CHAPTER IX.

Historical Arms--Augmentations.

[Illustration: (Badge of Pelham.)]

"In perpetuum per gloriam vivere intelliguntur." _Justinian._

By Historical Arms I mean those coats which, upon the testimony either of record or tradition, have been acquired by an act of the original bearer, and which exhibit some trophy or circumstance connected therewith to the eye of the spectator. AUGMENTATIONS are marks of honour, granted by the sovereign, and _superadded_ to the paternal arms; and borne, for the most part, upon a canton or inescocheon, sometimes upon a chief, fesse, or quarter. This class of arms, the most interesting in the whole range of heraldry, has been subdivided into eight kinds; viz. 1, Those derived from acts of valour; 2, From acts of loyalty; 3, From royal and other advantageous alliances; 4, From favour and services; 5, From situation; 6, From profession, &c.; 7, From tenure and office; and 8, From memorable circumstances and events.[198]

It may be almost unnecessary to observe, that many of the anecdotes about to be related are of a very apocryphal description, referring to periods antecedent to the introduction of armorial bearings. Some of these, however, may be correct in the incidents though incorrect in point of time; and doubtless, in many cases, the arms have been assumed in rather modern times, to commemorate the exploits of ancestors of a much earlier period; the highly-prized family tradition having been confided to the safer custody of the emblazoned shield. At all events, I deliver them to the reader as I find them set down in 'myne authoures,' and leave the _onus probandi_ to the families whose honour is concerned in their perpetuation.

First among these pictorial mementoes should be noticed the well-known cognizance of the Prince of Wales, the Ostrich Feathers, the popular origin of which is known to every schoolboy. Whether the King of Bohemia fell by the trenchant blade of the Black Prince himself, or by that of some knight or 'squier of lowe degree,' it would now be useless to inquire; and whether the feathers and the mottoes, =Ich Dien= and =Houmout=, signifying respectively in old German, 'I serve,' and 'A haughty spirit,' had any relation to that event is altogether a matter of dubiety. It has been shown by Mr. J. G. Nichols[199] that the King of Bohemia used (not ostrich feathers, but) a pair of vulture's wings as a crest. It further appears that the _badge_ of the Black Prince was _a single feather_, while, on his tomb at Canterbury, the _three_ feathers are represented singly upon a shield, the quill of each being attached to a scroll, with the motto ICH . DIENE. The popular version of the story, however, is somewhat supported by the fact that an ostrich, collared and chained, with a nail in his beak, was a badge of the Bohemian monarchs; and Mr. Nichols suggests that the feathers may probably have been adopted by Edward as a trophy of his victory. Randle Holme deduces the three ostrich feathers from a totally different source, and asserts that they were the ensign of the princes of Wales during the independence of that country, prior to the invasion of the English. After this event, (he adds) the eldest sons of the kings of England, as princes of Wales, continued the badge ensigned with a coronet, with the motto, 'Ich Dien,' I serve; to express the sentiment that, although of paramount dignity in that country, they still owed allegiance to the crown of England.[200] It is asserted by other authorities that a single ostrich feather was borne as a badge by Edward III, by all the brothers and descendants of the Black Prince, and by Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, who was descended by the female line from Thomas de Brotherton, fifth son of Edward I. In the Harl. MS. 304, we are told that,

"=The ostrich fether, sylver, and pen gold, is the King's. The ostrich fether, pen and all sylver, is the Prince's. The ostrich fether, gold, y{e} pen ermyne, is the Duk of Lancaster's. The ostrich fether, sylver, and pen gobone, is the Duk of Somersett's.="

Who has not heard of the '=Bear and ragged staff=' of the earls of Warwick? This is a combination of two badges of that antient line, which sprang, according to the family tradition, from Arthgal, one of the knights of King Arthur's 'Round Table.' _Arth_ or _Narth_, in the British language, is said to signify a bear; hence this ensign was adopted as a rebus or play upon his name. Morvidus, another earl of the same family, a man of wonderful valour, slew a giant with a young tree torn up by the roots and hastily trimmed of its boughs. In memory of this exploit his successors bore as their cognizance a silver staff in a shield of sable.[201]

The supporters of the Scottish family of Hay, earls of Errol, are two husbandmen, each carrying an ox-yoke. In the year 980, when the Danes invaded this island, an engagement took place at Longcarty, near Perth, in which Kenneth III was routed. An honest yeoman, yclept John de Luz, and his two sons, were ploughing in a field hard by the scene of action. Seeing their countrymen fly before the victorious enemy, these stalwart ploughmen stopped them in a narrow pass with the gear of their ploughs, and upbraiding them with cowardice induced them to stand the brunt of a new attack. The Danes, astonished at this unexpected turn of affairs, which they attributed to the arrival of fresh succours, wheeled about and made a hasty retreat, and the Scots obtained a signal victory. Kenneth, to reward the valour of his faithful subject, gave him as much land in the district of Gowrie, as a falcon, flying from his fist, should measure out before he perched. Hence the supporters and the crest (a falcon rising) of this family. The earls of Kinnoul, a younger branch of the family, further allude to the circumstance first mentioned in their motto, RENOVATE ANIMOS, 'Rouse your courage,' or 'Rally.'

There are still existing indubitable evidences of a great conflict on the spot referred to in this legend; and it may be admitted that the ancestors of the family were concerned in it; but the above heraldric ensigns must be considered to have been adopted as remembrances of long past events, albeit their assumption may have taken place at a very early period.

