succeeded to the post of general-in-chief. In fact, probably to his advice is attributable the event of Edgehill; for we find that he concurred with Rupert in the advice as to the order of battle, the adoption of which gave Lindsey so much offence that he insisted upon serving as a colonel only at the head of one of the brigades. Immediately after the engagement Ruthven petitioned the king to allow him to make forced marches to London with the horse and 3000 foot, trusting to surprise the parliamentary party. His proposal was however rejected by the influence of the civilians about Charles's person, between whom and the bluff soldier no great love appears to have existed. Clarendon's character of him is evidently that of a hostile witness, but one trait is so natural that we can easily imagine that it was the result of shrewd observation. Like Sir Joshua Reynolds in a later generation, the veteran was afflicted with a convenient deafness; and if any thing happened to be mooted which it was not convenient for him to hear, "he shifted his trumpet, and only took snuff." Bishop Guthry tells us that Ruthven often warned Charles of the impolicy of being led by the advice of men who had deserted the Parliament for his side, and we gather that he advocated generally a more straightforward policy than was acceptable either to the king or to his principal counsellors.

He had a speedy opportunity of putting into practice his military knowledge. The king found himself at Brentford, on November 14th, confronted by the forces of Essex, while Kingston and the other avenues of march by which he could avoid London were occupied by troops. Though negotiations for a truce were actually going on, Essex kept advancing his posts, and in a council the necessity for an assault upon the Parliament's army was affirmed, and a plan of attack resolved on, to which Ruthven no doubt listened with his usual imperturbable deafness. Leaving the council, he entirely deviated from the plan proposed, with such success as to annihilate the three regiments which garrisoned Brentford, and to lay open the passage to London itself. Charles shrank, however, from pushing his success to extremity, and the Londoners recovering from their panic, of which Whitelocke gives a ludicrous description, began to rally their forces. In the meantime the detachment posted at Kingston set off towards Southwark, with a view of crossing London Bridge to the assistance of the city, and thus opened a passage for Charles, of which he lost no time in availing himself. It is impossible to say what might have been the effect of a storm of London

when the panic caused by Edgehill and Brentford was in full swing; but it is curious to see how much the behaviour of non-combatants then resembled what we know of their proceedings in the battles of our own time. While the two armies were facing each other at Brentford, and London was hurrying out her trainbands and apprentices to reinforce Essex, a large number of horsemen were attracted by curiosity, who, upon the slightest symptom of an intention on the part of the royal troops to advance, put spurs to their nags, and fled back towards town. But the incidents of the Brentford fray have been touched by a masterhand in "Woodstock," and no meaner pen need essay to depict them.

During the whole of the year 1643 Ruthven was at head-quarters with the king at Oxford, save when his experience was found necessary at the sieges of Bristol (where Clarendon says Prince Rupert, who usually has the credit of this exploit, wisely deferred the government of the action to him) and of Gloucester: at both of these, as well as at the first battle of Newbury, he added still more to his military reputation. In 1644 he was unfortunate in his first engagement, being with Hopton as a volunteer at Alresford, when he was defeated by Waller, whose numbers were superior: contrary to their usual habit, the royal cavalry behaved badly, the foot well, except the Irish. Forth and Hopton escaped to Basing House, and soon rejoined Charles at Oxford. On the 27th of May he had the title of Earl of Brentford conferred upon him, and on the 29th of June he avenged himself on his late conqueror, Waller, by routing his army at Cropedy Bridge, an exploit for which he received an augmentation to his arms; while the Scottish Parliament again vented their ire by forfeiting him at the Cross of Edinburgh without citation, in company with the Earl of Crawford and General King (19th or 26th July, 1644). In the month of September he was present at the complete dispersion of Essex's army in Cornwall, and was with the king at the second battle of Newbury on the 27th of October, in which he was wounded in the head, his wife and his equipage also falling into the hands of the Parliamentary forces. When the king retreated to Wallingford the old General was unable to accompany him, but was carried to Dunnington Castle, which the rebels made overtures to him, through that singular political weathercock, General Urrie, to surrender into their hands-it need hardly be said without effect. Charles relieved the castle a fortnight afterwards; and the gallant veteran, suffering from wounds and the

infirmities of age, appears to have taken no further active share in the campaign-his post of general-in-chief being conferred upon the fiery Rupert.

His name appears, with that of many others, in the list of those excepted from pardon by the articles of Westminster, 11th of July, 1646, to which demand the unfortunate Charles is said to have taken the greatest exception. He was, however, restored (probably by the influence of his old friend Lesly) from his Scottish forfeiture, and died near Dundee, in 1651, and was buried in the parish church of Monifieth, where no memorial of him exists, the ruined aisle in which he lay being choked up with rubbish. By his wife, Clara Barnard, who survived until 1679, he left three daughters, the eldest of whom married a gallant cavalier, Thomas Ogilvy (second son of the first Earl of Airlie), who was killed at Inverlochy, under Montrose, in 1645; the second married Lord Forrester, by whom she had five children, who all assumed the name of Ruthven, a circumstance which induces a suspicion that in spite of his forfeitures he was able to retain some portion of his property; the third married Major Pringle, of Whitebank, whose descendant is the present representative of the Earl of Forth and Brentford.

