ne_; here a favoured gentleman was occasionally
'admitted a proctor exercent by virtue of a rescript;' here, as we
learnt with awe, proceedings for divorce were 'carried on in poenam,'
and 'the learned judge, without entering into the facts, declared
himself quite satisfied with the evidence, and pronounced for the
separation;' and here the Dean of Peculiars settled his differences with
the eccentrics who, I presume, were under his charge, and to whom he
owed his title."

Such are the changes that take place in our Protean city! Already we
have seen a palace in Blackfriars turn into a prison, and the old courts
of Fleet Street, once mansions of the rich and great, now filled with
struggling poor. The great synagogue in the Old Jewry became a tavern;
the palace of the Savoy a barracks. These changes it is our special
province to record, as to trace them is our peculiar function.

The Prerogative Will Office contains many last wills and testaments of
great interest. There is a will written in short-hand, and one on a
bed-post; but what are these to that of Shakspeare, three folio sheets,
and his signature to each sheet? Why he left only his best bed to his
wife long puzzled the antiquaries, but has since been explained. There
is (or rather was, for it has now gone to Paris) the will of Napoleon
abusing "the oligarch" Wellington, and leaving 10,000 francs to the
French officer Cantello, who was accused of a desire to assassinate the
"Iron Duke." There are also the wills of Vandyke the painter, who died
close by; Inigo Jones, Ben Jonson's rival in the Court masques of James
and Charles; Sir Isaac Newton, Dr. Johnson, good old Izaak Walton, and
indeed almost everybody who had property in the south.

[Illustration: HERALDS' COLLEGE. (_From an old Print._)]

CHAPTER XXV.

HERALDS' COLLEGE.

Early Homes of the Heralds--The Constitution of the Herald's
College--Garter King at Arms--Clarencieux and Norroy--The
Pursuivants--Duties and Privileges of Heralds--Good, Bad, and Jovial
Heralds--A Notable Norroy King at Arms--The Tragic End of Two Famous
Heralds--The College of Arms' Library.

Turning from the black dome of St. Paul's, and the mean archway of
Dean's Court, into a region of gorgeous blazonments, we come to that
quiet and grave house, like an old nobleman's, that stands aside from
the new street from the Embankment, like an aristocrat shrinking from a
crowd. The original Heralds' College,