The Curiosities of Heraldry Part 24

"At tu prae caeteris _Guillime_."

The 'Display' may fairly claim to be considered the first methodical and intelligent view of heraldry published in England; and the addition of the name of the family to every coat of arms cited as an example (which in all earlier treatises is wanting) has conduced as much as its intrinsic merit to give to Guillim's book the popularity it enjoys.[295]

HENRY PEACHAM (whose name is more familiar to the non-heraldric reader than those of most other armorists of early date, in consequence of Dr.

Johnson, in his Dictionary, referring exclusively to him as an authority for terms of blazonry,) wrote 'The Compleat Gentleman,' which professes to treat of every necessary accomplishment befitting that character, and of course, among other things, "of armorie or the blazon of armes." The 13th chapter, devoted to this subject, is a compendious and scientific production. 'The Compleat Gentleman' was one of the most popular books of its time, and between 1622 and 1661 pa.s.sed through six editions. In 1630 Peacham published another work called 'The Gentleman's Exercise, or an exquisite practise as well for drawing all manner of beasts in their true portraitures, as also the making of all kinds of colours to be used in lymming, painting, tricking and blazon of coates and armes, with diuers others most delightfull and pleasurable obseruations for all yong Gentlemen and others.'

The two MARKHAMS, Gervase and Francis, were brothers, and flourished in the early part of this century. The former republished the Boke of St.

Albans, under the t.i.tle of 'The Gentleman's Academy;' and the latter wrote a 'Booke of Honour,' one of the dullest of books upon a very dull subject.

The 't.i.tles of Honour' of the celebrated SELDEN demands for him a place among heraldric authors.[296]

Hitherto, a review of our sixteenth and seventeenth century armorists presents us with the names of men of erudition or of professional heralds, but another cla.s.s of authors now occasionally demands, each in his turn, a pa.s.sing remark. This is composed of the persons, who, possessed of few qualifications beyond a knowledge of the technicalities of blazon and an ardent zeal in the pursuit, have ventured to add to the already extensive stock of heraldric lore. The earliest writer of the cla.s.s alluded to is JAMES YORKE, the Blacksmith of Lincoln, who in 1640 published 'The Union of Honovr,' containing the arms, matches, and descents of the n.o.bility from the Conquest. Appended to it are the arms of the gentry of Lincolnshire, and an account of all the battles fought by the English. It is dedicated to Charles I; and there is also an epistle dedicatory to Henry, son and heir of Thomas, earl of Arundel, earl-marshal, in which Yorke very candidly avows his lack of erudition. "My education," says he, "hath made me but just so much a Scholler as to feele and know my want of learning." He hopes, however, that his n.o.ble patron will find the work "decent." "I undertooke it not for vaine-glory, nor a.s.sume the credit of mine authours to my selfe, onely am proud nature inclin'd me to so n.o.ble a study: _long was I forging and hammering it to this perfection_, and now present it to your Lordship, as a _master-piece, not yet matched by any of my trade_." In his address to the courteous reader he expresses his apprehensions that "some will _s.m.u.tch_ his labours with a scorne of his profession." There was, however, little to fear on this head, for the book is really a very '_decent_' production.

Fuller includes Yorke among the 'Worthies' of Lincolnshire, and gives the following quaint account of him and his work:--"James Yorke, a blacksmith of Lincoln, and an excellent workman in his profession, insomuch that if Pegasus himself would wear shoes, this man alone is fit to make them, contriving them so thin and light, as that they would be no burden to him.

But he is a servant as well of Apollo as Vulcan, turning his Stiddy into a Study, having lately set forth a Book of Heraldry, called the _Union of Honour, &c._ and although there be some mistakes (no hand so steady as always _to hit the nail on the head_) yet it is of singular use, and industriously performed, being set forth _anno_ 1640."

