greatly alarmed by so extraordinary an order. As soon as they were within the bedchamber the Emperor opened his coffer and distributed the money among them. Then he said to them, " You have only to retire to your homes. I am going to sleep tranquilly, since that which has deprived me of slumber departs with you."

SIR MARTIN BOWES' SWORD.

This sword is inscribed as follows: "Sir Martyn Bowes, Knight, borne within this Citie of York, and Maior of the Citie of London, 1545, for a remembrance gave thys sword to the Maior and Communaltie of this said honorable Citie."

It is thus described by Davies: "The Bowes sword is much smaller than that which belonged to the Emperor Sigismund. The blade is about 3 ft. 2 ins. long, and the whole length of the sword about 3 ft. The sheath was originally covered with crimson velvet, garnished with pearls and stones set upon silver gilt. In the early part of the seventeenth century the sword appears to have sustained considerable injury. The velvet of the scabbard required to be renewed, and the ornaments to be re gilt. The gems and pearls with which it was decorated had disappeared, and new stones were purchased of a London lapidary to replace them. There is reason to suppose that the sword had been carried away by some officer of the court of King James 1, during that monarch's visit to the city in the year 1603, and that it was not recovered without much delay and difficulty."

Davies gives an interesting account of the Bowes family. The donor's father had been Sheriff and Lord Mayor of York, and also member for the city. His grandfather had held the same offices. Sir Martin proceeded at an early age to London. He rose to affluence as a goldsmith, was first treasurer of the Royal Mint, under Henry VIII and Edward VI, and jeweller to Elizabeth. In the midst of his prosperity he was never forgetful of the city of his birth, nor did he ever neglect any opportunity of promoting its welfare."

His reverence for the memory of his ancestors probably induced him to pray the Corporation to spare the church

of St. Cuthbert, Peaseholme, from demolition—a request which was successfully urged. Not long afterwards (20th September 1549) he presented the sword as a "pretty token of remembrance.'

THE LOST SWORDS.

It is much to be lamented that the identical sword which was presented to the city by King Richard II, and was in existence in the latter part of the last century, is not now in the possession of the rightful owners. At what time or by what means the ancient symbol of dignity passed from the hands of the Corporation is not known.

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The fate of the fourth sword, which was formerly made use of (vide Drake) on every time when the Lord Mayor went abroad or stirred from home", is also involved in mystery.

THE CAP OF MAINTENANCE.

The cap (or velvet hat) now in use has done much service, according to Davies, since 1580. King Richard II, in the year 1392 or 1393, presented Robert Savage, then Lord Mayor, with a large gilt mace to be borne before him and his successors, as also a cap of maintenance to the swordbearer.1

The original hat was doubtless worn out and cast aside as early as the year 1445, when the Corporation found it necessary to provide a new one. In that year a bearer's hat was purchased for the Lord Mayor's sword bearer, which cost the city forty-two shillings. This would have been an enormous price for a plain beaver hat, but we reasonably infer that it included the cost of the usual decorations of velvet and gold lace.

Three years previously "vijd." had been spent in repairing the original hat. The 1445 hat (23 Henry VI) gave way to the present one (1580) (vide Davies's opinion).

In 1580 the Corporation provided a new hat of felt, covered with crimson velvet, and ornamented with a gold edge, and a gold tassel, and a gold band, as

1 Eboracum, pp. 106, 181; Torr, p. 41.

appears from the following entry on the corporation

minutes:

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Charges for a new hat of maintenance, ordered to be paid to Peter Wilkinson, 19th May 1580, viz.-1 Felt hat, 3s.; 1 gold edge, 3s. 4d.; 1 gold tassel, 5s. ; lining in the head, 1s. 6d.; cover of buckram, 2s. ; 1 gold band, £1 2s. 8d.; making hat, 2s. 6d. Summa, 40s.

Besides these charges, William Scott, mercer, was paid for crimson velvet used for covering the hat, after the rate of 24s. a yard.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CAP.

The hat or cap of estate worn by the swordbearer is a peculiar symbol of dignity, probably originating in the ancient practice of the adornment of the head to signify honour and favour, as by the priestly mitre and the kingly crown. In the fourteenth century we have reference to the use of the cap of estate in the investiture of dukes. Later it was used at the creation of lesser dignitaries.

