The crest is a nuthatch feeding on a hazel branch. The crest is enclosed in an oval belt inscribed with the motto, “virtutis præmium honor.” This plate is in a copy of Benjamin Thorpe’s History of England under the Norman Kings. Oxford, 1857.
Another crest bookplate, that of “Walter Farquhar.” The crest is an eagle rising, proper. The motto, “mente manuque.” This plate is in a copy of Sermons preached in the Parish-Church of Olney, ... By John Newton, Curate of the said Parish ... 1767.
A good crestplate is “John Savill Vaisey”’s, presumably of the race of the Viscounts de Vesci. The crest is a hand-in-armour, holding a laurel branch, all proper. Over the crest is the motto, “sub hoc signo vinces.”
“Brownlow William Knox”’s bookplate is simply the Knox crest, a falcon close on a perch, all proper. It is in a copy of that work, which is so curious to study now, “Catalogue of five hundred celebrated authors of great Britain, now living; ... London 1788.”
“Burns, Robert. A ploughman in the county of Ayr in the kingdom of Scotland.” A good simple plate, merely a crest, below that a motto, and then at the foot of all, the name,—is the ex libris of “William J E Bennett.” The crest is in a mural crown, or, a lion’s head, gules. The motto is “de bon vouloir servir le roy.”
There was a nice bookplate in the volumes of the first work which I ever bought. Don Esteban was the title, and the date 1825. I was thirteen years old, and bought this in an auction in Mr. A. H. Beesley’s, House Class-room, in that fine old home of the Seymours, then and now a part of Marlborough College. The ex libris is a simple name, crest, and motto: “Champion,” a family belonging to Berkshire and Essex. The crest is an arm embowed and erect, in armour proper, garnished or, holding in the gauntlet a chaplet of laurel, vert. Motto: “Vincit veritas.”
Marlborough, with the glorious beech avenues of Savernake Forest, is the home of the Ailesburys, and in this connection the family bookplate should always be remembered, with its pathetic motto at the foot of it. They are Bruces, and the motto is “Fuimus.”
One day the then Marquis, alighting from his carriage and pointing to the motto beneath the arms, asked a small boy to translate it.
“Fui, I was; mus, a mouse,” was the ready reply.
No Bruce of old could have behaved more honourably than the Marquis of those days, for when some boys had worried some of the deer, and Bradley said that he was afraid he would have to put the forest out of bounds, the Marquis replied: “No; Savernake Forest shall always be free to every boy of Marlborough College.”