16273	----	Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 16273-h.htm or 16273-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/6/2/7/16273/16273-h/16273-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/6/2/7/16273/16273-h.zip) +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: The following changes have been made to | | inconsistent spelling in the original text: Chap. IV.: 'scarpe' | | for 'scrape'; and, in the dictionary: SEMÉ/semé for SEME/seme. | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ THE MANUAL OF HERALDRY: Being a Concise Description of the Several Terms Used, and Containing a Dictionary of Every Designation in the Science Illustrated by Four Hundred Engravings on Wood Fifth Edition London: Arthur Hall, Virtue & Co. 25, Paternoster Row. London: R. Clay, Printer, Bread Street Hill. CHAPTER I. ORIGIN OF COATS OF ARMS. Heraldry is the science which teaches how to blazon or describe in proper terms armorial bearings and their accessories. Many volumes have been written on the origin of Heraldry and even on the antiquity of separate charges contained in an escutcheon: it would be filling the pages of an elementary work on Heraldry to little purpose to enter upon an inquiry as to the exact period of the introduction of an art that has existed in some degree in all countries whose inhabitants have emerged from barbarism to civilization. In all ages men have made use of figures of living creatures, trees, flowers, and inanimate objects, as symbolical signs to distinguish themselves in war, or denote the bravery and courage of their chief or nation. The allegorical designs emblazoned on the standards, shields, and armour of the Greeks and Romans--the White Horse of the Saxons, the Raven of the Danes, and the Lion of the Normans, may all be termed heraldic devices; but according to the opinions of Camden, Spelman, and other high authorities, hereditary arms of families were first introduced at the commencement of the twelfth century. When numerous armies engaged in the expeditions to the Holy Land, consisting of the troops of twenty different nations, they were obliged to adopt some ensign or mark in order to marshal the vassals under the banners of the various leaders. The regulation of the symbols whereby the Sovereigns and Lords of Europe should be distinguished, all of whom were ardent in maintaining the honour of the several nations to which they belonged, was a matter of great nicety, and it was properly entrusted to the Heralds who invented signs of honour which could not be construed into offence, and made general regulations for their display on the banners and shields of the chiefs of the different nations. The ornaments and regulations were sanctioned by the sovereigns engaged in the Crusade, and hence the origin of the present system of Heraldry, which prevails with trifling variations in every kingdom of Europe. The passion for military fame which prevailed at this period led to the introduction of mock battles, called Tournaments. Here the Knights appeared with the Heraldic honours conferred upon them for deeds of prowess in actual battle. All were emulous of such distinctions. The subordinate followers appeared with the distinctive arms of their Lord, with the addition of some mark denoting inferiority. These marks of honour at first were merely pieces of stuff of various colours cut into strips and sewn on the surcoat or garment worn over armour, to protect it from the effect of exposure to the atmosphere. These strips were disposed in various ways, and gave the idea of the chief, bend, chevron, &c. Figures of animals and other objects were gradually introduced; and as none could legally claim or use those honourable distinctions unless they were granted by the Kings of Arms, those Heraldic sovereigns formed a code of laws for the regulation of titles and insignia of honour, which the Sovereigns and Knights of Europe have bound themselves to protect; and those rules constitute the science of Heraldry which forms the subject of the following pages. CHAP. II. VARIOUS SORTS OF ARMS. Arms are not only granted to individuals and families, but also to cities, corporate bodies, and learned societies. They may therefore be classed as follows:-- Arms of DOMINION, PRETENSION, CONCESSION. COMMUNITY, PATRONAGE, FAMILY. ALLIANCE, AND SUCCESSION. _Arms of Dominion or Sovereignty_ are properly the arms of the kings or sovereigns of the territories they govern, which are also regarded as the arms of the State. Thus the Lions of England and the Russian Eagle are the arms of the Kings of England and the Emperors of Russia, and cannot properly be altered by a change of dynasty. _Arms of Pretension_ are those of kingdoms, provinces, or territories to which a prince or lord has some claim, and which he adds to his own, though the kingdoms or territories are governed by a foreign king or lord: thus the Kings of England for many ages quartered the arms of France in their escutcheon as the descendants of Edward III., who claimed that kingdom, in right of his mother, a French princess. _Arms of Concession_ are arms granted by sovereigns as the reward of virtue, valour, or extraordinary service. All arms granted to subjects were originally conceded by the Sovereign. _Arms of Community_ are those of bishoprics, cities, universities, academies, societies, and corporate bodies. _Arms of Patronage_ are such as governors of provinces, lords of manors, &c., add to their family arms as a token of their superiority, right, and jurisdiction. _Arms of Family_, or paternal arms, are such as are hereditary and belong to one particular family, which none others have a right to assume, nor can they do so without rendering themselves guilty of a breach of the laws of honour punishable by the Earl Marshal and the Kings at Arms. The assumption of arms has however become so common that little notice is taken of it at the present time. _Arms of Alliance_ are those gained by marriage. _Arms of Succession_ are such as are taken up by those who inherit certain estates by bequest, entail, or donation. SHIELDS, TINCTURES, FURS, &c. The _Shield_ contains the field or ground whereon are represented the charges or figures that form a coat of arms. These were painted on the shield before they were placed on banners, standards, and coat armour; and wherever they appear at the present time they are painted on a plane or superficies resembling a shield. [Illustration: Escutcheon] [Illustration: Lozenge] Shields in Heraldic language are called Escutcheons or Scutcheons, from the Latin word _scutum_. The forms of the shield or field upon which arms are emblazoned are varied according to the taste of the painter. The Norman pointed shield is generally used in Heraldic paintings in ecclesiastical buildings: the escutcheons of maiden ladies and widows are painted on a lozenge-shaped shield. Armorists distinguish several points in the escutcheon in order to determine exactly the position of the bearings or charges. They are denoted in the annexed diagram, by the first nine letters of the alphabet ranged in the following manner: [Illustration] |-----------------| | A B C | A, the dexter chief. | | B, the precise middle chief. | D | C, the sinister chief. | | D, the honour point. | E | E, the fess point. | | F, the nombril point. | F | G, the dexter base. | | H, the precise middle base. | G H I | I, the sinister base. \ / \ --------- / The dexter side of the escutcheon answers to the left hand, and the sinister side to the right hand of the person that looks at it. TINCTURES. By the term _Tincture_ is meant that variable hue which is given to shields and their bearings; they are divided into colours and furs. The colours or metals used in emblazoning arms are-- yellow, white, red, blue, black, green, purple, orange, murrey. These colours are denoted in engravings by various lines or dots, as follows: [Illustration: OR] OR, which signifies _gold_, and in colour yellow, is expressed by dots. [Illustration: ARGENT] ARGENT signifies _silver_ or _white_: it is left quite plain. [Illustration: GULES] GULES signifies _red_: it is expressed by lines drawn from the chief to the base of the shield. [Illustration: AZURE] AZURE signifies _blue_: it is represented by lines drawn from the dexter to the sinister side of the shield, parallel to the chief. [Illustration: VERT] VERT signifies _green_: it is represented by slanting lines, drawn from the dexter to the sinister side of the shield. [Illustration: PURPURE] PURPURE, or _purple_, is expressed by diagonal lines, drawn from the sinister to the dexter side of the shield. [Illustration: SABLE] SABLE, or _black_, is expressed by horizontal and perpendicular lines crossing each other. [Illustration: TENNE] TENNE, which is _tawny_, or _orange_ colour, is marked by diagonal lines drawn from the sinister to the dexter side of the shield, traversed by perpendicular lines from the chief. [Illustration: SANGUINE] SANGUINE is _dark red_, or _murrey_ colour; it is represented by diagonal lines crossing each other. In addition to the foregoing tinctures, there are nine roundlets or balls used in Armory, the names of which are sufficient to denote their colour without expressing the same. [Illustration: BEZANT] BEZANT, _Or_. [Illustration: HURTS] HURTS, _Azure_. [Illustration: PLATE] PLATE, _Argent_. [Illustration: TORTEAUX] TORTEAUX, _gules_. [Illustration: GOLPE] GOLPE, _purpure_. [Illustration: ORANGE] ORANGE, _tenne_. [Illustration: POMEIS] POMEIS, _vert_. [Illustration: PELLET] PELLET, _sable_. [Illustration: GUZES] GUZES, _sanguine_. FURS. _Furs_ are used to ornament garments of state and denote dignity: they are used in Heraldry, not only for the lining of mantles and other ornaments of the shield, but also as bearings on escutcheons. WHITE, represented by a plain shield, like argent. [Illustration: ERMINE] ERMINE--white powdered with black tufts. [Illustration: ERMINES] ERMINES--field sable, powdering argent. [Illustration: ERMINOIS] ERMINOIS--field or, powdering sable. [Illustration: PEAN] PEAN--field sable; powdering, or. ERMYNITES--Argent, powdered sable, with the addition of a single red hair on each side the sable tufts. This fur is seldom seen in English heraldry; and it is impossible to give an example without using colour. [Illustration: VAIR] VAIR--argent and azure. It is represented by small bells, part reversed, ranged in lines in such a manner, that the base argent is opposite to the base azure. [Illustration: COUNTER-VAIR] COUNTER-VAIR, is when the bells are placed base against base, and point against point. [Illustration: POTENT] POTENT--an obsolete word for a crutch: it is so called in Chaucer's description of Old Age. "So eld she was that she ne went A foote, but it were by potent." The field is filled with small potents, ranged in lines, azure and argent. [Illustration: POTENT COUNTER-POTENT.] POTENT COUNTER-POTENT. The heads of the crutches or potents touch each other in the centre of the shield. CHAP. III. LINES USED IN PARTING THE FIELD. Escutcheons that have more than one tincture are divided by lines; the straight lines are either perpendicular |, horizontal --, diagonal line dexter \, and diagonal line sinister /. Curved and angular lines are numerous, and each has an Heraldic name expressive of its form. The names and figures of those most commonly used by English armorists are as follow:-- Engrailed [Illustration: Engrailed] Invected [Illustration: Invected] Wavy, or undé [Illustration: Wavy] Embattled, or crenelle [Illustration: Embattled] Nebule [Illustration: Nebule] Indented [Illustration: Indented] Dancette [Illustration: Dancette] Angled [Illustration: Angled] Bevilled [Illustration: Bevilled] Escartelle [Illustration: Escartelle] Nowy, or franché [Illustration: Nowy] Dove-tailed [Illustration: Dove-tailed] Embattled grady: sometimes called battled embattled [Illustration: Embattled grady] Potent [Illustration: Potent] Double arched [Illustration: Double arched] Arched or enarched [Illustration: Arched] Urdée [Illustration: Urdée] Radient [Illustration: Radient] If a shield is divided into four equal parts, it is said to be quartered: this may be done two ways, viz.-- [Illustration: Quartered per cross] QUARTERED PER CROSS--The shield is divided into four parts, called quarters, by an horizontal and perpendicular line, crossing each other in the centre of the field, each of which is numbered. [Illustration: Quartered per Saltier] QUARTERED PER SALTIER, which is made by two diagonal lines, dexter and sinister, crossing each other in the centre of the field. [Illustration: Quarterings] The Escutcheon is sometimes divided into a great number of parts, in order to place in it the arms of several families to which one is allied; this is called a genealogical achievement. The compartments are called QUARTERINGS. DIFFERENCES. All members of the same family claim the same bearings in their coat of arms; and to distinguish the principal bearer from his descendants or relatives, it was necessary to invent some sign, so that the degree of consanguinity might be known. These signs are called DIFFERENCES. During the Crusades the only difference consisted in the bordure or border, which, as the name implies, was a border or edging running round the edge of the shield. The colour and form of this border served to distinguish the leaders of the different bands that served under one duke or chieftain. The same difference might be used to denote a diversity between particular persons descended from one family. At the present time they are not used to denote a difference, but as one of the ordinaries to a coat of arms. The annexed example exhibits the arms of the Monastery of Bermondsey. Party per pale, azure and gules; a bordure, argent. This bordure is plain; but they may be formed by any of the foregoing lines. [Illustration: Monastery of Bermondsey arms.] [Illustration: or, a bordure engrailed, gules] The annexed example is or, a bordure engrailed, gules. The differences used by armorists at the present time are nine in number. They not only distinguish the sons of one family, but also denote the subordinate degrees in each house. The Heir, or first son, the LABEL [Illustration: Label] Second Son, the CRESCENT [Illustration: Crescent] Third Son, the MULLET [Illustration: Mullet] Fourth Son, the MARTLET [Illustration: Martlet] Fifth Son, the ANNULET [Illustration: Annulet] Sixth Son, the FLEUR-DE-LIS [Illustration: Fleur-de-Lis] Seventh Son, the ROSE [Illustration: Rose] Eighth Son, the CROSS MOLINE [Illustration: Cross Moline] Ninth Son, the DOUBLE QUATREFOIL [Illustration: Double Quatrefoil] Should either of the nine brothers have male children, the eldest child would place the label on the difference that distinguished his father; the second son would place the crescent upon it; the third the mullet; continuing the same order for as many sons as he may have. The label only, is used in the arms of the royal family as a difference; but the points of the label are charged with different figures to distinguish the second and succeeding sons. The arms of the sons of King George III. were thus distinguished: the shield of the arms of the Prince of Wales by a label; the Duke of York's by the label, the centre point of which was charged with a red cross; that of the Duke of Clarence by a label, the dexter and sinister points of which were charged with an anchor, the centre point with the red cross; each of the succeeding sons were differenced by charges on the points of the labels. All the figures denoting differences are also used as perfect charges on the shield; but their size and situation will sufficiently determine whether the figure is used as a perfect coat of arms, or is introduced as a difference or diminution. Sisters have no differences in their coats of arms. They are permitted to bear the arms of their father, as the eldest son does after his father's decease. Guillim, Leigh, and other ancient armorists mention divers figures, which, they assert, were formerly added to coats of arms as marks of degradation for slander, cowardice, murder, and other crimes, and to them they give the name of abatements of honour; others have called them blots in the escutcheon: but as no instance can be produced of such dishonourable marks having been borne in a coat of arms, they may justly be considered as chimerical, or at any rate obsolete, and unworthy of consideration at the present time. Porney pithily observes, "that arms being marks of honour, they cannot admit of any note of infamy, nor would any one bear them if they were so branded. It is true, a man may be degraded for divers crimes, particularly high treason; but in such cases the escutcheon is reversed, trod upon, and torn in pieces, to denote a total extinction and suppression of the honour and dignity of the person to whom it belonged." The only abatement used in heraldry is the baton: this denotes illegitimacy. It is borne in the escutcheons of the dukes that assume the royal arms as the illegitimate descendants of King Charles the Second. [Illustration: Baton] CHAP. IV. HONOURABLE ORDINARIES. Honourable ordinaries are the original marks of distinction bestowed by sovereigns on subjects that have become eminent for their services, either in the council or the field of battle. Volumes have been written upon the origin and form of the honourable ordinaries. These long and tedious inquiries can only be interesting to antiquaries: it is sufficient for the tyro in Heraldry to know that they are merely broad lines or bands of various colours, which have different names, according to the place they occupy in the shield; ancient armorists admit but nine honourable ordinaries--the chief, the pale, the bend, the bend sinister, the fess, the bar, the chevron, the cross, and the saltier. The _chief_ is an ordinary terminated by an horizontal line, which, if it is of any other form but straight, its form must be expressed; it is placed in the upper part of the escutcheon, and occupies one third of the field. Ex. Argent, on a chief, gules, two mullets, sable. [Illustration: Chief] Any of the lines before described may be used to form the chief. [Illustration: Chief] Ex. Argent, a chief, azure, indented. The chief has a diminutive called a _fillet_; it must never be more than one fourth the breadth of the chief. [Illustration: Fillet] Ex. Or, a chief, purpure, in the lower part a fillet, azure. This ordinary may be charged with a variety of figures, which are always named after the tincture of the chief. It may be necessary to inform the reader that, in describing a coat of arms, the general colour of the shield or the field is first described, then the honourable ordinaries, their tinctures, then the object with which they are charged. We shall have to remark more particularly on the order of describing ordinaries, tinctures, and charges on coats of arms, when we treat of the rules of heraldry; but the student might have been confused if this brief direction had been omitted, as we shall have to describe every shield of arms in the same order. The _pale_ is an honourable ordinary, consisting of two perpendicular lines drawn from the top to the base of the escutcheon, and contains one third of the width of the field. [Illustration: Pale] Ex. Azure, a pale, or. The pale may be formed of any of the lines before described; it is then called a _pale engrailed, a pale dancette_, &c. The pale has a diminutive called the _pallet_, which is one half the width of the pale. [Illustration: Pallet] Ex. Argent, a pallet, gules. The pale has another diminutive one fourth its size; it is called an _endorse_. [Illustration: Endorse] Ex. Argent, a pale between two endorses, gules. The pale and the pallet may receive any charge; but the endorse is never to be charged with any thing. THE BEND. The _bend_ is an honourable ordinary, formed by two diagonal lines drawn from the dexter chief to the sinister base, and contains the fifth part of the field if uncharged; but if charged with other figures, the third part of the field. [Illustration: Bend] Ex. Argent, a bend, vert. The bend has four diminutives, viz. the _garter_ which is half the breadth of the bend. [Illustration: Garter] Ex. Argent, a garter, gules. The _cotice_ which is the fourth part of the bend. Cotices generally accompany the bend in pairs; thus a bend between two cotices is said to be cotised. [Illustration: Cotice] Ex. Gules, a bend, argent, coticed of the same. The _riband_, which is one third less than the garter and the _bendlet_, must never occupy more than one sixth of the field. [Illustration: Riband] Ex. Argent, a riband vert. [Illustration: Bendlet] Ex. Gules, two bendlets, engrailed, argent. The _bend sinister_ is the same breadth as the bend dexter, and is drawn from the sinister to the dexter side of the shield. [Illustration: bend sinister] Ex. Argent, a bend sinister, purpure. The _scarpe_ is the diminutive of the bend sinister, and is half its size. [Illustration: scarpe] Ex. Argent, a scarpe, purpure. The _baton _is the fourth part of the bend, and, as before mentioned, it is a mark of illegitimacy, and seldom used in Heraldry, but by the illegitimate descendants of royalty. [Illustration: baton] Ex. Gules, a baton, sable, garnished, or. THE FESS AND BAR. The _fess_ is formed by two horizontal lines drawn above and below the centre of the shield. The fess contains in breadth one third of the field. [Illustration: fess] Ex. Argent, a fess, azure. The _bar _is formed in the same manner as the fess, but it only occupies the fifth part of the field. It differs from the fess, that ordinary being always placed in the centre of the field; but the bar may be placed in any part of it, and there may be more than one bar in an escutcheon. [Illustration: Bar] Ex. Gules, two bars, argent. The _closet_ is a diminutive of the bar, and is half its width. [Illustration: Closet] Ex. Argent, two closets, azure. The _barrulet_ is half the width of the closet. [Illustration: Barrulet] Ex. Gules, two barrulets, argent. The annexed example is to illustrate the word _gemels_, which is frequently used to describe double bars. The word _gemels_ is a corruption of the French word _jumelles_, which signifies double. [Illustration: Gemels] Ex. Azure, two bars, gemels, argent. When the shield contains a number of bars of metal and colour alternate, exceeding five, it is called _barry_ of so many pieces, expressing their numbers. [Illustration: Barry] Ex. Barry of seven pieces, argent and azure. THE CHEVRON. The figure of the _chevron_ has been described as representing the gable of a roof. It is a very ancient ordinary, and the less it is charged with other figures the more ancient and honourable it appears. [Illustration: Chevron] Ex. Argent, a chevron, gules. The diminutives of the chevron, according to English Heraldry, are the _chevronel_, which is half the breadth of the chevron. [Illustration: Chevronels] Ex. Argent, two chevronels, gules. And the _couple-close_, which is half the chevronel. [Illustration: Couple-closes] Ex. Gules, three couple-closes interlaced in base, or. _Braced_ is sometimes used for interlaced. See the word BRACED in the Dictionary. THE CROSS. This, as its name imports, was the distinguishing badge of the Crusaders, in its simplest form. It was merely two pieces of list or riband of the same length, crossing each other at right angles. The colour of the riband or list denoted the nation to which the Crusader belonged. The cross is an honourable ordinary, occupying one fifth of the shield when not charged, but if charged, one third. [Illustration: Cross] Ex. Or, a cross, gules. When the cross became the distinguishing badge of different leaders in the Crusades, the simple form given in the preceding example was not generally adopted. Some bordered the red list with a narrow white edge, others terminated the arms of the cross with short pieces of the same colour, placed transversely, making each arm of the cross have the appearance of a short crutch; the ends of these crutches meeting in a point, make the cross potent. There is so great a variety of crosses used in Heraldry that it would be impossible to describe them within the limits of this introduction to Heraldry. The reader will find a great number of those most used in English Heraldry described and illustrated in the Dictionary. He of course will understand, if a coat of arms comes under his notice where this ordinary is described as a cross engrailed, a cross invected, &c., that the form of the cross is the same as that in the last example, but that the lines forming it are engrailed, invected, &c. Small crosses borne as charges are called crosslets. See the words CROSS, CROSSLETS, in the Dictionary. THE SALTIER. The _saltier_ was formed by making two pieces of riband cross diagonally, having the appearance of the letter X, or, speaking heraldically, the bend and bend sinister crossing each other in the centre of the shield. The saltier, if uncharged, occupies one-fifth of the field; if charged, one-third. [Illustration: Saltier] Ex. Gules, a saltier, argent. Like the cross, the saltier may be borne engrailed, wavy, &c., and the termination of the arms of the saltier varied; but there are not so many examples of the variation of the form in the saltier as in the cross. CHAP. V. SUBORDINATE ORDINARIES. In order more particularly to distinguish the subordinates in an army (the chieftains of different countries alone being entitled to the preceding marks of honour), other figures were invented by ancient armorists, and by them termed subordinate ordinaries. Their names and forms are as follows:-- [Illustration: Gyron] The _gyron_ is a triangular figure formed by drawing a line from the dexter angle of the chief of the shield to the fess point, and an horizontal line from that point to the dexter side of the shield. The field is said to be _gyrony_ when it is covered with gyrons. [Illustration: Gyrony] Ex. Gyrony of eight pieces, argent and gules. [Illustration: Canton] The _canton_ is a square part of the escutcheon, usually occupying about one-eighth of the field; it is placed over the chief at the dexter side of the shield: it may be charged, and when this is the case, its size may be increased. The canton represents the banner of the ancient Knights Banneret. The canton in the example is marked A. See KNIGHTS BANNERET in the Dictionary. The _lozenge_ is formed by four equal and parallel lines but not rectangular, two of its opposite angles being acute, and two obtuse. [Illustration: Lozenge] Ex. Argent, a lozenge, vert. The _fusil_ is narrower than the lozenge, the angles at the chief and base being more acute, and the others more obtuse. [Illustration: Fusil] Ex. Argent, a fusil, purpure. The _mascle_ is in the shape of a lozenge but perforated through its whole extent except a narrow border. [Illustration: Mascle] Ex. Gules, a mascle, argent. The _fret_ is formed by two lines interlaced in saltier with a mascle. [Illustration: Fret] Ex. Azure, a fret, argent. _Fretty_ is when the shield is covered with lines crossing each other diagonally and interlaced. [Illustration: Fretty] Ex. Gules, fretty of ten pieces, argent. At the present time it is not usual to name the number of pieces, but merely the word fretty. The _pile_ is formed like a wedge, and may be borne wavy, engrailed, &c.; it issues generally from the chief, and extends towards the base, but it may be borne in bend or issue from the base. See PILE and IN PILE in Dictionary. [Illustration: Pile] Ex. Argent, a pile, azure. The _inescutcheon_ is a small escutcheon borne within the shield. [Illustration: Inescutcheon] Ex. Argent, a pale, gules, over all an inescutcheon or, a mullet sable. An _orle_ is a perforated inescutcheon, and usually takes the shape of the shield whereon it is placed. [Illustration: Orle] Ex. Azure, an orle, argent. The _flanche_ is formed by two curved lines nearly touching each other in the centre of the shield. [Illustration: Flanche] Ex. Azure, a flanche, argent. In the _flasque_ the curved lines do not approach so near each other. [Illustration: Flasque] Ex. Azure, a flasque, argent. In the _voider_ the lines are still wider apart; this ordinary occupies nearly the whole of the field: it may be charged. [Illustration: Voider] Ex. Azure, a voider, argent. The _tressure_ is a border at some distance from the edge of the field, half the breadth of an orle: the tressure may be double or treble. [Illustration: Tressure] Ex. Or, a double tressure, gules. Tressures are generally ornamented, or borne flory or counter flory as in the annexed example. [Illustration: Ornamented double tressure] Ex. Argent, a double tressure, flory and counter-flory, gules. CHARGES BORNE IN COATS OF ARMS. At first when the Feudal System prevailed, not only in England, but other parts of Europe, none but military chieftains bore Coats of Arms. And as few persons held land under the Crown but by military tenure, that is, under the obligation of attending in person with a certain number of vassals and retainers when their services were required by the king for the defence of the state, heraldic honours were confined to the nobility, who were the great landholders of the kingdom. When they granted any portion of their territory to their knights and followers as rewards for deeds of prowess in the field or other services, the new possessors of the land retained the arms of their patrons with a slight difference to denote their subordinate degree. The ingenuity of the armorist was not then taxed to find a multitude of devices to distinguish every family. And when chivalry became the prevailing pursuit of all that sought honour and distinction by deeds of arms and gallant courtesy, the knights assumed the privilege that warriors in all ages have used; viz. that of choosing any device they pleased to ornament the crests of their helmets in the field of battle, or in the mock combat of the tournament: the knight was known and named from the device used as his crest. Thus the heralds, in introducing him to the judges of the field, or to the lady that bestowed the prizes, called him the Knight of the Swan, the Knight of the Lion, &c., without mentioning any other title. And knights whose fame for gallantry and prowess was firmly established, had their crests painted over their coats of arms. In two or three generations the bearer of the arms established his right to a new crest, and the heralds, to preserve the memory of the ancient honour of the family, introduced the old crest into the coat of arms, either as a charge upon the principal ordinary, or on an unoccupied part of the field. This will in some measure account for the variety of animals and parts of animals found in shields of arms. When the sovereigns of Europe, to decrease the power of the great barons, bestowed estates and titles not only for deeds of arms, but wisdom in council, superior learning, and other qualities which the original bearers of arms thought beneath their notice, the heralds were obliged to invent new symbols in emblazoning the arms of the modern nobility; and when arms were granted to civic and commercial corporations, and to private individuals who had no claim to military honours, we can easily conceive that the ingenuity of the armorists was severely tested, and excuse the apparent confusion that prevailed in granting arms after the War of the Roses. Sir William Dugdale, in his treatise entitled "Ancient Usage in bearing Arms", states that, "Many errors have been and are still committed in granting coats of arms to such persons as have not advanced themselves by the sword, being such as rise by their judgment or skill in arts, affairs, and trades"; with good reason affirming that the latter should however only be allowed "notes or marks of honour fit for their calling, and to show forth the manner of their rising, and not be set off with those representations which in their nature are only proper for martial men." It would be utterly impossible to give either a graphic or written description of all the charges in a book of this size or even in one ten times as large. The sun, moon, stars, comets, meteors, &c., have been introduced to denote glory, grandeur, power, &c.; lions, leopards, tigers, serpents, stags, have been employed to signify courage, strength, prudence, swiftness, &c. The application to certain exercises, such as war, hunting, music, fishing, &c., has furnished lances, swords, armour, musical instruments, architecture, columns, chevrons, builders' tools, &c. Human bodies, or distinct parts of them, are frequently used as charges. Trees, plants, fruits, and flowers have also been admitted to denote the rarities, advantages, and singularities of different countries. The relation of some creatures, figures, &c. to particular names has been a fruitful source for variety of arms. Thus, the family of Coningsby bears three conies; of Arundel, six swallows; of Corbet, a raven; of Urson, a bear; of Camel, a camel; of Starky, a stork; of Castleman, a castle triple-towered; of Shuttleworth, three weaver's shuttles. Hundreds of other names might be given, but the before-mentioned will be sufficient to show the reader the origin of many singular charges in coats of arms. Not only were natural and artificial figures used, but the lack of information on Zoology and other branches of Natural History led to the introduction of fabulous animals, such as dragons, griffins, harpies, wiverns, &c. A great number of charges, indeed most of them that require explanation, will be found in the Dictionary of Heraldic Terms, which will prevent the necessity of describing them more at large in this part of the book. THE EXTERNAL ORNAMENTS OF ESCUTCHEONS. The ornaments that accompany or surround escutcheons were introduced to denote the birth, dignity, or office of the person to whom the coat of arms belongs. We shall merely give the names of the various objects in this place, and refer the reader to the different words in the Dictionary. Over regal escutcheons are placed the crown which pertains to the nation over which the sovereign presides. The crown is generally surmounted with a crest: as in the arms of the kings of England, the crown is surmounted by a lion statant, guardant, crowned. Over the Papal arms is placed a tiara or triple crown, without a crest. Above the arms of archbishops and bishops the mitre is placed instead of a crest. _Coronets_ are worn by all princes and peers. They vary in form according to the rank of the nobleman. A full description will be found in the Dictionary of the coronets of the prince of Wales, royal dukes, dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, and barons. _Helmets_ are placed over arms, and show the rank of the person to whom the arms belong: 1st, by the metal of which they are made; 2dly, by their form; 3dly, by their position. See the word HELMET in the Dictionary. _Mantlings_ were the ancient coverings of helmets to preserve them and the bearers from the injuries of the weather. It is probable that they were highly ornamented with scroll-work of gold and silver, and their borders or edges cast into fanciful shapes. They are now formed into scroll-work proceeding from the sides of the helmet, and are great ornaments to an escutcheon. See a more full description under the word MANTLING. CHAPEAUX. A _chapeau_ is an ancient hat or rather cap of dignity worn by dukes. They were formed of scarlet velvet and turned up with fur. They are frequently used instead of a wreath under the crests of noblemen and even gentlemen. The wreath was formed by two large skeins of silk of different colours twisted together. This was worn at the lower part of the crest, not alone as an ornament, but to protect the head from the blow of a mace or sword. In Heraldry the wreath appears like a straight line or roll of two colours generally the same as the tinctures of the shield. The crest is usually placed upon the wreath. The crest is the highest part among the ornaments of a coat of arms. It is called crest from the Latin word _crista_, which signifies comb or tuft. Crests were used as marks of honour long before the introduction of Heraldry. The helmets and crests of the Greek and Trojan warriors are beautifully described by Homer. The German heralds pay great attention to crests, and depict them as towering to a great height above the helmet. Knights who were desirous of concealing their rank, or wished particularly to distinguish themselves either in the battle field or tourney, frequently decorated their helmets with plants or flowers, chimerical figures, animals, &c.; these badges were also assumed by their descendants. The difference between crests and badges as heraldic ornaments is, that the former are always placed on a wreath, in the latter they are attached to the helmet. The scroll is a label or ribbon containing the motto: it is usually placed beneath the shield and supporters; see the word MOTTO in the Dictionary. CHAP. VI. MARSHALLING CHARGES ON ESCUTCHEONS BY THE RULES OF HERALDRY. The symbolic figures of Heraldry are so well known to those acquainted with the science in every kingdom of Europe, that if an Englishman was to send a written emblazonment or description of an escutcheon to a French, German, or Spanish artist acquainted with the English language, either of them could return a properly drawn and coloured escutcheon; but a correct emblazonment would be indispensable. A single word omitted would spoil the shield. I. The reader has already been informed that in emblazoning an escutcheon, the colour of the field is first named; then the principal ordinary, such as the fess, the chevron, &c., naming the tincture and form of the ordinary; then proceed to describe the charges on the field, naming their situation, metal, or colour; lastly, describe the charges on the ordinary. II. When an honourable ordinary or some one figure is placed upon another, whether it be a fess, chevron, cross, &c., it is always to be named after the ordinary or figure over which it is placed, with either the words surtout or overall. III. In the blazoning such ordinaries as are plain, the bare mention of them is sufficient; but if an ordinary should be formed of any of the curved or angular lines, such as invected, indented, &c., the lines must be named. IV. When a principal figure possesses the centre of the field, its position is not to be expressed; it is always understood to be in the middle of the shield. V. When the situation of a principal bearing is not expressed, it is always understood to occupy the centre of the field. Ex. See Azure, an annulet argent, p. 48. (Dictionary) VI. The number of the points of mullets must be specified if more than five: also if a mullet or any other charge is pierced, it must be mentioned. VII. When a ray of the sun or other single figure is borne in any other part of the escutcheon than the centre, the point it issues from must be named. VIII. The natural colour of trees, plants, fruits, birds, &c., is to be expressed in emblazoning by the word _proper_; but if they vary from their natural colour, the tincture or metals that is used must be named. IX. Two metals cannot come in contact: thus or, cannot be placed on argent, but must be contrasted with a tincture. X. When there are many figures of the same species borne in coats of arms, their number must be observed as they stand, and properly expressed. The annexed arrangements of roundlets in shields will show how they are placed and described. [Illustration: Two roundlets in pale] [Illustration: Two roundlets in fess] The two roundlets are arranged in pale, but they may appear in chief or base; or in fess, as in No. 2. [Illustration: Three roundlets, two over one] Three roundlets, two over one; if the single roundlet had been at the top, it would have been called _one over two_. [Illustration: Three roundlets in bend] Three roundlets in bend. They might also be placed in fess, chief, base, or in pale. [Illustration: Four roundlets, two over two] Four roundlets, two over two. Some armorists call them _cantoned_ as they form a square figure. [Illustration: Five roundlets in saltier] Five roundlets; two, one, two, in saltier. [Illustration: Five roundlets in cross] Five roundlets; one, three, one, or in cross. [Illustration: Six roundlets paleway] Six roundlets; two, two, two, paleway. [Illustration: Six roundlets in pile] Six roundlets; three, two, one, in pile. There are seldom more figures than seven, but no matter the number; they are placed in the same way, commencing with the figures at the top of the shield, or in chief. If the field was strewed all over with roundlets, this would be expressed by the word _semé_. _Marshalling coats of arms_, is the act of disposing the arms of several persons in one escutcheon, so that their relation to each other may be clearly marked. In Heraldry, the husband and wife are called _baron and femme_; and when they are descended from distinct families, both their arms are placed in the same escutcheon, divided by a perpendicular line through the centre of the shield. As this line runs in the same direction, and occupies part of the space in the shield appropriated to the ordinary called the pale, the shield is in heraldic language said to be _parted per pale_. The arms of the baron (the husband) are always placed on the dexter side of the escutcheon; and the femme (the wife), on the sinister side, as in the annexed example. [Illustration: Parted per pale, baron and femme, two coats] Parted per pale, baron and femme, two coats; first, or, a chevron gules; second, barry of twelve pieces, azure and argent. If a widower marries again, the arms of both his wives are placed on the sinister side, which is parted per fess; that is, parted by an horizontal line running in the direction of the fess, and occupying the same place. The arms of the first wife are placed in the upper compartment of the shield, called the chief; the arms of the second wife in the lower compartment, called the base. [Illustration: Parted per pale, baron and femme, three coats] Parted per pale, baron and femme, three coats;--first, gules, on a bend azure, three trefoils vert: second, parted per fess, in chief azure, a mascle or, with a label argent for difference. In base ermine, a fess, dancette gules. The same rule would apply if the husband had three or more wives; they would all be placed in the sinister division of the shield. Where the baron marries an heiress, he does not impale his arms with hers, as in the preceding examples, but bears them in an escutcheon of pretence in the centre of the shield, showing his pretension to her lands in consequence of his marriage with the lady who is legally entitled to them. The escutcheon of pretence is not used by the children of such marriage; they bear the arms of their father and mother quarterly, and so transmit them to posterity. Annexed is an example of the arms of the femme on escutcheon of pretence. [Illustration: Baron and femme, two coats] Baron and femme, two coats; first, gules, a saltier argent; second, on an escutcheon of pretence, azure, a chevron, or. If a peeress in her own right, or the daughter of a peer, marries a private gentleman, their coats of arms are not conjoined paleways, as baron and femme, but are placed upon separate shields by the side of each other; they are usually inclosed in a mantel, the shield of the baron occupying the dexter side of the mantel, that of the femme the sinister; each party has a right to all the ornaments incidental to their rank. The femme claiming the arms of her father, has a right to his supporters and coronet. The baron, who only ranks as an esquire, has no right to supporters or coronet, but exhibits the proper helmet, wreath, and crest. The peeress, by marrying one beneath her in rank, confers no dignity on her husband, but loses none of her own. She is still addressed as "your ladyship," though her husband only ranks as a gentleman; and it is for this reason that the arms cannot be conjoined in one shield as baron and femme. Ex. Baron and femme, two atchievements. First, azure, a pile or, crest a star of six points, argent; second, gules, a cross flory argent, surmounted by an earl's coronet: supporters, on the dexter side a stag ducally gorged and chained, on the sinister side a griffin gorged and chained; motto, Honour and Truth. [Illustration: Baron and femme, two atchievements] In the arms of the femme joined to the paternal coat of the baron, the proper differences by which they were borne by the father of the lady must be inserted. If the arms of the baron has a bordure, that must be omitted on the sinister side of the shield. Archbishops and bishops impale the paternal arms with the arms of the see over which they preside, placing the arms of the bishopric on the dexter, and their paternal arms on the sinister side of the shield; a bishop does not emblazon the arms of his wife on the same shield with that which contains the arms of the see, but on a separate shield. Arms of augmentation are marshalled according to the direction of the College of Heralds: they are usually placed on a canton in the dexter chief of the shield; in some cases they occupy the whole of the chief. The mark of distinction denoting a baronet is usually placed on an escutcheon, on the fess point of the shield. The rules here laid down apply to funeral atchievements, banners, &c. The only difference, as will be seen by the annexed examples, is, that the ground of the hatchment is black, that surrounds the arms of the deceased, whether baron or femme, and white round the arms of the survivor. [Illustration: 1] In fig. 1. the black is left on the dexter side, showing that the husband is deceased, and that his wife survives him. [Illustration: 2] Fig. 2. shows that the husband survives the wife. [Illustration: 3] Fig. 3. shows that the husband and his first wife are deceased, and that the second wife is the survivor. [Illustration: 4] Fig. 4. The shield on the dexter side of the hatchment is parted per pale; first, the arms of the bishopric; second, the paternal arms of the bishop. The shield on the dexter (sic) side is the arms of the bishop impaling those of his wife as baron and femme; the ground of the hatchment is black round the sinister side of this shield, showing that it is the wife that is dead. [Illustration: 5] Fig. 5. is the hatchment of a lady that has died unmarried. The arms of females of all ranks are placed in a lozenge-shaped shield. [Illustration: 6] Fig. 6. is the hatchment of the widow of a bishop; the arms are the same as those displayed at fig. 4.: here the lozenge-shaped shield is parted per pale. Baron and femme:--first, parted paleways, on the dexter side the arms of the bishopric, on the sinister side the paternal arms of the bishop. Second, the arms of the femme: the widow of a bishop has a right to exhibit the arms of the see over which her husband presided, as though (sic) his death has dissolved all connection with the see. She has a right to emblazon all that will honour her deceased husband. For banners, pennons, guidons, cyphers, hatchments, &c., and all other matters where heraldic emblazonment is used in funeral processions, the reader is referred to the Dictionary. CHAP. VII. ORDER OF PRECEDENCY. The order of precedency to be observed in England was settled by an act of parliament passed in the thirty-first year of the reign of Henry VIII. The order has been varied at different periods to accord with the alterations in the families of the reigning monarchs, and the creation of new offices. The following table shows the order of precedency at the present time, viz. the eighth year of the reign of Queen Victoria. The Queen. The Prince of Wales. The Queen's Children. Prince Albert of Saxe Cobourg and Gotha. The Queen's Uncles. The Children of the Queen's Uncles. The following dignitaries precede all Dukes, except those of the blood royal:-- Archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England. Lord High Chancellor or Keeper. Archbishop of York, primate of England. Lord High Treasurer. Lord President of the Privy Council. Lord Privy Seal. The following dignitaries precede all of their own degree:-- The Earl Marshal. Lord Steward of her Majesty's household. Lord Chamberlain. Secretaries of State. Dukes according to the date of their patent. Marquises according to the date of their patent. Dukes' eldest Sons. Earls according to their patents. Marquises' eldest Sons. Dukes' younger Sons. Viscounts according to their patents. Earls' eldest Sons. Marquises' younger Sons. Bishops of London, Durham, and Winchester; all other Bishops according to their seniority of consecration. Barons according to their patents. Speaker of the House of Commons. Viscounts' eldest Sons. Earls' younger Sons. Barons' eldest Sons. Knights of the Garter, commoners. Privy Councillors, commoners. Chancellor of the Exchequer. Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. Master of the Rolls. The Vice-Chancellor of England. Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. Judges and Barons of the degree of the Coif, according to seniority Viscounts' younger Sons. Barons' younger Sons. Baronets. Knights of the Bath. Knights Commanders of the Bath. Field and Flag Officers. Knights Bachelors. Masters in Chancery. Doctors graduate. Serjeants at Law. Esquires of the King's Body. Esquires of the Knights of the Bath. Esquires by creation. Esquires by office. Clergymen, Barristers at Law, Officers in the Royal Navy and Army who are Gentlemen by Profession, and Gentlemen entitled to bear arms. Citizens. Burgesses. The Lords Spiritual of Ireland rank next after the Lords Spiritual of Great Britain; the priority of signing any treaty or public instrument by the members of the government is always taken by rank of place, not by title. The style prefixed to the titles of the peerage of Great Britain and Ireland are as follows :-- Princes of the Blood, His Royal Highness. Archbishops, His Grace. Dukes, The Most Noble His Grace. Marquesses, the Most Honorable. Earls, Viscounts, and Barons, The Right Honorable. Bishops, The Right Reverend. * * * * * DICTIONARY OF HERALDIC TERMS. ABAISSÉ. A French word, generally used in heraldry instead of the English word abased. When the fess, or any other ordinary properly placed above the fess point of the shield, is brought below it, that ordinary is said to be _abaissé_. ABATEMENT. Any figure added to coats of arms tending to lower the dignity or station of the bearer. Thus, the baton, denoting illegitimacy, is an abatement: so, also, are the differences in coats of arms showing the degrees of consanguinity. ADDORSED. Any animals set back to back. See LION. ALLERION. An eagle displayed, without beak or feet. [Illustration: Allerion] Ex. Argent, an allerion gules. ALTERNATE. Figures or tinctures that succeed each other by turns. AMETHYST. A precious stone of a violet colour, the name of which was formerly used instead of purpure, to denote the purple tincture when emblazoning the arms of the English nobility. ANNULET. A small circle borne as a charge in coats of arms. [Illustration: Annulet] Ex. Azure, an annulet argent. Annulets are added to arms for a difference. See DIFFERENCES, p. 13. [CHAP. III.] ANCIENT. A small flag or ensign. The bearer of the flag was called by its name. _Iago_ was ancient to the troops commanded by _Othello_. "This is Othello's ancient, as I take it. The same indeed, a very valiant fellow." SHAKSPEARE. ARCHBISHOPS. Church dignitaries of the first class. There are but two in England--the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York. The former is the first peer of England next to the royal family, and has the title of _Grace_ given to him; and likewise _Most Reverend Father in God_. He is styled Primate of all England, and Metropolitan. The Archbishop of York has precedence of dukes and great officers of state, except the lord chancellor. He is called _His Grace_ and _Most Reverend Father in God_; and styled _Primate of England_ and _Metropolitan_. ARGENT. The French word for silver, of which metal all white fields or charges are supposed to consist. [Illustration: Argent] ARMED. This word is used to express the horns, hoofs, beak, or talons of any beast or bird of prey, when borne of a different tincture from those of their bodies. [Illustration: Armed] Ex. Crest, a demi-griffin armed, gules. ARMORIST. A person skilled in the bearings of coats of arms, and all relating to their emblazonment. ARMS. A word derived from the Latin _arma_, which signifies in Heraldry a mark of honour, serving to distinguish states, cities, families, &c. ARROWS. Short darts feathered at the ends. [Illustration: Arrows] Ex. Argent, three arrows paleways, points in chief sable, feathered. ASPECTANT. Animals placed face to face in a charge are said to be aspectant. If they are about to attack each other, they are said to be combatant. ASSUMPTIVE. Arms assumed without being sanctioned by a grant from the College of Heralds. ASSURGENT. A man or beast rising out of the sea is said to be assurgent. ATCHIEVEMENT. The coat of arms fully emblazoned according to the rules of Heraldry. The lozenge-shaped atchievements that are displayed on the outside of the houses of persons deceased are commonly called Hatchments. ATTIRED. When the horns of a stag are of a different tincture to its head, it is said to be attired. [Illustration: Attired] Ex. Argent, a stag lodged, proper, attired, or AUGMENTATION. This word signifies in Heraldry a particular mark of honour, granted by the sovereign in consideration of some noble action, or by favour; and either quartered with the family arms, or on an escutcheon or canton. [Illustration: Augmentation] Ex. Ermine, on a chevron azure, three foxes' heads erased, argent. The augmentation is in a canton azure, a fleur-de-lis argent. AZURE. The French word for _blue_: it is distinguished in heraldic engraving by lines running parallel to each other in an horizontal direction, as in the annexed example. [Illustration: Azure] BADGE. A distinctive mark worn by servants, retainers, and followers of royalty or nobility, who, being beneath the rank of gentlemen, have no right to armorial bearings. The rose and crown is the badge of the servants, &c., of the Kings of England: they are displayed as in the annexed example. [Illustration: Badge (Rose and Crown)] BANDED. Anything tied with a band. [Illustration: Banded] Ex. Argent. Three arrows proper, banded. BANNER. The principal standard of a knight. The great banner borne at the funeral of a nobleman contains all the quarterings of his arms: it varies in size according to the rank of the deceased. The banner of the sovereign is five feet square; that of a prince or duke, four feet square; for all noblemen of inferior rank, three feet square. BANNER ROLL is a small square flag containing a single escutcheon of the deceased. Thus, if there are twelve quarterings in the banner, the same number of banner rolls will be required to be borne in the funeral procession. The annexed engraving shows the banner and banner-roll. [Illustration: Banner roll] BAR. An honourable ordinary, occupying one-fifth of the shield. It may be placed in any part of the field. It has two diminutives, the closet and barrulet. [Illustration: Bar] Ex. Ermine, two bars gules. BARBED. Bearded. It is also applied to roses. [Illustration: Barbed] Ex. Azure, a rose argent, barbed, and seeded proper. BARON. The lowest title of the peerage of Great Britain. BARON AND FEMME. Terms used in Heraldry to denote the arms of a man and his wife, marshalled together. See p. 38. [CHAP. VI.] BARRULET. The smallest diminutive of the bar. The closet is half the bar; the barrulet half the closet. [Illustration: Barrulet] Ex. Gules, two barrulets argent. BARRY. A field divided transversely into several equal parts, and consisting of two different tinctures interchangeably disposed. [Illustration: Barry] Ex. Barry of eight pieces, azure and argent. BATON. BATUNE. BASTON. It is generally used as an abatement in coats of arms to denote illegitimacy. [Illustration: Baton] Ex. Or, a cross gules, over all a baton argent. BATTERING RAM. An instrument used for battering down walls before gunpowder was known in Europe: it is frequently borne as a charge in a coat of arms. [Illustration: Battering ram] Ex. Argent, a battering ram proper. BATTLE AXE. An ancient military weapon, frequently borne on arms as a mark of prowess. [Illustration: Battle axe] Ex. Argent, three battle axes gules two over one. BATTLEMENTS. Divisions or apertures on the top of castle walls or towers. [Illustration: Battlements] Ex. Gules, three towers embattled argent. BEAKED. The beak of a bird being of a different tint from the body is said to be beaked. [Illustration: Beaked] Ex. An eagle's head erased, beaked, or. BEAVER. That part of the helmet that defends the sight. [Illustration: Beaver] BELLED. Having bells. [Illustration: Belled] Ex. Argent, a barrulet gules, belled with three bells proper. BEND. One of the honourable ordinaries formed by two diagonal lines drawn from the dexter chief to the sinister base; it generally occupies a fifth part of the shield if uncharged, but if charged one third. [Illustration: Bend] Ex. Azure, a bend argent. BEND SINISTER. Is the reverse of the bend; it is seldom found in coats of arms, as it is reckoned an abatement. [Illustration: Bend sinister] Ex. Argent, a bend sinister gules. IN BEND. Figures placed in a slanting direction from the dexter chief to the sinister base are said to be in bend. [Illustration: In bend] Ex. Or, three torteaux in bend. BENDLET. A diminutive of the bend, of the same shape, but only half the width of the bend. BENDY. This word serves to denote a field divided diagonally into several bends, varying in metal and colour. [Illustration: Bendy] Ex. Bendy of six pieces, azure and argent. BESANT, or BEZANT. Gold coin of Byzantium; when they appear in a coat of arms their colour is not described: a besant is always or. [Illustration: Besant] BILLETS. This charge is, by some authors, supposed to represent tiles or bricks; by others that it represents a letter or billet. The name and form of the charge most accords with the latter opinion. [Illustration: Billets] Ex. Argent, three billets azure, two over one. BISHOPS. Church dignitaries: they are barons of the realm, and have precedence next to viscounts: they have the title of _lords_, and _right reverend fathers in God_. BLAZON. To describe in proper colours, or lines representing colours, all that belongs to coats of arms. Arms may also be emblazoned by describing the charges and tinctures of a coat of arms in heraldic terms. BLUE-MANTEL. A title of one of the pursuivants at arms. See HERALD. BORDURE or BORDER. This was the most ancient difference in coats of arms, to distinguish different branches of the same family. It is a border round the edge of the shield. Its situation is always the same; but the inner edge may be varied. [Illustration: Bordure] Ex. Argent, a sinister hand couped at the wrist and erected gules, within a bordure azure. BOTTONNY. See CROSS BOTTONNY. BOUJET. An ancient water bucket, frequently borne in shields of arms. [Illustration: Boujet] Ex. Argent, a boujet proper. BRACED. Two figures of the same form, interlacing each other. [Illustration: Braced] Ex. Vert, two triangles braced, argent. BRASED and BRAZED are words sometimes used by ancient armorists. They always describe things interlaced or braced together. BROAD ARROW. An ancient weapon of war, thrown by an engine. It is frequently borne as a charge in coats of arms. [Illustration: Broad arrow] Ex. Argent, a broad arrow gules. CABOCHED or CABOSHED. Beasts' heads borne without any part of the neck, and full faced. [Illustration: Caboched] Ex. Argent, a stag's head caboshed, proper. CALTROP. An iron instrument made to annoy an enemy's cavalry. They were formed of iron, being four spikes conjoined in such a manner that one was always upwards. It is found in many ancient coats of arms. [Illustration: Caltrop] Ex. Argent, a caltrop proper. CANTON. The French word for corner. It is a small square figure, generally placed at the dexter chief of the shield, as in the annexed example. [Illustration: Canton] CELESTIAL CROWN. Distinguished from any other crown by the stars on the points or rays that proceed from the circlet. [Illustration: Celestial crown] CHAPEAU. Cap of maintenance or dignity, borne only by sovereign princes. It is formed of crimson or scarlet velvet, lined with ermine. [Illustration: Chapeau] CHAPLET. An ancient ornament for the head, granted to gallant knights for acts of courtesy. It is frequently borne as a charge in a shield of arms, and always tinted in its natural colours. [Illustration: Chaplet] Ex. Argent, a chaplet proper. CHARGE. The figures or bearings contained in an escutcheon. CHECKY. The field covered with alternate squares of metal and fur. [Illustration: Checky] Ex. Checky, sable and argent. CHEVRON. This ordinary is supposed to represent the rafters of the gable of a house. [Illustration: Chevron] Ex. Or, a chevron gules. CHEVRONEL. The diminutive of the chevron, being one half its size. [Illustration: Chevronel] Ex. Argent, two chevronels gules. CHIEF. One of the honourable ordinaries. It is placed on the upper part of the shield and contains a third part of it. The letters show the points in the chief. A is the dexter chief; B, the precise middle chief; C, the sinister chief. [Illustration: Chief] CHIMERICAL FIGURES. Imaginary figures, such as griffins, dragons, harpies, &c.: all of them will be found under their proper names. CINQUE FOIL. Five leaves conjoined in the centre. [Illustration: Cinque foil] CIVIC CAP. A cap of dignity borne by mayors of cities or corporate bodies: it is formed of sables garnished with ermine. [Illustration: Civic cap] CLARION. A horn or trumpet borne in this shape in English and German coat-armour. [Illustration: Clarion] Ex. Azure, three clarions or. CLENCHED. The fingers pressed towards the palm of the hand. [Illustration: Clenched] Ex. Azure, a dexter arm vambraced couped, the fist clenched proper. CLOSE. A bird with its wings closed. [Illustration: Close] CLOSET. A diminutive of the bar, being only one half its width. [Illustration: Closet] Ex. Or, two closets azure. CLOSEGIRT. A figure whose dress is fastened round the waist. [Illustration: Closegirt] Ex. Gules, an angel erect with wings expanded or, dress closegirt. COAT ARMOUR, or Surcoat. A loose garment worn over the armour of a knight; hence the term coat of arms. On this garment were emblazoned the armorial bearings of the wearer. [Illustration: Coat Armour] COCKATRICE. A chimerical animal, a cock with a dragon's tail and wings. [Illustration: Cockatrice] COLLARED. Having a collar. Dogs and inferior animals are sometimes collared: the supporters and charges are generally said to be gorged. See GORGED. COMBATANT. A French word for fighting. See LION. COMPLEMENT. The Heraldic term for the full moon. When this figure is introduced as a charge in a coat of arms, it is called a moon in her complement. COMPONY. A term applied to a bordure, pale, bend, or any other ordinary, made up of squares of alternate metal and colour. [Illustration: Compony] Ex. Argent, an inescutcheon azure, border compony, or and gules. CONJOINED. Joined together. [Illustration: Conjoined] Ex. Argent, three legs armed, conjoined at the fess point at the upper extremity of the thigh, flexed in a triangle, garnished and spurred, or. CONY. An heraldic name for a young rabbit. [Illustration: Cony] COTICE. One of the diminutives of the bend: cotices are generally borne on each side of the bend. [Illustration: Cotice] Ex. Gules, a bend argent, coticed of the same. The cotices are frequently of a different tincture from the bend they cotice. COUCHANT. The French word for lying down with the breast towards the earth, and the head raised. See LION COUCHANT. COUNT. A nobleman that was deputed by the king to govern a county or shire: the title is not used in the British Peerage; his rank is equal to an earl. COUNTER. In Heraldry implies contrariety, as in the following examples:-- COUNTER-CHANGED. The intermixture of metal with colours opposed to each other. [Illustration: Counter-changed] Ex. Per pale, or and azure, on a chevron, three mullets all counter-changed. COUNTER SALIENT. Two animals leaping different ways from each other. [Illustration: Counter salient] Ex. Argent, two foxes counter salient. COUNTER PASSANT. Two animals passing the contrary way to each other. [Illustration: Counter passant] Ex. Or, two lions passant counter passant gules, the uppermost facing the sinister side of the escutcheon, both collared sable, garnished argent. COUNTER FLORY. Any ordinary ornamented with fleurs-de-luce: the points of the flowers run alternately in a contrary direction. [Illustration: Counter flory] Ex. Or, a pale purpure, flory and counter flory gules. COUPED. From the French word _couper_, to cut. The cross in the example is couped, part of it being cut off, so as not to touch the edges of the shield. [Illustration: Couped] Ex. Azure, a cross couped argent. COUPED. The head or limbs of any animal cut close is called couped. [Illustration: Couped] Ex. Argent, a boar's head proper couped. COUPLE-CLOSE. One of the diminutives of the chevron, half the size of the chevronel. [Illustration: Couple-close] Ex. Argent, three couple-closes interlaced vert. COURANT. Running. [Illustration: Courant] Ex. Argent, a stag proper courant. CRENELLE. The French heraldic term for embattled. See EMBATTLED. [Illustration: Crenelle] CRESCENT. The half moon with its horns turned upwards. [Illustration: Crescent] Ex. Azure, a crescent argent. CREST. The ornament on the upper part of the helmet in Heraldry placed over coats of arms, either with or without the helmet. By referring to the title-page of this work the crests of Great Britain will be found with all the adornments of regal helmets. The English crest is a crown surmounted by a lion statant guardant crowned, or. The Scottish crest is an imperial crown, surmounted by a lion sejant guardant, displaying two sceptres or. The Irish crest is an ancient diadem surmounted by an embattled tower, a stag courant issuing from the portal. The crest of Wales is a dragon passant guardant, gules.--The whole of these crests, with mantlings, &c., are emblazoned on the title-page of this Manual. [Illustration: Crest] Crests are usually displayed upon a wreath as in the annexed example, which is a demi-lion rampant. If a crest this size had been placed upon an helmet of proportionate size it must have occupied a sixth part of this page, and the shield containing the arms to be in proportion considerably larger: in showing the crest without the helmet proportion is of little consequence. See HELMET, WREATH, and MANTLING. CRESTED. A cock or other bird, whose comb is of a different tincture from the body, is said to be crested. See JOWLOPED. CRINED. This is said of an animal whose hair is of a different tincture from its body. [Illustration: Crined] Ex. Argent, a mermaid gules, crined or. CROSIER. The pastoral staff of a bishop or abbot: a very frequent charge in ecclesiastical arms. [Illustration: Crosier] Ex. Or, a crosier gules, in bend. CROSS. An honourable ordinary, more used as a charge in a coat of arms than any of the others. During the Crusades for the recovery of the Holy Land, the troops of the different nations that joined in the Crusade displayed crosses on their banners and arms: every soldier bore a cross upon his dress; this was composed of two pieces of list or riband of equal length, crossing each other at right angles. The soldiers of France attached their national emblem, the fleur-de-lis, to the ends of the members of the cross; hence the introduction of the cross flory. The Crusaders from the Papal dominions placed transverse pieces on each member of the plain cross, and by this means transformed it into four small crosses springing from a centre, forming what is now called the cross-crosslet. It would be impossible within the limits of this work to give an example of all the crosses that have been introduced as bearings in coats of arms. Berry, in his comprehensive work on Heraldry, gives nearly two hundred examples, without giving all that might be found. The following are the crosses most used in English Heraldry. [Illustration: Cross] Cross [Illustration: Cross potent] Cross potent [Illustration: Cross flory] Cross flory [Illustration: Cross crosslet] Cross crosslet [Illustration: Cross bottonny] Cross bottonny [Illustration: Cross pattee] Cross pattee [Illustration: Cross raguly] Cross raguly [Illustration: Cross patonce] Cross patonce [Illustration: Cross moline] Cross moline [Illustration: Cross quadrate] Cross quadrate [Illustration: Cross quarter-pierced] Cross quarter-pierced [Illustration: Cross of Calvary] Cross of Calvary [Illustration: Cross fitchy] Cross fitchy [Illustration: Cross patriarchal] Cross patriarchal [Illustration: Cross potent rebated] Cross potent rebated CURTANA. The pointless sword of mercy is the principal in dignity of the three swords that are borne naked before the British monarchs at their coronation. [Illustration: Curtana] CROWN AND CORONETS. [Illustration: Crown, king of England] The crown of the king of England. [Illustration: Coronet, prince of Wales] Coronet of the prince of Wales [Illustration: Coronet, princess of England] Of a princess of England [Illustration: Coronet, marquis] Of a marquis [Illustration: Coronet, royal duke] Of a royal duke [Illustration: Coronet, earl] Of an earl [Illustration: Coronet, duke] Of a duke [Illustration: Coronet, viscount] Of a viscount [Illustration: Coronet, baron] Coronet of a baron DANCETTE. A zig-zag figure with spaces between the points, much larger than in the indented. [Illustration: Dancette] Ex. Argent, a pale, dancette vert. DEBRUISED. Any animal that has an ordinary placed upon it is said to be debruised. [Illustration: Debruised] Ex. Argent, a lion rampant guardant gules, debruised by a fess azure. DECRESSANT, or DECRESCENT. A moon in its wane, whose horns are turned to the sinister side of the escutcheon. [Illustration: Decressant] Ex. Azure, a moon decrescent, proper. DEMI, or DEMY. This particle is always joined to a substantive, and signifies half; as, a demi-lion, _i.e._ half a lion. DETRIMENT. The moon is said to be in its detriment when it is eclipsed. [Illustration: Detriment] Ex. Argent, the moon in her detriment sable. DEXTER. A word used in Heraldry to signify the right side of any thing. DIADEM, a circle of gold with points rising from it, worn by ancient kings as the token of royalty. The diadem of most of the monarchs of Europe, as represented in ancient statuary, stained glass, and paintings, resembles the annexed engraving; the kings of England, from the Conquest to Henry VII., all wore a diadem of this shape. [Illustration: Diadem] DIAMOND. The hardest and most valuable of precious stones; it was formerly used by English heralds to denote black or sable in blazoning the arms of the nobility. DIFFERENCE. The term given to a certain figure added to coats of arms to distinguish one family from another, and to show how distant younger branches are from the elder or principal branch. See p. 13. [CHAP. III.] DIMINUTION. A word sometimes used instead of difference. DISPLAYED. A bird whose wings are expanded and legs spread is said to be displayed. [Illustration: Displayed] Ex. Argent, an eagle displayed sable. DORMANT. The French word for sleeping, used to denote the posture of a lion, or any other beast reposing. See LION. DOUBLINGS. The lining of robes of state, as also the rows of fur set on the mantles of peers. DOUBLE TRESSURE. Two Tressures, or orles, one within the other. [Illustration: Double Tressure] DOVETAILED. A term borrowed from carpentry to show tinctures joined together by reversed wedges, which, being shaped like doves' tails, are by joiners called dovetailing. [Illustration: Dovetailed] Ex. Quarterly per pale dove-tailed, or and gules. DRAGON. An imaginary monster; a mixture of beast, bird, and reptile. It is frequently borne in crests and charges. [Illustration: Dragon] Ex. Argent, a dragon proper, tail nowed. DRAGON'S HEAD. Part of a celestial constellation, used by ancient English heralds to denote tenne when emblazoning the arms of sovereigns; this style of heraldry has become obsolete. DRAGON'S TAIL. Part of the same constellation; formerly used to denote sanguine. DUKE. The highest degree of British peerage next to the prince of Wales. This title is derived from the Latin word _dux_: the title of Duke was known in other parts of Europe long before it was introduced into England. The first person that was created a duke in this country was Edward the Black Prince, who was created duke of Cornwall by his father Edward the third. The title has since that time belonged to the first born son of the monarch of England. A duke formerly possessed great authority over the province that formed his dukedom, and had large estates annexed to his title to support its dignity. At the present time dukes are created by patent, and their dukedom is merely nominal, neither power nor possessions being annexed to the title. EAGLE. _Aquila_ in Ornithology. In Heraldry the eagle is accounted one of the most noble bearings, and ought to be given only to such as greatly excel in the virtues of generosity and courage, or for having done some singular service to their sovereign. EAGLET is a diminutive of eagle, properly signifying a young eagle. In Heraldry, when several eagles are on the same escutcheon, they are termed eaglets. EARL. The third degree of British peerage. Under the Danish and Saxon kings this was the highest title known in England conferred upon a subject. It was formerly the custom upon creating an earl to assign him, for the support of his state, the third penny from the fines and profits of the sheriff's court, issuing out of the pleas of the shire whence the earl took his title; as, formerly, there was no count or earl but had a county or shire for his earldom. When the number of earls was increased, they took their titles from towns and villages. An earl is now created by patent. EARL-MARSHAL OF ENGLAND. A very ancient, and formerly a very important, officer, who had several courts under his jurisdiction, as the Court of Chivalry, the Court of Honour. He still presides over the Heralds' College, and nominally over the Marshalsea Court. The title of Earl Marshal of England is now, and has been for some ages, hereditary in the noble family of the Howards. EASTERN CROWN. A crown with rays proceeding from a circle, called by heralds an Eastern crown, is found in ancient achievements. The annexed cut shows its form. [Illustration: Eastern Crown] EMBATTLED. A line, formed like the battlements on a wall or tower, is said to be embattled or crenelle. When the line is used to form one of the ordinaries, it is said to be embattled. See the lines, p. 11. [CHAP. III.] [Illustration: Embattled] Ex. Gules, a bend sinister embattled, argent. EMBATTLED GRADY. Where the battlements gradually rise one above another. [Illustration: Embattled Grady] Ex. Argent, a fess gules, embattled grady. See the lines, p. 11. [CHAP. III.] EMBOWED. Any thing bent or curved, like a bow. [Illustration: Embowed] Ex. Gules, a dolphin naiant embowed or. EMERALD. The name of a precious stone formerly substituted for vert in emblazoning the arms of the nobility of England. EN ARRIÈRE. An expression borrowed from the French, to signify any creature borne with its back to view. [Illustration: En arrière] Ex. Argent, an eagle proper en arrière. ENDORSE. The smallest diminutive of the pale. [Illustration: Endorse] Ex. Argent, a pale between endorses gules. ENGRAILED. Any object being edged with small semi-circles, the points turning outwards, is said to be engrailed. [Illustration: Engrailed] Ex. Argent, a pale azure engrailed. ENHANCED. A term applied to bearings placed above their usual situation. [Illustration: Enhanced] Ex. Argent, three bendlets, enhanced gules. ENSIGNED. This word, in heraldic description, means ornamented. [Illustration: Ensigned] Ex. Argent, a man's heart gules, ensigned with a celestial crown or. ERASED. Signifies any thing torn or plucked off from the part to which nature affixed it; generally applied to the head and limbs of man or beast. [Illustration: Erased] Ex. Argent, a leg erased at the midst of the thigh gules. ERECT. This is said of any animal or parts of animals, naturally horizontal, being placed in a perpendicular direction. [Illustration: Erect] Ex. Argent, a boar's head erect, and erased. ERMINE. A white fur with black spots, represented as in the annexed example. [Illustration: Ermine] ERMINES. This fur is represented by white spots on a black field. [Illustration: Ermines] ERMINOIS. A fur, the field, or, the spots or tufts, sable, as in the annexed example. [Illustration: Erminois] ESCALOP. The shell of a sea-fish, used to decorate the palmers on their way to and from Palestine; frequently used as a charge in Heraldry. [Illustration] ESCUTCHEON. This word is sometimes used to express the whole coat of arms, sometimes only the field upon which the arms are painted. It more generally denotes the painted shields used at funerals. The field, if the husband is dead and wife survives, is black on the dexter side only; if the wife is deceased, it is black on the sinister side; if both, it is black all over. The example shows that this is the escutcheon of a deceased baron, whose lady survives. [Illustration] ESCUTCHEON OF PRETENCE. A small escutcheon, on which a man bears the coat of arms of his wife, being an heiress. See p. 40. [CHAP. VI.] [Illustration: Ex. Argent, a chevron or, between three crosslets sable, on the fess point surtout the chevron an escutcheon of pretence gules, three quatrefoils argent.] ESQUIRE. The degree below a knight and above a gentleman. Those to whom this title is due by right, are all the younger sons of noblemen and their heirs male for ever, the four esquires of the king's body, the eldest sons of baronets, of all knights and of their heirs male: those who bear superior offices, as magistrates, high sheriffs, mayors, and aldermen, have it during their continuance in office and no longer. For the helmet of an esquire, see page 84. [Illustration: Etoile.] ETOILE. The French word for a star. It differs from the mullet in the number of points, and four of the points being rayant. FESS. An honourable ordinary occupying the third part of the shield between the centre and the base. [Illustration: Fess] Ex. Argent, a fess gules. [Illustration: Fess Point.] FESS POINT. The exact centre of the escutcheon, as seen in the annexed example. See the escutcheon lettered at p. 6., where this point is marked with the letter E. [CHAP. II.] FIELD. The whole surface of the shield or escutcheon: it is the ground upon which the colours, tinctures, furs, ordinaries, and charges, are represented. FIGURED. Those bearings which are depicted with a human face, are said to be figured. [Illustration: Figured] Ex. Gules, three bezants figured. FILLET. The only diminutive belonging to the chief; its width is one-fourth of the chief, and is always placed at the base of it. See CHIEF, p. 18. [CHAP. IV.] FIMBRIATED. An ordinary having a border of a different tincture is said to be fimbriated. [Illustration: Fimbriated] Ex. Azure, a bend gules, fimbriated argent. FITCHY. Is from the French word _fiché_, fixed. It is generally applied to crosses which have their lower branch pointed, so that it could be fixed in the ground. See CROSS FITCHY. FLANCHES. Are formed of two curved lines placed opposite each other. [Illustration: Flanche] Ex. Azure, a flanche argent. FLANK. That part of an escutcheon between the chief and the base. [Illustration: Flank] Ex. Argent, three mullets gules, accompanied with seven cross crosslets fitchy sable--three in chief, one in fess, two in flanks, one in base. FLASQUES. A subordinate ordinary formed by curved lines placed opposite each other, but not so near as in flanches. [Illustration: Flasque] Ex. Azure, a flasque argent. [Illustration: Fleur-de-lis.] FLEUR-DE-LIS. Supposed to represent the garden-lily. It is the bearing of the Bourbons of France, but is frequently introduced in English charges. FLORY. Signifies flowered or adorned with the fleur-de-lis. See FLORY COUNTER-FLORY, and CROSS-FLORY. FRET. Two laths interlaced with a mascle. [Illustration: Fret] Ex. Azure, a fret argent. FRETTY. This word denotes a field covered with fretwork or laths interlacing each other. [Illustration: Fretty] Ex. Gules, fretty argent. THE FUSIL. Is longer than the lozenge: the upper and lower ends are more acute. [Illustration: Fusil] Ex. Or, a fusil purpure. [Illustration: Galley.] GALLEY. An ancient vessel propelled by oars; frequently used in shields of naval officers. [Illustration: Gambe.] GAMBE. An obsolete French word, signifying a leg, and is still used in Heraldry, for the leg of a lion or other creature borne in coats of arms. GARBE. The heraldic term for a sheaf of any kind of corn. [Illustration: Garbe] Ex. Argent, a garbe proper. GARTER. One of the diminutives of the bend, being half the size. [Illustration: Garter] Ex. Or, a garter vert. [Illustration: Garter.] GARTER. The insignia of the most noble order of the knights of the garter. It is formed of blue velvet edged with gold wire, and lined with white satin; on the velvet is embroidered the motto of the order. See KNIGHT. [Illustration: Gauntlet.] GAUNTLET. Armour for the hand. GAZE. An intent look. This is said of a deer standing still, and turning its head to look earnestly at any object. [Illustration: Gaze] Ex. Argent, a stag at gaze proper. [Illustration: Gemels.] GEMELS. This word signifies double. The example contains two double bars, which in heraldic language would be called two bars gemels. [Illustration: Golp.] GOLPS. Roundlets of a purple tincture. The colour is not stated, as the name denotes the colour. GORGED. Any animals, particularly birds, that have collars round the neck, are said to be gorged. [Illustration: Gorged] Ex. A swan's head erased at the neck, ducally gorged or. [Illustration: Griffin.] GRIFFIN or GRYPHON. A chimerical animal, half bird, half beast. [Illustration: Guidon.] GUIDON. A small semi-oval flag used in funeral processions. It is generally charged with the paternal arms of the deceased. [Illustration: Gules.] GULES. Signifies red. It is represented in engraving by lines running parallel with each other, from the chief to the base, as in the example. [Illustration: Gutty.] GUTTY. A term derived from the Latin word _gutta_, a drop. A field bearing drops, as in the example, is called gutty. [Illustration: Gyron.] GYRON. A triangular figure formed by two lines from one of the angles of the shield to the centre. The gyron may be drawn in any part of the shield, but it is generally placed as in the annexed example. GYRONNY. When the field is covered with gyrons, their points uniting in the centre. [Illustration: Gyronny] Ex. Gyronny of eight pieces, azure, argent, and gules. HABERGEON. A coat of mail: it is also called a corslet and cuirass. [Illustration: Habergeon] Ex. Argent, an habergeon proper. HABITED. Clothed figures, either as charges or supporters, are said to be habited. [Illustration: Harpy.] HARPY. A chimerical animal, having the head and breast of a woman, and the body and legs of a bird. HAURIENT. A fish, in a perpendicular direction, with its head upwards. [Illustration: Haurient] Ex. Argent, a salmon proper haurient. HELMET. An ancient piece of defensive armour for the head; it covered the face, leaving an aperture in the front, secured by bars: this was called the visor. The helmet is now placed over a coat of arms; and by the metal from which it is made, the form, and position, denotes the rank of the person whose arms are emblazoned beneath it. The helmets of sovereigns are formed of burnished gold; those of princes and peers, of every degree, silver figured with gold; knights, esquires, and gentlemen, polished steel. The helmets of the king, the royal family, and peers, are open-faced and grated: the number of bars served formerly to distinguish the bearer's quality. The helmets of knights are open-faced, without bars. Esquires and gentlemen are known by the close helmet. [Illustration: Grated helmet, direct front view.] The position of the helmet is a mark of distinction. The direct front view of the grated helmet belongs to sovereign princes and dukes. [Illustration: Grated helmet, profile.] The grated helmet in profile is common to all degrees of peerage under a duke. [Illustration: Open helmet, direct front view.] The helmet without bars, with the beaver open, standing directly fronting the spectator, denotes a knight. [Illustration: Closed helmet, profile.] The closed helmet seen in profile is appropriated to esquires and gentlemen. See CREST, BEAVER, MANTLING. HERALD. An officer at arms, whose business it is to declare war, proclaim peace, marshal all the solemnities at the coronation; baptisms, marriages, and funerals of the sovereign and nobility; and to ascertain and blazon coats of arms. The principal herald is Garter-King-at-Arms. It is his office to regulate the solemnities, and emblazon the arms of the sovereign, knights, and officers of the most noble order of the Garter. Garter-King-at-Arms likewise presides over all heraldic ceremonies of the Court. His crown of gold is formed with oak leaves, one shorter than the other, springing from a circlet of gold, having engraved upon it the words "MISERERE MEI DEUS." His tabard, as principal herald, is of crimson velvet, splendidly embroidered with the arms of England. Clarencieux and Norroy are called provincial kings-at-arms, the former regulating all things connected with Heraldry in the provinces south of the Trent; the latter in the provinces north of the Trent. They have likewise crowns; and though the office of herald is not of so much importance now as it was formerly, it is still considered a post of great honour and emolument. There are eight heralds that are not kings-at-arms. Their tabards are of silk, embroidered with the royal arms. They are called York, Lancaster, Somerset, Richmond, Chester, and Windsor. George the First created a new herald called Hanover, and another called Gloucester. The kings-at-arms, heralds, and pursuivants, form the Heralds' College, by whom all matters connected with the coats of arms of every gentleman in the kingdom are arranged and determined. HILTED. The handle of a sword tinctured. [Illustration: Hilted] Ex. Argent, a sword proper couped, hilted or. [Illustration: HONOUR POINT] HONOUR POINT. That part of the shield between the precise middle chief and the fess point. In the annexed example the large dot in the centre shows the fess point; the point within the letter D, the _honour point_. See p. 6. [CHAP. II.] HORNED. This term is used to denote that the horn of a unicorn is of a different tincture from his body. [Illustration: Horned] Ex. Azure, three unicorns' heads proper, erased, horned or. HUMETTY. A term used to denote an ordinary, parts of which are couped or cut off, so that it does not touch the edges of the shield. [Illustration: Humetty] Ex. Argent, a fess humetty gules, between three mullets sable. [Illustration: HURTS] HURTS. Blue roundlets: the colour is expressed in the name; therefore the tincture is not otherwise named in emblazoning a coat of arms. [Illustration: Spearhead imbued.] IMBUED. Weapons spotted with blood are said to be imbued. The example shows a spearhead imbued. IMPALED. Two coats of arms, conjoined paleways, in one shield. [Illustration: Impaled] Ex. Argent, a fess gules, impaled with argent, a bend azure. See p. 38. [CHAP. VI.] INCRESCENT. The new moon, with her horns turned towards the dexter side of the shield. [Illustration: Increscent] Ex. Azure, a moon increscent argent. INDENTED. A serrated figure, much smaller than the dancette. [Illustration: Indented] Ex. Or, a chief gules, indented. INESCUTCHEON. The name given to small escutcheons forming a bearing of a coat of arms. [Illustration: Inescutcheon] Ex. Argent, three inescutcheons gules. INVECTED. A line formed with small semicircles, with the points turned inward. Any ordinary drawn with this line is called invected. [Illustration: Invected] Ex. Argent, a bend gules, invected between two hurts. ISSUANT, or ISSUING. Rays or other charges proceeding from any part of the escutcheon. See RAY. KNIGHT. A title of honour conferred upon a subject for eminent services performed in war. In the course of time, knights that had gained riches and high titles formed societies under the control and direction of their monarchs in every part of Europe. The limits of this work will only permit us to notice the orders of knighthood introduced into England. The KNIGHTS-BACHELORS were the earliest order of knighthood in England. The title was conferred for services in war. It was merely personal, and, like the knighthood conferred upon individuals at the present time, did not descend to their posterity. [Illustration: Knights-Banneret] KNIGHTS-BANNERET. This ancient and honourable order has become extinct. It obtained the title of banneret from the knights having the right of having a square banner borne before them on the field of battle, and at jousts and tournaments. Sir W. Segar gives the following account of the creation of a knight-banneret:--"It is a military order, and can only be conferred upon persons that have performed some heroic act in the field. When this action is known to the king, or general of the army, he commands the attendance of the gallant warrior, who is led, between two knights, into the presence of the king or general with his pennon of arms in his hand, and there the heralds proclaim his merit, and declare him fit to become a knight-banneret, and thenceforth to display a banner in the field. Then the king or general causes the point of the pennon to be cut off to make it square; it is then placed at the top of his lance, and the new-made knight returns to his tent, the trumpets sounding before him." Knights-banneret were certainly created in the reign of Edward I., but how long before that time it is impossible to tell. KNIGHTS OF THE GARTER. This is considered the most honourable order of knighthood in Europe: it was founded by Edward III. in 1349; the fraternity consists of twenty-six knights, to which are added the princes of the blood royal. The king of England is the sovereign of the order; their officers are a prelate, chancellor, registrar, and king-at-arms. The college of the order is in Windsor Castle, with the chapel of St. George and the chapter-house. These buildings were erected by the royal founder expressly for the accommodation of the knights of the garter. The garter is considered the principal ensign of this order: it is worn on the left leg below the knee; it is formed of blue velvet, edged with gold: on the velvet is embroidered the motto of the order, HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE. The collar is of gold, weighing thirty ounces troy weight, and contains twenty-six garters enamelled proper, in each a rose gules between; the garters are connected by knots. The George is attached to this collar: it represents St. George (the patron Saint of the order) attacking the dragon; it is of gold enamelled, and may be enriched with jewels at the pleasure of the possessor. THE KNIGHTS OF ST. PATRICK. This illustrious Irish order was founded by George III., 1783. It consists of the sovereign, a grand master, the princes of the blood royal, and thirteen knights. The lord-lieutenant for the time being is grand master. The device on the jewel of this order is argent, a cross saltier gules surmounted with a trefoil vert, charged with three imperial crowns or, the whole inclosed in a circle of gold, bearing the motto QUIS SEPARABIT. MDCCLXXXIII. An engraving of this jewel will be found on the sinister side of the title-page. THE KNIGHTS OF THE THISTLE. The most ancient order of the Thistle was founded by James V. of Scotland, 1540, and revived by James II., king of Great Britain, 1687, incorporated by Queen Anne, whose statutes were confirmed by George I. The order consists of the sovereign and twelve brethren or knights. Their motto is the national motto, NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSET; their badge or jewel, St. Andrew, supporting a cross, surrounded with rays of gold, an engraving of which will be found on the dexter side of the title-page. [Illustration: Knight and Baronet] KNIGHT AND BARONET. A degree of honour next to a baron, created by King James I. to induce the English gentry to settle in the province of Ulster. The title is knight and baronet; it is hereditary: the arms are distinguished by an augmentation of a human hand gules, generally borne on an escutcheon in the centre of the shield. [Illustration: Knight and Baronet of Nova Scotia] KNIGHT AND BARONET OF NOVA SCOTIA. A new creation during the reign of George I. to induce capitalists to settle in that part of North America. The title is hereditary: the arms are argent, St. Andrew's Cross gules surtout, an escutcheon or, with a lion rampant gules within a double tressure of the same, surmounted by a king's crown as a crest. KNIGHTS OF THE BATH. An ancient and honourable military order of knighthood. The date of its origin is too remote to be traced with certainty: by some authors it is said to have been instituted in Normandy before the Conquest; it was re-established in England by Henry IV., and revived by George I. The chapel of this order is Henry VII.'s chapel in Westminster Abbey: the Dean of Westminster for the time being is always dean of the order of the Bath. The number of the knights is according to the pleasure of the sovereign. At the close of the late war the Prince Regent, afterwards George IV., remodelled this order of knighthood; and to enable himself to bestow marks of honour upon the naval and military officers that had distinguished themselves on the ocean and in the field, he divided the order into three classes: first, all the noblemen that were Knights of the Bath were henceforth to be called Knights Grand Crosses of the Bath, which was also the title of the commanders of fleets and armies that were rewarded by being admitted into the highest class of this noble order. The second class are called Knights Commanders of the Bath; a great number of naval and military officers above the rank of captains in the navy and majors in the army are admitted into this class. The third class is styled Companions of the Order of the Bath, and is open to officers of inferior rank. The Knights Grand Crosses of the Bath attach the initials K.G.C.B. to their names and titles. The Knights Commanders use the initials K.C.B. The Companions are known by the initials C.B. [Illustration: Label] LABEL. The noblest of abatements serving as a difference between the eldest and the junior sons. See DIFFERENCE. LANGUED. A term derived from the French word _langue_, tongue. It signifies in Heraldry that the tongue of a bird or beast is of a different tincture from the body. LION. The strength, courage, and majestic deportment of this noble animal, has gained him the regal titles of monarch of the forest and king of beasts. Ancient heralds selected the figure of the lion as symbolic of command, strength, power, courage, and other qualities attributed to that animal. Armorists have introduced lions to denote the attributes of majesty, might, and clemency, subduing those that resist, and sparing those that yield to authority. The lion has been depicted in every attitude which could by any means be construed into a compliment to the person the sovereign delighted to honour, by raising him to a rank that enabled him to bear arms. Was it a warrior, who, though victorious, was still engaged in struggling with the foes of his sovereign, the lion rampant was considered a proper emblem of the hero. The warrior having overcome his enemies in the field, yet retaining his military command for the safety and honour of his country, was typified by the lion statant gardant. We might easily find examples to show the propriety of the emblem for all the positions of the lion introduced as charges in coats of arms; but the two given will be sufficient: the rest may easily be imagined by the intelligent reader. The following are the most usual positions in which the lion appears in shields of arms:-- [Illustration: Rampant] Rampant. [Illustration: Rampant gardant] Rampant gardant. [Illustration: Rampant regardant] Rampant regardant. [Illustration: Salient] Salient. [Illustration: Statant gardant] Statant gardant. [Illustration: Passant] Passant. When the lions' heads are placed in the same position as in rampant gardant and regardant, they are then said to be passant gardant and regardant. [Illustration: Sejant] Sejant. [Illustration: Couchant] Couchant. [Illustration: Dormant] Dormant. Thus far the lion is drawn in natural positions; these are considered the most honourable, as they have never been properly inserted in arms but for persons of high authority and pre-eminent courage and virtue. There are a great many deviations from the above, which are marks of great honour. It is considered that a lion cannot bear a rival in the field; therefore if two or more lions are introduced they are supposed to be lion's whelps, or in Heraldic terms lioncels. [Illustration: Two lioncels addorsed] Two lioncels addorsed or back to back. [Illustration: Lioncels combatant] Lioncels combatant. [Illustration: Lion rampant double-headed] Lion rampant double-headed. [Illustration: An incorporated lion gardant in the fess point] An incorporated lion gardant in the fess point. There are a great number of ways of introducing this charge: many of them will be seen under the proper words that describe their condition: such as the word debruised, where the lion is confined by the fess passing over it; demi-lion or half lion; but the examples here given will be sufficient to explain their positions, active or passive. If no mention is made of the tincture it is always supposed that they are proper, that is, to be coloured like nature: they are introduced in arms of every metal and tincture known in Heraldry. [Illustration: Lodged] LODGED. A stag sitting on the ground with its head erect, is said to be lodged. LOZENGE. An angular figure, known as diamond-shaped, to distinguish it from the square. [Illustration: Lozenge] EX. Or, a lozenge vert. LOZENGY. Covered with lozenges. [Illustration: Lozengy] EX. Lozengy gules and argent. LUNA. The moon: it formerly signified argent in emblazoning the arms of sovereigns. MANCHE. An ancient sleeve with long hangings to it. [Illustration: Manche] EX. Argent, a manche, gules. MANED. When the manes of horses, unicorns, &c. are of a different tincture from their bodies they are said to be maned. MANTLE. A long robe or cloak of state. MANTLING. The flowing drapery forming the scroll-work displayed on either side of the helmet from beneath the wreath, representing the ancient covering of the helmet, used to protect it from stains or rust. When the mantling incloses the escutcheon, supporters, &c., it represents the robe of honour worn by the party whose shield it envelopes. This mantle is always described as doubled, that is, lined throughout with one of the furs, as ermine, pean, vary. For examples of mantling, see the arms and crests of England, Scotland, and Ireland. MARQUIS. The second order of nobility in England, next in rank to a duke. MARSHAL. A title of honour. See EARL MARSHAL. TO MARSHAL. To place persons in due order, according to their precedency, in public processions, such as coronations, proclamations of peace or war, funerals, &c. MARSHALLING ARMS. The disposing of several coats of arms belonging to distinct families in the same escutcheon, together with their ornaments, parts, and appurtenances. MARTLET. An imaginary bird said to be without legs; it is used both as a charge and a difference. [Illustration: Martlet] EX. Argent, a martlet, gules. MASCLE. An open lozenge-shaped figure, one of the subordinate ordinaries. [Illustration: Mascle] EX. Argent, a mascle, vert. MEMBERED. A term used to express the beak and legs of a bird when they are of a different tincture from its body. MERCURY. The name of the planet, used by ancient heralds to describe purple in blazoning the arms of sovereigns. METAL. The two metals used in Heraldry are gold and silver, called or and argent. It is against the rules of Heraldry to place metal upon metal, or colour upon colour, unless for special reasons. Therefore, if the field be of any colour, the bearing must be of one of the metals, and on the contrary, if the field be of one of the metals, the bearing must be of some colour. MILLRIND. The iron placed in the centre of a grindstone to protect the hole in the centre from the action of the axis; it is a charge frequently borne on escutcheons of persons connected with agriculture. [Illustration: Millrind] EX. Argent, a millrind, gules. [Illustration: MITRE.] MITRE. A sacerdotal ornament for the head, worn by Roman Catholic archbishops and bishops on solemn occasions. Certain English abbots formerly wore mitres, and they are frequently found as charges in the arms of abbeys and monasteries. The annexed is a representation of the mitre of the archbishops and bishops of the church of England, borne as a mark of distinction over the arms of the see, or over their paternal achievements, when impaled with the arms of their see. The prelates of the Protestant Church of England never wear mitres. [Illustration: MITRE.] The Bishops of Durham were formerly princes of the Palatinate of Durham, and wore a ducal coronet surmounted by a mitre. They still retain the coronet and mitre as an heraldic distinction, borne over the arms of the bishopric. MORION. A steel cap or helmet formerly worn by foot soldiers below the rank of gentlemen. MOTTO. A word or short sentence inserted in a scroll, which is generally placed beneath the escutcheon; in some instances it is placed above the crest. The motto frequently alludes to the name of the bearer of the arms, as the motto of the Right Honourable Lord Fortescue--FORTE SCUTUM SALUS DUCUM, a strong shield is the safety of commanders. Sometimes the motto is the watchword or war-cry in the battle where the original bearer won the honours that are retained by his descendants. Generally the motto is founded upon the piety, loyalty, valour, fortitude, &c. of the persons to whom arms were granted. [Illustration: MOUND.] MOUND. A globe encircled with a band and surmounted with a cross; it is an ensign of royalty, signifying dominion. MULLET. From the French word _molette_, the rowel of a spur: it is generally drawn with five points, as in the annexed example: when more points are used they are named. [Illustration: Mullet] EX. Azure, a mullet or. MURAILE. A French term for walled. MURREY. A word used by ancient armorists instead of sanguine. NAIANT. A French term for swimming. This term is used in Heraldry when a fish is drawn in an horizontal position. [Illustration: Naiant] EX. Argent, a salmon proper, naiant, its head towards the sinister side of the shield. NAISSANT. A French word signifying coming out. It is used when a lion or any other animal appears to be rising out of the centre of an ordinary. [Illustration: Naissant] EX. Or, from the midst of a fess, gules, a lion rampant naissant. NEBULÉ, or NEBULY. A French word, signifying cloudy, represented by a curved line, thus-- [Illustration: NEBULÉ, or NEBULY.] NOBILITY. Under this denomination are comprehended--dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, and barons only. Archbishops and bishops are included in the rank of clergy. NOMBRIL POINT. That part of the shield below the fess point. See page 6. letter F. [CHAP. II.] NORROY. The name of one of the Kings-at-Arms. See King-at-Arms. NOWED. This word signifies tied or knotted, and is applied to serpents, wiverns, or any animals whose tails are twisted and enfolded like a knot. [Illustration: EX. Argent, a serpent nowed proper.] OGRESSES. Black roundlets. OR. The French word for gold. This tincture is denoted in engraving by small points. [Illustration: EX. Or, a bend gules.] ORANGES. Roundlets tinctured tenne. ORDINARY. A term used to denote the simple forms which were first used as heraldic distinctions, and therefore called honourable ordinaries, as conferring more honour than later inventions. They are the chief, pale, bend, bend sinister, fess, bar, chevron, cross, and cross saltier. There are thirteen subordinate ordinaries. The form, size, and place that the honourable and subordinate ordinaries occupy in an achievement are all described in the Manual, and in this Dictionary under their different names. [Illustration: ORLE.] ORLE. A subordinate ordinary composed of double lines going round the shield at some distance from its edge; it is half the width of the bordure. OVER ALL. This expression describes a figure borne over another and obscuring part of it. [Illustration: Over all] EX. Quarterly or and gules, over all a bend vair. PALE. One of the honourable ordinaries formed by two perpendicular lines drawn from the base to the chief. The pale occupies one third of the shield. [Illustration: Pale] EX. Azure, a pale or PALL. A scarf in the shape of the letter Y, forming part of the vesture of a Roman Catholic prelate. It is introduced as the principal bearing of the archbishops of Canterbury, Armagh, and Dublin. [Illustration: Pall] Ex. Azure, on a pall argent, four crosses fitchy sable, in chief a cross pattee of the second. [Illustration: PALLET] PALLET. A diminutive of the pale. PALY. A field divided by perpendicular lines into several equal parts of metal and tincture interchangeably disposed. [Illustration: Paly] Ex. Paly of four, argent and gules. PARTY or PARTED signifies divided, and applies to the several parts of an escutcheon parted by a line, which always runs in the direction of one or more of the honourable ordinaries, as may be seen in the following examples:-- [Illustration: Parted per pale and par bend sinister] PARTED PER PALE AND PER BEND SINISTER Counterchanged, or and gules. [Illustration: Parted per pale and per chevron] PARTED PER PALE AND PER CHEVRON. Gules and or, counter changed. PARTY PER FESS. A shield parted in the centre by an horizontal line through the fess point. [Illustration: Party per fess] Ex. Party per fess, engrailed, argent and gules. PARTY PER PALE. This signifies a shield parted by a perpendicular line down the centre, so that one shield may contain two coats of arms. [Illustration: Party per pale] Ex. Parted per pale, gules and argent. PASCHAL LAMB, or HOLY LAMB. [Illustration: Paschal lamb] Ex. Argent, a lamb passant, carrying a banner charged with a cross. PASSANT. Passing or walking. See LION PASSANT and PASSANT GUARDANT. PATONCE. See CROSS. PATTE. A cross small in the centre, wide at the ends. See CROSS. PATRIARCHAL CROSS. Cross used by patriarchs in the Greek church. See CROSS. PEARL. A precious stone, used by ancient heralds for argent in emblazoning the arms of peers. PEAN. The name of a fur, the field sable, the tufts or. PEER. Name given to all persons included in the rank of nobility. PELLETS. A name given to black roundlets. PENDANT. A shield suspended or hanging from a branch of a tree, or from a nail. Shields of arms frequently appear drawn thus in architecture, and when described are said to be pendant. [Illustration: Pennons] PENNONS. Small flags borne at the end of a lance of an esquire or gentleman bearing his paternal arms. The end of the pennon was cut off upon the person being created a knight banneret. See BANNERET. Penoncels or Pencils were small flags decorating the helmet or the horse armour. They are now only used at funerals. The large flag in the engraving is a pennon, the smaller, penoncels or pencils. PHEON. A missile instrument with a barbed head, thrown from a cross bow. [Illustration: Pheon] Ex. Argent, a pheon proper. PIERCED OR PERFORATED. Cut through the centre. [Illustration: Pierced] Ex. Argent, a mullet pierced, sable, on a chief azure, three mullets pierced, of the first. PILE. An angular figure like a wedge, formed by lines running from the dexter and sinister chief to the middle base. [Illustration: Pile] Ex. Argent, a pile, purpure. IN PILE. Arms or other charges that are placed so as to form the shape of a pile are said to be borne in pile. [Illustration: In pile] Ex. Argent, three swords in pile, their points towards the base. PLATE. One of the six roundlets; its colour is argent, but the tincture is not mentioned, as the plate is always silver. POMEIS. Green roundlets. [Illustration: Pommelled] POMMELLED. The pommel of the sword is the round ball or knob at the end of the hilt of a sword. [Illustration: Portcullis] PORTCULLIS. A grating suspended by chains, used to defend the entrance to a castle. POTENT. The ancient name of a crutch: when the field is covered with figures like small crutches it is called potent; when the heads of the crutches touch each other it is called counter potent. [Illustration: Potent and counter potent] Ex. Argent and azure, potent and counter potent. Some armorists call counter potent vary cuppy. PRINCE. The only Principality in Great Britain is that of Wales. The title of Prince of Wales is usually conferred upon the eldest son of the British monarch. All other sons, grandsons, brothers, uncles, and nephews, are called princes of the blood royal. For instance, the Duke of Cambridge, the uncle of Queen Victoria, is styled His Royal Highness Prince Adolphus Frederick Duke of Cambridge. His son is styled Prince George of Cambridge. PRINCESS. Daughter of a sovereign. In England the eldest daughter of the monarch is called the Princess Royal; the others by their Christian names. PROCLAMATION. A publication by the authority of the King. Proclamations of peace or war, or other matters of importance, are usually read by one of the heralds. They are addressed to the whole community under their different orders or ranks, viz. Clergy, Nobility, Gentry, Burgesses, and Commons. PROPER. This word is used to denote that animals introduced as charges in an escutcheon appear in their natural colour. Modern writers on Heraldry consider this word superfluous, as the omission of the name of any metal or tincture is quite sufficient to make any person conclude that a lion, horse, or other animal is to be represented as it appears in nature. [Illustration: Purpure] PURPURE. The colour of purple, described in engraving by lines drawn diagonally from the sinister to the dexter side of the shield. PURSUIVANTS. Four officers of the Heralds' College, whose duty it is to attend the King-at-Arms on public occasions, and preside over certain departments of the Heralds' Office. They are called--Rouge Croix, Blue Mantle, Rouge Dragon, Portcullis. They are entitled to rank as gentlemen, but not esquires. [Illustration: Quartered] QUARTERED. A shield divided into four equal parts by a cross is said to be quartered. The quarter occupying the dexter chief is marked 1, or the first quarter; that occupying the sinister chief, 2; the dexter base, 3; the sinister base, 4; as in the annexed example. QUARTERLY. This term is used to signify that the shield is quartered. In describing the royal arms of England we should say--Quarterly, first and fourth gules, three lions passant guardant, or. Second, or, a lion rampant gules, within a double tressure of the same, flory and counter flory. Third, azure, a harp or, stringed, argent. [Illustration: Quartered or Parted per Saltier] QUARTERED OR PARTED PER SALTIER. A field divided by diagonal lines crossing each other in the centre of the field. [Illustration: Quarter foil] QUARTER FOIL. A four-leaved flower. QUARTERINGS. An escutcheon divided into any number of squares is said to contain as many quarterings; they may be as numerous as the arms required. An escutcheon containing a number of quarterings is called a genealogical achievement. QUADRATE. Square. See CROSS QUADRATE. QUARTER PIERCED. See CROSS QUARTER PIERCED. RADIENT. Any charge having rays or beams about it. [Illustration: Radient] Ex. Azure, a pale, or, radient. RAGULY. Any bearing that is ragged, like the trunk or limbs of a tree lopped of its branches, is said to be raguly. See CROSS. RAMPANT. Any beast in a fighting attitude. See LION RAMPANT. RAY. A stream of light proceeding from a luminous body. [Illustration: Ray] Ex. Azure, a ray of the sun issuing out of the dexter corner of the escutcheon. The lines on each side are not noticed. REST. The figure inserted in the illustration of the word "clarion" is by some writers on Heraldry thought to represent a rest for a lance, and they give the charge that name. See CLARION. REGARDANT. An animal looking towards the sinister side of the shield. See LION REGARDANT. RIBAND. A diminutive of the bend. [Illustration: Riband] Ex. Gules, a riband, or. ROUNDLETS. Small round figures, all named from different metals and tinctures. See p. 8. [CHAP. II.] RUBY. A precious stone, formerly used instead of gules. SABLE. The term used in Heraldry for black. SALIENT. An animal springing forward. See LION SALIENT. SALTIER. One of the honourable ordinaries, by Scottish heralds called St. Andrew's Cross. [Illustration: Saltier] Ex. Argent, a saltier, gules SANGUINE. One of the heraldic tinctures. It is a dark red or blood colour. By some armorists it is called murrey. The latter word is considered obsolete. SAPPHIRE. The name of a precious stone, formerly used to express azure. SARDONYX. A precious stone, formerly used to denote sanguine in emblazoning the arms of the English nobility. SATURN. The name of a planet, used to denote sable in emblazoning the royal arms by ancient armorists. [Illustration: Sceptre] SCEPTRE. A royal staff; an ensign of sovereignty borne in the hand. It was originally a javelin without a head. Sceptres of the present time are splendidly decorated with jewellery. The annexed engraving represents two sceptres of the kings of England: _the sceptre with the dove_ is of gold, three feet seven inches long; the circumference of the handle is three inches, and two inches and a quarter at the end of the staff; the pomel is decorated with a fillet of table diamonds and other precious stones; the mound at the top is enriched with a band of rose diamonds; upon the mound is a small cross of Calvary, over which is a dove with its wings expanded, as the emblem of mercy. _The royal Sceptre with the Cross_ is of gold; the handle is plain, and the upper part wreathed; it is in length two feet nine inches, the fleur-de-lis of six leaves; the mound, and the cross above it, are richly embellished with amethysts and diamonds. SCARPE. A diminutive of the bend sinister. [Illustration: Scarpe] Ex. Argent, a scarpe, gules. SCROLL. The riband below the escutcheon, on which the motto is inscribed. SEEDED. When the seed of a rose or any other flower is of a different tint from the petal, it is called seeded. The heraldic colour of the seed in the centre of a flower is or, but, as in other proper names, the colour of the seed is not mentioned unless it is of a different tincture. [Illustration: Set foil or Six foil] SET FOIL OR SIX FOIL. Six leaves conjoined in the centre. SEGREANT. This term is used to describe a griffin displaying its wings as if about to fly. [Illustration: Segreant] Ex. A griffin rampant, segreant, gules. SEJANT. French word for sitting. See LION SEJANT. SEMÉ. A French word for strewed. A field powdered or strewed with any object is said to be semé: thus a shield may be semé of fleur-de-lis, semé of hearts, &c. SINISTER. A term used in Heraldry to signify the left side of any object. Thus a bend proceeding from the top of the left side of the shield is called a bend sinister. SLIPPED. Torn from the stock or branch. [Illustration: Slipped] Ex. Azure, three laurel leaves slipped, argent. SOL. A planet, formerly used to denote or, in emblazoning royal arms. It is the Latin name for the sun. SOL, or THE SUN IN ITS SPLENDOUR. The sun is said to be in its splendour when it is figured (that is, delineated with a human face) and surrounded with rays. Sometimes this figure is called a sun in its glory. [Illustration: Sol, or The Sun in its Splendour] Ex. Azure, a sun in its splendour. STANDARD. A large square flag bearing the whole of the achievements of the monarch or nobleman, as seen in the royal standard of England. The royal standard, when placed before the pavilion of the monarch either at a tournay or in an encampment, was eleven yards long and three yards broad. The length of the standard when borne in the field denoted the rank of the leader: that of a duke was seven yards long; a peer of lower degree raised a standard five yards in length; that of a knight banneret was only four. In modern times standards of peers or knights banneret are seldom displayed but in funeral processions. The standard is then long and narrow, and pointed at the end; that of a duke is about fifteen feet in length, peers of lower degree about twelve. The flag borne as the ensign of a regiment of cavalry is called a standard. The flags of foot soldiers are called colours. STAR. This celestial figure is always represented as argent, and is supposed to have six rays or points; if they have more points the number must be named. See ETOILE. STATANT. An animal standing still with all its legs on the ground. See LION STATANT. SUPPORTERS are figures standing on the scroll, placed on each side of the shield as if to support it. Supporters in English Heraldry are granted only to persons included in the rank of nobility or to knights banneret by favour of the sovereign. The origin of this addition to the external ornaments of the escutcheon may be traced to the practice which originally prevailed in the regulation of tournaments. Some days prior to the tournament taking place, each knight desirous of entering the lists was required to hang up his shield, upon which his arms were emblazoned, at the place appointed by the prince or nobleman that proclaimed the tournament, that they might be examined by the heralds, to prevent unqualified persons entering the lists. Each shield thus exhibited was guarded or supported by the servants of the knight to whom it belonged, and to disguise their livery these guardians of the shield assumed the appearance of savages, Moors, lions, griffins, and various other animals. In after times, on the creation of a peer, the Heralds selected the supporters they deemed most appropriate, having some allusion either to the deeds, name, title, arms, or motto of the newly-created peer. SURMOUNTED. A figure or bearing having another over it. [Illustration: Surmounted] Ex. Gules, a sword erect in pale, argent, surmounted by two keys, saltier, or. SURTOUT. The French word for "over all." See ESCUTCHEON OF PRETENCE and OVER ALL. TALBOT. A dog formerly used for hunting. It is formed something between a hound and a beagle, with a large snout, and long, round, thick ears. [Illustration: Talbot] Ex. Argent, a talbot's head erased, semé of billets. TENNE, or TAWNEY. One of the tinctures used in emblazoning arms. It signifies orange colour, and is represented in engraving by lines drawn diagonally from the sinister to the dexter side of the shield, traversed by perpendicular lines from the base to the chief. [Illustration: Tiara] TIARA. The Pope's mitre, with its triple crowns. TINCTURE. A term used in Heraldry to express colour. TOPAZ. The name of a precious stone, formerly used instead of or, in emblazoning the arms of the English nobility. TORTEAUX. Red roundlets. [Illustration: Torteaux] Ex. Argent, three torteaux in bend, sinister. TOURNAMENTS were combats of honour, in which persons of noble birth entered the lists to gain reputation in feats of arms. The name is derived from _tourner_, to turn, from the horsemen turning frequently as they rode round the enclosure, and during the course of the engagement. The design of tournaments was to train the nobility to the use of arms; none, therefore, were admitted to these sports but persons of noble birth, who could prove their descent, at least, by three generations. They were also required to be men of unspotted honour and integrity. It was customary for princes, on some public festivity or rejoicing, to appoint a day for these entertainments, and give public notice to the knights in their own territories, as well as in the neighbouring states. The knights generally made their appearance four days before the combat. They endeavoured to excel each other in the splendour of their equipage and dress, and in the excellence and beauty of their horses, which were adorned with the most costly caparisons. Their armorial ensigns were displayed with great pomp during three days, that all who viewed them might judge if they were worthy of entering the lists. The field where the tournament was to be held was railed in with pales. This place was called the lists. A king was appointed to preside over the sports, as were also judges to examine the knights' armour and arms, and to see that no unfair advantage was taken. A number of other officers were appointed, which our space will not allow us to mention. A short distance from the lists were the galleries and pavilions for the spectators; the most splendid was that fitted up for the lady who presided as queen of the tournament and her attendants, all splendidly attired. The most noble and most beautiful ladies of the court crowded to these martial entertainments to inspire the combatants with ardour, by giving them some token or favour, such as a scarf, veil, or bracelet, with which the knight adorned his helmet or spear. Their arms were lances of light wood, without iron at the top; swords without edge or point; in some instances wooden swords were used. The knights were formed into two parties, and entered the lists by different barriers, riding round the lists several times to pay their respects to their sovereign and the ladies. At length the heralds sounded to arms; the quadrils, or troop, took their stations; when the charge was sounded, the knights rushed against each other with the utmost impetuosity. The clashing of swords, the sounding shields, the war-cry of the knights, who shouted the name of their ladye-love in the midst of the mimic strife, greatly excited the spectators, who, in return, cheered and encouraged the combatants. When the knights were brave and determined, the contest lasted some hours; the vanquished, that is, those who were thrown from their horses, withdrew from the lists as quietly as possible, leaving the field to their successful opponents. The victory was decided by the number of knights unhorsed. The prizes to the victors were adjudged and delivered by the queen and the ladies. This authority of the fair sex contributed greatly to polish the manners of the nobility and gentry of the middle ages, who were anxious to court the favour of those who were the distributors of public honours. Sometimes this entertainment was followed by jousts. Two cavaliers, out of gallantry, would break a lance in honour of the ladies. These were followed by others until the lists were again cleared for the tournament. The difference between tournaments and jousts was, that the former were in the nature of battles, the latter of duels. When the sports were over, the heralds and pursuivants declared the names and titles of the knights, and proclaimed the heraldic ornaments which the emperor, king, or prince that presided at the tournament granted to those whom he pleased to reward or favour. Notwithstanding all the precautions to prevent the mischief that might happen at these martial exercises few were exhibited in which a great number were not wounded, some killed in the melée, others crushed by the falling of the scaffolds, or trod to death by the horses. Kings, princes, and gallant knights from every part of Europe have perished at different times while attending or taking part in those mimic battles. Successive popes thundered out their anathemas against all that encouraged this warlike and dangerous amusement. Those who perished in these sanguinary entertainments were denied the honour of Christian burial; and yet, so strong was the passion of the nobility of Europe for these martial sports, from a desire to display their grandeur, courage, and address before the ladies and the assembled multitude, that no bulls, decretals, or anathemas of the church were able to restrain them. The use of gunpowder, and the consequent inutility of armour to defend the person in battle, gradually put an end to these animating shows. The tragical death of Henry II. of France, in 1559, who was accidentally killed in a tournament, caused laws to be passed prohibiting their being held in that kingdom. They were continued in England till the beginning of the seventeenth century. An attempt was made to revive these martial exhibitions in Scotland, a few years ago, by Lord Eglintoun, the acknowledged leader in all manly sports, elegant athletic exercises, and baronial liberality. This noble peer proclaimed a tournament to be held at Eglintoun Castle on the 28th and 29th of August, 1839. The lists were duly prepared, a covered pavilion was erected for the accommodation of the ladies, which would contain 3000 persons. In front of this pavilion was the throne of the Queen of Beauty and her attendants. Around the lists, at convenient distances, were arranged the tents or pavilions of the knights, over which floated the gonfalon, or great banner, emblazoned with the arms and motto of the knight to whom the tent was appropriated, penons and penoncils fluttered at each angle of the pavilion, and the shield was placed over the entrance. The knights vied with each other in the decoration of their pavilions; all was in accordance with ancient customs: and if the shade of Froissart had witnessed the scene, it could not have complained of modern innovation or misplaced ornament. The procession of the King of the tournament, the Queen of Beauty, with the judges, heralds, pursuivants, halberdiers, musicians, men-at-arms, as also the splendid retinues of the noble challenger and the gallant knights, presented a scene unparalleled for magnificence and heraldic emblazonment since the days of Edward IV. Every form was observed in this modern tournament; and a more interesting scene for the historian, the antiquary, and armorist, could not be exhibited. Unfortunately, the continued rain cast a gloom over this animated spectacle, which nevertheless excited the highest admiration of all who beheld it: a spectator of the scene could well imagine the enthusiasm similar ones would create in the minds of the gay and brave of former times. It is deemed necessary to briefly notice the last tournament held in Britain; as any one that requires full information on every part of heraldic ornament, processional arrangement, and technical definition, may find positive examples in the details of this gorgeous exhibition. TRANSPOSED. Charges or bearings placed contrary to their usual situation. [Illustration: Transposed] Ex. Argent, a pile, azure, issuing from the chief between two others, transposed. TREFOIL. Three-leaved grass: the shamrock of Ireland. When a flower or leaf is introduced as a charge in a shield of arms, if it is of its natural colour, or, in heraldic language, proper, the tincture is not named, but if of any other colour it must be described. [Illustration: Trefoil] Ex. Argent, three trefoils, gules, one over two. [Illustration: Tressure] TRESSURE. An ordinary not so broad as an orle. It generally forms a border to the inescutcheon. Tressures are frequently borne double, and sometimes treble. They are generally ornamented flory and counter-flory. The example contains only a single tressure. The arms of Scotland exhibit an example of a double tressure flory and counter-flory, as exhibited in the shield on the title-page of this Manual. See DOUBLE TRESSURE. TRICORPORATED. Three lions rampant, conjoined, under one head, guardant, in the fess points. See LIONS. TRIPPING. The motion of deer, between running and walking. [Illustration: Tripping] Ex. Argent, a stag proper, tripping. [Illustration: Turband] TURBAND. In coats of arms, where the knight was a Crusader, this figure often appears. It was the form of the sultan's turban at that period. [Illustration: Turreted] TURRETED. A wall or castle having small turrets. In the annexed example the square tower has circular turrets at the angles, and is therefore said to be turreted. TUSKED. Any animal having tusks of a different tincture from its body is said to be tusked. [Illustration: Tusked] Ex. Argent, a boar's head, erased proper, tusked gules. UNDY. A term used to express the word wavy by Gwillim and other ancient armorists. [Illustration: Wavy] Ex. Argent, a bend undy, gules. [Illustration: Vair] VAIR. A kind of fur formerly used for the lining the garments of knights. It is represented in engraving by the figures of small bells ranged in lines, as in the annexed example. Unless the colour of the fur is named, vair is always argent and azure. The bend, the cross and saltier, are sometimes formed of this fur. VAMBRACED. Armour for the arms. [Illustration: Vambraced] Ex. Argent, three dexter arms, vambraced, couped. VAMPLATE. A word used by ancient heralds for armour for the hand, instead of gauntlet. VENUS. The name of the planet, used for the colour vert by ancient heralds, who emblazoned the arms of sovereigns by planets instead of metals and colours. VERDOY. A bordure charged with eight leaves. [Illustration: Verdoy] Ex. Vert, a bordure argent, verdoy, of trefoils. [Illustration: Vert] VERT. Green. It is represented in engraving by diagonal lines drawn from the dexter to the sinister side of the shield. VISCOUNT. A title of honour, a degree below an earl. VOIDED. A term applied when any part of an ordinary is left open to the field. [Illustration: Voided] Ex. Gules, a bend sinister, voided, argent. VOIDER. A subordinate ordinary. [Illustration: Voider] Ex. Azure, a voider, argent. [Illustration: Volant] VOLANT. The French word for flying. It is used in Heraldry to express the same action. VORANT. Swallowing or devouring: any animal, in a charge, devouring another creature. [Illustration: Vorant] Ex. Argent, a serpent crowned, or, vorant an infant. VULNED. A word that signifies wounded, used in emblazonry to denote an animal wounded by another creature. VULNING. Any creature in the act of wounding itself. [Illustration: Vulning] Ex. Argent, a pelican's head, erased, vulning. WALLED. A term sometimes used in Heraldry. When an ordinary is edged or guarded by an embattled wall. [Illustration: Walled] Ex. Azure, on a pale, walled on each side with three battlements argent, an endorse gules. WAVY. Curved lines, undulating like the waves of the sea. [Illustration: Wavy] Ex. Argent, the lower half of the shield three bars wavy, azure. WHITE. This word is only used to describe a plain fur. It is represented as argent. WINGED. When the wings of a bird, or those of chimerical figures which are drawn with wings, are of a different tincture to their bodies, they are said to be winged. Thus, in the arms of the state of Venice there is a lion sejant guardant, winged or. [Illustration: Wings erect] WINGS ERECT. Wings are called erect when their long feathers point upwards. [Illustration: Wings inverted] WINGS INVERTED. When the feathers point downwards. WIVERN. A chimerical animal, the upper part resembling a dragon. [Illustration: Wivern] Ex. Argent, a wivern, wings raised. [Illustration: Wreath] WREATH. A chaplet of two different-coloured silks wound round each other, and placed on the top of the helmet for the crest to rest upon. In Heraldry it is usually drawn straight, as in the lower example. * * * * * CHAP. VIII. HERALDRY IN CONNECTION WITH HISTORY, ARCHITECTURE, INTERIOR DECORATION, COSTUME, AMUSEMENT, RELIGIOUS SOLEMNITIES, FUNERAL RITES, ETC. In the preface to this Manual, we stated that Heraldry might be considered as the symbolic history of the nobility of Britain, from the Conquest to the reign of Elizabeth. It would require a volume of far greater pretensions than this to enter fully upon the heraldic history of the peerage; but the assertion may be borne out by merely glancing at the supporters of the shields containing the arms of the British monarchs during that period. Supporters were not introduced in English heraldry previous to the reign of Richard II. The shield of this luxurious monarch is supported on each side by an angel habited, and beneath the shield by a white hart couchant, gorged and chained or, beneath a tree. The shield of Henry IV., the founder of the Lancastrian dynasty, was supported on the dexter side by a swan, on the sinister side by an antelope, both gorged and lined or. The shield of the gallant Henry V. was supported on the dexter side by a lion rampant guardant, crowned or; on the sinister side by an antelope, gorged and chained. Henry VI. had two antelopes as supporters to his achievement. The shield of the gallant Yorkist Edward IV. is supported on the dexter side by a lion rampant argent, the tail passed between his legs, and turned over his back; on the sinister by a white hart, and in some instances by a bull. The supporters of the shield of Richard III. were two boars rampant argent, tusked and bristled or. Henry VII., as a descendant of the Welch prince Cadwallader, assumed the red dragon as the supporter of the dexter side of his shield; the sinister was supported by a greyhound argent, collared gules. The shield of Henry VIII. was supported on the dexter side by a lion guardant, crowned or; on the sinister by a dragon gules. Edward VI. had the same supporters. Mary on her marriage with Philip of Spain, empaled the arms of Spain and England as baron and femme; the dexter side of the shield was supported by the imperial eagle, the sinister by a lion rampant, crowned or. Queen Elizabeth rescued England from this degradation; the crowned lion rampant of England resumed his place as the supporter of the dexter side of the shield, and the red dragon on the sinister. On the union of England with Scotland, the supporters of the royal arms were, on the dexter side a lion guardant, crowned or, on the sinister maned and unguled or, white unicorn, gorged and chained of the same. The supporters of the royal arms have continued the same to the present time; and, as an emblem of union and strength, long may they continue. The reader may easily read the vicissitudes and changes of dynasty in the great change of these emblems of support and dignity during the period of time that elapsed from the reign of Richard II. to James I.; and even the brief notice here given would enable the reader to determine the date of any building if the royal arms and supporters were placed within it. Heraldry had taken too firm a hold of the minds of the higher classes of society to escape the notice of the architects who were engaged by the sovereigns of England and by the wealthy barons, to erect those splendid ecclesiastical edifices that still exist as the architectural gems of Britain. Westminster Abbey teems with heraldic ornament, not only in the gorgeous chapel of Henry VII., but in those parts of the structure erected at a much earlier period. During the time when those styles of Gothic architecture prevailed that are now called the decorated and the perpendicular, the roof, the columns, the stained glass windows, the seats, altar, tombs, and even the flooring, were filled with emblazonment. A branch of art which our forefathers found so useful as an ornament to architecture cannot be beneath the notice of those who are desirous of treading in their footsteps. Nor was heraldic ornament confined to architecture. It formed the grand embellishment of the interior of the palaces and baronial castles, "The gorgeous halls which were on every side, With rich array and costly arras dight." The canopies of state, the furniture and plate, were all emblazoned with the arms of the royal and noble owners. And even at the present day, heraldry is far more effective for interior decoration than the unmeaning Italian scroll-work that is substituted for it. Some idea of the value of both may be formed by glancing at the interior decoration of the new Royal Exchange; and it is to be regretted that the shields containing the arms of the different countries should not have occupied the walls, as an indication of the spot where the natives of those countries might be found; and that the compartments of the ceiling, if such ornament should be found in a building of this kind at all, should not be filled with the Italian floral scroll decoration. In a preceding chapter of this Manual, the reader has been informed that the arms of a knight were emblazoned on the surcoat or outer garment that was worn over his armour, which was the origin of the term Coat of Arms. Heraldic emblazonment was plentifully strewed over the mantles of the nobility when they assembled on state solemnities. Nor was this ornament confined to the garments of males. Ladies delighted to appear in the cognizances of their lords, or in their own paternal bearings. Armourists that have amused themselves by treating on the curious and obsolete terms of heraldry, have supposed that the flanch and flasque represent that part of female attire which covered the body from the lower part of the neck to the waist, and that this part of the ladies' dress contained the heraldic bearing. Our contracted space will not allow our indulging in fanciful research, nor would it benefit our readers if we did so. Suffice it that we have ample proof that heraldry formed the decoration of female attire. Numerous instances may be found, either in stained glass, monumental brasses, or illuminated genealogies, of female figures bearing heraldic devices on their apparel. A married lady or widow had her paternal arms emblazoned upon the fore part of her vest, which by ancient writers is called the kirtle, and the arms of the husband on the mantle, being the outer and the most costly garment, and therefore deemed the most honourable. This is called bearing arms kirtle and mantle. Our frontispiece contains two figures kneeling, taken from _Dallaway's Heraldry_. They are to be found in an illuminated pedigree of the Weston family. The male figure is that of Sir John de Weston, of Weston-Lizars, in Staffordshire, and Isabel his wife, whose paternal name was Bromley. In three quarterfoils beneath the figures are shields: the first contains the arms of Weston, sable, an eagle displayed or, with a lable argent, fretty gules; the centre shield is argent, fretty gules; that under the lady is her paternal arms, quarterly per fess dancette, or and gules. The figure of the knight is represented in chain armour, over which is a surcoat, on which his arms are emblazoned. The vest or kirtle of the lady is formed entirely of the colours of her arms disposed quarterly, and parted horizontally, or fessways, by the line dancette. As both the knight and his lady appear together, each bears their own arms; but if either had been drawn separately, the arms of both would have appeared on one person; if on the male, they would have been empaled baron and femme upon the surcoat; if on the female, they would have appeared on kirtle and mantle. This lady is drawn with a kirtle only. In some of the later monumental brasses, the arms on female figures are arranged differently; the arms of the baron appearing on the outside of the mantle, hanging over the dexter shoulder, the paternal arms of the femme on the lining of the mantle turned outwards on the sinister side of the figure. The reader will find, by referring to the word TOURNAMENT in the Dictionary, that Heraldry formed the great embellishment of that animated and costly amusement: and that the attainment of heraldic honours was the only means of gaining permission to join in it, and by this means only was a passport obtained to high society. These honours, which cost some trouble in gaining, could be lost by misconduct. Arms were forfeited for uncourteous demeanour, disregard of authority, falsehood, oppression, and ungentlemanly conduct; and there can be little doubt but, in a semi-barbarous age, when prowess in the field of battle was considered the highest acomplishment, that the dread of a blot on the escutcheon, or a reversal of the shield of arms, restrained many a proud baron in his tyrannical proceedings to those beneath him, and tended to keep down the insolence of the upstart favourites of royalty. Heraldry tended to soften and polish the manners, and, by the introduction of the manufacture of silken housings tapestry, and carpeting, to increase the comforts and pleasures of society, and compelled those who were anxious to exhibit the insignia of gentility, to seek distinction by other means than rapine and violence. The term Canting Heraldry frequently occurs in ancient and modern authors. It is a term of contempt and derision, applied to symbolic bearings that are assumed without the authority of the Heralds' College. In many cases they allude to the name or occupation of the bearer: the motto is probably a pun upon the figures contained in the shield, or some technical expression used by the parties in their agricultural or commercial pursuits. No person, when heraldry was in its greatest repute, dared assume any cognizance or bearing without permission of the Earl Marshal or the Kings-at-Arms. Any individuals, who presumed, by assumption, to offend the laws of the court of honour, were liable to heavy fines and personal duresse, which in many instances have been rigidly enforced. THE END. * * * * * AUGUST, 1862. NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS PUBLISHED BY ARTHUR HALL, VIRTUE & CO., 25, PATERNOSTER ROW. * * * * * This day, price 7s. cloth gilt, THINGS HARD TO BE UNDERSTOOD; OR, EXPLANATIONS OF DIFFICULT DOCTRINES AND MISINTERPRETED TEXTS. By the Rev. 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46374	----	'Mr. Punch's' Book of Arms. "M^{R.} PUNCH'S" BOOK OF ARMS DRAWN & WRITTEN BY E T REED LONDON BRADBURY, AGNEW & C^{o.} Tonbridge Printed by Bradbury, Agnew, & Co. Ld. MDCCCXCIX. Contents. First Baron Russell of Killowen i The Right Hon. Sir William Vernon Harcourt, P.C. M.P. iij Joseph, first Earl of Birmingham vj Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, G.C.B. M.P. viij Horatio Herbert, first Viscount Kitchener of Omdurman xj M. le President, Felix Faure xiij Lord Kipling of Mandalay xvj The Earl of Barnato xviij Viscount Stanley of the Congo xx Oom Paul, first Earl of Krugersdorp xxij Viscount Gatti of the Strand xxiv The London County Council xxvj The Marquis of Hooley xxviij Mr. Justice Darling of Deptford xxx The Duke of Rhodes xxxij Hall Caine, first Lord Manxman xxxiv Baron Maple of Tottenham Court xxxvj Louis, first Baron Island de Rougemont xxxviij 'Appy 'Ampstead xl Lord Leno xlij Prince Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji, Duke of Sussex xliv Marie, Countess Corelli xlvj Baron Lecky of Dublin xlviij Viscount Labouchere of Twickenham l George Nathaniel, first Earl Curzon of the Pamirs +specially granted+ lij Thomas, Viscount Bowles of the Bosphorus liv Baron Bartlett of Sheffield lvj Henry, first Baron Hawkins of Tryham Fairleigh and Sentensham lviij Mr. Punch lxj [Illustration] [Illustration: HARICONES AD MENDICOS DEBENTUR (I'D GIVE THE BEGGARS BEANS)] First Baron Russell of Killowen. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= emergent paly from a legal orle of reception, a civic beak newly chained or, robed and garnished proper with bullion, slightly debruised with thunderbolts issuant from a chief justifiably rampant in invective robed and wigged proper with sleeves turned up ermine gorged with a choler of justice / =ij= at a bend of the field on a turf vert under the heraldic rose a sporting veteran wary to the last putting a bit proper on a likely mount turning up trumpy on the post / =iij= several salted guinea-pigs debrettees richly gilt and voided of scruple charged with marketable coronets bartered in lure / =iiij= on a ground of promotion a partisan of renown semee with shamrocks and shillelaghs and wreathed with laurels elevated and erased all proper. =Crest= / rising from a bar barry a tower of strength armed at all points and charged with a snuff-box of resort furtively employed for solace. =Supporters= / dexter, a female figure of justice scaly on the pounce reguardant sundry bubbles of finance issuant in fraud / sinister, an Irish disunicorn, brogued proper, chronically rampant in quest of autonomy. [Illustration: SORS DULCIS, TAM PREMENS (NICE LOT! SO PRESSING!)] The Right Hon. Sir William Vernon Harcourt, P.C. M.P. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= on a ship party-coloured, shattered, dismasted and waterlogged, a crew prone to mutiny reguardant in complacence over the side a tried and weather-beaten chief avoirdupois proper, incontinently jettisoned without scruple or remorse / =ij= on a ground of grievance two tents of Achilles, freely canvassed in the press, conjoined morly in tension and possibly somewhat overstrained / =iij= a masterly heraldic bouget of finance, charged with a fleece of gold lifted proper from sundry millionaires gorged or, collared in transit on the hop / =iiij= on a ground protestant kensittee a veteran campaigner statant single-handed "on his helmet the motto 'Ut veniant omnes!'--'Let 'em all come!'" bearing a plume mordant guttee de l'encre transfixing several anglican traitors foxy to the last but exposed proper in mummery. =Crest= / emergent from a crown of the Plantagenets, a rogue-elephant of the forest jumbonee, thwarted circumvented and finally ousted with alacrity. +=Motto= / 'Contra dexter et audax'--'Skilful and bold in opposition.'+ =Supporters= +'otherwise engaged!--mainly in accepting resignations by return of post--but in place thereof possibly the following will answer the purpose'+ / dexter, an eminent litterateur similarly isolated and unique in courtesy, and gratitude, charged with a colossal biography proper / sinister, an heraldic sun luluois radiant in geniality, exemplarily staunch and filial to the core. =Second Motto= +Welsh translation+ / 'Lyddthe ryfraf, dydd yu effyr, nod yff y nowydd!' [Illustration: "HOW IS M^{RS} KRUGER?". (REPLY PAID)] Joseph, first Earl of Birmingham. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= an antique Boer in his glory regarding a lion spotted over a bordure 'chartered' componee, partly white-washed / =ij= an heraldic bartlet cuffed and erased under a chapeau doubled up carmine / =iij= an Irish shamrock, barred in perpetuity on a ground orange of prejudice / =iiij= a mysterious libel voluntarily erased sable, rendered more or less illegible after the manner of the new journalism / over all, on an escutcheon of pretence, several ministerial billets of the best, clawed and collared in advance. =Crest= / a lion of debate langued mordant, bearing in dexter paw the union flag flowing to the sinister, dropping in his progress a Phrygian or republican cap of liberty 'turned up' and refaced ermine. =Supporters= / two highly crusted pillars of the constitution +sang-+azure in a demi-furious state of suppression. [Illustration: AMANS NOSAE EASI TOGET FORUT!] Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, G.C.B. M.P. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= on a sea of turbulence vert a jovial commodore, braided and epauletted proper in bullion, and wearing the insignia of the grand cross of the bath, mounting nimbly the bridge of a fighting-ship, drifting derelict and awash, barnacled, scuttled, riddled, and gutted / =ij= under a chief radiant in suavity, several heraldic partibores urgent, armed with queistions perennially brandished out of season, diplomatically exorcised, muzzled, and suppressed / =iij= on a ground semee of thistles, an elder of the auld licht lichtsome, kaily canny pawky silvendy to the fu', bearing an heraldic weebit cruizey or Scottish lantern, findin' salvation in the langsyne proper / =iiij= a rugged elephant of the New Forest on the war-path, sturdy in protestantism, and fully versed in the rubric, insulated by instincts antijingonee, turned up passee by the rest. =Crest= / a Scottish knight-in-armour, reluctant in temperament, but cedant under stress of suasion, haled, elected and ensconced proper in a cul-de-sac, conjoined Kimberley in opposition, portly for the nonce, but will probably gobony in harness. +=Motto= / 'Locus dulcis!'--'Cheerful post, eh!.'+ =Supporters= / dexter, a typical antique radical of retrenchment, straitened in view +kindly lent by the British Museum+, arrayed gudee gudee exeterallois to the last reguardant paly in dismay the trend gory of the times / sinister, a modern liberal of imperialism fashodee, statant sanguine on a stricken field, acquiescent in annexation, charged with a shamrock of home-rule slipped vert and demi-erased. =Second Motto= / 'Cordate si non cordite!'--'Wisely if without high explosives!' [Illustration] [Illustration: GOING UP HIGHER] Horatio Herbert, first Viscount Kitchener of Omdurman. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= a series of cataracts neatly and punctually surmounted while you wait / =ij= a Gallic cock marchant in chicane and emergent theatrical in advance collared in trespass and +we trust+ given the chucque proper / =iij= a British lion radiant in his glory sheathing an avenging sword rusted with age but trenchant to the full / =iiij= several stars of journalism rampant and purpure with fury incontinently ordered to Cairo. =Crest= / on a mount urgent with the hump a caliph proper of the Soudan imbrued gory to the last, dropping in his flight on a ground sable sundry spouses reluctant puffy without mules. =Supporters= / dexter, an Egyptian soldier drilled armed and furnished with a backbone made in England, crowned with laurels and bearing in his right hand the black banner of the Khalifa / sinister, a British trooper in triumph similarly charged and wreathed with laurels in augmentation, holding in his left hand a lance and in the right a return ticket proper to Khartoum available for a month. =Second Motto= / 'Dwell as if about to depart'--ahem! proper. [Illustration: MOI ET NICOLAS] M. le President, Felix Faure. =Arms=/ quarterly / =i= on a ground virulent two crosses of the legion of honour couped by a presidential hand sinister from the breast of two dreyfusards of repute, steadfast in rectitude / =ii= under the shield of the chief of the state tainted with bias, several dapper heraldic scoundrelles of the staff, plumed proper, braided gold to the waist, all banded together and rampant in tort / =iij= a series of highly-strung journalistic lyres in parry on the garble proper falsette in unison / =iiij= on a rock of degradation, interned in exile, a military scapegoat charged with treason, loaded with chains of evidence designed forged and welded in fraud, on the horizon, the first rays of a dawn of hope breaking through clouds of fury. =Crests= / =i= on a cap of liberty query, stained spotted and ensanguined gules, a peacock in pride proper, his head slightly turned, charged with the riband and star of the order of St. Andrew and a penchant for display verging on puerility / =ii= on a bend of the upper Nile a tricolourd African interlope of civilisation, dumped down squatty on the bank, collared eradicated and reflexed in agony. =Supporters= / dexter, a Russian bear sable, imperially crowned and gorged with loans hysterically courted and caressed ad nauseam, simpery bowy bendy to the last, but reluctant in committal / sinister, a double-faced eagle of Muscovy reguardant azure in dismay a kettle of fish a la parisienne. =Second Motto= / 'Felix fortunatus caesaris sociusque amicus.' =Additional Motto= / 'Felix ill-egalite.' [Illustration] [Illustration: THE IDEA OF A-ST-N BEING--BUT THATS ANOTHER STORY!] Lord Kipling of Mandalay. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= a review laudatory richly deserved quite proper / =ij= an heraldic jungle-bok rampant under several deodars or mem-sahibs or words to that effect / =iij= a lordly elephint a pilin' teak / =iiij= an argot-nautical vessel +in verse+ in full sale, classed A1 at Lloyds, charged with a cargo of technicalities all warranted genuine. =Crest= / on a charger argent the head of a publisher urgent. =Supporters= / dexter, a tommy atkins in all his glory, arrayed proper by a plain tailor from the hills / sinister, a first-class fighting man or fuzzy wuzzy of the Soudan, regardant sable on a British square charged with an elan effrontee. [Illustration] [Illustration: I AM BUILDING A HOUSE] The Earl of Barnato. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= +of the month+ a regal cheque in advance proper / =ij= fretty but checky / =iij= a Boer rampant and bristled / =iiij= grand quarters +in Park Lane+, behind heraldic scaffolding a castle garnished all proper. =Crest= / South African lion rampant ducally gorged or. =Supporters= / dexter, a bull / sinister, a bear, both proper, plain collared +celluloid+ and chained or. [Illustration] [Illustration: EMINENT TRAVELLERS RESCUED WHILE YOU WAIT--WITH EXPEDITION AND DESPATCH] Viscount Stanley of the Congo. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= two dwarfs of the forest of perpetual night proper, journalistically exploited to the nines / =ij= a continent sable, crossed by a small white band issuant from the interior / =iij= a New York herald blowing a trumpet of his own in exultation over repeated columns of copy sensational to the last / =iiij= a missionary of renown discovered in solitude near U-jiji sable. =Crest= / out of a demi-terrestrial globe +southern hemisphere+ a spread-eagle proper emergent in his glory gorged with honorary degrees +south latitude+, bearing in dexter claw an American flag, in sinister an union-jack. =Supporters= / dexter, a neutral monarch crowned, sceptred, and habited proper in a can't-go-free state / sinister, a publisher radiant charged in the arms with a colossal profit on the books of the present viscount. =Second Motto= / 'Mr. Speaker, I presume?' +on very rare occasions+. [Illustration] [Illustration: DONTJE UISCHJE MAGET HET!] Oom Paul, first Earl of Krugersdorp. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= two British cage-birds still vulning themselves on a ground of excessive patriotism / =ij= a pair of scales-of-justice patent controllable and adjustable at will proper / =iij= a lion in cachinnation roaring over a boar charging to absurdity for moral and intellectual damage / =iiij= a dog's-eared 'hym-bok' bound in veldt with covert designs. =Crest= / a reform tortoise of the rand emergent couped at the neck proper disarmed and voided of assets. =Supporters= / dexter, a burgher rampant in piety armed to the teeth / sinister, an antique dopper also in piety habited proper in broadcloth home-made and moth-eaten to the last / both singing in unison falsette the indermiddel from 'simplicita rusticana.' =Second Motto= / 'Who said Rhodes?' [Illustration] [Illustration: ALWAYS READY] Viscount Gatti of the Strand. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= argent a cruet charged extra / =ij= a magnum or tres sec / =iij= six native oyster-shells all passable / =iiij= a cotelette de mouton charged twice over. =Crest= / =i= a waiter passant charged with a salver argent, sinister arm a serviette / =ij= a demi-customer rampant holding in the sinister hand a parapluie vert. =Supporters= / two jeunesses dorees flippant regally gorged or. [Illustration] [Illustration: LET YOUR (SUB) WAYS BE OPEN AND ONLY YOUR PARKS BE SHADY!] The London County Council. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= three music-hall stars blatant voided of guile charged with double-entendres studded azure / =ij= issuant from a 'ring' sinister spotted and exposed proper a balance-sheet doctored and distinctly fichee to the last, all under a cloud sable / =iij= a civic turtle pommelled and affronted proper charged in the middle for betterment with a belabour member poignant in satire or Battersea cough-drop rampant / =iiij= two party-coloured fighting-cocks dancette in fury chronically embroiled proper on a ground litigious in the main. =Crest= / a prude vigilant on the pounce armed with pince-nez and reticule highly proper / in her bonnet an heraldic bee rampant. =Supporters= / on either side an antique civic effigy habited proper up to date, the dexter bearing a special globe gules, and the sinister a star extra-special vert. [Illustration] [Illustration: BE(EF) FIRM AND NO SIDE-SLIPS] The Marquis of Hooley. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= an ecclesiastical service of plate richly chased and displayed or / =ij= a gratuitous advertisement under editorial protest erased quite improper / =iij= a Scotch moor sable dancette the ballet Hooley or hieland Hoolichan / =iiij= two rural advowsons legally acquired over the counter on a human hand proper. =Crest= / an heraldic bovricycle urgent, tyred and inflated all proper, except driving-wheel sinister, which shows signs of puncture on a flint passe. =Supporters= / dexter, a full page puffy in advance announcing new company on a capital of two millions / sinister, a dean complaisant and recipient sable. [Illustration] [Illustration: ALL GOOD THINGS COME FROM ABOVE!] Mr. Justice Darling of Deptford. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= on a bench tory under a chapeau-de-soie glossy a mannikin caustic and mordant in retort / =ij= a ground-plan proper of guidance of the royal courts of justice +enabling a complete stranger to find his way proper to his own court+ / =iij= a fountain of honour spotted and displayed proper on the hop / =iiij= on a ground shady to the last several old hands barry passed over rampant. =Crest= / a legal spark +or 'scintilla juris'+ dapper in his glory elevated ermine. =Supporters= / dexter, the junior b+ar wigged and gowned rampant in frenzy / sinister, the senior b+ar similarly enfuriated arrayed silk for difference. [Illustration] [Illustration: REMEMBER KRUGERSDORP] The Duke of Rhodes. =Arms= / sable, a British lion trippant, collared, chained, and muzzled / charged with a raid over a bordure all improper bearing the British flag depressed. =Crests= / =i= a Boer's head couped at the neck / =ij= a hand grasping a sword sinister. =Supporters= / dexter, a blackamoor semee of pellets and guttees de sang +Loben+gules / sinister, a chartered company trooper gorged with laurels. [Illustration] [Illustration: THROUGH THE PRESS TO THE FRONT!] Hall Caine, first Lord Manxman. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= three human legs conjoined at the thigh and flexed in a triangle garnished and hygienically knickered proper running galy through several editions / =ij= under a flourish proper of trumpets a christian in broadcloth issuant pele-mele from a printing-press / =iij= sable a scapegoat preceded in triumph by a bondsman more or less accurately portrayed / =iiij= two Manx cats passant with sensational tales sported and displayed specially contributed by the present holder of the title. =Crest= / an author of distinction aesthetically habited proper, charged in outrecuidance with a sprig of the Ma+n+x Beerbohm effrontee for reclame. =Supporters= / dexter, an ancient statesman void of guile inveigled drawn and exploited to the full / sinister, a dignitary of the church radiant in approbation scenting purple patches for delivery in a rural diocese arrayed proper to the nines. =Second Motto= / 'And the harvest shall be mine.' [Illustration] [Illustration: MY COUNTRY IS DEAR, BUT LIBERTY IS DEARER] Baron Maple of Tottenham Court. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= five dining-room chairs +a bargain+ / =ij= three race-horses sable just rounding Tottenham Cour--no, Tattenham Corner / =iij= a winter sale +at greatly reduced prices+ proper / =iiij= an art sofa of the very latest, vert, azure, or gules. =Crest= / a pegasus rampant, new wings furnished throughout by Maple & Co. =Supporters= / two shop-walkers monstrant frock-coated sable. [Illustration] [Illustration: MODESTY FORBIDS ME TO BARE THESE ARMS] Louis, first Baron Island de Rougemont. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= a thorough-bred riding-turtle naiant and ridden on the curb, thereon a Swiss gentleman rouge-monte proper in nudity dirigeant with the big toe / =ij= a flight of wombats volant, soaring in desuetude on the wing across a setting sun / =iij= under a chief nunes, adept and ubiquitous in reclame, several gulls of science landed and exploited proper ad nauseam / =iiij= looking up a genealogical tree shady or insufficiently endorsed, an enquiring editor spectacled or +Massingham+ chronically reguardant in scepticism a series of travellers' tails artistically garnished and flaunted in the press. =Crest= / emergent from a southern hemisphere, a lion of adventure jaded and fretty, charged in the mane with a hatchet of romance slung proper. =Supporters= / dexter, a private of the Royal Marines, traditionally facile in credulity, gently closing the alternate eye proper / sinister, an Australasian blackamoor rampant in cannibalism bearing a long bow drawn and flexed to the full. [Illustration] [Illustration: 'APPY 'AMPSTEAD] =Arms= / quarterly / =i= a pyrotechnic carnival displayed proper / =ij= three tropical cocoa-nuts statant sable +three shies a penny+ / =iij= an ancient British barrow, supposed to be charged with body of Queen Boadicea / =iiij= an arry issuant from three bars blatant on a field dotty. =Crest= / an ass's head regardant reproachful, probably charged on the body with a juggins rampant. =Supporters= / dexter, an arriet plumed and garnished somethink like, I tell yer / sinister, a coster arrayed pearly to the nines, charged with a concertina all proper. =Second Motto= / 'A regular beno.' [Illustration] [Illustration: UBIQUE ET SEMPER VIRIDIS (ALL OVER THE SHOP AND ALWAYS FLOURISHING)] Lord Leno. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= three bars wait fretty in the wings / =ij= an heraldic pavilion, or changing-tent proper, outside a pair of heraldic dancing-pumps also fairly accurate / =iij= inside three 'alls a +k+night / =iiij= a professional's brougham passant between two 'alls 'eraced. =Crest= / a lion comique rampant in garb base to the last degree, holding in dexter hand an heraldic parapluie slightly out of repair all proper. =Supporters= / dexter, one of the 'gods' regardant, inclined to repartee / sinister, a denizen of the fauteuils d'orchestre cachinnatory to the last, charged on the breast for distinction with a solitaire of the first water. [Illustration] [Illustration: I BEAT EVEN ABEL WITH THE CANE] Prince Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji, Duke of Sussex. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= sable a star of India radiant in splendour / =ij= on a field vert several long hops volleyed and despatched proper to the boundary / =iij= on a ground semee with centuries under an heraldic pavilion a champion of renown reguardant in envy bearded to the full and inclined to embonpoint / =iiij= two canards conjoined or double duck proper collared with an eastern coronet wanting employment. =Crest= / an Indian panther of agility capped and sashed azure glancing furtively to leg sinister. =Supporters= / two umpires smocked and habited for distinction proper. =Second Motto= / 'Ad canga runem ibit rangit singe.' [Illustration] [Illustration: "NON H�C SINE NUMINE." (THESE THINGS ARE NOT DONE WITHOUT INSPIRATION!!)] Marie, Countess Corelli. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= on a ground sable of reserve, invincible to the last, a log proper constitutionally averse to being rolled under a column and a half / =ij= in a servants' 'orle, a dog's-eared volume melodramatic and transpontine to the full, circulating urgent / =iij= two wild horses at speed, trainant from a studio a startling portrait of a talented authoress, painted under protest, and exhibited with obvious reluctance by the victim +members of the press and aristocracy most welcome, 4.30 to 7+ / =iiij= hidden under a bushel proper +of plate-glass+ a light of literature, shining in reclame / over all, on an escutcheon of reticence, a trumpet of glory, usually blown automatically, but quite at the service of the press, gratis. =Crest= / a startled fawn, proper, of timidity, seeking shelter urgent, from a wreath of laurels issuant from the suburbs. =Supporters= / dexter, a curate habited sable proper, and guileless to the verge of inanity passant in perusal proper of 'The Botherations of Beelzebub' / sinister, a cook-general proper guttee-de-larmes palpitant in pathos absorbent the 'Sorrers o' Syt'n.' =Second Motto= / 'If I am forgotten, it won't be my fault!' [Illustration: I HOPE I DON'T INTRUDE!] Baron Lecky of Dublin. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= a highly cultured fish out of water guttee de larme / =ij= on a field+-night+, five lozenges emollient for the voice / =iij= on a ministerial bench highly proper a sage of renown souffrant under a surfeit of bores rampant / =iiij= on ground repugnant fretty a lecky-daisy or Irish sensitive plant verdant +green+. =Crest= / an Irish harpy surcharged financially on the pounce proper. =Supporters= / dexter, a British lion +LL.D.+ of literature indented sable, and suitably arrayed in gants-de-suede and shoes elastically sided / sinister, an heraldic camelopard sejant flexed at all joints, academically habited, collared, capped, and gowned. [Illustration] [Illustration: WITHOUT TRUTH NO HOUSEHOLD IS COMPLETE!] Viscount Labouchere of Twickenham. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= spotted before a beak several crafty mendicants exposed proper / =ij= inside a Westminster orle a British lion of rectitude dancette on a charter componee, charged with little games sinister under a cloud proper / =iij= on a ground party-coloured of revolt a primrose of nobility barred and erased / =iiij= in a pillory an heraldic pigott displayed in contumely / over all, on an escutcheon the family coat of Baron Taunton. =Crest= / issuant from a club +National Liberal+, a hawk-eyed lynx rampant in his glory, gorged with a banquet for popularity. =Supporters= / dexter, a classical figure representing Little England suitably attired, her defences somewhat neglected perhaps, statant on the pale of civilisation / sinister, an elector of Northampton proper. =Second Motto= / 'Britannia needs no bulwarks--they come too expensive!' [Illustration] [Illustration: WHY DRAG IN PITT AND CANNING?] George Nathaniel, first Earl Curzon of the Pamirs 'specially granted'. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= under a chief wavery ermine charged with a marquess's coronet for hauteur, a popinjay rising on a ground of undoubted ability / =ij= a Cretan lyre employed during the European concert charged with 'wires' strained improper 'probably wholly inaccurate' / =iij= a sun +of a peer+ in his meridian glory who declines to set upon the British dominions / =iiij= a lion erased, muzzled and depressed, regarding on a bastion the flags of the powers flowing in futility / over all, on an escutcheon of pretence 'as a minister of the crown' a slip verdant. =Crest= / a peacock in pride ruffled and displayed proper rising from a ministerial bench. =Supporters= / on either side an heraldic superior purzon erect omniscient pluming himself on a garb highly proper lined silk throughout. =Second Motto= / 'D.V. I shall go higher.' [Illustration] [Illustration: 'BUT ITS THANK YOU M^R G-BS-N B-WL-S WHEN THE LIBERALS ARE IN POWER'!] Thomas, Viscount Bowles of the Bosphorus. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= an heraldic cap'en or cuttle-fish sapient, holding in sinister tentacle a master-mariner's certificate / =ij= two pairs of ducks, worn alternately for distinction, displayed proper / =iij= on a mount arabesque a diminutive cavalier in his glory urgent +motto, 'Noctem in rotingro'+ / =iiij= an eastern khalif or sultan on a field sanguine, charged with a halo for benevolence. =Crest= / a demi superior purzon erect collared, semee of hurts displaying regal hauteur, charged in the middle with a nautical telescope effrontee. =Supporters= / two sea-dogs or antique 'saults' regardant timbretose, arrayed all proper, couped at the elbow and knee, and the limbs replaced by artifice. [Illustration] [Illustration: WE CAME OVER WITH THE CUNARDERS] Baron Bartlett of Sheffield. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= sable a Turkish imperial star and crescent quixotically flaunted +motto, 'Without stain'+ / =ij= a Swazi chieftain dancette, labelled 'Silomo,' armed and accoutred proper, and habited--well, ahem!--suitably to a tropical climate / =iij= on an heraldic provincial platform a knight rampant and demonstrant charged with a peroration grandiloquent to the last / =iiij= a private chart proper, showing the principal ports and soundings on the coast of Poland, discovered and surveyed by the present baron. =Crest= / an American or spread-eagle bearing the union-jack displayed, over all a sun in splendour which never sets. =Supporters= / dexter, a more or less British lion in fury bearing a fire-arm proper periodically discharged at random / sinister, a Russian bug-bear passe and out at elbows, suitably bound for transport to the wilds of hysteria. =Second Motto= / 'Oh, Swaziland! my Swaziland!' [Illustration] [Illustration: LUDUSCULIS OMNIBUS SUPPAR! (I'M PRETTY WELL UP TO ALL THEIR LITTLE GAMES!)] Henry, first Baron Hawkins of Tryham Fairleigh and Sentensham. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= in a paddock vert, under a chapeau-de-soie jauntily poised with a rake chirpy, a seasoned sportsman of bonhomie endossed turfy to the last +motto, 'Frustum rectissimum!'--'A little bit of all right!'+ / =ij= an historic claimant adipose ortonee, brazen and effrontee in perjury, punctured, pilloried and exposed proper by counsel / =iij= under a judicial bench cosy but ennuyee and chafy in the dark, a fox-terrier proper of renown +since deceased+ constant in fidelity +suggested epitaph, 'Nox et foxterea nihil'+ / =iiij= under a sword of justice suspended in imminence by a hair proper a sinister scoundrel of criminality, chained cringeant and paly, appraised proper from the first, justly doomed and handed over damnee in charge to the jury. =Crest= / out of a wreath of laurels vert, a veteran hawk-eyed eagle of the law, robed sanguine and wigged proper poudree in horse-hair, collared, furred and laced, reguardant in pince-nez. +=Motto= / 'Aquila non capit muscas!'--'Flies don't settle on him!'+ =Supporters= / dexter, a typical counsel of the common-law bar guttee de larmes, robed silk, fairly prostrate in bereavement, and wielding with laudable vigour an heraldic mouchoir / sinister, an old bailey, gorged proper with causes celebres lurid and transpontine to the full, collared freely in advance for preference. [Illustration] [Illustration: 'UBIQUE-ET-�RE PERENNIUS!' (ON ALL THE BOOKSTALLS-AND-FOR THE OLD RIDICULOUS SUM IN COPPERS!)] Mr. Punch. =Arms= / quarterly / =i= in a field of drollery of his own, unique in satire and fertility, an artistic leech of renown / =ij= a knight-veteran of the pencil, or heraldic tenniel proper cartonee, historic in achievement and masterly in technique, most ably seconded sambornois / =iij= two hemispheres proper representing all the world and his wife purpure in mirth, reguardant hilarious a charivari of the town, under a dexterous editorial baton urgent burnandy, going strong / =iiij= in a gallery of the press an alert dog-tobee fleur-de-lucee reguardant watchful and wary a party-coloured parliament-house embattled nightly in session. =Crest= / leaning on a staff of permanence all jules, gorged weekly in conclave and rompy in debate, a hunch-backed polichinelle proper of embonpoint rosy and humpy to the full. =Supporters= / two publishers of geniality arrayed gaudy in their splendour / dexter, a thorough-bassed sportsman agnulee garbed chasy to the nines, adept in counterpoint / sinister, a connoisseur bras-de-buree in heraldry, ardent in golf, conversant with stymies, cleeks, and brassies with an occasional bunker for difference. +=Motto= / 'Sentio eadem!'--''E 'ave my sympafy!'+ =Additional Motto= / 'Si monumentum quaeris circumspice.' * * * * * TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal signs=. Obvious punctuation errors repaired. The original is in a pseudo black-letter font. Some of the original text is in a red color. The caption with each illustration is the motto on the coat of arms. 
55439	----	PEEPS AT HERALDRY AGENTS AMERICA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 64 & 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK AUSTRALASIA OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 205 FLINDERS LANE, MELBOURNE CANADA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD. ST. MARTIN'S HOUSE, 70 BOND STREET, TORONTO INDIA MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD. MACMILLAN BUILDING, BOMBAY 309 BOW BAZAAR STREET, CALCUTTA [Illustration: PLATE 1. HERALD, SHOWING TABARD ORIGINALLY WORN OVER MAIL ARMOUR.] [Illustration: PEEPS AT HERALDRY BY PH[OE]BE ALLEN CONTAINING 8 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR AND NUMEROUS LINE DRAWINGS IN THE TEXT LONDON ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 1912 ] TO MY COUSIN ELIZABETH MAUD ALEXANDER CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. AN INTRODUCTORY TALK ABOUT HERALDRY 1 II. THE SHIELD--ITS FORM, POINTS, AND TINCTURES 8 III. DIVISIONS OF THE SHIELD 16 IV. THE BLAZONING OF ARMORIAL BEARINGS 24 V. COMMON OR MISCELLANEOUS CHARGES 31 VI. ANIMAL CHARGES 39 VII. ANIMAL CHARGES (CONTINUED) 47 VIII. ANIMAL CHARGES (CONTINUED) 56 IX. INANIMATE OBJECTS AS CHARGES 63 X. QUARTERING AND MARSHALLING 70 XI. FIVE COATS OF ARMS 74 XII. PENNONS, BANNERS, AND STANDARDS 80 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE 1. HERALD SHOWING TABARD, ORIGINALLY WORN OVER MAIL ARMOUR _frontispiece_ FACING PAGE 2. THE DUKE OF LEINSTER 8 Arms: Arg. saltire gu. Crest: Monkey statant ppr., environed round the loins and chained or. Supporters: Two monkeys environed and chained or. Motto: Crom a boo. 3. MARQUIS OF HERTFORD 16 Arms: Quarterly, 1st and 4th, or on a pile gu., between 6 fleurs-de-lys az., 3 lions passant guardant in pale or; 2nd and 3rd gu., 2 wings conjoined in lure or. Seymour. Crest: Out of a ducal coronet or a ph[oe]nix ppr. Supporters: Two blackamoors. Motto: Fide et amore. 4. THE EARL OF SCARBOROUGH 41 Arms: Arg. a fesse gu. between 3 parrots vert, collared of the second. Crest: A pelican in her piety. Supporters: Two parrots, wings inverted vert. Motto: Murus aëneus conscientia sana. 5. BARON HAWKE 48 Arms: Arg. a chevron erminois between three pilgrim's staves purpure. Crest: A hawk, wings displayed and inverted ppr., belled and charged on the breast with a fleur-de-lys or. Supporters: Dexter, Neptune; sinister, a sea-horse. Motto: Strike. 6. SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL 73 Arms: Arg. on mount vert, representation of the 40 feet reflecting telescope with its apparatus ppr., on a chief az., the astronomical symbol of Uranus irradiated or. Crest: A demi-terrestrial sphere ppr., thereon an eagle, wings elevated or. Motto: C[oe]lis exploratis. 7. THE FLAGS OF GREAT BRITAIN 80 (1) The Union Jack, (2) The Royal Standard. 8. A CRUSADER IN MAIL ARMOUR _on the cover_ _Also fifty-five small black and white illustrations throughout the text._ "... The noble science once The study and delight of every gentleman." "And thus the story Of great deeds was told." PEEPS AT HERALDRY CHAPTER I AN INTRODUCTORY TALK ABOUT HERALDRY What is heraldry? The art of heraldry, or armoury, as the old writers called it, consists in blazoning the arms and telling the descent and history of families by certain pictorial signs. Thus from age to age an authenticated register of genealogies has been kept and handed on from generation to generation. The making and keeping of these records have always been the special duty of a duly appointed herald. Perhaps you think that explanation of heraldry sounds rather dull, but you will soon find out that very much that is interesting and amusing, too, is associated with the study of armorial bearings. For heraldry, which, you know, was reckoned as one of the prime glories of chivalry, is the language that keeps alive the golden deeds done in the world, and that is why those who have once learnt its secrets are always anxious to persuade others to learn them too. "Although," says the old writer, Montague; "our ancestors were little given to study, they held a knowledge of heraldry to be indispensable, because they considered that it was the outward sign of the spirit of chivalry and the index also to a lengthy chronicle of doughty deeds." Now, it is in a language that is all its own that heraldry tells its stories, and it is unlike any other in which history has been written. This language, as expressed in armorial bearings, contains no words, no letters, even, for signs and devices do the work of words, and very well they do it. And as almost every object, animate and inanimate, under the sun was used to compose this alphabet, we shall find as we go on that not only are the sun, moon and stars, the clouds and the rainbow, fountains and sea, rocks and stones, trees and plants of all kinds, fruits and grain, pressed into the service of this heraldic language, but that all manner of living creatures figure as well in this strange alphabet, from tiny insects, such as bees and flies and butterflies, to the full-length representations of angels, kings, bishops, and warriors. Mythical creatures--dragons and cockatrices, and even mermaidens--have also found their way into heraldry, just as we find traditions and legends still lingering in the history of nations, like the pale ghosts of old-world beliefs. And as though heavenly bodies and plants and animals were not sufficient for their purpose, heralds added yet other "letters" to their alphabet in the shape of crowns, maces, rings, musical instruments, ploughs, scythes, spades, wheels, spindles, lamps, etc. Each of these signs, as you can easily understand, told a story of its own, as did also the towers, castles, arches, bridges, bells, cups, ships, anchors, hunting-horns, spears, bows, arrows, and many other objects, which, with their own special meaning, we shall gradually find introduced into the language of heraldry. But perhaps by now you are beginning to wonder how you can possibly learn one-half of what all these signs are meant to convey, but you will not wonder about that long, for heraldry has its own well-arranged grammar, and grammar, as you know, means fixed rules which are simple guides for writing or speaking a language correctly. Moreover, happily both for teacher and learner, the fish and birds and beasts (as well as all the other objects we have just mentioned) do not come swarming on to our pages in shoals and flocks and herds, but we have to do with them either singly or in twos and threes. Now, even those people who know nothing about heraldry are quite familiar with the term, "a coat of arms." They know, too, that it means the figure of a shield, marked and coloured in a variety of ways, so as to be distinctive of individuals, families, etc. But why do we speak of it as a _coat_ of arms when there is nothing to suggest such a term? I will tell you. In the far-away days of quite another age, heraldry was so closely connected with warlike exploits, and its signs and tokens were so much used on the battle-field to distinguish friends from foes, that each warrior wore his own special badge, embroidered on the garment or _surcoat_ which covered his armour, as well as, later on, upon the shield which he carried into battle. And this reminds us of the poor Earl of Gloucester's fate at the Battle of Bannockburn. For, having forgotten to put on his surcoat, he was slain by the enemy, though we are told that "the _Scottes_ would gladly have kept him for a ransom had they only recognized him for the Earl, but he had forgot to put on his coat of armour!" On the other hand, we have good reason to remember that the "flower of knighthood," Sir John Chandos, lost _his_ life because he _did_ wear his white sarcenet robe emblazoned with his arms. For it was because his feet became entangled in its folds (as Froissart tells us) in his encounter with the French on the Bridge of Lussac, that he stumbled on the slippery ground on that early winter's morning, and thus was quickly despatched by the enemy's blows. "Now, the principal end for which these signs were first taken up and put in use," says Guillim, "was that they might serve as notes and marks to distinguish tribes, families and particular persons from the other. Nor was this their only use. They also served to describe the nature, quality, and disposition of their bearer." Sir G. Mackenzie goes farther, and declares that heraldry was invented, or, at any rate, kept up, for two chief purposes: _First_, in order to perpetuate the memory of great actions and noble deeds. _Secondly_, that governors might have the means of encouraging others to perform high exploits by rewarding their deserving subjects by a cheap kind of immortality. (To our ears that last sentence sounds rather disrespectful to the honour of heraldry.) Thus, for example, King Robert the Bruce gave armorial bearings to the House of Wintoun, which represented a falling crown supported by a sword, to show that its members had supported the crown in its distress, while to one Veitch he gave a bullock's head, "to _remember_ posterity" that the bearer had succoured the King with food in bringing some bullocks to the camp, when he was in want of provisions. Some derive their names as well as their armorial bearings from some great feat that they may have performed. Thus: "The son of Struan Robertson for killing of a wolf in Stocket Forest by a durk--dirk--in the King's presence, got the name of Skein, which signifies a dirk in Irish, and three durk points in pale for his arms." We shall meet with numbers of other instances in heraldry where armorial bearings were bestowed upon the ancestors of their present bearers for some special reason, which is thereby commemorated. Indeed, it is most interesting and amusing to collect the legends as well as the historical facts which explain the origin and meaning of different coats of arms. Here are a few instances of some rather odd charges. (A charge is the heraldic term given to any object which is _charged_, or represented, on the shield of a coat of arms.) To begin with the Redman family: They bear three pillows, the origin of which Guillim explains--viz.: "This coat of arms is given to the Redman family for this reason: Having been challenged to single combat by a stranger, and the day and the place for that combat having been duly fixed, Redman being more forward than his challenger, came so early to the place that he fell asleep in his tent, whilst waiting for the arrival of his foe. "The people being meanwhile assembled and the hour having struck, the trumpets sounded to the combat, whereupon Redman, suddenly awakening out of his sleep, ran furiously upon his adversary and slew him. And so the pillows were granted to him as armorial bearings, to remind all men of the doughty deed which he awakened from sleep to achieve." In many cases the charges on a coat of arms reflect the name or the calling of the bearer. When this happens they are called "allusive" arms, sometimes also "canting," which latter word is a literal translation of the French term, _armes chantantes_, although, as a matter of fact, _armes parlantes_ is a more usual term. Here are some examples of allusive arms. The Pyne family bear three pineapples, the Herrings bear three herrings, one, Camel of Devon, bears a camel _passant_; the Oxendens bear three oxen; Sir Thomas Elmes bears five elm-leaves; three soles figure on the coat of arms of the Sole family, and to the description of the last armorial charge, old Guillim quaintly adds: "By the delicateness of his taste, the sole hath gained the name of the partridge of the sea." The arms of the Abbot of Ramsey furnish, perhaps, one of the most glaring examples of canting heraldry, for on his shield a ram is represented struggling in the sea! On the shield of the Swallow family we find the mast of a ship with all its rigging disappearing between the capacious jaws of a whale, whilst the Bacons bear a boar. But whoever designed the coat of arms of a certain Squire Malherbe must have surely been in rather a spiteful mood, and certainly had a turn for punning. For on that gentleman's shield we find three leaves of the stinging-nettle boldly charged! In the armorial bearings of the Butler family we see allusion made to their calling in the charge of three covered cups, which commemorates the historical fact that the ancestor of the present Marquis of Ormonde, Theobald Walter by name, was made Chief Butler of Ireland by Henry II. in 1171, an office which was held by seven successive generations of the Ormonde family. The family of Call charge _their_ shield very appropriately with three silver trumpets. The Foresters bear bugle horns; the Trumpingtons, three trumpets. Three eel-spears were borne by the family of Strathele, this being the old name given to a curious fork, set in a long wooden handle, and used by fishermen to spear the eels in mud. The Graham Briggs charge a bridge upon their coat of arms. A tilting spear was granted as his armorial bearings to William Shakespeare, which he bore as a single charge; a single spear was also borne appropriately by one Knight of Hybern. As a last example of allusive arms, we may quote a comparatively modern example--viz., the coat of arms of the Cunard family. Here we find three anchors charged upon the field, in obvious allusion to Sir Samuel Cunard, the eminent merchant of Philadelphia and the founder of the House of Cunard. CHAPTER II THE SHIELD--ITS FORM, POINTS, AND TINCTURES Nothing is more fascinating in the study of heraldry than the cunning fashion in which it tells the history either of a single individual or of a family, of an institution, or of a city--sometimes even of an empire--all within the space of one small shield, by using the signs which compose its language. It is astounding how much information can be conveyed by the skilful arrangement of these signs to those who can interpret them. For armorial bearings were not originally adopted for ornament, but to give real information, about those who bore them. [Illustration: PLATE 2. THE DUKE OF LEINSTER. _Arms._--Arg: saltire gu: _Crest._--Monkey statant ppr. environed round the loins and chained or. _Supporters._--Two monkeys environed and chained or. _Motto._--Crom a boo. ] Thus every detail of a coat of arms has its own message to deliver, and must not be overlooked. Let us begin with the shield, which is as necessary a part of any heraldic achievement[1] as the canvas of a painting is to the picture portrayed upon it. [Footnote 1: Any complete heraldic composition is described as an _achievement_.] It actually serves as the vehicle for depicting the coat of arms. The word "shield" comes from the Saxon verb _scyldan_, to protect, but the heraldic term "escutcheon," derived from the Greek _skûtos_, a skin, reminds us that in olden days warriors covered their shields with the skins of wild beasts. Early Britons used round, light shields woven of osier twigs, with hides thrown over them, whilst the Scythians and Medes dyed their shields red, so that their comrades in battle might not be discouraged by seeing the blood of the wounded. The Roman Legionary bore a wooden shield covered with leather and strengthened with bars and bosses of metal, whilst the Greek shield was more elaborate, and reached from a man's face to his knee. Homer describes Æneas' shield in the "Iliad" thus: "Five plates of various metal, various mould, Composed the shield, of brass each outward fold, Of tin each inward, and the middle gold." But whether the shield were of basket-work or metal, whether it were borne by a savage hordesman or by a nobly equipped and mounted knight, it has always ranked as its bearer's most precious accoutrement, the loss of which was deemed an irreparable calamity and a deep disgrace to the loser. How pathetically King David laments over "the shield of the mighty which was vilely cast away," when Saul was slain! And everyone knows that when their sons went forth to battle the Spartan mothers admonished them to return either "with their shield or upon it"! That they should return _without_ a shield was unthinkable! Thus, naturally enough, the shield was chosen to bear those armorial devices which commemorated the golden deeds of its owner. It was probably in the reign of Henry II. that shields were first used in this way; until then, warriors wore their badges embroidered upon their mantles or robes. In studying the heraldic shield, its shape must be considered first, because that marks the period in history to which it belongs.[2] [Footnote 2: Parker states that twenty-one differently shaped shields occur in heraldry, but Guillim only mentions fourteen varieties.] Thus a bowed shield (Fig. 1) denotes those early times when a warrior's shield fitted closely to his person, whilst a larger, longer form, the kite-shaped shield, was in use in the time of Richard I. (Fig. 2). This disappeared, however, in Henry III.'s reign, giving way to a much shorter shield known as the "heater-shaped" (see Fig. 3). Another form of shield had a curved notch in the right side, through which the lance was passed when the shield was displayed on the breast (Fig. 4). The shield of a coat of arms usually presents a plain surface, but it is sometimes enriched with a bordure--literally border. This surface is termed the "field," "because, as I believe," says Guillim, "it bore those ensigns which the owner's valour had gained for him on the field." [Illustration: FIG. 1.] [Illustration: FIG. 2.] [Illustration: FIG. 3.] [Illustration: FIG. 4.] The several points of a shield have each their respective names, and serve as landmarks for locating the exact position of the different figures charged on the field. (In describing a shield, you must always think of it as being worn by yourself, so that in _looking_ at a shield, right and left become reversed, and what appears to you as the right side is really the left, and _vice versa_.) In Fig. 5, _A_, _B_, _C_, mark the chief--_i.e._, the highest and most honourable point of the shield--_A_ marking the dexter chief or upper right-hand side of the shield, _B_ the middle chief, and _C_ the sinister or left-hand side of the chief. _E_ denotes the fess point, or centre; _G_, _H_, and _I_, mark the base of the shield--_G_ and _I_ denoting respectively the dexter and sinister sides of the shield, and _H_ the middle base. After the points of a field, come the tinctures, which give the colour to a coat of arms, and are divided into two classes. The first includes the two metals, gold and silver, and the five colours proper--viz., blue, red, black, green, purple. In heraldic language these tinctures are described as "or," "argent" (always written arg:), "azure" (az:), "gules" (gu:),[3] "sable" (sa:), "vert," and "purpure." According to Guillim, each tincture was supposed to teach its own lesson--_e.g._, "as gold excelleth all other metals in value and purity, so ought its bearer to surpass all others in prowess and virtue," and so on. [Footnote 3: This term for red is thought to be derived either from the Hebrew _gulude_, a bit of red cloth, or from the Arabic, _gulu_, a rose.] [Illustration: FIG. 5.] In the seventeenth century one Petrosancta introduced the system of delineating the tinctures of the shield by certain dots and lines, in the use of which we have a good example of how heraldry can dispense with words. Thus pin-prick dots represent or (Fig. 6); a blank surface, argent (Fig. 7); horizontal lines, azure (Fig. 8); perpendicular, gules (Fig. 9); horizontal and perpendicular lines crossing each other, sable (Fig. 10); diagonal lines running from the dexter chief to the sinister base, vert (Fig. 11); diagonal lines running in an opposite direction, purpure (Fig. 12). [Illustration: FIG. 6.--OR.] [Illustration: FIG. 7.--ARG.] [Illustration: FIG. 8.--AZ.] [Illustration: FIG. 9.--GU.] [Illustration: FIG. 10.--SA.] [Illustration: FIG. 11.--V.] [Illustration: FIG. 12.--PURPURE.] Two other colours, orange and blood-colour, were formerly in use, but they are practically obsolete now. Furs constitute the second class of tinctures. Eight kinds occur in English heraldry, but we can only mention the two most important--viz., ermine and vair. The former is represented by black spots on a white ground (Fig. 13).[4] As shields were anciently covered with the skins of animals, it is quite natural that furs should appear in armorial bearings. "Ermine," says Guillim, "is a little beast that hath his being in the woods of Armenia, whereof he taketh his name." [Footnote 4: When the same spots are in white on a black field it is termed _ermines_, whilst black spots on a gold field are blazoned or described as _erminois_.] Many legends account for the heraldic use of ermine, notably that relating how, when Conan Meriadic landed in Brittany, an ermine sought shelter from his pursuers under Conan's shield. Thereupon the Prince protected the small fugitive, and adopted an ermine as his arms. [Illustration: FIG. 13.--ERMINE.] From early days the wearing of ermine was a most honourable distinction, enjoyed only by certain privileged persons, and disallowed to them in cases of misdemeanour. Thus, when, in the thirteenth century, Pope Innocent III. absolved Henry of Falkenburg for his share in the murder of the Bishop of Wurtzburg, he imposed on him as a penance _never_ to appear in ermine, vair, or any other colour used in tournaments. And, according to Joinville, when St. Louis returned to France from Egypt, "he renounced the wearing of furs as a mark of humility, contenting himself with linings for his garments made of doeskins or legs of hares." As to vair, Mackenzie tells us that it was the skin of a beast whose back was blue-grey (it was actually meant for the boar, for which _verres_ was the Latin name), and that the figure used in heraldry to indicate vair represents the shape of the skin when the head and feet have been taken away (Fig. 14). "These skins," he says, "were used by ancient governors to line their pompous robes, sewing one skin to the other." Vair was first used as a distinctive badge by the Lord de Courcies when fighting in Hungary. Seeing that his soldiers were flying from the field, he tore the lining from his mantle and raised it aloft as an ensign. Thereupon, the soldiers rallied to the charge and overcame the enemy. [Illustration: FIG. 14.--VAIR.] Cinderella's glass slipper in the fairy-tale, which came originally from France, should really have been translated "fur," it being easy to understand how the old French word _vaire_ was supposed to be a form of _verre_, and was rendered accordingly. Much might still be said about "varied fields"--_i.e._, those which have either more than one colour or a metal _and_ a colour alternatively, or, again, which have patterns or devices represented upon them. We can, however, only mention that when the field shows small squares alternately of a metal and colour, it is described as _checky_, when it is strewn with small objects--such as _fleurs-de-lys_ or billets--it is described as "powdered" or "sown." A diapered field is also to be met with, but this, being merely an artistic detail, has no heraldic significance. Therefore, whereas in blazoning armorial bearings one must always state if the field is checky or powdered, the diaper is never mentioned. In concluding this chapter we must add that one of the first rules to be learnt in heraldry is that in arranging the tinctures of a coat of arms, metal can never be placed upon metal, nor colour upon colour. The field must therefore be gold or silver if it is to receive a coloured charge, or _vice versa_. This rule was probably made because, as we said above, the knights originally bore their arms embroidered upon their mantles, these garments being always either of cloth of gold or of silver, embroidered with silk, or they were of silken material, embroidered with gold or silver. CHAPTER III DIVISIONS OF THE SHIELD Although in many shields the field presents an unbroken surface, yet we often find it cut up into divisions of several kinds. These divisions come under the head of _simple charges_, and the old heralds explain their origin--viz.: "After battles were ended, the shields of soldiers were considered, and he was accounted most deserving whose shield was most or deepest cut. And to recompense the dangers wherein they were shown to have been by those cuts for the service of their King and country, the heralds did represent them upon their shields. The common cuts gave name to the common partitions, of which the others are made by various conjunctions." [Illustration: PLATE 3. MARQUIS OF HERTFORD. _Arms._--Quarterly 1st and 4th Or on a pile gu: between 6 fleurs de lys az: 3 lions passant guardant in pale or. 2nd and 3rd gu: 2 wings conjoined in lure or. Seymour. _Crest._--Out of a ducal coronet or, a ph[oe]nix ppr. _Supporters._--Two blackamoors. _Motto._--Fide et amore. ] The heraldic term given to these partition-lines of the field is _ordinaries_. There are nine of these, termed respectively, chief, fesse, bar, pale, cross, bend, saltire, chevron, and pile. [Illustration: FIG. 15.] [Illustration: FIG. 16.] The chief, occupying about the upper third of the field, is marked off by a horizontal line (Fig. 15); the fesse, derived from the Latin _fascia_, a band, is a broad band crossing the centre of the field horizontally, and extends over a third of its surface (Fig. 16). The bar is very like the fesse, but differs from it, (_a_) in being much narrower and only occupying a fifth portion of the field, (_b_) in being liable to be placed in any part of the field, whereas the fesse is an immovable charge, (_c_) in being used mostly in pairs and not singly. Two or three bars may be charged on the same field, and when an even number either of metal or fur alternating with a colour occur together, the field is then described as _barry_, the number of the bars being always stated, so that if there are six bars, it is said to be "barry of six," if eight, "barry of eight" (Fig. 17). The pale, probably derived from _palus_, a stake, is also a broad band like the fesse, but runs perpendicularly down the shield, instead of horizontally across it (Fig. 18). [Illustration: FIG. 17.] [Illustration: FIG. 18.] [Illustration: FIG. 19.] The cross, which is the ordinary St. George's Cross, is pre-eminently _the_ heraldic cross, out of nearly four hundred varieties of the sacred sign. It is really a simple combination of the fesse and pale. Bend is again a broad band, but it runs diagonally across the field from the dexter chief to the sinister base. It is supposed to occupy a third portion of the field, but rarely does so (Fig. 19). The saltire is the familiar St. Andrew's Cross, owing its name probably to the French _salcier_ (see Fig. 20). The chevron, resembling the letter V turned topsy-turvy, is a combination of a bend dexter and a bend sinister, and is rather more than the lower half of the saltire. The French word _chevron_, still in use, means rafters (Fig. 21). The pile, derived from the Latin for pillar, is a triangular wedge, and when charged singly on a field may issue from any point of the latter, _except from the base_ (Fig. 22). If more than one pile occurs, we generally find the number is three, although the Earl of Clare bears "two piles issuing from the chief." Many old writers, notably amongst the French, attribute a symbolical meaning to each of these ordinaries. Thus, some believe the chief to represent the helmet of the warrior, the fesse his belt or band, the bar "one of the great _peeces of tymber_ which be used to debarre the enemy from entering any city." The pale was thought by some to represent the warrior's lance, by others the palings by which cities and camps were guarded; the cross was borne by those who fought for the faith; the bend was interpreted by some to refer to the shoulder-scarf of the knight, whilst others describe it as "a scaling-ladder set aslope." Another variety of the scaling-ladder was represented by the saltire. The chevron, or rafters, were held to symbolize protection, such as a roof affords, whilst the pile suggests a strong support of some sort. [Illustration: FIG. 20.] [Illustration: FIG. 21.] [Illustration: FIG. 22.] There is a tenth ordinary, which is known as the "shakefork" (Fig. 23). Practically unknown in English heraldry, it is frequently met with in Scotch arms. It is shaped like the letter Y and pointed at its extremities, but does not extend to the edge of the field. Guillim attributes its origin to "an instrument in use in the royal stables, whereby hay was thrown up to the horses" (surely this instrument must have been next-of-kin to our homely pitchfork?), and he believes the shakefork to have been granted to a certain Earl of Glencairne, who at one time was Master of the King's Horse. [Illustration: FIG. 23.] Many historical stories are connected with the different charges we have just been describing, but we have only space to mention two, referring respectively to the fesse and the saltire. The former reminds us of the origin of the arms of Austria, which date from the Siege of Acre, where our C[oe]ur-de-Lion won such glory. It was here that Leopold, Duke of Austria, went into battle, clad in a spotlessly white linen robe, bound at the waist with his knight's belt. On returning from the field, the Duke's tunic was "total gules"--blood-red--save where the belt had protected the white of the garment. Thereupon, his liege-lord, Duke Frederic of Swabia, father of the famous Frederic Barbarossa, granted permission to Leopold to bear as his arms a silver fesse upon a blood-red field. The saltire, recalling the French form of scaling-ladder of the Middle Ages, reminds us of how the brave Joan of Arc placed the _salcier_ with her own hands against the fort of Tournelles. And we remember how, when her shoulder was presently pierced by an English arrow, she herself drew it out from the ghastly wound, rebuking the women who wept round her with the triumphant cry: "This is not blood, but glory!" [Illustration: FIG. 24.] In addition to the ordinaries, there are fifteen sub-ordinaries. These less important divisions of the shield are known in heraldry as the _canton_, _inescutcheon_, _bordure_, _orle_, _tressure_, _flanches_, _lozenge_, _mascle_, _rustre_, _fusil_, _billet_, _gyron_, _frette_, and _roundle_. Owing to limited space, we cannot go into detail with regard to these charges, but we may mention that the canton, from the French word for a corner, is placed, with rare exceptions, in the dexter side of the field, being supposed to occupy one-third of the chief. It is often added as an "augmentation of honour" to a coat of arms. The badge of a baronet, the red hand, is generally charged on a canton, sometimes also on an inescutcheon, and it is then placed on the field, so as not to interfere with the family arms (Fig. 24). The inescutcheon is a smaller shield placed upon the field, and, when borne singly, it occupies the centre (Fig. 25). Three, or even five, escutcheons may be borne together. The bordure (Fig. 26) is a band surrounding the field, which may be either void--that is, bearing no kind of device--or it may have charges upon it, as in the arms of England, where the bordure is charged with eight lions. The orle and the tressure are only varieties of the bordure, just as the mascle, rustre, and fusil, are variations of the diamond-shaped figure known as the "lozenge" (Fig. 27). The latter is always set erect on the field. The arms of an unmarried woman and a widow are always displayed on a lozenge. The mascle--a link of chain armour--is a lozenge square set diagonally, pierced in the centre with a diamond-shaped opening, whilst the rustre is a lozenge pierced with a round hole. The fusil is a longer and narrower form of diamond. [Illustration: FIG. 25.] [Illustration: FIG. 26.] [Illustration: FIG. 27.] [Illustration: FIG. 28.] The billet is a small elongated rectangular figure, representing a block of wood, and is seldom used. The gyron (Fig. 28), which is a triangular figure, does not occur in English heraldry as a single charge, but what is termed a _coat gyronny_ is not unusual in armorial bearings, when the field may be divided into ten, twelve, or even sixteen pieces. All arms borne by the Campbell clan have a field gyronny. The origin of the word is doubtful; some trace it to the Greek for curve, others to a Spanish word for gore or gusset. The introduction of a gyron into heraldry dates from the reign of Alfonso VI. of Spain, who, being sore beset by the Moors, was rescued by his faithful knight, Don Roderico de Cissnères. The latter, as a memento of the occasion, tore three triangular pieces from Alfonso's mantle, being henceforward allowed to represent the same on his shield in the shape of a gyron. The frette, formerly known as a "trellis," from its resemblance to lattice-work, is very frequent in British heraldry; it also occurs as a net in connection with fish charges. In the Grand Tournament held at Dunstable to celebrate Edward III.'s return from Scotland, one Sir John de Harrington bore "a fretty arg., charged upon a sable field." The roundlet is simply a ring of metal or colour, and is much used in coats of arms at all periods of heraldry. The family of Wells bears a roundlet to represent a fountain, whilst the Sykes charge their shield with three roundlets, in allusion to their name, "sykes" being an old term for a well. [Illustration: FIG. 29.] In Fig. 29 we see an example of a shield charged with an inescutcheon within a bordure. CHAPTER IV THE BLAZONING OF ARMORIAL BEARINGS In this chapter we shall deal with _blazoning_, in which "the skill of heraldry" is said to lie. The word "blazon" in its heraldic sense means the art of describing armorial bearings in their proper terms and sequence. "To blazon," says Guillim, "signifies properly the winding of a horn, but to blazon a coat of arms is to describe or proclaim the things borne upon it in their proper gestures and tinctures" (_i.e._, their colours and attitudes) "which the herald was bound to do."[1] [Footnote 1: Our word "blast," as well as our verb "to blow," are obviously derived from the German _blasen_, the Anglo-Saxon _blawen_, to blow, and the French _blasonner_.] The herald, as we know, performed many different offices. It was his duty to carry messages between hostile armies, to marshal processions, to challenge to combat, to arrange the ceremonial at grand public functions, to settle questions of precedence, to identify the slain on the battle-field--this duty demanded an extensive knowledge of heraldry[2]--to announce his sovereign's commands, and, finally, to proclaim the armorial bearings and feats of arms of each knight as he entered the lists at a tournament. [Footnote 2: Do you remember that in the "Canterbury Tales" the knight tells the story of how, after the battle, "two young knights were found lying side by side, each clad in his own arms," and how neither of them, though "not fully dead," was alive enough to say his own name, but by their _coote-armure_ and by their _gere_ the _heraudes_ knew them well?] Probably because this last duty was preceded by a flourish or blast of trumpets, people learnt to associate the idea of blazoning with the proclamation of armorial bearings, and thus the term crept into heraldic language and signified the describing or depicting of all that belonged to a coat of arms. The few and comparatively simple rules with regard to blazoning armorial bearings must be rigidly observed. They are the following: 1. In depicting a coat of arms we must always begin with the field. 2. Its tincture must be stated first, whether of metal or colour. This is such an invariable rule that the first word in the description of arms is _always_ the tincture, the word "field" being so well understood that it is never mentioned. Thus, when the field of a shield is azure, the blazon begins "Az.," the charges being mentioned next, each one of these being named before its colour. Thus, we should blazon Fig. 44 "Or, raven proper." When the field is semé with small charges such as fleur-de-lys, it must be blazoned accordingly "semé of fleur-de-lys," in the case of cross-crosslets, the term "crusily" is used. 3. The ordinaries must be mentioned next, being blazoned before their colour. Thus, if a field is divided say, by bendlets (Fig. 30), the diminution of bend, it is blazoned "per bendlets," if by a pale (Fig. 18), "per pale," or "per pallets," if the diminutive occurs, as in Fig. 31, whilst the division in Fig. 32 should be blazoned "pale per fesse." The field of Fig. 17 is blazoned "arg., two bars gu." All the ordinaries and subordinaries are blazoned in this way _except_ the chief, (Fig. 15), the quarter (blazoned "per cross or quarterly") the canton, the flanch, and the bordure. These, being considered less important than the other divisions, are never mentioned until all the rest of the shield has been described. Consequently, we should blazon Fig. 48 thus, "Arg., chevron gu., three soles hauriant--drinking, proper, with a bordure invected sa." [Illustration: FIG. 30.] [Illustration: FIG. 31.] [Illustration: FIG. 32.] The term _invected_ reminds us that so far we have only spoken of ordinaries which have straight unbroken outlines. But there are at least thirteen different ways in which the edge of an ordinary may vary from the straight line. Here, however, we can only mention the four best-known varieties, termed, respectively, _engrailed_, (Fig. 33, 1), _invected_ (2), _embattled_ (3), and _indented_ (4). Other varieties are known as _wavy_, _raguly_, _dancetté_, _dovetailed_, _nebuly_, etc. Whenever any of these varieties occur, they must be blazoned before the tincture. Thus in describing the Shelley arms, Fig. 50, we should say: "Sa, fesse indented, whelks or." Fig. 34 shows a bend embattled, Fig. 35 a fesse engrailed. [Illustration: FIG. 33.] [Illustration: FIG. 34.] 4. The next thing to be blazoned is the principal charge on the field. If this does not happen to be one of the chief ordinaries, or if no ordinary occurs in the coat of arms, as in Fig. 38, then that charge should be named which occupies the fesse point, and in this case the position of the charge is never mentioned, because it is understood that it occupies the middle of the field. When there are two or more charges on the same field, but none actually placed on the fesse point, then that charge is blazoned first which is nearest the centre and then those which are more remote. All repetition of words must be avoided in depicting a coat of arms, the same word never being used twice over, either in describing the tincture or in stating a number. [Illustration: FIG. 35.] Thus, in blazoning Lord Scarborough's arms (see coloured plate), we must say: "Arg., fesse gu., between three parrots vert, collared of the second," the _second_ signifying the second colour mentioned in the blazon--viz., gules. Again, if three charges of one kind occur in the same field with three charges of another kind, as in the arms of Courtenay, Archbishop of Canterbury, who had three roundles and three mitres, to avoid repeating the word three, they are blazoned, "Three roundles with as many mitres." When any charge is placed on an ordinary, as in Fig. 41, where three calves are charged upon the bend, if these charges are of the same colour as the field instead of repeating the name of the colour, it must be blazoned as being "of the field." We now come to those charges known as "marks of cadency." They are also called "differences" or "distinctions." [Illustration: FIG. 36.] Cadency--literally, "falling down"--means in heraldic language, "descending a scale," and is therefore a very suitable term for describing the descending degrees of a family. Thus "marks of cadency" are certain figures or devices which are employed in armorial bearings in order to mark the distinctions between the different members and branches of one and the same family. These marks are always smaller than other charges, and the herald is careful to place them where they do not interfere with the rest of the coat of arms. There are nine marks of cadency--generally only seven are quoted--so that in a family of nine sons, each son has his own special difference. The eldest son bears a label (Fig. 36, 1); the second, a crescent, (2); third, a mullet (3)--the heraldic term for the rowel of a spur[3]; the fourth, a martlet (4)--the heraldic swallow; the fifth, a roundle or ring (5); the sixth, a fleur-de-lys (6); the seventh, a rose (7); the eighth, a cross moline; and the ninth, a double quatrefoil. The single quatrefoil represents the heraldic primrose. There is much doubt as to why the label was chosen for the eldest son's badge, but though many writers interpret the symbolism of the other marks of cadency in various ways, most are agreed as to the meaning of the crescent, mullet, and martlet--viz., the crescent represents the double blessing which gives hope of future increase; the mullet implies that the third son must earn a position for himself by his own knightly deeds; whilst the martlet suggests that the younger son of a family must be content with a very small portion of land to rest upon. As regards the representation of the other charges, the writer once saw the following explanation in an old manuscript manual of French heraldry--namely: "The fifth son bears a ring, as he can only hope to enrich himself through marriage; the sixth, a fleur-de-lys, to represent the quiet, retired life of the student; the seventh, a rose, because he must learn to thrive and blossom amidst the thorns of hardships; the eighth, a cross, as a hint that he should take holy orders; whilst to the ninth son is assigned the double primrose, because he must needs dwell in the humble paths of life." [Footnote 3: A mullet is generally represented as a star with five points, but if there are six or more, the number must be specified. It must also be stated if the mullet is pierced, so that the tincture of the field is shown through the opening.] The eldest son of a second son would charge his difference as eldest son, a label, upon his father's crescent (Fig. 37), to show that he was descended from the second son, all his brothers charging their own respective differences on their father's crescent also. Thus, each eldest son of all these sons in turn becomes head of his own particular branch. [Illustration: FIG. 37.] When a coat of arms is charged with a mark of cadency, it is always mentioned last in blazoning, and is followed by the words, "for a difference." Thus Fig. 43 should be blazoned, "Or, kingfisher with his beak erected bendways[4] proper with a mullet for a difference gu.," thus showing that the arms are borne by a third son. [Footnote 4: The individual direction of a charge should be blazoned, as well as its position in the field.] CHAPTER V COMMON OR MISCELLANEOUS CHARGES After the "proper charges" which we have just been considering, we come to those termed "common or miscellaneous." (How truly miscellaneous these are we have already shown in our first chapter.) Guillim arranges these charges in the following order: _Celestial Bodies._--Angels, sun, moon, stars, etc. _Metals and Minerals._--Under this latter title rank precious stones and useful stones--such as jewels and millstones, grindstones, etc., also rocks. _Plants and other Vegetatives._ _Living Creatures._--These latter he divides into two classes--viz., "Those which are unreasonable, as all manner of beasts" and "_Man, which is reasonable_." To begin with the heavenly bodies. Angels, as also human beings, are very rare charges, though Guillim quotes the arms of one Maellock Kwrm, of Wales, where three robed kneeling angels are charged upon a chevron, and also the coat of arms of Sir John Adye in the seventeenth century, where three cherubim heads occur on the field. Both angels and men, however, are often used in heraldry as supporters. Charles VI. added two angels as supporters to the arms of France, and two winged angels occur as such in the arms of the Earl of Oxford. Supporters, you must understand, are those figures which are represented standing on either side of a shield of arms, as if they were supporting it. No one may bear these figures except by special grant, the grant being restricted to Peers, Knights of the Garter, Thistle, and St. Patrick, Knights Grand Cross, and Knights Grand Commanders of other orders. Charges of the sun, moon, and other heavenly bodies are comparatively rare. One St. Cleere rather aptly bears the "sun in splendour," which is represented as a human face, surrounded by rays. Sir W. Thompson's shield is charged with the sun and three stars. The sun _eclipsed_ occurs occasionally in armorial bearings; it is then represented thus: Or, the sun sable. The moon occurs very often in early coats of arms, either full, when she is blazoned "the moon in her complement," or in crescent. The Defous bear a very comical crescent, representing a human profile. Of these arms, the old herald says severely: "A weak eye and a weaker judgment have found the face of a man in the moon, wherein we have gotten that fashion of representing the moon with a face." The moon is certainly not in favour with Guillim, for, after declaring that she was the symbol of inconstancy, he quotes the following fable from Pliny to her discredit: "Once on a time the moon sent for a tailor to make her a gown, but he could never fit her; it was always either too big or too little, not through any fault of his own, but because her inconstancy made it impossible to fit the humours of one so fickle and unstable." The sixth Bishop of Ely had very curious arms, for he bore both sun and moon on his shield, the sun "in his splendour" and the moon "in her complement." Stars occur repeatedly as heraldic charges. John Huitson of Cleasby bore a sixteen-pointed star; Sir Francis Drake charged his shield with the two polar stars; whilst Richard I. bore a star issuing from the horns of a crescent. The Cartwrights bear a comet; whilst the rainbow is charged on the Ponts' shield, and is also borne as a crest by the Pontifex, Wigan, and Thurston families. The Carnegies use a thunderbolt as their crest. We now come to the elements--fire, water, earth, and air, which all occur as charges, but not often, in armorial bearings. Fire, in the form of flames, is perhaps the most frequent charge. The Baikie family bear flames, whilst we have seen the picture of a church window in Gloucestershire, where a coat of arms is represented with a chevron between three flames of fire. The original bearer of these arms distinguished himself, we were told, by restoring the church after it had been burnt down. Fire often occurs in combination with other charges, such as a ph[oe]nix, which always rises out of flames, the salamander,[1] and the fiery sword. [Footnote 1: The salamander was the device of Francis I. of France, and on the occasion of the Field of the Cloth of Gold the French guard bore the salamander embroidered on their uniforms.] Queen Elizabeth chose a ph[oe]nix amidst flames as one of her heraldic charges. Macleod, Lord of the Isles of Skye and Lewis, bears "a mountain inflamed"--literally, a volcano--on his shield, thus combining the two elements, earth and fire. "Etna is like this," says Guillim; "or else this is like Etna." Water, as we know, is usually represented by roundlets, but the earth may figure in a variety of ways when introduced into heraldry. In the arms of one King of Spain it took the shape of fifteen islets, whilst one Sir Edward Tydesley charged his field with three mole-hills. Jewels pure and simple occur very rarely as charges. A single "escarbuncle" was borne by the Empress Maud, daughter of Henry I., as also by the Blounts of Gloucester. Oddly enough, however, mill-stones were held to be very honourable charges, because, as they must always be used in pairs, they symbolized the mutual dependence of one fellow-creature on the other. They were therefore considered the most precious of all other stones. The family of Milverton bear three mill-stones. Plants, having been created before animals, are considered next. Trees, either whole or represented by stocks or branches, are very favourite charges, and often reflect the bearer's name. Thus, one Wood bears a single oak, the Pines, a pineapple tree, the Pyrtons, a pear-tree. Parts of a tree are often introduced into arms. For example, the Blackstocks bear three stocks, or trunks, of trees, whilst another family of the same name charge their shield with "three starved branches, sa." The Archer-Houblons most appropriately bear three hop-poles erect with hop-vines. (_Houblon_ is the French for hop.) Three broom slips are assigned to the Broom family; the Berrys bear one barberry branch; Sir W. Waller, three walnut leaves. Amongst fruit charges, we may mention the three golden pears borne by the Stukeleys, the three red cherries which occur in the arms of the Southbys of Abingdon, and the three clusters of grapes which were bestowed on Sir Edward de Marolez by Edward I. One John Palmer bears three acorns, and three ashen-keys occur in the arms of Robert Ashford of Co. Down. A full-grown oak-tree, covered with acorns and growing out of the ground, was given for armorial bearings by Charles II. to his faithful attendant, Colonel Carlos, as a reminder of the perils that they shared together at the lonely farmhouse at Boscobel, where the king took refuge after the Battle of Worcester. Here, as you probably all know, Charles hid himself for twenty-four hours in a leafy oak-tree, whilst Cromwell's soldiers searched the premises to find him, even passing under the very branches of the oak. Carlos, meanwhile, in the garb of a wood-cutter, kept breathless watch close by. On the Carlos coat of arms a fesse gu., charged with three imperial golden crowns, traverses the oak. In blazoning trees and all that pertains to them, the following terms are used: _Growing trees_ are blazoned as "issuant from a mount vert"; a _full-grown tree_, as "accrued"; _when in leaf_, as "in foliage"; _when bearing fruit_, as "fructed," or _seeds_, as "seeded." If _leafless_, trees are blazoned "blasted"; when the _roots are represented_, as "eradicated"; _stocks_ or _stumps of trees_ are "couped." If _branches_ or _leaves_ are represented singly, they are "slipped." Holly _branches_, for some odd reason, are invariably blazoned either as "sheaves" or as "holly branches of three leaves." Some of our homely vegetables are found in heraldry. One Squire Hardbean bears most properly three bean-cods or pods; a "turnip leaved" is borne by the Damant family, and is supposed to symbolize "a good wholesome, and solid disposition," whilst the Lingens use seven leeks, root upwards, issuing from a ducal coronet, for a crest. Herbs also occur as charges. The family of Balme bears a sprig of balm, whilst rue still figures in the Ducal arms of Saxony. This commemorates the bestowal of the Dukedom on Bernard of Ascania by the Emperor Barbarossa, who, on that occasion, took the chaplet of rue from his own head and flung it across Bernard's shield. Amongst flower charges, our national badge, the rose, is prime favourite, and occurs very often in heraldry. The Beverleys bear a single rose, so does Lord Falmouth. The Nightingale family also use the rose as a single charge, in poetical allusion to the Oriental legend of the nightingale's overpowering love for the "darling rose." The Roses of Lynne bear three roses, as also the families of Flower, Cary, and Maurice. Sometimes the rose of England is drawn from nature, but it far oftener takes the form of the heraldic or Tudor rose. Funnily enough, however, when a stem and leaves are added to the conventional flower, these are drawn naturally. There are special terms for blazoning roses. Thus, when, as in No. 7 of Fig. 36, it is represented with five small projecting sepals of the calyx, and seeded, it must be blazoned "a rose barbed and seeded"; when it has a stalk and one leaf it is "slipped," but with a leaf on either side of the stalk, it is "stalked and leaved." A rose surrounded with rays is blazoned "a rose in sun" (_rose en soleil_). Heraldic roses are by no means always red, for the Rocheforts bear azure roses, the Smallshaws a single rose vert, whilst the Berendons have three roses sable. The thistle, being also our national badge, has a special importance in our eyes, but next to the "chiefest among flowers, the rose, the heralds ranked the fleur-de-lys," because it was the charge of a regal escutcheon, originally borne by the French kings. Numerous legends explain the introduction of the lily into armorial bearings, but we can only add here that although the fleur-de-lys is generally used in heraldry, the natural flower is occasionally represented--as in the well-known arms of Eton College; three natural lilies, silver, are charged upon a sable field, one conventional fleur-de-lys being also represented. Amongst other flower charges, three very pretty coats of arms are borne respectively by the families of Jorney, Hall, and Chorley. The first have three gilliflowers, the second, three columbines, and the last, three bluebottles (cornflowers). Three pansies were given by Louis XV. to his physician, Dr. Quesnay, as a charge in a coat of arms, which he drew with his own royal hand; and to come to modern times, Mexico has adopted the cactus as the arms of the Republic, in allusion to the legend connected with the founding of the city in 1325, when it is said that the sight of a royal eagle perched upon a huge cactus on a rocky crevice, with a serpent in its talons, guided the Mexicans to the choice of a site for the foundations of their city. One last word as to cereals. The Bigland family bear two huge wheat-ears, which, having both stalk and leaves, are blazoned "couped and bladed." As in the case of trees, when represented _growing_, wheat-ears are described as "issuant out of a mount, bladed and eared." Three ears of Guinea wheat, "bearded like barley," are borne by Dr. Grandorge (Dr. Big-barley); three "rie stalks slipped and bladed" occur in the arms of the Rye family; whilst "five garbes" (sheaves) were granted to Ralph Merrifield by James I. Wheat-sheaves (garbes) are very favourite charges. Lord Cloncurry bears three garbes in chief; Sir Montague Cholmeley bears a garbe in the base of his shield, as does also the Marquis of Cholmondeley. Garbes and wheat-ears were also much used as crests. The Shakerleys have a sheaf of corn for their crest, on the left of which is a little rabbit, erect, and resting her forefeet on the garbe; Sir Edward Denny's crest is a hand holding five wheat-ears; whilst Sir George Crofton has seven ears of corn as his crest. Though quite out of order amongst cereals, we may mention what is, I believe, a rather rare example of the representation of the fern in heraldry, Sir Edward Buckley's crest--a bull's head out of a fern brake. CHAPTER VI ANIMAL CHARGES In dealing with charges of living creatures, we shall observe the following order: (_a_) "Animals of all sort living on the earth"; (_b_) "such as live above the earth"; (_c_) "watery creatures"; (_d_) "man." _First_, amongst the animals, come those with undivided feet--elephant, horse, ass. _Second_, those with cloven feet--bull, goat, stag, etc. _Third_, those beasts that have many claws--lions, tigers, bears, etc. To blazon animal charges, many special terms are required, describing their person, limbs, actions, attitudes, etc. "And as," says Guillim, "these beasts are to explain a history, they must be represented in that position which will best show it." [Illustration: FIG. 38.] [Illustration: FIG. 39.] Moreover, each beast was to be portrayed in its most characteristic attitude. Thus, a lion should be drawn erect with wide-open jaws and claws extended, as if "about to rend or tear." In this posture he is blazoned _rampant_ (Fig. 38). A leopard must be represented going "step by step" fitting his natural disposition; he is then _passant_. A deer or lamb "being both gentle creatures," are said to be _trippant_ (Fig. 39), and so on; the heraldic term varying, you understand, to suit the particular animal charge that is being blazoned. Living charges when represented on a shield must always, with rare exceptions, appear to be either looking or moving towards the dexter side of the shield (see Fig. 39). The right foot or claw is usually placed foremost as being the most honourable limb (see Fig. 38). The elephant, having solid feet, is mentioned first, although the lion is really the only animal--if we except the boar's head--which occurs in the earliest armorial bearings. The Elphinstones charge their shield with an elephant passant, whilst the Prattes bear three elephants' heads _erased_. This term implies that they have been torn off and have ragged edges. [Illustration: PLATE 4. THE EARL OF SCARBOROUGH. _Arms._--Arg: a fesse gu: between 3 parrots vert collared of the second. _Crest._--A pelican in her piety. _Supporters._--Two parrots, wings inverted vert. _Motto._--Murus a[=e]n[=e]us conscientia sana. ] After describing this charge, Guillim rather comically gives us this story: "An elephant of huge greatness was once carried in a show at Rome, and as it passed by a little boy pried into its proboscis. Thereupon, very much enraged, the beast cast the child up to a great height, but received him again on his snout and laid him gently down, as though he did consider that for a childish fault a childish fright was revenge enough." [Illustration: FIG. 40.] Horses, of course, figure largely in armorial bearings. One, William Colt, bears three horses "at full speed" (Fig. 40). So also does Sir Francis Rush--probably in allusion to his name--whilst horses' heads _couped_--that is, cut off smoothly--occur very frequently. A demi-horse was granted as a crest to the Lane family in recognition of Mistress Jane Lane's heroism in riding from Staffordshire to the South Coast on a roan horse, with King Charles II. behind her, after the disastrous Battle of Worcester. Donkeys were evidently at a discount with heralds. The families of Askewe and Ayscough bear three asses passant charged on their shield, and there is an ass's head in the arms of the Hokenhalls of Cheshire. Oxen occur fairly often in heraldry. The Oxendens bear three oxen; three bulls occur in the arms of Anne Boleyn's father, the Lord of Hoo, whilst the same arms were given by Queen Elizabeth to her clockmaker, Randal Bull of London. The Veitchs bear three cows' heads erased, a rather uncommon charge, as female beasts were generally deemed unworthy of the herald's notice. The Veales bear three calves passant (Fig. 41), anent which Guillim adds: "Should these calves live to have horns, which differ either in metal or colour from the rest of their body, there must be special mention made of such difference in blazoning them." Hereby, he reminds us of the important rule for blazoning animals with horns and hoofs. Goats and goats' heads are often used in heraldry. A single goat passant is borne by one, Baker; three goats _salient_--leaping--occur in the Thorold arms, whilst the Gotley family--originally Goatley--charge a magnificent goat's head on their shield. [Illustration: FIG. 41.] Bulls, goats, and rams, when their horns differ in tincture from the rest of their body, are blazoned "armed of their horns," these latter in their case being regarded as weapons. When, however, special mention is made of a stag's antlers, he is said to be "attired of his antlers," _his_ horns being regarded as ornaments. (The branches of his antlers are termed _tynes_.) Stags, as you would expect, are highly esteemed by the old heralds, who employed various terms in blazoning them. Thus, a stag _in repose_ was "lodged," _looking out of the field_, "at gaze"; _in rapid motion_, he was "at speed" or "courant"; whilst, when his head was represented full face and showing only the face, it was blazoned as "cabossed" from the Spanish word for head. (Many of these terms we shall find in blazoning other animal charges.) Early heralds make careful distinction between a hind or calf, brockets, stags and harts. (A hind, you know, is the female, calf is the infant deer, brocket the two-year-old deer, stag the five-year-old, and hart the six-year-old deer.) The Harthills very properly bear a "hart lodged on a hill;" a single stag, his back pierced by an arrow, occurs in the Bowen arms, and the Hynds bear three hinds. Three bucks "in full course" are borne by the Swifts. Deer's heads are very common charges, generally occurring in threes. In the coat of arms of the Duke of Wurtemberg and Teck, we find three antlers charged horizontally across the shield. A reindeer is drawn in heraldry with double antlers, one pair erect and one drooping. The boar was deemed a specially suitable badge for a soldier, who should rather die valorously upon the field than secure himself by ignominious flight. Both the Tregarthens and Kellets bear a single boar, whilst a boar's head, either singly or in threes, occurs very constantly in coats of arms. A boar is blazoned "armed of his tusk" or "armed and langued," when his tongue is shown of a different tincture. Moreover, as Mr. Fox-Davies reminds us in his interesting "Guide to Heraldry," an English boar's head is described as "couped" or erased "at the neck," but the Scotch herald would blazon the same charge as "couped and erased" "close." The Earl of Vere takes a boar for his crest, in allusion to his name, _verre_ being the Latin for boar. The Grice family bear a _wild_ boar, formerly called a "grice." The Winram family bear a single ram, the Ramsays of Hitcham bear three rams on their shield. A very pretty coat of arms belongs to the Rowes of Lamerton in Devon, "gu: three holy lambs with staff, cross and banner arg:." Foremost amongst the beasts that have "many claws" is the lion; next to him come the tiger, leopard, bear, wolf, ranking more or less as the aristocrats amongst their kind, whilst the cat, fox, hare, etc., are placed far beneath them. Of all the animal charges, none is more popular amongst the heralds of all times and lands than the lion. Extraordinary care was taken to blazon the king of beasts befittingly. Fig. 38 has already shown you a "lion rampant," and so indispensable was this attitude considered by the early heralds to the proper representation of a lion, that if they were obliged to depict a "lion passant"--that is, "one that looked about him as he walked"--he was then blazoned as a _leopard_. That is why the beasts in our national arms, although they are really lions and meant for such, are not called so, because their undignified attitude reduces them to the rank of heraldic leopards! A lion rampant--and other beasts of prey as well--is generally represented with tongue and claws of a different tincture from the rest of his person; he is then blazoned "langued and unguled," the latter term being derived from the Latin for a claw. A lion _in repose_ is blazoned "couchant" when _lying down with head erect and forepaws extended_; he is "sejant"--sitting; _seated with forepaws erect_, he is "sejant rampant"; _standing on all fours_, he is "statant"--standing; _standing in act to spring_, he is "salient"--leaping; _when his tail is forked and raised above his back_, he is said to have a "queue fourchée"--literally a forked tail. (This last attitude is not often seen.) But when he is represented _running across the field and looking back_, then the heralds label the king of beasts "coward!" A single lion is a very frequent charge, but two lions are rarer. The Hanmers of Flintshire, descended from Sir John Hanmer in the reign of Edward I., have two lions, and we find two lions "rampant combatant"--that is, clawing each other--"langued armed" in the Wycombe coat of arms; whilst one, Garrad of London, bears two lions "counter-rampant"--_i.e._, back to back, and very droll they look. Demi-lions rampant also occur in armorial bearings. The different parts of a lion are much used; the head, either erased or couped, the face cabossed, the paws, borne either singly or in twos and threes, and lastly, we find the tail represented in various postures. The Corkes bear three lions' tails. The tiger follows the lion and has terms of blazon peculiar to himself. Thus, the single tiger borne by Sir Robert Love is depicted as "tusked, maned and flasked." In the arms of the De Bardis family, a tigress is represented gazing into a mirror, which lies beside her on the ground. This odd charge alludes to the fable that a tigress, robbed of her whelps, may be appeased by seeing her own reflection in a glass. A tiger's head is used but seldom as a separate charge. Apparently the bear stood higher in favour with the old heralds. The family of Fitzurse charge their shield with a single bear passant, the Barnards have a bear "rampant and muzzled," whilst the Beresfords' bear is both "muzzled and collared." The Berwycks bear a bear's head, "erased and muzzled," and three bears' heads appear in the arms of the Langham, Brock, and Pennarth families. A wolf is borne by Sir Edward Lowe of Wilts, Sir Daniel Dun, and by the Woods of Islington. A wolf's head appears very early in armorial bearings; Hugh, surnamed Lupus, Earl of Chester and nephew of William I., used a wolf's head as his badge. CHAPTER VII ANIMAL CHARGES (_continued_) After "ravenous fierce beastes," we come to dogs, foxes, cats, squirrels, etc. Sporting dogs are very favourite charges, and are frequently termed _talbots_ in heraldry.[1] [Footnote 1: Some writers consider that the term "talbot" was restricted to a mastiff, but sporting dogs--foxhounds, harriers, beagles, etc.--were certainly occasionally blazoned as talbots.] (A mastiff with short ears was termed an _alant_.) The Carricks and Burgoynes bear one talbot on their shield, whilst the Talbot family have three talbots passant. The Earl of Perth has a "sleuthhound, collared and leashed" for his crest; that of the Biscoe family is a greyhound seizing a hare. A dog chasing another animal must be blazoned either "in full course" or "in full chase." A foxhound nosing the ground is described as "a hound on scent." The fox rarely figures in heraldry. One Kadrod-Hard of Wales bore two "reynards counter salient," and "the Wylies do bear that wylie beast, the fox"; whilst three foxes' heads erased are borne respectively by the Foxes of Middlesex and one Stephen Fox, of Wilts. A fox's face is blazoned a "mask." Cats occur fairly often in heraldry. "Roger Adams and John Hills, both of the City of London," we are told, "bear cats"; Sir Jonathan Keats charges three "cats-a-mountain"--wild cats--upon his shield, as also do the Schives of Scotland; the Dawson-Damer's crest is a tabby cat with a rat in her mouth. She would be blazoned as _preying_. The dog, fox, and cat have each their typical meaning in heraldry. The dog symbolizes courage, fidelity, affection, and sagacity; the fox, great wit and cunning; the cat, boldness, daring, and extraordinary foresight, so that whatever happens she always falls on her feet. She was formerly the emblem of liberty, and was borne on the banners of the ancient Alans and Burgundians to show that they brooked no servitude. The squirrel is rather a favourite charge, notably in the arms of landed gentry--such as the Holts, Woods, Warrens--because the little nut-cracker is typical of parks and woodland property. It occurs either singly or in pairs or trios. It is always represented _sejant_, and usually cracking nuts, as seen in the arms of the Nuthall family. A hedgehog usually figures in the arms of the Harris, Harrison, Herries, and Herrison families, and is undoubtedly borne in allusion to their surname, _hérisson_ being the French for hedgehog. Lord Malmesbury--family name Harris--bears a hedgehog in his coat of arms. It is generally blazoned as an "urcheon" in heraldry. The hare occurs but rarely in English arms; the Clelands bear one as a single charge, and the Trussleys charge their shield with three little hares playing bagpipes, probably in allusion to the hare's traditional love of music. The rabbit--known to heralds as a coney--is oftener met with in armorial bearings; the Strodes of Devon bear three conies couchant; the Conesbies, three conies sejant; the Cunliffes, three conies courant. [Illustration: PLATE 5. BARON HAWKE. _Arms._--A chevron erminois between three pilgrim's staves purpure. _Crest._--A hawk, wings displayed and inverted ppr. belled and charged on the breast with a fleur de lys or. _Supporters._--Dexter, Neptune, Sinister, a Sea-horse. _Motto._--Strike.] Three moles are borne by Sir John Twistledon, of Dartford, Kent--a mole was sometimes blazoned "moldiwarp"--whilst the Rattons very aptly bear a rat. We cannot say much of the toads,[2] tortoises, serpents, grasshoppers, spiders, and snails which occur in heraldry. [Footnote 2: The legend which connects toads with the fleur-de-lys in the arms of France is too well known to need repetition here.] The Gandys of Suffolk bear a single tortoise passant, and a tortoise _erected_ occurs on the Coopers' coat of arms. Serpents are blazoned in terms peculiar to themselves. Thus, a serpent coiled, is said to be _nowed_--knotted--from the French _n[oe]ud_, a knot; when upright on its tail, it is _erect_; gliding, it is _glissant_ also from the French; when biting its tail, it is blazoned _embowed_. The Falconers bear a "serpent embowed"; one Natterley has an "adder nowed"--_natter_ is the German for adder--and Sir Thomas Couch of London charges an adder "curling and erect" upon his shield. To the Greek, the grasshopper signified nobility; hence amongst the Athenians a golden grasshopper worn in the hair was the badge of high lineage. In later days the heralds considered the grasshopper a type of patriotism, "because in whatever soil a grasshopper is bred, in that will he live and die." Spiders were not only held symbolical of industry, but they were highly esteemed for their supposed properties of healing.[3] [Footnote 3: As regards the spider's curative powers, Mr. Thistleton Dyer, in his "Folklore of Shakespeare," tells us that only "a few years ago a lady in Ireland was famous for curing ague with a large house-spider swallowed alive, thickly coated with treacle."] One family of Shelleys bears three "house-snails" so termed in heraldry to imply that they carry their shells. A type of deliberation in business matters and perseverance is supposed to be furnished by the common snail. The "creatures that live above the earth"--_i.e._, having wings--come next. [Illustration: FIG. 42.] Various heraldic terms are in use for blazoning bird charges--viz.: A bird _flying_ is "volant" (Fig. 42); _preparing to fly_, is "rising" (Fig. 44); when _its wings are spread open_, they are "displayed"; when _folded_, they are "close (see Fig. 43)." Birds of prey and barn-door cocks are "armed." Thus, the eagle is blazoned as "armed of his beak and talons"; the cock as "armed of his beak and spurs"; he is also blazoned as "combed and jellopped"--that is, with his crest and wattles. An eagle or any other bird of prey devouring its prey is described as "preying." In blazoning a very old eagle, the French heralds use a special term, _pamé_;[4] our English equivalent would be "exhausted," thereby alluding to the popular notion that with advancing age an eagle's beak becomes so hooked that it is unable to take any nourishment, and so dies of inanition. Birds that have web feet and no talons are usually blazoned "membred." A swan with her wings raised is said to be "expansed"; a peacock with his tail displayed is said to be "in his pride" (Fig. 45); with folded tail he is a peacock "close." A pelican feeding her young is a "pelican in her piety" (see Plate III.); when wounding her breast, she is said to be "vulning." The crane is another bird which enjoys a blazoning term which is all its own--namely, "a crane in its vigilance." It is so described when, as in the Cranstoun arms, it is represented holding a stone in its foot. This charge refers to the old myth, that a crane on duty as a sentinel always holds a stone in its foot, so that in the event of its dropping asleep the sound of the falling stone may act as an alarum. [Footnote 4: The word _pamé_ should be restricted to an expiring fish.] Falcons are blazoned "armed, jessed and belled." A falcon is usually called "goshawk" in heraldry. Swans, geese, ducks, and other web-footed birds occur rarely in heraldry. The Moore family bear one swan, the Mellishes two, and three swans' necks are charged upon the Lacys' shield. One, John Langford, bears a single wild goose. Three wild duck volant appear in the arms of the Woolrich family. Three drakes--a very favourite charge--are borne by the Yeos. The Starkeys bear one stork, the Gibsons three. Three herons occur in the arms of Heron, one kingfisher in those of one, Christopher Fisher (Fig. 43). Viscount Cullen, whose family name is Cockayne, bears three cocks; three capons are borne by the Caponhursts; whilst, drolly enough, three cocks are borne by the Crow family. The Alcocks bear three cocks' heads. [Illustration: FIG. 43.] Eagles are of such wide and constant occurrence in heraldry that we cannot attempt to do justice to them here. A single eagle is borne by the Earls of Dalhousie and Southesk, and by seven families of Bedingfield. A double-headed eagle was rather a favourite charge, and coats of arms displaying as many as six eagles are very commonly met with. But an eagle blazoned "close" is a rare charge.[5] Parts of an eagle, such as head, wings, talons, and legs often appear in armorial bearings as separate charges. Ostrich feathers, by the way, are also introduced into heraldry, but the ostrich itself is of very seldom occurrence.[6] Its introduction into heraldry, dates from the time of the Crusaders, when Europeans first saw the bird. An ostrich is usually represented with a horseshoe in its mouth, because it was a popular idea that an ostrich could digest iron.[7] In Sir Titus Salt's arms we find a demi-ostrich holding a horseshoe in its beak. Lord Churston's shield is supported on the right by an ostrich with a horseshoe in its beak, as is Lord Carysfort's, but _his_ ostrich is represented with a key in its beak. [Footnote 5: The eagle was sometimes called "alerion" by the early heralds and when blazoned as such was usually represented with neither legs nor beak.] [Footnote 6: One Jervis, the principal founder of Exbridge, in Devon, bore six ostrich feathers, and in the heraldry of to-day they are occasionally met with as charges. The Fetherstons bear three ostrich feathers on their shield, and the Earl of Devon has seven ostrich feathers in his crest. We are all familiar with the Prince of Wales's plumes, but to go farther back into history, we find that a plume of ostrich feathers was often used by King Stephen as his badge, with the motto of his own making: "_Vi nulla invertitur ordo_"--"No force alters their fashion"--in allusion to the "fold fall of the feather," which was neither shaken nor disordered by the wind, and therefore symbolized the condition of well-ordered kings and kingdoms. In bygone times, we are told, "some doubted whether an ostrich should be reckoned as a beast or a fowl"!] [Footnote 7: "I'll make thee eat iron like an ostrich." _King Henry VI._ ] [Illustration: FIG. 44.] Three hawks are borne by the Hawksworths; the Corbets bear a raven as a single charge, whilst Dr. Raven, Queen Anne's physician, bears a raven rising (Fig. 44). The swallow, which is the heraldic martlet (see No. 4, Fig. 36), occurs repeatedly as a charge in coats of arms, very often in threes; six is also a favourite number. The Wardes and Temples bear five; the Chadwicks and Brownlows charge the orle of their shield with eight martlets. The Pawne family bear three peacocks "in their pride" (see Fig. 45), and this same charge occurs in the arms of the Peacocks of Durham. A ph[oe]nix is borne by the Fenwicks. The dove occurs occasionally in heraldry. A dove with an olive branch in its beak was added as an augmentation of honour to his paternal arms by one Walker, when he married the only child of Sir David Gam. This charge was granted to Sir David after the Battle of Agincourt, where he took the Duc de Nevers prisoner. It was this same Sir David who, on being sent by the king to view the French Army before the battle, brought word to his royal master that "there were men enough to kill, enough to run away, and enough to make prisoners." [Illustration: FIG. 45.] Besides the birds already mentioned, the parrot, turkey, owl, chough, pheasant, woodcock, and several others occur in heraldry. Amongst winged insects, we find the bee in the arms of the Bye family, whilst the Rowes of Cheshire bear a beehive, surrounded by buzzing bees.[8] The bee was considered an honourable charge, symbolizing loyalty to the chief, thrift and industry.[9] [Footnote 8: Lord Lansdowne uses "a beehive beset with bees" as one of his crests.] [Footnote 9: In blazoning the bee, Guillim cannot resist reminding his reader of the old saw: "The calf, the goose, and the bee, The world is ruled by these three." ] The Burninghills bear three gadbees--horseflies--and the Papillons, very properly, have three butterflies charged on their shield (Fig. 46). In concluding this chapter let us explain the term _augmentation_ used above. By augmentation is meant any addition granted for some special reason, to a coat of arms. Thus to one, William Compton, who was about Henry VIII. and in great favour with him, the King actually granted permission to add a lion passant guardant, taken out of his own royal device, to his paternal arms, as an "honourable augmentation." "In rememberance whereof," says Sir William Dugdale, "the said Compton at his death bequeathed to the king a little chest of ivory, whereof the lock was gilt, with a chessboard under, and a pair of tables upon it." [Illustration: FIG. 46.] The arms of Sir Atwel-King Lake show a curious augmentation--viz., a dexter arm embowed--bent--issuing from the sinister side of the shield, holding in the hand a sword erect, thereto affixed a banner, bearing a cross between sixteen escutcheons, etc. These sixteen escutcheons were given to the original bearer of these arms, Dr. Edward Lake, a devoted adherent of Charles I., to commemorate the sixteen wounds that Lake received at the Battle of Naseby. Lord Nelson was granted a very pictorial augmentation of honour. "Waves or the sea, from which a palm-tree issues between a disabled ship on the dexter and a battery in ruins on the sinister." Nelson had also a crest of an "honourable augmentation," which he bore in addition to that of his family. A naval crown with the chelengk, or plume of triumph, presented to him by the Grand Sultan, Selim III. The augmentation of honour granted to the great Duke of Wellington took the shape of the Union Jack charged upon an inescutcheon, which was superimposed upon his own shield. CHAPTER VIII ANIMAL CHARGES (_continued_) Fish occur rarely in heraldry, for although they were considered typical of unfailing industry and vigilance, "always swimming against the stream and never falling asleep," yet they were held in far less esteem by the heralds of old than either the "earthy or airy creatures." Fish have, of course, their own heraldic terms for blazoning--viz.: A fish _charged horizontally upon the field_, is "naiant"--swimming (Fig. 47); _perpendicularly with its head upwards_, it is "hauriant" (Fig. 48)--literally, taking a draught; when placed _vertically with its head downwards_, it is "uriant"--diving; _with undimmed eyes_, it is "allumé"--alight; when _gasping with wide-open mouth_, it is "pamé"--exhausted. A fish is also blazoned as "finned of its fins," and when (as is always the case with the dolphin) its tail curves towards the head, it is "embowed." If the fish is _feeding_, it must be described as "vorant"--devouring--because watery creatures always swallow their prey whole. When two or three fish of the same kind are represented on a field swimming in opposite directions, they are blazoned as "contra-naiant"--swimming against each other. [Illustration: FIG. 47.] Mr. Fox-Davies quotes an example of this charge in the arms of Peebles, where one salmon is depicted swimming towards the dexter side of the shield, whilst two are swimming towards the sinister. This charge alludes evidently to the popular idea that for each salmon that ascends the river to spawn, two salmon return to the sea. When an eel is borne on a shield, it is always represented in a wavy form and is usually blazoned "ondoyant"--literally, wavy. Fish charges almost always come under the head of "canting heraldry,"[1] so that they mostly repeat the name of their bearer, or, at any rate, carry a very direct allusion to it. This is the case with the families of Dolphin, Godolphin, Salmon, Sole (Fig. 48), Herring, Herringham, Bream, Roach, Sprat, Ellis (who bear three eels) and Troutbeck (who have three trouts). These latter are blazoned "fretted in a triangle, _tête-à-queue_"--literally, "netted head to tail," whilst we are reminded that the old name for pike was luce, when we see pikes borne by the Lucy family. Crabbe of Robslaw bears one crab; the Prawnes, as you would expect, bear prawns; and the Tregarthens of Cornwall have "lobster claws saltire-wise, gules," that last word implying that the luckless owner of those claws had been clearly boiled (Fig. 49)! [Footnote 1: "Canting heraldry" is derived from the French _armes chantantes_ or _armes parlantes_, meaning, literally, arms that speak.] [Illustration: FIG. 48.] [Illustration: FIG. 49.] [Illustration: FIG. 50.] The escallop shell, being pre-eminently the pilgrim badge, was given a very honourable place in heraldry, and occurs in the arms of many of our highest nobility, notably in those of the Dukes of Bedford, Marlborough and Montrose. One branch of the Shelley family bears three escallop shells (Fig. 50), and a lion between escallop shells is a common charge. One William Moffat bears a lion between eight escallop shells.[2] [Footnote 2: Escallop shells are represented in such infinitely varied devices and in so many coats of arms that some lovers of heraldry make this charge a special study.] A fish with a ring in its mouth occurs fairly often in heraldry, and owes its origin probably to the many old legends associating fish with coins, rings, gems, etc. The arms of the Bishopric of Glasgow, where a salmon and a ring are depicted, are said to allude to the fable of the distracted bride, who, having dropped her wedding ring into the River Clyde, besought St. Kentigern, Bishop of Glasgow, to help her to recover it. In answer to the Prelate's prayers, a salmon was taken in due time, with the lady's ring between his jaws. And now at last we have reached those charges connected with that "most noble creature, man," who, as we are told, "is borne in heraldic achievements both limbwise and entire. And as a man should be represented in his greatest dignity, a king should be depicted on his throne, a bishop in his robes, a soldier in military habit, and so on." In the royal arms of Seville, we find "a crowned and sceptered king on his seat royal," wearing his ermine cape, but as a matter of fact, the whole human figure occurs very rarely as a charge in a coat of arms. "A wild man of the woods, with a garland round his head and waist and a club on his shoulder, standing between two forest trees," is charged on the shield of the Mayo family, and Basil Wood bears three demi-savages, each with a club. Human heads and limbs are more frequently used. Sir Richard Griffith bore three Englishmen's heads "in profile, couped at the head and bearded"; the Tanners of Cornwall bear three Moors' heads couped. Three infants' heads are charged on the Fauntleroy shield "couped arg: crined or," crined being the heraldic word for blazoning hair. The Vaughans have a very odd coat of arms--viz., three children's heads "couped, each enwrapped about the neck with a serpent." (Ghastly as that arrangement sounds, the children look out at you with remarkably gleeful countenances!) One Black bears three men's heads with black hair, and the De la Haye family has the rare charge of three eyes. The human heart is much used in heraldry. Henry de Wingham bears a winged heart, and the shield of the Heart family is charged with three hearts. The Cornhills bear a left hand and arm, whilst an arm grasping the stump of an uprooted tree is appropriately borne by Armstrong. Very literal _arms_ are borne by the Tremaynes--viz., three right arms with clenched fists, forming a triangle. A dexter hand is a fairly common charge. Two arms seizing the head, or pole, of a hart are borne by the Catchpoles, and three hands occur in the armorial bearings of the Maynards of Medstone and those of Wicklow, as also in the coat of arms of the Maynes of Bucks. The Quartermaynes bear four right hands (Fig. 51). Amongst other families, the Haddens and Shrigleys bear a human leg. In conclusion, we must mention what Guillim calls "amphibious and exorbitant creatures," which figure as charges in heraldry. Under the amphibious charges we have the beaver, seal, otter, and others. With the beaver we are fairly familiar, as nowadays it occurs so frequently in the armorial bearings of persons connected in any way with Canada. It is well represented in the arms of Lord Strathcona. [Illustration: FIG. 51.] The otter is borne by the Setons of Mounie, and also occurs as a supporter in the arms of Lord Balfour of Burleigh. As to what Guillim calls "exorbitant creatures," or, so to speak, monsters, we may mention the wyvern, a species of dragon; the griffin, supposed to have the body and claws of a lion, with the hooked beak, piercing eyes, and wings of an eagle; the dragon; the unicorn, whose appearance is too well known to need description; the cockatrice; the mermaid; the sea-dog, or marine wolf; and, lastly, the harpy. Three wyverns are borne by the Drake family, and two fiendish-looking wyverns act as supporters to the shield of Lord Clifford of Chudleigh. The red dragon is, of course, the badge of Wales; and three dragons' heads are borne by the Stanleys. The heraldic dragon is always represented as a winged monster with four legs. With the unicorn, the sinister supporter of our Royal Arms, every child is well acquainted. It represents Scotland, the royal shield of that country being supported by two unicorns. Of all the mythical creatures, it is perhaps the favourite in our heraldry. Not only does it occur repeatedly as a supporter, notably in the armorial bearings of Lord Chetwynd, Lord Colchester, and Lord Manners, who each have two unicorns, but we find it constantly represented on coats of arms. According to some old writers, it was deemed a very honourable charge, because, no one ever having succeeded in capturing this fabulous creature, either dead or alive, they account for this stubborn fact in the following cunning fashion: "The unicorn hath too much greatness of mind to suffer himself to be taken alive, choosing rather to die than to be taken captive." Therefore, a unicorn was considered a very suitable charge for a warrior, who should, of course, share that creature's "greatness of mind." The Farrington family bear three unicorns; and the unicorn's head is not uncommon in coats of arms. The Goston family bear one as a single charge; one Anthony Smith, bears two; whilst three are borne by a family of Shelley. The griffin is very common in heraldry, either as a crest or a supporter. Lord Churchill of Wychwood has a griffin for his crest and one for his dexter supporter. The cockatrice, "a little king amongst serpents," is borne by the Bogan family, whilst one Ellis bears a mermaid, crined or, with a mirror in one hand and a comb in the other (a veritable Loreley!). Three sea-dogs, or marine wolves, are borne by one John Fenner. And, lastly, we find in Guillim's work the presentment of a harpy as a charge on a coat of arms--a monster with a woman's head, hair, and face, and the body, legs, and wings of a vulture, her "wings displayed and hair flottant." As to the name of the bearer of this hideous charge, the old herald is discreetly silent. CHAPTER IX INANIMATE OBJECTS AS CHARGES Under this heading so many and such various objects are included that we cannot attempt to mention one half of the items in this miscellaneous collection. First come crowns, mitres, croziers (a crozier is borne by an Irish family of that name), swords, maces, etc., all of which represent estate and dignity. Then come books, billets, pens (one Cowpen bears three pens), single letters of the alphabet, notably Y and T (three T's are borne by the Tofte family), musical instruments--_i.e._, violin, organ-pipes, harp, etc. (the harp appears in the arms of one Harpham). Musical instruments signified that their bearers were "men of a well-composed and tempered judgment"; whilst the Book symbolized primarily the Word of Life; the pen, the wisdom of the learned; and the single letters stood for the thoughts of absent or silent scholars. In the Conroy arms, the field is charged with "an ancient book, open, indexed, edged or." This charge represents the honourable and hereditary office of Leanachie bard and herald to the O'Connors, Kings of Connaught. The motto under the coat of arms signifies that "history once written in this book cannot be destroyed by time." It was the privilege of the ancient bard of the tribe "to stand alone with the new-made King upon the sacred mount of Carn Fraoich and there to deliver into his hands the white wand or sceptre of royalty." Mechanical objects follow next--ploughs, harrows (the Harrows bear three harrows), scythes, spades, cartwheels (the latter occur in the arms of Carter and Cartwright). These are all typical of husbandry, and suggest agricultural industry on the part of the original bearers. Chaucer's son-in-law, Sir Payne Roet--derived doubtless, from the French _rouet_, a wheel--bore three wheels on his shield, and in blazoning this coat of arms (Fig. 52), Guillim quotes Pliny's fable of the Roman farmer who was accused to the authorities of being a magician, because his fields were fruitful, whilst those of his neighbour were barren. [Illustration: FIG. 52.] "Wait," said the farmer, "and I will show you my conjuring tools;" and therewith he produced his plough and a cartwheel. From this anecdote we gather that Sir Payne Roet must have been distinguished as an agriculturist. Then come the implements for making clothes as well as some items of dress. Wool-cards are borne by the Cardingtons; shuttles by the Shuttleworths; Sir John Maunsel bears three maunches (sleeves); the Bartlelots, gloves; the Hose family bear stockings; the Arthurs of Ireland three boots, blazoned as "three Irish brogues"; the Huths have a hat (_hut_ being the German for hat). One family of Palmers charges their shield with three palmer's staves; another has a pilgrim's scrip. The Spences bear three penny-pieces, this latter charge symbolizing commerce. Workman's tools--pickaxes, hammers, levels, squares, hatchets, nails, plummets, etc.--had all great heraldic significance. The pickaxe was to remind its bearer "whence he was digged"; the level that his actions must be justified by the rule of reason and justice; the square taught the cultivation of an even judgment; the nails, fixity of purpose; the plummet, prudence in fathoming the problems of life. The objects wrought by these tools follow. First, come works of masonry. One Oldcastle bears a "tower triple-towered"; Sir Edward Mansel, a tower with a scaling ladder against it; whilst three castles occur in the arms of the Scarborough family. The heralds, be it noted, made a great distinction between a tower and a castle, when charging either upon a shield. For, whereas a tower must never occupy the whole of the field, a castle "extendeth itself all over the shield from one side to the other." Three arches are borne by the Archers; the Trowbridges bear a bridge. Keys occur fairly often, being borne either singly or in threes. The Bells very properly bear bells, and these latter we also find in the Dobell coat of arms, which affords an excellent example of canting heraldry (Fig. 53). One, Stratford, bears three trestles meant to imply their bearer's love of hospitality. [Illustration: FIG. 53.] Amongst other inanimate charges are flesh-pots, bellows, lamps. The Lamplaws bear three lamps; cups are borne by Bowles, Warcupp, and Butler; dishes are borne by the Standish family (a boar's head in a golden dish was a rather favourite charge), as were also clocks, watches, dials, etc. Next we find ships and all things pertaining to them. The Earl of Caithness bears a ship; the Cavells bear three sails; the Chappels have an anchor. Three anchors are a fairly common charge. Objects connected with hunting, hawking, and fishing come next. The Hatheways bear a hunter's horn; the Langhornes three bugles; the Plankes, three hawk-bells, whilst a lure with a line and ring, "all a falconer's decoy," are borne by one, Lie, "a suitable name, seeing that a falconer is ever used to deceive." Three mascles, representing the meshes of a net, are borne by the Belgraves, whilst a net enclosing three sturgeons is introduced into the Sturgeons' coat of arms, and is blazoned as a "fret." The Medvilles bear three fishing-hooks. Now we come to objects associated with games--chessmen, dice, balls, etc. One of Charles V.'s generals bore as his arms a ball with two balloons, with the motto, "The harder I am struck, the higher I mount." Then we have military weapons and implements, cannon, battering-rams, swords, lances, as well as banners, drums, trumpets, clarions, etc. Guillim blazons the Earl of Cumberland's arms as "three murthering shots." One Bowman bears three bows, whilst arrows[1] and swords are of constant occurrence, the latter borne either singly or crossed salter-wise. [Footnote 1: An arrow has its peculiar terms of blazon. It is _armed_ of its head, _flighted_ of its feathers, whilst a bundle of arrows is a _sheaf_. An arrow with a blunt head is known in heraldry as a "bird-bolt."] On the Earl of Lindsey's shield there are three battering-rams in the first and fourth quarters, and a shattered "castle triple-towered" is represented in the second and third quarters. The origin of this unusual coat of arms is historical. One Robert Bertie, afterwards created Earl of Lindsey, was serving in the army, which, during Queen Elizabeth's reign, laid siege to Cadiz under the Earl of Essex's command. When the English troops made a furious onslaught on the gates of the city, every inhabitant within its walls strove to drive back the enemy, the old women flinging down heavy stones from the ramparts. One of these missiles felled young Bertie to the ground, so that when, after the taking of Cadiz, the youth was knighted for his gallant conduct that day, the newly made knight exclaimed: "The squire was knocked down by an old woman with a stone, but the general bade him arise a knight." All kinds of escutcheons were also charged upon a shield, as well as helmets and gauntlets. Trophies and tokens of martial victory also occur in heraldry, such as chaplets, torses--the wreath surrounding the helmet--along with the more melancholy charges--fetters, shackles, chains, denoting the subjection and captivity of the vanquished. Bridles, bits, buckles, and stirrups are of frequent occurrence in heraldry. Lord Stanhope bears three stirrups, buckles, and straps, whilst spurs are borne very appropriately by the Knights. Before closing this chapter we must mention that besides the charges emblazoned on the shield, which we have been considering at some length, a coat of arms has certain accessory ornaments. These are known as the crest, helmet, mantling, supporters--we have spoken of the latter elsewhere--scrolls,[2] and mottoes. The crest,[3] which is the only part of armorial bearings which is in constant use, is the device placed above an escutcheon, and originally worn upon a helmet, but it now occurs on a coronet, wreath, or cap. [Footnote 2: The ribbon bearing the motto is called heraldically "escroll"--scroll.] [Footnote 3: "Crest" is obviously derived from _crista_, a bird's comb or crest. Its heraldic term is "cognizance," because the crest worn upon his helmet served to insure recognition of a leader by his followers on the battle-field.] As regards the representing of helmets in armorial bearings, the following rules must be noted: A king's helmet must be gold, six-barred, full face, and open; a duke's helmet is steel with five gold bars, and set slightly in profile; baronets and knights have also steel helmets with no bars--these must be drawn full faced with visor raised; steel helmets are also used by esquires, visor down, with gold ornaments and represented in profile. Full-faced helmets denote authority, side-faced ones symbolize attention and obedience towards superiors. Mantling or lambrequin is the term used for the mantle or a piece of scarf-like drapery, attached to the helmet and showing jagged and torn edges to suggest the cuts received in battle. Generally, however, we find the mantling in heraldry takes the shape of graceful flowing outlines. In the motto we have, no doubt, the survival of the war-cries; many (besides expressing the name of the bearer or some allusion to the charges on the coat of arms)[4] contain very interesting historical references--viz., the "Grip Fast" of the Earl of Rothes recalls how his ancestor rescued the good Queen Margaret from the river, where she and her palfrey were drowning, and exhorted her to "grip fast" to his belt. [Footnote 4: As, for instance, "Fare fac," the Fairfax motto, or the Weare's motto, "Sumus"--we are--whilst the motto of the Clerks of Penicuik, "Free for a blast," alludes to their crest, a man blowing a horn. This refers to the odd condition under which the Barony of Penicuik is held--viz., that the proprietor must sit on a piece of rock called the Buckstone, and wind three blasts of a horn whenever the sovereign shall come to hunt on the Borough Muir, near Edinburgh.] The motto is generally placed beneath the escutcheon, but we sometimes find it above the crest. CHAPTER X QUARTERING AND MARSHALLING In these "Peeps at Heraldry," we can only glance at much that should still be mentioned if space permitted. We must say something, however, about quartering and marshalling, two very important departments in heraldry. Hitherto, we have dealt with shields bearing only one coat of arms, but now we must speak of those which bear more than one. Quartering means dividing the shield into quarters, so that several coats of arms may be represented on the same escutcheon. Fig. 54 shows the simplest form of quartering--viz., by two lines, fess-wise and pale-wise. This arrangement gives room for four different coats of arms, but if it is necessary to represent more than four, the shield is further cut up into the requisite number of divisions, then blazoned according to that number--_e.g._, "quarterly by eight," "by twelve," and so forth. It also sometimes happens that in a shield already quartered, each quarter has to be quartered again, and this arrangement is known in heraldry as "compound quartering." The four original quarters are then blazoned as "grand quarters," the secondary ones as "quarterly quarterings." [Illustration: FIG. 54.] One of the chief uses of quartering is to record the alliances between different families, generally made through marriage. (The arms of the Duke of Portland afford a good example of a shield bearing a record of such alliances. For in the first and fourth grand quarters quarterly we find the arms of the Bentincks--the original family arms; in the second and third quarterlies the Cavendish arms appear; whilst on the second and third grand quarters the arms of Scott are represented, thus recording the alliance of the house of Bentinck with those of Cavendish and Scott.) A husband may only add the arms of his wife's family to his own when she is heiress or co-heiress of her own line. He then bears those arms on what is called an "escutcheon of pretence," which he charges on his own family coat. All the sons of an heiress or co-heiress may use their mother's arms after she is dead as quarterings with those of their father, dividing the shield as in Fig. 54 and placing their paternal arms in the first and fourth quarters and their maternal in the second and third. When three coats of arms are to be represented on a shield, the most important occupies the first and fourth quarters. A familiar example of this is furnished by the royal arms of Great Britain, where we see the lions of England in the first and fourth quarters, the lion rampant of Scotland in the second, and the harp of Ireland in the third. The Earl of Pembroke, in 1348, was the first subject, so Mr. Hulme tells us, who quartered his arms. When a great number of quarterings are charged upon the shield, the order in which these quarterings are marshalled[1] or arranged is very important, the original arms being always placed in the upper dexter of the field--that being the most honourable point--and the other arms following in the sequence in which they were introduced into the family coat of arms. [Footnote 1: _Marshalling_ means the art of grouping or arranging various coats of arms on one and the same shield.] [Illustration: PLATE 6. SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL. _Arms._--Arg. on mount vert, representation of the 40 ft. reflecting telescope with its apparatus ppr. on a chief az: the astronomical symbol of Uranus irradiated or. _Crest._--A demi terrestrial sphere ppr. thereon an eagle, wings elevated or. _Motto._--C[oe]lis exploratis.] There were two methods of marshalling in early heraldry. One was known as "dimidation," which means cutting a coat of arms in half, pale-wise, and matching it with another half of another coat of arms, so as to make one achievement of the two joined halves. Thus, when a wife's arms were to be represented on the same shield as her husband's, both coats were halved, and then placed upon the shield, the husband's arms occupying the right side, and those of the wife the left. As you can imagine, however, the result of this chopping and joining was seldom satisfactory and sometimes very comical, as, for example, in the arms of Yarmouth, where half a lion is running to join half a herring! The second method of marshalling was by impalement. This term means the joining together of different coats of arms by a pale. [Illustration: FIG. 55.] In this arrangement the shield was divided pale-wise as before (Fig. 55 shows the shield divided ready to receive the two coats), but the whole of each coat was crowded respectively into each side of the shield, the right side being charged with the husband's arms, the left with his wife's. Naturally, however, in order to suit this arrangement, the arms suffered a certain amount of alteration. Nowadays, according to Mr. Fox-Davies, the following rules are observed with regard to the arms of man and wife--viz.: "If the wife is not an heraldic heiress the two coats are impaled. If the wife be an heraldic heiress or co-heir, in lieu of impalement, the arms of her family are placed on an escutcheon, being termed an 'escutcheon of pretence,' because ... the husband _pretends_ to the representation of her family." A widow may have the coat of arms borne by her husband and herself marshalled, not on a shield, but on a lozenge, whilst an unmarried daughter may bear her father's arms on a lozenge also, but without a crest. Finally, under the head of marshalling comes the arrangement of all the accessories, of the shield of which we spoke in our last chapter. CHAPTER XI FIVE COATS OF ARMS In this chapter we must say a few words about the five "achievements" which are shown in the coloured plates. These represent respectively the armorial bearings of a duke, marquess, earl, baron, and baronet.[1] [Footnote 1: We have to apologize to our readers for the omission--owing to want of space--of an example of the armorial bearings of a viscount.] To begin with No. 1. This coat of arms belongs to the Duke of Leinster, and should be blazoned--as you will know by this time--viz.: "Arg : a saltier gu : _crest_, a monkey statant ppr : environed about the middle with a plain collar and chained or. ; _supporters_, two monkeys, environed and chained as the crest"; _motto_, "Crom aboo"--literally "Crom to victory," Crom being the name of an old castle belonging to the Fitzgeralds. Now, in this achievement the trio of monkeys tell the story, _not_ of their bearer's grand deeds, but of the noble feat performed by one of _their_ own ancestors. And this is the monkey's story: Long, long ago, in the reign of Edward I., John Fitz-Thomas Fitzgerald (later first Earl of Kildare,[2] but at that time only an infant), was staying in the Castle of Woodstock, when the building suddenly broke into flames. In the first panic caused by the fire no one remembered the poor baby lying helpless in his cradle; but when, later on, some of the servants went back to search for him, they found only the smouldering remains of his cradle on the charred floor of the burnt-out nursery. Distracted with remorse, they wandered about the smoking ruins, vainly seeking for the child. Suddenly, a queer chattering attracted their attention to one of the high, blackened towers of the castle, and there, outlined against the sky, stood the pet ape of the household, holding the baby boy safe and sound in his long, hairy arms! On this occasion, the monkey had put his betters to shame, and had saved the helpless life which they had left to perish. [Footnote 2: The eldest son of the Duke of Leinster is the Marquess of Kildare.] In gratitude for that monkey's devotion, John Fitzgerald adopted a monkey for his crest, whilst two additional apes act as supporters to the Duke of Leinster's shield. Thus, you see, in this case it is the golden deed of a far-away monkey that heraldry keeps alive. The arms of the Marquess of Hertford are very pretty ones, and afford a good example of the use of the pile as an augmentation of honour. It is introduced into the first and fourth grand quarters, bearing the charge of three lions, whilst the second and third quarters are occupied by two wings conjoined by lure. These arms, being precisely the same as those of the Duke of Somerset, serve to remind us that the Marquess of Hertford, whose family name is also Seymour, is a descendant from one and the same ancestor. For whereas the wings in the coat of arms represent the armorial bearings of the Seymours, the pile was an augmentation of honour granted by Henry VIII. to Sir John Seymour on the occasion of the King's marriage with Lady Jane Seymour, his daughter. The same crest, a ph[oe]nix rising out of flames surmounting a ducal coronet, does duty for both achievements, but whereas the Duke of Somerset's supporters are a unicorn and a bull, the Marquess of Hertford has two blackamoors, which are blazoned--viz., "wreathed about the temples or, sa : habited in short golden garments; adorned about the waist with green and red feathers; each holding in his exterior hand a shield, az : garnished or, the dexter charged with the 'sun in splendour,' gold, the other with a crescent, silver. _Motto_, 'Fide et amore'--'With faith and love.'" The Earl of Scarborough's coat of arms shows no quarterings. Here the field is divided fesswise and charged with three parrots (they are usually termed popinjays in heraldry). A pelican in her piety is the crest, whilst we find parrots again with wings inverted as supporters. These arms are of great antiquity, having been adopted by Sir Marmaduke Lumley, who derived them from his mother, Lucia, co-heiress of the ancient house of Thweng in the beginning of the fourteenth century. Their motto is, "A sound conscience is a wall of brass." Baron Hawke's achievement hints very plainly at the grand naval feats performed by the founder of the house, Edward Hawke, the gallant sailor, who, at the early age of thirty-one, was made Admiral of the White. His brilliant victory over the French in 1747, when he captured six large ships of the enemy's line, is matter of history. His arms are "Arg : a chevron erminois between three pilgrims' staves purple, the crest, a hawk rising, beaked, belled, and charged on the breast with fleur-de-lys or ; whilst most appropriately the supporters of this naval hero's shield are--dexter supporter, Neptune in a sea-green mantle, crowned with an eastern coronet or, his dexter arm erect, darting downwards his trident sa : headed silver, resting his sinister foot on a dolphin, also sable ; sinister supporter, a sea-horse, sustaining in his fore-fins a banner, arg : the staff broken ppr." _Motto_, "Strike." The fifth coat of arms, a very pictorial one, was assumed by the great astronomer and musician, Sir William Herschel, and serves as our example of a baronet's armorial bearings. (You will note that it has no supporters, and that the baronet's badge, a sinister hand charged on an escutcheon, is placed on the dexter side of the field.) This coat of arms tells the story of its bearer's grand discovery of the new planet, Uranus.[3] [Footnote 3: We strongly advise our readers to refer to "A Peep at the Heavens" for further information on this point.] This Herschel achieved with the aid of a telescope of his own making. And so very properly a telescope[4] with all its apparatus is represented on the field, whilst the astronomical symbol of Uranus is charged in the chief. The crest is a demi-terrestrial sphere with an eagle thereon, wings elevated. _Motto_, "The heavens having been explored." [Footnote 4: Sir William Herschel made and erected a telescope 40 feet long at Slough, completing it in 1787.] So this coat of arms, you see, shows the result of the labours of its original bearer, along with the telescope which was instrumental in making the wonderful discovery. And now a few last words about the frontispiece. This shows the herald in his tabard, which, as the official habit of heralds, has remained unchanged in Great Britain ever since the office of herald was first instituted. The tabard--really, a tunic--was originally worn over mail armour, being blazoned back and front, as it is now, with the arms of the sovereign for the time being. Though the general name of tabard was given to this particular kind of official garment, it was further distinguished by the term of "tunique," when worn by the King-at-Arms. It was then made of "riche fyne velvet." When worn by the heralds, the tabard was known as a "plasque," and made of satin, whilst the pursuivant's tabard was called a "coat of arms," and made of damask silk. A King-at-Arms ranks first amongst heraldic officials. It is his duty to direct heralds, to preside at their chapters, and to him belongs the jurisdiction of arms. We have three English Kings-of-Arms,[5] styled respectively, Garter, Clarencieux, and Norroy. The officer attached to the Order of the Bath is also styled "Bath King-at-Arms." [Footnote 5: The term of "King-at-Arms" is also sometimes employed.] Scotland has her "Lyon King-of-Arms," Ireland her "Ulster King-of-Arms." We have three chief heralds and six subordinate or provincial ones--viz., York, Lancaster, Chester, Windsor, Richmond, and Somerset. On the accession of George I., two more were appointed and styled the "Hanover Herald," and "Gloucester King-at-Arms." A pursuivant is an attendant upon the herald, and belongs to the third or lowest order of heraldic officers. There are four English pursuivants, styled respectively, Rouge Croix, Blue Mantle, Rouge Dragon, and Portcullis. Three pursuivants belong to the Court of Lyon in Scotland--Unicorn, Carrick, and Bute. On the cover we have the figure of a Crusader in his mail armour, bearing on his breast the badge of a red cross charged upon a white field. Looking at the massive, closely knit armour portrayed in our illustration, we can easily understand that the wearer encased within it must have suffered cruelly in the East, when the burning sun poured down upon his metal armour, and that, as a natural consequence, the surcoat of some woven fabric was introduced, to be worn over the coat of mail as a protection against the scorching rays of the sun. CHAPTER XII PENNONS, BANNERS, AND STANDARDS Pennons, banners, and standards are so closely associated with heraldry that we must not leave them altogether unnoticed. In the Middle Ages three distinct classes of heraldic flags appear to have been in use in England. [Illustration: PLATE 7. THE FLAGS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 1. The Union Jack. 2. The Royal Standard.] The first was the pennon; this was an armorial lance flag, narrow and tapering, and was the mark of knightly rank. Sometimes it was triangular in form, but it was oftener forked or swallow-tailed at the fly. It was borne on a lance, and served as the personal ensign of the bearer, being charged with his badge or some other part of his armorial bearings. The banner was a square flag, very often representing the whole coat of arms of the bearer, in exactly the same way as a shield was blazoned. A banner was carried by all above the rank of a knight, kings included. An emperor's banner was 6 feet square, a king's 5, a nobleman's only 3. The standard was the third variety of early heraldic flags. It was chiefly in use in the fifteenth century, though some standards were certainly in use some fifty years sooner. In old days the term "standard" was loosely applied to any large flag on which a badge and motto were represented; in fact, there is no doubt that the standard was originally designed for the special purpose of displaying armorial bearings. Nevertheless, a standard proper was a tapering flag, richly embroidered, and slit slightly at the narrow end. The standard of an emperor or king was 11 yards long when it was planted before his pavilion, but when it was carried into battle it was reduced to 9 yards in length. It is, therefore, quite incorrect to speak of the square banner on which our royal arms are blazoned as a _standard_, for it is most distinctly a _banner_. It displays, as you all know, the armorial bearings of the sovereign fully blazoned, just as they are marshalled in the royal shield. This banner should only be hoisted over a palace when the king or some member of the royal family is actually in residence. In the Navy, the Royal Standard--falsely so-called--is considered the supreme flag of Great Britain, and is only flown on a ship when the monarch, or someone belonging to the royal family, is on board. The Union Jack is the national banner of Great Britain and Ireland. It represents the three united crosses of St. George for England, the saltire of St. Andrew for Scotland, and the cross of St. Patrick for Ireland. St. George's Cross is red on white; St. Andrew's is white on blue; St. Patrick's (saltire-shaped like St. Andrew's) is red on white. Some writers have derived the word _jack_ from Jacques for James I., because he was the monarch who united the flags of England and Scotland; but this is held to be incorrect. The old heraldic name for a surcoat was "jacque," hence obviously our word "jacket," which recalls the German _jacke_ for coat, and therefore undoubtedly "jaque" survives in the "Union _Jack_," which is intended to represent the national arms, and thus certainly fulfils the purposes of a coat of arms. The Union Jack first came into use after James I.'s accession, when England and Scotland became united. Till then, the English flag bore St. George's Cross, a rectangular red cross on a white field, whilst the Scotch flag showed the white diagonal cross of St. Andrew on a blue ground. The union of the two flags was effected by retaining the blue field of St. Andrew's Cross, whilst the red field of the English flag was represented by adding a narrow border of that colour to the limbs of St. George's Cross. The heraldic term for this addition is "fimbrication"--literally _bordering_. This combined flag remained in use till 1801, when, Ireland having joined the Union, it became necessary to incorporate the cross of St. Patrick into the national banner. But, lest it should be thought that either of the diagonal crosses took precedence of the other, care was taken that the white and red borders of each should be alternately uppermost. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland flies the Union Jack with the harp of Ireland on an escutcheon charged upon it. So also does the Governor of India, but in this case the Union Jack bears the Star of India in the centre, charged with a rose, and surmounted by an imperial crown. We have three flags constantly in use nowadays, which are always spoken of as _ensigns_. These are: _First_, the Red Ensign, a plain red flag, bearing a Union Jack in a canton on the dexter side. This is know as the "Ensign of England," and when displayed at sea distinguishes all vessels not belonging to the Royal Navy. _Second_, the White or St. George's Ensign; the original banner of St. George with a "jack" cantoned in the first quarter. This is the ensign of the Royal Navy. _Third_, the Blue Ensign, a plain blue field with the Union Jack cantoned in the dexter side. This is the ensign of the Naval Reserve. The Admiralty flag, displaying a yellow anchor and cable set fesswise on a red field, may be grouped with the three ensigns. As regards military flags, the cavalry standards--banners properly--are the true survivals of the knightly banners of the Middle Ages. The colour of the field repeats that of the regimental facings, and each standard bears the number, motto, and specific title of its own regiment, as well as its own heraldic badge. Upon these standards are also blazoned the regimental "honours," such as "Waterloo," "Alma," "Lucknow," thus commemorating the services rendered by that corps to their country. Infantry regiments have their "colours," or, properly, _pair of colours_. One of these is the sovereign's colour, always crimson, displaying a Union Jack, charged with the regimental device; the other is the regimental colour, repeating the tincture of the facings. Upon this the "honours" and "devices" of the regiment are charged, whilst a small "jack" is cantoned on the dexter side of the flag. The regimental "colours" of the Guards is the Union Jack. The Royal Artillery have neither colours nor standards. It would be curious to note the various forms of banners which have been in use since the days when the old Roman general hoisted a small truss of hay as his ensign, but surely one of the queerest flags that ever found its way into history was that displayed by our own Henry V., when, in 1420, he made his entry into Paris, riding between Charles VI. and Philippe, Duke of Burgundy. For then, we are told, that, amongst other banners, the English monarch bore a lance with a fox-tail attached to it, for being "a great hunter of foxes," this was his own personal badge. * * * * * Here we must close our "Peeps at Heraldry," but please, dear eyes, that have been peeping with me up to this point, do not close too. Otherwise the object with which this little book has been written--namely, to _open_ your eyes to the rudiments of heraldry, so that, having begun with a peep, you may go on to take an exhaustive view of the art and its developments--will be sadly defeated. For this small volume pretends to be nothing more than a simple introduction, a path-finder, to that fascinating language, in which the golden deeds of chivalry and patriotism, of science and philanthropy, are kept alive from age to age in all quarters of the civilized world. GLOSSARY OF SOME OF THE TERMS TO BE MET WITH IN HERALDRY =Abased=, applied to a charge placed lower than its usual position. =Accollée=, side by side. =Accrued=, fully grown. =Achievement=, complete heraldic emblazonment. =Addorsed=, back to back. =Agroupment=, grouping of two or more shields to form one achievement. =Ailettes=, part of mail armour for protecting neck. =Appaumée=, open hand, showing palm (Fig. 51). =Arménie=, ermine. =Armes parlantes=, allusive arms. =Armory=, heraldry. =Aspersed=, scattered over. =Assurgeant=, rising from the sea. =Barbute=, chin-piece of helm. =Bardings=, horse-trappings. =Basilisk=, cockatrice, produced from egg, laid by cock and hatched by a toad on a dunghill. =Basinet=, steel cap; part of old armour. =Beacon=, fire chest of burning combustibles set on a pole with a ladder against it. =Bezant=, disc-like coin. =Birdbolt=, arrow with a blunt head. =Breys=, horse curbs. =Brisure=, mark of cadency. =Caltrap=, or =Cheval-trap=, used to maim horses in battle. =Cameleopardel=, mythical beast. =Chape=, or =Crampet=, decorated top of sheath. =Chatloup=, fabulous horned animal. =Chess-rook=, chess piece. =Chevronel=, small chevron. =Chimera=, legendary beast. =Cinque-foil=, leaf or flower of five foils. =Closet=, bar diminished to half its width. =Clouée=, nailed, nail-heads showing. =Conjoined in lure=, wings united; tips in base. =Contournée=, facing to the sinister. =Cornish-chough=, crow with red beak and legs. =Coronet=, badge of Peer; _Duke's_, with eight strawberry-leaves of equal height above rim; _Marquis's_, four strawberry-leaves alternating with four pearls on points of same height as leaves; _Earl's_, same as Marquis's, but pearls raised above leaves; _Viscount's_, with twelve silver balls on coronet; _Baron's_, with six silver balls set close to rim. =Côtise=, diminutive bend. =Coupled-close=, half a chevronel. =Cresset=, a beacon. =Crusilly=, sown with cross crosslets. =Cubit-arm=, human arm couped at elbow. =Debased=, reversed. =Debrusied=, when an ordinary surmounts an animal or other ordinary. =Decollated=, said of a decapitated lion. =Decrescent=, half-moon, with horns to the left. =Defamed=, said of a lion looking backwards. =Degraded=, set on steps. =Demembered=, figure cut into bits, with original figure left unaltered. =Depressed=, surmounted. =Dimidiated=, cut in halves pale-wise, and one-half removed. =Doubling=, lining of a mantle. =Eaglet=, little eagle. =Embowed=, bent. =Embrued=, blood-stained. =Endorse=, a little pale. =Enfiled=, pierced with a sword. =Enhanced=, raised towards the chief. =Ensigned=, ornamented. =Erne=, eagle. =Escroll=, ribbon bearing motto. =Erminites=, fur, white, with black spots, and a red hair each side of spots. =Fermail=, a buckle. =Ferr=, horseshoe. =Fetter-lock=, chain and padlock. =Fillet=, diminutive of chief. =Fitched=, pointed at base. =Flexed=, bowed and bent. =Fylfot=, curious cruciform figure. =Gadbee=, horse-fly. =Gambe=, or =Jambe=, leg of beast of prey. =Gorged=, encircled round the throat. =Gradient=, walking. =Grand quarters=, four primary divisions of the shield. =Greeces=, steps. =Guige=, a shield-belt. =Hames=, parts of horse harness. =Hastilude=, tournament. =Hatchment=, achievement of arms in a lozenge-shaped frame placed over residence of a lately deceased person. =Heights=, applied to plumes rising in rows above one another. =Hirondelles=, swallows. =Hoist=, depth of flag from chief to base. =Hurst=, clump of trees. =Jessant=, shooting forth. =Ladycow=, ladybird. =Lambel=, label. =Lion morné=, lion sans claws or teeth. =Luce=, =Lucy=, a pike. =Lymphad=, old galley. =Membered=, used to denote legs of birds. =Nag=, often used for horse. =Opinicus=, fabulous beast. =Oriflamme=, square scarlet banner with three tails. =Overt=, with open wings. =Panache=, a plume arranged fan-wise. =Pascuant=, grazing. =Pean=, a fur. =Pelt=, for hide. =Pheon=, pointed spear-head. =Potent=, variety of heraldic cross; also fur; also a crutch. =Prasin=, green. =Purfled=, bordered. =Ragully=, cut off roughly. =Rebated=, snapped off. =Retorted=, intertwined. =Reynard=, fox. =Roundle=, a circular figure; when gold, a bezant; when silver, a plate; when gules, a torteau; when azure, a hurt; when sable, a gunstone; when vert, a pomme. =Roussant=, about to fly. =Sallet=, a kind of helm. =Sarcellée=, sawn through the centre. =Shelldrake=, kind of duck. =Tennée=, or =Tawny=, deep orange colour. =Timbre=, the true heraldic crest. =Torse=, crest-wreath, made of two skeins of silk twisted together. =Tressure=, a subordinary. =Tricked=, sketched in outline with pen and ink. =Trussed=, said of birds with closed wings. =Tun=, barrel or cask. =Tynes=, branches of a stag's antlers. =Varvals=, small rings. =Verdy=, sown with leaves. =Vol=, two wings conjoined. =Undy=, wavy. =Unguled=, hoofed. =Zona=, old word for fesse. 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MITTON THE BOOK OF THE RAILWAY 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by ALLAN STEWART THE CHILDREN'S BOOK OF STARS Preface by Sir DAVID GILL, K.C.B. 16 full-page Illustrations (11 in Colour) and 8 smaller Figures in the text THE CHILDREN'S BOOK OF LONDON 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by JOHN WILLIAMSON By ELIZABETH W. GRIERSON CHILDREN'S TALES OF ENGLISH MINSTERS 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour THE CHILDREN'S BOOK OF CELTIC STORIES 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by ALLAN STEWART THE CHILDREN'S BOOK OF EDINBURGH 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by ALLAN STEWART CHILDREN'S TALES FROM SCOTTISH BALLADS 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by ALLAN STEWART By ASCOTT R. HOPE ADVENTURERS IN AMERICA 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by HENRY SANDHAM, R.C.A. THE ADVENTURES OF PUNCH 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by STEPHEN BAGHOT DE LA BERE By S. R. CROCKETT RED CAP TALES Stolen from the Treasure-Chest of the Wizard of the North 16 full-page Illustrations in Colour by SIMON HARMON VEDDER RED CAP ADVENTURES Being the Second Series of Red Cap Tales Stolen from the Treasure-Chest of the Wizard of the North 16 full-page Illustrations by ALLAN STEWART and others GULLIVER'S TRAVELS 16 full-page Illustrations in Colour by STEPHEN BAGHOT DE LA BERE By JOHN BUNYAN THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS 8 full-page Illustrations in Colour by GERTRUDE DEMAIN HAMMOND, R.I. Edited by G. E. MITTON SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by HARRY ROUNTREE By HARRIET BEECHER STOWE UNCLE TOM'S CABIN 8 full-page Illustrations in Colour and many others in the text PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK, 4, 5 AND 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. * * * * * Transcriber's Note _ _ represents italic text. = = represents bold text. (The prices in the Book List at the end were in bold text. As the symbol used to represent bold text in the main part of the book was the same as the character used for 0 in the Book List, the 'bold text' indicator was omitted from this section to avoid conflict.) Sundry missing or damaged punctuation has been repaired. Both hyphenated and non-hyphenated variants of many words occur in this book. All have been retained. The book contains many heraldic terms, derived from French, Arabic, etc. Any illustration which interrupted a paragraph has been moved to a more convenient location, between paragraphs. Some chapters contain many Footnotes, usually marked * and � on each page they occur. To avoid confusion, the Footnotes have been numbered sequentially within each chapter, and indented and placed below their relative paragraph. Page 49: The Legends of the Fleur-de-Lys can be found here: (https://) travelfranceonline.com/fleur-de-lys-french-monarchys-emblem/ Page 74: 'repectively' corrected to 'respectively'. "These represent respectively the armorial bearings...." Page 75: Some armorial descriptions use spaced colons. These have been retained as printed. Page 80: 'On the cover we have the figure of a Crusader in his mail armour, bearing on his breast the badge of a red cross charged upon a white field.' The Crusader's badge would appear to be somewhere behind his shield, or perhaps under his surcoat. 
38951	----	generously made available by The Internet Archive.) THE CURIOSITIES OF HERALDRY. WITH Illustrations from Old English Writers. BY MARK ANTONY LOWER, AUTHOR OF "ENGLISH SURNAMES," ETC. WITH NUMEROUS WOOD ENGRAVINGS, From Designs by the Author. LONDON: JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 4, OLD COMPTON STREET, SOHO. MDCCCXLV. C. AND J. ADLARD, PRINTERS, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE. PREFACE. [Illustration] Little need be said to the lover of antiquity in commendation of the subject of this volume; and I take it for granted that every one who reads the history of the Middle Ages in a right spirit will readily acknowledge that Heraldry, as a system, is by no means so contemptible a thing as the mere utilitarian considers it to be. Yet, notwithstanding, how few are there who have even a partial acquaintance with its principles. To how many, even of those who find pleasure in archæological pursuits, does the charge apply: "--_neque enim clypei cælamina norit_." Two hundred years ago, when the study of armory was much more cultivated than at present, this general ignorance of our 'noble science' called forth the censure of its admirers. Master Ri. Brathwait, lamenting it, says of some of his contemporaries: "They weare theire grandsire's signet on their thumb, Yet aske them whence their crest is, they are _mum_;" and adds: "Who weare gay _coats_, but can no _coat_ deblaze, Display'd for _gulls_, may bear _gules_ in their face!"[1] This invective is perhaps a little too severe, yet it is mildness itself when compared with that of Ranulphus Holme, son of the author of the 'Academy of Armory,' who declares that unless the reader assents to what is contained in his father's book he is "neither Art's nor Learning's friend, But an ignorant, empty, brainless sot, Whose chiefest study is the _can_ and _pot_!" Now, though I would by no means place the objector to Heraldry upon the same bench with the devotee of Bacchus, nor even upon the stool of the dunce, yet I hope to make it appear that the study is worthy of more attention than is generally conceded to it.[2] At the same time I wish it to be distinctly understood that I do not over-rate its importance. "The benefit arising from different pursuits will differ, of course, in degree, but nothing that exercises the intellect can be useless, and in this spirit it may be possible to study even conchology without degradation." Many persons regard arms as nothing more than a set of uncouth and unintelligible emblems by which families are distinguished from one another; the language by which they are described as an antiquated "jargon;" and both as little worthy of an hour's examination as astrology, alchemy or palmistry. This is a mistake; and such individuals are guilty, however unintentionally, of a great injustice to a lordly, poetical, and useful science. That Heraldry is a _lordly_ science none will deny; that it is also a _poetical_ science I shall shortly attempt to prove; but there are some sour spirits who know not how to dissever the idea of lordliness from that of tyranny, and who "thank the gods for not having made them poetical." These, therefore, will be no recommendations of our subject to _such_ readers; but should I be able to show that it is a _useful_ science, what objections can those cavillers then raise? I purpose to give a short dissertation on the utility of Heraldry, but first let me say a few words on the _poetry_ of the subject. Do not the 'Lion of England,' the 'Red-Cross Banner,' the 'White and Red Roses,' the 'Shamrock of Ireland,' and 'Scotia's barbed Thistle' occupy a place in the breast of every patriot? and what are they but highly poetical expressions? Do not the poetry of Chaucer and Spenser and Shakspeare, not to mention our old heroic ballads and the pleasant legends of a Scott, abound with heraldrical allusions? Tasso is minute, though inaccurate, in the description of the banners of his Christian heroes; he was far from despising blazon as a poetical accessory. And, lastly, see how nobly the stately Drayton makes the 'jargon' of Heraldry chime in with his glorious numbers: "Upon his surcoat valiant _Neville_ bore A SILVER SALTIRE upon martial red; A LADIE'S SLEEVE high-spirited _Hastings_ wore; _Ferrers_ his tabard with rich VAIRY spred, Well known in many a warlike match before; A RAVEN sate on _Corbet's_ armed head; And _Culpeper_ in SILVER ARMS enrailed Bore thereupon a BLOODIE BEND ENGRAILED; The noble _Percie_ in that dreadful day With a BRIGHT CRESCENT in his guidhomme came; In his WHITE CORNET _Verdon_ doth display A FRET OF GULES," &c. _Barons' War_, B. 1, 22, 23. I now proceed to show that Heraldry is a _useful_ science. It has already been said that nothing which calls into exercise the intellectual powers can be useless. But it may be said that there is an abundance of studies calculated more profitably to exercise them. Granted: but it should be remembered that, as there is a great diversity of tastes, so there is a great disparity in the mental capacities of mankind. Heraldry may therefore be recommended as a study to those who are not qualified to grasp more profound subjects, and as a source of amusement to those who wish to relieve their minds in the intervals of graver and more important pursuits. To either class a very brief study will give an insight into the theory of heraldry, and a competent knowledge of the terms it employs. The nomenclature of Heraldry is somewhat repulsive to those who casually look into a treatise on the subject, and often deters even the unprejudiced from entering upon the study; but what science is there that is not in a greater or less degree liable to the same objection? A recent writer observes: "The language of Heraldry is occasionally barbarous in sound and appearance, but it is always peculiarly expressive; and a practice which involves habitual conciseness and precision in their utmost attainable degree, and in which tautology is viewed as fatally detrimental, may insensibly benefit the student on other more important occasions."[3] But Heraldry is useful on higher grounds than these, and particularly as an aid to the right understanding of that important period of the history of Christendom, the reign of feudalism. An eminent French writer, Victor Hugo, declares that "for him who can decipher it, Heraldry is an _algebra_, _a language_. The whole history of the second half of the middle ages is written in blazon, as that of the preceding period is in the symbolism of the Roman church." To the student of history, then, Heraldry is far from useless. The sculptured stone or the emblazoned shield often speaks when the written records of history are silent. A grotesque carving of coat or badge in the spandrel of some old church-door, or over the portal of a decayed mansion, often points out the stock of the otherwise forgotten patron or lord. "A dim-looking pane in an oriel window, or a discoloured coat in the dexter corner of an old Holbein may give not only the name of the benefactor or the portrait, but also identify him personally by showing his relation to the head of the house, his connexions and alliances."[4] The antiquary and the local historian, then, possess in Heraldry a valuable key to many a secret of other times. To the genealogist a knowledge of Heraldry is indispensable. Coats of arms in church windows, on the walls, upon tombs, and especially on seals, are documents of great value. Many persons of the same name can now only be classed with their proper families by an inspection of the arms they bore. In Wales, where the number of surnames is very limited, families are much better recognized by their arms than by their names.[5] The painter, in representing the gaudy scenes of the courts and camps of other days, can by no means dispense with a knowledge of our science; and the architect who should attempt to raise some stately Gothic fane, omitting the well-carved shield, the heraldric corbel, and the blazoned grandeur of "rich windows that exclude the light," would inevitably fail to impart to his work one of the greatest charms possessed by that noblest of all styles of building, and produce a meagre, soulless, abortion! Heraldry is, then, in the eyes of every man of any pretensions to taste, a useful, because an indispensable, science. Now for an argument far stronger than all: Heraldry has been known to further the ends of _justice_. "I know three families," says Garter Bigland, "who have acquired estates by virtue of preserving the arms and escutcheons of their ancestors." I repeat, therefore, without the fear of contradiction, that Heraldry is a _useful_ science. Q. E. D. * * * * * With respect to the sheets now submitted to the reader a few observations may be necessary. In the first place, I wish it to be understood that I have avoided, as much as possible, the technicalities of blazon: it was not my wish to supersede (even had I been competent to do so) the various excellent treatises on the subject already extant. The sole motive I entertained in writing this volume was a desire to render the science of Heraldry more intelligible to the general reader, and to present it in aspects more interesting and attractive than those writers can possibly do who treat of blazon merely as an art, and to make him acquainted with its origin and progress by means of brief historical and biographical sketches, and by inquiries into the derivation and meaning of armorial figures. In such an antient and well-explored field there has been but little scope for original discovery; but if I have succeeded in concentrating, and placing in a somewhat new light, old and well-known truths, my labour has not been lost, and my wish to render popular a too-much neglected study has been in some measure realized. The references at the foot of nearly every page render acknowledgments to the authors whose works I have consulted almost unnecessary. It is, however, but justice to confess my obligations to Dallaway and Montagu for the general subject, to Noble for the notices of the heralds, and to Moule for the bibliography. For the illustrations and extracts I am principally indebted to the Boke of St. Albans, Leigh, Bossewell, Ferne, Guillim, Morgan, Randle Holme, and nearly all the writers of the antient school; whose works are rarely met with in an ordinary course of reading. From all these, both antient and modern, it has been my aim to select such points as appeared likely to interest both those who have some acquaintance with the subject and those who are confessedly ignorant of it. Besides the authors of acknowledged reputation named above, I have consulted many others of comparatively little importance and value, convinced with Pliny, "nullum esse librum tam malum ut non aliquâ parte posset prodesse." Should a small proportion only of the reading public peruse my 'Curiosities of Heraldry' on the same principle, I shall not want readers! My thanks are due to William Courthope, Esq. Rouge-Croix pursuivant of arms, for several obliging communications from the records of the Heralds' Office, as well as for the great courtesy and promptitude with which he has invariably attended to every request I have had occasion to make during the progress of the work. For the notice of the interesting relic discovered at Lewes (Appendix E), I am indebted to the kindness of W. H. Blaauw, Esq., M.A., author of the 'Barons' War,' some remarks from whom on the subject were read at the late meeting of the Archæological Association at Canterbury, where the relic itself was exhibited. The reader is requested to view the simple designs which illustrate these pages with all the candour with which an amateur draughtsman is usually indulged. Every fault they exhibit belongs only to myself, not to Mr. Vasey, the engraver, who, unlike Sir John Ferne's artist,[6] must be acknowledged to have "done _his_ duety" in a very creditable manner. It is not unlikely that I may be called upon to justify the orthography of several words of frequent occurrence in this work. I will therefore anticipate criticism by a remark or two, premising that I am too thoroughly imbued with the spirit of antiquarianism to make innovations without good and sufficient reason. The words to which I allude are _antient_, _lyon_, _escocheon_, and, particularly, _heraldric_. The first three cannot be regarded as innovations, as they were in use centuries ago. For 'an_t_ient,' apology is scarcely necessary, as many standard writers have used it; and it must be admitted to be quite as much like the low Latin _antianus_ as _ancient_ is. 'Lyon' looks _picturesque_, and seems to be in better keeping with the form in which the monarch of the forest is pourtrayed in heraldry than the modern spelling: an antiquarian predilection is all that I can urge in its defence. I would never employ it except in heraldry. 'Escocheon' is used by many modern writers on heraldry in preference to _escutcheon_, not only as a more elegant orthography, but as a closer approximation to the French _écusson_, from which it is derived. For 'HERALDRIC' more lengthened arguments may be deemed necessary, as I am not aware that it occurs in any English dictionary. This adjective is _almost_ invariably spelt without the R--heraldic; and that orthography, though sometimes correct, is still oftener false. I contend that two spellings are necessary, because _two totally different words_ are required in different senses,--to wit, I. Heraldic, belonging to a herald; and II. Heraldric, belonging to heraldry. I will illustrate the distinction by an example or two. (I) "The office of Garter is the 'ne plus ultra' of _heraldic_ ambition," i. e., it is the height of the herald's ambition ultimately to arrive at that honour. The word here has no relation whatever to proficiency in the science of coat-armour or heraldry, since it is possible that a herald or pursuivant may entertain the desire of gaining the post, _causâ honoris_, without any particular predilection for the study. Again, "Queen Elizabeth was a staunch defender of _heraldic_ prerogatives;" in other words, she defended the rights and privileges of her _officers_ of arms; not the prerogatives of _coats_ of arms, for to what prerogatives can painted ensigns lay claim? (II) "A. B. is engaged in _heraldric_ pursuits;" that is, in the study of armorial bearings; not in the pursuits of a herald, which consist in the proclamation of peace or war, the attendance on state ceremonials, the _granting_ of arms, &c. To say that A. B., who has no official connexion with the College of Arms, is a herald, would be an obvious misnomer, although he may be quite equal in _heraldrical_ skill to any gentleman of the tabard. "The so-called arms of the town of Guildford have nothing _heraldric_ about them," that is, they are not framed in accordance with the laws of blazon. To say that they are not _heraldic_, would be to say that they do not declare war, attend coronations, wear a tabard, or perform any of the functions of a herald--a gross absurdity. A literary friend, who objects to my reasoning, thinks that the _one word_, _heraldic_, answers every purpose for both applications. That it has done so, heretofore, is not certainly a reason why it should after the distinction has been pointed out. Besides, my doctrine is not unsupported by analogy. We have a case precisely parallel in the words _monarchal_ and _monarchical_; and he who would charge me with innovation must, to be consistent with himself, expunge _monarchical_ from his dictionary as a useless word. LEWES; DEC. 1844. Contents. CHAP. PAGE I. THE FABULOUS HISTORY OF HERALDRY 1 II. THE AUTHENTIC HISTORY OF HERALDRY 15 III. RATIONALE OF THE FIGURES EMPLOYED IN HERALDRY 49 IV. THE CHIMERICAL FIGURES OF HERALDRY 89 V. THE LANGUAGE OF ARMS 105 VI. ALLUSIVE ARMS--ARMES PARLANTES 119 VII. CRESTS, SUPPORTERS, BADGES, etc. 133 VIII. HERALDRIC MOTTOES 151 IX. HISTORICAL ARMS--AUGMENTATIONS 161 X. DISTINCTIONS OF RANK AND HONOUR 197 XI. HISTORICAL NOTICES OF THE COLLEGE OF ARMS 219 XII. BRIEF NOTICES OF DISTINGUISHED HERALDS AND HERALDRIC WRITERS, WITH QUOTATIONS FROM THEIR WORKS 245 XIII. GENEALOGY 281 Appendix. A. ON DIFFERENCES IN ARMS, NOW FIRST PRINTED FROM A MS. BY SIR EDWARD DERING, BART. 297 B. THE ANTIENT PRACTICE OF BORROWING ARMORIAL ENSIGNS ILLUSTRATED FROM THE ARMS OF CORNISH FAMILIES 309 C. ABATEMENTS 313 D. GRANT OF ARMS TEMP. EDW. III. 315 E. NOTICE OF AN ANTIENT STEELYARD WEIGHT DISCOVERED AT LEWES 317 ERRATA. Page 15, line 6, _for_ pays? _read_ pays! 20, -- 15, for _preterea_ read _præterea_. The distinction between the _supports_ and _tenans_ of French heraldry made at page 144 is erroneous. The true distinction is that human figures and angels, when employed to support the shield, are called _tenans_, while quadrupeds, fishes, or birds engaged in the same duty are styled _supports_. THE CURIOSITIES OF HERALDRY. CHAPTER I. Fabulous History of Heraldry. [Illustration] "You had a maister that hath fetched the beginning of Gentry from Adam, and of Knighthood from Olybion." _Ferne's Blazon of Gentrie._ "Gardons nous de mêler le douteux an certain, et le chimérique avec le vrai." _Voltaire, Essai sur les Moeurs._ Antiquity has, in a greater or less degree, charms for all; and it is supposed to stamp such a value on things as nothing else can confer. This feeling, unexceptionable in itself, is liable to great abuse; especially in relation to historical matters. In States and in Families, Antiquity implies greatness, strength, and those other attributes which command veneration and respect. Hence the first historians of nations have uniformly endeavoured to carry up their annals to periods far beyond the limits of probability, thus rendering the earlier portions of their works a tissue of absurdity deduced from the misty regions of tradition, conjecture, and song.[7] This reverence for antiquity has extended itself to genealogists, and to those who have recorded the history of sciences and inventions. Thus has it been with the earliest writers on =Heraldry=, a system totally unknown till within the last thousand years; but which in the fancies of its zealous admirers has been presumed to have existed, not merely in the first ages of the world, but at a period "Ere Nature was, or Adam's dust Was fashioned to a man!" We are gravely assured by a writer of the fifteenth century that heraldric ensigns were primarily borne by the 'hierarchy of the skies,' "_At hevyn_," says the author of the Boke of St. Albans, "_I will begin_; where were V orderis of aungelis, and now stand but IV, in _cote armoris_ of knawlege, encrowned ful hye with precious stones, where Lucifer with mylionys of aungelis, owt of hevyn fell into hell and odyr places, and ben holdyn ther in bondage; and all [the remaining angels] were erected in hevyn of gentill nature!" Thus, in one short sentence, the origin both of nobility and of its external symbols is summarily disposed of. When _proofs_ are not to be adduced, how can we regret that it is no longer? But to descend a little lower, let us quote again the poetical language of this indisputable authority: "Adam, the begynnyng of mankind, was as a stocke unsprayed and unfloreshed,"--having neither boughs nor leaves--"and in the braunches is knowledge wich is rotun and wich is grene;" that is, if I rightly understand it, (for poetry is not always quite intelligible,) both the gentle and the ungentle, the earl and the churl, are descended from one progenitor; _omnes communem parentem habent_; a truth which, it is presumed, will not be called in question. The _gentility_ of the great ancestor of our race is stoutly contended for, and, that his claim to that distinction might not want support, Morgan, an enthusiastic armorist of the seventeenth century, has assigned him _two coats of arms_; one as borne in Eden--when he neither used nor needed either _coat_ for covering or _arms_ for defence--and another suited to his condition after the fall. The first was a plain red shield, described in the language of modern heraldry as 'gules,' while the arms of Eve, a shield of white, or 'argent,' were borne upon it as an 'escocheon of pretence,' she being _an heiress_! The arms of Abel were, as a matter of course, those of his father and mother borne 'quarterly,' and ensigned with a crosier, like that of a bishop, to show that he was a 'shepheard'[8] Sir John Ferne, a man of real erudition, was so far carried away by extravagant notions of the great antiquity of heraldric insignia, as seriously to deduce the use of furs in heraldry from the 'coats of skins' which the Creator made for Adam and Eve after their transgression. This, independently of its absurdity, is an unfortunate idea; for coats of arms are as certainly marks of honour as these were badges of disgrace; and as Morgan says, 'innocens was Adam's best gentility.'[9] The second coat of Adam, says this writer, was '_paly tranche_, divided every way and tinctured of every colour.' Cain, also, after _his_ fall, changed his armorials "by ingrailing and _indented_ lines--to show, as the preacher saith, There is a generation whose _teeth_ are as swords, and their jaw-_teeth_ as knives to devour the poor from the earth." He was the first, it is added, who desired to have his arms changed--'So God set a mark upon him!'[10] This ante-diluvian heraldry is expatiated upon by our author in a manner far too prolix for us to follow him through all his grave statements and learned proofs. I shall therefore only observe, _en passant_, that arms are assigned to the following personages, viz.: Jabal, the inventor of tents, _Vert, a tent argent_, (a white tent in a green field!) Jubal, the primeval musician, _Azure, a harp, or, on a chief argent three rests gules_;[11] Tubal-Cain, _Sable, a hammer argent, crowned or_, and Naamah, his sister, the inventress of weaving, _In a lozenge gules, a carding-comb argent_. Noah, according to the Boke of St. Albans, "came a _gentilman_ by kynde ... and had iij sonnys begetyn by kinde ... yet in theys iij sonnys gentilness and ungentilnes was fownde." The sin of Ham degraded him to the condition of a churl; and upon the partition of the world between the three brethren Noah pronounced a malediction against him. "Wycked kaytiff," says he, "I give to thee the north parte of the worlde to draw thyne habitacion, for ther schall it be, where sorow and care, cold and myschef, as a churle thou shalt live in the thirde parte of the worlde wich shall be calde Europe, that is to say, _the contre of churlys_!" "Japeth," he continues, "cum heder my sonne, thou shalt have my blessing dere.... I make the a gentilman of the west parte of the world and of Asia, that is to say, _the contre of gentilmen_." He then in like manner creates Sem a gentleman, and gives him Africa, or "_the contre of tempurnes_."[12] "Of the offspryng of the gentleman Japheth come Habraham, Moyses, Aron, and the profettys, and also the kyng of the right lyne of Mary, of whom that gentilman Jhesus ... kyng of the londe of Jude and of Jues, gentilman by his modre Mary prynce[ss] of cote-armure!"... "Jafet made the first target and therin he made a ball in token of all the worlde." Morgan's researches do not seem to have furnished him with the arms of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but those of the twelve patriarchs are given by him and others. Joseph's "coat of many colours," Morgan, by a strange oversight, makes to consist of two tinctures only, viz. black, chequered with white--in the language of heraldry, _chequy sable and argent_,--to denote the lights and shadows of his history. The pathetic predictions and benedictions pronounced by the dying patriarch Jacob to his sons, furnished our old writers with one of their best pretences for giving coat-armour to persons in those remote ages. The standards ordered to be set up around the Israelitish camp in the desert[13] are likewise adduced in support of the notion that regular heraldry was then known. The arms of the twelve tribes are given by Morgan in the following hobbling verses:[14] "Judah bare Gules, a lion[15] couchant or; Zebulon's black Ship's[16] like to a man of war; Issachar's asse[17] between two burthens girt; As Dan's[18] sly snake lies in a field of vert; Asher with _Azure_ a Cup[19] of gold sustains; And Nephtali's Hind[20] trips o'er the flow'ry plains; Ephraim's strong Ox lyes with the couchant Hart; Manasseh's Tree its branches doth impart; Benjamin's Wolfe in the field gules resides; Reuben's field argent and blew bars wav'd glides; Simeon doth beare his Sword; and in that manner Gad, having pitched his Tent, sets up his Banner." The same authority gives as the arms of Moses a _cross_, because he preferred "taking up the cross," and suffering the lot of his brethren to a life of pleasure and dignity in the court of Pharaoh. The 'parfight armory of Duke Joshua,' given by Leigh, is _Partie bendy sinister, or and gules, a backe displayed sable_. The arms of Gideon were _Sable, a fleece argent, a chief azure gutté d'eau_,[21] evidently a 'composition' from the miracle recorded in the Book of Judges. To Samson is ascribed, _Gules, a lion couchant or, within an orle argent, semée of bees sable_, an equally evident allusion to a passage in the bearer's history. David, as a matter of course, bore _a golden harp in a field azure_.[22] But it is not alone to the worthies of sacred history that these honourable insignia are ascribed--the heroes of classical story, too, had their 'atchievements,' Hector of Troy, for example, bore, _Sable, ij lyons combatand or_.[23] Here again our great authority, Dame Julyan Berners,[24] may be cited. "Two thousand yere and xxiiij," says she, "before thyncarnation of Christe, =Cote-Armure= was made and figurid at the sege of Troye, where in gestis troianorum it tellith that the first begynnyng of the lawe of armys was; the which was effygured and begunne before any lawe in the world bot the lawe of nature, and before the X commaundementis of God." I have been favoured with the following curious extract from a MS. at the College of Arms,[25] which also refers the origin of arms to the siege of Troy. I believe it has never been printed. "=What Armes be, and where they were firste invented.= As kinges of Armes record, the begynynge of armes was fyrste founded at the great sege of Troye w{th}in the Cytie and w{th}out, for the doughtines of deades don on bothe partyes and for so mouche as thier were soo many valliaunt knights on bothe sydes w{ch} did soo great acts of Armes, and none of them myght be knowen from other, the great Lords on both p'ties by thier dyscreate advice assembled together and accorded that every man that did a great acte of armes shoulde bere upon him a marke in token of his doutye deades, that the pepoell myght have the bet{r} knowledge of him, and if it were soo that suche a man had any chylderen, it was ordeyned that they should also bere the same marke that their father did w{th} dyvers differences, that ys to saye, Theldeste as his father did w{th} a labell, the secounde w{th} a cressente, the third w{th} a molett, the fourth a marlet, the v{th} an annellet, the vj{th} a flewer delisse. And if there be anye more than sixe the rest to bere suche differences as lyketh the herauld to geve them. And when the said seige was ended y{e} lordes went fourth into dyvers landes to seke there adventures, and into England came Brute and [his] knights w{th} there markes and inhabited the land; and after, because the name of MERKES was rewde, they terned the same into ARMES, for as mouche _as that name was far fayerer_, and becausse that markes were gotten through myght of armes of men." The humour of Alexander the Great must have been somewhat of the quaintest when he assumed the arms ascribed to him by Master Gerard Leigh, to wit, _Gules a_ GOLDEN LYON SITTING IN A CHAYER and holding _a battayle-axe of silver_.[26] The 'atchievement' of Cæsar was, if we may trust the same learned armorist, _Or, an eagle displayed with two heads sable_.[27] Arms are also assigned to King Arthur, Charlemagne, Sir Guy of Warwick, and other heroes, who, though belonging to much more recent periods, still flourished long before the existence of the heraldric system, and never dreamed of such honours. That these pretended armorials were the mere figments of the writers who record them, no one doubts. In these ingenious falsehoods we recognize a principle similar to that which produced the 'pious frauds' of enthusiastic churchmen, and to that which led self-duped alchemists to deceive others. In their zeal for the antiquity of arms--a zeal of so glowing a character that no one who has not read their works can estimate it--they imagined that they must have existed from the beginning of the world. Then, throwing the reins upon the neck of their fancy, they ascribed to almost every celebrated personage of the earliest ages, the ensigns they deemed the most appropriate to his character and pursuits. The feeling inducing such a procedure originated in a mistake as to the antiquity of chivalry, of which heraldry was part and parcel. Feelings unknown before the existence of this institution are attributed to the heroes of antiquity. '_Duke_ Joshua' is presumed to have been only another Duke William of Normandy, influenced in war by similar motives and surrounded by the same social circumstances in time of peace. Chaucer talks of classical heroes as if they were knights of some modern order; and Lydgate, in his =Troy Boke= invests the heroes of the Iliad with the costume of his own times, carrying emblazoned shields and fighting under feudal banners: "=And to behold in the knights shields The fell beastes. "Where that he saw, In the shields hanging on the hookes, The beasts rage. "The which beastes as the storie leres Were wrought and bete upon their banners Displaied brode, when they schould fight.="[28] The fabulous history of the science might be fairly deduced to the eleventh century, as the Saxon monarchs up to that date are all represented to have borne arms. Yet as there are not wanting, even in our day, those who admit the authenticity of those bearings, their claims will be briefly referred to in the next chapter. In justice to the credulous and inventive armorists of the 'olden tyme,' the reader should be reminded that warriors did, in very antient times, bear various figures upon their shields. These seem in general to have been engraved in, rather than painted upon, the metal of which the shield was composed. The French word _escu_ and _escussion_, the Italian _scudo_, and the English _escocheon_, are evident derivations from the Latin _scutum_, and the equivalent word _clypeus_ is derived from the Greek verb [Greek: gluphein], TO ENGRAVE. But those sculptured devices were regarded as the peculiar ensigns of one individual, who could change them at pleasure, and did not descend hereditarily like the modern coat of arms. A few references to the shields here alluded to may not be unacceptable. Homer describes the shield of Agamemnon as being ornamented with the Gorgon, his peculiar badge; and Virgil says of Aventinus,[29] the son of Hercules-- "Post hos insignem palmâ per gramina currum, Victoresque ostentat equos, satus Hercule pulchro Pulcher Aventinus: clypeoque, _insigne paternum_, Centum angues, cinctamq: gerit serpentibus _hydram_." _Æneid._ vii, 655. "Next Aventinus drives his chariot round The Latian plains, with palms and laurels crowned; Proud of his steeds he smokes along the field, His father's _hydra_ fills his ample shield." _Dryden_, vii, 908. The Greek dramatists describe the symbols and war-cries placed upon their shields by the seven chiefs, in their expedition against the city of Thebes. As an example, Capaneus is represented as bearing the figure of a giant with a blazing torch, and the motto, "_I will fire the city_!" Such ensigns seem to have been the peculiar property of the valiant and well-born, and so far they certainly resembled modern heraldry. Virgil, speaking of Helenus, whose mother had been a slave, says, "Slight were his arms--a sword and silver shield; No _marks of honour_ charged its empty field."[30] Several of our more recent writers, while they disclaim all belief of the existence of armorial bearings in earlier times, still think they find traces of these distinctions in the days of the Roman commonwealth. The family of the Corvini are particularly cited as having hereditarily borne a raven as their crest; but this device was, as Nisbet has shown,[31] merely an ornament bearing allusion to the apocryphal story of an early ancestor of that race having been assisted in combat by a bird of this species. The _jus imaginum_ of the Romans is also adduced. In every condition of civilized society distinctions of rank and honour are recognized. Thus the Romans had their three classes distinguished as _nobiles_, _novi_, and _ignobiles_. Those whose ancestors had held high offices in the state, as Censor, Prætor, or Consul, were accounted nobiles, and were entitled to have statues of their progenitors executed in wood, metal, stone, or wax, and adorned with the insignia of their several offices, and the trophies they had earned in war. These they usually kept in presses or cabinets, and on occasions of ceremony and solemnity exhibited before the entrances of their houses. He who had a right to exhibit his own effigy only, was styled _novus_, and occupied the same position with regard to the many-imaged line as the upstart of our own times, who bedecks his newly-started equipage with an equally new coat of arms, does to the head of an antient house with a shield of forty quarterings. The ignobiles were not permitted to use any image, and therefore stood upon an equality with modern plebeians, who bear no arms but the two assigned them by the heraldry of nature. The patricians of our day to a certain extent carry out the _jus imaginum_ of antiquity, only substituting painted canvas for sculptured marble or modelled wax; and there is no sight better calculated to inspire respect for dignity of station than the gallery of some antient hall hung with a long series of family portraits; in which, as in a kind of physiognomical pedigree, the speculative mind may also find matter of agreeable contemplation. The _jus imaginum_ doubtless originated in the same class of feelings that gave birth to heraldry, but there is no further connexion or analogy between the two. It is to hereditary shields and hereditary banners we must limit the true meaning of heraldry, and all attempts to find these in the classical era will end in a disappointment as inevitable as that which accompanies the endeavour to gather "grapes of thorns or figs of thistles." [Illustration] CHAPTER II. Authentic History of Heraldry. [Illustration: (John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, temp. Hen. VI, in his surcoat or coat of arms.)[32]] "Vetera quæ nunc sunt fuerunt olim _nova_." "L'histoire du blazon! mais c'est l'histoire tout entière de notre pays!" _Jouffroy d'Eschavannes._ Having given some illustrations of the desire of referring the heraldric system to times of the most remote antiquity, and shown something of the misapplication of learning to prove what was incapable of proof, let us now leave the obscure byways of those mystifiers of truth and fabricators of error, and emerge into the more beaten path presented to us in what may be called the historical period, which is confined within the last eight centuries. The history of the sciences, like that of nations, generally has its fabulous as well as its historical periods, and this is eminently the case with heraldry; yet in neither instance is there any exact line of demarcation by which the former are separable from the latter. This renders it the duty of a discriminating historian to act with the utmost caution, lest, on the one hand, truths of a remote date should be sacrificed because surrounded by the circumstances of fiction, and lest, on the other, error should be too readily admitted as fact, because it comes to us in a less questionable shape; and I trust I shall not be deemed guilty of misappropriation if I apply to investigations like the present, that counsel which primarily refers to things of much greater import, namely, "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." The _germ_ of that flourishing tree which eventually ramified into all the kingdoms of Christendom, and became one of the most striking and picturesque features of the feudal ages, and the most gorgeous ornament of chivalry, and which interweaves its branches into the entire framework of mediæval history, is doubtless to be found in the banners and ornamented shields of the warriors of antiquity. Standards, as the necessary distinctions of contending parties on the battle-field, must be nearly or quite as antient as war itself; and every such mark of distinction would readily become a national cognizance both in war and peace.[33] But it was reserved for later ages to apply similar marks and symbols to the purpose of distinguishing different commanders on the same side, and even after this became general it was some time ere the hereditary transmission of such ensigns was resorted to as a means of distinguishing families, which in the lapse of ages--the warlike idea in which they had their origin having vanished--has become almost the only purpose to which they are now applied. The standards used by the German princes in the centuries immediately preceding the Norman Conquest, are conjectured to have given rise to Heraldry, properly so called. Henry l'Oiseleur (the Fowler), who was raised to the throne of the West in 920, advanced it to its next stage when, in regulating the tournaments--which from mismanagement had too often become scenes of blood--he ordered that all combatants should be distinguished by a kind of mantles or livery composed of lists or narrow pieces of stuff of opposite colours, whence originated the pale, bend, &c.--the marks now denominated 'honourable ordinaries.'[34] If the honour of inventing heraldry be ascribed to the Germans, that of reducing it to a system must be assigned to France. To the French belong "the arrangement and combination of tinctures and metals, the variety of figures effected by the geometrical positions of lines, the attitudes of animals, and the grotesque delineation of monsters."[35] The art of describing an heraldric bearing in proper terms is called blasonry, from the French verb _blasonner_, whence also we derive our word _blaze_ in the sense of to proclaim or make known. "The heavens themselves _blaze_ forth the death of princes." _Shak._ "But he went out and began to publish it much, and to _blaze_ abroad the matter." _St. Mark._ "'Tis still our greatest pride, To _blaze_ those virtues which the good would hide." _Pope._ The verb seems to have come originally from the German =blasen=, to blow a horn. At the antient tournaments the attendant heralds proclaimed with sound of trumpet the dignity of the combatants, and the armorial distinctions assumed by them; and hence the application of the word to the scientific description of coat armour.[36] The arrangement of the tinctures and charges of heraldry into a system may be regarded as the third stage in the history of the science. This, as we have just seen, was achieved by the French: and hence the large admixture of old French terms with words of native growth in our heraldric nomenclature. Speed and other historians give the arms of a long line of the Anglo-Saxon and Danish monarchs of England up to the period of the Norman Conquest; but we search in vain for contemporary evidence that armorial distinctions were then known. The MSS. of those early times which have descended to us are rich in illustrations of costume, but no representation of these 'ensigns of honour' occurs in any one of them. It seems probable that Speed was misled by the early chroniclers, who in their illuminated tomes often represented events of a much earlier date in the costume of their own times. Thus, in a work by Matthew Paris, who flourished in the thirteenth century, Offa, a Danish king of the tenth, is represented in the habits worn at the first-mentioned date, and bearing an armorial shield according to the then existing fashion. At what period the colours and charges of the banner began to be copied upon the shield is uncertain. A proof that regular heraldry was unknown at the era of the Conquest, is furnished by that valuable monument, the Bayeux Tapestry, a pictorial representation of the event, ascribed to the wife of the Conqueror. In these embroidered scenes neither the banner nor the shield is furnished with proper arms. Some of the shields bear the rude effigies of a dragon, griffin, serpent or lion, others crosses, rings, and various fantastic devices;[37] but these, in the opinion of the most learned antiquaries, are mere ornaments, or, at best, symbols, more akin to those of classical antiquity than to modern heraldry. Nothing but disappointment awaits the curious armorist, who seeks in this venerable memorial the pale, the bend, and other early elements of arms. As these would have been much more easily imitated with the needle than the grotesque figures before alluded to, we may safely conclude that personal arms had not yet been introduced.[38] Dallaway asserts that, after the Conquest, William "encouraged, but under great restrictions, the individual bearing of arms;" but, strangely, does not cite the most slender authority for the assertion. Camden and Spelman agree that arms were not introduced until towards the close of the eleventh century, which must have been within a very short time of the Conqueror's death. Others again, with more probability, speak of the second Crusade (A.D. 1147) as the date of their introduction into this country. But even at this period the proofs of family bearings are very scanty. Traditions, indeed, are preserved in many families, of arms having been acquired during this campaign, and in a future chapter several examples will be quoted, rather as a matter of curiosity than as historical proof; for all tradition, and especially that which tends to flatter a family by ascribing to it an exaggerated antiquity, will generally be found to be _vox et præterea nihil_. The arms said to occur on _seals_ in the seventh and eighth centuries may be dismissed as merely fanciful devices, having no connexion whatever with the heraldry of the twelfth and thirteenth. Towards the close of the twelfth century, and at the beginning of the thirteenth, A.D. 1189-1230, it was usual for warriors to carry a miniature escocheon suspended from a belt, and decorated with the arms of the wearer.[39] [Illustration: (Rich. I. from his second Great Seal.)] It was in the time of Richard I that heraldry assumed more of the fixed character it now bears. That monarch appears on his great seal of the date of 1189, with a shield containing two lions combatant; but in his second great seal (1195) three lions passant occur, as they have ever since been used by his successors. Before coming to the throne, as Earl of Poitou, he had borne lions in some attitude; for, in an antient poem, cited by Dallaway, William de Barr, a French knight, utters an exclamation to this effect: "Behold the Count of Poitou challenges us to the field; see he calls us to the combat; I know the grinning lions in his shield;" and in the romance of 'Cuer de Lyon,' we read the following couplet: "=Upon his shoulders a Schelde of stele, With the 'lybbardes'[40] painted wele.=" The earliest representation of arms upon a seal is of the date of 1187.[41] The embellishment of seals was one of the first as well as one of the most interesting and useful applications of Heraldry. Seals, at first rude and devoid of ornament, became, in course of time, beautiful pieces of workmanship, elaborately decorated with arms, equestrian figures, and tabernacle work of gothic architecture. The Crusades are admitted by all modern writers to have given shape to heraldry. And although we cannot give credit to many of the traditions relating to the acquisition of armorial bearings by valorous knights on the plains of Palestine, yet there is no doubt that many of our commonest charges, such as the crescent, the escallop-shell, the water-bowget, &c., are derived from those chivalric scenes. Salverte observes that "the ensigns which adorned the banner of a knight had not, in earlier times, been adopted by his son, jealous of honouring, in its turn, the emblem which he himself had chosen. But this glorious portion of the heritage of a father or a brother who had died fighting for the cross was seized with avidity by his successor on the fields of Palestine; for, in changing the paternal banner, he would have feared that he should not be recognized by his own vassals and his rivals in glory. History expressly tells us that, at this epoch, many of the chiefs of the crusaders rendered the symbols which they bore peculiar to their own house."[42] Dallaway, with his accustomed elegance, remarks, "Those chiefs who, during the holy war, returned to their own country, were industrious to call forth the highest admiration of their martial exploits in the middle ranks. Ambitious of displaying the banners they had borne in the sacred field, they procured every external embellishment that could render them either more beautiful as to the execution of the armorial designs, or more venerable as objects of such perilous attainment. The bannerols of this era were usually of silk stuffs, upon which was embroidered the device; and the shields of metal, enamelled in colours, and diapered or diversified with flourishes of gold and silver. Both the arts of encaustic painting and embroidery were then well known and practised, yet of so great cost as to be procured only by the most noble and wealthy. Amongst other pageantries was the dedication of these trophies to some propitiatory Saint, over whose shrine they were suspended, and which introduced armorial bearings in the decoration of churches, frequently carved in stone, painted in fresco upon the walls, or stained in glass in the windows. The avarice of the ecclesiastics in thus adding to their treasures conduced almost as much as the military genius of the age to the more general introduction of arms. So sanctioned, the use of them became indispensable."[43] By the time of Edward the First we find that all great commanders had adopted arms, which were at that date really _coats_; the tinctures and charges of the banner and shield being applied to the surcoat, or mantle, which was worn over the armour, while the trappings of horses were decorated in a similar manner. In the ages immediately subsequent to the Crusades, heraldric ensigns began to be generally applied as architectural decorations. The shields upon which they were first represented were in the form of an isosceles triangle, slightly curved on its two equal sides; but soon afterwards they began to assume that of the gothic arch reversed, a shape probably adopted with a view to such decoration, as harmonising better with the great characteristics of the pointed style. Painted glass, too, in its earliest application, was employed to represent military portraits, and arms with scrolls containing short sentences, from which family mottoes may have originated. Warton[44] places this gorgeous ornament at an era earlier than the reign of Edward II. Encaustic tiles, also, which were introduced in the early days of heraldry, afforded another means of displaying the insignia of warriors. They are still found in the pavements of many of our cathedrals and old parish churches. Rolls of Arms, which afford, after seals, the best possible evidence of the ancient tinctures and charges, occur so early as the time of Henry III. A document of this description, belonging to that reign, is preserved in the College of Arms, and contains upwards of 200 coats emblazoned or described in terms of heraldry differing very little from the modern nomenclature. In a subsequent chapter I shall have occasion to refer for some facts to this curious and valuable manuscript. In the succeeding reigns the science rapidly increased in importance and utility. The king and his chief nobility began to have heralds attached to their establishments. These officials, at a later date, took their names from some badge or cognizance of the family whom they served, such as Falcon, Rouge Dragon, or from their master's title, as Hereford, Huntingdon, &c. They were, in many instances, old servants or retainers, who had borne the brunt of war,[45] and who, in their official capacity, attending tournaments and battle-fields, had great opportunities of making collections of arms, and gathering genealogical particulars. It is to them, as men devoid of general literature and historical knowledge, Mr. Montagu ascribes the fabulous and romantic stories connected with antient heraldry; and certainly they had great temptations to falsify facts, and give scope to invention when a championship for the dignity and antiquity of the families upon whom they attended was at once a labour of love and an essential duty of their office. The =Roll of Karlaverok=, the name of which must be familiar to every reader who has paid any attention to heraldry, is a poem in Norman-French, describing the valorous deeds of Edward I and his knights at the siege of the castle of Karlaverok, in Dumfriesshire, in the year 1300. This roll, which is curious on historical grounds, and by no means contemptible as a poem, possesses especial charms for the heraldric student. It describes with remarkable accuracy the banners of the barons and knights who served in the expedition against Scotland, and "affords evidence of the perfect state of the science of heraldry at that early period." It is believed to have been written by Walter of Exeter, a Franciscan friar, further known as the author of the romantic history of Guy, Earl of Warwick. A contemporary copy of this valuable relic exists in the British Museum, and another copy, transcribed from the original, is in the Library of the College of Arms. The latter was published in 1828 by Sir Harris Nicolas, with a translation and memoirs of the personages commemorated by the poet. The poem commences by stating that, in the year of Grace one thousand three hundred, the king held a great court at Carlisle, and commanded his men to prepare to go together with him against his enemies the Scots. On the appointed day the whole host was ready. "There were," says the chivalrous friar, "many rich caparisons embroidered on silks and satins; many a beautiful penon fixed to a lance, and many a banner displayed. "And afar off was the noise heard of the neighing of horses; mountains and valleys were everywhere covered with sumpter horses and waggons with provisions, and sacks of tents and pavilions. "And the days were long and fine [it was Midsummer]. They proceeded by easy journeys arranged in four squadrons; the which I will so describe to you that not one shall be passed over. But first I will tell you of the names and arms of the companions, especially of the banners, if you will listen how." In truth, by far the greater portion of the composition consists of descriptions of the heraldric insignia borne upon the banners of the commanders, upwards of one hundred in number. The following are quoted as examples: [Illustration: "=Henri le bon Conte de Nichole De prowesse enbrasse & a cole E en son coer le a souveraine Menans le eschiele primeraine Baniere ot de un cendall saffrin O un lion rampant porprin.="] 'Henry the good Earl of Lincoln, burning with valour, which is the chief feeling of his heart, leading the first squadron, had a banner of yellow silk with a purple lion rampant.'[46] [Illustration: "=Prowesse ke avoit fait ami De Guilleme de Latimier Ke la crois patee de or mier Portoit en rouge bien portraite Sa baniere ot cele parte traite.="] 'Prowess had made a friend of William le Latimer, who bore on this occasion a well-proportioned banner, with a gold cross patée, pourtrayed on red.'[47] "=Johans de Beauchamp proprement Portoit le baniere de vair Au douz tens et au sovest aier.=" 'John de Beauchamp Handsomely bore his banner of vair, To the gentle weather and south-west air.'[48] The best authorities are agreed that coat-armour did not become hereditary until the reign of Henry III and his successor. Before that period families "kept no constant coat, but gave now this, anon that, sometimes their paternal, sometimes their maternal or adopted coats, a variation causing much obfuscation in history."[49] Many of the nobility who had heretofore borne ensigns consisting of the honorable ordinaries, the simplest figures of heraldry, now began to charge them with other figures. Some few families, however, never adopted what are called common charges, but retained the oldest and simplest forms of bearing, such as bends, cheverons, fesses, barry, paly, chequy, &c.; and, as a general rule, such coats may be regarded as the most antient in existence. With respect to Welsh heraldry, Dallaway thinks that the families of that province did not adopt the symbols made use of by other nations, until its annexation to the English Crown by Edward I. Certain it is that many of the oldest families bear what may be termed legendary pictures, having little or no analogy to the more systematic armory of England; such, for example, as a wolf issuing from a cave; a cradle under a tree with a child guarded by a goat, &c. The reigns of Edward III and Richard II were the "palmy days" of heraldry. Then were the banners and escocheons of war refulgent with blazon; the light of every chancel and hall was stained with the tinctures of heraldry; the tiled pavement vied with the fretted roof; every corbel, every vane, spoke proudly of the achievements of the battle-field, and filled every breast with a lofty emulation of the deeds which earned such stately rewards. We, the men of this calculating and prosaic nineteenth century, have, it is probable, but a faint idea of the influence which heraldry exerted on the minds of our rude forefathers of that chivalrous age: but we can hardly refuse to admit that, by diffusing more widely the enthusiasm of martial prowess, it lent a powerful aid to the formation of our national character, and strongly tended to give to England that proud military ascendancy she has long enjoyed among the nations of the earth.[50] [Illustration: (Ordeal Combat.)] At this period that peculiar species of ordeal, TRIAL BY COMBAT, the prototype of the modern duel, was licensed by the supreme magistrate. When a person was accused by another without any further evidence than the mere _ipse dixit_ of the accuser, the defendant making good his own cause by strongly denying the fact, the matter was referred to the decision of the sword,[51] and although the old proverb that "might overcomes right" was frequently verified in these encounters, the vanquished party was adjudged guilty of the crime alleged against him, and dealt with according to law. The charge usually preferred was that of treason, though the dispute generally originated in private pique between the parties. These combats brought together immense numbers of people. That between Sir John Annesley and Katrington, in the reign of Richard II, was fought before the palace at Westminster, and attracted more spectators than the king's coronation had done.[52] All such encounters were regulated by laws which it was the province of the heralds to enforce.[53] The TOURNAMENT, though proscribed by churchmen (jealous, as Dallaway observes, of _shows_ in which they could play no part), had nothing in it of the objectionable character attaching to the judicial combat. Nor will it suffer, in the judgment of Gibbon, on a comparison with the Olympic games, "which, however recommended by the idea of classic antiquity, must yield to a Gothic tournament, as being, in every point of view, to be preferred by impartial taste."[54] Descriptions of tournaments occur in so many popular works that it is not here necessary to do more than to refer to them. The vivid picture of one by Sir Walter Scott in 'Ivanhoe' is probably fresh in the reader's memory. As early heraldry consisted of very simple elements, it cannot excite surprise that the same bearings were frequently adopted by different families unknown to each other; hence arose very violent disputes and controversies, as to whom the prior right belonged. The celebrated case of Scrope against Grosvenor in the reign of Richard II, may be cited as an example. The arms _Azure, a bend or_, were claimed by no less than three families, namely, Carminow of Cornwall, Lord Scrope, and Sir Robert Grosvenor. On the part of Scrope, it was asserted that these arms had been borne by his family from the Norman conquest. Carminow pleaded a higher antiquity, and declared they had been used by _his_ ancestors ever since the days of king Arthur! The trial by combat had been resorted to by these two claimants without a satisfactory decision, wherefore it was decreed that both should continue to bear the coat as heretofore. The dispute between Scrope and Grosvenor was not so summarily disposed of; a trial, not by the sword, but by legal process, took place before the high Constables and the Earl Marshal, and lasted five years. The proceedings, which were printed in 1831 from the records in the Tower, occupy two large volumes! The depositions of many gentlemen bearing arms, touching this controversy, are given at full length, and present us with some curious and characteristic features of the times. Among many others who gave evidence in support of the claims of Lord Scrope was the famous Chaucer. His deposition, taken from the above records, and printed in Sir Harris Nicolas's elegant life of the poet, recently published, is interesting, no less from its connexion with the witness than for its curiosity in relation to our subject: "Geoffrey Chaucer, Esquire, of the age of forty and upwards, armed for twenty-seven years, produced on behalf of Sir Richard Scrope, sworn and examined. Asked, whether the arms _Azure, a bend or_, belonged, or ought to belong, to the said Sir Richard? Said, Yes, for he saw him so armed in France, before the town of Retters,[55] and Sir Henry Scrope armed in the same arms with a white label, and with a banner; and the said Richard, armed in the entire arms, 'Azure, with a bend or;' and so he had seen him armed during the whole expedition, until the said Geoffrey was taken [prisoner.] Asked, how he knew that the said arms appertained to the said Sir Richard? Said, that he had heard say from Old Knights and Esquires, that they had been reputed to be their arms, as common fame and the public voice proved; and he also said that they had continued their possession of the said arms; and that all his time he had seen the said arms _in banners, glass, paintings, and vestments_, and commonly called the arms of Scrope. Asked, if he had heard any one say who was the first ancestor of the said Sir Richard, who first bore the said arms? Said, No, nor had he ever heard otherwise than that they were come of antient ancestry and old gentry, and used the said arms. Asked, if he had heard any one say how long a time the ancestors of the said Sir Richard had used the said arms? Said, No, but he had heard say that it passed the memory of man. Asked, whether he had ever heard of any interruption or challenge made by Sir Robert Grosvenor, or by his ancestors, or by any one in his name, to the said Sir Richard, or to any of his ancestors? Said, No, but he said that he was once in Friday-street in London, and as he was walking in the street he saw hanging a new sign made of the said arms, and he asked what Inn that was that had hung out these arms of _Scrope_? and one answered him and said, No, Sir, they are not hung out for the arms of Scrope, nor painted there for those arms, but they are painted and put there by a knight of the county of Chester, whom men call Sir Robert Grosvenor; and that was the first time he ever heard speak of Sir Robert Grosvenor or of his ancestors, or of any other bearing the name of Grosvenor."[56] At this date the nobility claimed, and to a considerable extent exercised, the right of conferring arms upon their followers for faithful services in war. A memorable instance is related by Froissart, in which the Lord Audley, a famous general at the battle of Poictiers, rewarded four of his esquires in this manner. When the battle was over, Edward the Black Prince, calling for this nobleman, embraced him and said, "Sir James, both I myself and all others acknowledge you, in the business of the day, to have been the best doer in arms; wherefore, with intent to furnish you the better to pursue the wars, I retain you for ever my knight, with 500 marks yearly revenue, which I shall assign you out of my inheritance in England." This was, at the period, a great estate, and the Lord Audley duly appreciated the generosity of the donation; yet, calling to mind his obligations in the conflict to his four squires, Delves, Mackworth, Hawkeston, and Foulthurst, he immediately divided the Prince's gift among them, giving them, at the same time, permission to bear his own arms, altered in detail, for the sake of distinction. When the prince heard of this noble deed he was determined not to be outdone in generosity, but insisted upon Audley's accepting a further grant of 600 marks per annum, arising out of his duchy of Cornwall. The arms of Lord Audley were GULES, FRETTY OR, and those of the four valiant esquires, as borne for many generations by their respective descendants, in the counties of Chester and Rutland, as follows: DELVES. Argent, a cheveron _gules, fretty or_, between three delves or billets sable. MACKWORTH. Party per pale indented, ermine and sable, a cheveron _gules, fretty or_. HAWKESTONE. Ermine, a fesse, _gules, fretty or_, between three hawks. The hawks were in later times omitted. FOULTHURST. _Gules, fretty or_, a chief ermine.[57] Another interesting instance of the granting of arms to faithful retainers, occurs in a deed from William, Baron of Graystock, to Adam de Blencowe, of Blencowe, in Cumberland, who had fought under his banners at Cressy and Poictiers: "To ALL to whom these presents shall come to be seen or heard, William, Baron of Graystock, Lord of Morpeth, wisheth health in the Lord. Know ye that I have given and granted to Adam de Blencowe, an escocheon sable, with a bend closetted, argent and azure, with three chaplets, gules; and with a crest closetted argent and azure of my arms; _to have and to hold_ to the said Adam and his heirs for ever; and I, the said William and my heirs will warrant to the said Adam the arms aforesaid. In witness whereof, I have to these letters patent set my seal. Written at the castle of Morpeth, the 26th day of February, in the 30th year of the reign of King Edward III, after the Conquest."[58] The practice of devising armorial bearings by will is as antient as the time of Richard II. In some cases they were also transferred _by deed of gift_. In the 15th year of the same reign Thomas Grendall, of Fenton, makes over to Sir William Moigne, to have and to hold to himself, his heirs and assigns for ever, the arms which had escheated to him (Grendall) at the death of his cousin, John Beaumeys, of Sawtrey.[59] Notwithstanding the numerous traditions relative to the granting of arms by monarchs in very early times, it seems to have been the _general_ practice before the reigns of Richard II and Henry IV for persons of rank to assume what ensigns they chose.[60] But these monarchs, regarding themselves as the true "fountains of honour," granted or took them away by royal edict. The exclusive right of the king to this privilege was long called in question, and Dame Julyan Berners, so late as 1486, declares that "armys bi a mannys auctorite taken (if an other man have not borne theym afore) be of strength enogh." The same gallant lady boldly challenges the right of heralds: "And it is the opynyon of moni men that an herod of armis may gyve armys. Bot I say if any sych armys be borne ... thoos armys be of no more auctorite then thoos armys the wich be taken by a mannys awne auctorite." So strictly was the use of coat-armour limited to the military profession, that a witness in a certain cause in the year 1408, alleged that, although descended from noble blood, he had no armorial bearings, because neither himself nor his ancestors had ever been engaged in war.[61] [Illustration] It was in the reign of the luxurious Richard II that heraldric devices began to be displayed upon the civil as well as the military costume of the great; "upon the mantle, the surcoat and the just-au-corps or boddice, the charge and cognizance of the wearer were profusely scattered, and shone resplendent in tissue and beaten gold."[62] Hitherto the escocheon had been charged with the hereditary (paternal) bearing only, but now the practice of impaling the wife's arms, and quartering those of the mother, when an heiress, became the fashion. Impalement was sometimes performed by placing the dexter half of the lord's shield in juxta-position with the sinister moiety of his consort's;[63] but this mode of marshalling occasioned great confusion, entirely destroying the character of both coats,[64] and was soon abandoned in favour of the present mode of placing the full arms of both parties side by side in the escocheon. Occasionally the shield was divided horizontally, the husband's coat occupying the chief or upper compartment, and the wife's the base or lower half; but this was never a favourite practice, as the side-by-side arrangement was deemed better fitted to express the equality of the parties in the marriage relation. The practice of impaling official with personal arms, for instance, those of a bishopric with those of the bishop, does not appear to be of great antiquity. Provosts, mayors, the kings of arms, heads of houses, and certain professors in the universities, among others, possess this right; and it is the general practice to cede the dexter, or more honourable half of the shield to the coat of office. Nisbet mentions a fashion formerly prevalent in Spain, which certainly ranks under the category of 'Curiosities,' and therefore demands a place here. Single women frequently divided their shield per pale, placing their paternal arms on the sinister side, and leaving the dexter _blank_, for those of their husbands, as soon as they should be so fortunate as to obtain them. This, says mine author, "was the custom _for young ladies that were resolved to marry_!"[65] These were called "Arms of Expectation."[66] [Illustration] The gorgeous decoration of the male costume with the ensigns of heraldry soon attracted the attention and excited the emulation of that sex which is generally foremost in the adoption of personal ornaments. Yes, incongruous as the idea appears to modern dames, the ladies too assumed the embroidered _coat of arms_! On the vest or close-fitting garment they represented the paternal arms, repeating the same ornament, if _femmes soles_, or single women, on the more voluminous upper robe; but if married women, this last was occupied by the arms of the husband, an arrangement not unaptly expressing their condition as _femmes-covertes_. This mode of wearing the arms was afterwards laid aside, and the ensigns of husband and wife were impaled on the outer garment, a fashion which existed up to the time of Henry VIII, as appears from the annexed engraving of Elizabeth, wife of John Shelley, Esq.[67] copied from a brass in the parish church of Clapham, co. Sussex. The arms represented are those of Shelley and Michelgrove, otherwise Fauconer; both belonging, it will be seen, to the class called canting or allusive arms; those of Shelley being welk-_shells_, and those of Fauconer, a _falcon_. Quartering is a division of the shield into four or more equal parts, by means of which the arms of other families, whose heiresses the ancestors of the bearer have married, are combined with his paternal arms; and a shield thus quartered exhibits at one view the ensigns of all the houses of which he is the representative. In modern times this _cumulatio armorum_ is occasionally carried to such an extent that upwards of a hundred coats centre in one individual, and may be represented upon his shield.[68] The arms of England and France upon the great seal of Edward III, and those of Castile and Leon in the royal arms of Spain, are early examples of quartering. The first English subject who quartered arms was John Hastings, Earl of Pembroke, in the fourteenth century. In this century originated the practice of placing the shield between two animals as supporters, for which see a future chapter. The application of heraldric ornaments to household furniture and implements of war is of great antiquity. I have now before me the brass pommel of a sword on which are three triangular shields, two of them charged with a lion rampant, the other with an eagle displayed. This relic, which was dug up near Lewes castle, is conjectured to be of the reign of Henry III.[69] Arms first occur on coins in one of Edmund, King of Sicily, in the thirteenth century; but the first English monarch who so used them was Edward III. The first supporters on coins occur in the reign of Henry VIII, whose 'sovereign' is thus decorated. Arms upon tombs are found so early as 1144.[70] Among the 'curiosities' of heraldry belonging to these early times may be mentioned _adumbrated_ charges; that is, figures represented in outline with the colour of the field showing through; because the bearers, having lost their patrimonies, retained only the _shadow_ of their former state and dignity.[71] Monasteries and other religious foundations generally bore arms, which were almost uniformly those of the founders, or a slight modification of them.[72] Dallaway traces this usage to the knights-templars and hospitallers who were both soldiers and ecclesiastics. The arms assigned to most cities and antient boroughs are borrowed from those of early feudal lords: thus the arms of the borough of Lewes are the chequers of the Earls of Warren, to whom the barony long appertained, with a canton of the lion and cross-crosslets of the Mowbrays, lords of the town in the fourteenth century. Some of the quaint devices which pass for the arms of particular towns have nothing heraldric about them, and seem to have originated in the caprice of the artists who engraved their seals. Such for example is the design which the good townsmen of Guildford are pleased to call their arms. This consists of a green mount rising out of the water, and supporting an odd-looking castle, whose two towers are ornamented with high steeples, surmounted with balls; from the centre of the castle springs a lofty tower, with three turrets, and ornamented with the arms of England and France. Over the door are two roses, and in the door a key, the said door being guarded by a lion-couchant, while high on each side the castle is a pack of wool gallantly floating through the air! What this assemblage of objects may signify I do not pretend to guess. Persons of the middle class, not entitled to coat-armour, invented certain arbitrary signs called =Merchants' Marks=, and these often occur in the stonework and windows of old buildings, and upon tombs. Piers Plowman, who wrote in the reign of Edward III, speaks of "merchauntes' markes ymedeled" in glass. Sometimes these marks were impaled with the paternal arms of aristocratic merchants, as in the case of John Halle, a wealthy woolstapler of Salisbury, rendered immortal by the Rev. Edward Duke in his 'Prolusiones Historicæ.' The early printers and painters likewise adopted similar marks, which are to be seen on their respective works.[73] A rude monogram seems to have been attempted, and it was generally accompanied with a cross, and, occasionally, a hint at the inventor's peculiar pursuit, as in the cut here given, where the staple at the bottom refers to the worthy John Halle's having been a merchant of the staple. The heralds objected to such marks being placed upon a shield, for, says the writer of Harl. MS. 2252 (fol. 10), "=Theys be none Armys=, for every man may take hym a marke, but not armys without a herawde or purcyvaunte;" and in "The duty and office of an herald," by F. Thynne, Lancaster Herald, 1605, the officer is directed "to prohibit merchants and others to put their names, marks, or devices, in escutcheons or shields, which belong to gentlemen bearing arms and none others." [Illustration] At the commencement of the fifteenth century considerable confusion seems to have arisen from upstarts having assumed the arms of antient families--a fact which shows that armorial bearings began to be considered the indispensable accompaniment of wealth. So great had this abuse become that, in the year 1419, it was deemed necessary to issue a royal mandate to the sheriff of every county "to summon all persons bearing arms to prove their right to them," a task of no small difficulty, it may be presumed, in many cases. Many of the claims then made were referred to the heralds as commissioners, "but the first regular chapter held by them in a collective capacity was at the siege of Rouen, in 1420."[74] The first _King of Arms_ was William Bruges, created by Henry V. Several grants of arms made by him from 1439 to 1459 are recorded in the College of Arms. During the sanguinary struggle between the Houses of Lancaster and York "arms were universally used, and most religiously and pertinaciously maintained." Sometimes, however, when the different branches of a family espoused opposing interests they varied their arms either in the charges or colours, or both. The antient family of Lower of Cornwall originally bore "... a cheveron between three _red_ roses," but espousing, it is supposed, the Yorkist, or white-rose side of the question, they changed the tincture of their arms to "sable, a cheveron between three _white_ roses,"[75] the coat borne by their descendants to this day. The interest taken by the Cornish gentry in these civil dissensions may account for the frequency of the rose in the arms of Cornwall families. The _red rose_ in the centre of the arms of Lord Abergavenny was placed there by his ancestor, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, "better known as the king-maker," "to show himself the faithful homager and soldier of the House of Lancaster."[76] The non-heraldric reader will require a definition of what, in the technical phrase of blazon, are called =differences=. These are certain marks, smaller than ordinary charges, placed upon a conspicuous part of the shield for the purpose of distinguishing the sons of a common parent from each other. Thus, the eldest son bears a label; the second a crescent; the third a mullet; the fourth a martlet; the fifth an annulet; and the sixth a fleur-de-lis. The arms of the six sons of Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who died 30{o} Edward III, were, in the window of St. Mary's Church, Warwick, _differenced_ in this manner.[77] These distinctions are carried still further, for the sons of a second son bear the label, crescent, mullet, &c. upon a crescent; those of a third son the same upon a mullet, respectively. In the third generation the mark of cadency is again superimposed upon the two preceding differences, producing, at length, unutterable confusion. Dugdale published a work, in 1682, on the differences of arms, in which he condemns this system, and suggests a return to the antient mode, which consisted in varying the colours and charges of the field, though preserving the general characteristics of the hereditary bearing. For example, Beauchamp of Elmley branched out into four lines; the eldest line bore the paternal arms, _Gules a fess, or_; the other three superadded to this bearing a charge _or_, six times repeated, namely, II, Beauchamp of Abergavenny, 6 cross-crosslets III, Beauchamp of Holt, 6 billets, and IV, Beauchamp of Bletshoe, 6 martlets, [Illustration] and among the further ramifications of the family we find V, Beauchamp of Essex 6 trefoils slipped VI, Beauchamp of ---- 6 mullets VII, Beauchamp of ---- 6 pears, and upwards of ten other coats, all preserving the field gules and the fess or. The Bassets, according to the Ashmolean MSS.[78] varied their coat 7 times, the Lisles 4, the Nevilles 11, and the Braoses 5. An interesting example of early differencing is cited by Sir Harris Nicolas, in his 'Roll of Carlaverok.'[79] In the early part of the fourteenth century-- Leicestershire. {Alan le Zouche bore Gules, besanté Or Barons. {William le Zouche, of Haryngworth a quarter ermine the same with {Sir William Zouche a label azure Knights. {Sir Oliver Zouche a cheveron erm. {Sir Amory Zouche a bend argent {Sir Thomas Zouche on a quarter argent, a mullet sable. Surnames in these early times were in a very unsettled state, for the younger branches of a family, acquiring new settlements by marriage and otherwise, abandoned their patronymics, and adopted new ones derived from the seignories so acquired.[80] Hence it often happens that arms are identical or similar, when the relationship is not recognized by identity of appellation. Illegitimate children generally bore the paternal ensigns differenced by certain _brizures_. Thus John de Beaufort, eldest natural son of John of Gaunt, bore _Per pale argent and azure_ [blue and white being the _colours_ of the House of Lancaster] _on a bend gules, three lions passant-guardant or_ [the royal arms of England] _in the upper part of the bend a label azure, charged with nine fleur-de-lis or_.[81] The arms borne in the usual manner were often surrounded with a bordure to indicate bastardy; of this mode of differencing several examples are furnished in the arms of existing peers descended from royalty. Some of the descendants of Henry Beaufort, third duke of Somerset, placed the Beaufort arms upon a fesse, and numerous similar instances might be adduced. The mode of differencing by alterations, or the addition of new charges, however commended by Dugdale and other great names, is certainly exposed to the same objection as the use of the label, crescent, mullet, &c., as tending equally to confusion; for, with the addition of cross-crosslets, billets, &c., to the primary charge of the Beauchamps, no herald will dare assert that the original arms are preserved. It is a canon of heraldry that "Omnia arma arithmeticis figuris sunt simillima, quibus si quid addas vel subtrahas non remanet eadem species." Every alteration, however slight, produces a new coat, and thus the principal advantage of coat armour--its hereditary character--is sacrificed. In fact, a coat of arms is the symbol of a generic, or family, name, and it is not within the compass of the heraldric art to particularize individual branches and members of a family by any additions or changes whatever, at least to any great extent.[82] "The numerous class of men who were termed =Armigeri=, or gentry of coat-armour," observes Dallaway, "very generally took, with a small variation, the escocheon of that feudal lord whose property and influence extended over that province which they inhabited," and Camden, in his 'Remaines,' says, "Whereas the earles of Chester bare garbes or wheat-sheafes, many gentlemen of that countrey took wheatsheafes. Whereas the old earles of Warwicke bare chequy or and azure, a cheueron ermin, many thereabout tooke ermine and chequy. In Leicestershire and the countrey confining diuers bare cinquefoyles, for that the ancient earles of Leicester bare geules, a cinquefoyle ermine, &c." This was a fertile source of new bearings. Sometimes, in the absence of other evidence of one family's having been feudally dependent upon another, presumptive proof is furnished by a similarity between the arms. I subjoin an instance. The coat of the baronial family of Echingham of Echingham, co. Sussex, was 'AZURE A FRET ARGENT,' and the crest, 'A DEMI-LION RAMPANT ARGENT.' [Illustration] The arms of Jefferay, of Chiddingly, in the same county, were '_Azure fretty or_' (with the addition of a lion passant-guardant, gules, on a chief argent), and the crest, _A lion's head_ erased _argent_, ducally crowned azure. The first settlement of the Jefferays was at Betchington, co. Sussex, an estate which had previously belonged to the lords Echingham, but there is no proof of the feudal connexion except that which is furnished by a comparison of the arms. Richard III greatly promoted the cause of Heraldry in England by the erection of the heralds into the corporate body which still exists under the designation of the =College of Arms=. This epoch may be considered the noonday of the history of armory in England; and as two subsequent chapters of this volume, devoted respectively to the history of that institution, and to notices of celebrated writers on heraldry, will bring down the annals of the science to our own times, "I here make an end" of a chapter which I trust may not have been found totally devoid of interest to any reader who loves to trace the records of the past. [Illustration] CHAPTER III. Rationale of Heraldic Charges, etc. [Illustration: (Arms of the See of Chichester)] "The Formes of the pure celestiall bodies mixt with grosse terrestrials; earthly animals with watery; sauage beasts with tame; whole-footed beasts with diuided; reptiles with things gressible; fowles of prey with home-bred; these again with riuer fowles; aery insecta with earthly; also things naturall with artificiall; arts liberall with mechanicall; military with rusticall; and rusticall with ciuil. Which confused mixture hath not a little discouraged many persons--otherwise well affected to the study of Armory--and impaired the estimation of the profession." _Guillim._ Dictionaries of the technical terms employed in heraldry are so common, and the elements of the science so well explained in various popular treatises,[83] that it would be impertinent in an essay like the present to go into all the details usually comprised in those useful books of reference. Still it may interest the general reader, and will, I trust, give no offence to adepts in the science, if I offer a few observations on this subject, with illustrations from our old writers, adding some etymological conjectures of my own. The origin of the expression 'a coat of arms' we have already seen, as also the cause why heraldric ensigns are borne upon a shield. Shields have been made of every imaginable shape according to the taste of the age or the fancy of the bearer, with these two restrictions, that the shields of knights-bannerets must be square, and those of ladies in the form of a lozenge. The most usual, because the most convenient, shape is that which is technically called the _heater_-shield--from its resemblance to the heater of an iron--with some slight variations. Our friend Sylvanus Morgan, whose ingenuity all must admire, in defiance of the oft-quoted proverb: "=When Adam digged and Eve span, Who was then the Gentleman?=" deduces this shape for men, and that of the lozenge for women, from the _spade_ of Adam, and the _spindle_ of Eve! [Illustration] The ground or field of every coat of arms must be either of metal, colour, or fur. The METALS of heraldry are, Or==gold, and argent==silver, and as the shield of war was antiently of metal, either embossed or enamelled, the retention of the two precious metals as the field of an escocheon is easily accounted for. The COLOURS are gules, azure, vert, purpure, sable, tenne, and sanguine. While some of these terms are French; others, though coming to us through that medium, are originally from other languages. GULES, according to Ducange, is _goulis_, _guelle_, _gula_ sive _guella_, the red colour of the mouth or throat of an animal. Mackenzie derives it from the Hebrew _gulude_, a piece of red cloth, or from the Arabic _gule_, a red rose. _Ghul_ in the Persian signifies rose-coloured, and _Ghulistan_ is 'the country of roses.' It is probably one of those importations from the East which the Crusades introduced, both into the elements of armory and the nomenclature of the science. It was sometimes called _vermeil_[84] (vermilion) and _rouget_. An antient knight is represented as bearing a plain red banner without any charge: "Mais Eurmenions de la Brette La baniere eut _toute rougecte_."[85] The barbarous term _blodius_ was likewise occasionally used to express this colour. AZURE==light-blue, is a French corruption of the Arabic word _lazur_ or _lazuli_. The lapis lazuli is a copper ore, very compact and hard, which is found in detached lumps, of an elegant blue colour, and to it the artist is indebted for his beautiful ultra-marine. This colour, still one of the dearest of pigments, was antiently in great request, and called 'beyond-sea azure.'[86] The lapis lazuli is found in Persia, Bucharia, and China. VERT (French) is light green. This word was applied at an early period "to every thing," says Cowell, "that grows and bears a _green_ leaf within the forest that may cover and hide a deer." Vert and venison, in the vocabulary of woodcraft, were as inseparable as shadow and substance. _To vert_ signified to enter the forest, as in an old song of the thirteenth century: "Sumer is i-cumen in, Lhude sing cuccu; Groweth sed and bloweth med, And springeth the wde nu. =Sing Cuccu, Cuccu!= Awe bleteth after lomb, Lhouth after calvé cu, Bulluc sterteth, Bucke VERTETH, =Murie sing Cuccu=," etc. This colour was antiently called _synople_, and in the Boke of St. Albans _synobylt_, a word which Colombiere derives from the Latin _sinopis_, a dyeing mineral,[87] or from Synople, a town in the Levant, whence a green dye was procured. Of SABLE the derivation is very uncertain. It seems unlikely to have been taken from the colour of the diminutive animal now known by this name, first, because it would then rank under the category of _furs_; and, secondly, because that animal is far from black. Indeed, the best sable is of a light brown or sand colour. Dallaway quotes a line, however, which might be adduced in support of this derivation: "Sables, ermines, vair et gris." Guillim derives it from _sabulum_, gross sand or gravel, but this seems very improbable, although I have nothing better to substitute. It is curious that 'sable' and 'azure' should have been selected from the 'jargon' of heraldry for poetical use, to the exclusion of other similar terms: "By this the drooping daylight 'gan to fade, And yield his room to sad succeeding night, Who with her _sable_ mantle 'gan to shade The face of earth, and ways of living wight." _Faerie Queen._ "Thus replies Minerva, graceful, with her _azure_ eyes." _Pope._ PURPURE (purple) is not common in English armory: still less so are the _stainant_ or disgraceful colours, TENNY (orange) and MURREY, which Dr. Johnson defines as "darkly red," deriving it through the French _morée_, and the Italian _morello_. The fine cherry designated by this last word is, when ripe, of the exact colour intended by murrey. Bacon says, "Leaves of some trees turn a little _murrey_, or reddish;" and "a waistcoat of _murrey_-coloured satin" occurs in the writings of Arbuthnot. By these terms were the arms of gentlemen described; but for the arms of nobility they were not sufficiently lofty. These were blazoned by the precious stones, as _topaz_ for yellow, _ruby_ for red, &c. For the arms of princes it was necessary to go a step higher, namely, to the heavenly bodies, _Sol_, _Luna_, _Mars_, &c. Sir John Ferne enumerates several other sets of terms, in all thirteen, which he classifies thus: 1, planets; 2, precious stones; 3, vertues; 4, celestiall signes; 5, months; 6, days of the week; 7, ages of man; 8, flowers; 9, elements; 10, sesons of the yeer; 11, complexions; 12, numbers; 13, mettailes. What would those who are disgusted with the 'jargon' of our science say to such blazon as the following?-- He beareth _Sunday_, a lion rampant _Tuesday_. He beareth _Faith_, a wolf salient _Loyalty_. He beareth _Marigold_, a bear passant, _Blue Lily_, muzzled _White Rose_. He beareth, _Infancy_, three grasshoppers _Virility_. He beareth, _Melancholy_, three asses' heads, _Flegmatique_! I must confess that, in the course of my heraldric reading, I have never met with blazon of this singular description, but Ferne assures his reader that it may be his fortune "to light upon such phantasticall termes," and he gives an historical and philosophical account of their origin. So recently as the last century the planets and gems were used in royal and noble armory, but of late good taste has limited blazon to the first-mentioned and most simple set of terms in all cases. [Illustration] The _furs_ are ermine, ermines, erminois, erminites, pean, vair, and potent counter-potent. They are all said to be indicative of dignity. In armorial painting their effect is very rich. ERMINE, which may be taken as the type of the five first mentioned, is represented by three spots placed triangularly, and three hairs in black upon a white ground. It is intended to represent the black tail of a species of weasel fixed upon the white skin of the animal. Guillim[88] gives a coat, containing six _whole ermines_, as represented in the margin. Sir G. Mackenzie informs us that "the first user of this fur in arms was Brutus, the son of Silvius, who having by accident killed his father, left that unhappie ground, and travelling in Bretaigne in France, fell asleep, and when he awoke he found this little beast upon his shield, and from that time wore a shield ermine!" This fur is said to have been introduced into England by Alan, Earl of Richmond, so created by William the Conqueror. The ermine (_mustela erminea_) is found in all the northern regions of the old continent, and as far southward as Persia and China. It was originally brought into western Europe from Armenia, then called _Ermonie_, whence its name. Chaucer employs _ermin_ for the adjective Armenian. VAIRE is composed of miniature shields of blue and white alternately placed. According to Mackenzie it represents the skin of a small quadruped called _varus_, the back of which is of a bluish grey, and the belly white; and Guillim adds that when the head and feet of the animal are cut off from the skin, the latter resembles the figure of vaire used in heraldry. The costly fur so much spoken of by our old poets under the name of _miniver_ is derived by Dallaway from the French _menu vair_, on account of its smallness and delicacy. The old French _vairon_ signifies anything of two colours, and may possibly be the etymon of _vaire_. [Illustration: (Temp Edw. I.) Arms of Sackville.] POTENT-COUNTER-POTENT, literally "crutch-opposite-crutch," resembles the tops of crutches counter-placed. What the origin of this figure may have been does not appear, although the word potent, in the sense of crutch, was common in the days of Chaucer. "When luste of youth wasted be and spent, Then in his hand he takyth a _potent_." And again, "So eld she was that she ne went A foote, but it were by potent." _Romaunt of the Rose._ [Illustration: ("Gules, a bend argent")] Having thus taken a glance at the field, or ground of the heraldric shield, let us next briefly notice what are called the honourable ordinaries, one or other of which occurs in the great majority of arms, viz., the CHIEF, BEND, BEND-SINISTER, FESSE, PALE, CROSS, SALTIRE, CHEVERON, and PILE. The =chief= is a fifth part of the shield nearest the top; _unde nomen_. In the primitive bearings, which were literally coats, or rather mantles of arms, the chief might be formed by turning the upper part of the garment back in form of a collar, thus exposing the lining, which doubtless was often of a different colour from the mantle itself. A knight who might chance at a tournament to wear a scarlet mantle lined with white, would in this manner acquire as arms, 'Gules, a chief argent.' The =bend= is a stripe passing diagonally across the shield from the dexter corner; (and the =bend-sinister=, the contrary way,) and is, etymologically, the same word with the French _bande_ and Saxon band.[89] This ordinary evidently represents a band or scarf worn over one shoulder, and passing under the opposite arm, and is well exemplified in the white belt worn by a soldier over his red coat. Of a similar origin is the =fesse=, a horizontal stripe across the middle of the shield, which represents a sash or military girdle. The term is evidently derived from the Latin _fascia_, through the French _fasce_. The =pale= is like the fesse, except that its direction is perpendicular. From its name it has been supposed to represent the _pales_, or palisades of a camp, and in support of this origin it has been remarked that, in antient warfare, every soldier was obliged to carry a pale, and to fix it as the lines were drawn for the security of the camp. This hypothesis seems to be one of those _after-thoughts_ with which heraldric theories abound. There is no doubt that most armorial _forms_ existed long before the invention of blazon, and that when it was found necessary to give every figure its distinctive appellation, the real origin of many bearings had been lost sight of, and the names assigned them were those of objects they were _conjectured_ to represent. It is far more probable that this ordinary originated in the insertion of a perpendicular stripe of a different colour from the mantle itself, an idea which is supported by the fact that the pale occupies in breadth a third of the escocheon. Two breadths of blue cloth divided by one of yellow, would produce a blazonable coat, '_Azure, a pale or_.' When a shield is divided into several horizontal stripes of alternate colours it is called _barry_; when the stripes run perpendicularly it is said to be _paly_; and when they take a diagonal direction it is styled _bendy_. The love of a striking contrast of colours in costume is characteristic of a semi-barbarous state of society, and the shawls and robes of the orientals of the present day afford a good illustration of the origin of these striped bearings.[90] Such vestments were not peculiar to the military, with whom we must always associate the heraldry of the earliest times; for, so lately as the time of Chaucer, they were the favourite fashion of civilians. This author, in his 'Parson's Tale,' makes that worthy ecclesiastic complain of the "sinful costly array of clothing in the embrouding, the disguising, indenting or _barring_, ounding, _paling_, winding or _bending_, and semblable waste of cloth in vanity."[91] Arms divided into two compartments by a horizontal line are said to be _parted per fesse_; when the line is perpendicular, _parted per pale_; and so of the others. Ridiculous as it may seem, our ancestors, from the reign of Edward II to that of Richard II, affected this kind of dress. In a contemporary illumination, John of Gaunt is represented in a long robe divided exactly in half, one side being blue, the other white, the colours of the House of Lancaster. Chaucer's Parson, just now quoted, inveighs against the "wrappings of their hose which are departed of two colours, white and red, white and blue, or black and red," making the wearers seem as though "the fire of St. Anthony or other such mischance had consumed one half of their bodies." "These party-coloured hose," humorously remarks Mr. Planché, "render uncertain the fellowship of the legs, and the common term _a pair_ perfectly inadmissible." But to return to the honourable ordinaries. The =cross=. It would not be difficult to fill a volume with disquisitions upon this bearing, forming, as it does, a prominent feature in the heraldry of all Christendom; but I must content myself with a general view, without entering much into detail. The cross, as the symbol of Christianity, naturally engaged the reverent and affectionate regard of the early Christians, a feeling which lapsed first into superstition, and eventually into idolatry. In those chivalrous but ill-directed efforts of the princes and armies of Christian Europe to gain possession of the Holy Land, the cross was adopted as the sign or mark of the common cause; it floated upon the standard, was embroidered upon the robes, and depicted on the shields of the enthusiastic throng whose campaigns hence took the designation of _Croisades_, or _Crusades_. On subsequent occasions the cross was employed in this general manner, especially when the interests of the church were concerned, as, for instance, at the battle of Lewes in 1264, when the soldiers of the baronial army marked themselves with a white cross for the purpose of distinguishing each other from the king's forces.[92] The plain cross, or cross of St. George, is the most antient form of this bearing; it differed, however, from the form now in use in having the horizontal bar placed higher than the centre of the upright. The alteration was doubtless a matter of convenience to allow the common charges of the field, when any occurred, a more equal space. But the cross has been so modified by the varying tastes of different ages, that Dame Juliana Berners, at a time when armory was comparatively simple, declares that "crossis innumerabull are borne dayli." The principal and most usual varieties of this ordinary are described in the 'Boke of St. Albans.' One of the most interesting forms is the _cross fitchée_, or 'fixibyll,' because being sharpened at the lower end it could be fixed into the ground, like the little crosses in Catholic cemeteries. It probably originated in the cross antiently carried by pilgrims, which answered the purpose of a walking-staff, and served, when occasion required, for the use of devotion. Next to this may be reckoned the _cross patée_, the _cross-crosslet_, the _cross patonce_, and the _cross moline_, called in the Boke a "mylneris cros," "for it is made to the similitude of a certain instrument of yrne in mylnys, the which berith the mylneston."[93] The plain cross _corded_, or entwined with ropes, was borne, according to the same authority, in the "armys of a nobull man, the which was some tyme a crafty man (handicraftsman), a _roper_ as he himself said." These crosses are fully described in the larger treatises on heraldry, together with numerous others. Berry's Encyclopædia Heraldica enumerates no less than THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-FIVE varieties. [Illustration: Crosslet fitchee patee patonce moline Calvary.] The =saltire=, popularly called St. Andrew's cross, is formed like two bends crossing each other in the centre of the escocheon. A great variety of opinions has existed as to its origin. Some authors take it for an antient piece of harness attached to the saddle of a horse to enable the rider, _sauter dessous_, to jump down.[94] Others derive it from an instrument used _in saltu_, in the forest, for the purpose of taking wild beasts; but neither of these hypotheses seems very probable. Leigh says, "This in the old tyme, was of y{e} height of a man, and was borne of such as used to scale the walls [_saltare in muros_] of towns. For it was driven full of pinnes necessary to that purpose. And walles of townes were _then_ but lowe as appeared by the walls of Rome, whiche were suche that Remus easelye leaped over them. Witnesseth also the same the citie of Winchester whose walls were overlooked of Colbrande, chieftaine of the Danes, who were slayne by Guye, Erle of Warwike." The =cheveron=, which resembles a pair of rafters, is likewise of very uncertain origin. It has generally been considered as a kind of architectural emblem. Leigh, speaking of a coat containing three cheveronels, or little cheverons, says, "The ancestour of this cote hath builded iij greate houses in one province," and this remark applies with some truth to the Lewkenors of Sussex, who bore similar arms, though whether assumed from such a circumstance I cannot ascertain. The =pile= is a wedge-like figure based upon the edge of the shield, and having its apex inwards. The following etymons have been suggested: 1, _pilum_, Lat. the head of an arrow; the Spaniards and Italians call this ordinary _cuspis_. 2, _pile_, French, a strong pointed timber driven into boggy ground to make a firm foundation. 3, _pied_, French, the foot; in French armory it is called _pieu_. I cannot admit any of these derivations, though perhaps my own etymon may not be deemed less irrelevant, viz. _pellis_, the skin of a beast, whence our English terms pell, pelt, peltry, &c. The skin of a wild beast, deprived of the head and fore legs, and fastened round the neck by the hinder ones, would form a rude garment, such as the hunter would consider an honourable trophy of his skill, and such as the soldier of an unpolished age would by no means despise; and it would resemble, with tolerable exactness, the pile of heraldry. The QUARTER is, as the word implies, a fourth part of the field, differing in tincture from the remainder; and the CANTON, a smaller quadrangular figure in the dexter, or sinister, chief of the escocheon, so called from the French _cantoné_, cornered. The following figures rank as sub-ordinaries, viz. _Flasques_, _Flanches_, the _Fret_, _Border_, _Orle_, _Tressure_, _Gyron_, &c. FLASQUES, always borne in pairs, are two pieces hollowed out at each side of the shield: FLANCHES and VOIDERS are modifications of this bearing. The last, says Leigh,[95] "is the reward of a gentlewoman for service by her done to the prince or princess." It is not improbable that it was borrowed from a peculiar fashion in female costume which prevailed temp. Richard II. Chaucer uses the word _voided_ in the sense of removed, made empty, and this is probably the origin of the term. [Illustration] When a shield is divided into eight acute-angled triangles, by lines drawn perpendicularly, horizontally, and diagonally through the centre, it is blazoned by the phrase '_gyronny_ of eight,' and so of any other number of equal partitions of the same form. If one of these triangles occur singly it is termed a _gyron_. For this term the nomenclature of heraldry is indebted to the Spanish language, in which it means a gore, gusset, or triangular piece of cloth. The family of Giron, subsequently ennobled as Dukes of Ossona, bear three such figures in their arms, from the following circumstance. Alphonso VI, king of Spain, in a battle with the Moors, had his horse killed under him, when, being in great personal danger, he was rescued and remounted by Don Roderico de Cissneres, who, as a memorial of the event, cut three triangular pieces from his sovereign's mantle, which being afterwards exhibited to the king, he bestowed on his valiant follower an adequate reward, and gave him permission to bear three gyrons as his arms. The English family of Gurr, whose surname was probably derived from the village of Gueures, near Dieppe, bear 'gyronny ... and ...' as a 'canting' or allusive coat. Some derive this species of bearing from a kind of patchwork mantle of various colours. Hence, doubtless, also arose that picturesque species of bearing called _chequy_, consisting of alternate squares of different tinctures. Chaucer and Spenser use the word _checkelatoun_; probably in this sense: "His robe was _cheque-latoun_." _Knight's Tale._ "But in a jacket, quilted richly rare Upon _checklaton_, was he richly dight." _Faerie Queen._ The chequered dress of the Celtic nations, still retained in the Highland plaid or tartan, may, in some way, have originated the chequered coat of heraldry. At all events, this is a more probable source than the chess-board, from which some writers derive it. Most of the ordinaries have their diminutives, as the bendlet, the pallet, the cheveronel, &c. These are usually bounded by straight lines; but the ordinaries themselves admit of a variety of modifications of outline, as follows: 1. _Indented_, like the teeth of a saw. According to Upton, this line represents the teeth of wild beasts, but Dallaway derives it from a moulding much employed in Saxon architecture. 2. _Crenelle_, or embattled, like the top of a castle, (Lat. _crena_, a notch.) The 'licentia crenellare' of the middle ages was the sovereign's permission to his nobles to embattle or fortify their mansions. 3. _Nebuly_ (nebulosus,) from its resemblance to clouds. 4. _Wavy_, or undulated. 5. _Dancette_, like indented, but larger, and consisting of only three pieces. 6. _Engrailed_, a number of little semi-circles connected in a line, the points of junction being turned outward. Johnson derives this word from the French 'grêle,' hail, marked or indented as with hailstones. And 7. _Invecked_, the same as the last, but reversed. ROUNDLES are charges, as their name implies, of a circular form. The first idea of bearing them as charges in heraldry may have been suggested by the studs or knobs by which the parts of an actual buckler were strengthened and held together. As soon as blazon was introduced they received distinctive names, according to their tinctures. The bezant (or) was supposed to represent a gold coin, in value about a ducat, struck at Constantinople (Byzantium) in the times of the Crusades. Leigh, however, assigns it a much greater value, and calls it a talent weighing 104 lbs. troy, and worth 3750_l._ "Of these beisaunts you shall rede dyversly in Scripture, as when Salomon had geuen unto Hiram xx cities, he again gave vnto Salomon 120 _beisaunts_ of gold, whereof these toke their first name," ('obeisance?') The _plate_ (argent) was probably some kind of silver coin. The _torteaux_ (red) called in the Boke of S. A. "tortellys, or litill cakys," are said to be emblematical of plenty, and to represent a cake of bread. The modern French 'torteau' is applied more exclusively to a kind of oil-cake of an oblong form used as food for cattle. 'Tortilla,' in Spanish, is a cake compounded of flour and lard. Dame J. Berners says it should be called _wastel_. 'Wastel-brede' is defined in the glossary to Chaucer, as bread made of the finest flour, and derived from the French 'gasteau.' Chaucer represents his Prioresse as keeping small hounds "that she fedde With rosted flesh, and milk and _wastel brede_." _Prol. Cant. Tales._ _Pommes_ (green), says Dallaway, are berries; but if etymology is worth anything, they must be apples, and such Leigh calls them. _Hurts_ (blue) the same authority considers berries, and most heralds have taken them to be those diminutive things, whortleberries, or as they are called in Sussex, Cornwall, and Devonshire, 'hurts.' But I am rather inclined with Leigh to consider them representations of the 'black and _blue_' contusions resulting from the "clumsy thumps" of war. _Pellets_ or _Ogresses_ (black) are the 'piletta' or leaden knobs forming the heads of blunt arrows for killing deer without injuring the skin.[96] _Golpes_ (purple) are wounds, and when they stand five in a shield may have a religious allusion to the five wounds of Christ. _Oranges_ (tenne) speak for themselves; and _Guzes_, Leigh says, are eyeballs; but as their colour is sanguine, or dull red, this seems unlikely. The _Annulet_ seems to have been taken from the ring armour, much in use about the period of the Norman Conquest. The _Orle_, or false escocheon, is merely a band going round the shield at a short distance from the edge: it was probably borrowed from an antient mode of ornamenting a shield, serving as a kind of frame to the principal charge. Animals or flowers disposed round the escocheon in the same form, are also termed an orle. The _bordure_, or border, explains itself. Like the orle, it was primarily designed as an ornament. The _lozenge_, derived by Glover from the quarry, or small pane of glass of this shape, Dallaway thinks originated in the diamond-shaped cushions which occur on tombs to support the heads of female effigies, as helmets do those of men. The _mascle_ is taken for the mesh of a net. When many are united the arms are blazoned _masculy_, and then represent a rich network thrown over the armour. At the siege of Carlaverok a certain knight is described as having his armour and vestments 'masculy or and azure:' "Son harnois et son attire Avoit masclé de or et de azure." _Billets_ have been conjectured to be representations of oblong camps, but from the name they would seem to be _letters_. They may have been originally assigned to bearers of important despatches. _Guttée_ is the term applied to a field or charge sprinkled over with drops of gold, silver, blood, tears, &c. according to the tincture. This kind of bearing is said to have originated with the Duke of Anjou, King of Sicily, who, after the loss of that island, appeared at a tournament with a black shield sprinkled with drops of water, to represent tears, thus indicating both his grief and his loss.[97] A warrior returning victorious from battle, with his buckler sprinkled with blood, would, in the early days of heraldry, readily have adopted the bearing afterwards called 'guttée de sang.' In those times the besiegers of a fortress were often assailed with boiling pitch, poured by the besieged through the machicolations of the wall constructed for such purposes. Splashes of this pitch falling upon some besieger's shield, in all probability gave the first idea of 'guttée de poix.' The _fusil_ is like the lozenge, but narrower. Whatever the charge may mean, the name is evidently a corruption of the Fr. _fuseau_, a spindle. The _fret_ may have been borrowed from the architectural ornaments of the interior of a roof, or more probably, from a knotted cord. It is sometimes called =Harington's Knot=, though it is not peculiar to the arms of that family, for it was also borne by the baronial races of Echingham, Audley, and Verdon, and by many other families.[98] My purpose being not to describe all the charges or figures occurring in heraldry, but merely to assign a reasonable origin for those which appear to the uninitiated to have neither propriety nor meaning, I pass by many others, and come to those to which a symbolical sense is more readily attachable, as the heavenly bodies, animals, vegetables, weapons of war, implements of labour, &c. &c. Here I shall merely offer some general remarks, for it is less my object to gratify curiosity on this subject than to excite that attention to it which it really deserves, and therefore I must say, with gentle Dame Julyan, "Bot for to reherce all the signys that be borne in armys it were too long a tarying, nor I can not do hit: _ther be so mony_!" The heavenly bodies occur frequently in heraldry, and include the Sun, 'in his glory,' or 'eclipsed;' the Moon, 'incressant,' 'in her complement,' 'decressant,' and 'in her detriment,' or eclipse; stars and comets. The _crescent_ was the standard of the Saracens during the crusades, as it is of their successors, the Turks, at this day. As one of the antient laws of chivalry enacted that the vanquisher of a Saracen gentleman should assume his arms, it is not remarkable that the crescent was, in the latter Crusades, often transferred to the Christian shield; although we must reject the notion that the infidels bore regular heraldric devices. It is probable, however, that their bucklers were ornamented in various ways with their national symbol. Several authentic instances of arms with crescents borne by English families from that early date, are to be found. Most of the families of Ellis, of this country, bear a cross with four or more crescents, derived from Sir Archibald Ellis, of Yorkshire, who went to the Holy Land. From a miraculous event said to have happened during the Crusade under Rich. I. to Sir Robert Sackville, the noble descendants of that personage still bear an _estoile_, or star, as their crest. The ELEMENTS also furnish armorial charges, as flames of fire, rocks, stones, _islands_, thunderbolts, clouds, rainbows, water, and fountains. These last are represented by azure roundles charged with three bars wavy argent. In the arms of Sykes, of Yorkshire, they are called _sykes_--that being a provincialism for little pools or springs. The antient family of Gorges bore a _gurges_, or whirlpool, an unique instance, I believe, of that bearing. If we derive heraldry from the standards of antient nations, then, undoubtedly, ANIMALS are the very oldest of armorial charges, since those standards almost invariably exhibited some animal as their device. Familiar examples present themselves in the Roman _eagle_ and the Saxon _horse_. Of QUADRUPEDS the lion occupies the first place, and is far more usual than any other animal whatever. The king of beasts is found in the heraldric field in almost every variety of posture, and tinctured with every hue recognized by the laws of blazon. It may be remarked here, that in the early days of heraldry animals were probably borne of their 'proper' or natural colour, but as, in process of time, the use of arms became more common, and the generous qualities of the lion rendered him the object of general regard as an armorial ensign, it became absolutely necessary to vary his attitudes and colours, for the purposes of distinction. The same remark applies, in a greater or less degree, to other animals and objects. As the emblem of courage the lion has been represented and misrepresented in a thousand forms. A well-drawn heraldric lion is a complete caricature of the animal; and hence the ire displayed by the country herald-painter when shown the lions in the Tower is very excusable: "What!" said the honest man, "tell me that's a lion; why I've painted lions rampant and lions passant, and all sorts of lions these five and twenty years, and for sure I ought to know what a lion's like better than all that!" The circumstance of the royal arms of England containing three lions and those of Scotland one, has rendered this animal a special favourite with British armorists. Leigh and Guillim, particularly, are very minute in their remarks upon him. The French heralds object to the representation of the lion _guardant_, that is, with his face turned full upon the spectator, and declare that this posture is proper to the leopard, "wherein," says Guillim, "they offer great indignity to that _roiall beast_, in that they will not admit him, as saith Upton, to show his full face, the sight whereof doth terrifie and astonish all the beasts of the field, and wherein consisteth his chiefest majesty, '=quia omnia animalia debent depingi et designari in suo ferociore actu=.'" The French still allude derisively to our national charge as only a leopard. That one of these dissimilar animals could be mistaken for the other affords singular evidence of the rudeness with which arms in the middle ages were delineated. [Illustration: (Lyon rampant. Guillim.)] The _leopard_, as an heraldric charge, has been treated with more obloquy than he deserves, from the erroneous notion that he was a bigenerous animal, bred between the lion and the female panther. The _bear_ is generally borne muzzled and 'salient,' leaping, or rather jumping, the posture of the animal most familiar to our ancestors, who greatly delighted in his uncouth dancing. The _elephant_, the _wolf_, one of the most elegant of heraldric devices, the _fox_, the _rabbit_, the _squirrel_, the _monkey_, the _beaver_, the _porcupine_, the _cat-a-mountain_, and many other wild animals borne in arms, need no comment. The _heraldric tiger_ furnishes another proof of the ignorance of our ancestors in the natural history of foreign animals. It is represented thus: [Illustration] Among the domestic animals borne in arms are the _horse_, the _ass_, the _camel_, the _bull_, the _ox_, the _greyhound_, the _talbot_ or mastiff, the _ram_, the _lamb_, the _hog_, &c. The horse, from his associations with chivalry and war, has ever been a favourite charge. The lamb, as commonly represented, with the nimbus round its head and the banner of the cross, is termed a _holy lamb_. The _alant_ or wolf-dog, an extinct species, is of rare occurrence in arms. "Abouten his char ther wenten white _alauns_, Twenty and mo as gret as any stere, To hunten at the leon or the dere." _Chaucer._ The _alant_ was the supporter of Fynes, Lord Dacre. Most of the above were probably borne emblematically, but the _stag_, _deer_, _boar_, &c., seem to be trophies of the chase, especially when their heads only occur. The heads and other parts of animals are represented either as _couped_, cut off smoothly, or _erased_, torn off as it were with violence, leaving the place of separation jagged and uneven. The boar's head may have been derived from the old custom of serving up a boar's head at the tables of feudal nobles. This practice is still observed in the hall of Queen's College, Oxford, on Christmas-day, when an antient song or carol, appropriate enough to the ceremony, though not very well befitting the time and the place, is sung. It begins thus: "The boar's head in hand bear I, Bedeck'd with bays and rosemary, And I pray you, my masters, be merry, Quot estis in convivio. =Caput apri defero Reddens laudes Domino.=" The presentation of a boar's head forms the condition of several feudal tenures in various parts of the country. As an heraldric bearing, and as a sign for inns, it is of very antient date. Of its latter application the far-famed hostelry in Eastcheap affords one among many examples; while its use in armory was familiar to the father of English poesy, who, describing the equipments of Sir Thopas, says, "His sheld was all of gold so red And therin was a _bore's hed_, A charboncle beside." The annexed singular bearing, 'a cup with a boar's head erect,' evidently alludes to some obsolete custom or tenure. [Illustration] It may be remarked here that many of the terms of heraldry, when applied to the parts and attitudes of 'beastes of venerie and huntyng,' are identical with the expressions used by learned _chasseurs_ of the 'olden tyme,' and which are fully elucidated by Dame Julyan, Manwood, Blundeville, and other writers on woodcraft and the chase; a _science_, by the way, as systematic in the employment of terms as heraldry itself. This remark applies equally to the technical words in falconry used in describing falcons, hawks, &c., when they occur in armory. When antient armorists had so far departed from the propriety of nature as to paint swans red and tigers green, it was not difficult to admit still greater monstrosities. Double-headed and double-tailed lions and eagles occur at an early date; but these are nothing when compared with the double and triple-_bodied_ lions figured by Leigh.[99] It would be a mere waste of time to speculate upon the origin of such bearings, which owe their birth to "the rich exuberance of a Gothick fancy"--the fertile source of the chimerical figures noticed in the next chapter. Among BIRDS, the _eagle_ holds the highest rank. The lyon was the royal beast--this the imperial bird. He is almost uniformly exhibited in front, with expanded wings, and blazoned by the term 'displayed.' The _falcon_, _hawk_, _moor-cock_, _swan_, _cock_, _owl_, _stork_, _raven_, _turkey_, _peacock_, _swallow_, and many others of the winged nation are well known to the most careless observer of armorial ensigns. The _Cornish chough_, a favourite charge, is curiously described by Clarke as "a _fine blue or purple black-bird_, with red beak and legs," and said to be "a noble bearing of antiquity, being accounted the _king of crows_!" The _pelican_ was believed to feed her young with her own blood, and therefore represented "vulning herself," that is, pecking her breast for a supply of the vital fluid.[100] The wings are usually indorsed or thrown upwards; "but this," says Berry, "is unnecessary in the blazon, as that is the only position in which the pelican is represented in coat-armour." This may be true of modern heraldry, but antiently this bird was borne 'close,' that is, with the wings down. The pelicans in the arms of the family of Pelham, resident at Laughton, co. Sussex, temp. Henry IV, were represented in this manner, as appears from a shield in one of the spandrels of the western door of Laughton church, and from some painted glass in the churches of Waldron and Warbleton. In a carving of the fifteenth century, among the ruins of Robertsbridge Abbey, the pelicans have their wings slightly raised, and in the modern arms of Pelham they are indorsed, as shown below. [Illustration: Laughton Church.] [Illustration: Robertsbridge Abbey.] [Illustration: Modern Arms.] Fishes, as borne in arms, have recently been made the subject of an able, most interesting, and beautifully illustrated volume.[101] In my _en passant_ survey of the ensigns of armory it will suffice to remark that the _dolphin_ takes the same rank among heraldric fishes as the lion occupies among quadrupeds, and the eagle among birds; after him the _pike_, _salmon_, _barbel_, and _trout_ hold an honourable place, and even the _herring_ and _sprat_ are not deemed too mean for armory. Neither have shell-fish been overlooked: the _escallop_ in particular, from its religious associations, has always been a special favourite. AMPHIBIA, REPTILES, and INSECTS sometimes occur, particularly _toads_, _serpents_, _adders_, _tortoises_, _scorpions_, _snails_, _grasshoppers_, _spiders_, _ants_, _bees_, and _gad-flies_. It is singular that such despised and noxious creatures as the scorpion and the toad should have been adopted as marks of honour; yet such, in former times, was the taste for _allusive_ arms that the Botreuxes, of Cornwall, relinquished a simple antient coat in favour of one containing three toads, because the word 'botru' in the Cornish language signified a toad! The HUMAN FIGURE and its parts are employed in many arms. The arms pertaining to the bishopric of Salisbury contain a representation of "our blessed Lady, with her son in her right hand and a sceptre in her left." The arms of the see of Chichester are the most singular to be found in the whole circle of church heraldry. They are blazoned thus: 'Azure, _Prester-John_ hooded, sitting on a tomb-stone; in his sinister hand an open book; his dexter hand extended, with the two fore-fingers erect, all or; _in his mouth_ a sword, fessewise, gules, hilt and pommel or, the point to the sinister.'[102] Prester or Presbyter-John, the person here represented, was a fabulous person of the middle ages, who was imagined to sway the sceptre of a powerful empire _somewhere_ in the East, and who must have been a very long-lived personage, unless he was _reproduced_ from time to time like the phoenix of antiquity. Many writers, during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, make mention of him. Sir John Maundevile describes his territory, which, however, he did not visit. That country, according to his statement, contained rocks of adamant,[103] which attracted all the ships that happened to come near them, until the congeries appeared like a forest, and became a kind of floating island. It also abounded in popinjays or parrots as "plentee as gees," and precious stones large enough to make "plateres, dissches, and cuppes." "Many other marveylles been there," he adds, "so that it were to cumbrous and to long to putten it in scripture of bokes." He describes the Emperor himself as "cristene," and believing "wel in the Fadre, in the Sone, and in the Holy Gost," yet, in some minor points, not quite sound in the faith. As to his imperial state, he possessed 72 provinces, over each of which presided a king; and he had so great an army that he could devote 330,000 men to guard his standards, which were "3 crosses of gold, fyn, grete and hye, fulle of precious stones." It is related of Columbus that he saw on one of the islands of the West Indies, which he then apprehended to be a part of the continent of Asia, a grave and sacred personage whom he at first believed to be Prester-John. This incident serves to show that the existence of this chimerical being was credited even so lately as the close of the fifteenth century, although Roger Bacon, in the thirteenth, doubted many of the tales related of him--"de quo tanta fama solebat esse, et multa falsa dicta sunt et scripta."[104] The best account of him is to be found in the work of Matthew Paris, the monk of St. Albans, who wrote before the year 1250. Marco Polo also mentions him in his travels.[105] Porny places him in Abyssinia under the title of _Preter cham_, or 'prince of the worshippers,' while Heckford[106] considers him a priest and one of the followers of Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople in the fifth century. _Kings_ and _bishops_ occur as charges; but rarely. The heads of Moors and Saracens are more common, and belong to the category of trophies, having originated, for the most part, during the Crusades. The arms of the Welsh family of Vaughan are 'a cheveron between three children's heads ... enwrapped about the necks with as many snakes proper.' "It hath beene reported," saith old Guillim, "that some one of the ancestors of this family was borne with a snake about his necke: _a matter not impossible_, but yet very unprobable!" Besides heads, the armorial shield is sometimes charged with arms and legs, naked, vested, or covered with armour, hands, feet, eyes, hearts, winged and unwinged, &c. The coat of Tremaine exhibits three arms (et tres manus!) and that of the Isle of Man, three legs, as here represented. Of the former, Guillim remarks, "these armes and hands conjoyned and clenched after this manner may signify a treble offer of revenge for some notable injurie." If we might be jocular upon so grave a subject as armory, we should consider the second coat a happy allusion to the geographical position of the island between the three kingdoms of England, Ireland, and Scotland, as if it had run away from all three, and were kicking up its heels in derision of the whole empire![107] [Illustration] The VEGETABLE KINGDOM has furnished its full quota of charges. We have whole trees, as the _oak_, _pine_, _pear-tree_, &c.; parts of trees, as _oak-branches_, and _starved_ (_i.e._ dead) _branches_, trunks of trees, generally raguly or knobbed; leaves, as _laurel_, _fig_, _elm_, _woodbine_, _nettle_, and _holly_; fruit, as _pomegranates_, _apples_, _pears_, _pine-apples_, _grapes_, _acorns_, and _nuts_; flowers, as the _rose_, _lily_, _columbine_, _gilliflower_, &c.; corn, as stalks of wheat and rye, and particularly _garbs_ (Fr. gerbes) or wheatsheaves; to which some add _trefoils_, _quatrefoils_, and _cinquefoils_, and the bearing familiar to all in the arms of France, and called the _Fleur-de-lis_. Respecting the _trefoil_, there can be little doubt, as Mr. Dallaway observes, that it was borrowed from the foliated ornaments of antient coronets, which again were imitations of the natural wreath. The shamrock, which is identical with the trefoil, is the national badge of Ireland. Of the quatre and cinquefoils "almost any conjecture would be weakly supported. Amongst the very early embellishments of Gothic architecture are quatrefoils, at first inserted simply in the heads of windows, between or over the incurvated or elliptical points of the mullions, and afterwards diversified into various ramifications, which were the florid additions to that style."[108] These terms are common to both architecture and heraldry, but from which of the two the other adopted them must remain in doubt. The non-heraldric reader will be surprised to learn that the identity of the _fleur-de-lis_ with the iris or 'royal lily' has ever been called in question; yet it has been doubted, with much reason, whether an ornamented spear-head or sceptre be not the thing intended. The Boke of S. A. informs us that the arms of the king of France were "certainli sende by an awngell from heuyn, that is to say iij flowris in maner of swerdis in a felde of asure, the wich certan armys ware geuyn to the forsayd kyng of fraunce in sygne of euerlasting trowbull, and that he and his successaries all way with bataill and swereddys (swords) shulde be punyshid!" Those who imagine the bearing to be a play upon the royal name of Loys or Louis decide in favour of the flower. Upton calls it '=flos gladioli=.'[109] Perhaps it was made a flower for the purpose of assimilating it to the English rose; certainly all our associations, historical and poetical, would tell in favour of its being such; and such it was undoubtedly understood to be in the time of Chaucer, who says of Sire Thopas, "Upon his crest he bare a tour (tower), And therein stiked a _lily flour_." Leigh seems to entertain no doubt of its belonging to the vegetable kingdom; for in his notice of this charge he particularly describes the flower and the root of the iris. Mr. Montagu, in his recent 'Guide to the Study of Heraldry,' thinks the arguments of M. de Menestrier "in favour of the iris so strong as _almost_ to set the question at rest."[110] [Illustration] Those who advocate the spear-head view of the question, bring forward the common heraldric bearing, _a leopard's head jessant de lis_, i. e. thrust through the mouth with a fleur-de-lis, which passes through the skull as represented in the above cut. "There cannot," as Dallaway says, "be a more absurd combination than that of a leopard's head producing a lily, while the idea that it was typical of the triumph after the chase, when the head of the animal was thrust through with a spear and so carried in procession," seems perfectly consistent. Still the query may arise 'how is it that the head of no other animal, the wolf or boar for instance, is found represented in a similar manner?' The little band surrounding the _pieces_ of which the fleur-de-lis of heraldry is composed is analogous to nothing whatever in the flower, while it does strongly resemble the forril of metal which surrounds the insertion of a spear-head into its staff or pole. After an attentive consideration of both hypotheses, I have no hesitation in affirming that the fleur-de-lis is _not_ the lily. This is shown, not from the occurrence of lilies in their proper shape in some coats, and that of the heraldric _lis_ in others, (for such a variation might have been accidentally made by the incorrect representations of unskilful painters,) but from the fact that both lilies and lis are found in one and the same coat--that of Eton College.[111] [Illustration] The Tressure surrounding the lion in the royal arms of Scotland is blazoned 'fleury and counter-fleury,' that is, having fleurs-de-lis springing from it, both on the outer and inner sides. The fabulous account of the tressure is that it was given by Charlemagne to Achaius, king of Scotland in the year 792, in token of alliance and friendship. Nisbet says, "The Tressure Flowerie encompasses the Lyon of Scotland, to show that he should defend the Flower-de-lisses, and _these to continue a defence to the Lion_."[112] Now, although we must discard this early existence of the Scottish ensigns, it is by no means improbable that the addition of the tressure was made in commemoration of some alliance between the two crowns at a later date. But the _defence_ which a bulwark of lilies could afford the king of beasts would be feeble indeed! Yet, upon the supposition that the fleur-de-lis is intended for a spear-head, such an addition would be exceedingly appropriate, as forming a kind of chevaux-de-frise[113] around the animal. This doubtful charge may serve as a turning point between 'things naturall' and 'things artificiall.' Among the latter, crowns, sceptres, orbs, caps of maintenance, mantles of state, and such-like insignia may be first named. According to Dame Julyan Berners, _crowns_ formed part of the arms of King Arthur--"iij dragonys and over that an other sheelde of iij crownys." Mitres, crosiers, &c. occur principally, though not exclusively, in church heraldry. From attention in the first instance to the 'arts liberall' came such charges as books, pens, ink-horns, text-letters, as =A='s, =T='s and =S='s, organ-pipes, hautboys, harps, viols, bells, &c. The 'arts mechanicall' furnish us with implements of agriculture, as ploughs, harrows, scythes, wheels, &c. The _Catherine Wheel_ Dallaway takes for a cogged, or denticulated mill-wheel, with reference to some feudal tenure, but it seems rather ungallant to rob the female saint of the instrument of her passion, while St. Andrew and St. George are allowed to retain theirs in undisturbed possession. Manufactures afford the wool-comb, the spindle, the shuttle, the comb, the hemp-break, &c. Among mechanical implements are included pick-axes, mallets, hammers, plummets, squares, axes, nails, &c. Architecture furnishes towers, walls, bridges, pillars, &c. From the marine we have antient ships, boats, rudders, masts, anchors, and sails. From field-sports come bugle (that is bullock) horns, bows, arrows, pheons or fish-spears, falcons' bells, and lures, fish-hooks, eel-spears, nets of various kinds, and bird-bolts. The bird-bolt was a small blunt arrow, with one, two, or three heads, used with the crossbow for shooting at birds. Hence the adage of '=The fool's Bolt is soon shot=,' applied to the hasty expression or retort of an ignorant babbler. John Heywood versifies the proverb thus: "A foole's bolte is soone shot, and fleeth oftymes fer; But the foole's bolte and the mark cum few times ner."[114] From sedentary games are borrowed playing-tables, dice, chess-rooks, &c. [Illustration] War has naturally supplied heraldry with a numerous list of charges, as banners, spears, beacons, drums, trumpets, cannons, or chamber-pieces, 'murthering chain-shot,' burning matches (of rope), portcullises, battering-rams, crossbows, swords, sabres, lances, battle-axes, and scaling-ladders; also shields, generally borne in threes, helmets, morions, gauntlets, greaves (leg armour), horse-trappings, bridles, saddles, spurs, horse-shoes, shackles, _cum multis aliis_. Many of these, though disused in modern warfare, will require no explanation, but a few others whose use is less obvious may be added, as _swepes_, _caltraps_, and _water-bowgets_. The _swepe_, sometimes called a _mangonel_, and as such borne in the canting arms of Magnall, was a war-engine, used for the purpose of hurling stones into a besieged town or fortress; a species of balista. [Illustration: Murthering chain-shot.] [Illustration: Caltrap.] [Illustration: Beacon.] [Illustration: Swepe.] In the celebrated lampoon upon Richard, king of the Romans, who was obliged, at the battle of Lewes, to take refuge in a windmill, the following lines occur: "The Kynge of Alemaigne wende to do full wel, He saisede the mulne for a castel; With hare sharpe swerdes he ground the stel, He wende that the sayles were _mangonel_!"[115] The _caltrap_ was a cruel contrivance for galling the feet of horses. It was made of iron, and so constructed that, however it might fall, one of its four sharp points should be erect. Numbers of them strewed in the enemy's path served to retard the advance of cavalry, and a retreat was sometimes secured by dropping them in the flight, and thus cutting off the pursuit. Its etymology is uncertain, cheval-trap and _gall_-trap have been suggested with nearly equal claims to probability. Water-bowgets, or budgets, date from the Crusades, when water had often to be conveyed across the sandy deserts from a great distance. They are represented in various grotesque forms as-- [Illustration] so that it is a matter of curiosity to know in what manner they were carried. Leigh and others call them _gorges_; but the charge properly known by that name is a whirlpool, as borne in the armes parlantes of the family of Gorges. The _mullet_, a star-like figure, has been taken to represent the rowel of a spur; but a doubt of this derivation of the charge may be suggested, as the spur of the middle ages had no rowel, but consisted of one sharp spike. Some of the old heralds considered mullets as representations of falling stars--"exhalations inflamed in the aire and stricken back with a cloud"--which, according to Guillim, are sometimes found on the earth like a certain jelly, and assuming the form of the charge. The substance alluded to bears the name of star-jelly. In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1797, are several communications on this subject, in which there is a great contrariety of opinion, some of the writers contending that it is an animal substance, while others consider it a vegetable. As it is usually found in boggy grounds, Dr. Darwin deemed it a mucilage voided by herons after they have eaten frogs, and Pennant attributed it to gulls. The antient alchemists called it the flower of heaven, and imagined that from it they could procure the universal menstruum; but all their researches ended in discovering that by distillation it yielded some phlegm, volatile salt, and empyreumatic oil.[116] Personal costume, although mixed up with the very earliest of heraldric devices, furnishes scarcely any regular charges. Excepting shoes, caps, and body-armour, the _maunch_ is almost the only one derived from this source. This charge, a familiar example of which occurs in the arms of the noble family of Hastings, represents an antient fashion of sleeve worn soon after the Conquest, but of such an extravagant form that Leigh blazons it a _maunch-maltalé_, a badly-cut sleeve; and certainly the example given by him fully justifies the use of that epithet. The taste for a long pendulous addition to the cuff of the sleeve forms one of the most curious features of the female costume of the twelfth century. According to Brydson, the maunch was a distinguished "favour" bestowed on some knights, being part of the dress of the lady or princess who presented it. The woodcut (no inappropriate _tail-piece_ for the present chapter) delineates several antient forms of this article. Well may Master Leigh remark, "Of thinges of antiquitee growen out of fashion this is one." [Illustration: No. 1, Leigh; 3, 4, from Planché's Hist. Brit. Cost.; 2, Arms of Hastings, from the tomb of W. de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, Westminster Abbey. =Mangys be called in armys a sleue.= _Boke S. A._] CHAPTER IV. Chimerical Figures of Heraldry. [Illustration] "Manye merveylles there ben in that regioun." _Sir John Maundevile._ The days of the Crusaders were the days of romance. "From climes so fertile in monsters as those through which these adventurers passed," observes Dallaway, "we cannot wonder that any fiction was readily received by superstitious admirers, whose credulity nothing could exhaust." The narrations of those warriors who had the good fortune to revisit their native lands were eagerly seized upon by that new class of literary aspirants, the Romance writers, by means of whose wonder-exciting productions, giants, griffins, dragons, and monsters of every name, became familiarized to all. For ages the existence of these products of a "gothick fancy" was never called in question. The early travellers, such as Marco Polo and our own renowned Sir John Maundevile, pandered to the popular taste, and what those chroniclers of 'grete merveyles' reported in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was religiously believed in the sixteenth, and hardly questioned even in the seventeenth. In the early part of this period, indeed, it can scarcely be expected that the multitude at least should have been disabused of the delusion, when the existence of witchcraft was considered an essential part of the common creed,--when a learned herald, like Guillim, could write a tirade against "divellish witches that doe worke the destruction of silly infants, and also of cattel,"--and when the supreme magistrate of these realms could instigate the burning of deformed old women, and write treatises upon "Dæmonology," which, among other matters, taught his loyal and undoubting subjects that these maleficæ were wont to perform their infernal pranks by means of circles, some of which were _square_, and others _triangular_! It was reserved for the advancing light of the eighteenth century to break the spell, and scatter these monsters to the winds. This, however, was not to be done at once; for our grandfathers, and even our fathers, gathered their knowledge of popular _natural_ history from a book which contained minute descriptions of the _dragon_, 'adorned with cuts' of that remarkable hexapede, for the edification of its admiring readers! Under the category of Heraldric Monsters the following deserve especial notice:-- The Allerion Chimera Cockatrice Dragon Griffin Harpy Lyon-Dragon Lyon-Poisson Mermaid Montygre Martlet Opinicus Pegasus Sphinx Sagittary Satyr Unicorn Wyvern Winged Lyon Winged Bull.[117] The _allerion_ is a fabulous bird without either beak or legs, described by some writers as very small, like a martlet, while others give him the size of an eagle. The name is derived from the circumstance of his being destitute of all his extremities except the wings (ailles). Three such birds, according to the chroniclers of the middle ages, were shot with an arrow from a tower, by Godfrey of Boulogne, duke of Lorraine, at the siege of Jerusalem, during the first crusade; and three allerions upon a bend, in honour of that event, are borne as the arms of the duchy of Lorraine to this day.[118] The _chimera_ is, to use the words of Bossewell, "a beaste or monstre hauing thre heades, one like a Lyon, an other like a Goate, the third like a Dragon."[119] The _cockatrice_[120] is a cock, with the wings and tail of a dragon. The best account of him is given by Leigh: "Thys though he be but at ye most a foote of length yet is he kyng of all serpentes[121] of whome they are most afrayde and flee from. For with his breath and sight he sleath all thynges that comme within a speare's length of him. He infecteth the water that he commeth neare. His enemy is the wesell, who when he goeth to fight with y{e} cockatrice eateth the herbe commonlye called Rewe, and so in fight byting him he dyeth and the wesell therewith dyeth also. And though the cockatrice be veneme withoute remedye whilest he liueth, yet when he is dead and burnt to ashes, he loseth all his malice, and the ashes of him are good for alkumistes, and namely, in turnyng and chaungeyng of mettall." To this latter remark he adds, "I have not seene the proofe thereof, and yet I have been one of Jeber's cokes." The _dragon_ is usually depicted with a serpentine body, sharp ears, a barbed tongue and tail, strong leathern wings armed with sharp points, and four eagles' feet, strongly webbed; but there are many modifications of this form. "Of fancy monsters, the winged, scaly, fiery dragon is by far the most poetical fabrication of antiquity. To no word, perhaps, are attached ideas more extraordinary, and of greater antiquity, than to that of dragon. We find it consecrated by the religion of the earliest people, and become the object of their mythology. It got mixed up with fable, and poetry, and history, till it was universally believed, and was to be found everywhere but in nature.[122] In our days nothing of the kind is to be seen, excepting a harmless animal hunting its insects. The light of these days has driven the fiery dragon to take refuge among nations not yet visited by the light of civilization. The _draco volans_ is a small lizard, and the only reptile possessing the capacity of flight. For this purpose it is provided on each side with a membrane between the feet, which unfolds like a fan at the will of the animal, enabling it to spring from one tree to another while pursuing its food. It is a provision similar to that of the flying squirrel, enabling it to take a longer leap."[123] The annexed cut represents a _dragon volant_, as borne in the arms of Raynon of Kent, and the _draco volans_ of the zoologists. A fossil flying lizard has been found in the lias of Dorsetshire, which, to employ the words of Professor Buckland, is "a monster resembling nothing that has ever been seen or heard of upon earth, excepting the dragons of romance and heraldry." [Illustration] Considering the hideous form and character of the dragon, it is somewhat surprising to find him pourtrayed upon the banner and the shield as an honourable distinction; unless he was employed by way of trophy of a victory gained over some enemy, who might be symbolically represented in this manner. The dragon often occurring at the feet of antient monumental effigies is understood to typify _sin_, over which the deceased has now triumphed; and the celebrated monster of this tribe slain by our patron saint, St. George, was doubtless a figurative allusion to a certain pestilent heresy which he vehemently resisted and rooted out. Favine, on the Order of Hungary, remarks that the French historians speak of Philip Augustus 'conquering the dragon' when he overcame Otho IV, who bore a dragon as the standard of his empire.[124] It has been suggested that the design of commanders in depicting monsters and wild beasts upon their standards was to inspire the enemy with terror.[125] [Illustration] The dragon forms a part of the fictitious arms of King Arthur; and another early British king bore the surname of =Pen-Dragon=, or the 'dragon's head.' The standard of the West Saxon monarchs was a golden dragon in a red banner. In the Bayeux tapestry a dragon on a pole repeatedly occurs near the person of King Harold; and in the instance which is copied in the margin, the words 'HIC HAROLD' are placed over it.[126] It was an early badge of the Princes of Wales, and was also assumed at various periods by our English monarchs. Henry III used it at the battle of Lewes in 1264. "Symoun com to the feld, And put up his banere; The Kyng schewed forth his scheld, His _Dragon_ fulle austere. The Kyng said 'On hie, Symon jeo vous defie!'" _Robert Brunne._ "The order for the creation of this 'austere' beast," says Mr. Blaauw, "is still extant. Edward Fitz-Odo, the king's goldsmith, was commanded, in 1244, to make it 'in the manner of a standard or ensign, of red samit,' to be embroidered with gold, and his tongue to appear as though continually moving, and his eyes of sapphire, or other stones agreeable to him."[127] "Then was ther a Dragon grete and grimme, Full of fyre and also venymme, With a wide throte and tuskes grete."[128] The dragon-standard must have been in high favour with commanders, for in the same war we find it unfurled in the opposite cause by the leader of the baronial party: "When Sir Simoun wist the dome ageyn them gone, His felonie forth thrist, somned his men ilkon, Displaied his banere, lift up his Dragoun!" _Robt. Brunne._ "When Sir Simon knew the judgment given against them, his wickedness burst forth, he gathered all his men, displayed his banner, and lifted up his Dragon."[129] The expression '_his_ dragon' must not be understood to imply any peculiar right to the device, for the arms of De Montfort were widely different, viz. 'Gules, a lion rampant, double queué, argent.' From the indiscriminate use of the monster by different, and even by contending parties, I should consider him merely as the emblem of defiance. The Dragon must not be confounded with the usual pennon, or standard of an army, as it was employed in addition to it. Matthew of Westminster, speaking of the early battles of this country, says, "The king's place was _between_ the Dragon and the standard."[130] Among the ensigns borne at Cressy was a burning dragon, to show that the French were to receive little mercy.[131] This dragon was of red silk, adorned and beaten with very broad and fair lilies of gold, and bordered about with gold and vermilion. The French frequently carried a red pennon, embroidered with a dragon of gold. Our Henry VI caused a particular coin to be struck, the reverse of which exhibited a banner charged with a demi-dragon, and a black dragon was one of the badges of Edward IV. A red dragon was one of the supporters of Henry VII, Henry VIII, and Elizabeth, whence the title, Rouge-dragon, of one of the existing pursuivants in the College of Arms. The _griffin_, or griphon, scarcely less famous than the dragon, was a compound animal, having the head, wings, and feet of an eagle, with the hinder part of a lion. He is thus described by Sir John Maundevile in the 26th chapter of his 'ryght merveylous' Travels: "In that contree [Bacharie] ben many Griffounes, more plentee than in ony other contree. Sum men seyn that thei han the body upward as an egle, and benethe as a lyoun; and treuly thei seyn sothe that thei ben of that schapp. But 0 Griffoun hathe the body more gret and more strong thane 8 lyouns, of such lyouns as ben o' this half (hemisphere); and more gret and strongere than an 100 egles, suche as we han amonges us. For 0 Griffoun there wil bere fleynge to his nest a gret hors, or 2 oxen yoked to gidere as thei gon at the plowghe. For he hathe his talouns so longe and so large and grete upon his feet, as thowghe thei weren hornes of grete oxen, or of bugles or of kygn, so that men maken cuppes of hem to drynke of, and of hire ribbes and of the pennes of hire wenges men maken bowes fulle stronge to schote with arwes, and quarell." Casley says that in the Cottonian Library there was a cup of the description just referred to, four feet in length, and inscribed-- "=Griphi unguis divo Cuthberto Dunelmensi sacer=," a dedication which, I must confess, puzzles me sorely. A griffin's claw and the 'saint-bishop' of Durham seem as absurd a combination of ideas as that presented in the old proverbial phrase of 'Great A and a Bull's Foot,' or by the tavern sign of 'The Goat and Compasses.' If wisdom, according to classical authority, lies in a well, so does the wit of this association. Another griffin's claw, curiously mounted on an eagle's leg of silver, which came at the Revolution from the Treasury at St. Denis, is preserved in the cabinet of antiquities in the King's Library at Paris. Three such talons were formerly kept at Bayeux, and were fastened on high days to the altar as precious relics! A 'corne de griffoun' is mentioned in the Kalend. of Excheq. iii, 176. Another, about an ell in length, is mentioned by Dr. Grew in his 'History of the Rarities of the Royal Society,' p. 26. The Doctor thinks it the horn of a roebuck, or of the _Ibex mas_. Leigh says that griffyns "are of a great hugenes, for I have a clawe of one of their pawes, which should show them to be as bygge as _two_ lyons." The egg was likewise preserved as a valuable curiosity, and used as a goblet. "Item, j oef de griffon, garnis d'argent, od pie et covercle." The griffin was assumed by the family of Le Dispenser, and the upper part appears as the crest on the helm of Hugh le Dispenser, who was buried at Tewkesbury in 1349. Another strikingly designed representation of this curious animal is seen at Warwick, at the feet of Richard Beauchamp, who died in 1439.[132] The _harpy_, unusual in English armory, has the head and breasts of a woman, with the body, legs, and wings of a vulture. This was a classical monster. Guillim, imitating Virgil,[133] says: "Of monsters all, most monstrous this; no greater wrath God sends 'mongst men; it comes from depths of pitchy hell; And virgin's face, but wombe like gulfe insatiate hath; Her hands are griping clawes, her colour pale and fell." The coat 'Azure, a harpy or,' was 'in Huntingdon church' in Guillim's time. The _lyon-dragon_ and the _lyon-poisson_ are compound monsters; the former of a lion and a dragon, and the latter of a lion and a fish. These are of very rare occurrence, as is also the _monk-fish_, or Sea Friar, which Randle Holme tells us 'is a fish in form of a frier.' 'Such a monstrous and wonderful fish,' he adds, 'was taken in Norway.' The identity of the popular idea of the _mermaid_ with the classical notion of the syren is shown in the following passage from Shakspeare: "Thou rememberest Since once I sat upon a promontory, And heard a Mermaid on a dolphin's back Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, That the rude sea grew civil at her song." And Brown, in his 'Vulgar Errours,' observes, "few eyes have escaped [that] the picture of a Mermaid, with woman's head above, and fishy extremity below, answers the shape of the antient syrens that attempted upon Ulysses." The heraldric mermaid usually holds a mirror in her right hand and a comb in her left. The existence of mermaids was religiously believed not many ages since, and many accounts of their being captured on the English coast occur in the writings of our old chroniclers, and other retailers of marvels. The specimens exhibited of late years have been pronounced ingenious combinations of the upper half of the ape with the tail of a fish. The montegre, manticora, or _man-tyger_, had the body of a lion (q. tiger?), the head of an old man, and the horns of an ox. Some heralds, by way of finish, give him dragon's feet. Butler's well-known line, "The herald's _martlet_ hath no legs," has rendered most readers aware of the singular defect of this otherwise beautiful charge. Heraldric authors differ as to the identity of this bird. Its being called in Latin blazon 'merula,' and in French 'merlotte,' the diminutive of 'merle,' has induced some to consider it a blackbird; while others, with greater plausibility, decide in favour of the common house martin, the legs of which are so short and the wings so long that when it alights upon the ground it cannot rise without great difficulty. Hence originated the mistake of pourtraying it without legs, "and for this cause," sagely observes Guillim, "it is also given for a _difference_ of younger brethren to put them in minde to trust to their wings of vertue and merit to raise themselves, and not to their legges, having but little land to put their foot on." The _opinicus_ differs slightly from the griffin, having four lion's legs instead of two, and the tail is short like that of a camel. It is used as the crest of the Barber-Chirurgeons Company. The _pegasus_ or winged-horse ranks among the chimerical figures of heraldry borrowed from classical fable, and is more frequently employed as a crest or supporter than as a charge. The _sphinx_ occurs very rarely. The _satyr_ or satyral exhibits a human face attached to the body of a lion, and has the horns and tail of an antelope. The _sagittary_ is the centaur of antiquity--half man, half horse, and is said to have been assumed as the arms of king Stephen on account of the great assistance he had received from the archers, and also because he had entered the kingdom while the sun was in the sign Sagittarius. Sir John Maundevile tells us that in Bacharie "ben many Ipotaynes, that dwellen somtyme in the watre and somtyme on the lond; and thei ben half man and half hors: and thei eten men _when they may take hem_"--an excellent _gloss_ upon Mrs. _Glass_, 'First _catch_ your hare,' &c.[134] The _unicorn_ is the most elegant of all these fanciful figures, and is too well known as the sinister supporter of the royal arms to need any description. Mr. Dallaway derives the heraldric unicorn from the spike antiently fixed to the headpiece of a war-horse, and resembling a horn; but as this does not account for the cloven hoofs and slender, tufted tail, I should reverse the inference, and derive that appendage from the popular notion of the unicorn. The unicorn of antiquity was regarded as the emblem of strength; and as the dragon was the guardian of wealth, so was the unicorn of chastity. His horn was a test of poison, and in virtue of this peculiarity the other beasts of the forest invested him with the office of water-'conner,' never daring to taste the contents of any pool or fountain until the unicorn had stirred the waters with his horn to ascertain if any wily serpent or dragon had deposited his venom therein. Upton and Leigh detail the 'wonderful art' by which the unicorn is captured. "A mayde is set where he haunteth, and she openeth her lappe, to whome the Vnicorne, as seeking rescue from the force of the hunter, yeldeth his head and leaueth all his fierceness, and resting himself vnder her protection, sleapeth vntyll he is taken and slayne!" The Hebrew _reem_ being rendered in our version of the Bible unicorn, has confirmed the vulgar notion that the animal intended was the cloven-hoofed and single-horned figure of heraldry; but there is nothing in the word sanctioning the idea that the animal was single-horned; and on referring to the passages in which the term is introduced, the only one which is quite distinct on this point seems clearly to intimate that the animal had _two_ horns. That passage is Deut. xxxiii, 17. 'His horns are like the _horns_ of the reem;' the word here is singular, not plural, and should have been 'unicorn,' not 'unicorns,' in our version.[135] It has lately been attempted to prove that the reem of Scripture was the animal now known as the nhyl-gau.[136] Reem is translated in the Septuagint by '[Greek: monokerôs],' which is exactly equivalent to our unicorn. If a one-horned animal be contended for, the rhinoceros is the only one now known that is entitled to the attribute of _unicornity_. Leigh declares the unicorn of our science to be a mortal foe to elephants, and such, according to zoologists, is the character of the rhinoceros. These two are, however, the only points of resemblance; for while the unicorn of heraldry is of light and elegant symmetry, the rhinoceros of the African deserts is an animal so clumsy and ponderous that it has been known to require eight men to lift the head of one into a cart.[137] The _wyvern_ is one of the most usual of this description of charges. It is represented as a kind of flying serpent, the upper part resembling a dragon with two fore legs, and the lower part a snake or adder. The name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon 'wivere,' a serpent. The bull and the lion with the wings of an eagle occasionally occur in continental armory, but I do not recollect an instance of either in English heraldry. The winged lion is the achievement of the city of Venice. The foregoing enumeration of heraldric monsters includes all that are generally borne, and even some that scarcely ever occur; but Randle Holme, in his 'Academy of Armory,' figures and describes a multitude of others, some of which I strongly suspect to have been the offspring of his own prolific fancy. The triple-headed Cerberus was borne, this writer tells us, by the name of _Goaler_, while another family bore 'the scarlet beast of the bottomless pit:' ensigns of _honour_, truly! What shall we say of The _Nependis_, or ape-hog, half ape, half swine; The _Minocane_, or _Homocane_, half child, half spaniel dog; The _Lamya_, a compound of a woman, a dragon, a lyon, a goat, a dog, and a horse; The Dragon-tyger, and Dragon-wolf; The Lyon-wyvern; The Winged Satyr-fish; The Cat-fish and Devil-fish; The Ass-bittern (the arms of Mr. Asbitter!) The Ram-eagle; The Falcon-fish with a hound's ear; and The 'Wonderfull Pig of the Ocean?' _From Holme's Academy of Armory._ [Illustration: Ram-eagle.] [Illustration: Cat-fish.] [Illustration: Ass-bittern.] CHAPTER V. The Language of Arms. "Armes do speak." _Sylvanus Morgan._ The very earliest of armorial devices are of two classes: the first comprising those which consist of simple lines and tinctures, so disposed as to form an agreeable harmony or contrast; and the second embracing those which convey some sentiment. The first resulted from a study of what was pleasing to the eye; the other expressed the moral attributes of the original bearer, by natural or artificial figures employed as symbols. To illustrate my meaning, let us suppose that two knights, A and B, assume each a coat of arms. A, regarding nothing more than an agreeable effect, embroiders his banner with chequers of red and yellow. B, esteeming himself a valiant soldier, expresses that sentiment by representing upon his silver buckler a lion in the attitude of combat, which, for the purpose of inspiring terror, he paints of a colour resembling that of blood. In the course of a few generations the principles upon which these devices have been framed are reduced to a science, with a regular nomenclature and fixed laws. Then A's banner begins to be spoken of as 'Chequy, gules, and or,' while B's escocheon is described as 'Argent, a lion rampant, gules.' Again, two followers of A, whom we will call C and D, imitating their chief's example, assume similar devices for their shields and pennons. C gives the red and yellow chequers of his patron, adding, for distinction's sake, a white bordure, while D surmounts the same device with a diagonal stripe of blue. In like manner, two adherents of B, whom we will style E and F, copy the lion from his shield, but give him a different colour, E's lion being black and F's blue. Carrying the principle a stage further, G, a supporter of D, adopts his blue bend, but omits the chequers of A; and H, a follower of F, retains the colours of his device, but gives three lions instead of one; while I, also retaining those colours, gives his lion or lions walking or passant; and so on to infinity. This I believe will be found the true theory of the multiplication of armorial bearings.[138] Thus it will be seen that only a portion of such devices were ever symbolical, and that those which were, in process of time ceased to be so in relation to the successors or dependents of the original assumers. When surnames were first generally adopted, a personage to whom nature had given a pale visage took the name of White. His sons might be all ruddy and his grandsons all brown, yet every one of them bore the family name of White. Again, the original Mr. Wise might have had the misfortune to become the progenitor of a long line of blockheads, and Mr. Smith's descendants have all been tailors; yet, regardless of these circumstances, their posterity are all, respectively, Wises and Smiths until this day. So it has necessarily occurred with heraldric devices; and many a gentleman who bears crescents or other celestial insignia, is chiefly intent upon mundane affairs; while many another, whose shield displays the rampant lion possesses the peaceful disposition of a lamb. Strangely at variance with experience is ofttimes found the sentiment of Horace: "Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis, ---- nec imbellem feroces Progenerant aquilæ columbam." The early treatises on heraldry contain little beyond the technicalities of the science; but in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries a race of authors arose who bestowed infinite labour upon researches into the origin of heraldric figures and their symbolical meaning. According to these writers, every tincture and bearing adumbrated the natural dispositions of the bearer. The treatises of Leigh and the succeeding heraldrists down to the time of Morgan abound with speculations, often ingenious but still oftener absurd, as to the import of armorial ensigns; and a new system arose sustaining the same relation to heraldry that astrology bears to astronomy. This was called ARMILOGIA, or the Language of Arms; and the length to which it was carried tended perhaps more than any other circumstance to bring the study of legitimate armory into disrepute. In the present Chapter it is my intention to give a few specimens of these theories selected here and there, without any attempt at collation; for their originators are often widely at variance with each other, and, as in most other matters that are purely speculative, we find "quot homines tot sententiæ." One of the foremost absurdities of this system is the respect paid to the mystic number nine. In whatever point of view we examine the armory of those days, nine prominent features are made to present themselves; thus there are 9 tinctures, 9 sorts of shields, 9 furs, 9 honourable ordinaries, 9 roundles, 9 differences of brethren, 9 worthy partitions, 9 mesles, 9 abatements of honour, 9 virtues of chivalry, 9 worthies, 9 female ditto, 9 sorts of gentry, 9 duties of heralds, ix artycles of gentilnes, ix vices contrary to gentilmen, ix precious stonys, ix vertues of precious stonys, 9 especial rejoicings, &c. &c. &c. "Wherefore," asks old Leigh, "have you used the number of nyne in all your demonstracions more than any other?" to which Gerard replies, "Not onely because it is aptest for this science, for that the rules incident thereto chiefly fall out to that number, but that for that of all simple numbers it is most of content. The figure whereof holdeth all other vnder it, as by the Arte of Arithmetique ye may sonest perceve, where ye shall fynde, that all articles and compoundes, be they never so hudge,[139] are made of nyne figures. The golden number also of itselfe, is the last, the whiche ye may equally devyde into three odde partes, which have bin resembled to the blisse of the iii Ierarchies of holines. In the which every one hath a likenes of the Trinitie," with much more equally to the purpose.[140] Nothing can be more tedious than to follow a zealous _armilogist_ through all the windings and turnings into which his fancy leads him. I quote, by way of example, Leigh's remarks on the tincture gules or red: "The first of these seven coloures is called Geules. And is in colour neither red nor sanguine, but is the verye vermilion itself. For that is right Geule. It is a royal colour, and hath that proper qualitie in it selfe that it may not be gased on any while. For then the eye is wekened therby. The author wherof is profe it selfe. _L._ I thincke you may be to seke for comendacion of this colour, for I have not harde muche either spoken or written in prayse of it. Can ye saye any thyng? _G._ Although it shewe itself to be commendable, yet shall it not wante my prayse. I were nere dryven to the wall, if I had no more to commende this coloure by but that where-with the Frenshe herehaughts[141] did sett forthe their Auriflamb, whiche came frome heaven, as by vaine miracle they fayne. But they that make suche shifte shulde rather have taken occasion to praise the same, for that the red rammes skinnes covered the arke. And that is no fable. Yet for my promise of comendacion, I say to you, it is and longe hath ben used of emperours and kyngs for an apparell of majestie and of judges in their judgement seates. Also God the Father, promysinge redemption to the people, by the passion of Christ, saieth, 'What is he that cometh from Edom, with redd-coloured clothes of Bosra?' which is so costly clothe. Besides this, it is often spoken of in the scripture which I leve of for lengthnynge of time. Nowe wyll I speake of the planett Mars, which is the planett that this colour appertayneth to and is of all other the hotest, and most fyrye. Martianus telleth, he is the armipotent god of battell whose hardy desire is to be avenged with spedy boldenes. Ptolomeus sayeth, this planett maketh a man apte to all firye workes. _L._ If this be all the prayse you can gyve him, you will no more offend me with tediousnes. _G._ What nedeth more than enoughe, can ye not understand hereby what the nature of Mars is? _L._ Yes, very well. _G._ Why then I will shewe you of the precious stone appertainyng to that colour and planett, which is called a Rubye. It is a stone of dignitie, and as Isidore writeth, is of the kynde of carbuncles. This precious stone neither fier wasteth or changeth his colour. This was one of the precious stones that was sett in the brest lapp of Aron. Of diuerse authors this is diversely and wonderfully commended for hys singuler vertues. As who list to rede may finde plentifully inoughe written thereof. Now to the colour simple and compounde. Of itselfe 1, It betokeneth strength, bouldenes with hardenes. 