TITLES OF NOBILITY.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 March 1922, Page 12

TITLES OF NOBILITY.

WHAT THEY ORIGINALLY MEANT. (Pearson's Vyeekly.) All titles once had definite meanings, only we have forgotten what they are. The duties of the office have vanished, leaving behind only the bare name. The Duke, for instance, was the leader, or#what the schoolboy calls “Dux.” The Marquess -was the soldier who iKd to guard the Marches, meaning the boundaries between England and Wales, or England and Scotland. Earl,. the next rank, is from Jarl, a Norwegian title in the old days when the wild Norsemen used to raid our shores, and Viscount is the Deputy ( Aunt, or (Guardian. Once we had a Count of the Saxon Shore, a sort of Officer Commanding East Coast Defence Troops. While some of :these names of offices have gone up in the world and turned into proud titles, others have equally deteriorated. The “Count of the Stable,” for instance, was once the highest office’ in an old-time course, something like oui’ Master of the King’s Mews. x ESQUIRE ONCE A PROUD TITLE. Esquire, which is what nowadays we all call one another, was once a definite rank, and was given to the man who carried the knight’s shield for him, arid was, as it were, in training to become a knight himself. Even plain sir, and all the other words like monsieur, seigneur and so on, only stand for senior, which means elder, because, of the idea that the elder was worthy of respect. . In this country practically all our titled, people are Peers, Baronets and' Knights. But there are what -are called courtesy tith's. where the eldest son of a Duke, Marquis or Earl is given by custom, and not of right, the second title' of his father, or where the daughters or younger sons of Dukes and Marquesses are styled Lord or Lady John or Mary Smith, their own Christian name and the family surname. BUYING A TITLE. Then occasionally one meets a title iof some foreign «ountry. It is against the law for a British subject to use foreign title wtihout special per-m>-sion from the Crown, but in most cases leave is usually granted. Beside the titles, courtesy titles and foreign titles, there are what one must call bogus titles. One or two comie little toy countries will, for a consideration, actually sell you a title of their own. It is true that really you opght nor to use it in Great Britain without leave (which you probably wouldn't get very easily), but in practice nobody would take much notice. So if it pleases you to pay. perhaps, £5OO for the privilege of calling yourself the Count of some village, you can’t pronounce, there is little to stop you. But for myself. I should prefer to save my money, and call myself the Duke of Marmalade —the distinguished title of a i'amoi.is leader- in the Army of ITavti, in which were said to have been SOOb generals and three privates!