[Illustration]

The family of Keith, earls Marischal, bear _Argent, on a chief or, three pallets gules_, OR _gules, three pallets or_. These ensigns likewise originated in an engagement between the Scots and the Danes. An ancestor of the Keiths having greatly distinguished himself in a battle near Dundee, in which Camus, the Danish general, was killed, the Scottish monarch, Kenneth III, charmed with his valour, dipped his royal fingers in the blood of the Dane and drew three stripes or pallets on the top of his chieftain's shield. Hence the arms of Keith. As in the former instance, this anecdote assumes the existence of armorial bearings, at too remote a date, though, as in that case, there are evident vestigia of a great battle at the place referred to. A stone called 'Camus's Cross' was standing a few years since; and in the last century a large tomb, inclosed with four huge stones, containing bones, conjectured to have been those of the Northman, was discovered near the spot.[202]

_Bulstrode_, of Bulstrode, co. Bucks, bore, as a crest, _A bull's head, erased gules, attired argent, between two wings of the same_. When William the Conqueror subdued this kingdom he gave the estate of this family to one of his own followers, and lent him a thousand men for the purpose of taking possession, _vi et armis_. The rightful owner calling in the aid of some neighbouring gentlemen, (among others, the ancestors of the Penns and the Hampdens,) gallantly resisted the invader, intrenching himself with an earthwork, which is still pointed out as evidence of the truth of the story. It seems that the besieged party, wanting horses, mounted themselves upon _bulls_, and, sallying out of their camp, so affrighted the Normans that many of the latter were slain and the rest put to flight. The king hearing of this strange affair, and not wishing to push matters to an imprudent extent, sent for the valiant Saxon, with a promise of safe conduct to and from his court. The Saxon paid the Conqueror a visit, riding upon a _bull_, accompanied by his seven sons similarly mounted. The result of the interview was that he was allowed to retain his estate. In commemoration of these events, he assumed the crest above described, together with the name of _Bullstrode_!! The whole narration exhibits strong characteristics of that peculiar genus of history, known as 'Cock and _Bull_ stories,' although it is probably quite as true as a distich preserved in the family, that

"=When William conquered English ground, Bulstrode had per annum, Three Hundred Pound.="[203]

Among those Welsh chieftains who gallantly defended their country from the aggressions of the English, in the reign of Henry II, was Kadivor ap Dynawal, who recaptured the castle of Cardigan, by scalade, from the Earl of Clare. For this action he was enriched by Rhys, prince of South Wales, with several estates, and permitted to bear, as coat armour, a castle, three scaling-ladders, and a bloody spear. These arms were borne by Kadivor's descendants, the Lloyds of Milfield, co. Cardigan, baronets, till the extinction of the family in the last century.

Williams, of Penrhyn, co. Caernarvon, Bart., bore, among other charges, _three human heads_, in commemoration of the exploit of Edwyfed Vychan, the great ancestor of his house, who in an engagement with the followers of Ranulph, earl of Chester, came off victorious, having killed three of their chief commanders. This happened in the thirteenth century.[204]

The Vescis, Chetwodes, Knowleses, Tyntes, Villierses, and various other families, bear crosses in their arms, traditionally derived from the period of the Crusades.

Sir Ancel Gornay attended Richard I on his crusade, and was present at the capture of Ascalon, where he took a Moorish king prisoner. From this circumstance he adopted as his crest, 'A king of the Moors habited in a robe, and crowned, kneeling, and surrendering with his dexter hand, his sword, all proper.' This crest was continued by the Newtons, of Barr's Court, co. Gloucester, one of whom married the heiress of the Gornays. Among several other armorial ensigns dated from this same battle of Ascalon is the crest of Darrell, which may be briefly described as, 'Out of a ducal coronet a Saracen's head appropriately vested,' and which was assumed by Sir Marmaduke Darrell, in commemoration of his having killed the infidel King of Cyprus; also the arms and crest of Minshull, of Cheshire, 'Azure, an estoile issuant out of a crescent, in base argent.' _Crest_, 'An Eastern warrior, kneeling on one knee, habited gules, legs and arms in mail proper; at his side a scymitar sable, hilted or; on his head a turban with a crescent and feather argent, presenting, with his sinister hand, a crescent of the last.' These bearings were assigned to Michael de Minshull for his valour on that occasion, but the particular nature of his exploits is not recorded.

The Bouchiers, earls of Essex, bore 'Argent, a cross engrailed gules, between four water-bowgets sable. _Crest._ The bust of a Saracen king, with a long cap and coronet, all proper.' All these bearings are emblematical of the crusades; and the water-bowgets are a play upon the name. "In the hall of the manor-house of Newton, in the parish of Little Dunmowe, in Essex," says Weever,[205] "remaineth, in old painting, two postures (figures;) the one for an ancestor of the Bouchiers, combatant with another, being a Pagan king, for the truth of Christ, whom the said Englishman overcame; and in memory thereof his descendants have ever since borne the head of the said infidel, as also used the _surname of Bouchier_," in conformity with an antient practice, by which, as Saintfoix informs us, great heroes were honoured with the "_glorious surname_" of BUTCHER![206]

The arms of Willoughby, Lords Willoughby of Eresby, were 'Sable, a cross engrailed or,' and their _Crest_, 'A Saracen's head crowned frontè, all proper.' The only account I have seen of the origin of these ensigns is contained in the following lines, occurring in Dugdale's Baronage. A Willoughby _loquitur_.

"Of myne old ancestors, by help of Goddes might, (By reason of marriage and lineal descent,) A Sarasyn king discomfit was in fighte, Whose head my creste, shall ever be presénte."

Sir Christopher Seton, ancestor of the Earls of Wintoun, at the battle of Methven, in 1306, rescued King Robert Bruce from the English. For this service Robert gave him his sister, the lady Christian, in marriage, and the following augmentation to his paternal arms: 'Surtout, an inescocheon per pale gules and azure; the first charged with a sword in pale proper, hilted and pommelled, and _supporting a falling crown_ within a double tressure all or; the second azure a star of twelve points argent, for Wintoun.'

