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XXIII. Crest Coronets and Chapeaux 370 XXIV. The Mantling or Lambrequin 383 XXV. The Torse or Wreath 402 XXVI. Supporters 407 XXVII. The Compartment 441 XXVIII. Mottoes 448 XXIX. Badges 453 XXX. Heraldic Flags, Banners, and Standards 471 XXXI. Marks of Cadency 477 XXXII. Marks of Bastardy 508 XXXIII. The Marshalling of Arms 523 XXXIV. The Armorial Insignia of Knighthood 561 XXXV. The Armorial Bearings of a Lady 572 XXXVI. Official Heraldic Insignia 580 XXXVII. Augmentations of Honour 589 XXXVIII. Ecclesiastical Heraldry 600 XXXIX. Arms of Dominion and Sovereignty 607 XL. Hatchments 609 XLI. The Union Jack 611 XLII. "Seize-Quartiers" 618 Index 623

 

INTRODUCTION

Too frequently it is the custom to regard the study of the science of Armory as that of a subject which has passed beyond the limits of practical politics. Heraldry has been termed "the shorthand of History," but nevertheless the study of that shorthand has been approached too often as if it were but the study of a dead language. The result has been that too much faith has been placed in the works of older writers, whose dicta have been accepted as both unquestionably correct at the date they wrote, and, as a consequence, equally binding at the present day.

Since the "Boke of St. Albans" was written, into the heraldic portion of which the author managed to compress an unconscionable amount of rubbish, books and treatises on the subject of Armory have issued from the press in a constant succession. A few of them stand a head and shoulders above the remainder. The said remainder have already sunk into oblivion. Such a book as "Guillim" must of necessity rank in the forefront of any armorial bibliography; but any one seeking to judge the Armory of the present day by the standards and ethics adopted by that writer, would find himself making mistake after mistake, and led hopelessly astray. There can be very little doubt that the "Display of Heraldry" is an accurate representation of the laws of Armory which governed the use of Arms at the date the book was written; and it correctly puts forward the opinions which were then accepted concerning the past history of the science.

There are two points, however, which must be borne in mind.

The first is that the critical desire for accuracy which fortunately seems to have been the keynote of research during the nineteenth century, has produced students of Armory whose investigations into facts have swept away the fables, the myths, and the falsehood which had collected around the ancient science, and which in their preposterous assertions had earned for Armory a ridicule, a contempt, and a disbelief which the science itself, and moreover the active practice of the science, had never at any time warranted