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or a knowledge, of the date at which the coat was granted, may enable us to identify the particular individual for whom it was made, Having ascertained when he was born, and when he died, it is easy to arrive af the approximate date of the piece. But more than this, the modes of tricking changed so much between 1700 and 1800, that there is very little difficulty in saying from the tricking, or to speak less technically, drawing of the arms, within twenty years, at what date they must have been painted.

In order that my meaning may be made perfectly clear I will illustrate it by describing some specimens now before me.

TEAPOT. ORIENTAL. ARMS:-Quarterly, I and 4, Azure a fess indented Ermine between three lions' heads erased Or. FELLOWS. 2 and 3, Argent, two barbel haurient respectant Sable. CoULTON. On an escutcheon the Ulster badge.

John Fellows, of Carshalton, sub-governor of the South Sea Company, was created a Baronet 20th of January, 1718-19, and died 26th of July, 1724, s.p., when the Baronetcy became extinct. This teapot was therefore made between these dates, and is the earliest specimen to which I can attach so undisputable a date.

MUG. ORIENTAL. ARMS:-Gules, on a fess Argent between three boars' heads Or, a lion passant Azure. GOUGH. Impaling, Gules, a chevron between three hinds Or. HYNDE. CREST. A boar's head Argent pierced by an arrow Gules.

Harry Gough, M.P. for Bramber, and an East India Director, married in 1719, Elizabeth, daughter of Morgan Hynde. He died in 1751, leaving issue, Richard Gough, F.S.A. (the celebrated Antiquary), to whom this mug belonged, together with a large oriental service of the same, some painted in colours, and some in blue with similar arms. This service was made in the East, and portions of it still remain among the descendants of Mrs. (Richard) Gough's family. From the tricking of the arms, the date appears to be about 1720, soon after Mr. Gough's marriage, which is also more probable than nearer the period of his death.

PLATE. ORIENTAL. ARMS:-Quarterly, I and 4, Gules, two chevrons Ermine between

three eagles displayed Or; 2 and 3, Azure, two chevrons Or between three goats' heads erased Argent. PARSONS. Impaling, Vert, on a chevron Or, a star between two cinquefoils Gules. CROWLEY.

CREST. A leopard's face Gules, surmounted of an eagle's leg erased Or.

Humphrey Parsons, twice Lord Mayor of London, married in 1719, Sarah, daughter of Sir Ambrose Crowley, Kt., and died March 21, 1740-41.

BOWL. LOWESTOFT? ARMS:-Gules, a bezant between three demi-lions rampant Argent, with six quarterings. BENnet, Earl OF TANKERVILLE. On a shield of pretence, Gules, a lion rampant Argent, on a chief Or, three martlets Azure. COLEBROOKE.

CREST. A double scaling ladder Or. SUPPORTERS. Two lions Argent, crowned Or, and charged on the shoulder with a bezant.

MOTTO. De bon vouloir servir le Roy.

Charles, fourth Earl of Tankerville, married October 7, 1771, Emma, daughter and coheir of Sir James Colebrooke, Bart. He died in 1822. From the tricking of the coat, which is finely painted, this bowl must have been made about the date of Lord Tankerville's marriage. It is of very similar character to the well-known "Wilkes and Liberty" bowls, mentioned by Mr. Chaffers as of Lowestoft make.

Mr. Chaffers gives in his "Marks and Monograms on Pottery and Porcelain," p. 636, a list of mottoes and inscriptions on Lowestoft porcelain, mostly taken from armorial specimens. His descriptions are, however, so careless and inaccurate that perhaps little reliance can be placed on his assertions-e.g., he describes a tea-service painted with the arms of Wilson, and motto Sincerity, as having a lion rampant in the arms, and a demi-lion rampant for the crest (it should be a wolf), and ascribes the coat to Sir T. Maryon Wilson. Sir T. Maryon Wilson succeeded to the Baronetcy in 1798, and, putting aside the absence of the Ulster hand in the coat, the design is hardly of so late a date. The china with the motto, Generoso germine germo, is attributed by Chaffers to "Wilton, a Suffolk family," whereas it bears the coat of Branthwaite. What the following example of his heraldic

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talent may be intended to represent must for ever remain a mystery. "Azure of two boars' heads, or a helmet and bezant."

