May 19. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



379 



©'Israeli's sonnet on the bukb op weiiLIngton. 



The following beautiful lines, improvised by 

 Mr. D'lsraeli Avhilst on a visit at Stowe many 

 years since, were, with a fine silver statuette of 

 the late Duke of Wellington — in the contem- 

 plation of which, indeed, they would appear to 

 have originated — long carefully preserved in the, 

 alas ! now deserted " halls " of that once classic 

 and yet palatial mansion. 



Printed for the first and only time, I believe, by 

 Mr. Rumsey Forster, in his admirable " Stowe 

 Catalogue," — a work of comparatively mere ephe- 

 meral interest, or, at best, a book only for future 

 occasional historic, antiquarian, or fine-art refer- 

 ence — I now venture to claim for them a niche in 

 pages better adapted for their more public and 

 permanent enshrinement. At the hazard of doing 

 Mr. D'lsraeli some injustice, for it is seldom safe 

 or discreet to challenge criticism by the use of 

 language of either exaggerated praise or censure, 

 I will farther venture to say that, with the excep- 

 tion of Milton's magnificent " Sonnet to Crom- 

 well," and some of Dryden's " immortal strains," 

 any more faithful, brilliant, or felicitously just 

 pourtrayal than this could scarcely be found of 

 (when rightly estimated) almost unparalleled 

 greatness : 



" Not only that thy puissant arm could bind 

 The Tyrant of a world, and, conquering Fate, 

 Enfranchise Europe, do I deem thee great ; 

 But that in all thy actions I do find 

 Exact propriety : no gusts of mind 

 Fitful and wild, but that continuous state 

 Of order'd impulse mariners await 

 In some benignant and enriching wind, — 

 The breath ordain'd of Nature. Thy calm 



mien 

 Recalls old Rome, as much as thy high deed ; 

 Duty thine only idol, and serene 

 When all are troubled ; in the utmost need 

 Prescient ; thy country's servant ever seen, 

 Yet sovereign of thyself whate'er may speed." 



F. Ktffin Lenthall. 

 Athenaeum Club. 



BEMABKS on CROWNS, AND MORE PARTICULARLY 

 ON THE ROYAL OB IMPERIAL CROWN OP GBEAT 

 BBITAIN. 



<From the Autograph MS. of Stephen Martin Leake, Esq., 

 Gaetek.) 



(^Continued from p. 358.) 



The Empress Maud appears upon her great seal 

 with a like crown fleuri, quite open (without 

 either a cap or the crown of the head appearing 

 through it), and a very small ray or low point be- 

 tween the fleurs-de-lis. 



King Stephen upon his great seal has a like 

 crown with three fleurs-de-lis ; the draught ia 

 Speed shows the crown of tlie head through it, but 

 Sandford's draught does not. The crown is quite 

 open as the coin in Speed has it, but upon some 

 of his coins the fleurs-de-lis appear raised very 

 high upon stems or stalks ; some have the diadem 

 plain, others have a double row of pearls and a 

 cap like an arched crown, the arch composed of 

 pearls ; but by the height of the fleurs-de-lis 

 of the diadem or coronet, which rise considerably 

 above the arch, as well as for other reasons 

 mentioned before, it cannot be considered as au 

 arched crown ; besides that the arched crown is 

 not of very ancient use but in the Empire. The 

 French kings did not use it before Francis I. 

 (though M. Le Blanc gives us some double ducats 

 and testoons of Louis XII.), nor did it come into 

 constant use with them before Henry II., and 

 therefore these supposed arches of King Stephen's 

 crown are owing to the fancy of the workman, or 

 were designed to express the cap or covering of 

 the head. 



The great seal of King Henry II. has the open 

 crown with three fleurs-de-lis, the diadem set with, 

 pearls; but his son Henry, crowned king in his 

 father's lifetime, appears upon his great seal with, 

 a crown having short rays between the fleurs-de- 

 lis, like that of Maud the Empress, his mother : 

 his money is supposed to have the same fashioned 

 crown as Henry I.'s money, but his effigies upon . 

 his tomb at Font Evrard,* in Normandy, accord-- 

 ing to the draught in Sandford, has a crown of 

 leaves. This monument, says he, was erected 

 A.D. 1638 by the lady abbess, when the effigy was 

 removed from the place where it was first fixed ; 

 but from the fashion of the crown I should rather 

 think the effigies were no older than the monument, 

 or at least not so old as the original monument. 



Richard I. has the open crown with three fleurs- 

 de-lis upon both his great seals, the diadem or 

 fillet being plain in one, but in the others set with 

 pearls.f 



King John J on his great seal has the crown 



* Vertue's draught of his monumental figure, taken 

 from Montfaucjon's Antiquities, has- leaves with lesser 

 leaves upon points between. 



f Vertue's draught of the effigies of Richard I. from 

 his monument at Font Evrard, has the crown with three 

 leaves and small points between ; but, for the reasons 

 before mentioned under his father, the antiquity of the 

 figure may be questioned. Hoveden and Diceto, who 

 were both present at the coronation of King Richard I., 

 tell us that Geoffry de Lucy bore the royal cap in the 

 procession, and William de Mandeville, Earl of Albemarle 

 and Essex, bore a large crown of gold set with precious 

 stones ; which cap was first put upon his head, and some 

 time after the crown. (Rapin, 245.) 



J Vertue admires the likeness of this king upon his 

 statue and great seal, so conformable with each other. I 

 as much admire that the crowns upon their heads are so 

 very different. John was first crowned Duke of Nor- 



