The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-15 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 15, 1566.

Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage for 1866.

The compactest and cheapest Peerage that is
published—Debrett—is still, for all practical pur-
poses, the fullest and the most reliable that any
reasonable man could wish. It still holds its own
as the most popular of all the guide books to the
Upper Ten Thousand. It is in regard to the Nobility
what "Bradshaw" is in regard to the Railways. It
affords a clue through an otherwise inextricable la-
byrinth. Thackeray, it may be remembered, used to
speak of it, that is, of the book of the Peerage, as
" the British Bible !" And of that British Bible
Debrett's is the most reliable as well as
the most accessible of all editions. Blooming into
fresh life as it does, year after year, at the
commencement of each season with the utmost
regularity, like a radiant annual as it is, it puts
forth fresh leaves, so to speak, upon its every suc-
cessive appearance. It shows every year a new im-
provement. This time there are, in fact, several
very appreciable improvements. For example, there
is appended to the account given of each present Peer
a biography of his predecessor. There is, besides
this, a considerable addition to the biographical
list of the younger sons and married daughters of
the nobility. There is an interpolation—among the
alphabetical catalogue of the Peers making up the
bulk or substance of the work—of all subordinate
titles and family names of any importance what-
soever. Supplemented to the already abundant ac-
cumulation of Ecclesiastical information, there is
besides this a comprehensive series of biographies of
all the Members of Convocation ! In the companion
volume to the Peerage, moreover, that is to say, in
Debrett's Baronetage and Knightage, there will be
found, not only the usual biographical notices of all
the members of the House of Commons—
comprising, this time, it should be remem-
bered, very nearly two hundred who have never
until now had a seat in Parliament, but it
adds to each individual biography out of the six
hundred and odd the name of the individual mem-
ber's county or borough, together with the num-
bers of the population and of the registered electors.
As indicative of the promptness, or rapidity, with
which the work is compiled, it should be especially
notified that duo mention is made in the Peerage of
the two new Barons, Romilly, the Master of the
Rolls, and Northbrook, until yesterday known as
Sir Francis Baring, ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer
—while in the companion volume we have all the
particulars that could be wished for in regard to
the three newly-created Baronets, Sir James Simp-
son, Sir William Ferguson, and Sir Dominic Cor-
rigan.

There is a suggestion, by the way, we are here
tempted to throw out—for the consideration of our
fair countrywomen—having reference to a novel
use to which Debrett might be applied by them as
a source of new and elegant and, in some sense, of
instructive entertainment. And it is this—that
their delicate industry and refined taste might
with far more advantage (certainly with far more
brilliant results) be devoted during their leisure hours
to the emblazonment of Debrett than to the accu-
mulation and the ingenious grouping together of
postage-stamps and monograms. A copy of
Debrett's Peerage exquisitely coloured with the aid
of a camel's-hair-brush and palette, together with the
aid also of those twin mussel-shells, lined with gold
and silver, to be found in most ladies' paint-boxes,
would present to view when completed one of the
most lovely and gorgeous adornments for the table
of either drawing-room or boudoir that lady's heart
could with ! And for the guidance of the novice in
this work of heraldic illumination there is the fullest
instruction given in the letterpress explanation ac-
companying each engraving of the coats-of-arms of
the various houses to which they appertain, whether
among the Peerage or among the Baronetage. But
for that matter the woodcuts are in the very man-
ner in which they are drawn and engraved—that is
to say, in their being shaded with lines pencilled
horizontally, perpendicularly, or otherwise—clearly
enough indicative of the nature of the blazonries
required—gules and argent, azure, or, and purpure,
sable, vert, tenne meaning orange, and sanguine
meaning blood-coloured—otherwise expressed in
rouudles, as torteau and plate, hurt, bezant, and
golpe, pellet, pomme, orange and guze. And in the
very process of thus adorning their Table-Peerage
and of amusing themselves while so adorning it—
the fair illuminators would acquire, almost un-
consciously, certainly without an effort, a perfect
and practical knowledge of one of the most
elegant of the purely ornamental sciences, or
arts, or whatever else we may call it—namely,
that of Heraldry. In regard to the Heraldic Shield,
before half a dozen coats of arms had been thus
daintily coloured—they would know intimately all
about the relative positions of Dexter, Middle and
Sinister Chief ; about Honour Point, Fesse Point, and
Nowbril Point ; about Dexter, Middle and Sinister
Base. Per Pale or Imapled—Per Cross or Quar-
terly—Per Bend or Per Fesse—they would know
all about it. Embattled or Crennele, Wavy or
Undee Nebulee, Indented and Dancette, Raguly
and Dovetail, Rayonne and Engrailed, Angled and
Bevilled, Champaign e and Escartelle—Nowt' and
Battle-embattled—would be terms no longer in any
way mysterious. Tau or St. Anthony's Cross—
Saltire or St. Andrew's Cross—the St. George's
and the Maltese—the Greek and the Latin, together
with all the rest of the other Crosses, would have
for them distinctions and differences as discernable
at a glance as those recognisable upon the instant be-
tween the Pile, the Bar, and the Chevron. Passant,
Guardant, Reguardant, Statant, Sejant, Salient,
Couchant, Dormant, Combattant, Dismembered,
Couped and Addorsed would all be terms convey-
ing a definite notion—as well as such other heraldic
terms as Erased, Naisant, Tripping, Courant, Volant,
Naiant, Hauriant, et cetera. Trefoil, Quatrefoil,
Cinquefoil—Estoile and Crescent—Rose and Fleur
delis—Mullet and Carbuncle—Clarion and Escallop
--would all, after the colouring of a page or two,
be known to a hair, to a T, in their minutest out-
lines. For the above reasons we would therefore
seriously commend Debrett to all ladies having a
taste for illumination, as a new and delightful
source to them at once of instruction and entertain-
ment.

