stalks are covered over with a yellow saccharine efflorescence, tasting like liquorice; and in this state they are eaten as a great delicacy. The Russians not only eat the stalks thus prepared, but procure from thein a very intoxicating spirit. They first ferment them in water with the greater bilberries (vaccinium uliginosum), and then distil the liquor to what degree of strength they please; which, Gmelin says, is more agreeable to the taste than spirits made from corn. This may therefore prove a good succedaneum for whiskey, and lessen the consumption of barley. Swine and rabbits are very fond of this plant. In Norfolk it is called hogweed. HERACLIDE, the descendants of Hercules, greatly celebrated in ancient history. Hercules at his death left to his son Hyllus all the rights and demands which he had upon Peloponnesus, and ordered him to marry Iole, the daughter of Eurytus, as soon as he came of age. The posterity of Hercules were not more kindly treated by Eurystheus than their father had been, and they were obliged to retire for protection to the court of Ceyx, king of Trachinia. Eurystheus pursued them thither, and Ceyx, afraid of his resentment, begged the Heraclide to depart from his dominions. From Trachinia they came to Athens, where king Theseus, who had accompanied their father in some of his expeditions, received them with great humanity, and assisted them against Eurystheus. Eurystheus was killed by Hyllus himself; his children perished with him, and all the cities of Peloponnesus became the undisputed property of the Heraclidæ. Their triumph, however, was short; their numbers were lessened by a pestilence; and the oracle informed them that they had taken possession of Peloponnesus before the gods permitted their return. Upon this they abandoned Peloponnesus, and came to settle in Attica, where Hyllus married Iole. Soon after he consulted the oracle, anxious to recover the Peloponnesus; and the ambiguity of the answer determined him to make a second attempt. He challenged to single combat Atreus, the successor of Eurystheus on the throne of Mycena; and it was mutually agreed that the undisturbed possession of Peloponnesus should be ceded to the victor. Echemus accepted the challenge for Atreus; Hyllus was killed, and the Heraclidæ departed from Peloponnesus a second time, about twenty years before the Trojan war. Cleodæus, the son of Hyllus, made a third attempt, and was equally unsuccessful; and his son Aristomachus some time after met with the same unfavorable reception, and perished in the field of battle. Aristodemus, Temenus, and Chresphontes, the three sons of Aristomachus, encouraged by the more express word of an oracle, and desirous to revenge the death of their progenitors, assembled a numerous force, and with a fleet invaded all Peloponnesus. Their expedition was attended with much success; and, after some decisive battles, they became masters of all the penin sula. The recovery of Peloponnesus by the Hera clidæ forms an interesting epoch in ancient history, which is universally believed to have happened eighty years after the Trojan war, or A. A.C. 1190. This conquest was totally achieved about 120 years after the first attempt of Hyllus, who was killed about twenty years before the Trojan war, As it occasioned many changes and revolutions in the affairs of Greece, the return of the Heraclidæ is the epocha of the beginning of profane history: all the time that preceded it is reputed fabulous. Accordingly Ephorus, Cumanus, Callisthenes, and Theopompus, begin their histories from this era. HERACLIDES, a Greek philosopher of Pontus, the disciple of Speusippus, and afterwards of Aristotle, flourished about A. A. C. 336. His vanity prompted him to desire one of his friends to put a serpent into his bed just as he was dead, in order to raise a belief that he was ascended to the heavens among the gods; but the cheat was discovered. All his works are lost. HERACLITUS, a famous Ephesian philoso pher, who flourished about the sixty-ninth Olym piad, in the time of Darius Hystaspis. He is said to have continually bewailed and wept for the wicked lives of men; contrary to Democritus, who made the follies of mankind a subject of laughter. He retired to the temple of Diana, and played at dice with the boys there; saying to the Ephesians who gathered round him, Worst of men, what do you wonder at? Is it not better to do thus than to govern you?' Darius invited him to come and live with him, but he refused. At last, out of hatred to mankind, he retired to the mountains, where he contracted a dropsy, by living on herbs, which killed him at sixty years of age. His writings gained him great reputation. Laertius mentions a Treatise upon Nature, divided into three books, one concerning the universe: the second on politics: the third on theology. This book he deposited in the temple of Diana; and it is said that he affected to write obscurely, lest it should be read by the vulgar, and become contemptible. The fundamental doctrine of his philosophy was, that fire is the principle of all things. HERACLIÛS, an emperor of the east, a renowned warrior, who dethroned and succeeded Phocas in 610. At this time the empire was at war with Chosroes II., king of Persia. Heraclius proposed terms of peace, but the haughty Persian refused it, unless he would renounce Christianity. Heraclius thereupon mustered his forces, and, after repeated victories, obliged him to beg for that peace he had refused. He was, however, not so successful in his wars with the Saracens. He died in 641, aged sixty-six. HERACLIUS CONSTANTINE, son of the above, succeeded him in conjunction with his brother Heracleonas; but reigned only a few months, being poisoned by his stepmother Martina, in 641. 