariably followed in the olden 
 time, when the MacCarthy-More held regal sway in his 
 Castle of Kilcoleman. 
 
 The descendants of Diarmid MacCarthy had a longer 
 existence as magnates of the land. They held Blarney 
 and a large portion of the county of Cork. The fourth 
 Lord, Cormac was a nobleman of distinguished valour, and 
 a munificent patron of the church, of art, and of learning. 
 The Castle of Blarney was erected by him, as also the 
 splendid Abbey of Kilcrea. His successor, Cormac, had 
 a fearful feud with James, Earl of Desmond, whom 
 he defeated with much slaughter near Mourne Abbey, 
 in 1521. The eighth Lord, Cormac MacTeige, ac- 
 cording to Sir Henry Sidney, "the rarest man that was 
 ever born among the Irishry," was appointed Sheriff of 
 the county of Cork, after he had defeated Sir James, 
 brother of the Earl of Desmond. 
 
 The power of the MacCarthy s at this period may be 
 conjectured from the fact that a force of three thousand 
 fighting men were always at the call of the chieftain. This 
 Cormac was politic enough to keep in favour with the 
 English. To him James the First granted for ever the 
 lordship, town, and lands of Blarney. Donogh, the tenth 
 lord, took an early and decided part in the dreadful civil 
 war which broke out in 1641. He was appointed one of 
 
MACCARTHY MORE. 169 
 
 the leaders of the confederated CathoUcs, and Lord Castle- 
 haven reports that he used all his influence to bring the 
 nation back to their obedience to the king and laws. In 
 1642, he appeared in Carberry at the head of a large force, 
 led by his own feudatories, MacCarthy-Reagh, O^Donovan, 
 O'Sullivan, &c. He was opposed by Inchiquin, the chief 
 of the O^Eriens of Thomond, who defeated him. Soon 
 afterwards, however, the king made him president of 
 Munster. On the Restoration, he was created Earl of 
 Clancarty, and a bill was passed which restored a large 
 portion of his forfeited estates. Donogh, the third earl, 
 joined James II. on his landing at Kinsale, and with the 
 fortunes of James fell those of Clancarty. His property, 
 which, on a loose calculation made in the middle of the 
 last century, was supposed to be worth £150,000 per 
 annum, was confiscated, and he was taken prisoner on the 
 surrender of Cork, and driven into exile. The fourth Earl, 
 Robert, indignant at the treatment his family had received, 
 deserted the king^s service as captain of the ship Adventure, 
 and joining the Stuarts, never after returned to England. 
 The French king granted him a pension of J^IOOO a-year, 
 and he lived and died at his chateau near Boulogne, 
 leaving two sons, who dying without issue, the family in 
 the direct line expired. 
 
 So ended the chief line of this distinguished but turbu- 
 lent race; like many others of their princely compeers, 
 they sowed to the storm, and reaped the whirlwind. One 
 eminent and recognised offshoot, MacCarthy of Carrig- 
 navar, continued to flourish long after the parent stem 
 had withered away; but the ruthless spoliation of the 
 
170 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Encumbered Estates' Court has doomed even this last scion 
 almost to destruction, and within the last few years con- 
 demned to sale the greater part of the small remaining 
 remnant of the vast territorial possessions of the Lords of 
 Muskerry. Male heirs still, however, exist, and the Castle 
 of Carrignavar is preserved ; and though thus, in a great 
 measure, severed from their ancient patrimony, they will not 
 soon be forgotten in the land of their ancestors. The vene- 
 ration of the Irish peasantry for. "the rale ould gentry" 
 will long cling to the cherished name of MacCarthy. 
 
THE MAGUIRES OP TEMPO. 171 
 
 " Maguire is leader of their battalions. 
 He rule3 over the mighty men of Monach, 
 At home munificent in presents, 
 The noblest lord in hospitality." 
 
 O' Duff an, lUh century. 
 
 The fame of "the three Collas," grandsons of the 
 accomplished monarch Cormac Ulfadha, is celebrated 
 by the old chroniclers in many a page of Irish story. 
 With their invasion of Ulster, early in the fourth century, 
 commenced the most sanguinary struggle on record. 
 The old inhabitants — the brave Clanna-Rory — fought, 
 with their traditional valour, for their very existence; 
 their enemies, the Colla-Huais, for conquest and a settle- 
 ment. Their last battle of Aghderg, in the county of 
 Down, continued while "six suns rose and went down,^' 
 and ended in the defeat and ruin of the Clanna-Rory. 
 The renowned Red-branch Knights disappeared for ever 
 from history^ and their princely palace of Emania, whose 
 construction formed one of the great epochs of Irish 
 chronology, was destroyed, and not a trace of its long 
 celebrated glories was left behind. 
 
172 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 From Colla-da-Chrioch, the youngest of the brothers, 
 descended the Maguires, Princes of Fermanagh, and 
 Lords of Enniskillen, who assumed the surname, in the 
 ninth century, from Uidher, or " Guire," ninth in descent 
 from CoUa-da-Chrioch. 
 
 These Maguires kept right noble state in their princely 
 halls in their castles of Enniskillen, Portora, and Monea in 
 Fermanagh. They had their allamhs or bards, their heredi- 
 tary brehons, or judges, and other chief officers of state. 
 When they marched to compel eiric, or join the muster of 
 their dynast, the great O^Neill, King of Ulster, Mac Caffi-ey, 
 theirhereditary standard-bearer, unfurled thestandardofiVfac 
 Uidher at the head of a thousand warriors. On the sum- 
 mit of the magnificent Culcagh, a mountain near Swanlinbar, 
 on the borders of Cavan and Fermanagh, The Maguire was 
 inaugurated as Prince of Fermanagh : and an imposing 
 ceremony it was. No canopy but the blue vault of heaven, 
 emblazoned with the glorious sun, and studded with innu- 
 merable twinkling stars : multitudes of Clansmen clus- 
 tered on the top, and the sides, and by the foot of the hill, 
 the Chief himself stood on a stone chair of state : the laws 
 were read to him by the Brehon, the oath administered, 
 and the blessing given by the Coarb of Clogher, the white 
 wand of sovereignty placed in his hand, the standard un- 
 furled, and the slipper put on, when, amid the clang of 
 bucklers, the music of a hundred harps, and the ringing 
 cheers of thousands of the Clan Mac Uider, he was pro- 
 nounced THE Maguire. 
 
 Fermanagh was called in remote times " Maguire' s 
 country," where for twelve hundred years and more the 
 
THE MAGUIRES OF TEMPO. 173 
 
 Msguires maintained their power as independent princes. 
 Tributaries to the O^Neills, Kings of Ulster, and often 
 alHed to them by marriage, they proved ever stanch to 
 their suzerains, the first to attend muster ; and to rally 
 under the royal standard of Lamh-derg Eirin, " the red 
 hand of Ireland/^ was Maguire^s contingent. In the roar 
 of battle the voices of the stout men of Fermanagh were 
 loudest, and their good battle-axes, keenest in hewing 
 through the dense masses of opposing foes. 
 
 Space will not permit more than a passing allusion to 
 those brave chiefs, but from amongst them all, I cannot 
 refrain from giving a brief outline of the career of the last 
 Prince of Fermanagh, the gallant Hugh Maguire, in the 
 reign of Elizabeth. His father^s sister, Judith — a proud and 
 stately dame — was mother of the great Hugh O'Neill, Earl 
 of Tyrone. After the death of his father, he was harassed 
 by the pretensions of Conner E>oe Maguire, called " the 
 Queen^s Maguire," who joined the English and disputed 
 the chieftaincy with him. When the Lord Deputy Fitz- 
 william informed him that his country, being now '' shire 
 ground,^^ he must prepare to admit a sheriff to execute the 
 Queen^s writs, he answered characteristically, " Your sherifi* 
 shall be welcome, but let me know his eiric (how much his 
 life is worth) that if my people should cut off his head, I may 
 levy it upon the country.'^ Afterwards, in the year 1593, 
 Captain Willis is found in his country as sheriff, but shut 
 up with his posse comitatus, and besieged in a church by 
 the Fermanagh people, where he was reduced to the last 
 extremity until relieved by Hugh O'Neill, then an ally of 
 the English. The forces of Fermanagh being in the field, 
 
174 
 
 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 did not lay down arms. Maguire led them southwards, 
 and at Tulsk, in Roscommon, defeated Sir Eichard Bing- 
 ham, the governor of Connaught, and slew Sir William 
 Clifford. Shortly afterwards he fought the battle of Ath- 
 cullin, on the river Erne, against Marshal Bagnall, and 
 forced Hugh O'Neill, who had charged across the river 
 at the head of the English cavalry, to recross it, after being 
 severely wounded. In 1594 he again defeated Sir George 
 Bingham at the battle of Beal-atha-na-riscoid, or " yellow 
 biscuits,'^ on the river Erne, within four miles of Ennis- 
 killen, then garrisoned by English troops, and forced the 
 garrison to surrender. In the following year, 1595, he 
 entered, plundered, and devastated Brefney O'Reilly, the 
 country of "the Queen's O'Reilly.'' When Hugh 
 O'Neill rose in alliance with O'Donnell, Maguire joined 
 his standard and never after left him. He w^as with 
 O'Neill at the battle of Clontibret, where Sir John Norris 
 was defeated ; also at the battle of Killcloony, where the 
 united army of the Lord Deputy Sir William Russell and 
 Sir John Norris were routed with the loss of six hundred 
 men. He commanded O'Neill's cavalry at the battle of 
 Mullaghbrack in 1596, and contributed considerably to 
 the victory. 
 
 In 1597, while O'Neill was fighting the great battle of 
 Drumfluich against the new Lord Deputy Burrough, 
 Maguire was in Mullingar on the iDvitation of the O'Far- 
 rells, preying on and plundering the English of the Pale in 
 that quarter. In 1598, he was by the side of O'Neill and 
 O'Donnell, " Red Hugh," in the great victory obtained 
 at Bealanaboy, where Marshal Bagnall, and about three 
 
THE MAGUIRES OF TEMPO. 175 
 
 thousand of the English were slain, with many superior 
 officers. In the next year, 1599, he joined O^Donnell in 
 his expedition into Thomond, and parting him there for a 
 time, attacked and took the Baron O'Brien's castle of 
 Inchequin, with the baron himself prisoner ; and having 
 swept all the surrounding country, rejoined O'Donnell at 
 Kelfenora, laden with spoil. He was with O'Neill at the 
 celebrated conference between him and the Earl of Essex at 
 the ford of Ballacluish, near Dundalk. In the year 1600 he 
 accompanied that chieftain as commander of his horse, in 
 his great expedition into Leinster and Munster, to punish 
 his enemies and reconcile and unite his friends, where at 
 O'Neill's camp, on the borders of Muskerry and Carberry, 
 the chiefs of Munster attended and gave eighteen hos- 
 tages. Here the gallant Maguire closed his brilliant 
 career and his life. One day in March, shortly before 
 the festival of St. Patrick, he went out from O'Neills 
 camp, accompanied by Felim McCaffrey, his standard- 
 bearer, and a small party of horse, and some foot to re- 
 connoitre the country towards Cork. Sii* William St. 
 Leger, Vice President of Munster, was informed of it by a 
 spy, and placed a strong party in ambush in a narrow 
 defile about a mile from Cork. On nearing the place 
 Maguire espied them, but nothing daunted — though the 
 odds against him were fearfully great, he stuck spurs into 
 his horse and dashed at the head of his small troop into 
 the midst of his enemies. Singling out St. Leger, who 
 shot him on his approach with a pistol, he cleft his head, 
 through buckler and helmet, leaving him dead on the spot, 
 and cut his way through the ranks of opposing horsemen — 
 
176 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 five of whom lie killed with his single arm, and escaped ; 
 but gashed and cut fearfully about the head, as he was, by 
 the sabres of his foes, the brave Maguire did not proceed 
 far until he fell exhausted, and on the following day de- 
 livered up his gallant spirit to Heaven. O'Neill and the 
 oth.er Irish chiefs mourned his loss, and laid him in a 
 southern grave. He was the last prince of Fermanagh, for 
 none of the chiefs of it after his time possessed the power 
 or property of their ancestors sufficient to sustain the rank. 
 
 On the death of the gallant Hugh, his brother Constan- 
 tine became The Maguire, and joined O'Neill, whose cause 
 he sustained until the submission of the Earl in 1603. 
 Afterwardsjin 1607, when O'Neill and O'Donnell meditated 
 their flight from Ireland, it was Con Maguire aided by 
 O'Brien, who brought the Spanish ship to the harbour of 
 Lough Swilly, in which they and their friends embarked; 
 Maguire himself died soon after at Geneva, while preparing 
 to go to Spain. 
 
 After this event the entire of Fermanagh was confiscated 
 by James the First. In the redistribution of lands Bryan 
 Maguire obtained two thousand acres of Tempo-dassel, and 
 Conor Boe, the "Queen's Maguire," thirteen thousand 
 three hundred acres. The son of the latter, Bryan Roe, 
 was created Baron of Enniskillen, and by his marriage 
 with a sister of the celebrated General Owen Roc, O'Neill 
 was father of Conor Lord Maguire, who was attainted, and 
 his estates confiscated, for being concerned in the rebellion 
 of 1691 : he was conveyed to the Tower of London, and, 
 after a lengthened imprisonment, was brought to trial, and 
 condemned, hanged, and beheaded at Tyburn, in February, 
 
THE MAGUIRES OF TEMPO. 177 
 
 1644. The title, nevertheless, was assumed by his son and 
 descendants, the last of whom, Alexander Maguire, called 
 the eighth baron, was a captain in Buckley's regiment in 
 the Irish brigade in the service of France. 
 
 Several chiefs of the Maguires are mentioned during the 
 Cromwellian andWilliamite wars ; and many of them became 
 distinguished officers in the French and Austrian armies. 
 
 The descendants of Bryan Maguire of Tempo, ^^ senior 
 of the race," contrived to retain the lands granted to him 
 by James the First, through every after vicissitude, until 
 the commencement of the present century, when the pro- 
 perty passed from the late Constantine Maguire, Esq.^ 
 chief of his race and last inheritor of Tempo, into the 
 hands of a Belfast merchant. 
 
 Mr. Constantine Maguire was a gentleman of refined 
 education and polished manners. After leaving Tempo, he 
 resided chiefly at Toureen Lodge, near Cahir, on a small 
 estate he had in the county of Tipperary, where he lost his 
 life in a mysterious and barbarous manner. On Saturday, 
 the 1st of November, 1834, Mr. Maguire and a lady of his 
 family were out walking on the lawn, adjoining the high road 
 in front of his mansion. After a short time his companion 
 left him, and proceeded towards the house to order break- 
 fast. She had scarcely reached it when she heard a shot 
 fired. Running back she saw two men escaping from the 
 lawn at full speed, and found Mr. Maguire stretched on the 
 grass, a lifeless and mangled corpse. A ball had passed 
 through his heart, and his head was literally smashed and 
 battered to pieces, apparently with the butt end of a musket. 
 The murderers escaped, and, notwithstanding the offer in 
 
 N 
 
178 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES, 
 
 the Dublin Gazette of a large reward, no trace of them was 
 ever discovered. Like the kindred assassinations, which 
 took place afterwards in Ireland, of the second Lord Nor- 
 bury and Mrs. Kelly, the murder of Mr. Maguire has re- 
 mained shrouded in mystery. 
 
 Upon the death of Mr. Constantine Maguire, his younger 
 brother and heir male, the celebrated duellist, Bryan Butler 
 Maguire, popularly known as " Captain Bryan Maguire,'^ 
 became chief of his race, but inherited no part of the an- 
 cient patrimony. 
 
 The life of Captain Maguire was an eventful one, and 
 contained as many startling incidents as would supply 
 materials for half-a-dozen modern novels. He wrote and 
 published* his memoirs in 1812, but his subsequent 
 career, to which I shall by and by refer, was still 
 more singular. In 1799, when very young, he ob- 
 tained a cadetship in the East India Company's service, 
 and joined the 8th Regiment of native infantry at Cochin, 
 formerly a Dutch settlement on the coast of Malabar. Here 
 he is found, with some other Irish officers, incurring the 
 enmityj and it seems also the "jealousy,^' of the Dutch 
 gentlemen, who prohibited their daughters from " dancing 
 with the gentlemen of the army,'' and at public assemblies 
 and balls, the novel spectacle was exhibited of " unmar- 
 ried ladies dancing with their own relations, and wives 
 with their husbands." Both parties being bent on mis- 
 chief, it was not long until their bellicose propensities 
 were developed. Captain Maguire, who seems to have 
 been the chief object of Dutch animosity, was attacked, 
 sword in hand, in a public billiard-room '^ by a Captain 
 
THE MAGUIRES OF TEMPO. 179 
 
 Thuring of the Minerva." -Maguire defended himself with 
 '^ a large black billiard cue," forced his antagonist out of 
 the room, and fractured his scull, of which he died in a 
 few weeks after, at Andengo. The governor now interfered, 
 and the officers not on active service were ordered to rejoin 
 their regiments. Maguire and his friends embarked on 
 board the Deria Dowla, and landed at Callicut, where his 
 companions and he parted, and he set out in an open boat for 
 Bombay, a distance of three hundred miles. Finding this 
 small craft unequal to so long a voyage, Maguire formed the 
 bold resolution of cutting out a vessel from the roads of Goa. 
 His six servants — Lascars, stout, resolute fellows — entered 
 heartily into the project, and, in a dark night, laid him along- 
 side a Portuguese vessel half laden. Boarding in silence, 
 they closed down the hatches on the crew, thirteen in 
 number, and stood out to sea. As they neared Port Vic- 
 toria, a pirate vessel hove in sight and bore down on Maguire, 
 who, nothing daunted, fired into the enemy his only gun, 
 " an iron four pound swivel, crammed with iron balls rolled 
 up in an old worsted stocking;" which " so astonished the 
 pirate that he sheered off," and Maguire reached Bombay in 
 safety. But, here again, his evil genius followed him in the 
 shape of two of his old Dutch acquaintances of Cochin. 
 They had him arrested and tried before the Recorder, 
 Sir James Mackintosh, for " waylaying and assaulting " 
 them. A " scene in court " took place at the trial. 
 The judge was secretly cautioned to be on his guard, 
 as Maguire intended to shoot him when delivering sen- 
 tence. The prisoner was searched in open court, but the 
 charge of attempting to assassinate the judge turned out to 
 
 N 2 
 
180 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 be groundless. A verdict, however, was given against him, 
 for the attack on the Dutchmen, and he was sentenced to 
 twelve months' imprisonment. On another occasion, he 
 and some friends were returning in the evening from the 
 woods, after a ^' jollification," when one of them " incau- 
 tiously discharged his gun into the tent of Major G :'' 
 
 the ball passing in rather close proximity to that gallant 
 gentlemau^s head, Maguire and another of the party were 
 tried for malicious shooting. The former defended him- 
 self in court in a speech of much tact and ability, and took 
 occasion to repudiate the charge, industriously circulated 
 against him, of being a " professed duellist." He was 
 acquitted, but soon after got into another affair which 
 compromised his position in the army. He became 
 the bearer of two written challenges to an officer of the 
 Bombay European regiment, who brought him to a com't- 
 martial ; and the articles of war being very severe against 
 duelling, Maguire was cashiered after eight years' 
 service. On his way home, the fleet was detained 
 a short time at St. Helena. One day, during his stay 
 there, Maguire entered a public room, in a tavern, where 
 a number of officers were enjoying themselves rather 
 freely, the band-master of the regiment being seated at a 
 piano. The officers ordered the intruder out in a brusque 
 manner, which he politely declined; when they voci- 
 ferated, " Throw him out of the window !" Maguire 
 coolly presented a pistol. The officers, headed by Major 
 
 Mac D 3 advanced on him sword in hand. Retreating 
 
 to the wall, he protested that, in defence of his life, he 
 would shoot the first man who crossed a line he had 
 
THE MAGUIRES OF TEMPO. 181 
 
 marked. Major Mac D still rushed on, when Maguire 
 
 fired, and shot him dead on the spot. Instantly putting 
 the discharged pistol behind his back, he cocked and pre- 
 sented it as a second one loaded, at the rest, who fled. 
 He was tried on the charge of murder, and acquitted, 
 but put on board by the authorities. It was not long 
 after he had reached London before he got into another 
 serious squabble. Seated one evening in a box in the 
 Golden Cross Tavern, Charing Cross, two gentlemen were 
 speaking near him in a loud tone. One of them, a Mr. 
 T , told the other he had " intimidated a big Irish- 
 man at the play the night before ; that he had several 
 affairs with men of that nation, and always found them to 
 be empty swaggerers.^' Maguire's temper was roused af 
 this disparagement of his countrymen, and he called on 
 the gentleman to retract the calumny. The other refused, 
 when Maguire threw his glove in his face. A meeting 
 was immediately arranged, the parties to fight with swords 
 until one was killed. They adjourned to an adjoining room, 
 and placed four candles in it, one at each corner. They 
 then stripped and sparred for some tim^e. Maguire stood on 
 the defensive, to ascertain his adversary's mode of fighting, 
 and in the course of six minutes received three slight 
 wounds, from which the blood flowed copiously. He then 
 made a " desperate display of skill," and in less than three 
 seconds ran his sword through the body of his adversary, 
 who fell on the floor, bathed in blood. The gentleman's 
 wound was bound up, and fortunately proved not to be 
 mortal. 
 
 After this, Maguire is found involved as principal or 
 
182 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 second in numerous " affairs of honour/' up to the year 
 1812, when he published his Memoirs. These transac- 
 tions were duly chronicled in the police office reports and 
 newspapers of the day. In one of those cases Captain Ma- 
 guire writes to the friend of his antagonist, " I protest to 
 God that I will follow him all over the world until I make 
 him explain.'^ 
 
 But it would take a work in itself of considerable mag- 
 nitude to record all the eccentricities, strange adventures, 
 and vicissitudes in the life of Captain Bryan Maguire : 
 I will not stop to narrate how he was shot through the 
 lungs by an attorney, who, awkwardly enough, insisted on 
 firing across a table, and how neither died, though dan- 
 'gerously wounded ; nor will I record his frequent rencontres 
 with bailiffs in their attempts to arrest him for debt ; nor 
 his extraordinary escapades when arrested and confined, as 
 for instance, his distilling alcohol in an old iron kettle, 
 (transformed by his ever fertile genius and mechanical skill 
 into a portable still), and his keeping his fellow prisoners 
 in a perpetual round of inebriation, to the amazement of 
 the unconscious governors, whose vigilance prevented the 
 possibility of the smuggling into the prison of spirituous 
 liquors. I must not, however, omit mention of his shoot- 
 ing practice at break of day, from the windows of his 
 lodgings in St. Andrew's Street, Dublin, at the cross on 
 the " Round Church •" or of his retreat from the officers 
 of justice to the county of Wicklow, where, located in an 
 old thatched cabin on the brink of a hill, he threw up a 
 fortification of earthworks, and mounting an old brass 
 field piece, defied his enemies, while he levied voluntary 
 
THE MAGUIRES OF TEMPO. 183 
 
 contributions from the neighbouring farmers, who were 
 rather pleased with his outlaw mode of life, acting as an 
 independent chief among them in open defiance of the 
 law. 
 
 The good citizens of Dublin will not fail to remember 
 how, in the evenings, about four o'clock, the captain was 
 to be seen bearded like a pard, promenading up and 
 down Sackville Street on the single flag path, which 
 adorned the outer edge of the footway on the post office 
 side, with a "huge Irish blackthorn" in hand, and how 
 every person on his approach gave way and stepped aside 
 upon the muddy footway. 
 
 These strange freaks, which in the present day would 
 necessitate a lengthened visit to a prison or an asylum, were 
 then viewed, among a certain class of Irish sporting gentle- 
 men, as harmless eccentricities, and the amusements of an 
 accomplished " fire-eater," in his lighter moments. 
 
 But eccentric follies and vain-glorious feats, sooner or 
 later, must terminate. As time wore on, Captain Maguire 
 became entangled in a heavy Chancery suit for his wife's 
 fortune, which he never realized, and he became reduced, 
 step by step, to the extreme of poverty, eking out a pre- 
 carious subsistence from the casual contributions of a few 
 friends. Writing to one of these, on the 28th of May, 
 1830, he says, *' I request to see you, without delay, if 
 possible. My son George is dying. I am unable to go 
 to you. I am served with notice by the landlord, and 
 have neither house nor home to go to." His son George, 
 a fine intelligent lad of twelve years old, did die, and the 
 unfortunate parent, who, whatever may have been his 
 
184 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 faults and follies while in the heyday of youth, health, 
 and prosperity, had at least the strongest natural feel- 
 ings; he would not part with the remains of his child, 
 hut embalmed his body with his own hands — for he had 
 acquired a knowledge of the art in the East — and he placed 
 the case in his bed-room, where he kept it for some years. 
 Writing again, in the month of February, 1831, about 
 the Chancery suit, which made but slow progress, under 
 the rules of procedure in those days, he observes, "It 
 compels me at this season of the year, and the roads so 
 bad, to send my son (Charles), ragged and nearly bare- 
 footed, to you, with this. * * * Margaret died of starva- 
 tion while the suit proceeded." And on the 27th of June, 
 1831, he writes again to the same party, "Nothing but 
 the very deplorable state to which you have seen me re- 
 duced would make me trespass on you for the trifle I 
 mentioned, to purchase some medicine to soften the dread- 
 ful cough I have — being shot through the lungs once — 
 the cough may end fatally with me if it is not attended 
 tQ :{: * * J gj^y fj.Qjjj jjjy }ieart may God defend 
 every unfortunate mortal that is situated like yours truly, 
 B. B. Maguire." 
 
 When the news of the assassination of his elder brother 
 was communicated to him, Bryan Maguire, the once 
 dashing officer and dare-devil, the chief of the proud lords 
 of Fermanagh, was found in a large old-fashioned waste- 
 house at Clontarf Sheds, denuded of every comfort. The 
 room he occupied had for furniture neither drapery nor 
 carpet, but a single deal table, a chair, and an old form. 
 On the floor was a mattrass of the poorest description, on 
 
THE MAGUIRES OF TEMPO. 185 
 
 which he lay, with barely any covering, day and night, for 
 his wearing apparel was in pawn ; his gun and a brace of 
 pistols, last remnant of his former self, hung over the 
 chimney-piece, and the embalmed body of his eldest son 
 still rested in a shell in the corner. His second and only 
 remaining child, Charles Maguire, a fine, strong, enduring 
 boy of about fourteen years of age, a mere drudge and 
 servant of all-work to his father, was his sole companion. 
 In the next year, 1835, Captain Maguire was ejected from 
 this his last asylum, at the instance of one who had, in 
 other and better days, professed himself to be his friend, 
 and who is now no more. The unfortunate man did not 
 long survive his eviction, but died in a few months after- 
 wards, somewhere about Finglas, and not a stone marks 
 the spot where he sleeps in death. Charles Maguire, his 
 sole surviving child, remained with him to the last, and 
 then went on board a merchant vessel as a common sailor, 
 and was never more heard of. 
 
 But although the race of Tempo has become extinct, it 
 is gratifying to record that a healthy branch of the old 
 tree still flourishes in the family of Maguire, now repre- 
 sented by Edward Maguire, Esq., of Gortoral House, 
 barrister-at-law, a justice of the peace for the county of 
 Fermanagh ; in that county as well as in Leitrim, he is 
 possessed of a fair landed estate, and on his Fermanagh 
 property stands the picturesque and ivy-clad ruin of one 
 of the castles of his ancestors, princes and chiefs of the 
 MacUidher. 
 
186 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 €\t Jfall flf gesmflitir. 
 
 " The knights are dust. 
 Their good swords rust ; 
 Their souls are with the saints I trust !" 
 
 CoLEfilDGE. 
 
 They were a gifted as well as a brave race, those Des- 
 monds. They and the present ducal Geraldines of Lein- 
 ster, derived from a common ancestor : they were con- 
 temporaries in their accession to the dignity of Earls, 
 and twins in renown, influence, and vastness of territory. 
 Gerald, the fourth earl, was called *^the poet,'' and 
 that deep susceptibility of the beautiful, which is the 
 vital spring to the poetic nature, was, unluckily for 
 him, inherited by his grandson, Thomas, the sixth earl. 
 Wearied and benighted one ill-starred evening, on his 
 return from hunting, he took refuge in the Abbey of Feale 
 in Kerry, the dwelling of one of his tenants, named 
 William MacCormack. The Earl '^ came, saw, and," if 
 he " conquered," became no less the conquest of McCor- 
 mick's lovely daughter Catherine. He married her, and 
 the consequence was loss of title and estate : his uncle, 
 James, forcibly usurped both, and Desmond, after 
 several fruitless attempts to regain his birthright, died 
 an exile at Rouen, in 1420, King Henry V. himself, 
 it is said, honouring the funeral obsequies with his 
 
THE FALL OF DESMOND. 187 
 
 valorous presence, though he had overlooked the wrong. 
 Moore has thus gracefully sung this ill-fated love story: — 
 
 THE DESMOND. 
 
 " By the Feale's wave benighted, 
 
 No star in the skies, 
 To thy door, by Love lighted, 
 
 I first saw those eyes. 
 Some voice whispered o'er me. 
 
 As the threshold I cross'd. 
 There was ruin before me. 
 
 If I loved, I was lost. 
 
 ** Love came and brought sorrow 
 Too soon in his train ; 
 Yet so sweet, that to-morrow 
 
 'Twere welcome again. 
 Though misery's full measure 
 
 My portion should be, 
 I would drain it with pleasure 
 If poured out by thee. 
 
 " You who call it dishonour 
 
 To bow to this flame. 
 If you've eyes, look but on her. 
 
 And blush while you blame. 
 Hath the pearl less whiteness 
 
 Because of its birth P 
 Hath the violet less brightness 
 
 For growing near earth ? 
 
 " JSTo ! Man for his glory 
 
 To ancestry flies ; 
 But Woman's bright story 
 
 Is told in her eyes. 
 While the monarch but traces 
 
 Through mortals his line, 
 Beauty, born of the Graces, 
 
 Banks next to Divine." 
 
188 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 In our days such a proceeding as the nucleus usurpation 
 would be simply impossible, but then the Sovereign of Eng- 
 land, either occupied by foreign wars or engaged, as in the 
 struggle of the Roses, with claimants to his own throne, 
 was perfectly content that might should take the place of 
 right, so that the adherence of the former could be thus 
 secured and his own authority in Ireland remain undis- 
 turbed. Lascelles correctly states in his " Res Gestse An- 
 glorum in Hibernia " (p. 27), " that the influence of the 
 great lords, that of the Earl of Kildare in particular, was 
 superior to the lords;" and the Irish government itself 
 violated its own Statute of Kilkenny, which, with other enact- 
 ments, made marriages with the Irish high treason, and 
 forbade the tyrannical exaction called coyne and livery , to 
 which it had itself recourse. In the reign of Richard III . 
 too, Gerald, Earl of Kildare, Lord Deputy, actually passed 
 an Act of Parliament that the men of the town of New 
 Ross might reprize themselves against robbers, which means, 
 says Sir William Betham {Feudal Dignities, i. 379), that 
 persons robbed might rob the innocent to indemnify them- 
 selves for having been previously plundered. 
 
 James, the usurping Earl of Desmond, whom Henry VI. 
 appointed Constable of the Castle of Limerick (of whose 
 massy strength a portion yet remains,) procured half the 
 vast county of Cork from Robert Fitz-Geoflfry Cogan, in 
 addition to his other previous broad domains, and was 
 succeeded by his son Thomas, eighth Earl, who from the 
 possession of these vast estates, and the lofty seat of Lord 
 Deputy of Ireland, fell into a prison, and ended his life 
 on the block in 1467, leaving a successor, himself another 
 
THE FALL OF DESMOND. 189 
 
 example of the vicissitudes to which his family was doomed. 
 After flourishing for twenty years in riches, honour, and 
 power, he was basely murdered by his own servants, aged 
 only twenty-eight. 
 
 But the crowning adversity, as also another instance of 
 the usurpations tolerated by the Sovereign of England in 
 Ireland, is presented by Gerald, the sixteenth Earl, the 
 " Ingens rehellibus exemplar. He dispossessed his elder 
 brother of the title and inheritance, thus becoming Lord 
 of a territory extending over a space of one hundred and 
 twenty by fifty square miles, and producing forty thousand 
 gold pieces annually, at a time when money was twenty 
 times more valuable than it was in 1804. Defeated at the 
 termination of his ten years^ rebellion against the English 
 crown, he became reduced* to the greatest distress, " and,'' 
 says Camden, in his Annals of Queen Elizabeth, "in no 
 place safe, shifted from place to place.'' For a considerable 
 period he remained wandering among the bogs and moun- 
 tains, with the utmost difficulty succeeding in warding off 
 actual starvation. At Kilguaigh, near Kilmallock, in the 
 county of Limerick, and in the depth of winter, he, and 
 his Countess, Eleanor Butler, daughter of Lord Dunboyne, 
 once escaped the search of the royal adherents, only by 
 flying from the miserable hovel which served as their place 
 of concealment, and hiding themselves, sunk up to the 
 throat, in a " lough '' of water. Having at last crept into 
 the rugged wilderness of the Kerry mountains, Desmond 
 was congratulating himself on a comparative security, when 
 hunger compelled some of his followers to plunder a few 
 cattle. They were pursued by the owners, guided, it is 
 
190 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 said, by the treacherous son of a woman who had been 
 nurse to the earl, and the cabin, in which the unfortunate 
 Desmond lay, was discovered ; here, in the cold dawn of 
 the 11th of November, 1583, one of the pursuers, first 
 fracturing the EarPs arm by a sword cut, dragged the 
 aged nobleman out of the hovel, and severed his head from 
 his body. This bloody trophy was sent to Queen Eliza- 
 beth, and set up on the Tower of London, or, as others 
 say, on London Bridge. His vast estates were parcelled 
 out among " Undertakers^^ from England. 
 
 Thus expired the great house of Desmond ; for though, 
 upon the death of Earl Gerald, James Fitzgerald, son of 
 his wronged elder brother, assumed the title and was re- 
 cognised as such by the Irish, as indeed was his right, his 
 father having never joined in the rebellion so tragically 
 suppressed ; the Queen rejected his petition for restora- 
 tion to his honours, probably because the estates had been 
 bestowed upon others. This drove him also into rebellion. 
 From his suflferings and privations he was called the 
 " Sugaun^^ Earl, and died a prisoner in London. But 
 James, son of Earl Gerald, the " Ingens exemplar," had 
 been recognised by the Queen as Earl in order to extin- 
 guish the " Sugaun.'^ This he did, but was abandoned 
 by the Irish in consequence of his having been brought 
 up in the Protestant faith, while a prisoner in England. 
 He soon returned thither, and died, some say by poison, 
 and John Fitzgerald, brother of the " Sugaun'^ earl, having 
 entered the service of the King of Spain, by whom he 
 was allowed to live in a position very unbefitting his birth 
 or the magnanimity of a monarch, died, leaving one son, 
 
THE FALL OF DESMOND. 191 
 
 Gerald, created by the Spanish king Count of Desmond. 
 To this barren honour, however, was that Monarches favour 
 hmited ; the Count pined in poverty, and at length, in dis- 
 gust, entered the service of the Emperor of Germany, 
 where he ended his career as became the last of his dignity ; 
 for being governor of a fortress, he died, in 1632, of the 
 privations and sufferings consequent on his valiant and in- 
 flexible refusal to surrender to a besieging force. Thus 
 was hushed the last of those clarion voices which, at the 
 head of a battle of Gallowglasse and Kerne, had so often 
 startled the ears of their foemen with the slogan of 
 " Shanet Aboo." 
 
 " Peace to each manly soul that sleepeth ; 
 Eest to each faithful eye that weepeth j 
 Long may the fair and brave 
 Sigh o'er the hero's grave !" 
 
 The illustrations of decadence which I have adduced in 
 the foregoing pages are but a small instalment from the 
 materials which offer, and still leave this melancholy 
 chapter of family history far, very far, from being ex- 
 hausted. But not to encroach overmuch upon the patience 
 of my readers, I will give two or three more examples of 
 these strange vicissitudes, and then drop the curtain upon 
 a tragedy so painful. 
 
 A high and potent family were the Umfravilles of 
 Northumberland, men of the strong hand and the stout 
 heart— quahties which in the old time gave men the mas- 
 
192 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 tery over their fellow-creatures. The patriarch of their 
 race, " Robert with the beard," lord of Tours and Viex, 
 like so many others of his fortunate countrymen, accom- 
 panied William the Conqueror in his expedition upon 
 England ; and, like them, too, reaped an ample portion 
 of the general plunder. Ten years after the battle of 
 Hastings, he obtained from his royal master a grant of 
 the valley of Redesdale, in Northumberland, with all its 
 castles, woods, and franchises, to hold of him and his 
 heirs for ever by the service of defending that part of the 
 country from wolves and the king's enemies by "the 
 sword which the said King William wore at his side when 
 he entered Northumberland, and which he gave to the 
 said Robert." But, alas for the instability of all human 
 greatness ! this illustrious family, dignified with the titles 
 of baron and earl, was on its wane ere the Russells 
 had yet risen into importance upon the spoils of the 
 church. The last but one of their male descendants in 
 the direct line kept a chandler's shop at Newcastle, but 
 failing in this humble occupation, he was glad to accept 
 the office of keeper of St. Nicholas' workhouse, in the 
 same town, where he died, and left his widow with a son 
 and daughter utterly destitute. Fortune, however, at this 
 dark moment, before turning her face from them for ever, 
 shed a passing gleam upon their extinction. Their sad 
 story came to the ears of the Duke of Northumberland,* 
 
 * Another anecdote of the munificence of the House of Nor- 
 thumberland I cannot omit here. 
 
 At the commencement of the first revolution in France, the 
 Abbe de Percie was obliged to fly from his living in Normandy 
 to this country. 
 
UMFRAVILLE. 193 
 
 who generously allowed a small pension to the widow, and 
 after educating her son, procured for him a midshipman's 
 appointment. In due course of time, John Umfraville 
 rose to the rank of captain ; but he left no issue, and with 
 him expired the illustrious race of Umfraville. 
 
 Nothing has more contributed to these startling vicissi- 
 tudes than the civil wars so long and bloodily maintained 
 between the houses of York and Lancaster. As either 
 party rose or fell in the scale, — and such mutations were 
 not few, — it inflicted or sufi'ered persecution and the worst 
 of cruelties. Death, exile, and pauperism were the constant 
 results to the defeated. Of this, we have a lively picture 
 in the history of Philip de Comines, who narrates how 
 " in the wars between these two contending houses (York 
 and Lancaster) there had been seven or eight memorable 
 
 Soon after his arrival in London, he was hustled in New Street, 
 Covent Garden, and robbed of twenty guineas, which he had re- 
 ceived but a few minutes before, at Herries's Bank. 
 
 With the remainder of his little property he went to Bath, 
 where that small remnant was soon expended. In this dilemma, 
 he was reminded of his relationship to the noble ^jEnglish family 
 of the Percys, and, as the Duke of Northumberland was at that 
 time at Bath, he was advised to apply to his Grace for relief. 
 The Abbe immediately wrote to the Duke, who returned a polite 
 answer, requesting a few days for investigation. In the interval, 
 his Grace communicated with Lord Harcourt, at whose house 
 the Due D'Harcourt resided ; and inquired whether the Abbe 
 De Percie was really of the family of the De Percies of Nor- 
 mandy. Soon after, the statement having been found correct, 
 the Duke transmitted to his newly-discovered kinsman a gold 
 box with a bank-note, inclosed in it, for one thousand pounds, 
 and a general invitation to his table, which was from that day 
 open to the refugee abbe. 
 
 o 
 
194 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 battles in England, in which threescore or fourscore per- 
 sons of the blood royal of that kingdom were cruelly slain. 
 Those that survived were fugitives, and lived in the Duke 
 of Burgundy's court ; all of them young gentlemen (whose 
 fathers had been slain in England) whom the Duke of 
 Burgundy had generously entertained before his marriage 
 . (with King Edward's sister) as his relations of the house 
 of Lancaster. Some of them were reduced to such ex- 
 tremity of want and poverty before the Duke of Burgundy 
 received them, that no common beggar could have been 
 poorer. I saw one of them, who was Duke of Exeter — 
 but he concealed his name — following the Duke of Bur- 
 gundy^s train, bare- foot and bare-legged, begging his 
 bread from door to door. This person was the next of the 
 house of Lancaster ; he had married King Edward's sister, 
 and, being afterwards known, had a small pension allowed 
 him for his subsistence. There were also some of the 
 family of the Somersets, and several others, all of them 
 slain since in the wars.'* 
 
 From these data the quaint annalist deduces the very 
 comfortable moral that " those bad princes and others who 
 cruelly and tyrannically employ the power that is in their 
 hands, none, or but few of them die unpunished, though 
 perhaps it is neither in the same manner, nor at the same 
 time, that those, who are injured, desire." 
 
 Like, but at the same time unlike, is the fate of the 
 family of the Hungerfords, — like, because we again see 
 unbounded affluence sinking into utter poverty ; and un- 
 like, because fortune is altogether blameless in the affair. 
 If the family were brought to decay and ruin, it was not 
 
HUNGERFORD THE SPENDTHRIFT. 195 
 
 owing to any of the adverse tricks of destiny against which 
 no human prudence is able to defend itself; their deca- 
 dence was wholly and solely attributable to the boundless 
 extravagance of one of their members, who was surnamed, 
 and not without good reason, the Spendthrift — Sir 
 Henry Hungerford. This agent of ruin to his descendants 
 inherited a property which must have been immense, since 
 it appears that he sold at one time eight-and-twenty 
 manors, his income being no less than thirty thousand 
 pounds per annum. Such a fortune would at first sight 
 appear to be inexhaustible by the most profuse extrava- 
 gance, but happily, most happily for the world, this is 
 not the case. If nature has provided poison in the shape 
 of misers to accumulate, she has not forgotten to supply 
 the antidote in spendthrifts that squander; thus the 
 balance of society is kept even, and the general harmony 
 is preserved by the very means which the short-sighted on 
 either side are most disposed to call in question. The 
 enormous fortune in the hands of this individual, had it 
 so remained, would have been a pent-up water, producing 
 good to no one; as he scattered it, though with indis- 
 criminate profusion, it was a beneficent shower, fertilizing 
 where it fell. To him is attributed the demolition of the 
 family mansion in London, upon the site of which now 
 stands Hungerford Market. Sir Henry's bust did, and 
 perhaps still does, exist under a niche in the wall, with 
 the following inscription : — 
 
 " Forum, utilitati publicse per quam necessarium, 
 Hegis Caroli secundi innuente Majestate, propriis 
 Suraptibus erexit, perfecitque D. Edvardus 
 Hungerford, Balnei Miles, Anno mdclxxxii." 
 
 o 2 
 
196 ' VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 I may place this act of genuine munificence as a set- 
 off to the extravagance which could squander five hundred 
 guineas upon a wig to decorate his person on the occasion 
 of a court ball. It must, however, be distinctly under- 
 stood that my remarks as to his liberality apply only to 
 the old, and not to the present market, which is indebted 
 to him for nothing more than its site. 
 
 During three-and-thirty years this singular personage, 
 though so incompetent to manage his own affairs, sate in 
 parliament to assist in managing those of the nation. By 
 the end of that period he had completely dissipated his 
 noble inheritance, and was compelled for nearly as long a 
 term to subsist upon the charity of his friends and rela- 
 tions. It has indeed been said that he was made one of 
 the Poor Knights of Windsor, but his name does not ap- 
 pear to have been enrolled amongst them. Be this as it 
 may, so little did the total wreck of his fortunes affect 
 either his health or happiness, that he lived to the unusual 
 age of one hundred and fifteen years, dying in 1711 :* 
 
 *' My parks, my walks, my manors that I had, 
 Even now forsake me ; and of all my lands, 
 Is nothing left me but my body's length." 
 
 By a yet greater declension, the last of the Conyers, 
 a race at one time so celebrated, ended his days in a 
 workhouse; the noble blood of the Rokebys in York- 
 shire ebbed out with a carpenter during the last century ; 
 and at the beginning of the present the heir of the 
 
 * The male line of Hungerford is extinct in England, but direct 
 descendants of the old and illustrious stock may still be found 
 in Ireland, their present representative being Thomas Hun- 
 GEEFOED, Esq., of Inchidony, co. Cork. .^ 
 
THE LAST OF THE CASTLETONS. 197 
 
 eminent and ancient family of Castleton, and the twelfth 
 baronet of the name in succession, was a breeches-maker 
 at Lynn, in Norfolk. The "Universal Magazine/^ of 
 1810, thus records his decease : — 
 
 " Died at Lynn, aged fifty-eight, Mr. Edward Castleton, 
 He was the last lineal descendant of Sir William Castleton, 
 of Hiugham, Norfolk, who was created a Baronet in 1641 : 
 the family and title are therefore now become extinct. He 
 died a bachelor, and never assumed the baronetcy. He 
 for many years followed the very humble employment of 
 breeches-maker in Lynn, but latterly lived on a small 
 patrimonial inheritance/' 
 
 The loyalty of the Roches should have preserved them 
 from suspicion. In a petition presented to the Lords of 
 Council in 1614, it is stated that in Tyrone's rebellion, 
 three of the sons of Lord Roche were slain, and many of his 
 people. The castle of this stout cavalier maintained a brave 
 defence against the beleaguering army of Cromwell during 
 the Parliamentary war ; and the famous Countess of Derby 
 was not singular in displaying the heroism so remarkable 
 in a female breast, for Lady Roche proved that her fidelity 
 to her sovereign was superior to regard for her own safety. 
 She refused to yield up the castle, and sustained a siege 
 for several days with great spirit ; but a battery having 
 been brought to bear on the walls from a place since called 
 Camp Hill, she found the place untenable, and was forced 
 to capitulate. Though the Lord Roche might have re- 
 tained his estates on submitting to Cromwell, he refused 
 to break his allegiance, and confiscation deprived him 
 of his possessions. He retired to Flanders, where he 
 
198 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 obtained the command of a regiment, and might have 
 lived in comfort, if not affluence, but the pay which 
 should have supported his family was contributed to 
 assuage the exile of his sovereign ; and how was he re- 
 paid ? — " Put not thy trust in Princes/' saith the proverb. 
 Charles II. was restored to the throne of his fathers, 
 but was Lord Roche to the castle of his ? The following 
 letter, addressed from the Earl of Orrery to the Duke of 
 Ormonde, dated June 14th, 1667, recommending Lord 
 Roche and his destitute family to his Grace's favour, is the 
 fullest answer : — " It is a grief to me to see a nobleman 
 of so ancient a family left without any maintenance ; and 
 being able to do no more than I have done, I could not 
 deny to do for him what I could do, to lament his lament- 
 able state to your Grace." Lady Roche, of the second or 
 third generation from this gallant cavalier, was seen beg- 
 ging in the streets of Cork ! 
 
 The last story to pass before us in this genealogical 
 diorama is not less singular than any that have preceded 
 it : but to understand it rightly, I must reverse the witches* 
 charm in the case of Banquo^s progeny, and evoke the 
 shadows of the dead in lieu of tampering with the images 
 of the future. 
 
 '^Michael Palseologus,'' says Gibbon, "was the most 
 illustrious, in birth and merit, of the Greek nobles. Of 
 those who are proud of their ancestors, the far greater 
 part must be content with local or domestic renown, and 
 few there are who dare trust the memorials of their family 
 to the public annals of their country. As early as the 
 middle of the 11th century, the noble race of the Palseo- 
 
THE PAL^OLOGI. 199 
 
 logi stands high and conspicuous in the Byzantine history ; 
 it was the vaHant George Palseologus who placed the father 
 of the Comeni on the throne ; and his kinsmen or descend- 
 ants continue^ in each generation, to lead the armies and 
 councils of the State. The purple was not dishonoured 
 by their alliance; and had the law of succession and 
 female succession been strictly observed, the wife of 
 Theodore Lascaris must have yielded to her elder sister, 
 the mother of Michael Palseologus, who afterwards raised 
 his family to the throne/' 
 
 Michael Palseologus was crowned Emperor in 1260, and 
 in the following year Constantinople was recovered. With 
 the next fall of that famous city, its capture by Mahomet 
 II. in 1452, ended the imperial house of Palseologus. At 
 that memorable siege, Constantine Palseologus, the last 
 Greek emperor, who '^ accomplished all the duties of a 
 general and a soldier,^' fell by an unknown hand, and with 
 him fell the empire over which he ruled. The Palseologi 
 — the illustrious race so honourably commemorated by 
 Gibbon — furnished eight emperors to Constantinople, and 
 were the last of the ten dynasties, exclusive of the Franks, 
 that reigned over the Greek empire. Mighty indeed 
 were these Palseologi ; mighty in power, dignity, and re- 
 nown : yet, within less than two centuries from the heroic 
 death of the Emperor Constantine, their direct descendant, 
 Theodore Palseologus was resident, unnoticed and alto- 
 gether undistinguished, in a remote parish on the Tamar, 
 in Cornwall. 
 
 This parish was Landulph, about two miles from Salt- 
 ash, a locality already associated with the Courtenays, an- 
 
200 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 other family of Byzantine celebrity. The ancient church 
 of Landulph has many curious memorials; but there is 
 one monumental brass of surpassing interest, inscribed 
 with these words : — 
 
 ** i^ere Igeth the botJs of EheoUoro t^aUologbs 
 <Df IPesaro in Bulm^ tjescentjetj from ge Wm^ev^^^ll 
 S-gne of gc last Chriisttan (Bm^ttov^ of 0reece, 
 Being the Sonne of Cantelto ^^ sone of ^ros))er> 
 Che Sonne of Eheoljoro the Sonne of ^ohn gc 
 <Sonne of ^IThomas secontj brother to Constanttne 
 ^aleologus the 8th of that name anU last of 
 St Igne gt ravgnetr in Constanttnojile bntill sbh 
 iSehietj hg the Cbrhs* Wiho marrtetj btt iHarg 
 P« Uabghter of SSailltam Balls, of f^atjlge in 
 
 ,. .Sobffolfee, (BtnU, anti hati issue 5 ihiltjren, 
 Eheotioro, 3John, JFertrtnantiio, i^aria anti Porothg, 
 $c UejiarteU this life at Clgfton »e 21tf) of 
 3fanbar, 1636.** ^ 
 
 This inscription is surmounted by the imperial arms of 
 the Greek empire.* The family of Theodoro Palseologus 
 continued to reside at Clifton, near Landulph, for some 
 time after the date of the monumental brass. The 
 daughter Maria, thereon commemorated, died at Clifton, 
 
 * In 1811, the tomb in which Theodoro Palseologus was buried 
 was accidentally opened, and a body was there found in a single 
 oak coffin, in so perfect a state as to determine that he was in 
 stature far beyond the common height, and that his features 
 were oval, and his nose very aquiline — all family traits. He had 
 a very white beard, low down on his breast. 
 
 For this interesting anecdote, and much curious matter 
 connected with the subject of this reference to the extinct imperial 
 race of the Palseologi, I am indebted to John Thomas Towson, 
 Esq., an accompHshed antiquary and scholar. 
 
THEODORO PAL^OLOGUS. 201 
 
 in 1674, and her sister Dorothy, who married William 
 Arundell, Esq.^ and who is styled in the parish registry of 
 marriages at St. Melhon's, where the ceremony took place, 
 as " Dorothea Paleologus, de Stirpe Imperatorum/' resided 
 in the neighbourhood of Landulph up to the time of her 
 death in 1681. 
 
 Of Theodoro's sons, the eldest, named after his father, 
 was at one time a lieutenant in Lord St. John's regiment, 
 and died without issue ; the second, John, fell at Naseby, 
 fighting under the royal banner ; and the third, Ferdinando, 
 escaped after that same disastrous fight in which he 
 was also engaged ex parte regis, to the island of Bar- 
 badoes, where he inherited an estate from his grandfather 
 Bales, and where he married and settled, calling his dis- 
 tant home " Clifton Hall,'' in remembrance of his native 
 Landulph. There he closed his life in 1678, leaving an 
 only son, Theodore Palseologus, who died soon after, young 
 and unmarried. Thus expired the male line of the Palse- 
 ologi ! But many a long year after, so late as the last war 
 of independence in Greece, a Deputation was appointed by 
 the Provisional Government to enquire whether any of the 
 family of Palseologus existed. This deputation proceeded 
 to Italy, and various countries, where the Palseologi had 
 become refugees, and, amongst other places, to Landulph ; 
 but, as I have shown, no male Palseologus existed, or else 
 the descendant of Theodore, the humble resident of the 
 Cornish village, might perchance have ascended the re- 
 stored throne of Greece. 
 
 These stories of vicissitude and decay teU a mournful 
 tale of the instability of all things human : royal and im- 
 
202 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 perial dynasties — noble and gentle families — the proudest 
 warrior and tlie ablest statesman " fret their hour upon 
 the stage, and then are heard no more." 
 
 " Whole ages have fled, and their works deeay'd, 
 And nations scatter'd been ; 
 But the stout old ivy shall never fade 
 From its hale and hearty green. 
 
 " The brave old plant in its lonely days 
 Shall fatten upon the past : 
 For the stateliest building man can raise, 
 Is the ivy's food at last." 
 
LANDMARKS OF GENEALOGY. 
 
