The character of this last-named author must have been already inferred from the quotations I have made from his works. The ponderous volume, entitled 'The Sphere of Gentry,' and its successor, 'Armilogia, or the Language of Armes,' may be safely pronounced two of the most absurd productions of the English press. That the former contains much useful information is proved by the eagerness with which it is sought after in the formation of an heraldrical library; but this is so overlaid with crude, unconnected, and irrelevant jargon, that although I have had the volume many times upon my table, I never could muster the patience to read three consecutive pages of it. Of the 'Armilogia,' we are told on the title-page that it is "_a work never yet extant_!" This volume has the imprimatur of Sir E. Walker and Sir W. Dugdale, kings of arms; but, singularly enough, the terms of the license are so disparaging that the printer has very judiciously placed it on the last page; for had it been on the first, no _judicious_ reader would have proceeded beyond it. "In this book are such strange conceits and wild fancies, that I do not know of what advantage the printing of it can be to any that soberly desires to be instructed in the true knowledge of arms,"--is one of the severe things said of it by Dugdale. Morgan died in 1693, at the age of 73. He seems to have been countenanced by the members of the College of Arms. Gibbon, Bluemantle, who knew him well, describes him as "a witty man, full of fancy [too full], very agreeable company ... and the prince of arms-painters."[297] Almost equal to Camden, in a literary point of view, and perhaps his superior in his qualifications as a herald, stands the name of SIR WILLIAM DUGDALE. Independently of his great works, 'The Baronage of England,' and the 'Monasticon,' his 'Antiquities of Warwickshire,' and 'History of St. Paul's Cathedral,' would have served to hand down his name to posterity among the literary worthies of his country. Sir William died in 1685, at the age of 80 years, nearly thirty-two of which he was a member of the College of Arms, having passed through all the gradations of office to the post of Garter, king of arms. It would be supererogatory, even if I had space, to give the simplest outline of his life, by no means an uneventful one; as his memoirs have been often written, and are accessible to every reader. ELIAS ASHMOLE (1617-1692), the friend and son-in-law of Dugdale, was the son of a tradesman of Litchfield. His talents, which were of the most versatile order,[298] raised him into notice and procured him many offices of honour and trust, among which was that of Windsor herald. This situation he obtained at the restoration of Charles II, and resigned, from motives of jealousy, in 1676. His great work is the 'History of the Order of the Garter.' He was an eminent collector of rarities, and founded the Museum at Oxford which bears his name.