Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

1831.]

Castle and Family of Prince Polignac.

the Tithes at the present valuation; and the contrary.

In our ancient law books, Tithes are briefly defined "to be an ecclesiastical inheritance or property in the Church, collateral to the estate of the lands thereof;" and no other support for the Clergy appears so likely to produce efficient ministers to preach "right things" rather than "smooth things," and thus keep up a sound tone of religion and morals in the country.

A FRIEND TO IMPROVEMENT, BUT
A LOVER OF JUSTICE AND
GOOD FAITH.

MR. URBAN,

Jan. 2.

AS the administration and trial of the Prince de Polignac (with the momentous consequences attending them) have so lately engrossed the public attention, I think that the following spirited sketch of the ancient seat of the family, extracted from the late Arthur Young's Travels through France in 1789, will be interesting.

Speaking of the scenery and singular rocks in the vicinity of Le Puy, the writer observes :-"The castle of Polignac, from which the Duke takes his title, is built on a bold and enormous one. It is almost of a cubical form, and towers perpendicularly above the town which surrounds its foot. The family of Polignac claim an origin of great antiquity; they have pretensions that go back, I forget whether to Hector or Achilles, but I never found any one in conversation inclined to allow them more than being in the first class of French families, which they undoubtedly are. Perhaps there is no where to be met with a castle more formed to give a local pride of family than this of Polignac. The man hardly exists that would not feel a certain va

nity at having given his own name from remote antiquity to so singular and commanding a rock. But if, with the name, it belonged to me, I would scarcely sell it for a province. The building is of such antiquity, and the situation so romantic, that all the feudal ages pass in review in one's imagination: by a sort of magic influence, you recognize it for the residence of a lordly baron, who, in an age more distant and more respectable, though perhaps equally barbarous, was the patriot defender of his country against the invasion and tyranny of Rome. In every age since the horrible combustions that produced it, such a spot would be chosen for secusity and defence. To have given one's name to a castle without any lofty pre-eminence or singularity of nature, in the midst, for instance, of a rich plain, is not equally flattering to our feelings. All antiquity of family derives from ages of great barbarity, where civil commotions and wars swept away and confounded the inhabitants of such situations. The Britons of the plains of England were driven to Bretagne, but the same people in the mountains of Wales stuck secure, and remain there to this day. About a gun-shot from Polignac is another rock, not so large, but equally remarkable; and in the town of Le Puy another commanding one rises to a vast height, with another, more singular for its tower-like form, on the top of which St. Michael's Church is built."

By the following pedigree, extracted from a valuable genealogical work in French, in the library of John Lee, Esq. LL.D.,tit appears that the name and estate of Polignac came into the present family by a marriage with the heiress in the 14th century:

Gilleaume Sieur de Chalancon Vualberga Viscountess of Polignac, 1st wife. Pierre Sieur de Chalançon, Vicomte de Polignac Margarite de Saligny. Louis Armand, Vicomte Isabeau de la Tour, fille de Bertrand Comte d'Auvergne de Polignac. et de Boulogne.

a (see next page.)

*The reader will recollect that Mr. Young was a country gentleman devoted to agriculture, and not deeply versed in antiquities; he would otherwise have known that the place (whose first syllable indicates its position, in the Celtic tongue) gave name to the family, according to the custom of the middle ages.

+ We have added the three latter descents, partly from the Dictionnaire Genealogique Bois, 1765.-EDIT.

8

Prince Polignac and Family.

α

[Jan.

Gilleaume-Armand Viscomte de Polignac, Sieur Amadee de Saluces, Dame de Caramagnes de Chalencon, mort en 1473.

en Savoye.

Gilleaume, Vicomte de Polignac, Maitre des Requêtes Margarite, fille d'Antoine de l'Hotel du Roi. Sieur de Pompadeur.

Francois-Armand, Visc. de Polignac Anne de Beaufort.

Phillibert de Clermont.

Louis-Armand, Visc. de Polignac,Francoise de

Claude Armand, Visc.

Baron de Chaleucon.

de Polignac, s. p.

Montmorency.

Gaspar-Armand, Visc. de Polignac, Marq.Claudine Francoise de Tournon, fille du Comte de Chalencon, Chevalier desOrdres du Roi. de Rousillon, & Magdaleine de la Rothfoucauld.

[blocks in formation]

Philippe-Jules-Francois, bapt. Jan. 1, 1747. Dame d'Atours.

Armand de Jules de Hon. Anne-Sarah-Catherine Parkyns, dau. of Thomas 1st Lord Polignac. Polignac. Rancliffe, widow of the Marq. de Choiseul,† mar. June 1, 1824.

The friendship between the Queen of Louis XVI. and Madame de Polignac, mother of the late minister, which brought the family into a more immediate connection with the Court, is said to have risen from an accidental meeting. Her fascinating manners are much dwelt on by the accomplished Tweddell, who was some time in her society in the Ukraine,‡ and the elegance and refinement of the Dame d'Atours appear to have gained a partial victory over the rugged principles of ultra-Whiggism which were then entertained by our distinguished and lamented countryman.

