The Curiosities of Heraldry Part 22

It would be tedious, and beyond the design of the present hasty sketch, to notice all the great occasions on which the heralds were in requisition during the reigns of the three predecessors of her present Majesty. During this period several members of the College have shed l.u.s.tre on their office, and on the antiquarian literature of England. These will come under review in my next chapter; and it will only be necessary here to add a few particulars relating to the present state of the College.

The building, which stands upon the site of the _Derby House_ before referred to, is approached by an archway on St. Benet's Hill, and has a sombre appearance perfectly in keeping with the purposes to which it is devoted. It comprises the great hall, the library, consisting of two rooms; the outer one of the time of Charles II, fitted with dark carved-oak panels, and containing a beautifully executed chimney-piece, said to be the work of Sibborn; the inner, a s.p.a.cious and lofty octangular apartment, recently erected and rendered fire-proof, for the safer preservation of the records and more valuable doc.u.ments; and besides these rooms there are separate apartments appropriated to the use of the several officers. The great hall, where the Courts of Chivalry were antiently held, and where the 'Chapters' of the heralds still take place, remains almost _in statu quo_, with its high-backed throne for the earl-marshal, surrounded with bal.u.s.trades, and retaining somewhat of the awe-striking solemnity of the tribunal. The panelling has recently been decorated with shields of the several lords and earls-marshal from the origin of that office till the present time. The library, it is scarcely necessary to state, contains a large and extremely valuable collection of original visitation books, records of the arms and pedigrees of families, funeral certificates of the n.o.bility and gentry, antient tournament and other rolls of great curiosity; the sword, dagger, and ring of King James IV, of Scotland; and probably every work ill.u.s.trative, in any degree, of heraldry and genealogy, that has issued from the press of this country, together with many foreign works on those subjects. Of the great value of this inexhaustible mine of information the historian and the antiquary are well aware, and there is scarcely any work in their respective departments that has not received some addition from this library.

The following is a list of the Corporation of the College as it now exists:

=Earl-Marshal= and Hereditary Marshal of England.

Henry-Charles, Duke of Norfolk, &c. &c. &c.

=Kings of Arms.=

GARTER. Sir Charles George Young, Knt., F.S.A.

CLARENCEUX. Joseph Hawker, Esq., F.S.A.

NORROY. Francis Martin, Esq., F.S.A.

=Heralds.=

SOMERSET. James Cathrow Disney, Esq.

CHESTER. Walter Aston Blount, Esq. Genealogist and Blanc-Coursier Herald, of the Order of the Bath.

RICHMOND. James Pulman Esq., F.S.A. Registrar of the College of Arms, and Yeoman-Usher of the Black Rod to the House of Lords.

WINDSOR. Robert Laurie, Esq.

LANCASTER. Albert William Woods, Esq. Gentleman-Usher of the Red Rod, and Brunswick Herald of the Order of the Bath.

YORK. Edward Howard Gibbon, Esq., Secretary to the Earl-Marshal.

=Pursuivants.=

BLUEMANTLE. George Harrison Rogers Harrison, Esq., F.S.A.

ROUGE-DRAGON. Thomas William King, Esq., F.S.A.

ROUGE-CROIX. William Courthope, Esq.

PORTCULIS. George William Collen, Esq.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER XII.

Distinguished Heralds and Heraldric Writers.

In the earliest ages after the introduction of Heraldry the laws of the science must have been orally taught to novitiate heralds: but when the regulations of chivalry were framed into a code they began to be committed to writing, and among the earliest MSS. are some on this subject.[281] But these generally have reference rather to feats of arms than to the technicalities of blazon.

[Sidenote: A.D. 1441.]

The first author, of any note, on this subject is Doctor Nicholas Upton, a native of Devonshire, who was honoured with the patronage of Humphrey, "the good" Duke of Gloucester, temp. Henry IV, by whose influence he became canon of Sarum, Wells, and St. Paul's. Previously to obtaining these preferments he had served in the French wars under Thomas de Montacute, earl of Salisbury; and it was during those campaigns he wrote a Latin treatise, ent.i.tled 'De Studio Militari,' MS. copies of which are preserved in the College of Arms, and elsewhere.[282] It consists of five books; viz. 1, Of officers of Arms; 2, Of Veterans, now styled Heralds; 3, Of Duels; 4, Of Colours; 5, Of Figures; forming altogether a systematic grammar of Heraldry. The latinity of Upton is considered very cla.s.sical for the age in which he flourished.

