Forecastings of Nostradamus.

IF you would know of olden days,You need not only read or lookOn quaintest type in early bookOr learn almost forgotten lays.There is a wider field; go forth:And ye who seek will surely findThat which shall ever teach the mind,Go east or west, go south or north.The massive mound in days of yore,The fortress hill, the castle grey,That speaks of strife and danger’s day,Which we in quiet know no more.Here you may trace a Roman’s hand,Here the rude Saxon work, and thereHow Norman skill did once repairThe ruined churches of the land.For many a little church can tellOf other days. The ancient glassThrough which the tinted sunbeams passSpeaks to us now. You hear the bell.That told the tale of life and death,Of marriage feast, of times of prayer,When they, long dead, were gathered there,Who sleep the quiet sod beneath.And many a home of days gone by,With timber gable richly dight,And tiny panes, through which the lightComes slowly stealing from the sky.Go where you will, you still shall findNot only homes of old renown,But quaint old homes in market town,In streets that ever sway and wind.The land we live in is a bookIn which is written much to read,And much that to the past will lead.Go forth, and on it kindly look.H. R. W.

IF you would know of olden days,You need not only read or lookOn quaintest type in early bookOr learn almost forgotten lays.

There is a wider field; go forth:And ye who seek will surely findThat which shall ever teach the mind,Go east or west, go south or north.

The massive mound in days of yore,The fortress hill, the castle grey,That speaks of strife and danger’s day,Which we in quiet know no more.

Here you may trace a Roman’s hand,Here the rude Saxon work, and thereHow Norman skill did once repairThe ruined churches of the land.

For many a little church can tellOf other days. The ancient glassThrough which the tinted sunbeams passSpeaks to us now. You hear the bell.

That told the tale of life and death,Of marriage feast, of times of prayer,When they, long dead, were gathered there,Who sleep the quiet sod beneath.

And many a home of days gone by,With timber gable richly dight,And tiny panes, through which the lightComes slowly stealing from the sky.

Go where you will, you still shall findNot only homes of old renown,But quaint old homes in market town,In streets that ever sway and wind.

The land we live in is a bookIn which is written much to read,And much that to the past will lead.Go forth, and on it kindly look.

H. R. W.

By C. A. Ward.

PART III.

(Continued from Vol. V. p. 293.)

“Hunc solem, et stellas et decedentia certisTempora momentis, sunt qui formidine nullâImbuti spectent.”—Hor., I. Epist. vii. 3.

NOSTRADAMUS was of a stature somewhat less than middle-size, rather thick-set, active and vigorous. He had a broad, open forehead, a straight, regular nose, grey eyes, of gentle appearance, but in anger flashing fire; the general expression was severe, but pleasant, so that through all the seriousness one could discern a benevolent disposition; his cheeks were rosy even in extreme age; he had a long thick beard, and his health was excellent, all his senses being alert and well-preserved. His spirits were good, and he comprehended readily whatever he gave his attention to. His judgment was penetrating, and his memory remarkably retentive. He was taciturn by nature, thought much and spoke little, was rather prompt, sudden, and irasciblein temper, but very patient when hard work had to be encountered. He slept four or five hours only out of the twenty-four. He practised freedom of speech himself and commended it in others. He was cheerful and facetious in conversation, though in jesting a little given to bitterness. He was attached, so says De Chavigny, to the Roman Church, and held fixedly the Catholic faith; out of its pale there was for him no salvation. Though pursuing a line of thought entirely his own, he had no sympathy with the Lutheran heretics of so-called Freethought. He was given to prayer, fasting, and charity. As far as outward observance was concerned, he might be classed with the highly respectable and decent. Le Pelletier says, “sa fin fut Chrétienne;” but he adds a little further on that his style is very much more like that of the Pagan oracles of Greece and Rome than of the canonical prophets of Hebrew Inspiration. He remarks that the first Century opens with a regular incantation fortified by the most celebrated rites of Paganism, so that some suspicion of his orthodoxy may well be entertained. Certain it is, for he avows as much in the dedicatory epistle to Henry II.—which, by the way, the King never saw—that it was his custom prudently to veil in obscurity of expression whatever was likely to displease his protectors and so to damage his private interest. This is not the way with the heroes of Hebrew prophecy, Isaiah, Elijah, Samuel, but though it is somewhat cowardly, it becomes, when well reckoned up, a sort of sub-assertion of sincerity; for why should a man record the unpleasant things at all if he did not believe in them, and desired only to make himself agreeable? If he believed his own utterances he wasconsciouslya prophet: that he threw a veil over them, shows only that he declined to suffer martyrdom for his convictions. It is quite possible to be a seer, and yet not heroical, but it is the poorest of criticism not to distinguish between such frailty as this and imposture. Want of grandeur does not imply anyintention to deceive. Modern Freethought effectually breaks down upon a point like this, it almost invariably classifies the weak spiritualist as an impostor. It reasons somewhat thus: “Astrologers are impostors—Nostradamus was an astrologer. Prophets and divines, owing to the spread of sound knowledge in modern times, are no longer to be reckoned as inspired, but as impostors; Nostradamus was a prophet and therefore an impostor. He arrived in the world a thousand years behind his time, and must lie down now under Scientific and Encyclopædic ridicule. At the close of the nineteenth century is it likely we can allow such claims to be made upon our credulity as the more rational part ofthe community refused to admit three hundred years ago?” To all this and to all such processes of reasoning, I need merely say that there is a credulity of superstition that has been always esteemed as degrading to human nature; but there is also a superstition of incredulity that is quite as debasing to human nature and even more so, for it springs from the folly of pride and conceit, and not, as the other does, from a misplacement of faith.

By his second wife he left three sons and three daughters. The eldest was Cæsar, to whom he dedicated his first volume of the “Centuries.” Of these he wrote twelve in quatrains, and three of them are left imperfect, the seventh, the eleventh, and twelfth. But he also left some Forecasts written in prose, which Chavigny collected and arranged in twelve books. They are said to comprehend the history of France for about a century after his death—its wars, troubles, and whispered intrigues. The book is not mentioned by Brunet, 1839-45, and I do not find it in the British Museum; but the National Library is rather imperfectly supplied with the literature relating to this remarkable man; no doubt the authorities there look down upon him from the Olympus of Bloomsbury with a scientific disregard, as being a sort of gipsy fortune-teller of the sixteenth century, not worth completing. Do we expect a Messiah from that quarter? Can there any good thing come out of Aix in Provence? “Loco exiguo, obscuro, ignobili, barbaro, impio atque prophano?”

This prose history of a hundred years would be interesting, if only to compare with the rhymed “Centuries,” which have a much vaster range, and are supposed by many to cover all the time from Louis XIV. to the establishment of Antichrist.

Jean de Nostradamus, the brother of Michael, was Procureur to the Parliament of Aix, and wrote a work entitled “Les vies des plus célèbres et anciens poëtes provensaux, qui ont floury du tems des contes de Provence,” Lyon, 1575, a book still sought for, and rather rare. It has been seen above that Cæsar also wrote on the same subject. His work was entitled “Chronique de l’Histoire de Provence:” in this he introduced the lives of the poets, and the book was published in 1614 by his nephew, Cæsar de Nostradamus.

