blanco, en el pecho una flor de lis coronada y enfrenado, y las viendas caidas por un cuello, en el segundo, un braco armado, con un estoque quebrado: y debaxo, aguas marinas, en memoria del rio Ticino.' We shall notice a few similar examples when we come to speak of grants and concessions.

The importance attached to arms enabled sovereigns to disgrace as well as to honour their subjects through their means: thus when the Earl of Carlisle, temp. Edward the Second, was convicted of plotting treason with the Scots, the chief justice ordered "a knave anon to hew off his spurs off his heels; and after he let breake the sword over his head and after he let him unclothe off his furred taberde and his hoode, and off his furred cotys and his girdyl," &c. He was degraded also in his arms before execution. A modern and less serious instance occurred in the case of Edward Gibbon, the wellknown heraldic writer, who, having a quarrel with three ladies, daughters of his kinsman Gervase Gibbon of the Temple, obtained from Garter a licence to convert the three scallops in his shield into three ogresses, or female cannibals;-a truly heraldic revenge.

The early heralds, both professional and ecclesiastic, seem to have employed themselves most liberally in inventing a proper origin for each great baron's coat of arms; and their fables were at one time firmly believed. Some instances have already been mentioned; we subjoin a few more of the most remarkable. Geoffrey, Count of Barcelona, presented himself bloody from a battle, before Louis le Debonair; the monarch, to mark his sense of the count's valour, dipped his four fingers in the gore, and drew them down the golden face of his shield. Hence the "four pallets gules upon a field or," so long borne by the Counts of Provence and the house of Arragon.

The origin of the well-known balls in the arms of the Medici is said to be as follows:-Magus, a cruel giant, ravaged Italy, his weapon being a number of iron balls at the end of a chain. Pedro, the founder of the house of Medici, attacked and slew him; but the giant left the marks of his weapon on his enemy's shield, who forthwith assumed them for his arms. We fear, however, their real origin is less magnificent; and that in allusion to the name, they represent neither more nor less than six gilded pills.

The arms of the Scottish family of Hay are three shields, their supporters two husbandmen with yokes, and their crest a falcon. According to the tale, the ancestor of the family was a husbandman, who seeing the Scots give way at the battle of Loncarty, with his two sons, snatched up their ox-yokes and turned the tide of the battle. The three shields represent the father and his two sons; the supporters are the two latter; and the falcon is added because their reward was as much land as a falcon should fly over in a day.

In many cases, however, the origin of the coat of arms was not indebted to fable. Thus the family of Felix du May of Savoy and

Provence bear "gules on a bend argent, the letters F. F. F. sable," being a grant from the Earl of Savoy, denoting "Felices fuerunt fideles;" and the Spanish family of Cardenas bear the letters S. S., because when Ferdinand made a stolen march to see Isabella, his future bride, Gutierre de Cardenas first saw and pointed him out to the princess, saying, "Ese es, ese es," which words are thus expressed on his escutcheon. William Condy bore three anchors, because he was the man who" qui ante portum de Swyne in congressu bellico cepit Johannem de Egle inimicum regis de Francia oriundum." Marc Antony Colonna took fourteen banners from the Turks at Lepanto, in memory of which act that number of banners are always represented behind the escutcheon of the family. In later days Isabella granted to Columbus "Tierce per pale and per chevron. 1. Gules a castle or. 2. A Lion rampant purpure. 3. Argent undy azure, five isles and a mound or; motto, "Por Castiglia y por Leon, nuevo mundo halla Colon." Bearings still, or very recently, used by his descendant the Duke of Verragua, Marquis of Jamaica and of the Western Isles.

There is no doubt, but that in almost all cases the family name is older far than the coat of arms, and it has been more or less the custom from the earliest introduction of arms, to give them some reference to the name.

Thus, as early as 1170, the house of Arundel bore "sable six hirondelles." William le Brito says of one of that family

or,

Hirundelo velocior alite, quæ dat
Hoc agnomen ei, &c.

More swift than bird hight Arundelle

That gives him name, and in his shield of arms is blazoned well.

