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quired of such usage. If, however, the arms then borne are notoriously those of another family, whose ensigns are recorded at an earlier date than the claimant can establish them to have been used by his ancestors, a distinction might be adopted in such cases, and which, to avoid disputes, should be always the same; whilst the fee ought not to be a tithe of the expense of a Grant. By this practice we are convinced the funds of the College would be materially benefited; and justice would be rendered to many families who now join the common herd in abusing an institution which, whether from its innate respectability, or the private characters and high literary attainments of a large majority of its members, merits an elevated place in public esteem.

It is singular that this letter is not inserted in Mr. Hampers's recent Collection of Dugdale's Correspondence; but from a note to p. 367, it seems, that the editor unfortunately trusted to the opinion of some friend on its merits, who reported that it and some others, of which we shall give extracts," were merely on business connected with his heraldic visitations;" he being probably totally ignorant of its great value in illustration of the subject which has induced us to insert it, though it is otherwise of at least equal importance to many which occur in that volume.

[Lansdown MSS. 870.]

TO MR. WILLIAM HORSLEY.

Mr. Horsley,

I did receive your letter, dated May 30th, with that sume of 21. 5s. which was from Sir Miles Stapleton, of Weyhill, since which I wrote you by the post to let you know so much as for Mr. Raynes. If I can find anything in our books at the office to justifye the arms you drew with his descent, I will do it; but I have allready perused some books, and can find nothing out; therefore it will be requisite that he do look over his own evidences for some seals of arms, for perhaps it appears in them; and if so, and that they have used it from the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reigne, or about that time, I shall then allowe thereof, for our directions are limiting us so to do, and not a shorter prescription of usage.

I hear nothing as yet from your brother at Newcastle as to those descents, and the money which he promised to send before the end of this last term. I think I shall not go from hence before to-morrow fortnight.

Having an opportunity and this bearer, I have now sent you a trick of the arms which are entered in my visitation of Yorkshire, wherein you will see which are not yet proved; such other as I shall enter, I shall send you a trick of hereafter.

I pray you present my most hearty service to worthy Sir Thomas

VOL. I.-PART 1.

L

Herbert; here is nothing of consequence to impart to him, otherwise I would have written to him myself; so wishing you good health, I rest Your affectionate friend,

London, 15 Junii, 1668.

WILL. DUGDale.

In the same volume is another letter dated, Durham, 15th August, 1666, in which Dugdale begs Horsley to write to him before the commission "leave Newcastle, whereby I may understand the name of the signe at Stokesley, which is the bailiff's house, and at Kilham, Malton, and Beverley, where we are to sit;" and in the next, from Pomfret, 19th September, 1666, he speaks of having borrowed books from Lord Fairfax, with which he intended to send a special messenger." That messenger conveyed the third letter, of which a copy occurs in the Lansdown MS. before cited, dated at Blyth Hall, near Coleshill, 9th October, 1666, in which he says,

"This letter which I send you here inclosed, came not to my hands till I returned out of the North lately: it is from your neighbour Mr. Kitchell, who, as you will see, charges you with abusing him grossly. I pray you, therefore, for the better vindication of yourself, and so consequently me, that you will discourse the business with Mr. Kitchell, in the presence of my worthy and honored friend Sir Thomas Herbert, that it may appear you have not wronged him, otherwise I shall have a clamour upon me, as well as yourself. If Mr. Kitchell can make it appear that he is of that family unto which the arms are allowed in Kent, upon proof made there, I shall be willing to assigne him a fit difference upon certifying his descent under his hand, and payment of my fee to you for my use."

He then observes, that he intended to be at London on the 24th, but expected to make but a short stay,

"In regard we can have no proper settlement there as formerly, considering our lodgings are destroyed at the Heralds' office by the late woful fire. If you have any occasion to write to me before I write to you from thence, direct your letter to my son, Mr. John Dugdale, at Clarendon-House, for my Lord Chancellor is now fixt there, and it will soon come safe to my hands. When I come to London I intend to lodge at Mr. Ashmole's chamber, over Serjeant Maynard's lodgings, in the Middle Temple-lane. I hope you will desire your son William (to whom I pray you recommend my kind respects) to be very careful and punctual in the takeing notice of the marriages and issue in those descents he shall enter for any of the gentlemen. I presume he will not now erre as he hath formerly done, and be sure to rectify what is deficient in that of Sir Watkinson Payler, and to take notice of those particulars which are exprest in the paper I last delivered to him."

In a postscript, Sir William adds,

"These parcels of descents I now send you are only of those families which are in the North and East Riding, Dr. Johnson taking care for those in the West Riding. You are to take notice, that there is not in the old visitations any particular descent of Metham, of North Cave. Quere: therefore of his descent from Metham, nor is there any thing of Tankard of Bramton: see therefore how he is descended from those of Borrougbrigg. Ellerker of Yolton did enter his descent with me in April last. I believe the Lord Fairfax, of Gilling, will enter his descent if you send to him, for I hear he is a great lover of antiquities."

EARLY ENGLISH POETRY.