2, with Or, a desire to conquere. 3, with Argent, envie revenged. 4, with Azure, to wynne heaven by good dedes. 5, with Sable, hateth the worlde, with werynes thereof. 6, with Verte, bould of corage in youth. 7, with Purpure, strong in dede, juste in worde, &c." In like manner our author labours through the remaining colours, ascribing to each some wonderful virtue. The irrelevant nature of the observations introduced is occasionally highly diverting. Nature, art, metaphysics, religion, history, are all in turn made to contribute something towards the illustration of the armilogist's theories. In his disquisition on Argent or silver, he remarks, "Being fine it is medicinable." His imaginary friend says, "You digresse now, and meddell with that that apperteineth not to this arte." At this Master Gerard waxes wroth and says, "I marvayle what science arte or misterye it were that an herhaught sholde have none intelligence thereof? were it never so secret or profunde. For, if he have not of all thynges some vnderstanding, as well as of severall languages he is not worthye to be an herhaught. Therefore necessary it is for him to have an universal knowledge in eche thinge."[142] I can scarcely hope to interest my reader by a display of the symbolical meaning of the colours of heraldry, yet as perchance some one may feel gratified in being able to judge of his or her own character and dispositions by examining the family achievement, I will here, as briefly as possible, set down the result of Master Leigh's philosophy, divested of its verbiage. GOLD, then, betokens wisdom, justice, riches, and elevation of mind. Compounded with silver, it signifies victory over all infidels, Turks and Saracens; with gules, a disposition to shed one's blood to acquire riches; and with azure, a disposition to keep what one gets. Combined with sable it typifies constancy in all things, particularly in love; with vert, a joyful possession of riches; and with purpure a friendly feeling even towards enemies. SILVER alone signifies chastity, charity, and a clear conscience; but in company with gold--the will 'to reuenge Christ's bluddshed.' gules--honest boldness. azure--courtesy and discretion. sable--abstinence. vert--virtue (!) purpure--the favour of the people. GULES has already been described. AZURE, simple, shows a godly disposition, and joined with gold--the joyful possession of wealth. silver--vigilance in service. gules--aptitude to reprove villany. sable--sympathy for suffering. vert--success in enterprise. purpure--wisdom in counsel. SABLE betokens constancy, divine doctrine, and sorrow for loss of friends. With gold, it means long life. silver--fame. gules, it excites the fear of enemies. azure, it shows a desire to appease strife. vert--joy after sorrow. purpure--a religious disposition till death. VERT, _per se_, means joy, love, and gladness. In poetry it is usually associated with these feelings. He who bears it with gold, is 'all in pleasure and joy.' silver--a sure lieutenant. gules--a determined fellow. azure--has excess of mirth. sable--moderation of ditto. purpure--bad luck after good fortune. PURPURE, alone, betokeneth jurisdiction, and combined with or--wisdom and riches. silver--a peaceable disposition. gules--policy in war. azure--just, but unfortunate, service. sable--'lamentable as the lapwing.' vert--'scorpion-like.' &c. &c. &c. The ordinaries, the lines of partition, &c., according to this system, are all significant: thus the bordure signifies a siege; the fesse, command; the cheveron, great note and estimation; per bend, justice; bendy-undy, some notable enterprise achieved by water; the pile, immortal virtue; nebuly, labour and travail. Morgan speaks of the "direct line of self-love; the flecked and wavy line of pride; the clouded line of self-conceit; the indented line of envie; the crenelle line of ambition, &c."[143] Among common charges the rose means mercy and justice; the pomegranate, a true soldier; the billet, justice; the garb, plenty, &c. The following queer passage occurs in Morgan:[144] "Some of the ancients were of opinion that the forbidden fruit was an aple of green colour, which we term a pomace: but it might aswel been blew, since we term it a _hurt_: for of that colour is Becanus his Indian fig-tree, which he affirms to be the tree of the forbidden fruit: if it had been red it had been a _tortiaux_, which hath tortered her posterity ever since; if it had been an orange it was the symbole of dissimulation, by which the woman might easily be deceived: if it had been the golden aples of the sun, the pomegranates, it had purple berries within it that left a stain, being a _besant_ of a waighty _guilt_: or it might have been silver, for it was fair to the eye, and was a _plate_ that served the worst fruit to mankind." Almost every heraldric animal is emblematical of the qualities of the bearer; but as, upon this principle, little honour would redound to the bearers of some species, Guillim tells us that "all sortes of animals borne in armes or ensigns must in blazoning be interpreted in the best sense, that is, according to their most generous and noble qualities, and so to the greatest honour of their bearers. For example, the fox is full of wit, and withall given wholly to filching for his prey. If then this be the charge of an escocheon we must conceive the qualities represented to be his wit and cunning, but not his pilfering and stealing." The following list of emblematical animals and their parts may amuse some: those whose taste does not lie this way can easily pass it over. The Ass--patience. Bull's head--rage. Goat--policy. Hart--skill in music. Horns of stags, &c.--fortitude. Unicorn--strength. Lion rampant--courage and generosity. Lion passant--majesty, clemency, circumspection. Bear--affection for offspring. Dog--fidelity, intelligence. Hedgehog--provident care. Grasshopper--wisdom. Serpent--subtlety. Snail--much deliberation (!) Stork--filial piety, gratitude. Eagle--a lofty spirit. Wings--celerity, protection. Owl--vigilance. Pelican--love of offspring. Swallow--industry. Cock--courage. Dolphin--charity. Crane--civility. The _wolf_, according to Upton, signifies a _wrangler in parliament_ or assembly! It does not seem to have occurred to these allegorizing worthies that the tincture of a charge may be diametrically opposed to the signification assigned to the charge itself. For example, the coat, 'Vert, a bull's head or,' by the armilogical rules cited above, would signify, as to the tinctures, pleasure and joy, while as to the charge it would mean rage and fury. Again, 'Purpure, a wolf argent' would mean "a wrangler with a peaceable disposition!!" It was my intention to have examined this Language of Arms with more minuteness, but after a little research I find the labour ill-bestowed. He who can relish such far-fetched notions may gratify himself by a perusal of the somewhat rare folio often before quoted, Sylvanus Morgan's 'Sphere of Gentry,' London, 1661; and still further by that of his supplementary 'Armilogia,' a small quarto published in 1666. These works, with many others of this and the preceding centuries, contain much useful scientific information on Heraldry, and generally evince some scholarship, but they are most unnecessarily blended with what Mr. Moule justly designates "a cabalistic jargon,"[145] that renders it a matter of utter impossibility for any person of ordinary patience to read them through. Guillim, whose work is on the whole the most readable of the number, is not altogether free from this laboured absurdity. One feature in many of the early works on Heraldry occasionally renders them exceedingly amusing, and may partly countervail the prosy dulness of armilogy--namely, the fancied attributes of visible objects generally, but of animals in particular. Absurdities in Natural History at which a child would now laugh are gravely advanced, and often supported by quotations from Pliny and other classical authors. A few specimens from Leigh and Guillim are subjoined. The =Hart=, saith Avicene, "is never troubled with fevers, because he hath no gall. He hath a bone in his hert, as precious as yvery. He feareth muche the voyce of the foxe, and hateth the serpent. He is long lived. For Aristotle writeth, that Diomedes did consecrate a hart to Diana, with a coller of golde about his necke, which had these wordes, DIOMEDES DIANÆ. After whose tyme, almost a thousand yeres, Agathocles the kynge of Sicile did kill the same harte, and offered him up with his coller to Jupiter, in hys temple, which was in Calabria."[146] "The =Bore= is the ryght Esquier, for he beareth both armor and shielde, and fighteth sternelye. When he determineth to fight, he will frot his left shield the space of halfe a day, against an oke. Because that when he is streking thereon with the tuskes of his enemy, he shal feele no griefe thereof, and when they have fought one day together then they wil depart of themselves, keping good appointment, to meete in the same place, the next day after, yea, and the third day, till one of them be victor."[147] Of the =Wolf= he says. "It is sayde, if a man be seene of hym first, the man leseth his voyce. But if the wolfe be scene of manne first, then the wolfe leseth his boldenesse and hardines. Plinie wryteth, he loueth to playe with a chylde, and that he will not hurt it, tyll he be extreame houngry, what time he will not spare to devowre it.... Avicene telleth that he desyreth greatly to eate fishe. And Phisiologus writeth that he may not bend his necke backewarde, in no moneth of the yere but in May.... He enfecteth the wolle of shepe that he byteth, and is adversarye to them and theyr lambes.... There is nothynge that he hateth so much as the knockynge together of two flint stones, the whiche he feareth more then the hunters. Aristotle sayeth that all kinde of wolves are contrary to all kynde of sheepe. For profe wherof Cornelius Agrippa also affirmed that if a man make a string of the wolves guts and put it on the harpe with stringes made of shepes guttes, it will never bee brought with any consent of harmony to agree with the other."[148] Of the =Raven= Guillim says: "It hath bene an ancient received opinion, and the same also grounded upon the warrant of the sacred scriptures (if I mistake not) that such is the propertie of the Raven, that from the time his young ones are hatched or disclosed, untill he seeth what colour they will be of, he never taketh care of them nor ministreth any food unto them, therefore it is thought that they are in the meane space nourished with the heavenly dew. And so much also doth the kingly prophet, David, affirme, Which giveth fodder unto the cattell, and feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him. Psal. 147, 9. The Raven is of colour blacke, and is called in Latine, Corvus, or Corax, and (according to Alexander) hath but one kind of cry or sound which is _Cras, Cras_. When he perceiveth his young ones to be pennefeathered and black like himself, then doth he labour by all meanes to foster and cherish them from thence forward."[149] "Some report that those who rob the =Tiger= of her yong, use a policy to detaine their damme from following them by casting sundry looking-glasses in the way, whereat shee useth long to gaze, whether it be to behold her owne beauty or because when shee seeth her shape in the glasse, she thinketh she seeth one of her yong ones, and so they escape the swiftnesse of her pursuit. And thus," moralizes our author, "are many deceived of the substance, whiles they are much busied about the shadowes."[150] The following, however, shows that Master Guillim was growing sceptical of some of the 'vulgar errours' of his day: "Pierius, in his Hieroglyphicks saith, that if a man stricken of a =Scorpion= sit upon an asse, with his face towards the taile of the asse, his paine shall passe out of him into the asse, which shall be tormented for him. In my opinion he that will beleeve this, is the creature that must be ridden in this case!"[151] [Illustration] CHAPTER VI. Allusive Arms--Armes Parlantes. [Illustration: (Arms of the Family of Dobell.)] "Non verbis sed _rebus_ loquimur." Allusive Arms are of two kinds: first, those which contain charges that relate to the character, office, or history of the original bearer; and, secondly, those which convey a direct pun upon his name. Of the former description are the covered cups in the arms of Butler, and the bugle-horns in those of Forester.[152] Several examples of this species of bearings are given in the ninth chapter of this volume under the title of 'Historical Arms.' At present, I shall confine myself to the second class, which are called, in Latin blazon, Arma Cantantia, in French, Armes Parlantes, and in English, =Canting Arms=. Of this kind we have examples in the arms of Camel, a camel; Colt, 3 colts; Blackmore, 3 Moor's heads, &c. Dallaway, Porny, and other modern writers condemn this species of bearings, as of recent origin, and unworthy of a place amongst the classical devices of antient heraldry. Porny places them in the category of Assumptive Arms--"such as are taken up by the caprice or fancy of upstarts, though of never so mean extraction." This notion, with whomsoever it originated, is decidedly erroneous, for such charges are found not only in the arms of distinguished nobles and knights in the very earliest days of hereditary armory, but occur also in those of several of the sovereign states of Europe. According to some authors the LIS in the royal arms of France are a play upon the name of Louis, antiently spelt _Loys_. The arms of Spain exhibit, quarterly, a castle and a lion--a pun upon the names of the united provinces of Castile and Leon; and after the conquest of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella, a _pomegranate_ was added in the base of the escocheon. As to canting charges in the arms of subjects, we may observe that, in the earliest Roll of Arms extant, that of the time of Henry III,[153] at least nine such occur. To prove this assertion, as well as to give the reader a sample of antient blazon, I shall quote them: Reinold de Moun--de goules ov ung _manche_ d'argent. Nicholas de Moeles--d'argent a deux barres de goules, a trois _molets_ en le cheif goules. Geoffrey de Lucy--de goules a trois _lucies_ d'or. Roger de Merley--barree d'argent et de goulz, a la bordur d'azure, et _merlots_ d'or en le bordur. Hugh de Ferrers--_Vairre_, de argent et d'azur. Robert Quency--de Goules ung _quintefueil_ de hermyne. Thomas Corbett--d'or deux _corbeaux_ noir. Adam de Swyneburne--de goules a trois testes de _Senglier_ d'argent. Odinel Heron--d'azur a trois _herons_ d'argent. In another Roll, made temp. Edw. II., armes parlantes are still more abundant. Sire Peres Corbeht--de or, a ij _corbils_ de sable. Sire Robert de Eschales--de goules, a vj _eschalops_ de argent. _Suthsex and Suthreye_: Sire Johan Heringaud--de azure, crusule de or a vj _harengs_ (herrings) de or. _Kent_: Sire Robert de Sevens, de azure, a iij _vans_ de or. Sire Aumori de Lucy, de azure, crusule de or, a iij _lucys_ de or. _Barkschire_: Sire Adam Martel, de sable, a iij _martels_ de argent. Sire William Videlou, de argent, a iij testes de _lou_, de goules. _Bokinghamschire_: Sire Rauf de Cheyndut, de azure, a un _cheyne_ de or, a un label de goules. Sire Johan LE LOU, de argent a ij barres de goules, en le chef iij testes de _lou_ de goules. _Estsex_: Sire Johan Passeleu, bende de or e de azure, a un quarter de argent, e un _lu_pard _pass_-aunt de goules. Sire Johan Heroun, de azure a iij _herouns_ de argent. _Suthfolk_: Sire Guy Ferre, de goules, a un _fer_-de-molin de argent, e un bastoun de azure. Sire Richarde de Cokfeld, de azure, a une croix e iij _coks_ de or. Sire Huge de Morieus, de azure, a iij foiles de _moures_ de or. _Northfolk_: Sire ---- Mounpynzon, de argent, a un lion de sable, a un _pinzon_[154] de or en le espandle. _Cauntebrugescire_: Sire Giles de Trompintoun, de azure, crusule de or, a ij _trompes_ de or. _Derby et Notingham_: Sire Johan le Fauconer, de argent a iij _faucouns_ de goules. Sire Johan Bordoun, de goules a iij _bordons_ de argent. _Huntingdonschire_: Sire Johan de Swyneford, d'argent a iij testes de _cenglers_ de goulys. _Norehaunton et Rotelonde_: Sire Geffrey Rossel, de or, a un cheveron azure, e iij roses de goules. _Leycestreschire_: Sire William Bernak, de argent, a une fesse and iij _bernaks_ de sable. _Herefordeschire_: Sire Peres Corbet, de or a un _corbyn_ de sable. Sire Thomas Corbet, de or a iij _corbyns_ de sable. _Schropschire_: Sire Walter Hakelut, de goules, a iij _hackes_ daneys de or, et un daunce de argent. _Northumberland and Comberland_: Sire Odynel Heron, de argent a iij herons de azure. Sire Johan Malebis, de argent, a iij testes de _bis_ de goules. In addition to these, I may adduce the following very antient families, whose arms are not traceable to any grant, but have been borne immemorially as antient arms. The Pelhams bear three _pel_icans, and their crest is a _pe_acock. The puns in both instances, it must be confessed, are very poor; still, few will doubt that puns were intended. The Arundels bear six swallows, in French _hirondelles_. The Barons D'Aquila, temp. Henry III, bore _eagles_; the Bourgchiers, water-_bowgets_; the Heringauds, _herrings_; Lupus, Earl of Chester, a _wolf's_ head; Shouldham, Abbot of St. Saviour's, _shov_ellers; the Bacons, a _boar_; the Wingfelds, _wings_; the Rokewoods, chess-_rooks_; the Pigots, _pick_-axes; the Boleynes, _bulls'_ heads; the Shelleys, _shells_; and an infinity of others. Dame Julyan Berners was no stranger to such arms, for she distinctly mentions the coat of Peter de Roches, bishop of Winchester, who "baar iij rochys (roaches) after his awne naam." The cross-_corded_, borne by the _roper_ who became a "nobull man," spoken of by that lady, belongs to the other class of allusive arms, as conveying a hint at his former menial occupation. That this kind of charges became too common in the early part of the seventeenth century, Dallaway is, perhaps, correct in affirming; but those were punning days, and quaint conceits often took the place of true wit. Camden, the correctness of whose heraldric taste none will presume to question, did not hold _arma cantantia_ in so contemptible a light as some of his successors in office have done; for among the arms granted by him, a list of which is given by Morgan,[155] the following, among others, occur: DOBELL of Falmer, co. Sussex, Sable, a _doe_ passant between three _bells_ argent.[156] BULLOCK of London. Bulls' heads. FOSTER of London. Bugle-horns. HAMPSON of Kent. Hemp-breaks. FISHER of Staffordshire. A Kingfisher. CONIE of Huntingdonshire. Coneys. CROWCH.[157] Crosses formée. LANGHORN. Bugle-horns. CANNON of Pembrokeshire. Crest. A cannon. TREHERNE. Three herns. CROSS of Lincolnshire. A cross-crosslet. KNIGHTLEY. A lance.[158] There was a kind of Rebus much in vogue in the fourteenth and following centuries, which, although not regulated by the laws of blazon, possessed somewhat of the heraldric character. Many persons, even those of antient family, who bore regular coats of arms, adopted various figures for the purpose of expressing their names pictorially; for instance, one John Eagleshead gave as his seal an _eagle's head_, surrounded by the motto, "HOC AQUILÆ CAPUT EST, SIGNUMQUE FIGURA JOHANNIS." The Abbot of Ramsay bore, in the same way, _a ram in the sea_, with an appropriate legend. One Harebottle expressed his name by a _hare_ upon a _bottle_; while Islip, abbot of Westminster, represented his by a man slipping out of a tree, and supposed to exclaim, "I slip!" These "painted poesies," as Camden styles them, occur chiefly in painted glass windows, in decorated Gothic architecture, and in the title-pages of early printed books.[159] One of the most singular rebuses I have seen occurs in a window in the chapel at Lullingstone, co. Kent, the seat of Sir P. H. Dyke, Bart. It is that of Sir John Peché. In this instance the arms of the personage are surrounded by a wreath, composed of two branches of a peach tree bearing fruit, every peach being marked with an Old English =e=; Peach-é. It is curious that this device proves the true pronunciation of the name, which was formerly supposed to be Peche. The common rebus, although it did not come into general use until after the introduction of regular heraldry, may boast of a much higher antiquity, for such devices occur as the representatives of names of no less eminence than those of Cicero and Cæsar; not to mention those of celebrated sculptors and mint-masters, who, in the palmiest days of Rome, frequently marked the productions of their genius with a rebus. Taking into consideration the great antiquity of these "name-devices," and their early introduction into the armorial shield, I cannot see any good reason for the strong prejudices which have existed against them in modern times. To me, indeed, they appear not only 'allowable' but 'commendable' armory; for arms, like names, are signs of personality, and therefore those which 'speak to the eye' most intelligibly are preferable to those charges which have in themselves no meaning.[160] There can be no doubt but that, from the mutations our language has experienced within the last six centuries, many of the allusions contained in coats of arms are greatly obscured, while others are totally lost. The arms of the family of Eschales, now written Scales, exhibit eschalops (escallops), and those of Sykes, fountains--a _syke_, in the northern dialects, signifying a spring, or rather that kind of well, which was formerly sunk within the precincts of a camp. * * * * * In order to show how numerous allusive arms are in English armory, I will here give a list of those occurring in the Baronetage as it stood in 1836,[161] omitting, for the sake of brevity, the details of the blazon. BACON. (Crest.) A boar. SHELLEY. Three whelk-_shells_. BURDETT of Bramcote. Six birds (martlets). FOULIS. Three leaves (feuilles, Fr.) PALMER. (Crest.) A demi panther, holding a palm-branch. Motto: "Palma virtuti." RIVERS. Two bars dancetté. Query: if these were not originally _wavy_, to represent _rivers_? MANSELL. Three maunches. HAZLERIGG. Three hazel-leaves. GORING. Three annulets (rings!) WOLSELEY. (Crest.) A wolf's head. BURGOYNE. Three _birds_ (martlets), and three talbots (_canes_). HAMPSON. Three hemp-breaks. SWINBURNE. (Crest.) A demi boar. ASHBURNHAM. (Crest.) An ash tree. BROOKE. (Crest.) A _Brock_ (O. E. for badger). BURDETT of Burthwaite. Three birds (martlets). HEAD. Three unicorns' heads. OXENDEN. Three oxen. PARKER of London. A stag's head. RAMSDEN. Three ram's heads. COLT. Three colts. WARRENDER. (Crest.) A rabbit. FEATHERSTONHAUGH. Three feathers. SHEFFIELD. Three garbs (sheaves). CUNLIFFE. Three conies. WOLFF. (Crest.) A wolf. BERNARD-MORLAND. Quarters a bear. COOTE. Three cootes. HERON. Three herons. SYKES. Three fountains (sykes, vide p. 126). FLETCHER. Four arrow-heads. BEEVOR. (Crest.) A beaver. HUNTER-BLAIR. Three hunting horns. MILLER. A cross moline. CALL. Three trumpets. GOULD. _Or_, a griffin segreant. BARING. A bear's head. LAMB. Three lambs. BOUGHEY-FLETCHER. Four arrows. TROWBRIDGE. An antient bridge. MILNES. Three windmill-sails. BALL. A hand-grenade. BAYNES. Cross bones. METCALFE. Three calves. KAY. (Crest.) A griffin's head holding a key. LETHBRIDGE. A bridge. HARTWELL. A hart. SHELLEY. Three whelk shells, as before. LOCKHART. A heart within a fetter-lock. FRASER. Three cinquefoils, or rather strawberry-leaves (Fr. _fraises_). CORBET. A corby or raven. WOOD of Gatton. A tree. BAIRD. A boar. COCKERELL. Two cocks. FLETCHER of Carrow. Four arrow-heads. SHEAFFE. Three garbs (sheaves). ANDERSON. A saltier or St. Andrew's cross. BROKE. (Crest.) A brock or badger. WYLIE. A [_wily_] fox. GRIFFIES-WILLIAMS. Four griffins. WALLER. Three walnut leaves. (Crest.) A walnut tree. OAKES. Three oak branches. TROTTER. (Crest.) A horse! BROOKE of Colebrook. A brock again. DALRYMPLE-HORN (Elphinstone). Three bugle-horns. KEY. Three keys. FOSTER (Antiently written Forester). Three bugle-horns. HOLYOAKE-GOODRICKE. (Crest.) An oak tree with a scroll containing the words "Sacra Quercus." PAULETT. Three swords. The sword was the distinctive mark of St. Paul. ROE. (Crest.) A roebuck. A more thorough acquaintance with English archaisms and provincialisms would probably enable one to detect numerous other bearings corresponding with the surnames of the bearers; but these seventy examples, cited from one branch of our lesser nobility only, are fully sufficient to prove that there is nothing mean or disgraceful in canting or allusive arms. It would be a matter of little difficulty to fill fifty pages with arms of this description, but a few more, and those of the most remarkable, may be given. The family of _Still_ bear guttée d'eau, drops of water; STILLA, Lat. a drop; _Drope_, Lord Mayor of London, also bore guttée; and _Harbottle_ bore three drops or. _Vere_, Earl of Oxford, gave a boar, in Latin VERRES. _Clear_, _Bright_, _Day_, and _St. Clere_ bear a 'sun in splendour;' the same luminary is also given by Dy_son_ and Pear_son_; while Dela_luna_ bears a crescent, and _Ster_ling stars. The crest of _Holden-Rose_, as given in Baker's Northamptonshire, may be briefly described as a hand HOLDING A ROSE! Harrison bears a hedgehog, in French _herisson_; Pascall, a paschal-lamb; and Keats three cats! _And_ bears gules a Roman =&= argent! Brand, Lord Dacre, bears two _brands_, or antient swords, in saltire; Hose, three _legs_ couped at the thigh; and Pickering, a _pike_ between three _annulets_. * * * * * "Le même usage (says Salverte) a été alternativement cause et effet." We have already seen that multitudes of armorial ensigns have been borrowed from the bearers' names--it is asserted by several authors that, in many cases, _surnames were borrowed from arms_. Salverte[162] thinks that many of the chiefs who were engaged in the Crusades assumed and handed down to their posterity names allusive to the charges of their banners. He also notices, from the history of Poland, the fact that there were in that country, in the twelfth century, two families called respectively _Rose_ and _Griffon_, and he thinks "we may with probability suppose, that both took from their arms those names, which no longer subsist, because hereditary surnames were not yet established in Poland." In Sweden, again, according to this learned writer, there is _proof_ that the nobles followed such a practice. "One who bore in his arms the head of an ox assumed the name of OXENSTIERN (front de boeuf;) and another took the name of SPARR, on account of the cheveron which formed the principal feature of his coat." "A particular instance of the armorial ensign being metonymically put for the bearer of it, occurs in the history of the Troubadours, the first of whom was called the Dauphin, or knight of the Dolphin, because he bore this figure on his shield. In the person of one of his successors, the name Dauphin became a title of sovereign dignity. Many other surnames were in this manner taken from arms, as may be inferred from the ordinary phraseology of romance, where many of the warriors are styled knights of the lion, of the eagle, of the rose, &c., according to the armorial figures they bore on their shields."[163] At tournaments the combatants usually bore the title of Knights of the Swan, Dragon, Star, or whatever charge was most conspicuous in their arms.[164] The arms of Trusbut are three water-bowgets, 'Très boutz.' Mr. Montagu thinks the name was taken from the bearings.[165] The royal line of Plantagenet derived their appellation from the _Planta genesta_, their very antient badge. There is certainly some probability that a few of our English surnames, particularly those derived from the animal kingdom, come immediately from an heraldrical source; though it would be a matter of great difficulty positively to ascertain whether the names or the arms were adopted first. Without attempting to decide, therefore, which had the earliest existence, I shall annex certain surnames of an heraldrical character, which have found their way into our family nomenclature, and give the more prominent features of the blazon borne with those names, leaving it to the reader to form his own conclusions: 1. CROSS. Many families of this name bear crosses and crosslets. 2. SALTIRE bears billets and a bordure, but not the ordinary so called. 3. CHEVERON bears two cheverons. 4. CANTON. Several families are so designated, but not one of them bears the canton of heraldry. 5. BILLET. The same remark applies. 6. GORE. In various coats, crosslets, lions and bars, but not one _gore_, the only hint at the name being _bulls' heads_ in two or three coats. 7. PILE. A cross and four nails. 8. MASCLE. Some families of _Mascall_ bear barry of eight, others fleur-de-lis and a bordure, and the family of _Mascule_, a fesse. 9. ROUNDLE. _Roundell_ does not bear this charge. 10. BARRY. Of the many families of this name some bear barry, bars and barulets; and BARR bears (int. al.) a _bar_. 11. PALY. Two families bear bends; but not one _paly_. 12. DELVES. The family of Delves bear these in several arrangements. PALE, FESSE, CHIEF, BEND, QUARTER, and an infinity of the names of charges, do not occur as English surnames. Of the etymology of the somewhat common name _Crown-in-shield_, I am entirely ignorant; nor do I find any arms assigned to it. [Illustration: (Rebus of De Aquila.)] CHAPTER VII. Crests, Supporters, Badges, etc. [Illustration: (Gilderedge. Bourchier. Exmew.)] Hitherto our attention has been principally directed to the escocheon and its charges. It now remains to treat of those heraldric ornaments which surround the shield, as crests, helmets, wreaths, mantlings, supporters, scrolls, mottoes, and badges: and first, of crests, and their accompaniments. Every one must have remarked that when the heraldric insignia of a family are represented in full, the shield or escocheon is surmounted with a helmet, the antient covering for the warrior's head. These helmets are drawn according to certain fixed rules. Although their general shapes are as various and fanciful as those of shields, their positions, &c. are regulated by the rank of the bearers: for instance, the sovereign's helmet is of gold, full faced, and open, with six bars; that of dukes is of steel, placed a little in profile, and defended with five gold bars; that of baronets and knights is of steel, full-faced, the visor up, and without bars; and that of esquires and gentlemen is also of steel with the visor down, ornamented with gold, and placed in profile. According to some authors, the helmets of bastards should be turned to the sinister or left side, to denote their illegitimacy.[166] Upon the top of the helmet is the _wreath_, which was originally a kind of chaplet surrounding the warrior's head. It was composed of two bands, or skeins of silk twisted together and tinctured of the principal metal and colour of the arms. The wreath is used in the majority of bearings, but occasionally a ducal coronet or a chapeau occurs instead.[167] From this ornament, whether wreath, chapeau, or coronet, rises the CREST. The word crest appears to be derived from the Latin _crista_, the comb or tuft which grows upon the heads of many species of birds. The idea, as well as the name, was doubtless borrowed from this source. The crest was sometimes called a COGNIZANCE from cognosco, because by its means the wearer was _known_ or distinguished on the field of battle. Crests were originally worn by military commanders upon the apices of their helmets as the proud distinction of their rank; and, by adding to their apparent stature, served to give them a formidable aspect. They also enabled their soldiers to rally round their persons, and to follow their movements in the confusion of the battle. The tall plumes of birds, human heads, and figures of animals in a rampant posture, seem to have been among the earliest devices made use of. The antiquity of crests for the uses above referred to, is far greater than that of the introduction of heraldry. The helmets of the divinities and heroes of the classical era are thus decorated. The owl on that of Minerva may be cited as an example. Jupiter Ammon is represented as having borne, as a crest, a ram's head, which Alexander the Great adopted in token of his pretended descent from that deity. The use of crests by antient warriors is alluded to by Phædrus in his fable of the battle of the mice and weasels, where the generals of the former party are represented as wearing horns fastened to their heads: "Ut conspicuum in prælio Haberent signum quod sequerentur milites." _Fab. LIII._ In heraldry, the adoption of crests is modern compared with that of coat-armour,[168] and many families at the present time have no crests. This is easily accounted for. We have seen that they were at first used exclusively by commanders. In time, however, the spirit of imitation led persons of inferior rank to assume those of their feudal superiors; and hence far less regularity is found in the heraldry of crests than in that of coat-armour. In many cases crests have been borrowed from one or other of the charges of the shield: hence if the coat contain a lion rampant, the crest is frequently a demi, or half lion, or a lion's head; and should three or six eagles occupy the shield, another eagle often serves as a crest. With respect to the material of which the actual crests were composed, some assert that it was leather, or pasteboard stiffened and varnished, to preserve it from the wet; but the few that I have had an opportunity of inspecting are composed of more substantial materials. Thus the crest of one of the Echingham family, 'a demi-lion rampant,' on a helmet preserved in Echingham church, co. Sussex, is of wood, and that of a knight of the Pelham family in Laughton church, in the same county, 'a peacock in his pride,' is of iron. The crests engraved at the head of this chapter have been selected on account of their singularity.[169] The flourished ornament behind the crest, and which is often made to encompass the entire armorial insignia, was originally either a mantle of estate, worn when the warrior was not actually engaged in battle, and tinctured of the metal and colour of his arms,[170] or from the _lambrequin_, a small piece of cloth or silk employed to protect the helmet from rain, as well as to prevent the polished steel from dazzling the eyes of the spectator. The jags and flourishes are conjectured to represent the cuts which a valiant knight would receive in battle; and hence the extravagant fashion of painting these mantlings was probably intended as a compliment to the prowess of the bearer. SUPPORTERS are those figures which stand on each side of the escocheon, and appear to support, or hold it up. In Latin blazon they are termed Talamones and Atlantes, and in French _supports_ or _tenans_. As crests are more recent than coat-armour, so supporters are of later date than crests. Menestrier, the great classic of French heraldric literature, deduces the origin of supporters from the antient tournaments, at which it was customary for the knights who engaged in those chivalrous exercises to have shields of their arms adorned with helmets, mantlings, wreaths, crests, and other ornamental appendages suspended near the lists. These were guarded by pages and armour-bearers fantastically attired as Saracens, Moors, Giants, and Mermaids, or disguised with skins to resemble lions, bears, and other animals. The figures adopted in this kind of masquerade became afterwards the supporters of the family achievement. As I have not had the good fortune to read Menestrier's work, and only know it through quotations, I am unable to ascertain by what arguments and proofs his hypothesis is strengthened; but I may be allowed to express my doubts as to this picturesque origin of supporters. The account of it given by Anstis, in his Aspilogia, appears to me to be far more probable: "As to supporters, they were (I take it) _the invention of the graver_, who, in cutting, on seals, shields of arms, which were in a triangular form and placed on a circle, finding a vacant place at each side and also at the top of the shield, thought it an ornament to fill up the spaces with vine branches, garbs, trees, flowers, plants, ears of corn, feathers, fretwork, lions, wiverns, or some other animals, according to their fancy.[171] "If supporters had been esteemed formerly (as at this time) the marks and ensigns of nobility, there could be no doubt but there would have been then, as now, particular supporters appropriated to each nobleman, exclusive of all others; whereas, in the seals of noblemen affixed to a paper wrote to the Pope, in the year 1300, the shields of arms of twenty-seven of them are in the same manner supported (if that term may be used) on each side by a wivern, and seven of the others by lions; that of John de Hastings hath the same wivern on each side of his shield of arms, and also on the space over it; in the manner as is the lion in the seals of Hache, Beauchamp, and De Malolacu. The seals of Despencer, Basset, and Baddlesmere, pendent to the same instrument, have each two wiverns, or dragons, for supporters; and that of Gilbert de Clare, three lions, placed in the form above mentioned. The promiscuous usage of wiverns to fill the blank in the seals is obvious to all who are concerned in these matters. "But what is a stronger argument is, that the same sort of supporters as those here mentioned is placed in the seals of divers persons whose families were never advanced to the peerage, and who, not styling themselves knights, doubtless were not bannerets; persons of which degree (if I mistake not) now claim supporters during their lives, as well as knights of the Garter, and some great officers of state. Instances of this kind are often met with; nay, the engraver hath frequently indulged his fancy so far as to insert figures which do not seem proper, according to the present notion of supporters to arms; as two swords on each side the arms of Sir John de Harcla; and St. George fighting with the Dragon on one side, and the Virgin with Our Saviour in her arms on the other side, of a seal affixed to a deed executed by Lord Ferrers, whose arms, on the impress of a seal pendent to a deed, dated 17th May, 9{o} Henry VI, have not any supporters. This, as well as many other omissions of supporters, by many noblemen, in their old seals, seems likely to imply that they were not the right of the nobility exclusive of others. "When supporters were first assumed, if there were two on one seal, they were generally the same; but sometimes there was only one, and sometimes three, as may be seen on various seals. "The manner of placing these supporters was also very different; as sometimes, when the shield lay on the side, the supporters have been placed so as to seem to be supporting the crest, as appears in the seal of the Earl of Arundel, in which seal there is not any coronet. Some were placed all standing one way; and, if but one, it was placed sometimes on one side of the shield of arms, and sometimes on the other: sometimes, again, it was placed at the bottom, and the arms set on it; and sometimes behind, with the arms against it, and the head above the shield, and in a helmet, as in the seal of William, Lord Fitz-Hugh, 12th Henry VI." From a MS. of Wingfeld, York Herald, deposited in the College of Arms, it appears that many families below the rank of nobility antiently used supporters, and it is asserted that the descendants of persons who used them have a right to perpetuate them, however they were acquired. Many examples are cited of commoners having used supporters from an early period: some in virtue of high offices, as those of Lords Warden of the Cinque Ports; Comptrollers of the Household, &c.; others without any such qualification, as, for instance, the Coverts of Sussex, the St. Legers of Kent, the Carews of Surrey, the Savages of Cheshire, the Pastons of Norfolk, &c. In the hall at Firle Place, co. Sussex, are the arms of Sir John Gage, Comptroller of the Household to Queen Mary, supported by two greyhounds. The descendants of that gentleman, long afterwards elevated to the peerage by the title of Viscount Gage, continue to use the same supporters. A few other instances of such resumption occur. By a singular anomaly the Baronets of Nova Scotia are allowed by their patents of creation to carry supporters, while the English Baronets, their superiors both in dignity and antiquity, have not that privilege. Some of these, however, as well as distinguished naval and military commanders, have, at various times, received the royal license to use them. I have attempted, in vain, to collect an authentic list of the supporters of the royal arms of England from the time of Edward III, when, according to some authors, they were first assumed. There are discrepances in the authorities which are not easily accounted for. They are seldom agreed upon those of any early sovereign. For example, Berry gives Richard II a lion and a hart; Fosbroke says, _two angels_, and makes him the first king who adopted supporters. Henry IV, according to Nisbet, had two angels; Dallaway says, a lion and an antelope; and Sandford, a swan and an antelope! To Henry V, Nisbet assigns two antelopes, while Willement, out of Broke, gives him the lion and antelope. The probability is that all parties are right, each having reference to a particular instance in which the respective supporters are employed. One thing is certain, that while the colours and charges of the shield have remained unchanged from a very early date, the supporters have experienced many vicissitudes. Edward IV changed his supporters at least three times; and until the reign of James I, when the lion and unicorn became stationary, the royal supporters do not seem to have been regarded as part of the _hereditary_ ensigns of the kingdom.[172] I shall only add on this subject some extraordinary fashions in the use of supporters. I am inclined to think that these adjuncts to arms originated, partly, in the corbels of Gothic architecture, on which shields are frequently supported in the hands of angels.[173] Numerous instances of this kind occur in antient churches and halls built in the decorated style. Sometimes these angels are vested in terrene habiliments, as in the annexed cut, from a drawing of a sculptured stone among the ruins of Robertsbridge Abbey. [Illustration] Shields of arms are sometimes supported by a single animal, as in the case of the arms of Prussia, where an eagle with two heads performs that duty. Several instances of arms borne upon the breast of an eagle are found in English heraldry: the following occur to my recollection, namely, those of Richard Earl of Cornwall, brother of Henry III,[174] those of the Lathams of Latham, in the fourteenth century,[175] and those of John le Bray, on his seal attached to a deed dated 1327.[176] A curious instance of this kind of supporter occurs in the arms of the lord of the manor of Stoke-Lyne, co. Oxon. The figure employed in this case is neither angel nor eagle, but a hawk. When Charles I held his parliament at Oxford, the then lord of Stoke-Lyne having rendered him an important service, the king offered him the honour of knighthood, which he gratefully declined, and merely requested the royal permission to place the arms of his family upon the breast of a hawk. This being granted, the lords of the manor have ever since employed a hawk displayed as their supporter.[177] [Illustration] There is another species of supporter, the use of which seems to have been almost restricted to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and which is seldom noticed in our books of heraldry. The arms are represented upon a banner, the staff of which is supported by an animal in a rampant, or, more usually, in a sejant, posture. The arms of Sir Roger Fynes, Treasurer of the Household to Henry VI, are thus represented over the great gate of Hurstmonceux castle, built by him. The supporter is the _alaunt_, or wolf-dog,[178] and the scroll round the pole seems to have contained a motto, which is now illegible. Some very singular supporters occur in French heraldry. Under the _ancien régime_ the arms of most of the great officers of state were supported by ensigns emblematical of their various duties; for example-- _Officers._ _Supporters._ The Admiral of France bore Two anchors. Vice-Admiral, One anchor in pale behind the shield. Great Huntsman, Two bugles at the dext. and sin. bases of the shield. Grand Master of Artillery, Two mounted cannons at ditto. Grand Marshal, At the base of the shield a cloud, from the dexter side of which proceeds a hand holding a sword in pale, and from the sinister, another hand holding a baton of office. Grand Louvetier, Two wolves' heads at the base (Wolf-hunter,) corners of the shield. Grand Esquire, Two swords in pale with sashes. Grand Butler, Two bottles ornamented with the royal arms. [Illustration] The most singular supporters, perhaps, in the whole circle of heraldry are those of the noble French family of Albret. Two lions couchant, wearing helmets, support the lower part of the shield, and, above, are two eagles, each standing with one foot upon the head of the lion, while with the other he holds the upper part of the escocheon. The French armorists make a distinction between _supports_ and _tenans_: in this instance the lions are known by the former term, and the eagles by the latter. Mottoes will form the subject of a short separate chapter: it therefore only remains, in this brief view of extra-scutal insignia, to notice BADGES. Some families, as has already been observed, have no crests; a still greater number have no mottoes; and supporters belong to an exclusive few. Badges are still more unusual, and in modern times it would perhaps be a matter of difficulty to enumerate twenty families who use them. _Badge_, in its ordinary acceptation, signifies the mark or token of any thing; thus we are accustomed to call fetters the _badge_ of slavery, and a plain gold ring the _badge_ of matrimony; and thus in a figurative, or moral sense, Shakspeare says, "Sweet mercy is nobility's true _badge_." The word is of uncertain etymology. Junius derives it from 'bode,' or 'bade,' a messenger, and supposes it to be a _contractio per crasin_ from 'badage,' the credential of a messenger. Skinner and Minsheu, again, deduce it from 'bagghe,' Dutch, a jewel, or from 'bague,' French, a ring. But Johnson, with more reason, considers it a derivative of the Latin '_bajulo_,' to carry. "But on his breast a bloody cross he bore, The dear resemblance of his dying lord; For whose sweet sake that glorious _badge_ he wore." _Spenser._ In heraldry, _badges_ are a kind of subsidiary arms used to commemorate family alliances, or some territorial rights or pretensions.[179] Sometimes, also, and perhaps more generally, they serve as trophies of some remarkable exploit achieved by an ancestor of the bearer. In the feudal ages most baronial families had their peculiar badges, and their dependents were recognized by having them embroidered upon their sleeves or breasts. They were generally placed upon a ground tinctured of the livery colours of the family.[180] Something analogous to this fashion is retained in the crest which adorns the buttons of our domestic servants, and still more so in the badges by which the firemen and watermen of London are distinguished. Badges were also employed in various other ways, as, for example, on the furniture of houses, on robes of state, on the caparisons of horses, on seals, and in the details of gothic edifices. An instance of the various applications of the badge of one noble family has been familiar to me from childhood--the Buckle, the badge assumed by Sir John de Pelham in commemoration of his having been principally concerned in the capture of John, king of France, at the battle of Poictiers.[181] This trophy occurs, as an appendage to the family _arms_, into which it is also introduced as a quartering; on the _ecclesiastical buildings_ of which the family were founders, or to which they were benefactors;[182] on the architectural ornaments of their _mansions_ at Laughton, Halland, &c.; on antient _seals_; as the _sign of an inn_ near their estate at Bishopstone, &c.; and among the humbler uses to which the BUCKLE has been applied may be mentioned the decoration of the cast-iron chimney-backs in the farmhouses on the estate, the embellishment of milestones, and even the marking of sheep. Throughout the whole of that part of eastern Sussex over which the Pelham influence extends there is no 'household word' more familiar than the =Pelham Buckle=.[183] The following are the badges of a few other antient families: The Lords Hungerford used a golden garb, which seems to have been taken from the arms of the Peverells, whose co-heiress married William Lord Hungerford, temp. Henry V. They were 'Azure, three garbs or.' Edward Lord Hastings, who married the grand-daughter and heiress of the peer just named, bore on his standard the garb with a sickle--another badge of the Hungerfords--united by a golden cord. John de Willoughby de Eresby, temp. Edward III, used two buckles, which he probably borrowed from the arms of his wife, the heiress of Roceline: 'Gules, crusily and three buckles argent.' One of the Nevilles, Lords Bergavenny, bore two badges: first, two staples interlaced, one gold, the other silver; and second, a fret gold: these occur on a tomb at Mereworth, co. Kent.[184] [Illustration] The badge of the Lords Dacre was an escallop united to a ragged staff, as in the margin. The family of Parr used a tuft of daisies; and the Percies a silver crescent: "The minstrels of thy noble house, All clad in robes of blue, With silver crescents on their arms, Attend in order due." _Hermit of Warkworth._ In the 'Rising of the North Countrie' this badge and the _dun bull_ of the Nevilles are mentioned. Of the latter we are told: "Lord Westmoreland his ancyent raysde, The _dun bull_ he rays'd on hye, And three dogs with golden collars, Were there set out most royallye."[185] [Illustration] Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, used the punning device of lions and _mulberry_-trees; and Vere, Earl of Oxford, a long-necked silver bottle, with a blue cord, allusive to his hereditary post of lord high chamberlain. Sometimes these insignia answered the double purpose of the crest and the badge. Some badges, however, as Mr. M. remarks, are not at all suitable for crests. This applies particularly to _Knots_, which were composed either of silk, or of gold and silver lace, and were antiently a favourite species of badge. The families of Harrington, Wake, Bouchier, Stafford, Heneage, and others, each bore a peculiar knot. The regal heraldry of this country is peculiarly rich in badges. Mr. Montagu has, with great research, compiled a nearly perfect list of them from William Rufus to James I, to which the reader who desires further information on this subject is referred.[186] Meantime I shall notice a few of the most celebrated. The broom-plant, or _planta-genesta_, was introduced by Henry II. From this badge the illustrious line of Plantagenet derived their surname. The story of its origin, be it true or false, is well known. The first monarch who assumed the rose was Edward I, who bore the flower or, the stalk green. From this, in some way as yet unexplained, probably originated the white and red roses of his descendants, the rival houses of York and Lancaster. Richard II adopted the white hart and white falcon, both of which afterwards became the titles of pursuivants. The white swan of Henry IV is said to have been derived from the Bohuns, Earls of Hereford, the family of his first wife. The double S,[187] concerning which so much conjecture has been wasted, was another badge of this monarch. "The device of Margaret of Anjou, Queen of Henry VI, was a daisy, in allusion to her name: 'The daise a floure white and rede, In French called la belle Margarete.' _Chaucer._" The extensive use of badges by the retainers of princes is shown by the order of Richard III for the making of thirteen thousand _boars_ "wrought upon fustian," to be used at his coronation. The rose and portcullis are amongst the most familiar of royal badges. These were used by the Tudors. The Tudor rose was a blending of the white and red roses of the two factions, united in this line of sovereigns. The portcullis came originally from the family of Beaufort. James I combined the dexter half of the Tudor rose with the sinister moiety of the Scottish thistle, ensigned with a crown. At present, when the badges of the three kingdoms are represented with the royal arms, little attention is paid to heraldric propriety. The rose, shamrock, and thistle are figured, not _secundum artem_, but according to the fancy of the painter. Henry VIIIth's regard to heraldric matters is shown by his giving to pieces of ordnance names corresponding with the titles borne by the officers of arms.[188] This is further exemplified by the names he gave the ships composing his fleet, as Hart, Antelope, Tegar, and Dragon. The smaller vessels were mostly distinguished by the names of the royal badges, such as the Fawcon and Fetterlock, Portquilice, Hynde, Double-Rose, Hawthorn,[189] &c.[190] Some of these badges are still retained as signs of inns, particularly the Swan and White-Hart, both of which should be ducally gorged and chained, though these appendages, from the ignorance of sign-painters, are frequently omitted. [Illustration: (Abbot Islip's Rebus, vide p. 125)] CHAPTER VIII. Heraldric Mottoes. [Illustration] "We ought to be meek-spirited till we are assured of the honesty of our ancestors; for covetousness and circumvention make no good _motto_ for a coat." _Collier._ A motto is a word, or short sentence, inserted in a scroll placed generally under a coat of arms, and occasionally over the crest. The word is Italian, and equivalent to _verbum_. As usual with things of long standing, a variety of opinions exists as to the origin of these pithy and interesting appendages to family ensigns. It would be erroneous to suppose that mottoes belong exclusively to Heraldry, for they are of much more antient date than the first outline of that system. Both sacred and profane history furnish us with proofs of their very early use. The declaration of the Almighty to Moses,[191] "I am that I am," may be regarded as a motto expressive of the immutability of the Divine perfections. Among mankind, mottoes must have been chosen to express the predominant feelings of piety, love, moral virtue, military courage, and family pride, as soon as those feelings manifested themselves, that is to say, in the earliest stages of social existence. Without tarrying to enter into the philosophy of this subject, it will be sufficient for us here to inquire in what way these brief expressions of sentiment became the almost indispensable adjunct to the armorial honours of individuals and of families. The origin of heraldric mottoes might probably be traced to two sources, in themselves diametrically opposed to each other; I mean Religion and War. "Extremes," we are told, "sometimes meet," and certainly these two feelings did coalesce in the institutions of chivalry, if we may be allowed to prostitute the holy name of religion by identifying it with the frenzy which possessed the human mind in such enterprises as the Crusades. It is uncertain whether we ought to deduce the origin of mottoes from those devout ejaculations, such as ='Drede God!'--'Jesu mercy--Lady helpe,'= which occur on antient tombs, or from the _word of onset_, employed by generals on the battle-field to stimulate their soldiers to great feats of prowess. The preponderance in point of number of religious mottoes would incline us to the former supposition; but the general opinion of our best authors favours a military origin. The war-cry, known in Latin as the _Clamor militaris_, in French as the _Cri de guerre_, and in the Scottish language as the _Slughorn_, or _Slogan_, is of very remote antiquity. In early scripture history we have an example in "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon," the word of onset employed by the Hebrews against the Midianites in the valley of Jezreel.[192] Among barbarous nations at the present day it has its representative in the war-whoop, or yell, employed as well to animate the courage of their own party as to inspire terror in the hearts of their enemies. From an early period the phrase '=a boo!=' was employed by the Irish for these purposes. This expression, in course of time, became the motto of many of the great families of that island, with the adjunct of their surname or the name of their chief fortress. Hence the '_Crom a boo_' of the Earls of Leinster; the '_Shanet a boo_' of the Earls of Desmond; the '_Butler a boo_' of the Butlers; the '_Galriagh a boo_' of the Bourkes, Lords Clanricarde, &c. &c. In England, France, and other countries, an invocation of the patron saints, St. George, St. Denis, &c. constituted the war-cry of the common cause; but in intestine wars each party had their separate cry, and every commander urged on his forces by the well-recognized shout of his own house. That this practice prevailed in England so recently as the close of the fifteenth century appears from an Act of Parliament, passed in the tenth year of Henry VII, to abolish these cries as productive of rancour among the nobles, who, with their retainers, were thenceforth enjoined to call only upon St. George and the king. The following are some of the antient _cris-de-guerre_: The kings of France, 'Montjoye[193] St. Denis!' The kings of England, 'Montjoye Notre Dame, St. George!' Edward III (in a skirmish near Calais) 'Ha! St. Edward! Ha! St. George!' The dukes of Burgundy, 'Montjoye St. Andrew!' The kings of Scotland, 'St. Andrew!' The dukes of Normandy, 'Dieu aye!' (aide.) The emperors of Germany, 'A dextre et a sinistre!' The counts of Milan, 'Milan the Valiant!' The counts of Hainault, 'Hainault the Noble!' The use of mottoes became very fashionable in England from the example of Edward III. The motto of the Garter, '=Honi soit qui mal y pense=,' with the order itself, dates from this reign.[194] Edward made use of various mottoes suited to different occasions and circumstances. Many of these are now obscure, and appear destitute of point, such as 'It is as it is,' embroidered upon a white linen doublet made for this king. Others are more easily understood, as the daring and profane couplet wrought upon his surcoat and shield, provided to be used at a tournament: "=Hay, hay, the wythe Swan; By Gode's soul I am thy man!=" Mottoes upon antient seals are extremely rare. Mr. Montagu says, "I have examined many hundred early seals and engravings and drawings of seals preserved in the British Museum, and I know but of about half a dozen.... One is of the year 1418, inscribed 'SIGILLUM JEAN DE JUCH,' and contains the motto =Bien Sur=. Perhaps the very earliest instance of a motto anywhere is afforded by the seal of Sir John de Byron, appended to a deed dated 21{o} Edward I."[195] The motto here is CREDE BERONTI, surrounding the arms.[196] Many mottoes retain their original orthography, and stand in Old English or Old French. The greater number are Latin or French, though we occasionally see mottoes in Welsh, Irish, Cornish, Scottish, and Italian; and I have even met with two or three in Greek. Mottoes have been divided into three sorts: the enigmatical, the sentimental, and the emblematical. A better classification might probably suggest itself; but, in the absence of one, I shall make use of this in the examples which follow. The ENIGMATICAL are those whose origin is involved in mystery, as that of the Duke of Bedford, "Che sara, sara," _What will be, will be_; and that of the Duke of Bridgewater, "Sic donec," _Thus until----!_ A late barrister used "Non Bos in Lingua," _I have no Bull upon my Tongue!_ alluding to the Grecian didrachm, a coin impressed with that animal, and expressive, probably, of the bearer's determination not to accept a bribe.[197] The motto of the Lords Gray was "_Anchor, fast anchor_," and that of the Dakynses, of Derbyshire, "=Strike Dakyns; the Devil's in the Hempe="--enigmatical enough, certainly! SENTIMENTAL mottoes are very numerous. A multitude of them are of a religious character, as "Spes mea in Deo," My hope is in God; "In Deo salutem," In God I have salvation; "Sola virtus invicta," Virtue alone is invincible; "Non mihi, sed Christo," Not to myself, but to Christ; "Sub Cruce," Under the Cross. Many are loyal and patriotic, as "Vincit amor patriæ," Love of country conquers; "Non sibi sed patriæ," Not for himself, but for his country; "Patria cara, carior Libertas," My country is dear, but my liberty is dearer. Others are philanthropic, as "Homo sum," I am a man; "Non sibi solum," Not for himself alone. Treffry of Cornwall used '=Whyle God wylle=,' and Cornwall of the same county, '=Whyle lyff lasteth=.' But the most curious class of mottoes are the EMBLEMATICAL, some of which allude to the charges in the arms, and others to the surname, involving a pun. Of those allusive to the arms or crest, the following are examples: That of the Earl of Cholmondeley is "Cassis tutissima virtus," Virtue the safest helmet; alluding to the helmets in his arms: and that of the Egertons, "Leoni, non sagittis fido," I trust to the lion, not to my arrows; the arms being a lion between three pheons or arrow-heads. The crest of the Martins of Dorsetshire was an ape, and their motto, HE . WHO . LOOKS . AT . MARTIN'S . APE, MARTIN'S . APE . SHALL . LOOK . AT . HIM! Much wit, and, occasionally, much absurdity are found in punning mottoes. That the soundness of a sentiment is not necessarily injured, however, by the introduction of a pun, is proved by such mottoes as these:-- ADDERLEY of Staffordshire. _Addere Le_-gi Justitiam Decus. 'Tis a support to the Law to add Justice to it. FORTESCUE (E.) _Forte Scu_-tum salus ducum. A strong shield is the safety of commanders. PETYT. Qui s'estime _petyt_ deviendra grand. He who esteems himself little shall become great. JEFFERAY of Sussex. _Je feray_ ce que je diray. I shall keep my word. Some mottoes are intentionally ambiguous, as-- HONE of Ireland. _Hone_sta Libertate, OR, _Hone_, sta Libertate. With a just Liberty, or, Hone, support liberty! VERNON. _Vernon_ semper viret, OR, _Ver non_ semper viret; Vernon ever flourishes, OR, Spring does not always bloom. By far the greater number, however, exhibit punning for its own sake; for example-- BELLASISE. Bonne et _belle assez_. Good and handsome enough. CAVE of Northamptonshire. _Cave!_ Beware! D'OYLEY of Norfolk. ='Do' no 'yll,' quoth Doyle!= DIXIE of Leicestershire. Quod _dixi dixi_. What I've said I have said. ESTWICK. _Est hic._ Here he is. FAIRFAX. Fare, fac! Speak, do! (A word and a blow!) HART of Berks. Un coeur fidelle. A faithful _heart_. ONSLOW. Festina lentè. _On slow!_ OR, Hasten cautiously. PIEREPONTE. _Pie repone te._ Repose piously. SCUDAMORE. _Scutum amor_is divini. The shield of Divine Love. COURTHOPE. _Court hope!_ Here is a _truism_: VERE Earl of Oxford. _Vero_ nil _verius_. Nothing truer than truth. And here a _Cockneyism_: WRAY of Lincolnshire. Et juste et _vray_. Both just and true. "_Set on!_" says SETON, Earl of Wintoun; "_Boutez en avant!_" Lead forward! says Viscount Buttevant; ='Fight on,' quoth Fitton! 'Smite,' quoth Smith!= Pugnacious fellows! Many a gibe has found vent in a motto. A London tobacconist who had set up his carriage, requiring a motto for his arms, was furnished with "QUID _rides_?" Why do you laugh? and a great hop-planter found the following chalked beneath the arms upon his chariot: "Who'd 'a thought it, _Hops_ had bought it?" Dr. _Cox Macro_, the learned Cambridge divine, consulting a friend on the choice of a motto, was pithily answered with "_Cocks may crow_!" There are some 'lippes,' as Camden says, which like 'this kind of lettuce.' For the behoof of such the following list is set down, without regard to any classification: CAVENDISH. _Cavendo_ tutus. Safe by caution. CHARTERIS, Earl. (Crest, an arm brandishing a sword; over it) This _is_ our _Charter_! FANE, Earl of Westmoreland. _Ne vile_ FANO. Dishonour not the temple. The first and second words allude to his descent from the family of _Neville_. GRAVES of Gloucestershire. _Graves_ disce mores. Learn serious manners. COLE. Deum _cole_, Regem serva. Fear God, serve the King. JAMES. _J'aime jamais._ I love ever. COLLINS. _Colens_ Deum et Regem. Reverencing God and the King. MAJOR of Suffolk. (Arms, three Corinthian columns.) Deus _major_ columnâ. God is a greater support than pillars. WAKE of Somersetshire. _Vigila_ et ora. _Watch_ and pray. PUREFOY of Leicestershire. _Pure foy_ ma joye. Sincerity is my delight. RIVERS of Kent. Secus rivos aquarum. By the rivers of waters. POLE of Devon. _Pollet_ virtus. Virtue bears sway. TEY of Essex. _Tais_ en temps. Be silent in time. WISEMAN of Essex. Sapit qui Deum sapit. He is _wise_ who is wise towards God. PAGITT of Surrey. _Pagit_ Deo. He covenants with God. MAYNARD, Viscount. _Ma_nus justa _nard_us. A just hand is a precious ointment. MOSLEY of Northumberland. _Mos le_gem Regis. Agreeable to the King's law. ROCHE, Viscount de Rupe, &c. Mon Dieu est ma _Roche_. My God is my Rock. VINCENT. _Vincenti_ dabitur. It shall be given to the conqueror. VYVYAN. Dum _vivimus viva_mus. While we live, let us live. TEMPLE, Viscount Cobham. _Templa_ quam dilecta. How beloved are thy _Temples_! ALGOOD. Age omne bonum. Do _all good_. Having _drawn_ thus largely upon the humour of motto-coiners, and, perchance, upon the patience of those readers who can _draw_ no amusement from such conceits, I now _draw_ this chapter to a close, by quoting the motto of the antient company of the _wire-drawers_ of the city of London, which is, Latinè, "Amicitiam _trahit_ amor," and Anglicè, Love _draws_ friendship! [Illustration: (Conjectural origin of the Pile, p. 63)] CHAPTER IX. Historical Arms--Augmentations. [Illustration: (Badge of Pelham.)] "In perpetuum per gloriam vivere intelliguntur." _Justinian._ By Historical Arms I mean those coats which, upon the testimony either of record or tradition, have been acquired by an act of the original bearer, and which exhibit some trophy or circumstance connected therewith to the eye of the spectator. AUGMENTATIONS are marks of honour, granted by the sovereign, and _superadded_ to the paternal arms; and borne, for the most part, upon a canton or inescocheon, sometimes upon a chief, fesse, or quarter. This class of arms, the most interesting in the whole range of heraldry, has been subdivided into eight kinds; viz. 1, Those derived from acts of valour; 2, From acts of loyalty; 3, From royal and other advantageous alliances; 4, From favour and services; 5, From situation; 6, From profession, &c.; 7, From tenure and office; and 8, From memorable circumstances and events.[198] It may be almost unnecessary to observe, that many of the anecdotes about to be related are of a very apocryphal description, referring to periods antecedent to the introduction of armorial bearings. Some of these, however, may be correct in the incidents though incorrect in point of time; and doubtless, in many cases, the arms have been assumed in rather modern times, to commemorate the exploits of ancestors of a much earlier period; the highly-prized family tradition having been confided to the safer custody of the emblazoned shield. At all events, I deliver them to the reader as I find them set down in 'myne authoures,' and leave the _onus probandi_ to the families whose honour is concerned in their perpetuation. First among these pictorial mementoes should be noticed the well-known cognizance of the Prince of Wales, the Ostrich Feathers, the popular origin of which is known to every schoolboy. Whether the King of Bohemia fell by the trenchant blade of the Black Prince himself, or by that of some knight or 'squier of lowe degree,' it would now be useless to inquire; and whether the feathers and the mottoes, =Ich Dien= and =Houmout=, signifying respectively in old German, 'I serve,' and 'A haughty spirit,' had any relation to that event is altogether a matter of dubiety. It has been shown by Mr. J. G. Nichols[199] that the King of Bohemia used (not ostrich feathers, but) a pair of vulture's wings as a crest. It further appears that the _badge_ of the Black Prince was _a single feather_, while, on his tomb at Canterbury, the _three_ feathers are represented singly upon a shield, the quill of each being attached to a scroll, with the motto ICH . DIENE. The popular version of the story, however, is somewhat supported by the fact that an ostrich, collared and chained, with a nail in his beak, was a badge of the Bohemian monarchs; and Mr. Nichols suggests that the feathers may probably have been adopted by Edward as a trophy of his victory. Randle Holme deduces the three ostrich feathers from a totally different source, and asserts that they were the ensign of the princes of Wales during the independence of that country, prior to the invasion of the English. After this event, (he adds) the eldest sons of the kings of England, as princes of Wales, continued the badge ensigned with a coronet, with the motto, 'Ich Dien,' I serve; to express the sentiment that, although of paramount dignity in that country, they still owed allegiance to the crown of England.[200] It is asserted by other authorities that a single ostrich feather was borne as a badge by Edward III, by all the brothers and descendants of the Black Prince, and by Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, who was descended by the female line from Thomas de Brotherton, fifth son of Edward I. In the Harl. MS. 304, we are told that, "=The ostrich fether, sylver, and pen gold, is the King's. The ostrich fether, pen and all sylver, is the Prince's. The ostrich fether, gold, y{e} pen ermyne, is the Duk of Lancaster's. The ostrich fether, sylver, and pen gobone, is the Duk of Somersett's.=" Who has not heard of the '=Bear and ragged staff=' of the earls of Warwick? This is a combination of two badges of that antient line, which sprang, according to the family tradition, from Arthgal, one of the knights of King Arthur's 'Round Table.' _Arth_ or _Narth_, in the British language, is said to signify a bear; hence this ensign was adopted as a rebus or play upon his name. Morvidus, another earl of the same family, a man of wonderful valour, slew a giant with a young tree torn up by the roots and hastily trimmed of its boughs. In memory of this exploit his successors bore as their cognizance a silver staff in a shield of sable.[201] The supporters of the Scottish family of Hay, earls of Errol, are two husbandmen, each carrying an ox-yoke. In the year 980, when the Danes invaded this island, an engagement took place at Longcarty, near Perth, in which Kenneth III was routed. An honest yeoman, yclept John de Luz, and his two sons, were ploughing in a field hard by the scene of action. Seeing their countrymen fly before the victorious enemy, these stalwart ploughmen stopped them in a narrow pass with the gear of their ploughs, and upbraiding them with cowardice induced them to stand the brunt of a new attack. The Danes, astonished at this unexpected turn of affairs, which they attributed to the arrival of fresh succours, wheeled about and made a hasty retreat, and the Scots obtained a signal victory. Kenneth, to reward the valour of his faithful subject, gave him as much land in the district of Gowrie, as a falcon, flying from his fist, should measure out before he perched. Hence the supporters and the crest (a falcon rising) of this family. The earls of Kinnoul, a younger branch of the family, further allude to the circumstance first mentioned in their motto, RENOVATE ANIMOS, 'Rouse your courage,' or 'Rally.' There are still existing indubitable evidences of a great conflict on the spot referred to in this legend; and it may be admitted that the ancestors of the family were concerned in it; but the above heraldric ensigns must be considered to have been adopted as remembrances of long past events, albeit their assumption may have taken place at a very early period. [Illustration] The family of Keith, earls Marischal, bear _Argent, on a chief or, three pallets gules_, OR _gules, three pallets or_. These ensigns likewise originated in an engagement between the Scots and the Danes. An ancestor of the Keiths having greatly distinguished himself in a battle near Dundee, in which Camus, the Danish general, was killed, the Scottish monarch, Kenneth III, charmed with his valour, dipped his royal fingers in the blood of the Dane and drew three stripes or pallets on the top of his chieftain's shield. Hence the arms of Keith. As in the former instance, this anecdote assumes the existence of armorial bearings, at too remote a date, though, as in that case, there are evident vestigia of a great battle at the place referred to. A stone called 'Camus's Cross' was standing a few years since; and in the last century a large tomb, inclosed with four huge stones, containing bones, conjectured to have been those of the Northman, was discovered near the spot.[202] _Bulstrode_, of Bulstrode, co. Bucks, bore, as a crest, _A bull's head, erased gules, attired argent, between two wings of the same_. When William the Conqueror subdued this kingdom he gave the estate of this family to one of his own followers, and lent him a thousand men for the purpose of taking possession, _vi et armis_. The rightful owner calling in the aid of some neighbouring gentlemen, (among others, the ancestors of the Penns and the Hampdens,) gallantly resisted the invader, intrenching himself with an earthwork, which is still pointed out as evidence of the truth of the story. It seems that the besieged party, wanting horses, mounted themselves upon _bulls_, and, sallying out of their camp, so affrighted the Normans that many of the latter were slain and the rest put to flight. The king hearing of this strange affair, and not wishing to push matters to an imprudent extent, sent for the valiant Saxon, with a promise of safe conduct to and from his court. The Saxon paid the Conqueror a visit, riding upon a _bull_, accompanied by his seven sons similarly mounted. The result of the interview was that he was allowed to retain his estate. In commemoration of these events, he assumed the crest above described, together with the name of _Bullstrode_!! The whole narration exhibits strong characteristics of that peculiar genus of history, known as 'Cock and _Bull_ stories,' although it is probably quite as true as a distich preserved in the family, that "=When William conquered English ground, Bulstrode had per annum, Three Hundred Pound.="[203] Among those Welsh chieftains who gallantly defended their country from the aggressions of the English, in the reign of Henry II, was Kadivor ap Dynawal, who recaptured the castle of Cardigan, by scalade, from the Earl of Clare. For this action he was enriched by Rhys, prince of South Wales, with several estates, and permitted to bear, as coat armour, a castle, three scaling-ladders, and a bloody spear. These arms were borne by Kadivor's descendants, the Lloyds of Milfield, co. Cardigan, baronets, till the extinction of the family in the last century. Williams, of Penrhyn, co. Caernarvon, Bart., bore, among other charges, _three human heads_, in commemoration of the exploit of Edwyfed Vychan, the great ancestor of his house, who in an engagement with the followers of Ranulph, earl of Chester, came off victorious, having killed three of their chief commanders. This happened in the thirteenth century.[204] The Vescis, Chetwodes, Knowleses, Tyntes, Villierses, and various other families, bear crosses in their arms, traditionally derived from the period of the Crusades. Sir Ancel Gornay attended Richard I on his crusade, and was present at the capture of Ascalon, where he took a Moorish king prisoner. From this circumstance he adopted as his crest, 'A king of the Moors habited in a robe, and crowned, kneeling, and surrendering with his dexter hand, his sword, all proper.' This crest was continued by the Newtons, of Barr's Court, co. Gloucester, one of whom married the heiress of the Gornays. Among several other armorial ensigns dated from this same battle of Ascalon is the crest of Darrell, which may be briefly described as, 'Out of a ducal coronet a Saracen's head appropriately vested,' and which was assumed by Sir Marmaduke Darrell, in commemoration of his having killed the infidel King of Cyprus; also the arms and crest of Minshull, of Cheshire, 'Azure, an estoile issuant out of a crescent, in base argent.' _Crest_, 'An Eastern warrior, kneeling on one knee, habited gules, legs and arms in mail proper; at his side a scymitar sable, hilted or; on his head a turban with a crescent and feather argent, presenting, with his sinister hand, a crescent of the last.' These bearings were assigned to Michael de Minshull for his valour on that occasion, but the particular nature of his exploits is not recorded. The Bouchiers, earls of Essex, bore 'Argent, a cross engrailed gules, between four water-bowgets sable. _Crest._ The bust of a Saracen king, with a long cap and coronet, all proper.' All these bearings are emblematical of the crusades; and the water-bowgets are a play upon the name. "In the hall of the manor-house of Newton, in the parish of Little Dunmowe, in Essex," says Weever,[205] "remaineth, in old painting, two postures (figures;) the one for an ancestor of the Bouchiers, combatant with another, being a Pagan king, for the truth of Christ, whom the said Englishman overcame; and in memory thereof his descendants have ever since borne the head of the said infidel, as also used the _surname of Bouchier_," in conformity with an antient practice, by which, as Saintfoix informs us, great heroes were honoured with the "_glorious surname_" of BUTCHER![206] The arms of Willoughby, Lords Willoughby of Eresby, were 'Sable, a cross engrailed or,' and their _Crest_, 'A Saracen's head crowned frontè, all proper.' The only account I have seen of the origin of these ensigns is contained in the following lines, occurring in Dugdale's Baronage. A Willoughby _loquitur_. "Of myne old ancestors, by help of Goddes might, (By reason of marriage and lineal descent,) A Sarasyn king discomfit was in fighte, Whose head my creste, shall ever be presénte." Sir Christopher Seton, ancestor of the Earls of Wintoun, at the battle of Methven, in 1306, rescued King Robert Bruce from the English. For this service Robert gave him his sister, the lady Christian, in marriage, and the following augmentation to his paternal arms: 'Surtout, an inescocheon per pale gules and azure; the first charged with a sword in pale proper, hilted and pommelled, and _supporting a falling crown_ within a double tressure all or; the second azure a star of twelve points argent, for Wintoun.' Robert Bruce desired that his heart might be carried to Jerusalem, and there interred in holy ground. The office of conveying it thither devolved upon his faithful and now sorrowing knight, Sir James Douglas, who was unfortunately slain on his return by the infidels, in the year 1331. To commemorate this service his descendants have ever since borne 'Argent, a human heart royally crowned proper; on a chief azure, three mullets of the first.' This stalwart soldier is said to have been engaged in fifty-seven battles and rencontres with the English, and thirteen with the Saracens, all in the space of twenty-four years. Certes, he must have been one of the noblest 'butchers' of his time! The family of Pelham (now represented by the Earl of Chichester) bear, as a quartering, 'Gules, two demi-belts, paleways, the _buckles_ in chief argent.' This augmentation was allowed to the family in the early part of the seventeenth century; but they had previously, for many generations, borne the Buckle as a badge. They also occasionally gave it as a crest, together with a cage--both in commemoration of the capture of John, king of France, at Poictiers, by Sir John de Pelham. The story is thus briefly told by Collins:[207] "Froysart gives an account, that with the king were taken beside his son Philip, the Earl of Tankerville, Sir Jaques of Bourbon, the Earls of Ponthieu and Eue, with divers other noblemen, who being chased to Poictiers, the town shut their gates against them, not suffering any to enter; so that divers were slain, and every Englishman had four, five, or six prisoners; and the press being great to take the King, such as knew him, cry'd, _Sir, yield, or you are dead_: Whereupon, as the chronicle relates, he yielded himself to Sir Dennis Morbeck, a Knight of Artois, in the English service, and being afterwards forc'd from him, more than ten Knights and Esquires challeng'd the taking of the King. Among these Sir Roger la Warr, and the before-mentioned John de Pelham, were most concerned; and in memory of so signal an action, and the King surrendering his sword to them, Sir Roger la Warr, Lord la Warr, had the crampet, or chape of his sword, for a badge of that honour; and John de Pelham (afterwards knighted) had the buckle of a belt as a mark of the same honour, which was sometimes used by his descendants as a seal-manual, and at others, the said buckles on each side a cage; being an emblem of the captivity of the said King of France, and was therefore borne for a crest, as in those times was customary. The buckles, &c. were likewise used by his descendants, in their great seals, as is evident from several of them appendant to old deeds." It is somewhat remarkable that Froissart, Walsingham, Knyghton, and the other early chroniclers, are silent as to the names of the King's captors; and were the story unsupported by strong indirect evidence, their silence would be almost fatal to its authenticity; but the occurrence of the Buckle upon the stonework of many ecclesiastical buildings founded by Sir John de Pelham himself and his immediate successors,[208] sufficiently corroborates the undisputed family tradition.[209] The chape or crampet of a sword (the ornament at the end of the scabbard which prevents the point from protruding) is still borne as a badge by the Earl de la Warr, a lineal descendant of the Sir Roger la Warr referred to in the above extract. The crest of the ancient family of De la Bere is 'a ducal coronet or, therefrom issuant a plume of five ostrich feathers per pale argent and azure.' This was conferred upon Sir Richard de la Bere, knight-banneret, by Edward the Black Prince, in reward for his having rescued him from imminent danger on the memorable field of Cressy. The ducal coronet is emblematical of military command, and the feathers are an evident derivation from the Prince's own badge. There is (or was at the beginning of the present century) in an old house at Cheltenham, the property of his lineal descendants, a painting supposed to be nearly contemporary with the occurrence, which represents the Prince in the act of conferring this mark of honour upon his faithful follower.[210] [Illustration] The crest of Dudley of Northamptonshire, Bart. was 'Out of a ducal coronet or, a woman's bust: her hair dishevelled, bosom bare, a helmet on her head with the stay or throat-latch down proper.' From a MS. in the possession of this family, written by a monk about the close of the fourteenth century, it appeared that the father of Agnes Hotot (who, in the year 1395, married an ancestor of the Dudleys,) having a quarrel with one Ringsdale concerning the proprietorship of some land, they agreed to meet on the 'debateable ground,' and decide their right by combat. Unfortunately for Hotot, on the day appointed he was seriously ill; "but his daughter Agnes, unwilling that he should lose his claim, or suffer in his honour, armed herself cap-a-pie, and, mounting her father's steed, repaired to the place of decision, where, after a stubborn encounter, she dismounted Ringsdale, and when he was on the ground, she loosened the stay of her helmet, let down her hair about her shoulders, and, disclosing her bosom, discovered to him that he had been conquered by a woman." This valiant lady became the heiress of her family, and married a Dudley, whence the latter family derived their right to this crest. Sir Richard Waller was at the battle of Agincourt, where he took prisoner Charles, duke of Orleans, father of Charles XII (afterwards King of France). This personage was brought to England by his captor, who held him in 'honourable restraint' at his own mansion, at Groombridge, co. Kent, during the long period of twenty-four years, at the termination of which he paid 400,000 crowns for his ransom. In accordance with the chivalrous spirit of that age, the captor and captive lived together on terms of the strictest friendship. This appears from the fact that the Duke, at his own expense, rebuilt for Sir Richard the family house at Groombridge. He was also a benefactor "to his parish church of Speldhurst, where his arms remain in stonework over the porch."[211] Previously to this event the family arms had been the punning device of 'Sable, on a bend voided argent, three _walnut_ leaves or,' and the crest, 'A _walnut_ tree fructed proper.' To one of the lower boughs of this tree was now appended a shield, charged with the arms of France--'Azure, three fleurs-de-lis or, differenced with a label of three points;' an augmentation which continues to be borne by the descendants of Sir Richard Waller to this day. Burton of Salop, and Rivers of Kent, bear[212] white roses, commemorative of the services rendered by their ancestors to the faction distinguished by this badge, while the Lutterells of Somerset, bear, as a crest, the white boar of Richard III, ensigned on the shoulder with the Lancastrian red rose! The white and red roses in the arms of families, as partisans of the two rival houses, would furnish matter for a whole chapter; but I must pass on. Augmentations have sometimes been made to the arms of English families by foreign monarchs. Thus Sir Henry Guldeforde, knight, having rendered assistance to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, in the reduction of Granada, received from them the honour of knighthood, with permission to add to his ancestral arms, 'On a canton Argent, the arms of Granada, viz. a pomegranate, the shell open, grained gules, stalked and leaved proper.' John Callard, esq. a retainer of the said Sir Henry, for his valour on the same occasion, acquired the following coat: 'Gyronny of six pieces, or and sable; on each division or, a Moor's head couped sable.' William Browne, esq. called by Holinshed "a young and lusty gentleman," another follower of Guldeforde, was honoured with an augmentation, viz. 'On a chief argent, an eagle displayed sable,'--the arms of Sicily, which was then an adjunct to the Spanish crown. The Duke of Norfolk bears on his 'bend argent' 'an escocheon or, charged with a demi-lion rampant within a double tressure, flory and counter-flory; an arrow pierced through the lion's mouth all gules.' This is an augmentation nearly resembling the arms of Scotland, and was granted to the Earl of Surrey, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, for his services against the Scots at Flodden Field, in 1513. It will be recollected that when the body of James IV was found after the battle, it was pierced with several arrows, the cause of his death. As a further memorial of this victory the Earl gave, as the badge of his retainers, a white lion, one of the supporters of his house, trampling upon the red lion of Scotland, and tearing it with his claws. Several English families bear their arms upon the breast of an eagle with two heads. This is the standard of the German empire, and it has been granted to such families for military and other services. The Lord Arundel of Wardour, in the reign of Elizabeth, received this distinguished mark of honour by patent from the Emperor Rodolph II, for valorous conduct against the Turks, whom, as the avowed enemies of Christianity, he opposed with all the enthusiasm of a crusader of more antient times. He was at the same time created a Count of the Empire, and, on returning to England, was desirous of taking precedence according to his German title. But this step was violently opposed by the peers, and the Queen, being asked her opinion of his claim, answered, "that faithful subjects should keep their eyes at home, and not gaze upon foreign crowns, and that she, for her part, did not care her sheep should wear a stranger's mark, nor dance after the whistle of every foreigner!"[213] The Bowleses of Wiltshire, and the Smiths of Lincolnshire, received appropriate arms about the same time for their services against the Turks, under the same Emperor.[214] The assumption of the arms of an enemy slain or captured in war, though permitted by the heraldric canon of early times, seems not to have been very usual in this country; yet instances are not wanting of arms so acquired. In 1628, Sir David Kirke, knight, reduced Canada, then in the power of the French, and took the admiral De la Roche prisoner. For this service he received as an augmentation, 'A canton azure charged with a talbot sejant, collared and leash reflexed argent, sustaining a faulchion proper,' this being the coat of his captive. Charles I rewarded many of his adherents with augmentations of arms--the only recompense some of them ever received. The favourite marks of honour were the crown, rose, and lion of England. Sir Palmes Fairborne, knighted by Charles II for his defence of Tangier against the Moors, had permission to bear as his crest, 'An arm in armour couped at the elbow, lying on a wreath sustaining a sword; on the point thereof a Turk's head, turbaned all proper.' The epitaph on this commander, on his tomb in Westminster Abbey, was written by Dryden; and had nothing more sublime proceeded from his pen, his name would be as little known to posterity as that of the hero he celebrates. "Alive and dead _these_ walls he will defend, Great actions great examples must attend; The Candian siege his early valour knew, Where Turkish blood did his young hands imbrew; From thence returning with deserved applause, Against the Moors his _well-fleshed_ sword he draws," &c. &c. Sir Cloudesley Shovel, the celebrated admiral, received, by the express command of William III, a grant of arms blazoned thus: 'Gules a cheveron ermine between two crescents in chief argent, and a fleur-de-lis in base or,' to commemorate two great victories over the Turks and one over the French. This is one of the most appropriate coats I remember to have seen. It would be impossible (even were it desirable) within the limits I have assigned myself, to notice all the arms and augmentations which have been granted to heroes, naval and military, for services performed during the last, and at the commencement of the present, century. A superabundance of them will be found in the plates attached to the ordinary peerages, &c. Suffice it to say, that in general they exhibit a most wretched taste in the heralds who designed them, or rather, perhaps I should say, in the personages who dictated to the heralds what ensigns would be most agreeable to themselves. Figures never dreamed of in classical armory have found their way into these bearings: landscapes and _words_ in great staring letters across the shield, bombshells and bayonets, East Indians and American Indians, sailors and soldiers, medals and outlandish banners, _figures of Peace, and grenadiers of the 79th regiment_![215] Could absurdity go farther? [Illustration] But, lest I should be thought unnecessarily severe upon the armorists of the past age, I annex the arms of Sir Sidney Smith, a veteran who certainly deserved _better things_ of his country. I shall not attempt to blazon them, as I am sure my reader would not thank me for occupying a page and a half of a chapter--already perhaps too long--with what would in this case be _jargon_ indeed. Shades of Brooke, and Camden, and Guillim, and Dugdale! what think ye of this? II. The second class of Historical Arms is composed of those derived from ACTS OF LOYALTY. The earliest coat of this kind mentioned by the author of the volume before quoted, is that of Sir John Philpot, viz. 'Sable a bend ermine,'--his paternal arms--impaling, 'Gules a cross between four swords argent, hilts or'--an augmentation granted to Philpot for killing Wat Tyler with his sword after Walworth, the mayor, had knocked him down with his mace, in the presence of Richard II, in 1378. Ramsay, earl of Holderness, temp. James VI, bore as an augmentation impaling his paternal arms, 'Azure, a dexter hand holding a sword in pale, argent, hilted or, piercing a human heart proper, and supporting on the point an imperial crown of the last.' This was granted to Sir John Ramsay, who was also rewarded with the title just mentioned, for having saved the young monarch's life from assassination by Ruthven, earl of Gowrie, by piercing the assassin to the heart. The story of this attempt upon the 'British Solomon' is too well known to the reader of Scottish history to need copying in these pages. The whole narration, enshrouded in mystery, is now almost universally discredited, and the affair regarded as a pretended plot, to answer a political purpose. It is sufficient to say that Gowrie and his father, Alexander Ruthven, fell victims to it, while Ramsay was rewarded for his share in the transaction as above stated.[216] Erskine, earl of Kelly, and Sir Hugh Harris, two other individuals concerned in this plot, also received augmentations.[217] The notorious Colonel Titus, temp. Charles II, was rewarded for his services in the restoration of the king, with an augmentation, viz. 'quarterly with his paternal arms, Or, on a chief gules, a lion of England.' 'Lions of England' were likewise assigned to the following families for their loyalty to the Stuarts: Robinson of Cranford, Moore, Lord Mayor of London, Lane of Staffordshire, &c. The crest of the last-mentioned family is 'A demi-horse salient argent, spotted dark grey, bridled proper, sustaining with his fore feet a regal crown or;' in allusion to the circumstance of Charles's having been assisted in his escape, after his defeat at Worcester, by a lady of this family, whose servant the king personated by riding before her on horseback. In this guise Charles arrived safely at Bristol, and at length, after many hair-breadth escapes and a circuitous tour of the southern counties, reached Brighthelmstone, whence he set sail for the continent. The arms granted to the family of Penderell for concealing Charles II in the oak at Boscobel, and otherwise assisting his escape, and those assigned on the same occasion to Colonel Careless (or CARLOS, as it was the king's humour afterwards to name him) were exactly _alike_ in charges, though different in tincture. CARLOS. 'Or, on a mount an oak-tree proper; over all a fesse gules, charged with three regal crowns proper.' PENDERELL. 'Argent, on a mount an oak-tree proper; over all a fesse sable, charged with three regal crowns proper.'[218] III. The third class of Historical Arms are those of ALLIANCE. I shall content myself with an example or two. The arms[219] and dexter supporter[220] of the Lyons, earls of Strathmore, evidently allude to a connexion with the royal line of Scotland, and the crest of the family is, 'On a wreath vert and or, a _lady_ couped below the girdle, inclosed within an arch of laurel, and holding in her right hand the royal thistle, all proper.' Sir John Lyon, an ancestor of this house, having gained the favour of King Robert II, that monarch gave him in marriage his daughter, the lady Jane. To perpetuate so splendid and beneficial an alliance, his descendants have ever since continued to represent this princess as their crest. The Seymours, dukes of Somerset, bore quarterly with their paternal arms, the following: 'Or, on a pile gules, between six fleurs-de-lis azure, three lions of England,' an augmentation originally granted by Henry VIII to Jane Seymour, his third wife. These ensigns, it will be seen, are a composition from the royal arms. IV. The fourth are derived from FAVOUR and SERVICES. The antient arms of Compton, subsequently created earls of Northampton, were 'Sable, three helmets argent.' For services rendered to Henry VIII, William Compton, esq. received permission to place 'a lion of England' between the helmets. Thomas Villiers, first Earl of Clarendon, bore, 'Argent, on a cross gules, five escallops or [originally derived from the Crusade under Edward I] a crescent for difference; and on an inescocheon argent, the eagle of Prussia, viz. displayed sable, &c. &c., charged on the breast with F. B. R. for Fredericus, Borussorum Rex.' This was an augmentation granted to that nobleman by Frederick, king of Prussia, as a mark of the high value he set upon certain diplomatic services in which he had been engaged. The augmentation was ratified at the Heralds' office by the command of George III. The Earl of Liverpool, in addition to his paternal arms, bears 'on a chief wavy argent, a cormorant sable, holding in his beak a branch of laver or sea-weed vert.' This augmentation (being the arms of the town of Liverpool) was made to the arms of Charles Jenkinson, first Earl of Liverpool, at the unanimous request of the mayor and municipality of that town, signified by their recorder. V. A very interesting class of Allusive Arms is composed of those derived from the SITUATION of the original residences of the respective families. The following are instances: Wallop, earl of Portsmouth, 'Argent, a bend wavy sable.' The name of Wallop is local, and it was antiently written Welhop. Wallop, or Welhope, is the name of two parishes in Hampshire, so denominated from a fountain or _well_, springing from a _hope_ or hill in the vicinity, and giving birth to a small river, which becomes tributary to the Tese. Here, in very antient times, this family resided, and from the little river referred to the surname was adopted, while the bend wavy in the arms alludes both to the river and the name. Stourton, Lord Stourton, 'Sable, a bend or, between six fountains proper.' The river Stour rises at Stourton, co. Wilts, from six fountains or springs. The family name is derived from the place, and the arms from this circumstance. The bend may be regarded as the pale of Stourton park, as three of the sources of the river are within that inclosure and three beyond it. Shuckburgh, a parish in Warwickshire, is remarkable for that kind of fossil termed _astroit_, which resembles the mullet of heraldry. The family who, in very antient times, derived their surname from the locality, bear three mullets in their arms.[221] The Swales of Swale-hall, co. York, bear 'Azure, a bend undé argent.' Some consider this a representation of the river Swale, though Peter Le Neve thinks it a rebus for the name of _Nunda_, whose heiress married a Swale.[222] Highmore of High-moor, co. Cumberland: 'Argent, a crossbow erect between _four_ moor-cocks sable; their legs, beaks, and combs, gules.' This family originated in the moors of that county, _unde nomen et arma_. The author of 'Historical and Allusive Arms' says that they branched out into three lines, called from the situation of their respective places of abode, HIGHMORE, MIDDLEMORE, and LOWMORE. It is curious that the Middlemore branch gave as arms the crossbow and _three_ moor-cocks; while the Lowmores bore the crossbow and _two_ moor-cocks only. Had the family ramified still further into '_Lowermore_,' it is probable that branch must have rested content with a _single_ moor-cock, while the '_Lowestmores_,' carrying out the same principle of gradation, could not have claimed even a solitary bird, but must have made shift with their untrophied crossbow. On the other hand, '_Highermore_' would have been entitled to _five_, and '_Highestmore_' to _six_, head of game, in addition to the family weapon! Hume, of Nine Wells, the family of the great historian, bore 'Vert, a lion rampant argent within a bordure or, charged with _nine wells_ or springs barry-wavy azure and argent,' "The estate of Nine Wells is so named from a cluster of springs of that number. Their situation is picturesque; they burst forth from a gentle declivity in front of the mansion, which has on each side a semicircular rising bank, covered with fine timber, and fall, after a short course, into the bed of the river Whitewater, which forms a boundary in the front. These springs, as descriptive of their property, were assigned to the Humes of this place as a difference in arms from the chief of their house."[223] VI. Of arms alluding to the PROFESSION or pursuits of the original bearer, I shall adduce but few instances, as they generally exhibit bad taste, and a departure from heraldric purity; _e. g._ Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester and Worcester, the champion and martyr of the Protestant cause, bore '... a lamb in a burning bush; the rays of the sun descending thereon proper.' Michael Drayton bore 'Azure gutté d'eau [the drops of Helicon!] a Pegasus current in bend argent.' _Crest_, 'Mercury's winged cap amidst sunbeams proper.' These classical emblems appear foreign to the spirit of heraldry, which originated in an unclassical age. Still it might have been difficult to assign to this stately and majestic poet more appropriate armorials. The supporters chosen by Sir George Gordon, first Lord Aberdeen, a celebrated jurist, were _two lawyers_; while (every man to his taste) Sir William Morgan, K.B., a keen sportsman, adopted _two huntsmen_ equipped for the chase, and the motto 'Saltando cave,' _Look before you leap_. Could anything be more pitiful? VII. Arms derived from TENURE and OFFICE are a much more interesting, though less numerous, class than the preceding. "The tenure of the lands of Pennycuik, in Midlothian, obliges the possessor to attend once a year in the forest of Drumsleich (near Edinburgh) ... to give a blast of a horn at the king's hunting; and therefore Clerk of Pennycuik, baronet, the proprietor of these lands, uses the following crest:"[224] 'A demi-forester, habited vert, sounding a hunting-horn proper;' and motto, 'FREE FOR A BLAST.' Most of the English families of Forester, Forster, and Foster have bugle-horns in their arms, supporting the idea that the founders of those families derived their surnames from the office of Forester, held by them in times when the country abounded in woody districts. This office was one of considerable honour and emolument. The crest of Grosvenor is 'a hound or talbot statant or;' and the supporters 'two talbots reguardant or,' &c. Both these ensigns and the name allude to the antient office of the chiefs of this family, which was that of =Le Gros Veneur=, great huntsman, to the Dukes of Normandy. Rawdon, earl of Moira, ancestor of the Marquis of Hastings; 'Argent, a fesse between three pheons or arrow-heads sable.' _Crest_, in a mural coronet argent, a pheon sable, with a sprig of laurel issuing therefrom proper. _Supporters_, two huntsmen with bows, quivers, &c. &c. This family were denominated from their estate, Rawdon, near Leeds, co. York, which they originally held under William the Conqueror. A rhyming title-deed, purporting to have been granted by him, but evidently of much later date, was formerly in the possession of the family: "=I William King=, the thurd yere of my reigne, Give to thee, Paulyn Roydon, Hope and Hopetowne, Wyth all the bounds, both up and downe, From Heaven to yerthe, from yerthe to hel; For the and thyn ther to dwell, As truly as this Kyng-right is myn; =For a cross-bowe and an arrow, When I sal come to hunt on Yarrow;= And in token that this thing is sooth, I bit the whyt wax with my tooth." The family of Pitt, earl of Chatham, bore 'Sable, a fesse _chequy_ argent and azure, between three bezants or pieces of _money_,' in allusion to the office the original grantee held in the EXCHEQUER. The Fanshawes also bore chequy, &c., for the same reason. The Woods of Largo, co. Fife, bear ships, in allusion to the office of Admiral of Scotland, antiently hereditary in that family. The antient Earls of Warren and Surrey bore 'chequy, or and azure.' There is a tradition that the heads of this family were invested with the exclusive prerogative of granting licenses for the sale of malt liquors, and that it was enjoined on all alehouse-keepers to paint the Warren arms on their door-posts. Hence the chequers, still seen at the entrances of many taverns, were supposed to have originated, until the discovery of that ornament on an inn-door among the ruins of Pompeii proved the fashion to have existed in classical times. Its origin is involved in obscurity; it may have been placed upon houses of entertainment to show that some game analogous to the modern chess and backgammon might be played within. Here we may be allowed to digress, to say a few words on the origin of _inn signs_, which are generally of an heraldric character. In early times the town residences of the nobility and great ecclesiastics were called Inns; and in front of them the family arms were displayed. In many cases these Inns were afterwards appropriated to the purposes of the modern hotel, affording temporary accommodation to all comers.[225] The armorial decorations were retained, and under the name of signs directed the public to these places of rest and refreshment. On calling to mind the signs by which the inns of any particular town are designated, a very great majority of them will be recognized as regular heraldric charges. In addition to the full armorials of great families, as the Gordon Arms, the Pelham Arms, the Dorset Arms, we find such signs as the Golden Lion, Red Lion, White Lion, Black Lion, White Hart, Blue Boar, Golden Cross, Dragon, Swan, Spread Eagle, Dolphin, Rose and Crown, Catherine-Wheel, Cross-Keys, _cum multis aliis_, abundant everywhere. These were originally, in most cases, the properly emblazoned armories of families possessing influence in the locality; and frequently the inns themselves were established by old domestics of such families. But owing to the negligence of mine host, or the unskilfulness of the common painter, who from time to time renovated his sign, the latter often lost much of its heraldric character; the shield and its tinctures were dropped, and the charges only remained; while by a still further departure from the original intention, three black lions, or five spread eagles, were reduced to one. A house in the town of Lewes was formerly known as the "Three Pelicans," the fact of those charges constituting the arms of Pelham having been lost sight of. Another is still called "The Cats," and few are aware that the arms of the Dorset family are intended.[226] In villages, innumerable instances occur of signs taken from the arms or crests of existing families, and very commonly the sign is changed as some neighbouring domain passes into other hands. There is a kind of patron and client feeling about this--feudality some may be disposed to call it--which a lover of Old England is pleased to contemplate. VIII. The last species of Historical Arms are those which relate to Memorable Circumstances and Events which have occurred to the Ancestors of the families who bear them. Stanley, earl of Derby. _Crest._ 'On a chapeau gules, turned up ermine, an Eagle with wings expanded or, feeding an Infant in a kind of cradle; at its head a sprig of oak all proper.' This is the blazon given in "Historical and Allusive Arms;"[227] but Collins[228] blazons the Eagle as '_preying upon_' the Infant. This crest belonged originally to the family of Lathom or Latham, whose heiress, Isabella, married Sir John Stanley, afterwards Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord of the Isle of Man, and K. G. in the fourteenth century. According to tradition it originated in the following manner: One of the Lathams of Latham, co. Lancaster, having abandoned and exposed an illegitimate son in the nest of an eagle in a wood called Terlestowe Wood, near his castle, afterwards discovered, to his great astonishment, that the 'king of birds,' instead of devouring the helpless infant, had conceived a great liking for him, supplying him with food, and thus preserving his life. Upon witnessing this miraculous circumstance the cruel parent relented, and, taking home the infant, made him his heir. A 'various reading' of the tale states that Sir Thomas Latham, being destitute of legal issue, and wishing to adopt an illegitimate son, a proceeding to which his wife would not be likely to become a party, resorted to the _ruse_ of having the infant placed in the eyrie of an eagle, and then, taking his lady into the park, coming, as if by accident, to the place, at the moment when the eagle was hovering over the nest. Help--of course _accidental_--being at hand, the little fellow was rescued from his perilous couch, and presented to the lady, who pressed him to her bosom, and, ignorant of his consanguinity to her lord, joyfully acquiesced in his proposal to make the foundling heir to their estate. According to Bishop Stanley's 'Historicall Poem touching ye Family of Stanley,' and Vincent's MS. Collection in the College of Arms, the Lord of Latham was "fowerscore" at the time he adopted this infant, "Swaddled and clad In a mantle of redd:" --a statement which discredits both versions of the story as given above. These authorities further inform us that the foundling received the baptismal name of Oskell, and became father of the Isabella Latham who married Sir John Stanley. In Seacome's 'History of the House of Stanley' there is an account, derived from another branch of the family, which coincides with the second-mentioned, with the important addition that the adopted child was discarded before the death of Sir Thomas Latham. It is further said, that on the adoption Sir Thomas had assumed for his crest "an Eagle upon wing, turning her head back and looking in a sprightly manner as for something she had lost," and that on the disowning, the Stanleys (one of whom had married the legal heiress to the estate) "either to distinguish or aggrandize themselves, or in contempt and derision, took upon them the Eagle and Child," thus manifesting the variation and the reason of it. It is scarcely necessary to state, that the Sir Oskell of the legend has no existence in the veritable records of history; and Mr. Ormerod, the learned historian of Cheshire, who is connected by marriage with the family of Latham, thinks the whole story may be "more safely referred to ancestral Northmen, with its scene in the pine-forests of Scandinavia."[229] The subjoined engraving relates to this legend. It is copied from a cast[230] taken from an oak carving attached to the stall of James Stanley, bishop of Ely, in the collegiate church (now cathedral) of Manchester, of which he was warden. The figures below the trees are a REBUS[231] of masons or stone-cutters, termed, in mediæval Latin, _Lathomi_; and the castellated gateway they are approaching is that of Latham Hall, the scene of the tradition. [Illustration] Trevelyan of Somersetshire, Bart. 'Gules, a horse argent armed or, issuant from the sea in base, party per fesse wavy, azure and of the second.' This family primarily bore a very different coat: their present armorials were assumed "on occasion of one of their ancestors swimming on horseback from the rocks called Seven Stones to the Land's End in Cornwall, at the time of an inundation, which is said to have overwhelmed a large tract of land, and severed thereby those rocks from the continent of Cornwall."[232] This story may appear rather improbable, but it should be remembered that some similar disruptions of land from the coast, such as the Goodwin Sands, Selsey Rocks, &c. are authentic matters of history. Whether the most powerful of the equine race, which are, even under far more favourable circumstances, "vain things for safety," would be able to outbrave the violence of the sea necessary to produce such a phenomenon, I leave to better horsemen than myself to decide. The arms of Aubrey de Vere, the great ancestor of the earls of Oxford,[233] in the 12th century, were 'Quarterly, gules and or; in the first quarter a star or mullet of five points or.' "In the year of our Lord 1098," saith Leland,[234] "Corborant, Admiral to Soudan of Perce [so our antiquary was pleased to spell Persia,] was fought with at Antioche, and discomfited by the Christians. The night cumming on yn the chace of this bataile, and waxing dark, the Christianes being four miles from Antioche, God, willing the saufté [safety] of the Christianes, shewed a white star or molette of five pointes on the Christen host; which to every mannes sighte did lighte and arrest upon the standard of Albry de Vere, there shyning excessively!" The mullet was subsequently used as a badge by his descendants. "The Erle of Oxford's men had a starre with streames booth before and behind on their lyverys."[235] Thomas Fitz-Gerald, father of John, first earl of Kildare, bore the sobriquet of Nappagh, Simiacus, or the Ape, from the following ludicrous circumstance. When he was an infant of nine months old, his grandfather and father were both killed in the war waged by them against M'Carthy, an opposing chief. He was then being nursed at Tralee, and his attendants, in the first consternation caused by the news of the disaster, ran out of the house, leaving the child alone in his cradle. A large ape or baboon, kept on the premises, with the natural love of mischief inherent in that mimic tribe, taking advantage of the circumstance, took him from his resting-place and clambered with him to the roof of the neighbouring abbey, and thence to the top of the steeple. After having carried his noble charge round the battlements, exhibiting the while various monkey tricks heretofore unknown to nursery-maids, to the no small consternation and amazement of the spectators, he descended with careful foot, _ad terram firmam_, and replaced the child in the cradle. In consequence of this event the earls of Kildare and other noble branches of this antient line assumed as a crest, 'An ape proper, girt about the middle and chained or,' and for supporters, two apes. The addition of the _chain_ is singular. Stuart, of Hartley-Mauduit, co. Hants. 'Argent, a lion rampant gules, debruised by a bend raguly [popularly termed a _ragged staff_] or.' Sir Alexander Stuart, or Steward, knight, an ancestor of this family, in the presence of Charles VI of France, encountered a lion with a sword, which breaking he seized a part of a tree, and with it killed the animal. This so much pleased the king, that he gave him the above as an augmentation to his paternal arms.[236] Maclellan Lord Kirkcudbright bore as a crest, 'A dexter arm erect, the hand grasping a dagger, with a human head on the point thereof, couped proper,' In the reign of James II, of Scotland, a predatory horde of foreigners, who entered that kingdom from Ireland, committed great ravages in the shire of Galloway; whereupon a royal proclamation was issued ordering their dispersion, and offering, as a reward to the captor or killer of their chieftain, the barony of Bombie. Now it happened that one Maclellan, whose father had been laird of Bombie, (and had been dispossessed of it for some aggressions on a neighbouring nobleman,) was the fortunate person who killed the chieftain; thus singularly regaining his ancestral property. The crest originated in the circumstance of his having presented to the king the marauder's head fixed upon the point of a sword. The head is variously blazoned as that of a _Saracen_, _Moor_, or _Gipsey_, and the question might here be started, 'Who were the lawless band that made the inroad referred to?' The terms Moor and Saracen were in early times applied indiscriminately to Mahometans of every nation, but it cannot be supposed that these intruders were followers of the False Prophet, for we have no record of any such having found their way into regions so remote. Neither is it probable that they were the wild or uncivilized Irish, whose manners and language would have been recognized in the south-western angle of Scotland, which is only separated from Ireland by a narrow channel that could be crossed in a few hours. The most probable opinion is that they belonged to that singular race, the _Gipseys_, who first made their appearance in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and France, between the years 1409 and 1427. Admitting that a tribe of them found their way soon after from the continent into Ireland, it seems exceedingly likely that a detachment of that tribe should have crossed over to Scotland in the reign of James, between 1438 and 1460. As the Gipseys on their first settlement were black, and could be traced to an oriental source, and as they disavowed Christianity, they were very naturally considered as Saracens, by a rule analogous to that which makes all the inhabitants of Christendom Franks in the eyes of a Turk. I have made this little digression because this instance of a Gipsey's head is probably unique in British Heraldry, and because the tradition perfectly coincides in point of time with the actual ingress of the Gipseys into this part of Europe. The crest of the Davenports of Cheshire, a family as numerous, according to the proverb, as 'dogs' tails,' is 'a man's head couped below the shoulders in profile, hair brown, a halter about his neck proper.' According to the tradition of the family, it originated after a battle between the Yorkists and Lancastrians, in which one of the Davenports, being of the vanquished party, was spared execution by the commander on the opposite side, on the humiliating condition that he and all his posterity should bear this crest. When Queen Elizabeth made Sir John Hawkins paymaster of the navy in 1590, she gave him a coat of arms appropriate to his profession, and as a crest, in allusion to his _laudable_ concern in the slave trade, 'A demi-negro proper, manacled with a rope,' the very symbol which, more than two hundred years afterwards, was used to stamp infamy on those concerned in it, as well as abhorrence and detestation of the slave trade itself.[237] It would be a matter of little difficulty to produce a great number of additional instances of armorials allusive to the personal history or office of the original grantee; but let it be mine rather than that of the fatigued reader to cry ='Ohe, jam satis!'= [Illustration] CHAPTER X. Distinctions of Rank and Honour. Any treatise on Heraldry, whatever its scope or its design, would certainly be deemed defective if it did not embrace this subject. Heraldry consists of two distinct parts, namely, _first_, the knowledge of titles and dignities, the proper sphere of each, and the ceremonials connected with them; and, _secondly_, the science of blazon, or the rules by which armorial insignia are composed and borne. One treats of honours; the other of the symbols of those honours. The first, though some will refuse to concede it that distinction, is a science; the second partakes the nature of both a science and an _art_. The immediate object of this humble volume is armory or blazon, its history and its philosophy; yet I should scarcely feel justified in passing over, in silence, the other branch of heraldry, abounding as it does with 'Curiosities.' It is not, however, my intention to write a dissertation on the orders of nobility, their origin, their privileges, or their dignity; for the general reader, who happens to be uninformed on these points, can readily consult numerous authorities respecting them, while more profound students, should any such deign to read my lucubrations, would scarcely deem what could be said in the course of a short chapter sufficient. I must therefore refer the former class to their peerages, or books of elementary heraldry, while the latter will not require that I should point out the learned tomes of Segar, Selden, Markham, and the various other 'workes of honour,' of which our literature has been so remarkably prolific. To relieve the tedium occasioned by the constant reference to or, and gules, and ermine; and bend, and fesse, and cheveron; and lions rampant and eagles displayed, which must necessarily occur in a book of heraldry, even in one which professes to treat of its 'Curiosities,' I intend here, _currente calamo_, to lay before the reader a few jottings which have occurred to me in the course of my heraldric and antiquarian researches. It has been observed that "among barbarous nations there are no family names. Men are known by _titles_ of honour, by _titles_ of disgrace, or by _titles_ given to them on account of some individual quality. A brave man will be called the lion, a ferocious one the tiger. Others are named after a signal act of their lives, or from some peculiarity of personal appearance; such as the slayer-of-three-bears, the taker-of-so-many-scalps, or straight-limbs, long-nose, and so on. Some of these, especially such as express approbation or esteem, are worn as proudly by their savage owners as that of duke or marquis is by European nobles.[238] They confer a distinction which begets respect and deference amongst the tribes, and individuals so distinguished obtain the places of honour at feasts, and they are the leaders in battle. It is nearly the same in modern civilized life; titled personages are much sought after and fêted by the tribes of untitled; and are, moreover, the leaders of fashion. The only difference between the savage and civilized titles of honour is, that in the former case they can only be obtained by deeds; they must be earned; which is not always the case with modern distinctions." All titles of honour indubitably originated in official employments, though, in the lapse of ages, they have become, as to the majority, entirely honorary. This will appear on an etymological inquiry into the meaning of the titles still enjoyed in our social system. Thus, DUKE is equivalent with _dux_, a leader or commander, and such, in a military sense, were those personages who primarily bore this distinction. MARQUIS, according to the best authorities, signifies a military officer to whom the sovereign intrusted the guardianship of the marches or borders of a territory. An EARL or count was the lieutenant or viceroy of a county, and the geographical term owes its origin to the office. A vicecomes, or VISCOUNT, again, was the deputy of a count. The derivation of BARON is more obscure; still there was a period when official duties were required of the holders of the title. To descend to the lesser nobility, KNIGHT is synonymous with servant, a servant in a threefold sense, first to religion, next to his sovereign, and thirdly to his 'ladye;' while an ESQUIRE was in antient times _ecuyer_ or _scutifer_, the knight's shield-bearer. Among the Orientals official duties are still attached to every title of honour; and it is worthy of remark that the highest of all titles, that of king, has never, in any country, been merely honorary; the responsible duties of government having always been connected with it. In sovereigns, whom our old writers quaintly term 'fountains of honour,' is vested the right of conferring dignities, and it is by a judicious use of this prerogative that the balance of a limited monarchy is properly preserved. Were there no difference of grade amongst the subjects of a state, the monarch would be too far removed from his people, and mutual disgust or indifference would be the consequence. A well-constituted peerage serves as a connecting link between the sovereign and the great body of his subjects, and may therefore be regarded, next to the loyal affections of the people, the firmest prop of the throne. I know that, in these utilitarian days, this position is frequently and fiercely controverted, and that probably by many who have never read the following eloquent passage of Burke--a passage which though _decies repetita placebit_, and which I therefore introduce without apology: "To be honoured and even privileged by the laws, opinions, and inveterate usages of our country, growing out of the prejudice of ages, has nothing to provoke horror and indignation in any man. Even to be too tenacious of those privileges is not absolutely a crime. The strong struggle in every individual to preserve possession of what he has found to belong to him, and to distinguish him, is one of the securities against injustice and despotism implanted in our nature. It operates as an instinct to secure property, and to preserve communities in a settled state. What is there to shock in this? Nobility is a graceful ornament to the civil order. It is the Corinthian capital of polished society. _Omnes boni nobilitati semper favemus_ was the saying of a wise and good man. It is, indeed, one sign of a liberal and benevolent mind to incline to it with some sort of partial propensity. He feels no ennobling principle in his own heart who wishes to level all the artificial institutions which have been adopted for giving a body to opinion and permanence to fugitive esteem. _It is a sour, malignant, and envious disposition, without taste for the reality, or for any image or representation of virtue, that sees with joy the unmerited fall of what had long flourished in splendour and in honour._ I do not like to see anything destroyed, any void produced in society, any ruin on the face of the land."[239] It is a fact not perhaps generally known that poverty formerly disqualified a peer from holding his dignity. In the reign of Edward IV, George Neville, duke of Bedford, was degraded on this account by Act of Parliament. The reason for this measure is given in the preamble of the Act: "Because it [poverty] causeth great extortion, &c. to the great trouble of all such countries where the estate [of the impoverished lord] happens to be."[240] Happily for some of its members, no such prerogative is now exercised by Parliament. Dignities and titles, like other things, are of course estimated by their rarity. "If all men were noble, where would be the noblesse of nobility?" In no country has so much prudence been displayed in regard to the multiplication of titles as in England. On the continent, as every one is aware, there is such a profusion of titled persons that, excepting those of the highest orders, they are very little respected on the score of honour. Titles are so cheap that persons of very indifferent reputation not unfrequently obtain them; and hence the Spanish proverb: "Formerly rogues were hung on crosses, but now crosses are hung upon rogues!" A German potentate once requested to be informed what station an English esquire occupied in the ladder of precedence, and was answered, that he stood somewhat higher than a French count, and somewhat lower than a German prince! There was certainly more truth than courtesy in the reply. Much has been written on the orders of precedence. I am neither disposed nor qualified to handle so delicate a subject; but the following table, showing how the various grades were formerly recognized by their _hawks_, is so curious that I do not hesitate to introduce it: "An _eagle_, a _bawter_ (vulture), a _melown_; these belong unto an _emperor_. A _gerfalcon_, a _tercell_ of gerfalcon are due to a _king_. There is a _falcon_ gentle and a _tercell_ gentle; and these be for a _prince_. There is a _falcon_ of the _rock_; and that is for a _duke_. There is a _falcon_ peregrine; and that is for an _earl_. Also there is a _bastard_; and that hawk is for a _baron_. There is a _sacre_ and a _sacret_; and these ben for a _knight_. There is a _lanare_ and a _laurell_; and these belong to a _squire_. There is a _merlyon_; and that hawk is for a _lady_. There is an _hoby_; and that is for a _young man_. There is a _goshawk_; and that hawk is for a _yeoman_. There is a _tercell_; and that is for a _poor man_. There is a _spave-hawk_; she is an hawk for a _priest_. There is a _muskyte_; and he is for an _holy-water clerk_." To this list the 'Jewel for Gentre' adds, "A _kesterel_ for a _knave_ or _servant_."[241] Occupying a kind of intermediate rank between the peerage and the commons stands the order of Baronets. These, though really commoners, participate with peers the honour of transmitting their title to their male descendants. James I, the founder of this order, pledged himself to limit its number to two hundred, but successive sovereigns, possessing the same right to enlarge as he had to establish it, have more than quadrupled the holders of this dignity. Baronets are in reality nothing more than hereditary knights, and some families who have been invested with the honour have gained little by it, seeing that their ancestors regularly, in earlier times, acquired that of knighthood. It is no unusual thing in tracing the annals of an antient house, to find six or seven knights in the direct line, besides those in the collateral branches. In the family of Calverley, there was, if I mistake not, a _succession_ of SIXTEEN knights. This was a 'knightly race' indeed. Of knighthood Nares remarks, "Since it was superseded by the order of Baronets, it has incurred a kind of contumely that is certainly injurious to its proper character. It has been held cheaper by the public at large, and I fear also by the sovereign himself. How often do we hear the remark when a _Sir_ or _Lady_ is mentioned, 'He is _only_ a Knight,' or 'She is _only_ a Knight's lady.'" We have seen that knight is synonymous with servant. So also is theign or thane, one of the oldest titles of Northern nobility. Bede translates it by Minister Regis. Sometimes these thanes were servientes regis more literally than would suit the ambition of modern courtiers, for in Doomsday Book we find them holding such offices as Latinarius, Aurifaber, Coquus, interpreter, goldsmith, cook. Lord Ponsonby bears three combs in his arms, to commemorate his descent from the Conqueror's barber! Sir John Ferne traces the origin of knighthood to Olybion, the grandson of Noah; and Lydgate and Chaucer speak of the knights of Troy and Thebes. But the honour is not older than the introduction of the feudal system. When the whole country was parcelled out under that system, the possessor of each _feu_ or _fee_ (a certain value in land) held it by knight's service, that is, by attending the summons of the king, whenever he engaged in war, properly equipped for the campaign, and leading on his vassals. Knighthood was obligatory, as the possessor of every fee was bound to receive the honour at the will of his sovereign or other feudal superior. Such knights were, in reference to their dependants, styled lords. Greater estates, consisting of several knights' fees, were denominated Baronies, and the possessor of such an estate was called a Baron, or Banneret, on account of his right to display a square banner in the field--an honour to which no one of inferior rank could pretend. Military aid was commonly all the rent which was required of a vassal. Sometimes, however, sums of money which now appear ludicrously small, or provisions for the lord's household, were also demanded; and not unusually these payments were commuted for a broad arrow, a falcon, or a red rose. From such rents numerous coats of arms doubtless originated. Knights are addressed as _Sir_, derived from the French Sire or Sieur, which was primarily applied to lords of a certain territory, as Le Sieur de Bollebec. This title was not limited to knighthood, for the great barons also used it. So also did ecclesiastics, even those holding very small benefices. I have found no instances of priests being called Sir, since the Reformation, except Shakspeare's Sir Hugh Evans, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, and there the dramatist evidently alludes to the practice of earlier times than his own. Two other applications of the expression may be noticed--_Sire_ is a very respectful mode of address to a king; but what shall we say of the Scots, who apply it in the plural to women, and even to an individual of that sex--_Eh Sirs?_ To distinguish this, the most antient order of knights, from those of the Garter, Bath, and others, they are called Knights-Bachelors. ("What," asks Nares, "are the wives and children of a _bachelor_?") The etymology of this word in all its senses, is extremely obscure; so much so that scarcely any two authorities are agreed upon it. Menage, according to Johnson, derives it from _bas chevalier_; an unfortunate hypothesis, certainly, for it would make the compound word mean 'knight low-knight.' Knighthood at the present day, so far from being restricted to the profession of war, is often given, says Clark,[242] "to gownsmen, physicians, burghers, and artists." Nares adds, "brewers, silversmiths, attorneys, apothecaries, upholsterers, hosiers, and tailors;" and continues, "I do by no means wish to see such persons placed out of the reach of honours, or deprived of the smiles and favours even of royalty. King Alfred undoubtedly showed his wisdom in honouring merchants." He regards knighthood _inappropriate_, however, to the avocations named; but surely he could not have reflected that the successive changes which have come over the face of society have altered the import of nearly every title amongst us. The title of duke (_dux, general_) is as inappropriate when bestowed upon a civilian as that of knight--nay, more so; for in knighthood the erroneous application dies with the person honoured, while the dukedom (generalship) is hereditary. The lowest titles borne in England are those of _Esquire_ and _Gentleman_--titles which Coke (as Blackstone observes) has confounded together. Nor is it easy to discriminate between them, as every esquire is a gentleman, although every gentleman may not be an esquire. In the reign of Henry VI this difference is observable, namely, that the heads of families were commonly accounted esquires, while younger sons were styled gentlemen. Esquireship, like knighthood, is a military dignity; and its origin is perfectly clear. In the earliest times, possibly in the days of Olybion himself, every warrior of distinction was attended by his armour-bearer. Hence in the romances of the middle ages we find the knight almost invariably attended by a subordinate personage, half-friend, half-servant, who carried his shield and other armour, and who thence acquired the designation of ecuyer, esquire, or (Anglicè) shield-bearer. In later periods, knights selected one, or more frequently, several, of their principal or most valiant retainers, to officiate as esquires during a campaign. These, in the event of a successful issue of the war, they often enriched with lands and goods, giving them, at the same time, the privilege of bearing armorial ensigns, copied in part from their own, or otherwise, according to circumstances.[243] After such a grant the person honoured became an esquire in another sense, as the bearer of _his own shield_; and in this sense all persons at the present day whose claim to bear arms would be admitted by the proper functionaries, are virtually, _scutifers_, _armigers_, or _esquiers_. But there is a more restricted use of the term, bearing relation to the honour in a civil rather than a military aspect, as we shall shortly see. By the courtesies of common life, now-a-days, every person a little removed from the _ignobile vulgus_ claims to be an esquire; and comparatively few, even among the better informed classes, know in what esquireship really consists. For the behoof of such as are confessedly ignorant of this branch of heraldry, and are not too proud to learn, I subjoin the following particulars, gathered from various respectable authorities. REAL esquires, then, are of seven sorts: 1. Esquires of the king's body, whose number is limited to four. 2. The eldest sons of knights, and _their_ eldest sons born during their lifetime. It would seem that, in the days of antient warfare, the knight often took his eldest son into the wars for the purpose of giving him a practical military education, employing him meanwhile as his esquire. Such certainly was Chaucer's _squier_. With the knight "ther was his son, a young SQUIER, A lover, and a lusty bachelor... And he hadde be somtime in chevachie,[244] In Flaunders, in Artois, and Picardie." 3. The eldest sons of the younger sons of peers of the realm. 4. Such as the king invests with the collar of SS, including the kings of arms, heralds, &c. The dignity of esquire was conferred by Henry IV and his successors, by the investiture of the collar and the gift of a pair of silver spurs. Gower the poet was such an esquire by creation. In the ballad of the King (Edward IV) and the Tanner of Tamworth we find the frolicsome monarch creating a dealer in cowhides a squire in this manner: "A coller, a coller here, sayd the king, A coller he loud gan crye; Then would he[245] lever than twentye pound, He had not beene so nighe. A coller, a coller, the tanner he sayd, I trowe it will breed sorrowe; After a _coller_ commeth a _halter_, I trow I shall be hang'd to-morrowe." 5. Esquires to the knights of the Bath, _for life_, and their eldest sons. 6. Sheriffs of counties _for life_, coroners and justices of the peace, and gentlemen of the royal household, while they continue in their respective offices. 7. Barristers-at-law, doctors of divinity, law, and medicine, mayors of towns, and some others, are said to be of scutarial dignity, but not actual esquires. Supposing this enumeration to comprise all who are entitled to esquireship, it will be evident that thousands of persons styled esquires are not so in reality. It is a prevailing error that persons possessed of £300 a year in land are esquires, but an estate of £50,000 would not confer the dignity. Nothing but one or other of the conditions above mentioned is sufficient; yet there are some who contend that the representatives of families whose gentry is antient and unimpeachable, and who possess large territorial estates, are genuine esquires. This, however, does not seem to have been the opinion of such persons themselves two or three centuries ago, for we find many gentlemen possessing both these qualifications who, in documents of importance, such as wills and transfers of property, content themselves with the modest and simple style of _Yeoman_. The mention of the word yeoman reminds us of the misappropriation of this expression in modern times. The true definition of it, according to Blackstone, is, one "that hath free land of forty shillings by the year; who is thereby qualified to serve on juries, vote for knights of the shire, and do any other act where the law requires one that is _probus et legalis homo_." Now, however, it is applied almost exclusively to farmers of the richer sort,[246] even though they do not possess a single foot of land. The yeomen of the feudal ages were as much renowned for their valorous deeds on the battle-field, as those of a later period were for their wealth. In the sixteenth century it was said-- "=A knight of Cales, a squire of Wales, And a laird of the North Countree, A Yeoman of Kent, with his yearly rent, Would buy them out all three.=" It is much to be regretted that this substantial class of men is almost extinct. To how few are the words of Horace now applicable-- "Beatus ille, qui procul negotiis, Ut prisca gens mortalium, _Paterna rura_ bobus exercet suis." "Happy the man whose wish and care A few paternal acres bound; Content to breathe his native air _On his own ground_." But I am violating the laws of precedence in noticing yeomen before gentlemen. The term _gentleman_ is, perhaps, one of the most indefinite in the English language. George IV prided himself in being the finest gentleman in Europe; every peer of the realm is a _gentleman_; every judge, member of parliament, and magistrate is a _gentleman_; every clergyman, lawyer, and doctor is a _gentleman_; every merchant and tradesman is a _gentleman_; every farmer and mechanic is a _gentleman_; every draper's errand-boy and tailor's apprentice is a _gentleman_; and every ostler who, "in the worst inn's worst room," treats the stable-boy with a pot of ale is thereupon declared to be a _gentleman_. So say the courtesies of society; but there is the legal and heraldric, as well as the social, gentleman. "As for GENTLEMEN (says Sir Thomas Smith[247]) they be made good cheape in this kingdom: for whosoever studieth the laws of the realm, who studieth in the universities, who professeth liberal sciences, and (to be short) who can live idly and without manual labour, and will bear the port, charge, and countenance of a gentleman, he shall be called master, and taken for a gentleman." This is the legal definition; but the heralds of former days recognized several different classes of gentlemen; Sir John Ferne, in his 'Blazon of Gentry,'[248] enumerates the following: 1. Gentlemen of ancestry, with blood and coat-armour perfect; namely, those whose ancestors, on both sides, have, for five generations at least, borne coat-armour. 2. Gentlemen of blood and coat-armour perfect, but not of ancestry; being those descended in the fifth degree from him 'that slewe a Saracen or Heathen Gentle-man;' from him that won the standard, guidon, or coat-armour of a Christian gentleman, and so bare his arms; from him that obtained arms by gift from his sovereign; or from him that purchased an estate to which arms appertained. To this order likewise belong a yeoman who has worthily obtained arms and knighthood; and a yeoman who has been made a doctor of laws and has obtained a coat of arms. 3. Gentlemen of blood perfect, and coat armour imperfect; the 'yonger blouds' of a house, of which the elder line has failed after a lineal succession of five generations. 4. Gentlemen of blood and coat-armour imperfect; the _third_ in lineal descent from him who slew a Saracen gentleman, &c. &c. &c., as under the third description; also the natural son of a gentleman of blood and coat-armour perfect, and the legitimate son of a yeoman, by a gentlewoman of blood, &c., being an inheritrix. 5. Gentlemen of coat-armour imperfect: those who have slain an infidel gentleman, &c., _ut supra_; also gentlemen of _paper and wax_. 6. Gentlemen, neither of blood nor coat-armour, are of three orders; namely, 1, _Apocrafat_--Students of common law and grooms of the sovereign's palace, having no coat-armour; 2, _Spiritual_--A churl's son made a priest, canon, &c.; and 3, _Untriall_--He who being brought up in the service of a bishop, abbot, or baron, enjoys the bare title of gentleman; and he that having received any degree of the schools, or borne any office in a city so as to be saluted _Master_. As Saracen-killing has long ceased to be a favourite amusement,--as the winning of standards is an undertaking as rare as it is perilous,--as few in protestant England have the good fortune to serve abbots and bishops,--and, as a grant of arms by the heralds is a somewhat expensive affair,--how very few have now the chance of becoming _gentlemen_ in the heraldrical sense of the term. Widely at variance with the courtesies of every-day life are these antiquated laws of chivalry! We have seen that nearly every man, from the throne to the stable, each in his own sphere, is recognized as a gentleman; yet how few, notwithstanding, like to be so described in a legal, formal manner. Formerly, it was customary to add GENT., as an honourable distinction to one's name, in the address of his letters, in his will, or upon his tombstone; but in these days nothing short of ESQ. is deemed respectful. This foible, however, is not a thing of yesterday; for so long ago as 1709, Mr. Isaac Bickerstaff, of the Tatler, says: "I have myself a couple of clerks; one directs to Degory Goosequill, _Esquire_, to which the other replies by a note to Nehemiah Dashwell, _Esquire_, with respect." What courtesy at first concedes, the party honoured soon learns to exact. The tenacity with which many persons of some pretensions to family, but with very few of the other qualifications which are supposed to belong to the character of a gentleman, adhere to the courtesy title of _Esq._ must have been observed by every one. I have heard of persons of this description, who, from the pressure of circumstances, have entered into trade, being mortified by its omission; though their own good sense must have suggested to them the absurdity of such an address as "Nicholas Smith, Esq. Tailor," or "Geoffry Brownman, Esq. Butcher." Not long since a _squireen_ of this order (in a southern county), who eked out the little residuum of his patrimony by the occupation of a farm comprising a few acres of hops, on receiving a letter from the local excise-officer respecting the hop-duty with which he was charged, felt his dignity much insulted at being styled in the address plain _Mr._ Full of rage at the insolence of the official, he appealed to the collector, expecting, probably, that he would reprimand the offender with great severity. The collector, however, treated the matter as a joke, but ordered his clerk to strike out _Mr._ from the beginning of the name, and to add ESQ. at the end. This was not satisfactory to the insulted party, who determined to appeal to a higher court. He accordingly paid a visit to the magistrates in petty sessions assembled at H----, and a dialogue somewhat like the following took place. _Chairman._ What is your application? _Squireen_ (with a low salaam). Sir, I come here to have my title confirmed. _Chairman_ (in surprise). To what title do you allude, Sir? _Sq._ I have the honour to be an Esquire; and I have here a document to show that I have not been treated with the respect due to my rank. I demand a summons for the writer of this letter. The letter was handed to the bench, and the chairman, looking doubtfully at his colleagues, requested our squireen to withdraw while his application was considered. He withdrew accordingly, and the magistrates were not a little amused with the case. Fortunately, a gentleman who had witnessed the scene before the collector happened to be present, and he having related the particulars, the bench ordered the applicant to be recalled. The cry of "N. M. _Esquire_! N. M. _Esquire_!" resounded along the room and down the staircase. That gentleman responded to the call with great alacrity, and approached the bench with another profound obeisance; while the chairman, assuming all the gravity he could command, said-- Sir; the magistrates have considered your application, and although they would not feel justified in issuing a summons against the offending party, yet they have come to an unanimous decision that your claim to be considered an Esquire is well founded. Sir, I have the satisfaction to inform you that YOUR TITLE IS CONFIRMED! A third inclination followed this highly satisfactory sentence, and our Esquire left the court with as much dignity as if he had just been created an earl, or rather with as much as Don Quixote exhibited in the stable-yard, after the innkeeper had conferred upon him the honour of knighthood. The _Country Squires_ may be regarded as an extinct race; and though in the present advanced state of society we can scarcely wish to see that rude and stalwart order revived, yet there are many parts of their character which certainly deserve the imitation of their more polished descendants. The subjoined description of an antient worthy of this class, Mr. Hastings, of Dorsetshire,[249] though familiar to many readers, I venture to introduce. "Mr. Hastings was low of stature, but strong and active, of a ruddy complexion, with flaxen hair. His clothes were always of green cloth, his house was of the old fashion, in the midst of a large park, well stocked with deer, rabbits, and fishponds. He had a long narrow bowling-green in it, and used to play with round sand bowls. Here, too, he had a banquetting room built, like a stand, in a large tree! He kept all sorts of hounds, that ran buck, fox, hare, otter, and badger; and had hawks of all kinds, both long and short winged. His great hall was commonly strewed with marrow-bones, and full of hawk-perches, hounds, spaniels, and terriers. The upper end of it was hung with fox-skins of this and the last year's killing. Here and there a polecat was intermixed, and hunters' poles in great abundance. The parlour was a large room, completely furnished in the same style. On a broad hearth, paved with brick, lay some of the choicest terriers, hounds, and spaniels. One or two of the great chairs had litters of cats in them, which were not to be disturbed. Of these, three or four always attended him at dinner, and a little white wand lay by his trencher to defend it, if they were too troublesome. In the windows, which were very large, lay his arrows, crossbows, and other accoutrements. The corners of the room were filled with his best hunting and hawking poles. His oyster table stood at the lower end of the room, which was in constant use twice a day, all the year round, for he never failed to eat oysters both at dinner and supper, with which the neighbouring town of Pool supplied him. At the upper end of the room stood a small table with a double desk, one side of which held a Church Bible, the other the Book of Martyrs. On different tables in the room lay hawks-hoods, bells, old hats, with their crowns thrust in, full of pheasants' eggs; tables, dice, cards, and store of tobacco-pipes. At one end of this room was a door, which opened into a closet, where stood bottles of strong beer, and wine, which never came out but in single glasses, which was the rule of the house; for he never exceeded himself, nor permitted others to exceed. Answering to this closet, was a door into an old chapel, which had been long disused for devotion; but in the pulpit, as the safest place, was always to be found a cold chine of beef, a venison pasty, a gammon of bacon, or a great apple-pie, with thick crust, well baked. His table cost him not much, though it was good to eat at. His sports supplied all, but beef and mutton, except on Fridays, when he had the best of fish. He never wanted a London pudding, and he always sang it in with "My part lies therein-a." He drank a glass or two of wine at meals; put syrup of gillyflowers into his sack; and had always a tun glass of small beer standing by him, which he often stirred about with rosemary. He lived to be an hundred, and never lost his eyesight, nor used spectacles. He got on horseback without help, and rode to the death of the stag at fourscore."[250] In consequence of the cheapness of titles in foreign countries, our esquires and gentry are frequently undervalued by strangers, who can form no idea of an untitled aristocracy. We are accustomed to consider no families noble except those possessing the degree of baron, or some superior title; and the branches, even of a ducal house, after a certain number of removes from the titled representative cease to be noble. On the continent it is otherwise: all the descendants of a peer are noble. Our antient gentry, possessed of the broad lands which have descended to them through a long line of ancestors, are virtually more noble, in the heraldric sense of the term, than dukes and marquises who are but of yesterday. New nobility cannot compensate for the want of antient gentry. The caviller will perhaps ask, concerning some of the rambling observations contained in this chapter, and the subject which has called them forth, _Cui bono?_ He may also mutter something about the nobility of virtue, as the only one worth possessing. Well, well, let him enjoy his opinion, and maintain it if he can; but until he has convinced me that true integrity and exalted benevolence cannot reside beneath a coronet, and that the nobility of station obliterates or neutralizes that of virtue, I shall beg leave also to enjoy mine; admitting, meanwhile, the correctness of a sentiment quaintly, though wisely, advanced by Sir John Ferne: "That kind of gentry which is but a bare noblenes of bloud, not clothed with vertues (the right colours of a gentleman's coat-armour) is the _meanest_, yea, and the _most base_ of all the rest: for it respecteth but onely the body, being derived from the loynes of the auncestors, not from the minde, which is the habitation of vertue, the inne of reason, and the resemblaunce of God; and, in true speach, this gentry of stock _only_ shal be said but a shadow, or rather a painture of nobility."[251] "=Manners makyth man, Quoth William of Wykeham.=" [Illustration] CHAPTER XI. Historical Notices of the College of Arms. [Illustration: (Arms of the College.)[252]] "Their consequence was great in the court, in the camp, and, still more than either, in the council; as negociators they had great influence; they were conspicuous for judgment, experience, learning, and elegance; they gained honour whenever they were employed."--_Noble._ We have seen, in a former chapter, that at an early period the sovereign and his greater nobles retained in their respective establishments certain officers called heralds, whose duties have been slightly alluded to. In the present chapter the reader will find a hasty sketch of the history of these functionaries in their incorporated capacity as a =College of Arms=. The College of Arms, or, as it is often called, the "Heralds' College," owes its origin as a corporation to a monarch who has the misfortune to occupy a very unenviable place in the scroll of fame; to a man whose abilities and judgment would have received all due honour from posterity had they been coupled with the attributes of justice and benevolence, and attended with a better claim to the sceptre of these realms. But, whatever may be said of Richard III as an usurper, a murderer, and a tyrant, impartial justice awards to him the credit of a wise and masterly execution of the duties of the regal office. Many of the regulations in the state adopted by him and continued by his successors bear the impress of a mind of no despicable order. One of his earliest acts was the foundation of this college. "Personally brave, and nurtured from his infancy in the use of the sword, he was more especially ambitious of preserving the hereditary dignity and superior claims of the =White Rose=. He supported, at his own charge, Richard Champneys, Falcon herald, whom upon his accession he created Gloucester king of arms, and at whose instance he was further induced to grant to the body of heralds immunities of great importance."[253] His letters patent for this purpose bear date March 2d, 1483, the first year of his reign. The heraldic body, as originally constituted, consisted of twelve of the most approved heralds, for whose habitation he assigned a messuage in the parish of All Saints in London, called Pulteney's Inn, or Cold Harbore.[254] As usual with every fraternity of those times, the newly-constituted college had a chaplain, whose stipend was fixed at £20 per annum. The 'right fair and stately house,' as it is termed by Stowe, was first presided over by Sir John Wriothesley, or Wrythe, whose arms were assumed by the body, and are still perpetuated on their corporate seal. For the better performance of the duties of the heralds, the kingdom was divided into two provinces, over each of which presided a king of arms. The title of the officer who regulated all heraldric affairs south of the river Trent was _Clarenceux_, and that of him who exercised jurisdiction northward of it, _Norroy_. From this statement it must not be inferred that kings of arms had not previously existed, for there were a _Norroy_ and a _Surroy_[255] (q. d. 'northern king' and 'southern king,') as early as the reign of Edward III; although their duties were not so well defined nor their authority so great as both became after the incorporation of the college. Over both these, as principal of the establishment, was appointed _Garter_, king of arms, an office instituted by King Henry V, and so called from his official connexion with the order of knighthood bearing that designation. Next in point of dignity to the provincial kings, stood several _heralds_ bearing peculiar titles, and the third rank was composed of pursuivants, or students, who could not be admitted into the superior offices until they had passed some years of probationary study and practice in the duties of their vocation. These three degrees, it is scarcely necessary to state, still exist in the corporation. From a very early period Garter exercised, and still continues to exercise, a concurrent jurisdiction with the two Provincial Kings of Arms in the grant of Armorial Ensigns, but he had many exclusive privileges; as the right of ordering all funerals of peers of the realm, the two archbishops, the bishop of Winchester, and knights of the Garter; he only could grant arms to these individuals; he was consequently a person of no inconsiderable importance. The duties of the officers of arms at this period consisted in attending all ceremonials incident to the king and the nobility, such as coronations, creations, the displaying of banners on the field of battle or in the lists, public festivities and processions, the solemnization of baptisms, marriages, and funerals, the enthronization of prelates, proclamations, and royal journeys or progresses. The importance of the presence of heralds at royal funerals of a somewhat later date, is shown in the two following extracts:[256] "And incontinent all the heraudes did off their cote-armour, and did hange them upon the rayles of the herse, _cryinge lamentably_ in French, 'The noble king Henry the seaveneth is dead;' and as soon as they had so done, everie heraude putt on his cote-armure againe, and cried with a loude voyce, 'Vive le noble Henry le viijth.'" At the interment of Prince Arthur, 1502: "At every Kurie elyeson an officer of arms with a high voyce said for Prince Arthure's soule and all Christian soules, Pater-noster.... His officer of arms, _sore weeping_, toke off his coate of armes, and cast it along over the cheaste right lamentablie."[257] The fees demanded on the occasions before recited were considerable, but the officers of arms had another source of revenue, namely, the largesses or rewards for proclaiming the styles and titles of the nobility. These were optional, and generally corresponded to the rank and opulence of the donors. "On Newe-yeares-day," [1486], says Leland, "the king, being in a riche gowne, dynede in his chamber, and gave to his officers of armes vi_l._ of his Largesse, wher he was cryed in his style accustomede. Also the quene gave to the same officers XL_s._ and she was cried in her style. At the same time my lady the kyngs moder gave XX_s._ and she was cried Largesse iij tymes. De hault, puissaunt, et excellent Princesse, la mer du Roy notre souveraigne, countesse de Richemonde et de Derbye, Largesse. Item, the Duc of Bedeforde gave XL_s._ and he was cried, Largesse de hault et puissaunt prince, frere et uncle des Roys, duc de Bedeforde, et counte de Penbroke, Largesse. Item, my lady his wiff gave xiij_s._ iiij_d._ and she was cried, Largesse de hault et puissaunt princesse, duchesse de Bedeforde et de Bokingham, countesse de Penbrok, Stafford, Harford, et de Northampton, et dame de Breknok, Largesse. Item, the Reverende Fader in God the Lorde John Fox, Bishop of Excester, privy seale, gave XX_s._ Item, th' Erle of Aroundell gave X_s._, and he was cried, Largesse de noble et puissaunt seigneur le counte d'Aroundell, et seigneur de Maltravers. Item, th' Erle of Oxinforde gave xx_s._ and he was cryede, Largesse de noble et puissaunt le Counte d'Oxinforde, Marquis de Develyn, Vicount de Bulbik, et Seigneur de Scales, Graunde Chamberlayn, et Admirall d'Angleter, Largesse. Item, my lady his wiff XX_s._ and she was cried, Largesse de noble et puissaunt Dame la Countesse d'Oxinford, Marquise de Develyn, Vicountesse de Bulbik, et Dame de Scales, &c. &c." Another perquisite of the heraldic corps were great quantities of the rich stuffs, such as velvet, tissue, and cloth of gold, used as the furniture of great public ceremonials. The following are some of the fees claimed by the officers on state occasions, as recorded in one of the Ashmolean MSS. "At the coronacion of the Kinge of England c{_l._}[258], appareled in scarlet. "At the displaying of the King's banner in any campe ... c markes. "At the displaying of a Duke's banner, £20. "At a Marquis's, 20 markes. "At an Earle's, x{_l._}, &c. &c. "The Kinge marrying a wife £50, _with the giftes of the King's and Queen's uppermost garments_! "At the birth of the King's eldest son, 100 markes; at the birth of other younger children, £20. "The King being at any syge (siege) with the crowne on his head, £5. "The wages due to the officers of armes when they go owt of the land: "Garter 8_s._ a day: every of the other kings 7_s._: every herald 4_s._: every pursuivant 2_s._: and theyr ordinary expences." To return to the thread of our history: at the death of Richard III,[259] all his public acts were declared null and void, as those of an usurper, and the heraldic body, in common with others, fell under the censure of Henry. Driven from their stately mansion of Cold-Harbour, they betook themselves to the conventual house of Rounceval, near Charing Cross, which had been a cell to the priory of Rouncevaulx, in Navarre, and suppressed with the rest of the alien priories by the jealous policy of Henry V. Here they remained for many years, though only by sufferance, for Edward VI granted the site to Sir Thomas Cawarden. It must not be imagined that the heralds were created merely for the purpose of acting as puppets in the pageantry of the court and the camp: they had other and more useful functions to perform. The genealogies of noble and gentle families were intrusted to their keeping, and thus titular honours and territorial possessions were safely conveyed to lawful heirs, when, in the absence of proper officers, and a recognized depository for documents, much confusion might have been produced by disputed claims. The ecclesiastics had formerly been the chief conservators of genealogical facts, but at the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, the documents containing them were scattered to the winds. Hence it became necessary to adopt some more general and better regulated means of collecting and transmitting to posterity the materials of genealogy, and out of this necessity sprang those 'progresses' of the kings of arms and heralds through the various counties, called VISITATIONS. Some faint traces of these visitations occur, it is true, before the Reformation, and even before the incorporation of the heralds, namely, as early as 1412; but it was not until 1528 that they were systematically attended to.[260] After the latter date they were continued about once in every generation, or at intervals varying between twenty-five and forty years. The officers, under the warrant of the earl-marshal, were bound to make inquisitions respecting the pedigree of every family claiming the honour of gentry, and to enter the names, titles, places of abode, &c. in a book. Many such books, between the date just referred to and the year 1687, are now existing in the College of Arms, while many copies of them, and a few of the originals, are in the British Museum and in private collections. To most of the pedigrees thus entered were attached the family arms, which received the confirmation of the 'kings' when satisfactory evidence of the bearer's right to them could be adduced.[261] When a family from any circumstance did not bear arms, a coat was readily granted by the kings, who received fees proportioned to the rank of the parties; for example: A bishop paid £10. A dean £6 13_s._ 4_d._ A gentleman of 100 marks per annum, in land, £6 13_s._ 4_d._ A gentleman of inferior revenue £6. The passion for emblazoning the arms of the nobility and gentry upon glass, in the windows of churches and halls, imposed considerable employment, and brought no small emolument, to the officers of arms, who undertook to marshal and arrange them, as well as often to draw up short pedigrees of such families, which were set forth in the gloomy chancel or the sombre hall of the long-descended patron or lord of the mansion, exemplified with the shield rich in quarterings.[262] Henry VIII was a great admirer of the "pomp and circumstance" of chivalry. During his reign the College was in high estimation and full employment. At home and abroad he was constantly attended by his heralds, some of whom were often despatched to foreign courts, to assist in negociations, to declare war, to accompany armies, to summon garrisons, to deliver the ensign of the order of St. George (the Garter) to foreign potentates, to attend banquets, jousts, and tournaments, and to serve upon every great occasion of state. "There was nothing performed," says Noble,[263] "of a public nature, but what the heralds were employed in." The history of this reign teems with curious anecdotes touching the dignity and prerogatives of the heralds. So great was the regard entertained by the 'bluff' monarch for the officers of arms, that he treated even those of foreign sovereigns, who came to his court to deliver hostile messages, with all the courtesy inculcated by the laws of chivalry, and even gave them bountiful largesses. For example, when in 1513 'Lord Lyon, King at Arms,' came to him at Tours upon an errand of a very disagreeable character from the Scottish court, his majesty sent Garter with him to his tent, commanding him to give him 'good cheer;' and when his reply to the message was framed he dismissed him courteously, with a gift of one hundred angels.[264] Although the persons of the heralds, in their ambassadorial capacity, were generally regarded as sacred, they sometimes received very rough treatment from desperate enemies. On one occasion, Ponde, Somerset herald, going to Scotland with a message to James V, was slain in his tabard--a violation of the laws of honour which was only compensated by the death of the bailiff of Lowth and two others, who were publicly executed at Tyburn in the summer of 1543. "It is singular," says Noble, "that in this reign it was usual to give to pieces of ordnance the same names as those appropriated to the members of the college; names, we must presume, dear to the sovereign and cherished by the people."[265] At the Field of the Cloth of Gold, in 1520, the heraldic corporation attended in magnificent array. It then consisted of the following members: KINGS. Garter, Clarenceux, Norroy. HERALDS. Windsor, Richmond, York, Lancaster, Carlisle, Montorgueil, Somerset. PURSUIVANTS IN ORDINARY. Rouge-Cross, Blue-Mantle, Portcullis, and Rouge-Dragon. PURSUIVANTS EXTRAORDINARY. Calais, Risebank, Guisnes; and Hampnes. These four took their titles from places in France within the English pale. The armorial bearings devised in this reign had little of the chaste simplicity of those of an earlier date. Those coats which contain a great variety of charges may be generally referred to this period, and they are familiarly styled '_Henry-the-Eighth_ coats.' Such arms have been humorously compared to "garrisons, _well stocked_ with fish, flesh, and fowl."[266] Edward VI bestowed upon the heralds many additional immunities and privileges; and Mary, his successor, by charter dated 1554, granted them Derby House for the purpose of depositing their rolls and other records. Elizabeth inherited from her father the spirit of chivalry, and its concomitant fondness for pageantry. Hence she necessarily patronized the officers of arms. In this reign the quarrels which for some time previously had been hatching between various members of the body touching their individual rights, broke out with great virulence. "Their accusations against each other," Noble remarks, "would fill a volume." Broke, or Brokesmouth, York Herald, whose animosities against the great and justly venerated Camden have given to his name a celebrity which it does not deserve, was foremost amongst the litigants.[267] A new order of gentry had sprung up in the two or three preceding reigns, some of whom had enriched themselves by commercial enterprise, while others had acquired broad lands at the dissolution of the monasteries. These _novi homines_ were very ambitious of heraldric honours, and accordingly made numerous applications for grants of arms. Cooke, Clarenceux, granted upwards of five hundred coats, and the two Dethicks twice that number in this reign. Great pains were taken by the sovereign to preserve inviolate the rights of the college; yet notwithstanding there were some adventurers who, for the sake of lucre, devised arms and forged pedigrees for persons of mean family, to the no small umbrage of the antient gentry, and the pecuniary loss of the corporation. One W. Dawkeyns compiled nearly a hundred of these spurious genealogies for families in Essex, Herts, and Cambridgeshire, an offence for which he was visited with the pillory; but though he stood "earless on high," he seems to have been "unabashed;" for after an interval of twenty years he was found 'at his olde trickes againe,' and again fell under the lash of the earl-marshal. The warrant for his second apprehension is dated Dec. 31st, 1597. James I advanced the regular salaries of the heralds, and indirectly promoted their interests, further, by a lavish distribution of new titular honours. In this reign occurs an instance of the antient custom of degrading a knight. Sir Frances Michel having been convicted of grievous exactions was sentenced, in 1621, to a 'degradation of honour.' Being brought by the sheriff of London to Westminster-Hall, in the presence of the commissioners who then executed the office of earl-marshal and the kings of arms, the sentence of parliament was openly read by Philipot, a pursuivant, when the servants of the marshall hacked off his spurs, broke his sword over his head, and threw away the pieces, and the first commissioner proclaimed with uplifted voice, that he was "=no longer knight, but a scoundrel-knave=!" The disputes in the College concerning the duties and prerogatives of its members, and their jealousies respecting preferments continued unabated. Broke (or Brokesmouth), York, and Treswell, Somerset, carried their effrontery so far as to defy the authority of their superiors in office, for which offence, added to contempt of the earl-marshal, they were committed to prison. The house was 'divided against itself,' and consequently could not 'stand,' at least in the respect and estimation of the public. Francis Thynne, a herald of the period, speaks of the poverty of the College as compared with its antient condition; complains that 'the heralds are not esteemed,' and that 'every one withdraweth his favour from them;' and prays the superior powers to repair their 'ruined state.' Of Charles I it has been truly said, that he was not more arbitrary in his government than several of his predecessors had been. His mistake was, that he did not march with the times, but wished, amid the increased enlightenment of the 17th century, to exercise the monarchical prerogatives of the middle ages. Most of the acts which led to his downfall were not greater violations of the fundamental principles of the constitution than had been committed by earlier monarchs; but the time was now come when they could no longer be tolerated by a free and generous nation. In relation to heraldic usages Charles only copied the acts of former sovereigns; yet they added not a little to his unpopularity. One of his commissions directed to the provincial kings of arms, authorized them to visit all churches, mansions, public halls, and other places, to inspect any arms, cognizances, or crests, set up therein; and, if found faulty in regard of proof, to pull down and deface the same. It further empowered them to reprove, control, and _make infamous, by proclamation at courts of assize_, all persons who had without sufficient warrant assumed the title of esquire or gentleman; to forbid the use of velvet palls at the funerals of persons of insufficient rank; and to prevent any painter, glazier, engraver, or mason, from representing any armorial ensigns, except under their sanction and direction. All delinquents were to be cited into the earl-marshal's Court of Chivalry, an institution almost as arbitrary and unconstitutional as the court of Star-Chamber itself. Nothing perhaps, as Noble observes, injured the Heralds' College more than this shameful tribunal, which proceeded to fine and imprisonment for mere words spoken against the gentility of the plaintiff. "Had it only decided upon what usually ends in duels it would have been a most praiseworthy institution." But it went further, and its severity became deservedly odious to the nation. Mr. Hyde (afterwards Lord Clarendon) deprecated its insolence and said, "the youngest man remembered the beginning of it, and he hoped the oldest might see the end of it."--"A citizen of good quality," said he, "a merchant, was by that court ruined in his estate and his body imprisoned, _for calling a swan a goose_!" It is needless to say that the Court of Chivalry was swept away along with other grievances of a like nature in the revolution which succeeded. It was revived, however, at the restoration of Charles II, and continued, though rather feebly, to execute its functions until the year 1732. Some of its proceedings, as recited by Dallaway, are very curious. I give an abstract of a case or two. 29th May, 1598. The earl-marshal, assisted by several peers and knights, held a court of chivalry to decide on a quarrel between Anthony Felton, Esq., and Edmund Withepool, Esq. It appears that a dispute had occurred between these two gentlemen at the town of Ipswich, when Withepool so far forgot himself as to bastinado the other, for which the latter summoned him into this court. The decree of the earl-marshal was that Withepool should confess to his prosecutor "that he knew him to be a gentleman unfitt to be stroken," and promise that he would hereafter maintain Mr. Felton's reputation against all slanderous persons. The delinquent submitted to this judgment, and the proceedings were at an end. Pity it is that a similar court of honour, voluntarily supported, should not now exist for the purpose of settling those quarrels among the aristocracy, which are generally adjudicated by the stupid, illegal, and wicked ordeal of the bullet.[268] Let it form part of every gentleman's code of honour to bow to the decision of a tribunal so constituted, and duelling--that purest relic of mediæval barbarism, which has descended to our time--would be numbered among the absurdities of the past. 1638. Fowke contra Barnfield. Walter Fowke of Ganston, co. Stafford, prosecuted Richard Barnfield of Wolverhampton for a libel, for that he had said 'that complainant was never a soldier or captain before the Isle of Rhe voyage, when he was made a captain, and afterwards ran away; and that he dared the said W. F. to go to a fencing-school to fight it out with him, &c.' The decree of the court was, that Barnfield should make submission, find security for his good behaviour towards Fowke, and pay a fine of £10 to the king, £10 to the complainant, and 20 marks costs; and, in default, be committed to prison. The assumption of the arms of a family, by persons bearing the same name, though unauthorized by family connexion, brought many causes into this court. West, Lord Delawarr, against West. A man who had been a famous wrestler, and bore the sobriquet of 'Jack in the West,' acquiring a fortune by keeping a public-house, assumed the regular surname of West, and the arms of Lord Delawarr's family. In support of this double assumption he got some venal member[269] of the College of Arms to furnish him with a pedigree, deducing his descent, through three or four generations, from the fourth son of one of the Lords Delawarr. His son, who had been bred in the Inns of Court, and was resident in Hampshire, presuming, upon the strength of his pedigree, to take precedence of some of his neighbours, they instigated Lord Delawarr to prosecute him in the Court of Honour. At the hearing, the defendant produced his patent from the heralds; but, unfortunately for his pretensions, an antient gentleman of the house of West, who had been long abroad and was believed to be dead, and whom our innkeeper's son had claimed as his father's father, returned at this juncture to England, and 'dashed the whole business.'[270] The would-be West was fined £500, and commanded 'never more to write himself gentleman.' On the breaking out of the civil wars the heralds espoused opposing interests. The three kings of arms, with a few of their subordinates, adhered to _their brother monarch_: the others sided with the Parliament. When, in 1642, Charles was compelled to take up his residence at Oxford, several of the officers of arms were in attendance upon him; and it affords very high testimony of their respectability and learning that some of them were admitted to the first distinctions the university could bestow. The afterwards famous Dugdale (then Rouge-Croix) and Edmund Walker, Chester, were created masters of arts, and Sir William le Neve, Clarenceux, was admitted to the dignity of LL.D. In 1643 and 1644, George Owen, York, John Philipot, Somerset, Sir John Borrough, Garter, and his successor, Sir Henry St. George, were also honoured with the last-mentioned degree. It is singular that an institution so immediately connected with royalty as was the College of Arms, should have been permitted to exist during the Commonwealth; and still more so that while the republicans carried their hatred to the very name of king so far as to alter the designation of the _King's_ Bench, and to strike the word _kingdom_ out of their vocabulary, that the principal functionaries of the College should have been allowed to retain their antient titles of kings of arms. The royal arms, of course, disappeared from the herald's tabard, though it does not very clearly appear what was substituted; probably the state arms, namely, two shields conjoined in fesse; dexter, the cross of St. George, and, sinister, the Irish harp.[271] Oliver Cromwell was, as Noble justly remarks, "a splendid prince, keeping a most stately and magnificent court." Hence the heralds could by no means be dispensed with. They attended at his proclamation, and on all subsequent state occasions. The Protector's funeral was a pageant of more than regal magnificence, and cost the extravagant sum of £28,000.[272] But, notwithstanding the patronage of Cromwell, the College was far from prosperous at this period, for the visitations were discontinued, and the nobility and antient gentry, awaiting in moody silence the issue of the system of government then in operation, paid little attention to heraldric honours, which were disregarded by the nation at large, or, if recognized at all, only to be associated (as they have too often since been[273]) with the idea of an insolent and overbearing aristocracy. The College of Arms, like all other public bodies, was put into very great disorder by the return of the exiled Charles. Several of the officers who had been ejected on account of their loyalty to his father were restored to their former posts; those who had changed with the times were degraded to the inferior offices; while those who had been appointed during the Commonwealth and Protectorate were expelled. In Scotland the heralds were restored to their former privileges. Sir Andrew Durham, created Lyon king of arms in 1662, had, at his investment, a crown of gold placed upon his head in full Parliament, and was harangued by the Chancellor and the Lord Register on the duties and importance of the office conferred upon him. The great fire of 1666 destroyed the buildings of the College of Arms; but fortunately all the records and books were rescued from the flames and deposited at Whitehall, whence they were afterwards removed to an apartment in the palace at Westminster. The College was rebuilt some years subsequently; a small portion of the necessary funds having been raised by subscription; but by far the greater part was contributed by the officers themselves.[274] At its completion in 1683 it was considered 'one of the handsomest brick buildings in London.' The income of the heralds was, at this time, little more than nominal; but they were principally persons of good family, who possessed private property. County Visitations were revived soon after the Restoration, but (with the exception of those of Sir William Dugdale, which are amongst the best in the College) they do not appear to have been conducted with so much strictness as in former times; and at the Revolution of 1688 they were entirely abandoned. During the intolerant proceedings against the nonconformists under Charles II, the pursuivants were occasionally employed in that disagreeable duty of their office from which they originally borrowed their designation, (POURSUIVRE, Fr. v. a. to pursue), that of bringing suspected persons up to London. Noble gives (from Calamy) some instances of their being despatched to apprehend nonconformists in Cheshire. James II "affected great state, and was the last of our monarchs who kept up the regal state in its full splendour."[275] The investiture of some new officers of arms in this reign was probably more splendid than any that had previously taken place. But all the benefits they received from the sovereign were countervailed by his insisting upon their attending him to the Catholic worship on all high days and holidays, a proceeding which very much disgusted them. Nothing of particular importance relating to the College occurs in the reign of William and Mary, except the refusal of the usual commissions to hold visitations, as a practice discordant with the spirit of the times. Under the antient system, a broad line of demarcation had separated the nobility and gentry from the common people; but gradually the commercial interests of the nation introduced that intermediate rank recognized as the middle classes of society, and these, by means of the wealth acquired in merchandise and trade, often eclipsed in the elegancies of life many of the antient gentry. Hence the Heraldic Visitations, had they been continued to our times, would have necessarily led to much invidiousness of distinction on the part of the heralds, and probably to much ill feeling between the representatives of far-descended houses and the upstarts of a day. At the union with Scotland, temp. Anne, it was determined that Lyon, the Scottish king of arms, should rank in dignity next after Garter, the principal English king.[276] The reign of George I presents us with two incidents deserving of notice. The first is the ceremony of the degradation of the Duke of Ormond, attainted of treason, from the order of the Garter, which was performed with the usual ceremonials at Windsor, in 1716. The other I give in the words of Noble: "In the year 1727, an impostor, of the name of Robert Harman, pretending to be a herald, was prosecuted for the offence by the College of Arms, at the quarter-sessions for the county of Suffolk, held at Beccles, and being convicted of the offence, was sentenced to be placed in the pillory in several market-towns on public market-days, and afterwards to be imprisoned and pay a fine, which sentence was accordingly executed, proving that the impudent and designing were not to encroach upon the rights of the College with impunity."[277] When war with Spain was proclaimed in the thirteenth year of George II, the proclamation was made in the metropolis by the officers of arms, according to antient usage. They also attended at the trial of the three Scottish rebel lords in Westminster-Hall, in 1746. Fourteen standards taken from the adherents of the Pretender were publicly burnt at Edinburgh, by the common hangman. "The prince's own standard was carried by the executioner, each of the others by _chimney-sweepers_ (!) The former was first committed to the flames, with three flourishes of the trumpets, amidst repeated acclamations of a vast concourse of people. The same was done with each of the other colours separately; the _heralds_ always proclaiming the names of the 'rebel traitors to whom they belonged.'"[278] "After the battle of Dettingen, fought in 1743, his Majesty revived the order of Knights-Bannerets, the last of whom had been Sir John Smith, created a banneret by Charles I at the battle of Edgehill, the first in the fatal civil war. The form of treating them formerly was, the candidate presented his standard or pennon to the sovereign or his general, who cutting off the skirt or tail of it made it square, when it was returned: hence they are sometimes called knights of the square banner. They precede all knights, not of the Garter or Bath, of England, and even baronets, being reputed next to the nobility after those preceding orders."[279] They have the privilege of using supporters to their arms; but, as the honour is not hereditary, their descendants cannot claim it. In 1732 an unsuccessful attempt was made to revive the Court of Chivalry. The earl-marshal's deputy and his assistant lords and the officers of arms being present, the king's advocate exhibited complaints, _First_, against Mrs. Radburne, for using divers ensigns at the funeral of her husband not pertaining to his condition; _secondly_, against the executors of a Mr. Ladbrook for using, on a similar occasion, arms not legally belonging to the defunct; and, _thirdly_, against Sir John Blunt, Bart. for assuming, without right, the arms of the antient family of Blount of Sodington. This gentleman had been a scrivener, and was one of the projectors of the well-known South-Sea Scheme or 'Bubble,' which ended in the total ruin of so many respectable families. But "the whole business was imprudently begun, and unskilfully conducted; the lawyers who were consulted laughed at it;"[280] and, though the court proceeded so far as to fine some of the parties, it was unable to carry its decisions into effect; and we hear no more of the Court of Chivalry. It would be tedious, and beyond the design of the present hasty sketch, to notice all the great occasions on which the heralds were in requisition during the reigns of the three predecessors of her present Majesty. During this period several members of the College have shed lustre on their office, and on the antiquarian literature of England. These will come under review in my next chapter; and it will only be necessary here to add a few particulars relating to the present state of the College. The building, which stands upon the site of the _Derby House_ before referred to, is approached by an archway on St. Benet's Hill, and has a sombre appearance perfectly in keeping with the purposes to which it is devoted. It comprises the great hall, the library, consisting of two rooms; the outer one of the time of Charles II, fitted with dark carved-oak panels, and containing a beautifully executed chimney-piece, said to be the work of Sibborn; the inner, a spacious and lofty octangular apartment, recently erected and rendered fire-proof, for the safer preservation of the records and more valuable documents; and besides these rooms there are separate apartments appropriated to the use of the several officers. The great hall, where the Courts of Chivalry were antiently held, and where the 'Chapters' of the heralds still take place, remains almost _in statu quo_, with its high-backed throne for the earl-marshal, surrounded with balustrades, and retaining somewhat of the awe-striking solemnity of the tribunal. The panelling has recently been decorated with shields of the several lords and earls-marshal from the origin of that office till the present time. The library, it is scarcely necessary to state, contains a large and extremely valuable collection of original visitation books, records of the arms and pedigrees of families, funeral certificates of the nobility and gentry, antient tournament and other rolls of great curiosity; the sword, dagger, and ring of King James IV, of Scotland; and probably every work illustrative, in any degree, of heraldry and genealogy, that has issued from the press of this country, together with many foreign works on those subjects. Of the great value of this inexhaustible mine of information the historian and the antiquary are well aware, and there is scarcely any work in their respective departments that has not received some addition from this library. The following is a list of the Corporation of the College as it now exists: =Earl-Marshal= and Hereditary Marshal of England. Henry-Charles, Duke of Norfolk, &c. &c. &c. =Kings of Arms.= GARTER. Sir Charles George Young, Knt., F.S.A. CLARENCEUX. Joseph Hawker, Esq., F.S.A. NORROY. Francis Martin, Esq., F.S.A. =Heralds.= SOMERSET. James Cathrow Disney, Esq. CHESTER. Walter Aston Blount, Esq. Genealogist and Blanc-Coursier Herald, of the Order of the Bath. RICHMOND. James Pulman Esq., F.S.A. Registrar of the College of Arms, and Yeoman-Usher of the Black Rod to the House of Lords. WINDSOR. Robert Laurie, Esq. LANCASTER. Albert William Woods, Esq. Gentleman-Usher of the Red Rod, and Brunswick Herald of the Order of the Bath. YORK. Edward Howard Gibbon, Esq., Secretary to the Earl-Marshal. =Pursuivants.= BLUEMANTLE. George Harrison Rogers Harrison, Esq., F.S.A. ROUGE-DRAGON. Thomas William King, Esq., F.S.A. ROUGE-CROIX. William Courthope, Esq. PORTCULIS. George William Collen, Esq. [Illustration] CHAPTER XII. Distinguished Heralds and Heraldric Writers. In the earliest ages after the introduction of Heraldry the laws of the science must have been orally taught to novitiate heralds: but when the regulations of chivalry were framed into a code they began to be committed to writing, and among the earliest MSS. are some on this subject.[281] But these generally have reference rather to feats of arms than to the technicalities of blazon. [Sidenote: A.D. 1441.] The first author, of any note, on this subject is Doctor Nicholas Upton, a native of Devonshire, who was honoured with the patronage of Humphrey, "the good" Duke of Gloucester, temp. Henry IV, by whose influence he became canon of Sarum, Wells, and St. Paul's. Previously to obtaining these preferments he had served in the French wars under Thomas de Montacute, earl of Salisbury; and it was during those campaigns he wrote a Latin treatise, entitled 'De Studio Militari,' MS. copies of which are preserved in the College of Arms, and elsewhere.[282] It consists of five books; viz. 1, Of officers of Arms; 2, Of Veterans, now styled Heralds; 3, Of Duels; 4, Of Colours; 5, Of Figures; forming altogether a systematic grammar of Heraldry. The latinity of Upton is considered very classical for the age in which he flourished. One of the earliest treatises on Heraldry, as well as one of the first productions of the press in this country, is contained in the highly-celebrated =Boke of St. Albans=, printed within the precincts of the monastery from which it is designated, in the year 1486. This singular work contains tracts on hawking, hunting, and 'coot-armuris'--the last constituting the greater portion of the volume. It is printed in a type resembling the text-hand written at the period, and with all the abbreviations employed in manuscript. The margin contains exemplifications of the arms described in the text, stained with coloured inks. This edition, like others of that early date, is now exceedingly scarce, there being probably not more than five or six copies extant. Another edition was published in 1496 by Wm. Copeland, and a single copy occurs of the same date with the imprint of Wynkyn de Worde: these were probably of the same impression with different title-pages. A new edition appeared in 1550; and another was included in Gervase Markham's 'Gentleman's Academie,' in 1595.[283] The entire work was attributed, for the first three centuries after its publication, to Dame Julyan Berners,[284] prioress of Sopewell, and sister of Richard, Lord Berners, a woman of great personal and mental endowments.[285] That a woman, and especially the superior of a religious sisterhood, should have devoted her pen to the secular subjects of heraldry and field-sports, at first sight, seems singular; but the rude complexion of the times in which she lived renders little apology necessary for this apparent violation of propriety; and we may fairly venerate the memory of this gentle lady as a promoter of English literature. Dallaway is the first, and, as far as I am aware, with the exception of Mr. Haslewood, the only author who questions the pretensions of Dame Juliana to the authorship of the whole work; and he founds his doubts upon the difference observable between the style of the heraldric essay and the previous ones. He considers the former as the work of some anonymous monk of St. Albans. But as several almost contemporary authors ascribe it to her, and there is no positive proof to the contrary, far be from me that want of gallantry which would despoil the worthy prioress of the honour of having indited this goodly tractate, this 'nobull werke!'[286] If the reader has never seen the Boke of Saint Albans, and feels only half as much curiosity to become acquainted with its contents as I did before I had the good fortune to meet with it, I am sure he will not consider the following choice bits of Old English, extracted from it, impertinently introduced. Dame Julyan Berners merits honourable notice as one of the earliest of English poetesses. The treatise on hunting is in rhyme, and consists of 606 verses. The style is didactic. Take a specimen: "_Bestys of venery._ "Whersoever ye fall by fryth or by fell, My dere chylde take heed how Tristrom dooth you tell, How many maner beestys of venery ther were, Lysten to your dame and then schall you lere, Ffour maner beestys of venery there are; The first of them is the hert--the secunde is the hare, The boore is oon of them--the woolff and not oon moe." "_How ye schal break an hert._ "Then take out the suet that it be not lefte, For that my child is good for lechecrafte (medicine), And in the myddest of the herte a boon shall ye fynde, Loke ye geve hit to a lord--and chylde be kynde. For it is kynd for many maladies." In subsequent parts of the poem, 'the namys of diverse maner houndys,' 'the propertees of a good hors,' 'the company of bestys and fowles,' and other sporting subjects are discussed, and interspersed with proverbs of a somewhat caustic description. The composition very oddly concludes with an enumeration of "all the shyeris and the bishopryckes of the realme of England." From the heraldrical portion of the Boke many short extracts have already been given. Some others follow: "_Note here well who shall gyue cotarmures_: "Ther shall none of the IV. orduris of regalite bot all onli the soueregne kyng geue cootarmur. for that is to hym improperid by lawe of armys.[287] And yit the kyng shall nott make a knyght with owte a cootarmure byfore. "Ev'y knyght cheftayn i the felde mai make a cootarmur knight. "_In how many places a knyght may be made_: "A knyght is made in IV. dyuerse placis. in musturing in lond of werys. In semblyng under baneris. In listys of the bath and at the sepulcur. "_A gentylman spirituall_: "Ther is a gentylman a churls sone a preste to be made and that is a spirituall gentylman to god and not of blode. Butt if a gentylmannys sone be made a preste he is a gentilman both spirituall and temperall. Criste was a gentylman of his moder's behalue and bare cotarmure of aunseturis. The iiij Euangelists berith wittenese of Cristis workys in the gospell with all thappostilles. They were Jewys and of gentylmen come by the right lyne of that worthy conqueroure Judas Machabeus but that by succession of tyme the kynrade fell to pouerty, after the destruction of Judas Machabeus, and then they fell to laboris and ware calde no gentilmen. and the iiij doctores of holi church Seynt Jerom Ambrose Augustyn and Gregori war gentilmen of blode and of cotarmures!" The following are specimens of her directions for 'blasing of armys,' the most important part of the work: "Off armys palit crokyt and sharpe now I will speke. "Loke and beholde how mony maner of wyse thes palit armys be borne dyuersli, as it is shewyt in thys boke, and theis armys now shewyt here [referring to the exemplification in the margin] be calde palit, crokyt and sharpe, for in theys armys ij coloris paly ar put togethir: oon into another crokytly and sharpe. Therefore it shall be sayd of hi' the wich beris thes armis in thys wyse, first in latyn thus. Portat arma palata tortuosa acuto de nigro et argento. Gallice sic: Il port pale daunsete de sable et dargent. Anglice sic: He berith pale crokyt and sharpe of sable and syluer." "Off armys the wich ar calde frectis (Frets) here now I will speke: "A certain nobull baron that is to say the lorde awdeley of the reame of England baar in his armys a frecte, the wich certain frectis in mony armys of dyurse gentillmen ar founde, other while reede other while golde, and other while blac oderwhile simple and oderwhile double otherwhile tripull and other while it is multepliet ou' (over) all the sheld as here it apperith, and ye most vnderstande on gret differans bytwix armys bendit and theis armys the wich be made with the forsayd frettys, wherefore it is to be markyt that in bendyt armys the colouris contenyt equally ar dyuydit. Bot in this frectis the felde alwai abydys hool as here, and this forsayd lorde Audeley beris thus in latyn. Portat arma frectata de auro in campo rubreo. Et gallice sic. Il por de gowles vng frecte dor. Anglice sic. He berith gowles and a frecte of golde." [Sidenote: 1562] The next author of any note on the subject of Heraldry is GERARD LEGH, whose 'Accedens of Armorie' became, as Anthony à Wood phrases it, "the pattern or platform of those who came after." This gentleman was son of Henry Legh, of London, an illegitimate scion of a Cheshire family, who, according to the proverb, were "as plenty as fleas." He was educated at Oxford, and died in 1563, the year after the first appearance of his work. The 'Accedens' obtained a degree of popularity not usual at that period, and reached a fifth edition within half a century. It was the text-book on the science until Guillim's 'Displaie' superseded it. The author, in his preface, acknowledges the aid he had received from a work "on the whole subject," by one Nicholas Warde, concerning whom nothing further is known. He likewise acknowledges his obligations to eight other authors, but somewhat singularly omits to mention the Boke of St. Albans, the method of which he follows, and the very words of which he frequently borrows. After the literary fashion of his times, his work is cast in the form of a dialogue, the speakers being Gerard and Legh, his own christian name and surname. The style is highly pedantic, yet withal sufficiently amusing, and the illustrative woodcuts are executed with great spirit. Specimens of his composition have already been cited.[288] [Sidenote: 1572] JOHN BOSSEWELL, gentleman, of whose personal history little or nothing is known, next appears in the field of heraldric literature. His 'Workes of Armorie, devyded into three bookes,' reached a second edition in 1597. His design was an improvement upon the treatise of Legh, in which he partly succeeded; but the admixture of the antient mythology, the moral virtues, the marvellous attributes and fictitious anecdotes of animals, and other foreign topics, with the more immediate subject of his work, renders it, like that of his predecessor, almost unreadable, except to the initiated. The following short extract will serve as a specimen of Bossewell's lucubrations: "=The field is of the Saphire, on a chiefe Pearle, a Musion.... Ermines. This beaste is called a Musion, for that he is enimie to Myse and Rattes ... he is slye and wittie and ... seeth so sharpely that he overcommeth darknes of the nighte by the shyninge lyghte of his eyne. In shape of body he is like vnto a Leoparde, and hathe a great mouth. He dothe delighte that he enioyeth his libertie; and in his youthe he is swifte, plyante, and merye. He maketh a rufull noyse and a gastefull when he profereth to fighte with an other. He is a cruell beaste, when he is wilde, and falleth on his owne feete from moste highe places: and vneth is hurte therewith. When he hathe a fayre skinne, he is, as it were, prowde thereof, and then he goeth faste aboute to be seene.="[289] Need the reader be informed that this beast of the 'rufull noyse,' which falleth from 'highe places on his _owne_ feete,' is the common house CAT? An anonymous quarto, which reached a fourth edition, made its appearance in 1573, bearing the modest title of 'A very proper Treatise, &c.' and it shows the attention paid to heraldrical 'tricking and painting' in the time of queen Elizabeth, when an art which is now limited to herald-painters was deemed a fitting accomplishment for 'gentlemenne.' Among a host of small works on subjects connected with heraldry which appeared about this time, one may be mentioned as a great curiosity. This is a funeral sermon on the death of Walter, earl of Essex, to which are prefixed copies of verses on his lordship's pedigree in Latin, _Hebrew_, Welsh, and French! The author of this tract was 'Richard Davis, Bishoppe of Saint Davys.' [Sidenote: 1586] SIR JOHN FERNE, Knight, descended from a good family in Leicestershire, and connected, on his mother's side, with the noble house of Sheffield, is believed to have studied at Oxford, though he never graduated. Great part of his life was spent as a member of the Inner Temple. King James gave him the office of secretary and keeper of the signet for the northern parts, then established at York. He died about 1610. Henry Ferne, his eighth son, was the loyalist bishop of Chester, and a writer of some note. His 'Blazon of Gentrie,' published in 1586, is divided into two parts, 'The Glorie of Generositie,' and 'Lacie's Nobilitie;' the former treating of blazon, and the latter of the genealogy of the family of Lacy, with a view to disprove the claim of affinity to it set up by Albertus a Lasco, Count-Palatine of Syradia, which is very successfully refuted. Of this learned work, which our author tells us is "compiled for the instruction of all gentlemen, bearers of arms, whom and none else it concerneth," Peacham speaks as "indeed very rare, and sought after as a jewell." Dallaway describes it as "a continued dialogue, alternately supported by six interlocutors, who discuss the original principles of nobility and the due gradations of the other ranks in society, adjust military distinctions, describe orders of knighthood, and adduce proofs of certain symbols and devices, concluding with high commendations of heraldic investigation. To Ferne the rank of a classic in heraldry will not be denied. His studies were directed to the investigation of the laws of chivalry, and he has transfused into his work the spirit of the voluminous codes now forgotten, which he delighted to consult. It may be considered therefore as the most complete epitome of them now extant. But we must allow that he writes more for the amusement of the learned than for the instruction of novices, and that he deals much more in criticism than rudiments." The interlocutors are 'Paradinus, the herald; Torquatus, a knight; Theologus, a deuine; Bartholus, a lawier; Berosus, an antiquary; and Columell, a plowman,' who converses in the dialect of Somerset. "There is somewhat of a dramatic spirit in this dialogue; the characters are supported by sentiments appropriate to each, particularly the clown, who speaks freely both the language and opinions of the yeomanry at that time; nor are the strong prejudices of the knight and herald described with less force." As a copy of this "rare jewell" lies before me, I should certainly be to blame if I did not present my reader with a specimen of its brilliancy. The topic of discourse is the "blasing of armes." "_Torq._ I pray you _pose_ me once again. "_Parad._ Goe to then: you shall begin with a coate of easie charge to be discried. Therefore, I pray you begin, and tell your soueraigne, what coat-armour this knight beareth (for I tell you, it is the coate of a knight), that your soueraine might know him by his signes of honour, sith that perchaunce you know not his name. "_Torq._ Me thinkes hee beareth Sable, a Musion[290] passaunt gardaunt Or, oppressed with a frett gules, of eight parts, nayles d'argent. [Illustration: _The cutter hath not done his duety._[291] _Ignorance bringeth rash judgements of Armes, and signes honourable._] "_Columel._ Iesa zir: call you this Armes? Now by my vaye, chad thought Armes should not have been of zutche trifling thinges. Why, this is euen the cat in the milke-house window. Full ill will her dayrie thriue, giffe she put zutch a vermine beast in trust to keepe it. "_Torq._ I am iust of thy minde: for thou hast reasoned as profoundly as might be upon so bad a deuise. "_Parad._ I perceaue (_Torq._) as clearkly as you seem to be in armory yet are you far to seeke and must still be taught. This payssaunt's glosse is euen comparable with your blazon: for bad is the best. "_Torq._ I suppose my blazon cannot be amended. [Sidenote: _The true blazon of the former coat._] "_Parad._ Yes, it shall be amended, and your errour also corrected. Did you euer see a fret thus formed before (I mean nayled?) To correct your blazon, learne by this: Hee beareth Sable, a Musion, Or, oppressed with a Troillis G. cloué dargent; for this, which you call a fret, is a lattice, a thing well knowne to poore prisoners and distressed captiues, which are forced to receaue their breath from heauen at such holes for want of more pleasant windowes, &c." [Sidenote: 1590.] SIR WILLIAM SEGAR is, I believe, the first of our heralds who published on the subject. His 'Book of Honor and Armes,' enlarged and republished in 1602, under the title of 'Honor Military and Ciuill,' relates as its designation implies, not to the art of blazon, but to dignities. His zeal for antiquity, like that of his contemporaries, outruns historical truth, as a proof of which it may be mentioned that he deduces the origin of knighthood from the fabulous Round Table of King Arthur. His work possesses, however, great merit, and exhibits much learning and profound research. Many of his unpublished MSS., genealogical and otherwise, are still extant. Segar, who was of Dutch extraction, was bred a scrivener, and obtained his introduction to the College through the interest of Sir T. Heneage, vice-chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth. Here, at length, his talents raised him to the post of Garter, the _ne plus ultra_ of heraldic ambition. He died in 1633. [Sidenote: 1592.] WILLIAM WYRLEY, author of 'The Trve Vse of Armorie,' is the next heraldric author who had any official connexion with the College of Arms, in which establishment he rose, however, no higher than the degree of a pursuivant. He was a gentleman by birth, a native of Staffordshire, and died in 1618. He did not confine his attention to heraldry, but studied antiquities at large: his collections he bequeathed to the College. The 'Trve Vse,' his only published work, is a scarce quarto of 162 pages, and is freer from the irrelevant rubbish which blemishes most of the treatises of this century than any one which preceded it, or any one which for a long time subsequently issued from the press. Sir W. Dugdale makes great use of this work in his 'Ancient Usage of bearing Arms,' 1681, and in return somewhat ungratefully, robs Wyrley of the honour of its authorship, ascribing it, upon hearsay evidence, to Sampson Erdeswicke, the historian of Staffordshire. We now come to a name which has shed more lustre upon the office of the herald and the science of heraldry than any other our country has produced--that of the justly-celebrated WILLIAM CAMDEN. Any biographical notice, however brief, of so eminent a personage seems almost uncalled for in these narrow pages. It will be sufficient, for the sake of uniformity, merely to mention a few particulars respecting him. This laborious antiquary and historian was born in London in 1551, and received his education first at Christ's Hospital and St. Paul's School, and afterwards at Oxford. He quitted the University in 1570, and made the tour of England. At the early age of twenty-four he became second master of Westminster School; and while performing the duties of that office devoted his leisure to the study of British antiquities. Here, after ten years' labour, he matured his great work, the 'Britannia,' which was first published in 1586. Four years previously to its publication he visited many of the eastern and northern counties, for the purpose of making a personal investigation of their antiquities. The 'Britannia' immediately brought him into notice, and he lived to enjoy the proud gratification of seeing it in its sixth edition. It was written in elegant Latin, and in that language passed through several of its earlier editions, the first English version having been made, probably with the author's assistance, by Dr. Philemon Holland, in 1610. This great national performance, which Bishop Nicholson quaintly styles "the common sun whereat our modern writers have all lighted their little torches," has been so highly esteemed in all subsequent times, that it has been many times reprinted. The last edition is the greatly enlarged one of Gough. In 1589 the bishop of Salisbury presented him with a prebend in his cathedral, which he retained till his death; and in 1597, the office of Clarenceux king of arms becoming vacant, he was advanced to that dignity. After his establishment in the College he published several emended editions of The 'Britannia,' 'The Annals of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth,' 'An Account of the celebrated Persons interred in Westminster Abbey,' and that very interesting little volume, 'Remaines concerning Britaine,' which, as he tells us, was composed of the fragments of a projected work of greater extent, which his want of leisure prevented his executing. All these works, except the last, were written in Latin, a language for which he had so great a predilection, that he even compiled pedigrees in it. As an antiquary, Camden deserves the highest praise; as an historian, he is charged with partiality towards the character of the virgin queen; and as a herald, he was confessedly unequal to some of his contemporaries. In the latter capacity he was much indebted to Francis Thynne, or Botteville, Blanch Lion pursuivant, and afterwards Lancaster herald, of whom Anthony a Wood gives a high character. Camden was concerned with that delightful old chronicler, Holinshed, in the production of his famous work. He was mainly instrumental in the formation of the original Society of Antiquaries, whose discourses have been printed by Hearne. He was a great admirer of the father of English poetry, and contributed many additions to Speght's edition of his works. He left many unpublished MSS. amongst which was a 'Discourse of Armes,' addressed to Lord Burghley. The last years of his life were spent in retirement at the village of Chislehurst, co. Kent, where he died in 1623, in the 73d year of his age. RALPH BROOKE, Rouge Croix pursuivant, and York herald, was contemporary with Camden and his violent adversary. His skill as a herald has rarely been questioned, but his whole career exhibits the character of a petulant, envious, mean, and dishonest person. He pretended to be a descendant of the antient family of Brooke of Cheshire; but it is unfortunate for his pretensions that his father's name was not Brooke, but _Brokesmouth_. He was bred to the trade of a painter-stainer, and became free of that company in 1576. How he obtained his introduction to the College does not appear, though it is certain that it would have been better, both for himself and that body, had he never entered it. Noble characterizes him as "so extremely worthless and perverse that his whole mind seemed bent to malice and wickedness:" unawed by virtue or by station, none were secure from his unmerited attacks. His enmity towards Camden arose out of the circumstance of the antiquary's having been appointed, on the demise of Richard Lee, to the office of Clarenceux, to which, from a long connexion with the College, and greater professional knowledge, he considered himself entitled; and it is but justice to admit that he certainly had some ground for complaint, though the mode in which he chose to give vent to his spleen cannot be defended. Camden's great work, the 'Britannia,' had passed through several editions unimpeached as to its general accuracy, when Brooke endeavoured to bring its well-deserved popularity into contempt by a work entitled 'A Discoverie of certaine Errours published in print in the much-commended Britannia,' a production overflowing with personal invective. To this spiteful book Camden replied in Latin, treating his opponent with the scorn he deserved, exposing his illiteracy, and at the same time adroitly waiving such of the charges as were really well founded. Never was reviewer more severely reviewed. 'A second Discoverie of Errours' followed, and, as it remained unanswered, Brooke might in some sort have claimed a triumph, particularly as Camden, recognizing the maxim "Fas est ab hoste doceri," availed himself, in the subsequent editions of the 'Britannia,' of his adversary's corrections. In 1619 Brooke published a 'Catalogue and Succession of Kings, Princes, and Nobilitie since the Norman Conquest,' a work of considerable merit, though it did not escape censure, for Vincent, Rouge Croix, an adherent of Camden, in a 'Discovery of Errors,' printed three years afterwards, controverted many of its statements. Brooke still continued his paltry and litigious proceedings, and was twice suspended from his office; and it was even attempted to expel him from the College.[292] He closed his unenviable life in 1625, and was buried in the twin-towered church of Reculver, co. Kent, where a mural monument informs us that "quit of worldly miseries, Ralph Brooke, Esq., late York herald, lies. Fifteenth October he was last alive, One thousand six hundred and twenty-five Seaventy three years bore he fortune's harmes, And forty-five an officer of armes," &c. ROBERT GLOVER, Somerset, temp. Elizabeth, wrote a treatise entitled 'Nobilitas Politica vel Civilis,' which was posthumously published in 1608, the author having died in 1588. He was a most learned and industrious herald, and his authority in genealogy and heraldry is much relied on by the officers of arms of the present day. His MSS. are in the library of the College. In 1610 appeared 'The Catalogue of Honour, or Treasury of true Nobility peculiar and proper to the Isle of Great Britaine,' by Thomas Milles, esq. of Davington-hall, co. Kent. This large folio of eleven hundred pages is professedly a compilation from the MSS. of Glover, to whom Mr. Milles was nephew; and although reliance is not to be placed upon all its statements, it constitutes a remarkable monument of the persevering labour and research of that herald. EDMUND BOLTON, a retainer of Villiers, duke of Buckingham, was author of several works. His principal heraldric composition is a small volume entitled the 'Elements of Armouries,' to which are prefixed commendatory epistles by Segar and Camden, honourable testimonies of its merit. In his remarks upon the lines of partition, &c. he displays more geometrical than heraldric knowledge. His religious opinions are discovered by his wish for a new crusade. His style is highly pedantic, and the reader would scarcely thank me for a specimen. JOHN GUILLIM (Rouge Dragon pursuivant in 1617, in which office he died in 1621,) was of Welsh extraction, and a native of Herefordshire. His 'Display of Heraldrie,' one of the most popular of heraldric treatises, has passed through numerous editions. Anthony a Wood asserts that the real author of it was John Barkham, rector of Bocking in Kent, who composed it in the early part of his life, and afterwards thinking it somewhat inconsistent with his profession to publish a work on arms, communicated the manuscript to Guillim, who gave it to the world with his own name. What authority Wood had for this assertion does not appear, but from the erudition displayed in the work, it is evidently not the production of a very young man; and besides this, in the dedication to the king, Guillim himself does not hesitate to claim the merit of originality, for he says "I am the first who brought a method into this heroic art." It is remarkable that three of the most celebrated books on our science, namely those of Dame J. Berners, William Wyrley, and John Guillim, should have been ascribed to other parties than those under whose names they have gone forth to the world. The highly complimentary verses prefixed to this volume by Guillim's seniors in office can hardly be supposed to have been written to sanction a fiction in allowing him the merit of another's labours.[293] The eulogium of one G. Belcher not only commends the work in the highest terms, but, after enumerating the several authors who had written on the same subject, namely Wynkenthewordius,[294] Leghus, Boswell, Fernus, and Wyrleius, adds "At tu præ cæteris _Guillime_." The 'Display' may fairly claim to be considered the first methodical and intelligent view of heraldry published in England; and the addition of the name of the family to every coat of arms cited as an example (which in all earlier treatises is wanting) has conduced as much as its intrinsic merit to give to Guillim's book the popularity it enjoys.[295] HENRY PEACHAM (whose name is more familiar to the non-heraldric reader than those of most other armorists of early date, in consequence of Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, referring exclusively to him as an authority for terms of blazonry,) wrote 'The Compleat Gentleman,' which professes to treat of every necessary accomplishment befitting that character, and of course, among other things, "of armorie or the blazon of armes." The 13th chapter, devoted to this subject, is a compendious and scientific production. 'The Compleat Gentleman' was one of the most popular books of its time, and between 1622 and 1661 passed through six editions. In 1630 Peacham published another work called 'The Gentleman's Exercise, or an exquisite practise as well for drawing all manner of beasts in their true portraitures, as also the making of all kinds of colours to be used in lymming, painting, tricking and blazon of coates and armes, with diuers others most delightfull and pleasurable obseruations for all yong Gentlemen and others.' The two MARKHAMS, Gervase and Francis, were brothers, and flourished in the early part of this century. The former republished the Boke of St. Albans, under the title of 'The Gentleman's Academy;' and the latter wrote a 'Booke of Honour,' one of the dullest of books upon a very dull subject. The 'Titles of Honour' of the celebrated SELDEN demands for him a place among heraldric authors.[296] Hitherto, a review of our sixteenth and seventeenth century armorists presents us with the names of men of erudition or of professional heralds, but another class of authors now occasionally demands, each in his turn, a passing remark. This is composed of the persons, who, possessed of few qualifications beyond a knowledge of the technicalities of blazon and an ardent zeal in the pursuit, have ventured to add to the already extensive stock of heraldric lore. The earliest writer of the class alluded to is JAMES YORKE, the Blacksmith of Lincoln, who in 1640 published 'The Union of Honovr,' containing the arms, matches, and descents of the nobility from the Conquest. Appended to it are the arms of the gentry of Lincolnshire, and an account of all the battles fought by the English. It is dedicated to Charles I; and there is also an epistle dedicatory to Henry, son and heir of Thomas, earl of Arundel, earl-marshal, in which Yorke very candidly avows his lack of erudition. "My education," says he, "hath made me but just so much a Scholler as to feele and know my want of learning." He hopes, however, that his noble patron will find the work "decent." "I undertooke it not for vaine-glory, nor assume the credit of mine authours to my selfe, onely am proud nature inclin'd me to so Noble a study: _long was I forging and hammering it to this perfection_, and now present it to your Lordship, as a _master-piece, not yet matched by any of my trade_." In his address to the courteous reader he expresses his apprehensions that "some will _smutch_ his labours with a scorne of his profession." There was, however, little to fear on this head, for the book is really a very '_decent_' production. Fuller includes Yorke among the 'Worthies' of Lincolnshire, and gives the following quaint account of him and his work:--"James Yorke, a blacksmith of Lincoln, and an excellent workman in his profession, insomuch that if Pegasus himself would wear shoes, this man alone is fit to make them, contriving them so thin and light, as that they would be no burden to him. But he is a servant as well of Apollo as Vulcan, turning his Stiddy into a Study, having lately set forth a Book of Heraldry, called the _Union of Honour, &c._ and although there be some mistakes (no hand so steady as always _to hit the nail on the head_) yet it is of singular use, and industriously performed, being set forth _anno_ 1640." The plain common-sense of our unlettered blacksmith presents a singular contrast to the inflated and bombastic style of EDWARD WATERHOUSE, a gentleman, and a man of education, who, twenty years later, published 'A Discourse and Defense of Armory.' Anthony a Wood speaks of this writer and of his works in terms of the highest contempt, characterizing the former as "a cock-brained man," and the latter as "rhapsodical, indigested and whimsical." Dallaway says, "The most severe satyrist whose intention might be to bring the study of heraldry into contempt could not have succeeded better than this author, who strove to render it fashionable by connecting it with the most crude conceits and endless absurdities." Waterhouse is supposed to have contributed the principal portion of the two works published under the name of SYLVANUS MORGAN, an arms-painter of London. The character of this last-named author must have been already inferred from the quotations I have made from his works. The ponderous volume, entitled 'The Sphere of Gentry,' and its successor, 'Armilogia, or the Language of Armes,' may be safely pronounced two of the most absurd productions of the English press. That the former contains much useful information is proved by the eagerness with which it is sought after in the formation of an heraldrical library; but this is so overlaid with crude, unconnected, and irrelevant jargon, that although I have had the volume many times upon my table, I never could muster the patience to read three consecutive pages of it. Of the 'Armilogia,' we are told on the title-page that it is "_a work never yet extant_!" This volume has the imprimatur of Sir E. Walker and Sir W. Dugdale, kings of arms; but, singularly enough, the terms of the license are so disparaging that the printer has very judiciously placed it on the last page; for had it been on the first, no _judicious_ reader would have proceeded beyond it. "In this book are such strange conceits and wild fancies, that I do not know of what advantage the printing of it can be to any that soberly desires to be instructed in the true knowledge of arms,"--is one of the severe things said of it by Dugdale. Morgan died in 1693, at the age of 73. He seems to have been countenanced by the members of the College of Arms. Gibbon, Bluemantle, who knew him well, describes him as "a witty man, full of fancy [too full], very agreeable company ... and the prince of arms-painters."[297] Almost equal to Camden, in a literary point of view, and perhaps his superior in his qualifications as a herald, stands the name of SIR WILLIAM DUGDALE. Independently of his great works, 'The Baronage of England,' and the 'Monasticon,' his 'Antiquities of Warwickshire,' and 'History of St. Paul's Cathedral,' would have served to hand down his name to posterity among the literary worthies of his country. Sir William died in 1685, at the age of 80 years, nearly thirty-two of which he was a member of the College of Arms, having passed through all the gradations of office to the post of Garter, king of arms. It would be supererogatory, even if I had space, to give the simplest outline of his life, by no means an uneventful one; as his memoirs have been often written, and are accessible to every reader. ELIAS ASHMOLE (1617-1692), the friend and son-in-law of Dugdale, was the son of a tradesman of Litchfield. His talents, which were of the most versatile order,[298] raised him into notice and procured him many offices of honour and trust, among which was that of Windsor herald. This situation he obtained at the restoration of Charles II, and resigned, from motives of jealousy, in 1676. His great work is the 'History of the Order of the Garter.' He was an eminent collector of rarities, and founded the Museum at Oxford which bears his name. FRANCIS SANDFORD, Esq., Lancaster, published, besides several other works of great value, 'A Genealogical History of the Kings of England,' one of the most lordly tomes that ever appeared in connexion with our subject. It was originally published in 1677, and was reprinted in 1707. It is well executed, and Charles II pronounced it "a very useful book." The fine plates, by Hollar and others, of the royal arms, seals, and monuments, with which it is embellished, give it charms to a larger circle than that which includes the mere students of heraldry. In 1688 appeared decidedly the most curious heraldric treatise ever printed. I mean Randle Holme's 'Academie of Armory, or a Storehouse of Armory and Blazon.' Mr. Moule characterizes it as "a most heterogeneous and extraordinary composition, which may be well denominated a Pantalogia. The author was not a learned man, nor has he adopted any systematic arrangement of its multifarious contents, but he has contrived to amass in this _storehouse_ a vast fund of curious information upon every branch of human knowledge, such as is not to be found in any other work, and of a nature peculiarly adapted to the illustration of the manners and customs of our predecessors, from the highest rank to the lowest menial." It is one of the scarcest of books, there being, according to Mr. Moule, not more than fifty copies in the kingdom. It will be interesting to the general reader to know that "Dr. Johnson confessed, with much candour, that the Address to the Reader at the end of this book suggested the idea of his own inimitable preface to his Dictionary."[299] The volume, a large folio, is illustrated by numerous plates of objects borne as charges in arms, as well as many that never entered the field of heraldry. "The author's object," says Mr. Ormerod, "appears to have been the formation of a kind of encyclopædia in an heraldic form."[300] To give the merest outline of the subjects treated would occupy many pages; suffice it to say that every imaginable created being, spiritual and corporeal; every science and pseudo-science; every gradation of rank, from the 'emperour' with the ceremonies of his coronation, to the butcher and barber, with the implements of their trades; hunters' terms and the seven deadly sins; palmistry and the seven cardinal virtues; grammar and cockfighting; poverty and the sybils; an essay on time, and bricklayers' tools; glass-painting and billiards; architecture and wrestling; languages and surgery; tennis and theology, all find a place in this compendium, and are all adorned with "very proper cuts," in copper. I have had the good fortune to procure a copy of this amusing work. It has, opposite the title, an engraving containing the external ornaments of a coat of arms, the coat and crest being neatly inserted in pen-drawing. Beneath is the following in letter-press, except the line in italics, which is MS.: "The Coat and Crest of The ever Honoured and Highly Esteemed _S{r}. James Poole of Poole, Baronett_: To whom this First Volume of the Book Entituled The Academy of Armory is most humbly Dedicated and presented, from him who is devoted yours RANDLE HOLME." This was probably a compliment paid to every subscriber, and it displays, as Mr. Moule observes, the finest illustration extant of the "oeconomy of flattery." The following extract will give an idea of a large proportion of the contents of this famous 'Storehouse,' which, like many other storehouses, holds much that is of very little value. Honest Randle blazons one of his fictitious bearings for the purpose of introducing the names of the implements and terms employed by that useful personage the barber. "LVII. He beareth Argent a =Barber bare headed=, with a =pair of Cisers= in his right hand, and a =Comb= in his left, =cloathed= in Russet, his =Apron Chequé= of the first and Azure, &c. "_Instruments of a Barber._ The instrument case, in which are placed these following things in their several divisions: The glass or seeing glass. A set of horn combs, with teeth on one side, and wide. A set of ivory combs with fine teeth, and toothed on both sides. An ivory beard comb. A four square bottle with a screw'd head for sweet water, or Benjamin water, &c. The like bottle with sweet powder in; but this is now not used. A row of razors, &c. &c." Then follow "TERMS OR ART _used in Barbing and Shaving_ (!!!) _Take the chair_, is for the person to be trimmed to sit down. _Clear the neck_, is to unbutton and turn down the collar of the man's neck. _Cloath him_, is to put a trimming cloth before him, and to fasten it about his neck. _Powder the hair_, is to puff sweet powder into it. _Walk your combs_, is to use two combs, in each hand one, and so comb the hair with one after the other. _Quever the combs_, is to use them as if they were scratting on each side the temples. _Curle up the hair_, is to rowle it about a pair of curling or beard irons, and thrust it under the cap. _Lather the face_, is to wash the beard with the suds which the ball maketh by chaffing it in the warm water. _Hand the razor_, set it in a right order between the thumb and fingers. _Shave the beard_, is to take off superfluous hairs. _Hold him the glass_, to see his new made face, and to give the barber instruction where it is amiss. _Take off the linnens._ _Brush his cloaths._ _Present him with his hat_, and according to his hire, he makes a bow, with your humble servant, Sir."[301]. But, although the 'Academy of Armory' abounds in passages equally useless and totally irrelevant of the subject of arms, it must be acknowledged to contain a great body of information which, at a time when Encyclopædias were unknown, must have been of considerable utility.[302] ALEXANDER NISBET, Gent. appears at the beginning of the 18th century as an heraldric writer. In 1702 he published 'An Essay on Additional Figures and Marks of Cadency;' in 1718, 'An Essay on the Ancient and Modern Use of Armories;' and in 1722, 'A System of Heraldry,' which are all characterized by great intelligence and research. In the preface to his 'System' he tells us, in a style bordering upon the egotistical, yet in perfect accordance with truth, "Though I have not been able to overtake some things in the system of Heraldry as I first intended, yet I have explained the true art of Blazon in a more ample, regular, and distinct manner than anything I have ever yet seen on the subject." Nisbet's illustrations are principally drawn from Scottish heraldry, and he must be acknowledged to occupy a very high, if not the first, place among his countrymen in this department of literature. JOHN ANSTIS, a gentleman of fortune, was born at St. Neot's, co. Cornwall. He sat for St. Germains in the first parliament of Queen Anne, and was afterwards elected for Launceston. He was a strenuous Tory, and, being attached to heraldrical pursuits, obtained a reversionary patent for the office of Garter, king of arms. On the accession of George I, he was imprisoned under the suspicion of a design to restore the Stuarts. At this critical time the office of Garter becoming vacant, he petitioned for it in 1717, and received his appointment the following year. He wrote many works relating to heraldry, and edited 'The Register of the Garter,' with an introduction and notes. "In him," says Noble, "were joined the learning of Camden, and the industry, without the inaccuracy, of Dugdale; he was a most indefatigable and able Herald, and though he lived to the age of seventy-six, yet we wonder at the greatness of his productions."[303] He died in 1744. Glover, Brooke, Vincent, Dugdale, and others had long since paid much attention to the genealogy of the noble families of this country, when ARTHUR COLLINS, Esq. projected a more complete account of existing houses in his afterwards celebrated 'Peerage.' This work, which first appeared in 1709 in a single octavo of 470 pages, was augmented in successive editions, until the last, edited by Sir Egerton Brydges in 1812, reached the goodly number of nine volumes. This work is too well known to require the slightest eulogium. In 1720 he published the first edition of his valuable 'Baronetage,' and subsequently one volume of a 'Baronage,' and several independent family histories. Upon the whole, Collins was one of the most laborious of writers; and none but those who have paid some attention to the construction of genealogies can fully appreciate his industry and research. Collins was born in 1682, and died in 1760. The reigns of the first two Georges produced many other writers on subjects connected with heraldry and titular honours, including (I) Kent and Coats, and (II) Crawfurd on the 'Peerage of Scotland,' Wotton on the 'English Baronetage,' the learned Madox on 'Land-honours and Baronies,' and the indefatigable _Mr. Salmon_. During the same period also appeared innumerable volumes on the genealogies of our royal and noble families. JOSEPH EDMONDSON, F.S.A. (author of 'Baronagium Genealogicum,' 1764, and 'A Complete Body of Heraldry,' 1780,) was of humble parentage. Becoming a herald-painter, that pursuit led his naturally inquisitive genius to the study of heraldry and family history, and the two works referred to are sufficient monuments of his assiduity in both. His merits raised him to the office of Mowbray Herald Extraordinary, but even after his appointment to that honour, he continued his business as a coach-painter, thus uniting the seemingly discordant avocations, science and trade. He died in 1786. The 'Baronagium' consists of five folio volumes, and contains the pedigrees of the peers, originally drawn up by Sir W. Segar, enlarged and continued to 1764. The 'Complete Body' is in two volumes folio, and must be regarded as the great standard work on the subject of English heraldry. It contains numerous dissertations on the origin and history of the science, on the great offices of state, on the heralds, on knighthood, on the arms of corporate bodies, on blazon in all its departments, an alphabet of 50,000 coats of arms, and various other interesting matters. The celebrated Sir Joseph Ayloffe assisted the author in both these works. Edmondson possessed what was somewhat rare in his day--_good taste_ on the subject of blazon. He animadverts with becoming asperity on the ridiculous landscape-painting which disfigures some modern arms and augmentations, and justly remarks that the "several charges they contain, puts it out of the power of a very good herald to draw new arms from their blazons." On the subject of crests he adds, "Crests are objects intended to strike the beholder at a distance," and then produces the instance of a crest lately granted to the family of Titlow: "a book, on the book a silver penny! and on the penny the Lord's Prayer!! and on the top of the book a dove, holding in its beak a crow-quill pen!!!"[304] FRANCIS GROSE, Esq., F.S.A., held the office of Richmond herald, but resigned it in 1763 to become paymaster of the Hampshire militia. His numerous antiquarian works are well known; but I am not aware that he contributed anything towards the advancement of heraldric literature. RALPH BIGLAND, Esq., Somerset, and at length Garter, published in 1764 a very curious and useful book on Parochial Registers. He made large collections for a History of Gloucestershire, which were posthumously published by his son. He died in 1784. The Rev. JAMES DALLAWAY, A.M. F.S.A., &c. obtained a well-deserved celebrity as the author of 'Inquiries into the Origin and Progress of Heraldry in England,' published in 1793. This learned and elegant work traces the history of our science from its source in the feudal ages to his own times; and has the merit of having made attractive to the general reader a subject from which he had hitherto turned away in disgust. Moule compares its style to that of Tacitus. A new edition, with additional literary illustrations and more appropriate embellishments, appears to me to be a desideratum. The Rev. MARK NOBLE, F.S.A., rector of Barming, co. Kent, wrote, besides several other works, 'Memoirs of the House of Cromwell,' and 'A History of the College of Arms,' with lives of all the officers from Richard III to the year 1805. The value of the latter production is generally acknowledged, though Mr. Moule accuses the author of partiality in the biographical department. To this work I am under great obligations, particularly for many of the materials of Chapter XI of this volume. THOMAS BRYDSON, F.S.A., Edinburgh, published in 1795 'A Summary View of Heraldry, in reference to the usages of chivalry and the general economy of the feudal system,'--an agreeable and intelligent work, which will be read with much interest by those who study our science _historically_. About the same time, a lady--for the first time I think since the days of Dame Julyan Berners--makes her appearance in the field of heraldric literature: 'Historical Anecdotes of Heraldry and Chivalry, by a Lady.' This work, which was published at Worcester, is generally attributed to a Mrs. Dobson, and abounds with curious information relative to the acquisition of particular coats of arms.[305] SIR EGERTON BRYDGES, Bart., wrote several works on the peerage, particularly 'A Biographical Peerage of Great Britain,' and edited Collins's voluminous and popular work. The anonymous volume on the 'Historical and Allusive Arms' of British Families, noticed at page 162, is ascribed to Colonel De la Motte. It appeared in 1803. The Rev. W. BETHAM, of Stonham-Aspall, Suffolk, published 'Genealogical Tables' of the sovereigns of the world, and an elaborate 'Baronetage,' in five volumes, 4to, (1805.) T. C. BANKS, Esq., between 1807 and 1816, produced several works of great importance, particularly 'The Dormant and Extinct Baronage of England,' an elaborate and spiritedly-written work. In 1809 appeared that most voluminous work, 'British Family Antiquity,' a genealogical view of the titled classes of the United Kingdom, in nine vols. 4to, by W. PLAYFAIR, Esq. JOSEPH HASLEWOOD, Esq., celebrated for his vast bibliographical knowledge, reprinted in 1810 the treatises on hawking, hunting, coat-armour, &c., known as the 'Boke of St. Albans,' from the edition of W. de Worde, 1496. Mr. Haslewood's edition is printed in black letter with fac-simile cuts, and is designated by Mr. Moule "one of the choicest specimens of printing which have issued from the modern press." Mr. W. BERRY, the compiler of several minor works, published in 1825, and following years, his 'Encyclopædia Heraldica,' 4 vols. 4to, including dictionaries of the technical terms of heraldry and of family bearings. Of the latter there are 90,000 examples. Mr. Berry has subsequently published a series of volumes containing tabular pedigrees of the principal families (contributed in part by the resident gentry) of Kent, Sussex, Hants, Surrey, Bucks, Berks, Essex, and Herts, under the general title of 'County Genealogies.' Some severe criticisms on one of the early volumes of this work, in the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' induced the editor to commence proceedings in the Court of King's Bench against the conductor of that periodical for a libel. In 1830 appeared another large compilation, entitled Robson's 'British Herald.' It was published at Sunderland, in three vols. 4to. It contains the arms of many of the gentry of Scotland and the Northern Counties of England, which are not to be found in any previous work. In 1822, THOMAS MOULE, Esq., published 'Bibliotheca Heraldica,' a catalogue of all the works that have appeared on heraldry and kindred subjects in this country. To this highly useful publication I am greatly indebted. In 1842 Mr. Moule published a beautiful and interesting volume entitled 'The Heraldry of Fish,' containing notices of all the charges "with fin or shell" which occur in the arms of English families, with excellent illustrations on wood. "Within the last twenty years," observes Mr. Montagu, "there have been published some of the very best works that have ever appeared, connected with the subject of heraldry, and its kindred science, genealogy." I much regret my inability to do justice to living and to recently deceased authors in this department of literary effort. In this book-teeming age it would be laborious merely to name all the persons who have written on the subject within the last few years. It will suffice for my purpose to mention some of those who stand _præ cæteris_, either in the intrinsic merit or the magnitude of their productions. SIR HARRIS NICOLAS has rendered essential service to the heraldric student by the publication of several rolls of arms of early date and unquestionable authenticity; namely, those of temp. Henry III, Edw. I (Carlaverok), Edw. II, and Edw. III; and a splendid 'History of the Orders of Knighthood of the British Empire,' in four 4to volumes. The late G. F. BELTZ, Esq., Lancaster Herald, a gentleman of extensive antiquarian research, published an interesting work, entitled 'Memorials of the Order of the Garter.' THOMAS WILLEMENT, Esq. who combines with the research of the antiquary the skill of the artist, has produced, 'Regal Heraldry,' 'Heraldic Notices of Canterbury Cathedral,' and some additional rolls of arms, viz. temp. Rich. II and Hen. VIII. Mr. MONTAGU'S 'Guide to the Study of Heraldry,' evinces a profound knowledge of the subject, and is elegantly written. In addition to these works of general reference, several volumes of great local interest have appeared, particularly several county visitations; among which may be noticed the Visitations of Durham, 1575 and 1615; the former edited by N. J. Philipson, Esq., F.S.A., and the latter by Sir Cuthbert Sharp and J. B. Taylor, Esq.; and Middlesex, 1663, printed at the expense of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart. Sir Thomas has also printed, at his own press at Middle Hill, those of Wiltshire, 1623; Somersetshire, 1623; and Cambridgeshire, 1619. In the genealogical department two classes of works of modern date possess great value, namely, _County Histories_, such as Baker's Northamptonshire, Surtees's Durham, Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, and Ormerod's Cheshire; and _Family Histories_, of which Rowland's History of the House of Neville, and Shirley's 'Stemmata Shirleiana,' are splendid examples. Mr. Drummond's 'Histories of Noble Families' bids fair to do honour to the author, the subject, and the age. That the Messrs. Burke are indefatigable in the heraldric field, their Existing and Extinct Peerages, Baronetages, 'History of the Landed Gentry,' 'General Armory,' &c. give ample proof. Of other books of reference relating to the titled orders, the press is annually pouring out a quantity which sufficiently proves the estimation in which the aristocracy of this country is held. In fine, the 'Archæologia,' the 'Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica,' and that veteran periodical, the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' contain innumerable papers of great interest and value to the student of genealogy. [Illustration] CHAPTER XIII. Genealogy. "I must not give up my attachment to Genealogy, and everything relating to it, because it is the greatest spur to noble and gallant actions." _Rev. Mark Noble._ "It is a reverend thing to see an ancient castle or building not in decay; or to see a fair timber-tree sound and perfect; how much more to behold an ancient noble Family which hath stood against the waves and weathers of time?" _Bacon. Of Nobility._ A passion for deducing a descent from the most remote progenitor of a family appears to be inherent in mankind; for we trace its existence in all ages, and in almost every state of society. The Hebrews, the oldest historical people in the world, entertained this feeling in a degree perhaps unparalleled in any nation. The Egyptians, Greeks, Scythians, Phrygians, and Romans claimed a very high, though probably a very much exaggerated, antiquity. Alexander claimed descent from Jupiter Ammon; Cæsar's pedigree was traced without an hiatus to Venus; Arthur's to Brutus; Hengist's to Woden! The English peer views with complacency the muster-roll of departed generations, which connects him with Charlemagne or the Plantagenets. The democratic American is proud if perchance he bears the name of a stock renowned in the annals of Fatherland; and even the plebeian Berkeley or Neville of busy London walks a little more erect as he tells you that his great-grandfather came from the same county where dwells the coronetted aristocrat who bears his patronymic! The love of a distinguished ancestry is universal. The credibility of genealogy depends, like that of every thing else, upon the nature of the evidence by which it is supported. I have met with persons who could not trace their lineage beyond their grandfather; but such instances are rare; for the oral traditions of a family, even in middle life, generally ascend to about the fifth generation, or a century and a half: beyond that all is obscurity. If we go to documents, such as parish registers, monumental inscriptions, and court-rolls, numerous families may be traced 300 years with absolute certainty. An hereditary title or an entailed patrimony carries families of higher pretensions still further; and antient wills, genealogical tables, and the public records lead an exclusive few back to the glorious days of Cressy, to the Norman Conquest, or even to the times of the Edreds and the Edwys. That this antiquity is of the utmost rarity will appear from the data given below. "At present," observes Mr. Grimaldi,[306] "there are few English families who pretend to a higher antiquity than the Norman Invasion; and it is probable that not many of these can authenticate their pretensions." The claim to such an honour, as has just been intimated, is well founded in some families. The Ashburnham pedigree, for instance, is carried two generations higher than 1066; and the family still reside on the spot from whence, at the commencement of the eleventh century, their great ancestor derived his surname. The Shirleys have dwelt upon their estate of Lower Eatington, co. Warwick, uninterruptedly for eight centuries from the time of Edward the Confessor. In Collins's Peerage (edit. Brydges[307]) there is an abstract of the antiquity of the nobility, from which it appears that out of the 249 peers, 35 could trace their descent beyond the Conquest: 49 beyond the year 1100 29 " " 1200 32 " " 1300 26 " " 1400 17 " " 1500 26 " " 1600 30 " " 1700 Mr. Grimaldi has ably illustrated the sources from which, and from which only, the genealogies of English families can be derived, in his 'Origines Genealogicæ,' and any one who will take the pains to consult that curious work may easily convince himself of the futility of attempting to trace pedigrees beyond the periods adverted to. Yet there was a time when the most ridiculous notions prevailed respecting the antiquity of some of our great houses. The royal family were traced in a direct line to the fabulous Brutus, a thousand years before the Christian era; the Cecils pretended to be of Roman origin, and the house of Vaux deduced themselves from the kings of the Visigoths. Many Welsh families went farther, and carried up their pedigree as far as it could well be carried, namely, to Adam! The Scottish and Irish families pretended to an equal antiquity. This taste in the nations descending from a common Celtic stock was probably derived from the bards of antient times, whose office consisted in the recital of the heroic deeds of mighty ancestors. The splendid history of the family of Grace, drawn from a great variety of antient sources, by Sheffield Grace, Esq., F.S.A., contains some of the finest possible specimens of fictitious genealogy. The family is traced, in the male line, to the time of Alfred, and through some female lines to the founder of the human race himself. The pedigree of O'More begins with "God the Father, &c., who was from all eternity [and who] did, in the beginning of time, of nothing create red earth, and of red earth framed Adam, and of a rib out of the side of Adam fashioned Eve; after which creation, plasmatation and formation succeeded generation." The pedigree is regularly deduced through Adam, Noah, Nilus, and the kings of Scythia to Milesius, who conquered Spain and settled in Ireland. Thence through Cu Chogry O'More, king of Seix, and M{c}Murrough, king of Leinster, in the time of our Henry II, to Anthony O'More, dynast or sovereign of Seix, whose daughter married Sir Oliver Grace about the year 1450! Considering the vast number of individuals who in the course of a few ages proceed from a common parent, and taking into account the mutations to which families are subject, it is not surprising that the "high" are often found to be "descended from the low, and, contrariwise, the low from the high." I know a comparatively obscure country gentleman who can (by the most undeniable evidences) prove his descent through three different lines from William the Conqueror, and consequently from the Northman Rollo, the founder of the duchy of Normandy in the tenth century. Two hundred years ago we find some descendants of the line of the Paleologi, emperors of the East, residing in privacy in the little village of Landulph, in Cornwall. In the church of that place there is a small monument to the memory of "Theodoro Paleologus, of Pesaro in Italye, descended from y{e} imperial line of y{e} late Christian emperors of Greece, being the sonne of Camilio, the son of Prosper, the sonne of Theodoro, the sonne of John, y{e} sonne of Thomas, second brother of Constantine Paleologus, the 8th of that name, and last of y{t} line y{t} rayned in Constantinople until subdved by the Turks; who married w{t}. Mary, y{e} daughter of William Balls, of Hadlye in Souffolke, Gent., and had issue 5 children, Theodoro, John, Ferdinando, Maria, and Dorothy, and departed this life at Clyfton, y{e} 21st. of Janu. 1636." Some female descendants of this individual married persons of humble condition in the immediate vicinity of Landulph, and hence, as Mr. Gilbert observes, the imperial blood may still flow in the veins of the bargemen of Cargreen![308] On the other hand, many of our peers descend from tradesmen, and other persons of plebeian condition. Not to meddle with the pedigrees of some of our _Novi Domini_, the earl of Dartmouth descends from a worthy London skinner of the fourteenth century; the earl of Coventry from a mercer of the fifteenth; and Lord Dudley from a goldsmith of the seventeenth. "Genealogy," says Sir Egerton Brydges, "is of little value, unless it discloses matter which teaches the causes of the decay or prosperity of families, and furnishes a lesson of moral wisdom for the direction of those who succeed. When we reflect how soon the fortunes of a house are ruined, not only by vice or folly, but by the least deficience in that cold prudence with which highly endowed minds are so seldom gifted, the long continuance of any race of nobility or gentry seems to take place almost in defiance of probabilities."[309] Persons not conversant with antiquarian researches often express surprise at the possibility of tracing the annals of a family through the long period of five, six, or seven centuries. It may therefore be interesting to mention the principal sources from which genealogical materials are derived. 1. The several records which go under the general name of _Doomsday Books_ constitute, collectively, one of the most valuable monuments possessed by any nation. They contain the name of every landowner, with the value of his estate, and frequently refer to earlier proprietors antecedently to the Conquest. The 'Great Doomsday Book' in the Chapter House, the 'Exon Doomsday,' and the 'Inquisitio Eliensis,' were compiled between 1066 and 1086; the 'Winton Doomsday,' temp. Hen. I; and the 'Boldon Book' in 1183. 2. The next documents in point of antiquity are _Monastic Records_, such as Chartularies, Leiger-Books, Chronicles, Obituaries, Registers of Marriages and Burials, and Abbey Rolls. These usually contain much information for the genealogist, particularly in relation to the founders and benefactors of the respective establishments. Of Abbey Rolls the 'Roll of Battel Abbey' is an eminent example. Its authenticity, however, is extremely doubtful, and we have the authority of Camden for declaring that, "Whosoever considereth it well shall find it always to be forged."[310] It has been asserted that many records of great value were destroyed at the dissolution of the religious houses, and there is probably truth in the allegation; for John Bale, a contemporary observer, writes, that the library books of [some of] the monasteries were reserved by the purchasers of those houses to scour their candlesticks, to rub their boots, and even for still viler uses. Some again, he says, were sold to grocers and soap-sellers, or sent over sea to the book-binders. A merchant bought two noble libraries for forty shillings. Peacham, in his 'Compleat Gentleman,'[311] and several other authors declare that Polydore Vergil, the historian, _burnt_ many of the best and most antient records he could find in the conventual and cathedral libraries;[312] but the learned Italian has been most ably defended against this heavy charge.[313] 3. _Antient Charters_ and Deeds transferring lands, &c. are most excellent authorities for genealogical particulars. Such documents are immensely numerous. By series of these in the muniment-rooms of our nobility and gentry, and other places, both family lines and territorial descent may be clearly established for a great length of time. 4. _Monumental Inscriptions_ are documents of great interest. Many of them are of very high antiquity. That of King Arthur, described by Camden, is, if genuine, more than thirteen centuries old. The legend is, "HIC JACET SEPVLTVS INCLYTVS REX ARTVRIVS IN INSVLA AVALONIA." There are several remains of this description belonging to the Norman period whose genuineness is not questioned. There are two in my own locality; namely, the epitaph on Gundred, wife of William de Warren, and daughter of William the Conqueror (ob. 1085), in the church of Southover, Lewes, and that on Mangnus, a Danish prince of the eleventh or twelfth century, in the wall of St. John sub Castro.[314] Unfortunately _most_ of the monuments of those early times have no inscriptions; so that, without the evidence of concurrent tradition, they can scarcely be regarded as monuments at all. Monumental _brasses_, a most interesting class of memorials, occur from the thirteenth century to the era of the mural tablets now in use. Regular genealogical series of them are sometimes to be found in our country churches. 5. The _Public Records_, many of which have been printed at the national expense, contain an inexhaustible mine for the genealogist and historian. Particulars relating to knights' fees and other feudal matters are found in the 'Black and Red Books of the Exchequer,' the 'Testa de Neville,' the 'Nomina Villarum,' and the 'Hundred Rolls.' These are all of very early date. The fine, charter, close, patent, nona, and numerous other rolls, and particularly the Inquisitiones post mortem[315] and Escheat rolls are rich in materials for pedigrees. Lists of English gentry for certain counties occur temp. Edw. II; and the celebrated list of temp. Hen. VI purports to contain the names of all the gentry in thirty counties. 6. The _Wills_ proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury at Doctors' Commons commence so early as 1383, and those in several of the local registries are of considerable, though not of equal, antiquity. These are of all documents the most confidently to be relied on, containing as they do much information respecting the family-connexions of the testators. From a single will a descent of four generations can frequently be traced. 7. The _Heraldic Records_, gathered from documents no longer extant, are most valuable. The Visitation-books, extending from 1528 to 1687, are in the College of Arms; and there are numerous other collections of pedigrees in public and private MS. libraries. The funeral certificates of the nobility and gentry preserved at the College are most authentic and useful documents, though apparently little known even amongst antiquaries. The following is a specimen: "1578. Sire John Gefferay, knyght, Lord Chief Baron of the quenes majesties exchequer Died at his house in London on Twesday the xiij daye of Maye, and from thense was conveyed to his Maner house at Chettingligh in the County of Sussex & was buryed at the p[ar]ishe churche of Chettingligh the xxij{th} daye of the same monthe A{o}. 1578, he maryed to his fierst wiff Alis doughte{r} & heire aperante to John Apesley of London, gent. & by her had yssue Elizabethe his only doughte{r} and heire; secondly he maryed Mary doughter to George Goringe of Lewis in the county of Sussex, esquier, & by her had no yssue. The offycers of armes that se{r}vid their was Ric. Turpyn alias Windsor and Edmond Knyght alias Chester, herauldes. In Witnes of the truthe of this certyfycatt these [pt=]ies hereunder writen have subscribed their names the xxiij{th} daye of Maye a{o} 1578. (Sign'd) GEORGE GORINGE. W{M}. APSLEY. RICHARD JEFFERAY."[316] 8. Last, though not least, among the aids in tracing pedigrees, are _Parish Registers_. The dispersion of the monks, who had previously been the great register-keepers, gave rise to the necessity of these local records. A mandate was issued in 1538, by Thomas Cromwell, the king's vicar-general, for the keeping, in every parish, of registers of baptisms, marriages, and burials. Many of the existing registers begin with that year, but more generally they commence in 1558, the first year of Elizabeth.[317] Parish registers, when carefully kept, are amongst the most useful of public records. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and in the earlier part of the eighteenth, they are in many instances a sort of chronicles not only of the rites of baptism, marriage, and burial, but also of interesting parochial events; such as fires, unusual mortalities, storms, alterations in the churches, and short remarks on the baptisms or burials of distinguished persons. The following extracts from various registers may not be unamusing to the reader: "_Mr._ Henry Hastings, son & heir of Mr. Francis Hastings, was born on St. Nicholas' even, April 24, between the hours of 10 & 11 of the clock at night. Sign. Sagit. secund. die plenilunii Marte in Taurum intrato die precedente, & was christened May 17." _Eaton, co. Rutland._ "1597. M{m}. forgotten until now, that Edmond Denmark & Alice Smyth were married the 24th. of May, 1584." _Thorington, Essex._ "1618. License to Lady Barbara Hastings to eat flesh in Lent, on account of her great age." _St. Mary, Leicester._ "1643. Richard Snatchall, a stout yong man, a curious blacksmith, died of y{e} small-pox." _Chiddingly, co. Sussex._ "1656. A time of mortality upon the Dicker. Richard Luccas, w{th}out any buriall was buried!" _Ibid._ It would be difficult to say how this was managed. Some of the entries are occasionally very loose. "1658. Buried. Wickens, a lame boy. 1659. A maide of N. M. A maide of R. B." _Ibid._ "An infant crisaned!"--Burials. "A mayde from the mill." "Black John." "A prentice of M{r}. Kirford." "A Tinker of Berye in Suffolk." Vide _Grimaldi's Orig. Geneal._ "Richard Cole and _his wife_ were marryed the xixth. of May 1612. Symon Fuller was marryed the 3rd. of October, 1612." _Alfriston, co. Sussex._ "The son of a mason, buried x Feb. 1593." "Mother Fowler buried 18th. Nov. 1603." "Goody Hilton bur. April 7. 1699." _Ibid._ During the protectorate of Cromwell marriages were solemnized by justices of the peace. The following entry of such a marriage, cited by Mr. Grimaldi, is a curious specimen of magisterial literature: "_Marriadges._ _Begone_ the 30. September, 1653. John Ridgway, _Bricklar_ and Mary Chart _widdow_ according to _a_ Act of Parliament _baringe_ date the 24. August 1653, _was_ three several times _publissed_ in the market-place, and afterwards _maried_ by _mee_ upon Tuesday, the _six_ of December, 1653. "THOMAS ATKIN." "1707. Married William Thunder and Eliz. Horscraft as is reputed but not certainly known _Anab.: Chiddingly._ "1718. M{r}. Thomas Shirley, a young Gentleman of great hopes, who in all probability had he lived longer would have been very useful to his country and neighbours." _Ibid._ "1722. This day were married by M{r}. Holloway, _I think_, a couple _whose names I could never learn_, for he allowed them to carry away the license." _Lincoln's Inn Chapel._ "1705. Buried M{r}. Matt. Hutchinson, vicar of Gilling, worth £50 a year. 1706. M{rs}. Ursula Allen worth £600." _Richmond, co. York._ Many of the entries respecting local events are very curious; but as they belong still less than the foregoing to my subject, I must resist the temptation to transcribe any of them. To these several principal sources of genealogical materials may be added the private memoranda preserved in many families, correspondence, entries in family bibles, and others which it is unnecessary to mention. * * * * * There are some persons who cannot discriminate between the taste for pedigree and the pride of ancestry. Now these two feelings, though they often combine in one individual, have no necessary connexion with each other. Man is said to be a hunting animal. Some hunt for foxes; others for fame or fortune. Others hunt in the intellectual field; some for the arcana of nature and of mind; some for the roots of words or the origin of things. I am fond of hunting out a pedigree. _Parva decent parvum._ Family pride, abstractedly considered, is one of the coarsest feelings of which our nature is susceptible. "Those who on glorious ancestors enlarge, Produce their debt instead of their discharge." A great and wise man among the antients said "----Genus, et proavos, et quæ non fecimus ipsi, Vix ea nostra voco." "The glory of ancestors," says Caius Marius, "casts a light indeed upon their posterity, but it only serves to show what the descendants are. It alike exhibits to full view their degeneracy and their worth." "Boast not the titles of your ancestours, Brave youths! They're _their_ possessions, none of _yours_; When your own virtues equall'd have their names, 'Twill be but fair to lean upon their fames, For they are strong supporters; but, till then, The greatest are but growing gentlemen." _Ben Jonson._ I do not know that I can more appropriately close this last chapter of my essay than by citing a passage from Lord Lindsay's introduction to his 'Lives of the Lindsays,' a passage which entitles its author to as high a place among "virtue's own noblemen" as he deservedly occupies among the great ones of man's creation. "Be grateful, then, for your descent from religious as well as noble ancestors: it is your duty to be so, and this is the only worthy tribute you can now pay to their ashes. Yet, at the same time be most jealously on your guard lest this lawful satisfaction degenerate into arrogance, or a fancied superiority over those nobles of God's creation, who, endowed in other respects with every exalted quality, cannot point to a long line of ancestry. Pride is of all sins the most hateful in the sight of God; and of the proud, who is so mean, who so despicable as he who values himself on the merits of others? And were they all so meritorious, these boasted ancestors? were they all Christians? Remember, remember, if some of them have deserved praise, others have equally merited censure; if there have been "stainless knights," never yet was there a stainless family since Adam's fall. Where, then, is boasting? for we would not I hope glory in iniquity. '=Only the actions of the Just Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.=' "One word more. Times are changed, and in many respects we are blessed with knowledge beyond our fathers, yet we must not on that account deem our hearts purer, or our lives holier, than theirs were. Nor, on the other hand, should we for a moment assent to the proposition, so often hazarded, that the virtues of chivalry are necessarily extinct with the system they adorned. Chivalry, in her purity, was a holy and lovely maiden, and many were the hearts refined and ennobled by her influence; yet she proclaims to us not one virtue that is not derived from and summed up in Christianity. The age of chivalry may be past--the knight may no more be seen issuing from the embattled portal-arch on his barbed charger, his lance glittering in the sun, his banner streaming to the breeze,--but the spirit of chivalry can never die; through every change of external circumstances, through faction and tumult, through trial and suffering, through good report and evil report, still that spirit burns like love, the brighter and purer;--still, even in the nineteenth century, lights up its holiest shrine, the heart of that champion of the widow, that father of the fatherless, that liegeman of his God, his king, and his country, the noble-hearted but lowly-minded Christian gentleman of England." [Illustration] APPENDIX. Differences, Abatements, Grant of Arms, etc. etc. Appendix A. DIFFERENCES. A few remarks upon this interesting branch of Heraldry have been made at p. 43 et seq. This subject is ably discussed by Wyrley, Camden, Dallaway, and others, in their published works, but the following treatise, I have good reason to believe, has never before appeared in print. It is the production of Sir Edward Dering, a representative of the great family of that name in Kent: the author, who enjoyed the friendship of Sir William Dugdale, was knighted 22 Jan. 1618, and created a Baronet 1st Feb. 1626. The only copy of this essay I have seen occurs in a copy of the Visitation of Kent, 1619, transcribed from a MS. of Peter Le Neve, by Hasted, the Kentish Historian, and now in the possession of Mr. J. R. Smith. "VARIATIONS OF THE ARMS IN THE FAMILY OF DERING, BY SIR EDWARD DERING, KNT. AND BART. The differences of Arms by adding small and minute figures as of Crescents, Mullets, Martlets, etc. is neither antient nor could be so: For 300 years since every man of note and family carried in the wars his shield carved and coloured, and his armour painted suitable, and his coat of arms to cover his armour embroidered of the same; besides the caparison of his horse, if so be he served on horseback; you shall have it by example as follows:-- [A rude sketch of a brass of a man in armour with his surcoat of arms is here given, and beneath it-- "This was copied from Pluckley Church, from the gravestone of John Dering, Esq., who dyed August 1550."] The use of all this art was to distinguish and notify the party, and soe his valorous atchievements might be seen and known, when his face was not. The further off and the easier this view could be made, the better; for that concurred to the end for which these signs were taken. Now these petty variations were not to be seen, but when near at hand, requiring a clear light and near approach to make them, and so consequently, the bearers of them, discoverable. In the last battle fought by the famous Earl of Warwicke for K. Henry 6th against K. Edward the 4th, the day grew hopefull for Warwick by the valor of the Earl of Oxford: Oxford's soldiery had his star, or rather mullet, embroidered on their coats--K. Edward's men, saith Speed, the sun; but it was indeed a little white rose, with the rayes of the sun-beams pointing round about it. The day was overcast and foggy; Oxford had made such impression upon the Yorkists, that many fled from the field at Barnet to London, giving out the news that the day was Warwick's. Warwick, intending to perfect the victory over that part of K. Edward's army, came up to Oxford, when, the light being dull with mists, rendered Oxford's badge as big as the king's, the difference in form and colours being but little; so that Warwick's men by mistake let fly at those of Oxford. They seeing Warwick's ragged staff and bear making havock at their backs, whilst they were pressing forward on K. Edward's sun-beams, not knowing or guessing the cause and Error, cryed out, "Treason! Treason! we are all betrayed." Hereupon the Earl of Oxford, with 800 men fled the field, and the Yorkists prevailed, with the death of the great Warwick and his brother the Marquis of Montacute. Other examples have been two; in Wyrley one, of the two Baliols--the other of the French Lord of Chine, who laying up the Lord Courcy's banner, the English of Sir Hugh Calvely's company, reputing them friends, were thereby unfortunately slain, and the Lord Courcy had thereupon dishonour spoken of him, though absent as far as Austrich. "This Chine did raise Lord Courcy's fair Devise, Which was 6 Bars of vairy and of red; This way the same or difference small so nice And slender that 'mongst them they error bred, Which now were either taken slain or fled. All men of younger house which banners bear Should have their difference glist'ning large and fair." _Capital de Bur_, p. 151. These minute differences, as they were antiently dangerous and insufficient, so in manner as they are now used they were then unknown; neither is there art enough by any of our heralds' rules, though much refined of late, to guide one so as to know which of the Crescent-bearers was the uncle or which the nephew, and for Crescent upon Crescent, Mullet upon Mullet, etc. in a pedigree of no great largeness, perspective-glasses and spectacles cannot help you; but you must have Lyncean eyes, or his that could write Homer's Iliads, and fold them into a nutshell. There was an elder way of differencing in former ages, and very good, though at no time regularly prescribed, yet it was much practised, as by bordures, bars, bends, chiefs, etc. and something upon special motives of relinquishing the whole devise and assuming another; all which are eminently known in the families of Nevil, Howard, Berkeley, Beauchamp, Stafford, Chaworth, Latymer, Grey and Bassett, Willoughby, etc. You shall have an example of two in Kent leaving the chevron-bearers in imitation of the great Lords of Clare and Criol, the ten variations and imitations of Leyborne's Lions; and of Sandwich's indentings in like number, I will here instance in Say and Cobham. [Illustration: Sir Wm. de Say.] [Illustration: Sir R. de Huntingfield.] [Illustration: Sir Ibron de Huntingfield.] [Illustration: Sir Alex. de Cheney.] [Illustration: ... Huntingfield.] [Illustration: Sir Ralph de Perington.] [Illustration: St. Nicholas.] [Illustration: Parrocke[318]] There are more examples, but these are in Kent. Now for an instance in the family of Cobham. [Illustration: Wm. de Pluckley, Brother of John de Cobham. John de Cobham Brother of Wm. de Pluckley.] [Sidenote: _Vide Book of Differences_, p. 177.] Henry Cobham, great grandchild of this John, and Joane, da. and heir of de Bokeland. [Illustration] John de Cobham, son of Henry and Joane Bokeland, put his father's fleurs de lizs upon his mother's cheveron, and had issue three sons, who did each constitute a several family, and varied their arms. [Illustration: Henry Cobham, the eldest son, married Joane, sister and heir of Step{n} de Pencester.] [Illustration: John, the 2d son, to whom his father gave the manor of Cobham, and from whom the Lords Cobham descended.] [Illustration: Reginald, the 3d, de Orkesden, from whom the Cobhams of Sterborough are descended.] This Henry by the great heir, his wife, was father of three sons, who all of them followed the copy of their Mother's Arms, whereof [Illustration: 1. Stephen de Cobham, Lord of Shorne, who leaving the paternal coat, took his Mother's Arms.] [Illustration: 2. John de Toneford, where he dwelt, a place in Chartham.] [Illustration: 3. Stephen de Cobham, father of Henry, Lord of Dunstall.] This elder Stephen was father of Sir John de Cobham of Rundale, and of Robert de Cobham, which Sir John was father of Sir Thomas Cobham de Rundale, and of John de Hever, who had the manor of Hever, and thence his name. [Illustration: Robert de Cobham.] [Illustration: John de Hever of Hever.] John de Cobham, aforesaid, who bore the three lions on his cheveron, was father of Henry Lord Cobham, and of John Cobham de Blackburg, in co. Devon. Henry Lord Cobham was father of Henry Lord Cobham and of Thomas Cobham, of Chafford in Kent. This Henry Lord Cobham was father of John Lord Cobham and of Thomas Cobham, owner of Belunele and Pipards-clive, who had issue two sons, Thomas and Henry; now all these younger Cobhams varied their Arms as under. [Illustration: John Cobham de Blackburg.] [Illustration: Thos. Cobham de Chafford.] [Illustration: Thos. Cobham de Belunele.] [Illustration: Henry Cobham de Pypard's Clive.[319]] In like manner the family of Dering, though not so eminent, (yet as antient, and more numerous, for aught yet appears,) did, as the use and necessity of those former ages required, vary their arms upon several occasions, which need not here be repeated, being more visible in the descent,[320] it shall therefore be enough in this place to set down the several shields borne anciently and at present by this name and the several branches thereof, by seals, monuments, old rolls, windows, &c. The antient paternal coat of this family was (if tradition may persuade us) only the blue fesse in a white field, until, say they, one of our ancestors being slain in the king's wars, his shield was found to have three great bloody spots in place where now the roundels are. I cannot justify such far-fetcht storys; yet two things have a proportionate correspondence with this tradition. First, it is certain that Norman Fitz-Dering was sheriff of Kent, as shall be evident in the part of the genealogical history which concerns him. 2dly. The Arms of William de Wrotham, Constable of Dover castle, and one of this family, were by old rolls the fesse without the roundells, which may confirm the report, because he was descended from Godred, brother to Norman, who was slain as aforesaid, and not of the body of the said Norman. The concurrence whereof has induced me to assign that coat unto all before the said Norman Fitz-Dering. So then the several shields borne by the several persons of this family have been as follows, setting them down as they have first been in antiquity used, and so in order successively. [Illustration: Sired Fitz-Dering, t. W. Conqr./De la Hell, T. R. Steph. ao. 1./Deerman ao. 1, Hen. 2d./W. de Wrotham, 1 R. Johis./Hamo de Pirefeld, T. R. 1.] [Illustration: Norman Fitz-Dering, 1 Hen. I and T. R. Steph.] [Illustration: Arnaldus de Cuckeston, t, H. 2./Wm. de Cheriton, T. H. 3.] [Illustration: Normannus de Ashde Fraxino--and de Fresne, Miles, T. R. 1 et H. 2.[321]] [Illustration: Wm. de Perington Miles, T. Hen. 3.[322]] [Illustration: Wimond Fitz-Wimond, T. Hen. 3./Hamo Wimond, filius ejus, T. Ed. I.[323]] [Illustration: Ricus Fitz-Dering, qui obiit II Ed. I.[324]] [Illustration: Henry Dering, frater junior Ricardi.[325]] [Illustration: John Dering, Dns. de Evering-acre in Pluckley, ao 1 Hen. 5 et Ricus filius ejus, occis apd. Bosworth.[326]] [Illustration: Wm. Dering de Petworth in co. Sussex, et de Lisse in co. Hants, Arm. T Hen. 7.[327]] To these ten may be added two very antient, whose order gave them a diversification, being Knights-Templers, and three other moderne, assigned by Sir Wm. Segar, Garter. [Illustration: Dns. Robtus. Dering, Miles ordinis militiae sci. Templi ad dissolut. ejus ap{d}. Ewell.[328]] The three modern ones assigned by Sir Wm. Segar are as follows: [Illustration: Anthony Dering, of Charing, Esq.] [Illustration: John Dering, of Egerton, Esq.] [Illustration: Xtopher Dering, of Wickins.[329]] [Sidenote: _So in old chartularies of abbeys I have often observed that one and the same man varied his own name of addition by the change of places where he made his abode._] Besides the variations of arms, here is much change of sirname to be observed, which among antiquaries is nothing new. Here are Dering, Wimond, Dereman, De la Hell, Wrotham, Cuckeston, Pevington, Pirefield, Cheriton, Ash, and de Fraxino, whereof the first three are assumed from forenames or Xtian names, as have done the families of Herding, Herbert, Aucher, Bagot, Bardolph, Hasting, Durand, Hubert, Oughtred, Leonard, and very many more; all the others here were assumed by reason of lands possessed of that name. Norman Fitz-Dering being Lord of Ash was called Norman de Fraxino, de Fresne, and de Ash. Arnold, a son of another Norman Fitz-Dering, being Lord of Cuckeston, was called Arnold de Cuckeston, whose grandchildren were Wm. de Pevington and Wm. de Cheriton, and so the rest had their surnames appropriated from their habitation and possession. In the family of Cobham you have Toneford and Hever of the same blood. Mortimer and Warren were brothers, and the sons of Walter de St. Martin. De Frydon, de Pantley, and de Albdy, were three brothers, the sons of Hugh de Saddington. Wm. Belward, lord of the moiety of Malpas, in Chester, had issue David and Richard; from David came three sons, Wm. de Malpas, Philip Gogh, David Golborne; and from them Egerton and Goodman--Richard, son of Wm. Belward, had issue Thomas de Cotgreve, Wm. de Weston, and Richard Little, father of N. Keneclerk and of John Richardson, (who would conceive without good proof that Malpas, Gough, Golborne, Egerton, Goodman, Cotgrave, Weston, Little, Kenclerk, and Richardson were all in short time the issue of Wm. Belward.) Nay, to make the instance of better impression, the antient earls of Norfolk having also Suffolk within their earldom did write themselves of Norfolk, of Suffolk, and sometimes of Norwich, indifferently, according to the place where they signed or subscribed, or were in any instrument named. The like did the old earls of Dorset and Somerset, using either title indifferently. Four earls of Chester had several sirnames successively one after another--Randolph Meschines had issue Randolph Gemers, father of Hugh Kivilicke, whose son was Randolph Blundeville. If yet you wish a more full president, you have it in Lucas de Hardres, who.... [N. B. The rest is wanting, or rather seems never to have been attempted by the author.] * * * * * The distinctions of arms to be borne by the several branches of the family of Dering, according to Sir Edward Dering, knight and baronet. The younger sons of the eldest house to give these differences instead of the crescent, mullet, martlet, etc.: The 2d son a bordure sable. The 3d son a bordure gules. The 4th son a bordure purflewe, argent and azure. The 5th son a bordure azure. Likewise the collar of the buck, their crest, was of the same colour as their bordure. Younger houses: The 2d house a chief sable. The 3d house a chief gules. The 4th house.... The 5th house a chief azure. Likewise the collar of the buck's head, the crest, the same colour as the chief. Younger sons of younger houses give the minute difference in the crest besides the great one in the arms: as Nichs. Dering, of Charing, gives a mullet on the buck's neck. _Note._ Nich{s}. Dering quarters both Lambert's arms and Home's, tho' descended but from one of them; whereas Finch Dering and his son, Brent Dering, leave out the Home's. Anthony Dering, son of Anthony by a second venter,[330] gives the fleur de liz upon the buck's neck. The wreath on which the crest stands is in all houses Or and sable.... [Illustration] Appendix B. A very curious illustration of some antient heraldric usages is furnished by an examination of the armorial bearings of families connected with the county of Cornwall. 1. The arms of the county of Cornwall are SABLE, FIFTEEN BEZANTS--5. 4. 3. 2 AND 1., with two lions as supporters, and the motto 'One and all.'[331] This coat is pretended to be derived from Cadoc, or Cradock, earl or duke of Cornwall in the fifth century. 2. The families of Moreton and De Dunstanville, successively earls of Cornwall after the Norman Conquest, bore personal arms totally different from these; yet on the marriage of Roger Valetorte with Joan, daughter of Reginald de Dunstanville, he surrounded his paternal arms (argent, three bendlets gules,) with a =bordure sable bezantee=. 3. Whalesborough of Cornwall, temp. Henry III, bore the same arms, with the =bordure sable bezantee=, whence he is presumed to have been a cadet of Valetorte. 4. Henry II took the earldom into his own hands, and gave it to his youngest son John, and John, on coming to the throne, gave it to his second son, Richard, afterwards king of the Romans and earl of Poictou. "Richard, 2nd son of king John, in the 9th year of king Henry III, his brother, being crowned king of the Romans, writ himself _Semper Augustus_, and had his arms carved on the breast of the Roman =eagle=. He bare =argent, a lyon rampant gules=, crowned or, within a =bordure sable bezantee=."[332] "He had," says Nisbet, "nothing of his father's royal ensigns [his arms being] composed of his two noble Feus, viz. Argent, a lion rampant gules, crowned or (the arms of Poictiers), surrounded with a border sable bezantée, or, (the arms of Cornwall,) and which were on his seal of arms appended to instruments, anno 1226."[333] 5. Edmund, his son and successor, bore the same arms, only omitting the imperial supporter. 6. The same arms are borne as the ensigns of the borough of Grampound. Boroughs usually took the arms of their over-lords. 7. Walter de Cornwall, knight of the shire in 1311, an illegitimate descendant of one of the earls of Cornwall, bore the same arms.[334] 8. Sir Geoffrey Cornwall having taken prisoner the duke of Brittany, received in reward that nobleman's arms, viz. Ermine, which he made the field of his own, retaining the lion gules, &c.[335] The descendants of the bastard offshoot of the earls of Cornwall became widely scattered, and, according to the practice of antient times, varied their arms in every house. For example: 9. De Cornewall, and Cornwall of Oxfordshire, bore the =red lion= of Poictou, debruised by a bend =sable=, charged with three =bezants=. 10. Cornwall of Devon omitted all traces of Poictou, but retained the characteristics of Cornwall, viz., On a cross patée =sable= five =bezants=. 11. Cornwall of Essex bore the =red lion= of Poictou, the ermine of Burgundy, and the =sable bordure bezantee= of Cornwall. 12. Cornwall of Salop bore the same, except that he made his lion reguardant. His descent from the princely stock of Cornwall is hinted at in his crest, which is a _Cornish Chough_. In Glover's 'Ordinary' are these two: 13. Cornwayle, Argent, on a fesse =sable=, three =bezants=. 14. Cornwall, Argent, on a cross-patonce =sable=, five =bezants=. Many other coats borne by this name are given in various works of reference. Nearly the whole of them retain one or other of the charges and tinctures of the coat from which they were primarily borrowed. Similar arms are also borne by other names connected with the county. 15. Chamberlayne, M.P. for Liskeard, temp. Edw. III, bore, Argent on a bend =sable=, five =bezants=. It seems exceedingly probable that this gentleman, or one of his ancestors, held the office (unde nomen) of Chamberlain to the earls of Cornwall, who paid him for his services with a few of their bezants. 16. Killegrew of Cornwall bore, Argent, an =eagle= displayed with two heads =sable=, within a =bordure sable bezantee=. _Crest._ A demi-=lyon= rampant, =gules=, charged on the flank with two =bezants=. I cannot trace any connexion between this family (which was of great antiquity) and the earls of Cornwall; but the similarity between these bearings and those of the king of the Romans is too striking to admit a doubt of some connexion. 17. Cole of Cornwall bears, inter alia, a =bordure sable=, charged alternately with =bezants= and annulets. 18. Carlyon of Cornwall bore =sable=, between three towers ... a =bezant=. Query. Did the founder of this family hold the office of castellan to the earls of Cornwall? Many Cornish families bear double-headed =eagles=, and the number bearing =bezants= is really astonishing. In the foregoing enumeration I have confined myself to such of the latter as are borne upon sable. It is probable that if the arms of other districts were examined they would produce a similar result; and I doubt not that, carrying out a large series of such investigations, the majority of our armorial bearings might be traced to a comparatively small number of antient baronial coats. [Illustration] Appendix C. ABATEMENTS. An Abatement of Honour is defined as a mark introduced into the paternal coat to indicate some base or ungentlemanlike behaviour on the part of the bearer. The number of these figures is, as usual, _nine_, and they are all tinctured of the _stainant_ or disgraceful colours, tenné and sanguine. The first is the delf tenné, assigned to him who revokes his challenge. 2. The escocheon reversed sanguine, occupying the middle point of the arms, is the sign of disgrace proper to him who offends the chastity of virgin, wife, or widow, or flies from his sovereign's banner. 3. The point-dexter parted tenné is for him who boasts of valiant actions he never performed. 4. The point-in-point sanguine is the badge of a coward. 5. The point champaine tenné attaches to him who breaks the laws of chivalry by slaying a prisoner after he has demanded quarter. 6. The liar should bear the plain-point sanguine. 7. The gore sinister tenné is the punishment of the soldier who acts in a cowardly manner towards his enemy. 8. The gusset sanguine, if on the right side, denotes adultery, and if on the left, drunkenness. 9. The last and greatest 'abatement of honour' is the reversing or turning upside down of the whole shield: this belongs to the traitor. From these abatements originates the expression--"He has a _blot_ in his scutcheon." It is scarcely necessary to state that 'abatements of honour' exist only in theory. Who ever did or would voluntarily bear a badge of disgrace? Every one deserving either of them would sooner relinquish all claim to the bearing of arms than continue it with such a stigma. Leigh, Guillim, and other old writers are sufficiently prolix on this subject, which would seem to belong exclusively to English heraldry; for Menestrier calls them _English fooleries_ ('Sottises Anglaises,') and Montagu thinks "we shall seek in vain for a more appropriate designation." A singular mistake prevails among the vulgar respecting the "bloody hand," borne in the arms of Baronets. I have been very seriously and _confidentially_ told, that murders had been committed by the ancestors of such and such families, and that the descendants were compelled to bear this dreadful emblem in consequence. According to the same sapient authorities, it can only be got rid of by the bearer's submitting, either in his own person or by proxy, _to pass seven years in a cave, without either speaking or cutting his nails and beard for that length of time_! The intelligent reader needs not be informed that this supposed badge of infamy is really a mark of honour, derived from the arms of the province of Ulster in Ireland, the defence and colonization of which was the specious plea upon which the order of Baronets was created by James I. [Illustration] Appendix D. GRANT OF ARMS. (_Referred to at p. 35, note._) A touts pñts et advenir qui ces pñts lettres verront ou orront Thomais Trowte autrement dit Norrey roy d'armes du norst de cestuy royalme d'Angleterre salut et dilection avec humble recomendacion: Equitie veult et raison ordonne que les homes vertueulx et de noble courage soient per leurs merites par renommee remunerez et non par seulment leurs personnes en ceste vie mortelle tant breife & transitoire mes apres euls ceulx qui de leurs corpes ystront et serront procreez soient en touts placs degraund honneur perpetuellem{t} devant autres luisans par certaines ensignes et de monstrances d'honneur et gentillesse. C'est ascavoir de blason heaillme & tymbre a fine que a leur example autres plus sefforcent de pseverement user leurs joures en faitz d'armes et ouvres verteuces pour acquirer la renowme d'auncienne gentillesse en leurs lignes & posterité: Et pource Je Norrey roy d'armes desusdit que non pas seulm{t} par commune renoume mais aussi par le report et testemoigne d'autres nobles homes dignes de fois suy pour vray adverty et enforme que Alan Trowte natef de la counte de Norff. a longem{t}. poursuey les faicts de vertues et tant en ce quen autres ces affayres s'est porte vertuesment et honnor ablement gouverne tellement q'ill a bien deservy et est bien digne que doresnavannt perpetuellement lui et sa posterite soyent en touts placs honurables admits, renomeez, countez, nombrez, et receivez en nombre et en la campaigne dez autreiz auncients gentils et nobleis hommes: et pour la remembrance du celle sagentilesse par sa vertue del authorite et povoir annexes et attribues a men dit office de roy d'armes Jay devise, ordonne et assignee au dit Alan Trowte par luy et sa dite posterite le blason, heaulme et tymbre, en la maniere qui sensuit c'est ascavoir ung escu d'or ung cheveron de purpure troys testes moriens de sable crounes de troyes trovels d'argent: le timbre sur le heaulme ung teste morien assis dedans ung torse entre deux eliez pale du Champ et du cheveron & emant elle de sables sommees de cinq foyles doublee d'or si come le picture en le merge cy devant le demonstre: A voyir et tenir par luy et sa dit posterite et eux on revestir a tous jourmais. En testemoiging de ce Je Norrey roy d'armes desus nomée ay signe de ma main et selle de mon seale ces p'senteis fait et donne a Londrez le viij jour de novebre l'an de ñre seig{n} Jesus Christ mccclxxvj et l'an de ñre seig{n} roy Edwarde le Tierce apres le conquest xvj. This Patent was examined with the Record in the College of Arms by Charles Townley, York Herald, 29. Apr. 1745. N. B. There is a mistake in the date, either in the year of Our Lord, or of the King. [Illustration] Appendix E. [Illustration] That the curious relic of brass found at Lewes (alluded to at p. 39[336]), was the sword-pommel of Prince Richard, King of the Romans, was an easy and natural inference from its rounded form, so similar to that observed on ancient swords, and from its being found where that Prince is known to have been engaged in the great battle of 1264. Further examination, however, proves this supposition to be erroneous, and by reference to page 589, in vol. xxv of 'Archæologia,' it will be seen so closely to resemble, in form, material, workmanship, and heraldic bearings, the two ancient steelyard weights found in Norfolk, and there represented, that its identity with their former use must be at once recognized. The Lewes relic is smaller than the two other weights, and is deficient in the upper part, through which the suspending hook was passed, but, as it now weighs 18-1/2 oz., it was probably, when perfect, a 2 lbs. weight. It is remarkable that all these weights, thus found at distant localities, and all evidently of the same era, the thirteenth century, should bear the arms of the King of the Romans,[337] though in each instance intentionally varied, in order, probably, to signify more readily to the eye the intended amount of each weight when in use. Sandford (Geneal. Hist., p. 95) says that the King of the Romans did not bear the arms of his father, King John, but on the larger Norfolk specimen the three royal lions are exhibited passant, sinisterwise, a remarkable difference, of which only one other similar example is known, on the ancient stamped tiles of Horsted-Keynes Church, co. Sussex, where the Prince's arms, as earl of Cornwall, are also extant. This Prince had a grant of the stanneries and mines of Cornwall, held by service of five knights' fees, (vide Dugdale's Baronage,) and Sandford says that "he got much money by farming the mint," but he would not appear to derive from these sources any peculiar right to stamp with his own arms all the weights of the kingdom. He is also mentioned (Madox, Hist. Exch.) as sitting with others of the king's council in the Court of Exchequer in 14{o} and 54{o} of Henry III: there was an ancient officer of that court, called a Pesour, Ponderator, or Weigher, but the family of Windesore held this office for four generations by hereditary serjeantry, during the reigns of kings John and Henry III. It would seem more probable, therefore, that these weights were stamped with his arms,[338] by the king of the Romans, in the ordinary exercise of his baronial rights, for the common use of his own officers in his widely extended domains, and especially for those of his own personal household, in order efficiently to check the entries and deliveries of the stores of food and forage necessary for the supply of his numerous retinue. The contemporary accounts of his sister, the Princess Eleanor, wife of the great Simon, earl of Leicester, in 1265 (recently published by the Roxburghe Club), show with what minute detail and accuracy such expenses in a large household were regulated, and superintended by the steward of a great personage. The steward of the king of the Romans may have been thus busily employed at Lewes in measuring out with this identical weight their scanty rations to his Cornish troops, until surprised by the hurry of the fatal battle, in which--for human bones were found with the weight near the Castle gateway--he may have continued to clutch it faithfully, even in death. Prince Richard embarked at Yarmouth in 1253, on his way to his coronation as king, at Aix-la-Chapelle, and he went to Cologne in 1267, to marry his German bride, Beatrice. On one of these occasions, when he would have been accompanied by a large suite, or on some other passage through Norfolk, which was a customary route to Germany, the two interesting weights found there may have been accidentally dropped. [Illustration] C. AND J. ADLARD, PRINTERS, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE. FOOTNOTES: [1] Yorke's 'Union of Honour.' [2] The general ignorance of Heraldry even among the well-educated may be illustrated by the fact that not many months since the Commissioners of Assessed Taxes decided that a person who sealed his letters with a Thistle surrounded by the words '=Dinna Forget=,' was liable to the charge for armorial bearings, albeit the device contained neither shield, helmet, wreath, nor any other _necessary_ element of heraldric insignia! [3] Woodham's 'Application of Heraldry to the Illustration of various University and Collegiate Antiquities;' Nos. 4 and 5 of the publications of the Cambridge Antiq. Soc.--an interesting essay, which would be none the worse if divested of a few remarks on "church principles," "conventicles," "Cobbett," and the "Morning Chronicle,"--subjects as irrelevant as the whims of old Morgan, or any other heraldric writer of the sixteenth or seventeenth century. [4] Woodham. [5] Grimaldi. Orig. Gen. p. 82. [6] Vide p. 254. [7] Some curious specimens (for example) of this kind of history occur in the writings of John Rous of Warwick, temp. Edw. IV. His _History of England_ is compiled indiscriminately _from the Bible_ and from monastic writers. Moses, he tells us, does not mention all the cities founded before the deluge, but Barnard de Breydenback, dean of Mayence, does! With the same taste he acquaints us, that, though the book of Genesis says nothing of the matter, Giraldus Cambrensis writes, that Caphera or Cesera, Noah's niece, being apprehensive of the deluge, set out for Ireland, where, with three men and fifty women, she arrived safe with one ship, the rest perishing in the general destruction! Vide Walpole's Historic Doubts. [8] Morgan. Adam's Shield, p. 99. [9] Morgan. Adam's Shield, p. 100. [10] "God himselfe set a marke upon Cain. But you perhaps will say, that was Stigma, and not Digma, a brand, not an ornament." Bolton's Armories. [11] 'Three _rests_ gules.' A difference of opinion exists as to what this charge represents. Some blazon it a _horseman's rest_, and assert that it was the _rest_ in which the tilting-spear was fixed. Others contend that it was a wind instrument called the Clarion or Claricorde; while "Leigh and Boswell will have them to be _sufflues_, instruments which transmit the wind from the bellows to the organ." Lastly, Minsheu advises those who blazon them _rests_, to call them brackets or _organ-rests_; and this is evidently the sense implied by Morgan. [Illustration] [12] The correctness of these extracts, historically and etymologically considered, needs no comment. [13] Numb. ii. 2. "Every man shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of his father's house." [14] Gen. xlix. [15] He couched as a lion.... [16] Zebulon shall be for an haven of ships.... [17] Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens.... [18] Dan shall be a serpent by the way.... [19] He shall yield royal dainties.... [20] Naphtali is a hind let loose ... &c. &c. &c. [21] Sprinkled with drops of water. [22] Morgan gives the preamble of the Letters Patent of King David _for the warrant of a pedigree_. It commences with "Omnibus, &c. David, Dei gratiâ Rex Juda et Israel, universis et singulis," &c.!! [23] Leigh's Accedens of Armory. [24] Boke of St. Alb. It will be seen in this extract that the origin of arms is referred to other times than those mentioned in the former quotations. Several similar discrepancies occur in the work, proving it to have been a compilation from different and conflicting authorities. [25] Miscellaneous Collection. [26] See vignette at the head of this chapter. [27] Those who wish for other examples of this fictitious heraldry may find in Ferne's 'Blazon of Gentrie,' the arms of Osyris king of Egypt, Hercules king of Lybia, Macedonus, Anubis, Minerva, Semiramis, Tomyris, Delborah (Judge of Israell), Jahel the Kenite, and Judith. These six last mentioned, together with the Empress Maud, Elizabeth of Arragon, and Joan of Naples, constitute the "nine worthies amongst women." Ferne, 220 et seq., where their arms are engraved. Upon the accession of James VI of Scotland to the throne of England, a controversy arose between the heralds of the two nations respecting the priority of right to the first quarter in the British achievement. The Scottish officers maintained that as Scotland was the older sovereignty, its tressured lion should take precedence of the three lions-passant, or, as they called them, the _leopards_, of England. This was an indignity which the English heralds could not brook, and they employed Sir William Segar to investigate the antiquity of our national ensigns. Segar's treatise on this subject, dedicated to his majesty, contains some fine examples of fictitious heraldry. He begins with the imaginary story of Brutus, king of Britain, a thousand years before the Christian era, and his division of the island between his three sons. To Locheren, the eldest, he gave that portion afterwards called England, with arms 'Or, a Lion passant-guardant, gules.' To his second son, Toalknack, he assigned Albania, or Scotland, with 'Or, a Lion rampant, gules,' which, says he, with the addition of the double tressure, continue the arms of Scotland. And to his youngest son he gave Cambria, with 'Argent, three Lions passant-guardant, gules,' which the princes of Wales used for a long time. Vide Nisbet's Essay on Arm. p. 162. Bolton (Elements of Armories, 1610, p. 14,) gives the arms of Caspar and Balthasar, two of the three kings who, guided by the 'Star in the East,' came to worship our Saviour at Bethlehem. He admits, indeed, that there is no 'canonicall proofe' of them, yet appears to think that a painting "in the mother church of Canterburie, upon a wal, on the left hand, as you enter the north ile of the first quire," is pretty respectable authority! It was a favourite crotchet with this writer, that heraldry did not owe its origin to any particular period or nation, but that it sprang from the light of nature. [28] Story of Thebes, p. 2. [29] Romulus. [30] Vide Donaldson on the Connexion between Heraldry and Gothic Architecture, &c. &c. &c. The far-renowned shield of Achilles was covered with so great a number of figures _pictorially disposed_, that it resembled modern heraldry still less than those above alluded to. [31] Essay on Armories, p. 4. [32] From a contemporary picture at Castle-Ashby, engraved in Pennant's Journey from Chester to London. [33] It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader that all early nations had their national emblems, for the ox of the Egyptians, the owl of the Athenians, the eagle of the Romans, and the white horse of the Saxons (retained in the arms of Saxony and of Kent), must occur to the recollection of every one. [34] Vide the next chapter, where a _rationale_ of these figures is attempted. [35] Dallaway, p. 9. [36] _Blazon_ is closely allied to the Anglo-Saxon BLAWAN, to blow. There are some however who deduce it from the German, _blasse_, a mark.--_Vide Montagu's Guide_, p. 14. [37] Planché Hist. Brit. Costume. [38] Those who contend for the earlier origin of heraldry adduce a certain shield occurring in the Bayeux tapestry, and resembling a modern coat charged with a cross coupée between five roundles; but whatever may be said of the cross, the roundles are probably only the studs or rivets of the shield. Again, as there are several shields in which the ornaments are exactly alike, the arms of a family cannot be intended. They also bring forward the encaustic tiles taken up from the floor of a monastery at Caen by Mr. Henniker, and now in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries, which they presume to have been laid down at the time of the foundation of the abbey in 1064. The arms upon these, supposed to have been those of benefactors, have been proved to belong to a date considerably posterior. Among them are the arms of England, three lions passant, an ensign which had no existence till the reign of Richard I, upwards of a century later than the foundation of the monastery of Caen. [Illustration: (Caen Tile.)] [39] Dallaway. [40] _Lybbardes_--leopards. It has long been a matter of controversy between French and English armorists, whether the charges of our royal arms were originally leopards or lions. Napoleon always derisively called them leopards. The author of the 'Roll of Karlaverok,' described in a future page, speaking of the banner of Edward I, says it contained "three leopards courant of fine gold, set on red, fierce, haughty, and cruel."--_Nicolas' Karlav._ p. 23. Nisbet, who, as a Scotchman, viewed English heraldry with a somewhat supercilious eye, decides in favour of leopards, and cites the 'Survey of London,' by John Stowe, who quotes a record of the city of London, stating that Frederick, Emperor of Germany, in 1225, sent to Henry III three living leopards, "in token of the regal shield of arms." The same author likewise mentions an order of Edward II to the Sheriff of London, to pay the keeper of the King's leopards in the Tower of London sixpence a day for the sustenance of the leopards.--_Nisbet's Essay on Armories_, p. 163. [41] Dallaway; but Nisbet (Armories, p. 61,) alludes to earlier examples abroad. [42] Salverte. Essai sur les Noms d'Hommes, (Paris, 1824.) vol. I, p. 240. [43] Dall. pp. 31-32. The offering of trophies to the Deity is of a much earlier origin, and it was derived from the nations of antiquity. The Old Testament furnishes us with several instances, the classics with many more: "It was very common," says Robinson, "to dedicate the armour of the enemy, and to suspend it in temples."--Vide Homer, Iliad, vii. 81, "I will bear his armour to Troy, and hang it up in the temple of Apollo;" and Virgil, Æn. vii, describes a temple hung round with ----"helmets, darts and spears, And captive chariots, axes, shields, and bars, And broken beaks of ships, _the trophies of their wars_." _Dryden_, vii. 252. But, what is more to our purpose, "It was also customary to dedicate to the gods their own weapons, when they retired from the noise of war to a private life." (Rob. Archæolog. Græc.) From I Sam. xxi, 9, it appears that David, after his victory over Goliath, had dedicated the Philistine's sword to God as a trophy. "Behold it is here," says the priest, on a subsequent occasion, "wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod." In I Chron. x, 10, we read that the Philistines put the armour of Saul "in the house of their gods, and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon;" and, in xxvi, 27, we are told that "out of the spoils won in battles did they (the Israelites) dedicate to maintain the House of the Lord." [44] Hist. Poet. i, 302. [45] The second book of Upton's treatise, written in the fifteenth century, is entitled 'Of _Veterans_, now called Heralds.' [46] Nicolas' Karlaverok, p. 4. [47] Nicolas' Karlaverok, p. 44. The charge here blazoned, a cross patée, is, in fact, a cross patonce. [48] Ibid., Notes, p. 368. [49] Waterhouse's Discourse, p. 77. [50] Let it not be understood from this remark that I mean in the slightest degree to advocate war as a means of acquiring national greatness. The war which Edward waged against France was totally unjustifiable; and the desolating civil wars which followed the misgovernment of his pusillanimous grandson Richard, were (as many of our subsequent wars have been) a disgrace to the very name of England. [51] Strutt's Roy. and Eccl. Antiq. [52] Holinshed. [53] The engraving above is from Royal MS., 14 E. iii. Brit. Mus. [54] Decline and Fall, v. 6, p. 59. [55] Apparently the village of Retiers, near Rennes, in Brittany. [56] De Controversia in Curia Militari inter R. de Scrope and R. Grosvenor, Milites, Rege Ricardo Secundo, 1385-1390. E Recordis in Turre, Lond. Asservatis, vol. i, p. 178. [57] Vide Historical and Allusive Arms; Loud. 1803, p. 43, et seq. Anecdotes of Heraldry and Chivalry; Worcester, 1795. [58] Hutchinson's Cumberland, vol. i, p. 314. The arms borne by a junior branch of the Blencowes are 'Gules, a quarter argent,' the original coat of the family. The baron of Graystock's grant is sometimes borne as a quartering. The arms of his lordship, from which it is borrowed, were 'Barry of six, _argent_ and _azure_, over all three _chaplets_ gules.' According to a family tradition, Adam de Blencowe was standard-bearer to the Baron. Vide West's Antiquities of Furness, quoted by Hutchinson. [59] Montagu's Study of Heraldry, Appendix A. [60] One of the earliest grants of Arms preserved in the Heralds' Coll. is printed in the Appendix. It is of the time of Edward III. [61] "Nihil sibi insignii accidisse quia nec ipse nec majores sui in bello unquam descendissent." Waterhouse, quoted by Dallaway. [62] Dallaway. [63] This was called _dimidiation_. [64] The dimidiated coat represented on p. 36, is not the arms of a family, but those of the corporation of Hastings. Here three demi-lions are conjoined with three sterns of antient ships--a composition compared with which the griffin, cockatrice, and every other _hybrid_ of a herald's imagination sinks into insignificance. That this singular shield is a dimidiation of two antient coats cannot be doubted. Three ships, in all probability, formed the original arms of the town--the dexter-half of the royal arms of England having been superimposed in commemoration of some great immunity granted to this antiently important corporation. [65] Query--Might not some of our English maidens, who are verging somewhat on the _antique_, resort to this mode of advertising for a husband with advantage? The odious appellation of "old maids" would then give place to the more courteous one of "Ladies of the half-blank shield." [66] Nisbet's Essay on Armories, p. 70. [67] A lineal ancestor of Sir John Shelley, Bart. The date of the lady's death is 1513. [68] In the great hall at Fawsley, co. Northampton, the seat of Sir Charles Knightly, Bart., is a shield containing the unprecedented number of 334 quarterings. Vide Baker's Northampton, vol. i, p. 386. [69] Vide Appendix. [70] In the Temple Church, London. Tomb of Sir Geoffrey de Magnaville. Vide woodcut at the head of the Preface. [71] Boke of St. A. and Dall. [72] The arms of the See of Hereford at this day are identical with those of Thomas Cantilupe, who held the episcopate in the thirteenth century, and was canonized as St. Thomas of Hereford, 34{o} Edward I. [73] It is almost unnecessary to observe that the expression 'a merchant's mark' is by no means appropriate; for such devices were employed in a great variety of ways. They appear, primarily, to have been used as signatures by illiterate though wealthy merchants, who could not write their names. At a later date they were employed for _marking_ bales of goods. Within the last century, many flockmasters in the South of England used them for marking sheep. Although the illiterate of our own times substitute a + for their proper names, it was far otherwise two centuries ago, when they generally made a rude monogram, or _peculiar_ mark, analogous to the merchant's mark of earlier date. [74] Dallaway. [75] C. S. Gilbert's Hist. Cornw. vol. i, Introd. to Herald. [76] Historical and Allusive Arms, p. 347. [77] Montagu, Study of Heraldry. But this is, perhaps, an isolated instance of such early date, for Dame Julyan Berners, more than a century later, says, "There be vi differences in armys; ij for the excellent and iiij for the nobles; Labelle and Enborduryng for lordis; Jemews, Mollettys, Flowre delyce and Quintfoyles for the nobles," (i. e. gentry). [78] Cited by Dall. p. 127. [79] Memoirs, p. 287. Cott. MS., Calig. A. xviii. [80] Vide my English Surnames, 2d edition, p. 194 et seq. [81] Montagu, p. 42. [82] If Heraldry had to be established _de novo_, something of the sort might be done, by giving each family a patent right to a particular ordinary, provided the ordinaries were much more numerous than they are. But as nearly every ordinary and charge is common to many families, Dugdale's system cannot possibly be carried out. [83] Hugh Clark's 'Introduction to Heraldry,' which may be purchased for a few shillings, contains everything necessary to a thorough knowledge of the art of blazon. [84] Spenser uses this word: "How the red roses flush up in her cheeks, And the pure snow with goodly _vermeil_ stain." [85] Roll of Karlaverok, p. 26. [86] In the 'Secretes of Master Alexis of Piedmont' are many recipes for making this article. [87] There is an extraordinary difference of opinion respecting the Mediæval Latin, _Sinopis_. Ducange, with the authorities quoted above, make its colour green; but the _sinoper_, or ruddle of commerce, is of a dark red or purplish hue. In one of the Cottonian MSS. Nero, c. vi, fol. 156, is the following account of it: "Sinopim, colorem videlicet illum cujus tres sunt species, videlicet _rubea_, _subrubea_, et inter has media, invenerunt primitus, ut scribit Ysidorus viri regionis Ponticæ in urbe eorum quam solent ipsi Sinopem vocitare." [88] Page 205. [89] It is a prevailing error that the bend sinister is a mark of dishonour, as betokening illegitimacy; this seems to have arisen from its having been confounded with the baton, which bearing differs from it both in being much narrower, and in being cut off from the borders of the escocheon. [90] Among the sovereign states whose armorial ensigns are formed of such stripes are Cyprus, Hungary, Saxony, Austrasia, Burgundy, Arragon, and Germany under the descendants of Louis the Debonaire. The private families who bear armories so formed are innumerable.--_Brydson_, p. 66. [91] These, as Mr. Planché (Hist. Brit. Costume, p. 151,) observes, are mostly heraldric terms. Ounding, or _undeing_, signifies a waved pattern or edge. [92] Blaauw's Barons' War. [93] Mylneris, miller's; yrne, iron; mylnys, mills; mylne-ston, mill-stone. [94] Furetiere, quoted by Dall. [95] Accid. fol. 121. [96] By a statute of temp. Edw. II. (apud Winton) every person not having a greater annual revenue in land than 100 pence, was compelled to have in his possession a bow and arrows, with other arms both offensive and defensive; but all such as had no possessions (in land), but could afford to purchase arms, were commanded to have a bow with sharp arrows if they resided without the royal forests, and a bow with round-headed arrows if their habitation was within the forests. The words of the statute are, "Ark et setes hors de foreste, et en foreste ark et _piles_." The word pile is supposed to be derived from the Latin 'pila,' a ball; and Strutt supposes this kind of missile to have been used to _prevent_ the owners from killing the king's deer. In the following reign archery, as a pastime of the common people, began to be neglected, which occasioned the king to send a letter of complaint to the sheriffs of London, desiring them to see that the leisure time upon holidays was spent in the use of the bow. In the thirty-ninth year of this reign, 1365, the penalty incurred by offenders was imprisonment at the king's pleasure. The words of the letter are, "arcubus et sagittis, vel _pilettis_ aut boltis," with bow and arrows, or piles or bolts. _Vide Strutt's Sports and Pastimes. Edit. Hone_, pp. 54, 55. [97] Nisbet. [98] Vide p. 47, Arms of Echingham, &c. [99] '_Gules_, a tri-corporated lyon issuant out of the three corners of the field, and meeting under one head in fesse, _or_,' was the coat-armour of Edmund Crouchback, second son of Henry III. This is the earliest specimen of _differencing_ I have met with. [100] This is the usual notion of the old armorists, but Bossewell gives a different statement: "The pellicane feruently loueth her [young] byrdes. Yet when thei ben haughtie, and beginne to waxe hote, they smite her in the face and wounde her, and she smiteth them againe and sleaeth (kills) them. And after three daies she mourneth for them, and then striking herself in the side till the bloude runne out, she sparpleth it upon theire bodyes, and by vertue thereof they quicken againe."--Armorie of Honour, fol. 69. On the brass of Wm. Prestwick, dean of Hastings, in Warbleton church, co. Sussex, there is a representation of a pelican feeding her young with her blood, and the motto on a scroll above, '=Sic Epus dilerit nos=,'--'Thus hath Christ loved us.' [101] The Heraldry of Fish, by Thomas Moule, Esq. London, 1842. [102] Vide cut at the head of this chapter. [103] Loadstone. [104] Op. Maj. edit. Jebb. 232. [105] Halliwell's Sir John Maundevile, p. 319. [106] Succinct Account of Religions and Sects, sect. 4, No. 42. [107] Some of the Greek coins of Sicily bear an impress of three legs conjoined, exactly similar to this fanciful charge, except that they are naked, and have at the point of conjunction a Mercury's head. [108] Dallaway. [109] The flower of the 'sword-grass, a kind of sedge.' _Dict._ [110] A work on the Fleur-de-Lis, in 2 vols. 8vo (!), was published in France in 1837. [111] The following jest on the _fleur-de-lis_ may amuse some readers. Sir William Wise "having lente to the King (Henry VIII) his signet to seale a letter, who having powdred eremites engrayl'd in the seale, [qy. ermine?--Several families of Wise bear this fur:] 'Why, how now, Wise,' quoth the King, 'What? hast thou _lice_ here?' 'And if it like your Majestie,' quoth Sir William, 'a _louse_ is a rich coate, for, by giving the louse, I part armes with the French King, in that he giveth the _floure de lice_.' Whereat the king heartily laugh'd, to heare how pretily so byting a taunt (namely, proceeding from a Prince,) was so sodaynely turned to so pleasaunte a conceyte." (Stanihurst's Hist. of Ireland in Holinshed's Chron.) Nares thinks that Shakspeare, who is known to have been a reader of Holinshed, took his conceit of the '_white lowses_,' which 'do become an old coat well,' in the Merry Wives of Windsor, from this anecdote. (Heraldic Anom. vol. i, p. 204.) [112] Essay on Armories, p. 10. [113] Chevaux-de-frise (in fortification), large joists of wood stuck full of wooden spikes, armed with iron, to stop breaches, or to secure the passes of a camp.--_Bailey's Dict._ [114] Heywood's Epigrams and Prov. 1566. No. 13. [115] _Wende_, thought; _mulne_, mill. [116] Modern naturalists place it in the class cryptogamia, and give it the name of _Tremella nostoc_. [117] In reading this list it will be seen that it contains several monsters not of the 'Gothick' but of the Classical era, as the chimera, harpy, and sagittary; but it is a curious and characteristic fact that the purely classical monsters were never great favourites in heraldry. [118] Nisbet on Armories, edit. 1718; pp. 12-13. [119] Workes of Armorie, folio 66. [120] Cocatryse, basilicus, _cocodrillus_! Prompt. Parv. Camd. Soc. [121] Hence sometimes called the basilisk, from the Greek [Greek: basiliskos]. [122] Mallet (Northern Antiquities, ch. ix) says, "The thick misshapen walls winding round a rude fortress, on the summit of a rock, were often called by a name signifying SERPENT or DRAGON. Women of distinction were commonly placed in such castles for security. Thence the romancers invented so many fables, concerning princesses of great beauty guarded by dragons and afterwards delivered by young heroes, who could not achieve their rescue till they had overcome those terrible guards." [123] Anon, Parag. [124] Brydson's Summary View. [125] Probably, also, by frightening their horses, to throw their ranks into confusion. [126] By an oversight in the drawing some small vestiges of wings have been omitted. [127] Barons' War, p. 168. [128] 'Sir Degore.' Warton's Hist. Poet., p. 180, ibid. [129] Barons' War, p. 169. [130] "Regius locus fuit inter _draconem_ et standardum." [131] Barnes's Hist. Edw. III. [132] Vide Promptorium Parvulorum, Camd. Soc. voc. _griffown_. Leigh's Accedens, &c. [133] Æn. iii, 212, &c. [134] Vide Vignette at the head of this Chapter for Maundevile's representation of an Ipotayne. [135] Kitto's Pictorial Bible, Job xxxix. [136] Vide Congregational Mag. 1842 or 43. [137] Kitto, ut sup. [138] "What reason," asks Morgan, "can be given why the three brothers, Warren, Gourney, and Mortimer, should every one bear a severall coat, and derive (hand down) their sirnames to posterity, all of them yet retaining the metal and colour of or and azure, the one _checky_, the other _pally_, and the other _barry_?" Armilogia, p. 41. [139] Huge. [140] Accedens, fol. 194 et seq. [141] Heralds. [142] Accedens, fol. 7. [143] Sphere, Nobility Native, p. 101. [144] Ibid. [145] Bibl. Herald, p. 168. [146] Accedens, fol. 90. [147] Ib. fol. 92. [148] Accedens, fol. 98. [149] Display, p. 230. [150] Ibid. p. 203. [151] Ibid. p. 215. [152] These seem originally to have been arms of office. Their "character was strictly emblematical, and their import obvious, consisting, as they generally did, of a representation of the various official implements or ensigns." "Little doubt can be entertained but that much of our personal heraldry is derived from such a source." (Woodham's Application of Heraldry to the Illustration of Collegiate Antiquities, p. 79.) [153] Between 1240 and 1245. (LXIV in Coll. Arm.) [154] Chaffinch. [155] Sphere of Gentry. [156] Vide cut at the head of the present chapter. [157] Vide English Surnames, p. 72, second edit. [158] Gibbon, Bluemantle pursuivant, who flourished subsequently to Camden, made a collection of "Allusive Arms" containing some thousands of such coats. His MS. is in the College of Arms. [159] Vide the Chapter of Rebuses, appended to my 'English Surnames,' second edit. p. 261. [160] It is a fact not unworthy of notice that Nicholas Breakspeare (Pope Adrian IV) and William Shakspeare both bore canting-arms; the former, 'Gu, a broken spear, or;' and the dramatist, 'Argent, on a bend sable, a spear of the first.' [161] Debrett, edited by Wm. Courthope, Esq. [now Rouge-Croix.] [162] Essai sur les Noms, &c., I, 240. [163] Brydson's Summary View of Heraldry, pp. 98-9. [164] Menestrier. [165] Study of Heraldry, p. 70. [166] Berry, Encycl. Herald. [167] The ducal coronet antiently denoted command, and the chapeau, dignity; but in their modern application they have no such meaning. [168] Edward III is the first monarch who introduced a crest (the lion statant-guardant) into his great seal. But this cannot be regarded as the first instance of the use of crests, for they appear nearly half a century earlier upon the seals of Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster. That they were in common use in Chaucer's time is obvious from the poet's description of the one borne by Sire Thopas, the tower and lily. Vide page 81. [169] The crest of Exmew is generally blazoned as 'a dove supporting a text =r= by a branch of laurel.' As to the letter, it is certainly an X, not an R; and the bird is quite as much like a sea-gull, or MEW, as a dove. Hence a rebus upon the name was doubtless intended =x=-MEW! The crest of Bourchier shows the manner in which the crest was affixed to the helmet. [170] Herald-painters of the present day neglect this rule, and generally paint the mantlings red, doubled or lined with white or ermine. [171] In the seal of Ela, Countess of Salisbury, who was born in 1196, two lions rampant, or rather _crawling_, are introduced to fill up the spaces _on each side of the lady's effigies_. It is engraved in Sandford's Geneal. Hist. [172] The following are the royal supporters, as given in Sandford's Genealogical History: Richard II, two angels; Henry IV, swan and antelope; Henry V, lion and antelope; Henry VI, two antelopes; Edward IV, lion and bull; Edward V, lion and hind; Richard III, two boars; Henry VII, dragon and greyhound; Henry VIII, lion and dragon; Edward VI, lion-guardant crowned and dragon; Mary, eagle and lion; Elizabeth, as Edward VI; James I, &c. lion and unicorn, as at present. [173] According to Nisbet, the earliest royal supporters of England were two angels. The transition from one angel to two, and from two angels to two quadrupeds is very natural. [174] C. S. Gilbert's Cornwall, pl. 3. [175] Ormerod's Cheshire. [176] Archæologia, vol. xxx. [177] Hone's Table Book. [178] In the above sketch I have ventured to supply the head which in the original is wanting. [179] Montagu, Guide, p. 48. [180] The coat-armour of a great family was of too sacred a character to be used as the personal ornament or distinction of their retainers, the private herald only excepted; and it was long ere this functionary was allowed to invest himself in his master's armorials. [181] Vide Chapter IX. [182] Viz. Warbleton Priory, Robertsbridge Abbey, and the churches of Thundridge, (co. Herts.), Crowhurst, Burwash, Laughton, Chiddingly, Ripe, East Hothly, Wartling, and Dallington. As a proof of the value of heraldric insignia in ascertaining the founders of antient buildings, it may be remarked that, so far as I am aware, the Buckles which adorn the whole of the _churches_ here enumerated, furnish the only evidence (and most irrefragable evidence it must certainly be admitted to be) that the family of Pelham were concerned in their erection or enlargement. There are _histories_ as well as 'sermons' 'in stones!' [183] From a Paper on the 'Pelham Buckle' read before the first meeting of the Archæological Association at Canterbury, 11th September, 1844. [184] Montagu. [185] The dogs here alluded to were greyhounds, a Yorkist badge. [186] Guide, p. 59. [187] Still retained in the collar of SS. [188] Vide Chapter XI. [189] The 'Hawthorn' is probably the 'crown in a bush,' used in conjunction with the letters =H. R.= as the badge of Henry VII. This badge originated in the finding of the crown of Richard III in a bush after the battle of Bosworth-Field. (Vide Fosbroke's Encycl. of Antiq. p. 757.) [190] Montagu, p. 75, from a MS. in the Pepys. Lib. Cambridge. [191] Vide Exodus, iii, 14. [192] Vide Judges, vii, 18. [193] By _Montjoye_ is supposed to be intended the national banner, on which the figure of some saint was embroidered. [194] The motto of the royal arms, 'Dieu et mon droit,' is older, and is ascribed to Richard I. [195] Guide, p. 56. [196] The modern motto of the family is 'Crede Biron.' [197] 'Per linguam bos inambulat.' Ant. proverb. [198] Vide 'The Principal Historical and Allusive Arms borne by Families of the United Kingdom; collected by an Antiquary,' quarto, Lond. 1803. Moule says, "But few copies of the work were sold, and the remaining impressions were destroyed in the fire at the printing-office, which has rendered it _a particularly scarce book_." (Bibl. Herald., p. 497.) On this account I am induced to make extensive use of the volume, and to carry this chapter much beyond my original intention. [199] Archæologia, xxix. [200] Harl. MS. 2035. [201] "Arthgal, the first Earl of Warwick, in the days of King Arture, and was one of the Round Table; this Arthgal took a _bere_ in his arms, for that, in Britisch, soundeth a bere in English." (Leland's Collect.) [202] A very similar coat of arms, borne by the Lloyds of Denbighshire, Barts., is said to have originated under similar circumstances in 1256. [203] Hist. and Allusive Arms. [204] Ibid. [205] Fun. Mon., p. 629. [206] Vide 'English Surnames,' 2d edit. p. 100. [207] Vol. ii, p. 87, edit. 1768. [208] Enumerated at p. 146. [209] The vignette at the head of the present chapter was copied from a brick at Laughton Place. The inscription, which is in relievo, is W. P. (William Pelham) LAN DE GRACE 1534 FVT CEST MAYSON FAICTE. [210] The painting is upon panel. An engraving of it is given in Bigland's Gloucester, vol. i, p. 312. Hist. and Allus. Arms, p. 52. [211] Hist. and Allus. Arms, p. 60. [212] I use the present tense _bear_, although in many cases the families may have become extinct. [213] Gough's Camden, vol. i, p. 89. [214] _Bowles_--'Azure, a crescent argent, in chief the sun or.' _Smith_--'Vert a cheveron gules between three Turks' heads couped in profile proper, their turbans or.' This was an augmentation borne quarterly with the antient arms of Smith. [215] Supporters of Sir William Draper, K. B. (Hist. and Allus. Arms, p. 227.) [216] Vide Robertson, Smollet, Stewart, &c. _in loco_; Grose's Antiq. of Scotland, &c. [217] Hist. and Allus. Arms, pp. 316-18. [218] The name of Carlos is presumed to have become extinct; that of Penderell is by no means so. The representative of the family still continues to receive the pension of 100 marks originally granted to Richard Penderell. Several members of the family, in various conditions in life, have been connected for some generations with the county of Sussex. One of them, a few years since, kept an inn at Lewes, bearing the sign of the _Royal Oak_. [219] A lion rampant within a double tressure, &c. [220] A unicorn. [221] Sable, a cheveron between three astroits, or mullets, argent. (Historical and Allusive Arms.) [222] Ibid. [223] Hist. and Allus. Arms, p. 400. [224] Hist. and Allus. Arms. (1803.) [225] "Over against the parish church [of St. Olave, Southwark] on the south side of the streete was sometime one great house builded of stone, with arched gates, which pertained to the Prior of Lewes in Sussex, and was his lodging when he came to London: it is now a common hostelry for travellers, and hath to sign the Walnut-Tree." (_Stowe_, p. 340.) The last remains of this inn were destroyed in making the approach to the new London Bridge. For an account of them, see 'Archæologia,' vol. xxv, p. 601. [226] The supporters of this family are 'two leopards argent, spotted sable.' [227] Page 437. [228] Peerage, II, 486. [229] In the History of Birds, by the Rev. Edward Stanley (now Bishop of Norwich), vol. i, 119, are some interesting anecdotes of the asportation of infants by eagles, illustrative of the family crest, and the corresponding story of King Alfred's peer, "Nestingum," who received that name from his having been found, in infancy, in the nest of an eagle. For further remarks, vide Mr. Ormerod's interesting paper on the "Stanley Legend," in the Collect. Topog. et Geneal. vol. vii, which has been reprinted in the form of a private tract. [230] Penes Rev. Henry Latham, M. A., Rector of Selmeston, &c. &c., to whose kindness I am much indebted. [231] Vide notice of _Rebuses_, at p. 125. [232] C. S. Gilbert's Cornwall, vol. i. [233] The earldom of Oxford continued in this family during the unprecedented period of five centuries and a half. [234] Itin. vol. vi, p. 37. [235] Leland, Collect. vol. ii, p. 504. [236] Or, a fesse chequy argent and azure. [237] Anonymous Paragraph. [238] It is not unworthy of remark that among the North American Indians, symbols are employed for the purpose of distinguishing their tribes. The Shawanese nation, for example, was originally divided into twelve tribes, which were subdivided into septs or clans, recognized by the appellations of the Bear, the Turtle, the Eagle, &c. In some cases individuals, particularly the more eminent warriors, formerly assumed similar devices, commemorative of their prowess. "And this," says Mr. R. C. Taylor, an American antiquary, "is _Indian Heraldry_, as useful, as commemorative, as inspiriting to the red warrior and his race, as that when, in the days of the Crusades, the banner and the pennon, the device and the motto, the crest and the war-cry exercised their potent influence on European chivalry." [239] Reflections on the Revolution in France. [240] Blackstone, Rights of Persons, ch. xii. [241] Cited in Nares's Herald. Anom. [242] History of Knighthood, quoted by Nares. [243] Vide pp. 34, 35. [244] A military expedition. [245] The Tanner. [246] There are two other expressions applied to this respectable class which are extremely incorrect, namely, _gentlemen-farmers_ and _tenant-farmers_. A person who by birth, education, and wealth, is entitled to the distinction of gentleman, and who chooses to devote his capital to agriculture may be properly designated a _farming-gentleman_, though the occupation of a large estate without those qualifications can never constitute a _gentleman_-farmer. _Tenant-farmer_, a phrase which has lately been in the mouth of every politician, is as fine a piece of tautology as 'coat-making tailor' or 'shoe-mending cobbler' would be. "It maketh me laugh to see," says Sir John Ferne's _Columel_, "a jolly peece of worke it were, to see plow-men made Gentle-men!" [247] Quoted by Blackstone. [248] Page 89 et seq. [249] He was living in 1638, and was son, brother, and uncle to three successive earls of Huntingdon. An account of him coinciding in many particulars with the one here given is painted in gold letters beneath an original portrait in the possession of his descendants: it is said to have been written by the celebrated earl of Shaftesbury. (Vide Bell's Huntingdon Peerage.) [250] "The hall of the Squire," says Aubrey, "was usually hung round with the insignia of the squire's amusements, such as hunting, shooting, fishing, &c.; but in case he were Justice of Peace it was _dreadful to behold_. The skreen was garnished with corslets and helmets, gaping with open mouths, with coats of mail, launces, pikes, halberts, brown bills, bucklers, &c." [251] Glory of Generositie, p. 15. [252] The vignette is copied from the common seal of the College, which has the following legend in Roman characters: + SIGILLVM · COMMVNE · CORPORACIONIS · OFFICII · ARMORVM. [253] Dallaway. [254] The former appellation was given to this mansion because it was originally the inn or town residence of Sir John Poulteney, who flourished under Edward III, and was four times lord mayor. Stowe calls it Cole-Herbert, but by other authors it is generally spelt as in the text. The name Cold-Harbour is common to many _farms_ in the southern counties of England. There are several in Sussex which are by no means remarkable for the bleakness of their situation, and a house in Surrey bearing this singular designation is placed in a remarkably sheltered spot, at the foot of a range of hills. Harbour means not only a sea-port or haven, but any place of shelter or retreat: the epithet 'cold' is doubtless a corruption of some other word. [255] The title of Surroy was changed to Clarenceux by Henry V, in compliment to his brother Thomas, duke of Clarence; the first king of this name having been the private herald attached to the duke's establishment. [256] Quoted by Dall. p. 141. [257] At modern funerals it is no part of the heralds' duty to render their 'coats' _guttée des larmes_! [258] Equal, probably, to £1200 or £1500, at the present value of money. [259] After the death of Richard upon the field of Bosworth, a pursuivant (perhaps one of his own creation) was employed to carry his remains to Leicester. "His body naked to the skinne, not so much as one clout about him," says Stowe, "was trussed behinde a _Pursuivant of Armes_, like a hogge or calfe." [260] Among the Dugdale MSS. are the following memoranda of Tong, Norroy, made during a visitation of Lancashire, temp. Henry VIII: "John Talbot of Salebury, a verry gentyll Esqwyr, and well worthye to be takyne payne for." "Sir John Townley of Townley. I sought hym all day rydynge in the wyld contrey, and his reward was ij{s}, whyche the gwyde had the most part, and I had as evill a jorney as ever I had." "Sir R. H. Knyght. The said Sir R. H. has put awaye the lady his wyffe, and kepys a concobyne in his howse, by whom he has dyvers children. And by the lady aforsayd he has Leyhall, whych armes he berys quarterde with hys in the furste quarter. He sayd that Master Garter lycensed hym so to do, and he gave Mr. Garter an angell noble, but he gave me nothing, nor made me no good cher, but gave me prowde words." Certes _he_ was a very naughty and '_un_gentyll Esqwyr.' [261] It frequently happened in those days, as well as at the present time, that parties used arms for which they had no authority either from grant or antient usage. These were publicly disclaimed by the heralds who made visitation. In a copy of the Visitation of Wiltshire, in 1623, are the names of no less than fifty-four persons so disclaimed at Salisbury. (Montagu's Guide, p. 21.) [262] Noble, p. 105. In these heraldric displays the arms of the sovereign generally found a conspicuous place. "The royal arms placed over doors or upon buildings was an antient mode of denoting that they were under the protection of the sovereign. When some troops of a tyrant were ravaging the estates of the Chartreuse de Montrieu, the monks had recourse to the antient remedy. They put up the arms of the king over the gate of the house; but the depredators laughed at it, saying that it might have been efficacious in times past (que cela étoit bon autrefois) and persecuted them with more severity." (Mem. de Petrarque, quoted by Fosbroke.) [263] Hist. Coll. Arms, 102. [264] Ib. 102. [265] Ib. 107. [266] Mr. Woodham, in his tract (No. 4 of the publications of the Cambridge Antiq. Soc.) says, "The styles of blazonry admit of classification like those of Gothic Architecture. The bare deviceless ordinaries agree with the sturdy pier and flat buttress of the _Norman_ age; the progress of ornament uniting still with chasteness of design may be called _Early English_; the fourteenth century exhibits the perfection of both sciences, as displayed in the highest degree of _Decoration_ consistent with purity; and the mannerism of Henry VIII's time, with its crowded field and accumulated charges, is as essentially _Florid_ and flamboyant as any panelling or tracery in the kingdom." (p. 11.) [267] See Chapter XII. [268] A 'Society for the Suppression of Duelling,' lately established, enrols among its members many of the greatest and best men of our times. All success to it! [269] That the College at this period comprised several officers of unimpeachable integrity cannot be doubted, while it is equally certain (at least, according to popular opinion) that others were less scrupulous. "An herald," says Butler: "An herald Can make a gentleman scarce a year old To be descended of a race Of antient kings in a small space." And, "For a piece of coin, Twist any name into the line." The satire may have been deserved at the time--it was a corrupt age; but I am not sure that the reputation of the College has not suffered, even to our days, from this biting sarcasm, which is as far from the truth, as applied to the learned and respectable body now composing it, as Hudibras is from poetry. [270] Rushworth. [271] In the churchwardens' accounts of Great Marlow are the following entries: "1650, Sept. 29. For defacing of the King's Arms £0 ,, 1 ,, 0. "1651. Paid to the painter for setting up the State's Arms £0 ,, 16 ,, 0." Three years earlier there is an entry of 5s. 'payd the ringers when the king came thorowe the towne!' [272] Dallaway. [273] Witness the French Revolution, a period at which these distinctions of gentry were temporarily abolished, as if, forsooth, bends and fesses and lions-rampant had conduced to the previous misgovernment of the nation! From the blow which heraldry received in France during that bloody struggle it has never recovered; although, from some recent movements, it appears evident that heraldric honours will, ere long, receive that attention which they deserve in every antient and well-constituted state in Christendom. [274] The expense of the N.W. corner was defrayed by Dugdale, then Norroy. [275] Noble. [276] The present heraldic establishment of Scotland consists of Lyon, king of arms; six heralds, Albany, Rothsay, Snowdoun, Marchmont, Yla, and Ross; and six pursuivants, Unicorn, Kintire, Bute, Dingwall, Ormond and Carrick. The Scottish College, as Noble observes, has not been much distinguished for literature; there is, however, one example, a name familiar to the readers of Marmion: "Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount, Lord Lyon king at arms," who was author of 'The Dreme,' 'The Complaynt,' and other politico-moral poems; also of 'The Three Estates,' a satirical piece of great humour; his most popular work was 'The History of Squire Meldrum,' which "is considered as the last poem that in any degree partakes of the character of the metrical romance." The principal functionary for Ireland is styled Ulster, king of arms: under him are two heralds, Cork and Dublin, and one pursuivant, Athlone. [277] Hist. Coll. Arms, p. 352. [278] Ibid. p. 372. [279] Noble, p. 372. [280] Noble. [281] Dallaway. [282] It was printed in 1654 by Sir Edward Bysshe, Garter. [283] That portion of the original edition which relates to arms is reprinted in the Appendix to Dallaway. [284] Or, by corruption, Barnes. [285] Bale, de Script. Brit. viij. 33. [286] It is worthy of remark, as sustaining the claim of Dame Julyan to the authorship of the heraldric portion of the Boke, that at the end of the treatise on arms there is a passage in which evident recurrence is made to her former and undisputed essays. Speaking of the necessity of attending to precise rules in the study of heraldry she adds in conclusion, "Nee ye may not overryn swyftly the forsayd rules, bot dyligently have theym in yowr mind, and be not to full of consaitis. For he that will hunt ij haris in oon howre, or oon while oon, another while another, lightly he losys both." [287] Here the good Dame contradicts her own assertion; vide p. 36. [288] Vide pp. 108, 109, 116, 117, &c. &c. [289] Armorie of Honour, fo. 56. [290] The heraldric term for a _cat_; vide p. 252, ante. [291] The nails are omitted. [292] Bishop Gibson records a piece of malicious revenge practised by Brooke which alone would be sufficient to stamp his character with opprobrium. Having a private pique against one of the College he employed a person to carry to him a ready-drawn coat of arms, purporting to be that of one Gregory Brandon, a gentleman of London then sojourning in Spain, desiring him to attest it with his hand and seal of office, and bidding the messenger return with it immediately, as the vessel by which it was to be transmitted was on the point of sailing. The officer, little suspecting Brooke's design, did what was required of him, received the customary fee, and dismissed the bearer. Brooke immediately posted to the Earl of Arundel, one of the commissioners for the office of earl-marshal, exhibited the arms, which were no other than _the royal bearings of Spain_, and assured his lordship that Brandon, the supposed grantee, was a man of plebeian condition, no way entitled to the honour. The Earl laid the matter before the king, who ordered the herald to be cited into the court of Star Chamber, to answer for the insult offered to the court of Spain. He, having no alternative, submitted himself to the mercy of the court, only pleading, in extenuation of his offence, that he had acted without his usual circumspection in the business, in consequence of Brooke's urgency, on the pretence that delay was impossible. Brooke was compelled to admit his own knavery in the transaction, and the consequence was that both himself and the other herald were committed to prison, himself for treachery, and the other for negligence. [293] Moule. [294] Referring to the edition of the Boke of S. A., printed by Wynkyn de Worde. [295] For extracts from it see several of the preceding chapters. [296] In this hasty glance at writers on the subject of armory it would be unjust to omit the names of several heralds and others who are either almost unknown to the general student of English literature, or are recognized in some other character than that of illustrators of our science. In the former class may be noticed Sir Edward Bysshe, Garter, (who published the 'De Studio Militari,' and another treatise of Upton, and the 'Aspilogia' of Sir H. Spelman;) John Philipot, Somerset, and his son Thomas; Thomas Gore; John Gibbon, Bluemantle; and Matthew Carter, author of 'Honor Redivivus;' and among the latter Speed, Weever, Heylyn, and Stowe. [297] Moule. [298] He was a musician, a lawyer, an alchemist, a herald, a naturalist, an historian, an antiquary, an astrologer, and to use the encomium of his friend, the notorious Lilly, "the greatest virtuoso and curioso that was ever known or read of in England." [299] Beloe's Anecdotes of Literature, vi, 342. [300] Hist. of Cheshire. [301] Book III, Chap. iii. [302] The Holmes of which our author was a member were a remarkable family. They were of gentle origin, their ancestors having been seated at the manor of Tranmere in the Hundred of Wirral, in Cheshire. WILLIAM HOLME, of Tranmere. ===== | | Thomas Holme, third son. ===== | | (1.) Randle Holme, 1st son, deputy to the Coll. of Arms for Cheshire, Shropshire, and North Wales; paid a fine of £10 for contempt in refusing to attend the Coronation of Chas. I. Mayor of Chester 1634; married the widow of Thos. Chaloner, Ulster King of Arms. Died 1655. ===== | | (2.) Randle Holme, a warm royalist, Mayor of Chester in 1643, during the siege. Died 12 Charles II. ===== | | (3.) Randle Holme, author of the 'Academy,' Sewer of the Chamber in extraordinary to Chas. II. He followed the employment of his father and grandfather as deputy to the Kings of Arms. Died 1700, and was succeeded in office by his eldest son. ===== | | (4.) Randle Holme. Died in 1707, in reduced circumstances. ===== | | (5.) Randle Holme and his sisters died before their father. The heraldric collections of the first four Randle Holmes, relating chiefly to their native county, are in the British Museum. Ormerod's Cheshire; Moule's Bibliotheca, p. 240 et seq. [303] Hist. Coll. Arms, p. 377. [304] Moule, 435. [305] The following works appeared between the years 1760 and 1800. Douglas's Scotch Peerage, 1764, (reprinted in 1813). Kimber's Peerage and his Baronetage. Jacob's Peerage, 3 vols. fol. Almon's Peerages; these afterwards went under the name of Debrett; Peerages by Barlow, Archdall, Catton and Kearsley. Many of these compilations bear the names of the publishers. Two popular elementary treatises also appeared, viz. 'The Elements of Heraldry,' by Mark Antony Porny, French Master at Eton, several editions; and Hugh Clark's 'Introduction to Heraldry,' the 13th edition of which, lately published, is one of the prettiest little manuals ever published on the subject. Clark also published 'A Concise History of Knighthood,' 2 vols. 8vo. [306] Orig. Gen. p. 4. [307] 1812. [308] A village on the western bank of the Tamar in the parish of Landulph. [309] Desultoria, p. 6. [310] This roll professes to give the names of the distinguished personages who accompanied William the Conqueror in his invasion; but it is a fact strongly militating against its genuineness that many of the names occurring in it are not to be found in the Doomsday books. [311] 1622, p. 51. [312] The reason assigned by Peacham for Polydore's thus playing '_old gooseberry_' with the records is that "his owne historie might passe for _currant_!" [313] Vide Sir H. Ellis's Polydore Vergil, printed for the Camden Soc. 1844. Preface. [314] Vide notices of each in Horsfield's Lewes, vol. i. [315] "The proof of pedigrees has become so much more difficult since Inquisitiones post mortem have been disused, that it is easier to establish one for 500 years before the time of Charles II than for 100 years since." (Lord C. J. Mansfield.) [316] I, 10, p. 91, in Coll. Arm. [317] The register of Alfriston, co. Sussex, begins with marriages if I mistake not, in the year 1512, but as all the entries up to 1538, or later, were evidently written at one time, they were doubtless copied from a _private_ register kept by the incumbent prior to the mandate of the Government. I mention this fact because I never heard of another parish register of equal antiquity. [318] In the MS. the tinctures of these shields are shown in the usual manner by lines, &c. Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, are quarterly, or and gules. The bordure of No. 2 is sable; the label of No. 3 is sable; that of No. 4 purpure; and that of No. 5 sable, charged with plates; the charge of No. 6 is a plate; the chief of No. 7 is quarterly, or and gules; and that of No. 8 gules and or. The coat No. 7 is identical with that of Peckham of Kent and Sussex. [319] These shields are all, as to the fields, gules; as to the cheverons, or; and as to the charges, sable. [320] Id est, in the family pedigree. _Ed._ [321] The shields are all argent, the fesses azure, and the roundels, gules. [322] Quarterly, or and gules, a plate. [323] Argent, a fesse azure between six torteaux. [324] Or, a saltire sable. [325] Ditto, with a chief gules. [326] Gules, three bucks' heads, or. [327] Or, a saltire sable, a canton gules. [328] The first of these two is or, a saltire sable, the second argent, a fesse azure, in chief three torteaux; the chiefs are both gules, a cross argent. [329] These three are alike, or, a saltire sable, the differences being in the chief; the first is sable, the second gules, and the third azure. As the MS. bears evident marks of haste, the reader is desired not to depend upon the blazon here given. [330] _Venter_, [a law term] a mother. _Bailey._ [331] In general the arms assigned to a county are those of one of its chief, or most antient, boroughs. Thus the arms of Sussex are identical with those of East Grinstead, once the county town; (although within the last 10 years, for some unexplained reason, the _fictitious_ bearings ascribed to the South-Saxon kings have been employed as the official arms of the county.) But the arms of Cornwall are those of its antient feu, attached to the territory, and not to any particular family. [332] Morgan's Armilogia, p. 158. [333] Armories, p. 39. [334] Sandford's Geneal. Hist. gives Richard, king of the Romans, two natural sons, viz. Richard de Cornwall, ancestor of the knightly family commonly called Barons of Burford, and Walter de Cornwall, to whom he gave lands in Branel. Walter de Cornwall mentioned in the text was probably descended from the latter. [335] Nisbet, 37. [336] It is now in the possession of Mr. Wm. Davey of Lewes. The engraving (from a drawing by Mr. Wm. Figg,) is of the actual size of the object. [337] The charges on the shields are conjectured to be, 1, The lion-rampant of Poictou; 2, The double-headed eagle of the King of the Romans; and 3, The lion of Poictou, surrounded by the bezantée bordure of Cornwall, (vide p. 310.) The workmanship is so extremely rude that the bezants are scarcely perceptible. [338] A similar example of ancient measures thus guaranteed by Heraldry exists in the market-place of Aisme, a small town in Piedmont, where a large marble block is adapted by four excavations of different sizes for corn measures from half a bushel to two bushels. On the front of this are two heater shields, apparently of the thirteenth century, with the arms of Savoy and Val Tarentaise. (Vide p. 32, vol. xviii, N. S. Gent. Mag.) Transcriber's Notes: Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. Passages in Gothic font are indicated by =Gothic=. Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}. The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these letters have been replaced with transliterations. The original text contains letters with diacritical marks that are not represented in this text version. 
45181	----	Transcriber's Notes Changes to the text are limited to correction of typographical errors are listed at the end of the book. Minor corrections to formatting or punctuation are made without comment. Illustrations and plates have been re-positioned to appear as close as possible following the first reference in the text, while retaining their numbered order. Plate XXX and Plate XXXI were in reverse order in the original. Footnotes have been numbered consecutively throughout the book and placed after the paragraph in which the footnote anchor appears. In this Plain Text version of the e-book, characters from the Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1) character set only are used. Other symbols are represented as follows: [s] stands for "long s" _underscore symbols_ represent italic typeface; =equals signs= represent bold type face; ~tilde signs~ represent blackletter font; ALL CAPS is used to represent small caps typeface. * * * * * THE ARTISTIC CRAFTS SERIES OF TECHNICAL HANDBOOKS EDITED BY W. R. LETHABY HERALDRY [Illustration: BANNER OF THE ARMS OF KING GEORGE THE FIFTH.] HERALDRY FOR CRAFTSMEN & DESIGNERS BY W. H. ST. JOHN HOPE LITT.D., D.C.L., WITH DIAGRAMS BY THE AUTHOR AND NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS COLOURED LITHOGRAPHS AND COLLOTYPE REPRODUCTIONS FROM ANCIENT EXAMPLES PUBLISHED BY JOHN HOGG 13 PATERNOSTER ROW LONDON 1913 PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE & COMPANY LTD LONDON EDITOR'S PREFACE In issuing this volume of a series of Handbooks on the Artistic Crafts, it will be well to state what are our general aims. In the first place, we wish to provide trustworthy text-books of workshop practice, from the points of view of experts who have critically examined the methods current in the shops, and, putting aside vain survivals, are prepared to say what is good workmanship and to set up a standard of quality in the crafts which are more especially associated with design. Secondly, in doing this, we hope to treat design itself as an essential part of good workmanship. During the last century most of the arts, save painting and sculpture of an academic kind, were little considered, and there was a tendency to look on 'design' as a mere matter of _appearance_. Such 'ornamentation' as there was was usually obtained by following in a mechanical way a drawing provided by an artist who often knew little of the technical processes involved in production. With the critical attention given to the crafts by Ruskin and Morris, it came to be seen that it was impossible to detach design from craft in this way, and that, in the widest sense, true design is an inseparable element of good quality, involving as it does the selection of good and suitable material, contrivance for special purpose, expert workmanship, proper finish and so on, far more than mere ornament, and, indeed, that ornamentation itself was rather an exuberance of fine workmanship than a matter of merely abstract lines. Workmanship when separated by too wide a gulf from fresh thought--that is, from design--inevitably decays, and, on the other hand, ornamentation, divorced from workmanship, is necessarily unreal, and quickly falls into affectation. Proper ornamentation may be defined as a language addressed to the eye; it is pleasant thought expressed in the speech of the tool. In the third place, we would have this series put artistic craftsmanship before people as furnishing reasonable occupations for those who would gain a livelihood. Although within the bounds of academic art the competition, of its kind, is so acute that only a very few per cent. can fairly hope to succeed as painters and sculptors, yet as artistic craftsmen there is some probability that nearly every one who would pass through a sufficient period of apprenticeship to workmanship and design would reach a measure of success. In the blending of handwork and thought in such arts as we propose to deal with, happy careers may be found as far removed from the dreary routine of hack labour as from the terrible uncertainty of academic art. It is desirable in every way that men of good education should be brought back into the productive crafts: there are more than enough of us 'in the City,' and it is probable that more consideration will be given in this century than in the last to Design and Workmanship. * * * * * Designers have at times to deal with some matters which are almost common to all the arts, matters which they either know or do not know, and in which the genius they are apt to trust in goes for little apart from knowledge. They must learn lettering for inscriptions much like they once learnt the multiplication table, and they should learn the elements of heraldry in the same way. This it has been difficult to do, as most of the books on heraldry, in seeking to be complete, so effectually muddle up the few important points with the vast number of things unimportant, or worse, that the art student is likely to give it up in despair. Many books on heraldry, which in itself is surely a gay thing, have been made to resemble grammars and dictionaries of a meaningless jargon. Any student, however, who has become interested in a single shield, or in the look of the thing as seen in a collection of fine examples of heraldry such as are illustrated in this volume, should be able to master the main principles in an hour or two. The curious terms are only old-fashioned; they are used, so far as they are necessary, not of malice, but because it is of the essence of heraldry that everything shall be so strictly defined that a few words may represent a shield of arms as surely as a picture. Hence everything has a name, everything is clear, sharp, and bright, the colours are few, the forms must be large and simple. Even the seemingly arbitrary dictum that 'no colour must be put on colour or metal on metal' may probably have arisen from the fact that when gilding or silvering was used on a shield it would form a perfect foil for colours, but as they reflected light in the same way, they could not be distinguished if used one on the other. Even yellow pigment on white would not tell clearly at any distance; the maxim is merely a rule for the sake of distinctness. Again, the curious vigorous drawing of beasts and birds with the eyes staring and the feet spread out was not the result of a desire to be quaint, but arose naturally from the same need of being clear. A good naturalistic drawing of a lion would be useless on a flag. Granted the special needs of heraldry, it developed in a perfectly understandable way. On the question of heraldic drawing I should like to caution the student against thinking that it is so easy as it looks. Elementary and exaggerated, it may seem as if any child might do it, but in truth it is terribly difficult. The old shields were designed by experts with great experience; they placed the charge perfectly on the field and so distributed the parts that they were balanced in 'weight'; there were no weak lines and nothing was crowded for lack of room. Much practice made them perfect, and perfection is still difficult. The present volume seems to me exactly what artists have wanted. W. R. LETHABY _March 1913_ AUTHOR'S PREFACE This book is an attempt to place before designers and craftsmen such an account of the principles of the art of Heraldry as will enable them to work out for themselves the many and various applications of it that are possible to-day. To that end the different usages which have prevailed from time to time are dealt with in detail, and are illustrated as far as may be from ancient sources. Should it be thought that undue stress has been laid upon the pre-Tudor heraldry, to the comparative exclusion of that of later times, it may be pointed out that until the principles of the earlier heraldry have been grasped and appreciated, it is impossible to get rid of the cast-iron uniformity and stupid rules that bound the heraldry of to-day, and tend to strangle all attempts to raise it to a higher level. To what extent these chilling ideas prevail, and how necessary it is to get rid of them, cannot better be illustrated than by two letters written to the author, after most of the following chapters were in type, by a critical friend who has not read any of them. He points out in his first letter that on the very day of his writing there had been brought to his notice, not for the first time, the great need that exists for a book in which sculptors and painters may find out what they legitimately may and what they may not do as regards heraldry. What, for example, may be left out from an achievement of arms, and how the different elements composing it may be varied, or even rearranged. He instances the case of a sculptor who had been supplied with a drawing, 'brilliant in emerald green and powder blue,' of the arms that had been granted to a famous Englishman whose memory was about to be honoured by the setting up of a statue with his arms, etc. carved upon the pedestal. The arms in the drawing did not present any difficulties, but the crest was not shown upon the helm, and the whole was surrounded by a series of trophies which to this unenlightened sculptor were as heraldic as the arms and crest. Out of all this, asked the sculptor, what could lawfully be omitted? If any of the trophies were supporters, must they be shown? And must the crest be used? Ought the crest to be on a helm? And should the helm be shown in profile or full-faced? The contents of the drawing, if all were sculptured, would, in my friend's opinion, 'either come so small as to be unmonumental, or so large as to dwarf the statue into a doll.' It will be seen from the principles enunciated in the present work that the answers to the foregoing questions were obviously as follows: I. That the sculptor might use the arms alone if he thought fit, and he might vary the shape and size of the shield according to his fancy. II. That he could omit the crest if he wished, but if he elected to use it, the crest ought certainly to be set upon a helm, which should face the same way as the crest; the crested helm might also be flourished about with such mantling as the sculptor thought proper. III. That in the particular drawing none of the trophies was heraldic. The sculptor accordingly could omit the whole, if he were so minded, or could dispose about the arms and crested helm any such other trophies of like character as would in his judgment look well or be appropriate. In a further letter my friend enumerates other difficulties that vex poor artists. Must a shield always be surmounted by a crested helm? Should the helm face any special way according to the degree of the bearer thereof? What are the ordinary relative proportions which helm and crest should bear to the shield? May a shield be set aslant as well as upright? Should a torse be drawn with a curved or a straight line? Is it necessary to represent the engraved dots and lines indicative of the tinctures? What are supporters to stand upon? Are they to plant their feet on a ribbon or scroll, or on a flowering mound, or what? May arms entitled to have supporters be represented without them? What are the simplest elements to which a shield of arms may be reduced?--as, for example, in a panel some 60 or 70 feet above the eye, and when but a small space is available. To a craftsman or designer who has grasped the principles of heraldry these further questions will present no difficulty, and most of them can be answered by that appeal to medieval usage which the nature of the illustrations renders possible. These illustrations, it will be seen, are largely selected from heraldic seals, and for the particular reason that seals illustrate so admirably and in a small compass such a number of those usages to which appeal may confidently be made. Examples of heraldry in conjunction with buildings, monuments, and architectural features generally, have also been given, and its application to the minor arts has not been overlooked. In order, too, to enable full advantage to be taken of the long period covered by the illustrations, the most typical of these have been collected into a chronological series at the end of the book. It is thus possible to show the gradual rise and decline of heraldic art from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century, beyond which it is hardly necessary to go. The only modern illustrations that have been tolerated are those showing the formation of the Union Jack, and the degraded condition of the so-called Royal Standard. The coloured frontispiece is an attempt to show a more effective way of displaying with equal heraldic 'correctness' the arms of our Sovereign Lord King George the Fifth. W. H. ST. JOHN HOPE My thanks are due to the Society of Antiquaries of London for leave to reproduce the coloured illustrations in pls. I and II, for the loan of blocks or drawings of figs. 7, 13, 33, 64, 65, 101, 129, 153, 186, 187, 190, and 193, and for leave to photograph the numerous casts of seals figured in pls. V-XIV and XVII-XXX and throughout the book; to the Royal Archæological Institute for loan of figs. 20 and 107; to the Sussex Archæological Society for the loan of fig. 142; to the Society of Arts for figs. 6, 15, 17, 28, 30, 41, 45, 46, 48, 51, 55, 73, 74, 86, 92, 114, 126, 127, 150, 154, 155, and 199; to the Royal Institute of British Architects for figs. 8, 93, and 199; to Messrs. Cassell & Co. for figs. 21, 53, 54, 56, 63, 81, 84, 85, 91, 108, 109, 117, 118, 124, 132, 133, 139, 151; to Messrs. Constable & Co. for figs. 9, 14, 43, 67, 68, 72, 75, 76, 77, 78, 83, 136, 137, 138; to Messrs. Parker & Co. for fig. 143; and to Messrs. Longmans & Co. for figs. 177, 183. Also to Mr. T. W. Rutter for lending the drawings reproduced in pls. II and III; to Mr. R. W. Paul for the drawing of fig. 184; to Mr. Mill Stephenson for the loan of the brass rubbings reproduced in figs. 19, 26, 27, 29, 31, 32, 35-39, 42, 146-148; to the Rev. T. W. Galpin, Mr. E. M. Beloe, and Mr. Aymer Vallance for the photographs of figs. 47, 149, and 191 respectively; and to the Rev. Severne Majendie for leave to photograph the effigies of the Duke and Duchess of Exeter (figs. 167, 168) in St. Katharine's chapel in Regent's Park. I wish also to thank, among others, Mr. David Weller, head verger of Westminster Abbey, for leave to reproduce the photographs shown in figs. 1, 2, 4, 34, 40, 87, 104, 110, 134, 156, 176, 194, 195; Mr. T. W. Phillips, of Wells, for those forming figs. 23 and 111; Mr. Charles Goulding, of Beverley, for those forming figs. 49, 50; Mr. T. Palmer Clarke, of Cambridge, for those forming figs. 88, 96, 128, 170, 171, and 172; and Mr. Fred Spalding, of Chelmsford, for the photograph of the New Hall panel in fig. 189. CONTENTS CHAP. _page_ I. INTRODUCTION 33 Defects of Modern Heraldic Decoration; Appeal to First Principles; English _versus_ Foreign Sources; Definition of Heraldry; Modes of Display; Colours and Furs; Formation of Arms; Divisions of the Shield; Early Authorities: Seals, Monuments, Buildings, Wills and Inventories, Rolls of Arms. II. THE SHIELD AND ITS TREATMENT 65 Early Forms of Shields; Later Forms; Shields of Irregular Outline and Surface; The Filling of a Shield; Apparent _versus_ Absolute Uniformity; Modern Rules as to Proportion; The Use and Abuse of Quartering: its Origin and Growth; Differencing of Arms; The Scutcheon of Ulster; Diapering. III. THE SHIELD AND ITS TREATMENT (_cont._) 109 Armorial Bearings of Ladies; Use of Lozenges and Roundels as variant forms of Shields; Arms of Men on Lozenges; Combinations of Shields with Lozenges and Roundels of Arms on Seals and in Embroideries. IV. THE TREATMENT OF CRESTS 123 Origin of Crests; Earliest examples of Crests; Ways of wearing Crests; The Helm and its treatment; Modern use of Helms; Absurd Crests; Use of Crests other than by individuals; The comparative sizes of Helms and Crests. V. MANTLINGS 139 Origin of Mantlings; Simple early forms; Colours of Mantlings; Medieval usage as to colours of Mantlings. VI. CRESTS AND CROWNS, CAPS OF ESTATE, AND WREATHS 148 Crests within Crowns; Nature and Treatment of Crowns; Caps of Estate: Their possible origin and introduction into Heraldry; The colour of Caps; The placing of Crests upon Caps; Wreaths or Torses; Their Colour; Crests and Mottoes; Use of Crests by Bishops; The ensigning of Arms with Mitres, Cardinals' and Doctors' Hats, and Caps of Estate. VII. THE USE OF BADGES, KNOTS, AND THE REBUS 165 Definition of a Badge; Difference between Crests and Badges; Examples of Badges; The Ostrich-Feather Badge; The White Hart, etc.; Introduction of Badges into Heraldry; Their Prevalence; Allusive Badges; Badges of obscure Origin; Knots and Badges; The Rebus. VIII. SUPPORTERS 193 The probable Origin of Supporters; Quasi-Supporters; True Supporters: their Introduction; Supporters of Crested Helms; Pairs of Supporters; Dissimilar Supporters; The use of Supporters by Ladies; Other ways of Supporting Shields. IX. BANNERS OF ARMS 219 The Royal Banner of Arms; The Banner of the Arms of the City of London; Shapes of Banners; Sizes of certain Banners; Upright _versus_ Long Banners; Advantages of the upright form; Banners with Achievements of Arms; Modern Use of Banners. X. MARSHALLING OF ARMS 251 Arms of husband and wife; Dimidiating; Impaling; Scutcheons of Pretence; Impalement with Official Arms; Arms of ladies; Heraldic Drawing; Mottoes; Use and Misuse of the Garter; Lettering and Mottoes. XI. CROWNS, CORONETS, AND COLLARS 269 Crowns and Coronets; Introduction of Coronets; Coronets of Princes, Dukes, and Earls; Bequests of Coronets; Illustrations of Coronets and Crowns; Collars and Chains; Collars of Orders; Lancastrian Collars of SS; Yorkist Collars of Suns and Roses; Tudor Collars of SS; Other Livery Collars; Waits' Collars; Collars and Chains of Mayors, Mayoresses, and Sheriffs; The Revival of Collars; Inordinate Length of modern Collars. XII. HERALDIC EMBROIDERIES 319 The introduction of armorial insignia in embroidered Vestments: on Robes: on Beds, etc. XIII. TUDOR AND LATER HERALDRY 331 Decorative Heraldry of the Reign of Henry VIII; The Decadent Change in the Quality of Heraldry; Examples of Elaborated Arms; Survival of Tradition in Heraldic Art; Elizabethan Heraldry; Heraldry in the Seventeenth Century and Under the Commonwealth; Post-Restoration Heraldry. CHRONOLOGICAL SERIES OF ILLUSTRATIONS 354 INDEX 411 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PLATES _Facing PLATE page_ Banner of the arms of King George the Fifth (_Frontispiece_) Title I. Arms of Milton Abbey from a window in Ibberton church, Dorset, c. 1475. (_From_ "_Archæologia_," vol. xlvii.) 48 II. } Shields in stained glass of the 14th century in 54 III. } the Victoria and Albert Museum. (From coloured 56 drawings by Mr. T. W. Rutter) IV. Part (reduced) of an early Roll of Arms belonging to the Society of Antiquaries of London 64 V. Examples of shaped shields 70 VI. Various shapes of shields 73 VII. Examples of quartering 89 VIII. Examples of diapered shields 104 IX. Use of lozenges and roundels of arms 112 X. Use of lozenges and roundels of arms 114 XI. Early examples of crests 123 XII. Early uses of crests, on seals of William Montagu earl of Salisbury, 1337-44 125 XIII. Various treatments of crests 129 XIV. Examples of crests and mantlings 130 XV. Stall-plate (reduced) of Hugh Stafford lord Bourchier, _c._ 1421 151 XVI. Stall-plate (reduced) of William lord Willoughby, _c._ 1421 154 XVII. Crests with mottoes 161 XVIII. Examples of supporters 188 XIX. Origin of supporters 193 XX. Shields with supporters 198 XXI. Shields accompanied by badges 199 XXII. Quasi-supporter 200 XXIII. Shields accompanied by badges 202 XXIV. Shields accompanied by badges 203 XXV. Arms with crown and supporters of Elizabeth Wydville, queen of Edward IV 208 XXVI. Arms, supporters, and badges of the lady Margaret Beaufort, 1455 209 XXVII. Methods of arranging shields 214 XXVIII. Examples of banners of arms 216 XXIX. Ways of upholding shields 218 XXX. Crowned shield with supporters and badges of the lady Margaret Beaufort, 1485 288 XXXI. Right and wrong versions of the Union Jack 248 ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT FIG. _page_ 1. Tile with the arms of King Henry III, _c._ 1255, from the chapter-house of Westminster abbey. (_From a photograph by Mr. David Weller_) 36 2. Shield of the arms of St. Edward, _c._ 1259, in the quire of Westminster abbey church. (_From a photograph by Mr. David Weller_) 37 3. Heraldry on the gatehouse of Kirkham priory, Yorkshire, built between 1289 and 1296. (_From a photograph by Mr. C. C. Hodges_) 38 4. Shield with curved bend or baston of Henry de Laci earl of Lincoln, _c._ 1259, in the quire of Westminster abbey church. (_From a photograph by Mr. David Weller_) 44 5. Arms of Clopton, from a brass _c._ 1420 at Long Melford in Suffolk 46 6. Heraldic candle-holder, etc. from the latten grate about the tomb of King Henry VII at Westminster. (_From_ "_Journal of the Society of Arts_," vol. xlv. p. 238) 55 7. Firedog with armorial bearings. (_From a drawing by Mr. C. Prætorius, F.S.A._) 56 8. Chimney-piece in Tattershall castle, Lincolnshire, built by Ralph lord Cromwell between 1433 and 1455. (_From_ "_Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects_," 3rd S. vol. iv. 241) 57 9. Paving tiles with arms and badges of the Beauchamps, from Tewkesbury abbey church. (_From_ "_The Ancestor_," vol. ix.) 58 10. Seal of Richard duke of Gloucester, as admiral of England in Dorset and Somerset (1462) 59 11. Heraldic buckle from the effigy of Robert lord Hungerford (_ob._ 1459) in Salisbury cathedral church. (_From Stothard's_ "_Monumental Effigies_") 60 12. Heraldic buckle from the effigy of William lord Bardolf (ob. 1441) in Dennington church, Suffolk. (_From Stothard's_ "_Monumental Effigies_") 60 13. Enamelled shield with the arms of Ballard on the print of a mazer at All Souls college, Oxford, _c._ 1445. (_From_ "_Archæologia_," vol. l. 151) 61 14. Heraldic paving tiles from Tewkesbury abbey. (_From_ "_The Ancestor_," vol. ix.) 63 15. Shield with rounded corners (_c._ 1259) of Richard earl of Cornwall in the quire of Westminster abbey church. (_From_ "_Journal of the Society of Arts_," vol. xlv. 231) 66 16. Shields of English work from the tomb of William earl of Pembroke, ob. 1296, in Westminster abbey church. (_From Stothard's_ "_Monumental Effigies_") 67 17. Seal of Hugh Bardolf showing shield with square corners. From the Barons' Letter. (_From_ "_Journal of the Society of Arts_," vol. xlv. 228) 68 18. Seal and counterseal of Simon lord of Montagu, with shield supported by two bearded men and surmounted by the castle of Corfe, of which Simon became governor in 1298. From the Barons' Letter 69 19. Shield of ornate form, from a brass at Stoke Poges, Bucks, 1476 70 20. Head of a doorway, now in Norwich Guildhall, with arms of King Henry VIII, the City of Norwich, and the Goldsmiths' Company. (_From the Norwich volume of the Archæological Institute_, p. 173) 72 21. Shield with engrailed edges, _c._ 1520, from the chantry chapel of abbot Thomas Ramryge in St. Albans abbey church. (_From Boutell's "English Heraldry,"_ No. 210) 73 22. Shields with ridged charges, from the monument of Guy lord Bryen, _ob._ 1390, in Tewkesbury abbey church. (_From Stothard's "Monumental Effigies"_) 74 23. Armorial panels from the George Inn at Glastonbury. (_From a photograph by Mr. T. W. Phillips_) 75 24. Shield with curved surface from an effigy of a Pembridge at Clehonger, Herefordshire. (_From Stothard's "Monumental Effigies"_) 76 25. Shield from the seal of Henry Percy (from the Barons' Letter) with well-drawn lion 77 26. Shield with a leaping lion, from a brass _c._ 1380 at Felbrigge in Norfolk 78 27. Shield with an eagle from a brass at Great Tew, Oxon, _c._ 1410 79 28. Seal of Queen's College, Oxford, 1341, with well-filled shields. (_From "Journal of the Society of Arts,"_ vol. xlv. 230) 80 29. Shield with a griffin, from a brass of 1405, at Boughton-under-Blean, Kent 81 30. Seal of Peter de Mauley IV (from the Barons' Letter) showing a simple well-balanced shield. (_From "Journal of the Society of Arts,"_ vol. xlv. 234) 82 31. Shield with a bend counter-flowered from the brass of Sir Thomas Bromfleet, 1430, at Wymington, Beds. 82 32. Shield with three lions, from a brass at Stanford Dingley, Berks, 1444 83 33. Shield of the royal arms done in boiled leather, from the tomb of Edward prince of Wales at Canterbury, 1376. (_Reduced from "Vetusta Monumenta,"_ vol. vii.) 84 34. Shield of the King of France, _c._ 1259, in the quire of Westminster abbey church. (_From a photograph by Mr. David Weller_) 85 35 and 36. Shields with uncharged ordinaries: from the brass of bishop Robert Wyvil at Salisbury, 1375; and the brass of William Holyngbroke at New Romney in Kent, 1375 87 37. Shield with a charged bend from a brass at Kidderminster, 1415 88 38 and 39. Shields with engrailed borders, plain and charged: from the brass of William Grevel, 1401, at Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire; and the brass of Thomas Walysel, _c._ 1420, at Whitchurch, Oxon. 90 40. Quartered shield of Queen Eleanor of Castile, from her tomb at Westminster, 1291. (_From a photograph by Mr. David Weller_) 91 41. Arms of King Edward III from his tomb at Westminster. (_From "Journal of the Society of Arts,"_ vol. xlv. 230) 92 42. Shield with impaled quarters from the brass of Peter Halle, _ob._ 1420, at Herne in Kent 93 43. Arms of St. Edward, from the tomb of Edmund duke of York, _ob._ 1402, at King's Langley. (_From "The Ancestor,"_ vol. ii.) 94 44. Seal of Humphrey Stafford earl of Buckingham, Hereford, Stafford, Northampton, and Perche, as captain of Calais and lieutenant of the Marches, 1442 95 45. Shield of Sir Hugh Hastings from the Elsing brass (1347), with diapered maunch and a label of three pieces. (_From "Journal of the Society of Arts,"_ vol. xlv. 231) 100 46. Part of the gilt-latten effigy of Edward prince of Wales at Canterbury, showing labels over both the arms and the crest. (_From "Journal of the Society of Arts,"_ vol. xlv. 232) 102 47. Diapered shield of the arms of Vere, from an effigy in Hatfield Broadoak church, Essex. (_From a photograph by the Rev. T. W. Galpin_) 104 48. Diapered shield from the seal of Robert Waldby archbishop of York, 1390, for the Regality of Hexham. (_From "Journal of the Society of Arts,"_ vol. xlv. 231) 105 49. Diapered shield of the arms of Clun, from the monument of the lady Eleanor Percy (_ob._ 1337) in Beverley Minster. (_From a photograph by Mr. C. Goulding_) 106 50. Diapered shield of the arms of Percy, from the monument of the lady Eleanor Percy (_ob._ 1337) in Beverley Minster. (_From a photograph by Mr. C. Goulding_) 107 51. Lozenge of arms from the monument at Westminster of Frances Brandon duchess of Suffolk, _ob._ 1559. (_From "Journal of the Society of Arts,"_ vol. xlv. 229) 110 52. Seal of Robert FitzPain, with arms in an oval. From the Barons' Letter 112 53. Seal of Joan de Barre, wife of John de Warenne earl of Surrey, 1306. (_From Boutell's "English Heraldry,"_ No. 318) 113 54. Seal of Mary de Seynt-Pol, wife of Aymer of Valence earl of Pembroke, 1322. (_From Boutell's "English Heraldry,"_ No. 319) 116 55. Seal of Maud Badlesmere, wife of John de Vere earl of Oxford, 1336. (_From "Journal of the Society of Arts,"_ vol. xlv. 228) 118 56. Seal of Maud of Lancaster, wife of William of Burgh earl of Ulster, and of Sir Ralph Ufford, 1343-4. (_From Boutell's "English Heraldry,"_ No. 320) 119 57. The Syon Cope, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum 121 58. Seal of Thomas de Moulton, with fan-shaped crest on helm and horse's head. From the Barons' Letter 124 59. Seal of Thomas earl of Lancaster, Leicester, and Ferrers, showing wiver crest on his helm and horse's head. From the Barons' Letter 126 60. Seal of Henry of Lancaster, lord of Monmouth, with wiver crest and quasi-supporters. From the Barons' Letter 127 61. Seal of Robert de la Warde, with fan crest. From the Barons' Letter 128 62. Seal of Walter de Mounci, with helm surmounted by a fox as a crest. From the Barons' Letter 128 63. Seal of Sir Robert de Marni, 1366, with crested helms flanking the shield. (_From Boutell's "English Heraldry,"_ No. 381) 130 64. Crest, etc. of Sir John Astley, from a MS. _c._ 1420. (_From "Archæologia,"_ vol. lvii.) 131 65. Crest of Edward prince of Wales, 1376, of leather and stamped gesso. (_Reduced from "Vetusta Monumenta,"_ vol. vii.) 132 66. Funeral helm and wooden crest of George Brooke lord Cobham, _ob._ 1558, in Cobham church, Kent 133 67. Stall-plate of Humphrey duke of Buckingham as earl of Stafford, _c._ 1429. (_From "The Ancestor,"_ vol. iii.) 135 68. Stall-plate of Sir Thomas Burgh, K.G., _c._ 1483. (_From "The Ancestor,"_ vol. iii.) 136 69. Seal of Richard Nevill with separate crests and supporters for his earldoms of Salisbury and Warwick 137 70. Seal of William lord Hastings, _c._ 1461 140 71. Seal of William de la Pole earl of Suffolk, 1415 141 72. Stall-plate of Ralph lord Bassett, showing simple form of mantling. (_From "The Ancestor,"_ vol. iii.) 142 73. Stall-plate of Sir Sanchet Dabrichecourt, K.G., _c._ 1421. (_From "Journal of the Society of Arts,"_ vol. xlv. 233) 143 74. Stall-plate of Sir William Arundel, K.G., _c._ 1421. (_From "Journal of the Society of Arts,"_ vol. xlv. 233) 145 75. Stall-plate of Richard Beauchamp earl of Warwick, after 1423. (_From "The Ancestor,"_ vol. iii.) 146 76. Stall-plate of Richard Wydville lord Rivers, _c._ 1450. (_From "The Ancestor,"_ vol. iii.) 147 77. Stall-plate of Hugh lord Burnell, c. 1421. (_From "The Ancestor,"_ vol. iii.) 149 78. Arms of St. Edmund, from the tomb of Edmund duke of York, _ob._ 1402, at King's Langley. (_From "The Ancestor,"_ vol. ii.) 150 79. Crest from the stall-plate of Hugh Stafford lord Bourchier 152 80. Two forms of the same crest. From the stall-plate of Richard lord Grey of Codnor 153 81. Helm with crest and wreath from the Hastings brass at Elsing, 1347. (_From Boutell's "English Heraldry,"_ No. 385) 157 82. Helm with crest and torse and simple form of mantling, from the Harsick brass at Southacre, 1384 159 83. Stall-plate of Sir Simon Felbrigge, _c._ 1421. (_From "The Ancestor,"_ vol. iii.) 160 84. Privy seal of Henry le Despenser bishop of Norwich, 1370-1406. (_From Boutell's "English Heraldry,"_ No. 351) 162 85. Shield with ostrich-feather badge from the tomb of Edward prince of Wales (_ob._ 1376) at Canterbury. (_From Boutell's "English Heraldry,"_ No. 401) 167 86. Seal of Thomas of Woodstock duke of Gloucester with ostrich-feather and Bohun swan badges. (_From "Journal of the Society of Arts,"_ vol. xlv. 240) 168 87. Fetterlock-and-falcon badge of the house of York, from Henry VII's chapel at Westminster. (_From a photograph by Mr. David Weller_) 169 88. Crowned rose and portcullis from King's college chapel at Cambridge. (_From a photograph by Mr. J. Palmer Clarke_) 170 89. Seal of Robert de Clifford, with arms surrounded by rings in allusion to his mother Isabel Vipont. (From the Barons' Letter) 171 90. Seal of Robert de Toni as CHEVALER AU CING with the arms encircled by swans and talbots. (From the Barons' Letter) 171 91. Seal of Oliver Bohun with swans about the shield. (_From Boutell's "English Heraldry,"_ No. 321) 172 92. Gilt-latten effigy at Westminster of King Richard II, pounced with badges, etc. (_From "Journal of the Society of Arts,"_ vol. xlv. 240) 173 93. Piers and arches in Wingfield church, Suffolk, with badges of Michael de la Pole earl of Suffolk (ob. 1415) and his wife Katharine Stafford. (_From a photograph by the Rev. W. Marshall in "Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects,"_ 3rd. S. vol. iv. 245) 176 94. Chimney-piece in the Bishop's Palace at Exeter with the arms and badges of bishop Peter Courtenay, 1478-87. (_From a photograph by Heath and Bradnee_) 177 95. Gateway to the Deanery at Peterborough. Built by Robert Kirkton, abbot 1497-1526. (_From a photograph by Mr. A. Nicholls_) 178 96. The gatehouse of Christ's College, Cambridge. (_From a photograph by Mr. J. Palmer Clarke_) 179 97. Bronze door with badges of York and Beaufort from the Lady chapel of Westminster abbey church. (_From a photograph by Mr. Emery Walker, F.S.A._) 180 98. Signet with badge and crested helm of Lewis lord Bourchier, 1420 181 99. Seal of Hugh de Vere with boar badge and two wivers as supporters. From the Barons' Letter 181 100. Signet of William lord Bardolf (_c._ 1410) with eagle badge derived from his arms 182 101. Signet with flote badge and word of Sir William Oldhalle in 1457. (_From "Archæologia,"_ vol. xxxvii. 337) 182 102. Seal with badge (a _gray_ or badger) of Richard lord Grey of Codnor, 1392 183 103. Seal of Thomas lord Stanley as earl of Derby and seneschal of Macclesfield, 1485, with the eagle's claw badge of Stanley and the legs of the Isle of Man 183 104. Daisy plant (_marguerite_) badge of the Lady Margaret Beaufort, from Henry VII's chapel at Westminster. (_From a photograph by Mr. David Weller_) 184 105. Part of the brass at Exeter of canon William Langeton, kinsman of Edward Stafford bishop of Exeter, 1413, in cope with an orphrey of ~X~'s and Stafford knots 185 106. Elbow-piece and Bourchier knot from the brass of Sir Humphrey Bourchier, _ob._ 1471, in Westminster abbey church 186 107. Alabaster tomb and effigy of Edward Stafford earl of Wiltshire, _ob._ 1498, in Lowick church, Northamptonshire. (_From the "Archæological Journal,"_ vol. lxi. 233) 187 108. Rebus of abbot Robert Kirkton from the Deanery Gate at Peterborough. (_From Boutell's "English Heraldry,"_ No. 295) 188 109. Rebus of Thomas Beckington bishop of Bath and Wells, 1477. (_From Boutell's "English Heraldry,"_ No. 296) 188 110. Rebus of John Islip abbot of Westminster, from his chantry chapel. (_From a photograph by Mr. David Weller_) 189 111. Oriel window in the Deanery at Wells with badges of King Edward IV, and badges and rebuses of Dean Gunthorpe. (_From a photograph by Mr. T. W. Phillips_) 190 112. Arms and rebus of Sir John Pechy, _ob._ 1522, from painted glass in Lullingstone church, Kent. (_From Stothard's "Monumental Effigies"_) 191 113. Seal of John de Moun slung from an eagle and flanked by two leopards. From the Barons' Letter 195 114. Seal of Alan la Souche in 1301. From the Barons' Letter. (_From "Journal of the Society of Arts,"_ vol. xlv. 228) 196 115. Seal of John Beauchamp of Hacche, with shield on breast of an eagle. From the Barons' Letter 197 116. Seal of William de Ferrers with shield upon an eagle with two heads. From the Barons' Letter 197 117. Seal of Edmund Mortimer earl of March and Ulster, 1400, with rampant leopard supporters. (_From Boutell's "English Heraldry,"_ No. 407) 201 118. Seal of Sir William Windsor, 1381, with eagle supporters. (_From Boutell's "English Heraldry,"_ No. 382) 201 119. Seal of William de la Pole duke of Suffolk, 1448 202 120. Seal of John Nevill lord Montagu, 1461 203 121. Seal of William lord Hastings, _c._ 1461 204 122. Seal of John lord Talbot and Furnival, 1406 205 123. Seal of George duke of Clarence and lord of Richmond, 1462, with black bulls of Clare supporting his crested helm 207 124. Seal of Richard Beauchamp earl of Warwick, 1401. (_From Boutell's "English Heraldry,"_ No. 448) 208 125. Seal of Richard Beauchamp earl of Warwick and of Albemarle and lord Despenser, 1421 209 126. Seal of Edmund duke of Somerset for the town of Bayeux, _c._ 1445. (_From "Journal of the Society of Arts,"_ vol. xlv. 234) 210 127. Seal of Cecily Nevill, wife of Richard duke of York and mother of King Edward IV, 1461. (_From "Journal of the Society of Arts,"_ vol. xlv. 235) 212 128. Arms and supporters, a dragon and a greyhound, of King Henry VII in King's College chapel at Cambridge. (_From a photograph by Mr. J. Palmer Clarke_) 213 129. Seal of the Mayoralty of Calais. (_From "Archæologia,"_ vol. liii. 327) 215 130. Seal of Walter lord Hungerford with banners of Heytesbury and Hussey or Homet, _c._ 1420 216 131. Knights with banners, from an illumination 220 132. Seal of Walter lord Hungerford with banners. (_From Boutell's "English Heraldry,"_ No. 391) 221 133. Part of the seal of Margaret lady Hungerford, with impaled banner held up by a lion. (_From Boutell's "English Heraldry,"_ No. 406) 222 134. Tomb of Lewis Robsart lord Bourchier, K.G. _ob._ 1431, in Westminster abbey church, with banners of arms upheld by supporters. (_From a photograph by Mr. David Weller_) 223 135. The King's banner or "royal standard" as now borne 227 136. Stall-plate, as a banner, of Walter lord Hungerford, after 1426. (_From "The Ancestor,"_ vol. iii.) 230 137. Stall-plate, as a banner, of Richard Nevill earl of Salisbury, _c._ 1436. (_From "The Ancestor,"_ vol. iii.) 231 138. Stall-plate, as a banner, of Sir John Grey of Ruthin, _c._ 1439. (_From "The Ancestor,"_ vol. iii.) 232 139. Standard of Sir Henry Stafford, K.G. _c._ 1475. (_From Boutell's "English Heraldry"_ No. 415) 234 140. Knights with pennons, from an illumination 236 141. Armed Knights carrying pennons, from an illumination 237 142. Armorial vane on Etchingham church, Sussex. (_From "Sussex Archæological Collections,"_ vol. ix. 349) 240 143. Vane formerly upon the finial of the kitchen roof, Stanton Harcourt, Oxon. (_From "A Glossary of ... Gothic Architecture,"_ vol. i. 505) 241 144. Part of King Henry VIII's garden at Hampton Court, from a contemporary picture. 246 145. Part of King Henry VIII's garden at Hampton Court, from a contemporary picture. 247 146. Shield of Bryen impaling Bures, from a brass in Acton church, Suffolk 252 147. Lion with a forked tail, from a brass at Spilsby in Lincolnshire, 1391 255 148. Shield with three pheasants, from a brass at Checkendon, Oxon, 1404 256 149. Shield of the arms of Sir Humphrey Littlebury, from his effigy at Holbeach in Lincolnshire, _c._ 1360, with fine examples of heraldic leopards. (_From a photograph by Mr. E. M. Beloe, F.S.A._) 257 150. Early and modern versions of ermine-tails. (_From "Journal of the Society of Arts,"_ vol. xlv. 236) 258 151. Early and modern versions of vair. (_From Boutell's "English Heraldry,"_ Nos. 61, 62) 258 152. The Garter, from the brass of Thomas lord Camoys, K.G. at Trotton in Sussex 261 153. Pewter medallion with Edward prince of Wales, now in the British Museum. (_From "Archæologia,"_ vol. xxxi. 141) 262 154. Shield of arms encircled by the Garter, from the brass of Thomas lord Camoys, _ob._ 1419. (_From "Journal of the Society of Arts,"_ vol. xlv. 237) 264 155. Shields encircled by the Garter and a scroll, from the brass of bishop Hallam (_ob._ 1416) at Constance. (_From "Journal of the Society of Arts,"_ vol. xlv. 237) 265 156. Royal arms of King Henry VII within the Garter, of English work, from the King's tomb by Torregiano at Westminster. (_From a photograph by Mr. David Weller_) 266 157. Arms of St. George within the Garter, from the brass of Sir Thomas Bullen, K.G. earl of Wiltshire and Ormond, 1538, at Hever in Kent 267 158. Crowned effigy of Queen Eleanor at Westminster 270 159. Crowned effigy of Queen Joan at Canterbury 271 160. Helm and crest, and bust, of Richard Beauchamp earl of Warwick, _ob._ 1439, from his gilt-latten effigy at Warwick. (_From Stothard's "Monumental Effigies"_) 274 161. Effigy of a lady, _c._ 1250, in Scarcliffe church, Derbyshire. (_From Stothard's "Monumental Effigies"_) 275 162. Effigy of a lady in Staindrop church, Durham. (_From Stothard's "Monumental Effigies"_) 276 163. Thomas earl of Arundel, _ob._ 1416, from his alabaster effigy at Arundel. (_From Stothard's "Monumental Effigies"_) 277 164. Joan Beaufort countess of Westmorland, _ob._ 1440, from her alabaster effigy in Staindrop church, Durham. (_From Stothard's "Monumental Effigies"_) 278 165. William FitzAlan earl of Arundel (_ob._ 1487) from his effigy at Arundel. (_From Stothard's "Monumental Effigies"_) 279 166. Joan countess of Arundel, from her effigy at Arundel. (_From Stothard's "Monumental Effigies"_) 280 167. John Holand duke of Exeter, _ob._ 1447, from his effigy at St. Katharine's hospital, Regent's Park 282 168. Head of a duchess of Exeter, from the monument at St. Katharine's hospital, Regent's Park 283 169. Alice duchess of Suffolk, _ob._ 1475, from her alabaster effigy in Ewelme church, Oxon. (_From Hollis's "Monumental Effigies"_) 284 170. Armorial ensigns and badges of the lady Margaret Beaufort from the gatehouse of her foundation of Christ's college, Cambridge. (_From a photograph by Mr. J. Palmer Clarke_) 286 171. Arms of the foundress, the lady Margaret Beaufort, with yale supporters, from the base of an oriel in Christ's college, Cambridge. (_From a photograph by Mr. J. Palmer Clarke_) 287 172. Armorial panel on the gatehouse of St. John's college, Cambridge. (_From a photograph by Mr. J. Palmer Clarke_) 289 173. King Henry IV from his alabaster effigy in Canterbury cathedral church. (_From Stothard's "Monumental Effigies"_) 291 174. King Henry III from his gilt-latten effigy at Westminster 292 175. King Edward II from his alabaster effigy at Gloucester. (_From Stothard's "Monumental Effigies"_) 293 176. Crowned initials of King Henry VII from his Lady chapel at Westminster. (_From a photograph by Mr. David Weller_) 294 177. Thomas Howard third duke of Norfolk (1473?-1554) with the collar of the Order of the Garter, from the picture by Holbein at Windsor Castle. (_From Gardiner's "Student's History of England,"_ p. 410) 295 178. Collars of SS 296 179. Collar of SS from the effigy of William lord Bardolf, _ob._ 1441, at Dennington in Suffolk. (_From Stothard's "Monumental Effigies"_) 297 180. Spandrel of the tomb of Oliver Groos, esquire (_ob._ 1439), in Sloley church, Norfolk, with collar of SS 301 181. Collars of SS from the effigy of Queen Joan at Canterbury, and of Robert lord Hungerford at Salisbury. (_From Stothard's "Monumental Effigies"_) 303 182. Collars of suns and roses from the effigy of a knight at Aston, Warwickshire, and the effigy of Sir Robert Harcourt, K.G. 1471 at Stanton Harcourt, Oxon. (_From Hollis's "Monumental Effigies"_) 305 183. Sir Thomas More wearing the collar of SS: from an original portrait painted by Holbein in 1527, belonging to the late Mr. Edward Huth. (_From Gardiner's "Student's History of England,"_ p. 387) 307 184. Head of the effigy in Ripon Minster of Sir Thomas Markenfield with livery collar of park-palings. (_From a drawing by Mr. Roland Paul, F.S.A._) 310 185. Thomas lord Berkeley (_ob._ 1417) with a collar of mermaids, from his brass at Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire. (_From Hollis's "Monumental Effigies"_) 311 186. Silver badge belonging to the duke of Northumberland. (_From a drawing by Mr. C. Prætorius, F.S.A._) 312 187. Waits' Collars of Exeter, King's Lynn, and Norwich 314 188. Part of an embroidered altar frontal with a rebus at Baunton in Gloucestershire. (_From a photograph by Mr. G. Clinch_) 320 189. Carved panel with the crowned arms, supporters, and badges of King Henry VIII at New Hall in Essex. (_From a photograph by Mr. Fred Spalding_) 333 190. Paving tile with arms and initials of John Lyte (_c._ 1535), from Marten church, Wilts. (_From a drawing by Mr. C. Prætorius, F.S.A._) 334 191. Arms with crested helm and badge (a blazing ragged-staff) of, apparently, Sir John Guldeford of Benenden, _ob._ 1565, in East Guldeford church, Sussex. (_From a photograph by Mr. Aymer Vallance, M.A., F.S.A._) 339 192. Part of a bed-hanging embroidered with the arms of Henry and Elizabeth Wentworth, _c._ 1560, formerly in the possession of Sir A. W. Franks, K.C.B. 342 193. Arms of Cotes, from a mazer print of 1585-6. (_From "Archæologia,"_ vol. l. 174) 343 194. Shield from the tomb of Margaret countess of Lennox, _ob._ 1578, in Westminster abbey church. (_From a photograph by Mr. David Weller_) 344 195. Achievement of arms from the monument of Sir Richard Pecksall, _ob._ 1571, in Westminster abbey church. (_From a photograph by Mr. David Weller_) 345 196. Obverse of the Great Seal of the Republic of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1655 (reduced) 348 197. Arms, etc. of the Trinity House, London. From a wood-carving _c._ 1670 in the Victoria and Albert Museum 349 198. Limewood carving with the arms and crest of the Trevor family, _c._ 1700, in the Victoria and Albert Museum 351 199. Part of the carved oak ceiling of the chapel, formerly the hall, of Auckland castle, Durham, with the arms of bishop John Cosin. Date 1662-4. (_From a photograph by Mr. H. Kilburn in "Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects,"_ 3rd S. vol. iv. 272) 352 CHRONOLOGICAL SERIES OF ILLUSTRATIONS pp. 354-407 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Defects of Modern Heraldic Decoration; Appeal to First Principles; English _versus_ Foreign Sources; Definition of Heraldry; Modes of Display; Colours and Furs; Formation of Arms; Divisions of the Shield; Early Authorities: Seals, Monuments, Buildings, Wills and Inventories, Rolls of Arms. To those who have given attention to the study of ancient heraldry few things are more surprising than the imperfect understanding of its true principles displayed in their works by so many artists and craftsmen of every degree. Year after year, in paintings and sculpture at the Royal Academy and other exhibitions, in the architecture and decorations of our churches and public buildings, on monuments, on plate, jewellery, and ornaments of all kinds, the attempt to introduce armorial accessories, even by some of our best artists, is almost always a failure. In so recent a work as the national memorial to Queen Victoria before Buckingham Palace, the shields for Scotland in the frieze of the pedestal bear the rampant lion only, and the distinctive double tressure is again omitted in the Scottish quarter of the royal arms behind the figure of Victory. The sides of the pedestal also bear fanciful shields of arms, in the one case with three lamps, in the other with some allegorical device, charged on bends sinister! It is only fair to say that the fault appears to be not altogether that of the artist or craftsman, but should rather be ascribed to the disregard of the principles and usages of true armory that pervades so much of the printed literature to which men naturally turn for information. He, however, who would know something about heraldic art must go behind the books to better sources of information, and rid himself once and for all of the modern cast-iron rules that cramp all attempts to improve matters. He will then soon find himself revelling in the delightful freedom and playful common-sense of medieval armory when it was still a living art, and a science too, utilized for artistic purposes by every class of worker and unencumbered by the ridiculous conceits of Tudor and later times. The appeal, moreover, should largely be confined, if one would have what is best, to our own land. In the beginning heraldry was much the same in most European countries, but in course of time foreign armory became complicated by needless subdivisions and new methods of expression and combination. It would indeed be foolish to maintain that nothing can be learnt from foreign sources, but in the earlier stages of study English heraldry should come first. Not only is it characterized by a beautiful simplicity which continued practically unchanged until the beginning of the sixteenth century, but no other country outside England possesses such a wealth of examples of its various applications, and they lie immediately to hand for purposes of study and comparison. Moreover, English heraldry so fully illustrates the general principles followed in other countries that it is unnecessary at first to go further afield. Heraldry, or armory as it was anciently called, is a symbolical and pictorial language of uncertain and disputed origin, which, by the beginning of the thirteenth century, had already been reduced to a science with a system, classification, and nomenclature of its own. The artistic devices known as arms, which may be formed by proper combinations of the colours, ordinaries, and figures that represent the letters of this language, had each their significance, and soon came to be regarded as the hereditary possession of some person, family, dignity, or office. [Illustration: FIG. 1. Tile with the arms of King Henry III, _c._ 1255, from the chapter-house of Westminster abbey.] The display of arms was restricted primarily to shields and banners, but occasionally to horse-trappers (pls. XI B and XII B) and such garments as jupes, gowns, and mantles. Later on heraldry came also to be used ornamentally, either upon shields or without them, in all kinds of ways, in architecture and on monuments, on tiles and in glazing, in woodcarvings and in paintings, in woven stuffs and embroideries, in jewellery and on seals. [Illustration: FIG. 2. Shield of the arms of St. Edward, _c._ 1259, in the quire of Westminster abbey church. An early instance of the use of heraldry in architecture.] The colours used in heraldry are red, blue, green, purple, and black, or, to give them their old names, gules, azure, vert, purpure, and sable; combined with the yellow of gold and the whiteness of silver. Orange was never used, probably on account of the difficulty of finding a stable pigment. It was soon found that for brilliancy of effect the use of gold or silver with a colour was preferable to that of colour with colour or metal with metal; two colours are therefore found together or superposed only under certain conditions, and the same applies to the two metals. [Illustration: FIG. 3. Heraldry on the gatehouse of Kirkham priory, Yorkshire, built between 1289 and 1296.] Imitations of two furs, ermine and vair, were also used: the one of white flecked with little black tails; the other of alternating oblong patches of white and blue, square at the top and rounded at the bottom, to represent grey squirrels' skins. (See figs. 151, 152.) If vair were coloured other than white and blue, the resultant was called vairy. There is also known a black fur with silver ermine-tails. There were never any exact rules as to the particular tint of the colour employed, that being simply a matter of taste. Thus blue may range from a full indigo almost to Cambridge-blue, and red from a bright scarlet, through vermilion, to a dull brick colour, and so on; and it is surprising to find how well quiet colours blend together. In the formation of arms the mere combinations of colours and metals produced by vertical, horizontal, or other divisions of the shield were soon exhausted, as were quarters, checkers, etc. There accordingly grew quite naturally the further use of applied strips or bands based upon such divisions. [Illustration: Party] [Illustration: Party-fessewise] [Illustration: Quarterly] [Illustration: Pale] [Illustration: Fesse] [Illustration: Cross] [Illustration: Party-bendwise] [Illustration: Party-saltirewise] [Illustration: Gyronny] [Illustration: Bend] [Illustration: Saltire] [Illustration: Border] [Illustration: Chief] [Illustration: Quarter] [Illustration: Cheveron] [Illustration: Pile] [Illustration: Orle] [Illustration: Flanches] [Illustration: Paly] [Illustration: Barry] [Illustration: Wavy] [Illustration: Bendy] [Illustration: Checky] [Illustration: Lozengy] Thus the vertical parting of a metal and a colour known as party produced the pale, and a horizontal division the fesse or bar, and these combined to form the cross suggested by the quarterly lines. An oblique or slanting parting gave rise to the bend, and the crossing of two such produced the St. Andrew's cross or saltire. A combination of the lines of a saltire with a quarterly division produced the varied field called gyronny. The border almost suggested itself. A cutting off of the upper half or head of the shield yielded the chief, and of a fourth part the quarter. One other of these applied pieces, or ordinaries as they were called, was the cheveron, formed of two strips issuing from the lower edges of the shield and meeting in a point in the middle, like the cheverons forming the roof timbers of a house. Another ordinary was the pile, which was often threefold with lines converging towards the base as in fig. 72. Sometimes a shield was charged with one of smaller size called a scutcheon, and the middle of this was occasionally cut out to form a voided scutcheon or orle. Flanches, as they are called, are very rarely found; they are formed by drawing incurving lines within each side of the shield. An even series of pales yielded a vertical striping called paly, and of piles, pily, while an even number of bars became barry. Undulated or waved bars formed wavy, and sometimes paly and pily stripes were also waved (fig. 19). In early examples the bend was often bended or curved. Bends are so represented in one of the shields in Westminster abbey (fig. 4), in some of the shields over the nave arcades in York minster, and on a number of monumental effigies. A narrower bend which overlaid everything was known as a baston (see fig. 60). A number of narrow bends produced bendy, but the lines were then straight. A field divided into squares or checkers formed checky, and when divided into what are now called lozenges it became lozengy. Pales, fesses, crosses, saltires, borders, and cheverons sometimes had their edges engrailed by taking out of them, as it were, a continuous series of bites separated by sharp points, and the lower edge of a chief or the inner margin of a border was often indented like the edge of a saw; but in early heraldry engrailing and indenting were interchangeable terms. An indented fesse was anciently called a daunce. Cheverons, fesses, bars, etc. were occasionally battled, through the upper line being formed into battlements. A fesse was often placed between two cheverons, as in the well-known arms of FitzWalter; or between two very narrow bars called cotises, or pairs of cotises called gemell bars. Cheverons, bends, and pales were also sometimes cotised. Cotises were often of a tincture different from that of the ordinary which they accompanied, and sometimes indented or dancetty as in the arms of Clopton (fig. 5) and Gonvile. The ground or field could be relieved by the use of vair or ermine, or by the addition of fretting or trellis-work or other simple means. It was also not unfrequently powdered with small crosses, fleurs-de-lis, or billets; often in conjunction with a larger charge like a cinqfoil or a lion. [Illustration: FIG. 4. Shield with curved bend or baston of Henry de Laci earl of Lincoln, _c._ 1259, in the quire of Westminster abbey church.] [Illustration: FIG. 5. Arms of Clopton, _sable a bend silver and two cotises dancetty gold_, from a brass _c._ 1420 at Long Melford in Suffolk.] Almost from the beginning every kind of device was charged or painted upon shields, either singly or in multiple, and upon or about such ordinaries as crosses, cheverons, and fesses. Birds, beasts, and fishes, and parts of them like heads, or feet, or wings; flowers, fruits, and leaves; suns, moons or crescents, and stars; fleurs-de-lis, crosses, billets, roundels, rings, etc.--all were pressed into the service. The great rule as to colour held good as regards charges, and it was not permissible to paint a red rose upon blue or a gold star upon silver; but a red rose upon gold or a silver star upon blue was quite right. It has however been lawful at all times to place an ordinary, such as a fesse or a cheveron, and whether charged or not, upon a parti-coloured field like quarterly, checky, paly, or barry, or upon vair or vairy. A quarter, or a chief, or a border, without reference to its colour, can also be added to any such field. Conversely, a parti-coloured cross, fesse, or charge of any kind is allowable upon a plain field. In the Great Roll of arms, _temp_. Edward II, are instances of two shields, in the one case of a red lion, and in the other of a red _fer-de-moline_, on fields party gold and vert; also of a silver leopard upon a field party gold and gules, and of three red lions upon party gold and azure. Likewise of a shield with three lions ermine upon party azure and gules, and of another with wavy red bars upon a field party gold and silver. In the arms, too, of Eton College granted by King Henry VI in 1448-9 three silver lilies on a black field are combined with a chief party azure and gules, with a gold leopard on the red half and a gold fleur-de-lis on the blue half. King Henry also granted in 1449 these arms, _party cheveronwise gules and sable three gold keys_, to Roger Keys, clerk, for his services in connexion with the building of Eton College, and to his brother Thomas Keys and his descendants. Shields with quarterly fields often had a single charge in the quarter, like the well-known molet of the Veres, or the eagle of Phelip. Arms were sometimes counter-coloured, by interchanging the tinctures of the whole or parts of an ordinary or charge or charges overlying a parti-coloured field. This often has a very striking effect, as in the arms of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, which are _party silver and sable a cheveron counter-coloured_, or those of Geoffrey Chaucer, who bore _party silver and gules a bend counter-coloured_. Sir Robert Farnham bore _quarterly silver and azure four crescents counter-coloured_, or, as the Great Roll describes them, 'de l'un en l'autre.' The town of Southampton likewise bears for its arms _gules a chief silver with three roses counter-coloured_. In drawing parti-coloured fields it is as well to consider what are the old rules with regard to them. In the early rolls a field barry of silver and azure, or of gold and sable, is often described as of six pieces, that is, with three coloured bars alternating with three of the metal, though barry of eight and even ten pieces is found. Paly of six pieces is also a normal number. But the number of pieces must always be even, or the alternate pieces will become bars or pales. The number of squares in each line of a checkered field or ordinary is also another important matter. Six or eight form the usual basis for the division of a field, but the seven on the seal of the earl of Warenne and Surrey attached to the Barons' Letter of 1300-1 is not without its artistic advantages. On an ordinary, such as a fesse or cross, there should be at least two rows of checkers. Here, however, as in other cases, much depends upon the size of the shield, and a large one could obviously carry with advantage either on field or ordinary more squares than a small one without infringing any heraldic law. Besides the plain cross familiar to most of us in the arms of St. George, and the similar form with engrailed edges, there is a variety known as the ragged cross, derived from two crossed pieces of a tree with lopped branches. This is often used in the so-called arms of Our Lord, showing the instruments of His Passion, or in compositions associated therewith, as in the cross with the three crowned nails forming the arms of the town of Colchester. Several other forms of cross have also been used. The most popular of these is that with splayed or spreading ends, often split into three divisions, called the cross paty, which appears in the arms of St. Edward (see figs. 2 and 43). It is practically the same as the cross called patonce, flory, or fleury, these being names applied to mere variations of drawing. The cross with _les chefs flurettes_ of the Great Roll seems to have been one flowered, or with fleurs-de-lis, at the ends. Another favourite cross was that with forked or split ends, formed of a _fer-de-moline_ or mill-rind, sometimes called a cross _fourchée_, or, when the split ends were coiled, a cross _recercelée_. The arms of Antony Bek bishop of Durham (1284-1310) and patriarch of Jerusalem were _gules a fer-de-moline ermine_, and certain vestments 'woven with a cross of his arms which are called _ferrum molendini_' passed to his cathedral church at his death. On his seal of dignity the bishop is shown actually wearing such a vestment of his arms. The tau or St. Anthony's cross also occurs in some late fifteenth century arms. The small crosses with which the field of a shield was sometimes powdered were usually what are now called crosslets, but with rounded instead of the modern squared angles, as in the Beauchamp arms (fig. 14), and a field powdered with these was simply called crusily. But the powdering sometimes consisted of crosses paty, or formy as they were also styled, as in the arms of Berkeley, or of the cross with crutched ends called a cross potent, like that in the arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. These crosses often had a spiked foot, as if for fixing them in the ground, and were then further described as fitchy or crosses fixable. Since the elucidation of the artistic rather than the scientific side of heraldry is the object of this present work, it is advisable to show how it may best be studied. The artistic treatment of heraldry can only be taught imperfectly by means of books, and it is far better that the student should be his own teacher by consulting such good examples of heraldic art as may commonly be found nigh at hand. He may, however, first equip himself to advantage with a proper grasp of the subject by reading carefully the admirable article on Heraldry, by Mr. Oswald Barron, in the new (eleventh) edition of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_. The earliest and best of artistic authorities are heraldic seals. These came into common use towards the end of the twelfth century, much at the same time that armory itself became a thing of life, and they were constantly being engraved for men, and even for women, who bore and used arms, and for corporate bodies entitled to have seals. Moreover, since every seal was produced under the direction of its owner and continually used by him, the heraldry displayed on seals has a personal interest of the greatest value, as showing not only what arms the owner bore, but how they were intended to be seen. From seals may be learnt the different shapes of shields, and the times of their changes of fashion; the methods of depicting crests; the origin and use of supporters; the treatment of the 'words' and 'reasons' now called mottoes; the various ways of combining arms to indicate alliances, kinships, and official connexions; and the many other effective ways in which heraldry may be treated artistically without breaking the rigid rules of its scientific side. Seals, unfortunately, owing to their inaccessibility, are not so generally available for purposes of study as some other authorities. They are consequently comparatively little known. Fine series, both of original impressions and casts, are on exhibition in the British and the Victoria and Albert Museums, and in not a few local museums also,[1] but the great collection in the British Museum is practically the only public one that can be utilized to any extent by the heraldic student, and then under the limitation of applying for each seal by a separate ticket. [1] It would surely not be a matter of much difficulty or expense to equip the leading schools of art in this country with sets of casts of these beautiful objects. The many examples of armorial seals illustrated in the present work will give the student a good idea of their importance and high artistic excellence. Next to the heraldry on seals, that displayed on tombs and monuments, and in combination with architecture, may be studied, and, of course, with greater ease, since such a number of examples is available. Many a village church is comparatively as rich in heraldry as the abbey churches of Westminster and St. Albans, or the minsters of Lincoln and York and Beverley. It is to the country church, too, that we may often look for lovely examples of old heraldic glass, which has escaped the destruction of other subjects that were deemed more superstitious (pls. I, II, and III). [Illustration: PLATE I. ARMS OF MILTON ABBEY FROM A WINDOW IN IBBERTON CHURCH DORSET, C. 1475 (FROM ARCHAEOLOGIA, VOL. XLVII.)] [Illustration: PLATE II. SHIELDS IN STAINED GLASS OF THE 14TH CENTURY WITH THE ARMS OF (1) JOHN, EARL OF KENT (2) JOHN OF GAUNT AS KING OF CASTILE, AND (3) SIR WILLIAM ARUNDEL, K.G.: IN THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM.] [Illustration: PLATE III. SHIELDS IN STAINED GLASS OF THE 14TH CENTURY WITH THE ARMS OF (1) MOWBRAY (2) BEAUCHAMP, AND (3) AUDLEY: IN THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM.] But the student is not restricted to ecclesiastical buildings in his search for good examples of heraldry. Inasmuch as there never was such a thing as an ecclesiastical style, it was quite immaterial to the medieval master masons whether they were called in to build a church or a gatehouse, a castle or a mansion, a barn or a bridge. The master carpenter worked in the same way upon a rood loft or a pew end as upon the screen or the coffer in the house of the lord; the glazier filled alike with his coloured transparencies the bay of the hall, the window of the chapel, or that of the minster or the abbey; and the tiler sold his wares to sacrist, churchwarden, or squire alike. The applications of heraldry to architecture are so numerous that it is not easy to deal with them in any degree of connexion. Shields of arms, badges, crests, and supporters are freely used in every conceivable way, and on every reasonable place: on gatehouses (figs. 3, 95, 96) and towers, on porches and doorways, in windows and on walls, on plinths, buttresses, and pinnacles, on cornice, frieze, and parapet, on chimney-pieces (figs. 8, 94) and spandrels, on vaults and roofs, on woodwork, metalwork (figs. 6, 7), and furniture of all kinds, on tombs, fonts, pulpits, screens, and coffers, in painting, in glass, and on the tiles of the floor (figs. 1, 9, 14). [Illustration: FIG. 6. Heraldic candle-holder, etc. from the latten grate about the tomb of King Henry VII at Westminster.] [Illustration: FIG. 7. Firedog with armorial bearings.] [Illustration: FIG. 8. Chimney-piece in Tattershall castle, Lincolnshire, built by Ralph lord Cromwell between 1433 and 1455, with shields of arms and treasurer's purse and motto.] [Illustration: FIG. 9. Paving tiles with arms and badges of the Beauchamps, from Tewkesbury abbey church.] Though actual examples are now rare, we know from pictures and monuments, and the tantalizing descriptions in inventories, to how large an extent heraldry was used in embroidery and woven work, on carpets and hangings, on copes and frontals, on gowns, mantles, and jupes, on trappers and in banners, and even on the sails of ships (fig. 10). [Illustration: FIG. 10. Seal of Richard duke of Gloucester, as admiral of England in Dorset and Somerset (1462), with arms on the mainsail of the ship.] Wills and inventories also tell us that in jewellery and goldsmiths' work (see figs. 11 and 12) heraldry played a prominent part, and by the aid of enamel it appeared in its proper colours, an advantage not always attainable otherwise (fig. 13). Beautiful examples of heraldic shields bright with enamel occur in the abbey church of Westminster on the tombs of King Edward III and of William of Valence, and on the tombs at Canterbury and Warwick respectively of Edward prince of Wales and Richard Beauchamp earl of Warwick; while in St. George's chapel in Windsor castle there are actually nearly ninety enamelled stall-plates of Knights of the Garter of earlier date than Tudor times, extending from about 1390 to 1485, and forming in themselves a veritable heraldic storehouse of the highest artistic excellence. (See pls. XV, XVI.) [Illustration: FIG. 11. Heraldic buckle from the effigy of Robert lord Hungerford (_ob._ 1459) in Salisbury cathedral church.] [Illustration: FIG. 12. Heraldic buckle from the effigy of William lord Bardolf (_ob._ 1441) in Dennington church, Suffolk.] [Illustration: FIG. 13. Enamelled shield with the arms of Ballard on the print of a mazer (_c._ 1445) at All Souls college, Oxford.] Another source of coloured heraldry is to be found in the so-called rolls of arms. While heraldry was a living art, it obviously became necessary to keep some record of the numerous armorial bearings which were already in use, as well as of those that were constantly being invented. This seems to have been done by entering the arms on long rolls of parchment. In the earliest examples these took the form of rows of painted shields, with the owners' names written over (pl. IV); but in a few rare cases the blazon or written description of the arms is also given, while other rolls consist wholly of such descriptions, as in the well-known Great and Boroughbridge Rolls. These have a special value in supplying the terminology of the old heraldry, but this belongs to the science or grammar and not the art of it. The pictured rolls, on the other hand, clearly belong to the artistic side, and as they date from the middle of the thirteenth century onwards, they show how the early heralds from time to time drew the arms they wished to record. [Illustration: FIG. 14. Heraldic paving tiles from Tewkesbury abbey. The three uppermost bear the arms of Despenser, Berkeley, and Beauchamp, and the large one the arms of Robert FitzHamon, the founder, impaled with the singular cross of the abbey.] [Illustration: PLATE IV. PART (REDUCED) OF AN EARLY ROLL OF ARMS BELONGING TO THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF LONDON.] CHAPTER II THE SHIELD AND ITS TREATMENT Early Forms of Shields; Later Forms; Shields of Irregular Outline and Surface; The Filling of a Shield; Apparent _versus_ Absolute Uniformity; Modern Rules as to Proportion; The Use and Abuse of Quartering: its Origin and Growth; Differencing of Arms; The Scutcheon of Ulster; Diapering. From these preliminary remarks we may pass to the practical consideration of the principles of heraldic art. And first as to shields and their treatment. The form of a shield is in itself entirely arbitrary and void of meaning. Although it varied from time to time, this was simply a matter of fashion, like the shape of an arch or the pattern of a window. Such changes must not, however, be overlooked, for it would be absurd in actual practice to use an ornate shield of the style of the fifteenth or sixteenth century for a lion of (say) the thirteenth century type, or to fill a shield of early form with charges characteristic of a later date. During the twelfth century shields were more or less kite-shaped, like those that were actually used, but in the thirteenth century they began to be shorter and straighter across the top. Good examples of this type may be found on seals. In the aisles behind the quire of Westminster abbey church, the beautiful shields in the spandrels of the wall arcade, of a date not later than 1259, retain their rounded upper corners. (See figs. 2 and 15.) The next form, with the upper corners square (figs. 16, 17), came into vogue in the second half of the thirteenth century, and has continued always in use. Owing to the elastic way in which its curves can be slightly altered when required, it may safely be adopted in general practice. In the earliest examples the curves begin at the top, or just below, but later on they were so struck as to increase the area of the lower part of the shield in order to make more room for the charges. In some fourteenth century instances the sides continue straight nearly to the bottom, so that the shield is practically an oblong with rounded lower corners, like the shields of the royal arms on our coinage to-day (fig. 18 and pl. VI A). A tendency in the same direction is not uncommon throughout the fifteenth century. About the middle of the same century the fashion began to prevail, alongside the other, of representing a man's arms on the same irregularly shaped shield that he was wont to carry in the jousts. This is as wide at the bottom as the top, with its outline worked into curves, and has on the dexter, or right-hand side as borne, a deep notch for the lance to rest in during tilting; the top and bottom of the shield are often subdivided into three or more lobes or shallow curves. Good examples occur on seals and monuments, and some of the Garter stall-plates. (See pls. V A and B; VI B; XVII; and XXIII A.) Shields of a more ornate form are occasionally to be met with, like an example (fig. 19) on a brass at Stoke Poges of the date 1476, with graceful leaf-work curling over at the top and bottom. Shields similarly ornamented occur on the doorway of a citizen's house now built into the Guildhall at Norwich (fig. 20). [Illustration: FIG. 15. Shield with rounded corners (_c._ 1259) of Richard earl of Cornwall in the quire of Westminster abbey church.] [Illustration: FIG. 16. Shields of English work from the tomb of William earl of Pembroke (_ob._ 1296) in Westminster abbey church.] [Illustration: FIG. 17. Seal of Hugh Bardolf showing shield with square corners. From the Barons' Letter.] [Illustration: FIG. 18. Seal and counterseal of Simon lord of Montagu, with shield of unusual form supported by two bearded men and surmounted by the castle of Corfe, of which Simon became governor in 1298. The quadrangular signet displays a griffin. From the Barons' Letter.] [Illustration: FIG. 19. Shield of ornate form, from a brass at Stoke Poges, Bucks, 1476.] [Illustration: FIG. 20. Head of a doorway, now in Norwich Guildhall, with arms of King Henry VIII, the City of Norwich, and the Goldsmiths' Company.] [Illustration: PLATE V.--Examples of shaped shields. A John Tiptoft earl of Worcester, 1449. B William Herbert earl of Huntingdon, 1479. ] [Illustration: A John earl of Kent 1351. B John Mowbray, duke of Norfolk and earl marshal, 1442. PLATE VI.--Various shapes of shields.] In the simpler forms the field of a shield in painted representations is invariably shown flat; but in carvings, and occasionally on seals, a slight convexity, or even concavity, is often met with, the artistic advantages of which it is unnecessary to enlarge upon. In some of the later ornate forms, like those described above, the incurved or engrailed edge is accompanied by a field worked with a series of ridges and furrows (figs. 21 and 23). The effect of this may be good, but there is a danger of carrying it to excess and so injuring the appearance of the charges. If the shield be well covered by the bearings on it, it is generally better to use one of simple form than one with an irregular outline and ridged surface; but there is, of course, no reason why both forms should not be used concurrently in architectural or other works, as they sometimes were of old. [Illustration: FIG. 21. Shield with engrailed edges (_c._ 1520), from the chantry chapel of abbot Thomas Ramryge in St. Albans abbey church.] The same principle as the ridging of a shield to relieve the plain surface was also applied to the ordinaries upon it. An early example may be seen upon the tomb of queen Eleanor at Westminster, which has the bends in the shields of Ponthieu ridged along the middle line. The shield borne by Brian FitzAlan (_ob._ 1302) in his effigy at Bedale has the alternate bars of his arms (_barry of eight pieces gold and gules_) treated in the same way. Another instance may be seen on the effigy of Sir Richard Whatton (_c._ 1325) at Whatton, Notts, in which a bend, though charged, is ridged. The shields on the tomb of Guy lord Bryen (_ob._ 1390) at Tewkesbury (fig. 22) furnish typical later examples, while during the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries instances are as common as the curved and ridged shields described above, especially as regards crosses and saltires, as at St. Albans, the George Inn at Glastonbury (fig. 23), and elsewhere. [Illustration: FIG. 22. Shields with ridged charges, from the monument of Guy lord Bryen (_ob._ 1390) in Tewkesbury abbey church.] [Illustration: FIG. 23. Armorial panels, the middlemost with the arms, supporters, and badges of King Edward IV, from the George Inn at Glastonbury.] In monumental effigies the shield borne by a knight often has a convex or rounded surface (fig. 24), and in late fifteenth century and Tudor architecture otherwise flat shields sometimes have the middle swelled out, as on dean Gunthorpe's oriel at Wells, in a manner very popular in Renaissance work. (See figs. 111 and 195.) [Illustration: FIG. 24. Shield with curved surface, from an effigy of a Pembridge at Clehonger, Herefordshire.] A reference to a number of good ancient examples of heraldic shields or banners will disclose the care that has been taken to occupy the field, as far as possible, with whatever is placed upon it (figs. 25, 26, 27). A lion or an eagle, for instance, will have the limbs and extremities so spread out as to fill every available space; and the same will be found in every group or combination of objects capable of arrangement or extension. [Illustration: FIG. 25. Shield from the seal of Henry Percy (from the Barons' Letter) with well-drawn lion.] [Illustration: FIG. 26. Shield with a leaping lion, from a brass (_c._ 1380) at Felbrigge in Norfolk.] [Illustration: FIG. 27. Shield with an eagle from a brass at Great Tew, Oxon, _c._ 1410.] Even with most unpromising combinations, or a group that cannot be extended or modified at all, or with a single charge like a fleur-de-lis, or ordinary such as a bend, (fig. 30), pale, or cheveron (pl. VIII A), a judicious adjustment of proportions, or some equally common-sense method, enabled a medieval artist to make his shield look well. [Illustration: FIG. 28. Seal of Queen's College, Oxford, 1341, with well-filled shields.] [Illustration: FIG. 29. Shield with a griffin, from a brass of 1405 at Boughton-under-Blean, Kent.] [Illustration: FIG. 30. Seal of Peter de Mauley IV (from the Barons' Letter), showing a simple well-balanced shield.] Another point that may be noticed in all old work is that in shields containing several similar objects no two are exactly alike. If the charges be, for example, three roses or three roundels or three lions (fig. 32), two will be placed in the upper and the third in the lower part of the shield. But the latter will often be somewhat larger than the others, and these, in turn, will differ slightly the one from the other as they do in nature. So, too, in a case like the three leopards of the King of England, whether displayed on shield or in banner, no two are exactly alike, but each differs somewhat from another in pose or in size (fig. 32). Even when the same charge is repeated many times, like the fleurs-de-lis in the old arms of France, any possible chance of mechanical monotony is avoided by a trifling variation in the shape of each, as in the shield of the King of France in the early series at Westminster (fig. 34). Another fact is that in the old work lines and curves are hardly ever quite true, but drawn by hand instead of with pen or compasses. The modern artist, on the contrary, usually draws his lines and curves with mechanical precision; his charges are exact copies one of another; the fact that they do not fill the field (_pace_ the royal arms on the coinage) is to him quite unimportant, and the final result is that under no circumstances will his work look well. Even in old stencilling a pleasing effect never seen in modern work of the kind was produced through a not too rigid adherence to a regularity of application. [Illustration: FIG. 31. Shield with a bend counter-flowered, from the brass of Sir Thomas Bromfleet (1430) at Wymington, Beds.] [Illustration: FIG. 32. Shield with three lions, from a brass at Stanford Dingley, Berks, 1444.] [Illustration: FIG. 33. Shield of the royal arms done in boiled leather, from the tomb of Edward prince of Wales at Canterbury, 1376.] [Illustration: FIG. 34. Shield of the King of France (c. 1259) in the quire of Westminster abbey church.] Another cause of the bad effect of much modern heraldry is the unnecessary adherence to the rules laid down in some of the textbooks and manuals as to the relative widths of ordinaries and subordinaries. The old heralds certainly did not fetter themselves with such shackles. A cheveron, a bend, a fesse, or a cross was drawn of the best proportion to look well (figs. 35, 36). If charged it would be wider than when plain. If placed between charges it was drawn narrower, if itself uncharged, and thus took its proper relative position with regard to the size and arrangement or the charges. So, too, with a border; if uncharged or merely gobony (_i.e._ formed of short lengths of alternate colours) or engrailed, it was drawn very narrow, and even if charged it was not allowed much greater width (figs. 38, 39). It thus never unduly encroached upon the field or other contents of the shield, and yet remained an artistic addition in itself. The curious bordering known as the tressure, which is almost peculiar to Scotland, and familiar to us through its occurrence in the shield of our Sovereign, is drawn sufficiently narrow in all good examples to leave ample room for the ramping lion it fences in, and its frieze of fleurs-de-lis is formed of a good number of flowers, instead of the eight considered sufficient in the royal arms of to-day. Even a chief, if necessary, was enlarged from the 'less than one-third of the shield' of to-day to the one-half of it, or even more, as may be seen in some of the examples of the arms of the monastery in the abbey church of Westminster, or in those of the town of Southampton. [Illustration: From the brass of bishop Robert Wyvil in the cathedral church of Salisbury, 1375. From the brass of William Holyngbroke at New Romney in Kent, 1375. Figs. 35 and 36. Shields with uncharged ordinaries.] [Illustration: FIG. 37. Shield with a charged bend, from a brass at Kidderminster, 1415.] [Illustration: From the brass of William Grevel (1401) at Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire. From the brass of Thomas Walysel (_c._ 1420) at Whitchurch, Oxon. Figs. 38 and 39. Shields with engrailed borders, plain and charged.] Another feature of early heraldry which it is well to bear in mind is the sparing use of what is known as quartering, or the method of combining in one shield the arms of two or more persons or families. One of our oldest instances of this occurs on the tomb of Queen Eleanor, the first wife of King Edward I, at Westminster, and shows her paternal arms of Castile and Leon so arranged (fig. 40). Another early example occurs in the Great Roll, _temp._ Edward II, where the arms of Sir Simon Montagu (_ob. c. 1316_), _silver a fesse indented gules of three indentures_, are quartered with _azure a gold griffin_. So long as the shield contained only four quarters, with the first and fourth, and the second and third, respectively alike, the effect was often good, as in the cases just noted, or in the beautiful arms of France and England combined used after 1340 by King Edward III (fig. 41). There are also many examples, as in the well-known bearings of the Veres and of the Despensers, where a quarterly disposition of the shield forms the basis of the arms. But when, as became common in the fifteenth century, quarters were multiplied or subdivided, the artistic effect of the old simple shield was lost or destroyed. As the principle was further extended, especially in Tudor and Stewart times, the result became more and more confused in appearance, until the field resembled rather a piece of coloured patchwork than a combination of various arms all more or less beautiful in themselves. [Illustration: FIG. 40. Quartered shield of Queen Eleanor of Castile, from her tomb at Westminster, 1291.] [Illustration: FIG. 41. Arms of King Edward III, from his tomb at Westminster.] The origin and growth of these combinations, which actually are perfectly lawful and proper, and yet often quite accidental, can easily be illustrated by a few typical examples. In 1382 King Richard II, who used the same arms as his grandfather, a quarterly shield of Old France and England, married Anne of Bohemia, daughter of the Emperor Charles IV. As her shield was also a quartered one, the combined arms of the king and his queen, as shown upon her seal, formed a shield of eight quarters (pl. VII A). This was further complicated through the later assumption by King Richard of the arms assigned to St. Edward (fig. 43), a cross between five birds; and the eight-quartered shield with this clumsy addition at one side may be seen on the Felbrigge brass. [Illustration: A Queen Anne of Bohemia, 1382. B John of Gaunt's privy seal as King of Castile, 1372. PLATE VII.--Examples of Quartering.] [Illustration: FIG. 42. Shield with impaled quarters, from the brass of Peter Halle (_c._ 1420) at Herne in Kent.] [Illustration: FIG. 43. Arms of St. Edward, from the tomb of Edmund duke of York (_ob._ 1402) at King's Langley.] These arms of St. Edward were used for a time duly 'differenced' in conjunction with his own quarterly arms by Henry of Lancaster, afterwards King Henry IV, and are impaled with those of his wife, Mary de Bohun, on his seal (1399) as duke of Hereford. Artistically the lop-sided effect so produced is quite unhappy. Many fifteenth century shields show forth, by the simple quartering of a man's arms with those of his wife or his mother, his succession or summons as a lord of parliament, or his inheritance of great estates. But this simplicity was gradually destroyed when the added quartering was itself quartered, as in the arms of Richard Nevill earl of Salisbury (see pls. XVII A and XXII B), or the quarterings were all different, as in the case of Humphrey Stafford duke of Buckingham. When but a year old he succeeded his father as earl of Stafford, and on his mother's death he became earl of Buckingham, Hereford, Northampton, Essex, and Perche! These dignities are duly displayed in the quarterings of his arms on his seal, as follows: 1. The quartered arms of his mother, for the earldom of Buckingham. 2. Bohun of Hereford. 3. Bohun of Northampton. 4. Stafford (fig. 44). [Illustration: FIG. 44. Seal of Humphrey Stafford earl of Buckingham, Hereford, Stafford, Northampton, and Perche, as captain of Calais and lieutenant of the Marches, 1442.] When Henry duke of Buckingham succeeded in 1460 to all the dignities of duke Humphrey his grandfather, he wisely elected, by the advice of the kings-of-arms, to drop the above quarterings, and to use only the arms of his great-grandmother, who as sister and heir of Humphrey duke of Gloucester and earl of Buckingham bore _France and England quarterly within a border silver_. About 1433 Margaret, daughter of Richard Beauchamp earl of Warwick, was married to John Talbot earl of Shrewsbury, and she thereupon had a beautiful seal engraved, with two large shields or arms hung side by side by their straps from a ragged staff, the badge of her father's house (pl. XXVII B). This charming composition is, however, quite spoilt through the complicated treatment of the shields. One of these bears the arms of husband and wife conjoined, the other those of the lady's father. The earl of Warwick's shield is a quartered one of Beauchamp and Newburgh, with a small superimposed scutcheon. The earl of Shrewsbury's arms also consisted of four quarters, to which his wife added her four (omitting the scutcheon), and thus made a patchwork of eight. A more remarkable and equally accidental case may be illustrated by the brass of Sir Humphrey Bourchier (1471) in the abbey church of Westminster. This displays four shields: one has the arms of Bourchier quartering Lovain and impaling the quarterly arms of Berners; and another, the six quarterings of Sir Humphrey's wife, Elizabeth Tylney. In a third shield these are quite properly impaled, with a resultant of fourteen quarters. In the fourth shield these are quartered together, and so produce a dreadful confusion of twenty-eight quarters! It is not necessary here to show how these shields might have been simplified in themselves, but from the artistic standpoint there cannot be any doubt that the two first should at least have been kept separate. The many other examples to be found in the illustrations of this book will serve as useful reminders of the greater advantage artistically of simpler treatment. It is moreover well to remember that in the majority of cases there is not the least need in actual work to produce a great many quarterings in a shield. In numerous examples, especially in the sixteenth century and later, they were assumed merely for display, and to reduce them to a reasonable few is often a most desirable thing. It is difficult without knowledge of individual cases to lay down any definite rules for dealing with quarterings, but there can be no question that in general a shield looks best without any at all. In the case of a man with a compound name or title, who represents more than one family or dignity, it would be legitimate to add a quartering on that account, but only of the actual arms of the family or dignity represented. It is however so hard to draw a line or to restrain the wishes of clients that the fifteenth century example of Henry duke of Buckingham should ever be borne in mind. As soon as the principle of hereditary descent of armorial bearings became established, the necessity arose of making some slight difference between the arms of a father and those borne by his sons. This was usually done by adding to the paternal arms such more or less unobtrusive device as a label, or narrow border, or a small charge like a crescent or a molet. The lord John of Eltham, son of King Edward II, bears upon his tomb at Westminster a beautifully carved shield of the arms of England differenced by a border of France; and one of the sons of King Edward III, Thomas of Woodstock, differenced his father's arms by a silver border, as at an earlier period did Edmund earl of Kent, the youngest son of King Edward I. The label is a narrow band with long pendent strips or pieces, usually three, but sometimes four or five in number, placed upon and across the upper part of a shield (fig. 45). It is now used to distinguish the arms of an eldest son from those of his father, but this was not always the rule, and younger sons of King Henry III and King Edward I, and at least three of the sons of King Edward III, besides the Prince of Wales, bore distinctive labels for difference. Anciently, the label was very narrow, and the pendent pieces of equal or nearly equal width throughout, even when charged with devices, as they sometimes were. The colour was also a matter of choice. The first three Edwards, during their fathers' lifetime, successively bore blue labels, sometimes of three, sometimes of five pieces, while the younger brother of King Edward I, Edmund earl of Lancaster, used a label of France (blue with gold fleurs-de-lis) of four pieces, and Thomas of Brotherton, second son of King Edward I, a silver label of three pieces. [Illustration: FIG. 45. Shield of Sir Hugh Hastings, from the Elsing brass (1347), with diapered maunch and a label of three pieces.] In the case of the sons of King Edward III, the Prince of Wales bore at first a silver label of five and later of three pieces; Lionel duke of Clarence seems to have borne at one time a gold label with a red cross on each piece for Ulster, and at another a silver label charged on each piece with a red quarter for Clare; John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster bore an ermine label for his earldom of Richmond (pl. II); and Edmund duke of York a silver label with three red roundels on each piece (pl. XXI B). The rolls of arms furnish instances of labels of all colours, and with pieces charged with various devices, such as leopards, eagles, castles, martlets, etc. Differencing with labels was likewise extended to crests, and a good example may be seen on the monument of Edward prince of Wales (_ob._ 1376) at Canterbury (fig. 46), as well as in fig. 139. [Illustration: FIG. 46. Part of the gilt-latten effigy of Edward prince of Wales at Canterbury, showing labels over both the arms and the crest.] In modern heraldry the label is often drawn unduly wide, with short and ugly wedge-shaped pieces hanging from or sticking on to it, and sometimes it does not even extend to the sides of the shield. The result is that instead of its being a comparatively unobtrusive addition to the arms the label becomes unduly conspicuous and void of all artistic effect. The old way of differencing by the addition of a crescent, molet, or similar device was generally carried out in quite an artistic fashion on account of the care taken to place the device agreeably, a favourite position being on the principal ordinary or charge of the arms. Many cadets of the great family of Nevill, for example, differenced the arms of their house, _gules a saltire silver_, by placing the device on the middle of the saltire, and some of the Beauchamps placed the differencing mark on the fesse of their arms. In other cases the device was placed in the upper part of the shield, or in some other such point where it would least interfere with or be confounded with the charges. One of the most difficult differences an artist has to contend with to-day is the silver scutcheon with a red hand which is placed upon the arms of baronets. Its position of course varies, and may often be altered with advantage, and it looks all the better if drawn not unduly large and with a simple heater-shaped shield. But some artists wisely leave it out altogether. In the case of all devices introduced as differences it will generally be found advisable to draw them to a somewhat smaller scale than the charges already in the arms. In many ancient heraldic shields, especially in painted glass, and to a lesser extent in carved work and on seals, the plain uncharged surfaces of the field or ordinaries are relieved by covering them with the purely ornamental decoration called diapering (figs. 45, 48). An early instance in relief occurs on the shield of the effigy in the Templars' church in London usually ascribed to Geoffrey de Magnavilla; and another delicately sculptured example of later date is to be seen on the Vere effigy in Hatfield Broadoak church in Essex (fig. 47). Several fine instances of painted diapering will be found in Stothard's _Monumental Effigies_. This beautiful treatment has, happily, been largely revived of late years by the glass painters, who use it quite successfully, probably from the ease with which in their case it can be applied. Modern carvers use it very sparingly, and this perhaps is as it should be, for diapering needs to be done with great skill in sculpture to look well. A careful study therefore of old examples is advisable, in order thoroughly to understand the principles of its application. [Illustration: FIG. 47. Diapered shield of the arms of Vere, from an effigy in Hatfield Broadoak church, Essex.] [Illustration: FIG. 48. Diapered shield from the seal of Robert Waldby archbishop of York, 1390, for the regality of Hexham.] Some of the finest diapered shields in carved work occur in the spandrels of the splendid monument of the lady Eleanor Percy in Beverley minster (figs. 49, 50). Good instances are to be found on seals, and a number of these are here illustrated in order to show the proper treatment of diapering. (See pls. VIII, XII, and XXVII A.) [Illustration: FIG. 49. Diapered shield of the arms of Clun, from the monument of the lady Eleanor Percy (_ob._ 1337) in Beverley minster.] [Illustration: FIG. 50. Diapered shield of the arms of Percy, from the monument of the lady Eleanor Percy (_ob._ 1337) in Beverley minster.] [Illustration: A Humphrey earl of Stafford, in 1429. B John Tiptoft. C Elizabeth, wife of John la Warre, in 1393. PLATE VIII.--Examples of diapered shields.] It is of course to be borne in mind that diapering is merely a surface decoration, and it must not on any account be emphasized by any difference of colour from that of the field or ordinary it relieves, nor must it be treated with such prominence as to render it liable to be mistaken for a charge or charges. Diapering can be represented effectively in embroidered work by the use of flowered or patterned damasks, as may be seen in the banners in St. Paul's cathedral church in the chapel of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. CHAPTER III THE SHIELD AND ITS TREATMENT (_continued_) Armorial Bearings of Ladies; Use of Lozenges and Roundels as variant forms of Shields; Arms of Men on Lozenges; Combinations of Shields with Lozenges and Roundels of Arms on Seals and in Embroideries. Before leaving the subject of the shield a few words must be written about the armorial bearings of ladies. It has always been the practice for the daughters of a house to bear, without difference or alteration, the arms of their father. This practice has been departed from only in quite modern times, by the addition of distinctive labels to the arms borne by our princesses. To the manner in which married ladies have arranged or 'marshalled' their arms reference will be made later, but it is necessary here to call attention to the fact that it has been customary for a long time to place the arms of widows and single ladies upon shields that are lozenge-shaped. A good early example is that from the monument in Westminster abbey church of Frances Brandon duchess of Suffolk (_ob._ 1559), shown in fig. 51. [Illustration: FIG. 51. Lozenge of arms from the monument at Westminster of Frances Brandon duchess of Suffolk (_ob._ 1559).] This singularly inconvenient form of shield, upon which it is often impossible to draw the arms properly, began to be used early in the fourteenth century. It was not, however, used for or restricted to the arms of ladies, since the evidence of seals shows that it was at first used to contain the armorial bearings of men. There can likewise be little doubt that it and the roundel, which was also charged with arms, were contemporaneously invented by the seal engravers as variants from the ordinary form of shield; and it is interesting to note that the majority of the examples occur on seals which have a background or setting of elaborate tracery. The roundel seems to have originated in the covering of the entire field of a circular seal with the arms of its owner, such as the leopards of England which are so disposed in a counterseal of Edward of Carnarvon as prince of Wales. Two seals of John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster, engraved probably in 1372, show a similar treatment: the one bearing his arms impaling, and the other his arms impaled with, those of Castile and Leon (pl. VII B). The former commemorates his marriage with Constance of Castile, and the latter the duke's claim in right of his wife to the kingdom of Castile itself. A large enamelled roundel, _party gules and azure with a gold charbocle_, accompanies the shield and crested helm which, with it, form the stall-plate of Ralph lord Bassett (_c._ 1390) at Windsor. One of the lesser seals appended to the Barons' Letter, that of Robert FitzPain, is an oval filled with the owner's arms (fig. 52). [Illustration: FIG. 52. Seal of Robert FitzPain, with arms in an oval.] One of the earliest examples of arms on a lozenge is on a seal of Thomas Furnival, who died in 1279, and another but little later is furnished by the seal of William de Braose, appended to a deed of either 1282 or 1314 at Magdalen College, Oxford (pl. IX B). [Illustration: A William Paynel, in 1301. B William Braose, ? 1282. C Parnell Bensted, in 1359. D E Elizabeth of Clare. PLATE IX.--Use of lozenges and roundels of arms.] That of William Paynel, appended to the Barons' Letter, also has his arms on a lozenge (pl. IX A). The first seal of a lady in which lozenges of arms occur is probably that of Joan, daughter of Henry count of Barre and Eleanor daughter of King Edward I, who married, in 1306, John de Warenne earl of Surrey (fig. 53). This has five lozenges arranged in cross: that in the middle has her husband's checkers, those on each side her father's barbels, etc. and those above and below the three leopards of England. The lady's descent from King Edward is further shown by the castles and lions of his consort Eleanor of Castile. [Illustration: FIG. 53. Seal of Joan de Barre, wife of John de Warenne earl of Surrey, 1306.] Another interesting example, of a date about 1320, is the seal of Parnel, daughter of H. de Grapenell, and widow (1) of John FitzJohn and (2) of Sir John Bensted (_ob._ 1323). This has in the middle a shield of the arms of Bensted, _gules three gold gemell-bars_, between four lozenges, apparently for Grapenell and FitzJohn (pl. IX C). Contemporary with Parnel Bensted's seal are two others in which roundels are used instead of lozenges. Both are traceried seals of Elizabeth daughter of Gilbert of Clare earl of Gloucester, and Joan daughter of King Edward I and Queen Eleanor of Castile. She was thrice married: first, about 1306 to John of Burgh, son of Richard earl of Ulster; secondly to Theobald lord Verdon; and thirdly to Roger lord d'Amory, who died in 1322. One of these seals has in the middle, in a shield, Elizabeth's own arms of Clare impaling Burgh within a black border bedewed with tears. Above and below are roundels of Clare, and on either side other roundels of Verdon and d'Amory. In the interspaces are the castles and lions of Castile and Leon (pl. IX D). The other seal is similarly arranged, but has in the middle a large shield of d'Amory, between roundels of arms of the lady's other husbands above and below, and of Clare for her father or herself on either side. The interspaces again contain castles and lions (pl. IX E). Four other early seals of great artistic merit displaying roundels may also be described, especially since they are apparently the work of the same engraver. They are filled with tracery, consisting of a triangle enclosing a circle, which contains a large shield, with cusped circles on its sides containing roundels or devices. The first is for Mary de Seynt-Pol, who married in 1322 Aymer of Valence earl of Pembroke (fig. 54). The shield bears the dimidiated arms of husband and wife; on a roundel in base are the arms of her mother; and higher up are roundels of England and France, out of compliment to King Edward II and Queen Isabel. [Illustration: FIG. 54. Seal of Mary de Seynt-Pol, wife of Aymer of Valence earl of Pembroke, 1322.] The second is for John de Bohun earl of Hereford, and has a large shield of Bohun with roundels also of Bohun. It was probably engraved in 1322, and before the earl's marriage in 1325 (pl. X A). [Illustration: A John de Bohun earl of Hereford, 1322. B Hugh Courtenay earl of Devon, 1334. C Henry Sturmy, lord of Savernake Forest, 1355. D Elizabeth, wife of Walter Bermyngham, in 1341. E Sibyl, wife of Sir Edmund Arundel, 1350. PLATE X.--Use of lozenges and roundels of arms.] The third is for Richard FitzAlan earl of Arundel (1330-1), who succeeded to the vast Warenne estates in 1347. It has in the middle a shield of FitzAlan, and about it three roundels with the checkers of Warenne. The fourth is for Hugh Courtenay earl of Devon (1334-5-40)or his son Hugh (1340-77). The shield displays the arms of Courtenay and in each of the outer circles is a sexfoil (pl. X B). To these examples may be added a fifth of about the same date, for Henry Sturmy or Esturmy, lord of the forest of Savernake. This has the Sturmy shield in the middle, between two roundels of the Hussey arms, and a third roundel above with the tenure horn of Savernake Forest (pl. X C). Other seals that may be quoted in illustration of the indiscriminate use of shields, roundels, and lozenges during the fourteenth century are those of: (1) Juliana, daughter of Thomas Leybourne, and wife of John lord Hastings (_ob._ 1325), with a shield of Hastings impaling Leybourne, encircled by six lozenges of arms indicative of other alliances and descents, derived from the fact of the lady having been married thrice; (2) Elizabeth de Multon, wife of Walter Bermyngham, with the shield of Bermyngham surrounded by six roundels of other arms; (3) Maud, daughter of Bartholomew Badlesmere, and wife in 1336 of John de Vere earl of Oxford (fig. 55), with a shield of Vere between lozenges of Clare, Badlesmere (her father and herself), Clare with label (mother), and FitzPayn (first husband); (4) Maud, daughter of Henry earl of Lancaster, married first to William of Burgh earl of Ulster, and secondly (in 1343-4) to Sir Ralph Ufford (fig. 56), with lozenges of Lancaster (father and herself) above and Chaworth (mother) below, and shields of Burgh and Ufford (husbands); (5) Sybil, daughter of William Montagu earl of Salisbury and Katharine Graunson, with shield of FitzAlan with a label, for her husband Sir Edmund of Arundel, second son of Edmund FitzAlan earl of Arundel, between lozenges of Montagu and Graunson (pl. X E);[2] and (6) Elizabeth, widow of Sir Gilbert Elsefield, with a lozenge of Elsefield between four roundels of other arms (impression 1382-3). [2] Impression attached to a deed in the British Museum, 1350-1. [Illustration: FIG. 55. Seal of Maud Badlesmere, wife of John de Vere earl of Oxford, 1336.] [Illustration: FIG. 56. Seal of Maud of Lancaster, wife (1) of William of Burgh earl of Ulster, and (2) of Sir Ralph Ufford, 1343-4. ] Alice, wife of Thomas of Heslerton, has on her seal (impression 1374) a large lozenge of the arms of Heslerton (_gules six silver lions with gold crowns_) within a quatrefoil, outside of which are four small banners of arms with martlets between. Lastly may be noted a seal of Roger Foljambe, attached to a deed of 1396-7, having a lozenge of his arms (_a bend and six scallop shells_) surrounded by his word or motto. But seals are not the only authorities for the indiscriminate use of roundels and lozenges as well as shields of arms. In the Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington is an enamelled coffer of late thirteenth century work decorated with lozenges of arms of England, Valence, Dreux, Angoulême, Brabant, and Lacy. The famous Syon cope _de opere Anglicano_, also in the Victoria and Albert Museum, has the existing orphrey filled with large armorial roundels and lozenges, and its border is composed of a stole and fanon embroidered throughout with lozenges of arms. (See fig. 57.) Christchurch, Canterbury, in 1315 possessed an albe 'sewn with lozenges with the arms of the king of England and of Leybourne,'[3] and another 'sewn with the arms of Northwode and Ponyngg in squares';[4] also an albe 'sewn with divers arms in lozenges with purple frets with a stole and fanon of the same work,'[5] evidently not unlike those on the Syon cope. [3] 'consuta de losenges cum armis regis Anglie et de Leyburn.' [4] 'consuta de armis de Northwode et Ponyngg in quadrangulis.' [5] 'consuta de diversis armis in lozengis cum frectis purpureis cum stola et manipulo ejusdem operis.' [Illustration: FIG. 57. The Syon Cope, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.] It may also be noted that the pillows beneath the head of the effigy at Westminster of Aveline countess of Lancaster (_c._ 1275) are both covered with heraldic lozenges: on the upper one with the arms of her husband alternating with the lion of Redvers; on the lower with the vair cross on red of her father, William of Forz earl of Albemarle. The gilt metal bed plate under the effigy of William of Valence earl of Pembroke (_ob._ 1296), likewise at Westminster, is also covered with a lozengy diaper of England and Valence, still bright with the original enamel; the workmanship of this, however, is probably French. The restriction of the lozenge to the arms of ladies has clearly therefore no medieval precedent, and there is not any reason why the modern custom should not be set aside when for artistic reasons a shield or roundel is preferable. CHAPTER IV THE TREATMENT OF CRESTS Origin of Crests; Earliest examples of Crests; Ways of wearing Crests; The Helm and its treatment; Modern use of Helms; Absurd Crests; Use of Crests other than by individuals; The comparative sizes of Helms and Crests. A crest was originally, as its name reminds us, a tuft or plume on the head of a bird. Such a plume or tuft, or bush as it was often called, was fixed in early times as an ornament on the top of a helm, of which it thus formed the crest. Other devices, such as could conveniently be so worn, were soon used for the same purpose, and like armorial bearings became associated with particular individuals. In later days when the helm enveloped the whole head, the crest played a useful part in revealing the wearer's identity, though his face was hidden. One of the earliest suggestions of a crest in English armory appears on the second great seal (of 1198) of King Richard I, whose cylindrical helm has a leopard upon the cap with two wing-shaped fans above turned in opposite directions. On many seals of the second half of the thirteenth century, as, for instance, on those of Robert de Vere earl of Oxford (1263) and Henry de Laci earl of Lincoln (1272), the knight is represented as riding in full armour, with the helm surmounted with a fan-shaped plume, which is also repeated upon the horse's head. (See also fig. 58 and pl. XI B.) [Illustration: FIG. 58. Seal of Thomas de Moulton, with fan-shaped crest on helm and horse's head. From the Barons' Letter.] [Illustration: A Roger of Leybourne, ob. 1284. B Henry de Perci, in 1301. PLATE XI.--Early examples of crests.] An early use of a crest proper is furnished by the seal of Roger of Leybourne (_ob._ 1284). This shows his shield of arms (bearing six lions) hung upon a tree, with his banner (charged with one lion only) behind, and at one side a helm with lion crest (pl. XI A). Thomas of Berkeley in 1295 has upon his seal a shield flanked by two mermaids and surmounted by a helm carrying a mitre for a crest. Thomas earl of Lancaster (1296) on two separate seals has a wiver, or two-legged dragon, upon his helm, and this again is repeated upon his horse's head (fig. 59). The seal of his brother Henry of Lancaster, appended to the Barons' Letter, also shows his helm crested with a wiver (fig. 60). Two other early examples of crests on seals from the Barons' Letter are shown in figs. 61 and 62. Sir John Peche, on a seal appended to a deed of 1323-4, has his shield flanked by wivers and surmounted by a helm with squirrel crest. William Montagu earl of Salisbury (1336-7), in the mounted figure of himself on his fine seal, has a demi-griffin fixed upon his crowned helm (pl. XII B), and King Edward III shows for the first time, on his seal of 1340, his crest of a crowned leopard standing upon the cap of estate which surmounts his helm. [Illustration: FIG. 59. Seal of Thomas earl of Lancaster, Leicester, and Ferrers, showing wiver crest on his helm and horse's head. From the Barons' Letter.] [Illustration: FIG. 60. Seal of Henry of Lancaster, lord of Monmouth, with wiver crest and quasi-supporters.] [Illustration: A B PLATE XII.