The arms of Leon are a lion; of Castile, a castle; of Grenada, a granatum or pommegranate; of Dauphiny, a dolphin: and in England Ferres used fers de cheval; Wingfield, three wings; Gorges, a gurges or whirlpool; Corbet, a corbeau or raven, and many others of equal antiquity.

Sometimes the allusion was less obvious. Thus, the crest of Vere was a boar pig, verres; that of Law, a cock,-the Scottish way of expressing the crowing of a cock being "cock-a-leary law!") Jason bears a toison d'or, or golden fleece; Brewer, two bends wavy, to denote that men of that trade are apt to be too busy with water. Such are called arma parlantia, or canting arms. They were in vogue to a ludicrous extent during the reign of Elizabeth and James, to which latter age are due most of the punning mottoes used by some of our old families, to the exhibition of their bad taste. The happiest of these perhaps, is the well-known motto of the Vernon's, "Ver-non

semper viret;" though even this is an ill exchange for their older"God save the Vernon," as it remains upon the scroll over the gate at Haddon.

The ends of heraldry were, of course, in a great measure frustrated, when two persons bore similar arms; and a great variety of disputes arose out of this cause. The lesser cases were decided summarily by the parties themselves, or by the marshals of the army; but where the question lay between persons of higher rank, it was generally referred to a special military commission, ending sometimes in a combat à l'outrance." The chief instances of disputed coats occur late in the fourteenth century; but the roll of Caerlaverock mentions one as early as 1300. Cases of this nature were also decided between Harding and St. Loo in 1312; Warburton and Gorges in 1321; Sytsylt and Fakenham in 1333; and Hugh Maltby and Hamon Beckwith in 1339.

In 1375, Sir Hugh Aton challenged the right of Sir Robert Boynton to the arms" or, on a cross sable five bulls' heads argent." The dispute was referred to Lord Percy, who awarded in favour of Aton as" chef des armes entiers et droit heretier." Aton, however, granted Boynton licence to bear them.

But by far the most celebrated dispute of this nature arose in 1384, between Sir Richard Scrope of Bolton, and Sir Robert Grovesnor, for the arms" azure a bend or." The most illustrious persons in the country, including John of Gaunt, gave testimony on one or the other side; and it was abundantly proved that each family had used the blazon in question from time immemorial. The coat, however, was adjudged to Scrope as of the more illustrious family; and Grosvenor was directed to bear "les ditez armes ove une pleyne border d'argent." Grosvenor, however, declined the shield so differenced, and assumed a garb or wheat-sheaf, still borne by his direct male heir, the Marquis of Westminster. The Scrope family were plaintiffs in many disputes both for their arms and crest. Their last quarrel regarded their arms as Lords of Man, and was composed by Edward the Fourth in person.

The general use of arms and the increasing complexity of the charges, rendered it necessary that persons should be appointed to regulate the practice, and enforce heraldic rules. These persons were called "heralds ;" and the fact of their being also employed to declare war and peace, and of their persons being considered as sacred, shows the high estimation in which armorial bearings were then held.

In England, the heralds were first incorporated by Richard the Second, Garter, principal king at arms, being at the head of the college, and above all other kings, heralds, and pursuivants. Garter, howevever, by that name, was first appointed by Henry the Fifth. Many private nobles also had their heralds and pursuivants. Blanch Lion was thus named after the Mowbrays, whose arms he carried;

others bore the more fanciful names of "Plain-chemin," "Voirdisant," "Haut-le-pied," &c.

Heralds also proclaimed sovereigns. At the accession of Isabella, the herald cried,-" Castile! Castile! for the King Don Ferdinand and his consort Dona Isabella, Queen proprietor of these kingdoms. As late as 1635, Louis the Thirteenth declared war against Spain by a herald sent to Brussels; but this is probably the last instance of that ancient custom.

The proverb says, "there go three generations to the making of a gentleman;" or as Camden has it, he to whom arms are granted is a "gentleman of coat armour;" but his descendant in the third degree is a complete gentleman,"-that is by blood and coat armour.

As

a general rule, only such could engage in a tournament. From the gene ral use of arms upon the shield, the terms "scutiger" and "armiger" became convertible, and synonymous with the modern esquire."