Robert Bruce desired that his heart might be carried to Jerusalem, and there interred in holy ground. The office of conveying it thither devolved upon his faithful and now sorrowing knight, Sir James Douglas, who was unfortunately slain on his return by the infidels, in the year 1331. To commemorate this service his descendants have ever since borne 'Argent, a human heart royally crowned proper; on a chief azure, three mullets of the first.' This stalwart soldier is said to have been engaged in fifty-seven battles and rencontres with the English, and thirteen with the Saracens, all in the space of twenty-four years. Certes, he must have been one of the noblest 'butchers' of his time!

The family of Pelham (now represented by the Earl of Chichester) bear, as a quartering, 'Gules, two demi-belts, paleways, the _buckles_ in chief argent.' This augmentation was allowed to the family in the early part of the seventeenth century; but they had previously, for many generations, borne the Buckle as a badge. They also occasionally gave it as a crest, together with a cage--both in commemoration of the capture of John, king of France, at Poictiers, by Sir John de Pelham. The story is thus briefly told by Collins:[207]

"Froysart gives an account, that with the king were taken beside his son Philip, the Earl of Tankerville, Sir Jaques of Bourbon, the Earls of Ponthieu and Eue, with divers other noblemen, who being chased to Poictiers, the town shut their gates against them, not suffering any to enter; so that divers were slain, and every Englishman had four, five, or six prisoners; and the press being great to take the King, such as knew him, cry'd, _Sir, yield, or you are dead_: Whereupon, as the chronicle relates, he yielded himself to Sir Dennis Morbeck, a Knight of Artois, in the English service, and being afterwards forc'd from him, more than ten Knights and Esquires challeng'd the taking of the King. Among these Sir Roger la Warr, and the before-mentioned John de Pelham, were most concerned; and in memory of so signal an action, and the King surrendering his sword to them, Sir Roger la Warr, Lord la Warr, had the crampet, or chape of his sword, for a badge of that honour; and John de Pelham (afterwards knighted) had the buckle of a belt as a mark of the same honour, which was sometimes used by his descendants as a seal-manual, and at others, the said buckles on each side a cage; being an emblem of the captivity of the said King of France, and was therefore borne for a crest, as in those times was customary. The buckles, &c. were likewise used by his descendants, in their great seals, as is evident from several of them appendant to old deeds."

It is somewhat remarkable that Froissart, Walsingham, Knyghton, and the other early chroniclers, are silent as to the names of the King's captors; and were the story unsupported by strong indirect evidence, their silence would be almost fatal to its authenticity; but the occurrence of the Buckle upon the stonework of many ecclesiastical buildings founded by Sir John de Pelham himself and his immediate successors,[208] sufficiently corroborates the undisputed family tradition.[209]

The chape or crampet of a sword (the ornament at the end of the scabbard which prevents the point from protruding) is still borne as a badge by the Earl de la Warr, a lineal descendant of the Sir Roger la Warr referred to in the above extract.

The crest of the ancient family of De la Bere is 'a ducal coronet or, therefrom issuant a plume of five ostrich feathers per pale argent and azure.' This was conferred upon Sir Richard de la Bere, knight-banneret, by Edward the Black Prince, in reward for his having rescued him from imminent danger on the memorable field of Cressy. The ducal coronet is emblematical of military command, and the feathers are an evident derivation from the Prince's own badge. There is (or was at the beginning of the present century) in an old house at Cheltenham, the property of his lineal descendants, a painting supposed to be nearly contemporary with the occurrence, which represents the Prince in the act of conferring this mark of honour upon his faithful follower.[210]

[Illustration]

The crest of Dudley of Northamptonshire, Bart. was 'Out of a ducal coronet or, a woman's bust: her hair dishevelled, bosom bare, a helmet on her head with the stay or throat-latch down proper.' From a MS. in the possession of this family, written by a monk about the close of the fourteenth century, it appeared that the father of Agnes Hotot (who, in the year 1395, married an ancestor of the Dudleys,) having a quarrel with one Ringsdale concerning the proprietorship of some land, they agreed to meet on the 'debateable ground,' and decide their right by combat. Unfortunately for Hotot, on the day appointed he was seriously ill; "but his daughter Agnes, unwilling that he should lose his claim, or suffer in his honour, armed herself cap-a-pie, and, mounting her father's steed, repaired to the place of decision, where, after a stubborn encounter, she dismounted Ringsdale, and when he was on the ground, she loosened the stay of her helmet, let down her hair about her shoulders, and, disclosing her bosom, discovered to him that he had been conquered by a woman." This valiant lady became the heiress of her family, and married a Dudley, whence the latter family derived their right to this crest.

Sir Richard Waller was at the battle of Agincourt, where he took prisoner Charles, duke of Orleans, father of Charles XII (afterwards King of France). This personage was brought to England by his captor, who held him in 'honourable restraint' at his own mansion, at Groombridge, co. Kent, during the long period of twenty-four years, at the termination of which he paid 400,000 crowns for his ransom. In accordance with the chivalrous spirit of that age, the captor and captive lived together on terms of the strictest friendship. This appears from the fact that the Duke, at his own expense, rebuilt for Sir Richard the family house at Groombridge. He was also a benefactor "to his parish church of Speldhurst, where his arms remain in stonework over the porch."[211] Previously to this event the family arms had been the punning device of 'Sable, on a bend voided argent, three _walnut_ leaves or,' and the crest, 'A _walnut_ tree fructed proper.' To one of the lower boughs of this tree was now appended a shield, charged with the arms of France--'Azure, three fleurs-de-lis or, differenced with a label of three points;' an augmentation which continues to be borne by the descendants of Sir Richard Waller to this day.

