275 TWO CURIOUS FAMILY RELICS. IN the family of Lord Muncaster there is pre served, as the most precious heir-loom, an ancient glass vessel, which was presented by Henry VI. to the head of the House of Pennington, a zealous adherent of the Red Rose. During his season of greatest adversity, that unfortunate monarch was concealed for many weeks, in the mansion of his faithful servant, Sir John de Pennington. When concealment there was no longer practicable, the king prepared to carry his broken fortunes elsewhere, but before his departure he thus addressed his loyal host:-"Silver and gold, and jewels, I have none to give; but this I will give, and, along with it, the blessing of the most unfortunate of princes." Thereupon, he presented to Sir John the curiously shaped carved glass cup, in which he used to keep his holy water; and kneeling down, and praying that every blessing might await the loyal friend who had shown such constancy to him under his heavy misfortunes, he implored God that a male heir might never be wanting to this ancient race. Sir John and his descendants have, ever since, carefully preserved the precious royal gift as the talisman of their house; and it is the traditional belief of the family that as long as King Henry's cup is preserved entire, a male heir shall never be wanting to the race of Pennington. Upwards of half a century ago, the box in which the cup is enclosed fell to the ground. Great fears were felt lest it might have sustained injury; yet no one had courage to ascertain the fact, and the box remained shut for many years. At length it was opened; and much to the joy of the family it was found quite uninjured. The heir male of the Penningtons is the present Lord Muncaster; while the heir of line is Lord Lindsay, in right of his late mother, the Countess of Crawford and Balcarres, who was daughter to Sir John Pennington, first Lord Muncaster. A similar relic, not, however, possessing the same royal claims to interest, is preserved in the distinguished family of Dundas of Arniston, in Mid-Lothian. The founder of this very con siderable branch of Dundas was Sir James Dundas, eldest son of the second marriage of George Dundas of Dundas, (who lived in the time of Queen Mary,) with Catherine, daughter of Lawrence, third Lord Oliphant. This lady, who was anxious to aggrandise her son, succeeded in leaving to him considerable wealth, and he became the ancestor of one of the most powerful branches of the house of Dundas. No family in Scotland has been so eminent at the bar of that country as Dundas of Arniston, which has produced, in direct succession, two judges, known by the designation of Lord Arniston, two Lord Presidents, and one Lord Chief Baron, not to mention Henry, Viscount Melville. Catherine Oliphant bequeathed to her son an ancient Venetian goblet, with an injunction to preserve it carefully, as upon its integrity should depend the continued prosperity of the house of Arniston. Notwithstanding the superstitious regard with which the glass cup was preserved, it was nearly destroyed in the time of the present proprietor's grandfather, the Lord Chief Baron, by the malice of a certain eccentric peeress, then on a visit at Arniston, who intentionally threw it on the ground in order to break it Her evil design, however, was frustrated, and the goblet still remains the talisman of this ancient family. BARON WARD. YORKSHIRE has at all times been celebrated, even to a proverb, for the good sense and deep sagacity of its natives. That these high qualities may, in too many instances, degenerate into cunning, is likely enough, but what human virtue is there that is not liable to be abused in the same way? All honour, therefore, to canny Yorkshire, with its sound and masculine intellect, of which we are now about to give an example, almost without a parallel. Thomas Ward was born at York on the 9th of October, 1810. His parents were in humble circumstances, and his education, like that of most Yorkshire lads similarly situated, was chiefly con fined to the stable. But nothing could crush the energies of one so highly gifted by nature. Shrewd and intelligent far beyond boys in general, his mind expanded in the sole direction open to it; the only book before him was the book of man, and in this it is probable he studied all the more deeply from having every other avenue of knowledge closed against him. Thus qualified, after having run through his apprenticeship to life in his native county, he started one day for London, the land of promise at all times to those who have full heads and empty pockets. Here it was his good fortune one day to attract the notice of the Duke of Lucca, owing to his fall while riding in Rotten Row. By this unlucky horseman he was taken into service, as a sort of master of the stables-a superior groom, and carried over to Lucca. But as this little principality—and the events connected with it-may not be familiar to most of our readers, we shall leave Thomas Ward for awhile to his new found fortunes, while we hastily run over them. Among the thrones suddenly subverted, or as suddenly erected by the Emperor Napoleon the First, were those of Parma and Etruria. The former was the ancient heritage of the house of Farnese, and their descendants in the female line the Infants of Spain, sprang from the youngest |