Part 5 (1/2)

_Garter King of Arms._--Argent, a cross gules, on a chief azure, a ducal coronet encircled with a garter, between a lion pa.s.sant guardant on the dexter and a fleur-de-lis on the sinister all or.

_Clarenceux King of Arms._--Argent, a cross gules, on a chief of the second a lion pa.s.sant guardant or, crowned of the last. {48}

_Norroy King of Arms._--Argent, a cross gules, on a chief of the second a lion pa.s.sant guardant crowned of the first, between a fleur-de-lis on the dexter and a key on the sinister of the last.

Badges have never been officially a.s.signed to the various Heralds by any specific instruments of grant or record; but from a remote period certain of the Royal badges relating to their t.i.tles have been used by various Heralds, viz.:--

_Lancaster._--The red rose of Lancaster ensigned by the Royal crown.

_York._--The white rose of York en soleil ensigned by the Royal crown.

_Richmond._--The red rose of Lancaster impaled with the white rose en soleil of York, the whole ensigned with the Royal crown.

_Windsor._--Rays of the sun issuing from clouds.

The four Pursuivants make use of the badges from which they derive their t.i.tles.

The official arms of Lyon King of Arms and of Lyon Office are the same, namely: Argent, a lion sejant full-faced gules, holding in the dexter paw a thistle slipped vert and in the sinister a s.h.i.+eld of the second; on a chief azure, a St. Andrew's cross of the field.

There are no official arms for Ulster's Office, that office, unlike the College of Arms, not being a corporate body, but the official arms of Ulster King of Arms are: Or, a cross gules, on a chief of the last a lion pa.s.sant guardant between a harp and a portcullis all of the field. {49}

CHAPTER IV

HERALDIC BRa.s.sES

BY REV. WALTER J. KAYE, JUNR., B.A., F.S.A., F.S.A. SCOT.

_Member of the Monumental Bra.s.s Society, London; Honorary Member of the Spalding Gentlemen's Society; Author of ”A Brief History of Gosberton, in the County of Lincoln.”_

Monumental bra.s.ses do not merely afford a guide to the capricious changes of fas.h.i.+on in armour, in ecclesiastical vestments (which have altered but little), and in legal, civilian, and feminine costume, but they provide us also with a vast number of admirable specimens of heraldic art. The vandal and the fanatic have robbed us of many of these beautiful memorials, but of those which survive to our own day the earliest on the continent of Europe marks the last resting-place of Abbot Ysowilpe, 1231, at Verden, in Hanover. In England there was once a bra.s.s, which unfortunately disappeared long ago, to an Earl of Bedford, in St. Paul's Church, Bedford, of the year 1208, leaving 1277 as the date of the earliest one.

Latten (Fr. _laiton_), the material of which bra.s.ses were made, was at an early date manufactured in large quant.i.ties at Cologne, whence plates of this metal came to be known as cullen (Koln) plates; these were largely exported to other countries, and the Flemish workmen soon attained the greatest proficiency in their engraving. Flemish bra.s.ses are usually large and rectangular, having the s.p.a.ce between the figure and the marginal inscription filled either by diaper work or by small figures in niches.

Bra.s.ses vary considerably in size: the matrix of Bishop Beaumont's bra.s.s in Durham Cathedral measures about 16 feet by 8 feet, and the memorial to Griel van Ruwescuere, in the chapel of the Lady Superior of the Beguinage at Bruges, is only about 1 foot square. Brazen effigies are more numerous in England in the eastern and southern counties, than in parts more remote from the continent of Europe.

Armorial bearings are displayed in a great variety of ways on monumental bra.s.ses, some of which are exhibited in the rubbings selected for ill.u.s.tration. In most cases separate s.h.i.+elds are placed above and below the figures. They occur also in the spandrils of canopies and {50} in the shafts and finials of the same, as well as in the centre and at the angles of border-fillets. They naturally predominate in the memorials of warriors, where we find them emblazoned not only on s.h.i.+eld and pennon but on the scabbard and ailettes, and on the jupon, tabard, and cuira.s.s also, while crests frequently occur on the tilting-helm. In one case (the bra.s.s of Sir Peter Legh, 1527, at Winwick, co. Lancaster) they figure upon the priestly chasuble. Walter Pescod, the merchant of Boston, Lincolns.h.i.+re, 1398, wears a gown adorned with peascods--a play upon his name; and many a merchant's bra.s.s bears his coat of arms and merchant's mark beside, pointing a moral to not a few at the present day. The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries witnessed the greatest profusion in heraldic decoration in bra.s.ses, when the tabard and the heraldic mantle were evolved. A good example of the former remains in the parish church of Ormskirk, Lancas.h.i.+re, in the bra.s.s commemorating a member of the Scarisbrick family, _c._ 1500 (Fig. 21).

Ladies were accustomed at this time to wear their husband's arms upon the mantle or outer garment and their own upon the kirtle, but the fas.h.i.+on which obtained at a subsequent period was to emblazon the husband's arms on the dexter and their own on the sinister side of the mantle (Fig. 22).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 21.--Bra.s.s in the Scarisbrick Chapel of Ormskirk Church, co. Lancs., to a member of the Scarisbrick family of that name.

Arms: Gules, three mullets in bend between two bendlets engrailed argent.

(From a rubbing by Walter J. Kaye.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 22.--Bra.s.s of Margaret (daughter of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland), second wife of Henry, 1st Earl of c.u.mberland, in Skipton Parish Church. Arms: On the dexter side those of the Earl of c.u.mberland, on the sinister side those of Percy.]

The majority of such monuments, as we behold them now, are dest.i.tute of any indications of metals or tinctures, largely owing to the action of the varying degrees of temperature in causing contraction and expansion. Here and there, however, we may still detect traces of their pristine glory. But these matters received due attention from the engraver. To represent _or_, he left the surface of the bra.s.s untouched, except for gilding or perhaps polis.h.i.+ng; this universal method has solved many heraldic problems. Lead or some other white metal was inlaid to indicate _argent_, and the various tinctures were supplied by the excision of a portion of the plate, thereby forming a depression, which was filled up by pouring in some resinous substance of the requisite colour. The various kinds of fur used in armory may be readily distinguished, with the sole exception of _vair_ (_argent_ and _azure_), which presents the appearance of a row of small upright s.h.i.+elds alternating with a similar row reversed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 23.--Bra.s.s of Sir John D'Aubernoun at Stoke D'Abernon.

Arms: Azure, a chevron or. (From a rubbing by Walter J. Kaye.)]