Burton of Salop, and Rivers of Kent, bear[212] white roses, commemorative of the services rendered by their ancestors to the faction distinguished by this badge, while the Lutterells of Somerset, bear, as a crest, the white boar of Richard III, ensigned on the shoulder with the Lancastrian red rose! The white and red roses in the arms of families, as partisans of the two rival houses, would furnish matter for a whole chapter; but I must pass on.

Augmentations have sometimes been made to the arms of English families by foreign monarchs. Thus Sir Henry Guldeforde, knight, having rendered assistance to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, in the reduction of Granada, received from them the honour of knighthood, with permission to add to his ancestral arms, 'On a canton Argent, the arms of Granada, viz. a pomegranate, the shell open, grained gules, stalked and leaved proper.' John Callard, esq. a retainer of the said Sir Henry, for his valour on the same occasion, acquired the following coat: 'Gyronny of six pieces, or and sable; on each division or, a Moor's head couped sable.' William Browne, esq. called by Holinshed "a young and lusty gentleman," another follower of Guldeforde, was honoured with an augmentation, viz. 'On a chief argent, an eagle displayed sable,'--the arms of Sicily, which was then an adjunct to the Spanish crown.

The Duke of Norfolk bears on his 'bend argent' 'an escocheon or, charged with a demi-lion rampant within a double tressure, flory and counter-flory; an arrow pierced through the lion's mouth all gules.' This is an augmentation nearly resembling the arms of Scotland, and was granted to the Earl of Surrey, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, for his services against the Scots at Flodden Field, in 1513. It will be recollected that when the body of James IV was found after the battle, it was pierced with several arrows, the cause of his death.

As a further memorial of this victory the Earl gave, as the badge of his retainers, a white lion, one of the supporters of his house, trampling upon the red lion of Scotland, and tearing it with his claws.

Several English families bear their arms upon the breast of an eagle with two heads. This is the standard of the German empire, and it has been granted to such families for military and other services. The Lord Arundel of Wardour, in the reign of Elizabeth, received this distinguished mark of honour by patent from the Emperor Rodolph II, for valorous conduct against the Turks, whom, as the avowed enemies of Christianity, he opposed with all the enthusiasm of a crusader of more antient times. He was at the same time created a Count of the Empire, and, on returning to England, was desirous of taking precedence according to his German title. But this step was violently opposed by the peers, and the Queen, being asked her opinion of his claim, answered, "that faithful subjects should keep their eyes at home, and not gaze upon foreign crowns, and that she, for her part, did not care her sheep should wear a stranger's mark, nor dance after the whistle of every foreigner!"[213]

The Bowleses of Wiltshire, and the Smiths of Lincolnshire, received appropriate arms about the same time for their services against the Turks, under the same Emperor.[214]

The assumption of the arms of an enemy slain or captured in war, though permitted by the heraldric canon of early times, seems not to have been very usual in this country; yet instances are not wanting of arms so acquired. In 1628, Sir David Kirke, knight, reduced Canada, then in the power of the French, and took the admiral De la Roche prisoner. For this service he received as an augmentation, 'A canton azure charged with a talbot sejant, collared and leash reflexed argent, sustaining a faulchion proper,' this being the coat of his captive.

Charles I rewarded many of his adherents with augmentations of arms--the only recompense some of them ever received. The favourite marks of honour were the crown, rose, and lion of England.

Sir Palmes Fairborne, knighted by Charles II for his defence of Tangier against the Moors, had permission to bear as his crest, 'An arm in armour couped at the elbow, lying on a wreath sustaining a sword; on the point thereof a Turk's head, turbaned all proper.' The epitaph on this commander, on his tomb in Westminster Abbey, was written by Dryden; and had nothing more sublime proceeded from his pen, his name would be as little known to posterity as that of the hero he celebrates.

"Alive and dead _these_ walls he will defend, Great actions great examples must attend; The Candian siege his early valour knew, Where Turkish blood did his young hands imbrew; From thence returning with deserved applause, Against the Moors his _well-fleshed_ sword he draws," &c. &c.

Sir Cloudesley Shovel, the celebrated admiral, received, by the express command of William III, a grant of arms blazoned thus: 'Gules a cheveron ermine between two crescents in chief argent, and a fleur-de-lis in base or,' to commemorate two great victories over the Turks and one over the French. This is one of the most appropriate coats I remember to have seen.

It would be impossible (even were it desirable) within the limits I have assigned myself, to notice all the arms and augmentations which have been granted to heroes, naval and military, for services performed during the last, and at the commencement of the present, century. A superabundance of them will be found in the plates attached to the ordinary peerages, &c. Suffice it to say, that in general they exhibit a most wretched taste in the heralds who designed them, or rather, perhaps I should say, in the personages who dictated to the heralds what ensigns would be most agreeable to themselves. Figures never dreamed of in classical armory have found their way into these bearings: landscapes and _words_ in great staring letters across the shield, bombshells and bayonets, East Indians and American Indians, sailors and soldiers, medals and outlandish banners, _figures of Peace, and grenadiers of the 79th regiment_![215] Could absurdity go farther?

[Illustration]

But, lest I should be thought unnecessarily severe upon the armorists of the past age, I annex the arms of Sir Sidney Smith, a veteran who certainly deserved _better things_ of his country. I shall not attempt to blazon them, as I am sure my reader would not thank me for occupying a page and a half of a chapter--already perhaps too long--with what would in this case be _jargon_ indeed. Shades of Brooke, and Camden, and Guillim, and Dugdale! what think ye of this?