--Early uses of crests, on seals of William Montagu earl of Salisbury, 1337-44.] During the first half of the fourteenth century there is an interesting diversity in the manner of representing crests, when not being worn by their owners. William Montagu earl of Salisbury shows on his counterseal (pl. XII A) his shield supported by two griffins, and ensigned by the demi-griffin issuing from an open crown which in his seal he carries upon his helm. John Engayn, in 1349, has upon the upper edge of his shield a wolf or fox walking under a tree. Henry duke of Lancaster (1341) ensigns the shield of his arms with a cap of estate surmounted by a leopard (pl. XIII C); and Peter de Mauley, the sixth of that name, in 1379-80 has a seal with his simple arms (_a bend_) supported by two ramping leopards, and surmounted by a fierce dragon breathing defiance (pl. XX B). In none of these cases does a helm appear. [Illustration: FIG. 61. Seal of Robert de la Warde, with fan crest.] [Illustration: FIG. 62. Seal of Walter de Mounci, with the helm surmounted by a fox as a crest.] After the middle of the fourteenth century the crest is invariably shown as part of the helm. The helm, it is hardly necessary to say, was such an one as formed part of the war harness of the time, and in the numerous armorial representations that may be found on seals or on monuments or buildings it is almost invariably shown in profile. This was, however, merely on account of its being the most convenient way of displaying the crest, and, in accordance with the usual medieval common-sense, examples are to be found which show the helm and crest facing the observer. Thus Thomas de Holand (1353) has on his seal a shield of his arms hung from a tree and flanked by two fronting helms, each encircled by a crown and surmounted by a huge bush of feathers; Sir Robert de Marni (1366) flanks his shield, which is also hung from a tree, with two fronting helms, each crested with a tall pair of wings rising from the sides of a cap of estate (fig. 63); Sir Stephen Hales (1392-3) on his seal has a couched shield of his arms surmounted by a fronting helm, with a crown about it from which issue two fine wings; Robert Deynelay (1394-5) in like manner shows his helm crested with two ears of a bat or hare; and Walter lord FitzWalter (1415-31) has on his seal a couched shield, and on a fronting helm above a cap of estate surmounted by a star between two large wings (pl. XIII A). Another example of a fronting helm is shown in pl. V B. [Illustration: FIG. 63. Seal of Sir Robert de Marni, 1366, with crested helms flanking the shield.] The present custom of using various types of helm facing different ways to denote grades of rank is comparatively recent as well as often inconvenient, and utterly subversive of the proper method of displaying a crest, which should invariably face the same way as its wearer. This fact is amply illustrated by the early stall-plates at Windsor, but the modern crested helms surmounting the stalls there were for a long time the scoff of students of heraldry owing to the absurd manner in which the crests were set athwart the fronting helms. It is pleasant to be able to add that the crests have lately been replaced almost throughout by a new and larger series, worthy of their surroundings, and set upon the helms in the proper way. Under the same enlightened administration the most recent stall-plates are enamelled creations of real artistic and heraldic excellence. [Illustration: FIG. 64. Crest, etc. of Sir John Astley, from a MS. _c._ 1420.] The crest was, of old time, almost always something that could actually be set upon a helm, and such objects as naturally were too large or too heavy were modelled in boiled leather, wood, or other light material: like the fine crest borne at the funeral of Edward prince of Wales, now over his tomb at Canterbury, which is a leopard standing upon a cap of estate and modelled in leather covered with stamped gesso (fig. 65); or the soldan's head of carved wood that surmounts the funeral helm of George lord Cobham, in Cobham church, Kent (fig. 66). [Illustration: FIG. 65. Crest of Edward prince of Wales, 1376, of leather and stamped gesso, from his tomb at Canterbury.] [Illustration: FIG. 66. Funeral helm and wooden crest of George Brooke lord Cobham (_ob._ 1558) in Cobham church, Kent.] Such impossible crests as the pictorial scenes and other absurdities granted by the kings-of-arms during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and even back to Elizabethan days, would not have been thought of at an earlier period, when heraldry was a living art. The degradation of the proper use of a crest, other than by those entitled to wear one, began as soon as the kings-of-arms presumed to grant armorial bearings by their bestowing crests upon impersonal corporate bodies like the London livery companies, such as the Tallow Chandlers (1456), Masons (1472), and Wax Chandlers (1485-6). Arms were borne by the mayor and commonalty of a city or town at least as early as 1283 in the case of Chester, and of 1305 in the case of Dover (or the Cinque Ports), but none presumed to use a crest until London did so on the making of a new seal in 1539, and no crest was granted to a town before 1561. Before leaving crests a word must be said as to their comparative sizes. Throughout the best period of heraldic art the crested helm and the shield in pictorial representations practically balance one another, but there is occasionally a tendency to diminish the shield, and so apparently to enlarge the crest. This may be seen, for example, in several of the early stall-plates at Windsor (figs. 67, 68), which otherwise are admirable models as to the treatment of crests in general. They also show very clearly how easily and comfortably the crests surmount the helms. [Illustration: FIG. 67. Stall-plate of Humphrey duke of Buckingham as earl of Stafford, _c._ 1429.] [Illustration: FIG. 68. Stall-plate of Sir Thomas Burgh, _c._ 1483.] A remarkable early English example of the use of _two_ crests is furnished by a seal of Richard Nevill (1449-71), the 'Kingmaker,' who was earl of Salisbury, and, in right of his wife, also earl of Warwick (fig. 69). This exhibits two helms above the multi-quartered shield, the one carrying the Beauchamp swan for the earldom of Warwick, the other the Montagu griffin for the earldom of Salisbury. [Illustration: FIG. 69. Seal of Richard Nevill with separate crests and supporters for his earldoms of Salisbury and Warwick.] CHAPTER V MANTLINGS Origin of Mantlings; Simple early forms; Colours of Mantlings; Medieval usage as to colours of Mantlings. In actual use the helm seems often to have been covered behind by a hanging scarf or cloth of some kind, perhaps to temper the heat of the sun, like a modern puggaree. Heraldically this is represented by what is now called the mantling. At first this was a simple affair, worn puggaree-wise, but by degrees it was enlarged in representations until it extended on either side beyond the helm, and was disposed in graceful twists and folds with dagged edges, which have been supposed to represent the cuts it was liable to receive during fighting (figs. 70, 71). [Illustration: FIG. 70. Seal of William lord Hastings, _c._ 1461.] The usual colour for the mantling, for a long time, has been red, and its lining of ermine or white fur, but there is ample precedence for a difference of treatment, as may be seen in that rich collection of ancient heraldic art, the stall-plates at Windsor. The earliest surviving plate, that of Ralph lord Bassett (K.G. 1368-90), has a short black mantling, to match the boar's head that forms his crest (fig. 72). A large group of plates set up in 1421 exhibits a considerable variety. Thus the plate of Sir Sanchet Dabrichecourt has a red mantling powdered with gold lozenges, a treatment suggested by two bands of red similarly decorated which encircle the bush of feathers forming his crest (fig. 73). The mantling of William lord Latimer is of red and silver stripes, and that of John lord Beaumont, like the field of his shield, is, together with the cap of estate, of blue powdered with gold fleurs-de-lis. Sir Walter Pavely has also a blue mantling. [Illustration: FIG. 71. Seal of William de la Pole earl of Suffolk, 1415.] [Illustration: FIG. 72. Stall-plate of Ralph lord Basset, showing simple form of mantling.] [Illustration: FIG. 73. Stall-plate of Sir Sanchet Dabrichecourt, _c._ 1421.] Sir William FitzWaryn's mantling is quarterly per fesse indented of red and ermine, like his shield of arms. The Captal de Buch, Raynald lord Cobham, Hugh lord Burnell (fig. 77), Hugh lord Bourchier (pl. XVI), and Sir Thomas Banastre have black mantlings, and John lord Bourchier and William lord Willoughby d'Eresby (pl. XV) white mantlings lined with red. Sir Miles Stapleton and the Soudan de la Trau have black mantlings lined with red. Several early mantlings, too, are formed entirely of silver feathers, with red, black, or other linings. These usually accompany a feathered crest, like Sir William Arundel's griffin (fig. 74), or the earl of Warwick's swan (fig. 75), or Sir Thomas Erpingham's bush of feathers. Another curious variation, which is found on four early plates, has the colour of the mantling different on the two sides of the helm, such as red on one side, and blue or black on the other. In about a dozen plates between 1450 and 1470 the red, and in one case the blue, ground of a mantling is relieved by a trailing pattern in gold, sometimes in lines only, but more usually as leafwork or flowers. In the plate of Walter lord Hungerford (el. 1421) the mantling on his banner-like plate is barred with red and ermine (see fig. 136), in allusion to the arms of his lordship of Hussey. Lastly, in the plate of Richard lord Rivers (el. 1450) the mantling is red, sown with gold trefoils, and lined with white, with gold tassels at the ends (fig. 76). This is derived from the crest, which is the upper part of a man brandishing a scimitar, and clad in a red tunic with standing collar and large hanging sleeves, also sown with trefoils. The sleeves are cleverly arranged in the plate, as if forming part of the mantling, and are similarly dagged and lined and tasselled. On the stall-plate (_c._ 1483) of Francis viscount Lovel the mantling is of purple sown with gold hanging locks. [Illustration: FIG. 75. Stall-plate of Richard Beauchamp earl of Warwick, after 1423.] [Illustration: FIG. 76. Stall-plate of Richard Wydville lord Rivers, _c._ 1450.] CHAPTER VI CRESTS AND CROWNS, CAPS OF ESTATE, AND WREATHS Crests within Crowns; Nature and treatment of Crowns; Caps of Estate: Their possible origin and introduction into Heraldry; The colour of Caps; The placing of Crests upon Caps; Wreaths or Torses; Their Colour; Crests and Mottoes; Use of Crests by Bishops; The ensigning of Arms with Mitres, Cardinals' and Doctors' Hats, and Caps of Estate. The treatment of the crest varies. In the earliest examples it is set directly upon the mantled helm (fig. 77 and pls. XIV A and XVII B), to which it was actually attached by wires through holes on top. But from the first large numbers of crests were fixed, or rose as it were, from within a crown or coronet encircling the helm, or stood upon a cap or hat of estate that surmounted it. (See figs. 65, 67, 72, 73, 74, 75, and pls. XIII E and F, XVII A, XXI, XXII, XXVII A, etc.) [Illustration: A Walter lord FitzWalter, 1415-31. B C Henry duke of Lancaster, 1341. D Robert Shottesbroke, 1458-9. E Thomas lord Dacre of Gilsland, 1412. F Sir John Cheyny, 1395. PLATE XIII.--Various treatments of crests.] [Illustration: FIG. 77. Stall-plate of Hugh lord Burnell, _c._ 1421.] [Illustration: A Edmund Grey earl of Kent, 1442. B Thomas Ballard, Esq. C Sir Henry Ingelose, of Loddon, 1451. PLATE XIV.--Examples of crests and mantlings.] The crown was merely ornamental, and had no reference to the dignity of the wearer, but was used alike heraldically by prince and peer, knight and esquire, and the same may be said of the cap of estate. Crowns were anciently formed of a number of leaves or fleurons set upright upon the band, sometimes with lesser leaves or jewels between them; the bands too were often jewelled. But in practice only three (fig. 78), or sometimes five, principal leaves are shown when the crown is drawn in profile (fig. 83). [Illustration: FIG. 78. Arms of St. Edmund, from the tomb of Edmund duke of York (_ob._ 1402) at King's Langley.] [Illustration: PLATE XV. STALL-PLATE (REDUCED) OF HUGH STAFFORD LORD BOURCHIER, C. 1421.] Beyond the fact that the thing was a crown, there was no strict rule as to the design, which varied according to the taste of the artist. Two examples among the early stall-plates at Windsor, those of Hugh Stafford lord Bourchier (fig. 79 and pl. XVI) and Richard lord Grey of Codnor (both _c._ 1421), illustrate this in a pretty way (fig. 80). In both cases the plate after being finished has been cut up, partly reversed, and in part re-engraved; not because anything was wrong with the heraldry, but to make the crested helms face the other way. These have accordingly been turned over, but in cutting them afresh the engraver has slightly varied the designs of the crests and of the crowns with which each is encircled, without however in any way altering their heraldic character. In the earliest existing plates the crested helms are all drawn turned towards the high altar, consequently those on the north side of the quire face heraldically towards the sinister. The two plates just noted, and at least one other, have been transferred from one side of the quire to the other. [Illustration: FIG. 79. Crest from the reverse of the stall-plate of Hugh Stafford lord Bourchier.] [Illustration: FIG. 80. Two forms of the same crest, from the stall-plate of Richard lord Grey of Codnor.] [Illustration: PLATE XVI. STALL-PLATE OF WILLIAM LORD WILLOUGHBY, C. 1421.] One of the first instances of a crown about a crest is on the seal of William Montagu earl of Salisbury, 1337 (pl. XII). Crowns were not by any means always of gold or silver, and quite a number of pre-Tudor stall-plates have them enamelled red, and in two cases blue. These heraldic crowns must not be confounded with the coronets, as they are now called, worn of different patterns by peers and peeresses according to their degree; some reference to these will be made later. The cap of estate is generally depicted in English heraldic art as a high crowned conical hat or cap with flattened top, and a broad brim lined with ermine. The brim is usually turned up high in front, but gradually lessens along the sides towards the back, where the brim extends horizontally to its full width. The cap of estate first appears, surmounted by his leopard crest, on the head of King Edward III in the great seal made for him in February 1339-40 on his assumption of the title of King of France. Whether the cap has any connexion with the assumption of the king's new title it is difficult to say, but its more common name of 'cap of maintenance' would acquire a significant meaning could such connexion be proved. It is however more probable that the cap was worn by the king for his dignity of duke of Normandy and of Aquitaine, and it was long the custom for representatives of those duchies to take part in coronation processions wearing robes and caps of estate. According to the _Little Device_ for the coronation of Henry VII, there were to ride before the king in the procession from the Tower 'ij Squiers for the kinges bodie bearing in baudrick wise twoo mantells furred w^t Ermyns, wearing twoo hattes of Estate of Crymsen clothe of golde beked on, beks turnyd upp behinde, and furred also w^t Ermyns in reprecentacion of the kinges twoo duchesses of Gyen and Normandie.'[6] [6] L. G. Wickham Legg, _English Coronation Records_ (Westminster, 1901), 223. Although the cap may at first have been restricted to the king, it was certainly used by the sons of Edward III, and may be seen of like form and fashion upon the seals of Edward as prince of Wales (1343), of John of Gaunt as duke of Lancaster (1362) and of Edmund of Langley as duke of York (pl. XXI), and of Thomas of Woodstock as duke of Gloucester in 1385. It was no doubt in each case given by personal investiture by the Sovereign, but only to those who were made dukes. In heraldry, however, the cap of estate was used after 1350 by many who were not only dukes who had been invested with it, but by earls and barons who had not been so invested, and even by mere knights (pl. XIII F). It would be as rash to argue from this that such persons were all entitled to wear for dignity the cap of estate as it would be to insist that the equally common use of a crown round the base of a crest entitled every knight or baron on whose seal it occurs to wear a coronet. The colour of the cap of estate was almost invariably red, with a lining of ermine, but in two of the early stall-plates it is blue. The crest is generally placed directly upon it, but representations of two-legged or four-legged creatures often stand upon the brim with their feet on either side of the flat-topped cap (figs. 112, 138). It is hardly necessary to say that the crested cap is always placed upon the helm, with the mantling issuing from under it. It is a common practice nowadays, quite wrongly, to represent crests apart from the helm, and as standing upon a twisted bar, or wreath as it is called. A little research will show that this bar represents the twisting together of two or three differently coloured stuffs, and fixing the wreath so formed round the base of the crest to mask its junction with the top of a helm. Once invented it came into common use, and crests of all kinds were fixed within it. When seen sideways the rounded top of the helm causes the crest to appear as if standing upon the wreath, and this has no doubt given rise to the present malpractice. The Rev. C. Boutell in his smaller _English Heraldry_ quotes the Hastings brass at Elsing, of the year 1347, as the earliest instance of a wreath about a crest (fig. 81). But this brass is probably French, and in English work the wreath does not come into being much before the close of the fourteenth century, and was not regularly used until about 1450. [Illustration: FIG. 81. Helm with crest and wreath, from the Hastings brass at Elsing, 1347.] The wreath or torse, as it was also called, from being a twist, was usually of two colours, derived from the principal metal and colour of the arms; but the fifteenth century stall-plates show many variations from this rule. Thus Lewis lord Bourchier (_c._ 1421) has a torse of blue, gold, and black, and John earl of Tankerville (_c._ 1421) one of green, red, and white. John lord Bourchier (_c._ 1421) and Henry lord Bourchier (_c._ 1452) both have black and green torses. Richard Wydville lord Rivers (_c._ 1450) has the crest issuing from a green torse, crested with a crown of holly leaves. Thomas lord Stanley (_c._ 1459) has a torse of gold and blue with red spots or jewels between, and Sir William Chamberlayne (_c._ 1461) a red and blue torse. The modern practice is that the twists of a torse shall be only six in number; but in old heraldry there was no such rule, and any number from four may be found, whatever would look best. In the Harsick brass (fig. 82) there are eleven twists. [Illustration: FIG. 82. Helm with crest and torse and simple form of mantling, from the Harsick brass at Southacre, 1384.] Crests occasionally had mottoes or 'words' associated with them, quite apart from the ordinary 'word' or 'reason' of the family or individual. Thus the ermine bush of feathers that formed the crest of Sir Simon Felbrigge is accompanied on his stall-plate (_c._ 1421) by a scroll lettered ~Sanz muer~ (fig. 83), and on that of John lord Scrope (el. 1461) the crest, which is likewise a bush of feathers, has above it the 'reason' ~autre qz-elle~. Two of the fine seals of Richard Nevill earl of Salisbury (1428-60) have behind his demi-griffin crest a scroll lettered apparently ~ma~ [_or_ ~do~] ~ple[s]ier~ (pls. XVII A and XXII B), and the seal of John Talbot earl of Shrewsbury, as marshal of France (1445), has a scroll with his 'word' issuing from the mouth of his lion crest (pl. XVII B). [Illustration: FIG. 83. Stall-plate of Sir Simon Felbrigge, _c._ 1421.] [Illustration: A Richard Nevill earl of Salisbury, 1428-60. B John Talbot earl of Shrewsbury, 1445. PLATE XVII.--Crests with mottoes.] From what has been said above as to the ancient association of helm and crest, it follows that the present fashion of representing the crest by itself, apart from the helm to which it was always attached, is entirely wrong. It at once renders the crest meaningless: in appearance it forthwith becomes insignificant; and attempts to treat it artistically generally end in failure. Let crests be shown as crests, properly set upon practicable helms, and with competent mantlings treated with all the freedom that they are capable of. It may here be noted that it has not been customary, nor is it logically correct, for ladies and other non-combatant persons, such as the ministers of the Church, to use crests; arms they have ever been allowed to bear. Examples, however, of the breach of the rule as to crests even by bishops are afforded by several of their privy seals. Thus Henry le Despenser bishop of Norwich (1370-1406) has his differenced shield of arms surmounted by a mantled helm upon which a mitre, with a griffin's head and wings issuing therefrom, is placed as a crest (fig. 84); and Alexander Nevill archbishop of York (1374) shows his shield hanging below a crowned helm surmounted by the bull's head crest of his house and supported by two griffins. [Illustration: FIG. 84. Privy seal of Henry le Despenser bishop of Norwich, 1370-1406.] William Courtenay, as archbishop of Canterbury (1381-96), similarly displays a shield of his arms, ensigned by a helm surmounted by a cap of estate with a dolphin on top. A helm crested with a lovely bunch of columbines is also carved with his arms above the tomb of James Goldwell bishop of Norwich (_ob._ 1498-9) in his cathedral church. Robert Nevill on his privy seal as bishop of Durham (1438-57) surmounts his shield with a beautiful labelled mitre, from which issues a bull's head with a scroll lettered ~en grace affie~. Many of the bishops of Durham, on their great seals in chancery, in virtue of their secular palatinate jurisdiction, are represented as riding in complete armour with helms on their heads. The first to be so represented was Thomas Hatfield (1345), who wears a large crowned helm surmounted by a mitre, from which issues a bush of feathers. John Fordham (1381) also surmounts his crowned helm with a mitre, on which is perched a bird. Walter Skirlaw (1388) and Thomas Langley (1406) set within the crowns crests without mitres; in one case the bust of an angel, in the other a bush of feathers. Robert Nevill (1438) surmounts his crowned helm with a mitre, from which issues a bull's head, as on his privy seal above noted. Cuthbert Tunstall (1530) has a mitre alone upon his helm. The usual practice in displaying a bishop's arms has been, for a long time, to ensign them simply with his own official headgear in the shape of a mitre, and the same custom prevailed with regard to the arms of mitred abbots and priors. Robert Nevill's privy seal is an early example. Cardinals ensigned their shields with the tasselled hat of their order, as may be seen on the seal-of-arms of Henry Beaufort bishop of Winchester (1405), and in a carving of his arms in Southwark cathedral church. A cardinal's hat is displayed, with his rebus and sundry royal badges, on the arch about the cenotaph of John Morton archbishop of Canterbury and cardinal in the undercroft of his cathedral church. Doctors also sometimes surmounted their arms with the round cap pertaining to their dignity. On the monument at St. Albans of Humphrey duke of Gloucester (_ob._ 1446) his arms are ensigned alternately by his mantled and crested helm, and by a large cap of estate encircled by a crown or coronet. Jasper duke of Bedford (1485) on his seal likewise surmounts his arms with a cap of estate encircled by a delicate crown. There is not any necessity at the present day to represent any crown or coronet with the cap of estate within it. CHAPTER VII THE USE OF BADGES, KNOTS, AND THE REBUS Definition of a Badge; Difference between Crests and Badges; Examples of Badges; The Ostrich-Feather Badge; The White Hart, etc.; Introduction of Badges into Heraldry; Their Prevalence; Allusive Badges; Badges of obscure Origin; Knots and Badges; The Rebus. Closely allied with crests, but borne and used in an entirely different way, are the devices called badges. The whole history of these is in itself of great interest, and the facility with which they lend themselves to artistic heraldic decoration renders badges of peculiar value. A badge is, properly speaking, any distinctive device, emblem, or figure assumed as the mark or cognisance of an individual or family; and it should be borne alone, without any shield, torse, or other accessory. But a badge may be and often was, like a crest, accompanied by a word, reason, or motto. There is however this important difference between a crest and a badge, that the crest was pre-eminently the personal device of its owner, while his badge might also be used by his servants and retainers. Such a use of the badge still survives in the 'crest' on the buttons of liveried servants. The most famous and best known badge is that of the three ostrich feathers encircled by a crown or coronet borne by the Prince of Wales. It was probably introduced by Queen Philippa, who is known to have possessed plate ornamented with 'a black scocheon of ostrich feathers,' perhaps allusive of the Comté of Ostrevant, the appanage of the eldest sons of the house of Hainault. A single ostrich feather, alone or stuck in a scroll, occurs after 1343 in several seals of Edward prince of Wales, and on his tomb at Canterbury the shield of his own arms alternates with his mother's black shield with three silver ostrich feathers, each transfixing a scroll with the word ~ich diene~; over the shield is likewise a scroll inscribed with the same words (fig. 85). John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster is said to have borne an ostrich feather powdered with ermine tails, and Thomas of Woodstock duke of Gloucester, the youngest of Queen Philippa's sons, bore the feathers with a strap (which some have regarded as a Garter) extended along the quill (fig. 86). The Queen's great-grandson, Richard duke of York and earl of March (1436), bore the feather with a chain similarly placed; perhaps Edmund of Langley, his grandfather, had done the same. Henry of Lancaster, the son of John of Gaunt, on his seal as earl of Derby in 1385 (pl. XXIV C) and on that as duke of Hereford in 1399, has an ostrich feather stuck in the end of a scroll which is entwined about the feather and inscribed with the significant word ~souvereyne~, and the same word is repeated many times on his tomb as King Henry IV at Canterbury. [Illustration: FIG. 85. Shield with ostrich-feather badge from the tomb of Edward prince of Wales (_ob._ 1376) at Canterbury.] [Illustration: FIG. 86. Seal of Thomas of Woodstock duke of Gloucester with ostrich-feather and Bohun swan badges.] Another notable badge is the couched white hart of King Richard II, with which may be named the white hind borne by his kinsman, Thomas Holand earl of Kent (pl. XVIII B). [Illustration: A Joan Arundel wife of William lord Beauchamp, 1416. B Thomas Holand earl of Kent, 1398. C Robert Corbet D Joan Stafford countess of Kent and lady of Wake, 1437. PLATE XVIII.--Examples of supporters.] The fetterlock-and-falcon (fig. 87) and the white rose of the house of York, the white lion of the earls of March, the rayed rose of Edward IV, and the silver boar of Richard III are of course well-known badges; as well as the red and the red and white roses, the crowned fleur-de-lis, and the Beaufort portcullis, used by the Tudor kings (fig. 88). [Illustration: FIG. 87. Fetterlock-and-falcon badge of the house of York, from Henry VII's chapel at Westminster.] [Illustration: FIG. 88. Crowned rose and portcullis from King's college chapel at Cambridge.] When badges first came into use in this country is uncertain, but after the middle of the fourteenth century they abound. They are foreshadowed by the free treatment of earlier decorative heraldry, such as the little leopards on the footgear and pillows of King Henry III's gilt-latten effigy at Westminster, and the plate with its lozengy diaper of leopards on which it lies; also the lozengy diaper of castles and lions which covers the metal plate whereon lies the effigy of Queen Eleanor of Castile. Many badges, too, originated in devices borrowed from various sources and arranged about the shield on seals, as in figs. 89 and 90, which are only two out of a number of such appended to the Barons' Letter. [Illustration: FIG. 89. Seal of Robert de Clifford, with arms surrounded by rings in allusion to his mother Isabel Vipont.] [Illustration: FIG. 90. Seal of Robert de Toni as CHEVALER AU CING with the arms encircled by swans and talbots.] The famous white swan badge of the Bohuns (fig. 91) is found perched upon the shield in the seal of Humphrey Bohun earl of Hereford and Essex, 1298 (pl. XIX B). Later on its neck was encircled by a crown for a collar, with a chain attached, and in this form it appears on the seals of Thomas of Woodstock, who married Eleanor Bohun (fig. 86), and on that lady's brass at Westminster. It was also borne by the sons and descendants of King Henry IV by his wife Mary Bohun. [Illustration: FIG. 91. Seal of Oliver Bohun with swans about the shield.] [Illustration: A Stephen Longespee, ob. 1260. B Humphrey de Bohun earl of Hereford and Essex, constable of England, 1298. PLATE XIX.--Origin of supporters.] The gilt-latten effigies of Richard II (fig. 92) and Anne of Bohemia have their dresses pounced all over with badges, such as the white hart, the sun-burst, and the broom sprigs on that of the king, and the ostrich and a peculiar knot on that of the queen. In 1380 Edmund Mortimer earl of March left a bequest of 'our large bed of black satin embroidered with white lions and gold roses, with scocheons of the arms of Mortimer and Ulster,' and in 1385 Joan princess of Wales bequeathed to her son the King (Richard II) 'my new bed of red velvet embroidered with ostrich feathers of silver and leopards' heads of gold with boughs and leaves issuing from their mouths.' In 1397, Sir Ralph Hastings, whose arms were a red maunch or sleeve on a gold ground, and his crest a bull's head, left bequests of a silver bason and laver 'stamped with a bull's head (_cum capite tauri_), a vestment of red cloth of gold with orfreys before and behind worked with maunches (_cum maunches_) and with the colours of mine arms,' and six salts stamped with maunches. In 1388 John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster mentions in his will 'my great bed of cloth of gold, the field powdered with roses of gold set upon pipes of gold, and in each pipe two white ostrich feathers,' also 'my new vestment of cloth of gold the field red worked with gold falcons.' Two falcons holding hanging locks in their beaks are also shown on one of the duke's seals (pl. XXI A). In 1400 Thomas Beauchamp earl of Warwick left a bed of silk embroidered with 'bears of mine arms'; and in 1415 John lord le Scrope mentions in his will documents sealed _cum signato meo de Crabb_, and in a codicil made in 1453 he bequeaths 'j fayre pile of coppis conteyning xij coppis of gilt, with crabbis in ye myddes, and two coveryngis to thame with crabb.' In the north of England a crab is often called a scrap, whence its assumption by the Scropes. [Illustration: FIG. 92. Gilt-latten effigy at Westminster of King Richard II, pounced with badges, etc.] Such examples as the foregoing could be multiplied indefinitely, but they will suffice to show the prevalence of badges and the many ways in which they were used. They of course abounded on seals as well as on monuments of all kinds, and in conjunction with architecture. Under this last head may be quoted such examples as the arches in Wingfield church, Suffolk (fig. 93), studded with leopards' heads, wings, and Stafford knots, commemorative of Michael de la Pole earl of Suffolk (_ob._ 1415) and his wife Katharine Stafford; the porch and other parts of Lavenham church, displaying the boars and molets of John de Vere earl of Oxford; bishop Courtenay's chimney-piece in the bishop's palace at Exeter (fig. 94); and the great displays of Tudor badges on the deanery gateway at Peterborough (fig. 95), the gatehouses at Christ's (fig. 96) and St. John's Colleges (fig. 172) at Cambridge, and the noble chapel of King's College. Special mention must also be made of the magnificent bronze doors of Henry VII's chapel at Westminster, than which no more beautiful example of the use of badges for decorative purposes could possibly be found (fig. 97). [Illustration: FIG. 93. Piers and arches in Wingfield church, Suffolk, with badges of Michael de la Pole earl of Suffolk (_ob._ 1415) and his wife Katharine Stafford.] [Illustration: FIG. 94. Chimney-piece in the Bishop's Palace at Exeter with the arms and badges of bishop Peter Courtenay, 1478-87.] [Illustration: FIG. 95. Gateway to the Deanery at Peterborough. Built by Robert Kirkton abbot 1497-1526.] [Illustration: FIG. 96. The gatehouse of Christ's College, Cambridge.] [Illustration: FIG. 97. Bronze door with badges of York and Beaufort, from the Lady chapel of Westminster abbey church.] The sources of badges were various. As a matter of fact a man's badge was often the same device as his crest, like the Courtenay dolphin, or the boar of the Veres, or the sickle of the Hungerfords. Sometimes the badge was derived from a part of the arms, such as the leopards' heads and the wings of the de la Poles, the water-bougets of the Bourchiers (fig. 98), the silver molet of the Veres (fig. 99), and the Phelip eagle (fig. 100). If by chance a badge could have any punning or allusive meaning it was the more popular, and it then often served as a rebus. The boar (_verre_) of the Veres (fig. 99), the crab or scrap of the Scropes, the pike or luce of the Lucys, the long swords of Longespee (pl. XIX A), the _gray_ or badger of Richard lord Grey of Codnor (fig. 102), and the wood-stock or tree stump of Thomas duke of Gloucester, who was born at Woodstock, are all good examples of a practice that should be followed whenever possible, even in these degenerate days. [Illustration: FIG. 98. Signet with badge and crested helm of Lewis lord Bourchier, 1420.] [Illustration: FIG. 99. Seal of Hugh de Vere with boar badge and two wivers as supporters. From the Barons' Letter.] [Illustration: FIG. 100. Signet of William Phelip lord Bardolf (_c._ 1410) with eagle badge derived from his arms.] [Illustration: FIG. 101. Signet with flote badge and word of Sir William Oldhalle in 1457.] [Illustration: FIG. 102. Seal with badge (a _gray_ or badger) of Richard lord Grey of Codnor, 1392.] [Illustration: FIG. 103. Seal of Thomas lord Stanley as earl of Derby and seneschal of Macclesfield, 1485, with the eagle's claw badge of Stanley and the legs of the Isle of Man.] But in a large number of cases the badge has a different and often quite obscure origin, like the Bohun swan, the Percy crescent and swivel, the Beauchamp bear and ragged staff, the Lovel hanging-lock, the Zouch eagle and crooked billet, and the Berkeley mermaid. [Illustration: FIG. 104. Daisy plant (_marguerite_) badge of the Lady Margaret Beaufort, from Henry VII's chapel at Westminster.] A few families, _e.g._ the Staffords (fig. 105), the Bourchiers, and the Wakes, used as a badge some special form of knot, and attention has already been called to the peculiar knots pounced upon the effigy of Queen Anne of Bohemia. Interesting examples of the Bourchier knot may be seen on the tomb of archbishop Thomas Bourchier at Canterbury, and on the brass of Sir Humphrey Bourchier at Westminster (fig. 106), and a good instance of the application of the knot is afforded by the seal of Joan Stafford countess of Kent and lady of Wake, who encircles her impaled shield with a cordon of Stafford knots (pl. XVIII D). On the tomb at Lowick (Northants) of Edward Stafford earl of Wiltshire (_ob._ 1498) the shields are encircled with cordons of Stafford knots with another Stafford badge, the nave of a wheel, alternating with the knots (fig. 107). On the canopy of the tomb at Little Easton in Essex of Henry Bourchier earl of Essex (_ob._ 1483) and his wife Isabel, sister of Richard duke of York, is a badge formed by placing a Bourchier knot within a fetterlock of York. [Illustration: FIG. 105. Part of the brass at Exeter of canon William Langeton, kinsman of Edward Stafford bishop of Exeter, 1413, in cope with an orphrey of [~X~]'s and Stafford knots.] [Illustration: FIG. 106. Elbow-piece and Bourchier knot, from the brass of Sir Humphrey Bourchier (_ob._ 1471) in Westminster abbey church.] [Illustration: FIG. 107. Alabaster tomb and effigy of Edward Stafford earl of Wiltshire (_ob._ 1498) in Lowick church, Northamptonshire.] Mention has been made above of the rebus. This was invariably a badge or device forming a pun upon a man's surname, and at one time was exceedingly popular. It no doubt originated in the canting or allusive heraldry of earlier days, like the boars' heads of the Swynburnes, the trumpets of the Trumpingtons, the hammers (Fr. _martel_) of the Martels, or the scallop shells of the Scales. The _ox_ crossing a _ford_ in the arms of Oxford, and the _Cam_ and its great _bridge_ in the arms of Cambridge are also kindred examples. A large number of rebuses on names ending in 'ton' are based upon a tun or barrel, like the _lup_ on a _ton_ of Robert Lupton provost of Eton 1503-4, or the large church (_kirk_) and _ton_ of abbot Kirkton on the deanery gate at Peterborough (fig. 108), or the _beacon_ rising from a _ton_ of bishop Thomas Beckington at Wells (fig. 109). The _gold wells_ of bishop Goldwell and the _harts ly_ing in _water_ of bishop Walter Lyhart in their cathedral church at Norwich are well known, as are probably the _eye_ and the _slip_ of a tree which form, together with a man falling from a tree (I slip!), the rebuses of abbot Islip at Westminster (fig. 110). An _ox_, the letter N, and a _bridge_ make the rebus of canon John Oxenbridge in his chantry chapel at Windsor, while an eagle and an _ox_ with ~ne~ on his side gives the name of prior John Oxney at Christchurch, Canterbury. Two large _hares_ with a spring or _well_ rising between them crouch at the feet of bishop Harewell's effigy at Wells; and dean Gunthorpe's oriel window in the deanery there is decorated with _guns_ (fig. 111). Sir John Pechey's arms (_azure a lion ermine with a forked tail and a gold crown_), in a window in Lullingstone church, Kent, are encircled by a wreath of peach-branches, with peaches charged with the letter ~e~ for the final syllable of his name (fig. 112). [Illustration: FIG. 108. Rebus of abbot Robert Kirkton, from the Deanery Gate at Peterborough.] [Illustration: FIG. 109. Rebus of Thomas Beckington bishop of Bath and Wells, 1477.] [Illustration: FIG. 110. Rebus of John Islip abbot of Westminster, from his chantry chapel.] [Illustration: FIG. 111. Oriel window in the Deanery at Wells with badge of King Edward IV, and rebus of Dean Gunthorpe.] [Illustration: FIG. 112. Arms and rebus of Sir John Pechey (_ob._ 1522), from painted glass in Lullingstone church, Kent.] Here again it is needless to multiply examples of rebuses, but the fun to be got out of them is ample justification for urging their adoption and use in connexion with decorative heraldry.[7] [7] The Rev. E. E. Dorling has taken for his rebus a little door (doorling!) with the hinges ending in E's, and the author of this book might fitly content himself with the anchor of Hope! CHAPTER VIII SUPPORTERS The probable Origin of Supporters; Quasi-Supporters; True Supporters: their Introduction; Supporters of Crested Helms; Pairs of Supporters; Dissimilar Supporters; The use of Supporters by Ladies; Other ways of supporting Shields. The misuse of crests to which reference has been made unfortunately does not stand alone, for modern artists are quite as much at fault with regard to the proper treatment of supporters. There can be little doubt that these charming adjuncts to heraldic compositions originated with the seal engravers, in their desire to fill up the vacant space in a round seal between the shield and its surrounding margin. In the oldest examples this was done by adding scrollwork or leafage, but in the seal of Humphrey Bohun earl of Hereford, 1220, the large shield of his arms is flanked by two smaller shields of his other earldom of Essex. The same treatment occurs in the seal of his grandson, another Humphrey Bohun earl of Hereford and Essex, 1298-1322 (pl. XIX B). Henry de Laci (1257) has the side spaces filled by two small wivers, and in the seal of Stephen Longespee (_ob._ 1260) the shield is flanked by two _long swords_ (pl. XIX A). Gilbert of Clare earl of Gloucester (1262) has his shield hung on a peg and accompanied by two lions back to back, while in the seal of Edmund earl of Cornwall (1272) and son of Richard king of the Romans the shield is held up in the beak of an imperial eagle splayed or spread out behind it. Thomas earl of Lancaster (1296) on both his larger and his lesser seals has the shield flanked by two wivers, as has also his brother Henry of Lancaster (1298) (fig. 60). Sometimes the shield is hung about the neck of a bird (fig. 113), or about a beast, as in the seal of Alan la Souche, which likewise has the shield surrounded by a number of lions (fig. 114). [Illustration: FIG. 113. Seal of John de Moun with the shield slung from an eagle and flanked by two leopards. From the Barons' Letter.] [Illustration: FIG. 114. Seal of Alan la Souche in 1301.] During the first half of the fourteenth century little definite progress was made towards true supporters. Shields, whether hung from pegs or upon trees, or surmounted by crested helms, still continued to be flanked by quasi-supporters, which of course varied much in character. Pairs of wivers, dragons, and lions, usually back to back, the better to fit the space, and sometimes with entwined tails, were common early in the century, and shields with splayed eagles behind may not infrequently be found (figs. 115, 116). What may be regarded as true supporters appear on the lesser seal (pl. XII A) of William Montagu earl of Salisbury (_circa_ 1337), wherein two griffins seem to be holding up the shield, but it is not until well on in the second half of the fourteenth century that further definite instances become fairly common. [Illustration: FIG. 115. Seal of John Beauchamp of Hacche with shield on breast of an eagle.] [Illustration: FIG. 116. Seal of William de Ferrers with shield upon an eagle with two heads.] Interesting transitional usages may also be found. Thus on a seal (_c._ 1350) of Margaret Graunson two wivers uphold by their beaks the upper corners of a shield of her husband's arms, while a third wiver similarly grips the point. Guy de Bryen (_c._ 1350) has his shield hung upon a tree and supported at the corners by two wivers holding it by their beaks. Another lady, Joan FitzAlan, who married in 1362 Humphrey Bohun earl of Hereford, has an impaled shield of their arms held up in their beaks by two Bohun swans; and another pair of swans perform the same office in a FitzWarin seal used in 1398-9 (pl. XX A). [Illustration: A Ivo FitzWarin, in 1398-9. B Peter de Mauley, in 1379-80. C Sir Bartholomew Burghersh, 1397-8. D John la Warre, in 1390. PLATE XX.--Shields with supporters.] A curious variant from the ordinary flanking pair of beasts occurs on the seal of Edmund Mortimer earl of March (1360-81), where the arms are accompanied by a pair of lions with their heads covered by large helms with the earl's crest, a bush of feathers rising from a crown. A similar treatment is to be seen on a seal of John la Warre, as used in 1390 (pl. XX D). Analogous cases will be noted on the seal of Sir Robert de Marni (1366) (fig. 64), whose shield hangs from a tree and is flanked by two fronting helms with tall pairs of wings rising from caps of estate as crests; also in a seal of Sir Bartholomew Burghersh (1397-8), which has the shield flanked by two helms crested with tall soldans' heads, and surmounted by what is probably his badge, a swan with a lady's head (pl. XX C). A seal of Sir Roger Scales (1369-86) has his seal flanked by two long-necked wivers, and hung by a strap from another wiver which has twisted itself into the shape of the letter S, and perched itself on the upper edge of the shield. Another case of true supporters is afforded by a seal of Peter de Mauley in 1379-80, where a shield surmounted by a fierce dragon (perhaps a badge) is upheld by small lions (pl. XX B). Other supporters of shields only may be seen on seals of Thomas Beauchamp earl of Warwick (1369), where they are bears; and of Roger Mortimer earl of March and Ulster (1381), where they are lions, as is also the case in a seal of John Batour used in 1418-9. In each of these cases the shield is hung upon a tree. In heraldic representations where the shield of arms is surmounted by a helm and crest, there is the same hesitation in arriving at true supporters; the space at the sides being filled at first by a badge or such device. Thus John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster (in 1362) introduced a pair of eagles with hanging locks in their beaks, and his brother Edmund of Langley duke of York (in 1385) followed suit with a couple of falcons having in their beaks scrolls with scriptures (pl. XXI). John Nevill lord of Raby and seneschal of Bordeaux (1378) flanked his arms, etc. with two letters ~b~, while his kinsman, Sir William Nevill, used in 1390 a seal with his arms and crested helm accompanied by two large stars. [Illustration: A John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster, 1362. B Edmund of Langley duke of York, 1385. PLATE XXI.--Shields accompanied by Badges.] The fine seal of Thomas lord Despenser (before 1397) has on either side of his shield and crested helm a tree from which hangs a lozenge of arms: the one bearing the three cheverons of Clare, for his lordship of Glamorgan; the other the forked-tailed lion of the barony of Burghersh, which came to him through his mother (pl. XXII A). Richard Nevill earl of Salisbury in 1429 similarly places two angels bearing shields: one with the arms of Nevill, the other with the lions of Longespee in virtue of his earldom of Salisbury (pl. XXII B). Henry of Lancaster (afterwards King Henry IV) as earl of Derby, etc. (_c._ 1385) flanks his arms and crested helm with two ostrich feathers entwined with a scroll with the scripture ~souvereyne~ (pl. XXIV C), and others of the royal house similarly used ostrich feathers of other forms. Edward V as prince of Wales in 1471 flanked his arms with two scrolled ostrich feathers standing on large York roses. Thomas duke of Exeter (1416) placed a swan on either side of his armorial achievement, and William lord Lovel and Holand (1423) a hanging lock (pl. XXIII A); while Sir John Pelham (_c._ 1430) flanked his crest with his buckle badge (pl. XXIII B). On the fine seal of Thomas lord Roos of Hamlake or Helmsley (1431-64) his peacock crest is flanked by two large flowering plants, perhaps _hemlocks_ (pl. XXIII E). [Illustration: A Thomas lord Despenser, before 1397. B Richard Nevill earl of Salisbury, 1429. PLATE XXII.--Quasi-supporters.] [Illustration: A William lord Lovel and Holand, 1423. B Sir John Pelham, _c._ 1430. C Hugh de Veer, 1301. D Aver de Rocheford, _c._ 1330. E Thomas lord Roos of Hamlake, 1431. PLATE XXIII.--Shields accompanied by badges.] By the third quarter of the fourteenth century the combination of supporters with shields of arms surmounted by crested helms had become fully established, and henceforth the number of beautiful and instructive examples is so great that it is unnecessary to do more than illustrate a typical series (figs. 117-121). It will be seen from these that in seals the majority of the supporters are upholding the heavy helm and its crest, and not the shield that hangs below it; probably on account of the nature of the design. The supporters, too, usually form pairs, and it goes without saying that every variety of creature is made to serve. Sometimes they are composed of badges, like the falcons on crooked billets used by William lord Zouch (pl. XXIV A), or the similar birds with 'words' coupled with oak leaves and the letter ~t~ that appear on a seal of Sir John Falstaff used in 1456 (pl. XXIV B). William lord Botraux, in a seal used in 1426, has his armorial ensigns flanked by two buttresses (Fr. _botreaux_); while John lord Talbot and Furnival (1406) has two _talbots_ (fig. 122), and George duke of Clarence (1463) the black bulls of Clare (fig. 123). [Illustration: FIG. 117. Seal of Edmund Mortimer earl of March and Ulster, 1400, with rampant leopard supporters.] [Illustration: FIG. 118. Seal of Sir William Windsor, 1381, with eagle supporters.] [Illustration: FIG. 119. Seal of William de la Pole duke of Suffolk, 1448.] [Illustration: FIG. 120. Seal of John Nevill lord Montagu, 1461.] [Illustration: FIG. 121. Seal of William lord Hastings, _c._ 1461.] [Illustration: FIG. 122. Seal of John lord Talbot and Furnival, 1406.] [Illustration: FIG. 123. Seal of George duke of Clarence and lord of Richmond, 1462, with black bulls of Clare supporting his crested helm.] [Illustration: A William lord Zouch, 1430. B Sir John Falstaff, in 1456. C Henry of Lancaster earl of Derby, 1385. PLATE XXIV.--Shields accompanied by badges.] Where the supporters differ it is usually the case that they represent more than one dignity. Thus on one of his seals (fig. 124) Richard Beauchamp earl of Warwick (1401) used as such for supporters two muzzled bears hugging ragged staves, but on a later seal (1421) as earl of Warwick and of Albemarle the supporters are a bear and a griffin (fig. 125). So, too, his successor in the title of earl of Warwick, Richard Nevill, on a fine seal (_c._ 1451-2) has two muzzled bears for supporters, but on a later seal (_c._ 1460) as earl of Warwick and Salisbury his supporters are a Warwick bear and a Montagu griffin (fig. 69). Edmund Beaufort duke of Somerset on his seal for the town of Bayeux (_c._ 1445) (fig. 126) has on one side his own eagle supporter, and on the other a spotted dog-like beast with a crown about his neck; and Richard duke of York and earl of March on his seal as governor of France and Normandy in 1436 has for supporters the York falcon and the white lion of March. On the stall-plate of John Beaufort duke of Somerset and earl of Kendal his arms are supported by a Somerset crowned eagle and a mysterious beast called a yale,[8] behind each of which stands an ostrich feather with the quill gobony of blue and silver. [8] For a full account of the yale or eale see papers in the _Archæological Journal_, lxviii, 173-199. The adoption of the beast by the duke of Somerset has not yet been explained, but it may be for his earldom of Kendal and partly be a rebus (Kend-eale). [Illustration: FIG. 124. Seal of Richard Beauchamp earl of Warwick, 1401.] [Illustration: FIG. 125. Seal of Richard Beauchamp earl of Warwick and of Albemarle and lord Despenser, 1421.] [Illustration: FIG. 126. Seal of Edmund duke of Somerset for the town of Bayeux, _c._ 1445.] It is not necessary here to cite the various supporters borne by the Kings of England, but it may suffice to point out that since the union of the crowns of England and Scotland one of the royal supporters has always been a lion for England and the other a unicorn for Scotland. In seals of married ladies in which their arms are accompanied by supporters, one often represents the husband and the other the lady's family. Thus Joan Holand, daughter of Thomas earl of Kent, and wife of Edmund of Langley duke of York, has (after 1393) her husband's half of her impaled shield supported by the falcon of York, and her own half by her father's hind with its crown collar. Cecily Nevill, the wife of Richard duke of York and earl of March, and mother of King Edward IV, has the shield on her fine seal ensigned by a falcon of York and supported by a stag with crown-collar and chain and by a lion of March (fig. 127). The even more splendid seal of Elizabeth Wydville, queen-consort of King Edward IV, shows as her supporters the lion of March and a lean spotted beast not unlike an otter, collared and chained (pl. XXV). The lady Margaret Beaufort, on the other hand, ensigns on both her seals her paternal arms of Beaufort with the Somerset eagle and uses for her supporters a pair of yales (pls. XXVI, XXX). [Illustration: PLATE XXV.--Arms with crown and supporters of Elizabeth Wydville, queen of Edward IV.] [Illustration: PLATE XXVI.--Arms, supporters, and badges of the Lady Margaret Beaufort, 1455.] [Illustration: FIG. 127. Seal of Cecily Nevill, wife of Richard duke of York and mother of King Edward IV, 1461.] It is of course all-important that supporters should be shown standing upon something solid, and not on so precarious a footing as the edge of a motto or forked scroll. One of the beautiful armorial groups with the supporters of King Henry VII in King's college chapel at Cambridge (fig. 128) shows how effectively and yet unobtrusively this may be done. In the splendid panel at New Hall in Essex with the crowned arms, etc. of King Henry VIII his dragon and greyhound supporters stand in a bush of roses and pomegranates (fig. 189); and in the well-known glass at Ockwells the supporters have fields full of flowers to stand on. [Illustration: FIG. 128. Arms and supporters, a dragon and a greyhound, of King Henry VII in King's college chapel at Cambridge.] Besides the more or less regular use of supporters just described, there are a number of curious and irregular ways of supporting shields. These deserve special attention, not only from their value in showing how delightfully heraldry used to be played with, but as precedents for similar variety of treatment at the present day, when supporters so-called often do not support anything. Over the doorway, for example, of the National Portrait Gallery in London the 'supporters' of the royal arms are merely a pair of cowering beasts at the base of the shield. Quite an early instance of playful treatment is furnished by the seal of Roger Leybourne (_ob._ 1284). This has a small banner standing behind the shield, which is hung on a tree with side branches; one of these supports the crested helm, and the other ends in a bunch of leaves (pl. XI A). Thomas lord Holand and Wake (_c._ 1353) has within a traceried panel a tree standing in a rabbit warren and supporting his crowned helm with its huge bush of feathers. Hanging on either side are two shields, one with beautiful diapering of his lordship of Wake, the other (originally) of his lordship of Holand (pl. XXVII A). [Illustration: A Thomas lord Holand and Wake, _c._ 1350. B Margaret Beauchamp, wife of John Talbot earl of Shrewsbury, after 1433. PLATE XXVII.--Methods of arranging shields.] Thomas of Woodstock duke of Gloucester, son of Edward III, used from about 1385 a lovely seal with the stock of a tree standing within a paling and surrounded by water on which float two chained Bohun swans, for his wife Eleanor Bohun; from the tree hangs a large shield of the duke's arms, with his crested helm above, and from two side branches are suspended diapered shields of the earldom of Hereford (_azure two bends, one gold, the other silver_), also in reference to his Bohun marriage. Margaret daughter of Richard Beauchamp earl of Warwick, and wife of John Talbot earl of Shrewsbury and Waterford, in her fine shield (after 1433) suspends by their straps her father's shield and the impaled shield of her husband and herself from the ragged staff of her father's house (pl. XXVII B). Thomas Holand earl of Kent used in 1398 a seal bearing his badge of a white hind with a crown for a collar, reclining under a tree, and with the shield of his arms hanging round its neck (pl. XVIII B). In the fourteenth century seal of the mayoralty of Calais a boar has a cloak tied about his neck and flying upwards banner-wise to display the arms of the town, which were _barry wavy with a crowned (?) leopard rampant_ (fig. 129). A similar treatment occurs on the half-florin of King Edward III, which has for device a crowned sitting leopard with a cloak about his neck with the royal arms. [Illustration: FIG. 129. Seal of the mayoralty of Calais.] On one of his seals as regent of France (1422-35) John duke of Bedford has an eagle standing with one leg upon his badge, the root of a tree, and holding in its other claw a shield of his arms. William lord Fitz Hugh (1429) and of Marmion shows on his seal his quartered shield ensigned by his helm and crest, which was apparently a lion's head. The rest of the beast is somewhat incongruously squatting behind the shield and has the paws thrust out on each side to grasp two banners of arms that complete the composition (pl. XXVIII A). A similar pair of banners appears on the seal of Walter lord Hungerford, which has the shield 'supported' by two Hungerford sickles, and surmounted by the crested helm, with flanking banners of the arms of the lordships of Heytesbury and Hussey (fig. 130). [Illustration: FIG. 130. Seal of Walter lord Hungerford with banners of Heytesbury and Hussey or Homet, _c._ 1420.] [Illustration: A William lord FitzHugh (1429) and of Marmion. B Margaret lady Hungerford and Botreaux, 1462. PLATE XXVIII.--Examples of banners of arms.] Banners also figure prominently on the charming seal of Margaret lady of Hungerford and Botreaux (1462) (pl. XXVIII B). She was the daughter of William lord Botreaux and Margaret Beaumont, and wife of Sir Robert Hungerford, who died in 1459. The seal shows the lady in her widow's dress 'sitting upon her knees' in a garden, and reading from a book some words which are inscribed on a scroll about her head. Overshadowing her are two large banners of impaled arms: one of Hungerford and Botreaux, upheld by a lion; the other of Botreaux and Beaumont, upheld by a griffin. On many late thirteenth and early fourteenth century seals it was not uncommon to represent ladies holding up shields of arms. A delightful example that may be cited is that of Emmeline FitzGerald, and wife of Stephen Longespee, who is upholding her father's shield in her right and her husband's in her left hand. Below each shield is a leopard of England to show her husband's close relationship to the royal house, and on each side of her is a _long sword_. She died in 1331 (pl. XXIX B). A few cases occur where a man himself acts as the supporter of his arms. One of the shields of Henry Percy earl of Northumberland (1377) shows him in armour, standing behind a large shield of Percy which he supports with his left hand. His right is upon the hilt of a sword with the belt wrapped about it, and against his left shoulder rests a banner with the Percy lion. The earl appears in similar fashion in another of his seals as lord of Cockermouth (1393). In this the shield is quarterly of Percy and Lucy, and is grasped as before by his left hand, while the right holds up a pennon charged with his badge of a crescent (pl. XXIX A). It must suffice to quote one last piece of playfulness, a seal of Richard duke of York and earl of March and Ulster (_ob._ 1460) as justice-in-eyre of the forests. This has his shield of arms suspended about the neck of a York falcon, and enclosed by the horns of a buck's head in base, in reference to his office. Upon the buck's horns are fixed two small hands for the duke's earldom of Ulster (pl. XXIX C). [Illustration: A Henry Percy earl of Northumberland, 1377. B Emmelin FitzGerald, wife of Stephen Longespee, c. 1250. C Richard duke of York, as Justice in Eyre of Forests, ob. 1460. PLATE XXIX.--Ways of upholding shields.] CHAPTER IX BANNERS OF ARMS The Royal Banner of Arms; the Banner of the Arms of the City of London; Shapes of Banners; Sizes of certain Banners; Upright _versus_ Long Banners; Advantages of the upright form; Banners with Achievements of Arms; Modern Use of Banners. Representations of banners constantly occur in medieval pictures (fig. 131); and, as has been shown above, they are not infrequent upon seals. [Illustration: FIG. 131. Knights with banners, from an illumination in Royal MS. 19 B XV in the British Museum.] Every one is familiar with the banner of the royal arms that betokens the presence of the King, and with our splendid national banner known as the Union Jack. The banner with the arms of the city that is flown above the Mansion House when the lord mayor is in residence is familiar to Londoners, and the citizens of Rochester are equally accustomed to see the banner of their city flying on Sundays and holidays from the great tower of their castle. Let a banner once be regarded in the light of a rectangular shield and its fitness to contain armorial bearings immediately becomes apparent. The King's banner is now always miscalled 'the royal standard,' even in official language, though heraldically it is not a standard at all, but simply a banner. Medieval banners at first were oblong in shape, and set upright with a longer side next the staff. In the late thirteenth century pictures formerly in the painted chamber in the palace of Westminster the banners borne by the knights were more than twice as tall as they were broad. The same proportion survives even in the famous pictorial pageant of Richard Beauchamp earl of Warwick, drawn about 1493;[9] but the majority of the banners therein shown have a height one and three-quarter times the width, which is better for the display of heraldry. This is also the proportion of the banners on William lord Hungerford's seal (fig. 132), but the banners with impaled arms on lady Hungerford's seal are nearly square (fig. 133). On the monument in Westminster abbey church of Lewis lord Bourchier (_ob._ 1431) the large quartered banners at the ends, upheld by lions and eagles, are slightly less than a square and a half in area, and admirably proportioned for displaying arms (fig. 134). The banner of King Edward IV, 'which also hung over his grave' in St. George's chapel in Windsor castle, is described as of 'Taffaty, and thereon painted quarterly France and England; it had in breadth three foot four inches, besides a Fringe of about an inch broad, and in depth five foot and four inches, besides the Fringe.'[10] Ashmole, in his description of the banners hung above the stalls of the Knights of the Garter, states (in 1672) that 'the fashion of the Soveraign's and all the Knight-Companions Banners are square; but it doth no where appear to us, of what size their Banners anciently were; yet in Queen Elizabeth's Reign, we find them two yards and a quarter long, and a yard and three quarters broad, beside the Fringe (which is made of Gold or Silver and Silk, of the colours in the Wreath) and thereon are wrought or beaten upon Taffaty-Sarcenet, double-Sarcenet, or rich Taffaty, with fine Gold and Colours, on both sides, the paternal Coat of the Knights Companion, together with his Quarterings, or so many of them as he please to make use of, wherein Garter is to take care that they be warrantly marshalled.... These Banners of Arms are fixed to the end of long Staves, painted in Oyl, formerly with the Colours of the Wreath, but now Red.'[11] [9] Brit. Mus. Cott. MS. Julius E. IV. [10] Elias Ashmole, _The Institution, Laws and Ceremonies of the most Noble Order of the Garter_ (London, 1672), 149. [11] _Ibid._ 335, 336. [Illustration: FIG. 132. Seal of Walter lord Hungerford with banners.] [Illustration: FIG. 133. Part of the seal of Margaret lady Hungerford, with impaled banner held up by a lion.] [Illustration: FIG. 134. Tomb of Lewis Robsart lord Bourchier, K.G. (_ob._ 1431), in Westminster abbey church, with banners of arms upheld by supporters.] The remark here as to the quarterings, in view of the comments upon them in an earlier page of this book, is interesting, but it is more important to note that both the banner of King Edward IV, and those of the Knights of the Garter in Queen Elizabeth's time, were of similar proportions to those on the Bourchier monument. The fact is that the heraldic draughtsmen of even this late period were fully as aware as their predecessors of the difficulty of drawing arms in a banner that exceeded the width of a square, and they also appreciated the greater advantage of an area that was narrower than that figure. The longer form of banner may be tolerated for so simple a combination as the Union Jack, or even for such of its component parts as the cross of St. Andrew or the saltire of St. Patrick, but it is rarely possible so to arrange heraldry upon it as to look well, and even the cross of St. George looks better upright thus [Illustration] than [Illustration] when extended unduly horizontally. In the King's banner as at present borne it is practically impossible to draw the arms artistically, or with a proper balancing relation of field and charge (fig. 135). The leopards of England may be so outrageously lengthened and attenuated as nearly to fill the quarters allotted to them, but it is impracticable to display properly the upright form of the ramping lion of Scotland or to expand horizontally the Irish harp. In the banner, too, of the lord mayor of London as used on the Mansion House to-day, the sword of St. Paul in the quarter can only be drawn of the comparative size of Sir William Walworth's dagger, which it is in consequence so absurdly mistaken to be. [Illustration: FIG. 135. The King's banner or 'royal standard' as now borne.] Were, however, the King's arms (see frontispiece) and those of his city of London placed on upright oblong or even square banners, all difficulties of drawing them would be avoided, and from appearing to be glaring examples of mean modern heraldry they would forthwith become fine pieces of artistic decoration. A close approximation to the better way of displaying the King's arms is illustrated by the lately adopted banners of Queen Mary and Queen Alexandra, both of which show the Sovereign's arms impaling those of his consort. The King's arms are thus restricted to half the usual length of the present 'royal standard,' that is, to a square, and so can be drawn with less waste space on either side of the charges. Whatever be their shape, banners, like shields, ought as a rule to be covered completely with the heraldry, like the banners of the Knights of the Garter at Windsor (which, though modern, are quite good in this respect) and those of more recent institution of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in St. Paul's cathedral church. Examples are not lacking, even in the fifteenth century, of banners charged with regular heraldic achievements instead of arms, and quite an interesting series may be found among the Windsor stall-plates. Two small oblong plates of Sir Peter Courtenay and Henry lord FitzHugh are practically complete banners of their arms, but Walter lord Hungerford (after 1426) displays his arms, with helm, crest, and mantling, upon a dull black banner with fringed gold border attached to a writhen gilded staff (fig. 136). Richard Nevill earl of Salisbury (_c._ 1436) (fig. 137), John earl of Shrewsbury (_c._ 1453), John lord Tiptoft (_c._ 1461), and several others have their arms, etc. on plain gold-coloured fringed banners, but Richard lord Rivers (_c._ 1450), Thomas lord Stanley (_c._ 1459), and George duke of Clarence (_c._ 1461) have the field worked all over with decorative scroll-work. Sir John Grey of Ruthin (_c._ 1439) also displays his arms on an undoubted banner with black ground and gold fringe and staff (fig. 138), and William lord Fauconberg (_c._ 1440) on a banner with the field bendy of blue and silver, with a gold fringe and staff. It is not improbable that several other quadrangular stall-plates with coloured grounds represent banners. Edmund of Langley duke of York has the field paly of three pieces of silver, green, and black; John duke of Bedford (1422-3) has a ground party blue and silver, and Thomas duke of Exeter (_c._ 1422) a ground all black. John duke of Somerset (_c._ 1440) has the field of his plate bendy of silver, red, and green, with a gilded border of scrolled leaves; and Walter lord Mountjoy (_c._ 1472) disposes the same three colours in vertical stripes. [Illustration: FIG. 136. Stall-plate, as a banner, of Walter lord Hungerford, after 1426.] [Illustration: FIG. 137. Stall-plate, as a banner, of Richard Nevill earl of Salisbury, _c._ 1436.] [Illustration: FIG. 138. Stall-plate, as a banner, of Sir John Grey of Ruthin, _c._ 1439.] Two similar displays of heraldic achievements are to be found in a manuscript at the Heralds' College.[12] In one of these the arms, etc. of Sir Richard Nanfant (_ob._ 1506-7) are painted upon a quadrangular field party of blue and green. In the other the impaled shield of Sir Richard and his dame, upheld by an angel, is painted upon a ground having the upper three-fourths red and the fourth part pale pink.[13] [12] MS. M 3. [13] _Illustrated Catalogue of the Heraldic Exhibition, Burlington House, 1894_ (London, 1896), pl. xxviii. In modern practice there is no conceivable reason why banners for the display of arms should not be more widely adopted; not only as banners proper, to fly upon a staff, but in decorative art, such as painting, sculpture, and embroidery. Both the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries regularly notify their existence in Burlington House by displaying banners of their arms over their apartments, and their example is one that might be followed by other corporations entitled to bear arms. On the use of banners by individuals it is unnecessary to enter after the useful series of examples and usages thereof already noted. The curious flags known as standards, which were in use during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, seem to have been borne simply for display in pageants or at funerals. For decorative purposes they are most effective, and as they were anciently borne by men of every degree down to and including esquires, they might with much advantage from the artistic standpoint again be devised and brought into use. A standard (fig. 139) was a long narrow flag with the lower edge horizontal, and the upper gradually descending from the staff to the extremity, which was split into two rounded ends. A compartment next the staff always contained the arms of St. George. The rest of the ground not infrequently was formed of two, three, or four horizontal stripes of the livery colours of the owner, and divided into three sections by two slanting bands with his word, reason, or motto. Upon the section next to the St. George's cross was generally displayed the principal beast or other device of the bearer and in later times the crest on a torse, while the other sections and the field in general were powdered with badges or rebuses. The whole was fringed of the livery colours. [Illustration: FIG. 139. Standard of Sir Henry Stafford, K.G. _c._ 1475.] The series illustrated in the volume in the De Walden Library on "Banners, Standards, and Badges from a Tudor Manuscript in the College of Arms" will supply ample evidence of the playful composition of ancient standards, and hints as to the way in which they may be invented nowadays. Pennons were small and narrow flags of varying length, sometimes pointed, sometimes swallow-tailed at the end, fixed below the point of a lance or spear and carried by the owner as his personal ensign (fig. 140). That held by Sir John d'Abernoun in his well-known brass (_c._ 1277) at Stoke d'Abernoun is short and pointed and fringed, and bears his arms (_azure a cheveron gold_). A contemporary illustration of a large and more fluttering form of pennon is to be seen in fig. 141. An example of a pennon charged with a badge, in the shape of the Percy crescent, occurs on the seal of Henry Percy earl of Northumberland, who is shown with it in his hand (pl. XXIX A). [Illustration: FIG. 140. Knights with pennons, from an illumination in Royal MS. 19 B XV in the British Museum.] [Illustration: FIG. 141. Armed Knights carrying pennons, temp. Edward I, from an illumination in Arundel MS. 83 f. 132.] In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it was not unusual to set up on gables, pinnacles, and other high places figures of animals holding banners as vanes or ornaments. Heraldic beasts as finials began to be used even in the thirteenth century, and an example so early as 1237 is noted on the Pipe Roll of 22 Henry III, when a charge occurs 'for making and setting up a certain lion of stone upon the gable of the King's hall'[14] within the castle of Windsor. Examples of the fourteenth century are hard to find, but in the fifteenth century and first half of the sixteenth they are common enough. In most of these later examples the creatures sit up and support shields with arms or badges; some, like the fine groups at Mapperton in Dorset, once held vanes as well. [14] 'Et in quodam leone de petra faciendo et erigendo super gabulum in eadem aula.' Early vanes from their tendency to decay are rare. In 1352-3 14s. were spent 'upon a vane of copper painted with the king's arms, bought to be put upon the top of the hall of the king's college'[15] in Windsor castle; and a delightful example, also of copper, pierced with the arms of Sir William Etchingham, its builder (_ob._ 1389), still surmounts the steeple of Etchingham church in Sussex (fig. 142). A simple specimen of an iron vane may yet be seen on Cowdray House in the same county. The octagonal steeple of Fotheringay church, Northants, built at the cost of Richard duke of York _c._ 1435, is surmounted by a fine representation in copper of his badge, the falcon within a fetterlock. [15] 'Et in una vane de cupro picta de armis Regis empta ad ponendum super summitatem aule Collegij Regis ibidem, xiiij s.' Pipe Roll, 28 Edward III. [Illustration: FIG. 142. Armorial vane on Etchingham church, Sussex.] The employment of a creature to hold up a banner of arms was already no novelty in the fifteenth century, and examples have been noted above of those on the tomb of Lewis lord Bourchier (_ob._ 1431) and on the seal of Margaret lady Hungerford (_c._ 1460); to which may be added the banner-bearing lion on the seal (_c._ 1442) of Henry Percy, eldest son of Henry second earl of Northumberland. The conversion therefore of the sitting beast into a vane-holder came about quite naturally. A good instance of the end of the fifteenth century forms a charming finial to the well-known kitchen at Stanton Harcourt in Oxfordshire, but the griffin which sits aloft there has, alas, no longer a vane to hold (fig. 143). [Illustration: FIG. 143. Vane formerly upon the finial of the kitchen roof at Stanton Harcourt, Oxon.] Quite an array of such vane-holders was set up early in the sixteenth century upon the pinnacles of the nave clerestory of St. George's chapel in Windsor castle, and the contract made in 1506 for completing the quire in like fashion provides for 'as well the vautte within furth as archebotens, crestys, corses, and the King's bestes stondyng on theym to bere the fanes on the outside of the said quere, and the creasts, corses (and) beasts above on the outsides of Maister John Shornes Chappell.' The contract made in 1511 for finishing the adjacent Lady chapel also includes 'making up crests, corses, and the King's bestes stondyng on theym to bere furth squychons with armes.' These beasts holding their glittering vanes seem to have been completed only so far as the great chapel was concerned, and are plainly shown in Hollar's engraving of the building; but they were all taken down in 1682 by the advice of Sir Christopher Wren, who suggested that pineapples be set up in their stead! Another mention of figures with vanes occurs in the contract made in 1546 for the building of the Coventry cross: And further to set on every principall pinnacle in the lowest story of the same new Crosse, the Ymage or a Beast or a foule, holding up a fane, and on everie principall pinnacle in the second story the image of a naked boy with a Targett, and holding a Fane.[16] [16] T. Hearne, _Liber Niger_, ii. 620. These beasts, fowls, and boys obviously performed a double duty, like the creatures on Mapperton manor-house. The exact nature of the 'King's bestes' at Windsor and elsewhere is illustrated by the accounts for the building of the great hall of Hampton Court in 1533-4. These include payments 'for the workyng and makyng of a lyon and a dragon in stone, standyng at the Gabull ends of the said hall'; 'for two pynnys of irne for stayes for the two bests of freston, standyng at the gabyll endes of the haull'; and 'for gylding and payntyng of two vanys, servyng the bests of freston stondyng at the endes uppon the haull, oon of the Kynges armys, the other of the Quenys, wrowghte wyth fyne golde and in owyle.' Further payments are 'for makyng of 29 of the Kynges bestes to stand upon the new batilments of the Kynges New Hall, and uppon the femerell of the said Hall' and 'for 16 vanys for the bestes standyng upon the battylment of the hall.' Also 'for the payntyng of 6 great lyons, standyng abowght the bartyllment, of tymber worke, uppon the Kynges New Hall, theyre vaynys gylte with fyne golde and in oyle,' and for the painting 'of 4 great dragons & of 6 grewhounds servyng the same barttylment.' There are also payments to a 'Karver, for karvyng and coutting of 2 grewhondes, oon lybert, servyng to stande uppon the typpis of the vycys abowght the Kynges new haull,' and to a 'paynter, for gyldyng and payntyng of 2 grewhondes, oon lybert, syttyng upon basys baryng vanys, uppon the typys at the haull endes'; likewise 'for gyldyng and payntyng of 24 vanys with the Kynges armes and the Quenes badges.'[17] [17] Ernest Law, _The History of Hampton Court Palace_ (London 1903), i. 346-8. The free use of external colouring should be noted. The use of the King's beasts as heraldic adjuncts was not confined at Hampton Court to the building only, but they were made to do duty, in an equally delightful manner, as garden decorations. Thus the payments already quoted include charges for makyng and entaylling of 38 of the Kynges and the quenys Beestes, in freeston, barying shyldes wythe the Kynges armes and the Quenys; that ys to say, fowre dragownes, seyx lyones, fyve grewhoundes, fyve harttes, foure Innycornes, servyng to stand abowght the ponddes in the pond yerd; for cuttyng and intayling of a lyon and grey-hound in freestoon, that is to say, the lyon barying a vane with the Kynges armes, &c. servyng to stand uppon the bases of freeston abought the ponds; for pynnes servyng the pyllers of freestoon that the beastes standyth uppon abowght the ponds in the pond yerd; for payntyng of 30 stoon bests standyng uppon bases abowght the pondes in the pond yerd, for workmanship, oyle, and collers. Also for payntyng off 180 postes wyth white and grene[18] and in oyle ... standyng in the Kynges new garden; also for lyke payntyng of 96 powncheones wyth white and grene, and in oyle, wrought wyth fyne antyke uppon both the sydes beryng up the rayles in the sayd Garden; also for lyke payntyng of 960 yerdes in leyngthe of Rayle.[19] [18] White and green were the livery colours of King Henry VIII. [19] Law, _op. cit._ i. 370, 371. The quaint aspect of such an heraldic garden has been preserved to us in the large picture at Hampton Court itself of King Henry VIII and his family. This has at either end archways in which stand Will Somers the King's jester and Jane the fool, and behind them are delightful peeps of the garden, with its low brick borders carrying green and white railings, and its gay flower beds from which rise tall painted posts surmounted by the King's beasts holding up their glittering vanes (figs. 144, 145). [Illustration: FIG. 144. Part of King Henry VIII's garden at Hampton Court, from a contemporary picture.] [Illustration: FIG. 145. Part of King Henry VIII's garden at Hampton Court, from a contemporary picture.] Before finally leaving the subject of banners, a few remarks may be offered touching our beautiful national banner which we call the Union Jack. This charming and interesting composition is not only, in a large number of cases when it is flown, displayed upside down, but in a still greater number of instances it is made quite incorrectly. The first Union Jack, that in use from 1606 to 1801, combining as it did only the cross of St. George for England and the saltire of St. Andrew for Scotland, presented little difficulty, since there was practically no excuse for not drawing the St. Andrew's cross straight through from corner to corner. But the present Union Jack is a much more difficult banner to draw, as well as to understand, and the prevailing ignorance of its history even among so-called 'educated' people is extraordinary. The Union Jack consists actually of (i) the banner of St. George with its white field reduced to a narrow edging on all sides of the red cross, to enable it to be superposed, without breaking the heraldic rule of colour upon colour, upon (ii) the blue banner of St. Andrew with his white cross; but since the Union with Ireland there has been combined with these (iii) the banner of St. Patrick, which has a red saltire upon a white field. This combination, in order to meet Scottish susceptibilities, has been effected in a very peculiar but ingenious way, first by treating the Irish banner like that of England, and reducing its white field to a narrow edging about the saltire, and then by slitting this down the middle of each arm, and joining the pieces to the opposite sides of St. Andrew's saltire similarly treated, yet so that the Scottish pieces are uppermost next the staff. It thus comes about that whatever be the shape of the flag, whether square or oblong, two straight lines drawn across it diagonally from corner to corner should always equally divide the Scottish and Irish crosses, and if this cannot be done the flag is not correctly built up (pl. XXXI). [Illustration: PLATE XXXI. RIGHT AND WRONG VERSIONS OF THE UNION JACK.] It also happens that unless the flag is exactly square the blue sections of the field must differ more or less in size. Ignorant flag-makers try to correct this, but only by dislocating in the middle the diagonal lines that ought always to be straight and continuous. The right way up of a Union Jack is indicated by the Scottish, that is, the broader white, half of the diagonal members being always uppermost in the two pieces next the staff. CHAPTER X MARSHALLING OF ARMS Arms of husband and wife; Dimidiating; Impaling; 'Scutcheons of Pretence; Impalement with Official Arms; Arms of ladies; Heraldic Drawing; Mottoes; Use and Misuse of the Garter; Lettering and Mottoes. In gathering up for practical consideration some of the points already discussed, as well as others that are suggested by them, something may first be said on the ways of combining the arms of husband and wife. This was done originally by simply setting them side by side, a plan which of course may still be followed whenever it is thought desirable. For a short time during the latter part of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth century the arms of husband and wife were combined in one shield by the curious device of halving or 'dimidiating' them, by joining the half of the one to the opposite half of the other, as in the arms of Aymer of Valence and Mary de Seynt Pol, still borne (since 1347) by the lady's foundation of Pembroke college at Cambridge. Owing however to the many inconveniences which this plan involved, it was soon exchanged for the more simple way of 'impaling' or placing the entire arms of both parties side by side in one shield (fig. 146 and pls. VIII C, XVIII A, B), a practice that has continued ever since, except when the wife is an heiress. In that case the lady's arms are usually drawn upon a smaller shield and placed upon the middle of the husband's arms (pl. V A). This ugly and most inconvenient plan, though of considerable antiquity, might very well be amended by the more ancient way of quartering the arms together, as is still done by the children of the heiress. For rules for the combination of the arms of a husband who has married two or more wives, or the cumbrous regulations as to quartering, the student may, if he wishes, consult the various manuals of heraldry. [Illustration: FIG. 146. Shield of Bryen impaling Bures, from a brass in Acton church, Suffolk.] When a man is a member of any Order, such as the Garter or the Bath, only his own arms should be encircled by the insignia of the Order. Exceptions to this rule can of course be found, but it is otherwise a general one that ought strictly to be followed. Bishops are entitled to bear their personal arms only impaled with those of their bishopstool or cathedral church, and the same rule applies to deans, heads of colleges, and regius professors (like those at Cambridge) who have official arms. The chancellor of a University presumably may impale its arms with his own. It has already been shown that the arms of ladies, all through the medieval period, were borne in precisely the same way as their fathers' or their husbands', that is, upon a shield, lozenge, or roundel, and that the present inconvenient restriction to a lozenge did not come into use much before the middle of the sixteenth century, when heraldry and heraldic art were already on the down-grade. The present custom seems to be for the arms of married ladies to be borne upon shields, and of widows and spinsters upon lozenges. From the artistic standpoint it would certainly be desirable, whenever it is thought advisable, to revert to the freedom of pre-Elizabethan times. Enough has already been said as to the elasticity of drawing shields, helms, crests, and mantlings, and as to the proper use of supporters, but a few words may be added as to the proper way of drawing the various creatures that are used in heraldry. Since heraldry is a survival of what was once a living thing, it is clear that if modern work is to look well, animals and birds ought to be drawn in a more or less conventional manner (figs. 148, 149). Some, such as elephants, dogs, falcons, etc. may be drawn almost directly from nature; but others, especially lions, if so represented, would manifestly be unfit to consort with the leopards, the wivers, the griffins, the two-headed eagles, and other delightful creatures of the early heralds which they borrowed from the bestiaries. The conventional treatment should not, however, be carried to excess, nor should natural forms be too closely copied. Here, as in other matters connected with heraldry, a comparative study of good ancient examples will soon show what are the best types to follow. [Illustration: FIG. 147. Lion with a forked tail, from a brass at Spilsby in Lincolnshire, 1391.] [Illustration: FIG. 148. Shield with three pheasants, from a brass at Checkendon, Oxon, 1404.] [Illustration: FIG. 149. Shield of the arms of Sir Humphrey Littlebury, from his effigy at Holbeach in Lincolnshire, _c._ 1360, with fine examples of heraldic leopards.] It would be an advantage, too, if artists would revert to the old ways of representing the furs known as ermine and vair. The ancient ermine tails did more or less resemble the actual tail of an ermine, but the modern object with its three dots above has no likeness to it whatever (fig. 150). So too with regard to vair, which represents the skins of grey squirrels, the modern treatment of it as rows of angular eighteenth century shields is far removed from the conventional forms of the real skins seen in the best old work (fig. 151). [Illustration: FIG. 150. Early and modern versions of ermine-tails.] [Illustration: FIG. 151. Early and modern versions of vair.] It has already been pointed out that there are no strict rules as to the particular shades of colour allowable in heraldry, and it is one of the surprises of the student to find what dull and cold tones were anciently used that yet look quite right. The apparently bright reds, for example, of the enamel in the early stall-plates at Windsor are actually brick-colour, and the apparent fine blues a cold grey; but their combination with gilding and silvering makes all the difference in the ultimate beautiful rich effect. One thing that ought to be most scrupulously avoided in all modern heraldic decoration is the indicating of the gilding and colouring by the pernicious 'dot-and-dash' system. This is all very well as a kind of shorthand in one's own notes or memoranda, but it is utterly destructive of artistic effect if applied in actual work. Ancient shields in relief were no doubt invariably painted, like those still to be seen behind the quire at Westminster; but let any one try to imagine the fine series at York or St. Albans scored and pecked to indicate the colour and gilding. If the heraldic carvings are not to be painted, at any rate do not let their surfaces be disfigured. They may always be relieved by diapering. The treatment of mottoes may not, at first sight, seem to fall within the scope of this work, but actually it is one of very real importance. There is much to be said for the theory that mottoes are derived from the war cries of early times, and hence their frequent association with the crest worn upon the helm. Reference has already been made to examples upon seals and other authorities. The association of a motto with a shield only was not common anciently, and when it is so found it is generally placed on a scroll, like the well-known examples on the tomb of Edward prince of Wales at Canterbury (fig. 85). In later times, when shields began to be encircled by the Garter of the famous Order (fig. 152), mottoes were often arranged about the shield in a similar way. [Illustration: FIG. 152. The Garter, from the brass of Thomas lord Camoys, K.G. at Trotton in Sussex.] There was however always this very important and noteworthy difference and distinction, that the buckled band now so commonly used for mottoes was anciently never allowed for any but the motto of the Order of the Garter. Other mottoes were written on a band which was fastened in a different way, or merely disposed Garter-wise round the shield. The earliest known representation of the Garter is on a singular lead or pewter medallion (fig. 153) commemorative of Edward prince of Wales, first Prince of the Order, now in the British Museum. In this the prince is kneeling bare-headed before a personification of the Holy Trinity, with his gloves on the ground before him, and an angel standing behind him and holding his crested helm. The whole is enclosed by a buckled band inscribed ~hony soyt ke mal y pense~, with a cloud overlapping its upper margin, from which issues an angel holding down the prince's shield of arms. [Illustration: FIG. 153. Pewter medallion with Edward prince of Wales, now in the British Museum.] It has been customary from within a few years of the foundation of the Order in 1348 for the Knights-Companions to encircle their personal arms with the Garter. In a wardrobe account of King Edward III, from 14th February 1349-50 to 30th September 1351, payments are entered for the making 'of two pencells of sindon _de Triple_, each having in the midst a Garter of blue sindon with a shield within the same Garter of the King's arms quartered, and beaten throughout the field with eagles of gold'; but representations of such a usage are hard to find. A good early example is afforded by the monumental brass at Trotton in Sussex of Thomas lord Camoys (_ob._ 1419) (fig. 154). [Illustration: FIG. 154. Shield of arms (_a chief and three roundels on the chief_) encircled by the Garter, from the brass of Thomas lord Camoys (_ob._ 1419).] In illustration of the care above referred to of distinguishing the Garter motto from any other, two concrete examples may be cited: one on the brass at Constance of Robert Hallam bishop of Salisbury (_ob._ 1416), where the King's arms are encircled by the Garter, and the bishop's own arms by an open scroll with a scripture (fig. 155); the other on the west porch of the cathedral church of Norwich, where the arms of King Henry VI have the Garter about them, and the arms of the builder of the porch, bishop William Alnwick (1426-36), are surrounded by a scroll with his motto. [Illustration: FIG. 155. Shields encircled by the Garter and a scroll, from the brass of Bishop Hallam (_ob._ 1416) at Constance.] This distinction was carefully borne in mind when the insignia of British Orders, other than that of the Garter, were devised, and in every case their mottoes are displayed on plain and not buckled bands. In the Albert Medal for Bravery, however, the encircling motto has been most improperly placed on a buckled band like the Garter, and the people who supply 'heraldic stationery' are notorious offenders in the same direction. The lettering of a motto must of course depend upon the circumstances of its use. Nothing looks so well as the so-called 'old-English' or small black-letter, especially if the height of the words is as nearly as possible the same as the width of the band or scroll, and the capitals are not unduly prominent; but the form of capital known as Lombardic is always preferable to those of the black-letter alphabet. When capitals alone are used, fanciful types should be avoided; a good Roman form such as is often found in Tudor inscriptions being far better. If the motto to be set about a shield is a short one it can often be extended conveniently, if necessary, by a judicious use of ornamental devices like roses or other flowers between the words. The ends of scrolls with mottoes have a more satisfactory appearance if shown partly curled up and partly pulled out spirally than if forked and waved, as may so often be seen nowadays. Scrolls always look better if not bordered or edged in any way, but this does not apply to the narrow bounding line that may be necessary in enamelled work. [Illustration: FIG. 156. Royal arms of King Henry VII within the Garter, of English work, from the King's tomb by Torregiano at Westminster.] [Illustration: FIG. 157. Arms of St. George within the Garter, from the brass of Sir Thomas Bullen, K.G. earl of Wiltshire and Ormond, 1538, at Hever in Kent.] CHAPTER XI CROWNS, CORONETS, AND COLLARS Crowns and Coronets; Introduction of Coronets; Coronets of Princes, Dukes, and Earls; Bequests of Coronets; Illustrations of Coronets and Crowns; Collars and Chains; Collars of Orders; Lancastrian Collars of SS; Yorkist Collars of Suns and Roses; Tudor Collars of SS; Other Livery Collars; Waits' Collars; Collars and Chains of Mayors, Mayoresses, and Sheriffs; The Revival of Collars; Inordinate Length of modern Collars. At the present day it is the habit of divers ladies of rank to surmount their hair, when occasion allows, with diamond tiaras of surpassing splendour. The ladies of olden time were not free from a similar weakness, but the diamond mines of South Africa being then unknown, and other gems too costly, they encouraged the goldsmiths to make them beautiful crowns and crestings, with which they adorned their heads and headgear. A reference to the accurate drawings and details published by Stothard in his _Monumental Effigies_ will show not only the high artistic excellence of these ornaments, but also how becoming they were to the ladies who wore them. They varied greatly in design, from the simple circlet of fleurons and trefoils of Queen Eleanor of Castile (fig. 158) to the sumptuous piece of jewellery beset with pearls and stones, which is represented on the alabaster effigy of Queen Joan at Canterbury (fig. 159) and reflects so worthily the yet more splendid crown of her husband, King Henry IV (fig. 173). [Illustration: FIG. 158. Crowned effigy of Queen Eleanor at Westminster.] [Illustration: FIG. 159. Crowned effigy of Queen Joan at Canterbury.] Attention has already been drawn to the decorative use of crowns in heraldry, and a reference promised to the coronets of peers and peeresses. Coronets, as they are now called, originated as early as 1343, when Edward duke of Cornwall and earl of Chester was created Prince of Wales, and invested by his father with a circlet (_sertum_) on his head, a gold ring on his finger, and a golden verge which was placed in his hand. The circlet in question passed into the possession of his brother, Lionel duke of Clarence, who in 1388 left in his will 'a golden circlet with which my brother and lord was created prince' as well as 'that circlet with which I was created duke.' This latter event happened in 1362, at the same time that his brother John of Gaunt was created duke of Lancaster, when King Edward girded his son with a sword and put upon his head a fur cap and over it 'un cercle d'or et de peres,' a circlet of gold and precious stones. This investiture with a coronet was for some time restricted to dukes, but in 1385 King Richard II bestowed upon Richard earl of Oxford the new dignity of marquess of Dublin, and invested him with a sword and a circlet of gold. The investing of an earl with a coronet does not seem to have become customary before the reign of Edward VI, but earls had worn coronets in virtue of their rank for a long time previously. In April 1444, when Henry Beauchamp earl of Warwick was created premier earl by Henry VI, the letters patent of his appointment empower him 'to wear a golden circlet upon his head and his heirs male to do the same on feast days in all places where it is convenient as well in our presence as of others.' But the practice can perhaps be carried still further back, for Selden in his _Titles of Honour_ (p. 680) quotes a receipt dated 1319 by William of Lavenham, treasurer of Aymer of Valence earl of Pembroke, of 'a gold crown of the said earl.' By his will dated 1375 Richard FitzAlan earl of Arundel leaves to Richard his son 'my best crown (_ma melieure coroune_) charging him upon my blessing that he part not with it during his life, and that after his death he leave it to his heir in the same manner to descend perpetually from heir to heir to the lords of Arundel in remembrance of me and of my soul.' He also leaves to his daughter Joan 'my second-best crown' and to his daughter Alice 'my third crown,' under similar conditions. The earl's best crown may be that shown upon the alabaster effigy at Arundel of his grandson Thomas earl of Arundel; to whom it was bequeathed by his father (fig. 163). It has alternate leaves and pearled spikes, similar to, but richer and better in design than, the earls' coronets of to-day. Sir N. H. Nicolas suggests that earl Richard's second and third coronets were bequeathed to his daughters because both were countesses; Joan being wife to Humphrey Bohun earl of Hereford, and Alice to Thomas Holand earl of Kent. There are other bequests of coronets to ladies: Edmund Mortimer earl of March and Ulster left in 1380 to his daughter Philippa, afterwards wife to (1) John Hastings earl of Pembroke, (2) Richard earl of Arundel, and (3) John lord St. John, 'a coronal of gold with stones and two hundred great pearls (_un coronal a'or ove perie et deuz cents grands perles_) and also a circlet with roses, with emeralds and rubies or Alexandria in the roses (_un cercle ove roses emeraudes et rubies d'alisaundre en les roses_).' Michael de la Pole earl of Suffolk also left in 1415 to his wife Katherine the diadem or coronet which had belonged to her father Hugh earl of Stafford, who died in 1386. The swan's head crest of Richard Beauchamp earl of Warwick (_ob._ 1439) on his effigy at Warwick is encircled by a crown of stalked pearls, not unlike those of an earl's coronet of the present day (fig. 160). [Illustration: FIG. 160. Helm and crest, and bust, of Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick (_ob._ 1439,) from his gilt-latten effigy at Warwick.] Among Stothard's engravings are two of effigies of quite early date of ladies wearing crowns or coronets. One, at Scarcliffe in Derbyshire (fig. 161), cannot be later than about 1250, and the crown in this case is composed of some twenty simple leaves set upright upon the edge of a narrow band. The other, at Staindrop in Durham, is about a century later, and represents a widowed lady, probably Margery, second wife of John lord Nevill, wearing a crown of curled leaves with points between (fig. 162). The next illustration is of special interest since it represents Thomas earl of Arundel (_ob._ 1416) wearing presumably the coronet mentioned above in his grandfather's bequest (fig. 163); his countess Beatrice has a slighter coronet of similar character. The great alabaster tomb, also at Staindrop, or Ralph earl of Westmorland (_ob._ 1425) and his two countesses furnishes the next example. In this case the earl is in armour, but both ladies wear delicate coronets, formed of rows of points with triplets of pearls and intervening single pearls, rising from narrow ornamental circlets (fig. 164). [Illustration: FIG. 161. Effigy of a lady (_c._ 1250) in Scarcliffe church, Derbyshire.] [Illustration: FIG. 162. Effigy of a lady in Staindrop church, Durham.] [Illustration: FIG. 163. Thomas earl of Arundel (_ob._ 1416), from his alabaster effigy at Arundel.] [Illustration: FIG. 164. Joan Beaufort, countess of Westmorland (_ob._ 1440), from her alabaster effigy in Staindrop church, Durham.] The tomb of another earl of Arundel, William FitzAlan (_ob._ 1487), and of his countess Joan, further illustrates the use of coronets. The earl's coronet is in this case composed of a continuous row of leaves with a jewelled band (fig. 165); the countess wears a similar coronet, but curiously distorted behind, evidently because it was thought to be more becoming when so worn (fig. 166). [Illustration: FIG. 165. William FitzAlan, earl of Arundel (_ob._ 1487), from his effigy at Arundel.] [Illustration: FIG. 166. Joan countess of Arundel, from her effigy at Arundel.] The monument in St. Peter's church, in Sheffield, of George earl of Shrewsbury (_ob._ 1538) and his two wives represents him in armour, with the mantle and collar of the Garter, and a coronet, now broken, about his head. His wives also have coronets, which are happily complete, and are composed of continuous series of twelve short points tipped with pearls. The earl's coronet seems to have had similar points, but with sixteen pearls instead of twelve. The effigy _circa_ 1500 at Whitchurch in Salop of that famous warrior, John Talbot earl of Shrewsbury, who was killed in 1453, also represents him in the mantle of the Garter over his armour and a coronet about his head. This is unfortunately badly broken, but seems to have resembled that on the Sheffield figures. Besides these examples of coronets of earls and their countesses a few illustrations of those worn by dukes and duchesses may be cited. It has been already noted that the shields on the monument of Humphrey duke of Gloucester (_ob._ 1446) at St. Albans are surmounted alternately by crested helms and by caps with coronets. These coronets have a richly jewelled circlet on which is set, instead of leaves, a series of what seem to be cups full of daisies, with small triplets of pearls between. Another good coronet is to be seen on the effigy of Thomas Holand duke of Exeter (_ob._ 1447) on the monument formerly in St. Katharine's hospital by the Tower, now in the chapel in Regent's Park. The duke's coronet here is quite narrow, and composed of some eighteen or twenty trefoils set close upon a band (fig. 167); but his two duchesses have coronets of triplets of pearls with intermediate single pearls, like those of the countesses of Westmorland at Staindrop (fig. 168). [Illustration: FIG. 167. John Holand duke of Exeter (_ob._ 1447), from his effigy at St. Katharine's hospital, Regent's Park.] [Illustration: FIG. 168. Head of a duchess of Exeter, from the monument at St. Katharine's hospital, Regent's Park.] The alabaster effigy at Ewelme of Alice, widow of William duke of Suffolk (_ob._ 1450), shows her in a beautiful coronet of fleurs-de-lis alternating with small clusters of pearls (fig. 169), and similar coronets once adorned the effigies at Wingfield in Suffolk of her son John de la Pole duke of Suffolk (_ob._ 1491) and his wife Elizabeth. [Illustration: FIG. 169. Alice duchess of Suffolk (_ob._ 1475), from her alabaster effigy in Ewelme church, Oxon.] The privilege of wearing coronets was not extended to viscounts until the reign of James I, and to barons until 1661. The official patterns of coronets to which peers and peeresses are now restricted have, as may be seen from the examples above cited, practically no relation to the older forms, which exhibited the usual delightful medieval elasticity of design. The present coronets too are rendered uglier than ever by the modern rule forbidding them to be jewelled in any way. This was not formerly the case. Among the stuff remaining in the palace of Westminster in 1553, and delivered to lady Jane Grey, was 'a coronet for a duke, set with five roses of diamonds, six small pointed diamonds, one table emerald, six great ballases, seven blue sapphires, and thirty-eight great pearls, with a cap of crimson velvet and a roll of powdered armyns about the same'; and a beautifully ornamented coronet of much earlier date than the painting is shown in a portrait of John marquess of Winchester, the defender of Basing House, who died in 1674. It is the custom now for ladies of rank to wear their coronets only at coronations, and to display them on their note-paper, their spoons and forks, and on the panels of their carriages and motor-cars. Such coronets cannot however be considered artistic objects, even when depicted apart from the crimson velvet bonnets which they encircle, and there is no reason why ladies should not devise and wear coronet-like ornaments of their own invention. A little research will show that crowns of every form and fashion have always been freely used in heraldic decoration, both by themselves and as ensigning letters or other devices, and so long as care be taken not to infringe what may be called official patterns, there are really no limits to a continuance of the ancient practice. The lady Margaret Beaufort, countess of Richmond and mother of King Henry VII, has left us a delightful series of coronets. First, on a seal newly made for her on the accession of her son, her shield of arms is ensigned with a coronet or crown of roses and fleurs-de-lis placed alternately along the edge of a narrow band (pl. XXX). Shortly after 1505 the lady Margaret began to build Christ's College at Cambridge, and both the gatehouse (fig. 170) and the oriel of the master's lodge (fig. 171) are rich in heraldic decoration. In this case both her arms and her portcullis badge are ensigned with coronets set with a continuous row of triplets of pearls.[20] In the lady Margaret's later foundation of St. John's College, her arms, etc. again are displayed upon the stately gatehouse; in this case with a coronet of roses and fleurs-de-lis over the shield, as in her seal (fig. 172). Her portcullis badge, on the other hand, has over it a fine coronet formed of clusters of roses, which recalls the circlet of roses set with emeralds and rubies of Alexandria mentioned earlier in this chapter. It is quite easy to conjure up visions of coronets or circlets formed of lilies or marguerites, or of roses red and white, or of any other suitable flower or device, wrought in gold or gilded silver, and either jewelled or bright with enamel. And let designers take heart when so recent and yet so picturesque an object as the so-called 'naval crown' can be produced, with its cresting of sterns and square sails of ships. This was used most effectively some years ago as one of the decorations encircling the Nelson Column in London on Trafalgar Day. [20] On the gatehouse the coronet over the arms has been restored. [Illustration: FIG. 170. Armorial ensigns and badges of the lady Margaret Beaufort, from the gatehouse of her foundation of Christ's College, Cambridge.] [Illustration: FIG. 171. Arms of the foundress, the lady Margaret Beaufort, with yale supporters, from the base of an oriel in Christ's College, Cambridge.] [Illustration: FIG. 172. Armorial panel on the gatehouse of St. John's College, Cambridge.] [Illustration: PLATE XXX.--Crowned shield with supporters and badges of the Lady Margaret Beaufort, 1485.] It may be as well to point out that the royal crown has been composed, from the fifteenth century, of crosses alternating with fleurs-de-lis, and since the coronation of King Henry IV it has been distinguished by being arched over cross-wise. The splendid open crown shown on the effigy of the king at Canterbury (fig. 173) is not that wherewith he was crowned, but another worn with the parliament robes in which he is represented. Beautiful examples of crowns of simpler type are afforded by the effigies of King Henry III (fig. 174) and King Edward II (fig. 175). When the lady Elizabeth Wydville became the queen of Edward IV, she ensigned her arms with a beautiful crown or coronet of alternate large crosses and fleurs-de-lis with smaller fleurs-de-lis between, rising from a richly jewelled band (pl. XXV), and a rich example of the crown of King Henry VIII so treated is to be seen on the great carved panel with his arms, etc. at New Hall in Essex (fig. 189). Crosses and fleurs-de-lis are now used only in the coronets of those of royal blood. [Illustration: FIG. 173. King Henry IV, from his alabaster effigy in Canterbury cathedral church.] [Illustration: FIG. 174. King Henry III, from his gilt-latten effigy at Westminster.] [Illustration: FIG. 175. King Edward II, from his alabaster effigy at Gloucester.] From ornaments for the head it is easy to pass to those for the neck. The wearing about the neck of something which was considered decorative or becoming has been customary with the fair sex in every part of the world and in all ages of its history, and necklaces of every form, material, and fashion are as popular to-day as ever. But less attention is now paid to the decorative collars that once were worn not only by women but by men. It has always been a mark of distinction or dignity to wear about the neck a chain or collar of gold, silver, or silver-gilt, either as an ornament, or a decoration of honour, or as a badge of partizanship; and the most noteworthy of these to-day are the collars of the various orders of Knighthood, such as the Garter (fig. 177), the Thistle, and the Bath. [Illustration: FIG. 176. Crowned initials of King Henry VII, from his Lady chapel at Westminster.] [Illustration: FIG. 177. Thomas Howard third duke of Norfolk (1473(?)-1554) with the collar of the Order of the Garter, from the picture by Holbein at Windsor castle.] The history and characteristic features of these are well known, and representations of them abound; moreover the wearing of them is confined to a few privileged persons. It is therefore hardly necessary to discuss them further in a work like the present. The case is however different with regard to the so-called livery collars, since these may properly be regarded as models for the formation and construction of such similar collars as may freely be worn to-day. The most notable of such decorations during the medieval period was the collar of SS which formed the distinctive cognisance of the House of Lancaster (figs. 178, 179). It was worn by persons of every degree, from the King and Queen to the knight and his esquire, and it was likewise worn by their wives and even conferred on civilians. [Illustration: FIG. 178. Collars of SS. 1. From the brass of Lady Camoys, 1419, at Trotton in Sussex. 2. From the brass of Sir William Calthorpe, 1420, at Burnham Thorpe in Norfolk.] The collar of SS was apparently invented by King Henry IV before his accession, and quite a number of important entries that throw light upon its history occur in his household accounts while he was only Henry of Lancaster earl of Derby. [Illustration: FIG. 179. Collar of SS from the effigy of William lord Bardolf (_ob._ 1441) at Dennington in Suffolk.] In 1390-1 a gold signet was engraved for him 'cum j plume et j coler,' of which unhappily no impressions are known. In 1391-2 there was made for him a 'coler' of gold 'with seventeen letters of S after the manner of feathers with scrolls and scriptures in the same with a swan in the tiret.' This recalls the badge upon one of Henry's own seals as earl of Derby (1385) described above (p. 167), an ostrich plume entwined with a scroll and the scripture ~souvereyne~ (pl. XXIV C), and we know from other sources of Henry's favour towards the Bohun swan, which device he used in right of his first wife, the lady Mary Bohun. The collar of SS, moreover, on the effigy of John Gower the poet (_ob._ 1402) in Southwark cathedral church has a swan on the pendant of it, and no doubt represents the collar actually given to him by Henry of Lancaster in 1393-4. The initial letter, too, of the charter granted to the city of Gloucester by Henry as King in 1399, contains a crown encircled by a collar of SS ending in two lockets between which is a pendant charged with a swan. The earl's accounts for 1393-4 mention the purchase of the silver 'of a collar made with rolled esses and given to Robert Waterton because the lord had given the collar of the same Robert to another esquire.' In 1396-7 a charge is entered 'for the weight of a collar made, together with esses, of flowers of ~soveigne vous de moy~[21] hanging and enamelled weighing eight ounces.' [21] In 1426 Sir John Bigod lord of Settrington left to his daughter a covered cup 'pounset cum sovenez de moy'; perhaps a gift to him from Henry of Lancaster. _Testamenta Eboracensia_ (Surtees Soc. 4) i. 411. What these flowers were is uncertain. Charges for making 'flores domini' occur in 1390-1 and other years, and in 1391-2 three hundred leaves (?flowers) _de souveine vous de moy_ of silver-gilt were bought for one of the earl's robes. In 1407 Henry of Lancaster as King ordered payment to be made to Christopher Tildesley, citizen and goldsmith of London, of the huge sum of £385 6_s._ 8_d._ 'for a collar of gold worked with this word ~soveignez~ and letters of S and X enamelled and garnished with nine large pearls, twelve large diamonds, eight balases, and eight sapphires, together with a great nouche in manner of a treangle with a great ruby set in it and garnished with four large pearls.'[22] [22] P.R.O. Issue Rolls (Pells) Mich. 8 Henry IV (1407). Most of these entries suggest that the mysterious SS stand for _Soveignez_, and possibly at one time this was the case, but Henry's seal as earl of Derby in 1385 containing the feathers with the scripture ~souvereyne~ must not be overlooked. There is moreover, on a fragment which has fortunately survived in a tattered and burnt mass of fragments of a jewel account of Henry's reign in the Public Record Office, the important entry of a payment to Christopher Tildesley of 'a collar of gold made for the King with twenty-four letters of S pounced with ~soverain~, and four bars, two pendants, and a tiret with a nouche garnished with a balas and six large pearls (the balas bought of the said Christopher for £10 and the price of the pearls at 40_s._, being £12) weighing 7 oz. Troy at 23_s._ 4_d._ £8 3_s._ 4_d._ Also a black tissue for the same collar 3_s._ 4_d._ and for the workmanship of it £4.'[23] The King's word ~soverayne~ also occurs many times, with the Queen's word ~a temperance~, on the tester over their monument at Canterbury, which has likewise the shield of arms for the King, the King and Queen, and the Queen alone, encircled in each case with a collar of SS with golden eagles placed upon the tiret. Gold eagles also form stops between the repetitions of the word ~soverayne~. [23] Accounts, Exch. K.R. 404/18. Another example of a collar of SS with an eagle as a pendant is to be seen on the monument of Oliver Groos, esquire (_ob._ 1439), in Sloley church, Norfolk (fig. 180). [Illustration: FIG. 180. Spandrel of the tomb of Oliver Groos, Esq. (_ob._ 1439), in Sloley church, Norfolk, with collar of SS.] Examples of effigies in stone or brass of men and women wearing the collar of SS are common throughout the Lancastrian period. The SS seem in most cases to be represented as sewn or worked upon a band of silk, velvet, or other stuff,[24] which usually ends in buckled lockets, linked by a trefoil-shaped tiret, from which is hung a small ring (fig. 181). [24] Notice of the theft of a collar of black silk dotted (_stipatum_) with silver letters of SS is entered on the Patent Roll of 7 Henry IV (1406), part ii. m. 29. [Illustration: FIG. 181. Collars of SS from (1) the effigy of Queen Joan at Canterbury, and (2) the effigy of Robert lord Hungerford at Salisbury.] Several other interesting occurrences of the collar of SS may be noted. In one of the windows in the chapter house at Wells is a shield of the arms of Mortimer, and next to it a gold star within the horns of a crescent party blue and silver, encircled by a collar of SS also half blue and half white. As there are associated with these the arms of the King and of Thomas duke of Clarence (_ob._ 1421), they probably commemorate Edmund Mortimer earl of March, who died in 1425. In 1449 a receipt given to the steward of Southampton by the prior of the Shene Charterhouse, which was founded by King Henry V, bears a seal with ~ihs~ within a collar of SS; and in St. Mary's church at Bury St. Edmunds the ceiling over the tomb of John Baret, an ardent Lancastrian, who died in 1480, is painted with collars of SS surrounding his monogram. There is also in a MS. in the British Museum,[25] written probably for John lord Lovel (_ob._ 1414), a painting of the arms of Holand quartering Lovel surrounded by a collar, one half of which is white and the other half blue, with gold letters of SS, having for a pendant a gold fetterlock, party inside of red and black. [25] Harl. MS. 7026, f. 13. On a brass _c._ 1475 at Muggington in Derbyshire the Beaufort portcullis appears as a pendant to the collar of SS. With the rise to power of the Yorkists on the accession of Edward IV a rival collar to that of the Lancastrian livery came into vogue, composed of blazing suns and York roses disposed alternately (fig. 182). It may be seen in various forms on a number of monumental effigies and brasses, usually with the couchant white lion of the house of March as a pendant, but on the accession of Richard III the lion was replaced by his silver boar. On the wooden Nevill effigies at Brancepeth the earl has a collar of rayed suns with the boar pendant, while the countess has a collar of alternate suns and roses. Joan countess of Arundel, on her effigy at Arundel (fig. 166), shows another variation by interpolating the FitzAlan oak leaves between the suns and the roses. [Illustration: 1 2 FIG. 182. Collars of suns and roses from (1) the effigy of a knight of the Erdington family at Aston, Warwickshire, and (2) from the effigy of Sir Robert Harcourt, K.G. 1471, at Stanton Harcourt, Oxon.] After the accession of Henry VII the collar of SS was again revived, but with variations and different pendants. The effigy, for example, at Salisbury of Sir John Cheyney, K.G. (_ob._ 1489), has appended to his SS collar a large portcullis charged with a rose. A collar of gold weighing over 7 ounces is recorded to have been given in 1499 to adorn the image of the Holy Trinity in Norwich cathedral church, and is described as containing twenty-five letters of S, two tirets, two 'purcoles' (portcullises), and one double R(?) with a red rose enamelled.[26] A similar collar, but all of gold, is shown in the portrait of Sir Thomas More, painted by Holbein in 1527 (fig. 183). On a brass _c._ 1510 at Little Bentley in Essex the collar of SS has a portcullis pendant, and on the Manners effigy (_c._ 1513) at Windsor and the Vernon effigy (1537) at Tong the pendant to the knight's collar is a large double rose. [26] Norwich Sacrist's Register, xi. f. 111. [Illustration: FIG. 183. Sir Thomas More wearing the collar of SS, from an original portrait painted by Holbein in 1527, belonging to the late Mr. Edward Huth.] The collars on the Salkeld effigies (1501) at Salkeld in Cumberland are composed of SS and four-leaved flowers alternately, and that worn by Sir George Forster (_ob._ 1526) on his tomb at Aldermaston in Berkshire is of SS laid sideways and alternating with knots, and has a portcullis and rose pendant. In 1545 Sir John Alen, sheriff in 1518 and lord mayor in 1525 and 1535, bequeathed for the use of the lord mayor of London, and his successors for ever, his collar of SS, knots, and roses of red and white enamel; and a cross of gold with precious stones and pearls was given to be worn with it in 1558. An effigy of a Lisle _c._ 1550 at Thruxton in Hants has a similar collar of SS, knots, and roses, also with a cross as a pendant. Sir John Alen's collar, somewhat enlarged, and with a modern 'jewel' as a pendant, is still worn by the lord mayor of London, and is the only medieval collar of SS that has survived. After the reign of King Henry VIII the wearing of the collar of SS gradually became restricted to judges and other officials, and has so survived to the present day, when it is still worn in England by the lord chief justice, the kings-of-arms, heralds, and pursuivants, and by the serjeants-at-arms. The lord chief justice's collar, like all those formerly worn by the judges, is composed of SS and knots; the others of SS only. Beside the livery collars above mentioned, others have been worn from time to time. In the exquisitely painted diptych or Richard II and his avowries, now at Wilton House, the King has about his neck a collar formed of golden broom-cods, and the gorgeous red mantle in which he is habited is covered all over with similar collars enclosing his favourite badge, the white hart. A collar of gold 'de Bromecoddes' with a sapphire and two pearls occurs in the great inventory taken on the death of King Henry V, and a collar formed of SS and broom-cods was also made for King Henry VI in July 1426.[27] [27] John Anstis, _The Register of the most noble Order of the Garter_ (London, 1724), ii. 116 note. On his effigy at Ripon (_c._ 1390) Sir Thomas Markenfield displays a collar formed of park palings, which widen out in front to enclose a couchant hart (fig. 184). If this were not a personal collar, it may have been a livery of Henry of Lancaster as earl of Derby. [Illustration: FIG. 184. Head of the effigy in Ripon minster of Sir Thomas Markenfield with livery collar of park-palings.] A brass of the same date of a knight, formerly at Mildenhall, showed him as wearing a collar apparently once composed of scrolls with scriptures, joining in front upon a large crown with a collared dog or other beast within it. The brass at Wotton-under-Edge of Thomas lord Berkeley (_ob._ 1417) shows him with a collar sown with mermaids, the cognisance of his house (fig. 185). [Illustration: FIG. 185. Thomas lord Berkeley (_ob._ 1417) with a collar of mermaids, from his brass at Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire.] In his will dated 1430 William Stowe the elder, of Ripon, a retainer in the household of the earl of Northumberland, bequeaths his silver livery _Anglice cressaunt_ and his livery _Anglice coller_ to the shrine of St. Wilfrid.[28] Possibly the 'cressaunt' was an object similar to that here figured (now belonging to the duke of Northumberland), and the collar like that formed of ~p's~ and crescents enclosing ~p's~ linked together which is engraved upon it (fig. 186). [28] 'Item ego liberaturam meam argenteam Anglice cressaunt, et liberaturam meam Anglice coller. ad feretrum Sancte Wilfridi.' _Test. Ebor._ ii. 13. [Illustration: FIG. 186. Silver badge belonging to the duke of Northumberland.] The earlier collars, as has already been noted, were composed of devices sewn upon a band of stuff, but in later examples a more open treatment is found wherein the devices are linked together by short pieces of chain, as in the collar of SS shown in Sir Thomas More's portrait. The Yorkist collar of suns and roses on an effigy at Erdington is so treated, as is the collar of SS and flowers on the Salkeld effigies, which may perhaps be a personal and not a livery collar. Collars of similar construction, but always of silver, with pendent scutcheons of the town arms, were worn by the little bands of minstrels called waits, formerly in the employ of most towns of importance (fig. 187). In London the six waits appointed in 1475 had silver collars of SS with scutcheons of the city arms. At Exeter the four waits' collars, dating from about 1500, still exist, and are formed of roundels with ~X~'s and ~R's~ alternately (fig. 187). Two beautiful waits' collars at Norwich (_c._ 1550) are composed of silver castles and gilded leopards alternately, like those in the appended shield (fig. 187). The waits' collars at Lynn were formed of scrolled leaves alternating with dragons' heads pierced with crosses, like those in the town arms, which are allusive of St. Margaret (fig. 187). At York the collars are formed wholly of little silver leopards, and at Beverley of eagles and beavers alternately. The waits' collars at Bristol date from the reign of Queen Mary, and are composed of pierced roundels containing alternately the letters CB. and a rose dimidiating a pomegranate. [Illustration: FIG. 187. Waits' Collars of Exeter, King's Lynn, and Norwich.] The wearing of collars, or chains as they are called, by mayors, mayoresses, and sheriffs is comparatively modern. It was formerly the custom for every person of any dignity to wear a chain, and it was only when chains began to go out of fashion that the wearing of them survived among persons of particular dignity such as mayors and sheriffs. The collar of SS worn by the lord mayor of London is an exceptional example, and the only other early mayor's chain is that given to Kingston-on-Hull in 1564 and remade in 1570. A plain gold chain was bequeathed to the city of York in 1612, and 'a fayre chayne of gold double linked with a medall of massy gold' was given to the town of Guildford in 1673. In 1716 a gold chain for the mayor was given to the city of Norwich, but passed on for the use of the deputy mayor on a new chain being given in 1757. Yarmouth bought itself a chain in 1734, and seven other towns became possessed of mayors' chains towards the end of the eighteenth century. Down to 1850 some fifteen more mayors' chains came into existence, mostly of simple type, like the older chains, with one or more rows of plain or ornate links. Since 1850 practically every town that can boast of a corporation has likewise got a chain for its mayor, and appalling creations many of them are, with rows of tablet links, and armorial pendants as large as saucers. A simple gold chain to be worn by the sheriffs of Norwich was given in 1739, but those at Chester, Newcastle, Exeter, and other places are quite recent. In London it has been the custom for the friends and admirers of the sheriffs to present them with elaborate gold collars on their accession to office, but these are happily private property and not official insignia. The same description applies to them as to the recent mayors' chains. Chains for mayoresses have not yet become general, but they are being multiplied yearly. The mayoress of Kingston-on-Hull had an official chain as early as 1604, but it was sold as being 'useless' in 1835. The lady mayoress of York has a chain of plain gold links given in 1670, which is regularly weighed on its delivery to and return by the wearer. All other mayoresses' chains are quite recent, and in most cases of the same fearsome design as those worn by their husbands. The unfortunate mayors, mayoresses, and sheriffs are practically at the mercy of ignorant and inartistic tradesmen for the designing and making of the collars they are called upon to wear officially, but that is no reason why people with more enlightened ideas should not invent, design, and wear collars or chains that are beautiful in themselves. The examples already quoted and the many illustrations of others that are accessible will show what comely ornaments the old heraldic collars were, and many a lady would look well in a collar to whom a necklace is most unbecoming. Flowers, letters, and devices of heraldic import can easily be embroidered in gold, or struck out of metal and enamelled, and then be sewn down on velvet or silk stuff, or linked together by fine chains. But let every wearer of a chain or collar avoid the error of making it too long. The ancient collars were quite short, and therefore rested comfortably and easily upon the shoulders. Official collars have however grown to so preposterous a length that they have to be tied with bows of ribbons upon the shoulders to hinder them from slipping off the wearer altogether! The reason of this is curious and instructive. The old collars were, as aforesaid, of sensible dimensions, but the introduction of wigs in the seventeenth century necessitated the collars being lengthened to be worn outside them. Wigs had their day and at last disappeared from general wear, but the lengthened collars remain, and it has not occurred to any one in authority that they might now advantageously be shortened. So the inconvenience goes on. CHAPTER XII HERALDIC EMBROIDERIES The introduction of armorial insignia in embroidered Vestments: on Robes: on Beds, etc. No one who has had occasion to examine any series of old wills and inventories, especially those of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, can fail to have noticed what a large part was played by heraldry in the household effects of our forefathers. In the vestments and other ornaments of the chapel, the hallings, bankers, and like furniture of the hall, the hangings and curtains of the beds and bedchambers, the gold and silver vessels and utensils of the table, or in carpets and cushions and footstools, shields of arms, badges, mottoes, and quasi-heraldic devices of all sorts were as common as blackberries in autumn. And the evidence of illuminated pictures and monumental effigies is equally strong in showing that heraldry was quite as much in vogue for personal adornment. As a matter of fact heraldry had its very origin in a system of devices to be worn on shields and banners and coats-of-arms to distinguish the wearer in battle, and from the coat-of-arms of the knight it was but a step to the armorial gown or mantle of his lady. [Illustration: FIG. 188. Part of an embroidered altar frontal with a rebus at Baunton in Gloucestershire: date, late fifteenth century.] It would be somewhat tedious to extract from the authorities just cited, especially since they are easily accessible, every entry relating to an heraldic ornament or piece of furniture. But with regard to hangings and embroideries the case is somewhat different, inasmuch as numbers of ladies are engaged nowadays in stitch-work of every kind, amongst which heraldic embroidery ought certainly to have a place. As might be expected, the inventories of Church stuffs furnish us with some of the earliest examples of heraldic embroideries, and often in sufficiently precise terms to enable us to realize what the things looked like. Thus an inventory taken in 1315 of the ornaments at Christchurch, Canterbury, enumerates such things as a chasuble and five copes, the gift of Katharine Lovel, sewn with arms of divers persons; a white cope of the arms of the King of Scotland; a cope of Peter bishop of Exeter (_ob._ 1291) of baudekyn 'with biparted shields' (an early example); a cope of John of Alderby bishop of Lincoln, and another of Thomas Burton bishop of Exeter, of green cloth embroidered with shields; an albe with apparels of blue velvet embroidered with shields and fleurs-de-lis; two albes sewn with shields and black letters, and a third of red samite embroidered with shields and popinjays; an albe sewn with lozenges with the arms of the King of England and of Leybourne; an albe sewn with shields and embroidered with letters; an albe sewn with the arms of Northwood and Poynyngs in quadrangles; and an albe, stole, and fanon sewn with divers arms in lozenges with purple frets. The same inventory mentions a vestment of Philip King of France, made, quite properly, of blue cloth with fleurs-de-lis; and a number of vestments with orphreys of the arms of the King of England and of France. The inventory of the vestry of Westminster Abbey taken in 1388 also contains some interesting heraldic ornaments, such as a frontal with the arms of England and France in red and blue velvet woven with golden leopards and fleurs-de-lis, from the burial of King Edward III; six murrey carpets woven with the new arms of the King of England and of the count of Hainault (in other words, the quartered shield adopted by Edward III in 1340, and the arms of his queen, Philippa of Hainault); four carpets of the arms of the earl of Pembroke; four carpets of red colour woven with white shields having three red fleurs-de-lis, of the gift of Richard Twyford, whose arms they were; five black carpets having in the corners shields of the arms of St. Peter and St. Edward; two green silk cloths sewn with the arms of England, Spain, and Queen Eleanor; a bed with a border with the arms of the King of Scotland; three new copes of a red colour of noble cloth of gold damask, with orphreys of black velvet embroidered with the letters T and A and swans of pearl, the gift of Thomas duke of Gloucester, whose wife was Eleanor Bohun, and her family badge a white swan; a cope of red velvet with gold leopards and a border of blue velvet woven with gold fleurs-de-lis, formerly the lord John of Eltham's, whose fine alabaster tomb in the abbey church has the same arms on his shield. A St. Paul's inventory of 1402 also contains a few choice examples: a cope of red velvet with gold lions, and orphreys of the collars of the duke of Lancaster and a stag lying in the middle of each collar; a suit of blue cloth of gold powdered with gold crowns in each of which are fixed two ostrich feathers; six copes of red cloth of gold with blue orphreys with golden-hooded falcons and the arms of Queen Anne of Bohemia; three albes and amices of linen cloth with orphreys of red velvet powdered and worked with little angels and the arms of England, given by Queen Isabel; three albes and amices with apparels of red cloth of gold powdered with divers white letters of S and with golden leopards, given by John of Gaunt; two great cushions of silk cloth of blue colour with a white cross throughout, and in each quarter of the cross the golden head of a lion. The secular documents carry on the story. Some quite noteworthy items may be found in the account of the expenses of the great wardrobe of King Edward III (1345-48-9): for making a bed of blue taffata for the King powdered with garters containing this word ~hony soit q mal y pense~; for making a jupe of blue taffata for the King's body with Garters and buckles and pendants of silver-gilt; for making 40 clouds for divers of the King's garments, embroidered with gold, silver, and silk, with an ~E~ in the middle of gold, garnished with stars throughout the field; for making six pennons for trumpets and clarions against Christmas Day of sindon beaten with the King's arms quarterly; for making of a bed of red worsted given to the lord King by Thomas de Colley powdered with silver bottles having tawny bands and curtains of sindon beaten with white bottles; for making a harness for the lord David King of Scotland of 'blu' velvet with a pale of red velvet and within the pale aforesaid a white rose; for making a harness of white bokeram for the King stencilled with silver, namely, a tunic and shield wrought with the King's word ~hay hay the wythe swan; by godes soule I am thy man~ and a crupper, etc. stencilled with silver; for making a doublet for the King of white linen cloth having about the sleeves and bottom a border of green long cloth wrought with clouds and vines of gold and with the King's word ~it. is. as. it. is.~ In 1380 Edmund Mortimer earl of March leaves 'our great bed of black satin embroidered with white lions (the badge of the house of March) and gold roses with scutcheons of the arms of Mortimer and Ulster'; and in 1385 Joan princess of Wales leaves to King Richard her son 'my new bed of red velvet embroidered with ostrich feathers and leopards' heads of gold with branches and leaves issuing from their mouths.' In 1389 William Pakington archdeacon of Canterbury leaves 'my halling of red with a shield of the King's arms in the midst and with mine own arms in the corners'; and in 1391 Margaret, the wife of Sir William Aldeburgh, leaves (i) a red halling with a border of blue with the arms of Baliol and Aldeburgh, (ii) a red bed embroidered with a tree and recumbent lion and the arms of Aldeburgh and Tillzolf, and (iii) a green bed embroidered with griffins and the arms of Aldeburgh. The inventory of Thomas of Woodstock duke of Gloucester, taken in 1397, also contains some interesting items: a white halling (or set of hangings for a hall) consisting of a dosser and four costers worked with the arms of King Edward (his father) and his sons with borders paly of red and black powdered with Bohun swans and the arms of Hereford; a great bed of gold, that is to say, a coverlet, tester, and selour of fine blue satin worked with gold Garters, and three curtains of tartryn beaten with Garters to match; and a large bed of white satin embroidered in the midst with the arms of the duke of Gloucester, with his helm, in Cyprus gold. A number of other items in the list are also more or less heraldic: a bed of black baudekyn powdered with white roses; a large old bed of green tartryn embroidered with gold griffins; twelve pieces of tapestry carpet, blue with white roses in the corners and divers arms; a large bed of blue baudekyn embroidered with silver owls and gold fleurs-de-lis; fifteen pieces of tapestry for two rooms of red worsted embroidered with blue Garters of worsted with helms and arms of divers sorts; three curtains of white tartryn with green popinjays; a green bed of double samite with a blue pale (stripe) of chamlet embroidered with a pot of gold filled with divers flowers of silver; an old bed of blue worsted embroidered with a stag of yellow worsted; a red bed of worsted embroidered with a crowned lion and two griffins and chaplets and roses; a bed of blue worsted embroidered with a white eagle; a coverlet and tester of red worsted embroidered with a white lion couching under a tree; a single gown of blue cloth of gold of Cyprus powdered with gold stags; and a single gown of red cloth of gold of Cyprus with mermaids. In 1381 William lord Latimer leaves 'an entire vestment or suit of red velvet embroidered with a cross of mine arms,' and in 1397 Sir Ralph Hastings bequeathed 'a vestment of red cloth of gold with orphreys before and behind ensigned with maunches and with colours of mine arms,' which were a red maunch or sleeve on a gold ground. Among the chapel stuff of Henry Bowet archbishop of York, in 1423, were a sudary or veil of white cloth with the arms of the duke of Lancaster on the ends, and two costers or curtains of red embroidered with great white roses and the arms of St. Peter (the crossed keys). In 1437 Helen Welles of York bequeathed a blue tester with a couched stag and the reason _Auxilium meum a Domino_. In 1448 Thomas Morton, a canon of York, left a halling with two costers of green and red say paled with the arms of archbishop Bowet; and in 1449 the inventory of Dan John Clerk, a York chaplain, mentions two covers of red say having the arms of Dan Richard Scrope and the keys of St. Peter worked upon them. To the examples worked with letters may be added a bed with a carpet of red and green with crowned M's, left about 1440 by a Beverley mason, who also had another bed with a carpet of blue and green with Katharine wheels; a vestment left in 1467, by Robert Est, a chantry priest in York minster, of green worsted having on the back two crowned letters, namely, R and E; and a bequest in 1520 by Thomas duke of Norfolk of 'our great hangede bedde palyd with cloth of golde whyte damask and black velvet, and browdered with these two letters T. A.,' being the initials of himself and his wife. There is of course nothing to hinder at the present day the principles embodied in the foregoing examples, which could easily be extended _ad infinitum_, from being carried out in the same delightful way; and a small exercise of ingenuity would soon devise a like treatment of one's own arms, or the use of a favourite device or flower, or the setting out of the family word, reason, or motto. The medieval passion for striped, paned, or checkered hangings might also be revived with advantage, and the mention in 1391 of 'a bed of white and murrey unded' shows that waved lines were as tolerable as straight. CHAPTER XIII TUDOR AND LATER HERALDRY Decorative Heraldry of the Reign of Henry VIII; The Decadent Change in the Quality of Heraldry; Examples of Elaborated Arms; Survival of Tradition in Heraldic Art; Elizabethan Heraldry; Heraldry in the Seventeenth Century and under the Commonwealth; Post-Restoration Heraldry. In the foregoing chapters practically nothing has been said or any illustration given of heraldry later than the reign of Henry VIII, chiefly because little that is artistic can be found afterwards. There are however certain points about both Elizabethan and Stewart heraldry that are worthy of notice, especially when the old traditions have been followed. In the second quarter of the sixteenth century decorative heraldry may be said to have reached its climax, and such examples as can be seen at Hengrave Hall, Hampton Court, Athelhampton House, Cowdray House, St. George's chapel in Windsor Castle, King's College chapel at Cambridge, and Henry VII's Lady chapel at Westminster, or in the beautiful panel of Henry VIII's arms at New Hall in Essex (fig. 189), are quite the finest of their kind. Then comes a falling off, and though sporadic cases in continuation of tradition may be found, with the advent of the Renaissance English heraldry underwent a complete change. [Illustration: FIG. 189. Carved panel with the crowned arms, supporters, and badges of King Henry VIII at New Hall in Essex.] One of the most notable differences between the older and the later heraldry is in the quality of the heraldry itself. In the days when men devised arms for themselves these were characterized by a simplicity that held its own all through the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and well down into the fifteenth century. But following upon a privilege that had hitherto been exercised by the King as a mark of special honour, and in some rare cases even by nobles, the heralds then began to assign arms to such of the newly-rich who came to the front after the Wars of the Roses and were willing to pay for them. Henceforth the artistic aspect of heraldry entered upon a continuous decadent course. The beginning is visible in the extraordinary compositions devised and granted to all sorts and conditions of men during the reign of Henry VIII. Such arms as had been granted by Henry VI or Edward IV, or even by the kings-of-arms in the fifteenth century, still followed ancient precedent, but the Tudor members of the newly incorporated Heralds' College seem to have struck out a line for themselves. [Illustration: FIG. 190. Paving tile with arms and initials of John Lyte (_c._ 1535), from Marten church, Wilts.] A notable example is furnished by the arms devised for cardinal Thomas Wulcy. These, in token of his Suffolk origin, have for basis the engrailed cross upon a sable field of the Uffords (to whom he was not related), charged with the leopards' heads of the de la Poles and a lion passant (perhaps for England); to which is added a gold chief, with a red Lancastrian rose, and two of the Cornish choughs from the posthumous arms of St. Thomas of Canterbury in allusion to his Christian name! The arms granted by Christopher Barker, Garter, in 1536 to the city of Gloucester afford another example. They consist of the sword of state of the city, with the sword-bearer's cap on the point, set upright on a gold pale, and flanked on either side by a silver horseshoe and a triad of horsenails on a green field; there is also (as in Wulcy's arms) a chief party gold and purple, with the silver boar's head of Richard III (who granted a charter to the city) between the halves of a Lancastrian red rose and of a Yorkist white rose, each dimidiated with a golden sun! A reference to Bedford's _Blazon of Episcopacy_ will show that the arms of a considerable number of the bishops appointed during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI were characterized by overcharged chiefs like those just described, and these may be taken as typical of the arms then being granted by the kings-of-arms. The same passion for crowding the shield is seen even in many of the less elaborate arms that were occasionally granted. Things did not improve under Mary and Elizabeth. Simple arms continued to be issued from the College, but mixed with such extravagant bursts as that of Laurence Dalton, Norroy, who granted in January 1560-1 to the famous physician doctor John Caius these arms: Golde semyd w^{th} flowre gentle in the myddle of the cheyfe, sengrene resting uppon the heades of ij serpentes in pale, their tayles knytte to gether, all in proper color, resting uppon a square marble stone vert, betwene theire brestes a boke sable, garnyshed gewles, buckles gold, and to his crest upon thelme a Dove argent, bekyd & membred gewles, holding in his beke by the stalke, flowre gentle in propre color, stalked verte, set on a wreth golde & gewles. This precious composition is further described in the grant as betokening by the boke lerning: by the ij serpentes resting upon the square marble stone, wisdom with grace founded & stayed upon vertues stable stone: by sengrene & flower gentle, immortality y^t never shall fade, etc. The way in which matters went from bad to worse is shown by the case of the Company of 'Barbours & Chirurgeons' of London, to whom had been granted in 1561 paly argent and vert, on a pale gules a lyon passant gardant golde betweene two Spatters argent on eche a double rose gules and argent crowned golde. The united genius of Garter, Clarenceux, and Norroy 'improved' these arms in 1569 into: Quarterly the first sables a Cheveron betweene three flewmes argent: the second quarter per pale argent and vert on a Spatter of the first, a double Rose gules and argent crowned golde: the third quarter as the seconde and the fourth as the first: Over all on a Crosse gules a lyon passant gardant golde. Such compositions as these could not but fail to bring heraldry into contempt, and men soon ceased to revel in and play with it in the same delightful way as before. Here and there, as in Sir Thomas Tresham's market house at Rothwell, or in Sir Henry Stafford's great mansion of Kirby Hall, tradition has been held fast, and play is made upon the former with the Tresham trefoils, and in the latter with Stafford knots and with crests treated as badges in quite the old style. At Kirby Hall, despite its date (1572-5), and at Cadhay in Devon, sitting figures of beasts with shields of arms were set upon the gables, and at Kirby upon the pinnacles that surmounted the pilasters about the court. A good panel with the arms and badge apparently of Sir John Guldeford (_ob._ 1565) is to be seen in East Guldeford church, Sussex (fig. 191). [Illustration: FIG. 191. Arms, with crested helm and badge (a blazing ragged-staff) of, apparently, Sir John Guldeford of Benenden (_ob._ 1565) in East Guldeford church, Sussex.] A remarkably fine specimen of Elizabethan heraldic decoration is also to be seen in the great chamber of Gilling castle, Yorks, as finished by Sir William Fairfax about 1585. Here the beautiful inlaid wall-panelling is surmounted by a frieze nearly four feet deep, painted with hunting scenes and a series of large trees, upon which are hung according to wapentakes the shields of arms of Yorkshire gentlefolk. The chimney piece displays the armorial ensigns of the builder, with those of his Queen above, and four other shields, and between the frettings of the plaster ceiling are the Fairfax lions and goats, and the Stapleton talbot. The rich effect of the whole is completed by the contemporary heraldic glazing with which the windows happily are filled. But in Elizabethan buildings generally, heraldry made but a poor show. Supporters and other creatures had descended from the gables to stand or squat upon gateposts, and occasionally a square panel filled with heraldry was inset above a doorway or a porch; or the family crest, divorced from its helm, was carved upon the spandrels of the entrance. But the former glory had disappeared, and shields of arms were often replaced by initials and dates of owners and builders, presumably because they were 'non-armigerous persons.' Within doors matters were somewhat better. Such gorgeous rooms as the great chamber at Gilling were quite exceptional, and heraldic display was usually confined to the elaborately carved overmantels of the chimneys, which served as a frame for the family arms and crested helm with grand flourishing of mantlings. These were often repeated upon the cast-iron fire-backs. The art of the plasterer was extended to the inclusion of crests and other devices among the ornaments of the moulded ceilings, and the glazier continued to fill the windows with beautiful coloured shields of alliances. Occasionally too the family arms were woven into carpets or table covers; or embroidered by the ladies of the house on the hangings of the state bed, within charming wreaths of flowers copied from those in the garden (fig. 192). [Illustration: FIG. 192. Part of a bed-hanging embroidered with the arms of Henry and Elizabeth Wentworth, _c._ 1560, formerly in the possession of Sir A. W. Franks, K.C.B.] The monuments of the dead continue as before to be adorned with heraldry, but in a different way, and for the beautiful simple arms and devices of the medieval memorial began to be substituted the concentrated shield of the family quarterings, with crest and mantled helm, and such supporters as the College of Arms allowed or approved. Despite the inevitable consequent formality, there is often much that is good about the treatment of Elizabethan and Jacobean heraldry, and it would not be easy, even at an earlier date, to beat the delightful lions upon the shields on the Lennox tomb at Westminster (fig. 194), or to fill up more satisfactorily a shield like that above the monument of Sir Ralph Pecksall (fig. 195). The effective way in which the shield itself is treated in this case is also praiseworthy, and both shields are models of heraldic carving in low relief. [Illustration: FIG. 193. Arms of Cotes, from a mazer print of 1585-6.] [Illustration: FIG. 194. Shield from the tomb of Margaret countess of Lennox (_ob._ 1578) in Westminster abbey church.] [Illustration: FIG. 195. Achievement of arms from the monument of Sir Richard Pecksall (_ob._ 1571) in Westminster abbey church.] The Lennox and Pecksall shields are likewise indicative of another characteristic change, the desire to illustrate ancient descent by the multiplication of quarterings. The disastrous consequences of this practice, even in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, have already been pointed out, but in the reign of Elizabeth it was carved to such an excess as to produce at times a mere patchwork of carved or painted quarters, in which the beauty of the heraldry was entirely lost. In the great hall of Fawsley House, Northants, there hangs a coloured achievement of the Knightley family containing actually 334 quarterings, which have been rightly described by Mr. J. A. Gotch as '330 too many for decorative effect.' The heraldry of the seventeenth century is in general but a duller version of that of the later sixteenth century, with a tendency to become more commonplace as time goes on. Under the Commonwealth every vestige of regality was ordered to be put down and done away; a very large number of representations of the royal arms were defaced and destroyed; and the leopards of England were for a time 'driven into the wilderness' along with the lion of Scotland. It was nevertheless thought desirable that the United Kingdom should still have arms, and on THE GREAT SEALE OF ENGLAND/ IN THE FIRST YEARE OF FREEDOM BY GOD'S BLESSING RESTORED, that is, 1648, the cross of St. George appears for England, and a harp for Ireland. The royal crown was at the same time superseded, on all maces and other symbols of kingly power, by another which curiously reproduces all its elements. It had a circlet inscribed THE FREEDOM OF ENGLAND BY GOD'S BLESSING RESTORED, with the date, and for the cresting of crosses and fleurs-de-lis there was substituted an intertwined cable enclosing small cartouches with the cross of St. George and the Irish harp. The new crown was also arched over, with four graceful incurved members like ostrich feathers, but wrought with oak leaves and acorns. These supported a pyramidal group of four handsome cartouches with the cross and harp surrounded by an acorn, instead of the orb and cross.[29] Perfect examples of this singular republican crown still surmount the two maces of the town of Weymouth. [29] A curious variant of this crown, with a jewelled instead of an inscribed band, heads a drawing of the city arms of the date 1651 in the Dormant Book of the corporation of Carlisle. On the obverse of the new great seal of the Commonwealth, designed and engraved by Simon and first used in 1655, the field is filled with an heraldic achievement of some interest (fig. 196). This includes a shield with the cross of St. George in the first and fourth quarters, St. Andrew's cross in the second quarter, and the Irish harp in the third quarter, with the lion of Cromwell on a scutcheon of pretence. This shield of the State's arms is supported by a lion with a royal crown on his head, and by a dragon, standing upon the edge of a ribbon with the motto PAX QVÆRITVR BELLO, and is surmounted by a front-faced helm with much flourished mantling, with a royal crown and the crowned leopard crest above, set athwart the helm. [Illustration: FIG. 196. Obverse of the Great Seal of the Republic of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1655.] The seal furnishes an excellent illustration of the heraldic art of the period, but it is singular that under a Nonconformist domination the arms selected for England and Scotland should consist of the crosses of their patron saints. It is also interesting to note that the expunged arms of England and Scotland had evidently been regarded rightly as personal to the murdered King. A further curious point is the reappearance on the seal of the royal crown of England above the helm and on the leopard crest and the lion supporter. On the reverse of the seal just noted the State's new arms are repeated on a cartouche behind the equestrian figure of the Protector. Of the heraldry of the Restoration and later it is hardly necessary to make mention, so lifeless and dull is the generality of it. A good specimen _c._ 1670 with the arms of the Trinity House (fig. 197), and a later one (fig. 198) with the arms, etc. of the Trevor family, are to be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Reference is due, too, to one other notable example. This is the beautiful panelled ceiling set up over the chapel (formerly the great hall) of Auckland castle, by doctor John Cosin bishop of Durham (fig. 199). It was in making from 1662 to 1664, by a local carpenter, and consists for the most part of a series of square panels containing alternately the cross and four lions that form the arms of the bishopric of Durham, and the fret forming the arms of Cosin. In the middle bay the bishop's arms are given in an oval, and flanked by similar ovals with the eagle of St. John in allusion to his name. No earlier wooden ceiling could be finer in conception, and the effect of the whole was originally enhanced by colour and gilding, but this was most unhappily removed by order of bishop Barrington (1791-1826). [Illustration: FIG. 197. Arms, etc. of the Trinity House, London. From a wood carving _c._ 1670 in the Victoria and Albert Museum.] [Illustration: FIG. 198. Limewood carving with the arms and crest of the Trevor family, _c._ 1700, in the Victoria and Albert Museum.] [Illustration: FIG. 199. Part of the carved oak ceiling of the chapel, formerly the hall, of Auckland castle, Durham, with the arms of bishop John Cosin, date 1662-4.] With so notable a late survival of medieval tradition this book may fitly end. CHRONOLOGICAL SERIES OF ILLUSTRATIONS The following series of illustrations is an attempt to gather up into chronological order such of the more typical examples in this book as serve to show the development and various applications of heraldic art from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century. The series could, of course, have been extended indefinitely, but the present collection is probably sufficient for its purpose. [Illustration: _c._ 1255 _c._ 1259 Tiles _c._ 1255 from the chapter-house and shield _c._ 1259 from the quire aisle of Westminster abbey] [Illustration: Shields _c._ 1259 from the quire aisles of Westminster abbey church] [Illustration: The Syon Cope, a late thirteenth-century work with armorial orphrey and border in the Victoria and Albert Museum] [Illustration: Quartered shield of Queen Eleanor of Castile, from her tomb at Westminster, 1291] [Illustration: 1 2 Seals from the Barons' Letter of 1301 of (1) Hugh Bardolf and (2) Henry Percy] [Illustration: Diapered shield from the monument of the lady Eleanor Percy (_ob._ 1337) in Beverley Minster] [Illustration: Diapered shield from the monument of the lady Eleanor Percy (_ob._ 1337) in Beverley Minster] [Illustration: Shield of the arms of Sir Humphrey Littlebury, from his effigy at Holbeach in Lincolnshire; _c._ 1360] [Illustration: Shields from brasses at New Romney, Kent, and at Salisbury, 1375] [Illustration: Shield modelled in boiled leather, from the tomb of Edward prince of Wales, _ob._ 1376, at Canterbury] [Illustration: Shield and crested helm with simple mantling from a brass at Southacre, Norfolk, 1384] [Illustration: Stall-plate of Ralph lord Bassett, 1390, showing simple form of mantling] [Illustration: 1 2 Shields with lions from (1) Felbrigge, Norfolk, _c._ 1380, and (2) from Spilsby, Lincs, 1391] [Illustration: Shields from brasses at Chipping Campden, Glos. 1401, and Great Tew, Oxon, 1410] [Illustration: Arms of St. Edmund the King and St. Edward the Confessor, from the tomb of Edmund duke of York, _ob._ 1402, at King's Langley] [Illustration: Seal of Richard Beauchamp earl of Warwick, in 1403, and early fifteenth-century heraldic tiles from Tewkesbury abbey church] [Illustration: Shields from brasses at Checkendon, Oxon, 1404, and Boughton-under-Blean, Kent, 1405] [Illustration: Shields from brasses at Kidderminster, Worcs, 1415, and Whitchurch, Oxon, _c._ 1420] [Illustration: Part of the chancel arcade in Wingfield church, Suffolk, with badges of Michael de la Pole earl of Suffolk, _ob._ 1415, and his wife Katherine Stafford] [Illustration: Stall-plate of Walter lord Hungerford, after 1426] [Illustration: Stall-plate of Humphrey duke of Buckingham as Earl of Stafford, _c._ 1429] [Illustration: Tomb of Lewis Robsart lord Bourchier, _ob._ 1431, in Westminster abbey church] [Illustration: Banner stall-plate of Richard Nevill earl of Salisbury, _c._ 1436] [Illustration: Banner stall-plate of Sir John Grey of Ruthin, _c._ 1439] [Illustration: Spandrel of the tomb of Oliver Groos, Esq., _ob._ 1439, in Sloley church, Norfolk] [Illustration: Chimney-piece in Tattershall castle, Lincs, built by Ralph lord Cromwell between 1433 and 1455] [Illustration: Print from a mazer at All Souls college, Oxford, _c._ 1450, and shield from a brass at Stanford Dingley, Berks, 1444] [Illustration: Seals of Edmund duke of Somerset, _c._ 1445, and John Tiptoft earl of Worcester, 1449] [Illustration: Seal of Cecily Nevill, wife of Richard duke of York and mother of King Edward IV, 1461] [Illustration: _c._ 1500 _c._ 1476 Shields from the chantry chapel of Thomas Ramryge abbot of St. Albans, _c._ 1500, and from a brass at Stoke Poges, Bucks, 1476] [Illustration: Oriel window in the Deanery at Wells, with badges of King Edward IV and rebuses of Dean Gunthorpe, _c._ 1475-80] [Illustration: Armorial panel, _temp._ King Edward IV, from the George Inn at Glastonbury] [Illustration: Chimney-piece in the Bishop's Palace at Exeter, with arms and badges of bishop Peter Courtenay, 1478-87] [Illustration: Gateway to the Deanery at Peterborough with arms and badges of King Henry VII and others, built by Robert Kirkton, abbot 1497-1526] [Illustration: Heraldic candle-holder, etc. from the bronze grate about the tomb of King Henry VII at Westminster] [Illustration: Bronze door with York and Beaufort badges from Henry VII's chapel at Westminster] [Illustration: Crowned initials of King Henry VII from his chapel at Westminster, and crowned portcullis and rose from King's college chapel at Cambridge] [Illustration: Crowned arms and supporters of King Henry VII in King's college chapel at Cambridge] [Illustration: Carved panel with the crowned arms, supporters, and badges of King Henry VIII at New Hall, Essex] [Illustration: Gatehouse of Christ's college at Cambridge, built by the lady Margaret Beaufort after 1505] [Illustration: Base of an oriel on the master's lodge at Christ's college in Cambridge with the armorial ensigns of the lady Margaret Beaufort, foundress, _c._ 1505] [Illustration: Armorial panel with the arms, etc. of the lady Margaret Beaufort, on the gatehouse of St. John's college in Cambridge] [Illustration: Head of a doorway, now in Norwich Guildhall, _temp._ King Henry VIII] [Illustration: Paving tile, _c._ 1535, from Marten church, Wilts; and shield of St. George in the Garter from the brass of Thomas earl of Wiltshire and Ormond, 1533, at Hever in Kent] [Illustration: Lozenge of arms from the monument at Westminster of Frances Brandon duchess of Suffolk, _ob._ 1559] [Illustration: Part of an embroidered bed-hanging, _c._ 1560] [Illustration: Arms with crested helm and badge of (apparently) Sir John Guldeford of Benenden, _ob._ 1565, in East Guldeford church, Sussex] [Illustration: Armorial ensigns from the monument of Sir Richard Pecksall, _ob_. 1571, in Westminster abbey church] [Illustration: Shield from the tomb of Margaret countess of Lennox, _ob._ 1578, in Westminster abbey church] [Illustration: Obverse of the Great Seal of the Republic of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1655] [Illustration: Part of the carved oak ceiling of the chapel of Auckland castle, Durham, with the arms of bishop John Cosin. Date, 1662-4] [Illustration: Arms, etc. of the Trinity House, London. From a wood-carving _c._ 1670 in the Victoria and Albert Museum] [Illustration: Limewood carving with the arms and crest of the Trevor family, _c._ 1700, in the Victoria and Albert Museum] INDEX INDEX Academy, Royal, heraldry at exhibitions, 33 Acton church (Suffolk), brass in, 252 Africa, South, 269 Albans, Saint, 54, 164, 259, 281; abbey church of, 73, 74 Albemarle, Richard earl of, _see_ Beauchamp; William earl of, _see_ Forz Albert Medal for Bravery, 265 Aldeburgh arms, 326 Aldeburgh, Margaret, 326; Sir William, 326 Alderby, John of, bp. of Lincoln, 322 Aldermaston (Berks), 306 Alen, Sir John, 307, 308 Alexandra, Queen, banner of, 228 Alexandria, rubies of, 275, 290 Alnwick, William, bp. of Norwich, 264 Andrew, saint, cross or saltire of, 40, 225, 248, 249 Angoulême, arms of, 119 Anne of Bohemia, Queen, 89, 172, 185, 324 Anstis, John, 309 Anthony, cross of saint, 50 Antiquaries, Society of, 233 Aquitaine, duchy of, 154 Arms, rolls of, 62 Arundel (Sussex), effigy at, 277, 279 Arundel, Beatrice countess of, 278; Edmund earl of, _see_ FitzAlan; Joan countess of, 279, 280; Richard earl of, _see_ FitzAlan; Thomas earl of, 273, 277; Sir Edmund of, 118; Sir William, 144, 145; William earl of, _see_ FitzAlan Ashmole, Elias, 224 Astley, Sir John, 131 Aston (Warw), effigy at, 305 Athelhampton House (Dorset), 331 Auckland castle (Durham), ceiling in, 352, 353 Aveline, countess of Lancaster, 120 Badges, 165-184 Badlesmere, Bartholomew, 117; Maud, 117, 118 Baliol arms, 326 Ballard arms, 61 Banastre, Sir Thomas, 141 Banner, the King's, 219, 220, 226, 227, 228 Banners of arms, 216, 217, 219-233 Bar, the, 40 Barbours and Chirurgeons, Company of, 337 Bardolf, Hugh, seal of, 68; William lord, _see_ Phelip Baret, John, 303 Barker, Christopher, Garter, 335 Barons' Letter of 1300-1, 49, 68, 69, 77, 82, 112, 113, 124, 125, 126, 172, 181, 195 Barre, Henry count of, 113; Joan dau. of, 113 Barrington, bishop, 353 Barron, Mr. Oswald, 52 Barry, 43; number of bars, 48 Bartholomew, hospital of Saint, arms, 48 Basing House (Hants), 285 Bassett, Ralph lord, 112, 140, 142 Baston, the, 44 Bath, collar of the, 293; Order of the, 253 Bath and Wells, Thomas bp. of, _see_ Beckington Batour, John, 199 Battled, 45 Baunton (Glos), frontal at, 320 Bayeux, seal for town of, 205, 210 Beatrice countess of Arundel, 278 Beauchamp arms, 51, 58, 63, 97; badges, 58, 96, 184; family, 103 Beauchamp, Henry, earl of Warwick, 272; John, of Hacche, 197; Margaret, 96, 214; Richard, earl of Warwick and Albemarle, 61, 96, 144, 146, 204, 208, 209, 214, 221, 274, 276; Thomas, earl of Warwick, 175, 198 Beaufort, Edmund, duke of Somerset, 205, 210; Henry, bp. of Winchester, 164; Joan, countess of Westmorland, 278, 282; John, duke of Somerset and earl of Kendal, 206, 231; the lady Margaret, 184, 209, 286-288 Beaufort portcullis, 169, 288, 304 Beaumont, John lord, 141; Margaret, 217 Beckington, Thomas, bp. of Bath and Wells, rebus of, 188, 191 Bedale (Yorks), effigy at, 73 Bedford, Jasper duke of, _see_ Jasper Bedford, John duke of, _see_ John Bedford's _Blazon of Episcopacy_, 335 Bek, Antony, bp. of Durham, arms of, 50 Bend, the, 40, 41; Bendy, 44 Benenden (Kent), 339 Bensted arms, 114 Bensted, Sir John, 114; Parnell, 114 Bentley, Little (Essex), brass at, 306 Berkeley arms, 51, 63; badge, 184; mermaid collar, 310, 311 Berkeley, Thomas of, 125; Thomas lord, 309, 310 Bermingham, Walter, 117 Berners arms, 97 Beverley (Yorks), 329; waits' collars, 313 Beverley minster, heraldry in, 54, 106, 107, 108 Bigod, Sir John, 299 Boar, silver, of King Richard III, 304 Bohemia, Anne of, _see_ Anne Bohun, Eleanor, 172, 214, 323; Humphrey, earl of Hereford and Essex, 172, 193, 194, 196, 274; John de, earl of Hereford, 115; Mary, 92, 172, 298 Bohun of Hereford, arms of, 96; of Northampton, arms of, 96 Bohun swan badge, 172, 184, 196, 214, 298, 327 Bordeaux, John seneschal of, _see_ Nevill Border, the, 41 Boroughbridge Roll, 62 Botreaux, Margaret lady of, _see_ Hungerford; William lord, 203, 217 Boughton-under-Blean (Kent), brass at, 81 Bourchier arms, 97; knot, 184-186, 188; water-bougets, 182 Bourchier, Henry, earl of Essex, 188; Henry lord, 158; Hugh lord, _see_ Stafford; John lord, 143, 158; Lewis lord, _see_ Robsart; Sir Humphrey, 97, 186; Thomas, abp. of Canterbury, 186 Boutell, Rev. C., 157 Bowet, Henry, abp. of York, 328, 329 Brabant, arms of, 119 Brancepeth (Durham), effigies at, 304 Brandon, Frances, duchess of Suffolk, 110 Braose, William de, 112 Bristol waits' collars, 313 British Museum, 53, 261, 262, 304 Bromfleet, Sir Thomas, arms of, 82 Brooke, George, lord Cobham, 133 Broom-cods, collar of, 309 Brotherton, _see_ Thomas Bryen, arms of, 252 Bryen, Guy lord, 73, 74, 196 Buch, the Captal de, 141 Buckingham, duke and earl of, _see_ Stafford; Henry duke of, 96, 98 Buckingham, earldom of, arms of, 96 Buckingham Palace, memorial in front of, 34 Bullen, Thomas, earl of Wiltshire and Ormond, 267 Bures, arms of, 252 Burgh, John of, 114; Sir Thomas, stall-plate of, 136; William of, earl of Ulster, 117, 119 Burghersh, barony of, 200; Sir Bartholomew, 198 Burlington House, _see_ London Burnell, Hugh lord, 141, 149 Burnham Thorpe (Norfolk), brass at, 296 Burton, Thomas, bp. of Exeter, 322 Bury St. Edmunds, St. Mary's church at, 303 Cadhay (Devon), 338 Caius, doctor John, 336 Calais, arms of, 215; seal of mayoralty of, 214, 215 Calthorpe, Sir William, 296 Cambridge, arms of regius professors, 253; rebus on name, 189 Cambridge, Christ's college, 179, 286, 287, 288; King's college chapel, 170, 181, 210, 213, 331; Pembroke college, 252; St. John's college, 181, 288, 289 Camoys, lady, brass of, 296; Thomas lord, 261, 263; arms of, 264 Candle-holder, heraldic, 55 Canterbury, 61, 84, 101, 102, 132, 134, 166, 167, 168, 186, 260, 270, 271, 290, 291, 300, 303, 335 Canterbury, Christchurch, 120, 321 Canterbury, John abp. of, _see_ Morton; Thomas abp. of, _see_ Bourchier; William abp. of, _see_ Courtenay; William archdn. of, _see_ Pakington Cap of estate, the, 154 Carlisle Dormant book, 347 Carnarvon, Edward of, 111 Castile, arms of, 86, 111; castle of, 114; kingdom of, 112 Castile and Leon, castles and lions of, 114 Chamberlayne, Sir William, 158 Charles IV, Emperor, 89 Chaucer, Geoffrey, arms of, 48 Chaworth, arms of, 117 Checkendon (Oxon), brass at, 256 Checky, 44; number of checkers, 49 Chester, arms of, 135; sheriff's chain, 315 Chester, Edward earl of, _see_ Edward prince of Wales _Chevaler au cing_, 171 Cheveron, the, 41, 42 Cheyney, Sir John, 306 Chief, the, 41, 42 Chipping Campden (Glos), brass at, 90 Chronological series of illustrations, 354-407 Cinque Ports, arms of the, 135 Clare arms, 114, 115, 117, 199; black bulls of, 204, 207; label of, 101 Clare, Elizabeth de, 114; Gilbert de, earl of Gloucester, 114, 194 Clarence, duke of, _see_ Lionel; George duke of, _see_ George; Thomas duke of, _see_ Thomas Clehonger (Heref), 76 Clerk, Dan John, 329 Clifford, Robert de, 171 Clopton arms, 45, 46 Clun, arms of, 106 Cobham (Kent), 133, 134 Cobham, George Brooke, lord, 133, 134; Raynald, lord, 141 Cockermouth, Henry Percy, lord of, _see_ Percy Colchester, arms of, 50 College of Arms, _see_ Heralds' College Colley, Thomas de, 325 Constance, brass at, 263, 265 Constance of Castile, 111 Corfe castle, Dorset, 69 Cornwall, earl of, _see_ Richard; Edmund earl of, 194; Edward duke of, _see_ Edward prince of Wales Coronets, introduction and history of, 271-285 Cosin arms, 353 Cosin, John, bp. of Durham, 352, 353 Cotes, arms of, 343 Cotises, 45 Counter-coloured, 48 Courtenay dolphin, 182 Courtenay, Hugh, earl of Devon, 116; Peter, bp. of Exeter, 175, 177; Sir Peter, 229; William, abp. of Canterbury, 162 Coventry cross, 242 Cowdray House, Sussex, 239, 331 Crests, origin and treatment of, 123; use of, by bishops, 161-163 Cromwell lion, 347 Cromwell, Ralph lord, 57 Cross, the, 40; varieties of, 49, 50 Crosslets, 51 Crowns, heraldic, 148-153 Crusily, 51 Cyprus gold, 327, 328 D'Abernoun, Sir John, 235 Dabrichecourt, Sir Sanchet, 140, 143 Dalton, Laurence, Norroy, 336 D'Amory, Roger lord, 114 Daunce, the, 45 David, King of Scotland, 325 Dennington (Suffolk), 60, 297 Derby, Henry earl of, _see_ Henry; Thomas earl of, _see_ Stanley Despenser arms, 63, 88 Despenser, Henry le, bp. of Norwich, 161, 162; Richard lord, _see_ Beauchamp; Thomas lord, 199 Devon, Hugh earl of, _see_ Courtenay Deynelay, Robert, 129 Diapering, 105-108 Differencing of arms, 98-103 Dimidiation, 251 Dorking, Rev. E. E., rebus of, 192 Dorset (county of), 59 Dover (Kent), arms of, 135 Dreux arms, 119 Dublin, Richard marquess of, _see_ Oxford Durham, arms of bishopric of, 353; bishops of, 163 Durham, Cuthbert bp. of, _see_ Tunstall; John bp. of, _see_ Cosin, Fordham; Robert bp. of, _see_ Nevill; Thomas bp. of, _see_ Hatfield, Langley; Walter bp. of, _see_ Skirlaw Easton, Little (Essex), 188 Edmund earl of Kent, 99; earl of Lancaster, 100 Edmund of Langley duke of York, 94, 101, 150, 155, 167, 199, 206, 229 Edmund, saint, arms of, 150 Edward I, King, 86, 99, 100, 101, 113, 114, 237 Edward II, King, 47, 86, 99, 115, 291, 293 Edward III, King, 61, 88, 92, 101, 125, 154, 155, 214, 215, 263, 272, 323, 324, 325, 326 Edward IV, King, 75, 168, 190, 208, 212, 222, 225, 291, 304, 334 Edward V, King, 200 Edward VI, King, 272, 335 Edward prince of Wales, 61, 84, 99, 101, 102, 132, 134, 155, 166, 167, 260, 261, 262, 271 Edward, saint, arms of, 37, 50, 89, 94, 323 Eleanor, daughter of King Edward I, 113 Eleanor of Castile, Queen, 71, 86, 91, 113, 114, 170, 270, 323 Elizabeth, Queen, 224, 225, 336 Elsefield, Elizabeth, 118; Sir Gilbert, 118 Elsing (Norf), brass at, 100, 157 Eltham, John of, _see_ John Embroideries, heraldic, 319-330 Engayn, John, 127 England, 59, 248, 249, 335; arms of, 88, 89, 99, 111, 113, 115, 350; leopards of, 217, 226, 346; lion supporter of, 206 England, King of, 79, 322, 323; supporters of, 206 Engrailing, 44 Erdington family, knight of, 305, 312 Ermine, 39, 258 Erpingham, Sir Thomas, 144 Essex, earl of, _see_ Stafford Humphrey; Henry earl of, _see_ Bourchier; Humphrey earl of, _see_ Bohun Essex, earldom of, arms of, 193 Est, Robert, 329 Esturmy, Henry, _see_ Sturmy Etchingham church (Sussex), 239, 240 Etchingham, Sir William, 239 Eton College arms, 47 Ewelme (Oxon), effigy at, 283, 284 Exeter, bishop's palace at, 175, 177; brass at, 185; sheriff's chain, 312; waits' collars, 313, 314 Exeter, duchess of, 283; Edward bp. of, _see_ Stafford; Peter bishop of, 321; Peter bp. of, _see_ Courtenay; Thomas bp. of, _see_ Burton; Thomas duke of, _see_ Holand; Thomas duke of, _see_ Thomas Fairfax lions and goats, 339 Fairfax, Sir William, 338 Falstaff, Sir John, 203 Farnham, Sir Robert, arms of, 48 Fauconberg, William lord, 229 Fawsley House (Northants), 343 Felbrigge (Norf), brass at, 78, 89 Felbrigge, Sir Simon, 158, 160 Fer-de-moline, 47, 50 Ferrers, Thomas earl, _see_ Thomas; William de, 197 Fesse, the, 40 Fetterlock-and-falcon badge, 168, 169 Firedogs, heraldic, 56 FitzAlan, Alice, 273, 274; Brian, arms, 73; Edmund, earl of Arundel, 118; Joan, 196, 273, 274; Richard, earl of Arundel, 115, 273, 275; William, earl of Arundel, 279 FitzAlan, arms, 116, 117; oak-leaf badge, 305 FitzGerald, Emmeline, 217 FitzHamon, Robert, arms of, 63 FitzHugh, Henry lord, 229 FitzHugh and Marmion, William lord, 215 FitzJohn, John, 114 FitzPain, Robert, 112 FitzWalter arms, 45 FitzWalter, Walter lord, 129 FitzWarin seal, 196 FitzWaryn, Sir William, 141 Flanches, 42 Foljambe arms, 119 Foljambe, Roger, 118 Fordham, John, bp. of Durham, 163 Forster, Sir George, 306 Forz, William of, earl of Albemarle, 120 Fotheringay church (Northants), 239 France and Normandy, Richard, governor of, _see_ Richard France, arms of, 88, 115, 119, 120, 224, 322, 323, 324; label of, 100 France, John, marshal of, _see_ Talbot; John, regent of, _see_ John France, King of, 80, 85, 154 France, Old, arms of, 89 France, Philip King of, 322 Franks, Sir A. W., 342 Furnival, Thomas, 112 Garter, collar of the, 281, 293, 295; mantle of the, 280, 281; Order of the, 253, 260, 261 Garter, Knights of the, banners of, 224, 225, 228; stall-plates of, 62, 70, 112, 130, 138, 151, 229, 259 Garter, the, 260-267 Gaunt, _see_ John of Gemell-bars, 45 George duke of Clarence and lord of Richmond, 203, 204, 207, 229 George, saint, arms or cross of, 49, 226, 234, 235, 248, 249, 267, 346, 347 Gilling castle (Yorks), 338, 340 Glamorgan, lordship of, 200 Glass, heraldic, 54 Glastonbury, George inn at, 74, 75 Gloucester, city of, 298; arms, 335; effigy at, 293 Gloucester, duke of, _see_ Thomas; Gilbert earl of, _see_ Clare; Richard duke of, 59 Gobony, 83 Goldsmiths' Company, arms, 72 Goldwell, James, bp. of Norwich, 162, 191 Gonvile arms, 45 Gotch, Mr. J. A., 346 Gower, John, 298 Grapenell, H. de, 114; Parnel, 114 Graunson, Katharine, 117; Margaret, 196 Grevel, William, brass of, 90 Grey, lady Jane, 285 Grey of Codnor, Richard lord, 151, 153, 182, 183 Grey of Ruthin, Sir John, 229, 232 Groos, Oliver, 301 Guienne, duchy of, 155 Guildford (Surrey) mayor's chain and medal, 315 Guldeford, East (Sussex), 338, 339 Guldeford, Sir John, 338, 339 Gunthorpe, dean, 74, 190, 192 Gyronny, 41 Hainault, arms of, 323; house of, 166 Hales, Sir Stephen, 129 Hallam, Robert, bp. of Salisbury, 263, 265 Halle, Peter, brass of, 93 Halving of arms, 251 Hamlake, _see_ Roos Hampton Court, 331; heraldry at, 243-248 Harcourt, Sir Robert, 305 Harewell, bishop, effigy of, 192 Harsick brass at Southacre, 158, 159 Hastings arms, 117 Hastings, John, earl of Pembroke, 275; John lord, 117; Sir Hugh, arms, brass, and crest of, 100, 157; Sir Ralph 174, 328; William lord, 140, 204 Hatfield, Thomas, bp. of Durham, 163 Hatfield Broadoak (Essex), effigy at, 104, 106 Hearne, T., 242 Helmsley, _see_ Roos Hengrave Hall (Suffolk), 331 Henry III, King, 36, 99, 170, 291, 292 Henry IV, King, 92, 168, 172, 200, 270, 290, 291, 297, 298, 299, 300 Henry V, King, 302, 309 Henry VI, King, 47, 264, 272, 309, 334 Henry VII, King, 55, 154, 169, 181, 210, 213, 266, 288, 294, 306 Henry VIII, King, 72, 211, 245-248, 291, 308, 331-335 Henry duke of Lancaster and earl of Derby, 91, 128, 167, 200, 297, 298, 299, 300, 309 Henry earl of Lancaster, 117 Heraldic beasts as finials and vane holders, 238-239, 241-248 Heraldic colours, 37, 38; furs, 39 Heraldry, definition of, 35 Heralds' College, 233, 235, 334, 336, 341 Hereford, arms of, earldom of, 214, 327 Hereford, duke of, 92; earl of, _see_ Stafford, Humphrey; Henry duke of, _see_ Henry; Humphrey earl of, _see_ Bohun; John earl of, _see_ Bohun Herne (Kent), brass at, 93 Heslerton, Alice, 118; Thomas of, 118 Heslerton arms, 118 Hever (Kent), brass at, 267 Hexham, regality of, seal of, 105 Heytesbury, banner of, 216 Holand, Joan, 206; Thomas, duke of Exeter, 282; Thomas, earl of Kent, 168, 206, 214, 274; Thomas de, 129 Holand, lordship of, 213 Holand and Wake, Thomas lord, 211 Holbeach (Lincs), effigy at, 257 Holbein, the painter, 295, 306, 307 Hollar (Wenceslaus), 242 Holyngbroke, William, arms of, 87 Hope rebus, 192 Howard, Thomas, duke of Norfolk, 295, 329 Humphrey duke of Gloucester and earl of Buckingham, 96, 164, 281 Hungerford and Botreaux, Margaret lady of, 217, 222, 239 Hungerford, Robert lord, 60, 303; Sir Robert, 217; Walter lord, 144, 216, 221, 222, 229, 230 Hungerford sickle, 182, 216 Hussey arms, 116, 144; banner of, 216 Huth, Mr. Edward, 307 Ich diene, the motto, 166 Illustrations, Chronological series of, 354-407 Impalement of arms, 252 Indenting, 45 Ireland, 249; harp of, 226, 347 Isabel, sister of Richard duke of York, 188 Isabel, Queen, 115, 324 Islip, John, abbot of Westminster, rebus of, 189, 191 James I, King, 283 Jane the fool, 248 Jasper duke of Bedford, 164 Jerusalem, Kingdom of, arms of, 51 Joan, countess of Arundel, 279, 280, 304 Joan, dau. of King Edward I, 114 Joan princess of Wales, 174, 326 Joan, Queen, 299, 303; effigy of, 270, 271 John duke of Bedford and regent of France, 215, 229 John of Eltham, the lord, 99, 323 John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster, 101, 111, 155, 166, 167, 174, 199, 272, 324, 328 John, saint, eagle of, 353 John, Saint, John lord, 275 Katharine, saint, hospital of, 282, 283 Kendal, John earl of, _see_ Beaufort Kensington, South, 119 Kent, earl of, _see_ Edmund; Thomas earl of, _see_ Holand Keys, Roger, and Thomas, arms of, 47, 48 Kidderminster (Worcs), brass at, 88 King's Langley (Herts), 150 King's Lynn waits' collars, 313, 314 Kingston-on-Hull, mayor's and mayoress's chains, 315 Kirby Hall (Northants), 338 Kirkham priory (Yorks), heraldry on gatehouse, 38 Kirkton, Robert, abbot of Peterborough, 178; rebus of, 188, 191 Knightley family, 343 Knots as badges, 184 Label, the, 99 Laci, Henry de, arms of, 44; Henry de, earl of Lincoln, 124, 194 Lacy arms, 119 Ladies, arms of, 109 Lancaster, Aveline countess of, 120; Henry of, lord of Monmouth, 125, 126, 127, 194; Thomas earl of, _see_ Thomas Lancaster, duke of, _see_ John of Gaunt Lancaster, earl of, _see_ Edmund Lancaster, House of, 296 Langeton, canon William, 185 Langley, _see_ Edmund of Langley, Thomas, bp. of Durham, 163 Latimer, William lord, 141, 328 Lavenham church (Suffolk), 175 Lavenham, William of, 273 Law, Ernest, 244 Legg, L. G. Wickham, 155 Leicester, Thomas earl of, _see_ Thomas Lennox, Margaret countess of, tomb of, 341, 343, 344 Leon, arms of, 86, 111; lion of, 114 Leybourne arms, 117, 120, 125, 322 Leybourne, Juliana, 117; Roger, 124, 211; Thomas, 117 Lincoln, Henry earl of, _see_ Laci; Henry de Laci earl of, 44; John bp. of, _see_ Alderby Lincoln minster, heraldry in, 54 Lionel duke of Clarence, 101, 272 Lisle effigy at Thruxton, 308 Little Device, the, 154 Littlebury, Sir Humphrey, effigy of, 257 London, 299; arms of, 337; banner of the lord mayor of, 219, 226, 228; collar of SS of lord mayor, 308, 315; sheriff's chains, 315; waits' collars, 313 London, Burlington House, 233; Mansion House, 219, 226; National Portrait Gallery, 211; Nelson Column in, 290; St. Paul's cathedral church, 108, 228, 323; Templars' church in, 105; Trinity House, arms, 349, 350 Longespee, Emmeline, 217; Stephen, 194, 217 Longespee lions, 200; longswords, 182, 217 Long Melford (Suffolk), 46 Lord, Our, arms of, 49 Lovain arms, 97 Lovel badge, 184 Lovel, Francis viscount, 147; John lord, 304; Katharine, 321 Lovel and Holand, William lord, 200 Lowick church (Northants), 187, 188 Lozenges of arms, use of, 110 Lozengy, 44 Lucy arms, 218; pike, 182 Lullingstone (Kent), 191, 192 Lupton, Robert, provost of Eton, rebus of, 191 Lyhart, Walter, bp. of Norwich, 191 Lyte, John, arms of, 334 Macclesfield, Thomas, seneschal of, 183 Magnavilla, Geoffrey de, 105 Man, Isle of, 183 Manners effigy at Windsor, 306 Mansion House, _see_ London Mantlings, 139-147 Mapperton manor-house (Dorset), 238, 243 March, earls of, 168; Edmund earl of, _see_ Mortimer; Richard earl of, _see_ Richard; Roger earl of, _see_ Mortimer March, white lion of, 206, 208, 209, 304, 326 Margaret, saint, 313 Markenfield, Sir Thomas, 309, 310 Marmion, William lord, _see_ FitzHugh Marni, Sir Robert de, 129, 130, 198 Martel family, 189 Marten church (Wilts), tile from, 334 Mary I, Queen, 313, 336 Mary, Queen, banner of, 228 Masons' Company, 134 Maud of Lancaster, 117, 119 Mauley arms, 128 Mauley, Peter de, IV, seal of, 82; Peter de, VI, 128, 198 Mayors' collars or chains, 313 Michael, St., and St. George, Order of, 108, 228 Mildenhall (Suffolk), brass formerly at, 301 Monmouth, Henry lord of, _see_ Lancaster Montagu griffin, 205 Montagu, John lord, _see_ Nevill; Simon lord of, 69, 86; Sybil, 117; William, earl of Salisbury, 117, 125, 127, 152, 195 More, Sir Thomas, 306, 307, 312 Mortimer arms, 174, 302, 326 Mortimer, Edmund, earl of March and Ulster, 174, 197, 201, 274, 302, 325; Philippa, 274; Roger, earl of March and Ulster, 199 Morton, John, abp. of Canterbury, 164; Thomas, canon of York, 328 Moulton, Thomas de, 124 Moun, John de, 195 Mounci, Walter de, 128 Mugginton (Derbys), brass at, 304 Multon, Elizabeth de, 117 Nanfant, Sir Richard, 233 Nelson Column in London, 290 Nevill, Alexander, abp. of York, 162; Cecily, 208, 212; John lord, 277; John, lord Montagu, 203; John, lord of Raby, 199; Margery, wife of John lord, 277; Ralph, earl of Westmorland, 278; Richard, earl of Salisbury and Warwick, 93, 137, 138, 160, 200, 205, 229, 231; Robert, bp. of Durham, 163, 164; Sir William, 199 Nevill, effigies at Brancepeth, 304; family, 103 Newburgh, arms of, 97 Newcastle sheriff's chain, 315 New Hall (Essex), 210, 291, 332, 333 Nicolas, Sir N. H., 273 Norfolk, Thomas duke of, _see_ Howard Normandy, duchy of, 154, 155 Northampton, earl of, _see_ Stafford, Humphrey Northumberland, duke of, 311, 312; earl of, 311; Henry earl of, _see_ Percy Northwood arms, 120, 322 Norwich arms, 72; mayor's chain, 315; sheriff's chain, 315; waits' collars, 313, 314 Norwich cathedral church, 192, 263, 306 Norwich Guildhall, doorway in, 71, 72 Norwich, Henry bishop of, _see_ Despenser; James bp. of, _see_ Goldwell; Walter bp. of, _see_ Lyhart; William bp. of, 264 Ockwells (Berks), heraldic glass at, 211 Oldhalle, Sir William, 182 Ordinaries, the, formation of, 40, 41 Orle, the, 42 Ormond, Thomas earl of, _see_ Bullen Ostrevant, Comté of, 166 Ostrich-feathers badge, 166 Oxenbridge, John, rebus of, 192 Oxford, rebus on name, 189 Oxford, All Souls' college, 61; Magdalen college, 112; Queen's college, seal of, 80 Oxford, John earl of, _see_ Vere; Richard earl of, and marquess of Dublin, 272; Robert earl of, _see_ Vere Pakington, William, archdn. of Canterbury, 326 Pale, the, 40 Paly, 43; number of pales, 49 Park-palings, collar of, 309, 310 Party, 40; Party-bendwise, 40; Party-fessewise, 40; Party-saltirewise, 41 Passion, instruments of the, 49 Patrick, saint, 249; cross or saltire of, 225 Paul, saint, sword of, 226 Pavely, Sir Walter, 141 Paynel, William, 113 Peche, Sir John, 125; rebus of, 191, 192 Pecksall, Sir Ralph, 341, 343, 345 Pelham, Sir John, badge of, 200 Pembridge, effigy of a, 76 Pembroke, earl of, 323; _see also_ Valence Pembroke, John earl of, _see_ Hastings Pennons, 235-237 Perche, earl of, _see_ Stafford, Humphrey Percy arms, 50; badge, 312; crescent badge, 184, 218, 236; lion, etc., 218 Percy, Henry, 77, 239; Henry, earl of Northumberland and lord of Cockermouth, 218, 238, 239; the lady Eleanor, 106, 107, 108 Peter, bishop of Exeter, 321 Peter, saint, arms of, 323, 328, 329 Peterborough (Northants), deanery gateway at, 178, 181, 188, 191 Phelip eagle, 48, 182 Phelip, William, lord Bardolf, 60, 182, 297 Philip, King of France, 322 Philippa, Queen, 166, 167, 323 Pile, the, 42; Pily, 43 Pol, Seynt, Mary de, 115, 116, 251 Pole, de la, arms, 335; badges, 182 Pole, de la, John, duke of Suffolk, 283; Michael, earl of Suffolk, 175, 176, 275; William, earl of Suffolk, 141, 202 Ponthieu, arms of, 71 Poynyngs, arms of, 120, 322 Quarter, the, 41, 42 Quartering, 86 Quarterly, 41 Raby, John lord of, _see_ Nevill Ramryge, abbot Thomas, 73 Rebus, the, 189-192 Redvers arms, 120 Regent's Park, 282, 283 Richard I, King, 124 Richard II, King, 89, 168, 172, 173, 174, 272, 309, 326 Richard III, King, 168, 304, 335 Richard duke of Gloucester, seal of, 59 Richard duke of York and earl of March, 167, 188, 206, 208, 212, 218, 239 Richard earl of Cornwall, arms of, 66 Richmond, George, lord of, _see_ George; Margaret countess of, _see_ Beaufort Richmond, label of, 101 Ripon (Yorks), 309, 310 Rivers, Richard lord, _see_ Wydvile Robsart, Lewis, lord Bourchier, 157, 181, 222, 223, 224, 239 Rochester (Kent), 219 Roll, the Great, 47, 48, 50, 62, 86 Rolls of arms, 62 Romans, Richard, King of the, 194 Romney, New (Kent), brass at, 87 Roos, Thomas lord, of Hamlake, 200 Rothwell (Northants), 338 Roundels of arms, use of, 111 Royal Society, 233 Salisbury cathedral church, 60, 87, 303, 306 Salisbury, earl of, _see_ Nevill, Richard; William earl of, _see_ Montagu Salisbury, Robert, bp. of, _see_ Hallam Salkeld (Cumb), effigies at, 306 Salkeld family, effigies, 306, 312 Saltire, the, 40, 41 Savernake Forest, lord of, _see_ Sturmy; tenure horn of, 116 Scales family, 189 Scales, Sir Roger, 198 Scarcliffe (Derbys), effigy at, 275, 276 Scotland, 85, 248; arms of, 34, 85, 350; lion of, 226, 346; tressure of, 85; unicorn supporter of, 206 Scotland, King of, 321, 323 Scrope crab or _scrap_, 182 Scrope, John lord, 158, 175; Dan Richard, 329 Scutcheon, the, 42 Seals, heraldic, 52 Selden's _Titles of Honour_, 273 Settrington (Yorks), 299 Sheffield, St. Peter's church, effigies in, 280, 281 Shene Charterhouse, prior of, 302 Shield, divisions of the, 40, 41; the, and its treatment, 65 Shorne, Maister John, 242 Shrewsbury, George earl of, 280; John earl of, _see_ Talbot Simon the engraver, 347 Skirlaw, Walter, bp. of Durham, 163 Sloley church (Norf), tomb in, 301 Somers, Will, 248 Somerset (county of), 59 Somerset eagle, 206, 209 Somerset, Edmund duke of, _see_ Beaufort; John duke of, _see_ Beaufort Souche, Alan la, 194, 196 Southacre (Norf), brass at, 159 Southampton, arms of, 48, 86; steward of, 302 Southwark cathedral church, 164, 298 _Souvereyne_, _Soverayne_, or _Soverain_, the word, 167, 200, 298, 300 Sovereign, the, 85, 155 Spain, arms of, 323 Spilsby (Lincs), brass at, 255 SS, collar of, 296-304 Stafford arms, 96 Stafford, earl of, _see_ Stafford, Humphrey Stafford, Edward, bp. of Exeter, 185; Edward, earl of Wiltshire, 187, 188; Hugh, earl of, 275; Hugh, lord Bourchier, 144, 151, 152; Humphrey, duke of Buckingham, 93, 94, 95, 96, 135; Joan, countess of Kent and lady of Wake, 188; Katharine, 175, 176, 275; Sir Henry, 234, 338 Stafford knot, 184, 185, 188, 338 Staindrop (Durham), 276, 278, 282 Standard, the Royal, 220, 227 Standards, 234-235 Stanford Dingley (Berks), brass at, 83 Stanley, Thomas lord, 158, 183, 229 Stanton Harcourt (Oxon), 241, 305 Stapleton, Sir Miles, 144 Stapleton talbot, 339 State's arms, 347, 348, 350 Stoke d'Abernoun (Surrey), 235 Stoke Poges (Bucks), brass at, 70 Stothard's _Monumental Effigies_, 269, 276 Stowe, William, the elder, 310 Sturmy, Henry, 116 Suffolk, Alice duchess of, 283, 284; duchess of, _see_ Brandon; Elizabeth duchess of, 283; John duke of, _see_ Pole; Michael earl of, _see_ Pole; William duke of, 283; William earl of, _see_ Pole Suns-and-roses, collar of, 304, 305 Supporters, origin and uses of, 193-218 Surrey, John earl of, _see_ Warenne Swynburne family, 189 Syon cope, 119, 120, 121 Talbot, John, earl of Shrewsbury, 96, 97, 161, 214, 229, 281 Talbot and Furnival, John lord, 203, 205 Tallow-Chandlers' Company, 134 Tankerville, John earl of, 158 Tattershall castle (Lincs), heraldic chimney-piece in, 57 Tew, Great (Oxon), brass at, 79 Tewkesbury abbey church, 58, 63, 73, 74 Thistle, collar of the, 293 Tildesley, Christopher, 299, 300 Tillzolf arms, 326 Tiptoft, John lord, 229 Thomas duke of Clarence, 302 Thomas duke of Exeter, 200 Thomas (Beaufort) duke of Exeter, 230 Thomas earl of Lancaster, Leicester and Ferrers, 125, 126, 194 Thomas of Brotherton, 100 Thomas of Woodstock duke of Gloucester, 99, 155, 166, 167, 172, 182, 213, 323, 326, 327 Thomas, saint, of Canterbury, 335 Thruxton (Hants), effigy at, 308 Tong (Salop), 306 Toni, Robert de, 171 Torregiano, 266 Trau, the Soudan de la, 144 Tresham, Sir Thomas, 338 Tresham trefoils, 338 Tressure, the, 85 Trevor family arms, 351 Trinity, the Holy, 261, 306 Trinity House, London, arms, 349, 350 Trotton (Sussex), 261, 263, 296 Trumpington family, 189 Tunstall, Cuthbert, bp. of Durham, 163 Twyford, Richard, 323 Tylney, Elizabeth, arms of, 97 Ufford arms, 335 Ufford, Sir Ralph, 117, 119 Ulster arms, 174, 326; badge of, 218; label of, 101 Ulster, Richard earl of, 114; Roger earl of, _see_ Mortimer; William earl of, _see_ Burgh Union Jack, 219, 225, 248, 250 Union of crowns of England and Scotland, 206 Vair, 39, 258; Vairy, 39 Valence arms, 119, 120 Valence, Aymer of, earl of Pembroke, 115, 116, 251, 273; William of, 61, 67, 120 Veer, Hugh de, 181 Verdon, Theobald lord, 114 Vere arms, 88, 104, 117; boar, 182; molet, 48, 182 Vere effigy at Hatfield Broadoak, 106 Vere, John de, earl of Oxford, 117, 118, 175; Robert de, earl of Oxford, 124 Vernon effigy at Tong, 306 Victoria, Queen, memorial to, 33 Victoria and Albert Museum, 53, 119, 121, 349, 351 Victory, figure of, 34 Vipont, Isabel, 171 Voided scutcheon, the, 42 Waits' collars, 313 Wake knot, 184; lordship of, 213 Waldby, Robert, abp. of York, 105 Walden, de, Library, 235 Walworth, Sir William, 226 Walysel, Thomas, brass of, 90 Warde, Robert de la, 128 Warenne, John de, earl of Surrey, 113 Warenne and Surrey, earl of, arms, 49 Warenne estates, 115 Warre, John la, 198 Warwick, 61, 274, 276 Warwick bear, 205 Warwick, earl of, _see_ Beauchamp; Henry earl of, _see_ Beauchamp; Richard earl of, _see_ Beauchamp; Thomas earl of, _see_ Beauchamp Waterford, John earl of, _see_ Talbot Waterton, Robert, 298 Wavy, 43 Wax-Chandlers' Company, 134 Welles, Helen, of York, 328 Wells chapter-house, 302 Wells (Somerset), 74, 190, 191, 192; oriel in deanery, 190, 192 Wentworth arms and family, 342 Westminster, 270, 294 Westminster abbey, arms of, 86; abbey chapter-house, tiles in, 36; vestry of, 322 Westminster abbey church, heraldry in, 37, 43, 44, 54, 55, 61, 66, 67, 71, 80, 85, 86, 91, 92, 97, 99, 110, 120, 169, 170, 172, 173, 180, 181, 184, 186, 189, 222, 223, 259, 266, 332, 341, 344, 345 Westminster, palace of, 221, 285 Westmorland, Joan, countess of, _see_ Beaufort; Ralph earl of, _see_ Nevill Whatton (Notts), effigy at, 73 Whatton, Sir Richard, 73 Whitchurch (Oxon), brass at, 90 Whitchurch (Salop), 281 White hart badge, 168 Wilfrid, saint, 311 Willoughby d'Eresby, William lord, 143 Wilton House (Wilts) diptych at, 309 Wiltshire, Edward earl of, _see_ Stafford; Thomas earl of, _see_ Bullen Winchester, Henry bp. of, _see_ Beaufort; John marquess of, 285 Windsor castle, chapel of St. George in, 62, 112, 113, 151, 192, 224, 241, 242, 243, 306, 331; King's hall in, 238, 239; picture in, 295 Windsor, Sir William, 201 Wingfield church (Suffolk), 175, 176, 283 Woodstock, Thomas of, _see_ Thomas Wotton-under-Edge (Glos), brass at, 309, 310 Wreath or torse, 156-158 Wren, Sir Christopher, 242 Wulcy, Thomas, cardinal, 334, 335 Wydvile, Richard, lord Rivers, 144, 147, 158, 229 Wymington (Beds), brass at, 82 Wyvil, Robert, bp. of Salisbury, arms of, 87 Yale or eale, the, 206, 209 Yarmouth (Norf), mayor's chain, 315 York, 328, 329; chains of lord mayor and lady mayoress, 315; waits' collars, 313 York, Alexander abp. of, _see_ Nevill; Henry abp. of, _see_ Bowet; Robert abp. of, _see_ Waldby York, duke of, _see_ Edmund of Langley; Richard duke of, _see_ Richard York falcon, 206, 208, 218; fetterlock, 188; house of, 168, 169; roses, 200 York minster, heraldry in, 43, 54, 259 Yorkist collar of suns and roses, 304-305, 312 Zouch badge, 184 Zouch, William lord, 203 PRINTED AT THE BALLANTYNE PRESS LONDON * * * * * _BY SPECIAL_ [Illustration] _APPOINTMENT_ ARTISTS' COLOURMEN TO THEIR MAJESTIES THE KING AND QUEEN AND TO H.M. 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JOHN HOGG, 13 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON * * * * * Transcriber's Note Changes to the text are limited to corrections of typographical errors and are listed as follows: Page 26 (index of text illustrations) #105: changed "S'afford" to "Stafford" (Edward Stafford bishop of Exeter) Page 309: changed "Wootton-under-Edge" to "Wotton-under-Edge". This same mis-spelling is also corrected in the caption to Figure 185 and in the list of illustrations on page 31. Note that it was spelled correctly in the Index. Page 426: changed "A" to "AT" (PRINTED AT THE BALLANTYNE PRESS) Plate XXIX caption: changed "ob," to "ob." (Justice in Eyre of Forests, ob. 1460.) 
58212	----	THE NOBLE AND GENTLE MEN OF ENGLAND. THE NOBLE AND GENTLE MEN OF ENGLAND; OR, NOTES TOUCHING THE ARMS AND DESCENTS OF THE ANCIENT KNIGHTLY AND GENTLE HOUSES OF ENGLAND, ARRANGED IN THEIR RESPECTIVE COUNTIES. ATTEMPTED BY EVELYN PHILIP SHIRLEY, ESQ. M.A. F.S.A. LATE ONE OF THE KNIGHTS OF THE SHIRE FOR THE COUNTY OF WARWICK. [Illustration] WESTMINSTER: JOHN BOWER NICHOLS AND SONS. Third Edition, Corrected 1866. PREFACE. "That noble families are continued in a long succession of wealth, honour, and reputation, is justly esteemed as one of the most valuable of worldly blessings, as being the certain tokens of God Almighty's providential favour, and the prudent conduct of such ancestors,"--Nath. Johnston's _Account of the Family of Bruce Earl of Aylesbury_, 1691, Harl. MS, 3879. THE following imperfect attempt to bring together a few notes relating to the ancient aristocracy of England, is confined in the first place to the families _now existing_, and regularly established either as _knightly_ or _gentle_ houses before the commencement of the sixteenth century; secondly, no notice is taken of those families who may have assumed the name and arms of their ancestors in the _female line_: for the truth is, as it has been well observed,* "that, unless we take the _male line_ as the general standard of genealogical rank, we shall find ourselves in a hopeless state of confusion;" thirdly, illegitimate descent is of course excluded; and, fourthly, where families have sold their original estates, they will be noticed in those counties where they are at present seated; if however they still possess the ancient estate of their family, though they may _reside_ in another county, they will be mentioned for the most part under that county from whence they originally sprung. In those cases where the whole landed estate of the family has been dissipated, although the male line still remains, all notice is omitted, such families having no longer any claim to be classed in any county. For, "ancient dignity was territorial rather than personal, the whole system was rooted in the land, and, even in the present day, though the land may have changed hands often, it has carried along with it some of that sentiment of regard attached to the lordship of it, as surely as its earth has the fresh smell which it gives when upturned by the husbandman."** This list also, it must be remembered, does not profess to give an account of all those families whose descent may possibly be traced beyond the year 1500, but merely of those who were in the position of what we now call _county families_ before that period. The line of demarcation indeed between the families who rose upon the ruins of the monastic system, and the more ancient aristocracy of England, is often very difficult to be traced, depending as it does on documentary evidence often inaccessible, and obscured by the fanciful and too favourable deductions of the heralds of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. With regard to the sources from whence the following memoranda have been taken, I have endeavoured as much as possible to rely upon the best county histories and MS. collections of authority, and carefully to eschew those modern accounts of family history, which, by ascribing the most absurd pretensions of ancient lineage to families who bore no _real_ claim to that distinction, have done much to bring genealogy itself into contempt among that numerous class of readers who are but slightly acquainted with the subject. I cannot conclude without recording my obligations to several gentlemen who have in the most liberal manner placed their genealogical collections at my service, and by so doing rendered less imperfect these notices of the noble and gentle houses of England: among that number I wish particularly to mention the names of the late Mr. Joseph Morris of Shrewsbury and Mr. Joseph Hunter, one of the Assistant Keepers of the Records, the learned and accurate historian of South Yorkshire. E.P.S. Lower Eatington, July 1, 1860. * Quarterly Review, Jan. 1858, p. 37. ** Quarterly Review, Jan. 1858, p. 31. PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. ANOTHER edition of this little work having been called for, I have carefully revised and corrected what has been already written; I have also made some additions, the result of further investigation, and the information of many friends and correspondents, whose courtesy and kindness I here beg most gratefully to acknowledge. Since the book was published in the year 1859, the male lines of three families, whose names were originally comprehended in it, have become extinct, viz.: Cotton of Landwade, in the county of Cambridge, Hornyold of Blackmore Park, and Hanford of Wollashill, both in Worcestershire. On the other hand, notices of eight "_new peers?_" will be found in the present volume, four of which also occurred in the second edition. I allude to Lovett of Liscombe, in the county of Buckingham, and Basset of Tehidy, in the county of Cornwall--very ancient families, whose landed property being until lately in female hands, could not, in accordance with the rules which I had laid down, be comprehended in the first edition; I have also added Huyshe of Sand, in Devonshire, Patten of Bank Hall, in Lincolnshire, Bertie of Uffington, Anderson of Brocklesby, and Massingberd of Wrangle, all in Lincolnshire, and, lastly, Upton of Ashton Court, in the county of Somerset. And here I must again beg to remind the reader, that the intention of this work is not to give an account of every family whose pedigree may be continued in the male line beyond the time which I have mentioned (the beginning of the sixteenth century), but of those only who were established as _county families_, "inheriting arms from their ancestors," at that period. It is no doubt in many cases very difficult to distinguish accurately the pretensions of many families who may possibly have a fair claim to this distinction, though, from the reasons to which I have formerly alluded, it is not easy to establish them. I can only say that as far as my information extends I have endeavoured fairly and honestly to draw the correct line, but whether I have succeeded must be left to the judgment of others. E. P. S. Lower Eatington, January 22, 1866. "An ancient estate should always go to males. It is mighty foolish to let a stranger have it because he marries your daughter and takes your name. As for an Estate newly acquired by trade, you may give it, if you will, to the dog _Towser_, and let him keep his _own_ name."--DR. JOHNSON. +Noble and Gentle Men of England+ BEDFORDSHIRE. +Knightly.+ ST.JOHN OF MELCHBOURNE, LORD ST.JOHN OF BLETSHOE 1558-9. [Illustration] THIS great and ancient Family, though not connected with this county before the reign of Henry VIII., yet, having been for a considerable time seated at Melchbourne, may with propriety be included among the Bedfordshire families, and indeed stands alone as the only one of knightly rank.* Descended in the direct male line from Hugh de Port mentioned in Domesday, in the twelfth century William son of Adam de Port took the name of St.John from the heiress of that great Norman family. Basing in Hampshire, Stanton St.John in Oxfordshire, Bletshoe in the county of Northampton, and Lydiard Tregoze in Wiltshire, both derived from the heiress of Beauchamp in the reign of Henry VI.--have successively been seats of the St.Johns, who have made themselves sufficiently remarkable both for their loyalty and disloyalty in the reign of Charles I., not to mention the ambition and ill-directed abilities of the great Lord Bolingbroke in that of Anne. _Younger Branch_. St.John of Lydiard Tregoze, Viscount Bolingbroke 1712. Baronet 1611. Descended from Oliver, second son of Sir Oliver St.John and the heiress of Beauchamp. See Leland's Itinerary, edition 1769, vol. vi. folio 27, p. 26. Brydges's Collins, vi. 42 and 741. For an account of Bletshoe, and the monuments there, see Gent. Mag. 1799, p. 745. For Lydiard Tregoze, and other monuments of the St.Johns, whose pedigree, by Sir R. St.George, is painted on folding-doors on the north side of the chancel, see the Topographer, i. 508. ARMS.--_Argent, on a chief gules two mullets pierced or_. William de St.John in the thirteenth century bore in his arms the addition of a bend gules, which was continued by his descendants till the reign of Elizabeth. (Gent. Mag. 1787, 681.) The present coat was borne by Sir John de St.John in the reign of Edward II.; at the same time other members of the family varied the field and charges thus: Sir Roger bore, _Ermine, on a chief gules two mullets or_; Sir Eymis, _Argent, crusilly sable, on a chief gules two mullets or_; Sir John de Layneham, _Argent, on a chief gules two mullets or, a border indented sable_. John, heir of John de St.John, differenced his arms with a label azure, according to the roll of Carlaverock. The roll of arms of the reign of Richard II. gives the _mullets of six points pierced azure_. Edward St.John at this period bore, _Argent, on a chief dancetté gules two mullets of six points or, pierced vert_. Rolls of the dates. Present Representative, St.Andrew Beauchamp St.John, 14th Baron St.John. * "Hungry Time hath made a glutton's meal on this Catalogue of Gentry (the List of Gentry of the reign of Henry VI,) and hath left but a very little morsel for manners remaining." Fuller, Worthies of Bedfordshire. +Gentle.+ POLHILL OF HOWBURY, IN THE PARISH OF RENHOLD. [Illustration] This family is of ancient Kentish extraction, and is a branch of the Polhills or Polleys of Preston, in Shoreham, in that county, descended from John Polhill, eldest son of John Polhill and Alice de Buckland, the heiress of Preston, in the reign of Henry VI. The Rev. Richard Polwhele, the Historian of Cornwall, was of opinion that the Polhills of Kent were a branch of the Cornish Polwheles, which emigrated from the western into the eastern counties at a very early period; they were certainly seated at Detling in Hollingbourne, in Kent, at or previous to the reign of Edward III. In the time of Elizabeth, the Polhills were of Frenches, in the parish of Burwash, in Sussex. The immediate ancestor of the present family was Nathaniel Polhill, of Burwash and Howbury, an eminent merchant, who died in 1782. See a very minute account of all the branches of this ancient family in the Topographer and Genealogist, i. pp. 180 and 577. See also Hasted's History of Kent, vol. i, p. 365, and vol. iii. p. 4. ARMS.--_Or, on a bend gules three cross-crosslets of the first_. It appears by the Roll of Arms of the reign of Richard II., that Monsr. Rauff Poley bore a coat nearly similar, viz, _Argent, on a bend gules three crosses patée or_. Present Representative, Frederick Polhill, Esq. BERKSHIRE. +Gentle.+ EYSTON OF EAST HENDRED. [Illustration] It has been observed by old Fuller, "The Lands of Berkshire are very skittish, and are apt to cast their owners;" and again, "Of names which were in days of yore--few remain here of a great store." The ancient family of Eyston, and the succeeding one of Clarke, are indeed the only exceptions at the present day to this rule. The Eystons have been seated at East Hendred since the reign of Henry VI.; John Eiston, their ancestor, having at that period married "Isabel, daughter and heir of John Stow, of Burford, co. Oxford, whose wife was Maud, daughter and heir of Rawlin Arches, of East Henreth, whose great-grandmother was Amy, daughter and heir of Richard Turbervill, of East Henreth, Esq." See the Visitation of Berks, 1566. Harl. MS. 1822, 26 b, and Harl. 1532, 19 b. See also Lysons's Berkshire, pp. 186, 292, and Clarke's Hundred of Wanting, 4to. 1824, p. 130. ARMS.--(Confirmed in 1566.) _Sable, three lions rampant or_. Present Representative, Charles John Eyston, Esq. CLARKE OF ARDINGTON. [Illustration] The pedigree begins with John Clarke, of Basledon, in this county, living there the latter part of the fifteenth century. The family afterwards removed to Ardington, where they were established, according to Lysons, in the reign of Henry VII. The Visitations of 1566 and 1623 record five generations of the Clarkes before the year 1600. See the Visitation of Berks, 1566. Harl. MS. 5822, 22 b, and Harl. 1532. See also Lysons's Berkshire, pp. 180, 186, and Clarke's Hundred of Wanting, p. 56. ARMS.--(Confirmed Oct. 22, 1600.) _Argent, on a fess sable three plates between three crosses patée of the second_. Sometimes the fess is placed between six crosses patée. Present Representative, William Nelson Clarke, Esq. BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. +Knightly.+ CHETWODE OF CHETWODE, BARONET 1700. [Illustration] This very ancient family is lineally descended from Robert de Thain, who held Chetwode under the Bishop of Baieux in the time of William the Conqueror, as appears by Domesday Book. John de Chetwode having during the reign of Edward III. married the heiress of Oakeley, of Oakeley in Staffordshire, the family have mostly resided there, as well as at Ansley Hall in Warwickshire, derived from the heiress of Ludford in 1821. Willis, writing in 1755, says--"This manor of Chetwode, as appears to me, has been in the possession and inheritance of the Chetwodes longer than any estate or manor in this county of Buckingham has continued the property of any other family now there existing." See Willis's Buckingham, p. 172; Erdeswicke's Staffordshire, ed. 1844, p. 119; Wotton's Baronetage, iv. p. 82; and Lysons's Buckinghamshire, p. 172. ARMS.--_Quarterly argent and gules, four crosses patée counterchanged_. Present Representative, Sir John Newdigate-Ludford-Chetwode, 5th Baronet. DAYRELL OF LILLINGSTONE DAYRELL. [Illustration] A very ancient and honourable family of Norman descent, who came over with the Conqueror, and seated themselves at Lillingstone before the year 1200, Richard son of Elias Dayrell being seised of a message and half a knight's fee there in King Richard the First's time, or the beginning of King John's reign. Before 1306 the Dayrell became possessed of the fee of the manor, which has ever since continued in the family. The Dayrell of Shudy Camps, in the county of Cambridge, are a younger branch of this family, sprung from Francis, second son of Paul Dayrell of Lillingstone, sheriff of Buckinghamshire 1579.* See Willis's Buckingham, p. 213; Lysons, p. 595. ARMS.--_Azure, a lion rampant or, crowned argent_. Present Representative, Edmund Francis Dayrell, Esq. * The Darells of Calehill, in Kent, purchased in the 4th Henry IV., and sprung from the Darells of Sesay, in Yorkshire, are _supposed_ to be a younger branch of this venerable family. The extinct family of Darell of Littlecote, Wiltshire, for which see the Topographer, ii. 101, and the Darells of Richmond, Baronet, 1795, are sprung from the house of Calehill. GRENVILLE OF WOTTON UNDER BARNWOOD, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM 1822, MARQUESS OF BUCKINGHAM 1782, EARL TEMPLE 1749, VISCOUNT AND BARON COBHAM 1718. [Illustration] There is good reason to believe that this family, seated at Wotton from the reign of Henry I., is a collateral branch of the Grenvilles of the West. The manor of Wotton, among many others, was given by William I. to Walter Giffard, Earl of Buckingham. Isabel, daughter and coheir of Walter the second Earl, is said to have brought it in marriage, about the year 1097, to Richard de Grenville. The consequence of this family in modern times is owing to matches with the heiresses of the great houses of Temple, Nugent, and Chandos. See Brydges's Collins's Peerage, ii. p. 390, and Lysons, p. 673. See also Moule's Bibliotheca Herald, p. 563, for an account of the MS., formerly at Stowe, viz. The original Evidences of the Grenville Family, collected by Richard Grenville, of Wotton, Esq. during the civil wars of the seventeenth century. ARMS.--_Vert, on a cross argent five torteauxes_. Present Representative, Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham. HARCOURT OF ANKERWYCKE. [Illustration] On the decease of the last Earl Harcourt, in 1830, the representation in the male line of the illustrious House of Harcourt devolved on this family, descended from a younger brother of Simon, first Viscount Harcourt, and the heiress of Lee. Stanton Harcourt, in the county of Oxford, was possessed by the ancestors of this great House in 1166, and continued in the family till the extinction of the elder line in 1830. The pedigree is traced to Robert de Harcourt, who married Joan, daughter of Robert Beaumont, Earl of Mellent, and who was grandson of Robert who attended William the Conqueror in his expedition to England in 1066. See Brydges's Collins's Peerage, iv. p. 428; and Nichols's Leicestershire, iv. pt. 2. p. 519.* ARMS.--_Gules, two bars or_. This coat was borne by Sir John de Harcourt in the reign of Edward II. Thomas Harecourt, the reverse, in the reign of Richard II. Rolls of the period. Present Representative, George Simon Harcourt, Esq. +Gentle.+ LOVETT OF LISCOMBE. [Illustration] Vitalis Lovett of Rushton, in the county of Northampton, who lived in the reign of Henry II., appears to be the first proved ancestor of this venerable family, said to be of Norman origin. William Lovett of Rushton, the son of Vitalis, held certain lands in Henwick, also in Northamptonshire, of Richard Engaine and his heirs by the service of finding two horsemen to follow the said Richard to hunt the wolf in any part of England. This service was remitted to John Lovet, son or grandson of William, in the reign of Edward I., and in lieu thereof an annual rent-charge of ten shillings was imposed. Soon after this period, viz: in 1304, (33 Edw. I.) Liscombe in the parish of Soulbury came into the family, being in the possession of Robert Lovett and Sarah his wife, daughter and heir of Sir Roger Turvile, from the second marriage of their son Thomas, descended the Lovetts of Astwell in Northamptonshire, since the reign of Elizabeth represented in the female line by the Shirleys Earls Ferrers. Liscombe has from the beginning of the fourteenth century remained the inheritance of the elder branch of the Lovetts, though the direct descent has been often interrupted. In 1781, Jonathan Lovett, the representative of the family, was created a baronet by King George III. His Majesty's remark on this occasion is preserved in Betham's Baronetage. "In the summer of 1781, the Earl of Chesterfield having been some time absent from court, was asked by the King where he had been so long? 'On a visit to Mr. Lovett of Buckinghamshire,' said the Earl. 'Ah,' said the King, 'is that Lovett of Liscombe? They are of the genuine old Norman breed, how happens it that they are not baronets? would they accept the title? Go tell him,' continued the King, 'is that the title is much at his service; they have ever stuck to the Crown at a pinch.'" The same work also gives a very curious, and to an antiquary very tantalizing, account of the ancient armour and documents once preserved at Liscombe, and describes their melancholy fate. Sir Jonathan Lovett having died without surviving male issue in 1812, the title of Baronet became extinct and the property descended to his daughters; on the decease of the survivor, Miss Eliza Lovett, in 1861, the ancient seat of this venerable family reverted by her will to the next male heir, the present representative of the family, descended from a younger brother of Sir Jonathan Lovett, baronet. See Baker's Northamptonshire, i. p. 732; Lipscombe's Buckinghamshire, iii. p. 457; Stemmata Shirleiana, pr. pr., 1841, p. 58; Collectanea Topog. et Genealog. vi. p. 300, and Betham's Baronetage. ARMS.--Evidently allusive to the name, and to the service of hunting the wolf, _Argent, three wolves passant in pale sable, armed and langued gules_. Present Representative, Jonathan Vaughan Lovett, Esq. CAMBRIDGESHIRE. +Gentle.+ BENDYSHE OF BARRINGTON. [Illustration] The name is local, from Bendish, in the parish of Radwinter, in Essex, where Peter Westley was seated at a very early period. His grandson was called Ralf of Westley, alias Bendishe, and from him this ancient family, one branch of which was long settled at Steeple Bumstead, in Essex, is descended. A manor in Barrington came from the heiress of Bradfield early in the fifteenth century, and had acquired the name of "The Manor of Bendyshe" so far back as the year 1493; it has ever since remained the inheritance of this the eldest line of the Bendyshe family, of whom a younger branch was of Topfield Hall, in Hadley, co. Suffolk, whose heiress married Doyley of Overbury, also of Steeple Bumstead before mentioned, created Baronet in 1611, extinct in 1717; and other branches again were of Hadley and Turvey in Bedfordshire. See Lysons's Cambridgeshire, p. 86, and the Visitation of Essex 1612, Harl. MS. 6095, fol. 16, where is a good pedigree of Bendyshe, brought down to William Bendyshe, Esq. tenth in descent from Peter Westley. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron sable between three ram's heads erased azure_. Present Representative, John Bendyshe, Esq. CHESHIRE. +Knightly.+ DAVENPORT OF WOODFORD. [Illustration] The Davenports claim precedence among the knightly families of Cheshire,--that "seed-plot of gentry," "the mother and the nurse of the gentility of England," and are traced directly to the Conquest. The elder line, which Leland terms "the best and first house of the Davenports at Devonport; a great old house covered with leade on the Ripe of Daven, three miles above Congleton," became extinct in 1674. The coheiresses married Davies and Davenport of Woodford. Ormus de Daumporte, living in the time of William I., is the first recorded ancestor of this family. To his son, Richard de Dauneporte, Hugh Earl of Chester gave the chief foresterships of the forests of Leek and Macclesfield about 1166, a feudal office still held by this house. The present family are sprung from Nicholas, third son of Sir John or Jenkin Davenport, of Wheltrough and Henbury, who was himself a younger son of Thomas, second son of Sir Thomas Davenport of Davenport, the 13th of Edward II. Woodford was granted by John Stafford and Isabella his wife, about the time of Edward III., to John, third son of Thomas Davenport of Wheltrough, (an elder line not traced beyond 1677,) while the Davenports of Henbury were extinct before 1664. Davenport of Calveley, founded by Arthur, sixth son of Sir John Davenport of Davenport, killed at Shrewsbury in 1403, became extinct in 1771. The coheiresses married Bromley and Davenport of Woodford. Davenport of Bramhall, founded by the second son of Thomas Davenport of Wheltrough and the heiress of Bramhall, in the time of Edward III., survived till 1838. The Davenports of Davenport House, in the parish of Worfield, in Shropshire, are the only younger branch now remaining; they spring from the Davenports of Chorley and the heiress of Bromley of Hallon or Hawn, in the parish of Worfield. See Blakeway's Sheriffs of Salop, pp. 85, 143, 228. For Davenport of Davenport and Woodford, see Ormerod's Cheshire, iii. 39, 346, 357; for those of Calveley, ib. ii. 153; Henbury, iii. 352; Bramhall, iii. 401; Chorley, iii. 312. See also Leland's Itin., vii. fol. 42, and Harl. MSS. 2119, for a good pedigree of the family drawn from original evidences. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three cross-crosslets fitchée sable_. The crest of this family, _a felon's head, souped proper, haltered or_, alludes to the power of life and death within the Forests of Leek and Macclesfield, granted by Hugh Earl of Chester. Present Representative, Arthur Henry Davenport, Esq. GROSVENOR OF EATON, MARQUESS OF WESTMINSTER 1831, EARL GROSVENOR 1784, BARON GROSVENOR 1761, BARONET 1662. [Illustration] Descended from Gilbert le Grosvenor, nephew of Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester; the pedigree of this ancient family is, thanks to the famous controversy with the Scropes, well ascertained. The principal line of the Grosvenors was seated at Hulme, in this county, in the hundred of Northwich, and was extinct in the 22nd year of Henry VI. The Grosvenors of Eaton descend from Ralph second son of Sir Thomas Grosvenor of Hulme, who married Joan, sole daughter and heir of John Eaton, of Eton or Eaton, Esq. early in the fifteenth century. The match of Sir Thomas Grosvenor, Bart. in 1676, with Mary, sole daughter and heir of Alexander Davies, of Ebury, in the county of Middlesex, Esq. laid the foundation of the great wealth and consequent honours of this family. Younger branches: the Earl of Wilton 1801; the Baron Ebury 1857. See Ormerod, ii. 454, and iii. 87; Brydges's Collins, v. 239; and the Scrope and Grosvenor Roll _passim_. ARMS.--_Azure, a garb or_, used since the sentence of the Court in the cause of Sir Richard le Scrope and Sir Robert le Grosvenor in 1389, instead of _Azure, a bend or_, and allusive to his descent from the ancient Earls of Chester. Present Representative, Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster, K.G. EGERTON OF OULTON, BARONET 1617. [Illustration] This is the principal male branch of the great House of Egerton, formerly Earls and Dukes of Bridgewater and Earl of Wilton. The pedigree begins with Philip Goch, second son of David de Malpas, surnamed le Clerk, which David was lord of a moiety of the Barony of Malpas. The present family is descended from Sir Philip Egerton, third son of Sir Rowland Egerton, of Egerton and Oulton, Baronet, who died in 1698. The Baronetcy devolved on Sir John Egerton, uncle of the present Baronet, on the death of the Earl of Wilton, and extinction of the elder line, in 1814. Oulton came from the heiress of Hugh Done, anno 1498. It is thus mentioned in Leland's Itinerary: "The auncientest of the Egertons dwellith now at Oldeton, and Egerton buildith ther now." (Itin. vii. fol. 42.) Younger branch, Egerton-Warburton, of Warburton and Arley, in this county. See Wotton's Baronetage, i. 271; Brydges's Collins, iii. 170, v. 528; Ormerod, ii. 118, 350; and for many curious particulars of the Bridgewater Egertons, see the Topographer, ii. 136, &c. ARMS.--_Argent, a lion rampant gules between three pheons sable_. The pheons were the ancient arms of Malpas; the lion was added by Uryan Egerton, about the middle of the fourteenth century; according to tradition, an augmentation granted as a reward for his services in the Scotch wars. Present Representative, Sir Philip de Malpas Grey-Egerton, 10th Baronet, M. P. for S. Cheshire. CHOLMONDELEY OF CHOLMONDELEY, MARQUESS OF CHOLMONDELEY 1815, EARL OF CHOLMONDELEY 1706, BARON 1689. [Illustration] Descended with the Egertons from the Barons of Malpas, and immediately from Robert de Cholmondelegh, second son of William Belward, lord of a moiety of the Barony of Malpas, and younger brother of David the ancestor of the Egertons; which Robert was seated at Cholmondeley in the reign of King John. Younger branches. Cholmeley of Whitby, in Yorkshire, Baronet 1641, extinct 1688; descended from Robert, younger son of Hugh Cholmondeley, temp. Edw. III. See the Memoirs of Sir Hugh Cholmeley, Knight and Baronet, a curious book privately printed in 1787.--Cholmeley of Brandsby, since the extinction of the Whitby family the only representative of the Cholmondeleys of Yorkshire.--Cholmeley of Easton, co. Lincoln, Baronet 1806, descended from Sir Henry Cholmeley, of Burton Coggles, co. Lincoln, who died in 1620. Cholmondeley of Vale Royal in this county, Baron Delamere 1821, descended from Thomas, younger son of Sir Hugh Cholmondeley of Cholmondeley, who died in 1501. See Ormerod, ii. 356, and for Cholmondeley of Vale Royal, ii. 78. Brydges's Collins, iv. 16. ARMS.--_Gules, two helmets in chief argent, garnished or, and in base a garb of the third_. Present Representative, George Horatio Cholmondeley, 2nd Marquess of Cholmondeley. TATTON, CALLED EGERTON OF TATTON, BARON EGERTON OF TATTON 1859. [Illustration] Robert Tatton of Kenworthy, in Northenden, who married the heiress of William de Withenshaw, alias Massey, about the latter end of the reign of Edward III., is the first _proved_ ancestor of this family, but there is reason to believe that he was descended from the much more ancient house of the name who were seated at Tatton in the twelfth century. Withenshaw, now the seat of the younger branch of this family, remained from the period above mentioned the inheritance and residence of the Tattons, until the decease of Samuel Egerton, Esq. in 1780, when the estate of Tatton, which is supposed to have given name to the family, devolved by his will on William Tatton of Withenshaw, Esq., who had married Hester, sister of Mr. Egerton. Tatton had passed to the Egertons through the families of Tatton, Massey, Stanley, and Brereton. Younger branch, Tatton of Withenshaw, in this county. See Ormerod, iii. 315, and Gentleman's Magazine 1798, 930. ARMS.--_Quarterly argent and gules, four crescents counterchanged_. The arms are perhaps founded on the coat of Massey. Present Representative, William Tatton Egerton, Baron Egerton of Tatton. BUNBURY OF STANNEY, BARONET 1681. [Illustration] A family of great antiquity, descended from Henry de Boneberi, in the time of Stephen, a younger brother of the House of St. Pierre in Normandy. William de Boneberi, son of Henry, was Lord of Boneberi in the reign of Richard I. But the direct ancestor was David brother of Henry, whose great-grandson Alexander de Bunbury was living in the fifteenth of Henry III. Stanney, still the inheritance, but not the residence, of the Bunburys, came from the heiress of the same name in the seventeenth of Edward III. See Ormerod, ii. 216, and Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 687. ARMS.--_Argent, on a bend sable three chessrooks of the field_. Present Representative, Sir Charles James Fox Bunbury, 8th Baronet. LEYCESTER OF TOFT. [Illustration] Descended from Sir Nicholas Leycester, who acquired the manor of Nether-Tabley in marriage, and died in 1295. The male line of the eldest branch of this family, established at Nether-Tabley, became extinct in 1742. The present and younger branch springs from Ralph, younger brother of John Leycester of Tabley, who married Joan, daughter and heir of Robert Toft of Toft: she was a widow in 1390. The antiquary Sir Peter was of the Tabley line. Younger branch, Leycester of Whiteplace, co. Berks. See Ormerod, i. 385, 456; iii. 190. ARMS.--_Azure, a fess or, fretty gules, between two fleurs-de-lis of the second_. Another coat was granted by Dethick to Sir Ralph Leycester of Toft, the second year of Edward VI., viz. _Sable, on a fess engrailed between three falcons volant argent, beaked and membered or, a lion's head caboshed azure between two covered cups gules_. But this very unnecessary and overloaded coat does not appear to have been used. Present Representative, Ralph Oswald Leycester, Esq. MASSIE OF CODDINGTON. [Illustration] The pedigree in Ormerod begins with Hugh Massie, who married Agnes, daughter and heir of Nicholas Bold, of Coddington. Their son William purchased the manor of Coddington in the eighteenth of Henry VI. The parentage of Hugh Massie is a matter of dispute, but he was probably a younger son of Sir John Massie of Tatton, who died in the eighth of Henry. He is also by others supposed to have been descended from the Massies of Podington, a younger branch of the Barons of Dunham Massey. This family is perhaps the only remnant in the direct male line of the posterity of any of the Cheshire Barons. General Massie, a younger son of this house, was a distinguished officer in the Civil Wars, both in the service of the Commonwealth and in that of Charles II. Younger branches: Massey of Pool-Hall, in this county, descended from the second son of Massie of Coddington, who was born in 1604. From Edward the third son descended the Massies of Rosthorne, also in Cheshire, now extinct. For the extinct branches of Broxton and Podington, see Ormerod, ii. 372 and 308; for Massie of Coddington, ii. 399; for Massie of Pool-Hall, iii. 188. ARMS.--_Quarterly gules and or, in the first and fourth three fleurs-de-lis argent, a canton of the third_. There was a dispute about the arms of Massey between the Houses of Tatton and Podington (for which see "The Scrope and Grosvenor Roll," vol. ii. p. 262), which was decided in 1378 by the arbitration of Sir Hugh Calveley and others. The present coat, except that the first and second quarters were or, and the canton omitted, was awarded to Massey of Podington. Massey of Tatton bore the same arms with three escallops argent in lieu of the fleurs-de-lis. The elder line of Dunham bore _Quarterly or and gules, in the second quarter a lion passant argent_. Present Representative, Richard Massie, Esq. WILBRAHAM OF DELAMERE. [Illustration] This family represents the eldest branch of the Wilbrahams of Cheshire, descended from Richard de Wilburgkam, sheriff of this county in the forty-third year of Henry III. In the third of Edward IV. the Wilbrahams were seated at Woodhay, in Cheshire, by a match with the heiress of Golborne: this, the elder line, created Baronet in 1620-1, was extinct in 1692. The present family are descended from the second son of Thomas Wilbraham of Woodhay, and were seated at Townsend in Nantwich in the reign of Elizabeth; they removed to Delamere the latter part of the eighteenth century. Younger branches: Wilbraham Baron Skelmersdale 1828; and Wilbraham of Rode, in this county, both descended from Randle, younger brother of Roger Wilbraham, of Nantwich, who died in 1754. Wilbraham of Dorfold, sold in 1754, but existing at Falmouth in 1818, was sprung from the youngest son of Richard Wilbraham, of Nantwich, who died in 1612. See Ormerod, ii. 65; iii. 31, 184, 199. ARMS.--_Argent, three bends wavy azure_. The Dorfold branch bore for distinction _a canton gules_. Additional coat, granted by Flower, temp. Eliz.; _Azure, two bars argent, on a canton of the first a wolf's head erased of the second_. Present Representative, George Fortescue Wilbraham, Esq. LEGH OF EAST HALL, IN HIGH LEGH. [Illustration] Efward de Lega, who appears from his name to have been of Saxon origin, and who lived at or near the period of the Conquest, was the patriarch of this ancient family, of which the principal male line failed in the time of Edward IV. Thomas Legh, of Northwood, in the same parish of High-Legh, the ancestor of the present family, succeeded after a long litigation as the next heir male in the reign of Henry VIII. See Ormerod, i. 358. ARMS.--Allowed 1566. _Argent, a lion rampant gules, armed and langued azure_. Present Representative, George Cornwall Legh, Esq. M.P. for North Cheshire. LEIGH OF WEST HALL, IN HIGH LEGH. [Illustration] Descended from Richard de Lymme, younger son of Hugh de Lymme, which Richard in the latter part of the thirteenth century married Agnes, daughter and sole heir of Richard de Legh, great-grandson of Hamon de Legh, the first mentioned in the pedigree. Richard de Lymme had issue Thomas de Legh, of West Hall, living in 1305. Younger branches: Leigh (called Trafford), of Oughtrington, in this county, descended from John second son of Richard Leigh, of West Hall, who died in 1486; for whom see Ormerod, i. 439. Leigh of Leatherlake House in Surrey, descended from Thomas second son of the Rev. Peter Leigh of West Hall, who died in 1719; and Leigh of South Carolina, Baronet 1773, descended from Peter third son of the same Rev. Peter Leigh. See Ormerod, i. 350. ARMS.--_Allowed 1563. Or, a lion rampant gules, armed and langued azure_. For four descents after the match with Agnes de Legh, her descendants used the coat of Lymme, _Gules, a pale fusillé argent_, conclusive evidence of the descent of this family from Richard de Lymme, and not from William de Venables, another husband of Agnes de Legh. Indeed, in the Visitation of 1566, this coat of Lymme was allowed to Leigh of West Hall; but in 1584 both the East and West Hall families claimed the lion rampant gules. In 1663 the arms were settled as at present. Present Representative, Egerton Leigh, Esq. ALDERSEY OF ALDERSEY, IN THE PARISH OF CODDINGTON. [Illustration] The pedigree is traced to Hugh de Aldersey, in the reign of Henry III., soon after which time the family divided into two branches; the estate and manor of Aldersey being also held in separate moieties by the representatives of the two families: one moiety eventually passed by an heir-general to Hatton of Hatton, and has since been united into one estate, by purchase from Dutton of Hatton. A younger branch of this family was seated at Chester, of which was William Aldersey the antiquary, mayor of that city in 1614. See Ormerod, ii. 404. ARMS.--_Gules, on a bend engrailed argent, between two cinquefoils or, three leopard's faces vert_. The more ancient coat, given in King's Vale Royal, appears to have been, _Sable, three chargers or dishes argent_. Present Representative, Thomas Aldersey, Esq. BASKERVYLE, (CALLED GLEGG,) OF OLD WITHINGTON. [Illustration] Ormerod traces this family to Sir John Baskervyle, grantee of a moiety of Old Withington from Robert de Camvyle in 1266, and that estate has ever since remained in the family. In 1758 John Baskervyle, Esq., the representative of the house of Old Withington, having married the heiress of Glegg of Gayton, in this county, assumed that name in lieu of his own. See Ormerod, iii. 355; and for Glegg, ib. ii. 285. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron gules between three hurts_. This coat, _the chevron charged with three fleurs-de-lis or_, was borne by "Monsire de Baskervile;" see Sir Harris Nicolas's Roll of Arms temp. E. III. Present Representative, John Baskervyle Glegg, Esq. BROOKE OF NORTON, BARONET 1662. [Illustration] Adam Lord of Leighton, in the reign of Henry III., is the first recorded ancestor of this family, who continued at Leighton, the seat of the principal branch of the Brookes, until the extinction of the elder male line, in or about the year 1632. Richard Brooke, younger son of Thomas Brooke of Leighton, purchased Norton from King Henry VIII. in the year 1545, which has remained the residence of his heirs male. Younger branches: Broke of Nacton in the county of Suffolk, Baronet 1813; descended from Sir Richard Brooke, Knight, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, in the reign of Henry VIII., youngest son of Thomas Brooke of Leighton, the ancestor of the Norton family. There was a former baronetcy in this family, created 1661, extinct 1693. Brooke of Mere in this county, sprung from Sir Peter Brooke, third son of Thomas Brooke of Norton, established at Mere by purchase in 1632. See Ormerod, i. 360, 500; and iii. 241; Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, i. 22; and Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 392. ARMS.--_Or, a cross engrailed party per pale gules and sable_. Present Representative, Sir Richard Brooke, 7th Baronet. +Gentle.+ CLUTTON OF CHORLTON, IN THE PARISH OF MALPAS. [Illustration] Ormerod gives no detailed pedigree, but states that the Cluttons had been settled at Clutton, in the parish of Farndon, in this county, as early as the 21st of Edward I, and that the manor of the same place was held by this family in the time of Henry VI. In the reign of Henry VIII., Roger, third son of Owen Clutton of Courthyn, having married an heiress of Aldersey of Chorlton, became seated there, and was the ancestor of the present family. From Henry, elder brother of this Roger, were descended the Clutton Brocks late of Pensax in Worcestershire, who were there established in the seventeenth century. See Ormerod, ii. 366, 410, and a pedigree of this family in Harleian MS. 2119. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron ermine, cotised sable, between three annulets gules_. Present Representative, Thomas Charlton Clutton, Esq. LECHE OF CARDEN. [Illustration] The pedigree commences in the reign of Henry IV. with John Leche, (said to be a younger brother of the house of Leche of Chatsworth, in Derbyshire,) who married the heiress of Cawarthyn, or Carden, and settled there about the year 1475. Some pedigrees, however, seat the Leches at Carden as early as the twentieth of Edward III.; and there is also a tradition that the family is descended from the leche, or chirurgeon, of that monarch himself. It is remarkable that Nolan has been the family christian name, with one exception, during thirteen generations. Younger branch, extinct in 1694, Leche of Mollington, in this county. See Harl. MS. 2119, 50, quoted by Ormerod, ii. 385. ARMS.--_Ermine, on a chief indented gules three crowns or_. Present Representative, John Hurleston Leche, Esq. BARNSTON OF CHURTON, IN THE PARISH OF FARNDON. [Illustration] The descent of this family is not proved beyond Robert Barnston, of Churton, in the third year of Richard II. But Hugh de Barnston was lord of a moiety of Barnston in the twenty-first of Edward I. The pedigree was confirmed in the Visitations of 1613 and 1663-4. See Ormerod, ii. 408. ARMS.--_Azure, a fess indented ermine between six cross-crosslets fitchée or_. Thomas de Bernaston bore this coat, except that the crosses were argent. See the Roll of Arms of the Reign of Edward III. Present Representative, Roger Barnston, Esq. ANTROBUS OF ANTROBUS, BARONET 1815. [Illustration] This is an instance of an ancient family, which, having gone down in the world, has recovered itself by means of commercial pursuits, after centuries of comparative obscurity. Antrobus was sold by Henry Antrobus in the reign of Henry IV., and repurchased by Edmund Antrobus in 1808; he having proved himself a descendant of Henry, youngest son of Henry Antrobus above mentioned. Antrobus of Eaton Hall, in this county, is again a younger branch of this family. See Ormerod, i. 487; Lysons's Cheshire, p. 532; Debrett's Baronetage, ed. 1836, p. 383. ARMS.--_Lozengy or and azure, on a pale gules three estoiles of the first_. Present Representative, Sir Edmund William Romer Antrobus, 2nd Baronet. LAWTON OF LAWTON. [Illustration] It is not improbable that this family is descended from Robert, a younger son of Vivian de Davenport, who settled at Lawton in the 50th of Henry III. and assumed the local name: this assertion is borne out by the arms, which are evidently founded on those of Davenport. The pedigree is not however traced beyond Hugh Lawton, who married Isabella, daughter of John Madoc, in the reign of Henry VI. The manor of Lawton was purchased by William Lawton, Esq. from King Henry VIII. It had been formerly held by the Abbey of Chester, to which the Lawtons appear to have been tenants from a very early period. Younger branch, Lawton of Lake Marsh, in the county of Cork. See Ormerod, iii. 11, and Lysons's Cheshire, p. 673. ARMS.--_Argent, on a fess between three cross-crosslets fitchée sable a cinquefoil of the first_. Present Representative, John Lawton, Esq. COTTON OF COMBERMERE, VISCOUNT COMBERMERE 1826, BARONET 1677. [Illustration] There are several places called Cotton, and antiquaries have doubted from which of them the present family is called. The house usually assigned is that of Cotton, near Wem, in Shropshire, where Sir Hugh Cotton was seated in the reign of Edward I., and whose descendant, Roger Cotton, acquired the estate of Alkington, in the same county, by marriage of the heiress, in the reign of Richard II. He was the ancestor of Sir George Cotton, grantee of Combermere after the Dissolution in 1540, from whom the present family directly descend. Younger branch, extinct in the male line, but represented in the female line by R. H. Cotton of Etwall, co. Derby, Esq. MSS. of the late Mr. Joseph Morris of Shrewsbury. See a different account of this family in Ormerod, iii. 212; Blakeway's Sheriffs of Shropshire, p. 104; and Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 611. ARMS.--_Azure, a chevron between three hawk's lures, or cotton-hanks, argent_. Present Representative, Wellington Henry Cotton, 2nd Viscount Combermere. CORNWALL. +Knightly.+ TRELAWNYY OF TRELAWNY, BARONET 1628. [Illustration] "The most Cornish gentlemen can better vaunt of their pedigree than their livelyhood," wrote Richard Carew, of Antonie, Esq. in 1602,--"for that they derive from great antiquitie; and I make question whether any shire in England, of but equal quantitie, can muster a like number of faire coat-armours:" and again, "By Tre, Pol, and Pen, You shall know the Cornish men." There are two manors called Trelawny in Cornwall, one in the parish of Alternon, the other in that of Pelynt; the former was the original seat of the Trelawnys, probably before the Conquest, and here they remained till the extinction of the cider branch in the reign of Henry VI. The latter was purchased from Queen Elizabeth by "Sir Jonathan Trelawny, a knight well spoken, stayed in his cariage, and of thrifty providence," the head of a younger line of this family, in the year 1600; and it has ever since remained the seat of this venerable house. Hamelin, who held Treloen, _i.e._ Trelawny, under the Earl of Moreton, at the period of the Domesday Survey, is the first recorded ancestor. See Leland's Itin., iii. fol. 20; Carew's Survey of Cornwall, ed. 1602, p. 63 b; Gilbert's Survey of Cornwall, i. 546; Lysons's Cornwall, pp. 14 and 257; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 87. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron sable_. In the reign of Henry V. an augmentation was added, viz. _three oak-leaves vert_, borne by Sir John Trelawny with the ancient coat, in consequence of his having greatly distinguished himself in the French wars with that monarch. Present Representative, Sir John Salusbury-Trelawny, 9th Baronet, late M. P. for Tavistock. PRIDEAUX OF PLACE, IN THE PARISH OF PADSTOW. [Illustration] This is the eldest remaining branch of the ancient family of Prideaux, who trace their descend from Paganus, lord of Prideaux Castle, in Luxulion, in this county, in the time of William I.; where the family continued till the latter part of the fourteenth century, when Prideaux passed by an heiress to the Herles of West Herle, in Northumberland. The present family, which was seated at "Place" in the sixteenth century, is sprung from the Prideauxes of Solden, in Holsworthy, in Devonshire, a branch of Prideaux of Thuborough in Sutcombe, in the same county, who were themselves descended from Prideaux of Orcherton in Modbury, also in Devonshire, where the family was established by marriage with the heiress of Orcherton in the reign of Henry III. Younger branch, Prideaux of Netherton, co. Devon, Baronet 1622, founded by Edmund Prideaux, an eminent lawyer, second son of Roger Prideaux of Solden. See Carew, 143 b; Gilbert's Survey of Cornwall, i. 542; Lysons, 252, cxii.; Wotton's Baronetage, i. 515; Westcote's Devonshire Pedigrees, p. 470; Prince's Worthies of Devon, ed. 1, p. 307. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron sable, a label of three points gules_. This was the coat of Orcherton. Present Representative, Charles Prideaux-Brune, Esq. BASSET OF TEHIDY. [Illustration] The immediate ancestor of the Cornish Bassets was William Basset, who married in 1150 Cecilia, daughter and coheiress of Alan de Dunstanville, and the daughter of Reginald Fitzhenry, Earl of Cornwall, natural son of Henry I., who thus acquired the manor of Tehidy, which has ever since continued the residence of his descendants of the house of Basset. In the early part of the sixteenth century, John Basset appears to have been the chief of this ancient family: he married Frances daughter and coheir of Arthur Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle, natural son of King Edward IV. From Arthur, his eldest son, descended the Bassets of Heanton Court in Devonshire, extinct in the early part of the present century; and from George, the second son, the house of Tehidy, the elder branch of which were created Barons de Dunstanville in 1797. Extinct 1855. Leland mentions "the right goodly lordship of Tehidy, and the castelet or pile of Bassets on Carnbray Hill." See Gilbert's Survey of Cornwall, i. 486. ARMS.--_Or, three bars wavy gules_. Present Representative, John Francis Basset, Esq. VYVYAN OF TRELOWARREN, IN THE PARISH OF MAWGAN, BARONET 1644. ORIGINALLY OF TREVIDERN IN THE PARISH OF ST. BURIAN. [Illustration] The first recorded ancestor is Sir Vyel Vyvyan, Knight, who lived in the thirteenth century, and whose descendant John, having married an heiress of Ferrers, succeeded to the lordship of Trelowarren in the reign of Edward IV., which has since continued the seat and residence of this family. The Baronetcy was conferred by King Charles I. on Sir Richard Vyvyan, as a reward for his services in the civil wars of that period. See Leland's Itin. iii. fol. 3; Gilbert's Survey, i. 557; Lysons, pp. xc. and 218; Polwhele's Cornwall, 1803, vol. i. p. 42; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 411. ARMS.--_Argent, a lion rampant gules, armed sable_. Present Representative, Sir Richard Rawlinson Vyvyan, 8th Baronet, late M.P. for Helstone. MOLESWORTH OF PENCARROW, IN THE PARISH OF EGLOSHAYLE, BARONET 1689. [Illustration] This is a younger branch of the Molesworths of Ireland, Viscount Molesworth of Swords, in the county of Dublin, 1716. They can be traced to the reign of Edward I. as a knightly family, but never remained very long in any one county: they have been seated in Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Northamptonshire. Sir Walter de Molesworth, the first recorded ancestor, is said to have attended Edward I. in his expedition to the Holy Land. The family estate is believed to have been greatly impoverished by the profuse entertainment of Queen Elizabeth at Fotheringay, by Antony, elder brother of John Molesworth, who settled at Pencarrow in the reign of the same Queen. See Gilbert's Cornwall, i. 571; Lysons, xcii. 82; Wotton's Baronetage, iv. 25; Archdall's Lodge, v. 127. ARMS.--_Vaire, a border gules charged with cross-crosslets or_. This coat, except that the crosses were argent, was borne by Sir Walter de Molesworth of co. Huntingdon, as appears by the Roll of Arms of the reign of Edward II. Sir Gilbert Lyndesey (?) of the same county bore the present coat. Present Representative, the Rev. Sir Paul William Molesworth, 10th Baronet. +Gentle.+ POLWHELE OF POLWHELE, IN THE PARISH OF ST. CLEMENT. [Illustration] This venerable family, supposed to be of Saxon origin, traces its descent to one Drogo or Drew, Chamberlain to the Empress Maude, and Grantee of the Manor of Polwhele in the year 1140. The family are said to have been seated there even before the Conquest; there appears however no proof that Drogo was the descendant of Winus de Polhill, the owner of this place in the time of Edward the Confessor. The Rev. Richard Polwhele, the historian of this county, was the representative of the family. See Polwhele's Cornwall, i. 42; Gilbert's Survey, ii. 239; and Lysons, pp. cxi. 60. ARMS.--_Sable, a saltier engrailed ermine_. Present Representative, T. R. Polwhele, Esq. TREFUSIS OF TREFUSIS, IN THE PARISH OF MILOR, BARON CLINTON 1299. [Illustration] From time immemorial this ancient family have been seated at Trefusis, from whence the name is derived. The pedigree is traced four generations before the year 1292. The ancient Barony of Clinton devolved upon this family, (through the Bolles,) on the death of George third Earl of Orford, in 1791. See Carew, 150 b; Leland's Itin. iii. 26; Polwhele's Cornwall, i. 42; Gilbert's Cornwall, i. 468. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three wharrow spindles sable_, which Randle Holmes, in his Academy, p. 288, explains, as a "sort of Spindle used by women at a distaff put under their girdle, so as they oftentimes spin therewith going." Present Representative, Charles Rodolph Trefusis, 18th Baron Clinton. BOSCAWEN OF BOSCAWEN-ROSE, IN THE PARISH OF ST. BURIAN, VISCOUNT FALMOUTH 1720. [Illustration] Descended from Henry who lived in the reign of King John, and who took the name of Boscawen from the lordship of Boscawen-Rose, still the property of the family. In the reign of Edward III. the Boscawens removed to Tregothnan, their present seat, in consequence of the marriage of John de Boscawen with Joan, daughter and heir of John de Tregothnan of that place, in the parish of St. Michael-Penkevil. See Gilbert's Survey, i. 452; Lysons, pp. lxxiv. 50; Brydges's Collins, vi. 62. ARMS.--_Ermine, a rose gules barbed and seeded proper_. The ancient arms of the family were, according to Lysons, Vert, a bull-dog argent, with a chief containing the arms now used. Present Representative, Evelyn Boscawen, 6th Viscount Falmouth. TREMAYNE OF HELLIGAN, IN THE PARISH OF ST. EWE. [Illustration] Tremayne is in the parish of St. Martin, and here the ancestor of the family, Perys, lived in the reign of Edward III. and assumed the local name. This estate passed with the heiress of the elder branch of the family to the Trethurfes, and from them to the Reskymers, to whom it belonged in Leland's time. A grandson of the first Tremayne, having married the heiress of Trenchard, of Collacomb, in Devonshire, removed hither, where his descendants existed till the extinction of that line in 1808. The founder of the present family was Richard Tremayne, whose son purchased Helligan in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and who is thus noticed by Carew in his Survey of this county. "At the adjoining St. Ive, dwelleth master Richard Tremayne, descended from a younger brother of Colocome House in Devon, who, being learned in the laws, is yet to learne, or at least to practise, how he may make other profit thereby, then by hoarding up treasure of gratitude in the mindful breasts of poor and rich, on whom he gratis bestoweth the fruits of his pains and knowledge." See Leland's Itin. iii. 25, fol. 9; Carew, 104 b; Gilbert's Survey, ii. 292; Lysons, pp. cxv. 96, 214; Prince's Worthies of Devon, 1st ed. 569. ARMS.--_Gules, three dexter arms conjoined at the shoulders and flexed in triangle or, fists proper_. Present Representative, John Tremayne, Esq. KENDALL OF PELYN, IN THE PARISH OF LANLIVERY. [Illustration] A younger branch of an ancient Cornish family of which the principal line became extinct in the early part of the seventeenth century. They were formerly seated at Treworgy in Duloe, and are traced to Richard Kendall of Treworgy, Burgess for Launceston in the forty-third of Edward III. Pelyn has been for many generations the seat of this family, descended from Walter, third son of John Kendall of Treworgy, who married a daughter and coheir of Robert Holland, an illegitimate son of a Duke of Exeter. It has been remarked of this family, that they have perhaps sent more members to the British Senate than any other in the United Kingdom. See Carew, 132 c.; Gilbert's Survey, ii. 176; Lysons, pp. cviii. 178. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three dolphins naiant embowed sable_. Present Representative, Nicholas Kendall, Esq. M.P. for East Cornwall. WREY OF TREBIGH, IN THE PARISH OF ST. IVE, BARONET. [Illustration] An old Devonshire family, descended from Robert le Wrey, who lived in the second of Stephen (1136-7), and whose son was seated at Wrey, in the parish of Moreton-Hamstead, in that county. A match with the heiress of Killigrew removed the Wreys into Cornwall, and Trebigh became their principal house, until, by the marriage of Sir Chichester Wrey, the second Baronet, with one of the co-heiresses of Edward Bourchier, fourth Earl of Bath, they became possessed of the noble seat of Tawstock, in Devonshire, the present usual residence of the family. See Carew, 117 a; Gilbert's Survey, i. 555; Lysons, lxxxix. 146; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 84; Westcote's Devonshire Pedigrees, 567. ARMS.--_Sable, a fess between three pole-axes argent, helved gules_. Present Representative, Sir Bourchier Palk Wrey, 8th Baronet. RASHLEIGH OF MENABILLY. [Illustration] Rashleigh in the parish of Wemworthy, in Devonshire, gave name this ancient family, the elder line of which became extinct in the reign of Henry VII. John Rashleigh, a merchant of Fowey, was the first who settled in Cornwall, and was in fact the founder of the present family. He is thus mentioned by Carew, writing in 1602, "I may not passe in silence the commendable deserts of Master Rashleigh the elder, descended from a younger brother of an ancient house in Devon, for his industrious judgement and adventuring in trade of merchandize first opened a light and way to the townsmen newe thriveing, and left his sonne large wealth and possessions, who, with a dayly bettering his estate, converteth the same to hospitality, and other actions fitting a gentleman well affected to his God, Prince, and Country." See Carew, p. 136 a; Gilbert's Survey, ii. 244; Lysons, pp. cxiii. 316. ARMS.--_Sable, a cross or between, in the first quarter, a Cornish chough argent, beaked and legged gules, in the second a text T, in the third and fourth a crescent, all argent_. The Cornish chough and crescents were added on removing into Cornwall; the elder branch bore only two text T's in chief with the cross S. Present Representative, William Rashleigh, Esq. GLANVILLE OF CATCHFRENCH, IN THE PARISH OF ST. GERMAN. [Illustration] Descended from the Glanvilles of Halwell, in the parish of Whitchurch, in Devonshire, where they were settled about the year 1400. This branch is derived from a younger son of Serjeant Glanville, the son of Sir John Glanville, one of the Justices of the Common Pleas in the reign of Elizabeth. Catchfrench became the seat of the family in 1728. See Prince's Worthies of Devon, pp. 326 and 339; Gilbert's Survey, ii. 121; Lysons, pp. civ. 116. ARMS.--_Azure, three saltiers or_. Present Representative, Francis Glanville, Esq. CUMBERLAND. +Knightly.+ MUSGRAVE OF EDENHALL, BARONET 1611. [Illustration] Originally seated at Musgrave in Westmerland, and traced to the time of King John, about the year 1204. After the marriage of Sir Thomas Musgrave, who died in 1469-70, with the coheiress of Stapleton of Edenhall, he removed to that manor, where is preserved the celebrated glass vessel called the Luck of Edenhall, well known from the Duke of Wharton's ballad: "God prosper long from being broke THE LUCK OF EDENHALL." See Lysons, ccix. where it is engraved. Younger branches. The Musgraves of Hayton Castle, in this county, Baronet of Nova Scotia 1638; and the Musgraves of Tourin, in the county of Waterford, Baronet 1782. See Lysons, lxiv. 100; Wotton's Baronetage, i. 74, iv. 354; and St. George's Visitation of Westmerland, printed 1853, p. 5, &c. ARMS.--_Azure, six annulets or_. Monsire de Musgrave bore this coat, as appears by the Roll of the reign of Edward III., and Thomas Musgrave in that of Richard II. (Rolls of those dates.) Present Representative, Sir George Musgrave, 10th Baronet. HUDDLESTONE OF HUTTON-JOHN. [Illustration] An ancient Northern family, said to be of Saxon descent, originally of Huddleston in Yorkshire, and afterwards of Millom Castle in this county, from an heiress of that name, where the elder line flourished till its extinction in 1745. Andrew, a younger son of John Huddleston of Millom, who lived in the reign of Henry VIII., married the heiress of Hutton of Hutton-John, and was the ancestor of the present family. A younger branch of the Huddlestons were fixed in the county of Cambridge by a match with the illustrious House of Neville. Sir William Huddleston having married Isabel, fifth daughter of John, Marquess of Montecute, became possessed, on the partition of the Neville estates in 1496, of the manor of Sawston, still the inheritance of this line of the family. For Sir John Huddleston, so much trusted by Queen Mary, see Fuller's Worthies, 1st ed. p. 168. John Huddleston, the priest instrumental in saving the life of Charles II, and the same who attended him on his deathbed, was second son of Andrew Huddleston, of Hutton-John. This family afterwards became Protestants, and were active promoters of the Revolution. For a curious account of Sawston and the Huddlestons, see Gent. Mag. for 1815, pt. 2. pp. 25 and 120; Lysons's Cambridgeshire, p. 248, and Cumberland, p. lxxiv. and 107; also Banks's Stemmata Anglicana, "Barones Rejecti," and the Visitation of Cambridgeshire 1619, fol. 1840, p. 19. ARMS.--_Gules, fretty argent_. This coat was borne by Sir John de Hodelestone in the reign of Edward II., Sir Adam the same, with _a border indented or_, Sir Richard with _a label azure_, Sir Richard, the nephew, with _a label or_. (Roll of the reign of Edw. II. co. York.) Present Representative, W. Huddleston, Esq. +Gentle.+ IRTON OF IRTON. [Illustration] A family of very great antiquity, and resident at Irton, on the river Irt, from whence the name is derived, as early as the reign of Henry I. The Manor of Irton has belonged also to the ancestors of Mr. Irton almost from the time of the Conquest. See Lysons, lxxv. 119. ARMS.--_Argent, a fess sable, in chief three mullets gules_. Present Representative, Samuel Irton, Esq. late M.P. for the Western Division of Cumberland. BRISCOE OF CROFTON, IN THE PARISH OF THURSBY, BARONET 1782. [Illustration] Originally of Briscoe near Carlisle, where the family were seated three generations before the reign of Edward I. Crofton, which came by an heiress of that name, has been since the year 1390 the residence of the Briscoe family. See Lysons, lxvi. 159. ARMS.--_Argent, three greyhounds currant sable_. In Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, i. 158, there is a pedigree of a younger branch of this family, who were seated at Aldenham, in that county, previous to 1736. Present Representative, Sir Robert Briscoe, 3rd Baronet. DYKES OF DOVENBY, IN THE PARISH OF BRIDEKIRK. [Illustration] The name, originally "Del Dykes," is derived from the two lines of Roman wall in "Burgh," from whence the family at a remote period originated; Ramerus de Dikes, who lived before the reign of Henry II., is the first supposed ancestor. The pedigree is regularly traced three generations before the 50th of Edward III. to the present time. In the Wars of the Roses the Dykes's, like most other families in the Northern counties, were Lancastrian; and in the Civil Wars of the seventeenth century, devoted Royalists, and sufferers for their allegiance to the Crown. Dovenby, formerly the seat of the Lamplughs, came by marriage in the present century. The Manor of Warthole or Wardhill, purchased in the reign of Henry VI., and still in the family, was the former residence. Waverton, acquired in the 10th of Edward II., exchanged in 1619, and Distington, acquired in the 7th of Richard II., and afterwards alienated, were more ancient possessions. See Lysons, lxxii. 36; Hutchinson's Cumberland, ii. 98 and note; Burn's Cumberland, ii. 49, and i. 157. I am obliged to the present Representative for additions to this account. ARMS.--_Or, three cinquefoils sable_. Monsr. Willm. de Dyks bore, _Argent, a fess vaire or and gules, between three water bougets sable_, as appears by the Roll of the reign of Richard II. Present Representative, Frecheville-Lawson Ballantine-Dykes, Esq. DERBYSHIRE. +Knightly.+ GRESLEY OF DRAKELOW, BARONET 1611. [Illustration] "In point of _stationary_ antiquity hardly any families in the kingdom can compare with the Gresleys," wrote the Topographer in 1789. In this county certainly none can claim precedence to the house of Drakelow; descended from Nigel, mentioned in Domesday, called de Stafford, and said to have been a younger son of Roger de Toni, standard-bearer in Normandy, it was very soon after the Conquest established in Derbyshire, first at Gresley, and immediately afterwards at Drakelow, in the same parish. The present is a younger branch, seated at Nether Seale, in Leicestershire, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. See Leland's Itinerary in Coll. Topog. et Genealog. iii. 339; Nichols's History of Leicestershire, iii. pt. 2, p. 1009*; the Topographer, i. 432, 455, 474; Lysons, lxiii.; Wotton's Baronetage, i. 121; and Erdeswick's Staffordshire, ed 1844, p. 208. ARMS.--_Vaire, ermine and gules_. Allusive no doubt to the Ferrers,' under whom Drakelow was held anno 1200, by the service of a bow, quiver, and 12 arrows. The same coat was borne by Sir Geffray de Greseley in the reign of Edward I., and by Sir Peres de Gresle, in the reign of Edward II. (Rolls.) John de Greseley bore simply, _Vair, argent and gules_. (Roll Ric. II.) Present Representative, Sir Thomas Gresley, 10th Baronet. FITZHERBERT OF NORBURY. [Illustration] This ancient Norman house was seated at Norbury, by the grant of the Prior of Tutbury, in 1125, 25 Henry I. The principal male line becoming extinct in 1649, the succession went to a younger branch descended from William, third son of the celebrated Sir Anthony Fitzherbert the judge, who had seated themselves at Swinnerton, in Staffordshire, still the residence of this family. Younger branch. Fitzherbert of Tissington, Baronet 1783, descended from Nicholas, younger son of John Fitzherbert of Somersall. See Topographer for a curious account of the pedigree and monuments, ii. 225, and Lysons, 217; for Fitzherbert of Tissington, Topographer and Genealogist, i. 362; Gent. Mag. lxvii. p. 645; Topographer, iii. 57; and Brydges's Collins, ix. 156. ARMS.--_Argent, a chief vaire or and gules, over all a bend sable_. This coat is also complimentary to Ferrers. The Tissington Fitzherberts have assumed a different coat, viz. _Gules, three lions rampant or_, from a fanciful notion of their descent from Henry Fitzherbert, Lord Chamberlain 5th Stephen, ancestor of the Herberts of Dean. The lions were assumed as early as 1569. See the Visitation of Derbyshire. Present Representative, Basil Fitzherbert, Esq. CURZON OF KEDLESTON, BARON SCARSDALE 1761, BARONET 1641. [Illustration] This ancient family was seated at Kedleston as early as the reign of Henry I. It is said to be of Breton origin, and descended from Geraline, a great benefactor to the Abbey of Abingdon, in Berkshire, in which county the Curzons held lands soon after the Conquest. Younger branches. Curzon Earl Howe 1821; Curzon of Parham, Sussex. Extinct branches. Curzon of Croxall and Water-Perry, co. Oxford, and of Letheringset, Norfolk. See Lysons, lii.; Brydges's Collins, vii. 294; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 243. ARMS.--_Argent, a bend sable, charged with three popinjays or, collared gules_, borne by Monsr. Roger Curson in the reign of Richard II. Sir John Cursoun bore, _Argent, a bend gules bezantée_, in that of Edward II. (Rolls.) According to Burton's Collections quoted by Wotton, the more ancient coat was, _Vair, or and gules, a border sable charged with popinjays argent_: this was in compliment to William Earl Ferrers and Derby, who had granted to Stephen Curson the manor of Fauld, co. Stafford. Present Representative, the Rev. Alfred Nathaniel Holden Curzon, 4th Baron Scarsdale. VERNON OF SUDBURY, BARON VERNON 1762. [Illustration] The Vernons were originally of Cheshire, and Barons of Shipbrooke, but became connected with Derbyshire by the heiress of Avenell's marriage with Richard Vernon in the 12th century; their son died s.p.m. leaving a daughter and heiress married to Gilbert le Francis, whose son Richard took the name of Vernon, seated himself at Haddon Hall in this county, and was the ancestor of the different branches of the House of Vernon. The Sudbury Vernons settled there in the reign of Henry VIII., and, by the extinction of the other lines, became in the end the chief of the family. Few houses have been more connected together by intermarriage than the Vernons. Younger branches. The Vernon-Harcourts, now of Nuneham Courteney, co. Oxon; the Vernons of Hilton, Staffordshire; and the Vernon-Wentworths, of Wentworth Castle, Yorkshire. See Lysons, liii.; Brydges's Collins, vii. 396; Topographer, ii. 217, for inscriptions to the Vernons at Sudbury, which came from the heiress of Montgomery: for Vernon of Houndhill, in the parish of Henbury, and of Harleston in Clifton Camville, see Shaw's Staffordshire, i. 87, 399, and the Topographer, ii. 11: and for Vernon of Tonge, Topographer, iii. 109, and Eyton's Antiquities of Shropshire, vol. ii. p. 191. ARMS.--_Argent, fretty sable_. This coat, with _a quarter gules_, was borne by Monsr. Richard Vernon in the reign of Richard II. (Roll.) Present Representative, George John Warren, 5th Baron Vernon. POLE OF RADBORNE. [Illustration] Originally from Newborough in Staffordshire, but from the fourteenth century established, through female descent, first at Hartington, and afterwards at Wakebridge, in this county. Radborne was inherited from the Chandos's, through the Lawtons, also in the fourteenth century. It came to the Chandos family from an heiress of Ferrers or "Fitz-Walkelin." See Leland's Itinerary, vol. viii. fol. 70 a, and vol. iv. fol. 6; the Topographer, i. 280; Topographer and Genealogist, i. 176; and Lysons, xciv. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three crescents gules_. Present Representative, Edward Sacheverell Chandos Pole, Esq. CAVENDISH OF HARDWICK, DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE 1694, EARL 1618, BARON 1605. [Illustration] This family was originally from Cavendish Overhall, near Clare, in Suffolk, and is descended from Sir John Cavendish, who in the reign of Edward III. was Chief Justice of the King's Bench. It was John, a younger son of the Judge, who killed Wat Tyler, and from him the family are descended. But it was Sir William Cavendish, younger brother of George Cavendish, who had been Gentleman Usher to Wolsey, who may be called the real founder of the Cavendishes, by the great share of abbey lands which he obtained at the Dissolution of Monasteries, "and afterwards," adds Brydges, "by the abilities, rapacity, and good fortune of Elizabeth, his widow," the celebrated Countess of Shrewsbury. The Cavendishes first settled in Derbyshire by the marriage of this Sir William with "Bess of Hardwick," in 1544. See Topographer, iii. 306; Brydges's Collins, i. 302; Collins's Noble Families. ARMS.--_Sable, three buck's heads cabossed argent, attired or_. Monsr. Andrew Cavendysh of this family bore, _Sable, three crosses botonnée fitchée or_, 2 _and_ 1. (Roll Ric. II.) Present Representative, William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire, and 2nd Earl of Burlington. HARPUR OF CALKE, BARONET 1626 (CALLED CREWE). [Illustration] This family was originally of Chesterton in Warwickshire, where it is traced as early as the reigns of Henry I. and II. In right of Elianor, daughter and heir to William Grober, descended from Richard de Rushall, of Rushall, in Staffordshire, the Harpurs were afterwards seated at that place, but had no connection with Derbyshire till the reign of Elizabeth. Calke was purchased by Henry Harpur, Esq. in 1621. See Dugdale's Warwickshire, 2nd ed, vol. i. 478; Shaw's History of Staffordshire, ii. 69; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 1; Lysons, lxiii. ARMS.--_Argent, a lion rampant within a border engrailed sable_. This was the coat of Rushall; the arms of Harpur were a plain cross. Present Representative, Sir John Harpur Crewe, 9th Baronet. BURDETT OF FOREMARK, BARONET 1618. [Illustration] The pedigree begins with Hugo de Burdet, who came into England with William I., and was lord of the manor of Loseby, in Leicestershire, in 1066. Arrow, in the county of Warwick, which came from the heiress of Camvile the 9th of Edward II., was long the seat of the Burdetts, but they had long before, as Dugdale shows, been connected by property with that county, William Burdett having founded the cell of Ancote, near Sekindon, in the fifth of Henry II. The manor of Arrow, and many other estates of this family, carried by an heiress to the Conways in the reign of Henry VII., became the fruitful cause of many lawsuits, which were not finally settled till the end of the reign of Henry VIII. See Dugdale for the curious details. Foremark was inherited from the heiress of Francis in 1602. See Dugdale's Warwickshire, 2nd edit. ii. 847; Erdeswick's Staffordshire, ed. 1844, 462; Nichols's Leicestershire, iii. pt. 1. 351; Wotton's Baronetage, i. 327; and Lysons. ARMS.--_Azure, two bars or_. Sir William Burdett bore this coat in the reign of Edward II. Sir Robert the same, _in the upper bar three martlets gules_. (Roll Edw. II. under Leicestershire.) Sir Richard the same, with an _orle of martlets gules_. (Roll E. III.) Monsr, John Burdet the same, _each bar charged with three martlets gules_. (Roll Richard II.) Present Representative, Sir Robert Burdett, 6th Baronet. CAVE OF STRETTON, BARONET 1641. [Illustration] A family of great antiquity, which can be traced to the Conquest; originally of South and North Cave in Yorkshire. In the fifteenth century they removed into Northamptonshire and Leicestershire, and were long of Stanford, in the former county. The elder line of the Caves becoming extinct in 1810, the Baronetcy devolved on a younger branch, descended in the female line from the Brownes of Stretton, and from hence their connection with Derbyshire. See Nichols's History of Leicestershire, vol. iv. part i. 350, for a curious account of this family, and for their monuments in Stanford Church, (the earliest of which is that for John Cave, who died in 1471;) Pedigree at p. 371; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 164; Lysons, xviii. ARMS.--_Azure, fretty argent_. This coat was borne by "Monsire de Cave;" see the Roll of Arms of the reign of Edward III. Present Representative, Sir Mylles Cave-Browne-Cave, 11th Baronet. COLVILE OF LULLINGTON. [Illustration] This is an ancient Suffolk and Cambridgeshire family, and can be traced to the time of Henry I. The Colviles, Barons of Culross, in Scotland, are descended from a younger brother of the second progenitor of the family. The manor of Newton-Colvile, acquired by the marriage of Sir Roger Colvile of Carleton Colvile in Suffolk, called "_The Rapacious Knight_," with the heiress of De Marisco, and held under the Bishop of Ely, continued in the Colviles from a period extending nearly from the Conquest to the year 1792, when it was sold, and the representative of this family, Sir Charles Colvile, settled in Derbyshire in consequence of his marriage with Miss Bonnel of Duffield. The head of the family was on the Royalist side in the reign of Charles I., and one of the intended Knights of the Royal Oak. See Lysons's Cambridgeshire, 242; Blomefield's Norfolk; and Watson's History of Wisbeach. ARMS.--_Azure, a lion rampant or, a label of five points gules_. This coat, with the lion argent, was borne by Sir Geoffry de Colville in the reign of Edward II., and without the label by Monsr. John Colvyle in that of Richard II. (Rolls of Arms of the dates.) Sir Roger de Colvile bore the present coat with a label of three points only, in 1240; as appears by his seal to a deed of that date. Present Representative, Charles R. Colvile, Esq. M.P. for South Derbyshire. +Gentle.+ COKE OF TRUSLEY. [Illustration] This is a younger branch of the old house of the Cokes of Trusley, a family of considerable antiquity. The elder line became extinct in 1718. The present family are descended from the Cokes of Suckley in Worcestershire. The Cokes were originally of Staffordshire, but settled in Derbyshire in consequence of a match with one of the coheiresses of Odingsells of Trusley, in the middle of the fifteenth century. There is a younger branch of this family at Lower Moor, in Herefordshire. The Cokes of Melbourn were also a younger branch, from whom the Lambs, Viscounts Melbourne, were descended. See Lysons, lxxxi. ARMS.--_Gules, three crescents and a canton or_. Present Representative, Edward Thomas Coke, Esq. THORNHILL OF STANTON, IN THE PARISH OF YOULGRAVE. [Illustration] Descended from the Thornhills of Thornhill in the Peak, where they were seated as early as the seventh of Edward I. Stanton was inherited from an heiress of Bache in 1697. See Lysons, xcvii. ARMS, confirmed in 1734.--_Gules, two bars gemelles_ _and a chief argent, thereon a mascle sable_. This coat, without the mascle, was borne by M. Bryan de Thornhill in the reign of Edward III. (Roll.) Present Representative, William Pole Thornhill, Esq. late M.P. for North Derbyshire. ABNEY OF MEASHAM. [Illustration] This is a younger branch of a family who were seated at Willersley, by a match with the heiress of Ingwardby at the beginning of the fifteenth century. Willersley was the property of the late Sir Charles Abney Hastings by female descent. Measham is a purchase of about a century. See Lysons, cxii. ARMS.--_Or, on a chief gules a lion passant argent_. Lysons however gives, _Argent, on a cross sable five bezants._ Present Representative, William Wotton-Abney, Esq. DEVONSHIRE. +Knightly.+ FULFORD OF FULFORD, IN THE PARISH OF DUNSFORD. [Illustration] There is every reason to believe that the ancestors of this venerable family have resided at Fulford from the time of the Conquest. Three knights of the house distinguished themselves in the wars of the Holy Land. William de Fulford, who held Fulford in the reign of Richard I., is the first ascertained ancestor. Sir Baldwin Fulford, a leading Lancastrian, was beheaded at Bristol in 1461. See Prince's Worthies of Devon, ed. 1701, p. 298, for description of Fulford; Westcote's Devonshire Pedigrees, p. 612; Lysons, cxlv. 171. ARMS.--_Gules, a chevron argent_. Present Representative, Baldwin Fulford, Esq. COURTENAY OF POWDERHAM CASTLE, EARL OF DEVON 1553, RESTORED 1831. [Illustration] This illustrious house is descended from Reginald de Courtenay, who came over to England with Henry II. A.D. 1151, and, having married the daughter and heiress of the hereditary sheriff of Devonshire, became immediately connected with this county. The Earldom of Devon was first conferred on the Courtenays in 1335, by reason of their descent from William de Redvers, Earl of Devon, The Powderham branch springs from Sir Philip, sixth son of Hugh second Earl of Devon. See Brydges's Collins, vi. 214; Lysons, lxxxvii.; Westcote's Devonshire Pedigrees, 570, &c.; Journal of Arch. Institute, x. 52; and Sir Harris Nicolas's Earldom of Devon. ARMS.--_Or, three torteauxes_. This coat, with a bend azure, was borne by Sir Philip de Courtenay in the reign of Edward II. (Roll.) And the same, with a _label azure_, by Hugh de Courtenay in 1300. See the Roll of Carlaverock, and Sir Harris Nicolas's notes, p. 193. This label was, he remarks, charged by respective branches of the family with mitres, crescents, lozenges, annulets, fleurs-de-lis, guttees, and plates, and with a bend over all. See also Willement's Heraldic Notices in Canterbury Cathedral. Present Representative, William Reginald Courtenay, 11th Earl of Devon. EDGCUMBE OF EDGCUMBE, IN THE PARISH OF MILTON ABBOT'S. [Illustration] Richard Edgcumbe was Lord of Edgcumbe in 1292, and was the direct ancestor of this venerable family, the present representative being twentieth in lineal descent from this first Richard. In the reign of Edward III. William Edgcumbe, second son of the house of Edgcumbe, having married the heiress of Cotehele, in the parish of Calstock, removed into Cornwall, and was the ancestor of the Edgcumbes of Cotehele and Mount Edgcumbe, Earls of Mount Edgcumbe (1789). Another younger branch was of Brompton, or Brampton, in Kent. See Prince's Worthies of Devon, ed. 1701, p. 281; Gilbert's Survey of Cornwall, 4to. 1820, vol. i. p. 444; Carew's Cornwall, 1st ed., p. 99 b and 114 a; Brydges's Collins, v. 306; and Lysons's Cornwall, lxxiii. 212, 53. ARMS.--_Gules, on a bend ermine cotised or three boar's heads couped argent_. Present Representative, Richard D. Edgcumbe, Esq. CHICHESTER OF YOULSTON, IN THE PARISH OF SHERWILL, FORMERLY OF RALEGH, IN THE PARISH OF PILTON; BARONET 1641. [Illustration] This ancient family is said to have taken its name from Cirencester, in Gloucestershire, the residence of its remote ancestors. The Chichesters were, however, as early as the reign of Henry III. of the county of Devon, although Ralegh came to them at a later period from an heiress of that name; Youlston, the present seat, from an heiress of Beaumont in the time of Henry VII. John de Cirencester, living in the 20th of Henry I. is said to have been the first recorded ancestor. Younger branches. Chichester of Hall, in Bishop's-Towton; seated at Hall, from an heiress of that name in the 15th century, Chichester of Arlington, since the reign of Henry VII.; and Chichester, Marquis of Donegal, descended from Edward, 3rd son of Sir John Chichester, in the reign of Elizabeth, &c. See Prince's Worthies of Devon, ed. 1701, pp. 135, 199; Westcote's Devonshire, 303, and Pedigrees, 604, &c., Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 226; Brydges's Collins, viii. 177; Shaw's Staffordshire, i. 374; Lysons, cxi. 440; and Archdall's Lodge's Peerage, ii. 314. ARMS.--_Cheeky or and gules, a chief vair_. Present Representative, Sir Arthur Chichester, 8th Baronet. FORTESCUE OF CASTLE HILL, EARL FORTESCUE 1789. [Illustration] Like the Chichesters, an ancient and wide-spreading family, settled at Wymodeston, now called Winston, in the parish of Modbury, in the year 1209. "This was," writes Sir William Pole, "the most ancient seat of the Fortescues, in whose possession it continued from the days of King John to the Reign of Queen Elizabeth." There are many younger branches of this family, both in England and Ireland, "to rank which in their seniority, and by delineating the descent to give every man his dew place, surpasseth, I freely confesse, my ability at the present." (Westcote's MSS. quoted by The Topographer, i. 178.) The great glory of this house is Sir John Fortescue, Lord Chief Justice of England in the reign of Henry VI. and the author of' the work "_Of absolute and limited Monarchy._" Among the principal younger branches were the Fortescues of Buckland Filleigh and Fortescue of Fallopit in this county, both extinct in the male line, and the Fortescues of the county of Louth in Ireland, represented by the Barons Clermont. See Westcote's Devonshire Pedigrees, 498, 625, &c.; Prince's Worthies, ed. 1701, 304; Brydges's Collins, v. 335; Lysons, lxxxv. ARMS.--_Azure, a bend engrailed argent cotised or_. Present Representative, Hugh Fortescue, 3rd Earl Fortescue. CARY OF TORR-ABBEY, IN THE PARISH OF TOR-MOHUN. [Illustration] An ancient family, the history of which however is involved in great obscurity, supposed by some to have come from Castle Cary, in Somersetshire, by others from Cary, in the parish of St. Giles's in the Heath, near Launceston. It was certainly of the latter place in the reign of Edward I. Cockington in this county was, previous to the Civil Wars of the seventeenth century, the principal seat of the family. Torr-Abbey was purchased by Sir George Cary, Knt. in 1662. Younger branches. Cary of Follaton, in this county. In the county of Donegal and in that of Cork, and in Guernsey, there are families which claim to be branches of the House of Cary. The present Viscounts Falkland, and the extinct Barons Hunsdon, descend from the second marriage of Sir William Cary, of Cockington, in the time of Henry VII. See Prince's Worthies, p. 196; Westcote's Devonshire Families, 507, &c.; Lysons, cxxxviii. 524; and Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, i. 129. For Cary Viscount Falkland, see The Herald and Genealogist, vol. iii.; and for Cary Baron Hunsdon, the same work, vol. iv. ARMS.--_Argent, on a bend sable three roses of the first seeded proper_, said to have been the arms of a Knight of Arragon, vanquished by Sir Robert Cary in single combat in the reign of Henry V. Present Representative, Robert Shedden Sulyarde Cary, Esq. CAREW OF HACCOMBE, BARONET 1661. [Illustration] About the year 1300, by the marriage of Sir John de Carru with a coheiress of Mohun, this ancient family first became connected with the county of Devon. The Carews are descended from Gerald, son of Walter de Windsor, who lived in the reign of Henry I., which Walter was son of Otho, in the time of William the Conqueror. Haccombe was inherited from an heiress of Courtenay, and was settled on this the second branch of the family in the fifteenth century. The extinct families of Carew of Bickleigh and Carew Earl of Totnes were descended from Sir Thomas Carew, elder brother of Nicholas, the first of the Haccombe line. The present Lord Carew, of Ireland, represents, in fact the elder line of this family, being descended from a nephew of the Earl of Totnes. Carew of Antony, Baronet (1641), now extinct, was a younger branch of the house of Haccombe. See Leland's Itin., iii. fol. 40; Prince's Worthies of Devon, 148, 176, 204; Westcote's Devonshire, 440; Pedigrees, 528; Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 323; Lysons, cxiv. For notices of a branch of this family formerly seated in the county of Cork, see Coll. Topog. and Genealog. v. 95; see also Nicolas's Roll of Carlaverock, p. 154, and Maclean's Life of Sir Peter Carew, London, 8vo. 1857. ARMS.--_Or, three lions passant sable_. This coat was borne by Sir Nicholas Carru in 1300. (Roll of Carlaverock.) Sir John de Carru, the same, _with a label gules_, in the reign of Edward II; and by M. de Carrew in that of Edward III. (Rolls.) Present Representative, Sir Walter Palk Carew, 8th Baronet. KELLY OF KELLY. [Illustration] Kelly is a manor in the hundred of Lifton and deanery of Tavistock, and lies on the borders of Cornwall, about six miles from Tavistock. The manor and advowson have been in the family of Kelly at least since the time of Henry II., and here they have uninterruptedly resided since that very early period. See Westcote's Pedigrees, p. 540; Lysons, cl. 296. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three billets gules_. Present Representative, Arthur Kelly, Esq. POLE OF SHUTE, BARONET 1628. [Illustration] This is an ancient Cheshire family, who settled in the county of Devon in the reign of Richard II., Arthur Pole, their ancestor, having married the heiress of Pole of Honiton. The representative of the family, the learned antiquary Sir William Pole, resided at Chute in the early part of the seventeenth century, though the fee of that manor, once the inheritance of the noble family of Bonvile, did not belong to the Poles till it was purchased by Sir John Pole, Baronet, in 1787. See Prince's Worthies of Devon, p. 504; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 124; Lysons, cix. 442. ARMS.--_Azure, semée of fleurs-de-lis or, a lion rampant argent_. Present Representative, Sir John George Reeve De-la-Pole Pole, 8th Baronet. CLIFFORD OF UGBROOKE, BARON CLIFFORD OF CHUDLEIGH 1672. [Illustration] An illustrious Norman family, traced to the Conquest, of which the extinct Earls of Cumberland were the chiefs, first connected with Devonshire by the marriage of Thomas, fourth grandson of Sir Louis Clifford, who died in 1404, with a daughter of John Thorpe of King's Teignton. Ugbrooke came from an heiress of Courtenay, in the reign of Elizabeth. The peerage was conferred by Charles II. on the Lord Treasurer Clifford, one of the celebrated CABAL. Sir Thomas Clifford-Constable, Baronet (1815), represents a younger branch of this family, descended from Thomas, fourth son of the fourth Lord Clifford. See "Cliffordiana," by the Rev. G. Oliver, Exeter, 8vo., and "Collectanea Cliffordiana," Paris, 1817, 8vo.; Erdeswick's Staffordshire, edit. 1844, 73; and for the Earls of Cumberland, and their ancestors the Lords Clifford, see Whitaker's admirable account in his "Craven," ed. 1812, 240, &c., see also Queen's Coll. Ox. MS. cv. for "Evidences of the Cliffords;" Brydges's Collins, vii. 117, and Lysons, xci.; and for the early history of this family, Eyton's Antiquities of Shropshire, vol. v. p. 146. ARMS.--_Checky or and azure, a fess gules_. Borne by Roger de Clifford in the reign of Henry III., and by Walter de Clifford at the same period, instead of _a fess, a bend gules_. Sir Robert de Clifford, in the reigns of Edward II. and III. bore the present coat. Sir Lewis de Clifford, in the time of Richard II. differenced his coat by a _border gules_. (Rolls.) See also the Roll of Carlaverock, p. 195. Present Representative, Hugh Charles Clifford, 8th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh. HARINGTON OF DARTINGTON (CALLED CHAMPERNOWNE). [Illustration] This is a younger line of the ancient and noble family of Harington, formerly of Ridlington, in the county of Rutland, created Baronet in 1611, and still represented by Sir John Edward Harington, the tenth Baronet: the name is local, from Harington in Cumberland, from whence Robert Harington was called in the reign of Henry III. A younger branch of the Haringtons was fixed at Ridlington by purchase in the first year of Philip and Mary; but had been seated at Exton in the same county from the reign of Henry VII. Sir James Harington, third Baronet, was attainted in the 13th of Charles II., having been named as one of the Judges of his sovereign Charles I. He sat however only one day, and refused to sign the fatal warrant. Dartington, the ancient seat of the Champernowne family, was carried by an heiress, Jane, only daughter of Arthur Champernowne, Esq., the last heir male of the family, to the Rev. Richard Harington, second son of Sir James Harington, Baronet, grandfather of the present representative, and who assumed her name. See Wright's History of the County of Rutland, pp. 48, 108; Blore's Rutlandshire; and Courthope's Debrett's Baronetage, p. 10. ARMS.--_Sable, fretty argent_. Present Representative, Arthur Champernowne, Esq. +Gentle.+ BASTARD OF KITLEY, IN THE PARISH OF YEALMTON, OR YALMETON. [Illustration] Descended from Robert Bastard, who held several manors in this county in the reign of William I. For several generations Efford, in the parish of Egg-Buckland, was the seat of this family, but in the early part of the seventeenth century the hereditary estates were sold, and they were of Wolston and Garston, in West Allington. About the beginning of the eighteenth century Kitley, the present seat, was inherited from the heiress of Pollexfen. In 1779, William Bastard, Esq., the representative of this family, was gazetted a Baronet: the honour, which was declined by Mr. Bastard, was intended as an acknowledgment of his services in raising men to defend Plymouth in 1779. See Lysons, cxxxi, and 577. ARMS.--_Or, a chevron azure_. Present Representative, Baldwin John Pollexfen Bastard, Esq. ACLAND OF ACLAND, BARONET 1644. [Illustration] Acland, which gave name to this ancient family, is now a farm in the parish of Landkey; it is thus described in Westcote's Devonshire, (p. 290:) "Then Landkey, or Londkey; and therein Acland, or rather Aukeland, as taking name from a grove of oaks, for by such an one the house is seated, and hath given name and long habitation to the _clarous_ family of the Aclands, which have many ages here flourished in a worshipful degree." Hugh de Accalen is the first recorded ancestor; he was living in 1155; from whom the present Sir Thomas Dyke Acland is twenty-second in lineal descent. Killerton, in the parish of Broad-Clist, purchased at the beginning of the seventeenth century, is the present seat of the family. Columb-John, an ancient Elizabethan mansion in the same parish, now pulled down, was the earlier residence of the Aclands, who were remarkable for their royalty during the Civil Wars. Younger branch. Acland of Fairfield, Baronet 1818. See Gilbert's Survey of Cornwall, i. 559; Prince's Worthies of Devon, p. 18; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 407; and Lysons, cxiii. ARMS.--_Checky argent and sable, a fess gules_. This coat was borne by M. John Acland, as appears by the Roll of Arms of the reign of Richard II. According to Prince, _three oak-leaves on a bend between two lions rampant_, was also borne at this time by this family. Present Representative, Sir Thomas Dyke-Acland, 10th Baronet. BAMFYLDE OF POLTIMORE, BARON POLTIMORE 1831, BARONET 1641. [Illustration] John Baumfield, the ancestor of this family, became possessed of Poltimore in the reign of Edward I.; but the pedigree can be traced three generations before that period. A younger branch was of Hardington in Somersetshire, extinct about the beginning of the eighteenth century. For the story of the heir of the Bamfyldes taken away and recovered, see Prince's Worthies of Devon, p. 121; see also Westcote's Devonshire Pedigrees, p. 492; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 188; and Lysons, cx. ARMS.--_Or, on a bend gules three mullets argent_. Present Representative, Augustus Frederick George Warwick Bampfylde, 2nd Baron Poltimore. NORTHCOTE OF PYNES, BARONET 1641. [Illustration] Descended from Galfridus, who was of Northcote, in the parish of East-Downe, in the twelfth century. Hayne, in the parish of Newton St. Cyres, was afterwards acquired by marriage with the heiress of Drew. Pynes was inherited from the heiress of' Stafford, originally Stowford, early in the last century. See Lysons, pp. cx. 361, 545, and Wotton's Baronetage; ii. 206. ARMS.--_Argent, three cross-crosslets botonny in bend sable_. Used on seals in the reign of Henry VI. The earliest coat, used till the time of Edward III. was _Or, a chief gules fretty of the first_. Afterwards, _Argent, a fess between three cross molines sable_. In 1571, Robert Cooke, Clarencieux, is said to have granted, according to the foolish custom of the day, another coat to Walter Northcote of Crediton, grandfather or uncle of the 1st Baronet, viz.: _Or, on a pale argent three bends sable_. Sir William Pole mentions another coat, _Or, three spread eaglets gules, on a chief sable three escallops of the first_. But this appears to be a mistake.--From the information of the present Baronet. Present Representative, Sir Stafford Henry Northcote, 8th Baronet, M.P. for Stamford. FURSDON OF FURSDON, IN THE PARISH OF CADBURY. [Illustration] From the days of Henry III. if not from an earlier period, this ancient family has resided at the place from whence the name is derived. See the Visitation of Devon, 1620, Harl. MS. 1080. fo. 4; Lysons, cxlv. and 92. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron azure between three fireballs proper_. Present Representative, George Fursdon, Esq. STRODE OF NEWENHAM, IN THE PARISH OF PLYMPTON ST. MARY. [Illustration] Originally of Strode, in the parish of Ermington, where Adam de Strode, the first recorded ancestor, was seated in the reign of Henry III, In that of Henry IV. by the marriage of the coheiress of Newenham of Newenham, they became possessed of that place, since the seat of the family. "A right ancient and honourable family," says Prince; it may also be called an historical one, William Strode, of this house, being one of the Five Members of the House of Commons demanded by Charles I. in 1641. See Prince's Worthies, p. 563; Westcote's Pedigrees, p. 542; Lysons, clv. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three conies sable_. Present Representative, George Strode, Esq. WALROND OF DULFORD IN THE PARISH OF BROAD HEMBURY. [Illustration] This is a younger branch of an ancient family seated at Bradfield, in Uffculm, as early as the reign of Henry III, For many years the Walronds, living at their venerable mansion of Bradfield, were a powerful family in Devonshire. The male line of this the principal branch has become extinct since the time of Lysons, and the representation devolved on the present family, descended from Colonel Humphry Walrond, a distinguished Loyalist during the Civil Wars of the seventeenth century. On the fall of the Royal Cause he emigrated to Barbadoes, of which island with the aid of other Royalists he made himself Governor. Philip IV. of Spain conferred upon him the title of Marques de Vallado, and other Spanish honours, for, as the still existing patent states, "services rendered to the Spanish Marine." See Lysons, clviii. and 540; Westcote's Devonshire Pedigrees, p. 484. ARMS.--_Argent, three bull's heads cabossed sable_. Present Representative, Bethell Walrond, Esq. BELLEW OF COURT, IN THE PARISH OF STOCKLEIGH-ENGLISH. [Illustration] This is a younger branch of the great Anglo-Irish family of Bellew of Bar-meath, in the county of Meath, settled in Devonshire in the reign of Edward IV., in consequence of a marriage with one of the coheiresses of Fleming of Bratton-Fleming. See the Visitations of Devon in 1564 and 1620: Lysons, cxxxiv. and 455. ARMS.--_Sable, fretty or, a crescent for difference_. Present Representative, John Prestwood Bellew, Esq. DREWE OF GRANGE, IN THE PARISH OF BROAD HEMBURY. [Illustration] The name is derived from Drogo or Dru, and is supposed to be Norman. The first proved ancestor of the family however is William Drewe, who married an heiress of Prideaux of Orcheston in this county, and appears to have lived about the beginning of the fourteenth century. His son was of Sharpham, also in Devonshire. The present seat was erected by Sir Thomas Drewe in 1610. Younger branches of this family were of Drew's Cliffe and High Hayne in Newton St. Cyres. See Lysons, cxliii. and 266; Westcote's Pedigrees, 582-3; and the Topographer and Genealogist, ii. 209, for the Drews of Ireland, descended from a second son of the house of Drew's Cliffe, who came to Ireland, and settled at Meanus, in the county of Kerry, in 1633; see also Prince's Worthies, 1st ed. p. 249. ARMS.--_Ermine, a lion passant gules_. Present Representative, Edward Simcoe Drewe, Esq. BULLER OF DOWNES, IN THE PARISH OF CREDITON. [Illustration] This is the head of the wide-spread family of Buller, of which there are several branches in the Western counties. The first recorded ancestor appears to be Ralph Buller, who in the fourteenth century was seated at Woode, in the hundred of South Petherton, and county of Somerset, by an heiress of Beauchamp. They became possessed of Lillesdon, in the same county, and afterwards, by an heiress of Trethurffe, we find them at Tregarrick, in Cornwall, but were not till the eighteenth century of Downes, which came from the coheiress of Gould. Younger branches. Buller of Morval and of Lanreath, both in the county of Cornwall. Buller of Lupton, in this county, Baronet 1790, Baron Churston 1858. See Lysons, cxxxvi.; Carew's Cornwall, ed. 1st, p. 133 b; and Gilbert's Survey of Cornwall, ii. 38. ARMS.--_Sable, on a plain cross argent, quarter pierced, four eagles of the field_. Present Representative, James Wentworth Buller, Esq. HUYSHE OF SAND. [Illustration] Originally of Doniford, in Somersetshire, where John de Hywish is said to have been seated in the early part of the thirteenth century. Sand, in the parish of Sidbury, came by purchase to an ancestor of the family in the reign of Elizabeth; and, although we find it in Lysons's List of the Decayed Mansions of the County of Devon, it still remains the inheritance of this ancient family. See Lysons, cxlix. v. 144, and Burke's History of the Commoners, 1st ed. vol. iv. p. 409. ARMS.--_Argent, on a bend sable three lutes naiant of the first_. Present Representative, the Rev. John Huyshe. DORSETSHIRE. +Knightly.+ BINGHAM OF BINGHAM'S MELCOMBE. [Illustration] Sir John de Bingham, Knight, who lived in the reign of Henry I., is the first recorded ancestor of this ancient family; he was of Sutton, in the county of Somerset. Melcombe was inherited from an heiress of Turberville in the time of Henry III., and has been ever since the residence of the Binghams, of whom the most remarkable was Sir Richard, a younger son of the head of the family in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who greatly distinguished himself in Ireland. Younger branch. The Earls of Lucan in the Peerage of Ireland (1795) descended from George, fourth son of Robert Bingham and Alice Coker, and younger brother of Sir Richard. See Hutchins's History of Dorset, vol. iv. 202; and Archdall's Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, vii. 104. ARMS.--_Azure, a bend cotised between six crosses patée or_. Present Representative, Richard Hippisley Bingham, Esq. RUSSELL OF KINGSTON-RUSSELL, DUKE OF BEDFORD 1694, EARL OF BEDFORD 1550. [Illustration] Although this family may be said to have made their fortune in the reign of Henry VII., first by Mr. John Russell's accidental meeting with Philip Archduke of Austria, and his consequent introduction to the King, and secondly by the large share of ecclesiastical plunder acquired by this same John at the Dissolution of the Monasteries, yet there is no reason to doubt that the Russells are sprung from a younger branch of an ancient baronial family, of whom the elder line were known by the name of Gorges, and were Barons of Parliament in the time of Edward III. The Russells were seated at Kingston as early as the reign of Henry III. See Wiffen's House of Russell, and Brydges's Collins, i. 266, &c. ARMS.--_Argent, a lion rampant gules, on a chief sable three escallops of the first_. Present Representative, William Russell, 8th Duke of Bedford, K.G. DIGBY OF TILTON, BARON DIGBY OF SHERBORNE 1765, BARON DIGBY OF GEASHILL IN IRELAND 1620. [Illustration] An ancient Leicestershire family, to be traced nearly to the Conquest, and supposed to be of Saxon origin. The name is derived from Digby, in Lincolnshire; but Tilton, in the county of Leicester, where AElmar, the first recorded ancestor of the Digbys, held lands in 1086, also gave name to the earlier generations of the family. These ancient possessions have long ceased to belong to the Digbys; and by the will of the last Earl Digby, who died in 1856, the manor of Coleshill, in Warwickshire, granted by Henry VII. to Simon Digby, and the Castle of Sherborne, in Dorsetshire, have also been alienated from the male line of the family. There have been several branches of the Digbys both in England and Ireland, besides the extinct Earls of Bristol. During the seventeenth century the history of the family, as evinced in the lives of the celebrated Sir Kenelm Digby and the Earl of Bristol, is very remarkable. See Leland's Itin., iv. fo. 19; Dugdale's Warwickshire, 2nd ed., vol. ii. 1012; and Pedigree of Digby of Tilton, Eye, Kettleby, Sisonby, North Luffenham, and Welby, in Nichols's Leicestershire, ii. pt. i. p. *261; for a more extended Pedigree see vol. iii. pt. i. p. 473, under Tilton; Brydges's Collins, v. 348; Hutchins's Dorset, iv. 133; and for an account of the famous Digby Pedigree, compiled by order of Sir Kenelm in 1634, at the expense, it is said, of £1200, see Pennant's Journey from Chester to London, 8vo. 1811, p. 441; and for portraits of the Digbys at Gothurst, ib. p. 449. ARMS.--_Azure, a fleur-de-lis argent_. Present Representative, Edward St. Vincent Digby, 9th Baron Digby of Geashill. +Gentle.+ FRAMPTON OF MORETON. [Illustration] John de Frampton, M. P. for Dorset in 1373 and 1380, is the first recorded ancestor; his son Walter, having married Margaret heiress of the Manor of Moreton, became possessed of that estate as early as the year 1365, which has since continued the seat of the family. See Hutchins's History of Dorset, vol. i. 238, where the pedigree is given from the Heralds' Office, CC. 22, 155, continued from 1623 to 1753 by James Lane, Richmond Herald, and the new edition of Hutchins, vol. i. p. 398. ARMS.--_Argent, a bend pules cotised sable. Said to have been borne by the first ancestor, John Frampton_. Present Representative, Henry James Frampton, Esq. BOND OF GRANGE AND LUTTON, IN THE PARISH OF STEPLE, IN THE ISLE OF PURBECK. [Illustration] Originally of Cornwall, and said to be a family of great antiquity, but not connected with Dorset till the middle of the fifteenth century. In 1431 (9th Henry VI.) Robert Bond of Beauchamp's Hache, in the county of Somerset, was seated at Lutton, his mother having been the heiress of that name and family. Grange was purchased by Nathaniel Bond, Esq in 1686. There were other branches of this family seated at Blackmanston, Swanwick, and Wareham. See Hutchins's History of Dorset, vol. i. 326, and the new edition, vol. i. p. 602. ARMS.--_Sable, a fess or_. A former coat, recognised in the Visitation of Dorset in 1623, was, _Argent, on a chevron sable three besants_. Present Representative, The Rev. Nathaniel Bond. TREGONWELL OF ANDERSON AND CRANBORNE. [Illustration] The name is derived from Tregonwell, in the parish of Cranstock and county of Cornwall, and there the remote ancestors of this family doubtless resided, though the pedigree is not _proved_ beyond the latter part of the fifteenth century. In the reign of Henry VIII., Sir John Tregonwell was employed by the king on his matrimonial affairs, and sent into France, Germany, and Italy. His services were rewarded by grants of monastic lands, among others by the mitred Abbey of Milton in this county. Milton was sold to the Damers in the eighteenth century, and Anderson purchased in 1622. See Gilbert's Cornwall, ii. 313; Hutchins's Dorset, iv. 210, and the new edition, i. p. 161. ARMS.--_Argent, on a fess cotised sable, between three Cornish choughs proper three plates_. Present Representative, John Tregonwell, Esq. WELD OF LULWORTH CASTLE. [Illustration] Founded by William Weld, Sheriff of London in 1352, who married Anne Wettenhall; his posterity were seated at Eaton in Cheshire, till the reign of Charles II. The present family are descended from Sir Humphry, Lord Mayor of London in 1609, who was fourth son of John Weld of Eaton and Joan Fitzhugh. Lulworth was purchased in 1641. Younger branch, Weld-Blundell of Ince-Blundell, Lancashire. See Ormerod's Cheshire, ii. 131; Hutchins's Dorset, i. 226; and the new edition, i. p. 372; Blakeway's Sheriffs of Salop, p. 120, ARMS.--_Azure, a fess nebulée between three crescents ermine_. Confirmed by Camden in 1606. See Morgan's Sphere of Gentry, book 2, p. 112. Present Representative, Edward Weld, Esq. FLOYER OF WEST-STAFFORD. [Illustration] This is a Devonshire family of good antiquity seated at Floyers-Hayes, in the parish of St. Thomas in that county, soon after the Norman Conquest. That estate appears to have remained in the family till the latter part of the seventeenth century. The Floyers afterwards removed into Dorsetshire, of which county Anthony Floyer, Esq. was a justice of the peace in 1701. See Prince's Worthies of Devonshire, ed. 1701, p. 308; Westcote's Devonshire Pedigrees, p. 556. ARMS.--_Sable, a chevron between three broad arrows argent_. Present Representative, John Floyer, Esq. M. P. for Dorset. DURHAM. +Knightly.+ LUMLEY OF LUMLEY CASTLE, EARL OF SCARBOROUGH 1690, VISCOUNT LUMLEY OF IRELAND 1628. [Illustration] This very distinguished family is of Anglo-Saxon descent, and has been seated in this county from the time of the Conquest; Liulph, who lived before the year 1080, is the first recorded ancestor. In the female line the Lumleys represent the Barons Thweng of Kilton, and from hence the arms borne by this ancient house, who were themselves summoned as Barons from the 8th of Richard II. to the 1st of Henry IV. The elder line of the family became extinct on the death of John Lord Lumley in 1609. It was during the time of this Lord that the following anecdote is told. "Oh, mon, gang na farther; let me digest the knowledge I ha' gained, for I did na ken Adam's name was Lumley,"--exclaimed King James I. when wearied with Bishop James's prolix account of the Lumley Pedigree, on his Majesty's first visit to Lumley Castle in 1603. For the curious story of the _lucky leap_ of Richard Lumley, the immediate ancestor of the present family, see Nichols's Leicestershire, iii. pt. i. 363; and Surtees's Durham, ii. 162. See also Leland's Itin., vi. fol. 62; Brydges's Collins, iii. 693; the Roll of Carlaverock by Sir H. Nicolas, p.313; and the Surrey Archaeological collections, vol. iii. pp. 324-348, for a valuable account of the Lumley monuments in Cheam church, and notes on the pedigree and arms. ARMS.--_Argent, a fess gules between three popinjays proper, collared of the second_. This coat was borne by Marmaduke de Twenge in the reign of Henry III. and by M. de Thwenge and Monsieur Rauf Lumleye in the reign of Edward III. and Richard II. (Rolls.) John le Fitz Marmaduke bore, _Gules, a fess and three popinjays argent_. (Roll of Carlaverock, 1300.) Sir Robert de Lumley the same, _but on the fess three mullets sable_. (Roll of the reign of Edward II) See the seal of John Lord Lumley, who died in 1421, in Bysshe's Notes on Upton, p. 58. Present Representative, Richard George Lumley, 9th Earl of Scarborough. SALVIN OF CROXDALE. [Illustration] Sir Osbert Silvayne, Knight, of Norton Woodhouse, in the Forest of Sherwood, living in the 29th of Henry III., is the first proved ancestor of this family: he is said to have been son of Ralph Silvayne. Some of the name, which we may supposed to be derived from this wood or forest, were seated at Norton before the year 1140. Croxdale was inherited from the heiress of Whalton in 1402. Younger branch, Salvin of Sunderland Bridge, in this county. See Surtees's Durham iv. 117, and the Scrope and Grosvenor Roll, ii. p. 340. For the extinct family of Salvin of Newbiggen, see Graves's Cleveland. ARMS.--_Argent, on a chief sable two mullets pierced or_. This coat was borne by Sir Gerard Salveyn in the reign of Edward II., and also I suppose by the same Sir Gerard in that of Edward III., but here the _mullets are voided vert_. Again, in the reign of Richard II, Monsieur Gerard Salvayn bore his _mullets of six points or, pierced gules_. Present Representative, Gerard Salvin, Esq. +Gentle.+ LAMBTON OF LAMBTON CASTLE, EARL OF DURHAM 1833, BARON 1828. [Illustration] According to Surtees, traced to Robert de Lambton, Lord of Lambton in 1314. 'There was, it is true, a John de Lambton, living between 1180 and 1200, but the pedigree cannot be _proved_ beyond this Robert. The Lambtons were among the first families of the North who embraced the Reformed Religion, and were loyal during the Civil Wars of the seventeenth century. See Surtees's Durham, ii. 174. ARMS.--_Sable, a fess between three lambs trippant argent_. Present Representative, George Frederick D'Arcy Lambton, 2nd Earl of Durham. ESSEX. +Knightly.+ TYRELL OF BOREHAM, BARONET 1809. [Illustration] "This is," says Morant, "one of the most ancient knightly families which has subsisted to our own days;" descended from Walter Tyrell, who held the manor of Langham, in this county, at the time of Domesday; it is doubtful whether he was the person who shot William Rufus. Indeed, although the ancient descent of the Terells or Tyrells is generally admitted, the pedigree appears to require the attention of an experienced genealogist. There have been many branches of the Tyrells in this and other counties; the present is a junior one of the original stock, and Boreham a very recent possession. Elder branches now extinct:-- Tyrell of Thornton, co. Buckingham, Baronet 1627 to 1749. Tyrell of Springfield, Essex, Baronet 1666 to 1766. See Morant's History of Essex, i. 208; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 85, iii. 610. ARMS.--_Argent, two chevrons azure within a border engrailed gules_ Present Representative, Sir John Tyssen Tyrell, 2nd Baronet, late M.P. for Essex. WALDEGRAVE OF NAVERSTOKE, EARL WALDEGRAVE 1729; BARONET 1685, BARONET 1643. [Illustration] An ancient family, which has been seated in many counties, originally of Waldegrave, in Northamptonshire; afterwards settled in Suffolk; about the latter end of the fifteenth century, seised of lands in this county; and again we find them in Norfolk and Somersetshire. Naverstock was granted by Queen Mary in 1553, the Waldegraves having suffered for their attachment to the old faith at the time of the Reformation. Leland thus mentions the family; "As far as I could gather of young Walgreve, of the Courte, the eldest house of the Walgreves cummith owt of the Town of Northampton or ther about, and there yet remaineth in Northamptonshire a man of landes of that name." See Leland's Itinerary, iv. fol. 19; Morant's Essex, i. 181; Brydges's Collins, iv. 232; and the Scrope and Grosvenor Roll, ii. p. 374, for an interesting memoir of Sir Richard Waldegrave, who died in 1401, having been chosen Speaker of the House of Commons in 1381. Younger branch, Baron Radstock, of Ireland, 1800, descended from the younger brother of the fourth Earl Waldegrave. ARMS.--_Per pale argent and gules_. This coat was borne by M. Richard Waldeg've, as appears by the Roll of the reign of Richard II. Present Representative, William Frederick Waldegrave, 9th Earl Waldegrave. DISNEY OF THE HYDE, IN THE PARISH OF INGATSTONE. [Illustration] A younger branch of an ancient Knightly Norman house, settled for many years at Norton D'Isney in Lincolnshire, where the principal line became extinct in 1722. The present family descend from the eldest son by the second marriage of Sir Henry Disney of Norton Disney, who died in 1641. See very elaborate pedigrees of this family in the College of Arms, Norfolk 1, p. 38, and Norfolk 7, p. 76; also Hutchins's Dorset, iv. p. 389, for Disney of Swinderby, co. Lincoln, and of Corscomb, co. Dorset, and for the present family. See also the Topographer and Genealogist, iii. 393; and Leland's Itinerary, i. p. 28, "Disney, alias De Iseney. He dwelleth at Diseney, and of his name and line be Gentilmen yn Fraunce." ARMS.--_Argent, on a fess gules three fleurs-de-lis or_. In the reign of Richard II. Monsieur William Dysney bore, _Argent, three lions passant in pale gules_. (Roll.) Present Representative, Edgar Disney, Esq. +Gentle+ GENT OF MOYNS. [Illustration] The family of Gent was seated at Wymbish in this county in 1328. William Gent, living in 1468, married Joan, daughter and heir of William Moyne of Moyne or Moyns. His widow purchased that manor in 1494, and it has since continued the seat of this family, who were greatly advanced by Sir Thomas Gent, the Judge, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. See Morant's History of Essex, ii. 353. ARMS.--_Ermine, a chief indented sable_. Sometimes _a chevron sable_ is borne on the field. The Judge bore two spread eagles on the chief, as appears by his seal. Present Representative, George Gent, Esq. VINCENT OF DEBDEN HALL, BARONET 1620. [Illustration] The family of Vincent descend from Miles Vincent, owner of lands at Swinford in the county of Leicester, in the tenth of Edward II. Early in the fifteenth century the family removed to Bernack, in the county of Northampton, on marriage with the heiress of Sir John Bernack, of that place. Here they continued to reside, until David Vincent, Esq. seventh in descent from that marriage, settled at Long-Ditton, in Surrey, in the reign of Henry VIII. His son, Sir Thomas Vincent, by marriage with the heiress of Lyfield, removed to Stoke d'Abernon, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, which was sold shortly after 1809, when the family removed to the present seat in this county. See Wotton's Baronetage, vol. i. p. 418; and Manning and Bray's Surrey, vol. ii. p. 723. ARMS.--_Azure, three quatrefoils urgent_. Present Representative, Sir Francis Vincent, 10th Baronet. GLOUCESTERSHIRE. +Knightly.+ BERKELEY OF BERKELEY CASTLE, EARL OF BERKELEY 1679; BARON BERKELEY 1416. [Illustration] Pre-eminent among the Norman aristocracy is the house of Berkeley, and more especially remarkable from being the only family in England in the male line retaining as their residence their ancient Feudal Castle. This great family are descended from Hardinge, who fought with William at the battle of Hastings; and whose son, Robert Fitzhardinge, received the lordship and castle of Berkeley from Henry II., in reward for his fidelity to the Empress Maude and her son. His son and successor Maurice married Alice, daughter of Roger de Berkeley, the former and dispossessed owner of Berkeley. Younger branches. The Berkeleys of Cotheridge and Spetchley, both in Worcestershire, and both descended from Thomas, fourth son of James fifth Lord Berkeley, and Isabel, daughter of Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. (Nash's Worcestershire, i. 258.) For Berkeley of Stoke-Gifford in this county, and of Bruton, co. Somerset, (Lords Berkeley of Stratton,) both extinct, see Blore's Rutlandshire, p, 210; for Berkeley of Wymondham, also extinct, see Nichols's Leicestershire, ii. pt. 1. p. 413; for Berkeley-Portman of Bryanston, co. Dorset, see Hutchins's Dorset, i. 154. For Berkeley Genealogy, see Leland's Itinerary, vi. fo. 49, &c.; for Charters of the Berkeleys, with their seals copied from the originals at Berkeley Castle, see MSS. Reg. Coll. Oxon. cxlix., and, above all, Fosbroke's "Abstracts and Extracts of Smyth's Lives of the Berkeleys," admirably illustrative of the ancient manners of our old landed families. ARMS.--_Gules, a chevron between ten crosses patée argent_. The original arms were, _Gules, a chevron argent_, and were so borne by Moris de Barkele, in the reign of Henry III. The present coat was used by Sir Moris in the reigns of Edward II. and III. and Richard II. His son, during his father's life, differenced his arms by _a label azure_; Sir Thomas de Berkeley used "_rosettes_" instead of crosses; Sir John de Berkeley, _Gules, a chevron argent between three crosses patée or_. (Roll of Edw. II. &c.) See for the differences in the Berkeley coat, Camden's Remains, ed. 1657, p. 226. Present Representative, Thomas Morton Fitz-Hardinge Berkeley, 6th Earl of Berkeley. +Gentle.+ KINGSCOTE OF KINGSCOTE. [Illustration] Ansgerus, or Arthur, owner of lands in Combe, in the parish of Wotton under Edge, in this county, the gift of the Empress Maude, is the patriarch of this venerable family. The manor of Kingscote, which had been given by William I. to Roger de Berkeley, was inherited from Aldeva, the daughter of Robert Fitz-Hardinge and the wife of Nigel de Kingscote, soon after the reign of Henry II. The Kingscotes shared in the glories of both Poictiers and Agincourt, and, although a family of such long standing in this county, appear never to have exceeded the moderate limits of their present ancestral property. See Atkyns's Gloucestershire, 2nd edit. 1768, p. 258; Rudder's Gloucestershire, p. 512; and Fosbroke's Smyth's Lives of the Berkeleys, p. 218. ARMS.--_Argent, nine escallops sable, on a canton gules a mullet pierced or_. Present Representative, Thomas Henry Kingscote, Esq. TRYE OF LECKHAMPTON-COURT. [Illustration] This family is traced to Rawlin Try, in the reign of Richard II. He married an heiress of Berkeley, by whom he had the manor of Alkington in Berkeley. His great-grandson was High Sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1447, and married an heiress of Boteler, from whence came the manor of Hardwicke, sold to the Yorkes in the last century. Leckhampton came from the Norwood family in recent times. See Atkyns's Gloucestershire, p. 238; and Rudder, p. 471, &c. ARMS.--_Or, a bend azure_. In the Roll of Arms of the Thirteenth Century, printed by the Society of Antiquaries in 1864 [numbers 69 and 70], occur the following coats: "Signeur de Bilebatia de Try, d'or un bend gobony d'argent et d'azure. "Regnald de Try, d'or un bend d'azure un labell gulez." Present Representative, Rev. Charles Brandon Trye. ESTCOURT OF ESTCOURT, IN SHIPTON-MOYNE. [Illustration] The printed accounts of this ancient family are somewhat meagre, but original evidences in the possession of the present Mr. Estcourt prove the long continuance of his ancestors as lords of the manor of the place from whence the name is derived, and of which John Estcourt died seised in the fourteenth year of Edward IV. The estate has remained the inheritance of his descendants from that period. Walter de la Estcourt is the first recorded ancestor. He held lands in Shipton in 1317, and died about 1325. See Atkyns's Gloucestershire, 2nd ed. p. 340; Rudder, p. 654 and Lee's History of the Parish of Tetbury, p. 196. ARMS.--_Ermine, on a chief indented gules three estoiles or_, and so borne by William Estcourt, Warden of New College, Oxford, in 1426, as appears by his silver seal in the possession of Mr. Estcourt. Present Representative, The Right Hon. Thomas H. S. Sotheron-Estcourt, late M.P. for North Wilts. LEIGH OF ADLESTROP, BARON LEIGH OF STONELEIGH 1839. [Illustration] Descended from Agnes, daughter and heir of Richard de Legh, and her second husband William Venables, the common ancestress of the Leighs of West-Hall in High-Leigh. (See p. 22.) They had a son who took the name of Legh, and settled at Booths in Cheshire: from hence came the Leighs of Adlington, and from them the Leighs of Lyme, both in Cheshire, and both now extinct. John Leigh, Escheator of Cheshire in the 12th of Henry VI., was a younger son of Sir Peter Leigh, of Lyme, and the ancestor of the Leighs of Ridge, in the same county. Ridge was sold in the fourth of George II., and the family (still I believe existing) removed into Kent. The present family are descended from Sir Thomas Leigh, Knight, Lord Mayor of London in 1558, who was also the ancestor of the extinct house of Stoneleigh. Sir Thomas was great-grandson of Sir Peter Leigh, Knight Banneret, who fell at Agincourt. Younger Branches. Leigh of Middleton in Yorkshire, and Egginton in Derbyshire. See also Townley of Townley. Extinct Branches. Leigh of Rushall, in Staffordshire; see Shaw's Staffordshire, ii. 69; of Brownsover, co. Warwick, Baronet; of Baguly, co. Chester; of Annesley, co. Notts; of Birch, co. Lancaster; of Stockwell, co. Surrey; and of Isall, co. Cumberland, &c. So various indeed are the ramifications of the different branches of this wide-spreading family, that "as many Leighs as fleas" has grown into a proverb in Cheshire. See Ormerod's Cheshire, i. 350; iii. 333, 338, 374. ARMS.--_Gules, a cross engrailed, and in the dexter point a fusil argent_. Present Representative, William Henry Leigh, 2nd Baron Leigh. HEREFORDSHIRE. +Knightly.+ BODENHAM OF ROTHERWAS. [Illustration] Hugh de Bodenham, Lord of Bodenham, in this county, grandfather of Roger who lived in the reign of Henry III., is the ancestor of this family; who were afterwards of Monington and of Rotherwas, about the middle of the fifteenth century. See Blore's Rutlandshire for Bodenham of Ryhall, in that county, now extinct, (p. 49,) and Duncomb's Herefordshire, i. 91, 104. ARMS.--_Azure, a fess between three chess-rooks or_. Present Representative, Charles De la Barre Bodenham, Esq. SCUDAMORE OF KENTCHURCH. [Illustration] This is the only remaining branch of an ancient Norman family formerly seated at Upton and Norton near Warminster, in Wiltshire; Walter de Scudamore being lord of the former manor in the reign of Stephen. In that of Edward III. Thomas, younger son of Sir Peter Scudamore, of Upton-Scudamore, having married the heiress of Ewias, removed into Herefordshire, and was the ancestor of the family long seated at Holme-Lacy, created Viscounts Scudamore in 1628, and extinct in 1716. From him also descended the house of Kentchurch, who are said to have been seated there in the reign of Edward IV. See Gibson's Views of the Churches of Door, Holme-Lacy, and Hemsted, &c. 4to. 1727; and Guillim's Heraldry, ed. 1724, p. 549. ARMS.--_Gules, three stirrups, leathered and buckled, or_. Ancient coat, _Or, a cross patée fitchée gules_. Present Representative, John Lucy Scudamore, Esq. +Gentle.+ LUTTLEY OF BROCKHAMPTON (CALLED BARNEBY). [Illustration] Luttley is in the parish of Enfield, in the county of Stafford, and Philip de Luttley was lord thereof in the 20th of Edward I. He was the ancestor of a family the direct line of which terminated in an heiress in the reign of Henry VI. But Adam de Luttley, younger brother of Philip above-named, was grandfather of Sir William Luttley, Knight, of Munslow Hall, co. Salop, whose lineal descendant, John Luttley, Esq. was of Bromcroft Castle, in the same county, 1623. Philip Luttley, Esq. of Lawton Hall, co. Salop, great-grandson of John last-named, married Penelope, only daughter of Richard Barneby, Esq. of Brockhampton; and their son, Bartholomew, succeeding to the Barneby estates, assumed that name; and was grandfather of the late John Barneby, Esq. M. P. for the county of Worcester. From the MSS. of Mr. Joseph Morris of Shrewsbury. ARMS.--_Quarterly or and azure, four lions rampant counterchanged_. Present Representative, John Habington Barneby, Esq. BERINGTON OF WINSLEY. [Illustration] The name is derived from Berington, in the hundred of Condover, and county of Salop, where Thomas and Roger de Berington were living in the reigns of Edward I. and II. Another Thomas, living in the time of Edward III., married Alice, daughter of Sir John Draycot, Knight, and was ancestor of John Berington, of Stoke-Lacy, in this county, who, about the reign of Henry VII. married Eleanor, daughter and heir of Rowland Winsley, of Winsley, Esq. From this marriage the present Mr. Berington is tenth in descent. From Roger de Berington, brother of Thomas first-named, the Beringtons of Shrewsbury and of Moat Hall, co. Salop, traced their descent. Thomas Berington, of Moat Hall, Esq. who died in 1719, married Anne, daughter of John Berington, of Winsley, Esq.; and the last heir male of their descendants, Philip Berington, Esq. dying s.p. in 1803, devised his Shropshire estates to his kinsman, Mr. Berington, of Winsley. From the MSS. of Mr. Joseph Morris, of Shrewsbury, and Eyton's Shropshire, vi. p. 42. ARMS.--_Sable, three greyhounds courant in pale argent, collared gules, within a border of the last_. Present Representative, John Berington, Esq. HERTFORDSHIRE. +Knightly.+ JOCELYN, OF HYDE HALL, IN THE PARISH OF SABRIDGEWORTH, EARL OF RODEN IN IRELAND 1771; IRISH BARON 1743; BARONET 1665. [Illustration] A family of Norman origin, said to have come into England with William the Conqueror, and to have been seated at Sempringham, in the county of Lincoln, by the grant of that monarch. In 1249 Thomas Jocelyn, son of John, having married Maud, daughter and coheir of Sir John Hyde, of Hyde, brought that manor and lordship into this family, in which it has ever since continued. The peerage was originally conferred on Robert Jocelyn, Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1739, created Baron Newport 1743, whose son, the first Earl, married the heiress of the Hamiltons, Earls of Clanbrassil, in 1752. See "Historical Anecdotes of the Families of the Boleyns, Careys, Mordaunts, Hamiltons, and Jocelyns, arranged as an Elucidation of the Genealogical Chart at Tollymore Park," Newry, 1839, privately printed. See also Archdall's Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, iii. 258, and Chauncy's Hertfordshire, 1st ed. p. 182. ARMS.--_Azure, a circular wreath argent and sable, with four hawk's bells joined thereto in quadrature or_. Present Representative, Robert Jocelyn, third Earl of Roden, K.P. WOLRYCHE OF CROXLEY. [Illustration] This is a very ancient Shropshire family, descended from Sir Adam Wolryche, Knight, of Wenlock, living in the reign of Henry III., and who, previous to being knighted, was admitted of the Roll of Guild Merchants of the town of Shrewsbury in 1231, by the old Saxon name of "Adam Wulfric." His descendant Andrew Wolryche was M. P. for Bridgnorth in 1435, being then of Dudmaston, where the elder branch of this family was seated for a considerable period, created Baronets in 1641, extinct in 1723. The present family descend from Edward, third son of Humphry Wolryche, Esq. grandson of Andrew Wolryche, which Humphry is recorded as one of the "Gentlemen" of Shropshire, in the seventeenth of Henry VII., 1501. There were branches of the family, now extinct, at Cowling and Wickhambroke, Suffolk, and Alconbury, Huntingdonshire. From the MSS. of Mr. Joseph Morris, of Shrewsbury. ARMS.--_Azure, a chevron between three swans argent_. Present Representative, Humphry William Wolryche, Esq. HUNTINGDONSHIRE. +Knightly.+ SHERARD OF GLATTON, BARON SHERARD IN IRELAND 1627. [Illustration] The pedigree of this family does not appear to be _proved_ beyond William Sherard, who died in 1304. His ancestors, however, are said to have been of Thornton, in Cheshire, in the thirteenth century. In 1402 the family were established at Stapleford in Leicestershire by marriage with the heiress of Hawberk. On the decease of Robert Sherard, sixth Earl of Harborough, in 1859, the representation of the family devolved upon the present lord, descended from George, third son of the first Baron. See Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. ii. pt. i. 343; and Brydges's Collins, iv. 180, An extinct younger branch was of Lopthorne, in the county of Leicester. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron gules between three torteauxes_. Present Representative, Philip Castell Sherard, 9th Baron Sherard. KENT +Knightly.+ DERING OF SURENDEN-DERING, BARONET 1626. [Illustration] The family of Dering descend from Norman de Morinis, whose ancestor, Vitalis FitzOsbert, lived in the reign of Henry II. Norman de Morinis married the daughter of Deringus, descended from Norman Fitz-Dering, Sheriff of this county in King Stephen's reign. Richard Dering died seised of Surenden, which came from the heiress of Haute, in 1480. The loyalty of Sir Edward Dering in the Civil Wars, in Charles I.'s time, deserves to be remembered: see his character in Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, II. B. 14, 19, 20, and the interesting memoir of him by John Bruce, Esq. F.S.A. in "Proceedings in the County of Kent," printed for the Camden Society 1861. For a notice of the old seats of this family, in the parish of Lidd, called Dengemarsh Place and Westbrooke, see Hasted's History of Kent, iii. 515, and for the family, iii. 228; and Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 13, ARMS.--_Argent, a fess azure, in chief three torteauxes_, borne by "Richard fil' Deringi de Haut," in 19 Hen. IV. as appears by his seal. The same coat is on the roof of the cloisters of Canterbury Cathedral. The son of this Sir Richard Dering bore, _Or, a saltier sable_, the ancient arms of De Morinis, and now generally quartered with Dering. See Willement's Heraldic Notices of Canterbury Cathedral, pp. 90, 106. Present Representative, Sir Edward C. Dering, 8th Baronet, M.P. for East Kent. NEVILLE OF BIRLING, EARL OF ABERGAVENNY 1784; BARON 1392. [Illustration] "In point of antiquity, and former feudal power, probably the most illustrious house in the peerage," says Brydges. Descended from Gospatric, the Saxon Earl of Northumberland, whose great-grandson, marrying the heiress of Neville, gave that name to his posterity, for many ages the Nevilles were Barons of Raby and Earls of Westmerland. The last Earl was attainted in the 13th of Elizabeth. A younger branch of the Nevilles, in the person of Sir Edward Neville, obtained the castle and barony of Abergavenny, and the estate of Birling, with the heiress of Beauchamp, in the reign of Henry VI.; and the present family is descended from this match, having been Barons of Abergavenny previously to the creation of the Earldom. Birling was long deserted by the family, whose principal seat was afterwards at Sheffield, and Eridge, in Sussex; but it is now the residence of Lord Abergavenny. See Hasted, ii. 200; Brydges's Collins, v. 151; and Surtees's Durham, iv. 158, for pedigrees of the Nevilles, Earls of Westmerland, and the Nevilles of Weardale and Thornton-Bridge. See also Rowland's "Account of the Noble Family of Neville," privately printed 1830, folio; Surtees's "Sketch of the Stock of Nevill," 8vo. 1843. ARMS.--_Gules, a saltier argent, thereon a rose of the first, seeded proper_. This coat, without the rose, was borne by Robert de Neville in the reign of Henry III. In the reign of Edward III. M. de Neville de Hornby bore the coat reversed, _Argent, a saltier gules_. M. Alexander de Neville, at the same period, differenced it by _a martlet sable_. M. William Neville and N. Thomas Neville bore for difference respectively, _a fleur-de-lis azure and a martlet gules_, in the reign of Richard II. (Rolls.) The Rose is allusive to the House of Lancaster, Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmerland, having married to his second wife Joan, daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. The older coat was, _Or, fretty gules, on a canton sable an ancient ship_. Present Representative, the Rev. William Neville, 4th Earl of Abergavenny. +Gentle.+ HONYWOOD OF EVINGTON, IN ELMSTED, BARONET 1660. [Illustration] The name is derived from Henewood, near Postling, in this county, where the ancestors of this family resided as early as the reign of Henry III. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the Honywoods removed to Hythe, which they often represented in Parliament, and afterwards to Sene, in Newington, near Hythe. Caseborne, in Cheriton, came from an heiress of that name before the time of Henry VI.; Evington, by purchase, in the reign of Henry VII. Younger branches were of Marks Hall, in Essex, and of Petts, in Charing, in this county. Of the former family was Robert Honywood, whose wife Mary, daughter of Robert Atwaters, or Waters, lived to see 367 descendants: she died in 1620, aged 93. See Topographer and Genealogist, i. 397, 568; ii. 169, 189, 256, 312, 433; Hasted's Kent, ii. 442, 449; iii. 308; Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 105. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three hawk's heads erased azure_. These arms, of the time of Richard II. are carved on the cloisters of Canterbury Cathedral. See Willement, p. 101. Present Representative, Sir Courtenay John Honywood, 7th Baronet. TWYSDEN OF ROYDON-HALL, IN EAST PECKHAM, BARONET 1611. [Illustration] Twysden, in the parish of Goudhurst, appears to have given name to this family: it was possessed by Adam de Twysden in the reign of Edward I.; and in that of Henry IV. Roger Twysden, his descendant, married the daughter and heir of Thomas Chelmington of Chelmington, in Great Chart, Esq. where his son Roger removed. Twysden was sold in the reign of Henry VI. In the reign of Elizabeth, William Twysden, of Chelmington, married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Roydon, of Roydon-Hall, which has since been the residence of his descendants. There is another Twysden, in the parish of Sandhurst, in this county, where the family are also said to have lived in the time of Edward I. A younger branch of Bradbourne, in this county, also Baronets, were extinct in 1841. See Hasted's Kent, ii. 213, 275; iii. 37, 244; Philpot's Kent, p. 300; Wotton's Baronetage, i. 211. ARMS.--_Gyronny of four, argent and gules, a saltier between four crosses crosslet, all counterchanged_. Present Representative, Sir William Twysden, 8th Baronet. TOKE, OF GODINGTON. [Illustration] This family claim descent from Robert de Toke, who was present with Henry III. at the Battle of Northampton. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the Tokes were seated at Bere, in the parish of Westcliffe, in this county: this line became extinct at the latter end of the seventeenth century. The Tokes of Godington are a junior branch, descended from the heiress of Goldwell, of Godington, about the reign of Henry VI. See Hasted's Kent, iii. 247; Visitations of Kent, 1574 and 1619; and Harleian MSS. 1195. 55, 1196. 108. ARMS.--_Party per chevron sable and argent, three gryphon's heads erased and counterchanged_. John Toke, of Godington, had an additional coat, an augmentation granted to him by Henry VII., as a reward for his expedition in a message on which he was employed to the French King: viz. _Argent, on a chevron between three greyhound's heads erased sable, collared or, three plates_. Present Representative, the Rev. Nicholas Toke. ROPER OF LINSTEAD, BARON TEYNHAM 1616. [Illustration] William Roper, or Rosper, who lived in the reign of Henry III, is the first recorded ancestor; his descendants were of St. Dunstan's, near Canterbury, in the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. Edmund Roper was one of the Justices of the Peace for this county in the time of Henry IV. and V. The elder line of this family were seated at West-Hall, in Eltham, and also at St. Dunstan's, and became extinct in 1725. The younger and present branch at Linstead, which came from the heiress of Fineux, in the reign of Henry VIII. King James I. conferred the peerage on Sir John Roper in 1616. For the origin of the family, see Dugdale's Warwickshire, 2nd ed. p. 316; Hasted's Kent, i. 55; ii. 687; iii. 589; and Brydges's Collins, vii. 77. ARMS.--_Per fess azure and or, a pale counterchanged, three buck's heads erased of the second_. Present Representative, George Henry Roper Curzon, 16th Baron Teynham. KNATCHBULL OF MERSHAM-HATCH, BARONET 1641. [Illustration] Hasted gives no detailed pedigree of this family before the purchase of the manor and estate of Hatch, by Richard Knatchbull, in the reign of Henry VII. It appears however that the first recorded ancestor, John Knatchbull, held lands in the parish of Limne, in this county, in the reign of Edward III., where some of the name remained in that of Charles I. There are pedigrees in the Visitations of Kent of 1574 and 1619. See Philpot's Kent, p.199; Hasted's Kent, iii. 286; and Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 228. ARMS.--_Azure, three cross-crosslets fitchée in bend or, cotised of the same_. Present Representative, Sir Norton Joseph Knatchbull, 10th Baronet. FILMER OF EAST-SUTTON, BARONET 1674. [Illustration] The Filmers were anciently seated at the manor of Herst, in the parish of Otterden, in this county, in the reign of Edward II., and there remained till the time of Elizabeth, when Robert Filmer, son of James, removed to Little-Charleton, in East-Sutton: the manor was purchased by his elder son. There are pedigrees of Filmer in the Kentish Visitations of 1574 and 1619. The Baronetcy was conferred by Charles II., as a reward for the loyal exertions of Sir Robert Filmer during the Usurpation. See Hasted's Kent, ii. 410; Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 581. ARMS.--_Sable three bars, and in chief three cinquefoils or_. Present Representative, Sir Edmund Filmer, 9th Baronet, late M.P. for West Kent. OXENDEN OF DENE, BARONET 1678. [Illustration] Solomon Oxenden, who lived in the reign of Edward III., is the first known ancestor. Dene, in the parish of Wingham, was purchased at the latter part of the reign of Henry VI. The family had previously been stated at Brook, in the same parish. Thomas Oxenden died seised of Dene in 1492. There is a pedigree in the Visitation of Kent in 1619. See Hasted's Kent, iii. 696; Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 638. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron gules between three oxen sable_. Confirmed in the 24th of Henry VI. Present Representative, Sir Henry Chudleigh Oxenden, 8th Baronet. FINCH OF EASTWELL, EARL OF WINCHILSEA AND NOTTINGHAM 1628-1681. [Illustration] "The name of the Finches," writes Leland, "hath bene of ancient tyme in estimation in Southsex about Winchelesey, and by all likelyhod rose by sum notable merchaunte of Winchelesey." The name is said to be derived from the manor of Finches in the parish of Kidd. Vincent Herbert, alias Finch, married Joan, daughter and heir of Robert de Pitlesden, of Tenderden. His son was of Netherfield, in Sussex, in the reign of Richard II. and Henry IV.; and was the ancestor of this family, who were of the Moat, near Canterbury, by marriage with the heiress of Belknap before 1493. Eastwell came by the coheiress of Moyle about the reign of Elizabeth. The heiress of Heneage, who married Sir Moyle Finch, was created Countess of Winchilsea in 1628. The Earldom of Nottingham is due to the law, being granted in 1681 to Heneage, grandson of the first Countess. Younger Branch. Earl of Aylesford 1714. From John, second son of the second Vincent Finch, of Netherfield, were descended the Finches of Sewards, Norton, Kingsdown, Feversham, Wye, and other places in this county. See Leland's Itinerary, vi. fol. 59; Basted's Kent. iii. 198; and Brydges's Collins, iii. 371. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three gryphons sable_. Present Representative, George James Finch Hatton, 10th Earl of Winchilsea, and 7th Earl of Nottingham. LANCASHIRE. +Knightly.+ PENNINGTON OF PENNINGTON, BARON MUNCASTER IN IRELAND 1676. [Illustration] Gamel de Pennington, ancestor of this ancient family, was seated at Pennington at the period of the Conquest. But, as early as the reign of Henry II., Muncaster, in Cumberland, belonged to the Penningtons, and afterwards became their residence; and here King Henry VI. was concealed by Sir John Pennington in his flight from his enemies. There is a tradition that, on quitting Muncaster, the king presented his host with a small glass vessel, still possessed by the family, and called "THE LUCK OF MUNCASTER:" to the preservation of which a considerable degree of superstition was attached. See Baines's History of the County of Lancaster, iv. 669; Lysons's Cumberland, 139; Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 602. ARMS.--_Or, five fusils in fess azure_. Present Representative, Josslyn Francis Pennington, 5th Baron Muncaster. MOLYNEUX OF SEFTON, EARL OF SEFTON IN IRELAND 1771 VISCOUNT MOLYNEUX IN IRELAND 1628; BARON SEFTON 1831; BARONET 1611. [Illustration] An ancient Norman family, who have been possessed of the manor of Sefton, in this county, from the period of the Conquest, or very soon afterwards: it was held as a knight's fee, as of the Castle of Lancaster. William de Molines is the first recorded ancestor, and from him the pedigree is very regularly deduced to the present day. This truly noble family have been greatly distinguished in the field, witness Agincourt and Flodden. Thrice has the honour of the banner been conferred on a Molyneux. The second occasion was in Spain in 1367, from the hands of the Black Prince himself. In the seventeenth century, the family proved themselves right loyal to the crown, and suffered accordingly. Sir Archdall's Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, iii. 239; Brydges's Biographical Peerage, iv. 93; and Baines's Lancashire, iv. 276. Younger Branch. Molyneux, of Castle Dillon, co. Armagh, Baronet 1730, descended from Thomas Molyneux, born at Calais in 1531, for whom see "An Account of the Family and Descendants of Sir Thomas Molyneux, Knight, Chancellor of the Exchequer in Ireland to Queen Elizabeth." Evesham, sm. 4to. 1820. For Molyneux of Teversal, co. Notts, Baronet 1611, extinct 1812, descended from the second son of Sir Richard Molyneux, the hero of Agincourt, see Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, p. 269; and Wotton's Baronetage, i. 141. ARMS.--_Azure, a cross moline or_. The Irish branch bears a _fleur-de-lis or_ in the dexter quarter. Present Representative, William Philip Molyneux, 4th Earl of Sefton. HOGHTON OF HOGHTON-TOWER, BARONET 1611. [Illustration] Hocton, or Hoghton, appears to have been granted in marriage by Warin Bussel to one Hamon, called "Pincerna," whose grandson was the first "Adam de Hocton," who held one carucate of land in Hocton in the reign of Henry II. His grandson, Sir Adam de Hoghton, lived in the 50th of Henry III., and was the ancestor of this family. See Baines's Lancashire, iii. 348 and 459, for an interesting account of Hoghton-Tower, long deserted by the family; and Wotton's Baronetage, i. 15. ARMS.--_Sable, three bars argent_: borne in the reign of Richard II. by Mons. Ric. de Hoghton. His son (?) Richard, the same, _with a label of three points gules_. (Rolls.) Present Representative, Sir Henry Hoghton, 9th Baronet. CLIFTON OF CLIFTON. [Illustration] Clifton is in the parish of Kirkham, and here William de Clifton held ten carucates of land in the 42nd year of Henry III., and was Collector of Aids for this county. His son Gilbert, Lord of Clifton, died in the seventeenth of Edward II. On the death of Cuthbert Clifton, in 1512, the manor was temporarily alienated from the male line by an heiress; but by a match with the coheiress of Halsall, before 1657, it again became the property of the then principal branch of this ancient family, who were originally a junior line descended from the Cliftons of Westby. See Baines's Lancashire, iv. 404. ARMS.--_Sable, on a bend argent three mullets pierced gules_: borne in the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. by Mons. Robert de Clyfton. (Rolls.) Present Representative, John Talbot Clifton, Esq. TRAFFORD OF TRAFFORD, BARONET 1841. [Illustration] Trafford is in the parish of Eccles, and here the ancestors of this family are said to have been established even before the Norman Conquest. The pedigree given in Baines's Lancashire professes to be founded on documents in possession of the family, but some of it is certainly inaccurate, and cannot be depended on: Ralph de Trafford, who is said to have died about 1050, is the first recorded ancestor, but this is before the general assumption of surnames, which, as Camden observes, are first found in the Domesday Survey. On the whole, it may be assumed that the antiquity of the family is exaggerated, though the name no doubt is derived from this locality at an early period. See Baines's Lancashire, iii. 110. ARMS.--_Argent, a gryphon segreant gules_. See in "Hearne's Curious Discourses," i. 262. edit. 1771, for the supposed origin of the Trafford Crest, "a man thrashing," which was however only granted about the middle of the 16th century. Present Representative, Sir Humphry Trafford, 2nd Baronet. HESKETH OF RUFFORD, BARONET 1761 [Illustration] In the year 1275, the 4th of Edward I., Sir William Heskayte, Knight, married the coheiress of Fytton, and thus became possessed of Rufford, which has since remained the inheritance of this ancient family. Younger branch. Hesketh of Gwyrch Castle, Denbighshire, descended from the Heskeths of Rossel, Lancashire, who were a younger branch of the house of Rufford. See Baines's Lancashire, iii. 426. ARMS.--_Argent, on a bend sable three garbs or_, the ancient coat of Fytton. Hesketh of Gwyrch Castle bears, _Or, on a bend sable between two torteauxes three garbs of the field_. Present Representative, Sir Thomas George Hesketh, 5th Baronet. TOWNLEY OF TOWNLEY. [Illustration] "This is not one of those long lines which are memorable only for their antiquity," says Whitaker, in his account of several remarkable members of this eminent family; who are descended from John del Legh, who died about the 4th of Edward III., and the great heiress Cecilia, daughter of Richard de Townley, whose family was of Saxon origin, and traced to the reign of Alfred. There is preserved at Townley, of which beautiful place Whitaker gives a charming account, an unbroken series of portraits from John Townley, Esq. in the reign of Elizabeth to the present time. See Leland's Itinerary, i. 96 and v. 102; Whitaker's Whalley, 271, 341, 484; and for the extinct branches of Hurstwood Hall, [1562-1794,] p. 384; and of Barnside [Edw. IV.--1739,] p. 395. For the origin of the Legh (properly Venables) family of Cheshire, see Leigh of Adlestrop, p. 92. ARMS.--_Argent, a fess and in chief three mullets sable_. Present Representative, Charles Townley, Esq. GERARD OF BRYAN, BARONET 1611. [Illustration] This family claims the same ancestor as the now extinct house of the Windsors Earls of Plymouth; the Carews also, both of England and Ireland, are descended, according to Camden, from the same progenitors: the pedigree therefore is extended to the Conquest, Otherus or Otho being the first recorded ancestor. The Lancashire branch were not settled there till the reign of Edward III., when they became possessed of Bryn, by marriage with the heiress of that name and place, From the Gerards of Ince descended the extinct Lords Gerard, of Gerard's-Bromley, and Sir William Gerard, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, who died in 1581. See Baines's Lancashire, iii. 641; and Wotton's Baronetage, i. 51. ARMS.--_Argent, a saltire gules_. Present Representative, Sir Robert Tolver Gerard, 13th Baronet. STANLEY OF KNOWESLEY, EARL OF DERBY 1485; BARONET 1627. [Illustration] Although Sir Rowland Stanley Errington, brother of Sir William Massey Stanley, late of Hooton, in the county of Chester, Baronet, is in fact the head of this illustrious house, yet, as that estate has been sold, and his family have now no connection with Cheshire, the Earl of Derby must be considered the _chief_, as he is in truth the _principal_, branch of the house of Stanley. As few families have acted a more prominent part in History, so few can trace a more satisfactory pedigree. Descended from a younger branch of the Barons Audeley, of Audeley in Staffordshire, the name of Stanley, from the manor of that name in this county, in the reign of John, was assumed by William de Audleigh. Sir John Stanley, K.G., Lord Deputy of Ireland, in 1381 married the heiress of Lathom, and thus became possessed of Knowesley; it was this Sir John also who obtained a grant of the Isle of Man, which afterwards descended to the Murrays Dukes of Athol till 1765. The principal branch of this family became extinct on the death of James, tenth Earl, in 1736; when the earldom descended on Sir Edward Stanley of Bickerstaff, Baronet, descended from Sir James Stanley, brother of Thomas second Earl of Derby. For Stanley of Hooton, see Ormerod's Cheshire, ii. 230. The famous, or rather infamous, Sir William Stanley was of this line. Younger Branches. Stanley of Cross-Hall, descended from Peter second son of Sir Thomas Stanley, 2nd Baronet, who died in 1653; and the family of the late Rev. James Stanley of Ormskirk, descended from Henry 2nd son of Sir Edward Stanley 1st. Bart. who died in 1640. Stanley of Alderley, Cheshire, Baron Stanley of Alderley 1839, descended from Sir John Stanley and the heiress of Wever of Alderley. See Ormerod, iii. 306. Stanley of Dalegarth, Cumberland, descended from John, second son of John Stanley, Esq., younger brother of Sir William Stanley, and the heiress of Bamville. See Brydges's Collins, iii. 50; Seacome's House of Stanley, 4to. 1741; for Stanley Legend, &c. Coll. Topog. et Genealog. vii. 1. ARMS.--_Argent, on a bend azure three buck's heads cabossed and attired or_, assumed on the match with the heiress of Bamville, instead of the coat of Audeley.* Present Representative, Edward Geoffery Smith Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, K.G. * The Dalegarth family bear the _bend cotised vert_. ASSHETON OF DOWNHAM. [Illustration] This is the only remaining branch of the old Lancashire family of Assheton, originally seated at Assheton-under-Lyne, and of whom the Asshetons of Middleton and of Great Lever, both Baronets, represented the elder lines. The present family descend from Radcliffe Assheton, second son of Ralph Assheton, of Great Lever, born in 1582. Downham appears to have come into the family in the seventeenth century. See Whitaker's Whalley, p. 299 and p. 300, for the curious journal of Nicholas Assheton, of Downham, Esq. 1617-18, since published entire as vol. xiv. of the series of the Chetham Society, 1848. For Assheton of Ashton-under-Lyne, Baines's Lancashire, ii. 532, and Collectanea Topog. et Genealog. vii. 12; for Ashton of Lever and Whalley, Baines, iii. 190. ARMS.--_Argent, a mullet pierced sable_. Present Representative, Ralph Assheton, Esq. RADCLYFFE OF FOXDENTON. [Illustration] This is a younger branch of the well-known Lancashire family of this name, who trace their descent from Richard of Radclyffe Tower, near Bury, in the reign of Edward I. Ordshall, also in this county, was for many ages the seat of the ancestors of the present family, who are descended from Robert, sixth and youngest son of Sir Alexander Radclyffe, of Ordshall, who was born in 1650. Foxdenton, which as early as the fifteenth century belonged to one branch of the Radclyffes, was bequeathed to the present family early in the last century. The extinct house of the Radclyffes, Barons Fitzwalter and Earls of Sussex 1529, were sprung from William, elder brother of the first Sir John Radclyffe, of Ordshall. The Radclyffes of Dilston, Baronets 1619, and Earls of Derwentwater 1687, were perhaps also of the same origin, but this has not been ascertained. See Burke's Landed Gentry, 2nd. ed. vol. ii. p. 1091, and Ellis's Family of Radclyffe, for the House of Dilston (1850). ARMS.--_Argent, two bends engrailed sable, a label of three points gules_. The more simple coat of _Argent, a bend engrailed sable_, was borne by the Earls of Sussex, and also by the Earls of Derwentwater. Present Representative, Robert. Radclyffe, Esq. +Gentle.+ HULTON OF HULTON. [Illustration] Hulton is in the parish of Dean, and gave name to Bleythen, called de Hulton, in the reign of Henry II., and from him this ancient family, still seated at their ancestral and original manor, is regularly descended. See Baines's Lancashire, iii. p. 40. ARMS.--_Argent, a lion rampant gules_. Present Representative, William Hulton, Esq. ECCLESTON OF SCARISBRICK (CALLED SCARISBRICK). [Illustration] Descended from Robert Eccleston of Eccleston, living in the reign of Henry III., an estate which continued in the family until the last generation, when it was sold, and that of Scarisbrick, with the name, acquired by marriage about the same period. See Baines, iii. 480; and for Scarisbrick, iv. 258. In Flower's Visitation of this county, in 1567, is a pedigree of Eccleston. ARMS.--_Argent, a cross sable, in the first quarter a fleur-de-lis gules_. Present Representative, Charles Scarisbrick, Esq. ORMEROD OF TYLDESLEY. [Illustration] There is a good pedigree of this, his own family, in Ormerod's History of Cheshire, (ii. p. 204,) under Chorlton, a seat of the family purchased in 1811. The first recorded ancestor is Matthew de Hormerodes, living about 1270. The elder line of his descendants, whose name was derived from Ormerod in Whalley, became extinct in 1793. The present family trace their lineage from George Ormerod, fourth son of Peter Ormerod, of Ormerod, who died in 1653. See also Whitaker's Whalley, p. 364. ARMS.--_Or, three bars, and in chief a lion passant gules_. Present Representative, George Ormerod, Esq. STARKIE OF HUNTROYD. [Illustration] The pedigree begins with Geoffry Starky, of Barthington (Barnton) in Cheshire, supposed to be the same with Geoffry, son of Richard Starkie, of Stretton, in the same county, an ancient family which can be traced almost to the Conquest. William Starkie was of Barnton in the seventh of Edward IV. Huntroyd was acquired by marriage, in 1464, with the heiress of Symondstone. See Whitaker's Whalley, 266, 529; also Ormerod's Cheshire, i. 474; and Baines, iii. 309. Younger branches. Starkie of Twiston, and Starkie of Thornton, Yorkshire. ARMS.--_Argent, a bend between six storks sable_. Present Representative, Le Gendre Starkie, Esq. CHADWICK OF HEALEY. [Illustration] A younger branch of Chadwick of Chadwick, now extinct, a family which can be traced to the reign of Edward III. Healey came from the coheiress of Okeden in 1483. Mavesyn Ridware, in Staffordshire, is also the property of this family, derived by an heiress from the Cawardens, and ultimately from the Malvesyns, who came in with the Conqueror. Younger branch. Chadwick of Swinton, in this county, derived from the heiress of Strettell: they bear their arms differenced by a _border engrailed or, charged with cross crosslets_. See Shaw's Staffordshire, i. p. 166, for a curious account of the Malvesyns, Cawardens, and Chadwicks of Mavesyn Ridware: see also Whitaker's Whalley, p. 459. ARMS.--_Gules, an inescutcheon within an orle of martlets argent_. Present Representative, John de Heley Mavesyn Chadwick, Esq. PATTEN OF BANK-HALL. [Illustration] Richard Patten, who appears to have flourished before the reign of Henry III. by his marriage with a coheiress of Dagenham became possessed of the Court of that name in the county of Essex, and was the remote ancestor of this family. John Patten of Dagenham Court, living in 1376, removed to Waynflete in Lincolnshire; he was the great-grandfather of the celebrated William Patten alias Waynflete Bishop of Winchester; from whose brother, Richard Patten, of Boslow, in the county of Derby, the present family descend. His son was of Warrington in this county in 1536. See the pedigree by Bigland and Heard drawn up in 1770, and printed in Bloxam's Memorial of Bishop Waynflete for the Caxton Society in 1851. ARMS.--_Lozengy ermine and sable, a canton gules_. Present Representative, John Wilson Patten, Esq. M.P. for North Lancashire. LEICESTERSHIRE. +Knightly.+ TURVILE OF HUSBAND'S BOSWORTH. [Illustration] "One of the ancientest families in the whole shire," wrote Burton in 1622; descended from Ralph Turvile, a benefactor to the abbey of Leicester in 1297. The principal seat was at Normanton Turvile, in this county, where the elder line of the family became extinct in 1776. Aston Flamvile, also in Leicestershire, was the residence of the immediate ancestors of this younger branch. It was sold early in the eighteenth century, and Husband's Bosworth inherited, by the will of Maria-Alathea Fortescue, in 1763. See Nichols's Leicestershire, under Normanton Turvile, iv. pt. 2. 1004; under Aston Flamvile, ii. pt. 2. 465; under Husband's Bosworth, iv. pt. 2. 451 ARMS.--_Gules, three chevronels vair_. This coat was borne by Sir Richard Turvile, de co. Warw. in the reign of Edward II., and Sir Nicholas Turvil, at the same period, bore the same coat reduced to two chevrons. (Rolls of the date.) Present Representative, Francis Charles Turvile, Esq. FARNHAM OF QUORNDON. [Illustration] This ancient family was certainly seated at Quorndon two descents before the reign of Edward I. In that of Henry VI. Thomas, second son of John Farnham and Margaret Billington, living in 1393, founded a junior branch denominated of "The Nether-Hall." He was the ancestor of the present family, who also descend in the female line from the elder branch, denominated "of Quorndon," by the marriage of the coheiress in 1703 with Benjamin Farnham, of the Nether-Hall. See Nichols's History of Leicestershire, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 103. ARMS.--_Quarterly or and azure, in the first and second quarter a crescent interchanged_. Sir Robert de Farnham, of the county of Stafford, bore in the reign of Edward II. _Quarterly argent and azure, four crescents counterchanged_. (Roll.) Present Representative, Edward Basil Farnham, Esq. late M.P. for North Leicestershire. BEAUMONT OF COLEORTON, BARONET 1660. [Illustration] Lewis de Brienne, who died in 1283, married Agnes, Viscountess de Beaumont, who died in 1300: their children took the name of Beaumont, and from hence this noble family is supposed to be descended. Coleorton came from the heiress of Maureward in the fifteenth century, but Grace-dieu, also in this county, was the older seat. The representative of the elder line of the family was created Viscount Beaumont in Ireland in 1622, extinct 1702, when Coleorton went to the ancestors of the present Baronet, descended from the third son of Nicholas Beaumont, of Coleorton, who died in 1585. See Nicholas Leicestershire, iii. pt. 2. 743; Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 230; Erdeswick's Staffordshire, ed. 1844, 396; and Hornby's Tract on Dugdale's Baronage. ARMS.--_Azure, semée of fleurs-de-lis and a lion rampant or_. Sir Henry de Beaumont bore this coat with a _baton gabonny argent and gules_, in the reign of Edward II.; in that of Richard II. Mons. de Beaumont omitted the baton (Rolls of the dates.) Present Representative, Sir George Howland Beaumont, ninth Baronet. GREY OF GROBY AND BRADGATE, EARL OF STAMFORD 1628; BARON 1603. [Illustration] Dugdale begins the pedigree of this great historical family with Henry de Grey, unto whom King Richard the First in the sixth year of his reign gave the manor of Turroc or Thurrock in Essex. His son Richard was of Codnoure or Codnor in Derbyshire, inherited from his mother, a coheiress of Bardolf. Groby and Bradgate came from the heiress of Ferrers in the reign of Henry VI. Of the latter Leland writes, "This parke was parte of the old Erles of Leicester's landes, and since by heires generales it came to the Lord Ferrers of Groby, and so to the Greyes." Extinct Branches of this illustrious family were, the Greys of Codnor, of Wilton, of Rotherfield, of Ruthyn, and the Dukes of Kent and Suffolk. See Dugdale's Baronage, i. 709; Nichols's Leicestershire, iii. pt. 2. 682; Brydges's Collins, iii. 340. ARMS.--_Barry of six, argent and azure_. Richard de Grey bore this coat in the reign of Henry III. John de Grey differenced it with _a label gules_. In the reign of Edward II. the same arms were borne by different members of the family, with the additions of _a bend gules, a label gules, a label gules bezantée, a baton gules, and three torteauxes in chief_, which last was used by the Dukes of Suffolk. Present Representative, George Harry Grey, seventh Earl of Stamford and Warrington. BABINGTON, OF ROTHLEY-TEMPLE. [Illustration] The Babingtons were of Babington in Northumberland in the reign of King John: they afterwards removed into Nottinghamshire, and became very distinguished. The elder line was seated at Dethick in Ashover, in the county of Derby, by marriage with the coheiress of the ancient family of that name, before the year 1431. The Rothley branch, descended from a second son of the house of Dethick, was seated there at the very beginning of the sixteenth century, and is now the chief line of the family on the extinction of Babington of Dethick about 1650. See Nichols's Leicestershire, iii. pt. 2. 955; and Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, ii. 94, and viii. 313, for a most valuable article on the elder line of this family. See also Topographer and Genealogist, i. 133, 259, 333, for the various branches of this ancient family. ARMS.--_Argent, ten torteauxes and a label of three points azure_. This coat reversed and without the label was borne by Sir John de Babington in the reign of Edward II. (Roll of the date.) Present Representative, Thomas Gisborne Babington, Esq. +Gentle.+ HAZLERIGG OF NOSELEY, BARONET 1622. [Illustration] Originally of Northumberland, where Simon de Hasilrig was seated in the time of Edward I. Early in the fifteenth century Thomas Hasilrig of Fawdon, in that county, having married Isabel Heron, heiress of Noseley, the family removed into Leicestershire. Leland makes the following mention of the head of the house in his time, "Hasilrig of Northamptonshire [a mistake for Leicestershire] hath about 50li lande in Northumbreland, at Esselington, where is a pratie pile of Hasilriggs; and one of the Coilingwooddes dwellith now in it, and hath the over-site of his landes." See Leland's Itin., i. fol. 15. v. fol. 101; Wotton's Baronetage, i. 520; Nichols's Leicestershire, ii. pt. 2. 756; and the Scrope and Grosvenor Roll, vol. ii. p. 325. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three hazel-leaves slipped vert_. Present Representative, Sir Arthur Grey Hazlerigg, 12th Baronet. WOLLASTON OF SHENTON. [Illustration] The Wollastons were lords of the manor of Wollaston in the parish of Old Swinford and county of Stafford, (which they sold to the Aston family in the time of Richard II.) at a very early period: they afterwards settled at Trescot and Perton, in the parish of Tettenhall, in the same shire. The pedigree in Nichols's Leicestershire begins with Thomas Wollaston of Perton, "a person of figure in the reigns of Henry VII. and VIII." In 1709, William Wollaston, Esq., the celebrated author of "The Religion of Nature," compiled an account of this family, which is printed in the History of Leicestershire. He was the direct ancestor of the present family, who have been also seated at Oncott, in Staffordshire, and Finborough Hall, in Suffolk. Shenton was acquired early in the reign of James I. See Nichols's Leicestershire, iv. pt. 2. 541. ARMS.--_Argent, three mullets pierced sable_. Present Representative, Frederick William Wollaston, Esq. LINCOLNSHIRE. +Knightly.+ WELBY OF DENTON, BARONET 1801. [Illustration] Welby, near Grantham, in this county, is supposed to have given name to this "ancient howse, Bering armes,"* and here Sir William Welby, who heads their well-authenticated pedigree, undoubtedly possessed property between 1307 and 1327. The manor of Frieston, with Poynton Hall, also in Lincolnshire, was held by Sir Thomas Welby, (who it cannot be doubted was a still earlier ancestor,) of King Henry III. in chief, in 1216. The first-mentioned Sir William having married the heiress of Multon of Multon in this county, that place continued, till the end of the sixteenth century, the principal seat of his descendants. Denton was purchased by John Welby, the ancestor of the present family, in 1539. See "Notices of the Family of Welby," 8vo., Grantham, 1842; and Allen's History of Lincolnshire, ii. 314; for Welby of Multon, see Blore's Rutlandshire, 192. ARMS.--_Sable, a fess between three fleurs-de-lis argent_. Present Representative, Sir Glynne Earle Welby, 3rd Baronet. * So styled in the Heralds' grant of crest in 1562. DYMOKE OF SCRIVELSBY, CHAMPION OF ENGLAND. [Illustration] The name is supposed to be derived from Dimmok, in the county of Gloucester, but the pedigree is not proved beyond Henry Dymmok in the second year of Edward III. His grandson John married Margaret, sole grand-daughter and heir of Sir Thomas de Ludlowe, by Joan youngest daughter and coheir of Philip last Lord Marmyon, Baron of Scrivelsby, and by the tenure of that manor hereditary Champion of England, which office, since the Coronation of Richard II. has been held by the Dymoke family. See Banks's Family of Marmyon, p. 117; and Allen's Lincolnshire, ii. 83. ARMS.--_Sable, two lions passant argent crowned or_. Borne by Monsr. John Dymoke in the reign of Richard II. (Roll of the date.) Present Representative, The Honourable and Rev. John Dymoke. HENEAGE OF HAINTON. [Illustration] John Heneage stands at the head of the pedigree; he was living in the 38th Henry III. From him descended another John, who in the 10th of Edward III. was Lord of the Manor of Hainton; according to Leland however, "the olde Henege lands passid not a fyfetie poundes by the yere." The family evidently rose on the ruins of the monastic houses: "Syr Thomas Hennage hath doone much cost at Haynton, where he is Lorde and Patrone, yn translating and new building with brike and abbay stone." See Leland's Itinerary, vii. fol. 52; and Allen's History of Lincolnshire, ii. 67. ARMS.--_Or, a greyhound courant sable between three leopard's heads azure, a border engrailed gules_. Present Representative, Edward Heneage, Esq., M.P. for Lincoln. MANNERS OF BELVOIR CASTLE, DUKE OF RUTLAND 1703, EARL 1525. [Illustration] Originally of Northumberland, where the family were seated at an early period. The first recorded ancestor is Sir Robert de Maners, who obtained a grant of land in Berrington in 1327, and was M.P. for Northumberland in 1340. His son William Maners, of Etal, died before 1324, which estate appears to have been inherited from an heiress of Muschamp. At the end of the fifteenth century, by marriage with the heiress of the baronial family of Roos, the house of Manners came into possession of the Castle of Belvoir. In the succeeding century, a fortunate match with the heiress of Vernon of Haddon still further increased the wealth and importance of this noble family. The royal title of Rutland, which had belonged to the house of York, was conferred upon Thomas Lord Roos in 1525 as the grandson of the lady Anne of York, sister to King Edward the Fourth. An extinct branch was from the time of Henry VIII. for a long period of Newmanor House, in the parish of Framlington, in Durham. Another branch of the Etal family was of Cheswick, in the same county, extinct after 1633. See Raine's North Durham, 211, 230; Nichols's Leicestershire, ii. pt. i. 67; and Brydges's Collins, i. 454. ARMS.--_Or, two bars azure; a chief quarterly azure and gules, on the_ 1_st and_ 4_th two fleurs-de-lis, on the_ 2_nd and_ 3_rd a leopard of England of the first_; the chief being an augmentation granted by Henry VIII. The ancient arms, no doubt founded on those of the Muschamp family, were, _Or, two bars azure, a chief gules_. See the Rolls of the reign of Edward II. and Richard III. Present Representative, Charles Cecil John Manners, sixth Duke of Rutland. ALINGTON OF SWINHOPE. [Illustration] This is a branch of the extinct family of the Lords Alington, of Horseheath, in Cambridgeshire, who were originally of Alington, in the same county, soon after the Conquest. The family descend from a younger son of Sir Giles Alington, and were seated at Swinhope in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. See Clutterbuck's History of Hertfordshire, ii. 542; and Collectanea Topog. et Genealog. iv. 33-53, and note 2, p. 39. For Horseheath, see Topographer, ii. 374. ARMS.--_Sable, a bend engrailed between six billets argent_. Present Representative, George Marmaduke Alington, Esq. +Gentle.+ THOROLD OF MARSTON, BARONET 1642. [Illustration] It has been supposed, but without any evidence or authority, that this family is descended from Thorold, Sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1052, and that consequently it may claim Saxon origin. There is however no doubt that this is a family of very great antiquity, and seated at Marston as early as the reign of Henry I. See Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 338, and iv. 250. ARMS.--_Sable, three goats salient argent_. Present Representative, Sir John Charles Thorold, 11th Baronet. LANGTON OF LANGTON. [Illustration] "Langton, Sir," exclaimed Dr. Johnson, alluding to his friend Bennet Langton of Langton, at that time the accomplished head of this very ancient family, "has a grant of free warren from Henry the Second, and Cardinal Stephen Langton in King John's reign was of this family." The name is derived from Langton-by-Spilsby in Lincolnshire, a manor which has remained to the present day the inheritance of this house, who are descended in the female line from the Massingberds of Sutterton in this county. Younger branch. The Langton-Massingberds of Gunby. See Allen's History of the County of Lincoln, ii. 175; and Boswell's Life of Johnson, ed. 1836, i. 294. ARMS.--_Paly of six argent and sable, a bend or_. Present Representative, Bennet Rothes Langton, Esq. MASSINGBERD OF WRANGLE. [Illustration] This very ancient family is descended from Lambert Massyngberd of Soterton, now Sutterton, in this county, who lived in the reign of Edward I. and has ever since remained in Lincolnshire. In the latter part of the fifteenth century, by the marriage of Sir Thomas Massyngberd with the heiress of Braytoft of Braytoft Hall in Gunby, the Massingberds removed to that place, which became the principal seat of their descendants. Ormsby, purchased from the Skipwiths in 1636, and afterwards Gunby Hall, built by Sir William Massingberd, the 2nd Baronet of this family, in 1699, was their principal residence, till it went by an heiress to a younger branch of the Langtons, who have assumed the name. Wrangle is a recent purchase in this county by the present representative of the male line of the family. The Massingberds early embraced the Reformed faith. Thomas Massingberd, the last representative for Calais in 1552, "fled abroad for his religion" under Mary. Nevertheless his descendant, William Burrell Massingberd of Ormsby, joined Prince Charles Edward at Derby: a miniature given to him by the Prince is still in the family. Ormsby belongs at present to a younger branch of the Mundys of Markeaton in Derbyshire, who have assumed the name of Massingberd. See the Genealogy of this House, a MS. by Robert Dale, Suffolk Herald, compiled about the year 1718, and still at Ormsby; and Allen's History of the County, under Ormsby and Gunby. ARMS.--_Azure, three quatrefoils (two and one,) and in chief a boar passant or, charged on the shoulder with a cross patée gules_, with which the following coat is generally quartered, said to be the arms assumed by Sir Thomas Massingberd, Knight of St. John, in the reign of Henry VIII. _Quarterly or and argent, on a cross humetté gules, between four lions rampant sable, two escallops of the first_. Present Representative, The Rev. Francis Charles Massingberd. MONSON OF BURTON, BARON MONSON 1728, BARONET 1611. [Illustration] "In the Isle" of Axholme "be now there 4 gentilmen of name, Sheffild, Candisch, Evers, and _Mounsun_. The lands of one Bellewodde became by marriage to this Mounson, a younger son to old Mounson of Lincolnshire. This old Mounson is in a maner the first avauncer of his family." Thus wrote Leland in his Itinerary. The Monsons however are clearly traced to the year 1378, as resident at East-Reson, in this county. They were afterwards seated at South Carlton, a village adjacent to Burton. See Leland's Itin., i. fol. 42; Allen's Lincolnshire, ii. 57; and Brydges's Collins, vii. 228. ARMS.--_Or, two chevronels gules_. Present Representative, William John Monson, 7th Baron Monson. WHICHCOTE OF ASWARBY, BARONET 1660. [Illustration] This is an ancient Shropshire house descended from William de Whichcote, of Whichcote, in that county, in 1255. In the reign of Edward IV., by marriage with the heiress of Tyrwhitt, the family became possessed of Harpswell in this county, which for a long time continued the residence of the Whichcotes. See Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 13; and Allen's History of Lincolnshire, i. 38. ARMS.--_Ermine, two boars passant in pale gules_. Present Representative, Sir Thomas Whichcote, 7th Baronet. ANDERSON OF BROCKLESBY, EARL OF YARBOROUGH 1837, BARON YARBOROUGH 1794. [Illustration] Roger Anderson of Wrawby, in this county, Esquire, living in the latter part of the fourteenth century, and who came from Northumberland, stands at the head of the pedigree. His great-grandson Henry, also of Wrawby, was grandfather of Sir Edmund Anderson of Flixborough, Knight, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, who died in 1605. He was the ancestor of the present family, and of Sir Charles Anderson of Broughton in Lincolnshire, Baronet 1660, and of the Andersons of Eyworth in Bedfordshire, Baronets 1664, extinct in 1773. Brocklesby came from an heiress of Pelham, a younger branch of the Pelhams Earls of Chichester. See Wotton's English Baronetage, vol. iii. p. 191, vol. iv. p. 427, and "The History of Lea," printed in 1841. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three crosses flory sable_. Present Representative, Charles Anderson Pelham, 3rd Earl of Yarborough. BERTIE OF UFFINGTON, EARL OF LINDSEY 1626. [Illustration] The ancient extraction of the Berties from Berstead in the county of Kent is proved by the Thurnham charters in the possession of Sir Edward Dering, and by various public records of undoubted authority; and, although the exact line of pedigree is by no means clear, there appears no reason to doubt the descent of this "undefamed house" from John or Bartholomew de Bereteghe, who were living in the 35th of Edward I. The marriage of Richard Bertie son of Robert, who died in 1500, with Katherine daughter of William Willoughby, last Lord Willoughby of Eresby, and widow of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, was, as is well known, the origin of the consequence of this right loyal family, five generations of whose history have been so agreeably illustrated by Lady Georgiana Bertie. Grimsthorpe, inherited from the Duchess of Suffolk from her paternal Willoughby ancestors, became the principal seat of the Berties, Barons Willoughby of Eresby and Lords Great Chamberlains of England, advanced in the person of Robert second Lord Willoughby to the Earldom of Lindsey by King Charles I. His great-grandson was created Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven in 1715, which titles became extinct on the decease of the fifth Duke in 1809. The Earldom of Lindsey and representation of the family thereupon devolved on the father of the present Earl, descended from the fifth son of the second Earl of Lindsey by his first wife. Younger branch, the Earl of Abingdon 1682, Baron Norreys of Rycote 1572, descended from the second marriage of the second Earl of Lindsey and the heiress of Wray, whose mother was the sole heir of Francis Norreys, Earl of Berkshire, and Lord Norreys of Rycote. See Lady G. Bertie's "Five Generations of a Loyal House," 4to. 1845, and Brydges's Collins, vol. ii. p. 1, vol. iii. 628. ARMS.--_Argent, three battering rams barways in pale azure, armed and garnished or_. The "docquet or grant" in the fourth of Edward VI. gives the arms, _Quarterly,_ 1 _and_ 4, _Argent, a battering ram azure, garnished or;_ 2 _and_ 3, _Sable a tower argent_. Present Representative, George Augustus Frederick Albemarle Bertie, 10th Earl of Lindsey. NORFOLK. +Knightly.+ WODEHOUSE OF KIMBERLEY, BARON WODEHOUSE 1797, BARONET 1611. [Illustration] "This family is very ancient, for they were gentlemen of good ranke in the time of King John, as it appeareth by many ancient grants and evidences of theirs which I have seen," wrote Peacham in his "Compleate Gentleman," in 1634. (p. 191.) The name is local, being derived from Wodehouse in Silfield, in this county; but as early as the reign of Henry III. the family had property in Kimberley, and in that of Henry IV. the manor was also inherited from the heiress of Fastolff. See Blomefield's Norfolk, ed. 1739, vol. i. p. 751, for long extracts from the curious old pedigree in verse; Wotton's Baronetage, i. 164; and Brydges's Collins's Peerage, viii. 562. ARMS.--_Sable, a chevron or, guttée de sang, between three cinquefoils ermine_. This coat is said to have been augmented as now borne, by Henry V. in honour of John Wodehouse's valour at the Battle of Agincourt, the _guttée de sang_, not at present considered very good heraldry, being then added. The supporters, two wode or wild men, were also, it has been said, then first used. Present Representative, John Wodehouse, 3rd Baron Wodehouse, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. WALPOLE OF WOLTERTON, EARL OF ORFORD 1806, BARON 1723. [Illustration] Walpole, in Mershland, in this county, gave name to this historical family, and here Joceline de Walpole was living in the reign of Stephen. Reginald de Walpole, in the time of Henry I. seems to have been lineal ancestor of the house. He was father of Richard, who married Emma, daughter of Walter de Hawton, or Houghton, which at a very early period became the family seat, and which, after the death of the third Earl of the first creation, passed to the issue of his aunt Mary, Viscountess Malpas, daughter of Sir Robert Walpole; whose descendant, the Marquess of Cholmondeley, is the present possessor. See Blomefield, iii. 796, and iv. 708; also Brydges's Collins, v. 631. ARMS.--_Or, on a fess between two chevrons sable three cross-crosslets of the first_. Present Representative, Horatio William Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford. BERNEY OF KIRBY BEEDON, BARONET 1620. [Illustration] Berney, in the hundred of North Greenhow in this county, doubtless gave name to this ancient family, who are traced pretty nearly to the Conquest. Park Hall, the former seat, is in the parish of Reedham, and was acquired by the marriage of Sir Thomas de Berney with Margaret daughter and heir of Sir William de Reedham in the reign of Edward III. Younger branch, Berney of Morton Hall in this county, descended from a younger brother of the first Baronet. See Parkins's continuation of Blomefield's Norfolk, v. 1482; and Wotton's Baronetage, i. 378. ARMS.--_Party per pale gules and azure, a cross engrailed ermine_. Present Representative, Sir Henry Hanson Berney, 9th Baronet. ASTLEY, OF MELTON-CONSTABLE, BARON HASTINGS 1841, BARONET 1660. [Illustration] Descended from the noble house of Astley Castle in Warwickshire, and traced to Philip de Estlega in the 12th of Henry II., and in the female line from the Constables of Melton-Constable, which estate came into the family by the second marriage of Thomas Lord Astley with Edith, third sister and coheir of Geffrey de Constable, in the time of Henry III. Astley Castle, the original seat, descended by an heiress to the Greys of Ruthin, afterwards Marquesses of Dorset, and Dukes of Suffolk. Hill-Morton in Warwickshire was also the seat of this family from the reign of Henry III. The Astleys formerly of Patishull in Staffordshire were the elder branch, sprung from the first marriage of Thomas Lord Astley, who was killed in the Barons' Wars at Evesham, (the 49th of Henry III.,) extinct 1771. The Astleys, now of Everley, in Wiltshire, Baronets 1821, descend from the second son of Walter Astley of Patishull, the father of the first Baronet of that line (1662). See Parkins's Blomefield's Norfolk, v. 940; Thomas's Dugdale's Warwickshire, i. 19, 107; and Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 63; for Astleys of Patishull, Shaw's Staffordshire, ii. 287; and Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 368. ARMS.--_Azure, a cinquefoil ermine within a border engrailed or_. The Patishull and Everley family omit the border, and it was thus borne by the head of the house in the reign of Richard II. Thomas de Astley, at the same period, differenced his coat by _a label of three points or, charged with two bars gules_. (Rolls.) Present Representative, Jacob Henry Delaval Astley, 3rd Baron Hastings. BEDINGFELD OF OXBOROUGH, BARONET 1660. [Illustration] Traditionally a Norman family seated at Bedingfeld, in Suffolk, soon after the Conquest. Oxburgh, or Oxborough, has been the residence of this eminently knightly house from the reign of Edward IV., when it came by the marriage of Edmund Bedingfeld with Margaret, daughter of Robert Tudenham, and to whom licence was granted to build the walls and towers of Oxburgh in the year 1482. The baronetcy was conferred by Charles II. as a mark of his favour and in consideration of the eminent loyalty and consequent sufferings of the family during the usurpation. The Bedingfelds of Ditchingham, in this county, are a younger branch parted from the parent stem as early as the middle of the fourteenth century. See Blomefield, iii. 482; Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 212; and the Rev. G. H. M'Gill's account of Oxburgh Hall in the Proceedings of the Norfolk Archeological Society. ARMS.--_Ermine, an eagle displayed gules, armed or_. Present Representative, Sir Henry George Paston Bedingfeld, 7th Baronet. HOWARD OF EAST-WINCH, DUKE OF NORFOLK 1483. [Illustration] The great historical house of Howard in point of antiquity must yield precedence to many other English families: it can only be traced with certainty to Sir William Howard, Judge of the Common Pleas in 1297. Norfolk appears to be the county where this great family should be noticed, the Duke of Norfolk still possessing property in the county of his dukedom derived from his ancestors of the house of Bigod. In the fourteenth century, by the match with the heiress of Mowbray, the foundation of the honors and consequence of the Howards was laid, the first Duke being the son of Margaret, daughter and coheir of Thomas de Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. The Sussex estates came from the heiress of Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, in the reign of Edward VI.; Worksop from the Talbots; Greystoke and Morpeth from the Dacres. All the English Peers of the house of Howard are traced to a common ancestor in Thomas, the second Duke of Norfolk, who died in 1524. The Duke of Norfolk, the Earls of Suffolk and Carlisle, descend from his first wife, and the Earl of Effingham from the second. The Howards of Greystoke, in Cumberland, are a younger branch of the present ducal house. The Howards of Corby Castle, in the same county, descend from the second son of "Belted Will," the ancestor of the house of Carlisle. Extinct branches. The Viscount Bindon; the Earls of Northampton, Nottingham, and Stafford; and Lord Howard of Escrick. See Brydges's Collins, i. 50, for the Duke of Norfolk; iii. 147, for the Earl of Suffolk; iii. 501, for the Earl of Carlisle; and iv. 264, for the Earl of Effingham. See also Cartwright's Rape of Bramber, p. 185; and Dallaway's Rape of Arundel; Hunter's South Yorkshire, ii. 10. For the Howard Monuments at East-Winch, see Weever's Funeral Monuments, p. 842-9; for their state in the 18th century Parkins's Blomefield's Norfolk, iv. 746; and Topographer and Genealogist, ii. 90. For the Earl of Carlisle, see Hodgson's History of Northumberland, ii. pt. 2, p. 381; for Howard of Corby, the same vol. p. 477. See also "Historical Anecdotes of some of the Howard Family," 12mo. 1769; Tierney's Castle and Town of Arundel, 8vo. 1834; and Mr. Howard's "Indication of Memorials, &c. of the Howard Family," fol. 1834. ARMS.--_Gules, a bend between six cross-crosslets fitcheé argent, on an escucheon a demi-lion pierced through the mouth with an arrow, within a double tressure flory counter-flory gules_, granted by patent 5 Henry VIII. to Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, in remembrance of the victory gained over the Scots at Flodden. The present coat was borne by Sir John Howard in the reign of Edward II., and by Mr. Howard in those of Edward II. and Richard III.: it has been conjectured, from the similarity of this coat with that of the Botilers, Barons of Wem, (Gules, a fess cheeky argent and sable between six crosses pateé fitchée argent,) that Sir William Howard the Judge was descended from the Hords, stewards to these Barons: it is observable that none of the Howards ever prefixed the _de_ to their name, a fact which opposes their derivation from Hawarden in Flintshire. (Blakeway's Sheriffs of Shropshire, pp. 53 note.) Present Representative, Henry Fitzalan Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk. GURNEY OF KESWICK. [Illustration] This is a younger branch of the Gurneys of West Barsham in this county, whose principal male line became extinct in 1661, West Barsham came from the heiress of Waunci about the reign of Edward III. Previous to that time the Gurneys appear to have been seated at Harpley, also in Norfolk, as early as 1206, and are traced for two descents beyond that period, being (as there appears no reason to doubt) descended from the great Norman baronial house of the name. The present family may be said to have been refounded by John Gurney, an eminent silk-merchant at Norwich, about 1670. Keswick was purchased in 1747. The Gournays of Somersetshire, represented by the Earls of Egmont, may have been a distinct family; their arms were, Paly of six or and azure. Dugdale, however, gives them a common ancestor with the former house. (Baronage, i. 429.) See the "Records of the House of Gournay," privately printed, 4to., 1848, and particularly, for the Norman origin of the family page 293 of that work. For the Gournays of Somersetshire, see the History of the House of Ivery. London, 1742, vol. ii. p. 473, ARMS.--_Argent, a cross engrailed gules, in the first quarter a cinquefoil azure_. Present Representative, Hudson Gurney, Esq. DE GREY OF MERTON, BARON WALSINGHAM 1780. [Illustration] This ancient family is supposed to have the same origin as the noble Norman house of Grey, now represented by the Earl of Stamford; it is traced to William de Grey, of Cavendish, in Suffolk; whose grandson Sir Thomas was seated about 1306 at Cornerth in that county, by his marriage with the heiress of the same name; their son and heir married the coheiress of Baynard, and thus became possessed of Merton, the long-continued seat of this family. See Blomefield, i. 576; and Brydges's Collins, vii. 510. ARMS.--_Barry of six argent and azure, in chief three annulets gules_. The ancient coat of Cornerth, _Azure, a fess between two chevronels or_, (which was doubtless derived from their superior lords the Baynards,) was borne for many generations by the ancestors of this family. Present Representative, Thomas de Grey, 5th Baron Walsingham. BACON OF RAVENINGHAM, PREMIER BARONET OF ENGLAND, OF REDGRAVE, SUFFOLK, 1611. [Illustration] This family is said to have been established at a period shortly subsequent to the Conquest at Letheringsett, in Norfolk, but is better known as a Suffolk family, having been seated at Monks' Bradfield, in that county, in the reign of Richard I. Redgrave was granted by Henry VIII. in the 36th year of his reign, to the great Sir Nicholas Bacon, who with Francis his son, Viscount St. Alban's, were the principal ornaments of this family. Raveningham descended to the Bacons from the heiress of the ancient family of Castell, or de Castello, about the middle of the 18th century. See Parkins's Continuation of Blomefield's Norfolk, iv. 262 Wotton's Baronetage, i. 1, and ii. 72. ARMS.--_Gules, on a chief argent two mullets pierced sable_. This coat was borne by Sir Edmund Bacon, in the reign of Edward II., and by M. Bacon in that of Edward III. (Rolls.) A brass circa A.D. 1320, at Gorleston church, Suffolk, supposed to represent one of this family, bears five lozenges in bend on the field, besides the mullets in chief: see Boutell's Brasses, p. 36. Present Representative, Sir Henry Hickman Bacon, 11th Baronet. JERNINGHAM OF COSSEY, BARON STAFFORD, RESTORED 1824, BARONET 1621. [Illustration] The ancestors of this ancient house were seated at Horham in Suffolk in the 13th century, "knights of high esteem in those parts," saith Camden, and traced to Sir Hubert Jernegan of that place. Somerleyton, in the same county, derived from the heiress of Fitzosbert, afterwards became the family seat, and so continued until the extinction of the elder line. Cossey was granted to Sir Henry Jerningham, (son of Sir Edward Jerningham, by his second wife,) in 1547, by Queen Mary, "being the first that appeared openly for her after the death of Edward VI." He was the ancestor of Lord Stafford. See Weever's Ancient Funerall Monuments, p. 769; Blomefield's Norfolk, i. p. 660; Wotton's Baronetage, i. 450; and Suckling's History of Suffolk, ii. p. 46. ARMS.--_Argent, three buckles gules_. Present Representative, Henry Valentine Stafford Jerningham, 9th Baron Stafford. TOWNSHEND OF RAINHAM, MARQUESS TOWNSHEND 1787; BARON 1661; VISCOUNT 1682. [Illustration] In 1377, the ancestor of this family was of Snoring Magna in this county. In 1398, John Townshend settled at Rainham, which according to some accounts accrued to them by the heiress of Havile, but the pedigree as given by Collins cannot be relied on, neither can the defamatory account of Leland, who says--"the grandfather of Townsende now living was a meane man of substance." The truth seems to be that the family is old, but not of great account before the time of Sir Walter de Townsend, who married Maud Scogan, and flourished about the year 1400. See Blomefield, iii. 815; Brydges's Collins, ii. 454; and Leland's Itinerary, iv. p. 13. ARMS.--_Azure, a chevron ermine between three escallops argent_. Present Representative, John Villiers Stuart Townshend, 5th Marquess Townshend. NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. +Knightly.+ WAKE OF COURTEENHALL, BARONET 1621. [Illustration] This is a younger branch of the very ancient baronial house of Wake, who were Lincolnshire Barons in the reign of Henry I. Sir Hugh Wake was lord of Deeping in the county of Lincoln, and of Blisworth in this county, by gift of his father, Baldwin fourth Lord Wake. He died in 1315, and was the direct ancestor of the present Baronet. See memoir of the family of Wake privately printed in 1833, but written by Archbishop Wake; and Wotton's Baronetage, i. 465. ARMS.--_Or, two bars gules, in chief three torteauxes_. This coat was borne by Hugh Wake in the reign of Henry III., and again by Sir John Wake in that of Edward II. Sir Hugh Wake at the latter period differenced his arms by a canton azure. His uncle reversed the colours gules and argent, the field being gules. M. Thomas Wake de Blisworth in the reign of Edward III. bore the same arms, with a border engrailed sable. (Rolls of the dates.) Present Representative, Sir William Wake, 11th Baronet. BRUDENELL OF DENE, EARL OF CARDIGAN 1661; BARON 1627; BARONET 1611. [Illustration] William de Bredenhill, seated at Dodington in Oxfordshire, in the reign of Edward I., and the owner of lands at Aynho in this county at the same period, is the first ascertained ancestor of the Brudenells, whose principal consequence however must be traced to Sir Robert Brudenell, Chief Justice of the King's Bench in the reign of Henry VII., who married a coheiress of Entwisell, and thus became possessed of Dene and of Stanton Wyvill in the county of Leicester. See the pedigree of this family in Nichols's History of Leicestershire, vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 807; see also Brydges's Collins, iii. 487. Younger branch. The Marquess of Ailesbury (1821), descended from Thomas, fourth son of George fourth Earl of Cardigan, and the Lady Elizabeth Bruce, eldest daughter of Thomas second Earl of Ailesbury. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron gules between three morions azure_. Present Representative, James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, K.C.B. KNIGHTLEY OF FAWSLEY, BARONET 1798. [Illustration] The first recorded ancestor of this ancient family is Rainald, mesne lord of Knightley, in the county of Stafford, under Earl Roger, in the time of William the Conqueror, as appears by Domesday Book. That estate went out of the family by an heiress who married Robert de Peshall, about the reign of Edward III., and the Knightleys removed to Gnowsall, in the same county, in the 17th of Richard II. (1394). Fawsley was purchased in the 3rd of Henry V. (1415-16). It is thus mentioned by Leland: "Mr. Knightley, a man of great lands, hath his principal house at Foullesle, but it is no very sumptuous thing." (Itin. i. fol. 11.) See Baker's Northamptonshire, i. 381. Blakeway (Sheriffs of Salop, p. 103) asserts that "_the Knightleys appear to have been a branch of the Shirleys_," an assumption without any foundation except the similarity of their arms. ARMS.--_Quarterly ermine, and paly of six or and gules_. This coat was borne as early as 1301-2 (30th Ed. I.) by Sir Robert de Knyteley: it is also borne by Cotes of Cotes, co. Stafford, probably from family connection. Present Representative, Sir Rainald Knightley, 3rd Baronet, M. P. for South Northamptonshire. SPENCER OF ALTHORPE, EARL SPENCER 1765. [Illustration] The Spencers claim a collateral descent from the ancient baronial house of Le Despenser, a claim which, without being irreconcileable perhaps with the early pedigrees of that family, admits of very grave doubts and considerable difficulties. It seems to be admitted that they descend from Henry Spencer, who, having been educated in the Abbey of Evesham, obtained from the abbot in the reign of Henry VI. a lease of the domains and tithes of Badby in this county, and was induced to settle there. His son removed to Hodnell in Warwickshire, his grandson to Rodburn in the same county, his great-grandson Sir John purchased Althorpe in 1508. The Spencers of Claverdon, co. Warwick (extinct 1685), were a younger branch. The Dukes of Marlborough (1702) represent the elder line of this family. See Baker's Northamptonshire, i. 106; and Brydges's Collins, i. 378. The poet Spenser boasted that he belonged to this house; though, says Baker, "the precise link of genealogical connexion cannot now perhaps be ascertained." ARMS.--_Quarterly, first and fourth argent, second and third gules, a fret or, over all a bend sable charged with three escallops of the first_. This coat, which is differenced from the ancient baronial arms by the three escallop shells, was used by Henry Spencer of Badby, who sealed his will with it. In 1504 another coat was granted, viz. _Azure, a fess ermine between six sea-mew's heads erased argent_, but the more ancient arms have been generally borne by the Spencers. Present Representative, John Poyntz Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer. ROKEBY OF ARTHINGWORTH. [Illustration] This is a junior branch of the Rokebys of Rokeby in Yorkshire, a knightly race immortalized by Scott. The principal line has been long extinct. Sir Thomas Rokeby was Sheriff of Yorkshire in the eighth of Henry IV. The family was seated in the parish of Ecclesfield, and also at Sandal-Parva, in South Yorkshire, where William Rokeby was Rector in the reign of Henry VII. In 1512 he became Archbishop of Dublin. His brother Ralph wrote the history of the family, now in possession of Mr. Rokeby of Arthingworth, and which is printed in Whitaker's Richmondshire, vol. i. p. 158. The present family acquired Arthingworth from the Langhams by marriage in the end of the seventeenth century. See Hunter's South Yorkshire, i. p. 199. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three rooks sable_, borne by Mons. Thomas de Rokeby in the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. (Rolls of the dates.) Present Representative, the Rev. Henry Ralph Rokeby. MAUNSELL OF THORPE-MALSOR. [Illustration] The curious poetical history of this family, preserved in "Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica," claims one "Saher," there written "_Sier, the syer of us all_," as their ancestor: he is stated to have been the son of Ralph Maunsel, who was living in Buckinghamshire in the 14th of Henry II. (1167). Thickthornes in Chicheley in that county appears to have been the residence of the Maunsells, and also Turvey in Bedfordshire. These lands were sold by William the son of Sampson le Maunsel of Turvey to William Mordaunt in 1287. The Maunsells afterwards settled at Bury-End in Chicheley, and in 1622 at Thorpe-Malsor. Elder Branches. 1. Maunsell of Muddlescombe, co. Carmarthen, Baronet 1621-2. 2. The extinct Barons Maunsell, created 1711, extinct 1744. Younger Branch. Maunsell of Cosgrave in this county, which came from the coheiress of Furtho. See Coll. Topog. et Genealog. i. p. 389; Baker's Northamptonshire, ii. p. 132; and Memoirs of the family, an unfinished work privately printed in 1850 by William W. Maunsell, esq. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three maunches sable_. Present Representative, Thomas Philip Maunsell, Esq. late M. P. for North Northamptonshire. +Gentle.+ ISHAM OF LAMPORT, BARONET 1627. [Illustration] The name is local, from Isham in the hundred of Orlingbury in this county, where an elder branch of the family was seated soon after the Conquest. Robert Isham, who died in 1424, is however the first ancestor from whom the pedigree can with certainty be deduced. He was Escheator of the county of Northampton, and was of Picheley (a lordship contiguous to Isham) in the first of Henry V. Lamport was purchased by John Isham, the immediate ancestor of the present family, fourth son of Sir Euseby Isham, of Picheley, Knight, in the year 1559. He was an eminent merchant of London. See Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 28. ARMS.--_Gules, a fess and in chief three piles wavy argent_. This coat was borne by Robert de Isham in the 2nd of Richard II. Present Representative, Sir Charles Edmund Isham, 10th Baronet. PALMER OF CARLTON, BARONET 1660. [Illustration] This family appears to have been founded by the law early in the fifteenth century, and descends from William Palmer, who was established at the present seat of Carlton in the ninth of Henry IV. The celebrated Sir Geoffry Palmer, Attorney-General to Charles II. was the first Baronet. See Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 19; and Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 543. ARMS.--_Sable, a chevron or between three crescents argent_. Present Representative, Sir Geoffrey Palmer, 8th Baronet. FANE OF APTHORP, EARL OF WESTMORELAND 1642. [Illustration] The Fanes or Vanes are said to have originated from Wales; in the reign of Henry VI. they were seated at Hilden in Tunbridge, in Kent, by a marriage with the Peshalls. In 1574 Sir Thomas Fane married Mary daughter and heir of Henry Neville, Lord Abergavenny; hence the importance of the family, and the Earldom of Westmoreland, the ancient honour of the house of Neville. Apthorp came from the heiress of Mildmay, about the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Younger Branches. Fane of Wormesley, Oxfordshire, descended from Henry Fane, Esq., younger brother of Thomas eighth Earl of Westmoreland. The Duke of Cleveland (1833) and Sir Henry Vane, of Hutton Hall in Cumberland, Baronet (1786), descend from John younger brother of Richard Fane, ancestor of the Earl of Westmoreland. See Brydges's Collins, iii. 283, and iv. 499; Hasted's Kent, ii. 265; and Blore's Rutlandshire, p. 103. ARMS.--_Azure, three right-hand gauntlets or_. Present Representative, Francis William Henry Fane, 12th Earl of Westmoreland. NORTHUMBERLAND. +Knightly.+ CLAVERING OF CALLALY CASTLE. [Illustration] Robert Fitz-Roger, Baron of Warkworth, the ancestor of this great Norman family, was father of John, who assumed the name of "Clavering," from a lordship in Essex, as it is said, by the appointment of King Edward I. From Sir Alan, younger brother of John, the present family is descended. Callaly was granted to Robert Fitz-Roger by Gilbert de Callaly in the reign of Henry III., and has ever since continued in the possession of the house of Clavering. Younger Branches. Clavering of Axwell, co. Durham, Baronet 1661, descended from James, third son of Robert Clavering of Callaly. Clavering of Berrington in North Durham, descended from William, third son of Sir John Clavering, who died a prisoner in London for his loyalty to King Charles I. Extinct about 1812. See Nicolas's Siege of Carlaverock, pp. 115, 117; Mackenzie's View of Northumberland, vol. ii. p. 27; Surtees's Durham, ii. 248; Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 295; and Raine's North Durham, p. 213. ARMS.--_Quarterly or and gules, a bend sable_, and so borne by Robert Fitz-Roger, as appears by the Roll of Carlaverock, and by his son John de Clavering, who differenced his coat by a label vert. Sir Alexander de Clavering, in the reign of Edward II., charged the bend with three mullets argent. John Clavering, in the reign of Richard II., the same arms, with a label of three points argent. (Rolls of the dates.) Present Representative, Edward John Clavering, Esq. MITFORD OF MITFORD CASTLE. [Illustration] Descended from Mathew, brother of John, who is said to have held the Castle of Mitford soon after the Conquest, and by whose only daughter and heiress it went to the Bertrams. The ancestors of the present family appear to have been for many ages resident at Mitford, though the castle was not in their possession till it was granted with the manor by Charles II. to Robert Mitford, Esq. Younger Branches. Mitford of Pitshill, co. Sussex, descended from the fourth son of Robert Mitford of Mitford Castle, Esq., Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1702. Mitford of Exbury, co. Southampton, sprung from the third son of Robert Mitford, of Mitford Castle, Esq., who died in 1674. From this latter branch Mitford Baron Redesdale (1803) of Batsford, co. Gloucester, is derived. See Hodgson's History of Northumberland, vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 44 and for Mitford of Exbury the same work, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 152; see also Brydges's Collins, ix. 182. ARMS.--_Argent, a fess sable between three moles proper_. Present Representative, Robert Mitford, Esq. SWINBURNE OF CAPHEATON, BARONET 1660. [Illustration] Swinburne in this county gave name to this ancient family, the first recorded ancestor being John, father of Sir William de Swinburne, living in 1278, and Alan Swinburne, Rector of Whitfield, who purchased Capheaton from Sir Thomas Fenwick, Knt., in 1274. Chollerton in Northumberland was also an ancient seat of the Swinburnes; it was held under the great Umfrevile family by this same Sir William de Swinburne, the arms being evidently founded upon the coat of the Umfreviles. The date of the baronetcy points to the loyalty of the family during the civil wars of the seventeenth century. See the early part of the pedigree in Surtees's Durham, ii. 872; Hodgson's History of Northumberland, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 231; and Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 167. ARMS.--_Per fess gules and argent, three cinquefoils counterchanged_, borne by Monsieur William Swynburne in the reign of Richard II. (Roll of the date.) Present Representative, Sir John Swinburne, 7th Baronet. MIDDLETON (CALLED MONCK) OF BELSEY CASTLE, BARONET 1662. [Illustration] John de Middleton, father of Sir Richard Middleton, sometime secretary and chancellor to King Henry III., is the first on record of the ancestors of this family. The castle of Belsey appears to have come from the heiress of Stryvelin in the reign of Edward III. The name was exchanged for Monck in 1799. A younger branch, now extinct, was of Silksworth, co. Durham. See Hodgson's History of Northumberland, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 353; "The Record of the House of Gourney," 4to, pr. pr. 1848, p. 560; and Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 382. ARMS.--_Quarterly gules and or, in the first quarter a cross flory argent_. Present Representative, Sir Charles Miles Lambert Monck, sixth Baronet. SELBY OF BIDDLESTON. [Illustration] In 1272, King Edward I. granted in the first year of his reign the lands of Biddleston to Sir Walter de Selby: it has ever since remained in the possession of his descendants, and has been usually the chief seat of the Selbys. Their early history unfortunately is defective, occasioned by an accidental fire which took place at Allenton in 1721, at that time the residence of the family, whose evidences were thereby mostly destroyed. For the grant above mentioned, and for the pedigree, see Mackenzie's View of Northumberland, ii. 39. ARMS.--_Barry of eight or and sable_. Present Representative, Walter Selby, Esq. GREY OF HOWICK, EARL GREY 1806, BARONET 1746. [Illustration] An eminent border family, of which there have been many branches, descended from Thomas Grey of Heton, living in the second of Edward I. (1273), and from Sir John Grey of Berwick, living in 1372, who was ancestor of the baronial house of Grey of Wark and Chillingham, and of the Howick family, founded by Sir Edward Grey of Howick, who died in 1532, and was the fourth son of. Sir Ralph Grey of Chillingham. "No family perhaps in the whole of England," writes Raine in his admirable History of North Durham, "has in the course of the centuries through which the line of Grey can be traced, afforded so great a variety of character." Younger Branches. Sir George Grey, Baronet 1814, and Grey of Morwick, co. Northumberland. See the curious and valuable "Illustrations of the Pedigree of Grey," in Raine's North Durham, p. 327, &c.; Surtees's Durham, ii. 19; and Brydges's Collins, v. 676. ARMS.--_Gules, a lion rampant within a border engrailed argent, a mullet for difference_. The present coat was borne by Monsieur Thomas Grey, as appears by the Roll of the reign of Richard II. Present Representative, Henry George Grey, 3rd Earl Grey, K. G. +Gentle.+ LORAINE OF KIRK-HARLE, BARONET 1664. [Illustration] This is said to be a Norman family, and to have been originally settled in the county of Durham. Kirk-Harle was inherited from Johanna, daughter of William, son of Alan del Strother, in the time of Henry IV. See Hodgson's History of Northumberland, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 246; and Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 433. ARMS.--_Quarterly sable and argent, a plain cross counter quartered of the field_. Another coat, viz. _Argent, five lozenges conjoined in pale azure, in the dexter chief an escucheon of the second_, is given in Courthope's Debrett's Baronetage. Present Representative, Sir Lambton Loraine, 11th Baronet. HAGGERSTON OF ELLINGHAM, BARONET 1643. [Illustration] The pedigree is not regularly traced beyond Robert de Hagreston, Lord of Hagreston in 1399, although a Robert de Hagardeston occurs in 1312. It has been supposed that this family is of Scotch extraction; but a fire which took place at Haggerston Castle, the ancestral seat of this house, in the year 1618, and another which happened in 1687, having destroyed the ancient evidences, the early history is somewhat imperfect. See Mackenzie's Northumberland, i. p. 328, note; Raine's North Durham, p. 224; and Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 388. ARMS.--_Azure, on a bend cotised argent three billets sable_. The ancient arms of this venerable family, of which Raine writes, "few families can boast of such a pedigree or of such a shield of arms," was a scaling ladder between two leaves, alluding to the coat of Hazlerigg, an heiress of that house having married into the Haggerston family. The arms were so borne in 1577, as appears by a seal of that date: the scaling ladder was afterwards corrupted into the bendlets and billets. Present Representative, Sir John Haggerston, 9th Baronet. RIDLEY OF BLAGDON, BARONET 1756. [Illustration] The pedigree is proved for three descents before the reign of Henry VIII., the original seat of the family being at Willimoteswick in this county, of which place Nicholas de Rydle is designated Esquire in 1481; here also was born the Martyr Bishop of London, Nicholas Ridley, early in the sixteenth century. The present family is a younger branch, seated at Blagdon and inheriting the baronetcy on the death of Sir Mathew White in 1763. See Hodgson's History of Northumberland, vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 322, and vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 340. ARMS.--_Gules, a chevron between three goshawks argent_. The more ancient coat was, _Argent, an ox passant gules through reeds proper_. Present Representative, Sir Mathew White Ridley, 4th Baronet. NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. +Knightly.+ CLIFTON OF CLIFTON, BARONET 1611. [Illustration] Gervase de Clifton, living in the fifth of John, is the patriarch of this honourable family, who took their name from the manor of Clifton, which was the inheritance of Sir Gervase Clifton, in the ninth of Edward II. One of the most remarkable members was the first Baronet, Sir Gervase Clifton, who died in 1666, "very prosperous and beloved of all, after having been the husband of seven wives." See an interesting account of him and of the family and their curious monuments in Thoroton's Antiquities of Nottinghamshire, p. 53, &c.; see also Wotton's Baronetage, i. 34. ARMS.--_Sable, semee of cinquefoils, and a lion rampant argent, armed and langued gules_. This coat reversed was borne by Monsieur John de Clyfton, in the reign of Richard II. (Roll of the date.) Present Representative, Sir Robert Juckes Clifton, 9th Baronet. SUTTON OF NORWOOD, BARONET 1772. [Illustration] Sutton-upon-Trent gave name to this ancient family, the first upon record being Roland, son of Hervey, who lived in the reign of Henry III., and married Alice, daughter and coheiress of Richard de Lexington. From this match came the manor of Averham or Egram in this county, which long continued the seat and residence of the Suttons, who were represented in the days of Queen Elizabeth by Sir William Sutton, whom her Majesty coupled, not in the most complimentary manner, with three other eminent Nottinghamshire knights in the following distich:-- "Gervase the gentle,* Stanhope the stout, Markham the lion, and _Sutton the lout_." In 1646, Robert Sutton, the head of this family, was raised to the Peerage as Baron Lexington, extinct 1723, who is represented in the female line by Viscount Canterbury. The present family descend from Henry, younger brother of the first Lord Lexington. See Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, pp. 327, 359; and Courthope's Debrett's Baronetage, p. 195. ARMS.--_Argent, a canton sable_. Present Representative, Sir John Sutton, 3rd Baronet. * _i.e._ Sir Gervase Clifton. STANHOPE OF SHELFORD, EARL OF CHESTERFIELD 1628. [Illustration] Stanhope, in the wapentake of Darlington in the bishoprick of Durham, gave name to this knightly family, of whom the first recorded ancestor is Walter de Stanhope, whose son Richard died at Stanhope, in 1338 or 1339. In the reign of Edward III. we find Sir Richard Stanhope, grandson of Walter, Mayor of Newcastle-on-Tyne. Hampton and other manors in this county came by marriage with the heiress of Maulovel about 1370; but on the death of Richard Stanhope in 1529, these estates went to his only daughter and heiress, who became the wife of John Babington. The monastery of Shelford was soon after this period granted to Sir Michael Stanhope (in the 31st of Henry VIII). Younger Branches. 1. Stanhope of Holme-Lacy, Baronet 1807, descended from the youngest brother of the great-grandfather of the present Earl. 2. Stanhope Earl Stanhope 1718, descended from the eldest son of the second marriage of the first Earl of Chesterfield. 3. Stanhope Earl of Harrington 1742, descended from Sir John Stanhope, younger brother by the half-blood of the first Earl of Chesterfield. See Lord Mahon's (now Earl Stanhope) Notices of the Stanhopes. 8vo., 1855; Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, 147; Surtees's Durham, ii. 46; and Brydges's Collins, iii. 407, iv. 171, and 284. ARMS.--_Quarterly ermine and gules_. And so borne in the reign of Edward III., but after the match with Maulovel, who brought into the family the estate and seat of Rampton from the heiress of Longvillers, the arms of that family, viz. _Sable, a bend between six cross-crosslets argent_, were assumed; on losing that great estate, Sir Michael Stanhope resumed the more ancient coat in the reign of Henry VIII. Present Representative, George Stanhope, 6th Earl of Chesterfield. WILLOUGHBY OF WOLLATON, BARON MIDDLETON 1711. [Illustration] This is a younger and now the only remaining male branch of the great Lincolnshire family of Willoughby, descended from Sir Thomas Willoughby, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in the reign of Henry VIII., youngest son of Sir Christopher Willoughby of Eresby, who was sprung from Sir William Willoughby of Willoughby in Lincolnshire, and lord of that manor in the reign of Edward I. Wollaton was inherited from the heiress of Willoughby (of another family) in the thirty-eighth year of Queen Elizabeth. See Brydges's Collins, vi. 591, vii. 215; and for the Nottinghamshire family, see Thoroton, p. 221; and for the tombs of this ancient house, pp. 36, 223, 227; see also Dugdale's Warwickshire, 2nd ed. vol. ii. p. 1052. ARMS.--_Or, fretty azure_. And so borne by Robert de Willoughby in 1300, as appears by the Roll of Carlaverock; but after the death of Bishop Bek, his maternal uncle, in the 4th of Edward II. he adopted the coat of Bek, _Gules, a mill-rind argent_. See Nicolas's Roll of Carlaverock, p, 328. Willoughby of Wollaton and of Middleton in the county of Warwick bore, _Or, two bars gules, the upper charged with two waterbougets, the lower with one waterbouget, argent_. Present Representative, Henry Willoughby, 8th Baron Middleton. CLINTON OF CLUMBER, DUKE OF NEWCASTLE 1756. [Illustration] The Clintons are traced to the reign of Henry I., when, by favour of that king, Geffery de Clinton "was raised from the dust," as a contemporary writer affirms, and made Justice of England. He was enriched by large grants of land from the crown, and built the castle of Kenilworth. The present family descend from the brother of this Geffery, whose issue were of Coleshill and Maxtoke in Warwickshire, of which latter place John de Clinton was created Baron in 1298. His descendant, Edward Lord Clinton, was advanced to the Earldom of Lincoln in 1572. No family was more nobly allied, few had broader possessions--all have been long dissipated; but a fortunate match with the eventual heiress of Pelham in 1717 revived the drooping fortunes of the Clintons; hence the estate of Clumber, the former seat of the Holles family, and the Dukedom of Newcastle. See Dugdale's Warwickshire, 2nd ed. vol. ii. pp. 992, 1007; and Brydges's Collins, ii. 181. ARMS.--_Argent, three cross crosslets fitchée sable, on a chief azure two mullets pierced of the first_. The original arms, as borne by Thomas de Clinton in the reign of Henry III., appears to have been _a plain chief_. See his seal engraved in Upton, de Studio Militari, p. 82. In the reign of Edward II. Sir John Clinton of Maxtoke bore, _Argent, on a chief azure two mullets or_. At the same period another Sir John Clinton bore, _Or, three piles azure, a canton ermine_. His son in the fifth of Edward III. bore, _Argent, on a chief azure two fleurs-de-lis or_. William Clinton, Earl of Huntingdon, at the same period bore the present coat with the exception of _three mullets or_ in place of the _two mullets argent_, and John Clinton omitted the crosslets. William Clinton, Lord of Allesley, who lived at the same period, bore the present coat. John de Clinton in the succeeding reign, bore _two mullets of six points or pierced gules_, and Thomas de Clynton the same with _a label of three points ermine_. See Willement's and Nicolas's Rolls, and Montagu's Guide to the Study of Heraldry, p. 51. Present Representative, Henry Pelham Alexander Pelham-Clinton, 6th Duke of Newcastle. +Gentle.+ EYRE OF HAMPTON. [Illustration] The Eyres appear as witnesses to charters in the Peak of Derbyshire in the remotest period to which private charters ascend. The first of the name known is William le Eyre, of Hope, in the reign of Henry III. In the reign of Henry V. the family divided into three great branches: the present house descends from Eyre of Laughton in South Yorkshire, who spring from Eyre of Home Hall near Chesterfield. One moiety of Rampton was purchased by Anthony Eyre in the reign of Elizabeth; the other came from the coheiress of Babington, in 1624. See Hunter's South Yorkshire, i. 288; see also Lysons's Derbyshire, lxxxiii., for a note on the various branches of Eyre, and Gent. Mag. 1795, pp. 121, 212. Extinct Branches. 1. Eyre of Highlow, who adopted the names of Archer, Newton, and Gell. 2. Eyre of Normanton-upon-Soar. 3. Eyre Earl of Newburgh. ARMS.--_Argent, on a chevron sable three quatrefoils or_. Present Representative, the Rev. Charles Wasteneys Eyre. OXFORDSHIRE. +Knightly.+ STONOR OF STONOR, BARON CAMOYS 1383, RESTORED 1839. [Illustration] "Stonor is a 3 miles out of Henley. Ther is a fayre parke and a warren of connies and fayre woods. The mansion place standithe clyminge on a hille, and hathe 2 courtes buyldyd withe tymbar, brike, and flynte; Sir Walter Stonor, now possessor of it, hathe augmentyd and strengthed the howse. The Stonors hathe longe had it in possessyon syns one Fortescue invadyd it by mariage of an heire generall of the Stonors, but after dispocessed." Thus wrote Leland in his Itinerary, (vii. fo. 62a.): to which it may be added that the family has the reputation of being very ancient, and may certainly be traced to the twelfth century as resident at Stonor. In the reigns of Edward II. and III., Sir John Stonor, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, (whose tomb is preserved in the chancel of Dorchester church in this county,) was the representative and great advancer of the family. See Magna Britannia, iv. 425; and the first edition of Burke's Commoners, ii. 440; see also Excerpta Historica, p. 353, for some curious letters of the Stonors of the time of Edward IV. ARMS.--_Azure, two bars dancetté or, a chief argent_. Monsieur John de Stonor bore, _Azure, a fess dancetté and chief or_, in the reign of Edward III. (Roll.) Present Representative, Thomas Stonor, 3rd Baron Camoys. WYKEHAM OF TYTHROP. [Illustration] This ancient family is traced to the commencement of the fourteenth century, when Robert Wykeham was Lord of Swalcliffe, the original seat of the Wykehams in this county, and possessed by the late W. H. Wykeham, Esq., who died in 1800, and still, I believe, belonging to his daughter the Baroness Wenman. Tythrop came from the Herberts by will to the late P. P. Wykeham, Esq. uncle of Lady Wenman. The relationship of the great William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, with this family is a disputed point, for which see Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, ii. 225, 368, iii. 178, 245; see also the Topographer and Genealogist, iii. 49, for a very interesting paper on this subject by C. Wykeham Martin, Esq., M.P. Younger Branch. Wykeham Martin, of Leeds Castle, Kent. ARMS.--Allowed by Robert Cooke, Clarencieux, in 1571.--_Argent, two chevronels sable between three roses gules, barbed and seeded proper_. This coat was borne by the great Bishop, though when he was Archdeacon of Lincoln he bore but _one chevron_ between the roses. But the herald Glover attributed a variation of the arms of Chamberlaine, derived from the Counts of Tankerville, to Wykeham of Swalcliffe, viz: _Ermine, on a bordure gules six mullets or_. Present Representative, Philip Thomas Herbert Wykeham, Esq. CROKE OF STUDLEY, ANCIENTLY BLOUNT. [Illustration] This is the eldest branch of the great family of Blount or le Blond, whose origin has been traced by the late Sir Alexander Croke to the Counts of Guisnes before the Norman Conquest. Robert le Blount, whose name is found recorded in Domesday, was a considerable landholder in Suffolk, Ixworth in that county being the seat of his Barony. Belton in Rutlandshire was afterwards inherited by his descendants from the Odinsels, and Hampton-Lovet, in the county of Worcester, from the Lovet family. In 1404, Nicholas le Blount, who had been deeply engaged in the conspiracy to restore Richard II. to his throne, changed his name to Croke, on his return to England, in order to avoid the revenge of Henry IV. The Crokes afterwards became a legal family, and seated themselves at Chilton in Buckinghamshire. The priory of Studley was purchased from Henry VIII. by John Croke, in 1539. Younger Branches. Blount of Sodington, in the county of Worcester, and of Mawley Hall in Shropshire, descended from William, second son of Sir Robert le Blount, who died in 1288, and the heiress of Odinsels. The Blounts of Maple-Durham in this county, and the extinct Lords Mountjoy, are of a still junior line to the house of Sodington. The other extinct branches are too numerous to mention. See Croke's Genealogy of the Croke Family, 4to. 1823, and "The Scrope and Grosvenor Roll," vol. ii. p. 192, for a memoir of Sir Walter Blount, who fell at the battle of Shrewsbury together with Sir Hugh Shirley and two other knights in the royal coat-armour of Henry the Fourth-- "semblably furnished like the King himself." ARMS.--For Blount. _Barry nebulée of six or and sable_. For Croke, _Gules, a fess between six martlets argent_. The more ancient coat was, _Lozengy or and sable_, which was borne by William le Blount in the reign of Henry III. Sir William le Blount of Warwickshire, (so called because he held under the Earl of Warwick,) bore the present _nebulée_ coat in the reign of Edward II. Sir Thomas le Blount at the same period _the fess between three martlets_, now called the coat of Croke. (Rolls of the dates.) Present Representative, George Croke, Esq. ASHURST OF WATERSTOCK. [Illustration] A Lancashire family of good antiquity, and until the middle of the last century lords of Ashurst in that county, where they appear to have been seated not long after the Conquest. In the reign of James II. the eldest son of a younger brother was created a Baronet, of Waterstock in this county. His daughter and eventual heiress married Sir Richard Allin, Baronet, whose daughter, marrying Mr. Ashurst of Ashurst, great-grandfather of the present representative of the family, brought the estate of Waterstock into the elder line of the Ashursts. See Burke's Extinct and Dormant Baronetage, and his Landed Gentry. ARMS.--_Gules, a cross between four fleurs-de-lis argent_. The Baronet family bore the _cross engrailed or, and but one fleur-de-lis of the same_. Present Representative, John Henry Ashurst, Esq. ANNESLEY OF BLETCHINGDON, VISCOUNT VALENTIA IN IRELAND 1621. [Illustration] Ralph, surnamed Brito de Annesley, living in the second year of Henry II. (1156,) is assumed to have been son of Richard, of Annesley, in the county of Nottingham, mentioned in the Domesday Survey. That estate continued in the Annesleys till the death of John de Annesley, Esq., in 1437, when it went by an heiress to the Chaworths. The family then removed to Rodington in the same county, and afterwards to Newport-Pagnell in Buckinghamshire; but Ireland was the scene of the prosperity of the family, early in the seventeenth century, which may be said to have been re-founded by Sir Francis Annesley, Secretary of State in 1616. Hence the Viscountcy of Valentia, which afterwards merged in the Earldom of Anglesey in England, adjudged by the English House of Lords to be extinct in 1761; but by the same evidence the Viscountcy of Valentia was allowed to the grandson of the last Earl of Anglesey, whom the English House of Lords found to be illegitimate. He was created Earl of Mountnorris in Ireland in 1793, and on the decease of the last Earl in 1844, the Irish Viscountcy and the representation of the family descended to Arthur Annesley of Bletchingdon, Esq., descended from the second marriage of the first Viscount Valentia. Younger Branches. 1. Annesley of Clifford Chambers, co. Gloucester. 2. The Earl of Annesley in Ireland, 1789. See Baker's Northamptonshire, i. 502; Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, p. 251; Archdall's Lodge, iv. 99; and the Tyndale Genealogy, privately printed, folio, 1843. ARMS.--_Paly of six argent and azure, a bend gules_. Monsieur de Annesley bore, _Paly of six argent and gules, a bend vairy argent and sable_, in the reign of Edward III. The present coat was borne by John de Annesley in the reign of Richard II. (Rolls.) Present Representative, Arthur Annesley, 11th Viscount Valentia. VILLIERS OF MIDDLETON-STONEY, EARL OF JERSEY 1697. [Illustration] The family of Villers or Villiers is ancient in Leicestershire, Alexander de Villiers being lord of Brokesby in that county early in the thirteenth century. The present coat of arms is said to have been assumed in the reign of Edward I., as a badge of Sir Richard de Villers' services in the crusades. "Villiers of Brokesby" occurs among the gentlemen of Leicestershire, "that be there most of reputation," in the Itinerary of Leland the antiquary in the reign of Henry VIII. But the great rise of the family was in the reign of James I., when the favourite Sir George Villiers became Duke of Buckingham in 1623, extinct 1687. The Earls of Jersey are sprung from the second but elder brother of the first duke. Their connection with Oxfordshire appears not to have been before the middle of the last century. Brokesby was sold by Sir William Villiers, who died s. p. 1711. Younger Branch. The Earl of Clarendon (1776), descended from the second son of the second Earl of Jersey. Extinct branch. The Earl of Grandison in Ireland, 1721; extinct 1766; descended from the elder brother of Sir Edward Villiers, who died 1689, ancestor of the Earl of Jersey. See Leland's Itinerary, i. fol. 23, and vi. fol. 65; Nichols's Leicestershire, iii. pt. i. p. 197; and Brydges's Collins, iii. 762. ARMS.--_Argent, on a cross gules five escallops or_. The ancient arms founded on those of the Bellemonts Earls of Leicester were _Sable, three cinquefoils argent_. Present Representative, Victor Albert George Villiers, 7th Earl of Jersey. +Gentle.+ COKER OF BICESTER. [Illustration] The younger, but I believe now the only remaining, line of a family formerly seated at Coker in the county of Somerset, where it can be traced to the time of Edward I. Mapouder in Dorsetshire, derived from the heiress of Veale in the reign of Henry V., became afterwards the family seat. In 1554, John Coker, who appears to have been second son of Thomas Coker, of Mapouder, purchased the Manor of "Nuns' Place or King's End in Biscester," which has since remained the residence of this ancient family. See Coker's Survey of Dorsetshire, p. 98; Hutchins's History of Dorsetshire, vol. iii. p. 273; Kennett's Parochial Antiquities, 1st. ed. p. 109; and Burke's Commoners, 2nd ed. vol. iii. p. 347. ARMS.--_Argent, on a bend gules three leopard's heads or_. The Mapouder line bore the arms within a border engrailed sable; but the elder branch of the family, who are represented by the Seymours Dukes of Somerset, omitted the border. Present Representative, Lewis Coker, Esq. PARKER OF SHIRBURN CASTLE, EARL OF MACCLESFIELD 1721, BARON PARKER 1716. [Illustration] By the decease of the late Thomas Hawe Parker, Esq., of Park Hall, in the county of Stafford, the representation of the family has devolved upon the Earl of Macclesfield, who represents the junior line. The Parkers were established at Park Hall, in the parish of Caverswall, in the seventeenth century, having been previously seated at Parwich, and before that at Norton-Lees, in the county of Derby. The first recorded ancestor, Thomas Parker, was of Bulwell, in Nottinghamshire, in the reign of Richard II. He married the heiress of Gotham, and from hence, says Lysons, the seat of Norton-Lees. See Lysons's Derbyshire, p. cxxxviii.; Brydges's Collins, iv, 190; and Ward's Stoke-upon-Trent, p. 561. ARMS.--_Gules, a chevron between three leopard's heads or_. Present Representative, Thomas Augustus Wolstenholme Parker, 6th Earl of Macclesfield. RUTLANDSHIRE. +Knightly.+ WINGFIELD OF TICKENCOTE. [Illustration] The Wingfields of Wingfield and Letheringham, both in Suffolk, a distinguished family of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, are traced nearly to the Conquest, though they do not appear to have been lords of the manor or castle of Wingfield before the reign of Edward II. The elder branch of this family is represented by the Viscount Powerscourt in Ireland, descended from Lewis the ninth son of Sir John Wingfield of Letheringham. The present family is sprung from Henry, a younger brother of this Sir John, who died in 1481. Tickencote was acquired by marriage in the reign of Elizabeth with the heiress of Gresham. Younger Branch. Wingfield of Onslow in Shropshire, according to the Visitation of that county, descended from Anthony Wingfield of Glossop, co. Derby, younger son of Sir Robert Wingfield of Letheringham, who died in 1431. See the elaborate dissertation on the House of Wingfield in the second volume of Anstis's Register of the Order of the Garter; see also Blakeway's Sheriffs of Shropshire, pp. 147, 150; Camden's Visitation of the county of Huntingdon, 1613, (printed by the Camden Society,) p. 125, &c.; and Blore's Rutlandshire, (fo. 1811,) for full pedigrees of the different branches formerly seated at Crowfield and Dunham-Magna, co. Norfolk; Kimbolton Castle, co. Huntingdon; Letheringham and Brantham, co. Suffolk; and Upton, co. Northampton, p. 65-70. For Viscount Powerscourt, see Archdall's Lodge, v. 255. ARMS.--_Argent, on a bend gules cotised sable three pair of wings conjoined of the field_. In the reign of Richard II. Monsieur William Wyngefeld bore, _Gules, two wings conjoined in lure argent_. (Roll.) Present Representative, John Muxloe Wingfield, Esq. SHROPSHIRE. +Knightly.+ CORBET OF MORETON-CORBET, BARONET 1808. [Illustration] Pre-eminent among the ancient aristocracy of Shropshire is the House of Corbet, descended from "Roger, son of Corbet," so called in the Domesday Survey. In the twelfth century the Corbets divided into two branches; the elder was seated at Wattlesborough, the younger at Caus-Castle. In the time of Henry III. the former became of Moreton-Corbet, derived from the heiress of the Anglo-Saxon family of Toret; but the Caus-Castle line was by far the most eminent, and became barons of the realm. In the reign of Richard II. several of the most ancient of the Corbet estates were lost by an heiress; and this happened again in 1583, when the lands brought into the family by the heiress of Hopton went by marriage to the Wallops and Careys. Moreton-Corbet remained till 1688, when it also descended to the sister of Sir Vincent Corbet; but the male line was still preserved by the Corbets of Shrewsbury, and the ancient estate of Moreton-Corbet re-purchased about 1743. Younger Branch. Corbett of Elsham (co. Lincoln) and of Darnhall (co. Chester,) descended from Robert second son of Sir Vincent Corbet, of Moreton-Corbet, who died in 1622. Extinct Branches. 1. Corbet of Stoke and Adderley in this county, Baronet 1627, sprung from Reginald third son of Sir Robert Corbet of Moreton-Corbet; extinct 1780. 2. Corbet of Hadley in this county, descended from the second marriage of Sir Roger Corbet of Wattlesborough, who died temp. King John. The heiress married John Greville, in the 7th Henry V. 3. Corbet of Longnor in this county, and of Leighton, co. Montgomery, Baronet 1642, descended also from John third son of Peter Corbet, Baron of Caus, and Alice Orreby; extinct 1814. 4. Corbet of Sundorne, formerley of Leigh in this county, descended from John third son of Peter Corbet, Baron of Caus, and of Alice his wife, daughter of Sir Fulke de Orreby; extinct 1859. See Blakeway's Sheriffs of Shropshire, fol. Shrewsbury, 1831, pp. 37, 63, 65, 230, &c., corrected by the MSS. of the late Mr. Joseph Morris of Shrewsbury;* see also Eyton's Antiquities of Shropshire, vol. vii. p. 5; and Gent. Mag. for 1809, pp. 599, 903. ARMS.--_Or, a raven proper_. The present coat, "_Or, un corbyn de sable_," was borne by Sir Peter Corbet in the reign of Edward II.; but Thomas Corbet, in that of Henry III., bore "_Or,_ 2 _corbeaux sable_," which, with the addition of a bordure engrailed sable, is the coat of the Corbets of Sundorne. _Or, three ravens in pale proper_, was borne by Corbet of Hadley, and was so borne by Sir Thomas Corbet in the reign of Edward II. (Rolls.) Present Representative, Sir Vincent Rowland Corbet, 3rd Baronet. * In future quoted as "Morris MSS." LEIGHTON OF LOTON, BARONET 1692-3. [Illustration] The Leightons are stated to have been seated at Leighton in this county prior to the Conquest: Domesday has "Rainald (vicecom') ten' _Lestone_; Leuui tenuit temp. Reg. Edw." Hence there can be no doubt the name Lestone, _i.e._ Lewi's-town, now Leighton, was derived. Certain it is that the direct ancestors of the family of Leighton were resident there at the very commencement of the twelfth century. From Rainald the sheriff, who was the superior lord of Leighton when Domesday was compiled, that and all his other manors passed in marriage with his daughter to Alan, the ancestor of the Fitz-Alan family; and in the _Liber Niger_, under the year 1167, Richard son of Tiel (Tihel) is stated to hold Leighton under William Fitz-Alan by the service of one knight. This Richard was the undoubted ancestor of this ancient family. Leighton is now severed from the inheritance of the male line of the Leightons, belonging to Robert Gardner, Esq., whose wife was the heiress of the Kinnersleys, descended in the female line from the second marriage of Sir Thomas Leighton, knighted in 1513. Church Stretton, acquired by the heiress of Cambray in the fifteenth century, was for four generations the family seat. Loton (an ancient Corbet estate) was acquired by marriage with a coheiress of Burgh, by John Leighton, Sheriff of Shropshire in 1468. See Eyton's Shropshire, vii. p. 325; Wotton's Baronetage, iv. 38; Blakeway, pp. 74, 75, 80, 91; Stemmata Botvilliana, 1858; and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Quarterly per fess indented or and gules_. In 1315, Sir Richard de Leighton bore the present coat differenced by a bendlet, as appears by his seal attached to a deed still preserved at Loton: the same arms are on his monument, formerly in Buildwas Abbey, and now in Leighton church. Present Representative, Sir Baldwin Leighton, 7th Baronet, late M.P. for South Salop. SANDFORD OF SANDFORD. [Illustration] A family of acknowledged antiquity, whose ancestor Richard de Sanford was certainly seated at Sandford soon after the Conquest, and which has ever since remained their principal seat; it is in the parish of Prees, and is mentioned by Leland in his Itinerary. The Herald of the eighteenth century, and the late excellent Bishop of Edinburgh, were both of this family. Younger Branch. Sandford of the Isle House near Shrewsbury, parted from the parent stem in the fifteenth century, and who also by marriage represent the ancient Shropshire families of Sprenghose and Winsbury. See Eyton's Shropshire, ix. p. 221; and Blakeway, pp. 54, 190, 222. ARMS.--_Quarterly per fess indented azure and ermine_. The Sandfords of the Isle bear, _Party per chevron sable and ermine, in chief two boar's heads couped close or_. Present Representative, Thomas Hugh Sandford, Esq. KYNASTON OF HARDWICKE, BARONET 1818. [Illustration] The Kynastons are lineal descendants of the ancient British Princes of Powys, sprung from Griffith, son of Iorwerth Goch, who took refuge in this county; where, as it is stated in the Testa de Nevill, King Henry II. gave him the manors of Rowton and Ellardine, in the parish of High Ercall, and Sutton and Brocton in the parish of Sutton, to be held in capite by the service of being _latimer_ (_i.e._ interpreter) between the English and Welsh. He married Matilda, younger sister and coheir of Ralph le Strange, and in her right became possessed of the manor of Kinnerley and other estates in Shropshire. Madoc, the eldest son of Griffith, seated himself at Sutton, from him called to this day "Sutton Madoc;" Griffith Vychan, the younger son, had Kinnerley, a portion of his mother's inheritance, and in that manor he resided at Tre-gynvarth, _Anglicè_ Kynvarth's Town, usually written and spoken as _Kynaston_; and hence the name of the family. Griffith or Griffin de Kyneveston, son of Griffith Vychan, was witness to a grant of land to the abbey of Haghmond in 1313. His lineal descendant Roger Kynaston fought at Blore Heathe in 1459, and Lord Audley the Lancastrian General is supposed to have fallen by his hand; hence the second quarter in the arms, and for this and other services he received the honour of knighthood. The Kynastons, from the place so called, went to Hordley, and latterly in the seventeenth century removed to Hardwicke. The Kynastons of Oteley, extinct early in the eighteenth century, were an elder branch; they acquired Oteley by the marriage of an heiress of that ancient house in the reign of Henry VII., and were descended from John, elder brother of Sir Roger Kynaston before mentioned. See Blakeway, p. 73; and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Quarterly_, 1 _and_ 4, _Argent, a lion rampant sable_; 2 _and_ 3, _Ermine, a chevron gules_. Sir John de Kynastone in the reign of Edward II. bore, _Sable, a lion rampant queve forchée or_. (Roll.) Present Representative, Sir John Roger Kynaston, 3rd Baronet. CORNEWALL OF DELBURY. [Illustration] This is the only remaining branch of the once powerful family of Cornewall, for so many ages Barons of Burford, (though without a summons to parliament,) descended from Richard, natural son of Richard Earl of Cornwall, King of the Romans, and second son of John King of England: (an illegitimacy however which was denied at the Heralds' Visitation of this county in 1623, by Sir Thomas Cornewall, of Burford, who stated that the said Richard was the legitimate son of Richard Plantagenet, Earl of Cornwall, by Sanchia of Provence, his second wife). The Barony of Burford came into the Cornewall family before he ninth of Edward II. with the coheiress of Mortimer, and continued with the descendants till the death of Francis, Baron of Burford, in 1726. The present family is sprung from a younger line, seated at Berrington in the county of Hereford, in the fifteenth century, and which estate was sold in the eighteenth. Delbury was purchased by and became the seat of Frederick Cornewall, Esq. who died in 1788, and was father of the late Bishop of Worcester. See Blakeway, pp. 72, 83, 92; and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Ermine, a lion rampant gules crowned or within a bordure engrailed sable bezantee_. "Jeffery de Cornewall" and "Symon de Cornewall" bore, _Argent, a lion rampant gules crowned or, with a baston sable, the first charged with three mullets or, the second with three bezants_. (Roll of the reign of Edward III.) The present coat was borne by Monsieur Bryan Cornewall, in the reign of Richard II. (Roll.) Present Representative, Herbert Cornewall, Esq. LINGEN (CALLED BURTON) OF LONGNOR. [Illustration] The first recorded ancestor of this loyal family is Ralph de Wigmore, lord of Lingen, in the county of Hereford, founder of the Priory of Lyngbroke. His son and grandson John took the name of Lingen: the latter is recorded in the Testa de Nevill as holding various estates in Herefordshire, "of the old feoffment," that is, by descent from the time of King Henry I. His lineal descendant, Sir John Lingen, of Lingen and Sutton, in the county of Hereford, having married in the reign of Edward IV. the daughter and coheiress of Sir John Burgh, succeeded to considerable estates in Shropshire, and to the manor of Radbrook, in the county of Gloucester, until recently the inheritance of his descendants. Longnor, the ancient seat of the Burtons, came into the family in 1722, by the marriage of Thomas Lingen, Esq. of Radbrook, with Anne, only daughter of Robert Burton, Esq. and sister and heir of Thomas Burton, of Longnor, Esq. Their son assumed the name of Burton by Act of Parliament in 1748. From Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Barry of six or and azure, on a bend gules three roses argent_. Present Representative, Robert Burton, Esq. HARLEY OF DOWN-ROSSAL. [Illustration] The origin of this knightly family has been recently explored by Mr. Eyton in his Antiquities of Shropshire, and from that valuable authority it appears that Edward and Hernulf, living in the first half of the twelfth century, were lords of Harley, and the ancestors of the race who were afterwards denominated therefrom. Sixth in descent from William de Harley living in 1231 was Sir Robert de Harley, who having married the coheiress of Brampton Bryan, in the county of Hereford, that place became the residence of his descendants, sprung from Sir Bryan his second son. The Shropshire estates went to the elder son, and passed through heiresses first to the Peshalls, and thence to the Lacons. Fifth in descent from Sir Bryan de Harley was John Harley, Esq. who signalised himself at Flodden Field in 1513. His eldest son was ancestor of the Earls of Oxford (1711,) extinct 1853. The present family, who now represent this ancient lineage, are descended from William third son of the above mentioned John. He died in 1600, having seated himself at Beckjay, in this county. The family afterwards became citizens of Shrewsbury, and acquired Down-Rossal, the present seat, in 1852. See Eyton's Antiquities of Shropshire, vol. vi. p. 230; Collins's Noble Families, p. 184; Brydges's Collins, vol. iv. p. 37; and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Or, a bend cotised sable_, and which was borne by Sir Richard de Harlee in the reign of Edward II. (Roll.) Present Representative, John Harley, Esq. TYRWHITT, OF STANLEY-HALL, BARONET 1808. [Illustration] This is a younger branch of an ancient Lincolnshire family, according to Wotton, to be traced to Sir Hercules Tyrwhitt, living in the tenth of Henry I., and raised to eminence by Sir Robert Tyrwhitt, Justice of the Common Pleas and King's Bench in the reign of Henry IV. He was seated at Kettleby, in that county, which remained the residence of the elder branch, created Baronets in 1611, until its extinction in 1673. A younger son was of Scotter, in the same county, the ancestor of the present family, of whom John, fifth son of the Rev. Robert Tyrwhitt, married a descendant of the Jones's of Shrewsbury, and by her acquired the Stanley-Hall estate, and took the name of Jones, but the present Baronet has since resumed the ancient name of Tyrwhitt. See Blakeway, p. 240; Wotton's Baronetage, i. 178; Camden's Remains, p. 151; Baker's Northamptonshire, i. 115 and "Notices and Remains of the Family of Tyrwhitt," &c. "printed not published." 8vo. n.d. [By R. P. Tyrwhitt, Esq. of the Middle Temple, eldest son of Richard Tyrwhitt, late of Nantyr Hall in Denbighshire, Esq. younger brother of the first Baronet.] ARMS.--_Gules, three tyrwhitts or_. Present Representative, Sir Henry Thomas Tyrwhitt, third Baronet. +Gentle.+ GATACRE OF GATACRE. [Illustration] A family of great antiquity, and which is said to have been established at Gatacre by a grant from Edward the Confessor. The pedigree, however, is not traced beyond the reign of Henry III. Although very ancient, this family does not appear to have been distinguished except by "The fair maid of Gatacre," (see Blakeway, p. 169,) and by the eminent divine of this house noticed in "Fuller's Worthies," and who was the ancestor of the Gatacres of Mildenhall, in Suffolk. See Leland's Itinerary, v. p. 31; Eyton's Antiquities of Shropshire, vol. iii. p. 86; and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Quarterly gules and ermine, on the second and third quarters three piles of the first, on a fess azure five bezants_. This coat, a remarkable exception to the simple heraldry of the period, is supposed to have been granted to Humphry Gatacre, Esquire of the Body to King Henry VI. The following coat, ascribed to this family, was about the end of the seventeenth century in the church of Claverley in this county: _Quarterly, first and fourth ermine, a chief indented gules; second and third gules, over all on a fess azure three bezants_. (Eyton's Shropshire, iii. p. 103.) Present Representative, Edward Lloyd Gatacre, Esq. EYTON OF EYTON. [Illustration] This family can also lay claim to great antiquity, being certainly resident at Eyton on the Wealdmoors as early as the reigns of Henry I. and II. They were in some way connected with the Pantulfs, Barons of Wem, who were Lords of Eyton at the period of the Domesday Survey, and, in consequence of this connection, not only quarter their arms, but were among the very few Shropshire gentry who were not dispossessed after the Rebellion of the third Norman Earl of Shrewsbury, in the time of Henry I. Robert de Eyton stands at the head of the pedigree. See Blakeway, pp. 56, 70, 71; Eyton's Shropshire, viii. p. 26; and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Quarterly, first and fourth, or, a fret azure; second and third, gules two bars ermine_. Present Representative, Thomas Campbell Eyton, Esq. PLOWDEN OF PLOWDEN. [Illustration] When the ancestors of this family were first seated at Plowden is a matter of doubt, but it was at a very early period. In 1194 Roger de Plowden is said to have been at the siege of Acre with Richard I., and there to have acquired the fleurs-de-lis in the arms. The name occurs upon all the county records from the reign of Henry III. Edmund Plowden the lawyer, in the sixteenth century, was the great luminary of this family. See Baker's Northamptonshire, i. 470; Blakeway, pp. 132, 222, and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Azure, a fess dancettée, the two upper points terminating in fleurs-de-lis or_. Present Representative, William Henry Francis Plowden, Esq. ACTON OF ALDENHAM, BARONET 1643-4. [Illustration] Engelard de Acton, of Acton-Pigot and Acton-Burnell, was admitted on the Roll of Guild Merchants of Shrewsbury in 1209. His descendant Edward de Acton, of Aldenham, married the coheiress of Le'Strange, living in 1387, and with her acquired an estate in Longnor, in this county. The baronetcy was the reward of loyalty in the beginning of the great rebellion. General Acton, Prime Minister to the King of Naples for twenty-nine years, commencing in 1778, was a distinguished member of this family. See Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 398; Blakeway, pp. 54, 174. ARMS.--_Gules, crusilly or, two lions passant in pale argent_. This coat is evidently founded on that of Le'Strange. Present Representative, Sir John Emerick Edward Dalberg Acton, 8th Baronet. WHITMORE OF APLEY. [Illustration] This is a younger branch of an ancient family formerly seated at Whittimere or Whitmore, in the parish of Claverley, where it is traced to the reign of Henry III. The Apley branch made a large fortune by mercantile transactions in London in the reign of Elizabeth, and purchased that estate in 1572, from Sir Thomas Lucy, Knight. The Whitmores have represented Bridgnorth in Parliament constantly since the reign of Charles II. Blakeway observes that this family does not appear to have had any connection with the Whitmores of Cheshire, though the Heralds have given them similar arms, with a crest allusive to the springing of a young shoot out of an old stock. Younger Branches. Whitmore of Dudmaston, in this county, and Whitmore-Jones, of Chastleton, in the county of Oxford. See Blakeway, p. 106, and Notes on the Whitmore Family, in Notes and Queries, 3rd series, v. p. 159. ARMS.--_Vert, fretty or_. Present Representative, Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq. WALCOT OF BITTERLEY. [Illustration] The name is derived from Walcot in the parish of Lydbury, which was held under the Bishop of Hereford by Roger de Walcot in 1255. He was the ancestor of the present family. Sixth in descent from Roger de Walcot was John Walcot, of whom the pedigree relates, "that playing at Chess with King Henry V. he gave him the check-mate with the rooke, whereupon the King changed his coat of arms, which was the cross with fleurs-de-lis, and gave him the rooke for a remembrance." Walcot was sold in the year 1764, and Bitterley, which had belonged to the family in 1660, became the seat of the Walcots, descended from Humphry Walcot, who died in 1616, and who was the eldest son of John Walcot of Walcot. He had livery of the manor of Walcot in 1611, "on the extinction (says Blakeway,) I suppose of the elder line." See Blakeway, p. 112; and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three chess-rooks ermine_. The former coat, _Argent, on a cross patonce azure five fleurs-de-lis or_, was ascribed to John de Walcote in the Roll of the reign of Richard II. Present Representative, the Rev. Charles Walcot. BALDWIN (CALLED CHILDE) OF KINLET. [Illustration] This ancient family, which has been supposed to be of Norman origin, was early seated at Diddlebury, (or Delbury,) in Corvedale, which appears to have come from the heiress of Wigley. Roger Baldwin of Diddlebury died anno 1398, and was the ancestor of the family. Diddlebury was sold to the Cornewalls of Berrington in the last century, when the Baldwins removed to Aqualate in Staffordshire. Kinlet was the inheritance of the Childes, whose coheiress married Charles Baldwin, Esq. The Childes derived it from the Lacons, and the Lacons by inheritance from the Blounts of Kinlet. See Blakeway, p. 212. ARMS.--_Argent, a saltire sable_. Present Representative, Walter Lacon Childe, Esq. DOD OF CLOVERLY. [Illustration] A branch of the Dods of Edge in Cheshire, now extinct in the male line, and one of the oldest families in England, which can be traced in a direct line, undoubtedly of _Saxon_, if not of _British_ descent, which, says Blakeway, "is in the highest degree probable." The following is Ormerod's account of the origin of this family. "About the time of Henry II., Hova, son of Cadwgan Dot, married the daughter and heiress of the Lord of Edge, with whom he had the fourth of that manor. It is probable that the Lord of Edge was son of Edwin, who before the Conquest was sole proprietor of eight manors; we may call him a Saxon thane. It appears by Domesday that Dot was the Saxon lord of sixteen manors, from all of which he was ejected; we may presume he was identical with Cadwgan Dot." "A descent in the male line (adds Ormerod) from a Saxon noticed in Domesday would be unique in this county" (Cheshire). The Dods of Cloverley descend from Hugo, living in the fourteenth of Henry IV., who married the coheiress of Roger de Cloverley. He was the son of John Dod of Farndon, who was son of Roger Dod of Edge, living in the reign of Edward III., which John Dod had also acquired property in Shropshire, by marriage with the coheiress of Warden of Ightfield. See Ormerod's Cheshire, ii. 374; and Blakeway, p. 206. ARMS.--_Argent, a fess gules between two cotises wavy sable_. The Dods of Edge bore three crescents or, on the fess, by which one would imagine they were the younger rather than the elder line of the family, and the present owner of Cloverly possesses deeds which appear to prove that this was the fact. Present Representative, John Whitehall Dod, Esq. late M.P. for North Shropshire. OAKELEY OF OAKELEY. [Illustration] An ancient family, descended from Philip, who in the reign of Henry III. was lord of Oakeley in the parish of Bishop's Castle, from whence he assumed his name, and which has ever since been the inheritance of his descendants. Younger Branch. Sir Charles Oakeley, Baronet 1790. See Blakeway, pp. 132, 173; and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Argent, on a fess between three crescents gules as many fleurs-de-lis or_. These arms are, with those of the Plowdens and other families of the vicinity, allusive to the services of ancestors who fought under the banners of the great suzeraines of their district, the Fitz-Alans, in the Crusades and the battlefields of France. Present Representative, the Rev. Arthur Oakeley. HILL OF HAWKSTONE, VISCOUNT HILL 1842, BARONET 1726-7. [Illustration] The first in the pedigree is Hugh de la Hulle, who held the estate of Hulle, that is, Court of Hill, in the parish of Burford, in this county, as the eleventh part of a knight's fee, of the Barony of Stuteville, in the reigns of Richard I. and John, as appears by the Testa de Neville. The family afterwards removed into the north of the county, by marriages with the coheiresses of Wlenkeslow, Buntingsdale, Styche, and Warren. The castle still borne in the coat of Hill is found on the seal of William Hill in the reign of Richard II. Court of Hill, the original seat of the Hills, was bequeathed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth to the second son of the eldest branch of the family, in whose line it continued till carried by an heiress to the family of the present proprietor. Hawkstone, the present seat, was settled upon Humphry Hill in 1560. The great ornament of this family, and indeed he may be called the founder of its modern consequence, was Richard Hill, Envoy Extraordinary to the Italian States in the very beginning of the eighteenth century. See Blakeway, pp. 142, 179; and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Ermine, on a fess sable a castle argent_. Present Representative, Rowland Hill, second Viscount Hill. FORESTER OF WILLEY, BARON FORESTER 1821. [Illustration] This family is clearly descended from "Robert de Wolint," (Wellington,) alias Forester, who is named in the Testa de Neville as holding his estate by the serjeantry of keeping the royal hay of Wellington in the forest of the Wrekin; and there is every probability that he was the descendant of Ulger the Forester, chief forester of all the king's forests in Shropshire in the time of Stephen. See Blakeway, p. 126; and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Quarterly per fess dancettée argent and sable, on the first and fourth quarters a bugle horn of the last, garnished or_. Present Representative, John George Weld Forester, 2nd Baron Forester. EDWARDES, OF HARNAGE GRANGE AND SHREWSBURY, BARONET 1645. [Illustration] Iddon, son of Rys Sais, a powerful British chieftain in the Shropshire Marches at the period of the Norman Conquest, is the ancestor of the family of Edwardes. His descendants were seated at Kilhendre, in the parish of Ellesmere, in the reign of Henry I., an estate which continued in the family in the time of Queen Elizabeth. The eminent services of Sir Thomas Edwardes of Shrewsbury to King Charles I. were rewarded by the grant of a Baronetcy in 1645. The patent, however, was not taken out till the year 1678, with a right of precedency before all baronets created after 1644. The distinguished Major Herbert Edwardes, C.B., one of Her Majesty's Commissioners for settling the affairs of the Punjaub, is of this family. See Blakeway, pp. 107, 121; Blakeway and Owen's Shrewsbury, ii. 259; and Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 415; and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Gules, a chevron engrailed between three heraldic tiger's heads erased argent_. Present Representative, Sir Henry Hope Edwardes, 10th Baronet. BETTON (CALLED BRIGHT) OF TOTTERTON HALL. [Illustration] Walter De Betton had a freehold estate at Betton-Strange, near Shrewsbury, in the reign of Edward I. William Betton, fourth in descent from Walter, was seated at Great Berwick prior to the reign of Henry IV., and at his house the renowned Hotspur lay during the night preceding the Battle of Shrewsbury. The estate and mansion of Great Berwick continued with their lineal descendants until sold in 1831, by Richard Betton, Esq. whose uncle having succeeded to the estates of John Bright, Esq. assumed that name, and was father of the present proprietor of Totterton Hall. From the Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Argent, two pales sable, each charged with three cross-crosslets fitchée or_. Present Representative, the Rev. John Bright. CLIVE (CALLED HERBERT) OF STYCHE, EARL OF POWIS 1804; BARON CLIVE IN THE PEERAGE OF IRELAND 1762. [Illustration] Although this family owe their elevation to the military genius of the great Lord Clive, to whom the English nation is so much indebted for its glory and power in the East, yet the Clives have undoubted claims to antiquity both in Shropshire and Cheshire, in which latter county, in the hundred of Northwich, is Clive, from whence their ancestor Warin assumed his name in the time of Henry III. About the reign of Edward II. the family removed to Huxley, also in Cheshire, Henry de Clive having married the coheiress; and again in the reign of Henry VI. on the marriage of James Clive with the heiress of Styche, of Styche, they settled in Shropshire at that place, which is in the parish of Moreton-Say, and has remained uninterruptedly in the Clive family. The Earldom of Powis is the result of the match with the heiress of Herbert, of Powis Castle, in 1784. See Ormerod's Cheshire, ii. 435, iii. 115; Blakeway, p. 140; Brydges's Collins, v. 543; and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Argent, on a fess sable three mullets or_. In the fourth year of Edward VI., three wolf's heads erased sable were added to the field of the original coat. See Archdall's Lodge, vii. 80. Present Representative, Edward James Herbert, 3rd Earl of Powis. LAWLEY OF SPOONBILL, BARON WENLOCK 1839; BARONET 1641. [Illustration] This family is descended from Thomas Lawley, cousin and next heir to John Lord Wenlock, K.G. in the reign of Edward IV., who was slain at the battle of Tewkesbury. The Lawleys were described as "of Wenlock" in the reign of' Henry VI., and until that of Henry VIII., when Richard Lawley, Esq. ancestor of Lord Wenlock, was written "of Spoonhill." See Blakeway, p. 92; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 261; and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Argent, a cross formée, checky or and sable_. Present Representative, Beilby Richard Lawley-Thompson, 2nd Baron Wenlock. PIGOTT OF EDGMOND. [Illustration] The Pigotts were formerly seated at Chetwynd in this county, which they inherited from the coheiress of Peshall in the fourteenth century. The family came originally from Cheshire; William Pigott of Butley in the parish of Prestbury in that county, who died in 1376, was grandfather of Richard Pigott of Butley who married the heiress of Peshall. Chetwynd was sold about 1776, and the rectory of Edgmond purchased by Thomas Pigott, Esq., in the reign of James I. See Blakeway, p. 84; and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Ermine, three fusils in fess sable_. The coat formerly borne by this family, founded on the arms of Chetwynd, was, _Azure, a chevron between three mullets or, on a chief ermine three fusils sable_. Present Representative, the Rev. John Dryden Pigott. THORNES OF LLWYNTIDMAN HALL. [Illustration] The name is local, from Thornes in the parish of Shenstone, in the county of Stafford, where Robert, son of Roger de la Thornes, was resident early in the fourteenth century. He was elected burgess for Shrewsbury in 1357, a position subsequently filled by several of his descendants. The family also became seated at Shelvock in this county at an early period. Thomas Thornes of that place erected a mansion on the old family estate at Thornes in the reign of Edward IV., which estate was sold by his descendant Roger Thornes in 1507. Shelvock continued in the family until the extinction of the eldest branch of it in 1678. The present family descend from Nicholas Thornes of Melverley, great-uncle of Richard Thornes who was sheriff of this county in 1610. See Sanders's History of Shenstone, p. 215; Blakeway, p. 101; and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Sable, a lion rampant guardant argent_. Present Representative, Thomas William Thornes, Esq. HARRIES OF CRUCKTON. [Illustration] The ancestor of this family was of Cruckton in the parish of Pontesbury in 1463. It has been supposed that the Harries's are of the old race of "Fitz-Henry," mentioned in ancient deeds of this county, and who were seated at Little Sutton prior to the reign of Edward III. See Blakeway, p. 178; and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Ermine, three bars azure, over all three annulets or_. Present Representative, Francis Harries, Esq. SALWEY OF MOOR PARK. [Illustration] About the reign of Henry III. William Salwey was Lord of Leacroft, a hamlet in the parish of Cannock in Staffordshire; hence the family removed to Stanford in Worcestershire; of' which John Salwey was owner in the third of Henry IV. But this estate was carried by an heiress to Sir Francis Winnington in the reign of Charles II. Richard Salwey, younger brother of Edward Salwey of Stanford, was seated at Richard's Castle in the county of Hereford at the time of the Protectorate. His grandson Richard was of the Moor Park, where he died in 1759, and was succeeded by his great-nephew, whose grandson is the present representative of this ancient family. See Erdeswick's Staffordshire, ed. 1844, p. 200; Nash's Worcestershire, ii. 369; and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Sable, a saltier engrailed or_. Present Representative, John Salwey, Esq. BOROUGH OF CHETWYND. [Illustration] Lineally descended from Robert "Borowe," noticed by Leland in his Itinerary, which Robert died in 1418, and was father of Robert surnamed de Stokeden, Lord of Erdborough in the county of Leicester. Chetwynd was purchased by Thomas Borough, Esq., in 1803, the family having been previously for many years resident at Derby. See Glover's History of the County of Derby, 8vo. 1833, vol. ii. p. 558, who refers to the genealogy of the family in the College of Arms, 4 Norfolk, p. 189; Nichols's Leicestershire, ii. 528; and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Gules, the stem and trunk of a tree eradicated, as also couped, sprouting out two branches argent_. In 1702 a frightful modern coat founded on the preceding, with the shield of Pallas dependent from an oak-tree or, was granted by the College of Arms. Present Representative, John Charles Burton Borough, Esq. SOMERSETSHIRE. +Knightly.+ POULETT OF HINTON ST. GEORGE, EARL POULETT 1706; BARON 1627. [Illustration] Paulet, in the hundred of North Petherton in this county, gave name to this historical family, the first on record being Sir William de Paulet, who died in 1242. He was of Leigh in Devonshire, which, with Rode in Somersetshire, successively became the family seat. Hinton St. George, which came from the heiress of Denebaud in the reign of Henry VI., is noticed by Leland as "a right goodly manor place of fre stone, with two goodly high tourres embattled in the ynner court," and has ever since remained the seat of this the elder branch of the family. The Marquesses of Winchester (1551) and the extinct Dukes of Bolton descend from William second son of Sir John Paulet of Paulet, who died in 1378. They were of Basing in Hampshire, derived through the heiress of Poynings from the great house of St.John, in the reign of Henry VI. See Leland's Itinerary, ii. fol. 55, vi. fol. 11; Brydges's Collins, ii. 367, iv. 1; Collinson's History of Somersetshire, ii. p. 165. For an account of Hinton St. George, the Topographer, vol. i. p. 171, vol. ii. p.354. For Basing, Gent. Mag. 1787, p. 680. ARMS.--_Sable, three swords in pile, their points towards the base, argent, the pomels and hilts or. Gules, a pair of wings conjoined in lure argent_, being the coat of his mother the heiress of Reyney, was borne by Sir John Paulet in the 15th of Richard II. Present Representative, William Poulett, 6th Earl Poulett. SPEKE OF JORDANS. [Illustration] This is a younger branch of an ancient family descended from Richard le Espek, who lived in the reign of Henry II. Wemworthy and Brampton, in the county of Devon, were the original seats; but in the time of Henry VI. Sir John Speke, having married an heiress of Beauchamp, became possessed of the manor of Whitelackington in this county, which for eleven generations continued the inheritance of his descendants in the male line, when an heiress carried it to the Norths, Earls of Guildford. Jordans, a hamlet in the manor of Ashill, also inherited from the Beauchamps, appears to be the only remnant of the former possessions of this venerable house. See Leland's Itinerary, ii. ff. 51, 55; Topographer, i. 507; and Collinson's History of Somersetshire, i. pp. 12, 66. ARMS.--_Barry of eight argent and azure, an eagle with two heads displayed gules_. Present Representative, William Speke, Esq. +Gentle.+ TREVELYAN OF NETTLECOMB, BARONET 1661-2. [Illustration] The name sufficiently implies that this is a Cornish family, traced to Nicholas de Trevelyan living in the reign of Edward I., whose ancestors were of Trevelyan, in the parish of St. Vehap, near Fowey, at a still earlier period. Nettlecomb was inherited from the heiress of Whalesborough towards the end of the fifteenth century. The Trevelyans suffered for their loyalty during the Usurpation, and were rewarded by the baronetcy on the Restoration. The estate of Wallington, in the county of Northumberland, came from the heiress of Calverley of Calverley in the last century. Younger Branch, Trevelyan of Nether-Witton in the county of Northumberland. See Westcote's Devonshire Pedigrees, p. 558; Collinson's Somersetshire, iii. p. 539; Gilbert's Cornwall, i. 564; Hodgson's History of Northumberland, vol. i. pt. 2. p. 262; and Wotton's Baronetage, iii. p. 353. ARMS.--_Gules, a land-horse argent, armed or, coming out of the sea party per fess wavy azure and of the second_. This coat is traditionally derived from one of the family swimming on horseback from the rocks called Seven Stones to the Land's End, at the time of an inundation. The more ancient arms are said to have been _a lion rampant holding a baton_. Present Representative, Sir Walter Calverley Trevelyan, 6th Baronet. UPTON (CALLED SMYTH) OF ASHTON-COURT, BARONET 1859. [Illustration] An ancient Cornish family, said to have been originally of Upton, in that county, or, according to Prince in his Worthies of Devon, named from Upton in the parish of Collumpton in Devonshire, and fixed at Portlinch in the parish of Newton Ferrers, by a match with the heiress of Mohun, about the end of the fifteenth century. Here the elder branch was long seated, and became extinct in 1709. The present family descend from a younger brother, who settled at Lupton in Devonshire: his descendant was of Ingmire Hall in Westmerland, derived from the heiress of Otway about the beginning of the eighteenth century. The present representative, succeeding to the estates of the Smyths of Ashton, assumed that name, and was created a Baronet in 1859. Younger Branches. Upton of Glyde-Court in the county of Louth, descended from the third son of John Upton of Lupton, living in 1620; and Upton, Baron Templetown, descended from Henry second son of Arthur Upton of Lupton. This Henry came into Ireland in 1598, a captain in the army under the Earl of Essex, and established himself in the county of Antrim. See Prince's Worthies of Devon, ed. 1701, p. 572; Westcote's Devonshire, p. 519; and Archdall's Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, vii. p. 152. ARMS.--_Sable, a cross moline argent_. Present Representative, Sir John Henry Greville Upton Smythe, Baronet. SOUTHAMPTONSHIRE. +Knightly.+ TICHBORNE OF TICHBORNE, BARONET 1620. [Illustration] Of the great antiquity of this family there is no doubt, they having been seated at their manor of Tichborne from the reign of Henry II., at which period Sir Roger de Tichborne, their first recorded ancestor, was lord of that manor. The immediate ancestors of the present family were of Aldershot, in this county, being descended from the second son of the first Baronet. Henry Tichborne, grandson of the celebrated Sir Henry Tichborne, so distinguished during the Great Rebellion in Ireland, and who was fourth son of the first Baronet, was raised to the peerage in Ireland as Baron Ferrard in 1715; he died, and the peerage became extinct, in 1728. See Wotton's Baronetage, i. 425; Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, vii. p. 213; and for a notice of Chidiock Tichborne, engaged in the Babington Conspiracy in 1586, see Disraeli's Curiosities of Literature, 1st series, vol. iii. p. 95. ARMS.--_Vair, a chief or_, borne by Sir John Tichborne in the sixth of Henry IV. Present Representative, Sir Alfred Joseph, Doughty Tichborne, 11th Baronet. OGLANDER OF NUNWELL, BARONET 1665. [Illustration] Richard de Okelandre, the patriarch of his family, is supposed to have been of Norman origin, and was Lord of Nunwell, in the Isle of Wight, the present seat, from the time of King John. Seventeenth in direct male descent from Richard, was Sir John Oglander, Knt., a great sufferer, both in person and fortune, for his zealous attachment to his sovereign King Charles I. He died before the Restoration, but his loyalty was recognised by the baronetcy conferred upon his son, a worthy successor to his father, by Charles II. in 1665. See Hutchins's History of Dorset, i, p. 450, for an account of the family under "Parnham," which came from the heiress of Strode; see also Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 492. ARMS.--_Azure, a stork between three cross-crosslets fitchée or_. Present Representative, Sir Henry Oglander, 7th Baronet. WALLOP OF WALLOP, EARL OF PORTSMOUTH 1743. [Illustration] The true and original name of this family is Barton, Peter de Barton, lord of West Barton, in this county, having married Alice, only daughter and heiress of Sir Robert de Wallop, who died in the eleventh year of Edward I. His great-grandson Richard assumed the name of Wallop, and was returned as one of the knights of the shire for the county of Southampton in the second of Edward III. Over and Nether Wallop, so called, says Camden, "from Well-hop, that is, a pretty well in the side of a hill," continued till the reign of Henry V. the principal seat, when Margaret de Valoynes brought into the family the manor of Farley, afterwards called Farley-Wallop, which has since been the usual residence of the Wallops; of whom Sir John was greatly distinguished in the reign of Henry VII., and Sir Henry in Ireland in that of Elizabeth. Robert Wallop, grandson of Sir Henry, unfortunately taking part against his sovereign Charles I., and sitting as one of his judges, though he did not sign the fatal warrant, fell into universal contempt after the Restoration, and died in the Tower of London in 1667. He was great-grandfaher of the first peer. See Brydges's Collins, iv. p. 291. ARMS.--_Argent, a bend wavy sable_. This coat was borne by Monsieur John de Barton in the reign of Richard II. (Roll.) Present Representative, Isaac Newton Wallop, 5th Earl of Portsmouth. COPE OF BRAMSHILL, BARONET 1611. [Illustration] The Copes appear in the character of civil servants of the crown in the reign of Richard II. and Henry IV., and were rewarded with large grants of land in the counties of Northampton and Buckingham. Hardwick and Hanwell, both in the neighbourhood of Banbury, were subsequently the family seats, and are noticed by Leland, who calls the latter "a very pleasant and gallant house." Towards the end of the seventeenth century the family appear to have been established at Bramshill, traditionally said to have been built for Henry Prince of Wales, eldest son of King James I. See Wotton's Baronetage i. p. 112; and Beesley's History of Banbury, p. 190. ARMS.--_Argent, on a chevron azure between three roses gules, slipped and leaved vert, as many fleurs-de-lis or_. The original coat was, _Argent, a boar passant sable_, which William Cope, Cofferer to Henry VII., abandoned for _Argent, three coffers sable_, allusive to his office; but he afterwards had assigned to him the present arms alluding to the royal badges of the crown. Present Representative, the Rev. Sir William Henry Cope, 12th Baronet. STAFFORDSHIRE. +Knightly.+ OKEOVER OF OKEOVER. [Illustration] Ormus, at the period of the Norman Conquest was Lord of Okeover by grant of Nigel, Abbot of Burton. He is the direct ancestor of this venerable house, which has been ever since in possession of the ancient seat which gives name to the family, and which lies on the very edge of the county, near Ashbourne in Derbyshire. See Wood's MSS. 8594, vol. 6, for a very curious and valuable cartulary of the Okeovers, and Dodsworth's MSS. 5037, vol. 96, fol. 17 (both in the Bodleian Library); see also Erdeswick's Staffordshire, Harwood's ed. 1844, p. 487; Shaw's Staffordshire, vol. i. p. 26; and the Topographer, ii. p. 313. ARMS.--_Ermine, on a chief gules three bezants_. This coat was borne by Monsieur Philip de Oker, in the reign of Richard II. (Roll). Present Representative, Haughton Charles Okeover, Esq. BAGOT OF BAGOT'S BROMLEY; BARON BAGOT 1780; BARONET 1627. [Illustration] A most ancient family, also coeval with the Conquest, descended from Bagod, who at the time of the compilation of Domesday Book held Bromley of Robert de Stadford or Stafford. In the reign of Richard I. the male line of the Staffords failing, Milicent Stafford married Henry Bagot of this family, and their issue, assuming their mother's name, were progenitors of the illustrious house of Stafford, Dukes of Buckingham. Blythfield in this county, which came from an heiress of that name, has been the seat of the Bagots from the thirteenth century. Younger Branches. Chester of Chicheley Hall, co. Bucks, and Bagot of Pype Hayes, co. Warwick, descended from the second and third sons of Sir Walter W. Bagot, father of the first Lord Bagot. See Bagot Memorials, privately printed, 4to. 1824; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 47; and Erdeswick, p. 262. ARMS.--_Ermine, two chevrons azure_. A former coat was, _Argent, a chevron gules between three martlets sable_, which was used from the reign of Edward III. to that of Henry VIII. (Rolls.) The present coat is of still greater antiquity. Present Representative, William Bagot, 3rd Baron Bagot. GIFFORD OF CHILLINGTON. [Illustration] A noble Norman family, which is traced to the Conquest, and of which there were in Leland's time four "notable houses" remaining in England, in the counties of Devon, Southampton, Stafford, and Buckingham. All with the exception of the third have been long extinct. The Giffords have been seated in Staffordshire since the reign of Henry II., when Peter Gifford, by the gift of Peter Corbesone, became Lord of the Manor of Chillington, ever since their principal residence. He is called in the Deed of Gift, "_Nepos uxoris meae_." This family had the honour to be concerned in the preservation of King Charles II. after the Battle of Worcester. See Erdeswick, p. 158, corrected from Huntbach's MSS. penes Lord Wrottesley. ARMS.--_Azure, three stirrups with leathers or_. The more ancient coat, which was used by the elder line of the Giffords, who were Earls of Buckingham, was, _Gules, three lions passant argent_. Present Representative, Thomas William Gifford, Esq. WROTTESLEY OF WROTTESLEY: BARON WROTTESLEY 1838; BARONET 1542. [Illustration] "Sumetime," writes Leland, "the Wrotesleys were men of more land than they bee now, and greate with the Earles of Warwick; yet he hath 200 markes of londe; at Wrotesley is a fayre house and a parker" and here, it may be added, the family are supposed to have been seated from the period of the Conquest. The pedigree however is not proved beyond William de Wrottesley, lord of that manor before the reign of Henry III., father of Sir Hugh, who, joining the insurgent Barons in the reign of Henry III., forfeited his estate, redeemed under the dictum de Kenelworth for 60 marcs. His great-grandson Sir Hugh Wrottesley, one of the "Founders" of the Order of the Garter, who died in 1380-1, is the direct ancestor of the present lord. See Leland's Itinerary in Coll. Topog. et Genealogica, iii. 340; Erdeswick, p. 359; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 345; and Shaw's Staffordshire, ii. 205, kindly corrected by the Hon. Charles Wrottesley. ARMS.