Lord Keeper of the Great Seal

“ If any one could steer between the Prince and the Cardinal, and bring some guarantee for the people out of the confusion, it was the Keeper of the Seals, the head of the only party who cared more for the good of the country than their private malice and hatred. ”

“ He then settles down to defend it; for more and more "old man" Seals come, all eager to own the best places. The roaring and fighting go on day and night. The gentle Seal is now a savage beast, covered with wounds. ”

“ It is surely something new to those who have directed their attention to the numerous devices upon seals to find that the husbandman had so low an opinion of his own social status as to reject the use of any emblematical sign upon his seal, when Thomas the smith, Roger the carpenter, and William the farrier, bore the elements of their respective crafts as proudly as the knight did his chevron or fess. ”

“ The great seal was a very important badge and emblem of the royal prerogative. No decree was of legal authority until an impress from this seal was attached to it. The officer who had charge of it was called the chancellor. A new seal was prepared for each sovereign on his accession to the throne. The devices were much the same in all. They consisted of a representation of the king seated on his throne upon one side of the seal, and on the other mounted on horseback and going into battle, armed from head to foot. ”

“ The great royal seals of more than one king were their handiwork, and it should be observed that the seals of England, not only of the thirteenth century but almost throughout the mediaeval period, were far the most beautiful in the world, both for splendour and elaboration of design, and for exquisite minuteness of detail. ”

“ Each abbot, too, would have his own seal of dignity, generally showing him standing. Local seals of town or borough may have the image of a patron saint, or armorial device, or castle or bridge or other building (see fig. 4) , or the town itself. A seaport will be indicated by a ship on the waves. The baronial seal bears the armed and mounted knight. On ladies’ seals the owner is often gracefully depicted standing and holding flower or bird, or with shields of arms. After the 14th century, the figures of ladies, other than queens, vanish from seals. ”

“ How the cormorants dive and fish in it, how the gull tears at the drifted carcase of its kind, how the puffins, in ceaseless flight between ocean and their myriad burrows, arch and dome it in! Oh, it is a fine apartment! Its portals on either side are columns of spouting foam, and beyond lies the wild, houseless sea. A seal's dormitory!—how well do the wild things choose! So here, at once, one learns something different to what one is told. Seals care nothing about tides when they can get great slanting slabs that lie high and dry above them. ”

“ If the seals are there, all will be explained; if the Minister has not restored them, you must accuse him at once of having stolen them; and thus you will be sure to ruin your enemy and recover your seals." The keeper of the seals followed his friend's advice exactly, and the seals were found again in the casket.
As soon as a royal child, which they call here un Enfant de France, is born, and has been swaddled, they put on him a grand cordon; but they do not create him a knight of the order until he has communicated ”

“ They spin and shoot about, slap each other with their fins or tails, and, every now and again, one hears a curious burst of sound, like subaqueous thunder; whether caused by the swirl, as they go down, or being a growl, half-choked under the water, I do not know. Seals seem to lead a most happy life. I have mentioned one leaping out of the water, as it went along, in pure enjoyment—for what else could it have been? But how different is all this to the lonely sleep of that great thing yonder!—Falstaff—Proteus—Bottle-nose—but that last is a calumny on a very respectable feature. ”

“ Seals are gregarious as well as polygamous, and when they forsake the open seas for their breeding-places on shore, are very shy of intrusion, and take great care to insure the safety of their retirement, particularly in localities which have been previously visited by human beings. ”

“ The seals is beautiful too, going through the water in the young of the day; but they're not so beautiful as them. The seals is no good either. It's a great curse keeps them the way they are, not able to live either in the sea or on the land. ”

