Part 19 (1/1)
[Illustration: FIG 1--SIR WILLIAM WALWORTH'S DAGGER, FISHMONGERS' HALL, MCCCLxxxI]
In the year 1380, as we have seen, a new seal was in and SS Peter and Paul, and in the base on a shi+eld the arms of the City, a cross with a sword in the dexter chief, and on either side of it a dein of the sword, there is a very old story, very generally credited, which only requires retelling to sho inconsistent it is with historical truth About the part played by the Lord Mayor, Sir Willia Wat Tyler at Smithfield, there need be little doubt, and at the hall of the Fisher hich, it is asserted, the deed was done; and as the addition was made to the City arms about the time of this occurrence, popular fancy connected the two events, and ascribed the advent of the dagger on the shi+eld to its use in S 1)
Since, however, the new seal was made in 1380, and Wat Tyler was slain and Sir Williahted a year later, we have to look elsewhere for the origin of the augmentation
[Illustration: FIG 2--SEAL OF RALPH DE STRATFORD, BISHOP OF LONDON, MCCCXL-MCCCLIV (_In the British Museum_)]
Until the episcopate of Ralph de Stratford, the seals of the bishops of London had borne the effigy only of St Paul, and that bishop's seal was the first on which the arms of the See of London were placed An impress of this seal is preserved in the Stowe collection at the British Museuh in a somewhat broken condition, clearly shows St Paul seated in a niche, holding the sword and a book, and beneath, in the base, the bishop kneeling, having on the dexter side the arms of the See, and on the sinister side the bishop's personal ar 2) The arms of the See shoords placed in saltire, but the field, instead of being plain, is frettee, with a dot placed in the centre of each mesh, and in this particular only differs from the present shi+eld, and this may be due merely to a desire for ornanificance
Although St Paul, as represented both on the seals of the City and the See, bore a sword, this seal of Bishop Ralph's was the first which represented the symbol apart from the saint No doubt, with this exa their new seal in 1380, added to their arms the symbol of the patron saint of their city
The are from the time of their earliest appearance to the present day, and were reproduced in , andGibbons over the entrance to St Dunstan's Chapel; but with the arms of the City it was very different, and, in fact, they do not appear even now to have reached finality When, early in the seventeenth century, the seal of 1380 became too worn for further use, a new one was made, which reproduced on the obverse all the essential features of the earlier one, the details being somewhat classicised, the shi+eld in the base was repeated, and the lions on each side crowned; but the reverse showed a new departure, of which no record exists in the College of Arms This was the addition of a crest, which consisted of a cross set between two dragons' wings displayed, placed on a peer's helmet It will be seen by reference to the example preserved in the British Museum, taken from a deed of 1670, that the shi+eld, which is placed couchee, bears the present ar and a motto, which reads, ”Londini defende tuos deus opti 3)
No such use of a peer's helmet has ever been officially allowed to any town or city, and it can only be presumed that as the mayors of London were always addressed as ”My Lord,” the assuht be permitted But it may be remarked that, at least in recent years, the helear of the sword-bearer to his lordshi+p, for which there does not appear to be the shadow of a warranty For instance, the official invitation card to the Lord Mayor's Banquet of 1882 has the fur cap hovering in the air between the shi+eld and the crest, whilst the card of 1896 reproduces the heled in the earlier fashi+on
[Illustration: FIG 3--THE CITY SEAL IN MDCLXX]
[Illustration: FIG 4--THE CITY ARMS, AS PORTRAYED BY WALLIS, IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II]
The crest which shows on this seal of 1670 introduces the dragon for the first tie with the dragon is, of course, obvious, and this s as an appropriate crest to surmount his cross upon the shi+eld, and froon supporters They are not known to occur before they were represented by Wallis in his _London's Armory_, published in 1677, a work dedicated to Charles II, who, in accepting it, said of its author that he ”hath with eneral collection of the Arms proper to every Society and Corporation within our City, and hath at length finished the same in a most exact and curious manner” Whether this royal irant froe of Arms may seem doubtful to ons, or soriffins, have appeared as the supporters of the City arms Another point to notice in Wallis's representation, of which we give a sketch (fig 4), is that although he retains the peer's helether with the rouped as ornamental accessories at the base of his device The crest also has been , upon which the cross has been charged, as well as upon the wings of the supporters, which, if descendants of the original dragon of St George, show thereby that they have become ”Christen”
beasts
Such is the history, shortly, of the ars and seal its docu of that word, pronounces correct, ”having by just examinations and curious disquisitions now cleared thenorance and continued along by implicit tradition conant to the very principles of Heraldry”
_END OF VOLUME I_
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