 I AM well aware that to many the genealogical tree ap- 
 pears to be little better than a barren trunk, producing 
 no fruit, or none of any value. Such, however, is not my 
 conviction. If it be a natural and laudable feeling for the 
 living to glory in the fame of their dead ancestors — if 
 such recollections serve as a spur to good and a check to 
 evil in ourselves. Genealogy is a valuable and important 
 science : if truth of persons as well as of facts be all- 
 essential to history, if without the accuracy so obtained, the 
 actors of one age are liable to be confounded with those 
 of another, to the obscuring of facts themselves, then again 
 is Genealogy a valuable and important science. And can 
 any one doubt that such is the case, even in its fullest 
 extent? Can any one, for a moment, doubt the in- 
 fluence — the beneficial influence — exercised upon most 
 minds by the noble pride of lineage ? What else is Ge- 
 nealogy, even in its driest form, denuded of all story — 
 what else is it but the record of persons, as history is more 
 peculiarly the record of events? In their more perfect 
 shapes, the two are seen to blend with, rather than to en- 
 croach upon, each other. History relieving the dryness of 
 Genealogy by the attractive narrative of events, and Ge- 
 nealogy, by its minute description of persons, imparting a 
 
204 LANDMARKS OF GENEALOGY. 
 
 deeper, and, as it were, a more dramatic interest to History. 
 Biography, too, perhaps the most pleasing branch of litera- 
 ture, owes a heavy debt to my favourite pursuit. What 
 would it be but for the Genealogist's labours ? 
 
 If I have not exaggerated— as I trust I have not — the 
 uses to be drawn from genealogical pursuits, little apology 
 will be needed for the following essay, which may, per- 
 haps, add something, however little (derived from my pe- 
 culiar course of study), to the general stock of knowledge. 
 Nor do I believe that Genealogy will prove, upon a closer 
 acquaintance, so barren of amusement as it is by some ima- 
 gined. On the contrary, I have no doubt that, reversing 
 the effect of the desert-mirage, while it seems from a dis- 
 tance to promise nothing but arid sands, it will be found 
 on a nearer approach to be a pleasant land, wherein neither 
 streams, nor flowers, nor green leaves are deficient. 
 
 One of the greatest impediments a genealogical inquirer 
 encounters at the onset of his researches, arises from a 
 want of acquaintance with the public and private records 
 necessary to assist him on his dubious and perplexing way. 
 The perusal of mouldering deeds and crumbling parch- 
 ments, the discovery of facts long gone by and forgotten, 
 and the investigation of events and connexions, trivial at 
 the period of their occurrence, but all-important in future 
 times to pedigree-elucidation, must ever require the most 
 determined energy and perseverance ; but still, though toil- 
 some may be the labour, it becomes comparatively light, 
 and the prospect of final success far more certain, when a 
 knowledge is acquired of the principal archives and au- 
 thorities wherein are contained the evidences of family 
 
DOMESDAY BOOK. 205 
 
 history. To supply the requisite information, and to con- 
 duct the reader over paths little frequented, and ground 
 almost untrodden, I propose to indicate the various land- 
 marks which may safely guide him to his journey^ s end, 
 by affording a brief and concise description of the nume- 
 rous important records which abound in public and pri- 
 vate repositories ; and which, when once indicated, can be 
 easily referred to. I must here acknowledge the debt I 
 owe to Mr. Griraaldi^s " Origines Genealogicse," for a vast 
 amount of information with reference to the genealogical 
 resources of England. 
 
 First in antiquity is the celebrated Domesday Book, 
 so called either from there being no appeal from its au- 
 thority, or from its place of preservation (Domus Dei) at 
 Westminster. It is a survey of the lands in England, 
 made by William the Conqueror, consisting of two vo- 
 lumes written in Latin, and completed in 1086. It was 
 deposited in the Charter- House of Westminster Abbey in 
 1096, and still remains there in excellent preservation. 
 Connected with this venerable authority are four other 
 MSS., called, I. The Exon Domesday (preserved in 
 Exeter Cathedral); II. The Inquisitio Eliensis; III. 
 The Winton Domesday ; and, IV. The Boldon Book 
 (a survey of the County Palatine of Durham) ; all of 
 which, as well as the Domesday Survey itself, have been 
 printed by order of the House of Commons, accompanied 
 by full indexes of persons, places, and things, and may be 
 consulted in all the public libraries. These records con- 
 tain the name and title of each person of importance in 
 the kingdom nearly eight centuries ago, the situation and 
 
206 LANDMARKS OF GENEALOGY. 
 
 extent of his estate, and, occasionally, his parentage and 
 children. 
 
 The Monastic Chartularies were parchment or vel- 
 lum books, comprising copies of all charters referring to 
 the property of the religious houses; for, however the 
 spiritual merits of the monks may be canvassed, their 
 energy in the preservation of their secular estates is un- 
 disputed; and these, together with the monastic Leiger 
 books. Registers, Necrologies, Calendars, and Chronicles, 
 contain much important genealogical matter, and, in some 
 instances, entire pedigrees of eminent families, benefactors 
 to the communities. In the collections made by the 
 monks are to be found rolls of names of kings, nobles, 
 and warriors ; and among these I may especially mention 
 the Great Tournament Roll, preserved in the College of 
 Arms, representing the Tournament of Henry the Eighth, 
 with portraits of himself and his courtiers ; and the Cru- 
 sade Roll of the time of the second Henry, exhibiting the 
 names and emblazoned arms of 200 eminent knights of 
 the last crusade. The most curious, however, of these 
 documents is the Roll op Battle Abbey, a record of 
 the names of the principal Norman soldiers, kept by the 
 monks of the Monastery which was founded on the field 
 of battle where Harold was slain.* 
 
 • " Dicitur a bello Bellum locus hie, quia beUo 
 Angligense victi, suot Lie in morte relicti : 
 Martyris in Christi festo eeeidere Calixti : 
 Sexagenus erat sextus miUessimus annus 
 Cum pereunt Angli, stella monstrante cometa." 
 
 Much doubt has been thrown upon the accuracy of the Roll of 
 Battle Abbey, so far at least as it may be regarded as the mus- 
 
ROLL OF BATTLE ABBEY. 207 
 
 Two ancient manuscript copies of the Roll are in the 
 British Museum {Lansd. MSS. 215, and Harl. MSS. 
 3763), and printed copies may be found in Leland^s 
 Collectanea, and Holinshed's and Stow's Chronicles, as 
 well as in Fuller's Church History. 
 
 Some few chronicles, chartularies, and registers have 
 been printed ; but the most extensive published collection 
 is in Dugdale's Monasticon, wherein many thousands are 
 transcribed from the original grants, leiger books, or muni- 
 ments of the respective monasteries. The Harleian and 
 Cottonian Libraries, in the British Museum, comprise the 
 largest quantity of these important documents ; and in the 
 
 ter-roll of the Norman chiefs who survived the field of Hastings, 
 there being more than suspicion that its holy guardians felt 
 slight qualm at interpolation, when by that means they could 
 propitiate the favour of some anticipated wealthy benefactor, or 
 gratify the vanity of some potent steel-clad baron. " It was no 
 unworthy pride," says Mr. Warburton, " that would introduce 
 a little of the Norman sap into the family tree. And if to effect 
 such an object, history be sometime twisted, and heraldry sub- 
 orned, let us look with indulgent eyes. Even at this day, in a 
 country where titles command so much respect from the general 
 worth of those who bear them, Norman blood is the proudest 
 boast, and Norman features the proudest distinction." Be this 
 as it may, the EoU of Battle Abbey is, at all events, one of monk- 
 ish times, and has always been held in high estimation by the 
 ancient chroniclers. Grafton calls the list he publishes, " The 
 Names of the Gentlemen that came out of Normandy with Wil- 
 liam, Duke of that provynce, when he conquered the noble 
 B/calme of England : the which he states that he took out of an 
 ancient Recorde that he had of Clarenceux King of Armes.'* 
 And Stow asserts that his catalogue is transcribed from'/' A table 
 sometime in Battaille Abbey." Guilliam Tayleur, too, a Norman 
 historian, who could not have had any communication with the 
 monks of Battle, has also given a copy of the muster-roll. 
 
208 LANDMARKS OP GENEALOGY. 
 
 Augmentation Office, which was formed for their custody, 
 an abundance is still preserved of great interest and value, 
 with indexes for the benefit of the public. Private libraries, 
 too, especially those of Cambridge and Oxford, possess 
 some of these . church records. Considerable, however, 
 as the list is of those that have been preserved, it is 
 painful to learn from John Bale, who wrote in 1549, that 
 " the books of monasteries were reserved by the purchasers 
 of those houses to scour their candlesticks, and to rub 
 their boots ; some were sold to grocers and sopesellers, 
 and some were sent over the sea to the bookbinders, not 
 in small numbers, but at times whole ships full. A mer- 
 chant bought two noble libraries for forty shillings." 
 
 Of the genealogical utility of the monastic records no 
 doubt can exist ; and all the eminent writers on the sub- 
 ject of family history, Dugdale, Collins, &c., bear testi- 
 mony to their value. In the claim to the Barony of Dacre, 
 made by Margaret Fenys, temp. Queen EHzabeth, there 
 was received as evidence, " a pedigree taken out of an old 
 book, remaining now with my Lord William Howard, 
 sometime belonging to the Priory of Lanercost." 
 
 Ancient Charters and Title Deeds afford direct 
 proofs of a genealogy, as they set forth the description of 
 the party, making the instrument his seal of arms, and 
 occasionally some recital referring to his father, mother, 
 wife, children or other relations. The British Museum 
 has a most extensive collection of "Cartse Antiquse" 
 {i.e. deeds and writings dating from the Saxon period 
 to the reign of Henry VIII.), royal charters, foundation 
 charters, and private deeds. The Tower of London, the 
 
CHARTERS AND TITLE DEEDS. 209' 
 
 Bodleian Library at Oxford, the Augmentation Office, the 
 Duchy of Lancaster Office, Carlton Ride, the archives of 
 our Cathedrals, the Chapter House at Westminster, the 
 Archiepiscopal Palace of Lambeth, and the State Paper Office, 
 all contain numerous royal and public charters, and a variety 
 of deeds and endowments. Those at Oxford begin from the 
 Saxon period of history, and relate, many of them, to the 
 widely spread possessions of the Templars and the Knights 
 of St. John of Jerusalem. The cartse antiquse of the Tower 
 consist of forty-one ancient rolls of inrolments of grants, 
 from the time of the Saxon King Edgar to that of Henry 
 IIL, made principally to ecclesiastics. A calendar of them, 
 with an ind^x locorum, was printed by Sir J. Ayloflfe, in 
 1772, and in the office is an index virorum. The Lans- 
 downe MSS. have an abstract of them, and full copies are 
 in the Lincola^s Inn Library, and in the Harleian collec- 
 tion. In private families, long possessed of hereditary 
 estates, the cartse antiquse are numerous beyond all idea. 
 The repositories of the Howards, Cavendishes, Manners^ s, 
 Talbots, Shirleys, Digbys, Percys, Seymours, and many 
 others, contain thousands and tens of thousands of these 
 important records. One single chartulary of the Percys 
 comprises nearly two thousand transcripts. The House of 
 Marr in Scotland, whose nobility ascends to the remotest 
 period, establishes the fact by a charter of the year 1171, 
 Next come the Monument, the Tombstone, and the 
 Coffin Plate, the last sad memorials of this world's 
 evanescent greatness, recalling to the antiquary and the 
 historian the lives and merits of those " who were of fame, 
 and had been glorious in another day." But it should be 
 
 p 
 
210 LANDMARKS OF GENEALOGY. 
 
 borne in mind^ that eiTors in dates^ and even in names, 
 sometimes occur in these inscriptions. Of this, the epi- 
 taphs to Sterne and Goldsmith afford remarkable evidence; 
 in the latter a mistake of no less than three years occurs. 
 '' In the claim to the Eerners barony/^ says Mr. Grimaldi, 
 in his most learned and admirable work, ' Origines Gene- 
 alogicse,^ "evidence was adduced before the House of Lords 
 to prove that the time of the death of a party was not as 
 engraved on the monument. Many causes contribute to 
 this incorrectness : executors are not always well informed 
 on the subject ; frequently all transactions relating to 
 funerals and monuments (of eminent men especially) are 
 under the direction of an undertaker, a person seldom very 
 careful or very learned ; he again hands over half his orders 
 to the stone-mason, a man of less learning; and if (as is 
 the case) we daily see the most absurd orthography in 
 epitaphs, there is less reason to impute infallibihty to the 
 same chisel when carving dates, though the stranger, for- 
 tunately for the sculptor's reputation, can be no critic 
 there." 
 
 Much important information may be derived from 
 Coffin Plates, especially regarding families of rank or 
 of long residence on manorial estates. The sepulchre of 
 the Brydges, Dukes of Chandos, supplies ample data for 
 a full and authentic pedigree of that distinguished house ; 
 and the " Memorials of the Tufton Family " are derived 
 almost entirely from the Coffin Plates found in the vaults 
 of the Earls of Thanet. The earliest funeral monuments 
 are those bearing the names of Romanized Britons in 
 Cornwall and Wales ; and in the cathedrals of St. Albans, 
 
COFFIN PLATES — THE PIPE ROLL. 211 
 
 Westminster, Winchester, and others, may still be seen 
 inscriptions eight centuries old. But the times of Henry 
 VIII. and Cromwell, so fatal to church architecture and 
 monastic records, were alike destructive of the stately mo- 
 nument and the venerable tomb. Inscriptions in which 
 taste and vanity were competitors for perpetuating their 
 votaries in the Temple of Fame, and which would have 
 handed down invaluable information to the herald and 
 genealogist, have thus perished, and the memory of many 
 of the good and eminent of former days, as recorded in 
 their epitaphs, can only be gathered from the copies of 
 ancient monuments preserved in the Harleian, Cottonian, 
 and Bodleian libraries, from the County Histories, and 
 from the various works on the subject published within 
 the last two hundred years, such as Weever's Funeral 
 Monuments, Le Neve^s Monumenta Anglicana, and 
 Gough's Sepulchral Memorials. 
 
 The Great Roll of the Exchequer, well known as 
 the Pipe Roll, contains an account of the revenue of 
 the Crown, beginning in the fifth year of the reign 
 of King Stephen, and continued to the present time. 
 It is a document of great interest and utility, to which 
 nearly every ancient pedigree is indebted. In it may be 
 found a perfect list of the sheriffs of the different counties, 
 and almost every name of note of English history. Tran- 
 scripts of some of the early Pipe Rolls are in the British 
 Museum, and much valuable matter, carefully digested, 
 may be found in the important collection bequeathed by 
 Mrs. Madox to the National Repository. As an instance 
 of the genealogical utility of this celebrated record, we 
 
 p 2 
 
212 LANDMARKS OF GENEALOGY. 
 
 may instance the case of tbe Russell pedigree, which con- 
 mences by stating that " this illustrious family hath been 
 for many ages possessed of a large estate in the county 
 of Dorset, as is manifest from the account of the sheriff 
 in 1202, when John Russell gave fifty marks for licence to 
 marry the sister of a great man called Daun Bardolf/^ 
 This sheriff^s account, proving John RusselFs existence, 
 marriage, and estate, is obtained from the Pipe Roll, and 
 the particulars of these parties exist on no other record. 
 
 The Post Mortem Inquisitions w^ere inquests held by 
 a jury of the county, summoned, by the escheater, to in- 
 quire of the death of every one of the king^s tenants, of 
 what lands he died seised, who was his heir, &c. These 
 returns, the Inquisitiones post Mortem, sometimes called 
 escheats, commencing with the third year of the reign of 
 Henry III., and terminating 20 Charles I., are preserved 
 in the Chapter House, in the Rolls Chapel, in the Duchy 
 of Lancaster Office, and at Carlton Ride, Carlton Terrace, 
 London, and assist materially all genealogical researches. 
 The same may be said of the " Proceedings in Chancery,'^ 
 a productive source of family history. 
 
 The Placita Rolls, or the Pleadings in the several 
 Courts, and the Judgments on them, contain proofs of 
 heirs, their ages and pedigrees, classified according to 
 the several courts. " They give," says Mr. Sims, in his 
 admirable 'Manual of the Public Records,' "the most 
 important information upon every subject respecting which 
 men wage legal war with each other ; and among these 
 subject are most especially to be enumerated the claims 
 to lands, honours, and baronies.'^ Mr. Sims gives in his 
 
WILLS AND WILL-OFFICES. 213 
 
 very important work a minute analysis of the Placita 
 RoTULi, and Parliamentary Records ; and to those who 
 have occasion to refer to any of those important sources of 
 information, I cannot do better than to direct them to 
 'the Manual/ as the surest and safest guide. 
 
 I now come to the principal, and often the only records 
 by which families in the middling class of life can trace 
 any descent prior to the introduction of parochial records, 
 for the Inquisitions, of which I have just spoken, were only 
 taken on the tenants in capite, — I refer to Wills and 
 Administrations. Few, if any, documents contain so 
 great an amount of genealogical details ; for the testaments 
 of men of property almost invariably name two, and fre- 
 quently three or four, clear descents, and refer to relations 
 and kindred who could never otherwise be attached to the 
 pedigree. The Will Offices, therefore, of the diflferent 
 dioceses, as well as those of the Courts of Peculiars, are 
 the great sources whence the modern genealogist must 
 derive his materials ; and in all cases, one of his first pro- 
 ceedings should be a reference to such of these important 
 documents as may be likely to throw light upon the sub- 
 ject of his investigation. Made at a solemn and impressive 
 moment, and with a feeling of the sanctity of the instru- 
 ment, they are scarcely ever inaccurate or false, and in 
 perusing their details, we seem to hear again the voice and 
 words of the departed, telling his own story and referring 
 to facts of other times, with all the truth and certainty 
 which personal knowledge can alone impart. 
 
 The principal Will Offices are, I. Doctors' Commons, 
 St. PauFs, London, in which may be found the Wills 
 
214 LANDMARKS OF GENEALOGY. 
 
 proved within the Archbishopric of Canterbury. II. York, 
 the jurisdiction of which extends over the counties of 
 York, Chester, Lancaster, Cumberland, Westmoreland, 
 Northumberland, Durham, and Flint. III. Chester, 
 which includes the whole county of Chester, and parts of 
 the adjacent counties of York, Lancaster, Cumberland, 
 Westmoreland, and Flint. IV. Lincoln, to which are 
 attached Leicestershire, Beds, Huntingdonshire, and Bucks, 
 with parts of Hereford and Derby. V. Lichfield and 
 Coventry, which comprises Staffordshire and Derbyshire, 
 and the greater part of Warwickshire and Shropshire. 
 There are besides the Will Offices of Bangor, Bath and 
 Wells, Bristol, Chichester, Ely, Exeter, Gloucester, Here- 
 ford, London, Norwich, Oxford, Rochester, St. Asaph, and 
 Winchester. 
 
 The next best clues the investigator has to the right 
 elucidation of genealogy, are the Parochial Registers of 
 births, marriages, and burials. These documents seem to 
 have begun about the middle of the sixteenth century, 
 shortly after the dissolution of the monasteries, and the 
 dispersion of the monks, who had been until that time 
 the faithful recorders of those events.* Many causes, and 
 none more than the civil war and the usurpation of Crom- 
 well, have combined to render incomplete the series of 
 
 * In 1538, the 30th Henry VIIL, a mandate was issued by the 
 Vicar General for the keeping of registers of baptisms, marriages, 
 and burials, in every parish ; before which date there were no 
 parochial records ; thenceforward, however, with the exception 
 of the much-to-be-lamented hiatus caused by the troubled times 
 of Charles I. and the Protectorate of Cromwell, a period of 
 nearly twenty years, these documents have been regularly pre- 
 served. 
 
FLEET MARRIAGES AND MAY FAIR MARRIAGES. 215 
 
 these national registries : but still, despite of their occa- 
 sional deficiency, they are invaluable for the particulars 
 they afford. While on the subject of parochial records, 
 we may perhaps be excused a brief reference to one of the 
 most notorious and ruinous abuses that ever existed iu 
 London — the system of Fleet Marriages. These alli- 
 ances were solemnized by regularly ordained clergymen, 
 residing within the Fleet Prison or its rules, and generally 
 confined for debt. Future generations will possibly dis- 
 credit the extraordinary accounts of these proceedings that 
 are handed down ; but the following is an extract from the 
 Gentleman's Magazine for 1735, copied by that work from 
 the Grub Street Journal, bearing all the impress of truth : 
 ' A female correspondent, who signs ' Virtuous,^ complains 
 of the many ruinous marriages that are every year practised 
 in the Fleet, by a set of drunken swearing parsons, with their 
 myrmidons, that wear black coats and pretend to be clerks 
 and registers to the Fleet, plying about Ludgate Hill, 
 pulling and forcing people to some peddling alehouse or 
 brandy-shop to be married; even on a Sunday, stopping 
 them as they go to church. Not long since, a young lady 
 was deluded and forced from her friends, and by the assist- 
 ance of a very wicked, swearing parson, married to an 
 atheistical wretch whose life is a continual practice of all 
 manner of vice and debauchery. Another young lady was 
 decoyed to a house in the confines of the Fleet by a pre- 
 tended clergyman ; Dr. Wryneck immediately appeared, 
 and swore she should be married, or if she would not, he 
 would have his fee, and register the marriage from that 
 night. The lady, to recover her liberty, left her ring as a 
 pledge that she would meet him the morrow night." 
 
216 LANDMARKS OF GENEALOGY. 
 
 Among remarkable marriages celebrated in the Fleet, 
 we may mention that of Jobn Twisleton, Esq., father of 
 Lord Saye and Sele, in 1 735, and that of Henry, first Lord 
 Holland, to the daughter of the Duke of Richmond, in 
 1744. 
 
 Such of the Fleet Registers as could be discovered and 
 obtained, have been purchased by Government, and de- 
 posited at the Bishop of London's office, in Doctors' 
 Commons. 
 
 Marriages at the May Fair Chapel were almost as noto- 
 rious as those of the Fldet, and so numerous did they 
 become, that 6000, it is said, took place in one year; a 
 circumstance that hastened the passing of Lord Hard- 
 wicke's Act. At this chapel, on the site of which now 
 stands Curzon Chapel, the Duke of Kingston was married 
 to Miss Chudleigh, as was the Baroness Clinton to the 
 Hon. Mr. Shirley, and the Duke of Hamilton to the beau- 
 tiful Miss Gunning. The registers form three folio vo- 
 lumes, closely and clearly written, and now remain with the 
 parish books at St. George's Hanover Square. 
 
 With reference to this subject, the books containing 
 entries of the grants of marriage licenses must not be 
 forgotten, as very important genealogical guides, for, con- 
 nected with them, are the original affidavits made by the 
 applicants, which give the names, descriptions, residences, 
 and ages of the parties to be married, the church where the 
 ceremony was to be performed, and sometimes the parents' 
 names. These licenses, of a date subsequent to the Refor- 
 mation, with the affidavits, are to be found in the registries 
 of the several archbishops and bishops. 
 
HERALDS^ VISITATIONS. 217 
 
 I will next pass to another and perhaps the safest and 
 most available Repository of Genealogical information, the 
 College of Arms, (Benet^s Hill, St. PauFs, London), in 
 which is deposited the most valuable series of pedigrees 
 in existence, including the Heralds' Visitations and nume- 
 rous other genealogical documents, which are described in 
 " The Report on Public Records," 1837, p. 106. At the 
 present time, the College of Arms has attained a high de- 
 gree of efficiency and authority under the heraldic govern- 
 ment of Sir Charles Young, Garter. On the interesting 
 science of Heraldry, I have given in this volume a brief 
 essay, showing its great importance with reference to family 
 history, and its especial value as a kind of index to genea- 
 logy : I will therefore confine myself at present merely to the 
 Heralds' Visitations, the most comprehensive of all the 
 sources of heraldic and genealogical knowledge. These he- 
 raldic records contain the pedigrees of the landed proprietors 
 of the time entitled to bear arms, and were compiled by 
 virtue of a commission under the privy seal, issued to the 
 two provincial Kings of Arms, authorising and commanding 
 each of them, either personally or by deputy, to visit the 
 whole of his province as often as he should think fit, to 
 convene before him all manner of persons who pretended 
 to the use of arms, or were styled esquires and gentlemen, 
 and to cause those thus summoned to show by what autho- 
 rity they claimed the distinction. In furtherance of their 
 arduous and ofttimes invidious duties, great and almost 
 unreasonable powers were granted to them. They had 
 full power and licence, not only to enter, upon reasonable 
 request and at reasonable hours of the day, into all 
 
218 LANDMARKS OF GENEALOGY* 
 
 churches, castles, houses, and other places, to peruse 
 therein all arms, cognizances, crests, and other devices, 
 and to record the same, with the descents, marriages, and 
 issue, in Register Books, — which are now so well known 
 as the Visitations, — but also to correct and reform all 
 bearings unlawfully usurped or inaccurately adopted, and 
 in certain cases to reverse, pull down, and deface the same. 
 The mode of procedure was this : on arriving at the place 
 wherein the Visitation was to be holden, the provincial 
 king issued a warrant, directed to the high constable of 
 the hundred, or to the mayor or chief officer of the dis- 
 trict, commanding him to warn the several knights, es- 
 quires, and gentlemen, particularly named in such warrant, 
 as well as all others within his jurisdiction, to appear per- 
 sonally before him, at the house and on the day specified, 
 and to bring with them such arms and crests as they then 
 bore, together with their pedigrees and descents, and such 
 evidences and ancient writings as may justify the same, 
 in order to their being registered. On the day appointed, 
 the provincial King or his deputy attended, and so long as 
 the laws of chivalry were honoured and esteemed, general 
 attention and respect were paid to these summonses : at- 
 tested pedigrees were submitted to the heralds, and thus 
 were produced the important registrations of which I am 
 speaking, and which have preserved to the present period 
 many a line of descent that would otherwise have been 
 irretrievably lost. With the lapse of years, however, the 
 estimation, in which the Visitations were held, gradually 
 died away, and after the Revolution of 1688, all the efforts 
 of the decayed Court of Chivalry were unavailing to con- 
 
heralds' visitations. 219 
 
 tinue their operation. One of the circumstances that 
 tended most effectually to their destruction was the in- 
 competence and dishonesty of the persons who were de- 
 puted by the heralds to collect information. True it is, 
 that when these illicit proceedings were discovered, the 
 delinquents suffered fine and imprisonment, and we have 
 on record a curious document which alludes to a far 
 severer punishment; being a warrant from the Earl of 
 Essex, Earl Marshal, to Robert Tresswell, Somerset herald, 
 dated Dec. 31, 1597, signed by Dethick, Camden, and 
 Segar, and directed to all justices of the peace, constables, 
 and headboroughs, authorising the apprehension of one 
 W. Dakyns, " a notable dealer in arms and maker of false 
 pedigrees, for which fault, about xx years past, he lost one 
 of his ears.'' 
 
 The Visitations made under the early commissions are 
 in many instances a narrative, and (as maybe supposed in 
 their commencement) meagre in detail, sometimes con- 
 taining little more than notes of arms of the gentry, and 
 the Founders and Priors of monasteries, and seldom exhi- 
 biting more than the lineal descending line of the family; 
 subsequently they assume a more important form, affording 
 full and accurate statements of pedigrees, and supplying 
 collateral details. The various entries are in most cases 
 attested by the signatures of the heads of the house, and 
 occasionally by persons on their behalf. 
 
 The earliest of the Visitations, recorded in the College 
 of Arms, took place in 1529, comprising the counties 
 of Gloucester, Worcester, Oxford, Wilts, Berks, and Staf- 
 ford, and at intervals of about twenty-five years, they con 
 
220 LANDMARKS OF GENEALOGY. 
 
 tinued to be made until their final discontinuance, towards 
 the close of the seventeenth century. The originals of 
 these records are, with some exceptions, in the College of 
 Arms. Various transcripts, however, exist, and the library 
 of the British Museum is surpassingly rich in its collection 
 of heraldic MSS. That great national institution, now 
 so ably presided over by Antonio Panizzi, Esq., contains 
 some of the original Visitations, and copies of most of the 
 others, and the care with which they are indexed, and the 
 facility afibrded by the attention and valuable assistance 
 constantly and unreservedly afforded by the intelligent 
 Librarians at the Museum Reading-Room, render the 
 consultation of these important documents a matter of 
 not the slightest difficulty to the veriest neophyte in heraldic 
 research. In some of the libraries at Oxford, Cambridge, 
 especially in Queen's College in the former University, 
 and in Caius College in the latter, and in many private 
 collections, such as the splendidly rich one of Sir Thomas 
 Phillipps, Bart., at Middle Hill, co. Worcester, these docu- 
 ments may frequently be met with. I annex the dates of 
 the various Visitations, printing, within brackets, each of 
 those of which there is not a copy in the British Museum: — 
 Bedfordshire: 1566, 1582, [1586], 1634, [1669]. 
 Berks : 1531, 1566, [1597], 1623, 1664. Bucks : 
 1566, 1574, 1634. Cambridgeshire: 1575, 1590, 
 
 1619. Cheshire : 1533, [1566], [1569], 1580, 
 1591, 1612, [1663]. Cornwall: 1530, 1573, 1620. 
 Cumberland: 1615, [1665]. Derbyshire: 1569, 
 1611, [1634], 1662. Devon: 1531, 1564, [1572], 
 
 1620. Dorset: 1530, 1565, ]623. Durham: 1575, 
 
funeral entries i founders^ kin pedigrees. 221 
 
 1615, [1666]. Essex: 1552, ]558, 1570, 1612, 1634, 
 [1664]. Gloucester: [1530], [1569], 1583, 1623. 
 Hants: 1530,1552,1575,1622. Hereford: [1569], 
 1586, 1634. Herts: 1572, [1615], 1634. Hunting- 
 donshire : 1564, [1566], 1613. Kent : [1530], 1574, 
 1592, 1619, 1623, 1663. Lancashire: 1533,1567, 
 1613, [1664]. Leicestershire: 1563, 1619. Lin- 
 coln: [1562], 1564, 1592, [1634]. London: 1568, 
 1634, [1664]. Middlesex: [1572], [1634], 1663. 
 Monmouth: [1683]. Norfolk: 1563, 1589, 1613, 
 [1664], [1668]. Northampton: [1564], [1617], 
 1618. Northumberland: 1575, 1615, [1666]. Notts: 
 1530, 1569, [1575], 1614, [1662]. Oxford: [1530], 
 1566, 1574, 1634. Rutland: 1618. Shropshire: 
 [1569], 1584, 1623, [1663]. Somerset: [1531], 1573, 
 1591, 1623. Staffordshire: [1528], 1563, 1583, 
 1614,1663. Suffolk: 1561,1577,1611. Surrey: 
 1530, 1552, 1572, 1623, 1662. Sussex : 1530, 1574, 
 1633, [1662]. Warwick: 1563, 1619. Westmore- 
 land: 1615, [1664]. Wilts: [1530], 1565, 1623. 
 Worcester: [1530], 1569, [1634]. Yorkshire : 1530, 
 [1552], 1563, 1574, 1584, 1612, 1665. 
 
 Other heraldic records of great value are Funeral 
 Entries and Certificates, documents which contain 
 attested accounts of the time of death, of the place of 
 burial, and of the marriages, issue, and frequently the 
 collateral branches of the several persons whose funerals 
 were attended by the Officers-of-Arms or their deputies, 
 illustrated with the armorial ensigns of the deceased. The 
 entries in the funeral certificates are so full and authentic. 
 
222 LANDMARKS OF GENEALOGY. 
 
 that they prove of the most essential service in the deduc- 
 tion of pedigrees. They were taken by virtue of an order 
 of the Earl Marshal, issued in 1567, wherein it was en- 
 joined that every King- of- Arms, Herald, or Pursuivant, 
 acting at a funeral, should lodge in the Office of Arms a 
 certificate signed by the executors and mourners present. 
 With the decline of heraldic influence, consequent on the 
 Revolution of 1688, these funeral entries fell into disuse, 
 but there are certificates dated as late as 1717. 
 
 The Founders' Kin Pedigrees, also registered in 
 the College of Arms, exhibit the descents of individuals 
 from certain Pounders of colleges or fellowships, who have 
 directed a preference to be given to their own kindred, 
 such as Bishop Wykeham at New College, Sir Thomas 
 White at St. John's, and Archbishop Chichele at All Souls'. 
 
 Thus far I have referred to the principal heraldic docu- 
 ments elucidating family descent. An immense mass of 
 information besides is supplied by the genealogical MSS. 
 preserved in the Harleian and Cottonian Miscellanies and in 
 the additional MSS. at the British Museum, and in the 
 collections of Vincent, Glover, Le Neve, Brook, &c., in the 
 College of Arms. 
 
 In connection with the subject of family bearings, I 
 may not inappropriately, perhaps, refer to family entries 
 in Bibles, letters, and manuscripts. These documents are 
 so familiar to every one, that no description is required ; 
 but although their importance is universally acknowledged, 
 it is surprising how irregularly the entries are generally 
 kept. Every family should preserve a record of births, 
 marriages, and deaths ; and thus the confusion and litiga- 
 tion in which the inheritance of titles and property are 
 
COUNTY HISTORIES. ^23 
 
 frequently involved would never occur. Those that al- 
 ready possess old Bibles containing these entries and fa- 
 mily MSS. cannot be too careful of them ; for, owing to 
 the destruction of many parish registers, they may, in all 
 probability, contain the only proofs in existence by which 
 their descents can be traced. Letters,* and the innumera- 
 ble documents treasured up in families, afford very valuable 
 assistance to pedigrees, and have at all times been used 
 and received in evidence. 
 
 Another important repository of genealogical information 
 must not be left unnoticed, — the Registers of the Univer- 
 sities, the College Admission Books, and the Matriculation 
 Papers, affording, as they do, the Christian and surnames 
 of the student, and of his father, the latter^s station in 
 life, his residence, the student's birth-place, his age, and 
 school wherein he received his education. At Cambridge, 
 the Matriculation Papers commence in 1544, twenty years 
 before those of Oxford. 
 
 Among PRINTED BOOKS, in elucidation of "Peerage^' 
 history, the most valuable are "Dugdale's Baronage,^' 
 "Collins' Peerage," "Edmondson's Baronagium," "Banks' 
 Extinct Peerage,'' and " Courthope's Historic Peerage/' for 
 
 * Prior to the reign of Henry V. specimens of EngHsh corre- 
 spondence are rare ; letters previously to that time were usually 
 written in French or Latin, and were the productions chiefly of 
 the great or the learned. The letters of learned men were ver- 
 bose treatises, mostly on express subjects ; those of the great, 
 who employed scribes, from their formality resembled legal 
 instruments. We have nothing earlier than the 15th century, 
 which can be termed a familiar letter. The material, too, upon 
 which letters were written, up to the same period, was usually 
 vellum ; very few instances, indeed, occurring, of more ancient 
 date, of letters written on common paper. — Grimaldi. 
 
224 LANDMARKS OF GENEALOGY. 
 
 pedigrees of the Landed Gentlemen, the genealogist will find 
 his chief guides the County Histories — a series of works 
 which forms a branch of literature peculiar to England. 
 The first labourer in the field of topographical research 
 was the indefatigable Leland, and his " Itinerary " may 
 with truth be considered the foundation stone of English 
 topography. He was succeeded by the learned Camden, 
 and after him came Dugdale (the Prince of genealogists), 
 Dods worth, Erdeswick, Burton and Plott. The earliest 
 County History is Dugdale-'s " Warwickshire :" at present 
 the Collection includes Ashmole^s ^' Berkshire -/' Lips- 
 combe's ^' Bucks '/' Ormerod^s " Cheshire," (a magnificent 
 work, of great authority) ; Carew's " Survey of Cornwall," 
 and Polwhele^s History of the same county, and also Gil- 
 berths ; Nicholson and Burn^s " Cumberland ;" Glover^s 
 "Derbyshire;" Pole, Risdon, and Westcote^s "Devon Col- 
 lections j" Hutchins^ " Dorsetshire;" Surtees^ "Durham," 
 (worthy of being placed next to Ormerod^s Cheshire) ; Mo- 
 rant's " Essex;" Atkyns' and Budder's " Gloucestershire;" 
 Duncumb's " Herefordshire ;" Clutterbuck's " Herts ;" 
 Hasted's " Kent;" Corry'sand Baines' "Lancashire;" Ni- 
 chol's " Leicestershire ;" Blomefield's " Norfolk;" Baker's 
 " Northamptonshire ;" Hodgson's " Northumberland ;" 
 Thoresby's "Thoroton's Notts;" Blore's " Rutlandshire;" 
 Blakeway's " Sheriffs of Shropshire ;" Collinson's and 
 Phelips' " Somersetshire;" Shaw's " Staffordshire;" Gage's 
 and Suckling's " Suffolk ;" Manning and Bray's " Surrey;'^ 
 Dallaway's and Horsfield's "Sussex;" Dugdale's "War- 
 wickshire ;" Nicholson and Burn's " Westmoreland ;" 
 Hoare's "Wiltshire;" Nash's "Worcestershire;'^ Hunter^s 
 
RECORDS OF MILESIAN FAMILIES. 225 
 
 " Deanery of Doncaster" and '^Hallam shire," (both the pro- 
 ductions of a learned, able, and indefatigable antiquary) ; 
 Whitaker's " Loidis and Elmete," " Deanery of Craven •/' 
 "Parish of Whalley;" and " Richmondshire ;" Oliver's 
 " Beverley ;" Graves' and Ord's " Cleveland ;" Watson's 
 " Halifax;" and Poulson's "Holderness." Lysons' "Magna 
 Britannia," a very able and useful work, refers only to the 
 Counties of Bedford, Berks, Bucks, Cambridge, Chester, 
 Cornwall, Derby, and Devon. There are besides numerous 
 local books, such as Gregson's " Fragments of Lanca- 
 shire;" Lysons' "Environs of London;" Savage's " Car- 
 hampton ;" Gage's " Hengrave ;" Ord's " Cleveland;" and 
 Grainge's " Vale of Mowbray ;" which give a great deal of 
 local matter and genealogical detail not elsewhere to be 
 found. In addition, I may, perhaps, be allowed to add, as 
 a source of genealogical information, my own work on 
 " The Landed Gentry." 
 
 The repositories of genealogical information in Ireland, 
 though far from being as rich in materials as the English, 
 claim a higher antiquity. 
 
 The genealogical pretensions of the Milesians or ancient 
 noblesse of Ireland, rival those of the Imperial house of 
 Austria, or the Ducal family of Arcot, where pedigrees, it 
 is said, reach back to the Deluge. The Scoto-Milesians 
 trace their descent to the same epoch ; and in many of the 
 older pedigrees, the compilers, not content with the remote- 
 ness of Noah, pass on to the father of mankind, — Adam 
 himself ! 
 
 The Milesians were most particular in preserving and 
 recording the genealogies of their families. The office of 
 
226 LANDMARKS OF GENEALOGY. 
 
 " Antiquary/' somewhat analogous to that of the modem 
 English herald, was created to preserve a knowledge of his- 
 torical events, and genealogies of families. The compilations 
 of the antiquaries were duly examined in the Fez or Na- 
 tional Assembly, and were recorded in the great register or 
 Psalter of Tara. This practice of chronicling events and 
 genealogies continued to be observed to a late period ; and 
 was kept alive in Christian times by a succession of Mo- 
 nastic chroniclers, to whom we owe those various volumes 
 of Psalters and annals with which the ancient literature 
 of Ireland abounds. The larger part of the genealogical 
 contents of those numerous and voluminous works are col. 
 lected and compiled in five great works in folio, which con- 
 tain detailed pedigrees of Irish families ; but, without the 
 services of those great masters of the Gaelic, Dr. O^Dono- 
 van and Eugene Curry, the ponderous Works of the learned 
 Seanachies and Scribes of ancient Irish Literature will be 
 " sealed books^^ to the English reader. These Works are, 
 I. The Book of Leinster, containing about 300 pages, 
 which was compiled about the year 1150, and is to be found 
 in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. II. The Book of 
 Ballymote, about 600 pages, compiled in the year 1391, 
 now in the Royal Irish Academy. These two works are 
 written on ancient vellum, and in the Irish character. 
 III. The Leavar Lecain, about 700 pages, compiled in the 
 year 1416 ; a beautifully written paper copy of it in clear, 
 bold, and legible modern Irish characters, is now in the 
 library of the Royal Irish Academy. IV. The Book of Pe- 
 regrene O'Clery, one of the four masters, compiled about 
 the year 1650, and now also in the Royal Irish Academy, 
 
RECORDS OF ULSTER^S OFFICE. 227 
 
 And V. The Book of Duald Mac Firbis, compiled in the 
 year 1650, and continued in part down to the year 1666. 
 There is a very accurate and complete paper copy of it in 
 the Royal Irish Academy. These works contain the 
 sources of genealogical information, concerning the native 
 families of distinction, or ancient noblesse of Ireland prio'' 
 as well as subsequent to the Anglo-Norman invasion, 
 extending down to the middle of the seventeenth century. 
 The Anglo-Irish sources of genealogical learning in 
 Ireland since the English regime are chiefly to be found 
 among the public records, deposited in the repositories of 
 the official departments. They are, generally speaking, 
 arranged in sub- divisional compartments, in the order of 
 the reigns of the different sovereigns of England. 
 
 The first and most legitimate source of genealogical in- 
 formation is to be found among the records of the office 
 of Ulster King of Arms, Dublin Castle. They consist of 
 twenty-four large folio volumes, in manuscript, of tabular 
 pedigrees of the nobility and gentry of Ireland, of native, 
 and English, and Scottish descent, with their arms. 
 These were compiled from public and private sources, and 
 registered at various times. Two of these books are 
 peculiarly interesting and valuable ; one written by 
 Roger OTerrall at the beginning of the 18th century, 
 which traces the Pedigrees of Irish families with all their 
 ramifications and collateral descents from the three sons 
 of Milesius, Heremon, Heber, and Ir, and his uncle Ith ; 
 and the other by the Chevalier 0^ Gorman, a little later, 
 which is equally interesting. Most of these pedigrees 
 commence in the remotest ages, especially those of the 
 
 q2 
 
328 LANDMARKS OF GENEALOGY. 
 
 native families. The genealogies of the Anglo-Norman 
 families in general extend no further than the battle 
 of Hastings, starting from the Norman Conquest. 
 Among the other important sources of genealogical in- 
 formation in Ulster's office are the following : I. " Visita- 
 tion Books," which contain Pedigrees and arms of the 
 nobility and gentry, and were taken by the Ulster Kings 
 of Arms, on their Visitations of Counties, under Commis- 
 sions; II. " Lords' Entries :" these consist of volumes of 
 Pedigrees, and arms of the peers of Ireland, made pursuant 
 to an order of the Irish House of Lords of the I2th August, 
 1707, for the purpose of facilitating proof of their descent, 
 and right to sit and vote. III. ^^ Baronets' Books," 
 which contain the Pedigrees and arms of the Baronets of 
 Ireland, under a royal warrant dated 30th September, 
 1789, for correcting and preventing abuses in the order 
 of Baronets. IV. " Funeral Certificates," or attested 
 returns of the names, arms, time of death, place of burial 
 and marriage, and issue of the nobility and gentry, whose 
 funerals were attended, according to ancient custom, by 
 the officers of arms or their deputies, from the year 1595 to 
 about the year 1698. V. " Books of Peers," being lists 
 of Peers as they sat in parliament at various periods, and 
 also of creations of peers, baronets, and knights from the 
 time of Queen Elizabeth to the present time. VI. "Books 
 OF Royal Licenses," containing entries of the Royal Li- 
 censes for changes of names, and arms, and other inciden- 
 tal matters. VII. " Book of Registration of Grants of 
 Arms," to various persons from the time of Edward VI. to 
 the present time. 
 
RECORD TOWERj DUBLIN CASTLE. 229 
 
 These are the ordinary records of the office, but there 
 are beside many volumes of manuscript ordinaries, and 
 collection of arms — Books containing the arms of the an- 
 cient nobility of Ireland, that is to say, creations by the 
 Kings of England, whether as Lords, or Kings of Ireland, 
 and Pedigrees and arms of the Peers of England — Copies 
 and abstracts of various matters relative to genealogical 
 and antiquarian research — also copies of Visitations of 
 some of the English Counties — Vellum Holls and nume- 
 rous paper Rolls of Pedigrees of ancient families in Ireland. 
 The Library of Ulster's Office will, it is expected, be en- 
 riched shortly, through the liberality of the government, 
 by the purchase of the late Sir William Betham's splendid 
 collection of MSS. 
 
 The Ulster King of Arms, as Keeper of the Tower Re- 
 cords, Dublin Castle, has also in his custody numerous 
 documents which are ancillary aids to the genealogies of 
 families. These consist of Plea Rolls of the several courts, 
 of Parliament, and of the Crown, from the year 1246 to 
 1625 ; Rolls of pleas, and of the Crown, before Justices in 
 Eyre, and gaol delivery — Rolls of the Pipe, or public ac- 
 counts of the Exchequer from the year 1240 to 1760 — 
 Rolls of Sheriffs' accounts — Attornments of Estates — Re- 
 cognizances — Recusants' pardons — Books of orders and 
 decrees of the Exchequer on matters of public revenue, 
 and tenants to the Crown — Advowsons — Presentations to 
 church benefices — Charters of towns and boroughs — In- 
 quisitions post mortem — Grants of office — Settlements and 
 other deeds arranged in Counties — Commissions — Kings' 
 letters, &c. — Also records of the Houses of Lords and 
 
230 LANDMARKS OF GENEALOGY. 
 
 Commons of Ireland, including the whole of the published 
 and unpublished statutes of Ireland — Also transcripts of 
 proceedings of the late Record Commission, consisting of 
 books of reference to grants of manors, lands^ tenements, 
 fisheries, advowsons, tithes, ferries, markets, and other 
 hereditaments, passed by patent under the great seal of 
 Ireland — Also claims of suffering loyalists in 1798 — and 
 papers and returns connected with the yeomanry — and the 
 census of 1831. In these several records of the Dublin 
 Tower numerous references occur to names and descriptions 
 of persons of every degree and calling, and are therefore of 
 very considerable genealogical importance. 
 
 The other records, auxiliary to genealogical information, 
 are those of the Paymaster op Civil Services, Custom 
 House, Dublin, and consist of Books of Survey of forfeited 
 estates — Regrants of forfeited lands — Rent Rolls of Crown 
 lands — The Registrar of forfeited estates — the Down Sur- 
 vey and Maps — returns of Ecclesiastical preferments — of 
 the Census of 1831, and emendation of it in 1834, and 
 Census returns of 1841. 
 
 The Registry of Deeds Office, Henrietta Street, 
 contains original memorials of deeds, wills, and other in- 
 struments connected with landed estates from the year 
 1708. The Prerogative Registry, in the same build- 
 ing, contains original Wills, commencing about the year 
 1530 — entries of grants of probate and administration, 
 marriage licenses — pleadings and depositions relating 
 to contested Wills — regal Visitations — faculties for cler- 
 gymen to hold pluralities of livings, and for appoint- 
 ment to the office of Notary. Diocesan Registries, 
 
LAW RECORDS OF IRELAND. 231 
 
 in the different Dioceses throughout the Kingdom, con- 
 tain records somewhat similar to those in the Prero- 
 gative Registry. A great portion of them will be 
 transferred under a recent Statute to the Prerogative Re- 
 gistry, Dublin. Connected with the ecclesiastical registers 
 are the records of the Cathedrals. There are a few in 
 the Cathedrals of Clogher, Leighlin, Limerick, Killaloe, 
 Tuam, and Killala. Christ Church, Dublin, contains se- 
 veral thousand in number, which consist not only of those 
 connected with the Cathedral, but of many matters out- 
 side, and of general interest. The University of Dub- 
 lin has a most numerous and valuable collection of ma- 
 nuscripts, and is particularly rich in the history, anti- 
 quities, and topography of Ireland, and the genealogy of 
 families. Many of the records of the council, of parliament, 
 of the courts, of ecclesiastical houses, and of Birmingham 
 Tower, Dublin Castle, have in the course of time found their 
 way there, and render the collection very general, and 
 varied, and of much value. The College of Armagh 
 contains some MS. papers, namely. Rent Rolls, and sur- 
 veys, and maps relating to the Church lands of the Dio- 
 cese. The KiNG^s Inns' Society, Dublin, contains re- 
 cords relating to the Benchers, and officers. Barristers, 
 Attorneys, and Students, as they became connected with 
 it. Marsh's Library, Dublin, has several manuscripts, 
 some of which might also be profitably consulted. In 
 the Royal Dublin Society there is a numerous col- 
 lection of manuscripts, relating to the civil and ecclesiastic 
 affairs of Ireland and other matters, through which are 
 interspersed much genealogical information. The Royal 
 
232 LANDMARKS OF GENEALOGY. 
 
 Irish Academy is peculiarly rich in genealogical lore. 
 There are, besides those books of Irish pedigrees already 
 noticed, various other rare and valuable works, in which 
 are to be found matters of pedigree, and biography of 
 families. The Borough Towns of Ireland have also records 
 of a local nature, which contain much useful information. 
 But the records of the Courts of Law and Equity are by 
 far the most numerous, and contain the most extensive 
 materials for genealogy. The Court of Chancery Re- 
 cords consist of the Pleadings, Bills, Answers, Affidavits, 
 Depositions, Reports, and Decrees, which set forth minute 
 details of family affairs, connected with the descent and 
 settlement of property, and adjustment of rights; also 
 Inquisitions, Convent and Catholic Rolls, letters of 
 guardianship. Commissions of various kinds, — of lunacy, 
 and of the peace licenses and pardons — The palatinate 
 Rolls of Tipperary — Parliament Rolls — CromwelPs Rolls, 
 election writs of Commoners, grants of offices, of lands, and 
 a variety of other miscellaneous matter. The Law Courts 
 of the Queen^s Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, 
 have records of judgments. Rolls of Attorneys, and other 
 matters of general interest. In the Queen's Bench are 
 records of outlawry and attainder — On the Crown side, 
 enrolments of Indictments and presentments. — In the 
 Exchequer, numerous Inquisitions, Outlawries, Me- 
 moranda Rolls, Certificates of persons transplanted into 
 Conn aught in the time of Cromwell, Inquisitions on sur- 
 renders of Monasteries, and estates of attainted persons, 
 Certificates granted to adventurers and soldiers, the 
 "Red Book of the Exchequer,^' — Informations on bills for 
 
LAW RECORDS OF IRELAND. 233 
 
 discovery of Estates, by "Protestant discoverers/' and 
 answers thereto; and in the Common Pleas, records of 
 fines and recoveries to bar estates tail, names of persons 
 who took " the oaths/^ Tipperary palatinate records and 
 extracts of outlawry. 
 
 The other sources of genealogical information are the 
 records kept by the Clerks of the Crown for the Circuits — 
 the city, town, quarter sessions, manor, and other Courts 
 of inferior jurisdiction. The Manor Courts have been abo- 
 lished by a recent act of Parliament. Lastly, much in- 
 formation may be gleaned from the last civil confiscation 
 by the Encumbered Estates^ Court. In the numerous 
 volumes in manuscript of books of sale will be found the 
 names of the owners, and of the three or four thousand 
 purchasers, and of the lands purchased. If the Judges 
 of the present Landed Estates' Court could be prevailed on 
 to unlock and unseal the multitude of tin boxes of title 
 deeds and abstracts of title to those estates deposited in the 
 registry of the Court, a vast quantity of genealogical in. 
 formation and materials for the histories of families, and 
 former proprietors of estates in Ireland, would be disclosed. 
 
 The general landmarks of Genealogy already noticed 
 in the observations respecting the English sources, are 
 equally common to Ireland, namely, monuments, tomb- 
 stones, coffin plates, parochial registers of births, mar- 
 riages, and burials — grants of marriage licenses, heraldry, 
 entries in Bibles, letters and manuscripts, registers of 
 Dublin University, college admission books, and matricu- 
 lation papers. There are also in private collections 
 numerous manuscripts and pedigrees of families of a valu^ 
 
234 LANDMARKS OF GENEALOGY. 
 
 able and interesting kind, scattered throughout every part 
 of the kingdom. 
 
 Scotland has always claimed and merited a high cha- 
 racter for genealogical knowledge. Unfortunately, there 
 never was in that country any " Heralds^ Visitation ;" 
 and, to render this want the more severely felt, a fire, about 
 the beginning of the last century, consumed a considerable 
 part of the records of the Lyon Office. Consequently the 
 heraldic office in Edinburgh can date its information only 
 from a very modem epoch. The records of the Lord 
 Lyon^s department consist of Diplomas of Arms, and 
 Registrations of Pedigrees ; but, from the reason just 
 named, and perhaps from other causes, they are not so 
 complete or valuable as one would suppose, considering 
 the general appreciation of ancestral pride so common to 
 all well-born Scotchmen. The other genealogical sources 
 of information in Scotland, are — 
 
 I. The Great Seal, and Privy Records, (much to the 
 same purport and effect as the English), the former be- 
 ginning shortly after 1300, and the latter in 1498 : their 
 natural productiveness in pedigrees I need not expatiate 
 upon. 
 
 II. The Exchequer Rolls, beginning about the same 
 period as the Great Seal Record, with some transcripts of 
 an earlier date. What remains of them thence down- 
 wards is very curious and valuable, illustrative of history 
 as well as of pedigree, and is not so known to the world 
 as it ought to be. 
 
 III. The Retours, or Inquisitiones Post Mortem, 
 both as to estates, and individuals personally (under the 
 
SCOTLAND. 235 
 
 name of General Retours), containing also services or 
 retours in cases of tutori/, it being ordained by an old 
 Scotch Act of Parliament, that the nearest agnate, or 
 heir male of a pupil or minor, should be assigned the 
 guardianship. From this the utility of these Retours in 
 questions of male propinquity and pedigree is quite evident. 
 These Records, to which there are printed indexes, come 
 pretty fully down from about 1600 to the present moment, 
 while there are a few preserved of an earlier date. 
 