“ But after all, any phocine ambition, either for extinction or higher evolution, may be an empty thing; because the seal is very comfortable as he is. Consider a few of his [Pg 137] advantages. He has a very fine fur overcoat, with an admirable lining of fat, which, as well as being warm, permits any amount of harmless falling and tumbling about, such as is suitable to and inevitable with the seal's want of shape. He can enjoy the sound of bagpipes, which is a privilege accorded to few. Further, he can shut his ears when he has had enough, which is a faculty man may envy him. ”

“ In the British Museum there is the skin of a very young Seal, which was presented by Sir John Richardson as the Falkland Island Fur-Seal, with the observation appended that the adult is 5 feet long, and its skin is worth fifteen dollars. It is without its skull. The fur of this young Seal is dark brown, reddish beneath, and very like that of the young specimen sent by Capt. Abbott; but the hairs are smoother, and the white tips to them are longer and more marked, giving the animal a more grizzled appearance. ”

“ The consideration of this objection at first gave my mind no small degree of anxiety. I was conscious to myself that I had no views of ambition to gratify. Those views, if I had entertained any such, would have been better consulted by accepting the Great Seal, and with it a highly efficient place in the public Councils—but which I had already refused—indeed every view of that kind has been long since more than satisfied. ”

“ It is nearly six feet long, and its fur is yellowish grey, sprinkled above with dark-brown spots. It has no exterior ear. To the inhabitants of the north the seal is a most useful animal; its flesh and fat form their chief food, with its oil they illuminate the long winter nights, its sinews they use as thread, from its bones they make various domestic implements, and with its fur they cover their tents and sledges. Seals are gentle animals, and when tamed exhibit great attachment to man. When wounded they snap savagely in all directions. ”

“ The galley in which the queen and the princess were embarked, being probably of superior construction to the others, and better manned, succeeded in weathering the point and getting round into the harbor, but two or three other galleys which were with them struck and were wrecked. One of these ships was a very important one. It contained the chancellor who bore Richard's great seal, besides a number of other knights and crusaders of high rank, and many valuable goods. The seal was an object of great value. Every king had his own seal, which was used to authenticate his public acts. ”

“ Within the last two centuries their pursuit has been brimful of incident and adventure. As articles of commerce, the oil and the furs of certain kinds of the Seal tribe are of immense importance; whilst the mere hides of all, besides the Walrus tusks, are commodities of great value. Indeed, to the natives of the Arctic regions, Seals are indispensable as a means of every-day existence. ”

“ Casts of these seals were taken by the indefatigable Mr. Doubleday, to whom the Seal department of the British Museum, over which he presides, is so much indebted; and impressions were exhibited by Sir Henry Ellis at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, on the 12th of December, 1833. Engravings of them, accompanied by the following notice, were communicated by Sir Henry to the Archæologia, and will be found in that publication, vol. xxv. plate lxx. fig. 2, 3. page 616., and ibid. pp. 619, 620.:
"The great seal has an obverse and reverse. ”

“ When one is seen lying near its hole, the native approaches as near as possible, say within 500 yards, when he lies down and crawls and wriggles the remainder of the distance. During this operation great care is taken not to excite the animal’s suspicion, and an advance is only made when the seal’s head is down. A seal appears to sleep in short naps, and raises his head every few minutes ”

“ He can make men wonderfully knowing in all Liberal Sciences. He ruleth 40 Legions of Spirits. His Seal is this, which wear thou as a Lamen before thee, or else he will not appear nor yet obey thee, etc.
(30.) Forneus.—The Thirtieth Spirit is Forneus. He is a Mighty and Great Marquis, and appeareth in the Form of a Great Sea-Monster. He teacheth, and maketh men wonderfully knowing in the Art of Rhetoric. He causeth men to have a Good Name, and to have the knowledge and understanding of Tongues. He maketh one to be beloved of his Foes as well as of his Friends. ”

“ Of all men, kings and princes might be the first to be found bearing arms. Yet the first English sovereign who appears on his great seal with arms on his shield is Richard I. His seal of 1189 shows his shield charged with a lion ramping towards the sinister side. Since one half only is seen of the rounded face of the shield, English antiquaries have perhaps too hastily suggested that the whole bearing was two lions face to face. ”

