GENEALOGIES, the Records of the Descents and Alliances of Families, are necessarily associated with the Armorial Ensigns borne by those Families, and by the several Members and Branches of them. Still, it does not apparently follow, in the same manner, as a matter of necessity, that the study and investigation of Genealogies should be interesting and even attractive, because interest and attractiveness are inseparable from Heraldry. And yet, I do not hesitate to claim for genealogical researches the favourable regard of students of Armory, on the very ground of the interest which they are certain to feel in such researches; and also in confident reliance on that inherent power of attraction, inseparable from the subject itself, that will not fail both to win their favourable regard, and to lead them on from one inquiry to another. The very act of tracing up some eminent and illustrious personage, from generation to generation of his forefathers, noting down the alliances that have interwoven one thread of a brilliant line with others not less lustrous; or, the reverse of this process, the following the lineage of some worthy of the olden time onward down the stream, observing both the tributaries that flow into the main channel and the streamlets that issue from it--all this, when once it has been systematically undertaken, leads the student through the most picturesque regions of historical romance. The popular idea of Genealogy may be, that it consists in placing in a formal order of arrangement a series of dry names, connected with dates that (if it be possible) are even more dry. It is not uncommon to dispose of many things precisely in the same way, when an opinion is formed without even the slightest attempt to judge of a question by its true merits--it is so easy to decline the trouble and to avoid the effort attendant on inquiry and investigation, and so pleasant to become the possessor of an “opinion” and “views,” without any outlay in acquiring them. A Map has no value in the estimation of those who ignore Geography: the claims of Archæology are disregarded by all who are content to remain in ignorance even of what it implies: and History itself becomes and continues to be a dead letter, so long as an acquaintance is formed only with the exterior of its volumes. And, in like manner, Genealogy appears under a very different aspect to those who know it only by name, and to lovers of Biography and History who are familiar with its lucid and yet ever suggestive guidance. Without written Genealogies, who can clearly understand the political and historical position of the rival Princes of the red and white Roses; or of HENRY VII. and the “last of the Plantagenets”; or of Queens ELIZABETH TUDOR, MARY STUART, and JANE GREY? Or who, without similar aid, will follow out the fortunes of the Houses of BEAUCHAMP and NEVILLE and DUDLEY, and connect them with the existing noble lord of Warwick Castle;