Ir is the plan of the New Series of the "Retrospective Review" to devote a few pages of each number to the publication of inedited pieces of English poetry; but on this occasion we are induced slightly to deviate from that intention, because we shall be enabled at the same time to perform another part of our labours, by noticing the proceedings of a literary association. Nor, we flatter ourselves, will either of the objects of our attention be considered undeserving of that of our readers; since all have heard of the unfortunate Charles d'Orleans, the hero both of war and poesy in the fifteenth century; and few of them can be ignorant of the existence of the Roxburghe Club. The name of the duke of Orleans, his bravery, his misfortunes, and his literary taste, are too universally known to require any further observations; but it may be necessary to state that the "Roxburghe Club" is a society of gentlemen, many of whom are "to fame unknown," and whose principal literary pretensions consist of a soi disant attachment to early literature and scarce books in its members; the one manifested by an absurd veneration for useless volumes, simply because they cannot be easily procured; and the latter by occasionally reprinting an old author, not, however, with the liberal and honourable view of extending the knowledge of his merits by an impression accessible to the public, but by confining it to the members of the Club, few of whom have the disposition, and still fewer the ability, to make the least practical use of the contents of the precious gift, even, which is but rarely the case, if the article itself be deserving of a higher destiny than to light a fire.

The poetry of Charles d'Orleans was considered to have remained in the original until some of his pieces were beautifully translated in the "London Magazine '." It appears, however,

1 For September, 1823. These elegant translations have been at

that notwithstanding the poems of a "grandson of France" were not even printed in that country until 1809, they were translated shortly after they were composed; though the MS. which contains the translations, remained till lately unheeded among the treasures of the British Museum'. Within the last six months, an opulent member of the Roxburghe Club, Mr. Watson Taylor, has had the good taste to print the MS. in question; though, either from being bound down by the vow which is supposed to be taken on admission into the fraternity, or from a littleness of feeling worthy only of a bookseller, who values books by no other criterion than the Hudibrastic one, that

"The value of a thing

Is as much money as 'twill bring ;"

the impression is confined to his confrères. By the world, then, the poetry of Charles d'Orleans must still be read in the original; and as the rarity of the contemporary English version will render it a sealed book to the majority of our readers, it is our purpose to present them with some extracts from the originals, the contemporary translations alluded to, and the elegant versions in the "London Magazine." London Magazine." A few words are first necessary on the volume printed by Mr. Watson Taylor. That gentleman has entitled his book," English Poems by Charles Duke of Orleans:" but there can be little doubt, that not a single line of them was the production of that distinguished individual. It will be seen from our extracts, that they are close, nay, almost literal translations of the French poems; hence, to assign them in their English dress to the duke, and to call them, as Mr. Watson Taylor has done in his preface, "imitations," are unequalled specimens of critical acumen. We have done what we do not believe that gentleman or the person he employed ever took the trouble to do-carefully examined a MS. of selections from Orleans's works in the British Museum, among which are three original "Rondels" in English; but they are so decidedly inferior to the translations in the MS. printed by Mr. Watson Taylor, that it is scarcely possible the duke could have been the translator of his own

tributed, though we know not with what justice, to Mr. Carey, the translator of Dante.

1 Harleian MS. 682. It would appear, however, that the contents of that volume were parts of a larger collection; for the first poem which occurs in it is only a fragment of the long article which occupies twenty pages in the original in the printed volume, namely, from p. 1 to p. 20. The extract translated is that which occurs in p. 18. Royal MSS. 16 F. 2.

writings. But our readers shall judge for themselves; first observing that our extracts from the original French are taken from the printed copy.

En songe, souhaid et penser,

Vous voye chacun jour de sepmaine,
Combien qu'estes de moy loingtaine,
Belle très loyaument amée.

Pour ce qu'estes la mieulx parée,
De toute plaisance mondaine:

En

songe, souhaid et pensée,

Vous voy chascun jour de sepmaine.

Du tout vous ay m'amour donnée,
Vous en povez estre certaine :
Ma seule Dame souveraine,

De mon las cueur moult desirée,

En songe, souhaid et pensée.—p. 208.

Contemporary translation in the Harleian MS. 682.

In thought, in wisshis, and in dremes soft,
God wot how that y se yow nyght and day,
Albe that fer y am from yow away,
Whom that y love as feythfully y ought
This say y me, not yow, that ye are wrought
The most plesaunt that evir yet y say ';
In thought, in wisshis, and in dremes soft,
God wot how that y se yow nyght and day.
My love is youre, for noon except y nought
Be seid, so thinke ye trouthe y to yow say,
But my soul lady are ye toy day

Withouten choyse as of new fangill thought.
In thought in wisshis and in dremes soft

God wot how that y se yow nyght and day.-f. 74.

Translation in the "London Magazine."

In dream, and wish, and thought, my Love,

I see thee every day;

So doth my heart to meet thee move,

When thou art far away.

For that all worldly joys above

Thou shinest in thy array;

In dream, and wish, and thought, my Love,

I see thee every day.

No care, no hope, no aim I

That is not thine to sway:

prove,

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