“ The earless, or true species, are often seen in considerable numbers on the British coast, and the Great Seal of England—only to be found in the vicinity of the Thames—is of such remarkable size and weight, that it never makes its appearance without producing a strong Impression.
The Green Seal, a much admired variety, is peculiar to Madeira, and seals of various colors are often seen in close proximity to the British. ”

“ In Du Simitière’s final design, which was the best of the four, the Goddess of Justice was substituted for the American rifleman as the sinister supporter, and Franklin’s suggestion was accepted for the reverse.
The committee reported August 20: [8]
The great Seal should on one side have the Arms of the United States of America which arms should be as follows: The Shield has six Quarters, [9] parti one, coupé two. The 1st. Or, a Rose enamelled gules & argent for England: the 2d. Argent, a Thistle proper for Scotland: the 3d. ”

“ The object I held beneath her gaze was insignificant in itself, merely a small brass seal, but it bore the Warnham arms in exact imitation of the cut amethyst worn by the Earl. It was the seal which had been used to manufacture the duplicate of the envelope containing England’s secret alliance with Germany. ”

“ He opens the second Seal, and takes out a sword, and gives it to the next aged, and says, "Go, and destroy peace among the profane and wicked brethren, that they may never appear in our Council." He opens the third Seal, and takes a balance, and gives it to the next aged, and says, "Dispense rigid justice to the profane and wicked brethren." He opens the fourth Seal, and takes out a scull, and gives it to the next aged, and says, "Go, and endeavor to convince the wicked that death is the reward of their guilt." ”

“ As the century advances, a more graceful movement in the figures is discernible. For instance, the great seal of Edward I. shows a departure from the severe simplicity of his predecessor in the addition of decorative architectural details, and in the easier action of the equestrian figure, which in this instance is of a strikingly fine type. Comparable with it is the remarkable baronial equestrian seal of Robert Fitz-Walter (fig. 7) , 1298–1304, the silver matrix of which is in the British Museum collections.
The work of the 14th century is marked by a great development in decoration. ”

“ Thus the eighteen figures of Henry the Fourth's great seal (I) have dwindled down to three; the back ground of the seal is diapered or powdered with fleurs-de-lis on the left half where the arms of France alone occupy the shield, and with roses on the right half, where France and England quarterly are on the shield. The canopies and their turrets are in a heavy late style, and the legend has "Francie et Anglie." ”

“ Some of the old sealing captains are men of great intelligence and wide experience, and their interest leads them to appreciate minute differences in the appearance and habits of the Seals which to a casual observer would pass unnoticed. ”

“ The seals and sea-lions, which were so abundant formerly, are now reduced to such a small number, as to make the seal-fishery scarcely worth notice. They have been destroyed by taking them indiscriminately, without regard to age or sex, leaving none to propagate the race but those who by chance escaped. ”

“ Seals delight to lie upon the ice, or on the shore, exposed to the sun [17] ; they there sleep very profoundly, and fall an easy prey to the sailors, who dispatch them by a blow on the nose.
Their voice has been not unaptly compared by Buffon to the barking of a hoarse dog; when attacked, they make a more doleful kind of noise.
Pliny expressly states this animal to be of a docile and tractable nature, and in this he is supported by the more enlarged experience of modern times. The seal described by Dr. ”

“ Seals differ from all other animals in having the toes of the feet included almost to the end in a common integument, converting them into broad fins armed with strong non-retractile claws. Of the many varieties of the seal family, from Kamchatka comes the noisy “Sea-lion” (Otaria jubata) , so called from his curious mane. In the same neighbourhood we get the “Sea-leopard” (Leptonyx weddellii) , and the “Sea-bear” (the Etocephalus ursinus) , whose larger and better-developed limbs enable him to stand and walk on shore. ”