more important and instructive than the mere calendar of names and issue. I have moreover interwoven such papers, deemed interesting, either by their connexion direct or collateral with the subject, or by their antiquity as illustrative of early manners, as I had collected during my search among the ancient records of the kingdom; together with some documents of modern date, which are calculated to throw light on my noble client's claim, the steps by which it has been fortunately substantiated, and the unfair and mysterious means which prevented his Lordship's regular accession to the honours and estates of his ancestors. All these matters will, I trust, be found sufficiently relevant and interesting to justify their introduction in a compilation of this nature; but the part, which I feel will require most apology, is that which relates to myself personally, and my exertions on the occasion. And here again I must shelter myself under the authority and opinion of the respected friends before alluded to, who have advised, that every particular should be preserved appertaining to the prosecution of a claim, the establishment of which in so comparatively short a period, without reference to the House of Lords, and after the title had lain nearly thirty years in abeyance, has been regarded as a remarkable instance of successful practice, and, if I mistake not, without precedent in the annals of restored Peerages. On this score, with whatever sentiment of complacency the conscientious discharge of my duty, its victorious result, and the indulgent approbation of my friends, may have inspired me, (and far from dissembling, I would blush to be found insensible to, such sentiment,) yet I must beg to deprecate all imputation, as as I honestly disavow all feeling, of vanity or egotism. But these subordinate details, if they possess no other value, may at least teach my youthful contemporaries, who, like myself, have only entered upon their career in an arduous and honourable profession, the not unprofitable lesson, that zeal and perseverance will seldom fail to surmount obstacles, which, at first, appear insuperable; and that there is a Providence, which will prosper their endeavours on the side of justice, even when the chances and calculations of success, merely human, wear the most hopeless, and deterring aspect. Finally, and with respect to the subject matter at large, I have omitted no means, and spared no research, to render it at once copious in substance, and historically correct; and if these general objects, the chief, perhaps the only, merit, to which a work of this character can aspire, be attained, I confidently trust to the candour of my friends for indulgence on all minor imperfections of form and manner. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Page MEMOIRS, GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL, OF The House of Hastings, EARLS OF HUNTINGDON, &c. &c. CHAPTER I. FROM ROBERT DE HASTINGS, LORD OF FILLONGLEY, THE FIRST OF WHOM MENTION IS MADE IN THE FAMILY PEDIGREE, DOWN TO SIR LEONARD DE HASTINGS. ALTHOUGH we have the happiness to live in an enlightened age and free country, in which private worth and public services are justly held ennobling beyond the brightest " boast of heraldry,” yet the pride of ancestry, common to nations and individuals, and which seems to be inherent in the human mind, can never cease to be a laudable passion, so long as it operates in its original and legitimate sphere, not as the silly inflation of overweening worthlessness and imbecility of character, but as a generous stimulus to emulation in those honourable pursuits and virtuous actions which, in themselves, primitively conferred social distinction, and still constitute the sublimer nobility of mind. The ancient family of Hastings, whose hereditary dignities, extinct or suspended for B |