--_Or, three piles sable and a quarter ermine_. The more ancient coat, as appears by seals to original deeds of the years 1298 and 1333-37, preserved at Wrottesley, was _fretty_. Sir Hugh de Wrottesleye bore the present arms in 1349 and 1381. But he is also stated, on the authority of the Roll of the reign of Richard II., to have used, _Or, a bend engrailed gules_. Sir William Wrottesley, father of Sir Hugh, K.G., married Joan, daughter of Roger Basset, which will account for the present arms, which belonged to the Bassets of Warwickshire. Present Representative, John Wrottesley, 2nd Baron Wrottesley. BROUGHTON OF BROUGHTON, BARONET 1660. [Illustration] "The Broughtons descend in the male line from one of the most ancient families of the county of Chester, the Vernons of Shipbrook. Richard de Vernon, a younger brother of this house, was father of Adam de Napton, in the county of Warwick, whose issue assumed their local name from Broughton in Staffordshire. The pedigrees vary as to the exact point of connection, and, confused and contradictory as the Shipbrooke pedigree is at this period, there can be little hope of its being positively identified; but the general fact of descent is allowed by all authorities." See Ormerod's Cheshire, iii. 269; Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 259; and Erdeswick, p. 111. ARMS.--_Argent, two bars gules, on a canton of the last a cross of the first_. In the reign of Richard II. Monsieur Thomas de Broughton bore, _Azure, a cross engrailed argent_. (Roll.) Present Representative, Sir Henry Delves Broughton, ninth Baronet. MAINWARING OF WHITMORE. [Illustration] The first recorded ancestor of this great and widely-spreading family is Ranulphus, a Norman, Lord of Warmincham, in Cheshire, at the period of the Domesday Survey; where his descendants remained seated for two centuries. In the reign of Henry III. they were of Over-Peover in the same county, and remained there until the principal male line became extinct in the person of Sir Henry Mainwaring of Peover, Baronet, who died unmarried in 1797. Whitmore was inherited by Edward ninth son of Sir John Mainwaring of Peover, on his marriage with the heiress of Humphry de Boghey or Bohun of Whitmore. This was in the year 1519. The senior line of the Mainwarings were on the loyal side during the great Rebellion, and in 1745 opposed to the pretensions of the house of Stuart. But the Whitmore branch favoured the Parliamentary interest. Younger Branch. Mainwaring of Oteley Park, in the parish of Ellesmere in Shropshire, sprung from Randle, third son of Edward Mainwaring of Whitmore. Extinct Branches. Maynwaring of Ightfield, co. Salop; extinct 1712. (See Blakeway, Sheriffs of Shropshire, pp. 83, 133.) Mainwaring of Kermincham, co. Chester, extinct 1783. (See Ormerod's Cheshire, vol. iii. p. 46.) And Mainwaring of Bromborough, in the same county, extinct 1827. See Erdeswick's Staffordshire, p. 78; and Ormerod, vol. i. p. 368; vol. ii. p. 239; vol. iii. p. 447. ARMS.--_Argent, two bars gules_. Present Representative, Rowland Mainwaring, Esq. ARDEN OF LONGCROFT. [Illustration] No family in England can claim a more noble origin than the house of Arden, descended in the male line from the Saxon Earls of Warwick before the Conquest. The name of Arden was assumed from the Woodlands of Arden, in the North of Warwickshire, by Siward de Arden, in the reign of Henry I.; which Siward was grandson of Alwin the Sheriff in the reign of Edward the Confessor. The elder line of the family was long seated at Park-Hall in Warwickshire, and became extinct in 1643. A younger branch descended from Simon second son of Thomas Arden, of Park-Hall, Esq. settled at Longcroft, in the parish of Yoxall, in the reign of Elizabeth, and now represents this most ancient and noble family. See Dugdale's Warwickshire, 2nd edit. vol. ii. p. 295; Shaw's Staffordshire, vol. i. p. 102; and Erdeswick, p. 279; also a paper by George Ormerod, Esq. LL.D., the historian of Cheshire, "On the connection of Arden, or Arderne, of Cheshire, with the Ardens of Warwickshire," in "The Topographer and Genealogist," vol. i. 1846. ARMS.--_Ermine, a fess checky or and azure_, and so borne by Sir----de Arderne in the reign of Edward II. (Roll.) Present Representative, George Pincard Arden, Esq. MEYNELL OF HORE-CROSS. [Illustration] An ancient Derbyshire family, which can be traced to the reign of Henry II. One of their most ancient possessions was Langley-Meynell, in that county, an estate which remained in the family till the end of the fourteenth century. A younger son at this period was seated at Yeaveley, his grandson at Willington, both in Derbyshire. Bradley, in the same county, became in the seventeenh century, by purchase, the residence of a still younger branch, descended from Francis, fourth son of Godfrey Meynell of Willington: from him descends the present family, who were of Hore-Cross the latter part of the last century. Temple-Newsom, in Yorkshire, was inherited from the Ingrams by the present Mr. Meynell on the death of the Marchioness of Hertford in 1835. Younger Branch. Meynell of Langley-Meynell, Derbyshire, descended from Francis, second son of Francis Meynell, of Willington, who died in 1616. See Leland's Itinerary, iv. fo. 17; and Topographer and Genealogist, i. 439, and 494. ARMS.--_Vaire argent and sable_. This was the coat of De-la-Ward, of which house Hugh de Meynell married the heiress in the reign of Edward III. The proper coat of Meynell was, _Paly of six argent and gules, on a bend azure three horseshoes or_. Present Representative, Hugo Charles Meynell-Ingram, Esq. +Gentle.+ WOLSELEY OF WOLSELEY, BARONET 1628. [Illustration] "The most ancient among all the very ancient families in this county," writes Mr. Harwood in his notes to Erdeswick's Staffordshire. Siward, mentioned as Lord of Wlselei in a deed without date, is the first in the pedigree of this venerable house, who are said to have been resident at Wolseley even before the Norman Conquest, and it has ever since remained their seat and residence. Younger Branch. Wolseley of Mount Wolseley, in the county of Carlow, Baronet of Ireland (1744), descended from the third son of the second Baronet. See Erdeswick, p. 203; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 133. ARMS.--_Argent, a talbot passant gules_. Present Representative, Sir Charles Michael Wolseley, ninth Baronet. COTES OF COTES. [Illustration] Descended from Richard de Cotes, who was probably son of Thomas de Cotes, living in 1157, when the Black Book of the Exchequer was compiled. About the reign of Henry VI. the family removed to Woodcote, in Shropshire, which has since continued the principal seat, though the more ancient manor of Cotes or "Kothes," on the banks of the Sow, has ever remained the property of this ancient house. See Blakeway's Sheriffs of Shropshire, p. 103; and Erdeswick, p. 122. ARMS.--_Quarterly ermine and paly of six or and gules_. According to the Visitation of Shropshire in 1623, the ermine was borne in the third and fourth quarter. Erdeswick observes, "It would seem that the Cotes's should derive themselves from the Knightleys, or else they do the Knightleys wrong by usurping their armoury." It may be remarked that Robert, third in descent from the first Robert de Cotes, married a daughter of Richard de Knightley, and from hence perhaps the arms. Present Representative, John Cotes, Esq. CONGREVE OF CONGREVE. [Illustration] The name, like those of most ancient families, is local, derived from Congreve, in this county, where the ancestors of this house were seated soon after the Conquest. In the reign of Edward II. William Congreve removed to the adjoining village of Stretton, having married the heiress of Campion of that place. Stretton was sold towards the end of the eighteenth century, but Congreve still continues the inheritance of its ancient lords. Younger Branch. Congreve of Walton, Baronet 1812. See Erdeswick, p. 167. ARMS.--_Sable, a chevron between three battleaxes argent_. This is, says Erdeswick, the coat of Campion. Present Representative, William Walter Congreve, Esq. SNEYD OF KEEL. [Illustration] "The noble race of Sneyds, of great worship and account,"* appear to be denominated from Snead, a hamlet in the parish of Tunstall, in this county, where they were seated as early as the reign of Henry III. By marriage with the heiress of Tunstall they had other lands in that parish, and for two descents were called Snead alias Tunstall. Bradwell, the former seat of this family, was purchased in the reign of Henry IV. The fine old house at Keel, lately taken down and now rebuilt, was erected by Ralph Sneyd, Esq. in 1581. During the Usurpation, the Sneyds being on the loyal side, Keel house narrowly escaped destruction, and many of the ancient evidences were plundered and lost at that time. Younger Branches. Sneyd of Ashcombe, and of Loxley in this county, descended from the second son of William Sneyd, of Keel, who died in 1694: and the Sneyds of Ireland, descended from Wettenhall, Archdeacon of Kilmore, younger brother of the ancestor of the preceding branches. See Erdeswick, pp. 20, 25; Leland's Itinerary in Coll. Topog. et Genealog. iii. 342; Gent. Mag. vol. lxxi. p. 28; and Ward's History of the Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent. ARMS.--_Argent, a scythe, the blade in chief, the sned and handle in bend sinister sable, on the fess point a fleur-de-lis of the second_. This fleur-de-lis is said to have been assumed by Richard de Tunstall, alias Sneyd, after the battle of Poictiers. Present Representative, Ralph Sneyd, Esq. * King's Vale Royal, b. ii. p. 77, who would derive them from Cheshire. WHITGREAVE OF MOSELEY. [Illustration] In the reign of Henry III., Robert Whitgreave, the ancestor of this family, was seated at Burton near Stafford. Bridgeford, in the vicinity of Whitgreave, from whence the name is derived, and early in the seventeenth century Moseley, successively became the residence of the Whitgreaves, and at the latter place Thomas Whitgreave, Esq. had the honour to shelter his sovereign Charles II. after the battle of Worcester. See Erdeswick, pp. 137, 185, 348. ARMS.--_Azure, on a cross quarterly pierced or four chevrons gules_. This coat, founded on the arms of Stafford, was granted by Humphry Earl of Stafford to Robert Whitgrave in the 20th of Henry VI. See the grant in Camden's Remains, ed. 1657, p. 221. An augmentation has been lately added, _On a chief argent, a rose gules within a wreath of oak proper_. Present Representative, George Thomas Whitgreave, Esq. LANE OF KING'S BROMLEY. [Illustration] The ancient seat of this family was at Bentley in this county, of which Richard Lane was possessed in the sixth of Henry VI. The Lanes can be traced to Adam de Lone de Hampton, grandfather of Richard de le Lone de Hampton, in the ninth of Edward II. (1315). The three last Lanes of Bentley each lessened the estate, mainly from their devotion to the ill-fated house of Stuart; and the fourth, John Lane, sold Bentley in 1748. This family, even more than the Giffords and Whitgreaves, can lay claim to be remembered for its loyalty to Charles II. after his flight from Worcester. The celebrated Jane Lane was the daughter of the then head of the house, and rode behind the King from Bentley to Bristol. King's Bromley was inherited from the Newtons about the end of the last century. See Erdeswick, pp. 235, 410; Shaw's Staffordshire, vol. ii. p. 97; Gent. Mag. for 1822, vol. i. pp. 194, 415, 482. ARMS.--_Per fesse or and azure, a chevron gules between three mullets counter-changed, on a canton of the third the Royal lions of England_, being an augmentation granted by Charles II. Present Representative, John Newton Lane, Esq. SUFFOLK. +Knightly.+ BARNARDISTON OF THE RYES. [Illustration] A very remote but the only remaining branch of what was in former ages the most important family in Suffolk, descended from Geoffry de Barnardiston, of Barnardiston in this county, who was living in the reign of Edward I., and who by his marriage with the daughter and coheir of Newmarch became possessed of the adjoining manor of Kedington or Ketton, which continued the seat and residence of the Barnardistons, created Baronet in 1663, until the death of Sir John the sixth Baronet of Ketton, in 1745. The present family descended from Thomas Barnardiston, a merchant in London, who died in 1681, fifth son of Sir Thomas of Ketton, Knight, and Mary, daughter of Sir Richard Knightley. Besides the elder and principal line of Ketton, other branches were of Brightwell in this county, (created Baronets in 1663, extinct in 1721,) and of Northill, co. Bedford, extinct in 1778. See Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 396; and Davy's Suffolk Collections in the British Museum, Add. MSS. 19,116, p. 537, for long and interesting accounts of this remarkable family. ARMS.--_Azure, a fess dancettée ermine between six cross-crosslets argent_. Present Representative, Nathaniel Clarke Barnardiston. Esq. JENNEY OF BREDFIELD. [Illustration] This ancient family is supposed to be of French extraction, and the name to be derived from Guisnes near Calais. The first in the pedigree is Edmund Jenny, of Knoddishall, in this county; grandfather of John Jenney, of the same place, who died in 1460; who was father of Sir William, one of the Judges of the King's Bench in 1477. Edmund, second son of Sir Robert Jenney, of Knoddishall, who died in 1660, married Dorothy, daughter and coheiress of Robert Marryatt, of Bredfield, from whom the present family descend. See Davy's Suffolk Collections, Add. MSS. 19,137, p. 181. ARMS.--_Ermine, a bend gules cotised or_. Present Representative, William Jenney, Esq. BROOKE OF UFFORD. [Illustration] Sir Thomas Brooke, Knight, Lord Cobham in right of his wife, Joan, daughter and heir of Sir Reginald Braybrooke, Knight, was sixth in descent from William de la Brooke, owner of the manor of Brooke, in the county of Somerset, who died in the fifteenth of Henry III. (1231). Sir Thomas Brooke died in the seventeenth of Henry VI. From his eldest son descended the Barons Cobham; from Reginald the second son sprung the present family. He was seated at Aspel, in Suffolk, and here his descendants continued for nine generations. Ufford came from the heiress of Thomson in 1761. See Davy's Suffolk Collections, Add. MSS. 19,120, vol. xliv.; and Gent. Mag. for March 1841, p. 306, for an account of the restoration of the Brooke monuments at Cobham. ARMS.--_Gules, on a chervon argent a lion rampant sable_. Present Representative, Francis Capper Brooke, Esq. HERVEY OF ICKWORTH, MARQUESS OF BRISTOL 1826; EARL 1714; BARON 1703. [Illustration] Descended from Thomas Hervey, who died before 1470, having married Jane, daughter and sole heir of Henry Drury, of Ickworth. There is some uncertainty as to who this Thomas Hervey was; the peerages indeed assume that he was younger brother of Sir George Hervey, of Thurleigh, in Bedfordshire; Mr. Gages however has proved that this could not have been the case, but the Rev. Lord Arthur Hervey in his interesting Memoir on Ickworth and the Hervey family, has adduced several reasons by which it would seem that Thomas Hervey was a younger son of John Hervey, senior, of Thurleigh, and the coheiress of Niernuyt, and uncle of Sir George, the last of the legitimate elder line of that knightly family. Younger Branch. Bathurst Hervey, of Clarendon, Wiltshire, Baronet 1818, descended from the eighth son of the first Earl of Bristol. See Gage's Thingoe, p. 286; Brydges's Collins, iv. p. 139; Davy's Suffolk Collections, Add. MSS. 19,135, vol. lix. p. 160; the Rev. Lord Arthur Hervey's papers on Ickworth and the Family of Hervey, 4to. Lowestoft, 1858; and Proceedings of the Suffolk Archaeological Society, vol. ii. No. 7. ARMS.--_Gules, on a bend argent three trefoils slipped vert_, and so borne by John Hervey, Esq., as appears by "The Proceedings in the Grey and Hastings Controversy" in the Court of Chivalry in the year 1407. See the Proceedings, privately printed by Lord Hastings in 1841, p. 27. The arms of Hervey appear to have been founded on the coat of Foliot, _Gules, a bend argent_. Present Representative, Frederick William John Hervey, 3rd Marquess of Bristol. +Gentle.+ ROUS OF DENNINGTON AND HENHAM, EARL OF STRADBROKE 1821; BARON 1796; BARONET 1660. [Illustration] "All the Roucis that be in Southfolk cum oute of the house of Rouse of Dennington," writes Leland in his Itinerary, vol. vi. fol. 13. That estate appears to have come into the family by the marriage of Peter Rouse with an heiress of Hobart in the reign of Edward III., and to have been increased afterwards by matches with the heiress of le-Watre and Phillips, the last representing one of the co-heiresses of Erpingham. Henham, the present residence, was purchased in 1545 by Sir Anthony Rous, son of Sir William Rous of Dennington. See Wotton's Baronetage, iii. p. 159; Brydges's Collins, viii. p. 476; Suckling's History and Antiquities of Suffolk, vol. ii. p. 365; and Davy's Suffolk Collections, Add. MSS. 19,147, vol. lxxi. p. 192. ARMS.--_Sable, a fess dancettée or between three crescents argent_. Present Representative, John Edward Cornwallis Rous, 2nd Earl of Stradbroke. HEIGHAM OF HUNSTON. [Illustration] A younger branch of an old Suffolk family, who derived their name from a hamlet in the parish of Gaseley in this county. The pedigree is traced to Richard Heigham, who died in 1340; his grandson Thomas was of Heigham, and died in 1409. The elder line ended in co-heiresses in 1558. A younger branch was seated at Barrow, and continued there till 1714, founded by Clement, fourth son of Thomas Heigham, of Heigham, Esq., who died in 1492. From Sir Clement, third in descent from the first Clement, the present family is descended. Hunston was inherited from the heiress of Lurkin in 1701. See Gage's History of the Hundred of Thingoe, p. 8; and Davy's Suffolk Collections, Add. MSS. 19,135, vol. lix. p. 50. ARMS.--_Sable, a fess cheeky, or and azure, between three horse's heads erased argent_. Present Representative, John Henry Heigham, Esq. BLOIS OF COCKFIELD HALL, BARONET 1686. [Illustration] This family is supposed to derive its name from Blois in France, and is thought to be of great antiquity in this county; it is not regularly deduced, however, beyond Thomas Blois, who was living at Norton in Suffolk in 1470. Third in descent was Richard Blois of Grundisburgh, which he purchased, and which became for many years the principal seat of the family. He died in 1557. See Wotton's Baronetage, iv. p. 9; and Davy's Suffolk Collections, Add. MSS. 91,118, vol. xlii. p. 386. ARMS.--_Gules, a bend vair between two fleurs-de-lis argent_. Gwillim makes the field _sable_, and the fleurs-de-lis _or_. Present Representative, Sir John Ralph Blois, 8th Baronet. SURREY. +Knightly.+ BRAY OF SHERE. [Illustration] The first in the pedigree is Sir Robert Bray, of Northamptonshire, father of Sir James, who lived about the period of Richard I. His great-grandson, Thomas, was lord of Thurnby, in the same county, in the ninth of Edward II. (1316); from him descended Sir Edward Bray, who died in 1558. Harleston, also in the county of Northampton, was an ancient seat of the Bray family, which rose into opulence with the success of Henry VII. after the Battle of Bosworth, where Sir Reginald Bray, the devoted adherent of the King, was said to have discovered the crown in a thorn-bush, in memory of which he afterwards bore for his badge, "a thorn with a crown in the middle of it." Shere was granted, with many other manors, to Sir Reginald as a reward for his services. The present family spring from Reginald, eldest son by the first wife of Sir Edward Bray, son of John, and nephew of the celebrated Sir Reginald. Edmund Lord Bray was elder brother of Sir Edward; he had an only son, John Lord Bray, who died s. p. in 1557. Of this family was William Bray, Esq., Treasurer of the Society of Antiquaries, and joint Historian of Surrey. See Leland's Itinerary, viii. 113, a; and Manning and Bray's Surrey, vol. i. p. 514-523. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three eagle's legs sable erased a la cuisse, their talons gules_. Another coat usually quartered with the above is, _Vair, three bends gules_. Present Representative, Edward Bray, Esq. PERCEVAL OF NORK HOUSE, EARL OF EGMONT IN IRELAND 1733; BARON LOVELL AND HOLLAND 1762; BARON ARDEN 1802. [Illustration] "The House of Yvery," a work privately printed by the second Earl of Egmont in 1742, professes to give the history of this family, but the earlier descents cannot with certainty be relied on, and even the extraction of Richard Perceval, the modern founder of the present family in the time of James I., from the Somersetshire Percevals, is according to Brydges, in his Biographical Peerage, not without some doubts. It appears, however, certain that he was the son of George Perceval, of Tykenham, in the county of Somerset, by Elizabeth Bampfylde, and fifth in descent from Richard Perceval, of Weston-Gordein, in the same county, who died between 1433 and 1439, the representative of a family who had been seated there from the reign of Richard I., and who claim to be descended from the House of Yvery in Normandy. The elder branch of the Percevals continued at their manor of Weston until the extinction of the male line in the person of Thomas Perceval, Esq. in 1691. The younger branch, the ancestors of the present family, were seated in the county of Cork in Ireland, and in the eighteenth century at Enmore in Somersetshire, sold after the death of the fifth Earl of Egmont. Nork House was the seat of Lord Arden, father of the present Earl, and brother of the third Earl of Egmont. See "A Genealogical History of the House of Yvery, &c." 8vo. 1742; and Collinson's History of Somersetshire, vol. iii. p. 171. ARMS.--_Argent, on a chief indented gules three crosses patée of the first_. This coat appears to have been borne by Sir Roger Perceval in the reign of Edward I. See his seal engraved in "The House of Yvery," vol. i. p. 41. Present Representative, George James Perceval, sixth Earl of Egmont. +Gentle.+ WESTON OF WEST-HORSLEY. [Illustration] Adam de Weston, living in 1205, was the ancestor of this family, which has been from a very early period connected with Surrey. In the reign of Edward II., the Westons were of West-Clandon, and also of Weston in Albury, and of Send and Ockham, in this county. The last was sold in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and West-Horsley inherited by the will of William Nicholas, Esq. in 1749. See Manning and Bray's Surrey, vol. iii. p. 41; and Gent. Mag. for 1789, p. 223; for a notice of this family, as well as of the extinct family of the same name, of Sutton, in this county, see also Gent. Mag. for 1800, p. 606. ARMS.--_Sable, a chevron or between three leopard's heads erased argent, crowned or_. Present Representative, Henry Weston, Esq. ONSLOW OF WEST-CLANDON, EARL OF ONSLOW 1801; BARON 1716; BARONET 1660. [Illustration] Although the foundation of the consequence of this family was laid by Richard Onslow, a celebrated lawyer of the reign of Elizabeth, yet he was sprung from an old gentle family seated at Onslow in Shropshire, as far back as the time of Richard I., and probably much earlier. The first recorded ancestor is John de Ondeslowe, whose grandson, Warin, was father of "Roger de Ondeslow juxta Shrewsbury," whose son Thomas was living in the twelfth of Edward II. 1318. Richard Onslow became Speaker of the House of Commons, and died in 1571. He was the first of his family connected with Surrey, by his marriage with Catherine, daughter and heir of Richard Harding, of Knoll, in this county, in the year 1554. West-Clandon was purchased in 1641 by Sir Richard Onslow, created a Baronet in 1660; the ancient family estate of Onslow having been sold by Edward Onslow in 1617. Younger Branches. Onslow of Altham in the county of Lancaster, Baronet 1797, descended from the next brother of the Right Hon. Arthur Onslow, Speaker of the House of Commons from 1726 to 1761. Onslow of Staughton, in the county of Huntingdon, descended from the second son of Sir Richard Onslow, the first Baronet. See Brydges's Collins, vol. v. p. 461; Manning and Bray's Surrey, vol. ii. p. 723; and Blakeway's Sheriffs of Shropshire, p. 90, corrected by the MSS. of Mr. Joseph Morris. ARMS.--_Argent, a fess gules between six Cornish choughs proper_. Present Representative, Arthur George Onslow, third Earl of Onslow. SUSSEX. +Knightly.+ ASHBURNHAM OF ASHBURNHAM, EARL OF ASHBURNHAM 1730; BARON 1689. [Illustration] "A family of stupendous antiquity," writes Fuller. "The most ancient family in these tracts," according to Camden. "Genealogists have given them a Saxon origin," says Brydges; "but that is a fact very difficult to be proved, though very commonly asserted. They do not, I believe, appear in Domesday Book." There can be no doubt, however, that the Ashburnhams have been seated at Ashburnham from the reign of Henry II., and probably from a much earlier period, and are descended from Bertram, Constable of Dover in the reign of William the Conqueror. By the improvidence of Sir John Ashburnham, who died in 1620, this ancient patrimony was lost for a time, but recovered by Frances Holland, the wife of his eldest son John (the groom of the bed-chamber to Charles I.), who sold her whole estate, and laid out the money in redeeming Ashburnham. Younger Branch. Ashburnham of Bromham in this county, Baronet 1661, descended from Richard, second son of Thomas Ashburnham, living in the reign of Henry VI. See Brydges's Collins, vol. iv. p. 249; and Wotton's Baronetage, vol. iii. p. 283. ARMS.--_Gules, a fess between six mullets argent_. The earliest seal remaining of any of the ancestors of this family is, I believe, that of "Stephen de Esburne," great-grandson of Bertram, the Constable of Dover: the device is a slip or branch of Ash. His grandson, "Richard de Hasburnan," bore the Maltravers fret, his mother being daughter of Sir John Maltravers: the present coat was borne by Sir John de Aschebornham, in the reign of Edward II. (Seals and Roll of the reign of Edward II.) Present Representative, Bertram Ashburnham, 4th Earl of Ashburnham. GORING OF HIGHDEN, BARONET 1627. [Illustration] The name is derived from Goring, in the rape of Arundel, where the family can be traced to John de Goring, living in the reign of Edward II. Burton, in this county, was the seat of the principal and elder line of the family, created Baronets in 1662, extinct in 1723. Of a younger branch was the celebrated George Lord Goring 1628, Earl of Norwich 1644, (which titles were extinct on the death of his third son, but heir, the second Lord, in 1670,) sprung from the second son of Sir William Gorynge, of Burton, who died in 1553. The present family is descended from the second son of Sir Henry Goring, of Burton, Knight, who died in 1594. Highden was purchased in 1647. Younger Branch. Goring of Wiston, Sussex, descended from the second marriage of Sir Charles Matthew Goring, of Highden, the fourth Baronet, and the co-heiress of Fagg. See Dallaway's Rape of Arundel, p. 281, who refers to Evidences relating to the family of Goring, MSS. Coll. Arm. Philpot, F. 119; Leland's Itin., vol. vi. fol. 17; Cartwright's Rape of Bramber, p. 132; and Wotton's Baronetage, vol. ii. p. 71. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three annulets gules_. Present Representative, Sir Charles Goring, 8th Baronet. PELHAM OF LAUGHTON, EARL OF CHICHESTER 1801; BARON 1672; BARONET 1611. [Illustration] The name is local, from Pelham, in Hertfordshire, the seat of the ancestors of this family in the time of Edward I., and probably even before the Conquest. In the 28th of Edward I., Walter de Pelham had a confirmation grant of lands in Heilsham, Horsey, &c. in this county. From the reign of Edward III. the Pelhams have been a most important Sussex family; it was in that reign that Sir John Pelham assumed the Buckle as his badge, in token of his claim to the honour of taking John King of France prisoner at the battle of Poictiers. Laughton belonged to the Pelhams before 1403, but has been long deserted as the residence of the family. See Brydges's Collins, vol. v. p. 488; Horsfield's Lewes; and Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. iii. p. 211, for a curious paper on the arms and badges of the Pelhams. ARMS.--_Quarterly,_ 1 _and_ 4_, Azure, three pelicans argent, vulning themselves proper;_ 2 _and_ 3_, Gules, two belts in pale argent with buckles and studs or_. Present Representative, Henry Thomas Pelham, 3rd Earl of Chichester. SHELLEY OF MARESFIELD, BARONET 1611. [Illustration] Although there is no doubt of the antiquity of the house of Shelley, the accounts of the earlier descents of the family are very scanty. Originally of the county of Huntingdon, the Shelleys are said to have removed into this county at a very early period. But the earliest mention we have in history of any of this family is of John and Thomas Shelley, who, following the fortunes of Richard II., were attainted and beheaded in the first year of Henry IV. The remaining brother, Sir William Shelley, not being connected with the followers of Richard II., retained his possessions, and was the ancestor of this family, who in the reign of Henry VI., by a match with the heiress of Michelgrove, of Michelgrove, in Clapham, was seated at that place, which continued the residence of the Shelleys until the year 1800, when it was sold, and Maresfield became the family seat. Younger Branches. Shelley or Castle-Goring, Baronet 1806, descended from the fourth son of Sir John Shelley, of Michelgrove, who died in 1526. Shelley of Avington, in the county of Southampton, and Shelley (called Sidney Foulis) Lord de L'Isle and Dudley 1835, descended from the second marriage of Sir Bysshe Shelley, of Castle-Goring, Baronet, and the heiress of Perry, of Penshurst., See Wotton's Baronetage, vol. i. p. 39; Cartwright's Topography of the Rape of Bramber, p. 76; and Dallaway's Rape of Arundel, p. 40. ARMS.--_Sable, a fess engrailed between three whelk-shells or_. Present Representative, Sir John Villiers Shelley, 7th Baronet. WEST OF BUCKHURST, EARL DE LA WARR 1761; BARON 1427. [Illustration] The Wests are remarkable, not so much for the antiquity of the family as for the early period at which they attained the honour of the peerage. Sir Thomas West is the first recorded ancestor; he died in the seventeenth of Edward II., having married the heiress of Cantilupe, and thus became possessed of lands in Devonshire, and at Snitterfield in Warwickshire. His grandson, Thomas, married the heiress of De la Warr, and thus became connected with Sussex. But the principal property of the Wests in this county was granted to Thomas West, afterwards Lord la Warr, in the first year of Henry VII. Few families indeed had broader lands; among which may be mentioned, Offington, in the parish of Broadwater, derived from the heiress of Peverel at the end of the fourteenth century; and Halnaker, in the parish of Boxgrove, both in Sussex; and Wherwell, in Hampshire; all now alienated. Buckhurst came to the present Lord by his marriage with the coheiress of Sackville. Younger Branch. West of Ruthyn Castle, Denbighshire, descended from the younger son of John, second Earl De la Warr. The Wests of Alscot, in the county of Gloucester, claim to be descended from Leonard, the younger son of Sir Thomas West, Lord De la Warr, K.G., who died in the year 1525, although there is nothing but "family tradition," as is evident by the memorial to the Earl Marshal of Mr. James West, of Alscot, dated December 12, 1768, to justify this assumption; a distinct coat, viz. _Argent, a fess dancette pean_, was granted to Mr. West on this occasion. See Brydges's Collins, vol. v. p. i.; Blore's Rutlandshire, p. 100; Cartwright's Rape of Bramber, p. 38; and Dallaway's Rape of Chichester, pp. 129, 133. ARMS.--_Argent, a fess dancette sable_. The badge of the De-la-Warrs was a crampet or shape of a sword; assumed by Roger la-Warr, Lord la-Warr, for having assisted Sir John Pelham in making John King of France prisoner at the Battle of Poictiers. See Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. iii. p. 211. Present Representative, George John Sackville West, 5th Earl De la Warr. GAGE OF FIRLE; BARON GAGE 1790; VISCOUNT GAGE IN IRELAND 1720; BARONET 1622. [Illustration] John, son of John Gage, living in the ninth of Henry IV., had issue by Joan, heiress of John Sudgrove, of Sudgrove, in Gloucestershire, Sir John Gage; an adherent of the house of York, knighted by Edward IV., and who died in 1475. He married Elianor, second daughter and coheiress of Thomas St.Clere, of Heighton St. Clere, in Sussex, and acquired by this marriage several manors in this county, as well as in Surrey, Kent, Buckinghamshire, and Northamptonshire. The present family, seated at Firle from this period, descend from his eldest son. From his second son sprung the Gages of Raunds, in Northamptonshire, sold in 1675. Younger Branch. Gage of Hengrave, in Suffolk, Baronet 1622, descended from Edward, third son of Sir John Gage, of Firle, who died in 1633. See Gage's Hengrave, p. 225; Gage's Hundred of Thingoe, p. 204; Bridges's History of Northamptonshire, vol. ii. p. 188; Wotton's Baronetage, vol. i. p. 503, vol. iii. p. 366; Brydges's Collins, vol. viii. p. 249; and Leland's Itinerary, vol. iv. p. 12. ARMS.--_Party per saltier argent and azure, a saltier gules_. Present Representative, Henry Hall Gage, 4th Viscount Gage. +Gentle.+ BARTTELOT OF STOPHAM. [Illustration] The head of this family, according to Dallaway, may be considered one of the most ancient proprietors of land residing upon his estate in this county. The first in the pedigree is Adam de Bartelott, said to be of Norman origin, father of John, who married Joan Stopham, coheiress of lands in the manor from whence the name is derived. He died in 1428, and Stopham has ever since remained the inheritance of their descendants. See the Topographer, vol. iv. p. 346; and Cartwright's edition of Dallaway's Rape of Arundel, p. 347. ARMS.--_Sable, three falconer's sinister gloves pendent argent, tasseled or_. Present Representative, George Barttelot, Esq. COURTHOPE OF WYLEIGH. [Illustration] From the reign of King Edward I., this family has been settled at Wadhurst, Lamberhurst, Ticehurst, and the adjoining parishes on the borders of Sussex and Kent: at Goudhurst, in the latter county, they held the manors of Bockingfield and the Pillery from the year 1413 to 1498, and in 1513 Wyleigh, in the parish of Ticehurst, was acquired by John Courthope in marriage with his wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Saunders of Wyleigh. From this marriage sprung three sons, John, George, and Thomas; the issue male of the eldest has been long extinct; from the second, who had Wyleigh, is descended the present Representative of the family; and from the third and youngest, who succeeded to the estate of "Courthope" in Goudhurst, is descended William Courthope, Esq. Somerset Herald. See Collectanea Topog. et Genealog., vol. ii. pp. 279, 363; and The Visitation of Sussex, C. 27, in Coll. Arm. ARMS.--_Argent, a fess azure between three estoiles sable_. Present Representative, George Campion Courthope, Esq. WARWICKSHIRE. +Knightly.+ SHIRLEY OF EATINGTON (ELDER BRANCH OF STAUNTON-HAROLD, IN THE COUNTY OF LEICESTER, EARL FERRERS 1711, BARON FERRERS OF CHARTLEY 1677, BARONET 1611.) [Illustration] Sasuualo, or Sewallis, whose name, says Dugdale, "argues him to be of the old English stock," mentioned in Domesday as mesne Lord of Eatington, under Henry de Ferrers, is the first recorded ancestor of this, the oldest knightly family in the county of Warwick. Until the reign of Edward III., Eatington appears to have continued the principal seat of the Shirleys, whose name was assumed in the twelfth century from the manor of Shirley, in Derbyshire, and which, with Ratcliffe-on-Sore, in the county of Nottingham, and Rakedale and Staunton-Harold, in Leicestershire, derived from the heiresses of Basset and Staunton, succeeded, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as the usual residence of the chiefs of the house. In the sixteenth century, Astwell, in Northamptonshire, was brought into the family by the heiress of Lovett; and in 1615, by the marriage of Sir Henry Shirley with the coheiress of Devereux, a moiety of the possessions of the Earls of Essex, after the extinction of that title in 1646, centred in Sir Robert Shirley, father of the first Earl Ferrers; on whose death, in 1717, the family estates were divided, the Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Staffordshire estates descending with the earldom to the issue of his first marriage, and the Warwickshire property, the original seat of the Shirleys, eventually to the great-grandfather of the present possessor, the eldest surviving son of the second marriage of the first Earl Ferrers. Elder Branches.* Shirley of Staunton-Harold, in the county of Leicester, represented by Sewallis Edward, tenth Earl Ferrers 1711; and Shirley of Shirley, in the county of Derby, represented by the Rev. Walter Waddington Shirley, Canon of Christ Church, D.D. only son of the late Bishop of Sodor and Man, and great-grandson of Walter, younger brother of the fourth, fifth, and sixth Earls Ferrers. Younger Branches (extinct). Shirley, of Wiston, Preston, West-Grinstead, and Ote-Hall, all in Sussex, and all descended from the second marriage of Ralph Shirley, Esq., and Elizabeth Blount; which Ralph died in 1466. All these families are presumed to be extinct on the death of Sir William Warden Shirley, Baronet, in 1815. See Dugdale's Warwickshire, ed. 2, vol. i. p. 621; Nichols's History of Leicestershire, vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 704-727; Stemmata Shirleiana, pr. pr. 4to. 1841; and Brydges's Collins, vol. iv. p. 85. ARMS.--_Paly of six, or and azure, a quarter ermine_. The more ancient coat was, _Paly of six, or and sable_, as appears by the seal of "Sir Sewallis de Ethindon, Knight," with the legend, "Sum scutum de auro et nigro senis ductibus palatum," engraved in Dugdale's Warwickshire, and in Upton de Studio Militari. Indeed Sir Ralph Shirley bore it as late as the reign of Edward II; see Nicolas's Roll of that date, p. 73. Sir Hugh de Shirley bore the present coat (Roll of Richard II.): so did his father Sir Thomas, and his great-grandfather Sir James, as appears by their several seals engraved in Upton, &c. Present Representative, Evelyn Philip Shirley, Esq., late M. P. for South Warwickshire. * The Iretons of Little Ireton, in the county of Derby, extinct in 1711, were in fact the elder line of the family, sprung from Henry, eldest son of Fulcher, and elder brother of Sewallis de Shirley. BRACEBRIDGE OF ATHERSTONE. [Illustration] In the time of King John, the venerable family of Bracebridge, originally of Bracebridge in Lincolnshire, acquired by marriage in the person of Peter de Bracebridge with Amicia, daughter of Osbert de Arden and Maud, and granddaughter of Turchill de Warwick, the manor of Kingsbury in this county, an ancient seat of the Mercian Kings, and inherited by Turchill, called the last Saxon Earl of Warwick, with his second wife Leverunia. The descendants of which Peter and Amicia had their principal seat at Kingsbury till about the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, when it was sold, and the Atherstone estate purchased. "Kinisbyri is a fair manor place," writes Leland, in his Itinerary, "and lordship of 140 li.; one Bracebridge is lord of it; it is in Warwikshir." At Bracebridge, on the river Witham, near Lincoln, the original seat of the family, so called it is supposed from the two bridges which still exist there, a grant of free warren was obtained in the 29th of Edward I., which was still retained by Thomas Bracebridge, Esq. who died in 1567. The Bracebridges represent the Holtes of Aston, near Birmingham, and, through that ancient family, the Breretons of Cheshire. See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. ii. p. 1057-1061; Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. iii. part ii. p. 1145; for Holte, see Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. ii. p. 871, and Davidson's History of the Holtes of Aston, fol. 1854; for Brereton, see Ormerod's Cheshire, vol. iii. pt. 31. ARMS.--_Vair, argent and sable, a fess gules_. This coat was borne by Sir John de Brasbruge, de co. Lincoln, in the reign of Edward II. and again by Monsire de Brasbridge in those of Edward III. and Richard III. (Rolls). Present Representative, Charles Holte Bracebridge, Esq. COMPTON OF COMPTON WYNIATE, MARQUESS OF NORTHAMPTON 1812; EARL 1618; BARON 1572. [Illustration] Although the early part of the pedigree of the Comptons is not entirely without doubt, we may conclude that the family was seated at Compton, called "in le Windgate," soon after the Conquest. Arnulphus de Compton and Osbertus de Compton were living in the 16th of Henry II., but Philip de Compton is the first of the name who certainly held the manor of Compton, in the fifth of John. Here the family continued resident for many ages; but its importance arose in a great degree from Sir William Compton having been brought up with Henry Duke of York, afterwards Henry VIII., and from the marriage of his great-grandson, the first Earl of Northampton, with the City Heiress of Spencer. The Comptons were pre-eminently distinguished for loyalty during the Civil Wars of the seventeenth century. See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. i. p. 549; and Brydges's Collins, vol. iii. p. 223. ARMS.--_Sable, a lion of England or between three esquire's helmets argent_. A former coat, borne by Thomas de Comptone, apparently about the reign of Edward III., was a chevron charged with three fleurs-de-lis. This is proved by a silver seal dug up at Compton in the year 1845; and the same arms are still to be traced on an ancient mutilated monument of a knight with collar of S.S., supposed to represent Sir Thomas de Compton, in the church of Compton Wyniate. The three helmets were afterwards adopted, and appear to have been the arms of a distinct family, the Comptons of Fenny Compton in this county; to which Henry VIII. gave the lion as an augmentation; at the same time, according to the custom of the period, was added a quartering to the family arms, viz.: _Argent, a chevron azure, within a border vert bezantee_. Present Representative, Charles Douglas Compton, 3rd Marquess of Northampton. CHETWYND OF GRENDON, BARONET 1795. [Illustration] The younger, but, in England, the only remaining branch of a very ancient family, denominated from Chetwynd, in Shropshire, and of Baxterly, in this county, in the 37th of Henry III. Sir William Chetwind was the first of the name seated at Grendon, in the 39th of Edward III., his mother being daughter and coheir of Sir Ralph de Grendon; but Ingestre, in Staffordshire, which came from the heiress of Mutton, was the principal seat of the Chetwinds, which was eventually carried by an heiress into the Talbot family (now Earl of Shrewsbury). Elder Branch. The Viscounts Chetwynd of Ireland (1717). See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. ii. p. 1101; Erdeswick's Staffordshire, ed. 1844, p. 61; Eyton's Shropshire, viii. p. 81; and Archdall's Lodge, vol. v. p. 148. ARMS.--_Azure, a chevron between three mullets or_. In the reign of Edward II. Sir John Chetwind bore, _Azure, a chevron or_, without the mullets; the present coat was borne by others of the family in the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. (Rolls.) Present Representative, Sir George Chetwynd, third Baronet. FEILDING OF NEWNHAM PADDOX, EARL OF DENBIGH 1622. [Illustration] The princely extraction of this noble family from the counts of Hapsburg in Germany is well known; its ancestor, Galfridus, or Geffrey, came into England in the twelfth year of the reign of Henry III., and received large possessions from that monarch. The name is derived from Rin_felden_, in Germany, where, and at Lauffenburg, were the patrimonial possessions of the house of Hapsburg. Newnham was in possession of John Fildying in the twelfth of Henry VI., inherited from his mother Joan, daughter and heir of William Prudhome. See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. i. p. 86; Brydges's Collins' vol. iii. p. 265; and Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. iv. pt. i. p. 273, for the history of this illustrious family, compiled by Nathaniel Wanley about the year 1670. ARMS.--_Argent, on a fess azure three fusils or_. The present coat was borne in the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II., as appears by Seals of those dates. Present Representative, Rudolph William Basil Feilding, 8th Earl of Denbigh. STAUNTON OF LONGBRIDGE. [Illustration] This family is stated by Thomas, in his additions to Dugdale's Warwickshire, to be a branch of the Stauntons of Staunton, in the county of Nottingham, an ancient house which is traced to the Conquest, and was lately represented by Sir George Staunton, Baronet of Ireland 1785, extinct 1859. The first of the line seated in Warwickshire was Thomas Staunton, in the 39th of Henry VI., 1461. The parent house, existing in the male line, until the year 1688, at Staunton, in Nottinghamshire, held their lands by tenure of _Castle-Guard_, by keeping and defending a tower in the Castle of Belvoir, to this day called Staunton Tower. There is an ancient custom also that the chief of the house of Staunton should present the key of this tower to any of the Royal Family who may honour Belvoir with their presence. Younger Branch. Staunton of Wolverton, in this county, settled there in the eighteenth of Elizabeth; extinct in the last century. See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. ii. p. 665; Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, p. 157; and for the poetical pedigree of this house, Ib. p. 159; the monuments at p. 164; see also "Memoirs of the Life and Family of the late Sir G. L. Staunton, Bart." pr. pr. 8vo. 1833. ARMS.--_Argent, two chevrons within a border engrailed sable_. Founded on the coat of Albany Lord of Belvoir, who bore, _Or, two chevrons and a border gules_. The elder line of Staunton sometimes omitted the border; see the tombs in the church of Staunton. Present Representative, John Staunton, Esq. FERRERS OF BADDESLEY-CLINTON. [Illustration] The sole remains of what was perhaps during the middle ages the most powerful Norman family in England. Illustrious both for the antiquity of race, the former political consequence, and the splendour of connection of the various branches, of which the forfeited Earls of Derby, and De Ferrariis, or Ferrers, were the chiefs. Descended from Henry de Feriers at the time of the Conquest, who held in chief 210 lordships in fourteen counties of England, besides the castle and borough of Tutbury, in Staffordshire, the principal seat of the earldom. The Baddesley-Clinton line was founded by Sir Edward Ferrers, (son of Sir Henry, who was second son of Thomas Ferrers, of Tamworth Castle, in this county,) by his marriage with Constantia, daughter and heiress of Nicholas Brome, of Baddesley. He died in 1535. After the forfeiture of the Earldom of Derby, in the reign of Henry III., and the vast possessions attached to it, the Castle of Chartley, in Staffordshire, inherited from Agnes, daughter and coheir of Ranulph, Earl of Chester, became the seat of the principal male line, extinct on the death of William Lord Ferrers of Chartley in the 28th of Henry VI. The representation of the family thereupon devolved on the Ferrers's of Tamworth, sprung from the house of Groby, who were founded by William, younger brother of the last Earl of Derby: and on the decease of John Ferrers, of Tamworth, Esq. in 1680, the present family of Baddesley-Clinton succeeded as chief of this illustrious house. See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. ii. p. 971, for Baddesley-Clinton, where however will be found no engravings of the monuments of the Ferrers's, "because," says Dugdale, "so frugall a person is the present heir of the family, now (1656) residing here, as that he refusing to contribute anything towards the charge thereof, they are omitted." For Ferrers of Chartley, and the Earls of Derby, see Sir O. Mosley's History of Tutbury, 8vo. 1832; and Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. ii. p. 1089; and for Ferrers of Tamworth, the same, p. 1135. ARMS.--_Gules, seven mascles or, a canton ermine_. This was the coat of Quinci, Earl of Winchester, from whom the Ferrers of Groby were descended, the canton being added for difference. The original coat assigned to the first Earls of Derby, was, _Argent, six horseshoes sable_; afterwards, _Vair or and gules, within a bordure of horseshoes_, was used. The Chartley line bore only, _Vair, or and gules_, which was latterly also borne by Ferrers of Tamworth. The Quinci coat was used by William de Ferrers at Carlaverock in 1300. (See the Roll.) Present Representative, Marmion Edward Ferrers, Esq. MORDAUNT OF WALTON, BARONET 1611. [Illustration] Turvey in Bedfordshire was the principal seat in England of this noble Norman family, descended from Osbert le Mordaunt, who came over from Normandy with William the Conqueror, and received a grant of the lordship of Radwell in that county. In 1529, John Mordaunt, the representative of the family, was summoned to Parliament by writ as Baron Mordaunt of Turvey. His great-great-grandson was created Earl of Peterborough in 1628; which title, together with the elder line of the family, became extinct on the decease of Charles-Henry Mordaunt, fifth Earl, in 1814. The present family descend from Robert, son of William Mordaunt of Hemsted, in Essex, who was second son of William Mordaunt of Turvey, living in the 11th of Henry IV., which Robert married Barbara, daughter of John le Strange, of Massingham-Parva in Norfolk, and of Walton-D'Eivile, in this county, which since the 32nd year of Henry VIII., 1549-50, has remained the inheritance of their descendants. See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. i. p. 577: Parkins's continuation of Blomefield's Norfolk, vol. iv. p. 643; and that very rare volume compiled by order of the second Earl of Peterborough, called "Halstead's Genealogies," fo. 1685, privately printed. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three estoiles sable_. Present Representative, Sir Charles Mordaunt, 10th. Baronet, M. P. for South Warwickshire. BIDDULPH OF BIRDINGBURY, BARONET 1654. [Illustration] This ancient family, originally of Biddulph, in the northern parts of Staffordshire, is traced to Ormus, mentioned in the Domesday Survey. He was, it is said, of Norman descent, and is supposed to have married the Saxon heiress of Biddulph, from whence the name was afterwards assumed. The elder line terminated on the death of' John Biddulph, Esq. of Biddulph and of Burton in Sussex, in the year 1835. The Birdingbury branch, now representing this venerable house, was founded by Symon, second son of Richard Biddulph, of Biddulph, in the time of Henry VIII., whose descendant, another Symon, purchased Birdingbury in 1687. The family were eminently loyal during the Civil Wars, when the ancient seat of Biddulph was destroyed by the Cromwellians about 1643-4. Younger Branch. Biddulph of Ledbury, in the county of Hereford, descended from Anthony, younger brother of the first Baronet. See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. i. p. 324; Shaw's History of Staffordshire, vol. i. p. 352; Erdeswick's Staffordshire, ed. 1844, p. 8; Ward's History of the Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent, p. 277; and Wotton's Baronetage, vol. iii. p. 442. ARMS.--_Vert, an eagle displayed argent, armed and langued gules_. Argent, three soldering-irons sable, is also said to have been borne by the Biddulphs. Present Representative, Sir Theophilus William Biddulph, 7th Baronet. SKIPWITH OF HARBOROUGH, BARONET 1622 (FORMERLY OF NEWBOLD HALL). [Illustration] The name is derived from Skipwith, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and was first borne by Patrick, living in the reign of Henry I., who was second son of Robert de Estotevile, Baron of Cottingham in the reign of William the Conqueror. In the reign of Henry III. the Skipwiths removed into Lincolnshire, and were seated at Beckeby and Ormesby, in that county; a younger son of Sir William Skipwith, of Ormesby, who died in 1587, was of Prestwould, in Leicestershire. He was the ancestor of the Skipwiths of Newbold Hall, created Baronet in 1670, extinct in 1790, and of the present family, who for five generations were of Virginia, in America, where the grandfather of the present Baronet was born. See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. i. p. 84; Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 368; and Wotton's Baronetage, vol. i. p. 536, ARMS.--_Argent, three bars pules, in chief a greyhound courant sable_. Present Representative, Sir Peyton Estoteville Skipwith, 10th Baronet. +Gentle.+ SHUCKBURGH OF SHUCKBURGH, BARONET 1660. [Illustration] The antiquity of this family need not be doubted, although the lineal descent, as Dugdale avouches, is not very plain. William de Suckeberge is presumed to be the first who assumed the name, from Shuckborough Superior, in this county; he was living in the third of John. The pedigree is deduced by Baker, in his History of Northamptonshire, from John de Shuckburgh, living in the first of Edward III. In the seventh of Henry V. his great-grandson William is ranked amongst those knights and esquires of this county who bore ancient arms from their ancestors. It was to Richard Shuckburgh, head of the family in 1642, that the remarkable incident happened which is related by Dugdale. Charles I. having met him hunting with his hounds a day or two before the battle of Edgehill, "Who is that," said the King, "hunting so merrily, while I am about to fight for my crown and dignity?" He was knighted the next day, and proved his loyalty at the battle of Edge-hill. He died in 1656, and his son was rewarded with the Baronetcy on the Restoration. Younger Branch. Shuckburgh of Downton, Wiltshire, descended from Charles, fourth son of the first Baronet. See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. i. p. 309; Baker's Northamptonshire, vol. i. p. 371; Wotton's Baronetage, vol. iii. p. 76; and Hoare's Modern Wiltshire, vol. iv. p. 34. ARMS.--_Sable, a chevron between three mullets pierced argent_. This coat is evidently founded on the arms of Danvers, the Norman family under whom the Shuckburghs held: it has been fondly assumed that the mullets are allusive to the astroites found in the ploughed fields at Shuckburgh. Present Representative, Sir Francis Shuckburgh, 8th Baronet. THROCKMORTON OF COUGHTON, BARONET 1642. [Illustration] The name is derived from Throcmorton, in the parish of Fladbury, in the county of Worcester, where John de Trockemerton, the supposed ancestor of this family, was living about the year 1200. From this John descended, after many generations, another "John Throkmerton," who was, according the Leland, "the first setter up of his name to any worship in Throkmerton village, the which was at that tyme neither of his inheritance or purchase, but as a thing taken of the Sete of Wircester in farme, bycause he bore the name of the lordeship and village. This John was Under-Treasurer of England about the tyme of Henry V.;" and married Elianor, daughter and coheir of Guido de la Spine, and thus became possessed of Coughton, in the parish of Hadley, in this county, which has continued the principal seat of the family, of whom the most remarkable was Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, ambassador in France, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who died in 1570. Younger Branches (now extinct), were the Throckmortons of Stoughton and Ellington, in Huntingdonshire, [for the latter see Camden's Visitation of that county in 1613, printed by the Camden Society in 1849, p. 123;] and the Carews of Bedington, in Surrey, Baronet 1714, extinct 1764; descended in the male line from Sir Nicholas, younger son of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, and Anne, daughter of Sir Nicholas Carew, Knt.; see Wotton's Baronetage, vol. ii. pi 351, and vol. iv. p. 159; Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. ii. pp. 749 and 819; Nash's Worcestershire, vol. i. p. 452; Leland's Itinerary, vol. iv. p. 16; and for the poetical life of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, see Peck's Memoirs of Milton. ARMS.--_Gules, on a chevron argent three bars gemelles sable_. Present Representative, Sir Nicholas William Throckmorton, 9th Baronet. SHELDON OF BRAILES. [Illustration] The descent of this family from the ancient house of Sheldon, of Sheldon, in this county, is a matter of doubt, but admitted by Dugdale to be not improbable. It appears to be proved that the Sheldons are descended from John Sheldon, of Abberton, in Worcestershire, in the reign of Henry IV. Nash, in his History of that county, carries the pedigree two descents higher, viz., to Richard Sheldon of Rowley, in the county of Stafford, whose grandson John was of the same place in the fourth of Edward IV. The manor of Beoly, in Worcestershire, was purchased of Richard Neville Lord Latimer by William Sheldon in the same reign, and continued till the destruction of the mansion-house by fire in the Civil Wars of the seventeenth century, the principal seat of the family, who were connected with Warwickshire by the marriage of William Sheldon, Esq. with Mary, daughter and coheir of William Willington, of Barcheston, Esq., in the reign of Henry VIII. It was this William Sheldon who purchased the manor of Weston, in the parish of Long-Compton, in this county, and here his son Ralph built "_a very fair house_" in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; but these estates have both, within the memory of man, passed from this ancient family, who still possess considerable properly at Brailes, purchased by William Sheldon in the first of Edward VI. Younger branches of the Sheldons were formerly of Abberton, Childswicombe, Broadway, and Spechley, in Worcestershire. See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. i. p. 584; and Nash's Worcestershire, vol. i. pp. 65 and 144. ARMS.--_Sable, a fess between three sheldrakes argent_. Present Representative, Henry James Sheldon, Esq. GREGORY OF STYVECHALL. [Illustration] This family is traced to John Gregory, Lord of the manors of Freseley and Asfordby, in the county of Leicester, who married Maud, daughter of Sir Roger Moton, of Peckleton, knight; his son, Richard Gregory, of the same places, died in the year 1292. Arthur Gregory, Esquire, the representative of this ancient family, was seated at Styvechall, within the county of the city of Coventry, of which his father, Thomas, died seized in the sixteenth of Elizabeth. See Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 19; and Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. i. p. 202. ARMS.--_Or, two bars and in chief a lion passant azure_. Present Representative, Arthur Francis Gregory, Esq. GREVILLE OF WARWICK CASTLE, EARL BROOKE 1746, AND EARL OF WARWICK 1759; BARON 1620-1. [Illustration] This family was founded by the wool-trade in the fourteenth century by William Grevel, "+the flower of the wool merchants of the whole realm of England,+" who died and was buried at Campden, in Gloucestershire, in 1401. He it was who purchased Milcote, in this county, long the seat of the elder line of this family, who, after a succession of crimes, the particulars of which may be seen in Dugdale's Warwickshire, became extinct in the reign of James I. Fulke, second son of Sir Edward Greville of Milcote, who died in the 20th of Henry VIII., having married Elizabeth, one of the daughters and coheiress of Edward Willoughby, only son of Robert Willoughby, Lord Brooke, became possessed of Beauchamp's Court, in the parish of Alcester, inherited from her grandmother Elizabeth, the eldest of the daughters and coheirs of the last Lord Beauchamp of Powyke. This Fulke Greville was grandfather of the more celebrated Sir Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, "servant to Queen Elizabeth, Counsellor to King James, and friend to Sir Philip Sidney," who died in 1628. "The fanatic Brooke," killed at Lichfield Close, was his cousin and successor, and ancestor of the present family. The Castle of Warwick was granted to Sir Fulke Greville by James I. in the second year of his reign. Younger Branch. Greville of North Myms Place, in the county of Hertford, and of Westmeath, in Ireland, descended from Algernon, second son of Fulke 5th Lord Brooke. See Leland's Itinerary, vol. iv. pt. i. fol. 16, vol. vi. fol. 19; Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. ii. pp. 706, 766; Brydges's Collins, vol. iv. p. 330; and Edmondson's Account of the Greville Family, 8vo. 1766. ARMS.--_Sable, on a cross engrailed or, five pellets within a border engrailed of the second_. The present coat, with the addition of a mullet in the first quarter, was borne by William Grevil, of Campden, as appears by his brass, still in good preservation; his son John differenced his arms with ten annulets, in lieu of the five pellets; both were omitted by the Grevilles of Milcote. Present Representative, George Guy Greville, 4th Earl of Warwick. WESTMORLAND. +Knightly.+ LOWTHER OF LOWTHER-CASTLE, EARL OF LONSDALE 1807; BARON 1797; BARONET 1764. [Illustration] Eminently a knightly family, traced by Brydges to Sir Gervase de Lowther, living in the reign of Henry III. Other authorities make Sir Hugh de Lowther, knight of the shire for this county, in the 28th of Edward I., the first recorded ancestor; his great-grandson was at Agincourt in 1415. There have been three principal branches of this family, the first descended from Sir John Lowther, created a Baronet of Nova Scotia in 1640, who was grandfather of the first Viscount Lonsdale (1696), extinct on the death of the third Viscount in 1750. The second family sprung from Richard, third son of Sir John Lowther; and the third and present family descended from William, third son of a former Sir John Lowther, of Lowther, who died in 1637. Younger Branch. Lowther of Swillington, in the county of York, Baronet 1824, descended from John, second son of Sir William Lowther, who died in 1788. See Brydges's Collins, vol. v. p. 695; Burn's Westmorland, vol. i. p. 428; Whitaker's Leeds, vol. i. p. 281; and Wotton's Baronetage, vol. ii. p. 302. ARMS.--_Or, six annulets sable_, and borne by Monsire Louther, in the reign of Edward III. (Roll ) Present Representative, William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale. STRICKLAND OF SIZERGH. [Illustration] Descended from Walter de Stirkland, Knight, so called from the pasture-ground of the young cattle, called _stirks_ or steers, in the parish of Morland, in this county; who was living in the reign of Henry III. A good account of this family, derived from original evidences, is given by Burn. Sizergh, in the parish of Helsington, appears to have belonged to the Stricklands in the reign of Edward I. Sir Walter de Strickland had licence to empark there in the ninth of Edward III. During the civil wars of the seventeenth century the head of this house was loyal, while Walter, son of Sir William Strickland, of Boynton, Baronet 1641, was one of Cromwell's pretended House of Peers. The Stricklands of Boynton are supposed to be a younger branch of the house of Sizergh. The Stricklands called Standish, of Standish, in the county of Lancaster, represent the elder line, the present Mr. Standish being the eldest son of the late Thomas Strickland, of Sizergh, Esq. See Burn's Westmorland, vol. i. p. 87; and Whitaker's Richmondshire, vol. ii. p. 333. ARMS.--_Sable, three escallops within a border engrailed argent_. The present coat, but without the border, was borne by Walter de Strykelande, in the reign of Richard II. Another coat, used in the reign of Edward II. was _Argent, two bars and a quarter gules_. (Rolls.) The Stricklands of Boynton bear, _Gules, a chevron or between three crosses patée argent, on a canton ermine a stag's head erased sable_. Present Representative, Walter Strickland, Esq. FLEMING OF RYDAL; BARONET 1705. [Illustration] Michael le Fleming, living in the reign of William the Conqueror, is the ancestor of this ancient family, originally seated in Cumberland and at Gleston, in Furness, in Lancashire. Isabel, daughter of Sir John de Lancastre, living in the sixth of Henry VI., having married Sir Thomas le Fleming, of Coniston, Knight, seated the Flemings at Rydal, ever since the residence of the family. See Burn's Westmorland, vol. i. p. 150; and Wotton's Baronetage, vol. iv. p. 105. ARMS.--_Gules, fretty argent_. The present coat, called "The arms of Hoddleston," with a label vert, was borne by John Fleming de Westmerland in the reign of Edward III. (Roll.) A more ancient coat, according to Wotton, was a _Fleur-de-lis, within a roundell_. Present Representative, Sir Michael le Fleming, 7th Baronet. +Gentle.+ WYBERGH OF CLIFTON. [Illustration] In the thirty-eighth year of the reign of Edward III., William de Wybergh, of Saint Bee's, in Cumberland, became possessed of the manor of Clifton, in marriage with Elianor, only daughter of Gilbert D'Engayne, whose family had held it from the time of Henry II. It has ever since continued the seat and residence of their descendants. In Cromwell's days the Wyberghs had the honour to be considered delinquents; and in the succeeding century, in 1715, the head of the house was taken prisoner in consequence of his allegiance to the house of Hanover. Younger Branch. Lawson of Brayton, Baronet 1831. See Burn's Westmorland, vol. i. p. 417. ARMS.--_Sable, three bars or, in chief two estoiles of the last_. Sometimes I find two mullets in chief, and one in base, used in place of the estoiles. Present Representative, William Wybergh, Esq. WILTSHIRE. +Knightly.+ SEYMOUR OF MAIDEN-BRADLEY; DUKE OF SOMERSET 1546-7, BARONET 1611. [Illustration] This great historical family is of Norman origin, descended from Roger de Seimor, or Seymour, who lived in the reign of Henry I. Woundy, Penhow, and Seymour Castle, all in the county of Monmouth, (the last sold in the reign of Henry VIII.,) were ancient seats of the family, who we find in the fourteenth century resident in Somersetshire, after the marriage of Sir Roger Seymour with the coheiress of Beauchamp of Hache; his grandson married the heiress of Esturmi or Sturmey of Chadham, in this county, and thus first became connected with Wiltshire. Maiden-Bradley belonged to Sir Edward Seymour, the elder, the eldest surviving son of the Protector Somerset by his first wife, and the ancestor of the present family, who in 1750, on the death of the seventh Duke of Somerset, succeeded to the Dukedom, which by special entail went first to the descendants of the Protector by his second wife, until the extinction of her male line in that year. Younger Branches. Seymour, of Knoyle, in this county, descended from Francis, next brother of Edward eighth Duke of Somerset, and second son of Sir Edward Seymour, Baronet, of Maiden-Bradley, who died in 1741. Seymour Marquess of Hertford, (1793,) descended from Francis, son of Sir Edward Seymour, Bart., who died in 1708, and his second wife, Letitia, daughter of Francis Popham. See Brydges's Collins, vol. i. p. 144, vol. ii. p. 560; Westcote's Devonshire Pedigrees, p. 479; and Wotton's Baronetage, vol. i. p. 86. ARMS.--_Quarterly,_ 1 _and_ 4, _Or, on a pile gules between six fleurs-de-lis azure three lions of England;_ 2 _and_ 3, _Gules, two wings conjoined in lure of the first, the points downwards_. The wings, the original coat, was borne by Sir Roger de Seimor in the 23rd Henry III., as appears by his seal, with the legend "Sigill' Rogeri de Seimor." (Collins.) The first quarter was granted by Henry VIII. as an augmentation in consequence of his marrying Jane, daughter of Sir John Seymour. Present Representative, Edward Adolphus Seymour, K.G. 13th Duke of Somerset. ARUNDELL OF WARDOUR, BARON ARUNDELL OF WARDOUR 1605. [Illustration] A Norman family, which for centuries has flourished in the West of England, traced by Dugdale to "Rogerius Arundel," mentioned in Domesday. "The most diligent inspection, however," writes Hoare in his Wiltshire, "of an immense collection of ancient charters, deeds, and instruments of all kinds, and from the earliest periods of documentary evidence, among the archives of Wardour Castle, have not enabled us to trace the filiation of this House from the said Rogerius." Reinfred de Arundell, who lived at the end of the reign of Henry III. stands therefore at the head of the pedigree as given by Hoare. Gilbert in his "Survey of Cornwall," is inclined to believe the name to be derived from Arundel in Sussex, and refers to "Yorke's Union of Honour." He says the family came into Cornwall by a match with the heiress of Trembleth about the middle of the twelfth century. Lanherne, in that county, was in the fourteenth century their principal seat. The Castle of Wardour was purchased by Sir Thomas Arundell from Sir Fulke Greville in 1547. Camden, Carew, and Leland unite in recording the hospitality and honourable demeanour of this family, in all relations of social life, and state that from the pre-eminence of their ample possessions they were popularly designated "The Great Arundells." See Coll. Topog. et Genealog., vol. iii. p. 389; Leland's Itin., vol. iii. fol. 2; Gilbert's Cornwall, vol. i. p. 470; Brydges's Collins, vol. vii. p. 40; and Hoare's Wiltshire, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 175, &c. ARMS.--_Sable, six martlets argent_. The martlets, or _hirondelles_, may be considered an early instance of Canting Heraldry. Present Representative, John Francis Arundell, 12th Baron Arundell of Wardour. WYNDHAM OF DINTON. [Illustration] The sole remaining branch in the male line of this ancient family, said to be of Saxon origin, and descended from "Ailwardus" of Wymondham, or Wyndham, in Norfolk, living soon after the Norman Conquest. Felbrigge, in the same county, was for many ages the seat of the Wyndhams, and afterwards Orchard, in Somersetshire, which came from the co-heiress of Sydenham. The present family, who succeeded to the representation on the death of the fourth and last Earl of Egremont, in 1845, descend from Sir Wadham, ninth son of Sir John Wyndham, of Orchard and Felbrigge. They were seated at Norrington, in this county, about 1660. Dinton was purchased in 1689. See Parkins's Continuation of Blomefield's Norfolk, vol. iv. p. 309; Hoare's Wiltshire, vol. iii. pt. i. 108, and vol. iv. p. 93; Hutchins's History of Dorset, vol. iii. p. 330; Wotton's Baronetage, vol. iii. p. 346; and Brydges's Collins, vol. iv. p. 401. ARMS.--_Azure, a chevron between three lion's heads erased or_. Present Representative, William Wyndham, Esq. MALET OF WILBURY, BARONET 1791. [Illustration] A noble Norman family of great antiquity, who were of Baronial rank immediately after the Conquest, descended from William Baron Malet, whose grandson, another William Baron Malet, was expelled by Henry I. The elder branch of the family were long seated at Enmore, in the county of Somerset; but the ancestors of the present family, whose baronetcy was conferred for services in the East Indies, at Corypole and Wolleigh, in the county of Devon, and at Pointington and St. Audries, in Somersetshire. Wilbury was purchased in 1803. See Hoare's Modern Wiltshire, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 106; Collinson's History of Somersetshire, vol. i. p. 90; and the Gentleman's Magazine for 1799, p. 117. ARMS.--_Azure, three escallops or_. Robert Malet bore _Argent, three fermaux sable_, in the reign of Edward I. as appears by Sir R. St. George's Roll, Harl. MS. 6137. Present Representative, Sir Alexander Charles Malet, 2nd Baronet. +Gentle.+ CODRINGTON OF WROUGHTON. [Illustration] The name is local, from Codrington, in the parish of' Wapley, in the county of Gloucester, where this family was seated as early as the reign of Henry IV. John Codrington, Esquire, Standard-bearer to Henry V. in his wars in France, was the direct ancestor; he died in 1475, at the age, it is said, of 112; his monument remains at Wapley. Codrington remained in the family till 1753, when it passed with an heiress to the Bamfyldes of Poltimore, and has since been re-purchased by the present owner of Dodington. Didmarton, also in Gloucestershire, which came by marriage in 1570, and was afterwards sold, and latterly Wroughton, in this county, became the family seats. Two younger branches have been seated at Dodington; the first, descended from Thomas Codrington, brother of John the Standard-bearer, long settled at Frampton-on-Severn in Gloucestershire, bought Dodington in the time of Queen Elizabeth and sold it at the beginning of the eighteenth century to the ancestor of the present family, Codrington of Dodington, in the county of Gloucester, Baronet 1721, descended from Christopher, second son of Robert Codrington, who died in 1618. See Atkyns's Gloucestershire, pp. 204 and 391; Rudder's Gloucestershire, p. 787; and Wotton's Baronetage, vol. iv. p. 201. Corrected by the information of Mr. R. H. Codrington. ARMS.--_Argent, a fess embattled counter-embattled sable, fretty gules, between three lioncels passant of the third_. The fretty is sometimes omitted by the present Dodington branch. The ancient coat was simply, _Argent, a fess between three lioncels passant gules_, still used by the former family of Dodington, now settled in Somersetshire. The embattlement and fret was an augmentation granted to the Standard-bearer in the 19th of Henry VI.; and again two years before he died he received a further acknowledgement of his support of the Red Rose in a coat to be borne quarterly, _Vert, on a bend argent three roses gules, in the sinister quarter a dexter hand couped of the second_. Present Representative, William Wyndham Codrington, Esq. THYNNE OF LONGLEATE, MARQUESS OF BATH 1789; VISCOUNT WEYMOUTH 1682; BARONET 1641. [Illustration] The name is derived from the mansion or inn at Stretton, in the county of Salop, to which the freehold lands of the family, with various detached copyholds, were attached. The original name was Botfield, so called from Botfield in Stretton; the first on record being William de Bottefeld, sub-forester of Shirlet, in Shropshire, in 1255. About the time of Edward IV. the elder line of the family assumed the name of Thynne, otherwise Botfeld, which was borne for three generations before the time of Sir John Thynne, the purchaser of Longleate, who died in 1580, the ancestor of the present family. Younger Branch represented by the late Beriah Botfield of Norton Hall, in the county of Northampton, and Decker Hill, co. Salop, descended from John, second son of Thomas Bottefeld, of Bottefeld, living in 1439. See the Topographer and Genealogist, vol. iii. p. 468; and the Stemmata Botevilliana, (privately printed,) second edition, 1858, 4to. ARMS.--_Barry of ten or and sable_. The younger branch, who retained the name of Botfield, bore _Barry of twelve or and sable_. Present Representative, John Alexander Thynne, 4th Marquess of Bath. WORCESTERSHIRE. +Knightly.+ ACTON OF WOLVERTON. [Illustration] A junior branch of a very ancient family, said indeed by Habington, the Worcestershire antiquary, to be of Saxon origin, and formerly seated at Acton, properly _Oakton_, in the parish of Ombersley. Elias de Acton, of Ombersley, occurs in the third of Henry III. He was the ancestor of various branches of the Actons resident in different parts of this county, at Sutton, Ribbesford, Elmley-Lovet, Bokelton, and Burton, all of whom now appear to be extinct, the male line being preserved by the present family, founded by a younger son of Sir Roger Acton, of Sutton, and the heiress of Cokesey, about the middle of the seventeenth century. See Nash's History of Worcestershire, vol. ii. p. 217; and Blakeway's Sheriffs of Salop, p. 60. ARMS.--_Gules, a fess within a border engrailed ermine_. Present Representative, William Joseph Acton, Esq. LYTTLETON OF FRANKLEY, BARON LYTTLETON 1794; IRISH BARON 1776; BARONET 1618. [Illustration] The name is derived from a place in the Vale of Evesham, where the ancestors of this family in the female line were seated before the reign of Richard I. Frankley came from an heiress of that name in the reign of Henry III. In that of Henry V. Elizabeth, heiress of Sir Thomas Lyttleton, of Frankley, married Thomas Westcote of Westcote, in the county of Devon, Esquire, "but the old knight, her father, desirous to perpetuate his name, (and his purpose failed not,) would not yield consent to the marriage but upon his son's-in-law assured promise that his son, enjoying his mother's inheritance, should also take her name, and continue it, which was justly performed." (Westcote's Devonshire, p. 306.) Hagley, the principal seat, was purchased in 1564. Mr. John Lyttleton, the head of this family, was implicated in Lord Essex's rising in 1600; but his son, Sir Thomas, was right loyal to the Crown in 1642. See Leland's Itinerary in Coll. Topog. et Genealog., vol. iii. p. 339; Nash's Worcestershire, vol. i. p. 493; Prince's Worthies of Devon, ed. 1701, p. 583; Wotton's Baronetage, vol. i. p. 306; and Brydges's Collins, vol. viii. p. 316. See also in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries a genealogical account of this family, in the handwriting of Dr. Charles Lyttleton, Bishop of Carlisle, No. 151, 4to. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three escallops sable_, borne by Thomas Lyttelton in the reign of Henry IV. as appears by his seal. Present Representative, George William Lyttleton, 4th Lord Lyttleton. TALBOT OF GRAFTON, EARL OF SHREWSBURY 1442; EARL TALBOT 1784; BARON 1733; EARL OF WATERFORD IN IRELAND 1661. [Illustration] This great historical family is traced to the Conquest, Richard Talbot, living at that period, being the first recorded ancestor. No family in England is more connected with the history of our country than this noble race; few are more highly allied. The Marches of Wales appear to be the original seat; afterwards we find the Talbots in Shropshire, in Staffordshire, (where their estates were inherited from the Verdons in the time of the Edwards,) and lastly in Yorkshire, at Sheffield, derived from the great heiress of Neville Lord Furnival. This was the seat of the first seven Earls of Shrewsbury, of whom an excellent biographical account will be found in Hunter's Hallamshire (p. 43). The manor of Grafton, formerly the estate of the Staffords, was granted by Henry VII. to Sir Gilbert Talbot in 1486; it afterwards became the seat of a younger branch, who eventually, on the death of the eighth Earl, became Earls of Shrewsbury, from whom all the succeeding Earls, to the decease of Bertram Arthur, 17th Earl of Shrewsbury, in 1856, were descended. The present and 18th Earl, who is also the 3rd Earl Talbot, springs from the second marriage of Sir John Talbot of Albrighton in Shropshire, and of Grafton, in this county, who died in 1550, and who was grandfather of the 9th and ancestor of the succeeding Earls. Younger Branch. Talbot, Baron Talbot of Malahide in Ireland, (1831,) descended from Richard, second son of Richard Talbot and Maud Montgomery, the third ancestor of the House of Shrewsbury, who was living in 1153. See Nash's Worcestershire, vol. i. p. 158; Brydges's Collins, vol. iii. p. i.; and the Shrewsbury Peerage Claim before the House of Lords, 1857. ARMS.--_Gules, a lion rampant within a border engrailed or_. Borne by Sir Gilbert Talbot in the reign of Edward II. (Rolls), and said to be the coat of Rhese ap Griffith, Prince of South Wales. The ancient arms of Talbot being _Bendy of ten argent and gules_. The Talbots of Malahide bear the border erminoise instead of or. Present Representative, Henry John Chetwynd Talbot, 18th Earl of Shrewsbury, and third Earl Talbot. WINNINGTON OF STANFORD; BARONET 1755. [Illustration] Descended from Paul Winnington, living in 1615, great-grandson of Robert, who was son of Thomas Winnington of the Birches, in the county of Chester, living in the reign of Henry VII. This Thomas represented a younger branch of the Winningtons, of Winnington, in the same county, descended from Robert, son of Lidulfus de Croxton, who took the name of Winnington in the reign of Edward I., on his marriage with Margery, daughter and heiress of Robert de Winnington, living in the fifty-sixth of Henry III. Stanford, formerly the seat of the Salways, came to the Winningtons in the early part of the reign of Charles II., on the marriage of Sir Francis Wilmington and Elizabeth Salway. See Ormerod's Cheshire, vol. ii. p. 112, vol. iii. pp. 74 and 93; Pedigree privately printed by Sir Thomas Phillipps, from an original MS. _penes_ Sir Thomas Winnington, Bart.; and Nash's Worcestershire, vol. ii. p. 368. ARMS.--_Argent, an inescucheon voided, within an orle of martlets sable_. Present Representative, Sir Thomas Edward Winnington, M.P. for Bewdley, 4th Baronet. NOEL OF BELL-HALL. [Illustration] This is the only remaining branch in the male line of the very ancient family of Noel; of which the Earls of Gainsborough, created 1681, extinct 1798, represented a junior line. William, the ancestor of all the Noels, was living in the reign of Henry I., and was at that period Lord of Ellenhall, in the county of Stafford. In the time of Henry II., either he or his son founded the Priory of Raunton, in the same county. From the Noels of Ellenhall descended a branch of the family seated at Hilcote, in Staffordshire; an estate which remained with them until recent times; the father of the present representative, who was son of Walter Noel, of Hilcote, Esq., having removed to Bell-Hall, in the parish of Bell-Broughton, in this county. The Noels of Rutlandshire and Leicestershire were also descended from the house of Ellenhall. See Harwood's edition of Erdeswick's Staffordshire, 1844, p. 132 and Blore's Rutlandshire. ARMS.--_Or, fretty gules, a canton ermine_. Present Representative, Charles Noel, Esq. +Gentle.+ LECHMERE OF HANLEY; BARONET 1818. [Illustration] A family of great antiquity, said to have migrated from the Low Countries, and to have received a grant of land called "Lechmere's Field," in Hanley, from William the Conqueror. The first in the pedigree is Reginald de Lechm'e de Hanlee, mentioned in a deed without date. He was father of Adam de Lechmere, who married Isabella, and was the ancestor of this venerable house, whose ancient seat at Severn-End, in Hanley, with the exception of a period of thirty years, has ever since remained in the family. During the civil wars the Lechmeres were on the side of the Parliament. A second son, who died without issue in 1727, was raised to the Peerage in 1721. Younger Branches. Lechmere of Steeple-Aston, in the county of Oxford, and Lechmere of Fanhope, in the county of Hereford; also the Lechmeres (called Patteshalls) of Allensmore, in the same county; the two last being descended from Sandys, second son of Sir Nicholas Lechmere, the Judge, who died in 1701. See Nash's Worcestershire, vol. i. p. 563. ARMS.--_Gules, a fess and in chief two pelicans or, vulning themselves proper_. Present Representative, Sir Edmund Anthony Harley Lechmere, 3rd Baronet. SEBRIGHT OF BESFORD; BARONET 1626. [Illustration] William Sebright, of Sebright, in Much Beddow, in Essex, living in the reign of Henry II. is the ancestor of this ancient family, who removed into this county at a very early period, apparently after the marriage of Mabel Sebright with Katharine, daughter and heir of Ralph Cowper, of Blakeshall, in the parish of Wolverly, in which parish the Sebrights possessed lands in the sixth year of Edward I. Besford was purchased about the reign of Elizabeth. See Wotton's Baronetage, vol. ii. p. 8; and Nash's Worcestershire, vol. i. p. 78. ARMS.--_Argent, three cinquefoils pierced sable_. Present Representative, Sir John Gage Saunders Sebright, 9th Baronet. BOUGHTON OF ROUSE-LENCH; BARONET 1641. [Illustration] This is a Warwickshire family of good antiquity, traced to Robert de Boreton, grandfather of William, who lived in the reign of Edward III. In that of Henry VI. by the heiress of Allesley, the family became possessed of the manor of Lawford, which remained their residence till the murder of Sir Theodosius Boughton, Baronet, by his brother-in-law Mr. Donnellan, in 1781. After that event, a younger branch succeeding to the estate and title, Lawford Hall was pulled down, and the ninth Baronet, on inheriting the property of the Rouses of Rouse-Lench, in this county, assumed that name, and made it his seat and residence. See Dugdale's Warwickshire, second ed., vol. i. p. 98; Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. iv. pt. i. p. 202; and Wotton's Baronetage, vol. ii. p. 220. ARMS.--_Sable, three crescents or_. Present Representative, Sir Charles Henry Rouse Boughton, 11th Baronet. YORKSHIRE. +Knightly.+ FITZWILLIAM OF WENTWORTH HOUSE; EARL FITZWILLIAM 1746; BARON of IRELAND 1620. [Illustration] William FitzGodric, who married Albreda de Lizours, Lady of Sprotsborough, in this county, and who died before 1195, is the remote ancestor of this ancient house. Their son, William FitzWilliam, was seated at Sprotsborough in the reign of Henry II., and here the family continued till the extinction of the elder line, which ended in coheiresses in the reign of Henry VIII. The rise of this branch of the family must be ascribed to Sir William Fitzwilliam, Lord Justice, and afterwards Lord Deputy of Ireland, in the reign of Elizabeth, whose grandson was created Baron Fitzwilliam in 1620. In the year 1565, Hugh Fitzwilliam collected whatever evidences could be found touching the descent of the family. This account, which is in the possession of Earl Fitzwilliam, is the foundation of most of the histories of this great family, whose present Yorkshire property came from the Wentworths through the coheiress of the Marquis of Rockingham in 1744. From this match resulted the Earldom in 1746. See Hunter's South Yorkshire, vol. i. p. 331, vol. ii. p. 93; and Brydges's Collins, vol. iv. p. 374. ARMS.--_Lozengy argent and gules_. The present coat, except that ermine takes the place of argent, was borne by Thomas Fitzwilliam in the reign of Henry III. In that of Richard II. William Fitzwilliam bore the arms as at present used. Present Representative, William Thomas Spencer Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, K.G. 6th Earl Fitzwilliam. SCROPE OF DANBY. [Illustration] Few families were more important in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries than the noble house of Scrope; their descent is unbroken from the Conquest. Few houses also have been more distinguished by the number of great offices of honour held both in Church and State. The Scropes were very early settled in Yorkshire, Bolton being, from the period of the reign of Edward I., their principal seat and Barony. The present family is sprung from a younger son of Henry, 6th Lord Scrope of Bolton; it was established at Danby about the middle of the seventeenth century, by marriage with the heiress of Conyers. See Whitaker's Richmondshire, vol. i. p. 368; the Scrope and Grosvenor Roll by Sir Harris Nicolas, 1832, vol. ii. p. 1, and Poulett-Scrope's History of Castle-Combe; see also Blore's Rutlandshire, (fol. 1811,) p. 5-8, for full pedigrees of the Scropes of Bolton and Masham, (Yorkshire,) Cockerington, (Lincolnshire,) Wormsleigh or Wormsley, (Oxfordshire,) and Castle-Combe, (Wiltshire,) all now extinct; also the Topographer, vol. iii. p. 181, for Church Notes from Cockerington by Gervase Hollis. Adrian Scrope the Regicide was of the Wormsley branch. ARMS.--_Azure, a bend or_. These arms were confirmed by the Court of Chivalry in 1390, on the celebrated dispute between the houses of Scrope and Grosvenor, as to the right of bearing them. In the reign of Edward III. M. William le Scroope bore the present coat, "en le point de la bend une lyon rampant de purpure." In that of Richard II., M. Henry le Skrop differenced his arms with a label of three points argent, M. Thomas le Scrop at the same period charged his label with an annulet sable, while other members of the family bore the label ermine charged with bars gules, and lozenges and mullets ermine. (Rolls of the dates.) Present Representative, Simon Thomas Scrope, Esq. GRIMSTON OF GRIMSTON-GARTH. [Illustration] Sylvester de Grimston, "Standard-bearer and Chamberlain to William I.," of Grimston, in the parish of Garton, is claimed as the ancestor of this venerable Norman family, who have ever since the period of the Conquest resided at the place from whence the name is derived. Younger branches of the Grimstons were seated in Norfolk and Essex, besides the Grimstons of Gorhambury, Earls of Verulam, all now extinct in the male line. See Poulson's Holderness, vol. ii. p. 60; Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, vol. i. p. 95; Brydges's Collins, vol. viii. p. 209; and the Scrope and Grosvenor Roll, vol. ii. p. 292. See also Boutell's Brasses, p. 129, for inscriptions to Sir Edward Grimston and his son in Rishangles Church, near Eye, in Suffolk. ARMS.--_Argent, on a fess sable three mullets of six points or, pierced gules_. This coat was borne by Monsieur Gerrard de Grymston in the reign of Richard II. (Roll.) Present Representative, Marmaduke Gerard Grimston, Esq. WYVILL OF CONSTABLE-BURTON. [Illustration] This ancient Norman family is said to be descended from Sir Humphry de Wyvill, who lived at the time of the Conquest, and whose descendants were seated at Slingsby in this county; the more modern part of the pedigree begins with Robert Wyvill of Ripon, whose son was of Little Burton, in the reign of Henry VIII.; from thence the family migrated to Constable-Burton, about the end of the reign of James I. During the Civil Wars of the seventeenth century, the Wyvills were distinguished by their loyalty and consequent sufferings in the royal cause. An elder line of this family, on whom the Baronetcy, created in 1611, has descended, is said to be resident in Maryland, in the United States of America. See Leland's Itinerary, vol. iv. pl. i.; Whitaker's Richmondshire, vol. i. p. 322; and Wotton's Baronetage, vol. i. p. 232. ARMS.--_Gules, three chevronels interlaced vaire, and a chief or_. The arms are founded upon the coat of Fitz Hugh, and may be taken as a proof of high antiquity. Present Representative, Marmaduke Wyvill, Esq. TEMPEST OF BROUGHTON. [Illustration] The pedigree of this ancient family is traced to Roger, whom Dr. Whitaker calls "Progenitor of this the oldest and most distinguished of the Craven families now surviving. That this man was a Norman the name will not permit us to doubt; that he was a dependant of Roger of Poitou is extremely probable; that he was at all events possessed of Bracewell (in Craven) early in the reign of Henry I., is absolutely certain." Dr. Whitaker proceeds to remark on the name of Tempest, which he says, "whatever was its origin, seems to have been venerated by the family, as in the two next centuries, when local appellation became almost universal, they never chose to part with it." The elder line of the Tempests continued at Bracewell till the time of Charles I., when Richard Tempest, the last representative, pulled down the family house, and devised the estate to a distant relation. The house of Broughton descends directly from Roger, second son of Sir Peirs Tempest, which Roger married in the seventh of Henry IV. Katharine daughter and heir of Peter Gilliott of Broughton, which has been ever since the seat of the Tempests-- "a name never stained with dishonour, but often illustrated with deeds of arms." A younger branch was of Tong in this county, descended from Henry, youngest son of Sir Richard Tempest of Bracewell, Sheriff of Yorkshire in the 8th of Henry VIII. created Baronet in 1664, extinct 1819. See Whitaker's Craven, pp. 80, 87. ARMS.--_Argent, a bend between six storm finches sable_. Present Representative, Charles Henry Tempest, Esq. HAMERTON OF HELLIFIELD PEEL. [Illustration] One of the most ancient families in the North of England, according to Dr. Whitaker, descended from Richard de Hamerton, who lived in the twenty-sixth of Henry II., anno 1170. From Hamerton, the original seat, the family removed to Hellifield, acquired by marriage with the heiress of Knolle, in the reign of Edward III. The Castle, or Peel, was built in the reign of Henry VII. The Hamertons were engaged in the Northern Rebellion in 1537, and thereby Sir Stephen Hamerton lost his head, and his family the estate; which was restored to the male representative of the family, in the third year of Elizabeth, by a munificent settlement made by John Redman, who had become possessed of the property, and was related by marriage to the Hamertons. A younger branch was of Preston-Jacklyn in this county. See Whitaker's Craven, ed. 1812, p. 124; and Dugdale's Visitation of Yorkshire, 1665-6, printed by the Surtees Society in 1859, p. 354. ARMS.--_Argent, three hammers sable_. The Preston-Jacklyn line bore _Argent, on a chevron between three hammers sable a trefoil slipped or_. Present Representative, James Hamerton, Esq. HOTHAM OF SOUTH DALTON; BARON OF IRELAND 1797; BARONET 1621. [Illustration] Peter de Trehouse, who assumed the local name of Hotham, and was living in the year 1188, is the ancestor of this family, who were of Scarborough in this county in the reign of Edward I., a seat which continued the principal residence of the Hothams for several centuries until it went to decay after the Civil Wars in the seventeenth century. The siege of Hull in 1643, when Sir John Hotham was Governor for the Parliament, and with his son was discovered holding correspondence with the Royalists, for which they both suffered death, will ever render this family historical. See Wotton's Baronetage, vol. i. p. 473; the Scrope and Grosvenor Roll, vol. ii. p. 306; and Oliver's Beverley, p. 509. ARMS.--_Barry of ten argent and azure, on a canton or a raven proper_. M. John de Hotham is stated in the Roll of arms of the period of Edward III. to have borne, _Or, a bend sable charged with three mullets argent voided gules_. Present Representative, Beaumont Hotham, 3rd Baron Hotham. BOYNTON OF BARMSTON, BARONET 1618. [Illustration] Bartholomew de Bovington, living at the beginning of the twelfth century, stands at the head of the pedigree; other authorities mention Sir Ingram de Boynton of Aclam, (in Cleveland,) who lived in the reign of Henry III., as the first recorded ancestor. Barmston came from the daughter and coheir of Sir Martyn del See, about the end of the fifteenth century. During the Civil Wars, Sir Matthew Boynton, the head of this family, was one of the gentlemen chiefly trusted in Yorkshire by the Parliament. See Poulson's History of Holderness, vol. i. p. 196; the Scrope and Grosvenor Roll, vol. ii. p. 309; and Wotton's Baronetage, vol. i. p. 301. ARMS.--_Or, a fess between three crescents gules_. This coat was borne by Monsieur Thomas de Boynton in the reign of Richard II. (Roll.) Present Representative, Sir Henry Boynton, 10th Baronet. WATERTON OF WALTON. [Illustration] Waterton in the county of Lincoln was the original seat, and from hence the name was derived at an early period. Sir Robert Waterton, Master of the Horse to Henry IV., and John Waterton, who served King Henry V. at Agincourt in the same office, were of this place; the last was succeeded by his brother Sir Robert, who was of Methley in this county, which he inherited with his wife Cicely, the daughter and heir of Robert Fleming, of Woodhall in that parish, and where his tomb is still preserved. This Sir Robert was Govenor of Pontefract Castle during the time that Richard II. was confined there. The present family descend from John Waterton, a younger son of this house, (the male line of the elder branch being extinct,) who married Catherine de Burgh, heiress of Walton, in the year 1435, which has since continued the residence of this ancient knightly lineage. See Whitaker's Leeds, vol. i. p. 269; and the Scrope and Grosvenor Roll, vol. ii. p. 190, for a memoir of Hugh Waterton, Esq.; and the History of the Isle of Axholme by Archdeacon Stonehouse. ARMS.--_Barry of six ermine and gules, over all three crescents sable_. Present Representative, Edmund Waterton, Esq. FAIRFAX OF STEETON. [Illustration] "The truly ancient family of Fairfax," as Camden styles it, is supposed to be of Saxon origin, and to have been seated at Torcester in Northumberland at the period of the Conquest. In 1205 (sixth of John,) Richard Fairfax, the first of the family proved by evidence, was possessed of the lands of Ascham, not far from the City of York. His grandson William purchased the Manor of Walton in the West Riding, which continued for near six hundred years, till the extinction of the elder male line of the family in the person of Charles Gregory Fairfax, tenth Viscount Fairfax of Ireland, in 1772, the inheritance of his descendants. From a younger son of Richard Fairfax, of Walton, Chief Justice of England in the reign of Henry VI. the present family is descended, as well as Fairfax of Denton, Baron Fairfax of Cameron in Scotland (1627,) who represents an elder line,* and who resides in the United States of America. Steeton was the gift of the Chief Justice to Sir Guy Fairfax, his third son, the founder of this branch of the family, and here he erected a castle in 1477. See Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, ed. 1754, vol. ii. p. 397. ARMS.--_Argent, three bars gemelles gules, surmounted by a lion rampant sable, crowned or_. Present Representative, Thomas Fairfax, Esq. * He is descended from the _eldest_ son of Sir William Fairfax of Steeton, who died in 1557. NORTON OF GRANTLEY, BARON GRANTLEY 1782. [Illustration] The pedigree begins with Egbert Coigniers, whose son Roger was living in the ninth year of Edward II., and was father of another Roger, who marrying the heiress of Norton of Norton, their son took that name; sixth in descent was Richard Norton, who joined with the Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland in the Rebellion of the North in 1569, and thereby caused the destruction of almost every branch of his family. He was attainted in the twelfth of Elizabeth, and died in exile in Spain. The present family descend from Sir Fletcher Norton, Speaker of the House of Commons, descended from Edmund Norton of Clowcroft, third son of old Richard Norton, which Edmund had taken no part in the Northern Rebellion. An elder branch, also descended from the third son of Sir Richard, and believed to be now extinct, was of Sawley near Ripon, from the period of Charles I. See Brydges's Collins, vol. vii. p. 546; Whitaker's Richmondshire, vol. ii. p. 182; and "Memorials of the Rebellion of 1569." ARMS.--_Azure, a maunch ermine, over all a bend gules_. In the reign of Edward II., Sir John de Conyers bore, _Azure, a maunch or, and a hand proper_. Sir Robert de Conyers at the same period reversed the colours, bearing, _Or, a maunch azure, and a hand proper_. Monsieur Robert Conyers in the reign of Richard II. bore, _Azure, a maunch or charged with an annulet sable_. (Rolls of the dates.) Present Representative, Fletcher Norton, 3rd Baron Grantley. SAVILE OF METHLEY, EARL OF MEXBOROUGH IN IRELAND 1765; AND BARON POLLINGTON 1753. [Illustration] The family of Savile was one of the most illustrious in the West Riding of the county of York. Some writers have fancifully ascribed to it an Italian origin, but it probably had its rise at Silkston, in this county. It certainly flourished in those parts in the thirteenth century; and in the middle of the fourteenth century we find (1358) Margaret Savile Prioress of Kirklees. In the reign of Edward III. the family divided itself into two main branches, in the person of two brothers, John of Tankersley and Henry of Bradley. The senior branch acquired its greatest renown in the person of George first Marquess of Halifax, a title which became extinct in 1700. The junior branch was of Copley and Methley, and, having produced one of the most learned men of our country, Sir Henry Savile, the Provost of Eton, is now represented by the Earl of Mexborough. See Dugdale's Baronage, ii. p. 462; Whitaker's Leeds, vol. i. pp. 272, 310; Archdall's ed. of Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, vol. iii. p. 156; Hunter's Antiquarian Notices of Lupset, 1851; and the Savile Correspondence, edited for the Camden Society by W. D. Cooper, F.S.A., 1858. ARMS.--_Argent, on a bend sable three owls of the field_. This coat was borne by Monsieur John Sayvill, in the reign of Richard II. His son John differenced it by a label of three points gules. Present Representative, John Charles George Savile, 4th Earl of Mexborough. GOWER OF STITTENHAM, DUKE OF SUTHERLAND 1833; MARQUESS OF STAFFORD 1786; EARL GOWER 1746; BARON 1703. [Illustration] Descended from Sir Nicholas Gower, knight of the shire for this county in the reign of Edward III., and seated at Stittenham from about the same period. Of this family, it has been said, was Gower the Poet, but Sir Harris Nicolas in his memoir of Gower could not trace the connection. Leland remarks, "The House of Gower the Poet yet remayneth at Switenham (Stittenham) in Yorkshire, and divers of them syns have beene knightes." In the end of the seventeenth century the wealth of this family was greatly increased by marriage with the heiress of Leveson, of Trentham, in Staffordshire, and also in the year 1785 by the marriage of the Marquess of Stafford with Elizabeth, daughter and heir of William eighteenth Earl of Sutherland, mother of the present Duke. Younger Branches. The Earl of Ellesmere 1846, and Gower of Bill-Hill, co. Berks, descended from John son of John first Earl Gower, by his third wife. See Brydges's Collins, vol. ii. p. 441; Historical and Antiquarian Mag., 1828, vol. ii. p. 103; and Leland's Itin., vol. vi. fol. 15. ARMS.--_Barry of eight argent and gules, a cross patonce sable_. Present Representative, George Granville William Sutherland Leveson Gower, 3rd Duke of Sutherland, K. G. DAWNAY OF COWICK AND DANBY, VISCOUNT DOWNE IN IRELAND 1680. [Illustration] A Norman family by reputation, and said to be traced to the Conquest, descended from Sir William Downay, who was in the wars in the Holy Land with Richard I. in 1192, at which time that King gave him, in memory of his acts of valour, a ring from his finger, which is still in possession of the family. At an early period the Dawnays were in possession of lands in Cornwall; fifteen manors in that county descended by an heiress to the house of Courtenay Earl of Devon, about the reign of Edward II. In Richard the Second's time the family removed into this county by a match with the heiress of Newton of Snaith. Cowick was the seat and residence of Sir Guy Dawnay, in the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. See Brydges's Collins, vol. viii. p. 453; and Gilbert's Cornwall, vol. i. p. 457. ARMS.--_Argent, on a bend cotised sable three annulets of the field_. Present Representative, Hugh Richard Dawnay, 8th Viscount Downe. PILKINGTON OF NETHER-BRADLEY AND CHEVET-HALL, BARONET OF NOVA-SCOTIA 1635. [Illustration] "A right ancient family, gentlemen of repute in the county (of Lancaster) before the Conquest," according to Fuller in his "Worthies," and also mentioned by Gwillim as a "knightly family of great antiquity, taking name from Pilkington in Lancashire." That estate appears to have remained in the family until the ruin of the elder branch in consequence of Sir Thomas Pilkington having taken part against Henry VII. and with Richard III. at the battle of Bosworth. The present house descended from Sir John Pilkington, second son of Robert Pilkington, and brother of the unfortunate Sir Thomas. His son Robert is stated to have been of Bradley, in this county. He died in 1429, and was the ancestor of Sir Arthur the first Baronet. Younger Branches. Pilkington of Park-Lane Hall, in this county, descended from the second son of Robert Pilkington, of Bradley, who was living in 1540; and Pilkington of Tore, in the county of Westmeath, descended from Sir Robert, younger brother of Sir John Pilkington, ancestor of the house of Bradley. See Wotton's Baronetage, vol. iv. p. 338; Hunter's South Yorkshire, vol. ii. p. 394; Burke's Landed Gentry; and "The Grand Juries of the County of Westmeath," vol. ii. p. 254. ARMS.--_A cross patonce voided gules_. The crest, "a mower of parti-colours argent and gules," is said by Fuller in his "Worthies of England" to have been assumed in memory of the ancestor of the family having so disguised himself in order to escape after _the Battle of Hastings. The Battle of Bosworth_ is the more probable scene of this event, where four knights of the family were in arms on the part of Richard III. Present Representative, Sir Lionel Milborne Swinnerton Pilkington, 11th Baronet. STOURTON OF ALLERTON, BARON STOURTON 1447. [Illustration] A well-known Wiltshire family, seated at Stourton, in that county, soon after the Norman Conquest. "The name of the Stourtons be very aunciente yn those parties," writes Leland in his Itinerary. "The Ryver of Stoure risith ther of six fountaines or springer, wherof three be on the northe side of the Parke harde withyn the pale: the other three be north also, but without the Parke; the Lord Stourton gyveth these six Fountaynes yn his armes." The Yorkshire property, and consequent settlement in this county, came from the match with the heiress of Langdale Lord Langdale in 1775. Younger Branch. Stourton, (called Vavasour,) of Hazlewood. Baronet 1828, first cousin of the present peer. See Brydges's Collins, vol. vi. p. 633; and Leland's Itin., vii. fol. 78 b. ARMS.--_Sable, a bend or between six fountains proper_. Present Representative, Charles Stourton, 18th Baron Stourton. MARKHAM OF BECCA-HALL. [Illustration] A remote branch of an ancient Nottinghamshire family, which can be traced to the time of Henry II. The name is derived from Markham, near Tuxford, in that county, but Coatham was afterwards the family seat, until it was sold by Markham, "a fatal unthrift," who was the brother of the antiquary Francis Markham; this was about the end of the reign of Elizabeth. William Markham, Archbishop of York, who died in 1807, was the ancestor and restorer of this worthy family; he was descended from Daniel, a younger son of the House of Coatham. Becca-Hall has been in possession of the Markhams since the end of the last century. See Markham's History of the Markhams, privately printed, 8vo. 1854; the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 1859; and the Topographer, vol. ii. p. 296, for Markham of Sedgebrook, co. Lincoln, extinct 1779. ARMS.--_Azure, on a chief or a demi-lion rampant issuing gules_. The Markhams of Sedgebrook bore their arms differenced by a border argent. Present Representative, William Thomas Markham, Esq. BURTON (CALLED DENISON), OF GRIMSTONE, BARON LONDESBOROUGH 1850. [Illustration] The name is derived from Boreton, in the parish of Condover, in Shropshire, an estate which remained in the family until the reign of James I., although the Burtons became resident at Longner, in the same county, prior to the reign of Edward IV. "Goiffrid de Bortona," (Burton,) one of the foresters of Shropshire, in the reign of Henry I., is the first recorded ancestor. The senior line of this house terminated with Thomas Burton, who died unmarried in 1730, and whose sister carried the Longner estate to the Lingen family, who have assumed the name of Burton (see p. 198.) Thomas, fifth son of Thomas Burton, of Longner, is the ancestor of the present family, and of the Marquess of Conyngham (elder brother of the late Lord Londesborough). He went to Ireland in the reign of James I., and died there in 1665. His great-grandson married the heiress of Conyngham. The late Lord assumed the name of Denison on succeeding to the estates of his uncle W. J. Denison, Esq. See Archdall's edition of Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, vol. vii. p. 173; and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Per pale azure and purpure, a cross engrailed or between four roses argent_, granted in 1478, and commemorative of the devotion of this house to the White Rose of York. Present Representative, William Henry Forester Denison, 2nd Baron Londesborough. +Gentle.+ RAWDON OF RAWDON-HALL, MARQUESS OF HASTINGS 1816 EARL OF MOIRA IN IRELAND 1761; BARONET 1665. [Illustration] Rawdon, in the parish of Guiseley in this county, is the original seat of this ancient family, which is traced to Thor de Rawdon, whose son Serlo lived in the reign of Stephen. Rawdon remained the family residence till early in the seventeenth century, when Sir George Rawdon, the then head of the house, removed into the North of Ireland, and was seated at Moira, in the county of Down, where the family principally lived till the match with the heiress of Hastings in 1752. See Whitaker's Leeds, vol. i. p. 171; Brydges's Collins, vol. iv. p. 606; Wotton's Baronetage, vol. iii. p. 467; and Archdall's Lodge, vol. iii. p. 95. ARMS.--_Argent, a fess between three pheons sable_. Present Representative, Henry Weysford Charles Plantagenet Rawdon Hastings, 4th Marquess of Hastings. TANCRED OF BOROUGH-BRIDGE, BARONET 1662. [Illustration] At a very early date, and probably not long after the Conquest, the ancestors of this family were seated at Borough-Bridge, which appears to have been ever since one of the residences of the house of Tancred. See Wotton's Baronetage, vol. iii. p. 387. ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three escallops gules_. Present Representative, Sir Thomas Tancred, 7th Baronet. MEYNELL OF NORTH KILVINGTON. [Illustration] Hilton in Cleveland appears to have been the original seat of this ancient family; here it was resident in the twelfth century, and here it remained till the middle of the sixteenth, when Anthony Meynell, the immediate ancestor of the present family, removed by purchase to North Kilvington, which has since continued the residence of his descendants. See Graves's History of Cleveland; and Burke's Landed Gentry. ARMS.--_Azure, three bars gemelles and a chief or_. This is the ancient coat of Meysnill or Meynell of Dalby-on-the-Woulds in Leicestershire, and was borne by Trevor de Menyll in the reign of Henry III., and also by Sir Nicholas de Meynell in that of Edward II., with the exception of two instead of three bars gemelles. (Rolls of the dates.) Present Representative, Thomas Meynell, Esq. ANNE OF BURGH-WALLIS. [Illustration] Of this family Mr. Hunter has remarked, that "it is a single instance of the male line being maintained in its ancient port and rank out of all the gentry of the Deanery of Doncaster, summoned to appear before the Heralds in 1584." The pedigree begins with Sir William de Anne, Constable of the Castle of Tickhill in the time of Edward II. He married the coheiress of Haringel, from whom came the manor of Frickley, sold in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Burgh-Wallis came from the heiress of Fenton in the reign of Elizabeth. Mr. Hunter observes, "The Annes, like too many other families, have not been careful of preserving their ancient evidences, and theirs was not one of the muniment rooms to which our diligent antiquary Dodsworth had access." See Hunter's South Yorkshire, vol. ii. pp. 148, 485. ARMS.--_Gules, three stag's heads cabossed argent attired or_. Present Representative, George Anne, Esq. LISTER OF GISBURN, BARON RIBBLESDALE 1797. [Illustration] The pedigree is traced to the sixth of Edward II., when John de Lister was resident at Derby. He married the daughter and heiress of John de Bolton, Bowbearer of Bollond, and thus became connected with this county. The elder line was of Mydhope, or Middop, and afterwards, in the reign of Philip and Mary, of Thornton in Craven, and became extinct in 1667. The present family is sprung from Thomas, second son of Christopher Lister, who lived in the time of Edward IV. The Listers were of Gisburn early in the sixteenth century, the ancient seat of Arnoldsbiggin in that manor being their seat for many generations. Lyster, of Rowton, in Shropshire, is supposed to be a branch of this family, though there is no evidence of the fact; Rowton has been in possession of the Lysters since 1482. See Whitaker's Craven, ed. 1812, pp. 38, 103; and Brydges's Collins, vol. viii. p. 584; and for Rowton, Blakeway's Sheriffs of Salop, p. 144. ARMS.--_Ermine, on a fess sable three mullets or_. Lyster of Rowton bears the mullets _argent_. Present Representative, Thomas Lister, 3rd Baron Ribblesdale. LASCELLES OF HAREWOOD; EARL OF HAREWOOD 1812 BARON 1796. [Illustration] A family of ancient standing in this county, descended from John de Lascelles, of Hinderskelfe, now called Castle Howard, in the wapentake of Bulmer, in the North riding, living in the ninth year of Edward II. For seven generations immediately following they were called "_Lascelles alias Jackson_." About the reign of Henry VI. they removed to Gawthorpe, also in the North riding, and afterwards to Stank and Northallerton; Harewood was purchased about 1721. See Whitaker's Leeds, vol. i. p. 169; and Brydges's Collins, vol. viii. p. 508. ARMS.--_Sable, a cross flory within a border or_. This coat, without the border, was borne by Monsieur Lascelles de Worthorpe, as appears by the Roll of the reign of Edward III. Monsieur Rafe de Lascelles bore at the same period, Argent, three chaplets of roses _vermaux,_ with a border engrailed sable. Present Representative, Henry Thynne Lascelles, fourth Earl of Harewood. WOMBWELL OF WOMBWELL, BARONET 1778. [Illustration] There was a family who took the local name of Wombwell from that manor in the thirteenth century, but this cannot with certainty be connected with it. The pedigree therefore commences with Hugh Wombwell of Wombwell, son of Henry Lowell de Wombwell, living in the reign of Edward III. The elder branch of this family became extinct in the male line on the death of William Wombwell of Wombwell, Esq. in 1733. Part of the estate from whence the name is derived belongs to the present family, who represent a junior line, descended from George Wombwell, of Leeds, who died in 1682, by purchase of the coheirs. See Hunter's South Yorkshire, vol. ii. p. 124. ARMS.--_Gules, a bend between six unicorn's heads cooped argent_; and so borne in the sixth of Henry IV. Present Representative, Sir George Orby Wombwell, 4th Baronet. PALMES OF NABURN. [Illustration] There appears no reason to doubt the antiquity of this family, said to be descended from Manfred Palmes, living in the reign of Stephen, and seated at Naburn since the year 1226, by a match with the heiress of Watterville. See Burke's Landed Gentry. ARMS.--_Gules, three fleurs-de-lis argent, a chief vaire_. Present Representative, the Rev, William Lindsay Palmes. ROUNDELL OF SCREVEN. [Illustration] On the authority of Whitaker we learn that Screven has been in this family since the early part of the fifteenth century; the first recorded ancestor being John Roundell, of Screven, living in the third of Henry VI. See Whitaker's Craven, ed. 1812, p. 76. ARMS.--_Or, a fess gules between three olive-branches vert_. Present Representative, the Rev. Danson Richardson Roundell. "There is no subject more difficult to be dwelt on than that of honourable descent; none on which the world are greater sceptics, none more offensive to them; and yet there is no quality to which every one in his heart pays so great a respect."--SIR EGERTON BRYDGES'S Autobiography, p. 153. INDEX Abney of Measham, 55 Acland of Acland, 66 Acton of Aldenham, 204 Acton of Wolverton, 291 Aldersey of Aldersey, 23 Alington of Swinhope, 138 Anderson of Brocklesby, 143 Anne of Burghwallis, 319 Annesley of Bletchingdon, 185 Antrobus of Antrobus, 27 Arden of Longcroft, 233 Arundell of Wardour, 284 Ashburnham of Ashburnham, 253 Ashurst of Waterstock, 184 Assheton of Downham, 120 Astley of Melton-Constable, 149 Babington of Rothley Temple, 131 Bacon of Raveningham, 155 Bagot of Bagot's Bromley, 228 Baldwin of Kinlet, 207 Bamfylde of Poltimore, 67 Barnardiston of the Ryes, 241 Barnston of Churton, 26 Barttelot of Stopham, 260 Basset of Tehidy, 31 Bastard of Kitley, 65 Baskervyle of Old Withington, 23 Beaumont of Cole-Orton, 129 Bedingfeld of Oxburgh, 150 Bellew of Court, 70 Bendyshe of Barrington, 12 Berington of Winsley, 97 Berkeley of Berkeley Castle, 89 Berney of Kirby, 148 Bertie of Uffington, 144 Betton of Totterton, 213 Biddulph of Birdingbury, 271 Bingham of Bingham's-Melcombe, 74 Blois of Cockfield Hall, 247 Blount of Sodington, 183 Bodenham of Rotherwas, 94 Bond of Grange, 78 Borough of Chetwynd, 218 Boscawen of Boscawen-Rose, 35 Boughton of Rouse-Lench, 298 Boynton of Barmston, 306 Bracebridge of Atherstone, 264 Bray of Shere, 248 Brisco of Crofton, 43 Brooke of Norton, 24 Brooke of Ufford, 243 Broughton of Broughton, 231 Brudenell of Dene, 159 Buller of Downes, 72 Bunbury of Stanney, 18 Burdet of Foremark, 51 Burton of Grimston, 316 Carew of Haccombe, 61 Cary of Torr-Abbey, 60 Cave of Stretton, 52 Cavendish of Hardwick, 49 Chadwick of Healy, 125 Chetwode of Chetwode, 6 Chetwynd of Grendon, 266 Chichester of Youlston, 58 Cholmondeley of Cholmondeley, 16 Clarke of Ardington, 5 Clavering of Callaly, 167 Clifford of Ugbrooke, 63 Clifton of Clifton, 114 Clifton of Clifton, 175 Clinton of Clumber, 179 Clive of Styche, 214 Clutton of Chorlton, 25 Codrington of Wroughton, 288 Colvile of Lullington, 53 Coke of Trusley, 54 Coker of Bicester, 188 Compton of Compton-Wyniate, 265. Congreve of Congreve, 237 Cope of Bramshill, 226 Corbet of Moreton-Corbet, 192 Cornewall of Delbury, 197 Cotes of Cotes, 236 Cotton of Combermere, 28 Courtenay of Powderham, 56 Courthope of Wyleigh, 261 Croke of Studley, 183 Curzon of Kedleston, 47 Davenport of Woodford, 13 Dawnay of Cowick, 312 Dayrell of Lillingstone-Dayrell, 7 Dering of Surenden-Dering, 101 De-Grey of Merton, 154 Digby of Tilton, 76 Disney of the Hyde, 86 Dod of Cloverley, 208 Drewe of Grange, 71 Dykes of Dovenby, 43 Dymoke of Scrivelsby, 135 Eccleston of Scarisbrick, 123 Edgcumbe of Edgcumbe, 57 Edwardes of Harnage-Grange, 212 Egerton of Oulton, 15 Estcourt of Estcourt, 92 Eyre of Rampton, 180 Eyston of East Hendred, 4 Eyton of Eyton, 203 Fairfax of Steeton, 308 Fane of Apthorp, 165 Farnham of Quorndon, 128 Feilding of Newnham-Paddox, 267 Ferrers of Baddesley-Clinton, 269 Filmer of East Sutton, 108 Finch of Eastwell, 109 Fitzherbert of Norbury, 46 Fitzwilliam of Wentworth-House, 299 Fleming of Rydal, 281 Floyer of West Stafford, 80 Forester of Willey, 211 Fortescue of Castle-Hill, 59 Frampton of Moreton, 77 Fulford of Fulford, 56 Fursdon of Fursdon, 68 Gage of Firle, 259 Gatacre of Gatacre, 202 Gent of Moyns, 87 Gerard of Bryn, 118 Gifford of Chillington, 229 Glanville of Catchfrench, 39 Goring of Highden, 254 Gower of Stittenham, 311 Gregory of Styvechall, 277 Grenville of Wotton, 8 Gresley of Drakelow, 45 Greville of Warwick Castle, 277 Grey of Groby, 130 Grey of Howick, 171 Grimston of Grimston-Garth, 301 Grosvenor of Eaton, 14 Gurney of Keswick, 153 Haggerston of Ellingham, 173 Hamerton of Hellifield-Peel, 304 Harcourt of Ankerwycke, 9 Harington of Dartington, 64 Harley of Down-Rossel, 199 Harpur of Calke, 50 Harries of Cruckton, 217 Hazlerigg of Noseley, 132 Heigham of Hunston, 246 Heneage of Hainton, 136 Hervey of Ickworth, 244 Hesketh of Rufford, 116 Hill of Hawkstone, 210 Hoghton of Hoghton-Tower, 113 Honywood of Evington, 103 Hotham of South Dalton, 305 Howard of East Winch, 151 Huddleston of Hutton-John, 41 Hulton of Hulton, 122 Huyshe of Sand, 73 Irton of Irton, 42 Isham of Lamport, 164 Jenney of Bredfield, 242 Jerningham of Cossey 156 Jocelyn of Hyde Hall, 98 Kelly of Kelly, 62 Kendall of Pelyn, 37 Kingscote of Kingscote, 90 Knatchbull of Mersham Hatch, 107 Knightley of Fawsley, 160 Kynaston of Hardwicke, 196 Lambton of Lambton, 83 Lane of King's Bromley, 240 Langton of Langton, 140 Lascelles of Harewood, 321 Lawley of Spoonhill, 215 Lawton of Lawton, 27 Leche of Carden, 25 Lechmere of Hanley, 296 Legh of East Hall, 21 Leigh of West Hall, 22 Leigh of Adlestrop, 92 Leighton of Loton, 194 Leycester of Toft, 19 Lingen of Longnor, 198 Lister of Gisburn, 320 Loraine of Kirk-Harle, 172 Lovett of Liscombe, 10 Lowther of Lowther, 279 Lumley of Lumley Castle, 81 Luttley of Brockhampton, 96 Lyttelton of Frankley, 292 Malet of Wilbury, 287 Mainwaring of Whitmore, 232 Manners of Belvoir Castle, 137 Markham of Becca, 315 Massie of Coddington, 19 Massingberd of Wrangle, 140 Maunsell of Thorpe-Malsor, 163 Meynell of Hore-Cross, 234 Meynell of North Kilvington, 318 Middleton of Belsey Castle, 170 Mitford of Mitford, 168 Molesworth of Pencarrow, 33 Molyneux of Sefton, 112 Monson of Burton, 142 Mordaunt of Walton, 270 Musgrave of Edenhall, 40 Neville of Birling, 102 Noel of Bell Hall, 295 Northcote of Pynes, 67 Norton of Grantley, 309 Oakeley of Oakeley, 209 Oglander of Nunwell, 224 Okeover of Okeover, 227 Onslow of West Clandon, 251 Ormerod of Tyldesley, 124 Oxenden of Dene, 109 Palmer of Carlton, 165 Palmes of Naburn, 323 Parker of Shirburne Castle, 189 Patten of Bank Hall, 126 Pelham of Laughton, 255 Pennington of Pennington, 111 Perceval of Nork House, 249 Pigott of Edgmond, 215 Pilkington of Nether Bradley, 313 Plowden of Plowden, 204 Pole of Radborne, 49 Pole of Shute, 62 Polhill of Howbury, 3 Polwhele of Polwhele, 34 Poulett of Hinton, 219 Prideaux of Place, 30 Radclyffe of Foxdenton, 121 Rashleigh of Menabilly, 38 Rawdon of Rawdon, 317 Ridley of Blagden, 174 Rokeby of Arthingworth, 162 Roper of Linstead, 106 Roundell of Screven, 323 Rous of Dennington, 245 Russell of Kingston Russell, 75 St. John of Melchborne, 1 Salvin of Croxdale, 82 Salway of Moor Park, 217 Sandford of Sandford, 195 Savile of Methley, 310 Scrope of Danby, 300 Scudamore of Kentchurch, 95 Sebright of Besford, 297 Selby of Biddleston, 171 Seymour of Maiden-Bradley, 283 Sheldon of Brailes, 276 Shelley of Maresfield, 256 Sherard of Glatton, 100 Shirley of Eatington, 262 Shuckburgh of Shuckburgh, 273 Skipwith of Harborough, 272 Sneyd of Keel, 238 Speke of Jordans, 220 Spencer of Althorpe, 161 Stanhope of Shelford, 177 Stanley of Knowesley, 119 Starkie of Huntroyd, 124 Staunton of Longbridge, 268 Stonor of Stonor, 181 Stourton of Allerton, 314 Strickland of Sizergh, 280 Strode of Newenham, 69 Sutton of Norwood, 176 Swinburne of Capheaton, 169 Talbot of Grafton, 293 Tancred of Borough Bridge, 318 Tatton of Tatton, 17 Tempest of Broughton, 303 Thornes of Llwyntidman, 216 Thornhill of Stanton, 54 Thorold of Marston, 139 Throckmorton of Coughton 274 Thynne of Longleate, 289 Tichborne of Tichborne, 223 Toke of Godington, 105 Townley of Townley, 117 Townshend of Rainham, 157 Trafford of Trafford, 115 Trefusis of Trefusis, 34 Tregonwell of Anderson, 78 Trelawny of Trelawny, 29 Tremayne of Helligan, 36 Trevelyan of Nettlecombe, 221 Trye of Leckhampton, 91 Turvile of Husband's Bosworth, 127 Twysden of Royden Hall, 104 Tyrell of Boreham, 84 Tyrwhitt of Stanley Hall, 201 Upton of Ashton Court, 222 Vernon of Sudbury, 48 Villiers of Middleton-Stoney, 186 Vincent of Debden-Hall, 88 Vyvyan of Trelowarren, 32 Wake of Courtenhall, 158 Walcot of Bitterley, 206 Waldegrave of Naverstoke, 85 Wallop of Wallop, 225 Walpole of Wolterton, 147 Walrond of Dulford, 69 Waterton of Walton, 307 Welby of Denton, 134 Weld of Lulworth, 79 West of Buckhurst, 257 Weston of West Horsley, 250 Whichcote of Aswarby, 142 Whitgreve of Moseley, 239 Whitmore of Apley, 205 Wilbraham of Delamere, 20 Willoughby of Wollaton, 178 Wingfield of Tickencote, 190 Winnington of Stanford, 294 Wodehouse of Kimberley, 146 Wollaston of Shenton, 133 Wolryche of Croxley, 99 Wolseley of Wolseley, 235 Wombwell of Wombwell, 322 Wrey of Trebigh, 38 Wrottesley of Wrottesley, 230 Wybergh of Clifton, 282 Wykeham of Tythrop, 182 Wyndham of Dinton, 286 Wyvill of Constable-Burton, 302 WESTMINSTER: J. B. NICHOLS AND SONS, PRINTERS. PARLIAMENT STREET. [Transcriber's Notes: The following misprints have been corrected: [in this county of B ckingham] -> [in this county of Buckingham] [directly to the Couquest] -> [directly to the Conquest] [This family wrs originally] -> [This family was originally] [Torr-Abbey was purchasd] -> [Torr-Abbey was purchased] [EARL WALDEGRVE 1729] -> [EARL WALDEGRAVE 1729] [Cornewwall of Delbury.] -> [Cornewall of Delbury.] See under "COMPTON OF COMPTON WYNIATE": [the seventeenth eentury.] -> [the seventeenth century.] [extinct in the last centnry.] -> [extinct in the last century.] [who assumed the loca name] -> [who assumed the local name] [G. H. M'Gill's account], this may seem a misprint but [M'Gill] is an existing name. As the text below "DIGBY OF MILTON" suggests, the placename [Milton] should be [Tilton]. Confirmation for this has been found in "the Leicestershire Historian", vol. 2, no. 8 (the article "The Tilton Family in America and its Link with Tilton on the Hill" written by Peter D. A. Blakesley), page 7: "... the family of Digby, lords of the manor of Tilton from the twelfth century until the seventeenth century, when the manor was sold." [DIGBY OF MILTON, BARON] -> [DIGBY OF TILTON, BARON] Another misprint for [Tilton] has been found in the "Index": [Digby of Minton, 76] -> [Digby of Tilton, 76] [Bedingfeld of Oxburgh, 156] -> [Bedingfeld of Oxburgh, 150] [Leigh of East Hall, 21] -> [Legh of East Hall, 21] [Onslow of West Clandon, 52] -> [Onslow of West Clandon, 251] Two misprints in this one: [Wake of Courtenhall, 138] -> [Wake of Courteenhall, 158] The author used asterixes to indicate notes. Unfortunately 3 asterixes lack an explanation. They are located at: [Leicestershire, iv. pt. 2. p. 519.*] [Leicestershire, iii. pt. 2, p. 1009*] [ii. pt. i. p. *261;] The word [coheiress] also occurs with the notation [co-heiress]. Both notations have been maintained. The plain text file of this ebook uses underscores to indicate italic text and plus signs to indicate a bold Gothic typeface. Each family description starts with an illustration representing their arms. In the plain text file these have been replaced with [Illustration]. A few cases of punctuation errors were corrected, but are not mentioned here. ] 
22943	----	The Nebuly Coat, by John Meade Falkner. ________________________________________________________________________ This extraordinary book was acclaimed on its publication in 1903 as one of the very best books ever written in the English language. We have worked for this transcription from the first edition, which was given two printings, of which we used the second. There are not so many actors in the story that the reader is baffled, and each of them is beautifully drawn, so that their characters stand out clearly and consistently. It appears that the action of the story was set in the 1860s. There is a sudden death. Was it a murder? It was recorded as an accidental death in the inquest. If it was a murder then who did it? There is one possibility, but it is unthinkable. Through a very minor accident the whole situation becomes clear: the mystery is unravelled; the reasons for various earlier actions become known to us. From the very beginning of the book there is sustained tension, and our interest is kept with ever increasing intensity until we reach the extraordinary climax in the last words of the book. ________________________________________________________________________ THE NEBULY COAT, BY JOHN MEADE FALKNER. PROLOGUE. Sir George Farquhar, Baronet, builder of railway-stations, and institutes, and churches, author, antiquarian, and senior partner of Farquhar and Farquhar, leant back in his office chair and turned it sideways to give more point to his remarks. Before him stood an understudy, whom he was sending to superintend the restoration work at Cullerne Minster. "Well, good-bye, Westray; keep your eyes open, and don't forget that you have an important job before you. The church is too big to hide its light under a bushel, and this Society-for-the-Conservation-of-National-Inheritances has made up its mind to advertise itself at our expense. Ignoramuses who don't know an aumbry from an abacus, charlatans, amateur faddists, they _will_ abuse our work. Good, bad, or indifferent, it's all one to them; they are pledged to abuse it." His voice rang with a fine professional contempt, but he sobered himself and came back to business. "The south transept roof and the choir vaulting will want careful watching. There is some old trouble, too, in the central tower; and I should like later on to underpin the main crossing piers, but there is no money. For the moment I have said nothing about the tower; it is no use raising doubts that one can't set at rest; and I don't know how we are going to make ends meet, even with the little that it is proposed to do now. If funds come in, we must tackle the tower; but transept and choir-vaults are more pressing, and there is no risk from the bells, because the cage is so rotten that they haven't been rung for years. "You must do your best. It isn't a very profitable stewardship, so try to give as good an account of it as you can. We shan't make a penny out of it, but the church is too well known to play fast-and-loose with. I have written to the parson--a foolish old fellow, who is no more fit than a lady's-maid to be trusted with such a church as Cullerne--to say you are coming to-morrow, and will put in an appearance at the church in the afternoon, in case he wishes to see you. The man is an ass, but he is legal guardian of the place, and has not done badly in collecting money for the restoration; so we must bear with him." CHAPTER ONE. Cullerne Wharf of the Ordnance maps, or plain Cullerne as known to the countryside, lies two miles from the coast to-day; but it was once much nearer, and figures in history as a seaport of repute, having sent six ships to fight the Armada, and four to withstand the Dutch a century later. But in fulness of time the estuary of the Cull silted up, and a bar formed at the harbour mouth; so that sea-borne commerce was driven to seek other havens. Then the Cull narrowed its channel, and instead of spreading itself out prodigally as heretofore on this side or on that, shrunk to the limits of a well-ordered stream, and this none of the greatest. The burghers, seeing that their livelihood in the port was gone, reflected that they might yet save something by reclaiming the salt-marshes, and built a stone dyke to keep the sea from getting in, with a sluice in the midst of it to let the Cull out. Thus were formed the low-lying meadows called Cullerne Flat, where the Freemen have a right to pasture sheep, and where as good-tasting mutton is bred as on any _pre-sale_ on the other side of the Channel. But the sea has not given up its rights without a struggle, for with a south-east wind and spring-tide the waves beat sometimes over the top of the dyke; and sometimes the Cull forgets its good behaviour, and after heavy rainfalls inland breaks all bonds, as in the days of yore. Then anyone looking out from upper windows in Cullerne town would think the little place had moved back once more to the seaboard; for the meadows are under water, and the line of the dyke is scarcely broad enough to make a division in the view, between the inland lake and the open sea beyond. The main line of the Great Southern Railway passes seven miles to the north of this derelict port, and converse with the outer world was kept up for many years by carriers' carts, which journeyed to and fro between the town and the wayside station of Cullerne Road. But by-and-by deputations of the Corporation of Cullerne, properly introduced by Sir Joseph Carew, the talented and widely-respected member for that ancient borough, persuaded the railway company that better communication was needed, and a branch-line was made, on which the service was scarcely less primitive than that of the carriers in the past. The novelty of the railway had not altogether worn off at the time when the restorations of the church were entrusted to Messrs. Farquhar and Farquhar; and the arrival of the trains was still attended by Cullerne loungers as a daily ceremonial. But the afternoon on which Westray came, was so very wet that there were no spectators. He had taken a third-class ticket from London to Cullerne Road to spare his pocket, and a first-class ticket from the junction to Cullerne to support the dignity of his firm. But this forethought was wasted, for, except certain broken-down railway officials, who were drafted to Cullerne as to an asylum, there were no witnesses of his advent. He was glad to learn that the enterprise of the Blandamer Arms led that family and commercial hotel to send an omnibus to meet all trains, and he availed himself the more willingly of this conveyance because he found that it would set him down at the very door of the church itself. So he put himself and his modest luggage inside--and there was ample room to do this, for he was the only passenger--plunged his feet into the straw which covered the floor, and endured for ten minutes such a shaking and rattling as only an omnibus moving over cobble-stones can produce. With the plans of Cullerne Minster Mr Westray was thoroughly familiar, but the reality was as yet unknown to him; and when the omnibus lumbered into the market-place, he could not suppress an exclamation as he first caught sight of the great church of Saint Sepulchre shutting in the whole south side of the square. The drenching rain had cleared the streets of passengers, and save for some peeping-Toms who looked over the low green blinds as the omnibus passed, the place might indeed have been waiting for Lady Godiva's progress, all was so deserted. The heavy sheets of rain in the air, the misty water-dust raised by the drops as they struck the roofs, and the vapour steaming from the earth, drew over everything a veil invisible yet visible, which softened outlines like the gauze curtain in a theatre. Through it loomed the Minster, larger and far more mysteriously impressive than Westray had in any moods imagined. A moment later the omnibus drew up before an iron gate, from which a flagged pathway led through the churchyard to the north porch. The conductor opened the carriage-door. "This is the church, sir," he said, somewhat superfluously. "If you get out here, I will drive your bag to the hotel." Westray fixed his hat firmly on his head, turned up the collar of his coat, and made a dash through the rain for the door. Deep puddles had formed in the worn places of the gravestones that paved the alley, and he splashed himself in his hurry before he reached the shelter of the porch. He pulled aside the hanging leather mattress that covered a wicket in the great door, and found himself inside the church. It was not yet four o'clock, but the day was so overcast that dusk was already falling in the building. A little group of men who had been talking in the choir turned round at the sound of the opening door, and made towards the architect. The protagonist was a clergyman past middle age, who wore a stock, and stepped forward to greet the young architect. "Sir George Farquhar's assistant, I presume. One of Sir George Farquhar's assistants I should perhaps say, for no doubt Sir George has more than one assistant in carrying out his many and varied professional duties." Westray made a motion of assent, and the clergyman went on: "Let me introduce myself as Canon Parkyn. You will no doubt have heard of me from Sir George, with whom I, as rector of this church, have had exceptional opportunities of associating. On one occasion, indeed, Sir George spent the night under my own roof, and I must say that I think any young man should be proud of studying under an architect of such distinguished ability. I shall be able to explain to you very briefly the main views which Sir George has conceived with regard to the restoration; but in the meantime let me make you known to my worthy parishioners--and friends," he added in a tone which implied some doubt as to whether condescension was not being stretched too far, in qualifying as friends persons so manifestly inferior. "This is Mr Sharnall, the organist, who under my direction presides over the musical portion of our services; and this is Dr Ennefer, our excellent local practitioner; and this is Mr Joliffe, who, though engaged in trade, finds time as churchwarden to assist me in the supervision of the sacred edifice." The doctor and the organist gave effect to the presentation by a nod, and something like a shrug of the shoulders, which deprecated the Rector's conceited pomposity, and implied that if such an exceedingly unlikely contingency as their making friends with Mr Westray should ever happen, it would certainly not be due to any introduction of Canon Parkyn. Mr Joliffe, on the other hand, seemed fully to recognise the dignity to which he was called by being numbered among the Rector's friends, and with a gracious bow, and a polite "Your servant, sir," made it plain that he understood how to condescend in his turn, and was prepared to extend his full protection to a young and struggling architect. Beside these leading actors, there were present the clerk, and a handful of walking-gentlemen in the shape of idlers who had strolled in from the street, and who were glad enough to find shelter from the rain, and an afternoon's entertainment gratuitously provided. "I thought you would like to meet me here," said the Rector, "so that I might point out to you at once the more salient features of the building. Sir George Farquhar, on the occasion of his last visit, was pleased to compliment me on the lucidity of the explanations which I ventured to offer." There seemed to be no immediate way of escape, so Westray resigned himself to the inevitable, and the little group moved up the nave, enveloped in an atmosphere of its own, of which wet overcoats and umbrellas were resolvable constituents. The air in the church was raw and cold, and a smell of sodden matting drew Westray's attention to the fact that the roofs were not water-tight, and that there were pools of rain-water on the floor in many places. "The nave is the oldest part," said the cicerone, "built about 1135 by Walter Le Bec." "I am very much afraid our friend is too young and inexperienced for the work here. What do _you_ think?" he put in as a rapid aside to the doctor. "Oh, I dare say if you take him in hand and coach him a little he will do all right," replied the doctor, raising his eyebrows for the organist's delectation. "Yes, this is all Le Bec's work," the Rector went on, turning back to Westray. "So sublime the simplicity of the Norman style, is it not? The nave arcades will repay your close attention; and look at these wonderful arches in the crossing. Norman, of course, but how light; and yet strong as a rock to bear the enormous weight of the tower which later builders reared on them. Wonderful, wonderful!" Westray recalled his Chief's doubts about the tower, and looking up into the lantern saw on the north side a seam of old brick filling; and on the south a thin jagged fissure, that ran down from the sill of the lantern-window like the impress of a lightning-flash. There came into his head an old architectural saw, "The arch never sleeps"; and as he looked up at the four wide and finely-drawn semicircles they seemed to say: "The arch never sleeps, never sleeps. They have bound on us a burden too heavy to be borne. We are shifting it. The arch never sleeps." "Wonderful, wonderful!" the Rector still murmured. "Daring fellows, these Norman builders." "Yes, yes," Westray was constrained to say; "but they never reckoned that the present tower would be piled upon their arches." "What, _you_ think them a little shaky?" put in the organist. "Well, I have fancied so, many a time, myself." "Oh, I don't know. I dare say they will last our time," Westray answered in a nonchalant and reassuring tone; for he remembered that, as regards the tower, he had been specially cautioned to let sleeping dogs lie, but he thought of the Ossa heaped on Pelion above their heads, and conceived a mistrust of the wide crossing-arches which he never was able entirely to shake off. "No, no, my young friend," said the Rector with a smile of forbearance for so mistaken an idea, "do not alarm yourself about these arches. `Mr Rector,' said Sir George to me the very first time we were here together, `you have been at Cullerne forty years; have you ever observed any signs of movement in the tower?' `Sir George,' I said, `will you wait for your fees until my tower tumbles down?' Ha, ha, ha! He saw the joke, and we never heard anything more about the tower. Sir George has, no doubt, given you all proper instructions; but as I had the privilege of personally showing him the church, you must forgive me if I ask you to step into the south transept for a moment, while I point out to you what Sir George considered the most pressing matter." They moved into the transept, but the doctor managed to buttonhole Westray for a moment _en route_. "You will be bored to death," he said, "with this man's ignorance and conceit. Don't pay the least attention to him, but there _is_ one thing I want to take the first opportunity of pressing on you. Whatever is done or not done, however limited the funds may be, let us at least have a sanitary floor. You must have all these stones up, and put a foot or two of concrete under them. Can anything be more monstrous than that the dead should be allowed to poison the living? There must be hundreds of burials close under the floor, and look at the pools of water standing about. Can anything, I say, be more insanitary?" They were in the south transept, and the Rector had duly pointed out the dilapidations of the roof, which, in truth, wanted but little showing. "Some call this the Blandamer aisle," he said, "from a noble family of that name who have for many years been buried here." "_Their_ vaults are, no doubt, in a most insanitary condition," interpolated the doctor. "These Blandamers ought to restore the whole place," the organist said bitterly. "They would, if they had any sense of decency. They are as rich as Croesus, and would miss pounds less than most people would miss pennies. Not that I believe in any of this sanitary talk--things have gone on well enough as they are; and if you go digging up the floors you will only dig up pestilences. Keep the fabric together, make the roofs water-tight, and spend a hundred or two on the organ. That is all we want, and these Blandamers would do it, if they weren't curmudgeons and skinflints." "You will forgive me, Mr Sharnall," said the Rector, "if I remark that an hereditary peerage is so important an institution, that we should be very careful how we criticise any members of it. At the same time," he went on, turning apologetically to Westray, "there is perhaps a modicum of reason in our friend's remarks. I had hoped that Lord Blandamer would have contributed handsomely to the restoration fund, but he has not hitherto done so, though I dare say that his continued absence abroad accounts for some delay. He only succeeded his grandfather last year, and the late lord never showed much interest in this place, and was indeed in many ways a very strange character. But it's no use raking up these stories; the old man is gone, and we must hope for better things from the young one." "I don't know why you call him young," said the doctor. "He's young, maybe, compared to his grandfather, who died at eighty-five; but he must be forty, if he's a day." "Oh, impossible; and yet I don't know. It was in my first year at Cullerne that his father and mother were drowned. You remember that, Mr Sharnall--when the _Corisande_ upset in Pallion Bay?" "Ay, I mind that well enough," struck in the clerk; "and I mind their being married, becos' we wor ringing of the bells, when old Mason Parmiter run into the church, and says: `Do'ant-'ee, boys--do'ant-'ee ring 'em any more. These yere old tower'll never stand it. I see him rock,' he says, `and the dust a-running out of the cracks like rain.' So out we come, and glad enough to stop it, too, because there wos a feast down in the meadows by the London Road, and drinks and dancing, and we wanted to be there. That were two-and-forty years ago come Lady Day, and there was some shook their heads, and said we never ought to have stopped the ring, for a broken peal broke life or happiness. But what was we to do?" "Did they strengthen the tower afterwards?" Westray asked. "Do you find any excessive motion when the peal is rung now?" "Lor' bless you, sir; them bells was never rung for thirty years afore that, and wouldn't a been rung then, only Tom Leech, he says: `The ropes is there, boys; let's have a ring out of these yere tower. He ain't been rung for thirty year. None on us don't recollect the last time he _was_ rung, and if 'er were weak then, 'ers had plenty of time to get strong again, and there'll be half a crown a man for ringing of a peal.' So up we got to it, till old Parmiter come in to stop us. And you take my word for it, they never have been rung since. There's only that rope there"--and he pointed to a bell-rope that came down from the lantern far above, and was fastened back against the wall--"wot we tolls the bell with for service, and that ain't the big bell neither." "Did Sir George Farquhar know all this?" Westray asked the Rector. "No, sir; Sir George did not know it," said the Rector, with some tartness in his voice, "because it was not material that he should know it; and Sir George's time, when he was here, was taken up with more pressing matters. I never heard this old wife's tale myself till the present moment, and although it is true that we do not ring the bells, this is on account of the supposed weakness of the cage in which they swing, and has nothing whatever to do with the tower itself. You may take my word for that. `Sir George,' I said, when Sir George asked me--`Sir George, I have been here forty years, and if you will agree not to ask for your fees till my tower tumbles down, why, I shall be very glad.' Ha, ha, ha! how Sir George enjoyed that joke! Ha, ha, ha!" Westray turned away with a firm resolve to report to headquarters the story of the interrupted peal, and to make an early examination of the tower on his own behalf. The clerk was nettled that the Rector should treat his story with such scant respect, but he saw that the others were listening with interest, and he went on: "Well, 'taint for I to say the old tower's a-going to fall, and I hope Sir Jarge won't ever live to larf the wrong side o' his mouth; but stopping of a ring never brought luck with it yet, and it brought no luck to my lord. First he lost his dear son and his son's wife in Cullerne Bay, and I remember as if 'twas yesterday how we grappled for 'em all night, and found their bodies lying close together on the sand in three fathoms, when the tide set inshore in the morning. And then he fell out wi' my lady, and she never spoke to him again--no, not to the day of her death. They lived at Fording--that's the great hall over there," he said to Westray, jerking his thumb towards the east--"for twenty years in separate wings, like you mi'd say each in a house to themselves. And then he fell out wi' Mr Fynes, his grandson, and turned him out of house and lands, though he couldn't leave them anywhere else when he died. 'Tis Mr Fynes as is the young lord now, and half his life he's bin a wandrer in foreign parts, and isn't come home yet. Maybe he never will come back. It's like enough he's got killed out there, or he'd be tied to answer parson's letters. Wouldn't he, Mr Sharnall?" he said, turning abruptly to the organist with a wink, which was meant to retaliate for the slight that the Rector had put on his stories. "Come, come; we've had enough of these tales," said the Rector. "Your listeners are getting tired." "The man's in love with his own voice," he added in a lower tone, as he took Westray by the arm; "when he's once set off there's no stopping him. There are still a good many points which Sir George and I discussed, and on which I shall hope to give you our conclusions; but we shall have to finish our inspection to-morrow, for this talkative fellow has sadly interrupted us. It is a great pity the light is failing so fast just now; there is some good painted glass in this end window of the transept." Westray looked up and saw the great window at the end of the transept shimmering with a dull lustre; light only in comparison with the shadows that were falling inside the church. It was an insertion of Perpendicular date, reaching from wall to wall, and almost from floor to roof. Its vast breadth, parcelled out into eleven lights, and the infinite division of the stonework in the head, impressed the imagination; while mullions and tracery stood out in such inky contrast against the daylight yet lingering outside, that the architect read the scheme of subarcuation and the tracery as easily as if he had been studying a plan. Sundown had brought no gleam to lift the pall of the dying day, but the monotonous grey of the sky was still sufficiently light to enable a practised eye to make out that the head of the window was filled with a broken medley of ancient glass, where translucent blues and yellows and reds mingled like the harmony of an old patchwork quilt. Of the lower divisions of the window, those at the sides had no colour to clothe their nakedness, and remained in ghostly whiteness; but the three middle lights were filled with strong browns and purples of the seventeenth century. Here and there in the rich colour were introduced medallions, representing apparently scriptural scenes, and at the top of each light, under the cusping, was a coat of arms. The head of the middle division formed the centre of the whole scheme, and seemed to represent a shield of silver-white crossed by waving sea-green bars. Westray's attention was attracted by the unusual colouring, and by the transparency of the glass, which shone as with some innate radiance where all was dim. He turned almost unconsciously to ask whose arms were thus represented, but the Rector had left him for a minute, and he heard an irritating "Ha, ha, ha!" at some distance down the nave, that convinced him that the story of Sir George Farquhar and the postponed fees was being retold in the dusk to a new victim. Someone, however, had evidently read the architect's thoughts, for a sharp voice said: "That is the coat of the Blandamers--barry nebuly of six, argent and vert." It was the organist who stood near him in the deepening shadows. "I forgot that such jargon probably conveys no meaning to you, and, indeed, I know no heraldry myself excepting only this one coat of arms, and sometimes wish," he said with a sigh, "that I knew nothing of that either. There have been queer tales told of that shield, and maybe there are queerer yet to be told. It has been stamped for good or evil on this church, and on this town, for centuries, and every tavern loafer will talk to you about the `nebuly coat' as if it was a thing he wore. You will be familiar enough with it before you have been a week at Cullerne." There was in the voice something of melancholy, and an earnestness that the occasion scarcely warranted. It produced a curious effect on Westray, and led him to look closely at the organist; but it was too dark to read any emotion in his companion's face, and at this moment the Rector rejoined them. "Eh, what? Ah, yes; the nebuly coat. Nebuly, you know, from the Latin _nebulum, nebulus_ I should say, a cloud, referring to the wavy outline of the bars, which are supposed to represent cumulus clouds. Well, well, it is too dark to pursue our studies further this evening, but to-morrow I can accompany you the whole day, and shall be able to tell you much that will interest you." Westray was not sorry that the darkness had put a stop to further investigations. The air in the church grew every moment more clammy and chill, and he was tired, hungry, and very cold. He was anxious, if possible, to find lodgings at once, and so avoid the expense of an hotel, for his salary was modest, and Farquhar and Farquhar were not more liberal than other firms in the travelling allowances which they granted their subordinates. He asked if anyone could tell him of suitable rooms. "I am sorry," the Rector said, "not to be able to offer you the hospitality of my own house, but the indisposition of my wife unfortunately makes that impossible. I have naturally but a very slight acquaintance with lodging-houses or lodging-house keepers; but Mr Sharnall, I dare say, may be able to give you some advice. Perhaps there may be a spare room in the house where Mr Sharnall lodges. I think your landlady is a relation of our worthy friend Joliffe, is she not, Mr Sharnall? And no doubt herself a most worthy woman." "Pardon, Mr Rector," said the churchwarden, in as offended a tone as he dared to employ in addressing so superior a dignitary--"pardon, no relation at all, I assure you. A namesake, or, at the nearest, a very distant connection of whom--I speak with all Christian forbearance--my branch of the family have no cause to be proud." The organist had scowled when the Rector was proposing Westray as a fellow-lodger, but Joliffe's disclaimer of the landlady seemed to pique him. "If no branch of your family brings you more discredit than my landlady, you may hold your head high enough. And if all the pork you sell is as good as her lodgings, your business will thrive. Come along," he said, taking Westray by the arm; "I have no wife to be indisposed, so I can offer you the hospitality of my house; and we will stop at Mr Joliffe's shop on our way, and buy a pound of sausages for tea." CHAPTER TWO. There was a rush of outer air into the building as they opened the door. The rain still fell heavily, but the wind was rising, and had in it a clean salt smell, that contrasted with the close and mouldering atmosphere of the church. The organist drew a deep breath. "Ah," he said, "what a blessed thing to be in the open air again--to be quit of all their niggling and naggling, to be quit of that pompous old fool the Rector, and of that hypocrite Joliffe, and of that pedant of a doctor! Why does he want to waste money on cementing the vaults? It's only digging up pestilences; and they won't spend a farthing on the organ. Not a penny on the _Father Smith_, clear and sweet-voiced as a mountain brook. Oh," he cried, "it's too bad! The naturals are worn down to the quick, you can see the wood in the gutters of the keys, and the pedal-board's too short and all to pieces. Ah well! the organ's like me--old, neglected, worn-out. I wish I was dead." He had been talking half to himself, but he turned to Westray and said: "Forgive me for being peevish; you'll be peevish, too, when you come to my age--at least, if you're as poor then as I am, and as lonely, and have nothing to look forward to. Come along." They stepped out into the dark--for night had fallen--and plashed along the flagged path which glimmered like a white streamlet between the dark turves. "I will take you a short-cut, if you don't mind some badly-lighted lanes," said the organist, as they left the churchyard; "it's quicker, and we shall get more shelter." He turned sharply to the left, and plunged into an alley so narrow and dark that Westray could not keep up with him, and fumbled anxiously in the obscurity. The little man reached up, and took him by the arm. "Let me pilot you," he said; "I know the way. You can walk straight on; there are no steps." There was no sign of life, nor any light in the houses, but it was not till they reached a corner where an isolated lamp cast a wan and uncertain light that Westray saw that there was no glass in the windows, and that the houses were deserted. "It's the old part of the town," said the organist; "there isn't one house in ten with anyone in it now. All we fashionables have moved further up. Airs from the river are damp, you know, and wharves so very vulgar." They left the narrow street, and came on to what Westray made out to be a long wharf skirting the river. On the right stood abandoned warehouses, square-fronted, and huddled together like a row of gigantic packing-cases; on the left they could hear the gurgle of the current among the mooring-posts, and the flapping of the water against the quay wall, where the east wind drove the wavelets up the river. The lines of what had once been a horse-tramway still ran along the quay, and the pair had some ado to thread their way without tripping, till a low building on the right broke the line of lofty warehouses. It seemed to be a church or chapel, having mullioned windows with stone tracery, and a bell-turret at the west end; but its most marked feature was a row of heavy buttresses which shored up the side facing the road. They were built of brick, and formed triangles with the ground and the wall which they supported. The shadows hung heavy under the building, but where all else was black the recesses between the buttresses were blackest. Westray felt his companion's hand tighten on his arm. "You will think me as great a coward as I am," said the organist, "if I tell you that I never come this way after dark, and should not have come here to-night if I had not had you with me. I was always frightened as a boy at the very darkness in the spaces between the buttresses, and I have never got over it. I used to think that devils and hobgoblins lurked in those cavernous depths, and now I fancy evil men may be hiding in the blackness, all ready to spring out and strangle one. It is a lonely place, this old wharf, and after nightfall--" He broke off, and clutched Westray's arm. "Look," he said; "do you see nothing in the last recess?" His abruptness made Westray shiver involuntarily, and for a moment the architect fancied that he discerned the figure of a man standing in the shadow of the end buttress. But, as he took a few steps nearer, he saw that he had been deceived by a shadow, and that the space was empty. "Your nerves are sadly overstrung," he said to the organist. "There is no one there; it is only some trick of light and shade. What is the building?" "It was once a chantry of the Grey Friars," Mr Sharnall answered, "and afterwards was used for excise purposes when Cullerne was a real port. It is still called the Bonding-House, but it has been shut up as long as I remember it. Do you believe in certain things or places being bound up with certain men's destinies? because I have a presentiment that this broken-down old chapel will be connected somehow or other with a crisis of my life." Westray remembered the organist's manner in the church, and began to suspect that his mind was turned. The other read his thoughts, and said rather reproachfully: "Oh no, I am not mad--only weak and foolish and very cowardly." They had reached the end of the wharf, and were evidently returning to civilisation, for a sound of music reached them. It came from a little beer-house, and as they passed they heard a woman singing inside. It was a rich contralto, and the organist stopped for a moment to listen. "She has a fine voice," he said, "and would sing well if she had been taught. I wonder how she comes here." The blind was pulled down, but did not quite reach the bottom of the window, and they looked in. The rain blurred the pains on the outside, and the moisture had condensed within, so that it was not easy to see clearly; but they made out that a Creole woman was singing to a group of topers who sat by the fire in a corner of the room. She was middle-aged, but sang sweetly, and was accompanied on the harp by an old man: "Oh, take me back to those I love! Or bring them here to me! I have no heart to rove, to rove Across the rolling sea." "Poor thing!" said the organist; "she has fallen on bad days to have so scurvy a company to sing to. Let us move on." They turned to the right, and came in a few minutes to the highroad. Facing them stood a house which had once been of some pretensions, for it had a porch carried on pillars, under which a semicircular flight of steps led up to the double door. A street-lamp which stood before it had been washed so clean in the rain that the light was shed with unusual brilliance, and showed even at night that the house was fallen from its high estate. It was not ruinous, but _Ichabod_ was written on the paintless window-frames and on the rough-cast front, from which the plaster had fallen away in more than one place. The pillars of the porch had been painted to imitate marble, but they were marked with scabrous patches, where the brick core showed through the broken stucco. The organist opened the door, and they found themselves in a stone-floored hall, out of which dingy doors opened on both sides. A broad stone staircase, with shallow steps and iron balustrades, led from the hall to the next story, and there was a little pathway of worn matting that threaded its way across the flags, and finally ascended the stairs. "Here is my town house," said Mr Sharnall. "It used to be a coaching inn called The Hand of God, but you must never breathe a word of that, because it is now a private mansion, and Miss Joliffe has christened it Bellevue Lodge." A door opened while he was speaking, and a girl stepped into the hall. She was about nineteen, and had a tall and graceful figure. Her warm brown hair was parted in the middle, and its profusion was gathered loosely up behind in the half-formal, half-natural style of a preceding generation. Her face had lost neither the rounded outline nor the delicate bloom of girlhood, but there was something in it that negatived any impression of inexperience, and suggested that her life had not been free from trouble. She wore a close-fitting dress of black, and had a string of pale corals round her neck. "Good-evening, Mr Sharnall," she said. "I hope you are not very wet"-- and gave a quick glance of inquiry at Westray. The organist did not appear pleased at seeing her. He grunted testily, and, saying "Where is your aunt? Tell her I want to speak to her," led Westray into one of the rooms opening out of the hall. It was a large room, with an upright piano in one corner, and a great litter of books and manuscript music. A table in the middle was set for tea; a bright fire was burning in the grate, and on either side of it stood a rush-bottomed armchair. "Sit down," he said to Westray; "this is my reception-room, and we will see in a minute what Miss Joliffe can do for _you_." He glanced at his companion, and added, "That was her niece we met in the passage," in so unconcerned a tone as to produce an effect opposite to that intended, and to lead Westray to wonder whether there was any reason for his wishing to keep the girl in the background. In a few moments the landlady appeared. She was a woman of sixty, tall and spare, with a sweet and even distinguished face. She, too, was dressed in black, well-worn and shabby, but her appearance suggested that her thinness might be attributed to privation or self-denial, rather than to natural habit. Preliminaries were easily arranged; indeed, the only point of discussion was raised by Westray, who was disturbed by scruples lest the terms which Miss Joliffe offered were too low to be fair to herself. He said so openly, and suggested a slight increase, which, after some demur, was gratefully accepted. "You are too poor to have so fine a conscience," said the organist snappishly. "If you are so scrupulous now, you will be quite unbearable when you get rich with battening and fattening on this restoration." But he was evidently pleased with Westray's consideration for Miss Joliffe, and added with more cordiality: "You had better come down and share my meal; your rooms will be like an ice-house such a night as this. Don't be long, or the turtle will be cold, and the ortolans baked to a cinder. I will excuse evening dress, unless you happen to have your court suit with you." Westray accepted the invitation with some willingness, and an hour later he and the organist were sitting in the rush-bottomed armchairs at either side of the fireplace. Miss Joliffe had herself cleared the table, and brought two tumblers, wine-glasses, sugar, and a jug of water, as if they were natural properties of the organist's sitting-room. "I did Churchwarden Joliffe an injustice," said Mr Sharnall, with the reflective mood that succeeds a hearty meal; "his sausages are good. Put on some more coal, Mr Westray; it is a sinful luxury, a fire in September, and coal at twenty-five shillings a ton; but we must have _some_ festivity to inaugurate the restoration and your advent. Fill a pipe yourself, and then pass me the tobacco." "Thank you, I do not smoke," Westray said; and, indeed, he did not look like a smoker. He had something of the thin, unsympathetic traits of the professional water-drinker in his face, and spoke as if he regarded smoking as a crime for himself, and an offence for those of less lofty principles than his own. The organist lighted his pipe, and went on: "This is an airy house--sanitary enough to suit our friend the doctor; every window carefully ventilated on the crack-and-crevice principle. It was an old inn once, when there were more people hereabouts; and if the rain beats on the front, you can still read the name through the colouring--the Hand of God. There used to be a market held outside, and a century or more ago an apple-woman sold some pippins to a customer just before this very door. He said he had paid for them, and she said he had not; they came to wrangling, and she called Heaven to justify her. `God strike me dead if I have ever touched your money!' She was taken at her word, and fell dead on the cobbles. They found clenched in her hand the two coppers for which she had lost her soul, and it was recognised at once that nothing less than an inn could properly commemorate such an exhibition of Divine justice. So the Hand of God was built, and flourished while Cullerne flourished, and fell when Cullerne fell. It stood empty ever since I can remember it, till Miss Joliffe took it fifteen years ago. She elevated it into Bellevue Lodge, a select boarding-house, and spent what little money that niggardly landlord old Blandamer would give for repairs, in painting out the Hand of God on the front. It was to be a house of resort for Americans who came to Cullerne. They say in our guide-book that Americans come to see Cullerne Church because some of the Pilgrim Fathers' fathers are buried in it; but I've never seen any Americans about. They never come to me; I have been here boy and man for sixty years, and never knew an American do a pennyworth of good to Cullerne Church; and they never did a pennyworth of good for Miss Joliffe, for none of them ever came to Bellevue Lodge, and the select boarding-house is so select that you and I are the only boarders." He paused for a minute and went on: "Americans--no, I don't think much of Americans; they're too hard for me--spend a lot of money on their own pleasure, and sometimes cut a dash with a big donation, where they think it will be properly trumpeted. But they haven't got warm hearts. I don't care for Americans. Still, if you know any about, you can say I am quite venal; and if any one of them restores my organ, I am prepared to admire the whole lot. Only they must give a little water-engine for blowing it into the bargain. Shutter, the organist of Carisbury Cathedral, has just had a water-engine put in, and, now we've got our own new waterworks at Cullerne, we could manage it very well here too." The subject did not interest Westray, and he flung back: "Is Miss Joliffe very badly off?" he asked; "she looks like one of those people who have seen better days." "She is worse than badly off--I believe she is half starved. I don't know how she lives at all. I wish I could help her, but I haven't a copper myself to jingle on a tombstone, and she is too proud to take it if I had." He went to a cupboard in a recess at the back of the room, and took out a squat black bottle. "Poverty's a chilly theme," he said; "let's take something to warm us before we go on with the variations." He pushed the bottle towards his friend, but, though Westray felt inclined to give way, the principles of severe moderation which he had recently adopted restrained him, and he courteously waved away the temptation. "You're hopeless," said the organist. "What are we to do for you, who neither smoke nor drink, and yet want to talk about poverty? This is some _eau-de-vie_ old Martelet the solicitor gave me for playing the Wedding March at his daughter's marriage. `The Wedding March was magnificently rendered by the organist, Mr John Sharnall,' you know, as if it was the Fourth Organ-Sonata. I misdoubt this ever having paid duty; he's not the man to give away six bottles of anything he'd paid the excise upon." He poured out a portion of spirit far larger than Westray had expected, and then, becoming intuitively aware of his companion's surprise, said rather sharply: "If you despise good stuff, I must do duty for us both. Up to the top of the church windows is a good maxim." And he poured in yet more, till the spirit rose to the top of the cuts, which ran higher than half-way up the sides of the tumbler. There was silence for a few minutes, while the organist puffed testily at his pipe; but a copious draught from the tumbler melted his chagrin, and he spoke again: "I've had a precious hard life, but Miss Joliffe's had a harder; and I've got myself to thank for my bad luck, while hers is due to other people. First, her father died. He had a farm at Wydcombe, and people thought he was well off; but when they came to reckon up, he only left just enough to go round among his creditors; so Miss Euphemia gave up the house, and came into Cullerne. She took this rambling great place because it was cheap at twenty pounds a year, and lived, or half lived, from hand to mouth, giving her niece (the girl you saw) all the grains, and keeping the husks for herself. Then a year ago turned up her brother Martin, penniless and broken, with paralysis upon him. He was a harum-scarum ne'er-do-well. Don't stare at me with that Saul-among-the-prophets look; _he_ never drank; he would have been a better man if he had." And the organist made a further call on the squat bottle. "He would have given her less bother if he had drunk, but he was always getting into debt and trouble, and then used to come back to his sister, as to a refuge, because he knew she loved him. He was clever enough--brilliant they call it now--but unstable as water, with no lasting power. I don't believe he meant to sponge on his sister; I don't think he knew he did sponge, only he sponged. He would go off on his travels, no one knew where, though they knew well what he was seeking. Sometimes he was away two months, and sometimes he was away two years; and then, when Miss Joliffe had kept Anastasia--I mean her niece--all the time, and perhaps got a summer lodger, and seemed to be turning the corner, back would come Martin again to beg money for debts, and eat them out of house and home. I've seen that many a time, and many a time my heart has ached for them; but what could I do to help? I haven't a farthing. Last he came back a year ago, with death written on his face. I was glad enough to read it there, and think he was come for the last time to worry them; but it was paralysis, and he a strong man, so that it took that fool Ennefer a long time to kill him. He only died two months ago; here's better luck to him where he's gone." The organist drank as deeply as the occasion warranted. "Don't look so glum, man," he said; "I'm not always as bad as this, because I haven't always the means. Old Martelet doesn't give me brandy every day." Westray smoothed away the deprecating expression with which he had felt constrained to discountenance such excesses, and set Mr Sharnall's tongue going again with a question: "What did you say Joliffe used to go away for?" "Oh, it's a long story; it's the nebuly coat again. I spoke of it in the church--the silver and sea-green that turned his head. He would have it he wasn't a Joliffe at all, but a Blandamer, and rightful heir to Fording. As a boy, he went to Cullerne Grammar School, and did well, and got a scholarship at Oxford. He did still better there, and just when he seemed starting strong in the race of life, this nebuly coat craze seized him and crept over his mind, like the paralysis that crept over his body later on." "I don't quite follow you," Westray said. "Why did he think he was a Blandamer? Did he not know who his father was?" "He was brought up as a son of old Michael Joliffe, a yeoman who died fifteen years ago. But Michael married a woman who called herself a widow, and brought a three-year-old son ready-made to his wedding; and that son was Martin. Old Michael made the boy his own, was proud of his cleverness, would have him go to college, and left him all he had. There was no talk of Martin being anything but a Joliffe till Oxford puffed him up, and then he got this crank, and spent the rest of his life trying to find out who his father was. It was a forty-years' wandering in the wilderness; he found this clue and that, and thought at last he had climbed Pisgah and could see the promised land. But he had to be content with the sight, or mirage I suppose it was, and died before he tasted the milk and honey." "What was his connection with the nebuly coat? What made him think he was a Blandamer?" "Oh, I can't go into that now," the organist said; "I have told you too much, perhaps, already. You won't let Miss Joliffe guess I have said anything, will you? She is Michael Joliffe's own child--his only child--but she loved her half-brother dearly, and doesn't like his cranks being talked about. Of course, the Cullerne wags had many a tale to tell of him, and when he came back, greyer each time and wilder-looking, from his wanderings, they called him `Old Nebuly,' and the boys would make their bow in the streets, and say `Good-morning, Lord Blandamer.' You'll hear stories enough about him, and it was a bitter thing for his poor sister to bear, to see her brother a butt and laughing-stock, all the time that he was frittering away her savings. But it's all over now, and Martin's gone where they don't wear nebuly coats." "There was nothing in his fancies, I suppose?" Westray asked. "You must put that to wiser folk than me," said the organist lightly; "ask the Rector, or the doctor, or some really clever man." He had fallen back into his sneering tone, but there was something in his words that recalled a previous doubt, and led Westray to wonder whether Mr Sharnall had not lived so long with the Joliffes as to have become himself infected with Martin's delusions. His companion was pouring out more brandy, and the architect wished him good-night. Mr Westray's apartment was on the floor above, and he went at once to his bedroom; for he was very tired with his journey, and with standing so long in the church during the afternoon. He was pleased to find that his portmanteau had been unpacked, and that his clothes were carefully arranged in the drawers. This was a luxury to which he was little accustomed; there was, moreover, a fire to fling cheerful flickerings on spotlessly white curtains and bedlinen. Miss Joliffe and Anastasia had between them carried the portmanteau up the great well-staircase of stone, which ran from top to bottom of the house. It was a task of some difficulty, and there were frequent pauses to take breath, and settings-down of the portmanteau to rest aching arms. But they got it up at last, and when the straps were undone Miss Euphemia dismissed her niece. "No, my dear," she said; "let _me_ set the things in order. It is not seemly that a young girl should arrange men's clothes. There was a time when I should not have liked to do so myself, but now I am so old it does not very much matter." She gave a glance at the mirror as she spoke, adjusted a little bit of grizzled hair which had strayed from under her cap, and tried to arrange the bow of ribbon round her neck so that the frayed part should be as far as possible concealed. Anastasia Joliffe thought, as she left the room, that there were fewer wrinkles and a sweeter look than usual in the old face, and wondered that her aunt had never married. Youth looking at an old maid traces spinsterhood to man's neglect. It is so hard to read in sixty's plainness the beauty of sixteen--to think that underneath the placidity of advancing years may lie buried, yet unforgotten, the memory of suits urged ardently, and quenched long ago in tears. Miss Euphemia put everything carefully away. The architect's wardrobe was of the most modest proportions, but to her it seemed well furnished, and even costly. She noted, however, with the eye of a sportsman marking down a covey, sundry holes, rents, and missing buttons, and resolved to devote her first leisure to their rectification. Such mending, in anticipation and accomplishment, forms, indeed, a well-defined and important pleasure of all properly constituted women above a certain age. "Poor young man!" she said to herself. "I am afraid he has had no one to look after his clothes for a long time." And in her pity she rushed into the extravagance of lighting the bedroom fire. After things were arranged upstairs, she went down to see that all was in order in Mr Westray's sitting-room, and, as she moved about there, she heard the organist talking to the architect in the room below. His voice was so deep and raucous that it seemed to jar the soles of her feet. She dusted lightly a certain structure which, resting in tiers above the chimney-piece, served to surround a looking-glass with meaningless little shelves and niches. Miss Joliffe had purchased this piece-of-resistance when Mrs Cazel, the widow of the ironmonger, had sold her household effects preparatory to leaving Cullerne. "It is an overmantel, my dear," she had said to dubious Anastasia, when it was brought home. "I did not really mean to buy it, but I had not bought anything the whole morning, and the auctioneer looked so fiercely at me that I felt I must make a bid. Then no one else said anything, so here it is; but I dare say it will serve to smarten the room a little, and perhaps attract lodgers." Since then it had been brightened with a coat of blue enamel paint, and a strip of Brusa silk which Martin had brought back from one of his wanderings was festooned at the side, so as to hide a patch where the quicksilver showed signs of peeling off. Miss Joliffe pulled the festoon a little forward, and adjusted in one of the side niches a present-for-a-good-girl cup and saucer which had been bought for herself at Beacon Hill Fair half a century ago. She wiped the glass dome that covered the basket of artificial fruit, she screwed up the "banner-screen" that projected from the mantelpiece, she straightened out the bead mat on which the stereoscope stood, and at last surveyed the room with an expression of complete satisfaction on her kindly face. An hour later Westray was asleep, and Miss Joliffe was saying her prayers. She added a special thanksgiving for the providential direction to her house of so suitable and gentlemanly a lodger, and a special request that he might be happy whilst he should be under her roof. But her devotions were disturbed by the sound of Mr Sharnall's piano. "He plays most beautifully," she said to her niece, as she put out the candle; "but I wish he would not play so late. I am afraid I have not thought so earnestly as I should at my prayers." Anastasia Joliffe said nothing. She was grieved because the organist was thumping out old waltzes, and she knew by his playing that he had been drinking. CHAPTER THREE. The Hand of God stood on the highest point in all the borough, and Mr Westray's apartments were in the third story. From the window of his sitting-room he could look out over the houses on to Cullerne Flat, the great tract of salt-meadows that separated the town from the sea. In the foreground was a broad expanse of red-tiled roofs; in the middle distance Saint Sepulchre's Church, with its tower and soaring ridges, stood out so enormous that it seemed as if every house in the place could have been packed within its walls; in the background was the blue sea. In summer the purple haze hangs over the mouth of the estuary, and through the shimmer of the heat off the marsh, can be seen the silver windings of the Cull as it makes its way out to sea, and snow-white flocks of geese, and here and there the gleaming sail of a pleasure-boat. But in autumn, as Westray saw it for the first time, the rank grass is of a deeper green, and the face of the salt-meadows is seamed with irregular clay-brown channels, which at high-tide show out like crows'-feet on an ancient countenance, but at the ebb dwindle to little gullies with greasy-looking banks and a dribble of iridescent water in the bottom. It is in the autumn that the moles heap up meanders of miniature barrows, built of the softest brown loam; and in the turbaries the turf-cutters pile larger and darker stacks of peat. Once upon a time there was another feature in the view, for there could have been seen the masts and yards of many stately ships, of timber vessels in the Baltic trade, of tea-clippers, and Indiamen, and emigrant ships, and now and then the raking spars of a privateer owned by Cullerne adventurers. All these had long since sailed for their last port, and of ships nothing more imposing met the eye than the mast of Dr Ennefer's centre-board laid up for the winter in a backwater. Yet the scene was striking enough, and those who knew best said that nowhere in the town was there so fine an outlook as from the upper windows of the Hand of God. Many had looked out from those windows upon that scene: the skipper's wife as her eyes followed her husband's barque warping down the river for the voyage from which he never came back; honeymoon couples who broke the posting journey from the West at Cullerne, and sat hand in hand in summer twilight, gazing seaward till the white mists rose over the meadows and Venus hung brightening in the violet sky; old Captain Frobisher, who raised the Cullerne Yeomanry, and watched with his spy-glass for the French vanguard to appear; and, lastly, Martin Joliffe, as he sat dying day by day in his easy-chair, and scheming how he would spend the money when he should come into the inheritance of all the Blandamers. Westray had finished breakfast, and stood for a time at the open window. The morning was soft and fine, and there was that brilliant clearness in the air that so often follows heavy autumn rain. His full enjoyment of the scene was, however, marred by an obstruction which impeded free access to the window. It was a case of ferns, which seemed to be formed of an aquarium turned upside down, and supported by a plain wooden table. Westray took a dislike to the dank-looking plants, and to the moisture beaded on the glass inside, and made up his mind that the ferns must be banished. He would ask Miss Joliffe if she could take them away, and this determination prompted him to consider whether there were any other articles of furniture with which it would be advisable to dispense. He made a mental inventory of his surroundings. There were several pieces of good mahogany furniture, including some open-backed chairs, and a glass-fronted book-case, which were survivals from the yeoman's equipment at Wydcombe Farm. They had been put up for auction with the rest of Michael Joliffe's effects, but Cullerne taste considered them old-fashioned, and no bidders were found for them. Many things, on the other hand, such as bead mats, and wool-work mats, and fluff mats, a case of wax fruit, a basket of shell flowers, chairs with worsted-work backs, sofa-cushions with worsted-work fronts, two cheap vases full of pampas-grass, and two candlesticks with dangling prisms, grated sadly on Westray's taste, which he had long since been convinced was of all tastes the most impeccable. There were a few pictures on the walls--a coloured representation of young Martin Joliffe in Black Forest costume, a faded photograph of a boating crew, and another of a group in front of some ruins, which was taken when the Carisbury Field Club made an expedition to Wydcombe Abbey. Besides these, there were conventional copies in oils of a shipwreck, and an avalanche, and a painting of still-life representing a bowl full of flowers. This last picture weighed on Westray's mind by reason of its size, its faulty drawing, and vulgar, flashy colours. It hung full in front of him while he sat at breakfast, and though its details amused him for the time, he felt it would become an eyesore if he should continue to occupy the room. In it was represented the polished top of a mahogany table on which stood a blue and white china bowl filled with impossible flowers. The bowl occupied one side of the picture, and the other side was given up to a meaningless expanse of table-top. The artist had perceived, but apparently too late, the bad balance of the composition, and had endeavoured to redress this by a few more flowers thrown loose upon the table. Towards these flowers a bulbous green caterpillar was wriggling, at the very edge of the table, and of the picture. The result of Westray's meditations was that the fern-case and the flower-picture stood entirely condemned. He would approach Miss Joliffe at the earliest opportunity about their removal. He anticipated little trouble in modifying by degrees many other smaller details, but previous experience in lodgings had taught him that the removal of pictures is sometimes a difficult and delicate problem. He opened his rolls of plans, and selecting those which he required, prepared to start for the church, where he had to arrange with the builder for the erection of scaffolding. He wished to order dinner before he left, and pulled a broad worsted-work bell-pull to summon his landlady. For some little time he had been aware of the sound of a fiddle, and as he listened, waiting for the bell to be answered, the intermittance and reiteration of the music convinced him that the organist was giving a violin lesson. His first summons remained unanswered, and when a second attempt met with no better success, he gave several testy pulls in quick succession. This time he heard the music cease, and made no doubt that his indignant ringing had attracted the notice of the musicians, and that the organist had gone to tell Miss Joliffe that she was wanted. He was ruffled by such want of attention, and when there came at last a knock at his door, was quite prepared to expostulate with his landlady on her remissness. As she entered the room, he began, without turning from his drawings: "Never knock, please, when you answer the bell; but I do wish you--" Here he broke off, for on looking up he found he was speaking, not to the elder Miss Joliffe, but to her niece Anastasia. The girl was graceful, as he had seen the evening before, and again he noticed the peculiar fineness of her waving brown hair. His annoyance had instantaneously vanished, and he experienced to the full the embarrassment natural to a sensitive mind on finding a servant's role played by a lady, for that Anastasia Joliffe was a lady he had no doubt at all. Instead of blaming her, he seemed to be himself in fault for having somehow brought about an anomalous position. She stood with downcast eyes, but his chiding tone had brought a slight flush to her cheeks, and this flush began a discomfiture for Westray, that was turned into a rout when she spoke. "I am very sorry, I am afraid I have kept you waiting. I did not hear your bell at first, because I was busy in another part of the house, and then I thought my aunt had answered it. I did not know she was out." It was a low, sweet voice, with more of weariness in it than of humility. If he chose to blame her, she was ready to take the blame; but it was Westray who now stammered some incoherent apologies. Would she kindly tell Miss Joliffe that he would be in for dinner at one o'clock, and that he was quite indifferent as to what was provided for him. The girl showed some relief at his blundering courtesy, and it was not till she had left the room that Westray recollected that he had heard that Cullerne was celebrated for its red mullet; he had meant to order red mullet for dinner. Now that he was mortifying the flesh by drinking only water, he was proportionately particular to please his appetite in eating. Yet he was not sorry that he had forgotten the fish; it would surely have been a bathos to discuss the properties and application of red mullet with a young lady who found herself in so tragically lowly a position. After Westray had set out for the church, Anastasia Joliffe went back to Mr Sharnall's room, for it was she who had been playing the violin. The organist sat at the piano, drumming chords in an impatient and irritated way. "Well," he said, without looking at her as she came in--"well, what does my lord want with my lady? What has he made you run up to the top of the house for now? I wish I could wring his neck for him. Here we are out of breath, as usual, and our hands shaking; we shan't be able to play even as well as we did before, and that isn't saying much. Why," he cried, as he looked at her, "you're as red as a turkey-cock. I believe he's been making love to you." "Mr Sharnall," she retorted quickly, "if you say those things I will never come to your room again. I hate you when you speak like that, and fancy you are not yourself." She took her violin, and putting it under her arm, plucked arpeggi sharply. "There," he said, "don't take all I say so seriously; it is only because I am out of health and out of temper. Forgive me, child; I know well enough that there'll be no lovemaking with you till the right man comes, and I hope he never will come, Anastasia--I hope he never will." She did not accept or refuse his excuses, but tuned a string that had gone down. "Good heavens!" he said, as she walked to the music-stand to play; "can't you hear the A's as flat as a pancake?" She tightened the string again without speaking, and began the movement in which they had been interrupted. But her thoughts were not with the music, and mistake followed mistake. "What _are_ you doing?" said the organist. "You're worse than you were when we began five years ago. It's mere waste of time for you to go on, and for me, too." Then he saw that she was crying in the bitterness of vexation, and swung round on his music-stool without getting up. "Anstice, I didn't mean it, dear. I didn't mean to be such a brute. You are getting on well--well; and as for wasting my time, why, I haven't got anything to do, nor anyone to teach except you, and you know I would slave all day and all night, too, if I could give you any pleasure by it. Don't cry. Why are you crying?" She laid the violin on the table, and sitting down in that rush-bottomed chair in which Westray had sat the night before, put her head between her hands and burst into tears. "Oh," she said between her sobs in a strange and uncontrolled voice--"oh, I am so miserable--_everything_ is so miserable. There are father's debts not paid, not even the undertaker's bill paid for his funeral, and no money for anything, and poor Aunt Euphemia working herself to death. And now she says she will have to sell the little things we have in the house, and then when there is a chance of a decent lodger, a quiet, gentlemanly man, you go and abuse him, and say these rude things to me, because he rings the bell. How does he know aunt is out? how does he know she won't let me answer the bell when she's in? Of course, he thinks we have a servant, and then _you_ make me so sad. I couldn't sleep last night, because I knew you were drinking. I heard you when we went to bed playing trashy things that you hate except when you are not yourself. It makes me ill to think that you have been with us all these years, and been so kind to me, and now are come to this. Oh, do not do it! Surely we all are wretched enough, without your adding this to our wretchedness." He got up from the stool and took her hand. "Don't, Anstice--don't! I broke myself of it before, and I will break myself again. It was a woman drove me to it then, and sent me down the hill, and now I didn't know there was a living soul would care whether old Sharnall drank himself to death or not. If I could only think there was someone who cared; if I could only think you cared." "Of course I care"--and as she felt his hand tighten she drew her own lightly away--"of course we care--poor aunt and I--or she would care, if she knew, only she is so good she doesn't guess. I hate to see those horrid glasses taken in after your supper. It used to be so different, and I loved to hear the `Pastoral' and `Les Adieux' going when the house was still." It is sad when man's unhappiness veils from him the smiling face of nature. The promise of the early morning was maintained. The sky was of a translucent blue, broken with islands and continents of clouds, dazzling white like cotton-wool. A soft, warm breeze blew from the west, the birds sang merrily in every garden bush, and Cullerne was a town of gardens, where men could sit each under his own vine and fig-tree. The bees issued forth from their hives, and hummed with cheery droning chorus in the ivy-berries that covered the wall-tops with deep purple. The old vanes on the corner pinnacles of Saint Sepulchre's tower shone as if they had been regilt. Great flocks of plovers flew wheeling over Cullerne marsh, and flashed with a blinking silver gleam as they changed their course suddenly. Even through the open window of the organist's room fell a shaft of golden sunlight that lit up the peonies of the faded, threadbare carpet. But inside beat two poor human hearts, one unhappy and one hopeless, and saw nothing of the gold vanes, or the purple ivy-berries, or the plovers, or the sunlight, and heard nothing of the birds or the bees. "Yes, I will give it up," said the organist, though not quite so enthusiastically as before; and as he moved closer to Anastasia Joliffe, she got up and left the room, laughing as she went out. "I must get the potatoes peeled, or you will have none for dinner." Mr Westray, being afflicted neither with poverty nor age, but having a good digestion and entire confidence both in himself and in his prospects, could fully enjoy the beauty of the day. He walked this morning as a child of the light, forsaking the devious back-ways through which the organist had led him on the previous night, and choosing the main streets on his road to the church. He received this time a different impression of the town. The heavy rain had washed the pavements and roadway, and as he entered the Market Square he was struck with the cheerfulness of the prospect, and with the air of quiet prosperity which pervaded the place. On two sides of the square the houses overhung the pavement, and formed an arcade supported on squat pillars of wood. Here were situated some of the best "establishments," as their owners delighted to call them. Custance, the grocer; Rose and Storey, the drapers, who occupied the fronts of no less than three houses, and had besides a "department" round the corner "exclusively devoted to tailoring"; Lucy, the bookseller, who printed the _Cullerne Examiner_, and had published several of Canon Parkyn's sermons, as well as a tractate by Dr Ennefer on the means adopted in Cullerne for the suppression of cholera during the recent outbreak; Calvin, the saddler; Miss Adcutt, of the toy-shop; and Prior, the chemist, who was also postmaster. In the middle of the third side stood the Blandamer Arms, with a long front of buff, low green blinds, and window-sashes grained to imitate oak. At the edge of the pavement before the inn were some stone mounting steps, and by them stood a tall white pole, on which swung the green and silver of the nebuly coat itself. On either side of the Blandamer Arms clustered a few more modern shops, which, possessing no arcade, had to be content with awnings of brown stuff with red stripes. One of these places of business was occupied by Mr Joliffe, the pork-butcher. He greeted Westray through the open window. "Good-morning. About your work betimes, I see," pointing to the roll of drawings which the architect carried under his arm. "It is a great privilege, this restoration to which you are called," and here he shifted a chop into a more attractive position on the show-board--"and I trust blessing will attend your efforts. I often manage to snatch a few minutes from the whirl of business about mid-day myself, and seek a little quiet meditation in the church. If you are there then, I shall be glad to give you any help in my power. Meanwhile, we must both be busy with our own duties." He began to turn the handle of a sausage-machine, and Westray was glad to be quit of his pious words, and still more of his insufferable patronage. CHAPTER FOUR. The north side of Cullerne Church, which faced the square, was still in shadow, but, as Westray stepped inside, he found the sunshine pouring through the south windows, and the whole building bathed in a flood of most mellow light. There are in England many churches larger than that of Saint Sepulchre, and fault has been found with its proportions, because the roof is lower than in some other conventual buildings of its size. Yet, for all this, it is doubtful whether architecture has ever produced a composition more truly dignified and imposing. The nave was begun by Walter Le Bec in 1135, and has on either side an arcade of low, round-headed arches. These arches are divided from one another by cylindrical pillars, which have no incised ornamentation, as at Durham or Waltham or Lindisfarne, nor are masked with Perpendicular work, as in the nave of Winchester or in the choir of Gloucester, but rely for effect on severe plainness and great diameter. Above them is seen the dark and cavernous depth of the triforium, and higher yet the clerestory with minute and infrequent openings. Over all broods a stone vault, divided across and diagonally by the chevron-mouldings of heavy vaulting-ribs. Westray sat down near the door, and was so engrossed in the study of the building and in the strange play of the shafts of sunlight across the massive stonework, that half an hour passed before he rose to walk up the church. A solid stone screen separates the choir from the nave, making, as it were, two churches out of one; but as Westray opened the doors between them, he heard four voices calling to him, and, looking up, saw above his head the four tower arches. "The arch never sleeps," cried one. "They have bound on us a burden too heavy to be borne," answered another. "We never sleep," said the third; and the fourth returned to the old refrain, "The arch never sleeps, never sleeps." As he considered them in the daylight, he wondered still more at their breadth and slenderness, and was still more surprised that his Chief had made so light of the settlement and of the ominous crack in the south wall. The choir is a hundred and forty years later than the nave, ornate Early English, with a multiplication of lancet-windows which rich hood-mouldings group into twos and threes, and at the east end into seven. Here are innumerable shafts of dark-grey purbeck marble, elaborate capitals, deeply undercut foliage, and broad-winged angels bearing up the vaulting shafts on which rests the sharply-pointed roof. The spiritual needs of Cullerne were amply served by this portion of the church alone, and, except at confirmations or on Militia Sunday, the congregation never overflowed into the nave. All who came to the minster found there full accommodation, and could indeed worship in much comfort; for in front of the canopied stalls erected by Abbot Vinnicomb in 1530 were ranged long rows of pews, in which green baize and brass nails, cushions and hassocks, and Prayer-Book boxes ministered to the devotion of the occupants. Anybody who aspired to social status in Cullerne rented one of these pews, but for as many as could not afford such luxury in their religion there were provided other seats of deal, which had, indeed, no baize or hassocks, nor any numbers on the doors, but were, for all that, exceedingly appropriate and commodious. The clerk was dusting the stalls as the architect entered the choir, and made for him at once as the hawk swoops on its quarry. Westray did not attempt to escape his fate, and hoped, indeed, that from the old man's garrulity he might glean some facts of interest about the building, which was to be the scene of his work for many months to come. But the clerk preferred to talk of people rather than of things, and the conversation drifted by easy stages to the family with whom Westray had taken up his abode. The doubt as to the Joliffe ancestry, in the discussion of which Mr Sharnall had shown such commendable reticence, was not so sacred to the clerk. He rushed in where the organist had feared to tread, nor did Westray feel constrained to check him, but rather led the talk to Martin Joliffe and his imaginary claims. "Lor' bless you!" said the clerk, "I was a little boy myself when Martin's mother runned away with the soldier, yet mind well how it was in everybody's mouth. But folks in Cullerne like novelties; it's all old-world talk now, and there ain't one perhaps, beside me and Rector, could tell you _that_ tale. Sophia Flannery her name was when Farmer Joliffe married her, and where he found her no one knew. He lived up at Wydcombe Farm, did Michael Joliffe, where his father lived afore him, and a gay one he was, and dressed in yellow breeches and a blue waistcoat all his time. Well, one day he gave out he was to be married, and came into Cullerne, and there was Sophia waiting for him at the Blandamer Arms, and they were married in this very church. She had a three-year-old boy with her then, and put about she was a widow, though there were many who thought she couldn't show her marriage lines if she'd been asked for them. But p'raps Farmer Joliffe never asked to see 'em, or p'raps he knew all about it. A fine upstanding woman she was, with a word and a laugh for everyone, as my father told me many a time; and she had a bit of money beside. Every quarter, up she'd go to London town to collect her rents, so she said, and every time she'd come back with terrible grand new clothes. She dressed that fine, and had such a way with her, the people called her Queen of Wydcombe. Wherever she come from, she had a boarding-school education, and could play and sing beautiful. Many a time of a summer evening we lads would walk up to Wydcombe, and sit on the fence near the farm, to hear Sophy a-singing through the open window. She'd a pianoforty, too, and would sing powerful long songs about captains and moustachers and broken hearts, till people was nearly fit to cry over it. And when she wasn't singing she was painting. My old missis had a picture of flowers what she painted, and there was a lot more sold when they had to give up the farm. But Miss Joliffe wouldn't part with the biggest of 'em, though there was many would ha' liked to buy it. No, she kep' that one, and has it by her to this day--a picture so big as a signboard, all covered with flowers most beautiful." "Yes, I've seen that," Westray put in; "it's in my room at Miss Joliffe's." He said nothing about its ugliness, or that he meant to banish it, not wishing to wound the narrator's artistic susceptibilities, or to interrupt a story which began to interest him in spite of himself. "Well, to be sure!" said the clerk, "it used to hang in the best parlour at Wydcombe over the sideboard; I seed'n there when I was a boy, and my mother was helping spring-clean up at the farm. `Look, Tom,' my mother said to me, `did 'ee ever see such flowers? and such a pritty caterpillar a-going to eat them!' You mind, a green caterpillar down in the corner." Westray nodded, and the clerk went on: "`Well, Mrs Joliffe,' says my mother to Sophia, `I never want for to see a more beautiful picture than that.' And Sophia laughed, and said my mother know'd a good picture when she saw one. Some folks 'ud stand her out, she said, that 'tweren't worth much, but she knew she could get fifty or a hundred pound or more for't any day she liked to sell, if she took it to the right people. _Then_ she'd soon have the laugh of those that said it were only a daub; and with that she laughed herself, for she were always laughing and always jolly. "Michael were well pleased with his strapping wife, and used to like to see the people stare when he drove her into Cullerne Market in the high cart, and hear her crack jokes with the farmers what they passed on the way. Very proud he was of her, and prouder still when one Saturday he stood all comers glasses round at the Blandamer, and bid 'em drink to a pritty little lass what his wife had given him. Now he'd got a brace of 'em, he said; for he'd kep' that other little boy what Sophia brought when she married him, and treated the child for all the world as if he was his very son. "So 'twas for a year or two, till the practice-camp was put up on Wydcombe Down. I mind that summer well, for 'twere a fearful hot one, and Joey Garland and me taught ourselves to swim in the sheep-wash down in Mayo's Meads. And there was the white tents all up the hillside, and the brass band a-playing in the evenings before the officers' dinner-tent. And sometimes they would play Sunday afternoons too; and Parson were terrible put about, and wrote to the Colonel to say as how the music took the folk away from church, and likened it to the worship of the golden calf, when `the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up again to play.' But Colonel never took no notice of it, and when 'twas a fine evening there was a mort of people trapesing over the Downs, and some poor lasses wished afterwards they'd never heard no music sweeter than the clar'net and bassoon up in the gallery of Wydcombe Church. "Sophia was there, too, a good few times, walking round first on her husband's arm, and afterwards on other people's; and some of the boys said they had seen her sitting with a redcoat up among the juniper-bushes. 'Twas Michaelmas Eve before they moved the camp, and 'twas a sorry goose was eat that Michaelmas Day at Wydcombe Farm; for when the soldiers went, Sophia went too, and left Michael and the farm and the children, and never said good-bye to anyone, not even to the baby in the cot. 'Twas said she ran off with a sergeant, but no one rightly knew; and if Farmer Joliffe made any search and found out, he never told a soul; and she never come back to Wydcombe. "She never come back to Wydcombe," he said under his breath, with something that sounded like a sigh. Perhaps the long-forgotten break-up of Farmer Joliffe's home had touched him, but perhaps he was only thinking of his own loss, for he went on: "Ay, many's the time she would give a poor fellow an ounce of baccy, and many's the pound of tea she sent to a labourer's cottage. If she bought herself fine clothes, she'd give away the old ones; my missis has a fur tippet yet that her mother got from Sophy Joliffe. She was free with her money, whatever else she mid have been. There wasn't a labourer on the farm but what had a good word for her; there wasn't one was glad to see her back turned. "Poor Michael took on dreadful at the first, though he wasn't the man to say much. He wore his yellow breeches and blue waistcoat just the same, but lost heart for business, and didn't go to market so reg'lar as he should. Only he seemed to stick closer by the children--by Martin that never know'd his father, and little Phemie that never know'd her mother. Sophy never come back to visit 'em by what I could learn; but once I seed her myself twenty years later, when I took the hosses over to sell at Beacon Hill Fair. "That was a black day, too, for 'twas the first time Michael had to raise the wind by selling aught of his'n. He'd got powerful thin then, had poor master, and couldn't fill the blue waistcoat and yellow breeches like he used to, and _they_ weren't nothing so gay by then themselves neither. "`Tom,' he said--that's me, you know--`take these here hosses over to Beacon Hill, and sell 'em for as much as 'ee can get, for I want the money.' "`What, sell the best team, dad!' says Miss Phemie--for she was standing by--`you'll never sell the best team with White-face and old Strike-a-light!' And the hosses looked up, for they know'd their names very well when she said 'em. "`Don't 'ee take on, lass,' he said; `we'll buy 'em back again come Lady Day.' "And so I took 'em over, and knew very well why he wanted the money; for Mr Martin had come back from Oxford, wi' a nice bit of debt about his neck, and couldn't turn his hand to the farm, but went about saying he was a Blandamer, and Fording and all the lands belonged to he by right. 'Quiries he was making, he said, and gadded about here and there, spending a mort of time and money in making 'quiries that never came to nothing. 'Twas a black day, that day, and a thick rain falling at Beacon Hill, and all the turf cut up terrible. The poor beasts was wet through, too, and couldn't look their best, because they knowed they was going to be sold; and so the afternoon came, and never a bid for one of 'em. `Poor old master!' says I to the horses, `what'll 'ee say when we get back again?' And yet I was glad-like to think me and they weren't going to part. "Well, there we was a-standing in the rain, and the farmers and the dealers just give us a glimpse, and passed by without a word, till I see someone come along, and that was Sophia Joliffe. She didn't look a year older nor when I met her last, and her face was the only cheerful thing we saw that afternoon, as fresh and jolly as ever. She wore a yellow mackintosh with big buttons, and everybody turned to measure her up as she passed. There was a horse-dealer walking with her, and when the people stared, he looked at her just so proud as Michael used to look when he drove her in to Cullerne Market. She didn't take any heed of the hosses, but she looked hard at me, and when she was passed turned her head to have another look, and then she come back. "`Bain't you Tom Janaway,' says she, `what used to work up to Wydcombe Farm?' "`Ay, that I be,' says I, but stiff-like, for it galled me to think what she'd a-done for master, and yet could look so jolly with it all. "She took no note that I were glum, but `Whose hosses is these?' she asked. "`Your husband's, mum,' I made bold to say, thinking to take her down a peg. But, lor'! she didn't care a rush for that, but `Which o' my husbands?' says she, and laughed fit to bust, and poked the horse-dealer in the side. He looked as if he'd like to throttle her, but she didn't mind that neither. `What for does Michael want to sell his hosses?' "And then I lost my pluck, and didn't think to humble her any more, but just told her how things was, and how I'd stood the blessed day, and never got a bid. She never asked no questions, but I see her eyes twinkle when I spoke of Master Martin and Miss Phemie; and then she turned sharp to the horse-dealer and said: "`John, these is fine horses; you buy these cheap-like, and we can sell 'em again to-morrow.' "Then he cursed and swore, and said the hosses was old scraws, and he'd be damned afore he'd buy such hounds'-meat. "`John,' says she, quite quiet, `'tain't polite to swear afore ladies. These here is good hosses, and I want you to buy 'em.' "Then he swore again, but she'd got his measure, and there was a mighty firm look in her face, for all she laughed so; and by degrees he quieted down and let her talk. "`How much do you want for the four of 'em, young man?' she says; and I had a mind to say eighty pounds, thinking maybe she'd rise to that for old times' sake, but didn't like to say so much for fear of spoiling the bargain. `Come,' she says, `how much? Art thou dumb? Well, if thou won't fix the price, I'll do it for 'ee. Here, John, you bid a hundred for this lot.' "He stared stupid-like, but didn't speak. "Then she look at him hard. "`You've got to do it,' she says, speaking low, but very firm; and out he comes with, `Here, I'll give 'ee a hundred.' But before I had time to say `Done,' she went on: `No--this young man says no; I can see it in his face; he don't think 'tis enough; you try him with a hundred and twenty.' "'Twas as if he were overlooked, for he says quite mild, `Well, I'll give 'ee a hundred and twenty.' "`Ay, that's better,' says she; `he says that's better.' And she takes out a little leather wallet from her bosom, holding it under the flap of her waterproof so that the rain shouldn't get in, and counts out two dozen clean banknotes, and puts 'em into my hand. There was many more where they come from, for I could see the book was full of 'em; and when she saw my eyes on them, she takes out another, and gives it me, with, `There's one for thee, and good luck to 'ee; take that, and buy a fairing for thy sweetheart, Tom Janaway, and never say Sophy Flannery forgot an old friend.' "`Thank 'ee kindly, mum,' says I; `thank 'ee kindly, and may you never miss it! I hope your rents do still come in reg'lar, mum.' "She laughed out loud, and said there was no fear of that; and then she called a lad, and he led off White-face and Strike-a-light and Jenny and the Cutler, and they was all gone, and the horse-dealer and Sophia, afore I had time to say good-night. She never come into these parts again--at least, I never seed her; but I heard tell she lived a score of years more after that, and died of a broken blood-vessel at Beriton Races." He moved a little further down the choir, and went on with his dusting; but Westray followed, and started him again. "What happened when you got back? You haven't told me what Farmer Joliffe said, nor how you came to leave farming and turn clerk." The old man wiped his forehead. "I wasn't going to tell 'ee that," he said, "for it do fair make I sweat still to think o' it; but you can have it if you like. Well, when they was gone, I was nigh dazed with such a stroke o' luck, and said the Lord's Prayer to see I wasn't dreaming. But 'twas no such thing, and so I cut a slit in the lining of my waistcoat, and dropped the notes in, all except the one she give me for myself, and that I put in my fob-pocket. 'Twas getting dark, and I felt numb with cold and wet, what with standing so long in the rain and not having bite nor sup all day. "'Tis a bleak place, Beacon Hill, and 'twas so soft underfoot that day the water'd got inside my boots, till they fair bubbled if I took a step. The rain was falling steady, and sputtered in the naphtha-lamps that they was beginning to light up outside the booths. There was one powerful flare outside a long tent, and from inside there come a smell of fried onions that made my belly cry `Please, master, please!' "`Yes, my lad,' I said to un, `I'm darned if I don't humour 'ee; thou shan't go back to Wydcombe empty.' So in I step, and found the tent mighty warm and well lit, with men smoking and women laughing, and a great smell of cooking. There were long tables set on trestles down the tent, and long benches beside 'em, and folks eating and drinking, and a counter cross the head of the room, and great tin dishes simmering a-top of it--trotters and sausages and tripe, bacon and beef and colliflowers, cabbage and onions, blood-puddings and plum-duff. It seemed like a chance to change my banknote, and see whether 'twere good and not elf-money that folks have found turn to leaves in their pocket. So up I walks, and bids 'em gie me a plate of beef and jack-pudding, and holds out my note for't. The maid--for 'twas a maid behind the counter--took it, and then she looks at it and then at me, for I were very wet and muddy; and then she carries it to the gaffer, and he shows it to his wife, who holds it up to the light, and then they all fall to talking, and showed it to a 'cise-man what was there marking down the casks. "The people sitting nigh saw what was up, and fell to staring at me till I felt hot enough, and lief to leave my note where 'twas, and get out and back to Wydcombe. But the 'cise-man must have said 'twere all right, for the gaffer comes back with four gold sovereigns and nineteen shillings, and makes a bow and says: "`Your servant, sir; can I give you summat to drink?' "I looked round to see what liquor there was, being main glad all the while to find the note were good; and he says: "`Rum and milk is very helping, sir; try the rum and milk hot.' "So I took a pint of rum and milk, and sat down at the nighest table, and the people as were waiting to see me took up, made room now, and stared as if I'd been a lord. I had another plate o' beef, and another rum-and-milk, and then smoked a pipe, knowing they wouldn't make no bother of my being late that night at Wydcombe, when I brought back two dozen banknotes. "The meat and drink heartened me, and the pipe and the warmth of the tent seemed to dry my clothes and take away the damp, and I didn't feel the water any longer in my boots. The company was pleasant, too, and some very genteel dealers sitting near. "`My respec's to you, sir,' says one, holding up his glass to me--`best respec's. These pore folk isn't used to the flimsies, and was a bit surprised at your paper-money; but directly I see you, I says to my friends, "Mates, that gentleman's one of us; that's a monied man, if ever I see one." I knew you for a gentleman the minute you come in.' "So I was flattered like, and thought if they made so much o' one banknote, what'd they say to know I'd got a pocket full of them? But didn't speak nothing, only chuckled a bit to think I could buy up half the tent if I had a mind to. After that I stood 'em drinks, and they stood me, and we passed a very pleasant evening--the more so because when we got confidential, and I knew they were men of honour, I proved that I was worthy to mix with such by showing 'em I had a packet of banknotes handy. They drank more respec's, and one of them said as how the liquor we were swallowing weren't fit for such a gentleman as me; so he took a flask out o' his pocket, and filled me a glass of his own tap, what his father 'ud bought in the same year as Waterloo. 'Twas powerful strong stuff that, and made me blink to get it down; but I took it with a good face, not liking to show I didn't know old liquor when it come my way. "So we sat till the tent was very close, and them hissing naphtha-lamps burnt dim with tobacco-smoke. 'Twas still raining outside, for you could hear the patter heavy on the roof; and where there was a belly in the canvas, the water began to come through and drip inside. There was some rough talking and wrangling among folk who had been drinking; and I knew I'd had as much as I could carry myself, 'cause my voice sounded like someone's else, and I had to think a good bit before I could get out the words. 'Twas then a bell rang, and the 'size-man called out, `Closing time,' and the gaffer behind the counter said, `Now, my lads, good-night to 'ee; hope the fleas won't bite 'ee. God save the Queen, and give us a merry meeting to-morrow.' So all got up, and pulled their coats over their ears to go out, except half a dozen what was too heavy, and was let lie for the night on the grass under the trestles. "I couldn't walk very firm myself, but my friends took me one under each arm; and very kind of them it was, for when we got into the open air, I turned sleepy and giddy-like. I told 'em where I lived to, and they said never fear, they'd see me home, and knew a cut through the fields what'd take us to Wydcombe much shorter. We started off, and went a bit into the dark; and then the very next thing I know'd was something blowing in my face, and woke up and found a white heifer snuffing at me. 'Twas broad daylight, and me lying under a hedge in among the cuckoo-pints. I was wet through, and muddy (for 'twas a loamy ditch), and a bit dazed still, and sore ashamed; but when I thought of the bargain I'd made for master, and of the money I'd got in my waistcoat, I took heart, and reached in my hand to take out the notes, and see they weren't wasted with the wet. "But there was no notes there--no, not a bit of paper, for all I turned my waistcoat inside out, and ripped up the lining. 'Twas only half a mile from Beacon Hill that I was lying, and I soon made my way back to the fair-ground, but couldn't find my friends of the evening before, and the gaffer in the drinking-tent said he couldn't remember as he'd ever seen any such. I spent the livelong day searching here and there, till the folks laughed at me, because I looked so wild with drinking the night before, and with sleeping out, and with having nothing to eat; for every penny was took from me. I told the constable, and he took it all down, but I see him looking at me the while, and at the torn lining hanging out under my waistcoat, and knew he thought 'twas only a light tale, and that I had the drink still in me. 'Twas dark afore I give it up, and turned to go back. "'Tis seven mile good by the nigh way from Beacon Hill to Wydcombe; and I was dog-tired, and hungry, and that shamed I stopped a half-hour on the bridge over Proud's mill-head, wishing to throw myself in and ha' done with it, but couldn't bring my mind to that, and so went on, and got to Wydcombe just as they was going to bed. They stared at me, Farmer Michael, and Master Martin, and Miss Phemie, as if I was a spirit, while I told my tale; but I never said as how 'twas Sophia Joliffe as had bought the horses. Old Michael, he said nothing, but had a very blank look on his face, and Miss Phemie was crying; but Master Martin broke out saying 'twas all make-up, and I'd stole the money, and they must send for a constable. "`'Tis lies,' he said. `This fellow's a rogue, and too great a fool even to make up a tale that'll hang together. Who's going to believe a woman 'ud buy the team, and give a hundred and twenty pounds in notes for hosses that 'ud be dear at seventy pounds? Who was the woman? Did 'ee know her? There must be many in the fair 'ud know such a woman. They ain't so common as go about with their pockets full of banknotes, and pay double price for hosses what they buy.' "I knew well enough who'd bought 'em, but didn't want to give her name for fear of grieving Farmer Joliffe more nor he was grieved already, so said nothing, but held my peace. "Then the farmer says: `Tom, I believe 'ee; I've know'd 'ee thirty year, and never know'd 'ee tell a lie, and I believe 'ee now. But if thou knows her name, tell it us, and if thou doesn't know, tell us what she looked like, and maybe some of us 'll guess her.' "But still I didn't say aught till Master Martin goes on: "`Out with her name. He must know her name right enough, if there ever was a woman as did buy the hosses; and don't you be so soft, father, as to trust such fool's tales. We'll get a constable for 'ee. Out with her name, I say.' "Then I was nettled like, at his speaking so rough, when the man that suffered had forgiven me, and said: "`Yes, I know her name right enough, if 'ee will have it. 'Twas the missis.' "`Missis?' he says; `what missis?' "`Your mother,' says I. `She was with a man, but he weren't the man she runned away from here with, and she made he buy the team.' "Master Martin didn't say any more, and Miss Phemie went on crying; but there was a blanker look come on old master's face, and he said very quiet: "`There, that'll do, lad. I believe 'ee, and forgive thee. Don't matter much to I now if I have lost a hundred pound. 'Tis only my luck, and if 'tweren't lost there, 'twould just as like be lost somewhere else. Go in and wash thyself, and get summat to eat; and if I forgive 'ee this time, don't 'ee ever touch the drink again.' "`Master,' I says, `I thank 'ee, and if I ever get a bit o' money I'll pay thee back what I can; and there's my sacred word I'll never touch the drink again.' "I held him out my hand, and he took it, for all 'twas so dirty. "`That's right, lad; and to-morrow we'll put the p'leece on to trace them fellows down.' "I kep' my promise, Mr--Mr--Mr--" "Westray," the architect suggested. "I didn't know your name, you see, because Rector never introduced _me_ yesterday. I kep' my promise, Mr Westray, and bin teetotal ever since; but he never put the p'leece on the track, for he was took with a stroke next morning early, and died a fortnight later. They laid him up to Wydcombe nigh his father and his grandfather, what have green rails round their graves; and give his yellow breeches and blue waistcoat to Timothy Foord the shepherd, and he wore them o' Sundays for many a year after that. I left farming the same day as old master was put underground, and come into Cullerne, and took odd jobs till the sexton fell sick, and then I helped dig graves; and when he died they made I sexton, and that were forty years ago come Whitsun." "Did Martin Joliffe keep on the farm after his father's death?" Westray asked, after an interval of silence. They had wandered along the length of the stalls as they talked, and were passing through the stone screen which divides the minster into two parts. The floor of the choir at Cullerne is higher by some feet than that of the rest of the church, and when they stood on the steps which led down into the nave, the great length of the transepts opened before them on either side. The end of the north transept, on the outside of which once stood the chapter-house and dormitories of the monastery, has only three small lancet-windows high up in the wall, but at the south end of the cross-piece there is no wall at all, for the whole space is occupied by Abbot Vinnicomb's window, with its double transoms and infinite subdivisions of tracery. Thus is produced a curious contrast, for, while the light in the rest of the church is subdued to sadness by the smallness of the windows, and while the north transept is the most sombre part of all the building, the south transept, or Blandamer aisle, is constantly in clear daylight. Moreover, while the nave is of the Norman style, and the transepts and choir of the Early English, this window is of the latest Perpendicular, complicated in its scheme, and meretricious in the elaboration of its detail. The difference is so great as to force itself upon the attention even of those entirely unacquainted with architecture, and it has naturally more significance for the professional eye. Westray stood a moment on the steps as he repeated his question: "Did Martin keep on the farm?" "Ay, he kep' it on, but he never had his heart in it. Miss Phemie did the work, and would have been a better farmer than her father, if Martin had let her be; but he spent a penny for every ha'penny she made, till all came to the hammer. Oxford puffed him up, and there was no one to check him; so he must needs be a gentleman, and give himself all kinds of airs, till people called him `Gentleman Joliffe,' and later on `Old Neb'ly' when his mind was weaker. 'Twas that turned his brain," said the sexton, pointing to the great window; "'twas the silver and green what done it." Westray looked up, and in the head of the centre light saw the nebuly coat shining among the darker painted glass with a luminosity which was even more striking in daylight than in the dusk of the previous evening. CHAPTER FIVE. After a week's trial, Westray made up his mind that Miss Joliffe's lodgings would suit him. It was true that the Hand of God was somewhat distant from the church, but, then, it stood higher than the rest of the town, and the architect's fads were not confined to matters of eating and drinking, but attached exaggerated importance to bracing air and the avoidance of low-lying situations. He was pleased also by the scrupulous cleanliness pervading the place, and by Miss Joliffe's cooking, which a long experience had brought to some perfection, so far as plain dishes were concerned. He found that no servant was kept, and that Miss Joliffe never allowed her niece to wait at table, so long as she herself was in the house. This occasioned him some little inconvenience, for his naturally considerate disposition made him careful of overtaxing a landlady no longer young. He rang his bell with reluctance, and when he did so, often went out on to the landing and shouted directions down the well-staircase, in the hopes of sparing any unnecessary climbing of the great nights of stone steps. This consideration was not lost upon Miss Joliffe, and Westray was flattered by an evident anxiety which she displayed to retain him as a lodger. It was, then, with a proper appreciation of the favour which he was conferring, that he summoned her one evening near teatime, to communicate to her his intention of remaining at Bellevue Lodge. As an outward and visible sign of more permanent tenure, he decided to ask for the removal of some of those articles which did not meet his taste, and especially of the great flower-picture that hung over the sideboard. Miss Joliffe was sitting in what she called her study. It was a little apartment at the back of the house (once the still-room of the old inn), to which she retreated when any financial problem had to be grappled. Such problems had presented themselves with unpleasant frequency for many years past, and now her brother's long illness and death brought about something like a crisis in the weary struggle to make two and two into five. She had spared him no luxury that illness is supposed to justify, nor was Martin himself a man to be over-scrupulous in such matters. Bedroom fires, beef-tea, champagne, the thousand and one little matters which scarcely come within the cognisance of the rich, but tax so heavily the devotion of the poor, had all left their mark on the score. That such items should figure in her domestic accounts, seemed to Miss Joliffe so great a violation of the rules which govern prudent housekeeping, that all the urgency of the situation was needed to free her conscience from the guilt of extravagance--from that _luxuria_ or wantonness, which leads the van among the seven deadly sins. Philpotts the butcher had half smiled, half sighed to see sweetbreads entered in Miss Joliffe's book, and had, indeed, forgotten to keep record of many a similar purchase; using that kindly, quiet charity which the recipient is none the less aware of, and values the more from its very unostentation. So, too, did Custance the grocer tremble in executing champagne orders for the thin and wayworn old lady, and gave her full measure pressed down and running over in teas and sugars, to make up for the price which he was compelled to charge for such refinements in the way of wine. Yet the total had mounted up in spite of all forbearance, and Miss Joliffe was at this moment reminded of its gravity by the gold-foil necks of three bottles of the universally-appreciated Duc de Bentivoglio brand, which still projected from a shelf above her head. Of Dr Ennefer's account she scarcely dared even to think; and there was perhaps less need of her doing so, for he never sent it in, knowing very well that she would pay it as she could, and being quite prepared to remit it entirely if she could never pay it at all. She appreciated his consideration, and overlooked with rare tolerance a peculiarly irritating breach of propriety of which he was constantly guilty. This was nothing less than addressing medicines to her house as if it were still an inn. Before Miss Joliffe moved into the Hand of God, she had spent much of the little allowed her for repairs, in covering up the name of the inn painted on the front. But after heavy rains the great black letters stared perversely through their veil, and the organist made small jokes about it being a difficult thing to thwart the Hand of God. Silly and indecorous, Miss Joliffe termed such witticisms, and had Bellevue House painted in gold upon the fanlight over the door. But the Cullerne painter wrote Bellevue too small, and had to fill up the space by writing House too large; and the organist sneered again at the disproportion, saying it should have been the other way, for everyone knew it was a house, but none knew it was Bellevue. And then Dr Ennefer addressed his medicine to "Mr Joliffe, The Hand"-- not even to The Hand of God, but simply The Hand; and Miss Joliffe eyed the bottles askance as they lay on the table in the dreary hall, and tore the wrappers off them quickly, holding her breath the while that no exclamation of impatience might escape her. Thus, the kindly doctor, in the hurry of his workaday life, vexed, without knowing it, the heart of the kindly lady, till she was constrained to retire to her study, and read the precepts about turning the other cheek to the smiters, before she could quite recover her serenity. Miss Joliffe sat in her study considering how Martin's accounts were to be met. Her brother, throughout his disorderly and unbusinesslike life, had prided himself on orderly and business habits. It was true that these were only manifested in the neat and methodical arrangement of his bills, but there he certainly excelled. He never paid a bill; it was believed it never occurred to him to pay one; but he folded each account to exactly the same breadth, using the cover of an old glove-box as a gauge, wrote very neatly on the outside the date, the name of the creditor, and the amount of the debt, and with an indiarubber band enrolled it in a company of its fellows. Miss Joliffe found drawers full of such disheartening packets after his death, for Martin had a talent for distributing his favours, and of planting small debts far and wide, which by-and-by grew up into a very upas forest. Miss Joliffe's difficulties were increased a thousandfold by a letter which had reached her some days before, and which raised a case of conscience. It lay open on the little table before her: "139, New Bond Street. "Madam, "We are entrusted with a commission to purchase several pictures of still-life, and believe that you have a large painting of flowers for the acquiring of which we should be glad to treat. The picture to which we refer was formerly in the possession of the late Michael Joliffe, Esquire, and consists of a basket of flowers on a mahogany table, with a caterpillar in the left-hand corner. We are so sure of our client's taste and of the excellence of the painting that we are prepared to offer for it a sum of fifty pounds, and to dispense with any previous inspection. "We shall be glad to receive a reply at your early convenience, and in the meantime "We remain, madam, "Your most obedient servants, "Baunton and Lutterworth." Miss Joliffe read this letter for the hundredth time, and dwelt with unabated complacency on the "formerly in the possession of the late Michael Joliffe, Esquire." There was about the phrase something of ancestral dignity and importance that gratified her, and dulled the sordid bitterness of her surroundings. "The late Michael Joliffe, Esquire"--it read like a banker's will; and she was once more Euphemia Joliffe, a romantic girl sitting in Wydcombe church of a summer Sunday morning, proud of a new sprigged muslin, and proud of many tablets to older Joliffes on the walls about her; for yeomen in Southavonshire have pedigrees as well as Dukes. At first sight it seemed as if Providence had offered her in this letter a special solution of her difficulties, but afterwards scruples had arisen that barred the way of escape. "A large painting of flowers"-- her father had been proud of it--proud of his worthless wife's work; and when she herself was a little child, had often held her up in his arms to see the shining table-top and touch the caterpillar. The wound his wife had given him must still have been raw, for that was only a year after Sophia had left him and the children; yet he was proud of her cleverness, and perhaps not without hope of her coming back. And when he died he left to poor Euphemia, then half-way through the dark gorge of middle age, an old writing-desk full of little tokens of her mother-- the pair of gloves she wore at her wedding, a flashy brooch, a pair of flashy earrings, and many other unconsidered trifles that he had cherished. He left her, too, Sophia's long wood paint-box, with its little bottles of coloured powders for mixing oil-paints, and this same "basket of flowers on a mahogany table, with a caterpillar in the left-hand corner." There had always been a tradition as to the value of this picture. Her father had spoken little of his wife to the children, and it was only piecemeal, as she grew into womanhood, that Miss Euphemia learnt from hints and half-told truths the story of her mother's shame. But Michael Joliffe was known to have considered this painting his wife's masterpiece, and old Mrs Janaway reported that Sophia had told her many a time it would fetch a hundred pounds. Miss Euphemia herself never had any doubt as to its worth, and so the offer in this letter occasioned her no surprise. She thought, in fact, that the sum named was considerably less than its market value, but sell it she could not. It was a sacred trust, and the last link (except the silver spoons marked "J.") that bound the squalid present to the comfortable past. It was an heirloom, and she could never bring herself to part with it. Then the bell rang, and she slipped the letter into her pocket, smoothed the front of her dress, and climbed the stone stairs to see what Mr Westray wanted. The architect told her that he hoped to remain as her lodger during his stay in Cullerne, and he was pleased at his own magnanimity when he saw what pleasure the announcement gave Miss Joliffe. She felt it as a great relief, and consented readily enough to take away the ferns, and the mats, and the shell flowers, and the wax fruit, and to make sundry small alterations of the furniture which he desired. It seemed to her, indeed, that, considering he was an architect, Mr Westray's taste was strangely at fault; but she extended to him all possible forbearance, in view of his kindly manner and of his intention to remain with her. Then the architect approached the removal of the flower-painting. He hinted delicately that it was perhaps rather too large for the room, and that he should be glad of the space to hang a plan of Cullerne Church, to which he would have constantly to refer. The rays of the setting sun fell full on the picture at the time, and, lighting up its vulgar showiness, strengthened him in his resolution to be free of it at any cost. But the courage of his attack flagged a little, as he saw the look of dismay which overspread Miss Joliffe's face. "I think, you know, it is a little too bright and distracting for this room, which will really be my workshop." Miss Joliffe was now convinced that her lodger was devoid of all appreciation, and she could not altogether conceal her surprise and sadness in replying: "I am sure I want to oblige you in every way, sir, and to make you comfortable, for I always hope to have gentlefolk for my lodgers, and could never bring myself to letting the rooms down by taking anyone who was not a gentleman; but I hope you will not ask me to move the picture. It has hung here ever since I took the house, and my brother, `the late Martin Joliffe'"--she was unconsciously influenced by the letter which she had in her pocket, and almost said "the late Martin Joliffe, Esquire"--"thought very highly of it, and used to sit here for hours in his last illness studying it. I hope you will not ask me to move the picture. You may not be aware, perhaps, that, besides being painted by my mother, it is in itself a very valuable work of art." There was a suggestion, however faint, in her words, of condescension for her lodger's bad taste, and a desire to enlighten his ignorance which nettled Westray; and he contrived in his turn to throw a tone of superciliousness into his reply. "Oh, of course, if you wish it to remain from sentimental reasons, I have nothing more to say, and I must not criticise your mother's work; but--" And he broke off, seeing that the old lady took the matter so much to heart, and being sorry that he had been ruffled at a trifle. Miss Joliffe gulped down her chagrin. It was the first time she had heard the picture openly disparaged, though she had thought that on more than one occasion it had not been appreciated so much as it deserved. But she carried a guarantee of its value in her pocket, and could afford to be magnanimous. "It has always been considered very valuable," she went on, "though I daresay I do not myself understand all its beauties, because I have not been sufficiently trained in art. But I am quite sure that it could be sold for a great deal of money, if I could only bring myself to part with it." Westray was irritated by the hint that he knew little of art, and his sympathy for his landlady in her family attachment to the picture was much discounted by what he knew must be wilful exaggeration as to its selling value. Miss Joliffe read his thoughts, and took a piece of paper from her pocket. "I have here," she said, "an offer of fifty pounds for the picture from some gentlemen in London. Please read it, that you may see it is not I who am mistaken." She held him out the dealers' letter, and Westray took it to humour her. He read it carefully, and wondered more and more as he went on. What could be the explanation? Could the offer refer to some other picture? for he knew Baunton and Lutterworth as being most reputable among London picture-dealers; and the idea of the letter being a hoax was precluded by the headed paper and general style of the communication. He glanced at the picture. The sunlight was still on it, and it stood out more hideous than ever; but his tone was altered as he spoke again to Miss Joliffe. "Do you think," he said, "that this is the picture mentioned? Have you no other pictures?" "No, nothing of this sort. It is certainly this one; you see, they speak of the caterpillar in the corner." And she pointed to the bulbous green animal that wriggled on the table-top. "So they do," he said; "but how did they know anything about it?"--quite forgetting the question of its removal in the new problem that was presented. "Oh, I fancy that most really good paintings are well-known to dealers. This is not the first inquiry we have had, for the very day of my dear brother's death a gentleman called here about it. None of us were at home except my brother, so I did not see him; but I believe he wanted to buy it, only my dear brother would never have consented to its being sold." "It seems to me a handsome offer," Westray said; "I should think very seriously before I refused it." "Yes, it is very serious to me in my position," answered Miss Joliffe; "for I am not rich; but I could not sell this picture. You see, I have known it ever since I was a little girl, and my father set such store by it. I hope, Mr Westray, you will not want it moved. I think, if you let it stop a little, you will get to like it very much yourself." Westray did not press the matter further; he saw it was a sore point with his landlady, and reflected that he might hang a plan in front of the painting, if need be, as a temporary measure. So a concordat was established, and Miss Joliffe put Baunton and Lutterworth's letter back into her pocket, and returned to her accounts with equanimity at least partially restored. After she had left the room, Westray examined the picture once more, and more than ever was he convinced of its worthlessness. It had all the crude colouring and hard outlines of the worst amateur work, and gave the impression of being painted with no other object than to cover a given space. This view was, moreover, supported by the fact that the gilt frame was exceptionally elaborate and well made, and he came to the conclusion that Sophia must somehow have come into possession of the frame, and had painted the flower-piece to fill it. The sun was a red ball on the horizon as he flung up the window and looked out over the roofs towards the sea. The evening was very still, and the town lay steeped in deep repose. The smoke hung blue above it in long, level strata, and there was perceptible in the air a faint smell of burning weeds. The belfry story of the centre tower glowed with a pink flush in the sunset, and a cloud of jackdaws wheeled round the golden vanes, chattering and fluttering before they went to bed. "It is a striking scene, is it not?" said a voice at his elbow; "there is a curious aromatic scent in this autumn air that makes one catch one's breath." It was the organist who had slipped in unawares. "I feel down on my luck," he said. "Take your supper in my room to-night, and let us have a talk." Westray had not seen much of him for the last few days, and agreed gladly enough that they should spend the evening together; only the venue was changed, and supper taken in the architect's room. They talked over many things that night, and Westray let his companion ramble on to his heart's content about Cullerne men and manners; for he was of a receptive mind, and anxious to learn what he could about those among whom he had taken up his abode. He told Mr Sharnall of his conversation with Miss Joliffe, and of the unsuccessful attempt to get the picture removed. The organist knew all about Baunton and Lutterworth's letter. "The poor thing has made the question a matter of conscience for the last fortnight," he said, "and worried herself into many a sleepless night over that picture. `Shall I sell it, or shall I not?' `Yes,' says poverty--`sell it, and show a brave front to your creditors.' `Yes,' say Martin's debts, clamouring about her with open mouths, like a nest of young starlings, `sell it, and satisfy us.' `No,' says pride, `don't sell it; it is a patent of respectability to have an oil-painting in the house.' `No,' says family affection, and the queer little piping voice of her own childhood--`don't sell it. Don't you remember how fond poor daddy was of it, and how dear Martin treasured it?' `Dear Martin'--psh! Martin never did her anything but evil turns all his threescore years, but women canonise their own folk when they die. Haven't you seen what they call a religious woman damn the whole world for evil-doers? and then her husband or her brother dies, and may have lived as ill a life as any other upon earth, but she don't damn him. Love bids her penal code halt; she makes a way of escape for her own, and speaks of dear Dick and dear Tom for all the world as if they had been double Baxter-saints. No, blood is thicker than water; damnation doesn't hold good for her own. Love is stronger than hell-fire, and works a miracle for Dick and Tom; only _she_ has to make up the balance by giving other folks an extra dose of brimstone. "Lastly, worldly wisdom, or what Miss Joliffe thinks wisdom, says, `No, don't sell it; you should get more than fifty pounds for such a gem.' So she is tossed about, and if she'd lived when there were monks in Cullerne Church, she would have asked her father confessor, and he would have taken down his `Summa Angelica,' and looked it out under V.--`_Vendetur? utrum vendetur an non_?'--and set her mind at rest. You didn't know I could chaffer Latin with the best of 'em, did you? Ah, but I can, even with the Rector, for all the _nebulus_ and _nebulum_; only I don't trot it out too often. I'll show you a copy of the `Summa' when you come down to my room; but there aren't any confessors now, and dear Protestant Parkyn couldn't read the `Summa' if he had it; so there is no one to settle the case for her." The little man had worked himself into a state of exaltation, and his eyes twinkled as he spoke of his scholastic attainments. "Latin," he said--"damn it! I can talk Latin against anyone--yes, with Beza himself--and could tell you tales in it which would make you stop your ears. Ah, well, more fool I--more fool I. `_Contentus esto, Paule mi, lasciva, Paule, pagina_,'" he muttered to himself, and drummed nervously with his fingers on the table. Westray was apprehensive of these fits of excitement, and led the conversation back to the old theme. "It baffles me to understand how _anyone_ with eyes at all could think a daub like this was valuable--that is strange enough; but how come these London people to have made an offer for it? I know the firm quite well; they are first-rate dealers." "There are some people," said the organist, "who can't tell `Pop goes the weasel' from the `Hallelujah Chorus,' and others are as bad with pictures. I'm very much that way myself. No doubt all you say is right, and this picture an eyesore to any respectable person, but I've been used to it so long I've got to like it, and should be sorry to see her sell it. And as for these London buyers, I suppose some other ignoramus has taken a fancy to it, and wants to buy. You see, there _have_ been chance visitors staying in this room a night or two between whiles--perhaps even Americans, for all I said about them--and you can never reckon what _they'll_ do. The very day Martin Joliffe died there was a story of someone coming to buy the picture of him. I was at church in the afternoon, and Miss Joliffe at the Dorcas meeting, and Anastasia gone out to the chemist. When I got back, I came up to see Martin in this same room, and found him full of a tale that he had heard the bell ring, and after that someone walking in the house, and last his door opened, and in walked a stranger. Martin was sitting in the chair I'm using now, and was too weak then to move out of it; so he was forced to sit until this man came in. The stranger talked kindly to him, so he said, and wanted to buy the picture of the flowers, bidding as high as twenty pounds for it; but Martin wouldn't hear him, and said he wouldn't let him have it for ten times that, and then the man went away. That was the story, and I thought at the time 'twas all a cock-and-bull tale, and that Martin's mind was wandering; for he was very weak, and seemed flushed too, like one just waken from a dream. But he had a cunning look in his eye when he told me, and said if he lived another week he would be Lord Blandamer himself, and wouldn't want then to sell any pictures. He spoke of it again when his sister came back, but couldn't say what the man was like, except that his hair reminded him of Anastasia's. "But Martin's time was come; he died that very night, and Miss Joliffe was terribly cast down, because she feared she had given him an overdose of sleeping-draught; for Ennefer told her he had taken too much, and she didn't see where he had got it from unless she gave it him by mistake. Ennefer wrote the death certificate, and so there was no inquest; but that put the stranger out of our thoughts until it was too late to find him, if, indeed, he ever was anything more than the phantom of a sick man's brain. No one beside had seen him, and all we had to ask for was a man with wavy hair, because he reminded Martin of Anastasia. But if 'twas true, then there was someone else who had a fancy for the painting, and poor old Michael must have thought a lot of it to frame it in such handsome style." "I don't know," Westray said; "it looks to me as if the picture was painted to fill the frame." "Perhaps so, perhaps so," answered the organist dryly. "What made Martin Joliffe think he was so near success?" "Ah, that I can't tell you. He was always thinking he had squared the circle, or found the missing bit to fit into the puzzle; but he kept his schemes very dark. He left boxes full of papers behind him when he died, and Miss Joliffe handed them to me to look over, instead of burning them. I shall go through them some day; but no doubt the whole thing is moonshine, and if he ever had a clue it died with him." There was a little pause; the chimes of Saint Sepulchre's played "Mount Ephraim," and the great bell tolled out midnight over Cullerne Flat. "It's time to be turning in. You haven't a drop of whisky, I suppose?" he said, with a glance at the kettle which stood on a trivet in front of the fire; "I have talked myself thirsty." There was a pathos in his appeal that would have melted many a stony heart, but Westray's principles were unassailable, and he remained obdurate. "No, I am afraid I have not," he said; "you see, I never take spirits myself. Will you not join me in a cup of cocoa? The kettle boils." Mr Sharnall's face fell. "You ought to have been an old woman," he said; "only old women drink cocoa. Well, I don't mind if I do; any port in a storm." The organist went to bed that night in a state of exemplary sobriety, for when he got down to his own room he could find no spirit in the cupboard, and remembered that he had finished the last bottle of old Martelet's _eau-de-vie_ at his tea, and that he had no money to buy another. CHAPTER SIX. A month later the restoration work at Saint Sepulchre's was fairly begun, and in the south transept a wooden platform had been raised on scaffold-poles to such a height as allowed the masons to work at the vault from the inside. This roof was no doubt the portion of the fabric that called most urgently for repair, but Westray could not disguise from himself that delay might prove dangerous in other directions, and he drew Sir George Farquhar's attention to more than one weak spot which had escaped the great architect's cursory inspection. But behind all Westray's anxieties lurked that dark misgiving as to the tower arches, and in his fancy the enormous weight of the central tower brooded like the incubus over the whole building. Sir George Farquhar paid sufficient attention to his deputy's representations to visit Cullerne with a special view to examining the tower. He spent an autumn day in making measurements and calculations, he listened to the story of the interrupted peal, and probed the cracks in the walls, but saw no reason to reconsider his former verdict or to impugn the stability of the tower. He gently rallied Westray on his nervousness, and, whilst he agreed that in other places repair was certainly needed, he pointed out that lack of funds must unfortunately limit for the present both the scope of operations and the rate of progress. Cullerne Abbey was dissolved with the larger religious houses in 1539, when Nicholas Vinnicomb, the last abbot, being recalcitrant, and refusing to surrender his house, was hanged as a traitor in front of the great West Gate-house. The general revenues were impropriated by the King's Court of Augmentations, and the abbey lands in the immediate vicinity were given to Shearman, the King's Physician. Spellman, in his book on sacrilege, cites Cullerne as an instance where church lands brought ruin to their new owner's family; for Shearman had a spendthrift son who squandered his patrimony, and then, caballing with Spanish intriguants, came to the block in Queen Elizabeth's days. "For evil hands have abbey lands, Such evil fate in store; Such is the heritage that waits Church-robbers evermore." Thus, in the next generation the name of Shearman was clean put away; but Sir John Fynes, purchasing the property, founded the Grammar School and almshouses as a sin-offering for the misdoings of his predecessors. This measure of atonement succeeded admirably, for Horatio Fynes was ennobled by James the First, and his family, with the title of Blandamer, endures to this present. On the day before the formal dissolution of their house the monks sung the last service in the abbey church. It was held late in the evening, partly because this time seemed to befit such a farewell, and partly that less public attention might be attracted; for there was a doubt whether the King's servants would permit any further ceremonies. Six tall candles burnt upon the altar, and the usual sconces lit the service-books that lay before the brothers in the choir-stalls. It was a sad service, as every good and amiable thing is sad when done for the last time. There were agonising hearts among the brothers, especially among the older monks, who knew not whither to go on the morrow; and the voice of the sub-prior was broken with grief, and failed him as he read the lesson. The nave was in darkness except for the warming-braziers, which here and there cast a ruddy glow on the vast Norman pillars. In the obscurity were gathered little groups of townsmen. The nave had always been open for their devotions in happier days, and at the altars of its various chapels they were accustomed to seek the means of grace. That night they met for the last time--some few as curious spectators, but most in bitterness of heart and profound sorrow, that the great church with its splendid services was lost to them for ever. They clustered between the pillars of the arcades; and, the doors that separated the nave from the choir being open, they could look through the stone screen, and see the serges twinking far away on the high altar. Among all the sad hearts in the abbey church, there was none sadder than that of Richard Vinnicomb, merchant and wool-stapler. He was the abbot's elder brother, and to all the bitterness naturally incident to the occasion was added in his case the grief that his brother was a prisoner in London, and would certainly be tried for his life. He stood in the deep shadow of the pier that supported the north-west corner of the tower, weighed down with sorrow for the abbot and for the fall of the abbey, and uncertain whether his brother's condemnation would not involve his own ruin. It was December 6, Saint Nicholas' Day, the day of the abbot's patron saint. He was near enough to the choir to hear the collect being read on the other side of the screen: "_Deus qui beatum Nicolaum pontificem innumeris decorasti miraculis: tribue quaesumus ut ejus mentis, et precibus, a gehennae incendiis liberemur, per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum. Amen_." "Amen," he said in the shadow of his pillar. "Blessed Nicholas, save me; blessed Nicholas, save us all; blessed Nicholas, save my brother, and, if he must lose this temporal life, pray to our Lord Christ that He will shortly accomplish the number of His elect, and reunite us in His eternal Paradise." He clenched his hands in his distress, and, as a flicker from the brazier fell upon him, those standing near saw the tears run down his cheeks. "_Nicholas qui omnem terram doctrina replevisti, intercede pro peccatis nostris_," said the officiant; and the monks gave the antiphon: "_Iste est qui contempsit vitam mundi et pervenit ad coelestia regna_." One by one a server put out the altar-lights, and as the last was extinguished the monks rose in their places, and walked out in procession, while the organ played a dirge as sad as the wind in a ruined window. The abbot was hanged before his abbey gate, but Richard Vinnicomb's goods escaped confiscation; and when the great church was sold, as it stood, for building material, he bought it for three hundred pounds, and gave it to the parish. One part of his prayer was granted, for within a year death reunited him to his brother; and in his pious will he bequeathed his "sowle to Allmyhtie God his Maker and Redemer, to have the fruition of the Deitie with Our Blessed Ladie and all Saints and the Abbey Churche of Saint Sepulchre with the implements thereof, to the Paryshe of Cullerne, so that the said Parishioners shall not sell, alter, or alienate the said Churche, or Implements or anye part or parcell thereof for ever." Thus it was that the church which Westray had to restore was preserved at a critical period of its history. Richard Vinnicomb's generosity extended beyond the mere purchase of the building, for he left in addition a sum to support the dignity of a daily service, with a complement of three chaplains, an organist, ten singing-men, and sixteen choristers. But the negligence of trustees and the zeal of more religious-minded men than poor superstitious Richard had sadly diminished these funds. Successive rectors of Cullerne became convinced that the spiritual interests of the town would be better served by placing a larger income at their own disposal for good works, and by devoting less to the mere lip-service of much daily singing. Thus, the stipend of the Rector was gradually augmented, and Canon Parkyn found an opportunity soon after his installation to increase the income of the living to a round two thousand by curtailing extravagance in the payment of an organist, and by reducing the emoluments of that office from two hundred to eighty pounds a year. It was true that this scheme of economy included the abolition of the week-day morning-service, but at three o'clock in the afternoon evensong was still rehearsed in Cullerne Church. It was the thin and vanishing shadow of a cathedral service, and Canon Parkyn hoped that it might gradually dwindle away until it was dispersed to nought. Such formalism must certainly throttle any real devotion, and it was regrettable that many of the prayers in which his own fine voice and personal magnetism must have had a moving effect upon his hearers should be constantly obscured by vain intonations. It was only by doing violence to his own high principles that he constrained himself to accept the emoluments which poor Richard Vinnicomb had provided for a singing foundation, and he was scrupulous in showing his disapproval of such vanities by punctilious absence from the week-day service. This ceremony was therefore entrusted to white-haired Mr Noot, whose zeal in his Master's cause had left him so little opportunity for pushing his own interests that at sixty he was stranded as an underpaid curate in the backwater of Cullerne. At four o'clock, therefore, on a week-day afternoon, anyone who happened to be in Saint Sepulchre's Church might see a little surpliced procession issue from the vestries in the south transept, and wind its way towards the choir. It was headed by clerk Janaway, who carried a silver-headed mace; then followed eight choristers (for the number fixed by Richard Vinnicomb had been diminished by half); then five singing-men, of whom the youngest was fifty, and the rear was brought up by Mr Noot. The procession having once entered the choir, the clerk shut the doors of the screen behind it, that the minds of the officiants might be properly removed from contemplation of the outer world, and that devotion might not be interrupted by any intrusion of profane persons from the nave. These outside Profane existed rather in theory than fact, for, except in the height of summer, visitors were rarely seen in the nave or any other part of the building. Cullerne lay remote from large centres, and archaeologic interest was at this time in so languishing a condition that few, except professed antiquaries, were aware of the grandeur of the abbey church. If strangers troubled little about Cullerne, the interest of the inhabitants in the week-day service was still more lukewarm, and the pews in front of the canopied stalls remained constantly empty. Thus, Mr Noot read, and Mr Sharnall the organist played, and the choir-men and choristers sang, day by day, entirely for clerk Janaway's benefit, because there was no one else to listen to them. Yet, if a stranger given to music ever entered the church at such times, he was struck with the service; for, like the Homeric housewife who did the best with what she had by her, Mr Sharnall made the most of his defective organ and inadequate choir. He was a man if much taste and resource, and, as the echoes of the singing rolled round the vaulted roofs, a generous critic thought little of cracked voices and leaky bellows and rattling trackers, but took away with him an harmonious memory of sunlight and coloured glass and eighteenth-century music; and perhaps of some clear treble voice, for Mr Sharnall was famed for training boys and discovering the gift of song. Saint Luke's little summer, in the October that followed the commencement of the restoration, amply justified its name. In the middle of the month there were several days of such unusual beauty as to recall the real summer, and the air was so still and the sunshine so warm that anyone looking at the soft haze on Cullerne Flat might well have thought that August had returned. Cullerne Minster was, as a rule, refreshingly cool in the warmth of summer, but something of the heat and oppressiveness of the outside air seemed to have filtered into the church on these unseasonably warm autumn days. On a certain Saturday a more than usual drowsiness marked the afternoon service. The choir plumped down into their places when the Psalms were finished, and abandoned themselves to slumber with little attempt at concealment, as Mr Noot began the first lesson. There were, indeed, honourable exceptions to the general somnolence. On the cantoris side the worn-out alto held an animated conversation with the cracked tenor. They were comparing some specially fine onions under the desk, for both were gardeners and the autumn leek-show was near at hand. On the decani side Patrick Ovens, a red-haired little treble, was kept awake by the necessity for altering _Magnificat_ into _Magnified Cat_ in his copy of Aldrich in G. The lesson was a long one. Mr Noot, mildest and most beneficent of men, believed that he was at his best in denunciatory passages of Scripture. The Prayer-Book, it was true, had appointed a portion of the Book of Wisdom for the afternoon lesson, but Mr Noot made light of authorities, and read instead a chapter from Isaiah. If he had been questioned as to this proceeding, he would have excused himself by saying that he disapproved of the Apocrypha, even for instruction of manners (and there was no one at Cullerne at all likely to question this right of private judgment), but his real, though perhaps unconscious, motive was to find a suitable passage for declamation. He thundered forth judgments in a manner which combined, he believed, the terrors of supreme justice with an infinite commiseration for the blindness of errant, but long-forgotten peoples. He had, in fact, that "Bible voice" which seeks to communicate additional solemnity to the Scriptures by reciting them in a tone never employed in ordinary life, as the fledgling curate adds gravity to the Litany by whispering "the hour of death and Day of Judgment." Mr Noot, being short-sighted, did not see how lightly the punishments of these ancient races passed over the heads of his dozing audience, and was bringing the long lesson to a properly dramatic close when the unexpected happened: the screen-door opened and a stranger entered. As the blowing of a horn by the paladin broke the repose of a century, and called back to life the spellbound princess and her court, so these slumbering churchmen were startled from their dreams by the intruder. The choir-boys fell to giggling, the choir-men stared, clerk Janaway grasped his mace as if he would brain so rash an adventurer, and the general movement made Mr Sharnall glance nervously at his stops; for he thought that he had overslept himself, and that the choir had stood up for the _Magnificat_. The stranger seemed unconscious of the attention which his appearance provoked. He was no doubt some casual sightseer, and had possibly been unaware that any service was in progress until he opened the screen-door. But once there, he made up his mind to join in the devotions, and was walking to the steps which led up to the stalls when clerk Janaway popped out of his place and accosted him, quoting the official regulations in something louder than a stage whisper: "Ye cannot enter the choir during the hours of Divine service. Ye cannot come in." The stranger was amused at the old man's officiousness. "I am in," he whispered back, "and, being in, will take a seat, if you please, until the service is over." The clerk looked at him doubtfully for a moment, but if there was amusement to be read in the other's countenance, there was also a decision that did not encourage opposition. So he thought better of the matter, and opened the door of one of the pews that run below the stalls in Cullerne Church. But the stranger did not appear to notice that a place was being shown him, and walked past the pew and up the little steps that led to the stalls on the cantoris side. Directly behind the singing-men were five stalls, which had canopies richer and more elaborate than those of the others, with heraldic escutcheons painted on the backs. From these seats the vulgar herd was excluded by a faded crimson cord, but the stranger lifted the cord from its hook, and sat down in the first reserved seat, as if the place belonged to him. Clerk Janaway was outraged, and bustled up the steps after him like an angry turkey-cock. "Come, come!" he said, touching the intruder on the shoulder; "you cannot sit here; these are the Fording seats, and kep' for Lord Blandamer's family." "I will make room if Lord Blandamer brings his family," the stranger said; and, seeing that the old man was returning to the attack, added, "Hush! that is enough." The clerk looked at him again, and then turned back to his own place, routed. "_And in that day they shall roar against thee like the roaring of the sea, and if one look unto the land behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof_," said Mr Noot, and shut the book, with a glance of general fulmination through his great round spectacles. The choir, who had been interested spectators of this conflict of lawlessness as personified in the intruder, and authority as in the clerk, rose to their feet as the organ began the _Magnificat_. The singing-men exchanged glances of amusement, for they were not altogether averse to seeing the clerk worsted. He was an autocrat in his own church, and ruffled them now and again with what they called his bumptiousness. Perhaps he did assume a little as he led the procession, for he forgot at times that he was a peaceable servant of the sanctuary, and fancied, as he marched mace in hand to the music of the organ, that he was a daring officer leading a forlorn hope. That very afternoon he had had a heated discussion in the vestry with Mr Milligan, the bass, on a question of gardening, and the singer, who still smarted under the clerk's overbearing tongue, was glad to emphasise his adversary's defeat by paying attention to the intruder. The tenor on the cantoris side was taking holiday that day, and Mr Milligan availed himself of the opportunity to offer the absentee's copy of the service to the intruder, who was sitting immediately behind him. He turned round, and placed the book, open at the _Magnificat_, before the stranger with much deference, casting as he faced round again a look of misprision at Janaway, of which the latter was quick to appreciate, the meaning. This by-play was lost upon the stranger, who nodded his acknowledgment of the civility, and turned to the study of the score which had been offered him. Mr Sharnall's resources in the way of men's voices were so limited that he was by no means unused to finding himself short of a voice-part on the one side or the other. He had done his best to remedy the deficiency in the Psalms by supplying the missing part with his left hand, but as he began the _Magnificat_ he was amazed to hear a mellow and fairly strong tenor taking part in the service with feeling and precision. It was the stranger who stood in the gap, and when the first surprise was past, the choir welcomed him as being versed in their own arts, and Clerk Janaway forgot the presumption of his entrance and even the rebellious conduct of Mr Milligan. The men and boys sang with new life; they wished, in fact, that so knowledgeable a person should be favourably impressed, and the service was rendered in a more creditable way than Cullerne Church had known for many a long day. Only the stranger was perfectly unmoved. He sang as if he had been a lay-vicar all his life, and when the _Magnificat_ was ended, and Mr Sharnall could look through the curtains of the organ-loft, the organist saw him with a Bible devoutly following Mr Noot in the second lesson. He was a man of forty, rather above the middle height, with dark eyebrows and dark hair, that was beginning to turn grey. His hair, indeed, at once attracted the observer's attention by its thick profusion and natural wavy curl. He was clean-shaven, his features were sharply cut without being thin, and there was something contemptuous about the firm mouth. His nose was straight, and a powerful face gave the impression of a man who was accustomed to be obeyed. To anyone looking at him from the other side of the choir, he presented a remarkable picture, for which the black oak of Abbot Vinnicomb's stalls supplied a frame. Above his head the canopy went soaring up into crockets and finials, and on the woodwork at the back was painted a shield which nearer inspection would have shown to be the Blandamer cognisance, with its nebuly bars of green and silver. It was, perhaps, so commanding an appearance that made red-haired Patrick Ovens take out an Australian postage-stamp which he had acquired that very day, and point out to the boy next to him the effigy of Queen Victoria sitting crowned in a gothic chair. The stranger seemed to enter thoroughly into the spirit of the performance; he bore his part in the service bravely, and, being furnished with another book, lent effective aid with the anthem. He stood up decorously as the choir filed out after the Grace, and then sat down again in his seat to listen to the voluntary. Mr Sharnall determined to play something of quality as a tribute to the unknown tenor, and gave as good a rendering of the Saint Anne's fugue as the state of the organ would permit. It was true that the trackers rattled terribly, and that a cipher marred the effect of the second subject; but when he got to the bottom of the little winding stairs that led down from the loft, he found the stranger waiting with a compliment. "Thank you very much," he said; "it is very kind of you to give us so fine a fugue. It is many years since I was last in this church, and I am fortunate to have chosen so sunny an afternoon, and to have been in time for your service." "Not at all, not at all," said the organist; "it is we who are fortunate in having you to help us. You read well, and have a useful voice, though I caught you tripping a little in the lead of the _Nunc Dimittis_ Gloria." And he sung it over by way of reminder. "You understand church music, and have sung many a service before, I am sure, though you don't look much given that way," he added, scanning him up and down. The stranger was amused rather than offended at these blunt criticisms, and the catechising went on. "Are you stopping in Cullerne?" "No," the other replied courteously; "I am only here for the day, but I hope I may find other occasions to visit the place and to hear your service. You will have your full complement of voices next time I come, no doubt, and I shall be able to listen more at my ease than to-day?" "Oh no, you won't. It's ten to one you will find us still worse off. We are a poverty-stricken lot, and no one to come over into Macedonia to help us. These cursed priests eat up our substance like canker-worms, and grow sleek on the money that was left to keep the music going. I don't mean the old woman that read this afternoon; he's got _his_ nose on the grindstone like the rest of us--poor Noot! He has to put brown paper in his boots because he can't afford to have them resoled. No, it's the Barabbas in the rectory-house, that buys his stocks and shares, and starves the service." This tirade fell lightly on the stranger's ears. He looked as if his thoughts were a thousand miles away, and the organist broke off: "Do you play the organ? Do you understand an organ?" he asked quickly. "Alas! I do not play," the stranger said, bringing his mind back with a jerk for the answer, "and understand little about the instrument." "Well, next time you are here come up into the loft, and I will show you what a chest of rattletraps I have to work with. We are lucky to get through a service without a breakdown; the pedal-board is too short and past its work, and now the bellows are worn-out." "Surely you can get that altered," the stranger said; "the bellows shouldn't cost so much to mend." "They are patched already past mending. Those who would like to pay for new ones haven't got the money, and those who have the money won't pay. Why, that very stall you sat in belongs to a man who could give us new bellows, and a new organ, and a new church, if we wanted it. Blandamer, that's his name--Lord Blandamer. If you had looked, you could have seen his great coat of arms on the back of the seat; and he won't spend a halfpenny to keep the roofs from falling on our heads." "Ah," said the stranger, "it seems a very sad case." They had reached the north door, and, as they stepped out, he repeated meditatively: "It seems a very sad case; you must tell me more about it next time we meet." The organist took the hint, and wished his companion good-afternoon, turning down towards the wharves for a constitutional on the riverside. The stranger raised his hat with something of foreign courtesy, and walked back into the town. CHAPTER SEVEN. Miss Euphemia Joliffe devoted Saturday afternoons to Saint Sepulchre's Dorcas Society. The meetings were held in a class-room of the Girls' National School, and there a band of devoted females gathered week by week to make garments for the poor. If there was in Cullerne some threadbare gentility, and a great deal of middle-class struggling, there was happily little actual poverty, as it is understood in great towns. Thus the poor, to whom the clothes made by the Dorcas Society were ultimately distributed, could sometimes afford to look the gift-horse in the mouth, and to lament that good material had been marred in the making. "They wept," the organist said, "when they showed the coats and garments that Dorcas made, because they were so badly cut;" but this was a libel, for there were many excellent needlewomen in the society, and among the very best was Miss Euphemia Joliffe. She was a staunch supporter of the church, and, had her circumstances permitted, would have been a Scripture-reader or at least a district visitor. But the world was so much with her, in the shape of domestic necessities at Bellevue Lodge, as to render parish work impossible, and so the Dorcas meeting was the only systematic philanthropy in which she could venture to indulge. But in the discharge of this duty she was regularity personified; neither wind nor rain, snow nor heat, sickness nor amusement, stopped her, and she was to be found each and every Saturday afternoon, from three to five, in the National School. If the Dorcas Society was a duty for the little old lady, it was also a pleasure--one of her few pleasures, and perhaps the greatest. She liked the meetings, because on such occasions she felt herself to be the equal of her more prosperous neighbours. It is the same feeling that makes the half-witted attend funerals and church services. At such times they feel themselves to be for once on an equal footing with their fellow-men: all are reduced to the same level; there are no speeches to be made, no accounts to be added up, no counsels to be given, no decisions to be taken; all are as fools in the sight of God. At the Dorcas meeting Miss Joliffe wore her "best things" with the exception only of head-gear, for the wearing of her best bonnet was a crowning grace reserved exclusively for the Sabbath. Her wardrobe was too straightened to allow her "best" to follow the shifting seasons closely. If it was bought as best for winter, it might have to play the same role also in summer, and thus it fell sometimes to her lot to wear alpaca in December, or, as on this day, to be adorned with a fur necklet when the weather asked for muslin. Yet "in her best" she always felt "fit to be seen"; and when it came to cutting out, or sewing, there were none that excelled her. Most of the members greeted her with a kind word, for even in a place where envy, hatred and malice walked the streets arm in arm from sunrise to sunset, Miss Euphemia had few enemies. Lying and slandering, and speaking evil of their fellows, formed a staple occupation of the ladies of Cullerne, as of many another small town; and to Miss Joliffe, who was foolish and old-fashioned enough to think evil of no one, it had seemed at first the only drawback of these delightful meetings that a great deal of such highly-spiced talk was to be heard at them. But even this fly was afterwards removed from the amber; for Mrs Bulteel--the brewer's lady--who wore London dresses, and was much the most fashionable person in Cullerne, proposed that some edifying book should be read aloud on Dorcas afternoons to the assembled workers. It was true that Mrs Flint said she only did so because she thought she had a fine voice; but however that might be, she proposed it, and no one cared to run counter to her. So Mrs Bulteel read properly religious stories, of so touching a nature that an afternoon seldom passed without her being herself dissolved in tears, and evoking sympathetic sniffs and sobs from such as wished to stand in her good books. If Miss Joliffe was not herself so easily moved by imaginary sorrow, she set it down to some lack of loving-kindness in her own disposition, and mentally congratulated the others on their superior sensitiveness. Miss Joliffe was at the Dorcas meeting, Mr Sharnall was walking by the riverside, Mr Westray was with the masons on the roof of the transept; only Anastasia Joliffe was at Bellevue Lodge when the front-door-bell rang. When her aunt was at home, Anastasia was not allowed to "wait on the gentlemen," nor to answer the bell; but her aunt being absent, and there being no one else in the house, she duly opened one leaf of the great front-door, and found a gentleman standing on the semicircular flight of steps outside. That he was a gentleman she knew at a glance, for she had a _flair_ for such useless distinctions, though the genus was not sufficiently common at Cullerne to allow her much practice in its identification near home. It was, in fact, the stranger of the tenor voice, and such is the quickness of woman's wit, that she learnt in a moment as much concerning his outward appearance as the organist and the choir-men and the clerk had learnt in an hour; and more besides, for she saw that he was well dressed. There was about him a complete absence of personal adornment. He wore no rings and no scarf-pin, even his watch-chain was only of leather. His clothes were of so dark a grey as to be almost black, but Miss Anastasia Joliffe knew that the cloth was good, and the cut of the best. She had thrust a pencil into the pages of "Northanger Abbey" to keep the place while she answered the bell, and as the stranger stood before her, it seemed to her he might be a Henry Tilney, and she was prepared, like a Catherine Morland, for some momentous announcement when he opened his lips. Yet there came nothing very weighty from them; he did not even inquire for lodgings, as she half hoped that he would. "Does the architect in charge of the works at the church lodge here? Is Mr Westray at home?" was all he said. "He does live here," she answered, "but is out just now, and we do not expect him back till six. I think you will probably find him at the church if you desire to see him." "I have just come from the minster, but could see nothing of him there." It served the stranger right that he should have missed the architect, and been put to the trouble of walking as far as Bellevue Lodge, for his inquiries must have been very perfunctory. If he had taken the trouble to ask either organist or clerk, he would have learnt at once where Mr Westray was. "I wonder if you would allow me to write a note. If you could give me a sheet of paper I should be glad to leave a message for him." Anastasia gave him a glance from head to foot, rapid as an instantaneous exposure. "Tramps" were a permanent bugbear to the ladies of Cullerne, and a proper dread of such miscreants had been instilled into Anastasia Joliffe by her aunt. It was, moreover, a standing rule of the house that no strange men were to be admitted on any pretence, unless there was some man-lodger at home, to grapple with them if occasion arose. But the glance was sufficient to confirm her first verdict--he _was_ a gentleman; there surely could not be such things as gentlemen-tramps. So she answered "Oh, certainly," and showed him into Mr Sharnall's room, because that was on the ground-floor. The visitor gave a quick look round the room. If he had ever been in the house before, Anastasia would have thought he was trying to identify something that he remembered; but there was little to be seen except an open piano, and the usual litter of music-books and manuscript paper. "Thank you," he said; "can I write here? Is this Mr Westray's room?" "No, another gentleman lodges here, but you can use this room to write in. He is out, and would not mind in any case; he is a friend of Mr Westray." "I had rather write in Mr Westray's room if I may. You see I have nothing to do with this other gentleman, and it might be awkward if he came in and found me in his apartment." It seemed to Anastasia that the information that the room in which they stood was not Mr Westray's had in some way or other removed an anxiety from the stranger's mind. There was a faint and indefinable indication of relief in his manner, however much he professed to be embarrassed at the discovery. It might have been, she thought, that he was a great friend of Mr Westray, and had been sorry to think that his room should be littered and untidy as Mr Sharnall's certainly was, and so was glad when he found out his mistake. "Mr Westray's room is at the top of the house," she said deprecatingly. "It is no trouble to me, I assure you, to go up," he answered. Anastasia hesitated again for an instant. If there were no gentlemen-tramps, perhaps there were gentlemen-burglars, and she hastily made a mental inventory of Mr Westray's belongings, but could think of nothing among them likely to act as an incentive to crime. Still she would not venture to show a strange man to the top of the house, when there was no one at home but herself. The stranger ought not to have asked her. He could not be a gentleman after all, or he would have seen how irregular was such a request, unless he had indeed some particular motive for wishing to see Mr Westray's room. The stranger perceived her hesitation, and read her thoughts easily enough. "I beg your pardon," he said. "I ought, of course, to have explained who it is who has the honour of speaking to you. I am Lord Blandamer, and wish to write a few words to Mr Westray on questions connected with the restoration of the church. Here is my card." There was probably no lady in the town that would have received this information with as great composure as did Anastasia Joliffe. Since the death of his grandfather, the new Lord Blandamer had been a constant theme of local gossip and surmise. He was a territorial magnate, he owned the whole of the town, and the whole of the surrounding country. His stately house of Fording could be seen on a clear day from the minster tower. He was reputed to be a man of great talents and distinguished appearance; he was not more than forty, and he was unmarried. Yet no one had seen him since he came to man's estate; it was said he had not been in Cullerne for twenty years. There was a tale of some mysterious quarrel with his grandfather, which had banished the young man from his home, and there had been no one to take his part, for both his father and mother were drowned when he was a baby. For a quarter of a century he had been a wanderer abroad: in France and Germany, in Russia and Greece, in Italy and Spain. He was believed to have visited the East, to have fought in Egypt, to have run blockades in South America, to have found priceless diamonds in South Africa. He had suffered the awful penances of the Fakirs, he had fasted with the monks of Mount Athos; he had endured the silence of La Trappe; men said that the Sheik-ul-Islam had himself bound the green turban round Lord Blandamer's head. He could shoot, he could hunt, he could fish, he could fight, he could sing, he could play all instruments; he could speak all languages as fluently as his own; he was the very wisest and the very handsomest, and--some hinted--the very wickedest man that ever lived, yet no one had ever seen him. Here was indeed a conjunction of romance for Anastasia, to find so mysterious and distinguished a stranger face to face with her alone under the same roof; yet she showed none of those hesitations, tremblings, or faintings that the situation certainly demanded. Martin Joliffe, her father, had been a handsome man all his life, and had known it. In youth he prided himself on his good looks, and in old age he was careful of his personal appearance. Even when his circumstances were at their worst he had managed to obtain well-cut clothes. They were not always of the newest, but they sat well on his tall and upright figure; "Gentleman Joliffe" people called him, and laughed, though perhaps something less ill-naturedly than was often the case in Cullerne, and wondered whence a farmer's son had gotten such manners. To Martin himself an aristocratic bearing was less an affectation than a duty; his position demanded it, for he was in his own eyes a Blandamer kept out of his rights. It was his good appearance, even at five-and-forty, which induced Miss Hunter of the Grove to run away with him, though Colonel Hunter had promised to disown her if she ever married so far beneath her. She did not, it is true, live long to endure her father's displeasure, but died in giving birth to her first child. Even this sad result had failed to melt the Colonel's heart. Contrary to all precedents of fiction, he would have nothing to do with his little granddaughter, and sought refuge from so untenable a position in removing from Cullerne. Nor was Martin himself a man to feel a parent's obligations too acutely; so the child was left to be brought up by Miss Joliffe, and to become an addition to her cares, but much more to her joys. Martin Joliffe considered that he had amply fulfilled his responsibilities in christening his daughter Anastasia, a name which Debrett shows to have been borne for generations by ladies of the Blandamer family; and, having given so striking a proof of affection, he started off on one of those periodic wanderings which were connected with his genealogical researches, and was not seen again in Cullerne for a lustre. For many years afterwards Martin showed but little interest in the child. He came back to Cullerne at intervals; but was always absorbed in his efforts to establish a right to the nebuly coat, and content to leave the education and support of Anastasia entirely to his sister. It was not till his daughter was fifteen that he exercised any paternal authority; but, on his return from a long absence about that period, he pointed out to Miss Joliffe, senior, that she had shamefully neglected her niece's education, and that so lamentable a state of affairs must be remedied at once. Miss Joliffe most sorrowfully admitted her shortcomings, and asked Martin's forgiveness for her remissness. Nor did it ever occur to her to plead in excuse that the duties of a lodging-house, and the necessity of providing sustenance for herself and Anastasia, made serious inroads on the time that ought, no doubt, to have been devoted to education; or that the lack of means prevented her from engaging teachers to supplement her own too limited instruction. She had, in fact, been able to impart to Anastasia little except reading, writing and arithmetic, some geography, a slight knowledge of Miss Magnall's questions, a wonderful proficiency with the needle, an unquenchable love of poetry and fiction, a charity for her neighbours which was rare enough in Cullerne, and a fear of God which was sadly inconsistent with the best Blandamer traditions. The girl was not being brought up as became a Blandamer, Martin had said; how was she to fill her position when she became the Honourable Anastasia? She must learn French, not such rudiments as Miss Joliffe had taught her, and he travestied his sister's "Doo, dellah, derlapostrof, day" with a laugh that flushed her withered cheeks with crimson, and made Anastasia cry as she held her aunt's hand under the table; not _that_ kind of French, but something that would really pass muster in society. And music, she _must_ study that; and Miss Joliffe blushed again as she thought very humbly of some elementary duets in which she had played a bass for Anastasia till household work and gout conspired to rob her knotty fingers of all pliancy. It had been a great pleasure to her, the playing of these duets with her niece; but they must, of course, be very poor things, and quite out of date now, for she had played them when she was a child herself, and on the very same piano in the parlour at Wydcombe. So she listened with attention while Martin revealed his scheme of reform, and this was nothing less than the sending of Anastasia to Mrs Howard's boarding-school at the county town of Carisbury. The project took away his sister's breath, for Mrs Howard's was a finishing school of repute, to which only Mrs Bulteel among Cullerne ladies could afford to send her daughters. But Martin's high-minded generosity knew no limits. "It was no use making two bites at a cherry; what had to be done had better be done quickly." And he clinched the argument by taking a canvas bag from his pocket, and pouring out a little heap of sovereigns on to the table. Miss Joliffe's wonder as to how her brother had become possessed of such wealth was lost in admiration of his magnanimity, and if for an instant she thought wistfully of the relief that a small portion of these riches would bring to the poverty-stricken menage at Bellevue Lodge, she silenced such murmurings in a burst of gratitude for the means of improvement that Providence had vouchsafed to Anastasia. Martin counted out the sovereigns on the table; it was better to pay in advance, and so make an impression in Anastasia's favour, and to this Miss Joliffe agreed with much relief, for she had feared that before the end of the term Martin would be off on his travels again, and that she herself would be left to pay. So Anastasia went to Carisbury, and Miss Joliffe broke her own rules, and herself incurred a number of small debts because she could not bear to think of her niece going to school with so meagre an equipment as she then possessed, and yet had no ready money to buy better. Anastasia remained for two half-years at Carisbury. She made such progress with her music that after much wearisome and lifeless practising she could stumble through Thalberg's variations on the air of "Home, Sweet Home"; but in French she never acquired the true Parisian accent, and would revert at times to the "Doo, dellah, derlapostrof, day," of her earlier teaching, though there is no record that these shortcomings were ever a serious drawback to her in after-life. Besides such opportunities of improvement, she enjoyed the privilege of association with thirty girls of the upper middle-classes, and ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the fruits of which had hitherto escaped her notice. At the end of her second term, however, she was forced to forego these advantages, for Martin had left Cullerne without making any permanent provision for his daughter's schooling; and there was in Mrs Howard's prospectus a law, inexorable as that of gravity, that no pupil shall be permitted to return to the academy whose account for the previous term remains unsettled. Thus Anastasia's schooling came to an end. There was some excuse put forward that the air of Carisbury did not agree with her; and she never knew the real reason till nearly two years later, by which time Miss Joliffe's industry and self-denial had discharged the greater part of Martin's obligation to Mrs Howard. The girl was glad to remain at Cullerne, for she was deeply attached to Miss Joliffe; but she came back much older in experience; her horizon had widened, and she was beginning to take a more perspective view of life. These enlarged ideas bore fruit both pleasant and unpleasant, for she was led to form a juster estimate of her father's character, and when he next returned she found it difficult to tolerate his selfishness and abuse of his sister's devotion. That this should be so was a cause of great grief to Miss Joliffe. Though she herself felt for her niece a love which had in it something of adoration, she was at the same time conscientious enough to remember that a child's first duty should be towards its parents. Thus she forced herself to lament that Anastasia should be more closely attached to her than to Martin, and if there were times when she could not feel properly dissatisfied that she possessed the first place in her niece's affections, she tried to atone for this frailty by sacrificing opportunities of being with the girl herself, and using every opportunity of bringing her into her father's company. It was a fruitless endeavour, as every endeavour to cultivate affection where no real basis for it exists, must eternally remain fruitless. Martin was wearied by his daughter's society, for he preferred to be alone, and set no store by her except as a cooking, house-cleaning, and clothes-mending machine; and Anastasia resented this attitude, and could find, moreover, no interest in the torn peerage which was her father's Bible, or in the genealogical research and jargon about the nebuly coat which formed the staple of his conversation. Later on, when he came back for the last time, her sense of duty enabled her to tend and nurse him with exemplary patience, and to fulfil all those offices of affection which even the most tender filial devotion could have suggested. She tried to believe that his death brought her sorrow and not relief, and succeeded so well that her aunt had no doubts at all upon the subject. Martin Joliffe's illness and death had added to Anastasia's experience of life by bringing her into contact with doctors and clergymen; and it was no doubt this training, and the association with the superior classes afforded by Mrs Howard's academy, that enabled her to stand the shock of Lord Blandamer's announcement without giving any more perceptible token of embarrassment than a very slight blush. "Oh, of course there is no objection," she said, "to your writing in Mr Westray's room. I will show you the way to it." She accompanied him to the room, and having provided writing materials, left him comfortably ensconced in Mr Westray's chair. As she pulled the door to behind her in going out, something prompted her to look round--perhaps it was merely a girl's light fancy, perhaps it was that indefinite fascination which the consciousness that we are being looked at sometimes exercises over us; but as she looked back her eyes met those of Lord Blandamer, and she shut the door sharply, being annoyed at her own foolishness. She went back to the kitchen, for the kitchen of the Hand of God was so large that Miss Joliffe and Anastasia used part of it for their sitting-room, took the pencil out of "Northanger Abbey," and tried to transport herself to Bath. Five minutes ago she had been in the Grand Pump Room herself, and knew exactly where Mrs Allen and Isabella Thorpe and Edward Morland were sitting; where Catherine was standing, and what John Thorpe was saying to her when Tilney walked up. But alas! Anastasia found no re-admission; the lights were put out, the Pump Room was in darkness. A sad change to have happened in five minutes; but no doubt the charmed circle had dispersed in a huff on finding that they no longer occupied the first place in Miss Anastasia Joliffe's interest. And, indeed, she missed them the less because she had discovered that she herself possessed a wonderful talent for romance, and had already begun the first chapter of a thrilling story. Nearly half an hour passed before her aunt returned, and in the interval Miss Austen's knights and dames had retired still farther into the background, and Miss Anastasia's hero had entirely monopolised the stage. It was twenty minutes past five when Miss Joliffe, senior, returned from the Dorcas meeting; "precisely twenty minutes past five," as she remarked many times subsequently, with that factitious importance which the ordinary mind attaches to the exact moment of any epoch-making event. "Is the water boiling, my dear?" she asked, sitting down at the kitchen table. "I should like to have tea to-day before the gentlemen come in, if you do not mind. The weather is quite oppressive, and the schoolroom was very close because we only had one window open. Poor Mrs Bulteel is so subject to take cold from draughts, and I very nearly fell asleep while she was reading." "I will get tea at once," Anastasia said; and then added, in a tone of fine unconcern: "There is a gentleman waiting upstairs to see Mr Westray." "My dear," Miss Joliffe exclaimed deprecatingly, "how could you let anyone in when I was not at home? It is exceedingly dangerous with so many doubtful characters about. There is Mr Westray's presentation inkstand, and the flower-picture for which I have been offered so much money. Valuable paintings are often cut out of their frames; one never has an idea what thieves may do." There was the faintest trace of a smile about Anastasia's lips. "I do not think we need trouble about that, dear Aunt Phemie, because I am sure he is a gentleman. Here is his card. Look!" She handed Miss Joliffe the insignificant little piece of white cardboard that held so momentous a secret, and watched her aunt put on her spectacles to read it. Miss Joliffe focussed the card. There were only two words printed on it, only "Lord Blandamer" in the most unpretending and simple characters, but their effect was magical. Doubt and suspicion melted suddenly away, and a look of radiant surprise overspread her countenance, such as would have become a Constantine at the vision of the Labarum. She was a thoroughly unworldly woman, thinking little of the things of this life in general, and keeping her affections on that which is to come, with the constancy and realisation that is so often denied to those possessed of larger temporal means. Her views as to right and wrong were defined and inflexible; she would have gone to the stake most cheerfully rather than violate them, and unconsciously lamented perhaps that civilisation has robbed the faithful of the luxury of burning. Yet with all this were inextricably bound up certain little weaknesses among which figured a fondness for great names, and a somewhat exaggerated consideration for the lofty ones of this earth. Had she been privileged to be within the same four walls as a peer at a bazaar or missionary meeting, she would have revelled in a great opportunity; but to find Lord Blandamer under her own roof was a grace so wondrous and surprising as almost to overwhelm her. "Lord Blandamer!" she faltered, as soon as she had collected herself a little. "I hope Mr Westray's room was tidy. I dusted it thoroughly this morning, but I wish he had given some notice of his intention to call. I should be so vexed if he found anything dusty. What is he doing, Anastasia? Did he say he would wait till Mr Westray came back?" "He said he would write a note for Mr Westray. I found him writing things." "I hope you gave his lordship Mr Westray's presentation inkstand." "No, I did not think of that; but there was the little black inkstand, and plenty of ink in it." "Dear me, dear me!" Miss Joliffe said, ruminating on so extraordinary a position, "to think that Lord Blandamer, whom no one has ever seen, should have come to Cullerne at last, and is now in this very house. I will just change this bonnet for my Sunday one," she added, looking at herself in the glass, "and then tell his lordship how very welcome he is, and ask him if I can get anything for him. He will see at once, from my bonnet, that I have only just returned, otherwise it would appear to him very remiss of me not to have paid him my respects before. Yes, I think it is undoubtedly more fitting to appear in a bonnet." Anastasia was a little perturbed at the idea of her aunt's interview with Lord Blandamer. She pictured to herself Miss Joliffe's excess of zeal, the compliments which she would think it necessary to shower upon him the marked attention and homage which he might interpret as servility, though it was only intended as a proper deference to exalted rank. Anastasia was quite unaccountably anxious that the family should appear to the distinguished visitor in as favourable a light as possible, and thought for a moment of trying to persuade Miss Joliffe that there was no need for her to see Lord Blandamer at all, unless he summoned her. But she was of a philosophic temperament, and in a moment had rebuked her own folly. What could any impression of Lord Blandamer's matter to her? she would probably never see him again unless she opened the door when he went out. Why should he think anything at all about a commonplace lodging-house, and its inmates? And if such trivial matters did ever enter his thoughts, a man so clever as he would make allowance for those of a different station to himself, and would see what a good woman her aunt was in spite of any little mannerisms. So she made no remonstrance, but sat heroically quiet in her chair, and re-opened "Northanger Abbey" with a determination to entirely forget Lord Blandamer, and the foolish excitement which his visit had created. CHAPTER EIGHT. Miss Joliffe must have had a protracted conversation with Lord Blandamer. To Anastasia, waiting in the kitchen, it seemed as if her aunt would never come down. She devoted herself to "Northanger Abbey" with fierce resolution, but though her eyes followed the lines of type, she had no idea what she was reading, and found herself at last turning the pages so frequently and with so much rustling as to disturb her own reverie. Then she shut the book with a bang, got up from her chair, and paced the kitchen till her aunt came back. Miss Joliffe was full of the visitor's affability. "It is _always_ the way with these really great people, my dear," she said with effusion. "I have _always_ noticed that the nobility are condescending; they adapt themselves so entirely to their surroundings." Miss Joliffe fell into a common hyperbole in qualifying an isolated action as a habit. She had never before been brought face to face with a peer, yet she represented her first impression of Lord Blandamer's manner as if it were a mature judgment based upon long experience of those of his rank and position. "I insisted on his using the presentation inkstand, and took away that shabby little black thing; and I could see at once that the silver one was far more like what he had been accustomed to use. He seemed to know something about us, and even asked if the young lady who had shown him in was my niece. That was you; he meant you, Anastasia; he asked if it was _you_. I think he must have met dear Martin somewhere, but I really was so agitated by such a very unexpected visit that I scarcely took in all he said. Yet he was so careful all the time to put me at my ease that at last I ventured to ask him if he would take some light refreshment. `My lord,' I said, `may I be so bold as to offer your lordship a cup of tea? It would be a great honour if you would partake of our humble hospitality.' And what _do_ you think he answered, my dear? `Miss Joliffe'--and he had such a winning look--`there is nothing I should like better. I am very tired with walking about in the church, and have still some little time to wait, for I am going to London by the evening train.' Poor young man! (for Lord Blandamer was still young in Cullerne, which had only known his octogenarian predecessor) he is no doubt called to London on some public business--the House of Lords, or the Court, or something like that. I wish he would take as much care of himself as he seems to take for others. He looks so very tired, and a sad face too, Anastasia, and yet is most considerate. `I should like a cup of tea very much'--those were his exact words--`but you must not trouble to come all the way upstairs again to bring it to me. Let me come down and take it with you.' "`Forgive me, my lord,' was my answer, `but I could not permit that. Our establishment is much too homely, and I shall feel it a privilege to wait on you, if you will kindly excuse my walking-clothes, as I have just come back from an afternoon meeting. My niece often wishes to relieve me, but I tell her my old legs are more active than her young ones even still.'" Anastasia's cheeks were red, but she said nothing, and her aunt went on: "So I will take him some tea at once. You can make it, my dear, if you like, but put a great deal more in than we use ourselves. The upper classes have no call to practise economy in such matters, and he is no doubt used to take his tea very strong. I think Mr Sharnall's teapot is the best, and I will get out the silver sugar-tongs and one of the spoons with the `J' on them." As Miss Joliffe was taking up the tea, she met Westray in the hall. He had just come back from the church, and was not a little concerned at his landlady's greeting. She put down her tray, and, with a fateful gesture and an "Oh, Mr Westray, what do you think?" beckoned him aside into Mr Sharnall's room. His first impression was that some grave accident had happened, that the organist was dead, or that Anastasia Joliffe had sprained an ankle; and he was relieved to hear the true state of affairs. He waited a few minutes while Miss Joliffe took the visitor his tea, and then went upstairs himself. Lord Blandamer rose. "I must apologise," he said, "for making myself at home in your room; but I hope your landlady may have explained who I am, and how I come to take so great a liberty. I am naturally interested in Cullerne and all that concerns it, and hope ere long to get better acquainted with the place--and the people," he added as an after-thought. "At present I know disgracefully little about it, but that is due to my having been abroad for many years; I only came back a few months ago. But I need not bother you with all this; what I really wanted was to ask you if you would give me some idea of the scheme of restoration which it is proposed to undertake at the minster. Until last week I had not heard that anything of the kind was in contemplation." His tone was measured, and a clear, deep, voice gave weight and sincerity to his words. His clean-shaven face and olive complexion, his regular features and dark eyebrows, suggested a Spaniard to Westray as he spoke, and the impression was strengthened by the decorous and grave courtesy of his manner. "I shall be delighted to explain anything I can," said the architect, and took down a bundle of plans and papers from a shelf. "I fear I shall not be able to do much this evening," Lord Blandamer said; "for I have to catch the train to London in a short time; but, if you will allow me, I will take an early opportunity of coming over again. We might then, perhaps, go to the church together. The building has a great fascination for me, not only on account of its own magnificence, but also from old associations. When I was a boy, and sometimes a very unhappy boy, I used often to come over from Fording, and spend hours rambling about the minster. Its winding staircases, its dark wall-passages, its mysterious screens and stalls, brought me romantic dreams, from which I think I have never entirely wakened. I am told the building stands in need of extensive restoration, though to the outsider it looks much the same as ever. It always had a dilapidated air." Westray gave a short outline of what it was considered should ultimately be done, and of what it was proposed to attack for the present. "You see, we have our work cut out for us," he said. "The transept roof is undoubtedly the most urgent matter, but there are lots of other things that cannot be left to themselves for long. I have grave doubts about the stability of the tower, though my Chief doesn't share them to anything like the same extent: and perhaps that is just as well, for we are hampered on every side by lack of funds. They are going to have a bazaar next week to try to give the thing a lift, but a hundred bazaars would not produce half that is wanted." "I gathered that there were difficulties of this kind," the visitor said reflectively. "As I came out of the church after service to-day I met the organist. He had no idea who I was, but gave his views very strongly as to Lord Blandamer's responsibilities for things in general, and for the organ in particular. We are, I suppose, under some sort of moral obligation for the north transept, from having annexed it as a burying-place. It used to be called, I fancy, the Blandamer Aisle." "Yes, it is called so still," Westray answered. He was glad to see the turn the conversation had taken, and hoped that a _deus ex machina_ had appeared. Lord Blandamer's next question was still more encouraging. "At what do you estimate the cost of the transept repairs?" Westray ran through his papers till he found a printed leaflet with a view of Cullerne Minster on the outside. "Here are Sir George Farquhar's figures," he said. "This was a circular that was sent everywhere to invite subscriptions, but it scarcely paid the cost of printing. No one will give a penny to these things nowadays. Here it is, you see--seven thousand eight hundred pounds for the north transept." There was a little pause. Westray did not look up, being awkwardly conscious that the sum was larger than Lord Blandamer had anticipated, and fearing that such an abrupt disclosure might have damped the generosity of an intended contributor. Lord Blandamer changed the subject. "Who is the organist? I rather liked his manner, for all he took me so sharply, if impersonally, to task. He seems a clever musician, but his instrument is in a shocking state." "He _is_ a very clever organist," Westray answered. It was evident that Lord Blandamer was in a subscribing frame of mind, and if his generosity did not extend to undertaking the cost of the transept, he might at least give something towards the organ. The architect tried to do his friend Mr Sharnall a service. "He is a very clever organist," he repeated; "his name is Sharnall, and he lodges in this house. Shall I call him? Would you like to ask him about the organ?" "Oh no, not now; I have so little time; another day we can have a chat. Surely a very little money--comparatively little money, I mean--would put the organ in proper repair. Did they never approach my grandfather, the late Lord Blandamer, on the question of funds for these restorations?" Westray's hopes of a contribution were again dashed, and he felt a little contemptuous at such evasions. They came with an ill grace after Lord Blandamer's needlessly affectionate panegyric of the church. "Yes," he said; "Canon Parkyn, the Rector here, wrote to the late Lord Blandamer begging for a subscription to the restoration fund for the church, but never got any answer." Westray flung something like a sneer into his tone, and was already sorry for his ungracious words before he had finished speaking. But the other seemed to take no offence, where some would have been offended. "Ah," he said, "my grandfather was no doubt a very sad old man indeed. I must go now, or I shall miss my train. You shall introduce me to Mr Sharnall the next time I come to Cullerne; I have your promise, remember, to take me over the church. Is it not so?" "Yes--oh yes, certainly," Westray said, though with less cordiality perhaps than he had used on the previous occasion. He was disappointed that Lord Blandamer had promised no subscription, and accompanied him to the foot of the stairs with much the same feelings as a shop-assistant entertains for the lady who, having turned over goods for half an hour, retreats with the promise that she will consider the matter and call again. Miss Joliffe had been waiting on the kitchen stairs, and so was able to meet Lord Blandamer in the hall quite accidentally. She showed him out of the front-door with renewed professions of respect, for she knew nothing of his niggardly evasions of a subscription, and in her eyes a lord was still a lord. He added the comble to all his graces and courtesies by shaking her hand as he left the house, and expressing a hope that she would be so kind as to give him another cup of tea, the very next time he was in Cullerne. The light was failing as Lord Blandamer descended the flight of steps outside the door of Bellevue Lodge. The evening must have closed in earlier than usual, for very soon after the visitor had gone upstairs Anastasia found it too dark to read in the kitchen; so she took her book, and sat in the window-seat of Mr Sharnall's room. It was a favourite resort of hers, both when Mr Sharnall was out, and also when he was at home; for he had known her from childhood, and liked to watch the graceful girlish form as she read quietly while he worked at his music. The deep window-seat was panelled in painted deal, and along the side of it hung a faded cushion, which could be turned over on to the sill when the sash was thrown up, so as to form a rest for the arms of anyone who desired to look out on a summer evening. The window was still open, though it was dusk; but Anastasia's head, which just appeared above the sill, was screened from observation by a low blind. This blind was formed of a number of little green wooden slats, faded and blistered by the suns of many summers, and so arranged that, by the turning of a brass, urn-shaped knob, they could be made to open and afford a prospect of the outer world to anyone sitting inside. It had been for some time too dark for Anastasia to read, but she still sat in the window-seat; and as she heard Lord Blandamer come down the stairs, she turned the brass urn so as to command a view of the street. She felt herself blushing in the dusk, at the reiterated and voluminous compliments which her aunt was paying in the hall. She blushed because Westray's tone was too off-handed and easy towards so important a personage to please her critical mood; and then she blushed again at her own folly in blushing. The front-door shut at last, and the gaslight fell on Lord Blandamer's active figure and straight, square shoulders as he went down the steps. Three thousand years before, another maiden had looked between the doorpost and the door, at the straight broad back of another great stranger as he left her father's palace; but Anastasia was more fortunate than Nausicaa, for there is no record that Ulysses cast any backward glance as he walked down to the Phaeacian ship, and Lord Blandamer did turn and look back. He turned and looked back; he seemed to Anastasia to look between the little blistered slats into her very eyes. Of course, he could not have guessed that a very foolish girl, the niece of a very foolish landlady in a very commonplace lodging-house, in a very commonplace country town, was watching him behind a shutter; but he turned and looked, and Anastasia stayed for half an hour after he had gone, thinking of the hard and clean-cut face that she had seen for an instant in the flickering gaslight. It was a hard face, and as she sat in the dark with closed eyes, and saw that face again and again in her mind, she knew that it was hard. It was hard--it was almost cruel. No, it was not cruel, but only recklessly resolved, with a resolution that would not swerve from cruelty, if cruelty were needed to accomplish its purpose. Thus she reasoned in the approved manner of fiction. She knew that such reasonings were demanded of heroines. A heroine must be sadly unworthy of her lofty role if she could not with a glance unmask even the most enigmatic countenance, and trace the passions writ in it, clearly as a page of "Reading without Tears." And was she, Anastasia, to fall short in such a simple craft? No, she had measured the man's face in a moment; it was resolved, even to cruelty. It was hard, but ah! how handsome! and she remembered how the grey eyes had met hers and blinded them with power, when she first saw him on the doorstep. Wondrous musings, wondrous thought-reading, by a countrified young lady in her teens; but is it not out of the mouths of babes and sucklings that strength has been eternally ordained? She was awakened from her reverie by the door being flung open, and she leapt from her perch as Mr Sharnall entered the room. "Heyday! heyday!" he said, "what have we here? Fire out, and window open; missy dreaming of Sir Arthur Bedevere, and catching a cold--a very poetic cold in the head." His words jarred on her mood like the sharpening of a slate-pencil. She said nothing, but brushed by him, shut the door behind her, and left him muttering in the dark. The excitement of Lord Blandamer's visit had overtaxed Miss Joliffe. She took the gentlemen their supper--and Mr Westray was supping in Mr Sharnall's room that evening--and assured Anastasia that she was not in the least tired. But ere long she was forced to give up this pretence, and to take refuge in a certain high-backed chair with ears, which stood in a corner of the kitchen, and was only brought into use in illness or other emergency. The bell rang for supper to be taken away, but Miss Joliffe was fast asleep, and did not hear it. Anastasia was not allowed to "wait" under ordinary circumstances, but her aunt must not be disturbed when she was so tired, and she took the tray herself and went upstairs. "He is a striking-looking man enough," Westray was saying as she entered the room; "but I must say he did not impress me favourably in other respects. He spoke too enthusiastically about the church. It would have sat on him with a very good grace if he had afterwards come down with five hundred pounds, but ecstasies are out of place when a man won't give a halfpenny to turn them into reality." "He is a chip of the old block," said the organist. "`_Leap year's February twenty-nine days, And on the thirtieth Blandamer pays_.' "That's a saw about here. Well, I rubbed it into him this afternoon, and all the harder because I hadn't the least idea who he was." There was a fierce colour in Anastasia's cheeks as she packed the dirty plates and supper debris into the tray, and a fiercer feeling in her heart. She tried hard to conceal her confusion, and grew more confused in the effort. The organist watched her closely, without ever turning his eyes in her direction. He was a cunning little man, and before the table was cleared had guessed who was the hero of those dreams, from which he had roused her an hour earlier. Westray waved away with his hand a puff of smoke which drifted into his face from Mr Sharnall's pipe. "He asked me whether anyone had ever approached the old lord about the restoration, and I said the Rector had written, and never got an answer." "It wasn't to the _old_ lord he wrote," Mr Sharnall cut in; "it was to this very man. Didn't you know it was to this very man? No one ever thought it worth ink and paper to write to _old_ Blandamer. I was the only one, fool enough to do that. I had an appeal for the organ printed once upon a time, and sent him a copy, and asked him to head the list. After a bit he sent me a cheque for ten shillings and sixpence; and then I wrote and thanked him, and said it would do very nicely to put a new leg on the organ-stool if one should ever break. But he had the last word, for when I went to the bank to cash the cheque, I found it stopped." Westray laughed with a thin and tinkling merriment that irritated Anastasia more than an honest guffaw. "When he stuck at seven thousand eight hundred pounds for the church, I tried to give _you_ a helping hand with the organ. I told him you lived in the house; would he not like to see you? `Oh no, not _now_,' he said; `some other day.'" "He is a chip of the old block," the organist said again bitterly. "Gather figs of thistles, if you will, but don't expect money from Blandamers." Anastasia's thumb went into the curry as she lifted the dish, but she did not notice it. She was only eager to get away, to place herself outside the reach of these slanderous tongues, to hide herself where she could unburden her heart of its bitterness. Mr Sharnall fired one more shaft at her as she left the room. "He takes after his grandfather in other ways besides close-fistedness. The old man had a bad enough name with women, and this man has a worse. They are a poor lot--lock, stock, and barrel." Lord Blandamer had certainly been unhappy in the impression which he created at Bellevue Lodge; a young lady had diagnosed his countenance as hard and cruel, an architect had detected niggardliness in his disposition, and an organist was resolved to regard him at all hazards as a personal foe. It was fortunate indeed for his peace of mind that he was completely unaware of this, but, then, he might not perhaps have troubled much even if he had known all about it. The only person who had a good word for him was Miss Euphemia Joliffe. She woke up flushed, but refreshed, after her nap, and found the supper-things washed and put away in their places. "My dear, my dear," she said deprecatingly, "I am afraid I have been asleep, and left all the work to you. You should not have done this, Anastasia. You ought to have awakened me." The flesh was weak, and she was forced to hold her hand before her mouth for a moment to conceal a yawn; but her mind reverted instinctively to the great doings of the day, and she said with serene reflection: "A very remarkable man, so dignified and yet so affable, and _very_ handsome too, my dear." CHAPTER NINE. Among the letters which the postman brought to Bellevue Lodge on the morning following these remarkable events was an envelope which possessed a dreadful fascination. It bore a little coronet stamped in black upon the flap, and "Edward Westray, Esquire, Bellevue Lodge, Cullerne," written on the front in a bold and clear hand. But this was not all, for low in the left corner was the inscription "Blandamer." A single word, yet fraught with so mystical an import that it set Anastasia's heart beating fast as she gave it to her aunt, to be taken upstairs with the architect's breakfast. "There is a letter for you, sir, from Lord Blandamer," Miss Joliffe said, as she put down the tray on the table. But the architect only grunted, and went on with ruler and compass at the plan with which he was busy. Miss Joliffe would have been more than woman had she not felt a burning curiosity to know the contents of so important a missive; and to leave a nobleman's letter neglected on the table seemed to her little short of sacrilege. Never had breakfast taken longer to lay, and still there was the letter lying by the tin cover, which (so near is grandeur to our dust) concealed a simple bloater. Poor Miss Joliffe made a last effort ere she left the room to bring Westray to a proper appreciation of the situation. "There is a letter for you, sir; I think it is from Lord Blandamer." "Yes, yes," the architect said sharply; "I will attend to it presently." And so she retired, routed. Westray's nonchalance had been in part assumed. He was anxious to show that he, at any rate, could rise superior to artificial distinctions of rank, and was no more to be impressed by peers than peasants. He kept up this philosophic indifference even after Miss Joliffe left the room; for he took life very seriously, and felt his duty towards himself to be at least as important as that towards his neighbours. Resolution lasted till the second cup of tea, and then he opened the letter. "Dear Sir" (it began), "I understood from you yesterday that the repairs to the north transept of Cullerne Minster are estimated to cost 7,800 pounds. This charge I should like to bear myself, and thus release for other purposes of restoration the sum already collected. I am also prepared to undertake whatever additional outlay is required to put the whole building in a state of substantial repair. Will you kindly inform Sir George Farquhar of this, and ask him to review the scheme of restoration as modified by these considerations? I shall be in Cullerne on Saturday next, and hope I may find you at home if I call about five in the afternoon, and that you may then have time to show me the church. "I am, dear sir, "Very truly yours, "Blandamer." Westray had scanned the letter so rapidly that he knew its contents by intuition rather than by the more prosaic method of reading. Nor did he re-read it several times, as is generally postulated by important communications in fiction; he simply held it in his hand, and crumpled it unconsciously, while he thought. He was surprised, and he was pleased--pleased at the wider vista of activity that Lord Blandamer's offer opened, and pleased that he should be chosen as the channel through which an announcement of such gravity was to be made. He felt, in short, that pleasurable and confused excitement, that mental inebriation, which unexpected good fortune is apt to produce in any except the strongest minds, and went down to Mr Sharnall's room still crumpling the letter in his hand. The bloater was left to waste its sweetness on the morning air. "I have just received some extraordinary news," he said, as he opened the door. Mr Sharnall was not altogether unprepared, for Miss Joliffe had already informed him that a letter from Lord Blandamer had arrived for Mr Westray; so he only said "Ah!" in a tone that implied compassion for the lack of mental balance which allowed Westray to be so easily astonished, and added "Ah, yes?" as a manifesto that no sublunary catastrophe could possibly astonish him, Mr Sharnall. But Westray's excitement was cold-waterproof, and he read the letter aloud with much jubilation. "Well," said the organist, "I don't see much in it; seven thousand pounds is nothing to him. When we have done all that we ought to do, we are unprofitable servants." "It isn't only seven thousand pounds; don't you see he gives carte-blanche for repairs in general? Why, it may be thirty or forty thousand, or even more." "Don't you wish you may get it?" the organist said, raising his eyebrows and shutting his eyelids. Westray was nettled. "Oh, I think it's mean to sneer at everything the man does. We abused him yesterday as a niggard; let us have the grace to-day to say we were mistaken." He was afflicted with the over-scrupulosity of a refined, but strictly limited mind, and his conscience smote him. "I, at any rate, was quite mistaken," he went on; "I quite misinterpreted his hesitation when I mentioned the cost of the transept repairs." "Your chivalrous sentiments do you the greatest credit," the organist said, "and I congratulate you on being able to change your ideas so quickly. As for me, I prefer to stick to my first opinion. It is all humbug; either he doesn't mean to pay, or else he has some plan of his own to push. _I_ wouldn't touch his money with a barge-pole." "Oh no, of course not," Westray said, with the exaggerated sarcasm of a schoolboy in his tone. "If he was to offer a thousand pounds to restore the organ, you wouldn't take a penny of it." "He hasn't offered a thousand yet," rejoined the organist; "and when he does, I'll send him away with a flea in his ear." "That's a very encouraging announcement for would-be contributors," Westray sneered; "they ought to come forward very strongly after that." "Well, I must get on with some copying," the organist said dryly; and Westray went back to the bloater. If Mr Sharnall was thus pitiably wanting in appreciation of a munificent offer, the rest of Cullerne made no pretence of imitating his example. Westray was too elated to keep the good news to himself, nor did there appear, indeed, to be any reason for making a secret of it. So he told the foreman-mason, and Mr Janaway the clerk, and Mr Noot the curate, and lastly Canon Parkyn the rector, whom he certainly ought to have told the first of all. Thus, before the carillon of Saint Sepulchre's played "New sabbath" [See Appendix at the end of the volume] at three o'clock that afternoon, the whole town was aware that the new Lord Blandamer had been among them, and had promised to bear the cost of restoring the great minster of which they were all so proud--so very much more proud when their pride entailed no sordid considerations of personal subscription. Canon Parkyn was ruffled. Mrs Parkyn perceived it when he came in to dinner at one o'clock, but, being a prudent woman, she did not allude directly to his ill-humour, though she tried to dispel it by leading the conversation to topics which experience had shown her were soothing to him. Among such the historic visit of Sir George Farquhar, and the deference which he had paid to the Rector's suggestions, occupied a leading position: but the mention of the great architect's name, was a signal for a fresh exhibition of vexation on her husband's part. "I wish," he said, "that Sir George would pay a little more personal attention to the work at the minster. His representative, this Mr-- er--er--this Mr Westray, besides being, I fear, very inexperienced and deficient in architectural knowledge, is a most conceited young man, and constantly putting himself forward in an unbecoming way. He came to me this morning with an exceedingly strange communication--a letter from Lord Blandamer." Mrs Parkyn laid down her knife and fork. "A letter from Lord Blandamer?" she said in unconcealed amazement--"a letter from Lord Blandamer to Mr Westray!" "Yes," the Rector went on, losing some of his annoyance in the pleasurable consciousness that his words created a profound sensation--"a letter in which his lordship offers to bear in the first place the cost of the repairs of the north transept, and afterwards to make good any deficiency in the funds required for the restoration of the rest of the fabric. Of course, I am very loth to question any action taken by a member of the Upper House, but at the same time I am compelled to characterise the proceeding as most irregular. That such a communication should be made to a mere clerk of the works, instead of to the Rector and duly appointed guardian of the sacred edifice, is so grave a breach of propriety that I am tempted to veto the matter entirely, and to refuse to accept this offer." His face wore a look of sublime dignity, and he addressed his wife as if she were a public meeting. _Ruat coelum_, Canon Parkyn was not to be moved a hair's-breadth from the line traced by propriety and rectitude. He knew in his inmost heart that under no possible circumstances would he have refused any gift that was offered him, yet his own words had about them so heroic a ring that for a moment he saw himself dashing Lord Blandamer's money on the floor, as early Christians had flung to the wind that pinch of incense that would have saved them from the lions. "I think I _must_ refuse this offer," he repeated. Mrs Parkyn knew her husband intimately--more intimately, perhaps, than he knew himself--and had an additional guarantee that the discussion was merely academic in the certainty that, even were he really purposed to refuse the offer, she would not _allow_ him to do so. Yet she played the game, and feigned to take him seriously. "I quite appreciate your scruples, my dear; they are just what anyone who knew you would expect. It is a positive affront that you should be told of such a proposal by this impertinent young man; and Lord Blandamer has so strange a reputation himself that one scarcely knows how far it is right to accept anything from him for sacred purposes. I honour your reluctance. Perhaps it _would_ be right for you to decline this proposal, or, at any rate, to take time for consideration." The Rector looked furtively at his wife. He was a little alarmed at her taking him so readily at his word. He had hoped that she would be dismayed--that she could have brought proper arguments to bear to shake his high resolve. "Ah, your words have unwittingly reminded me of my chief difficulty in refusing. It is the sacred purpose which makes me doubt my own judgment. It would be a painful reflection to think that the temple should suffer by my refusing this gift. Maybe I should be yielding to my own petulance or personal motives if I were to decline. I must not let my pride stand in the way of higher obligations." He concluded in his best pulpit manner, and the farce was soon at an end. It was agreed that the gift must be accepted, that proper measures should be taken to rebuke Mr Westray's presumption, as _he_ had no doubt induced Lord Blandamer to select so improper a channel of communication, and that the Rector should himself write direct to thank the noble donor. So, after dinner, Canon Parkyn retired to his "study," and composed a properly fulsome letter, in which he attributed all the noblest possible motives and qualities to Lord Blandamer, and invoked all the most unctuously conceived blessings upon his head. And at teatime the letter was perused and revised by Mrs Parkyn, who added some finishing touches of her own, especially a preamble which stated that Canon Parkyn had been informed by the clerk of the works that Lord Blandamer had expressed a desire to write to Canon Parkyn to make a certain offer, but had asked the clerk of the works to find out first whether such an offer would be acceptable to Canon Parkyn, and a peroration which hoped that Lord Blandamer would accept the hospitality of the Rectory on the occasion of his next visit to Cullerne. The letter reached Lord Blandamer at Fording the next morning as he sat over a late breakfast, with a Virgil open on the table by his coffee-cup. He read the Rector's stilted periods without a smile, and made a mental note that he would at once send a specially civil acknowledgment. Then he put it carefully into his pocket, and turned back to the _Di patrii indigetes et Romule Vestaque Mater_ of the First Georgic, which he was committing to memory, and banished the invitation so completely from his mind that he never thought of it again till he was in Cullerne a week later. Lord Blandamer's visit, and the offer which he had made for the restoration of the church, formed the staple of Cullerne conversation for a week. All those who had been fortunate enough to see or to speak to him discussed him with one another, and compared notes. Scarcely a detail of his personal appearance, of his voice or manner escaped them; and so infectious was this interest that some who had never seen him at all were misled by their excitement into narrating how he had stopped them in the street to ask the way to the architect's lodgings, and how he had made so many striking and authentic remarks that it was wonderful that he had ever reached Bellevue Lodge at all that night. Clerk Janaway, who was sorely chagrined to think that he should have missed an opportunity of distinguished converse, declared that he had felt the stranger's grey eyes go through and through him like a knife, and had only made believe to stop him entering the choir, in order to convince himself by the other's masterful insistence that his own intuition was correct. He had known all the time, he said, that he was speaking to none other than Lord Blandamer. Westray thought the matter important enough to justify him in going to London to consult Sir George Farquhar, as to the changes in the scheme of restoration which Lord Blandamer's munificence made possible; but Mr Sharnall, at any rate, was left to listen to Miss Joliffe's recollections, surmises, and panegyrics. In spite of all the indifference which the organist had affected when he first heard the news, he showed a surprising readiness to discuss the affair with all comers, and exhibited no trace of his usual impatience with Miss Joliffe, so long as she was talking of Lord Blandamer. To Anastasia it seemed as if he could talk of nothing else, and the more she tried to check him by her silence or by change of subject, the more bitterly did he return to the attack. The only person to exhibit no interest in this unhappy nobleman, who had outraged propriety by offering to contribute to the restoration of the minster, was Anastasia herself; and even tolerant Miss Joliffe was moved to chide her niece's apathy in this particular. "I do not think it becomes us, love, young or old, to take so little notice of great and good deeds. Mr Sharnall is, I fear, discontented with the station of life to which it has pleased Providence to call him, and I am less surprised at _his_ not always giving praise where praise should be given; but with the young it is different. I am sure if anyone had offered to restore Wydcombe Church when I was a girl--and specially a nobleman--I should have been as delighted, or nearly as delighted, as if he--as if I had been given a new frock." She altered the "as if he had given me" which was upon her tongue because the proposition, even for purposes of illustration, that a nobleman could ever have offered her a new frock seemed to have in itself something of the scandalous and unfitting. "I should have been delighted, but, dear me! in those days people were so blind as never to think of restorations. We used to sit in quite _comfortable_ seats every Sunday, with cushions and hassocks, and the aisles were paved with flagstones--simple worn flagstones, and none of the caustic tiles which look so much more handsome; though I am always afraid I am going to slip, and glad to be off them, they are so hard and shiny. Church matters were very behindhand then. All round the walls were tablets that people had put up to their relations, white caskets on black marble slates, and urns and cherubs' heads, and just opposite where I used to sit a poor lady, whose name I have forgotten, weeping under a willow-tree. No doubt they were very much out of place in the sanctuary, as the young gentleman said in his lecture on `How to make our Churches Beautiful' in the Town Hall last winter. He called them `mural blisters,' my dear, but there was no talk of removing them in my young days, and that was, I dare say, because there was no one to give the money for it. But now, here is this good young nobleman, Lord Blandamer, come forward so handsomely, and I have no doubt at Cullerne all will be much improved ere long. We are not meant to _loll_ at our devotions, as the lecturer told us. That was his word, to `_loll_'; and they will be sure to take away the baize and hassocks, though I do hope there will be a little strip of _something_ on the seats; the bare wood is apt to make one ache sometimes. I should not say it to anyone else in the world but you, but it _does_ make me ache a little sometimes; and when the caustic is put down in the aisle, I shall take your arm, my dear, to save me from slipping. Here is Lord Blandamer going to do all this for us, and you do not show yourself in the least grateful. It is not becoming in a young girl." "Dear aunt, what would you have me do? I cannot go and thank him publicly in the name of the town. That would be still more unbecoming; and I am sure I hope they will not do all the dreadful things in the church that you speak of. I love the old monuments, and like _lolling_ much better than bare forms." So she would laugh the matter off; but if she could not be induced to talk of Lord Blandamer, she thought of him the more, and rehearsed again and again in day-dreams and in night-dreams every incident of that momentous Saturday afternoon, from the first bars of the overture, when he had revealed in so easy and simple a way that he was none other than Lord Blandamer, to the ringing down of the curtain, when he turned to look back--to that glance when his eyes had seemed to meet hers, although she was hidden behind a blind, and he could not have guessed that she was there. Westray came back from London with the scheme of restoration reconsidered and amplified in the light of altered circumstances, and with a letter for Lord Blandamer in which Sir George Farquhar hoped that the munificent donor would fix a day on which Sir George might come down to Cullerne to offer his respects, and to discuss the matter in person. Westray had looked forward all the week to the appointment which he had with Lord Blandamer for five o'clock on the Saturday afternoon, and had carefully thought out the route which he would pursue in taking him round the church. He returned to Bellevue Lodge at a quarter to five, and found his visitor already awaiting him. Miss Joliffe was, as usual, at her Saturday meeting, but Anastasia told Westray that Lord Blandamer had been waiting more than half an hour. "I must apologise, my lord, for keeping you waiting," Westray said, as he went in. "I feared I had made some mistake in the time of our meeting, but I see it _was_ five that your note named." And he held out the open letter which he had taken from his pocket. "The mistake is entirely mine," Lord Blandamer admitted with a smile, as he glanced at his own instructions; "I fancied I had said four o'clock; but I have been very glad of a few minutes to write one or two letters." "We can post them on our way to the church; they will just catch the mail." "Ah, then I must wait till to-morrow; there are some enclosures which I have not ready at this moment." They set out together for the minster, and Lord Blandamer looked back as they crossed the street. "The house has a good deal of character," he said, "and might be made comfortable enough with a little repair. I must ask my agent to see what can be arranged; it does not do me much credit as landlord in its present state." "Yes, it has a good many interesting features," Westray answered; "you know its history, of course--I mean that it was an old inn." He had turned round as his companion turned, and for an instant thought he saw something moving behind the blind in Mr Sharnall's room. But he must have been mistaken; only Anastasia was in the house, and she was in the kitchen, for he had called to her as they went out to say that he might be late for tea. Westray thoroughly enjoyed the hour and a half which the light allowed him for showing and explaining the church. Lord Blandamer exhibited what is called, so often by euphemism, an intelligent interest in all that he saw, and was at no pains either to conceal or display a very adequate architectural knowledge. Westray wondered where he had acquired it, though he asked no questions; but before the inspection was ended he found himself unconsciously talking to his companion of technical points, as to a professional equal and not to an amateur. They stopped for a moment under the central tower. "I feel especially grateful," Westray said, "for your generosity in giving us a free hand for all fabric work, because we shall now be able to tackle the tower. Nothing will ever induce me to believe that all is right up there. The arches are extraordinarily wide and thin for their date. You will laugh when I tell you that I sometimes think I hear them crying for repair, and especially that one on the south with the jagged crack in the wall above it. Now and then, when I am alone in the church or the tower, I seem to catch their very words. `The arch never sleeps,' they say; `we never sleep.'" "It is a romantic idea," Lord Blandamer said. "Architecture is poetry turned into stone, according to the old aphorism, and you, no doubt, have something of the poet in you." He glanced at the thin and rather bloodless face, and at the high cheekbones of the water-drinker as he spoke. Lord Blandamer never made jokes, and very seldom was known to laugh, yet if anyone but Westray had been with him, they might have fancied that there was a whimsical tone in his words, and a trace of amusement in the corners of his eyes. But the architect did not see it, and coloured slightly as he went on: "Well, perhaps you are right; I suppose architecture does inspire one. The first verses I ever wrote, or the first, at least, that I ever had printed, were on the Apse of Tewkesbury Abbey. They came out in the _Gloucester Herald_, and I dare say I shall scribble something about these arches some day." "Do," said Lord Blandamer, "and send me a copy. This place ought to have its poet, and it is much safer to write verses to arches than to arched eyebrows." Westray coloured again, and put his hand in his breast-pocket. Could he have been so foolish as to leave those half-finished lines on his desk for Lord Blandamer or anyone else to see? No, they were quite safe; he could feel the sharp edge of the paper folded lengthways, which differentiated them from ordinary letters. "We shall just have time to go up to the roof-space, if you care to do so," he suggested, changing the subject. "I should like to show you the top of the transept groining, and explain what we are busy with at present. It is always more or less dark up there, but we shall find lanterns." "Certainly, with much pleasure." And they climbed the newel staircase that was carried in the north-east pier. Clerk Janaway had been hovering within a safe distance of them as they went their round. He was nominally busy in "putting things straight" for the Sunday, before the church was shut up; and had kept as much out of sight as was possible, remembering how he had withstood Lord Blandamer to the face a week before. Yet he was anxious to meet him, as it were, by accident, and explain that he had acted in ignorance of the real state of affairs; but no favourable opportunity for such an explanation presented itself. The pair had gone up to the roof, and the clerk was preparing to lock up--for Westray had a key of his own--when he heard someone coming up the nave. It was Mr Sharnall, who carried a pile of music-books under his arm. "Hallo!" he said to the clerk, "what makes _you_ so late? I expected to have to let myself in. I thought you would have been off an hour ago." "Well, things took a bit longer to-night than usual to put away." He broke off, for there was a little noise somewhere above them in the scaffolding, and went on in what was meant for a whisper: "Mr Westray's taking his lordship round; they're up in the roof now. D'ye hear 'em?" "Lordship! What lordship? D'you mean that fellow Blandamer?" "Yes, that's just who I do mean. But I don't know as how he's a fellow, and he _is_ a lordship; so that's why I call him a lordship and not a fellow. And mid I ask what he's been doing to set _your_ back up? Why don't you wait here for him, and talk to him about the organ? Maybe, now he's in the giving mood, he'd set it right for 'ee, or anyways give 'ee that little blowin'-engine you talk so much about. Why do 'ee always go about showin' your teeth?--metaforally, I mean, for you haven't that many real ones left to make much show--why ain't you like other folk sometimes? Shall I tell 'ee? 'Cause you wants to be young when you be old, and rich when you be poor. That's why. That makes 'ee miserable, and then you drinks to drown it. Take my advice, and act like other folk. I'm nigh a score of years older than you, and take a vast more pleasure in my life than when I was twenty. The neighbours and their ways tickle me now, and my pipe's sweeter; and there's many a foolish thing a young man does that age don't give an old one the chanst to. You've spoke straight to me, and now I've spoke straight to you, 'cause I'm a straight-speaking man, and have no call to be afraid of anyone--lord or fellow or organist. So take an old man's word: cheer up, and wait on my lord, and get him to give 'ee a new organ." "Bah!" said Mr Sharnall, who was far too used to Janaway's manner to take umbrage or pay attention to it. "Bah! I hate all Blandamers. I wish they were as dead and buried as dodos; and I'm not at all sure they aren't. I'm not at all sure, mind you, that this strutting peacock has any more right to the name of Blandamer than you or I have. I'm sick of all this wealth. No one's thought anything of to-day, who can't build a church or a museum or a hospital. `So long as thou doest well unto _thyself_, men will speak good of thee.' If you've got the money, you're everything that's wonderful, and if you haven't, you may go rot. I wish all Blandamers were in their graves," he said, raising his thin and strident voice till it rang again in the vault above, "and wrapped up in their nebuly coat for a shroud. I should like to fling a stone through their damned badge." And he pointed to the sea-green and silver shield high up in the transept window. "Sunlight and moonlight, it is always there. I used to like to come down and play here to the bats of a full moon, till I saw _that_ would always look into the loft and haunt me." He thumped his pile of books down on a seat, and flung out of the church. He had evidently been drinking, and the clerk made his escape at the same time, being anxious not to be identified with sentiments which had been so loudly enunciated that he feared those in the roof might have overheard them. Lord Blandamer wished Westray good-night at the church-door, excusing himself from an invitation to tea on the ground of business which necessitated his return to Fording. "We must spend another afternoon in the minster," he said. "I hope you will allow me to write to make an appointment. I am afraid that it may possibly be for a Saturday again, for I am much occupied at present during the week." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Clerk Janaway lived not far from the church, in Governor's Lane. No one knew whence its name was derived, though Dr Ennefer thought that the Military Governour might have had his quarters thereabouts when Cullerne was held for the Parliament. Serving as a means of communication between two quiet back-streets, it was itself more quiet than either, and yet; for all this, had about it a certain air of comfort and well-being. The passage of vehicles was barred at either end by old cannon. Their breeches were buried in the ground, and their muzzles stood up as sturdy iron posts, while the brown cobbles of the roadway sloped to a shallow stone gutter which ran down the middle of the lane. Custom ordained that the houses should be coloured with a pink wash; and the shutters, which were a feature of the place, shone in such bright colours as to recall a Dutch town. Shutter-painting was indeed an event of some importance in Governour's Lane. Not a few of its inhabitants had followed the sea as fishermen or smack-owners, and when fortune so smiled on them that they could retire, and there were no more boats to be painted, shutters and doors and window-frames came in to fill the gap. So, on a fine morning, when the turpentine oozing from cracks, and the warm smell of blistering varnish brought to Governour's Lane the first tokens of returning summer, might have been seen sexagenarians and septuagenarians, and some so strong that they had come to fourscore years, standing paint-pot and paint-brush in hand, while they gave a new coat to the woodwork of their homes. They were a kindly folk, open of face, and fresh-complexioned, broad in the beam, and vested as to their bodies in dark blue, brass-buttoned pilot coats. Insuperable smokers, inexhaustible yarn-spinners, they had long welcomed Janaway as a kindred spirit--the more so that in their view a clerk and grave-digger was in some measure an expert in things unseen, who might anon assist in piloting them on that last cruise for which some had already the Blue Peter at the fore. A myrtle-bush which grew out of a hole in the cobbles was carefully trained against the front of a cottage in the middle of the row, and a brass plate on the door informed the wayfarer and ignorant man that "T. Janaway, Sexton," dwelt within. About eight o'clock on the Saturday evening, some two hours after Lord Blandamer and Westray had parted, the door of the myrtle-fronted cottage was open, and the clerk stood on the threshold smoking his pipe, while from within came a cheerful, ruddy light and a well-defined smell of cooking; for Mrs Janaway was preparing supper. "Tom," she called, "shut the door, and come to thy victuals." "Ay," he answered, "I'll be with 'ee directly; but gi'e me a minute. I want to see who this is coming up the lane." Someone that the clerk knew at once for a stranger had entered the little street at the bottom. There was half a moon, and light enough to see that he was in search of some particular house; for he crossed from one side of the lane to the other, and peered at the numbers on the doors. As he came nearer, the clerk saw that he was of spare build, and wore a loose overcoat or cape, which fluttered in the breeze that blew at evening from the sea. A moment later Janaway knew that the stranger was Lord Blandamer, and stepped back instinctively to let him pass. But the open door had caught the attention of the passer-by; he stopped, and greeted the householder cheerily. "A beautiful night, but with a cold touch in the air that makes your warm room look very cheerful." He recognised the clerk's face as he spoke, and went on: "Ah, ha! we are old friends already; we met in the minster a week ago, did we not?" Mr Janaway was a little disconcerted at the unexpectedness of the meeting, and returned the salutation in a confused way. The attempt which he had made to prevent Lord Blandamer from entering the choir was fresh in his memory, and he stammered some unready excuses. Lord Blandamer smiled with much courtesy. "You were quite right to stop me; you would have been neglecting your duty if you had not done so. I had no idea that service was going on, or I should not have come in; you may make your mind quite easy on that score. I hope you will have many more opportunities of finding a place for me in Cullerne Church." "No need to find any place for _you_, my Lord. You have your own seat appointed and fixed, as sure as Canon Parkyn, and your own arms painted up clear on the back of it. Don't you trouble for that. It is all laid down in the statutes, and I shall make the very same obeisance for your lordship when you take your seat as for my Lord Bishop. `Two inclinations of the body, the mace being held in the right hand, and supported on the left arm.' I cannot say more fair than that, for only royalties have three inclinations, and none of them has ever been to church in my time--no, nor yet a Lord Blandamer neither, since the day that your dear father and mother, what you never knew, was buried." Mrs Janaway drummed with her knuckles on the supper-table, in amazement that her husband should dare to stand chattering at the door when she had told him that the meal was ready. But, as the conversation revealed by degrees the stranger's identity, curiosity to see the man whose name was in all Cullerne mouths got the better of her, and she came curtseying to the door. Lord Blandamer flung the flapping cape of his overcoat over the left shoulder in a way that made the clerk think of foreigners, and of woodcuts of Italian opera in a bound volume of the _Illustrated London News_ which he studied on Sunday evenings. "I must be moving on," said the visitor, with a shiver. "I must not keep you standing here; there is a very chill air this evening." Then Mrs Janaway was seized with a sudden temerity. "Will your lordship not step in and warm yourself for a moment?" she interposed. "We have a clear fire burning, if you will overlook the smell of cooking." The clerk trembled for a moment at his wife's boldness, but Lord Blandamer accepted the invitation with alacrity. "Thank you very much," said he; "I should be very glad to rest a few minutes before my train leaves. Pray make no apology for the smell of cookery; it is very appetising, especially at supper-time." He spoke as if he took supper every evening, and had never heard of a late dinner in his life; and five minutes later he sat at table with Mr and Mrs Janaway. The cloth was of roughest homespun, but clean; the knives and forks handled in old green horn, and the piece-of-resistance tripe; but the guest made an excellent meal. "Some folk think highly of squash tripe or ribband tripe," the clerk said meditatively, looking at the empty dish; "but they don't compare, according to my taste, with cushion tripe." He was emboldened to make these culinary remarks by that moral elevation which comes to every properly-constituted host, when a guest has eaten heartily of the viands set before him. "No," Lord Blandamer said, "there can be no doubt that cushion tripe is the best." "Quite as much depends upon the cooking as upon the tripe itself," remarked Mrs Janaway, bridling at the thought that her art had been left out of the reckoning; "a bad cook will spoil the best tripe. There are many ways of doing it, but a little milk and a leek is the best for me." "You cannot beat it," Lord Blandamer assented--"you cannot beat it"--and then went on suggestively: "Have you ever tried a sprig of mace with it?" No, Mrs Janaway had never heard of that; nor, indeed, had Lord Blandamer either, if the point had been pushed; but she promised to use it the very next time, and hoped that the august visitor would honour them again when it was to be tasted. "'Tis only Saturday nights that we can get the cushion," she went on; "and it's well it don't come oftener, for we couldn't afford it. No woman ever had a call to have a better husband nor Thomas, who spends little enough on hisself. He don't touch nothing but tea, sir, but Saturday nights we treat ourselves to a little tripe, which is all the more convenient in that it is very strengthening, and my husband's duties on Sunday being that urgent-like. So, if your lordship is fond of tripe, and passing another Saturday night, and will do us the honour, you will always find something ready." "Thank you very much for your kind invitation," Lord Blandamer said; "I shall certainly take you at your word, the more so that Saturday is the day on which I am oftenest in Cullerne, or, I should say, have happened to be lately." "There's poor and poor," said the clerk reflectively; "and _we're_ poor, but we're happy; but there's Mr Sharnall poor and unhappy. `Mr Sharnall,' says I to him, `many a time have I heard my father say over a pot of tenpenny, "Here's to poverty in a plug-hole, and a man with a wooden leg to trample it down;" but you never puts your poverty in a plug-hole, much less tramples it down. You always has it out and airs it, and makes yourself sad with thinking of it. 'Tisn't because you're poor that you're sad; 'tis because you _think_ you're poor, and talk so much about it. You're not so poor as we, only you have so many grievances.'" "Ah, you are speaking of the organist?" Lord Blandamer asked. "I fancy it was he who was talking with you in the minster this afternoon, was it not?" The clerk felt embarrassed once more, for he remembered Mr Sharnall's violent talk, and how his anathema of all Blandamers had rang out in the church. "Yes," he said; "poor organist was talking a little wild; he gets took that way sometimes, what with his grievances, and a little drop of the swanky what he takes to drown them. Then he talks loud; but I hope your lordship didn't hear all his foolishness." "Oh dear no; I was engaged at the time with the architect," Lord Blandamer said; but his tone made Janaway think that Mr Sharnall's voice had carried further than was convenient. "I did not hear what he said, but he seemed to be much put out. I chatted with him in the church some days ago; he did not know who I was, but I gathered that he bore no very good will to my family." Mrs Janaway saw it was a moment for prudent words. "Don't pay no manner of attention to him, if I may make so bold as to advise your lordship," she said; "he talks against my husband just as well. He is crazy about his organ, and thinks he ought to have a new one, or, at least, a waterworks to blow it, like what they have at Carisbury. Don't pay no attention to him; no one minds what Sharnall says in Cullerne." The clerk was astonished at his wife's wisdom, yet apprehensive as to how it might be taken. But Lord Blandamer bowed his head graciously by way of thanks for sage counsel, and went on: "Was there not some queer man at Cullerne who thought he was kept out of his rights, and should be in my place--who thought, I mean, he ought to be Lord Blandamer?" The question was full of indifference, and there was a little smile of pity on his face; but the clerk remembered how Mr Sharnall had said something about a strutting peacock, and that there were no real Blandamers left, and was particularly ill at ease. "Oh yes," he answered after a moment's pause, "there was a poor doited body who, saving your presence, had some cranks of that kind; and, more by token, Mr Sharnall lived in the same house with him, and so I dare say he has got touched with the same craze." Lord Blandamer took out a cigar instinctively, and then, remembering that there was a lady present, put it back into his case and went on: "Oh, he lived in the same house with Mr Sharnall, did he? I should like to hear more of this story; it naturally interests me. What was his name?" "His name was Martin Joliffe," said the clerk quickly, being surprised into eagerness by the chance of telling a story; and then the whole tale of Martin, and Martin's father and mother and daughter, as he had told it to Westray, was repeated for Lord Blandamer. The night was far advanced before the history came to an end, and the local policeman walked several times up and down Governour's Lane, and made pauses before Mr Janaway's house, being surprised to see a window lighted so late. Lord Blandamer must have changed his intention of going by train, for the gates of Cullerne station had been locked for hours, and the boiler of the decrepit branch-line engine was cooling in its shed. "It is an interesting tale, and you tell tales well," he said, as he got up and put on his coat. "All good things must have an end, but I hope to see you again ere long." He shook hands with hostess and host, drained the pot of beer that had been fetched from a public-house, with a "Here's to poverty in a plug-hole, and a man with a wooden leg to trample it down," and was gone. A minute later the policeman, coming back for yet another inspection of the lighted window, passed a man of middle height, who wore a loose overcoat, with the cape tossed lightly over the left shoulder. The stranger walked briskly, and hummed an air as he went, turning his face up to the stars and the wind-swept sky, as if entirely oblivious of all sublunary things. A midnight stranger in Governour's Lane was even more surprising than a lighted window, and the policeman had it in his mind to stop him and ask his business. But before he could decide on so vigorous a course of action, the moment was past, and the footsteps were dying away in the distance. The clerk was pleased with himself, and proud of his success as a story-teller. "That's a clever, understanding sort of chap," he said to his wife, as they went to bed; "he knows a good tale when he hears one." "Don't you be too proud of yourself, my man," answered she; "there's more in that tale than your telling, I warrant you, for my lord to think about." CHAPTER TEN. The extension of the scheme of restoration which Lord Blandamer's liberality involved, made it necessary that Westray should more than once consult Sir George Farquhar in London. On coming back to Cullerne from one of these visits on a Saturday night, he found his meal laid in Mr Sharnall's room. "I thought you would not mind our having supper together," Mr Sharnall said. "I don't know how it is, I always feel gloomy just when the winter begins, and the dark sets in so soon. It is all right later on; I rather enjoy the long evenings and a good fire, when I can afford a good one, but at first it is a little gloomy. So come and have supper with me. There _is_ a good fire to-night, and a bit of driftwood that I got specially for your benefit." They talked of indifferent subjects during the meal, though once or twice it seemed to Westray that the organist gave inconsequential replies, as though he were thinking of something else. This was no doubt the case, for, after they had settled before the fire, and the lambent blue flames of the driftwood had been properly admired, Mr Sharnall began with a hesitating cough: "A rather curious thing happened this afternoon. When I got back here after evening-service, who should I find waiting in my room but that Blandamer fellow. There was no light and no fire, for I had thought if we lit the fire late we could afford a better one. He was sitting at one end of the window-seat, damn him!"--(the expletive was caused by Mr Sharnall remembering that this was Anastasia's favourite seat, and his desire to reprobate the use of it by anyone else)--"but got up, of course, as I came in, and made a vast lot of soft speeches. He must really apologise for such an intrusion. He had come to see Mr Westray, but found that Mr Westray had unfortunately been called away. He had taken the liberty of waiting a few minutes in Mr Sharnall's room. He was anxious to have a few moments' conversation with Mr Sharnall, and so on, and so on. You know how I hate palaver, and how I disliked--how I dislike" (he corrected himself)--"the man; but he took me at a disadvantage, you see, for here he was actually in my room, and one cannot be so rude in one's own room as one can in other people's. I felt responsible, too, to some extent for his having had to wait without fire or light, though why he shouldn't have lit the gas himself I'm sure I don't know. So I talked more civilly than I meant to, and then, just at the moment that I was hoping to get rid of him, Anastasia, who it seems was the only person at home, must needs come in to ask if I was ready for my tea. You may imagine my disgust, but there was nothing for it but to ask him if he would like a cup of tea. I never dreamt of his taking it, but he did; and so, behold! there we were hobnobbing over the tea-table as if we were cronies." Westray was astonished. Mr Sharnall had rebuked him so short a time before for not having repulsed Lord Blandamer's advances that he could scarcely understand such a serious falling away from all the higher principles of hatred and malice as were implied in this tea-drinking. His experience of life had been as yet too limited to convince him that most enmities and antipathies, being theoretical rather than actual, are apt to become mitigated, or to disappear altogether on personal contact--that it is, in fact, exceedingly hard to keep hatred at concert-pitch, or to be consistently rude to a person face to face who has a pleasant manner and a desire to conciliate. Perhaps Mr Sharnall read Westray's surprise in his face, for he went on with a still more apologetic manner: "That is not the worst of it; he has put me in a most awkward position. I must admit that I found his conversation amusing enough. We spoke a good deal of music, and he showed a surprising knowledge of the subject, and a correct taste; I do not know where he has got it from." "I found exactly the same thing with his architecture," Westray said. "We started to go round the minster as master and pupil, but before we finished I had an uncomfortable impression that he knew more about it than I did--at least, from the archaeologic point of view." "Ah!" said the organist, with that indifference with which a person who wishes to recount his own experiences listens to those of someone else, however thrilling they may be. "Well, his taste was singularly refined. He showed a good acquaintance with the contrapuntists of the last century, and knew several of my own works. A very curious thing this. He said he had been in some cathedral--I forget which--heard the service, and been so struck with it that he went afterwards to look it up on the bill, and found it was Sharnall in D flat. He hadn't the least idea that it was mine till we began to talk. I haven't had that service by me for years; I wrote it at Oxford for the Gibbons' prize; it has a fugal movement in the _Gloria_, ending with a tonic pedal-point that you would like. I must look it up." "Yes, I should like to hear it," Westray said, more to fill the interval while the speaker took breath than from any great interest in the matter. "So you shall--so you shall," went on the organist; "you will find the pedal-point adds immensely to the effect. Well, by degrees we came to talking of the organ. It so happens that we had spoken of it the very first day I met him in the church, though you know I _never_ talk about my instrument, do I? At that time it didn't strike me that he was so well up in the matter, but now he seemed to know all about it, and so I gave him my ideas as to what ought to be done. Then, before I knew where I was, he cut in with, `Mr Sharnall, what you say interests me immensely; you put things in such a lucid way that even an outsider like myself can understand them. It would be a thousand pities if neglect were permanently to injure this sweet-toned instrument that Father Smith made so long ago. It is no use restoring the church without the organ, so you must draw up a specification of the repairs and additions required, and understand that anything you suggest shall be done. In the meantime pray order at once the water-engine and new pedal-board of which you speak, and inform me as to the cost.' He took me quite aback, and was gone before I had time to say anything. It puts me in a very equivocal position; I have such an antipathy to the man. I shall refuse his offer point-blank. I will not put myself under any obligation to such a man. You would refuse in my position? You would write a strong letter of refusal at once, would you not?" Westray was of a guileless disposition, and apt to assume that people meant what they said. It seemed to him a matter for much regret that Mr Sharnall's independence, however lofty, should stand in the way of so handsome a benefaction, and he was at pains to elaborate and press home all the arguments that he could muster to shake the organist's resolve. The offer was kindly-meant; he was sure that Mr Sharnall took a wrong view of Lord Blandamer's character--that Mr Sharnall was wrong in imputing motives to Lord Blandamer. What motives could he have except the best? and however much Mr Sharnall might personally refuse, how was a man to be stopped eventually from repairing an organ which stood so manifestly in need of repair? Westray spoke earnestly, and was gratified to see the effect which his eloquence produced on Mr Sharnall. It is so rarely that argument prevails to change opinion that the young man was flattered to see that the considerations which he was able to marshal were strong enough, at any rate, to influence Mr Sharnall's determination. Well, perhaps there was something in what Mr Westray said. Mr Sharnall would think it over. He would not write the letter of refusal that night; he could write to refuse the next day quite as well. In the meantime he _would_ see to the new pedal-board, and order the water-engine. Ever since he had seen the water-engine at Carisbury, he had been convinced that sooner or later they must have one at Cullerne. It _must_ be ordered; they could decide later on whether it should be paid for by Lord Blandamer, or should be charged to the general restoration fund. This conclusion, however inconclusive, was certainly a triumph for Westray's persuasive oratory, but his satisfaction was chastened by some doubts as to how far he was justified in assailing the scrupulous independence which had originally prompted Mr Sharnall to refuse to have anything to do with Lord Blandamer's offer. If Mr Sharnall had scruples in the matter, ought not he, Westray, to have respected those scruples? Was it not tampering with rectitude to have overcome them by a too persuasive rhetoric? His doubts were not allayed by the observation that Mr Sharnall himself had severely felt the strain of this mental quandary, for the organist said that he was upset by so difficult a question, and filled himself a bumper of whisky to steady his nerves. At the same time he took down from a shelf two or three notebooks and a mass of loose papers, which he spread open upon the table before him. Westray looked at them with a glance of unconscious inquiry. "I must really get to work at these things again," said the organist; "I have been dreadfully negligent of late. They are a lot of papers and notes that Martin Joliffe left behind him. Poor Miss Euphemia never had the heart to go through them. She was going to burn them just as they were, but I said, `Oh, you mustn't do that; turn them over to me. I will look into them, and see whether there is anything worth keeping.' So I took them, but haven't done nearly as much as I ought, what with one interruption and another. It's always sad going through a dead man's papers, but sadder when they're all that's left of a life's labour--lost labour, so far as Martin was concerned, for he was taken away just when he began to see daylight. `We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we shall carry nothing out.' When that comes into my mind, I think rather of the _little_ things than of gold or lands. Intimate letters that a man treasured more than money; little tokens of which the clue has died with him; the unfinished work to which he was coming back, and never came; even the unpaid bills that worried him; for death transfigures all, and makes the commonplace pathetic." He stopped for a moment. Westray said nothing, being surprised at this momentary softening of the other's mood. "Yes, it's sad enough," the organist resumed; "all these papers are nebuly coat--the sea-green and silver." "He was quite mad, I suppose?" Westray said. "Everyone except me will tell you so," replied the organist; "but I'm not so very sure after all that there wasn't a good deal more in it than madness. That's all that I can say just now, but those of us who live will see. There is a queer tradition hereabout. I don't know how long ago it started, but people say that there _is_ some mystery about the Blandamer descent, and that those in possession have no right to what they hold. But there is something else. Many have tried to solve the riddle, and some, you may depend, have been very hot on the track. But just as they come to the touch, something takes them off; that's what happened to Martin. I saw him the very day he died. `Sharnall,' he said to me, `if I can last out forty-eight hours more, you may take off your hat to me, and say "My lord."' "But the nebuly coat was too much for him; he had to die. So don't you be surprised if I pop off the hooks some of these fine days; if I don't, I'm going to get to the bottom, and you will see some changes here before so very long." He sat down at the table, and made a show for a minute of looking at the papers. "Poor Martin!" he said, and got up again, opened the cupboard, and took out the bottle. "You'll have a drop," he asked Westray, "won't you?" "No, thanks, not I," Westray said, with something as near contempt as his thin voice was capable of expressing. "Just a drop--do! I must have just a drop myself; I find it a great strain working at these papers; there may be more at stake in the reading than I care to think of." He poured out half a tumbler of spirit. Westray hesitated for a moment, and then his conscience and an early puritan training forced him to speak. "Sharnall," he said, "put it away. That bottle is your evil angel. Play the man, and put it away. You force me to speak. I cannot sit by with hands folded and see you going down the hill." The organist gave him a quick glance; then he filled up the tumbler to the brim with neat spirit. "Look you," he said: "I was going to drink half a glass; now I'm going to drink a whole one. That much for your advice! Going down the hill indeed! Go to the devil with your impertinence! If you can't keep a civil tongue in your head, you had better get your supper in someone else's room." A momentary irritation dragged Westray down from the high podium of judicial reproof into the arena of retort. "Don't worry yourself," he said sharply; "you may rely on my not troubling you with my company again." And he got up and opened the door. As he turned to go out, Anastasia Joliffe passed through the passage on her way to bed. The glimpse of her as she went by seemed still further to aggravate Mr Sharnall. He signed to Westray to stay where he was, and to shut the door again. "Damn you!" he said; "that's what I called you back to say. Damn you! Damn Blandamer! Damn everybody! Damn poverty! Damn wealth! I will not touch a farthing of his money for the organ. Now you can go." Westray had been cleanly bred. He had been used neither to the vulgarity of ill-temper nor to the coarser insolence of personal abuse. He shrank by natural habit even from gross adjectives, from the "beastly" and the "filthy" which modern manners too often condone, and still more from the abomination of swearing. So Mr Sharnall's obloquy wounded him to the quick. He went to bed in a flutter of agitation, and lay awake half the night mourning over a friendship so irreparably broken, bitter with the resentment of an unjustified attack, yet reproaching himself lest through his unwittingness he might have brought it all upon himself. The morning found him unrefreshed and dejected, but, whilst he sat at breakfast, the sun came out brightly, and he began to take a less despondent view of the situation. It was possible that Mr Sharnall's friendship might not after all be lost beyond repair; he would be sorry if it were, for he had grown fond of the old man, in spite of all his faults of life and manner. It was he, Westray, who had been entirely to blame. In another man's room he had lectured the other man. He, a young man, had lectured the other, who was an old man. It was true that he had done so with the best motives; he had only spoken from a painful sense of duty. But he had shown no tact, he had spoken much too strongly; he had imperilled his own good cause by the injudicious manner in which he had put it forward. At the risk of all rebuffs, he would express his regret; he would go down and apologise to Mr Sharnall, and offer, if need be, the other cheek to the smiter. Good resolves, if formed with the earnest intention of carrying them into effect, seldom fail to restore a measure of peace to the troubled mind. It is only when a regular and ghastly see-saw of wrong-doing and repentance has been established, and when the mind can no longer deceive even itself as to the possibility of permanent uprightness of life, that good resolves cease to tranquillise. Such a see-saw must gradually lose its regularity; the set towards evil grows more and more preponderant; the return to virtue rarer and more brief. Despair of any continuity of godliness follows, and then it is that good resolves, becoming a mere reflex action of the mind, fail in their gracious influence, and cease to bring quiet. These conditions can scarcely occur before middle age, and Westray, being young and eminently conscientious, was feeling the full peacefulness of his high-minded intention steal over him, when the door opened, and the organist entered. An outbreak of temper and a night of hard drinking had left their tokens on Mr Sharnall's face. He looked haggard, and the rings that a weak heart had drawn under his eyes were darker and more puffed. He came in awkwardly, and walked quickly to the architect, holding out his hand. "Forgive me, Westray," he said; "I behaved last night like a fool and a cad. You were quite right to speak to me as you did; I honour you for it. I wish to God there had been someone to speak to me like that years ago." His outstretched hand was not so white as it should have been, the nails were not so well trimmed as a more fastidious mood might have demanded; but Westray did not notice these things. He took the shaky old hand, and gripped it warmly, not saying anything, because he could not speak. "We _must_ be friends," the organist went on, after a moment's pause; "we must be friends, because I can't afford to lose you. I haven't known you long, but you are the only friend I have in the world. Is it not an awful thing to confess?" he said, with a tremulous little laugh. "I have no other friend in the world. Say those things you said last night whenever you like; the oftener you say them the better." He sat down, and, the situation being too strained to remain longer at so high a pitch, the conversation drifted, however awkwardly, to less personal topics. "There is a thing I wanted to speak about last night," the organist said. "Poor old Miss Joliffe is very hard up. She hasn't said a word to me about it--she never would to anyone--but I happen to know it for a fact: she _is_ hard up. She is in a chronic state of hard-up-ishness always, and that we all are; but this is an acute attack--she has her back against the wall. It is the fag-end of Martin's debts that bother her; these blood-sucking tradesmen are dunning her, and she hasn't the pluck to tell them go hang, though they know well enough she isn't responsible for a farthing. She has got it into her head that she hasn't a right to keep that flower-and-caterpillar picture so long as Martin's debts are unpaid, because she could raise money on it. You remember those people, Baunton and Lutterworth, offered her fifty pounds for it." "Yes, I remember," Westray said; "more fools they." "More fools, by all means," rejoined the organist; "but still they offer it, and I believe our poor old landlady will come to selling it. `All the better for her,' you will say, and anyone with an ounce of common-sense would have sold it long ago for fifty pounds or fifty pence. But, then, she has no common-sense, and I do believe it would break her pride and worry her into a fever to part with it. Well, I have been at the pains to find out what sum of money would pull her through, and I fancy something like twenty pounds would tide over the crisis." He paused a moment, as if he half expected Westray to speak; but the architect making no suggestion, he went on. "I didn't know," he said timidly; "I wasn't quite sure whether you had been here long enough to take much interest in the matter. I had an idea of buying the picture myself, so that we could still keep it here. It would be no good offering Miss Euphemia money as a _gift_; she wouldn't accept it on any condition. I know her quite well enough to be sure of that. But if I was to offer her twenty pounds for it, and tell her it must always stop here, and that she could buy it back from me when she was able, I think she would feel such an offer to be a godsend, and accept it readily." "Yes," Westray said dubitatively; "I suppose it couldn't be construed into attempting to outwit her, could it? It seems rather funny at first sight to get her to sell a picture for twenty pounds for which others have offered fifty pounds." "No, I don't think so," replied the organist. "It wouldn't be a real sale at all, you know, but only just a colour for helping her." "Well, as you have been kind enough to ask my advice, I see no further objection, and think it very good of you to show such thoughtfulness for poor Miss Joliffe." "Thank you," said the organist hesitatingly--"thank you; I had hoped you would take that view of the matter. There is a further little difficulty: I am as poor as a church mouse. I live like an old screw, and never spend a penny, but, then, I haven't got a penny to spend, and so can't save." Westray had already wondered how Mr Sharnall could command so large a sum as twenty pounds, but thought it more prudent to make no comments. Then the organist took the bull by the horns. "I didn't know," he said, "whether you would feel inclined to join me in the purchase. I have got ten pounds in the savings' bank; if you could find the other ten pounds, we could go shares in the picture; and, after all, that wouldn't much matter, for Miss Euphemia is quite sure to buy it back from us before very long." He stopped and looked at Westray. The architect was taken aback. He was of a cautious and calculating disposition, and a natural inclination to save had been reinforced by the conviction that any unnecessary expenditure was in itself to be severely reprobated. As the Bible was to him the foundation of the world to come, so the keeping of meticulous accounts and the putting by of however trifling sums, were the foundation of the world that is. He had so carefully governed his life as to have been already able, out of a scanty salary, to invest more than a hundred pounds in Railway Debentures. He set much store by the half-yearly receipt of an exiguous interest cheque, and derived a certain dignity and feeling of commercial stability from envelopes headed the "Great Southern Railway," which brought him from time to time a proxy form or a notice of shareholders' meetings. A recent examination of his bankbook had filled him with the hope of being able ere long to invest a second hundred pounds, and he had been turning over in his mind for some days the question of the stocks to be selected; it seemed financially unsound to put so large a sum in any single security. This suddenly presented proposal that he should make a serious inroad on his capital filled him with dismay; it was equivalent to granting a loan of ten pounds without any tangible security. No one in their senses could regard this miserable picture as a security; and the bulbous green caterpillar seemed to give a wriggle of derision as he looked at it across the breakfast-table. He had it on his tongue to refuse Mr Sharnall's request, with the sympathetic but judicial firmness with which all high-minded persons refuse to lend. There is a tone of sad resolution particularly applicable to such occasions, which should convey to the borrower that only motives of great moral altitude constrain us for the moment to override an earnest desire to part with our money. If it had not been for considerations of the public weal, we would most readily have given him ten times as much as was asked. Westray was about to express sentiments of this nature when he glanced at the organist's face, and saw written in its folds and wrinkles so paramount and pathetic an anxiety that his resolution was shaken. He remembered the quarrel of the night before, and how Mr Sharnall, in coming to beg his pardon that morning, had humbled himself before a younger man. He remembered how they had made up their differences; surely an hour ago he would willingly have paid ten pounds to know that their differences could be made up. Perhaps, after all, he might agree to make this loan as a thank-offering for friendship restored. Perhaps, after all, the picture _was_ a security: someone _had_ offered fifty pounds for it. The organist had not followed the change of Westray's mind; he retained only the first impression of reluctance, and was very anxious--curiously anxious, it might have seemed, if his only motive in the acquiring of the picture was to do a kindness to Miss Euphemia. "It _is_ a large sum, I know," he said in a low voice. "I am very sorry to ask you to do this. It is not for myself; I never asked a penny for myself in my life, and never will, till I go to the workhouse. Don't answer at once, if you don't see your way. Think it over. Take time to think it over; but do try, Westray, to help in the matter, if you can. It would be a sad pity to let the picture go out of the house just now." The eagerness with which he spoke surprised Westray. Could it be that Mr Sharnall had motives other than mere kindness? Could it be that the picture _was_ valuable after all? He walked across the room to look closer at the tawdry flowers and the caterpillar. No, it could not be that; the painting was absolutely worthless. Mr Sharnall had followed him, and they stood side by side looking out of the window. Westray was passing through a very brief interval of indecision. His emotional and perhaps better feelings told him that he ought to accede to Mr Sharnall's request; caution and the hoarding instinct reminded him that ten pounds was a large proportion of his whole available capital. Bright sunshine had succeeded the rain. The puddles flashed on the pavements; the long rows of raindrops glistened on the ledges which overhung the shop-windows, and a warm steam rose from the sandy roadway as it dried in the sun. The front-door of Bellevue Lodge closed below them, and Anastasia, in a broad straw hat and a pink print dress, went lightly down the steps. On that bright morning she looked the brightest thing of all, as she walked briskly to the market with a basket on her arm, unconscious that two men were watching her from an upper window. It was at that minute that thrift was finally elbowed by sentiment out of Westray's mind. "Yes," he said, "by all means let us buy the picture. You negotiate the matter with Miss Joliffe, and I will give you two five-pound notes this evening." "Thank you--thank you," said the organist, with much relief. "I will tell Miss Euphemia that she can buy it back from us whenever it suits her to do so; and if she should not buy it back before one of us dies, then it shall remain the sole property of the survivor." So that very day the purchase of a rare work of art was concluded by private treaty between Miss Euphemia Joliffe of the one part, and Messrs. Nicholas Sharnall and Edward Westray of the other. The hammer never fell upon the showy flowers with the green caterpillar wriggling in the corner; and Messrs. Baunton and Lutterworth received a polite note from Miss Joliffe to say that the painting late in the possession of Martin Joliffe, Esquire, deceased, was not for sale. CHAPTER ELEVEN. The old Bishop of Carisbury was dead, and a new Bishop of Carisbury reigned in his stead. The appointment had caused some chagrin in Low-Church circles, for Dr Willis, the new Bishop, was a High Churchman of pronounced views. But he had a reputation for deep personal piety, and a very short experience sufficed to show that he was full of Christian tolerance and tactful loving-kindness. One day, as Mr Sharnall was playing a voluntary after the Sunday morning-service, a chorister stole up the little winding steps, and appeared in the organ-loft just as his master had pulled out a handful of stops and dashed into the _stretto_. The organist had not heard the boy on the stairs, and gave a violent start as he suddenly caught sight of the white surplice. Hands and feet for an instant lost their place, and the music came perilously near breaking down. It was only for an instant; he pulled himself together, and played the fugue to its logical conclusion. Then the boy began, "Canon Parkyn's compliments," but broke off; for the organist greeted him with a sound cuff and a "How many times have I told you, sir, not to come creeping up those stairs when I am in the middle of a voluntary? You startle me out of my senses, coming round the corner like a ghost." "I'm very sorry, sir," the boy said, whimpering. "I'm sure I never meant--I never thought--" "You never _do_ think," Mr Sharnall said. "Well, well, don't go on whining. Old heads don't grow on young shoulders; don't do it again, and there's a sixpence for you. And now let's hear what you have to say." Sixpences were rare things among Cullerne boys, and the gift consoled more speedily than any balm in Gilead. "Canon Parkyn's compliments to you, sir, and he would be glad to have a word with you in the clergy-vestry." "All in good time. Tell him I'll be down as soon as I've put my books away." Mr Sharnall did not hurry. There were the Psalter and the chant-book to be put open on the desk for the afternoon; there were the morning-service and anthem-book to be put away, and the evening-service and anthem-book to be got out. The establishment had once been able to afford good music-books, and in the attenuated list of subscribers to the first-edition Boyce you may see to this day, "The Rector and Foundation of Cullerne Minster (6 copies)." Mr Sharnall loved the great Boyce, with its parchment paper and largest of large margins. He loved the crisp sound of the leaves as he turned them, and he loved the old-world clefs that he could read nine staves at a time as easily as a short score. He looked at the weekly list to check his memory--"Awake up my Glory" (_Wise_). No, it was in Volume Three instead of Two; he had taken down the wrong volume--a stupid mistake for one who knew the copy so well. How the rough calf backs were crumbling away! The rusty red-leather dust had come off on his coat-sleeves; he really was not fit to be seen, and he took some minutes more to brush it all off. So it was that Canon Parkyn chafed at being kept waiting in the clergy-vestry, and greeted Mr Sharnall on his appearance with a certain tartness: "I wish you could be a little quicker when you are sent for. I am particularly busy just now, and you have kept me waiting a quarter of an hour at least." As this was precisely what Mr Sharnall had intended to do, he took no umbrage at the Rector's remarks, but merely said: "Pardon me; scarcely so long as a quarter of an hour, I think." "Well, do not let us waste words. What I wanted to tell you was that it has been arranged for the Lord Bishop of Carisbury to hold a confirmation in the minster on the eighteenth of next month, at three o'clock in the afternoon. We must have a full musical service, and I shall be glad if you will submit a sketch of what you propose for my approval. There is one point to which I must call your attention particularly. As his lordship walks up the nave, we must have a becoming march on the organ--not any of this old-fashioned stuff of which I have had so often to complain, but something really dignified and with tune in it." "Oh yes, we can easily arrange that," Mr Sharnall said obsequiously--"`See the Conquering Hero comes,' by Handel, would be very appropriate; or there is an air out of one of Offenbach's Operas that I think I could adapt to the purpose. It is a very sweet thing if rendered with proper feeling; or I could play a `Danse Maccabre' slowly on the full organ." "Ah, that is from the `Judas Maccabaeus,' I conclude," said the Rector, a little mollified at this unexpected acquiescence in his views. "Well, I see that you understand my wishes, so I hope I may leave that matter in your hands. By the way," he said, turning back as he left the vestry, "what _was_ the piece which you played after the service just now?" "Oh, only a fugal movement--just a fugue of Kirnberger's." "I _wish_ you would not give us so much of this fugal style. No doubt it is all very fine from a scholastic point of view, but to most it seems merely confused. So far from assisting me and the choir to go out with dignity, it really fetters our movements. We want something with pathos and dignity, such as befits the end of a solemn service, yet with a marked rhythm, so that it may time our footsteps as we leave the choir. Forgive these suggestions; the _practical_ utility of the organ is so much overlooked in these days. When Mr Noot is taking the service it does not so much matter, but when I am here myself I beg that there may be no more fugue." The visit of the Bishop of Carisbury to Cullerne was an important matter, and necessitated some forethought and arrangement. "The Bishop must, of course, lunch with us," Mrs Parkyn said to her husband; "you will ask him, of course, to lunch, my dear." "Oh yes, certainly," replied the Canon; "I wrote yesterday to ask him to lunch." He assumed an unconcerned air, but with only indifferent success, for his heart misgave him that he had been guilty of an unpardonable breach of etiquette in writing on so important a subject without reference to his wife. "Really, my dear!" she rejoined--"really! I hope at least that your note was couched in proper terms." "Psha!" he said, a little nettled in his turn, "do you suppose I have never written to a Bishop before?" "That is not the point; _any_ invitation of this kind should always be given by me. The Bishop, if he has any _breeding_, will be very much astonished to receive an invitation to lunch that is not given by the lady of the house. This, at least, is the usage that prevails among persons of _breeding_." There was just enough emphasis in the repetition of the last formidable word to have afforded a _casus belli_, if the Rector had been minded for the fray; but he was a man of peace. "You are quite right, my dear," was the soft answer; "it was a slip of mine, which we must hope the Bishop will overlook. I wrote in a hurry yesterday afternoon, as soon as I received the official information of his coming. You were out calling, if you recollect, and I had to catch the post. One never knows what tuft-hunting may not lead people to do; and if I had not caught the post, some pushing person or other might quite possibly have asked him sooner. I meant, of course, to have reported the matter to you, but it slipped my memory." "Really," she said, with fine deprecation, being only half pacified, "I do not see who there _could_ be to ask the Bishop except ourselves. Where should the Bishop of Carisbury lunch in Cullerne except at the Rectory?" In this unanswerable conundrum she quenched the smouldering embers of her wrath. "I have no doubt, dear, that you did it all for the best, and I hate these vulgar pushing nobodies, who try to get hold of everyone of the least position quite as much as you do. So let us consider whom we _ought_ to ask to meet him. A small party, I think it should be; he would take it as a greater compliment if the party were small." She had that shallow and ungenerous mind which shrinks instinctively from admitting any beauty or intellect in others, and which grudges any participation in benefits, however amply sufficient they may be for all. Thus, few must be asked to meet the Bishop, that it might the better appear that few indeed, beside the Rector and Mrs Parkyn, were fit to associate with so distinguished a man. "I quite agree with you," said the Rector, considerably relieved to find that his own temerity in asking the Bishop might now be considered as condoned. "Our party must above all things be select; indeed, I do not know how we could make it anything but very small; there are so few people whom we _could_ ask to meet the Bishop." "Let me see," his wife said, making a show of reckoning Cullerne respectability with the fingers of one hand on the fingers of the other. "There is--" She broke off as a sudden idea seized her. "Why, of course, we must ask Lord Blandamer. He has shown such marked interest in ecclesiastical matters that he is sure to wish to meet the Bishop." "A most fortunate suggestion--admirable in every way. It may strengthen his interest in the church; and it must certainly be beneficial to him to associate with correct society after his wandering and Bohemian life. I hear all kinds of strange tales of his hobnobbing with this Mr Westray, the clerk of the works, and with other persons entirely out of his own rank. Mrs Flint, who happened to be visiting a poor woman in a back lane, assures me that she has every reason to believe that he spent an hour or more in the clerk's house, and even ate there. They say he positively ate tripe." "Well, it will certainly do him good to meet the Bishop," the lady said. "That would make four with ourselves; and we can ask Mrs Bulteel. We need not ask her husband; he is painfully rough, and the Bishop might not like to meet a brewer. It will not be at all strange to ask her alone; there is always the excuse of not liking to take a businessman away from his work in the middle of the day." "That would be five; we ought to make it up to six. I suppose it would not do to ask this architect-fellow or Mr Sharnall." "My dear! what can you be thinking of? On no account whatever. Such guests would be _most_ inappropriate." The Rector looked so properly humble and cast down at this reproof that his wife relented a little. "Not that there is any _harm_ in asking them, but they would be so very ill at ease themselves, I fear, in such surroundings. If you think the number should be even, we might perhaps ask old Noot. He _is_ a gentleman, and would pass as your chaplain, and say grace." Thus the party was made up, and Lord Blandamer accepted, and Mrs Bulteel accepted; and there was no need to trouble about the curate's acceptance--he was merely ordered to come to lunch. But, after all had gone so well up to this point, the unexpected happened--the Bishop could not come. He regretted that he could not accept the hospitality so kindly offered him by Canon Parkyn; he had an engagement which would occupy him for any spare time that he would have in Cullerne; he had made other arrangements for lunch; he would call at the Rectory half an hour before the service. The Rector and his wife sat in the "study," a dark room on the north side of the rectory-house, made sinister from without by dank laurestinus, and from within by glass cases of badly-stuffed birds. A Bradshaw lay on the table before them. "He cannot be _driving_ from Carisbury," Mrs Parkyn said. "Dr Willis does not keep at all the same sort of stables that his predecessor kept. Mrs Flint, when she was attending the annual Christian Endeavour meeting at Carisbury, was told that Dr Willis thinks it wrong that a Bishop should do more in the way of keeping carriages than is absolutely necessary for church purposes. She said she had passed the Bishop's carriage herself, and that the coachman was a most unkempt creature, and the horses two wretched screws." "I heard much the same thing," assented the Rector. "They say he would not have his own coat of arms painted on the carriage, for what was there already was quite good enough for him. He cannot possibly be driving here from Carisbury; it is a good twenty miles." "Well, if he does not drive, he must come by the 12:15 train; that would give him two hours and a quarter before the service. What business can he have in Cullerne? Where can he be lunching? What can he be doing with himself for two mortal hours and a quarter?" Here was another conundrum to which probably only one person in Cullerne town could have supplied an answer, and that was Mr Sharnall. A letter had come for the organist that very day: "The Palace, "Carisbury. "My dear Sharnall, "(I had almost written `My dear Nick'; forty years have made my pen a little stiff, but you must give me your official permission to write `My dear Nick' the very next time.) You may have forgotten my hand, but you will not have forgotten me. Do you know, it is I, Willis, who am your new Bishop? It is only a fortnight since I learnt that you were so near me-- "`Quam dulce amicitias, Redintegrare nitidas' - "and the very first point of it is that I am going to sponge on you, and ask myself to lunch. I am coming to Cullerne at 12:45 to-day fortnight for the Confirmation, and have to be at the Rectory at 2:30, but till then an old friend, Nicholas Sharnall, will give me food and shelter, will he not? Make no excuses, for I shall not accept them; but send me word to say that in this you will not fail of your duty, and believe me always to be "Yours, "John Carum." There was something that moved strangely inside Mr Sharnall's battered body as he read the letter--an upheaval of emotion; the child's heart within the man's; his young hopeful self calling to his old hopeless self. He sat back in his armchair, and shut his eyes, and the organ-loft in a little college chapel came back to him, and long, long practisings, and Willis content to stand by and listen as long as he should play. How it pleased Willis to stand by, and pull the stops, and fancy he knew something of music! No, Willis never knew any music, and yet he had a good taste, and loved a fugue. There came to him country rambles and country churches and Willis with an "A.B.C. of Gothic Architecture," trying to tell an Early English from a Decorated moulding. There came to him inimitably long summer evenings, with the sky clearest yellow in the north, hours after sunset; dusty white roads, with broad galloping-paths at the side, drenched with heavy dew; the dark, mysterious boskage of Stow Wood; the scent of the syringa in the lane at Beckley; the white mist sheeting the Cherwell vale. And supper when they got home--for memory is so powerful an alchemist as to transmute suppers as well as sunsets. What suppers! Cider-cup with borage floating in it, cold lamb and mint sauce, watercress, and a triangular commons of Stilton. Why, he had not tasted Stilton for forty years! No, Willis never knew any music, but he loved a fugue. Ah, the fugues they had! And then a voice crossed Mr Sharnall's memory, saying, "When I am here myself, I beg that there may be no more fugue." "No more fugue"--there was a finality in the phrase uncompromising as the "no more sea" of the Apocalyptic vision. It made Mr Sharnall smile bitterly; he woke from his daydream, and was back in the present. Oh yes, he knew very well that it was his old friend when he first saw on whom the choice had fallen for the Bishopric. He was glad Willis was coming to see him. Willis knew all about the row, and how it was that Sharnall had to leave Oxford. Ay, but the Bishop was too generous and broad-minded to remember that now. Willis must know very well that he was only a poor, out-at-elbows old fellow, and yet he was coming to lunch with him; but did Willis know that he still--He did not follow the thought further, but glanced in a mirror, adjusted his tie, fastened the top button of his coat, and with his uncertain hands brushed the hair back on either side of his head. No, Willis did not know that; he never should know; it was _never_ too late to mend. He went to the cupboard, and took out a bottle and a tumbler. Only very little spirit was left, and he poured it all into the glass. There was a moment's hesitation, a moment while enfeebled will-power was nerving itself for the effort. He was apparently engaged in making sure that not one minim of this most costly liquor was wasted. He held the bottle carefully inverted, and watched the very last and smallest drop detach itself and fall into the glass. No, his will-power was not yet altogether paralysed--not yet; and he dashed the contents of the glass into the fire. There was a great blaze of light-blue flame, and a puff in the air that made the window-panes rattle; but the heroic deed was done, and he heard a mental blast of trumpets, and the acclaiming voice of the _Victor Sui_. Willis should never know that he still--because he never would again. He rang the bell, and when Miss Euphemia answered it she found him walking briskly, almost tripping, to and fro in the room. He stopped as she entered, drew his heels together, and made her a profound bow. "Hail, most fair chastelaine! Bid the varlets lower the draw-bridge and raise the portcullis. Order pasties and souse-fish and a butt of malmsey; see the great hall is properly decored for my Lord Bishop of Carisbury, who will take his _ambigue_ and bait his steeds at this castle." Miss Joliffe stared; she saw a bottle and an empty tumbler on the table, and smelt a strong smell of whisky; and the mirth faded from Mr Sharnall's face as he read her thoughts. "No, wrong," he said--"wrong this once; I am as sober as a judge, but excited. A Bishop is coming to lunch with me. _You_ are excited when Lord Blandamer takes tea with you--a mere trashy temporal peer; am I not to be excited when a real spiritual lord pays me a visit? Hear, O woman! The Bishop of Carisbury has written to ask, not me to lunch with him, but him to lunch with me. You will have a Bishop lunching at Bellevue Lodge." "Oh, Mr Sharnall! pray, sir, speak plainly. I am so old and stupid, I can never tell whether you are joking or in earnest." So he put off his exaltation, and told her the actual facts. "I am sure I don't know, sir, what you will give him for lunch," Miss Joliffe said. She was always careful to put in a proper number of "sirs," for, though she was proud of her descent, and considered that so far as birth went she need not fear comparison with other Cullerne dames, she thought it a Christian duty to accept fully the position of landlady to which circumstances had led her. "I am sure I don't know what you will give him for lunch; it is always so difficult to arrange meals for the clergy. If one provides _too_ much of the good things of this world, it seems as if one was not considering sufficiently their sacred calling; it seems like Martha, too cumbered with much serving, too careful and troubled, to gain all the spiritual advantage that must come from clergymen's society. But, of course, even the most spiritually-minded must nourish their _bodies_, or they would not be able to do so much good. But when less provision has been made, I have sometimes seen clergymen eat it all up, and become quite wearied, poor things! for want of food. It was so, I remember, when Mrs Sharp invited the parishioners to meet the deputation after the Church Missionary Meeting. All the patties were eaten before the deputation came, and he was so tired, poor man! with his long speech that when he found there was nothing to eat he got quite annoyed. It was only for a moment, of course, but I heard him say to someone, whose name I forget, that he had much better have trusted to a ham-sandwich in the station refreshment-room. "And if it is difficult with the food, it is worse still with what they are to drink. Some clergymen do so dislike wine, and others feel they need it before the exertion of speaking. Only last year, when Mrs Bulteel gave a drawing-room meeting, and champagne with biscuits was served before it, Dr Stimey said quite openly that though he did not consider all who drank to be _reprobate_, yet he must regard alcohol as the Mark of the Beast, and that people did not come to drawing-room meetings to drink themselves sleepy before the speaking. With Bishops it must be much worse; so I don't know what we shall give him." "Don't distress yourself too much," the organist said, having at last spied a gap in the serried ranks of words; "I have found out what Bishops eat; it is all in a little book. We must give him cold lamb-- cold ribs of lamb--and mint sauce, boiled potatoes, and after that Stilton cheese." "Stilton?" Miss Joliffe asked with some trepidation. "I am afraid it will be very expensive." As a drowning man in one moment passes in review the events of a lifetime, so her mind took an instantaneous conspectus of all cheeses that had ever stood in the cheese-cradle in the palmy days of Wydcombe, when hams and plum-puddings hung in bags from the rafters, when there was cream in the dairy and beer in the cellar. Blue Vinny, little Gloucesters, double Besants, even sometimes a cream-cheese with rushes on the bottom, but Stilton never! "I am afraid it is a _very_ expensive cheese; I do not think anyone in Cullerne keeps it." "It is a pity," Mr Sharnall said; "but we cannot help ourselves, for Bishops _must_ have Stilton for lunch; the book says so. You must ask Mr Custance to get you a piece, and I will tell you later how it is to be cut, for there are rules about that too." He laughed to himself with a queer little chuckle. Cold lamb and mint sauce, with a piece of Stilton afterwards--they would have an Oxford lunch; they would be young again, and undefiled. The stimulus that the Bishop's letter had brought Mr Sharnall soon wore off. He was a man of moods, and in his nervous temperament depression walked close at the heels of exaltation. Westray felt sure in those days that followed that his friend was drinking to excess, and feared something more serious than a mere nervous breakdown, from the agitation and strangeness that he could not fail to observe in the organist's manner. The door of the architect's room opened one night, as he sat late over his work, and Mr Sharnall entered. His face was pale, and there was a startled, wide-open look in his eyes that Westray did not like. "I wish you would come down to my room for a minute," the organist said; "I want to change the place of my piano, and can't move it by myself." "Isn't it rather late to-night?" Westray said, pulling at his watch, while the deep and slow melodious chimes of Saint Sepulchre told the dreaming town and the silent sea-marshes that it lacked but a quarter of an hour to midnight. "Wouldn't it be better to do it to-morrow morning?" "Couldn't you come down to-night?" the organist asked; "it wouldn't take you a minute." Westray caught the disappointment in the tone. "Very well," he said, putting his drawing-board aside. "I've worked at this quite long enough; let us shift your piano." They went down to the ground-floor. "I want to turn the piano right-about-face," the organist said, "with its back to the room and the keyboard to the wall--the keyboard quite close to the wall, with just room for me to sit." "It seems a curious arrangement," Westray criticised; "is it better acoustically?" "Oh, I don't know; but, if I want to rest a bit, I can put my back against the wall, you see." The change was soon accomplished, and they sat down for a moment before the fire. "You keep a good fire," Westray said, "considering it is bed-time." And, indeed, the coals were piled high, and burning fiercely. The organist gave them a poke, and looked round as if to make sure that they were alone. "You'll think me a fool," he said; "and I am. You'll think I've been drinking, and I have. You'll think I'm drunk, but I'm not. Listen to me: I'm not drunk; I'm only a coward. Do you remember the very first night you and I walked home to this house together? Do you remember the darkness and the driving rain, and how scared I was when we passed the Old Bonding-house? Well, it was beginning then, but it's much worse now. I had a horrible idea even then that there was something always following me--following me close. I didn't know what it was--I only knew there was _something_ close behind me." His manner and appearance alarmed Westray. The organist's face was very pale, and a curious raising of the eyelids, which showed the whites of the eyes above the pupils, gave him the staring appearance of one confronted suddenly with some ghastly spectacle. Westray remembered that the hallucination of pursuant enemies is one of the most common symptoms of incipient madness, and put his hand gently on the organist's arm. "Don't excite yourself," he said; "this is all nonsense. Don't get excited so late at night." Mr Sharnall brushed the hand aside. "I only used to have that feeling when I was out of doors, but now I have it often indoors--even in this very room. Before I never knew what it was following me--I only knew it was something. But now I know what it is: it is a man--a man with a hammer. Don't laugh. You don't _want_ to laugh; you only laugh because you think it will quiet me, but it won't. I think it is a man with a hammer. I have never seen his face yet, but I shall some day. Only I know it is an evil face--not hideous, like pictures of devils or anything of that kind, but worse--a dreadful, disguised face, looking all right, but wearing a mask. He walks constantly behind me, and I feel every moment that the hammer may brain me." "Come, come!" Westray said in what is commonly supposed to be a soothing tone, "let us change this subject, or go to bed. I wonder how you will find the new position of your piano answer." The organist smiled. "Do you know why I really put it like that?" he said. "It is because I am such a coward. I like to have my back against the wall, and then I know there can be no one behind me. There are many nights, when it gets late, that it is only with a great effort I can sit here. I grow so nervous that I should go to bed at once, only I say to myself, `Nick'-- that's what they used to call me at home, you know, when I was a boy--`Nick, you're not going to be beat; you're not going to be scared out of your own room by ghosts, surely.' And then I sit tight, and play on, but very often don't think much of what I'm playing. It is a sad state for a man to get into, is it not?" And Westray could not traverse the statement. "Even in the church," Mr Sharnall went on, "I don't care to practise much in the evening by myself. It used to be all right when Cutlow was there to blow for me. He is a daft fellow, but still was some sort of company; but now the water-engine is put in, I feel lonely there, and don't care to go as often as I used. Something made me tell Lord Blandamer how his water-engine contrived to make me frightened, and he said he should have to come up to the loft himself sometimes to keep me company." "Well, let me know the first evening you want to practise," Westray said, "and I will come, too, and sit in the loft. Take care of yourself, and you will soon grow out of all these fancies, and laugh at them as much as I do." And he feigned a smile. But it was late at night; he was high-strung and nervous himself, and the fact that Mr Sharnall should have been brought to such a pitiable state of mental instability depressed him. The report that the Bishop was going to lunch with Mr Sharnall on the day of the Confirmation soon spread in Cullerne. Miss Joliffe had told Mr Joliffe the pork-butcher, as her cousin, and Mr Joliffe, as churchwarden, had told Canon Parkyn. It was the second time within a few weeks that a piece of important news had reached the Rector at second-hand. But on this occasion he experienced little of the chagrin that had possessed him when Lord Blandamer made the great offer to the restoration fund through Westray. He did not feel resentment against Mr Sharnall; the affair was of too solemn an importance for any such personal and petty sentiments to find a place. Any act of any Bishop was vicariously an act of God, and to chafe at this dispensation would have been as out of place as to be incensed at a shipwreck or an earthquake. The fact of being selected as the entertainer of the Bishop of Carisbury invested Mr Sharnall in the Rector's eyes with a distinction which could not have been possibly attained by mere intellect or technical skill or devoted drudgery. The organist became _ipso facto_ a person to be taken into account. The Rectory had divined and discussed, and discussed and divined, how it was, could, would, should, have been that the Bishop could be lunching with Mr Sharnall. Could it be that the Bishop had thought that Mr Sharnall kept an eating-house, or that the Bishop took some special diet which only Mr Sharnall knew how to prepare? Could it be that the Bishop had some idea of making Mr Sharnall organist in his private chapel, for there was no vacancy in the Cathedral? Conjecture charged the blank wall of mystery full tilt, and retired broken from the assault. After talking of nothing else for many hours, Mrs Parkyn declared that the matter had no interest at all for her. "For my part, I cannot profess to understand such goings-on," she said in that convincing and convicting tone which implies that the speaker knows far more than he cares to state, and that the solution of the mystery must in any case be discreditable to all concerned. "I wonder, my dear," the Rector said to his wife, "whether Mr Sharnall has the means to entertain the Bishop properly." "Properly!" said Mrs Parkyn--"properly! I think the whole proceeding entirely improper. Do you mean has Mr Sharnall money enough to purchase a proper repast? I should say certainly not. Or has he proper plates or forks or spoons, or a proper room in which to eat? Of course he has not. Or do you mean can he get things properly cooked? Who is to do it? There is only feckless old Miss Joliffe and her stuck-up niece." The Canon was much perturbed by the vision of discomfort which his wife had called up. "The Bishop ought to be spared as much as _possible_," he said; "we ought to do all we _can_ to save him annoyance. What do you think? Should we not put up with a little inconvenience, and ask Sharnall to bring the Bishop here, and lunch himself? He must know perfectly well that entertaining a Bishop in a lodging-house is an unheard-of thing, and he would do to make up the sixth instead of old Noot. We could easily tell Noot he was not wanted." "Sharnall is such a disreputable creature," Mrs Parkyn answered; "he is quite as likely as not to come tipsy; and, if he does not, he has no _breeding_ or education, and would scarcely understand polite conversation." "You forget, my dear, that the Bishop is already pledged to lunch with Mr Sharnall, so that we should not be held responsible for introducing him. And Sharnall has managed to pick up some sort of an education--I can't imagine where; but I found on one occasion that he could understand a little Latin. It was the Blandamer motto, `_Aut Fynes, aut finis_.' He may have been told what it meant, but he certainly seemed to know. Of course, no real knowledge of Latin can be obtained without a _University_ education"--and the Rector pulled up his tie and collar--"but still chemists and persons of that sort do manage to get a smattering of it." "Well, well, I don't suppose we are going to talk Latin all through lunch," interrupted his wife. "You can do precisely as you please about asking him." The Rector contented himself with the permission, however ungraciously accorded, and found himself a little later in Mr Sharnall's room. "Mrs Parkyn was hoping that she might have prevailed on you to lunch with us on the day of the Confirmation. She was only waiting for the Bishop's acceptance to send you an invitation; but we hear now," he said in a dubitative and tentative way--"we hear now that it is possible that the Bishop may be lunching with you." There was a twitch about the corners of Canon Parkyn's mouth. The position that a Bishop should be lunching with Mr Sharnall in a common lodging-house was so exquisitely funny that he could only restrain his laughter with difficulty. Mr Sharnall gave an assenting nod. "Mrs Parkyn was not quite sure whether you might have in your lodgings exactly everything that might be necessary for entertaining his lordship." "Oh dear, yes," Mr Sharnall said. "It looks a little dowdy just this minute, because the chairs are at the upholsterers to have the gilt touched up; we are putting up new curtains, of _course_, and the housekeeper has already begun to polish the best silver." "It occurred to Mrs Parkyn," the Rector continued, being too bent on saying what he had to say to pay much attention to the organist's remarks--"it occurred to Mrs Parkyn that it might perhaps be more convenient to you to bring the Bishop to lunch at the Rectory. It would spare you all trouble in preparation, and you would of course lunch with us yourself. It would be putting us to no inconvenience; Mrs Parkyn would be glad that you should lunch with us yourself." Mr Sharnall nodded, this time deprecatingly. "You are very kind. Mrs Parkyn is very considerate, but the Bishop has signified his intention of lunching in _this_ house; I could scarcely venture to contravene his lordship's wishes." "The Bishop is a friend of yours?" the Rector asked. "You can scarcely say that; I do not think I have set eyes on the man for forty years." The Rector was puzzled. "Perhaps the Bishop is under some misconception; perhaps he thinks that this house is still an inn--the Hand of God, you know." "Perhaps," said the organist; and there was a little pause. "I hope you will consider the matter. May I not tell Mrs Parkyn that you will urge the Bishop to lunch at the Rectory--that you both"--and he brought out the word bravely, though it cost him a pang to yoke the Bishop with so unworthy a mate, and to fling the door of select hospitality open to Mr Sharnall--"that you both will lunch with us?" "I fear not," the organist said; "I fear I must say no. I shall be very busy preparing for the extra service, and if I am to play `See the Conquering Hero' as the Bishop enters the church, I shall need time for practice. A piece like that takes some playing, you know." "I hope you will endeavour to render it in the very best manner," the Rector said, and withdrew his forces _re infecta_. The story of Mr Sharnall's mental illusions, and particularly of the hallucination as to someone following him, had left an unpleasant impression on Westray's mind. He was anxious about his fellow-lodger, and endeavoured to keep a kindly supervision over him, as he felt it to be possible that a person in such a state might do himself a mischief. On most evenings he either went down to Mr Sharnall's room, or asked the organist to come upstairs to his, considering that the solitude incident to bachelor life in advancing years was doubtless to blame to a large extent for these wandering fancies. Mr Sharnall occupied himself at night in sorting and reading the documents which had once belonged to Martin Joliffe. There was a vast number of them, representing the accumulation of a lifetime, and consisting of loose memoranda, of extracts from registers, of manuscript-books full of pedigrees and similar material. When he had first begun to examine them, with a view to their classification or destruction, he showed that the task was distinctly uncongenial to him; he was glad enough to make any excuse for interruption or for invoking Westray's aid. The architect, on the other hand, was by nature inclined to archaeologic and genealogic studies, and would not have been displeased if Mr Sharnall had handed over to him the perusal of these papers entirely. He was curious to trace the origin of that chimera which had wasted a whole life--to discover what had led Martin originally to believe that he had a claim to the Blandamer peerage. He found, perhaps, an additional incentive in an interest which he was beginning unconsciously to take in Anastasia Joliffe, whose fortunes might be supposed to be affected by these investigations. But in a little while Westray noticed a change in the organist's attitude as touching the papers. Mr Sharnall evinced a dislike to the architect examining them further; he began himself to devote a good deal more time and attention to their study, and he kept them jealously under lock and key. Westray's nature led him to resent anything that suggested suspicion; he at once ceased to concern himself with the matter, and took care to show Mr Sharnall that he had no wish whatever to see more of the documents. As for Anastasia, she laughed at the idea of there being any foundation underlying these fancies; she laughed at Mr Sharnall, and rallied Westray, saying she believed that they both were going to embark on the quest of the nebuly coat. To Miss Euphemia it was no laughing matter. "I think, my dear," she said to her niece, "that all these searchings after wealth and fortune are not of God. I believe that trying to discover things"--and she used "things" with the majestic comprehensiveness of the female mind--"is generally bad for man. If it is good for us to be noblemen and rich, then Providence will bring us to that station; but to try to prove one's self a nobleman is like star-gazing and fortune-telling. Idolatry is as the sin of witchcraft. There can be no _blessing_ on it, and I reproach myself for ever having given dear Martin's papers to Mr Sharnall at all. I only did so because I could not bear to go through them myself, and thought perhaps that there might be cheques or something valuable among them. I wish I had burnt everything at first, and now Mr Sharnall says he will not have the papers destroyed till he has been through them. I am sure they were no blessing at all to dear Martin. I hope they may not bewitch these two gentlemen as well." CHAPTER TWELVE. The scheme of restoration had been duly revised in the light of Lord Blandamer's generosity, and the work had now entered on such a methodical progress that Westray was able on occasion to relax something of that close personal supervision which had been at first so exacting. Mr Sharnall often played for half an hour or more after the evening-service, and on such occasions Westray found time, now and then, to make his way to the organ-loft. The organist liked to have him there; he was grateful for the token of interest, however slight, that was implied in such visits; and Westray, though without technical knowledge, found much to interest him in the unfamiliar surroundings of the loft. It was a curious little kingdom of itself, situate over the great stone screen, which at Cullerne divides the choir from the nave, but as remote and cut off from the outside world as a desert island. Access was gained to it by a narrow, round, stone staircase, which led up from the nave at the south end of the screen. After the bottom door of this windowless staircase was opened and shut, anyone ascending was left for a moment in bewildering darkness. He had to grope the way by his feet feeling the stairs, and by his hand laid on the central stone shaft which had been polished to the smoothness of marble by countless other hands of past times. But, after half a dozen steps, the darkness resolved; there was first the dusk of dawn, and soon a burst of mellow light, when he reached the stairhead and stepped out into the loft. Then there were two things which he noticed before any other--the bow of that vast Norman arch which spanned the opening into the south transept, with its lofty and over-delicate roll and cavetto mouldings; and behind it the head of the Blandamer window, where in the centre of the infinite multiplication of the tracery shone the sea-green and silver of the nebuly coat. Afterwards he might remark the long-drawn roof of the nave, and the chevroned ribs of the Norman vault, delimiting bay and bay with a saltire as they crossed; or his eyes might be led up to the lantern of the central tower, and follow the lighter ascending lines of Abbot Vinnicomb's Perpendicular panelling, till they vanished in the windows far above. Inside the loft there was room and to spare. It was formed on ample lines, and had space for a stool or two beside the performer's seat, while at the sides ran low bookcases which held the music library. In these shelves rested the great folios of Boyce, and Croft, and Arnold, Page and Greene, Battishill and Crotch--all those splendid and ungrudging tomes for which the "Rectors and Foundation of Cullerne" had subscribed in older and richer days. Yet these were but the children of a later birth. Round about them stood elder brethren, for Cullerne Minster was still left in possession of its seventeenth-century music-books. A famous set they were, a hundred or more bound in their old black polished calf, with a great gold medallion, and "Tenor: Decani," or "Contra-tenor: Cantoris", "Basso," or "Sopra," stamped in the middle of every cover. And inside was parchment with red-ruled margins, and on the parchment were inscribed services and "verse-anthems" and "ffull-anthems," all in engrossing hand and the most uncompromising of black ink. Therein was a generous table of contents-- Mr Batten and Mr Gibbons, Mr Mundy and Mr Tomkins, Doctor Bull and Doctor Giles, all neatly filed and paged; and Mr Bird would incite singers long since turned to churchyard mould to "bring forthe ye timbrell, ye pleasant harp and ye violl," and reinsist with six parts, and a red capital letter, "ye pleasant harp and ye violl." It was a great place for dust, the organ-loft--dust that fell, and dust that rose; dust of wormy wood, dust of crumbling leather, dust of tattered mothy curtains that were dropping to pieces, dust of primeval green baize; but Mr Sharnall had breathed the dust for forty years, and felt more at home in that place than anywhere else. If it was Crusoe's island, he was Crusoe, monarch of all he surveyed. "Here, you can take this key," he said one day to Westray; "it unlocks the staircase-door; but either tell me when to expect you, or make a noise as you come up the steps. I don't like being startled. Be sure you push the door to after you; it fastens itself. I am always particular about keeping the door locked, otherwise one doesn't know what stranger may take it into his head to walk up. I can't bear being startled." And he glanced behind him with a strange look in his eyes. A few days before the Bishop's visit Westray was with Mr Sharnall in the organ-loft. He had been there through most of the service, and, as he sat on his stool in the corner, had watched the curious diamond pattern of light and dark that the clerestory windows made with the vaulting-ribs. Anyone outside would have seen islands of white cloud drifting across the blue sky, and each cloud as it passed threw the heavy chevroned diagonals inside into bold relief, and picked out that rebus of a carding-comb encircled by a wreath of vine-leaves which Nicholas Vinnicomb had inserted for a vaulting-boss. The architect had learned to regard the beetling roof with an almost superstitious awe, and was this day so fascinated with the strange effect as to be scarcely aware that the service was over till Mr Sharnall spoke. "You said you would like to hear my service in D flat--`Sharnall in D flat,' did you not? I will play it through to you now, if you care to listen. Of course, I can only give you the general effect, without voices, though, after all, I don't know that you won't get quite as good an idea of it as you could with any voices that we have here." Westray woke up from his dreams and put himself into an attitude of proper attention, while Mr Sharnall played the service from a faded manuscript. "Now," he said, as he came towards the end--"now listen. This is the best part of it--a fugal _Gloria_, ending with a pedal-point. Here you are, you see--a tonic pedal-point, this D flat, the very last raised note in my new pedal-board, held down right through." And he set his left foot on the pedal. "What do you think of _that_ for a _Magnificat_?" he said, when it was finished; and Westray was ready with all the conventional expressions of admiration. "It is not bad, is it?" Mr Sharnall asked; "but the gem of it is the _Gloria_--not real fugue, but fugal, with a pedal-point. Did you catch the effect of that point? I will keep the note down by itself for a second, so that you may get thoroughly hold of it, and then play the _Gloria_ again." He held down the D flat, and the open pipe went booming and throbbing through the long nave arcades, and in the dark recesses of the triforium, and under the beetling vaulting, and quavered away high up in the lantern, till it seemed like the death-groan of a giant. "Take it up," Westray said; "I can't bear the throbbing." "Very well; now listen while I give you the _Gloria_. No, I really think I had better go through the whole service again; you see, it leads up more naturally to the finale." He began the service again, and played it with all the conscientious attention and sympathy that the creative artist must necessarily give to his own work. He enjoyed, too, that pleasurable surprise which awaits the discovery that a composition laid aside for many years and half forgotten is better and stronger than had been imagined, even as a disused dress brought out of the wardrobe sometimes astonishes us with its freshness and value. Westray stood on a foot-pace at the end of the loft which allowed him to look over the curtain into the church. His eyes roamed through the building as he listened, but he did not appreciate the music the less. Nay, rather, he appreciated it the more, as some writers find literary perception and power of expression quickened at the influence of music itself. The great church was empty. Janaway had left for his tea; the doors were locked, no strangers could intrude; there was no sound, no murmur, no voice, save only the voices of the organ-pipes. So Westray listened. Stay, were there no other voices? was there nothing he heard--nothing that spoke within him? At first he was only conscious of _something_--something that drew his attention away from the music, and then the disturbing influence was resolved into another voice, small, but rising very clear even above "Sharnall in D flat." "The arch never sleeps," said that still and ominous voice. "The arch never sleeps; they have bound on us a burden too heavy to be borne. We are shifting it; we never sleep." And his eyes turned to the cross arches under the tower. There, above the bow of the south transept, showed the great crack, black and writhen as a lightning-flash, just as it had showed any time for a century--just the same to the ordinary observer, but not to the architect. He looked at it fixedly for a moment, and then, forgetting Mr Sharnall and the music, left the loft, and made his way to the wooden platform that the masons had built up under the roof. Mr Sharnall did not even perceive that he had gone down, and dashed _con furore_ into the _Gloria_. "Give me the full great," he called to the architect, who he thought was behind him; "give me the full great, all but the reed," and snatched the stops out himself when there was no response. "It went better that time--distinctly better," he said, as the last note ceased to sound, and then turned round for Westray's comment; but the loft was empty--he was alone. "Curse the fellow!" he said; "he might at least have let me know that he was going away. Ah, well, it's all poor stuff, no doubt." And he shut up the manuscript with a lingering and affectionate touch, that contrasted with so severe a criticism. "It's poor stuff; why should I expect anyone to listen to it?" It was full two hours later that Westray came quickly into the organist's room at Bellevue Lodge. "I beg your pardon, Sharnall," he said, "for leaving you so cavalierly. You must have thought me rude and inappreciative; but the fact is I was so startled that I forgot to tell you why I went. While you were playing I happened to look up at that great crack over the south transept arch, and saw something very like recent movement. I went up at once to the scaffolding, and have been there ever since. I don't like it at all; it seems to me that the crack is opening, and extending. It may mean very serious mischief, and I have made up my mind to go up to London by the last train to-night. I must get Sir George Farquhar's opinion at once." The organist grunted. The wound inflicted on his susceptibility had rankled deeply, and indignation had been tenderly nursed. A piece of his mind was to have been given to Westray, and he regretted the very reasonableness of the explanation that robbed him of his opportunity. "Pray don't apologise," he said; "I never noticed that you had gone. I really quite forgot that you had been there." Westray was too full of his discovery to take note of the other's annoyance. He was one of those excitable persons who mistake hurry for decision of action. "Yes," he said, "I must be off to London in half an hour. The matter is far too serious to play fast-and-loose with. It is quite possible that we shall have to stop the organ, or even to forbid the use of the church altogether, till we can shore and strut the arch. I must go and put my things together." So, with heroic promptness and determination, he flung himself into the last train, and spent the greater part of the night in stopping at every wayside station, when his purpose would have been equally served by a letter or by taking the express at Cullerne Road the next morning. CHAPTER THIRTEEN. The organ was not silenced, nor was the service suspended. Sir George came down to Cullerne, inspected the arch, and rallied his subordinate for an anxiety which was considered to be unjustifiable. Yes, the wall above the arch _had_ moved a little, but not more than was to be expected from the repairs which were being undertaken with the vaulting. It was only the old wall coming to its proper bearings--he would have been surprised, in fact, if no movement had taken place; it was much safer as it was. Canon Parkyn was in high good-humour. He rejoiced in seeing the pert and officious young clerk of the works put in his proper place; and Sir George had lunched at the Rectory. There was a repetition of the facetious proposal that Sir George should wait for payment of his fees until the tower should fall, which acquired fresh point from the circumstance that all payments were now provided for by Lord Blandamer. The ha-ha-ing which accompanied this witticism palled at length even upon the robust Sir George, and he winced under a dig in the ribs, which an extra glass of port had emboldened the Canon to administer. "Well, well, Mr Rector," he said, "we cannot put old heads on young shoulders. Mr Westray was quite justified in referring the matter to me. It _has_ an ugly look; one needs _experience_ to be able to see through things like this." And he pulled up his collar, and adjusted his tie. Westray was content to accept his Chief's decision as a matter of faith, though not of conviction. The black lightning-flash was impressed on his mental retina, the restless cry of the arches was continually in his ear; he seldom passed the transept-crossing without hearing it. But he bore his rebuke with exemplary resignation--the more so that he was much interested in some visits which Lord Blandamer paid him at this period. Lord Blandamer called more than once at Bellevue Lodge in the evenings, even as late as nine o'clock, and would sit with Westray for two hours together, turning over plans and discussing the restoration. The architect learnt to appreciate the charm of his manner, and was continually astonished at the architectural knowledge and critical power which he displayed. Mr Sharnall would sometimes join them for a few minutes, but Lord Blandamer never appeared quite at his ease when the organist was present; and Westray could not help thinking that Mr Sharnall was sometimes tactless, and even rude, considering that he was beholden to Lord Blandamer for new pedals and new bellows and a water-engine _in esse_, and for the entire repair of the organ _in posse_. "I can't help being `beholden to him,' as you genteelly put it," Mr Sharnall said one evening, when Lord Blandamer had gone. "I can't _stop_ his giving new bellows or a new pedal-board. And we do want the new board and the additional pipes. As it is, I can't play German music, can't touch a good deal of Bach's organ work. Who is to say this man nay, if he chooses to alter the organ? But I'm not going to truckle to anyone, and least of all to him. Do you want me to fall flat on my face because he is a lord? Pooh! we could all be lords like him. Give me another week with Martin's papers, and I'll open your eyes. Ay, you may stare and sniff if you please, but you'll open your eyes then. _Ex oriente lux_--that's where the light's coming from, out of Martin's papers. Once this Confirmation over, and you'll see. I can't settle to the papers till that's done with. What do people want to confirm these boys and girls for? It only makes hypocrites of wholesome children. I hate the whole business. If people want to make their views public, let them do it at five-and-twenty; then we should believe that they knew something of what they were about." The day of the Bishop's visit had arrived; the Bishop had arrived himself; he had entered the door of Bellevue Lodge; he had been received by Miss Euphemia Joliffe as one who receives an angel awares; he had lunched in Mr Sharnall's room, and had partaken of the cold lamb, and the Stilton, and even of the cider-cup, to just such an extent as became a healthy and good-hearted and host-considering bishop. "You have given me a regular Oxford lunch," he said. "Your landlady has been brought up in the good tradition." And he smiled, never doubting that he was partaking of the ordinary provision of the house, and that Mr Sharnall fared thus sumptuously every day. He knew not that the meal was as much a set piece as a dinner on the stage, and that cold lamb and Stilton and cider-cup were more often represented by the bottom of a tin of potted meat and--a gill of cheap whisky. "A regular Oxford lunch." And then they fell to talking of old days, and the Bishop called Mr Sharnall "Nick," and Mr Sharnall called the Bishop of Carum "John"; and they walked round the room looking at pictures of college groups and college eights, and the Bishop examined very tenderly the little water-colour sketch that Mr Sharnall had once made of the inner quad; and they identified in it their own old rooms, and the rooms of several other men of their acquaintance. The talk did Mr Sharnall good; he felt the better for it every moment. He had meant to be very proud and reserved with the Bishop--to be most dignified and coldly courteous. He had meant to show that, though John Willis might wear the gaiters, Nicholas Sharnall could retain his sturdy independence, and was not going to fawn or to admit himself to be the mental inferior of any man. He had meant to _give_ a tirade against Confirmation, against the neglect of music, against rectors, with perhaps a back-thrust at the Bench of Bishops itself. But he had done none of these things, because neither pride nor reserve nor assertiveness were possible in John Willis's company. He had merely eaten a good lunch, and talked with a kindly, broad-minded gentleman, long enough to warm his withered heart, and make him feel that there were still possibilities in life. There is a bell that rings for a few strokes three-quarters of an hour before every service at Cullerne. It is called the Burgess Bell--some say because it was meant to warn such burgesses as dwelt at a distance that it was time to start for church; whilst others will have it that Burgess is but a broken-down form of _expergiscere_--"Awake! awake!"-- that those who dozed might rise for prayer. The still air of the afternoon was yet vibrating with the Burgess Bell, and the Bishop rose to take his leave. If it was the organist of Cullerne who had been ill at ease when their interview began, it was the Bishop of Carisbury who was embarrassed at the end of it. He had asked himself to lunch with Mr Sharnall with a definite object, and towards the attainment of that object nothing had been done. He had learnt that his old friend had fallen upon evil times, and, worse, had fallen into evil courses--that the failing which had ruined his Oxford career had broken out again with a fresh fire in advancing age, that Nicholas Sharnall was in danger of a drunkard's judgment. There had been lucid intervals in the organist's life; the plague would lie dormant for years, and then break out, to cancel all the progress that had been made. It was like a "race-game" where the little leaden horse is moved steadily forward, till at last the die falls on the fatal number, and the racer must lose a turn, or go back six, or, even in the worst issue, begin his whole course again. It was in the forlorn hope of doing something, however little, to arrest a man on the downward slope that the Bishop had come to Bellevue Lodge; he hoped to speak the word in season that should avail. Yet nothing had been said. He felt like a clerk who has sought an interview with his principal to ask for an increase of salary, and then, fearing to broach the subject, pretends to have come on other business. He felt like a son longing to ask his father's counsel in some grievous scrape, or like an extravagant wife waiting her opportunity to confess some heavy debt. "A quarter past two," the Bishop said; "I must be going. It has been a great pleasure to recall the old times. I hope we shall meet again soon; but remember it is your turn now to come and see me. Carisbury is not so very far off, so do come. There is always a bed ready for you. Will you walk up the street with me now? I have to go to the Rectory, and I suppose you will be going to the church, will you not?" "Yes," said Mr Sharnall; "I'll come with you if you wait one minute. I think I'll take just a drop of something before I go, if you'll excuse me. I feel rather run down, and the service is a long one. You won't join me, of course?" And he went to the cupboard. The Bishop's opportunity was come. "Don't, Sharnall. Don't, Nick," he said; "don't take that stuff. Forgive me for speaking openly, the time is so short. I am not speaking professionally or from the religious standpoint, but only just as one man of the world to another, just as one friend to another, because I cannot bear to see you going on like this without trying to stop you. Don't take offence, Nick," he added, as he saw the change of the other's countenance; "our old friendship gives me a right to speak; the story you are writing on your own face gives me a right to speak. Give it up. There is time yet to turn; give it up. Let me help you; is there nothing I can do to help?" The angry look that crossed Mr Sharnall's face had given way to sadness. "It is all very easy for you," he said; "you've done everything in life, and have a long row of milestones behind you to show how you've moved on. I have done nothing, only gone back, and have all the milestones in front to show how I've failed. It's easy to twit me when you've got everything you want--position, reputation, fortune, a living faith to keep you up to it. I am nobody, miserably poor, have no friends, and don't believe half we say in church. What am I to do? No one cares a fig about me; what have I got to live for? To drink is the only chance I have of feeling a little pleasure in life; of losing for a few moments the dreadful consciousness of being an outcast; of losing for a moment the remembrance of happy days long ago: that's the greatest torment of all, Willis. Don't blame me if I drink; it's the _elixir vitae_ for me just as much as for Paracelsus." And he turned the handle of the cupboard. "Don't," the Bishop said again, putting his hand on the organist's arm; "don't do it; don't touch it. Don't make success any criterion of life; don't talk about `getting on.' We shan't be judged by how we have got on. Come along with me; show you've got your old resolution, your old will-power." "I _haven't_ got the power," Mr Sharnall said; "I can't help it." But he took his hand from the cupboard-door. "Then let me help it for you," said the Bishop; and he opened the cupboard, found a half-used bottle of whisky, drove the cork firmly into it, and put it under his arm inside the lappet of his coat. "Come along." So the Bishop of Carisbury walked up the High Street of Cullerne with a bottle of whisky under his left arm. But no one could see that, because it was hid under his coat; they only saw that he had his right arm inside Mr Sharnall's. Some thought this an act of Christian condescension, but others praised the times that were past; bishops were losing caste, they said, and it was a sad day for the Church when they were found associating openly with persons so manifestly their inferiors. "We must see more of each other," the Bishop said, as they walked under the arcade in front of the shops. "You must get out of this quag somehow. You can't expect to do it all at once, but we must make a beginning. I have taken away your temptation under my coat, and you must make a start from this minute; you must make me a promise _now_. I have to be in Cullerne again in six days' time, and will come and see you. You must promise me not to touch anything for these six days, and you must drive back with me to Carisbury when I go back then, and spend a few days with me. Promise me this, Nick; the time is pressing, and I must leave you, but you must promise me this first." The organist hesitated for a moment, but the Bishop gripped his arm. "Promise me this; I will not go till you promise." "Yes, I promise." And lying-and-mischief-making Mrs Flint, who was passing, told afterwards how she had overheard the Bishop discussing with Mr Sharnall the best means for introducing ritualism into the minster, and how the organist had promised to do his very best to help him so far as the musical part of the sendee was concerned. The Confirmation was concluded without any contretemps, save that two of the Grammar School boys incurred an open and well-merited rebuke from the master for appearing in gloves of a much lighter slate colour than was in any way decorous, and that this circumstance reduced the youngest Miss Bulteel to such a state of hysteric giggling that her mother was forced to remove her from the church, and thus deprive her of spiritual privileges for another year. Mr Sharnall bore his probation bravely. Three days had passed, and he had not broken his vow--no, not in one jot or tittle. They had been days of fine weather, brilliantly clear autumn days of blue sky and exhilarating air. They had been bright days for Mr Sharnall; he was himself exhilarated; he felt a new life coursing in his veins. The Bishop's talk had done him good; from his heart he thanked the Bishop for it. Giving up drinking had done him no harm; he felt all the better for his abstinence. It had not depressed him at all; on the contrary, he was more cheerful than he had been for years. Scales had fallen from his eyes since that talk; he had regained his true bearings; he began to see the verities of life. How he had wasted his time! Why _had_ he been so sour? why _had_ he indulged his spleen? why _had_ he taken such a jaundiced view of life? He would put aside all jealousies; he would have no enmities; he would be broader-minded--oh, so much broader-minded; he would embrace all mankind--yes, even Canon Parkyn. Above all, he would recognise that he was well advanced in life; he would be more sober-thinking, would leave childish things, would resolutely renounce his absurd infatuation for Anastasia. What a ridiculous idea--a crabbed old sexagenarian harbouring affection for a young girl! Henceforth she should be nothing to him--absolutely nothing. No, that would be foolish; it would not be fair to her to cut her off from all friendship; he could feel for her a fatherly affection--it should be paternal and nothing more. He would bid adieu to all that folly, and his life should not be a whit the emptier for the loss. He would fill it with interests--all kinds of interests, and his music should be the first. He would take up again, and carry out to the end, that oratorio which he had turned over in his mind for years--the "Absalom." He had several numbers at his fingers' ends; he would work out the bass solo, "Oh, Absalom, my son, my son!" and the double chorus that followed it, "Make ready, ye mighty; up and bare your swords!" So he discoursed joyfully with his own heart, and felt above measure elated at the great and sudden change that was wrought in him, not recognising that the clouds return after the rain, and that the leopard may change his spots as easily as man may change his habits. To change a habit at fifty-five or forty-five or thirty-five; to ordain that rivers shall flow uphill; to divert the relentless sequence of cause and effect--how often dare we say this happens? _Nemo repente_--no man ever suddenly became good. A moment's spiritual agony may blunt our instincts and paralyse the evil in us--for a while, even as chloroform may dull our bodily sense; but for permanence there is no sudden turning of the mind; sudden repentances in life or death are equally impossible. Three halcyon days were followed by one of those dark and lowering mornings when the blank life seems blanker, and when the gloom of nature is too accurately reflected in the nervous temperament of man. On healthy youth climatic influences have no effect, and robust middle age, if it perceive them, goes on its way steadfast or stolid, with a _cela passera, tout passera_. But on the feeble and the failing such times fall with a weight of fretful despondency; and so they fell on Mr Sharnall. He was very restless about the time of the mid-day meal. There came up a thick, dark fog from the sea, which went rolling in great masses over Cullerne Flat, till its fringe caught the outskirts of the town. After that, it settled in the streets, and took up its special abode in Bellevue Lodge; till Miss Euphemia coughed so that she had to take two ipecacuanha lozenges, and Mr Sharnall was forced to ring for a lamp to see his victuals. He went up to Westray's room to ask if he might eat his dinner upstairs, but he found that the architect had gone to London, and would not be back till the evening train; so he was thrown upon his own resources. He ate little, and by the end of the meal depression had so far got the better of him, that he found himself standing before a well-known cupboard. Perhaps the abstemiousness of the last three days had told upon him, and drove him for refuge to his usual comforter. It was by instinct that he went to the cupboard; he was not even conscious of doing so till he had the open door in his hand. Then resolution returned to him, aided, it may be, by the reflection that the cupboard was bare (for the Bishop had taken away the whisky), and he shut the door sharply. Was it possible that he had so soon forgotten his promise--had come so perilously near falling back into the mire, after the bright prospects of the last days, after so lucid an interval? He went to his bureau and buried himself in Martin Joliffe's papers, till the Burgess Bell gave warning of the afternoon service. The gloom and fog made way by degrees for a drizzling rain, which resolved itself into a steady downpour as the afternoon wore on. It was so heavy that Mr Sharnall could hear the indistinct murmur of millions of raindrops on the long lead roofs, and their more noisy splash and spatter as they struck the windows in the lantern and north transept. He was in a bad humour as he came down from the loft. The boys had sung sleepily and flat; Jaques had murdered the tenor solo with his strained and raucous voice; and old Janaway remembered afterwards that Mr Sharnall had never vouchsafed a good-afternoon as he strode angrily down the aisle. Things were no better when he reached Bellevue Lodge. He was wet and chilled, and there was no fire in the grate, because it was too early in the year for such luxuries to be afforded. He would go to the kitchen, and take his tea there. It was Saturday afternoon. Miss Joliffe would be at the Dorcas meeting, but Anastasia would be in; and this reflection came to him as a ray of sunlight in a dark and lowering time. Anastasia would be in, and alone; he would sit by the fire and drink a cup of hot tea, while Anastasia should talk to him and gladden his heart. He tapped lightly at the kitchen-door, and as he opened it a gusty buffet of damp air smote him on the face; the room was empty. Through a half-open sash the wet had driven in, and darkened the top of the deal table which stood against the window; the fire was but a smouldering ash. He shut the window instinctively while he reflected. Where could Anastasia be? She must have left the kitchen some time, otherwise the fire would not be so low, and she would have seen that the rain was beating in. She must be upstairs; she had no doubt taken advantage of Westray's absence to set his room in order. He would go up to her; perhaps there was a fire in Westray's room. He went up the circular stone staircase, that ran like a wide well from top to bottom of the old Hand of God. The stone steps and the stone floor of the hall, the stuccoed walls, and the coved stucco roof which held the skylight at the top, made a whispering-gallery of that gaunt staircase; and before Mr Sharnall had climbed half-way up he heard voices. They were voices in conversation; Anastasia had company. And then he heard that one was a man's voice. What right had any man to be in Westray's room? What man had any right to be talking to Anastasia? A wild suspicion passed through his mind--no, that was quite impossible. He would not play the eavesdropper or creep near them to listen; but, as he reflected, he had mounted a step or two higher, and the voices were now more distinct. Anastasia had finished speaking, and the man began again. There was one second of uncertainty in Mr Sharnall's mind, while the hope that it was not, balanced the fear that it was; and then doubt vanished, and he knew the voice to be Lord Blandamer's. The organist sprang up two or three steps very quickly. He would go straight to them--straight into Westray's room; he would--And then he paused; he would do, what? What right had he to go there at all? What had he to do with them? What was there for anyone to do? He paused, then turned and went downstairs again, telling himself that he was a fool--that he was making mountains of molehills, that there did not exist, in fact, even a molehill; yet having all the while a sickening feeling within him, as if some gripping hand had got hold of his poor physical and material heart, and was squeezing it. His room looked more gloomy than ever when he got back to it, but it did not matter now, because he was not going to remain there. He only stopped for a minute to sweep back into the bureau all those loose papers of Martin Joliffe's that were lying in a tumble on the open desk-flap. He smiled grimly as he put them back and locked them in. _Le jour viendra qui tout paiera_. These papers held a vengeance that would atone for all wrongs. He took down his heavy and wet-sodden overcoat from the peg in the hall, and reflected with some satisfaction that the bad weather could not seriously damage it, for it had turned green with wear, and must be replaced as soon as he got his next quarter's salary. The rain still fell heavily, but he _must_ go out. Four walls were too narrow to hold his chafing mood, and the sadness of outward nature accorded well with a gloomy spirit. So he shut the street-door noiselessly, and went down the semicircular flight of stone steps in front of the Hand of God, just as Lord Blandamer had gone down them on that historic evening when Anastasia first saw him. He turned back to look at the house, just as Lord Blandamer had turned back then; but was not so fortunate as his illustrious predecessor, for Westray's window was tight shut, and there was no one to be seen. "I wish I may never look upon the place again," he said to himself, half in earnest, and half with that cynicism which men affect because they know Fate seldom takes them at their word. For an hour or more he wandered aimlessly, and found himself, as night fell, on the western outskirts of the town, where a small tannery carries on the last pretence of commercial activity in Cullerne. It is here that the Cull, which has run for miles under willow and alder, through deep pastures golden with marsh marigolds or scented with meadow-sweet, past cuckoo-flower and pitcher-plant and iris and nodding bulrush, forsakes better traditions, and becomes a common town-sluice before it deepens at the wharves, and meets the sandy churn of the tideway. Mr Sharnall had become aware that he was tired, and he stood and leant over the iron paling that divides the roadway from the stream. He did not know how tired he was till he stopped walking, nor how the rain had wetted him till he bent his head a little forward, and a cascade of water fell from the brim of his worn-out hat. It was a forlorn and dismal stream at which he looked. The low tannery buildings of wood projected in part over the water, and were supported on iron props, to which were attached water-whitened skins and repulsive portions of entrails, that swung slowly from side to side as the river took them. The water here is little more than three feet deep, and beneath its soiled current can be seen a sandy bottom on which grow patches of coarse duck-weed. To Mr Sharnall these patches of a green so dark and drain-soiled as to be almost black in the failing light, seemed tresses of drowned hair, and he weaved stories about them for himself as the stream now swayed them to and fro, and now carried them out at length. He observed things with that vacant observation which the body at times insists on maintaining, when the mind is busy with some overmastering preoccupation. He observed the most trivial details; he made an inventory of the things which he could see lying on the dirty bed of the river underneath the dirty water. There was a tin bucket with a hole in the bottom; there was a brown teapot without a spout; there was an earthenware blacking-bottle too strong to be broken; there were other shattered glass bottles and shards of crockery; there was a rim of a silk hat, and more than one toeless boot. He turned away, and looked down the road towards the town. They were beginning to light the lamps, and the reflections showed a criss-cross of white lines on the muddy road, where the water stood in the wheel-tracks. There was a dark vehicle coming down the road now, making a fresh track in the mud, and leaving two shimmering lines behind it as it went. He gave a little start when it came nearer, and he saw that it was the undertaker's cart carrying out a coffin for some pauper at the Union Workhouse. He gave a start and a shiver; the wet had come through his overcoat; he could feel it on his arms; he could feel the cold and clinging wet striking at his knees. He was stiff with standing so long, and a rheumatic pain checked him suddenly as he tried to straighten himself. He would walk quickly to warm himself--would go home at once. Home-- what _home_ had he? That great, gaunt Hand of God. He detested it and all that were within its walls. That was no home. Yet he was walking briskly towards it, having no other whither to go. He was in the mean little streets, he was within five minutes of his goal, when he heard singing. He was passing the same little inn which he had passed the first night that Westray came. The same voice was singing inside which had sung the night that Westray came. Westray had brought discomfort; Westray had brought Lord Blandamer. Things had never been the same since; he wished Westray had never come at all; he wished--oh, how he wished!