 In these Retours, Scotland has an advantage over Eng- 
 land, where inquisitiones post mortem ceased more than 
 two centuries ago. 
 
 IV. Scotch Acts of Parliament : the last full edition, 
 in large folio volumes, was published by order of Government 
 in the present century. Strictly they may be said to begin 
 as a Record per se in 1424, from Vol. II. ; but an earlier 
 volume, a talis qualis one, and rather of a cumbrous and 
 not very digested character, derived from extraneous 
 sources, carries the parliamentary proceedings further 
 back under title of Vol. I. All the above containing va- 
 rious confirmed grants to persons high and low, with lists 
 of the nobility, and occasionally their creations, are very 
 important, and often serviceable in pedigree and descent. 
 
 V. Commissary or Consistorial Records, containing 
 proceedings in the cases of divorce, legitimacy, and exe- 
 cutry, with records and testaments : they can only be 
 said properly to commence from the era of the Reforma- 
 tion in 1560, and not fully even then. Before that period, 
 they, together with Records of Bonds and obligations, 
 being under the exclusive custody and authority of the 
 
236 LANDMARKS OF GENEALOGY. 
 
 church, were lodged in the chapter houses of the Cathe- 
 drals, and together with nearly all those lamented edifices, 
 some of them, it is said, of great interest and beauty, fell 
 a prey to the ruthless and mistaken zeal of the Reformers, 
 at the instigation of Knox and his adherents, being then 
 involved in one common destruction by fire and otherwise. 
 It was Knox, I have always thought, and not Edward I., 
 who caused such a loss of old Scottish muniments. 
 
 I may here, likewise, notice the Annals and Regis- 
 ters of the Universities, which supply the names of the 
 students who enter, and of those who graduate, with their 
 filiations and connections : of these, the records of Saint 
 Andrews are the oldest and most abundant, commencing 
 early in the 15th century. In: these University documents 
 occur the names" of members of many of the noble and 
 baronial families of Scotland, several unknown before ; and 
 hence they are very valuable in pedigrees of the first rank, 
 while they may be appealed to as elucidatory of the early 
 starting in hfe of Scotchmen who became famous in the 
 literary world both at home and abroad. These Records 
 have not suffered from the common ecclesiastical destruc- 
 tion. The Glasgow ones, too, beginning after the middle of 
 the 15th century, are well kept, and probably the corre- 
 sponding ones of Aberdeen. 
 
 VI. Parish Registers of Marriages, Baptisms, and 
 Deaths : — of these most useful landmarks, I am not 
 aware of any in Scotland before the Reformation, and 
 they are but meagre even afterwards. Regularity is 
 not to be expected in a satisfactory state till about 1700, 
 and there are subsequent lacunae. 
 
SCOTLAND. 237 
 
 It is very material to add here, that all the preceding 
 Records, by late public Acts and arrangements, have been 
 transferred to, and now lodged, in that most extensive and 
 valuable edifice. Her Majesty's General Register House 
 for Scotland. 
 
 Being thus brought together, the Records are much 
 more accessible and useful in genealogical investigation, 
 and for other purposes. There is in the Register Office a 
 Record, bulky enough, entitled that of " Bonds and Obli- 
 gations,'' exemplifying legal agreements and transactions 
 of all kinds between persons, and beginning from about 
 the middle of the 16th century, and continuing down- 
 wards. This Record has often been found extremely 
 useful, so far as it goes, in questions of pedigree and 
 descent. Further still, every Court and Jurisdiction in 
 Scotland had such Records of Bonds and Obligations, and 
 these documents are still kept within the sphere of their 
 respective localities, and not transferred to Edinburgh. 
 And when I add to the preceding that even still more im- 
 portant Record (kept in her Majesty's General Register 
 House, Edinburgh) of the res gestce, procedure and judg- 
 ments of the Supreme Court, between various persons, and 
 involving questions of every kind, including family descent 
 and representatives, I have exhausted the chief public 
 resources of genealogical information in North Britain. 
 
 The private Charter Chests of the Scottish Nobility 
 and Landed Gentry afford most valuable genealogical 
 materials, and throw light on the obscurity of pedigrees, 
 which can in no other way be obtained. 
 
THE DOUBLE SOJOURN OF GENIUS 
 AT BEACONSFIEID. 
 
 " Glimpses of glory ne'er forgot, 
 Which, tell like gleams on a sunset sea." 
 
 MOOEE. 
 
 The secluded locality of a small town or rural district 
 having seldom much of event to record, resembles, in the 
 quietude of its course from age to age, the calm descent, 
 through generations, in retirement, of many an untitled 
 family of landed possessions and honourable position. 
 An incident common to both locality and family tempo- 
 rarily disturbs the tranquillity of either, and brings the 
 resemblance closer still. Such incident is the advent of 
 a great man, to give publicity for the present and fame 
 for the future. The effect of this on lineage is well 
 known ; it is no less striking as to locality. The birth, 
 or even the coming to reside within its precincts, of 
 a genius, brings the small town or country spot before 
 the world, and when that genius passes away, the memory 
 of his merits earns for it a reputation of lasting endurance. 
 The locality, like the lineage, may become retired and 
 humble again, but while it remains, the glory of its great 
 man rests with it ; it is enriched with the legacy of his 
 
THE DOUBLE SOJOURN OV GENIUS. 239 
 
 fame. Thus is the little more than hamlet of Stratford- 
 on-Avon of undying note to all civilization ; and thus is 
 the barren rock of St. Helena 
 
 '* The proudest sea-mark that o'ertops the wave." 
 
 Seldom^ however, does this fortunate sojourn of genius 
 fall to the same small place more than once. Of its so 
 happening, there are a few rare examples ; and among them 
 the little town of Beaconsfield is perhaps the most singular 
 instance — so singular that we are induced to give the fol- 
 lowing, we trust not uninteresting, details about the place, 
 and the two great Edmunds who have made it famous. 
 
 Beaconsfield, situate in the county of Bucks, three- and- 
 twenty miles by road from London, holds the rank of 
 a market town, and has the reality of beiug one of the 
 most picturesque country villages within the neighbour- 
 hood of the metropolis. It stands on an eminence, from 
 which its lighted beacon, in former ages, could be seen far 
 and near, and thus it obtained its name of Beacon's-field. 
 The most proximate railway station to the place, that of 
 Wooburn Green, is more than two miles from it ; and, with 
 the exception of a single omnibus travelling three times a 
 week, there is, we believe, no public road conveyance to 
 it. Consequently Beaconsfield is lonely, and little fre- 
 quented by the general run of holiday and Sunday tourists ; 
 it possesses none of those smart villas of all forms and no 
 forms of architecture, quasi Grecian and quasi Gothic, 
 grave and gay, which clustering in their varied graceful- 
 ness, crowd and somewhat cocknefy most of the suburban 
 localities within a circle of twenty-five miles from London. 
 
240 THE DOUBLE SOJOURN OF GENIUS 
 
 In Beaconsfield the houses are chiefly red brick stately 
 dwellings of a bye-gone century ; and, owing to a peculiar 
 combination of circumstances, the fine seats close around 
 it are either deserted, in ruins, or but seldom inhabited. 
 Yet, amid this solitude and desolation, what a beautiful 
 English village it is I — with its four streets or avenues 
 grass covered, and trees growing in them, with its nume- 
 rous quaint old domiciles and gardens, and its grand 
 domains, rich in magnificent foliage, embracing the town 
 on all sides. Fair it truly is, and though abandoned, it is 
 not uncourted. The common flock of wayfarers come not, 
 we have said, to Beaconsfield, but it boasts of visitors of a 
 higher class —of those pilgrims who bend their steps in 
 reverence towards the shrines of departed genius, and who 
 love to linger near the landmarks that are left of men who 
 were giants in their time. After Stratford-on-Avon, the 
 holy of holies in literary remembrance, and Twickenham, 
 which Pope has made immortal ; there is nowhere in Eng- 
 land such another memory as that which decorates in chief 
 the verdant retirement of Beaconsfield — the memory of 
 Edmund Burke. Here did he reside during the whole of 
 his political career ; here is his grave, and hither, wending 
 his way up the green acclivity, may now and then 
 be seen the traveller, either native, or from France or 
 Germany, or still more distant parts, a visitor to the 
 Medina of him whose eloquent wisdom was the first 
 to sound amid the crash of revolution, and to summon 
 Europe to the defence of civilization and order. But we 
 pass with too ready fondness to the memory of Edmund 
 Burke. Let us begin with an earlier sojourn of genius in 
 
AT BEACONSFIELD. 241 
 
 Beaconsfield, which has left a memory there, not so vener- 
 able, it is true, as that of Edmund Burke, yet most plea- 
 sant to dwell upon — a memory which, with strange tenacity, 
 attaches to the place far more closely, and with far more 
 visible marks than even the memory of Burke. The genius 
 we allude to was Edmund Waller, the first lyric poet of 
 his time, and the worthy precursor of Robert Burns, and 
 Tom Moore, and the other great lyrists that were to suc- 
 ceed. Beaconsfield was the favourite and constant residence 
 of Waller in his lifetime, and it is in death his last 
 earthly resting-place. Edmund Waller and Edmund 
 Burke, two remarkable men of two remarkable ages, both 
 orators and politicians, but in all else how different ! The 
 very contrast gives a pungency to the double [biography 
 which a visit to Beaconsfield thus recalls. With the 
 reader's permission, we will now view each of these famous 
 men, especially in connection with that home of their 
 choice, which to this day enjoys the twofold reputation of 
 their double sojourn. Let us begin with Edmund Waller. 
 Edmund Waller's stately tomb in Beaconsfield church- 
 yard tells us, in most graceful Latinity, that he was of the 
 poets of his time easily the prince; that when an octo- 
 genarian, he did not abdicate the laurel he had won in his 
 youth, and that his country's language owes to him the 
 possible belief that if the muses should cease to speak 
 Greek and Latin, they would love to talk in English. 
 This epitaph records the truth. Waller may claim, rank 
 among our greatest poets, and he had the rare faculty of 
 never varying in his talent, and of writing just as ably at 
 all periods of his life, whether in youth, manhood, or age. 
 
 R 
 
24JJ THE DOUBLE SOJOURN OF GENIUS 
 
 He was the first who gave that soft, silvery tone to English 
 verse, which Pope afterwards brought to perfection ; and 
 there are a terseness of style and an elegance of thought 
 in all his compositions, which few of our other poets have 
 equalled, and none have surpassed. Take, for instance, 
 some of the passages from his love songs, such as — 
 
 " Amoret ! my lovely foe ! 
 
 Tell me where thy strength doth lie ? 
 Where the power that charms us so ? 
 In thy soul, or in thine eye P" 
 or, 
 
 " They that never had the use 
 Of the grape's surprising juice, '. 
 To the first delicious cup 
 All their reason render up ; 
 Neither do, nor care to know, 
 Whether it be best or no. 
 
 " So they that are to love inclin'd, 
 
 Sway'd by chance, not choice or art, 
 To the first that's fair or kind. 
 
 Make a present of their heart. 
 'Tis not she that first we love. 
 But whom dying we approve." 
 
 Or the following stanzas, which lose nought in juxta- 
 position with that famous passage of Byron, beginning 
 ^^ So the struck eagle,^' * which embodies the same idea at 
 more length, but with less correctness. 
 
 * Byron's well-known lines are as follow :— 
 
 " So the struck eagle, stretch'd upon the plain, 
 No more through rolling clouds to soar again, 
 View'd his own feather on the fatal dart. 
 And wing'd the shaft that quiver'd in his heart ; 
 
AT BEACONSFIELD. 2^3 
 
 Waller's stanzas are to a lady singing a song of his 
 composing — 
 
 *' Chloris, yourself you so excel, 
 
 When you vouchsafe to breathe my thought, 
 That, like a spirit, with this spell 
 
 Of my own teaching I am caught ; 
 That eagle's fate and mine are one, 
 
 Which, on the shaft that made him die, 
 Espied a feather of his own, 
 
 Wherewith he wont to soar so high." 
 
 Waller the poet must be ever respected. Waller the 
 man was a curious compound : he was an aristocrat and 
 a cavalier, and yet, led by family connection, he oft sided 
 with the opponents of King Charles, and was the stanch 
 friend of Oliver Cromwell, He was a good family, man a 
 loving husband, and a kind father, yet he never addressed 
 a line of verse to either of his wives, or to his children, 
 nor, though thoroughly domestic, did he ever write about 
 his own home* The objects of his amorous effusions were 
 all of royal or noble rank and condition, all ladies of title. 
 First came the now ever-memorable Sacharissa, his chief 
 flame, who was the Lady Dorothea Sidney, the daughter 
 
 Eeen were his pangs, but keener far to feel 
 He nursed the pinion which impelled the steel ; 
 While the same plumage that had warmed his nest 
 Drank the last life -drop of his bleeding breast." 
 
 It may be here observed, that it would be barely within the 
 bounds of possibility for the eagle to be sufficiently ahve to be 
 thus contemplating with an arrow quivering in his heart. Waller 
 avoids the objection by merely describing the shaft as making 
 the bird die, no doubt from lodging and festering in a less im- 
 mediately mortal yart. 
 
 B 2 
 
244 THE DOUBLE SOJOURN OF GENIUS 
 
 of Robert Sidney, second Earl, and sister of Philip Sidney, 
 third Earl of Leicester. Waller was a widower when he 
 courted her, and when she rejected him, and married the 
 Earl of Sunderland, he quietly stopped his strains, and 
 sought in the Peerage for some other beauteous theme of 
 his poetic admiration. He wrote charming lines to " my 
 Lady Carlisle ;^^ to Amoret, who was the Lady Sophia 
 IVIurray ; to Galatea, who was the Lady Mary Fielding ; 
 and to my Lady Morton, when an exile in France like 
 himself; and he went as far as to address the Queens of 
 England and France. But these ladies had all places in 
 his Quixotic affections inferior to that of the Lady Doro- 
 thea Sidney, " the matchless Sidney, that immortal frame 
 of perfect beauty," as he called her. " Had Dorothea," 
 exclaims Waller, while wandering in the lovely groves of 
 the seat of the Sidneys at Penshurst, — "had Dorothea 
 lived when mortals made choice of their deities, this sacred 
 shade had held an altar to her power." Again he writes 
 to her, the Lady Dorothea, — 
 
 " Thyself a Sidney ! from which noble train 
 He sprung (Sir Philip Sidney/), that could so far exalt 
 
 the name 
 Of love, and warm our nation with his flame ; 
 Tliat all we can of love or high desire 
 Seems but the smoke of amorous Sidney's fire." 
 
 Waller had Sacharissa's portrait for constant contemplation 
 infixed in the wainscot over the mantel-piece of his sitting- 
 room, at his seat at Beaconsfield. That picture which he 
 declared, " wonders so distant in one face disclosed," re- 
 
AT BEACONSFIELD. 245 
 
 mained in the place he put it, until recently torn away and 
 sold. Alas ! for the gothic hand that took it down. 
 
 One cannot conclude this reminiscence of Waller's 
 courtship of Sacharissa, without observing how strongly 
 it goes to prove a remarkable fact — the greatness of a poet's 
 power. Here was a lady, who was daughter of an earl, 
 sister of two earls, wife of an earl, mother of an earl, and 
 sister also of Algernon Sidney. Yet, with all this, what 
 would have remained of her now, if the gentle poet, whom 
 she disdained in her pride, had not granted her a dis- 
 tinction which time cannot destroy ? Where are her other 
 coronetted brothers and sisters ? Passed into utter oblivion, 
 from which not even the fame of Algernon Sidney could 
 save them. Just like them, the Lady Dorothea would be 
 to posterity a thing unknown, but that the poet's eye, 
 in its glance from heaven to earth, lighted on her beauty ; 
 his imagination bodied her forth, and his pen gave name 
 and habitation to those mere airy nothings, her sounding 
 titles, and her fleeting charms. What birth and rank could 
 not do, this poet did. The coronet that nobility procured 
 for Sacharissa was but of dust : the wreath that Waller's 
 poetic sovereignty bestowed on her is immortal. 
 
 Waller was a courtier and a wit, a gay frequenter of the 
 coffee-houses and taverns, and a rich exquisite of his time ; 
 yet he preferred to all else in the world his seat of Hall 
 Barn, at Beaconsfield, its verdant seclusion, its domestic 
 comforts, and its rural pleasures. Like what we shall tell 
 directly of Burke, Waller loved to see friends around him, 
 and he entertained hospitably. Like Burke, he had many 
 of the great people of his day among his guests. Lords 
 
246 THE DOUBLE SOJOURN OF GENIUS 
 
 and ladies of the Commonwealth, and of King Charles's 
 court, were welcomed in their turn. Among men of literary- 
 note, Evelyn, Roscommon, and Dry den were his friends ; 
 and at Waller's table Cromwell, his relative, would unbend 
 and lay aside all puritan restraint. " Cousin Waller," he 
 would say, when his usual reserve was alluded to, '^ I 
 must talk to these men (the Puritans) in their own way." 
 Exiled in France for a serious, though over-blamed act of 
 political intrigue. Waller, though living richly at Rouen, 
 and at Paris, and enjoying the society of Corneille, St. 
 Evremond, and Voiture, and of the English royalists, 
 sighed for his home at Beaconsfield. Cromwell's pardon 
 brought him back, and his panegyric of the Lord Protector 
 is the finest poem he ever wrote. Yet, at the Restoration, 
 Waller addressed another panegyric to Charles II. " Mas- 
 ter Waller," said the King to him on his coming to court, 
 " those verses you wrote on Cromwell are, they tell me, 
 far better than those you have written on me." " Sire," 
 was the apt and courtier- like reply, " poets always excel 
 more in fiction than in truth." Such was Edmund Waller, 
 a dubious politician, yet noted for his stern parliamentary 
 eloquence ; a fanciful lover, yet attached not fancifully, but 
 soberly and stanchly to his own two wives and his children ; 
 a foppish cavalier, yet imbued with a strong round- 
 head love of English liberty ; a writer of love songs, but 
 never trenching, as too many of the poets of his time did, 
 on the bounds of morality or religion. Posterity must 
 forget his faults in his greatness and his purity as a poet. 
 Beaconsfield, through his choice, first became a place of 
 note. Its earliest fame was Waller, and his memory hangs 
 
AT BEACONSFIELD. 247 
 
 round it still. The visitor will find many a mark and 
 memorial of Waller there. The poet's magnificent seat 
 of Hall Bam, at Beaconsfield, built by himself, but im- 
 proved by his son, still remains. The Waller family left 
 it only a few years ago, when it became the property of 
 another distinguished man, whose sojourn was also a 
 sojourn of genius at Beaconsfield, the late Sir Gore Ouse- 
 ley, Bart., and at his demise it passed into other hands. 
 In its now uninhabited condition, dismantled of its furni- 
 ture, signs of the past may be discovered on the premises, 
 and in the picturesque domain adorned with classic temples 
 and obeHsks. There the peculiar armorial ensigns of the 
 Wallers meet one everywhere, the walnut-tree crest with 
 the royal escutcheon of France belonging to it, the origin 
 of which was this : — The Waller family, it should be un- 
 derstood, is one of the oldest in England. A Sir Richard 
 Waller, of the time of Henry V., was a distinguished war- 
 rior, and he took prisoner at the battle of Agincourt the prin- 
 cipal and the most chivalrous combatant among the French, 
 Charles of Orleans, who, by the way, married the widowed 
 Queen of Richard II., and who, by another wife, was 
 father of Louis XII. Charles was a perfect gentleman 
 and a graceful poet. He remained for twenty-four years 
 in the friendly custody of Sir Richard Waller, at his castle 
 in Kent, and the idea may not be too far-fetched, that from 
 this princely bard the Wallers may have imbibed that taste 
 for verse which has made many of them poets even to this 
 day, for Dr. Waller, of Dublin, is of the race. Henry V. 
 marked his approval of Sir Richard's conduct in taking 
 the French prince, by granting to him and his descendants 
 
248 THE DOUBLE SOJOURN OF GENIUS 
 
 the crest with the royal escutcheon as above mentioned, 
 and the motto, " Hie fructus virtutis/' This crest and 
 motto, among many poetic emblems, are to be found con- 
 tinually repeated in the house and grounds of Hall Barn ; 
 and thus, over the whole house, to use the words of the 
 poetic Charles of Orleans himself, " Le temps a laiss6 son 
 manteau/' 
 
 The churchyard of Beacon sfield presents the fine monu- 
 ment to Edmund Waller we have already mentioned. It 
 was the work of fihal affection, having been raised by 
 Waller's son at a costly expense. Of late it has become 
 much decayed, but funds are now sought by the Rev. 
 John Gould, B.D., Rector of Beaconsfield, to effect its 
 restoration. May his praiseworthy object meet with suc- 
 cess. The poet well deserves a sacred memorial, who 
 could, when in his extreme old age, and close upon his 
 death, write such lines as these : 
 
 " The seas are quiet when the winds give o'er ; 
 So, calm are we when passions are no more ; 
 For then we know how vain it was to boast 
 Of fleeting things, so certain to be lost. 
 Clouds of affection from our younger eyes 
 Conceal that emptiness which age descries ; 
 The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed. 
 Lets in new light through chinks that time has made ; 
 Stronger by weakness, wiser men become. 
 As they draw near to their eternal home ; 
 Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view. 
 That stand upon the threshold of the new." 
 
 Let us now pass over some seventy years, and come to 
 Beaconsfield's later and greater repute — the sojourn of 
 genius there in the person of Edmund Burke. 
 
AT BEACONSriELD. 249 
 
 Edmund Burke, through his mother's family, that of 
 the Nagles, claimed kindred with Edmund Spenser, the 
 author of the Faerie Queene, and the earliest school of his 
 youth happened to be near the ruins of that Kilcolman 
 Castle, where Spenser wrote his famous poem. Here, 
 among the lovely scenery of the spot, it is said Edmund 
 Spenser's boyish namesake, England's future orator, loved 
 to wander, picking up from the peasantry all those mar- 
 vellous anecdotes and legendary tales which had not a lit- 
 tle to do with the Faerie Queene, and which instilled in 
 him much of that innate and eastern imagery which after- 
 wards gave such splendour to his eloquence. Here also 
 Edmund Burke first imbibed that craving for a country 
 life, which clung to him through his whole existence. 
 His next school-days, under his excellent Quaker master 
 Shackleton, were passed in another rural locality, Ballitore, 
 in Kildare. Here, too, it was his delight to roam on 
 holidays in the fields ; and with that mind that was ever 
 bent on the acquisition of knowledge, to obtain his earliest 
 insight into agriculture, of which he shewed such apt and 
 practical experience when he became a Buckinghamshire 
 country gentleman. Burke, whilst at Dublin University, 
 evinced his rural taste by translating into English verse, 
 from the second Georgic, Virgil's famous panegyric of a 
 country life. Burke's lines display wonderful fervour and 
 facility for a youth of sixteen, as the following passage 
 will shew : 
 
 " How happy, too, the peaceful rustic lies. 
 The grass his bed, his canopy the skies ; 
 
250 THE DOUBLE SOJOURN OF GENIUS 
 
 From heat retiring to tbe noontide glade. 
 
 His trees protect liim with an ample shade ; 
 
 No jarring sounds invade his settling breast, 
 
 His lowing cows shall lull him into rest. 
 
 Here 'mong the caves, the woods and rocks around, 
 
 Here, only here, the hardy youth abound ; 
 
 Religion here has fixed her pure abodes, 
 
 Parents are honoured, and adored the gods ; 
 
 Departing Justice, when she fled mankind, 
 
 In these blest plains her footsteps left behind." 
 
 In a few years after this, Burke had come to London, 
 had at five-and-twenty written a book that was to be a 
 classic in our language, the " Essay on the Sublime and 
 Beautiful/^ and had become the literary ally and close 
 friend for life of Dr. Johnson, Garrick, Goldsmith, and 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds : he had married the wife whom he 
 ever continued to love with the fondest devotion ; he had 
 joined the party and government of the virtuous Lord 
 Rockingham, and he had in a single night achieved his 
 political fame by one of the finest pieces of eloquence that 
 ever rang upon the ears of parliament. Behold Burke 
 then a great man, with the eyes of Europe upon him : he 
 is also what he perhaps liked as well: he is a country 
 gentleman. The seat of Butler's C8urt, or Gregories (as it 
 was at different times called), at Beaconsfield, was his pro- 
 perty, and he has here commenced that charming rural 
 course of life which made his home so perfect and so 
 happy. Burke delighted in society, and could not live 
 without it. Warm in heart and buoyant in spirits, bound- 
 less in his knowledge and information, taking interest in 
 every thing great or small, grave or gay, quite a cavalier 
 in courtesy and in his notions of attention to the fair sex. 
 
AT BEACONSFIELD. 251 
 
 Burke had an attraction about him, that fascinated all 
 within his reach and influence. He loved, and was be- 
 loved by wife, children, and friends : his servants clung 
 to him with constant affection, and the very beggar, that 
 received his alms, had pleasant remembrance of the gentle 
 word that would accompany the donation. And how 
 Burke doted on that home. ''Every care," would he 
 say, "vanishes the moment I enter under its roof." 
 Burke, at this seat, the value of which he nearly doubled 
 by his own agricultural skill, exercised in his happier days 
 a continual hospitality, not excessive or wasteful, but in- 
 tellectual, lively, and generous. Among his visitors were 
 some of the greatest that England then possessed — men 
 whose names, either in politics or literature, were to live 
 for ever. Foremost among them was his friend and patron, 
 Charles Wentworth, second Marquess of Rockingham, 
 who, if not all-powerful as a prime minister, was the soul 
 of honour, and was certainly among the wisest, the best, 
 and the most amiable of England's premiers. There 
 were also Lord Fitzwilliam, Rockingham's nephew, and 
 the Duke of Portland, Burke's neighbour at Bulstrode, 
 and Sir George Savile, Lord George Cavendish, and Ad- 
 miral Keppel, and Flood, and Fox, and Sheridan. And 
 then the literati. Primus, or, at any rate, the proudest 
 inter pares, came Dr. Johnson. The potent Doctor admit- 
 ted that Burke was the only man whom he feared in ar- 
 gument, or to whom he would strike his colours ; not- 
 withstanding which he was attached to him cordially. 
 There was also that mysterious and constant friend, 
 William Burke, M.P., (distantly related to Edmund, we 
 
253 THE DOUBLE SOJOURN OF GENIUS 
 
 believe, not as a Burke, but in the female line,) to whom 
 Edmund owed his introduction to Lord Rockingham, and 
 whom Mr. Jelinger Symons^ recent clever book maintains 
 to have been the author of the Letters of Junius. Then 
 there was Burke's other loving and ever-devoted friend, 
 the warm-hearted, unsophisticated, inimitable Oliver 
 Goldsmith : and there were Sir Joshua Reynolds, author 
 and painter ; Garrick, author and actor ; Arthur Murphy, 
 historian and dramatist ; and Dr. Burney and his daughter. 
 Miss Burney, whose novel of Evelina, Edmund Burke sat 
 up a whole night to read. Of minor statesmen, aristo- 
 crats, authors, and wits, a host used also to be flocking to 
 Beaconsfield. Burke was himself the life of this continual 
 concourse of rank, beauty, and talent. Politics were laid 
 aside, and wit, mirth, and good humour reigned supreme. 
 Various anecdotes represent the statesman-orator entering 
 with glee into the sports and amusements of the social 
 crowd about him, even to sharing in the jokes and games 
 of children. He would, it is said, after a learned argu- 
 ment with the graver of his guests, go to join with equal 
 intent in some suggested improvement of a boy's kite. He 
 was the chief instructor of his own son, that darling object 
 of his hope and pride ; he prepared him for the University 
 and Parliament, forming one whom he fondly looked to be 
 greater than himself. But hospitality, domestic affection, 
 and social converse were not the only charms of Burke's 
 house at Beaconsfield. Charity gave it ever greater eleva- 
 tion and fame. The poor for miles round were the con- 
 stant object of Burke's sagacious kindness and care : he 
 established for them a school and saving fund, and various 
 
AT BEACONSFIELD. 253 
 
 benevolent institutions. His charity, too, had, on more 
 than one occasion, been of national value, since it was his 
 wont (in the words of Mackay's famous song) " to help 
 young merit into fame/' The country owes to Burke's 
 benevolence the painter Barry, and one greater still, whose 
 introduction to prosperity happened thus. A starving 
 poet, on the brink of ruin, was led by Providence to 
 knock at Burke's door ; he sent in a letter, asking Burke 
 to save him. That appeal was listened to at once : the 
 applicant was received, sheltered, and promoted : these 
 facts and his subsequent success are of common and 
 general knowledge. The bard was Crabbe, and Burke's 
 act of humanity will go down to posterity coeval with the 
 poet's verse. '' The memory of Edmund Burke's philan- 
 thropy," writes his friend Shackelton, " immortale manetJ' 
 Let now a few more years pass over Bm-ke's home at 
 Beaconsfield, and how changed and sad, and yet how 
 worthy of contemplation the scene ! The host of Gregories 
 is struck down by a giant affliction. His only child, his 
 idolized son, who was to him the life of his life, has died 
 at the very onset of his career ; and the father's grief, to 
 use his own words, is one that cannot be comforted. Yet 
 amid this sorrow, and the mortal sickness that his sorrow 
 has engendered, Edmund Burke is as good and great as 
 ever. His hospitality has only changed its object. The 
 joys of the social circle of friends can charm no longer, 
 but he has discovered another channel for his bounty. He 
 has called around him the royalist refugees who had 
 escaped destitute from the murderous revolution then 
 going on in France. He has provided shelter for many of 
 
254 THE DOUBLE SOJOURN OF GENIUS 
 
 them, either in his own house or in its neighbourhood. 
 He has induced the government to alleviate the wants of 
 all of them. At Penn, three miles from Beaconsfield, he 
 has founded a school for the children of the emigrants, 
 which continued to flourish long after his death, until the 
 restoration of royalty in France rendered it no longer 
 necessary. The chief exile himself, the then unthroned 
 representative of a line of kings, Louis XVIII., might 
 be seen at the gate of Gregories, come to thank the lord 
 of the mansion for what he had done for his people. 
 Would that the Bourbons could always remember the 
 service then rendered to them and their followers. Burke's 
 political influence is now more powerful than ever. He 
 has roused England and the greater part of Europe to 
 sustain the cause of order, and from all sides he is 
 looked to for advice. William Windham, the Minister at 
 War, is his constant visitor. Wilberforce (who was pre- 
 sent) describes one of these consultations of the govern- 
 ment, by the side of Burke's dying couch. The attention, 
 he writes, shewn to Burke by all that party, was just like 
 the treatment of Ahitophel of old. It was as if one went 
 to inquire of the oracle of the Lord. Edmund Burke died 
 of a broken heart in 1797; and though more than sixty 
 years have passed since then, Beaconsfield bears still visible 
 marks of that incurable sorrow. The mansion of Gregories 
 was no more cared for by its owner, and was sold from 
 the family by his widow. What was an hereditary house 
 to him who in his grief refused a peerage, with the title of 
 Lord Burke of Beaconsfield ? An accidental fire has since 
 destroyed the dwelling, and one can scarcely trace, with no 
 
AT BEACONSriELD. 255 
 
 other landmark than a few ruined offices, the site of the 
 mansion in the now deserted but still beautiful grounds. 
 A decayed stable alone remains, with the very stall in it 
 where Windham, when he rode down, big with the fate of 
 nations, would put up his white horse. The humble 
 tablet in the church marks Burke's burial there, instead of 
 in Westminster Abbey, as it would have been but for the 
 direction in his will. " My body I desire to be buried in 
 the church at Beaconsfield, near to the bodies of my 
 dearest brother and my dearest son, in all humility praying 
 that, as we have lived in perfect unity together, we may 
 together have a part in the resurrection of the just.'* 
 
 Burke's Grove, a noble plantation, remains in the rear 
 of the mansion, as when Edmund used it as his favourite 
 walk ; and there are some at Beaconsfield who can re- 
 member his sad and stately figure gliding there to and fro, 
 pondering, no doubt, over the loss he had sustained. This 
 is elegantly alluded to in a poem recently written by a 
 Beaconsfield author. 
 
 " Oft to this sweet secluded spot he came, 
 Far from the busy world and noisy fame. 
 And sought amidst its solitudes to rest 
 His wearied mind on Nature's quiet breast, 
 When o'er his life's bright tide all darkly fell 
 Death's shadow ! — and the mourner sighed farewell 
 To hope and joy. Ambition's course was run, 
 The father's heart was buried with his son." 
 
 As with Waller, endeavours are making, under the 
 auspices of the Rev. Mr. Gould, the Rector of Beaconsfield, 
 to have there some suitable memorial of Edmund Burke. 
 The attempt has met with encouragement, and it is to be 
 
256 THE DOUBLE SOJOURN OF GENIUS AT BEACONSFIELD. 
 
 hoped may eventually succeed. Edmund Burke, however, 
 has not been fortunate in monumental honours ; there is no 
 public open air commemorative mark of him in England, 
 nor, blushingly be it said, in Ireland either. Moore^s statue, 
 under the auspices of the Earl of Carlisle, has been lately 
 raised in Dublin ; Goldsmith's, pursuant to a suggestion of 
 the same gifted nobleman, will soon be also erected there. 
 Should not Burke's be the next proposed ? Burke, in 
 thought, word, and act, had Ireland ever near his heart, 
 and he it was whose first act of power, when in office, was 
 to procure for her that independence, the credit of which 
 fell entirely to his able coadjutors in the struggle, Charle- 
 mont and Grattan. Yet what matters it that Waller and 
 Burke should have no monumental trophies, beyond what 
 still exist in their own beautiful and now lonely Beaconsfield? 
 Are they not of the stamp of those who live, not in marble 
 only, but in the minds of men, and whose works and me- 
 mories are more lasting than brass, mightier than the py- 
 ramids, and indestructible by time or tempest ? Are they 
 not among those who never wholly die ? Truly indeed has 
 Pope said, *^ Nor yet shall Waller yield to time :" and with 
 equal truth, has Grattan eloquently observed, " Edmund 
 Burke's immortality is that which is common to Cicero or 
 to Bacon, that which can never be interrupted while there 
 exists the beauty of order or the love of virtue ; and which 
 can fear no death except what barbarity may impose on 
 the globe." 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 " There is a land, of every land the pride, 
 Beloved of Heaven o'er all the world beside." 
 
 MONTGOMEEY. 
 
 No country in the world contains so much of interest, to 
 be seen at the expense of such little toil and time, as our 
 own English land ; almost every nook and comer has some 
 point of attraction, some association on which the mind 
 may pleasingly dwell ; here, the ancient feudal castle, full 
 of story, erst the stronghold of the Norman Baron, or of 
 the bold adherent of the White or Bed Bose ; there, the 
 border tower, with legend, and chronicle, and ballad 
 around it, producing the same effect on the mind that the 
 ivy does, when it coils and clusters about a mouldering 
 ruin. In one county, the venerable Abbey recalls the 
 piety, and learning, and munificence of the early ages ; in 
 another, the old royalist mansion tells of the loyalty that 
 defied '' the rebel Commons ;'^ while in a third, a humble 
 farmhouse is rendered famous by the hospitality and shelter 
 afforded to a fugitive prince. Truly do those ancient 
 Manor Houses of every style and design, moated, gabelled, 
 or embattled, and those dateless churches, beneath whose 
 
258 RECOLLECTIONS OP ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 grey wall^ repose the great and good of many generations, 
 evidence that we inhabit an " old country/* one full of re- 
 membrances, domestic and national. It is pleasant to live 
 where so many illustrious men have lived, to admire the 
 same vales, and woods, and streams, which so many poets 
 have sung, and to dwell in scenes hallowed as the birth- 
 places of Englishmen who have achieved immortality in 
 literature, science, or martial fame. "Washington Irving 
 well expresses this idea : — 
 
 " Who can walk with soul unmoved among the stately 
 groves of Penshurst, where Sydney passed his boyhood ; 
 or can look without fondness upon the tree that is said to 
 have been planted on bis birthday ; or can ramble among 
 the classic bowers of Hagley ; or can pause among the 
 solitudes of Windsor Forest, and look at the oaks around, 
 huge, grey, and time-worn, like the old castle towers, and 
 not feel as if he were surrounded by so many monuments 
 of long-enduring glory ? It is then, when viewed in this 
 light, that planted groves and stately avenues, turreted 
 castles, and cultivated parks have an advantage over the 
 more luxuriant beauties of unassisted nature ; it is then 
 that they teem with moral associations, and keep up the 
 ever- interesting story of human existence." 
 
 It was a remark of another distinguished American, 
 Mr. Everett, who was at one time the United States' envoy 
 in this country, " We have everything great in America. 
 We have great rivers, great mountains, great forests, and 
 great lakes ; but we have no olden buildings, no castles or 
 houses of an ancient aristocracy, and no monasteries. To 
 see these, we must visit the land of our fathers." 
 
AMERICAN ESTIMATE OF ENGLAND. 259 
 
 There is something equally just and beautiful in these 
 affectionate tributes to the old country, and the more such 
 kind and ennobling feelings spread amongst the Ameri- 
 cans, the better it will be for themselves. Abstractedly, 
 there is no great value in uninhabitable ruins ; and no doubt 
 a mere utilitarian would look upon the finest Gothic cathe- 
 dral as a mere stone-receptacle for bones and dust ; but 
 somehow there is a feeling, in all save the obtusest of us, 
 that will be heard in spite of utilitarianism, and we shall 
 invariably find that whatever tends to connect us in idea 
 with the past or the future, tends also — and in a greater 
 degree than anything else, save revealed religion — to make 
 us conscious that we belong not wholly to earth or to the 
 present, but are portions of immortality. He who narrows 
 his thoughts and wishes to the time being, may certainly 
 reap some practical advantage from this limited application 
 of his faculties, but it will be at the expense of higher and 
 better feelings, just as the man who spends the whole of his 
 life in pointing needles or tempering pen-knives, may 
 acquire skill in that particular art, but in so doing becomes 
 eventually as narrow as his occupation. The more we free 
 our minds from the idea of time and space, which are only 
 words of limit, the nearer we approach to the understand- 
 ing of the infinite — to that which has neither beginning 
 nor end — and nothing does this so effectually as the ab- 
 stracting ourselves from the present in the consideration 
 of the past. It may, however, be objected to us, as Hora- 
 tio objected to Hamlet, " this is to consider too curiously ;" 
 but instead of imitating the philosophic Prince in our 
 answer, which would lead us into the wilds of metaphysics, 
 
 82 
 
260 RECOLLECTIONS OP ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 we will rather beg our readers to accompaiiy us in a short 
 ramble amongst the Halls and Castles of those who have 
 helped to make the name of England so illustrious. In 
 doing this, it is not our purpose to pay the least attention 
 to geographical proprieties ; limping time will have to toil 
 after us in vain while we fly from place to place, for no 
 better reason in the order of our march than their happen- 
 ing thus to rise upon the recollection. 
 
 The antiquities of this country may for the most part be 
 traced either to war or religion — to the turbulent though 
 chivalrous barons, or to the monks, whom it is the fashion 
 of modern ignorance to include in one sweeping censure, 
 as if the embers of learning, art, and science had not been 
 kept alive by them in the Monasteries, when, but for their 
 industry, the mailed heel of kings and nobles would have 
 trampled it out altogether. 
 
 We question much if any county in broad England 
 is more deserving of notice than Warwickshire. True, 
 it has not a minster like York, nor a university like 
 Oxford, nor tin mines like Cornwall, nor has it ever been 
 suspected like Devonshire of producing silver; neither 
 can it boast like Derbyshire of DeviPs Punchbowls, or 
 shivering mountains with stalactite caverns in their 
 bosoms; but for all that, in its own quiet, unobtrusive 
 way it offers many points of interest to those who delight 
 in beautiful scenery, or in the recollections of other 
 times. If, for instance, the Avon be not so broad as the 
 Thames, nor so wild as the Severn when it quarrels with 
 the sea — as it not unfrequently does — still it has a charm 
 both for natives and foreigners in its connection with the 
 
WARWICK CASTLE. 261 
 
 name of Shakspeare, that sets it above all other English 
 rivers; and Charlecote Park, memorable as having been 
 the scene of the poet's early delinquencies, where he stole 
 deer, " but did not kiss the keeper's daughter," an omission 
 which Sir John Falstaff in his case seems to have thought 
 rendered the affair altogether venial. 
 
 In addition to these claims upon our notice, cannot 
 Warwick show the remains of the once gigantic Kenil- 
 worth ? Small remains we must needs confess, but to which 
 many an innocent traveller has made his pilgrimage, de- 
 luded by that arch wizard Walter Scott — he should have 
 been christened Michael — expecting in the simplicity of 
 his heart to find something like the Kenilworth built up a 
 second time in what may truly be called the magic volume ; 
 for even that potent tome, which William of Deloraine 
 abstracted from under the sleeper's head, could not have 
 had greater powers of enchanting. Is there not also the 
 wonder-working Spa of Leamington, which realizes the 
 fable of Medea's kettle, and makes the old, if not quite 
 young again, yet almost as good as young ? And is not 
 Warwick renowned beyond all measure by its two valiant 
 earls, by Guy who slew " Colbrand, the giant," that same 
 mighty man; and by the no less formidable champion, 
 who made and unmade monarchs at his own pleasure, 
 Warwick, " proud setter up, and puller down of kings ?" 
 And, moreover, is not the impregnable castle — impregnable 
 in those days — which he inhabited, well worthy of a day's 
 journey, if it were only for its access and external ap- 
 pearance ? Built upon a rock at the foot of which flows 
 the Avon, it is approached by a broad winding path hewn 
 
262 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 out of the solid rock, so that for a hundred yards or more, 
 expectation is kept upon the stretch by the total shutting 
 out of all prospect beyond these enormous walls of living 
 stone that rampart you in on either side. As you draw- 
 near the end of this sombre and mysterious avenue, first 
 one massive tower appears, then a second, then a third, 
 and next the whole castle bursts upon the sight in all its 
 ponderous magnificence. Never did the spirit of feudalism 
 find a more appropriate dwelling. 
 
 Is there not also the quaint old-fashioned town of Coven- 
 try, with its pretty legend of the Lady Godiva, which some 
 learned antiquaries have taken as much pains to demolish as 
 if it had been a drop of poison virulent enough of itself to 
 corrupt the whole well of truth ? Why, in the name of 
 dulness, do they not set about proving that little Thomas 
 Thumb is a great he, that the heroic Jack never climbed 
 up a beanstalk, and that there is no such thing in rerum 
 natura as a phoenix? But let them talk and write as 
 they please; "in spite of spite,^^ Lady Godiva still con- 
 tinues every third year to ride in pageant through the 
 city. And long may she do so ! Genius of dulness ! 
 We are not sure to be cheated out of all the illusions 
 of our childhood, to be deprived of all those beautiful 
 beliefs which hang like green leaves about the tree of life, 
 and which being torn away, the trunk stands bare and 
 unsightly as a birch in December. 
 
 Abounding as Warwickshire does in situations of sur- 
 passing loveliness, no marvel that its broad expanse can 
 boast of some of the finest seats in England. Indepen- 
 dently of those to which we have already alluded, there 
 
BEAUCHIEFF AND WHITBY ABBEYS. 263 
 
 are Ragley, Pakington, Grendon, Wroxhall Abbey, Eat- 
 ington, Stoneleigh, Whitley Abbey, Grove Park, Shuck- 
 burgb, Wroxton Abbey, Arbury, Alscot, Guy's Cliffe, 
 Atherstone, Birbury, Studley Castle, Clopton, Moxkul, 
 Stivic, Newbold Hall, Compton Verney, Ansley, and Mere- 
 vale. The county families of distinction are those of Gre vile, 
 Conway, Shirley, Lucy, Chetwynd, Dugdale, Newdegate, 
 Leigh, Wilmot, Hartopp, Shuckburgh, Mordaunt, Craven, 
 Verney, Bracebridge, Dilke, Adderley, Skipwith, and West. 
 
 But to turn our pilgrim^s steps to other shrines : let us 
 visit old Beauchieff Abbey. This monastic relic is in 
 the extensive parish of Sheffield, a name which in the 
 present day is so inseparably connected with the idea of 
 plated goods and cutlery, that few will be able to imagine 
 that it was ever the site of heroic deeds and baronial cas- 
 tles. Even the name of Hallamshire is seldom if ever 
 heard beyond the locality to which it applies. Yet this 
 was not always the case. There was a time when this 
 district was the favourite residence of lordly barons, though 
 of such days the traces are but few, and those few rapidly 
 decaying, and giving place to the more useful, but certainly 
 less picturesque, purposes of modem life. 
 
 Beauchieff Abbey was founded in 1183 by Robert Fitz 
 Ranulph, the powerful Lord of Alfreton, of Norton and of 
 many other places in the county of Derby, and it seems in 
 a short time to have become highly popular. And well it 
 might. The spirit of rehgion in those days was sincere 
 and fervent, besides which, the people, who had hitherto 
 been called upon to support such institutions in parts far 
 away from them, had now all the advantage that belongs 
 
264 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 to the presence of a landlord, who consumes on his estate 
 what his estate produces. Other benefactors were found 
 to continue the work which had been so well begun : and 
 in course of time the Monks of Beauchieff became a rich 
 and important community. At the general ruin, however, 
 of the monasteries, the site was granted to Nicholas Strel- 
 ley, and here now stands in a lovely vale, at a short distance 
 from the scanty remains of the old Abbey, one of the best 
 specimens of Elizabethan architecture now existing, the re- 
 sidence of Mr. Pegge Burnell, Strelley's direct descendant. 
 Another great Monastic foundation was Whitby Abbey, 
 in Yorkshire — " high Whitby's cloistered pile" — but 
 its beginnings, like the tiny springs from which mighty 
 rivers flow, were small indeed. Three poor monks set out, 
 towards the close of the eleventh century, from Evesham 
 Abbey for the north, with the pious intention of restoring 
 monastic institutions in Northumbria. They travelled on 
 foot, with a little mule to carry their books and priestly gar- 
 ments, and they wended their way onward, slowly, but cheer- 
 fully. Inadequate must have appeared, in human estima- 
 tion, the means possessed by these lowly brethren for the 
 mighty task they had undertaken, but a Divine guidance 
 directed their steps, and prospered their endeavours. 
 Having sojourned for a brief period at Newcastle-upOn- 
 Tyne, they journeyed on to Jarrow, where they built, them- 
 selves huts among ruins of the ancient Abbey of Whitby, 
 and erected a temporary place of worship. Here they 
 gathered together a goodly number of followers, and became 
 the founders of that holy community, which, subsequently, 
 held such puissant sway in " Whitby's broad domains.'' 
 
BUNCOMBE PARK AND CASTLE HOWARD. 265 
 
 Sir Richard Cholmley, who eventually obtained posses- 
 sion of this dissolved monastery's lands, was a distinguished 
 soldier, and fought with great gallantry in Scotland. He 
 loved pomp, and generally had fifty or sixty servants about 
 his house ; nor would he ever go up to London without a 
 retinue of thirty or forty men. His hair and eyes were 
 black, and his complexion so swarthy, that he was usually 
 styled "The Black Knight of the North.^' To his son 
 and successor. Sir Francis Cholmley, the mansion of Whit- 
 by Hall owes its erection. 
 
 With less of antiquity to recommend it, but with the 
 advantage of modem refinement, and present habitation, 
 is DuNcoMBE Park, with its castle of Helmsley, remark- 
 able in a county full of fine seats, for the varied interest 
 of the scenery, and the numerous treasures of art which it 
 contains : — 
 
 ** And Helmsley, once proud Buckingham's delight, 
 Slides to a scrivener or a city knight." 
 
 If, using the privilege of the seven-leagued boots, we step 
 from Buncombe Park into Craven, we shall stumble on 
 EsHTON Hall, which finds such honourable mention in 
 the bibliographical pages of Dibdin, and will be long re- 
 membered as the residence of a distinguished patron of 
 literature. Miss Richardson Currer. 
 
 But the grandest place in Yorkshire is Castle Howard, 
 a princely mansion, four miles from Malton, erected by 
 Charles, the third Earl of Carlisle, on the spot where once 
 stood the old castle of Hinderskelf ; it is more extensive 
 than Blenheim, and is not altogether the work of one 
 architect, nor is it from one design. The north front was 
 
266 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 built by Sir John Vanbrugb, and consists of a lich centre 
 of the Corinthian order, with a cupola rising from the 
 roof, flanked by two large wings, the east of which was 
 finished according to the original plan, while the west has 
 been erected by Sir James Kobinson, with little regard to 
 the character of the rest of the building. The south, or 
 garden front, is also magnificent, and though perhaps 
 questionable in point of taste, is undeniably very striking. 
 The surrounding park is an excellent specimen of an 
 English demesne, and the view over it from the terrace is 
 most charming. Within the house, the rooms are spacious 
 to an unusual degree, and abound in all the luxuries of 
 modern refinement. Choice pictures (among other trea- 
 sures, " The Three Marys,^' Vandyke's " Snyders," and 
 " The Adoration of the Kings"), |^rare pieces of antiquity, 
 and costly furniture, meet the eye on all sides; and yet there 
 is more magic in the simple name of Howard, associated as 
 it is with the romantic features and the heroic achievements 
 of English history, than in all these accumulated splendours. 
 While the sun seems still to Hnger on the wolds and 
 hills of Yorkshire, we must notice one or two places more : 
 Hornby Castle, in the North Riding, a noble, but 
 irregular pile, even now retains a portion of its baro- 
 nial grandeur : it encloses an inner court or quadrangle, 
 like the old colleges at Cambridge, though the general 
 line of the building does not exceed two stories. Two 
 embattled towers, the one, round in the centre of the east 
 front, and the other, square at the end of the same side, 
 are carried to a greater height, thus breaking what would 
 else be an uniform and monotonous line ; while on 
 
HORNBY CASTLE AND BOLTON CASTLE. 267 
 
 three of the sides — south, east, and north^ — is a separate 
 entrance. The whole stands upon an eminence sloping 
 gently to the river that winds around its base, and com- 
 mands an extensive view of mountain and moorland, of 
 fertile plain and valley. From its extent and massiveness 
 it impresses the mind strongly with the rude greatness of 
 former times, when man seemed, with a noble, but mistaken 
 daring, to stamp " esto perpetuum !'* upon all his works. 
 
 Previous to the reign of Henry IV., this castle belonged 
 to the family of St. Quintin, till the male line becoming 
 extinct, and the young heiress, Margaret St. Quintin, 
 marrying Sir John Conyers, it of course passed into 
 the possession of her husband. This family increased 
 in wealth and rank for many years, when a daughter again 
 succeeded to the inheritance, who married Thomas Lord 
 D'Arcy, and thus transferred it to a new line. The same 
 thing happened a third time in 1778, when Robert, Earl 
 of Holderness, the lineal descendant of the Conyers, died, 
 leaving an only daughter to inherit. This lady gave her 
 hand to Francis-Godolphin, Marquess of Carmarthen, the 
 eldest son of the Duke of Leeds, and in the Leeds family 
 Hornby Castle still remains. 
 
 Bolton Castle, in Wensleydale, at one time the prison 
 of Mary Stuart, was for three centuries the stately resi- 
 dence of another illustrious northern family, the Baronial 
 House of Scrope. It is situated on a high, bleak and 
 barren hill, approachable by a toilsome ascent, and over 
 the bed of a rapid torrent, and we cannot easily imagine 
 why a great family, who had at their command all the 
 luxuriant, fertile plain beneath, chose to take up their 
 
268 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 abode, generation after generation, exposed to storms and 
 tempests without, and to darkness and discomfort within. 
 Compared to Bolton Hall — the mansion of the present 
 noble possessor of the demesne — its frowning predecessor 
 forms a striking contrast : the one, the emblem of modem, 
 polished life ; the other, the type and gloomy relique of 
 feudal manners. 
 
 From " time immemorial" we trace the Scropes as resi- 
 dent in the lovely vale of Wensleydale — the most romantic 
 and picturesque of the northern valleys — and, in the whole 
 range of our nobility, we can scarcely point to a family 
 more illustrious. An unbroken male descent from the 
 Conquest, if not from the time of Edward the Confessor, 
 their alliances, their achievements, and their possessions, 
 sufficiently attest their antiquity and importance ; whilst 
 the mere enumeration of the dignities they attained, be- 
 tween the reigns of Edward II. and Charles I., proves the 
 high rank they enjoyed. In this interval of three hundred 
 years, the house of Scrope produced two Earls and twenty 
 Barons, one Chancellor, four Treasurers, and two Chief 
 Justices of England, one Archbishop and two Bishops, 
 five Knights of the Garter, and numerous Bannerets, the 
 most distinguished soldiers in the days of chivalry. 
 
 But to enumerate all that deserves record in Yorkshire, 
 would prolong our ramble beyond any reasonable limit. 
 
 " O famous York ! 
 
 What county hath this isle, that can compare with thee ?" 
 
