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Leader (1850-1860), 13th November 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 13, Heraldry in History, Poetry, and Jtomanc...

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      So. 451, November 13, 1858.] Tib Lea.Deb...

      So . 451 , November 13 , 1858 . ] TIB LEA . DEB . 1221

      Heraldry In History, Poetry, And Jtomanc...

      Heraldry in History , Poetry , and Jtomance . By Ellen J Millington . . Chapman and Hall . The bells are ringing out a merry peal , and from the church-tower floats the royal standard . We look up as we pass by , and perhaps wonder for a moment what the three lions mean . Knowing nothiae of heraldry we settle the matter to our own satisfaction . Of course they represent three sovereignties , and , consequently , knowing nothing to the contrary , we jump to the conclusion that they 01

      HEEALDRY IN HISTORY , POETRY , AND ROMANCE .

      symbolise the union ot the three crowns England , Scotland , and Ireland . But a little reflection soon casts this fabric to the winds , because there are also a single lion and a harp to be accounted for , and they must mean something or they would not be there . This is a question which arises so naturally , and which most of us have had to solve for the information of some fair friend when rambling * ' near the precincts of royalty , that we cannot do better than give its solution in the words of our author : — remarked that the lionin coat all

      It has been s our are the insignia of territories now lost to us ; the first belongs to Normandy , the second to Poictou or Maine , and the third to Aquitaine . Where , then , is the British lion ? He has no place in the royal standard . The lion rampant on the right of the upper three lions passant , is the Scottish lion of Alexander II ., and was derived from the arms of the ancient Earls of Northumberland and Huntingdon ; but the three lions having bqen adapted by Richard I . after his return from the Crusades , have ever siuce been the insignia of England . They have been retained as fitting tokens of he descent of our royal family and significant memorials of former power . The harp of Erin to the

      occupies the third quarter of the shield , right of which are the three lions repeated . Till tlie peace of Amiens the fleurs-de-lis of-France was part of the royal standard , but by a special article in that treaty they were expunged , and the English shield became I . and IV . the three lions passant for England , II . the lion rampant for Scotland , and III . the harp for Ireland . The arms of Hanover were borne on an escutcheon surtout , but with the accession of our most gracious Majesty , the salique law of that kingdom claimed its White Horse again , and we parted with it far more readily than we seemed inclined to do with the crown jewels which the Court of Hanover since laid claim to .

      A judicious study of heraldry will lead to something more than merely knowing how to blazon a coat-of-arms correctly—something more , even , than being able to recognise a . family , or a branch of a family , by their armorial bearings , or to trace their genealogy or descent . The true value of heraldry is seen by studying it with history . To elucidate this point Miss Millington devotes two chapters towards the close of her volume , charmingly illustrative of the axiom ; one upon " The / Li-ins of Great Britain and Ireland , ' * the other upon "European Coats-of-Arms . ' These chapters possess much interest , and will induce

      many a fair reader to pursue the study further . With our ancestors the study of " coat-armour and biasing of arms " was inseparable from the education of a gentleman , and the " Boko of St . Albons , " by Dame Julyana Berners , the accomplished Prioress of Sopeycll , both in manuscript and print , was much prized in the early part of the sixteenth century . In that most valuablo record of a past nge , " The Letters of the Paston Family , " we have an " inventory of the English books of Sir John Paston , mado the 5 th day of November , 1169 . "

      The entire collection consisted of seventeon volumes —a noble library for a private gentleman in those days . Of these , six consisted of " books of blazoning and knighthood , " four of which appear to have been prepared b y himself , and arc fondly called " mino old boko ot blazoning of arms , the new boke pourtrayed and blazoned , thb blazoning of arms and the names to bo found by letter , and n boke with the arms pourtrayed in paper . " Tho novels of Sir Walter Scott , which prosont so

      true and vivid a pioturo of mediooval customs and mannors , nro rich in heraldic allusions , and those who liavo road them will more easily form an idea of tho high estimation in which that scionqo was liold In former djiys . "William do la March , whoao sobriquet , " tho "Wild Boar of Ardennes , " is familiar to ovory one who has read Quentln Dunvard , is described as being a wild boar on his escutcheon . Tho mock hornld flout by him to Chariot ) of Burgundy was immodlatoly detected by tho Duke from tho false emblazoning of his herald ' s tabard $ and his ignorance of tho ordinary ruloa