--that all might be as it was before--that all might jog along quietly as it had for a generation before. She certainly had a fine voice, this woman. It really would be worth while seeing who she was; he wished he could just look inside the door. Stay, he could easily make an excuse for looking in: he would order a little hot whisky-and-water. He was so wet, it was prudent to take something to drink. It might ward off a bad chill. He would only take a very little, and only as a medicine, of course; there could be no harm in _that_--it was mere prudence. He took off his hat, shook the rain from it, turned the handle of the door very gently, with the consideration of a musician who will do nothing to interrupt another who is making music, and went in. He found himself in that sanded parlour which he had seen once before through the window. It was a long, low room, with heavy beams crossing the roof, and at the end was an open fireplace, where a kettle hung above a smouldering fire. In a corner sat an old man playing on a fiddle, and near him the Creole woman stood singing; there were some tables round the room, and behind them benches on which a dozen men were sitting. There was no young man among them, and most had long passed the meridian of life. Their faces were sun-tanned and mahogany-coloured; some wore earrings in their ears, and strange curls of grey hair at the side of their heads. They looked as if they might have been sitting there for years--as if they might be the crew of some long-foundered vessel to whom has been accorded a Nirvana of endless tavern-fellowship. None of them took any notice of Mr Sharnall, for music was exercising its transporting power, and their thoughts were far away. Some were with old Cullerne whalers, with the harpoon and the ice-floe; some dreamt of square-stemmed timber-brigs, of the Baltic and the white Memel-logs, of wild nights at sea and wilder nights ashore; and some, remembering violet skies and moonlight through the mango-groves, looked on the Creole woman, and tried to recall in her faded features, sweet, swart faces that had kindled youthful fires a generation since. "Then the grog, boys--the grog, boys, bring hither," sang the Creole. "Fill it up true to the brim. May the mem'ry of Nelson ne'er wither Nor the star of his glory grow dim." There were rummers standing on the tables, and now and then a drinking-brother would break the sugar-knobs in his liquor with a glass stirrer, or take a deep draught of the brown jorum that steamed before him. No one spoke to Mr Sharnall; only the landlord, without asking what he would take, set before him a glass filled with the same hot spirit as the other guests were drinking. The organist accepted his fate with less reluctance than he ought perhaps to have displayed, and a few minutes later was drinking and smoking with the rest. He found the liquor to his liking, and soon experienced the restoring influences of the warm room and of the spirit. He hung his coat up on a peg, and in its dripping condition, and in the wet which had penetrated to his skin, found ample justification for accepting without demur a second bumper with which the landlord replaced his empty glass. Rummer followed rummer, and still the Creole woman sang at intervals, and still the company smoked and drank. Mr Sharnall drank too, but by-and-by saw things less clearly, as the room grew hotter and more clouded with tobacco-smoke. Then he found the Creole woman standing before him, and holding out a shell for contributions. He had in his pocket only one single coin--a half-crown that was meant to be a fortnight's pocket-money; but he was excited, and had no hesitation. "There," he said, with an air of one who gives a kingdom--"there, take that: you deserve it; but sing me a song that I heard you sing once before, something about the rolling sea." She nodded that she understood, and after the collection was finished, gave the money to the blind man, and bade him play for her. It was a long ballad, with many verses and a refrain of: "Oh, take me back to those I love, Or bring them here to me; I have no heart to rove, to rove Across the rolling sea." At the end she came back, and sat down on the bench by Mr Sharnall. "Will you not give me something to drink?" she said, speaking in very good English. "You all drink; why should not I?" He beckoned to the landlord to bring her a glass, and she drank of it, pledging the organist. "You sing well," he said, "and with a little training should sing very well indeed. How do you come to be here? You ought to do better than this; if I were you, I would not sing in such company." She looked at him angrily. "How do _I_ come to be here? How do _you_ come to be here? If I had a little training, I should sing better, and if I had your training, Mr Sharnall"--and she brought out his name with a sneering emphasis--"I should not be here at all, drinking myself silly in a place like this." She got up, and went back to the old fiddler, but her words had a sobering influence on the organist, and cut him to the quick. So all his good resolutions had vanished. His promise to the Bishop was broken; the Bishop would be back again on Monday, and find him as bad as ever--would find him worse; for the devil had returned, and was making riot in the garnished house. He turned to pay his reckoning, but his half-crown had gone to the Creole; he had no money, he was forced to explain to the landlord, to humiliate himself, to tell his name and address. The man grumbled and made demur. Gentlemen who drank in good company, he said, should be prepared to pay their shot like gentlemen. Mr Sharnall had drunk enough to make it a serious thing for a poor man not to get paid. Mr Sharnall's story might be true, but it was a funny thing for an organist to come and drink at the Merrymouth, and have no money in his pocket. It had stopped raining; he could leave his overcoat as a pledge of good faith, and come back and fetch it later. So Mr Sharnall was constrained to leave this part of his equipment, and was severed from a well-worn overcoat, which had been the companion of years. He smiled sadly to himself as he turned at the open door, and saw his coat still hang dripping on the peg. If it were put up to auction, would it ever fetch enough to pay for what he had drunk? It was true that it had stopped raining, and though the sky was still overcast, there was a lightness diffused behind the clouds that spoke of a rising moon. What should he do? Whither should he turn? He could not go back to the Hand of God; there were some there who did not want him--whom he did not want. Westray would not be home, or, if he were, Westray would know that he had been drinking; he could not bear that they should see that he had been drinking again. And then there came into his mind another thought: he would go to the church, the water-engine should blow for him, and he would play himself sober. Stay, _should_ he go to the church--the great church of Saint Sepulchre alone? Would he be alone there? If he thought that he would be alone, he would feel more secure; but might there not be someone else there, or something else? He gave a little shiver, but the drink was in his veins; he laughed pot-valiantly, and turned up an alley towards the centre tower, that loomed dark in the wet, misty whiteness of the cloud screened moon. CHAPTER FOURTEEN. Westray returned to Cullerne by the evening train. It was near ten o'clock, and he was finishing his supper, when someone tapped at the door, and Miss Euphemia Joliffe came in. "I beg your pardon for interrupting you, sir," she said; "I am a little anxious about Mr Sharnall. He was not in at teatime, and has not come back since. I thought you might know perhaps where he was. It is years since he has been out so late in the evening." "I haven't the least idea where he is," Westray said rather testily, for he was tired with a long day's work. "I suppose he has gone out somewhere to supper." "No one ever asks Mr Sharnall out. I do not think he can be gone out to supper." "Oh, well, I dare say he will turn up in due course; let me hear before you go to bed if he has come back;" and he poured himself out another cup of tea, for he was one of those thin-blooded and old-womanly men who elevate the drinking of tea instead of other liquids into a special merit. "He could not understand," he said, "why everybody did not drink tea. It was so much more refreshing--one could work so much better after drinking tea." He turned to some calculations for the section of a tie-rod, with which Sir George Farquhar had at last consented to strengthen the south side of the tower, and did not notice how time passed till there came another irritating tap, and his landlady reappeared. "It is nearly twelve o'clock," she said, "and we have seen nothing of Mr Sharnall. I am so alarmed! I am sure I am very sorry to trouble you, Mr Westray, but my niece and I are so alarmed." "I don't quite see what I am to do," Westray said, looking up. "Could he have gone out with Lord Blandamer? Do you think Lord Blandamer could have asked him to Fording?" "Lord Blandamer was here this afternoon," Miss Joliffe answered, "but he never saw Mr Sharnall, because Mr Sharnall was not at home." "Oh, Lord Blandamer was here, was he?" asked Westray. "Did he leave no message for me?" "He asked if you were in, but he left no message for you. He drank a cup of tea with us. I think he came in merely as a friendly visitor," Miss Joliffe said with some dignity. "I think he came in to drink a cup of tea with me. I was unfortunately at the Dorcas meeting when he first arrived, but on my return he drank tea with me." "It is curious; he seems generally to come on Saturday afternoons," said Westray. "Are you _always_ at the Dorcas meeting on Saturday afternoons?" "Yes," Miss Joliffe said, "I am always at the meeting on Saturday afternoons." There was a minute's pause--Westray and Miss Joliffe were both thinking. "Well, well," Westray said, "I shall be working for some time yet, and will _let_ Mr Sharnall in if he comes; but I suspect that he has been invited to spend the night at Fording. Anyhow, you can go to bed with a clear conscience, Miss Joliffe; you have waited up far beyond your usual time." So Miss Euphemia went to bed, and left Westray alone; and a few minutes later the four quarter-chimes rang, and the tenor struck twelve, and then the bells fell to playing a tune, as they did every three hours day and night. Those who dwell near Saint Sepulchre's take no note of the bells. The ear grows so accustomed to them, that quarter by quarter and hour by hour strike unperceived. If strangers come to stop under the shadow of the church the clangour disturbs their sleep for the first night, and after that they, too, hear nothing. So Westray would sit working late night by night, and could not say whether the bells had rung or not. It was only when attention was too wide awake that he heard them, but he heard them this night, and listened while they played the sober melody of "Mount Ephraim." [See Appendix at end for tune.] He got up, flung his window open, and looked out. The storm had passed; the moon, which was within a few hours of the full, rode serenely in the blue heaven with a long bank of dappled white cloud below, whose edge shone with an amber iridescence. He looked over the clustered roofs and chimneys of the town; the upward glow from the market-place showed that the lamps were still burning, though he could not see them. Then, as the glow lessened gradually and finally became extinct, he knew that the lights were being put out because midnight was past. The moonlight glittered on the roofs, which were still wet, and above all towered in gigantic sable mass the centre tower of Saint Sepulchre's. Westray felt a curious physical tension. He was excited, he could not tell why; he knew that sleep would be impossible if he were to go to bed. It _was_ an odd thing that Sharnall had not come home; Sharnall _must_ have gone to Fording. He had spoken vaguely of an invitation to Fording that he had received; but if he had gone there he must have taken some things with him for the night, and he had not taken anything, or Miss Euphemia would have said so. Stay, he would go down to Sharnall's room and see if he could find any trace of his taking luggage; perhaps he had left some message to explain his absence. He lit a candle and went down, down the great well-staircase where the stone steps echoed under his feet. A patch of bright moonshine fell on the stairs from the skylight at the top, and a noise of someone moving in the attics told him that Miss Joliffe was not yet asleep. There was nothing in the organist's room to give any explanation of his absence. The light of the candle was reflected on the front of the piano, and Westray shuddered involuntarily as he remembered the conversation which he had a few weeks before with this friend, and Mr Sharnall's strange hallucinations as to the man that walked behind him with a hammer. He looked into the bedroom with a momentary apprehension that his friend might have been seized with illness, and be lying all this time unconscious; but there was no one there--the bed was undisturbed. So he went back to his own room upstairs, but the night had turned so chill that he could no longer bear the open window. He stood with his hand upon the sash looking out for a moment before he pulled it down, and noticed how the centre tower dominated and prevailed over all the town. It was impossible, surely, that this rock-like mass could be insecure; how puny and insufficient to uphold such a tottering giant seemed the tie-rods whose section he was working out. And then he thought of the crack above the south transept arch that he had seen from the organ-loft, and remembered how "Sharnall in D flat" had been interrupted by the discovery. Why, Mr Sharnall might be in the church; perhaps he had gone down to practise and been shut in. Perhaps his key had broken, and he could not get out; he wondered that he had not thought of the church before. In a minute he had made up his mind to go to the minster. As resident architect he possessed a master key which opened all the doors; he would walk round, and see if he could find anything of the missing organist before going to bed. He strode quickly through the deserted streets. The lamps were all put out, for Cullerne economised gas at times of full moon. There was nothing moving, his footsteps rang on the pavement, and echoed from wall to wall. He took the short-cut by the wharves, and in a few minutes came to the old Bonding-house. The shadows hung like black velvet in the spaces between the brick buttresses that shored up the wall towards the quay. He smiled to himself as he thought of the organist's nervousness, of those strange fancies as to someone lurking in the black hiding-holes, and as to buildings being in some way connected with man's fate. Yet he knew that his smile was assumed, for he felt all the while the oppression of the loneliness, of the sadness of a half-ruined building, of the gurgling mutter of the river, and instinctively quickened his pace. He was glad when he had passed the spot, and again that night, as he looked back, he saw the strange effect of light and darkness which produced the impression of someone standing in the shadow of the last buttress space. The illusion was so perfect that he thought he could make out the figure of a man, in a long loose cape that napped in the wind. He had passed the wrought-iron gates now--he was in the churchyard, and it was then that he first became aware of a soft, low, droning, sound which seemed to fill the air all about him. He stopped for a moment to listen; what was it? Where was the noise? It grew more distinct as he passed along the flagged stone path which led to the north door. Yes, it certainly came from inside the church. What could it be? What could anyone be doing in the church at this hour of night? He was in the north porch now, and then he knew what it was. It was a low note of the organ--a pedal-note; he was almost sure it was that very pedal-point which the organist had explained to him with such pride. The sound reassured him nothing had happened to Mr Sharnall--he was practising in the church; it was only some mad freak of his to be playing so late; he was practising that service "Sharnall in D flat." He took out his key to unlock the wicket, and was surprised to find it already open, because he knew that it was the organist's habit to lock himself in. He passed into the great church. It was strange, there was no sound of music; there was no one playing; there was only the intolerably monotonous booming of a single pedal-note, with an occasional muffled thud when the water-engine turned spasmodically to replenish the emptying bellows. "Sharnall!" he shouted--"Sharnall, what are you doing? Don't you know how late it is?" He paused, and thought at first that someone was answering him--he thought that he heard people muttering in the choir; but it was only the echo of his own voice, his own voice tossed from pillar to pillar and arch to arch, till it faded into a wail of "Sharnall, Sharnall!" in the lantern. It was the first time that he had been in the church at night, and he stood for a moment overcome with the mystery of the place, while he gazed at the columns of the nave standing white in the moonlight like a row of vast shrouded figures. He called again to Mr Sharnall, and again received no answer, and then he made his way up the nave to the little doorway that leads to the organ-loft stairs. This door also was open, and he felt sure now that Mr Sharnall was not in the organ-loft at all, for had he been he would certainly have locked himself in. The pedal-note must be merely ciphering, or something, perhaps a book, might have fallen upon it, and was holding it down. He need not go up to the loft now; he would not go up. The throbbing of the low note had on him the same unpleasant effect as on a previous occasion. He tried to reassure himself, yet felt all the while a growing premonition that something might be wrong, something might be terribly wrong. The lateness of the hour, the isolation from all things living, the spectral moonlight which made the darkness darker--this combination of utter silence, with the distressing vibration of the pedal-note, filled him with something akin to panic. It seemed to him as if the place was full of phantoms, as if the monks of Saint Sepulchre's were risen from under their gravestones, as if there were other dire faces among them such as wait continually on deeds of evil. He checked his alarm before it mastered him. Come what might, he would go up to the organ-loft, and he plunged into the staircase that leads up out of the nave. It is a circular stair, twisted round a central pillar, of which mention has already been made, and though short, is very dark even in bright daylight. But at night the blackness is inky and impenetrable, and Westray fumbled for an appreciable time before he had climbed sufficiently far up to perceive the glimmer of moonlight at the top. He stepped out at last into the loft, and saw that the organ seat was empty. The great window at the end of the south transept shone full in front of him; it seemed as if it must be day and not night--the light from the window was so strong in comparison with the darkness which he had left. There was a subdued shimmer in the tracery where the stained glass gleamed diaphanous--amethyst and topaz, chrysoprase and jasper, a dozen jewels as in the foundations of the city of God. And in the midst, in the head of the centre light, shone out brighter than all, with an inherent radiance of its own, the cognisance of the Blandamers, the sea-green and silver of the nebuly coat. Westray gave a step forward into the loft, and then his foot struck against something, and he nearly fell. It was something soft and yielding that he had struck, something of which the mere touch filled him with horrible surmise. He bent down to see what it was, and a white object met his eyes. It was the white face of a man turned up towards the vaulting; he had stumbled over the body of Mr Sharnall, who lay on the floor with the back of his head on the pedal-note. Westray had bent low down, and he looked full in the eyes of the organist, but they were fixed and glazing. The moonlight that shone on the dead face seemed to fall on it through that brighter spot in the head of the middle light; it was as if the nebuly coat had blighted the very life out of the man who lay so still upon the floor. CHAPTER FIFTEEN. No evidence of any importance was given at the inquest except Westray's and the doctor's, and no other evidence was, in fact, required. Dr Ennefer had made an autopsy, and found that the immediate cause of death was a blow on the back of the head. But the organs showed traces of alcoholic habit, and the heart was distinctly diseased. It was probable that Mr Sharnall had been seized with a fainting fit as he left the organ-stool, and had fallen backwards with his head on the pedal-board. He must have fallen with much violence, and the pedal-note had made a bad wound, such as would be produced by a blunt instrument. The inquest was nearly finished when, without any warning, Westray found himself, as by intuition, asking: "The wound was such a one, you mean, as might have been produced by the blow of a hammer?" The doctor seemed surprised, the jury and the little audience stared, but most surprised of all was Westray at his own question. "You have no _locus standi_, sir," the coroner said severely; "such an interrogation is irregular. You are to esteem it an act of grace if I allow the medical man to reply." "Yes," said Dr Ennefer, with a reserve in his voice that implied that he was not there to answer every irrelevant question that it might please foolish people to put to him--"yes, such a wound as might have been caused by a hammer, or by any other blunt instrument used with violence." "Even by a heavy stick?" Westray suggested. The doctor maintained a dignified silence, and the coroner struck in: "I must say I think you are wasting our time, Mr Westray. I am the last person to stifle legitimate inquiry, but no inquiry is really needed here; it is quite certain that this poor man came to his end by falling heavily, and dashing his head against this wooden note in the pedals." "_Is_ it quite certain?" Westray asked. "Is Dr Ennefer quite sure that the wound _could_ have been caused by a mere fall; I only want to know that Dr Ennefer is quite sure." The coroner looked at the doctor with a deprecating glance, which implied apologies that so much unnecessary trouble should be given, and a hope that he would be graciously pleased to put an end to it by an authoritative statement. "Oh, I am quite sure," the doctor responded. "Yes"--and he hesitated for the fraction of a second--"oh yes, there is no doubt such a wound could be caused by a fall." "I merely wish to point out," said Westray, "that the pedal-note on which he fell is to a certain extent a yielding substance; it would yield, you must remember, at the first impact." "That is quite true," the doctor said; "I had taken that into account, and admit that one would scarcely expect so serious an injury to have been caused. But, of course, it _was_ so caused, because there is no other explanation; you don't suggest, I presume, that there was any foul play. It is certainly a case of accident or foul play." "Oh no, I don't suggest anything." The coroner raised his eyebrows; he was tired, and could not understand such waste of time. But the doctor, curiously enough, seemed to have grown more tolerant of interruption. "I have examined the injury very carefully," he said, "and have come to the deliberate conclusion that it must have been caused by the wooden key. We must also recollect that the effect of any blow would be intensified by a weak state of health. I don't wish to rake up anything against the poor fellow's memory, or to say any word that may cause you pain, Mr Westray, as his friend; but an examination of the body revealed traces of chronic alcoholism. We must recollect that." "The man was, in fact, a confirmed drunkard," the coroner said. He lived at Carisbury, and, being a stranger both to Cullerne and its inhabitants, had no scruple in speaking plainly; and, besides this, he was nettled at the architect's interference. "You mean the man was a confirmed drunkard," he repeated. "He was nothing of the kind," Westray said hotly. "I do not say that he never took more than was good for him, but he was in no sense an habitual drunkard." "I did not ask _your_ opinion," retorted the coroner; "we do not want any lay conjectures. What do you say, Mr Ennefer?" The surgeon was vexed in his turn at not receiving the conventional title of doctor, the more so because he knew that he had no legal right to it. To be called "Mr" demeaned him, he considered, in the eyes of present or prospective patients, and he passed at once into an attitude of opposition. "Oh no, you quite mistake me, Mr Coroner. I did not mean that our poor friend was an habitual drunkard. I never remember to have actually seen him the worse for liquor." "Well, what do you mean? You say the body shows traces of alcoholism, but that he was not a drunkard." "Have we any evidence as to Mr Sharnall's state on the evening of his death?" a juror asked, with a pleasant consciousness that he was taking a dispassionate view, and making a point of importance. "Yes, we have considerable evidence," said the coroner. "Call Charles White." There stepped forward a little man with a red face and blinking eyes. His name was Charles White; he was landlord of the Merrymouth Inn. The deceased visited his inn on the evening in question. He did not know deceased by sight, but found out afterwards who he was. It was a bad night, deceased was very wet, and took something to drink; he drank a fairish amount, but not _that_ much, not more than a gentleman should drink. Deceased was not drunk when he went away. "He was drunk enough to leave his top-coat behind him, was he not?" the coroner asked. "Did you not find this coat after he was gone?" and he pointed to a poor masterless garment, that looked greener and more outworn than ever as it hung over the back of a chair. "Yes, deceased had certainly left his coat behind him, but he was not drunk." "There are different standards of drunkenness, gentlemen," said the coroner, imitating as well as he might the facetious cogency of a real judge, "and I imagine that the standard of the Merrymouth may be more advanced than in some other places. I don't think"--and he looked sarcastically at Westray--"I do _not_ think we need carry this inquiry farther. We have a man who drinks, not an habitual drunkard, Mr Ennefer says, but one who drinks enough to bring himself into a thoroughly diseased state. This man sits fuddling in a low public-house all the evening, and is so far overtaken by liquor when he goes away, that he leaves his overcoat behind him. He actually leaves his coat behind him, though we have it that it was a pouring wet night. He goes to the organ-loft in a tipsy state, slips as he is getting on to his stool, falls heavily with the back of his head on a piece of wood, and is found dead some hours later by an unimpeachable and careful witness"--and he gave a little sniff--"with his head still on this piece of wood. Take note of that--when he was found his head was still on this very pedal which had caused the fatal injury. Gentlemen, I do not think we need any further evidence; I think your course is pretty clear." All was, indeed, very clear. The jury with a unanimous verdict of accidental death put the colophon to the sad history of Mr Sharnall, and ruled that the same failing which had blighted his life, had brought him at last to a drunkard's end. Westray walked back to the Hand of God with the forlorn old top-coat over his arm. The coroner had formally handed it over to him. He was evidently a close friend of the deceased, he would perhaps take charge of his wearing apparel. The architect's thoughts were too preoccupied to allow him to resent the sneer which accompanied these remarks; he went off full of sorrow and gloomy forebodings. Death in so strange a shape formed a topic of tavern discussion in Cullerne, second only to a murder itself. Not since Mr Leveritt, the timber-merchant, shot a barmaid at the Blandamer Arms, a generation since, had any such dramatic action taken place on Cullerne boards. The loafers swore over it in all its bearings as they spat upon the pavement at the corner of the market square. Mr Smiles, the shop-walker in Rose and Storey's general drapery mart, discussed it genteelly with the ladies who sat before the counter on the high wicker-seated chairs. Dr Ennefer was betrayed into ill-advised conversation while being shaved, and got his chin cut. Mr Joliffe gave away a packet of moral reflections gratis with every pound of sausage, and turned up the whites of his eyes over the sin of intemperance, which had called away his poor friend in so terrible a state of unpreparedness. Quite a crowd followed the coffin to its last resting-place, and the church was unusually full on the Sunday morning which followed the catastrophe. People expected a "pulpit reference" from Canon Parkyn, and there were the additional, though subordinate, attractions of the playing of the Dead March, and the possibility of an amateur organist breaking down in the anthem. Church-going, which sprung from such unworthy motives, was very properly disappointed. Canon Parkyn would not, he said, pander to sensationalism by any allusion in his discourse, nor could the Dead March, he conceived, be played with propriety under such very unpleasant circumstances. The new organist got through the service with provokingly colourless mediocrity, and the congregation came out of Saint Sepulchre's in a disappointed mood, as people who had been defrauded of their rights. Then the nine days' wonder ceased, and Mr Sharnall passed into the great oblivion of middle-class dead. His successor was not immediately appointed. Canon Parkyn arranged that the second master at the National School, who had a pretty notion of music, and was a pupil of Mr Sharnall, should be spared to fill the gap. As Queen Elizabeth, of pious memory, recruited the privy purse by keeping in her own hand vacant bishoprics, so the rector farmed the post of organist at Cullerne Minster. He thus managed to effect so important a reduction in the sordid emoluments of that office, that he was five pounds in pocket before a year was ended. But if the public had forgotten Mr Sharnall, Westray had not. The architect was a man of gregarious instinct. As there is a tradition and bonding of common interest about the Universities, and in a less degree about army, navy, public schools, and professions, which draws together and marks with its impress those who are attached to them, so there is a certain cabala and membership among lodgers which none can understand except those who are free of that guild. The lodging-house life, call it squalid, mean, dreary if you will, is not without its alleviations and counterpoises. It is a life of youth for the most part, for lodgers of Mr Sharnall's age are comparatively rare; it is a life of simple needs and simple tastes, for lodgings are not artistic, nor favourable to the development of any undue refinement; it is not a rich life, for men as a rule set up their own houses as soon as they are able to do so; it is a life of work and buoyant anticipation, where men are equipping for the struggle, and laying the foundations of fortune, or digging the pit of indigence. Such conditions beget and foster good fellowship, and those who have spent time in lodgings can look back to whole-hearted and disinterested friendships, when all were equal before high heaven, hail-fellows well met, who knew no artificial distinctions of rank--when all were travelling the first stage of life's journey in happy chorus together, and had not reached that point where the high road bifurcates, and the diverging branches of success and failure lead old comrades so very far apart. Ah, what a camaraderie and fellowship, knit close by the urgency of making both ends meet, strengthened by the necessity of withstanding rapacious, or negligent, or tyrannous landladies, sweetened by kindnesses and courtesies which cost the giver little, but mean much to the receiver! Did sickness of a transitory sort (for grievous illness is little known in lodgings) fall on the ground-floor tenant, then did not the first-floor come down to comfort him in the evenings? First-floor might be tired after a long day's work, and note when his frugal meal was done that 'twas a fine evening, or that a good company was billed for the local theatre; yet he would grudge not his leisure, but go down to sit with ground-floor, and tell him the news of the day, perhaps even would take him a few oranges or a tin of sardines. And ground-floor, who had chafed all the day at being shut in, and had read himself stupid for want of anything else to do, how glad he was to see first-floor, and how the chat did him more good than all the doctor's stuff! And later on, when some ladies came to lunch with first-floor on the day of the flower-show, did not ground-floor go out and place his sitting-room completely at his fellow-lodger's disposal, so that the company might find greater convenience and change of air after meat? They were fearful joys, these feminine visits, when ladies who were kind enough to ask a young man to spend a Sunday with them, still further added to their kindness, by accepting with all possible effusion the invitation which he one day ventured to give. It was a fearful joy, and cost the host more anxious preparation than a state funeral brings to Earl-marshal. As brave a face as might be must be put on everything; so many details were to be thought out, so many little insufficiencies were to be masked. But did not the result recompense all? Was not the young man conscious that, though his rooms might be small, there was about them a delicate touch which made up for much, that everything breathed of refinement from the photographs and silver toddy-spoon upon the mantelpiece to Rossetti's poems and "Marius the Epicurean," which covered negligently a stain on the green tablecloth? And these kindly ladies came in riant mood, well knowing all his little anxieties and preparations, yet showing they knew none of them; resolved to praise his rooms, his puny treasures, even his cookery and perilous wine, and skilful to turn little contretemps into interesting novelties. Householders, yours is a noble lot, ye are the men, and wisdom shall die with you. Yet pity not too profoundly him that inhabiteth lodgings, lest he turn and rend you, pitying you in turn that have bound on your shoulders heavy burdens of which he knows nothing; saying to you that seed time is more profitable than harvest, and the wandering years than the practice of the master. Refrain from too much pity, and believe that loneliness is not always lonely. Westray was of a gregarious temperament, and missed his fellow-lodger. The cranky little man, with all his soured outlook, must still have had some power of evoking sympathy, some attractive element in his composition. He concealed it under sharp words and moody bitterness, but it must still have been there, for Westray felt his loss more than he had thought possible. The organist and he had met twice and thrice a day for a year past. They had discussed the minster that both loved so well, within whose walls both were occupied; they had discussed the nebuly coat, and the Blandamers, and Miss Euphemia. There was only one subject which they did not discuss--namely, Miss Anastasia Joliffe, though she was very often in the thoughts of both. It was all over now, yet every day Westray found himself making a mental note to tell this to Mr Sharnall, to ask Mr Sharnall's advice on that, and then remembering that there is no knowledge in the grave. The gaunt Hand of God was ten times gaunter now that there was no lodger on the ground-floor. Footfalls sounded more hollow at night on the stone steps of the staircase, and Miss Joliffe and Anastasia went early to bed. "Let us go upstairs, my dear," Miss Euphemia would say when the chimes sounded a quarter to ten. "These long evenings are so lonely, are they not? and be sure you see that the windows are properly hasped." And then they hurried through the hall, and went up the staircase together side by side, as if they were afraid to be separated by a single step. Even Westray knew something of the same feeling when he returned late at night to the cavernous great house. He tried to put his hand as quickly as he might upon the matchbox, which lay ready for him on the marble-topped sideboard in the dark hall; and sometimes when he had lit the candle would instinctively glance at the door of Mr Sharnall's room, half expecting to see it open, and the old face look out that had so often greeted him on such occasions. Miss Joliffe had made no attempt to find a new lodger. No "Apartments to Let" was put in the window, and such chattels as Mr Sharnall possessed remained exactly as he left them. Only one thing was moved--the collection of Martin Joliffe's papers, and these Westray had taken upstairs to his own room. When they opened the dead man's bureau with the keys found in his pocket to see whether he had left any will or instructions, there was discovered in one of the drawers a note addressed to Westray. It was dated a fortnight before his death, and was very short: "_If I go away and am not heard of, or if anything happens to me, get hold of Martin Joliffe's papers at once. Take them up to your own room, lock them up, and don't let them out of your hands. Tell Miss Joliffe it is my wish, and she will hand them over to you. Be very careful there isn't a fire, or lest they should be destroyed in any other way. Read them carefully, and draw your own conclusions; you will find some notes of mine in the little red pocket-book_." The architect had read these words many times. They were no doubt the outcome of the delusions of which Mr Sharnall had more than once spoken--of that dread of some enemy pursuing him, which had darkened the organist's latter days. Yet to read these things set out in black and white, after what had happened, might well give rise to curious thoughts. The coincidence was so strange, so terribly strange. A man following with a hammer--that had been the organist's hallucination; the vision of an assailant creeping up behind, and doing him to death with an awful, stealthy blow. And the reality--an end sudden and unexpected, a blow on the back of the head, which had been caused by a heavy fall. Was it mere coincidence, was it some inexplicable presentiment, or was it more than either? Had there, in fact, existed a reason why the organist should think that someone had a grudge against him, that he was likely to be attacked? Had some dreadful scene been really enacted in the loneliness of the great church that night? Had the organist been taken unawares, or heard some movement in the silence, and, turning round, found himself alone with his murderer? And if a murderer, whose was the face into which the victim looked? And as Westray thought he shuddered; it seemed it might have been no human face at all, but some fearful presence, some visible presentment of the evil that walketh in darkness. Then the architect would brush such follies away like cobwebs, and, turning back, consider who could have found his interest in such a deed. Against whom did the dead man urge him to be on guard lest Martin's papers should be spirited away? Was there some other claimant of that ill-omened peerage of whom he knew nothing, or was it--And Westray resolutely quenched the thought that had risen a hundred times before his mind, and cast it aside as a malign and baseless suspicion. If there was any clue it must lie in those same papers, and he followed the instruction given him, and took them to his own room. He did not show Miss Joliffe the note; to do so could only have shaken her further, and she had felt the shock too severely already. He only told her of Mr Sharnall's wishes for the temporary disposal of her brother's papers. She begged him not to take them. "Dear Mr Westray," she said, "do not touch them, do not let us have anything to do with them. I wanted poor dear Mr Sharnall not to go meddling with them, and now see what has happened. Perhaps it is a judgment"--and she uttered the word under her breath, having a medieval faith in the vengeful irritability of Providence, and seeing manifestations of it in any untoward event, from the overturning of an inkstand to the death of a lodger. "Perhaps it is a judgment, and he might have been alive now if he had refrained. What good would it do us if all dear Martin hoped should turn out true? He always said, poor fellow, that he would be `my lord' some day; but now he is gone there is no one except Anastasia, and she would never wish to be `my lady,' I am sure, poor girl. You would not, darling, wish to be `my lady' even if you could, would you?" Anastasia looked up from her book with a deprecating smile, which lost itself in an air of vexation, when she found that the architect's eyes were fixed steadfastly upon her, and that a responsive smile spread over his face. She flushed very slightly, and turned back abruptly to her book, feeling quite unjustifiably annoyed at the interest in her doings which the young man's gaze was meant to imply. What right had he to express concern, even with a look, in matters which affected _her_? She almost wished she _was_ indeed a peeress, and could slay him with her noble birth, as did one Lady Clara of old times. It was only lately that she had become conscious of this interested, would-be interesting, look, which Westray assumed in her presence. Was it possible that _he_ was falling in love with her? And at the thought there rose before her fancy the features of someone else, haughty, hard, perhaps malign, but oh, so powerful, and quite eclipsed and blotted out the lifeless amiability of this young man who hung upon her lips. Could Mr Westray be thinking of falling in love with her? It was impossible, and yet this following her with his eyes, and the mellific manner which he adopted when speaking to her, insisted on its possibility. She ran over hastily in her mind, as she had done several times of late, the course of their relations. Was she to blame? Could anything that she had ever done be wrested into predilection or even into appreciation? Could natural kindness or courtesy have been so utterly misunderstood? She was victoriously acquitted by this commission of mental inquiry, and left the court without a stain upon her character. She certainly had never given him the very least encouragement. At the risk of rudeness she _must_ check these attentions in their beginning. Short of actual discourtesy, she must show him that this warm interest in her doings, these sympathetic glances, were exceedingly distasteful. She never would look near him again, she would keep her eyes rigorously cast down whenever he was present, and as she made this prudent resolution she quite unintentionally looked up, and found his patient gaze again fixed upon her. "Oh, you are too severe, Miss Joliffe," the architect said; "we should all be delighted to see a title come to Miss Anastasia, and," he added softly, "I am sure no one would become it better." He longed to drop the formal prefix of Miss, and to speak of her simply as Anastasia. A few months before he would have done so naturally and without reflection, but there was something in the girl's manner which led him more recently to forego this pleasure. Then the potential peeress got up and left the room. "I am just going to look after the bread," she said; "I think it ought to be baked by this time." Miss Joliffe's scruples were at last overborne, and Westray retained the papers, partly because it was represented to her that if he did not examine them it would be a flagrant neglect of the wishes of a dead man--wishes that are held sacred above all others in the circles to which Miss Joliffe belonged--and partly because possession is nine points of the law, and the architect already had them safe under lock and key in his own room. But he was not able to devote any immediate attention to them, for a crisis in his life was approaching, which tended for the present to engross his thoughts. He had entertained for some time an attachment to Anastasia Joliffe. When he originally became aware of this feeling he battled vigorously against it, and his efforts were at first attended with some success. He was profoundly conscious that any connection with the Joliffes would be derogatory to his dignity; he feared that the discrepancy between their relative positions was sufficiently marked to attract attention, if not to provoke hostile criticism. People would certainly say that an architect was marrying strangely below him, in choosing a landlady's niece. If he were to do such a thing, he would no doubt be throwing himself away socially. His father, who was dead, had been a Wesleyan pastor; and his mother, who survived, entertained so great a respect for the high position of that ministry that she had impressed upon Westray from boyhood the privileges and responsibilities of his birth. But apart from this objection, there was the further drawback that an early marriage might unduly burden him with domestic cares, and so arrest his professional progress. Such considerations had due weight with an equally-balanced mind, and Westray was soon able to congratulate himself on having effectually extinguished any dangerous inclinations by sheer strength of reason. This happy and philosophic state of things was not of long duration. His admiration smouldered only, and was not quenched, but it was a totally extraneous influence, rather than the constant contemplation of Anastasia's beauty and excellencies, which fanned the flame into renewed activity. This extraneous factor was the entrance of Lord Blandamer into the little circle of Bellevue Lodge. Westray had lately become doubtful as to the real object of Lord Blandamer's visits, and nursed a latent idea that he was using the church, and the restoration, and Westray himself, to gain a _pied-a-terre_ at Bellevue Lodge for the prosecution of other plans. The long conversations in which the architect and the munificent donor still indulged, the examination of plans, the discussion of details, had lost something of their old savour. Westray had done his best to convince himself that his own suspicions were groundless; he had continually pointed out to himself, and insisted to himself, that the mere fact of Lord Blandamer contributing such sums to the restoration as he either had contributed, or had promised to contribute, showed that the church was indeed his primary concern. It was impossible to conceive that any man, however wealthy, should spend many thousand pounds to obtain an entree to Bellevue Lodge; moreover, it was impossible to conceive that Lord Blandamer should ever marry Anastasia--the disparity in such a match would, Westray admitted, be still greater than in his own. Yet he was convinced that Anastasia was often in Lord Blandamer's thoughts. It was true that the Master of Fording gave no definite outward sign of any predilection when Westray was present. He never singled Anastasia out either for regard or conversation on such occasions as chance brought her into his company. At times he even made a show of turning away from her, of studiously neglecting her presence. But Westray felt that the fact was there. There is some subtle effluence of love which hovers about one who entertains a strong affection for another. Looks may be carefully guarded, speech may be framed to mislead, yet that pervading ambient of affection is strong to betray where perception is sharpened by jealousy. Now and then the architect would persuade himself that he was mistaken; he would reproach himself with his own suspicious disposition, with his own lack of generosity. But then some little episode would occur, some wholly undemonstrable trifle, which swept his cooler judgment to the winds, and gave him a quite incommensurate heartburn. He would recall, for instance, the fact that for their interviews Lord Blandamer had commonly selected a Saturday afternoon. Lord Blandamer had explained this by saying that he was busy through the week; but then a lord was not like a schoolboy with a Saturday half-holiday. What business could he have to occupy him all the week, and leave him free on Saturdays? It was strange enough, and stranger from the fact that Miss Euphemia Joliffe was invariably occupied on that particular afternoon at the Dorcas meeting; stranger from the fact that there had been some unaccountable misunderstandings between Lord Blandamer and Westray as to the exact hour fixed for their interviews, and that more than once when the architect had returned at five, he had found that Lord Blandamer had taken four as the time of their meeting, and had been already waiting an hour at Bellevue Lodge. Poor Mr Sharnall also must have noticed that something was going on, for he had hinted as much to Westray a fortnight or so before he died. Westray was uncertain as to Lord Blandamer's feelings; he gave the architect the idea of a man who had some definite object to pursue in making himself interesting to Anastasia, while his own affections were not compromised. That object could certainly not be marriage, and if it was not marriage, what was it? In ordinary cases an answer might have been easy, yet Westray hesitated to give it. It was hard to think that this grave man, of great wealth and great position, who had roamed the world, and known men and manners, should stoop to common lures. Yet Westray came to think it, and his own feelings towards Anastasia were elevated by the resolve to be her knightly champion against all base attempts. Can man's deepest love be deepened? Then it must surely be by the knowledge that he is protector as well as lover, by the knowledge that he is rescuing innocence, and rescuing it for--himself. Thoughts such as these bring exaltation to the humblest-minded, and they quickened the slow-flowing and thin fluid that filled the architect's veins. He came back one evening from the church weary with a long day's work, and was sitting by the fire immersed in a medley of sleepy and half-conscious consideration, now of the crack in the centre tower, now of the tragedy of the organ-loft, now of Anastasia, when the elder Miss Joliffe entered. "Dear me, sir," she said, "I did not know you were in! I only came to see your fire was burning. Are you ready for your tea? Would you like anything special to-night? You do look so very tired. I am sure you are working too hard; all the running about on ladders and scaffolds must be very trying. I think indeed, sir, if I may make so bold, that you should take a holiday; you have not had a holiday since you came to live with us." "It is not impossible, Miss Joliffe, that I may take your advice before very long. It is not impossible that I may before long go for a holiday." He spoke with that preternatural gravity which people are accustomed to throw into their reply, if asked a trivial question when their own thoughts are secretly occupied with some matter that they consider of deep importance. How could this commonplace woman guess that he was thinking of death and love? He must be gentle with her and forgive her interruption. Yes, fate might, indeed, drive him to take a holiday. He had nearly made up his mind to propose to Anastasia. It was scarcely to be doubted that she would at once accept him, but there must be no half-measures, he would brook no shilly-shallying, he would not be played fast and loose with. She must either accept him fully and freely, and at once, or he would withdraw his offer, and in that case, or still more in the entirely improbable case of refusal, he would leave Bellevue Lodge forthwith. "Yes, indeed, I may ere long have to go away for a holiday." The conscious forbearance of replying at all gave a quiet dignity to his tone, and an involuntary sigh that accompanied his words was not lost upon Miss Joliffe. To her this speech seemed oracular and ominous; there was a sepulchral mystery in so vague an expression. He might _have_ to take a holiday. What could this mean? Was this poor young man completely broken by the loss of his friend Mr Sharnall, or was he conscious of the seeds of some fell disease that others knew nothing of? He might _have to_ take a holiday. Ah, it was not a mere holiday of which he spoke--he meant something more serious than that; his grave, sad manner could only mean some long absence. Perhaps he was going to leave Cullerne. To lose him would be a very serious matter to Miss Joliffe from the material point of view; he was her sheet-anchor, the last anchor that kept Bellevue Lodge from drifting into bankruptcy. Mr Sharnall was dead, and with him had died the tiny pittance which he contributed to the upkeep of the place, and lodgers were few and far between in Cullerne. Miss Joliffe might well have remembered these things, but she did not. The only thought that crossed her mind was that if Mr Westray went away she would lose yet another friend. She did not approach the matter from the material point of view, she looked on him only as a friend; she viewed him as no money-making machine, but only as that most precious of all treasures--a last friend. "I may have to leave you for awhile," he said again, with the same portentous solemnity. "I hope not, sir," she interrupted, as though by her very eagerness she might avert threatened evil--"I hope not; we should miss you terribly, Mr Westray, with dear Mr Sharnall gone too. I do not know what we should do having no man in the house. It is so very lonely if you are away even for a night. I am an old woman now, and it does not matter much for me, but Anastasia is so nervous at night since the dreadful accident." Westray's face brightened a little at the mention of Anastasia's name. Yes, his must certainly be a very deep affection, that the naming of her very name should bring him such pleasure. It was on _his_ protection, then, that she leant; she looked on _him_ as her defender. The muscles of his not gigantic arms seemed to swell and leap to bursting in his coat-sleeves. Those arms should screen his loved one from all evil. Visions of Perseus, and Sir Galahad, and Cophetua, swept before his eyes; he had almost cried to Miss Euphemia, "You need have no fear, I love your niece. I shall bow down and raise her to my throne. They that would touch her shall only do so over my dead body," when hesitating common-sense plucked him by the sleeve; he must consult his mother before taking this grave step. It was well that reason thus restrained him, for such a declaration might have brought Miss Joliffe to a swoon. As it was, she noticed the cloud lifting on his face, and was pleased to think that her conversation cheered him. A little company was no doubt good for him, and she sought in her mind for some further topic of interest. Yes, of course, she had it. "Lord Blandamer was here this afternoon. He came just like anyone else might have come, in such a very kind and condescending way to ask after me. He feared that dear Mr Sharnall's death might have been too severe a shock for us both, and, indeed, it has been a terrible blow. He was so considerate, and sat for nearly an hour--for forty-seven minutes I should say by the clock, and took tea with us in the kitchen as if he were one of the family. I never could have expected such condescension, and when he went away he left a most polite message for you, sir, to say that he was sorry that you were not in, but he hoped to call again before long." The cloud had returned to Westray's face. If he had been the hero of a novel his brow would have been black as night; as it was he only looked rather sulky. "I shall have to go to London to-night," he said stiffly, without acknowledging Miss Joliffe's remarks; "I shall not be back to-morrow, and may be away a few days. I will write to let you know when I shall be back." Miss Joliffe started as if she had received an electric shock. "To London to-night," she began--"this very night?" "Yes," Westray said, with a dryness that would have suggested of itself that the interview was to be terminated, even if he had not added: "I shall be glad to be left alone now; I have several letters to write before I can get away." So Miss Euphemia went to impart this strange matter to the maiden who was _ex hypothesi_ leaning on the architect's strong arm. "What _do_ you think, Anastasia?" she said. "Mr Westray is going to London to-night, perhaps for some days." "Is he?" was all her niece's comment; but there was a languor and indifference in the voice, that might have sent the thermometer of the architect's affection from boiling-point to below blood-heat, if he could have heard her speak. Westray sat moodily for a few moments after his landlady had gone. For the first time in his life he wished he was a smoker. He wished he had a pipe in his mouth, and could pull in and puff out smoke as he had seen Sharnall do when _he_ was moody. He wanted some work for his restless body while his restless mind was turning things over. It was the news of Lord Blandamer's visit, as on this very afternoon, that fanned smouldering thoughts into flame. This was the first time, so far as Westray knew, that Lord Blandamer had come to Bellevue Lodge without at least a formal excuse of business. With that painful effort which we use to convince ourselves of things of which we wish to be convinced in the face of all difficulties; with that blind, stumbling hope against hope with which we try to reconcile things irreconcilable, if only by so doing we can conjure away a haunting spectre, or lull to sleep a bitter suspicion; the architect had hitherto resolved to believe that if Lord Blandamer came with some frequency to Bellevue Lodge, he was only prompted to do so by a desire to keep in touch with the restoration, to follow with intelligence the expenditure of money which he was so lavishly providing. It had been the easier for Westray to persuade himself that Lord Blandamer's motives were legitimate, because he felt that the other must find a natural attraction in the society of a talented young professional man. An occasional conversation with a clever architect on things architectural, or on other affairs of common interest (for Westray was careful to avoid harping unduly on any single topic) must undoubtedly prove a relief to Lord Blandamer from the monotony of bachelor life in the country; and in such considerations Westray found a subsidiary, and sometimes he was inclined to imagine primary, interest for these visits to Bellevue Lodge. If various circumstances had conspired of late to impugn the sufficiency of these motives, Westray had not admitted as much in his own mind; if he had been disquieted, he had constantly assured himself that disquietude was unreasonable. But now disillusion had befallen him. Lord Blandamer had visited Bellevue Lodge as it were in his own right; he had definitely abandoned the pretence of coming to see Westray; he had been drinking tea with Miss Joliffe; he had spent an hour in the kitchen with Miss Joliffe and--Anastasia. It could only mean one thing, and Westray's resolution was taken. An object which had seemed at best but mildly desirable, became of singular value when he believed that another was trying to possess himself of it; jealousy had quickened love, duty and conscience insisted that he should save the girl from the snare that was being set for her. The great renunciation must be made; he, Westray, must marry beneath him, but before doing so he would take his mother into his confidence, though there is no record of Perseus doing as much before he cut loose Andromeda. Meanwhile, no time must be lost; he would start this very night. The last train for London had already left, but he would walk to Cullerne Road Station and catch the night-mail from thence. He liked walking, and need take no luggage, for there were things that he could use at his mother's house. It was seven o'clock when he came to this resolve, and an hour later he had left the last house in Cullerne behind him, and entered upon his night excursion. The line of the Roman way which connected Carauna (Carisbury) with its port Culurnum (Cullerne) is still followed by the modern road, and runs as nearly straight as may be for the sixteen miles which separate those places. About half-way between them the Great Southern main line crosses the highway at right angles, and here is Cullerne Road Station. The first half of the way runs across a flat sandy tract called Mallory Heath, where the short greensward encroaches on the road, and where the eye roaming east or west or north can discern nothing except a limitless expanse of heather, broken here and there by patches of gorse and bracken, or by clumps of touselled and wind-thinned pines and Scotch firs. The tawny-coloured, sandy, track is difficult to follow in the dark, and there are posts set up at intervals on the skirts of the way for travellers' guidance. These posts show out white against a starless night, and dark against the snow which sometimes covers the heath with a silvery sheet. On a clear night the traveller can see the far-off lamps of the station at Cullerne Road a mile after he has left the old seaport town. They stand out like a thin line of light in the distant darkness, a line continuous at first, but afterwards resolvable into individual units of lamps as he walks further along the straight road. Many a weary wayfarer has watched those lamps hang changeless in the distance, and chafed at their immobility. They seem to come no nearer to him for all the milestones, with the distance from Hyde Park Corner graven in old figures on their lichened faces, that he has passed. Only the increasing sound of the trains tells him that he is nearing his goal, and by degrees the dull rumble becomes a clanking roar as the expresses rush headlong by. On a crisp winter day they leave behind them a trail of whitest wool, and in the night-time a fiery serpent follows them when the open furnace-door flings on the cloud a splendid radiance. But in the dead heats of midsummer the sun dries up the steam, and they speed along, the more wonderful because there is no trace to tell what power it is that drives them. Of all these things Westray saw nothing. A soft white fog had fallen upon everything. It drifted by in delicate whirling wreaths, that seemed to have an innate motion of their own where all had been still but a minute before. It covered his clothes with a film of the finest powdery moisture that ran at a touch into heavy drops, it hung in dripping dew on his moustache, and hair, and eyebrows, it blinded him, and made him catch his breath. It had come rolling in from the sea as on that night when Mr Sharnall was taken, and Westray could hear the distant groaning of fog-horns in the Channel; and looking backwards towards Cullerne, knew from a blurred glare, now green, now red, that a vessel in the offing was signalling for a coastwise pilot. He plodded steadily forward, stopping now and then when he found his feet on the grass sward to recover the road, and rejoicing when one of the white posts assured him that he was still keeping the right direction. The blinding fog isolated him in a strange manner; it cut him off from Nature, for he could see nothing of her; it cut him off from man, for he could not have seen even a legion of soldiers had they surrounded him. This removal of outside influences threw him back upon himself, and delivered him to introspection; he began for the hundredth time to weigh his position, to consider whether the momentous step that he was taking was necessary to his ease of mind, was right, was prudent. To make a proposal of marriage is a matter that may give the strongest-minded pause, and Westray's mind was not of the strongest. He was clever, imaginative, obstinate, scrupulous to a fault; but had not that broad outlook on life which comes of experience, nor the power and resolution to readily take a decision under difficult circumstances, and to abide by it once taken. So it was that reason made a shuttlecock of his present resolve, and half a dozen times he stopped in the road meaning to abandon his purpose, and turn back to Cullerne. Yet half a dozen times he went on, though with slow feet, thinking always, Was he right in what he was doing, was he right? And the fog grew thicker; it seemed almost to be stifling him; he could not see his hand if he held it at arm's length before his face. Was he right, was there any right or any wrong, was anything real, was not everything subjective--the creation of his own brain? Did he exist, was he himself, was he in the body or out of the body? And then a wild dismay, a horror of the darkness and the fog, seized hold of him. He stretched out his arms, and groped in the mist as if he hoped to lay hold of someone, or something, to reassure him as to his own identity, and at last a mind-panic got the better of him; he turned and started back to Cullerne. It was only for a moment, and then reason began to recover her sway; he stopped, and sat down on the heather at the side of the road, careless that every spray was wet and dripping, and collected his thoughts. His heart was beating madly as in one that wakes from a nightmare, but he was now ashamed of his weakness and of the mental _debacle_, though there had been none to see it. What could have possessed him, what madness was this? After a few minutes he was able to turn round once more, and resumed his walk towards the railway with a firm, quick step, which should prove to his own satisfaction that he was master of himself. For the rest of his journey he dismissed bewildering questions of right and wrong, of prudence and imprudence, laying it down as an axiom that his emprise was both right and prudent, and busied himself with the more material and homely considerations of ways and means. He amused himself in attempting to fix the sum for which it would be possible for him and Anastasia to keep house, and by mentally straining to the utmost the resources at his command managed to make them approach his estimate. Another man in similar circumstances might perhaps have given himself to reviewing the chances of success in his proposal, but Westray did not trouble himself with any doubts on this point. It was a foregone conclusion that if he once offered himself Anastasia would accept him; she could not be so oblivious to the advantages which such a marriage would offer, both in material considerations and in the connection with a superior family. He only regarded the matter from his own standpoint; once he was convinced that _he_ cared enough for Anastasia to make her an offer, then he was sure that she would accept him. It was true that he could not, on the spur of the moment, recollect many instances in which she had openly evinced a predilection for him, but he was conscious that she thought well of him, and she was no doubt too modest to make manifest, feelings which she could never under ordinary circumstances hope to see returned. Yet he certainly _had_ received encouragement of a quiet and unobtrusive kind, quite sufficient to warrant the most favourable conclusions. He remembered how many, many times their eyes had met when they were in one another's company; she must certainly have read the tenderness which had inspired his glances, and by answering them she had given perhaps the greatest encouragement that true modesty would permit. How delicate and infinitely gracious her acknowledgment had been, how often had she looked at him as it were furtively, and then, finding his passionate gaze upon her, had at once cast her own eyes shyly to the ground! And in his reveries he took not into reckoning, the fact that through these later weeks he had scarcely ever taken his gaze off her, so long as she was in the same room with him. It would have been strange if their eyes had not sometimes met, because she must needs now and then obey that impulse which forces us to look at those who are looking at us. Certainly, he meditated, her eyes had given him encouragement, and then she had accepted gratefully a bunch of lilies of the valley which he said lightly had been given him, but which he had really bought _ad hoc_ at Carisbury. But, again, he ought perhaps to have reflected that it would have been difficult for her to refuse them. How could she have refused them? How could any girl under the circumstances do less than take with thanks a few lilies of the valley? To decline them would be affectation; by declining she might attach a false and ridiculous significance to a kindly act. Yes, she had encouraged him in the matter of the lilies, and if she had not worn some of them in her bosom, as he had hoped she might, that, no doubt, was because she feared to show her preference too markedly. He had noticed particularly the interest she had shown when a bad cold had confined him for a few days to the house, and this very evening had he not heard that she missed him when he was absent even for a night? He smiled at this thought, invisibly in the fog; and has not a man a right to some complacence, on whose presence in the house hang a fair maiden's peace and security? Miss Joliffe had said that Anastasia felt nervous whenever he, Westray, was away; it was very possible that Anastasia had given her aunt a hint that she would like him to be told this, and he smiled again in the fog; he certainly need have no fear of any rejection of his suit. He had been so deeply immersed in these reassuring considerations that he walked steadily on unconscious of all exterior objects and conditions until he saw the misty lights of the station, and knew that his goal was reached. His misgivings and tergiversations had so much delayed him by the way, that it was past midnight, and the train was already due. There were no other travellers on the platform, or in the little waiting-room where a paraffin-lamp with blackened chimney struggled feebly with the fog. It was not a cheery room, and he was glad to be called back from a contemplation of a roll of texts hanging on the wall, and a bottle of stale water on the table, to human things by the entry of a drowsy official who was discharging the duties of station-master, booking-clerk, and porter all at once. "Are you waiting for the London train, sir?" he asked in a surprised tone, that showed that the night-mail found few passengers at Cullerne Road. "She will be in now in a few minutes; have you your ticket?" They went together to the booking-office. The station-master handed him a third-class ticket, without even asking how he wished to travel. "Ah, thank you," Westray said, "but I think I will go first-class to-night. I shall be more likely to have a compartment to myself, and shall be less disturbed by people getting in and out." "Certainly, sir," said the station-master, with the marked increase of respect due to a first-class passenger--"certainly, sir; please give me back the other ticket. I shall have to write you one--we do not keep them ready; we are so very seldom asked for first-class at this station." "No, I suppose not," Westray said. "Things happen funny," the station-master remarked while he _got_ his pen. "I wrote one by this same train a month ago, and before that I don't think we have ever sold one since the station was opened." "Ah," Westray said, paying little attention, for he was engaged in a new mental disputation as to whether he was really justified in travelling first-class. He had just settled that at such a life-crisis as he had now reached, it was necessary that the body should be spared fatigue in order that the mind might be as vigorous as possible for dealing with a difficult situation, and that the extra expense was therefore justified; when the station-master went on: "Yes, I wrote a ticket, just as I might for you, for Lord Blandamer not a month ago. Perhaps you know Lord Blandamer?" he added venturously; yet with a suggestion that even the sodality of first-class travelling was not in itself a passport to so distinguished an acquaintance. The mention of Lord Blandamer's name gave a galvanic shock to Westray's flagging attention. "Oh yes," he said, "I know Lord Blandamer." "Do you, indeed, sir"--and respect had risen by a skip greater than any allowed in counterpoint. "Well, I wrote a ticket for his lordship by this very train not a month ago; no, it was not a month ago, for 'twas the very night the poor organist at Cullerne was took." "Yes," said the would-be indifferent Westray; "where did Lord Blandamer come from?" "I do not know," the station-master replied--"I do _not_ know, sir," he repeated, with the unnecessary emphasis common to the uneducated or unintelligent. "Was he driving?" "No, he walked up to this station just as you might yourself. Excuse me, sir," he broke off; "here she comes." They heard the distant thunder of the approaching train, and were in time to see the gates of the level-crossing at the end of the platform swing silently open as if by ghostly hands, till their red lanterns blocked the Cullerne Road. No one got out, and no one but Westray got in; there was some interchanging of post-office bags in the fog, and then the station-master-booking-clerk-porter waved a lamp, and the train steamed away. Westray found himself in a cavernous carriage, of which the cloth seats were cold and damp as the lining of a coffin. He turned up the collar of his coat, folded his arms in a Napoleonic attitude, and threw himself back into a corner to think. It was curious--it was very curious. He had been under the impression that Lord Blandamer had left Cullerne early on the night of poor Sharnall's accident; Lord Blandamer had told them at Bellevue Lodge that he was going away by the afternoon train when he left them. Yet here he was at Cullerne Road at midnight, and if he had not come from Cullerne, whence had he come? He could not have come from Fording, for from Fording he would certainly have taken the train at Lytchett. It was curious, and while he was so thinking he fell asleep. CHAPTER SIXTEEN. A day or two later Miss Joliffe said to Anastasia: "I think you had a letter from Mr Westray this morning, my dear, had you not? Did he say anything about his return? Did he say when he was coming back?" "No, dear aunt, he said nothing about coming back. He only wrote a few lines on a matter of business." "Oh yes, just so," Miss Joliffe said dryly, feeling a little hurt at what seemed like any lack of confidence on her niece's part. Miss Joliffe would have said that she knew Anastasia's mind so well that no secrets were hid from her. Anastasia would have said that her aunt knew everything except a few _little_ secrets, and, as a matter of fact, the one perhaps knew as much of the other as it is expedient that age should know of youth. "The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a hell of heaven, a heaven of hell." Of all earthly consolations this is the greatest, that the mind is its own place. The mind is an impregnable fortress which can be held against all comers, the mind is a sanctuary open day or night to the pursued, the mind is a flowery pleasance where shade refreshes even in summer droughts. To some trusted friend we try to give the clue of the labyrinth, but the ball of silk is too short to guide any but ourselves along all the way. There are sunny mountain-tops, there are innocent green arbours, or closes of too highly-perfumed flowers, or dank dungeons of despair, or guilty _mycethmi_ black as night, where we walk alone, whither we may lead no one with us by the hand. Miss Euphemia Joliffe would have liked to ignore altogether the matter of Westray's letter, and to have made no further remarks thereon; but curiosity is in woman a stronger influence than pride, and curiosity drove her to recur to the letter. "Thank you, my dear, for explaining about it. I am sure you will tell me if there are any messages for me in it." "No, there was no message at all for you, I think," said Anastasia. "I will get it for you by-and-by, and you shall see all he says;" and with that she left the room as if to fetch the letter. It was only a subterfuge, for she felt Westray's correspondence burning a hole in her pocket all the while; but she was anxious that her aunt should not see the letter until an answer to it had been posted; and hoped that if she once escaped from the room, the matter would drop out of memory. Miss Joliffe fired a parting shot to try to bring her niece to her bearings as she was going out: "I do not know, my dear, that I should encourage any correspondence from Mr Westray, if I were you. It would be more seemly, perhaps, that he should write to me on any little matter of business than to you." But Anastasia feigned not to hear her, and held on her course. She betook herself to the room that had once been Mr Sharnall's, but was now distressingly empty and forlorn, and there finding writing materials, sat down to compose an answer to Westray's letter. She knew its contents thoroughly well, she knew its expressions almost by heart, yet she spread it out on the table before her, and read and re-read it as many times as if it were the most difficult of cryptograms. "Dearest Anastasia," it began, and she found a grievance in the very first word, "Dearest." What right had he to call her "Dearest"? She was one of those unintelligible females who do not shower superlatives on every chance acquaintance. She must, no doubt, have been callous as judged by modern standards, or at least, singularly unimaginative, for among her few correspondents she had not one whom she addressed as "dearest." No, not even her aunt, for at such rare times of absence from home as she had occasion to write to Miss Joliffe, "My dear Aunt Euphemia" was the invocation. It was curious that this same word "Dearest" had occasioned Westray also considerable thought and dubiety. Should he call her "Dearest Anastasia," or "Dear Miss Joliffe"? The first sounded too forward, the second too formal. He had discussed this and other details with his mother, and the die had at last fallen on "Dearest." At the worst such an address could only be criticised as proleptic, since it must be justified almost immediately by Anastasia's acceptance of his proposal. "Dearest Anastasia--for dearest you are and ever will be to me--I feel sure that your heart will go out to meet my heart in what I am saying; that your kindness will support me in the important step which has now to be taken." Anastasia shook her head, though there was no one to see her. There was a suggestion of fate overbearing prudence in Westray's words, a suggestion that he needed sympathy in an unpleasant predicament, that jarred on her intolerably. "I have known you now a year, and know that my happiness is centred in you; you too have known me a year, and I trust that I have read aright the message that your eyes have been sending to me. "`For I shall happiest be to-night, Or saddest in the town; Heaven send I read their message right, Those eyes of hazel brown.'" Anastasia found space in the press of her annoyance to laugh. It was more than a smile, it was a laugh, a quiet little laugh to herself, which in a man would have been called a buckle. Her eyes were not hazel brown, they were no brown at all; but then brown rhymed with town, and after all the verse might perhaps be a quotation, and must so be taken only to apply to the situation in general. She read the sentence again, "I have known you now a year; you too have known me a year." Westray had thought this poetic insistence gave a touch of romance, and balanced the sentence; but to Anastasia it seemed the reiteration of a platitude. If he had known her a year, then she had known him a year, and to a female mind the sequitur was complete. "Have I read the message right, dearest? Is your heart my own?" Message? What message did he speak of? What message did he imagine she had wished to give _him_ with her eyes? He had stared at her persistently for weeks past, and if her eyes sometimes caught his, that was only because she could not help it; except when between whiles she glanced at him of set purpose, because it amused her to see how silly a man in love may look. "Say that it is; tell me that your heart is my own" (and the request seemed to her too preposterous to admit even of comment). "I watch your present, dear Anastasia, with solicitude. Sometimes I think that you are even now exposed to dangers of whose very existence you know nothing; and sometimes I look forward with anxiety to the future, so undecipherable, if misfortune or death should overtake your aunt. Let me help you to decipher this riddle. Let me be your shield now, and your support in the days to come. Be my wife, and give me the right to be your protector. I am detained in London by business for some days more; but I shall await your answer here with overwhelming eagerness, yet, may I say it? not without hope. "Your most loving and devoted "Edward Westray." She folded the letter up with much deliberation, and put it back into its envelope. If Westray had sought far and wide for means of damaging his own cause, he could scarcely have found anything better calculated for that purpose than these last paragraphs. They took away much of that desire to spare, to make unpleasantness as little unpleasant as may be, which generally accompanies a refusal. His sententiousness was unbearable. What right had he to advise before he knew whether she would listen to him? What were these dangers to which she was even now exposed, and from which Mr Westray was to shield her? She asked herself the question formally, though she knew the answer all the while. Her own heart had told her enough of late, to remove all difficulty in reading between Mr Westray's lines. A jealous man is, if possible, more contemptible than a jealous woman. Man's greater strength postulates a broader mind and wider outlook; and if he fail in these, his failure is more conspicuous than woman's. Anastasia had traced to jealousy the origin of Westray's enigmatic remarks; but if she was strong enough to hold him ridiculous for his pains, she was also weak enough to take a woman's pleasure in having excited the interest of the man she ridiculed. She laughed again at the proposal that she should join him in deciphering any riddles, still more such as were undecipherable; and the air of patronage involved in his anxiety to provide for her future was the more distasteful in that she had great ideas of providing for it herself. She had told herself a hundred times that it was only affection for her aunt that kept her at home. Were "anything to happen" to Miss Joliffe, she would at once seek her own living. She had often reckoned up the accomplishments which would aid her in such an endeavour. She had received her education--even if it were somewhat desultory and discontinuous--at good schools. She had always been a voracious reader, and possessed an extensive knowledge of English literature, particularly of the masters of fiction; she could play the piano and the violin tolerably, though Mr Sharnall would have qualified her estimate. She had an easy touch in oils and water-colour, which her father said she must have inherited from his mother--from that Sophia Joliffe who painted the great picture of the flowers and caterpillar, and her spirited caricatures had afforded much merriment to her schoolfellows. She made her own clothes, and was sure that she had a taste in matters of dress design and manufacture that would bring her distinction if she were only given the opportunity of employing it; she believed that she had an affection for children, and a natural talent for training them, though she never saw any at Cullerne. With gifts such as these, which must be patent to others as well as herself, there would surely be no difficulty in obtaining an excellent place as governess if she should ever determine to adopt that walk of life; and she was sometimes inclined to gird at Fate, which for the present led her to deprive the world of these benefits. In her inmost heart, however, she doubted whether she would be really justified in devoting herself to teaching; for she was conscious that she might be called to fill a higher mission, and to instruct by the pen rather than by word of mouth. As every soldier carries in his knapsack the baton of the Field Marshal, so every girl in her teens knows that there lie hidden in the recesses of her _armoire_, the robes and coronet and full insignia of a first-rate novelist. She may not choose to take them out and air them, the crown may tarnish by disuse, the moth of indolence may corrupt, but there lies the panoply in which she may on any day appear fully dight, for the astonishment of an awakening world. Jane Austen and Maria Edgworth are heroines, whose aureoles shine in the painted windows of such airy castles; Charlotte Bronte wrote her masterpieces in a seclusion as deep as that of Bellevue Lodge; and Anastasia Joliffe thought many a time of that day when, afar off from her watch-tower in quiet Cullerne, she would follow the triumphant progress of an epoch-making romance. It would be published under a _nom de plume_, of course, she would not use her own name till she had felt her feet; and the choice of the pseudonym was the only definite step towards this venture that she had yet made. The period was still uncertain. Sometimes the action was to be placed in the eighteenth century, with tall silver urns and spindled-legged tables, and breast-waisted dresses; sometimes in the struggle of the Roses, when barons swam rivers in full armour after a bloody bout; sometimes in the Civil War, when Vandyke drew the arched eyebrow and taper hand, and when the shadow of death was over all. It was to the Civil War that her fancy turned oftenest, and now and again, as she sat before her looking-glass, she fancied that she had a Vandyke face herself. And so it was indeed; and if the mirror was fogged and dull and outworn, and if the dress that it reflected was not of plum or amber velvet, one still might fancy that she was a loyalist daughter whose fortunes were fallen with her master's. The Limner of the King would have rejoiced to paint the sweet, young, oval face and little mouth; he would have found the space between the eyebrow and the eyelid to his liking. If the plot were still shadowy, her characters were always with her, in armour or sprigged prints; and, the mind being its own place, she took about a little court of her own, where dreadful tragedies were enacted, and valorous deeds done; where passionate young love suffered and wept, and where a mere girl of eighteen, by consummate resolution, daring, beauty, genius, and physical strength, always righted the situation, and brought peace at the last. With resources such as these, the future did not present itself in dark colours to Anastasia; nor did its riddle appear to her nearly so undecipherable as Mr Westray had supposed. She would have resented, with all the confidence of inexperience, _any_ attempt to furnish her with prospects; and she resented Westray's offer all the more vigorously because it seemed to carry with it a suggestion of her own forlorn position, to insist unduly on her own good fortune in receiving such a proposal, and on his condescension in making it. There are women who put marriage in the forefront of life, whose thoughts revolve constantly about it as a centre, and with whom an advantageous match, or, failing that, a match of some sort, is the primary object. There are others who regard marriage as an eventuality, to be contemplated without either eagerness or avoidance, to be accepted or declined according as its circumstances may be favourable or unfavourable. Again, there are some who seem, even from youth, to resolutely eliminate wedlock from their thoughts, to permit themselves no mental discussion upon this subject. Though a man profess that he will never marry, experience has shown that his resolve is often subject to reconsideration. But with unmarrying women the case is different, and unmarried for the most part they remain, for man is often so weak-kneed a creature in matters of the heart, that he refrains from pursuing where an unsympathetic attitude discourages pursuit. It may be that some of these women, also, would wish to reconsider their verdict, but find that they have reached an age when there is no place for repentance; yet, for the most part, woman's resolve upon such matters is more stable than man's, and that because the interests at stake in marriage are for her more vital than can ever be the case with man. It was to the class of indifferentists that Anastasia belonged; she neither sought nor shunned a change of state, but regarded marriage as an accident that, in befalling her, might substantially change the outlook. It would render a life of teaching, no doubt, impossible; domestic or maternal cares might to some extent trammel even literary activity (for, married or not married, she was determined to fulfil her mission of writing), but in no case was she inclined to regard marriage as an escape from difficulties, as the solution of so trivial a problem as that of existence. She read Westray's letter once more from beginning to end. It was duller than ever. It reflected its writer; she had always thought him unromantic, and now he seemed to her intolerably prosaic, conceited, pettifogging, utilitarian. To be his wife! She had rather slave as a nursery-governess all her life! And how could she write fiction with such a one for mentor and company? He would expect her to be methodic, to see that eggs were fresh, and beds well aired. So, by thinking, she reasoned herself into such a theoretic reprobation of this attempt upon her, that his offer became a heinous crime. If she answered him shortly, brusquely, nay rudely, it would be but what he deserved for making her ridiculous to herself by so absurd a proposal, and she opened her writing-case with much firmness and resolution. It was a little wooden case covered in imitation leather, with _Papeterie_ stamped in gold upon the top. She had no exaggerated notions as to its intrinsic worth, but it was valuable in her eyes as being a present from her father. It was, in fact, the only gift he ever had bestowed upon her; but on this he had expended at least half a crown, in a fit of unusual generosity when he sent her with a great flourish of trumpets to Mrs Howard's school at Carisbury. She remembered his very words. "Take this, child," he said; "you are now going to a first-class place of education, and it is right that you should have a proper equipment," and so gave her the _papeterie_. It had to cover a multitude of deficiencies, and poor Anastasia lamented that it had not been a new hair-brush, half a dozen pocket-handkerchiefs, or even a sound pair of shoes. Still it had stood in good stead, for with it she had written all her letters ever since, and being the only receptacle with lock and key to which she had access, she had made it a little ark and coffer for certain girlish treasures. With such it was stuffed so full that they came crowding out as she opened it. There were several letters to which romance attached, relics of that delightful but far too short school-time at Carisbury; there was her programme, with rudely-scribbled names of partners, for the splendid dance at the term's end, to which a selection of other girls' brothers were invited; a pressed rose given her by someone which she had worn in her bosom on that historic occasion, and many other equally priceless mementoes. Somehow these things seemed now neither so romantic nor so precious as on former occasions; she was even inclined to smile, and to make light of them, and then a little bit of paper fluttered off the table on to the floor. She stooped and picked up the flap of an envelope with the coronet and "Fording" stamped in black upon it which she had found one day when Westray's waste-paper basket was emptied. It was a simple device enough, but it must have furnished her food for thought, for it lay under her eyes on the table for at least ten minutes before she put it carefully back into the _papeterie_, and began her letter to Westray. She found no difficulty in answering, but the interval of reflection had soothed her irritation, and blunted her animosity. Her reply was neither brusque nor rude, it leant rather to conventionalism than to originality, and she used, after all, those phrases which have been commonplaces in such circumstances, since man first asked and woman first refused. She thanked Mr Westray for the kind interest which he had taken in her, she was deeply conscious of the consideration which he had shown her. She was grieved--sincerely grieved--to tell him that things could not be as he wished. She was so afraid that her letter would seem unkind; she did not mean it to be unkind. However difficult it was to say it now, she thought it was the truest kindness not to disguise from him that things _never_ could be as he wished. She paused a little to review this last sentiment, but she allowed it to remain, for she was anxious to avoid any recrudescence of the suppliant's passion, and to show that her decision was final. She should always feel the greatest esteem for Mr Westray; she trusted that the present circumstances would not interrupt their friendship in any way. She hoped that their relations might continue as in the past, and in this hope she remained very truly his. She gave a sigh of relief when the letter was finished, and read it through carefully, putting in commas and semicolons and colons at what she thought appropriate places. Such punctilio pleased her; it was, she considered, due from one who aspired to a literary style, and aimed at making a living by the pen. Though this was the first answer to a proposal that she had written on her own account, she was not altogether without practice in such matters, as she had composed others for her heroines who had found themselves in like position. Her manner, also, was perhaps unconsciously influenced by a perusal of "The Young Person's Compleat Correspondent, and Guide to Answers to be given in the Various Circumstances of Life," which, in a tattered calf covering, formed an item in Miss Euphemia's library. It was not till the missive was duly sealed up and posted that she told her aunt of what had happened. "There is Mr Westray's letter," she said, "if you would care to read it," and passed over to Miss Joliffe the piece of white paper on which a man had staked his fate. Miss Joliffe took the letter with an attempt to assume an indifferent manner, which was unsuccessful, because an offer of marriage has about it a certain exhalation and atmosphere that betrays its importance even to the most unsuspicious. She was a slow reader, and, after wiping and adjusting her spectacles, sat down for a steady and patient consideration of the matter before her. But the first word that she deciphered, "Dearest," startled her composure, and she pressed on through the letter with a haste that was foreign to her disposition. Her mouth grew rounder as she read, and she sighed out "Dear's" and "Dear Anastasia's" and "Dear Child's" at intervals as a relief to her feelings. Anastasia stood by her, following the lines of writing that she knew by heart, with all the impatience of one who is reading ten times faster than another who turns the page. Miss Joliffe's mind was filled with conflicting emotions; she was glad at the prospect of a more assured future that was opening before her niece, she was hurt at not having been taken sooner into confidence, for Anastasia must certainly have known that he was going to propose; she was chagrined at not having noticed a courtship which had been carried on under her very eyes; she was troubled at the thought that the marriage would entail the separation from one who was to her as a child. How weary she would find it to walk alone down the long paths of old age! how hard it was to be deprived of a dear arm on whose support she had reckoned for when "the slow dark hours begin"! But she thrust this reflection away from her as selfish, and contrition for having harboured it found expression in a hand wrinkled and roughened by hard wear, which stole into Anastasia's. "My dear," she said, "I am very glad at your good fortune; this is a great thing that has befallen you." A general content that Anastasia should have received a proposal silenced her misgivings. To the recipient, an offer of marriage, be it good, bad, or indifferent, to be accepted or to be refused, brings a certain complacent satisfaction. She may pretend to make light of it, to be displeased at it, to resent it, as did Anastasia; but in her heart of hearts there lurks the self-appreciating reflection that she has won the completest admiration of a man. If he be a man that she would not marry under any conditions, if he be a fool, or a spendthrift, or an evil-liver, he is still a man, and she has captured him. Her relations share in the same pleasurable reflections. If the offer is accepted, then a future has been provided for one whose future, maybe, was not too certain; if it is declined, then they congratulate themselves on the high morale or strong common-sense of a kinswoman who refuses to be won by gold, or to link her destiny with an unsuitable partner. "It is a great thing, my dear, that has befallen you," Miss Joliffe repeated. "I wish you all happiness, dear Anastasia, and may all blessings wait upon you in this engagement." "Aunt," interrupted her niece, "please don't say that. I have refused him, _of course_; how could you think that I should marry Mr Westray? I never have thought of any such thing with him. I never had the least idea of his writing like this." "You have refused him?" said the elder lady with a startled emphasis. Again a selfish reflection crossed her mind--they were not to be parted after all--and again she put it resolutely away. She ran over in her mind all the possible objections that could have influenced her niece in arriving at such a conclusion. Religion was the keynote of Miss Joliffe's life; to religion her thought reverted as the needle to the pole, and to it she turned for an explanation now. It must be some religious consideration that had proved an obstacle to Anastasia. "I do not think you need find any difficulty in his having been brought up as a Wesleyan," she said, with a profound conviction that she had put her finger on the matter, and with some consciousness of her own perspicacity. "His father has been dead some time, and though his mother is still alive, you would not have to live with her. I do not think, dear, she would at all wish you to become a Methodist. As for our Mr Westray, your Mr Westray, I should say now," and she assumed that expression of archness which is considered appropriate to such occasions, "I am sure he is a sound Churchman. He goes regularly to the minster on Sundays, and I dare say, being an architect, and often in church on week-days, he has found out that the order of the Church of England is more satisfactory than that of any other sect. Though I am sure I do not wish to say one word against Wesleyans; they are no doubt true Protestants, and a bulwark against more serious errors. I rejoice that your lover's early training will have saved him from any inclination to ritualism." "My dear aunt," Anastasia broke in, with a stress of earnest deprecation on the "dear" that startled her aunt, "please do _not_ go on like that. Do not call Mr Westray my lover; I have told you that I will have nothing to do with him." Miss Joliffe's thoughts had moved through a wide arc. Now that this offer of marriage was about to be refused, now that this engagement was not to be, the advantages that it offered stood out in high relief. It seemed too sad that the curtain should be rung down just as the action of a drama of intense interest was beginning, that the good should slip through their fingers just as they were grasping it. She gave no thought now to that fear of a lonely old age which had troubled her a few minutes before; she only saw the provision for the future which Anastasia was wilfully sacrificing. Her hand tightened automatically, and crumpled a long piece of paper that she was holding. It was only a milkman's bill, and yet it might perhaps have unconsciously given a materialistic colour to her thoughts. "We should not reject any good thing that is put before us," she said a little stiffly, "without being very certain that we are right to do so. I do not know what would become of you, Anastasia, if anything were to happen to me." "That is exactly what he says, that is the very argument which he uses. Why should you take such a gloomy view of things? Why should something _happening_ always mean something bad. Let us hope something good will happen, that someone else will make me a better offer." She laughed, and went on reflectively: "I wonder whether Mr Westray will come back here to lodge; I hope he won't." Hardly were the words out of her mouth when she was sorry for uttering them, for she saw the look of sadness which overspread Miss Joliffe's face. "Dear aunt," she cried, "I am so sorry; I didn't mean to say that. I know what a difference it would make; we cannot afford to lose our last lodger. I hope he _will_ come back, and I will do everything I can to make things comfortable, short of marrying him. I will earn some money myself. I will _write_." "How will you write? Who is there to write to?" Miss Joliffe said, and then the blank look on her face grew blanker, and she took out her handkerchief. "There is no one to help us. Anyone who ever cared for us is dead long ago; there is no one to write to now." CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. Westray played the role of rejected lover most conscientiously; he treated the episode of his refusal on strictly conventional lines. He assured himself and his mother that the light of his life was extinguished, that he was the most unhappy of mortals. It was at this time that he wrote some verses called "Autumn," with a refrain of-- "For all my hopes are cold and dead, And fallen like the fallen leaves," which were published in the _Clapton Methodist_, and afterwards set to music by a young lady who wished to bind up another wounded heart. He attempted to lie awake of nights with indifferent success, and hinted in conversation at the depressing influence which insomnia exerts over its victims. For several meals in succession he refused to eat heartily of such dishes as he did not like, and his mother felt serious anxiety as to his general state of health. She inveighed intemperately against Anastasia for having refused her son, but then she would have inveighed still more intemperately had Anastasia accepted him. She wearied him with the portentous gloom which she affected in his presence, and quoted Lady Clara Vere de Vere's cruelty in turning honest hearts to gall, till even the rejected one was forced to smile bitterly at so inapposite a parallel. Though Mrs Westray senior poured out the vials of her wrath on Anastasia for having refused to become Mrs Westray junior, she was at heart devoutly glad at the turn events had taken. At heart Westray could not have said whether he was glad or sorry. He told himself that he was deeply in love with Anastasia, and that this love was further ennobled by a chivalrous desire to shield her from evil; but he could not altogether forget that the unfortunate event had at least saved him from the unconventionality of marrying his landlady's niece. He told himself that his grief was sincere and profound, but it was possible that chagrin and wounded pride were after all his predominant feelings. There were other reflections which he thrust aside as indecorous at this acute stage of the tragedy, but which, nevertheless, were able to exercise a mildly consoling influence in the background. He would be spared the anxieties of early and impecunious marriage, his professional career would not be weighted by family cares, the whole world was once more open before him, and the slate clean. These were considerations which could not prudently be overlooked, though it would be unseemly to emphasise them too strongly when the poignancy of regret should dominate every other feeling. He wrote to Sir George Farquhar, and obtained ten days' leave of absence on the score of indisposition; and he wrote to Miss Euphemia Joliffe to tell her that he intended to seek other rooms. From the first he had decided that this latter step was inevitable. He could not bear the daily renewal of regret, the daily opening of the wound that would be caused by the sight of Anastasia, or by such chance intercourse with her as further residence at Bellevue Lodge must entail. There is no need to speculate whether his decision was influenced in part by a concession to humiliated pride; men do not take pleasure in revisiting the scenes of a disastrous rout, and it must be admitted that the possibility of summoning a lost love to his presence when he rang for boiling water, had in it something of the grotesque. He had no difficulty in finding other lodgings by correspondence, and he spared himself the necessity of returning at all to his former abode by writing to ask Clerk Janaway to move his belongings. One morning, a month later, Miss Joliffe sat in that room which had been occupied by the late Mr Sharnall. She was alone, for Anastasia had gone to the office of the _Cullerne Advertiser_ with an announcement in which one A.J. intimated that she was willing to take a post as nursery-governess. It was a bright morning but cold, and Miss Joliffe drew an old white knitted shawl closer about her, for there was no fire in the grate. There was no fire because she could not afford it, yet the sun pouring in through the windows made the room warmer than the kitchen, where the embers had been allowed to die out since breakfast. She and Anastasia did without fire on these bright autumn days to save coals; they ate a cold dinner, and went early to bed for the same reason, yet the stock in the cellar grew gradually less. Miss Joliffe had examined it that very morning, and found it terribly small; nor was there any money nor any credit left with which to replenish it. On the table before her was a pile of papers, some yellow, some pink, some white, some blue, but all neatly folded. They were folded lengthways and to the same breadth, for they were Martin Joliffe's bills, and he had been scrupulously neat and orderly in his habits. It is true that there were among them some few that she had herself contracted, but then she had always been careful to follow exactly her brother's method both of folding and also of docketing them on the exterior. Yes, no doubt she was immediately responsible for some, and she knew just which they were from the outside without any need to open them. She took up one of them: "Rose and Storey, importers of French millinery, flowers, feathers, ribbons, etcetera. Mantle and jacket show-rooms." Alas, alas! how frail is human nature! Even in the midst of her misfortunes, even in the eclipse of old age, such words stirred Miss Joliffe's interest--flowers, feathers, ribbons, mantles, and jackets; she saw the delightful show-room 19, 20, 21, and 22, Market Place, Cullerne--saw it in the dignified solitude of a summer morning when a dress was to be tried on, saw it in the crush and glorious scramble of a remnant sale. "Family and complimentary mourning, costumes, skirts, etcetera; foreign and British silks, guaranteed makes." After that the written entry seemed mere bathos: "Material and trimming one bonnet, 11 shillings and 9 pence; one hat, 13 shillings 6 pence. Total, 1 pound 5 shillings 3 pence." It really was not worth while making a fuss about, and the bunch of cherries and bit of spangled net were well worth the 1 shilling 9 pence, that Anastasia's had cost more than hers. Hole, pharmaceutical chemist: "Drops, 1 shilling 6 pence; liniment, 1 shilling; mixture, 1 shilling 9 pence," repeated many times. "Cod-liver oil, 1 shilling 3 pence, and 2 shillings 6 pence, and 1 shilling 3 pence again. 2 pounds 13 shillings 2 pence, with 4 shillings 8 pence interest," for the bill was four years old. That was for Anastasia at a critical time when nothing seemed to suit her, and Dr Ennefer feared a decline; but all the medicine for poor Martin was entered in Dr Ennefer's own account. Pilkington, the shoemaker, had his tale to tell: "Miss Joliffe: Semi-pold. lace boots, treble soles, 1 pound 1 shilling 0 pence. Miss A. Jol.: Semi-pold. lace boots, treble soles, 1 pound 1 shilling 0 pence. 6 pair mohair laces, 9 pence. 3 ditto, silk, 1 shilling." Yes, she was indeed a guilty woman. It was she that had "run up" _these_ accounts, and she grew red to think that her own hand should have helped to build so dismal a pile. Debt, like every other habit that runs counter to the common good, brings with it its own punishment, because society protects itself by making unpleasant the ways of such as inconvenience their neighbours. It is true that some are born with a special talent and capacity for debt--they live on it, and live merrily withal, but most debtors feel the weight of their chains, and suffer greater pangs than those which they inflict on any defrauded creditor. If the millstone grinds slowly it grinds small, and undischarged accounts bring more pain than the goods to which they relate ever brought pleasure. Among such bitternesses surely most bitter are the bills for things of which the fruition has ceased--for worn-out finery, for withered flowers, for drunk wine. Pilkington's boots, were they never so treble soled, could not endure for ever, and Miss Joliffe's eyes followed unconsciously under the table to where a vertical fissure showed the lining white at the side of either boot. Where were new boots to come from now, whence was to come clothing to wear, and bread to eat? Nay, more, the day of passive endurance was past; action had begun. The Cullerne Water Company threatened to cut off the water, the Cullerne Gas Company threatened to cut off the gas. Eaves, the milkman, threatened a summons unless that long, long bill of his (all built up of pitiful little pints) was paid forthwith. The Thing had come to the _Triarii_, Miss Joliffe's front was routed, the last rank was wavering. What was she to do, whither was she to turn? She must sell some of the furniture, but who would buy such old stuff? And if she sold furniture, what lodger would take half-empty rooms? She looked wildly round, she thrust her hands into the pile of papers, she turned them over with a feverish action, till she seemed to be turning hay once more as a little girl in the meadows at Wydcombe. Then she heard footsteps on the pavement outside, and thought for a moment that it was Anastasia returned before she was expected, till a heavy tread told her that a man was coming, and she saw that it was Mr Joliffe, her cousin, churchwarden and pork-butcher. His bulky and unwieldy form moved levelly past the windows; he paused and looked up at the house as if to make sure that he was not mistaken, and then he slowly mounted the semicircular flight of stone steps and rang the bell. In person he was tall, but disproportionately stout for his height. His face was broad, and his loose double chin gave it a flabby appearance. A pallid complexion and black-grey hair, brushed straightly down where he was not bald, produced an impression of sanctimoniousness which was increased by a fawning manner of speech. Mr Sharnall was used to call him a hypocrite, but the aspersion was false, as such an aspersion commonly is. Hypocrites, in the pure and undiluted sense, rarely exist outside the pages of fiction. Except in the lower classes, where deceit thrives under the incentive of clerical patronage, men seldom assume deliberately the garb of religion to obtain temporal advantages or to further their own ends. It is probable that in nine cases out of ten, where practice does not accord sufficiently with profession to please the censorious, the discrepancy is due to inherent weakness of purpose, to the duality of our nature, and not to any conscious deception. If a man leading the lower life should find himself in religious, or high-minded, or pure society, and speak or behave as if he were religious, or high-minded, or pure, he does so in nine cases out of ten not with any definite wish to deceive, but because he is temporarily influenced by better company. For the time he believes what he says, or has persuaded himself that he believes it. If he is froward with the froward, so he is just with the just, and the more sympathetic and susceptible his nature, the more amenable is he to temporary influences. It is this chameleon adaptability that passes for hypocrisy. Cousin Joliffe was no hypocrite, he acted up to his light; and even if the light be a badly-trimmed, greasy, evil-smelling paraffin-lamp, the man who acts up to it is only the more to be pitied. Cousin Joliffe was one of those amateur ecclesiastics whose talk is of things religious, whom Church questions interest, and who seem to have missed their vocation in not having taken Orders. If Canon Parkyn had been a High Churchman, Cousin Joliffe would have been High Church; but the Canon being Low-Church, Cousin Joliffe was an earnest evangelical, as he delighted to describe himself. He was rector's churchwarden, took a leading part in prayer-meetings, with a keen interest in school-treats, ham teas, and magic lanterns, and was particularly proud of having been asked more than once to assist in the Mission Room at Carisbury, where the Vicar of Christ Church carried on revival work among the somnolent surroundings of a great cathedral. He was without any sense of humour or any refinement of feeling--self-important, full of the dignity of his office, thrifty to meanness, but he acted up to his light, and was no hypocrite. In that petty middle-class, narrow-minded and penuriously pretentious, which was the main factor of Cullerne life, he possessed considerable influence and authority. Among his immediate surroundings a word from Churchwarden Joliffe carried more weight than an outsider would have imagined, and long usage had credited him with the delicate position of _censor morum_ to the community. Did the wife of a parishioner venture into such a place of temptation as the theatre at Carisbury, was she seen being sculled by young Bulteel in his new skiff of a summer evening, the churchwarden was charged to interview her husband, to point out to him privately the scandal that was being caused, and to show him how his duty lay in keeping his belongings in better order. Was a man trying to carry fire in his bosom by dalliance at the bar of the Blandamer Arms, then a hint was given to his spouse that she should use such influence as would ensure evenings being spent at home. Did a young man waste the Sabbath afternoon in walking with his dog on Cullerne Flat, he would receive "The Tishbite's Warning, a Discourse showing the Necessity of a Proper Observance of the Lord's Day." Did a pig-tailed hoyden giggle at the Grammar School boys from her pew in the minster, the impropriety was reported by the churchwarden to her mother. On such occasions he was scrupulous in assuming a frock-coat and a silk hat. Both were well-worn, and designed in the fashion of another day; but they were in his eyes insignia of office, and as he felt the tails of the coat about his knees they seemed to him as it were the skirts of Aaron's garment. Miss Joliffe was not slow to notice that he was thus equipped this morning; she knew that he had come to pay her a visit of circumstance, and swept her papers hurriedly into a drawer. She felt as if they were guilty things these bills, as if she had been engaged in a guilty action in even "going through" them, as if she had been detected in doing that which she should not do, and guiltiest of all seemed the very hurry of concealment with which she hid such compromising papers. She tried to perform that feat of mental gymnastics called retaining one's composure, the desperate and forced composure which the coiner assumes when opening the door to the police, the composure which a woman assumes in returning to her husband with the kisses of a lover tingling on her lips. It _is_ a feat to change the current of the mind, to let the burning thought that is dearest or bitterest to us go by the board, to answer coherently to the banalities of conversation, to check the throbbing pulse. The feat was beyond Miss Joliffe's powers; she was but a poor actress, and the churchwarden saw that she was ill at ease as she opened the door. "Good-morning, cousin," he said with one of those interrogative glances which are often more irritating and more difficult to parry than a direct question; "you are not looking at all the thing this morning. I hope you are not feeling unwell; I hope I do not intrude." "Oh no," she said, making as good an attempt at continuous speech as the quick beating of her heart allowed; "it is only that your visit is a little surprise. I am a little flurried; I am not quite so young as I was." "Ay," he said, as she showed him into Mr Sharnall's room, "we are all of us growing older; it behoves us to walk circumspectly, for we never know when we may be taken." He looked at her so closely and compassionately that she felt very old indeed; it really seemed as if she ought to be "taken" at once, as if she was neglecting her duty in not dying away incontinently. She drew the knitted shawl more tightly round her spare and shivering body. "I am afraid you will find this room a little cold," she said; "we are having the kitchen chimney cleaned, so I was sitting here." She gave a hurried glance at the bureau, feeling a suspicion that she might not have shut the drawer tight, or that one of the bills might have somehow got left out. No, all was safe, but her excuse had not deceived the churchwarden. "Phemie," he said, not unkindly, though the word brought tears to her eyes, for it was the first time that anyone had called her by the old childhood name since the night that Martin died--"Phemie, you should not stint yourself in fires. It is a false economy; you must let me send you a coal ticket." "Oh no, thank you very much; we have plenty," she cried, speaking quickly, for she would rather have starved outright, than that it should be said a member of the Dorcas Society had taken a parish coal ticket. He urged her no more, but took the chair that she offered him, feeling a little uncomfortable withal, as a well-clothed and overfed man should, in the presence of penury. It was true he had not been to see her for some time; but, then, Bellevue Lodge was so far off, and he had been so pressed with the cares of the parish and of his business. Besides that, their walks of life were so different, and there was naturally a strong objection to any kinswoman of his keeping a lodging-house. He felt sorry now that compassion had betrayed him into calling her "cousin" and "Phemie"; she certainly _was_ a distant kinswoman, but _not_, he repeated to himself, a cousin; he hoped she had not noticed his familiarity. He wiped his face with a pocket-handkerchief that had seen some service, and gave an introductory cough. "There is a little matter on which I should like to have a few words with you," he said, and Miss Joliffe's heart was in her mouth; he _had_ heard, then, of these terrible debts and of the threatened summons. "Forgive me if I go direct to business. I am a business man and a plain man, and like plain speaking." It is wonderful to what rude remarks, and unkind remarks and untrue remarks such words as these commonly form the prelude, and how very few of these plain speakers enjoy being plainly spoken to in turn. "We were talking just now," he went on, "of the duty of walking circumspectly, but it is our duty, Miss Joliffe, to see that those over whom we are set in authority walk circumspectly as well. I mean no reproach to you, but others beside me think it would be well that you should keep closer watch over your niece. There is a nobleman of high station that visits much too often at this house. I will _not_ name any names"--and this with a tone of magnanimous forbearance--"but you will guess who I mean, because the nobility is not that frequent hereabout. I am sorry to have to speak of such things which ladies generally see quick enough for themselves, but as churchwarden I can't shut my ears to what is matter of town talk; and more by token when a namesake of my own is concerned." The composure which Miss Joliffe had been seeking in vain, came back to her at the pork-butcher's words, partly in the relief that he had not broached the subject of debts which had been foremost in her mind, partly in the surprise and indignation occasioned by his talk of Anastasia. Her manner and very appearance changed, and none would have recognised the dispirited and broken-down old lady in the sharpness of her rejoinder. "Mr Joliffe," she apostrophised with tart dignity, "you must forgive me for thinking that I know a good deal more about the nobleman in question than you do, and I can assure you _he_ is a perfect gentleman. If he has visited this house, it has been to see Mr Westray about the restoration of the minster. I should have thought one that was churchwarden would have known better than to go bandying scandals about his betters; it is small encouragement for a nobleman to take an interest in the church if the churchwarden is to backbite him for it." She saw that her cousin was a little taken aback, and she carried the war into the enemy's country, and gave another thrust. "Not but what Lord Blandamer has called upon me too, apart from Mr Westray. And what have you to say to _that_? If his lordship has thought fit to honour me by drinking a cup of tea under my roof, there are many in Cullerne would have been glad to get out their best china if he had only asked himself to _their_ houses. And there are some might well follow his example, and show themselves a little oftener to their friends and relations." The churchwarden wiped his face again, and puffed a little. "Far be it from me," he said, dwelling on the expression with all the pleasure that a man of slight education takes in a book phrase that he has got by heart--"far be it from me to set scandals afloat--'twas _you_ that used the word scandal--but I have daughters of my own to consider. I have nothing to say against Anastasia, who, I believe, is a good girl enough"--and his patronising manner grated terribly on Miss Joliffe--"though I wish I could see her take more interest in the Sunday-school, but I won't hide from you that she has a way of carrying herself and mincing her words which does _not_ befit her station. It makes people take notice, and 'twould be more becoming she should drop it, seeing she will have to earn her own living in service. I don't want to say anything against Lord Blandamer either--he seems to be well-intentioned to the church--but if tales are true the _old_ lord was no better than he should be, and things have happened before now on your side of the family, Miss Joliffe, that make connections feel uncomfortable about Anastasia. We are told that the sins of the fathers will be visited to the third and fourth generation." "Well," Miss Joliffe said, and made a formidable pause on this adverb, "if it is the manners of your side of the family to come and insult people in their own houses, I am glad I belong to the other side." She was alive to the profound gravity of such a sentiment, yet was prepared to take her stand upon it, and awaited another charge from the churchwarden with a dignity and confidence that would have become the Old Guard. But no fierce passage of arms followed; there was a pause, and if a dignified ending were desired the interview should here have ended. But to ordinary mortals the sound of their own voices is so musical as to deaden any sense of anticlimax; talking is continued for talking's sake, and heroics tail off into desultory conversation. Both sides were conscious that they had overstated their sentiments, and were content to leave main issues undecided. Miss Joliffe did not take the bills out of their drawer again after the churchwarden had left her. The current of her ideas had been changed, and for the moment she had no thought for anything except the innuendoes of her visitor. She rehearsed to herself without difficulty the occasions of Lord Blandamer's visits, and although she was fully persuaded that any suspicions as to his motives were altogether without foundation, she was forced to admit that he _had_ been at Bellevue Lodge more than once when she had been absent. This was no doubt a pure coincidence, but we were enjoined to be wise as serpents as well as innocent as doves, and she would take care that no further occasion was given for idle talk. Anastasia on her return found her aunt unusually reserved and taciturn. Miss Joliffe had determined to behave exactly as usual to Anastasia because her niece was entirely free from fault; but she was vexed at what the churchwarden had said, and her manner was so mysterious and coldly dignified as to convince Anastasia that some cause for serious annoyance had occurred. Did Anastasia remark that it was a close morning, her aunt looked frowningly abstracted and gave no reply; did Anastasia declare that she had not been able to get any 14 knitting-needles, they were quite out of them, her aunt said, "Oh!" in a tone of rebuke and resignation which implied that there were far more serious matters in the world than knitting-needles. This dispensation lasted a full half-hour, but beyond that the kindly old heart was quite unequal to supporting a proper hauteur. The sweet warmth of her nature thawed the chilly exterior; she was ashamed of her moodiness, and tried to "make up" for it to Anastasia by manifestation of special affection. But she evaded her niece's attempts at probing the matter, and was resolved that the girl should know nothing of Cousin Joliffe's suggestions or even of the fact of his visit. But if Anastasia knew nothing of these things, she was like to be singular in her ignorance. All Cullerne knew; it was in the air. The churchwarden had taken a few of the elders into his confidence, and asked their advice as to the propriety of his visit of remonstrance. The elders, male and female, heartily approved of his action, and had in their turn taken into confidence a few of their intimate and specially-to-be-trusted friends. Then ill-natured and tale-bearing Miss Sharp told lying and mischief-making Mrs Flint, and lying and mischief-making Mrs Flint talked the matter over at great length with the Rector, who loved all kinds of gossip, especially of the highly-spiced order. It was speedily matter of common knowledge that Lord Blandamer was at the Hand of God (so ridiculous of a lodging-house keeper christening a public-house Bellevue Lodge!) at _all_ hours of the day _and_ night, and that Miss Joliffe was content to look at the ceiling on such occasions; and worse, to go to meetings so as to leave the field undisturbed (what intolerable hypocrisy making an excuse of the Dorcas meetings!); that Lord Blandamer loaded--simply loaded--that pert and good-for-nothing girl with presents; that even the young architect was forced to change his lodgings by such disreputable goings-on. People wondered how Miss Joliffe and her niece had the effrontery to show themselves at church on Sundays; the younger creature, at least, must have _some_ sense of shame left, for she never ventured to exhibit in _public_ either the fine dresses or the jewellery that her lover gave her. Such stories came to Westray's ears, and stirred in him the modicum of chivalry which leavens the lump of most men's being. He was still smarting under his repulse, but he would have felt himself disgraced if he had allowed the scandal to pass unchallenged, and he rebutted it with such ardour that people shrugged their shoulders, and hinted that there had been something between _him_, too, and Anastasia. Clerk Janaway was inclined to take a distressingly opportunist and matter-of-fact view of the question. He neither reprobated nor defended. In his mind the Divine right of peers was firmly established. So long as they were rich and spent their money freely, we should not be too particular. They were to be judged by standards other than those of common men; for his part, he was glad they had got in place of an old curmudgeon a man who would take an interest in the Church, and spend money on the place and the people. If he took a fancy to a pretty face, where was the harm? 'Twas nothing to the likes of them, best let well alone; and then he would cut short the churchwarden's wailings and godly lamentations by "decanting" on the glories of Fording, and the boon it was to the countryside to have the place kept up once more. "Clerk Janaway, your sentiments do you no credit," said the pork-butcher on one such occasion, for he was given to gossip with the sexton on terms of condescending equality. "I have seen Fording myself, having driven there with the Carisbury Field Club, and felt sure it must be a source of temptation if not guarded against. That one man should live in such a house is an impiety; he is led to go about like Nebuchadnezzar, saying: `Is not this great Babylon that I have builded?'" "_He_ never builded it," said the clerk with some inconsequence; "'twere builded centuries ago. I've heard 'tis that old no one don't know _who_ builded it. Your parents was Dissenters, Mr Joliffe, and never taught you the Catechism when you was young; but as for me, I order myself to my betters as I should, so long as they orders themselves to me. 'Taint no use to say as how we're all level; you've only got to go to Mothers' Meetings, my old missus says, to see that. 'Tis no use looking for too much, nor eating salt with red herrings." "Well, well," the other deprecated, "I'm not blaming his lordship so much as them that lead him on." "Don't go for to blame the girl, neither, too hardly; there's faults on both sides. His grandfather didn't always toe the line, and there were some on her side didn't set too good an example, neither. I've seen many a queer thing in my time, and have got to think blood's blood, and forerunners more to blame than children. If there's drink in fathers, there'll be drink in sons and grandsons till 'tis worked out; and if there's wild love in the mothers, daughters 'll likely sell their apples too. No, no, God-amighty never made us equal, and don't expect us all to be churchwardens. Some on us comes of virtuous forerunners, and are born with wings at the back of our shoulders like you"--and he gave a whimsical look at his listener's heavy figure--"to lift us up to the vaulting; and some on us our fathers fits out with lead soles to the bottom of our boots to keep us on the floor." Saturday afternoon was Lord Blandamer's hour, and for three Saturdays running Miss Joliffe deserted the Dorcas meeting in order to keep guard at home. It rejoiced the moral hearts of ill-natured and tale-bearing Miss Sharp and of lying and mischief-making Mrs Flint that the disreputable old woman had at least the decency not to show herself among her betters, but such defection was a sore trial to Miss Joliffe. She told herself on each occasion that she _could_ not make such a sacrifice again, and yet the love of Anastasia constrained her. To her niece she offered the patent excuse of being unwell, but the girl watched her with wonder and dismay chafe feverishly through the two hours, which had been immemorially consecrated to these meetings. The recurrence of a weekly pleasure, which seems so limitless in youth and middle age, becomes less inexhaustible as life turns towards sunset. Thirty takes lightly enough the foregoing of a Saturday reunion, the uncongenial spending of a Sunday; but seventy can see the end of the series, and grudges every unit of the total that remains. For three Saturdays Miss Joliffe watched, and for three Saturdays no suspicious visitor appeared. "We have seen nothing of Lord Blandamer lately," she would remark at frequent intervals with as much indifference as the subject would allow. "There is nothing to bring him here now that Mr Westray has gone. Why should he come?" Why, indeed, and what difference would it make to her if he never came again? These were questions that Anastasia had discussed with herself, at every hour of every day of those blank three weeks. She had ample time for such foolish discussions, for such vain imaginings, for she was left much to herself, having no mind-companions either of her own age or of any other. She was one of those unfortunate persons whose education and instincts' unfit them for their position. The diversions of youth had been denied her, the pleasures of dress or company had never been within her reach. For pastime she was turned back continually to her own thoughts, and an active imagination and much desultory reading had educated her in a school of romance, which found no counterpart in the life of Cullerne. She was proud at heart (and it is curious that those are often the proudest who in their neighbours' estimation have least cause for pride), but not conceited in manner in spite of Mr Joliffe's animadversion on the mincing of her words. Yet it was not her pride that had kept her from making friends, but merely the incompatibility of mental temperament, which builds the barrier not so much between education and ignorance, as between refinement and materialism, between romance and commonplace. That barrier is so insurmountable that any attempt upon it must end in failure that is often pathetic from its very hopelessness; even the warmth of ardent affection has never yet succeeded in evolving a mental companionship from such discordant material. By kindly dispensation of nature the breadth of the gulf, indeed, is hidden from those who cannot cross it. They know it is there, they have some inkling of the difference of view, but they think that love may build a bridge across, or that in time they may find some other access to the further side. Sometimes they fancy that they are nearer to the goal, that they walk step and step with those they love; but this, alas! is not to be, because the mental sympathy, the touch of illumination that welds minds together, is wanting. It was so with Miss Joliffe the elder--she longed to be near her niece, and was so very far away; she thought that they went hand in hand, when all the while a different mental outlook set them poles asunder. With all her thousand good honest qualities, she was absolutely alien to the girl; and Anastasia felt as if she was living among people of another nation, among people who did not understand her language, and she took refuge in silence. The dulness of Cullerne had grown more oppressive to her in the last year. She longed for a life something wider, she longed for sympathy. She longed for what a tall and well-favoured maiden of her years most naturally desires, however much she may be ignorant of her desire; she longed for someone to admire her and to love her; she longed for someone about whom she could weave a romance. The junior partner in Rose and Storey perhaps discerned her need, and tried to supply it. He paid her such odious compliments on the "hang of her things," that she would never have entered the shop again, were it not that Bellevue Lodge was bound hand and foot to Rose and Storey, for they were undertakers as well as milliners; and, besides, the little affair of the bonnets, the expenses of Martin's funeral, were still unsatisfied. There was a young dairy farmer, with a face like a red harvest moon, who stopped at her aunt's door on his way to market. He would sell Miss Joliffe eggs and butter at wholesale prices, and grinned in a most tiresome way whenever he caught sight of Anastasia. The Rector patronised her insufferably; and though old Mr Noot was kind, he treated her like a small child, and sometimes patted her cheek, which she felt to be disconcerting at eighteen. And then the Prince of Romance appeared in Lord Blandamer. The moment that she first saw him on the doorstep that windy autumn afternoon, when yellow leaves were flying, she recognised him for a prince. The moment that he spoke to her she knew that he recognised her for a lady, and for this she felt unspeakably glad and grateful. Since then the wonder had grown. It grew all the faster from the hero's restraint. He had seen Anastasia but little, he spoke but little to her, he never gave her even a glance of interest, still less such glances as Westray launched at her so lavishly. And yet the wonder grew. He was so different from other men she had seen, so different from all the other people she had ever met. She could not have told how she knew this, and yet she knew. It must have been an atmosphere which followed him wherever he went--that penumbra with which the gods wrap heroes--which told her he was different. The gambits of the great game of love are strangely limited, and there is little variation in the after-play. If it were not for the personal share we take, such doings would lack interest by reason of their monotony, by their too close resemblance to the primeval type. This is why the game seems dull enough to onlookers; they shock us with the callousness with which they are apt to regard our ecstasies. This is why the straightforward game palls sometimes on the players themselves after a while; and why they are led to take refuge from dulness in solving problems, in the tangled irregularities of the knight's move. Anastasia would have smiled if she had been told that she had fallen in love; it might have been a thin smile, pale as winter's sunshine, but she would have smiled. It was _impossible_ for her to fall in love, because she knew that kings no longer marry beggar-maids, and she was far too well brought up to fall in love, except as a preliminary to marriage. No heroine of Miss Austen would permit herself even to feel attraction to a quarter from which no offer of marriage was possible; therefore Anastasia could not have fallen in love. She certainly was not in the least in love, but it was true Lord Blandamer interested her. He interested her so much, in fact, as to be in her thoughts at all hours of the day; it was strange that no matter with what things her mind was occupied, his image should continually present itself. She wondered why this was; perhaps it was his power--she thought it was the feeling of his power, a very insolence of power that dominated all these little folk, and yet was most powerful in its restraint. She liked to think of the compact, close-knit body, of the curling, crisp, iron-grey hair, of the grey eyes, and of the hard, clear-cut face. Yes, she liked the face because it _was_ hard, because it had a resolute look in it that said he meant to go whither he wished to go. There was no doubt she must have taken considerable interest in him, for she found herself dreading to pronounce his name even in the most ordinary conversation, because she felt it difficult to keep her voice at the dead level of indifference. She dreaded when others spoke of him, and yet there was no other subject that occupied her so much. And sometimes when they talked of him she had a curious feeling of jealousy, a feeling that no one had a right even to talk of him except herself; and she would smile to herself with a little scornful smile, because she thought that she knew more about him, could understand him better than them all. It was fortunate, perhaps, that the arbitrament of Cullerne conversation did not rest with Anastasia, or there would have been but little talking at this time; for if it seemed preposterous that others should dare to discuss Lord Blandamer, it seemed equally preposterous that they should take an interest in discussing anything else. She certainly was _not_ in love; it was only the natural interest, she told herself, that anyone--anyone with education and refinement--must take in a strange and powerful character. Every detail about him interested her. There was a fascination in his voice, there was a melody in his low, clear voice that charmed, and made even trifling remarks seem important. Did he but say it was a rainy afternoon, did he but ask if Mr Westray were at home, there was such mystery in his tone that no rabbinical cabalist ever read more between the lines than did Miss Anastasia Joliffe. Even in her devotions thought wandered far from the pew where she and her aunt sat in Cullerne Church; she found her eyes looking for the sea-green and silver, for the nebuly coat in Abbot Vinnicomb's window; and from the clear light yellow of the aureole round John Baptist's head, fancy called up a whirl of faded lemon-coloured acacia leaves, that were in the air that day the hero first appeared. Yet, if heart wavered, head stood firm. He should never know her interest in him; no word, no changing colour should ever betray her; he should never guess that agitation sometimes scarcely left her breath to make so short a rejoinder as "Good-night." For three Saturdays, then, Miss Joliffe the elder sat on guard at Bellevue Lodge; for three Saturday afternoons in succession, she sat and chafed as the hours of the Dorcas meeting came and went. But nothing happened; the heavens remained in their accustomed place, the minster tower stood firm, and then she knew that the churchwarden had been duped, that her own judgment had been right, that Lord Blandamer's only motive for coming to her house had been to see Mr Westray, and that now Mr Westray was gone Lord Blandamer would come no more. The fourth Saturday arrived; Miss Joliffe was brighter than her niece had seen her for a calendar month. "I feel a good deal better, my dear, this afternoon," she said; "I think I shall be able to go to the Dorcas meeting. The room gets so close that I have avoided going of late, but I think I shall not feel it too much to-day. I will just change, and put on my bonnet; you will not mind staying at home while I am away, will you?" And so she went. Anastasia sat in the window-seat of the lower room. The sash was open, for the spring days were lengthening, and a soft, sweet air was moving about sundown. She told herself that she was making a bodice; an open workbox stood beside her, and there was spread around just such a medley of patterns, linings, scissors, cotton-reels, and buttons as is required for the proper and ceremonious carrying on of "work." But she was not working. The bodice itself, the very cause and spring of all these preparations, lay on her lap, and there, too, had fallen her hands. She half sat, half lay back on the window-seat, roaming in fancy far away, while she drank in the breath of the spring, and watched a little patch of transparent yellow sky between the houses grow pinker and more golden, as the sunset went on. Then a man came down the street and mounted the steps in front of Bellevue Lodge; but she did not see him, because he was walking in from the country, and so did not pass her window. It was the door-bell that first broke her dreams. She slid down from her perch, and hastened to let her aunt in, for she had no doubt that it was Miss Joliffe who had come back from the meeting. The opening of the front-door was not a thing to be hurried through, for though there was little indeed in Bellevue Lodge to attract burglars, and though if burglars came they would surely select some approach other than the main entrance, yet Miss Joliffe insisted that when she was from home the door should be secured as if to stand a siege. So Anastasia drew the top bolt, and slipped the chain, and unlocked the lock. There was a little difficulty with the bottom bolt, and she had to cry out: "I am sorry for keeping you waiting; this fastening _will_ stick." But it gave at last; she swung the heavy door back, and found herself face to face with Lord Blandamer. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. They stood face to face, and looked at one another for a second. Anyone seeing those two figures silhouetted against the yellow sunset sky might have taken them for cousins, or even for brother and sister. They were both dressed in black, were both dark, and of nearly the same height, for though the man was not short, the girl was very tall. The pause that Anastasia made was due to surprise. A little while ago it would have been a natural thing enough to open the door and find Lord Blandamer, but the month that had elapsed since last he came to Bellevue Lodge had changed the position. It seemed to her that she stood before him confessed, that he must know that all these weeks she had been thinking of him, had been wondering why he did not come, had been longing for him to come, that he must know the pleasure which filled her now because he was come back again. And if he knew all this, she, too, had learnt to know something, had learnt to know how great a portion of her thoughts he filled. This eating of the tree of knowledge had abashed her, for now her soul stood before her naked. Did it so stand naked before him too? She was shocked that she should feel this attraction where there could be no thought of marriage; she thought that she should die if he should ever guess that one so lowly had gazed upon the sun and been dazzled. The pause that Lord Blandamer made was not due to surprise, for he knew quite well that it would be Anastasia who opened the door. It was rather that pause which a man makes who has undertaken a difficult business, and hesitates for a moment when it comes to the touch. She cast her eyes down to the ground; he looked full at her, looked at her from head to foot, and knew that his resolution was strong enough to carry to a conclusion the affair on which he had come. She spoke first. "I am sorry my aunt is not at home," and kept her right hand on the edge of the open door, feeling grateful for any support. As the words came out she was relieved to find that it was indeed she herself who was speaking, that it was her own voice, and that her voice sounded much as usual. "I am sorry she is not in," he said, and he, too, spoke after all in just those same low, clear tones to which she was accustomed--"I am sorry she is not in, but it was _you_ that I came to see." She said nothing; her heart beat so fast that she could not have spoken even in monosyllables. She did not move, but kept her hand still on the edge of the door, feeling afraid lest she should fall if she let it go. "I have something I should like to say to you; may I come in?" She hesitated for a moment, as he knew that she would hesitate, and then let him in, as he knew that she would let him in. He shut the heavy front-door behind them, and there was no talk now of turning locks or shooting bolts; the house was left at the mercy of any burglars who might happen to be thereabout. Anastasia led the way. She did not take him into Mr Sharnall's old room, partly because she had left half-finished clothes lying there, and partly from the more romantic reflection that it was in Westray's room that they had met before. They walked through the hall and up the stairs, she going first and he following, and she was glad of the temporary respite which the long flights secured her. They entered the room, and again he shut the door behind them. There was no fire, and the window was open, but she felt as if she were in a fiery furnace. He saw her distress, but made as if he saw nothing, and pitied her for the agitation which he caused. For the past six months Anastasia had concealed her feelings so very well that he had read them like a book. He had watched the development of the plot without pride, or pleasure of success, without sardonic amusement, without remorse; with some dislike for a role which force of circumstances imposed on him, but with an unwavering resolve to walk the way which he had set before him. He knew the exact point which the action of the play had reached, he knew that Anastasia would grant whatever he asked of her. They were standing face to face again. To the girl it all seemed a dream; she did not know whether she was waking or sleeping; she did not know whether she was in the body or out of the body. It was all a dream, but it was a delightful dream; there was no bitterness of reflection now, no anxiety, no regard for past or future, only utter absorption in the present moment. She was with the man who had possessed her thoughts for a month past; he had come back to her. She had not to consider whether she should ever see him again; he was with her now. She had not to think whether he was there for good or evil, she had lost all volition in the will of the man who stood before her; she was the slave of his ring, rejoicing in her slavery, and ready to do his bidding as all the other slaves of that ring. He was sorry for the feelings which he had aroused, sorry for the affection he had stirred, sorry for the very love of himself that he saw written in her face. He took her hand in his, and his touch filled her with an exquisite content; her hand lay in his neither lifelessly nor entirely passively, yet only lightly returning the light pressure of his fingers. To her the situation was the supreme moment of a life; to him it was passionless as the betrothal piece in a Flemish window. "Anastasia," he said, "you guess what it is I have to tell you; you guess what it is that I have to ask you." She heard him speaking, and his voice was as delightful music in her delightful dream; she knew that he was going to ask something of her, and she knew that she would give him anything and all that he asked. "I know that you love me," he went on, with an inversion of the due order of the proposition, and an assumption that would have been intolerable in anyone else, "and you know that I love you dearly." It was a proper compliment to her perspicuity that she should know already that he loved her, but his mind smiled as he thought how insufficient sometimes are the bases of knowledge. "I love you dearly, and am come to ask you to be my wife." She heard what he said, and understood it; she had been prepared for his asking anything save this one thing that he had asked. The surprise of it overwhelmed her, the joy of it stunned her; she could neither speak nor move. He saw that she was powerless and speechless, and drew her closer to him. There was none of the impetuous eagerness of a lover in the action; he drew her gently towards him because it seemed appropriate to the occasion that he should do so. She lay for a minute in his arms, her head bent down, and her face hidden, while he looked not so much at her as above her. His eyes wandered over the mass of her dark-brown wavy hair that Mrs Flint said was not wavy by nature, but crimped to make her look like a Blandamer, and so bolster up her father's nonsensical pretensions. His eyes took full account of that wave and the silken fineness of her dark-brown hair, and then looked vaguely out beyond till they fell on the great flower-picture that hung on the opposite wall. The painting had devolved upon Westray on Mr Sharnall's death, but he had not yet removed it, and Lord Blandamer's eyes rested on it now so fixedly, that he seemed to be thinking more of the trashy flowers and of the wriggling caterpillar, than of the girl in his arms. His mind came back to the exigencies of the situation. "Will you marry me, Anastasia--will you marry me, dear Anstice?" The home name seemed to add a touch of endearment, and he used it advisedly. "Anstice, will you let me make you my wife?" She said nothing, but threw her arms about his neck, and raised her face a little for the first time. It was an assent that would have contented any man, and to Lord Blandamer it came as a matter of course; he had never for a moment doubted her acceptance of his offer. If she had raised her face to be kissed, her expectation was gratified; he kissed her indeed, but only lightly on the brow, as actor may kiss actress on the stage. If anyone had been there to see, they would have known from his eyes that his thoughts were far from his body, that they were busied with somebody or something, that seemed to him of more importance than the particular action in which he was now engaged. But Anastasia saw nothing; she only knew that he had asked her to marry him, and that she was in his arms. He waited a moment, as if wondering how long the present position would continue, and what was the next step to take; but the girl was the first to relieve the tension. The wildest intoxication of the first surprise was passing off, and with returning capacity for reflection a doubt had arisen that flung a shadow like a cloud upon her joy. She disengaged herself from his arms that strove in orthodox manner to retain her. "Don't," she said--"don't. We have been too rash. I know what you have asked me. I shall remember it always, and love you for it to my dying day, but it cannot be. There are things you must know before you ask me. I do not think you would ask me if you knew all." For the first time he seemed a little more in earnest, a little more like a man living life, a little less like a man rehearsing a part that he had got by heart. This was an unexpected piece of action, an episode that was not in his acting edition, that put him for the moment at a loss; though he knew it could not in any way affect the main issues of the play. He expostulated, he tried to take her hand again. "Tell me what it is, child, that is troubling you," he said; "there can be nothing, nothing under heaven that could make me wish to unsay what I have said, nothing that could make us wish to undo what we have done. Nothing can rob me now of the knowledge that you love me. Tell me what it is." "I cannot tell you," she answered him. "It is something I cannot tell; don't ask me. I will write it. Leave me now--please leave me; no one shall know that you have been here, no one must know what has passed between us." Miss Joliffe came back from the Dorcas meeting a little downhearted and out of humour. Things had not gone so smoothly as usual. No one had inquired after her health, though she had missed three meetings in succession; people had received her little compliments and cheery small-talk with the driest of negatives or affirmatives; she had an uncomfortable feeling that she was being cold-shouldered. That high moralist, Mrs Flint, edged her chair away from the poor lady of set purpose, and Miss Joliffe found herself at last left isolated from all, except Mrs Purlin, the builder's wife, who was far too fat and lethargic to be anything but ignorantly good-natured. Then, in a fit of pained abstraction, Miss Joliffe had made such a bad calculation as entirely to spoil a flannel petticoat with a rheumatic belt and camphor pockets, which she had looked upon as something of a _chef d'oeuvre_. But when she got back to Bellevue Lodge her vexation vanished, and was entirely absorbed in solicitude for her niece. Anstice was unwell, Anstice was quite ill, quite flushed, and complaining of headache. If Miss Joliffe had feigned indisposition for three Saturdays as an excuse for not leaving the house, Anastasia had little need for simulation on this the fourth Saturday. She was, in effect, so dazed by the event which had happened, and so preoccupied by her own thoughts, that she could scarcely return coherent replies to her aunt's questions. Miss Joliffe had rung and received no answer, had discovered that the front-door was unlocked, and had at last found Anastasia sitting forlorn in Mr Westray's room with the window open. A chill was indicated, and Miss Joliffe put her to bed at once. Bed is a first aid that even ambulance classes have not entirely taught us to dispense with; it is, moreover, a poor man's remedy, being exceedingly cheap, if, indeed, the poor man is rich enough to have a bed at all. Had Anastasia been Miss Bulteel, or even Mrs Parkyn, or lying and mischief-making Mrs Flint, Dr Ennefer would have been summoned forthwith; but being only Anastasia, and having the vision of debt before her eyes, she prevailed on her aunt to wait to see what the night brought forth, before sending for the doctor. Meanwhile Dr Bed, infinitely cleverest and infinitely safest of physicians, was called in, and with him was associated that excellent general practitioner Dr Wait. Hot flannels, hot bottles, hot possets, and a bedroom fire were exhibited, and when at nine o'clock Miss Joliffe kissed her niece and retired for the night, she by no means despaired of the patient's speedy recovery from so sudden and unaccountable an attack. Anastasia was alone; what a relief to be alone again, though she felt that such a thought was treasonable and unkind to the warm old heart that had just left her, to that warm old heart which yearned so deeply to her, but with which she had not shared her story! She was alone, and she lay a little while in quiet content looking at the fire through the iron bars at the foot of her bedstead. It was the first bedroom fire she had had for two years, and she enjoyed the luxury with a pleasure proportionate to its rarity. She was not sleepy, but grew gradually more composed, and was able to reflect on the letter which she had promised to write. It would be difficult, and she assured herself with much vigour that it must raise insurmountable obstacles, that they were obstacles which one in Lord Blandamer's position must admit to be quite insurmountable. Yes, in this letter she would write the colophon of so wondrous a romance, the epilogue of so amazing a tragedy. But it was her conscience that demanded the sacrifice, and she took the more pleasure in making it, because she felt at heart that the pound of flesh might never really after all be cut. How thoroughly do we enjoy these sacrifices to conscience, these followings of honour's code severe, when we know that none will be mean enough to take us at our word! To what easily-gained heights of morality does it raise us to protest that we never could accept the gift that will eventually be forced into our reluctant hands, to insist that we regard as the shortest of loans the money which we never shall be called upon to repay. It was something of the same sort with Anastasia. She told herself that by her letter she would give the death-blow to her love, and perhaps believed what she told, yet all the while kept hope hidden at the bottom of the box, even as in the most real perils of a dream we sometimes are supported by the sub-waking sense that we _are_ dreaming. A little later Anastasia was sitting before her bedroom fire writing. It has a magic of its own--the bedroom fire. Not such a one as night by night warms hothouse bedrooms of the rich, but that which burns but once or twice a year. How the coals glow between the bars, how the red light shimmers on the black-lead bricks, how the posset steams upon the hob! Milk or tea, cocoa or coffee, poor commonplace liquids, are they not transmuted in the alembic of a bedroom fire, till they become nepenthe for a heartache or a philtre for romance? Ah, the romance of it, when youth forestalls to-morrow's conquest, when middle life forgets that yesterday is past for ever, when even querulous old age thinks it may still have its "honour and its toil"! An old blue cloak, which served the turn of dressing-gown, had fallen apart in the exigencies of composition, and showed underlying tracts of white nightgown. Below, the firelight fell on bare feet resting on the edge of the brass fender till the heat made her curl up her toes, and above, the firelight contoured certain generous curves. The roundness and the bloom of maidenhood was upon her, that bloom so transient, so irreplaceable, that renders any attempt to simulate it so profoundly ludicrous. The mass of dark hair, which turned lying-and-mischief-making Mrs Flint so envious, was gathered behind with a bow of black ribbon, and hung loosely over the back of her chair. She sat there writing and rewriting, erasing, blotting, tearing up, till the night was far spent, till she feared that the modest resources of the _papeterie_ would be exhausted before toil came to fruition. It was finished at last, and if it was a little formal or high-flown, or stilted, is not a certain formality postulated on momentous occasions? Who would write that he was "delighted" to accept a bishopric? Who would go to a levee in a straw hat? "Dear Lord Blandamer" (the letter ran), "I do not know how I ought to write to you, for I have little experience of life to guide me. I thank you with all my heart for what you have told me. I am glad to think of it, and I always shall be. I believe there must be many strong reasons why you should not think of marrying me, yet if there are, you must know them far better than I, and you have disregarded them. But there is one reason that you cannot know, for it is known to very few; I hope it is known only to some of our own relations. Perhaps I ought not to write of it at all, but I have no one to advise me. I mean what is right, and if I am doing wrong you will forgive me, will you not? and burn this letter when you have read it. "I have no right to the name I am called by; my cousins in the Market Place think we should use some other, but we do not even know what our real name would be. When my grandmother married old Mr Joliffe, she had already a son two or three years old. This son was my father, and Mr Joliffe adopted him; but my grandmother had no right to any but her maiden name. We never knew what that was, though my father tried all his life to find it out, and thought he was very near finding out when he fell into his last illness. We think his head must have been affected, for he used to say strange things about his parentage. Perhaps the thought of this disgrace troubled him, as it has often troubled me, though I never thought it would trouble me so much as now. "I have not told my aunt about what you have said to me, and no one else shall ever know it, but it will be the sweetest memory to me of all my life. "Your very sincere friend, "Anastasia Joliffe." It was finished at last; she had slain all her hopes, she had slain her love. He would never marry her, he would never come near her again; but she had unburdened herself of her secret, and she could not have married him with that secret untold. It was three o'clock when she crept back again to bed. The fire had gone out, she was very cold, and she was glad to get back to her bed. Then Nature came to her aid and sent her kindly sleep, and if her sleep was not dreamless, she dreamt of dresses, and horses, and carriages, of men-servants, and maid-servants, of Lady Blandamer's great house of Fording, and of Lady Blandamer's husband. Lord Blandamer also sat up very late that night. As he read before another bedroom fire he turned the pages of his book with the utmost regularity; his cigar never once went out. There was nothing to show that his thoughts wandered, nothing to show that his mind was in any way preoccupied. He was reading Eugenid's "Aristeia" of the pagans martyred under Honorius; and weighed the pros and cons of the argument as dispassionately as if the events of the afternoon had never taken place, as if there had been no such person as Anastasia Joliffe in the world. Anastasia's letter reached him the next day at lunch, but he finished his meal before opening it. Yet he must have known whence it came, for there was a bold "Bellevue Lodge" embossed in red on the flap of the envelope. Martin Joliffe had ordered stamped paper and envelopes years ago, because he said that people of whom he made genealogical inquiries paid more attention to stamped than to plain paper--it was a credential of respectability. In Cullerne this had been looked upon as a gross instance of his extravagance; Mrs Bulteel and Canon Parkyn alone could use headed paper with propriety, and even the rectory only printed, and did not emboss. Martin had exhausted his supply years ago, and never ordered a second batch, because the first was still unpaid for; but Anastasia kept by her half a dozen of these fateful envelopes. She had purloined them when she was a girl at school, and to her they were still a cherished remnant of gentility, that pallium under which so many of us would fain hide our rags. She had used one on this momentous occasion; it seemed a fitting cover for despatches to Fording, and might divert attention from the straw paper on which her letter was written. Lord Blandamer had seen the Bellevue Lodge, had divined the genesis of the embossed inscription, had unravelled all Anastasia's thoughts in using it, yet let the letter lie till he had finished lunch. When he read it afterwards he criticised it as he might the composition of a stranger, as a document with which he had no very close concern. Yet he appreciated the effort which it must have cost the girl to write it, was touched by her words, and felt a certain grave compassion for her. But it was the strange juggle of circumstance, the Sophoclean irony of a position of which he alone held the key, that most impressed themselves upon his mood. He ordered his horse, and took the road to Cullerne, but his agent met him before he had passed the first lodge, and asked some further instructions for the planting at the top of the park. So he turned and rode up to the great belt of beeches which was then being planted, and was so long engaged there that dusk forced him to abandon his journey to the town. He rode back to Fording at a foot-pace, choosing devious paths, and enjoying the sunset in the autumn woods. He would write to Anastasia, and put off his visit till the next day. With him there was no such wholesale destruction of writing-paper as had attended Anastasia's efforts on the previous night. One single sheet saw his letter begun and ended, a quarter of an hour sufficed for committing his sentiments very neatly to writing; he flung off his sentences easily, as easily as Odysseus tossed his heavy stone beyond all the marks of the Phaeacians: "My dearest Child, "I need not speak now of the weary hours of suspense which I passed in waiting for your letter. They are over, and all is sunshine after the clouds. I need not tell you how my heart beat when I saw an envelope with your address, nor how eagerly my fingers tore it open, for now all is happiness. Thank you, a thousand times thank you for your letter; it is like you, all candour, all kindness, and all truth. Put aside your scruples; everything that you say is not a featherweight in the balance; do not trouble about your name in the past, for you will have a new name in the future. It is not I, but you, who overlook obstacles, for have you not overlooked all the years that lie between your age and mine? I have but a moment to scribble these lines; you must forgive their weakness, and take for said all that should be said. I shall be with you to-morrow morning, and till then am, in all love and devotion, "Yours, "Blandamer." He did not even read it through before he sealed it up, for he was in a hurry to get back to Eugenid and to the "Aristeia" of the heathens martyred under Honorius. Two days later, Miss Joliffe put on her Sunday mantle and bonnet in the middle of the week, and went down to the Market Place to call on her cousin the pork-butcher. Her attire at once attracted attention. The only justification for such extravagance would be some parish function or festivity, and nothing of that sort could be going on without the knowledge of the churchwarden's family. Nor was it only the things which she wore, but the manner in which she wore them, that was so remarkable. As she entered the parlour at the back of the shop, where the pork-butcher's lady and daughters were sitting, they thought that they had never seen their cousin look so well dressed. She had lost the pinched, perplexed, down-trodden air which had overcast her later years; there was in her face a serenity and content which communicated itself in some mysterious way even to her apparel. "Cousin Euphemia looks quite respectable this morning," whispered the younger to the elder daughter; and they had to examine her closely before they convinced themselves that only a piece of mauve ribbon in her bonnet was new, and that the coat and dress were just the same as they had seen every Sunday for two years past. With "nods and becks and wreathed smiles" Miss Euphemia seated herself. "I have just popped in," she began, and the very phrase had something in it so light and flippant that her listeners started--"I have just popped in for a minute to tell you some news. You have always been particular, my dears, that no one except your branch had a right to the name of Joliffe in this town. You can't deny, Maria," she said deprecatingly to the churchwarden's wife, "that you have always held out that you were the real Joliffes, and been a little sore with me and Anstice for calling ourselves by what we thought we had a right to. Well, now there will be one less outside your family to use the name of Joliffe, for Anstice is going to give it up. Somebody has offered to find another name for her." The real Joliffes exchanged glances, and thought of the junior partner in the drapery shop, who had affirmed with an oath that Anastasia Joliffe did as much justice to his goods as any girl in Cullerne; and thought again of the young farmer who was known for certain to let Miss Euphemia have eggs at a penny cheaper than anyone else. "Yes, Anstice is going to change her name, so that will be one grievance the less. And another thing that will make matters straighter between us, Maria: I can promise the little bit of silver shall never go out of the family. You know what I mean--the teapot and the spoons marked with `J' that you've always claimed for yours by right. I shall leave them all back to you when my time comes; Anstice will never want such odds and ends in the station to which she's called now." The real Joliffes looked at each other again, and thought of young Bulteel, who had helped Anastasia with the gas-standards when the minster was decorated at Christmas. Or was it possible that her affected voice and fine lady airs had after all caught Mr Westray, that rather good-looking and interesting young man, on whom both the churchwarden's daughters were not without hopes of making an impression? Miss Joliffe enjoyed their curiosity; she was in a teasing and mischievous mood, to which she had been a stranger for thirty years. "Yes," she said, "I am one that like to own up to it when I make a mistake, and I will state I _have_ made a mistake. I suppose I must take to spectacles; it seems I cannot see things that are going on under my very eyes--no, not even when they are pointed out to me. I've come round to tell you, Maria, one and all, that I was completely mistaken when I told the churchwarden that it was not on Anstice's account that Lord Blandamer has been visiting at Bellevue Lodge. It seems it was just for that he came, and the proof of it is he's going to marry her. In three weeks' time she will be Lady Blandamer, and if you want to say goodbye to her you'd better come back and have tea with me now, for she's packed her box, and is off to London to-morrow. Mrs Howard, who keeps the school in Carisbury where Anstice went in dear Martin's lifetime, will meet her and take charge of her, and get her trousseau. Lord Blandamer has arranged it all, and he is going to marry Anstice and take her for a long tour on the Continent, and I'm sure I don't know where else." It was all true. Lord Blandamer made no secret of the matter, and his engagement to Anastasia, only child of the late Martin Joliffe, Esquire, of Cullerne, was duly announced in the London papers. It was natural that Westray should have known vacillation and misgiving before he made up his mind to offer marriage. It is with a man whose family or position are not strong enough to bear any extra strain, that public opinion plays so large a part in such circumstances. If he marries beneath him he falls to the wife's level, because he has no margin of resource to raise her to his own. With Lord Blandamer it was different: his reliance upon himself was so great, that he seemed to enjoy rather than not, the flinging down of a gauntlet to the public in this marriage. Bellevue Lodge became a centre of attraction. The ladies who had contemned a lodging-house keeper's daughter courted the betrothed of a peer. From themselves they did not disguise the motive for this change, they did not even attempt to find an excuse in public. They simply executed their _volte face_ simultaneously and with most commendable regularity, and felt no more reluctance or shame in the process than a cat feels in following the man who carries its meat. If they were disappointed in not seeing Anastasia herself (for she left for London almost immediately after the engagement was made public), they were in some measure compensated by the extreme readiness of Miss Euphemia to discuss the matter in all its bearings. Each and every detail was conscientiously considered and enlarged upon, from the buttons on Lord Blandamer's boots to the engagement-ring on Anastasia's finger; and Miss Joliffe was never tired of explaining that this last had an emerald--"A very large emerald, my dear, surrounded by diamonds, green and white being the colours of his lordship's shield, what they call the nebuly coat, you know." A variety of wedding gifts found their way to Bellevue Lodge. "Great events, such as marriages and deaths, certainly do call forth the sympathy of our neighbours in a wonderful way," Miss Joliffe said, with all the seriousness of an innocent belief in the general goodness of mankind. "Till Anstice was engaged, I never knew, I am sure, how many friends I had in Cullerne." She showed "the presents" to successive callers, who examined them with the more interest because they had already seen most of them in the shop-windows of Cullerne, and so were able to appreciate the exact monetary outlay with which their acquaintances thought it prudent to conciliate the Fording interest. Every form of useless ugliness was amply represented among them-- vulgarity masqueraded as taste, niggardliness figured as generosity--and if Miss Joliffe was proud of them as she forwarded them from Cullerne, Anastasia was heartily ashamed of them when they reached her in London. "We must let bygones be bygones," said Mrs Parkyn to her husband with truly Christian forbearance, "and if this young man's choice has not fallen exactly where we could have wished, we must remember, after all, that he _is_ Lord Blandamer, and make the best of the lady for his sake. We must give her a present; in your position as Rector you could not afford to be left out. Everyone, I hear, is giving something." "Well, don't let it be anything extravagant," he said, laying down his paper, for his interest was aroused by any question of expense. "A too costly gift would be quite out of place under the circumstances. It should be rather an expression of goodwill to Lord Blandamer than anything of much intrinsic value." "Of course, of course. You may trust me not to do anything foolish. I have my eye on just the thing. There is a beautiful set of four salt-cellars with their spoons at Laverick's, in a case lined with puffed satin. They only cost thirty-three shillings, and look worth at least three pounds." CHAPTER NINETEEN. The wedding was quiet, and there being no newspapers at that time to take such matters for their province, Cullerne curiosity had to be contented with the bare announcement: "At Saint Agatha's-at-Bow, Horatio Sebastian Fynes, Lord Blandamer, to Anastasia, only child of the late Michael Joliffe, of Cullerne Wharfe." Mrs Bulteel had been heard to say that she could not allow dear Lord Blandamer to be married without her being there. Canon Parkyn and Mrs Parkyn felt that their presence also was required _ex-officio_, and Clerk Janaway averred with some redundancies of expletive that he, too, "must see 'em turned off." He hadn't been to London for twenty year. If 'twere to cost a sovereign, why, 'twas a poor heart that never made merry, and he would never live to see another Lord Blandamer married. Yet none of them went, for time and place were not revealed. But Miss Joliffe was there, and on her return to Cullerne she held several receptions at Bellevue Lodge, at which only the wedding and the events connected with it were discussed. She was vested for these functions in a new dress of coffee-coloured silk, and what with a tea-urn hissing in Mr Sharnall's room, and muffins, toast, and sweet-cakes, there were such goings-on in the house, as had not been seen since the last coach rolled away from the old Hand of God thirty years before. The company were very gracious and even affectionate, and Miss Joliffe, in the exhilaration of the occasion, forgot all those cold-shoulderings and askance looks which had grieved her at a certain Dorcas meeting only a few weeks before. At these reunions many important particulars transpired. The wedding had been celebrated early in the morning at the special instance of the bride; only Mrs Howard and Miss Euphemia herself were present. Anstice had worn a travelling dress of dark-green cloth, so that she might go straight from the church to the station. "And, my dears," she said, with a glance of all-embracing benevolence, "she looked a perfect young peeress." The kind and appreciative audience, who had all been expecting and hoping for the past six weeks, that some bolt might fall from the blue to rob Anastasia of her triumph, were so astonished at the wedding having finally taken place that they could not muster a sneer among them. Only lying-and-mischief-making Mrs Flint found courage for a sniff, and muttered something to her next neighbour about there being such things as mock marriages. The honeymoon was much extended. Lord and Lady Blandamer went first to the Italian lakes, and thence, working their way home by Munich, Nuremburg, and the Rhine, travelled by such easy stages that autumn had set in when they reached Paris. There they wintered, and there in the spring was born a son and heir to all the Blandamer estates. The news caused much rejoicing in the domain; and when it was announced that the family were returning to Cullerne, it was decided to celebrate the event by ringing a peal from the tower of Saint Sepulchre's. The proposal originated with Canon Parkyn. "It is a graceful compliment," he said, "to the nobleman to whose munificence the restoration is so largely due. We must show him how much stronger we have made our old tower, eh, Mr Westray? We must get the Carisbury ringers over to teach Cullerne people how such things should be done. Sir George will have to stand out of his fees longer than ever, if he is to wait till the tower tumbles down now. Eh, eh?" "Ah, I do so dote on these old customs," assented his wife. "It is so delightful, a merry peal. I do think these good old customs should always be kept up." It was the cheapness of the entertainment that particularly appealed to her. "But is it necessary, my dear," she demurred, "to bring the ringers over from Carisbury? They are a sad drunken lot. I am sure there must be plenty of young men in Cullerne, who would delight to help ring the bells on such an occasion." But Westray would have none of it. It was true, he said, that the tie-rods were fixed, and the tower that much the stronger; but he could countenance no ringing till the great south-east pier had been properly under-pinned. His remonstrances found little favour. Lord Blandamer would think it so ungracious. Lady Blandamer, to be sure, counted for very little; it was ridiculous, in fact, to think of ringing the minster bells for a landlady's niece, but Lord Blandamer would certainly be offended. "I call that clerk of the works a vain young upstart," Mrs Parkyn said to her husband. "I cannot think how you keep your temper with such a popinjay. I hope you will not allow yourself to be put upon again. You are so sweet-tempered and forbearing, that _everyone_ takes advantage of you." So she stirred him up till he assured her with considerable boldness that he was _not_ a man to be dictated to; the bells _should_ be rung, and he would get Sir George's views to fortify his own. Then Sir George wrote one of those cheery little notes for which he was famous, with a proper admixture of indifferent puns and a classic conceit: that when Gratitude was climbing the temple steps to lay an offering on Hymen's altar, Prudence must wait silent at the base till she came down. Sir George should have been a doctor, his friends said; his manner was always so genial and reassuring. So having turned these happy phrases, and being overwhelmed with the grinding pressure of a great practice, he dismissed the tower of Saint Sepulchre from his mind, and left Rector and ringers to their own devices. Thus on an autumn afternoon there was a sound in Cullerne that few of the inhabitants had ever heard, and the little town stopped its business to listen to the sweetest peal in all the West Country. How they swung and rung and sung together, the little bells and the great bells, from Beata Maria, the sweet, silver-voiced treble, to Taylor John, the deep-voiced tenor, that the Guild of Merchant Taylors had given three hundred years ago. There was a charm in the air like the singing of innumerable birds; people flung up their windows to listen, people stood in the shop-doors to listen, and the melody went floating away over the salt-marshes, till the fishermen taking up their lobster-pots paused in sheer wonder at a music that they had never heard before. It seemed as if the very bells were glad to break their long repose; they sang together like the morning stars, they shouted together like the sons of God for joy. They remembered the times that were gone, and how they had rung when Abbot Harpingdon was given his red hat, and rung again when Henry defended the Faith by suppressing the Abbey, and again when Mary defended the Faith by restoring the Mass, and again when Queen Bess was given a pair of embroidered gloves as she passed through the Market Place on her way to Fording. They remembered the long counter-change of life and death that had passed under the red roofs at their feet, they remembered innumerable births and marriages and funerals of old time; they sang together like the morning stars, they shouted together like the sons of God for joy, they shouted for joy. The Carisbury ringers came over after all; and Mrs Parkyn bore their advent with less misgiving, in the hope that directly Lord Blandamer heard of the honour that was done him, he would send a handsome donation for the ringers as he had already sent to the workhouse, and the old folk, and the school-children of Cullerne. The ropes and the cage, and the pins and the wheels, had all been carefully overhauled; and when the day came, the ringers stood to their work like men, and rang a full peal of grandsire triples in two hours and fifty-nine minutes. There was a little cask of Bulteel's brightest tenpenny that some magician's arm had conjured up through the well-hole in the belfry floor: and Clerk Janaway, for all he was teetotaler, eyed the foaming pots wistfully as he passed them round after the work was done. "Well," he said, "there weren't no int'rupted peal this time, were there? These here old bells never had a finer set of ringing-men under them, and I lay you never had a finer set of bells above your heads, my lads; now did 'ee? I've heard the bells swung many a time in Carisbury tower, and heard 'em when the Queen was set upon her throne, but, lor'! they arn't so deep-like nor yet so sweet as this here old ring. Perhaps they've grow'd the sweeter for lying by a bit, like port in the cellars of the Blandamer Arms, though I've heard Dr Ennefer say some of it was turned so like sherry, that no man living couldn't tell the difference." Westray had bowed like loyal subaltern to the verdict of his Chief. Sir George's decision that the bells might safely be rung lifted the responsibility from the young man's shoulders, but not the anxiety from his mind. He never left the church while the peal was ringing. First he was in the bell-chamber steadying himself by the beams of the cage, while he marked the wide-mouthed bells now open heavenwards, now turn back with a rush into the darkness below. Then he crept deafened with the clangour down the stairs into the belfry, and sat on the sill of a window watching the ringers rise and fall at their work. He felt the tower sway restlessly under the stress of the swinging metal, but there was nothing unusual in the motion; there was no falling of mortar, nothing to attract any special attention. Then he went down into the church, and up again into the organ-loft, whence he could see the wide bow of that late Norman arch which spanned the south transept. Above the arch ran up into the lantern the old fissure, zigzag like a baleful lightning-flash, that had given him so much anxiety. The day was overcast, and heavy masses of cloud drifting across the sky darkened the church. But where the shadows hung heaviest, under a stone gallery passage that ran round the inside of the lantern, could be traced one of those heavy tie-rods with which the tower had recently been strengthened. Westray was glad to think that the ties were there; he hoped that they might indeed support the strain which this bell-ringing was bringing on the tower; he hoped that Sir George was right, and that he, Westray, was wrong. Yet he had pasted a strip of paper across the crack, so that by tearing it might give warning if any serious movement were taking place. As he leant over the screen of the organ-loft, he thought of that afternoon when he had first seen signs of the arch moving, of that afternoon when the organist was playing "Sharnall in D flat." How much had happened since then! He thought of that scene which had happened in this very loft, of Sharnall's end, of the strange accident that had terminated a sad life on that wild night. What a strange accident it was, what a strange thing that Sharnall should have been haunted by that wandering fancy of a man following him with a hammer, and then have been found in this very loft, with the desperate wound on him that the pedal-note had dealt! How much had happened--his own proposal to Anastasia, his refusal, and now that event for which the bells were ringing! How quickly the scenes changed! What a creature of an hour was he, was every man, in face of these grim walls that had stood enduring, immutable, for generation after generation, for age after age! And then he smiled as he thought that these eternal realities of stone were all created by ephemeral man; that he, ephemeral man, was even now busied with schemes for their support, with anxieties lest they should fall and grind to powder all below. The bells sounded fainter and far off inside the church. As they reached his ears through the heavy stone roof they were more harmonious, all harshness was softened; the _sordino_ of the vaulting produced the effect of a muffled peal. He could hear deep-voiced Taylor John go striding through his singing comrades in the intricacies of the Treble Bob Triples, and yet there was another voice in Westray's ears that made itself heard even above the booming of the tenor bell. It was the cry of the tower arches, the small still voice that had haunted him ever since he had been at Cullerne. "The arch never sleeps," they said--"the arch never sleeps;" and again, "They have bound on us a burden too heavy to be borne; but we are shifting it. The arch never sleeps." The ringers were approaching the end; they had been at their work for near three hours, the 5,040 changes were almost finished. Westray went down from the organ-loft, and as he walked through the church the very last change was rung. Before the hum and mutter had died out of the air, and while the red-faced ringers in the belfry were quaffing their tankards, the architect had made his way to the scaffolding, and stood face to face with the zigzag crack. He looked at it carefully, as a doctor might examine a wound; he thrust his hand like Thomas into the dark fissure. No, there was no change; the paper strip was unbroken, the tie-rods had done their work nobly. Sir George had been quite right after all. And as he looked there was the very faintest noise heard--a whisper, a mutter, a noise so slight that it might have passed a hundred times unnoticed. But to the architect's ear it spoke as loudly as a thunderclap. He knew exactly what it was and whence it came; and looking at the crack, saw that the broad paper strip was torn half-way across. It was a small affair; the paper strip was not quite parted, it was only torn half-way through. Though Westray watched for an hour, no further change took place. The ringers had left the tower, the little town had resumed its business. Clerk Janaway was walking across the church, when he saw the architect leaning against a cross-pole of the scaffolding, on the platform high up under the arch of the south transept. "I'm just a-locking up," he called out. "You've got your own key, sir, no doubt?" Westray gave an almost imperceptible nod. "Well, we haven't brought the tower down this time," the clerk went on. But Westray made no answer; his eyes were fixed on the little half-torn strip of paper, and he had no thought for anything else. A minute later the old man stood beside him on the platform, puffing after the ladders that he had climbed. "No int'rupted peal this time," he said; "we've fair beat the neb'ly coat at last. Lord Blandamer back, and an heir to keep the family going. Looks as if the neb'ly coat was losing a bit of his sting, don't it?" But Westray was moody, and said nothing. "Why what's the matter? You bain't took bad, be you?" "Don't bother me now," the architect said sharply. "I wish to Heaven the peal _had_ been interrupted. I wish your bells had never been rung. Look there"--and he pointed at the strip of paper. The clerk went closer to the crack, and looked hard at the silent witness. "Lor' bless you! that ain't nothing," he said; "'tis only just the jarring of the bells done that. You don't expect a mushet of paper to stand as firm as an anvil-stone, when Taylor John's a-swinging up aloft." "Look you," Westray said; "you were in church this morning. Do you remember the lesson about the prophet sending his servant up to the top of a hill, to look at the sea? The man went up ever so many times and saw nothing. Last he saw a little cloud like a man's hand rising out of the sea, and after that the heaven grew black, and the storm broke. I'm not sure that bit of torn paper isn't the man's hand for this tower." "Don't bother yourself," rejoined the clerk; "the man's hand showed the rain was a-coming, and the rain was just what they wanted. I never can make out why folks twist the Scripture round and make the man's hand into something bad. 'Twas a _good_ thing, so take heart and get home to your victuals; you can't mend that bit of paper for all your staring at it." Westray paid no attention to his remarks, and the old man wished him good-night rather stiffly. "Well," he said, as he turned down the ladder, "I'm off. I've got to be in my garden afore dark, for they're going to seal the leek leaves to-night against the leek-show next week. My grandson took first prize last year, and his old grandad had to put up with eleventh; but I've got half a dozen leeks this season as'll beat any plant that's growed in Cullerne." By the next morning the paper strip was entirely parted. Westray wrote to Sir George, but history only repeated itself; for his Chief again made light of the matter, and gave the young man a strong hint that he was making mountains of molehills, that he was unduly nervous, that his place was to diligently carry out the instructions he had received. Another strip of paper was pasted across the crack, and remained intact. It seemed as if the tower had come to rest again, but Westray's scruples were not so easily allayed this time, and he took measures for pushing forward the under-pinning of the south-east pier with all possible despatch. CHAPTER TWENTY. That inclination or predilection of Westray's for Anastasia, which he had been able to persuade himself was love, had passed away. His peace of mind was now completely restored, and he discounted the humiliation of refusal, by reflecting that the girl's affections must have been already engaged at the time of his proposal. He was ready to admit that Lord Blandamer would in any case have been a formidable competitor, but if they had started for the race at the same time he would have been quite prepared to back his own chances. Against his rival's position and wealth, might surely have been set his own youth, regularity of life, and professional skill; but it was a mere tilting against windmills to try to win a heart that was already another's. Thus disturbing influences were gradually composed, and he was able to devote an undivided attention to his professional work. As the winter evenings set in, he found congenial occupation in an attempt to elucidate the heraldry of the great window at the end of the south transept. He made sketches of the various shields blazoned in it, and with the aid of a county history, and a manual which Dr Ennefer had lent him, succeeded in tracing most of the alliances represented by the various quarterings. These all related to marriages of the Blandamer family, for Van Linge had filled the window with glass to the order of the third Lord Blandamer, and the sea-green and silver of the nebuly coat was many times repeated, beside figuring in chief at the head of the window. In these studies Westray was glad to have Martin Joliffe's papers by him. There was in them a mass of information which bore on the subject of the architect's inquiries, for Martin had taken the published genealogy of the Blandamer family, and elaborated and corrected it by all kinds of investigation as to marriages and collaterals. The story of Martin's delusion, the idea of the doited grey-beard whom the boys called "Old Nebuly," had been so firmly impressed on Westray's mind, that when he first turned over the papers he expected to find in them little more than the hallucinations of a madman. But by degrees he became aware that however disconnected many of Martin's notes might appear, they possessed a good deal of interest, and the coherence which results from a particular object being kept more or less continuously in view. Besides endless genealogies and bits of family history extracted from books, there were recorded all kinds of personal impressions and experiences, which Martin had met with in his journeyings. But in all his researches and expeditions he professed to have but one object--the discovery of his father's name; though what record he hoped to find, or where or how he hoped to find it, whether in document or register or inscription, was nowhere set out. It was evident that the old fancy that he was the rightful owner of Fording, which had been suggested to him in his Oxford days, had taken such hold of his mind that no subsequent experience had been able to dislodge it. Of half his parentage there was no doubt. His mother was that Sophia Flannery who had married Yeoman Joliffe, had painted the famous picture of the flowers and caterpillar, and done many other things less reputable; but over his father hung a veil of obscurity which Martin had tried all his life to lift. Westray had heard those early stories from Clerk Janaway a dozen times, how that when Yeoman Joliffe took Sophia to church she brought him a four-year-old son by a former marriage. By a former _marriage_ Martin had always stoutly maintained, as in duty bound, for any other theory would have dishonoured himself. With his mother's honour he had little concern, for where was the use of defending the memory of a mother who had made shipwreck of her own reputation with soldiers and horse-copers? It was this previous marriage that Martin had tried so hard to establish, tried all the harder because other folk had wagged their heads and said there was no marriage to discover, that Sophia was neither wife nor widow. Towards the end of his notes it seemed as if he had found some clue--had found some clue, or thought that he had found it. In this game of hunt the slipper he had imagined that he was growing "hotter" and "hotter" till death balked him at the finish. Westray recollected Mr Sharnall saying more than once that Martin had been on the brink of solving the riddle when the end overtook him. And Sharnall, too, had he not almost grasped the Will-of-the-wisp when fate tripped _him_ on that windy night? Many thoughts came to Westray's mind as he turned these papers, many memories of others who had turned them before him. He thought of clever, worthless Martin, who had wasted his days on their writing, who had neglected home and family for their sake; he thought of the little organist who had held them in his feverish hands, who had hoped by some dramatic discovery to illumine the dark setting of his own life. And as Westray read, the interest grew with him too, till it absorbed the heraldry of the Blandamer window from which the whole matter had started. He began to comprehend the vision that had possessed Martin, that had so stirred the organist's feelings; he began to think that it was reserved for himself to make the long-sought discovery, and that he had in his own hand the clue to the strangest of romances. One evening as he sat by the fire, with a plan in his hands and a litter of Martin's papers lying on a table at his side, there was a tap at the door, and Miss Joliffe entered. They were still close friends in spite of his leaving Bellevue Lodge. However sorry she had been at the time to lose her lodger, she recognised that the course he had taken was correct, and, indeed, obligatory. She was glad that he had seen his duty in this matter; it would have been quite impossible for any man of ordinary human feelings, to continue to live on in the same house under such circumstances. To have made a bid for Anstice's hand, and to have been refused, was a blow that moved her deepest pity, and she endeavoured in many ways to show her consideration for the victim. Providence had no doubt overruled everything for the best in ordaining that Anstice should refuse Mr Westray, but Miss Joliffe had favoured his suit, and had been sorry at the time that it was not successful. So there existed between them that curious sympathy, which generally exists between a rejected lover and a woman who has done her best to further his proposal. They had since met not unfrequently, and the year which had elapsed had sufficiently blunted the edge of Westray's disappointment, to enable him to talk of the matter with equanimity. He took a sad pleasure in discussing with Miss Joliffe the motives which might have conduced to so inexplicable a refusal, and in considering whether his offer would have been accepted if it had been made a little sooner or in another manner. Nor was the subject in any way distasteful to her, for she felt a reflected glory in the fact of her niece having first refused a thoroughly eligible proposal, and having afterwards accepted one transcendently better. "Forgive me, sir--forgive me, Mr Westray," she corrected herself, remembering that their relation was no longer one of landlady and lodger. "I am sorry to intrude on you so late, but it is difficult to find you in during the day. There is a matter that has been weighing lately on my mind. You have never taken away the picture of the flowers, which you and dear Mr Sharnall purchased of me. I have not hurried in the matter, feeling I should like to see you nicely settled in before it was moved, but now it is time all was set right, so I have brought it over to-night." If her dress was no longer threadbare, it was still of the neatest black, and if she had taken to wearing every day the moss-agate brooch which had formerly been reserved for Sundays, she was still the very same old sweet-tempered, spontaneous, Miss Joliffe as in time past. Westray looked at her with something like affection. "Sit down," he said, offering her a chair; "did you say you had brought the picture with you?" and he scanned her as if he expected to see it produced from her pocket. "Yes," she said; "my maid is bringing it upstairs"--and there was just a suspicion of hesitation on the word "maid," that showed that she was still unaccustomed to the luxury of being waited on. It was with great difficulty that she had been persuaded to accept such an allowance at Anastasia's hands, as would enable her to live on at Bellevue Lodge and keep a single servant; and if it brought her infinite relief to find that Lord Blandamer had paid all Martin's bills within a week of his engagement, such generosity filled her at the same time with a multitude of scruples. Lord Blandamer had wished her to live with them at Fording, but he was far too considerate and appreciative of the situation to insist on this proposal when he saw that such a change would be uncongenial to her. So she remained at Cullerne, and spent her time in receiving with dignity visits from the innumerable friends that she found she now possessed, and in the fullest enjoyment of church services, meetings, parish work, and other privileges. "It is very good of you, Miss Joliffe," Westray said; "it is very kind of you to think of the picture. But," he went on, with a too vivid recollection of the painting, "I know how much you have always prized it, and I could not bear to take it away from Bellevue Lodge. You see, Mr Sharnall, who was part owner with me, is dead; I am only making you a present of half of it, so you must accept that from me as a little token of gratitude for all the kindness you have shown me. You _have_ been very kind to me, you know," he said with a sigh, which was meant to recall Miss Joliffe's friendliness, and his own grief, in the affair of the proposal. Miss Joliffe was quick to take the cue, and her voice was full of sympathy. "Dear Mr Westray, you know how glad I should have been if all could have happened as you wished. Yet we should try to recognise the ordering of Providence in these things, and bear sorrow with meekness. But about the picture, you must let me have my own way this once. There may come a time, and that before very long, when I shall be able to buy it back from you just as we arranged, and then I am sure you will let me have it. But for the present it must be with you, and if anything should happen to me I should wish you to keep it altogether." Westray had meant to insist on her retaining the picture; he would not for a second time submit to be haunted with the gaudy flowers and the green caterpillar. But while she spoke, there fell upon him one of those gusty changes of purpose to which he was peculiarly liable. There came into his mind that strange insistence with which Sharnall had begged him at all hazards to retain possession of the picture. It seemed as if there might be some mysterious influence which had brought Miss Joliffe with it just now, and that he might be playing false to his trust with Sharnall if he sent it back again. So he did not remain obdurate, but said: "Well, if you really wish it, I will keep the picture for a time, and whenever you want it you can take it back again." While he was speaking there was a sound of stumbling on the stairs outside, and a bang as if something heavy had been let drop. "It is that stupid girl again," Miss Joliffe said; "she is always tumbling about. I am sure she has broken more china in the six months she has been with me than was broken before in six years." They went to the door, and as Westray opened it great red-faced and smiling Anne Janaway walked in, bearing the glorious picture of the flowers and caterpillar. "What have you been doing now?" her mistress asked sharply. "Very sorry, mum," said the maid, mingling some indignation with her apology, "this here gurt paint tripped I up. I'm sure I hope I haven't hurt un"--and she planted the picture on the floor against the table. Miss Joliffe scanned the picture with an eye which was trained to detect the very flakiest chip on a saucer, the very faintest scratch upon a teapot. "Dear me, dear me!" she said, "the beautiful frame is ruined; the bottom piece is broken almost clean off." "Oh, come," Westray said in a pacifying tone, while he lifted the picture and laid it flat on the table, "things are not so bad as all that." He saw that the piece which formed the bottom of the frame was indeed detached at both corners and ready to fall away, but he pushed it back into position with his hand till it stuck in its place, and left little damage apparent to a casual observer. "See," he said, "it looks nearly all right. A little glue will quite repair the mischief to-morrow I am sure I wonder how your servant managed to get it up here at all--it is such a weight and size." As a matter of fact, Miss Joliffe herself had helped Ann to carry the picture as far as the Grands Mulets of the last landing. The final ascent she thought could be accomplished in safety by the girl alone, while it would have been derogatory to her new position of an independent lady to appear before Westray carrying the picture herself. "Do not vex yourself," Westray begged; "look, there is a nail in the wall here under the ceiling which will do capitally for hanging it till I can find a better place; the old cord is just the right length." He climbed on a chair and adjusted the picture, standing back as if to admire it, till Miss Joliffe's complacency was fairly restored. Westray was busied that night long after Miss Joliffe had left him, and the hands of the loud-ticking clock on the mantelpiece showed that midnight was near before he had finished his work. Then he sat a little while before the dying fire, thinking much of Mr Sharnall, whom the picture had recalled to his mind, until the blackening embers warned him that it was time to go to bed. He was rising from his chair, when he heard behind him a noise as of something falling, and looking round, saw that the bottom of the picture-frame, which he had temporarily pushed into position, had broken away again of its own weight, and was fallen on the floor. The frame was handsomely wrought with a peculiar interlacing fillet, as he had noticed many times before. It was curious that so poor a picture should have obtained a rich setting, and sometimes he thought that Sophia Flannery must have bought the frame at a sale, and had afterwards daubed the flower-piece to fill it. The room had grown suddenly cold with the chill which dogs the heels of a dying fire on an early winter's night. An icy breath blew in under the door, and made something flutter that lay on the floor close to the broken frame. Westray stooped to pick it up, and found that he had in his hand a piece of folded paper. He felt a curious reluctance in handling it. Those fantastic scruples to which he was so often a prey assailed him. He asked himself had he any right to examine this piece of paper? It might be a letter; he did not know whence it had come, nor whose it was, and he certainly did not wish to be guilty of opening someone else's letter. He even went so far as to put it solemnly on the table, like a skipper on whose deck the phantom whale-boat of the _Flying Dutchman_ has deposited a packet of mails. After a few minutes, however, he appreciated the absurdity of the situation, and with an effort unfolded the mysterious missive. It was a long narrow piece of paper, yellowed with years, and lined with the creases of a generation; and had on it both printed and written characters. He recognised it instantly for a certificate of marriage-- those "marriage lines" on which so often hang both the law and the prophets. There it was with all the little pigeon-holes duly filled in, and set forth how that on "March 15, 1800, at the Church of Saint Medard Within, one Horatio Sebastian Fynes, bachelor, aged twenty-one, son of Horatio Sebastian Fynes, gentleman, was married to one Sophia Flannery, spinster, aged twenty-one, daughter of James Flannery, merchant," with witnesses duly attesting. And underneath an ill-formed straggling hand had added a superscription in ink that was now brown and wasted: "Martin born January 2, 1801, at ten minutes past twelve, night." He laid it on the table and folded it out flat, and knew that he had under his eyes that certificate of the first marriage (of the only true marriage) of Martin's mother, which Martin had longed all his life to see, and had not seen; that patent of legitimacy which Martin thought he had within his grasp when death overtook him, that clue which Sharnall thought that he had within his grasp when death overtook him also. On March 15, 1800, Sophia Flannery was married by special licence to Horatio Sebastian Fynes, gentleman, and on January 2, 1801, at ten minutes past twelve, night, Martin was born. Horatio Sebastian--the names were familiar enough to Westray. Who was this Horatio Sebastian Fynes, son of Horatio Sebastian Fynes, gentleman? It was only a formal question that he asked himself, for he knew the answer very well. This document that he had before him might be no legal proof, but not all the lawyers in Christendom could change his conviction, his intuition, that the "gentleman" Sophia Flannery had married was none other than the octogenarian Lord Blandamer deceased three years ago. There was to his eyes an air of authenticity about that yellowed strip of paper that nothing could upset, and the date of Martin's birth given in the straggling hand at the bottom coincided exactly with his own information. He sat down again in the cold with his elbows on the table and his head between his hands while he took in some of the corollaries of the position. If the old Lord Blandamer had married Sophia Flannery on March 15, 1800, then his second marriage was no marriage at all, for Sophia was living long after that, and there had been no divorce. But if his second marriage was no marriage, then his son, Lord Blandamer, who was drowned in Cullerne Bay, had been illegitimate, and his grandson, Lord Blandamer, who now sat on the throne of Fording, was illegitimate too. And Martin's dream had been true. Selfish, thriftless, idle Martin, whom the boys called "Old Nebuly," had not been mad after all, but had been Lord Blandamer. It all hung on this strip of paper, this bolt fallen from the blue, this message that had come from no one knew where. Whence _had_ it come? Could Miss Joliffe have dropped it? No, that was impossible; she would certainly have told him if she had any information of this kind, for she knew that he had been trying for months to unravel the tangle of Martin's papers. It must have been hidden behind the picture, and have fallen out when the bottom piece of the frame fell. He went to the picture. There was the vase of flaunting, ill-drawn flowers, there was the green caterpillar wriggling on the table-top, but at the bottom was something that he had never seen before. A long narrow margin of another painting was now visible where the frame was broken away; it seemed as if the flower-piece had been painted over some other subject, as if Sophia Flannery had not even been at the pains to take the canvas out, and had only carried her daub up to the edge of the frame. There was no question that the flowers masked some better painting, some portrait, no doubt, for enough was shown at the bottom to enable him to make out a strip of a brown velvet coat, and even one mother-of-pearl button of a brown velvet waistcoat. He stared at the flowers, he held a candle close to them in the hope of being able to trace some outline, to discover something of what lay behind. But the colour had been laid on with no sparing hand, the veil was impenetrable. Even the green caterpillar seemed to mock him, for as he looked at it closely, he saw that Sophia in her wantonness had put some minute touches of colour, which gave its head two eyes and a grinning mouth. He sat down again at the table where the certificate still lay open before him. That entry of Martin's birth must be in the handwriting of Sophia Flannery, of faithless, irresponsible Sophia Flannery, flaunting as her own flowers, mocking as the face of her own caterpillar. There was a dead silence over all, the utter blank silence that falls upon a country town in the early morning hours. Only the loud-ticking clock on the mantelpiece kept telling of time's passage till the carillon of Saint Sepulchre's woke the silence with New Sabbath. It was three o'clock, and the room was deadly cold, but that chill was nothing to the chill that was rising to his own heart. He knew it all now, he said to himself--he knew the secret of Anastasia's marriage, and of Sharnall's death, and of Martin's death. CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. The foreman of the masons at work in the under-pinning of the south-east pier came to see Westray at nine o'clock the next morning. He was anxious that the architect should go down to the church at once, for the workmen, on reaching the tower shortly after daybreak, found traces of a fresh movement which had taken place during the night. But Westray was from home, having left Cullerne for London by the first train. About ten of the same forenoon, the architect was in the shop of a small picture-dealer in Westminster. The canvas of the flowers and caterpillar picture lay on the counter, for the man had just taken it out of the frame. "No," said the dealer, "there is no paper or any kind of lining in the frame--just a simple wood backing, you see. It is unusual to back at all, but it _is_ done now and again"--and he tapped the loose frame all round. "It is an expensive frame, well made, and with good gilding. I shouldn't be surprised if the painting underneath this daub turned out to be quite respectable; they would never put a frame like this on anything that wasn't pretty good." "Do you think you can clean off the top part without damaging the painting underneath?" "Oh dear, yes," the man said; "I've had many harder jobs. You leave it with me for a couple of days, and we'll see what we can make of it." "Couldn't it be done quicker than that?" Westray said. "I'm in rather a hurry. It is difficult for me to get up to London, and I should rather like to be by, when you begin to clean it." "Don't make yourself anxious," the other said; "you can leave it in my hands with perfect confidence. We're quite used to this business." Westray still looked unsatisfied. The dealer gave a glance round the shop. "Well," he said, "things don't seem very busy this morning; if you're in such a hurry, I don't mind just trying a little bit of it now. We'll put it on the table in the back-room. I can see if anyone comes into the shop." "Begin where the face ought to be," Westray said; "let us see whose portrait it is." "No, no," said the dealer; "we won't risk the face yet. Let us try something that doesn't matter much. We shall see how this stuff peels off; that'll give us a guide for the more important part. Here, I'll start with the table-top and caterpillar. There's something queer about that caterpillar, beside the face some joker's fitted it up with. I'm rather shy about the caterpillar. Looks to me as if it was a bit of the real picture left showing through, though I don't very well see how a caterpillar would fit in with a portrait." The dealer passed the nail of his forefinger lightly over the surface of the picture. "It seems as if 'twas sunk. You can feel the edges of this heavy daubing rough all round it." It was as he pointed out; the green caterpillar certainly appeared to form some part of the underlying picture. The man took out a bottle, and with a brush laid some solution on the painting. "You must wait for it to dry. It will blister and frizzle up the surface, then we can rub off the top gently with a cloth, and you'll see what you will see." "The fellow who painted this table-top didn't spare his colours," said the dealer half an hour later, "and that's all the better for us. See, it comes off like a skin"--and he worked away tenderly with a soft flannel. "Well, I'm jiggered," he went on, "if here isn't another caterpillar higher up! No, it ain't a caterpillar; but if it ain't a caterpillar, what is it?" There was indeed another wavy green line, but Westray knew what it was directly he saw it. "Be careful," he said; "they aren't caterpillars at all, but just part of a coat of arms--a kind of bars in an heraldic shield, you know. There will be another shorter green line lower down." It was as he said, and in a minute more there shone out the silver field and the three sea-green bars of the nebuly coat, and below it the motto _Aut Fynes aut finis_, just as it shone in the top light of the Blandamer window. It was the middle bar that Sophia had turned into a caterpillar, and in pure wantonness left showing through, when for her own purposes she had painted out the rest of the picture. Westray's excitement was getting the better of him--he could not keep still; he stood first on one leg and then on another, and drummed on the table with his fingers. The dealer put his hand on the architect's arm. "For God's sake keep quiet!" he said; "don't excite yourself. You needn't think you have found a gold mine. It ain't a ten thousand-guinea Vandyke. We can't see enough yet to say what it is, but I'll bet my life you never get a twenty-pound note for it." But for all Westray's impatience, the afternoon was well advanced before the head of the portrait was approached. There had been so few interruptions, that the dealer felt called upon to extenuate the absence of custom by explaining more than once that it was a very dull season. He was evidently interested in his task, for he worked with a will till the light began to fail. "Never mind," he said; "I will get a lamp; now we have got so far we may as well go a bit further." It was a full-face picture, as they saw a few minutes afterwards. Westray held the lamp, and felt a strange thrill go through him, as he began to make out the youthful and unwrinkled brow. Surely he knew that high forehead--it was Anastasia's, and there was Anastasia's dark wavy hair above it. "Why, it's a woman after all," the dealer said. "No, it isn't; of course, how could it be with a brown velvet coat and waistcoat? It's a young man with curly hair." Westray said nothing; he was too much excited, too much interested to say a word, for two eyes were peering at him through the mist. Then the mist lifted under the dealer's cloth, and the eyes gleamed with a startling brightness. They were light-grey eyes, clear and piercing, that transfixed him and read the very thoughts that he was thinking. Anastasia had vanished. It was Lord Blandamer that looked at him out of the picture. They were Lord Blandamer's eyes, impenetrable and observant as to-day, but with the brightness of youth still in them; and the face, untarnished by middle age, showed that the picture had been painted some years ago. Westray put his elbows on the table and his head between his hands, while he gazed at the face which had thus come back to life. The eyes pursued him, he could not escape from them, he could scarcely spare a glance even for the nebuly coat that was blazoned in the corner. There were questions revolving in his mind for which he found as yet no answer. There was some mystery to which this portrait might be the clue. He was on the eve of some terrible explanation; he remembered all kinds of incidents that seemed connected with this picture, and yet could find no thread on which to string them. Of course, this head must have been painted when Lord Blandamer was young, but how could Sophia Flannery have ever seen it? The picture had only been the flowers and the table-top and caterpillar all through Miss Euphemia's memory, and that covered sixty years. But Lord Blandamer was not more than forty; and as Westray looked at the face he found little differences for which no change from youth to middle age could altogether account. Then he guessed that this was not the Lord Blandamer whom he knew, but an older one--that octogenarian who had died three years ago, that Horatio Sebastian Fynes, gentleman, who had married Sophia Flannery. "It ain't a real first-rater," the dealer said, "but it ain't bad. I shouldn't be surprised if 'twas a Lawrence, and, anyway, it's a sight better than the flowers. Beats me to know how anyone ever came to paint such stuff as them on top of this respectable young man." Westray was back in Cullerne the next evening. In the press of many thoughts he had forgotten to tell his landlady that he was coming, and he stood charing while a maid-of-all-work tried to light the recalcitrant fire. The sticks were few and damp, the newspaper below them was damp, and the damp coal weighed heavily down on top of all, till the thick yellow smoke shied at the chimney, and came curling out under the worsted fringe of the mantelpiece into the chilly room. Westray took this discomfort the more impatiently, in that it was due to his own forgetfulness in having sent no word of his return. "Why in the world isn't the fire lit?" he said sharply. "You must have known I couldn't sit without a fire on a cold evening like this;" and the wind sang dismally in the joints of the windows to emphasise the dreariness of the situation. "It ain't nothing to do with me," answered the red-armed, coal-besmeared hoyden, looking up from her knees; "it's the missus. `He was put out with the coal bill last time,' she says, `and I ain't going to risk lighting up his fire with coal at sixpence a scuttle, and me not knowing whether he's coming back to-night.'" "Well, you might see at any rate that the fire was properly laid," the architect said, as the lighting process gave evident indications of failing for the third time. "I do my best," she said in a larmoyant tone, "but I can't do everything, what with having to cook, and clean, and run up and down stairs with notes, and answer the bell every other minute to lords." "Has Lord Blandamer been here?" asked Westray. "Yes, he came yesterday and twice to-day to see you," she said, "and then he left a note. There 'tis"--and she pointed to the end of the mantelpiece. Westray looked round, and saw an envelope edged in black. He knew the strong, bold hand of the superscription well enough, and in his present mood it sent something like a thrill of horror through him. "You needn't wait," he said quickly to the servant; "it isn't your fault at all about the fire. I'm sure it's going to burn now." The girl rose quickly to her feet, gave an astonished glance at the grate, which was once more enveloped in impotent blackness, and left the room. An hour later, when the light outside was failing, Westray sat in the cold and darkening room. On the table lay open before him Lord Blandamer's letter: "Dear Mr Westray, "I called to see you yesterday, but was unfortunate in finding you absent from home, and so write these lines. There used to hang in your sitting-room at Bellevue Lodge an old picture of flowers which has some interest for my wife. Her affection for it is based on early associations, and not, of course, on any merits of the painting itself. I thought that it belonged to Miss Joliffe, but I find on inquiry from her that she sold it to you some little time ago, and that it is with you now. I do not suppose that you can attach any great value to it, and, indeed, I suspect that you bought it of Miss Joliffe as an act of charity. If this is so, I should be obliged if you would let me know if you are disposed to part with it again, as my wife would like to have it here. "I am sorry to hear of fresh movement in the tower. It would be a bitter thought to me, if the peal that welcomed us back were found to have caused damage to the structure, but I am sure you will know that no expense should be spared to make all really secure as soon as possible. "Very faithfully yours, "Blandamer." Westray was eager, impressionable, still subject to all the exaltations and depressions of youth. Thoughts crowded into his mind with bewildering rapidity; they trod so close upon each other's heels that there was no time to marshal them in order; excitement had dizzied him. Was he called to be the minister of justice? Was he chosen for the scourge of God? Was his the hand that must launch the bolt against the guilty? Discovery had come directly to him. What a piece of circumstantial evidence were these very lines that lay open on the table, dim and illegible in the darkness that filled the room! Yet clear and damning to one who had the clue. This man that ruled at Fording was a pretender, enjoying goods that belonged to others, a shameless evil-doer, who had not stuck at marrying innocent Anastasia Joliffe, if by so stooping he might cover up the traces of his imposture. There was no Lord Blandamer, there was no title; with a breath he could sweep it all away like a house of cards. And was that all? Was there nothing else? Night had fallen. Westray sat alone in the dark, his elbows on the table, his head still between his hands. There was no fire, there was no light, only the faint shimmer of a far-off street lamp brought a perception of the darkness. It was that pale uncertain luminosity that recalled to his mind another night, when the misty moon shone through the clerestory windows of Saint Sepulchre's. He seemed once more to be making his way up the ghostly nave, on past the pillars that stood like gigantic figures in white winding-sheets, on under the great tower arches. Once more he was groping in the utter darkness of the newel stair, once more he came out into the organ-loft, and saw the baleful silver and sea-green of the nebuly coat gleaming in the transept window. And in the corners of the room lurked presences of evil, and a thin pale shadow of Sharnall wrung its hands, and cried to be saved from the man with the hammer. Then the horrible suspicion that had haunted him these last days stared out of the darkness as a fact, and he sprung to his feet in a shiver of cold and lit a candle. An hour, two hours, three hours passed before he had written an answer to the letter that lay before him, and in the interval a fresh vicissitude of mind had befallen him. He, Westray, had been singled out as the instrument of vengeance; the clue was in his hands; his was the mouth that must condemn. Yet he would do nothing underhand, he would take no man unawares; he would tell Lord Blandamer of his discovery, and give him warning before he took any further steps. So he wrote: "My lord," and of the many sheets that were begun and flung away before the letter was finished, two were spoiled because the familiar address "Dear Lord Blandamer" came as it were automatically from Westray's pen. He could no longer bring himself to use those words now, even as a formality, and so he began: "My Lord, "I have just received your note about the picture bought by me of Miss Joliffe. I cannot say whether I should have been willing to part with it under ordinary circumstances. It had no apparent intrinsic value, but for me it was associated with my friend the late Mr Sharnall, organist of Saint Sepulchre's. We shared in its purchase, and it was only on his death that I came into sole possession of it. You will not have forgotten the strange circumstances of his end, and I have not forgotten them either. My friend Mr Sharnall was well-known among his acquaintances to be much interested in this picture. He believed it to be of more importance than appeared, and he expressed himself strongly to that effect in my presence, and once also, I remember, in yours. "But for his untimely death I think he would have long ago made the discovery to which chance has now led me. The flowers prove to be a mere surface painting which concealed what is undoubtedly a portrait of the late Lord Blandamer, and at the back of the canvas were found copies of certain entries in parish registers relating to him. I most earnestly wish that I could end here by making over these things to you, but they seem to me to throw so strange a light on certain past events that I must hold myself responsible for them, and can give them up to no private person. At the same time, I do not feel justified in refusing to let you see picture and papers, if you should wish to do so, and to judge yourself of their importance. I am at the above address, and shall be ready to make an appointment at any time before Monday next, after which date I shall feel compelled to take further steps in this matter." Westray's letter reached Lord Blandamer the next morning. It lay at the bottom of a little heap of correspondence on the breakfast-table, like the last evil lot to leap out of the shaken urn, an Ephedrus, like that Adulterer who at the finish tripped the Conqueror of Troy. He read it at a glance, catching its import rather by intuition than by any slavish following of the written characters. If earth was darkness at the core, and dust and ashes all that is, there was no trace of it in his face. He talked gaily, he fulfilled the duties of a host with all his charm of manner, he sped two guests who were leaving that morning with all his usual courtesy. After that he ordered his horse, and telling Lady Blandamer that he might not be back to lunch, he set out for one of those slow solitary rides on the estate that often seemed congenial to his mood. He rode along by narrow lanes and bridle-paths, not forgetting a kindly greeting to men who touched their hats, or women who dropped a curtsey, but all the while he thought. The letter had sent his memory back to another black day, more than twenty years before, when he had quarrelled with his grandfather. It was in his second year at Oxford, when as an undergraduate he first felt it his duty to set the whole world in order. He held strong views as to the mismanagement of the Fording estates; and as a scholar and man of the world, had thought it weakness to shirk the expression of them. The timber was being neglected, there was no thinning and no planting. The old-fashioned farmhouses were being let fall into disrepair, and then replaced by parsimonious eaveless buildings; the very grazing in the park was let, and fallow-deer and red-deer were jostled by sheep and common mongrel cows. The question of the cows had galled him till he was driven to remonstrate strongly with his grandfather. There had never been much love lost between the pair, and on this occasion the young man found the old man strangely out of sympathy with suggestions of reform. "Thank you," old Lord Blandamer had said; "I have heard all you have to say. You have eased your mind, and now you can go back to Oxford in peace. I have managed Fording for forty years, and feel myself perfectly competent to manage it for forty years more. I don't quite see what concern you have in the matter. What business is it of yours?" "You don't see what concern I have in it," said the reformer impetuously; "you don't know what business it is of mine? Why, damage is being done here that will take a lifetime to repair." A man must be on good terms with his heir not to dislike the idea of making way for him, and the old lord flew into one of those paroxysms of rage which fell upon him more frequently in his later years. "Now, look you," he said; "you need not trouble yourself any more about Fording, nor think you will be so great a sufferer by my mismanagement. It is by no means certain that I shall ever burden you with the place at all." Then the young man was angry in his turn. "Don't threaten me, sir," he said sharply; "I am not a boy any longer to be cowed by rough words, so keep your threats for others. You would disgrace the family and disgrace yourself, if you left the property away from the title." "Make your mind easy," said the other; "the property shall follow the title. Get away, and let me hear no more, or you may find both left away from you." The words were lightly spoken, perhaps in mere petulance at being taken to task by a boy, perhaps in the exasperating pangs of gout; but they had a bitter sound, and sank deep into the heart of youth. The threat of the other possible heirs was new, and yet was not new to him. It seemed as if he had heard something of this before, though he could not remember where; it seemed as if there had always been some ill-defined, intangible suspicion in the air of Fording to make him doubt, since he came to thinking years, whether the title ever really would be his. Lord Blandamer remembered these things well, as he walked his horse through the beech-leaves with Westray's letter in his breast-pocket. He remembered how his grandfather's words had sent him about with a sad face, and how his grandmother had guessed the reason. He wondered how she had guessed it; but she too, perhaps, had heard these threats before, and so came at the cause more easily. Yet when she had forced his confidence she had little comfort to give. He could see her now, a stately woman with cold blue eyes, still handsome, though she was near sixty. "Since we are speaking of this matter," she said with chilling composure, "let us speak openly. I will tell you everything I know, which is nothing. Your grandfather threatened me once, many years ago, as he has threatened you now, and we have never forgotten nor forgiven." She moved herself in her chair, and there came a little flush of red to her cheek. "It was about the time of your father's birth; we had quarrelled before, but this was our first serious quarrel, and the last. Your father was different from me, you know, and from you; he never quarrelled, and he never knew this story. So far as I was concerned I took the responsibility of silence, and it was wisest so." She looked sterner than ever as she went on. "I have never heard or discovered anything more. I am not afraid of your grandfather's intentions. He has a regard for the name, and he means to leave all to you, who have every right, unless, indeed, it may be, a legal right. There is one more thing about which I was anxious long ago. You have heard about a portrait of your grandfather that was stolen from the gallery soon after your father's birth? Suspicion fell upon no one in particular. Of course, the stable door was locked after the horse was gone, and we had a night-watchman at Fording for some time; but little stir was made, and I do not believe your grandfather ever put the matter in the hands of the police. It was a spiteful trick, he said; he would not pay whoever had done it the compliment of taking any trouble to recover the portrait. The picture was of himself; he could have another painted any day. "By whatever means that picture was removed, I have little doubt that your grandfather guessed what had become of it. Does it still exist? Was it stolen? Or did he have it taken away to prevent its being stolen? We must remember that, though we are quite in the dark about these people, there is nothing to prevent their being shown over the house like any other strangers." Then she drew herself up, and folded her hands in her lap, and he saw the great rings flashing on her white fingers. "That is all I know," she finished, "and now let us agree not to mention the subject again, unless one of us should discover anything more. The claim may have lapsed, or may have been compounded, or may never have existed; I think, anyhow, we may feel sure now that no move will be made in your grandfather's lifetime. My advice to you is not to quarrel with him; you had better spend your long vacations away from Fording, and when you leave Oxford you can travel." So the young man went out from Fording, for a wandering that was to prove half as long as that of Israel in the wilderness. He came home for a flying visit at wide intervals, but he kept up a steady correspondence with his grandmother as long as she lived. Only once, and that in the last letter which he ever received from her, did she allude to the old distasteful discussion. "Up to this very day," she wrote, "I have found out nothing; we may still hope that there is nothing to find out." In all those long years he consoled himself by the thought that he was bearing expatriation for the honour of the family, that he was absenting himself so that his grandfather might find the less temptation to drag the nebuly coat in the mire. To make a fetish of family was a tradition with Blandamers, and the heir as he set out on his travels, with the romance of early youth about him, dedicated himself to the nebuly coat, with a vow to "serve and preserve" as faithfully as any ever taken by Templar. Last of all the old lord passed away. He never carried out his threat of disinheritance, but died intestate, and thus the grandson came to his own. The new Lord Blandamer was no longer young when he returned; years of wild travel had hardened his face, and made his heart self-reliant, but he came back as romantic as he went away. For Nature, if she once endows man or woman with romance, gives them so rich a store of it as shall last them, life through, unto the end. In sickness or health, in poverty or riches, through middle age and old age, through loss of hair and loss of teeth, under wrinkled face and gouty limbs, under crow's-feet and double chins, under all the least romantic and most sordid malaisances of life, romance endures to the end. Its price is altogether above rubies; it can never be taken away from those that have it, and those that have it not, can never acquire it for money, nor by the most utter toil--no, nor ever arrive at the very faintest comprehension of it. The new lord had come back to Fording full of splendid purpose. He was tired of wandering; he would marry; he would settle down and enjoy his own; he would seek the good of the people, and make his great estates an example among landowners. And then within three weeks he had learned that there was a pretender to the throne, that in Cullerne there was a visionary who claimed to be the very Lord Blandamer. He had had this wretched man pointed out to him once in the street--a broken-down fellow who was trailing the cognisance of all the Blandamers in the mud, till the very boys called him Old Nebuly. Was he to fight for land, and house, and title, to fight for everything, with a man like that? And yet it might come to fighting, for within a little time he knew that this was the heir who had been the intangible shadow of his grandmother's life and of his own; and that Martin might stumble any day upon the proof that was lacking. And then death set a term to Martin's hopes, and Lord Blandamer was free again. But not for long, for in a little while he heard of an old organist who had taken up Martin's role--a meddlesome busybody who fished in troubled waters, for the trouble's sake. What had such a mean man as this to do with lands, and titles, and coats of arms? And yet this man was talking under his breath in Cullerne of crimes, and clues, and retribution near at hand. And then death put a term to Sharnall's talk, and Lord Blandamer was free again. Free for a longer space, free this time finally for ever; and he married, and marriage set the seal on his security, and the heir was born, and the nebuly coat was safe. But now a new confuter had risen to balk him. Was he fighting with dragon's spawn? Were fresh enemies to spring up from the--The simile did not suit his mood, and he truncated it. Was this young architect, whose very food and wages in Cullerne were being paid for by the money that he, Lord Blandamer, saw fit to spend upon the church, indeed to be the avenger? Was his own creature to turn and rend him? He smiled at the very irony of the thing, and then he brushed aside reflections on the past, and stifled even the beginnings of regret, if, indeed, any existed. He would look at the present, he would understand exactly how matters stood. Lord Blandamer came back to Fording at nightfall, and spent the hour before dinner in his library. He wrote some business letters which could not be postponed, but after dinner read aloud to his wife. He had a pleasant and well-trained voice, and amused Lady Blandamer by reading from the "Ingoldsby Legends," a new series of which had recently appeared. Whilst he read Anastasia worked at some hangings, which had been left unfinished by the last Lady Blandamer. The old lord's wife had gone out very little, but passed her time for the most part with her gardens, and with curious needlework. For years she had been copying some moth-eaten fragments of Stuart tapestry, and at her death left the work still uncompleted. The housekeeper had shown these half-finished things and explained what they were, and Anastasia had asked Lord Blandamer whether it would be agreeable to him that she should go on with them. The idea pleased him, and so she plodded away evening by evening, very carefully and slowly, thinking often of the lonely old lady whose hands had last been busied with the same task. This grandmother of her husband seemed to have been the only relation with whom he had ever been on intimate terms, and Anastasia's interest was quickened by an excellent portrait of her as a young girl by Lawrence, which hung in the long gallery. Could the old lady have revisited for once the scene of her labours, she would have had no reason to be dissatisfied with her successor. Anastasia looked distinguished enough as she sat at her work-frame, with the skeins of coloured silks in her lap and the dark-brown hair waved on her high forehead; and a dress of a rich yellow velvet might have supported the illusion that a portrait of some bygone lady of the Blandamers had stepped down out of its frame. That evening her instinct told her that something was amiss, in spite of all her husband's self-command. Something very annoying must have happened among the grooms, gardeners, gamekeepers, or other dependents; he had been riding about to set the matter straight, and it was no doubt of a nature that he did not care to mention to her. CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. Westray passed a day of painful restlessness. He had laid his hand to a repugnant business, and the burden of it was too heavy for him to bear. He felt the same gnawing anxiety, that is experienced by one whom doctors have sentenced to a lethal operation. One man may bear himself more bravely in such circumstances than another, but by nature every man is a coward; and the knowledge that the hour is approaching, when the surgeon's knife shall introduce him to a final struggle of life and death cannot be done away. So it was with Westray; he had undertaken a task for which he was not strong enough, and only high principle, and a sense of moral responsibility, kept him from panic and flight. He went to the church in the morning, and endeavoured to concentrate attention on his work, but the consciousness of what was before him would not be thrust aside. The foreman-mason saw that his master's thoughts were wandering, and noticed the drawn expression on his face. In the afternoon his restlessness increased, and he wandered listlessly through the streets and narrow entries of the town, till he found himself near nightfall at that place by the banks of the Cull, where the organist had halted on the last evening of his life. He stood leaning over the iron railing, and looked at the soiled river, just as Mr Sharnall had looked. There were the dark-green tresses of duck-weed swaying to and fro in the shallow eddies, there was the sordid collection of broken and worthless objects that lay on the bottom, and he stared at them till the darkness covered them one by one, and only the whiteness of a broken dish still flickered under the water. Then he crept back to his room as if he were a felon, and though he went early to bed, sleep refused to visit him till the day began to break. With daylight he fell into a troubled doze, and dreamt that he was in a witness-box before a crowded court. In the dock stood Lord Blandamer dressed in full peer's robes, and with a coronet on his head. The eyes of all were turned upon him, Westray, with fierce enmity and contempt, and it was he, Westray, that a stern-faced judge was sentencing, as a traducer and lying informer. Then the people in the galleries stamped with their feet and howled against him in their rage; and waking with a start, he knew that it was the postman's sharp knock on the street-door, that had broken his slumber. The letter which he dreaded lay on the table when he came down. He felt an intense reluctance in opening it. He almost wondered that the handwriting was still the same; it was as if he had expected that the characters should be tremulous, or the ink itself blood-red. Lord Blandamer acknowledged Mr Westray's letter with thanks. He should certainly like to see the picture and the family papers of which Mr Westray spoke; would Mr Westray do him the favour of bringing the picture to Fording? He apologised for putting him to so much trouble, but there was another picture in the gallery at Fording, with which it might be interesting to compare the one recently discovered. He would send a carriage to meet any train; Mr Westray would no doubt find it more convenient to spend the night at Fording. There was no expression of surprise, curiosity, indignation or alarm; nothing, in fact, except the utmost courtesy, a little more distant perhaps than usual, but not markedly so. Westray had been unable to conjecture what would be the nature of Lord Blandamer's answer. He had thought of many possibilities, of the impostor's flight, of lavish offers of hush-money, of passionate appeals for mercy, of scornful and indignant denial. But in all his imaginings he had never imagined this. Ever since he had sent his own letter, he had been doubtful of its wisdom, and yet he had not been able to think of any other course that he would have preferred. He knew that the step he had taken in warning the criminal was quixotic, and yet it seemed to him that Lord Blandamer had a certain right to see his own family portrait and papers, before they were used against him. He could not feel sorry that he had given the opportunity, though he had certainly hoped that Lord Blandamer would not avail himself of it. But go to Fording he would not. That, at any rate, no fantastic refinement of fair play could demand of him. He knew his mind at least on this point; he would answer at once, and he got out a sheet of paper for his refusal. It was easy to write the number of his house, and the street, and Cullerne, and the formal "My lord," which he used again for the address. But what then? What reason was he to give for his refusal? He could allege no business appointment or other serious engagement as an obstacle, for he himself had said that he was free for a week, and had offered Lord Blandamer to make an appointment on any day. He himself had offered an interview; to draw back now would be mean and paltry in the extreme. It was true that the more he thought of this meeting the more he shrank from it. But it could not be evaded now. It was, after all, only the easiest part of the task that he had set before him, only a prolusion to the tragedy that he would have to play to a finish. Lord Blandamer deserved, no doubt, all the evil that was to fall on him; but in the meanwhile he, Westray, was incapable of refusing this small favour, asked by a man who was entirely at his mercy. Then he wrote with a shrinking heart, but with yet another fixed purpose, that he would bring the picture to Fording the next day. He preferred not to be met at the station; he would arrive some time during the afternoon, but could only stay an hour at the most, as he had business which would take him on to London the same evening. It was a fine Autumn day on the morrow, and when the morning mists had cleared away, the sun came out with surprising warmth, and dried the dew on the lawns of many-gardened Cullerne. Towards mid-day Westray set forth from his lodgings to go to the station, carrying under his arm the picture, lightly packed in lath, and having in his pocket those papers which had fallen out from the frame. He chose a route through back-streets, and walked quickly, but as he passed Quandrill's, the local maker of guns and fishing-rods, a thought struck him. He stopped and entered the shop. "Good-morning," he said to the gunsmith, who stood behind the counter; "have you any pistols? I want one small enough to carry in the pocket, but yet something more powerful than a toy." Mr Quandrill took off his spectacles. "Ah," he said, tapping the counter with them meditatively. "Let me see. Mr Westray, is it not, the architect at the minster?" "Yes," Westray answered. "I require a pistol for some experiments. It should carry a fairly heavy bullet." "Oh, just so," the man said, with an air of some relief, as Westray's coolness convinced him that he was not contemplating suicide. "Just so, I see; some experiments. Well, in that case, I suppose, you would not require any special facilities for loading again quickly, otherwise I should have recommended one of these," and he took up a weapon from the counter. "They are new-fangled things from America, revolving pistols they call them. You can fire them four times running, you see, as quick as you like," and he snapped the piece to show how well it worked. Westray handled the pistol, and looked at the barrels. "Yes," he said, "that will suit my purpose very well, though it is rather large to carry in the pocket." "Oh, you want it for the pocket," the gunmaker said with renewed surprise in his tone. "Yes; I told you that already. I may have to carry it about with me. Still, I think this will do. Could you kindly load it for me now?" "You are sure it's quite safe," said the gunmaker. "I ought to ask _you_ that," Westray rejoined with a smile. "Do you mean it may go off accidentally in my pocket?" "Oh no, it's safe enough that way," said the gunmaker. "It won't go off unless you pull the trigger." And he loaded the four barrels, measuring out the powder and shot carefully, and ramming in the wads. "You'll be wanting more powder and shot than this, I suppose," he said. "Very likely," rejoined the architect, "but I can call for that later." He found a heavy country fly waiting for him at Lytchett, the little wayside station which was sometimes used by people going to Fording. It is a seven-mile drive from the station to the house, but he was so occupied in his own reflections, that he was conscious of nothing till the carriage pulled up at the entrance of the park. Here he stopped for a moment while the lodge-keeper was unfastening the bolt, and remembered afterwards that he had noticed the elaborate iron-work, and the nebuly coat which was set over the great gates. He was in the long avenue now, and he wished it had been longer, he wished that it might never end; and then the fly stopped again, and Lord Blandamer on horseback was speaking to him through the carriage window. There was a second's pause, while the two men looked each other directly in the eyes, and in that look all doubt on either side was ended. Westray felt as if he had received a staggering blow as he came face to face with naked truth, and Lord Blandamer read Westray's thoughts, and knew the extent of his discovery. Lord Blandamer was the first to speak. "I am glad to see you again," he said with perfect courtesy, "and am very much obliged to you for taking this trouble in bringing the picture." And he glanced at the crate that Westray was steadying with his hand on the opposite seat. "I only regret that you would not let me send a carriage to Lytchett." "Thank you," said the architect; "on the present occasion I preferred to be entirely independent." His words were cold, and were meant to be cold, and yet as he looked at the other's gentle bearing, and the grave face in which sadness was a charm; he felt constrained to abate in part the effect of his own remark, and added somewhat awkwardly: "You see, I was uncertain about the trains." "I am riding back across the grass," Lord Blandamer said, "but shall be at the house before you;" and as he galloped off, Westray knew that he rode exceedingly well. This meeting, he guessed, had been contrived to avoid the embarrassment of a more formal beginning. It was obvious that their terms of former friendship could no longer be maintained. Nothing would have induced him to have shaken hands, and this Lord Blandamer must have known. As Westray stepped into the hall through Inigo Jones' Ionic portico, Lord Blandamer entered from a side-door. "You must be cold after your long drive. Will you not take a biscuit and a glass of wine?" Westray motioned away the refreshment which a footman offered him. "No, thank you," he said; "I will not take anything." It was impossible for him to eat or drink in this house, and yet again he softened his words by adding: "I had something to eat on the way." The architect's refusal was not lost upon Lord Blandamer. He had known before he spoke that his offer would not be accepted. "I am afraid it is useless to ask you to stop the night with us," he said; and Westray had his rejoinder ready: "No; I must leave Lytchett by the seven five train. I have ordered the fly to wait." He had named the last train available for London, and Lord Blandamer saw that his visitor had so arranged matters, that the interview could not be prolonged for more than an hour. "Of course, you _could_ catch the night-mail at Cullerne Road," he said. "It is a very long drive, but I sometimes go that way to London myself." His words called suddenly to Westray's recollection that night walk when the station lights of Cullerne Road were seen dimly through the fog, and the station-master's story that Lord Blandamer had travelled by the mail on the night of poor Sharnall's death. He said nothing, but felt his resolution strengthened. "The gallery will be the most convenient place, perhaps, to unpack the picture," Lord Blandamer said; and Westray at once assented, gathering from the other's manner that this would be a spot where no interruption need be feared. They went up some wide and shallow stairs, preceded by a footman, who carried the picture. "You need not wait," Lord Blandamer said to the man; "we can unpack it ourselves." When the wrappings were taken off, they stood the painting on the narrow shelf formed by the top of the wainscot which lined the gallery, and from the canvas the old lord surveyed them with penetrating light-grey eyes, exactly like the eyes of the grandson who stood before him. Lord Blandamer stepped back a little, and took a long look at the face of this man, who had been the terror of his childhood, who had darkened his middle life, who seemed now to have returned from the grave to ruin him. He knew himself to be in a desperate pass. Here he must make the last stand, for the issue lay between him and Westray. No one else had learned the secret. He understood and relied implicitly on Westray's fantastic sense of honour. Westray had written that he would "take no steps" till the ensuing Monday, and Lord Blandamer was sure that no one would be told before that day, and that no one had been told yet. If Westray could be silenced all was saved; if Westray spoke, all was lost. If it had been a question of weapons, or of bodily strength, there was no doubt which way the struggle would have ended. Westray knew this well now, and felt heartily ashamed of the pistol that was bulging the breast-pocket on the inside of his coat. If it had been a question of physical attack, he knew now that he would have never been given time, or opportunity for making use of his weapon. Lord Blandamer had travelled north and south, east and west; he had seen and done strange things; he had stood for his life in struggles whence only one could come out alive; but here was no question of flesh and blood--he had to face principles, those very principles on which he relied for respite; he had to face that integrity of Westray which made persuasion or bribery alike impossible. He had never seen this picture before, and he looked at it intently for some minutes; but his attention was all the while concentrated on the man who stood beside him. This was his last chance--he could afford to make no mistake; and his soul, or whatever that thing may be called which is certainly not the body, was closing with Westray's soul in a desperate struggle for mastery. Westray was not seeing the picture for the first time, and after one glance he stood aloof. The interview was becoming even more painful than he had expected. He avoided looking Lord Blandamer in the face, yet presently, at a slight movement, turned and met his eye. "Yes, it is my grandfather," said the other. There was nothing in the words, and yet it seemed to Westray as if some terrible confidence was being thrust upon him against his will; as if Lord Blandamer had abandoned any attempt to mislead, and was tacitly avowing all that might be charged against him. The architect began to feel that he was now regarded as a personal enemy, though he had never so considered himself. It was true that picture and papers had fallen into his hands, but he knew that a sense of duty was the only motive of any action that he might be taking. "You promised, I think, to show me some papers," Lord Blandamer said. Most painfully Westray handed them over; his knowledge of their contents made it seem that he was offering a deliberate insult. He wished fervently that he never had made any proposal for this meeting; he ought to have given everything to the proper authorities, and have let the blow fall as it would. Such an interview could only end in bitterness: its present result was that here in Lord Blandamer's own house, he, Westray, was presenting him with proofs of his father's illegitimacy, with proofs that he had no right to this house--no, nor to anything else. It was a bitter moment for Lord Blandamer to find such information in the possession of a younger man; but, if there was more colour in his face than usual, his self-command stood the test, and he thrust resentment aside. There was no time to say or do useless things, there was no time for feeling; all his attention must be concentrated on the man before him. He stood still, seeming to examine the papers closely, and, as a matter of fact, he did take note of the name, the place, and the date, that so many careful searchings had failed ever to find. But all the while he was resolutely considering the next move, and giving Westray time to think and feel. When he looked up, their eyes met again, and this time it was Westray that coloured. "I suppose you have verified these certificates?" Lord Blandamer asked very quietly. "Yes," Westray said, and Lord Blandamer gave them back to him without a word, and walked slowly away down the gallery. Westray crushed the papers into his pocket where most of the room was taken up by the pistol; he was glad to get them out of his sight; he could not bear to hold them. It was as if a beaten fighter had given up his sword. With these papers Lord Blandamer seemed to resign into his adversary's hands everything of which he stood possessed, his lands, his life, the honour of his house. He made no defence, no denial, no resistance, least of all any appeal. Westray was left master of the situation, and must do whatever he thought fit. This fact was clearer to him now than it had ever been before, the secret was his alone; with him rested the responsibility of making it public. He stood dumb before the picture, from which the old lord looked at him with penetrating eyes. He had nothing to say; he could not go after Lord Blandamer; he wondered whether this was indeed to be the end of the interview, and turned sick at the thought of the next step that must be taken. At the distance of a few yards Lord Blandamer paused, and looked round, and Westray understood that he was being invited, or commanded, to follow. They stopped opposite the portrait of a lady, but it was the frame to which Lord Blandamer called attention by laying his hand on it. "This was my grandmother," he said; "they were companion pictures. They are the same size, the moulding on the frame is the same, an interlacing fillet, and the coat of arms is in the same place. You see?" he added, finding Westray still silent. Westray was obliged to meet his look once more. "I see," he said, most reluctantly. He knew now, that the unusual moulding and the size of the picture that hung in Miss Joliffe's house, must have revealed its identity long ago to the man who stood before him; that during all those visits in which plans for the church had been examined and discussed, Lord Blandamer must have known what lay hid under the flowers, must have known that the green wriggling caterpillar was but a bar of the nebuly coat. Confidences were being forced upon Westray that he could not forget, and could not reveal. He longed to cry out, "For God's sake, do not tell me these things; do not give me this evidence against yourself!" There was another short pause, and then Lord Blandamer turned. He seemed to expect Westray to turn with him, and they walked back over the soft carpet down the gallery in a silence that might be heard. The air was thick with doom; Westray felt as if he were stifling. He had lost mental control, his thoughts were swallowed up in a terrible chaos. Only one reflection stood out, the sense of undivided responsibility. It was not as if he were adding a link, as in duty bound, to a long chain of other evidence: the whole matter was at rest; to set it in motion again would be his sole act, his act alone. There was a refrain ringing in his ears, a verse that he had heard read a few Sundays before in Cullerne Church, "Am I God, to kill and make alive? Am I God, to kill and make alive?" Yet duty commanded him to go forward, and go forward he must, though the result was certain: he would be playing the part of executioner. The man whose fate he must seal was keeping pace with him quietly, step by step. If he could only have a few moments to himself, he might clear his distracted thoughts. He paused before some other picture, feigning to examine it, but Lord Blandamer paused also, and looked at him. He knew Lord Blandamer's eye was upon him, though he refused to return the look. It seemed a mere act of courtesy on Lord Blandamer's part to stop. Mr Westray might be specially interested in some of the pictures, and, if any information was required, it was the part of the host to see that it was forthcoming. Westray stopped again once or twice, but always with the same result. He did not know whether he was looking at portraits or landscapes, though he was vaguely aware that half-way down the gallery, there stood on the floor what seemed to be an unfinished picture, with its face turned to the wall. Except when Westray stopped, Lord Blandamer looked neither to the right nor to the left; he walked with his hands folded lightly behind him, and with his eyes upon the ground, yet did not feign to have his thoughts disengaged. His companion shrank from any attempt to understand or fathom what those thoughts could be, but admired, against his will, the contained and resolute bearing. Westray felt as a child beside a giant, yet had no doubt as to his own duty, or that he was going to do it. But how hard it was! Why had he been so foolish as to meddle with the picture? Why had he read papers that did not belong to him? Why, above all, had he come down to Fording to have his suspicions confirmed? What business was it of his to ferret out these things? He felt all the unutterable aversion of an upright mind for playing the part of a detective; all the sovereign contempt even for such petty meanness as allows one person to examine the handwriting or postmark of letters addressed to another. Yet he knew this thing, and he alone; he could not do away with this horrible knowledge. The end of the gallery was reached; they turned with one accord and paced slowly, silently back, and the time was slipping away fast. It was impossible for Westray to consider anything _now_, but he had taken his decision before he came to Fording; he must go through with it; there was no escape for _him_ any more than for Lord Blandamer. He would keep his word. On Monday, the day he had mentioned, he would speak, and once begun, the matter would pass out of his hands. But how was he to tell this to the man who was walking beside him, and silently waiting for his sentence? He could not leave him in suspense; to do so would be cowardice and cruelty. He must make his intention clear, but how? in what form of words? There was no time to think; already they were repassing that canvas which stood with its face to the wall. The suspense, the impenetrable silence, was telling upon Westray; he tried again to rearrange his thoughts, but they were centred only on Lord Blandamer. How calm he seemed, with his hands folded behind him, and never a finger twitching! What did _he_ mean to do--to fly, or kill himself, or stand his ground and take his trial on a last chance? It would be a celebrated trial. Hateful and inevitable details occurred to Westray's imagination: the crowded, curious court as he saw it in his dream, with Lord Blandamer in the dock, and this last thought sickened him. His own place would be in the witness-box. Incidents that he wished to forget would be recalled, discussed, dwelt on; he would have to search his memory for them, narrate them, swear to them. But this was not all. He would have to give an account of this very afternoon's work. It could not be hushed up. Every servant in the house would know how he had come to Fording with a picture. He heard himself cross-examined as to "this very remarkable interview." What account was he to give of it? What a betrayal of confidence it would be to give _any_ account. Yet he must, and his evidence would be given under the eyes of Lord Blandamer in the dock. Lord Blandamer would be in the dock watching him. It was unbearable, impossible; rather than this he would fly himself, he would use the pistol that bulged his pocket against his own life. Lord Blandamer had noted Westray's nervous movements, his glances to right and left, as though seeking some way of escape; he saw the clenched hands, and the look of distress as they paced to and fro. He knew that each pause before a picture was an attempt to shake him off, but he would not be shaken off; Westray was feeling the grip, and must not have a moment's breathing space. He could tell exactly how the minutes were passing, he knew what to listen for, and could catch the distant sound of the stable clock striking the quarters. They were back at the end of the gallery. There was no time to pace it again; Westray must go now if he was to catch his train. They stopped opposite the old lord's portrait; the silence wrapped Westray round, as the white fog had wrapped him round that night on his way to Cullerne Road. He wanted to speak, but his brain was confused, his throat was dry; he dreaded the sound of his own voice. Lord Blandamer took out his watch. "I have no wish to hurry you, Mr Westray," he said, "but your train leaves Lytchett in little over an hour. It will take you nearly that time to drive to the station. May I help you to repack this picture?" His voice was clear, level, and courteous, as on the day when Westray had first met him at Bellevue Lodge. The silence was broken, and Westray found himself speaking quickly in answer: "You invited me to stay here for the night. I have changed my mind, and will accept your offer, if I may." He hesitated for a moment, and then went on: "I shall be thankful if you will keep the picture and these documents. I see now that I have no business with them." He took the crumpled papers from his pocket, and held them out without looking up. Then silence fell on them again, and Westray's heart stood still; till after a second that seemed an eternity Lord Blandamer took the papers with a short "I thank you," and walked a little way further, to the end of the gallery. The architect leant against the side of a window opposite which he found himself, and, looking out without seeing anything, presently heard Lord Blandamer tell a servant that Mr Westray would stop the night, and that wine was to be brought them in the gallery. In a few minutes the man came back with a decanter on a salver, and Lord Blandamer filled glasses for Westray, and himself. He felt probably that both needed something of the kind, but to the other more was implied. Westray remembered that an hour ago he had refused to eat or drink under this roof. An hour ago--how his mood had changed in that short time! How he had flung duty and principle to the winds! Surely this glass of red wine was a very sacrament of the devil, which made him a partner of iniquity. As he raised the glass to his lips a slanting sunbeam shot through the window, and made the wine glow red as blood. The drinkers paused glass in hand, and glancing up saw the red sun setting behind the trees in the park. Then the old lord's picture caught the evening light, the green bars of the nebuly coat danced before Westray's eyes, till they seemed to live, to be again three wriggling caterpillars, and the penetrating grey eyes looked out from the canvas as if they were watching the enactment of this final scene. Lord Blandamer pledged him in a bumper, and Westray answered without hesitation, for he had given his allegiance, and would have drunk poison in token that there was to be no turning back now. An engagement kept Lady Blandamer from home that evening. Lord Blandamer had intended to accompany her, but afterwards told her that Mr Westray was coming on important business, and so she went alone. Only Lord Blandamer and Westray sat down to dinner, and some subtle change of manner made the architect conscious that for the first time since their acquaintance, his host was treating him as a real equal. Lord Blandamer maintained a flow of easy and interesting conversation, yet never approached the subject of architecture even near enough to seem to be avoiding it. After dinner he took Westray to the library, where he showed him some old books, and used all his art to entertain him and set him at his ease. Westray was soothed for a moment by the other's manner, and did his best to respond to the courtesy shown him; but everything had lost its savour, and he knew that black Care was only waiting for him to be alone, to make herself once more mistress of his being. A wind which had risen after sunset began to blow near bed-time with unusual violence. The sudden gusts struck the library windows till they rattled again, and puffs of smoke came out from the fireplace into the room. "I shall sit up for Lady Blandamer," said the host, "but I dare say you will not be sorry to turn in;" and Westray, looking at his watch, saw that it wanted but ten minutes of midnight. In the hall, and on the staircase, as they went up, the wind blowing with cold rushes made itself felt still more strongly. "It is a wild night," Lord Blandamer said, as he stopped for a moment before a barometer, "but I suspect that there is yet worse to come; the glass has fallen in an extraordinary way. I hope you have left all snug with the tower at Cullerne; this wind will not spare any weak places." "I don't think it should do any mischief at Saint Sepulchre's," Westray answered, half unconsciously. It seemed as though he could not concentrate his thought even upon his work. His bedroom was large, and chilly in spite of a bright fire. He locked the door, and drawing an easy-chair before the hearth, sat a long while in thought. It was the first time in his life that he had with deliberation acted against his convictions, and there followed the reaction and remorse inseparable from such conditions. Is there any depression so deep as this? is there any night so dark as this first eclipse of the soul, this _first_ conscious stilling of the instinct for right? He had conspired to obscure truth, he had made himself partaker in another man's wrong-doing, and, as the result, he had lost his moral foothold, his self-respect, his self-reliance. It was true that, even if he could, he would not have changed his decision now, yet the weight of a guilty secret, that he must keep all his life long, pressed heavily upon him. Something must be done to lighten this weight; he must take some action that would ease the galling of his thoughts. He was in that broken mood for which the Middle Ages offered the cloister as a remedy; he felt the urgent need of sacrifice and abnegation to purge him. And then he knew the sacrifice that he must make: he must give up his work at Cullerne. He was thankful to find that there was still enough of conscience left to him to tell him this. He could not any longer be occupied on work for which the money was being found by this man. He would give up his post at Cullerne, even if it meant giving up his connection with his employers, even if it meant the giving up of his livelihood. He felt as if England itself were not large enough to hold him and Lord Blandamer. He must never more see the associate of his guilt; he dreaded meeting his eyes again, lest the other's will should constrain his will to further wrong. He would write to resign his work the very next day; that would be an active sacrifice, a definite mark from which he might begin a painful retracing of the way, a turning-point from which he might hope in time to recover some measure of self-respect and peace of mind. He would resign his work at Cullerne the very next day; and then a wilder gust of wind buffeted the windows of his room, and he thought of the scaffolding on Saint Sepulchre's tower. What a terrible night it was! Would the thin bows of the tower arches live through such a night, with the weight of the great tower rocking over them? No, he could not resign to-morrow. It would be deserting his post. He must stand by till the tower was safe, _that_ was his first duty. After that he would give up his post at once. Later on he went to bed, and in those dark watches of the night, that are not kept by reason, there swept over him thoughts wilder than the wind outside. He had made himself sponsor for Lord Blandamer, he had assumed the burden of the other's crime. It was he that was branded with the mark of Cain, and he must hide it in silence from the eyes of all men. He must fly from Cullerne, and walk alone with his burden for the rest of his life, a scapegoat in the isolation of the wilderness. In sleep the terror that walketh in darkness brooded heavily on him. He was in the church of Saint Sepulchre, and blood dripped on him from the organ-loft. Then as he looked up to find out whence it came he saw the four tower arches falling to grind him to powder, and leapt up in his bed, and struck a light to make sure that there were no red patches on him. With daylight he grew calmer. The wild visions vanished, but the cold facts remained: he was sunk in his own esteem, he had forced himself into an evil secret which was no concern of his, and now he must keep it for ever. Westray found Lady Blandamer in the breakfast-room. Lord Blandamer had met her in the hall on her return the night before, and though he was pale, she knew before he had spoken half a dozen words, that the cloud of anxiety which had hung heavily on him for the last few days was past. He told her that Mr Westray had come over on business, and, in view of the storm that was raging, had been persuaded to remain for the night. The architect had brought with him a picture which he had accidentally come across, a portrait of the old Lord Blandamer which had been missing for many years from Fording. It was very satisfactory that it had been recovered; they were under a great obligation to Mr Westray for the trouble which he had taken in the matter. In the events of the preceding days Westray had almost forgotten Lady Blandamer's existence, and since the discovery of the picture, if her image presented itself to his mind, it had been as that of a deeply wronged and suffering woman. But this morning she appeared with a look of radiant content that amazed him, and made him shudder as he thought how near he had been only a day before to plunging her into the abyss. The more careful nurture of the year that had passed since her marriage, had added softness to her face and figure, without detracting from the refinement of expression that had always marked her. He knew that she was in her own place, and wondered now that the distinction of her manner had not led him sooner to the truth of her birth. She looked pleased to meet him, and shook hands with a frank smile that acknowledged their former relations, without any trace of embarrassment. It seemed incredible that she should ever have brought him up his meals and letters. She made a polite reference to his having restored to them an interesting family picture, and finding him unexpectedly embarrassed, changed the subject by asking him what he thought of her own portrait. "I think you must have seen it yesterday," she went on, as he appeared not to understand. "It has only just come home, and is standing on the floor in the long gallery." Lord Blandamer glanced at the architect, and answered for him that Mr Westray had not seen it. Then he explained with a composure that shed a calm through the room: "It was turned to the wall. It is a pity to show it unhung, and without a frame. We must get it framed at once, and decide on a position for it. I think we shall have to shift several paintings in the gallery." He talked of Snyders and Wouverman, and Westray made some show of attention, but could only think of the unframed picture standing on the ground, which had helped to measure the passing of time in the terrible interview of yesterday. He guessed now that Lord Blandamer had himself turned the picture with its face to the wall, and in doing so had deliberately abandoned a weapon that might have served him well in the struggle. Lord Blandamer must have deliberately foregone the aid of recollections such as Anastasia's portrait would have called up in his antagonist's mind. "Non tali auxilio nec defensoribus istis." Westray's haggard air had not escaped his host's notice. The architect looked as if he had spent the night in a haunted room, and Lord Blandamer was not surprised, knowing that the other's scruples had died hard, and were not likely to lie quiet in their graves. He thought it better that the short time which remained before Westray's departure should be spent out of the house, and proposed a stroll in the grounds. The gardener reported, he said, that last night's gale had done considerable damage to the trees. The top of the cedar on the south lawn had been broken short off. Lady Blandamer begged that she might accompany them, and as they walked down the terrace steps into the garden a nurse brought to her the baby heir. "The gale must have been a cyclone," Lord Blandamer said. "It has passed away as suddenly as it arose." The morning was indeed still and sunshiny, and seemed more beautiful by contrast with the turmoil of the previous night. The air was clear and cold after the rain, but paths and lawns were strewn with broken sticks and boughs, and carpeted with prematurely fallen leaves. Lord Blandamer described the improvements that he was making or projecting, and pointed out the old fishponds which were to be restocked, the bowling-green and the ladies' garden arranged on an old-world plan by his grandmother, and maintained unchanged since her death. He had received an immense service from Westray, and he would not accept it ungraciously or make little of it. In taking the architect round the place, in showing this place that his ancestors had possessed for so many generations, in talking of his plans for a future that had only so recently become assured, he was in a manner conveying his thanks, and Westray knew it. Lady Blandamer was concerned for Westray. She saw that he was downcast, and ill at ease, and in her happiness that the cloud had passed from her husband, she wanted everyone to be happy with her. So, as they were returning to the house, she began, in the kindness of her heart, to talk of Cullerne Minster. She had a great longing, she said, to see the old church again. She should so much enjoy it if Mr Westray would some day show her over it. Would he take much longer in the restorations? They were in an alley too narrow for three to walk abreast. Lord Blandamer had fallen behind, but was within earshot. Westray answered quickly, without knowing what he was going to say. He was not sure about the restorations--that was, they certainly were not finished; in fact, they would take some time longer, but he would not be there, he believed, to superintend them. That was to say, he was giving up his present appointment. He broke off, and Lady Blandamer knew that she had again selected an unfortunate subject. She dropped it, and hoped he would let them know when he was next at leisure, and come for a longer visit. "I am afraid it will not be in my power to do so," Westray said; and then, feeling that he had given a curt and ungracious answer to a kindly-meant invitation, turned to her and explained with unmistakable sincerity that he was giving up his connection with Farquhar and Farquhar. This subject also was not to be pursued, so she only said that she was sorry, and her eyes confirmed her words. Lord Blandamer was pained at what he had heard. He knew Farquhar and Farquhar, and knew something of Westray's position and prospects--that he had a reasonable income, and a promising future with the firm. This resolve must be quite sudden, a result of yesterday's interview. Westray was being driven out into the wilderness like a scapegoat with another man's guilt on his head. The architect was young and inexperienced. Lord Blandamer wished he could talk with him quietly. He understood that Westray might find it impossible to go on with the restoration at Cullerne, where all was being done at Lord Blandamer's expense. But why sever his connection with a leading firm? Why not plead ill-health, nervous breakdown, those doctor's orders which have opened a way of escape from impasses of the mind as well as of the body? An archaeologic tour in Spain, a yachting cruise in the Mediterranean, a winter in Egypt--all these things would be to Westray's taste; the blameless herb nepenthe might anywhere be found growing by the wayside. He must amuse himself, and forget. He wished he could _assure_ Westray that he would forget, or grow used to remembering; that time heals wounds of conscience as surely as it heals heart-wounds and flesh-wounds; that remorse is the least permanent of sentiments. But then Westray might not yet wish to forget. He had run full counter to his principles. It might be that he was resolved to take the consequences, and wear them like a hair-shirt, as the only means of recovering his self-esteem. No; whatever penance, voluntary or involuntary, Westray might undergo, Lord Blandamer could only look on in silence. His object had been gained. If Westray felt it necessary to pay the price, he must be let pay it. Lord Blandamer could neither inquire nor remonstrate. He could offer no compensation, because no compensation would be accepted. The little party were nearing the house when a servant met them. "There is a man come over from Cullerne, my lord," he said. "He is anxious to see Mr Westray at once on important business." "Show him into my sitting-room, and say that Mr Westray will be with him immediately." Westray met Lord Blandamer in the hall a few minutes later. "I am sorry to say there is bad news from Cullerne," the architect said hurriedly. "Last night's gale has strained and shaken the tower severely. A very serious movement is taking place. I must get back at once." "Do, by all means. A carriage is at the door. You can catch the train at Lytchett, and be in Cullerne by mid-day." The episode was a relief to Lord Blandamer. The architect's attention was evidently absorbed in the tower. It might be that he had already found the blameless herb growing by the wayside. The nebuly coat shone on the panel of the carriage-door. Lady Blandamer had noticed that her husband had been paying Westray special attention. He was invariably courteous, but he had treated this guest as he treated few others. Yet now, at the last moment, he had fallen silent; he was standing, she fancied, aloof. He held his hands behind him, and the attitude seemed to her to have some significance. But on Lord Blandamer's part it was a mark of consideration. There had been no shaking of hands up to the present; he was anxious not to force Westray to take his hand by offering it before his wife and the servants. Lady Blandamer felt that there was something going on which she did not understand, but she took leave of Westray with special kindness. She did not directly mention the picture, but said how much they were obliged to him, and glanced for confirmation at Lord Blandamer. He looked at Westray, and said with deliberation: "I trust Mr Westray knows how fully I appreciate his generosity and courtesy." There was a moment's pause, and then Westray offered his hand. Lord Blandamer shook it cordially, and their eyes met for the last time. CHAPTER TWENTY THREE. On the afternoon of the same day Lord Blandamer was himself in Cullerne. He went to the office of Mr Martelet, solicitor by prescriptive right to the family at Fording, and spent an hour closeted with the principal. The house which the solicitor used for offices, was a derelict residence at the bottom of the town. It still had in front of it an extinguisher for links, and a lamp-bracket over the door of wasted iron scroll-work. It was a dingy place, but Mr Martelet had a famous county connection, and rumour said that more important family business was done here even than in Carisbury itself. Lord Blandamer sat behind the dusty windows. "I think I quite understand the nature of the codicil," the solicitor said. "I will have a draft forwarded to your lordship to-morrow." "No, no; it is short enough. Let us finish with it now," said his client. "There is no time like the present. It can be witnessed here. Your head clerk is discreet, is he not?" "Mr Simpkin has been with me thirty years," the solicitor said deprecatingly, "and I have had no reason to doubt his discretion hitherto." The sun was low when Lord Blandamer left Mr Martelet's office. He walked down the winding street that led to the market-place, with his long shadow going before him on the pavement. Above the houses in the near distance stood up the great tower of Saint Sepulchre's, pink-red in the sunset rays. What a dying place was Cullerne! How empty were the streets! The streets were certainly strangely empty. He had never seen them so deserted. There was a silence of the grave over all. He took out his watch. The little place is gone to tea, he thought, and walked on with a light heart, and more at his ease than he had ever felt before in his life. He came round a bend in the street, and suddenly saw a great crowd before him, between him and the market-place over which the minster church watched, and knew that something must be happening, that had drawn the people from the other parts of the town. As he came nearer it seemed as if the whole population was there collected. Conspicuous was pompous Canon Parkyn, and by him stood Mrs Parkyn, and tall and sloping-shouldered Mr Noot. The sleek dissenting minister was there, and the jovial, round-faced Catholic priest. There stood Joliffe, the pork-butcher, in shirt-sleeves and white apron in the middle of the road; and there stood Joliffe's wife and daughters, piled up on the steps of the shop, and craning their necks towards the market-place. The postmaster and his clerk and two letter-carriers had come out from the post-office. All the young ladies and young gentlemen from Rose and Storey's establishment were herded in front of their great glittering shop-window, and among them shone the fair curls of Mr Storey, the junior partner, himself. A little lower down was a group of masons and men employed on the restorations, and near them Clerk Janaway leant on his stick. Many of these people Lord Blandamer knew well by sight, and there was beside a great throng of common folk, but none took any notice of him. There was something very strange about the crowd. Everyone was looking towards the market-place, and everyone's face was upturned as if they were watching a flight of birds. The square was empty, and no one attempted to advance further into it; nay, most stood in an alert attitude, as if prepared to run the other way. Yet all remained spellbound, looking up, with their heads turned towards the market-place, over which watched the minster church. There was no shouting, nor laughter, nor chatter; only the agitated murmur of a multitude of people speaking under their breath. The single person that moved was a waggoner. He was trying to get his team and cart up the street, away from the market-place, but made slow progress, for the crowd was too absorbed to give him room. Lord Blandamer spoke to the man, and asked him what was happening. The waggoner stared for a moment as if dazed; then recognised his questioner, and said quickly: "Don't go on, my lord! For God's sake, don't go on; the tower's coming down." Then the spell that bound all the others fell on Lord Blandamer too. His eyes were drawn by an awful attraction to the great tower that watched over the market-place. The buttresses with their broad set-offs, the double belfry windows with their pierced screens and stately Perpendicular tracery, the open battlemented parapet, and clustered groups of soaring pinnacles, shone pink and mellow in the evening sun. They were as fair and wonderful as on that day when Abbot Vinnicomb first looked upon his finished work, and praised God that it was good. But on this still autumn evening there was something terribly amiss with the tower, in spite of all brave appearances. The jackdaws knew it, and whirled in a mad chattering cloud round their old home, with wings flashing and changing in the low sunlight. And on the west side, the side nearest the market-place, there oozed out from a hundred joints a thin white dust that fell down into the churchyard like the spray of some lofty Swiss cascade. It was the very death-sweat of a giant in his agony, the mortar that was being ground out in powder from the courses of collapsing masonry. To Lord Blandamer it seemed like the sand running through an hour-glass. Then the crowd gave a groan like a single man. One of the gargoyles at the corner, under the parapet, a demon figure that had jutted grinning over the churchyard for three centuries, broke loose and fell crashing on to the gravestones below. There was silence for a minute, and then the murmurings of the onlookers began again. Everyone spoke in short, breathless sentences, as though they feared the final crash might come before they could finish. Churchwarden Joliffe, with pauses of expectation, muttered about a "judgment in our midst." The Rector, in Joliffe's pauses, seemed trying to confute him by some reference to "those thirteen upon whom the tower of Siloam fell and slew them." An old charwoman whom Miss Joliffe sometimes employed wrung her hands with an "Ah! poor dear--poor dear!" The Catholic priest was reciting something in a low tone, and crossing himself at intervals. Lord Blandamer, who stood near, caught a word or two of the commendatory prayer for the dying, the "_Proficiscere_," and "_liliata rutilantium_," that showed how Abbot Vinnicomb's tower lived in the hearts of those that abode under its shadow. And all the while the white dust kept pouring out of the side of the wounded fabric; the sands of the hour-glass were running down apace. The foreman of the masons saw Lord Blandamer, and made his way to him. "Last night's gale did it, my lord," he said; "we knew 'twas touch and go when we came this morning. Mr Westray's been up the tower since mid-day to see if there was anything that could be done, but twenty minutes ago he came sharp into the belfry and called to us, `Get out of it, lads--get out quick for your lives; it's all over now.' It's widening out at bottom; you can see how the base wall's moved and forced up the graves on the north side." And he pointed to a shapeless heap of turf and gravestones and churchyard mould against the base of the tower. "Where is Mr Westray?" Lord Blandamer said. "Ask him to speak to me for a minute." He looked round about for the architect; he wondered now that he had not seen him among the crowd. The people standing near had listened to Lord Blandamer's words. They of Cullerne looked on the master of Fording as being almost omnipotent. If he could not command the tower, like Joshua's sun in Ajalon, to stand still forthwith and not fall down, yet he had no doubt some sage scheme to suggest to the architect whereby the great disaster might be averted. Where was the architect? they questioned impatiently. Why was he not at hand when Lord Blandamer wanted him? Where was he? And in a moment Westray's name was on all lips. And just then was heard a voice from the tower, calling out through the louvres of the belfry windows, very clear and distinct for all it was so high up, and for all the chatter of the jackdaws. It was Westray's voice: "I am shut up in the belfry," it called; "the door is jammed. For God's sake! someone bring a crowbar, and break in the door!" There was despair in the words, that sent a thrill of horror through those that heard them. The crowd stared at one another. The foreman-mason wiped the sweat off his brow; he was thinking of his wife and children. Then the Catholic priest stepped out. "I will go," he said; "I have no one depending on me." Lord Blandamer's thoughts had been elsewhere; he woke from his reverie at the priest's words. "Nonsense!" said he; "I am younger than you, and know the staircase. Give me a lever." One of the builder's men handed him a lever with a sheepish air. Lord Blandamer took it, and ran quickly towards the minster. The foreman-mason called after him: "There is only one door open, my lord--a little door by the organ." "Yes, I know the door," Lord Blandamer shouted, as he disappeared round the church. A few minutes later he had forced open the belfry door. He pulled it back towards him, and stood behind it on the steps higher up, leaving the staircase below clear for Westray's escape. The eyes of the two men did not meet, for Lord Blandamer was hidden by the door; but Westray was much overcome as he thanked the other for rescuing him. "Run for your life!" was all Lord Blandamer said; "you are not saved yet." The younger man dashed headlong down the steps, and then Lord Blandamer pushed the door to, and followed with as little haste or excitement as if he had been coming down from one of his many inspections of the restoration work. As Westray ran through the great church, he had to make his way through a heap of mortar and debris that lay upon the pavement. The face of the wall over the south transept arch had come away, and in its fall had broken through the floor into the vaults below. Above his head that baleful old crack, like a black lightning-flash, had widened into a cavernous fissure. The church was full of dread voices, of strange moanings and groanings, as if the spirits of all the monks departed were wailing for the destruction of Abbot Vinnicomb's tower. There was a dull rumbling of rending stone and crashing timbers, but over all the architect heard the cry of the crossing-arches: "The arch never sleeps, never sleeps. They have bound upon us a burden too heavy to be borne; we are shifting it. The arch never sleeps." Outside, the people in the market-place held their breath, and the stream of white dust still poured out of the side of the wounded tower. It was six o'clock; the four quarters sounded, and the hour struck. Before the last stroke had died away Westray ran out across the square, but the people waited to cheer until Lord Blandamer should be safe too. The chimes began "Bermondsey" as clearly and cheerfully as on a thousand other bright and sunny evenings. And then the melody was broken. There was a jangle of sound, a deep groan from Taylor John, and a shrill cry from Beata Maria, a roar as of cannon, a shock as of an earthquake, and a cloud of white dust hid from the spectators the ruin of the fallen tower: EPILOGUE. On the same evening Lieutenant Ennefer, R.N., sailed down Channel in the corvette _Solebay_, bound for the China Station. He was engaged to the second Miss Bulteel, and turned his glass on the old town where his lady dwelt as he passed by. It was then he logged that Cullerne Tower was not to be seen, though the air was clear and the ship but six miles from shore. He rubbed his glass, and called some other officers to verify the absence of the ancient seamark, but all they could make out was a white cloud, that might be smoke or dust or mist hanging over the town. It must be mist, they said; some unusual atmospheric condition must have rendered the tower invisible. It was not for many months afterwards that Lieutenant Ennefer heard of the catastrophe, and when he came up Channel again on his return four years later, there was the old seamark clear once more, whiter a little, but still the same old tower. It had been rebuilt at the sole charge of Lady Blandamer, and in the basement of it was a brass plate to the memory of Horatio Sebastian Fynes, Lord Blandamer, who had lost his own life in that place whilst engaged in the rescue of others. The rebuilding was entrusted to Mr Edward Westray, whom Lord Blandamer, by codicil dictated only a few hours before his death, had left co-trustee with Lady Blandamer, and guardian of the infant heir. 
41617	----	Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they are listed at the end of the text. * * * * * A COMPLETE GUIDE TO HERALDRY PLATE I. [Illustration] THE ROYAL ARMS. A COMPLETE GUIDE TO HERALDRY BY ARTHUR CHARLES FOX-DAVIES OF LINCOLN'S INN, BARRISTER-AT-LAW AUTHOR OF "THE ART OF HERALDRY" EDITOR OF "ARMORIAL FAMILIES," ETC. ETC. ILLUSTRATED BY NINE PLATES IN COLOUR AND NEARLY 800 OTHER DESIGNS, MAINLY FROM DRAWINGS BY GRAHAM JOHNSTON HERALD PAINTER TO THE LYON COURT [Illustration] LONDON T. C. & E. C. JACK 16 HENRIETTA STREET, W.C. AND EDINBURGH 1909 {vii} CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE INTRODUCTION ix I. THE ORIGIN OF ARMORY 1 II. THE STATUS AND THE MEANING OF A COAT OF ARMS IN GREAT BRITAIN 19 III. THE HERALDS AND OFFICERS OF ARMS 27 IV. HERALDIC BRASSES 49 V. THE COMPONENT PARTS OF AN ACHIEVEMENT 57 VI. THE SHIELD 60 VII. THE FIELD OF A SHIELD AND THE HERALDIC TINCTURES 67 VIII. THE RULES OF BLAZON 99 IX. THE SO-CALLED ORDINARIES AND SUB-ORDINARIES 106 X. THE HUMAN FIGURE IN HERALDRY 158 XI. THE HERALDIC LION 172 XII. BEASTS 191 XIII. MONSTERS 218 XIV. BIRDS 233 XV. FISH 253 XVI. REPTILES 257 XVII. INSECTS 260 XVIII. TREES, LEAVES, FRUITS, AND FLOWERS 262 XIX. INANIMATE OBJECTS 281 XX. THE HERALDIC HELMET 303 {viii} XXI. THE CREST 326 XXII. CROWNS AND CORONETS 350 XXIII. CREST CORONETS AND CHAPEAUX 370 XXIV. THE MANTLING OR LAMBREQUIN 383 XXV. THE TORSE OR WREATH 402 XXVI. SUPPORTERS 407 XXVII. THE COMPARTMENT 441 XXVIII. MOTTOES 448 XXIX. BADGES 453 XXX. HERALDIC FLAGS, BANNERS, AND STANDARDS 471 XXXI. MARKS OF CADENCY 477 XXXII. MARKS OF BASTARDY 508 XXXIII. THE MARSHALLING OF ARMS 523 XXXIV. THE ARMORIAL INSIGNIA OF KNIGHTHOOD 561 XXXV. THE ARMORIAL BEARINGS OF A LADY 572 XXXVI. OFFICIAL HERALDIC INSIGNIA 580 XXXVII. AUGMENTATIONS OF HONOUR 589 XXXVIII. ECCLESIASTICAL HERALDRY 600 XXXIX. ARMS OF DOMINION AND SOVEREIGNTY 607 XL. HATCHMENTS 609 XLI. THE UNION JACK 611 XLII. SEIZE-QUARTIERS 618 INDEX 623 {ix} INTRODUCTION Too frequently it is the custom to regard the study of the science of Armory as that of a subject which has passed beyond the limits of practical politics. Heraldry has been termed "the shorthand of History," but nevertheless the study of that shorthand has been approached too often as if it were but the study of a dead language. The result has been that too much faith has been placed in the works of older writers, whose dicta have been accepted as both unquestionably correct at the date they wrote, and, as a consequence, equally binding at the present day. Since the "Boke of St. Albans" was written, into the heraldic portion of which the author managed to compress an unconscionable amount of rubbish, books and treatises on the subject of Armory have issued from the press in a constant succession. A few of them stand a head and shoulders above the remainder. The said remainder have already sunk into oblivion. Such a book as "Guillim" must of necessity rank in the forefront of any armorial bibliography; but any one seeking to judge the Armory of the present day by the standards and ethics adopted by that writer, would find himself making mistake after mistake, and led hopelessly astray. There can be very little doubt that the "Display of Heraldry" is an accurate representation of the laws of Armory which governed the use of Arms at the date the book was written; and it correctly puts forward the opinions which were then accepted concerning the past history of the science. There are two points, however, which must be borne in mind. The first is that the critical desire for accuracy which fortunately seems to have been the keynote of research during the nineteenth century, has produced students of Armory whose investigations into facts have swept away the fables, the myths, and the falsehood which had collected around the ancient science, and which in their preposterous assertions had earned for Armory a ridicule, a contempt, and a disbelief which the science itself, and moreover the active practice of the science, had never at any time warranted or deserved. The desire to gratify the vanity of illustrious patrons rendered the mythical traditions attached to Armory more difficult to explode than in the cases of those other sciences in which no one has a personal interest in {x} upholding the wrong; but a study of the scientific works of bygone days, and the comparison, for example, of a sixteenth or seventeenth century medical book with a similar work of the present day, will show that all scientific knowledge during past centuries was a curious conglomeration of unquestionable fact, interwoven with and partly obscured by a vast amount of false information, which now can either be dismissed as utter rubbish or controverted and disproved on the score of being plausible untruth. Consequently, Armory, no less than medicine, theology, or jurisprudence, should not be lightly esteemed because our predecessors knew less about the subject than is known at the present day, or because they believed implicitly dogma and tradition which we ourselves know to be and accept as exploded. Research and investigation constantly goes on, and every day adds to our knowledge. The second point, which perhaps is the most important, is the patent fact that Heraldry and Armory are not a dead science, but are an actual living reality. Armory may be a quaint survival of a time with different manners and customs, and different ideas from our own, but the word "Finis" has not yet been written to the science, which is still slowly developing and altering and changing as it is suited to the altered manners and customs of the present day. I doubt not that this view will be a startling one to many who look upon Armory as indissolubly associated with parchments and writings already musty with age. But so long as the Sovereign has the power to create a new order of Knighthood, and attach thereto Heraldic insignia, so long as the Crown has the power to create a new coronet, or to order a new ceremonial, so long as new coats of arms are being called into being,--for so long is it idle to treat Armory and Heraldry as a science incapable of further development, or as a science which in recent periods has not altered in its laws. The many mistaken ideas upon Armory, however, are not all due to the two considerations which have been put forward. Many are due to the fact that the hand-books of Armory professing to detail the laws of the science have not always been written by those having complete knowledge of their subject. Some statement appears in a textbook of Armory, it is copied into book after book, and accepted by those who study Armory as being correct; whilst all the time it is absolutely wrong, and has never been accepted or acted upon by the Officers of Arms. One instance will illustrate my meaning. There is scarcely a text-book of Armory which does not lay down the rule, that when a crest issues from a coronet it must not be placed upon a wreath. Now there is no rule whatever upon the subject; and instances are frequent, both in ancient and in modern grants, in which coronets have been granted to be borne upon wreaths; and the wreath should {xi} be inserted or omitted _according to the original grant of the crest_. Consequently, the so-called rule must be expunged. Another fruitful source of error is the effort which has frequently been made to assimilate the laws of Armory prevailing in the three different kingdoms into one single series of rules and regulations. Some writers have even gone so far as to attempt to assimilate with our own the rules and regulations which hold upon the Continent. As a matter of fact, many of the laws of Arms in England and Scotland are radically different; and care needs to be taken to point out these differences. The truest way to ascertain the laws of Armory is by deduction from known facts. Nevertheless, such a practice may lead one astray, for the number of exceptions to any given rule in Armory is always great, and it is sometimes difficult to tell what is the rule, and which are the exceptions. Moreover, the Sovereign, as the fountain of honour, can over-ride any rule or law of Arms; and many exceptional cases which have been governed by specific grants have been accepted in times past as demonstrating the laws of Armory, when they have been no more than instances of exceptional favour on the part of the Crown. In England no one is compelled to bear Arms unless he wishes; but, should he desire to do so, the Inland Revenue requires a payment of one or two guineas, according to the method of use. From this voluntary taxation the yearly revenue exceeds £70,000. This affords pretty clear evidence that Armory is still decidedly popular, and that its use and display are extensive; but at the same time it would be foolish to suppose that the estimation in which Armory is held, is equal to, or approaches, the romantic value which in former days was attached to the inheritance of Arms. The result of this has been--and it is not to be wondered at--that ancient examples are accepted and extolled beyond what should be the case. It should be borne in mind that the very ancient examples of Armory which have come down to us, may be examples of the handicraft of ignorant individuals; and it is not safe to accept unquestioningly laws of Arms which are deduced from Heraldic _handicraft_ of other days. Most of them are correct, because as a rule such handicraft was done under supervision; but there is always the risk that it has not been; and _this risk should be borne in mind_ when estimating the value of any particular example of Armory as proof or contradiction of any particular Armorial law. There were "heraldic stationers" before the present day. A somewhat similar consideration must govern the estimate of the Heraldic art of a former day. To every action we are told there is a reaction; and the reaction of the present day, admirable and commendable as it undoubtedly is, which has taken the art of Armory back to the style in vogue in past centuries, needs to be kept within intelligent {xii} bounds. That the freedom of design and draughtsmanship of the old artists should be copied is desirable; but at the same time there is not the slightest necessity to copy, and to deliberately copy, the crudeness of execution which undoubtedly exists in much of the older work. The revulsion from what has been aptly styled "the die-sinker school of heraldry" has caused some artists to produce Heraldic drawings which (though doubtless modelled upon ancient examples) are grotesque to the last degree, and can be described in no other way. In conclusion, I have to repeat my grateful acknowledgments to the many individuals who assisted me in the preparation of my "Art of Heraldry," upon which this present volume is founded, and whose work I have again made use of. The very copious index herein is entirely the work of my professional clerk, Mr. H. A. Kenward, for which I offer him my thanks. Only those who have had actual experience know the tedious weariness of compiling such an index. A. C. FOX-DAVIES. 23 OLD BUILDINGS, LINCOLN'S INN, W. C. {1} A COMPLETE GUIDE TO HERALDRY CHAPTER I THE ORIGIN OF ARMORY Armory is that science of which the rules and the laws govern the use, display, meaning, and knowledge of the pictured signs and emblems appertaining to shield, helmet, or banner. Heraldry has a wider meaning, for it comprises everything within the duties of a herald; and whilst Armory undoubtedly is Heraldry, the regulation of ceremonials and matters of pedigree, which are really also within the scope of Heraldry, most decidedly are not Armory. "Armory" relates only to the emblems and devices. "Armoury" relates to the weapons themselves as weapons of warfare, or to the place used for the storing of the weapons. But these distinctions of spelling are modern. The word "Arms," like many other words in the English language, has several meanings, and at the present day is used in several senses. It may mean the weapons themselves; it may mean the limbs upon the human body. Even from the heraldic point of view it may mean the entire achievement, but usually it is employed in reference to the device upon the shield only. Of the exact origin of arms and armory nothing whatever is definitely known, and it becomes difficult to point to any particular period as the period covering the origin of armory, for the very simple reason that it is much more difficult to decide what is or is not to be admitted as armorial. {2} Until comparatively recently heraldic books referred armory indifferently to the tribes of Israel, to the Greeks, to the Romans, to the Assyrians and the Saxons; and we are equally familiar with the "Lion of Judah" and the "Eagle of the Cæsars." In other directions we find the same sort of thing, for it has ever been the practice of semi-civilised nations to bestow or to assume the virtues and the names of animals and of deities as symbols of honour. We scarcely need refer to the totems of the North American Indians for proof of such a practice. They have reduced the subject almost to an exact science; and there cannot be the shadow of a doubt that it is to this semi-savage practice that armory is to be traced if its origin is to be followed out to its logical and most remote beginning. Equally is it certain that many recognised heraldic figures, and more particularly those mythical creatures of which the armorial menagerie alone has now cognisance, are due to the art of civilisations older than our own, and the legends of those civilisations which have called these mythical creatures into being. The widest definition of armory would have it that any pictorial badge which is used by an individual or a family with the meaning that it is a badge indicative of that person or family, and adopted and repeatedly used in that sense, is heraldic. If such be your definition, you may ransack the Scriptures for the arms of the tribes of Israel, the writings of the Greek and Roman poets for the decorations of the armour and the persons of their heroes, mythical and actual, and you may annex numberless "heraldic" instances from the art of Nineveh, of Babylon, and of Egypt. Your heraldry is of the beginning and from the beginning. It _is_ fact, but is it heraldry? The statement in the "Boke of St. Albans" that Christ was a gentleman of coat armour is a fable, and due distinction must be had between the fact and the fiction in this as in all other similar cases. Mr. G. W. Eve, in his "Decorative Heraldry," alludes to and illustrates many striking examples of figures of an embryonic type of heraldry, of which the best are one from a Chaldean bas-relief 4000 B. C., the earliest known device that can in any way be called heraldic, and another, a device from a Byzantine silk of the tenth century. Mr. Eve certainly seems inclined to follow the older heraldic writers in giving as wide an interpretation as possible to the word heraldic, but it is significant that none of these early instances which he gives appear to have any relation to a shield, so that, even if it be conceded that the figures are heraldic, they certainly cannot be said to be armorial. But doubtless the inclusion of such instances is due to an attempt, conscious or unconscious, on the part of the writers who have taken their stand on the side of great antiquity to so frame the definition of armory that it shall include everything heraldic, and due perhaps somewhat to the half unconscious {3} reasoning that these mythical animals, and more especially the peculiarly heraldic positions they are depicted in, which nowadays we only know as part of armory, and which exist nowhere else within our knowledge save within the charmed circle of heraldry, must be evidence of the great antiquity of that science or art, call it which you will. But it is a false deduction, due to a confusion of premise and conclusion. We find certain figures at the present day purely heraldic--we find those figures fifty centuries ago. It certainly seems a correct conclusion that, therefore, heraldry must be of that age. But is not the real conclusion, that, our heraldic figures being so old, it is evident that the figures originated long before heraldry was ever thought of, and that instead of these mythical figures having been originated by the necessities of heraldry, and being part, or even the rudimentary origin of heraldry, they had existed _for other reasons and purposes_--and that when the science of heraldry sprang into being, it found the _whole range_ of its forms and charges already existing, and that _none_ of these figures owe their being to heraldry? The gryphon is supposed to have _originated_, as is the double-headed eagle, from the dimidiation of two coats of arms resulting from impalement by reason of marriage. Both these figures were known ages earlier. Thus departs yet another of the little fictions which past writers on armory have fostered and perpetuated. Whether the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians knew they were depicting mythical animals, and did it, intending them to be symbolical of attributes of their deities, something beyond what they were familiar with in their ordinary life, we do not know; nor indeed have we any certain knowledge that there have never been animals of which their figures are but imperfect and crude representations. But it does not necessarily follow that because an Egyptian artist drew a certain figure, which figure is now appropriated to the peculiar use of armory, that he knew anything whatever of the laws of armory. Further, where is this argument to end? There is nothing peculiarly heraldic about the lion passant, statant, dormant, couchant, or salient, and though heraldic artists may for the sake of artistic appearance distort the brute away from his natural figure, the rampant is alone the position which exists not in nature; and if the argument is to be applied to the bitter end, heraldry must be taken back to the very earliest instance which exists of any representation of a lion. The proposition is absurd. The ancient artists drew their lions how they liked, regardless of armory and its laws, which did not then exist; and, from decorative reasons, they evolved a certain number of methods of depicting the positions of _e.g._ the lion and the eagle to suit their decorative purposes. When heraldry came into existence it came in as an adjunct of decoration, and it necessarily followed that the whole of the positions in which the {4} craftsmen found the eagle or the lion depicted were appropriated with the animals for heraldry. That this appropriation for the exclusive purposes of armory has been silently acquiesced in by the decorative artists of later days is simply proof of the intense power and authority which accrued later to armory, and which was in fact attached to anything relating to privilege and prerogative. To put it baldly, the dominating authority of heraldry and its dogmatic protection by the Powers that were, appropriated certain figures to its use, and then defied any one to use them for more humble decorative purposes not allied with armory. And it is the trail of this autocratic appropriation, and from the decorative point of view this arrogant appropriation, which can be traced in the present idea that a griffin or a spread eagle, for example, must be heraldic. Consequently the argument as to the antiquity of heraldry which is founded upon the discovery of the heraldic creature in the remote ages goes by the board. One practical instance may perhaps more fully demonstrate my meaning. There is one figure, probably the most beautiful of all of those which we owe to Egypt, which is now rapidly being absorbed into heraldry. I refer to the Sphinx. This, whilst strangely in keeping with the remaining mythical heraldic figures, for some reason or other escaped the exclusive appropriation of armorial use until within modern times. One of the earliest instances of its use in recognised armory occurs in the grant to Sir John Moore, K.B., the hero of Corunna, and another will be found in the augmentation granted to Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, K.B. Since then it has been used on some number of occasions. It certainly remained, however, for the late Garter King of Arms to evolve from the depths of his imagination a position which no Egyptian sphinx ever occupied, when he granted two of them as supporters to the late Sir Edward Malet, G.C.B. The Sphinx has also been adopted as the badge of one of his Majesty's regiments, and I have very little doubt that now Egypt has come under our control the Sphinx will figure in some number of the grants of the future to commemorate fortunes made in that country, or lifetimes spent in the Egyptian services. If this be so, the dominating influence of armory will doubtless in the course of another century have given to the Sphinx, as it has to many other objects, a distinctly heraldic nature and character in the mind of the "man in the street" to which we nowadays so often refer the arbitrament between conflicting opinions. Perhaps in the even yet more remote future, when the world in general accepts as a fact that armory did not exist at the time of the Norman Conquest, we shall have some interesting and enterprising individual writing a book to demonstrate that because the Sphinx existed in Egypt long before the days of Cleopatra, heraldry must of necessity be equally antique. {5} I have no wish, however, to dismiss thus lightly the subject of the antiquity of heraldry, because there is one side of the question which I have not yet touched upon, and that is, the symbolism of these ancient and so-called heraldic examples. There is no doubt whatever that symbolism forms an integral part of armory; in fact there is no doubt that armory _itself_ as a whole is nothing more or less than a kind of symbolism. I have no sympathy whatever with many of the ideas concerning this symbolism, which will be found in nearly all heraldic books before the day of the late J. R. Planché, Somerset Herald, who fired the train which exploded then and for ever the absurd ideas of former writers. That an argent field meant purity, that a field of gules meant royal or even martial ancestors, that a saltire meant the capture of a city, or a lion rampant noble and enviable qualities, I utterly deny. But that nearly every coat of arms for any one of the name of Fletcher bears upon it in some form or another an arrow or an arrow-head, because the origin of the name comes from the occupation of the fletcher, who was an arrow-maker, is true enough. Symbolism of that kind will be found constantly in armory, as in the case of the foxes and foxes' heads in the various coats of Fox, the lions in the coats of arms of Lyons, the horse in the arms of Trotter, and the acorns in the arms of Oakes; in fact by far the larger proportion of the older coats of arms, where they can be traced to their real origin, exhibit some such derivation. There is another kind of symbolism which formerly, and still, favours the introduction of swords and spears and bombshells into grants of arms to military men, that gives bezants to bankers and those connected with money, and that assigns woolpacks and cotton-plants to the shields of textile merchants; but that is a sane and reasonable symbolism, which the reputed symbolism of the earlier heraldry books was not. It has yet to be demonstrated, however, though the belief is very generally credited, that all these very ancient Egyptian and Assyrian figures of a heraldic character had anything of symbolism about them. But even granting the whole symbolism which is claimed for them, we get but little further. There is no doubt that the eagle from untold ages has had an imperial symbolism which it still possesses. But that symbolism is not necessarily heraldic, and it is much more probable that heraldry appropriated both the eagle and its symbolism ready made, and together: consequently, if, as we have shown, the _existence_ of the eagle is not proof of the coeval existence of heraldry, no more is the existence of the _symbolical_ imperial eagle. For if we are to regard all symbolism as heraldic, where are we either to begin or to end? Church vestments and ecclesiastical emblems are symbolism run riot; in fact they are little else: but by no stretch of imagination can these be {6} considered heraldic with the exception of the few (for example the crosier, the mitre, and the pallium) which heraldry has appropriated ready made. Therefore, though heraldry appropriated ready made from other decorative art, and from nature and handicraft, the whole of its charges, and though it is evident heraldry also appropriated ready made a great deal of its symbolism, neither the earlier existence of the forms which it appropriated, nor the earlier existence of their symbolism, can be said to weigh at all as determining factors in the consideration of the age of heraldry. Sloane Evans in his "Grammar of Heraldry" (p. ix.) gives the following instances as evidence of the greater antiquity, and they are worthy at any rate of attention if the matter is to be impartially considered. "The antiquity of ensigns and symbols may be proved by reference to Holy Writ. "1. 'Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names.... And they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month; and they declared their pedigrees after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward.... And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard, throughout their hosts' (Numbers i. 2, 18, 52). "2. 'Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of their father's house' (Numbers ii. 2). "3. 'And the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses: so they pitched by their standards, and so they set forward, every one after their families, according to the house of their fathers' (Numbers ii. 34)." The Latin and Greek poets and historians afford numerous instances of the use of symbolic ornaments and devices. It will be sufficient in this work to quote from Æschylus and Virgil, as poets; Herodotus and Tacitus, as historians. ÆSCHYLUS. (_Septem contra Thebas._) The poet here introduces a dialogue between Eteocles, King of Thebes, the women who composed the chorus, and a herald ([Greek: kêrux]), which latter is pointing out the seven captains or chiefs of the army of Adrastus against Thebes; distinguishing one from another by the emblematical devices upon their shields. 1. _Tydeus._ ("[Greek: Toiaun autôn,--nuktos ophthalmos prepei]"--Lines 380-386.) "... Frowning he speaks, and shakes The dark crest streaming o'er his shaded helm In triple wave; whilst dreadful ring around The brazen bosses of his shield, impress'd {7} With his proud argument:--'A sable sky Burning with stars; and in the midst full orb'd A silver moon;'--the eye of night o'er all, Awful in beauty, forms her peerless light." 2. _Capaneus._ ("[Greek: Echei de sêma,--PRÊSÔ POLIN]."--Lines 428-430.) "On his proud shield portray'd: 'A naked man Waves in his hand a blazing torch;' beneath In golden letters--'I will fire the city.'" 3. _Eteoclus._ ("[Greek: Eschêmatistai,--purgômatôn]."--Lines 461-465.) "... No mean device Is sculptured on his shield: 'A man in arms, His ladder fix'd against the enemies' walls, Mounts, resolute, to rend their rampires down;' And cries aloud (the letters plainly mark'd), 'Not Mars himself shall beat me from the Tow'rs.'" 4. _Hippomedon._ ("[Greek: Ho sêmatourgos--phobon blepôn;]"--Lines 487-494.) "... On its orb, no vulgar artist Expressed this image: 'A Typhæus huge, Disgorging from his foul enfounder'd jaws, In fierce effusion wreaths of dusky smoke. Signal of kindling flames; its bending verge With folds of twisted serpents border'd round.' With shouts the giant chief provokes the war, And in the ravings of outrageous valour Glares terror from his eyes ..." 5. _Parthenopæus._ ("[Greek: Hon mên akompastos--hiaptesthai Belê;]"--Lines 534-540.) "... Upon his clashing shield, Whose orb sustains the storm of war, he bears The foul disgrace of Thebes:--'A rav'nous Sphynx Fixed to the plates: the burnish'd monster round Pours a portentous gleam: beneath her lies A Theban mangled by her cruel fangs:'-- 'Gainst this let each brave arm direct the spear." 6. _Amphiaraus._ ("[Greek: Toiauth ho mantis,--blastanei bouleumata]."--Lines 587-591.) "So spoke the prophet; and with awful port Advanc'd his massy shield, the shining orb Bearing no impress, for his gen'rous soul Wishes to be, not to appear, the best; And from the culture of his modest worth Bears the rich fruit of great and glorious deeds." {8} 7. _Polynices._ ("[Greek: Echei de--ta xeurêmata.]"--Lines 639-646.) "... His well-orb'd shield he holds, New wrought, and with a double impress charg'd: A warrior, blazing all in golden arms, A female form of modest aspect leads, Expressing justice, as th' inscription speaks, 'Yet once more to his country, and once more To his Paternal Throne I will restore him'-- Such their devices ..." VIRGIL. (_The Æneid._) 1. ("Atque hic exultans--insigne decorum."--Lib. ii. lines 386-392.) "Choræbus, with youthful hopes beguil'd, Swol'n with success, and of a daring mind, This new invention fatally design'd. 'My friends,' said he, 'since fortune shows the way, 'Tis fit we should the auspicious guide obey. For what has she these Grecian arms bestowed, But their destruction, and the Trojans' good? Then change we shields, and their devices bear: Let fraud supply the want of force in war. They find us arms.'--This said, himself he dress'd In dead Androgeos' spoils, his upper vest, His painted buckler, and his plumy crest." 2. ("Post hos insignem--serpentibus hydram."--Lib. vii. lines 655-658.) "Next Aventinus drives his chariot round The Latian plains, with palms and laurels crown'd. Proud of his steeds, he smokes along the field; His father's hydra fills his ample shield; A hundred serpents hiss about the brims; The son of Hercules he justly seems, By his broad shoulders and gigantic limbs." 3. ("Sequitur pulcherrimus Astur--insigne paternæ."--Lib. x. lines 180-188.) "Fair Astur follows in the wat'ry field, Proud of his manag'd horse, and painted shield. Thou muse, the name of Cinyras renew, And brave Cupavo follow'd but by few; Whose helm confess'd the lineage of the man, And bore, with wings display'd, a silver swan. Love was the fault of his fam'd ancestry. Whose forms and fortunes in his Ensigns fly." {9} HERODOTUS. 1. _Cilo_, § 171. ("[Greek: Kai sphi trixa exeurêmata egeneto--ta sêmêia poieesthai.]") "And to them is allowed the invention of three things, which have come into use among the Greeks:--For the Carians seem to be the first who put crests upon their helmets and sculptured devices upon their shields." 2. _Calliope_, § 74. ("[Greek: O deteros tôn logôn--epioêmon ankuran.]") "Those who deny this statement assert that he (Sophanes) bare on his shield, as a device, an anchor." TACITUS. (_The Annals_.--Lib. 1.) 1. ("Tum redire paulatim--in sedes referunt."--Cap. 28.) "They relinquished the guard of the gates; and the Eagles and other Ensigns, which in the beginning of the Tumult they had thrown together, were now restored each to its distinct station." Potter in his "Antiquities of Greece" (Dunbar's edition, Edinburgh, 1824, vol. ii. page 79), thus speaks of the ensigns or flags ([Greek: sêmeia]) used by the Grecians in their military affairs: "Of these there were different sorts, several of which were adorned with images of animals, or other things bearing peculiar relations to the cities they belong to. The Athenians, for instance, bore an owl in their ensigns (Plutarchus Lysandro), as being sacred to Minerva, the protectress of their city; the Thebans a _Sphynx_ (_idem_ Pelopidas, Cornelius Nepos, Epaminondas), in memory of the famous monster overcome by Oedipus. The Persians paid divine honours to the sun, and therefore represented him in their ensigns" (Curtius, lib. 3). Again (in page 150), speaking of the ornaments and devices on their ships, he says: "Some other things there are in the prow and stern that deserve our notice, as those ornaments wherewith the extremities of the ship were beautified, commonly called [Greek: akronea] (or [Greek: neôn korônides]), in Latin, _Corymbi_. The form of them sometimes represented helmets, sometimes living creatures, but most frequently was winded into a round compass, whence they are so commonly named _Corymbi_ and _Coronæ_. To the [Greek: akrostolia] in the prow, answered the [Greek: aphgasta] in the stern, which were often of an orbicular figure, or fashioned like wings, to which a little shield called [Greek: aspideion], or [Greek: aspidiskê], was frequently affixed; sometimes a piece of wood was erected, whereon ribbons of divers colours were hung, and served instead of a flag to distinguish the ship. [Greek: Chêniskos] was so called from [Greek: Chên], _a Goose_, whose {10} figure it resembled, because geese were looked on as fortunate omens to mariners, for that they swim on the top of the waters and sink not. [Greek: Parasêmon] was the flag whereby ships were distinguished from one another; it was placed in the prow, just below the [Greek: stolos], being sometimes carved, and frequently painted, whence it is in Latin termed _pictura_, representing the form of a _mountain_, a _tree_, a _flower_, or any other thing, wherein it was distinguished from what was called _tutela_, or the safeguard of the ship, which always represented _some one of the gods_, to whose care and protection the ship was recommended; for which reason it was held sacred. Now and then we find the _tutela_ taken for the [Greek: Parasêmon], and perhaps sometimes the images of gods might be represented on the flags; by some it is placed also in the prow, but by most authors of credit assigned to the stern. Thus Ovid in his Epistle to Paris:-- 'Accipit et pictos puppis adunca Deos.' 'The stern with painted deities richly shines.' "The ship wherein Europa was conveyed from Phoenicia into Crete had a _bull_ for its flag, and _Jupiter_ for its tutelary deity. The Boeotian ships had for their tutelar god _Cadmus_, represented with a _dragon_ in his hand, because he was the founder of Thebes, the principal city of Boeotia. The name of the ship was usually taken from the flag, as appears in the following passage of Ovid, where he tells us his ship received its name from the helmet painted upon it:-- 'Est mihi, sitque, precor, flavæ tutela Minervæ, Navis et à pictâ casside nomen habit.' 'Minerva is the goddess I adore, And may she grant the blessings I implore; The ship its name a painted helmet gives.' "Hence comes the frequent mention of ships called _Pegasi_, _Scyllæ_, _Bulls_, _Rams_, _Tigers_, &c., which the poets took liberty to represent as living creatures that transported their riders from one country to another; nor was there (according to some) any other ground for those known fictions of Pegasus, the winged Bellerophon, or the Ram which is reported to have carried Phryxus to Colchos." To quote another very learned author: "The system of hieroglyphics, or symbols, was adopted into every mysterious institution, for the purpose of concealing the most sublime secrets of religion from the prying curiosity of the vulgar; to whom nothing was exposed but the beauties of their morality." (See Ramsay's "Travels of Cyrus," lib. 3.) "The old Asiatic style, so highly figurative, seems, by what we find of {11} its remains in the prophetic language of the sacred writers, to have been evidently fashioned to the mode of the ancient hieroglyphics; for as in hieroglyphic writing the sun, moon, and stars were used to represent states and empires, kings, queens, and nobility--their eclipse and extinction, temporary disasters, or entire overthrow--fire and flood, desolation by war and famine; plants or animals, the qualities of particular persons, &c.; so, in like manner, the Holy Prophets call kings and empires by the names of the heavenly luminaries; their misfortunes and overthrow are represented by eclipses and extinction; stars falling from the firmament are employed to denote the destruction of the nobility; thunder and tempestuous winds, hostile invasions; lions, bears, leopards, goats, or high trees, leaders of armies, conquerors, and founders of empires; royal dignity is described by purple, or a crown; iniquity by spotted garments; a warrior by a sword or bow; a powerful man, by a gigantic stature; a judge by balance, weights, and measures--in a word, the prophetic style seems to be a speaking hieroglyphic." It seems to me, however, that the whole of these are no more than symbolism, though they are undoubtedly symbolism of a high and methodical order, little removed from our own armory. Personally I do not consider them to be armory, but if the word is to be stretched to the utmost latitude to permit of their inclusion, one certain conclusion follows. That if the heraldry of that day had an orderly existence, it most certainly came absolutely to an end and disappeared. Armory as we know it, the armory of to-day, which as a system is traced back to the period of the Crusades, is no mere continuation by adoption. It is a distinct development and a re-development _ab initio_. Undoubtedly there is a period in the early development of European civilisation which is destitute alike of armory, or of anything of that nature. The civilisation of Europe is not the civilisation of Egypt, of Greece, or of Rome, nor a continuation thereof, but a new development, and though each of these in its turn attained a high degree of civilisation and may have separately developed a heraldic symbolism much akin to armory, as a natural consequence of its own development, as the armory we know is a development of its own consequent upon the rise of our own civilisation, nevertheless it is unjustifiable to attempt to establish continuity between the ordered symbolism of earlier but distinct civilisations, and our own present system of armory. The one and only civilisation which has preserved its continuity is that of the Jewish race. In spite of persecution the Jews have preserved unchanged the minutest details of ritual law and ceremony, the causes of their suffering. Had heraldry, which is and has always been a matter of pride, formed a part of their distinctive life we should find it still existing. Yet the fact remains {12} that no trace of Jewish heraldry can be found until modern times. Consequently I accept unquestioningly the conclusions of the late J. R. Planché, Somerset Herald, who unhesitatingly asserted that armory did not exist at the time of the Conquest, basing his conclusions principally upon the entire absence of armory from the seals of that period, and the Bayeux tapestry. [Illustration: FIG. 1.--Kiku-non-hana-mon. State _Mon_ of Japan.] [Illustration: FIG. 2.--Kiri-mon. _Mon_ of the Mikado.] [Illustration: FIG. 3.--Awoï-mon. _Mon_ of the House of Minamoto Tokugawa.] [Illustration: FIG. 4.--_Mon_ of the House of Minamoto Ashikaya.] [Illustration: FIG. 5.--Tomoye. _Mon_ of the House of Arina.] The family tokens (_mon_) of the Japanese, however, fulfil very nearly all of the essentials of armory, although considered heraldically they may appear somewhat peculiar to European eyes. Though perhaps never forming the entire decoration of a shield, they do appear upon weapons and armour, and are used most lavishly in the decoration of clothing, rooms, furniture, and in fact almost every conceivable object, being employed for _decorative_ purposes in precisely the same manners and methods that armorial devices are decoratively made use of in this country. A Japanese of the upper classes always has his _mon_ in three places upon his _kimono_, usually at the back just below the collar and on either sleeve. The Japanese servants also wear their service badge in much the same manner that in olden days the badge was worn by the servants of a nobleman. The design of the service badge occupies the whole available surface of the back, and is reproduced in a miniature form on each lappel of the _kimono_. Unfortunately, like armorial bearings in Europe, but to a far greater extent, the Japanese _mon_ has been greatly pirated and abused. {13} Fig. 1, "Kiku-non-hana-mon," formed from the conventionalised bloom (_hana_) of the chrysanthemum, is the _mon_ of the State. It is formed of sixteen petals arranged in a circle, and connected on the outer edge by small curves. Fig. 2, "Kiri-mon," is the personal _mon_ of the Mikado, formed of the leaves and flower of the _Paulowna imperialis_, conventionally treated. Fig. 3, "Awoï-mon," is the _mon_ of the House of Minamoto Tokugawa, and is composed of three sea leaves (_Asarum_). The Tokugawa reigned over the country as _Shogune_ from 1603 until the last revolution in 1867, before which time the Emperor (the Mikado) was only nominally the ruler. Fig. 4 shows the _mon_ of the House of Minamoto Ashikaya, which from 1336 until 1573 enjoyed the Shogunat. Fig. 5 shows the second _mon_ of the House of Arina, Toymote, which is used, however, throughout Japan as a sign of luck. [Illustration: FIG. 6.--Double eagle on a coin (_drachma_) under the Orthogide of Kaifa Naçr Edin Mahmud, 1217.] [Illustration: FIG. 7.--Device of the Mameluke Emir Toka Timur, Governor of Rahaba, 1350.] [Illustration: FIG. 8.--Lily on the Bab-al-Hadid gate at Damascus.] [Illustration: FIG. 9.--Device of the Emir Arkatây (a band between two keys).] [Illustration: FIG. 10.--Device of the Mameluke Emir Schaikhu.] [Illustration: FIG. 11.--Device of Abu Abdallah, Mohammed ibn Naçr, King of Granada, said to be the builder of the Alhambra (1231-1272).] The Saracens and the Moors, to whom we owe the origin of so many of our recognised heraldic charges and the derivation of some of our terms (_e.g._ "gules," from the Persian _gul_, and "azure" from the Persian _lazurd_) had evidently on their part something more than the rudiments of armory, as Figs. 6 to 11 will indicate. {14} One of the best definitions of a coat of arms that I know, though this is not perfect, requires the twofold qualification that the design must be hereditary and must be connected with armour. And there can be no doubt that the theory of armory as we now know it is governed by those two ideas. The shields and the crests, if any decoration of a helmet is to be called a crest, of the Greeks and the Romans undoubtedly come within the one requirement. Also were they indicative of and perhaps intended to be symbolical of the owner. They lacked, however, heredity, and we have no proof that the badges we read of, or the decorations of shield and helmet, were continuous even during a single lifetime. Certainly as we now understand the term there must be both continuity of use, if the arms be impersonal, or heredity if the arms be personal. Likewise must there be their use as decorations of the implements of warfare. If we exact these qualifications as essential, armory as a fact and as a science is a product of later days, and is the evolution from the idea of tribal badges and tribal means and methods of honour applied to the decoration of implements of warfare. It is the conjunction and association of these two distinct ideas to which is added the no less important idea of heredity. The civilisation of England before the Conquest has left us no trace of any sort or kind that the Saxons, the Danes, or the Celts either knew or practised armory. So that if armory as we know it is to be traced to the period of the Norman Conquest, we must look for it as an adjunct of the altered civilisation and the altered law which Duke William brought into this country. Such evidence as exists is to the contrary, and there is nothing that can be truly termed armorial in that marvellous piece of cotemporaneous workmanship known as the Bayeux tapestry. Concerning the Bayeux tapestry and the evidence it affords, Woodward and Burnett's "Treatise on Heraldry," apparently following Planché's conclusions, remarks: "The evidence afforded by the famous tapestry preserved in the public library of Bayeux, a series of views in sewed work representing the invasion and conquest of England by WILLIAM the Norman, has been appealed to on both sides of this controversy, and has certainly an important bearing on the question of the antiquity of coat-armour. This panorama of seventy-two scenes is on probable grounds believed to have been the work of the Conqueror's Queen MATILDA and her maidens; though the French historian THIERRY and others ascribe it to the Empress MAUD, daughter of HENRY III. The latest authorities suggest the likelihood of its having been wrought as a decoration for the Cathedral of Bayeux, when rebuilt by WILLIAM'S uterine brother ODO, Bishop of that See, in 1077. The exact correspondence which has been discovered between the length of the tapestry {15} and the inner circumference of the nave of the cathedral greatly favours this supposition. This remarkable work of art, as carefully drawn in colour in 1818 by Mr. C. STOTHARD, is reproduced in the sixth volume of the _Vetusta Monumenta_; and more recently an excellent copy of it from autotype plates has been published by the Arundel Society. Each of its scenes is accompanied by a Latin description, the whole uniting into a graphic history of the event commemorated. We see HAROLD taking leave of EDWARD THE CONFESSOR; riding to Bosham with his hawk and hounds; embarking for France; landing there and being captured by the Count of Ponthieu; redeemed by WILLIAM of Normandy, and in the midst of his Court aiding him against CONAN, Count of BRETAGNE; swearing on the sacred relics to recognise WILLIAM'S claim of succession to the English throne, and then re-embarking for England. On his return, we have him recounting the incidents of his journey to EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, to whose funeral obsequies we are next introduced. Then we have HAROLD receiving the crown from the English people, and ascending the throne; and WILLIAM, apprised of what had taken place, consulting with his half-brother ODO about invading England. The war preparations of the Normans, their embarkation, their landing, their march to Hastings, and formation of a camp there, form the subjects of successive scenes; and finally we have the battle of Hastings, with the death of Harold and the flight of the English. In this remarkable piece of work we have figures of more than six hundred persons, and seven hundred animals, besides thirty-seven buildings, and forty-one ships or boats. There are of course also numerous shields of warriors, of which some are round, others kite-shaped, and on some of the latter are rude figures, of dragons or other imaginary animals, as well as crosses of different forms, and spots. On one hand it requires little imagination to find the cross _patée_ and the cross _botonnée_ of heraldry prefigured on two of these shields. But there are several fatal objections to regarding these figures as incipient _armory_, namely that while the most prominent persons of the time are depicted, most of them repeatedly, none of these is ever represented twice as bearing the same device, nor is there one instance of any resemblance in the rude designs described to the bearings actually used by the descendants of the persons in question. If a personage so important and so often depicted as the Conqueror had borne arms, they could not fail to have had a place in a nearly contemporary work, and more especially if it proceeded from the needle of his wife." Lower, in his "Curiosities of Heraldry," clinches the argument when he writes: "Nothing but disappointment awaits the curious armorist who seeks in this venerable memorial the pale, the bend, and {16} other early elements of arms. As these would have been much more easily imitated with the needle than the grotesque figures before alluded to, we may safely conclude that personal arms had not yet been introduced." The "Treatise on Heraldry" proceeds: "The Second Crusade took place in 1147; and in MONTFAUCON'S plates of the no longer extant windows of the Abbey of St. Denis, representing that historical episode, there is not a trace of an armorial ensign on any of the shields. That window was probably executed at a date when the memory of that event was fresh; but in MONTFAUCON'S time, the beginning of the eighteenth century, the _Science héroïque_ was matter of such moment in France that it is not to be believed that the armorial figures on the shields, had there been any, would have been left out." Surely, if anywhere, we might have expected to have found evidence of armory, if it had then existed, in the Bayeux Tapestry. Neither do the seals nor the coins of the period produce a shield of arms. Nor amongst the host of records and documents which have been preserved to us do we find any reference to armorial bearings. The intense value and estimation attached to arms in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, which has steadily though slowly declined since that period, would lead one to suppose that had arms existed as we know them at an earlier period, we should have found some definite record of them in the older chronicles. There are no such references, and no coat of arms in use at a later date can be relegated to the Conquest or any anterior period. Of arms, as we know them, there are _isolated examples_ in the early part of the twelfth century, _perhaps_ also at the end of the eleventh. At the period of the Third Crusade (1189) they were in actual existence as hereditary decorations of weapons of warfare. Luckily, for the purposes of deductive reasoning, human nature remains much the same throughout the ages, and, dislike it as we may, vanity now and vanity in olden days was a great lever in the determination of human actions. A noticeable result of civilisation is the effort to suppress any sign of natural emotion; and if the human race at the present day is not unmoved by a desire to render its appearance attractive, we may rest very certainly assured that in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries this motive was even more pronounced, and still yet more pronounced at a more remote distance of time. Given an opportunity of ornament, there you will find ornament and decoration. The ancient Britons, like the Maories of to-day, found their opportunities restricted to their skins. The Maories tattoo themselves in intricate patterns, the ancient Britons used woad, though history is silent as to whether they were content with flat colour or gave their preference to patterns. It is unnecessary to trace the art of {17} decoration through embroidery upon clothes, but there is no doubt that as soon as shields came into use they were painted and decorated, though I hesitate to follow practically the whole of heraldic writers in the statement that it was _the necessity for distinction in battle_ which accounted for the decoration of shields. Shields were painted and decorated, and helmets were adorned with all sorts of ornament, long _before_ the closed helmet made it impossible to recognise a man by his facial peculiarities and distinctions. We have then this underlying principle of vanity, with its concomitant result of personal decoration and adornment. We have the relics of savagery which caused a man to be nicknamed from some animal. The conjunction of the two produces the effort to apply the opportunity for decoration and the vanity of the animal nickname to each other. We are fast approaching armory. In those days every man fought, and his weapons were the most cherished of his personal possessions. The sword his father fought with, the shield his father carried, the banner his father followed would naturally be amongst the articles a son would be most eager to possess. Herein are the rudiments of the idea of heredity in armory; and the science of armory as we know it begins to slowly evolve itself from that point, for the son would naturally take a pride in upholding the fame which had clustered round the pictured signs and emblems under which his father had warred. Another element then appeared which exercised a vast influence upon armory. Europe rang from end to end with the call to the Crusades. We may or we may not understand the fanaticism which gripped the whole of the Christian world and sent it forth to fight the Saracens. That has little to do with it. The result was the collection together in a comparatively restricted space of all that was best and noblest amongst the human race at that time. And the spirit of emulation caused nation to vie with nation, and individual with individual in the performance of illustrious feats of honour. War was elevated to the dignity of a sacred duty, and the implements of warfare rose in estimation. It is easy to understand the glory therefore that attached to arms, and the slow evolution which I have been endeavouring to indicate became a concrete fact, and it is due to the Crusades that the origin of armory as we now know it was practically coeval throughout Europe, and also that a large proportion of the charges and terms and rules of heraldry are identical in all European countries. The next dominating influence was the introduction, in the early part of the thirteenth century, of the closed helmet. This hid the face of the wearer from his followers and necessitated some means by which the latter could identify the man under whom they served. What more natural than that they should identify him by the {18} decoration of his shield and the ornaments of his helmet, and by the coat or surcoat which he wore over his coat of mail? This surcoat had afforded another opportunity of decoration, and it had been decorated with the same signs that the wearer had painted on his shield, hence the term "coat of arms." This textile coat was in itself a product of the Crusades. The Crusaders went in their metal armour from the cooler atmospheres of Europe to the intolerable heat of the East. The surcoat and the lambrequin alike protected the metal armour and the metal helmet from the rays of the sun and the resulting discomfort to the wearer, and were also found very effective as a preventative of the rust resulting from rain and damp upon the metal. By the time that the closed helmet had developed the necessity of distinction and the identification of a man with the pictured signs he wore or carried, the evolution of armory into the science we know was practically complete. {19} CHAPTER II THE STATUS AND THE MEANING OF A COAT OF ARMS IN GREAT BRITAIN It would be foolish and misleading to assert that the possession of a coat of arms at the present date has anything approaching the dignity which attached to it in the days of long ago; but one must trace this through the centuries which have passed in order to form a true estimate of it, and also to properly appreciate a coat of arms at the present time. It is necessary to go back to the Norman Conquest and the broad dividing lines of social life in order to obtain a correct knowledge. The Saxons had no armory, though they had a very perfect civilisation. This civilisation William the Conqueror upset, introducing in its place the system of feudal tenure with which he had been familiar on the Continent. Briefly, this feudal system may be described as the partition of the land amongst the barons, earls, and others, in return for which, according to the land they held, they accepted a liability of military service for themselves and so many followers. These barons and earls in their turn sublet the land on terms advantageous to themselves, but nevertheless requiring from those to whom they sublet the same military service which the King had exacted from themselves proportionate with the extent of the sublet lands. Other subdivisions took place, but always with the same liability of military service, until we come to those actually holding and using the lands, enjoying them subject to the liability of military service attached to those particular lands. Every man who held land under these conditions--and it was impossible to hold land without them--was of the upper class. He was _nobilis_ or _known_, and of a rank distinct, apart, and absolutely separate from the remainder of the population, who were at one time actually serfs, and for long enough afterwards, of no higher social position than they had enjoyed in their period of servitude. This wide distinction between the upper and lower classes, which existed from one end of Europe to the other, was the very root and foundation of armory. It cannot be too greatly insisted upon. There were two qualitative terms, "gentle" and "simple," which were applied to the upper and lower classes respectively. Though now becoming archaic and obsolete, the terms "gentle" and "simple" {20} are still occasionally to be met with used in that original sense; and the two adjectives "gentle" and "simple," in the everyday meanings of the words, are derived from, and are a _later_ growth from the original usage with the meaning of the upper and lower classes; because the quality of being gentle was supposed to exist in that class of life referred to as gentle, whilst the quality of simplicity was supposed to be an attribute of the lower class. The word gentle is derived from the Latin word _gens (gentilis)_, meaning a man, because those were _men_ who were not serfs. Serfs and slaves were nothing accounted of. The word "gentleman" is a _derivative_ of the word gentle, and a gentleman was a member of the gentle or upper class, and gentle qualities were so termed because they were the qualities supposed to belong to the gentle class. A man was not a gentleman, even in those days, because he happened to possess personal qualities usually associated with the gentle class; a man was a gentleman if he belonged to the gentle or upper class and not otherwise, so that "gentleman" was an identical term for one to whom the word _nobilis_ was applied, both being names for members of the upper class. To all intents and purposes at that date there was no middle class at all. The kingdom was the land; and the trading community who dwelt in the towns were of little account save as milch kine for the purposes of taxation. The social position conceded to them by the upper class was little, if any, more than was conceded to the lower classes, whose life and liberties were held very cheaply. Briefly to sum up, therefore, there were but the two classes in existence, of which the upper class were those who held the land, who had military obligations, and who were noble, or in other words gentle. Therefore all who held land were gentlemen; because they held land they had to lead their servants and followers into battle, and they themselves were personally responsible for the appearance of so many followers, when the King summoned them to war. Now we have seen in the previous chapter that arms became necessary to the leader that his followers might distinguish him in battle. Consequently all who held land having, because of that land, to be responsible for followers in battle, found it necessary to use arms. The corollary is therefore evident, that all who held lands of the King were gentlemen or noble, and used arms; and as a consequence all who possessed arms were gentlemen, for they would not need or use arms, nor was their armour of a character upon which they could display arms, unless they were leaders. The leaders, we have seen, were the land-owning or upper class; therefore every one who had arms was a gentleman, and every gentleman had arms. But the status of gentlemen existed before there were coats of arms, and the later inseparable connection between the two was an evolution. The preposterous prostitution of the word gentleman in these latter {21} days is due to the almost universal attribute of human nature which declines to admit itself as of other than gentle rank; and in the eager desire to write itself gentleman, it has deliberately accepted and ordained a meaning to the word which it did not formerly possess, and has attributed to it and allowed it only such a definition as would enable almost anybody to be included within its ranks. The word gentleman nowadays has become meaningless as a word in an ordinary vocabulary; and to use the word with its original and true meaning, it is necessary to now consider it as purely a technical term. We are so accustomed to employ the word nowadays in its unrestricted usage that we are apt to overlook the fact that such a usage is comparatively modern. The following extract from "The Right to Bear Arms" will prove that its real meaning was understood and was decided by law so late as the seventeenth century to be "a man entitled to bear arms":-- "The following case in the Earl Marshal's Court, which hung upon the definition of the word, conclusively proves my contention:-- "'_21st November 1637._--W. Baker, gent., humbly sheweth that having some occasion of conference with Adam Spencer of Broughton under the Bleane, co. Cant., on or about 28th July last, the said Adam did in most base and opprobrious tearmes abuse your petitioner, calling him a base, lying fellow, &c. &c. The defendant pleaded that Baker is noe Gentleman, and soe not capable of redresse in this court. Le Neve, Clarenceux, is directed to examine the point raised, and having done so, declared as touching the gentry of William Baker, that Robert Cooke, Clarenceux King of Arms, did make a declaration 10th May 1573, under his hand and seale of office, that George Baker of London, sonne of J. Baker of the same place, sonne of Simon Baker of Feversham, co. Cant., was a bearer of tokens of honour, and did allow and confirm to the said George Baker and to his posterity, and to the posterity of Christopher Baker, these Arms, &c. &c. And further, Le Neve has received proof that the petitioner, William Baker, is the son of William Baker of Kingsdowne, co. Cant., who was the brother of George Baker, and son of Christopher aforesaid.' The judgment is not stated. (The original Confirmation of Arms by Cooke, 10th May 1573, may now be seen in the British Museum.--_Genealogist_ for 1889, p. 242.)" It has been shown that originally practically all who held land bore arms. It has also been shown that armory was an evolution, and as a consequence it did not start, in this country at any rate, as a ready-made science with all its rules and laws completely known or promulgated. There is not the slightest doubt that, in the earliest infancy of the science, arms were assumed and chosen without the control of the Crown; and one would not be far wrong in assuming that, so long as the rights accruing from prior appropriation of other people were respected, a landowner finding the necessity of arms in battle, was originally at liberty to assume what arms he liked. That period, however, was of but brief duration, for we find as early {22} as 1390, from the celebrated Scrope and Grosvenor case, (1) that a man could have obtained at that time a definite right to his arms, (2) that this right could be enforced against another, and we find, what is more important, (3) that the Crown and the Sovereign had supreme control and jurisdiction over arms, and (4) that the Sovereign could and did grant arms. From that date down to the present time the Crown, both by its own direct action and by the action of the Kings of Arms to whom it delegates powers for the purpose, in Letters Patent under the Great Seal, specifically issued to each separate King of Arms upon his appointment, has continued to grant armorial bearings. Some number of early grants of arms direct from the Crown have been printed in the _Genealogical Magazine_, and some of the earliest distinctly recite that the recipients are made noble and created gentlemen, and that the arms are given them as _the sign of their nobility_. The class of persons to whom grants of arms were made in the earliest days of such instruments is much the same as the class which obtain grants of arms at the present day, and the successful trader or merchant is now at liberty, as he was in the reign of Henry VIII. and earlier, to raise himself to the rank of a gentleman by obtaining a grant of arms. A family must make its start at some time or other; let this start be made honestly, and not by the appropriation of the arms of some other man. The illegal assumption of arms began at an early date; and in spite of the efforts of the Crown, which have been more or less continuous and repeated, it has been found that the use of "other people's" arms has continued. In the reign of Henry V. a very stringent proclamation was issued on the subject; and in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and her successors, the Kings of Arms were commanded to make perambulations throughout the country for the purpose of pulling down and defacing improper arms, of recording arms properly borne by authority, and of compelling those who used arms without authority to obtain authority for them or discontinue their use. These perambulations were termed Visitations. The subject of Visitations, and in fact the whole subject of the right to bear arms, is dealt with at length in the book to which reference has been already made, namely, "The Right to Bear Arms." The glory of a descent from a long line of armigerous ancestors, the glory and the pride of race inseparably interwoven with the inheritance of a name which has been famous in history, the fact that some arms have been designed to commemorate heroic achievements, the fact that the display of a particular coat of arms has been the method, which society has countenanced, of advertising to the world that one is of the upper class or a descendant of some ancestor who performed some glorious deed to which the arms have reference, the fact that arms themselves are the very sign of a particular descent or of a particular {23} rank, have all tended to cause a false and fictitious value to be placed upon all these pictured emblems which as a whole they have never possessed, and which I believe they were never intended to possess. It is _because_ they were the prerogative and the sign of aristocracy that they have been coveted so greatly, and consequently so often assumed improperly. Now aristocracy and social position are largely a matter of personal assertion. A man assumes and asserts for himself a certain position, which position is gradually and imperceptibly but continuously increased and elevated as its assertion is reiterated. There is no particular moment in a man's life at the present time, the era of the great middle class, at which he visibly steps from a plebeian to a patrician standing. And when he has fought and talked the world into conceding him a recognised position in the upper classes, he naturally tries to obliterate the fact that he or "his people" were ever of any other social position, and he hesitates to perpetually date his elevation to the rank of gentility by obtaining a grant of arms and thereby admitting that before that date he and his people were plebeian. Consequently he waits until some circumstance compels an application for a grant, and the consequence is that he thereby post-dates his actual technical gentility to a period long subsequent to the recognition by Society of his position in the upper classes. Arms are the sign of the technical rank of gentility. The possession of arms is a matter of hereditary privilege, which privilege the Crown is willing should be obtained upon certain terms by any who care to possess it, who live according to the style and custom which is usual amongst gentle people. And so long as the possession of arms is a matter of privilege, even though this privilege is no greater than is consequent upon payment of certain fees to the Crown and its officers; for so long will that privilege possess a certain prestige and value, though this may not be very great. Arms have never possessed any greater value than attaches to a matter of privilege; and (with singularly few exceptions) in every case, be it of a peer or baronet, of knight or of simple gentleman, this privilege has been obtained or has been regularised by the payment at some time or other of fees to the Crown and its officers. And the _only_ difference between arms granted and paid for yesterday and arms granted and paid for five hundred years ago is the simple moral difference which attaches to the dates at which the payments were made. Gentility is merely hereditary rank, emanating, with all other rank, from the Crown, the sole fountain of honour. It is idle to make the word carry a host of meanings it was never intended to. Arms being the sign of the technical rank of gentility, the use of arms is the advertisement of one's claim to that gentility. Arms mean nothing more. By {24} coronet, supporters, and helmet can be indicated one's place in the scale of precedence; by adding arms for your wife you assert that she also is of gentle rank; your quarterings show the other gentle families you represent; difference marks will show your position in your own family (not a very important matter); augmentations indicate the deeds of your ancestors which the Sovereign thought worthy of being held in especial remembrance. _By the use of a certain coat of arms, you assert your descent from the person to whom those arms were granted, confirmed, or allowed._ That is the beginning and end of armory. Why seek to make it mean more? However heraldry is looked upon, it must be admitted that from its earliest infancy armory possessed two essential qualities. It was the definite sign of hereditary nobility and rank, and it was practically an integral part of warfare; but also from its earliest infancy it formed a means of decoration. It would be a rash statement to assert that armory has lost its actual military character even now, but it certainly possessed it undiminished so long as tournaments took place, for the armory of the tournament was of a much higher standard than the armory of the battlefield. Armory as an actual part of warfare existed as a means of decoration for the implements of warfare, and as such it certainly continues in some slight degree to the present day. Armory in that bygone age, although it existed as the symbol of the lowest hereditary rank, was worn and used in warfare, for purposes of pageantry, for the indication of ownership, for decorative purposes, for the needs of authenticity in seals, and for the purposes of memorials in records, pedigrees, and monuments. All those uses and purposes of armory can be traced back to a period coeval with that to which our certain knowledge of the existence of armory runs. Of all those usages and purposes, one only, that of the use of armorial bearings in actual battle, can be said to have come to an end, and even that not entirely so; the rest are still with us in actual and extensive existence. I am not versed in the minutiæ of army matters or army history, but I think I am correct in saying that there was no such thing as a regular standing army or a national army until the reign of Henry VIII. Prior to that time the methods of the feudal system supplied the wants of the country. The actual troops were in the employment, not of the Crown, but of the individual leaders. The Sovereign called upon, and had the right to call upon, those leaders to provide troops; but as those troops were not in the direct employment of the Crown, they wore the liveries and heraldic devices of their leaders. The leaders wore their own devices, originally for decorative reasons, and later that they might be distinguished by their particular followers: hence the actual use in battle in former days of private armorial bearings. And even yet the {25} practice is not wholly extinguished, for the tartans of the Gordon and Cameron Highlanders are a relic of the usages of these former days. With the formation of a standing army, and the direct service of the troops to the Crown, the liveries and badges of those who had formerly been responsible for the troops gave way to the liveries and badges of the Crown. The uniform of the Beefeaters is a good example of the method in which in the old days a servant wore the badge and livery of his lord. The Beefeaters wear the scarlet livery of the Sovereign, and wear the badge of the Sovereign still. Many people will tell you, by the way, that the uniform of a Beefeater is identical now with what it was in the days of Henry VIII. It isn't. In accordance with the strictest laws of armory, the badge, embroidered on the front and back of the tunic, has changed, and is now the triple badge--the rose, the thistle, and the shamrock--of the triple kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Every soldier who wears a scarlet coat, the livery of his Sovereign, every regiment that carries its colours, every saddle-cloth with a Royal emblem thereupon, is evidence that the use of armory in battle still exists in a small degree to the present day; but circumstances have altered. The troops no longer attack to the cry of "A Warwick! a Warwick!" they serve His Majesty the King and wear his livery and devices. They no longer carry the banner of their officer, whose servants and tenants they would formerly have been; the regiment cherishes instead the banner of the armorial bearings of His Majesty. Within the last few years, probably within the lifetime of all my readers, there has been striking evidence of the manner in which circumstances alter everything. The Zulu War put an end to the practice of taking the colours of a regiment into battle; the South African War saw khaki substituted universally for the scarlet livery of His Majesty; and to have found upon a South African battlefield the last remnant of the armorial practices of the days of chivalry, one would have needed, I am afraid, to examine the buttons of the troopers. Still the scarlet coat exists in the army on parade: the Life Guards wear the Royal Cross of St. George and the Star of the Garter, the Scots Greys have the Royal Saltire of St. Andrew, and the Gordon Highlanders have the Gordon crest of the Duke of Richmond and Gordon; and there are many other similar instances. There is yet another point. The band of a regiment is maintained by the officers of the regiment, and at the present day in the Scottish regiments the pipers have attached to their pipes banners bearing the various _personal_ armorial bearings of the officers of the regiment. So that perhaps one is justified in saying that the use of armorial bearings in warfare has not yet come to an end. The other ancient usages of armory exist now as they existed in the earliest times. So that it is {26} foolish to contend that armory has ceased to exist, save as an interesting survival of the past. It is a living reality, more _widely_ in use at the present day than ever before. Certainly the military side of armory has sunk in importance till it is now utterly overshadowed by the decorative, but the fact that armory still exists as the sign and adjunct of hereditary rank utterly forbids one to assert that armory is dead, and though this side of armory is also now partly overshadowed by its decorative use, armory must be admitted to be still alive whilst its laws can still be altered. When, if ever, rank is finally swept away, and when the Crown ceases to grant arms, and people cease to use them, then armory will be dead, and can be treated as the study of a dead science. {27} CHAPTER III THE HERALDS AND OFFICERS OF ARMS The crown is the Fountain of Honour, having supreme control of coat-armour. This control in all civilised countries is one of the appanages of sovereignty, but from an early period much of the actual control has been delegated to the Heralds and Kings of Arms. The word Herald is derived from the Anglo-Saxon--_here_, an army, and _wald_, strength or sway--though it has probably come to us from the German word _Herold_. In the last years of the twelfth century there appeared at festal gatherings persons mostly habited in richly coloured clothing, who delivered invitations to the guests, and, side by side with the stewards, superintended the festivities. Many of them were minstrels, who, after tournaments or battle, extolled the deeds of the victors. These individuals were known in Germany as _Garzune_. Originally every powerful leader had his own herald, and the dual character of minstrel and messenger led the herald to recount the deeds of his master, and, as a natural consequence, of his master's ancestors. In token of their office they wore the coats of arms of the leaders they served; and the original status of a herald was that of a non-combatant messenger. When tournaments came into vogue it was natural that some one should examine the arms of those taking part, and from this the duties of the herald came to include a knowledge of coat-armour. As the Sovereign assumed or arrogated the control of arms, the right to grant arms, and the right of judgment in disputes concerning arms, it was but the natural result that the personal heralds of the Sovereign should be required to have a knowledge of the arms of his principal subjects, and should obtain something in the nature of a cognisance or control and jurisdiction over those arms; for doubtless the actions of the Sovereign would often depend upon the knowledge of his heralds. The process of development in this country will be more easily understood when it is remembered that the Marshal or Earl Marshal was in former times, with the Lord High Constable, the first in _military_ rank under the King, who usually led his army in person, and to {28} the Marshal was deputed the ordering and arrangement of the various bodies of troops, regiments, bands of retainers, &c., which ordering was at first facilitated and at length entirely determined by the use of various pictorial ensigns, such as standards, banners, crests, cognisances, and badges. The due arrangement and knowledge of these various ensigns became first the necessary study and then the ordinary duty of these officers of the Marshal, and their possession of such knowledge, which soon in due course had to be written down and tabulated, secured to them an important part in mediæval life. The result was that at an early period we find them employed in semi-diplomatic missions, such as carrying on negotiations between contending armies on the field, bearing declarations of war, challenges from one sovereign to another, besides arranging the ceremonial not only of battles and tournaments, but also of coronations, Royal baptisms, marriages, and funerals. From the fact that neither King of Arms nor Herald is mentioned as officiating in the celebrated Scrope and Grosvenor case, of which very full particulars have come down to us, it is evident that the control of arms had not passed either in fact or in theory from the Crown to the officers of arms at that date. Konrad Grünenberg, in his _Wappencodex_ ("Roll of Arms"), the date of which is 1483, gives a representation of a _helmschau_ (literally helmet-show), here reproduced (Fig. 12), which includes the figure of a herald. Long before that date, however, the position of a herald in England was well defined, for we find that on January 5, 1420, the King appointed William Bruges to be Garter King of Arms. It is usually considered in England that it would be found that in Germany armory reached its highest point of evolution. Certainly German heraldic art is in advance of our own, and it is curious to read in the latest and one of the best of German heraldic books that "from the very earliest times heraldry was carried to a higher degree of perfection and thoroughness in England than elsewhere, and that it has maintained itself at the same level until the present day. In other countries, for the most part, heralds no longer have any existence but in name." The initial figure which appears at the commencement of Chapter I. represents John Smert, Garter King of Arms, and is taken from the grant of arms issued by him to the Tallow Chandlers' Company of London, which is dated September 24, 1456. Long before there was any College of Arms, the Marshal, afterwards the Earl Marshal, had been appointed. The Earl Marshal is now head of the College of Arms, and to him has been delegated the whole of the control both of armory and of the College, with the exception of that part which the Crown has retained in its own hands. {29} After the Earl Marshal come the Kings of Arms, the Heralds of Arms, and the Pursuivants of Arms. [Illustration: FIG. 12.--_Helmschau_ or Helmet-Show. (From Konrad Grünenberg's _Wappencodex zu München_.) End of fifteenth century.] The title of King of Arms, or, as it was more anciently written, King of Heralds, was no doubt originally given to the chief or principal officer, who presided over the heralds of a kingdom, or some principal province, which heraldic writers formerly termed _marches_; or else the title was conferred upon the officer of arms attendant upon some particular order of knighthood. Garter King of Arms, who is immediately attached to that illustrious order, is likewise Principal King of Arms, and these, although separate and distinct offices, are and have been always united in one person. Upon the revival and new modelling of the Order of the Bath, in the reign of George the First, a King of Arms was created and attached to it, by the title of Bath King of Arms; and King George III., upon the institution of the Hanoverian Guelphic Order of Knighthood, annexed to that order a King of Arms, by the appellation of Hanover. At the time of the creation of his office, Bath King of Arms was given Wales as his province, the intention being that he should rank with the others, granting arms in his own province, but he was not, nor was Hanover, nor is the King of Arms of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, a member (as such) of the corporation of the College of Arms. The members of that corporation considered that the gift of the province of Wales, the jurisdiction over which they had previously possessed, to Bath King was an infringement of their chartered privileges. The dispute was referred to the law officers of the Crown, whose opinion was in favour of the corporate body. Berry in his _Encyclopædia Heraldica_ further remarks: "The Kings of Arms of the provincial territories have the titles of _Clarenceux_ and _Norroy_, the jurisdiction of the former extending over the south, east, and west parts of England, from the river Trent southwards; and that of the latter, the remaining part of the kingdom northward of that river. Kings of Arms have been likewise assigned other provinces over different kingdoms and dominions, and besides Ulster King of Arms for Ireland, and Lyon King of Arms for Scotland, others were nominated for particular provinces abroad, when united to the Crown of England, such as _Aquitaine_, _Anjou_, and _Guyenne_, who were perhaps at their first creation intended only for the services of the places whose titles they bore, when the same should be entirely subdued to allegiance to the Crown of England, and who, till that time, might have had other provinces allotted to them, either provisionally or temporarily, within the realm of England. There were also other Kings of Arms, denominated from the dukedoms or earldoms which our princes enjoyed before they came to the throne, as _Lancaster_, _Gloucester_, _Richmond_, and _Leicester_, the three first {30} having marches, or provinces, and the latter a similar jurisdiction. Windsor, likewise, was a local title, but it is doubtful whether that officer was ever a King of Arms. _Marche_ also assumed that appellation, from his provincial jurisdiction over a territory so called. But although anciently there were at different periods several Kings of Arms in England, only two provincial Kings of Arms have, for some ages, been continued in office, viz. Clarenceux and Norroy, whose provinces or marches are, as before observed, separated by the river Trent, the ancient limits of the escheaters, when there are only two in the kingdom, and the jurisdiction of the wardens of the forests. _Norroy_ is considered the most ancient title, being the only one in England taken from the local situation of his province, unless _Marche_ should be derived from the same cause. The title of _Norroy_ was anciently written _Norreys_ and _Norreis_, King of Arms of the people residing in the north; _Garter_ being styled _Roy des Anglois_, of the people, and not _d'Angleterre_, of the kingdom, the inhabitants of the north being called _Norreys_,[1] as we are informed by ancient historians. It appears that there was a King of Arms for the parts or people on the north of Trent as early as the reign of Edward I., from which, as Sir Henry Spelman observes, it may be inferred that the southern, eastern, and western parts had principal heralds, or Kings of Arms, although their titles at that early age cannot now be ascertained. _Norroy_ had not the title of King till after the reign of Edward II. It was appropriated to a King of Heralds, expressly called _Rex Norroy_, _Roy d'Armes del North_, _Rex Armorum del North_, _Rex de North_, and _Rex Norroy du North_; and the term _Roy Norreys_ likewise occurs in the Pell Rolls of the 22nd Edward III.; but from that time till the 9th of Richard II. no farther mention is made of any such officer, from which it is probable a different person enjoyed the office by some other title during that interval, particularly as the office was actually executed by other Kings of Arms, immediately after that period. _John Otharlake, Marche King of Arms_, executed it in the 9th of Richard II., Richard del Brugg, Lancaster King of Arms, 1st Henry IV., and _Ashwell_, _Boys_, and _Tindal_, successively _Lancaster Kings of Arms_, until the end of that monarch's reign. Edward IV. replaced this province under a King of Arms, and revived the dormant title of _Norroy_. But in the Statute of Resumptions, {31} made 1st Henry VII., a clause was inserted that the same should not extend to _John Moore_, otherwise _Norroy_, chief Herald King of Arms of the north parts of this realm of England, so appointed by King Edward IV. by his Letters Patent, bearing date 9th July, in the eighteenth year of his reign. It has since continued without interruption. _Falcon King of Arms_ seems the next who had the title of King conferred upon him, and was so named from one of the Royal badges of King Edward III., and it was afterwards given to a herald and pursuivant, under princes who bore the falcon as a badge or cognisance, and it is difficult to ascertain whether this officer was considered a king, herald, or pursuivant. _Froissart_ in 1395 calls _Faucon_ only a herald, and in 1364 mentions this officer as a King of Arms belonging to the King of England; but it is certain that in the 18th Richard II. there was a King of Arms by that appellation, and so continued until the reign of Richard III., if not later; but at what particular period of time the officer was discontinued cannot be correctly ascertained. _Windsor_ has been considered by some writers to have been the title of a King of Arms, from an abbreviation in some old records, which might be otherwise translated. There is, however, amongst the Protections in the Tower of London, one granted in the 49th Edward III. to _Stephen de Windesore, Heraldo Armorum rege dicto_, which seems to favour the conjecture, and other records might be quoted for and against this supposition, which might have arisen through mistake in the entries, as they contradict one another. _Marche_ seems the next in point of antiquity of creation; but although Sir Henry Spelman says that King Edward IV. descended from the _Earls of Marche_, promoted _Marche Herald_ to be a King of Arms, giving him, perhaps, the marches for his province, it is pretty clearly ascertained that it was of a more early date, from the express mention of _March Rex Heraldorum_ and _March Rex Heraldus_ in records of the time of Richard II., though it may be possible that it was then only a nominal title, and did not become a real one till the reign of Edward IV., as mentioned by Spelman. _Lancaster King of Arms_ was, as the same author informs us, so created by Henry IV. in relation to his own descent from the Lancastrian family, and the county of Lancaster assigned to him as his province; but _Edmondson_ contends "that that monarch superadded the title of Lancaster to that of Norroy, or King of the North, having, as it may be reasonably conjectured, given this province north of Trent, within which district Lancaster was situated, to him who had been formerly his officer of arms, by the title of that dukedom, and who might, according to custom, in some instances of former ages, retain his former title and surname of heraldship, styling himself _Lancaster Roy d'Armes del North_." {32} _Leicester King of Arms_ was a title similar to that of _Lancaster_, and likewise a creation to the same Sovereign, Henry IV., who was also Earl of Leicester before he assumed the crown, and was given to a person who was before that time a herald. It appears that _Henry Grene_ was _Leicester Herald_, 9th King Richard II., and in the 13th of the same reign is called a _Herald of the Duke of Guyen and Lancaster_, but prior to the coronation of Henry IV. he was certainly a King of Heralds, and so styled in a privy seal dated antecedent to that ceremony. A similar instrument of the tenth year of that monarch's reign also mentions _Henry Grene_, otherwise _Leicester King of Arms_. As it is evident that, during the reign of Henry IV., _Lancaster King of Arms_ has under that title the province of the north, _Mr. Edmondson_, with good reason, supposes that the southern province, or part of that which is now under Clarenceux, might at that time be under this _Leicester_, especially as the title of _Clarenceux_ was not in being till after the 3rd of Henry V., when, or soon after, the title of _Leicester_ might have become extinct by the death of that officer; for although _Leicester King of Arms_ went over into France with Henry V. in the third year of his reign, yet he is not mentioned in the constitutions made by the heralds at Roan in the year 1419-20. _Clarenceux_, the next King of Arms in point of creation, is a title generally supposed to have been taken from _Clare_, in Suffolk, the castle at that place being the principal residence of the ancient Earls of Hereford, who were, from thence, though very improperly, called _Earls of Clare_, in the same manner as the Earls of Pembroke were often named _Earls of Strigoil and Chepstow_; the Earl of Hampshire, _Earl of Winchester_; the Earl of Derby, _Earl of Tuttebury_; the Earl of Sussex, _Earl of Chichester_, &c. King Edward III. created his third son Lionel _Duke of Clarence_, instead of the monosyllable _Clare_ (from his marriage with the grand-daughter of the late Earl), but Lionel dying without issue male, Henry IV. created his younger son Thomas _Duke of Clarence_, who being slain without issue 9th of Henry V., the honour remained in the Crown, until King Edward IV. conferred it upon his own brother. Mr. Sandford tells us that _Clarence_ is the country about the town, castle, and honour of _Clare_, from which duchy the name of _Clarenceux King of Arms_ is derived. Spelman, however, contends that it is a mistake in attributing the institution of _Clarenceux_ to King Edward IV. after the honour of _Clarence_ devolved as an escheat to the Crown upon the untimely death of his brother George, as he found William Horsely called by this title in the reign of Henry V. and also Roger Lygh, under King Henry VI.; and it is conjectured that the office of _Clarenceux King of Arms_ is not more ancient than the reign of Edward III. _Gloucester Herald_, frequently mentioned by historians, was originally {33} the herald of the great Humphry, Duke of Gloucester, of whom mention is made upon record in the 10th of Henry VI.; and Richard, brother to Edward IV., who was created Duke of Gloucester, is said to have had a herald by that title during the reign of his brother, and who was attendant as such at the funeral of that monarch. In a manuscript in the Ashmolean collection, it is stated that Richard Champnay attended as Gloucester King of Arms at the coronation of Richard III. upon the 7th July following his usurpation of the crown; but it appears by more authentic record that this Richard Champnay was, by the style and title of Herald of Arms, on the 18th September, in the first year of his usurpation, by patent created a King of Arms and Principal Herald of the parts of Wales, by the style and title of Gloucester, giving him licence and authority to execute all and singular that by law or custom in former times belonged to the office of King of Arms. It is supposed that the office ceased upon his death, which in all probability took place before that of the usurper. _Richmond King of Arms._--A herald called _Richmond_ is frequently mentioned, as well belonging to the Crown as of the nobility. But the records of the reign of King Henry VII., who had before his elevation to the throne been Earl of Richmond, contain many entries of _Richmond King of Arms_; but although somewhat vague in the description, sufficiently bear out the conjecture that Henry VII., previous to his coronation, created a new King of Arms by the title of _Richmond_, although no regular patent of creation has ever been found. Sir Henry Spelman informs us that, in addition to the two Kings of Arms for the two Heraldic provinces bounded north and south by the river Trent, there were also two provincial kings for the dominions of our Sovereign in France, styled _Guyenne_ and _Agincourt_ (omitting _Aquitaine_ and _Anjou_, which were certainly in being at the same time), and another for _Ireland_ by that name, altered by King Edward VI. into _Ulster_. _Ireland King of Arms_ first occurs upon record 6th Richard II., anno 1482, mentioned by _Froissart_, where he is called _Chandos le Roy d'Ireland_. A regular succession of officers, by the title of Ireland King of Arms, continued from that time till the reign of King Edward IV., but from the death of that monarch till the creation of Ulster by Edward VI. it is uncertain whether the title existed, or what became of the office. Edward VI. altered the title of Ireland King of Arms into that of Ulster, or rather considered it as a new institution, from the words of his journal: "Feb. 2. There was a King of Arms made for Ireland, whose name was _Ulster_, and his province was all Ireland; and he was the fourth King of Arms, and the first Herald of Ireland." The patent passed under the Great Seal of England. Guyenne, a part of Aquitaine, in France, a province belonging to {34} the British Crown, gave title not only to a King of Arms, but to a herald likewise, and Sir Henry Spelman dates its creation in the time of Edward I., although it is somewhat doubtful, and thought to be in the reign of Edward III. Guyenne Herald appears upon record during the reign of Henry VI., and though Kings of Arms were frequently styled heralds in old records, it is more than probable both offices were in existence at the same time. From the time of Edward IV. no such officers belonging to the Crown of England seem to have been continued, and it is doubtful whether they ever held in constant succession from their first creation. _Aquitaine_, which included what were afterwards called Guyenne, Xantoigne, Gascoigne, and some islands, gave title to a King of Heralds as early as the reign of Edward III., and it is conjectured to have been an officer belonging to the Black Prince, who had the principality of Aquitaine given to him by his father; but although this officer is mentioned in the reign of Richard II. and 3rd of Henry V., no record occurs after the latter period. _Agincourt_ was also a title conferred upon a herald, in memory of that signal victory; and lands were granted to him for life, 6th Henry V., as mentioned by Sir Henry Spelman; but whether the office was continued, or any particular province assigned to this officer, cannot be ascertained. _Anjou King of Arms_ was likewise an officer of King Henry VI., and attendant upon John, Duke of Bedford, when Regent of France, who assumed the title of Duke of Anjou. But upon the death of the Duke of Bedford, this officer was promoted to Lancaster King of Arms; and in all probability the title of Anjou, as a King of Heralds, was discontinued. _Volant_ also occurs upon record in the 28th Edward III., and _Vaillant_, _le Roy Vaillant Heraud_, and _le Roy Vailland_, are likewise mentioned in 1395. Henry V. instituted the office of Garter King of Arms; but at what particular period is rather uncertain, although Mr. Anstis has clearly proved that it must have taken place after the 22nd May, and before the 3rd September, in the year 1417. Stephen Martin Leake, Esq., who filled the office, sums up its duties in the following words: "_Garter_ was instituted by King Henry V., A.D. 1417, for the service of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, which was made sovereign within the office of arms over all other officers, subject to the Crown of England, by the name of Garter King of Arms of England. In this patent he is styled Principal King of English Arms, and Principal Officer of Arms of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, and has power to execute the said office by himself or deputy, being an herald. By the constitution of his office, he must be a native of {35} England, and a gentleman bearing arms. To him belongs the correction of arms, and all ensigns of honour, usurped or borne unjustly, and also to grant arms to deserving persons, and supporters to the nobility and Knights of the Bath; to go next before the sword in solemn proceeding, none interposing, except the constable and marshal; to administer the oath to all the officers of arms; to have a habit like the registrar of the order; baron's service in the court; lodgings in Windsor Castle; to bear his white rod with a banner of the ensigns of the order thereon before the Sovereign; also when any lord shall enter the Parliament chamber, to assign him his place, according to his dignity and degree; to carry the ensign of the order to foreign princes, and to do, or procure to be done, what the Sovereign shall enjoin, relating to the order; with other duties incident to his office of principal King of Arms, for the execution whereof he hath a salary of one hundred pounds a year, payable at the Exchequer, and an hundred pounds more out of the revenue of the order, besides fees." _Bath King of Arms_ was created 11th George I., in conformity with the statutes established by His Majesty for the government of the Order of the Bath, and in obedience to those statutes was nominated and created by the Great Master of the Order denominated _Bath_, and in Latin, _Rex armorum Honoratissimi Ordinis Militaris de Balneo_. These statutes direct that this officer shall, in all the ceremonies of the order, be habited in a white mantle lined with red, having on the right shoulder the badge of the order, and under it a surcoat of white silk, lined and edged with red; that he shall wear on his breast, hanging to a golden chain about his neck, an escocheon of gold, enamelled with the arms of the order, impaling the arms of the Sovereign, crowned with the Imperial crown. That at all coronations he shall precede the companions of the order, and shall carry and wear his crown as other Kings of Arms are obliged to do. That the chain, escocheon, rod, and crown, shall be of the like materials, value, and weight, with those borne and used by Garter Principal King of Arms, and of the like fashion, the before specified variations only excepted: and that besides the duties required of him in the several other articles of the statutes, he shall diligently perform whatever the Sovereign or Great Master shall further command. On the 14th January 1725, His Majesty was further pleased by his Royal sign-manual, to erect, make, constitute, and ordain the then Bath King of Arms, _Gloucester_ King of Arms, and principal Herald of the parts of Wales, and to direct letters patent to be made out and pass the Great Seal, empowering him to grant arms and crests to persons residing within the dominions of Wales, either jointly with Garter, or singly by himself, with the consent and at the pleasure of the Earl Marshal, or his deputy for the time being, and for {36} the future that the office of Gloucester should be inseparably annexed, united, and perpetually consolidated with the office of _Bath King of Arms, of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath, and Gloucester King of Arms, and principal Herald of the parts of Wales_. And also that he, for the dignity of the order, should in all assemblies and at all times have and take place and precedency above and before all other provincial Kings of Arms whatsoever." This armorial jurisdiction, however, was subsequently, as has been previously explained, annulled. Concerning the heralds Berry remarks: "In former ages, when honour and chivalry were at their height, these officers were held in great estimation, as appears by the ceremonies which attended their creations, which was by the Sovereign himself or by special commission from him, and, according to Gerard Leigh, was after the following manner: The King asked the person to be so created whether he were a gentleman of blood or of second coat-armour; if he was not, the King gave him lands and fees, and assigned him and his heirs proper arms. Then, as the messenger was brought in by the herald of the province, so the pursuivant was brought in by the eldest herald, who, at the prince's command, performed all the ceremonies, as turning the coat of arms, setting the manacles thereof on the arms of the pursuivant, and putting about his neck the collar of SS, and when he was named, the prince himself took the cup from the herald, which was gilt, and poured the water and wine upon the head of the pursuivant, creating him by the name of _our herald_, and the King, when the oath was administered, gave the same cup to the new herald. _Upton_ sums up the business of a herald thus: That it was their office to create under officers, to number the people, to commence treaties of matrimony and of peace between princes, to visit kingdoms and regions, and to be present at martial exploits, &c., and they were to wear a coat of their master's arms, wearing the same in conflicts and tournaments, in riding through foreign countries, and at all great entertainments, coronations of kings and queens, and the solemnities of princes, dukes, and other great lords. In the time of King Richard II. there belonged to the King of Arms and heralds the following fees, viz.: at the coronation of the King, a bounty of £100; when the King first displayed his banners, 100 marks; when the King's son was made a knight, 40 marks; when the prince and a duke first display their banners, £20; if it be a marquis, 20 marks; if an earl, £10; if a baron, 5 marks of silver crowns, of 15 nobles; and if a knight bachelor, newly made a banneret, 3 marks, or 10 nobles; when the King is married, the said Kings of Arms and heralds to have £50; when the Queen has a child {37} christened, a largess at the Queen's pleasure, or of the lords of the council, which was sometimes £100, and at others 100 marks, more or less; and when she is churched, such another largess; when princesses, duchesses, marchionesses, countesses, and baronesses have a child christened, and when they are churched, a largess suitable to their quality and pleasure; as often as the King wears his crown, or holds Royal state, especially at the four great festivals of Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide, and All Saints, to every one of the three Kings of Arms present when the King goes to the chapel to mass, a largess at the King's pleasure; when a maiden princess, or daughter of a duke, marquis, earl, or baron is married, there belongs to the said Kings of Arms, if present, the upper garment she is married in; if there be a combat within lists, there belong to the Kings of Arms, if present, and if not to the other heralds present, their pavilions; and if one of the combatants is vanquished, the Kings of Arms and heralds who are present shall have all the accoutrements of the person so vanquished, and all other armour that falls to the ground; when subjects rebel, and fortify any camp or place, and afterwards quit the same, and fly, without a battle, there appertain to the said Kings of Arms and heralds who are present all the carts, carriages, and tools left behind; and, at New Year's Tide, all the noblemen and knights of the court used to give the heralds New Year's gifts. Besides the King's heralds, in former times, divers noblemen had heralds and pursuivants, who went with their lords, with the King's heralds, when attending the King. The fees of the King's heralds and pursuivants of arms have since varied, and, besides fees upon creations of peers, baronets, and knights, they have still donations for attendance at court upon the festivals of Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide, All Saints, and St. George's Day; fees upon installation of Knights of the Garter and Bath, Royal marriages, funerals, public solemnities, &c., with small salaries paid from the Exchequer; but their ancient fees from the nobility, upon certain occasions, have been long discontinued, and their principal emolument arises from grants of arms, the tracing of genealogies, and recording the same in the Registers of the College of Arms." The present _heralds_ are six in number, viz.:-- _Windsor Herald_, which title was instituted 38th of Edward III., when that monarch was in France. _Chester Herald_, instituted in the same reign. _Richmond Herald_, instituted by King Edward IV. _Somerset Herald_, instituted by King Henry VIII. about the time when that monarch created his son Henry Fitzroy Duke of Somerset. _York Herald_, instituted by King Edward III. in honour of his son, whom he created Duke of York. {38} _Lancaster Herald_, also instituted by Edward III. when he created his son Duke of Lancaster. The heralds were first incorporated as a college by Richard III. They were styled the Corporation of Kings, Heralds, and Pursuivants of Arms. Concerning Pursuivants of Arms, Berry remarks that these officers, who are the lowest in degree amongst officers of arms, "were, as the name implies, followers, marshals, or messengers attendant upon the heralds. Pursuivants were formerly created by the nobility (who had, likewise, heralds of arms) with great ceremony in the following manner. One of the heralds, wearing his master's coat, leading the person to be created pursuivant by the left hand, and holding a cup full of wine and water in his right, came into the presence of the lord and master of him who was to be created, and of whom the herald asked by what name he would have his pursuivant called, which the lord having mentioned, the herald then poured part of the wine and water upon his head, calling him by the name so assigned to him. The herald then took the coat of his lord, and put it over his head athwart, so that part of the coat made for the arms before and behind, and the longer part of it on both sides of the arms of the person created, and in which way the pursuivant was always to wear it. This done, an oath of fidelity was administered to the new-made pursuivant, and the ceremony concluded." This curious method of the wearing of the tabard by a pursuivant has long since been discontinued, if indeed it was ever generally adopted, a point on which I have by no means been able to satisfy myself. The appointment of heralds and pursuivants of arms by the nobility has long been discontinued, and there are now only four pursuivants belonging to the College of Arms, viz.:-- _Rouge-Croix_, the first in point of antiquity of creation, is so styled from the red cross of St. George, the Patron Saint of England. _Blue-Mantle_, so called by King Edward III., in honour of the French coat which he assumed, being blue. _Rouge-Dragon_, so styled from the red dragon, one of the supporters of the Royal arms of King Henry VII. (who created this pursuivant), and also the badge of Wales, and _Portcullis_, also instituted by Henry VII., and so named from that badge, or cognisance, used by him. The duties of a pursuivant are similar to those of a herald; he assists in all public processions, or ceremonies, such as Royal marriages, funerals, installations, &c., and has certain fees for attendance upon such occasions. Pursuivants likewise receive fees upon creations of peers, baronets, and knights, and also donations for attending court upon the principal festivals of Christmas, Easter, Whit-Sunday, All {39} Saints, and St. George's Day, and a small salary payable out of the Exchequer. They wear a tabard of damask silk, embroidered with the Royal arms, like the heralds, but no collar of SS. [Illustration: FIG. 13.--Officers of Arms as represented in the famous Tournament Roll of Henry VIII., now preserved in the College of Arms.] Of the Heraldic Executive in Scotland, Lyon King of Arms (Sir James Balfour Paul), in his book "Heraldry in relation to Scottish History and Art," writes: "At one period the Lyon was solemnly crowned at his inauguration, and vested with his tabard and baton of office." The ceremony was a very elaborate one, and is fully described by Sir James Balfour in a MS., now in the Advocates' Library. There is also an account of the coronation of Sir Alexander Durham, when Laurie, the minister of the Tron Kirk, preached from the text, "What shall be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour?" The crown was of gold, and exactly similar to the Imperial crown of Scotland, save that it had no jewels. Now the Lyon's crown is the same as the English King of Arms. The crown is only worn at Royal coronations. At that of Charles I. at Edinburgh in 1633, the Lyon carried the vessel containing the sacred oil. In addition to his strictly armorial appointment, the Lyon is also a King of Arms of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle. Heralds and pursuivants formed an important part from very early times not only of the Royal Household, but also of those of the higher nobility, many of whom had private heralds. Of these officers there is a very full list given by Dr. Dickson in the preface to the Lord Treasurer's Accounts. Of heralds who were or ultimately became part of the King's Household we meet with Rothesay, Marchmont, Snowdon, Albany, Ross, and Islay; Ireland, Orkney, and Carrick are also mentioned as heralds, but it is doubtful whether the first and last were ever more than pursuivants. Of the latter class of officers the following were in the Royal establishment: Carrick, Bute, Dingwall, Kintyre, Ormonde, Unicorn; but we also find Aliszai or Alishay, Dragance, Diligens, Montrose, Falkland, Ireland, Darnaway, Garioch, Ettrick, Hales, Lindsay, Endure, Douglas, and Angus. Of the latter Garioch was created by James IV. for his brother John, Earl of Mar; Hailes in 1488, when Lord Hailes was made Earl of Bothwell; while Lindsay and Endure were both evidently attached to the Lindsay family, as were Douglas and Angus to the noblemen whose titles they bore. In 1403 Henry IV. of England granted a pursuivant under the title of Shrewsbury to George, Earl of March, for services rendered at the battle of that name, but we do not find that the office was continued. In Scotland heralds appear at an early date, though none are mentioned as attending the coronation of Alexander III. in 1249; nor is there any account of any such officers accompanying that sovereign when he did homage to Edward I. at Westminster in 1278. In the next {40} century, however, armorial bearings were quite well known in Scotland, and there is an entry in the Exchequer Rolls on 10th October 1337 of a payment of £32, 6s. Scots for the making of seventeen armorial banners, and in 1364 there is another to the heralds for services at the tournaments; while William Petilloch, herald, has a grant from David II. of three husbandlands in Bonjedward, and Allan Fawside gets a gift of the forfeited estate of one Coupland, a herald (_temp._ Edward Baliol).[2] The first mention of a herald, under his official designation, which I have met with in our records occurs in 1365, when there is a confirmation under the Great Seal by David II. of a charter by Dugal McDowille to John Trupour or Trumpour "_nunc dicto Carric heraldo_." Sir James Balfour tells us that the Lyon and his heralds attended the coronation of Robert II. at Holyrood on 23rd May 1371, but whether or not this is true--and I have not been able to verify it--it is certain that a Lyon Herald existed very shortly after that date, as in the Exchequer Rolls mention is made of the payment of a certain sum to such an officer in 1377; in 1379 Froissart says that a herald was sent by Robert II. to London to explain that the truce had been infringed without his will and against his knowledge, and on 8th April 1381 a warrant was issued in London for a licence to "Lion Heraud" of the King of Scots, authorising him to take away a complete suit of armour which he had bought in that city. It is not, however, till 1388 that we find Lyon accorded the Royal style. In that year a payment is made "_Leoni regi heraldorum_," but at the audit following the battle of Otterburn he is called _defunctus_, which suggests that he had been slain on that well-fought field. The Lyon appears in several embassies about this period both to England and France, and one Henry Greve, designed in the English Issue Rolls as "King of Scottish Heralds," was at the Tower of London in 1399, either at or immediately after the coronation of Henry IV. From 1391 onwards there is frequent mention of one Douglas, "Herald of the King," and in 1421 he is styled "Lyon Herald." Of the German officers of arms they, like the English, are divided into three classes, known as _Wappenkönige_, _Herolde_, and _Persevanten_. These, like our own officers, had peculiar titles; for example _Suchenwirt_ (an Austrian ducal herald), _Lub-den Frumen_ (a Lichtenstein pursuivant), _Jerusalem_ (a herald of the Limmer Palatinate), _Romreich_ (an Imperial herald). About the middle of the sixteenth century, the official names of the heralds fell into disuse; they began to make use of their ancestral names with the title of _Edel_ and _Ehrenvest_ (noble and honourable), but this did not last long, and the heralds found themselves thrown back {41} into the old ways, into which the knightly accoutrements had already wandered. [Illustration: FIG. 14.--The velvet tabard of Sir William Dugdale, Garter King of Arms from 26th April 1677 to 10th February 1686.] [Illustration: FIG. 15.--William Bruges, the first Garter King of Arms, appointed 5th January 1420. (From an illuminated MS. in the Museum at Oxford.)] The official dress of an officer of arms as such in Great Britain is merely his tabard (Figs. 13, 14, 15). This garment in style and shape has remained unchanged in this country from the earliest known period of which representations of officers of arms exist; but whilst the tabard itself has remained unaltered in its style, the arms thereupon have constantly changed, these always being the arms of the Sovereign for the time being. The costume worn with the tabard has naturally been subject to many changes, but it is doubtful if any attempt to regulate such costume was ever officially made prior to the reign of Queen Victoria. The tabard of a pursuivant is of damask silk; that of a herald, of satin; and that of a king of arms, of velvet. The initial letter on page 1 is a portrait of John Smert, Garter King of Arms, and is taken from the grant of arms to the Tallow Chandlers' Company, dated 24th September 1456. He is there represented as wearing beneath his tabard black breeches and coat, and a golden crown. But Fig. 15 is actually a representation of the first Garter King of Arms, William Bruges, appointed 5th January 1420. He is represented as carrying a white staff, a practice which has been recently revived, white wands being carried by all the heralds at the public funeral of the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone. In Germany the wands of the heralds were later painted with the colours of the escutcheons of the Sovereign to whom they were attached. There was until recently no official hat for an officer of arms in England, and confirmation of this is to be found in the fact that Dallaway mentions a special licence to Wriothesley Garter giving him permission to wear a cap on account of his great age. Obviously, however, a tabard requires other clothing to be worn with it. The heralds in Scotland, until quite recently, when making public proclamations were content to appear in the ordinary elastic-side boots and cloth trousers of everyday life. This gave way for a brief period, in which Court dress was worn below the tabard, but now, as in England, the recognised uniform of a member of the Royal Household is worn. In England, owing to the less frequent ceremonial appearances of the heralds, and the more scrupulous control {42} which has been exercised, no such anachronisms as were perpetuated in Scotland have been tolerated, and it has been customary for the officers of arms to wear their uniform as members of the Sovereign's Household (in which uniform they attend the levees) beneath the tabard when making proclamations at the opening of Parliament or on similar occasions. At a coronation and at some other full State ceremonies they wear knee-breeches. At the late ceremony of the coronation of King Edward VII., a head-dress was designed for the officers of arms. These caps are of black velvet embroidered at the {43} side with a rose, a thistle, or a harp, respectively for the English, Scottish, and Irish officers of arms. [Illustration: FIG. 16.--A Herald. (_Temp._ Hen. VIII.)] [Illustration: FIG. 17.--A State Trumpeter. (_Temp._ Hen. VIII.)] A great deal of confusion has arisen between the costume and the functions of a Herald and a Trumpeter, though the confusion has been confined to the minds of the uninitiated and the theatrical stage. The whole subject was very amusingly dealt with in the _Genealogical Magazine_ in an article by Mr. G. Ambrose Lee, Bluemantle, and the illustrations which he gives of the relative dresses of the Heralds and the Trumpeters at different periods (see Figs. 16-19) are interesting. Briefly, the matter can be summed up in the statement that there never was a Trumpeter who made a proclamation, or wore a tabard, and there never was a Herald who blew a trumpet. The Trumpeters nearly {44} always accompanied the Heralds to proclaim their presence and call attention to their proclamation. [Illustration: FIG. 18.--A State Trumpeter and a Herald at the coronation of James I.] In France the Heralds were formed into an incorporation by Charles VI. in 1406, their head being Mountjoye, King of Arms, with ten heralds and pursuivants under him. It will be noticed that this incorporation is earlier than that of the College of Arms in England. The Revolution played havoc with the French Records, and no College of Arms now exists in France. But it is doubtful whether at any time it reached the dignity or authority which its English counterpart has enjoyed in former times. Fig. 20 represents a French Herald of the early part of the fifteenth century. It is taken from a representation of the Rally of the Parisians against King Charles VI. in 1413, to be found in a MS. edition of Froissart, formerly in the Royal Library at Paris. All the heralds and Kings of Arms (but not the pursuivants) wear the curious collar of SS about which there has been so much discussion. {45} The form has remained unchanged, save that the badge is the badge for the time being of the Sovereign. The heralds have their collars of SS of silver, whilst those of a King of Arms are of silver gilt, and the latter have the further distinction that a portcullis is introduced on each shoulder. The heralds and Kings of Arms usually place these collars round their shields in representations of their arms. Collars of SS are also worn by Serjeants-at-Arms, and by the Lord Chief Justice. [Illustration: FIG. 19.--Peace proclaimed at the Royal Exchange after the Crimean War.] The English Heralds have no equivalent badge to that which the Scottish Heralds wear suspended from their necks by a ribbon. In Ireland both Heralds and Pursuivants wear a badge. In addition each King of Arms has his crown; the only occasion, however, upon which this is worn being at the ceremony of a coronation. The crown is of silver gilt, formed of a circle upon which is inscribed part of the first verse of the 51st Psalm, viz. "Miserere mei Deus secundum magnam misericordiam tuam": the rim is surmounted of sixteen leaves, in shape resembling the oak-leaf, every alternate one being somewhat higher than the remainder. Nine of these leaves are shown in a representation of it. The cap is of crimson satin, closed at the top by a gold tassel, and turned up with ermine. Garter King of Arms has a baton or "sceptre" of silver gilt, about two feet in length, the top being of gold, of four sides of equal height, {46} but of unequal breadth. On the two larger sides are the arms of St. George impaling the Sovereign's, and on the two lesser sides the arms of St. George surrounded by the Garter and motto, the whole ensigned with an Imperial crown. This "sceptre" has sometimes been placed in bend behind the arms of Garter King. Lyon King of Arms has a baton of blue enamel with gold extremities, the baton being powdered with roses, thistles, and fleurs-de-lis. Lyon (Sir James Balfour Paul) in his "Heraldry in relation to Scottish History and Art," remarks that this is one of the few pieces of British official regalia which is still adorned with the ancient ensigns of France. But knowing how strictly all official regalia in England is required to have the armorial devices thereupon changed, as the Royal arms and badges change, there can be very little doubt that the appearance of the fleur-de-lis in this case is due to an oversight. The baton happens to be that of a former Lyon King of Arms, which really should long since have been discarded and a new one substituted. Two batons are usually placed in saltire behind the arms of Lyon King of Arms. [Illustration: FIG. 20.--A French Herald of the early part of the fifteenth century.] Ulster King of Arms has a staff of office which, however, really belongs to his office as Knight Attendant on the Most Illustrious Order of St. Patrick. The Scottish Heralds each have a rod of ebony tipped with ivory, {47} which has been sometimes stated to be a rod of office. This, however, is not the case, and the explanation of their possession of it is very simple. They are constantly called upon by virtue of their office to make from the Market Cross in Edinburgh the Royal Proclamations. Now these Proclamations are read from printed copies which in size of type and paper are always of the nature of a poster. The Herald would naturally find some difficulty in holding up a large piece of paper of this size on a windy day, in such a manner that it was easy to read from; consequently he winds it round his ebony staff, slowly unwinding it all the time as he reads. Garter King of Arms, Lyon King of Arms, and Ulster King of Arms all possess badges of their offices which they wear about their necks. The badge of Garter is of gold, having on both sides the arms of St. George, impaled with those of the Sovereign, within the Garter and motto, enamelled in their proper colours, and ensigned with the Royal crown. The badge of Lyon King of Arms is oval, and is worn suspended by a broad green ribbon. The badge proper consists on the obverse of the effigy of St. Andrew bearing his cross before him, with a thistle beneath, all enamelled in the proper colours on an azure ground. The reverse contains the arms of Scotland, having in the lower parts of the badge a thistle, as on the other side; the whole surmounted with the Imperial crown. The badge of "Ulster" is of gold, containing on one side the cross of St. Patrick, or, as it is described in the statutes, "The cross gules of the Order upon a field argent, impaled with the arms of the Realm of Ireland," and both encircled with the motto, "Quis Separabit," and the date of the institution of the Order, MDCCLXXXIII. The reverse exhibits the arms of the office of Ulster, viz.: "Or, a cross gules, on a chief of the last a lion of England between a harp and portcullis, all of the first," placed on a ground of green enamel, surrounded by a gold border with shamrocks, surmounted by an Imperial crown, and suspended by a sky-blue riband from the neck. The arms of the Corporation of the College of Arms are: Argent, a cross gules between four doves, the dexter wing of each expanded and inverted azure. Crest: on a ducal coronet or, a dove rising azure. Supporters: two lions rampant guardant argent, ducally gorged or. The official arms of the English Kings of Arms are:-- _Garter King of Arms._--Argent, a cross gules, on a chief azure, a ducal coronet encircled with a garter, between a lion passant guardant on the dexter and a fleur-de-lis on the sinister all or. _Clarenceux King of Arms._--Argent, a cross gules, on a chief of the second a lion passant guardant or, crowned of the last. {48} _Norroy King of Arms._--Argent, a cross gules, on a chief of the second a lion passant guardant crowned of the first, between a fleur-de-lis on the dexter and a key on the sinister of the last. Badges have never been officially assigned to the various Heralds by any specific instruments of grant or record; but from a remote period certain of the Royal badges relating to their titles have been used by various Heralds, viz.:-- _Lancaster._--The red rose of Lancaster ensigned by the Royal crown. _York._--The white rose of York en soleil ensigned by the Royal crown. _Richmond._--The red rose of Lancaster impaled with the white rose en soleil of York, the whole ensigned with the Royal crown. _Windsor._--Rays of the sun issuing from clouds. The four Pursuivants make use of the badges from which they derive their titles. The official arms of Lyon King of Arms and of Lyon Office are the same, namely: Argent, a lion sejant full-faced gules, holding in the dexter paw a thistle slipped vert and in the sinister a shield of the second; on a chief azure, a St. Andrew's cross of the field. There are no official arms for Ulster's Office, that office, unlike the College of Arms, not being a corporate body, but the official arms of Ulster King of Arms are: Or, a cross gules, on a chief of the last a lion passant guardant between a harp and a portcullis all of the field. {49} CHAPTER IV HERALDIC BRASSES BY REV. WALTER J. KAYE, JUNR., B.A., F.S.A., F.S.A. SCOT. _Member of the Monumental Brass Society, London; Honorary Member of the Spalding Gentlemen's Society; Author of "A Brief History of Gosberton, in the County of Lincoln."_ Monumental brasses do not merely afford a guide to the capricious changes of fashion in armour, in ecclesiastical vestments (which have altered but little), and in legal, civilian, and feminine costume, but they provide us also with a vast number of admirable specimens of heraldic art. The vandal and the fanatic have robbed us of many of these beautiful memorials, but of those which survive to our own day the earliest on the continent of Europe marks the last resting-place of Abbot Ysowilpe, 1231, at Verden, in Hanover. In England there was once a brass, which unfortunately disappeared long ago, to an Earl of Bedford, in St. Paul's Church, Bedford, of the year 1208, leaving 1277 as the date of the earliest one. Latten (Fr. _laiton_), the material of which brasses were made, was at an early date manufactured in large quantities at Cologne, whence plates of this metal came to be known as cullen (Köln) plates; these were largely exported to other countries, and the Flemish workmen soon attained the greatest proficiency in their engraving. Flemish brasses are usually large and rectangular, having the space between the figure and the marginal inscription filled either by diaper work or by small figures in niches. Brasses vary considerably in size: the matrix of Bishop Beaumont's brass in Durham Cathedral measures about 16 feet by 8 feet, and the memorial to Griel van Ruwescuere, in the chapel of the Lady Superior of the Béguinage at Bruges, is only about 1 foot square. Brazen effigies are more numerous in England in the eastern and southern counties, than in parts more remote from the continent of Europe. Armorial bearings are displayed in a great variety of ways on monumental brasses, some of which are exhibited in the rubbings selected for illustration. In most cases separate shields are placed above and below the figures. They occur also in the spandrils of canopies and {50} in the shafts and finials of the same, as well as in the centre and at the angles of border-fillets. They naturally predominate in the memorials of warriors, where we find them emblazoned not only on shield and pennon but on the scabbard and ailettes, and on the jupon, tabard, and cuirass also, while crests frequently occur on the tilting-helm. In one case (the brass of Sir Peter Legh, 1527, at Winwick, co. Lancaster) they figure upon the priestly chasuble. Walter Pescod, the merchant of Boston, Lincolnshire, 1398, wears a gown adorned with peascods--a play upon his name; and many a merchant's brass bears his coat of arms and merchant's mark beside, pointing a moral to not a few at the present day. The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries witnessed the greatest profusion in heraldic decoration in brasses, when the tabard and the heraldic mantle were evolved. A good example of the former remains in the parish church of Ormskirk, Lancashire, in the brass commemorating a member of the Scarisbrick family, _c._ 1500 (Fig. 21). Ladies were accustomed at this time to wear their husband's arms upon the mantle or outer garment and their own upon the kirtle, but the fashion which obtained at a subsequent period was to emblazon the husband's arms on the dexter and their own on the sinister side of the mantle (Fig. 22). [Illustration: FIG. 21.--Brass in the Scarisbrick Chapel of Ormskirk Church, co. Lancs., to a member of the Scarisbrick family of that name. Arms: Gules, three mullets in bend between two bendlets engrailed argent. (From a rubbing by Walter J. Kaye.)] [Illustration: FIG. 22.--Brass of Margaret (daughter of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland), second wife of Henry, 1st Earl of Cumberland, in Skipton Parish Church. Arms: On the dexter side those of the Earl of Cumberland, on the sinister side those of Percy.] The majority of such monuments, as we behold them now, are destitute of any indications of metals or tinctures, largely owing to the action of the varying degrees of temperature in causing contraction and expansion. Here and there, however, we may still detect traces of their pristine glory. But these matters received due attention from the engraver. To represent _or_, he left the surface of the brass untouched, except for gilding or perhaps polishing; this universal method has solved many heraldic problems. Lead or some other white metal was inlaid to indicate _argent_, and the various tinctures were supplied by the excision of a portion of the plate, thereby forming a depression, which was filled up by pouring in some resinous substance of the requisite colour. The various kinds of fur used in armory may be readily distinguished, with the sole exception of _vair_ (_argent_ and _azure_), which presents the appearance of a row of small upright shields alternating with a similar row reversed. [Illustration: FIG. 23.--Brass of Sir John D'Aubernoun at Stoke D'Abernon. Arms: Azure, a chevron or. (From a rubbing by Walter J. Kaye.)] [Illustration: FIG. 24.--Brass of Sir Roger de Trumpington at Trumpington. Arms: Azure, crusilly and two trumpets palewise or. (From a rubbing by Walter J. Kaye.)] The earliest brass extant in England is that to Sir John D'Aubernoun, the elder (Fig. 23), at Stoke D'Abernon, in Surrey, which carries us back to the year 1277. The simple marginal inscription in Norman-French, surrounding the figure, and each Lombardic capital of which is set in its own matrix, reads: "Sire: John: Daubernoun: Chivaler: Gist: Icy: Deu: De: Sa: Alme: Eyt: Mercy:"[3] In the space {51} between the inscription and the upper portion of the figure were two small shields, of which the dexter one alone remains, charged with the arms of the knight: "Azure, a chevron, or." Sir John D'Aubernoun is represented in a complete panoply of chain mail--his head being protected by a _coif de mailles_, which is joined to the _hauberk_ or mail {52} shirt, which extends to the hands, having apparently no divisions for the fingers, and being tightened by straps at the wrists. The legs, which are not crossed, are covered by long _chausses_, or stockings of mail, {53} protected at the knees by _poleyns_ or _genouillères_ of _cuir bouilli_ richly ornamented by elaborate designs. A surcoat, probably of linen, depends from the shoulders to a little below the knees, and is cut away to a point above {54} the knee. This garment is tightly confined (as the creases in the surcoat show) at the waist by a girdle, and over it is passed a _guige_ whereto the long sword is attached. "Pryck" spurs are fixed to the instep, and the feet rest upon a lion, whose mouth grasps the lower portion of a lance. The lance bears a pennon charged with a chevron, as also is the small heater-shaped shield borne on the knight's left arm. The whole composition measures about eight feet by three. Heraldry figures more prominently in our second illustration, the brass to Sir Roger de Trumpington, 1289 (Fig. 24). This fine effigy lies under the canopy of an altar-tomb, so called, in the Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Trumpington, Cambridgeshire. It portrays the knight in armour closely resembling that already described, with these exceptions: the head rests upon a huge _heaume_, or tilting-helm, attached by a chain to the girdle, and the neck is here protected from side-thrusts by _ailettes_ or oblong plates fastened behind the shoulders, and bearing the arms of Sir Roger. A dog here replaces the lion at the feet, the lance and pennon are absent, and the shield is rounded to the body. On this brass the arms not only occur upon the shield, but also upon the ailettes, and are four times repeated on the scabbard. They afford a good example of "canting" arms: "Azure, crusilly and two trumpets palewise or, with a label of five points in chief, for difference." It is interesting also to notice that the engraver had not {55} completed his task, for the short horizontal lines across the dexter side of the shield indicate his intention of cutting away the surface of the field. [Illustration: FIG. 25.--Brass of Sir Robert de Septvans in Chartham Church.] [Illustration: FIG. 26.--Brass of Sir William de Aldeburgh at Aldborough, Yorks. Arms: Azure, a fesse argent between three cross crosslets or. (From a rubbing by Walter J. Kaye.)] Sir Robert de Setvans (formerly Septvans), whose beautiful brass may be seen at Chartham, Kent, is habited in a surcoat whereon, together with the shield and ailettes, are seven winnowing fans--another instance of canting arms (Fig. 25). This one belongs to a somewhat later date, 1307. [Illustration: FIG. 27.--Brass of Elizabeth Knevet.] Our next example is a mural effigy to Sir William de Aldeburgh, _c._ 1360, from the north aisle of Aldborough Church, near Boroughbridge, Yorkshire (Fig. 26). He is attired like the "veray parfite gentil knight" of Chaucer, in a _bascinet_ or steel cap, to which is laced the _camail_ or tippet of chain mail, and a hauberk almost concealed by a _jupon_, whereon are emblazoned his arms: "Azure, a fess indented argent, between three crosslets botony, or." The first crosslet is charged with an annulet, probably as a mark of cadency. The engraver has omitted the indenture upon the fess, which, however, appears upon the shield. The knight's arms are protected by _epaulières_, _brassarts_, _coutes_, and _vambraces_; his hands, holding a heart, by gauntlets of steel. An elaborate baldric passes round his waist, from which are suspended, on the left, a cross-hilted sword, in a slightly ornamented scabbard; on the right, a _misericorde_, or dagger of mercy. The thighs are covered by cuisses--steel plates, here deftly concealed probably by satin or velvet secured by metal studs--the knees by _genouillères_, the lower leg by _jambes_, which reveal chausses of mail at the interstices. Sollerets, or long, pointed shoes, whereto are attached rowel spurs, complete his outfit. The figure stands upon a bracket bearing the name "Will's de Aldeburgh." The parish church of Eastington, Gloucestershire, contains a brass to Elizabeth Knevet, which is illustrated and described by Mr. Cecil T. Davis at p. 117 of his excellent work on the "Monumental Brasses of Gloucestershire."[4] The block (Fig. 27), which presents a good example of the heraldic mantle, has been very kindly placed at my disposal by Mr. Davis. To confine our description to the heraldic portion of the brass, we find the following arms upon the mantle:-- "Quarterly, 1. argent, a bend sable, within a bordure engrailed azure (Knevet); 2. argent, a bend azure, and chief, gules (Cromwell); 3. chequy or and gules, a chief ermine (Tatshall); 4. chequy or and gules, a bend ermine (De Cailly or Clifton); 5. paly of six within a bordure bezanté.... 6. bendy of six, a canton...."[5] A coat of arms occurs also at each corner of the slab: "Nos. 1 and 4 are on ordinary shields, and 2 and 3 on lozenges. Nos. 1 and {56} 3 are charged with the same bearings as are on her mantle. No. 2, on a lozenge, quarterly, 1. Knevet; 2. Cromwell; 3. Tatshall; 4. Cailli; 5. De Woodstock; 6. paly of six within a bordure; 7. bendy of six, a canton; 8. or, a chevron gules (Stafford); 9. azure, a bend cottised between six lioncels rampant, or (de Bohun). No. 4 similar to No. 1, with the omission of 2 and 3." In later times thinner plates of metal were employed, a fact which largely contributed to preclude much of the boldness in execution hitherto displayed. A prodigality in shading, either by means of parallel lines or by cross-hatching, also tended to mar the beauty of later work of this kind. Nevertheless there are some good brasses of the Stuart period. These sometimes consist of a single quadrangular plate, with the upper portion occupied by armorial bearings and emblematical figures, the centre by an inscription, and the lower portion by a representation of the deceased, as at Forcett, in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Frequently, however, as at Rotherham and Rawmarsh, in the West Riding of the same county, the inscription is surmounted by a view of the whole family, the father kneeling on a cushion at a fald-stool, with his sons in a similar attitude behind him, and the mother likewise engaged with her daughters on the opposite side, while the armorial insignia find a place on separate shields above. {57} CHAPTER V THE COMPONENT PARTS OF AN ACHIEVEMENT We now come to the science of armory and the rules governing the display of these marks of honour. The term "coat of arms," as we have seen, is derived from the textile garment or "surcoat" which was worn over the armour, and which bore in embroidery a duplication of the design upon the shield. There can be very little doubt that arms themselves are older than the fact of the surcoat or the term "coat of arms." The entire heraldic or armorial decoration which any one is entitled to bear may consist of many things. It must as a minimum consist of a shield of arms, for whilst there are many coats of arms in existence, and many still rightly in use at the present day, to which no crest belongs, a crest in this country cannot lawfully exist without its complementary coat of arms. For the last two certainly, and probably nearly three centuries, no original grant of personal arms has ever been issued without it containing the grant of a crest except in the case of a grant to a woman, who of course cannot bear or transmit a crest; or else in the case of arms borne in right of women or descent from women, through whom naturally no right to a crest could have been transmitted. The grants which I refer to as exceptions are those of quarterings and impalements to be borne with other arms, or else exemplifications following upon the assumption of name and arms which in fact and theory are regrants of previously existing arms, in which cases the regrant is of the original coat with or without a crest, as the case may be, and as the arms theretofor existed. Grants of impersonal arms also need not include a crest. As it has been impossible for the last two centuries to obtain a grant of arms without its necessarily accompanying grant of crest, a decided distinction attaches to the lawful possession of arms which have no crest belonging to them, for of necessity the arms must be at least two hundred years old. Bearing this in mind, one cannot but wonder at the actions of some ancient families like those of Astley and Pole, who, lawfully possessing arms concerning which there is and can be no doubt or question, yet nevertheless invent and use crests which have no authority. One instance and one only do I know where a crest has had a {58} legitimate existence without any coat of arms. This case is that of the family of Buckworth, who at the time of the Visitations exhibited arms and crest. The arms infringed upon those of another family, and no sufficient proof could be produced to compel their admission as borne of right. The arms were respited for further proof, while the crest was allowed, presumably tentatively, and whilst awaiting the further proof for the arms; no proof, however, was made. The arms and crest remained in this position until the year 1806, when Sir Buckworth Buckworth-Herne, whose father had assumed the additional name of Herne, obtained a Royal Licence to bear the name of Soame in addition to and after those of Buckworth-Herne, with the arms of Soame quarterly with the arms of Buckworth. It then became necessary to prove the right to these arms of Buckworth, and they were accordingly regranted with the trifling addition of an ermine spot upon the chevron; consequently this solitary instance has now been rectified, and I cannot learn of any other instance where these exceptional circumstances have similarly occurred; and there never has been a grant of a crest alone unless arms have been in existence previously. Whilst arms may exist alone, and the decoration of a shield form the only armorial ensign of a person, such need not be the case; and it will usually be found that the armorial bearings of an ordinary commoner consist of shield, crest, and motto. To these must naturally be added the helmet and mantling, which become an essential to other than an abbreviated achievement when a crest has to be displayed. It should be remembered, however, that the helmet is not specifically granted, and apparently is a matter of inherent right, so that a person would not be in the wrong in placing a helmet and mantling above a shield even when no crest exists to surmount the helmet. The motto is usually to be found but is not a necessity, and there are many more coats of arms which have never been used with a motto than shields which exist without a crest. Sometimes a _cri-de-guerre_ will be found instead of or in addition to a motto. The escutcheon may have supporters, or it may be displayed upon an eagle or a lymphad, &c., for which particular additions no other generic term has yet been coined save the very inclusive one of "exterior ornaments." A coronet of rank may form a part of the achievement, and the shield may be encircled by the "ribbons" or the "circles" or by the Garter, of the various Orders of Knighthood, and by their collars. Below it may depend the badge of a Baronet of Nova Scotia, or of an Order of Knighthood, and added to it may possibly be what is termed a compartment, though this is a feature almost entirely peculiar to Scottish armory. There is also the crowning distinction of a badge; and of all armorial insignia this is the most cherished, for the existing badges {59} are but few in number. The escutcheon may be placed in front of the crosiers of a bishop, the batons of the Earl Marshal, or similar ornaments. It may be displayed upon a mantle of estate, or it may be borne beneath a pavilion. With two more additions the list is complete, and these are the banner and the standard. For these several features of armory reference must be made to the various chapters in which they are treated. Suffice it here to remark that whilst the term "coat of arms" has through the slipshod habits of English philology come to be used to signify a representation of any heraldic bearing, the correct term for the whole emblazonment is an "achievement," a term most frequently employed to signify the whole, but which can correctly be used to signify anything which a man is entitled to represent of an armorial character. Had not the recent revival of interest in armory taken place, we should have found a firmly rooted and even yet more slipshod declension, for a few years ago the habit of the uneducated in styling anything stamped upon a sheet of note-paper "a crest," was fast becoming stereotyped into current acceptance. {60} CHAPTER VI THE SHIELD The shield is the most important part of the achievement, for on it are depicted the signs and emblems of the house to which it appertains; the difference marks expressive of the cadency of the members within that house; the augmentations of honour which the Sovereign has conferred; the quarterings inherited from families which are represented, and the impalements of marriage; and it is with the shield principally that the laws of armory are concerned, for everything else is dependent upon the shield, and falls into comparative insignificance alongside of it. Let us first consider the shield itself, without reference to the charges it carries. A shield may be depicted in any fashion and after any shape that the imagination can suggest, which shape and fashion have been accepted at any time as the shape and fashion of a shield. There is no law upon the subject. The various shapes adopted in emblazonments in past ages, and used at the present time in imitation of past usage--for luckily the present period has evolved no special shield of its own--are purely the result of artistic design, and have been determined at the periods they have been used in heraldic art by no other consideration than the particular theory of design that has happened to dominate the decoration, and the means and ends of such decoration of that period. The lozenge certainly is reserved for and indicative of the achievements of the female sex, but, save for this one exception, the matter may be carried further, and arms be depicted upon a banner, a parallelogram, a square, a circle, or an oval; and even then one would be correct, for the purposes of armory, in describing such figures as shields on all occasions on which they are made the vehicles for the emblazonment of a design which properly and originally should be borne upon a shield. Let no one think that a design ceases to be a coat of arms if it is not displayed upon a shield. Many people have thought to evade the authority of the Crown as the arbiter of coat-armour, and the penalties of taxation imposed by the Revenue by using designs without depicting them upon a shield. This little deception has always been borne in mind, {61} for we find in the Royal Warrants of Queen Elizabeth commanding the Visitations that the King of Arms to whom the warrant was addressed was to "correcte, cumptrolle and refourme all mann' of armes, crests, cognizaunces and devices unlawfull or unlawfully usurped, borne or taken by any p'son or p'sons within the same p'vince cont^ary to the due order of the laws of armes, and the same to rev'se, put downe or otherwise deface at his discrecon as well in coote armors, helmes, standerd, pennons and hatchmets of tents and pavilions, as also in plate jewells, pap', parchement, wyndowes, gravestones and monuments, or elsewhere wheresoev' they be sett or placed, whether they be in shelde, schoocheon, lozenge, square, rundell or otherwise howsoev' cont^arie to the autentiq' and auncient lawes, customes, rules, privileges and orders of armes." [Illustration: FIG. 28.--Taken from the tomb of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou.] The Act 32 & 33 Victoria, section 19, defines (for the purpose of the taxation it enforced) armorial bearings to mean and include "any armorial bearing, crest, or ensign, by whatever name the same shall be called, and whether such armorial bearing, crest, or ensign shall be registered in the College of Arms or not." The shape of the shield throughout the rest of Europe has also varied between wide extremes, and at no time has any one particular shape been assigned to or peculiar to any country, rank, or condition, save possibly with one exception, namely, that the use of the cartouche or oval seems to have been very nearly universal with ecclesiastics in France, Spain, and Italy, though never reserved exclusively for their use. Probably this was an attempt on the part of the Church to get away from the military character of the shield. It is in keeping with the rule by which, even at the present day, a bishop or a cardinal bears neither helmet nor crest, using in place thereof his ecclesiastical mitre or tasselled hat, and by which the clergy, both abroad and in this country, seldom made use of a crest in depicting their arms. A clergyman in this country, however, has never been denied the right of using a crest (if he possesses one and chooses to display it) until he reaches episcopal rank. A grant of arms to a clergyman at the present day depicts his achievement with helmet, mantling, and crest in identical form with those adopted for any one else. But the laws of armory, official and amateur, have always denied the right to make use of a crest to bishop, archbishop, and cardinal. At the present day, if a grant of arms is made to a bishop of the Established Church, the emblazonment at the head of his patent consists of shield and mitre only. The laws of the Church of England, however, require no vow of celibacy from its ecclesiastics, and consequently the descendants of a bishop would be placed in the position of having no crest to display if the bishop and his requirements were {62} alone considered. So that in the case of a grant to a bishop the crest is granted for his descendants in a separate clause, being depicted by itself in the body of the patent apart from the emblazonment "in the margin hereof," which in an ordinary patent is an emblazonment of the whole achievement. A similar method is usually adopted in cases in which the actual patentee is a woman, and where, by the limitations attached to the patent being extended beyond herself, males are brought in who will bear the arms granted to the patentee as their pronominal arms. In these cases the arms of the patentee are depicted upon a lozenge at the head of the patent, the crest being depicted separately elsewhere. Whilst shields were actually used in warfare the utilitarian article largely governed the shape of the artistic representation, but after the fifteenth century the latter gradually left the beaten track of utility and passed wholly into the cognisance of art and design. The earliest shape of all is the long, narrow shape, which is now but seldom seen. This was curved to protect the body, which it nearly covered, and an interesting example of this is to be found in the monumental slab of champlevé enamel, part of the tomb of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou (Fig. 28), the ancestor of our own Royal dynasty of Plantagenet, who died in the year 1150. This tomb was formerly in the cathedral of Le Mans, and is now in the museum there. I shall have occasion again to refer to it. The shield is blue; the lions are gold. Other forms of the same period are found with curved tops, in the shape of an inverted pear, but the form known as the heater-shaped shield is to all intents and purposes the earliest shape which was used for armorial purposes. The church of St. Elizabeth at Marburg, in Hesse, affords examples of shields which are exceedingly interesting, inasmuch as they are {63} original and contemporary even if only pageant shields. Those which now remain are the shields of the Landgrave Konrad (d. 1241) of Thuringia and of Henry of Thuringia (d. 1298). The shield of the former (see Fig. 29) is 90 centimetres high and 74 wide. Konrad was Landgrave of Thuringia and Grand Master of the Teutonic Order of Knighthood. His arms show the lion of Thuringia barry of gules and argent on a field of azure, and between the hind feet a small shield, with the arms of the Teutonic Order of Knights. The only remains of the lion's mane are traces of the nails. The body of the lion is made of pressed leather, and the yellow claws have been supplied with a paint-brush. A precious stone probably represented the eye. [Illustration: FIG. 29.--Shield of the Landgrave Konrad of Thuringia (died 1241).] The making and decorating of the shields lay mostly in the hands of the herald painters, known in Germany as _Schilter_, who, in addition to attending to the shield and crest, also had charge of all the riding paraphernalia, because most of the articles comprised therein were {64} heraldically decorated. Many of these shield-workers' fraternities won widespread fame for themselves, and enjoyed great consideration at that time. Thus the "History of a Celebrated Painters' Guild on the Lower Rhine" tells us of costly shields which the shield-workers of Paris had supplied, 1260, &c. Vienna, too, was the home of a not unimportant shield-workers' guild, and the town archives of Vienna contain writings of the fifteenth century treating of this subject. For instance, we learn that in an order of St. Luke's parish, June 28, 1446, with regard to the masterpiece of a member of the guild-- "Item, a shield-worker shall make four new pieces of work with his own hand, a jousting saddle, a leather apron, a horse's head-piece, and a jousting shield, that shall he do in eight weeks, and must be able to paint it with his own hand, as Knight and man-at-arms shall direct." The shield was of wood, covered with linen or leather, the charges in relief and painted. Leather plastic was very much esteemed in the early Middle Ages. The leather was soaked in oil, and pressed or beaten into shape. Besides piecing and leather plastic, pressed linen (linen dipped in chalk and lime) was also used, and a kind of tempera painting on a chalk background. After the shield was decorated with the charges, it was frequently strengthened with metal clasps, or studs, particularly those parts which were more especially exposed to blows and pressure. These clasps and nails originally had no other object than to make the shield stronger and more durable, but later on their nature was misunderstood; they were treated and used as genuine heraldic charges, and stereotyped into hereditary designs. The long strips with which the edge was bound were called the "frame" (_Schildgestell_), the clasps introduced in the middle of the shield the "buckle" or "umbo" (see on Fig. 28), from which frequently circularly arranged metal snaps reached the edge of the shield. This latter method of strengthening the shield was called the "Buckelrîs," a figure which was afterwards frequently employed as a heraldic charge, and is known in Germany by the name of _Lilienhaspel_ (Lily-staple) or _Glevenrad_, or, as we term it in England, the escarbuncle. In the second half of the fourteenth century, when the tournament provided the chief occasion for the shield, the jousting-shield, called in Germany the _Tartsche_ or _Tartscher_, came into use, and from this class of shield the most varied shapes were gradually developed. These _Tartschen_ were decidedly smaller than the earlier Gothic shields, being only about one-fifth of a man's height. They were concave, and had on the side of the knight's right hand a circular indentation. This was the spear-rest, in which to place the tilting-spear. The later {65} art of heraldic decoration symmetrically repeated the spear-rest on the sinister side of the shield, and, by so doing, transformed a useful fact into a matter of mere artistic design. Doubtless it was argued that if indentations were correct at one point in the outline they were correct at another, and when once the actual fact was departed from the imagination of designers knew no limits. But if the spear-rest as such is introduced into the outline of a shield it should be on the dexter side. [Illustration: FIG. 30.] [Illustration: FIG. 31.] [Illustration: FIG. 32.] Reverting to the various shapes of shield, however, the degeneration is explained by a remark of Mr. G. W. Eve in the able book which he has recently published under the title of "Decorative Heraldry," in which, alluding to heraldic art in general, he says (p. 235):-- "With the Restoration heraldry naturally became again conspicuous, with the worst form of the Renaissance character in full sway, the last vestiges of the Gothic having disappeared. Indeed, the contempt with which the superseded style was regarded amounted to fanaticism, and explains, in a measure, how so much of good could be relinquished in favour of so weak a successor." Later came the era of gilded embellishments, of flowing palms, of borders decorated with grinning heads, festoons of ribbon, and fruit and flowers in abundance. The accompanying examples are reproduced from a book, Knight and Rumley's "Heraldry." The book is not particularly well known to the public, inasmuch as its circulation was entirely confined to heraldic artists, coach-painters, engravers, and die-sinkers. Amongst these handicraftsmen its reputation was and is great. With the school of design it adopted, little or no sympathy now exists, but a short time ago (how short many of those who are now vigorous advocates of the Gothic and mediæval styles would be startled to realise were they to recognise actual facts) no other style was known or considered by the public. As examples of that style the plates of Knight and Rumley were admittedly far in advance of any other book, and as specimens of copperplate engraving they are superb. Figs. 30, 31, and 32 show typical examples of escutcheons from Knight and Rumley; and as the volume was in the hands of most of the heraldic handicraftsmen, it will be found that this type of design was constantly to be met with. The external decoration of the shield was carried to great lengths, and Fig. 31 found many admirers and users amongst the gallant "sea-dogs" of the kingdom. In fact, so far was the idea carried that a trophy of military weapons was actually granted by patent as part of the supporters of the Earl of Bantry. Fig. 30, from the same source, is the military equivalent. These plates are interesting as being some of the examples from which most of the heraldic handicraft of a recent period was adapted. The {66} official shield eventually stereotyped itself into a shape akin to that shown in Fig. 32, though nowadays considerable latitude is permitted. For paintings which are not upon patents the design of the shield rests with the individual taste of the different officers of arms, and recently some of the work for which they have been responsible has reached a high standard judged even by the strictest canons of art. In Scotland, until very recently, the actual workmanship of the emblazonments which were issued from Lyon Office was so wretchedly poor that one is hardly justified in taking them into consideration as a type. With the advent into office of the present Lyon King of Arms (Sir James Balfour Paul), a complete change has been made, and both the workmanship and design of the paintings upon the patents of grant and matriculation, and also in the Lyon Register, have been examples of everything that could be desired. {67} CHAPTER VII THE FIELD OF A SHIELD AND THE HERALDIC TINCTURES The shield itself and its importance in armory is due to its being the vehicle whereon are elaborated the pictured emblems and designs which constitute coat-armour. It should be borne in mind that theoretically all shields are of equal value, saving that a shield of more ancient date is more estimable than one of recent origin, and the shield of the head of the house takes precedence of the same arms when differenced for a younger member of the family. A shield crowded with quarterings is interesting inasmuch as each quartering in the ordinary event means the representation through a female of some other family or branch thereof. But the real value of such a shield should be judged rather by the age of the single quartering which represents the strict male descent male upon male, and a simple coat of arms without quarterings may be a great deal more ancient and illustrious than a shield crowded with coat upon coat. A fictitious and far too great estimation is placed upon the right to display a long string of quarterings. In reality quarterings are no more than accidents, because they are only inherited when the wife happens to be an heiress in blood. It is quite conceivable that there may be families, in fact there are such families, who are able to begin their pedigrees at the time of the Conquest, and who have married a long succession of noble women, all of the highest birth, but yet none of whom have happened to be heiresses. Consequently the arms, though dating from the earliest period at which arms are known, would remain in their simple form without the addition of a solitary quartering. On the other hand, I have a case in mind of a marriage which took place some years ago. The husband is the son of an alien whose original position, if report speaks truly, was that of a pauper immigrant. His wealth and other attributes have placed him in a good social position; but he has no arms, and, as far as the world is aware, no ancestry whatever. Let us now consider his wife's family. Starting soon after the Conquest, its descendants obtained high position and married heiress after heiress, and before the commencement of this century had amassed a shield of quarterings which can readily be proved to be little short of a hundred in number. Probably the number {68} is really much greater. A large family followed in one generation, and one of the younger sons is the ancestor of the aforesaid wife. But the father of this lady never had any sons, and though there are many males of the name to carry on the family in the senior line and also in several younger branches, the wife, by the absence of brothers, happens to be a coheir; and as such she transmits to her issue the right to all the quarterings she has inherited. If the husband ever obtains a grant of arms, the date of them will be subsequent to the present time; but supposing such a grant to be obtained, the children will inevitably inherit the scores of quarterings which belong to their mother. Now it would be ridiculous to suppose that such a shield is better or such a descent more enviable than the shield of a family such as I first described. Quarterings are all very well in their way, but their glorification has been carried too far. A shield which displays an augmentation is of necessity more honourable than one without. At the same time no scale of precedence has ever been laid down below the rank of esquires; and if such precedence does really exist at all, it can only be according to the date of the grant. Here in England the possession of arms carries with it no style or title, and nothing in his designation can differentiate the position of Mr. Scrope of Danby, the male descendant of one of the oldest families in this country, whose arms were upheld in the Scrope and Grosvenor controversy in 1390, or Mr. Daubeney of Cote, from a Mr. Smith, whose known history may have commenced at the Foundling Hospital twenty years ago. In this respect English usage stands apart, for whilst a German is "Von" and a Frenchman was "De," if of noble birth, there is no such apparent distinction in England, and never has been. The result has been that the technical nobility attaching to the possession of arms is overlooked in this country. On the Continent it is usual for a patent creating a title to contain a grant of the arms, because it is recognised that the two are inseparable. This is not now the case in England, where the grant of arms is one thing and the grant of the title another, and where it is possible, as in the case of Lord St. Leonards, to possess a peerage without ever having obtained the first step in rank, which is nobility or gentility. The foregoing is in explanation of the fact that except in the matter of date all shields are equal in value. So much being understood, it is possible to put that consideration on one side, and speaking from the artistically technical point of view, the remark one often hears becomes correct, that the simpler a coat of arms the better. The remark has added truth from the fact that most ancient coats of arms were simple, and many modern coats are far from being worthy of such a description. {69} A coat of arms must consist of at least one thing, to wit, the "field." This is equivalent in ordinary words to the colour of the ground of the shield. A great many writers have asserted that every coat of arms must consist of at least the field, and a charge, though most have mentioned as a solitary exception the arms of Brittany, which were simply "ermine." A plain shield of ermine (Fig. 33) was borne by John of Brittany, Earl of Richmond (d. 1399), though some of his predecessors had relegated the arms of Brittany to a "quarter ermine" upon more elaborate escutcheons (Fig. 61). This idea as to arms of one tincture was, however, exploded in Woodward and Burnett's "Treatise on Heraldry," where no less than forty different examples are quoted. The above-mentioned writer continues: "There is another use of a plain red shield which must not be omitted. In the full quartered coat of some high sovereign princes of Germany--Saxony (duchies), Brandenburg (Prussia), Bavaria, Anhalt--appears a plain red quartering; this is known as the _Blut Fahne_ or _Regalien_ quarter, and is indicative of Royal prerogatives. It usually occupies the base of the shield, and is often diapered." [Illustration: FIG. 33.