The plain common-sense of our unlettered blacksmith presents a singular contrast to the inflated and bombastic style of EDWARD WATERHOUSE, a gentleman, and a man of education, who, twenty years later, published 'A Discourse and Defense of Armory.' Anthony a Wood speaks of this writer and of his works in terms of the highest contempt, characterizing the former as "a c.o.c.k-brained man," and the latter as "rhapsodical, indigested and whimsical." Dallaway says, "The most severe satyrist whose intention might be to bring the study of heraldry into contempt could not have succeeded better than this author, who strove to render it fashionable by connecting it with the most crude conceits and endless absurdities." Waterhouse is supposed to have contributed the princ.i.p.al portion of the two works published under the name of SYLVa.n.u.s MORGAN, an arms-painter of London.

The character of this last-named author must have been already inferred from the quotations I have made from his works. The ponderous volume, ent.i.tled 'The Sphere of Gentry,' and its successor, 'Armilogia, or the Language of Armes,' may be safely p.r.o.nounced two of the most absurd productions of the English press. That the former contains much useful information is proved by the eagerness with which it is sought after in the formation of an heraldrical library; but this is so overlaid with crude, unconnected, and irrelevant jargon, that although I have had the volume many times upon my table, I never could muster the patience to read three consecutive pages of it. Of the 'Armilogia,' we are told on the t.i.tle-page that it is "_a work never yet extant_!" This volume has the imprimatur of Sir E. Walker and Sir W. Dugdale, kings of arms; but, singularly enough, the terms of the license are so disparaging that the printer has very judiciously placed it on the last page; for had it been on the first, no _judicious_ reader would have proceeded beyond it. "In this book are such strange conceits and wild fancies, that I do not know of what advantage the printing of it can be to any that soberly desires to be instructed in the true knowledge of arms,"--is one of the severe things said of it by Dugdale.

Morgan died in 1693, at the age of 73. He seems to have been countenanced by the members of the College of Arms. Gibbon, Bluemantle, who knew him well, describes him as "a witty man, full of fancy [too full], very agreeable company ... and the prince of arms-painters."[297]

Almost equal to Camden, in a literary point of view, and perhaps his superior in his qualifications as a herald, stands the name of SIR WILLIAM DUGDALE. Independently of his great works, 'The Baronage of England,' and the 'Monasticon,' his 'Antiquities of Warwickshire,' and 'History of St.

Paul's Cathedral,' would have served to hand down his name to posterity among the literary worthies of his country. Sir William died in 1685, at the age of 80 years, nearly thirty-two of which he was a member of the College of Arms, having pa.s.sed through all the gradations of office to the post of Garter, king of arms. It would be supererogatory, even if I had s.p.a.ce, to give the simplest outline of his life, by no means an uneventful one; as his memoirs have been often written, and are accessible to every reader.

ELIAS ASHMOLE (1617-1692), the friend and son-in-law of Dugdale, was the son of a tradesman of Litchfield. His talents, which were of the most versatile order,[298] raised him into notice and procured him many offices of honour and trust, among which was that of Windsor herald. This situation he obtained at the restoration of Charles II, and resigned, from motives of jealousy, in 1676. His great work is the 'History of the Order of the Garter.' He was an eminent collector of rarities, and founded the Museum at Oxford which bears his name.

FRANCIS SANDFORD, Esq., Lancaster, published, besides several other works of great value, 'A Genealogical History of the Kings of England,' one of the most lordly tomes that ever appeared in connexion with our subject. It was originally published in 1677, and was reprinted in 1707. It is well executed, and Charles II p.r.o.nounced it "a very useful book." The fine plates, by Hollar and others, of the royal arms, seals, and monuments, with which it is embellished, give it charms to a larger circle than that which includes the mere students of heraldry.

In 1688 appeared decidedly the most curious heraldric treatise ever printed. I mean Randle Holme's 'Academie of Armory, or a Storehouse of Armory and Blazon.' Mr. Moule characterizes it as "a most heterogeneous and extraordinary composition, which may be well denominated a Pantalogia.

