Lynchburg Virginian

The Grand Tournament of Eglinton.

Our prediction of last year is about to be fulfilled. The days of chivalry have returned. It could scarcely be otherwise with a young, beautiful, and maiden Queen on the throne of England, and a Court of peerless Chevaliers, at her feet, all "burning with high hope," and eager to distinguish themselves in these silken days of peace, fitter for carpet knights than champions of renown. It is true, the spirit which prompts to lofty enterprise has never been extinguished, but the outward forms which added so much grace to the feats of arms of former days had entirely passed away. These are to be again restored, and with them, we trust, the perpetuation of those customs which threw a halo around every thing within their sphere; which, while they fired the warrior for the "fierce delight" of the lists or battlefield, were equally influential over the ladye in bower and the minstrel in hall.

Poetical as the subject may be, it is not in a merely poetical sense that we now speak of it: we do not guarantee our statement by the "veracity of verse," but in as honest prose as we can muster, we venture briefly to describe what it is that has excited so much interest throughout "the great world."

The Earl of Eglinton, a young Nobleman, skilled in every martial and courtly accomplishment of ancient as of modern days, is the regenerator of Chivalry, who seeks to revive it in all its former splendor. For this purpose it is, we understand, his lordship's intention to hold a solemn Tournament in the course of next spring, at his Castle of Eglinton, in Ayrshire, where every aid that knowledge and taste can give will be afforded to celebrate the event with the magnificence suitable to such an occasion. The lists are to be constructed on a very extensive scale,--calculated, we believe, for the accommodation of not less than 10,000 spectators,--and when the rich varieties of costume of hundreds of fair ladies,--the splendid armour and accoutrements of a hundred and fifty knights, their banners and trophies and warlike decorations, shall fill the arena, we need scarcely say that Europe will not have witnessed so gorgeous a display since the days of the Field of the Cloth of Gold, the armour and costume of which period has been selected as the most picturesque and appropriate.

That every detail connected with this grand undertaking may correspond in accuracy with the zeal of the noble projector, arrangements have been entered into with Messrs. Pratt, of Bond street, for the supply of the armour and weapons and all the paraphernalia of the Tournament, and to their management, indeed, the whole affair has been confided. To such of our readers as have visited their collection of armour in Lower Grosvenor street we need say nothing of the skill and taste which presides over their arrangements; but to the world in general, unused, perhaps, to the chivalry of these forgotten glories of the past, we can only give it as our opinion that Sir Samuel Meyrick himself could scarcely do more justice to the subject.

Nor could the conception of this interesting project have emanated from a more appropriate source than the mind of a descendant of one of the noblest and most distinguished lines in Scotland. He who can claim kindred, through a host of warlike chiefs and leaders of renown, with the brave and gallant Montgomery of Chevy Chase, the celebrated SIR HUGH THE MONTGOMERY of the old ballad,--he, amongst whose ancestors is enrolled the famous Earl who tilted so fatally with Henry the Second of France,--must be well qualified, by such consanguinity alone, to bring back the noble and knightly exercise to its former exalted place.

That the undertaking will be made we have every assurance;--that it will prosper we have no doubt, --and that it may engraft the tastes of our forefathers upon the present race of the noble and gentle in the land, we fervently hope.

[London Court Journal.