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Passing by, however, Camden's notion of the gentleman of three generations as one that would prove highly inconvenient to many of the armigers and gentlemen of the present day, we find, according to equally orthodox authority, that there be nine varieties of gentlemen. -1, A gentleman by ancestry; 2, by creation; 3, by blood,-that is as the son of a gentleman by creation; 4, by royal patent conferring a lordship with arms annexed thereto; 5, a Christian yeoman who kills a Saracen and takes his arms; 6, a yeoman knighted by the sovereign; 7, a gentleman spiritual; 8, "a prelate's sister's sonne,"the reason is droll, "because such seldom come to beggary;" 9, pages and gentlemen official.

no coat armour.

There are instances on record of gentlemen by blood who possessed Such were several persons in the town of Bedford, 9 H. IV., who gave evidence in the heraldic cause of Hastings and Gray de Ruthyn. Selden, however, speaks of this as a singular case. The earlier pedigrees and armorial bearings were recorded by the monastic bodies, but upon the establishment of the heraldic body, matters of this nature remained exclusively under their province until the introduction of parish registers by a mandate of Cromwell, Earl of Essex, as vicar general, in 1536.

Henry the Fifth decreed that no man should bear arms, unless he could show his right to them by prescription, usage, grant, or from having, himself or his ancestors, fought at Agincourt; and as the enforcing of these laws was left to the heraldic body, into their hands gradually fell the management of all honourable distinctions granted by the crown. Before this became the case, arms were not only granted by great barons to their followers, and by one knight to another, but were treated in many respects as personal chattels, and bequeathed by will even to those not of the blood of the testator, and sometimes to the exclusion of his proper heirs. Thus, a knight of

the family of Odingsells of Arley, co. Warwick, temp. H. 3, quitted his paternal name and arms, and assumed those of Limesi, to preserve the memory of his grandfather. Henry de Lacy, the last Earl of Lincoln, who bore "or a lion rampant purpure," granted in 1312 to his friend and executor, Sir Henry Scrope, a lion passant purpure, in augmentation of his paternal coat.. John de Whellesburg, 21 R. 2, granted "the reversion of Whellesburg and Fenny Draiton to Thomas Purefoy, and also passed to the said Thomas, his heirs and assigns, his arms as entirely as himself or his ancestors had borne them." The arms in question, "or three piles gules, on a canton argent a mullet sable," were in consequence always used by the Purefoys in their second quarter. Robert Morle, Marshal of Ireland, succeeded to a coat of arms, upon the death of Baldwin de Manoirs, and this coat, "argent, a saltire engrailed sable," by deed dated 22 E. 2, he granted to "his good friend Robert de Corby."

And to give a more illustrious instance, the Lady Lucy, by a fine still upon record, conveyed her arms to her husband, the Lord Percy, and to his heirs male by his first wife, she herself dying without issue. As late as 1644, the Lord Newburgh dying childless, bequeathed to Richard Lennard the name, arms, crest, and quarterings of Barret, their only kin being a common maternal descent from the Dineleys of Stamford-Dineley. In modern cases the legatee is directed to assume the testator's arms, but the arms are not spoken of as a corporeal chattel.

The succession to arms, like that to more substantial property, was also frequently disputed. Thus upon the death of Edward Lord Burnell without issue, 9th Edward the Second, his esquire, Robert -de Morley, considering the arms as void, adopted them. They were challenged upon the person of his grandson Thomas Lord Morley, by John Lord Lovell, an heir of Edward Lord Burnell, by descent from his sister. This was not the first time they had been challenged. The ancestor of Lovell was the lady's first husband; but she left by a second marriage, Nicholas, who assumed his mother's name of Burnell, and who also challenged the arms in the person of Robert Lord Morley, son of the assumer, before the court military at Calais.

Robert Lord Morley appears to have been conscious that his services were valuable, and that his cause was weak; for he declared that if judgment went against him he would leave the army. This brought up Edward the Third, who, rather than lose his soldier, got a decree, permitting the arms to Morley for life, but specially excluding his heirs.

Morley died in Burgundy, 34 E. 3, and by his direction his banner was carried to Nicholas Burnell. His son, Thomas Lord Morley, however, continued to use the forbidden arms, and against him the suit of Lovell was preferred. In the course of this trial, it seems to have been admitted, that, although the thing had been done, a man