The author was not a learned man, nor has he adopted any systematic arrangement of its multifarious contents, but he has contrived to ama.s.s in this _storehouse_ a vast fund of curious information upon every branch of human knowledge, such as is not to be found in any other work, and of a nature peculiarly adapted to the ill.u.s.tration of the manners and customs of our predecessors, from the highest rank to the lowest menial."

It is one of the scarcest of books, there being, according to Mr. Moule, not more than fifty copies in the kingdom.

It will be interesting to the general reader to know that "Dr. Johnson confessed, with much candour, that the Address to the Reader at the end of this book suggested the idea of his own inimitable preface to his Dictionary."[299]

The volume, a large folio, is ill.u.s.trated by numerous plates of objects borne as charges in arms, as well as many that never entered the field of heraldry. "The author's object," says Mr. Ormerod, "appears to have been the formation of a kind of encyclopaedia in an heraldic form."[300] To give the merest outline of the subjects treated would occupy many pages; suffice it to say that every imaginable created being, spiritual and corporeal; every science and pseudo-science; every gradation of rank, from the 'emperour' with the ceremonies of his coronation, to the butcher and barber, with the implements of their trades; hunters' terms and the seven deadly sins; palmistry and the seven cardinal virtues; grammar and c.o.c.kfighting; poverty and the sybils; an essay on time, and bricklayers'

tools; gla.s.s-painting and billiards; architecture and wrestling; languages and surgery; tennis and theology, all find a place in this compendium, and are all adorned with "very proper cuts," in copper.

I have had the good fortune to procure a copy of this amusing work. It has, opposite the t.i.tle, an engraving containing the external ornaments of a coat of arms, the coat and crest being neatly inserted in pen-drawing.

Beneath is the following in letter-press, except the line in italics, which is MS.:

"The Coat and Crest of The ever Honoured and Highly Esteemed

_S{r}. James Poole of Poole, Baronett_:

To whom this First Volume of the Book Ent.i.tuled The Academy of Armory is most humbly Dedicated and presented, from him who is devoted yours

RANDLE HOLME."

This was probably a compliment paid to every subscriber, and it displays, as Mr. Moule observes, the finest ill.u.s.tration extant of the "oeconomy of flattery."

The following extract will give an idea of a large proportion of the contents of this famous 'Storehouse,' which, like many other storehouses, holds much that is of very little value. Honest Randle blazons one of his fict.i.tious bearings for the purpose of introducing the names of the implements and terms employed by that useful personage the barber.

"LVII. He beareth Argent a =Barber bare headed=, with a =pair of Cisers= in his right hand, and a =Comb= in his left, =cloathed= in Russet, his =Ap.r.o.n Cheque= of the first and Azure, &c.

"_Instruments of a Barber._

The instrument case, in which are placed these following things in their several divisions:

The gla.s.s or seeing gla.s.s.

A set of horn combs, with teeth on one side, and wide.

A set of ivory combs with fine teeth, and toothed on both sides.

An ivory beard comb.

A four square bottle with a screw'd head for sweet water, or Benjamin water, &c.

The like bottle with sweet powder in; but this is now not used.

A row of razors, &c. &c."

Then follow

"TERMS OR ART _used in Barbing and Shaving_ (!!!)

_Take the chair_, is for the person to be trimmed to sit down.

_Clear the neck_, is to unb.u.t.ton and turn down the collar of the man's neck.

_Cloath him_, is to put a tr.i.m.m.i.n.g cloth before him, and to fasten it about his neck.

_Powder the hair_, is to puff sweet powder into it.

_Walk your combs_, is to use two combs, in each hand one, and so comb the hair with one after the other.

_Quever the combs_, is to use them as if they were scratting on each side the temples.

_Curle up the hair_, is to rowle it about a pair of curling or beard irons, and thrust it under the cap.

_Lather the face_, is to wash the beard with the suds which the ball maketh by chaffing it in the warm water.

_Hand the razor_, set it in a right order between the thumb and fingers.

_Shave the beard_, is to take off superfluous hairs.