These are almost all the facts of any importance that are recorded in the life of Nostradamus. It now remains to us to give some account of the most remarkable of his forecasts. They may be pronounced obscure, partial, useless, or what not, according to the special views and disposition of mind in each reader. That they are very curious must be admitted by all, and that some of the thingsforeseen with astounding particularity are inexplicable upon any hypothesis of reasoning, other than that which admits either a direct revelation in every case, or a general anticipatory faculty, forming part of the great scheme of the mental endowment of mankind. Call it divination, second sight, clairvoyance, magnetic affinity, or what you will. Everyone may in this decide, or, if you had rather, guess for himself. I prefer the second supposition, and think that there are certain organisations, somewhat rare and peculiarly wrought, that are endowed by nature with a subtle tact and anticipatory insight denied to the majorities. I further think that such exceptional instances occur more frequently in people of ancient and unmixed race, such as the Celt, the Basque, the Chaldean, Gipsy, and most frequently of all amongst those branches of them that inhabit mountain-ranges. These I imagine to retain the instincts of the birth of man more clearly than the mixed tribes that have busied and even degraded themselves in the social pursuits of money, power, and art, and have burnt down their souls to a kind of materialistic slag in the furnace of what is called civilisation.

If man is a creature born to immortality—and certainly no thought is so congenial to largeness and nobleness of heart as this is—I can see no reason why he should not have some vision given him of the minor things to happen on this theatre of the earth, which might serve as a sort of foretaste of that major light which is to clothe him as with a glorious garment when he steps forth from this his present condition of earthworm into that exalted bodily temple that he shall inhabit to all eternity. Science so-called is free to teach what it chooses: it may level man to the rank of a turnip by its insidious analysis and gradational processes. Its business is with the present, and with all its pretence of intellect it remains of the material earth, earthy. The future is out of its ken and reach. But the soul, which is the broad, many-sided reason of man in concrete, and the, so to speak, spiritually substantialised symbol of it, cannot be shut up to this. Chop logic by Aristotle’s chaff-cutter, whether handled by a Duncan, a Watts, an Aldrich, or a Whately, as you please, yet the soul, defies you with itsabsoluteness, pushes aside induction and thecontingentwith it, and laughing at your littlenesses and your petty syllogisms, leaps at one bound into the incommensurable freedom of the future of eternity.

It now remains for me to show, not that Nostradamus is a grand type of the order of prophets, not that all the Quatrains in all of the twelve books of the “Centuries” are intelligible and of definitepurpose, nor that everything he uttered and recorded is to be regarded as a prophecy either fulfilling or fulfilled. (This is not at all what I propose to do.) I intend simply to select, without over much attention to chronology or the sequence of events, such of the quatrains as by philological apparatus existing are capable of being translated into simple and intelligible language out of the occult prophetic, barbaric, and almost always pedantic phraseology (or old Franco-Provençal patois, if you like to call it so) in which it pleased or suited our prophet in hisfureur poëtique[14]to record for us his “nocturnes et prophétiques supputations” (des astres). In doing this, if one case of unmistakable prevision can be established, the missing spiritual link is set up that connects the present with the future.

Christians generally grow almost rancorous against those who rejecttheirScripture miracles, as Hume did, on the ground that the laws of nature being inviolable miracles become impossible; but a miracle that contravenes a law of nature is far more incredibleper sethan such a spiritual link as the above. The miracle of bringing a man to life goes, so to speak, dead against nature and its laws customary. But a forecast, as such, is little more miraculous than a telescope that focuses and brings into range what lies out of the range of the ordinary human eye. It is really as feasible a thing to the seer, as for you and me to see that a kitten will become a cat nine months later on. He sees by imagination what you see by reasoning on association in the past. It is discovery by a different faculty, I admit. But if Christian belief accepts a future state and the immortality of the life (commonly called thesoul) of man, then I say, that the Christian who denies the gift of prophecy to be inherent in mankind[15]is really as dead to spiritual life as if he were a materialistic member of a scientific society of the nineteenth century, or a Parisian enclycopædist of the eighteenth.

Again, if Christianity be a heaven-descended revelation, its foundations must be rooted deep in the spiritual world and should be full of correspondences. The material universe is full of them. There the meanest particle of dust is link by link connected at last with the grandest astral phenomena, and can we suppose that men are all possessed with an immortal spirit, and yet at the same time announcethat notoneof them has any prescience, any foreknowledge of things coming on the earth, no sign rendered from the great unnameable Director, who, vast and invisible, also dwells in spiritual obscurity, and never gives an inkling to anyone born of woman that He cares more for an empire with its myriads of embryo angels (according to the doctrine of the Churches) than for an oak tree or a medlar? Yet we are willing to make it a point of virtue to believe that His only Son died for us, and that a whole line of prophets from Jacob to Caiaphas harped perpetually and in succession upon the Paganini string of the one great utterance of His advent. At the birth of Christ it is untruly said that the oracles stopped. So, according to the present Christian dogmatising, did the prophets. Would it not be a thousand times more fraught with hope, if we had not basely smothered such beliefs by materialistic science (or Atheism, for it is closer of kin to the blasphemy of unbelief), could we have said thereisa spiritual living link of prophecy existing, and now and again found amongst us; a correspondency in man with the future; a power in him to forecast it a little, though darkly—as with a dark lanthorn moving through a dark season—and touching so, through film, the future of time as to interlink the whole series into one, and make to-day, perishing—with its bells, its bustle, and its breathing—into a continuous whole, one with the glories of eternity?

It will perhaps be well before proceeding to the Quatrains to meet an objection against Nostradamus put forward by the famous Gassendi,[16]who received it from Jean-Baptiste Suffren. Gassendi, it seems, was at Salon in 1638, when Jean-Baptiste Suffren, a judge in that town, communicated to him the horoscope drawn by Nostradamus for his father Antoine Suffren, and written in our prophet’sown hand, giving ten points, such as he should have a long curly beard, so bent in age, that in his 37th year he should be wounded by his half-brothers, and he had none, and much more of the same sort, but invariably wrong, till the horoscope fixes Suffren’s death in 1618, whereas he died in 1597. Now, in the first place, Gassendi was of a sceptical turn of mind, so that he would be glad to find Nostradamuswrong. Then Nostradamus died in 1566, and only in 1638, seventy-two years after, do they produce this document and assert that it is in Nostradamus’s handwriting. We may assume that the MS. was eighty years old at least. Gassendi does not profess to know his handwriting, but took it to be so on Jean-Baptiste Suffren’s simple assertion. It is perfectly possible that Suffren had some desire to ridicule an astrologer, and might have invented the whole thing. At any rate, it is not likely thatevery oneof ten or eleven guesses would be precisely the contrary of the fact.[17]One of the clauses ran that at twenty-five he should cultivate rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, theology, natural science, and the occult philosophy. Jean-Baptiste has the effrontery to say that he studied not one of these, but only the science of jurisprudence. It is not likely, I say, that Nostradamus would guess wrongly in all the sciences, and leave out the only one that the man pursued. This looks as if it had been manufactured for the express purpose of bringing the name of Nostradamus into ridicule and disrepute. It is quite certain that the late John Varley, the painter, could draw some most wonderful horoscopes; a cousin of my father’s, in whose family he taught, had seen his forecasts marvellously verified. So correct had he frequently been that at the time she knew him it was with the greatest difficulty he could beinduced to draw one. It is not likely that Nostradamus would fall so absurdly short of John Varley. Guessing at haphazard would correspond with the facts better than this upon the mere doctrine of probabilities. Jean-Baptiste in his haste has proved too much, and Gassendi, like a multitude of incredulous people, was quite ready to receive too much of the things for which his mouth was open and eager.