The father of the ex-Minister emigrated at the commencement of the Revolution, to Radstadt in the Grand Duchy of Baden; and afterwards resided, with the Royal Family, at Edinburgh,

It has been related that on the birthday of Jules, when he had attained

his tenth year, the father invited all his companions in misfortune, and some other friends, and shewed them into a room, where, upon a table, a crucifix and two lighted candles had been placed. He then ordered young Jules to approach the table, and, in imitation of Hamilcar (Hannibal's father) bound him by an oath, that he would always oppose the French Revolution, and the principles to which it had given birth.

Whatever credit may be given to this story, it is certain that the father deeply inculcated in his children a detestation of all the enemies of the Bourbons, Both his sons were implicated in the conspiracy of 1804, when the life of Napoleon was attempted by what was styled the Infernal Machine. Armand was condemned to death (but did not suffer); Jules to two years imprisonment.§ Yours, &c.

G. M.

* Louis-Jules, Duc de Nivernois, who was Ambassador in England to treat for the Peace of 1762, was a son of this Duc de Nevers.

"Une de plus grandes et plus considerables maisons du Royaume."-Des Bois.

See his "Remains."

§ See our vol. LXXIV. p. 677.

[graphic][merged small][merged small]

1831.]

Priory of Hurley, Berkshire.

MR. URBAN, Jan. 1. THE parish of Hurley, in Berk. shire, is beautifully situated on the banks of the Thames, about thirty miles from London.* In the Norman survey, commonly called Domesday, it is said to have lately belonged to Efgen, probably a Saxon or Danish family, but to be then in the possession of Geoffry de Mandeville. This person had greatly distinguished himself at the battle of Hastings, in which King Harold was defeated, and received this estate from William the Conqueror, among other spoils, as the reward of his valour and attachment. Towards the end of the Conqueror's reign, that is A. D. 1086, Geoffry de Mandeville founded here the Priory of St. Mary, to this day commonly called Lady Place, and annexed it as a cell to the great Benedictine Abbey of Westminster.

The charter of the foundation is still preserved in the archives there. In this instrument the founder calls himself Gosfridus de Magnavilla, and recites the motives of his donation: "Pro salute et redemptione animæ meæ, et uxoris meæ Lecelinæ, cujus consilio, gratiâ divinâ providente, hoc bonum inchoavi, et pro animâ Athelaisæ primæ uxoris meæ (matris filiorum meorum) jam defunctæ, necnon et hæredum meorum omnium mihi succedentium."-For the salvation of my soul, and that of my wife Lecelina, by whose advice, under the providence of divine grace, I have begun this good work, and also for the soul of Athelais my first wife, the mother of my sons, now deceased; and also for the souls of all my heirs who shall succeed me. He then recites the particulars of his endowment, and its object :-"Ad sustentationem monachorum in eadem ec

9

clesiâ Deo imperpetuum servientium."

For the support of the religious order serving God perpetually in this church. And after some terrible imprecations, in imitation of Ernulphus Bishop of Rochester, against all persons who shall violate or diminish this his foundation, he concludes with these words:"Ex hac vero donatione meâ et institutione, concilio proborum sumpto virorum tria acta sunt Brevia, unum apud Westmonasterium, aliud apud eandem ecclesiam de Hurleia, tertium mihi et hæredibus meis succedentibus, pro loci integritate æternâ et stabilitate reposui."

William the Conqueror approved and confirmed the endowment of the founder of Hurley Priory; and afterwards Pope Adrian IV. in a Bull dated 1157, confirmed, among other possessions, to the Abbey of Westminster, "Cellum de Herleya cum eadem villâ, cum omni obedientiâ et subjectione, et pertinentiis suis."

It may not be improper to observe, that the first subscribing witness to the charter, and indeed the person who consecrated the new convent, was Osmund Bishop of Salisbury, originally a Norman nobleman, Count of Seez, in that province. He was, in the sequel, made Earl of Dorset, and Lord High Chancellor of England; and, finally, Bishop of Salisbury, which diocese he governed with remarkable goodness and assiduity from 1078 to 1099. He is commonly reputed to be the author of the Ritual, called the use of Sarum, and was canonized long after his death.

Gilbert, Abbot of Westminster, another subscribing witness, was also of a Norman family, which had produced several great men; among the rest, his grandfather and uncle, who were

The Vale of Hurley, containing the town of Great Marlow and Bisham, Hurley, and Medmenham, ancient monastic establishments, (the latter on the Buckinghamshire side of the Thames, within less than two miles of each other, and interspersed with gentlemen's seats, farms, and all the variety of cultivation, and bounded by sylvan hills, between which the river winds in picturesque meanders,) is unquestionably one of the most charming scenes, though of limited extent, in England.-See Moritz's Travels through England in Mavor's British Tourists, vol. iv. p. 67.

In the splendid edition of Dugdale's Monasticon, lately published, vol. iii. p. 438, we find a copy of the charter of the foundation, with some slight variations, chiefly verbal, and sometimes literal: “Ex Regist. de Walden penes comitem Suffolciæ, an. 1650, hodia MS. Harl. Mus. Brit. 3697, fol. 51, b.

"Omnes infractores seu diminutores hujus meæ elemosina excommunicari, ut habitatio illorum perpetua cum Juda maledicto proditore Domini, et viventes descendent in æternæ proditionis baratrum cum Dathan et Core, cum maledictione æternâ," &c.

GENT. MAG. January, 1831.

« PredošláPokračovať »