To the noble collections of Gloddaeth, Corsygedol, and Mostyn, now united at Mostyn, as also to that of Wynnstay, the same observation might be extended.
The golden lion on a red field may have been displayed on the standard of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, but, from analogy to the arms assigned to the English monarchs of a corresponding period, it can, as armorial bearings, be only regarded, it is apprehended, as attributive. Of the armorial bearings of the English monarchs of the House of Normandy, if any were used by them, we are left totally without contemporary evidences. The arms of William the Conqueror, which have been for ages attributed to him and the two succeeding monarchs, are taken from the cornice of Queen Elizabeth's monument, in the north aisle of Henry VII.'s Chapel at Westminster. The arms assigned to Stephen are adopted on the authority of Nicholas Upton, in his treatise De Militari Officio, b. iv. p. 129., printed in 1654. For those of Henry II., there is no earlier authority than the cornice of Queen Elizabeth's monument, and it is on the second seal used by Richard I. after his return from captivity, that, for the first time, we find his shield distinctly adorned with the three lions passant guardant in pale, as they have been borne by subsequent English monarchs. (Willement's Regal Heraldry.)
COLERIDGE'S CHRISTABEL—"CHRISTOBELL, A GOTHIC TALE."
(Vol. vii., p. 206.).
Your correspondent S. Y. ought not to have charged the editors of Coleridge's Poems with negligence, until he had shown that the lines he quotes were inserted in the original edition of Christabel. They have not the musical flow of Coleridge's versification, but rather the dash and vivacity of Scott. At all events, they are not to be found in the second edition of Christabel (1816), nor in any subsequent edition. Indeed, I do not think that Coleridge made any alteration in the poem since its composition in 1797 and 1800. I referred to two reviews of Coleridge's Poems published in Blackwood in 1819 and 1834; but found no trace of S. Y.'s lines. "An old volume of Blackwood" is rather a vague mode of reference. It is somewhat curious that, previous to the publication of Christabel, there appeared a conclusion to that splendid fragment. It was entitled "Christobell, a Gothic Tale," and was published in the European Magazine for April, 1815. It is dated "March, 1815," and signed "V.;" and was reprinted in Fraser's Magazine for January, 1835. It is stated to be "written as a sequel to a beautiful legend of a fair lady and her father, deceived by a witch in
the guise of a noble knight's daughter." It commences thus:
"Whence comes the wavering light which falls
On Langdale's lonely chapel-walls?
The noble mother of Christobell