by Mytton or Mutton, three legs of hose by Hosy, three right hands by Tremayne, three right arms mailed and gauntletted by Armstrong, bulls' heads by Gore, with many other instances. Not only have the earth, seas, and air been ransacked for heraldic figures, but the heavens likewise and the regions of fable. Chaloner bears three cherubims.* Suns, crescents, and stars shine on many a shield. Griffins, cockatrices, wiverns, dragons, harpies, mermaids, phoenixes, and unicorns display their portentous attributes, and were probably assumed like the Gorgon's head of old time for the purpose of petrifying an antagonist. Stephen of Blois bore a centaur on his coat. The arms of the Duchy of Milan are a crowned serpent swallowing an infant,' which is said to have been adopted by Otho, first Count of Milan, when on his way to the Holy Land with Godfrey of Bouillon, he slew the 'great giant Volux,' who wore this terrific crest upon his helmet. Bishops, on the other hand, appropriately inscribe keys, croziers, mitres, bibles, lambs, and angels on their coats. The bearing of the Bishop of Chichester is odd enough, viz., a Presbyter John sitting on a tomb-stone; in his left hand a mound, his right extended, a linen mitre on his head, in his mouth a sword.' The command or capture of fortresses naturally suggested the towers, battlements, keys, portcullises, and battering-rams seen on many escutcheons. One of the most singular bearings in existence is that of the ancient family of Dalziel, viz., a naked man hanging from a gallows with his arms extended ;--a bearing of honour (though so liable to be taken for the reverse), since, ‘if hoar antiquity may be believed,' it was granted to perpetuate the memory of a brave and hazardous exploit performed by an ancestor of the Earl of Carnwath, in taking down from a gallows the body of a favourite and kinsman of Kenneth II. who had been hung up by the Picts. A reward having been offered by the monarch to any one who would rescue the corpse, none were inclined to venture, until a gentleman of the family of Menteith came to the king and said Dal-zel' (Gaelic for I dare'), and having performed his task, assumed the above arms and the surname of 'Dalziel.' Such is the legend.

Of late years the multiplication of the order of persons desirous of bearing arms has kept the invention of heralds on the stretch in supplying them with novel charges, and though it was impossible

In a strange work, published by the Chester Herald, Randal Holme, 1688, entitled The Academy of Armoury, or a Storehouse of Armoury and Blazon, containing the several variety of Created Beings, and how borne in Coats of Arms, foreign and domestic,' &c., the first chapter blasphemously introduces an heraldic disquisition On the proper blazoning of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Cherubim and Seraphin, the Heathen Gods and Goddesses, demy-Gods and country-Gods, the holy orders of Angels, and the infernal orders of Devils.'

to

to maintain, under these circumstances, the simplicity of the ancient coats, yet it must be owned that they have run deeper than was necessary into the opposite extreme of complexity. What can be more absurd than the following instance of a crest not long since 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!' We do not object to the historical coats of arms granted to the Sydney Smiths, Trowbridges, Mitchells, Thompsons, and our other naval and military heroes, since they fulfil the most legitimate purpose of armorial ensigns-the commemoration of acts of valour; but a little more taste, perhaps, might have been advantageously employed in their design, which is usually overcharged with emblems and scrolls. The heroes of Crecy and Poictiers did not think of inscribing on their shields the names of every field on which they gathered their deathless laurels.