(To be continued.)

NOTES OF A VISIT TO DAMME.

By the Rev. Joseph Maskell.

THERE are few cities in Europe of greater interest for the intelligent traveller than Bruges, the “cradle of opulent Flanders,” and the “Venice of the North.” The student in history, the connoisseur in art, the lover of antiquity, all find here ample instruction and enjoyment. Even the superficial traveller, hurrying on to more fashionable localities, but “doing” Brugesen route, as the correct thing, finds much to interest him in its quaint exteriors, silent canals, and old-world streets, to say nothing of its many treasures of pictures, sculptures, wood carvings, and other monuments of antiquity, to be seen only by penetrating into interiors, and looking deeper than the surface. “A decayed, dull place, where the grass grows in the streets,” was the verdict of a fellow-traveller, as the train from Ostend steamed into the modern Gothic unfinished station of Bruges on a wet day in last July. Not so. Bruges is neither decayed nor dull, nor does the “grass grow in its streets.” Gone is the day in which it could be written of the turbulent Flemish cities—

“Bruges et Gaud, qui toujours, ces bouillonnantes cuves,Ecclataient à la fois, ainsi que deux Vesuves;”[18]

yet Bruges is still full of a steady kind of life and activity; and, as one of its intelligent citizens described it, “ce n’est pas ville morte; c’est une antiquité vivante,” retaining many tokens of the time when the proud Jeanne of Navarre, the Queen of Philippe le Bel, passing through streets lined with the palaces of its merchantprinces, and observing the rich clothing of their ladies, cried out, “Je croyais être seule Reine de France; je vois ici cent reines que valent autant de moi.”

But my visit was not so much to Bruges as to its neighbour and ancient seaport, Damme. The former, lying so directly in the way of the English traveller to Brussels and Cologne, is fairly well known; the latter is known only to a select few. Damme[19], which is now a mere village, with a commune of less than 1,000 inhabitants, was, four centuries ago, a busy and prosperous town. It stands on the canal between Bruges and l’Ecluse, about three miles from the former place. Its full name is Hondts-Damme,la digue du Chien, so called from a circumstance that attended its origin. Anciently it stood at the head of the Zwyn, an arm of the North Sea; a broad digue extending from Bruges to Cadsand, made after a terrible inundation in the twelfth century, kept the waters of the Zwyn in their proper channel, and upon this digue Damme was built. The place was originally confined to the huts of the workmen from Zealand and Holland employed in the construction of the digue; by degrees it grew into a populous trading town, the convenient spot for a harbour, seaport, and depôt for merchandise. Its name of Honsdamme is thus explained. During the construction of the digue the workmen for a long time could not keep out the sea; as fast as their work proceeded the returning tides swept it away, till one of them advised that a great dog, who mysteriously appeared every day on the scene, without any apparent owner, should be thrown into the water. This done, the sea became calm, a solid foundation was soon secured for the digue, and the work rapidly accomplished. Hence the name Hondts-Damme, and the figure of a dog on the town’s escutcheon. The town dates from the completion of the digue in 1168; it grew immediately into influence and prosperity. In 1180 it was important enough to secure from Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders, a charter of incorporation as an independent commune, under the government of two burgomasters and four echevins. The Zwyn was then a broad and deep gulf, protected from sea storms, and affording safe anchorage for vessels of all kinds. Even down to the seventeenth century, till the formation of the canal to Ostend, this was the only channel of communication between Bruges and the sea. In 1213, a fleet of 1,700 ships, equipped by Philippe Augustus of France forthe invasion of England, entered the harbour. The craven fear of King John, and the intervention of the Count of Flanders having thwarted the designs of Philippe, the latter, in his rage and disappointment, resolved to carry the war into Flanders. The fine harbour of Damme, and the wealth of the town, excited the wonder of the French, who landed and made themselves masters of the place, and of a rich booty. “Les vins de France et d’Espagne, les bières anglaises, les laines d’Écosse, les soieries italiennes et orientales, les toiles, les filés, les attelages de chariots, les merceries, les épices de toute sorte, les peleteries de Hongrie, l’etain anglais, le cuivre rouge de Pologne”—these were some of the riches stored in Damme. Intoxicated with their prey, the French were easily surprised by an English fleet, under the command of Longsword, Earl of Salisbury, when 300 of the principal French ships were captured, and the rest scattered or destroyed. The captured vessels, laden to the deck with the rich booty, sailed with the conquerors to carry the joyful news to England. At the same time a Flemish army from the land side attacked the town, but without success. The French King, in revenge, set fire to the houses, and Damme was nearly destroyed. It was, however, quickly rebuilt, and recovered its prosperity. In 1240 it was admitted into the Hanseatic League, and the Lombards established banks here. Next year it received fresh privileges from Count John of Constantinople, and the extension of the canal to Ghent still further increased its importance. In 1270 its fortifications were renewed and enlarged. In 1297, during the brief war between England and France, and in consequence of the alliance between Edward I. and Guy de Dampierre, Count of Flanders, Damme was again temporarily in the hands of the French. A combined army of English and Flemish attempted to re-take the town: but the allies quarrelled over their respective shares of the plunder, and Edward, withdrawing his forces to Ghent, left to the Flemings the honour of success. In 1300 it was again assaulted and captured by the French; but the patriotic Flemings, led by the Brugois, quickly defeated their enemies and delivered their country. In 1384, during a war with the French, arising out of the insurrection of Flanders against the oppression of its Count, Louis le Mâle, the powerful walls of Damme withstood the attack of a French army, under Charles VI. It was garrisoned by only 1,500 of the men of Ghent, commanded by the patriotic Francis Ackerman, and for six weeks held out against 80,000 of the enemy. The capture of the town was as remarkable as its subsequent defence. Having receivedinformation that the Governor of Damme and his chief officers were absent at Bruges, Ackerman marched from Ghent with his little army, scaled the walls by night, and took the place without difficulty. In the citadel he found seven ladies of high degree, who had come to visit the Governor’s wife. Ackerman invited them to a banquet, and paid them every mark of courtesy. “I do not make war upon women,” he said, “notwithstanding that many of your nobles have treated the families of the burgesses in a very different manner.” After a brave defence, scarcity of drinking water and the non-arrival of the English allies, compelled the brave garrison to return under cover of the night to Ghent, which they reached in perfect order and safety.

