The Curiosities of Heraldry

by Mark Antony Lower

“Torq. I suppose my blazon cannot be amended.

The true blazon of the former coat.

“Parad. Yes, it shall be amended, and your errour also corrected. Did you euer see a fret thus formed before (I mean nayled?) To correct your blazon, learne by this: Hee beareth Sable, a Musion, Or, oppressed with a Troillis G. cloué dargent; for this, which you call a fret, is a lattice, a thing well knowne to poore prisoners and distressed captiues, which are forced to receaue their breath from heauen at such holes for want of more pleasant windowes, &c.”

1590.

Sir William Segar is, I believe, the first of our heralds who published on the subject. His ‘Book of Honor and Armes,’ enlarged and republished in 1602, under the title of ‘Honor Military and Ciuill,’ relates as its designation implies, not to the art of blazon, but to dignities. His zeal for antiquity, like that of his contemporaries, outruns historical truth, as a proof of which it may be mentioned that he deduces the origin of knighthood from the fabulous Round Table of King Arthur. His work possesses, however, great merit, and exhibits much learning and profound research. Many of his unpublished MSS., genealogical and otherwise, are still extant.

Segar, who was of Dutch extraction, was bred a scrivener, and obtained his introduction to the College through the interest of Sir T. Heneage, vice-chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth. Here, at length, his talents raised him to the post of Garter, the ne plus ultra of heraldic ambition. He died in 1633.

1592.

William Wyrley, author of ‘The Trve Vse of Armorie,’ is the next heraldric author who had any official connexion with the College of Arms, in which establishment he rose, however, no higher than the degree of a pursuivant. He was a gentleman by birth, a native of Staffordshire, and died in 1618. He did not confine his attention to heraldry, but studied antiquities at large: his collections he bequeathed to the College. The ‘Trve Vse,’ his only published work, is a scarce quarto of 162 pages, and is freer from the irrelevant rubbish which blemishes most of the treatises of this century than any one which preceded it, or any one which for a long time subsequently issued from the press. Sir W. Dugdale makes great use of this work in his ‘Ancient Usage of bearing Arms,’ 1681, and in return somewhat ungratefully, robs Wyrley of the honour of its authorship, ascribing it, upon hearsay evidence, to Sampson Erdeswicke, the historian of Staffordshire.

We now come to a name which has shed more lustre upon the office of the herald and the science of heraldry than any other our country has produced—that of the justly-celebrated William Camden. Any biographical notice, however brief, of so eminent a personage seems almost uncalled for in these narrow pages. It will be sufficient, for the sake of uniformity, merely to mention a few particulars respecting him. This laborious antiquary and historian was born in London in 1551, and received his education first at Christ’s Hospital and St. Paul’s School, and afterwards at Oxford. He quitted the University in 1570, and made the tour of England. At the early age of twenty-four he became second master of Westminster School; and while performing the duties of that office devoted his leisure to the study of British antiquities. Here, after ten years’ labour, he matured his great work, the ‘Britannia,’ which was first published in 1586. Four years previously to its publication he visited many of the eastern and northern counties, for the purpose of making a personal investigation of their antiquities. The ‘Britannia’ immediately brought him into notice, and he lived to enjoy the proud gratification of seeing it in its sixth edition. It was written in elegant Latin, and in that language passed through several of its earlier editions, the first English version having been made, probably with the author’s assistance, by Dr. Philemon Holland, in 1610. This great national performance, which Bishop Nicholson quaintly styles “the common sun whereat our modern writers have all lighted their little torches,” has been so highly esteemed in all subsequent times, that it has been many times reprinted. The last edition is the greatly enlarged one of Gough. In 1589 the bishop of Salisbury presented him with a prebend in his cathedral, which he retained till his death; and in 1597, the office of Clarenceux king of arms becoming vacant, he was advanced to that dignity.

After his establishment in the College he published several emended editions of The ‘Britannia,’ ‘The Annals of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth,’ ‘An Account of the celebrated Persons interred in Westminster Abbey,’ and that very interesting little volume, ‘Remaines concerning Britaine,’ which, as he tells us, was composed of the fragments of a projected work of greater extent, which his want of leisure prevented his executing. All these works, except the last, were written in Latin, a language for which he had so great a predilection, that he even compiled pedigrees in it. As an antiquary, Camden deserves the highest praise; as an historian, he is charged with partiality towards the character of the virgin queen; and as a herald, he was confessedly unequal to some of his contemporaries. In the latter capacity he was much indebted to Francis Thynne, or Botteville, Blanch Lion pursuivant, and afterwards Lancaster herald, of whom Anthony a Wood gives a high character. Camden was concerned with that delightful old chronicler, Holinshed, in the production of his famous work. He was mainly instrumental in the formation of the original Society of Antiquaries, whose discourses have been printed by Hearne. He was a great admirer of the father of English poetry, and contributed many additions to Speght’s edition of his works. He left many unpublished MSS. amongst which was a ‘Discourse of Armes,’ addressed to Lord Burghley. The last years of his life were spent in retirement at the village of Chislehurst, co. Kent, where he died in 1623, in the 73d year of his age.