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into a handsome quadrangle. The society was first incorporated by Richard III. The Earl Marshal of England is superior for their college, and has the right of appointing the members of which it consists: namely, three Kings at Arms, six Heralds at Arms, and four Pursuivants at Arms.

The Kings are, Garter, Clarencieux, and Norrǝy. Garter was instituted by Henry V. for the service of the order of the Garter, and is acknowledged as principal King at Arms. Clarencieux and Norroy are called provincial kings, the former having jurisdiction over that part of England south of the Trent, and the latter over the country north of that river. The distinguishing colour of Garter is blue; of the two provincial kings, purple.

The six heralds are styled, of York, Lancaster, Cheshire, Windsor, Richmond, Somerset, who rank according to seniority of appointment.

The four Pursuivants are Blue-mantle, Rouge-croix, Rougedragon, and Port-culles.

CRESTS.

A crest, which derives its appellation from crista, the comb of a cock, denotes in heraldry aud armour the uppermost part of an armorial bearing, or that part which rises over the casque or helmet, next to the mantle. In heraldry only, the crest is a figure placed upon a wreath, coronet, or cap of maintenance, above both helmet and shield; as, for instance, the crest of a bishop is the mitre. The right to assume these distinguishing emblems was originally deemed one of the principal marks of nobility; which may be inferred from their having been borne at tournaments, to which none were admitted unless they had given strong proof of magnanimity, courage, or merit, or possessed the advantage of superior birth. Hence also the crest is esteemed a criterion of higher nobility than the armour generally.

The ancient warriors wore crests, to strike terror in their enemies, as the representations of animals they had killed: or to give them a more formidable mien, by making them appear taller and more martial. Hence, the term crest-fallen is often used figuratively, to express a want of spirit or courage. Sometimes the crest has served to distinguish sovereigns and commanders in the field; at others, to mark the several branches of a family; and, on some occasions, as the distinguishing badge of factions.

PEERDOM.

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Peerdom is thus defined by Bailey. The dignity of a peer anuexed to a great fee. Of late years, we believe, it has been customary to take a great fee from the Peer.

ST. GEORGE, PATRON SAINT OF ENGLAND.

St. George was chosen the tutelar Saint of England by our ancestors, under the first Norman kings; and the Council of Oxford, in 1822, commanded his feast to be kept a holiday of the lesser rank. Under his name and ensign, our Edward the Third instituted the Order of the Garter. Butler informs us, that St. George was born in Cappadocia; that he went with his mother into Palestine, of which country she was a native, where she had a considerable estate, which fell to her son George, who was a soldier, and became a tribune or colonel in the army, wherein he was further promoted by the Emperor Dioclesian, to whom he resigned his commissions and posts, when that empire waged war against the Christian religion, and who threw him into prison for remonstrating against bloody edicts, and caused him to be beheaded. St. George became the patron of the military because he had been military himself, and that his apparition encouraged the Christian army before Antioch, which proved fortunate, under Godfrey of Bouillon. There are many idle tales about the dragon, but this was no more than an emblematical figure, purporting that by his faith and Christian fortitude he conquered the devil, called the dragon in Apocalypse. An old popular ballad not only gives the genealogy of St. George, but assigns to him marks, which have a direct reference to the institution of the garter:"A blood-red Cross was on his arm, A dragon on his breast:

A little garter all of gold,

Was round his leg exprest."

ST. DENIS, PATRON SAINT OF FRANCE.

All that we learn of St. Denis, or St. Denys, is, that he was, with other martyrs, beheaded in the year 252, near to Paris, at a place which has since been called Mons Martyrum (Montmartre), the mountain of martyrs, in honour of them. Ribadeneira says, the body of St. Denis rose upon its feet, and took its own head up in its hands, as if he had triumphed, and carried in it the crown and token of its victories. The angels of Heaven, he continues, went on accompanying the Saint, singing hymns choirwise, with a celestial harmony and concert, and ended with these words, "gloria tibi, Domine, alleluia;" and the Saint went with his head in his hands about two miles, till he met with a good woman called Catula, who came out of her house; and the body of St. Denis going to her, it put the head in her hands. He was Bishop of Paris; and the abbey of St. Denis is named in honour of him. His festival is kept, October 9th.

TITLES AND DIGNITIES.

Opinions have changed upon all things, and greatly upon Titles and Dignities. Who has not seen a Consul appointed to reside

in a fishing town? Who has not given a shilling to a Marquis, a sixpence to a Knight! A Roman senator was beneath the level of an English gentleman; yet not only a Roman senator, but a Roman citizen, held himself superior to foreign kings. Surely it might well be permitted our Richard to assume a rank far above any potentate of his age. If almanacs and German court calendars are to decide on dignities, the Emperors of Morocco, of Austria, and of Mexico, should precede the Kings of England and France; but learned men have thought otherwise. Rank, which pretends to fix the value of every one, is the most arbitrary of all things.