But another enemy than the French was now silently plotting the destruction of Damme. The sea had shown signs of retreating from the Zwyn as early as the fourteenth century, navigation to Sluys became more and more difficult, and in 1475 the harbour was almost lost in the sand.[20]Still Damme long retained its outward signs of prosperity. Itsentrepotof wines, founded by Louis de Crescy in 1357, continued till 1565, and its situation rendered it so important as a frontier fortress and outpost of the Southern Netherlands that possession of it was frequently disputed. The dissolution of the Hanseatic League in the sixteenth century and the partition of the Netherlands by the consolidation of the Northern provinces into the Dutch Republic, which strengthened the power and developed the commercial importance of Holland to the prejudice of Belgium, all helped to hasten the decay of Damme as a commercial town. In 1637 the Dutch occupied the place during the war of Holland with Spain arising out of the fruitless treaty between Richelieu and the United Provinces for the partition of the Spanish Netherlands. By the Treaty of Westphalia it was restored to Flanders, and the boundaries between the two Netherlands were left unaltered. In 1706 it was taken by Marlborough without a struggle, for the Flemings everywhere welcomed the allies and submitted to the authority of the English, although it was not very judiciously exercised. The Barrier Treaty, signed at Antwerp in 1715, finally secured that Dammeshould be included within the Austrian Netherlands, but, except from its situation close to the frontier, the town had now lost all its importance. Thus the decay of Damme was not less rapid than its rise, and its fall as remarkable and complete as was its opulence and greatness. From being a flourishing maritime town it has become only an inland village. The ancient harbour, where 1,500 ships could ride safely at anchor, is now a corn-field; its broad quays, stately warehouses, and fortified walls cannot be traced even in outline; its streets, once crowded with merchants and their goods, are now deserted: indeed it is difficult to realise that this slumbering village was ever awake.Jam seges est ubi Troja fuit.But there are not wanting signs of a departed greatness. The Hotel de Ville still occupies a prominent position in the Place, and though much neglected and injudiciously restored it is yet an object of beauty. It was founded in 1242, but the present building is of the fourteenth century. It is constructed in white stone, rectangular in shape, with small turrets at each corner. A double stair conducts to an elegant porch, much disfigured, but still quaint and interesting. On entering the building the first room that we see to the left is anestaminet, quite humble in character. Behind this is the Salle de Justice, still used by the communal authorities, and the remaining room is now a kitchen. On the oaken and cedar roof there are carvings of the Blessed Virgin and other saints, King David, and Van Maerlandt, “the Flemish Chaucer.” There are also some curious fire-tongs and fire-dogs, an enormous chimney corner, and some faded pictures and inscriptions. The crypt, partly a store-room and partly a stable, is striking, but very dirty and neglected. In the quaint central tower there are two ancient bells.

The church, dedicated to Notre Dame, is built throughout of grey bricks, and is a noble monument in ruins. It was begun in 1180, but the chief part of the present structure belongs to the fourteenth century. The work of destruction was begun by the Dutch Calvinists, who set fire to the church in 1578; the growing poverty of the town prevented repairs, till the transepts and part of the nave were destroyed in 1725. The walls of the ruined nave are left standing, leaving the massive and lofty tower nearly isolated from the main body of the church. The choir only is used for service. It is a fine relic, but sadly spoiled by whitewash. The west door is in the modern brick wall which shuts in the choir, beneath what was once the roof-screen, but now serves as the organ gallery. The monuments of the dead are few; several matrices of brasses remain,and a few modern tombs. A very fine memorial of Jacques van Maerlandt, “the father of Flemish poetry,” and a native of Damme, was destroyed by an ignorant curé about half a century ago. The poet died in 1300, and is buried at the base of the tower. His memorial was very curious. He was seated on a chair with an owl by his side, wearing spectacles and reading from a book supported on an eagle lectern. To atone somewhat for the destruction of the monument there is a poor statue of the poet in front of the Hotel de Ville.

In this church, in 1429, was celebrated the marriage of Philip le Bon with Isabella of Portugal, and on the 9th July, 1468, that of the unfortunate Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, with Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV. Her brother brought her hither with a considerable fleet, and many of the English nobility in her train, from Margate. They landed at Sluys, where the Duke met her and went through the ceremony of betrothal. The town of Damme received her with many tokens of welcome. As she passed through the streets every householder stood at his door carrying a blazing torch, and from this town the bride and bridegroom made their festive entrance into Bruges on the day following the wedding.

There is still in Damme a small hospital dedicated to St. John, founded by Margaret of Constantinople in the twelfth century.

I visited Damme towards the end of July last year. The road lies through the town of Bruges, past the Episcopal Seminary, and out of the Porte de Damme, along the canal, a perfectly straight line, bordered with poplars and with corn-fields on each side. In scenery of this kind there is a certain sense of repose and of general, though not brilliant, prosperity, but the eye of an artist is needed to extract beauty out of so many straight lines and such formal regularity. Many of the fields are planted with colza, which is said to look very gay when in flower. It was the annual horse fair of Bruges, and the scene was busy, but it could hardly be called picturesque or lively, with the multitude of peasants accompanied by young colts as “stolid, stubborn, and sturdy” as themselves. Harvesting operations were proceeding with the sickle in a very leisurely manner, and the mode of tying up the sheaves, till they looked as if they were only bundles of straw with the corn cut off the top, seemed very primitive. Altogether it was a scene not to be forgotten. The world here, instead of advancing, seems to have gone back several centuries, and there are fewer signs of progressive civilisation than when Bruges was, in fact, the “Venice of the North,” and Damme its busy sea-port.

The importance of Damme in the middle ages is shown by the fact that the Judgments or Customs of Oleron, out of which the maritime laws of the nations of Europe are derived, and which were said to have been brought by our Richard I. on his return from the Crusades, were generally called “Le droit maritime de Damme.” But the Flemish laws were merely a translation of the original customs.

Visitors to Damme should extend their excursion to the cathedral-like and judiciously restored church of Lisseweghe, with its noble thirteenth century tower. This village is within an easy walk of the watering-place of Blankenberghe, where once more the modern world may be studied in some of its brightest and most amusing aspects.

By R. S. Ferguson, F.S.A., Mayor of Carlisle 1881-2 and 1882-3.

PART I.

THOSE members of the Archæological Institute who attended the Congress held at Carlisle in 1882, will recollect that, though the mayor of Carlisle did not exactly blow his own trumpet, yet he was rarely seen without his trumpeter in immediate attendance. They may possibly, therefore, have set down to his credit a disposition to magnify the dignity of an office to which he, however unworthy, has been a second time elected. Indeed, they would not be far wrong; and he must admit that his recreations during office took the form of a research intoMunicipal Pageantry and Municipal Heraldry.

