But though surnames had long been in use, yet the nobility retained their ancient custom of omitting it upon their seals, contenting themselves with only giving their baptismal name, adding filius Ricardi, or whatever other name their father was christened by; but the arms upon the seal was significant enough to ascertain the family to which the person belonged.

The Anglo-Saxon gentry, in imitation of their masters, borrowed these family names from towns, manors, and castles in England, as the others had done from those abroad; but whether all those we meet with were confined to the Anglo-Saxons only, I will not pretend to determine. Perhaps some, even many of the foreigners, when they came here were not distinguished by any second or family name, which might, and probably was confined to the nobility and gentry: besides, many of the cadets of these families, by obtaining an English mansion or seat, might drop the name that their fathers had adopted, especially as it had been so lately taken up; and as they generally wrote themselves de, or of a place, it was more consonant to reason and propriety to use the name of their actual residence: the heads of the family, indeed, still retained the names of their foreign estates, probably to keep up their claim to them. The number of families that were distinguished by the names of places in England increased so much, that there is not a single town, village, or manor, but what does, or has given a name to a family, whose terminations are generally, ford, ham, ley, and ton, according to an old adage:

"In foord, in ham, in ley, and tun,

"The most of English surnames run *."

The increase too of armorial bearings was another consequence of the greater number of surnames. Many who assisted in the "holy," and other wars, obtained this favor; but they were at first restricted from taking any others, than such as were borrowed from the shields of those to whom they owed suit and service, with some difference: the colors were always the same. We may suppose that many of these were AngloSaxon gentlemen, as they would probably ally themselves to the younger branches of the Normanic, or other transmarine families.

The

* Other surnames, borrowed from places, | down, field, hill, hurst, ing, land, low, sted, ter terminate generally in by, bury, borough, den, try, thorp, well, worth, and wick.

The splendor of the crown in the reign of Edward I. much exceeded what it had been in the two preceding ones, and a degree of taste and refinement is visible in all the remains we have of this time. Edward had been in the East, where the arts were in much greater perfection than in Europe: he had caught the love of them. He appears to have understood architecture. His castles are an union of strength and beauty; the crosses he erected in honor of his first Qucen please every eye; he employed the best artists of Italy. Riches generally follow a triumphant prince, and luxury naturally accompanies them; these bring refinement and elegance. England was not an exception to the rule: the subjects followed the footsteps of their sovereign; their dress and martial equipages were more sumptuous. Each of these chieftans was now distinguished, in the army and at the tournament, by having his arms depicted upon the loose coat worn over his armor, and upon the caparison of his horse; and fearing that these should not sufficiently point them out, when surrounded with, and inclosed amongst their troops, they adopted a particular badge, which was worn upon the top of their helmet: hence came These marks of distinction were afterwards set over their arms upon a helmet. It would have been presumption in any but princes, earls, or great barons, to have assumed this mark of rank; but as every thing of this kind descends from the great to the little, crests are now borne by private persons, as a part of the arms. Grants of crests to arms have been very common heretofore. Ladies had also their arms. impaled with their husband's, and the label distinguished the arms of the son from those of his father; but this was not then confined to the eldest.

The British isles were thought sufficient to employ the martial valor of the English. Edward aimed at being sole monarch of Britain. Wales submitted to his arms, and was parcelled out amongst the English, as William had England amongst the Normans, though the chieftans held by other tenures. Severe as Edward was, he was not so cruel as William I. Shut up as the Welch were, they could not escape as the Anglo-Saxon gentry had at the conquest. Scotland also would have bent to his power had he lived longer. In the prosecution of these wars, as well as his romantic ones in Palestine before his accession to the crown, many out D

of

of the ancient native families in England behaved themselves with that gallantry, which would merit particular attention and reward, as there had been a few in every reign up to the conquest, even in that of William I. By these, and other means, many had acquired very great, though not the first consequence amongst the English families, by which common name all the people in Edward's reign might be distinguished and included, the whole nation being consolidated into one general mass, the newly conquered Welch excepted.

There was also another way opened by which the old Anglo-Saxon blood had acquired property, though it was not deemed so honorable as that of arms; this was trade, owing to the incorporation of towns. These revived that spirit of industry and commerce, for which the natives had been remarkable under their ancient monarchs. Trade, in a great measure, had been extinguished by the conquest, from the tyranny of, and the contempt with which it had been viewed by the Normans, who committed it almost wholly to the Jews, whom they first introduced into this kingdom. It was the policy of William to impoverish the English, and enrich the Jews; it was the wisdom of Edward to reverse this. By driving out the usurious extortioners, he both filled his own coffers, and restored to his subjects the greatest source of permanent wealth.

