Lord Chatham's words are as follow!

"I also recommend Nathaniel Bacon's Historical and Political Observations; it is, without exception, the best and most instructive book we have on matters of that kind They are both to be read with much attention, and twice over; Oldcastle's remarks to be studied and almost got by heart for the inimitable beauty of the style, as well as the matter; Bacon for the matter chiefly; the style being uncouth, but the expression forcible and striking.”

Lord Grenville adds in a note, " This book, though at present little known, formerly enjoyed a very high reputation. It is written with a very evident bias to the principles of the parliamentary party, to which. Bacon adhered; but contains a great deal of very useful and valuable matter. It was published in two parts, the first in 1647, the second in 1651, and was secretly reprinted in 1672, and again in 1682; for which edition the publisher was indicted and outlawed. After the revolution a fourth edition was printed with an advertisement, asserting, on the authority of Lord Chief Justice Vaughan, one of Selden's executors, that the ground-work of this book was laid by that great and learned man. And it is probably on the ground of this assertion, that in the folio edition of Bacon's book, printed in 1739, it is said in the title-page to have been "collected from some manuscript notes of John Selden, Esq." But it does not appear that this notion rests on any sufficient evidence. It is, however, manifest from some expressions in the very unjust and disparaging account given of this work in Nicholson's Historical Library, (Part I. p. 150) that Nathaniel

Bacon

Bacon was generally considered as an imitator and follower of Selden." Ld. Chatham's Letters, p. 55

ART. XXIV. Bibliographical Catalogue. Containing a Chronological List of Works on English Heraldry.

PREFATORY OBSERVATIONS.

In an age in which the customs and prejudices of the feudal institution have for the most part not only ceased to operate, but the very recollection of them is too generally treated with ridicule, it requires, perhaps, some boldness to enter upon the subject of HERALDRY, the most despised of all its inventions. Yet as a complete series of books, from the commencement of Printing, upon any art or science, must always be curious, the Editor is tempted to embrace the opportunity, while it is in his power, of exhibiting a more perfect Catalogue of this humble department of English literature, than has ever yet been brought together. In 1792 he furnished The Gentleman's Magazine, under a fictitious signature, with short biographical memoirs of these writers, to which some learned Correspondents, more particularly the late in genious Rev. Richard Paget, (who died soon after, a victim to an early consumption,) contributed impor tant additions: but, as many of the volumes, of which he then took his account from A. Wood, have since fallen into his own hands, he has now amplified and corrected many particulars necessary to bibliographi cal accuracy: yet still wishes to refer to these memoirs for personal notices of the authors; as a repetition of all he has there written would make this article too long.

It cannot be denied, that the greater part of the works upon this, (which its professors are pleased to call,) science, are inexpressibly puerile and pedantic. But when its origin and progress are treated historically, which a few authors have done with no cómmon powers of research, it becomes a topic, on which the imagination at least may be amused, if the understanding be not informed. It connects itself with all the pomp of elder times; with the feats of personal valour, and the generous glories of chivalry.

To value the childish bauble of a painted shield of parchment, the invention of a modern Herald, for the consideration of fifty pounds, (my friends in the Heralds College will excuse me; for in that college I trust I have friends, and those the most accomplished, and the most respectable in birth, talent and character, of the whole society !)—to value such a bauble, would argue a degree of folly or ignorance, which can only. be found in the meanest of intellectual beings. But to prize those ensigns, which in the times of feudal strictness were the incidents of power and rank, and. the rewards of heroism; under which our ancestors have led their vassals to battle; and which have adorned their castles and their halls during ages of more splendid hospitality; is surely worthy of a cultivated and magnanimous mind! How dastardly should I be to part with the shield handed down to me by my. fathers, though its origin should be lost in the ob-. scurity of time, and though the crusade, in which it was first borne, could no longer be particularized!

Such are the circumstances which give an estimation to these, otherwise childish, insignia. All those, which have originated since the cessation of

feudal

feudal warfare, are objects of contempt: nay eveni such as have been since granted for great acts of personal bravery, must be deemed insignificant, because they are not connected with the exercise of that heroism. When the Baron led his dependents into the field of war, when, in the days of tilts and tournaments, he sallied forth to personal combat, the distinctive figures on his banner, the charges on his shield, and the crest on his helmet, were the necessary appendages of his rank and employments. But wherecould the gallant Nelson, though he out-shines in glory all the heroes of antiquity, intermingle with the display of his exploits the silly heraldric imitations which the petty ingenuity of a modern Garter could assign to his seal, or his carriage! Or how could the radiant fame of the immortal Sir Sydney Smith, stoop to a pair of supporters, fabricated, for a few paltry fees, by a poor old man in his dotage, who is as little capable of appreciating his merits as an infant at the breast!

What shall we say then to grants, made by Heralds on no pretence but the money paid for them? Perhaps the greater part of my readers, are not aware that all ancient, and therefore all honorable, arms had their origin prior to the existence of an incorporated body of Heralds. A recorded grant therefore of a coat by the College goes nearly to the destruction of the only ground, on which a coat is worth having. It is true there are a few patents of this kind, of an earlier date than the cessation of chivalry; but they are very few. On this account many ancient arms have never even. been registered there; much less emanated from thence. Of these, the only proof can be the usage. And yet there are heralds, who would endeavour to delude the ignorant,

VOL. III.

ignorant, by pretending that none can be authentic, which are not recognized by their office.

I should call a coat, which has been invented since the extinction of the feudal system, not the less coun÷ terfeit because it possesses the fiat of a regular Herald. It can only be intended by imitative insignia, which to a common eye appear like the genuine, to confound modern families, with those which are really ancient. If this end be not effected, surely it cannot be pre tended that any end at all is answered. Does it there fore arise from the arch ingenuity, or rather from the laudable simplicity, of the present very able and erudite President of the College, that the coats of his rich and charming invention, bear, in point of the nature, or number and complication, of the charges he inserts in them, no more likeness to a shield inscribed with ancient blazonry, than to an Indian scrawl, or Otaheitan breast-plate? He is not content, like his prede cessors, with such meagre allusions as Rooks for the name of Rooke, Salmons for the name of Salmon, and Oxen for the name of Oxenden. Had he been to deck out a coat for the latter, we should have had a perspective landscape of the Dens in which the noble animals were reposing, with the straw, the dung, the manger, and the oil-cakes on which they were growing fat; and lest this should not be sufficient, there would be added a green chief, adorned with a ship in full sail, all on dry land, surmounted by a fox's brush for the banner, and decorated by a dog-kennel on the 'deck! And when all this was done, there would still be added a copiousness of verbal blazon, which would out-rival the unintelligibility of Christie himself!

About the reign of Hen. VIII. the Heralds were

...fond