One of the earliest treatises on Heraldry, as well as one of the first productions of the press in this country, is contained in the highly-celebrated =Boke of St. Albans=, printed within the precincts of the monastery from which it is designated, in the year 1486. This singular work contains tracts on hawking, hunting, and 'coot-armuris'--the last const.i.tuting the greater portion of the volume. It is printed in a type resembling the text-hand written at the period, and with all the abbreviations employed in ma.n.u.script. The margin contains exemplifications of the arms described in the text, stained with coloured inks. This edition, like others of that early date, is now exceedingly scarce, there being probably not more than five or six copies extant. Another edition was published in 1496 by Wm. Copeland, and a single copy occurs of the same date with the imprint of Wynkyn de Worde: these were probably of the same impression with different t.i.tle-pages. A new edition appeared in 1550; and another was included in Gervase Markham's 'Gentleman's Academie,' in 1595.[283] The entire work was attributed, for the first three centuries after its publication, to Dame Julyan Berners,[284]

prioress of Sopewell, and sister of Richard, Lord Berners, a woman of great personal and mental endowments.[285] That a woman, and especially the superior of a religious sisterhood, should have devoted her pen to the secular subjects of heraldry and field-sports, at first sight, seems singular; but the rude complexion of the times in which she lived renders little apology necessary for this apparent violation of propriety; and we may fairly venerate the memory of this gentle lady as a promoter of English literature. Dallaway is the first, and, as far as I am aware, with the exception of Mr. Haslewood, the only author who questions the pretensions of Dame Juliana to the authorship of the whole work; and he founds his doubts upon the difference observable between the style of the heraldric essay and the previous ones. He considers the former as the work of some anonymous monk of St. Albans. But as several almost contemporary authors ascribe it to her, and there is no positive proof to the contrary, far be from me that want of gallantry which would despoil the worthy prioress of the honour of having indited this goodly tractate, this 'n.o.bull werke!'[286]

If the reader has never seen the Boke of Saint Albans, and feels only half as much curiosity to become acquainted with its contents as I did before I had the good fortune to meet with it, I am sure he will not consider the following choice bits of Old English, extracted from it, impertinently introduced.

Dame Julyan Berners merits honourable notice as one of the earliest of English poetesses. The treatise on hunting is in rhyme, and consists of 606 verses. The style is didactic. Take a specimen:

"_Bestys of venery._

"Whersoever ye fall by fryth or by fell, My dere chylde take heed how Tristrom dooth you tell, How many maner beestys of venery ther were, Lysten to your dame and then schall you lere, Ffour maner beestys of venery there are; The first of them is the hert--the secunde is the hare, The boore is oon of them--the woolff and not oon moe."

"_How ye schal break an hert._

"Then take out the suet that it be not lefte, For that my child is good for lechecrafte (medicine), And in the myddest of the herte a boon shall ye fynde, Loke ye geve hit to a lord--and chylde be kynde.

For it is kynd for many maladies."

In subsequent parts of the poem, 'the namys of diverse maner houndys,'

'the propertees of a good hors,' 'the company of bestys and fowles,' and other sporting subjects are discussed, and interspersed with proverbs of a somewhat caustic description. The composition very oddly concludes with an enumeration of "all the shyeris and the bishopryckes of the realme of England."

From the heraldrical portion of the Boke many short extracts have already been given. Some others follow:

"_Note here well who shall gyue cotarmures_:

"Ther shall none of the IV. orduris of regalite bot all onli the soueregne kyng geue cootarmur. for that is to hym improperid by lawe of armys.[287]

And yit the kyng shall nott make a knyght with owte a cootarmure byfore.

"Ev'y knyght cheftayn i the felde mai make a cootarmur knight.

"_In how many places a knyght may be made_:

"A knyght is made in IV. dyuerse placis. in musturing in lond of werys. In semblyng under baneris. In listys of the bath and at the sepulcur.

"_A gentylman spirituall_:

"Ther is a gentylman a churls sone a preste to be made and that is a spirituall gentylman to G.o.d and not of blode. b.u.t.t if a gentylmannys sone be made a preste he is a gentilman both spirituall and temperall. Criste was a gentylman of his moder's behalue and bare cotarmure of aunseturis.

The iiij Euangelists berith wittenese of Cristis workys in the gospell with all thappostilles. They were Jewys and of gentylmen come by the right lyne of that worthy conqueroure Judas Machabeus but that by succession of tyme the kynrade fell to pouerty, after the destruction of Judas Machabeus, and then they fell to laboris and ware calde no gentilmen. and the iiij doctores of holi church Seynt Jerom Ambrose Augustyn and Gregori war gentilmen of blode and of cotarmures!"

The following are specimens of her directions for 'blasing of armys,' the most important part of the work: