SOME IfKMAKKS ON SEALS'. C>1

cliral memorials, tliey furnish evidence of the slate, not only of tlie art by whicli they were executed, but likewise of those of ornamentation and design in general, and also illus- trate the costumes of dilVereut classes of society at vai'ious periods ; and in their legends they exemplify the peculiar kinds of letters, and divers unusual modes of abbreviation and forms of exjiression that were from time to time in use. In addition to which, a large variety of personal seals, remarkable for their allusive and facetious legends and devices, reflect the taste, fancy, humour, and occasionally the superstitions of the age, as well as of the individuals. In an historical point of view, it is not too much to say that seals bear the same relation to subjects, both as indi- viduals and communities, that coins and medals (on whose historical value it is needless to dwell) do to sovereigns and states ; while royal and municipal seals may in this respect rank with coins and medals themselves. Accordingly Peiresc, who had diligentl}'^ studied these things both in France and this country, and corresponded with Camden, was accustomed to say (as ChitHet writes), " Sigilla, niimis- mata, aliaque id genus, testes esse antiquitatis incorruptos, quodquc ex iis addiscerentur. qux frustra rcquireret quis ex historiographis on ibus." Anastas. Childcric. cap. vii., p. 113. In Germany and France, where diplomatics, or the art of decij)hering charters and the like, and of discriminating the genuine from the false, have for many years been regarded as a science, the subject of seals, which constitutes so important a branch of it, has received a corresponding share of attention, and their history and characteristics have been discussed in a manner unparalleled in this country.'^ But the seals which have been studied by the foreign di}ilomatists have been chiefly those of sovereigns and the higher orders of the nobility and clergy ; while comparatively little con- sideration has been bestowed on the personal seals of the inferior nobles and ecclesiastics, and of the humbler classes of the people ; which may be partly owing to the greater importance belonging to other seals, and partly to the fact of personal seals having been much less extensively used in - I must here mention, as an eminent paper on the G re.it Se.ils of England, exception to the general manner in whieh by Professor Willis, in the sccoud volume sueh subjects have been treated by Eiig- of this Joui'nal. lish writers, the very able and insta'uetive