      After the assassination of the Duke of Orleans by him of Burgundy , during the sanguinary dissensions between those houses which marked the 'turbulent minority of Charles VI ., the expression "le baton noueux est plane" became a common saying among the French populace in speaking of the event . Without reference to heraldry , however , the expression is perfectly unintelligible , as it contains an allusion to the armorial bearings of Orleans and Burgundy . The former bore as his badge a knotted stick—baton noueux—and Burgundy , in token of hatred and defiance , assumed a plane for his device . Hence , when Orleans was slain , arose the saying , " the knotted stick is planed- " But even nearer to our own times : —

      breeding . of blazonry seems to have proved him not merely an impostor , but a person of low birth and unkriightly hroovliniT '

      The favourite name given to Frenchmen by our sailors during the last -war was " Johnny Crapaud . " " Crapaud " is the French for toad , and " Crapaud Franchor" was applied to the French by the Flemings some centuries ago , from some fancied similarity between the fleur-de-lis and the figure of the toad . Old Dugdale feelingly deplores the neglect into which heraldic science had already fallen in his day , and the ignorance even of men who professed to be adepts . Gentlemen having frequently employed common painters to depict and marshal their arms , the differences proper to be observed between younger sons and their descendants had been , even in his time , too frequently disregarded , to the confusion of the laudable usage of bearing of arms on which our forefathers set so high an esteem .

      Coachmakcrs' heraldry , such as Dugdale describes , interfered sadly with tlie heralds' fees / but in our own day the crowning confusion has arisen by ignorant die-sinkers and engravers usurping the herald ' s calling , and half the pretty crests which figure upon notes and plate in the houses of the suddenlv wealthy are nothing better than stolen property , filched from books of heraldry irrespective of blood and descent , simply from some fancied or real similarity of names . Miss Milling ton ' s very excellent Heraldry may serve to correct much of this evil ,, at the same time illustrating most pleasantly history , poetry , and romance , and beguiling many an hour no less agreeably to those vrho will make a study of its pages .

      Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, In The Grand...

      JESUS CHRIST . Jesus Christ , in the Grandeur of His Mission , the Beauty of His Life , and His Final Triumph . By Edward Whitneld . Whitfield The Dean of St . Paul ' s , in his history of Teutonic Christianity , includes under that general denomination all sects which owe their rise and progress to the great separation which took place in the Western Church in the beginning of the sixteenth century . He " disenfranchises none who claim , even on the slightest grounds , the privileges and hopes of Christianity ; repudiates none -who do not place themselves without the pale of believers and worshippers of Christ , or of God through Christ .

      The catholicity of Christianity itscit provides lor this universal adoption of all who believe in . Christ crucified into the great family of Christians . If some creeds have more of the holy fire of the Divine Spirit engrafted in them than others , the same light shines in all—perhaps in some more brightly ; yet , whatever may be our individual predilections , we may not cast a stone at others , who , like ourselves , live surely in glass houses . Let Trinitarians not despiso those who difl'er from them , but carefully weigh the evidence of the followers of Socinus and of Priestley j more particularly let them strive to fathom the refinements and

      subtiltics of tho latter , if they would hope to bring all believers in Christ into one and tho same fold . Tho yolumo noticed above is just such a one as wo would recommend Trinitarians , both Churchmen and Dissenters , to subject to tho fullest analysis . Thoy need have no fear that it will make them waver in tho faith of their adoption mid conviotion . With St . Cyril , they will still recognise in the same person tlio perfect , " man and the perfect God ; man , wearied liko themselves , sleeping in tho ship , and God , stilling tlio raging tempest of the waves by

      his simple will . AVo know that , like St . John tho Baptist , tho Godhead manifested in tho flesh had no need of human learning . Tho one spoke by the inspiration of 1 ho Holy Spirit , and ho ns no man ever spoko bofovc . AVo acknowledge at once in tho boy Jesus disputing with tho Elders tho manifestation of his Godhead : " Tho child grow and waxocl strong in Spirit , filled -with Wisdom , and the Graoo oi God was unon-him . " And oven at this early age wo find him separating himsclt from tho destiny of a wore man : " Wist yo not , "

