opens to the view. The wonderful advantage taken of the natural amenities of the situation of Floors Castle, standing as it does on the slopes leading gracefully and gently down to the Tweed, must strike any one standing a few yards before the south front of the Castle. Sir Charles Dalbiac, the father of Her Grace the Duchess of Roxburghe, never was more successful in the disposition of pleasure-grounds- at any of the places where his peculiar taste and ability were exercised than he was here. The approaches and slopes at Floors will be a lasting monument to his memory.”
Baron Romilly. — John, eldest surviving son of Sir Samuel Romilly, was born in 1802. He was called to the bar in 1827, and rose to be Solicitor-General in 1848, when he was knighted. Sir John Romilly became Attorney-General in 1850, and in 1851 was elevated to the Judicial Bench as Master of the Rolls. He presided over the great national act of opening up the Public Records for the researches of historical students and enquirers, a boon, the value of which is widely and gratefully felt to be incalculable. Sir John was for many years a member of the House of Commons. On 3rd January 1866 he was called to the Upper House as Baron Romilly of Barry in the county of Glamorgan. His Huguenot surname had already earned a world-wide and most honourable fame, and no title in the British peerage has a more noble sound than Lord Romilly. His Lordship had four sons and four daughters, and dying on 23rd December 1874, he was succeeded by his eldest son, William, second Lord Romilly. A bust of the first Lord was placed during his life in the principal search-room of the Public Record and State Paper Office, with the following inscription on the pedestal:—
Johanni Baroni Romilly
Rot: Mag:
Qui Historian Britannicae Fontes
Aperuit
Necnon Scripta Pervetusta
Publici Juris Fieri Fecit
Hunc Imaginem
Grati Animi Ergo Et Observantiae
Patriae Annalium Studiosi
PP.
A.D. mdccclxvii.
Lord de Blaquière. — Antoine de Blaquière, a French noble of Guienne, married Elizabeth de Montiel. His son, Florence, who settled at Lueze in Languedoc, was the father of Jean de Blaquière, who in early youth took refuge in England in 1685. The refugee’s wife was Marie Elizabeth De Varennes; he died in 1753, she in 1780. Jean de Blaquière had a numerous family, in which the fifth son John is conspicuous. Lieutenant-Colonel John De Blaquière, of the 17th Light Dragoons (who was born 15th May 1732), was Secretary of Legation at Paris in 1771, Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1772. He was made a Knight of the Bath, 3rd August 1774, and a Baronet, 6th July 1784. Sir John was raised to the Peerage as Baron de Blaquière of Ardkill, County Londonderry, in 1800, and died 27th August 1812, aged eighty. He was the father of John the second baron (born 1776, died 1844), and of General, William, third Baron de Blaquière (born 1778, died 1851). The fourth and fifth barons sprang from the latter. The fourth son of the first Lord was Hon. Peter Boyle de Blaquière (born 1784, died i860), a member of the Legislative Council of Canada, and Chancellor of the University of Toronto. The De Blaquière motto is Tiens à la verité.
Baron de Teissier. — The family of De Teissier is of noble descent, and has been characterised as Famillie noble, qui a traversé les siècles en se roidissant contre ses malheurs. Its cradle was Nice, but in the seventeenth century it was established at Anduze in Languedoc, where its chief became Le Baron de Marguerittes; his eldest son, Pierre (born 1644), founded the Roman Catholic family, and the younger, Jacques, founded the Huguenot family of De Teissier. Etienne de Teissier, son of the latter, took refuge in Switzerland. James and Stephen de Teissier, who came to England in 1712, were that refugee’s sons, and the English family springs from James and from the heir of James, namely, Louis de Teissier, Esq., of Woodcote Park, near Epsom (born 1735, died 1811), a merchant prince of the city of London. This Mr. De Teissier showed munificent hospitality and manifold beneficence to the fugitives from France in 1789. It is to specify but a portion of his generosity if we mention his supporting six Roman Catholic refugee priests for ten years, and promoting the resolves of the Prince de Broglie and the Baron D’Estrées to earn their livelihood by honourable toil. His son, James De Teissier (born 1794, died 1868), was invited back
