The Curiosities of Heraldry Part 36

"For a piece of coin, Twist any name into the line."

The satire may have been deserved at the time--it was a corrupt age; but I am not sure that the reputation of the College has not suffered, even to our days, from this biting sarcasm, which is as far from the truth, as applied to the learned and respectable body now composing it, as Hudibras is from poetry.

[270] Rushworth.

[271] In the churchwardens' accounts of Great Marlow are the following entries:

"1650, Sept. 29. For defacing of the King's Arms 0 ,, 1 ,, 0.

"1651. Paid to the painter for setting up the State's Arms 0 ,, 16 ,, 0."

Three years earlier there is an entry of 5s. 'payd the ringers when the king came thorowe the towne!'

[272] Dallaway.

[273] Witness the French Revolution, a period at which these distinctions of gentry were temporarily abolished, as if, forsooth, bends and fesses and lions-rampant had conduced to the previous misgovernment of the nation! From the blow which heraldry received in France during that b.l.o.o.d.y struggle it has never recovered; although, from some recent movements, it appears evident that heraldric honours will, ere long, receive that attention which they deserve in every antient and well-const.i.tuted state in Christendom.

[274] The expense of the N.W. corner was defrayed by Dugdale, then Norroy.

[275] n.o.ble.

[276] The present heraldic establishment of Scotland consists of Lyon, king of arms; six heralds, Albany, Rothsay, Snowdoun, Marchmont, Yla, and Ross; and six pursuivants, Unicorn, Kintire, Bute, Dingwall, Ormond and Carrick. The Scottish College, as n.o.ble observes, has not been much distinguished for literature; there is, however, one example, a name familiar to the readers of Marmion:

"Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount, Lord Lyon king at arms,"

who was author of 'The Dreme,' 'The Complaynt,' and other politico-moral poems; also of 'The Three Estates,' a satirical piece of great humour; his most popular work was 'The History of Squire Meldrum,' which "is considered as the last poem that in any degree partakes of the character of the metrical romance." The princ.i.p.al functionary for Ireland is styled Ulster, king of arms: under him are two heralds, Cork and Dublin, and one pursuivant, Athlone.

[277] Hist. Coll. Arms, p. 352.

[278] Ibid. p. 372.

[279] n.o.ble, p. 372.

[280] n.o.ble.

[281] Dallaway.

[282] It was printed in 1654 by Sir Edward Bysshe, Garter.

[283] That portion of the original edition which relates to arms is reprinted in the Appendix to Dallaway.

[284] Or, by corruption, Barnes.

[285] Bale, de Script. Brit. viij. 33.

[286] It is worthy of remark, as sustaining the claim of Dame Julyan to the authorship of the heraldric portion of the Boke, that at the end of the treatise on arms there is a pa.s.sage in which evident recurrence is made to her former and undisputed essays. Speaking of the necessity of attending to precise rules in the study of heraldry she adds in conclusion, "Nee ye may not overryn swyftly the forsayd rules, bot dyligently have theym in yowr mind, and be not to full of consaitis. For he that will hunt ij haris in oon howre, or oon while oon, another while another, lightly he losys both."

[287] Here the good Dame contradicts her own a.s.sertion; vide p. 36.

[288] Vide pp. 108, 109, 116, 117, &c. &c.

[289] Armorie of Honour, fo. 56.

[290] The heraldric term for a _cat_; vide p. 252, ante.

[291] The nails are omitted.

