Ten Thousand a-Year Volume Ii Part 35

_Note._--The Author was favored, on the first appearance of this portion of the work, with several complimentary communications on the subject of Sir Gorgeous Tintack's feats in heraldry: and one gentleman eminent in that science, and to whom the author is indebted for the annexed spirited drawing, has requested the author to annex to the separate edition, as he now does, the two following very curious extracts from old heraldic writers:--the first, supporting the author's ridicule of the prevalent folly of devising complicated coats of arms; and the second being a very remarkable specimen of the extent to which an enthusiast in the science was carried on its behalf.

_First_--"An other thing that is amisse, as I take it, and hath great neede to be reformed, is the quartering of many markes in one shield, coate, or banner; for sithence it is true that such markes serue to no other vse, but for a commander to lead by, or to be known by, it is of necessitie that the same should be _apparent_, _faire_, and _easie to be understoode_: so that the quartering of many of them together, doth hinder the vse for which they are provided.--As how is it possible for a plaine unlearned man to discover and know a sunder, six or eight--sometimes thirty or forty several marks cl.u.s.tered altogether in one shield or banner, nay, though he had as good skill as _Robert Glower_, late Somerset that dead is, and the eies of an egle, amongst such a confusion of things, yet should he never be able to decipher the errors that are dalie committed in this one point, nor discover or know one banner or standard from an other, be the same neuer so large?"--_Treatise on the True Use of Armes--by Mr. Sampson Erdswicke_, [a famous antiquary in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.]

[_Secondly._--An extract from the _Book of St. Alban's_, written late in the fifteenth century, by _Dame Juliana Berners, Abbess of St.

Alban's_]--

"_Cain_ and all his offspring became _churls_ both by the curse of G.o.d, and his own father. _Seth_ was made a _gentleman_, through his father and mother's blessing, from whose loins issued _Noah_, a _gentleman_ by kind and lineage. Of Noah's sons, _Chem_ became a churl by his father's curse, on account of his gross barbarism towards his father. _j.a.phet_ and _Shem_, Noah made gentlemen. From the offspring of gentlemanly j.a.phet came _Abraham_, _Moyses_, and the Prophets, and also the King of the right line of Mary, of whom that only absolute gentleman[X] Jesus was borne; perfite G.o.d and perfite man according to his manhood, King of the land of Juda, and the Jewes, and _gentleman_ by his Mother Mary, princess of coate Armour."

[X] One of our oldest dramatists speaks of our Saviour in an earnest sense as "the _first true gentleman_ that ever lived."]

[Footnote 27: NOTE 27. Page 374.

I vehemently suspect myself guilty of a slight anachronism here; this ancient and ill.u.s.trious monarchy having been mediatized by the congress of Vienna in 1815--its territories now forming part of the parish of Hahnroost, in the kingdom of ----.]

[Footnote 28: NOTE 28. Page 399.

_Ante_, p. 265.]

[Footnote 29: NOTE 29. Page 415.

[Greek: Medeia], 1036-9. _Anglice_: Alas, alas, my children! why do you fondly fix your eyes upon me? Why beams upon me _that last smile_ of yours? Oh, woe! woe! is me! What shall I do? For now that I have seen the bright eyes of my little ones, my heart is broken!]

[Footnote 30: NOTE 30. Page 415.

Ezek. xii. 18.]

[Footnote 31: NOTE 31. Page 453.

Since this work was published, a very important statute (6 and 7 Vict.

c. 85) was pa.s.sed, in the year 1843, for removing the incompetency to give evidence, by reason of any crime, or _interest_.]

[Footnote 32: NOTE 32. Page 456.

When once a man's necessities have compelled him to subscribe his name to the three magical letters "I. O. U.," he is liable for the sum specified in it to any one simply producing it, though it be addressed to no one, and no proof be given that "U" means the plaintiff, (see _Curtis_ v. _Rickards_, Manning and Grainger, 46; and _Douglas_ v.

_Hone_, 12 Adolphus and Ellis, 641,) unless the defendant be able to adduce clear evidence impeaching the plaintiff's right to recover.]

[Footnote 33: NOTE 33. Page 461.

The late venerable and gifted Lord Stowell, in the case of _Evans_ v.

_Evans_, 1 Consistory Reports, p. 36.]

[Footnote 34: NOTE 34. Page 466.

Some have imagined this to be an allusion to a disclosure pretended by M. Thiers, a few years ago, _after the death of Lord Holland_, to have been made to him by that n.o.bleman, of what had pa.s.sed at a Cabinet council!!]

END OF VOL. II.