which there was some still left in Janet's pails — and put on her own clothes, which were now quite dry. Then she got herself some breakfast, and after that tried to say her prayers, but found it very difficult, for, do what she might to model her slippery thoughts, she could not help, as often as she turned herself towards him, seeing God like her father, the laird.
THE VICISSITUDES OF TITLES.
The vicissitudes of titles are twofold. In the first place, the same titles have been borne by different families: in the second, a family coronet may descend to persons very different indeed from the first possessor, and they again may transmit it to persons who seem to have nothing in common with their ancestors.
There were Dukes of Norfolk before the Howards, the best-known to Englishmen being probably that Thomas Mowbray whom Shakespeare has rescued from oblivion. And before the Mowbrays, Norfolk had given an earl's title to a son of Edward I. On the whole it may be said that few titles in the peerage call up more forcibly the images of feudalism, of monarchy, of soldiership, of the old faith. And yet a decided majority of the Howard dukes have been men of peace, while some have been Protestants, and one was almost considered a Radical by the Tories of his day. The friend and political coadjutor of Fox, he did not scruple to give the toast of "The People, our Sovereign," at a public banquet. But Lord Holland, in his "Memoirs of the Whig Party," appears to be sceptical as to the depth of the duke's liberalism, which is perhaps not surprising when one remembers that an earl marshal has everything to lose and nothing to gain by "reforms" of existing institutions. Other dukes of Norfolk have also wandered considerably from the ideal which would have commended itself to the bold "Jockey" who first wore the strawberry leaves.
The Somerset title has had stranger vicissitudes than the Norfolk one. The Beauforts, descended from a natural son of John of Gaunt, played no mean part in our history as Dukes of Somerset. A natural son of the last duke of that line took the name of Somerset, married an heiress, and became the founder of a new house, now represented by his descendant the Present Duke of Beaufort. Henry VIII. created his own natural son (Henry Fitzroy) Duke of Richmond and Somerset. In the next century, James I. bestowed an "earldom of Somerset" on the infamous Carr. But it is the family of Seymour who have unquestionably done most to render the name of Somerset famous in English history. A family likeness is perhaps more visible in these Dukes of Somerset than in the successive heads of any other house. Edward the First, who pulled down churches to build himself a palace, was the true ancestor of Edward Adolphus the Twelfth, who recently distinguished himself by a smart pamphlet against the Christian religion.
Third on Garter's Roll comes the Duke of Richmond, whose title recalls to the mind some of the wisest and best of Englishmen, notably that earl who was crowned on Bosworth field and reigned so well as Henry VII. Of the Dukes of Richmond, descendants of Charles II. and Louise de Quérouaille, little need be said, except that the name has not always been associated with the staunch Toryism and valor of the present duke. It was a Duke of Richmond who moved one of the earliest addresses to George III. advising the king to recognize the independence of the American colonies. Chatham went down to the House of Lords for the last time to speak against the motion: the incidents of that most mournful of historic scenes are known to all who care about their country's history.
St. Alban's, now made into a cathedral city, has given a title to persons so widely dissimilar from every point of view as the author of the "Novum Organon" and the son of Charles II. by Mrs. Eleanor Gwyn. Of course the bastard became a duke, while the great philosopher was only "Viscount St. Alban."
Passing the dukedom of Leeds, of which the founder alone is remembered, one finds the Bedford title next inscribed on the Roll of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal. The Russells have certainly left their mark on English history, but the most famous Duke of Bedford was a Plantagenet. John, brother of Henry V., and regent of France during the minority of Henry VI., has furnished one of the most splendid portraits in the Shakespeare gallery. One is pained to remember that his Grace of Bedford was at times sadly in want of cash, and even reduced to selling the few books which formed the contents of the ducal library.
The dukedom of Devonshire, created at the same time as the present dukedom of Bedford, is one of those which illustrate
