The Press. — London, England, 1858-10-30 00:00:00

W -- e xplanation o t heraldic terms; thirdly, ro- Lnntic e vents connected with the subject; and forth —a method of procedure that would have enabled readers to make themselves masters of the salient points in the subject with much greater facility than they can at present. However, we must he thankful to the authoress for what we have got; her volume is not wanting in any of the kinds of information we have above specified, and he who r eads it throu g h carefully will find a v est variety of curious and recondite knowledge neon e ach of them. How far any other object than that of gratify jai/ antiquarian curiosity can be served by the aUthoress's dissertations on the old heraldic tech nicalities, we think is doubtful. She says if the obscure technical terms which make the science minds, an unmeaning and lifeless .f Heraldry, to ordinary sanity, can be shown to be replete with symbolic meaning, to have power to revive the past, to consecrate tbe future, and ennoble the present, by stirring memories, h i g h aspirations, and worthy deeds, Heraldry may even a rr be restored to favour, together with other valuable remnants of the long-neglected symbolism of mediaeval Europe. But. if this is to be the case, these sante " obscure technical terms" must be translated into some language more readily understood of the people than is the present nomenclature of the noble wince. We say it with no disrespect, but who can possibly refrain from smiling at passages like the following ? Hu ancestor, Sir John Clerke, having taken prisoner tie Duke de lengueville, at:the battle of the Spurs, near Tontine, added to his Arms " a sinister canton astere, (bused with a demi-ram mounting, argent, armed (that with the horns), or, between two Fleurs delis of the lea, and debruised with a dexter baton silver." And again of a coat-of-arms borne by Sir Ber nard Drake, which vat assumed by the'great Sir Francis, to the extreme displasure of Sir Bernard, who resented the presumption by bning the sailor's ears. Queen Elizabeth interposed, pink' the discover " Sabk, a fees wavy, between two pole stars argcni." The crest, a ship under reef, with a able held by a hand out of the clouds, all proper; over it the motto, " Auxilio Divino," and beneath, " Sic parvis aligns." In the rigging of the ship a wyvern hung by the heels s. This was intended as a reproof to Sir Bernard; Woo far from being mortified, the old Knight stoutly replied, "Tour Grace may grant whatever Arms you please, but you can never grant the right to bear or. a 'rent wings endorsed, tail nowed, gu. There might' be marvellous virtue and nobility in a "tail vowed gu.," but it is idle to suppose that heraldry can ever regain its ancient vitality while it is linked to a language such as this. To laugh at it may be very unreasonable, but those who would preserve noble traditions from irre rerence should be careful to guard them from the slightest contact with aught that savours of the ridiculous. (f a very different character is what relates to the adoption of crests or badges. Most of them serve to kindle the memory of some heroic action, and none can refuse to sympathize with the family pride that glories in them. The following is a good illustration : ra,r, or Ferry. a party-coloured fur,' generally argent El darn, is sometimes said to be the skin of a little animal, a kind of polecat, the belly of which is white, and bead and feet of a kind of bluish-grey ; its skin, with the head and legs cut off, somewhat re,embles the figure kidied hair, which is represented by miniature shields of Ise and white placed alternately. It has sometimes been Mougbt that the famous slippers of Cinderella were said unamally to be of vair, " far, not Terre, " glass." and oule- , form the Arms of the 1)e Coney family, minted in remembrance of a certain occasion, when the )fre de Coney, being engaged in battle against the Turks 111 1101 13 11 7, perceived on a sudden that his banners had thlappeared,and that the people were giving way. Tearing the /lir from his mantle, he fixed it on a spear, and, his menu -arms rallying round the signal, he led them on to 'aleTY, and thenceforward sunned fair and pules as his An old biographer of the house of Couci mikes this the first occasion of the use of rail., in a coat ef•irms. The battle beginning suddenly, as he affirms, the leaders bad no time to seize either banners or surcoats, ktli therefore, cutting up their mantles, " qui estoient tscarlatte. fourrez de panes de vair," they gave parts to thfterent nobles. who " teen accommoderent en idle tce'lite, Main fit rue fente de learn espies an tracers de " Pee° pour passer la teste." In remembrance whereof Inese nobles assumed vair and gale*, arranged in different Imras. since which time " Panes de vair q u e n ' a v o i e nt e tc rutt y ni accommodies en anuoiries," became " sour etm ement