"No greater honour could be conferred upon a temporal prince than the presentation to him by the Pope of a cap of estate, accompanied by a sword, and sometimes a golden rose, which had been consecrated by the holy father's benediction." (Davies.)

The sword and cap the Pope used to send, in the olden time, after the Mass of the day, to some Christian crusader prince. King Edward IV and King Henry VII were recipients of the honour, and Davies' gives quotations from old records describing the display and ceremony with which the gifts were received.

The blessing of a sword and cap of estate by the Pope appears to have been an annual ceremony, until modern times. During the Councils of Constance, Pope John XXII made, perhaps, the earliest recorded presentation to the Emperor Sigismund. After this gift Sigismund proceeded to England, and himself left a sword in the Royal Chapel of St. George, at Windsor, which is to-day the principal state sword of the Corporation of York.

The cap transmitted by the Pope must not be con"The Full Cap of Maintenance."

1 Pamp

founded with the sovereign's cap of estate, which from an early period has been used in this country on occasions of regal state and ceremony. At the coronation of King Richard I, the archbishop placed on the monarch's head the consecrated cloth, and over it the cap. Afterwards the archbishop placed the crown upon the royal head.

At the opening of Parliament in modern times the cap of estate is always carried in the procession by some nobleman of high rank, who holds it upon a short staff on the right hand of the sovereign while seated on the throne. The name of the cap of maintenance is said to be derived from its being given by the sovereign to be held by the hand (tenu par la main) whilst he is wearing the crown. One of the earliest glyptic representations of the English cap of estate is upon the great seal of Edward III, who was the first of the monarchs to adopt for his crest a lion passant guardant crowned upon a chapeau d'honneur. A model of the same crest is yet to be seen among the heraldic adornments of the tomb of the Black Prince, in Canterbury Cathedral. The form of the cap is extremely simple, the brim, or border, being turned up in front and faced with ermine.

"The Elizabethan cap of maintenance, now belonging to the Corporation of York, is not without its resemblance to its original type both in form and material. It has the crimson velvet covering, and the ample brim turned up in front, which characterise the chapeau d'honneur of the fourteenth century. The facing of the ermine is wanting, for which, perhaps, the decoration of a gold band and tassel may be deemed an equivalent."1

Drake has the following further reference to the cap (Eboracum, p. 223):

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'The swordbearer hath a hat of maintenance, which he wears only on Christmas Day, St. Maurice's Day, and on the high days of solemnity. This hat he puts off to no person whatsoever, and sits with it on all the time during divine service at the cathedral, or elsewhere.

1 1 Davies, quoting Sandford, and also Stothard's Monument. Effigies.

MARRIAGE IN CELTIC BRITAIN.

BY J. H. MACMICHAEL, ESQ.

So many conflicting opinions are expressed by writers upon the subject, historians, philologers, and ethnologists, with regard to the real nature of the marriage relations and family life of the Ancient Britons, that the propriety will perhaps be conceded of an attempt to vindicate their character from the charge preferred by Cæsar in his Commentaries, and reiterated by succeeding classic and modern, but not by early native writers, of an outrageous laxity with which the primeval institution was regarded, and to enunciate the arguments available towards establishing the more favourable view in this respect of Brythonic morals. To do this it is necessary first to briefly view in its wider bearing the evidence which Comparative Philology affords, when it will be found that, even before the separation of the Aryan race, all the words which, like socer, father-in-law, signify those family relationships known to us by the addition of the words in-law, had received expression and sanction in the Aryan language, a circumstance which conclusively shows that the undispersed Aryans were acquainted with the institution of marriage and with those orderly family arrangements which follow in the train of a due regard for its sanctity. And Max Müller, in his essay upon Comparative Mythology, observes that "the race of men which could coin these words-words which have been carried down the stream of time, and washed up on the shores of so many nations-could not have been a race of savages, or mere nomads and hunters."

But this is no isolated instance of so favourable a view, for there seems to be a general tendency amongst the best authorities, especially with the aid which this search-light

1 Selected Essays, Max Müller. For example :

Sanskrit Greek Latin Gothic Slavonic

Celtic