 Are there not Wentworth House, Thrybergh, Wortley, 
 Harewood, Castle Howard, AUerton Park, Swillington, 
 Kirklees, Gledstone, Aldwark, Nostell, Bolton Abbey, 
 
TEMPLE NEWSAM. 269 
 
 Gilling Castle, Walton Hall, Heslington, Cannon Hall, 
 Escrick, Brougton, Tong, Wentworth Castle, Rievaulx 
 Abbey, Bretton, Bramham, Everingham, Chevet Hall, 
 Byrom, Denton Park, Ganton, Gisburne Park, Howsham, 
 Burton Agnes, Hornby Castle, Aske, Bolton Hall, Gunth- 
 waite, Hovinghara, Duncombe Park, Swinton, Hackness, 
 Kirkleatham, Marske, Rokeby, Burton Constable, Studley 
 Priory, Fountain Abbey, Bransby, Jerveaux Abbey, Norton 
 Conyers, and Womb well. One halt more only before 
 quitting this magnificent county, which is so replete with 
 historical associations, while in extent it is unrivalled by 
 any two of the largest shires in England. The very name 
 of Temple Newsam brings us back to the age of the 
 warrior-monks, who once set their mailed foot upon the 
 necks of kings, and had well-nigh been an over-match 
 for the Pope himself. Where the present spacious and 
 noble mansion stands, there was formerly a preceptory of 
 the order of the Templars, and from that circumstance is 
 derived the first half of the modem appellation. Upon the 
 suppression of these ambitious soldiers, the estate was 
 granted by Edward III. to Sir John D^Arcy, with whose 
 descendants it remained till Thomas Lord D' Arcy got him- 
 self embroiled with Henry the Eighth, who at all times 
 administered justice in a summary way of his own, cutting 
 off heads with as little pretence to reason as any Schah of 
 of Persia. In his day the Yorkshiremen raised a rebellion 
 under the name of the " Pilgrimage of Grace," and Lord 
 D'Arcy was suspected of treachery in having delivered up 
 to them Pontefract Castle, whereupon the bluff monarch 
 caused him to be hung upon Tower-hill. It is indeed far 
 
270 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 from certain whether the unlucky nobleman had really 
 betrayed his trust to these gracious pilgrims^ but Henry's 
 suspicions were generally fatal to the object of them ; and 
 having thus removed his former favourite, he bestowed the 
 property upon Matthew, Earl of Lennox, whose son, the 
 celebrated Darnley, was born here. James the First 
 granted it to the then Duke of Lennox, and from him it 
 was purchased by Sir Anthony Ingram, who built the 
 present splendid mansion. It stands upon the banks of 
 the Aire, about four miles from Leeds, and nearly fourteen 
 from York, in the midst of a beautiful and fertile tract, 
 which is watered by one of the largest rivers in Yorkshire. 
 The legends which used to attach to the ruined Castles 
 and decayed Abbeys of England, have, with few exceptions, 
 passed out of men's memories ; that such legends must 
 have existed at one period cannot, we should think, be a 
 matter of question ; it seems but fair to presume that the 
 bold Barons who built or inherited these castles before they 
 went to ruin must have done many a deed in their time 
 that ought not to be forgotten ; yet we must confess that 
 small care has been taken to preserve our legendary lore ; 
 here and there, the antiquarian explorer meets with an 
 oasis where the leaf is green, and the fountain is flowing, 
 but, generally speaking, he plods on for days, gleaning 
 little by the wayside. Some chance, and not quite for- 
 gotten tradition, some family tale that still lingers in an 
 old Baronial Hall, is all that rewards his toil — the more 
 prized from its very rareness. One of these scarce legends 
 is associated with Haigh Hall, in Lancashire, and afiPorded 
 Sir Walter Scott material for his story of "the Be- 
 
LEGEND OF HAIGH HALL. S71 
 
 trothed." In simple words we will endeavour to narrate 
 it. An old MS. pedigree, which we have seen, describes 
 Sir William Bradshaigh — the hero of our tale — as " a great 
 trauveller and souldger/' and records that, stimulated by 
 his roving disposition and martial ardour,^ he set out for 
 the Holy Land. There, we may safely infer that he was 
 neither the least nor the lowest of the brave champions 
 who fought for the Cross. Ten years elapsed, and ac- 
 cording to rumour and general belief, the good knight 
 had perished. Now, whether Mabel, his wife, was over- 
 persuaded by her friends, or led away by her own fancy, 
 does not appear, but she at length married again, and the 
 object of her second choice was a Welsh knight. Shortly 
 after, Sir William Bradshaigh, having safely returned to 
 England, paid a visit, in the disguise of a palmer, to his 
 own castle, and took his place amongst the recipients 
 of the Lady MabeVs bounty. The moment, however, 
 Mabel saw the palmer, she was struck by his resemblance 
 to her first husband, and her astonishment was heightened 
 when he presented her with a ring, which he said Sir 
 William had, in dying, entrusted him to bear to Haigh 
 Hall. Old times came back on her memory, old thoughts 
 were awakened,^ and she burst into tears ; yet still without 
 suspecting her former lord in the poor palmer. The 
 Welsh Knight, jealous as is his countrymen^s wont, "grew," 
 says the old record, " exceedingly wroth," and, in his fury, 
 struck the lady. The blow, and the lady's evidence of 
 feeling, so much moved Sir William, that he threw off his 
 concealment, made himself known to his tenants and re- 
 tainers, and hastened to take revenge on the unchivalrous 
 
272 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 Welshman. It seems, though, that the oflfender had 
 somehow got notice of these hostile designs, and preferring 
 the chance of flight to the chance of battle, rode off at 
 full speed, without staying further question. But he was 
 not destined to escape; Sir William overtook him near 
 Newton Park, and slew him with his own hand; for which 
 offence he was outlawed for a year and a day. As for 
 Mabel, " she was enjoined by her confessor to doe penance 
 by going onest every week, barefoot and barelegged, to a 
 crosse ner Wigan from the Haghe wilest she lived.^^ This 
 cross is called MabePs Cross even to our day; and the 
 monument of Sir William Bradshaigh and Dame Mabel, his 
 wife, reposing side by side, is still pointed out in Wigan 
 Church. The son of the worthy pair succeeded to the fair 
 inheritance of "the Haghe," and there, in a stately and 
 splendid structure erected in modern times, now dwelleth 
 the Bradshaighs' descendant, Lindsay, Earl of Crawford 
 and Balcarres. 
 
 It is cheering to have a tradition of this romantic cha- 
 racter, associated with the busy, manufacturing, money- 
 making county of Lancaster ; and it is yet more gratifying 
 to know that that wondrous district, whose moors were 
 once as barren as now they are teeming with life, has many 
 still remaining of its ancient time-honoured seats ; Bolton 
 Hall, where Henry VI., defeated and fugitive, found an 
 asylum with the Pudseys; Lathom House, memorable 
 for the heroic defence of the Countess of Derby — Char- 
 lotte de la Tremouille — 
 
 " Twas there they raised, 'mid sap and siege. 
 The banners of their rightful liege 
 
CIRENCESTER ABBEY. 273 
 
 At their she-captain's call, 
 Who, miracle of womankind, 
 Lent mettle to the meanest hind 
 
 That mann'd her Castle wall." 
 
 Knowsley, the home of the Stanleys; Trafford, the resi- 
 dence of the great Catholic house whose name it bears j 
 and Lytham, and Croxteth, and Hale, and Foxholes, and 
 Hulton, and many a one besides. Towneley still keeps 
 house at Towneley, Hesketh at Rufford, and Hoghton at 
 Hoghton Tower, 
 
 We are constantly being reminded, while travelling 
 among the old English mansions, of how much that was 
 once great and glorious has long since passed away. Some- 
 times the admonition comes in the shape of an antique 
 fragment, which is yet allowed to form a portion of a 
 modern wall; but more frequently it comes from our 
 learning that the building we admire stands on the site of 
 a demolished castle, or of an abbey that has been swept 
 away by the hands of the desolator. Often, too, the ap- 
 pellation of abbey will yet remain clinging to the 
 modern edifice, as we shall find in Cirencester Abbey, 
 Gloucestershire, founded in 1117 by Henry the First, for 
 canons regular of the Augustine order. The hand of 
 Bluff King Hal — and it was never a light one — fell here 
 with even more than its usual weight. On granting this 
 part of his church spoil to Roger Basigne, he commanded 
 that all the buildings within the abbey precincts should be 
 pulled down and carried away ; and so punctually was this 
 Gothic mandate obeyed, that nothing now remains of the 
 abbey or its adjuncts except the almonry gate, the spital 
 gate, and a large barn. In course of time it reverted to 
 
 T 
 
274 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 the crowiij and Queen Elizabeth finally sold it to Richard 
 Master, her physician of the chamber, who erected a 
 mansion upon the site of the abbey. This also was pulled 
 down in 1773, when a new house was built, which is in- 
 habited by Miss Master, a direct descendant of EHza- 
 beth's physician. 
 
 SuDELEY Castle, also in Gloucestershire, built about 
 the year 1442, by Sir Ralph Boteler, Lord Treasurer of 
 England, derives historic interest from its association with 
 the Seymours, and more especially with Queen Catherine 
 Parr, who died here of a broken heart, or, as some suspect, 
 of having been poisoned by her last husband, Lord Sey- 
 mour, of Sudeley, the ambitious Lord High Admiral.* 
 Many a long year after, in 1782, some ladies who hap- 
 pened to be at Sudeley Castle, were induced to examine 
 the ruined chapel, and observing a large alabaster block 
 fixed in the north wall, they imagined it might be the 
 back of some mui'al monument that had formerly been 
 placed there. Acting upon this hint, they had the ground 
 dug up not far from the wall, when they found, a little 
 more than a foot below the surface, a leaden envelope, and 
 having opened it in two places, the face and breast, they 
 saw a human form, in every feature as perfect as one em- 
 balmed in a Theban sarcophagus — as perfect as life itself ! 
 but, alarmed at the sight, they ordered the earth to be 
 thrown in at once, without stopping to replace either the 
 
 * Serjeant Atkinson devotes the first chapter of his dehghtful 
 " Worthies of Westmorland" to Kateryn Parr. He asserts that 
 the Queen died in childbirth of her daughter, and not of a broken 
 heart or poison. 
 
275 
 
 cloth or the lead. Still, enough had been seen of the 
 inscription to prove that the body was that of Queen Cath- 
 erine. In four years after, in 1786, the Kev. Dr. Nash 
 reopened the grave, but found that the action of the air, 
 and the damp, had destroyed the face. He discovered, 
 however, in the lead which covered the breast, this in- 
 scription : — 
 
 " K. P. Here lyethe queue Kateryn wife to Kyng 
 Henry the VIII. and last the wife of Thomas Lord of 
 Sudely highe Admyrall of England and vncle to Kyng 
 Edward the VI. dyed 5 September MCCCCCXLVIII." 
 
 Eighty years before this, a yet more curious discovery 
 of a somewhat similar nature had been made at Minster 
 Lovel in Oxfordshire. It is related in the following letter 
 from William Cowper, Esq., Clerk of the Parliament in 
 1737:— 
 
 " Hertingfordbury Park, Aug. 7, 1737. 
 
 " Sir, — I met t'other day with a memorandum I had 
 made some years ago, perhaps not unworthy of your no- 
 tice. You may remember that Lord Bacon, in his History 
 of Henry VII., giving an account of the battle of Stoke, 
 says of the Lord Lovel, who was among the rebels, ' that 
 he fled and swame over the Trent on horseback, but could 
 not recover the further side, by reason of the steepnesse of 
 the banke, and so was drowned in the river. But another 
 report leaves him not there, but that he lived long after in 
 a cave or vault.' 
 
 " Apropos to this : — On the 6th May, 1728, the pre- 
 sent Duke of Rutland related in my hearing that about 
 twenty years befo:e, viz. in 1708, upon occasion of new 
 
 t2 
 
276 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 laying a chimney at Minster Luvel, there was discovered a 
 large vault, or room under ground, in which was the en- 
 tire skeleton of a man, as having been sitting at a table, 
 which was before him, with a book, paper, pen, &c. In 
 another part of the room lay a cap, all much mouldered 
 and decayed, which the family and others judged to be 
 this Lord Luvel, whose exit has hitherto been so uncertain. 
 
 " W. Cowper/' 
 
 Hence it may reasonably be inferred that it was the fate 
 of Lord Love! (then only about thirty-two) to have fled to 
 his house in Oxfordshire after the battle, and there to have 
 intrusted himself to some servant, by whom he was im- 
 mured, and afterwards deserted, either through treachery, 
 fear, or some accident which befel that person — a melan- 
 choly period to the life and fortunes of one of the greatest 
 and most active noblemen of the era in which he lived. 
 
 From Gloucestershire to Devon, although a tolerably 
 long route in the maps, is a short flight for the imagina- 
 tion, which, like the electric telegraph, would almost seem 
 to annihilate both space and time. Let us then fancy 
 ourselves in the manor of Kenton, before the walls of 
 PowDERHAM Castle, crcctcd during the feudal ages for 
 protecting the adjacent lands and vassals from the incur- 
 sions of rival Barons. Upon the death of John de Pow- 
 derham, in the time of the first Edward, it fell, by escheat 
 or otherwise, to Humphrey de Bohun, ^arl of Hereford, 
 who gave it, with his daughter Margaret in marriage, to 
 Hugh, Earl \)i Devon ; and he again bestowed it upon 
 his son, Sir Peter Courtenay, about the beginning of the 
 
POWDERHAM CASTLE. 277 
 
 fourteenth century. From this time it shifted from one 
 to another like the cards in the hands of a juggler, and 
 there really is something curious in following these changes 
 effected now by purchase, and now by marriages, till the 
 wheel of fortune had gone full round, and the Courtenays 
 once again became possessed of their original estate. In 
 1538 it devolved to the crown, on the attainder of Henry 
 Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter, for while the feudal system 
 prevailed it was to be expected that once in two or three 
 generations the head of every noble family would die upon 
 the scaffold ; in the reign of Elizabeth it was sold to Lord 
 Clifton ; in the reign of James the First, the new pur- 
 chaser resold it to Sir Warwick Hele ; shortly afterwards 
 it fell to Sir Edward Hungerford, in right of his wife : in 
 the reign of Charles the Second, Sir Edward parted with 
 it to the Duke of Albemarle ; in the reign of Queen Anne 
 it came into the hands of Lord Granville; in 1712 it was 
 again purchased into the original family, by Sir William 
 Courtenay, Bart. 
 
 This castle is beautifully situated on the banks of the 
 Exe, not more than three miles from its confluence with 
 the British Channel. At high water the river in this part 
 is full a mile and a half broad, the castle windows com- 
 manding a magnificent view of the ocean to the west, and 
 of the shipping as it comes up to Topsham. The grounds, 
 moreover, are unusually extensive. They embrace a cir- 
 cumference of nearly ten miles, in which is ^mprised a 
 large park well stocked with deer, besides plantations, 
 shrubberies, lawns, and pleasure-grounds. Nature, in fact, 
 has done everything to render this one of the most en- 
 
378 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 chanting spots in England, but the antiquary can hardly 
 be expected to sympathize with the taste which has sug- 
 gested the modern improvements upon the old edifice. Up 
 to the year 1752 it still retained a portion of its original 
 castellated form ; but since then the machiolated gateway, 
 with its formidable portcullis, has disappeared, the high 
 turrets and massive embattlements have given way to what 
 is called classic architecture, and many additions have been 
 made to the north wing, adding much, no doubt, to the 
 convenience of the inmates, but greatly to the discomfort 
 of those who, like ourselves, are especial admirers of an- 
 cient Gothicism. 
 
 Devonshire has been at all times distinguished for its 
 many eminent families ; and it can still boast of some of 
 the most illustrious houses in the kingdom, including those 
 of Courtenay, Edgecombe, Seymour, Fortescue, Gary, Ghi- 
 chester, Garew, Fulford, Glinton, Drewe, Basset, and 
 Strode. Many names that were once conspicuous in the 
 county records, are now no more. Pomeroy, Holland, 
 Redvers, RoUe, Martin, Mohun, Ghudleigh, Hole, Arscott, 
 Groker, Grewys, and Coplestone : 
 
 " Croker, Crewys, and Coplestone, 
 When the Conqueror came, were at home." 
 
 The pride of Sussex is Arundel Gastle : originally 
 built by Alfred the Great, the Keep alone of all that re- 
 mains, could have existed at the time of the Conquest. 
 From the period when the Gastle fell into Norman hands, 
 each possessor seems to have done something towards 
 strengthening or extending it. Roger de Montgomery, 
 
. PERMANENCE OF ENGLISH SOCIETY. 279 
 
 who received it from the Conqueror in 1070, erected the 
 great Gatehouse, and the Barbican, known as Bevis's Tower, 
 and successive Lords have at various epochs enlarged or 
 restored the venerable edifice. Its tenure is popularly 
 believed to confer the title of Earl: 
 
 " Since William rose, and Harold fell, 
 There have been counts of Arundel. 
 And Earls old Arundel shall have. 
 While rivers flow, and forests wave." 
 
 Arundel Castle has been often forfeited; a dozen of its 
 owners have lost their heads, the religion they professed 
 has been proscribed, their Earl Marshalship has been 
 taken from them ; yet, somehow or other, proud Arundel 
 still owns for Lord the heir of Queen Adeliza ; the repre- 
 sentative of Thomas of Brotherton is still Earl Marshal, and 
 the chief of the noble Howards is still our premier Duke. 
 
 This permanence of English society is attributable as 
 well to the national character, as to the national law of 
 primogeniture. A short time since, in one of the admi- 
 rable leaders of " the Times,'^ this subject was most ably 
 discussed : 
 
 " It matters not," says the journalist, " how or where 
 we got our patriarchal traditions, but they are deep 
 in the blood, and centuries would not wear them out. 
 The whole of a family conspire to create a head. Tem- 
 porary inconvenience may betray itself in murmurs, but 
 all naturally fall into the hereditary arrangement. The 
 childless leave the property generally to the one who can 
 best keep up the family. They feel it safest and most 
 profitable to invest what they leave in the eldest son of the 
 
280 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 eldest. Experience amply confirms the wisdom of this 
 course. The eldest son keeps up the place, makes his 
 house the general rendezvous, sustains the social consider- 
 ation of the family, links it with other families equal or 
 higher in the social scale, — in a word, fights the life battle 
 of his race. He is the chief. His one name has more 
 influence than twenty smaller ones. If the juniors of his 
 race have less than their deserts, their deserts are measured 
 by his position, and their inferiority to him is their strong, 
 though silent, claim to a share in the prizes of life. When 
 it is objected that the estate is settled on the elder, and 
 the youngers are thrown upon the public institutions of 
 the country, that expresses a universal fact ; but the fact 
 is, the youngers get what they do get by the aid of the 
 elder, and by the effect of his position. Instead of the 
 estate being frittered away in subdivisions, its concentra- 
 tion make it the nucleus of increase. The vitality of the 
 seed is uninjured ; it germinates, and bears fruit. Thus 
 small families become great. Were it once the custom to 
 divide landed property as soon as it had been got to- 
 gether, it would never be collected. Nobody would buy 
 out every smaller man about him at an extravagant price 
 to make a property for the mere pleasm'e of dividing it 
 neatly in his will, or leaving his son to do so. Yet that 
 great estates are better than small ones, both for agricul- 
 ture, for social improvement, and for the political balance 
 of the country, will hardly be questioned by any one who 
 gives one candid thought to the subject. If churches, 
 schools, roads, farm-buildings, cottages, and drainage, are 
 to be done„ it is of little use to look to small proprietors, 
 
WELBECK ABBEY. 281 
 
 still less to those who are obliged to live just on a fourth 
 or a tenth of the income enjoyed by their fathers/' 
 
 The name of Nottinghamshire will probably suggest 
 few romantic or poetical fancies to the minds of most of 
 our readers, except it be in connection with Sherwood 
 Forest, and the celebrated outlaw, Robin Hood. This 
 indifference has proceeded, we imagine, from the county 
 having found but one historian, Thoroton, and he the 
 dryest of the dry ; his work, in three quarto volumes, is 
 little better than a dusty record of names, for the most 
 part without note and without interest, and never bright- 
 ened by a single ray of imagination. Yet there is many a 
 spot in this neglected county upon which a man of the 
 least fancy would have dwelt with delight, and many a 
 popular tradition that he might have caught up from the 
 peasants, and leavened with it his heavy mass, till it be- 
 came lighter and more palatable. 
 
 Let us pause awhile before Welbeck Abbey, an 
 interesting relique of ancient times originally founded 
 in Henry the Second's reign, for Prsemonstratensian canons. 
 Like all other institutions of the same kind, it affords a 
 striking instance of the vicissitudes of the lives — if we 
 may be allowed so questionable a phrase — of houses as 
 well as men ; it passed into several hands at the dissolu- 
 tion, and in 1604 it was converted into a private residence, 
 by Sir Charles Cavendish, a younger brother to William, 
 the first Earl of Devonshire. Upon his decease it was in- 
 herited by his son, the Duke of Newcastle, no less famous 
 for his loyalty than for his horsemanship. Eventually it 
 devolved by marriage to the Earl of Oxford, from whom 
 
283 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. . 
 
 it passed to the Bentincks,* his sole surviving daughter 
 having wedded with one of that family. Some remains of 
 the Abbey may still be traced in the cellar- arches ; an 
 old chapel also was doubtless part of the original edifice ; 
 and it is said the sepulchral monuments have not been 
 destroyed, but are only hid from sight in some of the 
 chambers by hangings and wainscot panels. 
 
 Welbeck possesses the perfection of English woodland 
 beauty, just as the grand demesne of Farnham, in Cavan, 
 has all the best features of Irish scenery. It is the finest 
 specimen of a magnificent park in the centre of England. 
 Nothing can be more thoroughly sylvan, spreading out as it 
 does to an immense extent, with undulating slopes, covered 
 with thick woods, and adorned with gigantic trees. It is the 
 most striking of the four "Dukeries," as they are called; 
 far surpassing Thoresby, Clumber, or Worksop. Welbeck 
 Abbey is situated on the margin of a large lake, which is 
 surrounded by an extensive wood, containing some of the 
 finest forest trees in England. The park is eight miles in 
 circumference, and contains many oaks of extraordinary 
 
 * Kniephausen is the name of the principal territory of the 
 family of Bentinck. It is situated on the shore of the German 
 Ocean, and holds a very singular position as regards the German 
 confederation. It is, in some measure, still an independent state, 
 though of very limited extent ; its circuit being one square mile 
 (equal to five square English mUes), with three thousand inhabi- 
 tants. Count Bentinck, Lord of Kniephausen, can scarcely be 
 said to belong either to the class of reigning or of mediatized 
 princes. He was a reigning Count, and he has not been tho- 
 roughly mediatized. It has been jestingly said, that he was so 
 small that he was forgotten when the other petty sovereigns 
 were mediatized, and thus he still exists. 
 
NEWSTEAD ABBEY. 283 
 
 age and dimensions. The largest of these is the " Green- 
 dale oak/' which is of incalculable antiquity. It measures 
 in circumference thirty-three feet, and its branches are said 
 to have covered a space not less than seven hundred square 
 yards ; but it has been, during many years, in a state of 
 decay, retaining now only one branch, while the venerable 
 trunk is clasped with iron, capped with lead, and supported 
 on props. In 1724, a carriage way, ten feet high, and 
 six feet three inches wide, was arched out in the stem of 
 this immense tree. The tree called the " Duke's walking- 
 stick'' is another of these sylvan curiosities — 111 feet 6 
 inches high, and containing 440 solid feet of timber. 
 The two " Porters " stand at one of the park entrances, 
 and are each one hundred feet high. From the remark- 
 able tree called the " Seven Sisters," spring seven stems 
 ninety feet high. 
 
 And we must not forget one spot in this fine county — 
 now become classic ground — the old Augustine monastery 
 of Newstead — the home of the poet Byron. On his first 
 arrival at this ancient seat, in 1798, he planted an oak in 
 the garden, and nourished the idea, that as the tree pros- 
 pered or otherwise, so would it be with himself. On re- 
 visiting the Abbey during Lord Grey de Ruthven's resi- 
 dence there, he found the oak choked up by weeds and 
 almost destroyed, which circumstance gave rise to his 
 poem — 
 
 " Young oak, when I planted thefe deep in the ground." 
 
 Soon after Colonel Wildman took possession of the 
 estate, he one day noticed this tree, and said to the ser- 
 
284 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 vant who was with him, " Here is a fine young oak ; but 
 it must be cut down, as it grows in an improper place/' 
 " I hope not," replied the man ; " for it's the one my lord 
 was so fond of, because he set it himself/' The Colonel, 
 of course, since that time, took every possible care of the 
 tree. Strangers, already, when they visit Newstead, begin 
 to enquire after Byron's Oak ; so that it promises, one 
 day, to share the celebrity of Shakespeare's Mulberry, 
 
 We now pass into Somersetshire. This county is not 
 unknown in story, and, till within late years, the remote- 
 ness of its geographical position caused both the country 
 and its inhabitants to retain much of what was primitive 
 in scenery, in dialect, and in manners. In this county 
 the glorious banner of the Cross was first planted, and the 
 piety of holier times is here attested by many beautiful and 
 interesting ruins, such as Glastonbury, the Palace at Wells, 
 and the Abbey of Cleve. Passing by, however, these de- 
 caying memorials, and the many striking historical events 
 connected with Somersetshire, from the concealment of 
 Alfred in the Isle of Axholme, to the battle of Sedge- 
 moor, we will confine ourselves (forgetful, for the moment, 
 of Ashley Combe, Fairfield, Hinton St. George, Dunster 
 Castle, Leigh Court, Halsewell, Newton, St. Looe, Ashton 
 Court, Nettlecombe, Ammerdown, Mells Park, Brockley, 
 Redlynch, Sandhill Park, Bagborough, Clevedon, Somerton 
 Erleigh,and Nynehead),to one object amidst so many worthy 
 of notice, and select Montacute House, or rather take it as 
 being the first that presents itself to memory. This estate has 
 for several centuries belonged to the Phelips', who, like so 
 many others of our old families, came over with William the 
 
MONTACUTE HOUSE. 285 
 
 Conqueror, and obtained large grants of land from that 
 able soldier but unprincipled politician, for the assistance 
 they afforded him in subjugating the country. The origi- 
 nal settlement of the Phelips' was in Wales, but in the 
 fourteenth century they migrated into Somersetshire, when 
 they lived for many years at Barrington. Montacute House, 
 which is built entirely of a brown stone found on the estate, 
 was commenced in 1550, and as building did not proceed 
 in those days with the steam-like rapidity that characterises 
 modern times, it was not completed until 1601 : but its 
 substantialness when done, and the richness of the orna- 
 ments, made it a splendid specimen of Elizabethan archi- 
 tecture. Its outlines present the form of the Roman letter 
 E, in compliment no doubt to Elizabeth, for Sir Edward 
 Phelips, by whom it was raised, had the good fortune to 
 be a Queen's serjeant, a position which of course did not 
 diminish his loyalty to his maiden mistress. The eastern 
 or principal front of this immense pile is one hundred and 
 seventy feet long, the wings are twenty-eight feet in width, 
 and the whole is as rich as human art could make it, with 
 muUions, battlements, and all the multiplied creations of 
 the Gothic fancy, or rather of the eastern, for there can, 
 we suspect, be little doubt now-a-days of the Persian 
 origin of the so-called Gothic architecture. But if the 
 Serjeant loved shew, he also exercised hospitality upon a 
 scale of no less magnificence, and various inscriptions in 
 different parts of the building give ample testimony to 
 this feeling. Over the principal door we read, 
 
 " Through this wide- opening gate 
 None come too early, none return toO late." 
 
286 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 Over the north porch the weary traveller is met by this 
 pithy and significant invitation — 
 
 " And yours, my friend." 
 
 And on one of the lodges he will find himself greeted by 
 an old saw, no less expressive of the owner's hospitable 
 spirit — 
 
 " Welcome the coming, 
 Speed the parting guest." 
 
 We shall next pause in Northamptonshire, famed for 
 " spires and squires/' adorned with a hundred churches, 
 and full as many county seats, and so plentifully stored 
 with gentry that Norden styles it " the Herald's garden." 
 The grandest places are Burghley, to which we shall pre- 
 sently refer; Althorp, with its noble library, so rich 
 in early printed works ; Milton, where is still shown the 
 tree under which Wolsey sat; Lilford, that charming 
 specimen of an old English manor-house ; Fawsley, "with 
 its shield of 334 quarterings f Drayton, the home of the 
 de Veres, the Mordaunts, the Germaines, and the Stop- 
 fords; Apethorpe, where King James first met the youthful 
 Georg6 Villiers ; Bough ton, one of the various seats of his 
 Grace of Buccleuch; Castle Ashby; Dean; Easton Neston; 
 Rushton;* and "the dehghtful bowers'' around Rocking. 
 
 * Rushton was the residence of the Viscount CuUen. There 
 is a familiar legend connected with the marriage-feast of the 
 second viscount. He had been betrothed, at the age of sixteen, 
 to Elizabeth Trentham, a great heiress, but had, while travelling 
 abroad, formed an attachment to an Italian lady of rank, whom 
 he afterwards deserted for his first betrothed. While the wed- 
 
BURGHLEY HOUSE. 287 
 
 ham Castle. Then there are in addition the many good old 
 mansions and picturesque residences of the well-descended 
 gentlemen of Northamptonshire — such as Aynho, Then- 
 ford, Brockhall, Acton, Dela Pre, Lamport, Blatherwyke, 
 Eydon, Thorpe Malsor, Finedon, Bui wick, Fineshade, 
 Sulby, Cosgrove, Glendon Hall, Norton, and Great Oakley. 
 
 An admirable essay on this interesting county, full of 
 fancy and thought, anecdote and local lore, appeared in 
 the " Quarterly Review '^ for January, 1857; it extends 
 to little more than fifty pages, and yet the amount of 
 amusing information supplied is quite a marvel. 
 
 BuRGHLEY House is about a mile from Stamford. It 
 was built by the celebrated Lord Burghley, on the site of a 
 minster called Burghe, and is a brilliant specimen of the 
 Elizabethan style of architecture, in which the general plan 
 was after the Gothic school as it prevailed in the reign of 
 Henry the Eighth, while the ornamental parts were bor- 
 rowed from Italy, according to a taste which had then 
 
 ding-party were feasting in the great Hall at Eushton, a strange 
 carriage, drawn by six horses, drew up, and forth stepped a dark 
 lady, who, entering the Hall, and seizing a goblet, 'to punish his 
 falsehood and pride,' drank perdition to the bridegroom, and 
 having uttered a curse upon his bride, in stronger language 
 than we care to chronicle, to the effect that she would live in 
 wretchedness and die in want, disappeared, to be traced no 
 further. The curse was in a great measure fulfilled. She became 
 a beauty of Charles II. 's Court, was painted with less than his 
 usual allowance of drapery by Sir Peter Lely, twice gave an 
 asylum to Monmouth in the room at Eushton, still called ' the 
 Duke's room,' and, as might be inferred, living unhappily with 
 her husband, died, notwithstanding her enormous fortune, in 
 comparative penury at Kettering, at a great age, as late as 
 1713." — Quarterly Meview, 
 
288 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 newly arisen. So far as magnitude in the whole mass, and 
 a profuse minuteness in the decorations can make any- 
 place worthy of notice, Burghley House in the highest 
 degree deserves attention. The principal front, which looks 
 to the north, is nearly two hundred feet in extent ; at each 
 corner are turrets surmounted by octangular cupolas, and 
 terminated by vanes; a parapet goes round the whole 
 building in a series of open-work, consisting of arches 
 supported by balustrade with obelisks, interspersed with 
 the armorial ensigns of the family ; and the ascent to the 
 porch, which opens to the hall, is by nine semicircular 
 steps. The court measures one hundred and ten feet by 
 seventy feet, crossed by paved walks, that divide it into 
 four grass-plats. To the genuine antiquary, however, the 
 most interesting parts are the glimpses of the old minster, 
 which show themselves in divers fragments in the hall, 
 chapel, and kitchen, upon the eastern side of the edifice. 
 
 The interior is " incredibly rich in Venetian furniture, 
 royal beds, oriental china. Gibbon's carving, and historical 
 heirlooms from the Lord Treasurer's cup, given him by 
 Elizabeth, to the candelabra of the Duke of Wellington's 
 funeral." In the picture gallery, there is one portrait by 
 Lawrence which is popular with all visitors, high and low. 
 It is " The Cottager's Daughter," a faithful likeness of 
 the village maiden who won the heart and hand of the 
 late Earl of Exeter. Her simple tale, sung by Moore and 
 Tennyson, is the prettiest episode of peerage annals. " I 
 never wish," says Hazlitt, " to be a lord, but when I think 
 of this story, which beats the 'Arabian Nights.'" Though 
 Burghley still stands in all its pristine beauty, other 
 
RABY CASTLE. 289 
 
 Northamptonshire houses of historic note are sadly changed. 
 
 Not one stone remains of Fotheringay Castle, to mark the 
 
 spot where the tragedy of the 8th of February, 1587, 
 
 was enacted; and Kirby, with its long gallery, down 
 
 which 
 
 " My grave Lord Keeper led the brawls, 
 The seals and maces danced before him — " 
 
 is crumbling away, utterly desolate and neglected. 
 
 The course of our narrative — or, we should rather say, 
 the caprice of fancy — now leads us to the county of Dur- 
 ham, of which Raby Castle forms so important a feature. 
 Some parts of this edifice manifestly belong to the Anglo- 
 Saxon times, but the chief portion was built by John dc 
 Neville, 1379, he having obtained a license for that pur- 
 pose from the then Bishop of Durham. It occupies a 
 rising ground, its foundation being upon a rock, and is 
 surrounded by an embattled wall, which contains within 
 its circumference about two acres. There is an entrance 
 on the north, through a gateway defended by two square 
 towers ; a second on the west, the arch of which is groined, 
 and has a gate with portcullis at each end ; and a third 
 has been made in a more modern style, leading to the hall. 
 At irregular intervals are strong bulwarks, which have been 
 named, after their respective founders, the Clifibrd and Bul- 
 mer Towers. The kitchen, from its ample size and curious 
 arrangements, shews that the stout barons took no less 
 heed to their stomachs than to their defences, and had as 
 much relish for the good things of life as any modern 
 citizen. Another of the most spacious apartments of the 
 castle is the Banquetting Hall, ninety feet in length, thirty- 
 
290 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 six in height, and thirty-four in breadth. Here the an- 
 cient Baronial festivals were celebrated ; and here seven 
 hundred knights, who held of the Nevilles, are recorded 
 to have been entertained at one time. The grounds cor- 
 respond in extent and beauty with the fine old castle, the 
 whole being worthy of the powerful Nevilles, to whom it 
 belonged till forfeited by Charles, the sixth Earl of West- 
 moreland, for joining the northern rebellion against Eliza- 
 beth. Her successor, King James, consigned the estate 
 to certain London citizens for sale, and from them it was 
 bought by Sir Henry Vane, whose descendant, in the reign 
 of George the Second, was created Viscount Barnard and 
 Earl of Darlington by letters patent. In his lordship^s 
 representative, Henry, Duke of Cleveland, K. G., Baby 
 Castle now vests. 
 
 LuMLEY Castle, though with fewer historical recollec- 
 tions cleaving to it, is yet too picturesque, from its situa- 
 tion, not to arrest the attention of the passing traveller. 
 Towards the east it hangs on the brow of a hill, overlook- 
 ing a deep, well-wooded valley, and being separated from 
 the steep descent only by a curtain between the castle 
 walls and the edge of the precipice, below which runs 
 the little river Beck, on its way to the Weir. Above this 
 defence the edifice rises to the height of three stories, 
 having muUioned windows strongly barred with iron. 
 The centre is here formed by a stately entrance tower, with 
 machicolated gallery, flanked by turrets. But, indeed the 
 whole of this front has undergone little, if any, alteration 
 from the time when it was first raised in Edward the First's 
 reign, by Sir Robert Lumley, or perhaps when it was en- 
 
THE LAMBTON WORM. 291 
 
 larged by his son, Sir Marmaduke. On the west side, at 
 the base of the eminence, flows the Wear, and continues 
 its course towards the south, where the frontpresents 
 a more modern aspect. There also — on the west, that is 
 — the principal gateway is seen, the entrance to which is 
 by a double flight of steps, leading to a platform that fills 
 the entire space between the towers. The prospect from 
 this side is eminently beautiful. King James I. rested 
 a night at Lumley Castle, on his progress to London 
 to assume the English crown. On that occasion, a remark 
 made by his Majesty, on seeing the famous Lumley pedi- 
 gree, which deduces the line of ancestry from Adam, 
 though well known, deserves repetition : ''I never before," 
 observed the King, " kenned the surname of Adam, but 
 now I find it was Adam Lumley.'' 
 
 With Lambton Hall, the Earl of Durham's stately seat, 
 is' associated a strange and striking legend. The story, 
 which delighted Sir Walter Scott, has been told by many 
 writers, and very pleasantly by Surtees, who, with all his 
 antiquarian propensities, had a highly poetical imagination. 
 Deriving our information from the great historian of Dur- 
 ham, and from "The Gatherings" of an esteemed and 
 accompHshed friend, Mr. Hylton Longstaffe, we will endea- 
 vour to give a correct edition of a tale current for gene- 
 rations, and still implicitly believed in. 
 
 The Lambtons, at the period the legend refers to, " were 
 so brave, that they feared neither man nor God," where- 
 fore this judgment befel them. The wicked heir of 
 Lambton was fishing one Sunday, according to his profane 
 custom, in the Wear, and after toiling in vain for some 
 
 V 2 
 
293 RECOLLECTIONS OP ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 time, vented his dissatisfaction in curses loud and deep, 
 to the great scandal of all who heard him, on their way to 
 Holy Mass. At length he felt an extraordinary tugging 
 at his line, and in the hope of catching a large fish, he 
 drew it up with the utmost care ; yet it required all his 
 strength to bring the expected fish to land. It proved to 
 be only a worm of most unseemly appearance, which he 
 hastily tore from his hook, and threw, in a passion, into 
 a well, hard by. He again cast in his line, when a vene- 
 rable-looking stranger passing by, asked him " what 
 sport ?" He replied, " Why, truly I think I've caught 
 the Devil," and directed the enquirer to look into the well, 
 which he did, and remarked that he had never seen " the 
 like of it" before — that it was like an eft, but that it had 
 nine holes on each side of its mouth, and " tokened no good." 
 
 The Worm, neglected in the well, soon grew so large 
 that it became necessary to seek another abode. It usually 
 lay in the day-time coiled round a rock in the middle of the 
 river, and at night frequented a neighbouring hill, twining 
 itself around the base, and increased until it could lap itself 
 nine times round this green mound, leaving on it vermicular 
 traces, which remained within man^s memory. 
 
 The Worm was now the terror of the neighbourhood, 
 devouring lambs, sucking the cows^ milk, and committing 
 eveiy injury on the cattle of the affrighted peasantry. The 
 north side of the river soon afforded no further support, 
 so it crossed the stream towards Lambton Hall, where the 
 old Lord was then living in grief and sorrow; his son, 
 the profane fisherman, having repented of his wicked- 
 ness had gone to the wars in a far distant land, or as 
 
THE LAMBTON WORM. 293 
 
 some express it, to wage war against the Infidels. The 
 terrified household assembled, and it was proposed by the 
 steward, far advanced in years j and of great experience, 
 that the large trough which stood in the court -yard should 
 be filled with milk. The monster approached, eagerly drank 
 the milk, and returned, without further ravage, to repose 
 around his favourite hill. It came again next morning at 
 the same hour, and the milk to be provided was found to 
 be the produce of nine kye ; and if any portion was neg- 
 lected, the worm lashed its tail round the trees in the park, 
 and tore them up by the roots in its rage. ^' The Worm 
 wor a terrible hugeous cretur" (said a woman to William 
 Howitt), " it drank every day nine cows' milk ; and even 
 if th' family took a little sup out for their tea (!) it wor 
 fain to rive a' doon V Many a gallant knight had in vain 
 sought to slay this terror of the whole country side, but 
 always suffered loss of life or limb ; for though the Worm 
 had been frequently cut asunder, yet the severed parts had 
 immediately re-united, and it reigned undisturbed on its hill. 
 At length, after seven long years, young Lambton, the 
 Knight of the Cross, returned, and found the broad lands 
 of his ancestors desolate. He heard the wailings of the 
 people, and hastened to his father's Hall and received the 
 embrace of the old man, who was worn out with sorrow 
 and grief, both for the knight's supposed death, and the 
 dreadful waste of the Worm. Young Lambton took no rest 
 till he had crossed the river to examine the Worm as it lay 
 coiled round the base of the hill, and hearing the fate of all 
 who had fallen in the deadly strife, he consulted a witch or 
 wise woman on the best means to be pursued. He was 
 
294 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 told that lie himself had been the cause of all the misery 
 which had been brought upon the country, which increased 
 his grief and strengthened his resolution ; that he must 
 have his best suit of mail studded with razor blades, and 
 taking his stand on the island craig, commend himself to 
 Providence and to the might of his sword, first making a 
 solemn vow, if successful, to slay the first living thing he 
 met, or if he failed to do so, the Lords of Lamhton for 
 nine generations would never die in their beds. He made 
 the solemn vow, and devoted himself to the Holy Ghost 
 and the Virgin, in the chapel of his forefathers, and had 
 his coat studded with the blades of the sharpest razors. 
 
 The hero directed his father, that as soon as he heard 
 him sound three blasts on his bugle as a note of victory, 
 he should release his favourite greyhound, which would 
 immediately fly to the sound, and become the sacrifice. He 
 then took his stand on the island rock, and unsheathing 
 his trusty sword, commended himself to the will of Provi- 
 dence. At its wonted hour the Worm uncoiled its folds, 
 and bent its usual course towards Lambton Hall, ap- 
 proaching the rock where it sometimes reposed. The 
 Knight, nothing dismayed thereat, struck the monster on 
 the head with all his might and maiD, but without pro- 
 ducing any other visible effect than by irritating and vex- 
 ing the Worm, which closing on the Knight, clasped its 
 frightful coils around him, and endeavoured to strangle 
 him in its poisonous embrace. 
 
 The more closely the Knight was pressed by the Worm, 
 the more deadly were the wounds inflicted by the coat of 
 razor blades, until the river ran with a crimson gore of 
 
THE LAMBTON WORM. 295 
 
 blood, the Worm's strength diminishiug as its efforts in- 
 creased to destroy its antagonist. At length, Lambton, 
 seizing a favourable opportunity, made such good use of his 
 sword that he cut the monster in two : — the severed part 
 was immediately carried away by the force of the current, 
 and the Worm being thus unable to reunite itself, was, 
 after a long and desperate conflict, finally destroyed. 
 
 The afflicted household were devoutly engaged in prayer 
 during the combat ; but on the fortunate issue, the Knight, 
 according to promise, blew a blast on his bugle, to assure 
 his father that he was safe, and that he might let loose his 
 favourite hound, destined for sacrifice. But the Lord of 
 Lambton forgot everything save his parental feelings, and 
 rushed forward to embrace his son. The Knight on the meet- 
 ing was overwhelmed with grief; he could not be a parricide^ 
 yet hoping that his vow might be accomplished, and the 
 curse averted by destroying the next living thing he met, he 
 blew another blast on his bugle; his favourite hound 
 broke loose, and bounded to receive his caresses ; when the 
 gallant Knight, with grief and reluctance, once more 
 drew his sword, still reeking with the gore of the monster, 
 and plunged it into the heart of his faithful companion. 
 But in vain — the prediction was fulfilled, and the Sibyl's 
 curse pressed heavily on the house of Lambton for nine 
 generations. Some say that this was not part of the 
 original declaration of the Sibyl, and that the heir of 
 Lambton had again to resort to the witch or wdse woman, 
 who pronounced the alternative, which, after all, had pro- 
 bably nothing very terrible to a martial spirit. 
 
 The legend is certainly one of the most finished ro- 
 
296 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 mances, in all its parts, that England boasts of, for its 
 posthumous history is most extraordinary. Nine ascending 
 generations from Henry Lambton, the elder brother of the 
 late General, in whom the curse was generally believed by 
 the populace to expire, would exactly reach to that in 
 which Robert Lambton, Esq., died without issue in 1442, 
 leaving the Lambton honours to his brother Thomas, and 
 bequeathing by his will to his " brother John Lambton, 
 Knight of Rhodes, 100 marks." The hero of the legend 
 will instantly suggest himself, and a curious entry in an 
 old MS. pedigree, lately in possession of the Myddletons 
 of Ofiferton, says, ^' Johan Lambeton, thatslewe theworme, 
 was Knight of Rhoodes, and Lorde of Lambeton, and 
 Wod Apilton efter the dethe of fower brothers, sans 
 esshewe masle. His son Robert Lambton was drowned 
 at Newebrig." The Inquisitio post mortem of the Knight's 
 father occurs in 1432.3, and his mother makes her will in 
 1439, naming her '' son John Lambton, Knight." The 
 curse commenced in their grandchildren ; the hero's son 
 was drowned near the chapel where his father offered up his 
 unkept vow, and tradition fills up every generation of the 
 main line with a hedless death. Sir William, a royalist, 
 was slain at Marston Moor, and his son William (who, 
 however, was not his heir) received his death at Wake- 
 field in 1643. In the same year, John Lambton, of the 
 Tribley branch, was killed at Bradford in the royal service. 
 Great curiosity prevailed in the life-time of Henry, to 
 know if the curse would " hold good to the end." He 
 died in his chariot, crossing the New bridge, in 1761, thus 
 giving the last connecting link to the chain of circum- 
 
. TRENTHAM HALL — ALTON TOWERS. 297 
 
 stantial evidence connected with the history of the Worm 
 of Lambton. ^ His succeeding brother, the General, who 
 lived to a great age, fearing that the prophecy might be 
 possibly fullilled by his servants, under the idea that he 
 could not die in his bed, kept a horsewhip beside him in 
 his last illness, and thus eluded the prediction. Yet 
 though the spell is said to be broken, yet neither his son 
 nor his grandson have been longer lived, nor have they 
 died at home ; and this to the squires of ancient time, 
 would have been sorer punishment than dying in the battle 
 field, for they loved to sleep in their own country, and with 
 their fathers. 
 
 The pleasure which the traveller derives from our next 
 county, Staffordshire, will arise less from these remains 
 so delightful to the antiquarian, than from modern ele- 
 gance and modern associations. With all our love for the 
 olden times, we are not so bigotted as to suppose that 
 genius or desert are like the shield of Martin Scriblerus, 
 that degenerated into a mere pot-lid, when the ancient aerugo 
 was scoured off it, but can pause with as much pleasure 
 before the walls of Trentham Hall, however modern, as 
 before some grey-headed castle, that dates from the time 
 of the Conqueror. As a building, it borrows nothing 
 from the times gone by, having been erected little more 
 than a century, and even since then it has undergone con- 
 siderable changes and improvements by its recent noble 
 possessors. The estate takes its name from the beautiful 
 river, which winds through the park, and has so often been 
 celebrated both in song and story. 
 
 It is not often that the old ruin, and the more recent 
 
298 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 mansion remain, like the great grandfather of some family 
 and his infant descendant in the third degree, to mark the 
 contrast between the past and present. Generally speak- 
 ing, the new building occupies the complete site of the old 
 one that has been swept away, or at best it retains a few 
 fragments mixed up — awkwardly enough — with its mo- 
 dern lightness. Alton Towers is one of the exceptions 
 to this remark. The ruins of the castle still remain stand- 
 ing upon an almost perpendicular rock, the walls being of 
 prodigious thickness and extent. At the foot of this pre- 
 cipice, in a lovely valley, flows the little river Churnet, and 
 adds not a little to the beauty of the scene as it winds its 
 quiet way through the green herbage. The precise time 
 when the castle was first built can no longer be ascertained, 
 but it is supposed to have been soon after the Conquest, 
 the presumed date of so many similar erections. In suc- 
 cession it has belonged to the Verdons, the Furnivals, then 
 to the illustrious Sir John Talbot, the victor in forty bat- 
 tles, and who was most worthily created Earl of Shrews- 
 bury. His death, too, was as glorious as his life, for he 
 was killed by a cannon ball at Chastillon sur Dordon, in 
 1453. And what better end could a soldier wish for ? 
 surely to live into a drivelling dotage, like the great Marl- 
 borough, or even to pass away by lingering disease, going 
 out like the snuff of a wasted candle, is a sorry catastrophe 
 for a hero ; the very bathos of life's tragedy, when its 
 previous scenes have possessed the noblest and deepest 
 interest. 
 
 The modem mansion, which has inherited the ancient 
 name, is a splendid building, though somewhat irregular 
 
PENSHURST. 299 
 
 in form, and is placed amidst grounds of considerable ex- 
 tent and beauty in themselves, rendered yet more interest- 
 ing by the surrounding landscape. In architectural beauty 
 and grandeur of design, Alton Towers is a worthy memo- 
 rial of the taste and princely munificence of John, Earl 
 of Shrewsbury, and of the brilliant genius of Pugin. 
 
 Besides Trentham and Alton Towers, Staffordshire has 
 many a stately English home; Beaudesert, Ingestre, 
 Blithfield, Pateshul, Sandou, Chillington, Shugborough, 
 Hilton, Tixal, Ham, Teddesley, King^s Bromley, Wrottesley, 
 Perry Hall, Chartley, and Great Barr. 
 
 Kent is another county remarkable for its beautiful 
 seats; here are Knole Park, the Wilderness, Chilham 
 Castle, Chevening, Hadlow Castle, Montreal, Waldershare, 
 Surrenden Deriug, Godinton, Holfield, Leyburn Grange, 
 Preston Hall, Mersham Hatch, Sandling, Cale Hill, Lul- 
 lingstone Castle, Charlton House, Leeds Castle, Cobham 
 Hall, Eastwell, Godmersham, Knowlton, Lee Priory, Bar- 
 ham Court, Chipsted Place, and Belvidere. 
 
 Kent has been called, and with much reason, the gar- 
 den of England : but this applies only to its picturesque 
 hop-grounds, its fertile corn-fields, and its abundant or- 
 chards, for in comparison with some other counties, it can 
 hardly be termed the garden of antiquaries. Still it has 
 one shrine, at which the poetic pilgrim pays the warmest 
 adoration; Penshurst, where Sir Philip Sydney, "the 
 President of Nobleness and Chivalrie,'' was born. Until 
 within the last twenty or thirty years, Penshurst, though 
 crumbling under the hand of time, which spares not the 
 brightest associations, still preserved the form, and the ap- 
 
300 RECOLLECTIONS OT ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 propriate adornment of bygone ages. The fine old timber 
 roof was then entire^ and the side walls throughout were 
 covered with pikes^ lances, and matchlocks, while at the 
 end of the hall, stood erect, in frowning dignity, whole 
 rows of men- shaped suits of armour — one recorded to have 
 been worn by the " incomparable knight himself." The 
 creaking of the rusty gates, the desolate echo, and the 
 noiseless calm, spoke of other days, and we unconsciously 
 held communion with those mighty spirits, whose memory 
 imparts undying interest to the scene. All the glory of 
 Penshurst is of the past, and modern improvement and 
 modern innovation tend but to dissolve the charm which 
 encircles the Hall of the Sydneys. Of the dry antiquarian 
 fruit which Kent produces, we have culled three specimens 
 — Knole Pakk, Leeds Castle, and Mereworth, each 
 of them in a greater or less degree deserving notice. 
 
 Knole itself stands in a beautiful park, a short dis- 
 tance from Seven Oaks, and from the time of the Con- 
 quest, has been set down among the remarkable places in 
 England, partly from its natural beauties, but still more 
 from the associations belonging to it. After having been 
 possessed by many illustrious families in succession, it was 
 purchased by Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, who rebuilt the house, enclosed the Park, and at 
 his death, in 1486, left it to his late see for ever — for ever ! 
 a phrase that is constantly recurring in testament after 
 testament, as if it were possible for a few mouldering bones 
 to dictate from the grave an eternal pathway to the feet 
 that are trampling on them. Surely the little real influ- 
 ence that any individual exercises, even in life, upon the 
 
KNOLE. 301 
 
 great mass, might convince men how small a chance they 
 stand of ruling the world when they are dead. And so it 
 turned out in the present instance. "When Cranmer suc- 
 ceeded to the Archbishopric, he resigned Knole to the 
 crown, in whose possession it remained till Edward the Sixth 
 granted it to John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, afterwards cre- 
 ated Duke of Northumberland. Every one must recollect 
 how this unfortunate nobleman supported the claims of Lady 
 Jane Grey to the throne in opposition to Queen Mary, 
 and, being defeated, lost both estate and life. It thus, 
 upon his attainder, devolved to the Queen, who gave it to 
 Cardinal Pole : but when the latter died, it once more re- 
 verted to the crown. Elizabeth having succeeded to the 
 throne, made a grant of this estate to Sir Robert Dudley, 
 afterwards Earl of Leicester, in which character, with little 
 to recommend him, he has obtained a conspicuous place 
 in English history. In a few years, however, he rendered 
 it up to her again, whereupon she gave it to Thomas 
 Sackville, Esq., who was subsequently created Earl of 
 Dorset. 
 
 In all probability he owed this especial grace to his 
 having intermarried with the Boleyns, and thus becoming 
 related to the royal family, though for the most part the 
 maiden Queen was no great friend to the matrimonial 
 ceremony amongst her courtiers; she seemed in general 
 to look upon it as a sort of treason committed against her 
 sovereign beauty, and if the law provided no sufficient 
 punishment for the offence, she was often well disposed to 
 supply such deficiency by an ample exercise of the royal 
 prerogative. 
 
302 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 Many detached fragments of the olden times may be 
 found in this mansion, illustrative of the manners and 
 habits of our forefathers. In the chimney of the great 
 hall is a very curious pair of ancient dogs, a rude sort of 
 grate, made of two cross bars of irons, such as even now 
 may be seen in some very old farm houses, except that in 
 this case the dogs are remarkable for their elaborate work- 
 manship. In the same part of the building, a dais, or 
 raised floor, for the host and his superior guests, is still to 
 be seen, as also the long tables originally constructed for 
 the game of shuffleboard. The windows, too, of this hall 
 yet retain their old stained glass, adding not a little to 
 the general effect. 
 
 Knole at present belongs to Mary, Countess Amherst, 
 eldest daughter and co-heiress of the third Duke of 
 Dorset. 
 
