Third: the strong and stately castle of Queensborough, which
guarded the entrance of the Medway, was a monument of his skill; and the
grant of an hereditary toll on the passage from Sandwich to Stonar,
in the Isle of Thanet, is the reward of no vulgar artist. In the
visitations of the heralds, the Gibbons are frequently mentioned;
they held the rank of esquire in an age, when that title was less
promiscuously assumed: one of them, under the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
was captain of the militia of Kent; and a free school, in the
neighbouring town of Benenden, proclaims the charity and opulence of its
founder. But time, or their own obscurity, has cast a veil of oblivion
over the virtues and vices of my Kentish ancestors; their character or
station confined them to the labours and pleasures of a rural life: nor
is it in my power to follow the advice of the poet, in an inquiry after
a name,--

"Go! search it there, where to be born, and die,
Of rich and poor makes all the history."

So recent is the institution of our parish registers. In the beginning
of the seventeenth century, a younger branch of the Gibbons of Rolvenden
migrated from the country to the city; and from this branch I do not
blush to descend. The law requires some abilities; the church imposes
some restraints; and before our army and navy, our civil establishments,
and India empire, had opened so many paths of fortune, the mercantile
profession was more frequently chosen by youths of a liberal race
and education, who aspired to create their own independence. Our most
respectable families have not disdained the counting-house, or even the
shop; their names are enrolled in the Livery and Companies of London;
and in England, as well as in the Italian commonwealths, heralds have
been compelled to declare that gentility is not degraded by the exercise
of trade.

The armorial ensigns which, in the times of chivalry, adorned the crest
and shield of the soldier, are now become an empty decoration, which
every man, who has money to build a carriage, may paint according to his
fancy on the panels. My family arms are the same, which were borne by
the Gibbons of Kent in an age, when the College of Heralds religiously
guarded the distinctions of blood and name: a lion rampant gardant,
between three schallop-shells argent, on a field azure. I should
not however have been tempted to blazon my coat of arms, were it not
connected with a whimsical anecdote. Abo