--Arms of John (de Montfort, otherwise de Bretagne), Duke of Brittany and Earl of Richmond. (From his seal.)] But in spite of the lengthy list which is quoted in Woodward and Burnett, the fact remains that only one British instance is included. The family of Berington of Chester (on the authority of Harleian manuscript No. 1535) is said to bear a plain shield of azure. Personally I doubt this coat of arms for the Berington family of Chester, which is probably connected with the neighbouring family in Shropshire, who in later times certainly used very different arms. The plain shield of ermine is sometimes to be found as a quartering for Brittany in the achievement of those English families who have the right to quarter the Royal arms; but I know of no other British case in which, either as a quartering or as a pronominal coat, arms of one tincture exist. But there are many coats which have no charge, the distinctive device consisting of the partition of the shield in some recognised heraldic method into two or more divisions of different tinctures. Amongst such coats may be mentioned the arms of Waldegrave, which are simply: Party per pale argent and gules; Drummond of Megginch, whose arms are simply: Party per fess wavy or and gules; and the arms of Boyle, which are: Per bend embattled argent and gules. The arms of Berners--which are: Quarterly or and vert--are another example, as are the arms of Campbell (the first quarter in the Duke of Argyll's achievement), which are: Gyronny or and sable. {70} The coat bendy argent and gules, the ancient arms of Talbot, which are still borne as a quartering by the Earl of Shrewsbury, Waterford, and Talbot; and the coat chequy or and azure, a quartering for Warren, which is still borne by the House of Howard, all come within the same category. There are many other coats of this character which have no actual charge upon them. The colour of the shield is termed the field when it consists of only one colour, and when it consists of more than one colour the two together compose the field. The field is usually of one or more of the recognised metals, colours, or furs. The metals are gold and silver, these being termed "or" and "argent." The colours, which are really the "tinctures," if this word is to be used correctly, are: gules (red), azure (blue), vert (green), purpure (purple), and (in spite of the fact that it is not really a colour) black, which is known as sable. The metal gold, otherwise "or," is often represented in emblazonments by yellow: as a matter of fact yellow has always been used for gold in the Register Books of the College of Arms, and Lyon Office has recently reverted to this practice. In ancient paintings and emblazonments the use of yellow was rather more frequent than the use of gold, but gold at all times had its use, and was never discarded. Gold seems to have been usually used upon ancient patents, whilst yellow was used in the registrations of them retained in the Offices of Arms, but I know of no instance in British armory in which the word yellow has been used in a blazon to represent any tint distinct from gold. With regard to the other metal, silver, or, as it is always termed, "argent," the same variation is found in the usage of silver and white in representing argent that we find in yellow and gold, though we find that the use of the actual metal (silver) in emblazonment does not occur to anything like the same extent as does the use of gold. Probably this is due to the practical difficulty that no one has yet discovered a silver medium which does not lose its colour. The use of aluminium was thought to have solved the difficulty, but even this loses its brilliancy, and probably its usage will never be universally adopted. This is a pity, for the use of gold in emblazonments gives a brilliancy in effect to a collection of coat-armour which it is a pity cannot be extended by an equivalent usage of silver. The use of silver upon the patents at the College of Arms has been discontinued some centuries, though aluminium is still in use in Lyon Office. Argent is therefore usually represented either by leaving the surface untouched, or by the use of Chinese white. I believe I am the first heraldic writer to assert the existence of the heraldic colour of white in addition to the heraldic argent. Years ago {71} I came across the statement that a white label belonged only to the Royal Family, and could be used by no one else. I am sorry to say that though I have searched high and low I cannot find the authority for the statement, nor can I learn from any officer of arms that the existence of such a rule is asserted; but there is this curious confirmation that in the warrants by which the various labels are assigned to the different members of the Royal Family, the labels are called white labels. Now the label of the Prince of Wales is of three points and is plain. Heraldry knows nothing of the black lines which in drawing a coat of arms usually appear for the outline of a charge. In older work such lines are absent. In any case they are only mere accidents of draughtsmanship. Bearing this in mind, and bearing in mind that the sinister supporter of the Prince of Wales is a unicorn argent, how on earth is a plain label of argent to be depicted thereupon? Now it is necessary also that the label shall be placed upon the crest, which is a lion statant guardant or, crowned with the coronet of the Prince, and upon the dexter supporter which is another golden lion; to place an argent label upon either is a flat violation of the rule which requires that metal shall not be placed upon metal, nor colour upon colour; but if the unicorn is considered argent, which it is, it would if really depicted in silver be quite possible to paint a white label upon it, for the distinction between white and silver is marked, and a white label upon a gold lion is not metal upon metal. Quite recently a still further and startling confirmation has come under my notice. In the grant of a crest to Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham, the coronet which is to encircle the neck of the leopard is distinctly blazoned argent, the label to which he is previously said to have had a just hereditary right is as distinctly blazoned white, and the whole grant is so short that inadvertence could hardly be pleaded as an explanation for the distinction in blazon. Instances of an official exemplification of coats of arms with labels are not uncommon, because the label in some number of families, for example Courtenay and Prideaux-Brune and Barrington, has become stereotyped into a charge. In none of these cases, however, is it either argent or white, but instances of the exemplification of a coat of arms bearing a label as a mark of cadency are, outside the members of the Royal Family, distinctly rare; they are necessarily so, because outside the Royal Family the label is merely the temporary mark of the eldest son or grandson during the lifetime of the head of the house, and the necessity for the exemplification of the arms of an eldest son can seldom occur. The one circumstance which might provide us with the opportunity is the exemplification consequent upon a change of name and arms by an eldest son during the lifetime of his father; but {72} this very circumstance fails to provide it, because the exemplification only follows a change of arms, and the arms being changed, there no longer exists the necessity for a mark of cadency; so that instances of the official use of a label for cadency are rare, but of such as occur I can learn of none which has received official sanction which blazons the label white. There is, however, one coat which is said to have a label argent as a charge, this is the coat of Fitz-Simon, which is quoted in Papworth, upon the authority of one of the Harleian Manuscripts, as follows: Sable, three crescents, in chief a label of two drops and in fess another of one drop argent; and the same coat of arms is recorded in a funeral entry in Ulster's Office. The label is not here termed white, and it is peculiar that we find it of another colour in another coat of Fitz-Simon (azure, a lion rampant ermine, a label of four point gules). [Illustration: FIG. 34.--Armorial bearings of Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln (d. 1311): Or, a lion rampant purpure. (From his seal.)] Of other colours may be mentioned purpure (purple). This in English heraldry is a perfectly well recognised colour, and though its use is extremely rare in comparison with the others, it will be found too frequently for it to be classed as an exception. The earliest instance of this tincture which I have met with is in the coat of De Lacy (Fig. 34). The Roll of Caerlaverock speaks of his "Baniere ot de un cendall saffrin, O un lion rampant porprin," whilst MS. Cott. Calig. A. xviii. quotes the arms: "_De or, a un lion rampaund de pourpre_." The Burton coat of the well-known Shropshire family of Lingen-Burton is: Quarterly purpure and azure, a cross engrailed or between four roses argent. The Irish baronets of the name of Burton, who claimed descent from this family, bore a very similar coat, namely: Per pale azure and purpure, a cross engrailed or between four roses argent. Two other colours will be found in nearly all text-books of English armory. These are murrey or sanguine, and orange or tenné. The exact tint of murrey is between gules and purpure; and tenné is an orange-tawny colour. They are both "stains," and were perhaps invented by the old heralds for the perpetration of their preposterous system of abatements, which will be found set out in full in the old heraldry books, but which have yet to be found occurring in fact. The subject of abatements is one of those pleasant little insanities which have done so much to the detriment of heraldry. One, and one only, can be said {73} to have had the slightest foundation in fact; that was the entire reversal of the escutcheon in the ceremony of degradation following upon attainder for high treason. Even this, however, was but temporary, for a man forfeited his arms entirely by attainder. They were torn down from his banner of knighthood; they were erased in the records of the College of Arms; but on that one single occasion when he was drawn upon a hurdle to the place of his execution, they are said to have been painted reversed upon paper, which paper was fastened to his breast. But the arms then came to an end, and his descendants possessed none at all. They certainly had not the right to depict their shield upside down (even if they had cared to display such a monstrosity). Unless and until the attainder was reversed, arms (like a title) were void; and the proof of this is to be found in the many regrants of arms made in cases where the attainder has remained, as in the instances of the Earl of Stafford and the ancestor of the present Lord Barnard. But that any person should have been supposed to have been willing to make use of arms carrying an abatement is preposterous, and no instance of such usage is known. Rather would a man decline to bear arms at all; and that any one should have imagined the existence of a person willing to advertise himself as a drunkard or an adulterer, with variations in the latter case according to the personality of his partner in guilt, is idiotic in the extreme. Consequently, as no example of an abatement has ever been found, one might almost discard the "stains" of murrey and tenné were it not that they were largely made use of for the purposes of liveries, in which usage they had no such objectionable meaning. At the present day scarlet or gules being appropriated to the Royal Family for livery purposes, other people possessing a shield of gules are required to make use of a different red, and though it is now termed chocolate or claret colour by the utilitarian language of the day, it is in reality nothing more than the old sanguine or murrey. Of orange-tawny I can learn of but one livery at the present day. I refer to the orange-tawny coats used by the hunt servants of Lord Fitzhardinge, and now worn by the hunt servants of the Old Berkeley country, near London. _A propos_ of this it is interesting to note the curious legend that the "pink" of the hunting field is not due to any reasons of optical advantage, but to an entirely different reason. Formerly no man might hunt even on his own estate until he had had licence of free warren from the Crown. Consequently he merely hunted by the pleasure of the Crown, taking part in what was exclusively a Royal sport by Royal permission, and for this Royal sport he wore the King's livery of scarlet. This being the case, it is a curious anomaly that although the livery of the only Royal pack recently in existence, the Royal Buck Hounds, was scarlet and gold, the Master {74} wore a green coat. The legend may be a fallacy, inasmuch as scarlet did not become the Royal livery until the accession of the Stuarts; but it is by no means clear to what date the scarlet hunting coat can be traced. There is, however, one undoubted instance of the use of sanguine for the field of a coat of arms, namely, the arms of Clayhills of Invergowrie,[6] which are properly matriculated in Lyon Register. To these colours German heraldry has added brown, blood-red (this apparently is different from the English sanguine, as a different hatching has been invented for it), earth-colour, iron-grey, water-colour, flesh-colour, ashen-grey, orange (here also a separate hatching from the one to represent tenné has been invented), and the colour of nature, _i.e._ "proper." These doubtless are not intended to be added to the list of heraldic tinctures, but are noted because various hatchings have been invented in modern times to represent them. Mr. Woodward, in Woodward and Burnett's "Treatise on Heraldry," alludes to various tinctures amongst Continental arms which he has come across. "Besides the metals, tinctures, and furs which have been already described, other tinctures are occasionally found in the Heraldry of Continental nations; but are comparatively of such rarity as that they may be counted among the curiosities of blazon, which would require a separate volume. That of which I have collected instances is Cendrée, or ash colour, which is borne by (among others) the Bavarian family of Ashua, as its _armes parlantes: Cendrée, a mount of three coupeaux in base or_. "_Brunâtre_, a brown colour, is even more rare as a tincture of the field; the MIEROSZEWSKY in Silesia bear, '_de Brunâtre, A cross patée argent supporting a raven rising sable, and holding in its beak a horseshoe proper, its points towards the chief_." "_Bleu-céleste_, or _bleu du ciel_, appears occasionally, apart from what we may term 'landscape coats.' That it differs from, and is a much lighter colour than, azure is shown by the following example. The Florentine CINTI (now CINI) bear a coat which would be numbered among the _armes fausses, or à enquérir: Per pale azure and bleu-céleste, an estoile counterchanged_." "_Amaranth_ or _columbine_ is the field of a coat (of which the blazon is too lengthy for insertion in this place) which was granted to a Bohemian knight in 1701." Carnation is the French term for the colour of naked flesh, and is often employed in the blazonry of that country. {75} Perhaps mention should here be made of the English term "proper." Anything, alive or otherwise, which is depicted in its natural colours is termed "proper," and it should be depicted in its really correct tones or tints, without any attempt to assimilate these with any heraldic tincture. It will not be found in the very ancient coats of arms, and its use is not to be encouraged. When a natural animal is found existing in various colours it is usual to so describe it, for the term "proper" alone would leave uncertainty. For instance, the crest of the Lane family, which was granted to commemorate the ride of King Charles II. behind Mistress Jane Lane as her servant, in his perilous escape to the coast after the disastrous Battle of Worcester, is blazoned "a strawberry roan horse, couped at the flanks proper, bridled sable, and holding between the feet an Imperial crown also proper." Lord Cowper's supporters were, on either side of the escutcheon, "a light dun horse proper, with a large blaze down the face, the mane close shorn except a tuft on the withers, a black list down the back, a bob tail, and the near fore-foot and both hind feet white." Another instance that might be quoted are the supporters of Lord Newlands, which are: "On either side a dapple-grey horse proper, gorged with a riband and suspended therefrom an escutcheon gules, charged with three bezants in chevron." The crest of the family of Bewes, of St. Neots, Cornwall, is: "On a chapeau gules, turned up ermine, a pegasus rearing on his hind legs of a bay colour, the mane and tail sable, winged or, and holding in the mouth a sprig of laurel proper." There are and were always many occasions in which it was desired to represent armorial bearings in black and white, or where from the nature of the handicraft it was impossible to make use of actual colour. But it should always be pointedly remembered that unless the right colours of the arms could be used the tinctures were entirely ignored in all matters of handicraft until the seventeenth century. Various schemes of hatchings, however, were adopted for the purpose of indicating the real heraldic colours when arms were represented and the real colours could not be employed, the earliest being that of Francquart in Belgium, _circa_ 1623. Woodward says this was succeeded by the systems of Butkens, 1626; Petra Sancta, 1638; Lobkowitz, 1639; Gelenius; and De Rouck, 1645; but all these systems differed from each other, and were for a time the cause of confusion and not of order. Eventually, however, the system of Petra Sancta (the author of _Tesseræ Gentilitia_) superseded all the others, and has remained in use up to the present time. [Illustration: FIG. 35.] Upon this point Herr Ströhl in his _Heraldischer Atlas_ remarks: "The system of hatching used by Marcus Vulson de la Colombière, 1639, in the course of time found acceptance everywhere, and has {76} maintained itself in use unaltered until the present day, and these are shown in Fig. 35, only that later, hatchings have been invented for brown, grey, &c.; which, however, seems rather a superfluous enriching." None of these later creations, by the way, have ever been used in this country. For the sake of completeness, however, let them be mentioned (see Fig. 36): _a_, brown; _b_, blood-red; _c_, earth-colour; _d_, iron-grey; _e_, water-colour; _f_, flesh-colour; _g_, ashen-grey; _h_, orange; and _i_, colour of nature. In English armory "tenné" is represented by a combination of horizontal (as azure) lines with diagonal lines from sinister to dexter (as purpure), and sanguine or murrey by a combination of diagonal lines from dexter to sinister (as vert), and from sinister to dexter (as purpure). [Illustration: FIG. 36.] The hatchings of the shield and its charges always accommodate themselves to the angle at which the shield is placed, those of the crest to the angle of the helmet. A curious difficulty, however, occurs when a shield, as is so often the case in this country, forms a part of the crest. Such a shield is seldom depicted quite upright upon the wreath. Are the tincture lines to follow the angle of the smaller shield in the crest or the angle of the helmet? Opinion is by no means agreed upon the point. But though this system of representing colours by "hatching" has been adopted and extensively made use of, it is questionable whether {77} it has ever received official sanction, at any rate in Great Britain. It certainly has never been made use of in any _official_ record or document in the College of Arms. Most of the records are in colour. The remainder are all without exception "tricked," that is, drawn in outline, the colours being added in writing in the following contracted forms: "O," or "or," for or; "A," "ar," or "arg," for argent; "G," or "gu," for gules; "Az," or "B" (for blue, owing to the likelihood of confusion between "ar" and "az," "B" being almost universally used in old trickings), for azure; "S," or "sa," for sable; "Vt" for vert, and "Purp" for purpure. It is unlikely that any change will be made in the future, for the use of tincture lines is now very rapidly being discarded by all good heraldic artists in this country. With the reversion to older and better forms and methods these hatchings become an anachronism, and save that sable is represented by solid black they will probably be unused and forgotten before very long. The plain, simple names of colours, such as red and green, seemed so unpoetical and unostentatious to the heralds and poets of the Middle Ages, that they substituted for gold, topaz; for silver, pearl or "meergries"; for red, ruby; for blue, sapphire; for green, emerald; and for black, diamond or "zobel" (sable, the animal, whence the word "sable"). Let the following blazonment from the grant of arms to Mödling bei Wien in 1458 serve as example of the same: "Mit namen ain Schilt gleich getailt in fasse, des ober und maister tail von Rubin auch mit ainer fasse von Berlein, der under thail von grunt des Schilts von Schmaragaden, darinneain Pantel von Silber in Rampannt"--(_lit._ "Namely, a shield equally divided in fess, the upper and greater part of ruby, also with a fess of pearl, the under part of the field of the shield of emerald, therein a panther of silver, rampant"); that is, "Per fess gules and vert, in chief a fess argent, in base a panther rampant of the last." Even the planets, and, as abbreviations, their astronomical signs, are occasionally employed: thus, the _sun_ for gold, the _moon_ for silver, _Mars_ for red, _Jupiter_ for blue, _Venus_ for green, _Saturn_ for black, and _Mercury_ for purple. This aberration of intellect on the part of mediæval heraldic writers, for it really amounted to little more, had very little, if indeed it had any, English official recognition. No one dreams of using such blazon at the present time, and it might have been entirely disregarded were it not that Guillim sanctions its use; and he being the high priest of English armory to so many, his example has given the system a certain currency. I am not myself aware of any instance of the use of these terms in an English patent of arms. The furs known to heraldry are now many, but originally they were only two, "ermine" and "vair." Ermine, as every one knows, is of {78} white covered with black spots, intended to represent the tails of the animal. From ermine has been evolved the following variations, viz. ermines, erminois, pean, and erminites. "Ermines" is a black field with white ermine spots (the French term for this is _contre-hermin_, the German, _gegen-hermelin_). A gold background with black ermine spots is styled erminois, and pean is a black ground with gold ermine spots. Planché mentions still another, as does Parker in his "Glossary of Heraldry," namely, "erminites," which is supposed to be white, with black ermine spots and a red hair on each side of the spot. I believe there is no instance known of any such fur in British armory. It is not mentioned in Ströhl's "Heraldic Atlas," nor can I find any foreign instance, so that who invented it, or for what purpose it was invented, I cannot say; and I think it should be relegated, with abatements and the _seize quartiers_ of Jesus Christ, to the category of the silly inventions of former heraldic writers, not of former heralds, for I know of no official act which has recognised the existence of erminites. The German term for erminois is _gold-hermelin_, but there are no distinctive terms either in French or German heraldry for the other varieties. Thus, erminois would be in French blazon: d'or, semé d'hermines de sable; pean would be de sable, semé d'hermines d'or. Though ermine is always nowadays represented upon a white background, it was sometimes depicted with black ermine spots upon a field of silver, as in the case of some of the stall plates of the Knights of the Garter in St. George's Chapel at Windsor. Ermine spots are frequently to be found as charges. For instance, in the well-known coat of Kay, which is: "Argent, three ermine spots in bend between two bendlets sable, the whole between as many crescents azure." As charges two ermine spots figure upon the arms recently granted to Sir Francis Laking, Bart., G.C.V.O. The ermine spot has also sometimes been used in British armory as the difference mark granted under a Royal Licence to assume name and arms when it is necessary to indicate the absence of blood relationship. Other instances of the use of an ermine spot as a charge are:-- Or, on two bars azure, as many barrulets dancetté argent, a chief indented of the second charged with an ermine spot or (Sawbridge). Argent, a chevron between three crows sable, in each beak an ermine spot (Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph, 1680; Lichfield, 1692; and Worcester, 1700-17). Argent, a fess gules between three ermine spots sable (Kilvington). Argent, two bars sable, spotted ermine, in chief a lion passant gules (Hill, co. Wexford). The earliest form in which ermine was depicted shows a nearer approach to the reality of the black tail, inasmuch as the spots above the tail to which we are now accustomed are a modern variant. {79} When a bend is ermine, the spots (like all other charges placed upon a bend) must be bendwise; but on a chevron, saltire, &c., they are drawn upright. The other variety of fur is "vair." This originated from the fur of a kind of squirrel (the ver or vair, differently spelt; Latin _varus_), which was much used for the lining of cloaks. The animal was bluey-grey upon the back and white underneath, and the whole skin was used. It will be readily seen that by sewing a number of these skins together a result is obtained of a series of cup-shaped figures, alternating bluey-grey and white, and this is well shown in Fig. 28, which shows the effigy upon the tomb of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, where the lining of vair to his cloak is plainly to be seen. [Illustration: FIG. 37.--Arms of William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby (d. 1247): "Scutum variatum auro & gul." (From MS. Cott. Nero, D. 1.)] The word seems to have been used independently of heraldry for fur, and the following curious error, which is pointed out in Parker's "Glossary of the Terms used in Heraldry," may be noted in passing. The familiar fairy tale of Cinderella was brought to us from the French, and the slippers made of this costly fur, written, probably, _verre_ for _vairé_, were erroneously translated "glass" slippers. This was, of course, an impossible material, but the error has always been repeated in the nursery tale-books. [Illustration: FIG. 38.--Arms of Robert de Ferrers, Earl of Derby (1254-1265). (From stained glass in Dorchester Church.)] In the oldest records vair is represented by means of straight horizontal lines alternating with horizontal wavy or nebuly lines (see Fig. 37), but the cup-shaped divisions therefrom resulting having passed through various intermediate forms (see Fig. 38), have now been stereotyped into a fixed geometrical pattern, formed of rows of ear-shaped shields of alternate colours and alternately reversed, so depicted that each reversed shield fits into the space left by those on either side which are not reversed (see Fig. 39, _k_). The accompanying illustration will show plainly what is intended. In some of the older designs it was similar to that shown in the arms of the Earl Ferrers, Earl of Derby, 1254-65, the sketch (Fig. 38) being taken from almost contemporary stained glass in Dorchester Church, Oxon.; whilst sometimes the {80} division lines are drawn, after the same manner, as _nebuly_. There does not seem to have been any fixed proportion for the number of rows of vair, as Fig. 40 shows the arms of the same Earl as represented upon his seal. The palpable pun upon the name which a shield vairé supplied no doubt affords the origin of the arms of Ferrers. Some families of the name at a later date adopted the horseshoes, which are to be found upon many Farrer and Ferrers shields, the popular assumption being that they are a reference to the "farrier" from whom some would derive the surname. Woodward, however, states that a horseshoe being the badge of the Marshalls, horseshoes were assumed as _armes parlantes_ by their descendants the Ferrers, who appear to have borne: Sable, six horseshoes argent. As a matter of fact the only one of that family who bore the horseshoes seems to have been William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby (d. 1254), as will be seen from the arms as on his seal (Fig. 41). {81} His wife was Sybilla, daughter of William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke. His son reverted to the plain shield of vairé, or, and gules. The arms of the Ferrers family at a later date are found to be: Gules, seven mascles conjoined or, in which form they are still borne by Ferrers of Baddesley Clinton; but whether the mascles are corruptions of the horseshoes, or whether (as seems infinitely more probable) they are merely a corrupted form of the vairé, or, and gules, it is difficult to say. Personally I rather doubt whether any Ferrers ever used the arms: Argent, six horseshoes sable. [Illustration: FIG. 39.] [Illustration: FIG. 40.--Arms of Robert de Ferrers, Earl of Derby (1254-1265). (From his seal.)] [Illustration: FIG. 41.--Arms of William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby: Vaire, or, and gules, a bordure argent, charged with eight horseshoes sable. (From a drawing of his seal, MS. Cott. Julius, C vii.)] PLATE II. [Illustration] The early manner of depicting vair is still occasionally met with in foreign heraldry, where it is blazoned as Vair ondé or Vair ancien. The family of MARGENS in Spain bears: Vair ondé, on a bend gules three griffins or; and TARRAGONE of Spain: Vair ondé, or and gules. German heraldry seems to distinguish between _wolkenfeh_ (cloud vair) and _wogenfeh_ (wave vair; see Fig. 39, _n_). The former is equivalent to vair ancient, the latter to vair en point. The verbal blazon of vair nearly always commences with the metal, but in the arrangement of the panes there is a difference between French and English usage. In the former the white panes are generally (and one thinks more correctly) represented as forming the first, or upper, line; in British heraldry the reverse is more usually the case. It is usual to depict the white panes of ordinary vair with white rather than silver, though the use of the latter cannot be said to be incorrect, there being precedents in favour of that form. When an ordinary is of vair or vairy, the rows of vair may be depicted either horizontally or following the direction of the ordinary. There are accepted precedents for both methods. Vair is always blue and white, but the same subdivision of the field is frequently found in other colours; and when this is the case, it is termed vairy of such and such colours. When it is vairy, it is usually of a colour and metal, as in the case of Ferrers, Earls of Derby, above referred to; though a fur is sometimes found to take the place of one or other, as in the arms of Gresley, which are: "Vairé gules and ermine." I know of no instance where vairé is found of either two metals or of two colours, nor at the same time do I know of any rule against such a combination. Probably it will be time enough to discuss the contingency when an instance comes to light. Gerard Leigh mentions vair of three or more tinctures, but instances are very rare. Parker, in his "Glossary," refers to the coat of Roger Holthouse, which he blazons: "Vairy argent, azure, gules, and or, en point." The _Vair_ of commerce was formerly of three sizes, and the distinction is continued in foreign armory. The middle or ordinary {82} size is known as _Vair_; a smaller size as _Menu-vair_ (whence our word "miniver"); the largest as _Beffroi_ or _Gros vair_, a term which is used in armory when there are less than four rows. The word _Beffroi_ is evidently derived from the bell-like shape of the _vair_, the word _Beffroi_ being anciently used in the sense of the alarm-bell of a town. In French armory, _Beffroi_ should consist of three horizontal rows; _Vair_, of four; _Menu-vair_, of six. This rule is not strictly observed, but in French blazon if the rows are more than four it is usual to specify the number; thus Varroux bears: _de Vair de cinq traits_. _Menu-vair_ is still the blazon of some families; BANVILLE DE TRUTEMNE bears: _de Menu-vair de six tires_; the Barons van HOUTHEM bore: _de Menu-vair, au franc quartier de gueules chargé de trois maillets d'or_. In British armory the foregoing distinctions are unknown, and _Vair_ is only of one size, that being at the discretion of the artist. When the Vair is so arranged that in two horizontal rows taken together, either the points or the bases of two panes of the same tincture are in apposition, the fur is known as COUNTER VAIR (CONTRE VAIR) (see Fig. 39, _l_). Another variation, but an infrequent one, is termed VAIR IN PALE, known in German heraldry as _Pfahlfeh_ (_Vair appointé_ or _Vair en pal_; but if of other colours than the usual ones, _Vairé en pal_). In this all panes of the same colour are arranged in vertical, or palar, rows (Fig. 39, _m_). German heraldry apparently distinguishes between this and _Stürzpfahlfeh_, or _reversed_ vair in pale. VAIR IN BEND (or in bend-sinister) is occasionally met with in foreign coats; thus MIGNIANELLI in Italy bears: _Vairé d'or et d'azur en bande_; while _Vairé en barre_ (that is, in bend-sinister) _d'or et de sable_ is the coat of PICHON of Geneva. "Vair en pointe" is a term applied by Nisbet to an arrangement by which the azure shield pointing downwards has beneath it an argent shield pointing downwards, and _vice versâ_, by which method the resulting effect is as shown in Fig. 39, _n_. The German term for this is _Wogenfeh_, or wave vair. Fig. 39, _o_, shows a purely German variety--_Wechselfeh_, or alternate vair; and Fig. 39, _p_, which is equivalent to the English vairé of four colours, is known in German armory as _Buntfeh, i.e._ gay-coloured or checked vair. Ordinary vair in German heraldry is known as _Eisenhüt-feh_, or iron hat vair. On account of its similarity, when drawn, to the old iron hat of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (see Fig. 42), this skin has received the name of _Eisenhutlein_ (little iron hat) from German heraldic students, a name which later gave rise to many incorrect interpretations. An old charter in the archives of the chapter-house of Lilienfield, in Lower Austria, under the seal (Fig. 43) of one Chimrad Pellifex, 1329, proves that at that time vair was so styled. The name of Pellifex (in {83} German _Wildwerker_, a worker in skins, or furrier) is expressed in a punning or canting form on the dexter side of the shield. This Conrad the Furrier was Burgomaster of Vienna 1340-43. A considerable number of British and foreign families bear _Vair_ only; such are FERRERS and GRESLEY, above mentioned; VARANO, Dukes de CAMERINO; VAIRE and VAIRIÈRE, in France; VERET, in Switzerland; GOUVIS, FRESNAY (Brittany); DE VERA in Spain; LOHEAC (Brittany); VARENCHON (Savoy); SOLDANIERI (Florence). _Counter vair_ is borne by LOFFREDO of Naples; by BOUCHAGE, DU PLESSIS ANGERS, and BROTIN, of France. HELLEMMES of Tournay uses: _de Contre vair, à lac otice de gueules brochante sur le tout_. [Illustration: FIG. 42.] [Illustration: FIG. 43.--Seal of Chimrad Pellifex, 1329.] Mr. Woodward, in his "Treatise on Heraldry," writes: "Two curious forms of Vair occasionally met with in Italian or French coats are known as _Plumeté_ and _Papelonné_. In _Plumeté_ the field is apparently covered with feathers. _Plumeté d'argent et d'azur_ is the coat of Ceba (note that these are the tinctures of _Vair_); SOLDONIERI of Udine, _Plumeté au natural_ (but the SOLDONIERI of Florence bore: _Vairé argent and sable_ with _a bordure chequy or and azure_); TENREMONDE of Brabant: _Plumeté or and sable_. In the arms of the SCALTENIGHI of Padua, the BENZONI of Milan, the GIOLFINI, CATANEI, and NUVOLONI of Verona, each feather of the _plumeté_ is said to be charged with an ermine spot sable. The bearing of PAPELONNÉ is more frequently found; in it the field is covered with what appear to be scales, the heraldic term _papelonné_ being derived from a supposed resemblance of these scales to the wings of butterflies; for example the coat of MONTI: _Gules, papelonné argent_. DONZEL at Besançon bears: Papelonné d'or et de sable. It is worthy of note that Donzé of Lorraine used: Gules, three bars wavy or. The FRANCONIS of Lausanne are said to bear: _de Gueules papelonné d'argent_, and on _a chief of the last a rose of the first_, but the coat is otherwise blazoned: _Vaire gules and or_, &c. The coat of ARQUINVILLIERS, or HARGENVILLIERS, in Picardy, of _d'Hermine papelonné de {84} gueules_ (not being understood, this has been blazoned "_semé of caltraps_"). So also the coat of CHEMILLÉ appears in French books of blazon indifferently as: _d'Or papelonné de gueules_: and _d'Or semé de chausse-trapes de gueules_. GUÉTTEVILLE DE GUÉNONVILLE is said to bear: _d'Argent semé de chausse-trapes de sable_, but it is more probable that this is simply _d'Argent papelonné de sable_. The BARISONI of Padua bear: _Or, a bend of scales, bendwise argent, on each scale an ermine spot sable, the bend bordered sable_. The ALBERICI of Bologna bear: _Papelonné of seven rows, four of argent, three of or_; but the ALBERGHI of the same city: _Papelonné of six rows, three of argent, as many of gules_. The connection with _vairé_ is much clearer in the latter than in the former. CAMBI (called FIGLIAMBUCHI), at Florence, carried: _d'Argent, papelonné de gueules_; MONTI of Florence and Sicily, and RONQUEROLLES of France the reverse. No one who is familiar with the licence given to themselves by armorial painters and sculptors in Italy, who were often quite ignorant of the meaning of the blazons they depicted, will doubt for a moment the statement that Papelonné was originally a corruption from or perhaps is simply ill-drawn Vair." POTENT, and its less common variant COUNTER POTENT, are usually ranked in British heraldic works as separate furs. This has arisen from the writers being ignorant that in early times _Vair_ was frequently depicted in the form now known as _Potent_ (see Fig. 39, _q_). (By many heraldic writers the ordinary _Potent_ is styled _Potent-counter-potent_. When drawn in the ordinary way, _Potent_ alone suffices.) An example of _Vair_ in the form now known as Potent is afforded by the seal of JEANNE DE FLANDRE, wife of ENGUERRAND IV. (De Courcy); here the well-known arms of COURCY, _Barry of six vair and gules_, are depicted as if the bars of vair were composed of bars of _potent_ (VRÉE, _Généalogie des Comtes de Flandre_). In a _Roll of Arms of the time of Edward I._ the _Vair_ resembles _Potent_ (-counter-potent), which DR. PERCEVAL erroneously terms an "invention of later date." The name and the differentiation may be, but not the fact. In the First Nobility Roll of the year 1297, the arms of No. 8, ROBERT DE BRUIS, Baron of Brecknock, are: Barry of six, Vaire ermine and gules, and azure. Here the vair is potent; so is it also in No. 19, where the coat of INGELRAM DE GHISNES, or GYNES, is: Gules, a chief vair. The same coat is thus drawn in the Second Nobility Roll, 1299, No. 57. POTENT, like its original _Vair_, is always of _argent_ and _azure_, unless other tinctures are specified in the blazon. The name _Potent_ is the old English word for a crutch or walking-staff. Chaucer, in his description of "Elde" (_i.e._ old age) writes: "So olde she was, that she ne went A fote, but it were by potent." {85} And though a potent is a heraldic charge, and a cross potent a well-known variety of that ordinary, "potent" is usually intended to indicate the fur of blue and white as in Fig. 39, _q_. It is not of frequent usage, but it undoubtedly has an accepted place in British armory, as also has "counter-potent," which, following the same rules as counter-vair, results in a field as Fig. 39, _r_. The German terms for Potent and counter-potent are respectively _Sturzkrückenfeh_ and _gegensturzkrückenfeh_ German heraldry has evolved yet another variant of Potent, viz. _Verschobenes Gegensturzkrückenfeh_ (_i.e._ displaced potent-counter-potent), as in Fig. 39, _s_. There is still yet another German heraldic fur which is quite unknown in British armory. This is called _Kursch_, otherwise "Vair bellies," and is usually shown to be hairy and represented brown. Possibly this is the same as the _Plumeté_ to which Mr. Woodward refers. Some heraldic writers also speak of _varry_ as meaning the pieces of which the vair is composed; they also use the terms _vairy cuppy_ and _vairy tassy_ for _potent-counter-potent_, perhaps from the drawings in some instances resembling _cups_; that is a possible meaning of _tassa_. It may be said that all these variations of the ancient _vair_ arise from mere accident (generally bad drawing), supplemented by over refinement on the part of the heraldic writers who have described them. This generalisation may be extended in its application from vair to many other heraldic matters. To all intents and purposes British heraldry now or hitherto has only known vair and potent. One of the earliest rules one learns in the study of armory is that colour cannot be placed upon colour, nor metal upon metal. Now this is a definite rule which must practically always be rigidly observed. Many writers have gone so far as to say that the only case of an infraction of this rule will be found in the arms of Jerusalem: Argent, a cross potent between four crosslets or. This was a favourite windmill at which the late Dr. Woodward tilted vigorously, and in the appendix to his "Treatise on Heraldry" he enumerates some twenty-six instances of the violation of the rule. The whole of the instances he quoted, however, are taken from Continental armory, in which these exceptions--for even on the Continent such _armes fausses_ are noticeable exceptions--occur much more frequently than in this country. Nevertheless such exceptions _do_ occur in British armory, and the following instances of well-known coats which break the rule may be quoted. The arms of Lloyd of Ffos-y-Bleiddied, co. Cardigan, and Danyrallt, co. Carmarthen, are: "Sable, a spearhead imbrued proper between three scaling-ladders argent, on a chief _gules_ a castle of the second." Burke, in his "General Armory," says this coat of arms was granted to Cadifor ap Dyfnwal, ninth in descent from Roderick the Great, Prince of Wales, by his cousin the great Lord Rhys, for taking the castle of {86} Cardigan by escalade from the Earl of Clare and the Flemings in 1164. Another instance is a coat of Meredith recorded in Ulster's Office and now inherited by the Hon. Richard Edmund Meredith, a judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature of Ireland and a Judicial Commissioner of the Irish Land Commission. These arms are: "Gules, on a chevron sable, between three goats' heads erased, as many trefoils or." An instance of comparatively recent date will be found in the grant of the arms of Thackeray. A little careful research, no doubt, would produce a large number of English instances, but one is bound to admit the possibility that the great bulk of these cases may really be instances of augmentation. Furs may be placed upon either metal or colour, as may also any charge which is termed proper. German heralds describe furs and natural colours as amphibious. It is perfectly legitimate to place fur upon fur, and though not often found, numbers of examples can be quoted; probably one will suffice. The arms of Richardson are: Sable, two hawks belled or, on a chief indented ermine, a pale ermines, and three lions' heads counterchanged. It is also correct to place ermine upon argent. But such coats are not very frequently found, and it is usual in designing a coat to endeavour to arrange that the fur shall be treated as metal or colour according to what may be its background. The reason for this is obvious. It is correct, though unusual, for a charge which is blazoned proper, and yet depicted in a recognised heraldic colour, to be placed upon colour; and where such cases occur, care should be taken that the charges are blazoned proper. A charge composed of more than one tincture, that is, of a metal and colour, may be placed upon a field of either; for example the well-known coat of Stewart, which is: Or, a fess chequy azure and argent; other examples being: Per pale ermine and azure, a fess wavy gules (Broadbent); and: Azure, a lion rampant argent, debruised by a fess per pale of the second and gules (Walsh); but in such coats it will usually be found that the first tincture of the composite charge should be in opposition to the field upon which it is superimposed. For instance, the arms of Stewart are: Or, a fess chequy azure and argent, and to blazon or depict them with a fess chequy argent and azure would be incorrect. When an ordinary is charged upon both metal and colour, it would be quite correct for it to be of either metal, colour, or fur, and in such cases it has never been considered either exceptional or an infraction of the rule that colour must not be placed upon colour, nor metal upon metal. There is one point, however, which is one of these little points one has to learn from actual experience, and which I believe has never yet been quoted in any handbook of heraldry, and that is, that this rule must be thrown overboard with regard to {87} crests and supporters. I cannot call to mind an instance of colour upon colour, but a gold collar around the neck of an argent crest will constantly be met with. The sinister supporter of the Royal achievement is a case in point, and this rule, which forbids colour upon colour, and metal upon metal, only holds with regard to supporters and crests when the crest or supporter itself is treated as a field and _charged with_ one or more objects. The Royal labels, as already stated, appear to be a standing infraction of the rule if white and argent are to be heraldically treated as identical. The rule is also disregarded entirely as regards augmentations and Scottish cadency bordures. So long as the field is party, that is, divided into an equal number of pieces (for example, paly, barruly, or bendy, or party per bend or per chevron), it may be composed of two metals or two colours, because the pieces all being equal, and of equal number, they all are parts of the field lying in the same plane, none being charges. Before leaving the subject of the field, one must not omit to mention certain exceptions which hardly fall within any of the before-mentioned categories. One of these can only be described by the word "landscape." It is not uncommon in British armory, though I know of but one instance where the actual field itself needs to be so described. This is the coat of the family of Franco, the paternal ancestors of Sir Massey Lopes, Bart., and Lord Ludlow. The name was changed from Franco to Lopes by Royal Licence dated the 4th of May 1831. Whether this coat of arms originated in an English grant, or whether the English grant of it amounts to no more than an attempt at the registration of a previously existing or greatly similar foreign coat of arms for the name of Franco, I am unaware, but the coat certainly is blazoned: "In a landscape field, a fountain, therefrom issuing a palm-tree all proper." But landscape has very extensively been made use of in the augmentations which were granted at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries. In these cases the augmentation very generally consisted of a chief and thereon a representation either of some fort or ship or action, and though the field of the augmentation is officially blazoned argent in nearly every case, there is no doubt the artist was permitted, and perhaps intended, to depict clouds and other "atmosphere" to add to the verisimilitude of the picture. These augmentations will be more especially considered in a later chapter, but here one may perhaps be permitted to remark, that execrable as we now consider such landscape heraldry, it ought not to be condemned in the wholesale manner in which it has been, because it was typical of the over elaboration to be found in all art and all artistic ideas of the period in which we find it originating. Heraldry and heraldic art have {88} always been a mirror of the artistic ideas prevalent at equivalent periods, and unless heraldry is to be wholly relegated to consideration as a dead subject, it is an anachronism to depict an action the date of which is well known (and which date it is desired to advertise and not conceal) in a method of art belonging to a different period. In family arms the case is different, as with those the idea apparently is always the concealment of the date of nobility. The "landscape" variety of heraldry is more common in Germany than with us, and Ströhl writes: "Of very little heraldic worth are the old house and home signs as they were used by landed proprietors, tradesmen, and artisans or workmen, as indicative of their possessions, wares, or productions. These signs, originally simply outline pictures, were later introduced into heraldic soil, inasmuch as bourgeois families raised to the nobility adopted their house signs as heraldic charges upon their shields." There are also many coats of arms which run: "In base, a representation of water proper," and one of the best instances of this will be found in the arms of Oxford, though for the sake of preserving the pun the coat in this case is blazoned: "Argent, an ox gules passing over a ford proper." Similar instances occur in the arms of Renfrew, Queensferry, Leith, Ryde, and scores of other towns. It has always been considered permissible to represent these either by an attempt to depict natural water, or else in the ancient heraldic way of representing water, namely "barry wavy argent and azure." There are many other coats of arms which are of a similar character though specifically blazoned "barry wavy argent and azure." Now this representation of water in base can hardly be properly said to be a charge, but perhaps it might be dismissed as such were it not that one coat of arms exists in Scotland, the whole of the field of which is simply a representation of water. Unfortunately this coat of arms has never been matriculated in Lyon Register or received official sanction; but there is no doubt of its ancient usage, and were it to be now matriculated in conformity with the Act of 1672, there is very little doubt that the ancient characteristic would be retained. The arms are those of the town of Inveraray in Argyllshire, and the blazon of the coat, according to the form it is depicted upon the Corporate seal, would be for the field: "The sea proper, therein a net suspended from the dexter chief and the sinister fess points to the base; and entangled in its meshes five herrings," which is about the most remarkable coat of arms I have ever come across. Occasionally a "field," or portion of a field, will be found to be a representation of masonry. This may be either proper or of some metal or colour. The arms of the city of Bath are: "Party per fesse {89} embattled azure and argent, the base masonry, in chief two bars wavy of the second; over all, a sword in pale gules, hilt and pommel or." The arms of Reynell are: "Argent, masoned sable, a chief indented of the second." SEME The use of the term "semé" must be considered before we leave the subject of the field. It simply means "powdered with" or "strewed with" any objects, the number of the latter being unlimited, the purpose being to evenly distribute them over the shield. In depicting anything semé, care is usually taken that some of the charges (with which the field is semé) shall be partly defaced by the edges of the shield, or the ordinary upon which they are charged, or by the superior charge itself, to indicate that the field is not charged with a specific number of objects. [Illustration: FIG. 44.--Arms of John, Lord De la Warr (d. 1398). (From MS. Ashm. 804, iv.)] [Illustration: FIG. 45.--Arms of John, Lord Beaumont, K.G. (d. 1396). From his Garter Plate: 1 and 4, Beaumont; 2 and 3, azure, three garbs or (for Comyn).] [Illustration: FIG. 46.--Arms of Gilbert Umfraville, Earl of Kyme (d. 1421). (From Harl. MS. 6163.)] There are certain special terms which may be noted. A field or charge semé of fleurs-de-lis is termed "semé-de-lis," but if semé of bezants it is bezanté, and is termed platé if semé of plates. A field semé of billets is billetty or billetté, and when semé of cross crosslets it is termed crusilly. A field or charge semé of drops is termed goutté or gutty. Instances of coats of which the field is semé will be found in the arms of De la Warr (see Fig. 44), which are: Gules, crusilly, and a lion rampant argent; Beaumont (see Fig. 45): Azure, semé-de-lis and a lion rampant or; and Umfraville (see Fig. 46): Gules, semé of crosses flory, and a cinquefoil or. The goutte or drop occasionally figures (in a specified number) as a charge; but such cases are rare, its more frequent use being to show {90} a field semé. British heraldry alone has evolved separate names for the different colours, all other nations simply using the term "goutté" or "gutté," and specifying the colour. The terms we have adopted are as follows: For drops of gold, "gutté-d'or"; silver, "gutté-d'eau"; for gules, "gutté-de-sang"; azure, "gutté-de-larmes"; vert, "gutté-d'huile"; and sable, "gutté-de-poix." The term semé must not be confused with diapering, for whilst the objects with which a field is semé are an integral part of the arms, diapering is a purely artistic and optional matter. DIAPERING The diapering of armorial emblazonments is a matter with which the _Science_ of armory has no concern. Diaper never forms any part of the blazon, and is never officially noticed, being considered, and very properly allowed to remain, a purely artistic detail. From the artistic point of view it has some importance, as in many of the earliest instances of handicraft in which armorial decoration appears, very elaborate diapering is introduced. The frequency with which diapering is met with in armorial handicraft is strangely at variance with its absence in heraldic paintings of the same periods, a point which may perhaps be urged upon the attention of some of the heraldic artists of the present day, who would rather seem to have failed to grasp the true purpose and origin and perhaps also the use of diaper. In stained glass and enamel work, where the use of diaper is most frequently met with, it was introduced for the express purpose of catching and breaking up the light, the result of which was to give an enormously increased effect of brilliance to the large and otherwise flat surfaces. These tricks of their art and craft the old handicraftsmen were past masters in the use of. But no such purpose could be served in a small painting upon vellum. For this reason early heraldic emblazonments are seldom if ever found to have been diapered. With the rise of heraldic engraving amongst the "little masters" of German art, the opportunity left to their hands by the absence of colour naturally led to the renewed use of diaper to avoid the appearance of blanks in their work. The use of diaper at the present day needs to be the result of careful study and thought, and its haphazard employment is not recommended. If, as Woodward states (an assertion one is rather inclined to doubt), there are some cases abroad in which the constant use of diapering has been stereotyped into an integral part of the arms, these cases must be exceedingly few in number, and they certainly have no counterpart in the armory of this country. Where for artistic reasons {91} diapering is employed, care must always be taken that the decorative form employed cannot be mistaken for a field either charged or semé. PARTITION LINES If there is one subject which the ordinary text-books of armory treat in the manner of classification adapted to an essay on natural history or grammar, with its attendant rigidity of rule, it is the subject of partition lines; and yet the whole subject is more in the nature of a set of explanations which must each be learned on its own merits. The usual lines of partition are themselves well enough known; and it is hardly necessary to elaborate the different variations at any great length. They may, however, be enumerated as follows: Engrailed, embattled, indented, invecked or invected, wavy or undy, nebuly, dancetté, raguly, potenté, dovetailed, and urdy. These are the lines which are recognised by most modern heraldic text-books and generally recapitulated; but we shall have occasion later to refer to others which are very well known, though apparently they have never been included in the classification of partition lines (Fig. 47). _Engrailed_, as every one knows, is formed by a continuous and concurrent series of small semicircles conjoined each to each, the sharp points formed by the conjunction of the two arcs being placed _outwards_. This partition line may be employed for the rectilinear charges known as "ordinaries" or "sub-ordinaries." In the bend, pale, pile, cross, chief, and fess, when these are described as engrailed the enclosing lines of the ordinary, other than the edges of the shield, are all composed of these small semicircles with the points turned _outwards_, and the word "outwards" must be construed as pointing away from the centre of the ordinary when it is depicted. In the case of a chief the points are turned downwards, but it is rather difficult to describe the use of the term when used as a partition line of the field. The only instance I can call to mind where it is so employed is the case of Baird of Ury, the arms of this family being: Per pale engrailed gules and or, a boar passant counterchanged. In this instance the points are turned towards the sinister side of the shield, which would seem to be correct, as, there being no ordinary, they must be outwards from the most important position affected, which in this case undoubtedly is the dexter side of the shield. In the same way "per fess engrailed" would be presumably depicted with the points outwards from the chief line of the shield, that is, they would point downwards; and I should imagine that in "per bend engrailed" the points of the semicircles would again be placed inclined towards the dexter base of the shield, but I may be wrong in these two latter cases, for they are only supposition. This {92} point, however, which puzzled me much in depicting the arms of Baird of Ury, I could find explained in no text-book upon the subject. [Illustration: FIG. 47.--Lines of Partition.] The term _invected_ or _invecked_ is the precise opposite of engrailed. It is similarly composed of small semicircles, but the points are turned inwards instead of outwards, so that it is no more than the exact reverse of engrailed, and all the regulations concerning the one need to be observed concerning the other, with the proviso that they are reversed. {93} The partition line _embattled_ has certain peculiarities of its own. When dividing the field there can be no difficulty about it, inasmuch as the crenellations are equally inwards and outwards from any point, and it should be noted that the term "crenellé" is almost as often used as "embattled." When, however, the term describes an ordinary, certain points have to be borne in mind. The fess or the bar embattled is drawn with the crenellations _on the upper side_ only, the under edge being plain unless the ordinary is described both as "embattled and counter-embattled." Similarly a chevron is only crenellated on the upper edge unless it is described as both embattled and counter-embattled, but a pale embattled is crenellated on both edges as is the cross or saltire. Strictly speaking, a bend embattled is crenellated upon the upper edge only, though with regard to this ordinary there is much laxity of practice. I have never come across a pile embattled; but it would naturally be embattled on both edges. Some writers make a distinction between embattled and bretessed, giving to the former term the meaning that the embattlements on the one side are opposed to the indentations on the other, and using the term bretessed to signify that embattlements are opposite embattlements and indentations opposite indentations. I am doubtful as to the accuracy of this distinction, because the French term bretessé means only counter-embattled. The terms _indented_ and _dancetté_ need to be considered together, because they differ very little, and only in the fact that whilst indented may be drawn with any number of teeth, dancetté is drawn with a limited number, which is usually three complete teeth in the width of the field. But it should be observed that this rule is not so hard and fast that the necessity of artistic depicting may not modify it slightly. An ordinary which is indented would follow much the same rules as an ordinary which was engrailed, except that the teeth are made by small straight lines for the indentations instead of by small semicircles, and instances can doubtless be found of all the ordinaries qualified by the term indented. Dancetté, however, does not lend itself so readily to general application, and is usually to be found applied to either a fess or chief, or occasionally a bend. In the case of a fess dancetté the indentations on the top and bottom lines are made to fit into each other, so that instead of having a straight band with the edge merely toothed, one gets an up and down zig-zag band with three complete teeth at the top and three complete teeth at the bottom. Whilst a fess, a bar, a bend, and a chief can be found dancetté, I do not see how it would be possible to draw a saltire or a cross dancetté. At any rate the resulting figure would be most ugly, and would appear ill-balanced. A pile and a chevron seem equally impossible, though there does not {94} seem to be the like objection to a pale dancetté. An instance of a bend dancetté is found in the arms of Cuffe (Lord Desart), which are: Argent, on a bend dancetté sable, plain cotised azure, three fleurs-de-lis, and on each cotise as many bezants. _Wavy_ or _undy_, which is supposed to have been taken from water, and _nebuly_, which is supposed to be derived from clouds, are of course lines which are well known. They are equally applicable to any ordinary and to any partition of the field; but in both cases it should be noticed by artists that there is no one definite or accepted method of depicting these lines, and one is quite at liberty, and might be recommended, to widen out the indentations, or to increase them in height, as the artistic requirements of the work in hand may seem to render advisable. It is only by bearing this in mind and treating these lines with freedom that really artistic work can sometimes be produced where they occur. There is no fixed rule either as to the width which these lines may occupy or as to the number of indentations as compared with the width of the shield, and it is a pity to introduce or recognise any regulations of this character where none exist. There are writers who think it not unlikely that vairé and barry nebuly were one and the same thing. It is at any rate difficult in some old representations to draw any noticeable distinctions between the methods of depicting barry nebuly and vair. The line _raguly_ has been the subject of much discussion. It, and the two which follow, viz. potenté and dovetailed, are all comparatively modern introductions. It would be interesting if some enthusiast would go carefully through the ancient Rolls of Arms and find the earliest occurrences of these terms. My own impression is that they would all be found to be inventions of the mediæval writers on heraldry. Raguly is the same as embattled, with the crenellations put upon the slant. Some writers say they should slant one way, others give them slanting the reverse. In a pale or a bend the teeth must point upwards; but in a fess I should hesitate to say whether it were more correct for them to point to the dexter or to the sinister, and I am inclined to consider that either is perfectly correct. At any rate, whilst they are usually drawn inclined to the dexter, in Woodward and Burnett they are to the sinister, and Guillim gives them turned to the dexter, saying, "This form of line I never yet met with in use as a partition, though frequently in composing of ordinaries referring them like to the trunks of trees with the branches lopped off, and that (as I take it) it was intended to represent." Modern heraldry supplies an instance which in the days of Mr. Guillim, of course, did not exist to refer to. This instance occurs in the arms of the late Lord Leighton, which were: "Quarterly per fesse raguly or and gules, in the second and {95} third quarters a wyvern of the first." It is curious that Guillim, even in the edition of 1724, does not mention any of the remaining terms. Dovetailed in modern armory is even yet but seldom made use of, though I can quote two instances of coats of arms in which it is to be found, namely, the arms of Kirk, which are: "Gules, a chevron dovetailed ermine, on a chief argent, three dragons' heads couped of the field;" and Ambrose: "Azure, two lions passant in pale argent, on a chief dovetailed of the last, a fleur-de-lis between two annulets of the first." Other instances of dovetailed used as a line of partition will be found in the case of the arms of Farmer, which are: "Per chevron dovetailed gules and argent, in chief two lions' heads erased of the last, and in base a salamander in flames proper;" and in the arms of Fenton namely: "Per pale argent and sable, a cross dovetailed, in the first and fourth quarters a fleur-de-lis, and in the second and third a trefoil slipped all countercharged." There are, of course, many others. The term _potenté_, as will be seen from a reference to Fig. 47, is used to indicate a line which follows the form of the division lines in the fur potent. As one of the partition lines potenté is very rare. As to the term _urdy_, which is given in Woodward and Burnett and also in Berry, I can only say I personally have never come across an instance of its use as a partition line. A cross or a billet urdy one knows, but urdy as a partition line I have yet to find. It is significant that it is omitted in Parker except as a term applicable to a cross, and the instances and variations given by Berry, "urdy in point paleways" and "contrary urdy," I should be much more inclined to consider as variations of vair; and, though it is always well to settle points which can be settled, I think urdy and its use as a partition line may be well left for further consideration when examples of it come to hand. There is one term, however, which is to be met with at the present time, but which I have never seen quoted in any text-book under the heading of a partition line; that is, "flory counter-flory," which is of course formed by a succession of fleurs-de-lis alternately reversed and counterchanged. They might of course be blazoned after the quotation of the field as "per bend" or "per chevron" as the case might be, simply as so many fleurs-de-lis counterchanged, and alternately reversed in a specified position; but this never appears to be the case, and consequently the fleurs-de-lis would appear to be essentially parts of the field and not charges. I have sometimes thought whether it would not be more correct to depict "per something" flory and counter-flory without completing the fleurs-de-lis, simply leaving the alternate tops of the fleurs-de-lis to show. In the cases of the illustrations which have come under my notice, however, the whole fleur-de-lis is depicted, and as an instance of the use of the term may be mentioned the arms of {96} Dumas, which are: "Per chevron flory and counter-flory or and azure, in chief two lions' gambs erased, and in base a garb counterchanged." But when the term flory and counter-flory is used in conjunction with an ordinary, _e.g._ a fess flory and counter-flory, the _half_ fleurs-de-lis, only alternately reversed, are represented on the _outer_ edges of the ordinary. I think also that the word "_arched_" should now be included as a partition line. I confess that the only form in which I know of it is that it is frequently used by the present Garter King of Arms in designing coats of arms with chiefs arched. Recently Garter has granted a coat with a chief double arched. But if a chief can be arched I see no reason why a fesse or a bar cannot equally be so altered, and in that case it undoubtedly becomes a recognised line of partition. Perhaps it should be stated that a chief arched is a chief with its base line one arc of a large circle. The diameter of the circle and the consequent acuteness of the arch do not appear to be fixed by any definite rule, and here again artistic requirements must be the controlling factor in any decision. Elvin in his "Dictionary of Heraldic Terms" gives a curious assortment of lines, the most curious of all, perhaps, being indented embowed, or hacked and hewed. Where such a term originated or in what coat of arms it is to be found I am ignorant, but the appearance is exactly what would be presented by a piece of wood hacked with an axe at regular intervals. Elvin again makes a difference between bretessed and embattled-counter-embattled, making the embattlement on either side of an ordinary identical in the former and alternated in the latter. He also makes a difference between raguly, which is the conventional form universally adopted, and raguled and trunked, where the ordinary takes the representation of the trunk of a tree with the branches lopped; but these and many others that he gives are refinements of idea which personally I should never expect to find in actual use, and of the instances of which I am unaware. I think, however, the term "_rayonné_," which is found in both the arms of O'Hara and the arms of Colman, and which is formed by the addition of rays to the ordinary, should take a place amongst lines of partition, though I admit I know of no instance in which it is employed to divide the field. METHODS OF PARTITION The field of any coat of arms is the surface colour of the shield, and is supposed to include the area within the limits formed by its outline. There are, as has been already stated, but few coats of a single colour minus a charge to be found in British heraldry. But there {97} are many which consist of a field divided by partition lines only, of which some instances were given on page 69. A shield may be divided by partition lines running in the direction of almost any "ordinary," in which case the field will be described as "per bend" or "per chevron," &c. It may be: Per fess Fig. 48 Per bend " 49 Per bend sinister " 50 Per pale " 51 Per chevron " 52 Per cross " 53 (though it should be noted that the more usual term employed for this is "quarterly") Per saltire Fig. 54 But a field cannot be "per pile" or "per chief," because there is no other way of representing these ordinaries. [Illustration: FIG. 48.--Per fess.] [Illustration: FIG. 49.--Per bend.] [Illustration: FIG. 50.--Per bend sinister.] [Illustration: FIG. 51.--Per pale.] [Illustration: FIG. 52.--Per chevron.] [Illustration: FIG. 53.--Per cross or quarterly.] A field can be composed of any number of pieces in the form of the ordinaries filling the area of the shield, in which case the field is said to be "barry" (Figs. 55 and 56), "paly" (Fig. 57), "bendy" (Fig. 58), "chevronny" (Fig. 59), &c., but the number of pieces must be specified. {98} [Illustration: FIG. 54.--Per saltire.] [Illustration: FIG. 55.--Barry.] [Illustration: FIG. 56.--Barry nebuly.] [Illustration: FIG. 57.--Paly.] [Illustration: FIG. 58.--Bendy.] [Illustration: FIG. 59.--Chevronny.] Another method of partition will be found in the fields "checky" (or "chequy") and lozengy; but these divisions, as also the foregoing, will be treated more specifically under the different ordinaries. A field which is party need not necessarily have all its lines of partition the same. This peculiarity, however, seldom occurs except in the case of a field quarterly, the object in coats of this character being to prevent different quarters of one coat of arms being ranked as or taken to be quarterings representing different families. {99} CHAPTER VIII THE RULES OF BLAZON The word "Blazon" is used with some number of meanings, but practically it may be confined to the verb "to blazon," which is to describe in words a given coat of arms, and the noun "blazon," which is such a description. Care should be taken to differentiate between the employment of the term "blazon" and the verb "to emblazon," which latter means to depict in colour. It may here be remarked, however, that to illustrate by the use of outline with written indications of colour is termed "to trick," and a picture of arms of this character is termed "a trick." The term _trick_ has of late been extended (though one almost thinks improperly) to include representations of arms in which the colours are indicated by the specified tincture lines which have been already referred to. The subject of blazon has of late acquired rather more importance than has hitherto been conceded to it, owing to an unofficial attempt to introduce a new system of blazoning under the guise of a supposed reversion to earlier forms of description. This it is not, but even if it were what it claims to be, merely the revival of ancient forms and methods, its reintroduction cannot be said to be either expedient or permissible, because the ancient practice does not permit of extension to the limits within which more modern armory has developed, and modern armory, though less ancient, is armory equally with the more ancient and simpler examples to be found in earlier times. To ignore modern armory is simply futile and absurd. The rules to be employed in blazon are simple, and comparatively few in number. The commencement of any blazon is of necessity a description of the _field_, the one word signifying its colour being employed if it be a simple field; or, if it be composite, such terms as are necessary. Thus, a coat divided "per pale" or "per chevron" is so described, and whilst the Scottish field of this character is officially termed "Parted" [per pale, or per chevron], the English equivalent is "Party," though this {100} word in English usage is more often omitted than not in the blazon which commences "per pale," or "per chevron," as the case may be. The description of the different colours and different divisions of the field have all been detailed in earlier chapters, but it may be added that in a "party" coloured field, that colour or tincture is mentioned first which occupies the more important part of the escutcheon. Thus, in a field "per bend," "per chevron," or "per fess," the upper portion of the field is first referred to; in a coat "per pale," the dexter side is the more important; and in a coat "quarterly," the tinctures of the 1st and 4th quarters are given precedence of the tinctures of the 2nd and 3rd. The only division upon which there has seemed any uncertainty is the curious one "gyronny," but the correct method to be employed in this case can very easily be recognised by taking the first quarter of the field, and therein considering the field as if it were simply "per bend." After the field has been described, anything of which the field is semé must next be alluded to, _e.g._ gules, semé-de-lis or, &c. The second thing to be mentioned in the blazon is the principal charge. We will consider first those cases in which it is an ordinary. Thus, one would speak of "Or, a chevron gules," or, if there be other charges as well as the ordinary, "Azure, a bend between two horses' heads or," or "Gules, a chevron between three roses argent." The colour of the ordinary is not mentioned until after the charge, if it be the same as the latter, but if it be otherwise it must of course be specified, as in the coat: "Or, a fess gules between three crescents sable." If the ordinary is charged, the charges thereupon, being less important than the charges in the field, are mentioned subsequently, as in the coat: "Gules, on a bend argent between two fountains proper, a rose gules between two mullets sable." The position of the charges need not be specified when they would naturally fall into a certain position with regard to the ordinaries. Thus, a chevron between three figures of necessity has two in chief and one in base. A bend between two figures of necessity has one above and one below. A fess has two above and one below. A cross between four has one in each angle. In none of these cases is it necessary to state the position. If, however, those positions or numbers do not come within the category mentioned, care must be taken to specify what the coat exactly is. If a bend is accompanied only by one charge, the position of this charge must be stated. For example: "Gules, a bend or, in chief a crescent argent." A chevron with four figures would be described: "Argent, a chevron between three escallops in chief and one in base sable," though it would be equally correct to say: "Argent, a chevron {101} between four escallops, three in chief and one in base sable." In the same way we should get: "Vert, on a cross or, and in the 1st quarter a bezant, an estoile sable;" though, to avoid confusion, this coat would more probably be blazoned: "Vert, a cross or, charged with an estoile sable, and in the first quarter a bezant." This example will indicate the latitude which is permissible if, for the sake of avoiding confusion and making a blazon more readily understandable, some deviation from the strict formulas would appear to be desirable. If there be no ordinary on a shield, the charge which occupies the chief position is mentioned first. For example: "Or, a lion rampant sable between three boars' heads erased gules, two in chief and one in base." Many people, however, would omit any reference to the position of the boars' heads, taking it for granted that, as there were only three, they would be 2 and 1, which is the normal position of three charges in any coat of arms. If, however, the coat of arms had the three boars' heads all above the lion, it would then be necessary to blazon it: "Or, a lion rampant sable, in chief three boars' heads erased gules." When a field is _semé_ of anything, this is taken to be a part of the field, and not a representation of a number of charges. Consequently the arms of Long are blazoned: "Sable, semé of cross crosslets, a lion rampant argent." As a matter of fact the semé of cross crosslets is always termed _crusilly_, as has been already explained. When charges are placed around the shield in the position they would occupy if placed upon a bordure, these charges are said to be "in orle," as in the arms of Hutchinson: "Quarterly, azure and gules, a lion rampant erminois, within four cross crosslets argent, and as many bezants alternately in orle;" though it is equally permissible to term charges in such a position "an orle of [_e.g._ cross crosslets argent and bezants alternately]," or so many charges "in orle" (see Fig. 60). If an ordinary be engrailed, or invected, this fact is at once stated, the term occurring before the colour of the ordinary. Thus: "Argent, on a chevron nebuly between three crescents gules, as many roses of the field." When a charge upon an ordinary is the same colour as the field, the name of the colour is not repeated, but those charges are said to be "of the field." It is the constant endeavour, under the recognised system, to avoid the use of the name of the same colour a second time in the blazon. Thus: "Quarterly, gules and or, a cross counterchanged between in the first quarter a sword erect proper, pommel and hilt of the second; in the second quarter a rose of the first, barbed and seeded of the third; in the third quarter a fleur-de-lis azure; and {102} in the fourth quarter a mullet _gold_"--the use of the term "gold" being alone permissible in such a case. Any animal which needs to be described, also needs its position to be specified. It may be rampant, segreant, passant, statant, or trippant, as the case may be. It may also sometimes be necessary to specify its position upon the shield, but the terms peculiarly appropriated to specific animals will be given in the chapters in which these animals are dealt with. [Illustration: FIG. 60.--Arms of Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke: "Baruly argent and azure, an orle of martlets gules." (From his seal.)] With the exception of the chief, the quarter, the canton, the flaunch, and the bordure, an ordinary or sub-ordinary is always of greater importance, and therefore should be mentioned before any other charge, but in the cases alluded to the remainder of the shield is first blazoned, before attention is paid to these figures. Thus we should get: "Argent, a chevron between three mullets gules, on a chief of the last three crescents of the second;" or "Sable, a lion rampant between three fleurs-de-lis or, on a canton argent a mascle of the field;" or "Gules, two chevronels between three mullets pierced or, within a bordure engrailed argent charged with eight roses of the field." The arms in Fig. 61 are an interesting example of this point. They are those of John de Bretagne, Earl of Richmond (d. 1334), and would properly be blazoned: "Chequy or and azure, a bordure gules, charged with lions passant guardant or ('a bordure of England'), over all a canton (sometimes a quarter) ermine." [Illustration: FIG. 61.--The arms of John de Bretagne, Earl of Richmond.] If two ordinaries or sub-ordinaries appear in the same field, certain discretion needs to be exercised, but the arms of Fitzwalter, for example, are as follows: "Or, a fess between two chevrons gules." When charges are placed in a series following the direction of any ordinary they are said to be "in bend," "in chevron," or "in pale," as the case may be, and not only must their position on the shield as regards each other be specified, but their individual direction must also be noted. A coat of arms in which three spears were placed side by side, but each erect, would be blazoned: "Gules, three tilting-spears palewise in fess;" but if the spears were placed horizontally, one above the other, they would be blazoned: "Three tilting-spears fesswise in pale," {103} because in the latter case each spear is placed fesswise, but the three occupy in relation to each other the position of a pale. Three tilting-spears fesswise which were not _in pale_ would be depicted 2 and 1. When one charge surmounts another, the undermost one is mentioned first, as in the arms of Beaumont (see Fig. 62). Here the lion rampant is the principal charge, and the bend which debruises it is consequently mentioned afterwards. In the cases of a cross and of a saltire, the charges when all are alike would simply be described as between four objects, though the term "cantonned by" four objects is sometimes met with. If the objects are not the same, they must be specified as being in the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd quarters, if the ordinary be a cross. If it be a saltire, it will be found that in Scotland the charges are mentioned as being in chief and base, and in the "flanks." In England they would be described as being _in pale_ and _in fess_ if the alternative charges are the same; if not, they would be described as _in chief_, on the dexter side, on the sinister side, and _in base_. [Illustration: FIG. 62.--Arms of John de Beaumont, Lord Beaumont (d. 1369): Azure, semé-de-lis and a lion rampant or, over all a bend gobony argent and gules. (From his seal.)] When a specified number of charges is immediately followed by the same number of charges elsewhere disposed, the number is not repeated, the words "as many" being substituted instead. Thus: "Argent, on a chevron between three roses gules, as many crescents of the field." When any charge, ordinary, or mark of cadency surmounts a single object, that object is termed "debruised" by that ordinary. If it surmounts _everything_, as, for instance, "a bendlet sinister," this would be termed "over all." When a coat of arms is "party" coloured in its field and the charges are alternately of the same colours transposed, the term _counterchanged_ is used. For example, "Party per pale argent and sable, three chevronels between as many mullets pierced all counterchanged." In that case the coat is divided down the middle, the dexter field being argent, and the sinister sable; the charges on the sable being argent, whilst the charges on the argent are sable. A mark of cadency is mentioned last, and is termed "for difference"; a mark of bastardy, or a mark denoting lack of blood descent, is termed "for distinction." Certain practical hints, which, however, can hardly be termed rules, were suggested by the late Mr. J. Gough Nicholls in 1863, when writing in the _Herald and Genealogist_, and subsequent practice has since conformed therewith, though it may be pointed out with advantage that these suggestions are practically, and to all intents and purposes, {104} the same rules which have been observed officially over a long period. Amongst these suggestions he advises that the blazoning of every coat or quarter should begin with a capital letter, and that, save on the occurrence of proper names, no other capitals should be employed. He also suggests that punctuation marks should be avoided as much as possible, his own practice being to limit the use of the comma to its occurrence after each tincture. He suggests also that figures should be omitted in all cases except in the numbering of quarterings. When one or more quarterings occur, each is treated separately on its own merits and blazoned entirely without reference to any other quartering. [Illustration: FIG. 63.--A to B, the chief; C to D, the base; A to C, dexter side; B to D, sinister side. A, dexter chief; B, sinister chief; C, dexter base; D, sinister base. 1, 2, 3, chief; 7, 8, 9, base; 2, 5, 8, pale; 4, 5, 6, fess; 5, fess point.] In blazoning a coat in which some quarterings (grand quarterings) are composed of several coats placed sub-quarterly, sufficient distinction is afforded for English purposes of writing or printing if Roman numerals are employed to indicate the grand quarters, and Arabic figures the sub-quarters. But in _speaking_ such a method would need to be somewhat modified in accordance with the Scottish practice, which describes grand quarterings as such, and so alludes to them. The extensive use of bordures, charged and uncharged, in Scotland, which figure sometimes round the sub-quarters, sometimes round the grand quarters, and sometimes round the entire escutcheon, causes so much confusion that for the purposes of blazoning it is essential that the difference between quarters and grand quarters should be clearly defined. In order to simplify the blazoning of a shield, and so express the position of the charges, the _field_ has been divided into _points_, of which those placed near the top, and to the dexter, are always considered the more important. In heraldry, dexter and sinister are determined, not from the point of view of the onlooker, but from that of the bearer of the shield. The diagram (Fig. 63) will serve to explain the plan of a shield's surface. [Illustration: FIG. 64.] If a second shield be placed upon the fess point, this is called an inescutcheon (in German, the "heart-shield"). The enriching of the shield with an inescutcheon came into lively use in Germany in the course of the latter half of the fifteenth century. Later on, further points of honour were added, as the honour point (a, Fig. 64), and the nombril point (b, Fig. 64). These extra shields laid upon the others should correspond as much as possible in shape to the chief shield. If between the inescutcheon and the chief shield still another be inserted, {105} it is called the "middle shield," from its position, but except in Anglicised versions of Continental arms, these distinctions are quite foreign to British armory. In conclusion, it may be stated that although the foregoing are the rules which are usually observed, and that every effort should be made to avoid unnecessary tautology, and to make the blazon as brief as possible, it is by no manner of means considered officially, or unofficially, that any one of these rules is so unchangeable that in actual practice it cannot be modified if it should seem advisable so to do. For the essential necessity of accuracy is of far greater importance than any desire to be brief, or to avoid tautology. This should be borne in mind, and also the fact that in official practice no such hide-bound character is given to these rules, as one is led to believe is the case when perusing some of the ordinary text-books of armory. They certainly are not laws, they are hardly "rules," perhaps being better described as accepted methods of blazoning. {106} CHAPTER IX THE SO-CALLED ORDINARIES AND SUB-ORDINARIES Arms, and the charges upon arms, have been divided into many fantastical divisions. There is a type of the precise mind much evident in the scientific writing of the last and the preceding centuries which is for ever unhappy unless it can be dividing the object of its consideration into classes and divisions, into sub-classes and sub-divisions. Heraldry has suffered in this way; for, oblivious of the fact that the rules enunciated are impossible as rigid guides for general observance, and that they never have been complied with, and that they never will be, a "tabular" system has been evolved for heraldry as for most other sciences. The "precise" mind has applied a system obviously derived from natural history classification to the principles of armory. It has selected a certain number of charges, and has been pleased to term them ordinaries. It has selected others which it has been pleased to term sub-ordinaries. The selection has been purely arbitrary, at the pleasure of the writer, and few writers have agreed in their classifications. One of the foremost rules which former heraldic writers have laid down is that an ordinary must contain the third part of the field. Now it is doubtful whether an ordinary has ever been drawn containing the third part of the field by rigid measurement, except in the solitary instance of the pale, when it is drawn "per fess counterchanged," for the obvious _purpose_ of dividing the shield into six equal portions, a practice which has been lately pursued very extensively owing to the ease with which, by its adoption, a new coat of arms can be designed bearing a distinct resemblance to one formerly in use without infringing the rights of the latter. Certainly, if the ordinary is the solitary charge upon the shield, it will be drawn about that specified proportion. But when an attempt is made to draw the Walpole coat (which cannot be said to be a modern one) so that it shall exhibit three ordinaries, to wit, one fess and two chevrons (which being interpreted as three-thirds of the shield, would fill it entirely), and yet leave a goodly proportion of the field still visible, the absurdity is apparent. And a very large proportion of the classification and rules which occupy such a large proportion of the space in the majority of heraldic text-books are equally unnecessary, {107} confusing, and incorrect, and what is very much more important, such rules have never been recognised by the powers that have had the control of armory from the beginning of that control down to the present day. I shall not be surprised to find that many of my critics, bearing in mind how strenuously I have pleaded elsewhere for a right and proper observance of the laws of armory, may think that the foregoing has largely the nature of a recantation. It is nothing of the kind, and I advocate as strenuously as I have ever done, the compliance with and the observance of every rule which can be shown to exist. But this is no argument whatever for the idle invention of rules which never have existed; or for the recognition of rules which have no other origin than the imagination of heraldic writers. Nor is it an argument for the deduction of unnecessary regulations from cases which can be shown to have been exceptions. Too little recognition is paid to the fact that in armory there are almost as many rules of exception as original rules. There are vastly more plain exceptions to the rules which should govern them. On the subject of ordinaries, I cannot see wherein lies the difference between a bend and a lion rampant, save their difference in form, yet the one is said to be an ordinary, the other is merely a charge. Each has its special rules to be observed, and whilst a bend can be engrailed or invected, a lion can be guardant or regardant; and whilst the one can be placed between two objects, which objects will occupy a specified position, so can the other. Each can be charged, and each furnishes an excellent example of the futility of some of the ancient rules which have been coined concerning them. The ancient rules allow of but one lion and one bend upon a shield, requiring that two bends shall become bendlets, and two lions lioncels, whereas the instance we have already quoted--the coat of Walpole--has never been drawn in such form that either of the chevrons could have been considered chevronels, and it is rather late in the day to degrade the lions of England into unblooded whelps. To my mind the ordinaries and sub-ordinaries are no more than first charges, and though the bend, the fess, the pale, the pile, the chevron, the cross, and the saltire will always be found described as honourable ordinaries, whilst the chief seems also to be pretty universally considered as one of the honourable ordinaries, such hopeless confusion remains as to the others (scarcely any two writers giving similar classifications), that the utter absurdity of the necessity for any classification at all is amply demonstrated. Classification is only necessary or desirable when a certain set of rules can be applied identically to all the set of figures in that particular class. Even this will not hold with the ordinaries which have been quoted. {108} A pale embattled is embattled upon both its edges; a fess embattled is embattled only upon the upper edge; a chief is embattled necessarily only upon the lower; and the grave difficulty of distinguishing "per pale engrailed" from "per pale invected" shows that no rigid rules can be laid down. When we come to sub-ordinaries, the confusion is still more apparent, for as far as I can see the only reason for the classification is the tabulating of rules concerning the lines of partition. The bordure and the orle can be, and often are, engrailed or embattled; the fret, the lozenge, the fusil, the mascle, the rustre, the flanche, the roundel, the billet, the label, the pairle, it would be practically impossible to meddle with; and all these figures have at some time or another, and by some writer or other, been included amongst either the ordinaries or the sub-ordinaries. In fact there is no one quality which these charges possess in common which is not equally possessed by scores of other well-known charges, and there is no particular reason why a certain set should be selected and dignified by the name of ordinaries; nor are there any rules relating to ordinaries which require the selection of a certain number of figures, or of any figures to be controlled by those rules, with one exception. The exception is to be found not in the rules governing the ordinaries, but in the rules of blazon. After the field has been specified, the principal charge must be mentioned first, and no charge can take precedence of a bend, fess, pale, pile, chevron, cross, or saltire, except one of themselves. If there be any reason for a subdivision those charges must stand by themselves, and might be termed the honourable ordinaries, but I can see no reason for treating the chief, the quarter, the canton, gyron, flanche, label, orle, tressure, fret, inescutcheon, chaplet, bordure, lozenge, fusil, mascle, rustre, roundel, billet, label, shakefork, and pairle, as other than ordinary charges. They certainly are purely heraldic, and each has its own special rules, but so in heraldry have the lion, griffin, and deer. Here is the complete list of the so-called ordinaries and sub-ordinaries: The bend; fess; bar; chief; pale; chevron; cross; saltire; pile; pairle, shakefork or pall; quarter; canton; gyron; bordure; orle; tressure; flanche; label, fret; inescutcheon; chaplet; lozenge; fusil; mascle; rustre; roundel; billet, together with the diminutives of such of these as are in use. With reference to the origin of these ordinaries, by the use of which term is meant for the moment the rectilinear figures peculiar to armory, it may be worth the passing mention that the said origin is a matter of some mystery. Guillim and the old writers almost universally take them to be derived from the actual military scarf or a representation of it placed across the shield in various forms. Other writers, taking the surcoat and its decoration as the real origin of coats of arms, derive {109} the ordinaries from the belt, scarf, and other articles of raiment. Planché, on the other hand, scouted such a derivation, putting forward upon very good and plausible grounds the simple argument that the origin of the ordinaries is to be found in the cross-pieces of wood placed across a shield for strengthening purposes. He instances cases in which shields, apparently charged with ordinaries but really strengthened with cross-pieces, can be taken back to a period long anterior to the existence of regularised armory. But then, on the other hand, shields can be found decorated with animals at an equally early or even an earlier period, and I am inclined myself to push Planché's own argument even farther than he himself took it, and assert unequivocally that the ordinaries had in themselves no particular symbolism and no definable origin whatever beyond that easy method of making some pattern upon a shield which was to be gained by using straight lines. That they ever had any military meaning, I cannot see the slightest foundation to believe; their suggested and asserted symbolism I totally deny. But when we can find, as Planché did, that shields were strengthened with cross-pieces in various directions, it is quite natural to suppose that these cross-pieces afforded a ready means of decoration in colour, and this would lead a good deal of other decoration to follow similar forms, even in the absence of cross-pieces upon the definite shield itself. The one curious point which rather seems to tell against Planché's theory is that in the earliest "rolls" of arms but a comparatively small proportion of the arms are found to consist of these rectilinear figures, and if the ordinaries really originated in strengthening cross-pieces one would have expected a larger number of such coats of arms to be found; but at the same time such arms would, in many cases, in themselves be so palpably mere meaningless decoration of cross-pieces upon plain shields, that the resulting design would not carry with it such a compulsory remembrance as would a design, for example, derived from lines which had plainly had no connection with the construction of the shield. Nor could it have any such basis of continuity. Whilst a son would naturally paint a lion upon his shield if his father had done the same, there certainly would not be a similar inducement for a son to follow his father's example where the design upon a shield were no more than different-coloured strengthening pieces, because if these were gilt, for example, the son would naturally be no more inclined to perpetuate a particular form of strengthening for his shield, which might not need it, than any particular artistic division with which it was involved, so that the absence of arms composed of ordinaries from the early rolls of arms may not amount to so very much. Still further, it may well be concluded that the compilers of early rolls {110} of arms, or the collectors of the details from which early rolls were made at a later date, may have been tempted to ignore, and may have been justified in discarding from their lists of arms, those patterns and designs which palpably were then no more than a meaningless colouring of the strengthening pieces, but which patterns and designs by subsequent continuous usage and perpetuation became accepted later by certain families as the "arms" their ancestors had worn. It is easy to see that such meaningless patterns would have less chance of survival by continuity of usage, and at the same time would require a longer continuity of usage, before attaining to fixity as a definite design. The undoubted symbolism of the cross in so many early coats of arms has been urged strongly by those who argue either for a symbolism for all these rectilinear figures or for an origin in articles of dress. But the figure of the cross preceded Christianity and organised armory, and it had an obvious decorative value which existed before, and which exists now outside any attribute it may have of a symbolical nature. That it is an utterly fallacious argument must be admitted when it is remembered that two lines at right angles make a cross--probably the earliest of all forms of decoration--and that the cross existed before its symbolism. Herein it differs from other forms of decoration (e.g. the Masonic emblems) which cannot be traced beyond their symbolical existence. The cross, like the other heraldic rectilinear figures, came into existence, meaningless as a decoration for a shield, before armory as such existed, and probably before Christianity began. Then being in existence the Crusading instinct doubtless caused its frequent selection with an added symbolical meaning. But the argument can truthfully be pushed no farther. THE BEND The bend is a broad band going from the dexter chief corner to the sinister base (Fig. 65). According to the old theorists this should contain the third part of the field. As a matter of fact it hardly ever does, and seldom did even in the oldest examples. Great latitude is allowed to the artist on this point, in accordance with whether the bend be plain or charged, and more particularly according to the charges which accompany it in the shield and their disposition thereupon. "Azure, a bend or," is the well-known coat concerning which the historic controversy was waged between Scrope and Grosvenor. As every one knows, it was finally adjudged to belong to the former, and a right to it has also been proved by the Cornish family of Carminow. {111} A bend is, of course, subject to the usual variations of the lines of partition (Figs. 66-75). A bend compony (Fig. 76), will be found in the arms of Beaumont, and the difference between this (in which the panes run with the bend) and a bend barry (in which the panes are horizontal, Fig. 77), as in the arms of King,[7] should be noticed. [Illustration: FIG. 65.--Bend.] [Illustration: FIG. 66.--Bend engrailed.] [Illustration: FIG. 67.--Bend invecked.] [Illustration: FIG. 68.--Bend embattled.] [Illustration: FIG. 69.--Bend embattled counter-embattled.] [Illustration: FIG. 70.--Bend raguly.] [Illustration: FIG. 71.--Bend dovetailed.] [Illustration: FIG. 72.--Bend indented.] [Illustration: FIG. 73.--Bend dancetté.] A bend wavy is not very usual, but will be found in the arms of Wallop, De Burton, and Conder. A bend raguly appears in the arms of Strangman. {112} When a bend and a bordure appear upon the same arms, the bend is not continued over the bordure, and similarly it does not surmount a tressure (Fig. 78), but stops within it. A bend upon a bend is by no means unusual. An example of this will be found in a coat of Waller. Cases where this happens need to be carefully scrutinised to avoid error in blazoning. [Illustration: FIG. 74.--Bend wavy.] [Illustration: FIG. 75.--Bend nebuly.] [Illustration: FIG. 76.--Bend compony.] [Illustration: FIG. 77.--Bend barry.] [Illustration: FIG. 78.--Bend within tressure.] [Illustration: FIG. 79.--Bend lozengy.] A bend lozengy, or of lozenges (Fig. 79), will be found in the arms of Bolding. A bend flory and counterflory will be found in the arms of Fellows, a quartering of Tweedy. A bend chequy will be found in the arms of Menteith, and it should be noticed that the checks run the way of the bend. Ermine spots upon a bend are represented the way of the bend. Occasionally two bends will be found, as in the arms of Lever: Argent, two bends sable, the upper one engrailed (_vide_ Lyon Register--escutcheon of pretence on the arms of Goldie-Scot of Craigmore, 1868); or as in the arms of James Ford, of Montrose, 1804: Gules, two bends vairé argent and sable, on a chief or, a greyhound courant sable between two towers gules. A different form appears in the arms of Zorke or Yorke (see Papworth), which are blazoned: Azure, a bend argent, impaling argent, a bend azure. A solitary instance of _three_ bends (which, however, effectually proves that a bend cannot {113} occupy the third part of the field) occurs in the arms of Penrose, matriculated in Lyon Register in 1795 as a quartering of Cumming-Gordon of Altyre. These arms of Penrose are: Argent, three bends sable, each charged with as many roses of the field. A charge half the width of a bend is a bendlet (Fig. 80), and one half the width of a bendlet is a cottise (Fig. 81), but a cottise cannot exist alone, inasmuch as it has of itself neither direction nor position, but is only found accompanying one of the ordinaries. The arms of Harley are an example of a bend cottised. Bendlets will very seldom be found either in addition to a bend, or charged, but the arms of Vaile show both these peculiarities. [Illustration: FIG. 80.--Bendlets.] A bend will usually be found between two charges. Occasionally it will be found between four, but more frequently between six. In none of these cases is it necessary to specify the position of the subsidiary charges. It is presumed that the bend separates them into even numbers, but their exact position (beyond this) upon the shield is left to the judgment of the artist, and their disposition is governed by the space left available by the shape of the shield. A further presumption is permitted in the case of a bend between _three_ objects, which are presumed to be two in chief and one in base. But even in the case of three the position will be usually found to be specifically stated, as would be the case with any other uneven number. [Illustration: FIG. 81.--Bend cottised.] Charges on a bend are placed in the direction of the bend. In such cases it is not necessary to specify that the charges are bendwise. When a charge or charges occupy the position which a bend would, they are said to be placed "in bend." This is not the same thing as a charge placed "bendwise" (or bendways). In this case the charge itself is slanted into the angle at which the bend crosses the shield, but the position of the charge upon the shield is not governed thereby. When a bend and chief occur together in the same arms, the chief will usually surmount the bend, the latter issuing from the angle between the base of the chief and the side of the shield. An instance to the contrary, however, will be found in the arms of Fitz-Herbert of Swynnerton, in which the bend is continued over the chief. This instance, however (as doubtless all others of the kind), is due to the {114} use of the bend in early times as a mark of difference. The coat of arms, therefore, had an earlier and separate existence without the bend, which has been superimposed as a difference upon a previously existing coat. The use of the bend as a difference will be again referred to when considering more fully the marks and methods of indicating cadency. [Illustration: FIG. 82.--Bend sinister.] A curious instance of the use of the sun's rays in bend will be found in the arms of Warde-Aldam.[8] The bend sinister (Fig. 82), is very frequently stated to be the mark of illegitimacy. It certainly has been so used upon some occasions, but these occasions are very few and far between, the charge more frequently made use of being the bendlet or its derivative the baton (Fig. 83). These will be treated more fully in the chapter on the marks of illegitimacy. The bend sinister, which is a band running from the sinister chief corner through the centre of the escutcheon to the dexter base, need not necessarily indicate bastardy. Naturally the popular idea which has originated and become stereotyped concerning it renders its appearance extremely rare, but in at least two cases it occurs without, as far as I am aware, carrying any such meaning. At any rate, in neither case are the coats "bastardised" versions of older arms. These cases are the arms of Shiffner: "Azure, a bend sinister, in chief two estoiles, in like bend or; in base the end and stock of an anchor gold, issuing from waves of the sea proper;" and Burne-Jones: "Azure, on a bend sinister argent, between seven mullets, four in chief and three in base or, three pairs of wings addorsed purpure." [Illustration: FIG. 83.--Baton sinister.] No coat with the chief charge a single bendlet occurs in Papworth. A single case, however, is to be found in the Lyon Register in the duly matriculated arms of Porterfield of that Ilk: "Or, a bendlet between a stag's head erased in chief and a hunting-horn in base sable, garnished gules." Single bendlets, however, both dexter and sinister, occur as ancient difference marks, and are then sometimes known as ribands. So described, it occurs in blazon of the arms of Abernethy: "Or, a lion rampant gules, debruised of a ribbon sable," quartered by Lindsay, Earl of Crawford and Balcarres; but here again the bendlet is a mark {115} of cadency. In the _Gelre Armorial_, in this particular coat the ribbon is made "engrailed," which is most unusual, and which does not appear to be the accepted form. In many of the Scottish matriculations of this Abernethy coat in which this riband occurs it is termed a "cost," doubtless another form of the word cottise. When a bend or bendlets (or, in fact, any other charge) are raised above their natural position in the shield they are termed "enhanced" (Fig. 84). An instance of this occurs in the well-known coat of Byron, viz.: "Argent, three bendlets enhanced gules," and in the arms of Manchester, which were based upon this coat. [Illustration: FIG. 84.--Bendlets enhanced.] [Illustration: FIG. 85.--Pale.] [Illustration: FIG. 86.--Pale engrailed.] When the field is composed of an even number of equal pieces divided by lines following the angle of a bend the field is blazoned "bendy" of so many (Fig. 58). In most cases it will be composed of six or eight pieces, but as there is no diminutive of "bendy," the number must always be stated. THE PALE The pale is a broad perpendicular band passing from the top of the escutcheon to the bottom (Fig. 85). Like all the other ordinaries, it is stated to contain the third part of the area of the field, and it is the only one which is at all frequently drawn in that proportion. But even with the pale, the most frequent occasion upon which this proportion is definitely given, this exaggerated width will be presently explained. The artistic latitude, however, permits the pale to be drawn of this proportion if this be convenient to the charges upon it. Like the other ordinaries, the pale will be found varied by the different lines of partition (Figs. 86-94). The single circumstance in which the pale is regularly drawn to contain a full third of the field by measurement is when the coat is "per fess and a pale counterchanged." This, it will be noticed, divides the shield into six equal portions (Fig. 95). The ease with which, by {116} the employment of these conditions, a new coat can be based upon an old one which shall leave three original charges in the same position, and upon a field of the original tincture, and yet shall produce an entirely different and distinct coat of arms, has led to this particular form being constantly repeated in modern grants. [Illustration: FIG. 87.--Pale invecked.] [Illustration: FIG. 88.--Pale embattled.] [Illustration: FIG. 89.--Pale raguly.] [Illustration: FIG. 90.--Pale dovetailed.] [Illustration: FIG. 91.--Pale indented.] [Illustration: FIG. 92.--Pale wavy.] [Illustration: FIG. 93.--Pale nebuly.] [Illustration: FIG. 94.--Pale rayonné.] [Illustration: FIG. 95.--Pale per fesse counter changed.] The diminutive of the pale is the pallet (Fig. 96), and the pale cottised is sometimes termed "endorsed." Except when it is used as a mark of difference or distinction (then usually wavy), the pallet is not found singly; but two pallets, or three, are not exceptional. Charged upon other ordinaries, particularly on the chief and the chevron, pallets are of constant occurrence. {117} When the field is striped vertically it is said to be "paly" of so many (Fig. 57). [Illustration: FIG. 96.--Pallets.] [Illustration: FIG. 97.--The arms of Amaury de Montfort, Earl of Gloucester; died before 1214. (From his seal.)] [Illustration: FIG. 98.--Arms of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester; died 1265. (From MS. Cott., Nero, D. 1.)] [Illustration: FIG. 99.--Fess.] [Illustration: FIG. 100.--Fess engrailed.] [Illustration: FIG. 101.--Fess invecked.] The arms shown in Fig. 97 are interesting inasmuch as they are doubtless an early form of the coat per pale indented argent and gules, which is generally described as a banner borne for the honour of Hinckley, by the Simons de Montfort, Earls of Leicester, father and son. In a Roll _temp._ Henry III., to Simon the younger is ascribed "Le Banner party endentee dargent & de goules," although the arms of both father and son are known to have been as Fig. 98: "Gules, a lion rampant queue-fourchée argent." More probably the indented coat gives the original Montfort arms. THE FESS The fess is a broad horizontal band crossing the escutcheon in the centre (Fig. 99). It is seldom drawn to contain a full third of the area of the shield. It is subject to the lines of partition (Figs. 100-109). {118} A curious variety of the fess dancetté is borne by the Shropshire family Plowden of Plowden. They bear: Azure, a fess dancetté, the upper points terminating in fleurs-de-lis (Fig. 110). A fess couped (Fig. 111) is found in the arms of Lee. [Illustration: FIG. 102.--Fess embattled.] [Illustration: FIG. 103.--Fess embattled counter-embattled.] [Illustration: FIG. 104.--Fess raguly.] [Illustration: FIG. 105.--Fess dovetailed.] [Illustration: FIG. 106.--Fess indented.] [Illustration: FIG. 107.--Fess dancetté.] [Illustration: FIG. 108.--Fess wavy.] [Illustration: FIG. 109.--Fess nebuly.] [Illustration: FIG. 110.--The arms of Plowden.] The "fess embattled" is only crenellated upon the upper edge; but when both edges are embattled it is a fess embattled and counter-embattled. The term _bretessé_ (which is said to indicate that the battlements on the upper edge are opposite the battlements on the lower edge, and the indentations likewise corresponding) is a term and a distinction neither of which are regarded in British armory. {119} A fess wreathed (Fig. 112) is a bearing which seems to be almost peculiar to the Carmichael family, but the arms of Waye of Devon are an additional example, being: Sable, two bars wreathed argent and gules. I know of no other ordinary borne in a wreathed form, but there seems no reason why this peculiarity should be confined to the fess. [Illustration: FIG. 111.--Fess couped.] [Illustration: FIG. 112.--Fess wreathed.] [Illustration: FIG. 113.--Two Bars.] [Illustration: FIG. 114.--Bars embattled.] [Illustration: FIG. 115.--Bars engrailed.] [Illustration: FIG. 116.--Bars invecked.] It is a fixed rule of British armory that there can be only _one_ fess upon a shield. If two figures of this character are found they are termed _bars_ (Fig. 113). But it is hardly correct to speak of the bar as a diminutive of the fess, because if two bars only appear on the shield there would be little, if any, diminution made from the width of the fess when depicting the bars. As is the case with other ordinaries, there is much latitude allowed to the artist in deciding the dimensions, it being usually permitted for these to be governed by the charges upon the fess or bars, and the charges between which these are placed. Bars, like the fess, are of course equally subject to all the varying lines of partition (Figs. 114-118). The diminutive of the bar is the barrulet, which is half its width and double the width of the cottise. But the barrulet will _almost invariably_ be found borne in _pairs_, when such a pair is usually known as a "bar gemel" and not as two barrulets. Thus a coat with four barrulets {120} would have these placed at equal distances from each other; but a coat with two bars gemel would be depicted with two of its barrulets placed closely together in chief and two placed closely together in base, the disposition being governed by the fact that the two barrulets comprising the "bar gemel" are only _one charge_. Fig. 119 shows three bars gemel. There is theoretically no limit to the number of bars or bars gemel which can be placed upon the shield. In practical use, however, four will be found the maximum. [Illustration: FIG. 117.--Bars raguly.] [Illustration: FIG. 118.--Bars dovetailed.] [Illustration: FIG. 119.--Bars gemel.] A field composed of four, six, eight, or ten horizontal pieces of equal width is "barry of such and such a number of pieces," the number being always specified (Figs. 55 and 56). A field composed of an equal number of horizontally shaped pieces, when these exceed ten in number, is termed "barruly" of such and such a number. The term barruly is also sometimes used for ten pieces. If the number is omitted "barry" will usually be of six pieces, though sometimes of eight. On the other hand a field composed of five, seven, or nine pieces is not barry, but (_e.g._) two bars, three bars, and four bars respectively. This distinction in modern coats needs to be carefully noted, but in ancient coats it is not of equal importance. Anciently also a shield "barry" was drawn of a greater number of pieces (see Figs. 120, 121 and 122) than would nowadays be employed. In modern armory a field so depicted would more correctly be termed "barruly." Whilst a field can be and often is barry of two colours or two metals, an uneven number of pieces must of necessity be of metal and colour or fur. Consequently in a shield _e.g._ divided into seven equal horizontal divisions, alternately gules and sable, there must be a mistake somewhere. Although these distinctions require to be carefully noted as regards modern arms, it should be remembered that they are distinctions evolved by the intricacies and requirements of modern armory, and ancient arms were not so trammelled. {121} A field divided horizontally into three equal divisions of _e.g._ gules, sable, and argent is theoretically blazoned by British rules "party per fess gules and argent, a fess sable." This, however, gives an exaggerated width to the fess which it does not really possess with us, and the German rules, which would blazon it "tierced per fess gules, sable, and argent," would seem preferable. [Illustration: FIG. 120.--Arms of William de Valence, Earl of Pembroke (d. 1296); Barruly azure and argent, a label of five points gules, the files depending from the chief line of the shield, and each file charged with three lions passant guardant or. (From MS. Reg. 14, C. vii.)] [Illustration: FIG. 121.--Arms of Laurence de Hastings, Earl of Pembroke (d. 1348); Quarterly, 1 and 4, or, a maunch gules (for Hastings); 2 and 3, barruly argent and azure, an orle of martlets (for Valence). (From his seal.)] [Illustration: FIG. 122.--Arms of Edmund Grey, Earl of Kent (d. 1489): Quarterly, 1 and 4, barry of six, argent and azure, in chief three torteaux (for Grey); 2 and 3, Hastings and Valence sub-quarterly. (From his seal, 1442.)] [Illustration: FIG. 123.--Barry, per chevron counter-changed.] [Illustration: FIG. 124.--Barry-bendy.] [Illustration: FIG. 125.--Paly-bendy.] A field which is barry may also be counterchanged, as in the arms of Ballingall, where it is counterchanged per pale; but it can also be counterchanged per chevron (Fig. 123), or per bend dexter or sinister. Such counterchanging should be carefully distinguished from fields which are "barry-bendy" (Fig. 124), or "paly-bendy" (Fig. 125). In these latter cases the field is divided first by lines horizontal (for barry) or perpendicular (for paly), and subsequently by lines bendy (dexter or sinister). {122} The result produced is very similar to "lozengy" (Fig. 126), and care should be taken to distinguish the two. Barry-bendy is sometimes blazoned "fusilly in bend," whilst paly-bendy is sometimes blazoned "fusilly in bend sinister," but the other terms are the more accurate and acceptable. [Illustration: FIG. 126.--Lozengy.] [Illustration: FIG. 127.--Chevron.] [Illustration: FIG. 128.--Chevron engrailed.] [Illustration: FIG. 129.--Chevron invecked.] [Illustration: FIG. 130.--Chevron embattled.] [Illustration: FIG. 131.--Chevron embattled and counter-embattled.] "Lozengy" is made by use of lines in bend crossed by lines in bend sinister (Fig. 126), and "fusilly" the same, only drawn at a more acute angle. THE CHEVRON Probably the ordinary of most frequent occurrence in British, as also in French armory, is the chevron (Fig. 127). It is comparatively rare in German heraldry. The term is derived from the French word _chevron_, meaning a rafter, and the heraldic chevron is the same shape as a gable rafter. In early examples of heraldic art the chevron will be found depicted reaching very nearly to the top of the shield, the angle contained within the chevron being necessarily more acute. The chevron then attained very much more nearly to its full area of one-third of the field than is now given to it. As the chevron became accompanied by charges, it was naturally drawn so that it would allow of these charges being more easily represented, and its height became {123} less whilst the angle it enclosed was increased. But now, as then, it is perfectly at the pleasure of the artist to design his chevron at the height and angle which will best allow the proper representation of the charges which accompany it. [Illustration: FIG. 132.--Chevron indented.] [Illustration: FIG. 133.--Chevron wavy.] [Illustration: FIG. 134.--Chevron nebuly.] [Illustration: FIG. 135.--Chevron raguly.] [Illustration: FIG. 136.--Chevron dovetailed.] [Illustration: FIG. 137.--Chevron doubly cottised.] The chevron, of course, is subject to the usual lines of partition (Figs. 128-136), and can be cottised and doubly cottised (Fig. 137). It is usually found between three charges, but the necessity of modern differentiation has recently introduced the disposition of four charges, three in chief and one in base, which is by no means a happy invention. An even worse disposition occurs in the arms of a certain family of Mitchell, where the four escallops which are the principal charges are arranged two in chief and two in base. [Illustration: FIG. 138.--Chevron quarterly.] Ermine spots upon a chevron do not follow the direction of it, but in the cases of chevrons vair, and chevrons chequy, authoritative examples can be found in which the chequers and rows of vair both do, and do not, conform to the direction of the chevron. My own preference is to make the rows horizontal. A chevron quarterly is divided by a line chevronwise, apparently {124} dividing the chevron into two chevronels, and then by a vertical line in the centre (Fig. 138). A chevron in point embowed will be found in the arms of Trapaud quartered by Adlercron (Fig. 139). A field per chevron (Fig. 52) is often met with, and the division line in this case (like the enclosing lines of a real chevron) is subject to the usual partition lines, but how one is to determine the differentiation between per chevron engrailed and per chevron invecked I am uncertain, but think the points should be upwards for engrailed. The field when entirely composed of an even number of chevrons is termed "chevronny" (Fig. 59). The diminutive of the chevron is the chevronel (Fig. 140). Chevronels "interlaced" or "braced" (Fig. 141), will be found in the arms of Sirr. The chevronel is very seldom met with singly, but a case of this will be found in the arms of Spry. A chevron "rompu" or broken is depicted as in Fig. 142. [Illustration] FIG. 139.--Armorial bearings of Rodolph Ladeveze Adlercron, Esq.: Quarterly, 1 and 4, argent, an eagle displayed, wings inverted sable, langued gules, membered and ducally crowned or (for Adlercron): 2 and 3, argent, a chevron in point embowed between in chief two mullets and in base a lion rampant all gules (for Trapaud). Mantling sable and argent. Crest: on a wreath of the colours, a demi-eagle displayed sable, langued gules, ducally crowned or, the dexter wing per fess argent and azure, the sinister per fess of the last and or. Motto: "Quo fata vocant." THE PILE The pile (Fig. 143) is a triangular wedge usually (and unless otherwise specified) issuing from the chief. The pile is subject to the usual lines of partition (Figs. 144-151). The early representation of the pile (when coats of arms had no secondary charges and were nice and simple) made the point nearly reach to the base of the escutcheon, and as a consequence it naturally was not so wide. It is now usually drawn so that its upper edge occupies very nearly the whole of the top line of the escutcheon; but {125} the angles and proportions of the pile are very much at the discretion of the artist, and governed by the charges which need to be introduced in the field of the escutcheon or upon the pile. [Illustration: FIG. 140.--Chevronels.] [Illustration: FIG. 141.--Chevronels braced.] [Illustration: FIG. 142.--Chevron rompu.] [Illustration: FIG. 143.--Pile.] [Illustration: FIG. 144.--Pile engrailed.] [Illustration: FIG. 145.--Pile invecked.] [Illustration: FIG. 146.--Pile embattled.] [Illustration: FIG. 147.--Pile indented.] [Illustration: FIG. 148.--Pile wavy.] A single pile may issue from any point of the escutcheon except the base; the arms of Darbishire showing a pile issuing from the dexter chief point. A single pile cannot issue in base if it be unaccompanied by other piles, as the field would then be blazoned per chevron. Two piles issuing in chief will be found in the arms of Holles, Earl of Clare. When three piles, instead of pointing directly at right angles to the line of the chief, all point to the same point, touching or nearly touching {126} at the tips, as in the arms of the Earl of Huntingdon and Chester or in the arms of Isham,[9] they are described as three piles in point. This term and its differentiation probably are modern refinements, as with the early long-pointed shield any other position was impossible. The arms of Henderson show three piles issuing from the sinister side of the escutcheon. A disposition of three piles which will very frequently be found in modern British heraldry is two issuing in chief and one in base (Fig. 152). Piles terminating in fleurs-de-lis or crosses patée are to be met with, and reference may be made to the arms of Poynter and Dickson-Poynder. Each of these coats has the field pily counter-pily, the points ending in crosses formée. [Illustration: FIG. 149.--Pile nebuly.] [Illustration: FIG. 150.--Pile raguly.] [Illustration: FIG. 151.--Pile dovetailed.] An unusual instance of a pile in which it issues from a chevron will be found in the arms of Wright, which are: "Sable, on a chevron argent, three spear-heads gules, in chief two unicorns' heads erased argent, armed and maned or, in base on a pile of the last, issuant from the chevron, a unicorn's head erased of the field." THE SHAKEFORK The pall, pairle, or shakefork (Fig. 153), is almost unknown in English heraldry, but in Scotland its constant occurrence in the arms of the Cunninghame and allied families has given it a recognised position among the ordinaries. As usually borne by the Cunninghame family the ends are couped and pointed, but in some cases it is borne throughout. The pall in its proper ecclesiastical form appears in the arms of the Archiepiscopal Sees of Canterbury, Armagh, and Dublin. Though {127} in these cases the pall or pallium (Fig. 154), is now considered to have no other heraldic status than that of an appropriately ecclesiastical charge upon an official coat of arms, there can be very little doubt that originally the pall of itself was the heraldic symbol in this country of an archbishop, and borne for that reason by all archbishops, including the Archbishop of York, although his official archiepiscopal coat is now changed to: "Gules, two keys in saltire argent, in chief a royal crown or." [Illustration: FIG. 152.--Three piles, two in chief and one in base.] [Illustration: FIG. 153.--Shakefork.] [Illustration: FIG. 154.--Ecclesiastical pallium.] [Illustration: FIG. 155.--Cross.] [Illustration: FIG. 156.--Cross engrailed.] [Illustration: FIG. 157.--Cross invecked.] The necessity of displaying this device of rank--the pallium--upon a field of some tincture has led to its corruption into a usual and stereotyped "charge." THE CROSS The heraldic cross (Fig. 155), the huge preponderance of which in armory we of course owe to the Crusades, like all other armorial charges, has strangely developed. There are nearly four hundred varieties known to armory, or rather to heraldic text-books, and doubtless authenticated examples could be found of most if not of them all. But some dozen or twenty forms are about as many as will be found regularly or constantly occurring. Some but not all of the varieties of the cross are subject to the lines of partition (Figs. 156-161). {128} When the heraldic cross was first assumed with any reason beyond geometrical convenience, there can be no doubt that it was intended to represent the Sacred Cross itself. The symbolism of the cross is older than our present system of armory, but the cross itself is more ancient than its symbolism. A cross depicted upon the long, pointed shields of those who fought for the Cross would be of that shape, with the elongated arm in base. [Illustration: FIG. 158.--Cross embattled.] [Illustration: FIG. 159.--Cross indented.] [Illustration: FIG. 160.--Cross raguly.] [Illustration: FIG. 161.--Cross dovetailed.] [Illustration: FIG. 162.--Passion Cross.] [Illustration: FIG. 163.--Cross Calvary.] But the contemporary shortening of the shield, together with the introduction of charges in its angles, led naturally to the arms of the cross being so disposed that the parts of the field left visible were as nearly as possible equal. The Sacred Cross, therefore, in heraldry is now known as a "Passion Cross" (Fig. 162) (or sometimes as a "long cross"), or, if upon steps or "grieces," the number of which needs to be specified, as a "Cross Calvary" (Fig. 163). The crucifix (Fig. 164), under that description is sometimes met with as a charge. The ordinary heraldic cross (Fig. 155) is always continued throughout the shield unless stated to be couped (Fig. 165). Of the crosses more regularly in use may be mentioned the cross botonny (Fig. 166), the cross flory (Fig. 167), which must be distinguished from the cross fleuretté (Fig. 168); the cross moline, {129} (Fig. 169), the cross potent (Fig. 170), the cross patée or formée (Fig. 171), the cross patonce (Fig. 172), and the cross crosslet (Fig. 173). PLATE III. [Illustration] [Illustration: FIG. 164.--Crucifix.] [Illustration: FIG. 165.--Cross couped.] [Illustration: FIG. 166.--Cross botonny.] [Illustration: FIG. 167.--Cross flory.] [Illustration: FIG. 168.--Cross fleuretté.] [Illustration: FIG. 169.--Cross moline.] [Illustration: FIG. 170.--Cross potent.] [Illustration: FIG. 171.--Cross patée (or formée).] [Illustration: FIG. 172.--Cross patonce.] Of other but much more uncommon varieties examples will be found of the cross parted and fretty (Fig. 174), of the cross patée quadrate (Fig. 175), of a cross pointed and voided in the arms of Dukinfield (quartered by Darbishire), and of a cross cleché voided and pometté as in the arms of Cawston. A cross quarter-pierced (Fig. 176) has the field visible at the centre. A cross tau or St. Anthony's Cross is shown in Fig. 177, the real Maltese Cross in Fig. 178, and the Patriarchal Cross in Fig. 179. {130} Whenever a cross or cross crosslet has the bottom arm elongated and pointed it is said to be "fitched" (Figs. 180 and 181), but when a point is added at the foot_ e.g._ of a cross patée, it is then termed "fitchée at the foot" (Fig. 182). [Illustration: FIG. 173.--Cross crosslet.] [Illustration: FIG. 174.--Cross parted and fretty.] [Illustration: FIG. 175.--Cross patée quadrate.] [Illustration: FIG. 176.--Cross quarter-pierced.] [Illustration: FIG. 177.--Cross Tau.] [Illustration: FIG. 178.--Maltese Cross.] [Illustration: FIG. 179.--Patriarchal Cross.] [Illustration: FIG. 180.--Cross crosslet fitched.] [Illustration: FIG. 181.--Cross patée fitched.] Of the hundreds of other varieties it may confidently be said that a large proportion originated in misunderstandings of the crude drawings of early armorists, added to the varying and alternating descriptions applied at a more pliable and fluent period of heraldic blazon. A striking illustration of this will be found in the cross botonny, which is now, and has been for a long time past, regularised with us as a distinct variety of {131} constant occurrence. From early illustrations there is now no doubt that this was the original form, or one of the earliest forms, of the cross crosslet. It is foolish to ignore these varieties, reducing all crosses to a few original forms, for they are now mostly stereotyped and accepted; but at the same time it is useless to attempt to learn them, for in a lifetime they will mostly be met with but once each or thereabouts. A field semé of cross crosslets (Fig. 183) is termed crusilly. [Illustration: FIG. 182.--Cross patée fitched at foot.] [Illustration: FIG. 183.--Crusilly.] [Illustration: FIG. 184.--Saltire.] [Illustration: FIG. 185.--Saltire engrailed.] [Illustration: FIG. 186.--Saltire invecked.] [Illustration: FIG. 187.--Saltire embattled.] THE SALTIRE The saltire or saltier (Fig. 184) is more frequently to be met with in Scottish than in English heraldry. This is not surprising, inasmuch as the saltire is known as the Cross of St. Andrew, the Patron Saint of Scotland. Its form is too well known to need description. It is of course subject to the usual partition lines (Figs. 185-192). When a saltire is charged the charges are usually placed conformably therewith. The field of a coat of arms is often per saltire. When one saltire couped is the principal charge it will usually be {132} found that it is couped conformably to the outline of the shield; but if the couped saltire be one of a number or a subsidiary charge it will be found couped by horizontal lines, or by lines at right angles. The saltire has not developed into so many varieties of form as the cross, and (_e.g._) a saltire botonny is assumed to be a cross botonny placed saltireways, but a saltire parted and fretty is to be met with (Fig. 193). THE CHIEF The chief (Fig. 194), which is a broad band across the top of the shield containing (theoretically, but not in fact) the uppermost third of the area of the field, is a very favourite ordinary. It is of course subject to the variations of the usual partition lines (Figs. 195-203). It is usually drawn to contain about one-fifth of the area of the field, though in cases where it is used for a landscape augmentation it will usually be found of a rather greater area. [Illustration: FIG. 188.--Saltire indented.] [Illustration: FIG. 189.--Saltire wavy.] [Illustration: FIG. 190.--Saltire nebuly.] [Illustration: FIG. 191.--Saltire raguly.] [Illustration: FIG. 192.--Saltire dovetailed.] [Illustration: FIG. 193.--Saltire parted and fretty.] The chief especially lent itself to the purposes of honourable augmentation, and is constantly found so employed. As such it will be referred to in the chapter upon augmentations, but a chief of this character may perhaps be here referred to with advantage, as this will {133} indicate the greater area often given to it under these conditions, as in the arms of Ross-of-Bladensburg (Plate II.). Knights of the old Order of St. John of Jerusalem and also of the modern Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England display above their personal arms a chief of the order, but this will be dealt with more fully in the chapter relating to the insignia of knighthood. [Illustration: FIG. 194.--Chief.] [Illustration: FIG. 195.--Chief engrailed.] [Illustration: FIG. 196.--Chief invecked.] [Illustration: FIG. 197.--Chief embattled.] [Illustration: FIG. 198.--Chief indented.] [Illustration: FIG. 199.--Chief dancetté.] [Illustration: FIG. 200.--Chief wavy.] [Illustration: FIG. 201.--Chief nebuly.] [Illustration: FIG. 202.--Chief raguly.] Save in exceptional circumstances, the chief is never debruised or surmounted by any ordinary. The chief is ordinarily superimposed over the tressure and over the bordure, partly defacing them by the elimination of the upper {134} part thereof. This happens with the bordure when it is a part of the original coat of arms. If, however, the chief were in existence at an earlier period and the bordure is added later as a mark of difference, the bordure surrounds the chief. On the other hand, if a bordure exists, even as a mark of difference, and a chief of augmentation is _subsequently_ added, or a canton for distinction, the chief or the canton in these cases would surmount the bordure. Similarly a bend when added later as a mark of difference surmounts the chief. Such a case is very unusual, as the use of the bend for differencing has long been obsolete. [Illustration: FIG. 203.--Chief dovetailed.] [Illustration: FIG. 204.--Arms of Peter de Dreux, Earl of Richmond (_c._ 1230): Chequy or and azure, a quarter ermine. (From his seal.)] [Illustration: FIG. 205.--Arms of De Vere, Earls of Oxford: Quarterly gules and or, in the first quarter a mullet argent.] A chief is never couped or cottised, and it has no diminutive in British armory. THE QUARTER The quarter is not often met with in English armory, the best-known instance being the well-known coat of Shirley, Earl Ferrers, viz: Paly of six or and azure, a quarter ermine. The arms of the Earls of Richmond (Fig. 204) supply another instance. Of course as a division of the field under the blazon of "quarterly" (_e.g._ or and azure) it is constantly to be met with, but a single quarter is rare. Originally a single quarter was drawn to contain the full fourth part of the shield, but with the more modern tendency to reduce the size of all charges, its area has been somewhat diminished. Whilst a quarter will only be found within a plain partition line, a field divided quarterly (occasionally, but I think hardly so correctly, termed "per cross") is not so limited. Examples of quarterly fields will be found in the historic shield of De Vere (Fig. 205) and De Mandeville. An irregular partition line is often introduced in a new grant to conjoin quarterings {135} borne without authority into one single coat. The diminutive of the quarter is the canton (Fig. 206), and the diminutive of that the chequer of a chequy field (Fig. 207). THE CANTON [Illustration: FIG. 206.--Canton.] The canton is supposed to occupy one-third of the chief, and that being supposed to occupy one-third of the field, a simple arithmetical sum gives us one-ninth of the field as the theoretical area of the canton. Curiously enough, the canton to a certain extent gives us a confirmation of these ancient proportions, inasmuch as all ancient drawings containing both a fess and a canton depict these conjoined. This will be seen in the Garter plate of Earl Rivers. In modern days, however, it is very seldom that the canton will be depicted of such a size, though in cases where, as in the arms of Boothby, it forms the only charge, it is even nowadays drawn to closely approximate to its theoretical area of one-ninth of the field. It may be remarked here perhaps that, owing to the fact that there are but few instances in which the quarter or the canton have been used as the sole or principal charge, a coat of arms in which these are employed would be granted with fewer of the modern bedevilments than would a coat with a chevron for example. I know of no instance in modern times in which a quarter, when figuring as a charge, or a canton have been subject to the usual lines of partition. The canton (with the single exception of the bordure, when used as a mark of cadency or distinction) is superimposed _over_ every other charge or ordinary, no matter what this may be. Theoretically the canton is supposed to be always a later addition to the coat, and even though a charge may be altogether hidden or "absconded" by the canton, the charge is always presumed to be there, and is mentioned in the blazon. [Illustration: FIG. 207.--Chequy.] Both a cross and a saltire are sometimes described as "cantonned" by such-and-such charges, when they are placed in the blank spaces left by these ordinaries. In addition, the spaces left by a cross (but not by a saltire) are frequently spoken of _e.g._ as the dexter chief canton or the sinister base canton. {136} The canton is frequently used to carry an augmentation, and these cantons of augmentation will be referred to under that heading, though it may be here stated that a "canton of England" is a canton gules, charged with three lions passant guardant or, as in the arms of Lane (Plate II.). The canton, unless it is _an original charge_, need not conform to the rule forbidding colour on colour, or metal on metal; otherwise the canton of Ulster would often be an impossibility. The canton, with rare exceptions, is always placed in the dexter chief corner. The canton of augmentation in the arms of Clerke, Bart.--"Argent, on a bend gules, between three pellets as many swans of the field; on a sinister canton azure, a demi-ram salient of the first, and in chief two fleurs-de-lis or, debruised by a baton"--is, however, a sinister one, as is the canton upon the arms of Charlton. In this latter case the sinister canton is used to signify illegitimacy. This will be more fully dealt with in the chapter upon marks of illegitimacy. A curious use of the canton for the purposes of marshalling occurs in the case of a woman who, being an heiress herself, has a daughter or daughters only, whilst her husband has sons and heirs by another marriage. In such an event, the daughter being heir (or in the case of daughters these being coheirs) of the mother, but not heir of the father, cannot transmit as quarterings the arms of the father whom she does not represent, whilst she ought to transmit the arms of the mother whom she does represent. The husband of the daughter, therefore, places upon an escutcheon of pretence the arms of her mother, with those of her father on a canton thereupon. The children of the marriage quarter this combined coat, the arms of the father always remaining upon a canton. This will be more fully dealt with under the subject of marshalling. The canton has yet another use as a "mark of distinction." When, under a Royal Licence, the name and arms of a family are assumed where there is no blood descent from the family, the arms have some mark of distinction added. This is usually a plain canton. This point will be treated more fully under "Marks of Cadency." Woodward mentions three instances in which the lower edge of the canton is "indented," one taken from the Calais Roll, viz. the arms of Sir William de la Zouche--"Gules, bezantée, a canton indented at the bottom"--and adds that the canton has been sometimes thought to indicate the square banner of a knight-baronet, and he suggests that the lower edge being indented may give some weight to the idea. As the canton does not appear to have either previously or subsequently formed any part of the arms of Zouche, it is possible that in this instance some {137} such meaning may have been intended, but it can have no such application generally. The "Canton of Ulster"--_i.e._ "Argent, a sinister hand couped at the wrist gules"--is the badge of a baronet of England, Ireland, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom. This badge may be borne upon a canton, dexter or sinister, or upon an inescutcheon, at the pleasure of the wearer. There is some little authority and more precedent for similarly treating the badge of a Nova Scotian Baronet, but as such Baronets _wear_ their badges it is more usually depicted below the shield, depending by the orange tawny ribbon of their order. THE GYRON [Illustration: FIG. 208.--Gyronny.] As a charge, the gyron (sometimes termed an esquire) is very seldom found, but as a subdivision of the field, a coat "gyronny" (Fig. 208) is constantly met with, all arms for the name of Campbell being gyronny. Save in rare cases, a field gyronny is divided quarterly and then per saltire, making eight divisions, but it may be gyronny of six, ten, twelve, or more pieces, though such cases are seldom met with and always need to be specified. The arms of Campbell of Succoth are gyronny of eight _engrailed_, a most unusual circumstance. I know of no other instance of the use of lines of partition in a gyronny field. The arms of Lanyon afford an example of the gyron as a charge, as does also the well-known shield of Mortimer (Fig. 209). [Illustration: FIG. 209.--The arms of Roger Mortimer, Earl of March and Ulster (d. 1398): Quarterly, 1 and 4, azure, three bars or (sometimes but not so correctly quoted barry of six), on a chief of the first two pallets between two base esquires of the second, over all an inescutcheon argent (for Mortimer); 2 and 3, or, a cross gules (for Ulster). (From his seal.)] THE INESCUTCHEON The inescutcheon is a shield appearing as a charge upon the coat of arms. Certain writers state that it is termed an inescutcheon if only one appears as the charge, but that when more than one is present they are merely termed escutcheons. This is an unnecessary refinement not officially recognised or adhered to, though unconsciously one often is led to make this distinction, which seems to spring naturally to one's mind. {138} When one inescutcheon appears, it is sometimes difficult to tell whether to blazon the arms as charged with a bordure or an inescutcheon. Some coats of arms, for example the arms of Molesworth, will always remain more or less a matter of uncertainty. But as a matter of fact a bordure should not be wide enough to fill up the field left by an inescutcheon, nor an inescutcheon large enough to occupy the field left by a bordure. The inescutcheon in German armory (or, as they term it, the heart escutcheon), when superimposed upon other quarterings, is usually the paternal or most important coat of arms. The same method of marshalling has sometimes been adopted in Scotland, and the arms of Hay are an instance. It usually in British heraldry is used to carry the arms of an heiress wife, but both these points will be dealt with later under the subject of marshalling. The inescutcheon, no matter what its position, should never be termed an escutcheon of pretence if it forms a charge upon the original arms. A curious instance of the use of an inescutcheon will be found in the arms of Gordon-Cumming (Plate III.). When an inescutcheon appears on a shield it should conform in its outline to the shape of the shield upon which it is placed. THE BORDURE The bordure (Fig. 210) occurs both as a charge and as a mark of difference. As may be presumed from its likeness to our word border, the bordure is simply a border round the shield. Except in modern grants in which the bordure forms a part of the original design of the arms, there can be very little doubt that the bordure has always been a mark of difference to indicate either cadency or bastardy, but its stereotyped continuance without further alteration in so many coats of arms in which it originally was introduced as a difference, and also its appearance in new grants, leave one no alternative but to treat of it in the ordinary way as a charge, leaving the consideration of it as a mark of difference to a future chapter. There is no stereotyped or official size for the bordure, the width of which has at all times varied, though it will almost invariably be found that a Scottish bordure is depicted rather wider than is an English one; and naturally a bordure which is charged is a little wider than an entirely plain one. The bordure of course is subject to {139} all the lines of partition (Figs. 211-218). Bordures may also be per fesse, per pale (Fig. 219), quarterly (Fig. 220), gyronny (Fig. 221), or tierced in pairle (Fig. 222), &c. [Illustration: FIG. 210.--Bordure.] [Illustration: FIG. 211.--Bordure engrailed.] [Illustration: FIG. 212.--Bordure invecked.] [Illustration: FIG. 213.--Bordure embattled.] [Illustration: FIG. 214.--Bordure indented.] [Illustration: FIG. 215.--Bordure wavy.] [Illustration: FIG. 216.--Bordure nebuly.] [Illustration: FIG. 217.--Bordure dovetailed.] [Illustration: FIG. 218.--Bordure potenté.] [Illustration: FIG. 219.--Bordure per pale.] The bordure has long since ceased to be a mark of cadency in England, but as a mark of distinction the bordure wavy (Fig. 215) is still used to indicate bastardy. A bordure of England was granted by Royal warrant as an augmentation to H.M. Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain, on the occasion of her marriage. The use of the bordure is, however, the recognised method of differencing in Scotland, but it is curious that with the Scots the bordure wavy is in no way a mark of illegitimacy. The Scottish bordure for indicating this fact is {140} the bordure compony (Fig. 223), which has been used occasionally for the same purpose in England, but the bordures added to indicate cadency and the various marks to indicate illegitimacy will be discussed in later chapters. The difference should here be observed between the bordure compony (Fig. 223), which means illegitimacy; the bordure counter compony (Fig. 224), which may or may not have that meaning; and the bordure chequy (Fig. 225), which certainly has no relation to bastardy. In the two former the panes run with the shield, in the latter the chequers do not. Whilst the bordure as a mark of cadency or illegitimacy surrounds the whole shield, being superimposed upon even the chief and canton, a bordure when merely a charge gives way to both. [Illustration: FIG. 220.--Bordure quarterly.] [Illustration: FIG. 221.--Bordure gyronny.] [Illustration: FIG. 222.--Bordure tierced in pairle.] [Illustration: FIG. 223.--Bordure compony.] [Illustration: FIG. 224.--Bordure counter compony.] [Illustration: FIG. 225.--Bordure chequy.] A certain rule regarding the bordure is the sole remaining instance in modern heraldry of the formerly recognised practice of conjoining two coats of arms (which it might be necessary to marshal together) by "dimidiation" instead of using our present-day method of impalement. To dimidiate two coats of arms, the dexter half of one shield was conjoined to the sinister half of the other. The objections to such a practice, however, soon made themselves apparent (_e.g._ a dimidiated chevron was scarcely distinguishable from a bend), and the "dimidiation" of arms was quickly abandoned in favour of {141} "impalement," in which the entire designs of both coats of arms are depicted. But in impaling a coat of arms which is surrounded by a bordure, the bordure is not continued down the centre between the two coats, but stops short top and bottom at the palar line. The same rule, by the way, applies to the tressure, but not to the orle. The curious fact, however, remains that this rule as to the dimidiation of the bordure in cases of impalement is often found to have been ignored in ancient seals and other examples. The charges upon the bordure are often three, but more usually eight in number, in the latter case being arranged three along the top of the shield, one at the base point, and two on either side. The number should, however, always be specified, unless (as in a bordure bezantée, &c.) it is immaterial; in which case the number eight must be _exceeded_ in emblazoning the shield. The rule as to colour upon colour does not hold and seems often to be ignored in the cases of bordures, noticeably when these occur as marks of Scottish cadency. THE ORLE The orle (Fig. 226), or, as it was originally termed in ancient British rolls of arms, "un faux ecusson," is a narrow bordure following the exact outline of the shield, but within it, showing the field (for at least the width usually occupied by a bordure) between the outer edge of the orle and the edge of the escutcheon. An orle is about half the width of a bordure, rather less than more, but the proportion is never very exactly maintained. The difference may be noted between this figure and the next (Fig. 227), which shows an inescutcheon within a bordure. [Illustration: FIG. 226.--Orle.] [Illustration: FIG. 227.--An inescutcheon within a bordure.] Though both forms are very seldom so met with, an orle may be subject to the usual lines of partition, and may also be charged. Examples of both these variations are met with in the arms of Yeatman-Biggs, and the arms of Gladstone afford an instance of an orle "flory." The arms of Knox, Earl of Ranfurly, are: Gules, a falcon volant or, within an orle wavy on the outer and engrailed on the inner edge argent. When a series of charges are placed round the edges of the {142} escutcheon (_theoretically_ in the position occupied by the orle, but as a matter of actual fact usually more in the position occupied by the bordure), they are said to be "in orle," which is the correct term, but they will often be found blazoned "an orle of (_e.g._) martlets or mounds." THE TRESSURE The tressure is really an orle gemel, _i.e._ an orle divided into two narrow ones set closely together, the one inside the other. It is, however, usually depicted a trifle nearer the edge of the escutcheon than the orle is generally placed. The tressure cannot be borne singly, as it would then be an orle, but plain tressures under the name of "concentric orles" will be found mentioned in Papworth. In that Ordinary eight instances are given of arms containing more than a single orle, though the eight instances are plainly varieties of only four coats. Two concentric orles would certainly be a tressure, save that perhaps they would be drawn of rather too great a width for the term "tressure" to be properly applied to them. [Illustration: FIG. 228.--Tressure flory and counter-flory.] If these instances be disregarded, and I am inclined to doubt them as genuine coats, there certainly is no example of a plain tressure in British heraldry, and one's attention must be directed to the tressure flory and counterflory (Fig. 228), so general in Scottish heraldry. Originating entirely in the Royal escutcheon, one cannot do better than reproduce the remarks of Lyon King of Arms upon the subject from his work "Heraldry in relation to Scottish History and Art":-- "William the Lion has popularly got the credit of being the first to introduce heraldic bearings into Scotland, and to have assumed the lion as his personal cognisance. The latter statement may or may not be true, but we have no trace of hereditary arms in Scotland so early as his reign (1165-1214). Certainly the lion does not appear on his seal, but it does on that of his son and successor Alexander II., with apparent remains of the double tressure flory counterflory, a device which is clearly seen on the seals of Alexander III. (1249-1285). We are unable to say what the reason was for the adoption of such a distinctive coat; of course, if you turn to the older writers you will find all sorts of fables on the subject. Even the sober and sensible Nisbet states that 'the lion has been carried on the armorial ensign of {143} Scotland since the first founding of the monarchy by King Fergus I.'--a very mythical personage, who is said to have flourished about 300 B.C., though he is careful to say that he does not believe arms are as old as that period. He says, however, that it is 'without doubt' that Charlemagne entered into an alliance with Achaius, King of Scotland, and for the services of the Scots the French king added to the Scottish lion the double tressure fleur-de-lisée to show that the former had defended the French lilies, and that therefore the latter would surround the lion and be a defence to him." All this is very pretty, but it is not history. Chalmers remarks in his "Caledonia" that the lion may possibly have been derived from the arms of the old Earls of Northumberland and Huntingdon, from whom some of the Scottish kings were descended; and he mentions an old roll of arms preserved by Leland,[10] which is certainly not later than 1272, in which the arms of Scotland are blazoned as: _Or, a lion gules within a bordure or fleuretté gules_, which we may reasonably interpret as an early indication of what may be considered as a foreign rendering of the double tressure. Sylvanus Morgan, one of the very maddest of the seventeenth-century heraldic writers, says that the tressure was added to the shield of Scotland, in testimony of a league between Scotland and France, by Charles V.; but that king did not ascend the throne of France till 1364, at which time we have clear proof that the tressure was a firmly established part of the Scottish arms. One of the earliest instances of anything approaching the tressure in the Scottish arms which I have met with is in an armorial of Matthew Paris, which is now in the Cottonian MSS. in the British Museum, and at one time belonged to St. Alban's Monastery. Here the arms of the King of Scotland are given as: "Or, a lion rampant flory gules in a bordure of the same." The drawing represents a lion within a bordure, the latter being pierced by ten fleurs-de-lis, their heads all looking inwards, the other end not being free, but attached to the inner margin of the shield. This, you will observe, is very like the arms I mentioned as described by Chalmers, and it may possibly be the same volume which may have been acquired by Sir Robert Cotton. In 1471 there was a curious attempt of the Scottish Parliament to displace the tressure. An Act was passed in that year, for some hitherto unexplained reason, by which it was ordained "that in tyme to cum thar suld be na double tresor about his (the king's) armys, but that he suld ber hale armys of the lyoun without ony mair." Seeing that at the time of this enactment the Scottish kings had borne the tressure for upwards of 220 years, it is difficult to understand the cause of this procedure. Like many other Acts, however, it never seems to have {144} been carried into effect; at least I am not aware of even a solitary instance of the Scottish arms without the tressure either at or after this period. * * * * * There are other two representations of the Scottish arms in foreign armorials, to which I may briefly allude. One is in the _Armorial de Gelre_, a beautiful MS. in the Royal Library at Brussels, the Scottish shields in which have been figured by Mr. Stodart in his book on Scottish arms, and, more accurately, by Sir Archibald Dunbar in a paper read to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1890. The armorial is believed to be the work of Claes Heynen, Gelre Herald to the Duke of Gueldres between 1334 and 1372, with later additions by another hand. The coat assigned in it to the King of Scotland is the lion and double tressure; the lion is uncrowned, and is armed and langued azure; above the shield is a helmet argent adorned behind with a short capelin or plain mantling, on which is emblazoned the saltire and chief of the Bruces, from which we may gather that the arms of David II. are here represented; the lining is blue, which is unusual, as mantlings are usually lined or doubled with a metal, if not with ermine. The helmet is surmounted by an Imperial crown, with a dark green bonnet spotted with red.[11] On the crown there is the crest of a lion sejant guardant gules, imperially crowned or, holding in his paw a sword upright; the tail is coué or placed between the hind-legs of the lion, but it then rises up and flourishes high above his back in a sufficiently defiant fashion. This shows that the Scottish arms were well known on the Continent of Europe nearly a hundred years before the date of the Grunenberg MS., while Virgil de Solis (c. 1555) gives a sufficiently accurate representation of the Royal shield, though the fleur-de-lis all project outwards as in the case of Grunenberg; he gives the crest as a lion rampant holding a sword in bend over his shoulder. Another ancient representation of the Scottish arms occurs in a MS. treatise on heraldry of the sixteenth century, containing the coats of some foreign sovereigns and other personages, bound up with a Scottish armorial, probably by David Lindsay, Lyon in 1568. The tressure, like the bordure, in the case of an impalement stops at the line of impalement, as will be seen by a reference to the arms of Queen Anne after the union of the crowns of England and Scotland. It is now held, both in England and Scotland, that the tressure flory and counterflory is, as a part of the Royal Arms, protected, and cannot be granted to any person without the express licence of the {145} Sovereign. This, however, does not interfere with the matriculation or exemplification of it in the case of existing arms in which it occurs. Many Scottish families bear or claim to bear the Royal tressure by reason of female descent from the Royal House, but it would seem much more probable that in most if not in all cases where it is so borne by right its origin is due rather to a gift by way of augmentation than to any supposed right of inheritance. The apparently conflicting statements of origin are not really antagonistic, inasmuch as it will be seen from many analogous English instances (_e.g._ Mowbray, Manners, and Seymour) that near relationship is often the only reason to account for the grant of a Royal augmentation. As an ordinary augmentation of honour it has been frequently granted. The towns of Aberdeen and Perth obtained early the right of honouring their arms with the addition of the Royal tressure. It appears on the still existing matrix of the burgh seal of Aberdeen, which was engraved in 1430. James V. in 1542 granted a warrant to Lyon to surround the arms of John Scot, of Thirlestane, with the Royal tressure, in respect of his ready services at Soutra Edge with three score and ten lances on horseback, when other nobles refused to follow their Sovereign. The grant was put on record by the grantee's descendant, Patrick, Lord NAPIER, and is the tressured coat borne in the second and third quarters of the NAPIER arms. When the Royal tressure is granted to the bearer of a quartered coat it is usually placed upon a bordure surrounding the quartered shield, as in the case of the arms of the Marquess of QUEENSBERRY, to whom, in 1682, the Royal tressure was granted upon a _bordure or_. A like arrangement is borne by the Earls of EGLINTON, occurring as far back as a seal of Earl HUGH, appended to a charter of 1598. The Royal tressure had at least twice been granted as an augmentation to the arms of foreigners. James V. granted it to Nicolas CANIVET of Dieppe, secretary to JOHN, Duke of ALBANY (Reg. Mag. Sig., xxiv. 263, Oct. 24, 1529). James VI. gave it to Sir JACOB VAN EIDEN, a Dutchman on whom he conferred the honour of knighthood. On 12th March 1762, a Royal Warrant was granted directing Lyon to add a "double tressure counterflowered as in the Royal arms of Scotland" to the arms of ARCHIBALD, Viscount PRIMROSE. Here the tressure was _gules_, as in the Royal arms, although the field on which it was placed was _vert_. In a later record of the arms of ARCHIBALD, Earl of ROSEBERY, in 1823, this heraldic anomaly was brought to an end, and the blazon of the arms of Primrose is now: "Vert, three primroses within a double tressure flory counterflory or." (See Stodart, "Scottish Arms," vol. i. pp. 262, 263, where mention is also made of an older {146} use of the Royal tressure or, by "ARCHBALD PRIMROSE of Dalmenie, Knight and baronet, be his majesty CHARLES ii. create, _Vert, three primroses within a double tressure flowered counter-flowered or_.") Another well-known Scottish instance in which the tressure occurs will be found in the arms of the Marquess of Ailsa (Fig. 229). Two instances are known in which the decoration of the tressure has differed from the usual conventional fleurs-de-lis. The tressure granted to Charles, Earl of Aboyne, has crescents without and demi-fleurs-de-lis within, and the tressure round the Gordon arms in the case of the Earls of Aberdeen is of thistles, roses, and fleurs-de-lis alternately. The tressure gives way to the chief and canton, but all other ordinaries are enclosed by the tressure, as will be seen from the arms of Lord Ailsa. [Illustration: FIG. 229.--Armorial bearings of Sir Archibald Kennedy, Marquess of Ailsa: Argent, a chevron gules between three cross crosslets fitchée sable, all within a double tressure flory and counter-flory of the second. Mantling gules, doubled ermine. Crest: upon a wreath of his liveries, a dolphin naiant proper. Supporters: two swans proper, beaked and membered gules. Motto: "Avise la fin." (From the painting by Mr. Graham Johnston in the Lyon Register.)] THE LOZENGE, THE FUSIL, THE MASCLE, AND THE RUSTRE Why these, which are simply varying forms of one charge, should ever have been included amongst the list of ordinaries is difficult to understand, as they do not seem to be "ordinaries" any more than say the mullet or the crescent. My own opinion is that they are no more than distinctively heraldic charges. The _lozenge_ (Fig. 230), which is the original form, is the same shape as the "diamond" in a pack of cards, and will constantly be found as a charge. In addition to this, the arms of a lady as maid, or as widow, are always displayed upon a lozenge. Upon this point reference should be made to the chapters upon marshalling. The arms of Kyrke show a single lozenge as the charge, but a single lozenge is very rarely met with. The arms of Guise show seven lozenges conjoined. The arms of Barnes show four lozenges conjoined in cross, and the arms of Bartlett show five lozenges conjoined in fess. Although the lozenge is very seldom found in English armory as a single charge, nevertheless as a lozenge throughout (that is, with its four points touching the borders of the escutcheon) it will be found in some number of instances in Continental heraldry, for instance in the family of Eubing of Bavaria. An indefinite number of lozenges conjoined as a bend or a pale are known as a bend lozengy, or a pale lozengy, but care should be taken in using this term, as it is possible for these ordinaries to be plain {147} ordinaries tinctured "lozengy of two colours." The arms of Bolding are an example of a bend lozengy. The _fusil_ is supposed to be, and is generally depicted, of a greater height and less width than a lozenge, being an altogether narrower figure (Fig. 231). Though this distinction is generally observed, it is not always easy to decide which figure any emblazonment is intended to represent, unless the blazon of the arms in question is known. In many cases the variations of different coats of arms, to suit or to fit the varying shapes of shields, have resulted in the use of lozenges and fusils indifferently. Fusils occur in the historic arms of Daubeney, from which family Daubeney of Cote, near Bristol, is descended, being one of the few families who have an undoubted male descent from a companion of William the Conqueror. In the ordinary way five or more lozenges in fess would be fusils, as in the arms of Percy, Duke of Northumberland, who bears in the first quarter: Azure, five fusils conjoined in fess or. The charges in the arms of Montagu, though only three in number, are always termed fusils. But obviously in early times there could have been no distinction between the lozenge and the fusil. [Illustration: FIG. 230.--Lozenge.] [Illustration: FIG. 231.--Fusil.] [Illustration: FIG. 232.--Mascle.] [Illustration: FIG. 233.--Rustre.] The _mascle_ is a lozenge voided, _i.e._ only the outer framework is left, the inner portion being removed (Fig. 232). Mascles have no particular or special meaning, but are frequently to be met with. The blazon of the arms of De Quincy in Charles's Roll is: "De goules poudré a fause losengez dor," and in another Roll (MS. Brit. Mus. 29,796) the arms are described: "De gules a set fauses lozenges de or" (Fig. 234). The great Seiher de Quincy, Earl of Winchester, father of Roger, bore quite different arms (Fig. 235). In 1472 Louis de Bruges, Lord of Gruthuyse, was created Earl of Winchester, having no relation to the De Quincy line. The arms of De Bruges, or rather of Gruthuyse, were very different, yet nevertheless, we find upon the Patent Roll (12 Edward IV. pt. 1, _m._ 11) a grant of the following arms: "Azure, dix mascles d'Or, enormé d'une canton de nostre propre Armes de Angleterre; cest a savoir de Gules a une Lipard passant d'Or, armée {148} d'Azure," to Louis, Earl of Winchester (Fig. 236). The recurrence of the mascles in the arms of the successive Earls of Winchester, whilst each had other family arms, and in the arms of Ferrers, whilst not being the original Ferrers coat, suggests the thought that there may be hidden some reference to a common saintly patronage which all enjoyed, or some territorial honour common to the three of which the knowledge no longer remains with us. There are some number of coats which are said to have had a field masculy. Of course this is quite possible, and the difference between a field masculy and a field fretty is that in the latter the separate pieces of which it is composed interlace each other; but when the field is masculy it is all one fretwork surface, the field being visible through the voided apertures. Nevertheless it seems by no means certain that in every case in which the field masculy occurs it may not be found in other, and possibly earlier, examples as fretty. At any rate, very few such coats of arms are even supposed to exist. The arms of De Burgh (Fig. 237) are blazoned in the Grimaldi Roll: "Masclee de vêre and de goules," but whether the inference is that this blazon is wrong or that lozenge and mascle were identical terms I am not aware. [Illustration: FIG. 234.--Arms of Roger de Quincy, Earl of Winchester (d. 1264): Gules, seven mascles conjoined, three, three and one or. (From his seal.)] [Illustration: FIG. 235.--Arms of Seiher de Quincy, Earl of Winchester (d. 1219): Or, a fess gules, a label of seven points azure. (From his seal.)] [Illustration: FIG. 236.--Arms of Louis de Bruges, Earl of Winchester (d. 1492.)] The _rustre_ is comparatively rare (Fig. 233). It is a lozenge pierced in the centre with a circular hole. It occurs in the arms of J. D. G. Dalrymple, Esq., F.S.A. Some few coats of arms are mentioned in Papworth in which the rustre appears; for example the arms of Pery, which are: "Or, three rustres sable;" and Goodchief, which are: "Per fess or and sable, three rustres counterchanged;" but so seldom is the figure met with that it may be almost dropped out of consideration. How it ever reached the position of being considered one of the ordinaries has always been to me a profound mystery. {149} THE FRET The fret (Fig. 238), which is very frequently found occurring in British armory, is no doubt derived from earlier coats of arms, the whole field of which was covered by an interlacing of alternate bendlets and bendlets sinister, because many of the families who now bear a simple fret are found in earlier representations and in the early rolls of arms bearing coats which were fretty (Fig. 239). Instances of this kind will be found in the arms of Maltravers, Verdon, Tollemache, and other families. [Illustration: FIG. 237.--Arms of Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent (d. 1243). (From his seal.)] [Illustration: FIG. 238.--The Fret.] [Illustration: FIG. 239.--Fretty.] [Illustration: FIG. 240.--Arms of John Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel (d. 1435): Quarterly, 1 and 4, gules, a lion rampant or (for Fitz Alan); 2 and 3, sable, fretty or (for Maltravers). (From his seal, _c._ 1432.)] "Sable fretty or" was the original form of the arms of the ancient and historic family of Maltravers. At a later date the arms of Maltravers are found simply "sable, a fret or," but, like the arms of so many other families which we now find blazoned simply as charged with a fret, their original form was undoubtedly "fretty." They appear fretty as late as in the year 1421, which is the date at which the Garter plate of Sir William Arundel, K.G. (1395-1400), was set up in St. George's Chapel at Windsor. His arms as there displayed are in the first and fourth quarters, "gules, a lion rampant or," and in the second and third, "purpure fretty or" for Maltravers. Probably the seal of John Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel (d. 1435), roughly marks the period, and shows the source of the confusion (Fig. 240). But it should be noted that Sir Richard Arundel, Lord Maltravers, bore at the siege of Rouen, in the year 1418, gules a lion rampant or, quarterly with "sable a fret or" (for Maltravers). This would seem to indicate {150} that those who treat the fret and fretty as interchangeable have good grounds for so doing. A Sir John Maltravers bore "sable fretty or" at the siege of Calais, and another Sir John Maltravers, a knight banneret, bore at the first Dunstable tournament "sable fretty or, a label of three points argent." As he is there described as Le Fitz, the label was probably a purely temporary mark of difference. In a roll of arms which is believed to belong to the latter part of the reign of Henry III., a Sir William Maltravers is credited with "sable fretty or, on a quarter argent, three lions passant in pale gules." The palpable origin of the fret or fretty in the case of the arms of Maltravers is simply the canting similarity between a traverse and the name Maltravers. Another case, which starting fretty has ended in a fret, occurs in the arms of the family of Harington. Sir John de Haverington, or Sir John de Harington, is found at the first Dunstable tournament in 1308 bearing "sable fretty argent," and this coat of arms variously differenced appears in some number of the other early rolls of arms. The Harington family, as may be seen from the current baronetages, now bear "sable a fret argent," but there can be little doubt that in this case the origin of the fretty is to be found in a representation of a herring-net. The fret is usually depicted _throughout_ when borne singly, and is then composed of a bendlet dexter and a bendlet sinister, interlaced in the centre by a mascle. Occasionally it will be found couped, but it is then, as a rule, only occupying the position of a subsidiary charge. A coat which is _fretty_ is entirely covered by the interlacing bendlets and bendlets sinister, no mascles being introduced. THE FLAUNCH [Illustration: FIG. 241.--Flaunches.] The flaunch, which is never borne singly, and for which the additional names of "flasks" and "voiders" are sometimes found, is the segment of a circle of large diameter projecting into the field from either side of the escutcheon, of a different colour from the field. It is by no means an unusual charge to be met with, and, like the majority of other ordinaries, is subject to the usual lines of partition, but so subject is, however, of rather rare occurrence. Planché, in his "Pursuivant of Arms," mentions the old idea, which is repeated by Woodward, "that the base son of a noble woman, if he doe gev armes, must give upon the same a surcoat, but unless you do {151} well mark such coat you may take it for a coat flanchette." The surcoat is much the same figure that would remain after flaunches had been taken from the field of a shield, with this exception, that the flaunches would be wider and the intervening space necessarily much narrower. In spite of the fact that this is supposed to be one of the recognised rules of armory, one instance only appears to be known of its employment, which, however, considering the circumstances, is not very much to be wondered at. One exceptional case surely cannot make a rule. I know of no modern case of a mother's coat bastardised--but I assume it would fall under the ordinary practice of the bordure wavy. THE ROUNDLE The roundle is a generic name which comprises all charges which are plain circular figures of colour or metal. Foreign heraldry merely terms them roundles of such and such a colour, but in England we have special terms for each tincture. [Illustration: FIG. 242.--Fountain.] [Illustration: FIG. 243.--The Arms of Stourton.] When the roundle is gold it is termed a "bezant," when silver a "plate," when gules a "torteau," when azure a "hurt," when sable an "ogress," "pellet," or "gunstone," when vert a "pomeis," when purpure a "golpe," when tenné an "orange," when sanguine a "guze." The golpes, oranges, and guzes are seldom, if ever, met with, but the others are of constant occurrence, and roundles of fur are by no means unknown. A roundle of more than one colour is described as a roundle "per pale," for example of gules and azure, or whatever it may be. The plates and bezants are naturally flat, and must be so represented. They should never be shaded up into a globular form. The torteau is sometimes found shaded, but is more correctly flat, but probably the pellet or ogress and the pomeis are intended to be globular. Roundles of fur are always flat. One curious roundle is a very common charge in British armory, that is, the "fountain," which is a roundle barry wavy argent and azure (Fig. 242). This is the conventional heraldic representation of water, of course. A fountain will be found termed a "syke" when occurring in the arms of any family of the name of Sykes. It {152} typifies naturally anything in the nature of a well, in which meaning it occurs on the arms of Stourton (Fig. 243). The arms of Stourton are one of the few really ancient coats concerning which a genuine explanation exists. The blazon of them is: Sable a bend or, between six fountains proper. Concerning this coat of arms Aubrey says: "I believe anciently 'twas only Sable a bend or." With all deference to Aubrey, I personally neither think he was right, nor do I pay much attention to his _opinions_, particularly in this case, inasmuch as every known record of the Stourton arms introduces the six fountains. The name Stourton, originally "de Stourton," is emphatically a territorial name, and there is little opportunity for this being gainsaid, inasmuch as the lordship and manor of Stourton, in the counties of Wilts and Somerset, remained in the possession of the Lords Stourton until the year 1714. The present Lord Mowbray and Stourton still owns land within the parish. Consequently there is no doubt whatever that the Lords Stourton derived their surname from this manor of Stourton. Equally is it certain that the manor of Stourton obtained its name from the river Stour, which rises within the manor. The sources of the river Stour are six wells, which exist in a tiny valley in Stourton Park, which to this day is known by the name of "The Six Wells Bottom." In the present year of grace only one of the six wells remains visible. When Sir Richard Colt Hoare wrote, there were four visible. Of these four, three were outside and one inside the park wall. The other two within the park had been then closed up. When Leland wrote in 1540 to 1542, the six wells were in existence and visible; for he wrote: "The ryver of Stoure risith ther of six fountaynes or springes, whereof 3 be on the northe side of the Parke, harde withyn the Pale, the other 3 be north also, but withoute the Parke. The Lorde Stourton giveth these 6 fountaynes yn his Armes." Guillim says the same thing: "These six Fountains are borne in signification of six Springs, whereof the River of Sture in Wiltshire hath his beginning, and passeth along to Sturton, the seat of that Barony." Here, then, is the origin of the six fountains upon the coat of arms; but Aubrey remarks that three of the six springs in the park are in the county of Wilts, whereas Mr. Camden has put them all in Somersetshire. However, the fact is that three of the springs were inside the park and three outside, and that three were in Wiltshire and three in Somersetshire. Here, then, is to be found the division upon the coat of arms of the six fountains in the two sets of three each, and it is by no means an improbable suggestion that the bend which separates the three from the three is typical of, or was suggested by, either the park wall or pale, or by the line of division between the two counties, and the more probable of the two seems to {153} be the park wall. The coat of arms is just a map of the property. Now, with regard to the arms, as far as is known there has not been at any time the slightest deviation by the family of the Lords Stourton from the coat quoted and illustrated. But before leaving the subject it may be well to point out that in the few cases in which an ancient coat of arms carries with it an explanation, such explanation is usually to be found either in some such manner as that in which these arms of Stourton have been explained, or else in some palpable pun, and not in the mythical accounts and legends of supernatural occurrences which have been handed down, and seldom indeed in any explanation of personal nobility which the tinctures or charges are sometimes said to represent. What is now considered quite a different charge from the fountain is the whirlpool or gurges, which is likewise intended to represent water, and is borne by a family of the name of Gorges, the design occupying the whole of the field. This is represented by a spiral line of azure commencing in the centre of an argent field, continuing round and round until the edges of the shield are reached; but there can be very little doubt that this was an early form of representing the watery roundle which happens to have been perpetuated in the instance of that one coat. The fountains upon the seal of the first Lord Stourton are represented in this manner. Examples of a field semé of roundles are very usual, these being termed bezanté or platé if semé of bezants or plates; but in the cases of roundles of other colours the words "semé of" need to be used. THE ANNULET [Illustration: FIG. 244.--Annulet.] Closely akin to the roundel is the annulet (Fig. 244) and though, as far as I am aware, no text-book has as yet included this in its list of ordinaries and sub-ordinaries, one can see no reason, as the annulet is a regularly used heraldic figure, why the lozenge should have been included and the annulet excluded, when the annulet is of quite as frequent occurrence. It is, as its name implies, simply a plain ring of metal or colour, as will be found in the arms of Lowther, Hutton, and many other families. Annulets appear anciently to have been termed false roundles. Annulets will frequently be found interlaced. {154} Care should be taken to distinguish them from gem-rings, which are always drawn in a very natural manner with stones, which, however, in real life would approach an impossible size. THE LABEL [Illustration: FIG. 245.--The Label.] The label (Fig. 245) as a charge must be distinguished from the label as a mark of difference for the eldest son, though there is no doubt that in those cases in which it now exists as a charge, the origin must be traced to its earlier use as a difference. Concerning its use as a mark of difference it will be treated of further in the chapter upon marks of difference and cadency, but as a charge it will seldom be found in any position except in chief, and not often of other than three points, and it will always be found drawn throughout, that is, with the upper line extended to the size of the field. It consists of a narrow band straight across the shield, from which depend at right angles three short bands. These shorter arms have each of late years been drawn more in the shape of a dovetail, but this was not the case until a comparatively recent period, and now-a-days we are quite as inclined to revert to the old forms as to perpetuate this modern variety. Other names for the label are the "lambel" and the "file." The label is the only mark of difference now borne by the Royal Family. Every member of the Royal Family has the Royal arms assigned to him for use presumably during life, and in these warrants, which are separate and personal for each individual, both the coronet and the difference marks which are to be borne upon the label are quoted and assigned. This use of the label, however, will be subsequently fully dealt with. As a charge, the label occurs in the arms of Barrington: "Argent, three chevronels gules, a label azure;" and Babington: "Argent, ten torteaux, four, three, two, and one, in chief a label of three points azure;" also in the earlier form of the arms of De Quincy (Fig. 235) and Courtenay (Fig. 246). Various curious coats of arms in which the label appears are given in Papworth as follows:-- "... a label of four points in bend sinister ... Wm. de Curli, 20th Hen. III. (Cotton, Julius F., vii. 175.) "Argent, a label of five points azure. Henlington, co. Gloucester. (Harl. MS. 1404, fo. 109.) "Or, a file gules, with three bells pendent azure, clappers sable. (Belfile.) {155} "Sable, three crescents, in chief a label of two drops and in fess another of one drop argent. Fitz-Simons. (Harl. MS. 1441 and 5866.) "Or, three files borne barways gules, the first having five points, the second four, and the last three. Liskirke, Holland. (Gwillim.)" A curious label will have been noticed in the arms of De Valence (Fig. 120). THE BILLET The billet (Fig. 247), though not often met with as a charge, does sometimes occur, as for example, in the arms of Alington. [Illustration: FIG. 246.--Arms of Hugh Courtenay, Earl of Devon (d. 1422): Or, three torteaux, a label azure. (From his seal.)] [Illustration: FIG. 247.--The Billet.] [Illustration: FIG. 248.--Billetté.] Its more frequent appearance is as an object with which a field or superior charge is semé, in which case these are termed billetté (Fig. 248). The best known instance of this is probably the coat borne on an inescutcheon over the arms of England during the joint reign of William and Mary. The arms of Gasceline afford another example of a field billetté. These are "or, billetté azure, and a label gules." Though not many instances are given under each subdivision, Papworth affords examples of coats with every number of billets from 1 to 20, but many of them, particularly some of those from 10 to 20 in number, are merely mistaken renderings of fields which should have been termed billetté. The billet, slightly widened, is sometimes known as a block, and as such will be found in the arms of Paynter. Other instances are to be found where the billets are termed delves or gads. The billet will sometimes be found pointed at the bottom, in which case it is termed "urdy at the foot." But neither as a form of semé, nor as a charge, is the billet of sufficiently frequent use to warrant its inclusion as one of the ordinaries or sub-ordinaries. {156} [Illustration: FIG. 249.--Armorial bearings of R. E. Yerburgh, Esq.: Per pale argent and azure, on a chevron between three chaplets all counterchanged, an annulet for difference. Mantling azure and argent. Crest: on a wreath of the colours, a falcon close or, belled of the last, preying upon a mallard proper.] [Illustration: FIG. 250.--Armorial bearings of Robert Berry, Esq.: Quarterly, 1 and 4, vert, a cross crosslet argent (for Berry); 2 and 3, parted per pale argent and sable, on a chaplet four mullets counterchanged (for Nairne), in the centre of the quarters a crescent or, for difference. Mantling vert, doubled argent. Crest: upon a wreath of his liveries, a demi-lion rampant gules, armed and langued, holding in his dexter paw a cross crosslet fitchée azure; and in an escroll over the same this motto, "In hoc signo vinces," and in another under the shield, "L'espérance me comforte."] THE CHAPLET Why the chaplet was ever included amongst the ordinaries and sub-ordinaries passes my comprehension. It is not of frequent occurrence, and I have yet to ascertain in which form it has acquired this status. The chaplet which is usually meant when the term is employed is the garland of oak, laurel, or other leaves or flowers (Fig. 249), which is found more frequently as part of a crest. There is also the chaplet, which it is difficult to describe, save as a large broad annulet {157} such as the one which figures in the arms of Nairne (Fig. 250), and which is charged at four regular intervals with roses, mullets, or some other objects. The chaplet of oak and acorns is sometimes known as a civic crown, but the term chaplet will more frequently be found giving place to the use of the word wreath, and a chaplet of laurel or roses, unless completely conjoined and figuring as a charge upon the shield, will be far more likely to be termed a wreath or garland of laurel or roses than a chaplet. There are many other charges which have no great distinction from some of these which have been enumerated, but as nobody hitherto has classed them as ordinaries I suppose there could be no excuse for so introducing them, but the division of any heraldic charges into ordinaries and sub-ordinaries, and their separation from other figures, seems to a certain extent incomprehensible and very unnecessary. {158} CHAPTER X THE HUMAN FIGURE IN HERALDRY If we include the many instances of the human head and the human figure which exist as crests, and also the human figure as a supporter, probably it or its parts will be nearly as frequently met with in armory as the lion; but if crests and supporters be disregarded, and the human figure be simply considered as a charge upon the shield, it is by no means often to be met with. English (but not Scottish) official heraldry now and for a long time past has set its face against the representation of any specific saint or other person in armorial bearings. In many cases, however, particularly in the arms of ecclesiastical sees and towns, the armorial bearings registered are simply the conventionalised heraldic representation of seal designs dating from a very much earlier period. Seal engravers laboured under no such limitations, and their representations were usually of some specific saint or person readily recognisable from accompanying objects. Consequently, if it be desirable, the identity of a figure in a coat of arms can often be traced in such cases by reference to a seal of early date, whilst all the time the official coat of arms goes no further than to term the figure that of a saint. The only representation which will be found in British heraldry of the Deity is in the arms of the See of Chichester, which certainly originally represented our Lord seated in glory. Whether by intention or carelessness, this, however, is now represented and blazoned as: "Azure, a Prester [Presbyter] John sitting on a tombstone, in his left hand a mound, his right hand extended all or, with a linen mitre on his head, and in his mouth a sword proper." Possibly it is a corruption, but I am rather inclined to think it is an intentional alteration to avoid the necessity of any attempt to pictorially represent the Deity. Christ upon the Cross, however, will be found represented in the arms of Inverness (Fig. 251). The shield used by the town of Halifax has the canting "Holy Face" upon a chequy field. This coat, however, is without authority, though it is sufficiently remarkable to quote the blazon in full: "Chequy or and azure, a man's face with long hair and bearded and dropping blood, and surmounted {159} by a halo, all proper; in chief the letters HALEZ, and in base the letters FAX." [Illustration: FIG. 251.--Armorial bearings of the Royal Burgh of Inverness: Gules, our Lord upon the Cross proper. Mantling gules, doubled or. Crest: upon a wreath of the proper liveries a cornucopia proper. Supporters: dexter, a dromedary; sinister, an elephant, both proper. (From a painting by Mr. Graham Johnston in Lyon Register.)] No other instance is known, but, on the other hand, representations of the Virgin Mary with her babe are not uncommon. She will be found so described in the arms of the Royal Burgh of Banff. The Virgin Mary and Child appear also in the arms of the town of Leith, {160} viz.: "Argent, in a sea proper, an ancient galley with two masts, sails furled sable, flagged gules, seated therein the Virgin Mary with the Infant Saviour in her arms, and a cloud resting over their heads, all also proper." The Virgin and Child appear in the crest of Marylebone (Fig. 252), but in this case, in accordance with the modern English practice, the identity is not alluded to. The true derivation of the name from "St. Mary le Bourne" (and not "le bon") is perpetuated in the design of the arms. A demi-figure of the Virgin is the crest of Rutherglen;[12] and the Virgin and Child figure, amongst other ecclesiastical arms, on the shields of the Sees of Lincoln ["Gules, two lions passant-guardant or; on a chief azure, the Holy Virgin and Child, sitting crowned, and bearing a sceptre of the second"], Salisbury ["Azure, the Holy Virgin and Child, with sceptre in her left hand all or"], Sodor and Man ["Argent, upon three ascents the Holy Virgin standing with her arms extended between two pillars, on the dexter whereof is a church; in base the ancient arms of Man upon an inescutcheon"], Southwell ["Sable, three fountains proper, a chief paly of three, on the first or, a stag couchant proper, on the second gules, the Virgin holding in her arms the infant Jesus, on the third also or, two staves raguly couped in cross vert"], and Tuam ["Azure, three figures erect under as many canopies or stalls of Gothic work or, their faces, hands, and legs proper; the first representing an archbishop in his pontificals; the second the Holy Virgin Mary, a circle of glory over her head, holding in her left arm the infant Jesus; and the third an angel having his dexter arm elevated, and under the sinister arm a lamb, all of the second"]. {161} [Illustration: FIG. 252.--Arms of Marylebone: Per chevron sable and barry wavy of six, argent and azure in chief, in the dexter a fleur-de-lis, and in the sinister a rose, both or. Crest: on a wreath of the colours, upon two bars wavy argent and azure, between as many lilies of the first, stalked and leaved vert, a female figure affronté proper, vested of the first, mantled of the second, on the left arm a child also proper, vested or, around the head of each a halo of the last. Motto: "Fiat secundum verbum tuum."] {162} Various saints figure in different Scottish coats of arms, and amongst them will be found the following:-- St. Andrew, in the arms of the National Bank of Scotland, granted in 1826 ["Or, the image of St. Andrew with vesture vert and surcoat purpure bearing before him the cross of his martyrdom argent, all resting on a base of the second, in the dexter flank a garb gules, in the sinister a ship in full sail sable, the shield surrounded with two thistles proper, disposed in orle"]; St. Britius, in the arms of the Royal Burgh of Kirkcaldy ["Azur, ane abbay of three pyramids argent, each ensigned with a cross patée or. And on the reverse of the seal is insculped in a field azure the figure of St. Bryse with long garments, on his head a mytre, in the dexter a fleur-de-lis, the sinister laid upon his breast all proper. Standing in ye porch of the church or abbay. Ensigned on the top as before all betwixt a decrescent and a star in fess or. The motto is 'Vigilando Munio.' And round the escutcheon of both sydes these words--'Sigillum civitatus Kirkaldie'"]; St. Columba, in the arms of the College of the Holy Spirit at Cumbræ ["Quarterly, 1 and 4 grand quarters, azure, St. Columba in a boat at sea, in his sinister hand a dove, and in the dexter chief a blazing star all proper; 2 and 3 grand quarters, quarterly, i. and iv., argent, an eagle displayed with two heads gules; ii. and iii., parted per bend embattled gules and argent; over the second and third grand quarters an escutcheon of the arms of Boyle of Kelburne, viz. or, three stags' horns gules"]; St. Duthacus, in the arms of the Royal Burgh of Tain ["Gules, St. Duthacus in long garments argent, holding in his dexter hand a staff garnished with ivy, in the sinister laid on his breast a book expanded proper"]; St. Ægidius (St. Giles), in the arms of the Royal Burgh of Elgin ["Argent, Sanctus Ægidius habited in his robes and mitred, holding in his dexter hand a pastoral staff, and in his left hand a clasped book, all proper. Supporters; two angels proper, winged or volant upwards. Motto: 'Sic itur ad astra,' upon ane compartment suitabil to a Burgh Royal, and for their colours red and white"]; St. Ninian, in the arms of the Episcopal See of Galloway ["Argent, St. Ninian standing and full-faced proper, clothed with a pontifical robe purple, on his head a mitre, and in his dexter hand a crosier or"]; and St. Adrian, in the arms of the town of Pittenweem ["Azur, in the sea a gallie with her oars in action argent, and therein standing the figure of St. Adrian, with long garments close girt, and a mytre on his head proper, holding in his sinister hand a crosier or. On the stern a flag developed argent, charged with the Royall Armes of Scotland, with this word, 'Deo Duce'"]. Biblical characters of the Old Testament have found favour upon the Continent, and the instances quoted by Woodward are too amusing to omit:-- "The families who bear the names of saints, such as ST. ANDREW, ST. GEORGE, ST. MICHAEL, have (perhaps not unnaturally) included in their arms representation of their family patrons. "The Bavarian family of REIDER include in their shield the mounted effigy of the good knight ST. MARTIN dividing his cloak with a beggar (date of diploma 1760). The figure of the great Apostle of the Gentiles appears in the arms of VON PAULI JOERG, and JORGER, of Austria, similarly make use of St. George. "Continental Heraldry affords not a few examples of the use of the personages of Holy Writ. The ADAMOLI of Lombardy bear: 'Azure, {163} the Tree of Life entwined with the Serpent, and accosted with our first parents, all proper' (_i.e._ in a state of nature). The addition of a chief of the Empire to this coat makes it somewhat incongruous. "The family of ADAM in Bavaria improve on Sacred History by eliminating EVE, and by representing ADAM as holding the apple in one hand, and the serpent wriggling in the other. On the other hand, the Spanish family of EVA apparently consider there is a sufficiently transparent allusion to their own name, and to the mother of mankind, in the simple bearings: 'Or, on a mount in base an apple-tree vert, fructed of the field, and encircled by a serpent of the second.' "The family of ABEL in Bavaria make the patriarch in the attitude of prayer to serve as their crest; while the coat itself is: 'Sable, on a square altar argent, a lamb lying surrounded by fire and smoke proper.' "SAMSON slaying the lion is the subject of the arms of the VESENTINA family of Verona. The field is gules, and on a terrace in base vert the strong man naked bestrides a golden lion and forces its jaws apart. The Polish family of SAMSON naturally use the same device, but the field is azure and the patriarch is decently habited. The STARCKENS of the Island of OESEL also use the like as _armes parlantes_; the field in this case is or. After these we are hardly surprised to find that Daniel in the lions' den is the subject of the arms of the Rhenish family of DANIELS, granted late in the eighteenth century; the field is azure. The Bolognese DANIELS are content to make a less evident allusion to the prophet; their arms are: "per fess azure and vert, in chief 'the lion of the tribe of Judah' naissant or, holding an open book with the words 'LIBRI APERTI SUNT' (DANIEL vii. 10). "The Archangel ST. MICHAEL in full armour, as conventionally represented, treading beneath his feet the great adversary, sable, is the charge on an azure field of the VAN SCHOREL of Antwerp." Other instances will be found, as St. Kentigern (who is sometimes said to be the same as St. Mungo), and who occurs as the crest of Glasgow: "The half-length figure of St. Kentigern affronté, vested and mitred, his right hand raised in the act of benediction, and having in his left hand a crosier, all proper;" St. Michael, in the arms of Linlithgow: "Azure, the figure of the Archangel Michael, with wings expanded, treading on the belly of a serpent lying with its tail nowed fesswise in base, all argent, the head of which he is piercing through with a spear in his dexter hand, and grasping with his sinister an escutcheon charged with the Royal Arms of Scotland." The same saint also figures in the arms of the city of Brussels; while the family of MITCHELL-CARRUTHERS bears as a crest: "St. Michael in armour, {164} holding a spear in his dexter hand, the face, neck, arms and legs bare, all proper, the wings argent, and hair auburn." St. Martin occurs in the arms of Dover, and he also figures, as has been already stated, on the shield of the Bavarian family of REIDER, whilst St. Paul occurs as a charge in the arms of the Dutch family of VON PAULI. The arms of the See of Clogher are: "A Bishop in pontifical robes seated on his chair of state, and leaning towards the sinister, his left hand supporting a crosier, his right pointing to the dexter chief, all or, the feet upon a cushion gules, tasselled or." A curious crest will be found belonging to the arms of a family of Stewart, which is: "A king in his robes, crowned." The arms of the Episcopal See of Ross afford another instance of a bishop, together with St. Boniface. The arms of the town of Queensferry, in Scotland, show an instance of a queen. "A king in his robes, and crowned," will be found in the arms of Dartmouth ["Gules, the base barry wavy, argent and azure, thereon the hulk of a ship, in the centre of which is a king robed and crowned, and holding in his sinister hand a sceptre, at each end of the ship a lion sejant guardant all or]." Allegorical figures, though numerous as supporters, are comparatively rare as charges upon a shield; but the arms of the University of Melbourne show a representation of the figure of Victory ["Azure, a figure intended to represent Victory, robed and attired proper, the dexter hand extended holding a wreath of laurel or, between four stars of eight points, two in pale and two in fess argent"], which also appears in other coats of arms. The figure of Truth will be found in the coats of arms for various members of the family of Sandeman. The bust of Queen Elizabeth was granted by that Queen, as a special mark of her Royal favour, to Sir Anthony Weldon, her Clerk of the Spicery. Apollo is represented in the arms of the Apothecaries' Company: "Azure, Apollo, the inventor of physic, proper, with his head radiant, holding in his left hand a bow and in his right hand an arrow or, supplanting a serpent argent." The figure of Justice appears in the arms of Wiergman [or Wergman]. Neptune appears in the arms granted to Sir Isaac Heard, Lancaster Herald, afterwards Garter King of Arms, and is again to be found in the crest of the arms of Monneypenny ["On a dolphin embowed, a bridled Neptune astride, holding with his sinister hand a trident over his shoulder"]. The figure of Temperance occurs in the crest of Goodfellow. {165} The head of St. John the Baptist in a charger figures in the crest of the Tallow Chandlers' Livery Company and in the arms of Ayr, whilst the head of St. Denis is the charge upon the arms of a family of that name. Angels, though very frequently met with as supporters, are far from being usual, either as a charge upon a shield or as a crest. The crest of Leslie, however, is an angel. The crest of Lord Kintore is an angel in a praying posture or, within an orle of laurel proper. Cherubs are far more frequently to be met with. They are represented in various forms, and will be found in the arms of Chaloner, Thackeray, Maddocks, and in the crest of Carruthers. The nude figure is perhaps the most usual form in which the human being is made use of as a charge, and examples will be found in the arms of Wood (Lord Halifax), and in the arms of Oswald. The arms of Dalziell show an example--practically unique in British heraldry--of a naked man, the earliest entry (1685) of the arms of Dalziell of Binns (a cadet of the family) in the Lyon Register, having them then blazoned: "Sable, a naked man with his arms extended _au naturel_, on a canton argent, a sword and pistol disposed in saltire proper." This curious coat of arms has been the subject of much speculation. The fact that in some early examples the body is swinging from a gibbet has led some to suppose the arms to be an allusion to the fact, or legend, that one of the family recovered the body of Kenneth III., who had suffered death by hanging at the hands of the Picts. But it seems more likely that if the gibbet is found in any authoritative versions of the arms possibly the coat may owe its origin to a similar reason to that which is said, and probably correctly, to account for the curious crest of the Davenport family, viz.: "A man's head in profile couped at the shoulders proper, about the neck a rope or," or as it is sometimes termed, "a felon's head proper, about the neck a halter or." There is now in the possession of the Capesthorne branch of the Davenport family a long and very ancient roll, containing the names of the master robbers captured and beheaded in the times of Koran, Roger, and Thomas de Davenport, and probably the Davenport family held some office or Royal Commission which empowered them to deal in a summary way with the outlaws which infested the Peak country. It is more than probable that the crest of Davenport should be traced to some such source as this, and I suggest the possibility of a similar origin for the arms of Dalziel. As a crest the savage and demi-savage are constantly occurring. {166} They are in heraldry distinguished by the garlands of leaves about either or both loins and temples. Men in armour are sometimes met with. The arms of O'Loghlen are an instance in point, as are the crests of Marshall, Morse, Bannerman, and Seton of Mounie. Figures of all nationalities and in all costumes will be found in the form of supporters, and occasionally as crests, but it is difficult to classify them, and it must suffice to mention a few curious examples. The human figure as a supporter is fully dealt with in the chapter devoted to that subject. The arms of Jedburgh have a mounted warrior, and the same device occurs in the crest of the Duke of Fife, and in the arms of Lanigan-O'Keefe. The arms of Londonderry afford an instance of a skeleton. The emblematical figure of Fortune is a very favourite charge in foreign heraldry. A family of the name of Rodd use the Colossus of Rhodes as a crest: and the arms of Sir William Dunn, Bart., are worth the passing mention ["Azure, on a mount in base a bale of wool proper, thereon seated a female figure representing Commerce, vested argent, resting the dexter hand on a stock of an anchor, and in the sinister a caduceus, both or, on the chief of the last a tree eradicated, thereon hanging a hunting-horn between a thistle slipped proper on the dexter and a fleur-de-lis azure on the sinister. Crest: a cornucopia fesswise, surmounted by a dexter hand couped proper, holding a key in bend sinister or. Motto: 'Vigilans et audax.'"]. The crests of Vivian ["A demi-hussar of the 18th Regiment, holding in his right hand a sabre, and in his left a pennon flying to the sinister gules, and inscribed in gold letters, 'Croix d'Orade,' issuant from a bridge of one arch, embattled, and at each end a tower"], and Macgregor ["two brass guns in saltire in front of a demi-Highlander armed with his broadsword, pistols, and with a target, thereon the family arms of Macgregor," viz.: "Argent: a sword in bend dexter azure, and an oak-tree eradicated in bend sinister proper, in the dexter chief an antique crown gules, and upon an escroll surmounting the crest the motto, 'E'en do and spare not'"] are typical of many crests of augmentation and quasi-augmentation granted in the early part of the nineteenth century. The crest of the Devonshire family of Arscot ["A demi-man affronté in a Turkish habit, brandishing in his dexter hand a scimitar, and his sinister hand resting on a tiger's head issuing from the wreath"] is curious, as is the crest granted by Sir William Le Neve in 1642 to Sir Robert Minshull, viz.: "A Turk kneeling on one knee, habited {167} gules, legs and arms in mail proper, at the side a scymitar sable, hilted or, on the head a turban with a crescent and feather argent, holding in the dexter hand a crescent of the last." The crest of Pilkington ["a mower with his scythe in front habited as follows: a high-crowned hat with flap, the crown party per pale, flap the same, counterchanged; coat buttoned to the middle, with his scythe in bend proper, habited through quarterly and counterchanged argent and gules"], and the very similar crest of De Trafford, in which the man holds a flail, are curious, and are the subjects of appropriate legends. The crest of Clerk of Pennycuick (a demi-man winding a horn) refers to the curious tenure by which the Pennycuick estate is supposed to be held, namely, that whenever the sovereign sets foot thereupon, the proprietor must blow a horn from a certain rocky point. The motto, "Free for a blast," has reference to the same. The arms of the College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, I fancy, afford the only instance of what is presumably a corpse, the blazon being: "Azure, a man (human body) fesswise between a dexter hand having an eye on the palm issuing out of a cloud downward and a castle situate on a rock proper, within a bordure or charged with several instruments peculiar to the art (_sic_); on a canton of the first a saltire argent surmounted of a thistle vert, crowned of the third." When we come to parts of the human body instances of heads, arms, and legs are legion. There are certain well-known heraldic heads, and though many instances occur where the blazon is simply a "man's head," it will be most frequently found that it is more specifically described. Sloane Evans in his "Grammar of Heraldry" specifies eight different varieties, namely: 1. The wild man's; 2. The Moor's; 3. The Saracen's; 4. The Saxon's; 5. The Englishman's; 6. The old man's; 7. The woman's; 8. The child's. The wild man's or savage's head is usually represented with a wreath of leaves about the temples, but not necessarily so (Fig. 253). The head of the Moor, or "blackamoor," as it is more usually described, is almost always in profile, and very frequently adorned with a twisted wreath (torse) about the temples (Fig. 254). The head of the Saracen is also usually found with wreaths about the temples (Fig. 255). The head of the Saxon is borne by several Welsh families, and is supposed to be known by the absence of a beard. The Englishman's head, which is borne by the Welsh family of Lloyd of Plymog, has no very distinctive features, except that whilst the hair and beard of the savage are generally represented brown, they {168} are black in the case of the Moor and Saracen, and fair for the Saxon and Englishman. The old man's head, which, like that of the Saxon and Englishman, is seldom met with, is bald and grey-haired and bearded. But for all practical purposes these varieties may be all disregarded except the savage's (Fig. 253), the blackamoor's (Fig. 254), and the Saracen's (Fig. 255). Examples of the savage's head will be found in the arms of Eddington of Balbartan ["Azure, three savages' heads couped argent"], in the arms of Gladstone, and in the canting coat of Rochead of Whitsonhill ["Argent, a savage's head erased, distilling drops of blood proper, between three combs azure"]. Moir of Otterburn bears the Moors' heads ["Argent, three negroes' heads couped proper within a bordure counter-indented sable and or"], and Moir of Stonniwood matriculated a somewhat similar coat in which the heads are termed Mauritanian ["Argent, three Mauritanian negroes' heads couped and distilling guttés-de-sang"]. Alderson of Homerton, Middlesex, bears Saracens' heads ["Argent, three Saracens' heads affronté, couped at the shoulders proper, wreathed about the temples of the first and sable"]. [Illustration: FIG. 253.--A savage's head.] [Illustration: FIG. 254.--A blackamoor's head.] [Illustration: FIG. 255.--A Saracen's head.] The woman's head (Fig. 256) in heraldry is always represented young and beautiful (that is, if the artist is capable of so drawing it), and it is almost invariably found with golden hair. The colour, however, should be blazoned, the term "crined" being used. Five maidens' heads appear upon the arms of the town of Reading, and the crest of Thornhill shows the same figure. The arms of the Mercers' Livery Company ["Gules, a demi-virgin couped below the shoulders, issuing from clouds all proper, vested or, crowned with an Eastern crown of the last, her hair dishevelled, and wreathed round the temples with roses of the second, all within an orle of clouds proper"] and of the Master of the Revels in Scotland ["Argent, a lady rising out of a cloud in the nombril point, richly apparelled, on her head a garland of ivy, holding in her right hand a poinziard crowned, in her left a vizard all proper, standing {169} under a veil or canopy azure, garnished or, in base a thistle vert"] are worthy of quotation. The boy's head will seldom be found except in Welsh coats, of which the arms of Vaughan and Price are examples. Another case in which the heads of children appear are the arms of Fauntleroy ["Gules, three infants' heads couped at the shoulders proper, crined or"], which are a very telling instance of a canting device upon the original form of the name, which was "Enfantleroy." Children, it may be here noted, are seldom met with in armory, but instances will be found in the arms of Davies, of Marsh, co. Salop ["Sable, a goat argent, attired or, standing on a child proper swaddled gules, and feeding on a tree vert"], of the Foundling Hospital ["Per fesse azure and vert, in chief a crescent argent, between two mullets of six points or, in base an infant exposed, stretching out its arms for help proper"], and in the familiar "bird and bantling" crest of Stanley, Earls of Derby. Arms and hands are constantly met with, and have certain terms of their own. A hand should be stated to be either dexter (Fig. 257), or sinister (Fig. 258), and is usually blazoned and always understood to be couped at the wrist. If the hand is open and the palm visible it is "apaumé" (Figs. 257 and 258), but this being by far the most usual position in which the hand is met with, unless represented to be holding anything, the term "apaumé" is not often used in blazon, that position being presumed unless anything contrary is stated. [Illustration: FIG. 256.--A woman's head and bust.] [Illustration: FIG. 257.--A dexter hand.] [Illustration: FIG. 258.--A sinister hand.] The hand is occasionally represented "clenched," as in the arms and crest of Fraser-Mackintosh. When the thumb and first two fingers are raised, they are said to be "raised in benediction" (Fig. 259). The cubit arm (Fig. 260), should be carefully distinguished from the arm couped at the elbow (Fig. 261). The former includes only about two-thirds of the entire arm from the elbow. The form "couped at the elbow" is not frequently met with. When the whole arm from the shoulder is used, it is always bent at {170} the elbow, and this is signified by the term "embowed," and an arm embowed necessarily includes the whole arm. Fig. 262 shows the usual position of an arm embowed, but it is sometimes placed embowed to the dexter (Fig. 263), upon the point of the elbow, that is, "embowed fesseways" (Fig. 264), and also, but still more infrequently, resting on the upper arm (Fig. 265). Either of the latter positions must be specified in the blazon. Two arms "counter-embowed" occur in many crests (Figs. 266 and 267). [Illustration: FIG. 259.--A hand "in benediction."] [Illustration: FIG. 260.--A cubit arm.] [Illustration: FIG. 261.--An arm couped at the elbow.] [Illustration: FIG. 262.--An arm embowed.] [Illustration: FIG. 263.--An arm embowed to the dexter.] [Illustration: FIG. 264.--An arm embowed fesseways.] [Illustration: FIG. 265.--An arm embowed the upper part in fesse.] [Illustration: FIG. 266.--Two arms counter-embowed.] [Illustration: FIG. 267.--Two arms counter-embowed and interlaced.] When the arm is bare it is termed "proper." When clothed it is termed either "vested" or "habited" (Fig. 268). The cuff is very {171} frequently of a different colour, and the crest is then also termed "cuffed." The hand is nearly always bare, but if not represented of flesh colour it will be presumed and termed to be "gloved" of such and such a tincture. When it is represented in armour it is termed "in armour" or "vambraced" (Fig. 269). Even when in armour the hand is usually bare, but if in a gauntlet this must be specifically so stated (Fig. 270). The armour is always represented as riveted _plate_ armour unless it is specifically stated to be _chain armour_, as in the crest of Bathurst, or _scale armour_. Armour is sometimes decorated with gold, when the usual term employed will be "garnished or," though occasionally the word "purfled" is used. Gloves are occasionally met with as charges, _e.g._ in the arms of Barttelot. Gauntlets will be found in the arms of Vane. [Illustration: FIG. 268.--A cubit arm habited.] [Illustration: FIG. 269.--An arm embowed in armour.] [Illustration: FIG. 270.--A cubit arm in armour, the hand in a gauntlet.] Legs are not so frequently met with as arms. They will be found, however, in the arms of the Isle of Man and the families Gillman, Bower, Legg, and as the crest of Eyre. Boots will be found in the crests of various families of the name of Hussey. Bones occur in the arms of Scott-Gatty and Baines. A skull occurs in the crest of Græme ["Two arms issuing from a cloud erected and lighting up a man's skull encircled with two branches of palm, over the head a marquess's coronet, all proper"]. A woman's breast occurs in the canting arms of Dodge (Plate VI.) ["Barry of six or and sable, on a pale gules, a woman's breast distilling drops of milk proper. Crest: upon a wreath of the colours, a demi sea-dog azure, collared, maned, and finned or"]. An eye occurs in the crest of Blount of Maple-Durham ["On a wreath of the colours, the sun in splendour charged in the centre with an eye all proper"]. The man-lion, the merman, mermaid, melusine, satyr, satyral, harpy, sphinx, centaur, sagitarius, and weirwolf are included in the chapter upon mythical animals. {172} CHAPTER XI THE HERALDIC LION Heraldic art without the lion would not amount to very much, for no figure plays such an important or such an extensive part in armory as the lion, in one or other of its various positions. These present-day positions are the results of modern differentiation, arising from the necessity of a larger number of varying coats of arms; but there can be little doubt that in early times the majority of these positions did not exist, having been gradually evolved, and that originally the heraldic animal was just "a lion." The shape of the shield was largely a governing factor in the manner in which we find it depicted; the old artists, with a keener artistic sense than is evidenced in so many later examples of heraldic design, endeavoured to fill up as large a proportion of the space available as was possible, and consequently when only one lion was to be depicted upon the shield they very naturally drew the animal in an upright position, this being the one most convenient and adaptable for their purpose. Probably their knowledge of natural history was very limited, and this upright position would seem to them the most natural, and probably was the only one they knew; at any rate, at first it is almost the only position to be found. A curious commentary upon this may be deduced from the head-covering of Geoffrey of Anjou (Fig. 28), which shows a lion. This lion is identically of the form and shape of the lions rampant upon the shield, but from the nature of the space it occupies, is what would now be termed statant; but there is at the same time no such alteration in the relative position of the limbs as would now be required. This would seem to indicate very clearly that there was but the one stereotyped pattern of a lion, which answered all their purposes, and that our fore-runners applied that one pattern to the spaces they desired to decorate. Early heraldry, however, when the various positions came into recognised use, soon sought to impose this definite distinction, that the lion could only be depicted erect in the _rampant_ position, and that an animal represented to be walking must therefore be a _leopard_ from the very position which it occupied. This, however, was a distinction known only to the more pedantic heralds, and found greatest favour {173} amongst the French; but we find in Glover's Roll, which is a copy of a roll originally drawn up about the year 1250, that whilst he gives lions to six of the English earls, he commences with "le Roy d'Angleterre porte, Gules, trois lupards d'or." On the other hand, the monkish chronicler John of Harmoustier in Touraine (a contemporary writer) relates that when Henry I. chose Geoffrey, son of Foulk, Earl of Anjou, Touraine, and Main, to be his son-in-law, by marrying him to his only daughter and heir, Maud the Empress, and made him knight; after the bathing and other solemnities (pedes ejus solutaribus in superficie Leonculos aureos habentibus muniuntur), boots embroidered with golden lions were drawn on his legs, and also that (Clypeus Leonculos aureos imaginarios habens collo ejus suspenditur) a shield with lions of gold therein was hung about his neck. It is, therefore, evident that the refinement of distinction between a lion and a leopard was not of the beginning; it is a later addition to the earlier simple term of lion. This distinction having been invented by French heralds, and we taking so much of our heraldry, our language, and our customs from France, adopted, and to a certain extent used, this description of lions passant as "leopards." There can be no doubt, however, that the lions passant guardant upon the English shield have always been represented as _lions_, no matter what they may have been called, and the use of the term leopard in heraldry to signify a certain position for the lion never received any extensive sanction, and has long since become obsolete in British armory. In French blazon, however, the old distinction is still observed, and it is curious to observe that on the coins of the Channel Islands the shield of arms distinctly shows three leopards. The French lion is our lion rampant, the French leopard is our lion passant guardant, whilst they term our lion passant a _léopard-lionné_, and our lion rampant guardant is their _lion-léopardé_. A lion rampant and any other beast of prey is usually represented in heraldry with the tongue and claws of a different colour from the animal. If it is not itself gules, its tongue and claws are usually represented as of that colour, unless the lion be on a field of gules. They are then represented azure, the term being "armed and langued" of such and such a colour. It is not necessary to mention that a lion is "armed and langued" in the blazon when tongue and claws are emblazoned in gules, but whenever any other colour is introduced for the purpose it is better that it should be specified. Outside British heraldry a lion is always supposed to be rampant unless otherwise specifically described. The earliest appearance of the lions in the arms of any member of the Royal Family in England would appear to be the seal of King John when he was Prince and before he {174} ascended the throne. This seal shows his arms to be two lions passant. The English Royal crest, which originated with Richard I., is now always depicted as a lion statant guardant. There can be no doubt, however, that this guardant attitude is a subsequent derivation from the position of the lions on the shield, when heraldry was ceasing to be actual and becoming solely pictorial. We find in the case of the crest of Edward the Black Prince, now suspended over his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral, that the lion upon the chapeau looks straight forward over the front of the helm (see Fig. 271). [Illustration: FIG. 272.] Another ancient rule belonging to the same period as the controversy between leopards and lions was that there cannot be more than _one lion_ upon a shield, and this was one of the great arguments used to determine that the charges on the Royal Arms of England must be leopards and not lions. It was admitted as a rule of British armory to a limited extent, viz., that when two or more lions rampant appeared upon the same shield, unless combatant, they were always formerly described as lioncels. Thus the arms of Bohun are: "Azure, a bend argent, cottised between six lioncels rampant or." British heraldry has, however, long since disregarded any such rule (if any definite rule ever really existed upon the point), though curiously enough in the recent grant of arms to the town of Warrington the animals are there blazoned six "lioncels." The artistic evolution of the lion rampant can be readily traced in the examples and explanations which follow, but, as will be understood, the employment in the case of some of these models cannot strictly be said to be confined within a certain number of years, though the details and periods given are roughly accurate, and sufficiently so to typify the changes which have occurred. Until perhaps the second half of the thirteenth century the body of the lion appears straight upright, so that the head, the trunk, and the left hind-paw fall into the angle of the shield. The left fore-paw is horizontal, the right fore- and the right hind-paw are placed diagonally (or obliquely) upwards (Fig. 272). The paws each end in three knobs, similar to a clover-leaf, out of which the claws come forth. The fourth or inferior toes appeared in heraldry somewhat later. The jaws are closed or only very slightly opened, without the tongue being visible. The tail is thickened in the middle with a bunch of longer hair and is turned down towards the body. [Illustration: FIG. 271.--Shield, helmet, and crest of Edward the Black Prince, suspended over his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral.] [Illustration: FIG. 273.] In the course of the period lasting from the second half of the thirteenth to the second half of the fourteenth centuries, the right hind-paw sinks lower until it forms a right angle with the left. The mouth {175} grows pointed, and in the second half of the period the tongue becomes visible. The tail also shows a knot near its root (Fig. 273). [Illustration: FIG. 274.] In examples taken from the second half of the fourteenth century and the fifteenth century the lion's body is no longer placed like a pillar, but lays its head back to the left so that the right fore-paw falls into an oblique upward line with the trunk. The toes are lengthened, appearing almost as fingers, and spread out from one another; the tail, adorned with flame-like bunches of hair, strikes outwards and loses the before-mentioned knot, which only remains visible in a forked tail (_queue-fourché_). The jaws grow deep and are widely opened, and the breast rises and expands under the lower jaw (Fig. 274). Lions of peculiar virility and beauty appear upon a fourteenth-century banner which shows the arms of the family of Talbot, Earls of Shrewsbury: Gules, a lion rampant within a bordure engrailed or, quartered with the arms of _Strange_: Argent, two lions passant in pale gules, armed and langued azure. Fig. 275 gives the lower half of the banner which was published in colours in the Catalogue of the Heraldic Exhibition in London, 1894. [Illustration: FIG. 275.--Arms of Strange and Talbot. (From a design for a banner.)] [Illustration: FIG. 276.] Fig. 276 is an Italian coat of arms of the fourteenth century, and shows a lion of almost exactly the same design, except the paws are {176} here rendered somewhat more heraldically. The painting (azure, a lion rampant argent) served as an "Ex libris," and bears the inscription "Libe accusacionum mey p. he ..." (The remainder has been cut away. It is reproduced from Warnecke's "German Bookplates," 1890.) When we come to modern examples of lions, it is evident that the artists of the present day very largely copy lions which are really the creations of, or adaptations from, the work of their predecessors. The lions of the late Mr. Forbes Nixon, as shown in Fig. 277, which were specially drawn by him at my request as typical of his style, are respectively as follows:-- A winged lion passant coward. A lion rampant regardant. A lion rampant queue-fourché. A lion passant crowned. A lion passant. A lion rampant. A lion rampant to the sinister. A lion passant guardant, ducally gorged. A lion statant guardant, ducally crowned. A lion rampant. A lion statant guardant. A lion sejant guardant erect. Lions drawn by Mr. Scruby will be found in Figs. 278 and 279, which are respectively: "Argent, a lion rampant sable," "Sable, a lion passant guardant argent," and "Sable, a lion rampant argent." These again were specially drawn by Mr. Scruby as typical of his style. The lions of Mr. Eve would seem to be entirely original. Their singularly graceful form and proportions are perhaps best shown by Figs. 280 and 281, which are taken from his book "Decorative Heraldry." The lions of Mr. Graham Johnston can be appreciated from the examples in Figs. 284-9. Examples of lions drawn by Miss Helard will be found in Figs. 282, 283. The various positions which modern heraldry has evolved for the lions, together with the terms of blazon used to describe these positions, are as follows, and the differences can best be appreciated from a series drawn by the same artist, in this case Mr. Graham Johnston:-- _Lion rampant._--The animal is here depicted in profile, and erect, resting upon its sinister hind-paw (see Fig. 284). {177} _Lion rampant guardant._--In this case the head of the lion is turned to face the spectator (Fig. 285). [Illustration: FIG. 277.--Lions. (Drawn by Mr. J. Forbes Nixon.)] _Lion rampant regardant._--In this case the head is turned completely round, looking backwards (Fig. 286). _Lion rampant, double-queued._--In this case the lion is represented as {178} having two tails (Fig. 287). These must both be apparent from the base of the tail, otherwise confusion will arise with the next example. _Lion rampant queue-fourché._--In this case one tail springs from the base, which is divided or "forked" in the centre (Fig. 288). There is no doubt that whilst in modern times and with regard to modern arms this distinction must be adhered to, anciently queue-fourché and double-queued were interchangeable terms. [Illustration: FIG. 278.--Lion passant guardant. (By Mr. G. Scruby.)] [Illustration: FIG. 279.--Lion rampant. (By Mr. G. Scruby.)] [Illustration: FIG. 280.--Lion rampant and lion statant guardant, by Mr. G. W. Eve. (From "Decorative Heraldry.")] [Illustration: FIG. 281.--Lion statant, lion passant guardant, and lion passant regardant, by Mr. G. W. Eve. (From "Decorative Heraldry.")] _Lion rampant tail nowed._--The tail is here tied in a knot (Fig. 289). It is not a term very frequently met with. _Lion rampant tail elevated and turned over its head._--The only instances of the existence of this curious variation (Fig. 290) which have come under my own notice occur in the coats of two families of the name {179} of Buxton, the one being obviously a modern grant founded upon the other. [Illustration: FIG. 282.--A lion rampant. (By Miss Helard.)] [Illustration: FIG. 283.--A lion rampant. (By Miss Helard.)] [Illustration: FIG. 284.--Lion rampant.] [Illustration: FIG. 285.--Lion rampant guardant.] [Illustration: FIG. 286.--Lion rampant regardant.] [Illustration: FIG. 287.--Lion rampant double queued.] [Illustration: FIG. 288.--Lion rampant queue-fourché.] [Illustration: FIG. 289.--Lion rampant, tail nowed.] _Lion rampant with two heads._--This occurs (Fig. 291) in the coat of arms, probably founded on an earlier instance, granted in 1739 to {180} Mason of Greenwich, the arms being: "Per fess ermine and azure, a lion rampant with two heads counterchanged." This curious charge had been adopted by Mason's College in Birmingham, and on the foundation of Birmingham University it was incorporated in its arms. _Lion rampant guardant bicorporated._--In this case the lion has one head and two bodies. An instance of this curious creature occurs in the arms of Attewater, but I am not aware of any modern instance of its use. [Illustration: FIG. 290.--Lion rampant, tail elevated and turned over its head.] [Illustration: FIG. 291.--Lion rampant, with two heads.] [Illustration: FIG. 292.--Tricorporate lion.] [Illustration: FIG. 293.--Lion coward.] _Lion Rampant Tricorporate._--In this case three bodies are united in one head (Fig. 292). Both this and the preceding variety are most unusual, but the tricorporate lion occurs in a coat of arms (_temp._ Car. II.) registered in Ulster's Office: "Or, a tricorporate lion rampant, the bodies disposed in the dexter and sinister chief points and in base, all meeting in one head guardant in the fess point sable." _Lion coward._--In this case the tail of the lion is depressed, passing between its hind legs (Fig. 293). The exactitude of this term is to some extent modern. Though a lion cowarded was known in ancient days, there can be no doubt that formerly an artist felt himself quite at liberty to put the tail between the legs if this seemed artistically desirable, without necessarily having interfered with the arms by so doing. [Illustration: FIG. 294.--Armorial bearings of Alexander Charles Richards Maitland, Esq.: Or, a lion rampant gules, couped in all his joints of the field, within a double tressure flory and counterflory azure, a bordure engrailed ermine. Mantling gules and or. Crest: upon a wreath of his liveries, a lion sejant erect and affronté gules, holding in his dexter paw a sword proper, hilted and pommelled gold, and in his sinister a fleur-de-lis argent. Motto: "Consilio et animis."] _Lion couped in all its joints_ is a charge which seems peculiar to the family of Maitland, and it would be interesting to learn to what source its origin can be traced. It is represented with each of its four paws, its head and its tail severed from the body, and removed slightly away therefrom. A Maitland coat of arms exhibiting this peculiarity will be found in Fig. 294. {181} _Lions rampant combatant_ are so termed when two are depicted in one shield facing each other in the attitude of fighting (Fig. 295). A very curious and unique instance of a lion rampant occurs in the arms of Williams (matriculated in Lyon Register in 1862, as the second and third quarterings of the arms of Sir James Williams Drummond of Hawthornden, Bt.), the coat in question being: Argent, a lion rampant, the body sable, the head, paws, and tuft of the tail of the field. _Lion passant._--A lion in this position (Fig. 296) is represented in the act of walking, the dexter forepaw being raised, but all three others being upon the ground. _Lion passant guardant._--This (Fig. 297) is the same as the previous position, except that the head is turned to face the spectator. The lions in the quartering for England in the Royal coat of arms are "three lions passant guardant in pale." _Lion of England._--This is "a lion passant guardant or," and the term is only employed for a lion of this description when it occurs as or in an honourable augmentation, then being usually represented on a field of gules. A lion passant guardant or, is now never granted to any applicant except under a specific Royal Warrant to that effect. It occurs in many augmentations, _e.g._ Wolfe, Camperdown, and many others; and when three lions passant guardant in pale or upon a canton gules are granted, as in the arms of Lane (Plate II.), the augmentation is termed a "canton of England." _Lion passant regardant_ is as the lion passant, but with the head turned right round looking behind (Fig. 298). A lion is not often met with in this position. _Lions passant dimidiated._--A curious survival of the ancient but now {182} obsolete practice of dimidiation is found in the arms of several English seaport towns. Doubtless all can be traced to the "so-called" arms of the "Cinque Ports," which show three lions passant guardant dimidiated with the hulks of three ships. There can be no doubt whatever that this originally came from the dimidiation of two separate coats, viz. the Royal Arms of England (the three lions passant guardant), and the other "azure, three ships argent," typical of the Cinque Ports, referring perhaps to the protection of the coasts for which they were liable, or possibly merely to their seaboard position. Whilst Sandwich[13] uses the two separate coats simply dimidiated upon one shield, the arms of Hastings[14] vary slightly, being: "Party per pale gules and azure, a lion passant guardant or, between in chief and in base a lion passant guardant of the last dimidiated with the hulk of a ship argent." From long usage we have grown accustomed to consider these two conjoined and dimidiated figures as one figure (Fig. 299), and in the recent grant of arms to Ramsgate[15] a figure of this kind was granted as a simple charge. [Illustration: FIG. 295.--Two lions rampant combatant.] [Illustration: FIG. 296.--Lion passant.] [Illustration: FIG. 297.--Lion passant guardant.] The arms of Yarmouth[16] afford another instance of a resulting figure of this class, the three lions passant guardant of England being here dimidiated with as many herrings naiant. _Lion statant._--The distinction between a lion passant and a lion statant is that the lion statant has all four paws resting upon the {183} ground. The two forepaws are usually placed together (Fig. 300). Whilst but seldom met with as a charge upon a shield, the lion statant is by no means rare as a crest. _Lion statant tail extended._--This term is a curious and, seemingly, a purposeless refinement, resulting from the perpetuation in certain cases of one particular method of depicting the crest--originally when a crest a lion was always so drawn--but it cannot be overlooked, because in the crests of both Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, and Percy, Duke of Northumberland, the crest is now stereotyped as a lion in this form (Fig. 301) upon a chapeau. [Illustration: FIG. 298.--Lion passant regardant.] [Illustration: FIG. 299.--Lion passant guard. dimidiated with the hulk of a ship.] [Illustration: FIG. 300.--Lion statant.] [Illustration: FIG. 301.--Lion statant tail extended.] [Illustration: FIG. 302.--Lion statant guardant.] [Illustration: FIG. 303.--Lion salient.] _Lion statant guardant_ (Fig. 302).--This (crowned) is of course the Royal crest of England, and examples of it will be found in the arms of the Sovereign and other descendants, legitimate and illegitimate, of Sovereigns of this country. An exceptionally fine rendering of it occurs in the Windsor Castle Bookplates executed by Mr. G. W. Eve. _Lion salient._--This, which is a very rare position for a lion, represents it in the act of springing, the _two_ hind legs being on the ground, the others in the air (Fig. 303). {184} _Lion salient guardant._--There is no reason why the lion salient may not be guardant or regardant, though an instance of the use of either does not come readily to mind. _Lion sejant._--Very great laxity is found in the terms applied to lions sejant, consequently care is necessary to distinguish the various forms. The true lion sejant is represented in profile, seated on its haunches, with the forepaws resting on the ground (Fig. 304). [Illustration: FIG. 304.--Lion sejant.] [Illustration: FIG. 305.--Lion sejant guardant.] [Illustration: FIG. 306.--Lion sejant regardant.] [Illustration: FIG. 307.--Lion sejant erect.] [Illustration: FIG. 308.--Lion sejant guardant erect.] [Illustration: FIG. 309.--Lion sejant regardant erect.] _Lion sejant guardant._--This is as the foregoing, but with the face (only) turned to the spectator (Fig. 305). _Lion sejant regardant._--In this the head is turned right back to gaze behind (Fig. 306). _Lion sejant erect_ (or, as it is sometimes not very happily termed, sejant-rampant).--In this position the lion is sitting upon its haunches, but the body is erect, and it has its forepaws raised in the air (Fig. 307). _Lion sejant guardant erect_ is as the last figure, but the head faces the spectator (Fig. 308). _Lion sejant regardant erect_ is as the foregoing, but with the head turned right round to look backwards (Fig. 309). _Lion sejant affronté._--In this case the lion is seated on its haunches, {185} but _the whole body_ is turned to face the spectator, the forepaws resting upon the ground in front of its body. Ugly as this position is, and impossible as it might seem, it certainly is to be found in some of the early rolls. _Lion sejant erect affronté_ (Fig. 294).--This position is by no means unusual in Scotland. A lion sejant erect and affronté, &c., is the Royal crest of Scotland, and it will also be found in the arms of Lyon Office. A good representation of the lion sejant affronté and erect is shown in Fig. 310, which is taken from Jost Amman's _Wappen und Stammbuch_ (1589). It represents the arms of the celebrated Lansquenet Captain Sebastian Schärtlin (Schertel) von Burtenbach ["Gules, a lion sejant affronté erect, double-queued, holding in its dexter paw a key argent and in its sinister a fleur-de-lis"]. His victorious assault on Rome in 1527, and his striking successes against France in 1532, are strikingly typified in these arms, which were granted in 1534. [Illustration: FIG. 310.--Arms of Sebastian Schärtlin von Burtenbach.] [Illustration: FIG. 311.--Lion couchant.] [Illustration: FIG. 312.--Lion dormant.] _Lion Couchant._--In this position the lion is represented lying down, but the head is erect and alert (Fig. 311). _Lion dormant._--A lion dormant is in much the same position as a lion couchant, except that the eyes are closed, and the head rests upon the extended forepaws (Fig. 312). Lions dormant are seldom met with, but they occur in the arms of Lloyd, of Stockton Hall, near York. _Lion morné._--This is a lion without teeth and claws, but no instance of the use of the term would appear to exist in British armory. Woodward mentions amongst other Continental examples the arms of the old French family of De Mornay ["Fascé d'argent et de gueules au lion morné de sable, couronné d'or brochant sur le tout"]. _Lions as supporters._--Refer to the chapter on Supporters. _Winged lion._--The winged lion--usually known as the lion of St. Mark--is not infrequently met with. It will be found both passant {186} and sejant, but more frequently the latter (Fig. 313). The true lion of St. Mark (that is, when used as a badge for sacred purposes to typify St. Mark) has a halo. Winged lions are the supporters of Lord Braye. _Sea lion_ (or, to use another name for it, a _morse_) is the head, forepaws, and upper part of a lion conjoined to the tail of a fish. The most frequent form in which sea lions appear are as supporters, but they are also met with as crests and charges. When placed horizontally they are termed naiant. Sea lions, however, will also be found "sejant" and "sejant-erect" (Fig. 314). When issuing from waves of the sea they are termed "assurgeant." _Lion-dragon._--One hesitates to believe that this creature has any existence outside heraldry books, where it is stated to be of similar form and construction to the sea lion, the difference being that the lower half is the body and tail of a wyvern. I know of no actual arms or crest in which it figures. [Illustration: FIG. 313.--Winged lion.] [Illustration: FIG. 314.--Sea lion.] [Illustration: FIG. 315.--Man-Lion.] _Man-lion_ or _man-tiger_.--This is as a lion but with a human face. Two of these are the supporters of Lord Huntingdon, and one was granted to the late Lord Donington as a supporter, whilst as charges they also occur in the arms of Radford. This semi-human animal is sometimes termed a "lympago" (Fig. 315). _Other terms relating to lions_ occur in many heraldic works--both old and new--but their use is very limited, if indeed of some, any example at all could be found in British armory. In addition to this, whilst the fact may sometimes exist, the _term_ has never been adopted or officially recognised. Personally I believe most of the terms which follow may for all practical purposes be entirely disregarded. Amongst such terms are _contourné_, applied to a lion passant or rampant to the sinister. It would, however, be found blazoned in these words and not as contourné. "Dismembered," "Demembré," "Dechaussée," and "Trononnée" are all "heraldry-book" terms specified to mean the same as "couped in all its joints," but the uselessness and uncertainty concerning these terms is exemplified by the fact that the {187} same books state "dismembered" or "demembré" to mean (when applied to a lion) that the animal is shown without legs or tail. The term "embrued" is sometimes applied to a lion to signify that its mouth is bloody and dropping blood; and "vulned" signifies wounded, heraldically represented by a blotch of gules, from which drops of blood are falling. A lion "disarmed" is without teeth, tongue, or claws. A term often found in relation to lions rampant, but by no means peculiar thereto, is "debruised." This is used when it is partly defaced by another charge (usually an ordinary) being placed over it. Another of these guide-book terms is "decollated," which is said to be employed in the case of a lion which has its head cut off. A lion "defamed" or "diffamed" is supposed to be rampant to the sinister but looking backwards, the supposition being that the animal is being (against his will) chased off the field with infamy. A lion "evire" is supposed to be emasculated and without signs of sex. In this respect it is interesting to note that in earlier days, before mock modesty and prudery had become such prominent features of our national life, the genital organ was always represented of a pronounced size in a prominent position, and it was as much a matter of course to paint it gules as it now is to depict the tongue of that colour. To prevent error I had better add that this is not now the usual practice. Lions placed back to back are termed "endorsed" or "addorsed," but when two lions passant in pale are represented, one passing to the dexter and one to the sinister, they are termed "counter-passant." This term is, however, also used sometimes when they are merely passant towards each other. A more correct description in such cases would be passant "respecting" or "regarding" each other. The term _lionné_ is one stated to be used with animals other than lions when placed in a rampant position. Whilst doubtless of regular acceptation in French heraldry as applied to a leopard, it is unknown in English, and the term rampant is indifferently applied; _e.g._ in the case of a leopard, wolf, or tiger when in the rampant position. _Lionced_ is a term seldom met with, but it is said to be applied (for example to a cross) when the arms end in lions' heads. I have yet to find an authentic example of the use of such a cross. When a bend or other ordinary issues from the mouths of lions (or other animals), the heads issuing from the edges or angles of the escutcheon, the ordinary is said to be "engouled." A curious term, of the use of which I know only one example, is "fleshed" or "flayed." This, as doubtless will be readily surmised, means that the skin is removed, leaving the flesh gules. This was the method by which the supporters of Wurtemburg were "differenced" for the Duke of Teck, the forepaws being "fleshed." {188} Woodward gives the following very curious instances of the lion in heraldry:-- "Only a single example of the use of the lioness as a heraldic charge is known to me. The family of COING, in Lorraine, bears: d'Azure, à une lionne arrêtée d'or. "The following fourteenth-century examples of the use of the lion as a heraldic charge are taken from the oft-quoted _Wappenrolle von Zurich_, and should be of interest to the student of early armory:-- * * * * * "51: END: Azure, a lion rampant-guardant argent, its feet or. "305. WILDENVELS: Per pale argent and sable, in the first a demi-lion statant-guardant issuant from the dividing line. "408. TANNENVELS: Azure, a lion rampant or, queué argent. "489. RINACH: Or, a lion rampant gules, headed azure. "A curious use of the lion as a charge occurs in several ancient coats of the Low Countries, _e.g._ in that of TRASEGNIES, whose arms are: Bandé d'or et d'azur, à l'ombre du lion brochant sur le tout, à la bordure engrêlée d'or. Here the ombre du lion is properly represented by a darker shade of the tincture (either of or or of azure), but often the artist contents himself with simply drawing the outline of the animal in a neutral tint. "Among other curiosities of the use of the lion are the following foreign coats:-- "BOISSIAU, in France, bears: De gueules, semé de lions d'argent. "MINUTOLI, of Naples: Gules, a lion rampant vair, the head and feet or. "LOEN, of Holland: Azure, a decapitated lion rampant argent, three jets of blood spurting from the neck proper. "PAPACODA, of Naples: Sable, a lion rampant or, its tail turned over its head and held by its teeth. "The Counts REINACH, of Franconia: Or, a lion rampant gules, hooded and masked azure (see above)." To these instances the arms of Westbury may well be added, these being: Quarterly, or and azure, a cross patonce, on a bordure twenty lions rampant all counter-changed. No doubt the origin of such a curious bordure is to be found in the "bordure of England," which, either as a mark of cadency or as an indication of affinity or augmentation, can be found in some number of instances. Probably one will suffice as an example. This is forthcoming in Fig. 61, which shows the arms of John de Bretagne, Earl of Richmond. Of a similar nature is the bordure of Spain (indicative of his maternal descent) borne by Richard of Conisburgh, Earl of Cambridge, who bore: Quarterly France and England, a label of three points argent, each charged with {189} as many torteaux, on a bordure of the same twelve lions rampant purpure (Fig. 316). [Illustration: FIG. 317.--Arms of Bohemia, from the "Pulver Turme" at Prague. (Latter half of the fifteenth century.)] [Illustration: FIG. 316.--Arms of Richard of Conisburgh, Earl of Cambridge. (From MS. Cott., Julius C. vii.)] Before leaving the lion, the hint may perhaps be usefully conveyed that the temptation to over-elaborate the lion when depicting it heraldically should be carefully avoided. The only result is confusion--the very contrary of the essence of heraldic emblazonment, which was, is, and should be, the method of clear advertisement of identity. Examples of over-elaboration can, however, be found in the past, as will be seen from Fig. 317. This example belongs to the latter half of the fifteenth century, and represents the arms of Bohemia. It is taken from a shield on the "Pulver Turme" at Prague. Parts of lions are very frequently to be met with, particularly as crests. In fact the most common crest in existence is the _demi-lion rampant_ (Fig. 318). This is the upper half of a lion rampant. It is comparatively seldom found other than rampant and couped, so that the term "a demi-lion," unless otherwise qualified, may always be assumed to be a demi-lion rampant couped. As charges upon the shield three will be found in the arms of Bennet, Earl of Tankerville: "Gules, a bezant between three demi-lions rampant argent." The demi-lion may be both guardant and regardant. _Demi-lions rampant and erased_ are more common as charges than as crests. They are to be found in several Harrison coats of arms. [Illustration: FIG. 318.--A demi-lion rampant.] [Illustration: FIG. 319.--A demi-lion passant.] [Illustration: FIG. 320.--A lion's head couped.] _Demi-lions passant_ (Fig. 319) are rather unusual, but in addition to the seeming cases in which they occur by dimidiation they are sometimes found, as in the case of the arms of Newman. {190} _Demi-lion affronté._--The only case which has come under notice would appear to be the crest of Campbell of Aberuchill. _Demi-lion issuant._--This term is applied to a demi-lion when it issues from an ordinary, _e.g._ from the base line of the chief, as in the arms of Dormer, Markham, and Abney; or from behind a fesse, as in the arms of Chalmers. _Demi-lion naissant_ issues from the centre of an ordinary, and not from behind it. _Lions' heads_, both couped (Fig. 320) and erased, are very frequently met with both as charges on the shield and as crests. [Illustration: FIG. 321.--A lion's face.] _Lion's gamb._--Many writers make a distinction between the _gamb_ (which is stated to be the lower part only, couped or erased half-way up the leg) and the _paw_, but this distinction cannot be said to be always rigidly observed. In fact some authorities quote the exact reverse as the definition of the terms. As charges the gamb or paw will be found to occur in the arms of Lord Lilford ["Or, a lion's gamb erased in bend dexter between two crosslets fitchée in bend sinister gules"], and in the arms of Newdigate. This last is a curious example, inasmuch as, without being so specified in the blazon, the gambs are represented in the position occupied by the sinister foreleg of a lion passant. The crest upon the Garter Plate of Edward Cherleton, Lord Cherleton of Powis, must surely be unique. It consists of two lions' paws embowed, the outer edge of each being adorned with fleurs-de-lis issuant therefrom. _A lion's tail_ will sometimes be found as a crest, and it also occurs as a charge in the arms of Corke, viz.: "Sable, three lions' tails erect and erased argent." _A lion's face_ (Fig. 321) should be carefully distinguished from a lion's head. In the latter case the neck, either couped or erased, must be shown; but a lion's face is affronté and cut off closely behind the ears. The distinction between the head and the face can be more appropriately considered in the case of the leopard. {191} CHAPTER XII BEASTS Next after the lion should be considered the tiger, but it must be distinctly borne in mind that heraldry knows two kinds of tigers--the heraldic tiger (Figs. 322 and 323) and the Bengal tiger (Figs. 324 and 325). Doubtless the heraldic tiger, which was the only one found in British armory until a comparatively recent date, is the attempt of artists to depict their idea of a tiger. The animal was unknown to them, except by repute, and consequently the creature they depicted bears little relation to the animal of real life; but there can be no doubt that their intention was to depict an animal which they knew to exist. The heraldic tiger had a body much like the natural tiger, it had a lion's tufted tail and mane, and the curious head which it is so difficult to describe, but which appears to be more like the wolf than any other animal we know. This, however, will be again dealt with in the chapter on fictitious animals, and is here only introduced to demonstrate the difference which heraldry makes between the heraldic tiger and the real animal. A curious conceit is that the heraldic tiger will anciently be often found spelt "tyger," but this peculiar spelling does not seem ever to have been applied to the tiger of nature. [Illustration: FIG. 322.--Heraldic tyger rampant.] [Illustration: FIG. 323.--Heraldic tyger passant.] [Illustration: FIG. 324.--Bengal tiger passant.] [Illustration: FIG. 325.--Bengal tiger rampant.] {192} When it became desirable to introduce the real tiger into British armory as typical of India and our Eastern Empire, something of course was necessary to distinguish it from the tyger which had previously usurped the name in armory, and for this reason the natural tiger is always heraldically known as the Bengal tiger. This armorial variety appears towards the end of the eighteenth century in this country, though in foreign heraldry it appears to have been recognised somewhat earlier. There are, however, but few cases in which the Bengal tiger has appeared in armory, and in the majority of these cases as a supporter, as in the supporters of Outram, which are two tigers rampant guardant gorged with wreaths of laurel and crowned with Eastern crowns all proper. Another instance of the tiger as a supporter will be found in the arms of Bombay. An instance in which it appears as a charge upon a shield will be found in the arms granted to the University of Madras. [Illustration: FIG. 326.--Leopard passant.] [Illustration: FIG. 327.--Leopard passant guardant.] [Illustration: FIG. 328.--Leopard rampant.] Another coat is that granted in 1874 to Augustus Beaty Bradbury of Edinburgh, which was: "Argent, on a mount in base vert, a Bengal tiger passant proper, on a chief of the second two other tigers dormant also proper." A _tigress_ is said to be occasionally met with, and when so, is sometimes represented with a mirror, in relation to the legend that ascribes to her such personal vanity that her young ones might be taken from under her charge if she had the counter attraction of a hand-glass! At least so say the heraldry books, but I have not yet come across such a case. The leopard (Figs. 326, 327, and 328) has to a certain extent been referred to already. Doubtless it is the peculiar cat-like and stealthy walk which is so characteristic of the leopard which led to any animal in that position being considered a leopard; but the leopard in its natural state was of course known to Europeans in the early days of heraldry, and appears amongst the lists of heraldic animals apart from its existence as "a lion passant." The animal, {193} however, except as a supporter or crest, is by no means common in English heraldry. It will be found, however, in the crests of some number of families; for example, Taylor and Potts. [Illustration: FIG. 329.--Leopard's head erased.] [Illustration: FIG. 330.--Leopard's head erased and affronté.] [Illustration: FIG. 331.--Leopard's face.] [Illustration: FIG. 332.--Leopard's face jessant-de-lis.] A very similar animal is the ounce, which for heraldic purposes is in no way altered from the leopard. Parts of the latter will be found in use as in the case of the lion. As a crest the demi-leopard, the leopard's head (Fig. 329), and the leopard's head affronté (Fig. 330) are often to be met with. In both cases it should be noticed that _the neck is visible_, and this should be borne in mind, because this constitutes the difference between the leopard's head and the leopard's face (Fig. 331). The leopard's face is by far the most usual form in which the leopard will be found in armory, and can be traced back to quite an early period in heraldry. The leopard's face shows no neck at all, the head being removed close behind the ears. It is then represented affronté. For some unfathomable reason these charges when they occur in the arms of Shrewsbury are usually referred to locally as "loggerheads." They were perpetuated in the arms of the county in its recent grant. A curious development or use of the leopard's face occurs when it is jessant-de-lis (Fig. 332). This will be found referred to at greater length under the heading of the Fleur-de-lis. {194} [Illustration: FIG. 333.--Arms of Styria. (Drawn by Hans Burgkmair, 1523.)] The _panther_ is an animal which in its relation to heraldry it is difficult to know whether to place amongst the mythical or actual animals. No instance occurs to me in which the panther figures as a charge in British heraldry, and the panther as a supporter, in the few cases in which it is met with, is certainly not the actual animal, inasmuch as it is invariably found flammant, _i.e._ with flames issuing from the mouth and ears. In this character it will be found as a supporter of the Duke of Beaufort, and derived therefrom as a supporter of Lord Raglan. Foreign heraldry carries the panther to a most curious result. It is frequently represented with the tail of a lion, horns, and for its fore-legs the claws of an eagle. Even in England it is usually represented vomiting flames, but the usual method of depicting it on the Continent is greatly at variance with our own. Fig. 333 represents the same arms of Styria--Vert, a panther argent, armed close, vomiting flames of fire--from the title-page of the _Land-bond_ of Styria in the year 1523, drawn by Hans Burgkmair. In _Physiologus_, a Greek writing {195} of early Christian times of about the date 140, which in the course of time has been translated into every tongue, mention is made of the panther, to which is there ascribed the gaily spotted coat and the pleasant, sweet-smelling breath which induces all other animals to approach it; the dragon alone retreats into its hole from the smell, and consequently the panther appears to have sometimes been used as a symbol of Christ. The earliest armorial representations of this animal show the form not greatly dissimilar to nature; but very soon the similarity disappears in Continental representations, and the fancy of the artist transferred the animal into the fabulous creature which is now represented. The sweet-smelling breath, _suozzon-stanch_ as it is called in the early German translation of the _Physiologus_, was expressed by the flames issuing from the mouth, but later in the sixteenth century flames issued from every opening in the head. The head was in old times similar to that of a horse, occasionally horned (as in the seal of Count Heinrich von Lechsgemünd, 1197); the fore-feet were well developed. In the second half of the fourteenth century the fore-feet assume the character of eagles' claws, and the horns of the animal were a settled matter. In the neighbourhood of Lake Constance we find the panther with divided hoofs on his hind-feet; perhaps with a reference to the panther's "cleanness." According to the Mosaic law, of course, a four-footed animal, to be considered clean, must not have paws, and a ruminant must not have an undivided hoof. Italian heraldry is likewise acquainted with the panther, but under another name (_La Dolce_, the sweet one) and another form. The dolce has a head like a hare, and is unhorned. (See A. Anthony v. Siegenfeld, "The Territorial Arms of Styria," Graz, 1898.) The panther is given by Segar, Garter King of Arms 1603-1663, as one of the badges of King Henry VI., where it is silver, spotted of various colours, and with flames issuing from its mouth and ears. No doubt this Royal badge is the origin of the supporter of the Duke of Beaufort. English armory knows an animal which it terms the male griffin, which has no wings, but which has gold rays issuing from its body in all directions. Ströhl terms the badge of the Earls of Ormonde, which from his description are plainly male griffins, _keythongs_, which he classes with the panther; and probably he is correct in looking upon our male griffin as merely one form of the heraldic panther. The _cat_, under the name of the cat, the wild cat, the cat-a-mountain, or the cat-a-mount (Figs. 334, 335, and 336), is by no means infrequent in British armory, though it will usually be found in Scottish or Irish examples. The arms of Keates and Scott-Gatty in which it figures are English examples, however. {196} The wolf (Figs. 337-341) is a very frequent charge in English armory. Apart from its use as a supporter, in which position it is found in conjunction with the shields of Lord Welby, Lord Rendell, and Viscount Wolseley, it will be found in the arms of Lovett and in by far the larger proportion of the coats for the name of Wilson and in the arms of Low. [Illustration: FIG. 334.--Cat-a-mountain sejant guardant.] [Illustration: FIG. 335.--Cat-a-mountain sejant guardant erect.] [Illustration: FIG. 336.--Cat-a-mountain passant guardant.] [Illustration: FIG. 337.--Wolf rampant.] [Illustration: FIG. 338.--Wolf salient.] [Illustration: FIG. 339.--Wolf courant.] The wolf, however, in earlier representations has a less distinctly wolf-like character, it being sometimes difficult to distinguish the wolf from some other heraldic animals. This is one of these cases in which, owing to insufficient knowledge and crude draughtsmanship, ancient heraldry is not to be preferred to more realistic treatment. The demi-wolf is a very frequent crest, occurring not only in the arms and crests of members of the Wilson and many other families, but also as the crest of Wolfe. The latter crest is worthy of remark, inasmuch as the Royal crown which is held within its paws typifies the assistance given to King Charles II., after the battle of Worcester, by Mr. Francis Wolfe of Madeley, to whom the crest was granted. King Charles, it may be noted, also gave to Mr. Wolfe a silver tankard, upon the lid of which was a representation of this crest. Wolves' heads are particularly common, especially in Scottish heraldry. An example of them will be found in the arms of {197} "Struan" Robertson, and in the coats used by all other members of the Robertson Clan having or claiming descent from, or relationship with, the house of Struan. The wolf's head also appears in the arms of Skeen. Woodward states that the wolf is the most common of all heraldic animals in Spanish heraldry, where it is frequently represented as _ravissant, i.e._ carrying the body of a lamb in its mouth or across its back. [Illustration: FIG. 340.--Wolf passant.] [Illustration: FIG. 341.--Wolf statant.] [Illustration: FIG. 342.--A lynx coward.] [Illustration: FIG. 343.--Fox passant.] [Illustration: FIG. 344.--Fox sejant.] [Illustration: FIG. 345.--A fox's mask.] Much akin to the wolf is the _Lynx_; in fact the heraldic representation of the two animals is not greatly different. The lynx does not often occur in heraldry except as a supporter, but it will be found as the crest of the family of Lynch. The lynx is nearly always depicted and blazoned "coward," _i.e._ with its tail between its legs (Fig. 342). Another instance of this particular animal is found in the crest of Comber. A _Fox_ (Figs. 343 and 344) which from the similarity of its representation is often confused with a wolf, is said by Woodward to be very seldom met with in British heraldry. This is hardly a correct statement, inasmuch as countless instances can be produced in which a fox figures as a charge, a crest, or a supporter. The fox is found on the arms and as the crest, and two are the supporters of Lord Ilchester, and instances of its appearance will be found amongst others in the arms {198} or crests, for example, of Fox, Colfox, and Ashworth. Probably the most curious example of the heraldic fox will be found in the arms of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, who for the arms of Williams quarters: "Argent, two foxes counter-salient gules, the dexter surmounted of the sinister." The face of a fox is termed its mask (Fig. 345). _The Bear_ (Figs. 346-349) is frequently found figuring largely in coats of arms for the names of Barnard, Baring, Barnes, and Bearsley, and for other names which can be considered to bear canting relation to the charge. In fact the arms, crest, and motto of Barnard together form such an excellent example of the little jokes which characterise heraldry that I quote the blazon in full. The coat is "argent, a bear rampant sable," the crest is "a demi-bear sable," and the motto "Bear and forbear." [Illustration: FIG. 346.--Bear rampant.] [Illustration: FIG. 347.--Bear passant.] [Illustration: FIG. 348.--Bear statant.] The bear is generally muzzled, but this must not be presumed unless mentioned in the blazon. Bears' paws are often found both in crests and as charges upon shields, but as they differ little if anything in appearance from the lion's gamb, they need not be further particularised. To the bear's head, however, considerable attention should be paid, inasmuch as the manner of depicting it in England and Scotland differs. The bear's head, according to English ideas of heraldry, would be depicted down to the shoulders, and would show the neck couped or erased (Fig. 350). In Scottish heraldry, bears' heads are almost invariably found couped or erased close behind the ears without any of the neck being visible (Figs. 351 and 352); they are not, however, represented as caboshed or affronté. {199} [Illustration: FIG. 349.--Bear sejant erect.] [Illustration: FIG. 350.--Bear's head couped (English).] [Illustration: FIG. 351.--Bear's head couped (Scottish).] [Illustration: FIG. 352.--Bear's head erased and muzzled (Scottish).] [Illustration: FIG. 353.--Boar rampant.] [Illustration: FIG. 354.--Boar passant.] [Illustration: FIG. 355.--Boar statant.] [Illustration: FIG. 356.--Boar's head erased (English).] [Illustration: FIG. 357.--Boar's head couped (Scottish).] [Illustration: FIG. 358.--Boar's head erased (Scottish).] _The Boar_ is an animal which, with its parts, will constantly be met with in British armory (Figs. 353-355). Theoretically there is a difference between the boar, which is the male of the domestic animal, and the wild boar, which is the untamed creature of the woods. Whilst the latter is usually blazoned as a wild boar or sanglier, the latter is just a boar; but for all practical purposes no difference whatever is made in heraldic representations of these varieties, though it may be noted that the crest of Swinton is often described as a sanglier, as invariably is also the crest of Douglas, Earl of Morton ["A sanglier sticking between the cleft of an oak-tree fructed, with a lock holding the clefts together all proper"]. The boar, like the lion, is usually described as armed and langued, but this is not necessary when the tusks are represented in their own colour and when the tongue is gules. It will, however, be very frequently found that the tusks are or. The "armed," however, does not include the hoofs, and if these are to {200} be of any colour different from that of the animal, it must be blazoned "unguled" of such and such a tincture. Precisely the same distinction occurs in the heads of boars (Figs. 356-358) that was referred to in bears. The real difference is this, that whilst the English boar's head has the neck attached to the head and is couped or erased at the shoulders, the Scottish boar's head is separated close behind the ears. No one ever troubled to draw any distinction between the two for the purposes of blazon, because the English boars' heads were more usually drawn with the neck, and the boars' heads in Scotland were drawn couped or erased close. But the boars head in Welsh heraldry followed the Scottish and not the English type. Matters armorial, however, are now cosmopolitan, and one can no longer ascertain that the crest of Campbell must be Scottish, or that the crest of any other family must be English; and consequently, though the terms will not be found employed officially, it is just as well to distinguish them, because armory can provide means of such distinction--the true description of an English boar's head being couped or erased "at the neck," the Scottish term being a boar's head couped or erased "close." Occasionally a boar's head will be stated to be borne erect; this is then shown with the mouth pointing upwards. A curious example of this is found in the crest of Tyrrell: "A boar's head erect argent, in the mouth a peacock's tail proper." Woodward mentions three very strange coats of arms in which the charge, whilst not being a boar, bears very close connection with it. He states that among the curiosities of heraldry we may place the canting arms of Ham, of Holland: "Gules, five hams proper, 2, 1, 2." The Verhammes also bear: "Or, three hams sable." These commonplace charges assume almost a poetical savour when placed beside the matter-of-fact coat of the family of Bacquere: "d'Azur, à un ecusson d'or en abîme, accompagné de trois groins de porc d'argent," and that of the Wursters of Switzerland: "Or, two sausages gules on a gridiron sable, the handle in chief." HORSES It is not a matter of surprise that the horse is frequently met with in armory. It will be found, as in the arms of Jedburgh, carrying a mounted warrior (Fig. 359), and the same combination appears as the crest of the Duke of Fife. {201} The horse will be found rampant (or forcene, or salient) (Fig. 360), and will be found courant (Fig. 361), passant (Fig. 362), and trotting. [Illustration: FIG. 359.--A chevalier on horseback.] [Illustration: FIG. 360.--Horse rampant.] [Illustration: FIG. 361.--Horse courant.] [Illustration: FIG. 362.--Horse passant.] When it is "comparisoned" or "furnished" it is shown with saddle and bridle and all appurtenances; but if the saddle is not present it would only be blazoned "bridled." "Gules, a horse argent," really the arms of Westphalia, is popularly known in this country as the coat of Hanover, inasmuch as it was the most prominent charge upon the inescutcheon or quartering of Hanover formerly borne with the Royal Arms. Every one in this country is familiar with the expression, "the white horse of Hanover." Horses will also be found in many cases as supporters, and these will be referred to in the chapter upon that subject, but reference should be particularly made here to the crest of the family of Lane, of King's Bromley, which is a strawberry roan horse, couped at the flanks, bridled, saddled, and holding in its feet the Imperial crown proper. This commemorates the heroic action of Mistress Jane Lane, afterwards Lady Fisher, and the sister of Sir Thomas Lane, of King's Bromley, who, after the battle of Worcester and when King Charles was in hiding, rode from Staffordshire to the south coast upon a strawberry roan horse, with King Charles as her serving-man. For this the Lane family were first of all granted the canton of England as an augmentation to their arms, and shortly afterwards this crest of the demi-horse (Plate II.). The arms of Trevelyan afford an interesting example of a horse, being: "Gules, issuant out of water in base proper, a demi-horse argent, hoofed and maned or." The heads of horses are either so described or (and more usually) termed "nags' heads," though what the difference may be is beyond {202} the comprehension of most people; at any rate heraldry knows of none. The crest of the family of Duncombe is curious, and is as follows: "Out of a ducal coronet or, a horse's hind-leg sable, the shoe argent." Though they can hardly be termed animate charges, perhaps one may be justified in here mentioning the horse-shoe (Fig. 363), which is far from being an uncommon charge. It will be found in various arms for the name of Ferrar, Ferrers, Farrer, and Marshall; and, in the arms of one Scottish family of Smith, three horse-shoes interlaced together form an unusual and rather a curious charge. Other instances in which it occurs will be found in the arms of Burlton, and in the arms used by the town of Oakham. In the latter case it doubtless has reference to the toll of a horse-shoe, which the town collects from every peer or member of the Royal Family who passes through its limits. The collection of these, which are usually of silver, and are carefully preserved, is one of the features of the town. [Illustration: FIG. 363.--Horse-shoe.] [Illustration: FIG. 364.--Sea-horse.] [Illustration: FIG. 365.--Pegasus rampant.] The sea-horse, the unicorn, and the pegasus may perhaps be more properly considered as mythical animals, and the unicorn will, of course, be treated under that heading; but the sea-horse and the pegasus are so closely allied in form to the natural animal that perhaps it will be simpler to treat of them in this chapter. The sea-horse (Fig. 364) is composed of the head and neck of a horse and the tail of a fish, but in place of the fore-feet, webbed paws are usually substituted. Two sea-horses respecting each other will be found in the coat of arms of Pirrie, and sea-horses naiant will be found in the arms of McCammond. It is a matter largely left to the discretion of the artist, but the sea-horse will be found as often as not depicted with a fin at the back of its neck in place of a mane. A sea-horse as a crest will be found in the case of Belfast and in the crests of Clippingdale and Jenkinson. The sea-horse is sometimes represented winged, but I know of no officially sanctioned example. When represented rising from the sea the animal is said to be "assurgeant." {203} The pegasus (Figs. 365 and 366), though often met with as a crest or found in use as a supporter, is very unusual as a charge upon an escutcheon. It will be found, however, in the arms of the Society of the Inner Temple and in the arms of Richardson, which afford an example of a pegasus rampant and also an example in the crest of a pegasus sejant, which at present is the only one which exists in British heraldry. Fig. 367 gives a solitary instance of a mare. The arms, which are from Grünenberg's _Wappenbuch_ (1483), are attributed to "Herr von Frouberg from the Forest in Bavaria," and are: Gules, a mare rampant argent, bridled sable. [Illustration: FIG. 366.--Pegasus passant.] [Illustration: FIG. 367.--Arms of Herr von Frouberg.] [Illustration: FIG. 368.--Talbot passant.] [Illustration: FIG. 369.--Talbot statant.] [Illustration: FIG. 370.--Talbot rampant.] [Illustration: FIG. 371.--Talbot sejant.] The _ass_ is not a popular charge, but the family of Mainwaring have an ass's head for a crest. DOGS Dogs will be found of various kinds in many English and Scottish coats of arms, though more frequently in the former than in the latter. The original English dog, the hound of early days, is, of course, the talbot (Figs. 368, 369, 370, and 371). Under the heading of {204} supporters certain instances will be quoted in which dogs of various kinds and breeds figure in heraldry, but the talbot as a charge will be found in the arms of the old Staffordshire family, Wolseley of Wolseley, a cadet of which house is the present Field-Marshal Viscount Wolseley. The Wolseley arms are: "Argent, a talbot passant gules." Other instances of the talbot will be found in the arms or crests of the families of Grosvenor, Talbot, and Gooch. The arms "Azure, three talbots statant or," were granted by Cooke to Edward Peke of Heldchurchgate, Kent. A sleuth-hound treading gingerly upon the points of a coronet ["On a ducal coronet, a sleuth-hound proper, collared and leashed gules"] was the crest of the Earl of Perth and Melfort, and one wonders whether the motto, "Gang warily," may not really have as much relation to the perambulations of the crest as to the dangerous foothold amongst the galtraps which is provided for the supporters. [Illustration: FIG. 372.--Greyhound passant.] [Illustration: FIG. 373.--Greyhound courant.] Greyhounds (Figs. 372 and 373) are, of course, very frequently met with, and amongst the instances which can be mentioned are the arms of Clayhills, Hughes-Hunter of Plas Coch, and Hunter of Hunterston. A curious coat of arms will be found under the name of Udney of that Ilk, registered in the Lyon Office, namely: "Gules, two greyhounds counter-salient argent, collared of the field, in the inner point a stag's head couped and attired with ten tynes, all between the three fleurs-de-lis, two in chief and one in base, or." Another very curious coat of arms is registered as the design of the reverse of the seal of the Royal Burgh of Linlithgow, and is: "Or, a greyhound bitch sable, chained to an oak-tree within a loch proper." This curious coat of arms, however, being the reverse of the seal, is seldom if ever made use of. Two bloodhounds are the supporters to the arms of Campbell of Aberuchill. The dog may be salient, that is, springing, its hind-feet on the ground; passant, when it is sometimes known as trippant, otherwise walking; and courant when it is at full speed. It will be found occasionally couchant or lying down, but if depicted chasing another animal (as in the arms of Echlin) it is described as "in full chase," or "in full course." A mastiff will be found in the crest of Crawshay, and there is a {205} well-known crest of a family named Phillips which is "a dog sejant regardant surmounted by a bezant charged with a representation of a dog saving a man from drowning." Whether this crest has any official authority or not I do not know, but I should imagine it is highly doubtful. Foxhounds appear as the supporters of Lord Hindlip; and when depicted with its nose to the ground a dog is termed "a hound on scent." A winged greyhound is stated to be the crest of a family of Benwell. A greyhound "courant" will be found in the crests of Daly and Watney; and a curious crest is that of Biscoe, which is a greyhound seizing a hare. The crest of Anderson, until recently borne by the Earl of Yarborough, is a water spaniel. [Illustration: FIG. 374.--A sea-dog.] [Illustration: FIG. 375.--Bull rampant.] [Illustration: FIG. 376.--Bull passant.] The sea-dog (Fig. 374) is a most curious animal. It is represented much as the talbot, but with scales, webbed feet, and a broad scaly tail like a beaver. In my mind there is very little doubt that the sea-dog is really the early heraldic attempt to represent a beaver, and I am confirmed in that opinion by the arms of the city of Oxford. There has been considerable uncertainty as to what the sinister supporter was intended to represent. A reference to the original record shows that a beaver is the real supporter, but the representation of the animal, which in form has varied little, is very similar to that of a sea-dog. The only instances I am aware of in British heraldry in which it occurs under the name of a sea-dog are the supporters of the Barony of Stourton and the crest of Dodge[17] (Plate VI.). BULLS The bull (Figs. 375 and 376), and also the calf, and very occasionally the cow and the buffalo, have their allotted place in heraldry. {206} They are amongst the few animals which can never be represented proper, inasmuch as in its natural state the bull is of very various colours. And yet there is an exception to even this apparently obvious fact, for the bulls connected with or used either as crests, badges, or supporters by the various branches of the Nevill family are all pied bulls ["Arms of the Marquis of Abergavenny: Gules, on a saltire argent, a rose of the field, barbed and seeded proper. Crest: a bull statant argent, pied sable, collared and chain reflexed over the back or. Supporters; two bulls argent, pied sable, armed, unguled, collared and chained, and at the end of the chain two staples or. Badges: on the dexter a rose gules, seeded or, barbed vert; on the sinister a portcullis or. Motto: 'Ne vile velis.'"] The bull in the arms of the town of Abergavenny, which are obviously based upon the arms and crest of the Marquess of Abergavenny, is the same. Examples of the bull will be found in the arms of Verelst, Blyth, and Ffinden. A bull salient occurs in the arms of De Hasting ["Per pale vert and or, a bull salient counterchanged"]. The arms of the Earl of Shaftesbury show three bulls, which happen to be the quartering for Ashley. This coat of arms affords an instance, and a striking one, of the manner in which arms have been improperly assumed in England. The surname of the Earl of Shaftesbury is Ashley-Cooper. It may be mentioned here in passing, through the subject is properly dealt with elsewhere in the volume, that in an English sub-quarterly coat for a double name the arms for the last and most important name are the first and fourth quarterings. But Lord Shaftesbury himself is the only person who bears the name of Cooper, all other members of the family except his lordship being known by the name of Ashley only. Possibly this may be the reason which accounts for the fact that by a rare exception Lord Shaftesbury bears the arms of Ashley in the first and fourth quarters, and Cooper in the second and third. But by a very general mistake these arms of Ashley ["Argent, three bulls passant sable, armed and unguled or"] were until recently almost invariably described as the arms of Cooper. The result has been that during the last century they were "jumped" right and left by people of the name of Cooper, entirely in ignorance of the fact that the arms of Cooper (if it were, as one can only presume, the popular desire to indicate a false relationship to his lordship) are: "Gules, a bend engrailed between six lions rampant or." The ludicrous result has been that to those who know, the arms have stood self-condemned, and in the course of time, as it has become necessary for these Messrs. Cooper to legalise these usurped insignia, the new grants, differentiated versions of arms previously in use, have nearly all been founded upon this Ashley coat. At any rate there must be a score or more Cooper {207} grants with bulls as the principal charges, and innumerable people of the name of Cooper are still using without authority the old Ashley coat pure and simple. The bull as a crest is not uncommon, belonging amongst other families to Ridley, Sykes, and De Hoghton; and the demi-bull, and more frequently the bull's head, are often met with. A bull's leg is the crest of De la Vache, and as such appears upon two of the early Garter plates. Winged bulls are the supporters of the Butchers' Livery Company. A bull's scalp occurs upon a canton over the arms of Cheney, a coat quartered by Johnston and Cure. [Illustration: FIG. 377.--Bull's head caboshed.] [Illustration: FIG. 378.--Armorial bearings of John Henry Metcalfe, Esq.: Argent, three calves passant sable, a canton gules.] The ox seldom occurs, except that, in order sometimes to preserve a pun, a bovine animal is sometimes so blazoned, as in the case of the arms of the City of Oxford. Cows also are equally rare, but occur in the arms of Cowell ["Ermine, a cow statant gules, within a bordure sable, bezantée"] and in the modern grants to the towns of Rawtenstall and Cowbridge. Cows' heads appear on the arms of Veitch ["Argent, three cows' heads erased sable"], and these were transferred to the cadency bordure of the Haig arms when these were rematriculated for Mr. H. Veitch Haig. Calves are of much more frequent occurrence than cows, appearing in many coats of arms in which they are a pun upon the name. They will be found in the arms of Vaile and Metcalfe (Fig. 378). Special attention may well be drawn to the last-mentioned illustration, inasmuch as it is by Mr. J. H. Metcalfe, whose heraldic work has obtained a well-deserved reputation. A bull or cow is termed "armed" if the horns are of a different tincture from the head. The term "unguled" applies to the hoofs, and "ringed" is used when, as is sometimes the case, a ring passes through the nostrils. A bull's head is sometimes found caboshed (Fig. 377), as in the crest of Macleod, or as in the arms of Walrond. The position of the tail is one of those matters which are left to the artist, and unless the blazon contains any statement to the contrary, it may be placed in any convenient position. {208} STAGS The stag, using the term in its generic sense, under the various names of stag, deer, buck, roebuck, hart, doe, hind, reindeer, springbok, and other varieties, is constantly met with in British armory, as well as in that of other countries. [Illustration: FIG. 379.--Stag lodged.] [Illustration: FIG. 380.--Stag trippant.] [Illustration: FIG. 381.--Stag courant.] [Illustration: FIG. 382.--Stag springing.] [Illustration: FIG. 383.--Stag at gaze.] [Illustration: FIG. 384.--Stag statant.] In the specialised varieties, such as the springbok and the reindeer, naturally an attempt is made to follow the natural animal in its salient peculiarities, but as to the remainder, heraldry knows little if any distinction after the following has been properly observed. The stag, which is really the male red deer, has horns which are branched with pointed branches from the bottom to the top; but a buck, which is the fallow deer, has broad and flat palmated horns. Anything in the nature of a stag must be subject to the following terms. If lying down it is termed "lodged" (Fig. 379), if walking it is termed "trippant" (Fig. 380), if running it is termed "courant" (Fig. 381), or "at speed" or "in full chase." It is termed "salient" when springing (Fig. 382), though the term "springing" is sometimes employed, and it is said to be "at gaze" when statant with the head turned to face the spectator (Fig. 383); but it should be noted that a stag may also be "statant" (Fig. 384); and it is not "at gaze" unless the head is turned round. {209} When it is necessary owing to a difference of tincture or for other reasons to refer to the horns, a stag or buck is described as "attired" of such and such a colour, whereas bulls, rams, and goats are said to be "armed." When the stag is said to be attired of ten or any other number of tynes, it means that there are so many points to its horns. Like other cloven-footed animals, the stag can be unguled of a different colour. The stag's head is very frequently met with, but it will be almost more frequently found as a stag's head caboshed (Fig. 385). In these cases the head is represented affronté and removed close behind the ears, so that no part of the neck is visible. The stag's head caboshed occurs in the arms of Cavendish and Stanley, and also in the arms of Legge, Earl of Dartmouth. Figs. 386 and 387 are examples of other heads. [Illustration: FIG. 385.--Stag's head caboshed.] [Illustration: FIG. 386.--Stag's head erased.] [Illustration: FIG. 387.--Buck's head couped.] [Illustration: FIG. 388.--Hind.] [Illustration: FIG. 389.--Reindeer.] [Illustration: FIG. 390.--Winged stag rampant.] The attires of a stag are to be found either singly (as in the arms of Boyle) or in the form of a pair attached to the scalp. The crest of Jeune affords an instance of a scalp. The hind or doe (Fig. 388) is sometimes met with, as in the crest of Hatton, whilst a hind's head is the crest of Conran. The reindeer (Fig. 389) is less usual, but reindeer heads will be found in the arms of Fellows. It, however, appears as a supporter for {210} several English peers. Winged stags (Fig. 390) were the supporters of De Carteret, Earls of Granville, and "a demi-winged stag gules, collared argent," is the crest of Fox of Coalbrookdale, co. Salop. Much akin to the stag is the antelope, which, unless specified to be an _heraldic_ antelope, or found in a very old coat, is usually represented in the natural form of the animal, and subject to the foregoing rules. _Heraldic Antelope._--This animal (Figs. 391, 392, and 393) is found in English heraldry more frequently as a supporter than as a charge. As an instance, however, of the latter form may be mentioned the family of Dighton (Lincolnshire): "Per pale argent and gules, an heraldic antelope passant counterchanged." It bears little if any relation to the real animal, though there can be but small doubt that the earliest forms originated in an attempt to represent an antelope or an ibex. Since, however, heraldry has found a use for the real antelope, it has been necessary to distinguish it from the creations of the early armorists, which are now known as heraldic antelopes. Examples will be found in the supporters of Lord Carew, in the crest of Moresby, and of Bagnall. [Illustration: FIG. 391.--Heraldic antelope statant.] [Illustration: FIG. 392.--The heraldic antelope rampant.] [Illustration: FIG. 393.--Heraldic antelope passant.] The difference chiefly consists in the curious head and horns and in the tail, the heraldic antelope being an heraldic tiger, with the feet and legs similar to those of a deer, and with two straight serrated horns. _Ibex._--This is another form of the natural antelope, but with two saw-edged horns projecting from the forehead. A curious animal, namely, the sea-stag, is often met with in German heraldry. This is the head, antlers, fore-legs, and the upper part of the body of a stag conjoined to the fish-tail end of a mermaid. {211} The only instance I am aware of in which it occurs in British armory is the case of the arms of Marindin, which were recently matriculated in Lyon Register (Fig. 394). This coat, however, it should be observed, is really of German or perhaps of Swiss origin. [Illustration: FIG. 394.--Armorial bearings of Marindin.] THE RAM AND GOAT The ram (Figs. 395 and 396), the consideration of which must of necessity include the sheep (Fig. 397), the Paschal lamb (Fig. 398), and the fleece (Fig. 399), plays no unimportant part in armory. The chief heraldic difference between the ram and the sheep, to some extent, in opposition to the agricultural distinctions, lies in the fact that the ram is always represented with horns and the sheep without. The lamb and the ram are always represented with the natural tail, but the sheep is deprived of it. A ram can of course be "armed" (_i.e._ with the horns of a different colour) and "unguled," but the latter will seldom be found to be the case. The ram, the sheep, and the lamb will nearly always be found either passant or statant, but a demi-ram is naturally represented in a rampant posture, though in such a case the word "rampant" is not necessary in the blazon. Occasionally, as in the crest of Marwood, the ram will be found couchant. As a charge upon a shield the ram will be found in the arms of Sydenham ["Argent, three rams passant sable"], and a ram couchant occurs in the arms of Pujolas (granted 1762) ["Per fess wavy azure and argent, in base on a mount vert, a ram couchant sable, armed and unguled or, in chief three doves proper"]. The arms of Ramsey ["Azure, a chevron between three {212} rams passant or"] and the arms of Harman ["Sable, a chevron between six rams counter-passant two and two argent, armed and unguled or"] are other instances in which rams occur. A sheep occurs in the arms of Sheepshanks ["Azure, a chevron erminois between in chief three roses and in base a sheep passant argent. Crest: on a mount vert, a sheep passant argent"]. [Illustration: FIG. 395.--Ram statant.] [Illustration: FIG. 396.--Ram rampant.] [Illustration: FIG. 397.--Sheep passant.] [Illustration: FIG. 398.--Paschal lamb.] [Illustration: FIG. 399.--Fleece.] [Illustration: FIG. 400.--Ram's head caboshed.] [Illustration: FIG. 401.--Goat passant.] [Illustration: FIG. 402.--Goat rampant.] [Illustration: FIG. 403.--Goat salient.] The lamb, which is by no means an unusual charge in Welsh coats of arms, is most usually found in the form of a "paschal lamb" (Fig. 398), or some variation evidently founded thereupon. The fleece--of course originally of great repute as the badge of {213} the Order of the Golden Fleece--has in recent years been frequently employed in the grants of arms to towns or individuals connected with the woollen industry. The demi-ram and the demi-lamb are to be found as crests, but far more usual are rams' heads, which figure, for example, in the arms of Ramsden, and in the arms of the towns of Huddersfield, and Barrow-in-Furness. The ram's head will sometimes be found caboshed, as in the arms of Ritchie and Roberts. Perhaps here reference may fittingly be made to the arms granted by Lyon Office in 1812 to Thomas Bonar, co. Kent ["Argent, a saltire and chief azure, the last charged with a dexter hand proper, vested with a shirt-sleeve argent, issuing from the dexter chief point, holding a shoulder of mutton proper to a lion passant or, all within a bordure gules"]. _The Goat_ (Figs. 401-403) is very frequently met with in armory. Its positions are passant, statant, rampant, and salient. When the horns are of a different colour it is said to be "armed." OTHER ANIMALS _The Elephant_ is by no means unusual in heraldry, appearing as a crest, as a charge, and also as a supporter. Nor, strange to say, is its appearance exclusively modern. The elephant's head, however, is much more frequently met with than the entire animal. Heraldry generally finds some way of stereotyping one of its creations as peculiarly its own, and in regard to the elephant, the curious "elephant and castle" (Fig. 404) is an example, this latter object being, of course, simply a derivative of the howdah of Indian life. Few early examples of the elephant omit the castle. The elephant and castle is seen in the arms of Dumbarton and in the crest of Corbet. A curious practice, the result of pure ignorance, has manifested itself in British armory. As will be explained in the chapter upon crests, a large proportion of German crests are derivatives of the stock basis of two bull's horns, which formed a recognised ornament for a helmet in Viking and other pre-heraldic days. As heraldry found its footing it did not in Germany displace those horns, which in many cases continued alone as the crest or remained as a part of it in the form of additions to other objects. The craze for decoration at an early period seized upon the horns, which carried repetitions of the arms or their tinctures. As time went on the {214} decoration was carried further, and the horns were made with bell-shaped open ends to receive other objects, usually bunches of feathers or flowers. So universal did this custom become that even when nothing was inserted the horns came to be always depicted with these open mouths at their points. But German heraldry now, as has always been the case, simply terms the figures "horns." In course of time German immigrants made application for grants of arms in this country, which, doubtless, were based upon other German arms previously in use, but which, evidence of right not being forthcoming, could not be recorded as borne of right, and needed to be granted with alteration as a new coat. The curious result has been that these horns have been incorporated in some number of English grants, but they have universally been described as elephants' proboscides, and are now always so represented in this country. A case in point is the crest of Verelst, and another is the crest of Allhusen. [Illustration: FIG. 404.--Elephant and castle.] [Illustration: FIG. 405.--Hare salient.] [Illustration: FIG. 406.--Coney.] [Illustration: FIG. 407.--Squirrel.] Elephants' tusks have also been introduced into grants, as in the arms of Liebreich (borne in pretence by Cock) and Randles ["Or, a chevron wavy azure between three pairs of elephants' tusks in saltire proper"]. _The Hare_ (Fig. 405) is but rarely met with in British armory. It appears in the arms of Cleland, and also in the crest of Shakerley, Bart. ["A hare proper resting her forefeet on a grab or"]. A very curious coat ["Argent, three hares playing bagpipes gules"] belongs to an ancient Derbyshire family FitzErcald, now represented (through the Sacheverell family) by Coke of Trussley, who quarter the FitzErcald shield. _The Rabbit_ (Fig. 406), or, as it is more frequently termed heraldically, the Coney, appears more frequently in heraldry than the hare, being the canting charge on the arms of Coningsby, Cunliffe ["Sable, three conies courant argent"], and figuring also as the supporters of Montgomery Cunningham ["Two conies proper"]. _The Squirrel_ (Fig. 407) occurs in many English coats of arms. It is always sejant, and very frequently cracking a nut. {215} _The Ape_ is not often met with, except in the cases of the different families of the great Fitz Gerald clan. It is usually the crest, though the Duke of Leinster also has apes as supporters. One family of Fitzgerald, however, bear it as a charge upon the shield ["Gules, a saltire invected per pale argent and or, between four monkeys statant of the second, environed with a plain collar and chained of the second. Mantling gules and argent. Crest: on a wreath of the colours, a monkey as in the arms, charged on the body with two roses, and resting the dexter fore-leg on a saltire gules. Motto: 'Crom-a-boo'"], and the family of Yorke bear an ape's head for a crest. The ape is usually met with "collared and chained" (Fig. 408), though, unlike any other animal, the collar of an ape environs its loins and not its neck. A winged ape is included in Elvin's "Dictionary of Heraldry" as a heraldic animal, but I am not aware to whom it is assigned. [Illustration: FIG. 408.--Ape collared and chained.] [Illustration: FIG. 409.--Brock.] [Illustration: FIG. 410.--Otter.] _The Brock_ or _Badger_ (Fig. 409) figures in some number of English arms. It is most frequently met with as the crest of Brooke, but will be also found in the arms or crests of Brocklebank and Motion. _The Otter_ (Fig. 410) is not often met with except in Scottish coats, but an English example is that of Sir George Newnes, and a demi-otter issuant from a fess wavy will be found quartered by Seton of Mounie. An otter's head, sometimes called a seal's head, for it is impossible to distinguish the heraldic representations of the one or the other, appears in many coats of arms of different families of the name of Balfour, and two otters are the supporters belonging to the head of the Scottish house of Balfour. _The Ermine_, _the Stoat_, and _the Weasel_, &c., are not very often met with, but the ermine appears as the crest of Crawford and the marten as the crest of a family of that name. {216} [Illustration: FIG. 411.--Urcheon.] _The Hedgehog_, or, as it is usually heraldically termed, the _Urcheon_ (Fig. 411), occurs in some number of coats. For example, in the arms of Maxwell ["Argent, an eagle with two heads displayed sable, beaked and membered gules, on the breast an escutcheon of the first, charged with a saltire of the second, surcharged in the centre with a hurcheon (hedgehog) or, all within a bordure gules"], Harris, and as the crest of Money-Kyrle. _The Beaver_ has been introduced into many coats of late years for those connected in any way with Canada. It figures in the arms of Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, and in the arms of Christopher. The beaver is one of the supporters of the city of Oxford, and is the sole charge in the arms of the town of Biberach (Fig. 412). Originally the arms were: "Argent, a beaver azure, crowned and armed gules," but the arms authorised by the Emperor Frederick IV., 18th July 1848, were: "Azure, a beaver or." [Illustration: FIG. 412.--Arms of the town of Biberach. (From Ulrich Reichenthal's _Concilium von Constanz_, Augsburg, 1483.)] It is quite impossible, or at any rate very unnecessary, to turn a work on armory into an Illustrated Guide to Natural History, which would be the result if under the description of heraldic charges the attempt were made to deal with all the various animals which have by now been brought to the armorial fold, owing to the inclusion of each for special and sufficient reasons in one or two isolated grants. Far be it from me, however, to make any remark which should seem to indicate the raising of any objection to such use. In my opinion it is highly admirable, providing there is some definite reason in each case for the introduction of these strange animals other than mere caprice. They add to the interest of heraldry, and they give to modern arms and armory a definite status and meaning, which is a relief from the endless monotony of meaningless lions, bends, chevrons, mullets, and martlets. But at the same time the isolated use in a modern grant of such an animal as the kangaroo does not make it one of the peculiarly heraldic menagerie, and consequently such instances must be dismissed herein with brief mention, particularly as many of these creatures heraldically exist only as supporters, in which chapter some are more fully {217} discussed. Save as a supporter, the only instances I know of the _Kangaroo_ are in the coat of Moore and in the arms of Arthur, Bart. _The Zebra_ will be found as the crest of Kemsley. _The Camel_, which will be dealt with later as a supporter, in which form it appears in the arms of Viscount Kitchener, the town of Inverness (Fig. 251), and some of the Livery Companies, also figures in the reputed but unrecorded arms of Camelford, and in the arms of Cammell of Sheffield and various other families of a similar name. The fretful _Porcupine_ was borne ["Gules, a porcupine erect argent, tusked, collared, and chained or"] by Simon Eyre, Lord Mayor of London in 1445: and the creature also figures as one of the supporters and the crest of Sidney, Lord De Lisle and Dudley. [Illustration: FIG. 413.--Bat.] _The Bat_ (Fig. 413) will be found in the arms of Heyworth and as the crest of a Dublin family named Wakefield. _The Tortoise_ occurs in the arms of a Norfolk family named Gandy, and is also stated by Papworth to occur in the arms of a Scottish family named Goldie. This coat, however, is not matriculated. It also occurs in the crests of Deane and Hayne. _The Springbok_, which is one of the supporters of Cape Colony, and two of which are the supporters of Viscount Milner, is also the crest of Randles ["On a wreath of the colours, a springbok or South African antelope statant in front of an assegai erect all proper"]. _The Rhinoceros_ occurs as one of the supporters of Viscount Colville of Culross, and also of the crest of Wade, and the _Hippopotamus_ is one of the supporters of Speke. _The Crocodile_, which is the crest and one of the supporters of Speke, is also the crest of Westcar ["A crocodile proper, collared and chained or"]. _The Alpaca_, and also two _Angora Goats'_ heads figure in the arms of Benn. _The Rat_ occurs in the arms of Ratton,[18] which is a peculiarly good example of a canting coat. _The Mole_, sometimes termed a moldiwarp, occurs in the arms of Mitford ["Argent, a fess sable between three moles displayed sable"]. {218} CHAPTER XIII MONSTERS The heraldic catalogue of beasts runs riot when we reach those mythical or legendary creatures which can only be summarised under the generic term of monsters. Most mythical animals, however, can be traced back to some comparable counterpart in natural history. The fauna of the New World was of course unknown to those early heraldic artists in whose knowledge and imagination, no less than in their skill (or lack of it) in draughtsmanship, lay the nativity of so much of our heraldry. They certainly thought they were representing animals in existence in most if not in all cases, though one gathers that they considered many of the animals they used to be misbegotten hybrids. Doubtless, working on the assumption of the mule as the hybrid of the horse and the ass, they jumped to the conclusion that animals which contained salient characteristics of two other animals which they knew were likewise hybrids. A striking example of their theories is to be found in the heraldic Camelopard, which was anciently devoutly believed to be begotten by the leopard upon the camel. A leopard they would be familiar with, also the camel, for both belong to that corner of the world where the north-east of the African Continent, the south-east of Europe, and the west of Asia join, where were fought out the wars of the Cross, and where heraldry took on itself a definite being. There the known civilisations of the world met, taking one from the other knowledge, more or less distorted, ideas and wild imaginings. A stray giraffe was probably seen by some journeyer up the Nile, who, unable to otherwise account for it, considered and stated the animal to be the hybrid offspring of the leopard and camel. Another point needs to be borne in mind. Earlier artists were in no way fettered by any supposed necessity for making their pictures realistic representations. Realism is a modernity. Their pictures were decoration, and they thought far more of making their subject fit the space to be decorated than of making it a "speaking likeness." Nevertheless, their work was not all imagination. In the _Crocodile_ {219} we get the basis of the dragon, if indeed the heraldic dragon be not a perpetuation of ancient legends, or even perhaps of then existing representations of those winged antediluvian animals, the fossilised remains of which are now available. Wings, however, need never be considered a difficulty. It has ever been the custom (from the angels of Christianity to the personalities of Mercury and Pegasus) to add wings to any figure held in veneration. Why, it would be difficult to say, but nevertheless the fact remains. _The Unicorn_, however, it is not easy to resolve into an original basis, because until the seventeenth century every one fondly believed in the existence of the animal. Mr. Beckles Wilson appears to have paid considerable attention to the subject, and was responsible for the article "The Rise of the Unicorn" which recently appeared in _Cassel's Magazine_. That writer traces the matter to a certain extent from non-heraldic sources, and the following remarks, which are taken from the above article, are of considerable interest:-- "The real genesis of the unicorn was probably this: at a time when armorial bearings were becoming an indispensable part of a noble's equipment, the attention of those knights who were fighting under the banner of the Cross was attracted to the wild antelopes of Syria and Palestine. These animals are armed with long, straight, spiral horns set close together, so that at a side view they appeared to be but a single horn. To confirm this, there are some old illuminations and drawings extant which endow the early unicorn with many of the attributes of the deer and goat kind. The sort of horn supposed to be carried by these Eastern antelopes had long been a curiosity, and was occasionally brought back as a trophy by travellers from the remote parts of the earth. There is a fine one to be seen to-day at the abbey of St. Denis, and others in various collections in Europe. We now know these so-called unicorn's horns, usually carved, to belong to that marine monster the narwhal, or sea-unicorn. But the fable of a breed of horned horses is at least as old as Pliny" [Had the "gnu" anything to do with this?], "and centuries later the Crusaders, or the monkish artists who accompanied them, attempted to delineate the marvel. From their first rude sketches other artists copied; and so each presentment was passed along, until at length the present form of the unicorn was attained. There was a time--not so long ago--when the existence of the unicorn was as implicitly believed in as the camel or any other animal not seen in these latitudes; and the translators of the Bible set their seal upon the legend by translating the Hebrew word _reem_ (which probably meant a rhinoceros) as 'unicorn.' Thus the worthy Thomas Fuller came to consider the existence of the unicorn clearly proved by the mention of it in Scripture! Describing {220} the horn of the animal, he writes, 'Some are plain, as that of St. Mark's in Venice; others wreathed about it, which probably is the effect of age, those wreaths being but the wrinkles of most vivacious unicorns. The same may be said of the colour: white when newly taken from the head; yellow, like that lately in the Tower, of some hundred years' seniority; but whether or no it will soon turn black, as that of Plinie's description, let others decide.' "All the books on natural history so late as the seventeenth century describe at length the unicorn; several of them carefully depict him as though the artist had drawn straight from the life. "If art had stopped here, the wonder of the unicorn would have remained but a paltry thing after all. His finer qualities would have been unrecorded, and all his virtues hidden. But, happily, instead of this, about the animal first conceived in the brain of a Greek (as Pegasus also was), and embodied through the fertile fancy of the Crusader, the monks and heraldists of the Middle Ages devised a host of spiritual legends. They told of his pride, his purity, his endurance, his matchless spirit. "'The greatnesse of his mynde is such that he chooseth rather to dye than be taken alive.' Indeed, he was only conquerable by a beautiful maiden. One fifteenth-century writer gives a recipe for catching a unicorn. 'A maid is set where he hunteth and she openeth her lap, to whom the unicorn, as seeking rescue from the force of the hunter, yieldeth his head and leaveth all his fierceness, and resteth himself under her protection, sleepeth until he is taken and slain.' But although many were reported to be thus enticed to their destruction, only their horns, strange to say, ever reached Europe. There is one in King Edward's collection at Buckingham Palace. "Naturally, the horn of such an animal was held a sovereign specific against poison, and 'ground unicorn's horn' often figures in mediæval books of medicine. "There was in Shakespeare's time at Windsor Castle the 'horn of a unicorn of above eight spans and a half in length, valued at above £10,000.' This may have been the one now at Buckingham Palace. One writer, describing it, says:-- "'I doe also know that horn the King of England possesseth to be wreathed in spires, even as that is accounted in the Church of St. Dennis, than which they suppose none greater in the world, and I never saw anything in any creature more worthy praise than this horne. It is of soe great a length that the tallest man can scarcely touch the top thereof, for it doth fully equal seven great feet. It weigheth thirteen pounds, with their assize, being only weighed by the gesse of the hands it seemeth much heavier.' {221} "Spenser, in the 'Faerie Queen,' thus describes a contest between the unicorn and the lion:-- 'Like as the lyon, whose imperial powre A proud rebellious unicorn defyes, T'avoide the rash assault and wrathful stowre Of his fiers foe, him to a tree applies. And when him running in full course he spyes He slips aside; the whiles that furious beast His precious horne, sought of his enimyes, Strikes in the stroke, ne thence can be released, But to the victor yields a bounteous feast.' "'It hath,' remarked Guillim, in 1600, 'been much questioned among naturalists which it is that is properly called the unicorn; and some have made doubt whether there be such a beast or no. But the great esteem of his horn in many places to be seen may take away that needless scruple.' [Illustration: FIG. 414.--Unicorn rampant.] [Illustration: FIG. 415.--Unicorn passant.] [Illustration: FIG. 416.--Unicorn statant.] "Another old writer, Topsell, says:-- [Illustration: FIG. 417.--Unicorn rampant.] "'These beasts are very swift, and their legs have not articles. They keep for the most part in the deserts, and live solitary in the tops of the mountaines. There was nothing more horrible than the voice or braying of it, for the voice is strained above measure. It fighteth both with the mouth and with the heeles, with the mouth biting like a lyon, and with the heeles kicking like a horse.' "Nor is belief in the unicorn confined to Europe. By Chinese writers it is characterised as a 'spiritual beast.' The existence of the unicorn is firmly credited by the most intelligent natives and by not a few Europeans. A very trustworthy observer, the Abbé Huc, speaks very positively on the subject: 'The unicorn really exists in Tibet.... We had for a long time a small Mongol treatise on Natural History, for the use of children, in which a unicorn formed one of the pictorial illustrations.'" The unicorn, however, as it has heraldically developed, is drawn {222} with the body of a horse, the tail of the heraldic lion, the legs and feet of the deer, the head and mane of a horse, to which is added the long twisted horn from which the animal is named, and a beard (Figs. 414, 415, and 416). A good representation of the unicorn will be found in the figure of the Royal Arms herein, and in Fig. 417, which is as fine a piece of heraldic design as could be wished. The crest of Yonge of Colbrooke, Devonshire, is "a demi-sea-unicorn argent, armed gules, finned or," and the crest of Tynte (Kemeys-Tynte of Cefn Mably and Halswell) is "on a mount vert, a unicorn sejant argent, armed and crined or." The unicorn will be found in the arms of Styleman, quartered by Le Strange, and Swanzy. [Illustration: FIG. 418.--Gryphon segreant.] [Illustration: FIG. 419.--Gryphon passant.] [Illustration: FIG. 420.--Gryphon Statant.] _The Griffin_ or _Gryphon_.--Though in the popular mind any heraldic monster is generically termed a griffin, the griffin has, nevertheless, very marked and distinct peculiarities. It is one of the hybrid monstrosities which heraldry is so fond of, and is formed by the body, hind-legs, and tail of a lion conjoined to the head and claws of an eagle, the latter acting as its forepaws (Figs. 418-420). It has the wings of the eagle, which are never represented close, but it also has ears, and this, by the way, should be noted, because herein is the only distinction between a griffin's head and an eagle's head when the rest of the body is not represented (Fig. 421). Though but very seldom so met with, it is occasionally found proper, by which description is meant that the plumage is of the brown colour of the eagle, the rest of the body being the natural colour of the lion. The griffin is frequently found with its beak and fore-legs of a different colour from its body, {223} and is then termed "armed," though another term, "beaked and fore-legged," is almost as frequently used. A very popular idea is that the origin of the griffin was the dimidiation of two coats of arms, one having an eagle and the other a lion as charges, but taking the origin of armory to belong to about the end of the eleventh century, or thereabouts, the griffin can be found as a distinct creation, not necessarily heraldic, at a very much earlier date. An exceedingly good and an early representation of the griffin will be found in Fig. 422. It is a representation of the great seal of the town of Schweidnitz in the jurisdiction of Breslau, and belongs to the year 1315. The inscription is "+ S universitatis civium de Swidnitz." In the grant of arms to the town in the year 1452, the griffin is gules on a field of argent. [Illustration: FIG. 422.--Seal of the Town of Schweidnitz.] The griffin will be found in all sorts of positions, and the terms applied to it are the same as would be applied to a lion, except in the single instance of the rampant position. A griffin is then termed "segreant" (Fig. 418). The wings are usually represented as endorsed and erect, but this is not compulsory, as will be noticed by reference to the supporters of the Earl of Mar and Kellie, in which the wings are inverted. [Illustration: FIG. 421.--Gryphon's head erased.] [Illustration: FIG. 423.--Male gryphon.] There is a certain curiosity in English heraldry, wholly peculiar to it, which may be here referred to. A griffin in the ordinary way is merely so termed, but a male griffin by some curious reasoning has no wings, but is adorned with spikes showing at some number of points on its body (Fig. 423). I have, under my remarks upon the panther, hazarded the supposition that the male griffin of English heraldry is nothing more than a British development and form of the Continental heraldic panther which is unknown to us. The origin of the clusters and spikes, unless they are to be found in the flames of fire associated with the panther, must remain a mystery. The male griffin is very seldom met with, but two of these creatures are the supporters of Sir George John Egerton Dashwood, Bart. Whilst we consider the griffin a purely mythical animal, there is no doubt whatever that earlier writers devoutly believed that such animals existed. Sir John Maundeville tells us in his "Travels" that they abound in Bacharia. "Sum men seyn that thei han the body upward as an egle, and benethe as a lyoun; and treuly thei seyn sothe that thei ben of that schapp. But a Griffoun {224} hathe the body more gret and more strong than eight lyouns of such lyouns as ben o' this half (of the world), and more gret and stronger than an 100 egles such as we han amonges us ...," and other writers, whilst not considering them an original type of animal, undoubtedly believed in their existence as hybrid of the eagle and the lion. It is of course a well-known fact that the mule, the most popular hybrid, does not breed. This fact would be accepted as accounting for the rarity of animals which were considered to be hybrids. Though there are examples of griffins in some of the earliest rolls of arms, the animal cannot be said to have come into general use until a somewhat later period. Nowadays, however, it is probably next in popularity to the lion. The demi-griffin is very frequently found as a crest. A griffin's head (Fig. 421) is still yet more frequently met with, and as a charge upon the shields it will be found in the arms of Raikes, Kay, and many other families. A variety of the griffin is found in the gryphon-marine, or sea-griffin. In it the fore part of the creature is that of the eagle, but the wings are sometimes omitted; and the lower half of the animal is that of a fish, or rather of a mermaid. Such a creature is the charge in the arms of the Silesian family of Mestich: "Argent, a sea-griffin proper" (Siebmacher, _Wappenbuch_, i. 69). "Azure, a (winged) sea-griffin per fesse gules and argent crowned or," is the coat of the Barons von Puttkammer. One or two other Pomeranian families have the like charge without wings. _The Dragon._--Much akin to the griffin is the dragon, but the similarity of appearance is more superficial than real, inasmuch as in all details it differs, except in the broad similarity that it has four legs, a pair of wings, and is a terrible creature. The much referred to "griffin" opposite the Law Courts in the Strand is really a dragon. The head of a dragon is like nothing else in heraldry, and from what source it originated or what basis existed for ancient heraldic artists to imagine it from must remain a mystery, unless it has developed from the crocodile or some antediluvian animal much akin. It is like nothing else in heaven or on earth. Its neck is covered with scales not unlike those of a fish. All four legs are scaled and have claws, the back is scaled, the tongue is barbed, and the under part of the body is likewise scaled, but here, in rolls of a much larger size. Great differences will be found in the shape of the ears, but the wings of the dragon are always represented as the wings of a bat, with the long ribs or bones carried to the base (Figs. 424-426). The dragon is one of the most artistic of heraldic creations, and lends itself very readily to the genius of any artist. In nearly all modern representations the tail, like the tongue, {225} will be found ending in a barb, but it should be observed that this is a comparatively recent addition. All dragons of the Tudor period were invariably represented without any such additions to their tails. The tail was long and smooth, ending in a blunt point. Whilst we have separate and distinct names for many varieties of dragon-like creatures, other countries in their use of the word "dragon" include the wyvern, basilisk, cockatrice, and other similar creatures, but the distinct name in German heraldry for our four-footed dragon is the _Lindwurm_, and Fig. 427 is a representation of the dragon according to German ideas, which nevertheless might form an example for English artists to copy, except that we very seldom represent ours as coward. [Illustration: FIG. 424.--Dragon rampant.] [Illustration: FIG. 425.--Dragon passant.] [Illustration: FIG. 426.--Dragon statant.] [Illustration: FIG. 427.--A German dragon.] The red dragon upon a mount vert, which forms a part of the Royal achievement as the badge of Wales, is known as the red dragon of Cadwallader, and in deference to a loudly expressed sentiment on the subject, His Majesty the King has recently added the Welsh dragon differenced by a label of three points argent as an additional badge to the achievement of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. The red dragon was one of the supporters of the Tudor kings, being used by Henry VII., Henry VIII., and Edward VI. Queen Elizabeth, however, whose liking for gold is evidenced by her changing the Royal mantle from gules and ermine to gold and ermine, also changed the colour of the dragon as her supporter to gold, and many Welsh scholars hold that the ruddy dragon of Wales was and should be of ruddy gold and not of gules. There is some room for doubt whether the dragon in the Royal Arms was really of Welsh origin. The point was discussed at some length by the present writer {226} in the _Genealogical Magazine_ (October 1902). It was certainly in use by King Henry III. A dragon may be statant (Fig. 426), rampant (Fig. 424), or passant (Fig. 425), and the crests of Bicknell and of the late Sir Charles Young, Garter King of Arms, are examples of dragons couchant. A sea-dragon, whatever that creature may be, occurs in one of the crests of Mr. Mainwaring-Ellerker-Onslow. Variations such as that attributed to the family of Raynor ["Argent, a dragon volant in bend sable"], the dragon overthrown on the arms of Langridge as quartered by Lowdell, and the sinister supporter of the arms of Viscount Gough ["The dragon of China or gorged with a mural crown and chained sable"] may be noted. The Chinese dragon, which is also the dexter supporter of Sir Robert Hart, Bart., follows closely the Chinese model, and is without wings. [Illustration: FIG. 428.--Wyvern.] [Illustration: FIG. 429.--Wyvern with wings displayed.] [Illustration: FIG. 430.--Wyvern erect.] _The Wyvern._--There is no difference whatever between a wyvern's head and a dragon's, but there is considerable difference between a wyvern and a dragon, at any rate in English heraldry, though the wyvern appears to be the form more frequently met with under the name of a dragon in other countries. The wyvern has only two legs, the body curling away into the tail, and it is usually represented as resting upon its legs and tail (Figs. 428 and 429). On the other hand, it will occasionally be found sitting erect upon its tail with its claws in the air (Fig. 430), and the supporters of the Duke of Marlborough are generally so represented. As a charge or crest, however, probably the only instance of a wyvern sejant erect is the crest of Mansergh. A curious crest also is that of Langton, namely: "On a wreath of the colours, an eagle or and a wyvern vert, interwoven and erect on their tails," and an equally curious one is the crest of Maule, _i.e._ "A wyvern vert, with two heads vomiting fire at both ends proper, charged with a crescent argent." Occasionally the wyvern is represented without wings and with the {227} tail nowed. Both these peculiarities occur in the case of the crest of a Lancashire family named Ffarington. _The Cockatrice._--The next variety is the cockatrice (Fig. 431), which is, however, comparatively rare. Two cockatrices are the supporters to the arms of the Earl of Westmeath, and also to the arms of Sir Edmund Charles Nugent, Bart. But the animal is not common as a charge. The difference between a wyvern and a cockatrice is that the latter has the head of a cock substituted for the dragon's head with which the wyvern is decorated. Like the cock, the beak, comb, and wattles are often of another tincture, and the animal is then termed armed, combed, and wattled. [Illustration: FIG. 431.--Cockatrice.] The cockatrice is sometimes termed a _basilisk_, and according to ancient writers the basilisk is produced from an egg laid by a nine-year-old cock and hatched by a toad on a dunghill. Probably this is merely the expression of the intensified loathing which it was desired to typify. But the heraldic basilisk is stated to have its tail terminating in a dragon's head. In English heraldry, at any rate, I know of no such example. _The Hydra_, or _Seven-headed Dragon_, as the crest, is ascribed to the families of Barret, Crespine, and Lownes. [Illustration: FIG. 432.--Camelopard.] _The Camelopard_ (Fig. 432), which is nothing more or less than an ordinary giraffe, must be properly included amongst mythical animals, because the form and semblance of the giraffe was used to represent a mythical hybrid creation which the ancients believed to be begotten between a leopard and a camel. Possibly they represented the real giraffe (which they may have known), taking that to be a hybrid between the two animals stated. It occurs as the crest of several coats of arms for the name of Crisp. _The Camelopardel_, which is another mythical animal fathered upon armory, is stated to be the same as the camelopard, but with the addition of two long horns curved backwards. I know of no instance in which it occurs. The human face or figure conjoined to some other animal's body gives us a number of heraldic creatures, some of which play no inconsiderable part in armory. The human figure (male) conjoined to the tail of a fish is known as the _Triton_ or _Merman_ (Fig. 433). Though there are some number of instances in which it occurs as a supporter, it is seldom met with as {228} a charge upon a shield. It is, however, to be found in the arms of Otway, and is assigned as a crest to the family of Tregent, and a family of Robertson, of London. _The Mermaid_ (Fig. 434), is much more frequently met with. It is generally represented with the traditional mirror and comb in the hands. It will be found appearing, for example, in the arms of Ellis, of Glasfryn, co. Monmouth. The crest of Mason, used without authority by the founder of Mason's College, led to its inclusion in the arms of the University of Birmingham. It will also be found as the crest of Rutherford and many other families. _The Melusine, i.e._ a mermaid with two tails disposed on either side, though not unknown in British heraldry, is more frequent in German. [Illustration: FIG. 433.--Merman.] [Illustration: FIG. 434.--Mermaid.] [Illustration: FIG. 435.--Sphinx.] [Illustration: FIG. 436.--Centaur.] _The Sphinx_, of course originally derived from the Egyptian figure, has the body, legs, and tail of a lion conjoined to the breasts, head, and face of a woman (Fig. 435). As a charge it occurs in the arms of Cochrane and Cameron of Fassiefern. This last-mentioned coat affords a striking example of the over-elaboration to be found in so many of the grants which owe their origin to the Peninsular War and the other "fightings" in which England was engaged at the period. A winged sphinx is the crest of a family of the name of Asgile. Two sphinxes were granted as supporters to the late Sir Edward Malet, G.C.B. _The Centaur_ (Fig. 436)--the familiar fabulous animal, half man, half horse--is sometimes represented carrying a bow and arrow, when it is called a "sagittarius." It is not infrequently met with in heraldry, though it is to be found more often in Continental than in English blazonry. In its "sagittarius" form it is sculptured on a column in the Romanesque cloister of St. Aubin at Angers. It will be found as the crest of most families named Lambert, and it was one of the supporters of {229} Lord Hood of Avelon. It is also the crest of a family of Fletcher. A very curious crest was borne by a family of Lambert, and is to be seen on their monuments. They could establish no official authority for their arms as used, and consequently obtained official authorisation in the early part of the eighteenth century, when the crest then granted was a regulation sagittarius, but up to that time, however, they had always used a "female centaur" holding a rose in its dexter hand. _Chimera._--This legendary animal happily does not figure in English heraldry, and but rarely abroad. It is described as having the head and breast of a woman, the forepaws of a lion, the body of a goat, the hind-legs of a griffin, and the tail of a dragon, and would be about as ugly and misbegotten a creature as can readily be imagined. _The Man-Lion_ will be found referred to under the heading of lions, and Elvin mentions in addition the _Weir-Wolf, i.e._ the wolf with a human face and horns. Probably this creature has strayed into heraldic company by mistake. I know of no armorial use of it. _The Satyr_, which has a well-established existence in other than heraldic sources of imagination, is composed of a demi-savage united to the hind-legs of a goat. _The Satyral_ is a hybrid animal having the body of a lion and the face of an old man, with the horns of an antelope. I know of no instance of its use. _The Harpy_--which is a curious creature consisting of the head, neck, and breasts of a woman conjoined to the wings and body of a vulture--is peculiarly German, though it does exist in the heraldry of this country. The German name for it is the _Jungfraunadler_. The shield of the Rietbergs, Princes of Ost-Friesland, is: "Sable, a harpy crowned, and with wings displayed all proper, between four stars, two in chief and as many in base or." The harpy will be found as a crest in this country. _The Devil_ is not, as may be imagined, a favourite heraldic charge. The arms of Sissinks of Groningen, however, are: "Or, a horned devil having six paws, the body terminating in the tail of a fish all gules." The family of Bawde have for a crest: "A satyr's head in profile sable, with wings to the side of the head or, the tongue hanging out of his mouth gules." Though so blazoned, I feel sure it is really intended to represent a fiend. On the Garter Hall-plate of John de Grailly, Captal de Buch, the crest is a man's head with ass's ears. This is, however, usually termed a Midas' head. A certain coat of arms which is given in the "General Armory" under the name of Dannecourt, and also under the name of Morfyn or Murfyn, has for a crest: "A blackamoor's head couped at the shoulders, habited paly of six ermine and ermines, pendents in his ears or, wreathed about the {230} forehead, with bat's wings to the head sable, expanded on each side." Many mythical animals can be more conveniently considered under their natural counterparts. Of these the notes upon the heraldic antelope and the heraldic ibex accompany those upon the natural antelope, and the heraldic panther is included with the real animal. The heraldic tiger, likewise, is referred to concurrently with the Bengal or natural tiger. The pegasus, the sea-horse, and the winged sea-horse are mentioned with other examples of the horse, and the sea-dog is included with other breeds and varieties of that useful animal. The winged bull, of which only one instance is known to me, occurs as the supporters of the Butchers' Livery Company, and has been already alluded to, as also the winged stag. The sea-stag is referred to under the sub-heading of stags. The two-headed lion, the double-queued lion, the lion queue-fourché, the sea-lion (which is sometimes found winged) are all included in the chapter upon lions, as are also the winged lion and the lion-dragon. The winged ape was mentioned when considering the natural animal, and perhaps it may be as well to allude to the asserted heraldic existence of the sea-monkey, though I am not aware of any instance in which it is borne. [Illustration: FIG. 437.--Salamander.] The arms of Challoner afford an instance of the _Sea-Wolf_, the crest of that family being: "A demi-sea-wolf rampant or." Guillim, however (p. 271), in quoting the arms of Fennor, would seem to assert the sea-wolf and sea-dog to be one and the same. They certainly look rather like each other. _The Phoenix_ and the _Double-headed Eagle_ will naturally be more conveniently dealt with in the chapter upon the eagle. _The Salamander_ has been represented in various ways, and is usually described as a dragon in flames of fire. It is sometimes so represented but without wings, though it more usually follows the shape of a lizard. The salamander is, however, best known as the personal device of Francis I., King of France. It is to this origin that the arms of the city of Paris can be traced. The remainder of the list of heraldic monsters can be very briefly dismissed. In many cases a good deal of research has failed to discover an instance of their use, and one is almost inclined to believe that they were invented by those mediæval writers of prolific imagination for their treatises, without ever having been borne or emblazoned upon helmet or shield. _The Allocamelus_ is supposed to have the head of an ass conjoined {231} to the body of a camel. I cannot call to mind any British instance of its use. _The Amphiptère_ is the term applied to a "winged serpent," a charge of but rare occurrence in either English or foreign heraldry. It is found in the arms of the French family of Potier, viz.: "Azure, a bendlet purpure between two amphiptères or," while they figure as supporters also in that family, and in those of the Ducs de Tresmes and De Gevres. _The Apres_ is an animal with the body similar to that of a bull, but with a bear's tail. It is seldom met with outside heraldic text-books. [Illustration: FIG. 438.--Enfield.] _The Amphisboena_ is usually described as a winged serpent (with two legs) having a head at each end of its body, but in the crest of Gwilt ["On a saltire or, interlaced by two amphisboenæ azure, langued gules, a rose of the last, barbed and seeded proper"] the creatures certainly do not answer to the foregoing description. They must be seen to be duly appreciated. _The Cockfish_ is a very unusual charge, but it is to be met with in the arms of the family of Geyss, in Bavaria, _i.e._: "Or, a cock sable, beaked of the first, crested and armed gules, its body ending in that of a fish curved upwards, proper." [Illustration: FIG. 439.--Opinicus.] _The Enfield_ (Fig. 438) is a purely fanciful animal, having the head of a fox, chest of a greyhound, talons of an eagle, body of a lion, and hind legs and tail of a wolf. It occurs as the crest of most Irish families of the name of Kelly. _The Bagwyn_ is an imaginary animal with the head of and much like the heraldic antelope, but with the body and tail of a horse, and the horns long and curved backwards. It is difficult to say what it is intended to represent, and I can give no instance in which it occurs. _The Musimon_ is a fabulous animal with the body and feet of a goat and the head of a ram, with four horns. It is supposed to be the hybrid between the ram and the goat, the four horns being the two straight ones of the goat and the two curled ones of the ram. Though no heraldic instance is known to me, one cannot definitely say such an animal never existed. Another name for it is the tityron. _The Opinicus_ (Fig. 439) is another monster seldom met with in armory. When it does occur it is represented as a winged gryphon, with a lion's legs and short tail. Another description of it gives it the {232} body and forelegs of a lion, the head, neck, and wings of an eagle, and the tail of a camel. It is the crest of the Livery Company of Barbers in London, which doubtless gives us the origin of it in the recent grant of arms to Sir Frederick Treves, Bart. Sometimes the wings are omitted. _The Manticora_, _Mantegre_, or _Man-Tiger_ is the same as the man-lion, but has horns attached to its forehead. _The Hippogriff_ has the head, wings and foreclaws of the griffin united to the hinder part of the body of a horse. _The Calopus_ or _Chatloup_ is a curious horned animal difficult to describe, but which appears to have been at one time the badge of the Foljambe family. No doubt, as the name would seem to indicate, it is a variant of the wolf. Many of the foregoing animals, particularly those which are or are supposed to be hybrids, are, however well they may be depicted, ugly, inartistic, and unnecessary. Their representation leaves one with a disappointed feeling of crudity of draughtmanship. No such objection applies to the pegasus, the griffin, the sea-horse, the dragon, or the unicorn, and in these modern days, when the differentiation of well-worn animals is producing singularly inept results, one would urge that the sea-griffin, the sea-stag, the winged bull, the winged stag, the winged lion, and winged heraldic antelope might produce (if the necessity of differentiation continue) very much happier results. {233} CHAPTER XIV BIRDS Birds of course play a large and prominent part in heraldry. Those which have been impressed into the service of heraldic emblazonment comprise almost every species known to the zoological world. Though the earliest rolls of arms give us instances of various other birds, the bird which makes the most prominent appearance is the _Eagle_, and in all early representations this will invariably be found "displayed." A double-headed eagle displayed, from a Byzantine silk of the tenth century, is illustrated by Mr. Eve in his "Decorative Heraldry," so that it is evident that neither the eagle displayed nor the double-headed eagle originated with the science of armory, which appropriated them ready-made, together with their symbolism. An eagle displayed as a symbolical device was certainly in use by Charlemagne. It may perhaps here be advantageous to treat of the artistic development of the eagle displayed. Of this, of course, the earliest prototype is the Roman eagle of the Cæsars, and it will be to English eyes, accustomed to our conventional spread-eagle, doubtless rather startling to observe that the German type of the eagle, which follows the Roman disposition of the wings (which so many of our heraldic artists at the present day appear inclined to adopt either in the accepted German or in a slightly modified form as an eagle displayed) is certainly not a true displayed eagle according to our English ideas and requirements, inasmuch as the wings are inverted. It should be observed that in German heraldry it is simply termed an eagle, and not an eagle displayed. Considering, however, its very close resemblance to our eagle displayed, and also its very artistic appearance, there is every excuse for its employment in this country, and I for one should be sorry to observe its slowly increasing favour checked in this country. It is quite possible, however, to transfer the salient and striking points of beauty to the more orthodox position of the wings. The eagle (compared with the lion and the ordinaries) had no such predominance in early British heraldry that it enjoyed in Continental armory, and therefore it may be better to trace the artistic development of the German eagle. {234} In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the eagle appears with the head raised and the beak closed. The _sachsen_ (bones of the wings) are rolled up at the ends like a snail, and the pinions (like the talons) take a vertical downward direction. The tail, composed of a number of stiff feathers, frequently issues from a knob or ball. Compare Fig. 440 herewith. With the end of the fourteenth century the head straightens itself, the beak opens and the tongue becomes visible. The rolling up of the wing-bones gradually disappears, and the claws form an acute angle with the direction of the body; and at this period the claws occasionally receive the "hose" covering the upper part of the leg. The feathers of the tail spread out sicklewise (Fig. 441). [Illustration: FIG. 440.] [Illustration: FIG. 441.] [Illustration: FIG. 442.] The fifteenth century shows the eagle with _sachsen_ forming a half circle, the pinions spread out and radiating therefrom, and the claws more at a right angle (Fig. 442). The sixteenth century draws the eagle in a more ferocious aspect, and depicts it in as ornamental and ornate a manner as possible. From Konrad Grünenberg's _Wappenbuch_ (Constance, 1483) is reproduced the shield (Fig. 443) with the boldly sketched _Adlerflügel mit Schwerthand_ (eagle's wing with the sword hand), the supposed arms of the Duke of Calabria. Quite in the same style is the eagle of Tyrol on a corporate flag of the Society of the Schwazer Bergbute (Fig. 444), which belongs to the last quarter of the fifteenth century. This is reproduced from the impression in the Bavarian National Museum given in Hefner-Alteneck's "Book of Costumes." A modern German eagle drawn by H. G. Ströhl is shown in Fig. 445. The illustration is of the arms of the Prussian province of Brandenburg. The double eagle has, of course, undergone a somewhat similar development. The double eagle occurs in the East as well as in the West in very early times. Since about 1335 the double eagle has appeared sporadically as a symbol of the Roman-German Empire, and under the Emperor Sigismund (d. 1447) became the settled armorial device of the Roman Empire. King Sigismund, before his coronation as Emperor, bore the single-headed eagle. {235} [Illustration: FIG. 443.--Arms of Duke of Calabria.] [Illustration: FIG. 444.--Eagle of Tyrol.] It may perhaps be as well to point out, with the exception of the two positions "displayed" (Fig. 451) and "close" (Fig. 446), very little if any agreement at all exists amongst authorities either as to the terms to be employed or as to the position intended for the wings when a given term is used in a blazon. Practically every other single position is simply blazoned "rising," this term being employed without any additional distinctive terms of variation in official blazons and emblazonments. Nor can one obtain any certain information from a reference to the real eagle, for the result of careful observation would seem to show that in the first stroke of the wings, when rising from the ground, the wings pass through every position from the wide outstretched form, which I term "rising with wings elevated and displayed" (Fig. 450), to a position practically "close." As a consequence, therefore, no one form can be said to be more correct than any other, either from the point of view of nature or from the point of view of ancient precedent. This state of affairs is eminently unsatisfactory, because in these days of necessary differentiation no heraldic artist of any appreciable knowledge or ability has claimed the liberty (which certainly has not been officially conceded) to depict an eagle rising with wings elevated and displayed, when it has been granted with the wings in the position addorsed and inverted. Such a liberty when the wings happen to be charged, as they so frequently are in modern English crests, must clearly be an impossibility. {236} [Illustration: FIG. 445.--Arms of the Prussian Province of Brandenburg. (From Ströhl's _Deutsche Wappenrolle_.)] Until some agreement has been arrived at, I can only recommend my readers to follow the same plan which I have long adopted in blazoning arms of which the official blazon has not been available to me. That is, to use the term "rising," followed by the necessary description of the position of the wings (Figs. 447-450). This obviates both mistake and uncertainty. Originally with us, as still in Germany, an eagle was always displayed, and in the days when coats of arms were few in number and simple in character the artist may well have been permitted to draw an eagle as he chose, providing it was an eagle. But arms and their elaboration in the last four hundred years have made this impossible. It is foolish to overlook this, and idle in the face of existing facts to attempt to revert to former ways. Although now the English eagle displayed has the tip of its wings pointed upwards (Fig. 451), and the contrary needs now to be mentioned in the blazon (Fig. 452), this even with us was not so in the beginning. A reference to Figs. 453 and 454 will show how the eagle was formerly depicted. [Illustration: FIG. 446.--Eagle close.] [Illustration: FIG. 447.--Eagle rising, wings elevated and addorsed.] [Illustration: FIG. 448.--Eagle rising, wings addorsed and inverted.] [Illustration: FIG. 449.--Eagle rising, wings displayed and inverted.] {237} [Illustration: FIG. 450.--Eagle rising, wings elevated and displayed.] [Illustration: FIG. 451.--Eagle displayed.] [Illustration: FIG. 452.--Eagle displayed with wings inverted.] [Illustration: FIG. 453.--Arms of Ralph de Monthermer, Earl of Gloucester and Hereford: Or, an eagle vert. (From his seal, 1301.)] [Illustration: FIG. 454.--Arms of Piers de Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall (d. 1312): Vert, six eagles or.] [Illustration: FIG. 455.--Double-headed eagle displayed.] The earliest instance of the eagle as a definitely heraldic charge upon a shield would appear to be its appearance upon the Great Seal of the Markgrave Leopold of Austria in 1136, where the equestrian figure of the Markgrave carries a shield so charged. More or less regularly, subsequently to the reign of Frederick Barbarossa, elected King of the Romans in 1152, and crowned as Emperor in 1155, the eagle with one or two heads (there seems originally to have been little unanimity upon the point) seems to have become the recognised heraldic symbol of the Holy Roman Empire; and the seal of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, elected King of the Romans in 1257, shows his arms ["Argent, a lion rampant gules, within a bordure sable, bezanté"] displayed upon the breast of an eagle; but no properly authenticated contemporary instance of the use of this eagle by the Earl of Cornwall is found in this country. The origin of the double-headed eagle (Fig. 455) has been the subject of endless controversy, the tale one is usually taught to believe being that it originated in the dimidiation upon one shield of two separate coats {238} of arms. Nisbet states that the Imperial eagle was "not one eagle with two heads, but two eagles, the one laid upon the other, and their heads separate, looking different ways, which represent the two heads of the Empire after it was divided into East and West." The whole discussion is an apt example of the habit of earlier writers to find or provide hidden meanings and symbolisms when no such meanings existed. The real truth undoubtedly is that the double-headed eagle was an accepted figure long before heraldry came into existence, and that when the displayed eagle was usurped by armory as one of its peculiarly heraldic figures, the single-headed and double-headed varieties were used indifferently, until the double-headed eagle became stereotyped as the Imperial emblem. Napoleon, however, reverted to the single-headed eagle, and the present German Imperial eagle has likewise only one head. [Illustration: FIG. 456.--Napoleonic Eagle.] The Imperial eagle of Napoleon had little in keeping with then existing armorial types of the bird. There can be little doubt that the model upon which it was based was the Roman Eagle of the Cæsars as it figured upon the head of the Roman standards. In English terms of blazon the Napoleonic eagle would be: "An eagle displayed with wings inverted, the head to the sinister, standing upon a thunderbolt or" (Fig. 456). The then existing double-headed eagles of Austria and Russia probably supply the reason why, when the German Empire was created, the Prussian eagle in a modified form was preferred to the resuscitation of the older double-headed eagle, which had theretofore been more usually accepted as the symbol of Empire. By the same curious idea which was noticed in the earlier chapter upon lions, and which ruled that the mere fact of the appearance of two or more lions rampant in the same coat of arms made them into lioncels, so more than one eagle upon a shield resulted sometimes in the birds becoming eaglets. Such a rule has never had official recognition, and no artistic difference is made between the eagle and the eaglet. The charges on the arms of Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall, are blazoned as eagles (Fig. 454). In the blazon of a few coats of arms, the term eaglet, however, still survives, _e.g._ in the arms of Child ["Gules a chevron ermine, between three eaglets close argent"], and in the arms of Smitheman ["Vert, three eaglets statant with wings displayed argent, collared or"]. When an eagle has its beak of another colour, it is termed "armed" of that colour, and when the legs differ it is termed "membered." {239} An eagle volant occurs in the crest of Jessel ["On a wreath of the colours, a torch fesswise, fired proper, surmounted by an eagle volant argent, holding in the beak a pearl also argent. Motto: 'Persevere'"]. Parts of an eagle are almost as frequently met with as the entire bird. Eagles' heads (Fig. 457) abound as crests (they can be distinguished from the head of a griffin by the fact that the latter has always upstanding ears). [Illustration: FIG. 457.--Eagle's head couped.] Unless otherwise specified (_e.g._ the crest of the late Sir Noel Paton was between the two wings of a dove), wings occurring in armory are always presumed to be the wings of an eagle. This, however, in English heraldry has little effect upon their design, for probably any well-conducted eagle (as any other bird) would disown the English heraldic wing, as it certainly would never recognise the German heraldic variety. A pair of wings when displayed and conjoined at the base is termed "conjoined in leure" (Fig. 458), from the palpable similarity of the figure in its appearance to the lure with which, thrown into the air, the falconer brought back his hawk to hand. The best known, and most frequently quoted instance, is the well-known coat of Seymour or St. Maur ["Gules, two wings conjoined in leure the tips downwards or"]. It should always be stated if the wings (as in the arms of Seymour) are inverted. Otherwise the tips are naturally presumed to be in chief. [Illustration: FIG. 458.--A pair of wings conjoined in leure.] Pairs of wings not conjoined can be met with in the arms and crest of Burne-Jones ["Azure, on a bend sinister argent between seven mullets, four in chief and three in base or, three pairs of wings addorsed purpure, charged with a mullet or. Crest: in front of fire proper two wings elevated and addorsed purpure, charged with a mullet or"]; but two wings, unless conjoined or addorsed, will not usually be described as a pair. Occasionally, however, a pair of wings will be found in saltire, but such a disposition is most unusual. Single wings, unless specified to be the contrary, are presumed to be dexter wings. Care needs to be exercised in some crests to observe the difference between (_a_) a bird's head between two wings, (_b_) a bird's head winged (a form not often met with, but in which rather more of the neck is shown, and the wings are conjoined thereto), and (_c_) a bird's head between two wings addorsed. The latter form, which of course is really {240} no more than a representation of a crest between two wings turned to be represented upon a profile helmet, is one of the painful results of our absurd position rules for the helmet. A pair of wings conjoined is sometimes termed a vol, and one wing a demi-vol. Though doubtless it is desirable to know these terms, they are but seldom found in use, and are really entirely French. [Illustration: FIG. 459.--An eagle's leg erased à la quise.] Eagles' legs are by no means an infrequent charge. They will usually be found erased at the thigh, for which there is a recognised term "erased à la quise" (Fig. 459), which, however, is by no means a compulsory one. An eagle's leg so erased was a badge of the house of Stanley. The eagle's leg will sometimes be met with couped below the feathers, but would then be more properly described as a claw. [Illustration: FIG. 460.--Phoenix.] A curious form of the eagle is found in the _alerion_, which is represented without beak or legs. It is difficult to conjecture what may have been the origin of the bird in this debased form, unless its first beginnings may be taken as a result of the unthinking perpetuation of some crudely drawn example. Its best-known appearance is, of course, in the arms of Loraine; and as Planché has pointed out, this is as perfect an example of a canting anagram as can be met with in armory. _The Phoenix_ (Fig. 460), one of the few mythical birds which heraldry has familiarised us with, is another, and perhaps the most patent example of all, of the appropriation by heraldic art of an ancient symbol, with its symbolism ready made. It belongs to the period of Grecian mythology. As a charge upon a shield it is comparatively rare, though it so occurs in the arms of Samuelson. On the other hand, it is frequently to be found as a crest. It is always represented as a demi-eagle issuing from flames of fire, and though the flames of fire will generally be found mentioned in the verbal blazon, this is not essential. Without its fiery surroundings it would cease to be a phoenix. On the other hand, though it is always depicted as a _demi_-bird (no instance to the contrary exists), it is never considered necessary to so specify it. It occurs as the crest of the Seymour family ["Out of a ducal coronet a phoenix issuant from flames of fire"]. PLATE IV. [Illustration] _The Osprey_ may perhaps be here mentioned, because its heraldic {241} representation always shows it as a white eagle. It is however seldom met with, though it figures in the crests of Roche (Lord Fermoy) and Trist. The osprey is sometimes known as the sea-eagle, and heraldically so termed. _The Vulture_ (probably from its repulsive appearance in nature and its equally repulsive habits) is not a heraldic favourite. Two of these birds occur, however, as the supporters of Lord Graves. [Illustration: FIG. 461.--Falcon.] _The Falcon_ (Fig. 461) naturally falls next to the eagle for consideration. Considering the very important part this bird played in the social life of earlier centuries, this cannot be a matter of any surprise. Heraldry, in its emblazonment, makes no distinction between the appearance of the hawk and the falcon, but for canting and other reasons the bird will be found described by all its different names, _e.g._ in the arms of Hobson, to preserve the obvious pun, the two birds are blazoned as hobbies. The falcon is frequently (more often than not) found belled. With the slovenliness (or some may exalt it into the virtue of freedom from irritating restriction) characteristic of many matters in heraldic blazon, the simple term "belled" is found used indiscriminately to signify that the falcon is belled on one leg or belled on both, and if it is belled the bell must of necessity be on a jess. Others state that every falcon must of necessity (whether so blazoned or not) be belled upon at least one leg, and that when the term "belled" is used it signifies that it is belled upon both legs. There is still yet another alternative, viz. that when "belled" it has the bell on only one leg, but that when "jessed and belled" it is belled on both legs. The jess is the leather thong with which the bells are attached to the leg, and it is generally considered, and this may be accepted, that when the term "jessed" is included in the wording of the blazon the jesses are represented with the ends flying loose, unless the use of the term is necessitated by the jesses being of a different colour. When the term "vervelled" is also employed it signifies that the jesses have small rings attached to the floating ends. In actual practice, however, it should be remembered that if the bells and jesses are of a different colour, the use of the terms "jessed" and "belled" is essential. A falcon is seldom drawn without at least one bell, and when it is found described as "belled," in most cases it will be found that the intention is that it shall have two bells. Like all other birds of prey the falcon may be "armed," a technical term which theoretically should include the beak and legs, but in actual {242} practice a falcon will be far more usually found described as "beaked and legged" when these differ in tincture from its plumage. When a falcon is blindfolded it is termed "hooded." It was always so carried on the wrist until it was flown. The position of the wings and the confusion in the terms applied thereto is even more marked in the case of the falcon than the eagle. Demi-falcons are not very frequently met with, but an example occurs in the crest of Jerningham. A falcon's head is constantly met with as a crest. When a falcon is represented preying upon anything it is termed "trussing" its prey, though sometimes the description "preying upon" is (perhaps less accurately) employed. Examples of this will be found in the arms of Madden ["Sable, a hawk or, trussing a mallard proper, on a chief of the second a cross botonny gules"], and in the crests of Graham, Cawston, and Yerburgh. A falcon's leg appears in the crest of Joscelin. [Illustration: FIG. 462.--Pelican in her piety.] _The Pelican_, with its curious heraldic representation and its strange terms, may almost be considered an instance of the application of the existing name of a bird to an entirely fanciful creation. Mr. G. W. Eve, in his "Decorative Heraldry," states that in early representations of the bird it was depicted in a more naturalistic form, but I confess I have not myself met with such an ancient representation. Heraldically, it has been practically always depicted with the head and body of an eagle, with wings elevated and with the neck embowed, pecking with its beak at its breast. The term for this is "vulning itself," and although it appears to be necessary always to describe it in the blazon as "vulning itself," it will never be met with save in this position; a pelican's head even, when erased at the neck, being always so represented. It is supposed to be pecking at its breast to provide drops of blood as nourishment for its young, and it is termed "in its piety" when depicted standing in its nest and with its brood of young (Fig. 462). It is difficult to imagine how the pelican came to be considered as always existing in this position, because there is nothing in the nature of a natural habit from which this could be derived. There are, however, other birds which, during the brooding season, lose their feathers upon the breast, and some which grow red feathers there, and it is doubtless from this that the idea originated. In heraldic and ecclesiastical symbolism the pelican has acquired a somewhat sacred character as typical of maternal solicitude. It {243} will never be found "close," or in any other positions than with the wings endorsed and either elevated or inverted. When blazoned "proper," it is always given the colour and plumage of the eagle, and not its natural colour of white. In recent years, however, a tendency has rather made itself manifest to give the pelican its natural and more ungainly appearance, and its curious pouched beak. _The Ostrich_ (Fig. 463) is doubtless the bird which is most frequently met with as a crest after the falcon, unless it be the dove or martlet. The ostrich is heraldically emblazoned in a very natural manner, and it is difficult to understand why in the case of such a bird heraldic artists of earlier days should have remained so true to the natural form of the bird, whilst in other cases, in which they could have had no less intimate acquaintance with the bird, greater variation is to be found. As a charge upon a shield it is not very common, although instances are to be found in the arms of MacMahon ["Argent, an ostrich sable, in its beak a horse-shoe or"], and in the arms of Mahon ["Per fess sable and argent, an ostrich counterchanged, holding in its beak a horse-shoe or"]. [Illustration: FIG. 463.--Ostrich.] It is curious that, until quite recent times, the ostrich is never met with heraldically, unless holding a horse-shoe, a key, or some other piece of old iron in its beak. The digestive capacity of the ostrich, though somewhat exaggerated, is by no means fabulous, and in the earliest forms of its representation in all the old natural history books it is depicted feeding upon this unnatural food. If this were the popular idea of the bird, small wonder is it that heraldic artists perpetuated the idea, and even now the heraldic ostrich is seldom seen without a key or a horse-shoe in its beak. The ostrich's head alone is sometimes met with, as in the crest of the Earl of Carysfort. The wing of an ostrich charged with a bend sable is the crest of a family of Gulston, but an ostrich wing is by no means a usual heraldic charge. Ostrich feathers, of course, play a large part in armory, but the consideration of these may be postponed for the moment until the feathers of cocks and peacocks can be added thereto. _The Dove_--at least the heraldic bird--has one curious peculiarity. It is always represented with a slight tuft on its head. Mr. Eve considers this to be merely the perpetuation of some case in which the crude draughtsman has added a tuft to its head. Possibly he is {244} correct, but I think it may be an attempt to distinguish between the domestic dove and the wood-pigeon--both of which varieties would be known to the early heraldic artists. The dove with an olive branch in its beak is constantly and continually met with. When blazoned "proper" it is quite correct to make the legs and feet of the natural pinky colour, but it will be more usually found that a dove is specifically described as "legged gules." The ordinary heraldic dove will be found most frequently represented with its wings close and holding a branch of laurel in its beak, but it also occurs volant and with outstretched wings. It is then frequently termed a "dove rising." [Illustration: FIG. 464.--Dove.] The doves in the arms of the College of Arms are always represented with the sinister wing close, and the dexter wing extended and inverted. This has given rise to much curious speculation; but whatever may be the reason of the curious position of the wings, there can be very little doubt that the coat of arms itself is based upon the coat of St. Edward the Confessor. The so-called coat of St. Edward the Confessor is a cross patonce between five martlets, but it is pretty generally agreed that these martlets are a corruption of the doves which figure upon his coins, and one of which surmounts the sceptre which is known as St. Edward's staff, or "the sceptre with the dove." _The Wood-Pigeon_ is not often met with, but it does occur, as in the crest of the arms of Bradbury ["On a wreath of the colours, in front of a demi-wood-pigeon, wings displayed and elevated argent, each wing charged with a round buckle tongue pendent sable, and holding in the beak a sprig of barberry, the trunk of a tree fesswise eradicated, and sprouting to the dexter, both proper "]. [Illustration: FIG. 465.--Martlet.] _The Martlet_ is another example of the curious perpetuation in heraldry of the popular errors of natural history. Even at the present day, in many parts of the country, it is popularly believed that a swallow has no feet, or, at any rate, cannot perch upon the ground, or raise itself therefrom. The fact that one never does see a swallow upon the ground supports the foundation of the idea. At any rate the heraldic swallow, which is known as the martlet, is never represented with feet, the legs terminating in the feathers which cover the upper parts of the leg (Fig. 465). It is curious that the same idea is perpetuated in the little legend of the explanation, which may or may {245} not be wholly untrue, that the reason the martlet has been adopted as the mark of cadency for the fourth son is to typify the fact that whilst the eldest son succeeds to his father's lands, and whilst the second son may succeed, perhaps, to the mother's, there can be very little doubt that by the time the fourth son is reached, there is no land remaining upon which he can settle, and that he must, perforce, fly away from the homestead to gather him means elsewhere. At any rate, whether this be true or false, the martlet certainly is never represented in heraldry with feet. If the feet are shown, the bird becomes a swallow. Most heraldry books state also that the martlet has no beak. How such an idea originated I am at a loss to understand, because I have never yet come across an official instance in which the martlet is so depicted. [Illustration: FIG. 466.--Martlet volant.] Perhaps the confusion between the foreign merlette--which is drawn like a duck without wings, feet, or forked tail--and the martlet may account for the idea that the martlet should be depicted without a beak. It is very seldom that the martlet occurs except close, and consequently it is never so specified in blazon. An instance, however, in which it occurs "rising" will be found in the crest of a family of Smith, and there are a number of instances in which it is volant (Fig. 466). _The Swallow_, as distinct from the martlet, is sometimes met with. A swallow "volant" appears upon the arms usually ascribed to the town of Arundel. These, however, are not recorded as arms in the Visitation books, the design being merely noted as a seal device, and one hesitates to assert definitely what the status of the design in question may be. The pun upon "l'hirondelle" was too good for ancient heralds to pass by. [Illustration: FIG. 467.--Swan.] _The Swan_ (Fig. 467) is a very favourite charge, and will be found both as a crest and as a charge upon a shield, and in all varieties of position. It is usually, however, when appearing as a charge, to be found "close." A swan couchant appears as the crest of Barttelot, a swan regardant as the crest of Swaby, and a swan "rising" will be found as a crest of Guise and as a charge upon the arms of Muntz. Swimming in water it occurs in the crest of Stilwell, and a swan to which the unusual term of "rousant" is sometimes applied figures as {246} the crest of Stafford: "Out of a ducal coronet per pale gules and sable, a demi-swan rousant, wings elevated and displayed argent, beaked gules." It is, however, more usually blazoned as: "A demi-swan issuant (from the coronet, per pale gules and sable"). Swans' heads and necks are not often met with as a charge, though they occur in the arms of Baker. As a crest they are very common, and will be found in the cases of Lindsay and Bates. _The Duck_--with its varieties of the moorhen and eider-duck--is sometimes met with, and appears in the arms of Duckworth and Billiat. Few better canting examples can be found than the latter coat, in which the duck is holding the billet in its bill. [Illustration: FIG. 468.--Cock.] The other domestic bird--the _Cock_--is often met with, though it more often figures as a crest than upon a shield. A cock "proper" is generally represented of the kind which in farmyard phraseology is known as a gamecock (Fig. 468). Nevertheless the gamecock--as such--does occur; though in these cases, when so blazoned, it is usually depicted in the artificial form--deprived of its comb and wattles, as was the case when it was prepared for cock-fighting. Birds of this class are usually met with, with a comb and wattles, &c., of a different colour, and are then termed "combed (or crested), wattled, and jelopped"--if it is desired to be strictly accurate--though it will be generally found that the term is dropped to "combed and jelopped." If the bird is termed "armed," the beak and spurs are thereby referred to. It occurs in the arms of Handcock (Lord Castlemaine) ["Ermine, on a chief sable, a dexter hand between two cocks argent"] and in the arms of Cokayne ["Argent, three cocks gules, armed, crested, and jelopped sable"], and also in that of Law. It likewise occurs in the arms of Aitken. _The Sheldrake_ appears occasionally under another name, _i.e._ that of the _Shoveller_, and as such will be found in the arms of Jackson, of Doncaster. [Illustration: FIG. 469.--Peacock in his pride.] The gorgeous plumage of the _Peacock_ has of course resulted in its frequent employment. It has a special term of its own, being stated to be "in his pride" when shown affronté, and with the tail displayed (Fig. 469). It is seldom met with except in this position, though the well-known crest of Harcourt is an example to the contrary, as is the crest of Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, Bart., viz. "A mount vert, thereon {247} a peacock amidst wheat, and in the beak an ear of wheat all proper." With the tail closed it also figures as one of the supporters of Sir Robert Hart, Bart. ["Sinister, a peacock close proper"]: its only appearance in such a position that I am aware of. A peacock's tail is not a familiar figure in British armory, though the exact contrary is the case in German practices. "Issuant from the mouth of a boar's head erect" it occurs as the crest of Tyrell, and "A plume of peacock's feathers"--which perhaps is the same thing--"issuant from the side of a chapeau" is the crest of Lord Sefton. [Illustration: FIG. 470.--Crane in its vigilance.] Another bird for which heraldry has created a term of its own is the _Crane_. It is seldom met with except holding a stone in its claw, the term for which stone is its "vigilance," a curious old fable, which explains the whole matter, being that the crane held the stone in its foot so that if by any chance it fell asleep, the stone, by dropping, would awaken it, and thus act as its "vigilance" (Fig. 470). It is a pity that the truth of such a charming example of the old world should be dissipated by the fact that the crest of Cranstoun is the crane _asleep_--or rather dormant--with its head under its wing, and nevertheless holding its "vigilance" in its foot! The crane is not often met with, but it occurs in the arms of Cranstoun, with the curious and rather perplexing motto, "Thou shalt want ere I want." Before leaving the crane, it may be of interest to observe that the derivation of the word "pedigree" is from _pied de grue_, the appearance of a crane's foot and the branching lines indicative of issue being similar in shape. [Illustration: FIG. 471.--Stork holding in its beak a snake.] Heraldic representation makes little if any difference when depicting a crane, a stork, or a heron, except that the tuft on the head of the latter is never omitted when a heron is intended. Instances of the _Stork_ are of fairly frequent occurrence, the usual heraldic method of depicting the bird being with the wings close. More often than not the stork is met with a snake in its beak (Fig. 471); and the fact that a heron is also generally provided with an eel to play with adds to the confusion. _The Heron_--or, as it was anciently more frequently termed heraldically, the _Herne_ (Fig. 472)--will naturally be found in the arms of Hearne and some number of other coats and crests. {248} _The Raven_ (Fig. 473) occurs almost as early as any other heraldic bird. It is said to have been a Danish device. The powerful Norman family of Corbet, one of the few remaining families which can show an unbroken male descent from the time of the Conquest to the present day, have always remained faithful to the raven, though they have added to it sometimes a _bordure_ or additional numbers of its kind. "Or, a raven sable," the well-known Corbet coat, is, of course, a canting allusion to their Norman name, or nickname, "Le Corbeau." Their name, like their pedigree, is unique, inasmuch as it is one of the few names of undoubted Norman origin which are not territorial, and possibly the fact that their lands of Moreton Corbett, one of their chief seats, were known by their name has assisted in the perpetuation of what was, originally, undoubtedly a personal nickname. [Illustration: FIG. 472.--Heron.] [Illustration: FIG. 473.--Raven.] Fig. 474 is a striking example of the virility which can be imparted to the raven. It is reproduced from Grünenberg's "Book of Arms" (1483). Ströhl suggests it may be of "Corbie" in Picardy, but the identity of the arms leads one to fancy the name attached may be a misdescription of the English family of Corbet. [Illustration: FIG. 474.] Heraldically, no difference is made in depicting the raven, the rook, and the crow; and examples of the Crow will be found in the arms of Crawhall, and of the _Rook_ in the crest of Abraham. The arms of the Yorkshire family of Creyke are always blazoned as rooks, but I am inclined to think they may possibly have been originally _creykes_, or corn-crakes. _The Cornish Chough_ is very much more frequently met with than either the crow, rook, or raven, and it occurs in the arms of Bewley, the town of Canterbury, and (as a crest) of Cornwall. It can only be distinguished from the raven in heraldic representations by the fact that the Cornish chough is always depicted and frequently blazoned as "beaked and legged gules," as it is found in its natural state. {249} _The Owl_ (Fig. 475), too, is a very favourite bird. It is always depicted with the face affronté, though the body is not usually so placed. It occurs in the arms of Leeds--which, by the way, are an example of colour upon colour--Oldham, and Dewsbury. In the crest of Brimacombe the wings are open, a most unusual position. _The Lark_ will be found in many cases of arms or crests for families of the name of Clarke. _The Parrot_, or, as it is more frequently termed heraldically, the _Popinjay_ (Fig. 476), will be found in the arms of Lumley and other families. It also occurs in the arms of Curzon: "Argent, on a bend sable three popinjays or, collared gules." [Illustration: FIG. 475.--Owl.] [Illustration: FIG. 476.--Popinjay.] [Illustration: FIG. 477.--Moorcock.] There is nothing about the bird, or its representations, which needs special remark, and its usual heraldic form follows nature pretty closely. _The Moorcock_ or _Heathcock_ is curious, inasmuch as there are two distinct forms in which it is depicted. Neither of them are correct from the natural point of view, and they seem to be pretty well interchangeable from the heraldic point of view. The bird is always represented with the head and body of an ordinary cock, but sometimes it is given the wide flat tail of black game, and sometimes a curious tail of two or more erect feathers at right angles to its body (Fig. 477). Though usually represented close, it occurs sometimes with open wings, as in the crest of a certain family of Moore. Many other birds are to be met with in heraldry, but they have nothing at all especial in their bearing, and no special rules govern them. _The Lapwing_, under its alternative names of _Peewhit_, _Plover_, and _Tyrwhitt_, will be found in the arms of Downes, Tyrwhitt, and Tweedy. _The Pheasant_ will be found in the crest of Scott-Gatty, and the _Kingfisher_ in many cases of arms of the name of Fisher. {250} _The Magpie_ occurs in the arms of Dusgate, and in those of Finch. Woodward mentions an instance in which the _Bird of Paradise_ occurs (p. 267); "Argent, on a terrace vert, a cannon mounted or, supporting a Bird of Paradise proper" [Rjevski and Yeropkin]; and the arms of Thornton show upon a canton the Swedish bird _tjader_: "Ermine, a chevron sable between three hawthorn trees eradicated proper, a canton or, thereon the Swedish bird tjader, or cock of the wood, also proper." Two similar birds were granted to the first Sir Edward Thornton, G.C.B., as supporters, he being a Knight Grand Cross. [Illustration: FIG. 478.--The "Shield for Peace" of Edward the Black Prince (d. 1376): Sable, three ostrich feathers with scrolls argent. (From his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral.)] Single feathers as charges upon a shield are sometimes met with, as in the "shield for peace" of Edward the Black Prince (Fig. 478) and in the arms of Clarendon. These two examples are, however, derivatives from the historic ostrich-feather badges of the English Royal Family, and will be more conveniently dealt with later when considering the subject of badges. The single feather enfiled by the circlet of crosses patée and fleurs-de-lis, which is borne upon a canton of augmentation upon the arms of Gull, Bart., is likewise a derivative, but feathers as a charge occur in the arms of Jervis: "Argent, six ostrich feathers, three, two, and one sable." A modern coat founded upon this, in which the ostrich feathers are placed upon a pile, between two bombshells fracted in base, belongs to a family of a very similar name, and the crest granted therewith is a single ostrich feather between two bombs fired. Cock's feathers occur as charges in the arms of Galpin. In relation to the crest, feathers are constantly to be found, which is not to be wondered at, inasmuch as fighting and tournament helmets, when actually in use, frequently did not carry the actual crests of the owners, but were simply adorned with the plume of ostrich feathers. A curious instance of this will be found in the case of the family of Dymoke of Scrivelsby, the Honourable the King's Champions. The crest is really: "Upon a wreath of the colours, the two ears of an ass sable," though other crests ["1. a sword erect proper; 2. a lion as in the arms"] are sometimes made use of. When the Champion performs his service at a Coronation the shield which is carried by his esquire is not that of his sovereign, but is emblazoned with his personal arms of Dymoke: "Sable, two lions passant in pale argent, ducally crowned or." The helmet of the Champion is decorated with a triple plume of ostrich feathers and not with the Dymoke crest. In {251} old representations of tournaments and warfare the helmet will far oftener be found simply adorned with a plume of ostrich feathers than with a heritable crest, and consequently such a plume has remained in use as the crest of a very large number of families. This point is, however, more fully dealt with in the chapter upon crests. The plume of ostrich feathers is, moreover, attributed as a crest to a far greater number of families than it really belongs to, because if a family possessed no crest the helmet was generally ornamented with a plume of ostrich feathers, which later generations have accepted and adopted as their heritable crest, when it never possessed such a character. A notable instance of this will be found in the crest of Astley, as given in the Peerage Books. The number of feathers in a plume requires to be stated; it will usually be found to be three, five, or seven, though sometimes a larger number are met with. When it is termed a double plume they are arranged in two rows, the one issuing above the other, and a triple plume is arranged in three rows; and though it is correct to speak of any number of feathers as a plume, it will usually be found that the word is reserved for five or more, whilst a plume of three feathers would more frequently be termed three ostrich feathers. Whilst they are usually white, they are also found of varied colours, and there is even an instance to be met with of ostrich feathers of ermine. When the feathers are of different colours they need to be carefully blazoned; if alternately, it is enough to use the word "alternately," the feather at the extreme dexter side being depicted of the colour first mentioned. In a plume which is of three colours, care must be used in noting the arrangement of the colours, the colours first mentioned being that of the dexter feather; the others then follow from dexter to sinister, the fourth feather commencing the series of colours again. If any other arrangement of the colours occurs it must be specifically detailed. The rainbow-hued plume from which the crest of Sir Reginald Barnewall[19] issues is the most variegated instance I have met with. Two peacock's feathers in saltire will be found in the crest of a family of Gatehouse, and also occur in the crest of Crisp-Molineux-Montgomerie. The pen in heraldry is always of course of the quill variety, and consequently should not be mistaken for a single feather. The term "penned" is used when the quill of a feather is of a different colour from the remainder of it. Ostrich and other feathers are very frequently found on either side of a crest, both in British and Continental armory; but though often met with in this position, there is nothing peculiar about this use in such character. German heraldry {252} has evolved one use of the peacock's feather, or rather for the eye from the peacock's feather, which happily has not yet reached this country. It will be found adorning the outer edges of every kind of object, and it even occurs on occasion as a kind of dorsal fin down the back of animals. Bunches of cock's feathers are also frequently made use of for the same purpose. There has been considerable diversity in the method of depicting the ostrich feather. In its earliest form it was stiff and erect as if cut from a piece of board (Fig. 478), but gradually, as the realistic type of heraldic art came into vogue, it was represented more naturally and with flowing and drooping curves. Of later years, however, we have followed the example of His Majesty when Prince of Wales and reverted to the earlier form, and it is now very general to give to the ostrich feather the stiff and straight appearance which it originally possessed when heraldically depicted. Occasionally a plume of ostrich feathers is found enclosed in a "case," that is, wrapped about the lower part as if it were a bouquet, and this form is the more usual in Germany. In German heraldry these plumes are constantly met with in the colours of the arms, or charged with the whole or a part of the device upon the shield. It is not a common practice in this country, but an instance of it will be found in the arms of Lord Waldegrave: "Per pale argent and gules. Crest: out of a ducal coronet or a plume of five ostrich feathers, the first two argent, the third per pale argent and gules, and the last two gules." {253} CHAPTER XV FISH Heraldry has a system of "natural" history all its very own, and included in the comprehensive heraldic term of fish are dolphins, whales, and other creatures. There are certain terms which apply to heraldic fish which should be noted. A fish in a horizontal position is termed "naiant," whether it is in or upon water or merely depicted as a charge upon a shield. A fish is termed "hauriant" if it is in a perpendicular position, but though it will usually be represented with the head upwards in default of any specific direction to the contrary, it by no means follows that this is always the case, and it is more correct to state whether the head is upwards or downwards, a practice which it is usually found will be conformed to. When the charges upon a shield are simply blazoned as "fish," no particular care need be taken to represent any particular variety, but on the other hand it is not in such cases usual to add any distinctive signs by which a charge which is merely a fish might become identified as any particular kind of fish. The heraldic representations of the _Dolphin_ are strangely dissimilar from the real creature, and also show amongst themselves a wide variety and latitude. It is early found in heraldry, and no doubt its great importance in that science is derived from its usage by the Dauphins of France. Concerning its use by these Princes there are all sorts of curious legends told, the most usual being that recited by Berry. Woodward refers to this legend, but states that "in 1343 King Philip of France _purchased_ the domains of Humbert III., Dauphin de Viennois," and further remarks that the legend in question "seems to be without solid foundation." But neither Woodward nor any other writer seems to have previously suggested what is doubtless the true explanation, that the title of Dauphin and the province of Viennois were a separate dignity of a sovereign character, to which were attached certain territorial and sovereign arms ["Or, a dolphin embowed azure, finned and langued gules"]. The assumption of these sovereign arms with the sovereignty and territory to which they belonged, was as much a matter of course as the use of separate arms for the Duchy of Lancaster {254} by his present Majesty King Edward VII., or the use of separate arms for his Duchy of Cornwall by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. Berry is wrong in asserting that no other family were permitted to display the dolphin in France, because a very similar coat (but with the dolphin lifeless) to that of the Dauphin was quartered by the family of La Tour du Pin, who claimed descent from the Dauphins d'Auvergne, another ancient House which originally bore the sovereign title of Dauphin. A dolphin was the charge upon the arms of the Grauff von Dälffin (Fig. 481). [Illustration: FIG. 479.--Dolphin naiant.] [Illustration: FIG. 480.--Dolphin hauriant.] The dolphin upon this shield, as also that in the coat of the Dauphin of France, is neither naiant nor hauriant, but is "embowed," that is, with the tail curved towards the head. But the term "embowed" really signifies nothing further than "bent" in some way, and as a dolphin is never heraldically depicted straight, it is always understood to be and usually is termed "embowed," though it will generally be "naiant embowed" (Fig. 479), or "hauriant embowed" (Fig. 480). The dolphin occurs in the arms of many British families, _e.g._ in the arms of Ellis, Monypenny, Loder-Symonds, Symonds-Taylor, Fletcher, and Stuart-French. Woodward states that the dolphin is used as a supporter by the Trevelyans, Burnabys, &c. In this statement he is clearly incorrect, for neither of those families are entitled to or use supporters. But his statement probably originates in the practice which in accordance with the debased ideas of artistic decoration at one period added all sorts of fantastic objects to the edges of a shield for purely decorative (!) purposes. The only instance within my knowledge in which a dolphin figures as a heraldic supporter will be found in the case of the arms of Waterford. [Illustration: FIG. 481.--Arms of the Grauff von Dälffin lett och in Dalffinat (Count von Dälffin), which also lies in Dauphiné (from Grünenberg's "Book of Arms"): Argent, a dolphin azure within a bordure compony of the first and second.] _The Whale_ is seldom met with in British armory, one of its few appearances being in the arms of Whalley, viz.: "Argent, three whales' heads erased sable." {255} The crest of an Irish family named Yeates is said to be: "A shark issuant regardant swallowing a man all proper," and the same device is also attributed to some number of other families. Another curious piscine coat of arms is that borne, but still unmatriculated, by the burgh of Inveraray, namely: "The field is the sea proper, a net argent suspended to the base from the dexter chief and the sinister fess points, and in chief two and in base three herrings entangled in the net." _Salmon_ are not infrequently met with, but they need no specific description. They occur in the arms of Peebles,[20] a coat of arms which in an alternative blazon introduces to one's notice the term "contra-naiant." The explanation of the quaint and happy conceit of these arms and motto is that for every fish which goes up the river to spawn two return to the sea. A salmon on its back figures in the arms of the city of Glasgow, and also in the arms of Lumsden and Finlay, whilst other instances of salmon occur in the arms of Blackett-Ord, Sprot, and Winlaw. _The Herring_ occurs in the arms of Maconochie, the _Roach_ in the arms of Roche ["Gules, three roaches naiant within a bordure engrailed argent. Crest: a rock, thereon a stork close, charged on the breast with a torteau, and holding in his dexter claw a roach proper"], and _Trout_ in the arms of Troutbeck ["Azure, three trout fretted tête à la queue argent"]. The same arrangement of three fish occurs upon the seal of Anstruther Wester, but this design unfortunately has never been matriculated as a coat of arms. The arms of Iceland present a curious charge, which is included upon the Royal shield of Denmark. The coat in question is: "Gules, a stockfish argent, crowned with an open crown or." The stockfish is a dried and cured cod, split open and with the head removed. _A Pike_ or _Jack_ is more often termed a "lucy" in English heraldry and a "ged" in Scottish. Under its various names it occurs in the arms of Lucy, Lucas, Geddes, and Pyke. _The Eel_ is sometimes met with, as in the arms of Ellis, and though, as Woodward states, it is always given a wavy form, the term "ondoyant," which he uses to express this, has, I believe, no place in an English armorist's dictionary. _The Lobster_ and _Crab_ are not unknown to English armory, being respectively the crests of the families of Dykes and Bridger. The arms of Bridger are: "Argent, a chevron engrailed sable, between three crabs gules." Lobster claws are a charge upon the arms of Platt-Higgins. {256} [Illustration: FIG. 482.--Whelk shell.] The arms of Birt are given in Papworth as: "Azure, a birthfish proper," and of Bersich as: "Argent, a perch azure." The arms of Cobbe (Bart., extinct) are: "Per chevron gules and sable, in chief two swans respecting and in base a herring cob naiant proper." The arms of Bishop Robinson of Carlisle were: "Azure, a flying fish in bend argent, on a chief of the second, a rose gules between two torteaux," and the crest of Sir Philip Oakley Fysh is: "On a wreath of the colours, issuant from a wreath of red coral, a cubit arm vested azure, cuffed argent, holding in the hand a flying fish proper." The coat of arms of Colston of Essex is: "Azure, two barbels hauriant respecting each other argent," and a barbel occurs in the crest of Binney. "Vert, three sea-breams or hakes hauriant argent" is the coat of arms attributed to a family of Dox or Doxey, and "Or, three chabots gules" is that of a French family of the name of Chabot. "Barry wavy of six argent and gules, three crevices (crayfish) two and one or" is the coat of Atwater. Codfish occur in the arms of Beck, dogfish in the arms of Dodds (which may, however, be merely the sea-dog of the Dodge achievement), flounders or flukes in the arms of Arbutt, garvinfishes in the arms of Garvey, and gudgeon in the arms of Gobion. Papworth also includes instances of mackerel, prawns, shrimps, soles, sparlings, sturgeon, sea-urchins, turbots, whales, and whelks. The whelk shell (Fig. 482) appears in the arms of Storey and Wilkinson. {257} CHAPTER XVI REPTILES If armorial zoology is "shaky" in its classification of and dealings with fish, it is most wonderful when its laws and selections are considered under the heading of reptiles. But with the exception of serpents (of various kinds), the remainder must have no more than a passing mention. [Illustration: FIG. 483.--Serpent nowed.] The usual heraldic _Serpent_ is most frequently found "nowed," that is, interlaced in a knot (Fig. 483). There is a certain well-understood form for the interlacing which is always officially adhered to, but of late there has manifested itself amongst heraldic artists a desire to break loose to a certain extent from the stereotyped form. A serpent will sometimes be found "erect" and occasionally gliding or "glissant," and sometimes it will be met with in a circle with its tail in its mouth--the ancient symbol of eternity. Its constant appearance in British armory is due to the fact that it is symbolically accepted as the sign of medicine, and many grants of arms made to doctors and physicians introduce in some way either the serpent or the rod of Æsculapius, or a serpent entwined round a staff. A serpent embowed biting its tail occurs in the arms of Falconer, and a serpent on its back in the crest of Backhouse. Save for the matter of position, the serpent of British armory is always drawn in a very naturalistic manner. It is otherwise, however, in Continental armory, where the serpent takes up a position closely allied to that of our dragon. It is even sometimes found winged, and the arms of the family of Visconti, which subsequently came into use as the arms of the Duchy of Milan (Fig. 484), have familiarised us as far as Continental armory is concerned with a form of serpent which is very different from the real animal or from our own heraldic variety. Another instance of a serpent will be found in the arms of the Irish family of Cotter, which are: "Argent, a chevron gules between three serpents proper," and the family of Lanigan O'Keefe bear in one {258} quarter of their shield: "Vert, three lizards in pale or." The family of Cole bear: "Argent, a chevron gules between three scorpions reversed sable," a coat of arms which is sometimes quoted with the chevron and the scorpions both gules or both sable. The family of Preed of Shropshire bear: "Azure, three horse-leeches;" and the family of Whitby bear: "Gules, three snakes coiled or; on a chief of the second, as many pheons sable." A family of Sutton bears: "Or, a newt vert, in chief a lion rampant gules all within a bordure of the last," and Papworth mentions a coat of arms for the name of Ory: "Azure, a chameleon on a shady ground proper, in chief a sun or." Another coat mentioned by Papworth is the arms of Bume: "Gules, a stellion serpent proper," though what the creature may be it is impossible to imagine. Unfortunately, when one comes to examine so many of these curious coats of arms, one finds no evidence that such families existed, or that there is no official authority or record of the arms to which reference can be made. There can be no doubt that they largely consist of misreadings or misinterpretations of both names and charges, and I am sorely afraid this remark is the true explanation of what otherwise would be most strange and interesting curiosities of arms. Sir Walter Scott's little story in "Quentin Durward" of Toison d'Or, who depicted the "cat looking through the dairy window" as the arms of Childebert, and blazoned it "sable a musion passant or, oppressed with a trellis gules, cloué of the second," gives in very truth the real origin of many quaint coats of arms and heraldic terms. Ancient heraldic writers seem to have amused themselves by inventing "appropriate" arms for mythological or historical personages, and I verily believe that when so doing they never intended these arms to stand for more than examples of their own wit. Their credulous successors incorporated these little witticisms in the rolls of arms they collected, and one can only hope that in the distant future the charming drawings of Mr. E. T. Reed which in recent years have appeared in _Punch_ may not be used in like manner. There are but few instances in English armory in which the _Toad_ or _Frog_ is met with. In fact, the only instance which one can recollect is the coat of arms attributed to a family of Botreaux, who are said to have borne: "Argent, three toads erect sable." I am confident, however, that this coat of arms, if it ever existed, and if it could be traced to its earliest sources, would be found to be really three buckets of water, a canting allusion to the name. Toads of course are the charges on the mythical arms of Pharamond. [Illustration: FIG. 484.--Arms of the Visconti, Dukes of Milan: Argent, a serpent azure, devouring a child gules. (A wood-carving from the castle of Passau at the turn of the fifteenth century.)] Amongst the few instances I have come across of a snail in British armory are the crest of Slack of Derwent Hill ("in front of a crescent or, a snail proper") and the coat attributed by Papworth to the family of {259} Bartan or Bertane, who are mentioned as bearing, "Gules, three snails argent in their shells or." This coat, however, is not matriculated in Scotland, so that one cannot be certain that it was ever borne. The snail occurs, however, as the crest of a family named Billers, and is also attributed to several other families as a crest. _Lizards_ appear occasionally in heraldry, though more frequently in Irish than English or Scottish coats of arms. A lizard forms part of the crest of Sillifant, and a hand grasping a lizard is the crest of McCarthy, and "Azure, three lizards or" the first quarter of the arms of an Irish family of the name of Cotter, who, however, blazon these charges upon their shield as evetts. The family of Enys, who bear: "Argent, three wyverns volant in pale vert," probably derive their arms from some such source. {260} CHAPTER XVII INSECTS The insect which is most usually met with in heraldry is undoubtedly the _Bee_. Being considered, as it is, the symbol of industry, small wonder that it has been so frequently adopted. It is usually represented as if displayed upon the shield, and it is then termed volant, though of course the real term which will sometimes be found used is "volant _en arrière_" (Fig. 485). It occurs in the arms of Dore, Beatson, Abercromby, Samuel, and Sewell, either as a charge or as a crest. Its use, however, as a crest is slightly more varied, inasmuch as it is found walking in profile, and with its wings elevated, and also perched upon a thistle as in the arms of Ferguson. A bee-hive "with bees diversely volant" occurs in the arms of Rowe, and the popularity of the bee in British armory is doubtless due to the frequent desire to perpetuate the fact that the foundation of a house has been laid by business industry. The fact that the bee was adopted as a badge by the Emperor Napoleon gave it considerable importance in French armory, inasmuch as he assumed it for his own badge, and the mantle and pavilion around the armorial bearings of the Empire were semé of these insects. They also appeared upon his own coronation mantle. He adopted them under the impression, which may or may not be correct, that they had at one time been the badge of Childeric, father of Clovis. The whole story connected with their assumption by Napoleon has been a matter of much controversy, and little purpose would be served by going into the matter here, but it may be added that Napoleon changed the fleur-de-lis upon the chief in the arms of Paris to golden bees upon a chief of gules, and a chief azure, semé of bees or, was added as indicative of their rank to the arms of "Princes-Grand-Dignitaries of the Empire." A bee-hive occurs as the crest of a family named Gwatkin, and also upon the arms of the family of Kettle of Wolverhampton. [Illustration: FIG. 485.--Bee volant.] {261} _The Grasshopper_ is most familiar as the crest of the family of Gresham, and this is the origin of the golden grasshoppers which are so constantly met with in the city of London. "Argent, a chevron sable between three grasshoppers vert" is the coat of arms of Woodward of Kent. Two of them figure in the arms of Treacher, which arms are now quartered by Bowles. _Ants_ are but seldom met with. "Argent, six ants, three, two, and one sable," is a coat given by Papworth to a family of the name of Tregent; "Vert, an ant argent," to Kendiffe; and "Argent, a chevron vert between three beetles proper" are the arms attributed by the same authority to a family named Muschamp. There can be little doubt, however, that these "beetles" should be described as flies. _Butterflies_ figure in the arms of Papillon ["Azure, a chevron between three butterflies volant argent"] and in the arms of Penhellicke ["Sable, three butterflies volant argent"]. _Gadflies_ are to be found in a coat of arms for the name of Adams ["Per pale argent and gules, a chevron between three gadflies counterchanged"], and also in the arms of Somerscales, quartered by Skeet of Bishop Stortford. "Sable, a hornet argent" is one blazon for the arms of Bollord or Bolloure, but elsewhere the same coat is blazoned: "Sable, a harvest-fly in pale volant en arrière argent." Harvest flies were the charges on the arms of the late Sir Edward Watkin, Bart. _Crickets_ appear in the arms ["azure, a fire chest argent, flames proper, between three crickets or"] recently granted to Sir George Anderson Critchett, Bart. The arms of Bassano (really of foreign origin and not an English coat) are: "Per chevron vert and argent, in chief three silkworm flies palewise _en arrière_, and in base a mulberry branch all counterchanged." "Per pale gules and azure, three stag-beetles, wings extended or," is assigned by Papworth to the Cornish family of Dore, but elsewhere these charges (under the same family name) are quoted as bees, gadflies, and flies. "Or, three spiders azure" is quoted as a coat for Chettle. A spider also figures as a charge on the arms of Macara. The crest of Thorndyke of Great Carleton, Lincolnshire, is: "On a wreath of the colours a damask rose proper, leaves and thorns vert, at the bottom of the shield a beetle or scarabæus proper." Woodward, in concluding his chapter upon insects, quotes the arms of the family of Pullici of Verona, viz.: "Or, semé of fleas sable, two bends gules, surmounted by two bends sinister of the same." {262} CHAPTER XVIII TREES, LEAVES, FRUITS, AND FLOWERS The vegetable kingdom plays an important part in heraldry. Trees will be found of all varieties and in all numbers, and though little difference is made in the appearance of many varieties when they are heraldically depicted, for canting purposes the various names are carefully preserved. When, however, no name is specified, they are generally drawn after the fashion of oak-trees. When a tree issues from the ground it will usually be blazoned "issuant from a mount vert," but when the roots are shown it is termed "eradicated." [Illustration: FIG. 486.--An oak-tree eradicated.] _A Hurst of Trees_ figures both on the shield and in the crest of France-Hayhurst, and in the arms of Lord Lismore ["Argent, in base a mount vert, on the dexter side a hurst of oak-trees, therefrom issuing a wolf passant towards the sinister, all proper"]. A hurst of elm-trees very properly is the crest of the family of Elmhurst. Under the description of a forest, a number of trees figure in the arms of Forrest. The arms of Walkinshaw of that Ilk are: "Argent, a grove of fir-trees proper," and Walkinshaw of Barrowfield and Walkinshaw of London have matriculated more or less similar arms. _The Oak-Tree_ (Fig. 486) is of course the tree most frequently met with. Perhaps the most famous coat in which it occurs will be found in the arms granted to Colonel Carlos, to commemorate his risky sojourn with King Charles in the oak-tree at Boscobel, after the King's flight subsequent to the ill-fated battle of Worcester. The coat was: "Or, on a mount in base vert, an oak-tree proper, fructed or, surmounted by a fess gules, charged with three imperial crowns of the third" (Plate II.). _Fir-Trees_ will be found in the arms of Greg, Melles, De la Ferté, and Farquharson. _A Cedar-Tree_ occurs in the arms of Montefiore ["Argent, a cedar-tree, between two mounts of flowers proper, on a chief azure, a dagger {263} erect proper, pommel and hilt or, between two mullets of six points gold"], and a _hawthorn-tree_ in the arms of MacMurrogh-Murphy, Thornton, and in the crest of Kynnersley. _A Maple-Tree_ figures in the arms of Lord Mount-Stephen ["Or, on a mount vert, a maple-tree proper, in chief two fleurs-de-lis azure"], and in the crest of Lord Strathcona ["On a mount vert, a maple-tree, at the base thereof a beaver gnawing the trunk all proper"]. _A Cocoanut-Tree_ is the principal charge in the arms of Glasgow (now Robertson-Glasgow) of Montgrennan, matriculated in 1807 ["Argent, a cocoanut-tree fructed proper, growing out of a mount in base vert, on a chief azure, a shakefork between a martlet on the dexter and a salmon on the sinister argent, the last holding in the mouth a ring or"]. The arms of Clifford afford an instance of a _Coffee-Tree_, and the coat of Chambers has a negro cutting down a _Sugar-Cane_. _A Palm-Tree_ occurs in the arms of Besant and in the armorials of many other families. The crest of Grimké-Drayton affords an instance of the use of palmetto-trees. An _Olive-Tree_ is the crest of Tancred, and a _Laurel-Tree_ occurs in the crest of Somers. _Cypress-Trees_ are quoted by Papworth in the arms of Birkin, probably an error for birch-trees, but the cypress does occur in the arms of Tardy, Comte de Montravel ["Argent, three cypress-trees eradicated vert, on a chief gules, as many bezants"], and "Or, a willow (salix) proper" is the coat of the Counts de Salis (now Fane-de-Salis). The arms of Sweetland, granted in 1808, are: "Argent, on a mount vert, an orange-tree fructed proper, on a chief embattled gules, three roses of the field, barbed and seeded also proper." _A Mountain-Ash_ figures in the shield and crest of Wigan, and a _Walnut-Tree_ is the crest of Waller, of Groombridge ["On a mount vert, a walnut-tree proper, on the sinister side an escutcheon pendent, charged with the arms of France, and thereupon a label of three points argent."] The arms of Arkwright afford an example of a _Cotton-Tree_. The curious crest of Sir John Leman, Lord Mayor of London, affords an instance of a _Lemon-Tree_ ["In a lemon-tree proper, a pelican in her piety proper"]. The arms of a family whose name appears to have been variously spelled Estwere, Estwrey, Estewer, Estower, and Esture, have: "Upon an argent field a tree proper," variously described as an apple-tree, an ash-tree, and a cherry-tree. The probabilities largely point to its being an ash-tree. "Or, on a mount in base vert, a pear-tree fructed proper" is the coat of arms of Pyrton or Peryton, and the arms granted in 1591 to Dr. Lopus, a physician to Queen Elizabeth, were: "Or, a {264} pomegranate-tree eradicated vert, fructed gold, supported by a hart rampant proper, crowned and attired of the first." _A Poplar Tree_ occurs in the arms of Gandolfi, but probably the prime curiosity must be the coat of Abank, which Papworth gives as: "Argent, a China-cokar tree vert." Its botanical identity remains a mystery. _Trunks of Trees_ for some curious reason play a prominent part in heraldry. The arms of Borough, of Chetwynd Park, granted in 1702, are: "Argent, on a mount in base, in base the trunk of an oak-tree sprouting out two branches proper, with the shield of Pallas hanging thereon or, fastened by a belt gules," and the arms of Houldsworth (1868) of Gonaldston, co. Notts, are: "Ermine, the trunk of a tree in bend raguly eradicated at the base proper, between three foxes' heads, two in chief and one in base erased gules." But it is as a crest that this figure of the withered trunk sprouting again is most often met with, it being assigned to no less than forty-three families. In England again, by one of those curious fads by which certain objects were repeated over and over again in the wretched designs granted by the late Sir Albert Woods, Garter, in spite of their unsuitability, tree-trunks fesswise eradicated and sprouting are constantly met with either as the basis of the crest or placed "in front of it" to help in providing the differences and distinctions which he insisted upon in a new grant. An example of such use of it will be found in the arms of the town of Abergavenny. _Stocks of Trees_ "couped and eradicated" are by no means uncommon. They figure in the arms of the Borough of Woodstock: "Gules, the stump of a tree couped and eradicated argent, and in chief three stags' heads caboshed of the same, all within a bordure of the last charged with eight oak-leaves vert." They also occur in the arms of Grove, of Shenston Park, co. Stafford, and in the arms of Stubbs. The arms matriculated in Lyon Register by Capt. Peter Winchester (_c._ 1672-7) are: "Argent, a vine growing out of the base, leaved and fructed, between two papingoes endorsed feeding upon the clusters all proper." The vine also appears in the arms of Ruspoli, and the family of Archer-Houblon bear for the latter name: "Argent, on a mount in base, three hop-poles erect with hop-vines all proper." The town of St. Ives (Cornwall) has no authorised arms, but those usually attributed to the town are: "Argent, an ivy branch overspreading the whole field vert." "Gules, a flaming bush on the top of a mount proper, between three lions rampant argent, in the flanks two roses of the last" is the coat of Brander (now Dunbar-Brander) of Pitgavenny. Holly-bushes {265} are also met with, as in the crests of Daubeney and Crackanthorpe, and a rose-bush as in the crest of Inverarity. The arms of Owen, co. Pembroke, are: "Gules, a boar argent, armed, bristled, collared, and chained or to a holly-bush on a mount in base both proper." _A Fern-Brake_ is another stock object used in designing modern crests, and will be found in the cases of Harter, Scott-Gatty, and Lloyd. Branches are constantly occurring, but they are usually oak, laurel, palm, or holly. They need to be distinguished from "slips," which are much smaller and with fewer leaves. Definite rules of distinction between e.g. an acorn "slipped," a slip of oak, and an oak-branch have been laid down by purists, but no such minute detail is officially observed, and it seems better to leave the point to general artistic discretion; the colloquial difference between a slip and a branch being quite a sufficient guide upon the point. An example of an _Oak-Branch_ occurs in the arms of Aikman, and another, which is rather curious, is the crest of Accrington.[21] _Oak-Slips_, on the other hand, occur in the arms of Baldwin. _A Palm-Branch_ occurs in the crests of Innes, Chafy, and Corfield. _Laurel-Branches_ occur in the arms of Cooper, and sprigs of laurel in the arms of Meeking. _Holly-Branches_ are chiefly found in the arms of families named Irvine or Irwin, but they are invariably blazoned as "sheaves" of holly or as holly-branches of three leaves. To a certain extent this is a misnomer, because the so-called "branch" is merely three holly-leaves tied together. "Argent, an almond-slip proper" is the coat of arms attributed to a family of Almond, and Papworth assigns "Argent, a barberry-branch fructed proper" to Berry. "Argent, three sprigs of balm flowered proper" is stated to be the coat of a family named Balme, and "Argent, three teasels slipped proper" the coat of Bowden, whilst Boden of the Friary bears, "Argent, a chevron sable between three teasels proper, a bordure of the second." A teasle on a canton figures in the arms of Chichester-Constable. The Company of Tobacco-Pipe Makers in London, incorporated in the year 1663, bore: "Argent, on a mount in base vert, three plants of tobacco growing and flowering all proper." The crest recently granted to Sir Thomas Lipton, Bart. ["On a wreath of the colours, two arms in saltire, the dexter surmounted by the sinister {266} holding a sprig of the tea-plant erect, and the other a like sprig of the coffee-plant both slipped and leaved proper, vested above the elbow argent"], affords an example of both the coffee-plant and the tea-plant, which have both assisted him so materially in piling up his immense fortune. "Or, three birch-twigs sable" is the coat of Birches, and "Or, a bunch of nettles vert" is the coat of Mallerby of Devonshire. The pun in the last case is apparent. _The Cotton-Plant_ figures in the arms of the towns of Darwen, Rochdale, and Nelson, and two culms of the papyrus plant occur in the arms of the town of Bury. _The Coffee-Plant_ also figures in the arms of Yockney: "Azure, a chevron or, between a ship under sail in chief proper, and a sprig of the coffee-plant slipped in base of the second." A branch, slip, bush, or tree is termed "fructed" when the fruit is shown, though the term is usually disregarded unless "fructed" of a different colour. When represented as "fructed," the fruit is usually drawn out of all proportion to its relative size. Leaves are not infrequent in their appearance. Holly-leaves occur in the various coats for most people of the name of Irwin and Irvine, as already mentioned. Laurel-leaves occur in the arms of Leveson-Gower, Foulis, and Foulds. _Oak-Leaves_ occur in the arms of Trelawney ["Argent, a chevron sable, between three oak-leaves slipped proper"]; and _hazel-leaves_ in the arms of Hesilrige or Hazlerigg ["Argent, a chevron sable, between three hazel-leaves vert]. "Argent, three edock (dock or burdock) leaves vert" is the coat of Hepburn. Papworth assigns "Argent, an aspen leaf proper" to Aspinal, and "Or, a betony-leaf proper" to Betty. "Argent, three aspen-leaves" is an unauthorised coat used by Espin, and the same coat with varying tinctures is assigned to Cogan. Killach is stated to bear: "Azure, three bay-leaves argent," and to Woodward, of Little Walsingham, Norfolk, was granted in 1806: "Vert, three mulberry-leaves or." _The Maple-Leaf_ has been generally adopted as a Canadian emblem, and consequently figures upon the arms of that Dominion, and in the arms of many families which have or have had Canadian associations. "Vert, three vine-leaves or" is assigned by Papworth to Wortford, and the same authority mentions coats in which woodbine-leaves occur for Browne, Theme, and Gamboa. Rose-leaves occur in the arms of Utermarck, and walnut-leaves figure in the arms of Waller. A curious leaf--usually called the "sea-leaf," which is properly the "nenuphar-leaf," is often met with in German heraldry, as are _Linden_ leaves. Although theoretically leaves, the trefoil, quatrefoil, and cinquefoil {267} are a class by themselves, having a recognised heraldic status as exclusively heraldic charges, and the quatrefoil and cinquefoil, in spite of the derivation of their names, are as likely to have been originally flowers as leaves. _The heraldic Trefoil_ (Fig. 487), though frequently specifically described as "slipped," is nevertheless always so depicted, and it is not necessary to so describe it. Of late a tendency has been noticeable in paintings from Ulster's Office to represent the trefoil in a way more nearly approaching the Irish shamrock, from which it has undoubtedly been derived. Instances of the trefoil occur in the arms of Rodd, Dobrée, MacDermott, and Gilmour. The crowned trefoil is one of the national badges of Ireland. [Illustration: FIG. 487.--Trefoil.] [Illustration: FIG. 488.--Quatrefoil.] [Illustration: FIG. 489.--Cinquefoil.] A four-leaved "lucky" shamrock has been introduced into the arms of Sir Robert Hart, Bart. _The Quatrefoil_ (Fig. 488) is not often met with, but it occurs in the arms of Eyre, King, and Dreyer. _The Cinquefoil_ (Fig. 489) is of frequent appearance, but, save in exceedingly rare instances, neither the quatrefoil nor the cinquefoil will be met with "slipped." The constant occurrence of the cinquefoil in early rolls of arms is out of all proportion to its distinctiveness or artistic beauty, and the frequency with which it is met with in conjunction with the cross crosslet points clearly to the fact that there is some allusion behind, if this could only be fathomed. Many a man might adopt a lion through independent choice, but one would not expect independent choice to lead so many to pitch upon a combination of cross crosslets and cinquefoils. The cross crosslets, I am confident, are a later addition in many cases, for the original arms of D'Arcy, for example, were simply: "Argent, three cinquefoils gules." The arms of the town of Leicester are: "Gules, a cinquefoil ermine," and this is the coat attributed to the family of the De Beaumonts or De Bellomonts, Earls of Leicester. Simon de Montfort, the great Earl of Leicester, was the son or grandson of Amicia, a coheir of the former Earls, and as such {268} entitled to quarter the arms of the De Bellomonts. As stated on page 117 (_vide_ Figs. 97 and 98), there are two coats attributed to De Montfort. His only status in this country depended solely upon the De Bellomont inheritance, and, conformably with the custom of the period, we are far more likely to find him using arms of De Bellomont or De Beaumont than of Montfort. From the similarity of the charge to the better-known Beaumont arms, I am inclined to think the lion rampant to be the real De Bellomont coat. The origin of the cinquefoil has yet to be accounted for. The earliest De Bellomont for whom I can find proof of user thereof is Robert "Fitz-Pernell," otherwise De Bellomont, who died in 1206, and whose seal (Fig. 490) shows it. Be it noted it is not on a shield, and though of course this is not proof in any way, it is in accord with my suggestion that it is nothing more than a pimpernel flower adopted as a device or badge to typify his own name and his mother's name, she being Pernelle or Petronilla, the heiress of Grantmesnil. The cinquefoil was not the coat of Grantmesnil but a quaint little conceit, and is not therefore likely to have been used as a coat of arms by the De Bellomonts, though no doubt they used it as a badge and device, as no doubt did Simon de Montfort. Simon de Montfort split England into two parties. Men were for Montfort or the king, and those that were for De Montfort very probably took and used his badge of a cinquefoil as a party badge. [Illustration: FIG. 490.--From the seal of Robert Fitz-Pernell, Earl of Leicester, d. 1206.] The cinquefoil in its ordinary heraldic form also occurs in the arms of Umfraville, Bardolph, Hamilton, and D'Arcy, and sprigs of cinquefoil will be found in the arms of Hill, and in the crest of Kersey. The cinquefoil is sometimes found pierced. The five-foiled flower being the blossom of so many plants, what are to all intents and purposes cinquefoils occur in the arms of Fraser, where they are termed "fraises," of Primrose, where they are blazoned "primroses," and of Lambert, where they are called "narcissus flowers." _The double Quatrefoil_ is cited as the English difference mark for the ninth son, but as these difference marks are but seldom used, and as ninth sons are somewhat of a rarity, it is seldom indeed that this particular mark is seen in use. Personally I have never seen it. _The Turnip_ makes an early appearance in armory, and occurs in the coat of Dammant ["Sable, a turnip leaved proper, a chief or, gutté-de-poix"]. {269} The curious crest of Lingen, which is "Seven leeks root upwards issuing from a ducal coronet all proper," is worthy of especial mention. In considering flowers as a charge, a start must naturally be made with the rose, which figures so prominently in the heraldry of England. _The heraldic Rose_ until a much later date than its first appearance in armory--it occurs, however, at the earliest period--was always represented in what we now term the "conventional" form, with five displayed petals (Fig. 491). Accustomed as we are to the more ornate form of the cultivated rose of the garden, those who speak of the "conventional" heraldic rose rather seem to overlook that it is an exact reproduction of the wild rose of the hedgerow, which, morever, has a tendency to show itself "displayed" and not in the more profile attitude we are perhaps accustomed to. It should also be observed that the earliest representations of the heraldic rose depict the intervening spaces between the petals which are noticeable in the wild rose. Under the Tudor sovereigns, the heraldic rose often shows a double row of petals, a fact which is doubtless accounted for by the then increasing familiarity with the cultivated variety, and also by the attempt to conjoin the rival emblems of the warring factions of York and Lancaster. [Illustration: FIG. 491.--Rose.] [Illustration: FIG. 492.--Rose slipped and leaved.] Though the heraldic rose is seldom, if ever, otherwise depicted, it should be described as "barbed vert" and "seeded or" (or "barbed and seeded proper") when the centre seeds and the small intervening green leaves (the calyx) between the petals are represented in their natural colours. In the reign of the later Tudor sovereigns the conventionality of earlier heraldic art was slowly beginning to give way to the pure naturalism towards which heraldic art thereafter steadily degenerated, and we find that the rose then begins (both as a Royal badge and elsewhere) to be met with "slipped and leaved" (Fig. 492). The Royal fleurs-de-lis are turned into natural lilies in the grant of arms to Eton College, and in the grant to William Cope, Cofferer to Henry VII., the roses are slipped ["Argent, on a chevron azure, between three roses gules, slipped and leaved vert, as many fleurs-de-lis or. Crest: out of a fleur-de-lis or, a dragon's head gules"]. A rose when "slipped" theoretically has only a stalk added, but in practice it will always have at least one leaf added to the slip, and a rose "slipped and leaved" would {270} have a leaf on either side. A rose "stalked and leaved" is not so limited, and will usually be found with a slightly longer stalk and several leaves; but these technical refinements of blazon, which are really unnecessary, are not greatly observed or taken into account. The arms of the Burgh of Montrose afford an example of a single rose as the only charge, although other instances will be met with in the arms of Boscawen, Viscount Falmouth ["Ermine, a rose gules, barbed and seeded proper"], and of Nightingale, Bart. ["Per pale ermine and gules, a rose counterchanged"]. Amongst the scores of English arms in which the rose figures, it will be found in the original heraldic form in the case of the arms of Southampton (Plate VII.); and either stalked or slipped in the arms of Brodribb and White-Thomson. A curious instance of the use of the rose will be found in the crest of Bewley, and the "cultivated" rose was depicted in the emblazonment of the crest of Inverarity, which is a rose-bush proper. [Illustration: FIG. 493.--Thistle.] Heraldry, with its roses, has accomplished what horticulture has not. There is an old legend that when Henry VII. succeeded to the English throne some enterprising individual produced a natural parti-coloured rose which answered to the conjoined heraldic rose of gules and argent. Our roses "or" may really find their natural counterpart in the primrose, but the arms of Rochefort ["Quarterly or and azure, four roses counterchanged"] give us the _blue_ rose, the arms of Berendon ["Argent, three roses sable"] give us the _black_ rose, and the coat of Smallshaw ["Argent, a rose vert, between three shakeforks sable"] is the long-desired _green_ rose. _The Thistle_ (Fig. 493) ranks next to the rose in British heraldic importance. Like the rose, the reason of its assumption as a national badge remains largely a matter of mystery, though it is of nothing like so ancient an origin. Of course one knows the time-honoured and wholly impossible legend that its adoption as a national symbol dates from the battle of Largs, when one of the Danish invaders gave away an attempted surprise by his cry of agony caused by stepping barefooted upon a thistle. The fact, however, remains that its earliest appearance is on the silver coinage of 1474, in the reign of James III., but during that reign there can be no doubt that it was accepted either as a national badge or else as the personal badge of the sovereign. The period in question was that in which badges were so largely used, and it is not unlikely that, desiring to vie with his brother of England, and fired by the {271} example of the broom badge and the rose badge, the Scottish king, remembering the ancient legend, chose the thistle as his own badge. In 1540, when the thistle had become recognised as one of the national emblems of the kingdom, the foundation of the Order of the Thistle stereotyped the fact for all future time. The conventional heraldic representation of the thistle is as it appears upon the star of that Order, that is, the flowered head upon a short stalk with a leaf on either side. Though sometimes represented of gold, it is nearly always proper. It has frequently been granted as an augmentation, though in such a meaning it will usually be found crowned. The coat of augmentation carried in the first quarter of his arms by Lord Torphichen is: "Argent, a thistle vert, flowered gules (really a thistle proper), on a chief azure an imperial crown or." "Sable, a thistle (possibly really a teasel) or, between three pheons argent" is the coat of Teesdale, and "Gules, three thistles or" is attributed in Papworth to Hawkey. A curious use of the thistle occurs in the arms of the National Bank of Scotland (granted 1826), which are: "Or, the image of St. Andrew with vesture vert, and surcoat purpure, bearing before him the cross of his martyrdom argent, all resting on a base of the second, in the dexter flank a garb gules, in the sinister a ship in full sail sable, _the shield surrounded with two thistles proper disposed in orle_." _The Lily_ in its natural form sometimes occurs, though of course it generally figures as the fleur-de-lis, which will presently be considered. The natural lily will be found in the arms of Aberdeen University, of Dundee, and in the crests of various families of the name of Chadwick. It also occurs in the arms of the College of St. Mary the Virgin, at Eton ["Sable, three lilies argent, on a chief per pale azure and gules a fleur-de-lis on the dexter side, and a lion passant guardant or on the sinister"]. Here they doubtless typify the Virgin, to whom they have reference; as also in the case of Marylebone (Fig. 252). The arms of Lilly, of Stoke Prior, are: "Gules, three lilies slipped argent;" and the arms of J. E. Lilley, Esq., of Harrow, are: "Azure, on a pile between two fleurs-de-lis argent, a lily of the valley eradicated proper. Crest: on a wreath of the colours, a cubit arm erect proper, charged with a fleur-de-lis argent and holding in the hand two lilies of the valley, leaved and slipped in saltire, also proper." _Columbine Flowers_ occur in the arms of Cadman, and _Gillyflowers_ in the arms of Livingstone. _Fraises_--really the flowers of the strawberry-plant--occur, as has been already mentioned, in the arms of Fraser, and _Narcissus Flowers_ in the arms of Lambeth. "Gules, three poppy bolles on their stalks in fess or" are the arms of Boller. _The Lotus-Flower_, which is now very generally becoming the recognised emblem of India, is constantly met with in the arms granted to {272} those who have won fortune or reputation in that country. Instances in which it occurs are the arms of Sir Roper Lethbridge, K.C.I.E., Sir Thomas Seccombe, G.C.I.E., and the University of Madras. The _Sylphium-Plant_ occurs in the arms of General Sir Henry Augustus Smyth, K.C.M.G., which are: Vert, a chevron erminois, charged with a chevron gules, between three Saracens' heads habited in profile couped at the neck proper, and for augmentation a chief argent, thereon a mount vert inscribed with the Greek letters K Y P A gold and issuant therefrom a representation of the plant Silphium proper. Crests: 1. (of augmentation) on a wreath of the colours, a mount vert inscribed with the aforesaid Greek letters and issuant therefrom the Silphium as in the arms; 2. on a wreath of the colours, an anchor fesswise sable, thereon an ostrich erminois holding in the beak a horse-shoe or. Motto: "Vincere est vivere." The arms granted to Sir Richard Quain were: "Argent, a chevron engrailed azure, in chief two fers-de-moline gules, and issuant from the base a rock covered with daisies proper." [Illustration: FIG. 494.--Fleur-de-lis.] _Primroses_ occur (as was only to be expected) in the arms of the Earl of Rosebery ["Vert, three primroses within a double tressure flory counterflory or"]. _The Sunflower_ or _Marigold_ occurs in the crest of Buchan ["A sunflower in full bloom towards the sun in the dexter chief"], and also in the arms granted in 1614 to Florio. Here, however, the flower is termed a heliotrope. The arms in question are: "Azure, a heliotrope or, issuing from a stalk sprouting from two leaves vert, in chief the sun in splendour proper." _Tulips_ occur in the arms of Raphael, and the _Cornflower_ or _Bluebottle_ in the arms of Chorley of Chorley, Lancs. ["Argent, a chevron gules between three bluebottles slipped proper"], and also in the more modern arms of that town. _Saffron-Flowers_ are a charge upon the arms of Player of Nottingham. The arms granted to Sir Edgar Boehm, Bart., were: "Azure, in the sinister canton a sun issuant therefrom eleven rays, over all a clover-plant eradicated proper." _The Fleur-de-Lis._--Few figures have puzzled the antiquary so much as the fleur-de-lis. Countless origins have been suggested for it; we have even lately had the height of absurdity urged in a suggested phallic origin, which only rivals in ridiculousness the long since exploded legend that the fleurs-de-lis in the arms of France were a {273} corrupted form of an earlier coat, "Azure, three toads or," the reputed coat of arms of Pharamond! To France and the arms of France one must turn for the origin of the heraldic use of the fleur-de-lis. To begin with, the form of the fleur-de-lis as a mere presumably meaningless form of decoration is found long before the days of armory, in fact from the earliest period of decoration. It is such an essentially natural development of decoration that it may be accepted as such without any attempt to give it a meaning or any symbolism. Its earliest heraldic appearances as the finial of a sceptre or the decoration of a coronet need not have had any symbolical character. We then find the "lily" accepted as having some symbolical reference to France, and it should be remembered that the iris was known by the name of a lily until comparatively modern times. It is curious--though possibly in this case it may be only a coincidence--that, on a coin of the Emperor Hadrian, Gaul is typified by a female figure holding in the hand a lily, the legend being, "Restutori Galliæ." The fleur-de-lis as the finial of a sceptre and as an ornament of a crown can be taken back to the fifth century. Fleurs-de-lis upon crowns and coronets in France are at least as old as the reign of King Robert (son of Hugh Capet) whose seal represents him crowned in this manner. We have, moreover, the ancient legendary tradition that at the baptism of Clovis, King of the Franks, the Virgin (whose emblem the lily has always been) sent a lily by an angel as a mark of her special favour. It is difficult to determine the exact date at which this tradition was invented, but its accepted character may be judged from the fact that it was solemnly advanced by the French bishops at the Council of Trent in a dispute as to the precedence of their sovereign. The old legend as to Clovis would naturally identify the flower with him, and it should be noted that the names Clovis, Lois, Loys, and Louis are identical. "Loys" was the signature of the kings of France until the time of Louis XIII. It is worth the passing conjecture that what are sometimes termed "Cleves lilies" may be a corrupted form of Clovis lilies. There can be little doubt that the term "fleur-de-lis" is quite as likely to be a corruption of "fleur-de-lois" as flower of the lily. The chief point is that the desire was to represent a _flower_ in allusion to the old legend, without perhaps any very definite certainty of the flower intended to be represented. Philip I. on his seal (A.D. 1060) holds a short staff terminating in a fleur-de-lis. The same object occurs in the great seal of Louis VII. In the seal of his wife, Queen Constance, we find her represented as holding in either hand a similar object, though in these last cases it is by no means certain that the objects are not attempts to represent the natural flower. A signet {274} of Louis VII. bears a single fleur-de-lis "florencée" (or flowered), and in his reign the heraldic fleur-de-lis undoubtedly became stereotyped as a symbolical device, for we find that when in the lifetime of Louis VII. his son Philip was crowned, the king prescribed that the prince should wear "ses chausses appelées sandales ou bottines de soye, couleur bleu azuré sémée en moult endroits de fleurs-de-lys or, puis aussi sa dalmatique de même couleur et oeuvre." On the oval counter-seal of Philip II. (d. 1223) appears a heraldic fleur-de-lis. His great seal, as also that of Louis VIII., shows a seated figure crowned with an open crown of "fleurons," and holding in his right hand a flower, and in his left a sceptre surmounted by a heraldic fleur-de-lis enclosed within a lozenge-shaped frame. On the seal of Louis VIII. the conjunction of the essentially heraldic fleur-de-lis (within the lozenge-shaped head of the sceptre), and the more natural flower held in the hand, should leave little if any doubt of the intention to represent flowers in the French fleurs-de-lis. The figure held in the hand represents a flower of five petals. The upper pair turned inwards to touch the centre one, and the lower pair curved downwards, leave the figure with a marked resemblance both to the iris and to the conventional fleur-de-lis. The counter-seal of Louis VIII. shows a Norman-shaped shield semé of fleurs-de-lis of the conventional heraldic pattern. By then, of course, "Azure, semé-de-lis or" had become the fixed and determined arms of France. By an edict dated 1376, Charles V. reduced the number of fleurs-de-lis in his shield to three: "Pour symboliser la Sainte-Trinite." The claim of Edward III. to the throne of France was made on the death of Charles IV. of France in 1328, but the decision being against him, he apparently acquiesced, and did homage to Philip of Valois (Philip VI.) for Guienne. Philip, however, lent assistance to David II. of Scotland against King Edward, who immediately renewed his claim to France, assumed the arms and the title of king of that country, and prepared for war. He commenced hostilities in 1339, and upon his new Great Seal (made in the early part of 1340) we find his arms represented upon shield, surcoat, and housings as: "Quarterly, 1 and 4, azure, semé-de-lis or (for France); 2 and 3, gules, three lions passant guardant in pale or (for England)." The Royal Arms thus remained until 1411, when upon the second Great Seal of Henry IV. the fleurs-de-lis in England (as in France) were reduced to three in number, and so remained as part of the Royal Arms of this country until the latter part of the reign of George III. Fleurs-de-lis (probably intended as badges only) had figured upon all the Great Seals of Edward III. On the first seal (which with slight alterations had also served for both Edward I. and II.), a small {275} fleur-de-lis appears over each of the castles which had previously figured on either side of the throne. In the second Great Seal, fleurs-de-lis took the places of the castles. The similarity of the Montgomery arms to the Royal Arms of France has led to all kinds of wild genealogical conjectures, but at a time when the arms of France were hardly determinate, the seal of John de Mundegumbri is met with, bearing a single fleur-de-lis, the original from which the arms of Montgomery were developed. Letters of nobility and the name of Du Lis were granted by Charles VII. in December 1429 to the brothers of Joan of Arc, and the following arms were then assigned to them: "Azure, a sword in pale proper, hilted and supporting on its point an open crown or, between two fleurs-de-lis of the last." The fleur-de-lis "florencée," or the "fleur-de-lis flowered," as it is termed in England, is officially considered a distinct charge from the simple fleur-de-lis. Eve employs the term "seeded," and remarks of it: "This being one of the numerous instances of pedantic, because unnecessary distinction, which showed marks of decadence; for both forms occur at the same period, and adorn the same object, evidently with the same intention." The difference between these forms really is that the fleur-de-lis is "seeded" when a stalk having seeds at the end issues in the upper interstices. In a fleur-de-lis "florencée," the natural flower of a lily issues instead of the seeded stalk. This figure formed the arms of the city of Florence. Fleurs-de-lis, like all other Royal emblems, are frequently to be met with in the arms of towns, _e.g._ in the arms of Lancaster, Maryborough, Wakefield, and Great Torrington. The arms of Wareham afford an instance of fleurs-de-lis reversed, and the Corporate Seals of Liskeard and Tamworth merit reproduction, did space permit, from the designs of the fleurs-de-lis which there appear. One cannot leave the fleur-de-lis without referring to one curious development of it, viz. the leopard's face jessant-de-lis (Fig. 332), a curious charge which undoubtedly originated in the arms of the family of Cantelupe. This charge is not uncommon, though by no means so usual as the leopard's face. Planché considers that it was originally derived from the fleur-de-lis, the circular boss which in early representations so often figures as the centre of the fleur-de-lis, being merely _decorated_ with the leopard's face. One can follow Planché a bit further by imagining that this face need not necessarily be that of a leopard, for at a certain period all decorative art was crowded with grotesque masks whenever opportunity offered. The leopard's face jessant-de-lis is now represented as a leopard's face with the lower part of a fleur-de-lis issuing from the mouth, and the upper part rising from behind the head. Instances of {276} this charge occur as early as the thirteenth century as the arms of the Cantelupe family, and Thomas de Cantelupe having been Bishop of Hereford 1275 to 1282, the arms of that See have since been three leopards' faces jessant-de-lis, the distinction being that in the arms of the See of Hereford the leopards' faces are reversed. The origin may perhaps make itself apparent when we remember that the earliest form of the name was Cantelowe. Is it not probable that "lions'" faces (_i.e._ head _de leo_) may have been suggested by the name? Possibly, however, wolf-heads may have been meant, suggested by _lupus_, or by the same analogy which gives us wolf-heads or wolves upon the arms of Low and Lowe. [Illustration: FIG. 495.--Pomegranate.] Fruit--the remaining division of those charges which can be classed as belonging to the vegetable kingdom--must of necessity be but briefly dealt with. _Grapes_ perhaps cannot be easily distinguished from vines (to which refer, page 264), but the arms of Bradway of Potscliff, co. Gloucester ["Argent, a chevron gules between three bunches of grapes proper"] and of Viscountess Beaconsfield, the daughter of Captain John Viney Evans ["Argent, a bunch of grapes stalked and leaved proper, between two flaunches sable, each charged with a boar's head argent"] are instances in point. _Apples_ occur in the arms of Robert Applegarth (Edward III. Roll) ["Argent, three apples slipped gules"] and "Or, a chevron between three apples gules" is the coat of a family named Southbey. _Pears_ occur in the arms of Allcroft, of Stokesay Castle, Perrins, Perry, Perryman, and Pirie. _Oranges_ are but seldom met with in British heraldry, but an instance occurs in the arms of Lord Polwarth, who bears over the Hepburn quarterings an inescutcheon azure, an orange slipped and surmounted by an imperial crown all proper. This was an augmentation conferred by King William III., and a very similar augmentation (in the 1st and 4th quarters, azure, three oranges slipped proper within an orle of thistles or) was granted to Livingstone, Viscount Teviot. _The Pomegranate_ (Fig. 495), which dimidiated with a rose was one of the badges of Queen Mary, is not infrequently met with. _The Pineapple_ in heraldry is nearly always the fir-cone. In the arms of Perring, Bart. ["Argent, on a chevron engrailed sable between three pineapples (fir-cones) pendent vert, as many leopards' faces of the first. Crest: on a mount a pineapple (fir-cone) vert"], and in the crest of Parkyns, Bart. ["Out of a ducal coronet or, a pineapple {277} proper"], and also in the arms of Pyne ["Gules, a chevron ermine between three pineapples or"] and Parkin-Moore, the fruit is the fir or pine cone. Latterly the likelihood of confusion has led to the general use of the term "pine-cone" in such cases, but the ancient description was certainly "pineapple." The arms of John Apperley, as given in the Edward III. Roll, are: "Argent, a chevron gules between three pineapples (fir-cones) vert, slipped or." The real pineapple of the present day does, however, occur, _e.g._ in the arms of Benson, of Lutwyche, Shropshire ["Argent, on waves of the sea, an old English galley all proper, on a chief wavy azure a hand couped at the wrist, supporting on a dagger the scales of Justice between two pineapples erect or, leaved vert. Mantling azure and argent. Crest: upon a wreath of the colours, a horse caparisoned, passant, proper, on the breast a shield argent, charged with a pineapple proper. Motto: 'Leges arma tenent sanctas'"]. [Illustration: FIG. 496.--Acorn slipped and leaved.] _Bean-Pods_ occur in the arms of Rise of Trewardreva, co. Cornwall ["Argent, a chevron gules between three bean-pods vert"], and Papworth mentions in the arms of Messarney an instance of cherries ["Or, a chevron per pale gules and vert between three cherries of the second slipped of the third"]. Elsewhere, however, the charges on the shield of this family are termed apples. Strawberries occur in the arms and crest of Hollist, and the arms of Duffield are: "Sable, a chevron between three cloves or." The arms of the Grocers' Livery Company, granted in 1531-1532, are: "Argent, a chevron gules between nine cloves, three, three and three." The arms of Garwynton are stated to be: "Sable, a chevron between three heads of garlick pendent argent," but another version gives the charges as pomegranates. "Azure, a chevron between three gourds pendent, slipped or" is a coat attributed to Stukele, but here again there is uncertainty, as the charges are sometimes quoted as pears. The arms of Bonefeld are: "Azure, a chevron between three quinces or." The arms of Alderberry are naturally: "Argent, three branches of alder-berries proper." The arms of Haseley of Suffolk are: "Argent, a fess gules, between three hazel-nuts or, stalks and leaves vert." Papworth also mentions the arms of Tarsell, viz.: "Or, a chevron sable, between three hazel-nuts erect, slipped gules." It would, however, seem more probable that these charges are really teazles. The fruit of the oak--the _Acorn_ (Fig. 496)--has already been incidentally referred to, but other instances occur in the arms of Baldwin, Stable, and Huth. {278} Wheat and other grain is constantly met with in British armory. The arms of Bigland ["Azure, two ears of big wheat erect in fess and bladed or"] and of Cheape are examples, and others occur in the arms of Layland-Barratt, Cross, and Rye ["Gules, on a bend argent, between two ears of rye, stalked, leaved, and slipped or, three crosses cramponné sable"]. [Illustration: FIG. 497.--Garb.] _Garbs_, as they are invariably termed heraldically, are sheaves, and are of very frequent occurrence. The earliest appearance of the garb (Fig. 497) in English heraldry is on the seal of Ranulph, Earl of Chester, who died in 1232. Garbs therefrom became identified with the Earldom of Chester, and subsequently "Azure, three garbs or" became and still remain the territorial or possibly the sovereign coat of that earldom. Garbs naturally figure, therefore, in the arms of many families who originally held land by feudal tenure under the Earls of Chester, e.g. the families of Cholmondeley ["Gules, in chief two helmets in profile argent, and in base a garb vert"] and Kevilioc ["Azure, six garbs, three, two, and one or"]. Grosvenor ["Azure, a garb or"] is usually quoted as another example, and possibly correctly, but a very interesting origin has been suggested by Mr. W. G. Taunton in his work "The Tauntons of Oxford, by One of Them":-- "I merely wish to make a few remarks of my own that seem to have escaped other writers on genealogical matters. "In the first place, Sir Gilbert le Grosvenor, who is stated to have come over with William of Normandy at the Conquest, is described as nephew to Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester; but Hugh Lupus was himself nephew to King William. Now, William could not have been very old when he overthrew Harold at Hastings. It seems, therefore, rather improbable that Sir Gilbert le Grosvenor, who was his nephew's nephew, could actually have fought with him at Hastings, especially when William lived to reign for twenty-one years after, and was not very old when he died. "The name Grosvenor does not occur in any of the versions of the Roll of Battle Abbey. Not that any of these versions of this celebrated Roll are considered authentic by modern critics, who say that many names were subsequently added by the monks to please ambitious parvenus. The name Venour is on the Roll, however, and it is just possible that this Venour was the Grosvenor of our quest. The addition of 'Gros' would then be subsequent to his fattening on the spoils of the Saxon and cultivating a corporation. 'Venour' means hunter, and {279} 'Gros' means fat. Gilbert's uncle, Hugh Lupus, was, we know, a fat man; in fact, he was nicknamed 'Hugh the Fat.' The Grosvenors of that period probably inherited obesity from their relative, Hugh Lupus, therefore, and the fable that they were called Grosvenor on account of their office of 'Great Huntsman' to the Dukes of Normandy is not to be relied on. "We are further on told by the old family historians that when Sir Robert Grosvenor lost the day in that ever-memorable controversy with Sir Richard le Scrope, Baron of Bolton, concerning the coat of arms--'Azure, a bend or'--borne by both families, Sir Robert Grosvenor took for his arms one of the garbs of his kinsman, the Earl of Chester. "It did not seem to occur to these worthies that the Earl of Chester, who was their ancestor's uncle, never bore the garbs in his arms, but a wolf's head. "It is true that one or two subsequent Earls of Chester bore garbs, but these Earls were far too distantly connected with the Grosvenors to render it likely that the latter would borrow their new arms from this source. "It is curious that there should have been in this same county of Chester a family of almost identical name also bearing a garb in their arms, though their garb was surrounded by three bezants. "The name of this family was Grasvenor, or Gravenor, and, moreover, the tinctures of their arms were identical with those of Grosvenor. It is far more likely, therefore, that the coat assumed by Sir Robert after the adverse decision of the Court of Chivalry was taken from that of Grasvenor, or Gravenor, and that the two families were known at that time to be of common origin, although their connection with each other has subsequently been lost. "In French both _gros_ and _gras_ mean fat, and we have both forms in Grosvenor and Grasvenor. "A chief huntsman to Royalty would have been Grandvenor, not Grosvenor or Grasvenor. "All these criticisms of mine, however, only affect the origin of the arms, and not the ancient and almost Royal descent of this illustrious race. Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, was a son of the Duke of Brittany, as is plainly stated in his epitaph. "This connection of uncle and nephew, then, between 'Hugh the Fat' and Gilbert Grosvenor implies a maternal descent from the Dukes of Brittany for the first ancestor of the Grosvenor family. "In virtue of their descent from an heiress of the house of Grosvenor, it is only necessary to add the Tauntons of Oxford are Grosvenors, heraldically speaking, and that quartering so many ancient coats through {280} the Tanners and the Grosvenors with our brand-new grant is like putting old wine into new bottles. "Hugh Lupus left no son to succeed him, and the subsequent descent of the Earldom of Chester was somewhat erratic. So I think there is some point in my arguments regarding the coat assumed by Sir Robert Grosvenor of Hulme." Though a garb, unless quoted otherwise, is presumed to be a sheaf of wheat, the term is not so confined. The garbs in the arms of Comyn, which figure as a quartering in so many Scottish coats, are really of cummin, as presumably are the garbs in the arms of Cummins. When a garb is "banded" of a different colour this should be stated, and Elvin states that it may be "eared" of a different colour, though I confess I am aware of no such instance. "Argent, two bundles of reeds in fess vert," is the coat of Janssen of Wimbledon, Surrey (Bart., extinct), and a bundle of rods occurs in the arms of Evans, and the crest of Harris, though in this latter case it is termed a faggot. _Reeds_ also occur in the crest of Reade, and the crest of Middlemore ["On a wreath of colours, a moorcock amidst grass and reeds proper"] furnishes another example. _Bulrushes_ occur in the crest of Billiat, and in the arms of Scott ["Argent, on a mount of bulrushes in base proper, a bull passant sable, a chief pean, billetté or"]. _Grass_ is naturally presumed on the mounts vert which are so constantly met with, but more definite instances can be found in the arms of Sykes, Hulley, and Hill. {281} CHAPTER XIX INANIMATE OBJECTS In dealing with those charges which may be classed under the above description one can safely say that there is scarcely an object under the sun which has not at some time or other been introduced into a coat of arms or crest. One cannot usefully make a book on armory assume the character of a general encyclopædia of useful knowledge, and reference will only be made in this chapter to a limited number, including those which from frequent usage have obtained a recognised heraldic character. Mention may, at the outset, be made of certain letters of the _alphabet_. Instances of these are scarcely common, but the family of Kekitmore may be adduced as bearing "Gules, three S's or," while Bridlington Priory had for arms: "Per pale, sable and argent, three B's counterchanged." The arms of Rashleigh are: "Sable, a cross or, between in the first quarter a Cornish chough argent, beaked and legged gules; in the second a text T; in the third and fourth a crescent all argent." Corporate arms (in England) afford an instance of alphabetical letters in the case of the B's on the shield of Bermondsey. [Illustration: FIG. 498.--Anchor.] _The Anchor_ (Fig. 498).--This charge figures very largely in English armory, as may, perhaps, be looked for when it is remembered that maritime devices occur more frequently in sea-board lands than in continents. The arms of the town of Musselburgh are: "Azure, three anchors in pale, one in the chief and two in the flanks or, accompanied with as many mussels, one in the dexter and one in the sinister chief points, and the third in base proper." The Comtes de St. Cricq, with "Argent, two anchors in saltire sable, on a chief three mullets or," will be an instance in point as to France. _Anvils._--These are occasionally met with, as in the case of the arms of a family of the name of Walker, who bear: "Argent, on a chevron gules, between two anvils in chief and an anchor in base sable, a bee between two crescents or. Mantling gules and argent. {282} Crest: upon a wreath of the colours, on a mount within a wreathed serpent a dove all statant proper." Arches, castles, towers, and turrets may be exemplified, amongst others, by the following. Instances of _Castles_ and _Towers_ will be found in the arms of Carlyon and Kelly, and of the former fractured castles will be found in the shield of Willoughby quartered by Bertie; while an example of a quadrangular castle may be seen in the arms of Rawson. The difference between a Castle (Fig. 499) and a Tower (Fig. 500) should be carefully noticed, and though it is a distinction but little observed in ancient days it is now always adhered to. When either castle or tower is surmounted by smaller towers (as Fig. 501) it is termed "triple-towered." [Illustration: FIG. 499.--Castle.] [Illustration: FIG. 500.--Tower.] [Illustration: FIG. 501.--Tower triple-towered.] An instance of a _Fortification_ as a charge occurs in the shield of Sconce: "Azure, a fortification (sconce) argent, masoned sable, in the dexter chief point a mullet of six points of the second." _Gabions_ were hampers filled with earth, and were used in the construction of fortifications and earthworks. They are of occasional occurrence in English armory at any rate, and may be seen in the shields of Christie and of Goodfellow. The arms of Banks supply an instance of _Arches_. Mention may here perhaps be made of William Arches, who bore at the siege of Rouen: "Gules, three double arches argent." The family of Lethbridge bear a bridge, and this charge figures in a number of other coats. _An Abbey_ occurs in the arms of Maitland of Dundrennan ["Argent, the ruins of an old abbey on a piece of ground all proper"], and a monastery in that of McLarty ["Azure, the front of an ancient monastery argent"]. A somewhat isolated instance of a _Temple_ occurs in the shield of Templer. A curious canting grant of arms may be seen in that to the town of Eccles, in which the charge is an _Ecclesiastical Building_, and similar {283} though somewhat unusual charges figure also in the quartering for Chappel ["Per chevron or and azure, in chief a mullet of six points between two crosses patée of the last, and in base the front elevation of a chapel argent"], borne by Brown-Westhead. _Arrows_ are very frequently found, and the arms of Hales supply one of the many examples of this charge, while a bow--without the arrows--may be instanced in the shield of Bowes: "Ermine, three bows bent and stringed palewise in fess proper." _Arrow-Heads_ and _Pheons_ are of common usage, and occur in the arms of Foster and many other families. Pheons, it may be noticed in passing, are arrow-heads with an inner engrailed edge (Fig. 502), while when depicted without this peculiarity they are termed "broad arrows" (Fig. 503). This is not a distinction very stringently adhered to. Charges associated with warfare and military defences are frequently to be found both in English and foreign heraldry. [Illustration: FIG. 502.--Pheon.] [Illustration: FIG. 503.--Broad arrow.] [Illustration: FIG. 504.--Battle-axe.] [Illustration: FIG. 505.--Caltrap.] _Battle-Axes_ (Fig. 504), for example, may be seen in the shield of Firth and in that of Renty in Artois, which has: "Argent, three doloires, or broad-axes, gules, those in chief addorsed." In blazoning a battle-axe care should be taken to specify the fact if the head is of a different colour, as is frequently the case. The somewhat infrequent device of a _Battering-Ram_ is seen in the arms of Bertie, who bore: "Argent, three battering-rams fesswise in pale proper, armed and garnished azure." An instrument of military defence consisting of an iron frame of four points, and called a _Caltrap_ (Fig. 505) or _Galtrap_ (and sometimes a Cheval trap, from its use of impeding the approach of cavalry), is found in the arms of Trappe ["Argent, three caltraps sable"], Gilstrap and other families; while French armory supplies us with another example in {284} the case of the family of Guetteville de Guénonville, who bore for arms: "D'argent, semée de chausse-trapes de sable." Caltraps are also strewn upon the compartment upon which the supporters to the arms of the Earl of Perth are placed. As the well-known badge of the Royal House of Tudor, the _Portcullis_ (Fig. 506) is familiar to any one conversant with Henry VII.'s Chapel at Westminster Abbey, but it also appears as a charge in the arms of the family of Wingate ["Gules, a portcullis and a chief embattled or"], where it forms an obvious pun on the earliest form of the name, viz. Windygate, whilst it figures also as the crest of the Dukes of Beaufort ["A portcullis or, nailed azure, chained of the first"]. The disposition of the chains is a matter always left to the discretion of the artist. [Illustration: FIG. 506.--Portcullis.] [Illustration: FIG. 507.--Beacon.] [Illustration: FIG. 508.--Grenade.] Examples of _Beacons_ (Fig. 507) are furnished by the achievements of the family of Compton and of the town of Wolverhampton. A _fire chest_ occurs in the arms of Critchett (_vide_ p. 261). _Chains_ are singularly scarce in armory, and indeed nearly wholly absent as _charges_, usually occurring where they do as part of the crest. The English shield of Anderton, it is true, bears: "Sable, three chains argent;" while another one (Duppa de Uphaugh) has: "Quarterly, 1 and 4, a lion's paw couped in fess between two chains or, a chief nebuly of the last, thereon two roses of the first, barbed and seeded proper (for Duppa); 2 and 3, party fess azure and sable, a trident fesswise or, between three turbots argent (for Turbutt)." In Continental heraldry, however, chains are more frequently met with. Principal amongst these cases maybe cited the arms of Navarre ("Gules, a cross saltire and double orle of chains, linked together or"), while many other instances are found in the armories of Southern France and of Spain. _Bombs_ or _Grenades_ (Fig. 508), for Heraldry does not distinguish, figure in the shields of Vavasseur, Jervoise, Boycott, and many other families. {285} Among the more recent grants _Cannon_ have figured, as in the case of the Pilter arms and in those of the burgh of Portobello; while an earlier counterpart, in the form of a culverin, forms the charge of the Leigh family: "Argent, a culverin in fess sable." [Illustration: FIG. 509.--Scaling ladder.] [Illustration: FIG. 510.--Lance or javelin.] [Illustration: FIG. 511.--Tilting-spear.] The _Column_ appears as a crest in the achievement of Coles. Between two cross crosslets it occurs in the arms of Adam of Maryburgh ["Vert, a Corinthian column with capital and base in pale proper, between two cross crosslets fitchée in fess or"], while the arms of the See of Sodor and Man are blazoned: "Argent, upon a pedestal the Virgin Mary with her arms extended between two pillars, in the dexter hand a church proper, in base the arms of Man in an escutcheon." Major, of Suffolk, bears: "Azure, three Corinthian columns, each surmounted by a ball, two and one argent." It is necessary to specify the kind of column in the blazon. [Illustration: FIG. 512.--Arms of William Shakespeare the poet (d. 1616): Or, on a bend sable, a tilting-spear of the field.] _Scaling-Ladders_ (Fig. 509) (viz. ordinary-shaped ladders with grapnels affixed to the tops) are to be seen in the English coats of D'Urban and Lloyd, while the Veronese Princes della Scala bore the ordinary ladder: "Gules, a ladder of four steps in pale argent." A further instance of this form of the charge occurs in the Swiss shield of Laiterberg: "Argent, two ladders in saltire gules." _Spears_ and _Spear-Heads_ are to be found in the arms of many families both in England, Wales, and abroad; for example, in the arms of Amherst and Edwards. Distinction must be drawn between the lance or javelin (Fig. 510) and the heraldic tilting-spear (Fig. 511), particularly as the latter is always depicted with the sharp point for warfare instead of the blunted point which was actually used in the tournament. The Shakespeare arms (Fig. 512) are: "Or, on a bend sable a tilting-spear of the field," while "Azure, a lance or enfiled {286} at its point by an annulet argent" represents the French family of Danby. _Spurs_ (Fig. 513) occur in coat armour as such in the arms of Knight and Harben, and also occasionally "winged" (Fig. 514), as in the crest of Johnston. _Spur-Rowels_, or _Spur-Revels_, are to be met with under that name, but they are, and are more often termed, "mullets of five points pierced." Examples of _Stirrups_ are but infrequent, and the best-known one (as regards English armory) is that of Scudamore, while the Polish Counts Brzostowski bore: "Gules, a stirrup argent, within a bordure or." [Illustration: FIG. 513.--Spur.] [Illustration: FIG. 514.--Winged spur.] [Illustration: FIG. 515.--Sword.] _Stones_ are even more rare, though a solitary example may be quoted in the arms of Staniland: Per pale or and vert, a pale counterchanged, three eagles displayed two and one, and as many flint-stones one and two all proper. The "vigilance" of the crane has been already alluded to on page 247. The mention of stones brings one to the kindred subject of _Catapults_. These engines of war, needless to say on a very much larger scale than the object which is nowadays associated with the term, were also known by the name _balistæ_, and also by that of _swepe_. Their occurrence is very infrequent, but for that very reason one may, perhaps, draw attention to the arms of the (English) family of Magnall: "Argent, a swepe azure, charged with a stone or." _Swords_, differing in number, position, and kind are, perhaps, of this class of charge the most numerous. A single sword as a charge may be seen in the shield of Dick of Wicklow, and Macfie, and a sword entwined by a serpent in that of Mackesy. A flaming sword occurs in the arms of Maddocks and Lewis. Swords frequently figure, too, in the hands or paws of supporters, accordingly as the latter are human figures or animals, whilst they figure as the "supporters" themselves in the unique case of the French family of Bastard, whose shield is cottised by "two swords, point in base." The heraldic sword is represented as Fig. 515, the blade of the _dagger_ {287} being shorter and more pointed. The _scymitar_ follows the form depicted in Fig. 516. A _Seax_ is the term employed to denote a curved scimitar, or falchion, having a notch at the back of the blade (Fig. 517). In heraldry the use of this last is fairly frequent, though generally, it must be added, in shields of arms of doubtful authority. As such they are to be seen, amongst others, in the reputed arms of Middlesex, and owing to this origin they were included in the grant of arms to the town of Ealing. The sabre and the cutlass when so blazoned follow their utilitarian patterns. _Torches_ or _Firebrands_ are depicted in the arms and crest of Gillman and Tyson. _Barnacles_ (or _Breys_)--horse curbs--occur in some of the earlier coats, as in the arms of Wyatt ["Gules, a barnacle argent"], while another family of the same name (or, possibly, Wyot) bore: "Per fess gules and azure (one or) three barnacles argent". [Illustration: FIG. 516.--Scymitar.] [Illustration: FIG. 517.--Seax.] [Illustration: FIG. 518.--Church-bell.] [Illustration: FIG. 519.