 Leeds Castle is a place, in some respects, of yet deeper 
 interest. It is about five miles from Maidstone, and is 
 bounded by a moat covering nearly three acres of ground, 
 while within its walls is as much more. As opposed to the 
 military skill of the feudal age, it must have been well nigh 
 impregnable. Three causeways afford a narrow and defen- 
 sible access from the north, south-west, and south-east, 
 leading to the outworks of a gateway, which, judging 
 from what remains, was fortified with unusual skill. These 
 outworks were most probably erected by Edward the First, 
 and contain within their round the castle mill. So late 
 only as 1822, there existed two square towers on the right 
 of the base court, the northernmost of which had at one 
 time a commimication with the moat^ protected by a port- 
 
LEEDS CASTLE. 303 
 
 cuUis, but in that year they were pulled down. The whole 
 fabric as it now stands, shows clearly enough, by its various 
 styles, that it has been the work of different ages, even if 
 we did not know that such were the fact, both from chro- 
 nicle and tradition. The original castle was raised by Ro- 
 bert de Crevequer, who obtained the manor from William 
 Rufus : but, after the usual fashion of those turbulent times, 
 it was ere long forfeited and granted away, in what, from 
 its frequent recurrence, may be called the regular order of 
 things. Edward the First, who was an able soldier, soon 
 perceived the strength of the fortress, and grew so jealous 
 of it, that the possessor, William de Leyborne, considered 
 it advisable to surrender his stronghold to the crown, be- 
 fore it was taken from him, and perhaps with worse con- 
 sequences. By Edward the Second this valuable posses- 
 sion was again alienated from the crown, he having given 
 it to his favourite. Lord Badlesmere, who repaid this and 
 other benefits by joining the Earl of Lancaster in his at- 
 tempt to put down Piers Gaveston. If anything could 
 have rendered rebellion yet more odious in the King^s eyes 
 it would have been such an object, for, as was earnestly un- 
 derstood, he valued this new favourite more, perhaps, than 
 the crown itself. But other grounds of provocation were 
 not long wanting, and these were afforded by Lady Ba- 
 dlesmere, who seems to have been filled with the same dis- 
 loyal spirit as her husband. While the latter was absent 
 with the other barons engaged against Hugh de Spenser, 
 it so chanced that Queen Isabel coming that way, demanded 
 hospitaUty at Leeds Castle for the night. The demand 
 was not only refused, but several of the royal servants 
 
304 RECOLLECTIONS OP ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 ;Were killed in the attempt to force an entrance. Enraged 
 at this affront offered to his consort^ and reflectively to 
 himself, Edward besieged the castle, and gaining posses- 
 sion of it after a severe struggle, he hanged the castellan, 
 and committed Lady Badlesmere with her family to the 
 Tower. The next year Lord Badlesmere shared the same 
 fate as his castellan, but with some improvements ; for after 
 being hanged at Blean, near Canterbury, his head was cut 
 off and fixed upon Burgate in that city. 
 
 The castle, which had sustained much damage from the 
 siege, was repaired and considerably improved by William 
 de Wykeham, who was constituted by Edward the Third 
 chief warden and surveyor, with full powers for that pur- 
 pose. In the reign of Henry the Fifth the castle at- 
 .tained yet greater notoriety, from being the place where 
 that monarch imprisoned his mother-in-law, Joan of Na- 
 varre, for her traitorous attempt against his life. There, 
 too, the Duchess of Gloucester underwent her trial for 
 sorcery and witchcraft. At a later period, Edward the 
 Sixth granted the fee simple of it to Sir Anthony St. Leger, 
 and then, after having in the usual way with such mansions 
 passed it from one family or another, it came at length, as 
 a bequest from his uncle, Robert Lord Fairfax, to the Rev. 
 Denny Martin, D.D., and is now possessed by Charles 
 Wykeham Martin, Esq., M.P. 
 
 The oldest part of the castle as it appears at present, is 
 the cellars, erected probably in the time of Henry the 
 Third. At one period there was a Norman entrance to 
 them, formed by a plain semicircular work of Caen stone, 
 but which was covered up in 1822, when the southernmost 
 
MEREWORTH CASTLE. 305 
 
 of the two great divisions of the castle was pulled down 
 and rebuilt. A drawbridge originally supplied the means 
 of communication between the old castle and this part of 
 the building ; but it was long ago replaced by timbers 
 fixed and floored, which, at the time of the alterations just 
 mentioned, were in their turn taken away, and a stone 
 bridge of two arches substituted in their place. Some parts of 
 the building date unquestionably from the reign of Edward 
 the First, others from that of Edward the Third, and a 
 very great portion was built by Sir H. Guldeford, in the 
 reign of Henry the Eighth. Since 1822, many alterations 
 have been made, which must be considered as allowable 
 improvements, the old building having so materially lost 
 its distinctive character that the changes have been rather 
 wrought upon a modern than an ancient fabric. After all 
 its mutations, the whole presents an appearance which may 
 be fairly styled both noble and imposing. 
 
 The last place that need detain us in Kent is Mere- 
 worth Castle, about seven miles from Maidstone, an 
 elegant mansion erected by the seventh Earl of Westmore- 
 land, after an Italian design — La Rotonda — built by 
 PaUadio in the vicinity of Vicenza. It stands upon a 
 gentle eminence, occupying the site of an ancient castle, 
 which had belonged to the Lords Abergavenny. In the 
 ground below, a little stream winds its course to join the 
 Medway, amidst slopes and undulations that are highly 
 cultivated on all sides. 
 
 At an early period Mereworth gave name to the family 
 possessing it, for in Edward the Third's reign we find 
 mention made of John de Mereworth, sheriff of Kent, 
 
 X 
 
306 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 and it remained in his line for two centuries, when it fell 
 to Malmaines, and afterwards was the property of Brembrej 
 Hermonstorpe, and Fitz Alan. Prom the Earls of Arundel 
 the estate passed to the Lords Abergavenny and Le 
 Despencer, and afterwards devolved with the title of Le 
 Despencer on the first Earl of Westmoreland. Upon the 
 death of John, 7th Earl, in 1762, without issue, he was 
 succeeded in the estate by his nephew. Sir Francis Dash- 
 wood, Bart., in whose favour the abeyance of the Barony 
 of Le Despencer was terminated in 1763 ; and that dignity 
 is now the inheritance of Viscountess Falmouth, who, 
 as Baroness Le Despencer, enjoys the Premier Barony of 
 England. 
 
 It is seldom that the antiquarian traveller allows his 
 course to be arrested by modern buildings, any more than 
 the epicure would pause in a well-filled wine-cellar upon a 
 pipe of new wine, when so many others of older vintage were 
 demanding his attention. A few lines must consequently 
 suffice for Bedfordshire, which is not rich in historic 
 remains. It had few available military positions, and no 
 fortresses of note. Bedford Castle, built by the Beau- 
 champs, and esteemed in early times a garrison of such 
 importance, that, as Camden observes, " there was scarcely 
 a storm of civil fury that did not burst on it," was dis- 
 mantled by Henry III., and after its fall no stronghold 
 remained in the county. 
 
 Consequently during the wars of the Roses, and in the 
 great civil contest in the reign of Charles I., Bedfordshire 
 occurs but rarely, and thus was preserved from the desola- 
 tion of battles and sieges. 
 
BEDFORDSHIRE AND BERKS. 307 
 
 Its monastic foundations were Elstow, Woburn^ "Walden, 
 Dunstable, Buslimead, Caldwell, Rowenham, Harold, and 
 Cricksand. In Fuller^s time, Toddington, Houghton, and 
 Woburn, stood foremost among the mansions of the no- 
 bility. Of these, Toddington, long the seat of the Cheneys 
 and Wentworths, has altogether disappeared, and Houghton 
 is in ruins ; Woburn alone remains, still the princely home 
 of the illustrious family of Russell. The other county seats 
 deserving of notice in Bedfordshire, are Wrest Park 
 (the Earl de Grey's), Melchbourn (Lord St. John's), 
 SouTHiLL (Mr. Whitbread's), Odell Castle (Mr. Al- 
 ston's), IcKWELLBURY (Mr. Harvcy's), Turvey (Mr. 
 Higgins'), and Hinwick (Mr. Orlebar's). Bletsoe, the 
 old '*^ historic land,'' from which the St. Johns derive the 
 designation of their title, is now a farm-house. Here is 
 said to have been born Margaret Tudor, mother of King 
 Henry VII. Ampthill Castle, " builded," says Leland, " by 
 Sir John Cornwall, of such spoils as he won in France," 
 served as a retreat for Catherine of Arragon during the 
 progress of her divorce — 
 
 " In days of yore here Ampthill's towers were seen, 
 The mournful refuge of an injured queen ; 
 Here flowed her pure but unavailing tears, 
 Here blended zeal sustain'd her sinking years ; 
 Yet Freedom hence her radiant banner waved, 
 And love avenged a realm by priests enslaved." 
 
 The castles of Windsor, Wallingford, and Reading, 
 "the haunted towers of Cumnor Hall," and the field 
 of Newbury — the fatal spot where the gallant Falkland 
 fell -combine to invest Berkshire with no inconsiderable 
 
308 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 share of historic notice. Its chief monasteries were 
 Abingdon and Reading, each under the jurisdiction of a 
 mitred Abbot ; Sandleford Priory, Hurley, Bisham, and 
 Farringdon. Old Fuller records that there were in his 
 time " many neat houses and pleasant seats in this county, 
 both on the Kennet and the Thames;" and most ap- 
 positely may the remark be applied to our own days. 
 There are Wytham Abbey (the Earl of Abingdon^s), Ash- 
 down Park (Earl Craven's), Coleshill (the Earl of 
 Radnor's), East Hampstead Park (the Marquess of 
 Devonshire's), Englefield (Mr. de Beauvoir's), Alder- 
 maston (Mr. Higford Burr's), Holme Park (Mr. 
 Palmer's), Bearwood (Mr. Walter's), Calcot (Colonel 
 Blagrove's), Pusey (Mr. Pusey'sj, Buscot Park (Mr. 
 Pryse's), Shottesbrooke (Mr. Vansittart's), Greenham 
 Lodge (Mr. Croft's), East Hendred (Mr. Eyston's), 
 Wasing (Mr. Mount's), and Bessell's Leigh (Mr. 
 Lenthall's). None of these seats are, however, of very 
 ancient date ; and it may be remarked as a singular fact, 
 that there is not one family now resident in Berkshire 
 which can shew a male descent from any of those men- 
 tioned in the list of gentry returned in the twelfth year of 
 Henry VI. " Sure I am," we again quote Fuller, " that 
 ancient gentry in this country sown thick in former, come 
 up thin in our age." 
 
 " Of names which were in days of yore, 
 Few remain here of great store." 
 
 Of the ancient castles which at one period reared their 
 stately structures at Wallingford, Newbury, Donnington, 
 Reading, and Brightwell, scarcely a fragment can be 
 
HAMPDEN OP HAMPDEN. 309 
 
 traced ; but one, the oldest and most celebrated of all, the 
 regal residence of Windsor, remains still the palace of our 
 sovereign, as it was of her royal predecessor Henry Beau- 
 clerk, at the opening of the twelfth century — 
 
 Thy forest Windsor, and thy green retreats, 
 At once the monarchs' and the muses' seats.' 
 
 Buckinghamshire, the birthplace of John Hampden, 
 was one of the first counties that joined in an association 
 for mutual defence on the side of the Parliament, and it 
 continued to distinguish itself throughout the civil war by 
 its hostility to the King's cause. Borstall House, how- 
 ever, situated about nine miles from Thame, held out gal- 
 lantly as a royal garrison until 1646, having previously 
 sustained successfully two severe sieges — one conducted 
 by Skipton, the other by Fairfax ; and Greenland House, 
 also garrisoned by King Charles, was famous for its re- 
 sistance to the Parliamentary General Browne. 
 
 Snellshall, Bradwell, Ankerwyke, and Little Marlow, 
 were Benedictine monasteries in Buckinghamshire. The 
 Cistercian Monks had abbeys at Biddlesden and Medmen- 
 ham, and the Austin Canons were gathered together at 
 Messendel, Nutley, Chetwode, and Kavenston. 
 
 After the Conquest, and at the date of the Domesday 
 survey, the great landed proprietor was Walter Gifiard, 
 Earl of Buckingham; and in the twelfth century the 
 Grenvilles first appear as holding under the Giffards; 
 thenceforward they progressed rapidly in local influence, 
 and at length, by intermarriages with richly-portioned 
 
310 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 heiresses, attained the first position and highest title the 
 county could bestow. 
 
 Contemporaneous with the Norman Giffards were the 
 Hampdens, illustrious as the parent stem of John Hampden 
 the patriot ; and they flourished as Lords of Hampden in 
 lineal male descent for twenty-four generations. There is 
 a tradition that King Edward III. and the Black Prince 
 once honoured Hampden with a visit, and that whilst the 
 Prince and his host were exercising themselves in feats of 
 chivalry, a quarrel arose, in which the Prince received a 
 blow on his face; an indignity which occasioned him and 
 his royal father to quit the place in great wrath, and to 
 seize on some valuable manors belonging to his host. The 
 story gave rise to the following rhymes : — 
 
 " Tring, Wing, and Ivinghoe, 
 Hampden did forgoe, 
 For striking of a blow, 
 
 And glad he did escape so." 
 
 Could any title of the peerage add to the nobility of 
 the Hampden, upon whose sarcophagus is inscribed ? — 
 
 ; y 3loHn l^am^tjen, thjentc-fourth HeretJttarg HortJ of 
 <Breat l^amjitjcn*" 
 
 The literary pilgrim has to visit in Buckinghamshire, 
 Gayhurst, the birthplace of Sir Kenelm Digby, and Olney 
 and Beacon sfield — the former, for a time, the abode of 
 the poet Cowper, and the latter the cherished home of 
 Edmund Burke. 
 
 One princely residence in this county we will stop 
 to admire — Ashridge; "the hill set with Ash trees," 
 
ASHRIDGE— BROUGHTON CASTLE. 311 
 
 originally the College of the Bonhommes, and now the 
 magnificent heritage of the Earl of Brownlow. Of late 
 years the succession to this great property gave rise to 
 one of the most curious of our Causes Celebres. Under 
 the singular will of the seventh Earl of Bridgewater, the 
 late Lord Alford succeeded to the hereditary estates of the 
 Egertons, upon condition of his obtaining a higher grade 
 in the peerage than that of Earl within five years ; failing 
 which, the property was to go to his brother, the Hon. 
 Charles Henry Cust, subject to the like term. But Lord 
 Alford died within little more than one year, and then 
 came the question, " was his brother or his son entitled 
 to the estate ?" On the one side it was urged that the 
 late possessor being dead, without having obtained the 
 stipulated grade, his descendants had thereby incurred the 
 penalty of forfeiture. To this it was replied that only 
 one year having expired, the matter must as yet be con- 
 sidered doubtful. Both parties appealed to law, and law 
 in its court of highest appeal — the House of Lords — has 
 decided that the condition, being contrary to the principles 
 of the English constitution, and one which the devisee 
 had no legitimate means of controlling, should be passed 
 over, and the will read without it. This judgment has 
 confirmed the youthful Earl of Brownlow (Lord Alford^s 
 son) in this magnificent estate. What a curious volume 
 might be compiled from the wills in Doctors' Commons 
 of human weakness, bigotry, and singularity. 
 
 About two miles from Banbury, in Oxfordshire, we 
 come upon Broughton Castle (Lord Saye and Sele's), 
 which in its wholeness afibrds a striking example of the 
 
312 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 almost regal magnificence of the feudal barons. An old 
 tower forms the entrance to the court, and the outer gate 
 is still perfect, but there are no traces of the portcullis. 
 There would appear also from the remaining staples to 
 have been two other gates. The most ancient part of the 
 building is the eastern side, at the south-east angle of 
 which is a small tower with loopholes for the discharge of 
 arrows. The hall is of large dimensions, the passages are 
 curiously arched, and the present dining-room has like- 
 wise a roof of arched stone. Beyond is a staircase of the 
 same material, leading to what was once the chapel, with 
 very ancient arms upon the window, but it is now used for 
 a dressing-room. The eastern side is supposed to have 
 been built by the Broughtons, in the reign of one of the 
 early Edwards ; the north front was erected by the Fiennes' 
 in the year 1544. A broad and deep moat, which is 
 crossed by a stone bridge of two arches, surrounds the 
 whole. 
 
 In gazing on Broughton, with its grey walls, its lofty 
 battlements, its numerous gables, and its ivy-covered 
 towers, the spectator cannot but perceive how much more 
 picturesque it is than any building of Greek or Roman 
 architecture. That the Gothic style has this advantage 
 over its classic rivals is indisputable, as any one must 
 admit who recollects how much deeper was the impression 
 made upon himself when standing in the aisles of West- 
 minster Abbey, than when placed under the mighty cupola 
 of St. PauPs. 
 
 A short step in our present mode of travelling will bring 
 us to Helmingham Hall, in Suffolk, the splendid seat 
 
HELMINGHAM HALL. 313 
 
 of John Tollemaclie, Esq., MP. The building, which 
 is wholly of brick, bears undeniable marks of belonging 
 to the time of Henry the Eighth, when the embattled 
 mansion had succeeded to the baronial castle. It is a 
 quadrangle with a terrace and moat surrounding it, and 
 stands in the midst of a park of about four hundred acres 
 in extent, well stocked with deer, many of them remark- 
 able for their size, and abounding with noble oaks which 
 have long been celebrated as the finest in the county. To 
 the credit of its successive owners, very few innovations 
 have been made upon the old mansion ; by an unusual 
 stretch of forbearance, or by a kindly regard for other 
 times, it has been allowed to retain the greater part of its 
 ancient characteristics — its large bay windows, its em- 
 battled parapets, its gables terminated with richly wrought 
 finials, and its chimneys ornamented with reticulated and 
 indented mouldings. Once indeed some unlucky friend 
 of improvement, who was no doubt shocked at the ap- 
 pearance of vulgar brick, covered the building with com- 
 position in order to make it look like stone ; but this sin 
 against good taste was afterwards removed by the better 
 judgment of one of his successors. Things were once 
 again restored to their pristine state, and we are told that 
 even now the draw-bridges on the east and south fronts 
 continue to be raised every night as they used to be in the 
 olden time. Much care has been taken to attract the 
 wild fowls to the place so peculiarly fitted to their habits, 
 and, as they are never disturbed, the moat as well as a 
 small lake in the park is always crowded with them. 
 
 From its earliest erection this Hall belonged to the 
 
3x4 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 Tollemaches, who long before the Norman Conquest pos- 
 sessed lands at Bentley in the same county, where, till 
 very lately, this inscription might be seen in the old 
 manor house : — 
 
 " When William the Conqueror reign'd with great fame, 
 Bentley was my seat, and ToUemache was my name." 
 
 Eight pious folks too were these gallant ToUemaches, 
 and so held when such a repute was not to be got by 
 prayers and fastings alone, but must be purchased by 
 devout largesses of land and gold to the church, which, it 
 must be confessed, for the most part turned the popular 
 bounty to excellent uses. Many a fair acre of glebe and 
 pasture did the ToUemaches bestow on convent and 
 monastery, whose inmates in requital prayed for their 
 benefactors, and fed the poor from their superabundance, 
 till Henry the Eighth appropriated to himself all the 
 church property in the kingdom. The family, however, 
 had the less reason to complain of this royal intermission 
 with their charities, as they themselves must soon after- 
 wards have embraced the new faith, for we find Sir Lionel, 
 the then head of the house, in high favour with Elizabeth, 
 who was not likely to have shewn any particular grace to a 
 Catholic. On one occasion, in 1651, the maiden Queen 
 honoured him with a visit for five days, during which time 
 she stood godmother to his son, and gave his mother a 
 lute, still preserved as an heir-loom among the family 
 reliques and curiosities. A descendant of this fortunate 
 gentleman married the heiress of the first Earl of 
 Dysart, a title derived from the royal borough of that 
 
HENGRAVE. 315 
 
 name in Fifeshire. Upon the decease of the last Earl 
 without a child, the title devolved upon his sister, Lady- 
 Louisa Manners, the wife of John Manners, who in pro- 
 cess of time was created Lord Huntingtower. 
 
 Another of the Suffolk seats — highly interesting to 
 the antiquarian or architectural tourist — is Hengrave, 
 successively the inheritance of the Hen graves, the Greys, 
 the Kytsons, the D'Arcys, and the Gages. At the time 
 when this mansion — still one of the chief ornaments of 
 the county — was built, between the years ] 525 and 1538, 
 the old form of the Castle had yielded to the more con- 
 venient and less gloomy embattled manor-houses, dis- 
 tinguished in a particular degree by their richly-decorated 
 portals, turrets, bay-windows and oriels. '^ The gateway 
 of Hengrave," says Gough, " is of such singular beauty 
 and in such high preservation, that perhaps a more ele- 
 gant specimen of the architecture of the age in which it 
 was erected cannot be seen." 
 
 Of the Lady Penelope D'Arcy, the heiress of Hengrave, 
 the following quaint anecdote has been often told ; " Sir 
 George Trenchard, Sir John Gage, and Sir William Her- 
 vey, each solicited Lady Penelope in marriage, when, to 
 keep peace among the rivals, she threatened the first 
 aggressor with her perpetual displeasure, humorously 
 telling them, that if they would wait, she would have 
 them all in their turns ; a promise which was actually per- 
 formed. The gentleman first favoured by her was Sir 
 George Trenchard, of Wolverton, in Dorsetshire, who dying 
 shortly after the marriage without issue, she wedded Sir 
 George Gage, of Pirle, whose descendants have continued 
 
316 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 owners of Hengrave to the present day. Her last husband 
 was Sir William Hervey, of Ickworth, but by him she had 
 no child." 
 
 The ducal seat of Suffolk is Euston. Robert Bloom- 
 field, the rustic bard of Suffolk, was born in its vicinity, 
 and his muse loved to commemorate the beauties of 
 "' Grafton's rich domain," those favoured scenes, wherein 
 his mind first became stored with that abundance of rural 
 imagery, which, feeding his natural passion for the country, 
 was one day to give an irresistible charm to the simple 
 language of the untaught peasant. Magical is the power 
 of genius ! The humble " Shepherd's boy, he sought no 
 better name," has imparted a poetic association to the 
 princely home of Euston, more attractive than any other 
 connected with its history. 
 
 The village of Euston is situated a mile from Fakenham, 
 but the park extends nearly to that place. It was for- 
 merly the lordship of a family bearing the local name, and 
 afterwards descended to Sir Henry Bennet, who, by 
 King Charles II., was made Secretary of State, and created 
 Viscount Thetford, and Earl of Arlington. He enjoyed 
 the estate for many years, and built the mansion of Euston 
 Hall. In reference to this, we find the following remarks 
 of John Evelyn : — 
 
 " A stranger preached at Euston church, and fell into 
 a handsome panegyric on my lord's new building the 
 church, which indeed for its elegance and cheerfulness 
 is one of the prettiest country churches in England. My 
 lord told me his heart smote him that after he had be- 
 stowed so much on his magnificent palace there, he should 
 
LYTTELTON GHOST STORY. 317 
 
 see God's house in the ruin it lay in. He has also rebuilt 
 the parsonage-house all of stone, very neat and ample." 
 
 One more memory of Suffolk : in Lord Stradbroke's 
 Park, there still remains, or did remain a short while ago, 
 in the last stage of decay, the famous Henham Oak, in 
 the trunk of which, that valiant soldier Sir John Rous, 
 Bart., concealed himself from the Roundheads after their 
 victory at Worcester. In after-times, when the stout 
 cavalier slept with his ancestors, and the Stuarts were 
 driven into exile, it would seem that Sir John had be- 
 queathed not only his estate but his devoted spirit of 
 loyalty to his descendants. In the bosom of this same 
 oak, where he had hidden himself. Sir Robert Rous held 
 his Jacobitical symposia with two or three select friends, 
 drinking deep potations on bended knees, " to the King 
 over the water." 
 
 Inclination would carry us to the lovely land of Hereford, 
 rich in antiquities and historic families, but space deters 
 us from entering on so prolific a field — Hampton Court, 
 Wigmore, Erdisley, Bodenham, Treago, Goodrich Castle, 
 all rise on our memory. There is, however, an old Manor 
 House in the neighbouring shire of Worcester, which we 
 must not pass altogether by — H aglet, the classic ground 
 of poetry and wit, the theme of Thomson, and the home 
 of the Lytteltons. Associated with the second Lord Lyt- 
 telton is a memorable ghost story, which has been often 
 told, with frequent exaggeration and much false colour- 
 ing : the true narrative we will endeavour to relate : 
 
 Thomas, Lord Lyttelton, born in 1744, was the son of 
 George, Lord Lyttelton, the distinguished poet and his- 
 
318 RECOLLECTIONS OP ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 torian, who built Hagley as it now stands. After a course 
 of dissipation and profligacy^ his Lordship's health became 
 gradually impaired, and his constitution much weakened 
 by frequent attacks of suffocating fits. Such was the state 
 of things up to Wednesday, the 24th November, 1779 ; his 
 Lordship was then resident at Pitt Place, near Epsom. On 
 the evening of that day he was evidently worse, and went 
 to bed at an earlier hour than usual. His servant having 
 given him his customary medicine retired for the night, 
 but he had not been gone long before Lord Lyttelton was 
 disturbed by a gentle fluttering of wings about the cham- 
 ber. While he yet listened, he was still more struck by 
 the sound of footsteps in the direction towards his bed. 
 Astonished at these noises in the stillness of night, he 
 raised himself up to learn what all meant, and beheld 
 a lovely female, dressed in white, with a small bird 
 perched, falcon-like, upon her wrist. Lord Lyttelton 
 struggled to speak, but before he could articulate a word, 
 the spectre warned him to prepare himself, for his death 
 was nigh. "But three days more," said the vision, "but 
 three days more, and at the hour of twelve, you will die V* 
 ^ words too distinctly uttered and too deeply impressed 
 on the memory of the suffering patient to be easily for- 
 gotten. When he awoke in the morning, the apparition 
 of the lady with the bird still haunted him, and the ominous 
 prophecy pressed upon his mind — so much so indeed, that 
 he could not help relieving himself of what he felt to be 
 a burthen by relating the circumstance at the breakfast- 
 table. It was obvious that he wished to convince his 
 hearers as well as himself, that there was nothing in the 
 
LYTTELTON GHOST STOKY. 319 
 
 apparition more than a dream ; and for so much of it as 
 referred to the bird, he accounted for it by saying that, 
 when he was in the greenhouse a few days before, he had 
 taken some pains to catch a robin which had been shut 
 in, to set it free. Still, the imagination, when once fairly 
 excited, is not so easily to be set at rest again. So much 
 did these gloomy apprehensions grow upon him, even 
 while he seemed most to laugh at them as mere chi- 
 meras, that he was fain to call his friends about him, 
 and fill the house with guests and revelry. . . . The 
 third day had now come. Never was the gay and witty 
 Lyttelton so animated. Admiral Wolseley and others who 
 were staying with him, and were present at this death- 
 banquet, asserted, that never did his sprightly humour and 
 convivial qualities shine out to greater advantage. But 
 as night came on, these joyous feelings gradually gave 
 way to gloom, and though he endeavoured to rouse 
 his spirits, the effort was vain. His friends, meanwhile, 
 used every precaution to counteract the influence of the 
 apparition. By the help of his valet, they put on consi- 
 derably his own watch as it lay upon his dressing table, 
 and the steward, at their request, did the same with all 
 the other clocks and watches in the house. Nothing, how- 
 ever, availed to free him from his "thick- coming fancies,^' 
 and at half-past eleven, as he conceived it to be, though in 
 reality it was no more than eleven, he complained of wea- 
 riness, and retired to his room. Having gone to bed, he 
 desired his valet to draw the curtains at the foot, and to 
 remain in the room, at the same time frequently and anxi- 
 ouslv consulting his watch. At length, when it was nearly 
 
320 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 half-past twelve by the altered time, he asked to see his 
 servant's watch, and was visibly pleased on finding it 
 pretty nearly corresponded with his own. He then put 
 them, one after the other, to his ear, to be assured that they 
 were both going, and exclaimed, with no little satisfaction, 
 " This mysterious lady is not a true prophetess, I find. 
 Give me my medicine : 1^11 wait no longer/' In obedience 
 to this order, the servant went into the adjoining dressing- 
 room, to prepare the physic — by the right time, it was 
 now exactly midnight, — but had not been thus employed 
 more than a minute or two, when he thought he heard his 
 master breathing unusually hard. Alarmed by the sound, 
 he ran to him, and found that the prophetic vision had 
 been a true one : his lordship was in the agonies of death, 
 and in a few moments breathed his last ! 
 
 Bramshill, in Hampshire, is not the largest, nor the 
 finest, nor the shewiest, nor the best plenished, of our 
 ancient mansions ; but it is as it was, and as it was in- 
 tended to be. It has no new wing built, " in a modem 
 style of convenience,'^ in the middle of last century, nor 
 has it any restorations (?) by Wyatt and his followers, or 
 improvements by Kent or Brown. No ! There it stands, 
 as it stood two hundred years ago ; a little more weather- 
 dyed, perhaps, but still the same ; and its wild and pictu- 
 resque park, in all its main features, as it was half a cen- 
 tury after it was reclaimed from the heath around it. 
 Bramshill— for let us draw near to it — stands nobly before 
 us, " built," as old Fuller tells us, " in a bleak and barren 
 place." Yes ! there it stands, with its park, like a green 
 and wooded island in the midst of the great heathy plain 
 
CARISBROOKE CASTLE. 321 
 
 which occupies this part of Hampshire : but we have now 
 entered the long straight avenue of old oaks that leads us 
 in a direct arrow-like line up to the west front ; and, as 
 we have opened quaint old Fuller's book, we must agree 
 in the epithet he applies to the house, even more cordially 
 than in those he bestows on the country round ; for he 
 calls it "a stately structure," and so it is : we feel that 
 the quaint old man has just got the right word — it does 
 seem a stately structure, as it looks down on us with its 
 multitude of windows, its airy parapets, its clustered chim- 
 neys, its long front, so beautifully broken into light and 
 shade by its projecting wings and richly ornamented centre. 
 There is a long history connected with Bramshill, succes- 
 sively held by the Zouches, the Henleys, and the Copes ; 
 but we will chronicle only one fact, and that the most recent 
 — the visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1845. 
 The other chief seats of Hampshire are Strathfieldsaye, 
 Highclere, Dogmersfield, Hackwood, Manydown, Tangier, 
 Avington, Stoneham, Cranbury, Cadland, Stratton, Elve- 
 tham, Hurstbourne, Wherwell, Roch Court, Brockenhurst, 
 Cams Hall, Idsworth, Paultons, Hursley, and Northwood. 
 While lingering in Hampshire, let us turn a thought to 
 Carisbrooke Castle, King Charles's prison, in Hampshire's 
 lovely Isle of Wight. There is scarcely any historic ruin 
 that has prouder recollections than this. It interests alike 
 the historian, the antiquary, and the lover of the pic- 
 turesque. 
 
 " Time, by his gradual touch, 
 Has moulder'd into beauty many a tower, 
 Which, when it frown'd with all its battlements, 
 Was only terrible." 
 
322 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 Crowning the top of a hill, beneath which is a pretty- 
 rural village, and at the distance of a mile, or mile and a 
 half, from the little metropolis of the Isle of Wight, the 
 ruins of Carisbrooke Castle allure the inquiring tourist. 
 Nor is he disappointed of the object in his pilgrimage. 
 So fair are these ruins, so important the events that they 
 have witnessed, and so romantic and sad, that the Muses 
 of Painting, History, and Tragedy might contend who 
 should mark them for her own. 
 
 The transition from Hampshire to Surrey would scarcely 
 offend the nicest sticklers for the dramatic unities ; the 
 traveller may be in the one county before he has any notion 
 that he has got out of the other ', and when here, the first 
 thing to attract his attention will be Claremont Park, 
 to which events in our day, associated with fallen royalty, 
 have lent so painful an interest. The history of this place 
 is shortly told. Sir John Vanbrugh, the architect of 
 Blenheim and Castle Howard, bought some land here, 
 upon which he built a low brick house for his own resi- 
 dence, choosing for its site precisely such a spot as would 
 have been selected by his Dutch ancestors, so notorious 
 for planting their houses amidst dykes and marshes. 
 Avoiding with the greatest care any of the near rising 
 grounds, that would have tempted ordinary men, he 
 pitched his tent upon a low flat area, whence it was im- 
 possible to get the slightest prospect. He soon, however, 
 grew tired of his own work, which will probably to most 
 people seem less strange than that he should have found 
 a purchaser for so uninviting a retreat ; yet so it was : 
 Thomas Holies Pelham, then Earl of Clare, and who in 
 
CLAREMONT. 323 
 
 1715 was advanced to the dignity of Duke of Newcastle, 
 took the estate off his hands. But the new owner had a 
 singular passion for improving, and, like the famous capa- 
 hility Brown, as he was called, would seem to have been 
 never so happy as when, by the magic of his own taste, he 
 was creating beauty from deformity. Setting to work with 
 a good will and courage that may be almost termed chival- 
 rous, considering the very unpromising materials he had to 
 deal with, he soon effected such changes as must have made 
 the place scarcely recognizable by the dull spirit that had 
 first planned it. The low brick house was built into a 
 mansion ; the grounds were extended by further purchases, 
 and a large portion of the adjoining heath was enclosed 
 and added to the estate. As time had left no fragments, 
 no ruined castle nor mouldering abbey, the noble owner 
 drew upon his own fancy and the modern trowel to supply 
 the defect. On a mount in the park, he erected a building 
 to resemble a castle, and as a castle would obviously be 
 nothing without a name, he reversed the usual order of 
 things, by which men take their titles from their estates, 
 and christened the new fabric after himself, Clare — mont. 
 Upon his death it was bought by the celebrated Lord Clive, 
 who found the whole affair much too small for the grand 
 notions he had brought with him from India. It was 
 Gulliver in Lilliput. So forthwith he called in architects 
 and masons, bricklayers and carpenters, men with pick- 
 axes to pull down, and men with trowels to build up, and 
 raised such a dust in the neighbourhood as perfectly 
 blinded the eyes and ears of the natives, who had never 
 been used to see things upon so large a scale. But his 
 
 y2 
 
3.24 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 builder was a man of some judgment ; he had none of 
 Sir John Vanbrugh's passion for flats and marshes, but, 
 on the contrary, chose an excellent site for the new fabric, 
 commanding as good a prospect as the country afforded. 
 The liberality of the employer kept pace with the fancies 
 of the architect ; even the grounds were remodelled ; and 
 upon the whole, it is said that upwards of a hundred thou- 
 sand pounds were expended in bringing these comprehen- 
 sive labours to a conclusion. When Lord Clive died, the 
 property was bought by Lord Gal way, who sold it to the Earl 
 of Tyrconnel, and he again parted with it to Charles Rose 
 Ellis, Esq. From him it was finally bought by the govern- 
 ment, as a residence for the lamented Princess Charlotte, 
 upon her marriage with Prince Leopold, to whom — now 
 King of the Belgians— it still belongs. Here the exiled 
 royal family of Prance found an asylum, and here Louis 
 Philippe closed his eventful life. 
 
 On the banks of the river Thames, about a mile from Rich- 
 mond — that lovely sunny spot, so correctly named "Sheen,-" 
 or " the beautiful,'^ by our Saxon forefathers — stands Ham 
 House, a fine and curious specimen of the domestic archi- 
 tecture of the time of James I. It was built in 1610 as 
 a residence for Henry, Prince of Wales, but underwent 
 considerable alterations in the time of Charles the Second, 
 when it was completely furnished by the Duke and Du- 
 chess of Lauderdale. Here, too, was born their grandson, 
 John, Duke of Argyll, equally celebrated as a soldier and 
 a statesman. The stranger who has never visited this 
 seat, will easily form an idea of its internal magnificence 
 when he is told that even the bellows and brushes in some 
 
HAM HOUSE. 325 
 
 of the rooms are made of solid silver, or of solid filagree. 
 The gardens, from all appearance, have been little altered 
 since they were first formed, bearing all the marks of those 
 times when the grand object was to supersede nature by 
 art, or to make her look as little like herself as possible. 
 Terrace above terrace slopes down to the river, enclosed 
 by walls that are ornamented with a series of busts, con- 
 tinued to the principal fa9ade ; in front is a colossal statue 
 of Father Thames, and all the walks are distinguished by a 
 perfect symmetry, that it must be owned is tame and mono- 
 tonous. Sir Walter Scott, in an Essay on Landscape Gar- 
 dening, has defended this artificial style with an eloquence 
 and glow of fancy that may convince any one so long as he 
 is under the influence of this arch-magician, who had the 
 wonderful power of imparting his own brilliance to the 
 least imaginative theme ; but once you close the book, the 
 spell is broken : formal walks, fraternal clumps of trees, 
 and alleys made to match each other, will no longer be 
 preferred to the simple and the natural, which characterise 
 modern gardening, even though we should at times run a 
 little wild in the pursuit of nature. Long avenues of ma- 
 jestic elms and groves of dark firs give a peculiar character 
 to Ham House : from almost every distant point of view, 
 the mansion seems embosomed in foliage, and on a close 
 inspection has an air of solemn, venerable grandeur. The 
 building is constructed of red brick, and has two fronts ; 
 interiorly the apartments are very handsome, some lined 
 with tapestry, and remaining well nigh as they were left by 
 the Countess of Dysart (afterwards Duchess of Lauder- 
 dale), temp. Charles IL But the most attractive portion 
 
326 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 of this fine mansion is the curious old hbrary, termed by 
 Dibdin '^ a wonderful book-paradise," superlatively rich in 
 Caxton's and other early black-letter productions of the 
 English press, as well as in private documents and original 
 letters of the period of Charles and James. 
 
 Farnham Castle, also in Surrey, occupies an eminence 
 on the north side of Farnham, and is supposed to have 
 been erected in 1129, by Henry de Blois, brother of King 
 Stephen. During the rebellion of the barons against 
 Henry the Third, it was seized by their ally the French 
 Dauphin, and in the course of these civil broils got de- 
 mohshed by the royal party, but was soon rebuilt with a 
 deep moat and donjon, with the other usual appurtenances 
 of a castellated building. In the great civil war it had the 
 singular fate of being governed at intervals by two poets ; 
 for zealous partizanship in those days, like the fear of in- 
 vasion by republican France in our own times, made all men 
 soldiers. Sir John Denham, having secured it for the 
 king's party in 1643, was appointed governor of the place, 
 in requital for his good service. Then came Sir William 
 Waller, the parliamentarian general, who blew up the de- 
 fences and took the fortress, when the command of it was 
 given by the parliament to George Withers, another poet, 
 of a more quaint and original genius than the royalist 
 bard. A few years afterwards the committee of Derby 
 House ordered it to be rendered incapable of defence, im- 
 posing upon the county the expense of demolition. The 
 castle, in consequence, was nearly pulled to pieces, the 
 glass, iron, lead, and timbers, that had gone to its con- 
 struction, being taken by the men and officers in part 
 
FARNHAM CASTLE. 327 
 
 payment of the arrears due to them. Next came the 
 restoration of Charles : the CavaHers obtained once again 
 the ascendancy, the church resumed her rights, and, in 
 this general return to the old state of things, Farnham 
 Castle was given back to the see of Winchester. It was, 
 however, in too dilapidated a condition to serve, as it then 
 was, for an episcopal residence, and Bishop Morley, it is 
 said, expended full eight thousand pounds upon these 
 ruins, so that in a short time they again rose, phoenix-like, 
 stronger and more brilliant from their ashes. A consider- 
 able fragment of the oldest part of the castle still remains, 
 and the entrance gateway deserves to be particularly pointed 
 out, as retaining its ancient character. The fosse has been 
 either drained or allowed to become dry, and is planted 
 with oaks. Internally the principal apartments underwent 
 considerable alterations so far back as the time of Charles 
 the Second, the contrasts between the styles of the differ- 
 ent periods being too obvious to require any comment. 
 The present bishop, who makes it his residence, has been 
 at much expense in improving both the mansion and the 
 grounds belonging to it; but, with great taste and judg- 
 ment, while laying out new roads and walks in the park, 
 he has left untouched a noble avenue of elms nearly three 
 quarters of a mile long, which has not only in itself an 
 imposing effect, but has a peculiar interest as a living 
 specimen of times gone, or a link as it were between us 
 and the past. It may indeed be questioned whether the 
 gnarled old oak, the growth of many ages, with decay at 
 his heart, while putting forth his green leaves, is not a 
 more vivid remembrance of those that are gone than abbey 
 or castle ruin. 
 
328 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 Formerly, there were two parks attached to this estate, 
 the one called the Old, or Great Park, the other the New, 
 or Little Park. The first of these, containing about one 
 thousand acres, was disforested in the reign of Charles the 
 Second. The Little Park, consisting of about three hun- 
 dred acres, and adjoining the castle on the east side, still 
 continues to be a woodland, which is rendered yet more 
 picturesque by the Lodden running through it, from its 
 well-head in the neighbouring county. 
 
 Two miles from Guildford is Loselet Hall, the last 
 place that we shall mention in Surrey. It is a venerable 
 pile, and large as it now is, bears undeniable marks of 
 having been at one time considerably larger. In the reign 
 of Henry the Eighth it was purchased by Christopher 
 More, Esq., and remained in his family till 1689, when 
 he died, leaving no nearer kin to claim the estate than 
 three sisters. Of these, the two eldest died unmarried, 
 and the youngest, Margaret, gave her hand, and with it 
 the property of Loseley House, to Sir Thomas Molyneux, 
 of the Sefton family. 
 
 It would be useless, as well as tedious, to record the 
 various hands through which the mansion has passed since 
 that time, or how one owner pulled down a turret, and 
 another built up a chimney, according as whim or necessity 
 might dictate ; but we cannot help remarking upon the 
 very great passion of the family for moral maxims, which 
 they inscribed over window and portal, inside and outside, 
 for the benefit of those who visited the place. Over the 
 vestibule, for instance, now the butler's pantry, were 
 placed three stone figures, from whose contradictory 
 
LOSELEY HALL. 329 
 
 mottoes the sagacious wayfarer was no doubt expected 
 to draw an edifying conclusion. To the left was Fortune 
 treading upon a globe and holding a wheel, on which was 
 written, Fortuna omnia ; to the right was Fate, grasping a 
 celestial sphere, with the inscription, Non Fors, sedFatum ; 
 and in the middle was a figure with one foot on a wheel, 
 and the other on a globe, pointing to the page of an open 
 volume, wherein was written, Non Fors, nee Fatum. In 
 addition to this learned conundrum, the traveller reads 
 over the porch the following distich, explanatory of who 
 would, and who would not, be welcome : 
 
 " Invide, tangendi tibi limina nulla facultas ; 
 At tibi, amice, patent janua, mensa, domus." 
 
 Within the vestibule, above the hall-door, the same idea 
 repeated in a clumsy hexameter : — " Invidise claudor, pateo 
 sed semper amico." 
 
 Over the kitchen door — a very appropriate place for 
 such a motto — was an admonition to the visitor not to 
 play the glutton : — " Fami, non gulse/^ 
 
 Over the buttery was a similar caution, against excess 
 in the matter of the wine cup : — " Siti, non ebrietati." 
 
 Over the parlour-door was a significant hint, that the 
 open sesame to the lock was a good character : — " Probis 
 non pravis." 
 
 And in the cornice of the great drawing-room was a 
 mulberry tree, having inscribed on one side : — " Morus 
 tarde moriens." But on the other, — " Morum cito mori- 
 turum," which we need hardly say is a pun, and not a 
 very clever one, upon the family name of More. 
 
330 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 The estate is now possessed by James More Molyneux, 
 
 Had we space, Derbyshire, styled by Kinder "the 
 amphitheatre of renowned persons,^' would tempt our 
 wanderings — Derbyshire, with its ancient Castles of 
 Castleton and Codnor, with its time-honoured Halls of 
 Haddon, Hardwick, South Winfield, Kedleston, Radborne, 
 and Elvaston, and its stately edifices of Wingerworth, 
 Willersley, Aston, Markeaton, and Calke Abbey. Derby- 
 shire has more than its share of the picturesque, and its 
 full share of the romantic. It abounds in ruins of feudal 
 grandeur, but is poor in those of monastic institutions. 
 There is, however, one relic of the latter kind of extreme 
 interest and beauty, which is situated in so secluded and 
 inaccessible a part of the county as to be little known and 
 rarely visited. This is the Abbey of Depedale, more gene- 
 rally called ''Dale Abbey." Those who would see our 
 lovely land in all its fascinations must be satisfied to quit 
 the great roads, and even the byeways, for the nooks and 
 corners of the country. Just such a spot is the low, shel- 
 tered valley where stands all that remains of Dale Abbey — 
 one solitary Gothic arch of very large span and exquisite 
 proportions. 
 
 But Chatsworth is, beyond all question, the pride of 
 Derbyshire, — Chatsworth, the Palace of the Peak, rising like 
 a gem in the midst of awild and somewhat ruggedlandscape. 
 The hamlet of Chatsworth, long the residence of the Leches, 
 passed by sale into the possession of Sir William Cavendish, 
 the faithful friend of Cardinal Wolsey, and has since re- 
 mained the chief seat of his descendants, the Dukes of 
 
CHATSWORTH AND BESS OF HARDWICK. 331 
 
 Devonshire. The old Manor House of the Leches was 
 demolished by Sir William, and the mansion, which he 
 commenced, was completed by his widow, the celebrated 
 " Bess of Hardwick," the notable dabbler in architecture, 
 intrigue, and moneycraft, to whom Hardwick also owes its 
 existence. Her Ladyship took for her last husband 
 George, Earl of Shrewsbury; and Chatsworth, in conse- 
 quence, (his Lordship being entrusted with the custody of 
 Mary, Queen of Scots,) gained a more than common in- 
 terest, as one of the prisons of that ill-fated Princess. 
 There is no place, indeed, with which the remembrance of 
 Mary's captivity is more intimately associated than Chats- 
 worth. There we are in imagination carried back to the 
 time when the ill-fated Queen looked from its turrets with 
 vain hope. Little, however, is actually left of Mary at 
 Chatsworth except her picture, and a romantic and curious 
 raised plat of architectural garden in the park, called 
 "Mary's Bower," where she is said often to have sat, 
 pondering upon her eventful past and her uncertain 
 future. The relics of Mary, which are exhibited at 
 Hardwick Hall, were brought thither from Chatsworth, 
 and formed the furniture of the apartment where the 
 captive was confined. Bess of Hardwick survived the 
 Earl of Shrewsbury many years, living to the verge of 
 ninety, and even to the last hour indulging in her pride 
 and worldly magnificence. Her passion was for building, 
 and it is hard to say how many more noble monuments of 
 her taste she might have left behind her, if a hard frost in 
 1607 had not compelled her workmen to stop suddenly^ 
 
332 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 when engaged in improving the Norman keep of Bolsover. 
 The magic spell was broken — the charm was ended — the 
 witches' prophecy was fulfilled. Bess of Hardwick ceased 
 to build, and accordingly died ! 
 
 The present magnificent pile of Chatsworth originated 
 in the taste and spirit of the first Duke of Devonshire, 
 and the grand designs of his Grace have been more than 
 realized by his successors. Dr. Kennet relates of Marshal 
 Tallard, who was taken at the battle of Blenheim, and re- 
 mained seven years a prisoner in this country, that having 
 been invited by the Duke of Devonshire to Chatsworth, 
 and nobly entertained for several days, he was said to have 
 parted with his host in these words : — " My Lord, when I 
 come hereafter to compute the time of my captivity in 
 England, I shall leave out the days of my enjoyment at 
 Chatsworth." 
 
 From Derbyshire to Cumberland is a long distance, yet 
 between the two there is sometimes a similarity of scenery. 
 Watered by the silvery stream from which the name is de- 
 rived, and embosomed in richly wooded groves, peculiarly 
 our country's own, Edenhall, " aula ad rivum Eden," is 
 one of those lovely spots so abundantly scattered over this 
 favoured locality of our island. 
 
 The mansion of Edenhall is a handsome stone struc- 
 ture, built in the taste which prevailed about the time of 
 the Charleses. In the house are some good old-fashioned 
 apartments, and throughout the grounds the most pictu- 
 resque scenery opens on the view. Among the family 
 treasures the most carefully preserved relic is the famous 
 old drinking-glass, called the " Luck of Edenhall." The 
 
BATONS MANOR. 333 
 
 letters " I.H.S." on the top indicate the sacred use from 
 which it has been perverted, but tradition gives to it a 
 curious association. The legendary tale records that it was 
 seized from a company of fairies, who were sporting near a 
 spring in the garden, called St. Cuthbert's Well, and who, 
 after an ineffectual struggle to regain the pilfered chalice, 
 vanished into air, singing — 
 
 " If that glass either break or fall, 
 Farewell the luck of Edenhall." 
 
 This fairy chalice may yet be seen at Edenhall. On rare 
 occasions it is brought from its sanctuary with all the 
 honours due to so ancient a relic, and being filled to the 
 brim with the choicest wine, is presented to each guest in 
 succession. It is yet safe and sound, and "the luck of 
 Edenhall,^' exemplified in the prosperity of the right 
 worthy family of Musgrave, still endures. 
 
 One or two more of " the stately homes of England,'^ 
 and our random recollections are exhausted. 
 
 Bayons Manor, a castellated manor house, in Lincoln- 
 shire, the seat of Right Hon. Charles Tennyson d'Eyncourt, 
 suggests feudal associations, and recalls the expansive and 
 dignified hospitality of the olden time. We shall not easily 
 forget our first impression of this splendid specimen of the 
 middle ages, its lofty but ruined donjon, the entrance 
 over the moat by a drawbridge, through a barbacan, and 
 three succeeding gates of powerful architecture, with two 
 portcullises, its towers, posterns, machicolations and ivy- 
 mantled walls, of which the outer line contains five or six 
 acres. 
 
334 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 It is impossible for anything to have presented a more 
 beautiful picture than did this fine castle, seen under the 
 influence of an autumnal afternoon. The dark grey walls 
 were deeply tinted, and the park abounding with deer, and 
 broken by every variety of hill, dale, wood, and water, was 
 shadowed over by the declining sun. Bayons is chiefly 
 indebted to the existing proprietor, Mr. D'Eyncourt, and 
 his late father, for its present aspect and condition, and 
 the extensive additions made by the former are well 
 adapted to the progressive history of the manor. The 
 architecture is accordingly of different periods in the middle 
 ages : the keep is Anglo-Saxon, or early Norman ; the 
 Eastern towers, the curtain, the large central flag tower, 
 and two of the gates seem to bear a date prior to Edward 
 III. The great hall and its oak fittings are in the style 
 of Richard II., and the more decorated portion towards 
 the west, represents for the most part the period between 
 Henry V. and Henry VII. We will not attempt to 
 describe the internal magnificence. When a guest at 
 Bayons Manor, in 1848, Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton 
 wrote his charming romance, '' Harold,^' in the curious old 
 tapestry chamber of the mansion, and most appropriately 
 dedicated the book to Mr. D'Eyncourt. '' What marvel 
 (we quote Sir Edward's own words), what marvel that I 
 lived in the times of which I wrote, Saxon with the Saxon, 
 Norman with the Norman, — that I entered into no gossip 
 less venerable than that current at the Court of the Con- 
 fessor, or startled my fellow guests (when I deigned to 
 meet them) with the last news which Harold's spies had 
 brought over from the camp at St. Valery ? With all those 
 
STowE. " 335 
 
 disturbed spectres rampant in this chamber, all the armour 
 rusting in the galleries, all those mutilated statues of early 
 English kings (including St. Edward himself,) niched into 
 thy grey, ivied walls — say, in thy conscience, host, shall 
 I ever return to the nineteenth century again V 
 
 The manor of Stowe, in Buckinghamshire, two miles 
 and a half from the county capital, was originally possessed 
 by the abbot and convent of Oseney. On the dissolution 
 of the monasteries, the prudent abbot who then presided 
 over Stowe managed to obtain a gift of it from Henry, 
 and became the first bishop of Oxford. In 1590 he re- 
 signed it to the crown, when it was granted to Thomas 
 Compton, and another person, who immediately conveyed 
 it, no doubt for a consideration, to John Temple, Esq., of 
 a family that originally belonged to Sheepey, in Leicester- 
 shire, and afterwards to Burton Basset, in Warwickshire. 
 From that time the family continued to increase in honours, 
 rising rapidly from one step to another in the peerage, till 
 the head of the house attained the dignity of Duke of 
 Buckingham. 
 
 The old house, erected by Peter Temple in the time of 
 Elizabeth, was pulled down and rebuilt by Sir Richard 
 Temple, who died in 1697 ; but to this structure his son, 
 Lord Cobham, added wings. Since then it has undergone 
 yet further improvements, and been brought to the state 
 of magnificence in which it remained until recently, by 
 the successive alterations of Earl Temple, who died in 1779, 
 and the first Marquess of Buckingham. As it now stands, 
 the centre of the front presents a line of four hundred and 
 fifty-four feet, and with the wings included, extends to 
 
336 RECOLLECTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 nine hundred and sixteen. The gardens occupy four hun- 
 dred acres, offering at a distance the appearance of an 
 immense grove, with towers, columns, and obehsks, glit- 
 tering out from the deep mass of foliage. Nor does a 
 nearer view of these celebrated grounds at all disappoint 
 the expectations that may have been raised by the remoter 
 glimpses of it. All that art could do to embellish nature, 
 has here been done with much taste, and no regard to 
 cost ; grottoes, lakes, caverns, temples, and sculptures of 
 all kinds, find a place in this fairy domain, which Walpole, 
 no mean judge of such matters, describes as " sometimes 
 recalling Albano's landscapes to our mind ; and oftener to 
 our fancy, the idolatrous and luxurious vales of Daphne 
 and Tempe." 
 
