phies of the chase, which formerly adorned the hall of a country gentleman, have made way for family portraits. There is a wide hospitable fireplace, calculated for an ample old fashioned wood fire, formerly the rallying place of winter festivity. On the opposite side of the hall is the huge Gothic bow-window with stone shafts, which looks out upon the court-yard. Here are emblazoned, in stained glass, the armorial bearings of the Lucy family for many generations, some being dated in 1558. I was delighted to observe in the quarterings the three white luces, by which the character of Sir Thomas was first identified with that of Justice Shallow." The seal of Sir Thomas Lucy, here engraved, exhibits the three white luces interlaced. The autograph is written in a bold hand. Our cut is reduced to one-half the size of the original. The document

Thomas

from which it is obtained is in the possession of Mr. Wheler, of Stratford-on-Avon, and is appended to the presentation of the Rev. Richard Hill to the rectory of Hampton Lucy, in the gift of Sir Thomas, and is dated October 8th, 1586. Upon the vanes of the house at Charlecote, the three luces interlaced between cross crosslets are also displayed; an engraving of one of these vanes may be seen in Moule's Heraldry of Fish, p. 55, who says: "The pike of the fisherman is the luce of heraldry; a name

Eucy

derived from the old French language lus, or from the Latin lucius; as a charge it was very early used by heralds as a pun upon the name of Lucy."

66

The deer-stealing story, unlike a matter of fact, has grown to be more defined and clear the nearer it approaches to our own time. It first commences by traditionary stories loosely put down, and exceedingly inaccurate in detail. Mention is made of a lost ballad satirising Sir Thomas. By and by, a stanza is found; and ultimately we get the entire ballad, about as scurrilous and worthless a composition as ever forger fixed on a great man. This ballad is evidently made up from the allusions in the first scene of the Merry Wives of Windsor, which, as Malone observes, "certainly afford ground for believing that our author, on some account or other, had not the most profound respect for Sir Thomas Lucy. The dozen white luces,' however, which Shallow is made to commend as 'a good coat,' was not Sir Thomas Lucy's coat of arms." Granting, however, that Shakspere had in his youthful days mixed with roysterers," which is far from unlikely, the offence of deer-stealing at that time was looked upon in a very different light from that in which we should now view it. The laxity of game-laws then, and the sympathy with which popular feeling regarded the act, re-echoed only the sentiments rendered popular by the constant singing of the Robin Hood ballads; and viewed such adventures much as we should regard the boyish robbing of an orchard. The plays and poems of the period abound with the expression of similar sentiments. In the play of The Merry Devil of Edmonton, mine Host and Sir John the Priest both join in the fun of deer-stealing; the Host declaring, "I'll have a buck till I die, I'll slay a doe while I live." Reputation was not lost by such outbreaks; and Shakspere might have stolen a deer without any serious consequences. It is commonly related at the time as often done. Malone has quoted many passages to prove this; and in Reynolds' Epi_ grammasticon, 1642, occurs the following lines, which are conclusive:

C

"Harry and I, in youth long since,

Did doughty deeds, but some nonsense:
We read our books, we sang our song,
We stole a deer, who thought it wrong?
To cut a purse deserves but hanging,
To steal a deer deserves but banging."

Shakspere may therefore have stolen a deer; Sir Thomas may have treated the matter a little more seriously than was generally the wont with those who only judged of other's property; but the vindictiveness and ill-feeling of the whole story is the invention of more modern times. Sir Thomas appears to have been an exemplary country gentleman. He died Aug. 18, 1600, and is buried in Charlecote Church, a short distance from the family seat. His effigy, and that of his wife, are sculptured there. They are executed in a masterly manner, and may be