Chapter XV: Appendix (1)

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.

]

There are more examples, but these are in Kent.

Now for an instance in the family of 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

]

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.

]

]

]

]

]

]

]

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.

]

The three modern ones assigned by Sir Wm. Segar are as follows:

]

[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....

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 bezantee, 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 patee =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.

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, tenne and sanguine. The first is the delf tenne, 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 tenne 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 tenne 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 tenne 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.

Appendix D.

GRANT OF ARMS.

(_Referred to at p. 35, note._)

A touts pnts et advenir qui ces pnts 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 & posterite: 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 nomee 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 nre seig{n} Jesus Christ mccclxxvj et l'an de nre 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.

Appendix E.

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 'Archaeologia,' 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.

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.

[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 gratia 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] Planche 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 coupee 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.

[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, AEn. 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. Archaeolog. Graec.) 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 patee, 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 Mediaeval 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 Ponticae 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. Planche (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] AEn. 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.