 We have spoken of Stowe in the present tense, as if it 
 still existed in its ancient glory, being willing to keep up 
 the pleasing illusion of memory as long as possible. But 
 alas ! the proud mansion of Stowe, like its rival Canons, 
 has been despoiled, and its contents scattered through a 
 thousand different channels. 
 
 Leicestershire has been so long famous for fox-hunt- 
 ing, that people are apt to forget that it is famous for ought 
 else. Yet has it ancient Forests, ancient Castles, and 
 ancient Halls, abounding in materials of rich romantic 
 incident and deep historic interest. It has Preceptories 
 and Commanderies of the Templars and Hospitallers; 
 and many a time-worn Leicestershire church still bears 
 proof that those religious knights were no mean architects 
 and no niggardly builders. One object in Leicestershire has 
 a world-wide fame, and, next to Windsor Castle, is perhaps 
 
BELVOIR CASTLE. 337 
 
 the noblest baronial residence in England — ^justly the glory 
 of the Midlands. We refer to Belvoir Castle. To Leicester- 
 shire, Lincolnshire, and Notts, it presents the grandest sight 
 in the distant prospect, and is well called " Belvoir,^' were 
 it only for the view it has of a beautiful valley at the foot 
 of the eminence on which it stands. In part, it has great 
 claims to antiquity, its foundations having been built by 
 Robert de Todeni, a noble Norman, who was standard- 
 bearer to William the Conqueror. After having continued 
 among his descendants for many years, the Castle passed 
 by marriage, in Henry the Third's reign, into the posses- 
 sion of Robert de Roos. From him again it devolved to 
 the noble family of Manners, with whom it has remained 
 ever siuce. 
 
 In the wars of the white and red roses, this building 
 was demohshed by William, Lord Hastings, and continued 
 in ruins till rebuilt by Thomas Manners, Lord Ros, whom 
 Henry the Eighth created Earl of Rutland. The great civil 
 war between Charles and his Parliament was scarcely less 
 fatal to Belvoir than the earlier conflicts. Occasionally 
 the Castle was garrisoned by either party, and, as a 
 natural result, from both it suffered very considerable 
 damage. With the return of quiet times upon the Resto- 
 ration, it was once more repaired; and here the first Duke 
 of Rutland maintained old Enghsh hospitality, residing 
 altogether in the country, and, for many years before his 
 death, never once journeying to London. 
 
 Various improvements were made upon this magnificent 
 pile by the late Duke, at an expense, it is said, of at least 
 two hundred thousand pounds ; but the great work was 
 
338 RUCOLLrCTIONS OF ENGLISH COUNTIES. 
 
 scarcely completed, when, on the 26th October, 1816, a 
 fire broke out, which reduced the vast structure to a 
 blackened ruin. The Duke, however, nothing daunted, 
 resolved that the Castle should rise again with more than 
 its former splendour ; and in a few years the towers of 
 Belvoir re-appeared, phoenix-like, from their ashes. On 
 one occasion, when his Grace entertained here the Prince 
 Regent, the ancient and well-nigh forgotten ceremony of 
 presenting the keys of Staunton Tower was revived, to do 
 honour to the royal visitant. The custom may be thus 
 explained. Staunton Tower is an outwork, which in 
 troubled times was the chief defence of Belvoir, and its 
 command was entrusted to the Staunton family by 
 tenure of castle-guard, a tenure imposing upon them the 
 duty of its defence in case of danger, or when summoned 
 thereto by the lord of the castle. Hence, in the olden time, 
 the tendering of the keys was an expressive act of homage, 
 acknowledging the authority of the lord paramount ; but 
 in modern days, losing its original import, it has ceased 
 to be anything more than a mere holiday pageant, which, 
 like the giants of Guildhall, excites an indefinite idea of 
 something venerable, from the simple fact of its being out 
 of harmony with modern observances. 
 
 But we begin, at length, to find ourselves in the con- 
 dition of a traveller, who has loitered so often and so long 
 upon a pleasant road, that he is overtaken by night before 
 he reaches his appointed limits. Nothing then is left for 
 him but to speed over the way which remains, regardless 
 of much that when he first set out in the morning he had 
 fully expected to enjoy. In like manner we must now 
 
HALLS AND MONUMENTS OF THE ENGLISH SQUIRES. 339 
 
 hurry our wanderings to an end, concluding with the ap- 
 propriate tribute rendered to the gentlemen of England 
 by the Chevalier Lawrence : — 
 
 " The late King of Wurtemburg (these are the Chevalier's 
 own words) used to say that he could form no idea of an 
 English gentleman till he had visited several at their family 
 seats, and seen their manner of living in the country. The 
 books (continues the writer we are quoting) to form an 
 opinion by, of the dignity of an old English gentleman, are 
 the County Histories ; and these seldom come into the hands 
 of foreigners. The Englishman's baronial castle, or his no 
 less sumptuous mansion of a more modern date, is there de- 
 picted. A stately avenue conducts to his residence, and a 
 coach -and -six, escorted by a troop of outriders, the usual 
 appendages of his quality, is seen driving into his gates ; and 
 when, at length, his numerous tenantry have accompanied 
 the heraldic pomp of his funeral to the neighbouring ca- 
 thedral, the next print represents him there, sleeping in 
 dull cold marble, but blazoned with all the escutcheons of 
 his house. Such are the Halls that embellish Whitaker's 
 History of Richmond; such, in Nash's History of Wor- 
 cestershire, are the Monuments of the Sheldons, of the 
 Vernons, and of the Talbots, whose numerous quarterings 
 would not have disparaged an Elector of Mayence, or a 
 Prince Bishop of Wurtzbourg." 
 
340 HERALDRY. 
 
 HERALDRY. 
 
 " Every man of the cliildren of Israel shall pitch by his own 
 standard, with the ensign of their Father's house." — Numbers, 
 Chap. II. 
 
 This brief essay is addressed to the uninitiated only, in 
 the hope that it may serve to popularize Heraldry, and to 
 give the general reader a slight insight into the history 
 and laws of a science which Glover, Guillim, Nisbet, 
 Camden, Vincent, Segar, and Nicolas did not deem 
 too insignificant to study and elucidate. The heraldic en- 
 quirer, who desires a deeper knowledge, can refer to the 
 writings of those distinguished men, and to the other 
 ancient and modern authorities, and examine the stores of 
 information on the subject in the Harleian, Lansdowne, 
 and other MSS. in the British Museum. My present aim 
 will be accomplished if this little treatise tend to create 
 or augment, in ever so trivial a degree, a taste for my fa- 
 vourite pursuit. 
 
 Although the age of chivalry is gone, the feelings which 
 gave it birth still glow with the same warmth as ever, and 
 will endure so long as " trouthe, and honour, freedom, and 
 curtesie," are held in men's estimation. " It was chivalry," 
 
HERALDRY. 341 
 
 says Edmund Burke, " which, without confounding ranks, 
 produced a noble equality, and handed it down through 
 all the gradations of social life. It was chivalry which 
 mitigated kings into companions, and raised private men 
 to be fellows with kings. Without force or opposition, 
 it subdued the fierceness of pride and power ; it obliged 
 sovereigns to submit to the soft collar of social esteem ; 
 compelled stern authority to submit to elegance, and gave 
 a dominating vanquisher of laws to be subdued by man- 
 ners.^^ Many of the institutions of this famous order 
 have long since passed away, but Heraldry still remains 
 a venerable and cherished relic, associated with all the 
 achievements and romance of history, with the pious war- 
 rior of the Crusades, and the steel-clad baron of A gin- 
 court. Memory loves to dwell on the stirring times of 
 the Plantagenets, to recall the gorgeous tournament and 
 the feudral fortress, when, 
 
 In rough magnijScence array 'd. 
 
 Our ancient chivalry display'd 
 
 The pomp of her heroic games, 
 
 And crested chiefs and tissued dames 
 
 Assembled at the clarion's call, 
 
 In some proud castle's high arch'd hall. 
 
 Yet how much of the brilliancy of these pastimes, 
 how much of the gratification with which the mind re- 
 verts to them, may be traced to the pride and pomp of 
 Heraldry ! This, however, is but one of the reasons why 
 " the gentle science of armourie" should be encouraged 
 and studied. Among the sources of genealogical infor- 
 mation, arms and quarterings have long been the uner- 
 
312 HERALDRY. 
 
 riug guides to the elucidation of family history, and fre- 
 quently, when all other channels fail, the genealogist owes 
 to heraldry the indications which lead him to the object 
 of his research. Thus, in the great peerage case of Hunt- 
 ingdon, one of the principal links in the chain of evidence 
 — the marriage of Henry Hastings, fifth Earl of Hunt- 
 ingdon, with the daughter of Ferdinando Stanley, Earl of 
 Derby — was established by the production of a very old 
 armorial shield, exhibiting the ensigns of Hastings im- 
 paled with those of Stanley. Bigland asserts that he 
 knew three families who acquired estates by virtue of 
 preserving the arms and escutcheons of their ancestors ; 
 and Burton, the author of the History of Leicestershire, 
 a lawyer of repute, was so seusible of the value of coats 
 of arms, that in order to make them still more useful to 
 posterity, he collected copies of these ancient memorials 
 from stained glass windows, monuments, and churches, 
 for the avowed purpose that they might " rectify genea- 
 logies, and give such testimony and proof as might put 
 an end to many differences/' In Wales, descent can be 
 more easily traced by arms than names ; and even in Eng- 
 land there are many descendants of ancient houses that 
 can only now be classed in their proper places in the 
 family pedigree by an inspection of the ensigns they bore 
 on their seals. 
 
 Heraldry may be defined, '^ The art of Blazoning and 
 assigniag Coat Armour;" or more pardcalarly, ''The art 
 of arranging and explaining in proper terms all that ap- 
 pertains to the bearing of arms, badges, and other here- 
 ditary marks of honour/' Th& marshalling of proces- 
 
HERALDRY. 343 
 
 sions and the conducting of public solemnities come also 
 within the province of a herald^s duties. The origin of 
 badges and emblems may certainly be traced to the earliest 
 times, and the enthusiasm of some of the primitive writers 
 on the subject has led them to gravely assert that even 
 Noah and Japhet had distinctive armorial bearings ! But 
 while it may be admitted that in the ancient world war- 
 like nations bore on their shields and standards distin- 
 guishing devices, it is not clear that our Heraldry can in 
 strictness be traced to a more remote period than the 
 twelfth or, at furthest, the eleventh century.* Numerous 
 
 * The Griraaldi family, of Italy, consider tlieir arms, lozengy, 
 argent and gules, to have been borne by them hereditarily from a 
 period antecedent to the Norman Conquest. A branch sprang 
 from the parent stock of this family about fifty years prior to the 
 invasion of Eno^land. and settled in Normandy, in consequence 
 of their kindred to the Duke of that country. Three individuals 
 of this branch, who accompanied their cousin to England, on liis 
 invasion, are named as Tenants in Capite in Domesday. The 
 Earl Fitzwilliam is tlie descendant of one of these tenants in 
 Capite, The Earl's charters have seals with the arms— lozengy, 
 argent and gules — from the year 1117. These arms have been 
 borne by the Fitzwilliam family to the present time. (See Col- 
 lins' Peerage— all editions. Title " Fitzwilliam.") The Gri- 
 maldis of Italy have used these same arms, lozengy, argent and 
 gules, from the earliest time to which their records ascend. The 
 evidence of their seals does not ascend to a more remote date 
 than the thirteenth century ; but the genealogy of that family, 
 published in folio at Paris in 1647, offers evidence of their use of 
 these arms in 1087, from sculpture on their castle then erected 
 by them. 
 
 It seems difficult to deny that the foregoing statement affords 
 evidence of the usage of these arms by a common ancestor of the 
 Italian and English families ; and if so, that they have been 
 hereditary from a period antecedent to the Norman Conquest. 
 
344 HERALDRY. 
 
 tombs exist of persons of noble blood, who died before 
 the year 1000, yet there is not an instance known of one 
 with an heraldic bearing. The Pere Menestrier made a 
 minute and extensive search through France, Italy, Ger- 
 many, and Flanders, and the most ancient Coat of Arms 
 he was able to discover was that upon the monumental 
 effigy of a Count of Wasserburg, in the church of St. 
 Emeran, at Ratisbon : the ensigns were " Per fesse arg. 
 and sa. a lion rampant counterchanged ;" and the date 
 1010. Yet even here " there is good reason to believe," 
 says the learned Frenchman, "that this tomb was re- 
 stored some time after the Count^s death by the Monks of 
 the abbey he had endowed." 
 
 Sir John Feme is of opinion that the science was bor- 
 rowed from the Egyptians. Sir George Mackenzie ascribes 
 it to the age of Charlemagne, and says that it began and 
 grew with the feudal laws, but took its origin, perhaps, 
 in the time of Jacob, who, blessing his sons, gave them 
 marks of distinction, which the twelve tribes afterwards 
 bore on their ensigns : but our old reliable friend, Guillim, 
 will have it that Heraldry — as a science in England — can- 
 not go back to an earlier epoch than about the year 1200. 
 For my own part, I consider that the registry of its birth 
 may be found among the archives of the Holy Wars, that 
 its cradle was rocked by the soldiers of the Cross, and 
 that its maturity was attained in the chivalrous age of 
 Feudalism. 
 
 The word Heraldry is derived from the German «f>eer/ a 
 host, an army— and -^elb/ a champion ; and the term 
 blason, by which the science is denoted in French, En- 
 
HERALDRY. 345 
 
 glish, Italian, and German, has most probably its origin 
 in the German word SStajcn/ " to blow the horn." For 
 whenever a new knight appeared at a Tournament, the 
 herald sounded the trumpet, and as the competitors at- 
 tended with closed vizors, it was his duty to explain the 
 bearing of the shield or coat-armour belonging to each. 
 Thus, the knowledge of the various devices and symbols 
 was called Heraldry, and as the announcement was accom- 
 panied with sound of trumpet, it was termed " blazoning 
 the arms." The Germans transmitting it to the French, 
 it reached us after the Norman Conquest. 
 
 At first, armorial bearings were probably like surnames, 
 assumed by each warrior at his free will and pleasure; and 
 as his object would be to distinguish himself and his fol- 
 lowers from others, his cognizance would be respected by the 
 rest, either out of an innate courtesy or a feeling of natural 
 justice, disposing men to recognize the right of first occu- 
 pation, or really from a positive sense of the inconvenience 
 of being identified or confounded with those to whom no 
 common tie united them ; where, however, remoteness of 
 stations kept soldiers aloof, and extensive boundaries, and 
 difi'erent classes of enemies from without, subdivided the 
 force of a kingdom into many distinct bands and armies, 
 opportunities of comparing and ascertaining what ensigns 
 had been already appropriated would be lost, and it well 
 might happen, even in the same country, that various fami- 
 lies might be found unconsciously using the same arms. 
 
 It has long been a matter of doubt when the bearing of 
 coats of arms first became hereditary. The Norman tiles 
 engraved in Mr. Henniker's letter to the Antiquai'ian So- 
 
346 HERALDRY. 
 
 ciety, were supposed to have fixed the date at the period of 
 the Norman Conquest^ but Mr. Montagu very ably argues 
 that it is not at all clear that these tiles were of the same 
 antiquity as " the Abbaye aux Hommes at Caen/^ in which 
 they were found; indeed he seems to prove quite the con- 
 trary. Certain it is that it was not until the Crusades that 
 Heraldry came into general use. In the History of Battell 
 Abbey, Richard Lucy, Chief Justice temp. Henry II., is re- 
 ported to have blamed a mean subject for carrying a private 
 seal, when that pertained, as he said, to the King and 
 nobility alone. Under Edward I., seals of some sort were 
 so general, that the Stat ute of Exon ordained the coroner's 
 jury to certify with their respective signets, and in the fol- 
 lowing reign they became very common, so that not only 
 such as bore arms used to seal, but others fashioned signets, 
 taking the letters of their own names, flowers, knots, birds, 
 beasts, &c. It was afterwards enacted by statute, that 
 every freeholder should have his proper seal of arms ; and 
 he was either to appear at the head court of the shire, or 
 send his attorney with the said seal, and they who omitted 
 this duty were amerced or fined. 
 
 The earliest Heraldic document that has been handed 
 down to us, is a Roll of Arms, made between the years 
 1240 and 1245. It contains the names and arms of the 
 barons and knights of the reign of Henry III., and pre- 
 sents incontrovertible evidence of the fact that Heraldry 
 was at that time reduced to a science. It is curious, too, 
 as indicating the changes that have taken place between a 
 period approximating so nearly to its origin and the pre- 
 sent ; and invaluable, as offering contemporary testimony 
 
HERALDRY. 347 
 
 of the exact bearings of the ancestors of some of our most 
 distinguished families. This important manuscript (as well 
 as three other similar collections, " The Siege of Carlave- 
 rock/^ " A Roll of Arms, temp. Edward 11. ," and " A Roll 
 of Arms, temp. Edward III.") were published by the 
 late Sir Harris Nicolas, accompanied by prefatory remarks 
 and occasional notes, evincing the profound knowledge 
 and the conclusive reasoning of that able and learned 
 writer. 
 
 " The Siege of Carlaveeock " is a poem descriptive 
 of the banners of the peers and knights of the English 
 army who were present at the siege of Carlaverock Castle 
 in Scotland, in February, 1301. The Roll of Arms of 
 the time of Edward II., made between the years 1308 and 
 1314, is divided into counties, and comprises the names 
 and arms of about eleven hundred and sixty persons. It 
 still remains in the Cottonian Library, British Museum, 
 (Calig. A. xviii.) The Fourth Roll, to which we have re- 
 ferred, appears to have been compiled between the years 
 1337 and 1350. Its plan was most comprehensive, em- 
 bracing the arms of all the peers and knights in England, 
 arranged in the following order : — 
 
 I. The King, the Earls and the Barons. 
 II. The Knights under their respective counties. 
 
 III. The great personages who lived in earlier times. 
 
 In addition to these Rolls, for the pubhcation of which 
 we are indebted to the genealogical zeal of Sir Harris 
 Nicolas, other collections of arms have been published, 
 adding much to our information on the subject. In these 
 ancient rolls Heraldry first assumes the appearance of 
 
348 HERALDRY. 
 
 a science, and it would seem that the rules by which it is 
 governed then existed. 
 
 The earliest writer on the subject, whose work has de- 
 scended to us, is Nicholas Upton. His treatise was com- 
 posed in the reign of Henry V., and translated in that of 
 his successor, in the work well known to all admirers of 
 the art as "The Boke of St. Albans.'' With the decline 
 of chivalry the study of heraldry was neglected, 'and the 
 exaggerated dignity to which Feme, Mackenzie, and other 
 enthusiasts endeavoured to raise it, only gained for it con- 
 tempt ; but a taste for the study of antiquities generally 
 has gradually revived ; and the use of heraldry as a key to 
 history and biography is becoming every day more and 
 more acknowledged, not only in England, but throughout 
 Europe. 
 
 Much curious traditional and historical information is 
 associated with the origin and assumption of armorial 
 bearings. The singular cognizances used as crests, the 
 pecuHar charges on the shield, and the pointed allusive 
 mottoes, recall, in many instances, the achievements of 
 some renowned ancestor, and perpetuate in others some 
 remarkable event or illustrious alliance. The cross, the 
 crescent, and the escallop, are the symbols of the Crusaders; 
 the red and the white roses commemorate the wars of York 
 and Lancaster : and the crown and the oak tree indicate 
 the loyalty of those to whom King Charles II. owed his 
 preservation. I will instance a few of the arms, crests, and 
 mottoes, the derivation of which may be traced to some 
 interesting exploit or well-founded tradition : — 
 
 In the reign of Kenneth III., about the year 980, the 
 
HERALDRY. 349 
 
 Danes, having invaded Scotland, were encountered by that 
 prince near Longcarty, in Perthshire ; the Scots at first 
 gave way, and fled through a narrow pass, where they were 
 stopped by a countryman and his two sons, men of great 
 strength and courage, with no other weapon than the yokes 
 of their ploughs : upbraiding the fugitives for their cowar- 
 dice, they succeeded in rallying them ; the battle was re- 
 newed, and the Danes totally discomfited. It is said that 
 after the victory was achieved, the old man lying on the 
 ground, wounded and fatigued, cried " Hay ! Hay V^ which 
 word became the surname of his posterity. Tradition further 
 relates that the King, as a reward of the signal service ren- 
 dered, gave the aged husbandman as much land in the 
 Carse of Gowrie as a falcon should fly over before it settled; 
 and that the bird being accordingly let ofi", passed over an 
 extent of ground six miles in length, afterwards called 
 Errol, finally alighting on a stone still named Falkinstone. 
 The same authority also asserts that Kenneth assigned 
 three shields or escutcheons for the arms of the family, to 
 intimate that the father and his two sons had been the 
 three fortunate shields of Scotland. For ever after, even 
 unto the present day, the great northern house of Hay, en- 
 nobled under the titles of Errol, Tweeddale, and Kin- 
 NOUL, bears for Arms, "Arg. three escutcheons gu. ;" for 
 Crest, " a falcon rising ppr.,^' and for Motto, " Serva 
 jugum.^' 
 
 The Cheneys possess the following traditional account of 
 the origin of their crest : — Sir John Cheney, of Sherland, 
 an eminent soldier under the banner of the Earl of Rich- 
 mond, at Bosworth, personally encountering King Richard, 
 
850 HERALDRY. 
 
 was felled to the ground by the monarch, had his crest 
 struck off, and his head laid bare : for some time, it is 
 said, he remained stunned, but recovering after a while, he 
 cut the skull and horns off the hide of an ox which 
 chanced to be near, and fixed them upon his head, to 
 supply the loss of the upper part of his helmet ; he then 
 returned to the field of battle, and did such signal service, 
 that Henry, on being proclaimed king, assigned Cheney 
 for crest the '^ bulPs scalp,'^ which his descendants still 
 bear. Whatever may be the credence given to this story, 
 certain it is that Sir John Cheney was most instrumental 
 in the successful issue of Richmond's cause, and was 
 created by the Tudor monarch Baron Cheney, and made 
 a Knight of the Garter. 
 
 The Waller crest has a very honourable origin. Sir 
 Richard Waller, of Groombridge, in Kent, a gallant parti- 
 cipator in the glory of Azincourt, took prisoner, on that 
 memorable occasion, Charles, Duke of Orleans, whom he 
 brought to England, and held in " honourable restraint," 
 at his mansion of Groombridge, during the lengthened 
 period of twenty-four years, and until the prince was 
 ransomed for 400,000 crowns. In accordance with the 
 chivalric notions of the time, the captor and the captive 
 lived together on terms of the strictest friendship, and so 
 great was the regard entertained for the English knight 
 by his royal prisoner, that the latter rebuilt, at his own 
 expense, the seat of the Wallers, and was a munificent 
 benefactor to the parish church of Speldhurst, where his 
 arms remain in stone-work over the porch. In m.emory 
 of this episode in the life of Sir Richard Waller, the 
 
HERALDRY. 351 
 
 family crest, " a walnut tree fructed ppr./^ received the 
 addition of " a shield appended to one of the lower boughs, 
 and charged with the arms of France, viz. : az. three 
 fleurs-de-lis, or, differenced with a label of three points." 
 
 An old tradition in the family of Baird, records that 
 William the Lion, while hunting in one of the south-west 
 counties, happening to wander from his attendants, was 
 alarmed at the approach of a wild boar, and called out for 
 assistance, whereupon a gentleman of the name of Baird, 
 who had followed the king, came up, and had the good 
 fortune to slay the object of the monarch's alarm. For 
 this signal service William conferred upon his deliverer 
 large grants of land, and assigned him for armorial bear- 
 ing, " a boar passant," with the motto " Dominus fecit ;" 
 which arms are to be seen upon an ancient monument of 
 the Bairds of Auchmedden, in the churchyard of Banff. 
 
 The Dudleys, of Clapton, in Northamptonshire, who 
 descended from the marriage of Dudley of Clapton with 
 Agnes Hotot, bore for crest, "on a ducal coronet, or, a 
 woman's head with a helmet thereon, hair dishevelled, 
 and throat latch loose, ppr. ;" and the occasion of its first 
 adoption is thus recorded in a manuscript written in 1390, 
 by a monk, who was Parson of Clapton : — " The father 
 of Agnes Hotot, the great heiress who married Dudley, 
 having a dispute with one Ringsdale, about the title to a 
 piece of land, the competitors agreed to meet oif the de- 
 bateable ground, and decide the affair by combat. Hotot, 
 on the day appointed, was laid up with the gout ; but his 
 daughter Agnes, rather than the land should be lost, 
 armed herself cap-a-pee, and mounting her father's steed. 
 
352 HERALDRY, 
 
 went and encountered Ringsdale, whom, after a stubborn 
 contest, she unhorsed : and when he was on the ground, 
 she loosed her throat latch, lifted up her helmet, and let 
 down her hair about her shoulders, thus discovering her 
 sex." In commemoration of this exploit, the crest of the 
 female head was ever afterwards used. 
 
 The Desmond Fitzgeralds derived their crest of a 
 " monkey^' from the following tradition : — Thomas Fitz- 
 Maurice was only nine months old when his father and 
 grandfather fell at the battle of Callan. He was then 
 residing with his nurse at Tralee, and his attendants, 
 rushing out at the first astonishment excited by the in- 
 telligence, left the child alone in its cradle, when a 
 baboon, kept in the family, took him up and carried him 
 to the top of the steeple of the neighbouring abbey; 
 whence, after conveying him round the battlements, and 
 exhibiting him to the appalled spectators, he brought the 
 infant safely back to its cradle. Singularly enough, a 
 similar tradition is handed down in the family of Fitz- 
 Gerald of Offaly, and is made to refer to John Fitz-Thomas 
 Fitz- Gerald, Lord Offaly, afterwards first Earl of Kildare. 
 I give the Offaly version in a subsequent page in my 
 sketch of the Geraldines. 
 
 The Mullet or Star, of five points, borne in the first 
 quarter of the unsullied shield of De Verb, has a pious 
 and poetic origin. '' In the year of our Lord 1098^^ (we 
 quote from Leland), " Corborant, Admiral to the Soudan 
 of Percea, was fought with at Antioch, and discomfited by 
 the Christians. The night cumming on yn the chace of 
 this bataile, and waxing dark, the Christianes being four 
 
HERALDRY. 353 
 
 miles from Antioche, God willing, the saufte of their 
 army, showed a white star or molette of five pointes on 
 the Christen host; which to every mannes sighte did 
 lighte and arrest upon the standard of Albry de Vere, 
 there shyning excessively/^ The Knight, thus distin- 
 guished by Divine favour, in the latter end of his days, 
 assumed the cowl and died a monk. He was ancestor of 
 the De Veres, Earls of Oxford, whose last male descend- 
 ant, Aubrey de Vere, 20th Earl, died in 1702. 
 
 Fuller styles the Pilkingtons '^ a righte ancient family," 
 and relates that they were gentlemen of repute in the 
 shire of Lancaster before the Conquest, at which period 
 the chief of the house, being sought after by the Norman 
 soldiery, was fain to disguise himself as a thresher in a 
 barn : from this circumstance, partly alluding to the head 
 of the flail falling sometimes on the one, and sometimes 
 on the other side, and occasionally on himself, he took for 
 motto " Now thus ! now thus I" and his descendants have 
 since carried as their crest "A husbandman ppr." 
 
 The arms which were granted temp. Queen Elizabeth to 
 the great sea Captain, Sir Francis Drake, and are still 
 borne by his representative, Sir Trayton Drake, Bart, of 
 Nutwell Court, co. Devon, are " sa. a fess wavy between 
 the two Pole stars arg." The Crest also refers to the 
 maritime services of the famous circumnavigator. It is 
 " a ship under reef, drawn round a terrestrial globe by a 
 hand out of the clouds, with an escroU inscribed ' Auxilio 
 divino.' '* " Such was the worth (says Guillim) of this 
 most generous and renowned knight, Sir Francis Drake, 
 as that his merits do require that his coat armour should 
 
 A A 
 
354 HERALDRY. 
 
 he expressed in that selected manner of blazoning that is 
 fitting to noble personages, in respect of his noble courage 
 and high attempts atchieved, whereby he merited to be 
 reckoned the honour of our nation and of the naval pro- 
 fession/^ The most important achievement of Drake^s 
 eventful career was his celebrated voyage round the world, 
 accomplished within three years, and to this the blazonry 
 of the armorial bearings alludes. On Drake's return, in 
 1581, Queen Elizabeth went on board his ship, the 
 Golden Hind, and conferred upon the gallant and enter- 
 prising seaman the honour of knighthood, ordering, at 
 the same time, the preservation of the vessel, that it 
 might remain a monument of Sir Francis and his country^s 
 glory. It is observed by Camden, that on the occasion of 
 her Majesty ^s visit, there was such a concourse of people, 
 that the wooden bridge over which they passed broke, and 
 upwards of one hundred persons fell into the river ; by 
 which accident, however, nobody was hurt ; as if, he adds, 
 the ship had been built under some lucky constellation. 
 The application of the heraldic ensigns is well explained 
 in the verses, made at the period of the royal visit, by 
 the scholars of Winchester College, and nailed to the 
 mainmast of the ship : — 
 
 " Plus ultra Herculeis, inscribas, Drace, Columnis, 
 Et magno, dicas, Hercule major ero. 
 Drace, pererrati quern novit terminus orbis. 
 
 Quemque simul mundi vidit uterque Polus ; 
 Si taceant homines, facient te sidera notum. 
 Sol nescit comitis non memor esse sui." 
 
 Drake^s ship remained for many years an object of public 
 
HERALDRY. 
 
 355 
 
 admiration at Deptford, but her timbers falling at length 
 into decay, it was found necessary to break her up, when 
 a chair, made out of her planks, was presented by John 
 Davies, Esq., to the University of Oxford, upon which the 
 poet Cowley wrote the following lines : — 
 
 " To this great ship which round the world has run, 
 And match'd in race the chariot of the sun ; 
 The Pythagorean ship (for it may claim, 
 Without presumption, so deserved a name); 
 By knowledge once, and transformation now. 
 In her new shape, this sacred port allow. 
 Drake and his ship could not have wished from Fate 
 A happier station or more blest estate. 
 For lo ! a seat of endless rest is given 
 To her in Oxford, and to him in heaven.'' 
 
 After the death of King Robert the Bruce, in 1329, Sir 
 Simon Locard of Lee accompanied James Lord Douglas 
 to the Holy Land, with the heart of the deceased monarch 
 for interment. From this circumstance, the Douglases 
 bear in their arms a crowned heart, and Sir Simon changed 
 his name to Lockheart (as it was until lately spelt), and 
 for part of his arms got a heart within a lock, with the 
 motto, " Corda serrata pando.^^ In the possession of the 
 Lockhart family is that singular piece of antiquity called 
 the "Lee penny,'' upon which is founded Sir Walter 
 Scott's romance of " The Talisman." The account given 
 of it is, that Simon Locard, during his stay in the Holy 
 Land, took prisoner a Saracen chief, whose wife came to 
 ransom him, and on the counting out of the money or 
 jewels, this (which is a stone or composition of a dark red 
 colour and triangular shape, set on a silver coin) fell ; she 
 
 aa2 
 
356 HERALDRY. 
 
 hastily snatched it up, which Simon observing, insisted 
 upon having it, and procured it before giving up his pri- 
 soner. More of this singular relic, and its alleged pro- 
 perties and virtues, may be found in Sir Walter Scott's 
 preface to " The Talisman/' 
 
 The Hamiltons are said to be descended from Sir Wil- 
 liam de Hamelden, one of the younger sons of Robert de 
 Bellomont, 3rd Earl of Leicester, which Sir William de 
 Hameldon's son, Sir Gilbert Hamilton, having expressed 
 himself at the court of Edward II. in admiration of King 
 Robert Bruce, received a blow from John de Spencer, 
 which led the following day to a rencounter, wherein Spen- 
 cer fell; subsequently Hamilton fled into Scotland, but 
 being closely pursued, he and his servant changed clothes 
 with two woodcutters, and taking their saws, were in the 
 act of cutting through an oak tree when his pursuers 
 passed by. Perceiving his servant notice them. Sir Gilbert 
 hastily cried out to him, " Through,'' which word, with 
 the oak and saw through it, he took for his crest, in com- 
 memoration of his deliverance. This detail is, however, 
 liable to many objections. Sir William Dugdale, in his 
 account of the Earls of Leicester, is totally silent as to the 
 descent of the Hamiltons from Robert, 3rd Earl. 
 
 Sir John Pelham, ancestor of the Earls of Chichester, the 
 Dukes of Newcastle, and the Earls of Yarborough, shared 
 in the glory of Poictiers, and had the honour of partici- 
 pating personally in the capture of the French King, John ; 
 for which exploit he had, as a badge of distinction, the 
 Buckle of a belt, which was sometimes used by his descend- 
 ants as a seal manual, and at others, on each side of a cage, 
 
HERALDRY. 357 
 
 being an emblem of the captivity of the French monarch. 
 CoUins thus refers to the story : " Froissart gives an ac- 
 count that with the king were taken, beside his son Philip, 
 the Earl of Tankerville, Sir James of Bourbon, the Earls of 
 Ponthieu and Eu, with divers other noblemen, who being 
 chased to Poictiers, the town shut their gates against them, 
 not suffering any to enter ; so that divers were slain, and 
 every Englishman had four, five, or six prisoners ; and the 
 press being great to take the king, such as knew him cryM 
 ' Sir, yield, or you are dead :' whereupon, as the chronicle 
 relates, he yielded himself to Sir Dennis Morbeck, a knight 
 of Artois, in the English service, and being afterwards 
 forc'd from him, more than ten knights and esquires chal- 
 lenge the taking of the king. Among these. Sir Roger 
 de Warr, and the before-mentioned John de Pelham, were 
 most concerned ; and in the memory of so signal an action, 
 and the King surrendering his sword to them, Sir Roger 
 la Warr, Lord la Warr, had the crampet or chape of his 
 sword f'or a badge of that honour ; and John de Pelham 
 (afterwards knighted) had the buckle of a belt as a mark 
 of the same honour, which was sometimes used by his 
 descendants as a seal manual, and at others, the said buckle 
 on each side a cage, being an emblem of the captivity of 
 the said King of France, and was therefore borne for a 
 crest, as in those times was customary. The buckles, &c., 
 were likewise used by his descendants in their great seals, 
 as is evident from several of them appendant to old deeds." 
 The crest of " the eagle feeding an infant in its cradle,'' 
 borne by the Stanleys, Earls of Derby, is derived from the 
 family of Lathom, of Lathom, in the county of Lancaster, 
 
358 HERALDRY. 
 
 the heiress of which, Isabel, daughter of Sir Thomas 
 Lathom, of Lathom, and Knowsley, married Sir John 
 Stanley, K.G., Lord Deputy of Ireland. Tradition narrates 
 that one of the Lathoms having abandoned and exposed an 
 illegitimate son in the nest of an eagle, in the wood of 
 Terlestowe, near his castle, afterwards discovered that the 
 bird, instead of devouring the infant, had supplied it with 
 food and preserved its life. This miraculous circumstance, 
 continues the legend, so touched the father's feelings, that 
 he repented of his cruel intention, and taking home the 
 child made him his heir. Thus is popularly traced the 
 origin of the singular crest of the house of Stanley ; but 
 the story is so improbable, that we can afford it slight cre- 
 dence. Mr. Ormerod, of Sedbury, the able historian of 
 Cheshire, himself nearly connected with a branch of the 
 Lathoms, has written an interesting paper on the " Stanley 
 Legend," in the Collectanea Topogr. et Genealogica. 
 
 In memory of the royal alliance of their ancestor. Sir 
 John Lyon, with Lady Jane Stewart, daughter of King 
 Robert II., the Earls of Strathmore bear for crest, " a 
 lady habited as a princess, and couped below the girdle, 
 inclosed within an arch of laurel, and holding in her right 
 hand the royal thistle, all ppr. " and ever since the mar- 
 riage of Lady Jane Seymour with Henry VIII., the Dukes 
 of Somerset have quartered with their paternal arms, " Or 
 on a pile gu. between six fleurs az. three lions of Eng- 
 land," a coat of augmentation originally granted by the 
 bluff monarch. 
 
 The tenure of the lands of Pennycuick, in Midlothian, 
 enjoins that the possessor attend once a year in the forest 
 
HONOURABLE AUGMENTATION. 359 
 
 of Drumsleigh, near Edinburgh, to give a blast of a born 
 at the king's hunting ; and from this custom the Clerkes 
 of Pennycuick bear for crest j a " demi huntsman habited 
 vert, winding a horn, ppr. ;" and for motto, the words 
 '' Free for a blast." The Grosvenor crest of " the talbot'' 
 has reference to the ancient office — that of Grosvenor or 
 great huntsman to the Dukes of Normandy, which was 
 formerly held by the family : and " the sword erect" of 
 the Dymokes is the symbol of their dignified service as 
 Champions to the sovereigns of England. 
 
 Of the honourable augmentations granted by Charles 
 II. to the devoted partizans whose loyalty protected him 
 after the fatal issue of the battle of Worcester, we may 
 mention those of Lane, Carlos, and Penderell. The first- 
 named family received the additional crest of " a demi-horse 
 salient arg. spotted dark grey, bridled ppr., sustaining with 
 his fore feet a regal crown or," allusive to the assistance 
 rendered to the fallen monarch by Jane Lane, of Bentley, 
 whose servant the King personated, by riding before her 
 on horseback, in his flight to Somerset. To the Penderells, 
 the humble but no less faithful protectors of the fugitive 
 prince, tradition records that this coat of arms was assigned, 
 viz. '^ Arg. on a mount, an oak tree ppr., over all a fesse 
 sa. charged with three regal crowns ppr. ;" but I have 
 been unable to trace any such Grant. Identical bearings, 
 differing in tincture only, were certainly given to Col. 
 Carlos. The pension of 100 marks, granted at the same 
 time to Richard Penderell, still continues to be paid to his 
 representative; and several members of the family, in 
 various conditions of life, have been connected for some 
 
360 HERALDRY. 
 
 generations with the county of Sussex. " One of them 
 (says Mr. Lower, in his admirable work ' Curiosities of 
 Heraldry), a few years since, kept an inn at Lewes, bearing 
 the sign of the Royal Oak." 
 
 These few examples will shew the connection of the 
 arms of many of our most distinguished families with the 
 achievements and events of former times. 
 
 Eight to bear Erntjs* 
 
 " Ensigns,^' says a learned writer, " were, in their first 
 acceptation, taken up at any gentleman's pleasure, yet 
 hath that liberty for many ages been deny'd, and they, by 
 regal authority, made the rewards of merit or the gracious 
 favours of princes." 
 
 In the reign of Henry V. a proclamation issued pro- 
 hibiting the use of heraldic ensigns to all who could not 
 show an original and valid right, except those " who had 
 borne arms at Agincourt /'* but, despite the royal ordi- 
 nance, a multiplicity of abuses found their way into all 
 matters touching descent and arms, which called aloud 
 for reformation, and gave rise in the earlier part of the six- 
 teenth century, to the Heralds' Visitations, documents 
 of high authority and value. The royal commissions under 
 
 * " Quod nullus cujuscunque status, gradus seu conditionis 
 fuerit, kujusmodi arma sive tunicas armorum in se sumat, nisi 
 ipse jure antecessorio vel ex donatione alieujus ad hos sufficien- 
 tem potestatem habentis, ea possideat aut possidere debeat, et 
 quod ipse arma sive tunicas illas ex cujus done obtinet, demon- 
 strationis suae personis ad hoc per nos assignatis manifeste de- 
 nionstret, exceptis illis qui nobiscum apud bellum de Agincourt 
 arma portabant, &c." — Ordinance vf Henry V. 
 
MARSHALLING AND QUARTERING ARMS. 361 
 
 which the Visitations are held, empowered the kings of 
 arms "to peruse and take knowledge of all manner of 
 coat armour, cognizances, crests, and other like devices, 
 with the notes of the descents, pedigrees, and marriages, 
 of all the nobility and gentry therein ; and also to reprove, 
 control, and make infamous by proclamation, all such as 
 unlawfully, and without just authority, usurped or took 
 any name or title of honour or dignity/^ In these inva- 
 luable documents are set forth the principal hereditary 
 achievements of the kingdom ; and all who can deduce 
 descent from an ancestor whose armorial ensigns have 
 been acknowledged in any one of the Visitations, are en- 
 titled to carry those arms by right of inheritance. When, 
 however, no such descent can be shown, the party must, 
 if it be possible, prove his right as descending from some 
 original grantee, or, in fault of that proof, must become a 
 grantee himself. 
 
 These observations apply to the usage of arms in Eng- 
 land. The custom in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales differs 
 materially. 
 
 In England and Wales, which are under the Earl Mar- 
 shal's control, arms are granted by ^' Garter ; " in Scot- 
 land, by "the Lord Lyon )" and in Ireland, by " Ulster." 
 
 i*tarsf;aUtttg Ertns. 
 
 " Marshalling arms" is defined by Guillim and Mac- 
 kenzie to be " the conjoining of divers coats in one 
 shield," or, strictly speaking, the proper arrangement on 
 an escutcheon, either by impaling or quartering, of va- 
 rious ensigns. 
 
362 HERALDRY. 
 
 "Impaling" applies to the method of using the wife's 
 arms, and is usually practised by dividing the shield into 
 two equal parts, and placing the husband^s arms in the 
 dexter, with the wife's in the sinister. When there 
 happens to be a border round one or both of them, the 
 portion is omitted where the two coats unite. There are, 
 however, two rules to be attended to. No husband can 
 impale his wife's arms with his own on a surcoat, ensign, 
 or banner, nor can a Knight of the Garter, or of any 
 other Order, when surrounding the shield with the motto 
 of his knighthood, bear his wife's coat within it. 
 
 Edward III. appears to have been the first that quar- 
 tered arms in England, when, in right of his mother 
 Isabella, daughter and heiress of Philip IV. of France, he 
 assumed the fleur-de-lis on the national banner ; and 
 John Hastings, second Earl of Pembroke, was the first 
 subject who imitated his royal master's example. 
 
 The intention of Quartering is to show the descent 
 of one family from heiresses or co-heiresses* of other 
 houses. Thus, the children of an heiress are entitled, at 
 her death, to quarter with their paternal coat her arms, as 
 well as all arms which she may have inherited. In mar- 
 shalling quarterings, the firsts after the paternal arms, is 
 the shield of the earliest heiress, which the bearer's an- 
 cestor has married, and then succeed any quarterings her 
 descent may bring in ; with the second heiress the same 
 
 * An heiress or co-heiress in Heraldry is a lady, who is, by 
 having no brother, or by her brother or brothers having died 
 without issue, a representative in blood of her father. The term 
 " heiress " in Heraldry does not apply to the succession to pro- 
 perty. 
 
THE SHIELD OF ARMS. 363 
 
 rule is followed, and so on, in chronological rotation, to 
 the end of the chapter. When a daughter becomes heiress 
 to her mother, also an heiress, and not to her father, 
 which happens when the father has a son by another wife, 
 she bears her mother's arms with the shield of her father, 
 on a canton, taking all the quarterings to which her 
 mother was by descent entitled. When married, she con- 
 veys the whole to be borne on an escutcheon of pretence by 
 her husband, and transmits them at her death to be borne 
 as quarterings by her descendants. 
 
 If a man marry a widow, he impales her maiden arms. 
 A widower entering on a second marriage, marshals with 
 his own the arms only of his second wife. He is not, ac- 
 cording to the laws of heraldry, entitled to continue the 
 usage of his deceased wife's ensigns. The colours of the 
 liveries are governed by the colours and metals of the 
 arms : thus, if the field be azure, and the first charge 
 argent, the liveries should be blue and white. 
 
 According to the received authorities, there are ten 
 classes of arms : — 
 
 1. Arms of Dominion, those borne by Sovereigns and 
 annexed to the territories they govern. 
 
 2. Arms of Pretension, used by Sovereigns who are 
 not in possession of the dominions to which such arms 
 belong, but who claim, or pretend a right to them. Thus, 
 the arms of England from Edward III. to George III. 
 quartered the arms of France. 
 
364 HERALDRY. 
 
 3. Arms of Community, those of bishopricks, univer- 
 sities, cities, and other corporate bodies. 
 
 4. Arms of Assumption, adopted without the grant of 
 the Sovereign or of a King-at-Arms, and used as a proper 
 right. For instance, if a prince or nobleman be taken 
 prisoner in lawful war, the victor may bear the arms of 
 the person so taken, and transmit them to his heirs. 
 
 5. Arms of Patronage, borne in addition to their 
 family arms by governors of provinces or lords of manors, 
 as a token of their rights of jurisdiction. 
 
 6. Arms of Succession are used by those who inherit 
 certain estates or manors, either by will, entail, or donation, 
 and are incorporated with their own arms. 
 
 7. Arms of Alliance : these are adopted by families 
 or private persons, and are joined with their own heraldic 
 bearings to denote the alliance which they have contracted 
 by marriage. Arms of this description are impaled, or 
 are borne in an escutcheon of pretence by those who have 
 married heiresses. But the latter arrangement (that of 
 the separate escutcheon) is not allowed until the death of 
 the father of the lady. 
 
 8. Arms of Adoption are borne by a stranger in 
 blood, and are specially granted by the Sovereign to em- 
 power the person applying for them to obtain certain 
 moneys or estates bequeathed on the condition of his 
 assuming the name and arms of the testator. 
 
 9. Arms of Concession, augmentations granted by 
 the Sovereign of part of his own ensigns or regalia, to 
 «uch persons as he pleases so to honour. 
 
THE SHIELD OF ARMS. 365 
 
 10. Arms Paternal and Hereditary are those 
 transmitted from the first possessor to his heirs ; the son, 
 being a gentleman of second coat armour ; the grandson, a 
 gentleman of blood ; and the great grandson, a gentleman 
 of ancestry. 
 
 The Shield admits of various forms, and is divided 
 into nine integral parts to mark the position of the several 
 charges, but I shall only here allude to the relative posi- 
 tions of the principal parts. 
 
 First, it is to be observed, that the side of the escut- 
 cheon opposite the left hand of the person looking at it, is 
 the dexter, or right side, and that opposite to the right hand, 
 the sinister, or left. The centre of the shield is called the 
 fess point ; the top of the dexter side, the dexter chief ; the 
 top of the sinister side, the sinister chief. The bottom of 
 the shield is called the base, and its respective sides are 
 called the dexter and sinister base. 
 
 The Colours common to shields and their bearings are 
 called tinctures, and are of seven different kinds; two metals 
 and five colours, viz., or, gold ; argent, silver; azure, blue ; 
 gules, red ; vert, green ; purpure, purple ; and sable, black. 
 Some writers on the science admit two additional, iawney, 
 or tenne, orange ; and sanguine, blood colour ; but they are 
 rarely to be met with in British Arms. 
 
 When natural objects are introduced into heraldry, they 
 are often represented in their ordinary colours, and this is 
 expressed by the term proper. 
 
 A shield is said to be quartered when it is divided into 
 four equal parts by horizontal and perpendicular lines 
 crossing the centre ; that at the top of the dexter side is 
 
366 heraldry/ 
 
 called the first quarter ; the top of the sinister side is 
 called the second quarter; the third quarter is at the 
 bottom of the dexter side, and the bottom of the sinister 
 side is the fourth quarter. When the shield is divided 
 into two equal parts by a perpendicular line, it is called 
 IMPALING : the dexter being the man's side, the sinister 
 the woman's. Dividing the shield into two equal parts by 
 a horizontal line is called per fess. 
 
 Charges are the various figures depicted on shields, by 
 which the bearers are distinguished from one another. 
 
 All charges of Arms are either proper or common; 
 those charges are said to be proper which by a certain 
 property do particularly belong to the Art of Heraldry, 
 and are of ordinary use therein : hence they are styled 
 " Ordinaries :" the common charges are the representa- 
 tions of all the emblems which retain their own names in 
 the blazon. The principal Ordinaries are — the Chief, 
 the Pale, the Bend, the Fess, the Cross, the Salt- 
 ire, and the Cheveron. The Sub-Ordinaries are — 
 the Border, the Orle, the Inescutcheon, the Quarter, 
 the Canton, the Paile or Pall, the Gyron, the Pile, the 
 Flaunch, &c. 
 
 Differences, or Marks of Cadency, are the distinc- 
 tions used to indicate the various branches or cadets of 
 one family. The eldest son (during the lifetime of his 
 father) bears a Label ; the second, a Crescent ;* the 
 third, a Mullet ; the fourth, a Martlet ;t the fifth, 
 
 * " The Crescent " is the double blessing that gives hope of 
 future increase. 
 
 t "The Martlet," a bird without legs, cannot alight on the 
 laud, and is consequently the mark of the younger brother, who 
 has usually no land to light on. 
 
BLAZONRY. 367 
 
 an Annulet; the sixth, a Eleur-de-lis ; the seventh, 
 a Rose; the eighth, a Cross-moline ; the ninth, a 
 
 DOUBLE QUATREFOIL. 
 
 In Blazoning a coat of arms, brevity is to be studied, 
 and tautology avoided, care being still taken to give a 
 minute description of every bearing, its position, place on 
 the shield, tincture, &c. Though the same metal colour, or 
 fur, may occur more than once, the repetition of its name 
 should scrupulously be guarded against, by describing the 
 charge, which happens to be of a tincture, already men- 
 tioned, as of the first, second, or third, according to the 
 relative position that tincture may hold in the blazon ; 
 for example, the arms of Preston of Furness Abbey are, 
 '^Ar. two bars gu. on a canton of the second, a cinquefoil 
 or." In this blazon the colour of the canton is described 
 of the second, to obviate the repetition of the word " gu." 
 The next general rule to be observed is to begin the 
 blazon with the description of the field, its tincture or 
 tinctures, name, then the partition lines, if any, wherewith 
 it is divided, as per fesse, per pale, per saltire, &c. The 
 principal ordinary, if any, should next be described, with 
 its tincture, &c. ; and then the charges around it gene- 
 rally, giving the surcharges upon such ordinary, after 
 those between which it is borne ; the chief, canton, or any 
 charge placed in a particular point of the shield, with its 
 surcharges, if any, being generally blazoned last. 
 
 If a coat consist of two colours only, it is blazoned, as 
 in the arms of Kyrle of Herefordshire, viz. : " Vert, a 
 
368 HERALDRY. 
 
 chevron between three fleurs-de-lis, or," which indicates 
 that both the chevron snadi fleurs-de-lis are of the tincture, 
 or ; when the last-mentioned charge, or bearing, is of the 
 same tincture as that one named immediately before it, 
 and yet cannot be included under one word, it is neces- 
 sary to describe it as "of the last ;" thus, in the arms of 
 Dawson of Sutterby, " Ar. two pales sa. and a chevron 
 gu. on a canton of the last, a battle axe, or." Of the last 
 is used to prevent a repetition of " gu." 
 
 If there be two sets of charges of equal number on 
 any parts of the shield, or one set of charges on an ordi- 
 nary between the same number of charges on the shield, 
 the repetition of the number must be avoided, by de- 
 scribing the second set of charges by the words " as 
 many'^ Thus, in the arms of Partridge of Break- 
 speares, "gu. on a fess engrailed cotized, or between 
 three partridges, rising, as many torteaux ;" the words " as 
 many" prevent the repetition of the number " three" in 
 this example. 
 
 When charges are borne without the interposition of 
 the ordinaries, the exact position they occupy on the shield 
 — fesseways, or in fesse, if in line across the field ; pale- 
 ways, or in pale, if perpendicular, by one over the other ; 
 and bendways, or in bend, if placed diagonally from the 
 dexter chief to the snister base, must be described, as 
 well as the attitude and tincture of such charges, ex. gr. 
 
 " Hackett (Hackettstown, Ireland), Az. three hake 
 fishes hauriant in fess ar., on a chief of the second three 
 shamrocks ppr.," in fesSj denoting that the fishes are to 
 be borne in a horizontal line across the field. '' Maule- 
 
ATTITUDES OR POSITIONS OF ANIMALS. 869 
 
 VERER (Arncliflfe, co. York). Sa. three greyhounds cou- 
 rant, in pale, ar. collared or :^' in pale signifying that the 
 greyhounds are borne perpendicularly one above the other. 
 When charges are three, whether with or without ordi- 
 naries, the usual way they are borne is two in chief and 
 one in base, and this is understood without being men- 
 tioned ; but if they be not so placed, or exceed the number 
 three, their position must be specifically described, accord- 
 ing to the preceding rule ; or if horizontal rows, of an 
 equal or unequal number, their number, &c., must be 
 stated. The last remark the arms of Brouncker will 
 tend to elucidate, viz. : " Arg. six pellets in pale, three, 
 two, and one, a chief embattled sa." implying that the six 
 pellets are borne in three rows, three in the uppermost, 
 two in the second, and one in the lowest. 
 
 Ettituljeis or ISostttons of Enttnals. 
 
 When a lion or other beast of prey stands upright, with 
 only one ear and one eye seen, he is termed rampant ; 
 when walking forward, with one eye and ear seen, passant ; 
 when sitting, sejant ; when lying down, couchant. If in 
 any one of these positions the animal look full face, so 
 that both eyes and ears may be seen, the word guardant 
 is annexed to passant, rampant, sejant, or couchant, as 
 the case may be ; and if he look back, the word reguar- 
 dant. An animal is salient when leaping forwards bend- 
 ways. 
 