Arms were sometimes, but not often, painted on delft. Argent, two chevrons Azure, between three trefoils Vert, DE CARDONNEL. Impaling, Argent, two bars Azure. CREST, a goldfinch; occur on a delft plate in my possession. This coat was granted in 1773 to the family of De Cardonnel, of Chirton, in Northumberland. This shows that the plate was made after 1773, and the tricking is rude for that period; but at what factory it was made I am quite unable to hazard an opinion. I have one or two specimens of arms on delft of an earlier date.

A PLATE of oriental ware, with the arms of LOWTHER, EARL OF LONSDALE, shows that the manufacture of china in the East went on concurrently with its manufacture in this country. The ARMS are: Or, six annulets, three, two, and one, Sable. CREST. A dragon. SUPPORTERS. Two horses Argent, each gorged with a chaplet proper. MOTTO. Magistratus indicat virum. The shield is surmounted by a Viscount's coronet. The first earl was created Baron and Viscount, 24th May, 1784, and died 24th May, 1802. He was succeeded by his cousin, Sir William Lowther, who was created Earl of Lonsdale, 7th April, 1807. The date of this plate is therefore between 1784 and 1807.

It is, I believe, a common opinion that china was sometimes made in the East, and sent over to be painted with arms in this country. I very much doubt the correctness of this opinion. If there be any ground for it, a plate in my collection, which appears to be of oriental ware, and to have been painted on the glaze, may serve as an example, and is more than ordinarily curious because of its early date.

ARMS:-Sable, a fess chequy Or and Azure, between three bezants. On a shield of pretence, Sable, two wings conjoined Argent. CREST. A stork argent. SUPPORTERS. Two falcons, wings elevated, beaked, membered, and belled Or, and gorged with a chaplet of red-roses proper. MOTTO. Amitie.

The shield is surmounted of a baron's coronet. These are the arms of Thomas Pitt, with those of his wife, Frances Ridgway, daughter and heir of the Earl of London

derry, on a shield of pretence. He was created baron in 1719, and in 1726 Earl of Londonderry. The date of this plate is, therefore, between 1719 and 1726. He was uncle to WILLIAM PITT.

A DISH, with blue border, coarsely made (probably Lowestoft), has the arms of James, third Duke of Chandos. Argent, on a cross Sable a leopard's face Or, with quarterings, supporters, crest, coronet, and motto Maintien le droit; and on a shield of pretence, quarterly one and four, Argent, two chevrons between three human legs Azure, two and three, Gules, three conies Argent. This is the coat of his second wife, Ann Eliza, daughter of Richard Gamon, to whom he was married, June 21, 1777. He died September 29, 1789. The date of this piece is therefore ascertained within twelve years.

I could cite many other instances of arms which enable us to fix the date when the china on which they are painted was made. I hope, however, I have said enough to show that my case is made out. The manufacture of armorial china was not confined to the East or to Lowestoft-it was made at all our well-known potteries. As a general rule it was not marked; but I have a sufficient number of marked specimens to prove this assertion correct. I give a few as examples.

SWANSEA. Marked, SWANSEA. This mark was used circa 1815. I have it on an oval dish, with the arms of Parker, Earl of Macclesfield. Gules, a chevron Or between three leopards' faces Argent, with crest, supporters, and motto, Sapere aude. The fourth earl succeeded in 1795, and died in 1842. The arms, &c., are in the worst style of heraldic art.

WEDGWOOD, SO marked. ARMS of RAMSEY. Argent, an eagle displayed Sable, charged on the breast with a white rose proper, in chief a fleur-de-lis of the second. Impaling, Argent, three bends Gules, on a canton Azure a spur Or. KNIGHT. MOTTO: Ora et labora. I have seen portions of an oriental service of this pattern, and conclude that this must have been made to match it.

DERBY. PLATE with ARMS of COLLINSON impaling SOWERBY. Argent, on a fess Azure, between a squirrel mordant in chief, and three battle-axes in base proper two mullets Or. Impaling, Barry of six Sable and Gules,

on a chevron between three lions' rampant. Argent as many amulets of the second. CREST. A squirrel, as in the arms. MOTTO. Respice finem.