NEWSPAPER STATISTICS.—From the " Newspaper
Press Directory," for 1866, we extract the follow-
ing on the present position of the newspaper press :
" There are now published in the United Kingdom 1,257
newspapers, distributed as follows : England—London,
226, provincial 707-933 ; Wales, 43 ; Scotland, 139 ; Ire-
land, 128 ; British Isles, 14. Of these there are-52 daily
papers published in England, 1 in Wales, 12 in Scotland,
12 in Ireland, and lin the British Isles. On reference to
the edition of this useful Directory for 1866, we find the
following interesting facts --viz., that in that year there
wore published in the United Kingdom 734 journals ; of
these, 35 papers were issued daily—viz., 15 in London, 1
in Birmingham, 3 in Liverpool, 3 in Manchester, 3 in Edin-
burgh, 4 in Glasgow, and 6 in Ireland ; but in 1866 there
are now established and circulated 1,257 papers, of which
no less than 78 are issued daily, showing that the press
of the country has very greatly extended during the last
10 years, and more especially so iu daily papers ; the daily
issues standing 78 against 35 in 1856. The magazines
now in course of publication, including the quarterly re-
views, number 537, of which 196 are of a decidedly religious
character, representing the Church of England, Wesleyans,
Methodists, Baptists, Independents,
and other Christian
communities."

RAILWAY TRAINS BROUGHT TO A STAND-STILL BY
TUE WIND.—A remarkable fact in connection with
the late tompest is that at three several points on the High-
land line of railway, and at about the same hour, the wind
brought the trains to a complete stand-still. The most de-
termined and protracted resistance was in passing beneath
a railway bridge between Kinlose and Forres. The wind
poured through the narrow gap as through a funnel with
irresistible force, and it was a long time before the engine
could penetrate inch by inch through the aperture. The
same thing occurred between Invergordon and Alness, and
between Dalcross and Culloden. It nearly happened also
in approaching Muir of Oxd from Conon ; but here there
is a heavy upward gradient, whereas at the other points
the line is almost level. The engine driver of the train
from Perth reports that oa Tuesday morning, coming up
Struan Bank, near the county march, the whole front of
the engine was observed to be covered with a white sub-
stance, which proved to be a deposit of salt. The polished
parts of the engine were also red with rust, no doubt from
the effects of the salt rain beating upon them. A few
years ago, after a very severe storm from the north -west,
the windows of a gentleman's residence,
near Dingwall,
were almost obscured by the density of the deposit of salt
which the gale had carried with it from tho Atlantic.—
/rams courfer.