 To griffins the term segreant is given, in place of ram- 
 pant. Animals of the deer kind have their positions other- 
 wise blazoned. Thus, when looking full-faced, they are 
 
 B B 
 
370 HERALDRY. 
 
 said to be at gaze; when standing, statant ; when walk- 
 ing, tripping; when leaping forward, springing; when 
 running, courant ; and when at rest on the ground, lodged. 
 
 A horse when running is blazoned courant, or in full 
 speed ; when leaping, cabre, effray, or saliant ; when rear- 
 ing, forcenL 
 
 Birds are blazoned, when standing with their wings 
 dowD, close ; when preparing to fly, rising ; when flying, 
 volant ; when spread open, with both wings stretched out, 
 and their breasts seen, displayed. The wings open and 
 against each other are called indorsed. One wing is a 
 demivoL 
 
 Fishes, when placed, horizontally, are naiant ; when 
 perpendicularly, hauriant ; when drawn in an arched form 
 like a dolphin, they are emhowed. 
 
 When any living creature proceeds from the bottom of 
 an ordinary, it is termed Issuant ; where placed over two 
 colours, Jessant ; when coming from the middle of an 
 ordinary or charge, so as to show but half the body and tip 
 of the tail, Naissant. A serpent placed horizontally is 
 said to be gliding. 
 
CRESTS, WREATHS,, AND BADGES. 371 
 
 Crests, SSreatHs, antj ISaDrges* 
 
 " Various in shape, device, and hue, 
 Green, sanguine, purple, red and blue. 
 Broad, narrow, swallow-tailed, and square, 
 Scroll, pennon, pensil, bandrol, there 
 
 O'er the pavilions flew. 
 Highest and brightest was descried 
 The ancient crest." — Walter Scott. 
 
 The Crest yields in honour to none of the heraldic in- 
 signia. It was the emblem that served, when the banner 
 was rent asunder, and the shield broken, as a rallying 
 point for the knight^s followers, and a distinguishing mark 
 of his own prowess. How often did the bulPs head of 
 Neville indicate the irresistible course of the gallant War- 
 wick ! 
 
 And who, in field, or foray slack, 
 Saw the blanche lion e'er fall back. 
 
 The Crest, named by the French Cimier, from Cime, the 
 top or apex, and by the Italians Cimiero, originated in the 
 necessity of distinguishing one chief from another, and 
 making him known in the battle-field and the tournament ; 
 consequently, no crest is ever allowed to a female. As 
 early as the year 1101, a seal of Philip, Count of Flanders, 
 represents him with his crest ; but at that period, and for 
 a century and a half after, few of lesser degree than sove- 
 reigns and commanders in the wars ventured to carry this 
 mark of distinction.* After the institution, however, of 
 
 * The first example of a crest upon the helmet among En- 
 ghsh sovereigns occurs in the second great seal of Eichard Go^r 
 
 B B 2 
 
372 HERALDRY. 
 
 the Garter, the knights of that ^illustrious order adopted 
 crests, and the practice soon became so general, that these 
 emblems were assumed indiscriminately by all those 
 who considered themselves legally entitled to a coat 
 armour.* 
 
 At their first adoption, crests were usually assumed 
 from some charge in the shield ; and thus, in very many 
 ancient houses, we find the crest a mere emanation of the 
 arms. Little information remains to us of the crests borne 
 by the early nobility, and the little we do possess we 
 owe to monumental effigies and illuminated manuscripts. 
 Froissart, in particular, affords many curious examples. 
 Nisbet and some other writers contend that these heraldic 
 ornaments might be changed according to the good plea- 
 sure of the bearer, but this has long been forbidden by 
 the Kings of Arms. If crests be the distinguishing 
 tokens by which families may be known (and this seems 
 most assuredly to be the intention of the device), one 
 might as well alter a coat of arms as an hereditary crest. 
 
 de Lion. The helmet has several vertical openings in front, and 
 upon the top is placed a golden lion guardant. The seal, too, of 
 Eoger de Quincy, Earl of Winchester, one of the holy warriors 
 of the reign of Henry III., exhibits on a cylindrical casque a 
 dragon as a device. 
 
 * The monument of Sir Oliver de Ingham, in Ingham church, 
 Norfolk, who lived temjp. Edward III., " affords," says Meyrick, 
 *' one of the earliest specimens of the jousting helmet of his times, 
 surmounted by its crest ; and the sepulchral effigy of Sir John 
 Harsick is a remarkable example of English armour towards the 
 close of the reign of the second Eichard. The knight is repre- 
 sented with his helmet on, over his coat of chained mail, so as to 
 display the mode of wearing the crest and the mantle." 
 
CRESTS, WREATHS, AND BADGES. 373 
 
 Still, however, circumstances may arise in which a change 
 becomes desirable ; but this should never be made on slight 
 or unimportant grounds. In early times, Thomas Mowbray, 
 Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal of England, was, by the 
 special concession of Richard II., allowed to carry the crest 
 of England — " the lion passant guardant or ;" and John 
 Howard, in a subsequent reign, having married the daughter 
 and heiress of Mowbray, substituted for the old crest of 
 Howard, viz., " two wings, each charged with the family 
 arms," the new but honourable cognizance of the golden 
 lion. No one is entitled to more than one crest unless he 
 bears two names, or has received the additional device by a 
 specific grant. The Germans, indeed, have long been ac- 
 customed to display in a row over their shields of arms the 
 crests of all the houses whose ensigns they quarter ; but 
 their heraldry is peculiar, differing from that of the other 
 countries of Europe. In truth, the impropriety of the 
 practice of carrying more than one crest is remarkably 
 striking, if we consider for a moment the purpose for which 
 these cognizances were first designed. 
 
 Originally crests were carved in light wood, or made of 
 boiled leather passed into a mould, in the form of some 
 animal real or fictitious, and were fastened to the helmet 
 by the wreath, which was formed of two pieces of silk, 
 " twisted together by the lady who chose the bearer for her 
 knight." The tinctures of the Wreath are always those of 
 the principal metal and colour of the arms ; and it is a rule 
 in delineating the wreath (shewn edgewise above the shield) 
 that the first coil shall be of the metal, and the last of the 
 colour of which the achievement is constituted. Such are 
 
374 HERALDRY, 
 
 the wreaths in general use, but occasions have arisen when 
 crowns and coronets supply their place. 
 
 Crests have sometimes, but very improperly, been 
 confounded with "badges,^^ altogether distinct devices, 
 intended to distinguish the retainers of certain great noble- 
 men, and wrought or sown upon the liveries with which 
 they were supplied by their lord. The badge appeared 
 also emblazoned on the chief's standard Or pennon, and 
 was much esteemed until the reign of Elizabeth, when the 
 last brilliant relics of the feudal system — the joust, the 
 tournament, and all their accompanying paraphernalia — fell 
 into disuse. Henry II. bore an escarbuncle, or ; and also 
 introduced the famous badge borne so constantly by his 
 successors, of the broom sprig or Plante Genet (" II portait 
 wng Gennett entre deux Plantes de Geneste") ; and his son, 
 'Richard I., on assuming the title of King of Jerusalem, 
 hoisted the banner of the Holy City — the dormant lion of 
 Judah — the badge of David and Solomon. Edward I. 
 had a rose, stalk green and petals gold. Edward II. com- 
 memorated his Castilian descent by the badge of a gold 
 tower. Edward III. bore " silver clouds with rays descend ■ 
 ing.^' Richard II. adopted the white hart,* the device of 
 
 * " Among the few friends who attended Richard II. after his 
 capture by the Earl of Northumberland, was Jenico d'Artois, a 
 Gascoigne, that still wore the cognizance or device of his master. 
 King Richard, that is to say, a white hart, and would put it 
 away from him neither by persuasion nor threats ; by reason 
 whereof, when the Duke of Lancaster understood it, he caused 
 him to be committed to prison, within the Castle of Chester. 
 This man was the last (as saith mine author) which wore that 
 device, which showed well thereby his constant heart towards 
 his master.'' — Hollingshed. 
 
CRESTS, WREATHS, AND BADGES. 375 
 
 his mother, the Fair Maid of Kent, and used besides a 
 White Falcon; and his successor, Henry IV., introduced the 
 red rose of Lancaster, which became ever after the badge 
 of the Lancastrians, as opposed to the white rose of York. 
 He also had for cognizance the antelope : as well as the 
 silver swan of the De Bohuns. When he entered the lists 
 against Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, his caparisons were 
 embroidered with the antelope and swan. Henry of Agin- 
 court carried a beacon and fleur- delis crowned. "The 
 white rose," en soleil, denotes the fourth Edward, and 
 "the white boar," the third Richard. Henry VI. had for 
 badge a Panther, and also two ostrich feathers in saltire, 
 one silver, the other gold. His Queen, Margaret of Anjou, 
 adopted a *' daisy," in allusion to her name : 
 " The daise a flou^ white and rede. 
 In French called la belle Margarete." 
 
 Henry VII. carried " the red dragon" of Wales, and also 
 the portcullis as well as the red and white roses 
 combined, emblematic of the union of the rival houses. 
 " In the marriage procession of Henry Tudor and Eliza- 
 beth of York," says an agreeable writer, " each partizan 
 of Lancaster gave his hand to a lady of the York party, 
 holding a bouquet of two roses, red and white entwined ; 
 and at the birth of Prince Henry, the armorists composed 
 a rose of two colours (the leaves alternating red and white), 
 as an emblematical offspring of the marriage. Horti- 
 culturists, too, forced nature into an act of loyalty, and 
 produced the party-coloured flower known to the present 
 day as the rose of York and Lancaster." 
 
 The same cognizances were used by Henry VIII. and 
 
376 HERALDRY. 
 
 Edward VI., the foi-mer of whom displayed sometimes a 
 greyhound courant and collared ; and at others, after the 
 siege of Boulogne, a white swan, the arms of that city. 
 Queen Mary, before her accession, adopted the red and 
 white roses, but added a pomegranate, to show her descent 
 from Spain; but, on assuming the sceptre, she took 
 " Winged Time drawing Truth out of a pit,^^ with " Veri- 
 tas temporis filia" for motto. The badges of Queen Eliza- 
 beth were the red and white roses, the fleur-de-lis, and 
 the Irish harp, all ensigned by the royal crown, to which 
 James I. added the Scottish Thistle. Many of the greater 
 nobility followed the royal example ; Beauchamp had 
 " the bear and ragged staff ;^' FitzAlan, " the white horse 
 of Arundel;" Vere, "the blue boar;" Percy, "the cres- 
 cent and manacle ;" Stafford ajid Bourchier, " the Knot." 
 
 lE^ht Motto* 
 The Motto is, according to Guillim, " a word, saying, 
 or sentence which gentlemen carry in a scroll under the 
 arms, and sometimes over the crest." It had its origin, 
 most probably, in the " cri de guerre," or the watchword 
 of the camp, and its use can be traced to a remote period. 
 The learned Camden assigns the reign of Henry III. as 
 the date of the oldest motto he ever met with, that of 
 William de Ferrars, Earl of Derby, who encircled his 
 shield with the legend, "Lege, lege;" and the same 
 antiquary mentions the old seal of Sir Thomas Cavall, who 
 bore for his arms a horse, and for his motto, " Thomse 
 credite, cum cernitis ejus equum." Other authorities, 
 however, refer to several cases, that of Trafford of Trafford 
 
THE MOTTO. ' 377 
 
 in particular, and carry up the adoption of mottoes to a 
 much earlier epoch. Be this as it may, their general 
 usage may be accurately dated, if not from an earlier 
 period, certainly from the institution of the Order of the 
 Garter ; and after that celebrated event they became very 
 general, and daily gained in public favour. During the 
 wars of Henry V., Henry VI., and Henry VIIL, innume- 
 rable mottoes graced the shields of the warriors of the time 
 and in the courtly days of EHzabeth devices were especially 
 fashionable. 
 
 Mottoes may be taken, changed, or relinquished, when 
 and as often as the bearer thinks fit, and may be exactly 
 the same as those of other persons ; still, however, the 
 pride of ancestry will induce most men to retain, un- 
 altered, the time-honoured sentiment which, adopted in 
 the first instance as the memorial of some noble action, 
 some memorable war-cry, or a record of some ancient 
 family descent, has been handed down from su'e to son 
 through a long series of generations. 
 
 "Montjoye St. Denis" was the cri de guerre of the 
 French kings, " St. Andrew " of the Scottish monarchs, 
 and " St. George for merry England," of the English. 
 " Dieu ayde au premier Chretien " rallied the Montmo- 
 rencys ; and " A Douglas ! a Douglas I" was not unfre- 
 quently heard on the English borders, in answer to the 
 Percy "Esperance." 
 
 The same conceit, as in Heraldic Bearings, of accommo- 
 dating the motto to the name, has prevailed occasionally 
 either in Norman-French or Latin : thus we have " Mon 
 Dieu est ma roche," for Roche, Lord Fermoy; "Let 
 
378 HERALDRY. 
 
 Curzon holde what Curzon helde/' for Curzon ; " Strike, 
 Dakyns, the devil's in the hempe/' for Dakyns ; " Cavendo 
 tutus/' for Cavendish ; " Forte scutum salus ducum/^ for 
 Fortescue; *' Set on/' for Seton, Earl of Winton ; "Ne 
 vile velis/' for Neville ; " Vero nihil verius/' for Vere ; 
 and " Ver non semper viret/' for Vernon ; the last de- 
 claring, like the Parthian oracle, in the same line the 
 permanence of the family, and warning them not to lose 
 an opportunity. This motto is alluded to by Diana Ver- 
 non in " Rob Roy :" " Like the solemn vice, iniquity, we 
 morahze two meanings in one word.'' 
 
 How admirably suited is " Pro magna charta " to the 
 Premier Barony, Le Despencer ; and how plaintive is the 
 expressive motto adopted by the once regal Courtenays of 
 Powderham, after the loss of the Earldom of Devon, ^^Ubi 
 lapsus ! quid feci." The '' Fuimus " of the Earl of Elgin 
 tells that the Bruces were once Kings ; and the " Crom a 
 boo " of the Geraldines recalls the time when an Act of 
 Parliament made it treason to repeat that famous war-cry. 
 
 Mottoes are also frequently allusive to the arms and 
 crests, and very often commemorative of some deed of 
 chivalry. With reference to " the Hedgehog," the crest 
 of the Kyrles of Herefordshire, the family of " the Man 
 of Ross," is the inscription " Nil moror ictus " (/ do not 
 care for blows) ; the Gores, whose ensigns comprise the 
 cross crosslet, have " In hoc signo vinces." " Caen, Cres- 
 sie, Calais," the motto of the Radclyffes, commemorates 
 the services of Sir John Radclyffe, Kt., of Ordsall, at the 
 sieges of Caen and Calais, and at the battle of Cressy ; 
 and " Boulogne et Cadiz," borne by the Heygate family. 
 
THE MOTTO, 379 
 
 records the presence of their ancestor at those famous 
 sieges. 
 
 " Grip Fast," the device of the Leslies, has remained 
 unchanged since the time of Margaret, Queen of Scotland, 
 by whom it was given to Bartholomew Leslie, the founder 
 of the family, under the following circumstances: — In 
 crossing a river, swollen by floods, the Queen was thrown 
 from her horse, and in danger of being drowned, when the 
 knight, plunging into the stream, seized hold of the royal 
 girdle, and as he brought her with difficulty towards the 
 bank, she frequently exclaimed, " Grip fast,^' words which 
 she desired her preserver to retain for his motto, in re- 
 membrance of this circumstance. 
 
 The traditionary origin of " Lamh derg eirin " (the Red 
 Hand of Ireland), the motto of the O'Neills, is this : — • 
 In an ancient expedition of some adventurers to Ireland, 
 their leader declared that whoever first touched the shore, 
 should possess the territory which he reached. O'Neil, 
 ancestor of the Princes of Ulster, bent upon obtaining the 
 reward, and seeing another boat likely to land, cut his hand 
 off and threw it upon the coast. 
 
 Many mottoes are allusive either to a portion of the 
 heraldic bearings, or to the family surname. " Leoni non 
 sagittis fido," / trmt to the lion not to the arrows, is that 
 of the Egertons, whose shield exhibits a lion between 
 three pheons ; and the Martins use these singular words . 
 '^ He who looks at Martin's ape, Martin's ape shall look 
 at him \" having reference to their crest, of " an ape ob- 
 serving himself in a looking-glass.'^ The Aitons of Kippo, 
 ^ branch of Aiton, of that Ilk, adopted for motto, " Et 
 
380 HERALDRY. 
 
 decerptse dabunt odorem," an elegant allusion to their crest 
 of " a rose bough ppr.," and of their being an offshoot of 
 the parent stem. 
 
 The generality of mottoes, however, are expressive of 
 sentiments of piety, hope, or determination. 
 
 Many of the most ancient houses in Scotland, Ireland, 
 and Wales, adopted for their motto the war-cry of their race, 
 which was sometimes derived from the name of the chief- 
 tain's feudal castle; thus Colquhoun of Luss bears *' Cnock- 
 elachan;" Fitz-Gerald of Leinster, "Crom a boo;" and 
 Hughes of Gwerclas, *' Kymmer-yn-Edeirnion/' Mottoes 
 not unfrequently indicate the antiquity and derivation of 
 the families by whom they are borne. In " Loywl as thow 
 fynds,'' we recognise the Saxon origin of the Tempests of 
 Tong, and in " Touts jours prest," the Norman ancestry 
 of the Talbots of Bashall : but this rule is far from being 
 general : many families of Norman origin used English 
 mottoes at a very early period, as Darellof Calehill, *'Trow 
 to you.'' 
 
 d^rohins;^ (^oronets^ Chajieau):^ i|eltnetd> anti i^ntles^ 
 
 Crowns were not originally marks of sovereignty, but 
 were bestowed on those who gained a prize at the Olympic 
 games, and at first were only bands or fillets, but subse- 
 quently they assumed various forms according to the pe- 
 culiar feat of valour the person to whom they were granted 
 performed. 
 
 The Crown, as a distinctive badge of royalty, was an- 
 ciently made open, but is now generally closed at the top 
 with arches varying in number, and is usually called the 
 
CROWNS — CORONETS. 381 
 
 Imperial Crown. That used at the coronation of the Sove- 
 reigns of England is made in imitation of the Crown sup- 
 posed to have been worn by Edward the Confessor. The 
 present imperial Crown has the rim adorned with four 
 crosses, and as many fleurs-de-lis alternately. From each 
 cross rises an arched diadem closed at the top under a 
 mound supporting a cross. The cap within the Crown is 
 of purple velvet (heraldically represented crimson), and 
 turned up with ermine. 
 
 The Coronet of the Prince of Wales is similar to 
 the preceding, except that instead of four arches it has but 
 two, rising from as many crosses, one arch only from the 
 centre cross appearing in the representation. The Prince 
 of Wales also bears as a badge a plume of three ostrich 
 feathers, placed in the centre of a coronet, adorned with 
 crosses and fleurs-de-lis ; the motto peculiar to this badge 
 being " Ich dien.^' 
 
 The Coronet of the Princes of the blood royal is a 
 circle of gold; on a circle, within which is a cap of 
 crimson velvet bordered with ermine, with a tassel of gold, 
 are raised four fleurs-de-lis and as many crosses. 
 
 The Princesses bear a similar coronet, but instead of 
 the four crosses and four fleurs-de-lis, it is adorned with 
 three strawberry leaves alternately, with a similar number 
 of fleurs-de-lis and crosses. 
 
 The Arms and Coronets of the Members of the Royal 
 family are always assigned by the Sovereign to them in- 
 dividually. 
 
 The Coronet of a Duke is composed of a crimson velvet 
 cap and gold tassel turned up with ermine, within a circlet 
 
383 HERALDRY. 
 
 of gold, having raised on it eight strawberry leaves, five of 
 which are seen in representation. It is sometimes used as 
 a charge in armorial bearings, or in the composition of 
 crests, and then it is represented without the cap and 
 tassel, or the ermine. 
 
 The Coronet of a Marquess is like the preceding, but 
 is charged with four strawberry leaves and as many large 
 pearls alternately ; when represented, only two pearls and 
 three leaves appear. 
 
 An Earl^s Coronet has eight p)rramidical points raised 
 on the circlet, each of which supports a large pearl, the 
 spaces between the points being filled up at the bottom 
 with strawberry leaves, not rising as high as the pearls. 
 Only five of the pearls appear when heraldically displayed. 
 
 A Viscount bears on his Coronet a circle of gold sup- 
 porting sixteen pearls, nine of which appear in the repre- 
 sentation; and 
 
 The Coronet of a Baron has six pearls, four of which 
 are seen in paintings. 
 
 The three last-named coronets have the crimson velvet 
 cap with the tassel, and the edging of ermine, the same as 
 those of a duke and marquess. 
 
 As the crown of the Sovereign of England is not exactly 
 similar to those borne by other potentates, so most of the 
 coronets of foreign noblemen are difierent from those of 
 British peers. 
 
 The Archbishops and Bishops of England and Ireland 
 place a mitre over their coat of arms. It is a round cap, 
 cleft at the top, from which hang two pendents fringed at 
 the ends. 
 
HELMETS — MANTLES. 383 
 
 The Helmet, helme, casque, morion, has varied in shape 
 in different ages and countries. The most ancient form is 
 the simplest, composed of iron, of a shape fitted to the 
 head, and flat upon the top, with an aperture for the hght. 
 This is styled the Norman helmet, and appears on very 
 old seals, attached to the gorget, a separate piece of ar- 
 mour which covered the neck. In the twelfth century, 
 a change was made, to mark the rank of the individual 
 bearer. 
 
 The helmet assigned to Kings and Princes of the Blood 
 Royal, is full faced, composed of gold, with the beavoir 
 divided by six projecting bars, and lined with crimson. 
 
 The helmet of the nobility is of steel, with five bars of 
 gold ; it is placed on the shield inclining to a profile. 
 
 The helmets of knights and baronets is the full-faced steel 
 helmet, with the vizor thrown back, and without bars. 
 
 The helmet of esquires, always depicted in profile, is of 
 steel, with the vizor closed. 
 
 Each of these helmets is placed immediately above the 
 escutcheon, and supports the wreath on which is the crest. 
 
 The Mantle, Guillim informs us, was named from the 
 French word " Manteau,'' and served as a protection (being 
 spread over and pendent from the helmet) to repel the extre- 
 mity of wet, cold, and heat, and withal to presarve the accou- 
 trements from rust. Guillim thus continues : " Mantles, 
 like other habits, have not escaped transformation, but 
 have passed through the forge of fanatical conceit, in so 
 much as (besides the bare name) there remain eth neither 
 shape nor shadow of a mantle. But as they are used in 
 achievements, whether you call them mantles or flourish- 
 
384 HERALDRY. 
 
 ings, they are evermore said in blazon to be doubled, that 
 is, lined throughout with some one of the furs." 
 
 The mantling is sometimes termed a Lambrequin or 
 Lamequin. The numerous strips and cuts into which it is 
 usually divided, are supposed to indicate that it has been 
 thus torn and hacked in the field of battle. 
 
 The Chape AU (cap of maintenance or dignity) is of crim- 
 son velvet, lined with ermine, turned up into points at the 
 back. It was formerly a badge of high dignity, and is now 
 borne under the crests of several eminent families, instead 
 of the wreath. 
 
 Supporters date from the fourteenth century. Menes- 
 trier and other authorities ascribe their origin to a practice 
 at the tournaments, and the ground on which they base 
 their opinion seems tenable enough. In those chivalrous 
 pastimes no one was sufi'ered to participate but he who was 
 of noble descent or warlike renown, and each champion, to 
 prove his title to those qualifications, exhibited his armo- 
 rial shield upon the barriers and pavilions within the lists. 
 Pages and esquires attended to watch their masters' escut- 
 cheons, and to report the name and quality of any knight 
 who thought proper to challenge to the encounter. The 
 chroniclers further relate, that on these occasions the 
 armour bearers, who were thus employed, assumed the 
 most grotesque, fantastic costume, enveloping themselves 
 in the skins of lions or bears, and that hence arose the 
 custom of using supporters. Of these masquerade charac- 
 ters, several curious specimens may be found in the illu- 
 minated manuscripts of Froissart in the British Museum. 
 
SUPPORTERS. 385 
 
 The appropriation of supporters,, as legitimate parts of 
 armorial bearings, does not appear to have been recog- 
 nized in England earlier than the reign of Edward III. 
 An heraldic document, compiled by Cooke, Clarenceux, in 
 1572, indicates the various changes the royal supporters 
 underwent : Edward III. adopted dexter^ a lion rampant ; 
 and sinister J a raven, both crowned ; Richard II. a lion 
 and a stag; Henry IV. an an'elope and a swan; Henry 
 V. a lion and an antelope ; Henry VI. an antelope and a 
 leopard ; Edward IV. a bull and a lion ; Richard III. a 
 lion and a boar; Henry VII. a dragon and a greyhound; 
 Henry VIII. the same ; Edward VI. a lion and a dragon ; 
 Queen Mary, an eagle and a dragon; and Elizabeth the 
 same as her brother Edward. King James I., on ascend- 
 ing the English throne, introduced the unicorn of Scot- 
 land, and from that monarches reign to our own times the 
 lion and the unicorn have remained the royal supporters. 
 
 The position of these external ornaments of the shield 
 is, in genuine and ancient heraldry, always erect ; and 
 surely nothing can be more at variance with true blazonry 
 than the absurd attempt of some modern artists to display 
 them in picturesque attitudes. Thul the characteristics of 
 a rude and contemporary era are violently destroyed, 
 and the vestiges of the graphic art confused or annihi- 
 lated. 
 
 In England the right to bear supporters is confined to 
 Peers of the Realm, Knights of the Garter, 
 THE Thistle, and St. Patrick ; Knights Grand Cross 
 OP the Bath (G.C.B.) ; Knights Grand Cross of St. Mi- 
 chael AND St George (G.C. St. M. St. G.) ; and to those 
 
 c c 
 
386 HERALDRY. 
 
 Baronets and others (of whicli the number is extremely 
 limited) who may have obtained them by special grant. 
 Further, in addition to these, supporters are assumed and 
 borne, but without any legal right, by the heirs apparent 
 of dukes, marquesses, and earls, and by all the children of 
 peers, to whom courtesy allows the prefix of " Lord " or 
 "Lady/' In ancient times, too, many eminent though 
 unentitled famihes used these appurtenances to their 
 shit'lds. Edmondson says, " It may be justly concluded 
 that those who used such additions to their shields, or on 
 their shields, banners, or monuments, or had them carved 
 in stone or wood, or depicted on the glass windows of their 
 mansion, and in the churches, chapels, and religious 
 houses of their foundation, as perspicuous evidences and 
 memorials of their having a possessory right to them, are 
 fully and absolutely well entitled to bear them, and that 
 no one of their descendants ever ought to alienate such 
 supporters, or bear their arms without them/^ Among the 
 distinguished houses that use supporters under these cir- 
 cumstances, we may mention those of Fulford of Great 
 Fulford, Devon, Trevanion of Cornwall, Savage of Che- 
 shire, Luttrell of Somersetshire, and Tichborne of Hamp- 
 shire. In Scotland, the chiefs of clans take and carry 
 supporters. " I crave liberty to assert," (these are the 
 words of Sir George Mackenzie, lord advocate), " that 
 all our chiefs of families, and old barons of Scotland, may 
 use supporters." In Ireland, the heads of the different 
 septs assert their claim to them ; and in Wales, the barons 
 of Edeirnion in Merioneth and their descendants have 
 invariably adopted these heraldic appendages. 
 
BANNERS AND STANDARDS. 387 
 
 ^anneris anti ^tant)art)rs>« 
 
 " With all their banners bravely spread, 
 And all their armour flashing high ; 
 Saint George might waken from the dead 
 To see fair England's standards fly." 
 
 Much misconception exists on the subject of Banners and 
 Standards ; those ensigns under which the victories of 
 Poictiers, Cressy, and Agincourt, were gained. 
 
 The Banner is coeval with the introduction of Heraldry, 
 and dates consequently from the 1 2th century. It was of 
 nearly a square form, exhibiting the owner's arms, and it 
 served as the rallying point of the several divisions of 
 which the army was composed. To judge from the siege 
 of Carlaverock, it would seem that early in the 14th cen- 
 tury there was a Banner to every twenty-five or thirty 
 men at arms, and that thus the battle array was marshalled. 
 At that period the English forces comprised the tenants 
 in capite of the crown, with their followers ; and it appears 
 that such tenants were entitled to lead thier contingent 
 under a Banner of their arms : but the precise number of 
 men so furnished, which conferred this privilege, has not 
 been ascertained. When the tenant in capite was unable 
 to attend in person, from illness or other cause, he never- 
 theless sent his quota of soldiers or archers which the 
 tenure of his lands enjoined, and his banner was committed 
 to the charge of a deputy of equal rank to his own. Thus, 
 at Carlaverock, the Bishop of Durham sent one hundred 
 and sixty of his mc:n at arms, with his Banner entrusted to 
 
 c c 2 
 
388 HERALDRY. 
 
 John de Hastings ; and " the good Edmund, Lord d'Eyn- 
 court," who could not attend himself, " ses deux bons tilz 
 en son lieu mist/' sent his two brave sons in his stead, 
 and with them his Banner of " Blue, billetee of gold with 
 a dancette over all/' 
 
 The right to bear a banner was confined to bannerets 
 and persons of higher rank. In 1361, Edward III. granted 
 to Sir Guy de Bryan two hundred marks a year for having 
 discreetly borne the king's banner at the siege of Calais in 
 1347 ; and Thomas Strickland, the esquire who so gal- 
 lantly sustained Henry's banner at Agiucourt, urged the 
 service as worthy of remuneration from Henry VI. In 
 France, so long as the chivalry of the old regime endured, 
 and the observances derived from St. Louis, Francis L, and 
 Louis XIV. were respected, the custody of the Oriflamme 
 was hereditary ; and still in Scotland the representative of 
 the great house of Scrymgeour enjoys the honour of being 
 banner bearer to the Sovereign. Ireland claims a higher 
 antiquity in the use of banners and standards than any 
 other European nation — penetrating even beyond the 
 Christian era. The office of standard-bearer was here- 
 ditary in families, as, for instance, the O'Hanlons were 
 hereditary standard-bearers to the O'Neills, and the 
 Macaffreys to the Maguires. " Three lions rampant " were 
 borne on the banner of O'Brien, and " the red hand" was 
 emblazoned on that of O'Neill. The different septs or 
 clans rushed to battle with their banners borne aloft, and 
 uttering war cries. That of O'Neill was Lamh derg aboo ! 
 " Victory to the red hand," and of O'Brien Lamh laider 
 aboo ! " Victory to the strong hand j" but after the Anglo- 
 
BANNERS AND STANDARDS. 389 
 
 Norman period these war cries became Anglicised, as, for 
 instance, " O'Neill aboo r " O'Donnell aboo r i. e. " Vic- 
 tory to O'Neill," "Victory to O'Donnell." The great 
 Anglo-Norman families followed the example, by adopting 
 similar war-cries. The Fitz- Geralds had " Crom aboo !" 
 the Butlers of Ormond, " Butler aboo !" and the Burkes 
 or De Burgos had " Clanrickard aboo \" and " Mac Wil- 
 liam aboo !" 
 
 The Standard was long and narrow, and split at the end. 
 In the upper part of the English standard appeared the 
 Cross of St. George, the remainder being charged with the 
 motto, crest, or badge, but never with the arms. It is diffi- 
 cult to determine the qualifications which constituted a 
 right to a standard, but there is reason to believe that no 
 person under the rank of a knight could use one. 
 
 The length of the standards varied according to the rank 
 of the bearer ; the King's was from eight to nine yards in 
 length ; that of a Duke, seven yards ; of a Marquess, six 
 yards and a half; of an Earl, six yards ; of a Viscount, six 
 yards and a half ; of a Baron, five yards ; of a Banneret, 
 four yards and a half; and of a Knight, four yards. 
 
 Two manuscripts in the British Museum, not older in 
 date than the reign of Henry VII I., afibrd the most au- 
 thentic information as to the size of banners, standards, 
 and peimons ; and extracts from them, affording all the 
 necessary information, are printed at the end of an admir- 
 able article on banners, which appeared some years since 
 in the Retrospective Review. That valuable work " Ex • 
 cerpta Historica" has also many interesting details on the 
 subject. 
 
390 HERALDRY. 
 
 f^atchments. 
 
 " These, but the trappings and the suits of woe.*' 
 
 Shakspeaee. 
 
 How many are there who look on these heraldic decora- 
 tions as mere general emblems of mortality, indicating 
 nothing more than that a death has lately occurred. Yet 
 we can, on making ourselves acquainted with the simple 
 rules by which the arrangement of the several achieve- 
 ments is regulated, at once know what rank the deceased 
 held when living. If the hatchment be that of a lady, 
 whether she was unmarried, a wife, or widow ; if that of 
 a gentleman, whether he was a bachelor, a married man 
 or a widower. 
 
 To show how easily this information can be acquired, 
 I will briefly state the several distinctions. 
 
 On the morning of interment, a hatchment is placed on 
 the front of the house belonging to the deceased, and 
 another over the vault or tomb after burial. 
 
 The funeral escutcheon of a bachelor, represents his 
 paternal arms single, or quartered with those to which he 
 may be entitled, and accompanied with the helmet, crest, 
 and motto. The ground of the hatchment (the vacant 
 canvas on each side of the shield) is black. 
 
 For a maiden, her paternal arms are placed in a lozenge, 
 single or quartered as those of a bachelor, with no other 
 ornamei t than a gold cord loosely knotted at the top of 
 the lozenge. The ground outside the shield is, like the 
 former hatchment, black. 
 
 When a husband dies, leaving bis wife surviving, the 
 
HATCHMENTS. 391 
 
 ground on the dexter side of the hatchment (that is, the 
 side of the escutcheon opposite the left hand of the person 
 looking at it) is black ; and that on the sinister side (op- 
 posite the right hand of the spectator) is white. The 
 arms in this case are impaled, that is, divided by a perpen- 
 dicular line down the centre of the shield ; those of the 
 husband at the dexter side being black, to indicate his 
 death. The crest is placed over the shield, and beneath 
 it the family motto. 
 
 When a wife dies, leaving her husband surviving, the 
 ground of the hatchment is black on the side opposite to 
 the right hand of the person looking at it : at the oppo- 
 site side, white. Their arms are displayed as in the pre- 
 ceding case, but without crest or motto, and the shield 
 appears suspended by a ribbon in a bow, and ornamented 
 with a cherub's head and wings. 
 
 The hatchments of ladies (except peeresses, who are en- 
 titled to a robe of estate) are invariably painted without 
 mantle, helmet, crest, or family motto, although funeral 
 words and sentences are sometimes introduced. 
 
 A widower's hatchment represents his arms with those 
 of his wife in the same manner as when living ; that is, 
 impaled, or divided by a perpendicular line down the centre 
 of the shield. His crest and motto are also emblazoned, 
 and all the ground outside the escutcheon is black. 
 
 The hatchment of a widow represents her arms impaled 
 with those of her husband, and enclosed in a lozenge, 
 having a bow of ribbon at the top, and ornamented with a 
 cherub's head and wings ; all the ground outside the shield 
 being black. 
 
392 HERALDRY. 
 
 For a man leaving a second wifcy the hatchment repre- 
 sents his arms (not impaled) on a black ground. On the 
 dexter side, or that opposite the left hand of the spectator, 
 is placed, apart from the shield of the husband, a small 
 funeral escutcheon, on which his arms, with those of his 
 iirst wife, are impaled ; all the ground at this side of the 
 hatchment being black, to indicate her decease. On the 
 opposite side of the hatchment, that is, facing the right 
 hand of the person looking at it, another small escutcheon 
 similarly placed apart from the husband^s shield, and on 
 it are displayed his arms impaled with those of his second 
 wife ; the ground at the extreme sinister side of the shield 
 being white, to show that she survives him. 
 
 If a widower or bachelor be the last of his family, a skull 
 or death^s head (heraldically termed a mart) is annexed to 
 the escutcheon — the arms, crest, and motto being dis- 
 played in the manner already described ; and the hatch- 
 ment of a maid or widow, who is the last of her house, 
 represents the arms in a lozenge, with a mort annexed. 
 
 The hatchments of peers and peeresses have their dis- 
 tinguishing coronets. 
 
 On the hatchments of baronets a front-faced, open hel- 
 met is placed over the shield, on some part of which is 
 displayed the red hand. 
 
 The armorial bearings of knights are surrounded with 
 the insignia of their respective orders, and surmounted 
 with the front-faced open helmet, which is also assigned 
 to knights bachelors. 
 
 The hatchments of archbishops and bishops represent 
 their arms impaled with those of their diocese; the latter 
 
SEIZE QUARTIERS. 393 
 
 being placed on the dexter side, that is, opposite the left 
 hand of the person who looks at it, consequently the oppo- 
 site side is painted black, that under the arms of the see 
 being white. 
 
 The hatchment of the wife of an archbishop or bishop 
 represents two shields ; that to the left of the spectator 
 displays the arms of the diocese impaling the paternal 
 coat, and surmounted by the mitre. The sinister shield 
 (that to the spectator's right) is suspended by a knot, 
 bearing the prelate's family arms impaled with those of his 
 wife : the surface of the hatchment underneath the sinister 
 shield being black, to denote the lady's death. 
 
 The same rule is observed with respect to the hatch- 
 ments of the wives of knights of the different orders, while 
 those of peeresses who have married commoners display 
 the arms of their dignity at the sinister side (that is, .the 
 side opposite the spectator's right) , apart from the heraldic 
 bearings of their husbands. 
 
 If title be with us the test of position and precedence, 
 the Seize Quartiers have been considered in Continental 
 Europe as the test of blood, or what is strictly signified by 
 the term "birth." It is the reverse of what is generally 
 understood by " a family tree," for there, the stream com- 
 mencing with the earliest known ancestor, flows down 
 to the living generation ; but in the " seize quartiers," be- 
 ginning with the latter, the stream, dividing on the mo- 
 ther's and father's sides into two lines, thence continues 
 to ascend, ramifying into the several sources whence it 
 
394 HERALDRY. 
 
 derives the vital current. Thus at a glance is displayed 
 and analysed the heraldic componency of the warm flood 
 circulating beneath each blazoned breast^ betraying any 
 alloying admixture that may exist, and may, as in the 
 pedigree of a race- horse, (if I may venture to use the 
 simile,) disentitle it to the character of " thorough-bred.'^ 
 
 Increasing by a regular succession of reduplications in 
 every generation, the range of that of the great-great- 
 grandfather displays a series of sixteen shields of arms, 
 the "seize quartiersj'' the generation beyond has thirty- 
 two shields, that succeeding it, sixty-four, and so on till 
 in the thirtieth generation the series of names for that 
 generation alone would exceed the present estimated popu- 
 lation of the whole globe ; and when the number, dimi- 
 nishing by one half in each descending step, is added to 
 the- above, the total of individuals whose blood is trans- 
 mitted into the living man is somethmg prodigious ; con- 
 sequently the number ascending to the beginning of the 
 world would be utterly uncountable. In this latter case 
 it must be observed that the same individual must have 
 figured several times in different positions of relationship, 
 for otherwise in the generation contemporaneous with the 
 creation of man, the broad array of progenitors would be 
 totally incompatible with the solitary Adam and Eve, the 
 fountain sources of all human blood. 
 
 The ancient chivalry of St. John of Jerusalem, which bore 
 successively the titles of Knights of Rhodes and Knights of 
 Malta, was variously exacting in its requirements of proof 
 of noble birth from candidates seeking admission to its 
 ranks. Vertot, the historian of the Order, tells us that 
 
SEIZE QUARTIERS. 395 
 
 the languages of Provence, Auvergne, and France were 
 obliged to prove eight quarters, or coats of arms, that is the 
 generation of great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers; 
 Italy, only four quarters or shields, i.e., the grandfathers 
 and grandmothers; but it was required that these four 
 quarters should belong to families of a noblesse acknow- 
 ledged for the preceding two hundred years. Four quarters 
 was the number also required from the language of Aragon 
 and Castile, including Portugal, but for German knights 
 sixteen quarters were necessary, that being the number de- 
 manded by the Teutonic Order from its postulants. This 
 is and was at all times considered a very rigorous ordeal, 
 requiring often most laborious searches among archives 
 and sources difficult of access, as well as condemning num- 
 bers to exclusion, for it is not alone in our days that 
 ruined gentle blood sought to establish itself by union 
 with merely plebeian gold : title availed nothing. 
 
 The mode of proceeding in drawing up a pedigree of 
 " Seize Quartiers,^^ is as follows, and the progression is 
 very simple, though not generally understood : the very 
 words being familiarly comprehended neither as to their 
 verbal import, the rarity of the possession of such a pedi- 
 gree, even among some of the most proudly titled families 
 in the peerage, its intrinsic genealogical value abroad amid 
 heraldic nations, or its being the real and actual test of 
 the nobility of the blood of any individual. 
 
 First write down the name of the person, then above 
 his name those of his father and mother, which form thus 
 two quarters : the father^s father and mother then follow, 
 and the mother's father and mother fill up the line of gene- 
 
396 
 
 HERALDRY. 
 
 ration, i.e., the grandfathers and grandmothers. Proceeding 
 in the same way, we next mark down the father and 
 mother of each grandfather and grandmother, which form 
 the Hne of great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers, 
 eight individuals, quarters or coats of arms ; and the suc- 
 ceeding line of fathers and mothers of each great-grand- 
 father and great-grandmother, constitute the series of the 
 great-great-grandfathers and great-great- grandmothers, 
 or sixteen quarters. This ramification, however, is best 
 understood by a glance at the following diagram : 
 
 Eiglit paternal quarterings. Eight maternal quarterings. 
 
 1 
 
 Line of great- A=^ 
 great-grand- 
 fathers and 
 great-great- 
 giaudmothers. 
 
 2 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 E= 
 
 6 7 
 PF G= 
 
 8 9 
 pH J= 
 
 10 11 
 pK L= 
 
 1213 14 15 16 
 pMN=fO P=pQ 
 
 Line of great- j 
 grandfathers 
 and great- 
 grandmothers. 
 
 Line of grandfather 
 and grandmothers. 
 
 1 
 i=P C 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 . 
 
 i = 
 
 F G J 
 
 ■ =^ 
 
 1 II 
 
 P L N =f= P 
 
 s 
 
 A 
 
 =pE 
 
 1 
 
 liine of father and mother. 
 
 
 who c 
 
 sixtee 
 line, 
 his sh 
 
 ombine 
 n fami 
 ind dis 
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 I have thus endeavoured to explain to the unlearned 
 the exact meaning of the "Seize Quartiers.^^ By the 
 universal consent of continental Europe, the sixteen quar- 
 ters have been considered the test of blood ; they have at 
 all times been the Sesame which has opened the door of 
 
SEIZE QUAKTIERS. 397 
 
 every presence-cliamber of royalty, of every high place at 
 foreign courts, and of every rich and noble Chapter. 
 Nevertheless, according to our English notions, this test 
 is rather, I think, one of curiosity than real value; for, 
 compare the continental nobility, which very generally still 
 possesses it, with the British nobility, which very rarely 
 does, and mark the difference between them. Our own 
 aristocracy yields to none other in high breeding, honour, 
 noble daring, brilliancy of ancestry, talent, and simple, 
 unostentatious grandeur of character, and yet, compara- 
 tively speaking, few even among that elevated class can 
 trace their descent up to sixteen families on both sides 
 entitled to armorial bearings; or, at least, in cases where 
 this is practicable, many of the progenitors are of a very 
 secondary station, and belong to a gentry wholly without 
 illustration. The proof of value is its result ; and consi- 
 dering that the aristocracy of Britain may justly claim 
 superiority over the more exclusively well-born aristocracy 
 of the rest of Europe, I cannot bring myself to believe 
 that the test of " the Seize Quartiers'^ enters, necessarily, 
 into the composition of a first -rate English nobleman or 
 gentleman. That which is truly ennobling is a long line 
 of gentle ancestors, either from father to son, or through 
 heiresses bringing the right of representation, combined 
 with honourable and appropriate alliances. Who would 
 venture to dispute the nobility of birth of the ducal repre- 
 sentative of the Douglasses and the Hamiltons, on the 
 ground that an alliance with a Gunning or a Beckford 
 might perchance interfere with the perfection of the Ger- 
 man test of " the Seize Quartiers V* 
 
398 HERALDRY. 
 
 Etngjs of Erms antr i^eralbs. 
 
 " Heralds and pursuivants, by name 
 Bute, Islay, Marchmont, E-othsay, came 
 In painted tabards, proudly showing 
 Gules, argent, or, and azure glowing, 
 
 Attendant on a King-of-Arms, 
 Whose hand the armorial truncheon, held. 
 That feudal strife had often quell'd, 
 
 When wildest its alarms." — Marmion. 
 
 The office of "King of Arms" is of feudal origin, and 
 was one of the attributes of the pomp and splendour 
 annexed to feudal sovereignty. There is no trace of such 
 an institution anterior to the Norman invasion, which 
 overturned the pre-existing system in England, formed as 
 it had been by a fusion of the usages of the ancient 
 Britons, Saxons, and Danes. Having so overturned it, 
 the Normans introduced the military and chivalrous code 
 of feuds, with its homage, and fealty, and services. Sir 
 Henry Spelman is of opinion that the title of King of 
 Arms was attributed to such heraldic officers in England 
 as belonged immediately to the person of the king^s 
 majesty, while those who appertained to princes of the 
 blood royal, or to the nobility, were styled simply Heralds. 
 Another learned author states that the title of " King o^ 
 Heralds (of later times called King of Arms) was given to 
 that personage who was the chief or principal officer pre- 
 siding over the heralds of any kingdom, or of any parti- 
 cular province usually termed the marches^ or of any order 
 of knighthood." 
 
 The primary duty of the English Kings of Arms and 
 
KINGS OF ARMS AND HERALDS. 399 
 
 Heralds, at the time of their establishment, corresponded 
 with that of the Heralds of foreign princes ; they carried 
 and delivered all messages of importance to allies, enemies, 
 and rebels, gave solemn defiances and denunciations of 
 war; summoned cities, castles, &c. to surrender; made 
 propositions of peace, truce, and accommodation, and 
 offered mercy and pardon to rebellious subjects and in- 
 surgents. They had also the cognizance, inspection, mar- 
 shalling, and regulation of coats of armour, and the several 
 marks of distinction connected with them ; they received 
 all foreign nobility and others coming to England to per- 
 form feats of arms, and gave safe conduct to them from 
 their arrival to the time of their leaving the kingdom ; 
 assisted at tilts, tournaments, and feats of arms, and 
 attended to the honour and reputation of military persons, 
 and to the safety, welfare, and defence of the king and 
 his realms. They had also the arrangement, order, and 
 progress of legal combats; were likewise employed in 
 marshalling and conducting coronations, marriages, bap- 
 tisms, funerals, interviews, and other august assemblies, 
 processions, pomps, and solemnities of the ancient mo- 
 narchs, and took care that the orders, rites, and ceremonies 
 established for those ceremonials were duly observed ; and 
 that the rules of precedency were strictly adhered to. 
 
 The pride and ambition of the nobility prompted them 
 to imitate, and oftentimes to vie with, their monarchs in 
 state and magnificence. Hence it is that we find the 
 Heralds attending at the funeral rites and ceremonies of 
 the nobility, as well as at the celebration of their mar- 
 riages, christenings, and other festivities, and practising 
 
400 HERALDRY. 
 
 the same forms and grandeur as were observed at those of 
 the royal family. 
 
 Noble and illustrious descent having also been held in 
 high esteem, strict attention was paid to the observance 
 of a just and exact distinction between the different ranks 
 or classes of the people. The ignoble never presumed, in 
 those ancient times, to arrogate a participation in the 
 rights annexed to eminence of parentage, or to claim 
 honours to which their superiors alone were entitled. 
 And the nobility and gentry, cautiously jealous of their 
 dignity, avoided mixing with the vulgar, and were sedu- 
 lously careful for the preservation, on all public and so- 
 lemn occasions, of that purity of rank and precedence 
 which was due by the feudal system to their birth and 
 station in life. Family arms being the general criterion 
 which distinguished the gentleman from the peasant, no 
 persons were suffered to enter the lists to tourney, or 
 exercise any feats of arms, unless they could, to the satis- 
 faction of the Kings of Arms, prove themselves to be 
 gentlemen of " Coat Armour.^^ And the ancient gentry 
 took particular care to have their arms embroidered on 
 their common-wearing over-coats, and would not suffer 
 any person of the lower class, although become rich, to 
 use such tokens of gentle birth and distinction ; nay, so 
 jealous were they of any infringement of the armorial 
 rights to which they were entitled, that whenever the 
 arms which they and their families had borne happened 
 to be claimed by any other gentlemen, they vindicated . 
 their rights in the military courts, and very often by duel. 
 Under those circumstances it became essential and was a 
 
KINGS OF ARMS AND HERALDS. 401 
 
 necessary part of the duties of Heralds^ to draw out, with 
 accuracy and exactness^ the authentic genealogies of noble 
 families, and families of " gentle birth," to continue, and 
 from time to time, to add to and preserve their pedigrees 
 in direct and collateral lines ; and to have a perfect know- 
 ledge of all hereditary arms, ensigns, badges of honour, 
 and the external marks as well of personal as of family 
 rank and distinction. 
 
 Some portion of the ancient duties of the Herald has 
 become obsolete with the decay of the feudal system, but 
 enough remains to render the office important and useful. 
 That branch of his labours connected with genealogy is 
 valuable in the highest degree. Genealogical tables and 
 authentic pedigrees, regularly deduced, contain memorials 
 of past transactions and events, and from them chrono- 
 logers and historians have drawn very considerable assist- 
 ance ; they have operated to the detection of frauds, for- 
 geries, and impostures; cleared up doubts and difficulties; 
 established marriages ; supported and defended legitimacy 
 and purity of blood ; ascertained family alliances ; proved 
 and maintained affinity and consanguinity; vindicated 
 and corroborated the titles of lands to their possessors; and 
 have been of essential use in settling claims and rights of 
 inheritance without litigation, by furnishing effectual evi- 
 dence. Such has been, and ever must be, the utility of 
 genealogies, when they are framed with integrity and au- 
 thenticated by evidence. 
 
 The HERALDIC AUTHORITY ovcr England and Wales 
 is delegated by the Crown to the Earl Marshal, and 
 to three Kings of Arms, Garter, Clarenceux, 
 
 D D 
 
402 HERALDRY. 
 
 and NoRROY, who form, together with the Heralds 
 and Pursuivants, the College of Arms. Of these, 
 the principal is " Garter King of Arms." In his 
 Patent he is styled Principal King of English Arms, 
 and Principal Officer of Arms of the most noble 
 Order of the Garter. To him immediately belongs the 
 adjustment of arms in England and Wales, and like- 
 wise the power of granting arms within his jurisdiction 
 to persons qualified to bear them. " Clarenceux King 
 of Arms," so named from the Dukedom of Clarence, has 
 authority over the south-east and west parts of Eng- 
 land ; and " Norroy King of Arms," the most ancient of 
 the heraldic sovereigns, possesses as his province, England 
 north of the Trent. He is the North King — " Norroy. '* 
 The English Heralds bear the designation of "Chester,^' 
 "Lancaster,"* "Richmond," "York," "Windsor," and 
 " Somerset ;" the Pursuivants are known by the names 
 of "Portcullis," "Kouge Dragon," "Bluemantle," and 
 '' Rouge Croix." 
 
 * The Chief Officer of Arms in Scotland is "The Lord 
 Lyon :" and under him is a Lyon-Depute and several 
 Heralds. 
 
 In Ireland, Ulster King of Arms has the sole 
 heraldic jurisdiction : he is, ex officio, Knight Attendant 
 on the most illustrious Order of St. Patrick. 
 
 The title of "Ulster King of Arms" was created in the 
 
 * My accomplished and learned friend, Albert Woods, Esq., 
 is the present " Lancaster Herald ;" and to his courtesy, kind- 
 ness, and extensive information, I feel myself most deeply in. 
 debted. 
 
KINGS OF ARMS AND HERALDS, 403 
 
 reign of Edward the Sixth. But the office itself, under 
 the designation of " Ireland King of Arms," had its origin 
 in more remote times, — as early as the introduction of the 
 feudal system into Ireland by the Anglo-Normans. 
 
 The first express mention of Ireland King of Arms is 
 in the sixth year of King Richard the Second, 1482; 
 Froissart, vol. ii., calls him '*' Chaundos le Roy d'lrelande,'* 
 A regular succession of officers by the title of " Ireland 
 Kings of Arms," continued from that time to the reign of 
 King Edward IV., who promoted Thomas Ash well to that 
 office. 
 
 This title of " Ireland," as Sir Henry Spelman and Sir 
 James Ware say, was afterwards, by Edward VI., altered 
 into that of Ulster. That King himself, in his journal, 
 takes notice of it as follows — " Feb. There was a King of 
 Arms made for Ireland, whose name was Ulster, and his 
 province was all Ireland." The patent passed under the 
 great seal of England with an ample preamble, in testi- 
 mony of the necessity and dignity of the office, which was 
 given to Bartholomew Butler, York Herald. 
 