These are very large subjects indeed, and I cannot now undertake to grapple with them. I am glad to say that my valued friend, Mr. Lewellinn Jewitt, hasseisinof them both; and that he is preparing for publication an exhaustive treatise on “The Corporation Plate and Insignia of Office of all the Cities and Corporate Towns of Great Britain.”

I propose merely to gossip a bit aboutMunicipal Insignia of Office; to make a few remarks as to what they mean, underwhat authority they are, or have been assumed; and to bring under your notice a few examples.

Under the termMunicipal InsigniaI includeRodsorWandsof office;Maces, both great and small;SwordsofHonourorState;CapsofEstateorMaintenance;ChainsandBadges, both of Mayors’ and of other officials;RingsandRobes;Halberts,Horns, andConstables’ Staves.

“Few people,” writes Mr. Llewellinn Jewitt, “have even the most remote idea of the amount of artistic wealth, of antiquarian treasure, and of historical relics possessed by and lying hidden away in the strongholds and chests of the various corporate bodies of this kingdom. The corporations ... are rich beyond compare in works in the precious metals, in emblems of state and civic dignity, in relics of mediæval pageantry, in badges and insignia of various offices, and in seals and records of different periods.”

The neglect with which these treasures have been treated is astounding. The reformed corporations of 1837 despised Municipal Pageantry; many actually sold their insignia for the best prices they would fetch, as “relics of the barbarous ages,” to use the words of a mayor of the town of Maidenhead. Others discarded the use of their insignia, and their existence was almost forgotten. A reaction, however, set slowly in. The Great Exhibition of 1851 caused some places, Nottingham for one, to provide their mayors with chains, in order to attend at the opening. Other places were induced to buy new, or furbish up old insignia on the occasions of Royal visits. During the International Exhibition of 1862 a loan collection, but on a small scale, was formed, to which several corporations contributed their maces and other objects.

In the year 1874, the Royal Archæological Institute presented to the mayor of Exeter a chain of office, in commemoration of the Congress held at Exeter in the previous year. This excited so much interest that the Council of the Institute, in 1875, entertained the idea of holding in London an exhibition of chains of office and other municipal insignia. A committee was formed, and circulars were sent to nearly 600 municipal bodies, asking for information as to their insignia, and as to the possibility of their being exhibited in London. About 300 replies were received; but in those about one-half neglected to describe their insignia, or contented themselves by saying they were “old andOF NO VALUE.” In fact, the municipalities still lacked proper education on the subject, for some of those that replied in the above terms possess most valuable insignia, as also do some that did not answer at all. Difficulties arose, many municipalities “did not see their way” to the loan oftheir insignia, and so the proposed exhibition was, temporarily as I hope, abandoned. But the attention thus drawn to the subject had good results; it awakened an intelligent interest in the treasures possessed by various corporations, and Mr. Llewellinn Jewitt seems to have had less difficulty in getting information than the Institute found. In the years 1880, 1881, and 1882, he published in theArt Journala series of most interesting and beautifully illustrated articles, onCorporation Plate and Insignia of Office, shortly to be developed into the book which I have already mentioned.

Now it must not be supposed that a municipality can of its own free will adopt any insignia it pleases. On the contrary, the right to use certain insignia, such as maces, swords of state, &c., requires to have been conferred by special charter or royal donation, or else to be based upon prescription of such duration that a lost special charter or a forgotten royal donation may be presumed. Thus at Carlisle, where we possess a great mace, several sergeants’ maces, and a sword of state, our governing charter—of the time of Charles I.—authorises us to have three sergeants-at-mace, who are—

“To carry and bear maces of gold or silver, and engraved and adorned with the sign of the arms of this our Kingdom of England, everywhere within the said City of Carlisle, the limits and liberties of the same, before the Mayor of the said city for the time being.”

This was merely the confirmation of an older custom, for we have a set of sergeants’ maces of older date than this charter, as well as a set of about this date. The charter also authorises us to have a sword-bearer, “Portator gladii nostri coram Mayore,” a bearer of our sword (the King’s sword) before the Mayor. Thus, we have special authority by charter for our sword of honour, and our sergeants’ maces, but none of our charters mention our great mace or authorise us to have an official to bear it. But our great mace was given us by Colonel James Graham, Privy Purse to King James II., and I presume that no one will now object to our using it, and to our having an official to carry it. For robes and a chain I fancy no special authority at all is necessary; they are part of the idea of a mayor, and he may assume them or not as his corporation or he please to do. And, further, he may appear in them outside of his jurisdiction, as at the Mansion House. But his maces and sword (if he has one) he cannot with propriety display outside of his jurisdiction, and I should, as Mayor of Carlisle, resent bitterly the intrusion into that ancient city of a strange mayor with mace and sword, even of my Lord Mayor of London, unless he should prove his right from charter to carry them in Carlisle. TheTemplars never allowed the Lord Mayor to appear in state within their precincts.

Different views have been held as to the origin of the mace. Some have supposed that the regal sceptre, the ecclesiastical virgo or verge, and the civic mace, all had their origin in the simple emblem of straightness and integrity of rule, consisting of a plain slender rod anciently borne before kings and high public functionaries, and retained to the present day as an official badge by sheriffs and attendants in courts of justice. The other, and I venture to think the better idea, is that the civic mace is derived from the military weapon of that name, which itself is derived from a simple club or stick. The civic mace is nothing but the military one turned upside down. At one end of an early mace you have the flanged blades of the military weapon, at the other on a small bowl-like head the royal arms, the emblem of authority. In a mace of later date the military part, the flanges, survive only as a small button, while the bowl, on which are the royal arms, swells, until the peaceful end is itself capable of dealing a heavy blow.

In support, however, of the rod idea, I may mention that the Mayor of Carlisle always on state occasions carries a white rod, an ordinary white stick of deal. This is a very ancient custom. A Captain, a Lieutenant, and an Ancient, all of Norwich, who visited Carlisle in 1634, say of that place:—

“It makes shifte to maintain a Mayor, distinguished by his white staff, and twelve Aldermen his brethren,sanscap of maintenance, but their blew bonnets which they are as proud in as our southerne citizens in their beavers.”

The blue bonnets would be the ordinary head-gear of the local gentry, and of the Aldermen thus dressed more than one was of knightly rank and of high degree. The Mayor of Berwick had also a staff, and when James I. came to the English throne he sent the Abbot of Holyrood to secure the allegiance of the Mayor of Berwick, by which town he travelled into England. The Mayor’s staff and the keys of the gates were delivered to the Abbot, and immediately returned to the Mayor.

At Newark the Mayor carries a black rod with a gold head. At Marazion and at Wigan he carries a staff with a silver head; at Guildford ebony with silver top. Other instances probably exist, while various bailiffs’, head boroughs’, and other staffs are only varieties of the same idea. In the City of London this staff is represented by the Lord Mayor’s jewelled sceptre.

