to suffer eclipse-possibly at some distant day -yet he has a sister and daughters who under the fortunate provisions of the patent of creation, will inherit and transmit to their children for many generations to come the Earldom of Temple, which upwards of a century ago was first bestowed on his great-great-great-grandmother, Hester Temple of Stowe, whose name is recorded above.

On the last page I have alluded to the singular fatality which for many centuries has attended the title of Buckingham. If we may rely upon the authority of the "Historic Peerage" of Sir Harris Nicolas, it appears that in the year in which the battle of Hastings was fought, the Earldom of Buckingham was conferred by the Conqueror on Walter Gifford, with whose son and successor it ended before a century had passed. In the reign of Henry I. we find the Earldom vested in Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, but apparently only for a time, as it does not seem to have been claimed by any other member of that family. In 1377 we find Thomas Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester, the youngest son of King Edward III., created Earl of Buckingham; but twenty years afterwards he was murdered, and in 1399 the title became extinct by his son's decease. Again, in 1444 we

find the title revived, this time however, as a dukedom, in the person of Humphrey Stafford, son of the Earl of Stafford, by Anne Plantagenet, sister and heiress of Humphrey, the last earl. As every reader of history is aware, he was made Lord High Constable of England, but he was killed at the Battle of Northampton; his grandson and heir, the second duke, like his predecessor, was High Constable of England, but in the year 1483 was beheaded for high treason, when the title was forfeited. Three years later, however, by royal favour the dukedom was revived in the person of his son, who also filled the office of High Constable; but he too was attainted and beheaded by Henry VIII., when all the honours of the Staffords were forfeited, never to be restored. They

"Fell like Lucifer,

Never to rise again."

A century passes by, and the first Stuart holds the throne on which the Tudors sat. George Villiers, the King's favourite, so familiar to the readers of English history and of Sir Walter Scott by his court nickname of "Steenie," is created Earl, and Marquis, and presently Duke, of Buckingham. But the same curse follows the honour, and dogs its holder to his death. Knight of the Garter and Lord High Admiral of England,

my Lord Duke, you may be; but for all that you cannot escape your destiny; and the visitor who walks round the streets of Portsmouth is still shown the house in which you met your sudden and cruel end more than a century and a half ago, by the hand of the assassin Felton, whose name is still held in execration, though your own character as an individual is none of the best and sweetest-if, at least, it is still true that

"Only the memories of the just

Smell sweet and blossom in their dust."

The ducal title was inherited by his son, George Villiers, but became extinct at his death without issue in 1687. His grandmother, who had received a patent of the title in duplicate, had already died, and her title too died with her.

I pass on. Another sovereign is on the throne, and in 1703 I find John Sheffield, Marquis of Normanby, created Duke of Buckingham; and we cannot help entertaining a hope that the title may be found in this new family to be exempt from its old fatality. But no; the story is the On the death of the first Duke, in 1720, the coronet and strawberry leaves devolve upon his only son Edmund, who dies under age and unmarried, and for the eighth time I am obliged. to record the extinction of the honour.

same.

The Marquisate of Buckingham, created by George III. in 1784, has now been held by four and the dukedom by three successive generations of the Grenvilles; but the present Duke has no male issue, and, as both his Grace and his father before him were only sons, there are no younger branches in remainder of succession. In all probablity, therefore, the title of Buckingham, on the decease of the present Duke, will have to be relegated to the Extinct Peerages of Messrs. Lodge and Burke.

74

THE NOBLE HOUSE OF STAFFORD.

HE Prince and Princess of Wales, living as

THE

they do in the same county with the head of the family of Jerningham, whose park of Costessy, or Cossey, is not above an hour's journey by railway from Sandringham, ought really to take a more than common interest in the fortunes of Lord Stafford. And if my readers ask me why and wherefore, I would answer, because, if we may trust the heralds and peerage makers, the paternal line of the Jerninghams is said to be of Danish origin. At all events, Weever writes as follows in his "Ancient Funeral Monuments:"

"This name has been of exemplarie note before the Conquest, if you will believe thus much that followeth, taken out of the pedigree of the Jerninghams by a judicious gentleman : Anno