of the language and of chivalry even the word lord is the style that is used in any language to a the superior education and manners recommend them to the country the got what he could and held it for his eldest son the noble who was the nor � did likewise there was this advantage of western over oriental nobility that this was from below english history is aristocracy with the doors open who has courage and faculty let him come in of course the terms of admission to this are hard and high the selfishness comes in aid of the interest of the nation to require signal merit and war gave place to trade politics and letters the war lord to the law lord the law lord to the merchant and the mill owner but the privilege was kept whilst the means of obtaining it were changed the foundations of these families lie deep in exploits by sea and saxon on land ail nobility in its was somebody s natural superiority the things these english have done were not done without peril of life nor without wisdom and conduct and the first hands it may be presumed were often to show their right to their honours or yield them to better men he that will be a head let him be a bridge said the chief when he carried all his men over the river on his back he shall have the book said the mother of alfred who can read it and alfred won it by that title and i make no doubt that was no but baron knight and tenant had their memories refreshed in regard to the service by which they held their lands de and were not to contemplation the middle age adorned itself with proofs of manhood and devotion of earl of the emperor told henry v that no christian king had such another knight for wisdom ture and manhood and caused him to be named father of our success in france says the historian lived and died with him the war lord earned his honours and no of land was large as long as it brought the duty of protecting it hour by hour against a terrible enemy in france and in england the were down to a late day born and bred to war and the which in peace still held them to the risks of war diminished the envy that in trading and nations would else have into their title they were looked on as men who played high for a great stake great estates are not if they are to be kept great a economy is the fuel of magnificence in the same line of the successor next but one to was the stout earl of henry vi and edward iv few esteemed themselves in the mode whose heads were not adorned with the black ragged staff his at his house in london six oxen were daily eaten at a breakfast and every tavern was full of his meat and who had any acquaintance in his family should have as much boiled and roast as he could carry on a long dagger the new age brings new qualities into request the virtues of gave way to those of merchants and scholars social talent and fine manners no doubt have had their part also i have met somewhere with a which whether more or less true in its particulars carries a general truth how came the duke of by his great landed estates his having travelled on the continent a lively pleasant man became the companion of a foreign prince wrecked on the coast where mr lived the prince recommended him to henry viii who liking his company gave him a large share of the church lands the pretence is that the noble is of unbroken descent from the and has never worked for eight hundred � fuller s ii p years but the fact is otherwise where is where is de the lawyer the farmer the silk lies under the and to the to say nothing especially skilful lawyers s sons who did some piece of work at a nice moment for government and were rewarded with the national tastes of the english do not lead them to the life of the but to secure the comfort and independence of their homes the aristocracy are marked by their for country life they are called the county families they have often no residence in london and only go thither a short time during the season to see the opera but they the love and labour of many on the building planting and of their some of them are too old and too proud to wear titles or as said of disdain to hide their head in a and some curious examples are to show the of english families their proverb is that fifty miles from london a family will last a hundred years at a hundred miles t vo hundred years and so on but i doubt that steam the enemy of time as well as of space will disturb these ancient rules sir henry says of the first of he was bom at in where his ancestors had chiefly continued about the space of four hundred years rather without obscurity than with any great lustre says that in lord afterwards of told him that when the year should arrive he meant to give a grand festival to all the descendants of the body of of to mark the day when the should have remained three hundred years in their house since its creation by iii tells us in writing of an earl oxford in that the honour had now remained in that name and blood six hundred years this long descent of families and this through ages to the same spot of ground the � p tion it has too a with tho names of the towns and districts 