II. The second class of Historical Arms is composed of those derived from ACTS OF LOYALTY. The earliest coat of this kind mentioned by the author of the volume before quoted, is that of Sir John Philpot, viz. 'Sable a bend ermine,'--his paternal arms--impaling, 'Gules a cross between four swords argent, hilts or'--an augmentation granted to Philpot for killing Wat Tyler with his sword after Walworth, the mayor, had knocked him down with his mace, in the presence of Richard II, in 1378.

Ramsay, earl of Holderness, temp. James VI, bore as an augmentation impaling his paternal arms, 'Azure, a dexter hand holding a sword in pale, argent, hilted or, piercing a human heart proper, and supporting on the point an imperial crown of the last.' This was granted to Sir John Ramsay, who was also rewarded with the title just mentioned, for having saved the young monarch's life from assassination by Ruthven, earl of Gowrie, by piercing the assassin to the heart. The story of this attempt upon the 'British Solomon' is too well known to the reader of Scottish history to need copying in these pages. The whole narration, enshrouded in mystery, is now almost universally discredited, and the affair regarded as a pretended plot, to answer a political purpose. It is sufficient to say that Gowrie and his father, Alexander Ruthven, fell victims to it, while Ramsay was rewarded for his share in the transaction as above stated.[216] Erskine, earl of Kelly, and Sir Hugh Harris, two other individuals concerned in this plot, also received augmentations.[217]

The notorious Colonel Titus, temp. Charles II, was rewarded for his services in the restoration of the king, with an augmentation, viz. 'quarterly with his paternal arms, Or, on a chief gules, a lion of England.' 'Lions of England' were likewise assigned to the following families for their loyalty to the Stuarts: Robinson of Cranford, Moore, Lord Mayor of London, Lane of Staffordshire, &c. The crest of the last-mentioned family is 'A demi-horse salient argent, spotted dark grey, bridled proper, sustaining with his fore feet a regal crown or;' in allusion to the circumstance of Charles's having been assisted in his escape, after his defeat at Worcester, by a lady of this family, whose servant the king personated by riding before her on horseback. In this guise Charles arrived safely at Bristol, and at length, after many hair-breadth escapes and a circuitous tour of the southern counties, reached Brighthelmstone, whence he set sail for the continent.

The arms granted to the family of Penderell for concealing Charles II in the oak at Boscobel, and otherwise assisting his escape, and those assigned on the same occasion to Colonel Careless (or CARLOS, as it was the king's humour afterwards to name him) were exactly _alike_ in charges, though different in tincture.

CARLOS. 'Or, on a mount an oak-tree proper; over all a fesse gules, charged with three regal crowns proper.'

PENDERELL. 'Argent, on a mount an oak-tree proper; over all a fesse sable, charged with three regal crowns proper.'[218]

III. The third class of Historical Arms are those of ALLIANCE. I shall content myself with an example or two. The arms[219] and dexter supporter[220] of the Lyons, earls of Strathmore, evidently allude to a connexion with the royal line of Scotland, and the crest of the family is, 'On a wreath vert and or, a _lady_ couped below the girdle, inclosed within an arch of laurel, and holding in her right hand the royal thistle, all proper.' Sir John Lyon, an ancestor of this house, having gained the favour of King Robert II, that monarch gave him in marriage his daughter, the lady Jane. To perpetuate so splendid and beneficial an alliance, his descendants have ever since continued to represent this princess as their crest.

The Seymours, dukes of Somerset, bore quarterly with their paternal arms, the following: 'Or, on a pile gules, between six fleurs-de-lis azure, three lions of England,' an augmentation originally granted by Henry VIII to Jane Seymour, his third wife. These ensigns, it will be seen, are a composition from the royal arms.

IV. The fourth are derived from FAVOUR and SERVICES. The antient arms of Compton, subsequently created earls of Northampton, were 'Sable, three helmets argent.' For services rendered to Henry VIII, William Compton, esq. received permission to place 'a lion of England' between the helmets.

Thomas Villiers, first Earl of Clarendon, bore, 'Argent, on a cross gules, five escallops or [originally derived from the Crusade under Edward I] a crescent for difference; and on an inescocheon argent, the eagle of Prussia, viz. displayed sable, &c. &c., charged on the breast with F. B. R. for Fredericus, Borussorum Rex.' This was an augmentation granted to that nobleman by Frederick, king of Prussia, as a mark of the high value he set upon certain diplomatic services in which he had been engaged. The augmentation was ratified at the Heralds' office by the command of George III.

The Earl of Liverpool, in addition to his paternal arms, bears 'on a chief wavy argent, a cormorant sable, holding in his beak a branch of laver or sea-weed vert.' This augmentation (being the arms of the town of Liverpool) was made to the arms of Charles Jenkinson, first Earl of Liverpool, at the unanimous request of the mayor and municipality of that town, signified by their recorder.

V. A very interesting class of Allusive Arms is composed of those derived from the SITUATION of the original residences of the respective families. The following are instances:

Wallop, earl of Portsmouth, 'Argent, a bend wavy sable.' The name of Wallop is local, and it was antiently written Welhop. Wallop, or Welhope, is the name of two parishes in Hampshire, so denominated from a fountain or _well_, springing from a _hope_ or hill in the vicinity, and giving birth to a small river, which becomes tributary to the Tese. Here, in very antient times, this family resided, and from the little river referred to the surname was adopted, while the bend wavy in the arms alludes both to the river and the name.

Stourton, Lord Stourton, 'Sable, a bend or, between six fountains proper.' The river Stour rises at Stourton, co. Wilts, from six fountains or springs. The family name is derived from the place, and the arms from this circumstance. The bend may be regarded as the pale of Stourton park, as three of the sources of the river are within that inclosure and three beyond it.