--Hawk's bell.] _Bells_ are well instanced in the shield of Porter, and the poet Wordsworth bore: "Argent, three bells azure." It may be noted in passing that in Continental armory the clapper is frequently of a different tincture to that of the bell, as, for instance, "D'Azure, à la cloche d'argent, butaillé [viz. with the clapper] de sable"--the arms of the Comtes de Bellegarse. A bell is assumed to be a church-bell (Fig. 518) unless blazoned as a hawk's bell (Fig. 519). _Bridle-Bits_ are of very infrequent use, though they may be seen in the achievement of the family of Milner. The _Torse_ (or wreath surmounting the helm) occasionally figures as a charge, for example, in the arms of Jocelyn and Joslin. _The Buckle_ is a charge which is of much more general use than some of the foregoing. It appears very frequently both in English {288} and foreign heraldry--sometimes oval-shaped (Fig. 520), circular (Fig. 521), or square (Fig. 522), but more generally lozenge-shaped (Fig. 523), especially in the case of Continental arms. A somewhat curious variation occurs in the arms of the Prussian Counts Wallenrodt, which are: "Gules, a lozenge-shaped buckle argent, the tongue broken in the middle." It is, of course, purely an artistic detail in all these buckles whether the tongue is attached to a crossbar, as in Figs. 520 and 521, or not, as in Figs. 522 and 523. As a badge the buckle is used by the Pelhams, Earls of Chichester and Earls of Yarborough, and a lozenge-shaped arming buckle is the badge of Jerningham. _Cups_ (covered) appear in the Butler arms, and derived therefrom in the arms of the town of Warrington. Laurie, of Maxwelltown, bear: "Sable, a cup argent, issuing therefrom a garland between two laurel-branches all proper," and similar arms are registered in Ireland for Lowry. The Veronese family of Bicchieri bear: "Argent, a fess gules between three drinking-glasses half-filled with red wine proper." An uncovered cup occurs in the arms of Fox, derived by them from the crest of Croker, and another instance occurs in the arms of a family of Smith. In this connection we may note in passing the rare use of the device of a _Vase_, which forms a charge in the coat of the town of Burslem, whilst it is also to be met with in the crest of the family of Doulton: "On a wreath of the colours, a demi-lion sable, holding in the dexter paw a cross crosslet or, and resting the sinister upon an escutcheon charged with a vase proper." The motto is perhaps well worth recording; "Le beau est la splendeur de vrai." [Illustration: FIG. 520.--Oval buckle.] [Illustration: FIG. 521.--Circular buckle.] [Illustration: FIG. 522.--Square buckle.] [Illustration: FIG. 523.--Lozenge-shaped buckle.] The arms of both the city of Dundee and the University of Aberdeen afford instances of a _Pot of Lilies_, and _Bowls_ occur in the arms of Bolding. PLATE V. [Illustration] {289} Though blazoned as a _Cauldron_, the device occurring in the crest of De la Rue may be perhaps as fittingly described as an open bowl, and as such may find a place in this classification: "Between two olive-branches vert a cauldron gules, fired and issuant therefrom a snake nowed proper." The use of a _Pitcher_ occurs in the arms of Bertrand de Monbocher, who bore at the siege of Carlaverock: "Argent, three pitchers sable (sometimes found gules) within a bordure sable bezanté;" and the arms of Standish are: "Sable, three standing dishes argent." The somewhat singular charge of a _Chart_ appears in the arms of Christopher, and also as the crest of a Scottish family of Cook. [Illustration: FIG. 524.--Chess-rook.] [Illustration: FIG. 525.--Crescent.] [Illustration: FIG. 526.--Increscent.] _Chess-Rooks_ (Fig. 524) are somewhat favourite heraldic devices, and are to be met with in a shield of Smith and the arms of Rocke of Clungunford. The _Crescent_ (Fig. 525) figures largely in all armories, both as a charge and (in English heraldry) as a difference. Variations, too, of the form of the crescent occur, such as when the horns are turned to the dexter (Fig. 526), when it is termed "a crescent increscent," or simply "an increscent," or when they are turned to the sinister--when it is styled "decrescent" (Fig. 527). An instance of the crescent "reversed" may be seen in the shield of the Austrian family of Puckberg, whose blazon was: "Azure, three crescents, those in chief addorsed, that in base reversed." In English "difference marks" the crescent is used to denote the second son, but under this character it will be discussed later. Independently of its use in conjunction with ecclesiastical armory, the _Crosier_ (Fig. 528) is not widely used in ordinary achievements. It does occur, however, as a principal charge, as in the arms of the Irish family of Crozier and in the arms of Benoit (in Dauphiny) ["Gules, a pastoral staff argent"], while it forms part of the crest of Alford. The term "crosier" is synonymous with the pastoral or episcopal staff, and is independent of the cross which is borne _before_ (and not _by_) {290} Archbishops and Metropolitans. The use of pastoral staves as charges is also to be seen in the shield of Were, while MacLaurin of Dreghorn bears: "Argent, a shepherd's crook sable." The _Palmer's Staff_ (Fig. 529) has been introduced into many coats of arms for families having the surname of Palmer, as has also the palmer's wallet. [Illustration: FIG. 527.--Decrescent.] [Illustration: FIG. 528.--Crosier, or pastoral staff.] [Illustration: FIG. 529.--Palmer's staff.] [Illustration: FIG. 530.--Shuttle.] [Illustration: FIG. 531.--Woolpack.] [Illustration: FIG. 532.--Escarbuncle.] _Cushions_, somewhat strangely, form the charges in a number of British shields, occurring, for example, in the arms of Brisbane, and on the shield of the Johnstone family. In Scottish heraldry, indeed, cushions appear to have been of very ancient (and general) use, and are frequently to be met with. The Earls of Moray bore: "Argent, three cushions lozengewise within a double tressure flory-counterflory gules," but an English example occurs in the arms of Hutton. _The Distaff_, which is supposed to be the origin of the lozenge upon which a lady bears her arms, is seldom seen in heraldry, but the family of Body, for instance, bear one in chief, and three occur in the arms of a family of Lees. _The Shuttle_ (Fig. 530) occurs in the arms of Shuttleworth, and in those of the town of Leigh, while the shield of the borough of Pudsey affords an illustration of shuttles in conjunction with a woolpack (Fig. 531). _The Escarbuncle_ (Fig. 532) is an instance of a charge having so developed by the evolution of an integral part of the shield itself. In {291} ancient warfare shields were sometimes strengthened by being bound with iron bands radiating from the centre, and these bands, from the shape they assumed, became in course of time a charge in themselves under the term escarbuncle. The crest of the Fanmakers' Company is: "A hand couped proper holding a _fan_ displayed," while the chief charge in the arms is "... a fan displayed ... the sticks gules." This, however, is the only case I can cite of this object. The _Fasces_ (Fig. 533), emblematic of the Roman magisterial office, is very frequently introduced in grants of arms to Mayors and Lord Mayors, which no doubt accounts for its appearance in the arms of Durning-Lawrence, Knill, Evans, and Spokes. [Illustration: FIG. 533.--Fasces.] [Illustration: FIG. 534.--Fetterlock.] [Illustration: FIG. 535.--Fleam.] An instance of _Fetterlocks_ (Fig. 534) occurs in the arms of Kirkwood, and also in the coat of Lockhart and the crest of Wyndham. A chain is often substituted for the bow of the lock. The modern padlock has been introduced into the grant of arms to the town of Wolverhampton. _Keys_, the emblem of St. Peter, and, as such, part of the insignia of His Holiness the Pope, occur in many ecclesiastical coats, the arms of the Fishmongers' Livery Company, and many families. _Flames of Fire_ are not frequently met with, but they are to be found in the arms of Baikie, and as crests they figure in the achievements of Graham-Wigan, and also in conjunction with keys in that of Flavel. In connection with certain other objects flames are common enough. The phoenix always issues from flames, and a salamander is always in the midst of flames (Fig. 437). The flaming sword, a device, by the way, included in the recent grant to Sir George Lewis, Bart., has been already alluded to, as has also the flaming brand. A notable example of the torch occurs in the crest of Sir William Gull, Bart., no doubt an allusion (as is his augmentation) to the skill by which he kept the torch of life burning in the then Prince of Wales during his serious illness in 1871. A flaming mountain occurs as the crest of several families of the name of Grant. {292} A curious instrument now known nearly exclusively in connection with its use by farriers, and termed a _Fleam_ (Fig. 535), occurs on the chief of the shield of Moore. A fleam, however, is the ancient form and name of a surgeon's lancet, and some connection with surgery may be presumed when it occurs. It is one of the charges in the arms recently granted to Sir Frederick Treves, Bart. _Furison._--This singular charge occurs in the shield of Black, and also in that of Steel. Furisons were apparently the instruments by which fire was struck from flint stones. [Illustration: FIG. 536.--Clarion.] [Illustration: FIG. 537.--Bugle-horn.] [Illustration: FIG. 538.--Bugle-horn stringed.] Charges in connection with music and musical instruments do not occur very frequently, though the heraldic use of the _Clarion_ (Fig. 536) and the _Harp_ may perhaps be mentioned. The bugle-horn (Fig. 537) also occurs "stringed" (Fig. 538), and when the bands round it are of a different colour it is termed "veruled" or "virolled" of that colour. _The Human Heart_, which should perhaps have been more correctly referred to in an earlier chapter, is a charge which is well known in heraldry, both English and foreign. Perhaps the best known examples of the heart ensigned with a crown is seen in the shields of Douglas and Johnstone. The legend which accounts for the appearance of this charge in the arms of Douglas is too well known to need repetition. _Ingots of silver_ occur in the shield of the borough of St. Helens, whilst the family of Woollan go one better by bearing ingots of gold. _A Maunch_ (Fig. 539), which is a well-known heraldic term for the sleeve, is, as it is drawn, scarcely recognisable as such. Nevertheless its evolution can be clearly traced. The maunch--which, of course, as a heraldic charge, originated in the knightly "favour" of a lady's sleeve--was borne from the earliest periods in different tinctures by the three historic families of Conyers, Hastings, and Wharton. Other garments have been used as heraldic charges; gloves in the arms of {293} Fletcher and Barttelot; stockings in the arms of Hose; a boot in the crest of Hussy, and a hat in the arms of Huth. Armour is frequently met with, a cuirass appearing in the crest of Somers, helmets in the arms of Salvesen, Trayner, Roberton, and many other families, gauntlets (Fig. 540), which need to be specified as dexter or sinister, in the arms of Vane and the crest of Burton, and a morion (Fig. 541) in the crest of Pixley. The Garter is, of course, due to that Order of knighthood; and the Blue Mantle of the same Order, besides giving his title to one of the Pursuivants of Arms, who uses it as his badge, has also been used as a charge. _The Mill-rind_ or _Fer-de-moline_ is, of course, as its name implies, the iron from the centre of a grindstone. It is depicted in varying forms, more or less recognisable as the real thing (Fig. 542). _Mirrors_ occur almost exclusively in crests and in connection with mermaids, who, as a general rule, are represented as holding one in the dexter hand with a comb in the sinister. Very occasionally, however, mirrors appear as charges, an example being that of the Counts Spiegel zum Desenberg, who bore: "Gules, three round mirrors argent in square frames or." [Illustration: FIG. 539.--Maunch.] [Illustration: FIG. 540.--Gauntlet.] [Illustration: FIG. 541.--Morion.] [Illustration: FIG. 542.--Mill-rind.] Symbols connected with the Sacred Passion--other than the cross itself--are not of very general use in armory, though there are instances of the _Passion-Nails_ being used, as, for example, in the shield of Procter viz.: "Or, three passion-nails sable." _Pelts, or Hides_, occur in the shield of Pilter, and the Fleece has been mentioned under the division of Rams and Sheep. _Plummets_ (or _Sinkers_ used by masons) form the charges in the arms of Jennings. An instance of a _Pyramid_ is met with in the crest of Malcolm, Bart., and an _Obelisk_ in that of the town of Todmorden. {294} The shield of Crookes affords an example of two devices of very rare occurrence, viz. a _Prism_ and a _Radiometer_. Water, lakes, ships, &c., are constantly met with in armory, but a few instances must suffice. The various methods of heraldically depicting water have been already referred to (pages 88 and 151). _Three Wells_ figure in the arms of Hodsoll, and a masoned well in that of Camberwell. The shields of Stourton and Mansergh supply instances of heraldic _Fountains_, whilst the arms of Brunner and of Franco contain Fountains of the ordinary kind. A _Tarn_, or _Loch_, occurs in the shield of the family of Tarn, while Lord Loch bears: "Or, a saltire engrailed sable, between in fess two swans in water proper, all within a bordure vert." [Illustration: FIG. 543.--Lymphad, sail furled.] The use of _Ships_ may be instanced by the arms of many families, while a _Galley_ or _Lymphad_ (Fig. 543) occurs in the arms of Campbell, Macdonald, Galbraith, Macfie, and numerous other families, and also in the arms of the town of Oban. Another instance of a coat of arms in which a galley appears will be found in the arms recently granted to the burgh of Alloa, while the towns of Wandsworth and Lerwick each afford instances of a _Dragon Ship_. The _Prow of a Galley_ appears in the arms of Pitcher. [Illustration: FIG. 544.--Rainbow.] A modern form of ship in the shape of a _Yacht_ may be seen in the arms of Ryde; while two Scottish families afford instances of the use of the _Ark_. "Argent, an ark on the waters proper, surmounted of a dove azure, bearing in her beak an olive-branch vert," are the arms borne by Gellie of Blackford; and "Argent, an ark in the sea proper, in chief a dove azure, in her beak a branch of olive of the second, within a bordure of the third" are quoted as the arms of Primrose Gailliez of Chorleywood. Lastly, we may note the appropriate use of a _Steamer_ in the arms of Barrow-in-Furness. The curious figure of the lion dimidiated with the hulk of a ship which is met with in the arms of several of the towns of the Cinque Ports has been referred to on page 182. _Clouds_ form part of the arms of Leeson, which are: "Gules, a chief nebuly argent, the rays of the sun issuing therefrom or." The _Rainbow_ (Fig. 544), though not in itself a distinctly modern charge, for it occurs in the crest of Hope, has been of late very frequently granted as part of a crest. Instances occur in the crest of {295} the family of Pontifex, and again in that of Thurston, and of Wigan. Its use as a part of a crest is to be deprecated, but in these days of complicated armory it might very advantageously be introduced as a charge upon a shield. An unusual device, the _Thunderbolt_, is the crest of Carnegy. The arms of the German family of Donnersperg very appropriately are: "Sable, three thunderbolts or issuing from a chief nebuly argent, in base a mount of three coupeaux of the second." The arms of the town of Blackpool furnish an instance of a thunderbolt in dangerous conjunction with windmill sails. [Illustration: FIG. 545.--Estoile.] [Illustration: FIG. 546.--Mullet (Scottish star).] [Illustration: FIG. 547.--Mullet pierced (Scottish spur-revel).] _Stars_, a very common charge, may be instanced as borne under that name by the Scottish shield of Alston. There has, owing to their similarity, been much confusion between _stars_, _estoiles_, _and mullets_. The difficulty is increased by the fact that no very definite lines have ever been followed officially. In England stars under that name are practically unknown. When the rays are wavy the charge is termed an estoile, but when they are straight the term mullet is used. That being so, these rules follow: that the estoile is never pierced (and from the accepted method of depicting the estoile this would hardly seem very feasible), and that unless the number of points is specified there will be six (see Fig. 545). Other numbers are quite permissible, but the number of points (more usually in an estoile termed "rays") must be stated. The arm of Hobart, for example, are: "Sable, an estoile of eight rays or, between two flaunches ermine." An estoile of sixteen rays is used by the town of Ilchester, but the arms are not of any authority. Everything with straight points being in England a mullet, it naturally follows that the English practice permits a mullet to be plain (Fig. 546) or pierced (Fig. 547). Mullets are occasionally met with pierced of a colour other than the field they are charged upon. According to the English practice, therefore, the mullet is not represented as pierced unless it is expressly stated to be so. The mullet both in England and {296} Scotland is of five points unless a greater number are specified. But mullets pierced and unpierced of six (Fig. 548) or eight points (Fig. 549) are frequent enough in English armory. The Scottish practice differs, and it must be admitted that it is more correct than the English, though, strange to say, more complicated. In Scottish armory they have the estoile, the star, and the mullet or the spur-revel. As to the estoile, of course, their practice is similar to the English. But in Scotland a straight-pointed charge is a mullet if it be pierced, and a star if it be not. As a mullet is really the "molette" or rowel of a spur, it certainly could not exist as a fact unpierced. Nevertheless it is by no means stringently adhered to in that country, and they make confusion worse confounded by the frequent use of the additional name of "spur-rowel," or "spur-revel" for the pierced mullet. The mullet occurs in the arms of Vere, and was also the badge of that family. The part this badge once played in history is well known. Had the De Veres worn another badge on that fatal day the course of English history might have been changed. [Illustration: FIG. 548.--Mullet of six points.] [Illustration: FIG. 549.--Mullet of eight points.] [Illustration: FIG. 550.--Sun in splendour.] The six-pointed mullet pierced occurs in the arms of De Clinton. The _Sun in Splendour_--(Fig. 550) always so blazoned--is never represented without the surrounding rays, but the human face is not essential though usual to its heraldic use. The rays are alternately straight and wavy, indicative of the light and heat we derive therefrom, a typical piece of genuine symbolism. It is a charge in the arms of Hurst, Pearson, and many other families; and a demi-sun issuing in base occurs in the arms of Davies (Plate VI.) and of Westworth. The coat of Warde-Aldam affords an example of the _Rays_ of the sun alone. A Scottish coat, that of Baillie of Walstoun, has "Azure, the moon in her complement, between nine mullets argent, three, two, three and one." The term "in her complement" signifies that the moon is full, but with the moon no rays are shown, in this of course differing from the sun in splendour. The face is usually represented in the full moon, {297} and sometimes in the crescent moon, but the crescent moon must not be confused with the ordinary heraldic crescent. In concluding this class of charges, we may fitly do so by an allusion to the shield of Sir William Herschel, with its appropriate though clumsy device of a _Telescope_. As may be naturally expected, the insignia of sovereignty are of very frequent occurrence in all armories, both English and foreign. Long before the days of heraldry, some form of decoration for the head to indicate rank and power had been in vogue amongst, it is hardly too much to say, all nations on the earth. As in most things, Western nations have borrowed both ideas, and added developments of those ideas, from the East, and in traversing the range of armory, where crowns and coronets appear in modern Western heraldry, we find a large proportion of these devices are studiously and of purpose delineated as being _Eastern_. With crowns and coronets as symbols of rank I am not now, of course, concerned, but only with those cases which may be cited as supplying examples where the different kinds of crowns appear either as charges on shields, or as forming parts of crests. Crowns, in heraldry, may be differentiated under the Royal or the Imperial, the Eastern or antique, the Naval, and the Mural, which with the Crowns Celestial, Vallery and Palisado are all known as charges. Modern grants of crowns of Eastern character in connection with valuable service performed in the East by the recipient may be instanced; _e.g._ by the Eastern Crown in the grant to Sir Abraham Roberts, G.C.B., the father of Field-Marshal Earl Roberts, K.G. In order of antiquity one may best perhaps at the outset allude to the arms borne by the seaport towns of Boston, and of Kingston-on-Hull (or Hull, as the town is usually called), inasmuch as a tradition has it that the three crowns which figure on the shield of each of these towns originate from a recognised device of merchantmen, who, travelling in and trading with the East and likening themselves to the Magi, in their Bethlehem visit, adopted these crowns as the device or badge of their business. The same remarks may apply to the arms of Cologne: "Argent, on a chief gules, three crowns or." From this fact (if the tradition be one) to the adoption of the same device by the towns to which these merchants traded is not a far step. One may notice in passing that, unlike what from the legend one would expect, these crowns are not of Eastern design, but of a class wholly connected with heraldry itself. The legend and device, however, are both much older than these modern minutiæ of detail. The Archbishopric of York has the well-known coat: "Gules, two keys in saltire argent, in chief a regal crown proper." {298} The reputed arms of St. Etheldreda, who was both Queen, and also Abbess of Ely, find their perpetuation in the arms of that See, which are: "Gules, three ducal (an early form of the Royal) crowns or;" while the recently-created See of St. Alban's affords an example of a celestial crown: "Azure, a saltire or, a sword in pale proper; in chief a celestial crown of the second." The _Celestial Crown_ is to be observed in the arms of the borough of Kensington and as a part of the crest of Dunbar. The See of Bristol bears: "Sable, three open crowns in pale or." The Royal or Imperial Crown occurs in the crest of Eye, while an _Imperial Crown_ occurs in the crests of Robertson, Wolfe, and Lane. The family of Douglas affords an instance of a crown ensigning a human heart. The arms of Toledo afford another case in point, being: "Azure, a Royal crown or" (the cap being gules). _Antique Crowns_--as such--appear in the arms of Fraser and also in the arms of Grant. The crest of the Marquess of Ripon supplies an unusual variation, inasmuch as it issues from a coronet composed of fleurs-de-lis. The other chief emblem of sovereignty--_the Sceptre_--is occasionally met with, as in the Whitgreave crest of augmentation. The Marquises of Mun bear the Imperial orb: "Azure, an orb argent, banded, and surmounted by the cross or." The reason for the selection of this particular charge in the grant of arms [Azure, on a fess or, a horse courant gules, between three orbs gold, banded of the third] to Sir H. E. Moss, of the Empire Theatre in Edinburgh and the London Hippodrome, will be readily guessed. Under the classification of tools and implements the _Pick_ may be noted, this being depicted in the arms of Mawdsley, Moseley, and Pigott, and a pick and shovel in the arms of Hales. The arms of Crawshay supply an instance of a _Plough_--a charge which also occurs in the arms of Waterlow and the crest of Provand, but is otherwise of very infrequent occurrence. In English armory the use of _Scythes_, or, as they are sometimes termed, _Sneds_, is but occasional, though, as was only to be expected, this device appears in the Sneyd coat, as follows: "Argent, a scythe, the blade in chief, the sned in bend sinister sable, in the fess point a fleur-de-lis of the second." In Poland the Counts Jezierski bore: "Gules, two scythe-blades in oval, the points crossing each other argent, and the ends in base tied together or, the whole surmounted in chief by a cross-patriarchal-patée, of which the lower arm on the sinister side is wanting." Two sickles appear in the arms of Shearer, while the Hungerford crest in the case of the Holdich-Hungerford family is blazoned: {299} "Out of a ducal coronet or, a pepper garb of the first between two sickles erect proper." The sickle was the badge of the Hungerfords. A _Balance_ forms one of the charges of the Scottish Corporation of the Dean and Faculty of Advocates: "Gules, a balance or, and a sword argent in saltire, surmounted of an escutcheon of the second, charged with a lion rampant within a double tressure flory counterflory of the first," but it is a charge of infrequent appearance. It also figures in the arms of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. [Illustration: FIG. 551.--Water-bouget.] Bannerman of Elsick bears a _Banner_ for arms: "Gules, a banner displayed argent and thereon on a canton azure a saltire argent as the badge of Scotland." [Illustration: FIG. 552.--Arms of Henry Bourchier, Earl of Essex, K.G.: Quarterly, 1 and 4, argent, a cross engrailed gules, between four water-bougets sable (for Bourchier); 2 and 3, gules, billetté or, a fess argent (for Louvain). (From his seal.)] _Books_ are frequently made use of. The arms of Rylands, the family to whose generosity Manchester owes the Rylands Library, afford a case in point, and such charges occur in the arms of the Universities of both Oxford and Cambridge, and in many other university and collegiate achievements. _Buckets_ and _Water-bougets_ (Fig. 551) can claim a wide use. In English armory Pemberton has three buckets, and water-bougets appear in the well-known arms of Bourchier (Fig. 552). Water-bougets, which are really the old form of water-bucket, were leather bags or bottles, two of which were carried on a stick over the shoulder. The heraldic water-bouget represents the pair. [Illustration: FIG. 553.--Escallop.] For an instance of the heraldic usage of the _Comb_ the case of the arms of Ponsonby, Earls of Bessborough, may be cited. Combs also figure in the delightfully punning Scottish coat for Rocheid. Generally, however, when they do occur in heraldry they represent combs for carding wool, as in the shield of Tunstall: "Sable, three wool-combs argent," while the Russian Counts Anrep-Elmpt use: "Or, a comb in bend azure, the teeth downwards." _Escallops_ (Fig. 553) rank as one of the most widely used heraldic charges in all countries. They figured in early days outside the limits of heraldry as the badge of pilgrims going to the Holy Land, and may {300} be seen on the shields of many families at the period of the Crusades. Many other families have adopted them, in the hope of a similar interpretation being applied to the appearance of them in their own arms. Indeed, so numerous are the cases in which they occur that a few representative ones must suffice. [Illustration: FIG. 554.--Arms of Hammersmith: Party per pale azure and gules, on a chevron between two cross crosslets in chief and an escallop in base argent, three horseshoes of the first. Crest: on a wreath of the colours, upon the battlements of a tower, two hammers in saltire all proper. Motto: "Spectemur agendo."] [Illustration: FIG. 555.--Arms of the Great Central Railway: Argent, on a cross gules, voided of the field, between two wings in chief sable and as many daggers erect in base of the second, in the fess point a morion winged of the third, on a chief also of the second a pale of the first, thereon eight arrows saltirewise banded also of the third, between on the dexter side three bendlets enhanced and on the sinister a fleur-de-lis or. Crest: on a wreath of the colours, a representation of the front of a locomotive engine proper, between two wings or. [The grant is dated February 25, 1898.]] They will be found in the arms of the Lords Dacre, who bore: "Gules, three escallops argent;" and an escallop argent was used by the same family as a badge. The Scottish family of Pringle, of Greenknowe, supplies an instance in: "Azure, three escallops or within a bordure engrailed of the last;" while the Irish Earls of Bandon bore: "Argent, on a bend azure three escallops of the field." {301} _Hammers_ figure in the crests of Hammersmith (Fig. 554) and of Swindon (Plate VI.), and a hammer is held in the claw of the demi-dragon which is the crest of Fox-Davies of Coalbrookdale, co. Salop (Plate VI.). A _Lantern_ is a charge on the shield of Cowper, and the arms of the town of Hove afford an absolutely unique instance of the use of _Leg-Irons_. Three towns--Eccles, Bootle, and Ramsgate--supply cases in their arms in which a _Lighthouse_ is depicted, and this charge would appear, so far as can be ascertained, not only to be restricted to English armory, but to the three towns now named. _Locomotives_ appear in the arms of Swindon (Plate VI.) and the Great Central Railway (Fig. 555). Of a similar industrial character is the curious coat of arms granted at his express wish to the late Mr. Samson Fox of Leeds and Harrogate, which contains a representation of the _Corrugated Boiler-Flue_ which formed the basis of his fortune. [Illustration: FIG. 556.--Catherine wheel.] [Illustration: FIG. 557.--Staple.] [Illustration: FIG. 558.--Hawk's Lure.] [Illustration: FIG. 559.--Fylfot.] An instance of the use of a _Sand-Glass_ occurs in the arms of the Scottish family of Joass of Collinwort, which are thus blazoned: "Vert, a sand-glass running argent, and in chief the Holy Bible expanded proper." A Scottish corporation, too, supplies a somewhat unusual charge, that of _Scissors_: "Azure, a pair of scissors or" (Incorporation of Tailors of Aberdeen); though a Swabian family (by name Jungingen) has for its arms: "Azure, a pair of scissors open, blades upwards argent." _Barrels_ and _Casks_, which in heraldry are always known as _tuns_, naturally figure in many shields where the name lends itself to a pun, as in the arms of Bolton. _Wheels_ occur in the shields of Turner ["Argent, gutté-de-sang, a {302} wheel of eight spokes sable, on a chief wavy azure, a dolphin naiant of the first"] and Carter, and also in the arms of Gooch. The _Catherine Wheel_ (Fig. 556), however, is the most usual heraldic form. The _Staple_ (Fig. 557) and the _Hawk's Lure_ (Fig. 558) deserve mention, and I will wind up the list of examples with the _Fylfot_ (Fig. 559), which no one knows the meaning or origin of. The list of heraldic charges is very far, indeed, from being exhausted. The foregoing must, however, suffice; but those who are curious to pursue this branch of the subject further should examine the arms, both ancient and modern, of towns and trade corporations. {303} CHAPTER XX THE HERALDIC HELMET Since one's earliest lessons in the rules of heraldry, we have been taught, as one of the fundamental laws of the achievement, that the helmet by its shape and position is indicative of rank; and we early learnt by rote that the esquire's helmet was of steel, and was placed in profile, with the visor closed: the helmet of the knight and baronet was to be open and affronté; that the helmet of the peer must be of silver, guarded by grilles and placed in profile; and that the royal helmet was of gold, with grilles, and affronté. Until recent years certain stereotyped forms of the helmet for these varying circumstances were in use, hideous alike both in the regularity of their usage and the atrocious shapes into which they had been evolved. These regulations, like some other adjuncts of heraldic art, are comparatively speaking of modern origin. Heraldry in its earlier and better days knew them not, and they came into vogue about the Stuart times, when heraldic art was distinctly on the wane. It is puzzling to conceive a desire to stereotype these particular forms, and we take it that the fact, which is undoubted, arose from the lack of heraldic knowledge on the part of the artists, who, having one form before them, which they were assured was correct, under the circumstances simply reproduced this particular form in facsimile time after time, not knowing how far they might deviate and still remain correct. The knowledge of heraldry by the heraldic artist was the real point underlying the excellence of mediæval heraldic art, and underlying the excellence of much of the heraldic art in the revival of the last few years. As it has been often pointed out, in olden times they "played" with heraldry, and therein lay the excellence of that period. The old men knew the lines within which they could "play," and knew the laws which they could not transgress. Their successors, ignorant of the laws of arms, and afraid of the hidden meanings of armory, had none but the stereotyped lines to follow. The result was bad. Let us first consider the development of the actual helmet, and then its application to heraldic purposes will be more readily followed. [Illustration: FIG. 560.] [Illustration: FIG. 561.] [Illustration: FIG. 562.] [Illustration: FIG. 563.] To the modern mind, which grumbles at the weight of present-day {304} head coverings, it is often a matter of great wonder how the knights of ancient days managed to put up with the heavy weight of the great iron helmet, with its wooden or leather crest. A careful study of ancient descriptions of tournaments and warfare will supply the clue to the explanation, which is simply that the helmet was very seldom worn. For ceremonial purposes and occasions it was carried by a page, and in actual use it was carried slung at the saddle-bow, until the last moment, when it was donned for action as blows and close contact became imminent. Then, by the nature of its construction, the weight was carried by the shoulders, the head and neck moving freely within necessary limits inside. All this will be more readily apparent, when the helmet itself is considered. Our present-day ideas of helmets--their shape, their size, and their proportions--are largely taken from the specimens manufactured (not necessarily in modern times) for ceremonial purposes; _e.g._ for exhibition as insignia of knighthood. By far the larger proportion of the genuine helmets now to be seen were purposely made (certainly at remote dates) not for actual use in battle or tournament, but for ceremonial use, chiefly at funerals. Few, indeed, are the examples still existing of helmets which have been actually used in battle or tournament. Why there are so few remaining to us, when every person of position must necessarily have possessed one throughout the Plantagenet period, and probably at any rate to the end of the reign of Henry VII., is a mystery which has puzzled many people--for helmets are not, like glass and china, subject to the vicissitudes of breakage. The reason is doubtless to be found in the fact that at that period they were so general, and so little out of the common, that they possessed no greater value than any other article of clothing; and whilst the real helmet, lacking a ceremonial value, was not preserved, the sham ceremonial helmet of a later period, possessing none but a ceremonial value, was preserved from ceremonial to ceremonial, and has been passed on to the present day. But a glance at so many of these helmets which exist will plainly show that it was quite impossible for any man's head to have gone inside them, and the sculptured helmets of what may seem to us uncouth shape and exaggerated size, which are occasionally to be found as part of a monumental effigy, are the size and shape of the helmets that were worn in battle. This accounts for the much larger-sized helmets in proportion to the size of shield which will be found in heraldic emblazonments of the Plantagenet and Tudor periods. The artists of those periods were accustomed to the sight of real helmets, and knew and drew the real proportion which existed between the fighting helmet and the fighting shield. Artists of Stuart and Georgian days knew only the ceremonial helmet, and consequently adopted and stereotyped its impossible shape, {305} and equally impossible size. Victorian heraldic artists, ignorant alike of the actual and the ceremonial, reduced the size even further, and until the recent revulsion in heraldic art, with its reversion to older types, and its copying of older examples, the helmets of heraldry had reached the uttermost limits of absurdity. The recent revival of heraldry is due to men with accurate and extensive knowledge, and many recent examples of heraldic art well compare with ancient types. One happy result of this revival is a return to older and better types of the helmet. But it is little use discarding the "heraldic" helmet of the stationer's shop unless a better and more accurate result can be shown, so that it will be well to trace in detail the progress of the real helmet from earliest times. [Illustration: FIG. 564.] [Illustration: FIG. 565.] [Illustration: FIG. 566.] [Illustration: FIG. 567.] [Illustration: FIG. 568.] [Illustration: FIG. 569.--Painted "Pot-Helmet," _c._ 1241.] [Illustration: FIG. 570.--"Pot-Helmet," from the _Eneit_ of Heinrich von Veldeke.] In the Anglo-Saxon period the common helmet was merely a cap of leather, often four-cornered, and with a serrated comb (Figs. 560 and 561), but men of rank had a conical one of metal (Fig. 562), which was frequently richly gilt. About the time of Edward the Confessor a small piece, of varying breadth, called a "nasal," was added (Fig. 563), which, with a quilted or gamboised hood, or one of mail, well protected the face, leaving little more than the eyes exposed; and in this form the helmet continued in general use until towards the end of the twelfth century, when we find it merged into or supplanted by the {306} "chapelle-de-fer," which is first mentioned in documents at this period, and was shaped like a flat-topped, cylindrical cap. This, however, was soon enlarged so as to cover the whole head (Fig. 564), an opening being left for the features, which were sometimes protected by a movable "ventaille," or a visor, instead of the "nasal." This helmet (which was adopted by Richard I., who is also sometimes represented with a conical one) was the earliest form of the large war and tilting "heaume" (or helm), which was of great weight and strength, and often had only small openings or slits for the eyes (Figs. 565 and 566). These eyepieces were either one wide slit or two, one on either side. The former was, however, sometimes divided into two by an ornamental bar or buckle placed across. It was afterwards pointed at the top, and otherwise slightly varied in shape, but its general form appears to have been the same until the end of the fourteenth century (Figs. 567, 568). This type of helmet is usually known as the "pot-shaped." The helmets themselves were sometimes painted, and Fig. 569 represents an instance which is painted in green and white diagonal stripes. The illustration is from a parchment MS. of about 1241 now in the Town Library of Leipzic. Fig. 570 shows another German example of this type, being taken from the _Eneit_ of Heinrich von Veldeke, a MS. now in the Royal Library in Berlin, belonging to the end of the twelfth century. The crest depicted in this case, a red lion, must be one of the earliest instances of a crest. These {307} are the helmets which we find on early seals and effigies, as will be seen from Figs. 571-574. [Illustration: FIG. 571.--Helmet of Hamelin, Earl of Surrey and Warenne (d. 1202). (From MS. Cott., Julius, C. vii.)] [Illustration: FIG. 572.--From the seal of Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford (d. 1262).] [Illustration: FIG. 573.--From the seal of John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey (d. 1305).] [Illustration: FIG. 574.--From the seal (1315) of John de Bretagne, Earl of Richmond.] The cylindrical or "pot-shaped" helmet of the Plantagenets, however, disappears in the latter part of the thirteenth century, when we first find mention of the "bascinet" (from Old French for a basin), Figs. 575-579. This was at first merely a hemispherical steel cap, put over the coif of mail to protect the top of the head, when the knight wished to be relieved from the weight of his large helm (which he then slung at his back or carried on his saddlebow), but still did not consider the mail coif sufficient protection. It soon became pointed at the top, and gradually lower at the back, though not so much as to protect the neck. In the fourteenth century the mail, instead of being carried over the top of the head, was hung to the bottom rim of the helmet, and {308} spread out over the shoulders, overlapping the cuirass. This was called the "camail," or "curtain of mail." It is shown in Figs. 576 and 577 fastened to the bascinet by a lace or thong passing through staples. The large helm, which throughout the fourteenth century was still worn over the bascinet, did not fit down closely to the cuirass (though it may have been fastened to it with a leather strap), its bottom curve not being sufficiently arched for that purpose; nor did it wholly rest on the shoulders, but was probably wadded inside so as to fit closely to the bascinet. [Illustration: FIG. 575.] [Illustration: FIG. 576.] [Illustration: FIG. 577.] [Illustration: FIG. 578.] [Illustration: FIG. 579.] It is doubtful if any actual helm previous to the fourteenth century exists, and there are very few of that period remaining. In that of the Black Prince at Canterbury (Fig. 271) the lower, or cylindrical, portion is composed of a front and back piece, riveted together at the sides, and this was most likely the usual form of construction; but in the helm of Sir Richard Pembridge (Figs. 580 and 581) the three pieces (cylinder, conical piece, and top piece) of which it is formed are fixed with nails, and are so welded together that no trace of a join is visible. The edges of the metal, turned outwards round the ocularium, are very thick, and the bottom edge is rolled inwards over a thick wire, so as not to cut the surcoat. There are many twin holes in the helmet for the aiglets, by which the crest and lambrequin were attached, and in front, near the bottom, are two + shaped holes for the T bolt, which was fixed by a chain to the cuirass. The helm of Sir Richard Hawberk (Figs. 582 and 583), who died in 1417, is made of five pieces, and is very thick and heavy. It is much more like the later form adapted for jousting, and was probably only for use in the tilt-yard; but, although more firmly fixed to the cuirass than the earlier helm, it did not fit closely down to it, as all later helms did. Singularly few examples of the pot-helmet actually exist. The "Linz" example (Figs. 584 and 585), which is now in the {309} Francisco-Carolinum Museum at Linz, was dredged out of the Traun, and is unfortunately very much corroded by rust. The fastening-place for the crest, however, is well preserved. The example belongs to the first half of the fourteenth century. [Illustration: FIG. 580.] [Illustration: FIG. 581.] [Illustration: FIG. 582.] [Illustration: FIG. 583.] The so-called "Pranker-Helm" (Fig. 586), from the chapter of Seckau, now in the collection of armour in the Historical Court Museum at Vienna, and belonging to the middle of the fourteenth century, could only have been used for tournaments. It is made of four strong hammered sheets of iron 1-2 millimetres thick, with other strengthening plates laid on. The helmet by itself weighs 5 kilogrammes 357 grammes. {310} [Illustration: FIGS. 584 and 585.--The "Linz" Pot-Helmet.] [Illustration: FIG. 587.] The custom of wearing the large helm over the bascinet being clumsy and troublesome, many kinds of visor were invented, so as to dispense with the large helm, except for jousting, two of which are represented in Figs. 575 and 579. In the first a plate shaped somewhat to the nose was attached to the part of the camail which covered the mouth. This plate, and the mail mouth-guard, when not in use, hung downwards towards the breast; but when in use it was drawn up and attached to a staple or locket on the front of the bascinet. This fashion, however, does not appear to have been adopted in England, but was peculiar to Germany, Austria, &c. None of these contrivances seem to have been very satisfactory, but towards the end of the fourteenth century the large and salient beaked visor was invented (Fig. 587). It was fixed to hinges at the sides of the bascinet with pins, and was removable at will. A high collar of steel was next added as a substitute for the camail. This form of helmet remained in use during the first half of the fifteenth century, and the large helm, which was only used for jousting, took a different form, or rather several different forms, which may be divided into three kinds. In this connection it should be remembered that the heavy jousting helmet to which the crest had relation was probably never used in actual warfare. The first was called a bascinet, and was used for combats on foot. It had an almost spherical crown-piece, and came right down to the cuirass, to which it was firmly fixed, and was, like all large helms of the fifteenth century, large enough for the wearer to move his head about freely inside. The helm of Sir Giles Capel (Fig. 588) is a good specimen of this class; it has a visor of great thickness, in which are a great number of holes, thus enabling the wearer to see in every direction. The "barbute," or ovoid bascinet, with a chin-piece riveted to it, was somewhat like this helm, and is often seen on the brasses of {311} 1430-1450; the chin-piece retaining the name of "barbute," after the bascinet had gone out of fashion. [Illustration: FIG. 586.--Pranker-Helm.] [Illustration: FIG. 591.--German Tilting Armour, 1480, from the Collection in the Museum at Vienna.] [Illustration: FIG. 592.--Tilting-Helmet of Sir John Gostwick, 1541.] [Illustration: FIG. 588.] The second kind of large helm used in the fifteenth century was the "jousting-helm," which was of great strength, and firmly fixed to the cuirass. One from the Brocas Collection (Figs. 589 and 590, date about 1500) is perhaps the grandest helm in existence. It is formed of three pieces of different thicknesses (the front piece being the thickest), which are fixed together with strong iron rivets with salient heads and thin brass caps soldered to them. The arrangements for fixing it in front and behind are very complete and curious. The manner in which the helmet was connected with the rest of the armour is shown in Fig. 591, which is a representation of a German suit of tilting armour of the period about 1480, now in the collection of armour at the Royal Museum in Vienna. Of the same character, but of a somewhat different shape, is the helmet (Fig. 592) of Sir John Gostwick, who died in 1541, which is now in Willington Church, Bedfordshire. The illustration here given is taken from the _Portfolio_, No. 33. The visor opening on the right side of the helmet is evidently taken from an Italian model. [Illustration: FIG. 589.] The third and last kind of helm was the "tournament helm," and was similar to the first kind, and also called a "bascinet"; but the visor was generally barred, or, instead of a movable visor, the bars were riveted on the helm, and sometimes the face was only protected by a sort of wire-work, like a fencing-mask. It was only used for the tourney or mêlée, when the weapons were the sword and mace. [Illustration: FIG. 590.] The "chapelle-de-fer," which was in use in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, was a light iron head-piece, with a broad, flat brim, somewhat turned down. Fig. 593 represents one belonging to the {312} end of the fifteenth century, which is one of the few remaining, and is delicately forged in one piece of thin, hard steel. During the fourteenth century a new kind of helmet arose, called in England the "sallad," or "sallet." The word appears to have two derivations, each of which was applied to a different form of head-piece. First, the Italian "celata" (Fig. 594), which seems originally to have been a modification of the bascinet. Second, the German "schallern," the form of which was probably suggested by the chapelle-de-fer. Both of these were called by the French "salade," whence our English "sallad." The celata came lower down than the bascinet, protected the back and sides of the neck, and, closing round the cheeks, often left only the eyes, nose, and mouth exposed. A standard of mail protected the neck if required. In the fifteenth century the celata ceased to be pointed at the summit, and was curved outwards at the nape of the neck, as in Fig. 595. [Illustration: FIG. 593.] The "schallern" (from _shale_, a shell, or bowl), was really a helmet and visor in one piece; it had a slit for the eyes, a projecting brim, and a long tail, and was completed by a chin-piece, or "bavier" (Eng. "beaver"), which was strapped round the neck. Fig. 596 shows a German sallad and a Spanish beaver. The sallad was much used in the fifteenth century, during the latter half of which it often had a visor, as in one from Rhodes (Fig. 597), which has a spring catch on the right side to hold the visor in place when down. The rivets for its lining-cap have large, hollow, twisted heads, which are seldom found on existing sallads, though often seen in sculpture. [Illustration: FIG. 594.] [Illustration: FIG. 595.] [Illustration: FIG. 596.] [Illustration: FIG. 597.] The schale, schallern (_schêlern_), or sallad, either with or without a {313} visor, is very seldom seen in heraldic use. An instance, however, in which it has been made use of heraldically will be found in Fig. 598, which is from a pen and ink drawing in the _Fest-Buch_ of Paulus Kel, a MS. now in the Royal Library at Munich. This shows the schallern with the slit for seeing through, and the fixed neck-guard. The "bart," "bavière," or beaver, for the protection of the under part of the face, is also visible. It is not joined to the helmet. The helmet bears the crest of Bavaria, the red-crowned golden lion of the Palatinate within the wings of the curiously disposed Bavarian tinctures. Fig. 599 (p. 316) is a very good representation of a schallern dating from the latter part of the fifteenth century, with a sliding neck-guard. It is reproduced from the _Deutscher Herold_, 1892, No. 2. [Illustration: FIG. 598.--Schallern, with Crest of Bavaria (Duke Ludwig of Bavaria, 1449).] Until almost the middle of the fifteenth century all helmets fitted on the top of the head, or were put right over; but about 1440 the Italians made a great improvement by inventing the "armet," the lower part of which opened out with hinges, so that when put on it enclosed the head, fitting closely round the lower part of it, while its weight was borne by the steel collar, or "gorget." The Italian armet had a roundel or disc to protect the opening at the back of the neck, and a bavier strapped on in front to cover the joining of the two {314} cheek-pieces. The earlier armets, like the beaked bascinet, had a camail attached by a row of staples (Fig. 600), which was continued later, but then fixed either to a metal band or leather strap and riveted to the base of the armet. This form of helmet was not in common use in England until about 1500. Fig. 600 shows the earliest form of Italian armet, with a reinforcing-piece on the forehead, and a removable visor. Date 1450-1480. Fig. 601 represents an armet of very fine form (probably Italian), which is a nearer approach to the close-helmet of the sixteenth century, as the visor cannot be removed, and the eye-slit is in the visor, instead of being formed by the space between it and the crown-piece, and there is also no reinforcing-piece in the crown. Date 1480-1500. Fig. 602 is still more like the sixteenth-century helmet, for it opens down the sides instead of down the chin and back, and the same pivot which secures the visor also serves as a hinge for the crown and chin-piece. The small mentonnière, or bavier, is equal on both sides, but it was often of less extent on the right. Date about 1500. Fig. 603 shows a German fluted helmet, of magnificent form and workmanship, which is partly engraved and gilded. Date 1510-1525. It opens down the chin, like the early armets, but the tail-piece of the crown is much broader. The skill shown in the forging of the crown and the fluting of the twisted comb is most remarkable, and each rivet for the lining-strap of the cheek-pieces forms the centre of an engraved six-leaved rose. A grooved rim round the bottom of the helmet fitted closely on a salient rim at the top of the steel gorget or hause col, so that when placed on its gorget and closed, it could not be wrenched off, but could yet be moved round freely in a horizontal direction. The gorget being articulated, the head could also be raised or lowered a little, but not enough to make this form of joint very desirable, and a looser kind was soon substituted. Fig. 604 shows what is perhaps the most perfect type of close helmet. The comb is much larger than was the custom at an earlier date, and much resembles those of the morions of this period. The visor is formed of two separate parts; the upper fits inside the lower, and could be raised to facilitate seeing without unfixing the lower portion. It is engraved with arabesques, and is probably Italian. Date 1550-1570. Fig. 605 is an English helmet, half-way between a close helmet and a "burgonet." It is really a "casque," with cheek-pieces to meet in front. The crown-piece is joined down the middle of the comb. This helmet was probably made for the Earl of Leicester. Date about 1590. The word "burgonet" first appeared about the beginning of the fifteenth century, and described a form of helmet like the "celata," and {315} called by that name in Italy. It was completed by a "buffe," or chin-piece, similar to the bavier. [Illustration: FIG. 600.] [Illustration: FIG. 601.] [Illustration: FIG. 602.] [Illustration: FIG. 603.] [Illustration: FIG. 604.] [Illustration: FIG. 605.] During this century the "morion," really an improved "chapelle-de-fer," was much in use. It had a curved top, surmounted by a comb, and a broad, turned-up brim, and was often elaborately engraved and gilt. The "cabasset" was a similar head-piece, but had a peaked top, surmounted by a small spike turned backwards, and generally a flatter, narrower brim than the morion. These three forms of helmet were all called casques. [Illustration: FIG. 606.--"Grid-iron" Helmet (fifteenth century).] The barred or grilled helmet owed its introduction to tournaments with swords and clubs, which necessitated better opportunities of vision than the earlier tilting-helm afforded, sufficient though that was for encounters with the tilting-spear. The earliest form of this type of helmet will be seen in Fig. 606, which is termed a "grid-iron" helmet, developing shortly afterwards into the form of Fig. 607, which has a lattice-work visor. The former figure, the "grid-iron" helmet, is a {316} representation taken from an original now in the possession of Count Hans Wilczek, of Vienna. Fig. 607, the helmet with the latticed visor, is from an example in the German National Museum at Nürnberg. Neither of these types of helmet appears to have been regularly adopted into heraldic art. Indeed they are seldom, if ever, to be found in heraldic emblazonment. For pictorial and artistic purposes they seem to be entirely supplanted in paintings, in seals, and in sculpture by the "grilled" helmet or "buckler." Whether this helmet, as we find it depicted in paintings or on seals, was ever really worn in battle or tournament seems very doubtful, and no actual instance appears to have been preserved. On the other hand, the so-called "Prankhelme" (pageant helmet) bucklers, frequently made of gilded leather and other materials, are extant in some number. It is evident from their nature, however, that they can only have been used for ceremonial or decorative purposes. Fig. 608 shows one of these buckled "pageant" helmets surmounted by the crest of the Margraviate of Burgau. Fig. 609 shows another of these pageant helmets, with the crest of Austria (ancient) or of Tyrol. These were borne, with many others of the same character, in the pageant of the funeral procession of the Emperor Frederick III. (IV.) in 1493. The helmets were made of leather, and gilded, the two crests being carved out of boards and painted. The Burgau wings, which are inclined very far forward, are: "Bendy of six argent and gules, charged with a pale or." In their normal position the wings are borne upright. The second crest, which is 86 cm. in height, is black, and adorned on the outside with eared pegs 4 cm. long, from which gold linden-leaves hang. These helmets and crests, which were formerly in St. Stephen's Cathedral, are now in the Vienna Historical Museum. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the workmanship became inferior, and beauty of line was no longer sought after. Shortly afterwards helmets ceased to be worn outside the regular army, and with the subsequent evolution of military head coverings heraldry has no concern. As a part of a heraldic achievement the helmet is not so old as the shield. It was not until the introduction of the crest that any one thought of depicting a helmet with a shield. [Illustration: FIG. 599.--Schallern (end of fifteenth century).] [Illustration: FIG. 607.--Helmet, with Latticed Visor (end of fifteenth century).] A careful and attentive examination of the early "Rolls of Arms," and of seals and other ancient examples of heraldic art and handicraft, will at once make it plainly apparent that the helmets then heraldically depicted were in close keeping and of the style actually in use for warfare, joust, or tournament at the period. This is particularly noticeable in the helmets on the stall plates of the Knights of the Garter in St. George's Chapel at Windsor. The helms on the early {317} stall plates, though far from being identical in shape, all appear to be of the same class or type of tilting-helm drawn in profile. Amongst the early plates only one instance (Richard, Duke of Gloucester, elected 1475) can be found of the barred helmet. This is the period when helmets actually existed in fact, and were actually used, but at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth centuries, when the helmet was being fast relegated to ceremonial usage and pictorial emblazonment, ingenious heralds began to evolve the system by which rank and degree were indicated by the helmet. [Illustration: FIG. 608.--Pageant Helmet, with the Crest of Burgau.] [Illustration: FIG. 609.--Pageant Helmet, with the Crest of Austria (ancient) or Tyrol.] Before proceeding to consider British rules concerning the heraldic helmet, it may be well to note those which have been accepted abroad. In Germany heraldry has known but two classes of helmet, the open helmet guarded by bars (otherwise buckles or grilles), and the closed {318} or "visored" helmet. The latter was the helmet used by the newly ennobled, the former by the older families of higher position, it being originally held that only those families whose birth qualified them to tilt were permitted to use this buckled helmet. Tournaments were of course always conducted on very strict lines. Woodward reprints in his "Treatise on Heraldry" the "Tourney Regulations for the Exposure of Arms and Crest, drawn up by René, Duke of Anjou, King of Sicily and Jerusalem," from Menêtrier's _L'Origin des Armoiries_. The rules to be complied with are there set out. Fig. 12 herein is a representation of a "Helmschau," where the examination of the crests is being carried on. It is interesting to notice therein that the whole of the helmets without exception have the grilles. Germany was perhaps the earliest country to fall from grace in the matter, for towards the end of the fifteenth century the buckled helmet is found with the arms of the lower Briefadels (those ennobled by patent), and the practice continued despite the violent protests of the tournament families, who considered their prerogative had been infringed. The closed helmet consequently sank gradually in Germany to the grade of a mere burgess's helmet, and as such became of little account, although in former times it had been borne by the proudest houses. Similarly in France the "buckled" helmet was considered to be reserved for the military noblesse, and newly ennobled families were denied its use until the third generation, when they became _bons gentilhommes_. Woodward states that when "in 1372 Charles V. conferred on the bourgeoisie of Paris the right to use armorial bearings, it was strenuously denied that they could use the timbred helm. In 1568 an edict of Charles IX. prohibited the use of _armoiries timbrées_ to any who were not noble by birth." The grilles of the helmet produced with the old French heralds the opportunity of a minutiæ of rule which, considering the multitude of rules fathered, rightly or wrongly, upon British heraldry, we may be devoutly happy never reached our shores. They assigned different numbers of grilles to different ranks, but as the writers differ as to the varying numbers, it is probable that such rules were never officially accepted even in that country. In France the rule was much as in this country, a gold helmet for the Sovereign, silver for princes and great nobles, steel for the remainder. It is curious that though the timbred helm was of course known in England whilst the controversy as to its heraldic use was raging in France and Germany, no heraldic use of it whatever occurs till the beginning of the seventeenth century. From Royalty to the humblest gentleman, all used for heraldic purposes the closed or visored helms. The present rules concerning helmets which hold in Great Britain are that the helmet of the Sovereign and the Royal princes of this {319} country shall be of gold, placed in an affronté position, and shall have grilles. The helmet of a peer shall be of silver, shall be placed in profile, and shall have golden grilles, frequently stated to be five in number, a detail not stringently adhered to. The helmet of a knight or baronet shall be of steel, placed full-faced, and shall be open; whilst the helmet of an esquire or gentleman shall be of steel and in profile, with the visor closed. Within these limits considerable latitude is allowed, and even in official grants of arms, which, as far as emblazonment goes, are very much of a stereotyped style, actual unvarying adherence to a particular pattern is not insisted upon. The earliest instance amongst the Garter plates in which a helmet with grilles is used to denote the rank of a peer is the stall plate of Lord Knollys in 1615. In the Visitations but few instances can be found in which the arms of peers are included. Peers were not compelled to attend and enter their arms and pedigrees at Visitations, doubtless owing to the fact that no Garter King of Arms ever made a Visitation, whilst it has been the long-asserted prerogative of Garter to deal with peers and their arms by himself. At the same time, however, there are some number of instances of peers' arms and pedigrees in the Visitation Books, several occurring in the 1587 Visitation of Yorkshire. In these cases the arms of peers are set out with supporters and mottoes, but there is no difference between their helmets and what we should now term the helmet of an esquire or gentleman. This is all the more curious because neither helmet nor motto is found in the tricks given of the arms of commoners. Consequently one may with certainty date the introduction of the helmet with grilles as the distinguishing mark of a peer in this country between the years 1587 and 1615. The introduction of the open full-faced helmet as indicative of knight or baronet is known to date from about the period of the Restoration. Whilst these fixed rules as to helmets are still scrupulously adhered to by English heralds, Lyon King of Arms would seem to be inclined to let them quietly lapse into desuetude, and the emblazonment of the arms of Sir George Duff-Sutherland-Dunbar, Bart., in the Lyon Register at the recent rematriculation of his arms, affords an instance in which the rules have been ignored. Some of the objections one hears raised to official heraldry will not hold water when all facts are known; but one certainly thinks that those who object to the present helmet and its methods of usage have ample reason for such remarks as one frequently sees in print upon the subject. To put it mildly, it is absolutely ridiculous to see a helmet placed affronté, and a lion passant looking out over the side of it; or to see a helmet in profile with the crest of a man's head {320} affronté placed above it, and as a consequence also peeping over the side. The necessity for providing a resting-place for the crest other than unoccupied space has also led to the ridiculous practice of depicting the wreath or torse in the form of a straight bar balanced upon the apex of the helmet. The rule itself as to the positions of helmets for the varying ranks is officially recognised, and the elaboration of the rule with regard to the differing metals of the Royal helmet and the helmets of peers and knights and baronets is officially followed; though the supposed regulation, which requires that the helmet of an esquire or gentleman shall be of steel alone is not, inasmuch as the helmet painted upon a grant is _always_ ornamented with gold. These rules in England only date from the times of the Stuarts, and they cannot be said to be advantageous from any point of view; they are certainly distinctly harmful from the artistic standpoint. It is plainly utterly impossible to depict some crests upon a profile helmet, and equally impossible to display others upon an affronté helmet. In Scotland the crests do not afford quite such a regular succession of glaring examples for ridicule as is the case in England. No need is recognised in Scotland for necessarily distinguishing the crest of one family from that of another, though proper differences are rigidly adhered to with regard to the coats of arms. Nevertheless, Scotland provides us with many crests which it is utterly impossible to actually carry on an actual helmet, and examples of this kind can be found in the rainbow which floats above the broken globe of the Hopes, and the coronets in space to which the hand points in the crest of the family of Dunbar of Boath, with many other similar absurdities. In England an equal necessity for difference is insisted upon in the crest as is everywhere insisted upon with regard to the coat of arms; and in the time of the late Garter King of Arms, it was rapidly becoming almost impossible to obtain a new crest which has not got a row of small objects in front of it, or else two somethings, one on either side. (Things, however, have now considerably improved.) If a crest is to be depicted between two ostrich feathers, for example, it stands to reason that the central object should be placed upon the centre of the helmet, whilst the ostrich feathers would be one on either side--that is, placed in a position slightly above the ears. Yet, if a helmet is to be rigidly depicted in profile, with such a crest, it is by no means inconceivable that the one ostrich feather at the one side would hide both the other ostrich feather and the central object, leaving the crest to appear when properly depicted (for example, if photographed from a profile view of an actual helmet) as a single ostrich feather. Take, for instance, the Sievier crest, which is an estoile between two ostrich feathers. If that crest were properly depicted upon a profile helmet, the one ostrich feather {321} would undoubtedly hide everything else, for it is hardly likely that the estoile would be placed edge-forwards upon an actual helmet; and to properly display it, it ought to take its place upon an affronté helmet. Under the present rules it would be officially depicted with the estoile facing the side, one ostrich feather in front over the nose, and the other at the back of the head, which of course reduces it to an absurdity. To take another example, one might instance the crest of Sir William Crookes. It is hardly to be supposed that a helmet would ever have been borne into a tournament surmounted by an elephant looking out over the side; it would most certainly have had its head placed to the front; and yet, because Sir William Crookes is a knight, he is required to use an affronté helmet, with a crest which most palpably was designed for use in profile. The absurd position which has resulted is chiefly due to the position rules and largely a consequence of the hideous British practice (for no other nation has ever adopted it) of depicting, as is so often done, a coat of arms and crest without the intervening helmet and mantling; though perhaps another cause may have had its influence. I allude to the fact that an animal's head, for example, in profile, is considered quite a different crest to the same animal's head when placed affronté; and so long as this idea holds, and so long as the rules concerning the position of the helmet exist, for so long shall we have these glaring and ridiculous anomalies. And whilst one generation of a family has an affronté helmet and another using the same crest may have a profile one, it is useless to design crests specifically to fit the one or the other. Mr. G. W. Eve, who is certainly one of the most accomplished heraldic artists of the present time, has adopted a plan in his work which, whilst conforming with the rules to which I have referred, has reduced the peculiarities resulting from their observance to a minimum. His plan is simple, inasmuch as, with a crest which is plainly affronté and has to be depicted upon a profile helmet, he slightly alters the perspective of each, twisting round the helmet, which, whilst remaining slightly in profile, more nearly approaches the affronté position, and bringing the crest slightly round to meet it. In this way he has obtained some very good results from awkward predicaments. Mr. Joseph Foster, in his "Peerage and Baronetage," absolutely discarded all rules affecting the position of the helmet; and though the artistic results may be excellent, his plan cannot be commended, because whilst rules exist they ought to be adhered to. At the same time, it must be frankly admitted that the laws of position seem utterly unnecessary. No other country has them--they are, as has been shown, impracticable from the artistic {322} standpoint; and there can be very little doubt that it is highly desirable that they should be wholly abolished. It is quite proper that there should be some means of distinction, and it would seem well that the helmet with grilles should be reserved for peers. In this we should be following or closely approximating to the rules observed formerly upon the Continent, and if all questions of position are waived the only difficulty which remains is the helmet of baronets and knights. The full-faced open helmet is ugly in the extreme--anything would be preferable (except an open helmet in profile), and probably it would be better to wipe out the rule on this point as well. Knights of any Order have the circle of that order within which to place their shields, and baronets have the augmentations of their rank and degree. The knight bachelor would be the only one to suffer. The gift of a plain circlet around the shield or (following the precedent of a baronet), a spur upon a canton or inescutcheon, could easily remove any cause of complaint. But whilst one may think it well to urge strongly the alteration of existing rules, it should not be considered permissible to ignore rules which undoubtedly do exist whilst those rules remain in force. The helmets of knights and baronets and of esquires and gentlemen, in accordance with present official practice, are usually ornamented with gold, though this would not appear to be a fixed and unalterable rule. When two or more crests need to be depicted, various expedients are adopted. The English official practice is to paint one helmet only, and both the crests are detached from it. The same plan was formerly adopted in Scotland. The dexter crest is naturally the more important and the principal one in each case. By using one helmet only the necessity of turning the dexter crest to face the sinister is obviated. The present official method adopted in England of depicting three crests is to use one helmet only, and all three crests face to the dexter. The centre one, which is placed on the helmet, is the principal or first crest, that on the dexter side the second, and the one on the sinister the third. In Germany, the land of many crests (no less than thirteen were borne above the shield of the Margraves of Brandenburg-Anspach), there has from the earliest times been a fixed invariable practice of never dissociating a crest from the helmet which supported it, and consequently one helmet to every crest has long been the only recognised procedure. In the United Kingdom duplication of crests is quite a modern practice. Amongst the Plantagenet Garter plates there is not a single example to be found of a coat of arms with more than a single crest, and there is no ancient British example of more {323} than one helmet which can be referred to for guidance. The custom originated in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Germany. This point is more fully dealt with in the chapter devoted to the consideration of crests, but it may be here noted that in Austria a knight may place two and a baron three helmets over his shield. The Continental practice is as follows: When the number of the helms is even, they are arranged so that all look inwards towards the centre line of the escutcheon, half being turned to the dexter, half to the sinister. If the number be uneven, the principal helm is placed in the centre affronté, the others with their crests being turned towards it; thus, some face to the dexter, some to the sinister. The crests are always turned with the helmets. In Scandinavia the centre helm is affronté; the others, with their crests, are often turned outwards. English officialism, whilst confining its own emblazonments to one helmet only, has never sought to assert that the use of two or more was either incorrect or faulty heraldry, and particularly in these later days of the revival of heraldic art in this country, all heraldic artists, following the German example, are inclined to give each crest its own helmet. This practice has been adopted during the last few years by Lyon King of Arms, and now all paintings of arms in Lyon Register which have two crests have the same number of helmets. Some of the Bath stall plates in Henry VII.'s chapel in Westminster Abbey also display two helmets. When two helmets are used, it has been customary, still following the German model, to turn them to face each other, except in the cases of the full-faced helmets of a knight or baronet, and (with the same exception) when three helmets have been employed the outer ones have been placed to face the centre, whilst the centre one has been placed in profile, as would be the case were it standing alone. But the multiplication of English crests in number, all of which as granted are required to differ, has naturally resulted in the stereotyping of points of difference in attitude, &c., and the inevitable consequence is unfortunately that without sacrificing this character of differentiation it is impossible to allow the English heraldic artist the same latitude and freedom of disposition with regard to crests that his German confrère enjoys. These remarks apply solely to English and Irish crests, for Scottish practices, requiring no differentiation in the crests, have left Scottish crests simple and unspoiled. In England the result is that to "play" with the position of a crest frequently results in an entire alteration of its character, and consequently, as there is nothing whatever in the nature of a law or of a rule to the contrary, it is quite as usual to now find that two profile helmets are both placed to face the dexter, as placed to face each other. Another point seems also in {324} England to have been lost sight of in borrowing our methods from Germany. They hold themselves at liberty to, and usually _do_, make all their _charges on the shield_ face to the centre. This is never done in England, where all face to the dexter. It seems therefore to me an anomaly to apply one rule to the shield and another to the helmet, and personally I prefer that both helmets and all charges should face the dexter. In British heraldry (and in fact the rule is universal) no woman other than a reigning Sovereign is permitted to surmount her arms by a helmet. Woodward states that "Many writers have denied the right of ecclesiastics (and, of course, of women) to the use of helmet and crest. Spener, the great German herald, defends their use by ecclesiastics, and says that, in Germany at any rate, universal custom is opposed to the restriction. There the prelates, abbots, and abbesses, who held princely fiefs by military tenure, naturally retained the full knightly insignia." In official English heraldry, there is a certain amount of confirmation and a certain amount of contradiction of this supposed rule which denies a helmet to an ecclesiastic. A grant of arms to a clergyman at the present day, and at all times previously, after the granting of crests had become usual, contains the grant of the crest and the emblazonment shows the helmet. But the grant of arms to a bishop is different. The emblazonment of the arms is surmounted by a mitre, and the crest is depicted in the body of the patent away from and distinct from the emblazonment proper in the margin. But the fact that a crest is granted proves that there is not any disability inherent in the ecclesiastic which debars him from the possession of the helmet and crest, and the rule which must be deduced, and which really is the definite and accepted rule, is that a mitre cannot be displayed together with a helmet or crest. It must be one or other, and as the mitre is indicative of the higher rank, it is the crest and helmet which are discarded. There are few rules in heraldry to which exceptions cannot be found, and there is a painting now preserved in the College of Arms, which depicts the arms of the Bishop of Durham surmounted by a helmet, that in its turn being surmounted by the mitre of episcopal rank. But the Bishopric of Durham was, in addition to its episcopal character, a temporal Palatinate, and the arms of the Bishops of that See therefore logically present many differences and exceptions from established heraldic rules. The rules with regard to the use of helmets for the coats of arms of corporate bodies are somewhat vague and vary considerably. All counties, cities, and towns, and all corporate bodies to whom crests have been granted in England, have the ordinary closed profile helmet {325} of an esquire or gentleman. No grant of a crest has as yet been made to an English university, so that it is impossible to say that no helmet would be allowed, or if it were allowed what it would be. For some reason the arms of the City of London are always depicted with the helmet of a peer, but as the crest is not officially recorded, the privilege necessarily has no official sanction or authority. In Scotland the helmet painted upon a grant of arms to town or city is always the open full-faced helmet of a knight or baronet. But in the grant of arms to a county, where it includes a crest, the helmet is that of an esquire, which is certainly curious. In Ireland no helmet at all was painted upon the patent granting arms to the city of Belfast, in spite of the fact that a crest was included in the grant, and the late Ulster King of Arms informed me he would not allow a helmet to any impersonal arms. Care should be taken to avoid errors of anachronism when depicting helmet and shield. The shapes of these should bear some approximate relation to each other in point of date. It is preferable that the helmet should be so placed that its lower extremity reaches somewhat over the edge of the shield. The inclined position of the shield in emblazonment is borrowed from the natural order of things, because the shield hanging by its chain or shield-strap (the guige), which was so balanced that the shield should most readily fall into a convenient position when slung on the rider's shoulders, would naturally retain its equilibrium only in a slanting direction. {326} CHAPTER XXI THE CREST If uncertainty exists as to the origin of arms, it is as nothing to the huge uncertainty that exists concerning the beginnings of the crest. Most wonderful stories are told concerning it; that it meant this and meant the other, that the right to bear a crest was confined to this person or the other person. But practically the whole of the stories of this kind are either wild imagination or conjecture founded upon insufficient facts. The real facts--which one may as well state first as a basis to work upon--are very few and singularly unconvincing, and are useless as original data from which to draw conclusions. First of all we have the definite, assured, and certain fact that the earliest known instance of a crest is in 1198, and we find evidence of the use of arms before that date. The next fact is that we find infinitely more variation in the crests used by given families than in the arms, and that whilst the variations in the arms are as a rule trivial, and not affecting the general design of the shield, the changes in the crest are frequently radical, the crest borne by a family at one period having no earthly relation to that borne by the same family at another. Again, we find that though the occasional use of a crest can (by isolated instances) be taken back, as already stated, to a fairly early period, the use of crests did not become general until very much later. Another fact is that, except perhaps in the persons of sovereigns, there is no official instance, nor any other authentic instance of importance, in which a crest appears ever to have been used by a woman until these recent and unfortunate days when unofficial examples can be found of the wildest ignorance of all armorial rules. The foregoing may be taken as general principles which no authentic instance known can be said to refute. Bearing these in mind, let us now see what other results can be obtained by deduction from specific instances. The earliest form in which anything can be found in the nature of a crest is the lion upon the head-dress of Geoffrey, Count of Anjou (Fig. 28). This has been already referred to. {327} The helmet of Philippe D'Alsace, Count of Flanders (_c._ 1181), has painted upon the side the same figure of a lion which appears upon his shield. What is usually accepted as the earliest authenticated instance of a regular crest is that afforded by the Great Seal of King Richard I. of England, which shows over the helmet a lion passant painted upon the fan-shaped ornament which surmounts the helmet. If one accepts--as most people nowadays are inclined to do--the Darwinian theory of evolution, the presumption is that the development of the human being, through various intermediate links including the ape, can be traced back to those cell-like formations which are the most "original" types of life which are known to us. At the same time one is hardly disposed to assert that some antediluvian jellyfish away back in past ages was the first human being. By a similar, but naturally more restricted argument, one cannot accept these paintings upon helmets, nor possibly can one accept paintings upon the fan-like ornaments which surmounted the helmet, as examples of crests. The rudiments and origin of crests doubtless they were. Crests they were not. We must go back, once again, to the bed-rock of the peacock-popinjay vanity ingrained in human nature. The same impulse which nowadays leads to the decoration of the helmets of the Life Guards with horsehair plumes and regimental badges, the cocked hats of field-marshals and other officers with waving plumes, the képis of commissionaires, and the smasher hats of Colonial irregulars with cocks' feathers, the hat of the poacher and gamekeeper with a pheasant's feather, led unquestionably to the "decoration" of the helmets of the armoured knights of old. The matter was just a combination of decoration and vanity. At first (Fig. 569) they frequently painted their helmets, and as with the gradual evolution and crystallisation of armory a certain form of decoration (the device upon his shield) became identified with a certain person, that particular device was used for the decoration of the helmet and painted thereupon. Then it was found that a fan-shaped erection upon the helmet improved its appearance, and, without adding greatly to its weight, advantaged it as a head protection by attracting the blow of an opponent's sword, and lessening or nullifying its force ere the blow reached the actual crown-plates of the helmet. Possibly in this we see the true origin (as in the case of the scalloped edges of the mantling) of the serrated border which appears upon these fan-shaped erections. But this last suggestion is no more than a conjecture of my own, and may not be correct, for human nature has always had a weakness for decoration, and ever has been agreeable to pay the extra {328} penny in the "tuppence" for the coloured or decorated variety. The many instances which can be found of these fan-shaped ornaments upon helmets in a perfectly undecorated form leads me to unhesitatingly assert that they originated _not_ as crests, nor as a vehicle for the display of crests, but as an integral and protective part of the _helmet_ itself. The origin of the crest is due to the decoration of the fan. The derivation of the word "crest," from the Latin _crista_, a cock's comb, should put the supposition beyond any doubt. Disregarding crests of later grant or assumption, one can assert with confidence that a large proportion of those--particularly in German armory, where they are so frequent--which we now find blazoned or depicted as wings or plumes, carrying a device, are nothing more than developments of or derivatives from these fan-shaped ornaments. [Illustration: FIG. 610.--From the seal (1301) of Richard FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel.] [Illustration: FIG. 611.--From the seal (1301) of Humphrey de Bohm, Earl of Hereford.] [Illustration: FIG. 612.--From the seal (1305) of Edward of Carnarvon, Prince of Wales.] These fans being (from other reasons) in existence, of course, and very naturally, were painted and decorated, and equally of course such decoration took the form of the particular decoration associated with the owner, namely, the device upon the shield. It seems to me, and for long has so seemed, essentially strange that no specialist authority, writing upon armory, has noticed that these "fans" (as I will call them) are really a part, though possibly only a decorative part, of the helmet itself. There has always in these matters been far too great a tendency on the part of writers to accept conclusions of earlier authorities ready made, and to simply treat these fans as selected and chosen crests. Figs. 610-612 are instances of helmets having these fans. All are {329} taken from seals, and it is quite possible that the actual fans upon the seal helmets had some device painted upon them which it was impossible by reason of the size to represent upon the seal. As has been already stated, the great seal of Richard I. does show a lion painted on the fan. There are many examples of the heraldic development of these fans,--for their use obtained even in this country long after the real heraldic crest had an assured footing--and a typical example occurs in Fig. 613, but probably the best-known instance, one which has been often illustrated, is that from the effigy of Sir Geoffrey de Luttrell (_c._ 1340), which shows a fan of this character upon which the entire Luttrell arms are depicted. [Illustration: FIG. 613.--Arms of the family of Schaler (Basle): Gules, a bend of lozenges argent. (From the Zürich Roll of Arms.)] [Illustration: FIG. 614.--Modern reverse of the Common Seal of the City of London (1539).] A much later instance in this country will be found in the seal (dated 1539) of the City of London, which shows upon the helmet one of these fan-shaped ornaments, charged with the cross of the City arms (Fig. 614). The arms of the City of London are recorded in the College of Arms (Vincent) without a crest (and by the way without supporters) and this seal affords a curious but a very striking and authentic instance of the extreme accuracy of the records of the College of Arms. There being no crest for the City of London at the time of the preparation of this seal, recourse was had to the ancient practice of depicting the whole or a part (in this case a part) of the device of the shield upon a fan surmounting the helmet. In course of time this fan, in the case of London, as in so many other cases, has through ignorance been {330} converted or developed into a wing, but the "rays" of the fan in this instance are preserved in the "rays" of the dragon's wing (charged with a cross) which the crest is now supposed to be. Whilst dealing with the arms of London, one of the favourite "flaring" examples of ancient but unrecorded arms often mentioned as an instance in which the Records of the College of Arms are at fault, perhaps I may be pardoned for adding that the shield _is_ recorded. The crest and supporters are not. The seeming omission as to the crest is explained above. The real supporters of the City of London, to which a claim by user _could_ (even now) be established (they are two lions, not dragons), had, with the single exception of their use upon the Mayor's seal, which use is continued to the present day, been practically discarded. Consequently the lions as supporters remained unclaimed, and therefore are not recorded. The supporters now used (two dragons) are _raw new_ adornments, of which no example can be found before the seventeenth century. Those naturally, being "assumed" without authority at so recent a date, are not recorded, which is yet another testimony to the impartial accuracy of the Heralds' College Records. The use of the fan-crest has long been obsolete in British armory, in which it can hardly ever be said to have had a very great footing, unless such use was prevalent in the thirteenth century; but it still survives in Germany at the present day, where, in spite of the fact that many of these fans have now degenerated into reduplications of the arms upon wings or plumes of feathers, other crests to a considerable number are still displayed upon "fans." Many of the current practices in British armory are the culmination of long-continued ignorance. Some, mayhap, can be allowed to pass without comment, but others deserve at any rate their share of criticism and remark. Amongst such may be included the objectionable practice, in the grants of so many modern crests, of making the crest itself a _shield_ carrying a repetition of the arms or some other device, or of introducing in the crest an escutcheon. To the resuscitation of these "fan" repetitions of the shield device there is not, and cannot be, any objection. One would even, in these days of the multiplication of differentiated crests, recommend this as a relief from the abominable rows of assorted objects nowadays placed (for the purposes of differentiation) in front of so many modern crests. One would gladly see a reversion to the German development (from this source) of wings charged with the arms or a part of the armorial device; but one of the things a new grantee should pray to be delivered from is an escutcheon of any sort, shape, or form in the crest assigned to him. {331} To return, however, to the "fans" upon the early helmets. Many of the examples which have come down to us show the fan of a rather diminutive height, but (in the form of an arc of a much enlarged circle) projected far forward beyond the front of the helmet, and carried far back, apparently as a safeguard from blows which would otherwise descend upon the neck. (A survival of the fan, by the way, may perhaps be found in the dragoon helmets of the time of the Peninsular War, in the firemen's helmets of to-day, and in the helmets now worn by different regiments in the Italian army.) The very shape of these fans should prove they were originally a protective part of the helmet. The long low shape, however, did not, as a general circumstance, lend itself to its decoration by a duplication thereupon of the whole of the arms. Consequently these fans will nearly always be found simply adorned with one figure from the shield. It should not be forgotten that we are now dealing with a period in armory when the charges upon the shield itself were very much, as far as number and position are concerned, of an indeterminate character. If they were indeterminate for the shield, it evidences that there cannot have been any idea of a necessity to repeat the whole of the device upon the fan. As there was seldom room or opportunity for the display of the whole device, we invariably find that these fan decorations were a duplication of a distinctive part, but not necessarily the whole of the device; and this device was disposed in the most suitable position which the shape of the fan would accommodate. Herein is the explanation of the fact that whilst the arms of Percy, Talbot, and Mowbray were all, in varying tinctures, a lion rampant, the crest in each case was a lion passant or statant. In short, the fan did not lend itself to the representation of a lion rampant, and consequently there is no early instance of such a crest. Perhaps the insecurity of a large and heavy crest balanced upon one leg may be an added reason. The next step in the evolution of the crest, there can be little doubt, was the cutting of the fan into the outline of the crest, and though I know of no instance of such a crest on any effigy, there can be no reasonable doubt on the point, if a little thought is given to the matter. Until a very much later period, we never find in any heraldic representation that the helmet or crest are represented in an affronté position. Why? Simply because crests at that period were merely profile representations. In later days, when tournament crests were made of leather, the weight even of these was very considerable, but for tournament purposes that weight could be endured. Half-a-dozen courses down the _barrière_ would be a vastly different matter to a whole day under arms in actual battle. Now a crest cut out from a thin plate of metal set {332} on edge would weigh but little. But perhaps the strongest proof of all is to be found in the construction of so many German crests, which are adorned down the back with a fan. Now it is hardly likely, if the demi-lion in relief had been the earliest form, that the fan would have been subsequently added to it. The fan is nothing more than the remains of the original fan-shaped ornament left when the crest, or most likely only the front outline of it, had been cut out in profile from the fan. We have no instance until a very much later period of a crest which could not be depicted in profile, and in the representations of crests upon seals we have no means of forming a certain judgment that these representations are not of profile crests, for the very nature of the craft of seal-engraving would lead the engraver to add a certain amount of relief, even if this did not actually exist. It is out of the question to suppose, by reason of their weight, that crests were made in metal. But if made of leather, as were the tournament crests, what protection did the crest add to the helmet? The fact that wreaths and coronets did not come into use at the earliest advent of crests is confirmatory evidence of the fact that modelled crests did not exist, inasmuch as the fan prolonged in front and prolonged behind was narrowed at its point of contact with the helmet into such a diminished length that it was comparatively easy to slip the mantling by means of a slit over the fan, or even drape it round it. Many of the old illustrations of tournaments and battles which have come down to us show no crests on the helmets, but merely plumes of feathers or some fan-shaped erection. Consequently it is a fairly safe conclusion that for the actual purposes of warfare modelled crests never had any real existence, or, if they had any such existence, that it was most limited. Modelled crests were tournament crests. The crests that were used in battle must have been merely cut out in profile from the fan. Then came the era, in Plantagenet times, of the tournament. We talk glibly about tournaments, but few indeed really know much about them. Trial by combat and the real tournament _à l'outrance_ seldom occurred, and though trial by combat remained upon the statute-book until the 59 Geo. III., it was seldom invoked. Tournaments were chiefly in the nature of athletic displays, taking the place of our games and sports, and inasmuch as they contributed to the training of the soldier, were held in the high repute that polo, for example, now enjoys amongst the upper and military classes. Added to this, the tournament was the essential climax of ceremony and ceremonial, and in all its details was ordered by such strict regulations, rules, and supervision that its importance and its position in the public and official estimate was far in advance of its present-day equivalents. {333} The joust was fought with tilting-spears, the "tourney" with swords. The rules and regulations for jousts and tournaments drawn up by the High Constable of England in the reign of Edward IV. show clearly that in neither was contemplated any risk of life. In the tourney the swords were blunted and without points, but the principal item was always the joust, which was fought with tilting-spears and shields. Many representations of the tourney show the participants without shields. The general ignorance as to the manner in which the tilt was run is very widespread. A strong barrier was erected straight down the centre of the lists, and the knights were placed one on either side, so that by no possible chance could the two horses come into contact. Those who will read Mallory's "Morte d'Arthur" carefully--bearing in mind that Mallory described legendary events of an earlier period clothed in the manners and customs of his own day (time of Edward IV.), and made no attempt to reproduce the manners and customs and real atmosphere of the Arthurian times, which could have had no relation to the manners and proceedings which Sir Thomas Mallory employs in telling his legends--will notice that, when it came to jousting, some half-dozen courses would be all that were run between contending knights. In fact the tournament rules above referred to say, for the tourney, that two blows at passage and ten at the joining ought to suffice. The time which this would occupy would not exceed the period for which any man could easily sustain the weight of a modelled crest. [Illustration: FIG. 615.--Crest of Roger de Quincey, Earl of Winchester (d. 1264). (From his seal.)] [Illustration: FIG. 616.--Crest of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster. (From his seal, 1301.)] Another point needs to be borne in mind. The result of a joust depended upon the points scored, the highest number being gained for the absolute unhorsing of an opponent. This, however, happened comparatively seldom, and points or "spears" were scored for the lances broken upon an opponent's helmet, shield, or body, and the points so scored were subject to deduction if the opponent's horse were touched, and under other circumstances. The head of the tilting-spear which was used was a kind of rosette, and heraldic representations are really incorrect in adding a point when the weapon is described as a tilting-spear. Whilst a fine point meeting a wooden shield or metal armour would stick in the one or glance off the other, and neither result in the breaking of the lance nor in the unhorsing of the opponent, a broad rosette would convey a heavy shock. But to effect the desired object the tilting-spear would need to meet resistance, and little would be gained by knocking off an opponent's ornamental crest. Certainly no prize appears to have been allotted for the performance of this feat (which always attracts the imagination of the novelist), whilst there was for striking the "sight" of the helmet. Consequently there was nothing to be gained from the protection to {334} the helmet which the fan of earlier date afforded, and the tendency of ceremonial led to the use in tournaments of helmets and elaborate crests which were not those used in battle. The result is that we find these tournament or ceremonial crests were of large and prominent size, and were carved in wood, or built up of leather. But I firmly believe that these crests were used only for ceremonial and tournament purposes, and were never actually worn in battle. That these modelled crests in relief are the ones that we find upon effigies is only natural, and what one would expect, inasmuch as a man's effigy displayed his garments and accoutrements in the most ornate and honourable form. The same idea exists at the present day. The subjects of modern effigies and modern portraits are represented in robes, and with insignia which are seldom if ever worn, and which sometimes even have no existence in fact. In the same way the ancient effigies are the representations of the ceremonial dress and not the everyday garb of those for whom they stand. But even allowing all the foregoing, it must be admitted that it is from these ceremonial or tournament helmets and crests that the heraldic crest has obtained its importance, and herein lies the reason of the exaggerated size of early heraldic crests, and also the unsuitability of some few for actual use. Tournaments were flourishing in the Plantagenet, Yorkist, and Lancastrian periods, and ended with the days of the Tudor dynasty; and the Plantagenet period witnessed the rise of the ceremonial and heraldic crest. But in the days when crests had any actual existence they were made to fit the helmet, and the crests in Figs. 615-618 show crests very much more naturally disposed than those of later periods. {335} Crests appear to have come into wider and more general use in Germany at an earlier period than is the case in this country, for in the early part of the thirteenth century seals are there to be met with having only the device of helmet and crest thereupon, a proof that the "oberwappen" (helmet and crest) was then considered of equal or greater value than the shield. [Illustration: FIG. 617.--Crest of William de Montagu, Earl of Salisbury (d. 1344). (From his seal.)] [Illustration: FIG. 618.--Crest of Thomas de Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham, and Earl Marshal. (From a drawing of his seal, 1389: MS Cott., Julius, C. vii.)] The actual tournament crests were made of light material, pasteboard, cloth, or a leather shell over a wood or wire framework filled with tow, sponge, or sawdust. Fig. 271, which shows the shield, helmet, and crest of the Black Prince undoubtedly contemporary, dating from 1376, and now remaining in Canterbury Cathedral, is made of leather and is a good example of an actual crest, but even this, there can be little doubt, was never carried in battle or tournament, and is no more than a ceremonial crest made for the funeral pageant. The heraldic wings which are so frequently met with in crests are not the natural wings of a bird, but are a development from the fan, and in actual crests were made of wooden or basket-work strips, and probably at an earlier date were not intended to represent wings, but were mere pieces of wood painted and existing for the display of a certain device. Their shape and position led to their transition into "wings," and then they were covered with dyed or natural-coloured feathers. It was the art of heraldic emblazonment which ignored the practical details, that first copied the wing from nature. Actual crests were fastened to the helmets they surmounted by {336} means of ribbons, straps, laces (which developed later into the fillet and torse), or rivets, and in Germany they were ornamented with hanging and tinkling metal leaves, tiny bells, buffalo horns, feathers, and projecting pieces of wood, which formed vehicles for still further decorative appendages. Then comes the question, what did the crest signify? Many have asserted that no one below the rank of a knight had the right to use a crest; in fact some writers have asserted, and doubtless correctly as regards a certain period, that only those who were of tournament rank might assume the distinction, and herein lies another confirmation of the supposition that crests had a closer relation to the tournament than to the battlefield. Doubts as to a man's social position might disqualify him from participation in a tournament--hence the "helme-schau" previously referred to--but they certainly never relieved him from the obligations of warfare imposed by the tenure under which he held his lands. There is no doubt, however, that whatever the regulation may have been--and there seems little chance of our ever obtaining any real knowledge upon the point--the right to display a crest was an additional privilege and honour, something extra and beyond the right to a shield of arms. For how long any such supposition held good it is difficult to say, for whilst we find in the latter part of the fourteenth century that all the great nobles had assumed and were using crests, and whilst there is but one amongst the Plantagenet Garter plates without a crest where a helmet has been represented above the shield, we also find that the great bulk of the lesser landed gentry bore arms, but made no pretension to a crest. The lesser gentry were bound to fight in war, but not necessarily in the tournament. Arms were a necessity of warfare, crests were not. This continued to be the case till the end of the sixteenth century, for we find that at one of the Visitations no crests whatever are inserted with the arms and pedigrees of the families set out in the Visitation Book, and one is probably justified in assuming that whilst this state of feeling and this idea existed, the crest was highly thought of, and valued possibly beyond the shield of arms, for with those of that rank of life which aspired to the display of a crest the right to arms would be a matter of course. In the latter part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth and in Stuart days the granting of crests to ancient arms became a widespread practice. Scores upon scores of such grants can be referred to, and I have myself been led to the irresistible conclusion that the opportunity afforded by the grant of a crest was urged by the heralds and officers of arms, in order to give them the opportunity of confirming and recording arms which they knew needed such confirmation to be {337} rendered legal, without giving offence to those who had borne these arms merely by strength of user for some prolonged but at the same time insufficient period to confer an unquestioned right. That has always seemed to me the obvious reason which accounts for these numberless grants of crests to apparently existing arms, which arms are recited and emblazoned in the patents, because there are other grants of crests which can be referred to, though these are singularly few in number, in which the arms are entirely ignored. But as none of these grants, which are of a crest only, appear to have been made to families whose right to arms was not absolutely beyond question or dispute, the conclusion above recited appears to be irresistible. The result of these numerous grants of crests, which I look upon as carrying greater importance in the sense that they were also confirmations of the arms, resulted in the fact that the value and dignity of the crest slowly but steadily declined, and the cessation of tournaments and, shortly afterwards, the marked decline in funereal pageantry no doubt contributed largely to the same result. Throughout the Stuart period instances can be found, though not very frequently, of grants of arms without the grant of a crest being included in the patent; but the practice was soon to entirely cease, and roughly speaking one may assert that since the beginning of the Hanoverian dynasty no person has ever been granted arms without the corresponding grant of a crest, if a crest could be properly borne with the arms. Now no crest has ever been granted where the right to arms has not existed or been simultaneously conferred, and therefore, whilst there are still many coats of arms legally in existence without a crest, a crest cannot exist without a coat of arms, so that those people, and they are many, who vehemently assert a right to the "_crest_ of their family," whilst admitting they have no right to arms, stand self-convicted heraldically both of having spoken unutterable rubbish, and of using a crest to which they can have no possible right. One exception, and one only, have I ever come across to the contrary, and very careful inquiry can bring me knowledge of no other. That crest is the crest of a family of Buckworth, now represented by Sir Charles Buckworth-Herne-Soame, Bart. This family at the time of the Visitations exhibited a certain coat of arms and crest. The coat of arms, which doubtless interfered with the rights of some other family, was respited for further proof; but the crest, which did not, appears to have been allowed, and as nothing further was done with regard to the arms, the crest stood, whilst the arms were bad. But even this one exception has long since been rectified, for when the additional name and arms of Soame were assumed by Royal License, the arms which had been exhibited and respited were (with the addition of an ermine spot as a charge upon the chevron) granted as the arms of Buckworth to be borne quarterly with the arms of Soame. PLATE VI. [Illustration] {338} With the cessation of tournaments, we get to the period which some writers have stigmatised as that of "paper" heraldry. That is a reference to the fact that arms and crests ceased to be painted upon shields or erected upon helmets that enjoyed actual use in battle and tournament. Those who are so ready to decry modern heraldry forget that from its very earliest existence heraldry has always had the _same_ significance as a symbol of rank and social position which it now enjoys and which remains undiminished in extent, though doubtless less potent in effect. They forget also that from the very earliest period armory had three uses--viz. its martial use, its decorative use, and its use as a symbol of ownership. The two latter uses still remain in their entirety, and whilst that is the case, armory cannot be treated as a dead science. But with the cessation of tournaments the decorative became the chief use of arms, and the crest soon ceased to have that distinctive adaptability to the purpose of a helmet ornament. Up to the end of the Tudor period crests had retained their original simplicity. Animals' heads and animals passant, human heads and demi-animals, comprised the large majority of the early crests. Scottish heraldry in a marked degree has retained the early simplicity of crests, though at the expense of lack of distinction between the crests of different families. German heraldry has to a large extent retained the same character as has Scottish armory, and though many of the crests are decidedly elaborated, it is noticeable that this elaboration is never such as to render the crest unsuitable for its true position upon a helmet. In England this aspect of the crest has been almost entirely lost sight of, and a large proportion of the crests in modern English grants are utterly unsuitable for use in relief upon an actual helmet. Our present rules of position for a helmet, and our unfortunate stereotyped form of wreath, are largely to blame, but the chief reason is the definite English rule that the crests of separate English families must be differentiated as are the arms. No such rule holds good in Scotland, hence their simple crests. Whether the rule is good or bad it is difficult to say. When all the pros and cons have been taken into consideration, the whole discussion remains a matter of opinion, and whilst one dislikes the Scottish idea under which the same identical crest can be and regularly is granted to half-a-dozen people of as many different surnames, one objects very considerably to the typical present-day crest of an English grant of arms. Whilst a collar can be put round an animal's neck, and whilst it can hold objects in its mouth or paws, it does seem {339} ridiculous to put a string of varied and selected objects "in front" of it, when these plainly would only be visible from one side, or to put a crest "between" objects if these are to be represented "fore and aft," one toppling over the brow of the wearer of the helmet and the other hanging down behind. The crests granted by the late Sir Albert Woods, Garter, are the crying grievance of modern English heraldry, and though a large proportion are far greater abortions than they need be, and though careful thought and research even yet will under the present régime result in the grant of at any rate a quite unobjectionable crest, nevertheless we shall not obtain a real reform, or attain to any appreciable improvement, until the "position" rule as to helmets is abolished. Some of the crests mentioned hereunder are typical and awful examples of modern crests. Crest of Bellasis of Marton, Westmoreland: A mount vert, thereon a lion couchant guardant azure, in front of a tent proper, lined gules. Crest of Hermon of Preston, Lancashire, and Wyfold Court, Checkendon, Oxon.: In front of two palm-trees proper, a lion couchant guardant erminois, resting the dexter claw upon a bale of cotton proper. Motto: "Fido non timeo." Crest of James Harrison, Esq., M.A., Barrister-at-Law: In front of a demi-lion rampant erased or, gorged with a collar gemelle azure, and holding between the paws a wreath of oak proper, three mascles interlaced also azure. Motto: "Pro rege et patria." Crest of Colonel John Davis, F.S.A., of Bifrons, Hants: A lion's head erased sable, charged with a caltrap or, upon two swords in saltire proper, hilted and pommelled also or. Motto: "Ne tentes, aut perfice." Crest of the late Sir Saul Samuel, Bart., K.C.M.G.: Upon a rock in front of three spears, one in pale and two in saltire, a wolf current sable, pierced in the breast by an arrow argent, flighted or. Motto: "A pledge of better times." Crest of Jonson of Kennal Manor, Chislehurst, Kent: In front of a dexter arm embowed in armour proper, the hand also proper, grasping a javelin in bend sinister, pheoned or, and enfiled with a chaplet of roses gules, two branches of oak in saltire vert. Crest of C. E. Lamplugh, Esq.: In front of a cubit arm erect proper, encircled about the wrist with a wreath of oak and holding in the hand a sword also proper, pommel and hilt or, an escutcheon argent, charged with a goat's head couped sable. Mottoes: "Through," and "Providentia Dei stabiliuntur familiæ." Crest of Glasford, Scotland: "Issuing from clouds two hands conjoined grasping a caduceus ensigned with a cap of liberty, all between two cornucopiæ all proper. Motto: "Prisca fides." We now come to the subject of the inheritance of crests, concerning which there has been much difference of opinion. It is very usually asserted that until a comparatively recent date crests were not hereditary, but were assumed, discarded, and changed at pleasure. Like many other incorrect statements, there is a certain modicum of truth in the statement, for no doubt whilst arms themselves {340} had a more or less shifting character, crests were certainly not "fixed" to any greater extent. But I think no one has as yet discovered, or at any rate brought into notice, the true facts of the case, or the real position of the matter, and I think I am the first to put into print what actually were the rules which governed the matter. The rules, I believe, were undoubtedly these:-- Crests were, save in the remote beginning of things heraldic, definitely hereditary. They were hereditary even to the extent (and herein lies the point which has not hitherto been observed) that they were transmitted by an heiress. Perhaps this heritability was limited to those cases in which the heiress transmitted the _de facto_ headship of her house. We, judging by present laws, look upon the crest as a part of the _one_ heraldic achievement inseparable from the shield. What proof have we that in early times any necessary connection between arms and crest existed? We have none. The shield of arms was one inheritance, descending by known rules. The crest was another, but a separate inheritance, descending equally through an heir or coheir-general. The crest was, as an inheritance, as separate from the shield as were the estates then. The social conditions of life prevented the possibility of the existence or inheritance of a crest where arms did not exist. But a man inheriting several coats of arms from different heiress ancestresses could marshal them all upon one shield, and though we find the heir often made selection at his pleasure, and marshalled the arms in various methods, the determination of which was a mere matter of arbitrary choice, he could, if he wished, use them all upon one shield. But he had but one helmet, and could use and display but one crest. So that, if he had inherited two, he was forced to choose which he would use, though he sometimes tried to combine two into one device. It is questionable if an instance can be found in England of the regular display of two helmets and crests together, surmounting one shield, before the eighteenth century, but there are countless instances of the contemporary but separate display of two different crests, and the Visitation Records afford us some number of instances of this tacit acknowledgment of the inheritance of more than one crest. The patent altering or granting the Mowbray crest seems to me clear recognition of the right of inheritance of a crest passing through an heir female. This, however, it must be admitted, may be really no more than a grant, and is not in itself actual evidence that any crest had been previously borne. My own opinion, however, is that it is fair presumptive evidence upon the point, and conveys an alteration and not a grant. The translation of this Patent (Patent Roll 339, 17 Ric. II. pt. 1, {341} memb. 2) is as follows: "The King to all to whom, &c., Greeting, Know that whereas our well-beloved and faithful kinsman, Thomas, Earl-Marshal and Earl of Nottingham, has a just hereditary title to bear for his crest a leopard or with a white label, which should be of right the crest of our eldest son if we had begotten a son. We, for this consideration, have granted for us and our heirs to the said Thomas and his heirs that for a difference in this crest they shall and may bear a leopard, and in place of a label a crown argent, without hindrance from us or our heirs aforesaid.--In witness, &c. Witness the King at Westminster, the 12th day of January [17 Ric. II.]. By writ of Privy Seal." Cases will constantly be found in which the crests have been changed. I necessarily totally exclude from consideration crests which have been changed owing to specific grants, and also changes due to the discarding of crests which can be shown to have been borne without right. Changes in crests must also be disregarded where the differences in emblazonment are merely differences in varying designs of the same crest. Necessarily from none of these instances can a law of inheritance be deduced. But if other changes in the crests of important families be considered, I think it will be very evident that practically the whole of these are due to the inheritance through heiresses or ancestresses of an alternative crest. It can be readily shown that selection played an important part in the marshalling of quarterings upon an escutcheon, and where important quarterings were inherited they are as often as not found depicted in the first quarter. Thus the Howards have borne at different periods the wings of Howard; the horse of Fitzalan; and the Royal crest granted to the Mowbrays with remainder to the heir general; and these crests have been borne, as will be seen from the Garter plates, quite irrespective of what the surname in use may have been. Consequently it is very evident the crests were considered to be inherited with the representation of the different families. The Stourton crest was originally a stag's head, and is to be seen recorded in one of the Visitations, and upon the earliest seal in existence of any member of the family. But after the inheritance through the heiress of Le Moyne, the Le Moyne crest of the demi-monk was adopted. The Stanleys, Earls of Derby, whatever their original crest may have been, inherited the well-known bird and bantling of the family of Lathom. The Talbot crest was originally a talbot, and this is still so borne by Lord Talbot of Malahide: it was recorded at the Visitation of Dublin; but the crest at present borne by the Earls of Shrewsbury is derived from the arms inherited by descent from Gwendolin, daughter of Rhys ap Griffith. The Nevill crest was a bull's head as it is now borne by the Marquess {342} of Abergavenny, and as it will be seen on the Garter plate of William Nevill, Lord Fauconberg. An elder brother of Lord Fauconberg had married the heiress of the Earl of Salisbury, and was summoned to Parliament in her earldom. He quartered her arms, which appear upon his Garter plate and seal, in the first and fourth quarters of his shield, and adopted her crest. A younger son of Sir Richard Nevill, Earl of Salisbury, bore the same crest differenced by two annulets conjoined, which was the difference mark added to the shield. The crest of Bourchier was a soldan's head crowned, and with a pointed cap issuing from the crown, but when the barony of Bourchier passed to the family of Robsart, as will be seen from the Garter plate of Sir Lewis Robsart, Lord Bourchier, the crest of Bourchier was adopted with the inheritance of the arms and Barony of Bourchier. I am aware of no important case in English heraldry where the change has been due to mere caprice, and it would seem therefore an almost incontrovertible assertion that changes were due to inheritance, and if that can be established it follows even more strongly that until the days when armory was brought under rigid and official control, and even until a much later date, say up to the beginning of the Stuart period, crests were heritable through heiresses equally with quarterings. The fact that we find comparatively few changes considering the number of crests in existence is by no means a refutation of this theory, because a man had but one helmet, and was forced therefore to make a selection. Unless, therefore, he had a very strong inclination it would be more likely that he would select the crest he was used to than a fresh one. I am by no means certain that to a limited extent the German idea did not hold in England. This was, and is, that the crest had not the same personal character that was the case with the arms, but was rather attached to or an appanage of the territorial fief or lordship. By the time of the Restoration any idea of the transmission of crests through heiresses had been abandoned. We then find a Royal License necessary for the assumption of arms and crests. Since that date it has been and at the present time it is stringently held, and is the official rule, that no woman can bear or inherit a crest, and that no woman can transmit a right to one. Whilst that is the official and accepted interpretation of heraldic law upon the point, and whilst it cannot now be gainsaid, it cannot, however, be stated that the one assertion is the logical deduction of the other, for whilst a woman cannot inherit a lordship of Parliament, she undoubtedly can transmit one, together with the titular honours, the enjoyment of which is not denied to her. In Scotland crests have always had a very much less important position than in England. There has been little if any continuity {343} with regard to them, and instances of changes for which caprice would appear to be the only reason are met with in the cases of a large proportion of the chief families in that kingdom. To such a widespread extent has the permissive character been allowed to the crest, that many cases will be found in which each successive matriculation for the head of the house, or for a cadet, has produced a change in the crest, and instances are to be found where the different crests are the only existing differences in the achievements of a number of cadets of the same family. At the present time, little if any objection is ever made to an entire and radical change in the crest--if this is wished at the time of a rematriculation--and as far as I can gather such changes appear to have always been permitted. Perhaps it may be well here to point out that this is not equivalent to permission to change the crest at pleasure, because the patent of matriculation until it is superseded by another is the authority, and the compulsory authority, for the crest which is to be borne. In Germany the crest has an infinitely greater importance than is the case with ourselves, but it is there considered in a large degree a territorial appanage, and it is by no means unusual in a German achievement to see several crests surmounting a single coat of arms. In England the Royal coat of arms has really three crests, although the crests of Scotland and Ireland are seldom used, which, it may be noted, are all in a manner territorial; but the difference of idea with which crests are regarded in Germany may be gathered from the fact that the King of Saxony has five, the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin five, the Grand Duke of Saxe-Meiningen six, the Grand Duke of Saxe-Altenburg seven, the Duke of Anhalt seven, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha six, the Prince of Schwartzburg-Sondershausen six, the Prince of Schwartzburg-Rudolstadt six, the Prince of Waldeck-Pyrmont five, the Prince of Lippe five, the Duke of Brunswick five, and instances can be quoted of sixteen and seventeen. Probably Woodward is correct when he says that each crest formerly denoted a noble fief, for which the proprietor had a right to vote in the "circles" of the Empire, and he instances the Margraves of Brandenburg-Anspach, who were entitled to no less than thirteen crests. In France the use of crests is not nearly so general as in England or Germany. In Spain and Portugal it is less frequent still, and in Italy the use of a crest is the exception. The German practice of using horns on either side of the crest, which the ignorance of English heralds has transformed into the proboscides of elephants, is dealt with at some length on page 214. The horns, which are termed buffalo's or bull's horns until the middle of the thirteenth century, were short and thick-set. It is difficult to {344} say at what date these figures came to be considered as heraldic _crests_, for as mere helmet ornaments they probably can be traced back very far beyond any proof of the existence of armory. In the fourteenth century we find the horns curved inwards like a sickle, but later the horns are found more erect, the points turning outwards, slimmer in shape, and finally they exhibit a decidedly marked double curve. Then the ends of the horns are met with open, like a trumpet, the fact which gave rise to the erroneous idea that they represented elephants' trunks. The horns became ornamented with feathers, banners, branches of leaves, balls, &c., and the orifices garnished with similar adornments. In England, crests are theoretically subject to marks of cadency and difference. This is not the case, however, in any other country. In Germany, in cases where the crests reproduce the arms, any mark of cadency with which the arms are distinguished will of course be repeated; but in German heraldry, doubtless owing to the territorial nature of the crest, a change in the crest itself is often the only mark of distinction between different branches of the same family, and in Siebmacher's _Wappenbuch_ thirty-one different branches of the Zorn family have different crests, which are the sole marks of difference in the achievements. But though British crests are presumed to be subject to the recognised marks of cadency, as a matter of fact it is very seldom indeed that they are ever so marked, with the exception that the mark used (usually a cross crosslet) to signify the lack of blood relationship when arms are assumed under a Royal License, is compulsory. Marks of distinction added to signify illegitimacy are also compulsory and perpetual. What these marks are will be dealt with in a subsequent chapter upon the subject. How very seldom a mark of difference is added to a crest may be gathered from the fact that with the exception of labels, chiefly upon the Royal crest, one crest only amongst the Plantagenet Garter plates is differenced, that one being the crest of John Neville, Lord Montague. Several crests, however, which are not Royal, are differenced by similar labels to those which appear upon the shields; but when we find that the difference marks have very much of a permissive character, even upon the shield, it is not likely that they are perpetuated upon the crest, where they are even less desirable. The arms of Cokayne, as given in the funeral certificate of Sir William Cokayne, Lord Mayor of London, show upon the shield three crescents, sable, or, and gules, charged one upon the other, the Lord Mayor being the second son of a second son of Cokayne of Sturston, descending from William, second son of Sir John Cokayne of Ashborne. But, in spite of the fact that three difference marks are charged upon the shield (one of the quarterings of which, by the way, {345} has an additional mark), the crest itself is only differenced by one crescent. These difference marks, as applied to arms, are in England (the rules in Scotland are utterly distinct) practically permissive, and are never enforced against the wish of the bearer except in one circumstance. If, owing to the grant of a crest or supporters, or a Royal License, or any similar opportunity, a formal exemplification of the arms is entered on the books of the College of Arms, the opportunity is generally taken to add such mark of cadency as may be necessary; and no certificate would be officially issued to any one claiming arms through that exemplification except subject to the mark of cadency therein depicted. In such cases as these the crest is usually differenced, because the necessity for an exemplification does not often occur, except owing to the establishment of an important branch of the family, which is likely to continue as a separate house in the future, and possibly to rival the importance of the chief of the name. Two examples will show my meaning. The crest of the Duke of Bedford is a goat statant argent, armed or. When Earl Russell, the third son of the sixth Duke of Bedford, was so created, the arms, crest, and supporters were charged with a mullet argent. When the first Lord Ampthill, who was the third son of the father of the ninth Duke of Bedford, was so created, the arms of Russell, with the crest and supporters, were also charged with mullets, these being of different tinctures from those granted to Earl Russell. The crest of the Duke of Westminster is a talbot statant or. The first Lord Stalbridge was the second son of the Marquess of Westminster. His arms, crest, and supporters were charged with a crescent. Lord Ebury was the third son of the first Marquess of Westminster. His arms, crest, and supporters were charged with a mullet. In cases of this kind the mark of difference upon the crest would be considered permanent; but for ordinary purposes, and in ordinary circumstances, the rule may be taken to be that it is not necessary to add the mark of cadency to a crest, even when it is added to the shield, but that, at the same time, it is not incorrect to do so. Crests must nowadays always be depicted upon either a wreath, coronet, or chapeau; but these, and the rules concerning them, will be considered in a more definite and detailed manner in the separate chapters in which those objects are discussed. Crests are nowadays very frequently used upon livery buttons. Such a usage is discussed at some length in the chapter on badges. When two or more crests are depicted together, and when, as is often the case in England, the wreaths are depicted in space, and without the intervening helmets, the crests always all face to the dexter side, and the stereotyped character of English crests perhaps more than any other reason, has led of late to the depicting of English {346} helmets all placed to face in the same direction to the dexter side. But if, as will often be found, the two helmets are turned to face each other, the crests also must be turned. Where there are two crests, the one on the dexter side is the first and the one on the sinister side is the second. When there are three, the centre one comes first, then the one on the dexter side, then the one on the sinister. When there are four crests, the first one is the dexter of the two inner ones; the second is the sinister inner one; the third is the dexter outer, and the fourth the sinister outer. When there are five (and I know of no greater number in this country), they run as follows: (1) centre, (2) dexter inner, (3) sinister inner, (4) dexter outer, (5) sinister outer. A very usual practice in official emblazonments in cases of three crests is to paint the centre one of a larger size, and at a slightly lower level, than the others. In the case of four, Nos. 1 and 2 would be of the same size, Nos. 3 and 4 slightly smaller, and slightly raised. It is a very usual circumstance to see two or more crests displayed in England, but this practice is of comparatively recent date. How recent may be gathered from the fact that in Scotland no single instance can be found before the year 1809 in which two crests are placed above the same shield. Scottish heraldry, however, has always been purer than English, and the practice in England is much more ancient, though I question if in England any authentic official exemplification can be found before 1700. There are, however, many cases in the Visitation Books in which two crests are allowed to the same family, but this fact does not prove the point, because a Visitation record is merely an official record of inheritance and possession, and not necessarily evidence of a regulation permitting the simultaneous display of more than one. It is of course impossible to use two sets of supporters with a single shield, but there are many peers who are entitled to two sets; Lord Ancaster, I believe, is entitled to three sets. But an official record in such a case would probably emblazon both sets as evidence of right, by painting the shield twice over. During the eighteenth century we find many instances of the grant of additional crests of augmentation, and many exemplifications under Royal License for the use of two and three crests. Since that day the correctness of duplicate crests has never been questioned, where the right of inheritance to them has been established. The right of inheritance to two or more crests at the present time is only officially allowed in the following cases. If a family at the time of the Visitations had two crests recorded to them, these would be now allowed. If descent can be proved from a family to whom a certain crest was allowed, and also from ancestors {347} at an earlier date who are recorded as entitled to bear a different crest, the two would be allowed unless it was evident that the later crest had been granted, assigned, or exemplified _in lieu_ of the earlier one. Two crests are allowed in the few cases which exist where a family has obtained a grant of arms in ignorance of the fact that they were then entitled to bear arms and crest of an earlier date to which the right has been subsequently proved, but on this point it should be remarked that if a right to arms is known to exist a second grant in England is point-blank refused unless the petition asks for it to be borne instead of, and in lieu of, the earlier one: it is then granted in those terms. To those who think that the Heralds' College is a mere fee-grabbing institution, the following experience of an intimate friend of mine may be of interest. In placing his pedigree upon record it became evident that his descent was not legitimate, and he therefore petitioned for and obtained a Royal License to bear the name and arms of the family from which he had sprung. But the illegitimacy was not modern, and no one would have questioned his right to the name which all the other members of the family bear, if he had not himself raised the point in order to obtain the ancient arms in the necessarily differenced form. The arms had always been borne with some four or five quarterings and with two crests, and he was rather annoyed that he had to go back to a simple coat of arms and single crest. He obtained a grant for his wife, who was an heiress, and then, with the idea of obtaining an additional quartering and a second crest, he conceived the brilliant idea--for money was of no object to him--of putting his brother forward as a petitioner for arms to be granted to him and his descendants and to the other descendants of his father, a grant which would of course have brought in my friend. He moved heaven and earth to bring this about, but he was met with the direct statement that two grants of arms could not be made to the same man to be borne simultaneously, and that if he persisted in the grant of arms to his brother, his own name, as being then entitled to bear arms, would be specifically exempted from the later grant, and the result was that this second grant was never made. In Scotland, where re-matriculation is constantly going on, two separate matriculations _to the same line_ would not confer the right to two crests, inasmuch as the last matriculation supersedes everything which has preceded it. But if a cadet matriculates a different crest, _and subsequently_ succeeds to the representation under an earlier matriculation, he legally succeeds to both crests, and incidentally to both coats of arms. As a matter of ordinary practice, the cadet matriculation is discarded. A curious case, however, occurs when after {348} matriculation by a cadet there is a _later_ matriculation behind it, by some one nearer the head of the house to which the first-mentioned cadet succeeds; in which event selection must be brought into play, when succession to both occurs. But the selection lies only between the two patents, and not from varied constituent parts. Where as an augmentation an additional crest is granted, as has been the case in many instances, of course a right to the double crest is thereby conferred, and a crest of augmentation is not granted in lieu, but in addition. A large number of these additional crests have been granted under specific warrants from the Crown, and in the case of Lord Gough, two additional crests were granted as separate augmentations and under separate patents. Lord Kitchener recently received a grant of an additional crest of augmentation. There are also a number of grants on record, not officially ranking as augmentations, in which a second crest has been granted as a memorial of descent or office, &c. The other cases in which double and treble crests occur are the results of exemplifications following upon Royal Licenses to assume name and arms. As a rule, when an additional surname is adopted by Royal License, the rule is that the arms adopted are to be borne in addition to those previously in existence; and where one name is adopted instead of another the warrant very frequently permits this, and at the same time permits or requires the new arms to be borne quarterly with those previously possessed, and gives the right to two crests. But in cases where names and arms are assumed by Royal License the arms and crest or crests are in accordance with the patent of exemplification, which, no matter what its terms (for some do not expressly exclude any prior rights), is always presumed to supersede everything which has gone before, and to be the authority by which the subsequent bearing of arms is regularised and controlled. Roughly speaking, under a Royal License one generally gets the right to one crest for every surname, and if the original surname be discarded, in addition a crest for every previous surname. Thus Mainwaring-Ellerker-Onslow has three crests, Wyndham-Campbell-Pleydell-Bouverie has four, and the last Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, who held the record, had one for each of his surnames, namely, Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville. In addition to the foregoing, there are one or two exceptions which it is difficult to explain. The Marquess of Bute for some reason or other obtained a grant, in the year 1822, of the crest of Herbert. The original Lord Liverpool obtained a grant of an additional crest, possibly an augmentation, and his representative, Lord Hawkesbury, afterwards created Earl of Liverpool, for some reason or other which I am quite at a loss to understand, obtained a grant of a crest {349} very similar to that of Lord Liverpool to commemorate the representation which had devolved upon him. He subsequently obtained a grant of a third crest, this last being of augmentation. Sir Charles Young, Garter King of Arms, obtained the grant of a second crest, and a former Marquess of Camden did the same thing; Lord Swansea is another recent case, and though the right of any person to obtain the grant of a second crest is not officially admitted, and is in fact strenuously denied, I cannot for the life of me see how in the face of the foregoing precedents any such privilege can be denied. Sir William Woods also obtained the grant of a second crest when he was Garter, oblivious of the fact that he had not really established a right to arms. Those he used were certainly granted in Lyon Office to a relative, but no matriculation of them in his own name was ever registered. {350} CHAPTER XXII CROWNS AND CORONETS The origin of the crown or coronet is, of course, to be met with in the diadem and fillet. In one of the Cantor Lectures delivered by Mr. Cyril Davenport, F.S.A., in February 1902, on "The History of Personal Jewellery from Prehistoric Times," he devoted considerable attention to the development of the diadem, and the following extracts are from the printed report of his lecture:-- "The bandeau or fillet tied round the head was probably first used to keep long hair from getting into the eyes of primitive man. Presently it became specialised, priests wearing one pattern and fighting men another. "The soft band which can be seen figured on the heads of kings in early coins, is no doubt a mark of chieftainship. This use of a band, of special colour, to indicate authority, probably originated in the East. It was adopted by Alexander the Great, who also used the diadem of the King of Persia. Justinian says that Alexander's predecessors did not wear any diadem. Justinian also tells us that the diadems then worn were of some soft material, as in describing the accidental wounding of Lysimachus by Alexander, he says that the hurt was bound up by Alexander _with his own diadem_. This was considered a lucky omen for Lysimachus, who actually did shortly afterwards become King of Thrace. "In Egypt diadems of particular shape are of very ancient use. There were crowns for Upper and Lower Egypt, and a combination of both for the whole country. They were also distinguished by colour. The Uraeus or snake worn in the crowns and head-dresses of the Pharaohs was a symbol of royalty. Representations of the Egyptian gods always show them as wearing crowns. "In Assyrian sculptures deities and kings are shown wearing diadems, apparently bands of stuff or leather studded with discs of _repoussé_ work. Some of these discs, detached, have actually been found. Similar discs were plentifully found at Mycenæ, which were very likely used in a similar way. Some of the larger ornamental head-dresses worn by Assyrian kings appear to have been conical-shaped helmets, or perhaps crowns; it is now difficult to say which, {351} because the material of which they were made cannot be ascertained. If they were of gold, they were probably crowns, like the wonderful openwork golden Scythian head-dress found at Kertch, but if of an inferior metal they may have been only helmets. "At St. Petersburg there is a beautiful ancient Greek diadem representing a crown of olive. An Etruscan ivy wreath of thin gold, still encircling a bronze helmet, is in the British Museum. "Justinian says that Morimus tried to hang himself with the diadem, evidently a ribbon-like bandeau, sent to him by Mithridates. The Roman royal diadem was originally a white ribbon, a wreath of laurel was the reward of distinguished citizens, while a circlet of golden leaves was given to successful generals. "Cæsar consistently refused the royal white diadem which Antony offered him, preferring to remain perpetual dictator. One of his partisans ventured to crown Cæsar's bust with a coronet of laurel tied with royal white ribbon, but the tribunes quickly removed it and heavily punished the perpetrator of the offence. "During the Roman Empire the prejudice against the white bandeau remained strong. The emperors dared not wear it. Caligula wished to do so, but was dissuaded on being told that such a proceeding might cost his life. Eliogabalus used to wear a diadem studded with precious stones, but it is not supposed to have indicated rank, but only to have been a rich lady's parure, this emperor being fond of dressing himself up as a woman. Caracalla, who took Alexander the Great as his model as far as possible, is shown on some of his coins wearing a diadem of a double row of pearls, a similar design to which was used by the kings of Parthia. On coins of Diocletian, there shows a double row of pearls, sewn on a double band and tied in a knot at the back. "Diadems gradually closed in and became crowns, and on Byzantine coins highly ornate diadems can be recognised, and there are many beautiful representations of them in enamels and mosaics, as well as a few actual specimens. At Ravenna, in mosaic work in the church of San Vitale, are crowned portraits of Justinian and his Empress Theodosia; in the enamel portrait of the Empress Irene in the Pal d'Oro at Venice, can be seen a beautiful jewelled crown with hinged plaques, and the same construction is used on the iron crown of Lombardy, the sacred crown of Hungary, and the crown of Charlemagne, all most beautiful specimens of jewellers' work. "On the plaques of the crown of Constantine Monomachos are also fine enamel portraits of himself and his queen Zoë, wearing similar crowns. The cataseistas, or jewelled chains, one over each ear and one at the back, which occur on all these crowns, may be the survival of the loose ends of the tie of the original fillet. {352} "In later times of Greece and Rome, owing to the growth of republican feeling the diadem lost its political significance, and was relegated to the ladies. "In the Middle Ages the diadem regained much of its earlier significance, and ceased to be only the simple head ornament it had become. Now it became specialised in form, reserved as an emblem of rank. The forms of royal crowns and diadems is a large and fascinating study, and where original examples do not now exist, the development can often be followed in sculpture, coins, or seals. Heraldry now plays an important part. Diadems or circlets gradually give way to closed crowns, in the case of sovereigns possessing independent authority." But to pass to the crown proper, there is no doubt that from the earliest times of recorded history crowns have been a sign and emblem of sovereignty. It equally admits of no doubt that the use of a crown or coronet was by no means exclusive to a sovereign, but whilst our knowledge is somewhat curtailed as to the exact relation in which great overlords and nobles stood to their sovereign, it is difficult to draw with any certainty or exactitude definitive conclusions of the symbolism a crown or coronet conveyed. Throughout Europe in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth, and well into the fourteenth centuries, the great territorial lords enjoyed and exercised many--in fact most--of the attributes of sovereignty, and in England especially, where the king was no more than the first amongst his peers, the territorial earls were in much the position of petty sovereigns. It is only natural, therefore, that we should find them using this emblem of sovereignty. But what we do find in England is that a coronet or fillet was used, apparently without let or hindrance, by even knights. It is, however, a matter for thought as to whether many of these fillets were not simply the turban or "puggaree" folded into the shape of a fillet, but capable of being unrolled if desired. What the object of the wholesale wearing of crowns and coronets was, it is difficult to conjecture. The development of the crown of the English sovereigns has been best told by Mr. Cyril Davenport in his valuable work on "The English Regalia" (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.). Mr. Davenport, whose knowledge on these matters is probably unequalled, may best be allowed to tell the story in his own words, he and his publishers having very kindly permitted this course to be taken:-- {353} THE CROWN OF GREAT BRITAIN BY CYRIL DAVENPORT, F.S.A. "Crowns appear to have been at an early period worn by kings in battle, in order that they might be easily recognised; and although it is quite possible that this outward sign of sovereignty may have marked the wearer as being entitled to special protection by his own men, it is also likely that it was often a dangerous sign of importance. Upon the authority of their coins, the heads of the early British kings were adorned with variously formed fillets and ornamental wreaths. Helmets are also evidently intended to be shown, and on some of the coins of Athelstan the helmet bears upon it a crown of three raised points, with a single pearl at the top of each (Fig. 619). Other coins bear the crown with the three raised points without the helmet (Fig. 620). This crown of three points, bearing sometimes one and sometimes three pearls at the top of each, continued to be used by all the sole monarchs until Canute, on whose head a crown is shown in which the three points develop into three clearly-marked trefoils (Fig. 621). On the great seal of Edward the Confessor the king is wearing an ornamental cap, which is described by Mr. Wyon in his book about the Great Seals as bearing a crown with three points trefoiled; but the impressions of this Great Seal that I have been able to see are so indistinct in this particular that I do not feel justified in corroborating his opinion. On some of the coins, however, of Edward the Confessor, an arched crown is very clearly shown, and this crown has depending from it, on each side, tassels with ornamental ends (Fig. 622). [Illustration: FIG. 619.] [Illustration: FIG. 620.] [Illustration: FIG. 621.] [Illustration: FIG. 622.] "In the list of the English regalia which were destroyed under the Commonwealth in 1649 is found an item of great interest, viz. 'a gold wyer work crown with little bells,' which is there stated to have belonged to King Alfred, who appears to have been the first English king for whom the ceremony of coronation was used; and it is remarkable that on several of the crowns on coins and seals, from the time of Edward the Confessor until Henry I., little tassels or tags are shown which may indeed represent little bells suspended by a ribbon. "On King Alfred's own coins there is unfortunately nothing which can be recognised as a crown. {354} "On the coins of Henry II. a crown is shown with arches, apparently intended to be jewelled, as is also the rim. There are also tassels with ornamental ends at the back of the crown (Fig. 623). [Illustration: FIG. 623.] [Illustration: FIG. 624.] [Illustration: FIG. 625.] [Illustration: FIG. 626.] "William I. on his Great Seal wears a crown with three points, at the top of each of which are three pearls (Fig. 624), and on some of his coins a more ornamental form of crown occurs having a broad jewelled rim and two arches, also apparently jewelled, and at each side are two pendants with pearl ends (Fig. 625). William II. on his Great Seal has a crown with five points (Fig. 626), the centre one being slightly bigger than the others, and at the top of each a single pearl. At each side of the crown are pendants having three pearls at the ends. [Illustration: FIG. 627.] [Illustration: FIG. 628.] "On some of the coins of Stephen a pretty form of crown is seen. It has three fleurs-de-lis and two jewelled arches (Fig. 627). The arches disappear from this time until the reign of Edward IV. On the Great Seal of Henry I. the king wears a simple crown with three fleurs-de-lis points, and two pendants each with three pearls at the ends (Fig. 628), and after this the pendants seem to have been discontinued. [Illustration: FIG. 629.] [Illustration: FIG. 630.] "On the first Great Seal of Henry III. a crown with three fleurs-de-lis is shown surmounting a barred helmet (Fig. 629), and Edward I. wore a similar crown with three fleurs-de-lis, but having supplementary pearls between each (Fig. 630), and this form lasted for a long time, as modifications of it are found on the coins of all the kings till Henry VII. On the third Great Seal of Edward IV. the king wears a crown with five fleurs-de-lis, the centre one being larger than the others, and the crown is arched and has at the top an orb and cross (Fig. 631). Henry VI. on his first seal for foreign affairs, on which occurs the English shield, uses above it a crown with three crosses-patée and between each a pearl (Fig. 632), this being the first distinct use of the cross-patée on the English crown; and it probably was used here in place of the fleurs-de-lis hitherto worn in order to {355} make a clear distinction between it and the French crown, which has the fleurs-de-lis only and surmounts the coat of arms of that country. The king himself wears an arched crown, but the impressions are so bad that the details of it cannot be followed. [Illustration: FIG. 631.] [Illustration: FIG. 632.] "Henry VII. on his Great Seal uses as ornaments for the crown, crosses-patée alternately with fleurs-de-lis, and also arches with an orb and cross at the top (Fig. 633) and, on some of his coins, he reverts to the three fleurs-de-lis with points between them, arches being still used, with the orb and cross at the top (Fig. 634). An ornamental form of crown bearing five ornamental leaves alternately large and small, with arches, orb, and cross at the top (Fig. 635), occurs on the shillings of Henry VII. On the crowns of Henry VIII., as well as upon his Great Seals, the alternate crosses-patée and fleurs-de-lis are found on the rim of the crown, which is arched, and has an orb and cross at the top, and this is the form that has remained ever since (Fig. 636). So we may consider that the growth of the ornament on the rim of the crown has followed a regular sequence from the points with one pearl at the top, of Æthelstan, to the trefoil of Canute; the arches began with Edward the Confessor, and the centre trefoil turned into the cross-patée of Henry VI. The fact that the remaining trefoils turned eventually into fleurs-de-lis is only, I think, a natural expansion of form, and does not appear to have had anything to do with the French fleur-de-lis, which was adopted as an heraldic bearing for an entirely different reason. The Royal coat of arms of England did bear for a long time in one of its quarterings the actual fleurs-de-lis of France, and this, no doubt, has given some reason to the idea that the fleurs-de-lis on the crown had also something to do with France; but as a matter of fact they had existed on the crown of England long anterior to our use of them on the coat of arms, as well as remaining there subsequently to their discontinuance on our Royal escutcheon. [Illustration: FIG. 633.] [Illustration: FIG. 634.] [Illustration: FIG. 635.] [Illustration: FIG. 636.] "The cross-patée itself may possibly have been evolved in a somewhat similar way from the three pearls of William I., as we often find the centre trefoil, into which, as we have seen, these three points eventually {356} turned, has a tendency to become larger than the others, and this difference has been easily made more apparent by squaring the ends of the triple leaf. At the same time it must not be forgotten that the cross-patée was actually used on the sceptre of Edward the Confessor, so it is just possible it may have had some specially English significance. "I have already mentioned that as well as the official crown of England, which alone I have just been describing, there has often been a second or State crown, and this, although it has in general design followed the pattern of the official crown, has been much more elaborately ornamented, and in it has been set and reset the few historic gems possessed by our nation. The fact that these State crowns have in turn been denuded of their jewels accounts for the fact that the old settings of some of them still exist. [Illustration: FIG. 637.] [Illustration: FIG. 638.] [Illustration: FIG. 639.] [Illustration: FIG. 640.] "Charles II.'s State Crown is figured in Sir Edward Walker's account of his coronation, but the illustration of it is of such an elementary character that little reliance can be placed on it; the actual setting of this crown, however--which was the one stolen by Colonel Blood on May 13, 1671--is now the property of Lord Amherst of Hackney, and the spaces from which the great ruby and the large sapphire--both of which are now in King Edward's State crown--have been taken are clearly seen (Fig. 637). James II.'s State Crown, which is very accurately figured in Sandford's account of his coronation, and pieces of which are still in the Tower, also had this great ruby as its centre ornament (Fig. 638). In Sir George Nayler's account of the coronation of George IV. there is a figure of his so-called 'new crown,' the arches of which are composed of oak-leaf sprays with acorns, and the rim adorned with laurel sprays (Fig. 639). The setting of this crown also belongs to Lord Amherst of Hackney, and so does another setting of a small State queen's crown, the ownership of which is doubtful. William IV. appears to have had a very beautiful State crown, with arches of laurel sprays and a cross at the top with large diamonds. It is figured in Robson's 'British Herald,' published in 1830 (Fig. 640). "There is one other crown of great interest, which, since the time {357} of James Sixth of Scotland and First of England, forms part of our regalia. This is the crown of Scotland, and is the most ancient piece of State jewellery of which we can boast. "Edward I., after his defeat of John Baliol in 1296, carried off the crown of Scotland to England, and Robert Bruce had another made for himself. This in its turn, after Bruce's defeat at Methven, fell into Edward's hands. Another crown seems to have been made for Bruce in 1314, when he was established in the sovereignty of Scotland after Bannockburn, and the present crown probably consists largely of the material of the old one, and most likely follows its general design. It has, however, much French work about it, as well as the rougher gold work made by Scottish jewellers, and it seems probable that the crown, as it now is, is a reconstruction by French workmen, made under the care and by order of James V. about 1540. It was with this crown that Queen Mary was crowned when she was nine months old. [Illustration: FIG. 641.] "In 1661 the Scottish regalia were considered to be in danger from the English, and were sent to Dunnottar Castle for safety. From 1707 until 1818 they were locked up in a strong chest in the Crown-Room of Edinburgh Castle, and Sir Walter Scott, in whose presence the box was opened, wrote an account of them in 1810. The crown consists of a fillet of gold bordered with flat wire. Upon it are twenty-two large stones set at equal distances, _i.e._ nine carbuncles, four jacinths, four amethysts, two white topazes, two crystals with green foil behind them, and one topaz with yellow foil. Behind each of these gems is a gold plate, with bands above and below of white enamel with black spots, and between each stone is a pearl. Above the band are ten jewelled rosettes and ten fleurs-de-lis alternately, and between each a pearl. Under the rosettes and fleurs-de-lis are jewels of blue enamel and pearls alternately. The arches have enamelled leaves of French work in red and gold upon them, and the mount at the top is of blue enamel studded with gold stars. The cross at the top is black enamel with gold arabesque patterns; in the centre is an amethyst, and in this cross and in the corners are Oriental pearls set in gold. At the back of the cross are the letters I. R. V. in enamel-work. On the velvet cap are four large pearls in settings of gold and enamel (Fig. 641). "Generally, the Scottish work in gold is cast solid and chased, the foreign work being thinner and _repoussé_. Several of the diamonds are undoubtedly old, and are cut in the ancient Oriental fashion; and many of the pearls are Scottish. It is kept in Edinburgh Castle with the rest of the Scottish regalia. None of the other pieces at all equal it in interest, as with the exception of the coronation ring of Charles I. {358} they are of foreign workmanship, or, at all events, have been so altered that there is little or no original work left upon them." Very few people are aware, when they speak of the crown of England, that there are two crowns. The one is the official crown, the sign and symbol of the sovereigns of England. This is known by the name of St. Edward's Crown, and is never altered or changed. As to this Mr. Cyril Davenport writes:-- "St. Edward's crown was made for the coronation of Charles II. in 1662, by Sir Robert Vyner. It was ordered to be made as nearly as possible after the old pattern, and the designs of it that have been already mentioned as existing in the works of Sir Edward Walker and Francis Sandford show that in a sensual form it was the same as now; indeed, the existing crown is in all probability mainly composed of the same materials as that made by Sir Robert. The crown consists of a rim or circlet of gold, adorned with rosettes of precious stones surrounded with diamonds, and set upon enamel arabesques of white and red. The centre gems of these rosettes are rubies, emeralds, and sapphires. Rows of large pearls mark the upper and lower edges of the rim, from which rise the four crosses-patée and four fleurs-de-lis alternately, adorned with diamonds and other gems. The gem clusters upon the crosses are set upon enamel arabesques in white and red, of similar workmanship to that upon the rim. From the tops of the crosses rise two complete arches of gold crossing each other, and curving deeply downwards at the point of intersection. The arches are considered to be the mark of independent sovereignty. They are edged with rows of large pearls, and have gems and clusters of gems upon them set in arabesques of red and white, like those upon the crosses. From the intersection of the arches springs a mound of gold, encircled by a fillet from which rises a single arch, both of which are ornamented with pearls and gems. On the top of the arch is a cross-patée of gold, set in which are coloured gems and diamonds. At the top of the cross is a large spheroidal pearl, and from each of the side arms, depending from a little gold bracelet, is a beautifully formed pear-shaped pearl. The crown is shown in the Tower with the crimson velvet cap, turned up with miniver, which would be worn with it. "This crown is very large, but whether it is actually worn or not it would always be present at the coronation, as it is the 'official' crown of England." St. Edward's crown is the crown supposed to be heraldically represented when for State or official purposes the crown is represented over the Royal Arms or other insignia. In this the fleurs-de-lis upon the rim are only half fleurs-de-lis. This detail is scrupulously adhered to, but during the reign of Queen Victoria many of the other details {359} were very much "at the mercy" of the artist. Soon after the accession of King Edward VII. the matter was brought under consideration, and the opportunity afforded by the issue of a War Office Sealed Pattern of the Royal Crown and Cypher for use in the army was taken advantage of to notify his Majesty's pleasure, that for official purposes the Royal Crown should be as shown in Fig. 642, which is a reproduction of the War Office Sealed Pattern already mentioned. It should be noted that whilst the cap of the real crown is of _purple_ velvet, the cap of the _heraldic_ crown is _always_ represented as of crimson. [Illustration: FIG. 642.--Royal Crown.] The second crown is what is known as the "Imperial State Crown." This is the one which is actually worn, and which the Sovereign after the ceremony of his coronation wears in the procession from the Abbey. It is also carried before the Sovereign at the opening of Parliament. Whilst the gems which are set in it are national property, the crown is usually remade for each successive sovereign. The following is Mr. Davenport's description of Queen Victoria's State Crown:-- "This beautiful piece of jewellery was made by Roundell & Bridge in 1838. Many of the gems in it are old ones reset, and many of them are new. The entire weight of the crown is 39 ozs. 5 dwts. It consists of a circlet of open work in silver, bearing in the front the great sapphire from the crown of Charles II. which was bequeathed to George III. by Cardinal York, with other Stuart treasure. At one end this gem is partly pierced. It is not a thick stone, but it is a fine colour. Opposite to the large sapphire is one of smaller size. The remainder of the rim is filled in with rich jewel clusters having alternately sapphires and emeralds in their centres, enclosed in ornamental borders thickly set with diamonds. These clusters are separated from each other by trefoil designs also thickly set with diamonds. The rim is bordered above and below with bands of large pearls, 129 in the lower row, and 112 in the upper. [The crown as remade for King Edward VII. now has 139 pearls in the lower row, and 122 in the upper.] Above the rim are shallow festoons of diamonds caught up between the larger ornaments by points of emeralds encircled with diamonds, and a large pearl above each. On these festoons are set alternately eight crosses-patée, and eight fleurs-de-lis of silver set with gems. The crosses-patée are thickly set with brilliants, and have each an emerald in the centre, except that in front of the crown, which {360} contains the most remarkable jewel belonging to the regalia. This is a large spinal ruby of irregular drop-like form, measuring about 2 ins. in length, and is highly polished on what is probably its natural surface, or nearly so. Its irregular outline makes it possible to recognise the place that it has formerly occupied in the older State crowns, and it seems always to have been given the place of honour. It is pierced after an Oriental fashion, and the top of the piercing is filled with a supplementary ruby set in gold. Don Pedro, King of Castille in 1367, murdered the King of Granada for the sake of his jewels, one of which was this stone, and Don Pedro is said to have given it to Edward the Black Prince after the battle of Najera, near Vittoria, in the same year. After this, it is said to have been worn by Henry V. in his crown at Agincourt in 1415, when it is recorded that the King's life was saved from the attack of the Duc D'Alençon, because of the protection afforded him by his crown, a portion of which, however, was broken off. It may be confidently predicted that such a risk of destruction is not very likely to happen again to the great ruby. "In the centre of each of the very ornamental fleurs-de-lis is a ruby, and all the rest of the ornamentation on them is composed of rose diamonds, large and small. From each of the crosses-patée, the upper corners of which have each a large pearl upon them, rises an arch of silver worked into a design of oak-leaves and acorn-cups. These leaves and cups are all closely encrusted with a mass of large and small diamonds, rose brilliant, and table-cut; the acorns themselves formed of beautiful drop-shaped pearls of large size. From the four points of intersection of the arches at the top of the crown depend large egg-shaped pearls. From the centre of the arches, which slope slightly downwards, springs a mound with a cross-patée above it. The mound is ornamented all over with close lines of brilliant diamonds, and the fillet which encircles it, and the arch which crosses over it, are both ornamented with one line of large rose-cut diamonds set closely together. The cross-patée at the top has in the centre a large sapphire of magnificent colour set openly. The outer lines of the arms of the cross are marked by a row of small diamonds close together and in the centre of each arm is a large diamond, the remaining spaces being filled with more small diamonds. The large sapphire in the centre of this cross is said to have come out of the ring of Edward the Confessor, which was buried with him in his shrine at Westminster, and the possession of it is supposed to give to the owner the power of curing the cramp. If this be indeed the stone which belonged to St. Edward, it was probably recut in its present form of a 'rose' for Charles II., even if not since his time. [Illustration: FIG. 643.--Queen Alexandra's Coronation Crown.] "Not counting the large ruby or the large sapphire, this crown {361} contains: Four rubies, eleven emeralds, sixteen sapphires, 277 pearls, 2783 diamonds. [As remade for King Edward VII. the crown now has 297 pearls and 2818 diamonds.] "The large ruby has been valued at £110,000. "When this crown has to take a journey it is provided with a little casket, lined with white velvet, and having a sliding drawer at the bottom, with a boss on which the crown fits closely, so that it is safe from slipping. The velvet cap turned up with miniver, with which it is worn, is kept with it." This crown has been recently remade for King Edward VII., but has not been altered in any essential details. The cap of the real crown is of purple velvet. Fig. 643 represents the crown of the Queen Consort with which Queen Alexandra was crowned on August 9, 1902. It will be noticed that, unlike the King's crowns, this has eight arches. The circlet which forms the base is 1½ inches in height. The crown is entirely composed of diamonds, of which there are 3972, and these are placed so closely together that no metal remains visible. The large diamond visible in the illustration is the famous Koh-i-noor. Resting upon the rim are four crosses-patée, and as many fleurs-de-lis, from each of which springs an arch. As a matter of actual fact the crown was made for use on this one occasion and has since been broken up. There is yet another crown, probably the one with which we are most familiar. This is a small crown entirely composed of diamonds: and the earliest heraldic use which can be found of it is in the design by Sir Edgar Boehm for the 1887 Jubilee coinage. Though effective enough when worn, it does not, from its small size, lend itself effectively to pictorial representation, and as will be remembered, the design of the 1887 coinage was soon abandoned. This crown was made at the personal expense of Queen Victoria, and under her instructions, owing to the fact that her late Majesty found her "State" crown uncomfortable to wear, and too heavy for prolonged or general use. It is understood, also, that the Queen found the regulations concerning its custody both inconvenient and irritating. During the later part of her reign this smaller crown was the only one Queen Victoria ever wore. By her will the crown was settled as an heirloom upon Queen Alexandra, to devolve upon future Queens Consort for the time being. This being the case, it is not unlikely that in the future this crown may come to be regarded as a part of the national regalia, and it is as well, therefore, to reiterate the remark, that it was made at the personal expense of her late Majesty, and is to no extent and in no way the property of the nation. {362} CORONETS OF RANK [Illustration: FIG. 644.--Coronet of Thomas FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel. (From his monument in Arundel Church, 1415.)] [Illustration: FIG. 645.--Crown of King Henry IV. (1399-1413). (From his monument in Trinity Chapel, Canterbury Cathedral.)] In spite of various Continental edicts, the heraldic use of coronets of rank, as also their actual use, seems elsewhere than in Great Britain to be governed by no such strict regulations as are laid down and conformed to in this country. For this reason, no less than for the greater interest these must necessarily possess for readers in this country, English coronets will first claim our attention. It has been already observed that coronets or jewelled fillets are to be found upon the helmets even of simple knights from the earliest periods. They probably served no more than decorative purposes, unless these fillets be merely turbans, or suggestions thereof. As late as the fifteenth century there appears to have been no regularised form, as will be seen from Fig. 644, which represents the coronet as shown upon the effigy of Thomas FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel, in Arundel Church (1415). A very similar coronet surmounts the head-dress of the effigy of Beatrice, Countess of Arundel, at the same period. In his will, Lionel, Duke of Clarence (1368), bequeaths "two golden circles," with one of which he was created Duke. It is of interest to compare this with Fig. 645, which represents the crown of King Henry IV. as represented on his effigy. Richard, Earl of Arundel, in his will (December 5, 1375), leaves his "melieure coronne" to his eldest son Richard, his "second melieure coronne" to his daughter Joan, and his "tierce coronne" to his daughter Alice. Though not definite proof of the point, the fact that the earl distributes his coronets amongst his family irrespective of the fact that the earldom (of which one would presume the coronets to be a sign) would pass to his son, would seem to show that the wearing of a coronet even at that date was merely indicative of high nobility of birth, and not of the possession of a substantive Parliamentary peerage. In spite of the variations {363} in form, coronets were, however, a necessity. When both dukes and earls were created they were invested with a coronet in open Parliament. As time went on the coronet, however, gradually came to be considered the sign of the possession of a peerage, and was so borne; but it was not until the reign of Charles II. that coronets were definitely assigned by Royal Warrant (February 19, 1660) to peers not of the Blood Royal. Before this date a coronet had not (as has been already stated) been used heraldically or in fact by barons, who, both in armorial paintings and in Parliament, had used a plain crimson cap turned up with white fur. [Illustration: FIG. 646.--Coronet of the Prince of Wales.] The coronet of the Prince of Wales is exactly like the official (St. Edward's) crown, except that instead of two intersecting arches it has only one. An illustration of this is given in Fig. 646 (this being the usual form in which it is heraldically depicted). It should be noticed, however, that this coronet belongs to the prince as eldest son of the Sovereign and heir-apparent to the Throne, and not as Prince of Wales. It was assigned by Royal Warrant 9th February, 13 Charles II. The coronet of the Princess of Wales, as such, is heraldically the same as that of her husband. [Illustration: FIG. 647.--Coronet of the younger children of the Sovereign.] The coronets of the sons and daughters or brothers and sisters of a sovereign of Great Britain (other than a Prince of Wales) is as in Fig. 647, that is, the circlet being identical with that of the Royal Crown, and of the Prince of Wales' coronet, but without the arch. This was also assigned in the warrant of 9th February, 13 Charles II. Officially this coronet is described as being composed of crosses-patée and fleurs-de-lis alternately. The grandchildren of a sovereign being sons and daughters of the Prince of Wales, or of other sons of the sovereign, have a coronet in which strawberry leaves are substituted for the two outer crosses-patée appearing at the edges of the coronet, which is officially described as composed of crosses-patée, fleurs-de-lis, and strawberry leaves. Princes of the English Royal Family, being sons of younger sons of a sovereign, or else nephews of a sovereign being sons of brothers of a sovereign, and having the rank and title of a duke of the United Kingdom, have a coronet composed alternately of crosses-patée and strawberry leaves, the latter taking the place of the fleurs-de-lis upon {364} the circlet of the Royal Crown. This coronet was also assigned in the warrant of 9th February, 13 Charles II. It will be observed by those who compare one heraldic book with another that I have quoted these rules differently from any other work upon the subject. A moment's thought, however, must convince any one of the accuracy of my version. It is a cardinal rule of armory that save for the single circumstance of attainder no man's armorial insignia shall be degraded. Whilst any man's status may be increased, it cannot be lessened. Most heraldic books quote the coronet of crosses-patée, fleurs-de-lis, and strawberry leaves as the coronet of the "grandsons" of the sovereign, whilst the coronet of crosses-patée and strawberry leaves is stated to be the coronet of "nephews" or cousins of the sovereign. Such a state of affairs would be intolerable, because it would mean the liability at any moment to be degraded to the use of a less honourable coronet. Take, for example, the case of Prince Arthur of Connaught. During the lifetime of Queen Victoria, as a grandson of the sovereign he would be entitled to the former, whereas as soon as King Edward ascended the throne he would have been forced to relinquish it in favour of the more remote form. The real truth is that the members of the Royal Family do not inherit these coronets as a matter of course. They technically and in fact have no coronets until these have been assigned by Royal Warrant with the arms. When such warrants are issued, the coronets assigned have up to the present time conformed to the above rules. I am not sure that the "rules" now exist in any more potent form than that up to the present time those particular patterns happen to have been assigned in the circumstances stated. But the warrants (though they contain no hereditary limitation) certainly contain no clause limiting their operation to the lifetime of the then sovereign, which they certainly would do if the coronet only existed whilst the particular relationship continued. The terms "grandson of the sovereign" and "nephew of the sovereign," which are usually employed, are not correct. The coronets only apply to the children of _princes_. The children of princesses, who are undoubtedly included in the terms "grandson" and "nephew," are not technically members of the Royal Family, nor do they inherit either rank or coronet from their mothers. By a curious fatality there has never, since these Royal coronets were differentiated, been any male descendant of an English sovereign more remotely related than a nephew, with the exception of the Dukes of Cumberland. Their succession to the throne of Hanover renders them useless as a precedent, inasmuch as their right to arms and coronet must be derived from Hanover and its laws, and not {365} from this country. The Princess Frederica of Hanover, however, uses an English coronet and the Royal Arms of England, presumably preferring her status as a princess of this country to whatever _de jure_ Hanoverian status might be claimed. It is much to be wished that a Royal Warrant should be issued to her which would decide the point--at present in doubt--as to what degree of relationship the coronet of the crosses-patée and strawberry leaves is available for, or failing that coronet what the coronet of prince or princess of this country might be, he or she not being child, grandchild, or nephew or niece of a sovereign. The unique use of actual coronets in England at the occasion of each coronation ceremony has prevented them becoming (as in so many other countries) mere pictured heraldic details. Consequently the instructions concerning them which are issued prior to each coronation will be of interest. The following is from the _London Gazette_ of October 1, 1901:-- "EARL MARSHAL'S OFFICE, NORFOLK HOUSE, ST. JAMES'S SQUARE, S.W., _October 1, 1901_. "The Earl Marshal's Order concerning the Robes, Coronets, &c., which are to be worn by the Peers at the Coronation of Their Most Sacred Majesties King Edward the Seventh and Queen Alexandra. "These are to give notice to all Peers who attend at the Coronation of Their Majesties, that the robe or mantle of the Peers be of crimson velvet, edged with miniver, the cape furred with miniver pure, and powdered with bars or rows of ermine (_i.e._ narrow pieces of black fur), according to their degree, viz.: "Barons, two rows. "Viscounts, two rows and a half. "Earls, three rows. "Marquesses, three rows and a half. "Dukes, four rows. "The said mantles or robes to be worn over full Court dress, uniform, or regimentals. "The coronets to be of silver-gilt; the caps of crimson velvet turned up with ermine, with a gold tassel on the top; and no jewels or precious stones are to be set or used in the coronets, or counterfeit pearls instead of silver balls. "The coronet of a Baron to have, on the circle or rim, six silver balls at equal distances. "The coronet of a Viscount to have, on the circle, sixteen silver balls. {366} "The coronet of an Earl to have, on the circle, eight silver balls, raised upon points, with gold strawberry leaves between the points. "The coronet of a Marquess to have, on the circle, four gold strawberry leaves and four silver balls alternately, the latter a little raised on points above the rim. "The coronet of a Duke to have, on the circle, eight gold strawberry leaves. "By His Majesty's Command, "NORFOLK, _Earl Marshal_." "EARL MARSHAL'S OFFICE, NORFOLK HOUSE, ST. JAMES'S SQUARE, S.W., _October 1, 1901_. "The Earl Marshal's Order concerning the Robes, Coronets, &c., which are to be worn by the Peeresses at the Coronation of Their Most Sacred Majesties King Edward the Seventh and Queen Alexandra. "These are to give notice to all Peeresses who attend at the Coronation of Their Majesties, that the robes or mantles appertaining to their respective ranks are to be worn over the usual full Court dress. "That the robe or mantle of a Baroness be of crimson velvet, the cape whereof to be furred with miniver pure, and powdered with two bars or rows of ermine (_i.e._ narrow pieces of black fur); the said mantle to be edged round with miniver pure 2 inches in breadth, and the train to be 3 feet on the ground; the coronet to be according to her degree--viz. a rim or circle with six pearls (represented by silver balls) upon the same, not raised upon points. "That the robe or mantle of a Viscountess be like that of a Baroness, only the cape powdered with two rows and a half of ermine, the edging of the mantle 2 inches as before, and the train 1¼ yards; the coronet to be according to her degree--viz. a rim or circle with pearls (represented by silver balls) thereon, sixteen in number, and not raised upon points. "That the robe or mantle of a Countess be as before, only the cape powdered with three rows of ermine, the edging 3 inches in breadth, and the train 1½ yards; the coronet to be composed of eight pearls (represented by silver balls) raised upon points or rays, with small strawberry leaves between, above the rim. "That the robe or mantle of a Marchioness be as before, only the cape powdered with three rows and a half of ermine, the edging 4 inches in breadth, the train 1¾ yards; the coronet to be composed of four strawberry leaves and four pearls (represented by silver balls) {367} raised upon points of the same height as the leaves, alternately, above the rim. "That the robe or mantle of a Duchess be as before, only the cape powdered with four rows of ermine, the edging 5 inches broad, the train 2 yards; the coronet to be composed of eight strawberry leaves, all of equal height, above the rim. "And that the caps of all the said coronets be of crimson velvet, turned up with ermine, with a tassel of gold on the top. "By His Majesty's Command, "NORFOLK, _Earl Marshal_." The Coronation Robe of a peer is not identical with his Parliamentary Robe of Estate. This latter is of fine scarlet cloth, lined with taffeta. The distinction between the degrees of rank is effected by the guards or bands of fur. The robe of a duke has four guards of _ermine_ at equal distances, with gold lace above each guard and tied up to the left shoulder by a white riband. The robe of a marquess has four guards of _ermine_ on the right side, and three on the left, with gold lace above each guard and tied up to the left shoulder by a white riband. An earl's robe has three guards of ermine and gold lace. The robes of a viscount and baron are identical, each having two guards of plain _white_ fur. By virtue of various warrants of Earls Marshal, duly recorded in the College of Arms, the use or display of a coronet of rank by any person other than a peer is stringently forbidden. This rule, unfortunately, is too often ignored by many eldest sons of peers, who use peerage titles by courtesy. The heraldic representations of these coronets of rank are as follows:-- The coronet of a duke shows five strawberry leaves (Fig. 648). This coronet should not be confused with the ducal _crest_ coronet. The coronet of a marquess shows two balls of silver technically known as "pearls," and three strawberry leaves (Fig. 649). The coronet of an earl shows five "pearls" raised on tall spikes, alternating with four strawberry leaves (Fig. 650). {368} The coronet of a viscount shows nine "pearls," all set closely together, directly upon the circlet (Fig. 651). The coronet of a baron shows four "pearls" upon the circlet (Fig. 652). This coronet was assigned by Royal Warrant, dated 7th August, 12 Charles II., to Barons of England, and to Barons of Ireland by warrant 16th May, 5 James II. All coronets of degree actually, and are usually represented to, enclose a cap of crimson velvet, turned up with ermine. None of them are permitted to be jewelled, but the coronet of a duke, marquess, earl, or viscount is chased in the form of jewels. In recent times, however, it has become very usual for peers to use, heraldically, for more informal purposes a representation of the circlet only, omitting the cap and the ermine edging. [Illustration: FIG. 648.] [Illustration: FIG. 649.] [Illustration: FIG. 650.] [Illustration: FIG. 651.] [Illustration: FIG. 652.] The crown or coronet of a king of arms (Fig. 653) is of silver-gilt formed of a circlet, upon which is inscribed part of the first verse of the 51st Psalm, viz.: "Miserere mei Deus secundum magnam misericordiam tuam." The rim is surmounted with sixteen leaves, in shape resembling the oak-leaf, every alternate one being somewhat higher than the rest, nine of which appear in the profile view of it or in heraldic representations. The cap is of crimson satin, closed at the top by a gold tassel and turned up with ermine. [Illustration: FIG. 653.--The Crown of a King of Arms.] Anciently, the crown of Lyon King of Arms was, in shape, an exact replica of the crown of the King of Scotland, the only difference being that it was not jewelled. Coronets of rank are used very indiscriminately on the Continent, particularly in France and the Low Countries. Their use by no means implies the same as with us, and frequently indicates little if anything beyond mere "noble" birth. The _Mauerkrone_ [mural crown] (Fig. 654) is used in Germany principally as an adornment to the arms of towns. It is borne with three, four, or five battlemented towers. The tincture, likewise, is not {369} always the same: gold, silver, red, or the natural colour of a wall being variously employed. Residential [_i.e._ having a _royal_ residence] and capital towns usually bear a Mauerkrone with five towers, large towns one with four towers, smaller towns one with three. Strict regulations in the matter do not yet exist. It should be carefully noted that this practice is peculiar to Germany and is quite incorrect in Great Britain. [Illustration: FIG. 654.--Mauerkrone.] [Illustration: FIG. 655.--Naval crown.] The _Naval Crown_ [Schiffskrone] (Fig. 655), on the circlet of which sails and sterns of ships are alternately introduced, is very rarely used on the Continent. With us it appears as a charge in the arms of the towns of Chatham, Ramsgate, Devonport, &c. The Naval Coronet, however, is more properly a crest coronet, and as such will be more fully considered in the next chapter. It had, however, a limited use as a coronet of rank at one time, inasmuch as the admirals of the United Provinces of the Netherlands placed a crown composed of prows of ships above their escutcheons, as may be seen from various monuments. {370} CHAPTER XXIII CREST CORONETS AND CHAPEAUX The present official rules are that crests must be upon, or must issue from, a wreath (or torse), a coronet, or a chapeau. It is not at the pleasure of the wearer to choose which he will, one or other being specified and included in the terms of the grant. If the crest have a lawful existence, one or other of them will unchangeably belong to the crest, of which it now is considered to be an integral part. In Scotland and Ireland, Lyon King of Arms and Ulster King of Arms have always been considered to have, and still retain, the right to grant crests upon a chapeau or issuing from a crest. But the power is (very properly) exceedingly sparingly used; and, except in the cases of arms and crests matriculated in Lyon Register as of ancient origin and in use before 1672, or "confirmed" on the strength of user by Ulster King of Arms, the ordinary ducal crest coronet and the chapeau are not now considered proper to be granted in ordinary cases. Since about the beginning of the nineteenth century the rules which follow have been very definite, and have been very rigidly adhered to in the English College of Arms. Crests issuing from the ordinary "ducal crest coronet" are not now granted under any circumstances. The chapeau is only granted in the case of a grant of arms to a peer, a mural coronet is only granted to officers in the army of the rank of general or above, and the naval coronet is only granted to officers in his Majesty's Royal Navy of the rank of admiral and above. An Eastern coronet is now only granted in the case of those of high position in one or other of the Imperial Services, who have served in India and the East. The granting of crests issuing from the other forms of crest coronets, the "crown-vallary" and the "crown palisado," is always discouraged, but no rule exists denying them to applicants, and they are to be obtained if the expectant grantee is sufficiently patient, importunate, and pertinacious. Neither form is, however, particularly ornamental, and both are of modern origin. {371} There is still yet another coronet, the "celestial coronet". This is not unusual as a charge, but as a coronet from which a crest issues I know of no instance, nor am I aware of what rules, if any, govern the granting of it. Definite rank coronets have been in times past granted for use as crest coronets, but this practice, the propriety of which cannot be considered as other than highly questionable, has only been pursued, even in the more lax days which are past, on rare and very exceptional occasions, and has long since been definitely abandoned as improper. In considering the question of crest coronets, the presumption that they originated from coronets of rank at once jumps to the mind. This is by no means a foregone conclusion. It is difficult to say what is the earliest instance of the use of a coronet in this country as a coronet of rank. When it is remembered that the coronet of a baron had no existence whatever until it was called into being by a warrant of Charles II. after the Restoration, and that differentiated coronets for the several ranks in the Peerage are not greatly anterior in date, the question becomes distinctly complicated. From certainly the reign of Edward the Confessor the kings of England had worn crowns, and the great territorial earls, who it must be remembered occupied a position akin to that of a petty sovereign (far beyond the mere high dignity of a great noble at the present day), from an early period wore crowns or coronets not greatly differing in appearance from the crown of the king. But the Peerage as such certainly neither had nor claimed the technical right to a coronet as a mark of their rank, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. But coronets of a kind were used, as can be seen from early effigies, long before the use of crests became general. But these coronets were merely in the nature of a species of decoration for the helmet, many of them far more closely resembling a jewelled torse than a coronet. Parker in his "Glossary of Terms used in Heraldry" probably correctly represents the case when he states: "From the reign of Edward III. coronets of various forms were worn (as it seems indiscriminately) by princes, dukes, earls, and even knights, but apparently rather by way of ornament than distinction, or if for distinction, only (like the collar of SS) as a mark of gentility. The helmet of Edward the Black Prince, upon his effigy at Canterbury, is surrounded with a coronet totally different from that subsequently assigned to his rank." The instance quoted by Parker might be amplified by countless others, but it may here with advantage be pointed out that the great helmet (or, as this probably is, the ceremonial representation of it) suspended above the Prince's tomb (Fig. 271) has no coronet, and the crest is upon a chapeau. Of the fourteen instances in the {372} Plantagenet Garter plates in which the _torse_ appears, twelve were peers of England, one was a foreign count, and one only a commoner. On the other hand, of twenty-nine whose Garter plates show crests issuing from coronets, four are foreigners, seven are commoners, and eighteen were peers. The coronets show very great variations in form and design, but such variations appear quite capricious, and to carry no meaning, nor does it seem probable that a coronet of gules or of azure, of which there are ten, could represent a coronet of rank. The Garter plate of Sir William De la Pole, Earl of (afterwards Duke of) Suffolk, shows his crest upon a narrow black fillet. Consequently, whatever may be the conclusion as to the wearing of coronets alone, it would seem to be a very certain conclusion that the heraldic crest coronet bore no relation to any coronet of rank or to the right to wear one. Its adoption must have been in the original instance, and probably even in subsequent generations, a matter of pure fancy and inclination. This is borne out by the fact that whilst the Garter plate of Sir Henry Bourchier, Earl of Essex, shows his crest upon a torse, his effigy represents it issuing from a coronet. Until the reign of Henry VIII., the Royal crest, both in the case of the sovereign and all the other members of the Royal Family, is always represented upon a chapeau or cap of dignity. The Great Seal of Edward VI. shows the crest upon a coronet, though the present form of crown and crest were originated by Queen Elizabeth. In depicting the Royal Arms, it is usual to omit one of the crowns, and this is always done in the official warrants controlling the arms. One crown is placed upon the helmet, and upon this crown is placed the crest, but theoretically the Royal achievement has two crowns, inasmuch as one of the crowns is an inseparable part of the crest. Probably the finest representation of the Royal crest which has ever been done is the design for one of the smaller bookplates for the Windsor Castle Library. This was executed by Mr. Eve, and it would be impossible to imagine anything finer. Like the rest of the Royal achievement, the Royal crest is of course not hereditary, and consequently it is assigned by a _separate_ Royal Warrant to each male member of the Royal Family, and the opportunity is then taken to substitute for the Royal crown, which is a part of the sovereign's crest, a coronet identical with whatever may be assigned in that particular instance as the coronet of rank. In the case of Royal bastards the crest has always been assigned upon a chapeau. The only case which comes to one's mind in which the Royal crown has (outside the sovereign) been allowed as a crest coronet is the case of the town of Eye. The Royal crown of Scotland is the crest coronet of the sovereign's {373} crest for the kingdom of Scotland. This crest, together with the crest of Ireland, is never assigned to any member of the Royal Family except the sovereign. The crest of Ireland (which is on a wreath or and azure) is by the way confirmatory evidence that the crowns in the crests of Scotland and England have a duplicate and separate existence apart from the crown denoting the sovereignty of the realm. The ordinary crest coronet or, as it is usually termed in British heraldry, the "ducal coronet" (Ulster, however, describes it officially as "a ducal crest coronet"), is quite a separate matter from a duke's coronet of rank. Whilst the coronet of a duke has upon the rim five strawberry leaves visible when depicted, a ducal coronet has only three. The "ducal coronet" (Fig. 656) is the conventional "regularised" development of the crest coronets employed in early times. Unfortunately it has in many instances been depicted of a much greater and very unnecessary width, the result being inartistic and allowing unnecessary space between the leaves, and at the same time leaving the crest and coronet with little circumferential relation. It should be noted that it is quite incorrect for the rim of the coronet to be jewelled in colour though the outline of jewelling is indicated. [Illustration: FIG. 656.--Ducal coronet.] Though ducal crest coronets are no longer granted (of course they are still exemplified and their use permitted where they have been previously granted), they are of very frequent occurrence in older grants and confirmations. It is quite incorrect to depict a cap (as in a coronet of rank) in a crest coronet, which is never more than the metal circlet, and consequently it is equally incorrect to add the band of ermine below it which will sometimes be seen. The coronet of a duke has in one or two isolated cases been granted as a crest coronet. In such a case it is not described as a duke's coronet, but as a "ducal coronet of five leaves." It so occurs in the case of Ormsby-Hamilton. The colour of the crest coronet must be stated in the blazon. Crest coronets are of all colours, and will be sometimes found bearing charges upon the rim (particularly in the cases of mural and naval coronets). An instance of this will be seen in the case of Sir John W. Moore, and of Mansergh, the label in this latter case being an unalterable charge and not the difference mark of an eldest son. Though the tincture of the coronet ought to appear in the blazon, nevertheless it is always a fair presumption (when it is not specified) that it is of gold, coronets of colours being very much less frequently met with. On this point it is interesting to note that in some of the cases where {374} the crest coronet is figured upon an early Garter plate as of colour, it is now borne gold by the present descendants of the family. For example on the Garter plate of Sir Walter Hungerford, Lord Hungerford, the crest ["A garb or, between two silver sickles"] issues from a coronet azure. The various Hungerford families now bear it "or." The crest upon the Garter plate of Sir Humphrey Stafford, Duke of Buckingham ["A demi-swan argent, beaked gules"], issues from a coronet gules. This crest as it is now borne by the present Lord Stafford is: "Out of a ducal coronet per pale gules and sable," &c. Another instance of coloured coronets will be found in the crest of Nicholson, now borne by Shaw.[22] Probably, however, the most curious instance of all will be found in the case of a crest coronet of ermine, of which an example occurs in the Gelre "Armorial." A very general misconception--which will be found stated in practically every text-book of armory--is that when a crest issues from a coronet the wreath must be omitted. There is not and never has been any such rule. The rule is rather to the contrary. Instances where both occur are certainly now uncommon, and the presence of a wreath is not in present-day practice considered to be essential if a coronet occurs, but the use or absence of a wreath when the crest issues from a coronet really depends entirely upon the original grant. If no wreath is specified with the coronet, none will be used or needed, but if both are granted both should be used. An instance of the use of both will be found on the Garter Stall plate of Sir Walter Devereux, Lord Ferrers. The crest (a talbot's head silver) issues from a coronet or, which is placed upon a torse argent and sable. Another instance will be found in the case of the grant of the crest of Hanbury. A quite recent case was the grant by Sir Bernard Burke, Ulster King of Arms, of a crest to Sir Richard Quain, Bart., the blazon of which was: "On a wreath argent and azure, and out of a mural coronet proper a demi-lion rampant or, charged on the shoulder with a trefoil slipped vert, and holding between the paws a battle-axe also proper, the blade gold." Other instances are the crests of Hamilton of Sunningdale and Tarleton. Another instance will be found in the grant to Ross-of-Bladensburg. Possibly this blazon may be a clerical error in the engrossment, because it will be noticed that the wreath does not appear in the emblazonment (Plate II.). I wonder how many of the officers of arms are aware of the {375} existence of a warrant, dated in 1682, issued by the Deputy Earl-Marshal to the Companies of Painters, Stainers, and Coachmakers, forbidding them to paint crests which issue out of ducal coronets without putting them upon "wreaths of their colours." The wording of the warrant very plainly shows that at that date a wreath was always painted below a crest coronet. The warrant, however, is not so worded that it can be accepted as determining the point for the future, or that it would override a subsequent grant of a crest in contrary form. But it is evidence of what the law then was. No crest is now granted without either wreath, coronet, or chapeau. An instance of the use of the coronet of a marquess as a crest coronet will be found in the case of the Bentinck crest.[23] There are some number of instances of the use of an earl's coronet as a crest coronet. Amongst these may be mentioned the crests of Sir Alan Seton Steuart, Bart. ["Out of an earl's coronet a dexter hand grasping a thistle all proper"], that granted to Cassan of Sheffield House, Ireland ["Issuant from an earl's coronet proper, a boar's head and neck erased or langued gules"], James Christopher Fitzgerald Kenney, Esq., Dublin ["Out of an earl's coronet or, the pearls argent, a cubit arm erect vested gules, cuffed also argent, the hand grasping a roll of parchment proper"], and Davidson ["Out of an earl's coronet or, a dove rising argent, holding in the beak a wheat-stalk bladed and eared all proper"]. I know of no crest which issues from the coronet of a viscount, but a baron's coronet occurs in the case of Forbes of Pitsligo and the cadets of that branch of the family: "Issuing out of a baron's coronet a dexter hand holding a scimitar all proper." Foreign coronets of rank have sometimes been granted as crest coronets in this country, as in the cases of the crests of Sir Francis George Manningham Boileau, Bart., Norfolk ["In a nest or, a pelican in her piety proper, charged on the breast with a saltire couped gules, the nest resting in a foreign coronet"], Henry Chamier, Esq., Dublin ["Out of a French noble coronet proper, a cubit arm in bend vested azure, charged with five fleurs-de-lis in saltire or, cuffed ermine, holding in the hand a scroll, and thereon an open book proper, garnished gold"], John Francis Charles Fane De Salis, Count of the Holy Roman Empire ["1. Out of a marquis' coronet or, a demi-woman proper, crowned or, hair flowing down the back, winged in place of arms and from the armpits azure; 2. out of a ducal coronet or, an eagle displayed sable, ducally crowned also or; 3. out of a ducal coronet a demi-lion rampant double-queued and crowned with a like {376} coronet all or, brandishing a sword proper, hilt and pommel of the first, the lion cottised by two tilting-spears of the same, from each a banner paly of six argent and gules, fringed also or"], and Mahony, Ireland ["Out of the coronet of a Count of France a dexter arm in armour embowed grasping in the hand a sword all proper, hilt and pommel or, the blade piercing a fleur-de-lis of the last"]. A curious crest coronet will be found with the Sackville crest. This is composed of fleurs-de-lis only, the blazon of the crest being: "Out of a coronet composed of eight fleurs-de-lis or, an estoile of eight points argent." A curious use of coronets in a crest will be found in the crest of Sir Archibald Dunbar, Bart. ["A dexter hand apaumée reaching at an astral crown proper"] and Sir Alexander James Dunbar, Bart. ["A dexter hand apaumée proper reaching to two earls' coronets tied together"]. [Illustration: FIG. 657.--Mural coronet.] Next after the ordinary "ducal coronet" the one most usually employed is the mural coronet (Fig. 657), which is composed of masonry. Though it may be and often is of an ordinary heraldic tincture, it will usually be found "proper." An exception occurs in the case of the crest of Every-Halstead ["Out of a mural coronet chequy or and azure, a demi-eagle ermine beaked or."] Care should be taken to distinguish the mural crown from the "battlements of a tower." This originated as a modern "fakement" and is often granted to those who have been using a mural coronet, and desire to continue within its halo, but are not qualified to obtain in their own persons a grant of it. It should be noticed that the battlements of a tower must always be represented upon a wreath. Its facility for adding a noticeable distinction to a crest has, however, in these days, when it is becoming somewhat difficult to introduce differences in a stock pattern kind of crest, led to its very frequent use in grants during the last hundred years. Care should also be taken to distinguish between the "battlements of a tower" and a crest issuing from "a castle," as in the case of Harley; "a tower," as in that of Boyce; and upon the "capital of a column," as in the crests of Cowper-Essex and Pease. Abroad, _e.g._ in the arms of Paris, it is very usual to place a mural crown over the shield of a town, and some remarks upon the point will be found on page 368. This at first sight may seem an appropriate practice to pursue, and several heraldic artists have followed it and advocate it in this country. But the correctness of such a practice is, for British purposes, strongly and emphatically denied officially, and whilst we reserve this privilege for grants to certain army officers of high {377} rank, it does not seem proper that it should be available for casual and haphazard assumption by a town or city. That being the case, it should be borne in mind that the practice is not permissible in British armory. The naval coronet (Fig. 658), though but seldom granted now, was very popular at one time. In the latter part of the eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth centuries, naval actions were constantly being fought, and in a large number of cases where the action of the officer in command was worthy of high praise and reward, part of such reward was usually an augmentation of arms. Very frequently it is found that the crest of augmentation issued from a naval coronet. This is, as will be seen, a curious figure composed of the sail and stern of a ship repeated and alternating on the rim of a circlet. Sometimes it is entirely gold, but usually the sails are argent. An instance of such a grant of augmentation will be found in the crest of augmentation for Brisbane and in a crest of augmentation granted to Sir Philip Bowes Broke to commemorate his glorious victory in the Shannon over the American ship _Chesapeake_. [Illustration: FIG. 658.--Naval crown.] [Illustration: FIG. 659.--Eastern crown.] Any future naval grant of a crest of augmentation would probably mean, that it would be granted issuing out of a naval coronet, but otherwise the privilege is now confined to those grants of arms in which the patentee is of the rank of admiral. Instances of its use will be found in the crests of Schomberg and Farquhar, and in the crest of Dakyns of Derbyshire: "Out of a naval coronet or, a dexter arm embowed proper, holding in the hand a battle-axe argent, round the wrist a ribbon azure." The crest of Dakyns is chiefly memorable for the curious motto which accompanies it; "Strike, Dakyns, the devil's in the hempe," of which no one knows the explanation. Why a naval crown was recently granted as a badge to a family named Vickers (Plate VIII.) I am still wondering. The crest of Lord St. Vincent ["Out of a naval coronet or, encircled by a wreath of oak proper, a demi-pegasus argent, maned and hoofed of the first, winged azure, charged on the wing with a fleur-de-lis gold"] is worthy of notice owing to the encircling of the coronet, and in some number of cases the circlet of the coronet has been made use of to carry the name of a captured ship or of a naval engagement. The Eastern Coronet (Fig. 659) is a plain rim heightened with spikes. Formerly it was granted without restriction, but now, as has {378} been already stated, it is reserved for those of high rank who have served in India or the East. An instance occurs, for example, in the crest of Rawlinson, Bart. ["Sable, three swords in pale proper, pommels and hilts or, two erect, points upwards, between them one, point downwards, on a chief embattled of the third an antique crown gules. Crest: out of an Eastern crown or, a cubit arm erect in armour, the hand grasping a sword in bend sinister, and the wrist encircled by a laurel wreath proper"]. [Illustration: FIG. 660.--Crown vallary.] [Illustration: FIG. 661.--Palisado crown.] Of _identically_ the same shape is what is known as the "Antique Coronet." It has no particular meaning, and though no objection is made to granting it in Scotland and Ireland, it is not granted in England. Instances in which it occurs under such a description will be found in the cases of Lanigan O'Keefe and Matheson. The Crown Vallary or Vallary Coronet (Fig. 660) and the Palisado Coronet (Fig. 661) were undoubtedly originally the same, but now the two forms in which it has been depicted are considered to be different coronets. Each has the rim, but the vallary coronet is now heightened only by pieces of the shape of vair, whilst the palisado coronet is formed by high "palisadoes" affixed to the rim. These two are the only forms of coronet granted to ordinary and undistinguished applicants in England. The circlet from the crown of a king of arms has once at least been granted as a crest coronet, this being in the case of Rogers Harrison. In a recent grant of arms to Gee, the crest has no wreath, but issues from "a circlet or, charged with a fleur-de-lis gules." The circlet is emblazoned as a plain gold band. THE CHAPEAU Some number of crests will be found to have been granted to be borne upon a "chapeau" in lieu of wreath or coronet. Other names for the chapeau, under which it is equally well known, are the "cap of maintenance" or "cap of dignity." There can be very little doubt that the heraldic chapeau combines two distinct origins or earlier prototypes. The one is the real cap of dignity, and the other is the hat or "capelot" which covered the top of the helm before the mantling was introduced, but from which the {379} lambrequin developed. The curious evolution of the chapeau from the "capelot," which is so marked and usual in Germany, is the tall conical hat, often surmounted by a tuft or larger plume of feathers, and usually employed in German heraldry as an opportunity for the repetition of the livery colours, or a part of, and often the whole design of, the arms. But it should at the same time be noticed that this tall, conical hat is much more closely allied to the real cap of maintenance than our present crest "chapeau." Exactly what purpose the real cap of maintenance served, or of what it was a symbol, remains to a certain extent a matter of mystery. The "Cap of Maintenance"--a part of the regalia borne before the sovereign at the State opening of Parliament (but _not_ at a coronation) by the Marquesses of Winchester, the hereditary bearers of the cap of maintenance--bears, in its shape, no relation to the heraldic chapeau. The only similarity is its crimson colour and its lining of ermine. It is a tall, conical cap and is carried on a short staff. [Illustration: FIG. 662.--The Crown of King Charles II.] Whilst crest coronets in early days appear to have had little or no relation to titular rank, there is no doubt whatever that caps of dignity had. Long before, a coronet was assigned to the rank of baron in the reign of Charles II.; all barons had their caps of dignity, of scarlet lined with white fur; and in the old pedigrees a scarlet cap with a gold tuft or tassel on top and a lining of fur will be found painted above the arms of a baron. This fact, the fact that until after Stuart days the chapeau does not appear to have been allowed or granted to others than peers, the fact that it is now reserved for the crests granted to peers, the fact that the velvet cap is a later addition both to the sovereign's crown and to the coronet of a peer, and finally the fact that the cap of maintenance is borne before the sovereign only in the precincts of Parliament, would seem to indubitably indicate that the cap of maintenance was inseparably connected with the lordship and overlordship of Parliament vested in peers and in the sovereign. In the crumpled and tasselled top of the velvet cap, and in the ermine border visible below the rim, the high conical form of the cap of maintenance proper can be still traced in the cap of a peer's coronet, and that the velvet cap contained in {380} the crown of the sovereign and in the coronet of a peer is the survival of the old cap of dignity there can be no doubt. This is perhaps even more apparent in Fig. 662, which shows the crown of King Charles II., than in the representations of the Royal crown which we are more accustomed to see. The present form of a peer's coronet is undoubtedly the conjoining of two separate emblems of his rank. The cap of maintenance or dignity, however, as represented above the arms of a baron, as above referred to, was not of this high, conical shape. It was much flatter. The high, conical, original shape is, however, preserved in many of the early heraldic representations of the chapeau, as will be noticed from an examination of the ancient Garter plates or from a reference to Fig. 271, which shows the helmet with its chapeau-borne crest of Edward the Black Prince. [Illustration: FIG. 663.--The Chapeau.] Of the chapeaux upon which crests are represented in the early Garter plates the following facts may be observed. They are twenty in number of the eighty-six plates reproduced in Mr. St. John Hope's book. It should be noticed that until the end of the reign of Henry VIII. the Royal crest of the sovereign was always depicted upon a chapeau gules, lined with ermine. Of the twenty instances in which the chapeau appears, no less than twelve are representations of the Royal crest, borne by closely allied relatives of the sovereign, so that we have only eight examples from which to draw deductions. But of the twenty it should be pointed out that nineteen are peers, and the only remaining instance (Sir John Grey, K.G.) is that of the eldest son and heir apparent of a peer, both shield and crest being in this case boldly marked with the "label" of an eldest son. Consequently it is a safe deduction that whatever may have been the regulations and customs concerning the use of coronets, there can be no doubt that down to the end of the fifteenth century the use of a chapeau marked a crest as that of a peer. Of the eight non-Royal examples one has been repainted, and is valueless as a contemporary record. Of the remaining seven, four are of the conventional gules and ermine. One only has not the ermine lining, that being the crest of Lord Fanhope. It is plainly the Royal crest "differenced" (he being of Royal but illegitimate descent), and probably the argent in lieu of ermine lining is one of the intentional marks of distinction. The chapeau of Lord Beaumont is azure, semé-de-lis, lined ermine, and that of the Earl of Douglas is azure lined ermine, this being in each case in conformity with the mantling. Whilst the Beaumont family still use this curiously coloured chapeau with their crest, the Douglas crest is now borne (by {381} the Duke of Hamilton) upon one of ordinary tinctures. Chapeaux, other than of gules lined ermine, are but rarely met with, and unless specifically blazoned to the contrary a cap of maintenance is always presumed to be gules and ermine. About the Stuart period the granting of crests upon chapeaux to others than peers became far from unusual, and the practice appears to have been frequently adopted prior to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Some of these crest chapeaux, however, were not of gules. An instance of this kind will be found in the grant in 1667 to Sir Thomas Davies, then one of the sheriffs of the City of London, but afterwards (in 1677) Lord Mayor. The crest granted was: "On a chapeau sable, turned up or, a demi-lion rampant of the last." The reason for the grant at that date of such a simple crest and the even more astonishingly simple coat of arms ["Or, a chevron between three mullets pierced sable"] has always been a mystery to me. The arms of Lord Lurgan (granted or confirmed 1840) afford another instance of a chapeau of unusual colour, his crest being: "Upon a chapeau azure turned up ermine, a greyhound statant gules, collared or." There are some number of cases in which peers whose ancestors originally bore their crests upon a wreath have subsequently placed them upon a chapeau. The Stanleys, Earls of Derby, are a case in point, as are also the Marquesses of Exeter. The latter case is curious, because although they have for long enough so depicted their crest, they only comparatively recently (within the last few years) obtained the necessary authorisation by the Crown. At the present time the official form of the chapeau is as in Fig. 663, with the turn up split at the back into two tails. No such form can be found in any early representation, and most heraldic artists have now reverted to an earlier type. Before leaving the subject of the cap of maintenance, reference should be made to another instance of a curious heraldic headgear often, but _quite incorrectly_, styled a "cap of maintenance." This is the fur cap invariably used over the shields of the cities of London, Dublin, and Norwich. There is no English official authority whatever for such an addition to the arms, but there does appear to be some little official recognition of it in Ulster's Office in the case of the city of Dublin. The late Ulster King of Arms, however, informed me that he would, in the case of Dublin, have no hesitation whatever in certifying the right of the city arms to be so displayed (Plate VII.). In the utter absence of anything in the nature of a precedent, it is quite unlikely that the practice will be sanctioned in England. The {382} hat used is a flat-topped, brown fur hat of the shape depicted with the arms of the City of Dublin. It is merely (in London) a part of the official uniform or livery of the City sword-bearer. It does not even appear to have been a part of the costume of the Lord Mayor, and it must always remain a mystery why it was ever adopted for heraldic use. But then the chain of the Lord Mayor of London is generally called a Collar of SS. Besides this the City of London uses a Peer's helmet, a bogus modern crest, and even more modern bogus supporters, so a few other eccentricities need not in that particular instance cause surprise. {383} CHAPTER XXIV THE MANTLING OR LAMBREQUIN The mantling is the ornamental design which in a representation of an armorial achievement depends from the helmet, falling away on either side of the escutcheon. Many authorities have considered it to have been no more than a fantastic series of flourishes, devised by artistic minds for the purpose of assisting ornamentation and affording an artistic opportunity of filling up unoccupied spaces in a heraldic design. There is no doubt that its readily apparent advantages in that character have greatly led to the importance now attached to the mantling in heraldic art. But equally is it certain that its real origin is to be traced elsewhere. The development of the heraldry of to-day was in the East during the period of the Crusades, and the burning heat of the Eastern sun upon the metal helmet led to the introduction and adoption of a textile covering, which would act in some way as a barrier between the two. It was simply in fact and effect a primeval prototype of the "puggaree" of Margate and Hindustan. It is plain from all early representations that originally it was short, simply hanging from the apex of the helmet to the level of the shoulders, overlapping the textile tunic or "coat of arms," but probably enveloping a greater part of the helmet, neck, and shoulders than we are at present (judging from pictorial representations) inclined to believe. Adopted first as a protection against the heat, and perhaps also the rust which would follow damp, the lambrequin soon made evident another of its advantages, an advantage to which we doubtless owe its perpetuation outside Eastern warfare in the more temperate climates of Northern Europe and England. Textile fabrics are peculiarly and remarkably deadening to a sword-cut, to which fact must be added the facility with which such a weapon would become entangled in the hanging folds of cloth. The hacking and hewing of battle would show itself plainly upon the lambrequin of one accustomed to a prominent position in the forefront of a fight, and the honourable record implied by a ragged and slashed lambrequin accounts for the fact that we find at an early period after their introduction into heraldic art, that mantlings {384} are depicted cut and "torn to ribbons." This opportunity was quickly seized by the heraldic artist, who has always, from those very earliest times of absolute armorial freedom down to the point of greatest and most regularised control, been allowed an entire and absolute discretion in the design to be adopted for the mantling. Hence it is that we find so much importance is given to it by heraldic artists, for it is in the design of the mantling, and almost entirely in that opportunity, that the personal character and abilities of the artist have their greatest scope. Some authorities have, however, derived the mantling from the robe of estate, and there certainly has been a period in British armory when most lambrequins found in heraldic art are represented by an unmutilated cloth, suspended from and displayed behind the armorial bearings and tied at the upper corners. In all probability the robes of estate of the higher nobility, no less than the then existing and peremptorily enforced sumptuary laws, may have led to the desire and to the attempt, at a period when the actual lambrequin was fast disappearing from general knowledge, to display arms upon something which should represent either the parliamentary robes of estate of a peer, or the garments of rich fabric which the sumptuary laws forbade to those of humble degree. To this period undoubtedly belongs the term "mantling," which is so much more frequently employed than the word lambrequin, which is really--from the armorial point of view--the older term. The heraldic mantling was, of course, originally the representation of the actual "capeline" or textile covering worn upon the helmet, but many early heraldic representations are of mantlings which are of skin, fur, or feathers, being in such cases invariably a continuation of the crest drawn out and represented as the lambrequin. When the crest was a part of the human figure, the habit in which that figure was arrayed is almost invariably found to have been so employed. The Garter plate of Sir Ralph Bassett, one of the Founder Knights, shows the crest as a black boar's head, the skin being continued as the sable mantling. Some Sclavonic families have mantlings of fur only, that of the Hungarian family of Chorinski is a bear skin, and countless other instances can be found of the use by German families of a continuation of the crest for a mantling. This practice affords instances of many curious mantlings, this in one case in the Zurich _Wappenrolle_ being the scaly skin of a salmon. The mane of the lion, the crest of Mertz, and the hair and beard of the crests of Bohn and Landschaden, are similarly continued to do duty for the mantling. This practice has never found great favour in England, the cases amongst the early Garter plates where it has been followed standing almost alone. In a {385} manuscript (M. 3, 67_b_) of the reign of Henry VII., now in the College of Arms, probably dating from about 1506, an instance of this character can be found, however. It is a representation of the crest of Stourton (Fig. 664) as it was borne at that date, and was a black Benedictine demi-monk proper holding erect in his dexter hand a scourge. Here the proper black Benedictine habit (it has of later years been corrupted into the russet habit of a friar) is continued to form the mantling. PLATE VII. [Illustration] [Illustration: FIG. 664.--The Crest of Stourton.] By what rules the colours of the mantlings were decided in early times it is impossible to say. No rules have been handed down to us--the old heraldic books are silent on the point--and it seems equally hopeless to attempt to deduce any from ancient armorial examples. The one fact that can be stated with certainty is that the rules of early days, if there were any, are not the rules presently observed. Some hold that the colours of the mantling were decided by the colours of the actual livery in use as distinct from the "livery colours" of the arms. It is difficult to check this rule, because our knowledge of the liveries in use in early days is so meagre and limited; but in the few instances of which we now have knowledge we look in vain for a repetition of the colours worn by the retainers as liveries in the mantlings used. The fact that the livery colours are represented in the background of some of the early Garter plates, and that in such instances in no single case do they agree with the colours of the mantling, must certainly dissipate once and for all any such supposition as far as it relates to that period. A careful study and analysis of early heraldic emblazonment, however, reveals one point as a dominating characteristic. That is, that where the crest, by its nature, lent itself to a continuation into the mantling it generally was so continued. This practice, which was almost universal upon the Continent, and is particularly to be met with {386} in German heraldry, though seldom adopted in England, certainly had some weight in English heraldry. In the recently published reproductions of the Plantagenet Garter plates eighty-seven armorial achievements are included. Of these, in ten instances the mantlings are plainly continuations of the crests, being "feathered" or in unison. Fifteen of the mantlings have both the outside and the inside of the principal colour and of the principal metal of the arms they accompany, though in a few cases, contrary to the present practice, the metal is outside, the lining being of the colour. Nineteen more of the mantlings are of the principal colour of the arms, the majority (eighteen) of these being lined with ermine. No less than forty-nine are of some colour lined with ermine, but thirty-four of these are of gules lined ermine, and in the large majority of cases in these thirty-four instances neither the gules nor the ermine are in conformity with the principal colour and metal (what we now term the "livery colours") of the arms. In some cases the colours of the mantling agree with the colours of the crest, a rule which will usually be found to hold good in German heraldry. The constant occurrence of gules and ermine incline one much to believe that the colours of the mantling were not decided by haphazard fancy, but that there was some law--possibly in some way connected with the sumptuary laws of the period--which governed the matter, or, at any rate, which greatly limited the range of selection. Of the eighty-seven mantlings, excluding those which are gules lined ermine, there are four only the colours of which apparently bear no relation whatever to the colours of the arms or the crests appearing upon the same Stall plate. In some number of the plates the colours certainly are taken from a quartering other than the first one, and in one at least of the four exceptions the mantling (one of the most curious examples) is plainly derived from a quartering inherited by the knight in question though not shown upon the Stall plate. Probably a closer examination of the remaining three instances would reveal a similar reason in each case. That any law concerning the colours of their mantlings was enforced upon those concerned would be an unwarrantable deduction not justified by the instances under examination, but one is clearly justified in drawing from these cases some deductions as to the practice pursued. It is evident that unless one was authorised by the rule or reason governing the matter--whatever such rule or reason may have been--in using a mantling of gules and ermine, the dominating colour (not as a rule the metal) of the coat of arms (or of one of the quarterings), or sometimes of the crest if the tinctures of arms and crest were not in unison, decided the colour of the mantling. That there was some meaning behind the mantlings of gules lined with ermine there can be little doubt, for it is noticeable that in a case in {387} which the colours of the arms themselves are gules and ermine, the mantling is of gules and argent, as by the way in this particular case is the chapeau upon which the crest is placed. But probably the reason which governed these mantlings of gules lined with ermine, as also the ermine linings of other mantlings, must be sought outside the strict limits of armory. That the colours of mantlings are repeated in different generations, and in the plates of members of the same family, clearly demonstrates that selection was not haphazard. Certain of these early Garter plates exhibit interesting curiosities in the mantlings:-- 1. Sir William Latimer, Lord Latimer, K.G., c. 1361-1381. Arms: gules a cross patonce or. Crest: a plume of feathers sable, the tips or. Mantling gules with silver vertical stripes, lined with ermine. 2. Sir Bermond Arnaud de Presac, Soudan de la Tran, K.G., 1380-_post_ 1384. Arms: or, a lion rampant double-queued gules. Crest: a Midas' head argent. Mantling sable, lined gules, the latter veined or. 3. Sir Simon Felbrigge, K.G., 1397-1442. Arms: or, a lion rampant gules. Crest: out of a coronet gules, a plume of feathers ermine. Mantling ermine, lined gules (evidently a continuation of the crest). 4. Sir Reginald Cobham, Lord Cobham, K.G., 1352-1361. Arms: gules, on a chevron or, three estoiles sable. Crest: a soldan's head sable, the brow encircled by a torse or. Mantling sable (evidently a continuation of the crest), lined gules. 5. Sir Edward Cherleton, Lord Cherleton of Powis, K.G., 1406-7 to 1420-1. Arms: or, a lion rampant gules. Crest: on a wreath gules and sable, two lions' gambs also gules, each adorned on the exterior side with three demi-fleurs-de-lis issuing argent, the centres thereof or. Mantling: on the dexter side, sable; on the sinister side, gules; both lined ermine. 6. Sir Hertong von Clux, K.G., 1421-1445 or 6. Arms: argent, a vine branch couped at either end in bend sable. Crest: out of a coronet or, a plume of feathers sable and argent. Mantling: on the dexter side, azure; on the sinister, gules; both lined ermine. 7. Sir Miles Stapleton, K.G. (Founder Knight, died 1364). Arms: argent, a lion rampant sable. Crest: a soldan's head sable, around the temples a torse azure, tied in a knot, the ends flowing. Mantling sable (probably a continuation of the crest), lined gules. 8. Sir Walter Hungerford, Lord Hungerford and Heytesbury, K.G., 1421-1449. Arms: sable, two bars argent, and in chief three plates. Crest: out of a coronet azure a garb or, enclosed by two sickles argent. Mantling (within and without): dexter, barry of six {388} ermine and gules; sinister, barry of six gules and ermine. (The reason of this is plain. The mother of Lord Hungerford was a daughter and coheir of Hussey. The arms of Hussey are variously given: "Barry of six ermine and gules," or "Ermine, three bars gules.") 9. Sir Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Stafford, 1429-1460. Arms: or, a chevron gules. Crest: out of a coronet gules, a swan's head and neck proper, beaked gules, between two wings also proper. Mantling: the dexter side, sable; the sinister side, gules; both lined ermine. Black and gules, it may be noted, were the livery colours of Buckingham, an earldom which had devolved upon the Earls of Stafford. 10. Sir John Grey of Ruthin, K.G., 1436-1439. Arms: quarterly, 1 and 4, barry of six argent and azure, in chief three torteaux; 2 and 3, quarterly i. and iiii., or, a maunch gules; ii. and iii., barry of eight argent and azure, an orle of ten martlets gules; over all a label of three points argent. Crest: on a chapeau gules, turned up ermine, a wyvern or, gorged with a label argent. Mantling or, lined ermine. 11. Sir Richard Nevill, Earl of Salisbury, K.G., 1436-1460. Arms: quarterly, 1 and 4, quarterly i. and iiii., argent, three lozenges conjoined in fess gules; ii. and iii., or, an eagle displayed vert; 2 and 3, gules, a saltire argent, a label of three points compony argent and azure. Crest: on a coronet, a griffin sejant, with wings displayed or. Mantling: dexter side, gules; the sinister, sable; both lined ermine. 12. Sir Gaston de Foix, Count de Longueville, &c., K.G., 1438-1458. Arms: quarterly, 1 and 4, or, three pallets gules; 2 and 3, or, two cows passant in pale gules, over all a label of three points, each point or, on a cross sable five escallops argent. Crest: on a wreath or and gules, a blackamoor's bust with ass's ears sable, vested paly or and gules, all between two wings, each of the arms as in the first quarter. Mantling paly of or and gules, lined vert. 13. Sir Walter Blount, Lord Mountjoye, K.G., 1472-1474. Arms: quarterly, 1. argent, two wolves passant in pale sable, on a bordure also argent eight saltires couped gules (for Ayala); 2. or, a tower (? gules) (for Mountjoy); 3. barry nebuly or and sable (for Blount); 4. vairé argent and gules (for Gresley). Crest: out of a coronet two ibex horns or. Mantling sable, lined on the dexter side with argent, and on the sinister with or. 14. Frederick, Duke of Urbino. Mantling or, lined ermine. In Continental heraldry it is by no means uncommon to find the device of the arms repeated either wholly or in part upon the mantling. In reference to this the "Tournament Rules" of René, Duke of Anjou, {389} throw some light on the point. These it may be of interest to quote:-- "Vous tous Princes, Seigneurs, Barons, Cheualiers, et Escuyers, qui auez intention de tournoyer, vous estes tenus vous rendre és heberges le quartrième jour deuan le jour du Tournoy, pour faire de vos Blasons fenestres, sur payne de non estre receus audit Tournoy. Les armes seront celles-cy. Le tymbre doit estre sur vne piece de cuir boüilly, la quelle doit estre bien faultrée d'vn doigt d'espez, ou plus, par le dedans: et doit contenir la dite piece de cuir tout le sommet du heaulme, et sera couuerte la dite piece du lambrequin armoyé des armes de celuy qui le portera, et sur le dit lambrequin au plus haut du sommet, sera assis le dit Tymbre, et autour d'iceluy aura vn tortil des couleurs que voudra le Tournoyeur. "Item, et quand tous les heaulmes seront ainsi mis et ordonnez pour les departir, viendront toutes Dames et Damoiselles et tout Seigneurs, Cheualiers, et Escuyers, en les visitant d'vn bout à autre, la present les Juges, qui meneront trois ou quatre tours les Dames pour bien voir et visiter les Tymbres, et y aura vu Heraut ou poursuivant, qui dira aux Dames selon l'endroit où elles seront, le nom de ceux à qui sont les Tymbres, afin que s'il en a qui ait des Dames médit, et elles touchent son Tymbre, qu'il soit le lendemain pour recommandé." (Menêtrier, _L'Origine des Armoiries_, pp. 79-81.) Whilst one can call to mind no instance of importance of ancient date where this practice has been followed in this country, there are one or two instances in the Garter plates which approximate closely to it. The mantling of John, Lord Beaumont, is azure, semé-de-lis (as the field of his arms), lined ermine. Those of Sir John Bourchier, Lord Berners, and of Sir Henry Bourchier, Earl of Essex, are of gules, billetté or, evidently derived from the quartering for Louvaine upon the arms, this quartering being: "Gules, billetté and a fess or." According to a MS. of Vincent, in the College of Arms, the Warrens used a mantling chequy of azure and or with their arms. A somewhat similar result is obtained by the mantling, "Gules, semé of lozenges or," upon the small plate of Sir Sanchet Dabrichecourt. The mantling of Sir Lewis Robessart, Lord Bourchier, is: "Azure, bezanté, lined argent." "The azure mantling on the Garter Plate of Henry V., as Prince of Wales, is 'semé of the French golden fleurs-de-lis.'... The Daubeny mantling is 'semé of mullets.' On the brass of Sir John Wylcote, at Tew, the lambrequins are chequy.... On the seals of Sir John Bussy, in 1391 and 1407, the mantlings are barry, the coat being 'argent, three bars sable.'" There are a few cases amongst the Garter plates in which badges are plainly and unmistakably depicted upon the mantlings. Thus, on the lining of the mantling on the plate of Sir Henry Bourchier (elected 1452) will be found water-bougets, which are repeated on a fillet round the head of the crest. The Stall plate of Sir John Bourchier, Lord {390} Berners, above referred to (elected 1459), is lined with silver on the dexter side, semé in the upper part with water-bougets, and in the lower part with Bourchier knots. On the opposite side of the mantling the knots are in the upper part, and the water-bougets below. That these badges upon the mantling are not haphazard artistic decoration is proved by a reference to the monumental effigy of the Earl of Essex, in Little Easton Church, Essex. The differing shapes of the helmet, and of the coronet and the mantling, and the different representation of the crest, show that, although depicted in his Garter robes, upon his effigy the helmet, crest, and mantling upon which the earl's head there rests, and the representations of the same upon the Garter plate, are not slavish copies of the same original model. Nevertheless upon the effigy, as on the Garter plate, we find the outside of the mantling "semé of billets," and the inside "semé of water-bougets." Another instance amongst the Garter plates will be found in the case of Viscount Lovell, whose mantling is strewn with gold padlocks. Nearly all the mantlings on the Garter Stall plates are more or less heavily "veined" with gold, and many are heavily diapered and decorated with floral devices. So prominent is some of this floral diapering that one is inclined to think that in a few cases it may possibly be a diapering with floral badges. In other cases it is equally evidently no more than a mere accessory of design, though between these two classes of diapering it would be by no means easy to draw a line of distinction. The veining and "heightening" of a mantling with gold is at the present day nearly always to be seen in elaborate heraldic painting. From the Garter plates of the fourteenth century it has been shown that the colours of a large proportion of the mantlings approximated in early days to the colours of the arms. The popularity of gules, however, was then fast encroaching upon the frequency of appearance which other colours should have enjoyed; and in the sixteenth century, in grants and other paintings of arms, the use of a mantling of gules had become practically universal. In most cases the mantling of "gules, doubled argent" forms an integral part of the terms of the grant itself, as sometimes do the "gold tassels" which are so frequently found terminating the mantlings of that and an earlier period. This custom continued through the Stuart period, and though dropped officially in England during the eighteenth century (when the mantling reverted to the livery colours of the arms, and became in this form a matter of course and so understood, not being expressed in the wording of the patent), it continued in force in Lyon Office in Scotland until the year 1890, when the present Lyon King of Arms (Sir James Balfour Paul) altered the practice, and, as had earlier been done in England, {391} ordered that all future Scottish mantlings should be depicted in the livery colours of the arms, but in Scotland the mantlings, though now following the livery colours, are still included in the terms of the grant, and thereby stereotyped. In England, in an official "exemplification" at the present day of an ancient coat of arms (_e.g._ in an exemplification following the assumption of name and arms by Royal License), the mantling is painted in the livery colours, irrespective of any ancient patent in which "gules and argent" may have been _granted_ as the colour of the mantling. Though probably most people will agree as to the expediency of such a practice, it is at any rate open to criticism on the score of propriety, unless the new mantling is expressed in terms in the new patent. This would of course amount to a grant overriding the earlier one, and would do all that was necessary; but failing this, there appears to be a distinct hiatus in the continuity of authority. Ermine linings to the mantling were soon denied to the undistinguished commoner, and with the exception of the early Garter plates, it would be difficult to point to an instance of their use. The mantlings of peers, however, continued to be lined with ermine, and English instances under official sanction can be found in the Visitation Books and in the Garter plates until a comparatively recent period. In fact the relegation of peers to the ordinary livery colours for their mantlings is, in England, quite a modern practice. In Scotland, however, the mantlings of peers have always been lined with ermine, and the present Lyon continues this whilst usually making the colours of the outside of the mantlings agree with the principal colour of the arms. This, as regards the outer colour of the mantling, is not a fixed or stereotyped rule, and in some cases Lyon has preferred to adopt a mantling of gules lined with ermine as more comformable to a peer's Parliamentary Robe of Estate. In the Deputy Earl-Marshal's warrant referred to on page 375 are some interesting points as to the mantling. It is recited that "some persons under y^e degree of y^e Nobilitie of this Realme doe cause Ermins to be Depicted upon ye Lineings of those Mantles which are used with their Armes, and also that there are some that have lately caused the Mantles of their Armes to be painted like Ostrich feathers as tho' they were of some peculiar and superior degree of Honor," and the warrant commands that these points are to be rectified. The Royal mantling is of cloth of gold. In the case of the sovereign and the Prince of Wales it is lined with ermine, and for other members of the Royal Family it is lined with argent. Queen Elizabeth was the first sovereign to adopt the golden mantling, the Royal tinctures before that date (for the mantling) being gules lined ermine. The mantling of or and ermine has, of course, since that date been rigidly denied to {392} all outside the Royal Family. Two instances, however, occur amongst the early Garter plates, viz. Sir John Grey de Ruthyn and Frederick, Duke of Urbino. It is sometimes stated that a mantling of or and ermine is a sign of sovereignty, but the mantling of our own sovereign is really the only case in which it is presently so used. In Sweden, as in Scotland, the colours of the mantling are specified in the patent, and, unlike our own, are often curiously varied. The present rules for the colour of a mantling are as follows in England and Ireland:-- 1. That with ancient arms of which the grant specified the colour, where this has not been altered by a subsequent exemplification, the colours must be as stated in the grant, _i.e._ usually gules, lined argent. 2. That the mantling of the sovereign and Prince of Wales is of cloth of gold, lined with ermine. 3. That the mantling of other members of the Royal Family is of cloth of gold lined with argent. 4. That the mantlings of all other people shall be of the livery colours. The rules in Scotland are now as follows: 1. That in the cases of peers whose arms were matriculated before 1890 the mantling is of gules lined with ermine (the Scottish term for "lined" is "doubled"). 2. That the mantlings of all other arms matriculated before 1890 shall be of gules and argent. 3. That the mantlings of peers whose arms have been matriculated since 1890 shall be either of the principal colour of the arms, lined with ermine, or of gules lined ermine (conformably to the Parliamentary Robe of Estate of a peer) as may happen to have been matriculated. 4. That the mantlings of all other persons whose arms have been matriculated since 1890 shall be of the livery colours, unless other colours are, as is occasionally the case, specified in the patent of matriculation. Whether in Scotland a person is entitled to assume of his own motion an ermine lining to his mantling upon his elevation to the peerage, without a rematriculation in cases where the arms and mantling have been otherwise matriculated at an earlier date, or whether in England any peer may still line his mantling with ermine, are points on which one hesitates to express an opinion. When the mantling is of the livery colours the following rules must be observed. The outside must be of some colour and the lining of some metal. The colour must be the principal colour of the arms, {393} _i.e._ the colour of the field if it be of colour, or if it is of metal, then the colour of the principal ordinary or charge upon the shield. The metal will be as the field, if the field is of metal, or if not, it will be as the metal of the principal ordinary or charge. In other words, it should be the same tinctures as the wreath. If the field is party of colour and metal (_i.e._ per pale barry, quarterly, &c.), then that colour and that metal are "the livery colours." If the field is party of two _colours_ the principal colour (_i.e._ the one first mentioned in the blazon) is taken as the colour and the other is ignored. The mantling is _not_ made party to agree with the field in British heraldry, as would be the case in Germany. If the field is of a fur, then the dominant metal or colour of the fur is taken as one component part of the "livery colours," the other metal or colour required being taken from the next most important tincture of the field. For example, "ermine, a fess gules" has a mantling of gules and argent, whilst "or, a chevron ermines" would need a mantling of sable and or. The mantling for "azure, a lion rampant erminois" would be azure and or. But in a coat showing fur, metal, and colour, sometimes the fur is ignored. A field of vair has a mantling argent and azure, but if the charge be vair the field will supply the one, _i.e._ either colour or metal, whilst the vair supplies whichever is lacking. Except in the cases of Scotsmen who are peers and of the Sovereign and Prince of Wales, no fur is ever used nowadays in Great Britain for a mantling. In cases where the principal charge is "proper," a certain discretion must be used. Usually the heraldic colour to which the charge approximates is used. For example, "argent, issuing from a mount in base a tree proper," &c., would have a mantling vert and argent. The arms "or, three Cornish choughs proper," or "argent, three negroes' heads couped proper," would have mantlings respectively sable and or and sable and argent. Occasionally one comes across a coat which supplies an "impossible" mantling, or which does not supply one at all. Such a coat would be "per bend sinister ermine and erminois, a lion rampant counterchanged." Here there is no colour at all, so the mantling would be gules and argent. "Argent, three stags trippant proper" would have a mantling gules and argent. A coat of arms with a landscape field would also probably be supplied (in default of a chief, _e.g._ supplying other colours and tinctures) with a mantling gules and argent. It is quite permissible to "vein" a mantling with gold lines, this being always done in official paintings. In English official heraldry, where, no matter how great the number of crests, one helmet only is painted, it naturally follows that one mantling only can be depicted. This is always taken from the livery colours of the chief (_i.e._ the first) quartering or sub-quartering. {394} In Scottish patents at the present day in which a helmet is painted for each crest the mantlings frequently vary, being in each case in accordance with the livery colours of the quartering to which the crest belongs. Consequently this must be accepted as the rule in cases where more than one helmet is shown. In considering the fashionings of mantlings it must be remembered that styles and fashions much overlap, and there has always been the tendency in armory to repeat earlier styles. Whilst one willingly concedes the immense gain in beauty by the present reversion in heraldic art to older and better, and certainly more artistic types, there is distinctly another side to the question which is strangely overlooked by those who would have the present-day heraldic art slavishly copied in all minutiæ of detail, and even (according to some) in all the crudity of draughtmanship from examples of the earliest periods. Hitherto each period of heraldic art has had its own peculiar style and type, each within limits readily recognisable. Whether that style and type can be considered when judged by the canons of art to be good or bad, there can be no doubt that each style in its turn has approximated to, and has been in keeping with, the concurrent decorative art outside and beyond heraldry, though it has always exhibited a tendency to rather lag behind. When all has been said and done that can be, heraldry, in spite of its symbolism and its many other meanings, remains but a form of decorative art; and therefore it is natural that it should be influenced by other artistic ideas and other manifestations of art and accepted forms of design current at the period to which it belongs. For, from the artistic point of view, the part played in art by heraldry is so limited in extent compared with the part occupied by other forms of decoration, that one would naturally expect heraldry to show the influence of outside decorative art to a greater extent than decorative art as a whole would be likely to show the influence of heraldry. In our present revulsion of mind in favour of older heraldic types, we are apt to speak of "good" or "bad" heraldic art. But art itself cannot so be divided, for after all allowances have been made for crude workmanship, and when bad or imperfect examples have been eliminated from consideration (and given always necessarily the essential basis of the relation of line to curve and such technical details of art), who on earth is to judge, or who is competent to say, whether any particular style of art is good or bad? No one from preference executes speculative art which he knows whilst executing it to be bad. Most manifestations of art, and peculiarly of decorative art, are commercial matters executed with the frank idea of subsequent sale, and consequently with the subconscious idea, true though but seldom acknowledged, of pleasing that public which will {395} have to buy. Consequently the ultimate appeal is to the taste of the public, for art, if it be not the desire to give pleasure by the representation of beauty, is nothing. Beauty, of course, must not necessarily be confounded with prettiness; it may be beauty of character. The result is, therefore, that the decorative art of any period is an indication of that which gives pleasure at the moment, and an absolute reflex of the artistic wishes, desires, and tastes of the cultivated classes to whom executive art must appeal. At every period it has been found that this taste is constantly changing, and as a consequence the examples of decorative art of any period are a reflex only of the artistic ideas current at the time the work was done. At all periods, therefore, even during the early Victorian period, which we are now taught and believe to be the most ghastly period through which English art has passed, the art in vogue has been what the public have admired, and have been ready to pay for, and most emphatically what they have been taught and brought up to consider good art. In early Victorian days there was no lack of educated people, and because they liked the particular form of decoration associated with their period, who is justified in saying that, because that peculiar style of decoration is not acceptable now to ourselves, their art was bad, and worse than our own? If throughout the ages there had been one dominating style of decoration equally accepted at all periods and by all authorities as the highest type of decorative art, then we should have some standard to judge by. Such is not the case, and we have no such standard, and any attempt to arbitrarily create and control ideas between given parallel lines of arbitrary thought, when the ideas are constantly changing, is impossible and undesirable. Who dreams of questioning the art of Benvenuto Cellini, or of describing his craftsmanship as other than one of the most vivid examples of his period, and yet what had it in keeping with the art of the Louis XVI. period, or the later art of William Morris and his followers? Widely divergent as are these types, they are nevertheless all accepted as the highest expressions of three separate types of decorative art. Any one attempting to compare them, or to rank these schools of artistic thought in order of superiority, would simply be laying themselves open to ridicule unspeakable, for they would be ranked by the highest authorities of different periods in different orders, and it is as impossible to create a permanent standard of art as it is impossible to ensure a permanence of any particular public taste. The fact that taste changes, and as a consequence that artistic styles and types vary, is simply due to the everlasting desire on the part of the public for some new thing, and their equally permanent appreciation of novelty of idea or sensation. That master-minds have arisen to teach, and {396} that they have taught with some success their own particular brand of art to the public, would seem rather to argue against the foregoing ideas were it not that, when the master-mind and the dominating influence are gone, the public, desiring as always change and novelty, are ready to fly to any new teacher and master who can again afford them artistic pleasure. The influence of William Morris in household decoration is possibly the most far-reaching modern example of the influence of a single man upon the art of his period; but master-mind as was his, and master-craftsman as he was, it has needed but a few years since his death to start the undoing of much that he taught. After the movement initiated by Morris and carried further by the Arts and Crafts Society, which made for simplicity in structural design as well as in the decoration of furniture, we have now fallen back upon the flowery patterns of the early Victorian period, and there is hardly a drawing-room in fashionable London where the chairs and settees are not covered with early Victorian chintzes. Artistic authorities may shout themselves hoarse, but the fashion having been set in Mayfair will be inevitably followed in Suburbia, and we are doubtless again at the beginning of the cycle of that curious manifestation of domestic decorative art which was current in the early part of the nineteenth century. It is, therefore, evident that it is futile to describe varying types of art of varying periods as good or bad, or to differentiate between them, unless some such permanent basis of comparison or standard of excellence be conceded. The differing types must be accepted as no more than the expression of the artistic period to which they belong. That being so, one cannot help thinking that the abuse which has been heaped of late (by unthinking votaries of Plantagenet and Tudor heraldry) upon heraldic art in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries has very greatly overstepped the true proportion of the matter. Much that has been said is true, but what has been said too often lacks proportion. There is consequently much to be said in favour of allowing each period to create its own style and type of heraldic design, in conformity with the ideas concerning decorative art which are current outside heraldic thought. This is precisely what is not happening at the present time, even with all our boasted revival of armory and armorial art. The tendency at the present time is to slavishly copy examples of other periods. There is another point which is usually overlooked by the most blatant followers of this school of thought. What are the ancient models which remain to us? The early Rolls of Arms of which we hear so much are not, and were never intended to be, examples of artistic execution. They are merely memoranda of _fact_. It is absurd to suppose that an actual shield was painted with the crudity to be met {397} with in the Rolls of Arms. It is equally absurd to accept as unimpeachable models, Garter plates, seals, or architectural examples unless the purpose and medium--wax, enamel, or stone--in which they are executed is borne in mind, and the knowledge used with due discrimination. Mr. Eve, without slavishly copying, originally appears to have modelled his work upon the admirable designs and ideas of the "little masters" of German art in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He has since progressed therefrom to a distinctive and very excellent style of his own. Mr. Graham Johnson models his work upon Plantagenet and Tudor examples. The work of Père Anselm, and of Pugin, the first start towards the present ideas of heraldic art, embodying as it did so much of the beauty of the older work whilst possessing a character of its own, and developing ancient ideals by increased beauty of execution, has placed their reputation far above that of others, who, following in their footsteps, have not possessed their abilities. But with regard to most of the heraldic design of the present day as a whole it is very evident that we are simply picking and choosing tit-bits from the work of bygone craftsmen, and copying, more or less slavishly, examples of other periods. This makes for no advance in design either, in its character or execution, nor will it result in any peculiarity of style which it will be possible in the future to identify with the present period. Our heraldry, like our architecture, though it may be dated in the twentieth century, will be a heterogeneous collection of isolated specimens of Gothic, Tudor, or Queen Anne style and type, which surely is as anachronistic as we consider to be those Dutch paintings which represent Christ and the Apostles in modern clothes. Roughly the periods into which the types of mantlings can be divided, when considered from the standpoint of their fashioning, are somewhat as follows. There is the earliest period of all, when the mantling depicted approximated closely if it was not an actual representation of the capelote really worn in battle. Examples of this will be found in the _Armorial de Gelre_ and the Zurich _Wappenrolle_. As the mantling worn lengthened and evolved itself into the lambrequin, the mantling depicted in heraldic art was similarly increased in size, terminating in the long mantle drawn in profile but tasselled and with the scalloped edges, a type which is found surviving in some of the early Garter plates. This is the transition stage. The next definite period is when we find the mantling depicted on both sides of the helmet and the scalloped edges developed, in accordance with the romantic ideas of the period, into the slashes and cuts of the bold and artistic mantlings of Plantagenet armorial art. Slowly decreasing in strength, but at the same time increasing in elaboration, this mantling and type continued until it had reached its {398} highest pitch of exuberant elaboration in Stuart and early Georgian times. Side by side with this over-elaboration came the revulsion to a Puritan simplicity of taste which is to be found in other manifestations of art at the same time, and which made itself evident in heraldic decoration by the use as mantling of the plain uncut cloth suspended behind the shield. Originating in Elizabethan days, this plain cloth was much made use of, but towards the end of the Stuart period came that curious evolution of British heraldry which is peculiar to these countries alone. That is the entire omission of both helmet and mantling. How it originated it is difficult to understand, unless it be due to the fact that a large number, in fact a large proportion, of English families possessed a shield only and neither claimed nor used a crest, and that consequently a large number of heraldic representations give the shield only. It is rare indeed to find a shield surmounted by helmet and mantling when the former is not required to support a crest. At the same time we find, among the official records of the period, that the documents of chief importance were the Visitation Books. In these, probably from motives of economy or to save needless draughtsmanship, the trouble of depicting the helmet and mantling was dispensed with, and the crest is almost universally found depicted on the wreath, which is made to rest upon the shield, the helmet being omitted. That being an accepted official way of representing an achievement, small wonder that the public followed, and we find as a consequence that a large proportion of the bookplates during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had no helmet or mantling at all, the elaboration of the edges of the shield, together with the addition of decorative and needless accessories bearing no relation to the arms, fulfilling all purposes of decorative design. It should also be remembered that from towards the close of the Stuart period onward, England was taking her art and decoration almost entirely from Continental sources, chiefly French and Italian. In both the countries the use of crests was very limited indeed in extent, and the elimination of the helmet and mantling, and the elaboration in their stead of the edges of the shield, we probably owe to the effort to assimilate French and Italian forms of decoration to English arms. So obsolete had become the use of helmet and mantling that it is difficult to come across examples that one can put forward as mantlings typical of the period. Helmets and mantlings were of course painted upon grants and upon the Stall plates of the knights of the various orders, but whilst the helmets became weak, of a pattern impossible to wear, and small in size, the mantling became of a stereotyped pattern, and of a design poor and wooden according to our present ideas. [Illustration: FIG. 665.--Carriage Panel of Georgiana, Marchioness of Cholmondeley.] Unofficial heraldry had sunk to an even lower style of art, and {399} the regulation heraldic stationer's types of shield, mantling, and helmet are awe-inspiring in their ugliness. The term "mantle" is sometimes employed, but it would seem hardly quite correctly, to the parliamentary robe of estate upon which the arms of a peer of the realm were so frequently depicted at the end of the eighteenth and in the early part of the nineteenth centuries. Its popularity is an indication of the ever-constant predilection for something which is denied to others and the possession of which is a matter of privilege. Woodward, in his "Treatise on Heraldry," treats of and dismisses the matter in one short sentence: "In England the suggestion that the arms of peers should be mantled with their Parliament robes was never generally adopted." In this statement he is quite incorrect, for as the accepted type in one particular opportunity of armorial display its use was absolutely universal. The opportunity in question was the emblazonment of arms upon carriage panels. In the early part of the nineteenth and at the end of the eighteenth centuries armorial bearings were painted of some size upon carriages, and there were few such paintings executed for the carriages, chariots, and state coaches of peers that did not appear upon a background of the robe of estate. With the modern craze for ostentatious unostentation (the result, there can be little doubt, in this respect of the wholesale appropriation of arms by those without a right to bear these ornaments), the decoration of a peer's carriage nowadays seldom shows more than a simple coronet, or a coroneted crest, initial, or monogram; but the State chariots of those who still possess them almost all, without exception, show the arms emblazoned upon the robe of estate. The Royal and many other State chariots made or refurbished for the recent coronation ceremonies show that, when an opportunity of the fullest display properly arises, the robe of estate is not yet a thing of the past. Fig. 665 is from a photograph of a carriage panel, and shows the arms of a former Marchioness of Cholmondeley displayed in this manner. Incidentally it also shows a practice frequently resorted to, but quite unauthorised, of taking one supporter from the husband's shield and the other (when the wife was an heiress) from the arms of her family. The arms are those of Georgiana Charlotte, widow of George James, first Marquess of Cholmondeley, and younger daughter and coheir of Peregrine, third Duke of Ancaster. She became a widow in 1827 and died in 1838, so the panel must have been painted between those dates. The arms shown are: "Quarterly, 1 and 4, gules, in chief two esquires' helmets proper, and in base a garb or (for Cholmondeley); 2. gules, a chevron between three eagles' heads erased argent; 3. or, on a fesse between two chevrons sable, three cross crosslets or (for Walpole), and on an {400} escutcheon of pretence the arms of Bertie, namely: argent, three battering-rams fesswise in pale proper, headed and garnished azure." The supporters shown are: "Dexter, a griffin sable, armed, winged, and membered or (from the Cholmondeley achievement); sinister, a friar vested in russet with staff and rosary or" (one of the supporters belonging to the Barony of Willoughby D'Eresby, to which the Marchioness of Cholmondeley in her own right was a coheir until the abeyance in the Barony was determined in favour of her elder sister). "In later times the arms of sovereigns--the German Electors, &c.--were mantled, usually with crimson velvet fringed with gold, lined with ermine, and crowned; but the mantling armoyé was one of the marks of dignity used by the Pairs de France, and by Cardinals resident in France; it was also employed by some great nobles in other countries. The mantling of the Princes and Dukes of Mirandola was chequy argent and azure, lined with ermine. In France the mantling of the Chancelier was of cloth of gold; that of Présidents, of scarlet, lined with alternate strips of ermine and _petit gris_. In France, Napoleon I., who used a mantling of purple semé of golden bees, decreed that the princes and grand dignitaries should use an azure mantling thus semé; those of Dukes were to be plain, and lined with vair instead of ermine. In 1817 a mantling of azure, fringed with gold and lined with ermine, was appropriated to the dignity of Pair de France." The pavilion is a feature of heraldic art which is quite unknown to British heraldry, and one can call to mind no single instance of its use in this country; but as its use is very prominent in Germany and other countries, it cannot be overlooked. It is confined to the arms of sovereigns, and the pavilion is the tent-like erection within which the heraldic achievement is displayed. The pavilion seems to have originated in France, where it can be traced back upon the Great Seals of the kings to its earliest form and appearance upon the seal of Louis XI. In the case of the Kings of France, it was of azure semé-de-lis or. The pavilion used with the arms of the German Emperor is of gold semé alternately of Imperial crowns and eagles displayed sable, and is lined with ermine. The motto is carried on a crimson band, and it is surmounted by the Imperial crown, and a banner of the German colours gules, argent, and sable. The pavilion used by the German Emperor as King of Prussia is of crimson, semé of black eagles and gold crowns, and the band which carries the motto is blue. The pavilions of the King of Bavaria and the Duke of Baden, the King of Saxony, the Duke of Hesse, the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, the Duke of {401} SaxeMeiningen-Hildburghausen, the Duke of Saxe-Altenburg, and the Duke of Anhalt are all of crimson. In German heraldry a rather more noticeable distinction is drawn than with ourselves between the lambrequin (_Helmdecke_) and the mantle (_Helmmantel_). This more closely approximates to the robe of estate, though the _helmmantel_ has not in Germany the rigid significance of peerage degree that the robe of estate has in this country. The German _helmmantel_ with few exceptions is always of purple lined with ermine, and whilst the mantel always falls directly from the coronet or cap, the pavilion is arranged in a dome-like form which bears the crown upon its summit. The pavilion is supposed to be the invention of the Frenchman Philip Moreau (1680), and found its way from France to Germany, where both in the Greater and Lesser Courts it was enthusiastically adopted. Great Britain, Austria-Hungary, Spain, Portugal, and Würtemberg are the only Royal Arms in which the pavilion does not figure. {402} CHAPTER XXV THE TORSE, OR WREATH The actual helmet, from the very _earliest_ heraldic representations which have come down to us, would sometimes appear not to have had any mantling, the crest being affixed direct to the (then) flat top of the helmet in use. But occasional crests appear very early in the existence of "ordered" armory, and at much about the same time we find the "textile" covering of the helmet coming into heraldic use. In the earliest times we find that frequently the crest itself was continued into the mantling. But where this was not possible, the attaching of the crest to the helmet when the mantling intervened left an unsightly joining. The unsightliness very soon called forth a remedy. At first this remedy took the form of a coronet or a plain fillet or ribbon round the point of juncture, sometimes with and sometimes without the ends being visible. If the ends were shown they were represented as floating behind, sometimes with and sometimes without a representation of the bow or knot in which they were tied. The plain fillet still continued to be used long after the torse had come into recognised use. The consideration of crest coronets has been already included, but with regard to the wreath an analysis of the Plantagenet Garter plates will afford some definite basis from which to start deduction. Of the eighty-six achievements reproduced in Mr. St. John Hope's book, five have no crest. Consequently we have eighty-one examples to analyse. Of these there are ten in which the crest is not attached to the lambrequin and helmet by anything perceptible, eight are attached with fillets of varying widths, twenty-one crests are upon chapeaux, and twenty-nine issue from coronets. But at no period governed by the series is it possible that either fillet, torse, chapeau, or coronet was in use to the exclusion of another form. This remark applies more particularly to the fillet and torse (the latter of which undoubtedly at a later date superseded the former), for both at the beginning and at the end of the series referred to we find the fillet and the wreath or torse, and at both periods we find crests without either coronet, torse, chapeau, or fillet. The fillet must soon afterwards (in the fifteenth century) have completely fallen into desuetude. {403} The torse was so small and unimportant a matter that upon seals it would probably equally escape the attention of the engraver and the observer, and probably there would be little to be gained by a systematic hunt through early seals to discover the date of its introduction, but it will be noticed that no wreaths appear in some of the early Rolls. General Leigh says, "In the time of Henry the Fifth, and long after, no man had his badge set on a wreath under the degree of a knight. But that order is worn away." It probably belongs to the end of the fourteenth century. There can be little doubt that its twisted shape was an evolution from the plain fillet suggested by the turban of the East. We read in the old romances, in Mallory's "Morte d'Arthur" and elsewhere, of valiant knights who in battle or tournament wore the favour of some lady, or even the lady's sleeve, upon their helmets. It always used to be a puzzle to me how the sleeve could have been worn upon the helmet, and I wonder how many of the present-day novelists, who so glibly make their knightly heroes of olden time wear the "favours" of their lady-lovers, know how it was done? The favour did not take the place of the crest. A knight did not lightly discard an honoured, inherited, and known crest for the sake of wearing a favour only too frequently the mere result of a temporary flirtation; nor to wear her colours could he at short notice discard or renew his lambrequin, surcoat, or the housings and trappings of his horse. He simply took the favour--the colours, a ribbon, or a handkerchief of the lady, as the case might be--and twisted it in and out or over and over the fillet which surrounded the joining-place of crest and helmet. To put her favour on his helmet was the work of a moment. The wearing of a lady's sleeve, which must have been an honour greatly prized, is of course the origin of the well-known "maunch," the solitary charge in the arms of Conyers, Hastings, and Wharton. Doubtless the sleeve twined with the fillet would be made to encircle the base of the crest, and it is not unlikely that the wide hanging mouth of the sleeve might have been used for the lambrequin. The dresses of ladies at that period were decorated with the arms of their families, so in each case would be of the "colours" of the lady, so that the sleeve and its colours would be quickly identified, as it was no doubt usually intended they should be. The accidental result of twining a favour in the fillet, in conjunction with the pattern obviously suggested by the turban of the East, produced the conventional torse or wreath. As the conventional slashings of the lambrequin hinted at past hard fighting in battle, so did the conventional torse hint at past service to and favour of ladies, love and war being the occupations of the perfect knight of romance. How far short of the ideal knight of {404} romance the knight of fact fell, perhaps the frequent bordures and batons of heraldry are the best indication. At first, as is evident from the Garter plates, the colours of the torse seem to have had little or no compulsory relation to the "livery colours" of the arms. The instances to be gleaned from the Plantagenet Garter plates which have been reproduced are as follows:-- Sir John Bourchier, Lord Bourchier. Torse: sable and vert. Arms: argent and gules. Sir John Grey, Earl of Tankerville. Torse: vert, gules, and argent. Arms: gules and argent. Sir Lewis Robsart, Lord Bourchier. Torse: azure, or, and sable. Arms: vert and or. [The crest, derived from his wife (who was a daughter of Lord Bourchier) is practically the same as the one first quoted. It will be noticed that the torse differs.] Sir Edward Cherleton, Lord Cherleton of Powis. Torse: gules and sable. Arms: or and gules. Sir Gaston de Foix, Count de Longueville. Torse: or and gules. Arms: or and gules. Sir William Nevill, Lord Fauconberg. Torse: argent and gules. Arms: gules and argent. Sir Richard Wydville, Lord Rivers. Torse: vert. Arms: argent and gules. Sir Henry Bourchier, Earl of Essex. Torse: sable and vert. Arms: argent and gules. [This is the same crest above alluded to.] Sir Thomas Stanley, Lord Stanley. Torse: or and azure. Arms: or and azure. Sir John Bourchier, Lord Berners. Torse: gules and argent. Arms: argent and gules. [This is the same crest above alluded to.] Sir Walter Devereux, Lord Ferrers. Torse: argent and sable. Arms: argent and gules. [The crest really issues from a coronet upon a torse in a previous case, this crest issues from a torse only.] Sir Francis Lovel, Viscount Lovel. Torse: azure and or. Arms: or and gules. Sir Thomas Burgh, Lord Burgh. Torse: azure and sable. Arms: azure and ermine. Sir Richard Tunstall, K.G. Torse: argent and sable. Arms: sable and argent. I can suggest no explanation of these differences unless it be, which is not unlikely, that they perpetuate "favours" worn; or perhaps a more likely supposition is that the wreath or torse was of the "family colours," as these were actually worn by the servants or retainers of each person. If this be not the case, why are the colours of the wreath termed the livery colours? At the present time in an English or Irish {405} grant of arms the colours are not specified, but the crest is stated to be "on a wreath of the colours." In Scotland, however, the crest is granted in the following words: "and upon a wreath of his liveries is set for crest." Consequently, I have very little doubt, the true state of the case is that originally the wreath was depicted of the colours of the livery which was worn. Then new families came into prominence and eminence, and had no liveries to inherit. They were granted arms and chose the tinctures of their arms as their "colours," and used these colours for their personal liveries. The natural consequence would be in such a case that the torse, being in unison with the livery, was also in unison with the arms. The consequence is that it has become a fixed, unalterable rule in British heraldry that the torse shall be of the principal metal and of the principal colour of the arms. I know of no recent exception to this rule, the latest, as far as I am aware, being a grant in the early years of the eighteenth century. This, it is stated in the patent, was the regranting of a coat of foreign origin. Doubtless the formality of a grant was substituted for the usual registration in this case, owing to a lack of formal proof of a right to the arms, but there is no doubt that the peculiarities of the foreign arms, as they had been previously borne, were preserved in the grant. The peculiarity in this case consisted of a torse of three tinctures. The late Lyon Clerk once pointed out to me, in Lyon Register, an instance of a coat there matriculated with a torse of three colours, but I unfortunately made no note of it at the time. Woodward alludes to the curious chequy wreath on the seals of Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, in 1389. This appears to have been repeated in the seals of his son Murdoch. The wreath of Patrick Hepburn appears to be of roses in the Gelre "Armorial," and a careful examination of the plates in this volume will show many curious Continental instances of substitutes for the conventional torse. Though by no means peculiar to British heraldry, there can be no manner of doubt that the wreath in the United Kingdom has obtained a position of legalised necessity and constant usage and importance which exists in no other country. As has been already explained, the torse should fit closely to the crest, its object and purpose being merely to hide the joining of crest and helmet. Unfortunately in British heraldry this purpose has been ignored. Doubtless resulting first from the common practice of depicting a crest upon a wreath and without a helmet, and secondly from the fact that many English crests are quite unsuitable to place on a helmet, in fact impossible to affix by the aid of a wreath to a helmet, and thirdly from our ridiculous rules of position for a helmet, which result in the crest being depicted (in conjunction with the {406} representation of the helmet) in a position many such crests never could have occupied on any helmet, the effect has been to cause the wreath to lose its real form, which encircled the _helmet_, and to become considered as no more than a straight support for and relating only to the crest. When, therefore, the crest and its supporting basis is transferred from indefinite space to the helmet, the support, which is the torse, is still represented as a flat resting-place for the crest, and it is consequently depicted as a straight and rigid bar, balanced upon the apex of the helmet. This is now and for long has been the only accepted official way of depicting a wreath in England. Certainly this is an ungraceful and inartistic rendering, and a rendering far removed from any actual helmet wreath that can ever have been actually borne. Whilst one has no wish to defend the "rigid bar," which has nothing to recommend it, it is at the same time worth while to point out that the heraldic day of actual helmets and actual usage is long since over, never to be revived, and that our heraldry of to-day is merely decorative and pictorial. The rigid bar is none other than a conventionalised form of the actual torse, and is perhaps little more at variance with the reality than is our conventionalised method of depicting a lambrequin. Whilst this conventional torse remains the official pattern, it is hopeless to attempt to banish such a method of representation: but Lyon King of Arms, happily, will have none of it in his official register or on his patents, and few heraldic artists of any repute now care to so design or represent it. As always officially painted it must consist of six links alternately of metal and colour (the "livery colours" of the arms), of which the metal must be the first to be shown to the dexter side. The torse is now supposed to be and represented as a skein of coloured silk intertwined with a gold or silver cord. {407} CHAPTER XXVI SUPPORTERS In this country a somewhat fictitious importance has become attached to supporters, owing to their almost exclusive reservation to the highest rank. The rules which hold at the moment will be recited presently, but there can be no doubt that originally they were in this country little more than mere decorative and artistic appendages, being devised and altered from time to time by different artists according as the artistic necessities of the moment demanded. The subject of the origin of supporters has been very ably dealt with in "A Treatise on Heraldry" by Woodward and Burnett, and with all due acknowledgment I take from that work the subjoined extract:-- "Supporters are figures of living creatures placed at the side or sides of an armorial shield, and appearing to support it. French writers make a distinction, giving the name of _Supports_ to animals, real or imaginary, thus employed; while human figures or angels similarly used are called _Tenants_. Trees, and other inanimate objects which are sometimes used, are called _Soutiens_. "Menêtrier and other old writers trace the origin of supporters to the usages of the tournaments, where the shields of the combatants were exposed for inspection, and guarded by their servants or pages disguised in fanciful attire: 'C'est des Tournois qu'est venu cet usage parce que les chevaliers y faisoient porter leurs lances, et leurs écus, par des pages, et des valets de pied, deguisez en ours, en lions, en mores, et en sauvages' (_Usage des Armoiries_, p. 119). "The old romances give us evidence that this custom prevailed; but I think only after the use of supporters had already arisen from another source. "There is really little doubt now that Anstis was quite correct when, in his _Aspilogia_, he attributed the origin of supporters to the invention of the engraver, who filled up the spaces at the top and sides of the triangular shield upon a circular seal with foliage, or with fanciful animals. Any good collection of mediæval seals will strengthen this conviction. For instance, the two volumes of Laing's 'Scottish Seals' afford numerous examples in which the shields used in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were placed between two creatures {408} resembling lizards or dragons. (See the seal of ALEXANDER DE BALLIOL, 1295.--LAING, ii. 74.) * * * * * "The seal of John, Duke of Normandy, eldest son of the King of FRANCE, before 1316 bears his arms (FRANCE-ANCIENT, _a bordure gules_) between two lions rampant away from the shield, and an eagle with expanded wings standing above it. The _secretum_ of Isabelle de FLANDRES (_c._ 1308) has her shield placed between three lions, each charged with a bend (Vrée, _Gen. Com. Flanr._, Plates XLIII., XLIV., XCII.). In 1332 AYMON OF SAVOY places his arms (SAVOY, _with a label_) between a winged lion in chief and a lion without wings at either side. Later, on the seal of AMADEUS VI., a lion's head between wings became the crest of SAVOY. In 1332 AMADEUS bears SAVOY on a lozenge between in chief two eagles, in base two lions. (CIBRARIO, Nos. 61, 64; and GUICHENON, tome i. No. 130.) In Scotland the shield of REGINALD CRAWFORD in 1292 is placed between two dogs, and surmounted by a fox; in the same year the paly shield of REGINALD, Earl of ATHOLE, appears between two lions in chief and as many griffins in flanks.--LAING, i. 210, 761. "The seal of HUMBERT II., Dauphin de Viennois in 1349, is an excellent example of the fashion. The shield of DAUPHINY is in the centre of a quatrefoil. Two savages mounted on griffins support its flanks; on the upper edge an armed knight sits on a couchant lion, and the space in base is filled by a human face between two wingless dragons. The spaces are sometimes filled with the Evangelistic symbols, as on the seal of YOLANTE DE FLANDRES, Countess of Bar (_c._ 1340). The seal of JEANNE, Dame de PLASNES, in 1376 bears her arms _en bannière_ a quatrefoil supported by two kneeling angels, a demi-angel in chief, and a lion couchant guardant in base." Corporate and other seals afford countless examples of the interstices in the design being filled with the figures similar to those from which in later days the supporters of a family have been deduced. But I am myself convinced that the argument can be carried further. Fanciful ornamentation or meaningless devices may have first been made use of by seal engravers, but it is very soon found that the badge is in regular use for this purpose, and we find both animate and inanimate badges employed. Then where this is possible the badge, if animate, is made to support the helmet and crest, and, later on, the shield, and there can be no doubt the badge was in fact acting as a supporter long before the science of armory recognised that existence of supporters. Before passing to supporters proper, it may be well to briefly allude to various figures which are to be found in a position analogous to that of supporters. The single human figure entire, or in the form {409} of a demi-figure appearing above the shield, is very frequently to be met with, but the addition of such figures _was and remains purely artistic_, and I know of no single instance in British armory where one figure, animate or inanimate, has ever existed alone in the character of a single supporter, and as an integral part of the heritable armorial achievement. Of course I except those figures upon which the arms of certain families are properly displayed. These will be presently alluded to, but though they are certainly exterior ornaments, I do not think they can be properly classed as supporters unless to this term is given some elasticity, or unless the term has some qualifying remarks of reservation added to it. There are, however, many instances of armorial ensigns depicted, and presumably correctly, in the form of banners supported by a single animal, but it will always be found that the single animal is but one of the pair of duly allocated supporters. Many instances of arms depicted in this manner will be found in "Prince Arthur's Book." The same method of display was adopted in some number of cases, and with some measure of success, in Foster's "Peerage." Single figures are very frequently to be met with in German and Continental heraldry, but on these occasions, as with ourselves, the position they occupy is merely that of an artistic accessory, and bears no inseparable relation to the heraldic achievement. The single exception to the foregoing statement of which I am aware is to be found in the arms of the Swiss Cantons. These thirteen coats are sometimes quartered upon one shield, but when displayed separately each is accompanied by a single supporter. Zurich, Lucerne, Uri, Unter-Walden, Glarus, and Basle all bear the supporter on the dexter side; Bern, Schweig, Zug, Freiburg, and Soluthurn on the sinister. Schafhausen (a ram) and Appenzell (a bear) place their supporters in full aspect behind the shield. On the corbels of Gothic architecture, shields of arms are frequently supported by _Angels_, which, however, cannot generally be regarded as heraldic appendages--being merely supposed to indicate that the owners have contributed to the erection of the fabric. Examples of this practice will be found on various ecclesiastical edifices in Scotland, and among others at Melrose Abbey, St. Giles', Edinburgh, and the church of Seton in East Lothian. An interesting instance of an angel supporting a shield occurs on the beautiful seal of Mary of Gueldres, Queen of James II. (1459); and the Privy Seal of David II., a hundred years earlier, exhibits a pretty design of an escutcheon charged with the ensigns of Scotland, and borne by two arms issuing from clouds above, indicative of Divine support.[24] {410} Of instances of single objects from which shields are found depending or supported the "Treatise on Heraldry" states:-- "Allusion has been made to the usage by which on vesica-shaped shields ladies of high rank are represented as supporting with either hand shields of arms. From this probably arose the use of a single supporter. MARGUERITE DE COURCELLES in 1284, and ALIX DE VERDUN in 1311, bear in one hand a shield of the husband's arms, in the other one of their own. The curious seal of MURIEL, Countess of STRATHERNE, in 1284, may be considered akin to these. In it the shield is supported partly by a falcon, and partly by a human arm issuing from the sinister side of the _vesica_, and holding the falcon by the jesses (LAING, i. 764). The early seal of BOLESLAS III., King of POLAND, in 1255, bears a knight holding a shield charged with the Polish eagle (VOSSBERG, _Die Siegel des Mittelalters_). In 1283 the seal of FLORENT of HAINAULT bears a warrior in chain mail supporting a shield charged with a lion impaling an eagle dimidiated. * * * * * "On the seal of HUMPHREY DE BOHUN in 1322 the _guige_ is held by a swan, the badge of the Earls of HEREFORD; and in 1356 the shield of the first Earl of DOUGLAS is supported by a lion whose head is covered by the crested helm, a fashion of which there are many examples. A helmed lion holds the shield of MAGNUS I., Duke of BRUNSWICK, in 1326. * * * * * "On the seal of JEAN, Duc de BERRI, in 1393 the supporter is a helmed swan (compare the armorial slab of HENRY of LANCASTER, in BOUTELL, Plate LXXIX.). Jean IV., Comte d'ALENÇON (1408), has a helmed lion sejant as supporter. In 1359 a signet of LOUIS VAN MALE, Count of FLANDERS, bears a lion sejant, helmed and crested, and mantled with the arms of FLANDERS between two small escutcheons of NEVERS, or the county of Burgundy ["Azure, billetty, a lion rampant or"], and RETHEL ["Gules, two heads of rakes fesswise in pale or"]. * * * * * "A single lion sejant, helmed and crested, bearing on its breast the quartered arms of BURGUNDY between two or three other escutcheons, was used by the Dukes up to the death of CHARLES THE BOLD in 1475. In LITTA'S splendid work, _Famiglie celebri Italiane_, the BUONAROTTI arms are supported by a brown dog sejant, helmed, and crested with a pair of dragon's wings issuing from a crest-coronet. On the seal of THOMAS HOLLAND, Earl of KENT, in 1380 the shield is buckled round the neck of the white hind lodged, the badge of his half-brother, RICHARD II. Single supporters were very much in favour in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the examples are numerous. {411} CHARLES, Dauphin de VIENNOIS (_c._ 1355), has his shield held by a single dolphin. In 1294 the seal of the Dauphin JEAN, son of HUMBERT I., bears the arms of DAUPHINÉ pendent from the neck of a griffon. The shields of arms of BERTRAND DE BRICQUEBEC, in 1325; PIERRE DE TOURNEBU, in 1339; of CHARLES, Count of ALENÇON, in 1356; and of OLIVER DE CLISSON in 1397, are supported by a warrior who stands behind the shield. In England the seal of HENRY PERCY, first Earl, in 1346, and another in 1345, have similar representations. "On several of our more ancient seals only one supporter is represented, and probably the earliest example of this arrangement occurs on the curious seal of William, first Earl of Douglas (_c._ 1356), where the shield is supported from behind by a lion 'sejant,' _with his head in the helmet_, which is surmounted by the crest. "On the seal of Archibald, fourth Earl of Douglas (_c._ 1418), the shield is held, along with a club, in the right hand of a savage _erect_, who bears a helmet in his left; while on that of William, eighth Earl (1446), a _kneeling_ savage holds a club in his right hand, and supports a couché shield on his left arm." [Illustration: FIG. 666.--Arms of Sigmund Hagelshaimer.] An example reproduced from Jost Amman's _Wappen und Stammbuch_, published at Frankfurt, 1589, will be found in Fig. 666. In this the figure partakes more of the character of a shield guardian than a shield supporter. The arms are those of "Sigmund Hagelshaimer," otherwise "Helt," living at Nürnberg. The arms are "Sable, on a bend argent, an arrow gules." The crest is the head and neck of a hound sable, continued into a mantling sable, lined argent. The crest is charged with a pale argent, and thereupon an arrow as in the arms, the arrow-head piercing the ear of the hound. Seated figures as supporters are rare, but one occurs in Fig. 667, which shows the arms of the Vöhlin family. They bear: "Argent, on a fesse sable, three 'P's' argent." The wings which form the crest are charged with the same device. This curious charge of the three letters is explained in the following saying:-- "Piper Peperit Pecuniam, Pecunia Peperit Pompam, Pompa Peperit Pauperiem, Pauperies Peperit Pietatem." {412} There are, however, certain exceptions to the British rule that there can be no single supporters, if the objects upon which shields of arms are displayed are accepted as supporters. It was always customary to display the arms of the Lord High Admiral on the sail of the ship. In the person of King William IV., before he succeeded to the throne, the office of Lord High Admiral was vested for a short time, but it had really fallen into desuetude at an earlier date and has not been revived again, so that to all intents and purposes it is now extinct, and this recognised method of depicting arms is consequently also extinct. But there is one other case which forms a unique instance which can be classified with no others. The arms of Campbell of Craignish are always represented in a curious manner, the gyronny coat of Campbell appearing on a shield displayed in front of a lymphad (Plate II.). What the origin of this practice is it would be difficult to say; probably it merely originated in the imaginative ideas of an artist when making a seal for that family, artistic reasons suggesting the display of the gyronny arms of Campbell in front of the lymphad of Lorne. The family, however, seem to have universally adopted this method of using their arms, and in the year 1875, when Campbell of Inverneil matriculated in Lyon Register, the arms were matriculated in that form. I know of no other instance of any such coat of arms, and this branch of the Ducal House of Campbell possesses armorial bearings which, from the official standpoint, are absolutely unique from one end of Europe to the other. In Germany the use of arms depicted in front of the eagle displayed, either single-headed or double-headed, is very far from being unusual. Whatever may have been its meaning originally in that country, there is no doubt that now and for some centuries past it has been accepted as meaning, or as indicative of, princely rank or other honours of the Holy Roman Empire. But I do not think it can always have had that meaning. About the same date the Earl of Menteith placed his shield on the breast of an eagle, as did Alexander, Earl of Ross, in 1338; and in 1394 we find the same ornamentation in the seal of Euphemia, Countess of Ross. The shield of Ross is borne in her case on the breast of an eagle, while the arms of Leslie and Comyn appear on its displayed wings. On several other Scottish seals of the same era, the shield is placed on the breast of a displayed eagle, as on those of Alexander Abernethy and Alexander Cumin of Buchan (1292), and Sir David Lindsay, Lord of Crawford. English heraldry supplies several similar examples, of which we may mention the armorial insignia of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, brother of Henry III., and of the ancient family of Latham, in the fourteenth century. A curious instance of a shield placed on the breast of a _hawk_ is noticed by Hone in his "Table {413} Book," viz. the arms of the Lord of the Manor of Stoke-Lyne, in the county of Oxford. It appears therefrom that when Charles I. held his Parliament at Oxford, the offer of knighthood was gratefully declined by the then Lord of Stoke-Lyne, who merely requested, and obtained, the Royal permission to place the arms of his family upon the breast of a hawk, which has ever since been employed in the capacity of single supporter. What authority exists for this statement it is impossible to ascertain, and one must doubt its accuracy, because in England at any rate no arms, allocated to any particular _territorial estate_, have ever received official recognition. [Illustration: FIG. 667.--Arms of Vöhlin of Augsberg.] In later years, as indicative of rank in the Holy Roman Empire, the eagle has been rightly borne by the first Duke of Marlborough and by Henrietta his daughter, Duchess of Marlborough, but the use of the eagle by the later Dukes of Marlborough would appear to be entirely without authority, inasmuch as the princedom, created in the person of the first duke, became extinct on his death. His daughters, though entitled of right to the courtesy rank of princess and its accompanying privilege of the right to use the eagle displayed behind their arms, could not transmit it to their descendants upon whom the title of Duke of Marlborough was specially entailed by English Act of Parliament. The Earl of Denbigh and several members of the Fielding family have often made use of it with their arms, in token of their supposed descent from the Counts of Hapsburg, which, if correct, would apparently confer the right upon them. This descent, however, has been much questioned, and in late years the claim thereto would seem to have been practically dropped. The late Earl Cowper, the last remaining Prince of the Holy Roman Empire in the British Peerage, was entitled to use the double eagle behind his shield, being the descendant and representative of George Nassau Clavering Cowper, third Earl Cowper, created a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire by the Emperor Joseph II., the patent being dated at Vienna, 31st January 1778, and this being followed by a Royal Licence from King George III. to accept and bear the title in this country. There are some others who have the right by reason of honours of lesser rank of the Holy Roman Empire, and amongst these may be mentioned Lord Methuen, who bears the eagle by Royal Warrant dated 4th April 1775. Sir Thomas Arundel, who served in the Imperial army of Hungary, having in an engagement with the Turks near Strignum taken their standard with his own hands, was by Rodolph II. created Count of the Empire to hold for him and the heirs of his body for ever, dated at Prague 14th December 1595. This patent, of course, means that every one of his descendants in the male {414} line has the rank of a Count of the Empire, and that every daughter of any such male descendant is a Countess, but this does not confer the rank of count or countess upon descendants of the daughters. It was this particular patent of creation that called forth the remark from Queen Elizabeth that she would not have her sheep branded by any foreign shepherd, and we believe that this patent was the origin of the rule translated in later times (_temp._ George IV.) into a definite Royal Warrant, requiring that no English subject shall, without the express Royal Licence of the Sovereign conveyed in writing, accept or wear any foreign title or decoration. No Royal Licence was subsequently obtained by the Arundel family, who therefore, according to British law, are denied the use of the privileged Imperial eagle. Outside those cases in which the double eagle is used in this country to denote rank of the Holy Roman Empire, the usage of the eagle displayed behind the arms or any analogous figure is in British heraldry most limited. One solitary authoritative instance of the use of the displayed eagle is found in the coat of arms of the city of Perth. These arms are recorded in Lyon Register, having been matriculated for that Royal Burgh about the year 1672. The official blazon of the arms is as follows: "Gules ane holy lambe passant regardant staff and cross argent, with the banner of St. Andrew proper, all within a double tressure counter-flowered of the second, the escutcheon being surmounted on the breast of ane eagle with two necks displayed or. The motto in ane Escroll, 'Pro Rege Lege et Grege.'" Another instance of usage, though purely devoid of authority, occurs in the case of a coat of arms set up on one of the panels in the Hall of Lincoln's Inn. In this case the achievement is displayed on the breast of a single-headed eagle. What reason led to its usage in this manner I am quite unaware, and I have not the slightest reason for supposing it to be authentic. The family of Stuart-Menteith also place their arms upon a single-headed eagle displayed gules, as was formerly to be seen in Debrett's Peerage, but though arms are matriculated to them in Lyon Register, this particular adornment forms no part thereof, and it has now disappeared from the printed Peerage books. The family of Britton have, however, recently recorded as a badge a double-headed eagle displayed ermine, holding in its claws an escutcheon of their arms (Plate VIII.). Occasionally batons or wands or other insignia of office are to be found in conjunction with armorial bearings, but these will be more fully dealt with under the heading of Insignia of Office. Before dealing with the usual supporters, one perhaps may briefly allude to "inanimate" supporters. {415} Probably the most curious instance of all will be found in the achievement of the Earls of Errol as it appears in the MS. of Sir David Lindsay. In this two ox-yokes take the place of the supporters. The curious tradition which has been attached to the Hay arms is quoted as follows by Sir James Balfour Paul, Lyon King of Arms, in his "Heraldry in relation to Scottish History and Art," who writes: "Take the case of the well-known coat of the Hays, and hear the description of its origin as given by Nisbet: 'In the reign of Kenneth III., about the year 980, when the Danes invaded Scotland, and prevailing in the battle of Luncarty, a country Scotsman with his two sons, of great strength and courage, having rural weapons, as the yokes of their plough, and such plough furniture, stopped the Scots in their flight in a certain defile, and upbraiding them with cowardice, obliged them to rally, who with them renewed the battle, and gave a total overthrow to the victorious Danes; and it is said by some, after the victory was obtained, the old man lying on the ground, wounded and fatigued, cried, "Hay, Hay," which word became a surname to his posterity. He and his sons being nobilitate, the King gave him the aforesaid arms (argent, three escutcheons gules) to intimate that the father and the two sons had been luckily the three shields of Scotland, and gave them as much land in the Carse of Gowrie as a falcon did fly over without lighting, which having flown a great way, she lighted on a stone there called the Falcon Stone to this day. The circumstances of which story is not only perpetuated by the three escutcheons, but by the exterior ornaments of the achievement of the family of Errol; having for crest, on a wreath, a falcon proper; for supporters two men in country habits, holding the oxen-yokes of a plough over their shoulders; and for motto, "Serva jugum."' "Unfortunately for the truth of this picturesque tale there are several reasons which render it utterly incredible, not the least being that at the period of the supposed battle armorial bearings were quite unknown, and could not have formed the subject of a royal gift. Hill Burton, indeed, strongly doubts the occurrence of the battle itself, and says that Hector Boece, who relates the occurrence, must be under strong suspicion of having entirely invented it. As for the origin of the name itself, it is, as Mr. Cosmo Innes points out in his work on 'Scottish Surnames,' derived from a place in Normandy, and neither it nor any other surname occurred in Scotland till long after the battle of Luncarty. I have mentioned this story in some detail, as it is a very typical specimen of its class; but there are others like unto it, often traceable to the same incorrigible old liar, Hector Boece." It is not unlikely that the ox-yoke was a badge of the Hays, Earls of Errol, and a reference to the variations of the original arms, crest, {416} and supporters of Hay will show how the changes have been rung on the shields, falcon, ox-yokes, and countrymen of the legend. Another instance is to be found in the arms of the Mowbray family as they were at one time depicted with an ostrich feather on either side of the shield (Fig. 675, p. 465), and at first one might be inclined to class these amongst the inanimate supporters. The Garter plate, however, of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, probably supplies the key to the whole matter, for this shows not only the ostrich feathers but also supporters of the ordinary character in their usual position. From the last-mentioned instance, it is evident the ostrich feathers can be only representations of the badge, their character doubtless being peculiarly adaptable to the curious position they occupy. They are of course the same in the case of the Mowbray arms, and doubtless the ox-yoke of the Earl of Errol is similarly no more than a badge. A most curious instance of supporters is to be found in the case of the arms of Viscount Montgomery. This occurs in a record of them in Ulster's Office, where the arms appear without the usual kind of supporters, but represented with an arm in armour, on either side issuing from clouds in base, the hands supporting the shield. When supporters are inanimate objects, the escutcheon is said to be cottised--a term derived from the French word _côté_ (a side)--in contradistinction to supported. An old Scottish term for supporters was "bearers." Amongst other cases where the shield is cottised by inanimate objects may be mentioned the following. The Breton family of "Bastard" depict their shield cottised by two swords, with the points in base. The Marquises Alberti similarly use two lighted flambeaux, and the Dalzells (of Binns) the extraordinary device of a pair of tent-poles. Whether this last has been officially sanctioned I am unaware. The "Pillars of Hercules" used by Charles V. are, perhaps, the best known of this group of supporters. In many cases (notably foreign) the supporters appear to have gradually receded to the back of the shield, as in the case of the Comte d'Erps, Chancellor of Brabant, where two maces (or) are represented saltirewise _behind_ the shield. Generally, however, this variation is found in conjunction with purely official or corporate achievements. A curious example of inanimate supporters occurs on the English seal of William, Lord Botreaux (1426), where, on each side of a couché shield exhibiting a griffin "segreant" and surmounted by a helmet and crest, a buttress is quaintly introduced, in evident allusion to the owner's name. A somewhat similar arrangement appears on the Scottish seal of William Ruthven (1396), where a tree growing from a mount is placed on each side of the escutcheon. Another instance is to be {417} found in the seal of John de Segrave, where a garb is placed on either side of the shield. Perhaps mention should here be made of the arms (granted in 1826) of the National Bank of Scotland, the shield of which is "surrounded with two thistles proper disposed in orle." Heraldic supporters as such, or badges occupying the position and answering the purpose of supporters, and not merely as artistic accessories, in England date from the early part of the fourteenth century. Very restricted in use at first, they later rapidly became popular, and there were few peers who did not display them upon their seals. For some reason, however, very few indeed appear on the early Garter plates. It is a striking fact that by far the larger number of the ancient standards display as the chief device not the arms but one of the supporters, and I am inclined to think that in this fact we have further confirmation of my belief that the origin of supporters is found in the badge. Even after the use of two supporters had become general, a third figure is often found placed behind the shield, and forms a connecting link with the old practice of filling the void spaces on seals, to which we have already referred. On the seal of WILLIAM STERLING, in 1292, two lions rampant support the shield in front of a tree. The shield on the seal of OLIVER ROUILLON, in 1376, is supported by an angel, and by two demi-lions couchant-guardant in base. That of PIERRE AVOIR, in 1378, is held by a demi-eagle above the shield, and by two mermaids. On many ancient seals the supporters are disposed so that they hold the crested helm above a couché shield. The counter-seals of RUDOLF IV., Archduke of AUSTRIA, in 1359 and 1362, afford instances in which a second set of supporters is used to hold up the crested helm. The shield of AUSTRIA is supported by two lions, on whose volets are the arms of HAPSBURG and PFIRT; the crested helm (coroneted, and having a panache of ostrich feathers) is also held by two lions, whose volets are charged with the arms of STIRIA, and of CARINTHIA (HUEBER, _Austria Illustrata,_ tab. xviii.). In 1372 the seal of EDMUND MORTIMER represents his shield hanging from a rose-tree, and supported by two lions couchant (of MARCH), whose heads are covered by coroneted helmets with a panache (azure) as crest. BOUTELL directs attention to the fact that the shield of EDMUND DE ARUNDEL (1301-1326) is placed between similar helms and panaches, without the supporting beasts ("Heraldry: Historical and Popular," pp. 271-418). Crested supporters have sometimes been misunderstood, and quoted as instances of double supporters--for instance, by LOWER, "Curiosities of Heraldry," who gives (p. 144) a cut from the {418} achievement of the French D'ALBRETS as "the most singular supporters, perhaps, in the whole circle of heraldry." These supporters are two lions couchant (or), each helmed, and crested with an eagle au vol leve. These eagles certainly assist in holding the shield, but the lions are its true supporters; nor is this arrangement by any means unique. The swans which were used as supporters by JEAN, DUC DE BERRI, in 1386, are each mounted upon a bear. Two wild men, each _à cheval_ on a lion, support the escutcheons of GERARD D'HARCHIES (1476) and of NICOLE DE GIRESME (1464). Two lions sejant, helmed and crested (the crest is a human head with the ears of an ass) were the supporters of ARNAUD D'ALBREY in 1368. Scotland, which is the home of curiosities of heraldry, gives us at least two instances of the use of supporters which must be absolutely unique--that is, the surcharging of an escutcheon with an inescutcheon, to the latter of which supporters are attached. The first instance occurs in the cases of Baronets of Nova Scotia, a clause appearing in all the earlier patents which ordained "that the Baronets, and their heirs-male, should, as an _additament of honour_ to their armorial ensigns, bear, either on a canton or inescutcheon, in their option, the ensign of Nova Scotia, being _argent_, a cross of St. Andrew _azure_ (the badge of Scotland counterchanged), charged with an inescutcheon of the Royal Arms of Scotland, supported on the dexter by the Royal unicorn, and on the sinister by a savage, or wild man, proper; and for crest, a branch of laurel and a thistle issuing from two hands conjoined, the one being armed, the other naked; with the motto, "Munit hæc et altera vincit." The incongruity of these exterior ornaments within a shield of arms is noticed by Nisbet, who informs us, however, that they are very soon removed. In the year 1629, after Nova Scotia was sold to the French, the Baronets of Scotland, and their heirs-male, were authorised by Charles I. "to wear and carry about their necks, in all time coming, an orange-tawny silk ribbon, whereon shall be pendent, in a scutcheon _argent_, a saltire _azure_, thereon an inescutcheon, of the arms of Scotland, with an Imperial crown above the scutcheon and encircled with this motto: 'Fax mentis honestæ gloria.'" According to the same authority, this badge was never much used "about their necks," but was carried, by way of canton or inescutcheon, on their armorial bearings, without the motto, and, of course, since then the superimposed supporters have been dropped. The same peculiarity of supporters being surcharged upon a shield will be found, however, in the matriculation (1795) to Cumming-Gordon of Altyre. These arms are depicted on Plate III. In this the entire achievement (arms, crest, motto, and supporters) of Gordon of Gordon {419} is placed upon an inescutcheon superimposed over the arms of Cumming. In Scotland the arms, and the arms only, constitute the mark of a given family, and whilst due difference is made in the respective shields, no attempt is made as regards crest or supporters to impose any distinction between the figures granted to different families even where no blood relationship exists. The result is that whilst the same crests and supporters are duplicated over and over again, they at any rate remain in Scotland simple, graceful, and truly heraldic, even when judged by the most rigid mediæval standard. They are, of course, necessarily of no value whatever for identification. In England the simplicity is relinquished for the sake of distinction, and it is held that equivalent differentiation must be made, both in regard to the crests and the supporters, as is made between the shields of different families. The result as to modern crests is truly appalling, and with supporters it is almost equally so, for by their very nature it is impossible to design adequate differences for crests and supporters, as can readily be done in the charges upon a shield, without creating monstrosities. With regret one has to admit that the dangling shields, the diapered chintz-like bodies, and the fasces and other footstools so frequently provided for modern supporters in England would seem to be pedantic, unnecessary, and inartistic strivings after a useless ideal. In England the right to bear supporters is confined to those to whom they have been granted or recorded, but such grant or record is very rigidly confined to peers, to Knights of the Garter, Thistle, and St. Patrick, and to Knights Grand Cross, or Knights Grand Commanders (as the case may be) of other Orders. Before the Order of the Bath was divided into classes, Knights of the Bath had supporters. As by an unwritten but nowadays invariably accepted law, the Orders of the Garter, Thistle, and St. Patrick are confined to members of the peerage, those entitled to claim (upon their petitioning) a grant of supporters in England are in practice limited to peers and Knights Grand Cross or Knights Grand Commanders. In the cases of peers, the grant is always attached to a particular peerage, the "remainder" in the limitations of the grant being to "those of his descendants upon whom the peerage may devolve," or some other words to this effect. In the cases of life peers and Knights Grand Cross the grant has no hereditary limitation, and the right to the supporters is personal to the grantee. There is nothing to distinguish the supporters of a peer from those of a Knight Grand Cross. Baronets of England, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom as such are not entitled to claim grants of supporters, but there are some number of cases in which, by special favour of the sovereign, specific Royal Warrants have been {420} issued-either as marks of favour or as augmentations of honour--conveying the pleasure of the sovereign to the kings of arms, and directing the latter to grant supporters--to descend with the baronetcy. Of the cases of this nature the following may be quoted: Guise (Royal Warrant, dated July 12, 1863), Prevost (Royal Warrant, October 1816), Guinness, now Lord Ardilaun (Royal Warrant, dated April 15, 1867), Halford (Royal Warrant, May 19, 1827), Otway (Royal Warrant, June 10, 1845), and Laking. These, of course, are exceptional marks of favour from the sovereign, and this favour in at least two instances has been extended to untitled families. In 1815 Mr. George Watson-Taylor, an especial intimate of the then Prince Regent, by Royal Warrant dated September 28, 1815, was granted the following supporters: "On either side a leopard proper, armed and langued gules, collared and chained or." A more recent instance, and, with the exception of an Irish case presently to be referred to, the only other one within the knowledge of the writer, is the case of the Speke[25] arms. It is recited in the Royal Warrant, dated July 26, 1867, that Captain John Hanning Speke "was by a deplorable accident suddenly deprived of his life before he had received any mark of our Royal favour" in connection with the discovery of the sources of the Nile. The Warrant goes on to recite the grant to his father, William Speke, of Jordans, co. Somerset, of the following augmentations to his original arms (argent, two bars azure) namely: on a chief a representation of flowing water superinscribed with the word "Nile," and for a crest of honourable augmentation a "crocodile," also the supporters following--that is to say, on the dexter side a crocodile, and on the sinister side a hippopotamus. Some number of English baronets have gone to the trouble and expense of obtaining grants of supporters in Lyon Office; for example Sir Christopher Baynes, by grant dated June 10, 1805, obtained two savages, wreathed about the temples and loins, each holding a club over the exterior shoulder. It is very doubtful to what extent such grants in Scotland to domiciled Englishmen can be upheld. Many other baronets have at one time or another assumed supporters without any official warrant or authority in consequence of certain action taken by an earlier committee of the baronetage, but cases of this kind are slowly dropping out of the Peerage books, and this, {421} combined with the less ostentatious taste of the present day in the depicting of armorial bearings upon carriages and elsewhere, is slowly but steadily reducing the use of supporters to those who possess official authority for their display. Another fruitful origin of the use of unauthorised supporters at the present day lies in the fact that grants of supporters personal to the grantee for his life only have been made to Knights Grand Cross or to life peers in cases where a hereditary title has been subsequently conferred. The limitations of the grant of supporters having never been extended, the grant has naturally expired with the death of the life honour to which the supporters were attached. In addition to these cases there is a very limited number of families which have always claimed supporters by prescriptive right, amongst whom may be mentioned Tichborne of Tichborne (two lions guardant gules), De Hoghton of Hoghton (two bulls argent), Scroope of Danby (two choughs), and Stapylton. Concerning such cases it can only be said that in England no official sanction has ever been given to such use, and no case exists of any official recognition of the right of an untitled family to bear supporters to their arms save those few exceptional cases governed by specific Royal Warrants. In many cases, notably Scroope, Luttrel, Hilton, and Stapylton, the supporters have probably originated in their legitimate adoption at an early period in connection with peerage or other titular distinction, and have continued inadvertently in use when the titular distinctions to which they belonged have ceased to exist or have devolved upon other families. Possibly their use in some cases has been the result of a _claim_ to _de jure_ honours. The cases where supporters are claimed "by prescriptive right" are few indeed in England, and need not be further considered. Whilst the official laws in Ireland are, and have apparently always been, the same as in England, there is no doubt that the heads of the different septs assert a claim to the right to use supporters. On this point Sir Bernard Burke, Ulster King of Arms, wrote: "No registry of supporters to an Irish chieftain appears in Ulster's Office, in right of his chieftaincy only, and without the honour of peerage, nor does any authority to bear them exist." But nevertheless "The O'Donovan" uses, dexter, a lion guardant, and sinister, a griffin; "The O'Gorman" uses, dexter, a lion, and sinister, a horse; "The O'Reilly" uses two lions or. "The O'Connor Don," however, is in the unique position of bearing supporters by unquestionable right, inasmuch as the late Queen Victoria, on the occasion of her last visit to Dublin, issued her Royal Warrant conferring the right upon him. The supporters granted to him were "two lions rampant gules, each gorged with an antique crown, and charged on the shoulder with an Irish harp or." {422} The right to bear supporters in Scotland is on a widely different basis from that in any other country. As in England and Ireland, peers and Knights Grand Cross are permitted to obtain grants of these distinctions. But outside and beyond these there are many other families who bear them by right. At the official inquiry concerning the Lyon Office, the Lyon-Depute, Mr. George Tait, put in a Note of Persons whom he considered might lawfully bear supporters under Scottish Heraldic Law. The following is the text of the note in question:-- "NOTE OF PERSONS who are considered by GEORGE TAIT, Esq., Lyon-Depute, to be entitled to supporters, furnished to the Commissioners of Inquiry by their desire, intimated to him at his examination this day, June 27, 1821. "1. _Peers._--By immemorial usage, Peers have right to supporters, and supporters are commonly inserted in modern patents of Peerage. This includes Peeresses in their own right. "2. _Ancient Usage._--Those private gentlemen, and the lawful heirs-male of their bodies, who can prove immemorial usage of carrying supporters, or a usage very ancient, and long prior to the Act 1672, are entitled to have their supporters recognised, it being presumed that they received them from lawful authority, on account of feats of valour in battle or in tournament, or as marks of the Royal favour (see _Murray of Touchadam's Case_, June 24, 1778). "3. _Barons._--Lawful heirs-male of the bodies of the smaller Barons, who had the full right of free barony (not mere freeholders) prior to 1587, when representation of the minor Barons was fully established, upon the ground that those persons were Barons, and sat in Parliament as such, and were of the same as the titled Barons. Their right is recognised by the writers on heraldry and antiquities. Persons having right on this ground, will almost always have established it by ancient usage, and the want of usage is a strong presumption against the right. "4. _Chiefs._--Lawful heirs-male of Chiefs of tribes or clans which had attained power, and extensive territories and numerous members at a distant period, or at least of tribes consisting of numerous families of some degree of rank and consideration. Such persons will in general have right to supporters, either as Barons (great or small) or by ancient usage. When any new claim is set up on such a ground, it may be viewed with suspicion, and it will be extremely difficult to establish it, chiefly from the present state of society, by which the traces of clanship, or the patriarchal state, are in most parts of the country almost obliterated; and indeed it is very difficult to conceive a case {423} in which a new claim of that kind could be admitted. Mr. Tait has had some such claims, and has rejected them. "5. _Royal Commissions._--Knights of the Garter and Bath, and any others to whom the King may think proper to concede the honour of supporters. "These are the only descriptions of persons who appear to Mr. Tait to be entitled to supporters. "An idea has gone abroad, that Scots Baronets are entitled to supporters; but there is no authority for this in their patents, or any good authority for it elsewhere. And for many years subsequent to 1672, a very small portion indeed of their arms which are matriculated in the Lyon Register, are matriculated with supporters; so small as necessarily to lead to this inference, that those whose arms are entered with supporters had right to them on other grounds, _e.g._ ancient usage, chieftainship, or being heirs of Barons. The arms of few Scots Baronets are matriculated during the last fifty or sixty years; but the practice of assigning supporters gradually gained ground during that time, or rather the practice of assigning supporters to them, merely as such, seems to have arisen during that period; and it appears to Mr. Tait to be an erroneous practice, which he would not be warranted in following. "British Baronets have also, by recent practice, had supporters assigned to them, but Mr. Tait considers the practice to be unwarranted; and accordingly, in a recent case, a gentleman, upon being created a Baronet, applied for supporters to the King--having applied to Mr. Tait, and been informed by him that he did not conceive the Lord Lyon entitled to give supporters to British Baronets. "No females (except Peeresses in their own right) are entitled to supporters, as the representation of families is only in the male line. But the widows of Peers, by courtesy, carry their arms and supporters; and the sons of Peers, using the lower titles of the peerage by courtesy, also carry the supporters by courtesy. "Mr. Tait does not know of any authority for the Lord Lyon having a discretionary power of granting supporters, and understands that only the King has such a power. "Humbly submitted by (Signed) "G. TAIT." Though this statement would give a good general idea of the Scottish practice, its publication entails the addition of certain qualifying remarks. Supporters are most certainly not "commonly inserted in modern patents of peerage." Supporters appertaining to peerages are granted by special and separate patents. These to English subjects {424} are now under the hand and seal of Garter alone. In the event of a grant following upon the creation of an Irish peerage, the patent of supporters would be issued by Ulster King of Arms. But it is competent to Lyon King of Arms to matriculate the arms of Scottish peers with supporters, or to grant these to such as may still be without them. Both Lyon and Ulster would appear to have the right to grant supporters to Peers of the United Kingdom who are heraldically their domiciled subjects. With regard to the second paragraph of Mr. Tait's memorandum, there will be few families within its range who will not be included within the range of the paragraph which follows, and the presumption would rather be that the use of supporters by an untitled family originated in the right of barony than in any mythical grant following upon mythical feats of valour. Mr. Tait, however, is clearly wrong in his statement that "no females (except peeresses in their own right) are entitled to supporters." They have constantly been allowed to the heir of line, and their devolution through female heirs must of necessity presuppose the right thereto of the female heir through whom the inheritance is claimed. A recent case in point occurs with regard to the arms of Hunter-Weston, matriculated in 1880, Mrs. Hunter-Weston being the heir of line of Hunter of Hunterston. Widows of peers, providing they have arms of their own to impale with those of their husbands, cannot be said to only bear the supporters of their deceased husbands by courtesy. With them it is a matter of right. The eldest sons of peers bearing courtesy titles most certainly do not bear the supporters of the peerage to which they are heirs. Even the far more generally accepted "courtesy" practice of bearing coronets is expressly forbidden by an Earl-Marshal's Warrant. Consequently it may be asserted that the laws concerning the use of supporters in Scotland are as follows: In the first place, no supporters can be borne of right unless they have been the subject of formal grant or matriculation. The following classes are entitled to obtain, upon payment of the necessary fees, the grant or matriculation of supporters to themselves, or to themselves and their descendants according as the case may be: (1) Peers of Scotland, and other peers who are domiciled Scotsmen. (2) Knights of the Garter, Knights of the Thistle, and Knights of St. Patrick, being Scotsmen, are entitled as such to obtain grants of supporters to themselves for use during life, but as these three orders are now confined to members of the peerage, the supporters used would be probably those appertaining to their peerages, and it is unlikely that any further grants for life will be made under these circumstances. (3) Knights of the Bath until the revision of the order were entitled to obtain grants of supporters to themselves for {425} use during their lifetimes, and there are many instances in the Lyon Register where such grants have been made. (4) Knights Grand Cross of the Bath, of St. Michael and St. George, and of the Royal Victorian Order, and Knights Grand Commanders of the Orders of the Star of India, and of the Indian Empire, are entitled to obtain grants of supporters for use during their lifetimes. (5) The lawful heirs of the minor barons who had the full right of free barony prior to 1587 may matriculate supporters if they can show their ancestors used them, or may now obtain grants. Though practically the whole of these have been at some time or other matriculated in Lyon Register, there still remain a few whose claims have never been officially adjudicated upon. For example, it is only quite recently that the ancient Swinton supporters have been formally enrolled on the official records (Plate IV.). (6) There are certain others, being chiefs of clans and the heirs of those to whom grants have been made in times past, who also have the right, but as no new claim is likely to be so recognised in the future, it may be taken that these are confined to those cases which have been already entered in the Lyon Register. During the latter part of the eighteenth century, the executive of Lyon Office had fallen into great disrepute. The office of Lyon King of Arms had been granted to the Earls of Kinnoul, who had contented themselves with appointing deputies and drawing fees. The whole subject of armorial jurisdiction in Scotland had become lax to the last degree, and very many irregularities had crept in. One, and probably the worst result, had been the granting of supporters in many cases where no valid reason other than the payment of fees could be put forward to warrant the obtaining of such a privilege. And the result was the growth and acceptance of the fixed idea that it was within the power of Lyon King of Arms to grant supporters to any one whom he might choose to so favour. Consequently many grants of supporters were placed upon the records, and many untitled families of Scotland apparently have the right under these patents of grant to add supporters to their arms. Though it is an arguable matter whether the Lord Lyon was justified in making these grants, there can be no doubt that, so long as they remain upon the official register, and no official steps are taken to cancel the patents, they must be accepted as existing by legal right. Probably the most egregious instance of such a grant is to be found in the case of the grant to the first baronet of the family of Antrobus, who on purchasing the estate of Rutherford, the seat of the extinct Lords Rutherford, obtained from the then Lyon King of Arms a grant of the peerage supporters carried by the previous owners of the property. With regard to the devolution of Scottish supporters, the large {426} proportion of those registered in Lyon Office are recorded in the terms of some patent which specifies the limitations of their descent, so that there are a comparatively small number only concerning which there can be any uncertainty as to whom the supporters will descend to. The difficulty can only arise in those cases in which the arms are matriculated with supporters as borne by ancient usage in the early years of the Lyon Register, or in the cases of supporters still to be matriculated on the same grounds by those families who have so far failed to comply with the Act of 1672. Whilst Mr. Tait, in his memorandum which has been previously quoted, would deny the right of inheritance to female heirs, there is no doubt whatever that in many cases such heirs have been allowed to succeed to the supporters of their families. Taking supporters as an appanage of right of barony (either greater or lesser), there can be no doubt that the greater baronies, and consequently the supporters attached to them, devolved upon heirs female, and upon the heir of line inheriting through a female ancestor; and, presumably, the same considerations must of necessity hold good with regard to those supporters which are borne by right of lesser barony, for the greater and the lesser were the same thing, differing only in degree, until in the year 1587 the lesser barons were relieved of compulsory attendance in Parliament. At the same time there can be no doubt that the headship of a family must rest with the heir male, and consequently it would seem that in those cases in which the supporters are borne by right of being head of a clan or chief of a name, the right of inheritance would devolve upon the heir male. There must of necessity be some cases in which it is impossible to determine whether the supporters were originally called into being by right of barony or because of chieftainship, and the consequence has been that concerning the descent of the supporters of the older untitled families there has been no uniformity in the practice of Lyon Office, and it is impossible from the precedents which exist to deduce any certain and unalterable rule upon the point. Precedents exist in each case, and the well-known case of Smith-Cunningham and Dick-Cunningham, which is often referred to as settling the point, did nothing of the kind, inasmuch as that judgment depended upon the interpretation of a specific Act of Parliament, and was not the determination of a point of heraldic law. The case, however, afforded the opportunity to Lord Jeffrey to make the following remarks upon the point (see p. 355, Seton):-- "If I may be permitted to take a common-sense view, I should say that there is neither an inflexible rule nor a uniform practice in the matter. There may be cases where the heir of line will exclude the heir male, and there may be cases where the converse will be held. In {427} my opinion the common-sense rule is that the chief armorial dignities should follow the more substantial rights and dignities of the family. _If the heir male succeed to the title and estates, I think it reasonable that he should also succeed to the armorial bearings of the head of the house._ I would think it a very difficult proposition to establish that the heir of line, when denuded of everything else, was still entitled to retain the barren honours of heraldry. But I give no opinion upon that point." Mr. Seton, in his "Law and Practice of Heraldry in Scotland," sums up the matter of inheritance in these words (see p. 357): "As already indicated, however, by one of the learned Lords in his opinion on the case of Cuninghame, the practice in the matter in question has been far from uniform; and accordingly we are very much disposed to go along with his relative suggestion, that 'the chief armorial dignities should follow the more substantial rights and dignities of the family'; and that when the latter are enjoyed by the female heir of line, such heir should also be regarded as fairly entitled to claim the principal heraldic honours." The result has been in practice that the supporters of a family have usually been matriculated to whoever has carried on the name and line of the house, unless the supporters in question have been governed by a specific grant, the limitations of which exist to be referred to, but in cases where both the heir of line and the heir male have been left in a prominent position, the difficulty of decision has in many cases been got over by allowing supporters to both of them. The most curious instance of this within our knowledge occurs with regard to the family of Chisholm. Chisholm of Erchless Castle appears undoubtedly to have succeeded as head and chief of his name--"The Chisholm"--about the end of the seventeenth century. As such supporters were carried, namely: "On either side a savage wreathed about the head and middle with laurel, and holding a club over his exterior shoulder." At the death of Alexander Chisholm--"The Chisholm"--7th February 1793, the chieftainship and the estates passed to his half-brother William, but his heir of line was his only child Mary, who married James Gooden of London. Mrs. Mary Chisholm or Gooden in 1827 matriculated the _undifferenced_ arms of Chisholm ["Gules, a boar's head couped or"], without supporters, but in 1831 the heir male _also_ matriculated the same _undifferenced_ arms, in this case with supporters. The chieftainship of the Chisholm family then continued with the male line until the death of Duncan Macdonell Chisholm--"The Chisholm"--in 1859, when his only sister and heir became heir of line of the later chiefs. She was then Jemima Batten, and by Royal {428} Licence in that year she and her husband assumed the additional surname of Chisholm, becoming Chisholm-Batten, and, contrary to the English practice in such cases, the arms of Chisholm _alone_ were matriculated in 1860 to Mrs. Chisholm-Batten and her descendants. These once again were the _undifferenced_ coat of Chisholm, viz.: "Gules, a boar's head couped or." Arms for Batten have since been granted in England, the domicile of the family being English, and the arms of the present Mr. Chisholm-Batten, though including the quartering for Chisholm, is usually marshalled as allowed in the College of Arms by English rules. Though there does not appear to have been any subsequent rematriculation in favour of the heir male who succeeded as "The Chisholm," the undifferenced arms were also considered to have devolved upon him together with the supporters. On the death of the last known male heir of the family, Roderick Donald Matheson Chisholm, The Chisholm, in 1887, Mr. James Chisholm Gooden-Chisholm claimed the chieftainship as heir of line, and in that year the Gooden-Chisholm arms were again rematriculated. In this case supporters were added to the again undifferenced arms of Chisholm, but a slight alteration in the supporters was made, the clubs being reversed and placed to rest on the ground. Amongst the many other untitled Scottish families who rightly bear supporters, may be mentioned Gibsone of Pentland, Barclay of Urie, Barclay of Towie, Drummond of Megginch, Maclachlan of that Ilk, "Cluny" Macpherson, Cunninghame, and Brisbane of that Ilk. Armorial matters in the Channel Islands present a very unsatisfactory state of affairs. There never appears to have been any Visitation, and the arms of Channel Island families which officially pass muster must be confined to those of the very few families (for example, De Carteret, Dobrée, and Tupper) who have found it necessary or advisable on their own initiative to register their arms in the official English sources. In none of these instances have supporters been allowed, nor I believe did any of these families claim to use them, but some (Lemprière, De Saumerez, and other families) assert the possession of such a distinction by prescriptive right. If the right to supporters be a privilege of peerage, or if, as in Scotland, it anciently depended upon the right of free barony, the position of these Channel Island families in former days as seignorial lords was much akin. But it is highly improbable that the right to bear supporters in such cases will ever be officially recognised, and the case of De Saumerez, in which the supporters were bedevilled and regranted to descend with the peerage, will probably operate as a decisive precedent upon the point and against such a right. There are some number of families {429} of foreign origin who bear supporters or claim them by the assertion of foreign right. Where this right can be established their use has been confirmed by Royal Licence in this country in some number of cases; for example, the cases of Rothschild and De Salis. In other cases (for example, the case of Chamier) no official record of the supporters exists with the record of the arms, and presumably the foreign right to the supporters could not have been established at the time of registration. With regard to impersonal arms, the right to supporters in England is not easy to define. In the case of counties, crests and supporters are granted if the county likes to pay for them. In the case of towns, the rule in England is that an ordinary town may not have supporters but that a city may, and instances are numerous where supporters have been granted upon the elevation of a town to the dignity of a city. Birmingham, Sheffield, and Nottingham are all recent instances in point. This rule, however, is not absolutely rigid, and an exception may be pointed to in the case of Liverpool, the supporters being granted in 1797, and the town not being created a city until a subsequent date. In Scotland, where, of course, until quite recently supporters were granted practically to anybody who chose to pay for them, a grant will be found for the county of Perth dated in 1800, in which supporters were included. But as to towns and cities it is no more than a matter of fees, any town in Scotland eligible for arms being at liberty to obtain supporters also if they are desired. In grants of arms to corporate bodies it is difficult to draw the line or to deduce any actual rule. In 23rd of Henry VIII. the Grocers' Livery Company were granted "two griffins per fess gules and or," and many other of the Livery Companies have supporters to their arms. Others, for no apparent reason, are without them. The "Merchant Adventurers' Company or Hamburg Merchants" have supporters, as had both the old and the new East India Companies. The arms of Jamaica and Cape Colony and of the British North Borneo Company have supporters, but on the other hand no supporters were assigned to Canada or to any of its provinces. In Ireland the matter appears to be much upon the same footing as in England, and as far as impersonal arms are concerned it is very difficult to say what the exact rule is, if this is to be deduced from known cases and past precedents. Probably the freedom--amounting in many cases to great laxity--with which in English heraldic art the positions and attitudes of supporters are changed, is the one point in which English heraldic art has entirely ignored the trammels of conventionalised officialism. There must be in this country scores of entrance gates where each {430} pillar of the gateway is surmounted by a shield held in the paws of a single supporter, and the Governmental use of the Royal supporters in an amazing variety of attitudes, some of which are grossly unheraldic, has not helped towards a true understanding. The reposeful attitude of watchful slumber in which the Royal lion and unicorn are so often depicted, may perhaps be in the nature of submission to the Biblical teaching of Isaiah that the lion shall lie down with the lamb (and possibly therefore also with the unicorn), in these times of peace which have succeeded those earlier days when "the lion beat the unicorn round and round the town." [Illustration: FIG. 668.--The Arms used by Kilmarnock, Ayrshire: Azure, a fess chequy gules and argent. Crest: a dexter hand raised in benediction. Supporters: on either side a squirrel sejant proper.] In official minds, however, the sole attitude for the supporters is the rampant, or as near an approach to it as the nature of the animal will allow. A human being, a bird, or a fish naturally can hardly adopt the attitude. In Scotland, the land of heraldic freedom, various exceptions to this can be found. Of these one can call to mind the arms used by the town of Kilmarnock (Fig. 668), in which the supporters, "squirrels proper," are depicted always as sejant. These particular creatures, however, would look strange to us in any other form. These arms unfortunately have never been matriculated as the arms of the town (being really the arms of the Boyd family, the attainted Earls of Kilmarnock), and consequently can hardly as yet be referred to as a definite precedent, because official matriculation might result in a similar "happening" to the change which was made in the case of the arms of Inverness. In all representations of the arms of earlier date than the matriculation, the supporters, (dexter) {431} a camel and (sinister) an elephant, are depicted _statant_ on either side of the shield, no actual contact being made between the escutcheon and the supporters. But in 1900, when in a belated compliance with the Act of 1672 the armorial bearings of the Royal Burgh of Inverness were matriculated, the position was altered to that more usually employed for supporters. The supporters always used by Sir John Maxwell Stirling-Maxwell of Pollok are two lions sejant guardant. These, as appears from an old seal, were in use as far back as the commencement of the fifteenth century, but the supporters officially recorded for the family are two apes. In English armory one or two exceptional cases may be noticed; for example, the supporters of the city of Bristol, which are: "On either side, on a mount vert, a unicorn sejant or, armed, maned, and unguled sable." Another instance will be found in the supporters of Lord Rosmead, which are: "On the dexter side an ostrich and on the sinister side a kangaroo, both regardant proper." From the nature of the animal, the kangaroo is depicted sejant. Supporters in Germany date from the same period as with ourselves, being to be met with on seals as far back as 1276. At first they were similarly purely artistic adjuncts, but they have retained much of this character and much of the purely permissive nature in Germany to the present day. It was not until about the middle of the seventeenth century that supporters were granted or became hereditary in that country. Grants of supporters can be found in England at an earlier date, but such grants were isolated in number. Nevertheless supporters had become hereditary very soon after they obtained a regularly heraldic (as opposed to a decorative) footing. Their use, however, was governed at that period by a greater freedom as to alteration and change than was customary with armory in general. Supporters were an adjunct of the peerage, and peers were not subject to the Visitations. With his freedom from arrest, his high social position, and his many other privileges of peerage, a peer was "too big" a person formerly to accept the dictatorial armorial control which the Crown enforced upon lesser people. Short of treason, a peer in any part of Great Britain for most practical purposes of social life was above the ordinary law. In actual fact it was only the rights of one peer as opposed to the rights of another peer that kept a Lord of Parliament under any semblance of control. When the great lords of past centuries could and did raise armies to fight the King a peer was hardly likely to, nor did he, brook much interference. Of the development of supporters in Germany Ströhl writes:-- "Only very late, about the middle of the seventeenth century, were supporters granted as hereditary, but they appear in the arms of {432} burghers in the first half of the fifteenth century, and the arms of many towns also possess them as decorative adjuncts. "The first supporters were human figures, generally portraits of the arms-bearers themselves; then women, young men, and boys, so-called _Schildbuben_. In the second half of the fourteenth century animals appear: lions, bears, stags, dogs, griffins, &c. In the fifteenth century one frequently encounters angels with richly curling hair, saints (patrons of the bearer or of the town), then later, nude wild men and women (_Waldmenschen_) thickly covered with hair, with garlands round their loins and on their heads. The thick, hairy covering of the body in the case of women is only to be met with in the very beginning. Later the endeavour was to approach the feminine ideal as nearly as possible, and only the garlands were retained to point out the origin and the home of these figures. "At the end of the fifteenth and in the sixteenth century, there came into fashion lansquenets, huntsmen, pretty women and girls, both clothed and unclothed." Speaking of the present day, and from the executive standpoint, he adds:-- "Supporters, with the exception of flying angels, should have a footing on which they can stand in a natural manner, whether it be grass, a pedestal, a tree, or line of ornament, and to place them upon a ribbon of a motto is less suitable because a thin ribbon can hardly give the impression of a sufficiently strong support for the invariably heavy-looking figures of the men or animals. The supporters of the shield may at the same time be employed as bearers of the helmets. They bear the helmets either over the head or hold them in their hands. Figures standing near the shield, but not holding or supporting it in any way, cannot in the strict sense of the word be designated supporters; such figures are called _Schildwächter_ (shield-watchers or guardians)." HUMAN FIGURES AS SUPPORTERS Of all figures employed as supporters probably human beings are of most frequent occurrence, even when those single and double figures referred to on an earlier page, which are not a real part of the heraldic achievement, are excluded from consideration. The endless variety of different figures perhaps gives some clue to the reason of their frequent occurrence. Though the nude human figure appears (male) upon the shield of Dalziel and (female) in the crest of Ellis (Agar-Ellis, formerly Viscount Clifden), one cannot call to mind any instance of such an occurrence in the form of supporters, though possibly the supporters of the {433} Glaziers' Livery Company ["Two naked boys proper, each holding a long torch inflamed of the last"] and of the Joiners' Livery Company ["Two naked boys proper, the dexter holding in his hand an emblematical female figure, crowned with a mural coronet sable, the sinister holding in his hand a square"] might be classed in such a character. Nude figures in armory are practically always termed "savages," or occasionally "woodmen" or "wildmen," and garlanded about the loins with foliage. [Illustration: FIG. 669.--Arms of Arbroath: Gules, a portcullis with chains pendent or. Motto: "Propter Libertatem." Supporters: dexter, St. Thomas à Becket in his archiepiscopal robes all proper; sinister, a Baron of Scotland armed cap-à-pie, holding in his exterior hand the letter from the Convention of the Scottish Estates, held at Arbroath in the year of 1320, addressed to Pope John XXII., all proper.] With various adjuncts--clubs, banners, trees, branches, &c.--_Savages_ will be found as the supporters of the arms of the German Emperor, and in the sovereign arms of Brunswick, Denmark, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, and Rudolstadt, as well as in the arms of the kingdom of Prussia. They also appear in the arms of the kingdom of Greece, though in this case they should perhaps be more properly described as figures of Hercules. In British armory--amongst many other families--two savages are the supporters of the Marquess of Ailesbury, Lord Calthorpe, Viscount de Vesci, Lord Elphinstone, the Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, the Duke of Fife, Earl Fitzwilliam (each holding in the exterior hand a tree eradicated), Lord Kinnaird, the Earl of Morton; and amongst the baronets who possess supporters, Menzies, Douglas of Carr, and Williams-Drummond have on either side of their escutcheons a "savage." Earl Poulett alone has both man and woman, his supporters being: "Dexter, a savage man; sinister, a savage woman, both wreathed with oak, all proper." As some one remarked on seeing a realistic representation of this coat of arms by Catton, R.A., the blazon might more appropriately have concluded "all improper." Next after savages, the most favourite variety of the human being adopted as a supporter is the _Man in Armour_. Even as heraldic and heritable supporters angels are not uncommon, and are to be met with amongst other cases in the arms of the Marquess of Waterford, the Earl of Dudley, and Viscount Dillon. It is rare to find supporters definitely stated to represent any specific person, but in the case of the arms of Arbroath (Fig. 669) the supporters are "Dexter: 'St. Thomas à Becket,' and sinister, a Baron of Scotland." Another instance, again from Scotland, appears in a most extraordinary grant by the Lyon in 1816 to Sir Jonathan Wathen Waller, Bart., of Braywick Lodge, co. Berks, and of Twickenham, co. Middlesex. In this case the supporters were two elaborately "harnessed" ancient warriors, "to commemorate the surrender of Charles, Duke of Orleans, at the memorable battle of Agincourt (that word being the motto over the crest) in the year 1415, to Richard Waller of Groombridge in Kent, Esq., from which Richard the said {434} Sir Jonathan Wathen Waller is, according to the tradition of his family, descended." This pedigree is set out in Burke's Peerage, which assigns as arms to this family the old coat of Waller of Groombridge, with the augmented crest, viz.: "On a mount vert, a walnut-tree proper, and pendent therefrom an escutcheon of the arms of France with a label of three points argent." Considerable doubt, however, is thrown upon the descent by the fact that in 1814, when Sir Jonathan (then Mr. Phipps) obtained a Royal Licence to assume the name and arms of Waller, a very different and much bedevilled edition of the arms and not the real coat of Waller of Groombridge was exemplified to him. These supporters (the grant was quite _ultra vires_, Sir Jonathan being a domiciled Englishman) do not appear in any of the Peerage books, and it is not clear to what extent they were ever made use of, but in a painting which came under my notice the Duke of Orleans, in his surcoat of France, could be observed handing his sword across the front of the escutcheon to Mr. (or Sir) Richard Waller. The supporters of the Needlemakers' Company are commonly known as Adam and Eve, and the motto of the Company ["They sewed fig-leaves together and made themselves aprons"] bears this supposition out. The blazon, however, is: "Dexter, a man; sinister, a woman, both proper, each wreathed round the waist with leaves of the last, in the woman's dexter hand a needle or." The supporters of the Earl of Aberdeen are, "dexter an Earl and sinister a Doctor of Laws, both in their robes all proper." Highlanders in modern costume figure as supporters to the arms of Maconochie-Wellwood, and in more ancient garb in the case of Cluny Macpherson, and soldiers in the uniforms of every regiment, and savages from every clime, have at some time or other been pressed into heraldic service as supporters; but a work on Armory is not a handbook on costume, military and civil, nor is it an ethnographical directory, which it would certainly become if any attempt were to be made to enumerate the different varieties of men and women, clothed and unclothed, which have been used for the purposes of supporters. ANIMALS AS SUPPORTERS When we turn to animals as supporters, we at once get to a much wider range, and but little can be said concerning them beyond stating that though usually rampant, they are sometimes sejant, and may be guardant or regardant. One may, however, append examples of the work of different artists, which will doubtless serve as models, or possibly may develop ideas in other artists. The _Lion_ naturally first claims {435} one's attention. Fig. 670 shows an interesting and curious instance of the use of a single lion as a supporter. This is taken from a drawing in the possession of the town library at Breslau (_Herold_, 1888, No. 1), and represents the arms of Dr. Heinrich Rubische, Physician to the King of Hungary and Bohemia. The arms are, "per fesse," the chief argent, a "point" throughout sable, charged with a lion's face, holding in the jaws an annulet, and the base also argent charged with two bars sable. The mantling is sable and argent. Upon the helmet as crest are two buffalo's horns of the colours of the shield, and between them appears (apparently as a part of the heritable crest) a lion's face holding an annulet as in the arms. This, however, is the face of the lion, which, standing behind the escutcheon, is employed as the supporter, though possibly it is intended that it should do double duty. This employment of one animal to serve a double armorial purpose is practically unknown in British armory, except possibly in a few early examples of seals, but in German heraldry it is very far from being uncommon. [Illustration: FIG. 670.--Arms of Dr. Heinrich Rubische.] {436} Winged lions are not very usual, but they occur as the supporters of Lord Braye: "On either side a lion guardant or, winged vair." A winged lion is also one of the supporters (the dexter) of Lord Leconfield, but this, owing to the position of the wings, is quite unique. The blazon is: "A lion with wings inverted azure, collared or." Two lions rampant double-queued, the dexter or, the sinister sable, are the supporters of the Duke of Portland, and the supporters of both the Earl of Feversham and the Earl of Dartmouth afford instances of lions crowned with a coronet, and issuing therefrom a plume of ostrich feathers. Sea-lions will be found as supporters to the arms of Viscount Falmouth ["Two sea-lions erect on their tails argent, gutté-de-l'armes"], and the Earl of Howth bears: "Dexter, a sea-lion as in the crest; sinister, a mermaid proper, holding in her exterior hand a mirror." The heraldic tiger is occasionally found as a supporter, and an instance occurs in the arms of the Marquess of Dufferin and Ava. It also occurs as the sinister supporter of the Duke of Leeds, and of the Baroness Darcy de Knayth, and was the dexter supporter of the Earls of Holderness. Two heraldic tigers are the supporters both of Sir Andrew Noel Agnew, Bart., and of the Marquess of Anglesey. Of recent years the natural tiger has taken its place in the heraldic menagerie, and instances of its appearance will be found in the arms of Sir Mortimer Durand, and as one of the supporters of the arms of the city of Bombay. When occurring in heraldic surroundings it is always termed for distinction a "Bengal tiger," and two Royal Bengal tigers are the supporters of Sir Francis Outram, Bart.: "On either side a Royal Bengal tiger guardant proper, gorged with a wreath of laurel vert, and on the head an Eastern crown or." The griffin is perhaps the next most favourite supporter. Male griffins are the supporters of Sir George John Egerton Dashwood: "On either side a male gryphon argent, gorged with a collar flory counterflory gules." A very curious supporter is borne by Mr. Styleman Le Strange. Of course, as a domiciled English commoner, having no Royal Licence to bear supporters, his claim to these additions would not be recognised, but their use no doubt originated in the fact that he represents the lines of several coheirships to different baronies by writ, to some one of which, no doubt, the supporters may have at some time belonged. The dexter supporter in question is "a stag argent with a lion's forepaws and tail, collared." The supporters recently granted to Lord Milner are two "springbok," and the same animal (an "oryx" or "springbok") is the sinister supporter of the arms of Cape Colony. {437} Goats are the supporters of the Earl of Portsmouth (who styles his "chamois or wild goats"), of Lord Bagot and Lord Cranworth, and they occur in the achievements of the Barony of Ruthven and the Marquess of Normanby. The supporters of Viscount Southwell are two "Indian" goats. Rams are the supporters of Lord de Ramsey and Lord Sherard. A ram is also one of the supporters attached to the Barony of Ruthven, and one of the supporters used by the town of New Galloway. These arms, however, have never been matriculated, which on account of the curious charge upon the shield is very much to be regretted. The supporters of Lord Mowbray and Stourton afford an example of a most curious and interesting animal. Originally the Lords Stourton used two antelopes azure, but before the seventeenth century these had been changed to two "sea-dogs." When the abeyance of the Barony of Mowbray was determined in favour of Lord Stourton the dexter supporter was changed to the lion of Mowbray, but the sinister supporter still remained a "sea-dog." The horse and the pegasus are constantly met with supporting the arms of peers and others in this country. A bay horse regardant figures as the dexter supporter of the Earl of Yarborough, and the horses which support the shield of Earl Cowper are very specifically detailed in the official blazon: "Two dun horses close cropped (except a tuft upon the withers) and docked, a large blaze down the face, a black list down the back, and three white feet, viz. the hind-feet and near fore-foot." Lord Joicey has two Shetland ponies and Lord Winterstoke has "two horses sable, maned, tailed, and girthed or." The arms of the City of London are always used with dragons for supporters, but these supporters are not officially recorded. The arms of the City of London are referred to at greater length elsewhere in these pages. The town of Appleby uses dragons with wings expanded (most fearsome creatures), but these are not official, nor are the "dragons sejant addorsed gules, each holding an ostrich feather argent affixed to a scroll" which some enterprising artist designed for Cheshire. Dragons will be found as supporters to the arms of the Earl of Enniskillen, Lord St. Oswald, the Earl of Castlestuart, and Viscount Arbuthnot. The heraldic dragon is not the only form of the creature now known to armory. The Chinese dragon was granted to Lord Gough as one of his supporters, and it has since also been granted as a supporter to Sir Robert Hart, Bart. Wyverns are the supporters of the Earl of Meath and Lord Burghclere, and the sinister supporter of both Lord Raglan and Lord Lyveden. {438} The arms of the Royal Burgh of Dundee are quite unique. The official blazon runs: "Azure, a pott of growing lillies argent, the escutcheon being supported by two dragons, their tails nowed together underneath vert, with this word in an escroll above a lilie growing out of the top of the shield as the former, 'Dei Donum.'" Though blazoned as dragons, the creatures are undoubtedly wyverns. Wyverns when figuring as supporters are usually represented standing on the one claw and supporting the shield with the other, but in the case of the Duke of Marlborough, whose supporters are two wyverns, these are generally represented sejant erect, supporting the shield with both claws. This position is also adopted for the wyvern supporters of Sir Robert Arbuthnot, Bart., and the Earl of Eglinton. Two cockatrices are the supporters of Lord Donoughmore, the Earl of Westmeath, and Sir Edmund Nugent, Bart., and the dexter supporter of Lord Lanesborough is also a cockatrice. The basilisk is the same creature as the cockatrice, and in the arms of the town of Basle (German Basel), is an example of a supporter blazoned as a basilisk. The arms are: "Argent, a crosier sable." The supporter is a basilisk vert, armed and jelloped gules. The supporters of the Plasterers' Company, which were granted with the arms (January 15, 1556), are: "Two opinaci (figures very similar to griffins) vert pursted (? purfled) or, beaked sable, the wings gules." The dexter supporter of the arms of Cape Colony is a "gnu." The zebra, the giraffe, and the okapi are as yet unclaimed as supporters, though the giraffe, under the name of the camelopard, figures in some number of cases as a crest, and there is at least one instance (Kemsley) of a zebra as a crest. The ass, though there are some number of cases in which it appears as a crest or a charge, does not yet figure anywhere as a supporter, nor does the mule. The hyena, the sacred cow of India, the bison, the giant-sloth, and the armadillo are all distinctive animals which still remain to be withdrawn from the heraldic "lucky bag" of Garter. The mythical human-faced winged bull of Egyptian mythology, the harpy, and the female centaur would lend themselves well to the character of supporters. Robertson of Struan has no supporters matriculated with his arms, and it is difficult to say for what length of time the supporters now in use have been adopted. But he is chief of his name, and the representative of one of the minor barons, so that there is no doubt that supporters would be matriculated to him if he cared to apply. Those supporters in use, viz. "Dexter, a serpent; sinister, a dove, the heads of each encircled with rays," must surely be no less unique than is the strange compartment, "a wild man lying in chains," which is borne {439} below the arms of Struan Robertson, and which was granted to his ancestor in 1451 for arresting the murderers of King James I. The supporters belonging to the city of Glasgow[26] are also unique, being two salmon, each holding a signet-ring in the mouth. The supporters of the city of Waterford, though not recorded in Ulster's Office, have been long enough in use to ensure their official "confirmation" if a request to this effect were to be properly put forward. They are, on the dexter side a lion, and on the sinister side a dolphin. Two dolphins azure, finned or, are the supporters of the Watermen and Lightermen's Livery Company, and were granted 1655. BIRDS AS SUPPORTERS Whilst eagles are plentiful as supporters, nevertheless if eagles are eliminated the proportion of supporters which are birds is not great. A certain variety and differentiation is obtained by altering the position of the wings, noticeably in regard to eagles, but these differences do not appear to be by any means closely adhered to by artists in pictorial representations of armorial bearings. Fig. 671 ought perhaps more properly to have been placed amongst those eagles which, appearing as single figures, carry shields charged upon the breast, but in the present case, in addition to the shield charged upon it in the usual manner, it so palpably supports the two other escutcheons, that we are tempted to include it amongst definite supporters. The figure represents the arms of the free city of Nürnberg, and the design is reproduced from the title-page of the German edition of Andreas Vesili's _Anatomia_, printed at Nürnberg in 1537. The eagle is that of the German Empire, carrying on its breast the impaled arms of Castile and Austria. The shields it supports may now be said both to belong to Nürnberg. The dexter shield, which is the coloured seal device of the old Imperial city, is: "Azure, a harpy (in German _frauenadler_ or maiden eagle) displayed and crowned or." The sinister shield (which may more properly be considered the real arms of Nürnberg) is: "Per pale or, a double-headed Imperial eagle displayed, dimidiated with bendy of six gules and argent." {440} The supporters of Lord Amherst of Hackney are two _Herons_: "On either side a heron proper, collared or." [Illustration: FIG. 671.--The Arms of Nürnberg.] The city of Calcutta, to which arms and supporters were granted in 1896, has for its supporters _Adjutant Birds_, which closely approximate to storks. Two woodpeckers have recently been granted as the supporters of Lord Peckover. {441} CHAPTER XXVII THE COMPARTMENT A compartment is anything depicted below the shield as a foothold or resting-place for the supporters, or indeed for the shield itself. Sometimes it is a fixed part of the blazon and a constituent part of the heritable heraldic bearings. At other times it is a matter of mere artistic fancy, and no fixed rules exist to regulate or control nor even to check the imagination of the heraldic artist. The fact remains that supporters must have something to stand upon, and if the blazon supplies nothing, the discretion of the artist is allowed considerable laxity. On the subject of compartments a great deal of diversity of opinion exists. There is no doubt that in early days and early examples supporters were placed to stand upon some secure footing, but with the decadence of heraldic art in the seventeenth century came the introduction of the gilded "freehand copy" scroll with which we are so painfully familiar, which one writer has aptly termed the heraldic gas-bracket. Arising doubtless from and following upon the earlier habit of balancing the supporters upon the unstable footing afforded by the edge of the motto scroll, the "gas-bracket" was probably accepted as less open to objection. It certainly was not out of keeping with the heraldic art of the period to which it owed its evolution, or with the style of armorial design of which it formed a part. It still remains the accepted and "official" style and type in England, but Scotland and Ireland have discarded it, and "compartments" in those countries are now depicted of a nature requiring less gymnastic ability on the part of the animals to which they afford a foothold. The style of compartment is practically always a matter of artistic taste and design. With a few exceptions it is always entirely disregarded in the blazon of the patent, and the necessity of something for the supporters to stand upon is as much an understood thing as is the existence of a shield whereon the arms are to be displayed. But as the shape of the shield is left to the fancy of the artist, so is the character of the compartment, and the Lyon Register nowadays affords examples of achievements where the supporters stand on rocks and flowery mounds {442} or issue from a watery abiding-place. The example set by the Lyon Register has been eagerly followed by most heraldic artists. [Illustration: FIG. 672.] It is a curious commentary upon the heraldic art of the close of the eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth centuries that whilst the gymnastic capabilities of animals were admitted to be equal to "tight-rope" exhibitions of balancing upon the ordinary scroll, these feats were not considered practicable in the case of human beings, for whom little square platforms were always provided. Fig. 672, which represents the sinister supporter of Lord Scarsdale (viz. the figure of Liberality represented by a woman habited argent, mantled purpure, holding a cornucopia proper) shows the method by which platform accommodation was provided for human figures when acting as supporters. At the same time this greater freedom of design may occasionally lead to mistakes in relation to English supporters and their compartments. Following upon the English practice already referred to of differentiating the supporters of different families, it has apparently been found necessary in some cases to place the supporters to stand upon a definite object, which object is recited in the blazon and becomes an integral and unchangeable portion of the supporter. Thus Lord Torrington's supporters are each placed upon dismounted ships' guns ["Dexter, an heraldic antelope ermine, horned, tusked, maned and hoofed or, standing on a ship gun proper; sinister, a sea-horse proper, on a like gun"], Lord Hawke's[27] dexter supporter rests his sinister foot upon a dolphin, and Lord Herschell's supporters each stand upon a fasces ["Supporters: on either side a stag proper, collared azure, standing on a fasces or"]. The supporters of Lord Iveagh each rest a hind-foot upon an escutcheon ["Supporters: on either side a stag gules, attired and collared gemel or, resting the inner hoof on an escutcheon vert charged with a lion rampant of the second"], whilst the inner hind-foot of each of Lord Burton's supporters {443} rests upon a stag's head caboshed proper. Probably absurdity could go no further. But in the case of the supporters granted to Cape Town (Fig. 673), the official blazon runs as follows: "On the dexter {444} side, standing on a rock, a female figure proper, vested argent, mantle and sandals azure, on her head an estoile radiated or, and supporting with her exterior hand an anchor also proper; and on the sinister side, standing on a like rock, a lion rampant guardant gules." In this case it will be seen that the rocks form an integral part of the supporters, and are not merely an artistic rendering of the compartment. The illustration, which was made from an official drawing supplied from the Heralds' College, shows the curious way in which the motto scroll is made to answer the purpose of the compartment. [Illustration: FIG. 673.--Arms of Cape Town: Or, an anchor erect sable, stock proper, from the ring a riband flowing azure, and suspended therefrom an escocheon gules charged with three annulets of the field; and for the crest, on a wreath of the colours, upon the battlements of a tower proper, a trident in bend dexter or, surmounted by an anchor and cable in bend sinister sable.] Occasionally the compartment itself--as a thing apart from the supporters--receives attention in the blazon, _e.g._ in the case of the arms of Baron de Worms, which are of foreign origin, recorded in this country by Royal Warrant. His supporters are: "On a bronze compartment, on either side a lion gold, collared and chained or, and pendent from the compartment a golden scroll, thereon in letters gules the motto, 'Vinctus non victus.'" In the Royal Arms of the United Kingdom the motto "Dieu et mon Droit" is required to be on the compartment below the shield, and thereon the Union Badge of the Rose, Thistle, and Shamrock engrafted on the same stem. The city of Norwich is not officially recognised as having the right to supporters, and doubtless those in use have originated in the old artistic custom, previously referred to, of putting escutcheons of arms under the guardianship of angels. They may be so deciphered upon an old stone carving upon one of the municipal buildings in that city. The result has been that two angels have been regularly adopted as the heraldic supporters of the city arms. The point that renders them worthy of notice is that they are invariably represented each standing upon its own little pile of clouds. The arms of the Royal Burgh of Montrose (Forfarshire) afford an official instance of another variety in the way of a compartment, which is a fixed matter of blazon and not depending upon artistic fancy. The entry in Lyon Register is as follows:-- "The Royal Burgh of Montrose gives for Ensignes Armoriall, Argent, a rose gules. The shield adorned with helmet, mantling, and wreath suteable thereto. And for a crest, a hand issuing from a cloud and reaching down a garland of roses proper, supported by two mermaids aryseing from the sea proper. The motto, 'Mare ditat Rosa decorat.' And for a revers, Gules, St. Peter on the cross proper, with the keyes hanging at his girdle or. Which Arms, &c., Ext. December 16, 1694." An English example may be found in the case of the arms of {445} Boston,[28] which are depicted with the supporters (again two mermaids) rising from the sea, though to what extent the sea is a fixed and unchangeable part of the achievement in this case is less a matter of certainty. Probably of all the curious "supporters" to be found in British armory, those of the city of Southampton (Plate VII.) must be admitted to be the most unusual. As far as the actual usage of the arms by the corporation is concerned, one seldom if ever sees more than the simple shield employed. This bears the arms: "Per fess gules and argent, three roses counterchanged." But in the official record of the arms in one of the Visitation books a crest is added, namely: "Upon a mount vert, a double tower or, and issuing from the upper battlements thereof a demi-female affronté proper, vested purpure, crined and crowned with an Eastern coronet also or, holding in her dexter hand a sword erect point upwards argent, pommel and hilt of the second, and in her sinister hand a balance sable, the pans gold. The shield in the Visitation book rests upon a mount vert, issuing from waves of the sea, and thereupon placed on either side of the escutcheon a ship of two masts at anchor, the sails furled all proper, the round top or, and from each masthead flying a banner of St. George, and upon the stern of each vessel a lion rampant or, supporting the escutcheon." From the fact that in England the compartment is so much a matter of course, it is scarcely ever alluded to, and the _term_ "Compartment" is practically one peculiar to Scottish heraldry. It does not appear to be a very ancient heraldic appendage, and was probably found to be a convenient arrangement when shields were depicted erect instead of couché, so as to supply a resting-place (or standpoint) for the supporters. In a few instances the compartment appears on seals with couché shields, on which, however, the supporters are usually represented as resting _on the sides of the escutcheon_, and bearing up the helmet and crest, as already mentioned. Sir George Mackenzie conjectures that the compartment "represents the bearer's land and territories, though sometimes (he adds) it is bestowed in recompense of some honourable action." Thus the Earls of Douglas are said to have obtained the privilege of placing their supporters with a pale of wood wreathed, because the doughty lord, in the reign of King Robert the Bruce, defeated the English in Jedburgh Forest, and "caused wreathe and impale," during the night, that part of the wood by which he conjectured they might make their escape. Such a fenced compartment appears on the seal of James Douglas, second Earl of Angus, "Dominus de Abernethie et Jedworth Forest" (1434), on {446} that of George Douglas, fourth Earl (1459), and also on those of several of his successors in the earldom (1511-1617). A still earlier example, however, of a compartment "representing a park with trees, &c., enclosed by a wattled fence," occurs on the seal of Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl (_c._ 1430), where the escutcheon is placed in the entrance to the park between two trees. Nisbet refers to a seal of William, first Earl of Douglas (1377), exhibiting a single supporter (a lion) "sitting on a compartment like to a rising ground, with a tree growing out of it, and semé of hearts, mullets, and cross crosslets," these being the charges of Douglas and Mar in the escutcheon. According to Sir George Mackenzie, these compartments were usually allowed only to sovereign princes; and he further informs us that, besides the Douglases, he knows of no other subject in Britain, except the Earl of Perth, whose arms stand upon a compartment. In the case of the Perth family, the compartment consists of a green hill or mount, semé of caltraps[29] (or cheval-traps), with the relative motto, "Gang warily," above the achievement. "Albeit of late," says Mackenzie, "compartments are become more common, and some families in Scotland have some creatures upon which their achievement stands, as the Laird of Dundas, whose achievement has for many hundreds of years stood upon a salamander in flames proper (a device of the kings of France), and Robertson of Struan has a monstrous man lying under the escutcheon chained, which was given him for his taking the murderer of James I...." Such figures, however, as Nisbet remarks, cannot properly be called compartments, having rather the character of devices; while, in the case of the Struan achievement, the chained man would be more accurately described as "an honourable supporter." Sir George Mackenzie engraves "the coat of Denham of ould," viz. a stag's head "caboshed," below a shield couché charged with three lozenges, or fusils, conjoined in bend. In like manner, Nisbet represents the crest and motto of the Scotts of Thirlstane, "by way of compartment," below the escutcheon of Lord Napier, and a blazing star, with the legend "Luceo boreale," under that of Captain Robert Seton, of the family of Meldrum; while in the case of the illumination which accompanies the latest entry in the first volume of the Lyon Register (1804), relative to the arms of John Hepburn Belshes of Invermay, the trunk of an oak-tree sprouting forth anew is placed on a compartment under the shield, with the motto, "Revirescit." Two other instances of regular compartments are mentioned by Nisbet, viz. those carried by the Macfarlanes of that Ilk and the Ogilvies of Innerquharity. The former consists of a wavy {447} representation of Loch Sloy, the gathering-place of the clan, which word is also inscribed on the compartment as their _cri-de-guerre_ or slogan; while the latter is a "green hill or rising terrace," on which are placed two serpents, "nowed," spouting fire, and the motto, "Terrena pericula sperno." For some of the foregoing instances I am indebted to Seton's well-known "Law and Practice of Heraldry in Scotland." {448} CHAPTER XXVIII MOTTOES To the uninitiated, the subject of the motto of a family has a far greater importance than is conceded to it by those who have spent any time in the study of armory. Perhaps it may clear the ground if the rules presently in force are first recited. It should be carefully observed that the status of the motto is vastly different in England and in other countries. Except in the cases of impersonal arms (and not always then), the motto is never mentioned or alluded to in the terms of the patent in a grant of arms in England; consequently they are not a part of the "estate" created by the Letters Patent, though if it be desired a motto will always be painted below the emblazonment in the margin of the patent. Briefly speaking, the position in England with regard to personal armorial bearings is that mottoes are _not hereditary_. No one is compelled to bear one, nor is any authority needed for the adoption of a motto, the matter is left purely to the personal pleasure of every individual; but if that person elects to use a motto, the officers of arms are perfectly willing to paint any motto he may choose upon his grant, and to add it to the record of his arms in their books. There is no necessity expressed or implied to use a motto at all, nor is the slightest control exercised over the selection or change of mottoes, though, as would naturally be expected, the officers of arms would decline to record to any private person any motto which might have been appropriated to the sovereign or to any of the orders of knighthood. In the same way no control is exercised over the position in which the motto is to be carried or the manner in which it is to be displayed. In Scotland, however, the matter is on an entirely different footing. The motto is included within the terms of the patent, and is consequently made the subject of grant. It therefore becomes inalienable and unchangeable without a rematriculation, and a Scottish patent moreover always specifies the position in which the motto is to be carried. This is usually "in an escroll over the same" (_i.e._ over the crest), though occasionally it is stated to be borne on "a compartment below the arms." The matter in Ireland is not quite the same as in {449} either Scotland or England. Sometimes the motto is expressed in the patent--in fact this is now the more usual alternative--but the rule is not universal, and to a certain extent the English permissiveness is recognised. Possibly the subject can be summed up in the remark that if any motto has been granted or is recorded with a particular coat of arms in Ireland, it is expected that that shall be the motto to be made use of therewith. As a general practice the use of mottoes in England did not become general until the eighteenth century--in fact there are very few, if any, grants of an earlier date on which a motto appears. The majority, well on towards the latter part of the eighteenth century, had no motto added, and many patents are still issued without such an addition. With rare exceptions, no mottoes are to be met with in the Visitation books, and it does not appear that at the time of the Visitations the motto was considered to be essentially a part of the armorial bearings. The one or two exceptions which I have met with where mottoes are to be found on Visitation pedigrees are in every case the arms of a peer. There are at least two such in the Yorkshire Visitation of 1587, and probably it may be taken for granted that the majority of peers at that period had begun to make use of these additions to their arms. Unfortunately we have no exact means of deciding the point, because peers were not compelled to attend a Visitation, and there are but few cases in which the arms or pedigree of a peer figure in the Visitation books. In isolated cases the use of a motto can, however, be traced back to an even earlier period. There are several instances to be met with upon the early Garter plates. Many writers have traced the origin of mottoes to the "slogan" or war-cry of battle, and there is no doubt whatever that instances can be found in which an ancient war-cry has become a family motto. For example, one can refer to the Fitzgerald "Crom-a-boo": other instances can be found amongst some of the Highland families, but the fact that many well-known war-cries of ancient days never became perpetuated as mottoes, and also the fact that by far the greater number of mottoes, even at a much earlier period than the present day, cannot by any possibility have ever been used for or have originated with the purposes of battle-cries, inclines me to believe that such a suggested origin for the motto in general is without adequate foundation. There can be little if any connection between the war-cry as such and the motto as such. The real origin would appear to be more correctly traced back to the badge. As will be found explained elsewhere, the badge was some simple device used for personal and household purposes and seldom for war, except by persons who used the badge of the leader they followed. No man wore his own badge {450} in battle. It generally partook of the nature of what ancient writers would term "a quaint conceit," and much ingenuity seems to have been expended in devising badges and mottoes which should at the same time be distinctive and should equally be or convey an index or suggestion of the name and family of the owner. Many of these badges are found in conjunction with words, mottoes, and phrases, and as the distinction between the badge in general and the crest in general slowly became less apparent, they eventually in practice became interchangeable devices, if the same device did not happen to be used for both purposes. Consequently the motto from the badge became attached to the crest, and was thence transferred to its present connection with the coat of arms. Just as at the present time a man may and often does adopt a maxim upon which he will model his life, some pithy proverb, or some trite observation, without any question or reference to armorial bearings--so, in the old days, when learning was less diffuse and when proverbs and sayings had a wider acceptance and vogue than at present, did many families and many men adopt for their use some form of words. We find these words carved on furniture, set up on a cornice, cut in stone, and embroidered upon standards and banners, and it is to this custom that we should look for the beginning of the use of mottoes. But because such words were afterwards in later generations given an armorial status, it is not justifiable to presume such status for them from their beginnings. The fact that a man put his badges on the standard that he carried into battle, and with his badges placed the mottoes that thereto belonged, has led many people mistakenly to believe that these mottoes were _designed_ for war-cries and for use in battle. That was not the case. In fact it seems more likely that the bulk of the standards recorded in the books of the heralds which show a motto were never carried in battle. With regard to the mottoes in use at the moment, some of course can be traced to a remote period, and many of the later ones have interesting legends connected therewith. Of mottoes of this character may be instanced the "Jour de ma vie" of West, which was formerly the motto of the La Warr family, adopted to commemorate the capture of the King of France at the battle of Poictiers. There are many other mottoes of this character, amongst which may be mentioned the "Grip fast" of the Leslies, the origin of which is well known. But though many mottoes relate to incidents in the remote past, true or mythical, the motto and the incident are seldom contemporary. Nothing would be gained by a recital of a long list of mottoes, but I cannot forbear from quoting certain curious examples which by their very weirdness must excite curiosity as to their origin. A family of Martin used the singular words, "He who looks at Martin's {451} ape, Martin's ape shall look at him," whilst the Curzons use, "Let Curzon hold what Curzon helde." The Cranston motto is still more grasping, being, "Thou shalt want ere I want;" but probably the motto of the Dakyns is the most mysterious of all, "Strike Dakyns, the devil's in the hempe." The motto of Corbet, "Deus pascit corvos," evidently alludes to the raven or ravens (corby crows) upon the shield. The mottoes of Trafford, "Now thus," and "Gripe griffin, hold fast;" the curious Pilkington motto, "Pilkington Pailedown, the master mows the meadows;" and the "Serva jugum" of Hay have been the foundation of many legends. The "Fuimus" of the Bruce family is a pathetic allusion to the fact that they were once kings, but the majority of ancient mottoes partake rather of the nature of a pun upon the name, which fact is but an additional argument towards the supposition that the motto has more relation to the badge than to any other part of the armorial bearings. Of mottoes which have a punning character may be mentioned "Mon Dieu est ma roche," which is the motto of Roche, Lord Fermoy; "Cavendo tutus," which is the motto of Cavendish; "Forte scutum salus ducum," which is the motto of Fortescue; "Set on," which is the motto of Seton; "Da fydd" of Davies, and "Ver non semper viret," the well-known pun of the Vernons. Another is the apocryphal "Quid rides" which Theodore Hook suggested for the wealthy and retired tobacconist. This punning character has of late obtained much favour, and wherever a name lends itself to a pun the effort seems nowadays to be made that the motto shall be of this nature. Perhaps the best pun which exists is to be found in the motto of the Barnard family, who, with arms "Argent, a bear rampant sable, muzzled or," and crest "A demi-bear as in the arms," use for the motto, "Bear and Forbear," or in Latin, as it is sometimes used, "Fer et perfer." Others that may be alluded to are the "What I win I keep" of Winlaw; the "Libertas" of Liberty; the "Ubi crux ibi lux" of Sir William Crookes; the "Bear thee well" of Bardwell; the "Gare le pied fort" of Bedford; the "Gare la bête" of Garbett; and the "Cave Deus videt" of Cave. Other mottoes--and they are a large proportion--are of some saintly and religious tendency. However desirable and acceptable they may be, and however accurately they may apply to the first possessor, they sometimes are sadly inappropriate to later and more degenerate successors. In Germany, a distinction appears to be drawn between their "Wahlsprüche" (_i.e._ those which are merely dictated by personal choice) and the "armorial mottoes" which remained constantly and heritably attached to the armorial bearings, such as the "Gott mit uns" ("God with us") of Prussia and the "Nihil sine Deus" of Hohenzollern. {452} The Initial or Riddle Mottoes appear to be peculiar to Germany. Well-known examples of these curiosities are the "W. G. W." (_i.e._ "Wie Gott will"--"As God wills"), or "W. D. W." (_i.e._ "Wie du willst"--"As thou wilt"), which are both frequently to be met with. The strange but well-known alphabet or vowel-motto "A. E. I. O. V." of the Emperor Frederick III. has been variously translated, "Aquila Electa Juste Omnia Vincit" ("The chosen eagle vanquishes all by right"), "Aller Ehren Ist Oesterrich Voll" ("Austria is full of every honour"), or perhaps with more likelihood, "Austria Est Imperare Orbe Universo" ("All the earth is subject to Austria"). The _cri-de-guerre_, both as a heraldic fact and as an armorial term, is peculiar, and exclusively so, to British and French heraldry. The national _cri-de-guerre_ of France, "Montjoye Saint Denis," appeared above the pavilion in the old Royal Arms of France, and probably the English Royal motto, "Dieu et mon Droit," is correctly traced to a similar origin. A distinction is still made in modern heraldry between the _cri-de-guerre_ and the motto, inasmuch as it is considered that the former should always of necessity surmount the crest. This is very generally adhered to in Scotland in the cases where both a motto and a _cri-de-guerre_ (or, as it is frequently termed in that country, a "slogan") exist, the motto, contrary to the usual Scottish practice, being then placed below the shield. It is to be hoped that a general knowledge of this fact will not, however, result in the description of every motto found above a crest as a _cri-de-guerre_, and certainly the concentrated piety now so much in favour in England for the purposes of a motto can be quite fitly left below the shield. Artists do not look kindly on the motto for decorative purposes. It has been usually depicted in heraldic emblazonment in black letters upon a white scroll, tinted and shaded with pink, but with the present revival of heraldic art, it has become more general to paint the motto ribbon in conformity with the colour of the field, the letters being often shown thereon in gold. The colour and shape of the motto ribbon, however, are governed by no heraldic laws, and except in Scottish examples should be left, as they are purely unimportant accessories of the achievement, wholly at the discretion of the artist. {453} CHAPTER XXIX BADGES The exact status of the badge in this country, to which it is peculiar, has been very much misunderstood. This is probably due to the fact that the evolution of the badge was gradual, and that its importance increased unconsciously. Badges do not formerly appear to have ever been made the subjects of grants, and the instances which can be referred to showing their control, or attempted control, by the Crown in past times are _very rare indeed_. As a matter of fact, the Crown seems to have perhaps purposely ignored them. They are not, as we know them, found in the earliest times of heraldry, unless we are to presume their existence from early seals, many of which show isolated charges taken from the arms; for if in the cases where such charges appear upon the seals we are to accept those seals as proofs of the contemporary existence of those devices as heraldic badges, we should often be led into strange conclusions. There is no doubt that these isolated devices which are met with were not only a part of the arms, but in many cases the _origin_ of the arms. Devices possessing a more or less personal and possessive character occur in many cases before record of the arms they later developed into can be traced. This will be noticed in relation to the arms of Swinton, to which reference is made elsewhere. If these are badges, then badges go back to an earlier date than arms. Such devices occur many centuries before such a thing as a shield of arms existed. The _Heraldic Badge, as we know it_, came into general use about the reign of Edward III., that is, the heraldic badge as a separate matter having a distinct existence in addition to concurrent arms, and having at the same time a distinctly heraldic character. But long before that date, badges are found with an allied reference to a particular person, which very possibly are rightly included in any enumeration of badges. Of such a character is the badge of the broom plant, which is found upon the tomb of Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, from which badge the name of the Plantagenet dynasty originated (Plantagenet, by the way, was never a personal surname, but was the name of the dynasty). {454} It is doubtful, however, if at that early period there existed much if indeed any opportunity for the use of heraldic badges. At the same time, as far back as the reign of Richard I.--and some writers would take examples of a still more remote period--these badges must have been occasionally depicted upon banners, for Richard I. appears to have had a dragon upon one of his banners. These banner decorations, which at a later date have been often accepted as badges, can hardly be quite properly so described, for there are many cases where no other proof of usage can be found, and there is no doubt that many such are instances of no more than banners prepared for specific purposes; and the record of such and such a banner cannot necessarily carry proof that the owner of the banner claimed or used the objects depicted thereupon as personal badges. If they are to be so included some individuals must have revelled in a multitude of badges. But the difficulty in deciding the point very greatly depends upon the definition of the badge; and if we are to take the definition according to the manner of acceptance and usage at the period when the use of badges was greatest, then many of the earliest cannot be taken as coming within the limits. In later Plantagenet days, badges were of considerable importance, and certain characteristics are plainly marked. They were never worn by the owner--in the sense in which he carried his shield, or bore his crest; they were his sign-mark indicative of ownership; they were stamped upon his belongings in the same way in which Government property is marked with the broad arrow, and they were worn by his servants. They were worn not only by his retainers, but very probably were also worn more or less temporarily by adherents of his party if he were big enough to lead a party in the State. At all times badges had very extensive decorative use. There was never any fixed form for the badge; there was never any fixed manner of usage. I can find no fixed laws of inheritance, no common method of assumption. In fact the use of a badge, in the days when everybody who was anybody possessed arms, was quite subsidiary to the arms, and very much akin to the manner in which nowadays monograms are made use of. At the same time care must be taken to distinguish the "badge" from the "rebus," and also from the temporary devices which we read about as having been so often adopted for the purpose of the tournament when the combatant desired his identity to be concealed. Modern novelists and poets give us plenty of illustrations of the latter kind, but proof of the fact even that they were ever adopted in that form is by no means easy to find, though their professedly temporary nature of course militates against {455} the likelihood of contemporary _record_. The rebus had never an heraldic status, and it had seldom more than a temporary existence. A fanciful device adopted (we hear of many such instances) for the temporary purpose of a tournament could generally be so classed, but the rebus proper has some device, usually a pictorial rendering of the name of the person for whom it stood. In such a category would be included printers' and masons' marks, but probably the definition of Dr. Johnson of the word rebus, as a word represented by a picture, is as good a definition and description as can be given. The rebus in its nature is a different thing from a badge, and may best be described as a pictorial signature, the most frequent occasion for its use being in architectural surroundings, where it was constantly introduced as a pun upon some name which it was desired to perpetuate. The best-known and perhaps the most typical and characteristic rebus is that of Islip, the builder of part of Westminster Abbey. Here the pictured punning representation of his name had nothing to do with his armorial bearings or personal badge; but the great difficulty, in dealing with both badges and rebuses, is the difficulty of knowing which is which, for very frequently the same or a similar device was used for both purposes. Parker, in his glossary of heraldic terms, gives several typical examples of rebuses which very aptly illustrate their status and meaning. At Lincoln College at Oxford, and on other buildings connected with Thomas Beckynton, Bishop of Bath and Wells, will be found carved the rebus of a beacon issuing from a tun. This is found in conjunction with the letter T for his Christian name, Thomas. Now this design was not his coat of arms, and was not his crest, nor was it his badge. Another rebus which is found at Canterbury shows an ox and the letters N, E, as the rebus of John Oxney. A rebus which indicates Thomas Conyston, Abbot of Cirencester, which can be found in Gloucester Cathedral, is a comb and a tun, and the printer's mark of Richard Grifton, which is a good example of a rebus and its use, was a tree, or graft, growing on a tun. In none of these cases are the designs mentioned on any part of the arms, crest, or badge of the persons mentioned. Rebuses of this character abound on all our ancient buildings, and their use has lately come very prominently into favour in connection with the many allusive bookplates, the design of which originates in some play upon the name. The words "device," "ensign," and "cognisance" have no definite heraldic meaning, and are used impartially to apply to the crest, the badge, and sometimes to the arms upon the shield, so that they may be eliminated from consideration. There remains therefore the crest and the badge between which to draw a definite line of distinction. The real difference lay in the method of use, though there is usually a difference of form, {456} recognisable by an expert, but difficult to put into words. The crest was the ornament upon the helmet, seldom if ever actually worn, and never used except by the person to whom it belonged. The badge, on the other hand, was never placed upon the helmet, but was worn by the servants and retainers, and was used right and left on the belongings of the owner as a sign of his ownership. So great and extensive at one period was the use of these badges, that they were far more generally employed than either arms or crest, and whilst the knowledge of a man's badge or badges would be everyday knowledge and common repute throughout the kingdom, few people would know that man's crest, fewer still would ever have seen it worn. It is merely an exaggeration of the difficulty that we are always in uncertainty whether any given device was merely a piece of decoration borrowed from the arms or crest, or whether it had continued usage as a badge. In the same way many families who had never used crests, but who had used badges, took the opportunity of the Visitations to record their badges as crests. A notable example of the subsequent record of a badge as a crest is met with in the Stourton family. Their crest, originally a buck's head, but after the marriage with the heiress of Le Moigne, a demi-monk, can be readily substantiated, as can their badge of the drag or sledge. At one of the Visitations, however, a cadet of the Stourton family recorded the sledge as a crest. Uncertainty also arises from the lack of precision in the diction employed at all periods, the words badge, device, and crest having so often been used interchangeably. Another difficulty which is met with in regard to badges is that, with the exception of the extensive records of the Royal badges and some other more or less informal lists of badges of the principal personages at different periods, badges were never a subject of official record, and whilst it is difficult to determine the initial point as to whether any particular device is a badge or not, the difficulty of deducing rules concerning badges becomes practically impossible, and after most careful consideration I have come to the conclusion that there were never any hard and fast rules relating to badges, that they were originally and were allowed to remain matters of personal fancy, and that although well-known cases can be found where the same badge has been used generation after generation, those cases may perhaps be the exception rather than the rule. Badges should be considered and accepted in the general run as not being matters of permanence, and as of little importance except during the time from about the reign of Edward III. to about the reign of Henry VIII. Their principal use upon the clothes of the retainers came to an end by the creation of the standing army, the beginning of which can be traced to the reign of Henry VIII., and as badges never had any ceremonial use to perpetuate {457} their status, their importance almost ceased altogether at that period except as regards the Royal family. Speaking broadly, regularised and _recorded_ heraldic control as a matter of operative fact dates little if any further back than the end of the reign of Henry VIII., consequently badges originally do not appear to have been taken much cognisance of by the Heralds. Their actual use from that period onwards rapidly declined, and hence the absence of record. Though the use of badges has become very restricted, there are still one or two occasions on which badges are used as badges, in the style formerly in vogue. Perhaps the case which is most familiar is the broad arrow which is used to mark Government stores. It is a curious commentary upon heraldic officialdom and its ways that though this is the only badge which has really any extensive use, it is not a Crown badge in any degree. Although this origin has been disputed it is said to have originated in the fact that one of the Sydney family, when Master of the Ordnance, to prevent disputes as to the stores for which he was responsible, marked everything with his private badge of the broad arrow, and this private badge has since remained in constant use. One wonders at what date the officers of His Majesty will observe that this has become one of His Majesty's recognised badges, and will include it with the other Royal badges in the warrants in which they are recited. Already more than two centuries have passed since it first came into use, and either they should represent to the Government that the pheon is not a Crown mark, and that some recognised Royal badge should be used in its place, or else they should place its status upon a definite footing. Another instance of a badge used at the present day in the ancient manner is the conjoined rose, thistle, and shamrock which is embroidered front and back upon the tunics of the Beefeaters and the Yeomen of the Guard. The crowned harps which are worn by the Royal Irish Constabulary are another instance of the kind, but though a certain number of badges are recited in the warrant each time any alteration or declaration of the Royal Arms occurs, their use has now become very limited. Present badges are the crowned rose for England, the crowned thistle for Scotland, and the crowned trefoil and the crowned harp for Ireland; whilst for the Union there is the conjoined rose, thistle, and shamrock under the crown, and the crowned shield which carries the device of the Union Jack. The badge of Wales, which has existed for long enough, is the uncrowned dragon upon a mount vert, and the crowned cyphers, one within and one without the Garter, are also depicted upon the warrant. These badges, which appear on the Sovereign's warrant, are never assigned to any other member of the Royal Family, of whom {458} the Prince of Wales is the only one who rejoices in the possession of officially assigned badges. The badge of the eldest son of the Sovereign, as such, and not as Prince of Wales, is the plume of three ostrich feathers, enfiled with the circlet from his coronet. Recently an additional badge (on a mount vert, a dragon passant gules, charged on the shoulder with a label of three points argent) has been assigned to His Royal Highness. This action was taken with the desire to in some way gratify the forcibly expressed wishes of Wales, and it is probable that, the precedent having been set, it will be assigned to all those who may bear the title of Prince of Wales in future. The only instances I am personally aware of in which a real badge of ancient origin is still worn by the servants are the cases of the state liveries of the Earl of Yarborough, whose servants wear an embroidered buckle, and of Lord Mowbray and Stourton, whose servants wear an embroidered sledge. The family of Daubeney of Cote still bear the old Daubeney badge of the pair of bat's wings; Lord Stafford still uses his "Stafford knot." I believe the servants of Lord Braye still wear the badge of the hemp-brake, and those of the Earl of Loudoun wear the Hastings maunch; and doubtless there are a few other instances. When the old families were becoming greatly reduced in number, and the nobility and the upper classes were being recruited from families of later origin, the wearing of badges, like so much else connected with heraldry, became lax in its practice. The servants of all the great nobles in ancient days appear to have worn the badges of their masters in a manner similar to the use of the royal badge by the Yeomen of the Guard, although sometimes the badge was embroidered upon the sleeve; and the wearing of the badge by the retainers is the chief and principal use to which badges were anciently put. Nisbet alludes on this point to a paragraph from the Act for the Order of the Riding of Parliament in 1681, which says that "the noblemen's lacqueys may have over their liveries velvet coats with their badges, _i.e._ their crests and mottoes done on plate, or embroidered on the back and breast conform to ancient custom." A curious survival of these plates is to be found in the large silver plaques worn by so many bank messengers. Badges appear, however, to have been frequently depicted semé upon the lambrequins of armorial achievements, as will be seen from many of the old Garter plates; but here, again, it is not always easy to distinguish between definite badges and artistic decoration, nor between actual badges in use and mere appropriately selected charges from the shield. The water-bougets of Lord Berners, the knot of Lord Stafford, popularly known as "the Stafford knot"; the Harington fret; the ragged staff or the bear and the ragged staff of Lord Warwick (this {459} being really a conjunction of two separate devices); the Rose of England, the Thistle of Scotland, and the sledge of Stourton, the hemp-brake of Lord Braye wherever met with are readily recognised as badges, but there are many badges which it is difficult to distinguish from crests, and even some which in all respects would appear to be more correctly regarded as coats of arms. It is a point worthy of consideration whether or not a badge needs a background; here, again, it is a matter most difficult to determine, but it is singular that in any matter of _record_ the badge is almost invariably depicted upon a background, either of a standard or a mantling, or upon the "field" of a roundel, and it may well be that their use in such circumstances as the two cases first mentioned may have only been considered correct when the colour of the mantling or the standard happened to be the right colour for the background of the badge. Badges are most usually met with in stained glass upon roundels of some colour or colours, and though one would hesitate to assert it as an actual fact, there are many instances which would lead one to suppose that the background of a badge was usually the livery colour or colours of its then owner, or of the family from which it was originally inherited. Certain is it that there are very few contemporary instances of badges which, when emblazoned, are not upon the known livery colours; and if this fact be accepted, then one is perhaps justified in assuming all to be livery colours, and we get at once a ready explanation on several points which have long puzzled antiquaries. The name of Edward "the Black Prince" has often been a matter of discussion, and the children's history books tell us that the nickname originated from the colour of his armour. This may be true enough, but as most armour would be black when it was unpolished, and as most armour was either polished or dull, the probabilities are not very greatly in its favour. Though there can be found instances, it was not a usual custom for any one to paint his armour red or green. Even if the armour of the prince were enamelled black it would be so usually hidden by his surcoat that he is hardly likely to have been nicknamed from it. It seems to me far more probable that black was the livery colour of the Black Prince, and that his own retainers and followers wore the livery of black. If that were the case, one understands at once how he would obtain the nickname. The nickname is doubtless contemporary. A curious confirmation of my supposition is met with in the fact that his shield for peace was: "Sable, three ostrich feathers two and one, the quill of each passing through a scroll argent." There we get the undoubted badge of the ostrich feather, which was originally borne singly, depicted upon his livery colour--black. {460} The badges represented in Prince Arthur's Book in the College of Arms (an important source of our knowledge upon the subject) are all upon backgrounds; and the curious divisions of the colours on the backgrounds would seem to show that each badge had its own background, several badges being only met with upon the same ground when that happens to be the true background belonging to them. But in attempting to deduce rules, it should be remembered that in all and every armorial matter there was greater laxity of rule at the period of the actual use of arms as a reality of life than it was possible to permit when the multiplication of arms as paper insignia made regulation necessary and more restrictive; so that an occasional variation from any deduction need not necessarily vitiate the conclusion, even in a matter exclusively relating to the shield. How much more, then, must we remain in doubt when dealing with badges which appear to have been so largely a matter of personal caprice. It is a striking comment that of all the badges presently to be referred to of the Stafford family, each single one is depicted upon a background. It is a noticeable fact that of the eighteen "badges" exemplified as belonging to the family of Stafford, nine are upon parti-coloured fields. This is not an unreasonable proportion if the fields are considered to be the livery colours of the families from whom the badges were originally derived, but it is altogether out of proportion to the number of shields in any roll of arms which would have the field party per pale, or party in any other form of division. With the exception of the second badge, which is on a striped background of green and white, all the party backgrounds are party per pale, which was the most usual way of depicting a livery in the few records which have come down to us of the heraldic use of livery colours, and of the eighteen badges, no less than eight are upon a parti-coloured field of which the dexter is sable and the sinister gules. Scarlet and black are known to have been the livery colours of Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, who was beheaded in 1521. The arms of the town of Buckingham are on a field per pale sable and gules. With regard to the descent of badges and the laws which govern their descent still less is known. The answer to the question, "How did badges descend?" is simple: "Nobody knows." One can only hazard opinions more or less pious, of more or less value. It is distinctly a point upon which it is risky to be dogmatic, and we must wait for the development which will follow the recent revival of the granting of standards. As cases occur for decision precedents will be found and disclosed. Whilst the secrecy of the records of the College of Arms is so jealously preserved it is impossible to speak definitely at present, for an exact and comprehensive knowledge of exact and {461} authoritative instances of fact is necessary before a decision can be definitely put forward. Unless some officer of arms will carefully collate the information which can be gleaned from the records in the College of Arms which are relevant to the subject, it does not seem likely that our knowledge will advance greatly. The grant of supporters to the Earl of Stafford, as under, is worthy of attention. "To all and singular to whom these Presents shall come, John Anstis Esq^r Garter principal King of Arms, sends greeting, Whereas his late Majesty King James the Second by Letters Patents under the Great Seal, did create Henry Stafford Howard to be Earl of Stafford, to have and hold the same to him and the heirs males of his body; and for default thereof to John and Francis his Brothers and the heirs males of their bodies respectively, whereby the said Earldom is now legally vested in the right Hon^{ble} William Stafford Howard Son and Heir of the said John; And in regard that y^e said Henry late Earl of Stafford omitted to take any Grant of Supporters, which the Peers of this Realm have an indisputable Right to use and bear, the right Hon^{ble} Henry Bowes Howard Earl of Berkshire Deputy (with the Royal Approbation) of his Grace Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk Earl Marshall and Hereditary Marshall of England hath been pleased to direct me to grant to the said right Hon^{ble} William Stafford Howard Earl of Stafford the Supporters formerly granted to y^e late Viscount Stafford, Grandfather to the said Earl; as also to order me to cause to be depicted in the Margin of my said Grant y^e Arms of Thomas of Woodstock Duke of Gloucester quartered with the Arms of the said Earl of Stafford, together with the Badges of the said Noble Family of Stafford: Now these presents Witness that according to the consent of the said Earl of Berkshire signified under his Lordship's hand and seal I do by the Authority and power annexed to my Office hereby grant and assign to y^e said Right Honourable William Stafford Howard Earl of Stafford, the following Supporters which were heretofore borne by the late Lord Viscount Stafford, that is to say, on the Dexter side a Lion Argent, and on the Sinister Side a Swan surgiant Argent Gorged with a Ducal Coronet per Pale Gules and sable beaked and membered of the Second; to be used and borne at all times and upon all occasions by the said Earl of Stafford and the heirs males of his body, and such persons to whom the said Earldom shall descend according to the Law and Practice of Arms without the let or interruption of any Person or Persons whatsoever. And in pursuance of the Warrant of the said Earl of Berkshire, The Arms of Thomas of Woodstock Duke of Gloucester, as the same are on a Plate remaining in the Chapel of S^t George within y^e Castle of Windsor, set up there for his Descendant the Duke of Buckingham {462} are depicted in the margin, and quartered in such place and manner as the same were formerly borne by the Staffords Dukes of Buckingham, together with Eighteen badges belonging to the said most ancient and illustrious Family of Stafford, as the same are represented in a Manuscript remaining in the College of Arms (Fig. 674). In Witness whereof I the said Garter have hereto subscribed my Name and affixed the Seal of my Office this First Day of August Anno Domini 1720. "JOHN ANSTIS Garter "Principal King of Arms." [Illustration: FIG. 674.--The Stafford Badges as exemplified in 1720 to William Stafford Howard, Earl of Stafford.] {463} It may be of interest to call attention to the fact that in this exemplification the Royal Arms are displayed before those of Stafford. On the face of it, the document--as far as it relates to the badges--is no more than a certificate or exemplification, in which case it is undoubted evidence that badges descend to the heir-general as do quarterings; but there is the possibility that the document is a re-grant in the nature of an exemplification following a Royal Licence, or a re-grant to remove uncertainty as to the attainder. And if the document--as far as its relation to the badges goes--has any of the character of a grant, it can have but little value as evidence of the descent of badges. It is remarkable that it is absolutely silent as to the future destination of the badges. The real fact is that the whole subject of the descent and devolution of badges is shrouded in mystery. Each of the badges (Fig. 674) is depicted within a circle adorned with a succession of Stafford knots, as is shown in the one instance at the head. Five of these badges appear upon a well-known portrait of Edward, Duke of Buckingham. The fact that some of these _badges_ are really crests depicted upon wreaths goes far as an authority for the use of a crest upon livery buttons for the purposes of a badge. In ancient days all records seemed to point to the fact that badges were personal, and that though they were worn by the retainers, they were the property of _the head_ of the family, rather than (as the arms) of the whole family, and though the information available is meagre to the last degree, it would appear probable that in all cases where their use by other members of the family than the head of the house can be proved, the likelihood is that the cadets would render feudal service and would wear the badge as retainers of the man whose standard they followed into battle, so that we should expect to find the badge following the same descent as the peerage, together with the lands and liabilities which accompanied it. This undoubtedly makes for the inheritance of a badge upon the same line of descent as a barony by writ, and such a method of inheritance accounts for the known descent of most of the badges heraldically familiar to us. Probably we shall be right in so accepting it as the ancient rule of inheritance. But, on the other hand, a careful examination of the "Book of Standards," now preserved in the College of Arms, provides several examples charged with marks of cadency. But here again one is in ignorance whether this is an admission of inheritance by cadets, or whether the cases should be considered as grants of differenced versions to cadets. This then gives us the badge, the property in and of which would descend to the heir-general (and perhaps also to cadets), whilst it would be used (if there were no inherited right) in token of allegiance or service, actual, quasi-actual, {464} or sentimental, by the cadets of the house and their servants; for whilst the use of the cockade is a survival of the right to be waited on and served by a soldier servant, the use of a badge by a cadet may be a survival and reminder of the day when (until they married heiresses and continued or founded other families) the cadets of a house owed and gave military service to the head of their own family, and in return were supported by him. From the wording of the recent grants of badges I believe the intention, however, is that the badge is to descend of right to all of those people on whom a right to it would devolve if it were a quartering. The use of badges having been so limited, the absence of rule and regulation leaves it very much a matter of personal taste how badges, where they exist, shall be heraldically depicted, and perhaps it is better to leave their manner of display to artistic requirements. The most usual place, when depicted in conjunction with an achievement, is on either side of the crest, and they may well be placed in that position. Where they exist, however, they ought undoubtedly to be continued in use upon the liveries of the servants, and the present practice is for them to be placed on the livery buttons, and embroidered upon the epaulettes or on the sleeves of state liveries. Undoubtedly the former practice of placing the badge upon the servants' livery is the precursor of the present vogue of placing crests upon livery buttons, and many heraldic writers complain of the impropriety of placing the crest in such a position. I am not sure that I myself may not have been guilty in this way; but when one bears in mind the number of cases in which the badge and the crest are identical, and when, as in the above instance, devices which are undoubtedly crests are exemplified as and termed badges, even as such being represented upon wreaths, and even in that form granted upon standards, whilst in other cases the action has been the reverse, it leaves one under the necessity of being careful in making definite assertions. Having dealt with the laws (if there ever were any) and the practice concerning the use and display of badges in former days, it will be of interest to notice some of those which were anciently in use. I have already referred to the badge of the ostrich feathers, now borne exclusively by the heir-apparent to the throne. The old legend that the Black Prince won the badge at the battle of Crecy by the capture of John, King of Bohemia, together with the motto "Ich dien," has been long since exploded. Sir Harris Nicolas brought to notice the fact that among certain pieces of plate belonging to Queen Philippa of Hainault was a large silver-gilt dish enamelled with a black escutcheon with ostrich feathers, "vuo scuch nigro cum pennis de {465} ostrich," and upon the strength of that, suggested that the ostrich feather was probably originally a badge of the Counts of Hainault derived from the County of Ostrevaus, a title which was held by their eldest sons. The suggestion in itself seems probable enough and may be correct, but it would not account for the use of the ostrich feathers by the Mowbray family, who did not descend from the marriage of Edward III. and Philippa of Hainault. Contemporary proof of the use of badges is often difficult to find. The Mowbrays had many badges, and certainly do not appear to have made any very extensive use of the ostrich feathers. But there seems to be very definite authority for the existence of the badge. There is in one of the records of the College of Arms (R. 22, 67), which is itself a copy of another record, the following statement:-- "The discent of Mowbray written at length in lattin from the Abby booke of newborough wherein Rich 2 gaue to Thomas Duke of norff. & Erle Marshall the armes of Saint Edward Confessor in theis words: "Et dedit eidem Thome ad pertandum in sigillo et vexillo quo arma S^{ti} Edwardi. Idcirco arma bipartata portavit scil' 't Sci Edwardi et domini marcialis angliæ cum duabus pennis strutionis erectis et super crestam leonem et duo parva scuta cum leonibus et utraq' parto predictorum armorum." [Illustration: FIG. 675.--The arms granted by King Richard II. to Thomas de Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, and showing the ostrich feather badges.] Accompanying this is a rough-tricked sketch of the arms upon which the illustration (Fig. 675) has been based. Below this extract in the College Records is written in another hand: "I find this then {466} in ye chancell window of Effingham by Bungay in the top of the cot window with Mowbraye & Segrave on the side in glass there." Who the writer was I am unaware. He appends a further sketch to his note, which slightly differs. No helmet or crest is shown, and the central shield has only the arms of Brotherton. The feathers which flank it are both enfiled below the shield by one coronet. Of the smaller shields at the side, the dexter bears the arms of Mowbray and the sinister those of Segrave. Possibly the Mowbrays, as recognised members of the Royal Family, bore the badge by subsequent grant and authorisation and not on the simple basis of inheritance. An ostrich feather piercing a scroll was certainly the favourite badge of the Black Prince and so appears on several of his seals, and triplicated it occurs on his "shield of peace" (Fig. 478), which, set up under the instructions in his will, still remains on his monument in Canterbury Cathedral. The arms of Sir Roger de Clarendon, the illegitimate son of the Black Prince, were derived from this "shield for peace," which I take it was not really a coat of arms at all, but merely the badge of the Prince depicted upon his livery colour, and which might equally have been displayed upon a roundle. In the form of a shield bearing three feathers the badge occurs on the obverse of the second seal of Henry IV. in 1411. A single ostrich feather with the motto "Ich dien" upon the scroll is to be seen on the seal of Edward, Duke of York, who was killed at the battle of Agincourt in 1415. Henry IV. as Duke of Lancaster placed on either side of his escutcheon an ostrich feather with a garter or belt carrying the motto "Sovereygne" _twined around_ the feather, John of Gaunt used the badge with a chain laid along the quill, and Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, used it with a garter and buckle instead of the chain; whilst John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, placed an ostrich feather on each side of his shield, the quills in his case being compony argent and azure, like the bordure round his arms. [Illustration: FIG. 676.--Seal of King James II. for the Duchy of Lancaster.] There is a note in Harl. MS. 304, folio 12, which, if it be strictly accurate, is of some importance. It is to the effect that the "feather silver with the pen gold is the King's, the ostrich feather pen and all silver is the Prince's (_i.e._ the Prince of Wales), and the ostrich feather gold the pen ermine is the Duke of Lancaster's." That statement evidently relates to a time when the three were in existence contemporaneously, _i.e._ before the accession of Henry IV. In the reign of Richard II. there was no Prince of Wales. During the reign of Edward III. from 1376 onwards, Richard, afterwards Richard II., was Prince of Wales, and John of Gaunt was Duke of Lancaster (so cr. 1362). But John of Gaunt used the feather in the form above stated, and to find a Duke of Lancaster _before_ John of Gaunt we must go {467} back to before 1360, when we have Edward III. as King, the Black Prince as Prince, and Henry of Lancaster (father-in-law of John of Gaunt) as Duke of Lancaster. He derived from Henry III., and like the Mowbrays had no blood descent from Philippa of Hainault. A curious confirmation of my suggestion that black was the livery colour of the Black Prince is found in the fact that there was in a window in St. Dunstan's Church, London, within a wreath of roses a roundle per pale sanguine and azure (these being unquestionably livery colours), a plume of ostrich feathers argent, quilled or, enfiled by a scroll bearing the words "Ich dien." Above was the Prince's coronet and the letters E. & P., one on each side of the plume. This was intended for Edward VI., doubtless being erected in the reign of Henry VIII. The badge in the form in which we know it, _i.e._ enfiled by the princely coronet, dates from about the beginning of the Stuart dynasty, since when it appears to have been exclusively reserved for the eldest son and heir-apparent to the throne. At the same time the right to the display of the badge would appear to have been reserved by the Sovereign, and Woodward remarks:-- "On the Privy Seals of our Sovereigns the ostrich feather is still employed as a badge. The shield of arms is usually placed between two lions sejant guardant addorsed, each holding the feather. On the Privy Seal of Henry VIII. the feathers are used without the lions, and this was the case on the majority of the seals of the Duchy of Lancaster. On the reverse of the present seal of the Duchy the feathers appear to be ermine." [Illustration: FIG. 677.--Badge of King Henry II.] [Illustration: FIG. 678.--Badge of Edward IV.] Fig. 676 shows the seal of James II. for the Duchy of Lancaster. The seal of the Lancashire County Council shows a shield supported by two talbots sejant addorsed, each supporting in the exterior paw an ostrich feather semé-de-lis. It is possible that the talbots may be intended for lions and the fleurs-de-lis for ermine spots. The silver swan, one of the badges of King Henry V., was used also by Henry IV. It was derived from the De Bohuns, Mary de Bohun being the wife of Henry IV. From the De Bohuns it has been traced to the Mandevilles, Earls of Essex, who may have adopted it to typify their descent from Adam Fitz Swanne, _temp._ Conquest. Fig. 33 on the same plate is the white hart of Richard II. Although some have traced this badge from the white hind used as a badge by Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent, the mother of Richard II., it is probably a device punning upon his name, "Rich-hart." Richard II. was not the heir of his mother. The heir was his half-brother, Thomas Holand, Earl of Kent, who _did_ use the badge of the hind, and perhaps the real truth is that the Earl of Kent having the better claim to the hind, Richard was under the necessity of making an alteration which the obvious pun upon his {468} name suggested. There is no doubt that the crest of Ireland originated therefrom. The stag in this case was undoubtedly "lodged" in the earliest versions, and I have been much interested in tracing the steps by which the springing attitude has developed owing to the copying of badly drawn examples. Amongst the many Royal and other badges in this country there are some of considerable interest. Fig. 677 represents the famous badge of the "broom-cod" or "planta genista," from which the name of the dynasty was derived. It appears to have been first used by King Henry II., though it figures in the decoration of the tomb of Geoffrey, Count of Anjou. "Peascod" Street in Windsor of course derives its name therefrom. The well-known badges of the white and red roses of York and Lancaster have been already referred to, and Fig. 678, the well-known device of the "rose-en-soliel" used by King Edward IV., was really a combination of two distinct badges, viz. "the blazing sun of York" and the "white rose of York." The rose again appears in 679, here dimidiated with the pomegranate of Catharine of Aragon. This is taken from the famous Tournament Roll (now in the College of Arms), which relates to the Tournament, 13th and 14th of February 1510, to celebrate the birth of Prince Henry. [Illustration: FIG. 679.--Compound Badge of Henry VIII. and Catharine of Aragon. (From the Westminster Tournament Roll.)] [Illustration: FIG. 680.--Badge of Richard I.] [Illustration: FIG. 681.--Two badges of Henry VII., viz. the "sun-burst" and the crowned portcullis.] Richard I., John, and Henry III. are all said to have used the device of the crescent and star (Fig. 680). Henry VII. is best known by his two badges of the crowned portcullis and the "sun-burst" (Fig. 681). The suggested origin of the former, that it was a pun on the name Tudor (_i.e._ two-door) is confirmed by the motto "Altera securitas" which was used with it, but at the same time is rather vitiated by the fact that it was also used by the Beauforts, who had {469} no Tudor descent. Save a very tentative remark hazarded by Woodward, no explanation has as yet been suggested for the sun-burst. My own strong conviction, based on the fact that this particular badge was principally used by Henry VII., who was always known as Henry of Windsor, is that it is nothing more than an attempt to pictorially represent the name "Windsor" by depicting "winds" of "or." The badge is also attributed to Edward III., and he, like Henry VII., made his principal residence at Windsor. Edward IV. also used the white lion of March (whence is derived the shield of Ludlow: "Azure, a lion couchant guardant, between three roses argent," Ludlow being one of the fortified towns in the Welsh Marches), and the black bull which, though often termed "of Clarence," is generally associated with the Duchy of Cornwall. Richard III., as Duke of Gloucester, used a white boar. The Earl of Northumberland used a silver crescent; the Earl of Douglas, a red hart; the Earl of Pembroke, a golden pack-horse with collar and traces; Lord Hastings bore as badge a black bull's head erased, gorged with a coronet; Lord Stanley, a golden griffin's leg, erased; Lord Howard, a white lion charged on the shoulder with a blue crescent; Sir Richard Dunstable adopted a white cock as a badge; Sir John Savage, a silver unicorn's head erased; Sir Simon Montford, a golden lily; Sir William Gresham, a green grasshopper. [Illustration: FIG. 682.--Badge of the Duke of Suffolk.] [Illustration: FIG. 683.--Badge of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk.] [Illustration: FIG. 684.--Stafford Knot.] [Illustration: FIG. 685.--Wake or Ormonde Knot.] [Illustration: FIG. 686.--Bourchier Knot.] [Illustration: FIG. 687.--Heneage Knot.] Two curious badges are to be seen in Figs. 682 and 683. The former is an ape's clog argent, chained or, and was used by William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk (d. 1450). Fig. 683, "a salet silver" (MS. Coll. of Arms, 2nd M. 16), is the badge of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk (d. 1524). Various families used knots of different design, of which the best known is the Stafford knot (Fig. 684). The wholesale and improper appropriation of this badge with a territorial application has unfortunately caused it to be very generally referred to as a "Staffordshire" knot, and that it was the personal badge of the Lords Stafford is too often overlooked. Other badge knots are the Wake or Ormonde knot (Fig. 685), the Bourchier knot (Fig. 686), and the Heneage knot (Fig. 687). {470} The personal badges of the members of the Royal Family continued in use until the reign of Queen Anne, but from that time forward the Royal badges obtained a territorial character; the rose of England, the thistle of Scotland, and the shamrock of Ireland. To these popular consent has added the lotus-flower for India, the maple for Canada, and in a lesser degree the wattle or mimosa for Australia; but at present these lack any official confirmation. The two first named, nevertheless, figured on the Coronation Invitation Cards. {471} CHAPTER XXX HERALDIC FLAGS, BANNERS, AND STANDARDS When it comes to the display of flags, the British-born individual usually makes a hash of the whole business, and flies either the Sovereign's personal coat of arms, which really should only be made use of over a residence of the Sovereign when the Sovereign is actually there, or flown at sea when the Sovereign is on board; or else he uses the national flag, colloquially termed the "Union Jack," which, strictly speaking, and as a matter of law, ought never to be made use of on land except over the residence of the Sovereign in his absence, or on a fortress or other Government building. But recently an official answer has been given in Parliament, declaring what is presumably the pleasure of His Majesty to the effect that the Union Jack is the National Flag, and may be flown as such on land by any British subject. If this is the intention of the Crown, it is a pity that this permission has not been embodied in a Royal warrant. The banner of St. George, which is a white flag with a plain red cross of St. George throughout, is now appropriated to the Order of the Garter, of which St. George is the patron saint, though I am by no means inclined to assert that it would be incorrect to make use of it upon a church which happened to be specifically placed under the patronage of St. George. The white ensign, which is a white flag bearing the cross of St. George and in the upper quarter next to the staff a reproduction of the Union device, belongs to the Royal Navy, and certain privileged individuals to whom the right has been given by a specific warrant. The blue ensign, which is a plain blue flag with the Union device on a canton in the upper corner next the staff, belongs to the Royal Naval Reserve; and the red ensign, which is the same as the former, except that a red flag is substituted for the blue one, belongs to the ships of the merchant service. These three flags have been specifically called into being by specific warrants for certain purposes which are stated in these warrants, and these purposes being wholly connected with the sea, neither the blue, the red, nor the white ensign ought to be hoisted on land by anybody. Of course there is no penalty for doing so on {472} land, though very drastic penalties can be enforced for misuse of these ensigns on the water, a step which is taken frequently enough. For a private person to use any one of these three flags on land for a private purpose, the only analogy which I can suggest to bring home to people the absurdity of such action would be to instance a private person for his own private pleasure adopting the exact uniform of some regiment whenever he might feel inclined to go bathing in the sea. If he were to do so, he would find under the recent Act that he had incurred the penalty, which would be promptly enforced, for bringing His Majesty's uniform into disrepute. It is much to be wished that the penalties exacted for the wrongful display of these flags at sea should be extended to their abuse on shore. The development of the Union Jack and the warrants relating to it are dealt with herein by the Rev. J. R. Crawford, M.A., in a subsequent chapter, and I do not propose to further deal with the point, except to draw attention to a proposal, which is very often mooted, that some change or addition to the Union Jack should be made to typify the inclusion of the colonies. But to begin with, what is the Union Jack? Probably most would be inclined to answer, "The flag of the Empire." It is nothing of the kind. It is in a way stretching the definition to describe it as the King's flag. Certainly the design of interlaced crosses is a badge of the King's, but that badge is of a later origin than the flag. The flag itself is the fighting emblem of the Sovereign, which the Sovereign has declared shall be used by his soldiers or sailors for fighting purposes under certain specified circumstances. That it is used, even officially, in all sorts of circumstances with which the King's warrants are not concerned is beside the matter, for it is to the Royal Warrants that one must refer for the theory of the thing. Now let us go further back, and trace the "argent, a cross gules," the part which is England's contribution to the Union Jack, which itself is a combination of the "crosses" of St. George, St. Andrew, and St. Patrick. The theory of one is the theory of the three, separately or conjoined. "Argent, a cross gules" was never the coat of arms of England (except under the Commonwealth, when its use for armorial purposes may certainly be disregarded), and the reason it came to be regarded as the flag of England is simply and solely because fighting was always done under the supposed patronage of some saint, and England fought, _not_ under the arms of England, but under the flag of St. George, the patron saint of England and of the Order of the Garter. The battle-cry "St. George for Merrie England!" is too well known to need more than the passing mention. Scotland fought under St. Andrew; Ireland, by a similar analogy, had for its patron saint St. Patrick (if {473} indeed there was a Cross of St. Patrick before one was needed for the Union flag, which is a very doubtful point), and the Union Jack was not the combination of three territorial flags, but the combination of the recognised emblems of the three recognised saints, and though England claimed the sovereignty of France, and for that reason quartered the arms of France, no Englishman bothered about the patronage of St. Denis, and the emblem of St. Denis was never flown in this country. The fact that no change was ever made in the flag to typify Hanover, whilst Hanover duly had its place upon the arms, proves that the flag was recognised to be, and allowed to remain, the emblem of the three patron saints under whose patronage the British fought, and not the badge of any sovereignty or territorial area. If the colonies had already any saint of their own under whose patronage they had fought in bygone days, or in whose name they wished to fight in the future, there might be reason _for including the emblem of that saint_ upon the fighting flag of the Empire; but they have no recognised saintly patrons, and they may just as well fight for our saints as choose others for themselves at so late a day; but having a flag which is a _combination_ of the emblems of three saints, and which contains nothing that is not a part of those emblems, to make any addition heraldic or otherwise to it now would, in my opinion, be best expressed by the following illustration. Imagine three soldiers in full and complete uniform, one English, one Scottish, and one Irish, it being desired to evolve a uniform that should be taken from all three for use by a Union regiment. A tunic from one, trousers from another, and a helmet from a third, might be blended into a very effective and harmonious composite uniform. Following the analogy of putting a bordure, which is not the emblem of a saint, round the recognised emblems of the three recognised saints, and considering it to be in keeping because the bordure was heraldic and the emblems heraldic, one might argue, that because a uniform was clothing as was also a ballet-dancer's skirt, therefore a ballet-dancer's skirt outside the whole would be in keeping with the rest of the uniform. For myself I should dislike any addition to the Union device, as much as we should deride the donning of tulle skirts outside their tunics and trousers by the brigade of Guards. The flag which should float from a church tower should have no more on it than the recognised ecclesiastical emblems of the saint to whom it is dedicated: the keys of St. Peter, the wheel of St. Catherine, the sword of St. Paul, the cross and martlets of St. Edmund, the lily of St. Mary, the emblem of the Holy Trinity, or whatever the emblem may be of the saint in question. (The alternative for a church is the banner of St. George, the patron saint of the realm.) The flags upon public buildings should bear the arms of the corporate bodies to whom those {474} buildings belong. The flag to be flown by a private person, as the law now stands, should bear that person's private arms, if he has any, and if he has not he should be content to forego the pleasures arising from the use of bunting. A private flag should be double its height in length. The entire surface should be occupied by the coat of arms. These flags of arms are _banners_, and it is quite a misnomer to term the banner of the Royal Arms the Royal Standard. The flags of arms hung over the stalls of the Knights of the Garter, St. Patrick, and the former Knights of the Bath are properly, and are always termed _banners_. The term _standard_ properly refers to the long tapering flag used in battle, and under which an overlord mustered his retainers in battle. This did _not_ display his armorial bearings. Next to the staff usually came the cross of St. George, which was depicted, of course, on a white field. This occupied rather less than one-third of the standard. The remainder of the standard was of the colour or colours of the livery, and thereupon was represented all sorts of devices, usually the badges and sometimes the crest. The motto was usually on transverse bands, which frequently divided the standard into compartments for the different badges. These mottoes from their nature are _not_ war-cries, but undoubtedly relate and belong to the badges with which they appear in conjunction. The whole banner was usually fringed with the livery colours, giving the effect of a bordure compony. The use of standards does not seem, except for the ceremonial purposes of funerals, to have survived the Tudor period, this doubtless being the result of the creation of the standing army in the reign of Henry VIII. The few exotic standards, _e.g._, remaining from the Jacobite rebellion, seldom conform to the old patterns, but although the shape is altered, the artistic character largely remains in the regimental colours of the present day with their assorted regimental badges and scrolls with the names of battle honours. With the recent revival of the granting of badges the standard has again been brought into use as the vehicle to carry the badge (Plate VIII.). The arms are now placed next the staff, and upon the rest of the field the badge is repeated or alternated with the crest. Badges and standards are now granted to any person already possessing a right to arms and willing to pay the necessary fees. PLATE VIII. [Illustration] The armorial use of the banner in connection with the display of heraldic achievements is very limited in this country. In the case of the Marquess of Dufferin and Ava the banner or flag is an integral and unchangeable part of the heraldic supporters, and in Ross-of-Bladensburg, _e.g._, it is similarly an integral part of the crest. In the warrant of augmentation granted to H.M. Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain on her marriage, banners of the Royal Arms of {475} England were placed in the paws of her supporters. Other cases where arms have been depicted on banners are generally no more than matters of artistic design; but in the arms of Scotland as matriculated in Lyon Register for King Charles II. the supporters are accompanied by banners, the dexter being of the arms of Scotland, and the sinister the banner of St. Andrew. These banners possess rather a different character, and approach very closely to the German use. The same practice has been followed in the seals of the Duchy of Lancaster, inasmuch as on the obverse of the seal of George IV. and the seal of Queen Victoria the Royal supporters hold banners of the arms of England and of the Duchy (_i.e._ England, a label for difference). James I. on his Great Seal had the banners of Cadwallader (azure, a cross patté fitché or) and King Edgar (azure, a cross patonce between four martlets or), and on the Great Seal of Charles I. the dexter supporter holds a banner of St. George, and the sinister a banner of St. Andrew. [Illustration: FIG. 688.--"Middle" arms of the Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg. (From Ströhl's _Deutsche Wappenrolle_.)] Of the heraldic use of the banner in Germany Ströhl writes:-- "The banner appears in a coat of arms, either in the hands or paws of the supporters (Fig. 688), also set up behind the shield, or the pavilion, as, for instance, in the larger achievement of his Majesty the German Emperor, in the large achievement of the kingdom of Prussia, of the dukedom of Saxe-Altenburg, and further in the Arms of State of Italy, Russia, Roumania, &c. "Banners on the shield as charges, or on the helmet as a crest, are here, of course, not in question, but only those banners which serve as _Prachtstücke_ (appendages of magnificence). "The banners of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are long and narrow, and frequently run in stripes, like battlements. However, in {476} the second half of the thirteenth century flags were also to be met with, with the longer side attached to the stick. Later on the banners became more square, and show on the top a long strip, generally of another colour, the _Schwenkel_ (_i.e._ something that flourishes), waves to and fro. To bear a red _Schwenkel_ was a special privilege, similar to the right of sealing with red wax. "The ecclesiastical banner has three points, and is provided with rings on the top in order that it may be fastened to the stick by them, in an oblique position. "The banner always represents the field of the shield, and assumes accordingly its tincture. The charges of the shield should be placed upon the banner without the outline of a shield, and the edge against the flag-staff is considered the dexter; it follows from this that the figure must be turned towards it. "For instance, if the shield bear the following arms, argent an eagle gules, the same figure, suited to the size of the flag, appears on the banner, with its head turned towards the staff. If it be wished to represent only the _colours_ of the arms upon the flag, that of the charge is placed above, and that of the field below. Thus, for example, the Prussian flag is black and white, corresponding to the black eagle on the silver field; the flag of Hohenzollern is white and black, corresponding to their coat of arms, quartered silver and black, because in the latter case, so soon as a heraldic representation is available, from the position of the coloured fields, the correct order of the tinctures is determined." {477} CHAPTER XXXI MARKS OF CADENCY The manner in which cadency is indicated in heraldic emblazonment forms one of the most important parts of British armory, but our own intricate and minutely detailed systems are a purely British development of armory. I do not intend by the foregoing remark to assert that the occasional use, or even, as in some cases, the constant use of altered arms for purposes of indicating cadency is unknown on the Continent, because different branches of one family are constantly found using, for the purposes of distinction, variations of the arms appertaining to the head of their house; in France especially the bordure has been extensively used, but the fact nevertheless remains that in no other countries is there found an organised system or set of rules for the purpose. Nor is this idea of the indication of cadency wholly a modern development, though some, in fact most, of the rules presently in force are no doubt a result of modern requirements, and do not date back to the earliest periods of heraldry in this country. The obligation of cadet lines to difference their arms was recognised practically universally in the fourteenth century; and when, later, the systematic use of differencing seemed in danger of being ignored, it was made the subject of specific legislation. In the treatise of ZYPOEUS, _de Notitia juris Belgici_, lib. xii., quoted also in MENETRIER, _Recherches du Blazon_, p. 218, we find the following:-- "Ut secundo et ulterius geniti, quinimo primogeniti vivo patre, integra insignia non gerant, sed aliqua nota distincta, ut perpetuo linæ dignosci possint, et ex qua quique descendant, donec anteriores defecerint. Exceptis Luxenburgis et Gueldris, quibus non sunt ii mores." (The exception is curious.) The choice of these _brisures_, as marks of difference are often termed, was, however, left to the persons concerned; and there is, consequently, a great variety of differences or differentiation marks which seem to have been used for the purpose. The term "brisure" is really French, whilst the German term for these marks is "Beizeichen." British heraldry, on the contrary, is remarkable for its use of two {478} distinct sets of rules--the English and the Scottish--the Irish system being identical with the former. To understand the question of cadency it is necessary to revert to the status of a coat of arms in early periods. In the first chapter we dealt with the origin of armory; and in a subsequent chapter with the status of a coat of arms in Great Britain, and it will therefrom have been apparent that arms, and a right to them, developed in this country as an adjunct of, or contemporaneously with, the extension of the feudal system. Every landowner was at one time required to have his seal--presumably, of arms--and as a result arms were naturally then considered to possess something of a territorial character. I do not by this mean to say that the arms belonged to the land and were transferable with the sale and purchase thereof. There never was in this country a period at which such an idea held; nor were arms originally entirely personal or individual. They belonged rather to a position half-way between the two. They were the arms of a given family, originating because that family held land and accepted the consequent responsibilities thereto belonging, but the arms appertained for the time being to the member of that family who owned the land, and that this is the true idea of the former status of a coat of arms is perhaps best evidenced by the Grey and Hastings controversy, which engaged the attention of the Court of Chivalry for several years prior to 1410. The decision and judgment in the case gave the undifferenced arms of Hastings to the heir-general (Grey de Ruthyn), the heir-male (Sir Edward Hastings) being found only capable of bearing the arms of Hastings subject to some mark of difference. This case, and the case of Scrope and Grosvenor, in which the king's award was that the bordure was not sufficient difference for a stranger in blood, being only the mark of a cadet, show clearly that the status of a coat of arms in early times was that in its undifferenced state it belonged to one person only for the time being, and that person the head of the family, though it should be noted that the term "Head of the Family" seems to have been interpreted into the one who held the lands of the family--whether he were heir-male or heir-general being apparently immaterial. This much being recognised, it follows that some means were needed to be devised to differentiate the armorial bearings of the younger members of the family. Of course the earliest definite instances of any attempt at a systematic "differencing" for cadency which can be referred to are undoubtedly those cases presented by the arms of the younger members of the Royal Family in England. These cases, however, it is impossible to take as precedents. Royal Arms have always, from the very earliest times, been a law unto themselves, {479} subject only to the will of the Sovereign, and it is neither safe nor correct to deduce precedents to be applied to the arms of subjects from proved instances concerning the Royal Arms. Probably, apart from these, the earliest mark of cadency which is to be met with in heraldry is the label (Fig. 689) used to indicate the eldest son, and this mark of difference dates back far beyond any other regularised methods applicable to "younger" sons. The German name for the label is "Turnierkragen," _i.e._ Tournament Collar, which may indicate the origin of this curious figure. Probably the use of the label can be taken back to the middle or early part of the thirteenth century, but the opportunity and necessity of marking the arms of the heir-apparent temporarily, he having the expectation of eventually succeeding to the undifferenced arms, is a very different matter to the other opportunities for the use of marks of cadency. The lord and his heir were the two most important members of the family, and all others sunk their identity in their position in the household of their chief unless they were established by marriage, or otherwise, in lordships of their own, in which cases they are usually found to have preferred the arms of the family from whom they inherited the lordships they enjoyed; and their identities being to such a large extent overlooked, the necessity for any system of marking the arms of a younger son was not so early apparent as the necessity for marking the arms of the heir. [Illustration: FIG. 689.--The label.] The label does not appear to have been originally confined exclusively to the heir. It was at first the only method of differencing known, and it is not therefore to be wondered at that we find that it was frequently used by other cadets, who used it with no other meaning than to indicate that they were not the Head of the House. It has, consequently, in some few cases [for example, in the arms of Courtenay (Fig. 246), Babington, and Barrington] become stereotyped as a charge, and is continuously and unchangeably used as such, whereas doubtless it may have been no more originally than a mere mark of cadency. The label was originally drawn with its upper edge identical with the top of the shield (Fig. 520), but later its position on the shield was lowered. The number of points on the label was at first without meaning, a five-pointed label occurring in Fig. 690 and a seven-pointed one in Fig. 235. In the Roll of Caerlaverock the label is repeatedly referred to. Of Sir MAURICE DE BERKELEY it is expressly declared that "... un label de asur avoit, Porce qe ces peres vivoit." {480} Sir PATRICK DUNBAR, son of the Earl of LOTHIAN (_i.e._ of MARCH), then bore arms similar to his father, with the addition of a label "azure." On the other hand, Sir JOHN DE SEGRAVE is said to bear his deceased father's arms undifferenced, while his younger brother NICHOLAS carries them with a label "gules"; and in the case of EDMUND DE HASTINGS the label is also assigned to a younger brother. Further proof of its being thus borne by cadets is furnished by the evidence in the GREY and HASTINGS controversy in the reign of HENRY IV., from which it appeared that the younger line of the HASTINGS family had for generations differenced the paternal coat by a label of three points; and, as various knights and esquires had deposed to this label being the cognisance of the nearest heir, it was argued that the defendant's ancestors would not have borne their arms in this way had they not been the reputed next heirs of the family of the Earl of PEMBROKE. The label will be seen in Figs. 690, 691, and 692, though its occurrence in the last case in each of the quarters is most unusual. The argent label on the arms for the Sovereignty of Man is a curious confirmation of the reservation of an argent label for Royalty. [Illustration: FIG. 690.--Arms of John de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln (d. 1240): Quarterly, or and gules, a bend sable, and a label argent. (MS. Cott. Nero, D. 1.)] [Illustration: FIG. 691.--Arms of John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln (son of John, Duke of Suffolk), d. 1487: Quarterly, 1 and 4, azure, a fess between three leopards' faces or; 2 and 3, per fess gules and argent, a lion rampant queue fourché or, armed and langued azure, over all a label argent. (From his seal.)] [Illustration: FIG. 692.