175 HERALDRY. HERALD, n. s. &v.a. Į Fr. herault; Teut. HERALDRY, N. s. herald; Swed. and Dan. herold. An officer whose business it is to register genealogies, adjust ensigns armorial, regulate funerals, and, anciently, to carry messages between princes, and proclaim war and peace; a precursor; forerunner; a harbinger; a proclaimer or publisher: heraldry, the art or office of a herald; a science; registry of genealogies; blazonry: the verb is now out of use. And after hem, came a grete company Chaucer. The Floure and the Leafe. Shakspeare. Id. After my death I wish no other herald, No other speaker of my living actions, But such an honest chronicler as Griffith. When time shall serve let but the herald cry, And I'll appear again. Id. King Lear. It is the part of men to fear and tremble, When the most mighty gods, by tokens, send Such dreadful heralds to astonish us. Shakspeare. It was the lark, the herald of the morn, May none, whose scattered names honour my book, For strict degrees of rank or title look; "Tis 'gainst the manners of an epigram, And I a poet here, no herald am. I am writing of heraldry. Id. Ben Jonson. Peacham. Metals may blazon common beauties; she Makes pearls and planets humble heraldry. Cleaveland. 'Twas no false heraldry when madness drew Her pedigree from those who too much knew. Denham. Embassador of peace, if peace you chuse ; Or herald of a war, if you refuse. Dryden. Please thy pride, and search the herald's roll, Where thou shalt find thy famous pedigree. Id. Grant her, besides, of noble blood that ran In ancient veins, ere heraldry began. The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth o'er gave, Await alike the' inevitable hour; The paths of glory lead but to the grave. Id. Gray's Elegy. Pluck the others, but still remember Byron. The Deformed Transformed. HERALD, says Verstegan, is derived from the Saxon word Herehault, and by abbreviation 'heralt, which in that language signifies the champion of an army; and, growing to be a name of office, it was given to him who, in the army, had the special charge to denounce war, to challenge to battle and combat, to proclaim peace, and to execute martial messages. But the business of heralds, now, is as follows, viz. to marshal, order, and conduct all royal cavalcades, cere. nonies at coronations, royal marriages, installations, creations of dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, barons, baronets, and dubbing of knights; embassies, funeral processions, declarations of war, proclamations of peace, &c.: to record and blazon the arms of the nobility and gentry; and to regulate any abuses therein through the British dominions, under the authority of the earl marshal, to whom they are subservient. The office of the Windsor, Chester, Richmond, Somerset, York, and Lancaster heralds, is to be assistants to the kings at arms, in the different branches of their office: and they are superior to each other, according to creation, in the above order. Heralds were anciently held in much greater esteem than they are at present; and were created by the king, who, pouring wine from a gold cup on their head, gave them the herald name: but this is now done by the earl marshal. They could not arrive at the dignity of herald without being seven years pursuivant; nor quit the office of herald, but to be made king at arms. Richard III. was the first who formed them, in this kingdom, into a college; and afterwards great privileges were granted them by Edward VI. and Philip and Mary. HERALDRY is a science which teaches how to blazon, or explain in proper terms, all that belongs to armorial bearings; and how to marshal, or dispose regularly, divers arms on a coat or shield. It also teaches whatever relates to the marshalling of solemn cavalcades, processions, and other public ceremonies at coronations, installations, creations of peers, nuptials, christenings of princes, funerals, &c. Arms, or coats of arms, are hereditary marks of honor, made up of fixed and determined colors and figures, granted by sovereign princes, as a reward for military valor, or some signal public service; and serve to denote the descent and alliance of the bearer, or to distinguish states, cities, societies, &c., civil, ecclesiastical, and military. Heraldry, according to Sir George Mackenzie, as digested into an art, and subjected to rules, must be ascribed to Charlemagne and Frederick Barbarossa, for it did begin and grow with the feudal law.' Sir John Ferne is of opinion, that we borrowed arms from the Egyptians; meaning from their hieroglyphics! Sir William Dugdale mentions, that arms, as marks of honors, were first used by great commanders in war, necessity requiring that their persons should be notified to their friends and followers. The learned Alexander Nisbet, in his System of Heraldry, says, that signs and marks of honor were made use of in the first ages of the world, and by all nations, however simple and illiterate, to distinguish the noble from the ignoble. We find in Homer, Virgil, and Ovid, that their heroes had divers figures on their shields, whereby their persons were distinctly known. In all ages, men have made use of symbolical signs, to denote the bravery and courage either of their chief or nation, to render themselves more terrible to their enemies, and even to distinguish themselves or families, as names do individuals. The famous C. Agrippa, in his treatise of the Vanity of Sciences, cap. 81, has collected many instances of these marks of distinction, anciently borne by kingdoms and states that were any way civilised. As to hereditary arms of families, William Camden, Sir Henry Spelman, and other judicious heralds, agree, that