Shuckburgh, a parish in Warwickshire, is remarkable for that kind of fossil termed _astroit_, which resembles the mullet of heraldry. The family who, in very antient times, derived their surname from the locality, bear three mullets in their arms.[221]

The Swales of Swale-hall, co. York, bear 'Azure, a bend undé argent.' Some consider this a representation of the river Swale, though Peter Le Neve thinks it a rebus for the name of _Nunda_, whose heiress married a Swale.[222]

Highmore of High-moor, co. Cumberland: 'Argent, a crossbow erect between _four_ moor-cocks sable; their legs, beaks, and combs, gules.' This family originated in the moors of that county, _unde nomen et arma_. The author of 'Historical and Allusive Arms' says that they branched out into three lines, called from the situation of their respective places of abode, HIGHMORE, MIDDLEMORE, and LOWMORE. It is curious that the Middlemore branch gave as arms the crossbow and _three_ moor-cocks; while the Lowmores bore the crossbow and _two_ moor-cocks only. Had the family ramified still further into '_Lowermore_,' it is probable that branch must have rested content with a _single_ moor-cock, while the '_Lowestmores_,' carrying out the same principle of gradation, could not have claimed even a solitary bird, but must have made shift with their untrophied crossbow. On the other hand, '_Highermore_' would have been entitled to _five_, and '_Highestmore_' to _six_, head of game, in addition to the family weapon!

Hume, of Nine Wells, the family of the great historian, bore 'Vert, a lion rampant argent within a bordure or, charged with _nine wells_ or springs barry-wavy azure and argent,' "The estate of Nine Wells is so named from a cluster of springs of that number. Their situation is picturesque; they burst forth from a gentle declivity in front of the mansion, which has on each side a semicircular rising bank, covered with fine timber, and fall, after a short course, into the bed of the river Whitewater, which forms a boundary in the front. These springs, as descriptive of their property, were assigned to the Humes of this place as a difference in arms from the chief of their house."[223]

VI. Of arms alluding to the PROFESSION or pursuits of the original bearer, I shall adduce but few instances, as they generally exhibit bad taste, and a departure from heraldric purity; _e. g._ Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester and Worcester, the champion and martyr of the Protestant cause, bore '... a lamb in a burning bush; the rays of the sun descending thereon proper.'

Michael Drayton bore 'Azure gutté d'eau [the drops of Helicon!] a Pegasus current in bend argent.' _Crest_, 'Mercury's winged cap amidst sunbeams proper.' These classical emblems appear foreign to the spirit of heraldry, which originated in an unclassical age. Still it might have been difficult to assign to this stately and majestic poet more appropriate armorials.

The supporters chosen by Sir George Gordon, first Lord Aberdeen, a celebrated jurist, were _two lawyers_; while (every man to his taste) Sir William Morgan, K.B., a keen sportsman, adopted _two huntsmen_ equipped for the chase, and the motto 'Saltando cave,' _Look before you leap_. Could anything be more pitiful?

VII. Arms derived from TENURE and OFFICE are a much more interesting, though less numerous, class than the preceding.

"The tenure of the lands of Pennycuik, in Midlothian, obliges the possessor to attend once a year in the forest of Drumsleich (near Edinburgh) ... to give a blast of a horn at the king's hunting; and therefore Clerk of Pennycuik, baronet, the proprietor of these lands, uses the following crest:"[224] 'A demi-forester, habited vert, sounding a hunting-horn proper;' and motto, 'FREE FOR A BLAST.' Most of the English families of Forester, Forster, and Foster have bugle-horns in their arms, supporting the idea that the founders of those families derived their surnames from the office of Forester, held by them in times when the country abounded in woody districts. This office was one of considerable honour and emolument.

The crest of Grosvenor is 'a hound or talbot statant or;' and the supporters 'two talbots reguardant or,' &c. Both these ensigns and the name allude to the antient office of the chiefs of this family, which was that of =Le Gros Veneur=, great huntsman, to the Dukes of Normandy.

Rawdon, earl of Moira, ancestor of the Marquis of Hastings; 'Argent, a fesse between three pheons or arrow-heads sable.' _Crest_, in a mural coronet argent, a pheon sable, with a sprig of laurel issuing therefrom proper. _Supporters_, two huntsmen with bows, quivers, &c. &c. This family were denominated from their estate, Rawdon, near Leeds, co. York, which they originally held under William the Conqueror. A rhyming title-deed, purporting to have been granted by him, but evidently of much later date, was formerly in the possession of the family:

"=I William King=, the thurd yere of my reigne, Give to thee, Paulyn Roydon, Hope and Hopetowne, Wyth all the bounds, both up and downe, From Heaven to yerthe, from yerthe to hel; For the and thyn ther to dwell, As truly as this Kyng-right is myn; =For a cross-bowe and an arrow, When I sal come to hunt on Yarrow;= And in token that this thing is sooth, I bit the whyt wax with my tooth."

The family of Pitt, earl of Chatham, bore 'Sable, a fesse _chequy_ argent and azure, between three bezants or pieces of _money_,' in allusion to the office the original grantee held in the EXCHEQUER. The Fanshawes also bore chequy, &c., for the same reason.

The Woods of Largo, co. Fife, bear ships, in allusion to the office of Admiral of Scotland, antiently hereditary in that family.

The antient Earls of Warren and Surrey bore 'chequy, or and azure.' There is a tradition that the heads of this family were invested with the exclusive prerogative of granting licenses for the sale of malt liquors, and that it was enjoined on all alehouse-keepers to paint the Warren arms on their door-posts. Hence the chequers, still seen at the entrances of many taverns, were supposed to have originated, until the discovery of that ornament on an inn-door among the ruins of Pompeii proved the fashion to have existed in classical times. Its origin is involved in obscurity; it may have been placed upon houses of entertainment to show that some game analogous to the modern chess and backgammon might be played within.