The mace with the royal arms thereon (and no civic mace is aproper civic mace unless it has the royal arms thereon) is the symbol of the power of the central government in municipal matters, and when borne before the mayor denotes that to him and to his colleagues is entrusted the government of their community. It is, in fact, the symbol of that which all Englishmen are proud of—local self-government.

The committee of the Royal Archæological Institute, who indexed the returns obtained in 1875, divided maces into two classes, great and small, but the proper and better division is into mayors’ maces and sergeants’ maces, though the two nearly correspond. I define as a great mace, or mayor’s mace, one whoseraison d’êtreis to be carried before the mayor in procession, and to be displayed beside him in church or in court. The great mace is the insignia of the mayor. The sergeants’ maces are the insignia of the sergeants-at-mace; these maces are also carried before the mayor, but that is because it is part of the sergeants’ duty to precede and attend him in civic processions.

The maces belonging to sergeants-at-mace are generally small, from six to eighteen inches long, and the reason of their being of this small size comes from the use they were put to. The sergeants-at-mace were the officers of the mayor’s court; they served the processes of the court, which were not in the form of written summonses, but were actually delivered verbally, and by a sergeant-at-mace, who produced the mace and showed it as his authority. For convenience, he carried it in his pocket, and at Carlisle, prior to 1837, the gowns of the sergeants-at-mace had pockets in them for this purpose. At Scarborough, the sergeants-at-mace wore their maces in their official gowns, and at Stafford they carried them in their girdles. Hence convenience necessitated that the sergeants’ maces should be of small size; for the same reason they are generally without the open crowns, surmounted by orb and cross, which were added to most great maces after the Restoration. It would be difficult to pocket and unpocket a mace with a crowned head. Of course, there are exceptions to all rules. Yarmouth has a mayor’s mace of very small size, but the reason applies: it is called the pocket mace, and is intended to be carried in the mayor’s pocket, so that he always may have evidence of his authority about him. There was no such reason for making the other maces of small size; nay, the bigger they are, the grander, and the great mace of the City of London is 5 ft. 3 in. long. My own great mace at Carlisle is 4 ft. 2 in., while the maces carried by my sergeants are only about 9 in.

It is quite certain that a municipality cannot have sergeants-at-mace (and therefore cannot have their maces) without a special authorisation by charter. The sergeants-at-mace were originally the peculiar body-guard of the king, and the granting permission to a municipality to have sergeants-at-mace is a high mark of honour. In the case of old corporations, the right to a great mace will originally have been acquired in the same way, or else by a royal present of a mace, but a great mace has now come to be an essential which every place that has a mayor can with propriety adopt.

Even during the Commonwealth much importance was attached to maces; in 1649, Parliament ordered the royal arms to be taken off them, and those of the Commonwealth substituted. This was not done at Carlisle; but, in 1650, three new maces were bought for the sergeants at a charge of £12. After the Restoration the royal arms were again restored, and the Carlisle maces were sent to Newcastle to be altered.

(To be continued.)

By Cornelius Walford, F.S.S.,Barrister-at-Law.

PART IV.

ChapterXXXIII.—The Gilds of Lincolnshire—(Continued).

LINCOLN.—The Gilds of this ancient ecclesiastical city are of much interest: some of them present a combination of the Social and the Craft Gilds.

Gild of the Fullers of Lincoln.—“This Gild was founded on the Sunday before the feast of the Apostles Philip and James,A.D.1297, by all the bretheren and sisteren of the Fullers in Lincoln.” A wax light to be burnt before the cross on procession days. Directions as to who shall work at certain operations. Half-holidays on Saturdays; and no work on festivals. Outsiders may work at the trade on making small payments. A payment to be made before learning the trade. No thief shall stay in the Gild. On death of any member, bread to be given to the poor. “If any brother or sister is going on a pilgrimage to Sts. Peter and Paul [Rome], if it is a Sunday or other festival day, all the bretheren and sisteren shall go in company withhim outside the city as far as the Queen’s Cross, and each shall give him a halfpenny or more; and when he comes back, if, as before said, it is a Sunday or other festival day, and he has let them know of his coming, all the bretheren and sisteren shall meet at the same cross, and go with him to the monastery.” Penalty for not keeping Ordinances. Help shall be given to those in want; but the money must be repaid before death or after. Lights and offerings on death. There were some new Ordinances added later, viz., allowances to officers; allowance for collecting moneys. Officers not serving to be fined. New members to pay to the Dean a penny.

Gild of the Tailors of Lincoln, founded 1328.—A procession shall be had every year. Payment on entrance, a quarter of barley, and xijd.“to the ale.” Help to the poor—7d. per week. Burials for poor members, “according to the rank of him who is dead.” Pilgrims to the Holy Land or to Rome to receive a halfpenny from each member, and processions to be formed. Services for those dying outside the city. Bequests to be made to Gild according to means, “vs.or xld., or what he will.” Fee to chaplain. Four general meetings every year. Payment to the Gild when any master tailor takes an apprentice. Quarrels to be arranged; whoever will not abide judgment of Gild to be put out. On feast days ale to be given to the poor. Burial rites. If any master knowingly takes a sewer who has wrongfully left another master, he shall be fined. Payment of vjd.to the Guild for every sewer employed by master. A dole to be given yearly by every brother and sister for distribution in charity. Fines for not serving offices.

Gild of the Tylers [Poyntours] of Lincoln, founded 1346.—New members to make themselves known to “Graceman,” and pay a quarter of barley, ijd.to the ale, and id.to the Dean. Four “soul-candles” shall be found and used in services. Feasts and prayers, and ale for the poor. Help to the pilgrims. Burials provided. One brother shall not unfairly meddle with the craft-work of another. All men of this craft in Lincoln shall join the Gild.

Gild of St. Michael on the Hill, founded on Easter Eve, 1350.—On the death of a brother “soul-candles” shall be burned and the banner of the Gild shall be taken to his house, and borne thence to church. There shall be a Gild feast. At the end the Ordinances shall be read and expounded; and flagons of ale shall be given to the poor. Absentees may rejoin the Gild on making payments. “And whereas this Gild was founded by folks of common and middling rank, it is ordained that no one of the rank of Mayor orBailiff shall become a brother of the Gild, unless he is found to be of humble, good, and honest conversation, and is admitted by the choice and common consent of the bretheren and sisteren of the Gild. And none such shall meddle in any matter, unless specially summoned; nor shall such a one take on himself any office in the Gild. He shall, on his admission, be sworn before the bretheren and sisteren, to maintain and keep the Ordinances of the Gild. And no one shall have any claim to office in this Gild on account of the honour and dignity of his personal rank.” Help to poor bretheren shall be daily given, in turn, by the Gild bretheren.

The Ordinances of this Gild were very lengthy; the main features only are here noticed.

