The Curiosities of Heraldry

Chapter IX.

[179] Montagu, Guide, p. 48.

[180] The coat-armour of a great family was of too sacred a character to be used as the personal ornament or distinction of their retainers, the private herald only excepted; and it was long ere this functionary was allowed to invest himself in his master"s armorials.

[181] Vide Chapter IX.

[182] Viz. Warbleton Priory, Robertsbridge Abbey, and the churches of Thundridge, (co. Herts.), Crowhurst, Burwash, Laughton, Chiddingly, Ripe, East Hothly, Wartling, and Dallington. As a proof of the value of heraldric insignia in ascertaining the founders of antient buildings, it may be remarked that, so far as I am aware, the Buckles which adorn the whole of the _churches_ here enumerated, furnish the only evidence (and most irrefragable evidence it must certainly be admitted to be) that the family of Pelham were concerned in their erection or enlargement. There are _histories_ as well as "sermons" "in stones!"

[183] From a Paper on the "Pelham Buckle" read before the first meeting of the Archaeological a.s.sociation at Canterbury, 11th September, 1844.

[184] Montagu.

[185] The dogs here alluded to were greyhounds, a Yorkist badge.

[186] Guide, p. 59.

[187] Still retained in the collar of SS.

[188] Vide Chapter XI.

[189] The "Hawthorn" is probably the "crown in a bush," used in conjunction with the letters =H. R.= as the badge of Henry VII. This badge originated in the finding of the crown of Richard III in a bush after the battle of Bosworth-Field. (Vide Fosbroke"s Encycl. of Antiq. p. 757.)

[190] Montagu, p. 75, from a MS. in the Pepys. Lib. Cambridge.

[191] Vide Exodus, iii, 14.

[192] Vide Judges, vii, 18.

[193] By _Montjoye_ is supposed to be intended the national banner, on which the figure of some saint was embroidered.

[194] The motto of the royal arms, "Dieu et mon droit," is older, and is ascribed to Richard I.

[195] Guide, p. 56.

[196] The modern motto of the family is "Crede Biron."

[197] "Per linguam bos inambulat." Ant. proverb.

[198] Vide "The Princ.i.p.al Historical and Allusive Arms borne by Families of the United Kingdom; collected by an Antiquary," quarto, Lond. 1803.

Moule says, "But few copies of the work were sold, and the remaining impressions were destroyed in the fire at the printing-office, which has rendered it _a particularly scarce book_." (Bibl. Herald., p. 497.) On this account I am induced to make extensive use of the volume, and to carry this chapter much beyond my original intention.

[199] Archaeologia, xxix.

[200] Harl. MS. 2035.

[201] "Arthgal, the first Earl of Warwick, in the days of King Arture, and was one of the Round Table; this Arthgal took a _bere_ in his arms, for that, in Britisch, soundeth a bere in English." (Leland"s Collect.)

[202] A very similar coat of arms, borne by the Lloyds of Denbighshire, Barts., is said to have originated under similar circ.u.mstances in 1256.

[203] Hist. and Allusive Arms.

[204] Ibid.

[205] Fun. Mon., p. 629.

[206] Vide "English Surnames," 2d edit. p. 100.

[207] Vol. ii, p. 87, edit. 1768.

[208] Enumerated at p. 146.

[209] The vignette at the head of the present chapter was copied from a brick at Laughton Place. The inscription, which is in relievo, is W. P.

(William Pelham) LAN DE GRACE 1534 FVT CEST MAYSON FAICTE.

[210] The painting is upon panel. An engraving of it is given in Bigland"s Gloucester, vol. i, p. 312. Hist. and Allus. Arms, p. 52.

[211] Hist. and Allus. Arms, p. 60.

[212] I use the present tense _bear_, although in many cases the families may have become extinct.

[213] Gough"s Camden, vol. i, p. 89.

[214] _Bowles_--"Azure, a crescent argent, in chief the sun or."

_Smith_--"Vert a cheveron gules between three Turks" heads couped in profile proper, their turbans or." This was an augmentation borne quarterly with the antient arms of Smith.

[215] Supporters of Sir William Draper, K. B. (Hist. and Allus. Arms, p.

227.)

[216] Vide Robertson, Smollet, Stewart, &c. _in loco_; Grose"s Antiq. of Scotland, &c.

[217] Hist. and Allus. Arms, pp. 316-18.

[218] The name of Carlos is presumed to have become extinct; that of Penderell is by no means so. The representative of the family still continues to receive the pension of 100 marks originally granted to Richard Penderell. Several members of the family, in various conditions in life, have been connected for some generations with the county of Suss.e.x.

One of them, a few years since, kept an inn at Lewes, bearing the sign of the _Royal Oak_.

[219] A lion rampant within a double tressure, &c.

[220] A unicorn.

[221] Sable, a cheveron between three astroits, or mullets, argent.

(Historical and Allusive Arms.)

[222] Ibid.

[223] Hist. and Allus. Arms, p. 400.

[224] Hist. and Allus. Arms. (1803.)

[225] "Over against the parish church [of St. Olave, Southwark] on the south side of the streete was sometime one great house builded of stone, with arched gates, which pertained to the Prior of Lewes in Suss.e.x, and was his lodging when he came to London: it is now a common hostelry for travellers, and hath to sign the Walnut-Tree." (_Stowe_, p. 340.) The last remains of this inn were destroyed in making the approach to the new London Bridge. For an account of them, see "Archaeologia," vol. xxv, p.