The differences' borne to distinguish the younger branches of a family are said to have a hidden moral in them. The crescent of the second son indicates that there is room for the increase of his fortune; the mullet, or spur, of the third, hints that he must up and ride if he mean to get anything; the martlet, or swallow without feet, of the fourth, reminds him that he must keep upon the wing, having no land to stand upon. These allusions are probably imaginary. Not so thecanting' mottos so fre quently introduced in the scroll;' such as the Forte scutum salus ducum' of the Fortescues, Ne vile velis' for Neville, Ne vile fano' of Fane, Templa quam dilecta' of Temple, Vernon semper viret' for Vernon, Vive et vivas' for Vivian, the Peperi' of Pepperell, the Homo sum' of Homan, the Fare fac of Fairfax, and the Festina lente' of Onslow. The Herons bear a heron for their crest, and for their motto Ardua petit ardea,' thus uniting every species of quibble with the benefit of alliteration. Alliteration is a very favourite conceit in mottos, as Volens et valens' Fetherstone, Think and Thank' Aylesbury, 'Thure et jure' Foulis, Pro rege, lege, grege' Ponsonby, ' Dum spiro spero' Dillon, Ora et labora' Dalhousie, Astra castra numen lumen munimen' Balcarras, Patior potior' Peyton, Furth Fortune and fill the fetters' Athole. Many mottos are full of pith and vigour, and fitted in a high degree to animate those who bear them to maintain the honour of their ancestors untarnished. There is perhaps nowhere a collection of terser apophthegms than in the mottos on the escutcheons of our nobility. What can be more inspiriting to a life of loyalty, valour, truth, piety, and virtue, than the Jamais Arrière' of Douglas, Essayez' Dundas, Nil conscire sibi' Winchilsea, Pro aris et focis' Heselrigge, Virtute non verbis' Lansdowne, Virtus sola nobilitat '

nobilitat' Wallscourt, Tout d'en haut' Bellew, Deo, regi, patri' Feversham, Craignez honte' Portland, Spectemur agendo' Montague, Sans tache' Gormanstown, Droit et avant' Sydney, 'Garde la foi' Poulett, and a hundred others? Mottoes are supposed to have been originally the war-cries or slogan' of the family, clan, or faction. This opinion, however, is not confirmed by the earliest known instances of their employment, such as the Ich Dien' of the Black Prince, Crede mihi' of John le Breton, A te salus' of Brian Fitzalan-which, like the mottoes now in use, appear to have been allusions to the opinions or dispositions of those who assumed them; while, among the Scotch claus, as far back as we can trace their history, the slogan seems to have been quite distinct from the motto of the chief-being generally either a shout of his name, a Home! a Home!' or of the usual place for rendezvous, as a Bellenden' with the Scotts Craig-Ellachie' with the clan Grant, &c.

6

The origin of supporters' is much disputed by heralds, some maintaining them to be derived from the custom of an individual about to be invested with some dignity, being led to his Sovereign between two nobles, in remembrance of which he chooses two noble animals or figures to support his arms. Menestrier, the earliest writer of authority on heraldry, traces the practice to that of ancient tournaments, in which the knights caused their shields to be carried by pages in the disguise of lions, bears, griffins, blackamoors, and the like, who also held and guarded the escutcheons exposed to public view some time before the lists were opened.' But the examination of a series of ancient seals, in which animals or other figures are frequently employed as a sort of ornamental garnish' to the shield, rather leads to the opinion that the caprice or taste of the seal engravers alone suggested the fashion of supporters.' Their use is at present confined, in England, to the nobility and Knights of the Garter and Bath-with the addition of a few untitled families who have received a royal grant for some special service. In Scotland the chiefs of clans and baronets are, it seems, entitled to them—but under the former vague designation many most absurd assumptions are sufficiently notorious-nor can we see why the Nova Scotia baronet should have any distinction above his brother of Ulster.

Formerly abbeys and religious houses borearms.' Trades, guilds, and corporations bore them, and fought gallantly under them, too. Towns and cities likewise had their escutcheons, as well as the Universities, and their several colleges-schools, and public hospitals. They are, in most cases, still jealously preserved, and employed on the seals of these bodies, on their

Dallaway's Heraldry.

badges

badges of office, and for other purposes. Every bishopric, as already mentioned, has its shield and armorial bearings, in this country, as well as throughout the continent; and all Italian tourists must have remarked the profuse application of the 'arms' of his Holiness the Pope, in heavy sculpture, to every bit of masonry the Papal wealth ever erected within the Roman territory, -impaling of course those of the family to which the particular Pontiff belonged.

