2»* S. IX. Mah. 17. *60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES, 



203 



the Society, when Sir W. Gell, with Messrs. 

 Gandy and Bedford, professional architects, pro- 

 ceeded to the Levant. Smyrna was again ap- 

 pointed to be the head- quarters of the mission, 

 and 50/. per month was assigned to Mr. Gell, and 

 2001. per annum to each of the architects. An 

 additional outlay, however, was subsequently re- 

 quired ; and by this means the classical and an- 

 tique literature of England was enriched with the 

 fullest and most accurate description of important 

 remains of antiquity hitherto given to the world. 

 The contributions of the Society to the {esthetic 

 studies of the time also deserve notice. The ex- 

 cellent design to publish select Specimens of 

 Ancient Sculpture preserved in the several Collec- 

 tions of Great Britain was carried into effect by 

 Mr. R. Payne Knight and Mr. Townley, 2 vols. fol. 

 1809, 1835.* Then followed Mr. Penrose's In- 

 vestigation into the Principles of Athenian Archi- 

 tecture, printed in 1851. 



About the year 1820, those admirable monu- 

 ments of Grecian art, called the Bronzes of Siris, 

 were discovered on the banks of that river, and 

 were brought to this country by the Chevalier 

 Brbndsted. The Dilettanti Society immediately 

 organised a subscription, which produced 800/., 

 and the Trustees of the British Museum com- 

 pleted the purchase by the additional sum of 200/. 

 It was mainly through the influence and patron- 

 age of the Dilettanti Society that the Royal Aca- 

 demy obtained a Charter. In 1774, the interest of 

 4000/. three per cents, was appropriated by the 

 former for the purpose of sending two students, re- 

 commended by the Royal Academy, to study in 

 Italy or Greece for three years. 



That a Society possessing so much wealth and 

 social importance as the Dilettanti should not 

 have had a settled abode in the metropolis is sur- 

 prising. In 1747, indeed, we find them obtaining 

 I a plot of ground in Cavendish Square for this 

 purpose ; but in 1760 they disposed of the pro- 

 iperiy. Between 1761 and 1764, the project of 

 an edifice in Piccadilly, on the model of the 

 Temple of Pola, was agitated by the Committee ; 

 1 two sites were proposed, one between Devonshire 

 I and Bath houses, the other on the west side of Cam- 

 bridge House. This scheme was also abandoned, 

 ; and their meetings have continued to beholden 

 in different taverns at the west end. The mem- 

 !bers, now fifty in number, dine together on the 

 first Sunday in every month, from February to 

 July, at the Thatched House Tavern, St. 

 James', where Colonel Leake, Lord Lansdowne, 

 Lord Aberdeen, and Lord Broughton may meet 

 men of the present generation, professing the 

 same objects, and apparently stimulated with the 



• At die end of Vol. ii. Mr. Knight hr.s added his 

 valuable Essay, An Inquiry into the Symbolical Language 

 nf Ancient Art and Mythology, first published in 1813. 



same desire to foster the old flame of classical 

 life, and pass on the torch to future ages. 



Some account of the Society was printed for 

 private circulation by the present Secretary, Mr. 

 William Hamilton, entitled, Historical Notices of 

 the Society of Dilettanti, 4to. Lond. 1855, and 

 epitomised in The Edinburgh Beview, vol. cv. 

 pp. 493 — 517, whence the foregoing particulars 

 have been mostly obtained. J. Yeowell. 



HERALDIC ENGRAVING. 

 (2 nd S. viii. 471.; ix. 110.) 



The invention of the convenient mode of indi- 

 cating the tinctures of heraldic charges by en- 

 graved lines and points is usually attributed to 

 the Jesuit, Father Sylvestre de Sancta Petra, 

 whose Tessera Geniilitice (the only heraldic work 

 appearing under his name) was published at 

 Rome in 1638. I have, however, an earlier au- 

 thority for the practice in a vellum bound volume 

 published at Brussels in 1636, entitled Declara- 

 cion Mystica de las Armes de Espaha. In this 

 work some of the tinctures are indicated differently 

 from the mode which soon after became, and still 

 continues to be universally practised by heraldic 

 authors ; thus Roxo is indicated by horizontal, 

 and Azul by perpendicular lines, reversing the 

 modern and established practice, which assigns 

 perpendicular lines to Gules, and horizontal to 

 Azure. Verde is shown by horizontal lines with 

 points between them ; Morado, as the modern Sa- 

 ble ; and Negro by lines closely set in saltire. The 

 invention was not at first intended to be used for 

 printed books, but to take the place of enamelled 

 colours on metal. Randle Holme says — 



" There is a certain way by Hetching to signify any 

 Colour or Mettle, as, when a Person hath his Coat of 

 Arms engraven upon his plate, as Cups, Canns, Flagons, 

 Dishes, and such like, by the several ways of Hetching 

 the Field, the Colour, or Mettle thereof may be ex- 

 pressed." — Academy of Armory, Book I. p. 18. 



Holme, however, found it convenient to adopt 

 the practice in the curious copper-plate illustra- 

 tions to his quaint volume published in 1688. 



Nesbit, writing in the earliest decade of the 

 last century, states, that 



"Tinctures carved and engraven on copper-plate were 

 anciently known by the initial letter of their name, but 

 now in Tailledouce, they are known by points, hatches, or 

 small lines." — System of Heraldry, vol. i. p. 14. 



The death-warrant of King Charles I., stated 

 to be the earliest English example of the practice, 

 is, I apprehend, an engraved facsimile of that do- 

 cument, the seals of the subscribing parties being 

 represented, and the tinctures indicated in taille- 

 douce : such an engraving I remember to have 

 seen recently advertised in some old book-cata- 

 logue, but, by neglecting to " make a note of it," 

 I am now unable to procure a copy, though I hope 



