Hold him the glass, to see his new made face, and to give the barber instruction where it is amiss.
Take off the linnens.
Brush his cloaths.
Present him with his hat, and according to his hire, he makes a bow, with your humble servant, Sir.”[301].
But, although the ‘Academy of Armory’ abounds in passages equally useless and totally irrelevant of the subject of arms, it must be acknowledged to contain a great body of information which, at a time when Encyclopædias were unknown, must have been of considerable utility.[302]
Alexander Nisbet, Gent. appears at the beginning of the 18th century as an heraldric writer. In 1702 he published ‘An Essay on Additional Figures and Marks of Cadency;’ in 1718, ‘An Essay on the Ancient and Modern Use of Armories;’ and in 1722, ‘A System of Heraldry,’ which are all characterized by great intelligence and research. In the preface to his ‘System’ he tells us, in a style bordering upon the egotistical, yet in perfect accordance with truth, “Though I have not been able to overtake some things in the system of Heraldry as I first intended, yet I have explained the true art of Blazon in a more ample, regular, and distinct manner than anything I have ever yet seen on the subject.”
Nisbet’s illustrations are principally drawn from Scottish heraldry, and he must be acknowledged to occupy a very high, if not the first, place among his countrymen in this department of literature.
John Anstis, a gentleman of fortune, was born at St. Neot’s, co. Cornwall. He sat for St. Germains in the first parliament of Queen Anne, and was afterwards elected for Launceston. He was a strenuous Tory, and, being attached to heraldrical pursuits, obtained a reversionary patent for the office of Garter, king of arms. On the accession of George I, he was imprisoned under the suspicion of a design to restore the Stuarts. At this critical time the office of Garter becoming vacant, he petitioned for it in 1717, and received his appointment the following year. He wrote many works relating to heraldry, and edited ‘The Register of the Garter,’ with an introduction and notes. “In him,” says Noble, “were joined the learning of Camden, and the industry, without the inaccuracy, of Dugdale; he was a most indefatigable and able Herald, and though he lived to the age of seventy-six, yet we wonder at the greatness of his productions.”[303] He died in 1744.
Glover, Brooke, Vincent, Dugdale, and others had long since paid much attention to the genealogy of the noble families of this country, when Arthur Collins, Esq. projected a more complete account of existing houses in his afterwards celebrated ‘Peerage.’ This work, which first appeared in 1709 in a single octavo of 470 pages, was augmented in successive editions, until the last, edited by Sir Egerton Brydges in 1812, reached the goodly number of nine volumes. This work is too well known to require the slightest eulogium. In 1720 he published the first edition of his valuable ‘Baronetage,’ and subsequently one volume of a ‘Baronage,’ and several independent family histories. Upon the whole, Collins was one of the most laborious of writers; and none but those who have paid some attention to the construction of genealogies can fully appreciate his industry and research. Collins was born in 1682, and died in 1760.
The reigns of the first two Georges produced many other writers on subjects connected with heraldry and titular honours, including (I) Kent and Coats, and (II) Crawfurd on the ‘Peerage of Scotland,’ Wotton on the ‘English Baronetage,’ the learned Madox on ‘Land-honours and Baronies,’ and the indefatigable Mr. Salmon. During the same period also appeared innumerable volumes on the genealogies of our royal and noble families.