seen in London^ September 25, 1827. 39J 



jcolumn, or entire bundle of lines ; or as if the whole columij 

 were like the stalk of a plant, and filled with upright and 

 luminous fibres, or like a skein of thread, drawn vertically or 

 obliquely, and of which each particular thread should hav^ 

 particular motion in the direction of the whole ; or (what 

 he thought the comparison which proclaimed the very nature 

 of the material of the columns) like fountains, or jets of water 

 in the sun, in which every particular particle should be 

 moving in the general fJirection of the jet, and yet each moving 

 a^id shining for- itself • ni<>?';<i« ?4 



4. And this apparent nature of the substance of the columti? 

 or coruscations allies itself to what finally regards them; 

 nanaely, their fbrm. In this description, they have hitherto 

 jbeen spoken of by the name of columns or pillars ; and the 

 similitude, which that name suggests, is justified by the general 

 ^gure of all the lower parts of their bodies, which, unlike the 

 figure of rays of light on the one hand, and unlike that of 

 flames of fire on the other, is a tall or lengthened object, of small 

 comparative diameter or breadth, and of which the sides con^ 

 sist in right and nearly parallel lines. But^ by the Engli^sh, 

 these columns, pillars, or coruscations, were anciently called 

 so many burning spears ; and they have also receiyed the 

 names of streamers and pencills *, which two latter, in the 

 history of appurtenants of war, signify long and narrow, 

 and pointed banners or flags. Their similitude to flags is ex-: 

 cusably fancied from their quick, capricious, and irregulaif 

 motions; but their likening to *' spears,'' is that which may 

 claim to be thought the most felicitous, as to the true concep- 

 tion of their form, as it is also that, the idea of which contri- 

 butes to render the phenomenon the most fearful in tlie 



♦ " Pencells. — Pencills, or flagges for horsemen, must be a yard and a 

 halfe long." Harleian MSS., cited in an interesting and valuable essay on thQ 

 '' Banners used in the English army, from the Conquest to the rei^n of Henry 

 VIIl." By N. H. Nicolas, Esq., F.S.A.—Relrospectire Review, Oct. 1, Ifi^T; 



** The Pensell, or Pennoncelle, was the diminutive of the Pennon, being a 

 lopg narrow flag." — Meyrick*s Ancient Armour. 



" Streamer. — A Streamer shall stand in the toppe of a shippe, or in the 

 forecastle, an^ tlierein be put no armes, but a man's conceit or dcwice, and 

 may be of the lenji;tlie of twenty, forty, or sixty yards ; and it is slit, as well 

 as a guydhomme or atandarde." — Harlkian MSS. 



Ad item,. in a bill of parcels, charged to the Earl of Warwick, in 1437, cob-; 

 sists of" a great Stremour for the Ship, of xl yerdis lenghth, apd viiji yeirdisln 

 bred&."-T-BAiiNfiRs ufifp ik Tuji Emci^isu A«KHr, &c* • • ^■■' . -'. -* 