Here we may be allowed to digress, to say a few words on the origin of _inn signs_, which are generally of an heraldric character. In early times the town residences of the nobility and great ecclesiastics were called Inns; and in front of them the family arms were displayed. In many cases these Inns were afterwards appropriated to the purposes of the modern hotel, affording temporary accommodation to all comers.[225] The armorial decorations were retained, and under the name of signs directed the public to these places of rest and refreshment. On calling to mind the signs by which the inns of any particular town are designated, a very great majority of them will be recognized as regular heraldric charges. In addition to the full armorials of great families, as the Gordon Arms, the Pelham Arms, the Dorset Arms, we find such signs as the Golden Lion, Red Lion, White Lion, Black Lion, White Hart, Blue Boar, Golden Cross, Dragon, Swan, Spread Eagle, Dolphin, Rose and Crown, Catherine-Wheel, Cross-Keys, _cum multis aliis_, abundant everywhere. These were originally, in most cases, the properly emblazoned armories of families possessing influence in the locality; and frequently the inns themselves were established by old domestics of such families. But owing to the negligence of mine host, or the unskilfulness of the common painter, who from time to time renovated his sign, the latter often lost much of its heraldric character; the shield and its tinctures were dropped, and the charges only remained; while by a still further departure from the original intention, three black lions, or five spread eagles, were reduced to one. A house in the town of Lewes was formerly known as the "Three Pelicans," the fact of those charges constituting the arms of Pelham having been lost sight of. Another is still called "The Cats," and few are aware that the arms of the Dorset family are intended.[226] In villages, innumerable instances occur of signs taken from the arms or crests of existing families, and very commonly the sign is changed as some neighbouring domain passes into other hands. There is a kind of patron and client feeling about this--feudality some may be disposed to call it--which a lover of Old England is pleased to contemplate.

VIII. The last species of Historical Arms are those which relate to Memorable Circumstances and Events which have occurred to the Ancestors of the families who bear them.

Stanley, earl of Derby. _Crest._ 'On a chapeau gules, turned up ermine, an Eagle with wings expanded or, feeding an Infant in a kind of cradle; at its head a sprig of oak all proper.' This is the blazon given in "Historical and Allusive Arms;"[227] but Collins[228] blazons the Eagle as '_preying upon_' the Infant. This crest belonged originally to the family of Lathom or Latham, whose heiress, Isabella, married Sir John Stanley, afterwards Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord of the Isle of Man, and K. G. in the fourteenth century. According to tradition it originated in the following manner: One of the Lathams of Latham, co. Lancaster, having abandoned and exposed an illegitimate son in the nest of an eagle in a wood called Terlestowe Wood, near his castle, afterwards discovered, to his great astonishment, that the 'king of birds,' instead of devouring the helpless infant, had conceived a great liking for him, supplying him with food, and thus preserving his life. Upon witnessing this miraculous circumstance the cruel parent relented, and, taking home the infant, made him his heir. A 'various reading' of the tale states that Sir Thomas Latham, being destitute of legal issue, and wishing to adopt an illegitimate son, a proceeding to which his wife would not be likely to become a party, resorted to the _ruse_ of having the infant placed in the eyrie of an eagle, and then, taking his lady into the park, coming, as if by accident, to the place, at the moment when the eagle was hovering over the nest. Help--of course _accidental_--being at hand, the little fellow was rescued from his perilous couch, and presented to the lady, who pressed him to her bosom, and, ignorant of his consanguinity to her lord, joyfully acquiesced in his proposal to make the foundling heir to their estate.

According to Bishop Stanley's 'Historicall Poem touching ye Family of Stanley,' and Vincent's MS. Collection in the College of Arms, the Lord of Latham was "fowerscore" at the time he adopted this infant,

"Swaddled and clad In a mantle of redd:"

--a statement which discredits both versions of the story as given above. These authorities further inform us that the foundling received the baptismal name of Oskell, and became father of the Isabella Latham who married Sir John Stanley.

In Seacome's 'History of the House of Stanley' there is an account, derived from another branch of the family, which coincides with the second-mentioned, with the important addition that the adopted child was discarded before the death of Sir Thomas Latham. It is further said, that on the adoption Sir Thomas had assumed for his crest "an Eagle upon wing, turning her head back and looking in a sprightly manner as for something she had lost," and that on the disowning, the Stanleys (one of whom had married the legal heiress to the estate) "either to distinguish or aggrandize themselves, or in contempt and derision, took upon them the Eagle and Child," thus manifesting the variation and the reason of it.

It is scarcely necessary to state, that the Sir Oskell of the legend has no existence in the veritable records of history; and Mr. Ormerod, the learned historian of Cheshire, who is connected by marriage with the family of Latham, thinks the whole story may be "more safely referred to ancestral Northmen, with its scene in the pine-forests of Scandinavia."[229]

The subjoined engraving relates to this legend. It is copied from a cast[230] taken from an oak carving attached to the stall of James Stanley, bishop of Ely, in the collegiate church (now cathedral) of Manchester, of which he was warden. The figures below the trees are a REBUS[231] of masons or stone-cutters, termed, in mediæval Latin, _Lathomi_; and the castellated gateway they are approaching is that of Latham Hall, the scene of the tradition.

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Trevelyan of Somersetshire, Bart. 'Gules, a horse argent armed or, issuant from the sea in base, party per fesse wavy, azure and of the second.' This family primarily bore a very different coat: their present armorials were assumed "on occasion of one of their ancestors swimming on horseback from the rocks called Seven Stones to the Land's End in Cornwall, at the time of an inundation, which is said to have overwhelmed a large tract of land, and severed thereby those rocks from the continent of Cornwall."[232] This story may appear rather improbable, but it should be remembered that some similar disruptions of land from the coast, such as the Goodwin Sands, Selsey Rocks, &c. are authentic matters of history. Whether the most powerful of the equine race, which are, even under far more favourable circumstances, "vain things for safety," would be able to outbrave the violence of the sea necessary to produce such a phenomenon, I leave to better horsemen than myself to decide.