--Arms of William Le Scrope, Earl of Wiltes (d. 1399): Quarterly, 1 and 4, the arms of the Isle of Man, a label argent; 2 and 3, azure, a bend or, a label gules. (From Willement's Roll, sixteenth century.)] WILLIAM RUTHVEN, Provost of PERTH, eldest son of the Master of RUTHVEN, bore a label of four points in 1503. Two other instances may be noticed of a label borne by a powerful younger brother. One is WALTER STEWART, Earl of MENTEITH, the fourth High Steward, in 1292; and we find the label again on the seal of his son ALEXANDER STEWART, Earl of MENTEITH. At Caerlaverock, HENRY of Lancaster, brother and successor of THOMAS, Earl of LANCASTER-- "Portait les armes son frère Au beau bastoun sans label," _i.e._ he bore the Royal Arms, differenced by a bendlet "azure." {481} JANE FENTOUN, daughter and heir-apparent of WALTER FENTOUN of Baikie, bore a label in 1448, and dropped it after her father's death. This is apparently an instance quite unique. I know of no other case where the label has been used by a woman as a mark of difference. In FRANCE the label was the chief recognised mode of difference, though the bend and the bordure are frequently to be met with. In GERMANY, SPENER tells us that the use of the label, though occasional, was not infrequent: "Sicuti in Gallia vix alius discerniculorum modus frequentior est, ita rariora exempla reperimus in Germania," and he gives a few examples, though he is unable to assign the reason for its assumption as a hereditary bearing. The most usual method of differencing in Germany was by the alteration of the tinctures or by the alteration of the charges. As an example of the former method, the arms of the Bavarian family of Parteneck may be instanced (Figs. 693 to 697), all representing the arms of different branches of the same family. [Illustration: FIG. 693.--Parteneck.] [Illustration: FIG. 694.--Cammer.] [Illustration: FIG. 695.--Cammerberg.] [Illustration: FIG. 696.--Hilgertshauser.] [Illustration: FIG. 697.--Massenhauser.] Next to the use of the label in British heraldry came the use of the bordure, and the latter as a mark of cadency can at any rate be traced back _as a well-established matter of rule_ and precedent as far as the Scrope and Grosvenor controversy in the closing years of the fourteenth century. At the period when the bordure as a difference is to be most frequently met with in English heraldry, it never had any more definite status or meaning than a sign that the bearer was _not_ the head of the house, though one cannot but think that in many cases in which it occurs its significance is a doubt as to legitimate descent, or a doubt of the probability of an asserted descent. In modern _English_ practice the bordure as a difference for cadets only continues to be used by those whose ancestors bore it in ancient times. Its other use as a modern mark of illegitimacy is dealt with in the chapter upon marks of illegitimacy, but the curious and unique _Scottish_ system of cadency bordures will be presently referred to. In Germany of old the use of the bordure as a difference does not appear to have been very frequent, but it is now used to distinguish {482} the arms of the Crown Prince. In Italian heraldry, although differences are known, there is no system whatever. In Spain and Portugal marks of cadency, in our sense of the word, are almost unknown, but nevertheless the bordure, especially as indicating descent from a maternal ancestor, is very largely employed. The most familiar instance is afforded by the Royal Arms of Portugal, in which the arms of PORTUGAL are surrounded by a "bordure" of CASTILE. Differencing, however, had become a necessity at an earlier period than the period at which we find an approach to the systematic usage of the label, bordure, and bend, but it should be noticed that those who wished, and needed, to difference were those younger members of the family who by settlement, or marriage, had themselves become lords of other estates, and heads of distinct houses. For a man must be taken as a "Head of a House" for all intents and purposes as soon as by his possession of lands "held in chief" he became _himself_ liable to the Crown to provide stated military service, and as a consequence found the necessity for a banner of arms, under which his men could be mustered. Now having these positions as overlords, the inducement was rather to set up arms for themselves than to pose merely as cadets of other families, and there can be no doubt whatever that at the earliest period, differencing, for the above reason, took the form of and was meant as a _change in the arms_. It was something quite beyond and apart from the mere condition of a right to recognised arms, with an indication thereupon that the bearer was not the person chiefly entitled to the display of that particular coat. We therefore find cadets bearing the arms of their house with the tincture changed, with subsidiary charges introduced, or with some similar radical alteration made. Such coats should properly be considered essentially _different_ coats, merely _indicating_ in their design a given relationship rather than as the _same_ coat regularly differenced by rule to indicate cadency. For instance, the three original branches of the Conyers family bear: "Azure, a maunch ermine; azure, a maunch or; azure, a maunch ermine debruised by a bendlet gules." The coat differenced by the bend, of course, stands self-confessed as a differenced coat, but it is by no means certain, nor is it known whether "azure, a maunch ermine," or "azure, a maunch or" indicates the original Conyers arms, for the very simple reason that it is now impossible to definitely prove which branch supplies the true head of the family. It is known that a wicked uncle intervened, and usurped the estates to the detriment of the nephew and heir, but whether the uncle usurped the arms with the estates, or whether the heir changed his arms when settled on the other lands to which he migrated, there is now no means of ascertaining. Similarly we find the Darcy arms ["Argent, three cinquefoils gules," {483} which is probably the oldest form], "Argent, crusuly and three cinquefoils gules," and "Azure, crusuly and three cinquefoils argent," and countless instances can be referred to where, for the purpose of indicating cadency, the arms of a family were changed in this manner. This reason, of which there can be no doubt, supplies the origin and the excuse for the custom of assigning _similar_ arms when the descent is but doubtful. Similarity originally, though it _may_ indicate consanguinity, was never intended to be proof thereof. The principal ancient methods of alteration in arms, which nowadays are apparently accepted as former modes of differencing merely to indicate cadency, may perhaps be classified into: (_a_) Change of tincture; (_b_) the addition of small charges to the field, or to an ordinary; (_c_) the addition of a label or (_d_) of a canton or quarter; (_e_) the addition of an inescutcheon; (_f_) the addition (or change) of an ordinary; (_g_) the changing of the lines of partition enclosing an ordinary, and perhaps also (_h_) diminishing the number of charges; (_i_) a change of some or all of the minor charges. At a later date came (_j_) the systematic use of the label, the bordure, and the bend; and subsequently (_k_) the use of the modern systems of "marks of cadency." Perhaps, also, one should include (_l_) the addition of quarterings, the use of (_m_) augmentations and official arms, and (_n_) the escutcheon _en surtout_, indicating a territorial and titular lordship, but the three last-mentioned, though useful for distinction and frequently obviating the necessity of other marks of cadency, did not originate with the theory or necessities of differencing, and are not properly marks of cadency. At the same time, the warning should be given that it is not safe always to presume cadency when a change of tincture or other slight deviation from an earlier form of the arms is met with. Many families when they exhibited their arms at the Visitations could not substantiate them, and the heralds, in confirming arms, frequently deliberately changed the tinctures of many coats they met with, to introduce distinction from other authorised arms. Practically contemporarily with the use of the bordure came the use of the bend, then employed for the same purpose. In the _Armorial de Gelre_, one of the earliest armorials now in existence which can be referred to, the well-known coat of Abernethy is there differenced by the bendlet engrailed, and the arms of the King of Navarre bear his quartering of France differenced by a bendlet compony. Amongst other instances in which the bend or bendlet appears originally as a mark of cadency, but now as a charge, may be mentioned the arms of Fitzherbert, Fulton, Stewart (Earl of Galloway), and others. It is a safe presumption with regard to ancient coats of arms that any coat in which the field is semé is in nine cases out of ten a differenced coat {484} for a junior cadet, as is also any coat in which a charge or ordinary is debruised by another. Of course in more modern times no such presumption is permissible. An instance of a semé field for cadency will be found in the case of the D'Arcy arms already mentioned. Little would be gained by a long list of instances of such differences, because the most careful and systematic investigations clearly show that in early times no definite rules whatever existed as to the assumption of differences, which largely depended upon the pleasure of the bearer, and no system can be deduced which can be used to decide that the appearance of any given difference or kind of difference meant a given set of circumstances. Nor can any system be deduced which has any value for the purposes of precedent. Certain instances are appended which will indicate the style of differencing which was in vogue, but it should be distinctly remembered that the object was not to allocate the bearer of any particular coat of arms to any specific place in the family pedigree, but merely to show that he was not the head of the house, entitled to bear the undifferenced arms, if indeed it would not be more accurate to describe these instances as simply examples of different coats of arms used by members of the same family. For it should be remembered that anciently, before the days of "black and white" illustration, prominent change of tincture was admittedly a sufficient distinction between strangers in blood. Beyond the use of the label and the bordure there does not seem to have been any recognised system of differencing until at the earliest the fifteenth century--probably any regulated system does not date much beyond the commencement of the series of Visitations. Of the four sons of GILLES DE MAILLY, who bore, "Or, three mallets vert," the second, third, and fourth sons respectively made the charges "gules," "azure," and "sable." The "argent" field of the DOUGLAS coat was in some branches converted into "ermine" as early as 1373; and the descendants of the DOUGLASES of Dalkeith made the chief "gules" instead of "azure." A similar mode of differencing occurs in the Lyon Register in many other families. The MURRAYS of Culbin in the North bore a "sable" field for their arms in lieu of the more usual "azure," and there seems reason to believe that the Southern Frasers originally bore their field "sable," the change to "azure" being an alteration made by those branches who migrated northwards. An interesting series of arms is met with in the case of the differences employed by the Earls of Warwick. Waleran, Earl of Warwick (d. 1204), appears to have added to the arms of Warenne (his mother's family) "a chevron ermine." His son Henry, Earl of Warwick (d. 1229), changed the chevron to a bend, but Thomas, Earl {485} of Warwick (d. 1242), reverted to the chevron, a form which was perpetuated after the earldom had passed to the house of Beauchamp. An instance of the addition of mullets to the bend in the arms of Bohun is met with in the cadet line created Earls of Northampton. The shield of WILLIAM DE ROUMARE, Earl of LINCOLN, who died in 1198, is adduced by Mr. PLANCHÉ as an early example of differencing by crosses crosslet; the principal charges being seven mascles conjoined, three, three, and one. We find in the Rolls of Arms of the thirteenth and early part of the fourteenth century many instances of coats crusily, billetty, bezanty, and "pleyn d'escallops," fleurette, and "a les trefoiles d'or." With these last Sir EDMOND DACRE of Westmoreland powdered the shield borne by the head of his family: "Gules, three escallops or" (Roll of Edward II.). The coat borne by the ACTONS of Aldenham, "Gules, crusily or, two lions passant argent," is sometimes quoted as a gerated coat of LESTRANGE; for EDWARD DE ACTON married the coheiress of LESTRANGE (living 1387), who bore simply: "Gules, two lions passant argent." That the arms of Acton are derived from Lestrange cannot be questioned, but the probability is that they were _a new invention_ as a distinct coat, the charges suggested by Lestrange. The original coat of the House of Berkeley in England (Barclay in Scotland) appears to have been: "Gules, a chevron or" (or "argent"). The seals of ROBERT DE BERKELEY, who died 4 Henry III., and MAURICE DE BERKELEY, who died 1281, all show the shield charged with a chevron only. MORIS DE BARKELE, in the Roll _temp._ Henry III., bears: "Goules, a chevron argent." But THOMAS, son of MAURICE, who died 15 EDWARD II., has the present coat: "Gules, a chevron between ten crosses patée argent;" while in the roll of Edward II., "De goules od les rosettes de argent et un chevron de argent" is attributed to Sir THOMAS DE BERKELEY. In Leicestershire the BERKELEYS gerated with cinquefoils, an ancient and favourite bearing in that county, derived of course from the arms or badge of the Earl of Leicester. In Scotland the BARCLAYS differenced by change of tincture, and bore: "Azure, a chevron argent between (or in chief) three crosses patée of the same." An interesting series of differences is met with upon the arms of NEVILLE of Raby, which are: "Gules, a saltire argent," and which were differenced by a crescent "sable"; a martlet "gules"; a mullet "sable" and a mullet "azure"; a "fleur-de-lis"; a rose "gules"; a pellet, or annulet, "sable," this being the difference of Lord Latimer; and two interlaced annulets "azure," all borne on the centre point of the saltire. The interlaced annulets were borne by Lord Montagu, as a _second_ difference on the arms of his father, Richard Nevill, Earl of Salisbury, he and his brother the King-maker _both_ using the curious {486} compony label of azure and argent borne by their father, which indicated their descent from John of Gaunt. One of the best known English examples of differencing by a change of charges is that of the coat of the COBHAMS, "Gules, a chevron or," in which the ordinary was charged by various cadets with three pierced estoiles, three lions, three crossed crosslets, three "fleurs-de-lis," three crescents, and three martlets, all of "sable." The original GREY coat ["Barry of six argent and azure"] is differenced in the Roll of Edward I. by a bend gules for JOHN DE GREY; at Caerlaverock this is engrailed. The SEGRAVE coat ["Sable, a lion rampant argent"] is differenced by the addition of "a bendlet or"; or "a bendlet gules"; and the last is again differenced by engrailing it. In the Calais Roll the arms of WILLIAM DE WARREN ["Chequy or and azure"] are differenced by the addition of a canton said to be that of FITZALAN (but really that of NERFORD). Whilst no regular system of differencing has survived in France, and whilst outside the Royal Family arms in that country show comparatively few examples of difference marks, the system as regards the French Royal Arms was well observed and approximated closely to our own. The Dauphin of France bore the Royal Arms undifferenced but never alone, they being always quartered with the sovereign arms of his personal sovereignty of Dauphiné: "Or, a dolphin embowed azure, finned gules." This has been more fully referred to on page 254. It is much to be regretted that the arms of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales do not include the arms of his sovereignty of the Duchy of Cornwall, nor any allusion to his dignities of Prince of Wales or Earl of Chester. [Illustration: FIG. 698.--Seal of Elizabeth, widow of Philip, Duke of Orleans.] The arms of the Dukes of Orleans were the arms of France differenced by a label argent. This is to be observed, for example, upon the seal (Fig. 698) of the Duchess Charlotte Elizabeth of Orleans, widow of Philip of Orleans, brother of King Louis XIV. of France. She was a daughter of the Elector Charles Louis. The arms of the old Dukes of Anjou were the ancient coat of France (azure, semé-de-lis or) differenced by a label of five points gules, but the younger house {487} of Anjou bore the modern arms of France differenced by a bordure gules. The Dukes d'Alençon also used the bordure gules, but charged this with eight plates, whilst the Dukes de Berri used a bordure _engrailed_ gules. The Counts d'Angoulême used the arms of the Dukes of Orleans, adding a crescent gules on each point of the label, whilst the Counts d'Artois used France (ancient) differenced by a label gules, each point charged with three castles (towers) or. The rules which govern the marks of cadency at present in England are as follows, and it should be carefully borne in mind that the Scottish system bears no relation whatever to the English system. The eldest son during the lifetime of his father differences his arms by a label of three points couped at the ends. This is placed in the centre chief point of the escutcheon. There is no rule as to its colour, which is left to the pleasure of the bearer; but it is usually decided as follows: (1) That it shall not be metal on metal, or colour on colour; (2) that it shall not be argent or white; and, if possible, that it shall differ from any colour or metal in which any component part of the shield is depicted. Though anciently the label was drawn throughout the shield, this does not now seem to be a method officially adopted. At any rate drawn throughout it apparently obtains no official countenance for the arms of subjects, though many of the best heraldic artists always so depict it. The eldest son bears this label during his father's lifetime, succeeding to the undifferenced shield on the death of his father. His children--being the grandchildren of the then head of the house--difference upon the label, but such difference marks are, like their father's, only contemporary with the life of the grandfather, and, immediately upon the succession of their father, the children remove the label, and difference upon the original arms. The use of arms by a junior grandson is so restricted in ordinary life that to all intents and purposes this may be ignored, except in the case of the heir-apparent of the heir-apparent, _i.e._ of the grandson in the lifetimes of his father and grandfather. In his case one label of _five_ points is used, and to place a label upon a label is not correct when both are marks of cadency, and not charges. But the grandson on the death of his father, during the lifetime of the grandfather, and when the grandson succeeds as heir-apparent of the grandfather, succeeds also to the label of three points, which may therefore more properly be described as the difference mark of the heir-apparent than the difference mark of the eldest son. It is necessary, perhaps, having said this, to add the remark that heraldry knows no such thing as disinheritance, and heirship is an inalienable matter of blood descent, and not of worldly inheritance. No woman can ever be an heir-apparent. Though now {488} the number of points on a label is a matter of rule, this is far from having been always the case, and prior to the Stuart period no deductions can be drawn with certainty from the number of the points in use. It seems a very great pity that no warrants were issued for the children of the then Duke of York during the lifetime of Queen Victoria, as labels for _great_-grandchildren would have been quite unique. If the eldest son succeeds through the death of his mother to her arms and quarterings during his father's lifetime, he must be careful that the label which he bears as heir-apparent to his father's arms does not cross the quartering of his mother's arms. If his father bears a quarterly shield, the label is so placed that it shall apparently debruise all his father's quarterings, _i.e._ in a shield quarterly of four the label would be placed in the centre chief point, the centre file of the label being upon the palar line, and the other files in the first and second quarters respectively, whilst the colour would usually depend, as has been above indicated, upon the tinctures of the pronominal arms. Due regard, however, must be had that a label of gules, for example, is not placed on a field of gules. A parti-coloured label is not nowadays permissible, though instances of its use can occasionally be met with in early examples. Supposing the field of the first quarter is argent, and that of the second azure, in all probability the best colour for the label would be gules, and indeed gules is the colour most frequently met with for use in this purpose. If the father possess the quarterly coat of, say, four quarterings, which are debruised by a label by the heir-apparent, and the mother die, and the heir-apparent succeed to her arms, he would of course, after his father's death, arrange his mother's quarterings with these, placing his father's pronominal arms 1 and 4, the father's quartering in the second quarter, and the mother's arms in the third quarter. This arrangement, however, is not permissible during his father's lifetime, because otherwise his label in chief would be held to debruise _all_ the four coats, and the only method in which such a combination could be properly displayed in the lifetime of the father but after the death of his mother is to place the father's arms in the grand quartering in the first and fourth quarters, each being debruised by the label, and the mother's in the grand quartering in the second and third quarters without any interference by the label. The other marks of difference are: For the second son a crescent; for the third son a mullet; for the fourth son a martlet; for the fifth son an annulet; for the sixth son a fleur-de-lis; for the seventh son a rose; for the eighth son a cross moline; for the ninth son a double quatrefoil (Fig. 699). Of these the first six are given in BOSSEWELL'S "Workes of {489} Armorie" (1572), and the author adds: "If there be any more than six brethren the devise or assignment of further difference only appertaineth to the kingis of armes especially when they visite their severall provinces; and not to the father of the children to give them what difference he list, as some without authoritie doe allege." [Illustration: FIG. 699.--The English marks of cadency.] The position for a mark of difference is in the centre chief point, though it is not incorrect (and many such instances will be found) for it to be charged on a chevron or fess, in the centre point. This, however, is not a very desirable position for it in a simple coat of arms. The second son of the second son places a crescent upon a crescent, the third son a mullet on a crescent, the fourth son a martlet on a crescent, and so on; and there is an instance in the Visitation of London in which the arms of Cokayne appear with _three_ crescents one upon another: this instance has been already referred to on page 344. Of course, when the English system is carried to these lengths it becomes absurd, because the crescents charged one upon each other become so small as to be practically indistinguishable. There are, however, very few cases in which such a display would be correct--as will be presently explained. This difficulty, which looms large in theory, amounts to very little in the practical use of armory, but it nevertheless is the one outstanding objection to the English system of difference marks. It is constantly held up to derision by those people who are unaware of the next rule upon the subject, which is, that as soon as a quartering comes into the possession of a cadet branch--which quartering is not enjoyed by the head of the house--all necessity for any marks of difference at all is considered to be ended, provided that that quartering is always displayed--and that cadet branch then begins afresh from that generation to redifference. Now there are few English families in whose pedigree during three or four generations one marriage is not with an heiress in blood, so that this theoretical difficulty very quickly disappears. No doubt there is always an inducement to retain the quarterings of an historical or illustrious house which may have been brought in in the past, but if the honours and lands brought in with that quartering are wholly enjoyed by the head of the house, it becomes, from a practical point of view, mere affectation to prefer that quartering to another (brought in subsequently) of a family, the entire representation of which belongs to the junior branch and not to the senior. If {490} the old idea of confining a shield to four quarters be borne in mind, concurrently with the necessity--for purposes of distinction--of introducing new quarterings, the new quarterings take the place of the old, the use of which is left to the senior branch. Under such circumstances, and the regular practice of them, the English system is seldom wanting, and it at once wipes out the difficulty which is made much of--that under the English system there is no way of indicating the difference between the arms of uncle and nephew. If the use of impalements is also adhered to, the difficulty practically vanishes. To difference a _single_ coat the mark of difference is placed in the centre chief point; to difference a _quarterly_ coat of four quarters the same position on the shield is most generally used, the mark being placed over the palar line, though occasionally the difference mark is placed, and not incorrectly, in the centre of the quarterings. A coat of six quarters, however, is always differenced on the fess line of partition, the mark being placed in the fess point, because if placed in the centre chief point it would only appear as a difference upon the second quartering, so that on all shields of six or more quarterings the difference mark must be placed on some line of partition at the nearest possible point to the true centre fess point of the escutcheon. It is then understood to difference the whole of the quarterings over which it is displayed, but directly a quartering is introduced which has been inherited subsequently to the cadency which produced the difference mark, that difference mark must be either discarded or transferred to the first quartering only. _The use of these difference marks is optional._ Neither officially nor unofficially is any attempt made to enforce their use in England--they are left to the pleasure and discretion of the bearers, though it is a well-understood and well-accepted position that, unless differenced by quarterings or impalement, it is neither courteous nor proper for a cadet to display the arms of the head of his house: beyond this, the matter is usually left to good taste. There is, however, one position in which the use of difference marks is compulsory. If under a Royal Licence, or other exemplification--for instance, the creation of a peerage--a difference mark is painted upon the arms, or even if an exemplification of the arms differenced is placed at the head of an official record of pedigree, those arms would not subsequently be exemplified, or their use officially admitted, without the difference mark that has been recorded with them. The differencing of crests for cadency is very rare. Theoretically, these should be marked equally with the shield, and when arms are exemplified officially under the circumstances above referred to, crest, {491} [Illustration: FIG. 700.--King John, before his accession to the throne. (From MS. Cott., Julius, C. vii.)] [Illustration: FIG. 701.--Edmund "Crouchback," Earl of Lancaster, second son of Henry III. (From his tomb.) His arms are elsewhere given: De goules ove trois leopardes passantz dor, et lambel dazure florete d'or.] [Illustration: FIG. 702.--Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, d. 1322 (son of preceding): England with a label azure, each point charged with three fleurs-de-lis. (From his seal, 1301.)] [Illustration: FIG. 703.--Henry of Lancaster, 1295-1324 (brother of preceding, before he succeeded his brother as Earl of Lancaster): England with a bend azure. (From his seal, 1301.) After 1324 he bore England with a label as his brother.] [Illustration: FIG. 704.--Henry, Duke of Lancaster, son of preceding. (From his seal, 1358.)] [Illustration: FIG. 705.--Edward of Carnarvon, Prince of Wales (afterwards Edward II.), bore before 1307: England with a label azure. (From his seal, 1305.)] [Illustration: FIG. 706.--John of Eltham (second son of Edward II.): England with a bordure of the arms of France. (From his tomb.)] [Illustration: FIG. 707.--Arms of Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of Kent, 3rd son of Edward I.: England within a bordure argent. The same arms were borne by his descendant, Thomas de Holand, Earl of Kent.] [Illustration: FIG. 708.--Arms of John de Holand, Duke of Exeter (d. 1400): England, a bordure of France. (From his seal, 1381.)] {492} supporters, and shield are all equally differenced, but the difficulty of adding difference mark on difference mark when no marriage or heiress can ever bring in any alteration to the crest is very generally recognised and admitted, even officially, and it is rare indeed to come across a crest carrying more than a single difference mark. The grant of an augmentation to any cadet obviates the slightest necessity for any further use of difference marks inherited before the grant. There are no difference marks whatever for daughters, there being in English common law no seniority between the different daughters of one man. They succeed equally, whether heiresses or not, to the arms of their father for use during their lifetimes, and they must bear them on their own lozenges or impaled on the shields of their husbands, with the difference marks which their father needed to use. It would be permissible, however, to discard these difference marks of their fathers if subsequently to his death his issue succeeded to the position of head of the family. For instance, suppose the daughters of the younger son of an earl are under consideration. They would bear upon lozenges the arms of their father, which would be those of the earl, charged with the mullet or crescent which their father had used as a younger son. If by the extinction of issue the brother of these daughters succeed to the earldom, they would no longer be required to bear their father's difference mark. There are no marks of difference between illegitimate children. In the eye of the law an illegitimate person has no relatives, and stands alone. Supposing it be subsequently found that a marriage ceremony had been illegal, the whole issue of that marriage becomes of course illegitimate. As such, no one of them is entitled to bear arms. A Royal Licence, and exemplification following thereupon, is necessary for each single one. Of these exemplifications there is one case on record in which I think nine follow each other on successive pages of one of the Grant Books: all differ in some way--usually in the colour of the bordure; but the fact that there are illegitimate brothers of the same parentage does not prevent the descendants of any daughter quartering the differenced coat exemplified to her. As far as heraldic law is concerned, she is the heiress of herself, representing only herself, and consequently her heir quarters her arms. Marks of difference are never added to an exemplification following upon a Royal Licence _after illegitimacy_. Marks of difference are to indicate cadency, and there is no cadency vested in a person of illegitimate birth--their right to the arms proceeding only from the regrant of them in the exemplification. What is added in lieu is the _mark of distinction_ to indicate the bastardy. {493} [Illustration: FIG. 709.--John de Holand, Duke of Exeter, son of preceding. Arms as preceding. (From his seal.)] [Illustration: FIG. 710.--Henry de Holand, Duke of Exeter, son of preceding. Arms as preceding. (From his seal, 1455.)] [Illustration: FIG. 711.--Thomas of Brotherton, Earl of Norfolk, second son of Edward I.: Arms of England, a label of three points argent.] [Illustration: FIG. 712.--Thomas de Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk (d. 1400). (From a drawing of his seal, MS. Cott., Julius, C. vii., f. 166.) Arms, see page 465.] [Illustration: FIG. 713.--John de Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk (d. 1432): Arms as Fig. 711. (From his Garter plate.)] [Illustration: FIG. 714.--John de Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk (d. 1461): Arms as Fig. 711. (From his seal.)] [Illustration: FIG. 715.--Edward the Black Prince: Quarterly, 1 and 4 France (ancient); 2 and 3 England, and a label of three points argent. (From his tomb.)] [Illustration: FIG. 716.--Richard, Prince of Wales (afterwards Richard II.), son of preceding: Arms as preceding. (From his seal, 1377.)] [Illustration: FIG. 717.--Edmund of Langley, Duke of York, fifth son of King Edward III.: France (ancient) and England quarterly, a label of three points argent, each point charged with three torteaux. (From his seal, 1391.) His son, Edward, Earl of Cambridge, until he succeeded his father, _i.e._ before 1462, bore the same with an additional difference of a bordure of Spain (Fig. 316). Vincent attributes to him, however, a label as Fig. 719, which possibly he bore after his father's death.] {494} The method of differencing the English Royal Arms is quite unique, and has no relation to the method ordinarily in use in this country for the arms of subjects. The Royal Arms are not personal. They are the sovereign arms of dominion, indicating the sovereignty enjoyed by the person upon the throne. Consequently they are in no degree hereditary, and from the earliest times, certainly since the reign of Edward I., the right to bear the undifferenced arms has been confined exclusively to the sovereign upon the throne. In early times there were two methods employed, namely, the use of the bordure and of varieties of the label, the label of the heir-apparent to the English throne being originally of azure. The arms of Thomas of Woodstock, the youngest son of Edward I., were differenced by a bordure argent; his elder brother, Thomas de Brotherton, having had a label of three points argent; whilst the eldest son, Edward II., as Prince of Wales used a label of three points azure. From that period to the end of the Tudor period the use of labels and bordures seems to have continued concurrently, some members of the Royal Family using one, some the other, though there does not appear to have been any precise rules governing a choice between the two. When Edward III. claimed the throne of France and quartered the arms of that country with those of England, of course a portion of the field then became azure, and a blue label upon a blue field was no longer possible. The heir-apparent therefore differenced his shield by the plain label of three points argent, and this has ever since, down to the present day, continued to be the "difference" used by the heir-apparent to the English throne. A label of gules upon the gules quartering of England was equally impossible, and consequently from that period all labels used by any member of the Royal Family have been argent, charged with different objects, these being frequently taken from the arms of some female ancestor. Figs. 700 to 730 are a somewhat extensive collection of variations of the Royal Arms. Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III., bore: France (ancient) and England quarterly, a label of three points argent, and on each point a canton gules. The use of the bordure as a legitimate difference upon the Royal Arms ceased about the Tudor period, and differencing between members of the Royal Family is now exclusively done by means of these labels. A few cases of bordures to denote illegitimacy can, however, be found. The method of deciding these labels is for separate warrants under the hand and seal of the sovereign to be issued to the different members of the Royal Family, assigning to each a certain coronet, and the label to be borne over the Royal Arms, crest, and supporters. These warrants are personal to those for whom they are {495} [Illustration: FIG. 718.--Richard, Duke of York (son of Edward, Earl of Cambridge and Duke of York): Arms as preceding. (From his seal, 1436.)] [Illustration: FIG. 719.--Referred to under Fig. 717.] [Illustration: FIG. 720.--Thomas of Woodstock, Earl of Buckingham, seventh son of Edward III.: France (ancient) and England quarterly, a bordure argent. (From a drawing of his seal, 1391, MS. Cott., Julius, C. vii.)] [Illustration: FIG. 721.--Henry of Monmouth, afterwards Henry V.: France (modern) and England quarterly, a label of three points argent. (From his seal.)] [Illustration: FIG. 722.--Richard, Duke of Gloucester (afterwards Richard III.): A label of three points ermine, on each point a canton gules.] [Illustration: FIG. 723.--Humphrey of Lancaster, Duke of Gloucester, fourth son of Henry IV.: France (modern) and England quarterly, a bordure argent. (From his seal.)] [Illustration: FIG. 724.--John de Beaufort, Earl and Marquis of Somerset, son of John of Gaunt. Arms subsequent to his legitimation: France and England quarterly, within a bordure gobony azure and argent. Prior to his legitimation he bore: Per pale argent and azure (the livery colours of Lancaster), a bend of England (_i.e._ a bend gules charged with three lions passant guardant or) with a label of France.] [Illustration: FIG. 725.--Thomas, Duke of Clarence, second son of Henry IV. France and England quarterly, a label of three points ermine. (From his seal, 1413.)] [Illustration: FIG. 726.--George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV.: France and England quarterly, a label of three points argent, each charged with a canton gules. (From MS. Harl. 521.)] {496} issued, and are not hereditary. Of late their use, or perhaps may be their issue, has not been quite so particularly conformed to as is desirable, and at the present time the official records show the arms of their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Fife, the Princess Victoria, and the Queen of Norway, still bearing the label of five points indicative of their position as grandchildren of the sovereign, which of course they were when the warrants were issued in the lifetime of the late Queen Victoria. In spite of the fact that the warrants have no hereditary limitation, I am only aware of two modern instances in which a warrant has been issued to the son of a cadet of the Royal House who had previously received a warrant. One of these was the late Duke of Cambridge. The warrant was issued to him in his father's lifetime, and to the label previously assigned to his father a second label of three points gules, to be borne directly below the other, was added. The other case was that of his cousin, afterwards Duke of Cumberland and King of Hanover. In his case the second label, also gules, was charged with the white horse of Hanover. [Illustration: FIG. 727.--John, Duke of Bedford, third son of Henry IV.: France and England quarterly, a label of five points, the two dexter ermine, the three sinister azure, charged with three fleurs-de-lis or. (From MS. Add. 18,850.)] [Illustration: FIG. 728.--Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford: France and England quarterly, a bordure azure, charged with martlets or. (From his seal.) Although uncle of Henry VII., Jasper Tudor had no blood descent whatever which would entitle him to bear these arms. His use of them is very remarkable.] [Illustration: FIG. 729.--Thomas de Beaufort, Earl of Dorset, brother of John, Earl of Somerset (Fig. 724): France and England quarterly, a bordure compony ermine and azure. (From his Garter plate.)] [Illustration: FIG. 730.--John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, bore: France (ancient) and England quarterly, a label of three points _ermine_ (_i.e._ each point charged with three ermine spots).] The label of the eldest son of the heir-apparent to the English throne is not, as might be imagined, a plain label of five points, but the plain label of three points, the centre point only being charged. The late Duke of Clarence charged the centre point of his label of {497} three points with a cross couped gules. After his death the Duke of York relinquished the label of five points which he had previously borne, receiving one of three, the centre point charged with an anchor. In every other case all of the points are charged. The following examples of the labels in use at the moment will show how the system now exists:-- _Prince of Wales._--A label of three points argent. _Princess Royal_ (Louise, Duchess of Fife).--A label of five points argent, charged on the centre and outer points with a cross of St. George gules, and on the two others with a thistle proper. _Princess Victoria._--A label of five points argent, charged with three roses and two crosses gules. _Princess Maud_ (H.M. The Queen of Norway).--A label of five points argent, charged with three hearts and two crosses gules. _The Duke of Edinburgh_ (Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha).--A label of three points argent, the centre point charged with a cross gules, and on each of the others an anchor azure. His son, the hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who predeceased his father, bore a label of five points, the first, third, and fifth each charged with a cross gules, and the second and fourth each with an anchor azure (Fig. 731). [Illustration: FIG. 731.--Label of the late hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.] _The Duke of Connaught._--A label of three points argent, the centre point charged with St. George's cross, and each of the other points with a fleur-de-lis azure. _The late Princess Royal_ (German Empress).--A label of three points argent, the centre point charged with a rose gules, and each of the others with a cross gules. _The late Grand Duchess of Hesse._--A label of three points argent, the centre point charged with a rose gules, and each of the others with an ermine spot sable. _Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein._--A label of three points, the centre point charged with St. George's cross, and each of the other points with a rose gules. _Princess Louise_ (Duchess of Argyll).--A label of three points, the centre point charged with a rose, and each of the other two with a canton gules. _Princess Henry of Battenberg._--A label of three points, the centre point charged with a heart, and each of the other two with a rose gules. _The late Duke of Albany._--A label of three points, the centre point charged with a St. George's cross, and each of the other two with a heart gules. {498} _The Dukes of Cambridge._--The first Duke had a label of three points argent, the centre point charged with a St. George's cross, and each of the other two with _two_ hearts in pale gules. The warrant to the late Duke assigned him the same label with the addition of a second label, plain, of three points gules, to be borne below the former label. _The first Duke of Cumberland._--A label of three points argent, the centre point charged with a fleur-de-lis azure, and each of the other two points with a cross of St. George gules. Of the foregoing recently assigned labels all are borne over the plain English arms (1 and 4 England, 2 Scotland, 3 Ireland), charged with the escutcheon of Saxony, except those of the Dukes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Cambridge, and Cumberland. In the two latter cases the labels are borne over the _latest_ version of the arms of King George III., _i.e._ with the inescutcheon of Hanover, but, of course, neither the electoral bonnet nor the later crown which surmounted the inescutcheon of Hanover was made use of, and the smaller inescutcheon bearing the crown of Charlemagne was also omitted for the children of George III., except in the case of the Prince of Wales, who bore the plain inescutcheon of gules, but without the crown of Charlemagne thereupon. The labels for the other sons and daughters of King George III. were as follows:-- _The Duke of York._--A label of three points argent, the centre point charged with a cross gules. The Duke of York bore upon the inescutcheon of Hanover an inescutcheon argent (in the place occupied in the Royal Arms by the inescutcheon charged with the crown of Charlemagne) charged with a wheel of six spokes gules, for the Bishopric of Osnaburgh, which he possessed. _The Duke of Clarence_ (afterwards William IV.).--A label of three points argent, the centre point charged with a cross gules, and each of the others with an anchor erect azure. _The Duke of Kent_ had his label charged with a cross gules between two fleurs-de-lis azure. _The Duke of Sussex._--The label argent charged with two hearts in pale gules in the centre point between two crosses gules. _The Princess Royal_ (Queen of Würtemberg).--A rose between two crosses gules. _The Princess Augusta._--A like label, charged with a rose gules between two ermine spots. _The Princess Elizabeth_ (Princess of Hesse-Homburg).--A like label charged with a cross between two roses gules. _The Princess Mary_ (Duchess of Gloucester).--A like label, charged with a rose between two cantons gules. {499} _The Princess Sophia._--A like label, charged with a heart between two roses gules. _The Princess Amelia._--A like label, charged with a rose between two hearts gules. _The Duke of Gloucester_ (brother of George III.).--A label of _five_ points argent, charged with a fleur-de-lis azure between four crosses gules. His son (afterwards Duke of Gloucester) bore an additional plain label of three points during the lifetime of his father. The Royal labels are placed across the shield, on the crest, and on each of the supporters. The crest stands upon and is crowned with a coronet identical with the circlet of any coronet of rank assigned in the same patent; the lion supporter is crowned and the unicorn supporter is gorged with a similar coronet. It may perhaps be of interest to note that no badges and no motto are ever now assigned in these Royal Warrants except in the case of the Prince of Wales. F.-M. H.S.H. Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, the Consort of H.R.H. the Princess Charlotte (only child of George IV.), received by warrant dated April 7, 1818, the right "to use and bear the Royal Arms (without the inescocheon of Charlemagne's crown, and without the Hanoverian Royal crown) differenced with a label of five points argent, the centre point charged with a rose gules, quarterly with the arms of his illustrious House ['Barry of ten sable and or, a crown of rue in bend vert'], the Royal Arms in the first and fourth quarters." By Queen Victoria's desire this precedent was followed in the case of the late Prince Consort, the label in his case being of three points argent, the centre point charged with a cross gules, and, by a curious coincidence, the arms of his illustrious House, with which the Royal Arms were quartered, were again the arms of Saxony, these appearing in the second and third quarters. Quite recently a Royal Warrant has been issued for H.M. Queen Alexandra. This assigns, upon a single shield within the Garter, the undifferenced arms of His Majesty impaled with the undifferenced arms of Denmark. The shield is surmounted by the Royal crown. The supporters are: (dexter) the lion of England, and (sinister) a savage wreathed about the temples and loins with oak and supporting in his exterior hand a club all proper. This sinister supporter is taken from the Royal Arms of Denmark. Abroad there is now no equivalent whatever to our methods of differencing the Royal Arms. An official certificate was issued to me recently from Denmark of the undifferenced Royal Arms of Denmark certified as correct for the "Princes and Princesses" of that country. But the German Crown Prince bears his shield within a bordure gules, and anciently in France (from which country the English system was {500} very probably originally derived) the differencing of the Royal French Arms for the younger branches seems to have been carefully attended to, as has been already specified. Differencing in Scotland is carried out on an entirely different basis from differencing in England. In Scotland the idea is still rigidly preserved and adhered to that the coat of arms of a family belongs only to the head of the family for the time being, and the terms of a Scottish grant are as follows: "Know ye therefore that we have devised and do by these presents assign ratify and confirm to the said ---- and his descendants _with such congruent differences as may hereafter be matriculated for them the following ensigns armorial_." Under the accepted interpretation of Scottish armorial law, whilst the inherent gentility conferred by a patent of arms is not denied to cadets, no right to make use of arms is conceded to them until such time as they shall elect to matriculate the arms of their ancestor in their own names. This point has led to a much purer system of heraldry in Scotland than in England, and there is far less heraldic abuse in that country as a result, because the differences are decided not haphazardly by the user himself, as is the case in England, but by a competent officer of arms. Moreover the constant occasions of matriculation bring the arms frequently under official review. There is no fixed rule which decides _ipse facto_ what difference shall be borne, and consequently this decision has retained in the hands of the heraldic executive an amount of control which they still possess far exceeding that of the executive in England, and perhaps the best way in which to state the rules which hold good will be to reprint a portion of one of the Rhind Lectures, delivered by Sir James Balfour Paul, which is devoted to the point:-- "I have said that in Scotland the principle which limited the number of paternal coats led to a careful differencing of these coats as borne by the junior branches of the family. Though the English system was sometimes used, it has never obtained to any great extent in Scotland, the practice here being generally to difference by means of a bordure, in which way many more generations are capable of being distinguished than is possible by the English method. The weak point of the Scottish system is that, whilst the general idea is good, there is no definite rule whereby it can be carried out on unchanging lines; much is left to the discretion of the authorities. "As a general rule, it may be stated that the second son bears a plain bordure of the tincture of the principal charge in the shield, and his younger brothers also bear plain bordures of varying tinctures. In the next generation the eldest son of the second son would bear his father's coat and bordure without change; the second son would have the bordure engrailed; the third, invected; the fourth, indented, {501} and so on, the other sons of the younger sons in this generation differencing their father's bordures in the same way. The junior members of the next generation might have their bordures parted per pale, the following generations having their bordures parted per fess and per saltire, per cross or quarterly, gyronny or compony, that is, divided into alternate spaces of metal or colour in a single trace--this, however, being often in Scotland a mark of illegitimacy--counter-compone or a similar pattern in two tracts, or chequy with three or more tracts. "You will see that these modifications of the simple bordure afford a great variety of differences, and when they are exhausted the expedient can then be resorted to of placing on the bordures charges taken from other coats, often from those of a maternal ancestor; or they may be arbitrarily assigned to denote some personal characteristic of the bearer, as in the case of James Maitland, Major in the Scots regiment of Foot Guards, who carries the dismembered lion of his family within a bordure wavy azure charged with eight hand grenades or, significant, I presume, of his military profession. "You will observe that, with all these varieties of differencing we have mentioned, the younger branches descending from the original eldest son of the parent house are still left unprovided with marks of cadency. These, however, can be arranged for by taking the ordinary which appears in their father's arms and modifying its boundary lines. Say the original coat was 'argent, a chevron gules,' the second son of the eldest son would have the chevron engrailed, but without any bordure; the third, invected, and so on; and the next generations the systems of bordures accompanying the modified chevron would go on as before. And when all these methods are exhausted, differences can still be made in a variety of ways, _e.g._ by charging the ordinary with similar charges in a similar manner to the bordure as Erskine of Shielfield, a cadet of Balgownie, who bore: 'Argent, on a pale sable, a cross crosslet fitchée or within a bordure azure'; or by the introduction of an ordinary into a coat which had not one previously, a bend or the ribbon (which is a small bend) being a favourite ordinary to use for this purpose. Again, we occasionally find a change of tincture of the field of the shield used to denote cadency. "There are other modes of differencing which need not be alluded to in detail, but I may say that on analysing the earlier arms in the Lyon Register, I find that the bordure is by far the most common method of indicating cadency, being used in no less than 1080 cases. The next most popular way is by changing the boundary lines of an ordinary, which is done in 563 shields; 233 cadets difference their arms by the insertion of a smaller charge on the ordinary and 195 on {502} the shield. A change of tincture, including counterchanging, is carried out in 155 coats, and a canton is added in 70 cases, while there are 350 coats in which two or more of the above methods are used. From these figures, which are approximately correct, you will see the relative frequency of the various modes of differencing. You will also note that the original coat of a family can be differenced in a great many ways so as to show the connection of cadets with the parent house. The drawback to the system is that heralds have never arrived at a uniform treatment so as to render it possible to calculate the exact relationship of the cadets. Much is left, as I said, to the discretion of the officer granting the arms; but still it gives considerable assistance in determining the descent of a family." The late Mr. Stodart, Lyon Clerk Depute, who was an able herald, particularly in matters relating to Scotland, had elaborated a definite system of these bordures for differencing which would have done much to simplify Scottish cadency. Its weak point was obviously this, that it could only be applied to new matriculations of arms by cadets; and so, if adopted as a definite and unchangeable matter of rule, it might have occasioned doubt and misunderstanding in future times with regard to many important Scottish coats now existing, without reference to Mr. Stodart's system. But the scheme elaborated by Mr. Stodart is now accepted as the broad basis of the Scottish system for matriculations (Fig. 732). In early Scottish seals the bordures are to so large an extent engrailed as to make it appear that the later and present rule, which gives the plain bordure to immediate cadets, was not fully recognised or adopted. Bordures charged appear at a comparatively early date in Scotland. The bordure compony in Scotland and the bordure wavy in England, which are now used to signify illegitimacy, will be further considered in a subsequent chapter, but neither one nor the other originally carried any such meaning. The doubtful legitimacy of the Avondale and Ochiltree Stewarts, who bore the bordure compony in Scotland, along with its use by the Beauforts in England, has tended latterly to bring that difference into disrepute in the cadency of lawful sons--yet some of the bearers of that bordure during the first twenty years of the Lyon Register were unquestionably legitimate, whilst others, as SCOTT of Gorrenberry and PATRICK SINCLAIR of Ulbester, were illegitimate, or at best only legitimated. The light in which the bordure compony had come to be regarded is shown by a Royal Warrant granted in 1679 to JOHN LUNDIN of that Ilk, allowing him to drop the coat which his family had hitherto carried, and, as descended of a natural son of WILLIAM THE LION, to bear the arms of Scotland within a bordure compony argent and azure. {503} The bordure counter-compony is assigned to fifteen persons, none of them, it is believed, of illegitimate descent, and some expressly said to be "lineallie and lawfulie descended" from the ancestor whose arms they bore thus differenced. The idea of this bordure having been at any time a mark of bastardy is a very modern error, arising from a confusion with the bordure compony. [Illustration: FIG. 732.--The scheme of Cadency Bordures devised by Mr. Stodart.] In conclusion, attention needs to be pointedly drawn to the fact that all changes in arms are not due to cadency, nor is it safe always to presume cadency from proved instances of change. Instead of merely detailing isolated instances of variation in a number of different families, the matter may be better illustrated by closely following the successive variations in the same family, and an instructive instance is met with in the case of the arms of the family of Swinton of that Ilk. This is peculiarly instructive, because at no point in the descent covered by the arms referred to is there any doubt or question as to the fact of legitimate descent. Claiming as they do a male descent and inheritance from Liulf the son of Edulf, Vicecomes of Northumbria, whose possession before {504} 1100 of the lands of Swinton is the earliest contemporary evidence which has come down to us of landowning by a Scottish subject, it is unfortunate that we cannot with authority date their armorial ensigns before the later half of the thirteenth century. Charters there are in plenty. Out of the twenty-three earliest Scottish writings given in the National MSS. of Scotland, nine, taken from the Coldingham documents preserved at Durham, refer to the village and lands of Swinton. Among these are two confirmations by David I., _i.e._ before 1153, of Swinton "in hereditate sibi et heredibus" to "meo militi Hernulfo" or "Arnolto isti meo Militi," the first of the family to follow the Norman fashion, and adopt the territorial designation of de Swinton; while at Durham and elsewhere, Cospatric de Swinton and his son Alan and grandson Alan appear more than eighty times in charters before 1250. [Illustration: FIG. 733.--Seal of Alan de Swinton, _c._ 1271.] But it is not till we come to _c._ 1271 that we find a Swinton seal still attached to a charter. This is a grant by a third Alan of the Kirk croft of Lower Swinton to God and the blessed Cuthbert and the blessed Ebba and the Prior and Monks of Coldingham. The seal is of a very early form (Fig. 733), and may perhaps have belonged to the father and grandfather of the particular Alan who uses it. Of the Henry de Swinton who came next, and who swore fealty to Edward the First of England at Berwick in 1296, and of yet a fourth Alan, no seals are known. These were turbulent days throughout Scotland: but then we find a distinct advance; a shield upon a diapered ground, and upon it the single boar has given place to the three boars' heads which afterwards became so common in Scotland. Nisbet lends his authority to the tradition that all the families of Border birth who carried them--Gordon, Nisbet, Swinton, Redpath, Dunse, he mentions, and he might have added others--were originally of one stock, and if so, the probability must be that the breed sprung from Swinton. [Illustration: FIG. 734.--Seal of Henry de Swinton, 1378.] This seal (Fig. 734) was put by a second Henry de Swynton to one of the family charters, probably of the date of 1378, which have lately been placed for safe keeping in the Register House in Edinburgh. His successor, Sir John, the hero of Noyon in Picardy, of Otterburn, and Homildon, was apparently the first of the race to use {505} supporters. His seal (Fig. 735) belongs to the second earliest of the Douglas charters preserved at Drumlanrig. Its date is 1389, and Sir John de Swintoun is described as Dominus de Mar, a title he bore by right of his marriage with Margaret, Countess of Douglas and Mar. This probably also accounts for his coronet, and it is interesting to note that the helmet, coronet, and crest are the exact counterpart of those on the Garter plate of Ralph, Lord Basset, in St. George's Chapel at Windsor. It is possibly more than a coincidence, for Froissart mentions them both as fighting in France ten to twenty years earlier. [Illustration: FIG. 735.--Seal of Sir John de Swinton, 1389.] [Illustration: FIG. 736.--Seal of Sir John de Swinton, 1475.] [Illustration: FIG. 737.--Seal of Robert Swinton, of that Ilk, 1598.] [Illustration: FIG. 738.--Arms of Swinton. (From Swinton Church, 163-.)] Of his son, the second Sir John, "Lord of that Ilk," we have no seal. His lance it was that overthrew Thomas, Duke of Clarence, the brother of Henry V., at Beaugé in 1421, and he fell, a young man, three years later with the flower of the Scottish army at Verneuil; but in 1475 his son, a third Sir John, uses the identical crest and shield which his descendants carry to this day (Fig. 736). John had become a common name in the family, and the same or a similar seal did duty for the next three generations; but in 1598 we find the great-great-grandson, Robert Swinton of that Ilk, who represented Berwickshire in the first regularly constituted Parliament of Scotland, altering the character of the boars' heads (Fig. 737). He would also appear to have placed upon the chevron something which is difficult to decipher, but is probably the rose so borne by the Hepburns, his second wife having been a daughter of Sir Patrick Hepburn of Whitecastle. Whatever the charge was, it disappeared from the shield (Fig. 738) erected on the outer wall of Swinton Church by his second son and eventual heir, Sir Alexander, also member for his native county; but {506} the boars' heads are turned the other way, perhaps in imitation of those above the very ancient effigy of the first Sir Alan inside the church. Sir Alexander's son, John Swinton, "Laird Swinton" Carlyle calls him, wrecked the family fortunes. According to Bishop Burnet he was "the man of all Scotland most trusted and employed by Cromwell," and he died a Quaker, excommunicated and forfeited. To the circumstance that when, in 1672, the order went out that all arms were to be officially recorded, he was a broken man under sentence that his arms should be "laceret and delete out of the Heralds' Books," we probably owe it that until of late years no Swinton arms appeared on the Lyon Register. [Illustration: FIG. 739.--Bookplate of Sir John Swinton of that Ilk, 1707.] [Illustration: FIG. 740.--Bookplate of Archibald Swinton of Kimmerghame.] Then to come to less stirring times, and turn to book-plates. His son, yet another Sir John of that Ilk, in whose favour the forfeiture was rescinded, sat for Berwickshire in the last Parliament of Scotland and the first of Great Britain. His bookplate (Fig. 739) is one of the earliest Scottish dated plates. His grandson, Captain Archibald Swinton of Kimmerghame, county Berwick (Fig. 740), was an ardent book collector up to his death in 1804, and Archibald's great-grandson, Captain George C. Swinton (Fig. 741), walked as March Pursuivant in the procession in Westminster Abbey at the coronation of King Edward the Seventh of {507} England in 1902, and smote on the gate when that same Edward as First of Scotland claimed admission to his castle of Edinburgh in 1903. [Illustration: FIG. 741.--Bookplate of Captain George S. Swinton, March Pursuivant of Arms.] The arms as borne to-day by the head of the family, John Edulf Blagrave Swinton of Swinton Bank, a lieutenant in the Lothians and Berwickshire Imperial Yeomanry, are as given (Plate IV.). {508} CHAPTER XXXII MARKS OF BASTARDY It has been remarked that the knowledge of "the man in the street" is least incorrect when he knows nothing. Probably the only heraldic knowledge that a large number possess is summed up in the assertion that the heraldic sign of illegitimacy is the "bar sinister." No doubt it is to the novelists--who, seeking to touch lightly upon an unpleasant subject, have ignorantly adopted a French colloquialism--that we must attribute a great deal of the misconception which exists concerning illegitimacy and its heraldic marks of indication. I assert most unhesitatingly that there are not now and never have been any unalterable laws as to what these marks should be, and the colloquialism which insists upon the "bar sinister" is a curiously amusing example of an utter misnomer. To any one with the most rudimentary knowledge of heraldry it must plainly be seen to be radically impossible to depict a bar sinister, for the simple reason that the bar is neither dexter nor sinister. It is utterly impossible to draw a bar sinister--such a thing does not exist. But the assertion of many writers with a knowledge of armory that "bar sinister" is a mistake for "bend sinister" is also somewhat misleading, because the real mistake lies in the spelling of the term. The "barre sinistre" is merely the French translation of bend sinister, the French word "barre" meaning a _bend_. The French "barre" is not the English "bar." In order to properly understand the true significance of the marks of illegitimacy, it is necessary that the attempt should be made to transplant oneself into the environment when the laws and rules of heraldry were in the making. At that period illegitimacy was of little if any account. It has not debarred the succession of some of our own sovereigns, although, from the earliest times, the English have always been more prudish upon the point than other nations. In Ireland, even so late as the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it is a striking genealogical difficulty to decide in many noble pedigrees which if any of the given sons of any person were legitimate, and which of the ladies of his household, if any, might be legally termed his wife. In Scotland we find the same thing, though perhaps it is not quite so {509} blatant to so late a date, but considering what are and have been the Scottish laws of marriage, it is the _fact_ or otherwise of marriage which has to be ascertained; and though in England the legal status was recognised from an earlier period, the social status of the illegitimate offspring of a given man depended little upon the legal legitimacy of birth, but rather upon the amount of recognition the bastard received from his father. If a man had an unquestionably legitimate son, that son undoubtedly succeeded; but if he had not, any technical stain upon the birth of the others had little effect in preventing their succession. A study of the succession to the Barony of Meinill clearly shows that the illegitimate son of the second Lord Meinill succeeded to the estates and peerage of his father in preference to his legitimate uncle. There are many other analogous cases. And when the Church juggled at its pleasure with the sacrament of marriage--dispensing and annulling or recognising marriages for reasons which we nowadays can only term whimsical--small wonder is it that the legal fact, though then admitted, had little of the importance which we now give to it. When the actual fact was so little more than a matter at the personal pleasure of the person most concerned, it would be ridiculous to suppose that any perpetuation of a mere advertisement of the fact would be considered necessary, whilst the fact itself was so often ignored; so that until comparatively recent times the Crown certainly never attempted to enforce any heraldic marks of illegitimacy. Rather were these enforced by the legitimate descendants if and when such descendants existed. The point must have first arisen when there were both legitimate and illegitimate descendants of a given person, and it was desired to make record of the true line in which land or honours should descend. To effect this purpose, the arms of the illegitimate son were made to carry some charge or alteration to show that there was some reason which debarred inheritance by their users, whilst there remained those entitled to bear the arms without the mark of distinction. But be it noted that this obligation existed equally on the legitimate cadets of a family, and in the earliest periods of heraldry there is little or no distinction either in the marks employed or in the character of the marks, which can be drawn between mere marks of cadency and marks of illegitimacy. Until a comparatively recent period it is absolutely unsafe to use these marks as signifying or proving either legitimate cadency or illegitimacy. The same mark stood for both, the only object which any distinctive change accomplished, being the distinction which it was necessary to draw between those who owned the right to the undifferenced arms, and owned the land, and those who did not. The object was to safeguard the right of the real {510} possessors and their true heirs, and not to penalise the others. There was no particular mark either for cadency or for illegitimacy, the distinctions made being dictated by what seemed the most suitable and distinctive mark applicable to the arms under consideration. When that much has been thoroughly grasped, one gets a more accurate understanding of the subject. One other point has to be borne in mind (and to the present generation, which knows so well how extensively arms have been improperly assumed, the statement may seem startling), and that is, that the use of arms was formerly evidence of pedigree. As late as the beginning of the nineteenth century evidence of this character was submitted to the Committee of Privileges at the hearing of a Peerage case. The evidence was _admitted_ for that purpose, though doubt (in that case very properly) was thrown upon its value. Therefore, in view of the two foregoing facts, there can be very little doubt that the use of armorial marks of bastardy _was not invented or instituted, nor were these marks enforced, as punishment or as a disgrace_. It is a curious instance how a careful study of words and terms employed will often afford either a clue or confirmation, when the true meaning of the term has long been overlooked. The official term for a mark of cadency is a "difference" mark, _i.e._ it was a mark to show the difference between one member of a family and another. The mark used to signify a lack of blood relationship, and a mark used to signify illegitimacy are each termed a "mark of distinction," _i.e._ a mark that shall make something plainly "distinct." What is that something? The fact that the use of the arms is not evidence of descent through which heirship can be claimed or proved. This, by the way, is a patent example of the advantage of adherence to precedent. The inevitable conclusion is that a bastard was originally only required to mark his shield sufficiently that it should be distinctly apparent that heirship would never accrue. The arms had to be distinct from those borne by those members of the family upon whom heirship might devolve. The social position of a bastard as "belonging" to a family was pretty generally conceded, therefore he carried their arms, sufficiently marked to show he was not in the line of succession. This being accepted, one at once understands the great variety of the marks which have been employed. These answered the purpose of distinction, and nothing more was demanded or necessary. Consequently a recapitulation of marks, of which examples can be quoted, would be largely a list of isolated instances, and as such they are useless for the purposes of deduction in any attempt to arrive at a correct conclusion as to what the ancient rules were. In brief, there were no {511} rules until the eighteenth, or perhaps even until the nineteenth century. The only rule was that the arms must be sufficiently marked in _some_ way. This is borne out by the dictum of Menêstrier. Except the label, which has been elsewhere referred to, the earliest marks of either cadency or illegitimacy for which accepted use can be found are the bend and the bordure; but the bend for the purpose of illegitimacy seems to be the earlier, and a bend superimposed over a shield remained a mark of illegitimate cadency until a comparatively late period. This bend as a difference naturally was originally depicted as a bend dexter, and as a mark of legitimate cadency is found in the arms of the _younger_ son of Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster, before he succeeded his elder brother. There are scores of other similar instances which a little research will show. Whether the term "left-handed marriage" is the older, and the sinister bend is derived therefrom, or whether the slang term is derived from the sinister bend, it is perhaps not necessary to inquire. But there is no doubt that from an early period the bend of cadency, when such cadency was illegitimate, is frequently met with in the sinister form. But concurrently with such usage instances are found in which the dexter bend was used for the same purpose, and it is very plainly evident that it was never at that date looked upon as a penalty, but was used merely as a _distinction_, or for the purpose of showing that the wearer was not the head of his house or in possession of the lordship. The territorial idea of the nature of arms, which has been alluded to in the chapter upon marks of cadency, should be borne in mind in coming to a conclusion. Soon after the recognition of the bend as a mark of illegitimacy we come across the bordure; but there is some confusion with this, bordures of all kinds being used indiscriminately to denote both legitimate and illegitimate cadency. There are countless other forms of marking illegitimacy, and it is impossible to attempt to summarise them, and absolutely impossible to draw conclusions as to any family from marks upon its arms when this point is under discussion. To give a list of these instances would rather seem an attempt to deduce a rule or rules upon the point, so I say at once that there was no recognised mark, and any plain distinction seems to have been accepted as sufficient; and no distinction whatever was made when the illegitimate son, either from failure of legitimate issue or other reason, succeeded to the lands and honours of his father. Out of the multitude of marks, the bend, and subsequently the bend sinister, emerge as most frequently in use, and finally the bend sinister exclusively; so that it has come to be considered, and perhaps correctly as regards one period, that its use was equivalent to a mark of illegitimacy in England. {512} But there has always remained to the person of bastard descent the right of discarding the bastardised coat, and adopting a new coat of arms, the only requirement as to the new coat being that it shall be so distinct from the old one as not to be liable to confusion therewith. And it is a moot point whether or not a large proportion of the instances which are tabulated in most heraldic works as examples of marks of bastardy are anything whatever of the kind. My own opinion is that many are not, and that it is a mistake to so consider them; the true explanation undoubtedly in some--and outside the Royal Family probably in most--being that they are new coats of arms adopted _as_ new coats of arms, doubtless bearing relation to the old family coat, but sufficiently distinguished therefrom to rank as new arms, and were never intended to be taken as, and never were bastardised examples of formerly existing coats. It is for this reason that I have refrained from giving any extensive list such as is to be found in most other treatises on heraldry, for all that can be said for such lists is that they are lists of the specific arms of specific bastards, which is a very different matter from a list of heraldic marks of illegitimacy. Another objection to the long lists which most heraldic works give of early instances of marks of bastardy as data for deduction lies in the fact that most are instances of the illegitimate children of Royal personages. It is singularly unsafe to draw deductions, to be applied to the arms of others, from the Royal Arms, for these generally have laws unto themselves. The bend sinister in its bare simplicity, as a mark of illegitimacy, was seldom used, the more frequent form being the sinister bendlet, or even the diminutive of that, the cottise. There is no doubt, of course, that when a sinister bend or bendlet debruises another coat that that is a bastardised version of an older coat, but examples can be found of the sinister bend as a charge which has no reference whatever to illegitimacy. Two instances that come to mind, which can be found by reference to any current peerage, are the arms of Shiffner and Burne-Jones. Certainly in these cases I know of no illegitimacy, and neither coat is a bastardised version of an older existing coat. Anciently the bendlet was drawn across arms and quarterings, and an example of a coat of arms of some number of quarterings debruised for an illegitimate family is found in the registration of a Talbot pedigree in one of the Visitation Books. As a mark of distinction upon arms the bend sinister for long past has fallen out of use, though for the purpose of differencing crests a bendlet wavy sinister is still made use of, and will be again presently referred to. Next to the bend comes the bordure. Bordures of all kinds were used for the purposes of cadency from practically the earliest periods {513} of heraldic differencing. But they were used indiscriminately, as has been already stated, both for legitimate and illegitimate cadency. John of Gaunt, as is well known, was the father of Henry IV. and the ancestor of Henry VII., the former being the issue of his legitimate wife, the latter coming from a son who, as one of the old chroniclers puts it, "was of double advowtrie begotten." But, as every one knows, John of Gaunt's children by Catherine Roet or Swynford were legitimated by Act of Parliament, the Act of Parliament not excepting the succession to the Throne, a disability later introduced in Letters Patent of the Crown when giving a subsequent confirmation of the Act, but which, nevertheless, they could not overrule. But taking the sons of the latter family as legitimate, which (whatever may have been the moral aspect of the case) they were undoubtedly in the eyes of the common law after the passing of the Act referred to, they existed concurrently with the undoubtedly senior descendants of the first marriage of John of Gaunt with Blanche of Lancaster, and it was necessary--whether they were legitimate or not--to distinguish the arms of the junior from the senior branch. The result was that as legitimate cadets, and not as bastards, the arms of John of Gaunt were differenced for the line of the Dukes of Somerset by the addition of the bordure compony argent and azure--the livery colours of Lancaster. It is a weird position, for these colours were derived from the family of the legitimate wife. The fight as to whether these children were legitimate or illegitimate was, of course, notorious, and a matter of history; but from the fact that they bore a bordure compony, an idea grew up both in this country and in Scotland also from the similarity of the cases of the doubtful legitimacy of the Avondale and Ochiltree Stewarts, who both used the bordure compony, that the bordure compony was a sign of illegitimacy, whereas in both countries at an earlier period it undoubtedly was accepted as a mark of legitimate cadency. As a mark of bastardy it had subsequently some extensive use in both countries, and it still remains the only mark now used for the purpose in Scottish heraldry. Whether it was that it was not considered as of a fixed nature, or whether it was that it had become notorious and unacceptable, it is difficult to say, though the officers of arms have been blamed for making a change on the assumption that it was the latter. Some writers who clamour strongly for the _penalising_ of bastard arms, and for the plain and recognisable marking of them as such (a position adopted rather vehemently by Woodward, a singularly erudite heraldic writer), are rather uncharitable, and at the same time rather lacking in due observation and careful consideration of ancient ideas {514} and ancient precedents. That the recognised mark has been changed at different periods, and as a consequence that to a certain extent the advertisement it conveys has been less patent is, of course, put down to the "venality" of mediæval heralds (happily their backs are broad) by those who are too short-sighted to observe that the one thing an official herald moves heaven and earth to escape from is the making of a new precedent; and that, on the score of signs of illegitimacy, the official heralds, when the control of arms passed into their hands, found no established rule. So far from having been guilty of venality, as Woodward suggests, they have erred on the other side, and by having worked only on the limited number of precedents they found they have stereotyped the advertisement, and thereby made the situation more stringent than they found it. We have it from biblical sources that the sins of the fathers shall be visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generations, and this spirit has undoubtedly crept into the views of many writers, but to get into the true perspective of the matter one needs to consider the subject from the point of view of less prudish days than our own. I have no wish to be misunderstood. In these days much heraldic reviewing of the blatant and baser sort depends not upon the value of the work performed, a point of view which is never given a thought, but entirely upon the identity of the writer whose work is under review, and is largely composed of misquotation and misrepresentation. It may perhaps be as well, therefore, to state that I am not seeking to condone illegitimacy or to combat present opinions upon the point. I merely state that our present opinions are a modern growth, and that in the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, when the fundamental principles of heraldry were in the making, it was not considered a disgrace to have an illegitimate son, nor was it considered then that to be of illegitimate birth carried the personal stigma that came later. At any rate, the fact remains that a new mark was called into being in England about the year 1780 when in a grant to Zachary to quarter the arms of Sacheverell, from which family he was in the female line illegitimately descended, the bordure wavy was first met with as a sufficient and proper mark of illegitimacy. The curious point is that before that date in Scotland and in England the bordure wavy possessed nothing of this character, and to the present day the bordure wavy in Scotland is undoubtedly nothing more than a legitimate mark of legitimate cadency, for which mark Mr. Stodart provides a place in the scheme of differencing which he tabulated as the basis of cadency marks in Scotland (Fig. 732). Since that date the bordure wavy has {515} remained the mark which has been used for the purpose in England, as the bordure compony has remained the mark in Scotland. Bearing in mind that the only necessity was some mark which should carry sufficient _distinction_ from the arms of the family, it follows, as a natural consequence of human nature, that as soon as any particular mark became identified with illegitimacy (after that was considered to be a stigma), that mark was quietly dropped and some other substituted, and no one should be surprised to find the bordures wavy and compony quietly displaced by something else. If any change is to be made in the future it is to be hoped that no existing mark will be adopted, and that the marks in England and Scotland shall not conflict even if they do not coincide. The bendlet sinister, however, survives in the form of the baton sinister, which is a bendlet couped placed across the centre of the shield. The baton sinister, however, is a privilege which, as a charge on a shield, is reserved, such as it is, for Royal bastards. The latest instance of this was in the exemplification of arms to the Earl of Munster and his brothers and sisters early in the nineteenth century. Other surviving instances are met with in the arms of the Duke of St. Albans and the Duke of Grafton. Another privilege of Royal bastards is that they may have the baton of _metal_, a privilege which is, according to Berry, denied to those of humbler origin. According to present law the position of an illegitimate person heraldically is based upon the common law of the country, which practically declares that an illegitimate child has no name, no parentage, and no relations. The illegitimacy of birth is an insuperable bar to inheritance, and a person of illegitimate birth inherits no arms at all, the popular idea that he inherits a right to the arms subject to a mark of distinction being quite incorrect. He has none at all. There has never been any mark which, as a matter of course and of mere motion, could attach itself automatically to a shield, as is the case with the English marks of difference, _e.g._ the crescent of the second son or the mullet of the third. This is a point upon which I have found mistaken ideas very frequently held, even by those who have made some study of heraldry. But a very little thought should make it plain that by the very nature of the fact there cannot be either a recognised mark, compulsory use, or an _ipse facto_ sign. Illegitimacy is negative, not positive--a fact which many writers hardly give sufficient weight to. If any one of illegitimate birth desires to obtain a right to arms he has two courses open to him. He can either (not disclosing the fact of his illegitimacy, and not attempting to prove that he is a descendant of any kind from any one else) apply for and obtain a new grant of {516} arms on his own basis, and worry through the College the grant of a coat as closely following in design that of the old family as he can get, which means that he would be treated and penalised with such _alterations_ (not "marks of distinction") as would be imposed upon a stranger in blood endeavouring to obtain arms founded upon a coat to which he had no right. The cost of such a proceeding in England is £76, 10s., the usual fees upon an ordinary grant. The alternative course is simple. He must avow himself a bastard, and must prove his paternity or maternity, as the case may be (for in the eye of the law--common and heraldic--he bears the same relation, which is nil, and the same right to the name and arms, which is nil, of both his father and his mother). Illegitimacy under English law affords one of the many instances in which anomalies exist, for, strange as the statement is, a bastard comes into the world without any name at all. Legally, at birth a bastard child has then no name at all, and no arms. It must subsequently acquire such right to a name (whatever right that may amount to) as user of and reputation therein may give him. He inherits no arms at all, no name, and no property, save by specific devise or bequest. The lack of parents operates as a _chasm_ which it is impossible to bridge. It is not a case of a peculiar bridge or a faulty bridge; there is no bridge at all. Names, in so far as they are matters of law, are subject to canon law; at any rate, the law upon the subject, such as it is, originated in canon law, and not in statute or common law. Canon law was made, and has never since been altered, at a time when surnames were not in existence. A bastard no more inherits the surname of the mother than it does the surname of its father; and the spirit of petty officialism, so rampant amongst the clergy, which seeks to impose upon a bastard _nolens volens_ the surname of its mother, has no justification in law or fact. A bastard has precisely as little right to the surname of its mother as it has to the surname of its father. Obviously, however, under the customs of our present social life, every person must have a surname of one kind or another; and it is here that the anomaly in the British law exists, inasmuch as neither statute nor canon law provide any means for conferring a surname. That the King has the prerogative, and exercises it, of conferring or confirming surnames is, of course, unquestioned, but it is hardly to be supposed that the King will trouble himself to provide a surname for every illegitimate child which may be born; and outside this prerogative, which probably is exercised about once a year, there is no method provided or definitely recognised by the law to meet this necessity. To obviate the difficulty, the surname has to be that which is conferred upon the child by {517} general custom; and as an illegitimate child is in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred brought up by its mother, it is usually by the same custom which confers the surname of its owner upon a dog in so many parts of the country that a bastard child gets known by its mother's surname, and consequently has that surname conferred upon it by general custom. The only names that an illegitimate child has an inalienable right to are the names by which it is baptized; and if two names are given, and the child or its guardians elect that it should be known only by those baptismal names, and if common repute and general custom, as would be probable, uses the last of those names as a surname, there is no legal power on earth which can force upon the child any other name; and if the last of the baptismal names happens to be its father's surname, the child will have an absolute right to be known only by its Christian names, which to all intents and purposes will mean that it will be known by its father's surname. In the same way that an illegitimate child inherits no surname at all, it equally inherits no arms. Consequently it has no shield upon which to carry a mark of bastardy, if such a mark happened to be in existence. But if under a will or deed of settlement an illegitimate child is required to assume the name and arms of its father _or of its mother_, a Royal Licence to assume such name and arms is considered to be necessary. It may be here noted that voluntary applications to assume a name and arms in the case of an illegitimate child are not entertained unless it can be clearly shown (which is not always an easy matter) what the parentage really was. It will be noticed that I have said he will be required to prove his paternity. This is rigorously insisted upon, inasmuch as it is not fair to penalise the reputation of a dead man by inflicting upon him a record of bastard descendants whilst his own life might have been stainless. An illegitimate birth is generally recorded under the name of the mother only, and even when it is given, the truth of any statement as to paternity is always open to grave suspicion. There is nothing, therefore, to prevent a person asserting that he is the son of a duke, whereas his real father may have been in a very plebeian walk in life; and to put the arms of the duke's family at the mercy of any fatherless person who chose to fancy a differenced version of them would be manifestly unjust, so that without proof in a legal action of the actual paternity, or some recognition under a will or settlement, it is impossible to adopt the alternative in question. But if such recognition or proof is forthcoming, the procedure is to petition the Sovereign for a Royal Licence to use (or continue to use) the name desired and to bear the arms of the family. Such a petition is always granted, on {518} proper proof of the facts, if made in due form through the proper channels. The Royal Licence to that effect is then issued. But the document contains two conditions, the first being that the arms shall be exemplified according to the laws of arms "with due and proper marks of distinction," and that the Royal Licence shall be recorded in the College of Arms, otherwise "to be void and of none effect." The invariable insertion of this clause puts into the hands of the College one of the strongest weapons the officers of arms possess. Under the present practice the due and proper marks of distinction are, for the arms, a bordure wavy round the shield of the most suitable colour, according to what the arms may be, but if possible of some colour or metal different from any of the tinctures in the arms. The crest is usually differenced by a bendlet sinister wavy, but a pallet wavy is sometimes used, and sometimes a saltire wavy, couped or otherwise. The choice between these marks generally depends upon the nature of the crest. But even with this choice, the anomaly is frequently found of blank space being carefully debruised. Seeing that the mark of the debruising is not a tangible object or thing, but a mark painted upon another object, such a result seems singularly ridiculous, and ought to be avoided. Whilst the ancient practice certainly appears to have been to make some slight change in the crest, it does not seem to have been debruised in the present manner. There are some number of more recent cases where, whilst the existing arms have been charged with the necessary marks of distinction, entirely new, or very much altered crests have been granted without any recognisable "marks of distinction." There can be no doubt that the bendlet wavy sinister upon the crest is a palpable penalising of the bearer, and I think the whole subject of the marks of bastardy in the three kingdoms might with advantage be brought under official consideration, with a view to new regulations being adopted. A bendlet wavy sinister is such an absolute defacement of a crest that few can care to make use of a crest so marked. It carries an effect far beyond what was originally the intention of marks of distinction. A few recent bastardised exemplifications which have issued from Ulster's Office have had the crest charged with a baton couped sinister. The baton couped sinister had always hitherto been confined to the arms of Royal bastards, but I am not aware of any Royal crest so bastardised. Of course no circumstances can be conceived in which it is necessary to debruise supporters, as under no circumstances can these be the subject of a Royal Licence of this character, except in a possible case where they might have been granted as a simple augmentation to a man and his descendants, without further limitation. I know of no bastardised version consequent upon such a grant. {519} Supporters signify some definite honour which cannot ordinarily survive illegitimacy. The bordure wavy is placed round the pronominal arms only, and no right to any quarterings the family may have enjoyed previously is conferred, except such right to a quarterly coat as might ensue through the assumption of a double name. Quartering is held to signify representation which cannot be given by a Royal Licence, but a quartering of augmentation or a duplicate coat for the pronominal name which had been so regularly used with the alternative coat as to constitute the two something in the nature of a compound coat, would be exemplified "all within a bordure wavy." Each illegitimate coat stands on its own basis, and there is a well-known instance in which a marriage was subsequently found to be illegal, or to have never taken place, after which, I believe, some number of brothers and sisters obtained Royal Licences and exemplifications. The descendants of one of the brothers will be found in the current Peerage Books, and those who know their peerage history well will recognise the case I allude to. All the brothers and sisters had the same arms exemplified, each with a bordure wavy _of a different colour_. If there were descendants of any of the sisters, those descendants would have been entitled to quarter the arms, because the illegitimacy made each sister an heiress for heraldic purposes. This is a curious anomaly, for had they been legitimate the descendants would have enjoyed no such right. In Scotland the mark of illegitimacy for the arms is the bordure compony, which is usually but not always indicative of the same. The bordure counter-compony has been occasionally stated to have the same character. This is hardly correct, though it may be so in a few isolated cases, but the bordure chequy has nothing whatever of an illegitimate character. It will be noticed that whilst the bordure compony and the bordure counter-company have their chequers or "panes," to use the heraldic term, following the outline of the shield, by lines parallel to those which mark its contour, the bordure chequy is drawn by lines parallel to and at right angles to the palar line of the shield, irrespective of its outline. A bordure chequy must, of course, at one point or another show three distinct rows of checks. The bastardising of crests even in England is a comparatively modern practice. I know of no single instance ancient or modern of the kind in Scottish heraldry, though I could mention scores of achievements in which the shields carry marks of distinction. This is valuable evidence, for no matter how lax the official practice of Scottish armory may have been at one period, the theory of Scottish armory far more nearly approaches the ancient practices and rules of heraldry {520} than does the armory of any other country. That theory is much nearer the ideal theory than the English one, but unfortunately for the practical purposes of modern heraldic needs, it does not answer so well. At the present day, therefore, a Scottish crest is not marked in any way. Most handbooks refer to a certain rule which is supposed to exist for the differencing of a coat to denote illegitimacy when the coat is that of the mother and not the father, the supposed method being to depict the arms under a surcoat, the result being much the same as if the whole of the arms appeared in exaggerated flaunches, the remainder of the shield being left vacant except for the tincture of the surcoat. As a matter of fact only one instance is known, and consequently we must consider it as a new coat devised to bear reference to the old one, and not as a regularised method of differencing for a particular set of circumstances. In Ireland the rules are to all intents and purposes the same as in England, with the exception of the occasional use of a sinister baton instead of a bendlet wavy sinister upon the crest. In Scotland, where Royal Licences are unknown, it is merely necessary to prove paternity, and rematriculate the arms with due and proper marks of distinction. It was a very general idea during a former period, but subsequently to the time when the bend and bendlet sinister and the bordure were recognised as in the nature of the accepted marks of bastardy, and when their penal nature was admitted, that whatever mark was adopted for the purpose of indicating illegitimacy need only be borne for three generations. Some of the older authorities tell us that after that length of time had elapsed it might be discarded, and some other and less objectionable mark be taken in its place. The older writers were striving, consciously or unconsciously, to reconcile the disgrace of illegitimacy, which they knew, with heraldic facts which they also knew, and to reconcile in certain prominent families undoubted illegitimacy with unmarked arms, the probability being that their sense of justice and regard for heraldry prompted them to the remark that some other mark of distinction _ought_ to be added, whilst all the time they knew it never was. The arms of Byron, Somerset, Meinill, and Herbert are all cases where the marks of illegitimacy have been quietly dropped, entire reversion being had to the undifferenced original coat. At a time when marks of illegitimacy, both in fact and in theory, were nothing more than marks of cadency and difference from the arms of the head of the house, it was no venality of the heralds, but merely the acceptance of current ideas, that permitted them to recognise the undifferenced arms for the illegitimate descendants when there were no legitimate owners from whose claim the arms of the others needed {521} to be differentiated, and when lordships and lands had lapsed to a bastard branch. To this fact must be added another. The armorial control of the heralds after the days of tournaments was exercised through the Visitations and the Earl Marshal's Court. Peers were never subject to the Visitations, and so were not under control unless their arms were challenged in the Earl Marshal's Court by the rightful owner. The cases that were notorious are cases of the arms of peers. The Visitations gave the officers of arms greater control over the arms of Commoners than they had had theretofore, and the growing social opinions upon legitimacy and marriage brought social observances more into conformity with the technical law, and made that technical law of no inheritance and no paternity an operative fact. The result is that the hard legal fact is now rigidly and rightly insisted upon, and the claim and right to arms of one of illegitimate descent depends and is made to depend solely upon the instruments creating that right, and the conditions of "due and proper marks of distinction" always subject to which the right is called into being. Nowadays there is no release from the penalty of the bordures wavy and compony save through the avenue of a new and totally different grant and the full fees payable therefor. But, as the bearer of a bordure wavy once remarked to me, "I had rather descend illegitimately from a good family and bear their arms marked than descend from a lot of nobodies and use a new grant." But until the common law is altered, if it ever is, the game must be played fairly and the conditions of a Royal Licence observed, for the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children. Although I have refrained from giving any extended list of bastardised coats as examples of the rules for indicating illegitimacy, reference may nevertheless be made to various curious examples. The canton has occasionally been used. Sir John de Warren, a natural son of John, Earl of Surrey, Sussex, and Warenne (d. 1347), bore a canton of the arms of his mother, Alice de Nerford ["Gules, a lion rampant ermine"], over the chequy shield of Warren. A similar instance can be found in modern times, the arms of Charlton of Apley Castle, co. Salop, being bastardised by a sinister canton which bears two coats quarterly, these coats having formerly been quarterings borne in the usual manner. The custom of placing the paternal arms upon a bend has been occasionally adopted, but this of course is the creation of a _new_ coat. It was followed by the Beauforts before their legitimation, and by Sir Roger de Clarendon, the illegitimate son of the Black Prince. The Somerset family, who derived illegitimately from the Beauforts, Dukes of Somerset, first debruised the Beaufort arms by {522} a bendlet sinister, but in the next generation the arms were placed upon a wide fess, this on a plain field of or. Although the Somersets, Dukes of Beaufort, have discarded all signs of bastardy from their shield, the version upon the fess was continued as one of the quarterings upon the arms of the old Shropshire family of Somerset Fox. One of the most curious bastardised coats is that of Henry Fitz-Roy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset, illegitimate son of Henry VIII. This shows the Royal Arms within a bordure quarterly ermine and counter-compony or and azure, debruised by a baton sinister argent, an inescutcheon quarterly gules and vairé, or and vert [possibly hinting at the Blount arms of his mother, barry nebuly or and sable], over all a lion rampant argent, on a chief azure a tower between two stags' heads caboshed argent, attired or. {523} CHAPTER XXXIII THE MARSHALLING OF ARMS The science of marshalling is the conjoining of two or more coats of arms upon one shield for the purpose of indicating sovereignty, dominion, alliance, descent, or pretension, according to recognised rules and regulations, by the employment of which the story of any given achievement shall be readily translatable. The methods of marshalling are (1) dimidiation, (2) impalement, (3) quartering, (4) superimposition. Instances of quartered shields are to be met with possibly before impalements or dimidiation. The earliest attempt at anything like a regularised method of procedure to signify marriage was that usually males _quartered_ the arms of their wives or ancestresses from whom they acquired their lands; whilst impaled coats were to all intents and purposes the armorial bearings of married women, or more frequently of widows who took an immediate interest in their husbands' property. This ancient usage brings home very forcibly the former territorial connection of arms and land. The practice of the husband impaling the wife's arms, whether heiress or not, probably arose near the close of the fifteenth century. Even now it is laid down that the arms of a wife should not in general be borne upon the husband's banner, surcoat, or official seal. But impalement as we now know it was preceded by dimidiation. Dimidiation, which was but a short-lived method, was effected by the division of the shield down the centre. On the dexter side was placed the dexter half of the husband's arms, and on the sinister side was placed the sinister half of the wife's arms. With some coats of arms no objection could be urged against the employment of this method. But it was liable to result (_e.g._ with two coats of arms having the same ordinary) in the creation of a design which looked far more like one simple coat than a conjunction of two. The dimidiation of "argent, a bend gules" and "argent, a chevron sable" would simply result in a single coat "argent, a bend per pale gules and sable." This fault of the system must have made itself manifest at an early period, for we soon find it became customary to introduce about two-thirds of {524} the design of each coat for the sake of demonstrating their separate character. It must soon thereafter have become apparent that if two-thirds of the design of a coat of arms could be squeezed into half of the shield there was no valid reason why the whole of the design could not be employed. This therefore became customary under the name of impalement, and the practice has ever since remained with us. Few examples indeed of dimidiation are to be met with, and as a practical method of conjunction, the practice was chiefly in vogue during the earlier part of the fourteenth century. Occasionally quartered coats were dimidiated, in which case the first and third quarters of the husband's coat were conjoined with the second and fourth of the wife's. As far as outward appearance went, this practice resulted in the fact that no distinction existed from a plain quartered coat. Thus the seal of Margaret of Bavaria, Countess of Holland, and wife of John, Count de Nevers, in 1385 (afterwards Duke of Burgundy), bears a shield on which is apparently a simple instance of quartering, but really a dimidiated coat. The two coats to the dexter side of the palar line are: In chief Burgundy-Modern ("France-Ancient, a bordure compony argent and gules"), and in base Burgundy-Ancient. On the sinister side the coat in chief is Bavaria ("Bendy-lozengy argent and azure"); and the one in base contains the quartered arms of Flanders ("Or, a lion rampant sable"); and Holland ("Or, a lion rampant gules"); the lines dividing these latter quarters being omitted, as is usually found to be the case with this particular shield. Certain examples can be found amongst the Royal Arms in England which show much earlier instances of dimidiation. The arms of Margaret of France, who died in 1319, the second queen of Edward I., as they remain on her tomb in Westminster Abbey, afford an example of this method of conjunction. The arms of England appear on the dexter side of the escocheon; and this coat undergoes a certain amount of curtailment, though the dimidiation is not complete, portions only of the hindmost parts of the lions being cut off by the palar line. The coat of France, on the sinister side, of course does not readily indicate the dimidiation. Boutell, in his chapter on marshalling in "Heraldry, Historical and Popular," gives several early examples of dimidiation. The seal of Edmond Plantagenet, Earl of Cornwall (d. 1300), bears his arms (those of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, and King of the Romans) dimidiating those of his wife, Margaret de Clare. Here only the sinister half of his bordure is removed, while the Clare coat ("Or, three chevrons gules") is entirely dimidiated, and the chevrons are little distinguishable from bends. Both coats are dimidiated in other examples mentioned {525} by Boutell, viz. William de Valence and his wife, and Alianore Montendre and her husband Guy Ferre. On the seal of Margaret Campbell, wife of Alexander Napier, in 1531, the shield shows upon the dexter side the arms of Lennox, and on the sinister the dimidiated coat (the sinister half of the quartered arms) of Campbell and Lorn. This results in the galley of Lorn being in chief, and the Campbell gyrons in base. An early and interesting Irish example of this kind of marshalling is afforded by a dimidiated coat of Clare and Fitzgerald, which now figures on the official seal of the Provosts of Youghal (Clare: "Or, three chevrons gules." Fitzgerald: "Argent, a saltire gules, with a label of five points in chief"). Both these coats are halved. They result from the marriage of Richard Clare, Earl of Hertford, with Juliana, daughter and heir of Maurice Fitzgerald, feudal lord of Inchiquin and Youghal. An even more curious case of dimidiation comes to light in the arms formerly used by the Abbey of St. Etienne at Caen, in which the arms of England and those attributed to the Duchy of Normandy ("Gules, two lions passant guardant or") were dimidiated, so that in the former half three of the fore-quarters of the lions appear, while in the sinister half only two of the hind-quarters are represented. Dimidiation was not always effected by conjunction down the palar line, other partition lines of the shield being occasionally, though very rarely, employed in this manner. Certain curious (now indivisible) coats of arms remain which undoubtedly originated in the dimidiation of two separate coats, _e.g._ the arms of Yarmouth, Sandwich, Hastings, Rye, and Chester. In all cases some Royal connection can be traced which has caused the Royal Arms of England to be conjoined with the earlier devices of fish, ships, or garbs which had been employed by the towns in question. It is worth the passing thought, however, whether the conjoined lions and hulks used by the Cinque Ports may not originally have been a device of the Sovereign for naval purposes, or possibly the naval version of the Royal Arms (see page 182). One other remainder from the practice of dimidiation still survives amongst the presently existing rules of heraldry. It is a rule to which no modern authoritative exception can be mentioned. When a coat within a bordure is impaled with another coat, the bordure is not continued down the centre of the shield, but stops short at top and bottom when the palar line is reached. This rule is undoubtedly a result of the ancient method of conjunction by dimidiation, but the curious point is that, at the period when dimidiation was employed and during the period which followed, some number of examples can be {526} found where the bordure is continued round the whole coat which is within it. The arms of man and wife are now conjoined according to the following rules:--If the wife is not an heraldic heiress the two coats are impaled. If the wife be an heraldic heir or coheir, in lieu of impalement the arms of her family are placed on an inescutcheon superimposed on the centre of her husband's arms, the inescutcheon being termed an escutcheon of pretence, because _jure uxoris_ she being an heiress of her house, the husband "pretends" to the representation of her family. For heraldic purposes it therefore becomes necessary to define the terms heir and heiress. It is very essential that the point should be thoroughly understood, because quarterings other than those of augmentation can only be inherited from or through female ancestors who are in themselves heirs or coheirs (this is the true term, or, rather, the ancient term, though they are now usually referred to colloquially as heiresses or coheiresses) in blood, or whose issue subsequently become in a later generation the representatives of any ancestor in the male line of that female ancestor. A woman is an "heir" or "heiress" (1) if she is an only child; (2) if all her brothers die without leaving any issue to survive, either male or female; (3) she becomes an heiress "in her issue," as it is termed, if she die leaving issue herself if and when all the descendants male and female of her brothers become absolutely extinct. The term "coheir" or "coheiress" is employed in cases similar to the foregoing when, instead of one daughter, there are two or more. No person can be "heir" or "coheir" of another person until the latter is dead, though he or she may be heir-apparent or heir-presumptive. Though the word "heir" is frequently used with regard to material matters, such usage is really there incorrect, except in cases of intestacy. A person benefiting under a will is a legatee of money, or a devisee of land, and not an heir to either. The table on page 527 may make things a little clearer, but in the following remarks intestacy is ignored, and the explanations apply solely to _heirship of blood_. Charles in the accompanying pedigree is, after 1800, _heir_ of David. Thomas is _heir-apparent_ of Charles, being a son and the eldest born. He dies _v.p._ (_vita patris_, _i.e._ in the lifetime of his father) and never becomes heir. A daughter can never become an heir-apparent, as there is always, during the lifetime of her father, the possibility of a son being born. Mary, Ellen, and Blanche are coheirs of Thomas their father, whom they survive, and they are also coheirs of their grandfather Charles, to whom they succeed, and they would properly in a pedigree be described as both. They are heirs-general of Thomas, Charles, and David, and, being the heirs of the senior line, they are heirs-general or coheirs-general of their house. David being possessed of the barony "by writ" of Cilfowyr, it would "fall into abeyance" at the death of Charles between the three daughters equally. {527} DAVID CILFOWYR, created Duke of London in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, remainder to him and the heirs male of his body, was Earl of Edinburgh in the Peerage of Scotland (with remainder to his heirs), and Lord Cilfowyr by writ in the Peerage of England (with remainder to his heirs-general). Died 1800. | -------------------------------------------------- | | CHARLES CILFOWYR, OWEN CILFOWYR, Esq., elder son and heir; head of commonly called Lord Owen his house, Duke of London, Cilfowyr by courtesy. Earl of Edinburgh, and Lord Cilfowyr. Died 1870. Died 1840. | | -------------------------------------------------- | | | | | | | | | ROBERT CILFOWYR, Esq., PHILIP CILFOWYR, Esq., | | eldest son, becomes heir second son. Died 1879. | | male of his house in 1880 | | | at the death of George, and ADA, only child, has | | as such succeeds as Duke of no courtesy title. | | London. Died 1896. Living in 1900. | | | | | HARRIET CILFOWYR, | | only child, by CECIL CILFOWYR, Esq., | courtesy after 1880 third son. When his brother | Lady Harriet Cilfowyr. succeeds in 1880 as Duke of | Died 1897. London he petitions the | Queen for that style and | precedence which he would | have enjoyed had his father | lived to inherit the Dukedom. | His petition being granted, | he becomes by courtesy Lord | Cecil Cilfowyr, until he | succeeds in 1896, at the | death of his brother, to | the Dukedom of London. | --------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | THOMAS CILFOWYR, Esq., | | | ISABEL CILFOWYR, eldest son and heir-apparent, | | | styled by courtesy as styled Earl of Edinburgh by | | | Lady Isabel Cilfowyr. courtesy. Died _v.p._ | | | Living 1900. 1830, so never succeeds. | | | | | | | | | | IRENE CILFOWYR, | | | styled by courtesy as | | | Lady Irene Cilfowr | | | Living 1900. | | | | ---------------- | | | | | | | | EDMOND CILFOWYR, Esq., | | second son, styled by courtesy | | courtesy Lord Edmond Cilfowyr | | until 1840, when he succeeds | | as Duke of London. Died 1850. | | | | | | -------------- | | | | | JOHN CILFOWYR, Esq., = EDITH TORKINGTON, | | third son, styled by | succeeds in 1861 as | | courtesy Lord John Cilfowyr | _suo jure_ Baroness | | until 1850, when he | Neville by writ in England, | | succeeds as Duke of London. | and Countess of Torkington | | London. Died 1870. | (to herself and her heirs) | | | in Scotland. Died 1862. | | | | | ----------------------------- | | | | --------------------------------------------------------- | | | | ------------------------------------------------- | | | | | | | MARY CILFOWYR, ELLEN CILFOWYR, BLANCHE CILFOWYR, | | Countess of styled by courtesy styled by courtesy | | Edinburgh. Lady Ellen Cilfowyr. Lady Blanche Cilfowyr. | | Living 1900. Living 1900. Living 1900. | | _Heir of Line._ | | | | | | ------------------------------------------- | | | | | The Barony of Cilfowyr falls into abeyance between these | | three equally. In Scottish phraseology they are termed | | heirs portioners. | | --------------------------------- | | | | GRACE CILFOWYR, MURIEL CILFOWYR, | styled by courtesy styled by courtesy | Lady Grace Cilfowyr, Lady Muriel Cilfowyr. | elder dau. Living 1900. Living 1900. | | | --------------------------------------------------------------- | | | GEORGE CILFOWYR, Esq., ALICE CILFOWYR, | only son, and so styled styled by courtesy | until 1850, when his father succeeds Lady Alice Cilfowyr until | as Duke of London. As son of a Duke 1885, when she succeeds as | he then becomes by courtesy Lord George Countess of Torkington. | Cilfowyr, and this is his proper Died 1887, _s.p._ | description, because his father has no | minor title which he could assume. But | by a quite modern custom which has ------------------------- sprung up of late years he would very | probably call himself "Lord Cilfowyr." ANNIE CILFOWYR, = REGINALD In 1861 his mother succeeds in her styled by courtesy | SHERWIN. own right to two titles, and by Lady Annie Cilfowyr | Died 1872. courtesy he would thenceforward be and Lady Annie | styled by her minor title as Lord Sherwin. Died 1870. | Neville until her death in 1862, when | he becomes Earl of Torkington in his | own right and also Lord Neville. ---------------------- At his father's death in 1870 he | | becomes Duke of London. Died 1880. | LILIAN SHERWIN, | | only daughter, known | | as Lady Lilian Sherwin DOROTHY CILFOWYR, styled | until 1896, when she Lady Dorothy Cilfowyr until 1880, | succeeds as Countess when she becomes _suo jure_ | of Torkington and Countess of Torkington and Baroness | Baroness Neville. Neville. Died _s.p._ 1885. | Living 1900. | ARTHUR SHERWIN, only son and heir, succeeds as Earl of Torkington and Lord Neville in 1887, at the death of his aunt. Died 1888. | | | ------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | | MARIA SHERWIN, called JANE SHERWIN, | by courtesy Lady Maria Sherwin, by courtesy Lady Jane | succeeds in 1888 as Countess of Sherwin, succeeds as | Torkington and senior coheir Countess of Torkington | to the Barony of Neville, in 1889, but the | which falls into abeyance between Barony of Neville again | herself and her sisters. The falls into abeyance | Queen determines the abeyance between herself and her | in her favour, and she consequently younger sister. | becomes also Baroness Died _s.p._ 1890. | Neville. Died _s.p._ 1889. | ------------- | HANNAH SHERWIN, called by courtesy Lady Hannah Sherwin. She succeeds in 1890 as sole heir of her father, and consequently the abeyance determines of itself, and she becomes both Countess of Torkington and Baroness Neville. Died _s.p._ 1896. {528} In Scotland Mary, Ellen, and Blanche would be termed "heirs portioners," and Mary, being an heiress and the eldest born in the direct and senior line, would be termed the "heir of line." David being possessed of an ancient Scottish peerage not limited to males (the Earldom of Edinburgh), Mary, the heir of line, would at once succeed in her own right as Countess of Edinburgh on the death of her grandfather Charles. If the family were an untitled Scottish family entitled to supporters, these would descend to Mary unless they had been specifically granted with some other limitation. At the death of Thomas in 1830 Edmond becomes heir male apparent, and at the death of his father in 1840 Edmond becomes heir male of his house until his death. David having been created a peer (Duke of London) with remainder to the heirs male of his body, Edmond succeeded as Duke of London at the death of Charles in 1840. Grace and Muriel are coheirs of Edmond after his death. They are _not_ either coheirs or heirs-general of Charles, in spite of the fact that their father was his heir male. At the death of Charles in 1840, when Edmond succeeded as heir male, John succeeded as heir male presumptive to Edmond. He was not heir-apparent, because a son might at any moment have been born to Edmond. An heir-apparent and an heir-presumptive cannot exist at the same time, for whilst there is an heir-apparent there cannot be an heir-presumptive. John succeeded as heir male of his house, and therefore as Duke of London, in 1850, at the death of his elder brother Edmond; but, though John was the "heir male" of his said elder brother, he was _not_ his "heir" (Grace and Muriel being the coheirs of Edmond), nor was he the "heir male of the body" of Edmond, not being descended from him. John, however, was "heir male of the body" of Charles. George is heir-apparent of John until his death in 1870, when George succeeds as "heir" of his father and heir male of his house, and consequently Duke of London. At his death in 1880 Dorothy becomes the "sole heir," or, more properly, the "sole heir-general," of her father George; but his kinsman Robert becomes his "heir male," and therefore Duke of London, in spite of the fact that there was a much nearer male relative, viz. a nephew, Arthur, the son of his sister. Robert also becomes the heir male of the body of Owen and heir male of his house, and as such Duke of London. He would also be generally described as the heir male of the body of David. At the death of Dorothy in 1885 her coheirs were her aunt Alice and her cousin Arthur equally, and though these really were the coheirs {529} of _Dorothy_ (the claims of Alice and Annie being equal, and the rights of Annie having devolved upon Arthur), they would more usually be found described as the coheirs of George or of John. Annie was never _herself_ really a coheir, because she died before her brother, but "in her issue" she became the coheir of Dorothy, though she would, after 1885, be usually described as "in her issue" a coheir of George, or possibly even of John, though this would be an inexact description. Arthur was heir of his mother after 1870, heir of his father after 1872, and heir-apparent of his father before that date; after 1885 he is a coheir of Dorothy, and after 1887 sole heir of Dorothy and sole heir of Alice. He would also be usually described as heir-general of George, and heir-general of John. Let us suppose that John had married Edith Torkington, an English baroness (_suo jure_) by writ (Baroness Neville), who had died in 1862. At that date the barony would have descended to her eldest son George until his death in 1880, when Dorothy, _suo jure_, would have succeeded. At her death in 1885 the barony would have fallen into abeyance between Alice and Arthur. At the death of Alice in 1887 the abeyance would be at an end, and the barony in its entirety would have devolved upon Arthur, who would have enjoyed it until at his death in 1888 the barony would have again fallen into abeyance between Maria, Jane, and Hannah equally. It is not unlikely that Her Majesty might have "determined the abeyance," or "called the barony out of abeyance" (the meanings of the terms are identical) in favour of Maria, who would consequently have enjoyed the barony in its entirety. At her death in 1889 it would again fall into abeyance between Jane and Hannah. At Jane's death in 1890 Hannah became sole heir, and the abeyance came to an end when Hannah succeeded to the barony. At her death it would pass to her aunt Lilian. Hannah would usually be described as "coheir and subsequently sole heir of" Arthur. If the Baroness Neville had been possessed of an ancient Scottish Peerage (the Earldom of Torkington) it would have passed undividedly and in full enjoyment to the heir of line, _i.e._ in 1862 to George, 1880 to Dorothy, 1885 to Alice, 1887 to Arthur, 1888 to Maria, 1889 to Jane, 1890 to Hannah, and 1896 to Lilian, the last (shown on the pedigree) in remainder. Lilian does not become an heiress until 1896, when the whole issue of her brother becomes extinct. Irene and Isabel never become heirs at all. Robert, as we have seen, became heir male of his house and Duke of London in 1880. At his death (1896) Harriet becomes sole heir of Robert, but at her death in 1897 his niece Ada, the only child of his younger brother Philip, who had predeceased him, would be usually referred to as heir of Robert, whilst Cecil is heir male of his house. {530} When the term "of the body" is employed, _actual descent_ from that person is signified, _e.g._ Arthur after 1885 is "collateral" heir-general of Dorothy, but "heir-general of the body" of Edith Torkington. An "heir of entail," or, to use the Scottish term, the "heir of tailzie," is merely the person succeeding to _property_ under a specific remainder contained in a deed of entail. This has no relation to heirship in blood, and the term, from an armorial point of view, might be entirely disregarded, were it not that some number of Scottish coats of arms, and a greater number of Scottish supporters, and some Scottish peerages and baronetcies, are specifically granted and limited to the heirs of entail. There are a few similar English grants following upon Royal Licences for change of name and arms. [Illustration: FIG. 742.] [Illustration: FIG. 743.] [Illustration: FIG. 744.] The term "heir in expectancy" is sometimes heard, but it is not really a proper term, and has no exact or legal meaning. When George was alive his daughter Dorothy was his heir-presumptive, but supposing that Dorothy were a Catholic nun and Alice a lunatic, in each of which cases there would be very little likelihood of any marriage ever taking place, Arthur would very generally be described as "heir in expectancy," for though he was neither heir-apparent nor heir-presumptive, all probability pointed to the eventual succession of himself or his issue. Anybody is said to be "in remainder" to entailed property or a peerage if he is included within the recited limits of the entail or peerage. The "heir in remainder" is the person next entitled to succeed after the death of the existing holder. Thus (excluding heirs in expectancy and women who are {531} heirs-presumptive) a marriage with any woman who is an heir or coheir results in her arms being placed upon an escutcheon of pretence over the arms of the husband. In the cases of all other women the arms are "impaled" only. To "impale two coats" the shield is divided by a straight line down the centre, the whole design of the arms of the husband being placed on the dexter side of the escutcheon, and the whole design of the wife's arms being placed on the sinister side (Fig. 742). [Illustration: FIG. 745.] It may perhaps be as well to here exemplify the different methods of the conjunction of the arms of man and wife, arranging the same two coats in the different methods in which they might be marshalled before reverting to ancient practices. [Illustration: FIG. 746.] An ordinary commoner impales his wife's arms as in Fig. 742. If she be an heiress, he places them on an escutcheon of pretence as in Fig. 743. If the husband, not being a Knight, is, however, a Companion of an Order of Knighthood, this does not (except in the case of the Commanders of the Victorian Order) give him the right to use the circle of his Order round his arms, and his badge is simply hung below the escutcheon, the arms of the wife being impaled or placed on an escutcheon of pretence thereupon as the case may necessitate. The wife of a Knight Bachelor shares the state and rank with her husband, and the only difference is in the helmet (Fig. 744). But if the husband be a knight of any order, the ensigns of that order are personal to himself, and cannot be shared with his wife, and consequently two shields are employed. On the dexter shield are the arms of the husband with the circle of his order of knighthood, and on the sinister shield are the arms of the husband impaling the arms of the wife. Some meaningless decoration, usually a wreath of oak-leaves, is placed round the sinister shield to "balance," from the artistic point, the {532} ribbon, or the ribbon and collar, as the case may be, of the order of knighthood of the husband (Fig. 745). A seeming exception to this rule in the case of the recent warrant to Queen Alexandra, whose arms, impaled by those of His Majesty, are depicted impaled within the Garter, is perhaps explained by the fact that Her Majesty is herself a member of that Order. A Knight Grand Cross, of course, adds his collar to the dexter shield, and if he has supporters, these are placed outside the _two_ shields. A peer impales the arms of his wife as in the case of a commoner, the arms of the wife being, of course, under the protection of the supporters, coronet, and helmet of the peer (Fig. 746). If, in addition to being a peer, he is also a knight of an order, he follows the rules which prescribe the use of two shields as already described. [Illustration: FIG. 747.] [Illustration: FIG. 748.] Supposing the wife to be a peeress in her own right, she cannot nowadays confer any rank whatever upon her husband; consequently, if she marry a commoner, the husband places her arms upon an escutcheon of pretence surmounted by a coronet of her rank, but the supporters belonging to her peerage cannot be added to his shield. The arms of the wife are consequently repeated alone, but in this case upon a lozenge on the sinister side of the husband's shield. Above this lozenge is placed the coronet of her rank, and the supporters belonging to her peerage are placed on either side of the lozenge (Fig. 747). But the arms of a peeress in her own right are frequently represented on a lozenge without any reference to the arms of her husband. In the case of a peeress in her own right marrying a peer, the arms of the peeress are placed upon an escutcheon of pretence in the centre of {533} her husband's shield, the only difference being that this escutcheon of pretence is surmounted by the coronet belonging to the peerage of the wife; and on the sinister side the arms of the wife are repeated upon a lozenge with the supporters and coronet belonging to her own peerage. It is purely an artistic detail, but it is a happy conceit in such an instance to join together the compartments upon which the two pairs of supporters stand to emphasise the fact that the whole is in reality but one achievement (Fig. 748). [Illustration: FIG. 749.] Now, it is not uncommon to see an achievement displayed in this manner, for there have been several instances in recent years of peeresses in their own right who have married peers. Every woman who _inherits_ a peerage must of necessity be an heir or coheir, and, as will have been seen, the laws of armory provide for this circumstance; but supposing that the peeress were a peeress by creation and were not an heiress, how would her arms be displayed? Apparently it would not be permissible to place them on an escutcheon of pretence, and consequently there is no way upon the husband's shield of showing that his wife is a peeress in her own right. Such an instance did arise in the case of the late Baroness Stratheden, who was created a peeress whilst not being an heiress. Her husband was subsequently created Baron Campbell. Now, how were the arms of Lord Campbell and Lady Stratheden and Campbell displayed? I think I am correct in saying that not a single textbook on armory recites the method which should be employed, and I candidly confess that I myself am quite ignorant upon the point. [Illustration: FIG. 750.] All the foregoing are simply instances of how to display the arms of man and wife, or, to speak more correctly, they are instances of the methods _in which a man should bear arms for himself and his wife when he is married_; for the helmet and mantling clearly indicate that it is the man's coat of arms, and not the woman's. In olden days, when the husband possessed everything, this might have been enough for all the circumstances which were likely to occur. A lady whilst unmarried bears arms on a lozenge (Fig. 749), and upon becoming a widow, bears again upon a lozenge the arms of her husband impaled with the arms borne by her father (Fig. 750), or with the latter upon an escutcheon of pretence if the widow be herself an {534} heiress (Fig. 751). The widow of a knight has no way whatever of indicating that her husband was of higher rank than an ordinary untitled gentleman. The widow of a baronet, however, places the inescutcheon with the hand of Ulster upon her husband's arms (Fig. 752). I have often heard this disputed, but a reference to the Grant Books at the College of Arms (_vide_ a grant of arms some years ago to Lady Pearce) will provide the necessary precedent. If, however, the baronetcy is of Nova Scotia, this means of indicating the rank cannot be employed. The widow of a peer (not being a peeress in her own right) uses a lozenge of her husband's and her own arms, with his supporters and his coronet (Fig. 753). [Illustration: FIG. 751.] [Illustration: FIG. 752.] If a peeress, after marriage with a commoner, becomes a widow she bears on the dexter side a lozenge of her late husband's arms and superimposed thereupon her own on an escutcheon of pretence surmounted by a coronet. (The coronet, it should be noted, is over the escutcheon of pretence and not above the lozenge.) On the sinister side she bears a lozenge of her own arms alone with her supporters and with her coronet above the lozenge. The arms of the present Baroness Kinloss would show an example of such an arrangement of two lozenges, but as Lady Kinloss does not possess supporters these additions could not be introduced. [Illustration: FIG. 753.] The laws of arms provide no way in which a married woman (other than a peeress in her own right) can display arms in her own right during the lifetime of her husband, unless this is to be presumed from the method of depicting the arms of a wife upon a hatchment. In such a case, a _shield_ is used, usually suspended from a ribbon, identical with the shield of the husband, but omitting the helmet, crest, mantling, and motto. Impalement is used occasionally in other circumstances than marriage, _i.e._ to effect conjunction of official and personal arms. With rare exceptions, the official arms which exist are those of Archiepiscopal and Episcopal Sees, of the Kings of Arms, and of the {535} Regius Professors at Cambridge. Here certainly, in the ecclesiastical cases, the theory of marriage remains, the official arms being placed on the dexter side and the personal arms on the sinister, inasmuch as the laws of armory for ecclesiastics were made at a time when the clergy were celibate. The personal helmet and crest are placed above the impaled coat, except in the cases of bishops and archbishops, who, of course, use a mitre in place thereof. It is not correct to impale the arms of a wife upon the same shield which carries the impalement of an official coat of arms, because the wife does not share the office. In such a case it is necessary to make use of two shields placed side by side, as is done in conjoining the arms of a Knight of any Order with those of his wife. In impaling the arms of a wife, it is not correct to impale more than her pronominal coat. This is a definite rule in England, somewhat modified in Scotland, as will be presently explained. Though it has never been considered good form to impale a quartered shield, it is only recently that the real fact that such a proceeding is definitely incorrect has come to light. It appears from the State Papers, Domestic Series, Eliz. xxvi. 31, 1561:-- "At a Chapitre holden by the office of Armes at the Embroyderers' Hall in London, anno 4^o Reginæ Elizabethæ it was agreed that no inhiritrix eyther mayde wife or widow should bear or cause to be borne any Creast or cognizance of her Ancestors otherwise than as followeth. If she be unmarried to bear in her ringe, cognizaunce or otherwise, the first coate of her ancestors in a Lozenge. And during her widowhood to set the first coate of her husbande in pale with the first coate of her Auncestors. And if she mary on who is noe gentleman, then she to be clearly exempted from the former conclusion." Whilst this rule holds in England, it must, to a certain extent, be modified in relation to the arms of a Scottish wife. Whilst the inalienable right _to quarter arms derived_ from an heiress cannot be said to be non-existent in Scotland, it should be noted that the custom of indiscriminately quartering is much less frequent than in England, and comparatively seldom adopted, unless estates, or chief representation in an important or appreciable degree, follow the technical heraldic representation. In England the claim is always preferred to quarter the arms of an ancestress who had no brothers whether she transmitted estates or not. Of course, technically and theoretically the claim is perfectly correct, and cannot, and should not, be denied. But in practice in England it has in some cases reached a rather absurd extent, when a man on marrying an only daughter of the youngest son of the youngest branch of a family consequently acquires the right to display with his own ensigns the full arms and quarterings of {536} the head of a house from which he has inherited no lands, and which is still thriving in the senior male line. In Scottish practice such an event would be ignored, and in that country it is not usual to add quarterings to a shield, _nor are these officially recognised_ without a rematriculation of the arms. In England it is merely a question of recording the pedigree and proving heirship, and many quarterings are proved and recorded that there is not the slightest intention to use regularly. Rematriculation has a more permanent character than mere registration, inasmuch as the coat with its quarterings upon matriculation as far as usage is concerned becomes indivisible, and, consequently, for a Scottish wife the impalement should be of the indivisible arms and quarterings matriculated to her father in Lyon Register, with his bordure and other "difference" marks. All the old armorists provide ways of impaling the arms of several wives, and consequently the idea has grown up that it is permissible and correct to bear and use the arms of two wives at the same time. This is a mistake, because, strictly and technically speaking, the right to impale the arms of a wife ceases at her death. Impalement means marriage, and when the marriage is dissolved the impalement becomes meaningless, and should be discontinued. A man cannot be married to two people at one time, nor can he as a consequence impale two coats of arms at the same time. The matter is more clearly apparent if the question of an escutcheon of pretence be considered in place of an impalement. The escutcheon of pretence means that the husband _pretends_ to represent the family of his wife. This _jure uxoris_ he undoubtedly does whilst she is alive, but the moment she dies the _actual_ representation of her family passes to her son and heir, and it is ridiculous for her husband to _pretend_ to represent when there is an undoubted representative in existence, and when the representation, such as it was when vested in himself, has come to an end, and passed elsewhere. If his heiress-wife had been a peeress, he would have borne her escutcheon of pretence surmounted by her coronet; but it is ridiculous for him to continue to do so when the right to the coronet and to the peerage has passed to his wife's heir. The same argument holds good with regard to impalement. That, of course, raises the point that in every authority (particularly in those of an earlier period) will be found details of the methods to be adopted for impaling the arms of several wives. People have quite failed to appreciate the object of these rules. Armory from its earliest introduction has had great memorial use, and when a monument or hatchment is put up to a man it has been usual, prior to these utilitarian days of funeral reform, to memorialise _all_ the wives he has been possessed of. In the same way, in a pedigree it is necessary to {537} enumerate the names and arms of all the wives of a man. Consequently for tombs and pedigrees--when all being dead, there is no reason to indicate any particular woman as the present _wife_--plans have been devised for the combination of several coats into one memorial achievement, plans necessitated by the circumstances of the cases, and plans to which no objection can be taken. Tombs, pedigrees, and other memorials are the usual form in which the records of arms have chiefly come down to us, and from the frequency in which cases of achievements with double impalements have been preserved, a mistaken idea has arisen that it is correct to bear, and actually use and carry, two impalements at one and the same time. Outside memorial instances, I have utterly failed to find any instance in former days of a man himself using in his own lifetime two impalements, and I believe and state it to be absolutely incorrect for a man to use, say on a carriage, a bookplate, or a seal, the arms of a deceased wife. You may _have been_ married to a presently deceased woman, therefore impale her arms in a record or memorial; but no one _is_ married to a deceased woman, therefore it is wrong to advertise that you are married to her by impaling her arms; and as you cannot be married to two people at the same time, it is illogical and wrong to _use_ or carry two impalements. I know of no instance of a grant to a man of arms to bear in right of a deceased wife. It is for these occasions of memorial and record that methods have been devised to show a man's marriage with several wives. They certainly were not devised for the purpose of enabling him to bear and use for contemporary purposes the arms of a series of dead women, the representation of whom is no longer vested in himself. Whilst admitting that for the purposes of record or memorial rules _do_ exist, it should at the same time be pointed out that even for such occasions it is much more usual to see two shields displayed, each carrying its separate impalement, than to find two impalements on one shield. The use of a separate shield for each marriage is the method that I would strongly advocate, but as a knowledge of past observances must be had fully, if one is to read aright the records of the tombs, I recite what the rules are:-- (1) _To impale the arms of two wives._--Either the husband's arms are placed in the centre, with the first wife on the dexter and the second wife on the sinister, or else the husband's arms are placed on the dexter side, and the sinister side is divided in fess, the arms of the first wife being placed in chief and those of the second in base. The former method is the one more generally employed of the two. (2) _Three wives._--Husband's arms in centre, first wife's on dexter side, second wife's on sinister side in chief, and third wife in base. {538} (3) _Four wives._--Husband's in centre, first and second wives' in chief and base respectively on the dexter side, and third and fourth similarly on the sinister. If one of two wives be an heiress her arms might be found in pretence and the other coat or coats impaled, but it is impossible in such a case to place a number to the wife, and it is impossible to display an escutcheon of pretence for more than one wife, as if the escutcheon of pretence is removed from the exact centre it at once ceases to be an escutcheon of pretence. Consequently, if more than one wife be an heiress, separate escutcheons should be used for each marriage. Plans have been drawn up and apparently accepted providing for wives up to nearly twenty in number, but no useful purpose will be served by repeating them. A man with more than four wives is unusual in this country. Divorce nullifies marriage, and both husband and wife must at once revert to bachelor and maiden achievements respectively. It is difficult to deduce any certain conclusions as to the ancient rules connected with impalement, for a simple reason which becomes very noticeable on an examination of ancient _seals_ and other armorial records. In early times there can be no doubt whatever that men did not impale, or bother about the arms of wives who were not great heiresses. A man bore his own arms, and he left his father-in-law, or his brother-in-law, to bear those of the family with which he had matched. Of course, we find many cases in which the arms of a wife figure upon the husband's shield, but a careful examination of them shows that in practically every case the reason is to be found in the fact that the wife was an heiress. Husbands were called to Parliament in virtue of the peerages vested in their wives, and we cannot but come to the conclusion that whenever one finds use in early times of the arms of a wife, it is due to the fact that the husband was bearing them not because of his mere marriage, but because he was enjoying the estates, or peerage, of his wife. For that reason we find in many cases the arms of the wife borne in preference to the paternal arms of descent, or meet with them quartered with the arms of the husband, and frequently being given precedence over his own; and on the analogy of the coats of arms of wives at present borne with the wife's surname by the husband under Royal Licence, there can be little doubt that at a period when Royal Licences had not come into regular vogue the same idea was dominant, and the appearance of a wife's coat of arms meant the assumption of those arms by the husband as his own, with or without the surname of the wife. The connection between name and arms was not then so stereotyped as it is at present; rather was it a connection between arms and {539} land, and perhaps more pointedly of arms and a peerage title where this existed, for there are many points and many facts which conclusively show that at an early period a coat of arms was often considered to have a territorial limitation; or perhaps it should be said that, whilst admittedly personal, arms have territorial attributes or connection. This is borne out by the pleadings and details remaining to us concerning the Grey and Hastings controversy, and if this territorial character of a coat of arms is admitted, together with another characteristic no less important--and certainly equally accepted--that a coat of arms could belong to but one person at the same time, it must be recognised that the appearance of a wife's arms on a husband's shield is not an instance of a sign of mere marriage or anything analogous thereto. But when we turn to the arms of women, the condition of affairs is wholly reversed. A woman, who of course retained her identity, drew her position from her marriage and from her husband's position, and from the very earliest period we find that whilst a man simply bore his own arms, the wife upon her seal displayed both the arms of her own family and the arms of her husband's. Until a much later period it cannot be said to have been ordinarily customary for the husband to bear the arms of his wife unless she were an heiress, but from almost the beginning of armory the wife conjoined the arms of her husband and herself. But the instances which have come down to us from an early period of dimidiated or impaled coats are chiefly instances of the display of arms by a widow. The methods of conjunction which can be classed as above, however, at first seem to have been rather varied. Originally separate shields were employed for the different coats of arms, then dimidiated examples occur; at a later period we find the arms impaled upon one shield, and at a subsequent date the escutcheon of pretence comes into use as a means of indicating that the wife was an heiress. The origin of this escutcheon is easy to understand. Taking arms to have a territorial limitation--a point which still finds a certain amount of acceptance in Scottish heraldry--there was no doubt that a man, in succeeding to a lordship in right of his wife, would wish to bear the arms associated therewith. He placed them, therefore, upon his own, and arms exclusively of a territorial character have certainly very frequently been placed "in pretence." His own arms he would look upon as arms of descent; they consequently occupied the field of his shield. The lordship of his wife he did not enjoy through descent, and consequently he would naturally incline to place it "in pretence," and from the constant occasions in which such a proceeding would seem to be the natural course of events (all of which occasions {540} would be associated with an heiress-wife), one would be led to the conclusion that such a form of display indicated an heiress-wife; and consequently the rule deduced, as are all heraldic rules, from past precedents became established. In the next generation, the son and heir would have descent from his mother equally with his father, and the arms of her family would be equally arms of descent to him, and no longer the mere territorial emblem of a lordship. Consequently they became on the same footing as the arms of his father. The son would naturally, therefore, quarter the arms. The escutcheon of pretence being removed, and therefore having enjoyed but a temporary existence, the association thereof with the heiress-wife becomes emphasised in a much greater degree. This is now accepted as a definite rule of armory, but in reciting it as a rule it should be pointed out, first, that no man may place the arms of his wife upon an escutcheon of pretence during the lifetime of her father, because whilst her father is alive there is always the opportunity of a re-marriage, and of the consequent birth of a son and heir. No man is compelled to bear arms on an escutcheon of pretence, it being quite correct to impale them merely to indicate the marriage--if he so desires. There are many cases of arms which would appear meaningless and undecipherable when surmounted by an escutcheon of pretence. "Sometimes, also (says Guillim), he who marries an heretrix may carry her arms in an inescutcheon upon his own, because the husband pretends that his heirs shall one day inherit an estate by her; it is therefore called an escutcheon of pretence; but this way of bearing is not known abroad upon that occasion." A man on marrying an heiress-wife has no great space at his disposal for the display of her arms, and though it is now considered perfectly correct to place any number of quarterings upon an escutcheon of pretence, the opportunity does not in fact exist for more than the display of a limited number. In practice, three or four are as many as will usually be found, but theoretically it is correct to place the whole of the quarterings to which the wife is entitled upon the escutcheon of pretence. Two early English instances may be pointed out in the fifteenth century, in which a husband placed his wife's arms _en surtout_. These are taken from the Garter Plates of Sir John Neville, Lord Montagu, afterwards Marquess of Montagu (elected K.G. _circa_ 1463), and of Richard Beauchamp, fifth Earl of Warwick and Albemarle (elected K.G. _circa_ 1400); but it was not until about the beginning of the seventeenth century that the regular practice arose by which the husband of an heiress places his wife's arms in an escutcheon _en surtout_ {541} upon his personal arms, whether his coat be a quartered one or not. Another early instance is to be found in Fig. 754, which is interesting as showing the arms of both wives of the first Earl of Shrewsbury. His first was _suo jure_ Baroness Furnivall. Her arms are, however, impaled. His second wife was the daughter (but not the heir) of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, but she was coheir of her mother, the Baroness Lisle. [Illustration] FIG. 754.--Arms of John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, K.G.: Quarterly, 1 and 4, gules, a lion rampant within a bordure engrailed or (Talbot); 2 and 3, argent, two lions passant in pale gules (Strange); impaling the arms of his first wife whose Peerage he enjoyed, viz.: quarterly, 1 and 4, argent, a bend between six martlets gules (Furnival); 2 and 3, or, a fret gules (Verdon); and upon an escutcheon of pretence the arms of the mother of his second wife (to whom she was coheir, conveying her mother's Peerage to her son), viz.: 1 and 4, gules, a lion passant guardant argent, crowned or (Lisle); 2 and 3, argent, a chevron gules (Tyes). (From MS. Reg. 15, E. vi.) It should be borne in mind that even in Great Britain an inescutcheon _en surtout_ does not always mean an heiress-wife. The Earl of Mar and Kellie bears an inescutcheon surmounted by an earl's coronet for his Earldom of Kellie, and other instances are to be found in the arms of Cumming-Gordon (see Plate III.), whilst Sir Hector Maclean Hay, Bart., thus bears his pronominal arms over his quarterings in continental fashion. Inescutcheons of augmentation occur in the arms of the Dukes of Marlborough and Wellington, Lord Newton, and on the shields of Newman, Wolfe, and others. Under the Commonwealth the Great Seals of Oliver Cromwell and his son Richard, as Protectors, bore a shield of arms: "Quarterly, 1 and 4, argent, a cross gules (for England); 2. azure, a saltire argent (for Scotland); 3. azure, a harp or, stringed argent (for Ireland);" and upon these quarterings _en surtout_ an escutcheon of the personal arms of Cromwell: "Sable, a lion rampant argent." In the heraldry of the Continent of Europe it has long been the custom for an elected sovereign to place his hereditary arms in an escutcheon _en surtout_ above those of his dominions. As having obtained the crown by popular election, the Kings of the Hellenes also place _en surtout_ upon the arms of the Greek kingdom ("Azure, a Greek cross couped argent") an escutcheon of their personal arms. Another instance is to be found in the arms of the Dukes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Whilst all the descendants of the late Prince Consort (other than his Majesty King Edward VII.) bear in England the Royal Arms of this country, differenced by their respective labels with an escutcheon of Saxony _en surtout_ as Dukes and Duchesses of Saxony, the late Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha bore {542} the arms of Saxony, placing the differenced Royal shield of this country _en surtout_. We now come to the subject of quartering. Considering the fact that every single text-book on armory gives the ordinary rules for the marshalling of quarterings, it is strange how many mistakes are made, and how extremely funny are the ideas of some people upon the subject of quartering. As has already been stated, the rules of quartering are governed by the simple, but essential and important fact, that every quartering exhibited means the representation in blood of some particular person. Quarterings, other than those of augmentation, can only be inherited from or through those female ancestors who are in themselves heirs or coheirs in blood, or whose issue subsequently become in a later generation the representatives of any ancestor in the male line of that said female ancestor. Briefly speaking, a woman is an heiress, first, if she is only child; second, if all her brothers die without issue in her own lifetime; and third, if the entire issue, male and female, of her brothers, becomes extinct in her own lifetime. A woman becomes an "heiress in her issue," as it is termed, if she die before her brothers, if and when all the descendants of her brothers become absolutely extinct. If the wife be either an heir or coheir, she transmits after her death to _all_ her children the arms and quarterings--_as quarterings to add to their paternal arms, and as such only_--which she was entitled to place upon her own lozenge. The origin and theory of quartering is as follows: If the daughter be an heiress or coheiress she represents either wholly or in part her father and his branch of the family, even if "his branch" only commenced with himself. Now in the days when the science of armory was slowly evolving itself there was no Married Women's Property Act, and the husband _ipso facto_ became to all intents and purposes possessed of and enjoyed the rights of his wife. But it was at the same time only a possession and enjoyment by courtesy, and not an actual possession in fee, for the reversion remained with the wife's heirs, and did not pass to the heirs of the husband; for in cases where the husband or wife had been previously married, or where there was no issue of their marriage, their heirs would not be identical. Of course during the lifetime of his wife he could not actually _represent_ his wife's family, and consequently could not quarter the arms, but in right of his wife he "pretended" to the representation of her house, and consequently the inescutcheon of her arms is termed an "escutcheon of pretence." After the death of a wife her children immediately and actually become the representatives of their mother, and are as such _entitled_ of right to quarter the arms of their mother's family. {543} The earliest example which has been discovered at the present time of the use of a quartered coat of arms is afforded by the seal of Joanna of Ponthieu, second wife of Ferdinand III., King of Castile and Leon, in 1272. This seal bears on its reverse in a vesica the triple-towered castles of Castile, and the rampant lion of Leon, repeated as in the modern quarterings of Spain. There is, however, no separation of the quarters by a line of partition. This peculiarity will be also noticed as existing in the quartered coats of Hainault a quarter of a century later. The quartered coat of Castile and Leon remains upon the monument in Westminster Abbey erected in memory of Eleanor of Castile, who died in 1290, the first wife of Edward I. Providing the wife be an heiress--and for the remainder of this chapter, which deals only with quarterings, this will be assumed--the son of a marriage _after the death_ of his mother quarters her arms with those of his father, that is, he divides his shield into four quarters, and places the arms of his father in the first and fourth quarters, and the arms of his mother in the second and third. That is the root, basis, and original rule of all the rules of quartering, but it may be here remarked, that no man is entitled to quarter the arms of his mother whilst she is alive, inasmuch as she is alive to represent herself and her family, and her issue cannot assume the representation whilst she is alive. [Illustration] FIG. 755.--Arms of Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby (d. 1572); Quarterly, 1. quarterly, i. and iiii., argent, on a bend azure, three bucks' heads caboshed or (Stanley); ii. and iii., or, on a chief indented azure, three bezants (Lathom); 2 and 3, gules, three legs in armour conjoined at the thigh and flexed at the knee proper, garnished and spurred or (for the Lordship of Man); 4. quarterly, i. and iiii., gules, two lions passant in pale argent (for Strange); ii. and iii., argent, a fess and a canton gules (for Wydeville). The arms on the escutcheon of pretence are not those of his wife (Anne Hastings), who was not an heiress, and they seem difficult to account for unless they are a coat for Rivers or some other territorial lordship inherited from the Wydeville family. The full identification of the quarterings borne by Anthony, Lord Rivers, would probably help in determining the point. But it should not be imagined that the definite rules which exist at the moment had any such unalterable character in early times. Husbands are found to have quartered the arms of their wives if they were heiresses, and if important lordships devolved through the marriage. Territorial arms of dominion were quartered with personal arms (Fig. 755), quarterings of augmentation were granted, and the present system is the endeavour to reconcile all the varying circumstances and precedents which exist. One point, however, stands out clearly from all ancient examples, viz. that quartering meant quartering, and a shield was supposed to have but four quarters upon it. Consequently we find that instead of the elaborate schemes now in vogue showing {544} 10, 20, 50, or 100 quarterings, the shield had but four; and this being admitted and recognised, it became essential that the four most important should be shown, and consequently we find that quarterings were selected in a manner which would seem to us haphazard. Paternal quarterings were dropped and the result has been that many coats of arms are now known as the arms of a family with quite a different surname from that of the family with which they originated. The matter was of little consequence in the days when the "upper-class" and arms-bearing families were few in number. Every one knew how Stafford derived his Royal descent, and that it was not male upon male, so no confusion resulted from the Earls of Buckingham giving the Royal coat precedence before their paternal quartering of Stafford (see Fig. 756), or from their using only the Woodstock version of the Royal Arms; but as time went on the upper classes became more numerous, arms-bearing ancestors by the succession of generations increased in number, and while in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it would be a physical impossibility for any man to have represented one hundred different heiresses of arms-bearing families, in later days such became the case. The result has been the necessity to formulate those strict and rigid rules which for modern purposes must be conformed to, and it is futile and childish to deduce a set of rules from ancient and possibly isolated examples originating in and suitable for the simpler genealogical circumstances of an earlier day, and assert that it is equally permissible to adopt them at the moment, or to marshal a modern shield accordingly. [Illustration] FIG. 756.--Arms of Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham (d. 1521): Quarterly, 1 and 4, quarterly, i. and iiii., France; ii. and iii., England, within the bordure argent of Thomas of Woodstock; 2 and 3, or, a chevron gules (for Stafford). (From MS. Add. 22, 306.) The first attempt to break away from the four quarters of a shield was the initiation of the system of grand quarters (see Figs. 755 and 756). By this means the relative importance could roughly be shown. Supposing a man had inherited a shield of four quarters and then married a wife in whom was vested a peerage, he naturally wished to display the arms connected with that peerage, for these were of greater importance than his own four quarterings. The problem was how to introduce the fifth. In some cases we find it borne in pretence, but in other cases, particularly in a later generation, we find that important quarter given the whole of a quarter of the shield to itself, the other four being conjoined together and displayed so as to occupy a similar space. These, therefore, became sub-quarters. The system also had advantages, because it permitted coats which by constant quartering had become {545} indivisible to be perpetuated in this form. So definite was this rule, that in only one of the series of Garter plates anterior to the Tudor period is any shield found containing more than four quarters, though many of these are grand quarters containing other coats borne sub-quarterly. The one instance which I refer to as an exception is the shield of the Duke D'Urbino, and it is quite possible that this should not be quoted as an instance in point. He appears to have borne in the ordinary way four quarters, but he subsequently added thereto two quarterings which may or may not have been one and the same coat of arms by way of augmentation. These he placed in pale in the centre of the others, thus making the shield apparently one of six quarters. [Illustration] FIG. 757.--Arms of George Nevill, Baron Abergavenny (d. 1535): Quarterly, 1. gules, on a saltire argent, a rose of the field (Nevill); 2. chequy or and azure (Warenne); 3. or, three chevrons gules (Clare); 4. quarterly argent and gules, in the second and third quarters a fret or, over all a bend sable (Le Despencer); 4. gules, on a fess between six cross crosslets or, a crescent sable (for Beauchamp). (Add. MS. 22, 306.) But one is safe in the assertion that during the Plantagenet period no more than four quarters were ordinarily placed upon a shield. Then we come to the brief period of "squeezed in" quarterings (Figs. 757 and 758). In the early Visitations we get instances of six, eight, and even a larger number, and the start once being made, and the number of four relinquished, there was of course no reason why it should not be extended indefinitely. This appears to have rapidly become the case, and we find that schemes of quarterings are now proved and recorded officially in England and Ireland some of which exceed 200 in number. The record number of officially proved and recorded quarterings is at present held by the family of Lloyd, of Stockton in Chirbury, co. Salop, but many of the quarterings of this family are mere repetition owing to constant intermarriages, and to the fact that a single Welsh line of male descent often results in a number of different shields. Welsh arms did not originally have the hereditary unchangeability we are accustomed to in English heraldry, and moreover a large proportion are later inventions borne to denote descent and are not arms actually used by those they stand for, so that the recorded scheme {546} of the quarterings of Mr. Money-Kyrle, or of the sister Countesses of Yarborough and Powis, respectively Baroness Fauconberg and Conyers and Baroness Darcy de Knayth are decidedly more enviable. Nobody of course attempts to bear such a number. In Scotland, however, even to the present day, the system of four quarterings is still adhered to. The result is that in Scotland the system of grand quarterings is still pursued, whilst in England it is almost unknown, except in cases where coats of arms have for some reason or another become indivisible. This is a very patent difficulty when it becomes necessary to marshal indivisible Scottish coats with English ones, and the system of cadency adopted in Scotland, which has its chief characteristic in the employment of bordures, makes the matter sometimes very far from simple. The system adopted at the present time in the case of a Royal Licence, for example, to bear a Scottish name and arms where the latter is a coat of many quarterings within a bordure, is to treat such coat as made indivisible by and according to the most recent matriculation. That coat is then treated as a grand quartering of an equivalent value to the pronominal coat in England. [Illustration] FIG. 758.--Arms of Henry Algernon Percy, Earl of Northumberland (d. 1527): Quarterly, 1. quarterly, i. and iiii., or, a lion rampant azure (Percy); ii. and iii., gules, three lucies haurient argent (Lucy); 2. azure, five fusils conjoined in fess or (for Percy); 3. barry of six or and vert, a bendlet gules (Poynings); 4. gules, three lions passant in pale argent, a bendlet azure (FitzPayne), or three piles azure (Brian). But reverting to the earlier chart, by the aid of which heirship was demonstrated, the following were entitled to transmit the Cilfowyr arms as quarterings. Mary, Ellen, Blanche, Grace, Muriel, and Dorothy all had the right to transmit. By the death of Dorothy _v.p._ Alice and Annie both became entitled. Maria Jane and Hannah would have been entitled to transmit Sherwin and Cilfowyr, but not Cilfowyr alone, if there had been no arms for Sherwin, though they could have transmitted Sherwin alone if there had been arms for Sherwin and none for Cilfowyr. Harriet would have transmitted the arms of Cilfowyr if she had survived, and Ada would, each subject to differences as has been previously explained. As has been already explained, every woman is entitled to bear upon a lozenge in her own lifetime the arms, quarterings, and difference marks which belonged to her father. If her mother were an heiress she adds her mother's arms to her father's, and her mother's quarterings also, marshalling the whole into a correct sequence, and placing the said sequence of quarterings upon a lozenge. Such are the armorial bearings of a daughter. If the said daughter be not an heraldic heiress in blood she _cannot_ transmit either arms or quarterings to her descendants. Needless to say, no woman, heiress or non-heiress, can now transmit a crest, and no woman can bear either crest, helmet, mantling, or motto. A daughter not being an heiress simply confers the right upon her husband to _impale_ upon his shield such arms and difference marks as her father bore in his own right. If an heiress possessing arms marry a man with illegal arms, or a man making no pretensions to arms, her children have no arms at all, and really inherit {547} nothing; and the rights, such as they are, to the arms of the mother as a quartering remain, and must remain, _dormant_ unless and until arms are established for their father's line, inasmuch as they can only inherit armorially from their mother _through_ their father. In England it is always optional for a man to have arms assigned to him to fill in any blanks which would otherwise mar his scheme of quarterings. Let us now see how various coats of arms are marshalled as quarterings into one achievement. [Illustration: FIG. 759.] [Illustration: FIG. 760.] [Illustration: FIG. 761.] The original theory of quartering upon which all rules are based is that after a marriage with an heiress, necessitating for the children the combination of the two coats, the shield is divided into four quarters. These four are numbered from the top left-hand (the dexter) corner (No. 1) across towards the sinister (No. 2) side of the shield; then the next row is numbered in the same way (Nos. 3 and 4). This rule as to the method of numbering holds good for any number of quarterings. In allocating the position of the different coats to their places in the scheme of quarterings, the pronominal coat must _always_ be in the first quartering. In a simple case (the exceptions will presently be referred to) that places the arms of the father in the first and fourth quarters, and the arms of the mother in the second and third; such, of course, being on the assumption that the father possessed only a simple coat without quarterings, and that the mother was in the same position. The children therefore possess a coat of four quarters (Fig. 759). Suppose a son of theirs in his turn marries another heiress, also possessing only a simple coat without quarterings, he bears arms as Fig. 760, and the grandchildren descending from the aforesaid marriage put that last-mentioned coat in the third quarter, and the coat, though still of only four quarters, is: 1 and 4, the pronominal coat; 2, the first heiress; 3, the second (Fig. 761). If another single quartering is brought in, in a later generation, that takes the place of No. 4. So far it is all plain sailing, but very {548} few text-books carry one beyond this point. Another single quartering inherited gives five quarterings to be displayed on one shield. The usual plan is to repeat the first quartering, and gives you six, which are then arranged in two rows of three. If the shield be an impaled shield one sometimes sees them arranged in three rows of two, but this is unusual though not incorrect. But five quarterings are sometimes arranged in two rows, three in the upper and two in the lower, and with a shield of the long pointed variety this plan may be adopted with advantage. Subsequent quarterings, as they are introduced by subsequent marriages, take their places, Nos. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and so on _ad infinitum_. In arranging them on one shield, the order in which they devolve (according to the _pedigree_ and _not_ necessarily according to the _date_ order in which they are inherited) must be rigidly adhered to; but a person is perfectly at liberty (1) to repeat the _first_ quartering at the end to make an even number or not at his pleasure, but no more than the first quartering must be repeated in such cases; (2) to arrange the quarters in any number of rows he may find most convenient according to the shape of the space the quarterings will occupy. Upon the Continent it is usual to specify the number and position of the lines by which the shield is divided. Thus, while an English herald would say simply, _Quarterly of six_, and leave it to the painter's or engraver's taste to arrange the quarterings in three rows of two, or in two rows of three, a French or German herald would ordinarily specify the arrangement to be used in distinct terms. If a man possessing only a simple coat of arms without quarterings marry an heiress with a number of quarterings (_e.g._ say twenty), he himself places the arms and quarterings of his wife in pretence. Their children eventually, as a consequence, inherit twenty-one quarterings. The first is the coat of their father, the second is the first coat of the mother, and the remaining nineteen follow in a regular sequence, according to their position upon their mother's achievement. To sum the rule up, it is necessary first to take _all_ the quarterings inherited from the father and arrange them in a proper sequence, and then follow on _in the same sequence_ with the arms and quarterings inherited from the mother. The foregoing explanations should show how generation by generation quarterings are added to a paternal shield, but I have found that many of those who possess a knowledge of the laws to this extent are yet at a loss, given a pedigree, to marshal the resulting quarterings in their right order. Given your pedigree--the first quartering _must_ be _the pronominal coat_ (I am here presuming no change of name or arms has occurred), which is the coat of the strict male line of descent. Then follow this male line back as far as it is known. The second quartering is the {549} coat of the _first_ heiress who married your earliest ancestor in the male line who is known to have married an heiress. Then after her coat will follow all the quarterings which she was entitled to and which she has "brought in" to your family. Having exhausted these, you then follow your male line _down_ to the next heiress, adding her arms as a quartering to those already arranged, and following it by her quarterings. The same plan must be pursued until you arrive at your own name upon the pedigree. Unless some exceptional circumstance has arisen (and such exceptions will presently be found detailed at length), all the quarterings are of equal heraldic value, and must be the same size when displayed. If after having worked out your quarterings you find that you have more than you care to use, you are quite at liberty to make a selection, omitting any number, _but_ it is entirely _wrong_ to display quarterings without those quarterings which brought them into the paternal line. Supposing your name to be Brown, you _must_ put the Brown arms in the first quarter, but at your pleasure you can quarter the arms of each single heiress who married an ancestor of yours in the male line (_i.e._ who herself became Mrs. Brown), or you can omit the whole or a part. But supposing one of these, Mrs. Brown (_née_ Smith), was entitled to quarter the arms of Jones, which arms of Jones had brought in the arms of Robinson, you are not at liberty to quarter the arms of Jones without quartering Smith, and if you wish to display the arms of Robinson you _must_ also quarter the arms of Jones to bring in Robinson and the arms of Smith to bring in Robinson and Jones to your own Brown achievement. You can use Brown only: or quarterly, 1 and 4, Brown; 2 and 3, Smith: or 1 and 4, Brown; 2. Smith; 3. Jones: or quarterly, 1. Brown; 2. Smith; 3. Jones; 4. Robinson; but you are _not_ entitled to quarter: 1 and 4, Brown; 2. Jones; 3. Robinson, because Smith, which brought in Jones and Robinson, has been omitted, and there was never a match between Brown and Jones. Quarterings signifying nothing beyond mere representation are not compulsory, and their use or disuse is quite optional. So much for the general rules of quartering. Let us now consider certain cases which require rules to themselves. It is possible for a daughter to be the sole heir or coheir of her mother whilst not being the heir of her father, as in the following imaginary pedigree:-- _1st wife_ (an heiress). _2nd wife._ MARY CONYERS=JOHN DARCY=MARGARET FAUCONBERG. | | ------------- -------------- | | | JOAN (only daughter), THOMAS. HENRY. heir of her mother but not of her father. {550} In this case Joan is not the heir of her father, inasmuch as he has sons Thomas and Henry, but she is the heir of her mother and the only issue capable of inheriting and transmitting the Conyers arms and quarterings. Joan is heir of her mother but not of her father. The husband of Joan can either impale the arms of Darcy as having married a daughter of John Darcy, or he can place upon an escutcheon of pretence arms to indicate that he has married the heiress of Conyers. But it would be quite incorrect for him to simply place Conyers in pretence, because he has not married a Miss Conyers. What he must do is to charge the arms of Conyers with a dexter canton of the arms of Darcy and place this upon his escutcheon of pretence.[30] The children will quarter the arms of Conyers with the canton of Darcy and inherit likewise all the quarterings to which Mary Conyers succeeded, but the Conyers arms must be always thereafter charged with the arms of Darcy on a canton, and no right accrues to the Darcy quarterings. The following curious, but quite genuine case, which was pointed out to me by the late Ulster King of Arms, presents a set of circumstances absolutely unique, and it still remains to be decided what is the correct method to adopt:-- _1st wife._ _2nd wife._ Lady MARY, dau. and = WILLIAM ST. LAWRENCE, = MARGARET, dau. of coheir of Thomas | 2nd Earl of Howth. | William Burke. Bermingham, Earl | | of Louth. Married | | 1777, died 1793. | ---------------------- | | | | THOMAS ST. LAWRENCE, | ----------------------- 3rd Earl of Howth. | | | | | Other issue. | Three other daughters | and coheirs of their | mother. | Lady ISABELLA ST. LAWRENCE, = WILLIAM RICHARD ANNESLEY, = PRISCILLA, 2nd dau. and coheir of her | 3rd Earl of Annesley. | 2nd dau. of mother, but not heir of her | | Hugh Moore. father, therefore entitled | | to transmit the arms of | | Bermingham with those of | ------------------- St. Lawrence on a canton. | | | First wife of Earl | WILLIAM, 4th Earl HUGH, 5th Earl Annesley. Married 1803, | of Annesley. of Annesley. died 1827. | ------------ | Lady MARY ANNESLEY, only child and = WILLIAM JOHN McGUIRE sole heir of her mother and of Rostrevor. coheir of her grandmother, but not heir of her father or of her grandfather. She is therefore entitled to transmit the arms of Bermingham with St. Lawrence on a canton plus Annesley on a canton. Married 1828. How the arms of Bermingham are to be charged with both St. Lawrence and Annesley remains to be seen. I believe Ulster favoured {551} two separate cantons, dexter and sinister respectively, but the point did not come before him officially, and I know of no official decision which affords a precedent. The reverse of the foregoing affords another curious point when a woman is the heir of her father but not the heir of her mother:-- JOHN SMITH=MARY JONES. | _1st husband._ | _2nd husband._ JOHN WILLIAMS = ETHEL SMITH, = HENRY ROBERTS. | only child | | and heir. | ------------------- ------- | | ALICE WILLIAMS, = ARTHUR ELLIS. EDWARD ROBERTS, only child and | heir of his mother. heir of John | | Williams. | Issue. | THEODORE ELLIS, who claims to quarter: 1 and 4, Ellis; 2. Williams; 3. Smith. It is officially admitted (see the introduction to Burke's "General Armory") that the claim is accurately made. The process of reasoning is probably thus. John Williams places upon an escutcheon of pretence the arms of Smith, and Alice Williams succeeds in her own right to the arms of her mother because the latter was an heiress, and for herself is entitled to bear, as would a son, the arms of the two parents quarterly; and having so inherited, Alice Williams being herself an heiress, is entitled to transmit. At any rate Arthur Ellis is entitled to impale or place upon his escutcheon of pretence Williams and Smith quarterly. To admit the right for the descendants to quarter the arms Arthur Ellis so bore is no more than a logical progression, but the eventual result appears faulty, because we find Theodore Ellis quartering the arms of Smith, whilst the representation of Smith is in the line of Edward Roberts. This curious set of circumstances, however, is rare in the extreme. It frequently happens, in devising a scheme of quarterings, that a person may represent heiresses of several families entitled to bear arms, but to whom the pedigree must be traced through an heiress of another family which did not possess arms. Consequently any claim to quarterings inherited through the non-armorial heiress is dormant, and the quarterings must not be used or inserted in any scheme drawn up. It is always permissible, however, to petition for arms to be granted to be borne for that non-armorial family for the purpose of introducing the quarterings in question, and such a grant having been made, the dormant claim then becomes operative and the new coat is introduced, followed by the dormant quartering in precisely the same manner as would have been the case if the arms granted had always existed. Grants of this character are constantly being obtained. {552} When a Royal Licence to assume or change name and arms is granted it very considerably affects the question of quartering, and many varying circumstances attending these Royal Licences make the matter somewhat intricate. If the Royal Licence is to assume a name and arms in lieu of those previously used, this means that for everyday use the arms are _changed_, the right to the old arms lapsing except for the purpose of a scheme of quarterings. The new coat of arms under the terms of the Royal Licence, which requires it first "to be exemplified in our Royal College of Arms, otherwise this our Royal Licence to be void and of none effect," is always so exemplified, this exemplification being from the legal point of view equivalent to a new grant of the arms to the person assuming them. The terms of the Royal Licence have always carefully to be borne in mind, particularly in the matter of remainder, because sometimes these exemplifications are for a limited period or intended to devolve with specified property, and a Royal Licence only nullifies a prior right to arms to the extent of the terms recited in the Letters Patent of exemplification. In the ordinary way, however, such an exemplification is equivalent to a new grant affecting all the descendants. When it is assumed in lieu, for the ordinary purpose of use the new coat of arms takes the place of the old one, but the right to the old one remains in theory to a certain extent, inasmuch as its existence _is necessary_ in any scheme of quartering _to bring in_ any quarterings previously inherited, and these cannot be displayed with the new coat unless they are preceded by the old one. Quarterings, however, which are brought into the family through a marriage in the generation in which the Royal Licence is obtained, or in a subsequent generation, can be displayed with the new coat without the interposition of the old one. If the Royal Licence be to bear the name of a certain family in lieu of a present name, and to bear the arms of that family quarterly with the arms previously borne, the quarterly coat is then exemplified. In an English or Irish Royal Licence the coat of arms for the name assumed is placed in the first and the fourth quarters, and the old paternal arms figure in the second and third. This is an invariable rule. The quarterly coat thus exemplified becomes an indivisible coat for the new name, and it is not permissible to subsequently divide these quarterings. They become as much one coat of arms as "azure, a bend or" is the coat of arms of Scrope. If this quarterly coat is to be introduced in any scheme of quarterings it will only occupy the same space as any other single quartering and counts only as one, though it of course is in reality a grand quartering. In devising a scheme of quarterings for which a sub-quarterly coat of this character exemplified under a Royal Licence is the pronominal coat, that {553} quarterly coat is placed in the first quarter. Next to it is placed the original coat of arms borne as the pronominal coat before the Royal Licence and exemplified in the second and third sub-quarters of the first quarter. When here repeated it occupies an entire quarter. Next to it are placed the whole of the quarterings belonging to the family in the order in which they occur. If the family whose name has been assumed is represented through an heiress that coat of arms is also repeated in its proper position and in that place in which it would have appeared if unaffected by the Royal Licence. But if it be the coat of arms of a family from whom there is no descent, or of whom there is no representation, the fact of the Royal Licence does not give any further right to quarter it beyond its appearance in the pronominal grand quartering. The exact state of the case is perhaps best illustrated by the arms of Reid-Cuddon. The name of the family was originally Reid, and representing an heiress of the Cuddons of Shaddingfield Hall they obtained a Royal Licence to take the name and arms of Cuddon in addition to the name and arms of Reid, becoming thereafter Reid-Cuddon. The arms were exemplified in due course, and the achievement then became: Quarterly, 1 and 4, Reid-Cuddon sub-quarterly, 2. the arms of Reid, 3. the arms of Cuddon. In Scotland no such thing as a Royal Licence exists, the matter being determined merely by a rematriculation following upon a voluntary change of name. There is no specified order or position for the arms of the different names, and the arrangement of the various quarterings is left to be determined by the circumstances of the case. Thus in the arms of Anstruther-Duncan the arms of Anstruther are in the first quarter, and the matter is always largely governed by the importance of the respective estates and the respective families. In England this is not the case, because it is an unalterable rule that the arms of the last or principal surname if there be two, or the arms of the one surname if that be the case when the arms of two families are quartered, must always go in the 1st and 4th quarters. If three names are assumed by Royal Licence, the arms of the last name go in the 1st and 4th quarters, and the last name but one in the second quarter, and of the first name in the third. These cases are, however, rare. But no matter how many names are assumed, and no matter how many original coats of arms the shield as exemplified consists of, it thereafter becomes an indivisible coat. When a Royal Licence is issued to an illegitimate person to bear the name and arms of another family, no right is conferred to bear the quarterings of that family even subject to difference marks. The Royal Licence is only applicable to whatever arms were the pronominal coat used with the name assumed. Though instances {554} certainly can be found in some of the Visitation Books and other ancient records of a coat with quarterings, the whole debruised by a bendlet sinister, notably in the case of a family of Talbot, where eight quarters are so marked, the fact remains that this practice has long been definitely considered incorrect, and is now never permitted. If a Royal Licence is issued to an illegitimate woman the exemplification is to herself personally, for in the eyes of the law she has no relatives; and though she may be one of a large family, her descendants are entitled to quarter the arms with the marks of distinction exemplified to her because such quartering merely indicates the representation of that one woman, who in the eyes of the law stands alone and without relatives. In the case of a Royal Licence to take a name and arms subject to these marks of distinction for illegitimacy, and in cases where the arms to be assumed are a sub-quarterly coat, the mark of distinction, which in England is now invariably a bordure wavy, will surround both quarterings, which remain an indivisible coat. If an augmentation is granted to a person whose pronominal coat is sub-quarterly, that augmentation, whatever form it may assume, is superimposed upon all quarterings. Thus a chief of augmentation would go across the top of the shield, the four quarters being displayed below, and the whole of this shield would be only one quartering in any scheme of quartering. An inescutcheon is superimposed over all. If the augmentation take the form of a quartering, then the pronominal coat is a grand quartering, equivalent in size to the augmentation. If a person entitled to a sub-quarterly coat and a double name obtains a Royal Licence to bear another name and arms, and to bear the arms he has previously borne quarterly with those he has assumed, the result would be: Quarterly, 1 and 4, the new coat assumed, quarterly 2 and 3, the arms he has previously borne sub-quarterly. But it should be noticed that the arrangements of coats of arms under a Royal Licence largely depends upon the wording of the document by which authority is given by the Sovereign. The wording of the document in its terms is based upon the wording of the petition, and within reasonable limits any arrangement which is desired is usually permitted, so that care should be taken as to the wording of the petition. A quartering of augmentation is always placed in the first quarter of a shield, but it becomes indivisible from and is depicted sub-quarterly with the paternal arms; for instance, the Dukes of Westminster for the time being, but not other members of the family, bear as an augmentation the arms of the city of Westminster in the 1st and 4th quarters of his shield, and the arms of Grosvenor in the 2nd and 3rd, but this coat of Westminster and Grosvenor is an indivisible {555} quarterly coat which together would only occupy the first quarter in a shield of quarterings. Then the second one would be the arms of Grosvenor alone, which would be followed by the quarterings previously inherited. If under a Royal Licence a name is assumed and the Royal Licence makes no reference to the arms of the family, the arms for all purposes remain unchanged and as if no Royal Licence had ever been issued. If the Royal Licence issued to a family simply exemplifies a single coat of arms, it is quite wrong to introduce any other coat of arms to convert this single coat into a sub-quarterly one. To all intents and purposes it may be stated that in Scotland there are still only four quarters in a shield, and if more than four coats are introduced grand quarterings are employed. Grand quarterings are very frequent in Scottish armory. The Scottish rules of quartering follow no fixed principle, and the constant rematriculations make it impossible to deduce exact rules; and though roughly approximating to the English ones, no greater generalisation can be laid down than the assertion that the most recent matriculation of an ancestor governs the arms and quarterings to be displayed. A royal quartering is never subdivided. In combining Scottish and English coats of arms into one scheme of quartering, it is usual if possible to treat the coat of arms as matriculated in Scotland as a grand quartering equivalent in value to any other of the English quarterings. This, however, is not always possible in cases where the matriculation itself creates grand quarterings and sub-quarterings; and for a scheme of quarterings in such a case it is more usual for the Scottish matriculation to be divided up into its component parts, and for these to be used as simple quarterings in succession to the English ones, regardless of any bordure which may exist in the Scottish matriculation. It cannot, of course, be said that such a practice is beyond criticism, though it frequently remains the only practical way of solving the difficulty. Until comparatively recent times, if amongst quarterings inherited the Royal Arms were included, it was considered a fixed, unalterable rule that these should be placed in the first quarter, taking precedence of the pronominal coat, irrespective of their real position according to the date or pedigree place of introduction. This rule, however, has long since been superseded, and Royal quarterings now take their position on the same footing as the others. It very probably arose from the misconception of the facts concerning an important case which doubtless was considered a precedent. The family of Mowbray, after their marriage with the heiress of Thomas de Brotherton, used either the arms of Brotherton alone, these being England differenced {556} by a label, or else placed them in the first quarter of their shield. Consequently from this precedent a rule was deduced that it was permissible and correct to give a Royal quartering precedence over all others. The position of the Mowbrays, Dukes of Norfolk, as Earls Marshal no doubt led to their own achievement being considered an exemplary model. But it appears to have been overlooked that the Mowbrays bore these Royal Arms of Brotherton not as an inherited quartering but as a grant to themselves. Richard II. apparently granted them permission to bear the arms of Edward the Confessor impaled with the arms of Brotherton, the whole between the two Royal ostrich feathers (Fig. 675), and consequently, the grant having been made, the Mowbrays were under no necessity to display the Mowbray or the Segrave arms to bring in the arms of Brotherton. A little later a similar case occurred with the Stafford family, who became sole heirs-general of Thomas of Woodstock, and consequently entitled to bear his arms as a quartering. The matter appears to have been settled at a chapter of the College of Arms, and the decision arrived at was as follows:-- _Cott. MS., Titus, C. i. fol. 404, in handwriting of end of sixteenth century._ [An order made for Henry Duke of Buckingham to beare the Armes of Thomas of Woodstock alone without any other Armes to bee quartered therewith. Anno 13 E 4.] Memorandum that in the yeare of the Reigne of our Soveraign Lord King Edward the iiij^{th}, the Thurtein in the xviij^{tin} day of ffeverir, it was concluded in a Chapitre of the office of Armes that where a nobleman is descended lenyalle Ineritable to iij. or iiij. Cotes and afterward is ascended to a Cotte neir to the King and of his royall bloud, may for his most onneur bere the same Cootte alone, and none lower Coottes of Dignite to be quartered therewith. As my Lord Henry Duke of Buckingham, Eirll of Harford, Northamton, and Stafford, Lord of Breknoke and of Holdernes, is assended to the Coottes and ayer to Thomas of Woodstoke, Duke of Glocestre and Sonne to King Edward the third, hee may beire his Cootte alone. And it was so Concluded by [Claurancieulx King of Armes, Marche King of Armes, Gyen King of Armes, Windesor Herauld, Fawcon Herauld, Harfford Herald]. But I imagine that this decision was in all probability founded upon the case of the Mowbrays, which was not in itself an exact precedent, because with the Staffords there appears to have been no such Royal grant as existed with the Mowbrays. Other instances at about this period can be alluded to, but though it must be admitted that the rule existed at one time, it has long since been officially overridden. A territorial coat or a coat of arms borne to indicate the possession of a specific title is either placed in the first quarter or borne in {557} pretence; see the arms of the Earl of Mar and Kellie. A singular instance of a very exceptional method of marshalling occurs in the case of the arms of the Earl of Caithness. He bears four coats of arms, some being stated to be territorial coats, quarterly, dividing them by the cross engrailed sable from his paternal arms of Sinclair. The arms of the Earls of Caithness are thus marshalled: "Quarterly, 1. azure, within a Royal tressure a ship with furled sails all or." For Orkney: "2 and 3. or, a lion rampant gules." For Spar (a family in possession of the Earldom of Caithness before the Sinclairs): "4. Azure, a ship in sail or, for Caithness"; and over all, dividing the quarters, a cross engrailed "sable," for Sinclair. The Barons Sinclair of Sweden (so created 1766, but extinct ten years later) bore the above quartered coats as cadets of Caithness, but separated the quarters, not by the engrailed cross sable of Sinclair, but by a cross patée throughout ermine. In an escutcheon _en surtout_ they placed the Sinclair arms: "Argent, a cross engrailed sable"; and, as a mark of cadency, they surrounded the main escutcheon with "a bordure chequy or and gules." This arrangement was doubtless suggested by the Royal Arms of Denmark, the quarterings of which have been for so many centuries separated by the cross of the Order of the Dannebrog: "Argent, a cross patée throughout fimbriated gules." In imitation of this a considerable number of the principal Scandinavian families use a cross patée throughout to separate the quarters of their frequently complicated coats. The quarterings in these cases are often not indicative of descent from different families, but were all included in the original grant of armorial bearings. On the centre of the cross thus used, an escutcheon, either of augmentation or of the family arms, is very frequently placed _en surtout_. The main difference between British and foreign usage with regard to quartering is this, that in England quarterings are usually employed to denote simply descent from an heiress, or representation in blood; in Scotland they also implied the possession of lordships. In foreign coats the quarterings are often employed to denote the possession of fiefs acquired in other ways than by marriage (_e.g._ by bequest or purchase), or the _jus expectationis_, the right of succession to such fiefs in accordance with certain agreements. In foreign heraldry the base of the quartered shield is not unfrequently cut off by a horizontal line, forming what is known as a _Champagne_, and the space thus made is occupied by one or more coats. At other times a pile with curved sides runs from the base some distance into the quartered shield, which is then said to be _enté en point_, and this space is devoted to the display of one or more quarterings. The definite and precise British regulations which have grown up on the {558} subject of the marshalling of arms have no equivalent in the armorial laws of other countries. Very rarely quartering is affected _per saltire_, as in the arms of Sicily and in a few coats of Spanish origin, but even as regards foreign armory the practice is so rare that it may be disregarded. The laws of marshalling upon the Continent, and particularly in Germany, are very far from being identical with British heraldic practices. [Illustration: FIG. 762.--Arms of Hans Wolf von Bibelspurg.] [Illustration: FIG. 763.--Arms of Hans Wolf von Bibelspurg and his wife Catherina Waraus married in 1507 at Augsburg.] [Illustration: FIG. 764.] The British method of impaling two coats of arms upon one shield to signify marriage is abroad now wholly discarded, and two shields are invariably made use of. These shields are placed side by side, the dexter shield being used to display the man's arms and the sinister those of the woman's family. The shields are tilted towards each other (the position is not quite identical with that which we term accollé). But--and this is a peculiarity practically unknown in England--the German practice invariably reverses the charges upon the dexter shield, so that the charges upon the two shields "respect" each other. This perhaps can be most readily understood by reference to Figs. 762 and 763. The former shows the simple arms of Von Bibelspurg, the latter the same coat allied with another. But it should be noted that letters or words, if they appear as charges upon the shield, are not reversed. This reversing of the charges is by no means an uncommon practice in Germany for other purposes. For instance, if the arms of a State are depicted surrounded by the arms of provinces, or if the arms of a reigning Sovereign are grouped within a bordure of the shields of other people, the charges on the shields to the dexter are almost invariably shown in reflection regarding the shield in the centre. This practice, resting only on what may be termed "heraldic courtesy," dates back to very early times, and is met with even in Rolls of Arms where the shields are all turned to face the centre. Such a system was adopted in Siebmacher's "Book of Arms." But what the true position of the {559} charges should be when represented upon a simple shield should be determined by the position of the helmet. It may be of interest to state that in St. George's Chapel at Windsor the early Stall plates as originally set up were all disposed so that helmets and charges alike faced the High Altar. [Illustration: FIG. 765.] [Illustration: FIG. 766.--Arms of Loschau or Lexaw, of Augsburg.] [Illustration: FIG. 767.] [Illustration: FIG. 768.--Arms of the Elector and Archbishop of Treves.] The conjunction of three coats of arms in Germany is effected as shown in Fig. 764. Although matrimonial alliance does not in Germany entail the conjunction of different coats of arms on one shield, such conjunction does occur in German heraldry, but it is comparable (in its meaning) with our rules of quartering and not with our rules of impalement. No such exact and definite rules exist in that country as are to be met with in our own to determine the choice of a method of conjunction, nor to indicate the significance to be presumed from whatever method may be found in use. Personal selection and the adaptability to any particular method of the tinctures and the charges themselves of the coats to be conjoined seem to be the determining factors, and the existing territorial attributes of German armory have a greater weight in marshalling than the principle of heirship which is now practically the sole governing factor in British heraldry. One must therefore content oneself with a brief recital of some of the various modes of conjunction which have been or are still practised. These include impalement per pale or per fess (Fig. 765) and dimidiation (Fig. 766), which is more usual on the Continent than it ever was in these kingdoms. The subdivision of the field, as with ourselves, is most frequently adopted; though we are usually confined to quartering, German armory knows no such restrictions. The most usual subdivisions are as given in Fig. 767. The ordinary quartered shield is met with in Fig. 768, which represents the arms of James III., Von Eltz, Elector and Archbishop of Treves (1567-1581), in which his personal arms of Eltz ("Per fess gules and argent, in chief a demi-lion issuing or") are quartered with the impersonal arms of his archbishopric, "Argent, a cross gules." Another method of conjunction is superimposition, by which the design of the one shield takes the form of an ordinary imposed {560} upon the other (Fig. 769). A curious method of conjoining three coats is by engrafting the third in base (Fig. 770). The constant use of the inescutcheon has been already referred to, and even early English armory (Figs. 706 and 710) has examples of the widespread Continental practice (which obtains largely in Spanish and Portuguese heraldry) of surrounding one coat with a bordure of another. [Illustration: FIG. 769.] [Illustration: FIG. 770.] [Illustration: FIG. 771.] The German method of conjunction by incorporation has been frequently pleaded in British heraldry, in efforts to account for ancient arms, but with us (save for occasional use for cadency differencing at an early and for a limited period) such incorporation only results in and signifies an originally _new_ coat, and not an authorised marshalling of existing arms of prior origin and authority. The German method can best be explained by two examples. Let us suppose a coat "per fess argent and gules," with which another coat "gules, a fleur-de-lis argent," is to be marshalled. The result would be "per fess argent and gules, a fleur-de-lis counterchanged." With smaller objects a more usual method would duplicate the charges, thus "per bend argent and azure," and "argent, a star of six points azure" would result in "per bend argent and azure, two stars of six points counterchanged" (Fig. 771). {561} CHAPTER XXXIV THE ARMORIAL INSIGNIA OF KNIGHTHOOD It hardly falls within the scope of the present work to detail or discuss the various points concerning the history or statutes of the different British Orders of Knighthood, and still less so of the Foreign Orders. The history of the English Orders alone would make a bulky volume. But it is necessary to treat of the matter to some limited extent, inasmuch as in modern heraldry in every country in Europe additions are made to the armorial achievement whenever it is desired to signify rank in any of the Orders of Knighthood. Though a large number of the early Plantagenet Garter Stall plates date as far back as the year 1420, it is evident that nothing in the armorial bearings with which they are emblazoned bears any relation to the order of knighthood to which they belonged until the year 1469 or thereabouts, when Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, was elected a Knight of the Garter. His Stall plate, which is of a very exceptional style and character, is the first to bear the garter encircling the shield. It is curious to notice, by the way, that upon the privy seal of the Duke of Burgundy, which shows the same arms depicted upon his Garter plate, the shield is surrounded by the collar, from which depends the badge of the Order of the Golden Fleece, so that it is highly probable that the custom of adding marks of knighthood to a shield came to us from the Continent. The next Garter plate, which shows the garter around the shield, is that of Viscount Lovel, who was elected in 1483; and the shield of the Earl of Derby, who was elected in the same year, also is encircled by the Garter. The Garter itself encircling the shields of knights of that order remained the only mark of knighthood used armorially in this country for a considerable period, though we find that the example was copied in Scotland soon afterwards with regard to the Order of the Thistle. At the commencement of the present Lyon Register, which dates from the year 1672, the arms of the King of Scotland, which are given as such and not as the King of England and Scotland, are described as encircled by the collar of the Order of the Thistle. This probably was used as the equivalent of the garter in England, for we do not find the collar of the {562} Garter, together with the garter itself, or the ribbon circle of the Thistle, together with the collar of that order, until a much later period. The use of collars of knighthood upon the Continent to encircle coats of arms has been from the fifteenth century very general and extensive; examples are to be found at an earlier date; but the encircling of arms with the garter carrying the motto of the order, or with the ribbon (which is termed the circle) and motto of any other order is an entirely English practice, which does not appear to have been copied in any other country. It, of course, arose from the fact that the actual garter as worn by the knight of the order carried the motto of the order, and that by representing the garter round the shield, the motto of the order was of necessity also added. The Lyon Register, however, in the entry of record (dated 1672), states that the shield is "encircled with the Order of Scotland, the same being composed of rue and thistles having the image of St. Andrew with his crosse on his brest y^runto pendent," and it is by no means improbable that occasional instances of the heraldic use of the collar of the garter might be discovered at the same period. But it is not until the later part of the eighteenth century that it obtained anything like a regular use. During the Hanoverian period it became customary to encircle the shield first with the garter, and that in its turn with the collar of the order whenever it was desired to display the achievement in its most complete style; and though even then, as at the present day, for less elaborate representations the garter only was used without the collar, it still remains correct to display both in a full emblazonment of the arms. An impetus to the practice was doubtless given by the subdivision of the Order of the Bath, which will be presently referred to. In speaking of the garter, the opportunity should be taken to protest strongly against the objectionable practice which has arisen of using a garter to encircle a crest or shield and to carry the family motto. No matter what motto is placed upon the garter, it is both bad form and absolutely incorrect for any one who is not a Knight of the Garter to use a garter in any heraldic display. But to tabulate the existing practice the present rules as to the display of the arms of knights of the different orders are as follow:-- _A Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter_ encircles his escutcheon by a representation of the garter he wears. This is a belt of dark blue velvet edged with gold and ornamented with a heavy gold buckle and ornament at the end. It carries the motto of the Order, "Honi soit qui mal y pense," in gold letters of plain Roman character. Anciently the motto was spelled "Hony soit qy mal y pense," as may be noticed from some of the early Garter plates, and the style {563} of the letter was what is now known as "Old English." The garter is worn buckled, with the end tucked under and looped in a specified manner, which is the method also adopted in heraldic representations. It is quite permissible to use the garter alone, but a Knight of the Order is allowed to add outside the garter the representation of the collar of the order. This is of gold, consisting of twenty-six buckled garters enamelled in the correct colour, each surrounding a rose, the garter alternated with gold knots all joined up by chain links of gold. From the collar depends the "George," or figure of St. George on horseback encountering the dragon, enamelled in colours. In heraldic representations it is usual to ignore the specified number of links in the collar. A Knight of the Garter as such is entitled to claim the privilege of a grant of supporters, but as nowadays the order is reserved for those of the rank of earl and upwards, supporters will always have a prior existence in connection with the peerage. _Knights of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle_ are entitled to surround their arms with a plain circle of green edged with gold and bearing the motto in gold letters, "Nemo me impune lacessit." They are also entitled to surround their arms with the collar of the order, which is of gold, and composed of sprigs of thistle and rue (Andrew) enamelled in their proper colours. From the collar the badge (the figure of St. Andrew) depends. _Knights of the Most Illustrious Order of St. Patrick_ are entitled to surround their arms by a plain circle of sky-blue edged with gold, bearing the motto, "Quis Separabit. MDCCLXXXIII," as enamelled on the star of the order. This is encircled by the collar of the order, which is of "gold, composed of roses and harps alternately, tied together with knots of gold, the said roses enamelled alternately, white leaves within red and red leaves within white; and in the centre of the said collar shall be an Imperial crown surmounting a harp of gold, from which shall hang the badge." Knights of the Thistle and St. Patrick are entitled as such to claim a grant of supporters on payment of the fees, but these orders are nowadays confined to peers. _The Most Honourable Order of the Bath._--Knights of the Bath, who have existed from a remote period, do not appear as such to have made any additions to their arms prior to the revival of the order in 1725. At that time, similarly to the Orders of the Garter and the Thistle, the order was of one class only and composed of a limited number of knights. Knights of that order were then distinguished by the letters K.B., which, it should be noted, mean Knight of the Bath, and not Knight Bachelor, as so many people now imagine. There is nobody at the present time who is entitled to use these letters. Upon those {564} of the Bath plates which now remain in the chapel of Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey, no instance will be found in which the collar is represented outside the circle, which is pretty good evidence that although isolated examples may possibly be found at an earlier date, it was not the usual custom up to the end of the eighteenth century to encircle a shield with a collar of knighthood. These Knights of the Bath (K.B.), as they were termed, surrounded their escutcheons with circlets of crimson edged with gold, and bearing thereupon the motto of the order, "Tria juncta in uno," in gold letters. Although at that time it does not appear that the collar of the order was ever employed for armorial purposes, instances are to be found in which the laurel wreath surrounded the circlet with the motto of the order. In the year 1815, owing to the large number of officers who had merited reward in the Peninsular Campaign, it was considered necessary to largely increase the extent and scope of the order. For this purpose it was divided into two divisions--the Military Division and the Civil Division--and each of these were divided into three classes, namely, Knights Grand Cross (G.C.B.), Knights Commanders (K.C.B.), and Companions (C.B.). The then existing Knights of the Bath became Knights Grand Cross. The existing collar served for all Knights Grand Cross, but the old badge and star were assigned for the civil division of the order, a new pattern being designed for the military division. The number of stalls in Henry VII.'s Chapel being limited, the erection of Stall plates and the display of banners ceased; those then in position were allowed to remain, and still remain at the present moment. Consequently there are no Stall plates to refer to in the matter as precedents since that period, and the rules need to be obtained from other sources. They are now as follows: A Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath surrounds his arms with the circlet as was theretofore the case, and in addition he surrounds the circlet by his collar, from which depends the badge (either military or civil) of the division to which he belongs. The collar is really for practical purposes the distinguishing mark of a Knight Grand Cross, because although as such he is entitled upon payment of the fees to claim a grant of supporters, he is under no compulsion to do so, and comparatively but few avail themselves of the privilege. All Knights of the Bath, before the enlargement of the order, had supporters. A Knight Grand Cross of the _military_ division encircles his arms with the laurel wreath in addition, this being placed outside the circlet and within the collar of the order. The collar is composed of gold having nine Imperial crowns and eight devices of the rose, the thistle, and shamrock issuing from a sceptre placed alternately and enamelled in {565} their proper colours, the links being connected with seventeen knots enamelled white. The badges of the military and civil divisions differ considerably. Knights Commanders of the Bath have no collar and cannot claim a grant of supporters, but they encircle their shields with the circlet of the order, suspending their badge below the shield by the ribbon from which it is worn. Knights Commanders of the military division use the laurel wreath as do Knights Grand Cross, but no members of any class of the civil division are entitled to display it. Companions of the order (C.B.) do not use the helmet of a knight as does a G.C.B. or a K.C.B.; in fact, the only difference which is permissible in their arms from those of an undistinguished commoner is that they are allowed to suspend the badge of a C.B. from a ribbon below their shields. They do not use the circlet of the order. Certain cases have come under my notice in which a military C.B. has added a laurel wreath to his armorial bearings, but whether such a practice is correct I am unaware, but I think it is not officially recognised. _The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India_ (like the Order of the Bath as at present constituted) is divided into three classes, Knights Grand Commanders, Knights Commanders, and Companions. Knights Grand Commanders place the circlet of the order around their shields. This is of light blue inscribed with the motto, "Heaven's light our guide." This in its turn is surrounded by the collar of the order, which is composed of alternate links of the Indian lotus flower, crossed palm-branches, and the united red and white rose of England. In the centre of the collar is an Imperial crown from which depends the badge of the order, this being an onyx cameo of the effigy of her late Majesty Queen Victoria within the motto of the order, and surmounted by a star, the whole being richly jewelled. The surrounding of the shield by the circlet of the order doubtless is a consequence and follows upon the original custom of the armorial use of the garter, but this being admitted, it is yet permissible to state that that practice came from the Continent, and there is little reason to doubt that the real meaning and origin of the custom of using the circlet is derived from the Continental practice which has for long been usual of displaying the shield of arms upon the star of an order of knighthood. The star of every British order--the Garter included--contains the circlet and motto of the order, and it is easy to see how, after depicting the shield of arms upon the star of the order, the result will be that the circlet of the order surrounds the shield. No armorial warrant upon the point is ever issued at the creation of an order; the thing follows as a matter of course, the circlet being taken from the star to surround the shield without further authorisation. Upon this point {566} there can be no doubt, inasmuch as the garter which surrounds the shield of a K.G. is in _all_ authoritative heraldic paintings buckled in the peculiar manner in which it is worn and in which it is depicted upon the star. The Star of the Thistle shows the plain circlet, the Star of St. Patrick the same, and the arms of a Knight of St. Patrick afford a curious confirmation of my contention, because whilst the motto of the order is specified to be, "Quis separabit," the circlet used for armorial purposes includes the date (MDCCLXXXIII.) as shown upon the star. The Order of the Bath, again, has a plain circlet upon the star, and the badges and stars of the military knights have the laurel wreath represented in heraldic drawings, the laurel wreath being absent from the stars and the shields of those who are members of the civil division. Now with regard to the Order of the Star of India the motto on the star is carried upon a representation of a ribbon which is tied in a curious manner, and my own opinion is that the circlet used to surround the shield of a G.C.S.I. or K.C.S.I. should (as in the case of the garter) be represented not as a simple circlet like the Bath or Thistle, but as a ribbon tied in the curious manner represented upon the star. This tying is not, however, duplicated upon the badge, and possibly I may be told that the circlet and its use are taken from the badge and not from the star. The reply to such a statement is, first, that there is no garter upon the badge of that order, there is no circlet on the badge of the Thistle, and the circlet on the badge of St. Patrick is surrounded by a wreath of trefoils which in that case ought to appear round the shield of a K.P. This wreath of trefoils is absent from the K.P. star. Further, no Companion of an Order is permitted to use the Circlet of the Order, whilst every Companion has his badge. No Companion has a star. Though I hold strongly that the circlet of the Star of India should be a ribbon tied as represented on the star of the order, I must admit I have never yet come across an official instance of it being so represented. This, however, is a point upon which there is no definite warrant of instruction, and is not the conclusion justifiable that on this matter the officers of arms have been led into a mistake in their general practice by an oversight and possible unfamiliarity with the actual star? A Knight Grand Commander is entitled to claim a grant of supporters on payment of the fees. A Knight Commander encircles his shield with the circlet of the order and hangs his badge from a ribbon below, a Companion of the Order simply hangs the badge he wears below his shield. THE MOST DISTINGUISHED ORDER OF ST. MICHAEL AND ST. GEORGE.--This order again is divided into three classes--Knights Grand Cross, Knights Commanders, and Companions. Knights Grand Cross place the circlet of the order and the collar with the badge around their shields, {567} and, like other Knights Grand Cross, they are entitled to claim a grant of supporters. The circlet of the order is of blue edged with gold, and bearing in gold letters the motto of the order, "Auspicium melioris ævi." The collar is composed alternately of lions of England, of Maltese crosses, and of the ciphers S.M. and S.G., and having in the centre an Imperial crown over two lions passant guardant, each holding a bunch of seven arrows. At the opposite point of the collar are two similar lions. The whole is of gold except the crosses, which are of white enamel, and the various devices are linked together by small gold chains. Knights Commanders of the Order encircle their shields with a similar circlet of the order, and hang their badges below. A Companion simply suspends his badge from a ribbon below his shield. _The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire._--This order is divided into three classes--Knights Grand Commanders, Knights Commanders, and Companions. Knights Grand Commanders and Knights Commanders encircle their shields with the circlet of the order, which is of purple inscribed in letters of gold, with the motto of the order, "Imperatricis auspiciis." The collar of the order, which is used by the Knights Grand Commanders, in addition to the circle, is composed of elephants, lotus flowers, peacocks in their pride, and Indian roses, and in the centre is an Imperial crown, the whole being linked together by chains of gold. Knights Commanders suspend their badges from their shields. Companions are only permitted to suspend their badges from a ribbon, and, as in the cases of the other orders, are not allowed to make use of the circlet of the order. _The Royal Victorian Order_ is divided into five classes, and is the only British order of which this can be said. There is no collar belonging to the order, so a G.C.V.O. cannot put one round his shield. Knights Grand Cross surround their shields with the circlet of the order, which is of dark blue carrying in letters of gold the motto, "Victoria." Knights Commanders and Commanders also use the circlet, with the badge suspended from the ribbon. Members of the fourth and fifth classes of the Order suspend the badge which they are entitled to wear below their shields. The "Victorian Chain" is quite apart from the Victorian Order, and up to the present time has only been conferred upon a very limited number. It apparently exists by the pleasure of His Majesty, no statutes having been ordained. The Distinguished Service Order, the Imperial Service Order, and the Order of Merit are each of but one class only, none of them conferring the dignity of knighthood. They rank heraldically with the Companions of the other Orders, and for heraldic purposes merely confer upon those people entitled to the decorations the right to {568} suspend the badges they wear below their shields or lozenges as the case may be, following the rules observed by other Companions. The Victoria Cross, the Albert Medal, the Edward Medal, the Conspicuous Service Cross, the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal, the Royal Red Cross, the Volunteer Officers' Decoration, the Territorial Decoration, and the Decoration of the League of Mercy all rank as decorations. Though none confer any style or precedence of knighthood, those entitled to them are permitted to suspend representations of such decorations as are enjoyed below their shields. The members of the Orders of Victoria and Albert and of the Crown of India are permitted to display the badges they wear below their lozenges. Some people, notably in the early part of the nineteenth century, adopted the practice of placing war medals below the escutcheons amongst other decorations. It is doubtful, however, how far this practice is correct, inasmuch as a medal does not technically rank as a decoration or as a matter of honour. That medals are "decorations" is not officially recognised, with the exception, perhaps, of the Jubilee medal, the Diamond Jubilee medal, and the Coronation medal, which have been given a status more of the character of a decoration than of simple medals. _The Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England_ does not rank with other orders or decorations, inasmuch as it was initiated without Royal intervention, and carries no precedence or titular rank. In 1888, however, a Royal charter of incorporation was obtained, and the distribution of the highest offices of the order in the persons of the Sovereign, the Prince of Wales, and other members of the Royal Family has of late years very much increased its social status. The Order is, however, now recognised to a certain extent, and its insignia is worn at Court by duly appointed authority. The Crown is gradually acquiring a right of veto, which will probably eventually result in the order becoming a recognised honour, of which the gift lies with the Crown. In the charter of incorporation, Knights of Justice and Ladies of Justice were permitted to place as a chief over their arms the augmentation anciently used by knights of the English language of the original Roman Catholic Celibate Order. The chief used is: "Gules, charged with a cross throughout argent, the cross embellished in its angles with lions passant guardant and unicorns passant alternately both or," as in the cross of the order. The omission, which is all the more inexplicable owing to the fact that Garter King of Arms is the officer for the order, that the heraldic provisions of this charter have never been conveyed, as should have been the case, in a Royal Warrant to the Earl Marshal, has caused some {569} confusion, for the officers of the College of Arms, when speaking officially, decline to admit the insignia of the order in any official emblazonment of arms. Lyon King of Arms has been less punctilious. Knights of Justice, Knights of Grace, and Esquires of the Orders all suspend the badges they wear from a black watered-silk ribbon below their shields (Fig. 334), and Ladies of Justice and Ladies of Grace do the same below their lozenges. The arms of members of the Order are frequently depicted superimposed upon the Cross. By the Statutes of the Order Knights of Justice were required to show that all their four grandparents were legally entitled to bear arms, but so many provisions for the exercise of discretion in dispensing with this requirement were at the same time created that to all intents and purposes such a regulation might never have been included. Some of the Knights of Justice even yet have no arms at all, others are themselves grantees, and still others would be unable to show what is required of them if the claims of their grandparents were properly investigated. It should perhaps be stated that supporters, when granted to Knights Grand Cross as such, are personal to themselves, and in the patents by which they are granted the grant is made for life only, no hereditary limitation being added. Any person in this country holding a Royal Licence to wear the insignia of any foreign order is permitted to adopt any heraldic form, decoration, or display which that order confers in the country of origin. Official recognition exists for this, and many precedents can be quoted. [Illustration: FIG. 772.--"Bailli-profès" of the Catholic Order of the Knights Hospitallers or the Order of Malta.] The rules which exist in foreign countries concerning heraldic privileges of the knights of different orders are very varied, and it is impossible to briefly summarise them. It may, however, be stated that the most usual practice is to display the shield alone in the centre of the star (Fig. 772). As with us, the collars of the orders are placed around the shields, and the badges depend below, but the use of the circlet carrying the motto of the order is exclusively a British practice. In the case of some of the Orders, however, the official coat of arms of the order is quartered, impaled, or borne in pretence with the personal arms, and the cross patée of the Order of the Dannebrog is to be met with placed in front of a shield of quarterings, the charges thereupon appearing in the angles of the cross. I am not sure, however, that the cases which have come under my notice should not be rather considered {570} definite and hereditary grants of augmentation, this being perhaps a more probable explanation than that such a method of display followed as a matter of course on promotion to the order. The Grand Masters of the Teutonic Order quarter the arms of that order with those of their families. The Knights of the Order of St. Stephen of Tuscany bear the arms of that order in chief over their personal arms. Fig. 772 represents the manner in which a "Bailli-profès" (Grand Cross) of the real Catholic and Celibate Order of St. John of Malta places the chief of the order on his shield, the latter being imposed upon a Maltese star (this being white) and the badge of the order depending below. The "Knight-profès" does not use the chief of the order. In the German Protestant Order of Malta (formerly Bailiwick of Brandenburg) the Commendatores place the shield of their arms upon the Cross of Malta. The Knights of Justice ("Richtsritter") on the contrary assume the cross upon the shield itself, whilst the Knights of Grace suspend it from the bottom of the shield. The members of the ancient Order of La Cordelière formerly encircled their lozenges with a representation of the Cordelière, which formed a part of their habit; and the officers of the Ecclesiastical Orders frequently surround their escutcheons with rosaries from which depend crucifixes. Whether this latter practice, however, should be considered merely a piece of artistic decoration, or whether it should be regarded as an ecclesiastical matter or should be included within the purview of armory, I leave others to decide. By a curious fiction, for the origin of which it is not easy to definitely account, unless it is a survival of the celibacy required in certain orders, a knight is not supposed to share the insignia of any order of knighthood with his wife. There is not the slightest doubt that his own knighthood does confer upon her both precedence and titular rank, and why there should be any necessity for the statement to be made as to the theoretical position has long been a puzzle to me. Such a theory, however, is considered to be correct, and as a consequence in modern times it has become a rigid rule that the arms of the wife of a knight must not be impaled upon a shield when it is displayed within the circlet of an order. No such rule existed in ancient times, and many instances can be found in which impaled shields, or the shield of the wife only, are met with inside a representation of the Garter. In the warrant recently issued for Queen Alexandra the arms of England and Denmark are impaled within a Garter. This may be quite exceptional and consequent upon the fact that Her Majesty is herself a member of the Order. Nevertheless, the modern idea is that when a Knight of any Order impales the arms of his wife, he must use two shields placed accollé, the dexter {571} surmounting the sinister (Fig. 745). Upon the dexter shield is represented the arms of the knight within the circlet, or the circlet and collar, as the case may be, of his order; on the sinister shield the arms of the knight are impaled with those of his wife, and this shield, for the purpose of artistic balance, is usually surrounded with a meaningless and inartistic floral or laurel wreath to make its size similar to the dimensions of the dexter shield. The widow of a knight of any Order is required at present to immediately discontinue the use of the ensigns of that Order, and to revert to the plain impaled lozenge which she would be entitled to as the widow of an undecorated gentleman. As she retains her titular rank, such a regulation seems absurd, but it undoubtedly exists, and until it is altered must be conformed to. Knights Grand Cross and Knights Commanders, as also Knights Bachelors, use the open affronté helmet of a knight. Companions of any order, and members of those orders which do not confer any precedence or title of knighthood, use only the close profile helmet of a gentleman. A Knight Bachelor, of course, is at liberty to impale the arms of his wife upon his escutcheon without employing the double form. It only makes the use of the double escutcheon for Knights of Orders the more incomprehensible. Reference should also be made to the subject of impalement, which will be found in the chapter upon Marshalling. {572} CHAPTER XXXV THE ARMORIAL BEARINGS OF A LADY Bearing in mind that armory was so deeply interwoven with all that was best in chivalry, it is curious that the armorial status of a woman should have been left so undefined. A query as to how a lady may bear arms will be glibly answered for her as maid (Fig. 749) and as widow (Figs. 750, 751, and 752) by the most elementary heraldic text-book. But a little consideration will show how far short our knowledge falls of a complete or uniform set of rules. Let what is definitely known be first stated. In the first place, no woman (save a Sovereign) can inherit, use, or transmit crest or motto, nor may she use a helmet or mantling. All daughters, if unmarried, bear _upon a lozenge_ the paternal arms and quarterings of their father, with his difference marks. If their mother were an heiress, they quarter her arms with those of her father. In England (save in the Royal Family, and in this case even it is a matter of presumption only) there is no seniority amongst daughters, and the difference marks of all daughters are those borne by the father, and none other. There are no marks of distinction as between the daughters themselves. In Scotland, however, seniority does exist, according to priority of birth; and, though Scottish heraldic law provides no marks of cadency as between sister and sister, the laws of arms north of the Tweed recognise seniority of birth in the event of a certain set of circumstances arising. In Scotland, as doubtless many are aware, certain untitled Scottish families, for reasons which may or may not be known, have been permitted to use supporters to their arms. When the line vests in coheirs, the eldest born daughter, as heir of line, assumes the supporters, unless some other limitation has been attached to them. Scottish supporters are peculiar things to deal with, unless the exact terms of the patent of grant or matriculation are known. The lozenge of an unmarried lady is frequently surmounted by a true lover's knot of ribbon, usually painted blue (Fig. 749). It has no particular meaning and no official recognition, though plenty of official {573} use, and practically its status is no more than a piece of supposedly artistic ornament. Concerning the law for unmarried ladies, therefore, there is neither doubt nor dispute. A widow bears arms upon a lozenge, this showing the arms of her late husband impaled with those of her own family (Fig. 750), or with these latter displayed on an escutcheon of pretence if she be an heir or coheir (Fig. 751). The other state in the progress of life in which a lady may hope or expect to find herself is that of married life. Now, how should a married lady display arms? Echo and the text-books alike answer, "How?" Does _anybody_ know? This "fault," for such it undoubtedly is, is due to the fact that the laws of arms evolved themselves in that period when a married woman was little accounted of. As an unmarried heiress she undoubtedly was a somebody; as a widowed and richly-jointured dowager she was likewise of account, but as a wedded wife her identity was lost, for the Married Women's Property Act was not in existence, nor was it thought of. So completely was it recognised that all rights and inheritance of the wife devolved of right upon the husband, that formerly the husband enjoyed any peerage honours which had descended to the wife, and was summoned to Parliament as a peer in his wife's peerage. Small wonder, then, that the same ideas dominated the rules of armory. These only provide ways and methods for the husband to bear the wife's arms. This is curious, because there can be no doubt that at a still earlier period the practice of impalement was entirely confined to women, and that, unless the wife happened to be an heiress, the husband did not trouble to impale her arms. But a little thought will show that the two are not at variance, for if monuments and other matters of _record_ are ignored, the earliest examples of impalement which have come down to us are all, almost without exception, examples of arms borne by widows. One cannot get over the fact that a wife during coverture had practically no legal status at all. The rules governing impalement, and the conjunction of the arms of man and wife, as they are to be borne by the husband, are recited in the chapter upon Marshalling, which also details the ways in which a widow bears arms in the different ranks of life. Nothing would be gained by repeating them here. It may be noted, however, that it is not considered correct for a widow to make use of the true lover's knot of blue ribbon, which is sometimes used in the case of an unmarried lady. A divorce puts matters _in statu quo ante_. There still remains, however, the question of the bearing of arms in her own right by a married woman under coverture at the present day. {574} The earliest grant of arms that I can put my hands upon to a woman is one dated 1558. It is, moreover, the only grant of which I know to one single person, that person being a _wife_. The grant is decidedly interesting, so I print it in full:-- "TO ALL AND SINGULAR as well kinges heraldes and officers of armes as nobles gentlemen and others which these presents shall see or here Wyllyam Hervye Esquire otherwise called Clarencieux principall heralde and kinge of armes of the south-east and west parties of England fendith due comenda[=c]ons and greting fforasmuch as auncientlye ffrom the beginnynge the valyant and vertuous actes off excellent parsons have ben comended to the worlde with sondry monumentes and remembrances off theyr good desertes among the which one of the chefist and most usuall hath ben the beringe of figures and tokens in shildes called armes beinge none other thinges then Evidences and demonstra[=c]ons of prowes and valoure diverselye distributed accordinge to the quallyties and desertes of the parsons. And for that Dame Marye Mathew daughter and heyre of Thomas Mathew of Colchester in the counte of Essex esquire hath longe contynued in nobylyte she and her auncestors bearinge armes, yet she notwithstandinge being ignorant of the same and ffor the advoydinge of all inconvenyences and troubles that dayleye happeneth in suche cases and not wyllinge to preiudyce anye person hath instantlye requyred me The sayde Clarencieux kinge of armes accordinge to my registers and recordes To assigne and sett forthe ffor her and her posterite The armes belonging and descendinge To her ffrom her saide auncesters. In considera[=c]on whereof I have at her ientle request assigned geven and granted unto her and her posterite The owlde and auncient armes of her said auncesters as followeth. That is to saye--partye per cheveron sables and argent a Lyon passant in chefe off the second the poynt goutey[31] of the firste as more plainly aperith depicted in this margent. Which armes I The Saide Clarencieux kinge of Armes by powre and authorite to myne office annexed and graunted By the Queenes Majesties Letters patentes under The great Seale of England have ratefyed and confirmed and By These presentes do ratefye and confyrme unto and for the saide dame marye Mathew otherwise called dame Mary Jude wiffe to Sir Andrew Jude Knight late Mayor and Alderman off London and to her posterite To use bear and show for evermore in all places of honour to her and theyr wourshipes at theyr Lybertie and pleasur without impediment lett or interup[=c]on of any person or persons. "IN WITNESS WHEREOF the saide Clarencieux Kinge of Armes have signed these presentes with my hand and sett thereunto The Seale off {575} myne office and The Seale of myne armes geven at London The x^{th} daye off October in the Yeare of owre Lord Godd 1558 and in the ffourth and ffifth yeares off the reignes off owre Souereignes Lorde and Layde Phellip and Marye by the grace of God Kinge and Queene of England france both cycles Jerusalem Irland deffendors of the faythe Archedukes of Austrya Dukes of Burgoyne myllain & braband erles of haspurgie, Flanders and Tyrrell. "W. HERVEY AL[=S] CLARENCIEUX "King of Armes. "Confirmation of Arms to Dame Mary Mathew, 'otherwise called Dame Marye Jude, wyffe to Sir Andrew Jude, Knight, Late Lord Mayor and Alderman off London,' 1558." In this grant the arms are painted upon a _shield_. The grant was made in her husband's lifetime, but his arms are not impaled therewith. Evidently, therefore, the lady bears arms _in her own right_, and the presumption would seem to be that a married lady bears her arms without reference to her husband, and bears them upon a shield. On the other hand, the grant to Lady Pearce, referred to on an earlier page, whilst not blazoning the Pearce arms, shows the painting upon the patent to have been a lozenge of the arms of Pearce, charged with a baronet's hand impaled with the arms then granted for the maiden name of Lady Pearce. On the other hand, a grant is printed in vol. i. of the Notes to the "Visitation of England and Wales." The grant is to Dame Judith Diggs, widow of Sir Maurice Diggs, Bart., now wife of Daniel Sheldon, and to Dame Margaret Sheldon, her sister, relict of Sir Joseph Sheldon, Knight, late Alderman, and sometime Lord Mayor of the City of London, daughters and coheirs of Mr. George Rose, of Eastergate. The operative clause of the grant is: "do by these Presents grant and assign to y^e said Dame Judith and Dame Margaret the Armes hereafter mentioned Viz^t: Ermine, an Eagle displayed Sable, membered and beaked Gules, debruised with a Bendlet Componè Or and Azure, as in the margin hereof more plainly appears depicted. To be borne and used for ever hereafter by them y^e said Dame Judith Diggs and Dame Margaret Sheldon, and the descendants of their bodies respectively, lawfully begotten, according to the Laws, Rules and practice of Armes." In each case it will be noted that the sisters were respectively wife and widow of some one of the name of Sheldon; and it might possibly be supposed that these were arms granted for the name of Sheldon. There seems, however, to be very little doubt that these are the arms for Rose. The painting is, however, of the single coat of Rose, and one is puzzled to know why the arms are not painted in {576} conjunction with those of Sheldon. The same practice was followed in the patent which was granted to Nelson's Lady Hamilton. This patent, which both heraldically and historically is excessively interesting, was printed in full on p. 168, vol. i. of the _Genealogical Magazine_. The arms which in the grant are specifically said to be the arms of Lyons (not of Hamilton) are painted upon a lozenge, with no reference to the arms of Hamilton. In each of these cases, however, the grantee of arms has been an heiress, so that the clause by which the arms are limited to the descendants does not help. An instance of a grant to a man and his wife, where the wife was not an heiress, is printed in "The Right to Bear Arms"; and in this case the painting shows the arms impaled with those of the husband. The grant to the wife has no hereditary limitations, and presumably her descendants would never be able to quarter the arms of the wife, no matter even if by the extinction of the other issue she eventually became a coheir. The fact that the arms of man and wife are herein granted together prevents any one making any deduction as to what is the position of the wife alone. There was a patent issued in the year 1784 to a Mrs. Sarah Lax, widow of John Lax, to take the name and arms of Maynard, such name and arms to be borne by herself and her issue. The painting in this case is of the arms of Maynard alone upon a lozenge, and the crest which was to be borne by her male descendants is quite a separate painting in the body of the grant, and not in conjunction with the lozenge. Now, Mrs. Maynard was a widow, and it is manifestly wrong that she should bear the arms as if she were unmarried, yet how was she to bear them? She was bearing the name of Lax because that had been her husband's name, and she took the name of Maynard, which presumably her husband would have taken had he been alive; she herself was a Miss Jefferson, so would she have been entitled to have placed the arms of Jefferson upon an escutcheon of pretence, in the centre of the arms of Maynard? Presumably she would, because suppose the husband had assumed the name and arms of Maynard in his lifetime, he certainly would have been entitled to place his wife's arms of Jefferson on an escutcheon of pretence. On March 9, 1878, Francis Culling Carr, and his second wife, Emily Blanche, daughter of Andrew Morton Carr, and niece of the late Field-Marshal Sir William Maynard Gomm, G.C.B., both assumed by Royal Licence the additional surname and arms of Gomm. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Carr-Gomm appear to have had any blood descent from the Gomm family; consequently the Gomm arms were granted to both husband and wife, and the curious part is that they were not identical, the marks (showing that there was no blood relationship) being a {577} canton for the husband and a cross crosslet for the wife. In this case the arms were impaled. One is puzzled to know why the grant to the wife was necessary as well as the grant to the husband. In 1865 Mrs. Massy, widow of Hugh Massy, assumed the name and arms of Richardson in lieu of Massy. Mrs. Massy was the only child of Major Richardson Brady, who had previously assumed by Royal Licence the arms of Brady only. The painting upon the patent is a lozenge, bearing the arms of Massy, and upon an escutcheon of pretence the arms of Richardson. Of course, the arms of Mrs. Massy, as a widow, previously to the issue of the Royal Licence were a lozenge of the arms of Massy, and on an escutcheon of pretence the arms of Brady. A few years ago a Grant of Arms was issued to a Mrs. Sharpe, widow of Major Sharpe. The arms were _to be borne by herself_ and the descendants of her late husband, and by the other descendants of her husband's father, so that there is no doubt whatever that these were the arms of Sharpe. I have no idea who Mrs. Sharpe was, and I do not know that she possessed any arms of her own. Let us presume she did not. Now, unless a widow may bear the arms of her late husband on a lozenge, whether she has arms to impale with them or not, how on earth is she to bear arms at all? And yet the grant most distinctly was primarily to Mrs. Sharpe. After the death of General Ross, the victor of Bladensburg, a grant of an augmentation was made to be placed upon the monument to the memory of the General (Plate II.). The grant also was for the augmentation to be borne by his widow during her widowhood. But no mention appears of the arms of Mrs. Ross, nor, as far as I can ascertain, was proof officially made that Mrs. Ross was in her own right entitled to arms; consequently, whether she really was or was not, we may assume that as far as the official authorities officially knew she was not, and the same query formulated with regard to the Sharpe patent holds good in this case. The painting on the patent shows the arms upon a shield, and placed above is a helmet surmounted by the crest of augmentation and the family crest of Ross. So that from the cases we have mentioned instances can be found of the arms of a wife upon a shield alone, and of a widow having arms depicted upon a lozenge, such arms being on different occasions the impaled arms of her husband and herself, or the arms of herself alone or of her husband alone; and we have arms granted to a wife, and depicted as an impalement or upon a lozenge. So that from grants it seems almost impossible to deduce any decided and unquestionable rule as to how wife or widow should bear a coat of arms. There is, {578} however, one other source from which profitable instruction may be drawn. I refer to the methods of depicting arms upon hatchments, and more particularly to the hatchment of a married woman. Now a hatchment is strictly and purely personal, and in the days when the use of such an article was an everyday matter, the greatest attention was paid to the proper marshalling of the arms thereupon. There are so many varying circumstances that we have here only space to refer to the three simple rules, and these uncomplicated by any exceptional circumstances, which governed the hatchments of maid, wife, and widow. In the first case, the hatchment of an unmarried lady showed the whole of the background black, the paternal arms on a lozenge, and this suspended by a knot of blue ribbon. In the hatchment of a widow the background again was all black, the arms were upon a lozenge (but without the knot of ribbon), and the lozenge showed the arms of husband and wife impaled, or with the wife's in pretence, as circumstances might dictate. The hatchment of a wife was entirely different. Like the foregoing, it was devoid, of course, of helmet, mantling, crest, or motto; but the background was white on the dexter side (to show that the husband was still alive), and black on the sinister (to show the wife was dead). But the impaled arms were not depicted upon a lozenge, but upon a shield, and the shield was surmounted by the true lover's knot of blue ribbon. I have already stated that when the rules of arms were in the making the possibility of a married woman bearing arms in her own right was quite ignored, and theoretically even now the husband bears his wife's arms for her upon his shield. But the arms of a man are never depicted suspended from a true lover's knot. Such a display is distinctly feminine, and I verily believe that the correct way for a married woman to use arms, if she desires the display thereof to be personal to herself rather than to her husband, is to place her husband's arms impaled with her own upon a shield suspended from a true lover's knot, and without helmet, mantling, crest, or motto. At any rate such a method of display is a correct one, it is in no way open to criticism on the score of inaccuracy, it has precedent in its favour, and it affords a very desirable means of distinction. My only hesitation is that one cannot say it is the only way, or that it would be "incorrect" for the husband. At any rate it is the only way of drawing a distinction between the "married" achievements of the husband and the wife. The limitations attached to a lady's heraldic display being what they are, it has long been felt, and keenly felt, by every one attempting heraldic design, that artistic treatment of a lady's arms savoured almost of the impossible. What delicacy of treatment can possibly be added to the hard outline of the lozenge? The substitution of curvilinear for {579} straight lines in the outline, and even the foliation of the outline, goes but a little way as an equivalent to the extensive artistic opportunities which the mantling affords to a designer when depicting the arms of a man. To a certain extent, two attempts have been made towards providing a remedy. Neither can properly claim _official_ recognition, though both have been employed in a quasi-official manner. The one consists of the knot of ribbon; the other consists of the use of the cordelière. In their present usage the former is meaningless and practically senseless, whilst the use of the latter is radically wrong, and in my opinion, little short of imposture. The knot of ribbon, when employed, is usually in the form of a thin streamer of blue ribbon tied in the conventional true lover's knot (Fig. 749). But the imbecility and inconsistency of its use lies in the fact that except upon a hatchment it has been denied by custom to married women and widows, who have gained their lovers; whilst its use is sanctioned for the unmarried lady, who, unless she be affianced, neither has nor ought to have anything whatever to do with lovers or with their knot. The women who are fancy-free display the tied-up knot; women whom love has fast tied up, unless the foregoing opinion as to the correct way to display the arms of a married lady which I have expressed be correct, must leave the knot alone. But as matters stand heraldically at the moment the ribbon may be used advantageously with the lozenge of an unmarried lady. With reference to the cordelière some writers assert that its use is optional, others that its use is confined to widow ladies. Now as a matter of fact it is nothing whatever of the kind. It is really the insignia of the old French Order of the Cordelière, which was founded by Anne of Bretagne, widow of Charles VIII., in 1498, its membership being confined to widow ladies of noble family. The cordelière was the waist girdle which formed a part of the insignia of the Order, and it took its place around the lozenges of the arms of the members in a manner similar to the armorial use of the Garter for Knights of that Order. Though the Order of the Cordelière is long since extinct, it is neither right nor proper that any part of its insignia should be adopted unaltered by those who can show no connection with it or membership of it. {580} CHAPTER XXXVI OFFICIAL HERALDIC INSIGNIA The armory of all other nations than our own is rich in heraldic emblems of office. In France this was particularly the case, and France undoubtedly for many centuries gave the example, to be followed by other civilised countries, in all matters of honour and etiquette. If English heraldry were entirely destitute of official heraldic ensigns, perhaps the development elsewhere of this branch of armory might be dismissed as an entirely foreign growth. But this is far from being the case, as there are some number of cases in which these official emblems do exist. In England, however, the instances are governed by no scale of comparative importance, and the appearance of such tokens can only be described as capricious. That a more extended usage might with advantage be made no one can deny, for usage of this character would teach the general public that armory had a meaning and a value, it would increase the interest in heraldry, and also assist greatly in the rapidly increasing revival of heraldic knowledge. The existence of these heraldic emblems would manifestly tend towards a revival of the old and interestingly excellent custom of regularly setting up in appropriate public places the arms of those who have successively held various offices. The Inns of Court, St. George's Chapel, the Public Office at the College of Arms, and the halls of some of the Livery Companies are amongst the few places of importance where the custom still obtains. And yet what an interesting memorial such a series always becomes! The following list may not be entirely complete, but it is fairly so as far as France is concerned, and I think also complete as to England. The following are from the Royal French Court:-- _The High Constable of France_: Two swords held on each side of the shield by two hands in armour issuing from the clouds. _The Chancellor_: In saltire behind his arms two great maces, and over his helmet a mortier or cap sable crossed by two bands of gold lace and turned up ermine; thereon the figure of a demi-queen as an emblem of France, holding a sceptre in her right hand and the great seal of the kingdom in her left. {581} _The Marshal_: Two batons in saltire behind the arms azure, semé-de-lis or. _The Admiral_: Two anchors in saltire behind the arms, the stocks of the anchors in chief azure, semé-de-lis or. _The General of the Galleys_: Two anchors in saltire behind the arms. _Vice-Admiral_: One anchor in pale behind the arms. _Colonel-General of the Infantry_: Under his arms in saltire six flags, three on each side, white, crimson, and blue. _Colonel of the Cavalry_: Over the arms four banners of the arms of France, fringed, &c., two to the dexter and two to the sinister. _Grand Master of the Artillery_: Two field-pieces of ordnance under the arms, one pointing to the dexter and one to the sinister. _The Superintendent of the Finance_: Two keys imperially crowned and endorsed in pale, one on each side of the arms, the dexter or, the sinister argent. _Grand Master of the Household to the King_: Two grand batons of silver gilt in saltire behind the arms. _Grand Almoner_: Under his arms a blue book, on the cover the arms of France and Navarre within the Orders of St. Michael and the Holy Ghost, over the Orders the Crown. _Grand Chamberlain_: Two keys, both imperially crowned or, in saltire behind the arms endorsed, the wards-in-chief. _Grand Esquire_: On each side of the shield a royal sword erect, the scabbard azure, semé-de-lis, hilt and pommel or, the belts folded round the scabbard azure, semé-de-lis or. _Grand Pannetier_, who by virtue of his office had all the bakers of Paris under his jurisdiction, and had to lay the king's cover at his table, bore under his arms a rich cover and a knife and fork in saltire. _Grand Butler or Cupbearer_: On each side of the base of the shield, a grand silver flagon gilt, with the arms of the King thereon. _Gamekeeper to the King_: Two bugle-horns appending from the ends of the mantling. _Grand Falconer_: Two lures appending from the ends of the mantling. _Grand Wolf-hunter_: On each side of the shield a wolf's head caboshed. _Captain of the King's Guards_: Two small batons sable, headed gold, like a walking-cane. _Captain of the Hundred Swiss Guards_: Two batons in saltire sable, headed argent, and under the arms two black velvet caps with feathers. _First Master of the Household_: Under his arms two batons in saltire. _Grand Carver to His Majesty_: Under his arms a knife and fork in saltire proper, the handles azure, semé-de-lis or. {582} _Grand Provost of the Household_: Under his arms two Roman fasces or, corded azure. _Grand Quartermaster_: A mace and battle-axe in saltire. _Captain of the Guards of the Gate_: Two keys in pale, crowned argent, one on each side the arms. _The President of the Parliament_: On his helmet a black cap with two bands of gold lace. Under the Empire (of France) the Vice-Connétable used arms holding swords, as had been the case with the Constable of the Kingdom, but the swords were sheathed and semé of golden bees. The Grand Chamberlain had two golden keys in saltire, the bows thereof enclosing the imperial eagle, and the batons of the Maréchaux de French were semé of bees instead of fleurs-de-lis. The Pope bears a cross with three arms, an archbishop one with two arms, a bishop one with a single arm. Besides this, two crossed keys appertain to the Pope, the golden key to bind, in bend dexter, the silver key to loose, in sinister bend. British archbishops and bishops will be presently referred to. Ecclesiastical princes, who were at the same time sovereign territorial princes, bore behind their shield a pedum or pastorale (crosier), crossed with the sword of penal judicature. A bishop bears the crosier with an outward bend, an abbot with an inward bend, thus symbolising the range of their activity or dominion. The arch and hereditary offices of the old German Empire had also their own attributes; thus the "Erztruchsess," Lord High Steward (Palatinate-Bavaria), bore a golden Imperial globe, which arose from a misinterpretation of the double dish, the original attribute of this dignity. The Lord High Marshal of the Empire (Saxony) expressed his office by a shield divided "per fess argent and sable," bearing two crossed swords gules. The Hereditary Standard-bearer (Würtemberg) bore: "Azure, a banner or, charged with an eagle sable"; the Lord High Chamberlain (Brandenburg): "Azure, a sceptre or," while the Hereditary Chamberlain (Hohenzollern) used: "Gules, two crossed sceptres or." In Italy the Duca de Savelli, as Marshal of the Conclave, hangs on either side of his shield a key, the cords of which are knotted beneath his coronet. In Holland Admirals used the naval Crown, and added two anchors in saltire behind the shield. In Spain the Admirals of Castile and of the Indies placed an anchor in bend behind the shield. The instances I am aware of which have official sanction already in this country are as stated in the list which follows:-- I have purposely (to make the list absolutely complete) included {583} insignia which may possibly be more properly considered ensigns of rank, because it is not particularly easy always to distinguish offices from honours and from rank. _The Kings of England_ (George I. to William IV.), as Arch Treasurers of the Holy Roman Empire, bore: Upon an inescutcheon gules, in the centre of the arms of Hanover, a representation of the Crown of Charlemagne. _An Archbishop_ has: (1) His official coat of arms, which he impales (placing it on the dexter side) with his personal arms; (2) his mitre, which, it should be noted, is the same as the mitre of a Bishop, and _not_ having a coronet encircling its band; (3) his archiepiscopal staff (of gold, and with two transverse arms), which is placed in pale behind his escutcheon; (4) two crosiers in saltire behind the escutcheon. It is curious to note that the pallium which occurs in all archiepiscopal coats of arms (save that of York) is now very generally conceded to have been more in the nature of an emblem of the _rank_ of Archbishop (it being a part of his ecclesiastical costume) than a charge in a concrete impersonal coat of arms for a defined area of archiepiscopal jurisdiction. In this connection it is interesting to observe that the Archbishops of York anciently used the pallium in lieu of the official arms now regularly employed. _A Bishop_ has: (1) His official coat of arms, (2) his mitre, (3) two crosiers in saltire behind his escutcheon. _The Bishop of Durham_ has: (1) His official coat of arms, (2) his coronetted mitre, _which is peculiar to himself_, and (which is another privilege also peculiar to himself alone) he places a _sword_ and a crosier in saltire behind his arms. Reference should also be made to the chapter upon Ecclesiastical Heraldry. _A Peer_ has: (1) His coronet, (2) his helmet of rank; (3) his supporters, (4) his robe of estate. _A Scottish Peer_ has, in addition, the ermine lining to his mantling. _A Baronet of England_, of Ireland, of Great Britain, or of the United Kingdom has: (1) His helmet of rank, (2) his badge of Ulster upon an inescutcheon or canton (argent, a sinister hand erect, couped at the wrist gules). _A Baronet of Nova Scotia_ has: (1) His helmet of rank, (2) his badge (an orange tawny ribbon, whereon shall hang pendent in an escutcheon argent, a saltire azure, thereon an inescutcheon of the arms of Scotland, with an imperial crown over the escutcheon, and encircled with this motto, "Fax Mentis Honestæ Gloria," pendent below the escutcheon). _A Knight of the Garter_ has: (1) His Garter to encircle the shield, (2) his collar and badge, (3) supporters. The Prelate of the Order of {584} the Garter (an office held by the Bishops of Winchester) is entitled to encircle his arms with the Garter. The Chancellor of the Order of the Garter encircles his arms with the Garter. Formerly the Bishops of Salisbury always held this office, but in 1836 when the county of Berks (which of course includes Windsor, and therefore the chapel of the order) was removed from the Diocese of Salisbury to the Diocese of Oxford, the office of Chancellor passed to the Bishops of Oxford. The Dean of Windsor, as Registrar of the Order, displays below his shield the ribbon and badge of his office. _A Knight of the Thistle_ has: (1) The ribbon or circlet of the order, (2) his collar and badge, (3) supporters. The Dean of the Chapels Royal in Scotland, as Dean of the Order, used the badge and ribbon of his office. _A Knight of St. Patrick_ has: (1) The ribbon or circlet of the order, (2) his collar and badge, (3) supporters. The Prelate of the Order of St. Patrick was as such entitled to encircle his escutcheon with the ribbon or circlet of that order, from which his official badge depends. The office, of course, came to an end with the disestablishment of the Irish Church. It was held by the Archbishops of Armagh. The Chancellor of the Order of St. Patrick is as such entitled to encircle his escutcheon with the ribbon or circlet of that order, from which his official badge depends. This office, formerly held by the Archbishops of Dublin, has since the disestablishment been enjoyed by the Chief Secretaries for Ireland. The Deans of St. Patrick's were similarly Registrars of the Order, and as such used the badge and ribbon of their office. _Knights Grand Cross_ or _Knights Grand Commanders_ of the Orders of the Bath, the Star of India, St. Michael and St. George, the Indian Empire, or the Victorian Order, have: (1) The circlets or ribbons of their respective Orders, (2) their collars and badges, (3) their helmets of degree, (4) supporters, if they incline to pay the fees for these to be granted. _Knights Commanders_ of the aforesaid Orders have: (1) The circlets or ribbons of their respective Orders, (2) their badges pendent below the shield, (3) their helmets of degree. _Commanders_ of the Victorian Order have: (1) the circlet of the Order, (2) the badge pendent below the shield. _Companions_ of the aforesaid Orders, and Members of the Victorian Order, as also Members of the Distinguished Service Order, the Imperial Service Order, the Order of Merit, the Order of Victoria and Albert, the Order of the Crown of India, and those entitled to the Victoria Cross, the Albert Medal, the Edward Medal, the Conspicuous Service Cross, the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal, the Royal Red Cross, the {585} Volunteer Officers' Decoration, the Territorial Decoration, and the Decoration of the League of Mercy, are entitled to suspend their respective decorations below their escutcheons. The officers of these orders of knighthood are of course entitled to display their badges of office. The Dean of Westminster is always Dean of the Order of the Bath. _Knights Grand Cross_ and_ Knights Commanders of the Bath, if of the Military Division_, are also entitled to place a wreath of laurel round their escutcheons. _Knights of Justice of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England_ are entitled to place upon their escutcheons a chief of the arms of the Order (gules, a cross throughout argent, embellished in the angles with a lion guardant and a unicorn, both passant or). _Knights of Grace and other Members of the Order_ suspend whatever badge they are entitled to wear below their shield from a black watered-silk ribbon. [Some members of the Order display their arms upon the Cross of the Order, as was done by Knights of the original Order, from which the present Order is copied, but how far the practice is sanctioned by the Royal Charter, or in what manner it is controlled by the rules of the Order, I am not aware.] _The Lord High Constable of England_ is entitled to place behind his escutcheon two batons in saltire similar to the one which is delivered to him for use at the Coronation, which is now the only occasion when the office is enjoyed. As the office is only held temporarily, the existing privilege does not amount to much. _The Lord High Constable of Scotland_ is entitled to place behind his escutcheon, in saltire, two silver batons tipped with gold at either end. The arms of the Earl of Errol (Hereditary Lord High Constable of Scotland) have only once, at an early period, been matriculated in Lyon Register, and then without any official insignia, but there can be no doubt of the right to the crossed batons. _The Lord High Chamberlain of Scotland_ (I am not sure this office still exists): Two golden keys in saltire behind the escutcheon. _The Earl Marshal and Hereditary Marshal of England_ places two batons of gold tipped with sable in saltire behind his arms. [_A Deputy Earl Marshal_ places one similar baton in bend behind his shield.] _The Earl Marischal of Scotland_ (until the office was extinguished by attainder) placed saltirewise behind his shield two batons gules, semé of thistles, each ensigned on the top with an Imperial Crown or. _The Hereditary Marshal of Ireland_ (an office for long past in abeyance) used two batons in saltire behind his arms. According to {586} MS. Harl. 6589, f. 39: "Les armes des office du Mareschall d'Ireland sont de Goulz et cinque fucelles bendes d'Argent." These certainly do not appear to be the personal arms of those who held the office, but there is other record that some such coat was used. _The Hereditary Lord Great Seneschal of Ireland_ (the Earl of Shrewsbury) places a white wand in pale behind his escutcheon. _The Duke of Argyll_ places in saltire behind his arms: (1) In bend dexter, a baton gules, semé of thistles or, ensigned with an Imperial Crown proper, thereon the crest of Scotland (as Hereditary Great Master of the Household in Scotland); (2) in bend sinister, a sword proper, hilt and pommel or (as Hereditary Justice-General of Scotland) (_vide_ Plate III.). _The Master-General of the Ordnance_ (by warrant of King Charles II.), bears on each side of his arms a field-piece. _The Lord Justice-Clerk of Scotland_ places two swords in saltire behind his shield. _The Lord Chief-Justice of England_ encircles his arms with his Collar of SS. _The Walker Trustees_ place behind their shield two batons in saltire, each ensigned with a unicorn salient supporting a shield argent, the unicorn horned or, and gorged with an antique crown, to which is affixed a chain passing between the fore-legs and reflexed over the back of the last, for the office of Heritable Usher of the White Rod of Scotland, now vested in the said Trustees. Before the recent Court of Claims the claim was made to exercise the office by deputy, and such claim was allowed. _The Master of the Revels in Scotland_ has an official coat of arms: Argent, a lady rising out of a cloud in the nombril point, richly apparelled, on her head a garland of ivy, holding in her right hand a poignard crowned, in her left a vizard all proper, standing under a veil or canopy azure garnished or, in base a thistle vert. _Serjeants-at-Arms_ encircle their arms with their Collars of SS. _Garter King of Arms_ has: (1) His official coat of arms (argent, a gules, on a chief azure, a ducal coronet encircled with a Garter, between a lion passant guardant on the dexter, and a fleur-de-lis on the sinister, all or); (2) his crown; (3) his Collar of SS (the collar of a King of Arms differs from that of a Herald, inasmuch as it is of _silver-gilt_, and on each shoulder a portcullis is inserted); (4) his badge as Garter pendent below his shield. His sceptre of silver-gilt has been sometimes placed in bend behind his escutcheon, but this has not been regularly done. The practice has, however, been reverted to by the present Garter. _Lyon King of Arms_ has: (1) His official coat of arms (argent, a lion sejant, erect and affronté gules, holding in his dexter paw a thistle {587} slipped vert, and in the sinister a shield of the second, on a chief azure a St. Andrew's cross--_i.e._ a saltire--of the field); (2) his crown; (3) two batons, representing that of his office in saltire behind his shield, these being azure semé of thistles and fleurs-de-lis or, tipped at either end with gold; (4) his Collar of SS; (5) his triple chain of gold, from which depends his badge as Lyon King of Arms. _Ulster King of Arms_ has: (1) His official coat of arms (or, a cross gules, on a chief of the last a lion of England between a harp and a portcullis, all of the first); (2) his crown; (3) his Collar of SS; (4) his two staves in saltire behind the shield; (5) his chain and badge as Ulster King of Arms; (6) his badge as Registrar of the Order of St. Patrick. _Clarenceux King of Arms_ has: (1) His official coat of arms (argent, a cross gules, on a chief of the second a lion passant guardant or, crowned of the last); (2) his crown; (3) his Collar of SS. _Norroy King of Arms_ has: (1) His official coat of arms (argent, a cross gules, on a chief of the second a lion of England passant guardant or, crowned with an open crown, between a fleur-de-lis on the dexter and a key on the sinister of the last); (2) his crown; (3) his Collar of SS. _Bath King of Arms_ has: (1) His crown; his Collar of SS. I am not aware that any official arms have been assigned to Bath up to the present time; but if none exist, there would not be the slightest difficulty in obtaining these. _An English Herald_ encircles his shield with his Collar of SS. _A Scottish Herald_ is entitled to do the same, and has also his badge, which he places below the escutcheon pendent from a ribbon of blue and white. An _Irish Herald_ has his Collar of SS, and his badge suspended from a sky-blue ribbon. An _Irish Pursuivant_ has a similar badge. _The Regius Professors (or "Readers") in the University of Cambridge_, for "Phisicke," "Lawe," "Devinity," "Hebrew," and "Greke," have official arms as follows (see grant by Robert Cooke, Clarenceux, 1590, _Genealogical Magazine_, vol. ii. p. 125):-- _Of Phisicke_: Azure, a fesse ermines (? ermine) between three lozenges or, on a chief gules a lion passant guardant of the third, charged on the side with the letter M sable. Crest: on a wreath or and azure, a quinquangle silver, called "simbolum sanitatis." Mantling gules and argent. _Of Lawe_: Purpure, a cross moline or, on a chief gules, a lion passant guardant of the second, charged on the side with the letter L sable. Crest: on a wreath "purple and gold," a bee volant or. Mantling gules and argent. _Of Devinity_: Gules, on a cross ermine, between four doves argent, {588} a book of the first, the leaves or, charged in the midst with the Greek letter [theta] (Theta) sable. Crest: on a wreath "silver and gules," a dove volant argent, with an olive-branch vert in his beak. Mantling gules, double argent. _Of Hebrew_: Argent, the Hebrew letter [Hebrew: T] (Tawe) sable, on a chief gules, a lion passant guardant or, charged on the side with the letter H sable. Crest: on a wreath "silver and sables," a turtle-dove azure. Mantling gules, double argent. _Of Greke_: Per chevron argent and sable, in chief the two Greek letters [Alpha] (Alpha) and [Omega] (Omega) of the second, and in base a "cicado" or grasshopper of the first, on a chief gules, a lion passant guardant or, charged on the side with the letter G sable. Crest: on a wreath "silver and sables," an owl argent, legs, beak, and ears or. Mantling gules and argent. The following insignia of office I quote subject to the reservation that I am doubtful how far they enjoy official sanction:-- _The Lord Chancellor of England_: Two maces in saltire (or one in pale) behind the shield and the purse containing the Great Seal below it. _The Lord Great Chamberlain of England_: Two golden keys in saltire; and _The Lord Chamberlain of the Household_: A golden key in pale behind the shield. At Exeter the Dean, Precentor, Chancellor, and Treasurer have used official arms impaled with their own insignia. These were:-- _The Dean_: Azure, a stag's head caboshed and between the horns a cross patée fitchée argent. _The Precentor_: Argent, on a saltire azure a fleur-de-lis or. _The Chancellor_: Gules, a saltire argent between four crosslets or. _The Treasurer_: Gules, a saltire between four leopards' heads or. The Dean of the Chapel Royal, Savoy, may perhaps employ the complicated coat of the chapel to impale his personal arms, placing the escutcheon on the breast of an eagle sable, crowned or. Many English Deaneries claim to possess arms which presumably the occupant may use to impale his own coat with, after the example of the Dean of Exeter. Such are London, Winchester, Lincoln, Salisbury, Lichfield, Durham, which all difference the arms of the see with a letter D of gold or sable. St. David's reverses the tinctures of the arms of the see. Norwich and Carlisle carry: Argent, a cross sable. Canterbury: Azure, on a cross argent the monogram sable. York differences the arms of the see by changing the crown into a mitre, and adding three plates in flanks and base. {589} CHAPTER XXXVII AUGMENTATIONS OF HONOUR Of all heraldic distinctions the possession of an augmentation of honour is the one most prized. The Sovereign is of course the fountain of honour, and though ordinary grants of arms are made by Letters Patent under the hands and seals of the Kings of Arms, by virtue of the powers expressly and specifically conferred upon them in the Letters Patent respectively appointing them to their offices, a grant of arms is theoretically a grant from the Crown. The privilege of the possession of arms in the ordinary event is left in the discretion of the Earl Marshal, whose warrant is a condition precedent to the issue of a Grant. Providing a person is palpably living in that style and condition of life in which the use of arms is usual, subject always to the Earl Marshal's pleasure and discretion, a Grant of Arms can ordinarily be obtained upon payment of the usual fees. The social status of present-day grantees of arms is considerably in advance of the status of grantees in the Tudor period. An augmentation of arms, however, is on a totally and entirely different footing. It is an especial mark of favour from the Sovereign, and the effective grant is a Royal Warrant under the hand and Privy Seal of the Sovereign. The warrant recites and requires that the augmentation granted shall be exemplified and recorded in the College of Arms. Augmentations have been less frequently conferred in recent years than was formerly the case. Technically speaking, a gift of arms by the Sovereign direct where none previously existed is not an augmentation, though one is naturally inclined to include such grants in the category. Such an example is met with in the shield granted to Colonel Carlos by King Charles to commemorate their mutual adventures in the oak tree ("Or, issuing from a mount in base vert, an oak tree proper, over all on a fess gules, three Imperial crowns also proper") (Plate II.). There are many gorgeous legends relating to augmentations and arms which are said to have been granted by William the Conqueror as rewards after the Battle of Hastings. Personally I do not believe in a single one. There was a certain augmentation borne by the Dodge family, which, if it be correct, dates from the thirty-fourth year of Edward I., but whether this be authentic it is impossible to say. Most {590} people consider the alleged _deed of grant_ a forgery, and if this be so, the arms only exist by right of subsequent record and the question of augmentation rests upon tradition. The curious charge of the woman's breast distilling drops of milk to typify the nourishment afforded to the king's army is at any rate most interesting (Plate VI.). The earliest undoubted one in this country that I am aware of dates from the reign of Edward III. Sir John de Pelham shared in the glory of the Battle of Poictiers, and in the capture of the French King John. To commemorate this he was granted two round buckles with thongs. The Pelham family arms were "Azure, three pelicans argent," and, as will be seen, these family arms were quartered with the buckles and thongs on a field gules as an augmentation. The quarterly coat forms a part of the arms both of Lord Chichester and of Lord Yarborough at the present day, and "the Pelham buckle" has been the badge of the Pelham family for centuries. Piers Legh fought with the Black Prince and took the Count de Tanquervil prisoner at the Battle of Crecy, "and did valiantly rere and advance the said princes Banner att the bataile of Cressy to the noe little encouragement of the English army," but it was not until the reign of Queen Elizabeth that the augmentation to commemorate this was granted. The Battle of Flodden was won by the Earl of Surrey, afterwards the Duke of Norfolk, and amongst the many rewards which the King showered upon his successful Marshal was the augmentation to his arms of "a demi-lion pierced in the mouth with an arrow, depicted on the colours for the arms of the Kingdom of Scotland, which the said James, late King of Scots, bore." According to the Act of Parliament under which it was granted this augmentation would seem now to belong exclusively to Lord Mowbray and Stourton and Hon. Mary Petre, but it is borne apparently with official sanction, or more likely perhaps by official inadvertence, by the Duke of Norfolk and the rest of the Howard family. The Battle of Agincourt is referred to by Shakespeare, who puts these words into King Henry's mouth on the eve of that great battle (Act iv. sc. 3):-- "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition." There is actual foundation in fact for these lines. For in a writ couched in very stringent and severe terms issued by the same king in after years decreeing penalties for the improper assumption and use of false arms, specific exception is made in favour of those "who bore {591} arms with us at the Battle of Agincourt." Evidently this formed a very extensive kind of augmentation. The reign of Queen Elizabeth furnishes an interesting example of the gift of a complete coat in the case of Sir Francis Drake, who had been using the arms of another family of the same name. The representative of that family complained to the Queen that Sir Francis, whom he styled an upstart, should take such liberties with his arms; whereupon the Queen said she would give Sir Francis arms which should outrival those of his namesake. At least, such is the legend, and though the arms themselves were granted by Clarenceux King of Arms, and I have not yet found any Royal Warrant indicating that the grant was made by specific Royal command, it is possible the story is correct. The arms are: "Sable, a fess wavy between two stars argent. Crest: a ship under reef, drawn round a terrestrial globe with a cable by a hand issuing from clouds all proper" (Plate VI.). The stars upon the shield are the two pole stars, and the wavy band between them typifies Drake's voyage round the world, as does also the peculiar crest in which the Divine hand is shown guiding his ship around the globe. At the Battle of Naseby Dr. Edward Lake fought bravely for the King, and in the service of his Majesty received no less than sixteen wounds. At the end of the battle, when his left arm was useless, he put the bridle of his horse between his teeth and still fought on. The quartering of augmentation given to him was: "Gules, a dexter arm embowed in armour holding in the hand a sword erect all proper, thereto affixed a banner argent charged with a cross between sixteen escutcheons of the field, on the cross a lion of England." The sixteen shields upon the banner typify his sixteen wounds. After the Commonwealth was established in England, Charles II. made a desperate effort to regain his crown, an effort which culminated in his disastrous defeat at the Battle of Worcester. The King escaped through the gate of the city solely through the heroic efforts of Colonel Newman, and this is kept in remembrance by the inescutcheon of augmentation, viz.: "Gules, a portcullis imperially crowned or." Every one has heard how the King was accompanied in his wanderings by Colonel Carlos, who hid with him in the oak tree at Boscobel. Afterwards the king accompanied Mistress Jane Lane on horseback as her servant to the coast, whence he fled to the Continent. The reward of Colonel Carlos was the gift of the entire coat of arms already referred to. The Lanes, though not until after some years had passed and the King had come back to his own again, were granted two remarkable additions to their family arms. First of all "the canton of England" (that is, the arms of England upon a canton) was added {592} to their shield. They are the _only_ family to whom such an honour has been given, and a most curious result has happened. When the use of armorial bearings was taxed by Act of Parliament the Royal Arms were specially exempted, and on account of this canton the Lane family claimed and obtained exemption from the tax. A few years later a crest was granted to them, namely, a strawberry-roan horse, "couped at the flanks," holding in its feet the Royal crown (Plate II.). It was upon a horse of this colour that the King and Mistress Lane had escaped and thereby saved the crown. Mr. Francis Wolfe, of Madeley, who also was a party to the escape, received the grant of an inescutcheon gules charged with a lion of England. Another family which bears an augmentation to commemorate King Charles' escape is Whitgreave. The reign of Queen Anne produced in the Duke of Marlborough one of the finest generals the world has ever seen; and in the Battle of Blenheim one of its greatest victories. The augmentation which commemorates this is a shield bearing the cross of St. George and in the centre a smaller shield with the golden lilies of France. In the year 1797 the Battle of Camperdown was fought, when Admiral Duncan defeated the Dutch Fleet and was created Lord Camperdown. To his family arms were added a naval crown and a representation of the gold medal given by George III. to Lord Camperdown to commemorate his victory. The arms of Nelson are most interesting, inasmuch as one version of the arms carries two separate and distinct augmentations. It is not, however, the coat as it was granted to and borne by the great Admiral himself. After the Battle of the Nile he received the augmentation on the chief, a landscape showing the palm-tree, the disabled ship, and the battery in ruins. The one crest was the plume of triumph given to the Admiral by the Sultan Selim III., and his second crest, which, however, is not a crest of augmentation, was the stern of the Spanish ship _San Josef._ After his death at the Battle of Trafalgar his brother was created Earl Nelson, and a second augmentation, namely, a fess wavy sable with the word "Trafalgar" upon it in gold letters, was added to the arms. This, however, has since been discontinued, except by Lord Bridport, who quarters it, whilst the Nelson family has reverted to the arms as they were borne by the great Admiral. After the death of Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, Lord Collingwood took command, and though naval experts think that the action of Collingwood greatly minimised the number of prizes which would have resulted from the victory, Lord Collingwood received for an augmentation a chief wavy gules, thereon the lion of England, navally {593} crowned, with the word "Trafalgar" above the lion. He also received an additional crest, namely, the stern of his ship, the _Royal Sovereign_, between a wreath of oak on the one side and a wreath of laurel on the other. The heroic story of the famous fight between the _Shannon_ and the _Chesapeake_ has been often told. Captain Broke sent in a challenge to the _Chesapeake_ to come out and fight him, and, though a banquet was prepared by the Mayor of Boston for that evening "to meet the English officers," Captain Broke defeated the _Chesapeake_ in an engagement which only lasted a very short time. He was granted an additional crest, namely, an arm holding a trident and issuing from a naval crown, together with the motto, "Sævumque tridentem servamus." General Ross fought and won the Battle of Bladensburg, and took the city of Washington, dying a few days afterwards. The story is that the family were offered their choice of a baronetcy or an augmentation, and they chose the latter. The augmentation (Plate II.), which was specially granted with permission for it to be placed upon the monument to the memory of General Ross, consists of the arm holding the flag of the United States with a broken flag-staff which will be seen both on the shield itself, and as an additional crest. The shield also shows the gold cross for previous services at Corunna and in the Peninsula. The family were also given the surname of "Ross-of-Bladensburg." The capture of Curaçoa by Admiral Sir Charles Brisbane, K.C.B., is commemorated by the representation of his ship passing between the two Dutch forts; and by the additional crest of an arm in a naval officer's uniform grasping a cutlass. Admiral Sir Robert Otway, for his distinguished services, was granted: "On a chief azure an anchor between two branches of oak or, and on the dexter side a demi-Neptune and on the sinister a mermaid proper," to add to his shield. Admiral Sir George Pocock, who captured Havannah, was given for an augmentation: "On a chief wavy azure a sea-horse" (to typify his naval career), between two Eastern crowns (to typify his services in the East Indies), with the word "Havanna," the scene of his greatest victory. Sir Edward Pellew, who was created Viscount Exmouth for bombarding and destroying the fort and arsenal of Algiers, was given upon a chief a representation of that fort, with an English man-of-war in front of it, to add to his arms. It is interesting to note that one of his supporters, though not a part of his augmentation, represents a Christian slave, in memory of those in captivity at Algiers when he captured the city. There were several augmentations won at the Battle of Waterloo, {594} and the Waterloo medal figures upon many coats of arms of Waterloo officers. Colonel Alexander Clark-Kennedy, with his own hand, captured the French Eagle of the 105th French Regiment. For this he bears a representation of it and a sword crossed upon a chief over his arms, and his crest of augmentation is a demi-dragoon holding the same flag. Of the multitude of honours which were showered upon the Duke of Wellington, not the least was his augmentation. This was a smaller shield to be superimposed upon his own, and charged with those crosses of St. George, St. Andrew, and St. Patrick, which we term "the Union Jack." Sir Edward Kerrison, who distinguished himself so greatly in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, was granted a sword with a wreath of laurel and representations of his medals for Orthes and Waterloo, and, for an additional crest, an arm in armour holding a banner inscribed "Peninsula." Sir Thomas Munro, who will be long remembered as the Governor of Madras, was rewarded for his capture of Badamy by a representation of that hill-fort in India. The augmentation of Lord Keane is very similar, being a representation of the Fortress of Ghuznee in Afghanistan, which he captured. Other instances of a similar character are to be found in the arms of Cockburn-Campbell and Hamilton-Grace. The arms of Lord Gough are most remarkable, inasmuch as they show no less than two distinct and different augmentations both earned by the same man. In 1816, for his services in the Peninsula, he received a representation of the Spanish Order of Charles III., and on a chief the representation of the Fortress of Tarifa, with the crest of the arm holding the colours of his own regiment, the 87th, and a French eagle reversed and depressed. After his victories in the East, particularly at Goojerat, and for the subjugation and annexation of the Punjab, he was granted, in 1843, an additional quartering to add to his shield. This has the Lion of England holding up the Union Jack below the words "China" and "India." The third crest, which was then granted to him, shows a similar lion holding the Union Jack and a Chinese flag. Sir George Pollock, "of the Khyber Pass," Bart., earned everlasting fame for himself in the first Afghan War, by forcing the Khyber Pass and by the capture of Cabul. For this he was given an Eastern crown and the word "Khyber" on a chief as well as three cannon upon a canton, and at the same time he was granted an additional crest--a lion holding an Afghan banner with the staff thereof broken. With him it seemed as if the practice of granting augmentations for military services had ceased. Lord Roberts has none, neither has Lord Wolseley. But recently the old practice was reverted to in favour of Lord Kitchener. His family arms were: "Azure, a chevron cottised {595} between three bustards," and in the centre chief point a bezant; with a stag's head for a crest; but for "smashing the Khalifa" he has been given the Union Jack and the Egyptian flag with the staves encircled by a coronet bearing the word "Khartoum," all on a pile superimposed over his family arms. He also received a second crest of an elephant's head holding a sword in its trunk issuing from a mural crown. At the conclusion of the South African War a second augmentation was granted to him, this taking the form of a chief. Two other very interesting instances of augmentation of arms are worthy of mention. Sir Ralph Abercromby, after a distinguished career, fought and won the Battle of Aboukir Bay, only to die a few days later on board H.M.S. _Foudroyant_ of his wounds received in the battle. But long before he had fought and conquered the French at Valenciennes, and in 1795 had been made a Knight of the Bath. The arms which are upon his Stall plate in Westminster Abbey include his augmentation, which is an arm in armour encircled by a wreath of laurel supporting the French Standard. Sir William Hoste gained the celebrated victory over the French fleet off the Island of Lissa in 1811, and the augmentation which was granted was a representation of his gold medal hanging from a naval crown, and an additional crest, an arm holding a flag inscribed with the word "Cattaro," the scene of another of his victories. Peace has its victories no less than war, but there is generally very much less fuss made about them. Consequently, the augmentations to commemorate entirely pacific actions are considerably fewer in number. The Speke augmentation has been elsewhere referred to, and reference may be made to the Ross augmentation to commemorate the Arctic exploits of Sir John Ross. It is a very common idea that arms were formerly to be obtained by conquest in battle. Like many other heraldic ideas, there is a certain amount of truth in the idea, from which very erroneous generalisations have been made. The old legend as to the acquisition of the plume of ostrich feathers by the Black Prince no doubt largely accounts for the idea. That legend, as has been already shown, lacks foundation. Territorial or sovereign arms doubtless would be subject to conquest, but I do not believe that because in battle or in a tournament _à outrance_ one person defeated another, he therefore became entitled to assume, of his own motion, the arms of the man he had vanquished. The proposition is too absurd. But there is no doubt that in some number of historic cases his Sovereign has subsequently conferred upon the victor an augmentation which has closely approximated to the arms of his victim. Such cases occur in the arms of the Clerkes, Barts., {596} of Hitcham, Bucks, who bear: "On a sinister canton azure, a demi-ram salient of the first, and in chief two fleurs-de-lis or, debruised by a baton," to commemorate the action of Sir John Clerke of Weston, who captured Louis D'Orleans, Duke of Longueville, at Borny, near Terouenne, 5 Henry VII. The augmentation conferred upon the Duke of Norfolk at the battle of Flodden has been already referred to, but the family of Lloyd of Stockton, co. Salop, carry a remarkable augmentation, inasmuch as they are permitted to bear the arms of Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, to commemorate his recapture by their ancestor after Lord Cobham's escape from the Tower. [Illustration: FIG. 773.--Arms of Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland and Earl of Oxford: Quarterly, 1 and 4 (of augmentation), azure, three crowns or, within a bordure argent; 2 and 3, quarterly gules and or, in the first quarter a mullet argent.] Augmentations which have no other basis than mere favour of kings, or consanguinity to the Royal Family, are not uncommon. Richard II., who himself adopted the arms of St. Edward the Confessor, bestowed the right to bear them also upon Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk (Fig. 675). No difference was added to them in his case, which is the more remarkable as they were borne by the Duke impaled with the arms of England. In 1397 the King conferred the same arms upon John de Holland, Duke of Exeter, differenced by a label argent, and upon Thomas de Holland, Duke of Surrey, within a bordure ermine. Richard II. seems to have been inclined to the granting of augmentations, for in 1386, when he created the Earl of Oxford (Robert de Vere) Duke of Ireland, he granted him as an augmentation the arms of Ireland ("Azure, three crowns or") within a bordure argent (Fig. 773). The Manners family, who were of Royal descent, but who, not being descended from an heiress, had no right to quarter the Royal Arms, received the grant of a chief "quarterly azure and gules, in the first and fourth quarters two fleurs-de-lis, and in the second and third a lion passant guardant or." This precedent might well be followed at the present day in the case of the daughters of the Duke and Duchess of Fife. It was adopted in the case of Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain. The Waller family, of Groombridge, co. Kent, one of whom, Richard Waller, captured Charles, Duke of Orleans, at the battle of Agincourt, received as an augmentation the right to suspend from the crest ("On a mount a walnut-tree proper") an escutcheon of the arms of that Prince, viz.: "Azure, three fleurs-de-lis or, a label of three points argent." Lord Polwarth bears one of the few augmentations granted by William III., viz.: "An inescutcheon azure charged with an orange ensigned with an Imperial crown {597} all proper," whilst the titular King James III. and VIII. granted to John Græme, Earl of Alford, a coat of augmentation, viz.: "The Royal Arms of Scotland on the field and cross of St. Andrew counterchanged," the date of the grant being 20th January 1734. Sir John Keith, Earl of Kintore, Knight Marischal of Scotland, saved the regalia of Scotland from falling into the hands of Cromwell, and in return the Keith arms (now quartered by Lord Kintore) were augmented with "an inescutcheon gules, a sword in bend sinister surmounted by a sceptre in bend dexter, in chief an Imperial crown, the whole within an orle of eight thistles." The well-known augmentation of the Seymour family: "Or, on a pile gules, between six fleurs-de-lis azure," is borne to commemorate the marriage of Jane Seymour to Henry VIII., who granted augmentations to all his wives except Catharine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves. The Seymour family is, however, the only one in which the use of the augmentation has been continued. The same practice was followed by granting the arms of England to the Consort of the Princess Caroline and to the late Prince Consort. See page 499. [Illustration: FIG. 774.--Device from the chief of the "Prussian Sword Nobility."] The frequent grant of the Royal tressure in Scotland, probably usually as an augmentation, has been already referred to. King Charles I. granted to the Earl of Kinnoull as a quartering of augmentation: "Azure, a unicorn salient argent, armed, maned, and unguled or, within a bordure of the last charged with thistles of Scotland and roses gules of England dimidiated." The well-known augmentation of the Medicis family, viz.: "A roundle azure, charged with three fleurs-de-lis or," was granted by Louis XII. to Pietro de Medicis. The Prussian Officers, ennobled on the 18th of January 1896, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the foundation of the new German Empire, bear as a device a chief purpure, and thereupon the Prussian sceptre and a sword in saltire interlaced by two oak-branches vert (Fig. 774). The late Right Hon. Sir Thomas Thornton, G.C.B., received a Royal Licence to accept the Portuguese title of Conde de Cassilhas and an augmentation. This was an inescutcheon (ensigned by his coronet as a Conde) "or, thereon an arm embowed vested azure, the cuff gold, the hand supporting a flagstaff therefrom flowing the Royal Standard of Portugal." The same device issuing from his coronet was also granted to him as a crest of augmentation. Sir Woodbine Parish, K.C.H., by legislative act of the Argentine Republic received in 1839 a grant of {598} the arms of that country, which was subsequently incorporated in the arms granted to him and registered in the Heralds' College in this country. He had been Consul-General and Chargé d'Affaires at Buenos Ayres, 1823-1832; he was appointed in 1824 Plenipotentiary, and concluded the first treaty by which the Argentine Republic was formally recognised. Reference has been already made (page 420) to the frequent grant of supporters as augmentations, and perhaps mention should also be made of the inescutcheons for the Dukedom of Aubigny, borne by the Duke of Richmond and Gordon, and for the Duchy of Chatelherault, borne by the Duke of Abercorn. Possibly these should more properly be ranked as territorial arms and not as augmentations. A similar coat is the inescutcheon borne by the Earl of Mar and Kellie for his Earldom of Kellie. This, however, is stated by Woodward to be an augmentation granted by James VI. to Sir Thomas Erskine, one of several granted by that King to commemorate the frustration of the Gowrie Plot in 1600. The Marquess of Westminster, for some utterly inexplicable reason, was granted as an augmentation the right to bear the arms of the city of Westminster in the first quarter of his arms. Those who have rendered very great personal service to the Crown have been sometimes so favoured. The Halford and Gull (see page 250) augmentations commemorate medical services to the Royal Family, and augmentations have been conferred upon Sir Frederick Treves and Sir Francis Laking in connection with His Majesty's illness at the time of the Coronation. The badges of Ulster and Nova Scotia borne as such upon their shields by Baronets are, of course, augmentations. Two cases are known of augmentations to the arms of towns. The arms of Derry were augmented by the arms of the city of London in chief, when, after its fearful siege, the name of Derry was changed to Londonderry to commemorate the help given by the city of London. The arms of the city of Hereford had an azure bordure semé of saltires couped argent added to its arms after it had successfully withstood its Scottish siege, and this, by the way, is a striking example of colour upon colour, the field of the coat being gules. There are many grants in the later part of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries recorded in Lyon Register which at first sight appear to be augmentations. Perhaps they are rightly so termed, but as the additions usually appear to be granted by the Lyon without specific Royal Warrants, they are hardly equivalent to the English ones issued during the same period. Many ordinary grants made in England which have borne direct reference to particular achievements of the grantee have been (by the grantees and their {599} descendants) wrongly termed augmentations. A rough and ready (though not a certain) test is to imagine the coat if the augmentation be removed, and see whether it remains a properly balanced design. Few of such coats will survive the test. The additions made to a coat to make it a different design, when a new grant is founded upon arms improperly used theretofore, are not augmentations, although spoken departures from the truth on this detail are by no means rare. {600} CHAPTER XXXVIII ECCLESIASTICAL HERALDRY Ecclesiastical heraldry has nothing like the importance in British armory that it possesses elsewhere. It may be said to consist in this country exclusively of the official arms assigned to and recorded for the archiepiscopal and episcopal sees, and the mitres and crosiers which are added to the shields, and a certain number of ecclesiastical symbols which occur as charges. In Pre-Reformation days there were, of course, the many religious houses which used armorial emblems, but with the suppression of the monasteries these vanished. The cardinal's hat was recognised in former days, and would still be officially certified in England as admittedly correctly displayed above the arms of a Roman cardinal. But the curious and intricate development of other varieties of the ecclesiastical hat which will be found in use in all other European countries is not known to British armory. Nor has the English College of Arms recognised the impersonal arms of the Catholic communities. Those arms, with and without the ecclesiastical hats, play a conspicuous part in Continental heraldry. It is difficult to assign a proper value or a definite status to the arms of the abbeys and other religious houses in this country in Pre-Reformation times. The principal, in fact the only important sources of information concerning them are the impressions of seals which have come down to us. Many of these seals show the effigies of saints or patrons, some show the impersonal arms of the religious order to whose rule the community conformed, some the personal arms of the official of the moment, others the personal arms of the founder. In other cases arms presumably those of the particular foundation or community occur, but in such cases the variations in design are so marked, and so often we find that two, three, or more devices are used indifferently and indiscriminately, that one is forced to arrive at the conclusion that a large proportion of the devices in use, though armorial in character, had no greater status than a temporary existence as seal designs. They distinctly lack the unchanging continuity one associates with armorial bearings. But whatever their status may {601} once have been, they have now completely passed out of being and may well be allowed to rest in the uncertainty which exists concerning them. The interest attaching to them can never be more than academic in character and limited in extent. The larger abbeys, the abbots of which were anciently summoned to Parliament as Lords of Parliament, appear to have adhered rather more consistently to a fixed device in each case, though the variations of design are very noticeable even in these instances. A list of them will be found in the _Genealogical Magazine_ (vol. ii. p. 3). The suppression of the monasteries in this country was so thorough and so ruthless, that the contemporary instances of abbatical arms remaining to us from which deduction as to armorial rules and precedents can be made are singularly few in number, but it would appear that the abbot impaled the arms of his abbey on the dexter side of his personal arms, and placed his mitre above the shield. The mitre of an abbot differed from that of a bishop, inasmuch as it had no labels--or _infulæ_--depending from within it. The Abbot used a crosier, which doubtless was correctly added to his armorial bearings, but it is found in pale behind the shield, in bend, and also two in saltire, and it is difficult to assert which was the most correct form. The crosier of an abbot was also represented with the crook at its head curved inwards, the terminal point of the crook being entirely contained within the hook. The point of a bishop's, on the other hand, was turned outwards at the bottom of the crook. The difference is said to typify the distinction between the confined jurisdiction of the abbot--which was limited to the abbey and the community under his charge--and the more open and wider jurisdiction of the bishop. Although this distinction has been much disputed as regards its recognition for the actual crosiers employed, there can be no doubt that it is very generally adhered to in heraldic representations, though one hesitates to assert it as an absolute rule. The official arms for the archiepiscopal and episcopal sees are of some interest. With the single exception of York, the archiepiscopal coats of arms all have, in some form or another, the pallium which forms part of an archbishop's vestments or insignia of rank, but it is now very generally recognised and conceded that the pallium is not merely a charge in the official coat for any specified jurisdiction, but is itself the sign of the rank of an archbishop of the same character and status as is the mitre, the pallium being displayed upon a shield as a matter of convenience for artistic representation. This view of the case has been much strengthened by the discovery that in ancient instances of the archiepiscopal arms of York the pallium is found, and not the more modern coat of the crown and keys; but whether the pallium is {602} to be still so considered, or whether under English armorial law it must now be merely ranked as a charge in an ordinary coat of arms, in general practice it is accepted as the latter; but it nevertheless remains a point of very considerable interest (which has not yet been elucidated) why the pallium should have been discarded for York, and another coat of arms substituted. The various coats used by the archbishops of England and Ireland are as follows:-- _Canterbury._--Azure, an episcopal staff in pale or, and ensigned with a cross patée argent surmounted of a pall of the last, charged with four crosses formée fitchée sable, edged and fringed or. _York._--Gules, two keys in saltire argent, in chief a Royal crown or. _Armagh._--Azure, an episcopal staff argent, ensigned with a cross patée or, surmounted by a pallium of the second, edged and fringed or, charged with four crosses formée fitchée sable. _Dublin._--The arms of this archbishopric are the same as those of Armagh, only with five crosses charged on the pallium instead of four. The arms of the episcopal sees have no attribute at all similar to the charge of the pallium in the coat of an archbishop, and are merely so many different coats of arms. The shield of every bishop and archbishop is surmounted by his mitre, and it is now customary to admit the use of the mitre by all persons holding the title of bishop who are recognised as bishops by the English law. This, of course, includes Colonial and Suffragan bishops, retired bishops, and bishops of the Episcopal Churches in Scotland and in Ireland. It is a moot point whether the bishops of the Episcopal Churches in Ireland and in Scotland are entitled to make use of the official arms formerly assigned to their sees at a period when those Churches were State-established; but, looking at the matter from a strictly official point of view, it would not appear that they are any longer entitled to make use of them. The mitres of an archbishop and of a bishop--in spite of many statements to the contrary--are exactly identical, and the mistaken idea which has of late years (the practice is really quite a modern one) encircled the rim of an archbishop's mitre with the circlet of a coronet is absolutely incorrect. There are several forms of mitre which, when looked upon as an ecclesiastical ornament, can be said to exist; but from the heraldic point of view only one mitre is recognised, and that is of gold, the labels being of the same colour. The jewelled variety is incorrect in armorial representations, though the science of armory does not appear to have enforced any particular _shape_ of mitre. The "several forms" of the mitre--to which allusion has just been {603} made--refer to the use in actual practice which prevailed in Pre-Reformation England, and still holds amongst Roman Catholic bishops at the present day. These are three in number, _i.e._ the "precious" (_pretiosa_), the gold (_auriferata_), and the simple (_simplex_). The two former are both employed at a Pontifical Mass (being alternately assumed at different parts of the service); the second only is worn at such rites as Confirmation, &c.; while the third (which is purely of white linen) is confined to Services for the Dead, and on Good Friday. As its name implies, the first of these is of cloth of gold, ornamented to a greater or less degree with jewels, while the second--though likewise of cloth of gold--is without any design or ornament. The short Gothic mitre of Norman days has now given place to the modern Roman one, an alteration which, with its great height and arched sides, can hardly perhaps be considered an artistic improvement. Some individual Roman Catholic bishops at the present day, however (in England at any rate), wear mitres more allied to the Norman and Gothic shape. The past fifteen or so years have seen a revival--though in a purely eclectic and unofficial manner--of the _wearing_ of the mitre by Church of England bishops. Where this has been (and is being) done, the older form of mitre has been adhered to, though from the informal and unofficial nature of the revival no rules as to its use have been followed, but only individual choice. At the recent Coronation, mitres were _not_ worn; which they undoubtedly would have been had this revival now alluded to been made authoritatively. All bishops and archbishops are entitled to place two crosiers in saltire behind their shields. Archbishops of the Roman Catholic Church have continuously placed in pale behind their shields what is known as the archbishop's cross. In actual practice, the cross carried before an archbishop is an ordinary one with one transverse piece, but the heraldic archiepiscopal cross is always represented as a double cross, _i.e._ having two transverse pieces one above the other. In the Established Church of England the archiepiscopal cross--as in the Roman Catholic Church--is the plain two-armed variety, and though the cross is never officially recognised as an armorial attribute and is not very frequently met with in heraldic representations, there can be no doubt that if this cross is used to typify archiepiscopal rank, it should be heraldically represented with the double arms. The actual cross borne before archbishops is termed the provincial cross, and it may be of interest to here state that the Bishops of Rochester are the official cross-bearers to the Archbishops of Canterbury. To the foregoing rules there is one notable exception, _i.e._ the Bishop {604} of Durham. The Bishopric of Durham, until the earlier part of the nineteenth century, was a Palatinate, and in earlier times the Bishops of Durham, who had their own parliament and Barons of the Palatinate, exercised a jurisdiction and regality, limited in extent certainly, but little short in fact or effect of the power of the Crown. If ever any ecclesiastic can be correctly said to have enjoyed temporal power, the Bishops of Durham can be so described. The Prince-Bishops of the Continent had no such attributes of regality vested in themselves as were enjoyed by the Bishops of Durham. These were in truth kings within their bishoprics, and even to the present day--though modern geographies and modern social legislation have divided the bishopric into other divisions--one still hears the term employed of "within" or "without" the bishopric. The result of this temporal power enjoyed by the Bishops of Durham is seen in their heraldic achievement. In place of the two crosiers in saltire behind the shield, as used by the other bishops, the Bishops of Durham place a sword and a crosier in saltire behind their shield to signify both their temporal and spiritual jurisdiction. The mitre of the Bishop of Durham is heraldically represented with the rim encircled by a ducal coronet, and it has thereby become usual to speak of the coronetted mitre of the Bishop of Durham; but it should be clearly borne in mind that the coronet formed no part of the actual mitre, and probably no mitre has ever existed in which the rim has been encircled by a coronet. But the Bishops of Durham, by virtue of their temporal status, used a coronet, and by virtue of their ecclesiastical status used a mitre, and the representation of both of these at one and the same time has resulted in the coronet being placed to encircle the rim of the mitre. The result has been that, heraldically, they are now always represented as one and the same article. It is, of course, from this coronetted mitre of Durham that the wholly inaccurate idea of the existence of coronet on the mitre of an archbishop has originated. Apparently the humility of these Princes of the Church has not been sufficient to prevent their appropriating the peculiar privileges of their ecclesiastical brother of lesser rank. A crest is never used with a mitre or ecclesiastical hat. Many writers deny the right of any ecclesiastic to a crest. Some deny the right also to use a motto, but this restriction has no general acceptance. Therefore ecclesiastical heraldry in Britain is summed up in (1) its recognition of the cardinal's hat, (2) the official coat of arms for ecclesiastical purposes, (3) the ensigns of ecclesiastical rank above alluded to, viz. mitre, cross, and crosier. {605} Ecclesiastical heraldry--notably in connection with the Roman Church--in other countries has, on the contrary, a very important place in armorial matters. In addition to the emblems officially recognised for English heraldry, the ecclesiastical hat is in constant use. The use of the ecclesiastical hat is very general outside Great Britain, and affords one of the few instances where the rules governing heraldic usages are identical throughout the Continent. This curious unanimity is the more remarkable because it was not until the seventeenth century that the rather intricate rules concerning the colours of the hats used for different ranks and the number of tassels came into vogue. Other than the occasional recognition of the cardinal's hat in former days, the only British official instance of the use of the ecclesiastical hat is met with in the case of the very recent matriculation of arms in Lyon Register to Right Rev. Æneas Chisholm, the present Roman Catholic Bishop of Aberdeen. I frankly admit I am unaware why the ecclesiastical hat assigned to the bishop in the official matriculation of his arms has ten tassels on either side. The Continental usage would assign him but six, and English armory has no rules of its own which can be quoted in opposition thereto. Save as an acceptance of Roman regulations (Roman Holy Orders, it should not be forgotten, are recognised by the English Common Law to the extent that a Roman Catholic priest is not reordained if he becomes an Anglican clergyman), the heraldic ecclesiastical hat of a bishop has no existence with us, and the Roman regulations would give him but six tassels. The mitre is to be met with as a charge and as a crest, for instance, in the case of Barclay and Berkeley ["A mitre gules, labelled and garnished or, charged with a chevron between ten crosses patée, six and four argent. Motto: 'Dieu avec nous'"]; and also in the case of Sir Edmund Hardinge, Bart., whose crests are curious ["1. of honourable augmentation, a hand fesswise couped above the wrist habited in naval uniform, holding a sword erect surmounting a Dutch and a French flag in saltire, on the former inscribed "Atalanta," on the latter "Piedmontaise," the blade of the sword passing through a wreath of laurel near the point and a little below through another of cypress, with the motto, 'Postera laude recens;' 2. a mitre gules charged with a chevron argent, fimbriated or, thereon three escallops sable."] The cross can hardly be termed exclusively ecclesiastical, but a curious figure of this nature is to be met with in the arms recently granted to the Borough of Southwark. It was undoubtedly taken from the device used in Southwark before its incorporation, though as there were many bodies who adopted it in that neighbourhood, it is difficult to assign it to a specific origin. {606} Pastoral staves and passion-nails are elsewhere referred to, and the figures of saints and ecclesiastics are mentioned in the chapter on "The Human Figure." The emblems of the saints, which appear to have received a certain amount of official recognition--both ecclesiastical and heraldic--supply the origin of many other charges not in themselves heraldic. An instance of this kind will be found in the sword of St. Paul, which figures on the shield of London. The cross of St. Cuthbert, which has been adopted in the unauthorised coat for the See of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and the keys of St. Peter, which figure in many ecclesiastical coats, are other examples. The lilies of the Virgin are, of course, constantly to be met with in the form of fleurs-de-lis and natural flowers; the Wheel of St. Catharine is familiar, and the list might be extended indefinitely. {607} CHAPTER XXXIX ARMS OF DOMINION AND SOVEREIGNTY Royal arms in many respects differ from ordinary armorial bearings, and it should be carefully borne in mind that they stand, not for any particular area of land, but for the intangible sovereignty vested in the rulers thereof. They are not necessarily, nor are they in fact, hereditary. They pass by conquest. A dynastic change which introduces new sovereignties introduces new quarterings, as when the Hanoverian dynasty came to the throne of this country the quartering of Hanover was introduced, but purely personal arms in British heraldry are never introduced. The personal arms of Tudor and Stewart were never added to the Royal Arms of this country. The origin of the English Royal Arms was dealt with on page 172. "Gules, three lions passant guardant in pale or," as the arms of England, were used by Kings John, Henry III., Edward I., and Edward II. The quartering for France was introduced by Edward III., as explained on page 274, and the Royal shield: Quarterly 1 and 4, France, ancient (azure, semé-de-lis or); 2 and 3, England (gules, three lions passant guardant in pale or), was in use in the reigns of Edward III., Richard II. (who, however, impaled his arms with those of St. Edward the Confessor), and Henry IV. The last-mentioned king about 1411 reduced the number of fleurs-de-lis to _three_, and the shield remained without further change till the end of the reign of Edward VI. Queen Mary did not alter the arms of this country, but during the time of her marriage with Philip of Spain they were always borne impaled with the arms of Spain. Queen Elizabeth bore the same shield as her predecessors. But when James I. came to the throne the arms were: "Quarterly 1 and 4, quarterly i. and iiii. France, ii. and iii. England; 2. Scotland (or, a lion rampant within a double tressure flory and counterflory gules); 3. Ireland (azure, a harp or, stringed argent)." The shield was so borne by James I., Charles I., Charles II., and James II. When William III. and Mary came to the throne an inescutcheon of the arms of Nassau ("Azure, billetty and a lion rampant or") was {608} superimposed upon the Royal Arms as previously borne, for William III., and he impaled the same coat without the inescutcheon for his wife. At her death the impalement was dropped. After the Union with Scotland in 1707 the arms of England ("Gules, three lions," &c.) were _impaled_ with those of Scotland (the tressure not being continued down the palar line), and the impaled coat of England and Scotland was placed in the first and fourth quarters, France in the second, Ireland in the third. At the accession of George I. the arms of Hanover were introduced in the fourth quarter. These were: "Tierced in pairle reversed, 1. Brunswick, gules, two lions passant guardant in pale or; 2. Luneberg, or, semé of hearts gules, a lion rampant azure; 3. (in point), Westphalia, gules, a horse courant argent, and on an inescutcheon (over the fourth quarter) gules, the crown of Charlemagne (as Arch Treasurer of the Holy Roman Empire)." At the union with Ireland in 1801 the opportunity was taken to revise the Royal Arms, and those of France were then discontinued. The escutcheon decided upon at that date was: "Quarterly, 1 and 4, England; 2. Scotland; 3. Ireland and the arms of Hanover were placed upon an inescutcheon." This inescutcheon was surmounted by the Electoral cap, for which a crown was substituted later when Hanover became a kingdom. At the death of William IV., by the operation of the Salic Law, the crowns of England and Hanover were separated, and the inescutcheon of Hanover disappeared from the Royal Arms of this country, and by Royal Warrant issued at the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria the Royal Arms and badges were declared to be: 1 and 4, England; 2. Scotland; 3. Ireland. The necessary alteration of the cyphers are the only alterations made by his present Majesty. The supporters date from the accession of James I. Before that date there had been much variety. Some of the Royal badges have been already alluded to in the chapter on that subject. The differences used by various junior members of the Royal Family will be found in the Chapter on Marks of Cadency. {609} CHAPTER XL HATCHMENTS A custom formerly prevailed in England, which at one time was of very considerable importance. This was the setting up of a hatchment after a death. No instances of hatchments of a very early date, as far as I am aware, are to be met with, and it is probably a correct conclusion that the custom, originating rather earlier, came into vogue in England during the seventeenth century and reached its height in the eighteenth. It doubtless originated in the carrying of ceremonial shields and helmets (afterwards left in the church) at funerals in the sixteenth century, and in the earlier practice of setting up in the church the actual shield of a deceased person. The cessation of the ceremonial funeral, no doubt, led to the cult of the hatchment. Hatchments cannot be said even yet to have come entirely to an end, but instances of their use are nowadays extremely rare, and since the early part of the nineteenth century the practice has been steadily declining, and at the present time it is seldom indeed that one sees a hatchment _in use_. The word "hatchment" is, of course, a corruption of the term "achievement," this being the heraldic term implying an emblazonment of the full armorial bearings of any person. The manner of use was as follows. Immediately upon the death of a person of any social position a hatchment of his or her arms was set up over the entrance to his house, which remained there for twelve months, during the period of mourning. It was then taken down from the house and removed to the church, where it was set up in perpetuity. There are few churches of any age in this country which do not boast one or more of these hatchments, and some are rich in their possession. Those now remaining--for example, in St. Chad's Church in Shrewsbury--must number, I imagine, over a hundred. There does not appear to have been any obligation upon a clergyman either to permit their erection, or to allow them to remain for any specified period. In some churches they have been discarded and relegated to the vestry, to the coal-house, or to the rubbish-heap, whilst in others they have been carefully preserved. The hatchment was a diamond-shaped frame, painted black, and {610} enclosing a painting in oils upon wood, or more frequently canvas, of the full armorial bearings of the deceased person. The frame was usually about five feet six in height, and the rules for the display of arms upon hatchments afford an interesting set of regulations which may be applied to other heraldic emblazonments. The chief point, however, concerning a hatchment, and also the one in which it differs from an ordinary armorial emblazonment, lay in the colour of the groundwork upon which the armorial bearings were painted. For an unmarried person the whole of the groundwork was black, but for a husband or wife half was black and half white, the groundwork behind the arms of the deceased person being black, and of the surviving partner in matrimony white. The background for a widow or widower was entirely black. {611} CHAPTER XLI THE UNION JACK BY REV. J. R. CRAWFORD Orders in Council and other official documents refer to this flag as the Union Flag, The Union Jack, Our Jack, The King's Colours, and the Union Banner, which last title precise Heraldry usually adopts. In patriotic songs it is toasted as "The Red, White, and Blue," whilst in the Services men affectionately allude to it as "the dear old duster." But Britons at large cling to the title which heads this chapter; to them it is "_The Union Jack_." _Why Union?_ Obviously because it unites three emblems of tutelar saints on one flag, and thereby denotes the union of three peoples under one Sovereign. It is the motto "_Tria juncta in Uno_" rendered in bunting. _Why Jack?_ Two theories are propounded, one fanciful, the other probable. Some say "Jack" is the anglicised form of "Jacques," which is the French signature of James I., in whose reign and by whose command the first Union Flag was called into being. Against this at least three reasons may justly be urged: (1) The term "_Jack_" does not appear--so far as we can discover--in any warrant referring to the Jacobean Flag of 1606. It is rather in later documents that this term occurs. (2) If the earliest Union Flag be a "_Jack_" just because it is the creation of James, then surely it follows that, to be consistent, later Union Flags, the creations of later sovereigns, should have borne those Sovereigns' names; for example _The Union Anne_, _The Union George_! (3) The English way of pronouncing "Jacques" is not, and probably never was _Jack_, but _Jaikes_. The other, and more feasible theory, is as follows: The term "Jaque" (e.g. _jaque de mailles_) was borrowed from the French and referred to any jacket or coat on which, especially, heraldic emblems were blazoned. In days long prior to those of the first Stuart king, mention is made of "WHYTTE COTES WITH RED CROSSES WORN BY SHYPPESMEN AND MEN OF THE CETTE OF LONDON," from which sentence we learn that the emblem of the nation's tutelar saint was (as in yet earlier Crusaders' days) a _fighter's_ emblem. When such emblem or emblems were transferred to a flag, {612} the term _Jaque_ may well, in course of time, have been also applied to that flag, as previously to the jacket. Glance now at the story of those Orders in Council which created the various Union flags. The very union of the two kingdoms of England and Scotland seems to have accentuated the pettier national jealousies, so that Southrons annoyed Northerners by hoisting the St. George above the St. Andrew, and the Scotchmen retaliated by a species of _tu quoque_. The King sought to allay these quarrels by creating a British, as other than a purely English or Scottish, flag. But let the Proclamation speak for itself. "_By the King._ "_Whereas, some differences hath arisen between Our subjects of South and North Britaine travelling by Seas, about the bearing of their Flagges: For the avoiding of all contentions hereafter, Wee have, with the advice of our Councill, ordered: That from henceforth all our Subjects of this Isle and Kingdome of Great Britaine, and all our members thereof, shall beare in their main-toppe the Red Crosse, commonly called St. George's Crosse, and the White Crosse, commonly called St. Andrew's Crosse, joyned together according to the forme made by our heralds, and sent by Us to our Admerall to be published to our Subjects: and in their fore-toppe our Subjects of South Britaine shall weare the Red Crosse onely as they were wont, and our Subjects of North Britaine in their fore-toppe the White Crosse onely as they were accustomed._"--1606. This attempt at conciliating differences deserved but did not win success. "_The King's Owne Shipps_" deemed themselves slighted, since all vessels were treated alike in this matter, and so persistent was the agitation that at last, in Charles I.'s reign (1634), another Proclamation was issued "_for the honour of Oure Shipps in Oure Navie Royall_," whereby those ships alone had the right of hoisting "_the Union Flagge_." The days of the Commonwealth brought another change, for with the King the King's Flag disappeared. The Protector caused two new flags to be made, viz. _The Great Union_ (a flag little used, however, although it figured at his funeral obsequies), and which may be thus blazoned: _Quarterly 1 and 4, The St. George_; 2. _The St. Andrew_; 3. _azure, a harp or, for Ireland; over all on an inescutcheon of pretence, sable, a lion rampant or_, for the Protector's personal arms, and _The Commonwealth Ensign_, which latter Parliament treated as the paramount flag. The most interesting features of this flag are that it was of three kinds, one red, one white, one blue, and that Ireland but not Scotland had a place on its folds. When the King came to {613} his own again yet another change was witnessed. By this Proclamation ships in the Navy were to carry _The Union_, and all merchantmen _The St. George_, whilst these latter vessels were also to wear "_The Red Ensign with the St. George, on a Canton_." Passing on, we reach the days of Queen Anne, who as soon as the union of the two Parliaments was accomplished, issued a famous Proclamation often quoted. Suffice it here to outline its effect. PLATE IX. [Illustration] [Illustration: FIG. 775.] The two crosses of _St. George_ and _St. Andrew_ were--as the Treaty of Union had agreed should be--"_conjoyned in such a manner as we should think fit_"; and what that manner was is "_described on the margent_" in the shape of a sketch. But further, in place of the _St. George_ being placed on the canton of the _Red Ensign_ of Charles II. (itself the _Commonwealth Ensign, minus_ the harp) the Proclamation ordered the "_Union_" as a canton, and finally this new Red Ensign was confined to the merchant ships, whilst "_Our Jack_" was reserved for the use of the Navy, unless by particular warrant. Thus things continued until the union of Ireland with England and Scotland. The Proclamation referring to this Act of Union closes with the Herald's verbal blazon of the full Union Flag:--"_The Union Flag shall be Azure, the Crosses Saltire of St. Andrew and St. Patrick, Quarterly per saltire, countercharged Argent and Gules, the latter fimbriated of the second, surmounted by the Cross of St. George of the third, fimbriated as the Saltire._" Thus the Union, as displayed in bunting, was perfected. Our _Union Flag_ is very remarkable, even amongst the flags of Christendom, both as a blending of crosses, and crosses only, and also as an emblem of the union of two or more countries. Yet it is not unique, for the flags of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway have a somewhat similar story to tell. The last two countries separated at {614} different dates from Denmark, and then together formed a United Scandinavian Kingdom. In separating, they each took to themselves a separate flag, and again, in uniting, they called into being a Union Banner. How they treated these changes Fig. 775 will illustrate. Notwithstanding these acts of union both Scandinavians and Britons have had, and we still have, differences over these Union Flags. Whilst, however, they based their protests on the sentiment of independence, we ground our grumblings on questions of heraldic precedence, and of the interpretation of verbal blazons. Leaving our neighbours to settle their differences, let us examine our own. Take the subject of precedence. Very early in the flag's history, Scotsmen were indignant because the St. Andrew was not placed over the St. George. All kinds of variations have been suggested to lessen this crux of precedence, but such attempts must plainly be in vain. Do what you will, some kind of precedence is unavoidable. The _St. George_, then, as representing the paramount partner, occupies the centre of the flag, whilst the _St. Andrew_, as senior in partnership to the _St. Patrick_, is placed _above the St. Patrick, in the first quarter_, although throughout it is counterchanged. The words in italic are important, for when the order is reversed, then that particular flag is flying upside down. [Illustration: FIG. 776.--The Union Flag of 1707.] The mode of procedure in creating flags has been much the same from one reign to another. Briefly it is this: The Sovereign seeks the advice of, and receives a report from, the Lords of the Privy Council. These councillors are "_attended by the King of Arms and Heralds, with diverse drafts prepared by them_." A decision being arrived at, an Order in Council, followed by a Royal Proclamation, makes known the character of the flag. In both Order and Proclamation it is usual to make reference to the verbal blazon, and to "_the form made by our heralds_." Thus there are three agents recognised--(1) the Sovereign, the fountain of all honours; (2) the heralds, who authoritatively blazon, outline, and register all achievements; and (3) the naval authority, as that in which are vested the duty and the power of seeing the actual bunting properly made up and properly flown. {615} [Illustration: FIG. 777.--The Union Flag of 1801.] In keeping with this, the general mode of procedure, the Proclamations demand our attention. The Proclamation of James (1606). A high official of the College of Arms informs us that neither verbal blazon nor drawing of the first Union Flag is extant. On the other hand, in the Proclamations of 1707 and 1801 we have both blazon and drawing. The blazon has already been given of the 1801 flag (which is the one most needing a verbal blazon), and the drawings of both flags we here produce (Figs. 776 and 777). These drawings--though slightly reduced in these pages--are most careful copies of the _signed_ copies supplied to us by the official already alluded to. In forwarding them he writes: "_They are not drawn to scale_;" and he adds, further on, "_they are exactly the same size as recorded in our books_." So then we have, in these two drawings, the heralds' interpretation, _at the time_, of their own verbal blazon. Now comes the Admiralty part of the work. In the Admiralty Regulations we have a "_Memorandum relative to the origin of the Union Flag in its present form_." In this there is a brief history of the changes made in the flag from time to time, with quotations from the warrants, together with the verbal blazon AND two coloured drawings (Figs. 778 and 779). The Admiralty has also appended to the Memorandum the following interesting and ingeniously worked out _Table of Proportions, adapted for a flag 15 feet by 7½ feet_. Presumably this table forms the basis upon which all Union Flags are made up under Admiralty supervision:-- ft. in. The + of { St. George 1/5 } together 1/3 { 1 6 } 1/3 { Two borders 1/15 each 2/15 } { 1 0 } { St. Patrick 1/15 } together 1/10 { 0 6 } The × of { Its border 1/30 } { 0 3 } 1/5 { St. Andrew 1/10 0 9 } [Illustration: FIG. 778.--Admiralty Pattern of 1707 Flag.] [Illustration: FIG. 779.--Admiralty Pattern of 1801 Flag.] The student of heraldry will observe that this table is based on the proportions of the Ordinaries and Sub-Ordinaries figuring on the flag, as those proportions are regulated by English Rules of Armory. These rules give a cross as 1/3, a saltire as 1/5, a fimbriation about 1/20, of {616} the flag's width. By the way, we notice here, yet only to dismiss it as hypercritical, the objection taken to the employment (in the verbal blazon of 1801) of the term "_fimbriated_." To our mind this objection seems a storm in a teacup. Further, it is always admissible in armory to lessen the size of charges when these crowd a field, and although we are fully aware that the laws of armory are not always nor all of them applied to flags, yet there is sufficient evidence to show that the heralds and the Admiralty did recognise the cases of shields and flags to be somewhat analogous. But there are two features in _The Admiralty pattern_ which cannot but arrest the attention of all those who have made a study of armory. The one is that the sub-ordinaries, _i.e._ the fimbriations, have different proportions given to them, although they are repetitions of the same sub-ordinary, and also seem guarded against such treatment by the very wording of the blazon, and by the practice usual in such cases. And the other is that, after counterchanging the saltires, the St. Patrick is attenuated by having its fimbriation taken off its own field, instead (as the common custom is) off the field of the flag. All Warrants dealing with flags provide for their being flown _at sea_ (Queen Anne's Proclamation is apparently the first that adds "_and land_"), and gradually reserve for the Royal Navy--or fighting ships--the honour of alone bearing the Union Jack. The accompanying diagram shows at a glance the changes made by the several Proclamations. The latest word on this subject is "The Merchant Shipping (Colours) Act of Queen Victoria, 1894." This Acts sets forth among other things that--(1) "_The red ensign usually worn by merchant ships, without any defacement or modification whatsoever, is hereby declared to be the proper national colours for all ships and boats belonging to any British subject, except in the case of Her Majesty's ships or boats, or in the case of any other ship or boat for the time being allowed to wear any other national colours in {617} pursuance of a warrant from Her Majesty or from the Admiralty._ (2) _If any distinctive national colours except such red ensign, or except the Union Jack with a white border, or if any colours usually worn by Her Majesty's ships, &c. ... are or is hoisted on board any ship ... without warrant ... for each offence ... a fine not exceeding five hundred pounds._" {618} CHAPTER XLII "SEIZE-QUARTIERS" PROOF OF ANCESTRY If any heraldic term has been misunderstood in this country, "Seize-Quartiers" is that term. One hears "Seize-Quartiers" claimed right and left, whereas in British armory it is only on the very rarest occasions that proof of it can be made. In England there is not, and never has been, for any purpose a real "test" of blood. By the statutes of various Orders of Knighthood, esquires of knights of those orders are required to show that their grandparents were of gentle birth and entitled to bear arms, and a popular belief exists that Knights of Justice of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England need to establish some test of birth. The wording of the statute, however, is very loose and vague, and in fact, judging from the names and arms of some of the knights, must be pretty generally ignored. But Peer, K.G., or C.B., alike need pass no test of birth. The present state of affairs in this country is the natural outcome of the custom of society, which always recognises the wife as of the husband's status, whatever may have been her antecedents, unless the discrepancy is too glaring to be overlooked. In England few indeed care or question whether this person or that person has even a coat of arms; and in the decision of Society upon a given question as to whether this person or the other has "married beneath himself," the judgment results solely from the circle in which the wife and her people move. By many this curious result is claimed as an example of, and as a telling instance to demonstrate, the broad-minded superiority of the English race, as evidenced by the equality which this country concedes between titled and untitled classes, between official and unofficial personages, between the land-owning and the mercantile communities. But such a conclusion is most superficial. We draw no distinction, and rightly so, between titled and untitled amongst the few remaining families who have held and owned their lands for many generations; but outside this class the confusion is great, and to a close observer it is plainly enough apparent that great distinctions are drawn. But they are often mistaken ones. That the rigid and definite dividing {619} line between patrician and plebeian, which still exists so much more markedly upon the Continent, can only be traced most sketchily in this country is due to two causes--(1) the fact that in early days, when Society was slowly evolving itself, many younger sons of gentle families embarked upon commercial careers, natural family affection, because of such action, preventing a rigid exclusion from the ranks of Society of every one tainted by commerce; (2) the absence in this country of any equivalent of the patent distinguishing marks "de," "van," or "von," which exist among our neighbours in Europe. The result has been that in England there is no possible way (short of specific genealogical investigation) in which it can be ascertained whether any given person is of gentle birth, and the corollary of this last-mentioned fact is that any real test is ignored. There are few families in this country, outside the Roman Catholic aristocracy (whose marriages are not quite so haphazard as are those of other people), who can show that all their sixteen great-great-grandparents were in their own right entitled to bear arms. That is the true definition of the "Proof of Seize-Quartiers." In other words, to prove Seize-Quartiers you must show this right to have existed for Self. Parents. Grand- Gt.-grand- Gt.-gt.-grand- parents. parents. parents. 1. Your Father's Father's Father's Father. 2. Your Father's Father's Father's Mother. 3. Your Father's Father's Mother's Father. 4. Your Father's Father's Mother's Mother. 5. Your Father's Mother's Father's Father. 6. Your Father's Mother's Father's Mother. 7. Your Father's Mother's Mother's Father. 8. Your Father's Mother's Mother's Mother. 9. Your Mother's Father's Father's Father. 10. Your Mother's Father's Father's Mother. 11. Your Mother's Father's Mother's Father. 12. Your Mother's Father's Mother's Mother. 13. Your Mother's Mother's Father's Father. 14. Your Mother's Mother's Father's Mother. 15. Your Mother's Mother's Mother's Father. 16. Your Mother's Mother's Mother's Mother. It should be distinctly understood that there is no connection whatever between the list of quarterings which may have been inherited, which it is permissible to display, and "Seize-Quartiers," which should never be marshalled together or displayed as quarterings. Few people indeed in this country can prove the more coveted distinction of "Trente Deux Quartiers," the only case that has ever come under my notice being that of the late Alfred Joseph, Baron Mowbray, Segrave, and Stourton, for whom an emblazonment of his {620} thirty-two quarters was prepared under the direction of Stephen Tucker, Esq., Somerset Herald. After many futile trials (in order to add an existing English example), which have only too surely confirmed my opinion as to the rarity of "Seize-Quartiers" in this country, it has been found possible in the case of the Duke of Leinster, and details of the "proof" follow:-- (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) AUGUSTUS FREDERICK (FITZ{ WILLIAM ROBERT (FITZ GERALD), 2nd Duke of GERALD), 3rd Duke of { Leinster, K.P., born 13th March 1749, married Leinster, born 21st { 7th November 1775, died 20th October 1804.= August 1791, married { 16th June 1818, died { Hon. EMILIA OLIVIA ST. GEORGE, dau. of Usher 10th October 1874= { (St. George), Baron St. George of Hatley { St. George. { CHARLES (STANHOPE), 3rd Earl of Harrington, Lady CHARLOTTE AUGUSTA { G.C.H., born 17th March 1853, married 23rd May (STANHOPE), born 15th { 1779, died 5th September 1859.= February 1793, died 15th{ February 1859. { JANE, dau. and co-heir of Sir John Fleming, { Bart., of Brompton Park. GEORGE GRANVILLE { GEORGE GRANVILLE (LEVESON-GOWER), 1st Duke of (SUTHERLAND-LEVESON- { Sutherland, K.G., born 9th January 1758, GOWER, formerly Leveson-{ married 4th September 1785, died 5th July 1833. Gower), 2nd Duke of {= Sutherland, K.G., born { 8th August 1786, married{ ELIZABETH, _suo jure_ Countess of Sutherland, 28th May 1823, died 28th{ born 24th May 1765, died 29th January 1839. February 1861= { { GEORGE (HOWARD), 6th Earl of Carlisle, K.G., Lady HARRIET ELIZABETH { born 17th September 1773, married 11th March GEORGIANA HOWARD, born { 1801, died 7th October 1848.= 21st May 1806, died 27th{ October 1868. { Lady GEORGIANA CAVENDISH, eldest dau. and co- { heir of William, 5th Duke of Devonshire, K.G. WILLIAM (DUNCOMBE), 2nd { CHARLES (DUNCOMBE), 1st Baron Feversham, born Baron Feversham, born { 5th December 1764, married 24th September 1795, 14th January 1798, { died 16th July 1841.= married 18th December { 1823, died 11th February{ Lady CHARLOTTE LEGGE, only dau. of William, 2nd 1867= { Earl of Dartmouth, died 5th November 1848. { GEORGE (STEWART), 8th Earl of Galloway, K.T., { born 24th March 1768, married 18th April 1797, Lady LOUISA STEWART, { died 27th March 1834.= died 5th March 1889= { { Lady JANE PAGET, dau. of Henry, 1st Earl of { Uxbridge, died 30th June 1842. Right Hon. Sir JAMES { Sir JAMES GRAHAM, 1st Bart., of Netherby, born ROBERT GEORGE GRAHAM, { April 1761, married 28th September 1782, died 2nd Bart., P.C., G.C.B.,{ 13th April 1824.= born 1st June 1792, died{ 25th October 1861= { Lady CATHERINE STEWART, dau. of John, 7th Earl { of Galloway, died 20th September 1836. { Colonel JAMES CALLANDER of Craigforth, born FANNY CALLANDER, married{ 1774, died ----, married (as his 3rd wife) 8th July 1819, died 25th{ 1776.= October 1857. { { Lady ELIZABETH MACDONNEL, dau. of Alexander, { 5th Earl of Antrim, died 1796. CHARLES WILLIAM Lady CAROLINE WILLIAM ERNEST MABEL VIOLET (FITZ GERALD), 4th SUTHERLAND-LEVESON (DUNCOMBE), 1st GRAHAM. Duke of Leinster, -GOWER, born 15th Earl of Feversham born 30th March April 1827, died (created 1868), 1819, married 30th 13th May 1887. born 28th January October 1847, died 1829, married 7th 10th February 1887= August 1851= GERALD (FITZ GERALD), 5th Duke of Lady HERMIONE WILHELMINA DUNCOMBE, Leinster, born 16th August 1851, born 30th March 1864, died 19th married 17th January 1884, died 1st March 1895. December 1893.= The Most Noble MAURICE (FITZ GERALD), Duke of Leinster, Marquess and Earl of Kildare, co. Kildare, Earl and Baron of Offaly, all in the Peerage of Ireland; Viscount Leinster of Taplow, co. Bucks, in the Peerage of Great Britain; and Baron Kildare of Kildare in the Peerage of the United Kingdom; Premier Duke, Marquess, and Earl of Ireland; born 1st March 1887. {621} The following are the heraldic particulars of the shields which would occur were this proof of "Seize-Quartiers" emblazoned in the ordinary form adopted for such a display. The arms are numbered across from left to right in rows of 16, 8, 4, 2, and 1. 1. _Duke's Coronet_ (Ribbon of St. Patrick): Argent, a saltire gules (Fitz Gerald). 2. _Lozenge_: Argent, a chief azure, over all a lion rampant gules, ducally crowned or (St. George). 3. _Earl's Coronet_ (Ribbon of Hanoverian Guelphic Order): Quarterly ermine and gules, in the centre a crescent on a crescent for cadency (Stanhope). 4. _Lozenge_: Argent, a chevron gules, a double tressure flory and counterflory of the last (Fleming). 5. _Duke's Coronet_ (Garter): Quarterly, 1 and 4, barry of eight or and gules, over all a cross flory sable; 2 and 3, azure, three laurel leaves or (Leveson-Gower). 6. _Lozenge_ (surmounted by Earl's coronet): Gules, three mullets or, on a bordure of the second a tressure flory counterflory of the first (Sutherland). 7. _Earl's Coronet_ (Garter): Quarterly of six, 1. gules, on a bend between six cross crosslets fitchée argent, an inescutcheon or, charged with a demi-lion rampant, pierced through the mouth with an arrow, within a double tressure flory counterflory of the first; 2. gules, three lions passant guardant in pale or, in chief a label of three points argent; 3. chequy or and azure; 4. Gules, a lion rampant argent; 5. gules, three escallops argent; 6. barry of six argent and azure, three chaplets gules, in the centre of the quarters a mullet for difference (Howard). 8. _Lozenge_: Sable, three bucks' heads caboshed argent (Cavendish). 9. _Baron's Coronet_: Per chevron engrailed gules and argent, three talbots' heads erased counterchanged (Duncombe). 10. _Lozenge_: Azure, a buck's head caboshed argent (Legge). 11. _Earl's Coronet_ (Ribbon of Thistle): Or, a fess chequy argent and azure, surmounted of a bend engrailed gules, within a tressure flory counterflory of the last (Stewart). 12. _Lozenge_: Sable, on a cross engrailed between four eagles displayed argent, five lions passant guardant of the field (Paget). 13. _Baronet's Badge_: Or, on a chief sable, three escallops of the field (Graham). 14. _Lozenge_: Arms as on No. 11 (Stewart). 15. _Shield_: Quarterly, 1 and 4, sable, a bend chequy or and gules between six billets of the second; 2. azure, a stag's head caboshed or; 3. gules, three legs armed proper, conjoined in the fess point and flexed in triangle, garnished and spurred or (Callander). 16. _Lozenge_: Quarterly, 1. or, a lion rampant gules; 2. or, a dexter arm issuant from the sinister fess point out of a cloud proper, the hand holding a cross crosslet fitchée erect azure; 3. argent, a ship with sails furled sable; 4. per fess azure and vert, a dolphin naiant in fess proper (Macdonell). 17. As 1. but no ribbon of K.P. 18. _Lozenge_: Arms as 3. 19. _Duke's Coronet_ (Garter): Quarterly, 1 and 4, as in 5; 2, as in 5; 3. as in No. 6. 20. _Lozenge_: As No. 7. 21. _Baron's Coronet_: As No. 9. 22. _Lozenge_: As No. 14. 23. As No. 13, but with ribbon of a G.C.B. 24. _Lozenge_: As No. 15. 25. As 17. {622} 26. _Lozenge_: As No. 19. 27. As 21, but Earl's coronet. 28. _Lozenge_: As No. 13, but no Baronet's Badge. 29. As 17. 30. _Lozenge_: As No. 9. 31. _Arms_: Argent, a saltire gules. Crest: a monkey statant proper, environed about the middle with a plain collar, and chained or. Supporters: two monkeys (as the crest). Mantling gules and argent. Coronet of a duke. Motto: "Crom a boo." {623} INDEX {624} Abank, arms of, 264 Abbey, 282 Abbot, mitre of an, 601; crosier of an, 601 Abbot Ysowilpe, 49 Abel, arms, 163 Abercorn, Duke of, 598 Abercromby, arms, 260; Sir Ralph, augmentation, 595 Aberdeen, arms of, 145; Earls of, 146; Earl of, supporters, 434; Incorporation of Tailors, arms, 301; Roman Catholic Bishop of, 605; University of, 288 Abergavenny, Marquis of, arms, crest, supporters and badges, 206, 342; town of, arms, 206, 264 Abernethy, 114; arms, 483; Alexander, 412 Abney, arms, 190 Aboyne, Earl of, 146 Abraham, crest, 248 Accrington, crest, 265 Achaius, 143 Acorn, 277; in arms, 5 Actons, arms, 485; Edward de, arms, 485 Adam, 163; arms, 285 Adamoli, arms, 162 Adams, arms, 261 Addorsed, 187, 235 Adjutant Birds as supporters, 440 Adlercron, arms, 124 Adlerflügel mit Schwerthand, 234 Admiral, the insignia of, 581; Lord High, arms, 412; (in Holland), insignia of, 582; of Castile (Spain), insignia of, 582 Adrastus, 6 Advocates, the Dean and Faculty of, arms, 299; Library, 39 Æschylus, 6 Agincourt, 33, 34 Agnew, Bart., supporters, 436 Ailesbury, Marquess of, supporters, 433 Ailettes, 54 Ailsa, Marquess of, arms, 146 Aitken, arms, 246, 265 Albany, 39; Duke of, label, 497; Duke of, John, 145; Duke of, Robert Stewart, seals, 405 Alberghi, 84 Alberici, arms, 84 Albert medal, 567 Alberti, Marquises, 416 Aldborough Church, 55 Aldeburgh, Sir William de, 55 Alderberry, arms, 277 Alderson, 168 Alençon, Count of, supporter, 411 Alerion, 240 Alexander II., 142 Alexander III., 39, 142 Alexandra, H.M. Queen, 499, 532; Crown, 361; Coronation, 365, 366 Alford, crest, 289; Earl of, augmentation, 597 Alfred, King, 353 Alington, arms, 155 Alishay or Aliszai, pursuivant, 39 Allcroft, arms, 276 Allhusen, crest, 214 Alloa, burgh of, 294 Allocamelus, 230 Almond, arms, 265 Almoner, Grand, insignia of, 581 Alpaca, 217 Alphabet, letters of the, 281 Alston, arms, 295 Altyre, 113 Aluminium in use, 70 Amadeus VI., seal, 408 Amaranth, 74 Amelia, Princess, label, 499 Amherst, Lord, 356; arms, 285; supporters, 440 Amman, Jost, 185, 411 Amphiaraus, 7 Amphiptère, 231 Amphisboena, 231 Ampthill, Lord, 345 Ancaster, Duke of, 399; Lord, supporters, 346 Anchor, 281 Anderson, crest, 205 Anderton, arms, 284 Angels, 165 Anglesey, Marquess of, supporters, 436 Angora, Goats', 217 Angus, 39; Earl of, 446; seal, 445 Anhalt, 69; Duke of, 401; crests, 343 Animals, imaginary, 15; mythical, 3; supporters, 434 Anjou, 29, 33, 34; Count of, Geoffrey, 62, 79, 172, 468; crest, 326; badge, 453; Dukes of, 388; arms, 486; Duke of, Earl of, 173; King of, arms, 34 Anne, Queen, 144, 470 Annesley, 550 Annulet, 153, 156, 488 Anrep-Elmpt, Count, 299 Anselm, Père, 397 Anstis (Garter), 34, 407 Anstruther-Duncan, arms, 553 Antelope, 210 Anthony, 351 Antique crowns, 298; coronets, 378 "Antiquities of Greece," 9 Antrobus, supporters, 425 Ants, 261 Antwerp, 163 Anvils, 281 Apaume, 169 Ape, 215 Apollo, 164 Apothecaries' Co., 164 Appenzell, supporters, 409 Apperley, John, arms, 277 Appleby, town of, supporters, 437 Applegarth, Robert, arms, 276 Apples, 276 Apple-tree, 263 Apres, 231 Aquitaine, 29, 33, 34 Arabic figures, 104 Aragon, Catharine of, Badge, 468, 597 Arbroath, supporters, 433 Arbuthnot, Bart., Sir Robert, supporters, 438; Viscount, supporters, 437 Arbutt, 256 Arc, Joan of, arms, 275 Archbishop, 61, 127, 535; insignia of, 582, 583; mitre of, 602 Arched, 96 Archer-Houblon, arms, 264 Arches, 282; William, arms, 282 Ardilaun, Lord, supporters, 420 Argent, 5, 50, 70 Argile, crest, 228 Argyll, Duke of, 69; insignia, 586; Duchess of, label, 497 Arina, 13 Ark, 294 Arkwright, arms, 263 Armadillo, 438 Armagh, 126; Archbishops of, 584, 602 Armed, 207, 209, 211, 223, 227, 238, 241, 246, 313; and langued, 173 Armorial bearings mean and include, 61 "Armorial de Gelre," 144, 397, 483 Armory, 11; laws of, 3; origin of, 17 Armour, 171 Arms, 54; commanded to correct, 61; defacing, 22; definition of, 14; displayed on, 412; forfeited, 73; having no charges, 69; illegal, began, 22; like a title, 73; marshalling, of, 523-560; necessary to use, 20; older coats of, 5; of one tincture, 69; painted reversed, 73; purposes of memorial, 24; principal methods of alterations in, 483; recording, 22 Arquinvilliers, 83 Arrow-heads, 283 Arrows, 283 Arscot, crest, 166 Arthur, Bart., arms, 217 "Arthur's Book, Prince," 460 Artillery, Grand Master of the, insignia of, 581 Arundel, Edmund de, 417; Sir Richard, 149; Earl of, Richard, 362; Sir Thomas, 413; Earl of, John Fitz Alan, seal, 149; K.G., Sir Wm., arms, 149; Earl of, Thomas Fitz Alan, coronet of, 362; Countess of, Beatrice, coronet of, 362 Arundell, arms, 245 Ash colour, 74 Ashen-grey, 74, 79 Ashikaya, Minamoto, 13 Ashley-Cooper, 206 Ashmolean collection, 33 Ash-tree, 263 Ashua, 74 Ashwell, 30 Ashworth, 198 Asiatic, 10 Aspilogia, 407 Aspinall, arms, 266 Ass, 203, 438 Assurgeant, 186, 202 Astley, 57; crest, 250 Astronomical signs, 77 At gaze, 208 Athenians, 9 Atholl, Earl of, Reginald, 408; Walter Stewart's seal, 446 Attainder, 73 Attewater, arms, 180, 256 Attired, 209 Atwater, arms, 180, 256 Aubigny, Dukedom of, 598 Aubrey, 152 Augmentations, 24, 68, 86, 87, 132, 134, 136, 139, 145, 166, 181, 271, 272, 276, 291, 298, 483, 492, 518, 519, 545, 554, 569, 598; crests as, 346, 347, 377; of honour, 589; inescutcheons of, 541; quarterings of, 543, 554; supporters, 420 Augusta, Princess, label, 498 Australia, wattle or mimosa of, 470 Austria, Archduke of, Rudolf IV., seals, 417 Austria, crest, 316; supporters, 417 Austrian ducal herald, 40 Avoir, Pierre, 417 Avondale, 502, 513 Awoï-mon, 13 Ayr, 165 Azure, 50, 70, 76, 90, 110; derivation of, 13 Babington, 479; arms, 154 Bacharia, 223 Backhouse, crest, 257 Bacquere, arms, 200 Baden, Duke of, 400 Badge, 14, 25, 28, 45, 47, 48, 58, 80, 137, 250, 267, 268, 284, 288, 293, 296, 299, 389, 403, 408, 416, 417, 418, 444, 449, 453, 466, 467, 472, 568; National, 270; Royal, 269, 468; and Standards, 474 Badger, 215 Bagnall, crest, 210 Bagot, Lord, supporters, 437 Bagwyn, 231 Baikie, arms, 291 Baillie, arms, 296 Baines, 171 Baird of Ury, arms, 91 Baker, arms, 246 Balance, 299 Balbartan, 168 Balcarres, 114 Baldric, 55 Baldwin, arms, 265, 277 Balfour arms, 215 Baliol, John, 357; Alexander de, 408 Ballingall, 121 Balme, arms, 265 Banded, 280 Bandon, Earls of, arms, 301 Banff, Royal Burgh of, 159 Banner, 28, 59, 60, 474; decorations, 454 Bannerman, arms, 299; crest, 166 Bantry, Earl of, supporters, 65 Banville De Trutemne, arms, 82 Bar, 108; embattled, 93; gemel, 119, 120; sinister, 508 Bar, Countess of, Yolante de Flandres, seal, 408 Barb, 225, 269 Barbers, Livery Company of, crest, 232 Barbute, 310, 311 Barclay, arms, 485; mitre as a charge, 605; supporters, 428 Bardolph, arms, 268 Bardwell, motto, 451 Baring, 198 Barisoni, 84 Barkele, Moris de, arms, 485 Barnacles or Breys, 287 Barnard, 198; Lord, 73; arms, crest and motto, 451 Barnes, 198; arms, 146 Barnewall, Sir Reginald, crest, 251 Baron, coronet, 365, 368, 371, 375; robe or mantle of, 365, 367; supporters, 422 Baroness, coronet, 366; robe or mantle, 366 Baronet, badge of, 58; helmet of, 303, 313, 319; insignia of, 583; Nova Scotian, 137; British, supporters, 423; Scottish, supporters, 423; widow of, 534 Baronetcy, supporters, 420 Barrels, 301 Barret, 227 Barrington, 71, 479; arms, 154 Barrow-in-Furness, arms, 213, 294 Barrulet, 119 Barruly, 120 Barry, 97, 120, 121; bendy, 121, 122; nebuly, 94 Bars, 119 Bartan or Bertane, arms, 259 Bartlett, 146 Barttelot, arms, 171, 293; crest, 245 Bascinet, 55, 307, 311 Basilisk, 225, 227, 438 Basle, arms, 438; supporters, 409 Bassano, arms, 261 Basset, Ralph, Garter plate, 384, 505 Bastard, arms, 286 Bastardy, 103, 114, 138, 503, 517 Bat, 217 Bates, crest, 246 Bath, city of, arms, 88 Bath King of Arms, 29, 35, 36; Robes of the, 35; insignia of, 587 Bath, Military Order of the, 29, 36, 563; Knights Commanders of the, 565; Knights Grand Commanders of the, insignia of, 584; Military Division, 585; Companions of the, 565; insignia of, 584; Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the, rules, 564; insignia of, 584; military division, insignia of, 585 Bath and Wells, Bishop of, Thomas Beckynton, 455 Bathurst, crest, 171 Baton, 45, 46, 59, 114; of metal, 515; sinister, 515 Batten, 427 Battenberg, Princess Henry of, label, 497 Battering-ram, 283 Battle-axes, 283 Battlements of a tower, 376 Bavaria, 69, 163, 524; crest, 313; King of, 400; National Museum, 234 Bavier, 312 Bawde, crest, 229 Bayeux tapestry, 12, 14 Baynes, Sir Christopher, supporters, 420 Beacons, 284 Beaconsfield, Viscountess, arms, 276 Beaked, 223, 242, 249 Bean-pods, 277 Bear, 11, 198, 432 Bearers, 416 Bearsley, 198 Beatson, arms, 260 Beaufort, 502, 521; Duke of, 193; crest, 284; supporter, 195 Beaumont, 89; arms, 103, 111; Bishop, 49; Lord, 380; Lord, mantling, 389 Beaver, 216 Beck, 256 Bedford, 49; Duke of, 34; Duke of, crest, 345; Earl of, 49; motto, 451 Bee, 260 Bee-hive, 260 Beef-eaters, 25 Beetles, 261 Beffroi, 82 Béguinage, Lady Superior of the, 49 Beizeichen, 477 Belfast, city of, arms, 325 Belgium, 75 Bell, 109, 287 Bellasis, crest, 339 Belled, 241 Bellegarse, Comtes de, 287 Bellerophon, 10 Bellomont, De, or De Beaumont, arms, 268 Belshes, John Hepburn, compartment, 446 Bend, 91, 107, 108, 110, 112, 115, 482, 483, 511; barry, 111; chequy, 112; compony, 111; cottised, 113; dancetté, 93; flory and counterflory, 112; lozenge, 112, 146, 147; raguly, 111; sinister, 82, 114, 508; wavy, 111 Bendlet, 113, 114, 115, 149, 483; sinister, 103, 149, 515, 554; wavy sinister, 512 Bendy, 86, 97, 115 Bengal tiger, 436 Benn, arms, 217 Benoit, arms, 289 Benson, arms, 277 Benwell, crest, 205 Bendwise, 113 Bentinck, crest, 375 Benzoni, 83 Berendon, arms, 270 Berington, 69 Berkeley, House of, arms, 485; Maurice de, seal, 485; Sir Maurice de, label, 479; Robert de, seal, 485; Sir Thomas de, arms, 485 Berlin, Royal Library in, 306 Bermingham, arms, 550 Bermondsey, 281 Berne, supporters, 409 Berners, Lord, 458; arms of, 69; Sir John Bourchier, stall plate, 389; mantling, 389; Torse, arms, 404 Berri, Duc de, seal, 410; arms, 487; supporters, 418 Berry, 29, 36, 38, 95, 253, 254, 265, 515 Bersich, arms, 256 Bertie, 282; arms, 283 Besançon, 83 Besant, arms, 263 Bessborough, Earls of, arms, 299 Betty, arms, 266 Bewes, crest of, 75 Bewley, arms, 248; crest, 270 Bezant, 5, 89, 151 Bezanté, 89, 153 Bibelspurg, von, arms, 558 Biberach, town of, 216 Bicchieri, Veronese, arms, 288 Bicknell, crest, 226 Bigland, arms, 278 Billet, 89, 108, 155; urdy, 95 Billetty or Billetté, 89, 155 Billiat, arms, 246; crest, 280 Billiers, crest, 259 Binney, crest, 256 Birch-trees, 263 Birches, arms, 266 Birds of Paradise, 250 Birkin, arms, 263 Birmingham, Mason's College, 180 Birmingham, University of, arms, 228 Birmingham, town of, supporters, 429 Birt, arms, 256 Biscoe, crest, 205 Bishop, 61; crosiers of, 59; grant to a, 62, 324; insignia of a, 582, 583; mitre of, 602 Bison, 438 Black, 70, 77 Blackett-Ord, 255 Blackpool, town of, arms, 295 Blazon, 74, 86, 104, 121; rules of, 99 Block, 155 Blood, Colonel, 356 Blood descent, mark of, 103 Blood-red, 74, 76 Blount, crest, 171 Blue, 70, 77 Blue-bottle, 272 Blue-céleste or bleu du ciel, 74 Blue ensign, 471 Bluemantle, pursuivant, 38, 43 _Blut Fahne_, 69 Blyth, 206 Boar, 198 Boden, arms, 265 Body, arms, 290 Boece, Hector, 415 Boehm, Sir Edgar, 361; arms, 272 Bohemia, arms of, 189 Bohemian knight, grant to, 74 Bohn, crest, 384 Bohun, 56, 467; arms, 174, 485; Humphrey de, seal, 410 Boileau, Bart., crest, 375 Boiler-flue, corrugated, 301 Boissiau, arms, 188 Bold, Charles the, 410 Bolding, arms, 112, 147, 288 Boleslas III., seal, 410 Boiler, arms, 271 Bollord or Bolloure, arms, 261 Bologna, 84 Bolton, arms, 301 Bolton, Baron of, Sir Richard le Scrope, 279 Bombay, supporters, 192, 436 Bombs, 5, 284 Bonar, Thomas, 213 Bonefeld, arms, 277 Bones, 171 Bonnet, 144 Books, 299 "Book of Arms," 248, 558; "of Costumes," 234; "of Standards," 463 Boot, 171, 293 Boothby, arms, 135 Bootle, arms, 301 Bordures, 87, 101, 102, 104, 108, 112, 133, 134, 135, 138, 139, 248, 481, 482, 483, 494, 500, 501, 502, 511, 512, 525; chequy, 140, 519; compony, 140, 502, 519; counter-compony, 140, 503, 519; of England, 188; of Spain, 188; inescutcheon within a, 141; rule of, 141; wavy, 139, 514, 519 Boroughbridge, 55 Bosham, 15 Bossewell, 488 Boston, 50; arms, crest, supporters, and compartment, 445 Bothwell, 39 Botreaux, 258; Lord, seal, 416 Bouchage, 83 Bourchier, arms, 299; crest, 342; knots, 390, 469; Sir Henry (mantling), 389; Sir John Torse, arms, 404; Lord (Sir Lewis Robsart) Torse, arms, 404; (mantling), 389 Boutell, 417, 524 Bow, 11, 283 Bowden, arms, 265 Bower, 171 Bowes, arms, 283 Bowls, 288 Boyce, 376 Boycott, arms, 284 Boyd, arms, 430 Boyle, arms of, 69, 162 Boys, 30 Brabant, 83; Chancellor of, supporters, 416 Braced, 124 Bradbury, arms, 244 Bradway, arms, 276 Brady, Major Richardson, 577 Branch, 265 Branches, 265 Brandenburg, 69; Bailiwick of, 570; Prussian province of, 234 Brassarts, 55 Brasses, 49 Braye, Lord, badge, 458; supporters, 186, 436 Brecknock, Baron of, arms, 84 Breslau, Town Library at, 435 Bretagne, Count of, 15; Anne of, 579 Bretessed, 93, 96, 118 Breton, 416 Bricquebec, Bertrand de, arms, 411 Bridge, 282 Bridger, arms, crest, 255 Bridle-bits, 287 Bridled, 201 Bridlington Priory, 281 Bridport, Lord, 592 Brimacombe, crest, 249 Brisbane, arms, 290; crest, 377; supporters, 428 Brisbane, K.C.B., Admiral Sir Charles, 593 Bristol, city of, supporters, 431; See of, arms, 298 Brisure, 477 "British Herald," 356 British Museum, 143 British official regalia, 46 Brittany, 83; arms of, 69; Duke of, 279; John of, Earl of Richmond, arms of, 69 Britton, badge, 414 Broad arrow, 457 Broadbent, arms, 86 Brocas Collection, 311 Brock, 215 Brocklebank, arms, 215 Brodribb, arms, 270 Broke, Sir Philip Bowes, crest, 377, 593 Brooke, crest, 215 Broom, badge, 271, 453, 468 Brotherton, arms, 465, 555; Thomas de, 494, 555 Brotin, 83 Brown, 74, 76 Brown-Westhead, 283 Browne, arms, 266 Bruce, 144; motto, 451; Robert, 357 Bruges, 49, 147; William of, 28, 41 Brugg, Richard del, 30 Bruis, Robert De, 84 Brunâtre, 74 Brunner, arms, 294 Brunswick, 608; Duke of, Magnus I., 410; Duke of, crests, 343 Brussels, city of, 163 Brussels, Royal Library at, 144 Brzostowski, Counts, arms, 286 Buchan, crest, 272 Buck, 208 Buckelrîs, 64 Buckets, 299 Buckingham, town of, arms, 460; Duke of, Edward, portrait, 463; arms, 544; badges, 462; livery colours, 388, 460; Duke of (Sir Humphrey), Garter plate, 374 Buckingham and Chandos, Duke of, crests, 348 Buckle, 64, 287 Buckworth, 58 Buckworth-Herne-Soame, Bart., crest, 337 Buffalo, 205 Buffe, 315 Bugle-horn, 292 Bull, 10, 205, 232 Bulrushes, 280 Bume, arms, 258 _Buntfeh_, 82 Buonarotti, arms, 410 Burgh, De, arms, 148 Burgh, Lord, Sir Thomas Burgh, Torse, arms, 404 Burghclere, Lord, supporters, 437 Burgkmair, Hans, 194 Burgonet, 314 Burgundy, arms, 410; Duke of, arms, 524, 561 Burke, 85, 551; Sir Bernard, 374, 421; Peerage, 434 Burlton, 202 Burnaby, supporters, 254 Burne-Jones, 512; arms, 114, 239 Burnet, Bishop, 506 Burnett, 14 Burslem, town of, 288 Burton, 72; crest, 293; Lord, supporters, 442 Burton, De, 111 Burton, Hill-, 415 Bury, town of, arms, 266 Bussy, Sir John, seals, 389 Butcher's Livery Company, supporters, 207, 230 Bute, 39; Marquess of, crest, 348 Butkens, 75 Butler, arms, 288 Butterflies, 83, 261 Buxton, 179 Byron, 115, 520 Byzantine silk, 233; coins, 351 Cabasset, 315 Caboshed, 207, 213 Cadency, 115, 138, 140; bordure, 207; differencing to indicate, 483; different marks, 60; mark of, 55, 71, 103, 135, 136, 139, 188, 245, 344, 345, 347, 463, 477, 478, 481, 483, 510, 520, 557; marks of, rules, 487; a semé field, 484 Cadifor ap Dyfnwal, 85 Cadman, arms, 271 Cadmus, 10 Cadwallader, 225; banners, 475 Caerlaverock, Roll of, 72 Cailly, De, 55 Caithness, Earl of, arms, 557 Calabria, Duke of, arms, 234 Calais Rolls, 136 Calcutta, city of, supporters, 440 Caledonia, 143 Calf, 205, 207 Caligula, 351 Calli, 56 Calopus, 232 Calthorpe, Lord, supporters, 433 Caltraps, 84, 283, 446 Camail, 55, 308 Camberwell, arms, 294 Cambi, 84 Cambridge, Earl of, Richard of Conisburgh, 188; Duke of, label, 496; Dukes of, label, 498 Cambridge, University of, 299; Regius Professors, arms, 587 Camden, 152; Marquess of, crest, 349 Camel, 217, 218, 227 Camelford, arms, 217 Camelopard, 218, 227, 438 Camerino, Dukes de, 83 Cameron, arms, 228 Cameron Highlanders, tartan, 25 Cammell, arms, 217 Campbell, 137; arms, 69, 294, 412; Baron, 533; crest, 190, 200; Lord, arms, 592; supporters, 204; Margaret, seal, 525 Campbell and Lorn, 525 Camperdown, 181 Canada, 429; maple, 266, 470 Canivet, Nicolas, 145 Cannon, 285 Cantelupe, arms, 275, 276; Thomas de, arms, 276 Canterbury, 126, 588; archbishop of, 602, 603; Cathedral, 174, 335, 466; Rebus at, 455; town of, 248 Canting, arms, 54, 55 Canton, 102, 108, 134, 135, 136, 418, 520; of augmentation, 136; of England, 181, 201; or quarter, 483 Cantonned, 103, 135 Cap of Maintenance, 379, 381, and _see_ Chapeau Capaneus, 7 Cape Colony, supporters, 217, 429, 436, 438 Cape Town, supporters, 443 Capel, Sir Giles, helm of, 310 Capelin, 384 Capelot, 378 Caps, 41, 42 Caracalla, 351 Cardinal, 61 Carew, Lord, supporters, 210 Carinthia, arms, 417 Carlisle, 588 Carlos, Colonel, arms, 262, 589, 591 Carlyon, arms, 282 Carmichael family, 119 Carminow, 110 Carnation, 74 Carnegy, crest, 295 Caroline, Consort of Princess, 597 Carr, 576 Carriages, arms on, 399 Carrick, 39 Carruthers, 165 Carter, arms, 302 Carteret, De, 418 Cartouche, 61 Carver to His Majesty, Grand, insignia of, 581 Carysfort, Earl of, crest, 243 Case, 252 Casks, 301 Casque, 314, 315 Cassan crest, 375 Cassithas, Conde de, augmentation, 597 Castile, bordure of, 482 Castile, Eleanor of, 543; and Leon, 543 Castille, King of, Don Pedro, 360 Castle, 376 Castlemaine, Lord, Hancock, arms, 246 Castles, 282 Castlestuart, Earl of, supporters, 437 Cat, 195 Cat-a-mountain, 195 Catanei, 83 Catapults, 286 Catherine wheel, 302 Catton, R.A., 433 Cauldron, 289 Cavalry, Colonel of, the insignia of, 581 Cave, motto, 451 Cavendish, 209; motto, 451 Cawston, arms, 129; crest, 242 Ceba, arms of, 83 Cedar-tree, 262 Celata, 312, 314 Celestial coronet, 298, 371 Cendrée, 74 Centaur, 171, 228, 438 Chabet, 256 Chadwick, crest, 271 Chafy, crest, 265 Chain, armour, 51, 171 Chains, 284 Chaldean bas-relief, 4000 B.C., 2 Challoner, arms, 230 Chalmers, 143; arms, 190 Chamberlain, Grand, insignia of, 581, 582; (Brandenburg) Lord High, insignia of, 582; (of England) Lord High, insignia of, 588; (Hohenzollern) Hereditary, insignia of, 582 Chambers, arms, 263 Chamier, crest, 375; supporters, 429 Champagne, 557 Champnay, Richard, 33 Chancellor, the, insignia of, 580, 588; of England, Lord High, insignia of, 588 Chandos le Roy d'Ireland, 33 Channel Islands, 428; coins of, 173 Chapeau, 370, 378, 379, 402 Chapel Royal, Dean of the, insignia of, 588 Chapelle-de-fer, 311, 312, 315 Chapels Royal in Scotland, Dean of, the insignia of, 584 Chaplet, 108, 156, 157 Chappel, 283 Charge, 69, 78, 86, 103, 107, 108, 128, 135, 151, 155, 158, 189, 190, 213, 301, 302, 483 Charges, addition of small, 483; placed, 102; on a bend, 113; specific number, 103 Charlemagne, 143, 233; crown, 351, 608 Charles I., 39, 201, 263, 413, 418, 597, 607, 612; coronation ring, 357; seal, 475 Charles II., 75, 146, 196, 358, 359, 360, 363, 371, 379, 475, 591, 607; state crown, 356; warrant of, 589 Charles III., Spanish Order of, 594 Charles IV., 44, 274 Charles V., 143, 274, 318; supporters, 416 Charles VI., 44 Charles VII., 275 Charlton, 521; arms, 136 Chart, 289 Chatelherault, Duchy of, 598 Chatham, arms, 369 Chatloup, 232 Chaucer, 55, 84 Chauses, 52 Cheape, arms, 278 Cheeky or chequy, 98 Chemille, arms, 84 Cheney, arms, 207 Cherleton, Lord, 190, 387, 404 Cherries, 277 Cherry-tree, 263 Cherubs, 165 Chess-Rooks, 289 Chester, 525; Herald, 37; Earl of, 126, 279; Hugh Lupus, 278; Ranulph, seal, 278 Chettle, arms, 261 Chevron, 54, 93, 107, 108, 122, 123, 135; chequy, 123; vair, 123 Chevronel, 107, 124; interlaced, 124 Chevronny, 97, 124 Chevronwise, 123 Chichester, Earl of, 32, 590; badge, 288 Chichester, See of, 158 Chichester-Constable, arms of, 265 Chief, 91, 102, 108, 132; arched, 96; double-arched, 96; embattled, 108 Chief-Justice, Lord, 45 Chiefs, supporters of, 422 Chieftainship, mark of, 350 Child, arms, 238 Childebert, arms, 258 Childeric, badge, 260 Chimera, 229 Chimrad, Pellifex, 82 China-cokar tree, 264 Chinese dragon, 226, 437 Chinese white, 70 Chisholm, supporters, 427, 428; Rt. Rev. Æneas, 605; Batten, arms, 428 Chivalry, Court of, 478 Chocolate colour, 73 Cholmondeley, arms, 278; Marquess of, 399; Marchioness of, arms, 399, 400 Chorinski, mantling, 384 Chorley, arms, 272 Christie, arms, 282 Christopher, arms, 216, 289 Chrysanthemum, 13 Church, 61; of England, laws of, 61; flag, 473; vestments, 5 Church-bell, 287 Cinque Ports, 182 Cinquefoil, 266, 267, 268 Circles, 58 Cirencester, Abbot of, Thomas Conyston, 455 Cinti (now cini), 74 Cities, supporters, 429 Civic crown, 157 Claes Heynen, 144 Clare, 32; arms, 525; Earls of, 32, 86, 125 Clare, Margaret de, arms, 524 Clarence, Duke of, label, 496, 498; Duke of, Lionel, 362; arms, 494; Duke of, Thomas, 32, 505 Clarenceux King of Arms, 29, 30, 32, 591; arms of, 47; arms and insignia of, 587 Clarendon, arms, 250; Sir Roger de, 466, 521 Claret colour, 73 Clarion, 292 Clark-Kennedy, Col. Alexander, augmentation, 594 Clarke, arms, 249 Clayhills, arms of, 74, 204 Cleland, 214 Clenched, 169 Clergyman, 61; grant to, 324 Clerk of Pennycuick, crest, 167 Clerke, Bart., arms, 136, 595; Sir John, 596 Cleves, Anne of, 597; lilies, 273 Clifford, arms, 263 Clifton, 55 Clinton, De, arms, 296 Clippingdale, crest, 202 Clisson, Oliver de, supporter, 411 Clogher, See of, arms, 164 Close, 200, 235, 243, 245 Clothes, embroidery upon, 17 Clouds, 87, 94, 294; as compartment, 444 Clux, Sir Hertong von, K.G., arms, crest, mantling, 387 Coat of arms, origin, 108; what it must consist of, 69 Cobbe (Bart., ext.), arms, 256 Cobham, arms, 486; Lord, arms, crest, mantling, 387; Lord (Sir John Oldcastle), 596 Cochrane, arms, 228 Cochrane, Adm. Sir Alex., K.B., augmentation, 4 Cock, 246 Cockatrice, 225, 227; as supporters, 438 Cockburn-Campbell, 594 Cockfish, 231 Cocoanut-tree, 263 Codfish, 256 Coffee-plant, 266 Coffee-tree, 263 Cogan, arms, 266 Cognisance, 455 Co-heir, 68; or co-heiress, 526 Cokayne, arms, 246, 344, 489 Coke, 214 Coldingham, Prior and Monks of, 504 Cole, arms, 258 Coles, crest, 285 Colfox, 198 Collared and chained, 215 Collars, 58 College of Arms, 28, 29, 38, 61, 70, 73, 77, 324, 329, 345, 385, 465; arms of, 47, 244 Collingwood, Lord, augmentation, 592 Colman, arms, 96 Cologne, 49; arms, 297 Colossus, 166 Colours, 5, 74, 405; of nature, 74; simple names of, 77; for mantlings, 385, 393; Rules about, 85 Colston, arms, 256 Columbine, 74; flowers, 271 Column, 285 Colville of Culross, Viscount, supporters, 217 Comb, 299 Combed, 227, 246 Comber, crest, 197 Combination, rule against, 81 Commoner, arms of, 58; impaling, 531 Companion of any Order, helmet of, 571 Comparisoned, 201 Compartments, 441; blazon of, 444; mottoes on, 448 Composite charge, 86 Compton, arms, 284 Comyn, arms, 280, 412 Conan, 15 Conder, 111 Coney, 214 Conjoined arms, rules as to, 526 Conjoined in leure, 239 Connaught, Duke of, label, 497 Connaught, Prince Arthur of, 364 Conrad, the Furrier, 83 Conran, crest, 209 Consort, Prince, 597; descendants of, bear, 541 Consort, Queen, crown, 361 Constable, Lord High, 27 Constabulary, Royal Irish, badge, 457 Constance, Queen, seal, 273 Continent, quarterings on the, 548; grant on the, 68 Continental, arms, 74, 104 Continental heraldry, 146 Contourné, 186 Contre-hermin, 78 Contra-naiant, 255 Contre Vair, 82 Conyers, 292; arms, 403, 482 Cook, crest, 289 Cooper, arms, 206, 265 Cope, William, arms, 269 Corbet, arms, 248; crest, 213; motto, 451 Corbie, 248 Cordelière, Order of the, 579 Corke, arms, 190 Cornfield, crest, 265 Cornflower, 272 Cornish chough, 248 Cornwall, crest, 248; Duchy of, 254, 469, 486; Earl of, Edmond Plantagenet, seal, 524; Earl of, Piers Gaveston, 238; Earl of, Richard, 412; seal, 237 Coronation, 42, 45; Invitation Cards, 470 Coronets, 58, 350, 363, 373; foreign, 375; of rank, 362, 367; Order concerning, 365 Corporate seal, 88 Cost, 115 Costume of an officer of arms, 41, 42 Cotter, arms, 257, 259 Cottise, 113, 115, 119 Cottised, 123, 134 Cotton, Sir Robert, 143 Cotton-plant, or tree, 5, 263, 266 Counterchanged, 103, 121 Counter-embowed, 170 Counter-flory, 96 Counter-passant, 187 Counter-potent, 84, 85 Counter vair, 82, 83 Countess, robe or mantle, 366; coronet, 366 Couped, 128, 134, 150, 169, 186, 264 Courant, 201, 205, 208 Courcelles, Marguerite de, 410 Courcey, arms, 84 Courtenay, 71, 154; arms, 479 Coutes, 55 Cow, 205, 207 Coward, 197, 225 Cowbridge, 207 Cowell, arms, 207 Cowper, arms, 301; Earl, 413; supporters, 75, 437 Cowper-Essex, crest, 376 Crab, 255 Crackanthorpe, crest, 265 Craigmore, 112 Crane, 247 Cranstoun, arms, 247; crest, 247; motto, 451 Cranworth, Lord, supporters, 437 Crawford, crest, 215; Lord (Sir David Lindsay), 412; Reginald, 408; Rev. J. R., 472; Earl of, 114 Crawhall, arms, 248 Crawshay, 204; arms, 298 Crenelle, 93 Crescent, 146, 289, 488, 515 Crespine, 227 Crests, 28, 57, 58, 61, 62, 86, 156, 158, 166, 213, 320, 322, 323, 324, 326, 331, 332, 333, 334, 349, 370, 376, 402, 419, 438, 518; angle of, 76; badge as a, 456; bastardising, 519; coronets, 373, 375, 379; differencing on, 490, 512; label upon, 71; made of, 335; position of, 346 Creyke, arms, 248 Crined, 168 Cri-de-guerre, 58, 452 Crisp, crest, 227; Molineux-Montgomerie, crest, 251 Crocodile, 217, 218 Croker, crest, 288 Cromwell, 55; seals, 541 Crookes, Sir William, arms, 294; crest, 321; motto, 451 Crosier, 6, 59, 289 Cross, arms, 278 Cross, 15, 91, 93, 95, 103, 107, 108, 110, 127, 135, 158; botonny, 128, 130, 132; calvary, 128; cleché voided and pometté, 129; crosslet, 129, 130, 131; crosslet, differencing by, 485; crosslets, 89; dancetté, 93; fleurette, 128; flory, 128; moline, 128, 488; of St. Andrew, 131; parted and fretty, 129; patée or formée, 129, 130; patée quadrant, 129; patonce, 129; pieces, 109; potent, 85, 129; quarter-pierced, 129; tau or St. Anthony's, 129; of St. George, 25 Crow, 248 Crown, 11, 45, 73, 350; civic, 157; Imperial State, 359; of England, 358; palisado, 370; vallary, 370, 378 Crusades, 17 Crusilly, 89, 100, 131 Cubit arm, 169 Cuffe, 94 Cuffed, 171 Cuirass, 293 Cuisses, 55 Cullen, 49 Cumberland, Dukes of, 364, 496; label, 498 Cumbræ, College of the Holy Spirit of, 162 Cumin, Alexander, 412 Cumming-Gordon, 113; arms, 138, 541; arms, crest, motto, and supporters, 418 Cummins, arms, 280 Cuninghame, 427 Cunliffe, arms, 214 Cunninghame, arms, 126; supporters, 428; Montgomery, supporters, 214 Cup-bearer, Grand Butler or, insignia of, 581 Cups, 85, 288 Cure, 207 Curiosities of blazon, 74 "Curiosities of Heraldry," 15, 417 Curzon, arms, 249; motto, 451 Cushions, 290 Cypress-trees, 263 D'Albrets, supporters, 417 D'Albrey, Arnaud, supporters, 418 D'Alençon, Duc, 360; arms, 487; Comte, Jean IV., supporter, 410 D'Angoulême, Counts, arms, 487 D'Arcy, arms, 267, 268, 482, 484 d'Artois, Counts, arms, 487 D'Aubernoun, Sir John, 50, 51 d'Auvergne, Dauphins, 254 Dabrichecourt, Sir Sanchet, mantling, 389 Dacre, Lord, arms, 300; Sir Edmond, arms, 485 Dakyns, crest, 377; motto, 451 Dalrymple, J. D. G., F.S.A., 148 Daly, crest, 205 Dalzells, 416 Dalziel, 165, 432 Dalziell, 165 Dammant, arms, 268 Danby, 68; arms, 286 Dancetté, 91, 93 Daniels, 163 Dannebrog, Order of the, 569 Dannecourt, 229 Darbishire, 125, 129 Darcy de Knayth, Baroness, 546; supporter, 436; _see_ D'Arcy Darnaway, 39 Dartmouth, arms, 164; Earl of, arms, 209; supporters, 436 Darwen, town of, arms, 266 Dashwood, Bart., Sir George John Egerton, 223; supporters, 436 Daubeney, 68; arms, 147; crest, 265; badge, 458; mantling, 389 Daughters, arms of, 572; difference marks, 492 Dauphin, 253; arms, 486 Dauphiny, 408 Davenport, 350, 352, 358, 359; crest, 165 David II., 40, 144; seal, 274, 409 Davidson, crest, 375 Davies, 169; arms, 296; motto, 451; Sir Thomas, crest, 381 Davis, Cecil T., 55 Davis, Col. John, F.S.A., crest, 339 de Acton, _see_ Acton de Aldeburgh, _see_ Aldeburgh de Arundel, _see_ Arundel de Bailly, _see_ Bailly de Bellomont, or De Beaumont, _see_ Bellomont de Berkeley, _see_ Berkeley de Berri, _see_ Berri de Bohun, _see_ Bohun de Bruges, _see_ Bruges de Bruis, _see_ Bruis de Burgh, _see_ Burgh de Burton, _see_ Burton de Carteret, _see_ Carteret de Cassilhas, _see_ Cassilhas de Clare, _see_ Clare de Clarendon, _see_ Clarendon de Clinton, _see_ Clinton de Courcy, _see_ Courcy de Davenport, _see_ Davenport de Flandre, _see_ Flandre de Gevres, _see_ Gevres de Giresme, _see_ Giresme de Grey, _see_ Grey de Guenonville, _see_ Guetterville de Hasting, _see_ Hasting de Haverington, _see_ Haverington de Hoghton, _see_ Hoghton de Knayth, _see_ Darcy de Knayth de Lacy, _see_ Lacy de Lowther, _see_ Lowther de Luttrell, _see_ Luttrell de Mailly, _see_ Mailly de Mandeville, _see_ Mandeville de Monbocher, _see_ Monbocher de Montfort, _see_ Montfort de Montravel, _see_ Montravel de Mornay, _see_ Mornay de Mundegumbri, _see_ Mundegumbri de Nerford, _see_ Nerford de Nevers, _see_ Nevers de Pelham, _see_ Pelham de Quincey, _see_ Quincey de Ramsey, _see_ Ramsey de Rouck, _see_ Rouck de Salis, _see_ Salis de Saumerez, _see_ Saumerez de Savelli, _see_ Savelli de Segrave, _see_ Segrave de Trafford, _see_ Trafford de Trutemne, _see_ Trutemne de Valence, _see_ Valence de Vera, _see_ Vera de Vere, _see_ Vere de Vesci, _see_ Vesci de Warren, _see_ Warren de Woodstock, _see_ Woodstock de Worms, _see_ Worms De la Ferte, 262 De la Rue, crest, 289 De la Vache, crest, 207 De la Warr, 89 de la Zouche, Sir W., arms, 136 Deane, crest, 217 Debruised, 103, 187 Dechaussée, 186 Decollated, 187 "Decorative Heraldry," 2, 65, 176, 233, 242 Decrescent, 289 Deer, 108, 208 Defamed, 187 Delves, 155 Demembré, 186, 187 Demi-bird, 240 Demi-falcons, 242 Demi-griffin, 224 Demi-horse, 201 Demi-lamb, 213 Demi-leopard, 193 Demi-lions, 189 Demi-otter, 215 Demi-ram, 213 Demi-savage, 165 Demi-vol, 240 Denbigh, Earl of, 413 Denham, arms, 446 Denmark, royal arms, 557; royal shield of, 255; flag of 613, Depicting, 86 Derby, Earl of, 32, 79, 81, 561; William de, seal, 80; Earls of, Stanleys, crests, 169, 341, 381 D'Eresby, Willoughby, Barony of, supporters, 400 Derry, _see_ Londonderry Desart, Lord, 94 Desenberg, Counts Spiegel Zum, arms, 293 Deutscher, Herold, 313 Device, 455 Devil, 229 Devonport, arms, 369 Dewsbury, 249 D'Harchies, Gerard, supporters, 418 Diadem, 350 Diamond, 77 Diapering, 90 Dick, arms, 286 Dick-Cunningham, 426 Dickson, Dr., 39 Dickson-Poynder, 126 "Dictionary of Heraldic Terms," 96, 215 Diffamed, 187 Difference marks, 78, 114, 116, 134, 138, 150, 154, 268, 289, 344, 345, 477, 487, 488, 502, 510, 515; optional, 490; bordures as, 481; position of, 489; compulsory, 490 Differencing, 482; modes of, 502 Diggs, Dame Judith, arms, 575 Dighton, 210 Dignity, cap of, 378 Dillon, Viscount, 433 Dimidiation, 523 Dingwall, 39 Diocletian, coins of, 351 Disarmed, 187 Dismembered, 186, 187 Displayed, 233, 235, 269 Distaff, 290 Distinction, 512; canton for, 134; marks of, 116, 135, 136, 139, 344, 380, 477, 554; marks of, practice, 518 Distinguished Service Order, 567; members of, insignia of, 584 Dobrée, 428; arms, 267 Dock or Burdock, arms, 266 Dodds, 256 Dodge, arms, 171; crest of, 205; augmentation, 589 Doe, 208, 209 Dog, 54, 203, 204, 432 Dogfish, 256 Dolphins, 253 Dominion and Sovereignty, arms of, 607 Donington, Lord, supporters, 186 Donnersperg, arms, 295 Donoughmore, Lord, supporters, 438 Dorchester Church, stained glass, 79 Dore, 261; arms, 260 Dormer, arms, 190 Double-headed eagle, supposed origin of, 3 Double quatrefoil, 268 Doubly cottised, 123 Douglas, 39, 40, 298; arms, 292, 484; Bart., supporters, 433; Earl of, seal, 411, 446; chapeau, 380; supporter, 410, 445; badge, 469; and Mar, Countess of, Margaret, 505 Doulton, arms, 288 Dove, 243 Dover, 164 Dovetailed, 91, 94, 95 Downes, arms, 249 Dox or Doxey, arms, 256 Dragance, 39 Dragon, 10, 15, 195, 219, 224, 225, 232, 407; ship, 294; as supporters, 437 Drake, Sir Francis, arms, 591 Dress of an Officer of Arms, 41, 42 Dreyer, 267 Drummond, supporters, 428; Sir James Williams, arms, 181; of Megginch, arms of, 69 Dublin, 126; Archbishop of, 584; arms, 602; city arms, 381; visitations of, 341 Ducal coronet, 373. _see_ also Coronet and Crest Coronet Duchess, mantle, 367; coronet, 367 Duck, 246 Duckworth, arms, 246 Dudley, Earl of, supporters, 433; Lord, crest, 217 Duff-Sutherland-Dunbar, Bart., Sir George, 319 Dufferin and Ava, Marquess, 474; supporters, 436 Duffield, arms, 277 Duke, robe or mantle of, 365, 367; coronet, 366, 367, 373; those having rank and title of, coronets, 363 Dukinfield, 129 Dumas, arms, 96 Dumbarton, arms, 213 Dunbar, crest, 298; Bart., Sir Alexander James, crest, 376; Sir Archibald, 144; crest, 376; Sir Patrick, label, 480; Brander, arms, 264 Duncan, Admiral, arms, 592 Duncombe, crest, 202 Dundee, city of, arms, 288; university of, arms, 271; Royal Burgh of, arms, 438 Dunn, Bart., Sir W., arms, 166 Dunstable, Sir Richard, badge, 469 Du Plessis Angers, 83 Durand, Sir Mortimer, supporter, 436 D'Urban, 285 D'Urbino, Duke, 545 Durham, Bishop of, 324, 603, 604; insignia of, 583; Dean of, 588; Cathedral, 49; Sir Alex., 39 Durning-Lawrence, arms, 291 Dusgate, 250 Dykes, crest, 255 Dykmore, arms and crest, 205 Eagle, 58, 230, 233, 238, 413; as supporters, 439; shields displayed on the breasts of, 412 Eaglets, 238 Ealing, borough of, arms, 287 Eared, 280 Earl Marshal, 27, 28, 29, 35; and Hereditary Marshal of England, insignia of, 585; Deputy, insignia of, 585; batons, 59 Earls, robe or mantle of, 365; coronet of, 366, 367, 375 Earth-colour, 74, 76 East India Company, supporters, 429 Eastern coronet, 370, 377 Ebury, Lord, 345 Eccles, arms, 301; town of, 282 Ecclesiastical banner, 476; emblems, 3; heraldry, 600 Echlin, 204 Eddington, arms, 168 Edel, 40 Edgar, King, seal, 475 Edinburgh, 47; College of Surgeons, 167; Castle, 357 Edock, 266 Edward I., 30, 34, 39, 84, 275, 357, 494, 607 Edward II., 30, 275, 494 Edward III., 30, 31, 32, 34, 37, 38, 371, 453, 456, 465, 466, 467, 469, 494, 607; seal, 274 Edward IV., 31, 32, 33, 34, 37, 333, 354, 469, 607; badge, 468; seal, 354 Edward VI., 467; seal, 372; supporters, 225 Edward VII., 42, 359, 361; Coronation of, 365, 366 Edward the Black Prince, 360; crest, 380; helmet, 371 Edward the Confessor, 15, 356, 371; ring of, 360; seal, 353 Edwards, arms, 285 Eel, 255 Eglinton, Earl of, 145; supporters, 438 Ehrenvest, 40 Eider-duck, 246 Eighth son, 488 Eisenhüt-feh, 82 Eisenhutlein, 82 Eldest son, difference mark of, 373, 479, 487, 488 Elephant, 213 Elgin, royal burgh of, 162 Elgin and Kincardine, Earl of, supporters, 433 Elizabeth, Queen, 61, 164, 272, 391, 414, 508, 590, 591, 607; supporters, 225 Ellis, 255; arms, 228, 254; crest, 432 Elmhurst, crest, 262 Elphinstone, Lord, supporters, 433 Ely, Abbess of, arms of the See, 298 Embattled, 91, 93, 94, 108; counter-embattled, 96 Emblazon, 99 Emblazonments, 60; early, 90; of mottoes, 452 Embowed, 96, 170, 187, 242, 254 Emerald, 77 Empress, German, late, label, 497 End, 188 Endorsed, 116, 187, 223 Endure, 39 Enfantleroy, 169 Enfield, 231 England, 139; badge, 457; a bordure of, 102; canton of, 136, 181; Lord Chief-Justice of, insignia of, 586; Kings of (George I. to William IV.), Arch Treasurers, insignia of, 583; Lord High Constable of, insignia of, 585; mottoes in, 449; regalia in, 46; rose of, 470; Royal Arms of, 607; a throne heir-apparent, label, 496 "English Regalia," 352 Engouled, 187 Engrailed, 91, 108, 115, 137 Enguerrand IV., 84 Enhanced, 115 Enniskillen, Earl of, supporters, 437 Ensign 455, 471; owl in, 9; or flags, 9 Enys, arms, 259 Epaulières, 55 Eradicated, 262, 264 Erased, 240 Erect, 223, 257 Ermine, 69, 77, 215; spot, 83 Ermine spots, 78, 112, 123 Ermines, 78 Erminites, 78 Erminois, 78 Errol, Earl of, 415, 585; badge, 416 Erskine, augmentation, 598 Escallops, 299 Escarbuncle, 64, 290 Escutcheon, 59, 137; of pretence, 536, 542; of pretence, quarterings on, 540 Espin, arms, 266 Esquire, helmet of, 319; Grand, insignia of, 581 Essex, Earl of, mantling, 389; Torse, arms, 404; Garter plate of, 372; effigy, 390; Mandevilles, 467 Estoiles, 295 Estwere, arms, 263 Eton College, arms, 269, 271 Ettrick, 39 Evans, arms, 280, 291; Captain John Viney, arms, 276; Sloane, 6, 167. Eve, G. W., 2, 65, 176, 183, 233, 242, 243, 272, 275, 321, 397 Every-Halstead, crest, 376 Eviré, 187 Exemplification, 71, 72, 145 Exeter, Dean of, insignia of, 588; Duke of, John de Holland, label, 596; Marquesses of, crest, 381 Exmouth, Viscount, augmentation, 593 Exterior ornaments, 58 Eye, 171; crest, 171, 298; town of, crest, 372 Éyre, 267; Simon, arms, 217 Faerie Queen, 221 Faggot, 280 Falcon, 241, 243; as a badge, 31; King of Arms, 31 Falconer, arms, 257 Falconer, Grand, insignia of, 581 Falkland, 39 Falmouth, Viscount, supporters, 436; arms, 270 Family tokens, Japanese, 12 Fane-de-Salis, crest, 375; Counts, arms, 263 Fanhope, Lord, crest, 380 Fanmakers' Company, crest, 291 Fans, 55, 328, 330, 331 Farmer, arms, 95 Farquhar, crest, 377 Farquharson, 262 Farrer, 80, 202 Farrier, 80 Fasces, 291 Fauconberg, Lord, Torse, arms, 404; Garter plate, 342 Fauconberg and Conyers, Baroness, 546 Fauntleroy, 169 Favours, 403, 404; supporters as marks of, 420 Fawside, Allan, 40 Feathers, 83 Fees, 117 Felbrigge, K.G., Sir Simon, arms, crest, mantling, 387 Fellows, arms, 112, 209 Fenton, arms, 95 Fentoun, Jane, label, 481 Ferdinand III., 543 Fergus I., King, 142 Ferguson, arms, 260 Fermoy, Lord, crest, 241; motto, 451 Fern-Brake, 265 Ferrar, 202 Ferrer, arms, 80, 81 Ferrers, 79, 83, 148, 202; Earl, arms, 134; Lord, Garter plate, 374; Torse, arms, 404 Fess, 91, 93, 107, 108, 119; dancetté, 118; embattled, 108, 118; flory, 96; wreathed, 118 Fest-Buch, 313 Fetterlocks, 291 Feversham, Earl of, supporters, 436 Ffarington, crest, 227 Ffinden, 206 Field, 5, 69, 70, 86, 87, 88, 89, 104, 115; composed of, 97; fretty, 148; gyronny, 137; masculy, 148; per chevron, 124; quarterly, 98 Fife, Duke of, crest, 166, 200; supporters, 433; Duchess of, label, 497; Princesses of, 596 Fifth son, 488 File, 154 Fillet, 402 Finance, Superintendent of the, insignia of, 581 Finch, 250 Finlay, arms, 255 Fir-cone, 276 Fir-trees, 262 Fire, 291 Firth, 283 Fish, 253 Fisher, 250; Lady, 201 Fishmongers' Livery Company, arms, 291 Fitched, 130 Fitzalan, 486 FitzErcald, 214 Fitzgerald, 215; arms, 525; motto, 449; Maurice, 525 Fitzhardinge, Lord, 73 Fitz-Herbert, 113; arms, 483 Fitz-Pernell, Robert, 268 Fitz-Simon, arms, 72, 155 Fitzwalter, arms, 102 Fitzwilliam, Earl, supporters, 433 Flags, 9, 10, 471, 611-617 Flanders, arms, 524; Count of, Philippe D'Alsace, Helmet, 327; Count of, Louis van Male, signet of, 410 Flandre, Jeanne De, seal of, 84 Flanks, 103 Flasks, 150 Flaunch, 102, 108, 150 Flavel, 291 Flayed, 187 Fleam, 292 Fleas, 261 Fleece, 211, 212 Flemings, 86 Flesh-colour, 74, 76 Fleshed, 187 Fletcher, 5; arms, 254, 293; crest, 229 Fleur-de-lis, 89, 95, 126, 272, 273, 275, 488 Fleurons, 274 Flies, 261 Florence, 83, 84; arms, 275 Florencée, 274, 275 Florent, seal, 410 Florio, arms, 272 Flory, 96, 141; counter-flory, 95 Flounders, 256 Flukes, 256 Foljambe, badge, 232 Forbes, crest, 375 Forcene, 201 Ford, James, 112 Foreign heraldry, 81 Forrest, arms, 262 Fortescue, motto, 451 Fortification, 282 Fortune, 166 Foulis, arms, 266 Foulds, arms, 266 Fountain, 151, 294 Fourth son, 488 Fox, 5, 197, 198; arms, 5, 288, 301; crest, 210; -Davies, crest, 301; head, 5; hound, 205 Fraises, 268, 271 France, 15, 61, 83, 84, 273; arms, 274; Chancelier, mantling, 400; crests, 343; ensigns of, 46; Heralds in, 44; High Constable of, insignia of, 580; label, 481; Margaret of, arms, 524; Presidents of, mantling, 400; Royal Arms of, 452 France-Hayhurst, crest, 262 Francis I., King of France, 230 Franco, 87 Franconis, arms, 83 Francquart, 75 Franks, King of the, 273 Fraser, arms, 268, 271, 298, 484 Fraser-Mackintosh, crest, 169 Frederick III., Emperor, motto, 452 Frederick IV., Emperor, 216 Free Warren, Licence of, 73 Freiburg, supporters, 409 French blazon, 78; coat, 38; Royal Arms, 486; term, 74 Fresnay, 83 Fret, 108, 149, 150 Fretty, 148, 149, 150 Fruit, 276 Frog, 258 Froissart, 31, 33, 40, 44, 505 Fructed, 266 Full chase, 208 Fuller, Thomas, 219 Fulton, arms, 483 Fur, 50, 77, 79, 86, 151; separately, 84 Furison, 292 Furnivall, Baroness, 541 Fusil, 108, 147 Fusilly in bend, 122; in bend sinister, 122 Fylfot, 302 Fysh, Sir Philip Oakley, crest, 256 Gabions, 282 Gadflies, 261 Gads, 155 Galbraith, 294 Galley, 294; General of the, insignia of, 581 Galloway, Earl of (Stewart), arms, 483; See of, 162 Galpin, arms, 250 Gamb, 190, _see_ Paw Gamboa, arms, 266 Gamecock, 246 Gandolfi, arms, 264 Gandy, arms, 217 Garbett, motto, 451 Garbs, 278 Garioch, 39 Garland, 156, 157 Garnished or, 171 Garter King of Arms, 4, 28, 29, 30, 34, 41, 45, 47, 58, 96, 226, 349, 568; arms and insignia of, 47, 586; Most Noble Order of the, 34; Chancellor of the Order of the, insignia of, 584; Knight of the, insignia of, 78, 583; Knights of the, rules, 562; Stall plates, mantlings, 389, 390; Star of, 25 Garvey, 256 Garvinfisher, 256 Garwynton, arms, 277 Garzune, 27 Gasceline, arms, 155 Gascoigne, 34 Gatehouse, crest, 251 Gaul, 273 Gaunt, John of, 466, 486, 513 Gauntlet, 171, 293 Ged, 255 Geddes, 255 Geese, 10 Gegen-hermelin, 78 Gegensturzkrückenfeh, 85 Gellic, arms, 294 Gelre, 374, 405; Armorial de, 115; Herald, 144 Gem-rings, 154 Gemel, 120 _Genealogical Magazine_, 22, 43, 226, 576, 601 "Généalogie des Comtes de Flandre," 84 "General Armory," 85, 551 Geneva, 82 Genouillères, 55 Gentleman, meaning of, 20; helmet of, 319 George I., 29, 608 George III., 29, 274, 356, 359, 413; seal, 475 German, 121; electors, mantlings, 400; heraldry, 74, 81, 82; heralds, 86; inescutcheon in, 138; officers, 40; terms for, 78, 85; "Von," 68 "German Bookplates," 176 German Emperor, arms, 400; supporters, 433 Germany, 27, 41, 69, 104, 368; arms in, 559; bordures, 481; cadency, 344; crests, 343, 344; differences in, 481; label, 481; method of conjunction, 560; mottoes in, 451, 452; supporters in, 431 Gevres, De, supporters, 231 Geyss, arms, 231 Gibsone, supporters, 428 Gillman, 171; crest, 287 Gillyflowers, 271 Gilmour, 267 Gilstrap, 283 Giraffe, 438 Giresme, Nicole De, supporters, 418 Gladstone, 141, 168; Rt. Hon. W. E., 41 Glasford, crest, 339 Glasgow, arms, 263; city of, arms, 439; crest of, 163 Glass, 79 Glaziers' Livery Company, supporters, 433 Glevenrad, 64 Glissant, 257 "Glossary of Terms used in Heraldry," 78, 79, 371, 455 Gloucester, 29; Cathedral, rebus at, 455; Duke of, 33; Duke of, label, 499; Duke of, Richard, 317; Duke of, Thomas, badge, 466; Duchess of, label, 498; Herald, 32; King of Arms, 33, 35, 36 Gloved, 171 Gloves, 171, 272 Gnu, 438 Goat, 11, 213; as supporter, 437 Gold, 70, 77; ermine spots, 78; ingots of, 292; use of, 70 Gold-hermelin, 78 Golden Fleece, Order of the, badge, 213, 261 Goldie, arms, 217 Goldie-Scot, 112 Golpe, 151 Gomm, 576 Gooch, 204; arms, 302 Goodchief, arms, 148 Gooden, James, 427 Goodfellow, 164; arms, 282 Gordon, arms, 146; crest, 25; Highlanders, 25; tartan of, 25 Gorges, 153 Gorget, 313 Gostwick, Sir John, helmet, 311 Gothic, 65; Shield, 64 Gough, Lord, augmentation, 348, 594; supporter, 226, 437 Gourds, 277 Goutté, 89 Grace, Knights of, 568, 570; Ladies of, 568; Knights of, and other members, insignia of, 585 Græme, crest, 171 Grafton, Duke of, 515 Graham, crest, 242 Graham-Wigan, crest, 291 Grailly, John de, Garter Hall-plate, 229 "Grammar of Heraldry," 6, 167 Granada, King of, 360 Grandchildren, label, 487 Grand quarterings, 104, 544, 555 Grantmesnil, 268 Grants of arms, 57, 68; to a Bishop, 62; to a woman, 62; crest, 291; fees, 516 Granville, Earls of (De Carteret), 210 Grapes, 276 Grass, 280 Grasshopper, 261 Graves, Lord, supporters, 241 Great Central Railway, arms, 301 Great Torrington, arms, 275 Grecians, 9 Greece, kingdom of, supporters, 433; arms, 541 Green, 70, 77 Greenwich, Mason of, arms, 180 Greg, 262 Grenades, 284 Grene, Henry, 32 Gresham, crest, 261; Sir William, badge, 469 Gresley, 83; arms, 81 Greve, Henry, 40 Grey, 76, 480; arms, 486; John de, arms, 486; Sir John, 380; of Ruthin, K.G., Sir John, arms, crest, mantling, 388 Grey and Hastings controversy, 478, 539 Greyhounds, 204 Grid-iron, 315 Grieces, 128 Griffin, 3, 108, 223, 224, 232, 416, 432; as supporter, 436 Griffin or Gryphon, 222, 223 Grifton, Richard, 455 Grimaldi Roll, 148 Grimké-Drayton, crest, 263 Grocers' Livery Company, arms, 277; supporters, 429 Grosvenor, 22, 28, 204; arms, 278, 554; Sir Gilbert le, 278; _see_ Scrope Gros vair, 82 Ground of the shield, 69 Grove, arms, 264 Grunenberg, 28, 144, 203, 234, 248 Gruthuyse, Lord of, Louis de Bruges, 147 Gryphon, supposed origin of, 3 Gryphon-marine, 224 Guard, Yeomen of the, badge, 457 Guards of the Gate, Captain of the, insignia of, 582 Gudgeon, 256 Gueldres, Duke of, 144; Mary of, seal, 409 Guige, 54 Guillim, 77, 94, 95, 108, 152, 221, 230, 540 Guise, arms of, 146; crest, 245; supporters, 420 Gules, 5, 13, 70, 90 Gull, Bart., arms, 250; crest, 291; augmentation, 598 Gulston, crest, 243 Gunstone, 151 Gutté-d'eau, 90; d'huile, 90; de-larmes, 90; d'or, 90; de-poix, 90; de-sang, 90 Guyenne, 29, 33, 34; and Lancaster, a Herald of the Duke of, 32 Guze, 151 Gwatkin, crest, 260 Gwilt, crest, 231 Gynes, 84 Gyron, 108, 137 Gyronny, 100, 137, 139 Habited, 170 Hacked, 96 Hadrian, Emperor, coin, 273 Hagelshaimer, Sigmund, arms, 411 Haig, arms, 207 Hailes, 39 Hainault, Counts of, badge, 465 Hales, 39, 283; arms, 298 Halford, augmentation, 598; supporters, 420 Halifax, Lord, 165; town of, 158 Ham, 200 Hamilton, arms, 268; crest, 374; Duke of, 380; Lady, 576 Hamilton-Grace, 594 Hammers, 301 Hammersmith, crest, 301 Hampshire, Earl of, 32 Hanbury, crest, 374 Hand, 169 Hanover, 49, 201, 473; arms of, 608; King of, 496; Princess Frederica of, coronet, 365 Hanoverian Guelphic Order, 29 Hapsburg, 417; Counts of, 413 Harben, arms, 286 Harcourt, crest, 247 Hardinge, Bart., arms, 605 Hare, 214 Hargenvilliers, 83 Harington, 150 Harleian MSS., 69, 72 Harley, 113, 376 Harman, arms, 212 Harmoustier, John of, 173 Harold, 15 Harp, 292 Harpy, 171, 229, 438 Harris, 216; crest, 280 Harrison, arms, 189; crest, 339; Rogers, crest, 378 Hart, 208; Sir Robert, Bart., arms, 267; supporter, 226, 247, 437 Harter, 265 Harvest flies, 261 Haseley, arms, 277 Hastings, 15, 206, 292, 525; arms, 182, 403; Sir Edward, 478; Edmund de, label, 480; Lord, badge, 469 Hat, 293, 378 Hatchings, 74, 76 Hatchments, 578, 609 Hatton, crest, 209 Hauberk, 51, 55 Hauriant, 253; embowed, 254 Haverington, Sir John de, 150 Hawberk, Sir Richard, helm of, 308 Hawk, 241, 412, 413 Hawke, Lord, supporters, 442 Hawkey, arms, 271 Hawk's lure, 302; bell, 287 Hawthorn-tree, 263 Hay, Bart., 541; motto, 451; supporters, 416 Hayne, crest, 217 Hays, 415 Hazel-leaves, 266 Heads, varieties of, 167 Heard, Sir Isaac, 164 Hearne, arms, 248 Heart, 292; escutcheon, 138; shield, 104 Heathcock, 249 Hedgehog, 216 Heir or heiress, 67, 138, 526, 531, 542, 543; crests, 546; crests heritable through, 342; heirs-general, 527, 528; portioners, 528; quarterings, 548 Hefner-Alteneck, 234 Helard, 176 Heldchurchgate, 204 Helemmes, 83 Hellenes, Kings of the, 541 Helmet, 9, 17, 76, 293, 303, 398, 402, 571; of a peer, 319; lady's sleeve upon, 403; crests, 335; two, 323 Helmschau, 28, 318, 336 Helt, 411 Henderson, 126 Heneage knot, 469 Henry I., 173, 353; seal, 354 Henry II., badge, 468; coins, 354 Henry III., 117, 226, 412, 467, 607; badge, 468; seal, 354 Henry IV., 30, 31, 32, 34, 39, 40, 467, 513, 607; crown, 362; seal, 274, 466 Henry V., 22, 32, 34, 360, 403; badges, 467; Garter plate, 389 Henry VI., 33, 34, 355, 480; badges, 195; seal, 354 Henry VII., 31, 33, 269, 270, 385, 513; badges, 468, 469; chapel, 284, 323, 563, 564; coins, 354, 355; seal, 355; supporters, 38, 225 Henry VIII., 24, 25, 37, 372, 380, 429, 456, 457, 467, 474, 597; crown and seal, 355; Privy seal, 467; supporters, 225 Hepburn arms, 266; Sir Patrick, 505 Herald, 27, 28, 29, 32, 37, 38, 40, 41, 44, 45, 46, 47; costume of, 43; King of Arms, 31; tabard of, 41; English, insignia of, 587; Irish, insignia of, 587; Scottish, insignia of, 587; incorporated, 38; wear, 44; and pursuivants, 39 "Heraldic Atlas," 75, 78 Heraldic courtesy, 558 Heraldry, age of, 3; antiquity of, 5; origin of, 3 "Heraldry of Continental Nations," 74 Herbert, 520 Hereford, city of, 598; Bishop of, arms, 276; Earls of, 32; Earls of, badge, 410; Earl of, Richard Clare, 525 Hermon, crest, 339 Herne, 248 Herodotus, 6, 9 Heron, 247; as supporters, 440 Herring, 255 Herring-net, 150 Herschel, Sir Wm., arms, 297 Herschell, Lord, supporters, 442 Hesilrige or Hazlerigg, arms, 266 Hesse, 62; Duke of, 400; Grand Duchess of, late, label, 497 Hesse-Homburg, Princess of, label, 498 Heyworth, arms, 217 Hieroglyphics, 10, 11 Hill, arms, 268, 280 Hilton, supporters, 421 Hinckley, 117 Hind, 208, 209 Hindlip, Lord, supporters, 205 Hippogriff, 232 Hippomedon, 7 Hippopotamus, 217 Hobart, arms, 295 Hobson, arms, 241 Hodsoll, arms, 294 Hoghton, De, 207; supporters, 421 Hohenzollern, flag of, 476 Holderness, Earls of, supporters, 436 Holdick-Hungerford, crest, 299 Holland, Countess of, Margaret of Bavaria, seal, 524 Hollis, 125 Hollist, arms, crest, 277 Holly, 265; branches, 265; leaves, 266 Holthouse, Roger, arms of, 81 Holy Roman Empire, 237, 413; Arch Treasurers of, 608 Holy Trinity, emblem of, 473 Holyrood, 40 Hone, 412 Honour, augmentations of, 60, 132; marks of, 57 Hood, Lord, supporters, 229 Hooded, 242 Hook, Theodore, motto, 451 Hope, crest, 294 Hope, St. John, 280, 402 Horse, 200; as supporter, 437; in arms, 5 Horsely, William, 32 Horseshoes, 80 Hose, arms, 293 Hoste, Sir William, augmentation, 595 Houldsworth, arms, 264 Household, First Master of the, insignia of, 581; Lord Chamberlain of the, insignia of, 588 Hove, town of, arms, 301 Howard, 70; Lord, badge, 469 Howth, Earl of, supporters, 436 Huddersfield, town of, 213 Hulley, arms, 280 Human figures, 158, 432; head, 158 Humbert I., 411; II., seal, 408 Hundred Swiss Guards, Captain of the, insignia of, 581 Hungary, crown, 351 Hungerford, crest, 299; Lord, Garterplate, 374; Heytesbury, K.G., Lord, Sir Walter Hungerford, arms, crest, mantling, 387 Hunter, 204 Hunter-Weston, arms, 424 Huntingdon, Lord, supporters, 186; Earl of, 125, 143 Hurst, arms, 296 Hurt, 151 Hussey, arms, 388; crest, 171, 293 Hutchinson, arms, 101 Huth, arms, 277, 293 Hutton, arms, 153, 290 Hybrids, 224 Hydra, 227 Hyena, 438 Ibex, 210, 230 Iceland, arms, 255 Ilchester, Earl of, arms, 197; town of, 295 Illegitimacy, 344, 502, 515; mark of, 114, 136, 139, 140, 481, 501, 554; Royal Licence, 553, 554; difference marks, 492; sign of, 508 Impalement, 57, 140, 144, 524, 531, 534, 536, 550, 558 Imperial Crown, 46, 47, 144; Service Order, 567; members of, insignia of, 584 Impersonal arms, 57 In armour, 171 In base, 103 In bend, 102, 113 In chevron, 102 In chief, 103 In fess, 103 In full chase, 204 In full course, 204 In his pride, 246 In its piety, 242 In orle, 101 In pale, 102, 103 Inchiquin and Youghal, feudal lord, 525 Indented, 91, 93, 96 India, Order of the Crown of, members of, insignia of, 568, 584; emblem of, 271; Lotus-flower, 470 Indian Empire, Most Eminent Order of the, 567, 584 Inescutcheon, 108, 137, 138, 418, 419, 541; addition of an, 483; within an, 141 Infantry, Colonel-General of the, insignia of, 581 Ingelram De Ghisnes, arms, 84 Inheritance, 145 Inner Temple, arms, 203 Innes, crest, 265 Innes, Cosmo, 415 Invecked or Invected, 91 Inveraray, 88; burgh of, 255 Inverarity, crest, 265, 270 Inverness, arms, 158; Royal Burgh of, arms, supporters, 430; town of, supporters, 217 Inverted, 223, 235 Ireland, 29, 33, 39; badge, 457; crest, 468; crests, 520; crest of, 373; Duke of, augmentation, 596; heralds in, 45; helmet, 325; King of Arms, 33; mottoes in, 448; national badge, 267; pursuivants in, 45; shamrock, 470; supporters in, 421 Ireland, badge, 267; Chief Secretaries for, insignia of, 584; Hereditary Lord Great Seneschal of, insignia of, 586; Hereditary Marshal of, insignia of, 585 Irene, Empress, 351 Iron hat vair, 82 Iron-grey, 74, 76 Irvine, 266 Irvine or Irwin, 265, 266 Isham, arms, 126 Islay, 39 Isle of Man, 171 Islip, rebus, 455 Italian differences, 482 Italy, 61, 82 Italy, State of, 475 Iveagh, Lord, supporters, 442 Jack, 255 Jackson, arms, 246 Jamaica, supporters, 429 Jambes, 55 James I., 439, 446, 607, 608, 611; seal, 475 James II., 409, 467, 607; State Crown, 356 James III., 270, 597; arms, 559 James IV., 39, 145 James V., 145, 357 James VI., 357, 598 Janssen, Bart., arms, 280 Japanese tokens, 12 Javelin, 285 Jean, Dauphin, seal, 411 Jedburgh, arms of, 166, 200 Jefferson, Miss, 576 Jeffrey, Lord, 426 Jejeebhoy, Bart., Sir Jamsetjee, crest, 247 Jellopped, 246 Jenkinson, crest, 202 Jennings, arms, 293 Jerningham, crest, 242; badge, 288 Jerusalem, arms of, 40, 85 Jervis, arms, 250 Jervoise, arms, 284 Jessant-de-lis, 193, 275 Jess and Jessed, 241 Jessel, crest, 239 Jeune, crest, 209 Jezierski, Counts, arms, 298 Joass, arms, 301 Jocelyn, arms, 287 Joerg, Von Pauli, 162 John, King, 607; seal, 173 Johnson, Dr. 455 Johnston, 207; Graham, 176, 397; crest, 286 Johnstone, arms, 292 Joicey, Lord, supporters, 437 Joiners' Livery Company, supporters, 433 Jonson, crest, 339 Jorger, 162 Joscelin, crest, 242 Joseph III., Emperor, 413 Joslin, arms, 287 Jousting-shield, 64; helm, 311 Jude, Dame Marye, grant to, 574, 575 Jungingen, arms, 301 Jupiter, 10, 77 Jupon, 55 Justice, 164; Knights of, 568, 570; Ladies of, 568 Justinian, 350, 351 Kaisar-I-Hind Medal, 568; insignia of those entitled to, 584 Kay, arms of, 78 Kaye, Rev. Walter J., 51 Keane, Lord, augmentation, 594 Keates, 195 Kekitmore, arms, 281 Kelly, arms, 282 Kemsley, crest, 438 Kenneth III., 165, 415 Kenney, crest, 375 Kent, 55; Duke of, label, 498; Earl of, Thomas Holland, seal, 410; badge, 467; Fair Maid of, Joan, badge, 467 Kerrison, Sir Edward, augmentation 594 Kersey, crest, 268 Kevilioc, arms, 278 Keys, 291 Keythongs, 195 Killach, arms, 266 Kilmarnock, town of, arms, supporters, 430 Kilvington, 78 Kimono, 12 King, 267 King of Arms, 22, 27, 28, 29, 61; crown of, 45; crown or coronet of, 368 Kingdom, Constable of the, insignia of, 582 King's flag, 472; livery, 73; favour of, augmentations, 596; gamekeeper to the, insignia of, 581; Grand Master of the Household to the, insignia of, 581; Guards, Captain of the, insignia of, 581 Kinloss, Baroness, arms, 534 Kinnaird, Lord, supporters, 433 Kinnoull, Earl of, 425; augmentation, 597 Kintore, Earl of, augmentation, 597; crest, 165 Kiku-non-hana-mon, 13 Kiri-mon, 13 Kirk, arms, 95 Kirkcaldy, Royal Burgh of, 160 Kirkwood, 291 Kitchener, Lord, augmentation, 348; arms, 594; Viscount, supporter, 217 Knevet, Elizabeth, 55 Knight, arms, 286; impales arms of wife, 570; widow of, 533; bachelor, wife of, 531; helmet of, 319 "Knight and Rumley's Heraldry," 65 Knighthood, 561; banner of, 73; Order of, 29; Companion of any Order of, impaling, 531 Knights of any Order, widow of, 570 Knights Bachelor, impaling, 571; helmet of, 571; Commanders, helmet of, 571; insignia of, 584; Grand Cross, helmet of, 571; supporters to, 569 Knill, arms, 291 Knots, 469 Koh-i-noor, 361 Kursch, 85 La Cordelière, Order of, 570 La Dolce, 195 La Tour du Pin, 254 La Warr, motto, 450 Label, 71, 108, 154, 155, 380, 479, 482, 483, 487, 488, 494 Lacy, de, 72 Ladies, supporters to, 424 Lady, armorial bearings of, 572; arms of, 146 Lady, colours of, 403 Lady's sleeve, 403 Lady, unmarried, arms, 533 Laird, compartment, 446 Laiterberg, arms, 285 Lake, Dr. Edward, augmentation, 591 Laking, Bart., G.C.V.O., Sir Francis, 78 Lamb, 211, 212 Lambel, 154 Lambert, 268; crest, 228, 229 Lambeth, arms, 271 Lambrequin, 18, 383, 401, 402; badges on, 458 Lamplugh, C.E., crest, 339 Lancaster, 29, 50; badge of, 48; Henry of, 410, 480; Herald, 38; King of Arms, 30, 31, 32, 34; Earl of, Edmund Cruchback, 511; Earl of, Thomas, 480; County Council, seal, 467; Duke of, 38; motto, 466; Duchy of, 253; Duchy of, seals, 467, 475; town of, arms, 275; livery colours, 513; Roy d'Armes del North, 31 Lance, 54, 285 Land, conditions held under, 19 Landgrave, Konrad, 63 Landscape, 87; augmentation, 132; coats, 74 Landschaden, crest, 384 Lane, crest, 75, 201, 298; arms, 181, 136; Sir Thomas, 201; Mistress Jane, 75, 201, 591 Lanesborough, Lord, supporter, 438 Langridge, arms, 226 Langton, crest, 226 Lanigan-O'Keefe, 166 Lantern, 301 Lanyon, 137 Lapwing, 249 Lark, 249 Latham, 412 Latimer, Lord, 485; arms, crest, mantling, 387 Laurel, 265; branches, 265; leaves, 266; tree, 263 Laurie, 39; arms, 288 Lausanne, 83 Law, arms, 246; "Law and Practice of Heraldry in Scotland," 427, 447 Lax, Mrs. Sarah, 576 Layland-Barratt, arms, 278 Le Corbeau, 248 Le Fitz, 150 Le Grosvenor, _see_ Grosvenor Le Mans, Cathedral of, 62 Le Moyne, crest, 341 Le Neve, Sir Wm., 166 Le Strange, Styleman, supporter, 436 Lead, 50 League of Mercy, decoration of the, 568; insignia of those entitled to, 584 Leake, Stephen Martin, 34 Leaves, 266 Leconfield, Lord, supporters, 436 Lee, 43, 118 Leeds, arms, 249; Duke of, supporter, 436 Lees, arms, 290 Leeson, arms, 294 Leg, 171 Leg-Irons, 301 Legg, 171 Legge, arms, 209 Legged, 242, 244, 249 Legh, 50; augmentation, 590 Leicester, 29, 32; Earls of, 32, 267, 314, 485; Earls of, Simons de Montfort, 117; King of Arms, 32; town of, arms, 267 Leigh, arms, 285; General, 403; Gerard, 36, 81; town of, 290 Leighton, Lord, 94 Leinster, Duke of, supporters, 215, 620 Leipzic, town library of, 306 Leith, 88; town of, arms, 159 Leland, 143, 152 Leman, Sir John, crest, 263 Lemon-tree, 263 Lemprière, 428 Lennox, 525 Leon, arms, 188 Leopard, 11, 71, 172, 173, 174, 192, 218, 227; face, 275 Leopard-lionné, 173 Leopold, Markgrave, seal, 237 Lerwick, 294 Leslie, arms, 412; crest, 165; motto, 450 Lestrange, 485 Lethbridge, Sir Roper, 272; arms, 282 Lever, arms, 112 Leveson-Gower, arms, 266 Lewis, arms, 286, 291 Licence, 73 Lichfield, 78; Dean of, 588 Lichtenstein, 40 Liebreich, arms, 214 Life Guards, 25 Lighthouse, 301 Lilford, Lord, arms, 190 Lilienfield, 82 Lilienhaspel, 64 Lilley, arms, 271 Lilly, arms, 271 Lily, 271, 273 Lily-staple, 64 Lincoln College, Oxford, 445; Earl of, William de Roumare, 485; Dean of, 588; Sees of, 160 Lincoln's Inn, Hall of, 414 Linden leaves, 266, 316 Lindsay, 39, 114; crest, 246; Sir David, 144, 415 Lindwurm, 225 Lines, 91, 96, 117, 119, 123, 124, 501 Lingen, crest, 269; arms, 72 Linlithgow, 163; burgh of, 204 Linz, 308 Lion Heraud, 40 Lion, William the, 502 Lion-léopardé, 173 Lionced, 187 Lioncels, 174 Lioness, 188 Lionné, 187 Lions, 11, 54, 108, 172-181, 432; as supporter, 434 Lippe, Prince of, crests, 343 Lipton, Bart., crest, 265 Liskeard, 155; seals, 275 Lisle, Baroness, 541 Lismore, Lord, arms, 262 Liverpool, Earl of, crest, 348; town of, supporters, 429 Livery, 73; colours, 386, 404, 474; crests, 463, 464 Livingstone, arms, 271 Lizards, 259, 407 Lloyd, 78, 167, 265, 285; arms, 85, 185; augmentation, 596; quarterings, 545 Lobkowitz, 75 Lobster, 255 Loch, Lord, arms, 294 Lockhart, arms, 291 Locomotives, 301 Loder-Symonds, arms, 254 Lodged, 208 Loffredo, 83 Loggerheads, 193 Lombardy, iron crown of, 351 London, city of, seal, 329; arms, 325, 329, 330; crest, 330; supporters, 330, 437; Dean of, 588; Lord Mayor of, 382; _Gazette_, 365 Londonderry, arms, 166; town of, augmentation, 598 Long, arms, 101 Long cross, 128 Longueville, Duke of, Louis D'Orleans, 596 Longueville, Count de, arms, crest, torse, mantling, 388, 404 Lopes, Bart., 87 Lopus, Dr., arms, 263 Lorraine, 83, 188; arms, 240 Lothian, Earl of, 480 Lotus-flower, 271 Loudoun, Earl of, badge, 458 Louis VII., seal, 273; signet, 274 Louis VIII., seal and counter-seal, 274 Louis XI., seals, 400 Louis XII., 597 Louis XVI., 395 Lovel, Viscount, Garter plate, 561; Torse, arms, 404; mantling, 390 Lovett, 196 Low, arms, 196, 276 Lowdell, 226 Lower, 417 Lower Austria, 82 Lownes, 227 Lowther, arms, 153 Lozenge, 60, 98, 108, 112, 122, 146, 546; arms on, 532, 572 Lub-den Frumen, 40 Lucas, 255 Lucerne, supporter, 409 Lucy, 255 Ludlow, Lord, 87; arms, 469 Lumley, arms, 249 Lumsden, arms, 255 Lundin, John, 502 Luneberg, 608 Lupus, 276 Lurgan, Lord, crest, 381 Luttrell, Sir Geoffrey de, effigy, 329; supporters, 421 Lygh, Roger, 32 Lympago, 186 Lymphad, 58, 294, 412 Lynch, crest, 197 Lynx, 197 Lyon King of Arms, 29, 39, 46, 47, 66, 142, 323, 390, 568; arms of, 548, 568; crown of, 368 Lyon Office, 185, 204, 213; grants of, supporters by, 420 Lyveden, Lord, supporter, 437 McCammond, 202 McCarthy, crest, 259 McDowille, Dugal, 40 McLarty, arms, 282 Macara, arms, 261 Macleod, crest, 207 MacDermott, 267 Macdonald, 294 Macfarlane, compartment, 446 Macfie, 294; arms, 286 Macgregor, 166 Mackenzie, 445, 446 Mackerel, 256 Mackesy, arms, 286 Maclachlan, supporters, 428 MacLaurin, arms, 290 MacMahon, arms, 243 MacMurrogh-Murphy, arms, 263 Maconochie, arms, 255; Wellwood, supporters, 434 Macpherson, Cluny, supporters, 428, 434 Madden, arms, 242 Maddock, 165 Maddocks, arms, 286 Madras, University of, 192, 272; Governor of, 594 Magnall, arms, 286 Magpie, 250 Mahon, arms, 243 Mahony, crest, 376 Mailly, Gilles de, arms, 484 Maintenance, cap of, 378 Mainwaring, crest, 203; Ellerker-Onslow, crest, 226, 348 Maitland, arms, 180, 282; Major, James, 501 Major, arms, 285 Malcolm, Bart., crest, 293 Malet, Sir Edward, G.C.B., supporters, 4, 228 Mallerby, arms, 266 Mallory, 393, 403 Malta, Cross of, 129, 570; German, Protestant Order of, 570; Star, 570 Maltravers, arms, 149, 150 Man in armour, 433; at-arms, 64; head, 167; lion, 171, 186, 229; tiger, 186, 232; and wife, arms, 533; grant to, 576 Manchester, 115 Mandeville, 134 Manners, grant, 596 Mansergh, arms, 294; crest, 226 Mantegre, 232 Manticora, 232 Mantle, 399; of estate, 59 Mantling, 384, 393, 394, 397, 398, 400; badges on, 389; colours of, 386; royal, 391; rules for the colour of, 392 Maories, 16 Maple-leaf, 266; tree, 263 Mar, Earl of, 39 Mar and Kellie, Earl of, 541, 598; arms, 557; supporters, 223 Marburg, 62 March, 31, 39; White Lion of, 469; Herald, 31; King of Arms, 30 Marches, 29, 30 Marchioness, robe or mantle, 366; coronet, 366 Marchmont, 39 Mare, 203 Margens, arms, 81 Marigold, 272 Marindin, arms of, 211 Mariners, 10 Market Cross, Edinburgh, 47 Markham, arms, 190 Marlborough, Duke of, 413, 541; augmentation, 592; supporters, 226, 438; Duchess of (Henrietta), 413 Marquess, coronet, 366, 367, 375; robe or mantle of, 365, 367 Marriage, impalements to indicate, 60, 540; signify, 523 Mars, 77 Marshal of the Empire, Lord High, insignia of, 582 Marshal's, Earl, order concerning robes, coronets, &c., 365, 366 Marshall, 27, 28, 202; crest, 166; badge of, 80; the insignia of, 581 Marshalling, 138, 523-560 Martin, motto, 450 Martlet, 243, 244, 245, 488 Marwood, crest, 211 Mary, 155; Queen, 357, 607; badge, 276 Maryborough, town of, arms, 275 Marylebone, 271; crest, 160 Mascle, 108, 147, 150; field, 148 Mascles, 81 Mask, 198 Mason, arms, 180; crest, 228 Mason's College, 180, 228 Massey, Mrs., 577 Mastiff, 204 Matheson, 378 Mathew, Dame Marye, grant to, 574, 575 Matilda, Queen, 14 Matriculation, 145, 536 Maud, the Empress, 141, 173 Mauerkrone, 368 Maule, crest, 226 Maunch, 292, 403 Maundeville, Sir John, 223 Mauritanian, 168 Mawdsley, arms, 298 Maxwell, arms, 216 Maynard, 576 Meath, Earl of, supporters, 437 Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Duke of, 400; crests, 343 Medicis, Pietro de, augmentation, 597 Meeking, arms, 265 Meergries, 77 Meinill, 520; Barony of, 509 Melbourne, University of, 164 Melles, 262 Melrose Abbey, 409 Melusine, 171, 228 Membered, 238 Memorials, 537 Menetrier, 318, 407, 477 Menteith, arms, 112; Earl of, 412; label, 480 Menu-vair, 82 Menzies, Bart., supporters, 433 Mercers' Livery Company, arms, 168 Merchant Adventurers' Company, supporters, 429 Mercury, 77 Meredith, arms, 86 Merit, Order of, 567; members of, insignia of, 584 Merlette, 245 Mermaid, 171, 228; as supporters, 445 Merman, 171, 227 Mertz, crest, 384 Messarney, arms, 277 Metal, 70; baton of, 515 Metcalfe, 207 Methods of blazoning, 104 Methuen, Lord, 413 Midas' head, 229 Middlemore, crest, 280 Middlesex, arms, 287 Mieroszewsky, 74 Mignianelli, arms, 82 Mikado, 13 Milan, 83; Duchy of, arms, 257 Military men, grants to, 5 Mill-rind or Fer-de-moline, 293 Milner, 287; Viscount, supporters, 217, 436 Minamoto Ashikaya, 13 Minamoto Tokugawa, 13 Miniver, 82 Minshull, Sir Robert, 166 Minutoli, arms, 188 Mirandola, Princes and Dukes of, mantling, 400 Mirrors, 293 Mitchell, arms, 123 Mitchell-Carruthers, crest, 163 Mitford, arms, 217 Mitre, 6, 61, 602 Moir, 168 Mole, 217 Molesworth, 138 Molette, 296 Mon, 12, 13 Monastery, 282 Monbocher, de, Bertrand, 289 Money-Kyrle, 216; quarterings, 546 Montagu, arms, 147 Montagu, K.G., Marquess of, Garter plates, 540 Montagu, Lord, 485 Montague, Lord, crest, 344 Montefiore, arms, 262 Montendre, Alianore, 525 Montfaucon, 16 Montfort, De, 268; Simon de, 268; badge, 469 Montgomery, arms, 275; Viscount, supporters, 416 Monti, 84; arms, 83 Montravel, Comte Tardy de, arms, 263 Montrose, 39, 112; burgh of, arms, 270; Royal Burgh, arms, crest, mantling and compartment, 444 Monumental brasses, 49 Monypenny, arms, 164, 254 Moon, 11, 77 Moorcock, 249 Moore, arms, 217, 292; crest, 249; Sir John, K.B., grant to, 4; John, 31; Sir John W., 373 Moorhen, 246 Moors, 13 Mount-Stephen, Lord, arms, 263 Mountain-Ash, 263 Mountjoye, 44; Lord (Sir Walter Blount), arms, crest, mantling, 388 Moray, Earls of, arms, 290 Moreau, Philip, 401 Moresby, crest, 210 Morfyn, 229 Morgan, Sylvanus, 143 Morion, 293, 315, 351 Mornay, De, arms, 185 Morris, William, 395, 396 Morse, 186; crest, 166 "Morte d'Arthur," 333, 403 Mortimer, arms, 137; Edmund, seal, 417 Morton, Earl of, supporters, 433; Earl of, Douglas, crest, 199 Moseley arms, 298 Moss, Sir H. E., arms, 298 Motion, arms, 215 Motto, 58, 448, 474 Mowbray, 555, badges, 465; supporters, 416; and Stourton, Lord, 152, 590; badge, 458; supporters, 437; "Trente Deux Quartiers," 619 Mule, 224, 438 Mullet, 146, 295, 488, 515 Mun, Marquis of, arms, 298 Mundegumbri, de, John, seal, 275 Munro, Sir Thomas, 594 Munster, Earl of, 515 Muntz, arms, 245 Mural crown, or coronet, 368, 370, 376 Murfyn, 229 Murray, arms, 484 Murrey, 72, 76 Muschamp, 261 Musimon, 231 Musselburgh, town of, arms, 281 Naiant, 186, 253; embowed, 254 Nairne, arms, 157 Naissant, 190 Naked flesh, 74 Names, bastards', 516 Napier, Alexander, 525; Lord, 145, 446 Naples, 83 Napoleon, 238, 260; I., mantling, 400 Narcissus flowers, 271 Narwhal, 219 Nassau, arms of, 107 National Bank of Scotland, 160 National flag, 471 Nature, colour of, 74, 75, 76 Naval crown, or coronet, 369, 370, 377 Navarre, arms, 284; King of, 483 Naylor, Sir George, 356 Nebuly, 80, 91, 94 Needlemakers' Company, supporters, 434 Nelson, Admiral, augmentations, 592; Earl, augmentation, 592; town of, arms, 266 Nenuphar-leaf, 266 Neptune, 164 Nerford, de, Alice, arms, 521 Nevers, de, Count, John, 524 Nevil, 206; crest, 341; of Raby, arms, 485 New Galloway, town of, supporter, 437 Newcastle-on-Tyne, See of, 606 Newdigate, 190 Newlands, Lord, supporters, 75 Newman, 541; arms, 189; Colonel, augmentation, 591 Newnes, Sir George, Bart., 215 Newton, Lord, 541 Nicholson, crest, 374 Nicholas, Sir Harris, 464 Nightingale, Bart., arms, 270 Ninth son, 488 Nisbet, 82, 238, 415, 418, 446, 458, 504 Nobility, arms as a sign of, 22 Nombril, 104 Norfolk, Duke of, 556; (Thomas Mowbray), 596; Duke of, augmentation, 590, 596; Duke of (Thomas Howard), badge, 469 Normandy, Duke of, John, seal, 408; Duchy of, arms, 525 Normandy, Marquess of, supporters, 437 North British Borneo Company, supporters, 429 Northumberland, Earl of, 143; Earl of, badge, 469; Duke of (Percy), arms, 147; crest, 183 Northumbria, Vicecomes of, 503 Norroy King of Arms, 29, 30, 31, 48; arms and insignia of, 587 Norway, flag of, 613 Norway, H.M. Queen of, label, 496, 497 Norwich, 588; city of, supporters, 444 Nottingham, town of, supporters, 429; Earl of, Thomas, Earl Marshal, crest, 71, 341 Nova Scotia, 58; Baronets of, 137, 418; badges of, 598; insignia of, 583 Nowed, 257 Nude figures, 165 Nugent, Bart., 227; supporter, 438 Nürnberg, city of, arms, 439; German National Museum at, 316 Nuvoloni, 83 Oak, 265; branch, 265; leaves, 266; slips, 265; tree, 262 Oakes, arms of, 5 Oakham, town of, 202 Oban, town of, 294 Obelisk, 293 Oberwappen, 335 O'Connor, Don, supporters, 421 Odo, 14, 15 O'Donovan, supporters, 421 Oesel, 163 Office, rod of, 47 Officer of Arms, official dress of, 41 Official arms, impalement, 535 Official insignia, 581; regalia, 46 Ogilvie, compartment, 446 O'Gorman, supporters, 421 Ogress, 151 O'Hara, arms, 96 Okapi, 438 O'Keefe, Lanigan, 257, 378 Oldham, 249 Olive-tree, 263 O'Loghlen, 165 Omens, 10 Ondozant, 256 Opinicus, 231, 438 Or, 50, 70 Orange, 72, 73, 74, 76, 151, 276; tawny ribbon, 137 Orders of Knighthood, 58; of St. John of Jerusalem, 133 Ordinary, 91, 93, 97, 102, 106, 107, 108, 146, 155, 156, 483 Ordnance, Master-General of the, insignia of, 586 O'Reilly, supporters, 421 Orkney, 39 Orle, 108, 141, 142; gemel, 142 Orleans, Duke of, 434, 596; arms, 486, 487; Duchess Charlotte Elizabeth of, seal, 486 Ormonde, 39; knot, 469; Earls of, 195 Ormsby-Hamilton, crest, 373 Ormskirk, 50 Ory, arms, 258 Oryx, 436 Ost-Friesland, Reitbergs, Princes of, 229 Osprey, 240 Ostrich, 243; feathers, badge, 459 Oswald, 165 Otharlake, John, 30 Otter, 215 Otterburn, Moir of, 168 Otway, arms, 228; supporters, 420; Sir Robert, 593 Ounce, 193 Outram, supporters, 192, 436 Oval, 61 Over-all, 103 Owen, arms, 265 Ownership, badge as a sign of, 456 Owl, 249 Ox, 207 Oxford, arms of, 88; Bishops of, insignia of, 584; city of, 207; city of, arms, 205; city of, supporters, 216; Lincoln College at, 455; University of, 299 Ox-yokes, 415, 416 Padua, 83, 84 Painters, Stainers, and Coachmakers, Companies of, warrant, 375 Pairle, 108, 126, 139 Pale, 107, 108, 115, 126; cottised, 116; dancetté, 93; embattled, 93, 108; lozengy, 146 Palewise, 102 Palisado Coronet, 378 Pall, 108 Pallet, 116 Pallium, 6, 127 Palm, 265; branch, 265; tree, 263 Palmer's Staff, 290 Palmetto-trees, 263 Paly, 87, 97, 117, 121; bendy, 121 Panes, 519 Pannetier, Grand, insignia of, 581 Panther, 193, 195, 223 Papacoda, 188 Papelonné, 83 Papillon, arms, 261 Papingoes, 264 Papyrus plant, 266 Paris, arms of, 260, 376 Paris, Matthew, 143 Parish, Sir Woodbine, K.C.H., 597 Parker, 78, 79, 81, 95, 371, 455 Parkin-Moore, 277 Parkyns, Bart., crest, 277 Parliament, opening of, 42; President of the, insignia of, 582 Parrot, 249 Parted, 99 Parteneck, Bavarian family of, 481 Parthenopæus, 7 Partition, 94; lines, 91, 110, 131, 132, 134, 135, 139, 141, 150, 525, 543; lines, changing, 483; methods of, 96 Party, 87, 99; badge, 268 Paschal lamb, 212 Passant, 102, 201, 213, 226 Passion Cross, 128; nails, 293 Patent, 68 Paton, Sir Noel, crest, 239 Patriarchal cross, 129 Paul, Sir James Balfour, 39, 40, 46, 66, 390, 415, 500 Paw, 190 Paynter, 155 Peacock, 246 Pean, 78 Pearce, Lady, 575 Pear-tree, 263; pears, 276 Pearl, 77 Pearson, arms, 296 Peascod, 468 Pease, crest, 376 Peebles, arms, 255 Peer, carriage of, 399; coronet, 379; helmet, 303, 382; impaling, 532; insignia of, 583; mantling of, 391; order concerning robes, coronets, &c., of, 365; sons of, supporters, 423, 424; supporters, 422; widow of, 534; widow of, supporters, 423, 424 "Peerage and Baronetage," 321 Peeress, 536; after marriage, 534; by creation, arms, 533; in her own right, 532 Peeresses, robes or mantles, 366; supporters, 422 Peewhit, 249 Pegasus, 10, 202, 203, 220, 232; as supporter, 437 Peke, Edward, 204 Pelham, Sir John de, 590; arms, augmentation, 590; badge, 590 Pelican, 242 Pellet, 151 Pellew, Sir Edward, 593 Pelts or Hides, 293 Pemberton, 299 Pembridge, Sir Richard, helm, 308 Pembroke, Earl of, 32, 480, 481; Earl of, badge, 469 Penhellicke, arms, 261 Penned, 251 Pennon, 54 Penrose, arms, 113 Per bend, 87, 95, 97; sinister, 97; chevron, 87, 95, 97; chief, 97; cross, 97, 134; fess, 97, 139; pale, 97, 139; engrailed, 108; invected, 108; pile, 97; saltire, 97, 131, 137 Perceval, Dr., 84 Percy, Henry, seal, 411 Perring, Bart., arms, 276 Perrins, arms, 276 Perry, arms, 276 Perryman, arms, 276 Persevanten, 40 Perth, Earl of, 204, 284; compartment, 446; city of, 145; arms, 414; county of, supporters, 429 Pery, arms, 148 Pescod, Walter, 50 Petilloch, William, 40 Petre, Lord, 590 Pfahlfeh, 82 Pfirt, 417 Pharamond, arms of, 273 Pheasant, 250 Pheons, 283 Philip I., seal, 273 Philip II., seal, 274 Philippa, Queen, 464 Phillips, 205 Phoenix, 230, 240, 291 Physiologus, 194 Picardy, 83 Pichon, arms, 32 Pick, 298 Pictorial ensigns, 82 Picts, 165 Pigott, arms, 298 Pike, 255 Pile, 91, 93, 107, 108, 124, 126 Pilkington, crest of, 167; motto, 451 Pillars of Hercules, 416 Pilter, arms, 285, 293 Pily, 126 Pimpernel flower, 268 Pineapple, 276, 277 Pine-cone, 277 Pink, 73 Pirie, arms, 276 Pirrie, arms, 202 Pitcher, 289; arms, 294 Pittenweem, town of, 162 Pixley, crest, 293 Planché, 5, 12, 14, 78, 109, 150, 240, 275, 485 Planets, 77 Planta genista, badge, 468 Plantagenet, 62 Plants, 11 Plasnes, Dame de, Jeanne, seal, 408 Plasterers' Company, supporters, 438 Plate, 151 Plates, 153 Platt-Higgins, 255 Player, arms, 272 Plough, 298 Plover, 249 Plowden, 118 Plumeté, 83, 85 Plummets, 293 Pocock, augmentation, 593 Points, 104 Pole, 57 Poleyns, 53 Pollock, augmentations, 594 Polwarth, Lord, arms, 276; augmentation, 596 Pomeis, 151 Pomegranate, 264, 276 Pomeranians, 224 Ponthieu, Count of, 15; Joanna of, seal, 543 Pontifex, crest, 295 Pope, His Holiness the, insignia of, 291, 582 Popinjay, 249 Poplar-tree, 264 Porcupine, 217 Portcullis, 38, 45, 284; badge, 468 Porter, arms, 287 Porterfield, 114 Portland, Duke of, supporters, 436 Portobello, burgh of, 285 Portsmouth, Earl of, supporters, 437 Portugal, crests, 343; Royal Standard of, 597; Royal Arms of, 482; marks of cadency, 482 Potent, 84, 85; potenté, 91, 94, 95; counter-potent, 84, 85 Potier, arms, 231 Potter, 9 Potts, 193 Poulett, Earl, supporters, 433 Powdered with, 89 Poynter, 126 Prankhelme, 316 Pranker-Helm, 309, 316 Prawns, 256 Precedence, 68 Precentor, insignia of, 588 Preed, arms, 258 Pretence, escutcheon of, 138, 531, 532 Prevost, supporters, 420 Price, 169 Prideaux-Brune, 71 Primrose, 268, 272; Viscount, 145; of Dalmenie, 146 "Prince Arthur's Book," 409 Prince of Wales, supporters, 71 Princes, helmets of, 318; ecclesiastical, insignia of, 582 Principal King of Arms, 34 Pringle, arms, 300 Prism, 294 Private person, flag of, 474 Proclamation, 47 Procter, arms, 293 Professors, Regius, arms, 587 Proper, 74, 75, 170, 243, 244, 246 Provand, crest, 298 Provost of the Household, Grand insignia of, 582 Prussia, King of, 400; kingdom of, 475; supporters, 433; officers of, 597 Prussian flag, 476 Public buildings, flags, 473 Puckberg, arms, 289 Pudsey, borough of, 290 Pugin, 397 Pujolas, arms, 211 Pullici, arms, 261 Pulver Turme, 189 Purfled, 171 Purple, 11, 70 Purpure, 70, 76; fretty or, 149 Pursuivant, 40, 45; badges, 48; clothes, 39; creation, 38; duties of, 38; fees, 37, 38; tabard of, 41; Irish insignia of, 587 Pursuivant of Arms, 28, 29, 150 Puttkammer, Barons von, 224 Pyke, 255 Pyne, arms, 277 Pyramid, 293 Pyrton or Peryton, arms, 263 Quain, Bart., arms, 272; crest, 374 Quarter, 102, 108, 134, 540 Quarterings, 57, 98, 104, 542, 543; augmentation takes the form of, 554; augmentation, superimposed on, 554; importance attached to, 67; omitting, 549; order of, 548 Quarterly, 97, 139 Quartermaster, Grand, insignia of, 582 Quatrefoil, 266, 267; double, 488 Queensberry, Marquess of, 145 Queensferry, 88; town of, 164 "Quentin Durward," 258 Queue-fourché, 175 Quinces, 277 Quincy, De, 154; arms, 147 Rabbit, 214 Radford, arms, 186 Radiometer, 294 Raglan, Lord, supporter, 194; Raguly, 91, 94, 96 Raikes, 224 Rainbow, 294 Raised in benediction, 169 Ram, 10, 211; head, 213; as supporters, 437 Rampant, 102, 172, 213, 226 Ramsay, 10 Ramsden, arms, 213 Ramsey, arms, 211 Ramsey, de, Lord, supporters, 437 Ramsgate, arms, 182, 301, 369 Randles, arms, 214; crest, 217 Ranfurly, 141 Raphael, arms, 272 Rashleigh, arms, 281 Rat, 217 Ratton, arms, 217 Raven, 248 Ravenna, 351 Ravissant, 197 Rawlinson, Bart., crest, 378 Rawmarsh, 56 Rawson, arms, 282 Rawtenstall, 207 Raynor, arms, 226 Rayonné, 96 Reade, crest, 280 Reading, town of, arms, 168 Rebus, 454 Records, erased from, 73 Red, 70, 77 Red deer, 208 Red dragon, 38, 225 Red ensign, 471 Red shield, another use of the plain, 69 Reed, E. T., 258 Reeds, 280 Reem, 219 Regarding, 187 Regent of France, 34 Reider, 162, 164 Reinach, Counts, 188 Reindeer, 208, 209 Reid-Cuddon, 553 Rendel, Lord, 196 Renfrew, 88 Renty, arms, 283 Respecting, 187 Rethel, arms, 410 Reynell, arms, 89 Rhinoceros, 217, 219 Rhodes, 166 Rhys, Lord, 85 Rhys ap Griffith, 341 Ribbons, 58, 115, 137 Richard, 33 Richard I., 174, 306; badge, 468; banner, 454; crest, 327; seal, 329 Richard II., 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 466, 556, 596, 607; badge, 410; white hart, 467 Richard III., 33, 38; badge, 469 Richardson, arms, 86, 203, 577 Richmond, 29; badge of, 48; Earl of, 33; Earl of, John of Brittany, arms of, 69, 102, 134, 188; Herald, 37; King of Arms, 33 Richmond and Gordon, Duke of, 25, 598; and Somerset, Duke of, Henry Fitz-Roy, 521 Richtsritter, 570 Ridley, 207 "Right to Bear Arms," 21, 22 Rinach, arms, 188 Ringed, 207 Ripon, Marquess of, crest, 298 Rise, arms, 277 Rising, 235, 236, 245 Ritchie, 213 Rivers, Lord, Sir Richard Wydville, Torse, arms, 404; Garter plate, 135 Rjevski, 250 Roach, 255 Robe of Estate, 367 Robert II., coronation of, 40 Roberton, arms, 293 Roberts, 213; Sir Abraham, G.C.B., 297 Robertson, 197, 438; crest, 228; compartment, 446 Robertson-Glasgow, arms, 263 Robes, Order concerning, 365 Robinson, Bishop, 256 Robson's, 356 Rochdale, town of, arms, 266 Roche, arms, 255 Rochefort, arms, 270 Rocheid, 168, 299 Rochester, Bishops of, 603 Rocke, arms, 289 Rod of office, 47 Rodd, 166; arms, 267 Roderick the Great, 85 Rodolph II., 413 Roebuck, 208 Roman Catholic Bishop, 603; Empire, Holy, Arch Treasures of, insignia of, 583; numerals, 104; royal diadem, 351 Rompu, 124 Romreich, 40 Ronquerolles, 84 Rook, 248 Rose, 269, 488; George, 575; badge, 271; leaves, 266; en-soliel, 468 Rosebery, Earl of, 145; arms, 272 Rosmead, Lord, supporters, 431 Ross, 39; Earl of, 412; General, augmentation, 577, 593; Sir John, augmentation, 595; Countess of, Euphemia, seal, 412; See of, 164 Ross-of-Bladensburg, 474, 593; arms, 133; grant to, 374 Rotherham, 56 Rothesay, 39 Rothschild, supporters, 429 Rouck, De, 75 Rouge-Croix, 38; -Dragon, 38 Rouillon, Oliver, seal, 417 Roumania, State of, 475 Roundel, 108, 151, 153 Rousant, 246 Rowe, arms, 260 Rowel spurs, 55 Royal Arms, 144, 174, 181, 182, 225, 274, 343, 358, 365, 372, 401, 479, 522, 525; augmentation, 145; badges, 31; crest, 174, 183, 343, 344, 359, 372, 380; escutcheon, 142; supporters, 87, 430; motto, 452; quartering, 555; house, 145; household, 39; mantle, 225; shield, 144; tressure, 145, 146 Royal Buck Hounds, 73 Royal family, 71, 154, 250, 391; arms, 173; badges, 470; members of, coronets, 364; warrants, 494; labels, 87, 494, 497; position of, 499; livery, 73; mantling, 392 Royal favour, marks of, 422 Royal licence, 58, 78, 87, 136, 342, 344, 345, 346, 413, 429, 434, 517, 518, 519, 552, 555, 569 Royal Navy, 471 Royal prerogatives, 69 Royal Proclamations, 47 Royal Red Cross, 568; insignia of those entitled to, 584 Royal Warrants, 61, 181, 363, 372, 413, 414, 420, 421, 444; coronet assigned by, 368 Rubische, Dr. Heinrich, arms, 435 Ruby, 77 Rudolstadt, supporters, 433 Ruspoli, arms, 264 Russia, state of, 475 Rustre, 108, 148 Rutherford, Lords, 425 Rutherglen, crest, 160 Ruthven, William, seal, 416; Barony of, supporters, 437 Ruthyn, Sir John Grey de, 392 Ryde, 88; arms, 294 Rye, 525; arms, 278 Ryland, arms, 299 Sable, 70, 77, 83, 90 Sacheverell, 214, 514 Sachsen, 234 Sackville, crest, 376 Sacred Cross, 128 Saffron-Flower, 272 Sagittarius, 171, 228, 229 Saints, emblems of, 606 Salamander, 230 Salient, 213 Salis, De, supporters, 429 Salisbury, Earl of, Richard Nevill, arms, 485; arms, crest, mantling, 388; Bishops of, 584; See of, 160 Salled or sallet, 312 Salmon, 255, 439 Saltire, 5, 93, 103, 107, 108, 131, 135; botonny, 132; couped, 131; parted, 132 Saltireways, 132 Salvesen, arms, 293 Samson, 163 Samuel, arms, 260; Bart., crest, 339 Samuelson, arms, 240 Sandeman, 164 Sandford, 32, 358 Sand-Glass, 301 Sandwich, 525; arms, 182 Sanglier, 198 Sanguine, 72, 76 Sapphire, 77 Saracens, 13, 17 Saturn, 77 Satyr, 171, 229 Satyral, 171, 229 Saumerez, De, 428 Savage, 165, 433; Sir John, badge, 469 Savelli, Duca de, as Marshal of the Conclave, insignia of, 582 Savoy, 83 Sawbridge, arms of, 78 Saxe-Altenburg, Duke of, 401; Dukedom of, 475; Grand Duke of, crests, 343 Saxe-Coburg, Prince Leopold of, 499 Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, late Duke of, 541; Duke of, crests, 343; Dukes of, 541; label, 497; Prince of, label, 497 Saxe-Meiningen, Grand Duke of, crests, 343 Saxe-Meiningen-Hildburghausen, Duke of, 401 Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Duke of, 400 Saxony, 69; King of, 400; King of, crests, 343; Dukes and Duchesses of, 541 Scabbard, 54 Scala, Veronese Princes della, arms, 285 Scale, armour, 171 Scales, 83 Scaling-ladders, 285 Scaltenighi, arms, 83 Scandinavia, 323 Scarf, 109 Scarisbrick, 50 Scarsdale, Lord, supporter, 442 Sceptre, 45, 298 Schafhausen, supporters, 409 Schallern, 312 Schiffskrone, 369 Schildbuden, 432 Schildgestell, 64 Schildwachter, 432 Schilter, 63 Schleswig-Holstein, Princess Christian, label, 497 Schomberg, crest, 377 Schwartzburg-Rudolstadt, Prince of, crest, 343 Schwartzburg-Sondershausen, Prince of, crests, 343; supporters, 433 Schwazer Bergbute, Society of the, 234 Schweidnitz, town of, 223 Schweig, supporters, 409 Schwenkel, 476 Scissors, 301 Sconce, arms, 282 Scot, John, 145 Scotland, 29, 103, 138; arms of, 143, 162, 475; Royal arms of, 163, 418; badge, 457; bordures in, 502; crests, 342; Royal crest, 185; Royal crown, 372; crown of, 357; differencing in, 139, 500; helmet, 325; heralds in, 42; King of, 144; King of, arms, 143; illegitimacy marks, 519; laws concerning the use of supporters, 424; mantling of Peers, 391; mottoes in, 448; National Bank of, arms, 271, 417; Patron Saint of, 131; quarterings in, 546; re-matriculation, 347; shields in, 66; supporters, right to bear in, 422; thistle of, 470; Earl Marischal of, insignia of, 585; Hereditary Great Master of the Household in, insignia of, 586; Hereditary Justice-General of, insignia of, 586; Lord High Chamberlain of, insignia of, 585; Lord High Constable of, insignia of, 585; Lord Justice-Clerk of, insignia of, 586; Master of the Revels in, arms, 168; insignia of, 586 Scots Greys, 25 Scott, arms, 280; of Gorrenberry, 502; of Thirlstane, 446; Sir Walter, 258, 357 Scott-Gatty, 171, 195, 265; crest, 250 Scottish bordure, 138, 139; cadency, 141; cadency bordures, 87; crests, 520; field, 99; Heralds, 39, 46; Heralds, King of, 40; Parliament, 143; patents, crests, mantling, 394; Peer, insignia of, 583; practice, 104; practice, supporters, 423; regiments, 25; seals, 407; wife, impalement, 536 Scrope, 68; and Grosvenor, 22, 28, 68, 110, 478, 481; supporters, 421 Scruby, 176 Scudamore, arms, 286 Scymitar, 287 Scythes, 298 Sea, 88 Sea-dogs, 65, 205; as supporters,437; dragon, 226; eagle, 241; griffin, 224, 232; horse, 202, 232; leaf, 13, 266; lions, 186; as supporters, 436; monkey, 230; stag, 210, 232; unicorn, 219; urchins, 256; wolf, 230 Seal, 316, 403, 502; head, 215; compartment appears on, 445 Seax, 287 Seccombe, 272 Seckau, chapter of, 309 Second shield, 104; son, difference mark, 488 Seeded, 275; or, 269 Sefton, Lord, crest, 247 Segrave, arms, 486; John, seal, 417, 480 Segreant, 102, 223, 416 Seize-Quartiers, 618-622 Sejant, 214 Selim III., Sultan, 592 Semé, 89, 101, 153, 155; de-lis, 89, 101 Serjeants-at-Arms, 45; insignia of, 586 Serpent, 257 Service badge, 12 Service Cross, Conspicuous, those entitled to, insignia of, 567, 584 Seton, 166, 427, 447; of Mounie, 215; Capt. Robert, 446; church of, 409 Setvans, Sir Robert de, 55 Seventh son, 488 Sewell, arms, 260 Seymour, arms, 239; crest, 240; augmentation, 597; Jane, marriage, 597 Shaftesbury, Earl of, 206 Shakefork, 108, 126 Shakerley, Bart., 214 Shakespeare, arms, 285 Shamrock, 267 Shape of shield, 61 Sharpe, grant to, 577 Shearer, arms, 298 Sheaves, 265 Sheep, 211 Sheepshanks, 212 Sheffield, town of, supporters, 429 Sheldon, Dame Margaret, arms, 575 Sheldrake, 246 Sherard, Lord, supporters, 437 Shetland ponies as supporters, 437 Shield, 60, 104; of peace, 446; colour of is termed, 70, 250; divided by, 97; encircled by, 58; earliest shape, 62; ground of, 69; of gules, 73; hatching of, 76; in Scotland, 66; made of, 64; no ordinary on, 101; pageant, 63; shape of, 61, 62 Shiffner, 512; arms, 114 Ship, 294; ornaments and devices, 9 Shirley, 134 Shogune, 13 Shoveller, 246 Shrewsbury, 39; arms, 193; Earl of, 541, 586; Earl of, quartering, 70; Earls of, crest, 341; Earls of Talbot, 175; Earl of Talbot, crest, 183 Shrimps, 256 Shuttle, 290 Shuttleworth, arms, 290 Sicily, 84; Jerusalem, Duke of Anjou, René, 318 Sidney, crest, 217 Siebmacher, 224, 320, 558 Sigismund, Emperor, 234 Silesia, 74; arms, 224 Sillifant, crest, 259 Silver, 70, 77, 90; ingots of, 292; use of, 70 Sinclair, Baron, arms, 557; Patrick, 502 Sirr, arms of, 124 Sissinks, arms, 229 Sixth son, 488 Skeen, arms, 197 Skeet, 261 Skeleton, 166 Skull, 171 Slack, crest, 258 Sledge, 456 Slipped, 265, 267, 269; leaved, 269 Slips, 265 Smallshaw, arms, 270 Smert, John, 28, 41 Smith, 68, 202, 288; arms, 289; crest, 245 Smith-Cunningham, 426 Smitheman, arms, 238 Smyth, arms, 272 Snail, 258 Sneds, 298 Sneyd, arms, 298 Snowdon, 39 Sodor and Man, 160, 285 Soldanieri, arms, 83 Soles, 256 Sollerets, 55 Soluthurn, supporters, 409 Somers, crest, 263, 293 Somerscales, arms, 261 Somerset, 520; Duke of, Henry Fitzroy, 37; Duke of, John Beaufort, Garter plate, 416; arms, 466; Dukes of, 513; Herald, 37, 620 Sophia, Princess, label, 499 Soudan, de la Tran, K.G., Sir Bermond Arnaud de Presac, arms, crest, mantling, 387 Southampton, arms, 270; city of, arms, crest, supporters and compartment, 445 Southwark, borough of, 605 Southwell, See of, 160; Viscount, supporters, 437 Soutiens, 407 Sovereign, helmet of, 318 Sovereign's Privy Seals, 467; grand-children of, coronets, 363; sons and daughters or brothers and sisters of a, coronets of, 363 Spain, 61, 81, 83; crests, 343; marks of cadency, 482; Queen Victoria Eugenie of, 139, 474, 596; Philip of, 607; quarterings of, 543 Sparlings, 256 Spear and spear-head, 285 Specified, number, 89 Speke, crest and supporters, 217; augmentation, 420, 595 Spelman, Sir Henry, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34 Spener, 324, 481 Spenser, 221 Sphinx, 4, 9, 171, 228 Spider, 261 Spikes, 223 Spokes, arms, 291 Springbok, 208, 217; as supporters, 436 Sprot, 255 Spry, arms, 124 Spur-nowels, or Spur-revels, 286, 296 Spurs, 54, 286 Squirrel, 214, 430 SS, collar of, 44 St. Adrian, 162 St. Ægidius, 162 St. Albans, Boke of, 2; Duke of, 515; monastery, 143 St. Andrew, 47, 160, 162, 614 St. Andrew, Saltire of, 25; Cross of, 131; flag of, 472 St. Anthony's Cross, 129 St. Asaph, Bishop of, 78 St. Aubin, cloister of, 228 St. Boniface, 164 St. Britius, 160 St. Bryse, 160 St. Catherine, wheel of, 473, 606 St. Columba, 162 St. Cricq, Comtes de, arms, 281 St. Cuthbert, cross of, 606 St. David's, 588 St. Denis, 165, 220, 473; Abbey of, 16, 219 St. Duthacus, 162 St. Edmund, cross and martlets of, 473 St. Edward, 360 St. Edward the Confessor, 596, 607; arms, 244 St. Edward's Crown, 358 St. Elizabeth, 62 St. Etheldreda, 298 St. Etienne, Abbey of, 525 St. George, 162, 614; arms of, 46; banner of, 471; Cross of, 25, 38; flag of, 472; Chapel, 78, 149, 505; stall plates, 559 St. Giles, 162 St. Helens, borough of, arms, 292 St. Ives (Cornwall), arms, 264 St. John the Baptist, 165 St. John of Jerusalem, Order of the Hospital of, 568; Knights of Justice of the Order, insignia of, 585 St. John of Malta, Celibate Order of, 569 St. Kentigern, 163 St. Lawrence, 550 St. Leonards, Lord, 68 St. Mark, 185, 186, 220 St. Martin, 162, 164 St. Mary, lily of, 473; the Virgin, College of, arms, 271 St. Maur, arms, 239 St. Michael, 162, 163; and All Angels, 54; St George, Most Distinguished Order of, 29, 566, 584 St. Mungo, 163 St. Neots, 75 St. Ninian, 162 St. Oswald, Lord, supporters, 437 St. Patrick, 614; Order of, 46; Knights of, rules, 563; supporters, 563; insignia of, 584; Order of Prelate of the, insignia of, 584; Deans of, insignia of, 584; Chancellor of, insignia of, 584 St. Patrick, flag of, 473 St. Paul, 164; sword of, 473, 606 St. Peter, emblem, 291; keys of, 473, 606 St. Petersburg, 351 St. Stephen of Tuscany, Knights of the, 569 St. Vincent, Lord, crest, 377 Stable, arms, 277 Stafford, 56; crest, 246; knot, 469; Earl of, 73 Stafford, Earl of, supporters, 461; Earl of, Sir Humphrey Stafford, arms, crest, mantling, 388; Lord, badge, 458; crest, 374 Stags, 208, 432 Stains, 72, 73 Stalbridge, Lord, 345 Standard, 28, 59, 474; badges upon, 464; bearer (Würtemburg), hereditary insignia of, 582 Standish, arms, 289 Staniland, arms, 286 Stanley, 209; Lord, badge, 240, 469; Torse, arms, 404 Staple, 302 Stapleton, Sir Miles, K.G., arms, crest, mantling, 387 Stapylton, supporters, 421 Starckens, 163 Star of India, Most Exalted Order of the, 565, 584 Stars, 11, 295 Statant, 102, 172, 213, 226 State liveries, badges on, 464 Statute of Resumptions, 30 Steamer, 294 Stephen, coins, 354 Stephen de Windesore, 31 Sterling, William, seal, 417 Steuart, Bart., crest, 375 Steward, Lord High, insignia of, 582 Stewart, arms, 86; crest, 164; of Ochiltree, 502, 513 Stilwell, crest, 246 Stirling-Maxwell, supporters, 431 Stirrups, 286 Stoat, 215 Stockfish, 255 Stockings, 293 Stocks of Trees, 264 Stodart, 144, 145, 502, 514 Stoke-Lyne, Lord of the Manor, arms, 413 Stones, 286 Storey, 256 Stork, 247, 440 Stothard, C., 15 Stourton, arms, 152, 153, 294; badge as a crest, 456; barony of, supporters, 205; crest, 341, 385; Lord, supporters, 437; seal, 153 Strange, arms of, 175 Strangman, 111 Strathcona, Lord, crest, 263; arms, 216 Stratheden, Baroness, late, 533 Stratherne, Countess of, Muriel, seal, 410 Strigoil and Chepstow, Earls of, 32 Struan, 197 Stuart-French, arms, 254 Stuart-Menteith, 414 Stubbs, arms, 264 Stukele, arms, 277 Sturgeon, 256 Sturzkrückenfeh, 85 Sturzpfahlfeh, 82 Styleman, arms, 222 Styria, arms, 194, 417 Sub-ordinaries, 91, 102, 106, 107, 108, 155, 156; complete list of, 108; sub-quarters, 104, 544 Suchenwirt, 40 Suffolk, 32; Duke of, William de la Pole, badge, 469; Garter plate, 372 Sugar-cane, 263 Sun, 11, 77; burst, badge, 468, 469; in splendour, 296 Sunflower, 272 Superimposed, 86, 554 Supporters, 58, 86, 158, 162, 164, 165, 166, 185, 186, 193, 201, 204, 209, 213, 215, 216, 217, 225, 227, 286, 319, 346, 407, 411, 412, 413, 414, 415, 416, 428, 475, 519, 532, 533, 564, 572; the first, 432; differencing on, 492; crested, 417; by prescriptive right, 421; in England, right to bear, 419; honourable, 446; origin of, 417; position of, 430; single, 410 Surcoat, 18, 57, 108 Surgeons, College of, arms, 167 Surrey, 50; Duke of (Thomas de Holland), bordure, 596; Earl of, augmentation, 590 Sussex, Duke of, label, 498; Earl of, 32 Sutton, arms, 258 Swaby, crest, 245 Swallow, 244, 245 Swan, 245 Swanne, Adam Fitz, 467 Swansea, Lord, crest, 349 Sweetland, arms, 263 Swindon, arms, crest, 301 Swinton, 503, 504; arms, 453; crest, 199; supporters, 425; Henry de, seal, 504; Captain Archibald, 506; Captain George C., 506; Sir John de, 505; John Edulf Blagrave, Laird, 506; arms, 507; Robert, 505 Switzerland, 83 Sword, 5, 11, 286 Swynnerton, 113 Sydenham, arms, 211 Sykes, 207; arms, 151, 280 Symbolism, 5, 11 Symonds-Taylor, arms, 254 Syphium-plant, 272 Tabard, 41 "Table Book," 413 Tacitus, 6, 9 Tain, Royal Burgh of, 162 Talbot, 175, 203, 204, 554; arms of, 70; Earl of, 70; Lord, crest, 341 Tallow Chandlers' Company, 41; arms, 28; crest, 165 Tamworth, seals, 275 Tancred, crest, 263 Tankerville, Earl of (Bennet), arms, 189; (Sir John Grey), Torse, arms, 404 Tannenvels, arms, 188 Tarleton, crest, 374 Tarn or loch, 294 Tarragone, arms, 81 Tarsell, arms, 277 Tartsche, or Tartscher, 64 Tassa, 85 Tasselled Hat, 61 Tatshall, 55 Taunton, 278 Taylor, 193 Tea-plant, 266 Teck, Duke of, 187 Teesdale, arms, 271 Telescope, 297 Temperance, 164 Temple, 282 Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, crests, 348 Templer, arms, 282 Tenants, 407 Tenné, 72, 74, 76 Tenremonde, arms, 83 Teutonic Order, 63; Masters of the, 569 Teviot, Viscount (Livingstone), 276 Thackeray, 165; arms, 86 Thebes, King of, 6 Theme, arms, 266 Theodosia, Empress, 351 Thierry, 14 Third son, 488 Thistle, 270; Order of the, 271, 561; Knight of the, insignia of, 584; Knights of the, rules, 563; supporters, 563 Thorndyke, crest, 261 Thornhill, crest, 168 Thornton, arms, 250, 263, 597; supporters, 250 Thunderbolt, 295 Thuringia, 63 Thurston, crest, 295 Tichborne, supporters, 421 Tiger, 191; as supporters, 436 Tigress, 192 Tilting-helm, 54 Tinctures, 70, 476, 483, 502; change of, 483 Tindal, 30 Tityron, 231 Tjader, 250 Toad, 258 Tobacco-Pipe Makers, the Company of, arms, 265 Todmorden, town of, arms, 293 Tokugawa, 13 Toledo, arms of, 298 Tollemache, arms, 149 Topaz, 77 Topsell, 221 Torches, or Firebrands, 287 Torphichen, Lord, arms, 271 Torrington, Lord, supporters, 442 Torse, 287, 402, 403, 406; colours of, 404 Torteau, 151 Tortoise, 217 Tournament helmet, 311 Tournay, 83 Tournebu, Pierre de, supporter, 411 Tourney, 333 Towers, 282, 376 Towns, rules as to supporters, 429 Toymote, 13 Trafford, De, crest, 167; mottoes, 451 Transposed, 103 Trapaud, 124 Trappe, arms, 283 Trasegnies, arms, 188 Trayner, arms, 293 Treacher, arms, 261 Treason, 73 Treasurer, insignia of, 588 "Treatise on Heraldry," 14, 16, 69, 74, 318, 399, 407, 410 Trees, 11, 94, 262, 407 Trefoil, 266 Tregent, arms, 261; crest, 228 Trelawney, arms, 266 Trente Deux Quartiers, 619 Tresmes, Ducs de, supporters, 231 Tressure, 108, 112, 133, 142, 143, 146 Trevelyan, arms, 201; supporters, 254 Treves, Bart., 232; arms, 292; augmentation, 598 Treves, Elector and Archbishop of, 559 Trick, 77, 99 Tricorporate, 180 Triple-towered, 282 Trippant, 102, 208 Trist, crest, 241 Triton, 227 Trononnée, 186 Trotter, arms of, 5 Trotting, 201 Trout, 255 Troutbeck, arms, 255 Trumpeter, costume of, 43 Trumpington, Sir Roger de, 54 Trunk of a tree, 264 Trunked, 96 Trupour, or Trumpour, John, 40 Trussing, 242 Trussley, 214 Trutemne, Banville de, arms, 82 Truth, 164 Tuam, See of, arms, 160 Tucker, Stephen, 620 Tudor, Royal House, badge, 284 Tulips, 272 Tuns, 301 Tunstall, arms, 299, 404 Tupper, 428 Turbots, 256 Turner, arms, 302 Turnierkragen, 479 Turnip, 268 Tuttebury, Earl of, 32 Tweedy, 249 Tynes, 209 Tynte, crest, 222 Tyrol, 234 Tyrrell, crest, 200, 247 Tyrwhitt, 249; arms, 249 Tyson, crest, 287 Udine, 83 Udney, 204 Ulster, canton of, 136, 137; King of Arms, 29, 33, 46, 47, 421; badges of, 598; arms and insignia of, 587; official arms of, 48; office, 72, 86, 180, 267, 416, 439 Umbo, 64 Umfraville, 89; arms, 268 Undy, 91 Unguled, 207 Unicorn, 39, 202, 219, 220, 221, 232 United Kingdom, Royal Arms, compartment, 444 Union Banner, 611, 614, 615 Union Jack, 471, 611 Unmarried lady, lozenge of, 572 Unter-Walden, supporter, 409 Uphaugh, Duppa de, arms, 284 Upton, 36 Urbino, Duke of, Frederick, 392; mantling, 388 Urcheon, 216 Urdy, 91, 95; at the foot, 155 Utermarch, arms, 266 Vaile, 113, 207 Vaillant, 34 Vair, 50, 77, 79, 81, 84; appointé, 82; in bend, 82; bellies, 85; ondé, 81; en pal, 82; in pale, 82 Vairé, 79, 81, 94; corrupted form of, 81; en pal, 82 Vairpière, 83 Valence, De, 155; William, 525 Vallary, Coronet, 378 Vambraced, 171 Vambraces, 45 Van Eiden, Sir Jacob, 145 Van Houthem, Barons, arms, 82 Van Schorel, 163 Vane, arms, 171, 293 Varano, 83 Varenchon, 83 Varroux, arms, 82 Varry, tassy, 85; cuppy, 85 Varus, 79 Vase, 288 Vaughan, 169 Vavasseur, arms, 284 Veitch, arms, 207 Venus, 77 Vera, De, 83 Verden, 49 Verdon, arms, 149 Verdun, Alix de, 410 Vere, arms, 134, 296 Verelst, crest, 214 Veret, 83 Verhammes, 200 Vernon, motto, 451 Verona, 83, 163 Verre, 79 Verschobenes, 85 Vert, 70, 76, 90 Veruled, 292 Vervelled, 241 Vesci, de, Viscount, supporters, 433 Vesentina, 163 Vesili's, Andreas, 439 Vested, 170 Vestments, 5 Vice-Admiral, insignia of, 581 Vice-Connétable, insignia of, 582 Victoria, Queen, 41, 358, 361, 364, 421, 488, 496; seal, 475; Cross, 567; those entitled to the, insignia of, 584; Princess, label, 496, 497; and Albert, Order of, members of, insignia of, 584 Victorian Order, Royal, 567; insignia of, 584 Victory, 164 Viennois, Dauphin de, Charles, supporter, 411 Vigilance, 247, 286 Vine, 264 Virgil de Solis, 144 Virgin Mary, 159; lilies of the, 606 Virolled, 292 Visconti, arms, 257 Viscountess robe or mantle, 366; coronet, 366 Viscounts, robe or mantle of, 365, 367; coronet of, 365, 368 Visitations, mottoes in, 449 Vivian, crest, 166 Vohlin, arms, 411 Void, 73 Voiders, 150 Vol, 240 Volant, 34, 245; en arrière, 266 Volunteer Officer's Decoration, 568; insignia of, 584 "Von," German, 68 Von Burtenback, Captain Sebastian Schärtlin (Schertel), arms, 185 Von Dälffin, Grauff, arms, 254 Von Fronberg, Herr, 203 Von Lechsgemünd, Count Heinrich von, seal, 195 Von Pauli, 164 Vree, 84 Vulned, 187, 242 Vulture, 241 Vyner, Sir Robert, 358 Wade, crest, 217 Wake, knot, 469 Wakefield, crest, 217 Wakefield, town of, arms, 275 Waldeck-Pyrmont, Prince of, crests, 343 Waldegrave, arms of, 69; Lord, arms, 252 Wales, badge of, 38, 225, 457; Herald of, 33, 36; ruddy dragon of, 225; Prince of, 85, 254, 486; coronet, 363; badge, 225, 458; label, 497; mantling, 391, 392; Princess of, coronet, 363 Walker, arms, 281; Sir Edward, 358; Trustees, insignia of, 586 Walkinshaw, arms, 262 Wallenrodt, Counts, arms, 288 Waller, 112; arms, 266; crest, 263, 434; Sir Jonathan Wathen, supporters, 433; Richard, augmentation, 596 Wallop, 111 Walnut-leaves, 266; tree, 263 Walpole, 106 Walrond, arms, 207 Walsh, 86 Wands, 41 Wandsworth, 294 Wappen und Stammbuch, 185 Wappenbuch, 203, 224, 234 Wappencodex, 28 Wappenkönige, 40 Wappenrolle, von Zurich, 188 Warde-Aldam, arms, 114, 275 Wareham, arms, 275 Warnecke's, 176 Warren, 70; Sir John de, 521; William de, arms, 486; Mantling, 389 Warrington, town of, 174; arms, 288 Warwick, Lord, 458; Earls of, differences, 484; Earl of, Richard Beauchamp, 541; Earl of, Waleran, 484; Earl of, Thomas, 484; and Albemarle, Earl of, Richard Beauchamp, 540 Water, 88, 94; colour, 74, 76; bougets, 299 Waterford, supporters, 245; Earl of, 70; Marquess of, supporters, 433; city of, supporters, 439 Waterlow, arms, 298 Watermen and Lightermen's Livery Co., supporters, 439 Watkin, Bart., arms, 261 Watney, crest, 205 Watson-Taylor, supporters, 420 Wattled, 227, 246 Wave, vair, 81 Wavy, 91, 116; or undy, 94 Waye, arms, 119 Weasel, 215 Wechselfeh, 82 Weirwolf, 171, 229 Welby, Lord, 196 Weldon, Sir Anthony, 164 Wellington, Duke of, 541; Duke of, augmentation, 594 Wells, 294 Welsh dragon, 225; arms, 545 Were, arms, 290 West Riding, 56 Westbury, arms of, 188 Westcar, crest, 217 Westmeath, Earl of, supporters, 227, 438 Westminster, Dukes of, arms, 554; crest, 345; Marquess of, augmentation, 598; city of, arms, 554; Abbey, 284, 524, 543; Dean of, 585 Westphalia, 608; arms, 201 Westworth, arms, 296 Whale, 245, 253, 256 Whalley, arms, 245 Wharton, 292 Wheat, 278 Wheel, 302 Whelks, 256 Whitby, arms, 258 White, supposed to be, 78; ensign, 471; ermine spots, 78; label, 71; staff, 41 White-Thomson, arms, 270 Whitgreave, crest, 298; augmentation, 592 Widow, arms, 146, 533, 573 Wiergman, 164 Wife, impalements, 535, 536, 537, 538 Wigan, crest, 263, 295 Wilczek, Count Hans, 316 Wild cat, 195 Wildenvels, arms, 188 Wildmen, 433 Wildwerker, 83 Wilkinson, 256 Wilson, 196 William I., 15, 354, 355 William II., seal, 354 William III., 276, 596, 607 William IV., 412, 608; State Crown, 356 Williams, arms, 181 Williams-Drummond, Bart., supporters, 433 Willoughby, 282 Winchester, Bishops of, insignia of, 584; Dean of, 588; Earl of, 32, 148; Earl of, Seiher de Quincy, 147; Marquesses of, 379; Captain Peter, arms, 264 Windsor, 30, 31, 78, 149; badge of, 48; Henry of, 469; Dean of, insignia of, 584; Herald, 37; Castle Bookplates, 183; Library, 372 Wingate, arms, 284 Winged, 286 Winged ape, 215; lions, 436; stags, 209 Winlaw, 255; motto, 451 Winnowing fans, 55 Winterstoke, Lord, supporters, 437 Winwick, 50 Wogenfeh, 81, 82 Wolf, 196 Wolf-hunter, Grand, insignia of, 581 Wolfe, 181, 541; crest, 298; Francis, 196, 592 Wolkenfeh, 81 Wolseley, arms, 204; Lord, 196, 204, 594 Wolverhampton, town of, arms, 284, 291 Woman, grant to a, 57, 62, 574; illegitimate, Royal Licence, 554; married, arms, 534 Wood, 165; late Sir Albert, 264; crests granted, 339; Sir William, 349 Woodbine-leaves, 266 Woodman, 433 Wood-pigeon, 244 Woodstock, borough of, arms, 264 Woodstock, De, 56; Thomas of, 494 Woodward, 14, 75, 80, 83, 85, 90, 136, 150, 162, 185, 188, 197, 200, 250, 253, 254, 255, 261, 318, 324, 343, 399, 405, 467, 469, 513, 514, 598; and Burnett, 69, 74, 94, 95, 407; arms, 261, 266 Woollan, 292 Woolpack, 5 Worcester, 78 Wordsworth, 287 "Workes of Armorie," 489 Worms, Baron de, supporters, 444 Wortford, arms, 266 Wreath, 157 Wright, 126 Wriothesley, 41 Wursters, arms, 200 Wurtemburg, supporters, 187; Queen of, label, 498 Wyatt, arms, 287 Wylcote, Sir John, brass, 389 Wyndham, crest, 291 Wyndham-Campbell-Pleydell-Bouverie, crests, 348 Wynn, Sir Watkin Williams, 198 Wyon, 353 Wyvern, 186, 225, 226, 227; as supporters, 437, 438 Xantoigne, 34 Yacht, 294 Yarborough, Earl of, 205, 590; badge, 288, 458; supporter, 437 Yarmouth, 525; arms, 182 Yeates, 255 Yeatman-Biggs, arms, 141 Yellow, 70 Yerburgh, crest, 242 Yeropkin, 250 Yockney, arms, 266 Yonge, crest, 222 York, 588; Archbishop of, 127; arms, 297, 601, 602; pallium, 583; Cardinal, 359; Herald, 37; badge of, 48; Duke of, 37, 488; Duke of, label, 498; Duke of (Edward), seal, 466; blazing sun of, badge, 468; white rose of, badge, 468; and Lancaster, badges, 468 Yorke, 112; crest, 215 Youghal, Provosts of, seal, 525 Young, Sir Charles, crest, 226, 348 Zachary, 514 Zebra, 217, 438 Zobel, 77 Zoë, Queen, 351 Zorke, 112 Zorn, crests, 344 Zug, supporters, 409 Zurich, 384; supporter, 409; Wappenrolle, 397 THE END Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. Edinburgh & London * * * * * NOTES [1] "Norreys and Surreis, that service aught the kyng, With horse and harneis at Carlele, made samning." See Langtoft's Chronicle treating of the Wars of Edward I. against the Scots. "Bot Sir John de Waleis taken was, in a pleyne, Throgh Spring of Norreis men that were certeyn." Ibid., _Australes se Norensibus opposuerunt_. M. Oaris, under the year 1237. [2] Robertson's Index to "Missing Charters." [3] Here lieth Sir John D'Aubernoun, knight. On his soul may God have mercy. [4] "Monumental Brasses of Gloucestershire," by C. T. Davis. London: Phillimore & Co., 1899. [5] The arms are quoted by Mr. Davis from Bigland's "Gloucestershire," p. 539. [6] The arms of Clayhills of Invergowrie: Parted per bend sanguine and vert, two greyhounds courant bendwise argent. Mantling gules doubled argent; and upon a wreath of the liveries is set for crest, an arm holding an Imperial crown proper; and in an escroll over the same, this motto, "Corde et animo." Matriculated in Lyon Office _circa_ 1672. [7] Armorial bearings of Sir Henry Seymour King, K.C.I.E.: Quarterly, argent and azure, in the second and third quarters a quatrefoil of the first, over all a bend barry of six of the second, charged with a quatrefoil also of the first, and gules. [8] Armorial bearings of William Warde-Aldam, Esq.: Quarterly, 1 and 4, party per fesse azure and ermine, in the sinister chief and dexter base an eagle displayed or, in the dexter canton issuant towards the sinister base seven rays, the centre one gold, the others argent (for Aldam); 2 and 3 (for Warde). [9] Armorial bearings of Isham: Gules, a fesse wavy, and in chief three piles in point also wavy, the points meeting in fesse argent. [10] _Collectanea_, ed. 1774, ii. 611. [11] In M. Victor Bouton's edition of the _Armorial de Gelre_ (Paris 1881) the bonnet is described as a mount. [12] Arms of Rutherglen: Argent, in a sea proper an ancient galley sable, flagged gules, therein two men proper, one rowing, the other furling the sail. Above the shield is placed a suitable helmet, with a mantling gules, doubled argent; and on a wreath of the proper liveries is set for crest, a demi-figure of the Virgin Mary with the Infant Saviour in her arms proper; and on a compartment below the shield, on which is an escroll containing this motto, "Ex fumo fama," are placed for supporters, two angels proper, winged or. [13] Arms of Sandwich: Party per pale gules and azure, three demi-lions passant guardant or, conjoined to the hulks of as many ships argent. [14] Arms of Hastings: Party per pale gules and azure, a lion passant guardant or, between in chief and in base a lion passant guardant or, dimidiated with the hulk of a ship argent. [15] Arms of Ramsgate: Quarterly gules and azure, a cross parted and fretty argent between a horse rampant of the last in the first quarter, a demi-lion passant guardant of the third conjoined to the hulk of a ship or in the second, a dolphin naiant proper in the third, and a lymphad also or in the fourth. Crest: a naval crown or, a pier-head, thereon a lighthouse, both proper. Motto: "Salus naufragis salus ægris." [16] Arms of Yarmouth: Party per pale gules and azure, three demi-lions passant guardant or, conjoined to the bodies of as many herrings argent. Motto: "Rex et nostra jura." [17] Armorial bearings of Dodge: Barry of six or and sable, on a pale gules, a woman's breast distilling drops of milk proper. Crest: upon a wreath of the colours, a demi sea-dog azure, collared, maned, and finned or. [18] Armorial bearings of James Joseph Louis Ratton, Esq.: Azure, in base the sea argent, and thereon a tunny sable, on a chief of the second a rat passant of the third. Upon the escutcheon is placed a helmet befitting his degree, with a mantling azure and argent; and for his crest, upon a wreath of the colours, an ibex statant guardant proper, charged on the body with two fleurs-de-lis fesswise azure, and resting the dexter foreleg on a shield argent charged with a passion cross sable. Motto: "In Deo spero." [19] Upon a wreath of the colours, from a plume of five ostrich feathers or, gules, azure, vert, and argent, a falcon rising of the last; with the motto, "Malo mori quam foedari." [20] Armorial bearings of Peebles (official blazon): Gules, three salmon naiant in pale, the centre towards the dexter, the others towards the sinister. Motto: "Contra nando incrementum." [21] Arms of Accrington: Gules, on a fess argent, a shuttle fesswise proper, in base two printing cylinders, issuant therefrom a piece of calico (parsley pattern) also proper, on a chief per pale or and vert, a lion rampant purpure and a stag current or; and for the crest, an oak-branch bent chevronwise, sprouting and leaved proper, fructed or. Motto: "Industry and prudence conquer." [22] Out of a ducal coronet gules, a lion's head ermine (Nicholson). [23] Crest of Bentinck: Out of a marquess's coronet proper, two arms counter-embowed, vested gules, on the hands gloves or, and in each hand an ostrich feather argent. [24] Plate XI. Fig. 10, Laing's "Catalogue," No. 29. At each side of the King's seated figure on the counter-seal of Robert II. (1386) the arms of Scotland are supported from behind by a skeleton within an embattled buttress ("Catalogue," No. 34). [25] Armorial bearings of William Speke, Esq.: Argent, two bars azure, over all an eagle displayed with two heads gules, and as an honourable augmentation (granted by Royal Licence, dated July 26, 1867, to commemorate the discoveries of the said John Hanning Speke), a chief azure, thereon a representation of flowing water proper, superinscribed with the word "Nile" in letters gold. Upon the escutcheon is placed a helmet befitting his degree, with a mantling azure and argent; and for his crests: 1. (of honourable augmentation) upon a wreath of the colours, a crocodile proper; 2. upon a wreath of the colours, a porcupine proper; and as a further augmentation for supporters (granted by Royal Licence as above to the said William Speke, Esq., for and during his life)--on the dexter side, a crocodile; and on the sinister side, a hippopotamus, both proper; with the motto, "Super æthera virtus." [26] Arms of Glasgow: Argent, on a mount in base vert an oak-tree proper, the stem at the base thereof surmounted by a salmon on its back also proper, with a signet-ring in its mouth or, on the top of the tree a redbreast, and in the sinister fess point an ancient hand-bell, both also proper. Above this shield is placed a suitable helmet, with a mantling gules, doubled argent; and issuing from a wreath of the proper liveries is set for crest, the half-length figure of St. Kentigern affronté, vested and mitred, his right hand raised in the act of benediction, and having in his left hand a crosier, all proper. On a compartment below the shield are placed for supporters, two salmon proper, each holding in its mouth a signet-ring or, and in an escroll entwined with the compartment this motto, "Let Glasgow flourish." [27] Supporters of Lord Hawke: Dexter, Neptune, his mantle of a sea-green colour, edged argent, crowned with an Eastern coronet or, his dexter arm erect, darting downwards his trident sable, headed silver, resting his sinister foot on a dolphin, also sable; sinister a sea-horse or, sustaining in his forefins a banner argent the staff broken proper. [28] Arms of Boston: Sable, three coronets composed of crosses patté and fleurs-de-lis in pale or. Crest: A woolpack charged with a ram couchant all proper, ducally crowned azure. [29] The caltrap was an instrument thrown on the ground to injure the feet of horses, and consisted of four iron spikes, of which one always pointed upwards. [30] Arms borne on a sinister canton suggest illegitimacy. [31] Gutté-de-poix. * * * * * CORRECTIONS MADE TO PRINTED ORIGINAL Page 6. "herald ([Greek: kêrux])" corrected from "herald ([Greek: kêrnx])" Page 47. "The reverse exhibits the arms of the Office of Ulster" corrected from "The reserve exhibits ..." Page 327. "Then it was found that" corrected from "Then it was found than" Page 482. "the bearer was not the person chiefly entitled" corrected from "the hearer ..." Index "Layland-Barratt" corrected from "Llanday-Burratt" to match text, and placed in correct sequence