C. S. Collinson, of the Chauntry, near Ipswich, married April 30, 1803, Maria, daughter of John Sowerby.

This has the crown and D used from 1780-1830.

A small plate with the arms, and ten quarterings of Sir Roger Gresley, Bart., impaling those of Coventry with four quarterings, in right of his wife, Sophia Catherine, daughter of the 7th Earl of Coventry, to whom he was married June 2, 1821. He died in 1837. This is marked with Bloor's mark (a crown within a circle, on which is printed "Bloor Derby "), used about 1830.

WORCESTER. A mug with the arms of the Earl of Essex, the painting of which is unfinished, is marked O, I presume a Worcester mark. I have also a bowl, with a square Chinese mark very similar in character to some given by Chaffers as Worcester marks. Specimens of arms painted on what I believe to be Leeds, Chelsea, and Bow are among my collection, but being unmarked I do not feel competent to express an opinion about them.

The armorial china fashion was not peculiar to England; plenty of specimens of foreign manufacture may be picked up in the antiquity dealers' shops in Paris, and other continental towns. Some of them closely resemble the ware made in this country, and perhaps they were so made; but in others the difference in the style of painting, for instance those decorated with a peculiar pink shell border, are clearly the production of some foreign pottery. Many foreign pieces are of fine egg shell, apparently Japanese. English arms are rare on this kind of china.

A few years ago when some half-dozen persons were known by the London dealers to be collecting specimens of armorial china (I speak advisedly, for I do not believe there are more than half a dozen, if so many, collections of this class of china), it entered into the mind of some person or persons, that specimens might be advantageously forged. The dealers were so ignorant of heraldry that they would not be likely to detect the fraud, and so were, in my

opinion, the collectors. In the course of a few months the dealers' shops were flooded with the fictitious articles, all, I believe, the work of the same man. Unfortunately for him he was entirely ignorant of the laws of heraldry, and consequently exposed his trick at once to those who knew good blazon from bad. Having apparently found out that designing original coats was beyond his capability, he took to reproducing those already well known. His method was ingenious; having taken an old piece of china, he erased with acid sufficient of the design to admit of painting on it the fictitious device, a plan well calculated to mislead the unwary purchaser. Having apparently succeeded by this means in deceiving some of the dealers, he next tried painting the whole thing, decoration and all, on new porcelain. The plate known as the "Pompadour Plate" was one of the most successful forgeries perpetrated. This is a plate of foreign make, with pretty pink shell border, and has the ARMS: -Azure, two fishes between three estoiles Or. CREST. A demi-otter proper, collared Or. The whole service was, I believe, a few years since in the hands of a London dealer. Some of it fell into the hands of the Paris marchands d'antiquités, and one of them, more learned than the rest, knowing that Madame de Pompadour was a Madlle. Poisson, and seeing that the arms were those of Poisson, asserted that the coat was that of Madame de Pompadour, and that consequently the service must have belonged to that distinguished lady. Unfortunately for this ingenious theory the arms are those of a man. Had the service been made for Madlle. Poisson, the spinster's lozenge would have contained the coat, and not the warrior's shield! High prices were soon obtained for plates, as much, and more I am told, as 120 francs, the actual value being about 10 francs. It is some years since I have seen any new forgeries, and I hope that form of the art of armorial china painting is dormant, if not extinct.

Arms painting on china has ceased to be in fashion, and the few modern specimens we meet with, chiefly of Worcester manufacture, are sad parodies on the carefully executed trickings of the last century. They are not likely to be of any interest to the heralds or china collectors of the century to come.

Barnard's Inn, bolborn.