      is his significant reply to the mother whom he lovedj and who had sought him sorrowing- —" wist ye not that I . must be about my Father ' s business ?" Yet , as perfect man , " was subject to his parents , and increased in wisdom and stature , and in favour with God and man . " A long period of time , including the youth and early manhood of the Saviour , is wisely , no doubt , concealed from our -view . It is not for mortal hand to lift the veil , and the many false gospels which were promulgated in the first centuries of the Church ' -to fill tlie void are so full of inconsistencies that , by the consentient voice of all denominations of Christians , they are cast aside as unworthy of a moment ' s consideration . Mr . Whit field would thus account for the many years of seclusion to which we have alluded : —

      We cannot err in asserting that the study of the Scriptures must have been the frequent occupation of Jesus , and his equally frequent delight . His whole public history justifies this remark . ' In his assertion of his own claims , in his controversies with his countrymen , in his moral instructions , in his doctrinal discourses , -we are constantly reminded of his familiar acquaintance -with the Hebrew historians , lawgivers , bards , and prophets . Their writings must have been his daily and his nightly study . By them his knowledge was enhim to

      larged , bis faith strengthened . They enabled perceive the majesty and supremacy of the great Jehovah -whom his nation -worshipped , they fostered the growth of all kind and generous affections in his heart ; they deepened and enlarged his religious impressions ; they increased the fervency of that piety which was not so much an acquired grace in him as an original endowment of his soul ; they called into being the highest aspirations ; and they enabled him to cement that sacred intimacy with bis Father in heaven which > vas tlie great jov of his life , and which united with other aids to perfect the admirable beautv of his character .

      And yet we arc told , " . All things were mride by him , and without him was not any thing-made that was made . In Lim was life , and the life was the light of men . And the light shineth iu darkness , aiid the darkness comprehended it not . " And again , " Who being the brightness of his glory , and the express image of his person , and upholding all tilings by the word of his powers , -when he had himself purged our sins , sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high . " Then , why are we to imagine the youth and boyhood of the Saviour as passed in the study of the Scriptures , seeing that "he was in the world , and the world Was made by him , " arid that he " was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world . " The reader must not be startled by the quotation which follows . Separate the Godhead Iron the man Jesus and many of the realities in the life of the great Exemplar arc at once placed beyond the ken of finite knowledge : —

      Apart from all his connexions , separate from all human intercourse , one great object would be before himdeliberately to prepare himself for his sacred office , to acquire self-reliance , and , above all things , to train himself to a full reliance upon the Great Being who was sending him forth . Irresistibly impelled to tbia seclusion , as well as by the pressing urgency of his own spirit , as by that sacred influence which enlarged and ennobled it , ho withdrew from human observation . The solitude of tho wilderness and its wild grandeur , jn which ho was eminently alone with God , most admirably ministcrod to these sacred studies . IJeneath the overhanging rock which guarded him by night in

      tho woody coverta -which shaded him by dny , ho could converse freely with tlio Author of all nature , no less than with himself ; and there he was instructed by a vision , in aid of his own deep reflexions , to which hia mental agitation and tho scenery around him might have given its form , but which was , no doubt , one of many lessons conveyed to him by the Author of all wisilom . Such is the cold and spiritless colouring thrown over bno of tho most beautiful and simple narratives connected with tho life of Christ . Tho power of the Spirit which led him into the wilderness is ignored : tho struggle and victory of his

      manhood over siu is passed by j the ministering ot tho angels blotted out . These could not bo reconciled with the denial of tho doctrines of orig inal sm and tho atonement , even as iu the former iiij . luiioo human learning-was called on to warrant Uio toocinian denial oftlio pre-existenco of Christ , biiptt of our readers ns care to investigate deeply tlio truths of religion will not idly cast aside a book which develops in all their p hases tho doctrinespf an offshoot of tho great reformation amongst tho brotherhood of which have been numbered men of the most profound and philosophical mental aoquiremeule ; for " if we are to bo qualified and prop Jed " ' as bishop Horsloy suggesU , " to give an

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 13, 1858, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13111858/page/13/