The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-07-19
/
Adventures o. the Emblem Of Fritz
Fsl1 sovereianty.

should have ever been made &c. serve 7
the humble purpose of a frying pan. I
And yet. says the London Tit-Bits, I
this Is only Gre OF many equally +
strange episodes in the romantic
story Of the seal which is the .'spe-
cific emblem OF British sovereignty"
Lord Chancellor Eldon was SO fear
ful rtat@thee seal would be lost or
stolen while in his custody that he /
never went to sleep without first sat
isiying himself that it was safe in his
bedroom. One night was in the !
year 1Si2-he was reused from his |
sunbers By cries Of fire. Jump /
ing CUT of bed he snatcaed up the
great seal. and rushing to the gar
den, burden, buried it deep in the raid-
die of q flower bed. His house might
be burned TO the ground, but at least
he would not prove unworthy OF the
great trust which had been reposed in /
him.
Next morning, 'lowever-so exciting
had been Tie experiences Of the might
he had completely forgotten in what
part of the garden The emblem of SOY
erei gnty had been hidden. and it was
iicS'-'|hiD'''
hunted for hours that it was at last
run to earth. You never saw any
Thing so ridiculous" he wrote later,
cas- seeing the whole family down the
walks t.fbbtine with bits Of stick I'M
til we found IL"
Once at least the Great Seal has
been at the bottom of the Thames.
and would be there today but for q
lucky accident. It was in 1858, when
the Second James was fleeing from
England and the Prince of Orange to
| France. in company with SiI Edward
Hales. He had intended 10 take the
Great Sea! with him, but as he was
| being rowed from Lambeth to Vaux-
hall, where horses we're awaiting him,
another and better idea occurred to
aim. He would fling the seal into
the river, and that would place 1t
once for all out Of reach OF his enemy.
| So overheard the seal went and Tor
some weeks it lay there, until by a
curious chance it was picked up in d
| isherman's net and restored TO the
proper ci.sto,lians.
The ludicrOus frying pan adventure
| 1crell 1t when in the custody of Lord
| F;..'cls CHAM. The ChalcelIor had gone
to Scotland for a short hoiday-see-
ing that he could not take the seal
| on the Rhine trip he longed for with
out putting it in commission at great
cost to himself-and he was a guest
of the Dowa@er Duchess of Bedford al
| Rothiemurchus, where he kept his
| precious charge in his bedroom. One
lday the young ladies of the house par
| ~ took the seal from the bedroom and
| hid it. Brougham was desperate
when he discovered his loss, and did
not recover his piece of mind until the
| pretty thieves promised to lead him
| to it if he would consent to be blind
| folded.
With his eyes bandaged he was con
| Quoted to the drawing room, and
there he discovered the seal hidden
in a tea chest. So overjoyed was he
| at it's recovery that he consented to
| the young ladies' suggestion that they
should adjourn to the kitchen and
| celebrate the joyous event by maxi
| ing pan cakes in the seal; and thus.
amid much laughter, the greatest en-
| blem of sovereignty in the whole
world was actually used as pan in
| which to fry pancakes. The seal, it
| should perhaps be mentioned consists
of two silver discs hinged together. so
that when thy are closed they form a
| mould into which the WaX-Sreen,
red or yellow, as the case may be-is
| poured. Thus it would make not at
all a bad substitute for the common
Kitchen frying pan.
| Many time has the Great Seal
been taken to the House Of Lords and
broken to pieces at the bar by tle
| hammer of a sturdy blacksmith, amid
the frantic cheering of unlocking
| members. This was the fate OF the
seal which fell into the hands OF the
! Parliamentary army on the capitula-
ton OF Oxford in 1916. Three years
later the old Parliamentary Seal.
which represented Charles enthroned
on the one side and riding on horse
bac! on. the other, was similarly de-
| stroyed TO make way for the new seal
| with its view of the House Of Com
mons in place of the deposed sOver-
eiSn. Richard CrOmwelfs seal was
broken by the hammer in 1853, and in