HIS veritable relic of Old London, which, in part, escaped the Great Fire, has lately been sold, and will shortly be demolished. Known originally as Mackworth's Inn, from having been the residence of Dr. John Mackworth, who was Dean of Lincoln in the reign of King Henry VI., it was afterwards leased by his successor and the Chapter (as an endowment for the services which were to be celebrated over his grave in the Cathedral) to a gentleman named Lionel Barnard, from

Liberties." In more recent years it became celebrated as the last abode of Peter Woulfe, who, surviving Dr. Price, of Guildford, may fitly be termed the last of the Alchemists. That singular being-singular in each sense of the word-lived into the beginning of the present century. Sir Humphry Davy has left us a description of the home, the personal appearance, and eccentricities of the philosopher, whose seclusion and researches were unbrightened by any of the cheerfulness which, as Edwards, his old schoolfellow, naïvely told Dr. Johnson, he had found to effectually discourage all continuance in the one or

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whom it received the name it now bears. The repose and solitude that invest its three courts are typical of the mystery which hangs over its fortunes. The history of Barnard's Inn is involved more or less in obscurity. One or two facts, however, are definitely ascertained. Rebuilt in 1510, soon after the accession of Henry VIII. to the throne, it was constituted an Inn of Chancery, being attached to Gray's Inn. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth as many as fourteen dependent Inns had gathered around the great Inns of Court, like Colleges around a University, and Barnard's then formed one of "the houses of the Chancery within the

prosecution of the other. Here he died as he had lived-solitary; whatever secrets he may have discovered remained secrets to all the world besides. Desolate and other

*See, however, the account given in A Personal Tour through the United Kingdom, by Sir Richard Phillips, of a visit made by him in the year 1828, to a Mr. Kellerman, at Lilley, a village midway between Luton and Hitchin. Kellerman claimed to have discovered the art of making gold, and the sublime alkahest (or universal solvent), the "fixing" of mercury, and the "blacker than black" of Apollonius Tyanus. He laboured under the delusion that every Government in Europe was in league to obtain possession of his secret by force. In the course of the interview he quoted Woulfe, amongst other authorities, in justifi. cation of his pursuits.

wise forgotten has been this little Inn for generations past, but it was a brave place in its day. Tradition still lingers, with whispering voice, around its isolated quadrangles of the once youthful Ancients, of their nine Companions with the Principal at their head. The Companions, elected by the Principal and the Ancients, enjoyed the privilege of countless dinners in the Hall. The Ancients had an additional title to the receipt of certain "little fees," whilst the Principal, as master of the revels, had no graver responsibilities cast upon him than lay in keeping his small society within the easy limits of a moderate de

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students, it was stated, had ever belonged here; but this does not agree with what Stow tells us, or, indeed,

with the subsequent admission that during the latter portion of the seventeenth century a reader in Law would occasionally come over from Gray's Inn. But the library was afterwards sold, as consisting of "a few old books which were of no use ;" and all traces of earlier condition or 'constitution of the Inn rapidly disappeared. A treasurer and a secretary, it is true, responded to the call to go before the Commission. But they had little story to tell other than that the account books of the Inn covered a period dating from more than three hundred years ago; and that the property was held under a lease renewable every

fourteen years at a fine of £1400. Their rent-roll then brought in an income of the. annual value of about £1000.

Turning out of Holborn opposite Furnival's Inn, through an insignificant though substantially built gateway, over which appear the date and letters 1758, P.R.W., we walk along a narrow passage into the first and outer court, with a brick archway at its south-eastern corner. This court has for its southern side the archway and diminutive Hall of red brick which are shown in my sketch. The Hall, as will be observed, has a very plain elevation, and is unusually well lighted with side

latticed windows,and a central lanthorn. Though not especially remarkable in any other way, the Hall forms an interesting feature in a district which, including its more attractive neighbour, Staple Inn where Johnson wrote his "little story book," as he termed Eastern taleis yet untouched by the Apollyon of utility and improvement. It has,

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however, a pleasing interior, fitted and decorated in the customary manner, and adorned with portraits of King Charles II., Lord Burghley, Lord Verulam, the Lord-Keeper Coventry, and Lord Chief Justice Holt. Its dimensions do not exceed a plan of about thirty-six feet by twenty feet, with a height of thirty feet. The coats of arms of past Principals, in stained glass, ornament the side windows. But a high wall, which shuts off its northern side, and a hideous yellow brick structure forming its entrance from the south, greatly disfigure the exterior of the Hall. Beyond

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