Gild of the Resurrection of our Lord, founded at Easter, 1374.—Every brother and sister at entrance shall pay ivd.to the ale and 1d.to the wax; and also every year xiijd.by four separate payments in the year. Those in arrear to pay a pound of wax. Lights to be kept burning from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. A hearse-frame, with lights, angels, and banners, shall be put over the body of every dead brother; and other services be done. Help to poor bretheren, “if not through his own fault, by wasting his goods in unlawful uses,”—every member paying 2d. in the year to all impoverished. Fine on officers not serving. Holders of loans to bring them before the “Gracemen” every year. Mass and offerings for the dead. At the annual feast the Ordinances to be read. After dinner, grace, the Lord’s Prayer, &c., names of all dead bretheren and sisteren shall be read over, and theDe Profundissaid for their souls. Pilgrims to Rome, St. James of Galacia, or the Holy Land, to give notice, and receive contributions of one halfpenny from each member, with escort to city gate. Burials of poor bretheren. Surety for goods of Gild. Punishment to those who rebel against the Gild.

Gild of St. Benedict, “founded [date not stated] in honour of God Almighty, and of the blessed Virgin Mary, and of our Lord Jhesu Christ, in the parish of St. Benedict.” As many poor shall be fed as there are members of the Gild. Pilgrims to the Holy Land, St. James’s, or to Rome, provided for. Services on deaths within the city, and bread given to the poor; and services on deaths outside the city. Help to poor bretheren. At the feast, when ale is poured out, prayer shall be said, and tankards of ale shall be given to the poor. New members on entering the Gild to pay 6s. 8d., in two instalments. “Morn-speeches” shall be held; and accounts then given by all who have any goods of the Gild on loan. On theSunday after the feast another morn-speech to be made. Officers chosen and not serving to pay fine. Penalty if one member wrongs another, and for not coming to meetings.

There was also aGild of Minstrels and Playersin this city, concerning which we have no exact details.

Sleaford.—This ancient town had a Gild—the Holy Trinity Gild—of great renown. The date of its establishment is unknown; but many circumstances point to its having been founded soon after the Conquest. It must have been in existence before the commencement of the Patent Rolls in the reign of King John, or mention of the conveyance of its property to the brothers in mortmain would be found, as in the case of Boston and other Gilds. It was a rich Gild, having an income of £80 per annum in 1477, when the mention of it occurs. This would be equivalent to £800 at the present day. The Gild was under the management of the principal people in the place; and was famous for its miracle plays, mysteries, and sacred shows. Perhaps these were next in repute to those of York. There does not appear to have been anything sufficiently distinctive about these to call for detailed note, except as will be immediately stated.

In 1837 there was published: “History of the Holy Trinity Guild at Sleaford, with an Account of its Miracle Plays, Religious Mysteries, and Shows, as practised in the Fifteenth Century; and an Introduction delineating the changes that have taken place in the Localities of Heath and Fen, Castle and Mansion, Convent and Hall, within the District about Sleaford since that period. To which is added an Appendix, detailing the Traditions which still prevail, and a description of the Lincoln Pageants exhibited during the visit of King James to that City. The whole illustrated by copious notes, critical, historical, and explanatory.” By the Rev. G. Oliver, D.D., M.A.S.E., Vicar of Scopwick, &c., Lincoln. 8vo., pp. 135.

The author refers to the fact (p. 61) that all the public amusements of the times were interwoven with religion, and placed under the superintendence of Gilds, by which they were conducted and brought to perfection. “From the most remote period of time the inhabitants of Sleaford and the vicinity practised under that high sanction the diversions which were common to every period of the English monarchy, from the minstrels or joculators in the reign of Athelston, through the routine of tournaments, the lord of misrule, church ales, Corpus Christi plays, and the frolics of the boy-bishopin the ages of chivalry, the bull and bear baitings, the holk, and the mummeries of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, down to the bulls and other diversions of the present day.”

Concerning the “frolics of the boy-bishop,” we may take the following account from the same author: “There exists presumptive evidence that the ceremony of the Episcopus Puerorum was celebrated at Sleaford; although it was somewhat unusual out of the limits of a cathedral or collegiate church; for in digging a grave in Leasingham Churchyard, a diminutive coffin stone was found in the year 1826, only 2½ feet long by 12 inches broad. It was prismatic, and adorned with a beautiful cross fleury in relief; and undoubtedly formed a covering to the sarcophagus of a boy-bishop, who died during the continuance of his ephemeral authority. And in the church of Quarrington, at the east end of the north aisle, is an unusually small chapel not more than four feet square, which one cannot but think was intended for the ministration of this juvenile functionary. The solemnity of the episcopus puerorum, though it may appear trifling in these days, was conducted with great pomp. A boy was elected on St. Nicholas’s Day, who was remarkable for personal beauty, to sustain the high office of a bishop until the 28th day of the same month. He made a solemn procession to the church, attended by many other boys, arrayed in priestly habiliments; and there, dressed in splendid robes, decorated with costly ornaments, and covered with his mitre, he presided with all the solemnity of an actual bishop, during the performance of divine worship. After which he made a collection from house to house, which was boldly demanded as the bishop’s subsidy; and he is said to have possessed such unlimited power that all the prebends which fell vacant during his presidency were at his disposal. If he chanced to die in that period he was entitled to all the honours of episcopal interment, and a monument was assigned to convey the remembrance of his honours to posterity.”

Strype expresses the opinion that this ceremony was sometimes adopted even in small parish churches; he does not say whether with or without Gild observances.

It has been supposed that aGild of Minstrelsexisted at Sleaford, but no evidence of the fact is available.

Stamford.—There is the record of one Gild in this ancient town, viz.:

Gild of St. Katherine.—The Ordinances before us bear date 1494; but they are only a re-affirmation of those of a much greater antiquity.The Gild is to abide for ever. Services to be attended by all the bretheren on St. Katherine’s Eve and St. Katherine’s Day. All shall meet in the hall of the Gild, and the Alderman shall ask new-comers as to their willingness; and they shall take oath of fealty to God, Sts. Mary and Katherine, and the Gild; and shall also swear to pay scot and bear lot, and to keep the Ordinances of the Gild. They shall be lovingly received, and drink a bout, and so go home. Meetings to be held at 1 o’clock on St. Leonard’s Day, or the next Sunday, to deal with the affairs of the Gild. There shall be a grand dinner in the Gild-hall once a year. After dinner an account to be given by every officer. Officers chosen and not serving to be fined. Gildmen must be of good repute, and pay vis.and viijd.on entering, spread over four years, and afterwards ijd.a year for “Waxshote.” Peals of bells to be rung at and after prayers for the souls of the dead; and the ringers to have bread, cheese, and ale. Services and ringings on death of Gildsmen.

There were four other Gild-returns from this town. The Gild of St. Martin has every year a bull; hunts it; sells it; and then feasts. The old custom was kept up in the eighteenth century. See Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes.”

Village Gilds.—There were many Gilds in the villages of this county. One example will suffice to show the nature of their regulations.