[292] Bishop Gibson records a piece of malicious revenge practised by Brooke which alone would be sufficient to stamp his character with opprobrium. Having a private pique against one of the College he employed a person to carry to him a ready-drawn coat of arms, purporting to be that of one Gregory Brandon, a gentleman of London then sojourning in Spain, desiring him to attest it with his hand and seal of office, and bidding the messenger return with it immediately, as the vessel by which it was to be transmitted was on the point of sailing. The officer, little suspecting Brooke's design, did what was required of him, received the customary fee, and dismissed the bearer. Brooke immediately posted to the Earl of Arundel, one of the commissioners for the office of earl-marshal, exhibited the arms, which were no other than _the royal bearings of Spain_, and a.s.sured his lordship that Brandon, the supposed grantee, was a man of plebeian condition, no way ent.i.tled to the honour. The Earl laid the matter before the king, who ordered the herald to be cited into the court of Star Chamber, to answer for the insult offered to the court of Spain. He, having no alternative, submitted himself to the mercy of the court, only pleading, in extenuation of his offence, that he had acted without his usual circ.u.mspection in the business, in consequence of Brooke's urgency, on the pretence that delay was impossible. Brooke was compelled to admit his own knavery in the transaction, and the consequence was that both himself and the other herald were committed to prison, himself for treachery, and the other for negligence.

[293] Moule.

[294] Referring to the edition of the Boke of S. A., printed by Wynkyn de Worde.

[295] For extracts from it see several of the preceding chapters.

[296] In this hasty glance at writers on the subject of armory it would be unjust to omit the names of several heralds and others who are either almost unknown to the general student of English literature, or are recognized in some other character than that of ill.u.s.trators of our science. In the former cla.s.s may be noticed Sir Edward Bysshe, Garter, (who published the 'De Studio Militari,' and another treatise of Upton, and the 'Aspilogia' of Sir H. Spelman;) John Philipot, Somerset, and his son Thomas; Thomas Gore; John Gibbon, Bluemantle; and Matthew Carter, author of 'Honor Redivivus;' and among the latter Speed, Weever, Heylyn, and Stowe.

[297] Moule.

[298] He was a musician, a lawyer, an alchemist, a herald, a naturalist, an historian, an antiquary, an astrologer, and to use the encomium of his friend, the notorious Lilly, "the greatest virtuoso and curioso that was ever known or read of in England."

[299] Beloe's Anecdotes of Literature, vi, 342.

[300] Hist. of Cheshire.

[301] Book III, Chap. iii.

[302] The Holmes of which our author was a member were a remarkable family. They were of gentle origin, their ancestors having been seated at the manor of Tranmere in the Hundred of Wirral, in Cheshire.

WILLIAM HOLME, of Tranmere.

===== | | Thomas Holme, third son.

===== | | (1.) Randle Holme, 1st son, deputy to the Coll. of Arms for Cheshire, Shropshire, and North Wales; paid a fine of 10 for contempt in refusing to attend the Coronation of Chas. I. Mayor of Chester 1634; married the widow of Thos. Chaloner, Ulster King of Arms. Died 1655.

===== | | (2.) Randle Holme, a warm royalist, Mayor of Chester in 1643, during the siege. Died 12 Charles II.

===== | | (3.) Randle Holme, author of the 'Academy,' Sewer of the Chamber in extraordinary to Chas. II. He followed the employment of his father and grandfather as deputy to the Kings of Arms. Died 1700, and was succeeded in office by his eldest son.

===== | | (4.) Randle Holme. Died in 1707, in reduced circ.u.mstances.

===== | | (5.) Randle Holme and his sisters died before their father.

The heraldric collections of the first four Randle Holmes, relating chiefly to their native county, are in the British Museum. Ormerod's Cheshire; Moule's Bibliotheca, p. 240 et seq.

[303] Hist. Coll. Arms, p. 377.

[304] Moule, 435.

[305] The following works appeared between the years 1760 and 1800.

Douglas's Scotch Peerage, 1764, (reprinted in 1813). Kimber's Peerage and his Baronetage. Jacob's Peerage, 3 vols. fol. Almon's Peerages; these afterwards went under the name of Debrett; Peerages by Barlow, Archdall, Catton and Kearsley. Many of these compilations bear the names of the publishers. Two popular elementary treatises also appeared, viz. 'The Elements of Heraldry,' by Mark Antony p.o.r.ny, French Master at Eton, several editions; and Hugh Clark's 'Introduction to Heraldry,' the 13th edition of which, lately published, is one of the prettiest little manuals ever published on the subject. Clark also published 'A Concise History of Knighthood,' 2 vols. 8vo.

[306] Orig. Gen. p. 4.