THE KING.

The title of King, given to the sovereign of these realms, is expressive of his being the chief or head of the state. The Hebrew word Rosch is considered as the root of all the present titles, denoting kingly or sovereign power; namely, the Punic Resch, the Scythian Reix, the Latin Rex, the Spanish Rey, and the French Roi. The present English appellative, King, is however derived from the Saxon word koning or cuning, from can intimating power, or ken knowledge. And it is past dispute, that all the German nations styled their ancient monarchs, according to their different dialects, Konig, Kuning, Koning, King. Egbert, grandfather of Alfred the Great, was the first king of England.

PRINCE OF WALES.

This title was first given by Edward I. to his son Edward, afterwards Edward II., to reconcile the Welsh to his conquest of that country. The Prince was born at Caernarvon, from which circumstance he also took the name of Edward of Caernarvon.

DUKE.

The title and degree of a duke is of more ancient standing in other countries than with us, for at the time of the Conquest the king himself was Duke of Normandy; which, perhaps, was the reason that neither he, nor his successors for several ages, thought fit to raise a subject to so high a dignity. About a year before, Edward III. assumed the title of King of France, in order to inflame the military ardour; and to gratify the ambition of his Earls and Barons, he introduced a new order of nobility, by creating his eldest son Edward, Duke of Cornwall. This was done with great solemnity in full parliament, at Westminster, upon the 17th of March, 1337, by girding a sword upon the young Prince, and giving him a patent, containing a grant of the name, title, and dignity of a duke, and of several large

estates, in order to enable him to support his dignity. The title is derived from the French Duc.

Another writer says

The first hereditary duke created in England was the Black Prince, by his father Edward III., in a.D. 1337. The Duchy of Cornwall, then bestowed upon him, thenceforward became attached to the king's eldest son, who is considered to be dux natus. The Duchy of Lancaster was soon after conferred on his third son, John of Gaunt, and thence arose the especial privileges which these two duchies still in part retain. In the following reign, 21 Richard II., Margaret, Duchess of Norfolk, was so created for life. In the reign of Elizabeth, in 1572, the ducal order was extinct, nor was it revived till the creation of Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, by James I.

MARQUIS.

This title is derived from the. French marquis, and was first conferred in England by Richard II., who, in 1387, created Robert Vere, Earl of Oxford, Marquis of Dublin. It was not, however, till very recent reigns that the title became more general.

EARL.

This is the oldest English title that we have, and is by some supposed to imply the governor of a certain tract of land. Alfred is said to have been created an Earl by his brother after the battle of Basing. After the Conquest, it was used by the English to express the French title of Count. Hence the wife of an Earl is still styled Countess.

EARL MARSHAL.

The head of the Heralds' College of Arms. Camden, in his Discourse on the office of Earl Marshal, alleges that it was first introduced in the reign of Richard II., who conferred it on Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham, his predecessors having only been styled Marshals of England.

BARON.

This title is Norman, and coeval with William the Conqueror.

VISCOUNT.

Although this title takes precedence of Baron, it is not of so long standing in England. It is derived from the French viscomte, and was first conferred in this country in 1439.

BARONET.

This title is derived from Baron, and was first instituted in England by James I., in 1611.

BARONETS OF IRELAND.

The Baronets of Ireland were instituted by James I., for the same purpose with the Baronets of England, namely, to raise money for the benefit of the province of Ulster in Ireland.

BARONETS OF NOVA SCOTIA.

Nova Scotia Baronets were first created in 1625, for the encouragement of the planting and settlement of Nova Scotia.

ADMIRAL.

According to Ducange, the Sicilians were the first, and the Genoese the next, who gave the name of Admiral to the commanders of their fleets, deriving it from the Arabic, amir or emir, a designation applicable to any commanding-officer.

ESQUIRE.

The title of Esquire is coeval with the Conqueror, but in its present application it takes its data from Henry V.; some go so far back as Edward III., but this is a mistake, as in that reign an Esquire was only, as it originally implied, an attendant on a knight. Eustace and Mercœur were the esquires or attendants of Edward the Black Prince. The word is derived from the Norman Equiere, from whence is also derived Equerry. Henry V., after his victory at Agincourt, reads from a paper presented by a herald, the names of the principal characters who were slain :Edward the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk, Sir Richard Ketly, Davy Gam, Esquire:

None else of name; and, of all other men,

But five and twenty.

Nothing can be more absurd than the commonly received notion, that a certain property constitutes a man an Esquire; in the country, however, every village has its 'Squire, and to dub him less would be an affront not easily forgiven. The fact is, none are Esquires, de facto, but the following, viz.:-1st. The eldest sons of Knights, and their eldest sons in perpetual succession. 2nd. The eldest sons of younger sons of Peers, and their elder sons in like perpetual succession. 3rd. Esquires created by the King's Letters Patent, or other investiture, and their eldest sons. 4th. Esquires by virtue of their office, as Justices

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