6 6 6 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 cians, 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. 6 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, Quenby, who so much loved one of the Scropes, and the Scrope bore such affection for the Lord of Quenby, that the latter caused a window to be made in our church of the arms of Quenby, and the Lord of Quenby had a window made of the arms of Scrope.' Arms were carved in profusion on every piece of furnitureembossed on plate-embroidered in the richest manner in gold and silver upon silk or velvet-on canopies, arras, the coverlets and draperies of beds, cloths, and vestures of numerous kinds. The heralds wore them on their 'tabards,' which were and are literally 'coats of arms.' But one of their most ancient and 'solemn' uses was on seals ;-the seal of a knight or noble affixed to a deed being a convenient substitute for his signature, when, as was usually the case, he could not write-a desirable confirmation of it when, by miracle, he could. The earliest wellauthenticated instances of the use of armorial bearings are on seals, of which we have already mentioned some. The exquisite taste displayed in the designs of the seal-engravers of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, is only to be paralleled by that of the cotemporary architects-the nameless designers of the minsters of York, Salisbury, Lincoln, and a hundred other ecclesiastical edifices of northern Europe, which modern imitators have vainly essayed to rival. He On sepulchral monuments, arms were splendidly and profusely sculptured and blazoned. None, however, appear on the most ancient monumental effigies preserved in our cathedrals and churches. One of the earliest on which they occur is that of Geoffry Mandeville, Earl of Essex, in the Temple Church. died in 1148, in the very infancy of heraldry. The general use subsequently made of heraldic scutcheons as an ornament to tombs, and a memorial of the family alliances of the deceased, is observable in all our cathedrals and churches; in which also the hatchment, or funeral achievement of the deceased, was usually preserved as long as its more perishable materials permitted; together with in many cases the real arms in which he had fought. Over the tomb of Edward the Black Prince, in Canterbury Cathedral, there still hang his shield and surcoat, embossed and embroidered with the arms of France and England, with his gauntlets and the scabbard of his sword. The sword itself is said to have been taken away by Cromwell. Of the genuineness of these remains, we believe, no doubt is entertained. In England, the Earl Marshal, and his College of Heralds, which was instituted by Richard III., in 1450; in Scotland, the Lyon King at Arms, and his deputies; in Ireland, Ulster King at Arms, with his dependents, exercise supreme jurisdiction in all questions concerning ensigns armorial. By their authority, authority, subject to the special directions of the sovereign, as 'Fountain of all Honours,' new arms are conceded, and disputes respecting them decided. The extent of their power in cases of the latter nature is at present somewhat obscure, as well as the means they possess of enforcing their judgments. Cases of competition for particular bearings are extremely rare; none having occurred for a lengthened period. It is doubtful, therefore, what treatment any one would meet with in the present day, either at the hands of the injured party himself, or the Herald's College, who should assume the arms of a family from which he does not derive. In former times there can be no doubt that such an usurpation would have incurred heavy penalties in the Earl Marshal's Court; besides, in all likelihood, a broken head, or something worse, in a personal encounter with the aggrieved owner of the stolen coat. Instances of such quarrels were not uncommon. But it sometimes happened that the heads of two distinct families conceived themselves legitimately entitled to the same coat, and in this case the one usually challenged the other to prove his right in the Court of Chivalry of the High Constable of England and the Earl Marshal. Of this kind of suit, one of the most curious on record, is that which took place in the reign of Richard II., A.D., 1385-90, between Richard Lord Scrope of Bolton, and Sir Robert Grosvenor, for the right to bear the shield' azure, a bend or.' The original roll, containing the record of this famous contest, with the pleadings and depositions on either side, is still preserved in the Tower, and has long been known as a precious relic of the age of chivalry. But it is not merely of extraordinary interest to the lovers of the noble science of Blazon,'-it contains much to illustrate the history and customs of that most brilliant period. The voluminous nature, however, of the roll, and the jealous regulations under which it is preserved, have rendered this manuscript a sealed volume to all but a few pains-taking antiquaries. A portion of it was, indeed, printed by Prynne, but so imperfectly, as to be of little use, except to whet curiosity. That which, on these grounds, has been long a matter of earnest desire, rather than hope, among those who take an interest in such subjects, the zeal of Sir Harris Nicolas has at length accomplished. Through his care, a correct literal copy of the roll has lately issued from the press in a splendid form, accompanied by other documents illustrative of the suit. A second volume contains a history of the family of Scrope down to the age of Henry IV. and translations of the material parts of the depositionswith copious biographical notices of upwards of two hundred of the deponents in favour of Sir Richard Scrope, comprehending nearly |