Though a soldier, and not a scholar, General Ruthven appears to have been by no means unready with his pen. One of his letters, to Algernon Earl of Northumberland, is quoted in a note to Harte's "Life of Gustavus Adolphus," having been previously printed in the "Cabala." A collection of his papers is now making, which will shortly be printed at the expense of the Duke of Buccleuch, as his contribution to the Bannatyne Club, and will no doubt prove highly interesting to those who care, not only for the beaten highways and "storied urns" of history, but for the byepaths of literature, and the neglected remains of those who in their lifetime played a prominent though unsuccessful part in the stirring events of important eras in English politics.

THE PEERAGES, BLAZON, AND GENEALOGY.a

N these days of colossal commercial enterprises, and no less colossal failures, when lost cables are pulled up from the depths of the ocean, and submarine tunnels are talked of as an agreeable means of quick intercommunication between. England and France, many are wont to despise those quaint devices, and cunning conceits, in which the science of blazon tells the story of noble deeds in all lands. Yet those who exclaim the most loudly against genealogy and heraldry are often eventually found ornamenting their carriage panels and their plate with bearings of questionable authenticity, but of undoubted pretension. We fear that there are many so-called " Heraldic Artists" and "Genealogists" who make a livelihood by trading upon the credulity of their neighbours; and against such practices as well as against the elaborate "compilations" from unknown charter-chests which have obtained too easy an acceptance, "Sylvanus Urban," to whom historic truth is always dear, feels bound to raise a protest. We do not exactly know the class who are tempted by the oft repeated advertisement offering to solve the question "What is your crest and motto " for the small sum of-"Plain sketch, 38. 6d. ; in heraldic colours, 6s.;" but we have plenty of evidence in the pages of the most popular and widely circulated Dictionaries of "the Upper Ten Thousand," that there is a systematic trade carried on, which, at the expense of truth and honour, professes to give many a nouveau riche the standing in social position that he seldom fails to covet. We cannot but regret that some of the most glaring of these cases should have received the "imprimatur " of Ulster King, by repeated appearance in his well-known volumes. This it is which has caused the depreciation in historic value of his "Landed Gentry," a while his "Peerage," partly, perhaps, owing to the greater danger to be apprehended by the "artists" in that quarter, and partly, perhaps, to the more general acquaintance with the descent of members of the Upper House, seems to be improving.

The genealogical "shadows" to which we have above alluded, have been fought more than once by very able pens,-by none more keenly and clearly than the author of "Popular Genealogists, or the Art of Pedigree Making; "b and readers of that well-timed and caustic brochure must one and all feel inclined to say, on laying it down, "God bless

"The Landed Gentry." By Sir Bernard Burke. Harrison. 1866.

b "Popular Genealogists and Pedigree Making." Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas. 1865.

your honours! any one but yourself would have seen they were windmills!" Nevertheless as the windmills are still too frequently taken for giants, a few words on our part may not be thought out of place. For we hold that in this matter of blazon and genealogy, as well as in history, which they illustrate, the old bardic motto "The Truth against the world,"-should be our watchword, and should form the standard from which no deviation is allowable.

In looking through such "compilations" as the accounts of the "Coultharts of Coulthart and Collyn," and the "Bonars of Bonare, Keltye, Kilgraston, and Kimmerghame," one hardly knows what most to admire, the ignorance of Scottish history and social distinctions, or the boldness with which all difficulties are met and impossibilities carried by storm! But we own to wondering how a king-at-arms should have so far allowed his kindly disposition and unwillingness to believe in the trickery of professional pedigree makers, to overcome the caution due to his position, and to chronicle imaginary alliances in the descent of so high a house as that of Erroll. Something perhaps may be attributed to the supineness of families in not being careful to prepare true accounts of their lineage for the genealogical dictionaries; and it may be urged that if they did not complain, Sir Bernard was not to blame for suffering the admixture of falsehood with truth in his pages. We are sure, however, that if he had thought such was the case he would have been the first to desire its removal; but unfortunately, whether from defective early historical training, or the desire to believe men generally to be better and truer than they really are, it would require the erasure of many a page of the "Landed Gentry " ere Sir Bernard Burke's volume could be used with safety by the student of family history.

Considerable looseness as to dates of even well-known epochs such as the Battles of Beaugé and Bannockburn, is observable in all the publications of "Ulster." For instance, we have remarked that the date of "Beaugé" varies periodically from 1421 to 1422. The "Extinct and Dormant Peerage" book of the latest issue (1866) has the latter date, which is incorrect. Again in the pedigree of Bonar of Keltie, to which we shall have occasion to refer in more detail presently, Sir Bernard speaks of a "battle of Bannockburn in 1448." This passes our understanding, for, as the author of "Popular Genealogists" observes, Bruce's battle it cannot be, and Sauchieburn, sometimes called the "second Bannockburn," was fought

"The Extinct, Dormant, and Abeyant Peerages." By Sir B. Burke. Harrison. 1866.