Blazoning was not confined to the shield, but, at the time when arms were really worn, was likewise displayed on the surcoat, the mantle, and just-au-corps or bodice. On these the charge was usually embossed in beaten' gold, or embroidered in resplendent tissue. Richard II. carried this magnificence of decoration to its highest pitch; but long before his reign the knights and nobles of France and England were accustomed to plunge into the dust and blood of battle arrayed in the most costly and splendid attire. Sir John Chandos lost his life at the affair of Pont de Lussac owing to the rich and long robe he had on over his cuirass, which Froissart describes as blazoned with his arms on white sarcenet, argent a pile gules, one charge on his breast, the other on his back.' A curious document, lately produced by Sir Frederick Madden to the Antiquarian Society, entitled The Apparel of the Field of a Baron in his Sovereign's Company,' gives an inventory of the equipments for a foreign campaign of Henry the Fifth Earl of Northumberland, the same whose Household Book' is so well known. It describes, in the Earl's wardrobe, his harness and cote-armure beaten with his arms quarterly,' with a large number of coats, standards, banners, and hundreds of pennons, all beaten' or 'powdered with my Lord's arms.'*

The habiliments of war displayed in tournaments were equally gorgeous. In 1390 the thirty-four knights who jousted in Smithfield in the king's behalf, were each led from the Tower to the lists by a lady with a golden chain, having their arms and apparel garnished with white harts (the royal badge) and collars of gold about their necks. At the tournament of St. Inglevère near Calais, held by three French knights against all comers for thirty days, three rich pavilions of vermilion-coloured silk' were pitched near the lists, before each of which were suspended two shields emblazoned with the arms of the knight to whom the pavilion belonged. Such persons as were desirous of tilting with one of the knights, touched with the point of his lance one or other of the targets, according as he wished to perform with a blunt or a sharp lance.

*Archæologia, vol. xx. p. 102.

Badges

Badges of Cognizance were sometimes called 'Signs of Company,'-a phrase explanatory of their use. Retainers of every description bore the badge of their lord, and the minstrel of a noble house wore it suspended to his neck by a silver chain. The 'bear and ragged staff' of the Earls of Warwick, the buckle' of the Pelhams, and the annulet' of the Cliffords, are well-known badges of ancient baronial families. The badges of the House of Lancaster were the antelope and red rose, and a swan argent, gorged and chained or. Henry wore the first and last of these embroidered on green and blue velvet when he entered the lists near Coventry against the Duke of Norfolk. And in that era of factious broils and civil warfare badges were thought of sufficient importance as party symbols, to be forbidden by statute; particularly Richard's white hart, which makes such a figure in history and was a frequent annoyance to Henry IV. In our days we have seen the violet' and the fleur-de-lis' proscribed in turn from a similar motive. The Scottish clans commonly employed as badges a sprig or branch from some tree or bush; Chisholm the alder, Menzies the ash, Buchanan the birch, Maclean the blackberry, Buccleuch the heather-and so on.

The charge and cognizance were moreover profusely embroidered on the trappings of the war-horse and the draperies of the tent; but above all, they were blazoned conspicuously on the standard and banner of the Sovereign, Noble, and Banneret, and the pennon of the Knight. These were borne before them in all warlike expeditions, often planted in the field by their side, hung out at their temporary lodgings, suspended from the roofs of their halls, and finally reared to droop in sympathetic decay over their graves.

The architect made a liberal use of arms,' as well as of 'crest' and' badge' in the adornment of both the exterior and interior of his buildings, ecclesiastical, civil, or domestic. They were sculptured on the walls and over doorways and windows; enriched the gables, drips, corbels, and pinnacles; were painted and embossed on ceilings; and introduced, above all, in stained windows. The arms thus employed were chiefly those of the builder or owner of the house, and of the families with which he was allied; or of its founders and benefactors, if a religious building. But it was also customary to introduce in this manner the arms of Sovereigns, friends, or patrons, as a mark of regard and a compliment. A proof of this occurs in the Scrope and Grosvenor contest, of which we shall shortly speak. The Prior of Marton, one of the deponents in that cause, giving his evidence in the year 1386, says Two centuries ago, at the foundation of our Church, there was a Knight, Sir Robert Haket, Lord of Quenby,