soMK im:mai;ks on skai-s. 05

not conic into general nse in Lliis country till a few years after the Conquest : from wliich time, for u})wards of three centuries, they were the pccuhai- means of antlieiiticating written instruments of every sort among all classes of society. Beside their legal character and importance, the valuable information whicli they imparted to the histo- rian, antiquary, genealogist, and herald, has contributed to the regard in which they have been hel<l far more than their curiosity as remains of medieval art, or tlie interest naturally belonging to them as indications of individual taste, and the means whereby a large portion of the ordinary business of life was transacted, and of the intercourse of society was carried on, until they were by degrees in a great measure superseded by the autographs and personal signa- tures of modern times, and left for legal purposes as a formality involving no longer the necessity of their being- identified as the particular seals of those who used them.^ On the revival of letters, the novelty and intrinsic excel- lence of the ancient classical literature to a great extent engrossed the attention of men of studious habits, till the inherent charm which there is in the history of a man's own country began to reassert its influence ; and as minds thus better disciplined were brought to the subject, historical evidence was more correctly appreciated, and more diligently sought for. The charters of the intervening ages were examined, their credit tested, and their seals scrutinised and compared. Traces of this begin to appear in the sixteenth century, yet chiefly on the continent ; but in the next century seals were very generally adduced and appealed to as proofs for divers purposes ; and since that time they have ever been regarded with interest, and had a place assigned them among the contributories to our knowdedge of b^^gone times. The notices of them by Selden, Dugdale, 1 This remark is not intended to apply of old deeds bein^ sealed with coats of to such modern seals as are used without arms not borne by the grantors. The any signature to identify them. Nor would advantage of the deed being sealed with I be understood to mean, that at any time the grantor's own seal was, that when it w.os absolutely necessary that a charter there w.is no witness, or when the wit- or deed of a private individual should have nesses were all dead, the seal could be had his orvn seal attached to it. Even in proved to have been his ; which might the reign of Henry 111., as appears from have been done by comparing it with Bracton, it was sufficient if the grantor, other impressions that were known or before witnesses, sealed the deed or other- proved to be authentic. Hence, seals wise recognised the seal as his, though it with the arms of other persons than the were in reality another's. This, probably, grantors, are less likely to occur when accounts for many anomalous instances there are uo witnesses mentioned. VOL. VIII. K