 The general precedence of Ulster King at Arms was 
 affirmed by his Majesty King William IV. by royal war- 
 rant, dated at St. James's, 17th day of May, 1835, which 
 was issued for revising and making alterations in the 
 statutes of the Order of St. Patrick. After reciting that, 
 by the Act of Union, Ireland became part and parcel of 
 the United Kingdom, and " our King of Arms of all Ire- 
 land has not had, since that events any specific place or 
 precedence assigned to him among our Kings of Arms by 
 special ordinance or royal authority j We do hereby direct 
 
 D D 2 
 
404 ' HERALDRY. 
 
 and command that in all ceremonials and assemblies Ulster 
 King of Arms shall have place immediately after the Lord 
 Lyon, King of Arms of Scotland." Hence, the general 
 precedence of the Kings of Arms for Great Britain and 
 Ireland stands arranged thus : 1st. Garter King of Arms 
 of England ; 2nd. the Lord Lyon, King of Arms of Scot- 
 land; 3rd. Ulster, King of Arms of all Ireland; 4th. 
 Clarenceux King of Arms ; and 5th. Norroy King of Arms. 
 The local precedence of Ulster King of Arms at the 
 Irish Court was established at the institution of the office 
 in Ireland, and the place assigned him the head of the 
 officers of state, and next the person of the Viceroy. This 
 order of precedence was afterwards confirmed by succes- 
 sive Lords Lieutenants and Lords Justices. In an ordi. 
 nance of the Earls of Orrery and Montrath, Lords Jus- 
 tices, dated at Dublin Castle, 18th April, 1661, the 
 programme of precedence of the officers of state at the 
 Irish Court was set forth in detail, and stated therein to 
 have been " what had formerly been used" by the " lords 
 deputies or lords justices," and the place of the King of 
 Arms was therein set forth as first in order, and next to 
 the lords justices as representatives of the sovereign. 
 
 The Duke of Bolton, by an ordinance dated at Dublin 
 Castle, 17th day of August, 1717, confirmed that order 
 of precedence, and assigned the place of Ulster King of 
 Arms to be next to the person of his Excellency ; and after 
 Ulster, the other official personages of the Court. 
 
 By another order, of Lord Carteret, dated from "his 
 Majesty's Castle of Dublin, the 29th day of October, 1724/' 
 the same roll of precedence was affirmed and ordered. 
 
KINGS OF ARMS AND HERALDS. 405 
 
 The last order upon the subject of the precedence of the 
 person holding the office, was the royal warrant of his 
 Majesty King William IV., already mentioned. 
 
 Very considerable powers and duties, in addition to the 
 due control and registration of arms and pedigrees, were 
 from time to time conferred and imposed upon the Ulster 
 King of Arms, in matters of official proceedings and 
 courtly duties, which he regulates, whence the archives of 
 his office present not only an interesting record of the 
 various ceremonials observed from time to time at the 
 Irish Court, but are also landmarks of genealogy, and 
 consist not merely of genealogical materials and references, 
 but in a great measure of genealogies of families, full, 
 ample, and complete. 
 
406 THE GEBALDINES. 
 
 THE GERALDINES.* 
 
 The Geraldines ! the Geraldines ! 'tis full a thousand years 
 Since, 'mid the Tuscan vineyards, bright flashed their battle 
 
 spears ; 
 When Capet seized the crown of France, their iron shields were 
 
 known, 
 And their sabre-dint struck terror on the banks of the Garonne ; 
 But never then, nor thence till now, has falsehood or disgrace 
 Been seen to soil Fitz-Gerald's plume, or mantle in his face. 
 
 An historical memoir of the illustrious house of Fitz-Gerald 
 has been issued from the press by the accomplished de- 
 scendant of the Geraldines, the Marquess of Kildare. The 
 example thus set is deserving of all commendation ; and 
 most anxiously do we hope that it may lead to other equally 
 valuable contributions to biographical literature. 
 
 His lordship's story of the Geraldines is simply and 
 gracefully told; full of anecdote and historic lore — a 
 worthy memorial of a time-honoured race. Is it not a 
 subject of national reproach to England, that the Talbots, 
 the Percys, the Nevilles, and the Stanleys, and to Ireland, 
 that the Butlers, the Nugents, the De Courcys, the St. 
 
 * The Earls of Kildare and their Ancestors, from 1057 to 1773. 
 Dublin : Hodges, Smith, and Co., 1857. This review appeared 
 in the "Dublin University Magazine" of January, 1858. 
 
THE GERALDINES. 407 
 
 Lawrences, the O'Briens, and the O'Neills, whose achieve- 
 ments form the brightest episodes of our annals, have no 
 such printed histories, commemorative of the ancestors 
 to whom they owe the wealth, station, and power they 
 possess ? 
 
 True it is, that the tree of Irish genealogy is ofttimes 
 but a barren trunk ; yet it is not always so. Many an old 
 stem still flourishes, with the green leaves of tradition and 
 ancestral renown hanging freshly around it ; and foremost 
 in this class are the Fitz-Geralds. " Hihernis ipsis hiber- 
 niores" they stand the highest on the roll of our nobility — 
 a nobility which, despite the pretensions of France, Ger- 
 many, Spain, and even Venice, commands a very prominent 
 place in European genealogy. 
 
 The utmost limit to which the Montmorencys, the Pre- 
 mier Barons Chretien, the Tremouilles, the Bochefoucaults, 
 the Richelieus, can go back, with any degree of certainty, 
 is the eleventh century ; none of the grandees of Spain, of 
 whom it was arrogantly said, " Principihus prcestant et regi- 
 hus'jequiparantur,^' ascend higher than the tenth ; and in 
 Germany, the best descended and noblest families can 
 very rarely establish so early an ancestry. In Italy, in- 
 deed, loftier pretences appear sustainable, especially those 
 of the patricians of Venice, and the houses of Massimo, 
 Falconieri, Ursini, Frangipani, and Colona, at Home ; but, 
 after strict investigation and poising the facts fairly in the 
 balance, few of the continental nobility will be found 
 parallel in antiquity to the O'Briens, the O'Neills, and the 
 O'Connors, of Ireland, whose progenitors were sovereign 
 princes on the arrival of the Enghsh in the twelfth century. 
 
408 THE GERALDINES. 
 
 Inferior only to these in regality of origin, their superiors 
 in historic distinction, are the Fitz-Geralds ; and it is most 
 gratifying to see the noble heir of this renowned race, 
 revisiting, as it were, the mausoleums of his fathers, and, in 
 thedouble affiliation of a son of Ireland, and the Geraldines, 
 passing along the line of their common illustration, with 
 reverence and affection. And they were men of no common 
 order, those Geraldines — on the battle-field where they 
 conquered, mid the ruined strongholds where they dwelt, 
 in the sacred fanes which they founded or enriched, or 
 wherein their ashes repose — unconquerable, like Gerald, 
 " who should rule Ireland because all Ireland could not 
 rule him •" brilliant, like " Silken Thomas ;" lovely and 
 beloved, like the fair Geraldine, whom Surrey sang ; and 
 amiable and interesting, even in error, like Lord Edward. 
 Was not Ireland their glory, and they the glory of 
 Ireland ? 
 
 The Fitz-Geralds are descended from " DominiusOTHO," 
 who is supposed to have been of the family of Gherardini 
 of Florence ;* and this notion is confirmed by the Latin 
 
 * Eemote as was the kinship of the Fitz-Geralds to the 
 Gherardini of Florence, it was a source of much pride and graii- 
 fication to " the Great Earl," as appears from the following letter, 
 found among the Gherardini papers, and reproduced in the Mar- 
 quess's volume : — 
 
 " To be given to all the family of the Gherardini, noble iu 
 fame and virtue, dwelling in Florence, our heloved brethren in 
 Florence. Gerald, Earl of Kildare, Lord Deputy of the King- 
 dom of Ireland, sends greeting to all the family of Gherardini 
 dwelling in Florence. 
 
 " Most grateful to us have been your letters to us, most illus- 
 trious men. From them we have learned to know the fervour of 
 
THE GERALDINES. 409 
 
 form of name, Geraldini, assumed by his descendants. 
 This noble passed over into Normandy, and thence, in 
 
 the fraternal love that you bear to your own blood. But, in 
 order to increase your joy still more, I will briefly inform you of 
 the state of your relations in these parts. Know, then, that my 
 predecessors and ancestors passed from France into England, 
 and having remained there for some time, they, in the year 1140 
 (1170), arrived in this island of Ireland, and by their swords 
 obtained great possessions and achieved great feats of arms ; and 
 up to the present day have increased and multiplied into many 
 branches and families, insomuch that I, by the grace of God, 
 possess, by hereditary right, the earldom, and am Earl of Kildare, 
 holding divers castles and manors, aud by the liberality of our 
 most serene lord the Xing of England, I am now his deputy in 
 the whole of Ireland, during the pleasure of his majesty ; an 
 honour frequently obtained, heretofore, by my father and my 
 predecessors. There is also a relation of ours in these parts, 
 called the Earl of Desmond, under whose lordship there are one 
 hundred miles, in length, of country. Our house has increased 
 beyond measure, in a multitude of barons, knights, and noble 
 persons, holding many possessions, and having under their com- 
 mand many persons. We are most desirous to know the deeds 
 of our ancestors ; so that if you have in your possession any his- 
 tory, we request you to communicate it to us. We wish to 
 know the origin of our house and their numbers, and the names 
 of your ancestors ; whether there are any of them settled in. 
 France ; and who of our family inhabit the E-oman territory. I 
 also wish to know the transactions of the present time, for it 
 gives me great joy always to hear news of our house. If there 
 is anything that we can procure for you through our labour and 
 iiidustry, or anything that you have not got, such as hawks, 
 falcons, horses, or dogs for the chase, I beg you will inform me 
 of it, as I shall, in every possible way, endeavour to obey your 
 wishes. God be with you, and do you love us in return. From 
 our Castle of Castledermot, 27th day of May, 1507.— Geeald, 
 Chief in Ireland of the family of the Geraldines, Earl of Kildare, 
 Lord Deputy of the most serene King of England, in Ireland.'* 
 
410 THE GERALDINES. 
 
 1057, into England, where he became so great a favourite 
 with Edward the Confessor, that he excited the jealousy 
 of the Saxon Thanes. However derived, his English pos- 
 sessions were enormous, and, at his death, they devolved 
 on his son Walter, who, it is somewhat remarkable, was 
 treated after the Conquest as a fellow-countryman of the 
 Normans. This fortunate heir put the cope-stone to his 
 prosperity by a marriage with Gladys, the daughter of 
 Khiwallon ap Cynfyn, Prince of North Wales ; and his 
 son, Gerald Fitz Walter, though with little of the same 
 good fortune, married Nesta, the daughter of Rhys ap 
 Gruffydd, Prince of South Wales, a lady, like the Grecian 
 Helen, more remarkable for her charms than her purity. 
 
 We will not pause to give the narrative of the beautiful 
 Nesta's abduction by Owen ap Cadwgan, or of the revenge 
 taken by her husband, Gerald Pitzwalter. The romantic 
 story forms an interesting episode in Lord Kildare's volume. 
 
 Gerald and Nesta's son, Maurice Fitzgerald, was 
 the patriarch of the Irish Geraldines. In 1168, Dermot 
 Mac Murrough, King of Leinster, driven from his terri- 
 tory by Roderick O'Connor, King of Ireland, sought as- 
 sistance from the English, and succeeded in enlisting in 
 his cause the renowned Richard de Clare, Earl of Pem- 
 broke, popularly known in Ireland by the name of Strong- 
 bow. Having reached St. David's, on his way back to 
 Ireland, Dermot was hospitably received by David Fitz- 
 Gerald, Bishop of the diocese ; and at the prelate's per- 
 suasion, his younger brother, Maurice, and his half-brother, 
 Robert Fitzstephen, engaged to assist Mac Murrough with 
 their forces. Soon after, Maurice embarked for Ireland, 
 
THE GERALDINES. 411 
 
 with two ships containing a small body of soldiers, and 
 after having been invested with the lordship of Wexford, 
 marched forward and took Dublin. But the Irish king 
 was no idle or unconcerned spectator of this achievement. 
 In 11 71, he had gathered such an increase of strength, 
 that though Maurice was by this time joined by Strong- 
 bow, Roderick was able to invest Dublin with 30,000 
 men, while at sea he blockaded it with a fleet of thirty 
 Manx vessels. The case of the English, with only six 
 hundred troops, seemed well nigh desperate. In this 
 emergency, by Maurice's advice and earnest and in- 
 spiriting exhortations, the beleaguered garrison, like 
 Havelock at Lucknow, determined to trust to their su- 
 perior warlike prowess and daring, and, regardless of the 
 disparity of numbers, to encounter the foe. The bold ex- 
 ploit was crowned with success : the Irish were completely 
 defeated ; and the king, Roderick, with difficulty escaped. 
 Maurice died at Wexford in 1177, and was buried in the 
 Abbey of Grey Friars, without the walls of Maynooth. 
 " His death,'' says the old chronicler, " was not without 
 much sorrow of all his friends, and much harm and loss 
 to the English interest in Ireland. He was a man witty 
 and manful ; a truer man, not stedfaster, for constancy, 
 fidelity, and love, left he none in Ireland." " In truth," 
 continues Geraldus Cambrensis, " Maurice was an honour- 
 able and modest man, with a face sun-burnt and well- 
 looking, of middle height ; a man well modelled in mind 
 and body ; a man of innate goodness ; desiring rather to 
 be than to seem good ; a man of few words, but full of 
 weight, having more of the heart than of the mouth, more 
 
413 THE GERALDINES. 
 
 of reason than of volubility, more wisdom than eloquence; 
 and yet, when it was required, earnest to the purpose. In 
 military affairs valiant, and second to few in activity, 
 neither impetuous nor rash, but circumspect in attack and 
 resolute in defence; a sober, modest, and chaste man; 
 constant, trusty, and faithful; a man not altogether 
 without fault, yet not spotted with any notorious or great 
 crime. ^' 
 
 Notwithstanding the quaintness of this eulogy, its lan- 
 guage is as energetic as it is simple, and reminds us much 
 of some of Froissart^s admirable descriptions. Nor, judg- 
 ing from all his actions, was Maurice unworthy of such a 
 chronicler. Upon a wider field of action, and one of 
 more general interest to the world at large, his life would 
 have formed one of those brilliant pages of history upon 
 which the memory loves to dwell, and which are read and 
 re-read with unabated gratification. But mankind, partly 
 from necessity, and in part from inclination, are so much 
 wrapped up in the present, that they have little time to 
 spare for the records of the past ; and of that little the 
 greater portion is, of course, devoted to the actors on the 
 largest and most familiar stage. The son of this redoubt- 
 able warrior was Gerald Fitzmaurice, who received 
 summons to Parliament, as Baron Offaly, in 1205, and 
 died the same year. Maurice, the second baron, who 
 bore the name of his grandfather, the gallant companion 
 of Strongbow, was not unworthy of it. Piety, it is evi- 
 dent, formed a strong ingredient in his character; for, in 
 1216, he introduced into Ireland the order of the Francis- 
 cans; in 1224, that of the Dominicans; and, in two years 
 
THE GERALDINES. 413 
 
 after, he built the Franciscan Abbey of Youghal. In con- 
 nection with this event. Lord Kildare relates a story which 
 strikingly illustrates his kindly disposition. As a states- 
 man, the second Lord Offaly exhibited considerable ability 
 in the office of Lord Justice of Ireland ; and, as a soldier, 
 he seems to have fallen little short of his gallant prede- 
 cessor, Maurice Eitz- Gerald. 
 
 Like him, he marched from victory to victory, his 
 career being as splendid as that of many a modern con- 
 queror ; and yet how little does it interest a reader of the 
 present day to be told of his burning towns, storming 
 castles, and subjugating provinces. History, in this case, 
 touches the harp of the past in vain ; the sound which it 
 returns has little power over our feelings in the nineteenth 
 century, when the very results of the heroes deeds have 
 as much mouldered away as his own bones. Eventually, 
 Lord Maurice, exchanging the casque for the cowl, re- 
 treated from the world's conflicts, and in the calm retreat 
 of his own Monastery of Youghal, ended his days in holi- 
 ness and peace. Passing over a succession of names, all 
 more or less illustrious, we stop for a moment at the sixth 
 baron, to relate the curious traditions which explain how 
 the monkey came to be the crest of the Geraldines of 
 Offaly. 
 
 John Fitz-Thomas Fitzgerald, afterwards the first 
 Earl of Kildare, then an infant, was in the Castle of 
 Woodstock, near Athy, when there was an alarm of fire. 
 In the confusion that ensued, the child was forgotten ; and 
 on the servants returning to search for him, the room in 
 which he lay was found in ruins. Soon after, a strange 
 
414 THE GERALDINES. 
 
 voice was heard on one of the towers, and upon looking 
 up, they saw an ape, which was usually kept chained, care- 
 fully holding the child in his arms. The earl afterwards, 
 in gratitude for his preservation, adopted a monkey for 
 his crest ; and some of his descendants, in memory of it, 
 took the additional motto, Non immemor heneficii." 
 
 But stories of this kind generally assume a multitude of 
 changing hues and forms, according to the memory or 
 imagination of the narrator. Another less romantic, and 
 certainly less pleasing, tradition tells us, that "Thomas 
 Eitzmaurice (of the Desmond line) was only nine months 
 old when his father and grandfather were slain at the 
 battle of Callan, in 1261. The child was at Tralee; and 
 on his attendants rushing out, alarmed at the intelligence, 
 he was left alone in his cradle, when a tame baboon or 
 ape took him up in his arms, and ran with him to the top 
 of the tower of the neighbouring abbey. After carrying 
 him round the battlements, and exljibiting him to the 
 frightened spectators, he brought the infant back to its 
 cradle in safety. Thomas was, in consequence, surnamed, 
 in Irish, An Appagh {Simiacus, or the ape), and became 
 ancestor to the Earls of Desmond." 
 
 The life of John Eitz-Thomas Eitzgerald, the child 
 thus miraculously preserved, abounds in adventures that 
 would form a fitting subject for romance. He was at 
 variance with William de Vesci, Lord of Kildare, a baron 
 much esteemed by the reigning monarch, Edward I.; 
 their disputes arising from the contiguity of their estates. 
 De Vesci, who was Lord Justice of Ireland, openly de- 
 clared that John Eitz-Thomas was the cause of the existins: 
 
THE GERALDINES. 415 
 
 disturbances, and that he was " in private quarrels as fierce 
 as a lyon, but in public injuries as meeke as a lambe." 
 This having been reported to Fitzgerald, he, in the pre- 
 sence of the lords of the council, replied : " You would 
 gladly charge me with treason, that, by shedding my 
 blood, and by catching my land into youi* douches, that 
 but so neere upon your lands of Kyldare, you might make 
 your Sonne a proper gentleman/' *' A gentleman V' quoth 
 the Lord Justice. "Thou bold baron, I tell thee the 
 Vescis were gentlemen before the Geraldines were barons 
 of Offaly ; yea, and before that Welsh bankrupt, thyne 
 ancestaur, fethered his nist in Leinster ;" and then ac- 
 cused him of being " a supporter of thieves, and upholder 
 of traytours/' " As for my ancestor,^' replied the baron, 
 " whom you terme a bankrupt, how riche or how poore he 
 was upon his repayre to Ireland, I purpose not at this 
 time to debate ; yet this much I may boldly say, that he 
 came hither as a byer, not a beggar. He bought his 
 enemies' land by spending his bloud : but you, lurking 
 like a spider in his cobweb to entrap flies, endeavour to 
 beg subjects' living wrongfully, by despoyling them of 
 their lives. I, John Fitz Thomas, Baron of OfFaly, doe 
 tell thee, William Vesci, that I am noe traytour, noe 
 felon ; but that thou art the only battress by which the 
 king's enemies are supported." 
 
 Both parties being summoned to the royal presence, 
 fFitz-Gerald maintained the same bold language, accusing 
 the justiciary of corruption, and saying that, while the 
 nobility were excluded from his presence, " an Irish cow 
 could at all times have access to him. But," continued 
 
416 THE GERALDINES. 
 
 Offaly, " so much as our mutual complaints stand upon, 
 the one his yea, and the other his nay, and that you would 
 be taken for a champion, and I am known to be no 
 coward, let us, in God's name, leave being for varlets, 
 bearding for ruffians, facing for crakers, chatting for twat- 
 tlers, scolding for callets, booking for scriveners, pleading 
 for lawyers ; and let us try, with the dint of swords, as 
 becomes martial men to do, our mutual quarrels. There- 
 fore, to justify that I am a true subject, and that thou, 
 Vesci, art an arch traitor to God and to my king, here, in 
 the presence of his highness, and in the hearing of this 
 honourable assembly, I challenge the combat/^ 
 
 De Vesci accepted the challenge, amidst the applauses 
 of the assembly ; but either he doubted the goodness of 
 his cause, or feared to contend with so formidable an ad- 
 versary. Before the appointed day he fled to France, 
 whereupon the king declared OfFaly innocent, adding, 
 " Albeit De Vesci conveyed his person into France, yet he 
 left his lands behind him in Ireland /^ and he granted 
 them to the Baron of Offaly, who subsequently, in many 
 a hard-fought day, showed himself no less true than 
 valiant. For his good services the English monarch 
 (Edward II.) created him Earl of Kildare, and assigned 
 to him the town and castle of that name. 
 
 Again we pass over many illustrious chiefs of this house, 
 to come to Gerald, the eighth Earl of Kildare ; and here 
 we cannot help remarking on a singular fact. While in 
 the royal succession of England we never find a continuity 
 of three distinguished monarchs — not often two — there 
 does not appear to have been an Earl of Kildare who did 
 
THE GERALDINES. 417 
 
 not fully maintain the name and honour of his race. Not 
 one of them but stands out prominently as an honourable 
 landmark in the Irish annals 
 
 Gerald, eighth Earl of Kildare, called by the Irish 
 " Geroit More/' or the Great, both in his character and 
 the events of his life, presents us with all the brilliant 
 colours of romance. He was constituted lord deputy; 
 but his feuds with the Butlers, and the enmity of the 
 Bishop of Meath, were the cause of the King's revoking 
 the appointment, and sending over Lord Grey, of Codnor, 
 to supersede him. To this mandate, sealed with the king's 
 private seal, the undaunted Gerald paid no attention, but 
 set the new deputy at defiance. The consequence was, 
 that the king summoned both parties to appear before 
 him, when the earl managed matters so adroitly, that he 
 was re-appointed to the office of deputy to Bichard Duke 
 of Gloucester— a conclusive proof that he was no less 
 politic than valiant. Confirmed Yorkist as the earl was, 
 still the accession of the Lancastrian prince, Henry VIL, 
 did not prevent his continuance in office ; till after a time, 
 the king, suspecting he was engaged in a plot against him, 
 commanded his attendance in England. This order 
 Gerald dexterously evaded. He summoned a parliament, 
 and induced the lords to send letters to the king, repre- 
 senting that, in the affairs about to be discussed, the lord 
 deputy's presence was absolutely indispensable. But the 
 king's suspicions were justified by the event. The earl 
 joined in acknowledging Lambert Simnel as the veritable 
 Edward, Earl of Warwick, son of George, Duke of Cla- 
 rence, who, in that character, pretending to have escaped 
 
418 THE GERALDINES. 
 
 from the Tower, set up a claim to the English throne in 
 opposition to the king de facto. The example of Kildare, 
 in countenancing the impostor, was followed by nearly all 
 the lords of the pale. Siranel was crowned, with much 
 solemnity, in the cathedral of Christ Church, Dublin — a 
 crown being placed upon his head that had been borrowed 
 from a statue of the blessed Virgin in St. Mary^s Church, 
 near Dame-gate. But Simnel, returning to England to 
 try his fortunes, was met at Stoke, and utterly defeated ; 
 and the Earl of Kildare, like his companions, was fain to 
 implore the king's pardon. This was at once granted by 
 Henry, who limited the expression of his anger to a taunt 
 upon their gullibility with reference to Simnel, observing, 
 that " they would at last crown apes, should he be long 
 absent.^* At the same time, well knowing the earPs in- 
 fluence with the lords of the pale, he sought yet further to 
 confirm him in his allegiance, by continuing him in his 
 office of chief governor of Ireland. 
 
 It would be a long and not very profitable task to 
 follow the earl through his various feuds upon his return 
 to his own country. In 1491 "a great war broke out 
 between Con O'Neill and Hugh Roe O'Donnell; and 
 they went to the lord justice, the Earl of Kildare, but they 
 returned without peace." The origin of this feud has 
 outlived the details of the feud itself, and is sufficiently 
 characteristic to be recorded. " Send me tribute, or else 
 
 ," was the brief but threatening message of O'Neill. 
 
 " I owe you no tribute ; and if ," was the equally 
 
 laconic reply of O'Donnell. 
 
 A new claimant to Henry's crown arising in the person 
 
THE GERALDINES. 419 
 
 of Perkin Warbeck, the earl again became an object of 
 suspicion with the English monarch, who, in consequence, 
 removed him from the office of lord deputy. He had also 
 contrived about this time to quarrel with the Bishop of 
 Meath, against whom he was so bitterly exasperated, that 
 he one day followed him into a church, whither he had 
 fled for sanctuary. The earl bade him come out, and 
 upon his refusal, entering, sword in hand, the chancel, 
 where the prelate was kneeling, swore, ^^ by St. Bride," 
 (his usual oath,) " were it not that I know my prince 
 would be offended with me, I could find it in my heart to 
 lay my sword upon thy shaven crown/^ But, though he 
 spared the bishop^s life, he kept him prisoner until the 
 lord deputy demanded his release. 
 
 Receiving the promise of a pardon for these and other 
 offences of the same kind, the earl ventured, in all good 
 faith, to Dublin. The lord deputy, however, had him 
 arrested in the evening ; but, as timid as he was false, did 
 not choose to pronounce judgment upon his prisoner, and 
 sent him over to England in a barque which had been kept 
 in readiness for that purpose. There he was detained for 
 two years a prisoner in the Tower of London, when he was 
 at last brought before the council. The outrage on the 
 bishop stood foremost on the list of his offences, where- 
 upon he said — " he was not sufficiently learned to make 
 answer to such weighty matters. The bishop was a 
 learned man, and so was not he, and therefore might easily 
 outdo him in argument.'^ The king then said, " he might 
 choose a counsellor." The earl replied, "1 doubt I shall 
 not have that good fellow that I would choose/^ The 
 
 E E 2 
 
420 THE GERALDINES. 
 
 king assured him that he should, and added, that "it 
 concerned to get counsell that was very good, as he doubted 
 his cause was very bad." The earl repUed : " I will choose 
 the best in England." "And who is that?" asked the 
 king. " Marry, the king himself," quoth the earl, " and, 
 by vSt. Bride, I will choose no other." At this the king 
 laughed, and turning to the council, said, " A wiser man 
 might have chosen worse." The earl was then accused of 
 having burnt the cathedral of Cashel, in consequence of a 
 feud with the archbishop, and many witnesses were present 
 to prove the fact ; but, contrary to their expectation, he 
 not only confessed it, but exclaimed, " By my troth I 
 would never have done it, but I thought the bishop was 
 in it." The archbishop being present, and one of the 
 busiest of the accusers, the king laughed heartily, and was 
 so favourably impressed by the bluntness and frankness of 
 the earl, that on the Bishop of Meath exclaiming, " All 
 Ireland cannot rule this man," he at once replied, " Then 
 he shall rule all Ireland." And accordingly Kildare was 
 restored to his forfeited estates and honours, and again 
 appointed lord deputy, though, at the same time, the 
 monarch retained his eldest son, Gerald, as a hostage. 
 And well, both by his fidelity and his talents as a states- 
 man and a soldier, did the great earl repay the king's 
 confidence. Perkin Warbeck, on his landing at Cork in 
 li97, was successfully opposed by the Earls of Kildare 
 and Desmond, and narrowly escaped being taken prisoner. 
 For this good service. King Henry conferred on Kildare 
 several manors in the counties of Warwick and Gloucester. 
 With a strong hand, too, the Earl controlled the unruly 
 
THE GERALDINES. 421 
 
 native chieftains, and, if he could not entirely extinguish 
 the spirit of revolt, yet he so well managed his affairs, that 
 rebellion never dared to show its head, but it was instantly 
 put down, and forced to save itself by submission. So 
 pleasing were his efforts to Henry, that he was received by 
 him with the highest favour upon his again visiting Eng- 
 land to give an account of his government, and returned 
 magno cum honore et novis instructionibus, taking with 
 him his son Gerald, who, shortly afterwards, was made 
 high treasurer of Ireland. 
 
 That unquiet spirit, to which we have just alluded, again 
 broke out and showed itself in a formidable array against 
 the king^s authority, amongst many of the most powerful 
 native chiefs under the Lord of Clanricarde, who had mar- 
 ried Kildare^s daughter, but had so neglected her as to 
 excite much ill blood between the lady^s husband and her 
 father. Never had Gerald's pre-eminent skill and courage 
 been more severely tasked. When he came in sight of the 
 rebels they were drawn up in full force upon Knock Tuagh, 
 or the hill of axes, now called Knockdoe, about seven 
 miles from Galway. Many of the lords of the pale began 
 to be alarmed for the result, on seeing the overwhelming 
 strength of the enemy, who had collected the largest army 
 ever seen in the country since the invasion of 11 69. They 
 would have persuaded the earl to offer terms of peace, but 
 the stout old soldier refused to listen for a moment to such 
 timid counsels. Having drawn up his men in battle array, 
 he bluntly told them that their own safety, as well as the 
 king's honour, rested on their unflinching valour in that 
 day's service. 
 
422 THE GERALDINES. 
 
 The onset was made by tlie rebels, and in a gallant 
 style, but they were received with such a volley of arrows 
 from the Leinster men that they fell back in confusion. 
 The earl then commanded his vanguard to advance, when 
 his son Gerald, in the impatience of youthful courage, 
 charged without orders at the head of his men in such a 
 brave and resolute manner as no one could do better. 
 " Far away from the troops," says the Irish chronicler, 
 " were heard the violent onset of the martial chiefs, the 
 vehement efforts of the champions, the charge of the royal 
 heroes, the noise of the swords, the clamour of the troops 
 when endangered, the shouts and exultations of the youths, 
 the sound made by the falling of brave men, and the 
 trmmph of nobles over plebeians." 
 
 It was a fierce battle, such as had not been known in 
 latter times. Of Clanricarde^s nine divisions which were 
 in solid array, there survived only one broken battalion. 
 The rebels were completely routed, their slain being com- 
 puted at nearly nine thousand men, and, though this may 
 be exaggeration, there can be no doubt that the battle of 
 Knock Tuagh broke the strength of the western and 
 southern septs. For this good service Kildare was created 
 by Henry a Knight of the Garter. 
 
 The days of this great man were now drawing fast to a 
 conclusion. In 1513, he marched against Lemyvannon, 
 or O'CarrolFs Castle, now called " Leap Castle," in the 
 King's County ; but as he was watering his horse in the 
 river Greese, at Kilkeen, he was shot by one of the 'Mores, 
 of Leix, and after lingering for a few days, he died of his 
 wound, and was buried in his own chapel, at Christ Church, 
 
THE GERALDINES. 423 
 
 before the high altar. HoUnshed describes him as a 
 "mightie man of stature, full of honoure and courage, 
 who had bin lord deputie and lord justice of Ireland three 
 and thirtie yeares. Kildare was in government milde, to 
 his enemies sterne. He was open and playne, hardly able 
 to rule himself when he was moved ; in anger not so sharp 
 as short, being easily displeased and sooner appeased." 
 
 Geroit Oge, i.e. Gerald, the younger, the ninth 
 Earl of Kildare, entered upon his office of lord deputy 
 under less favourable auspices than his predecessor had 
 done, for Henry VIII., if not more suspicious than his 
 father, was much inferior to him in his knowledge of men, 
 and in the way of ruling them by the show of a magnani- 
 mous confidence. Still, it must be allowed, that Gerald, 
 as governor of Ireland, seemed to consider himself as repre- 
 senting the king's interests only in the pale, which, at that 
 time, included the counties of Dublin, Louth, Meath, and 
 Kildare; ruling the rest of his possessions as indepen- 
 dently as any native chief, and these were tolerably ex- 
 tensive, for he and his kinsmen occupied the counties of 
 Kildare and Carlow as far as the bridge of Leighlin, exact- 
 ing coin and livery within those bounds. In fact, while 
 he was English to the Irish, he was, to a certain degree, 
 Irish to the English who were placed in this unfortunate 
 dilemma ; they must of necessity support the lord deputy 
 from his influence over the pale, which was their instru- 
 ment for curbing the rest of Ireland, then divided amongst 
 about thirty great Anglo -Irish lords, and sixty Irish chief- 
 tains. On the other hand there was always a danger of 
 the lord deputy's growing over-powerful, and turning 
 
424 THE GERALDINES. 
 
 round upon his masters. The only thing, as it seems, 
 that prevented such a casualty, was the rooted hatred 
 borne by the Irish chieftains towards the pale, which they 
 justly considered as the great obstacle to their . regaining 
 that absolute independence which was the constant object 
 of all their struggles when not engaged in feud amongst 
 themselves. 
 
 Thus it happened to Gerald Oge, as it had happened to 
 his predecessors, to more than once incur the jealousy of 
 the English government, and to be deprived of his office 
 of lord deputy. What was yet worse, he unluckily drew 
 down upon himself the hatred of the stern and lynx-eyed 
 Wolsey, and nearly lost his head in consequence. The 
 story is worth extracting, as it serves to show how the 
 cardinal dared at times to act in independence of his 
 master, who yet was sufficiently jealous of his royal power, 
 and did not lightly endure any encroachments upon it. 
 Kildare having been accused of treason by the Earl of 
 Ossory, was ordered to England to answer for his conduct ; 
 upon his arrival he was immediately committed to the 
 Tower, and soon afterwards appeared before the council, 
 where, according to Holinshed, the cardinal made a furious 
 attack upon him, and, among other things, charged him 
 with having taken no steps to arrest the Earl of Desmond, 
 who had fallen under the displeasure of the English 
 government — "Yet had you," continued the haughty 
 favourite, " lost a cow or a horse of your owne, two hun- 
 dred of your retayners would have come at your whistle 
 to rescue the prey from the uttermost edge of Ulster. The 
 Earl ! nay, the King of Kildare ; for when you are dis- 
 
THE GERALDINES. 425 
 
 posed, you reigne more like than rule the land." — While 
 the cardinal was speaking, the Earl showed signs of im- 
 patience, and at last interrupted him thus — "My lord 
 chancellor, I beseech you pardon me, I am short-witted, 
 and you, I believe, intend a long tale. If you proceed iu 
 this order, halfe of my purgation will be lost for lacke of 
 carriage. I have no schoole trickes, nor art of memory 
 except you heare me, while I remember your w(5rds ; your 
 second process will hammer out the former." The lords 
 of the council, deeming this request reasonable, besought 
 the cardinal to allow the earl to proceed after his own 
 fashion. He acceded, and Kildare entered on his defence : 
 so graphic, so characteristic is the speech as reported by 
 that trustworthy old chronicler, Holinshed, that we cannot 
 forbear to give it : — 
 
 " It is good reason," urged the earl, " that your grace 
 beare the mouth of this boarde. But, my lord, those 
 mouths that put these things in your mouth, are very wyde 
 mouths, such indeed as have gaped long for my wrack, 
 and now, at length, for want of better stuffe, are fain to 
 fill their mouths with smoke. What my cousin, Desmond, 
 hath compassed, as I know not, so I beshrew his naked 
 heart for holding out so long. If hee can be taken by my 
 agents, that presently wait for him, then have my adver- 
 saryes betrayed their malice, and this heape of haynous 
 words shall resemble a scarecrow or a man of strawe, that 
 seemeth at a blush to carry some proportion, but when it 
 is felt and poysed, disco vereth a vanity, serving only to 
 fear crowes ; and I verily trust your honours will see the 
 proofe by the thing itselfe within these few dayes. But 
 
426 THE GERALDINES. 
 
 to go too, suppose hee never bee hade, what is Kildare to 
 blame for it, more than my good brother of Ossorie ; not- 
 withstanding his high promises, having also the King his 
 power, is yet content to bring him in at leysure. Cannot 
 the Earl of Desmond sheft, but I must be of counsell ? 
 Cannot hee bee hyden, except I winke ? If hee bee close, 
 am I his mate ? If hee bee friended, am I a traytour ? 
 This is a doughty kind of accusation which they urge 
 agaynst me. When was the earle within my viewe, and 
 who stoode by when I let him slip ? But I sent him worde 
 to beware of mee. Who was the messenger ? where are 
 the letters ? Of my cousin Desmond they may lie, since 
 no man more can well contraire them. Touching myselfe, 
 I never acted in theym eyther so much wit or so fast 
 fayth that I would have gaged upon their silence the life 
 of a goode hounde, much lesse mine own. It grieveth me 
 that your good grace, whom I take to be wise and sharpe, 
 should be so farre gone in creditting these corrupt in- 
 formers. Little know you, my lord, how necessarie it is, 
 not onely for the governour, but also for every nobleman 
 in Irelande, to hamper his uncivil neighbours at discretion, 
 wherein if they waited for processe of lawe, and had not 
 those lyves and landes within their reach, they might 
 happe to lose their owne hves and landes without lawe. 
 Touching my kingdome, I know not what your lordship 
 should meane thereby. If your grace imagin that a 
 kingdom consisteth in serving God, in obeying the prince, 
 in governing with love the common wealth, in shouldering 
 subjects, in suppressing rebelles, in executing justice, in 
 brideling blind affections^ I would be willing to be in- 
 
THE GERALDINES. 427 
 
 vested with so virtuous and royall a name. But if, there- 
 fore, you terme me a king, in that you are persuaded that 
 I repine at the government of my soveraigne, or winke at 
 malefactors, or oppress civil livers, I utterly disclayme in 
 that odious tearme, marveyling greatly that one of your 
 Grace his profound wisdome should seeme to appropriate 
 so sacred a name to so wicked a thing. But, however it 
 be, my lorde, I woulde you and 1 had changed kingdoms 
 but for one monthe, I woulde trust to gather up more 
 crummes in that space than twice the revenues of my 
 poore earledom. But you are well and warme, and so 
 holde you and upbrayde not me with such an odious 
 terme. I slumber in a hard cabyn, when you sleepe in a 
 soft bed of downe. I serve under the king his cope of 
 heaven, when you are served under a canopie. I drinke 
 water out of my skull, when you drinke wine out of golden 
 cuppes. My courser is trayned to the field, when your 
 genet is taught to amble. When you are begraced and 
 beloved, and crouched and kneeled unto, then find I small 
 grace with our Irish borderers, except I cut them off by 
 the knees." 
 
 Hohnshed continues — 
 
 " The cardinal perceiving that Kildare was no babe, rose 
 in a fume from the counsayle-table, and commyted the 
 earle, and deferred the matter till more direct probations 
 came out of Irelande. There he was heartily beloved of 
 the lieutenant, pittied in all the court ; and standing in so 
 harde a case, altered little his accustomed hue, comforted 
 other noblemen, prisoners with him, disembling his owne 
 sorrow. One night, when the lieutenant and he, for their 
 
428 THE GERALDINES. 
 
 disport, were playing at slide grote or sliuffle-boorde, so- 
 dainely commeth from the cardinall a mandatum to exe- 
 cute Kyldare on the morrow. The earle, marking the 
 lieutenant's deep sigh, ' By St. Bride, lieutenant,' quoth 
 he, ' there is some madde game in that scrole ; but, fall 
 how it will, this throw is for a huddle.' When the worst 
 was tolde him, ^Nowe, I pray thee,' quoth he, ^doe no 
 more, but learne assuredly from the King his owne mouth, 
 whether his highness be witting thereto or not.' Sore 
 doubted the lieutenant to displease the cardinall, yet of 
 verrie pure love to his friend, he posteth to the king at 
 midnight, and delivered his errand (for att all houres of 
 the night the lieutenant hath access to the prince upon 
 occasions). The king, controlling the sauciness of the 
 priest, (for those were his termes), delivered to the lieu- 
 tenant his signet in token of countermande ; which, when 
 the cardinall had seen, he beganne to brake into unseat 
 soned language, which the lieutenant was loath to hear. 
 Thus broke up the storm for that time." 
 
 Thus did the stout earl weather the storm which had so 
 well-nigh foundered him, and even again attained to his 
 former dignity ; but it was only to relapse into suspicion 
 and disgrace. He was once more called over to England 
 and recommitted to the Tower. 
 
 " He was," says the old chronicler, " a wise and pru- 
 dent man, valient without rashness, and politic without 
 treachery ; such an oppressor of rebels that they dared 
 not beare armour to the annoyance of any subject ; whereby 
 he heaped no small revenues to the crowne ; guarded in 
 safety the pale ; continued the honour of his house, and 
 
THE GERALDINES. 429 
 
 purchased envy to his person. His great hospitalitie is 
 to this day rather of each man commended than of any 
 followed He was so religiously addicted to the service of 
 God as what tymes soever he traveyled to any part of the 
 countrey, such as wear of his chapell should be seur to ac- 
 companie him." 
 
 Before his departure from Ireland, he constituted his 
 son Thomas, Lord Offaly, vice-deputy ; and strictly en- 
 joined him to be '^ wise and prudent," and to submit in 
 all things to " the sounde and sage advice of the council.^' 
 Nevertheless, " the hot and active temper" of the young 
 lord could not be restrained. The murder of Archbishop 
 Alen, perpetrated by his followers, led to the severe sen- 
 tence of excommunication pronounced against him ; which 
 being shown to the old Earl in the Tower, had such an 
 effect on him, that he died shortly after, of a broken heart. 
 His remains received sepulture within the Tower walls, in 
 St. Peter's Church, — a sorry recompense for all his ser- 
 vices. 
 
 The excess of jealous suspicion which made the English 
 government so uncertain in their treatment of the Fitz- 
 Geralds — one day creating them lord deputies, and the 
 next imprisoning them in the Tower — provoked the very 
 evils they were so anxious to avoid. Some time before 
 the ninth Earl died, a report reached Ireland that he was 
 to be beheaded. A strange story is told by Holinshed, 
 how this report was further confirmed in secret letters, 
 written by certain servants of Sir William Skeffington. 
 '' One of these letters fell into the hands of a priest, who 
 threw it among other papers, meaning to read it at leisure. 
 
430 THE GERALDINES. 
 
 That nighte a gentleman, a retainer of Lord Thomas, 
 lodged with the priest, and sought in the morning when 
 he rose for some paper to darn on his strayte stockings ; 
 and, as the divell would, he hit upon the letter, and bore 
 it away in the heele of his stocke." At night he found 
 the paper, and seeing that it announced the earPs death, 
 he carried it to his son. Lord Thomas, who immediately 
 resolved to throw off his allegiance to the English crown. 
 From this moment the adventures of Thomas, 10th Earl 
 of KiLDARE,* known (from the fringes on the helmets of 
 
 » The Lady Elizabeth Fitz-Gerald,— the " Fair Geraldine" of 
 Surrey's poetry — was half sister of SOken Thomas, and daughter 
 of Gerald, ninth Earl of Kildare, by the Lady Elizabeth Grey, 
 his second countess, whose grandmother, Elizabeth Woodville, 
 became Queen of Edward IV. The Fair Geraldine was educated 
 at Hunsdon, and, in 1543, married Sir Anthony Browne, K.G., 
 then sixty years of age : — 
 
 " From Tuscane came my lady's worthy race, 
 
 Fair Florence was some time her ancient seat ; 
 The western isle, whose pleasant shore doth face 
 
 Wild Camber's cliffs, did give her lively heat. 
 Fostered she was with milk of Irish breast ; 
 
 Her sire an earl, her dame of princes' blood. 
 From tender years in Britain doth she rest 
 
 With king's child, where she tasteth costly food. 
 Hunsdon did first present her to mine eyne. 
 
 Bright is her hue, and Geraldine she hight ; 
 Hampton me taught to wish her first for mine. 
 
 And Windsor, alas ! doth chase me from her sight. 
 Her beauty of kind, her virtues from above, 
 
 Happy is he that can attain her love." 
 
 The Earl of Surrey to the Fair Geraldine. 
 
 It is said that Lord Surrey, at a tournament at Florence, defied 
 
THE GERALBINES. 431 
 
 his retainers) as " Silken Thomas," would form no unin- 
 teresting chapter of a romance ; and, after all, his deter- 
 mination was not so hopeless of success as many at the 
 time imagined it to be, so extensive was the influence of 
 the Geraldines. In disclaiming the English rule, the 
 young earl proceeded with all the chivalric honour of a 
 knight of old. He called a meeting of the council at St. 
 Mary's Abbey, and when he had seated himself at the 
 head of the table, a par ty of his followers rushed in, to 
 the sore amazement of those who had not been previously 
 warned of his intentions. The words in which he then 
 addressed them were worthy of his great ancestors, and 
 show of what metal the Geraldines were made : — 
 
 " Howsoever," he began, " howsoever injuriously we 
 may be handled, and forced to defend ourselves in arms, 
 when neither our service nor our good meaning towards 
 our prince's crown availeth, yet say not hereafter but that 
 in this open hostility which we here profess and proclaim, 
 we have showed ourselves no villains nor churls, but war- 
 riours and gentlemen. This sword of estate is yours, and 
 not mine. I received it with an oath, and used it to your 
 benefit. I should destain mine honour if I turned the 
 same to your annoyance. Now have I need of mine own 
 sword, which I dare trust. As for the common sword, it 
 
 all the world to produce such beauty as hers, and was victorious. 
 He is also said to have visited, at that time, Cornelius Agrippa, 
 the celebrated alchymist, who revealed to him, in a magic mirror, 
 the form of the fair Geraldine, lying on a couch, reading one of 
 his sonnets by the light of a taper. This incident has been hap- 
 pily introduced by Sir Walter Scott, in his " Lay of the last 
 Minstrel." 
 
432 THE GERALDINES. 
 
 flattereth me with a painted scabbard^ bnt hath indeed a 
 pestilent edge, already bathed in the Geraldine blood, and 
 now is newly whetted in hope of a further destruction. 
 Therefore save yourselves from us as from open ene- 
 mies. I am none of Henry's deputie : I am his foe. 
 I have more mind to conquer than to govern ; to meet 
 him in the field than to serve him in office. If all the 
 hearts of England and Ireland, that have cause thereto, 
 would join in this quarrel (as I hope they will), then 
 should he soon aby (as I trust shall) for his tyranny, for 
 which the age to come may lawfully scourge him up 
 among the ancient tyrants of most abominable and hateful 
 memory.^' 
 
 He then tendered his sword of state to the chancellor 
 (Cromer). The gentle prelate, who was a well-wisher of 
 the Geraldines, besought him, with tears in his eyes, to 
 abandon his purpose ; and might, perhaps, have succeeded, 
 but that Nelan, an Irish bard, then present, burst out on 
 the sudden into a heroic strain, in his native tongue, eulo- 
 gistic of *' Silken Thomas," and concluded by warning 
 him, that he had " lingered there over long.'^ The earl 
 was roused by the fervour of this appeal. Addressing the 
 chancellor somewhat abruptly, he renounced all allegiance 
 to the English monarch, saying, that he chose rather " to 
 die with valiantness and liberty." 
 
 Never was there a finer scene for poet and painter than 
 this at St. Mary's Abbey ; and never has ancient history 
 left us a happier theme for either of them than " Silken 
 Thomas." His subsequent career fully corresponded with 
 this commencement. For a length of time he resisted. 
 
THE GERALDINES. 433 
 
 successfully, the famous lord deputy, Skeffington, with all 
 the support that England could afford him, or that he 
 derived from such of the native Irish septs as had been 
 previously hostile to the earl, or were bought over by the 
 hope of present advantage. When, finally, deserted by 
 the last of his allies, Kildare found himself obliged to 
 surrender, it was upon a promise, sealed upon the holy 
 sacrament, that he should receive a full pardon on his 
 arrival in England. But this pledge was shamefully vio- 
 lated by Henry VIII. For sixteen months the earl was 
 incarcerated in the Tower of London, and then, together 
 with his five uncles, two of whom had always been stanch 
 adherents of the king, was hanged, drawn, and quartered 
 at Tyburn, on the 8th of February, 1537, being then but 
 twenty-four years of age. 
 
 The rebellion of *' silken Thomas" is well and ably told 
 by Lord Kildare ; and perhaps the whole range of history 
 produces no more affecting story. 
 
 " This unfortunate earl was," says Ilolinshed, '' a man 
 on whom nature poured beauty and fortune, and withal 
 somewhat ruddy, delicately in each lymme featured ; of 
 nature flexible and kinde ; a young man not devode of 
 wit." 
 
 It is melancholy to contrast the early condition of the 
 gay, glittering noble, " the Silken Lord," Vice Deputy of 
 Ireland, and head of one of the most illustrious families 
 in the world, with that bitter suffering which he described 
 in a letter to an adherent, while a prisoner in the Tower : — 
 " I never had eny money syns I cam unto prison but a 
 nobull, nor I have had nethyr hosyn, dublet, nor shoys. 
 
434 THE GERALDINES. 
 
 nor shyrt, but on I have gone barefote dyverse 
 
 tymes (when ytt hath not been very warme) and so I 
 should have don styll, and now, but that pore prysoners, 
 of their gentyles, hath sometyme gevyn me old hosyn and 
 shoys and old shyrtes. This I wryte unto you, not as 
 complayning on my fryndes, but for to shew you the trewth 
 of my gret nede/' The generous, self-sacrificing spirit of 
 the youth still shines through all his sufierings ; and the 
 reader will scarcely fail to be struck with the marked re- 
 semblance between " Silken Thomas'^ and another equally 
 ill-fated Geraldine, of a much later period — the amiable 
 and high-minded Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Both were 
 led away by the enthusiasm of their nature ; both were 
 chivalrously honourable; both displayed, throughout the 
 contest, an unflinching spirit; and each, in the bloom 
 of manhood, paid the penalty of his error in a violent 
 death. 
 
 Though attainder followed, the house of Kildare was 
 not destined to perish. Thomases half-brother, Gerald, ' 
 the eleventh Earl of Kildare, then a minor, only twelve 
 years old, became the male representative of the Ge- 
 raldines. So great was the sympathy in his favour, 
 from one end of Ireland to the other, that the English 
 government became anxious, beyond measure, to get him 
 into their power ; but all their efforts were in vain to cor- 
 rupt the fidelity of those to whose charge he had been 
 entrusted. By them he was safely conveyed to the Conti- 
 nent, where he found a welcome reception; and, though 
 the English monarch was successful in having him dis- 
 missed from one place of refuge after the other, yet he 
 
THE GERALDINES. 435 
 
 could not persuade any one of his friendly allies to give the 
 boy up. At length, the young Earl obtained a safe retreat 
 in Rome, with his kinsman, Cardinal Pole, who caused him 
 to be educated, and subsequently sent him, at his own 
 desire, upon his travels. He afterwards entered the ser- 
 vice of Cosmo de Medici, Duke of Florence, who appointed 
 him Master of his Horse. Returning to England, after 
 the death of King Henry, in company with some foreign 
 ambassadors, he was present at a masque given by Ed- 
 ward VI., where he met, wooed, and won his future wife, 
 Mabel, daughter of Sir Anthony Browne, K.G. Through 
 Sir Anthony^s influence, the young king gave Gerald back 
 his Irish estates, and conferred on him knighthood ; and 
 at a later period. Queen Mary restored to him his here- 
 ditary honours. After a brilliant career. Earl Gerald died 
 in London, in 1585, but his body was taken back to 
 Ireland, and buried in Kildare. 
 
 There is less of romance, but scarcely less of historical 
 interest, in the lives of the succeeding Earls of Kildare ; 
 but the details are suited rather to the genealogical than 
 the general reader. In this brief sketch our purpose has 
 been to shadow forth the career of as noble a race as ever 
 graced the page of history ; but, to be felt and compre- 
 hended in its full extent, the tale should be read in the 
 delightful pages of Lord Kildare's own book. 
 
 There is abundant evidence of research in his lord- 
 ship's labours. It is, however, to be regretted that the 
 manuscript sources, locked up and unknown in the public 
 offices of Dublin, and loudly calling for a new Record 
 
 r f2 
 
436 THE GERALDINES. 
 
 Commission, to give their treasures to the world, could not 
 be more thoroughly ransacked. Mention is made of a 
 " chest or secure place in the Castle of Mainothe/^ for the 
 custody of family papers, to which three locks were, for 
 their better safety, to be affixed during the minority of 
 George, sixteenth earl. We trust the " secure place" was 
 not robbed of its deposit at the ruin of the castle by 
 Preston and the confederate Catholics, who plundered 
 "the library of great value'' in 1642, and dismantled the 
 building in 1646, since which time it has remained un- 
 inhabited. 
 
 Though there thus seems, unfortunately, but too good 
 grounds for apprehension that the muniment room of 
 Carton is less rich than that of the great rival race of 
 Ormonde, in Kilkenny Castle; still report states that 
 many valuable manuscripts are preserved at the former 
 mansion, as, for instance, the " Book of Kildare" (perhaps 
 the manuscript mentioned at page 113, as "the Earl of 
 Kildare's Red Book,'') and the " Book of Obits of diverse 
 gentlemen of the Geraldys," which would, if given in an 
 appendix, have been a valuable document in illustration of 
 the collateral branches of the family. The history of those 
 offshoots, in many instances deduced by Lodge, does not 
 enter into the plan of the present work. This we regret, 
 as the Duke of Leinster, however times have changed, is 
 still a great chief, the head of a widely-spread and power- 
 ful clan, who look up to him with all the respect given 
 to the ancient leader, though he no longer calls on them 
 to follow his feudal banner to the field. 
 
 In conclusion we will only add that few will rise from 
 
THE GERALDINES. 437 
 
 the perusal of Lord Kildare^s memorials of the great race 
 from which he springs, without cordially coinciding in the 
 remark that the family of the Geraldines is " so ancient, 
 that it seems to have no beginning, and so illustrious that 
 it ought to have no end/^ 
 
 THE END. 
 
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