Those who carried on trade, whether of the Saxon or Norman stock, began now to acquire riches, and with it consequence. The city of London, in the last reign, had dared not only to oppose, but defy its sovereign; the wise laws, and the great privileges they obtained, also secured their wealth to themselves and their posterity. Such who descended from the Anglo-Saxon gentry found still more protection than heretofore, as well from softening some severities in the feudal customs, as from the equality of the laws, and the exact manner in which they were put into execution. Landed property was better secured to descendants by intails, which about this time became known in England; and both the citizens and inferior proprietors of land became of more consequence, some of their body being eligible to serve in the lower house of parliament, which became settled much in the same manner as it remains at this time. This part of the legislature being elective, and bearing the national purse, we may suppose how much it increased the power of the

3

lower

lower gentry and the higher tradesmen; together they formed what is now so excellent, a middle order of subjects, unknown before in the annals of Britain.

In

The title of knight and esquire, the latter Norman, became much more common now than heretofore. We hear of Alfred's knighting his grandson Athelstan, who also became the sovereign of England; but it was rarely used by the Anglo-Saxons; though indispensible with the Normans. Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, often conferred this title. The abbots, in a synod held in 1102, were forbidden to exercise this privilege, which they had long had. The title gradually increased under the Normans; and by Edward it was conferred upon most of the considerable proprietors of land. This monarch, at the same time that he knighted Edward, his eldest son, conferred that honor upon near three hundred of his attendants, the sons of earls, barons, and knights. the fatal battle of Bannockbourn, fought in the following reign, were seven hundred knights. That weak and impolitic sovereign put seventytwo of that order to death. Indeed his government was memorable only for the slaughter of the best blood in the kingdom, either upon the scaf fold, or in the unhappy Scotch wars. Such misfortunes must have made an alteration in property, as had the frequent confiscations of estates by treason under all the preceding monarchs, who rewarded their loyal and faithful subjects with the forfeited lands. The mistaken piety of the times too conveyed many rich domains to the monastic institutions, which greatly increased. In the reign of Edward II., we first meet with a degradation from knighthood, and read of the order of Knights Bannerets, such who were knighted under the royal standard in the field of battle. Probably it might have been first used by his father, who was more solicitous to confer his favors upon merit, and knew better how to discover it.

A great change was effected in England during the government of Edward III., the nation rising again, and eclipsing every other. This monarch, like his grandfather, was both a legislator and a general. Edward I. carried his arms into the poor and wretched parts of Britain; Edward III. ravaged the kingdom of France, the finest and richest monarchy in Europe. The one impoverished his subjects by his triumphs, but the other procured them wealth; individuals were even overpowered with it. This occasioned a luxury then unknown in England, and the D 2 softer

softer pleasures began to be united to the martial manners of the great, and by extending themselves to the inferior orders, produced a degree of profligacy disgraceful to the era.

Trade was encouraged by every possible mean, and the commerce of England was as extensive as the knowledge of her valor. Every civilized part of Europe equally bore testimony to both. London became the first city of Christendom for grandeur and wealth; it was the residence of Kings, and the habitation of the most opulent merchants. A single citizen was enabled to entertain a company of crowned heads; for in the English court were several, brought thither either by the fortune of war, or to solicit aid and assistance from the victorious Edward, and his still more gallant son. Edward gave every possible encouragement to trade, wisely judging it the most certain riches of his kingdom. By this mean he raised the capital, together with the other mercantile towns, to a consequence unknown in any former period. Let us first mark the change in the great, before we descend to the more inconsiderable part of the people.

Edward, with his assumption of the title of King of France, sunk that of Duke of Normandy. Earldoms had been the highest dignity the younger sons of our sovereigns had ever enjoyed; it was now superseded by that of duke. In Sweden none still bear this title, but the sons and brothers of their sovereigns. Knighthood was become too general to be any very particular badge of distinction: this, no doubt, was not the least reason why he instituted the military order of the Garter; the insignia, of which the greatest monarchs in all succeeding ages have thought it an honor to wear. England became by this institution the center of chivalry. Other nations had their knights, but Edward's were confessedly the first, and most respectable. Common knighthood was universal; every head of a family, often many sons, received it. Upon the Continent it was the same. In the battle of Cressy one thousand two hundred French knights were slain.

Heraldry in this reign received the highest polish: in future times it was more gorgeously attired; but with its simplicity it lost its greatest merit. Edward divided England into two provinces, south and north: the south was governed by Surroy, the north by Norroy, kings at arms. So many families now were classed amongst the gentry, that it was one great