Gild of Kyllyngholm, founded before 1310.—When a brother or a sister dies, four bretheren shall offer a penny, and each sister shall give a halfpenny loaf. “If a brother or sister is unlucky enough to lose a beast worth half a mark, every brother and every sister shall give a halfpenny towards getting another beast.” “If the house of any brother or sister is burnt by mishap, every brother and sister shall give a halfpenny towards a new house.” “Moreover, if the house of any brother or sister is broken into by robbers, and goods carried off worth half a mark, every brother and every sister shall give a halfpenny to help him.” If one has a guest, and he cannot buy ale, he shall have a gallon of the Gild’s best brewing. But the Gild will not allow any tricks in this direction. Whoever is chosen Provost must serve, or must pay.

THE months of June and July saw the dispersal, by Messrs. Christie, of the celebrated collection of art treasures formed by Sir Andrew Fountaine in the early part of the last century, and added to by his descendant, Mr. Andrew Fountaine, who died in 1873. In connection with this dispersion, a step was taken which is perhaps without precedent in the history of English art sales. A number of amateurs, joined by a few dealers, had subscribed to a guarantee fund, out of which many purchases were made. The object of this proceeding was chiefly to allow some of the most precious objects to pass eventually into our public museums. It would, indeed, be lamentable if nothing of what was finest in the Fountaine collection found a resting-place in our national museums. The occasions are extremely rare on which a Syndicate can be invited to relieve our public authorities of the task of speedy decision. There was a warm expression of hearty support whenever it was thought that the Syndicate had been successful, and the higher the price realised the louder was the applause.

The first lot which attracted spirited bidding was a magnificent Faenza plate, with grotesque masks, cupids, trophies of arms, and musical instruments, a satyr on the left playing on a pipe, dated 1508. The first bid for this plate, which was only 10¾ in. diameter, was £100. After some spirited bidding it was secured by M. Lowengard, of Paris, for £920, amid applause. A Faenza dish, with the entombment of Christ, from Albert Durer, dated 1519, sold for 135 guineas, being bought by Mr. Robinson, presumedly for the Syndicate. An Urbino plate in a sunk centre—two cupids supporting a coat of arms and other figures—by Nicola da Urbino, was sold for 375 guineas; a Faenza dish, with sunk centre, surrounded with a wreath of fruit and foliage—subject, a bear hunt, from a very early Italian print, by an unknown master—210 guineas; a Pesaro lustred dish, £270; another Pesaro lustred dish, 250 guineas; an Urbino dish, 300 guineas; a large dish with sunk centre, probably Castel Durante ware, 360 guineas (the Syndicate); an Urbino pilgrim’s bottle, 240 guineas; an Urbino dish, 330 guineas (Mannheim); a dish, subject the “Last Supper,” 115 guineas; a Faenza dish from the Bernal collection, 620 guineas (Martin); an Urbino oval dish, the centre subject the Children of Israel gathering Manna, 240 guineas (Tuck); another Urbino oval dish, 240 guineas (Lowengard); an Urbino dish, Marcus Curtius on a white horse, 307 guineas (Hainauer); a large deep dish “The Taking of Troy,” 310 guineas (Hainauer); an Urbino ewer, Venus, Vulcan, and two cupids, 550 guineas. A splendid Urbino dish, beautifully painted with the Children of Israel gathering manna, was secured by the Syndicate at 1,270 guineas. A pair of Urbino pilgrims’ bottles fetched 450 guineas. 430 guineas was paid for a pair of salt-cellars in coloured enamels, and 800 guineas for a Limoges fountain, 9 inches high. Of the Henri Deux ware, there were but three pieces. The first of these, a small flambeau of architectural design, and somewhat severe in ornament, was put up at 1,000 guineas, and it eventually fell to the bid of 3,500 guineas. The next piece, a Mortier à Cire, fell for 1,500 guineas, and the last, a small Biberon, formed as a vase with handles on each side and across the cover, sold for 1,010 guineas. An antique ewer, by Jean Courtois, realised 2,300 guineas; a large deep sunk oval dish, of Limoges work, also attributed to Jean Courtois, fetched 2,800 guineas; whilst another oval dish, signed with the initials of the same artist, was sold for 760 guineas. Some of the ivory carvings realised exceptionally high prices, notably a horn, of Italian (or more probably French) work, carved most beautifully in cinque cento style, which fell into the hands of M. Egger for 4,240 guineas. Large sums were also realised for the armour and arms, of which there were several fine examples.

The greatest lot of the sale, however, was the splendid enamel of Leonard Limousin, of which much has been said and written in eulogy, and to witness the sale of which, as theTimesremarked, all the world came to Christie’s. This is thus described in the catalogue: A large oval dish, with sunk centre. Raphael’s “Supper of the Gods,” in coloured enamels on a dark-blue ground, is used to introduce the portraits of Henry II. King of France in the centre, Catherine de Medicis on one side of him, and Diana of Poictiers, with yellow hair, black cap and feather, on the other side. The portrait of Anne de Montmorency, Constable of France, is introduced as Hercules, the female and Cupid by his side are probably his wife and child, the figure to the left in an ermine mantle may be the Emperor; in the background are three winged females bringing fruit, all the other figures are probably portraits, and are finished with the care of miniature painting; on the top are the arms of Anne de Montmorency, with his coronet and order of St. Michael; the border is surrounded with boys at play entwined with wreaths of fruit and flowers, the back is richly covered with masks, fruit, and flowers,arabesque figures in grisaille and scroll-work in gold; signed “Leonard Limousin, 1555. 19¼ in. by 16⅜ in.” The piece is specially described as in this Fountaine collection by Count Laborde in his great work on enamels in the Louvre collection. It was put up at 2,000 guineas, and at once the biddings went on by 500 up to 5,100 guineas, at which there was a pause among the four or five bidders, who were, as far as we could observe, MM. Gauchez, Wertheimer, Coureau, Thibaudeau, and Boore. M. Wertheimer then led the contest again, and soon distanced all his competitors with his final bid of 7,000 guineas, at which the hammer fell.

The sum total realised by the four days’ sale of the miscellaneous articles was £91,112 17s., a sum which is nearly double that which is said to have been offered for the collectionen blocby the dealers. In the great Bernal sale 4,098 lots yielded £62,690 18s.; in this 565 lots gave half as much again. In the Strawberry-hill sale (1842) of twenty-four days, only £30,000 was realised, omitting the Cellini Bell and the Raphael Missal, which were “bought in.” So that George Robins’s grandiloquent description of that collection as “the most distinguished gem that has ever adorned the annals of auctions” must be taken with some reserve for the future.

The sale of the prints and drawings belonging to the Fountaine collection occupied four days. Among the more important lots were Albert Dürer’s “Knight and Death,” 50 guineas (Colnaghi), and the “Judgment of Paris,” £45 (Thibaudeau); “Christ on the Cross, with Saints,” £91 (Meder); “The Incense Burner,” £151 (Meder); “The Virgin,” £46 (Meder); two studies—a female head and an infant Christ—in silver point, £125 (Thibaudeau); a small highly-finished study of woman holding a piece of linen, £210 (Salting); two heads of women asleep, in silver point, £180 (Thibaudeau). This portion of the sale realised £5,166 1s., which swelled the grand total up to £96,278 18s.

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