they did not begin till towards the end of the eleventh century. According to F. Menestrier, a French writer, whose authority is great in this matter, Henry l'Oiseleur (or the Falconer), who was raised to the imperial throne of the West in 920, by regulating tournaments in Germany, gave occasion to the establishment of family arms, or hereditary marks of honor, which undeniably are more ancient and better observed among the Germans than in any other nation. This last author also asserts, that with tournaments first came up coats of arms; which were a sort of livery, made up of several lists, fillets, or narrow pieces of stuff of divers colors, from whence came the fess, the bend, the pale, &c., which were the original charges of family arms; for they who never had been at tournaments had not such marks of distinction. They who inlisted in the crusades took up also several new figures formerly unknown in armorial ensigns; such as allerions, bezants, escalop-shells, martlets, &c. but more particularly crosses of different colors and shapes. From this it may be concluded, that heraldry, like most human inventions, was introduced and established gradually; and that, after having been rude and unsettled for many ages, it was at last methodised, perfected, and fixed by the crusades and tournaments. These marks of honor are called arms, from their being principally and first worn by military men at war and tournaments, who had them engraved, embossed, or depicted on shields, targets, banners, or other martial instruments. They are also called coats of arms, from the custom of the ancients embroidering them on the coats they wore over their arms, as heralds do to this day. Arms are distinguished by different names, to denote the causes of their bearing: such as, arms of dominion, of pretension, of concession, of community, of patronage, of family, of alliance, of succession. Arms of dominion, or sovereignty, are those which emperors, kings, and sovereign states, constantly bear; being, as it were, annexed to the territories, kingdoms, and provinces they possess. Thus the three lions are the arms of England, the fleur-de-lis those of the French, &c. Arms of pretension are those of such kingdoms, provinces, or territories, to which a prince or lord has some claim, and which he adds to his own, although the said kingdoms or territories be possessed by a foreign prince or other lord. Thus the kings of England quartered the arms of France with their own, ever since Edward III. laid claim to the kingdom of France in 1330, on account of his being son to Isabella, sister to Charles IV. or the Fair, who died without issue; till the union with Ireland, when his majesty's arms were altered, and the French arms were thrown out. Arms of concession, or augmentation of honor, are either entire arms, or else one or more figures, given by princes as a reward for some great service. We read in history, that Robert Bruce, king of Scotland, allowed the earl of Wintoun's ancestor to bear, in his coat armour, a crown supported by a sword, to show that he, and the clan Seaton, of which he was the head, supported his tottering crown. The late queen Anne granted to Sir Cloudesly Shovel, rear-admiral of Great Britain, a cheveron between two fleurs-de-lis in chief, and a crescent in base, to denote three great victories he had gained: two over the French, and one over the Turks. Arms of community are those of bishoprics, cities, universities, academies, societies, companies, and other bodies corporate. Arms of patronage are such as governors of provinces, lords of manors, patrons of benefices, &c., add to their family arms, as a token of their superiority, rights, and jurisdiction. These arms have introduced into heraldry, castles, gates, wheels, ploughs, rakes, harrows, &c. Arms of family, or paternal arms, are those that belong to one particular family, that distinguish it from others, and which no person is suffered to assume without committing a crime, which sovereigns have a right to restrain and punish. Arms of alliance are those which families or private persons take up and join to their own, to denote the alliances they have contracted by marriage. This sort of arms is either impaled, or borne in an escutcheon of pretence, by those who have married heiresses. Arms of succession are such as are taken up by those who inherit certain estates, manors, &c., either by will, entail, or donation, and which they either impale or quarter with their own arms; which multiplies the titles of some families out of necessity, and not through ostentation, as many imagine. These are the eight classes under which the various sorts of arms are generally ranged; but there is a sort which blazoners call assumptive arms, being such as are taken up by the caprice or fancy of upstarts, though of ever so mean extraction, who, being advanced to a degree of fortune, assume them without a legal title. This, indeed, is a great abuse of heraldry, and common only in Britain, for on the continent no such practice takes place. We now proceed to consider the essential and integral parts of arms, which are these:-The escutcheon; the charges; the tinctures; the or naments. OF THE SHIELD OR ESCUTCHEON. The shield or escutcheon is the field or ground whereon are represented the figures that make up a coat of arms: for these marks of distinction were put on bucklers or shields before they were placed on banners, standards, flags, and coatarmour; and, wherever they may be fixed, they are still on a plane, or superficies, whose form resembles a shield. Shields, in heraldry called escutcheons, or scutcheons, have been, and still are, of different forms, according to different times and nations. |