recherche es comme etas des plus nobles et plus ':chef. lot se voient point." The manner in which the name of Fortescue acquired is as honourable as the title itself is !..hcnous: This family derive th e i r name from a brave ancestor, William le Forte, who accompanied William of ;ratindy on his invasion of England. an d h e ld th e o ffi ce I his shield•bearer. Three horses were killed under 4. ‘' It Lk * battle of Hastings, but he quitted not his post, THE PRESS, OCTOBER 30, 1858. and William afterwards bade him take the name of Fort escue, with the motto, " Forte acutum, gains Ducum." The origin of the baronets' " red hand" may perhaps be new to some of our readers : The truth is, that the hand formed part of Ow Arms of the Province of Ulster, and commemorates the daring of a bold adventurer, who bad vowed to be the first to touch the shore of Ireland, and finding his boat left behind, cut off his band and flung it before him, to accomplish, in this literal manner, his vow. James I. conferred this badge on the Order of English Baronets, as being Knights of Ulster, the defence and colonization of that province being the ostensible reason of their creation. Even should heraldry ever become a dead lan guage, it will not therefore cease to be an inte resting and elevating study. The technicalities will survive as the hieroglyphics of a defunct race, through which alone we can glean any fragments of information respecting their modes of thought. Should the day ever come, of which certain enthusiasts dream, when the whole race of man shall be clothed in drab, and the haughty oppressor of his village well known to the patriots of the " Surrey side ' shall be levelled with his own ploughmen—should valour, generosity, and romance die out with the struggles that evoked them, and poetry . and the arts perish with the themes that inspired them—should the genera tion ever come which Viz credit vizisse genus quibus unica cure Bella segni, pudor unus erat non vincere bello— let us at least hope that Englishmen will be so far undegenerate as to recall with emotions of pride those great deeds which they are no longer called upon to emulate. In that case, heraldry will still have its uses. But, pending the arrival of that, it is to be hoped, far distant period, the study of this science cannot be unfruitful to a generation engaged in such arduous enterprizes as the present one. If this be an age of hope rather than of faith, and of duty rather than of loyalty, yet it must never be forgotten how similar are the qualities which these motives are calcu lated to develop. From this point of view, there is no kind of zeal or enthusiasm of which the contemplation is not more or less valuable in the nineteenth century ; and heraldry, as the voice by which one beautiful form of this virtue addresses the world, is deserving of all the honour and protection we can award to it. NOVELS. Shreds and Patches; or, Pathos and Bathos. By Jane Kennedy. London : Kent and Co. Deerbrook. A Novel. By Harriet Martineau. A New Edition. (Smith, Elder, and Co's Series of Standard Fiction.) London : Smith, Elder, and Co. To make use of a preface appears to be for a certain class of authors a peculiarly hazardous proceeding. To use a vulgar expression, they are sure to put their foot into it, as soon as they attempt to explain in their own persons what their purpose has been. The authoress of this volume tells us that we shall find " no consecutive interesting tale "—" no harrowing details of the workings of conscience" —" no unattainable models of knowledge. or science,"—with several other inuendoes levelled at the implied absurdities of other novelists. We always suspect a person who begins by dealing these swinging blows at his fellow-labourers in the same field. He won't live and let live—nothing is good unless it is done in his way. We generally find that the writer who is so gratuitously censorious turns out as incom petent as possible to fill up the:blanks or correct the mistakes he supposes to have been made by others. " Shreds and Patches," w•e are told, is written " more in the hope that authors of great powers may be induced to approximate then• " fictions to the common realities of every-day " life. . . . to induce those who have this " talent [authorship] to see that the things " passing every hour before them, are those " which if pleasingly and graphically recounted " would be the most productive of improvement "to the mind." We should have thought that the benefits of realistic fiction, with a dash of morality and religion, hardly required to be dug into us at this tune of day. Is not Miss Ken nedy satisfied with Miss Sewell, Miss Yonge, Miss A. M. Goodrich, and the authoress of " Dorothy " ? What would she have more ? Or does she wish Mr. Thackeray to set up a tabernacle in the vacant space opposite the 1071 Horse Guards, and lecture the authorities of that