The arms of Aubrey de Vere, the great ancestor of the earls of Oxford,[233] in the 12th century, were 'Quarterly, gules and or; in the first quarter a star or mullet of five points or.' "In the year of our Lord 1098," saith Leland,[234] "Corborant, Admiral to Soudan of Perce [so our antiquary was pleased to spell Persia,] was fought with at Antioche, and discomfited by the Christians. The night cumming on yn the chace of this bataile, and waxing dark, the Christianes being four miles from Antioche, God, willing the saufté [safety] of the Christianes, shewed a white star or molette of five pointes on the Christen host; which to every mannes sighte did lighte and arrest upon the standard of Albry de Vere, there shyning excessively!" The mullet was subsequently used as a badge by his descendants. "The Erle of Oxford's men had a starre with streames booth before and behind on their lyverys."[235]

Thomas Fitz-Gerald, father of John, first earl of Kildare, bore the sobriquet of Nappagh, Simiacus, or the Ape, from the following ludicrous circumstance. When he was an infant of nine months old, his grandfather and father were both killed in the war waged by them against M'Carthy, an opposing chief. He was then being nursed at Tralee, and his attendants, in the first consternation caused by the news of the disaster, ran out of the house, leaving the child alone in his cradle. A large ape or baboon, kept on the premises, with the natural love of mischief inherent in that mimic tribe, taking advantage of the circumstance, took him from his resting-place and clambered with him to the roof of the neighbouring abbey, and thence to the top of the steeple. After having carried his noble charge round the battlements, exhibiting the while various monkey tricks heretofore unknown to nursery-maids, to the no small consternation and amazement of the spectators, he descended with careful foot, _ad terram firmam_, and replaced the child in the cradle. In consequence of this event the earls of Kildare and other noble branches of this antient line assumed as a crest, 'An ape proper, girt about the middle and chained or,' and for supporters, two apes. The addition of the _chain_ is singular.

Stuart, of Hartley-Mauduit, co. Hants. 'Argent, a lion rampant gules, debruised by a bend raguly [popularly termed a _ragged staff_] or.' Sir Alexander Stuart, or Steward, knight, an ancestor of this family, in the presence of Charles VI of France, encountered a lion with a sword, which breaking he seized a part of a tree, and with it killed the animal. This so much pleased the king, that he gave him the above as an augmentation to his paternal arms.[236]

Maclellan Lord Kirkcudbright bore as a crest, 'A dexter arm erect, the hand grasping a dagger, with a human head on the point thereof, couped proper,' In the reign of James II, of Scotland, a predatory horde of foreigners, who entered that kingdom from Ireland, committed great ravages in the shire of Galloway; whereupon a royal proclamation was issued ordering their dispersion, and offering, as a reward to the captor or killer of their chieftain, the barony of Bombie. Now it happened that one Maclellan, whose father had been laird of Bombie, (and had been dispossessed of it for some aggressions on a neighbouring nobleman,) was the fortunate person who killed the chieftain; thus singularly regaining his ancestral property. The crest originated in the circumstance of his having presented to the king the marauder's head fixed upon the point of a sword.

The head is variously blazoned as that of a _Saracen_, _Moor_, or _Gipsey_, and the question might here be started, 'Who were the lawless band that made the inroad referred to?' The terms Moor and Saracen were in early times applied indiscriminately to Mahometans of every nation, but it cannot be supposed that these intruders were followers of the False Prophet, for we have no record of any such having found their way into regions so remote. Neither is it probable that they were the wild or uncivilized Irish, whose manners and language would have been recognized in the south-western angle of Scotland, which is only separated from Ireland by a narrow channel that could be crossed in a few hours. The most probable opinion is that they belonged to that singular race, the _Gipseys_, who first made their appearance in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and France, between the years 1409 and 1427. Admitting that a tribe of them found their way soon after from the continent into Ireland, it seems exceedingly likely that a detachment of that tribe should have crossed over to Scotland in the reign of James, between 1438 and 1460. As the Gipseys on their first settlement were black, and could be traced to an oriental source, and as they disavowed Christianity, they were very naturally considered as Saracens, by a rule analogous to that which makes all the inhabitants of Christendom Franks in the eyes of a Turk. I have made this little digression because this instance of a Gipsey's head is probably unique in British Heraldry, and because the tradition perfectly coincides in point of time with the actual ingress of the Gipseys into this part of Europe.

The crest of the Davenports of Cheshire, a family as numerous, according to the proverb, as 'dogs' tails,' is 'a man's head couped below the shoulders in profile, hair brown, a halter about his neck proper.' According to the tradition of the family, it originated after a battle between the Yorkists and Lancastrians, in which one of the Davenports, being of the vanquished party, was spared execution by the commander on the opposite side, on the humiliating condition that he and all his posterity should bear this crest.

When Queen Elizabeth made Sir John Hawkins paymaster of the navy in 1590, she gave him a coat of arms appropriate to his profession, and as a crest, in allusion to his _laudable_ concern in the slave trade, 'A demi-negro proper, manacled with a rope,' the very symbol which, more than two hundred years afterwards, was used to stamp infamy on those concerned in it, as well as abhorrence and detestation of the slave trade itself.[237]

It would be a matter of little difficulty to produce a great number of additional instances of armorials allusive to the personal history or office of the original grantee; but let it be mine rather than that of the fatigued reader to cry

='Ohe, jam satis!'=

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