Chapter XVI: Appendix (2)

[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] Archaeologia, 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 Archaeological 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] Archaeologia, 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 'Archaeologia,' 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' _guttee des larmes_!

[258] Equal, probably, to L1200 or L1500, 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 etoit 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 L0 ,, 1 ,, 0.

"1651. Paid to the painter for setting up the State's Arms L0 ,, 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 L10 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 bezantee 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.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Curiosities of Heraldry, by Mark Antony Lower