establishment on the temptations of tape and the sinfulness of shoddy, in a manner which shall empty Quebec Chapel and drive Mr. Spurgeon to atrophy and despair ? What is to be the nature of the new school of fiction she desires to inaugurate may be judged of perhaps by the pattern she has laid before us, which, though it may please the inventor, does not seem to us of a very serviceable material. We might give some of our readers an idea of its nature by requesting them to imagine three or four of Mr. hang's stories, such as his " Too much Alike," rolled into one, with a double proportion of love and matrimony, a selection of utterly commonplace and meaningless events, and a quantity of charac ters which are either insipidities or caricatures, im bedded in a mass of moral reflections, digressions, and extracts from other writers, the latter of which only show any sign of originality. Miss Kennedy's notion of improving her species is by exhibiting a vast number of personages, who chase each other about like people in a farce, turn up here and there seemingly by pure chance, make love to each other all round with various de grees of success, and are left at the end of the story —if it is to be called one—some married and settled, some totally unaccounted for. The num ber of love affairs is something astonishing. In the course of the narrative no less than tea pro posals or engagements take place, most of which are described at full length, and all the love letters and speeches transcribed verbatim ; so that the book might bear the title of" The Lover Armed ; or, Severai different Methods of Success ful Courtship." Those who are curious on the subject will find the particulars of these transac tions recorded at pages .5, 59, 71, 97, 102, 21.5, 227, 228, 257, and 263. It will be observed that they run thickest towards the end, like plums at the bottom of a pudding ; and the concluding pages recount, in a manner truly delightful to Jenkins, the wedding ceremonies of a model hero and heroine, on which occasion we are not spared even the colours of the dresses worn by the attendant school-children. An author's notions on social ethics, and the degree in which he is qualified to instruct us, may be estimated from those actions or words of his pet characters, which he describes with sympathy or approval. .1 t page 59 an amiable aultreatt riche, who is the Cymon of the story, has nearly forgot himself so far as to propose to an earl's daughter. For this meditated breach of privilege he implores pardon in the following abject letter : My Lord,—Can you pardon me for the ignoble way in which I have repaid your unbounded kindness to my un worthy self? I first met your youngest daughter at the Richmond fete, and found her so totally unlike the gene rality of young ladies to whcra I had had the honour of being previously introduced, that I instantly felt subju gated by the sweetness and indescribable beauty of her manner. Your lordship was gracious enough to admit me as a frequent guest at your house, and there, in constant intercourse with your attractive daughters, I had nourished a sentiment which finally mastered my sense of right, and I presumed to love her, and to tell her brother of my at absorbing admiration. I had not yesterday the coveted opportunity of asking Lady Emily Fitz• Douglas Lhis hand shook so whilst be wrote the name that it was all but illegible] whether I might venture to hope she would listen favourably to my suit. and I promise your lordship I will not now seek to do so. Will your lordship kindly add to the number of your favours that of believing in the gratitude and penitence of your lordship's most obedient, humble servant, rOLOYII " Lord Clydesdale," we are told, " was delighted " with this letter." If he was. he must have been as pompons an old humbug as his would-be son-in-law was a mean-spirited snob.—Another of the characters is a Mrs. ('arleton. who is de scribed as the pink of perfection—tall and slim, of aristocratic appearance, exquisite manners, &c. —in tict„just the chaperon one would desire, to form a young lady entering society. This charm ing person writes as follows to her friend and protege :- The judge and several of the barristers are Bert, and we have amongst the guests the very most delightful Jaen 1 ever met—sir Everard Hamilton. lam quite trembling for my old heart ; I fear so mach I shall not be able to pr vent its eight towards him, yet to be nonsensical amid coquettish with him would be an impossibility. He i 3 so wrapt up in his duties—so earnest, so truthful, so straight forward, candid, and discriminating, he seems to read one through and through ; it is like living in a glue case, in. stead of having one a mind in a tenement of clay, as we really have. He cannot open his lips without saying soma. thing that is worth remembering. Yesterday, before ' dinner, we were &seaming religions novels. The moment