7.—About the year 1700 appeared for a few years, perhaps we may say till about 1720, book-plates and dedicatory arms with great hacked foldings twisted round and looking something like Catherine-wheel fireworks. Two or four of these occur in book-plates, and sometimes as many as six, three on each side. We notice that these are conventional exaggerations of the less pronounced circular foldings and turnings seen so early as 1677 in some of Hollar's engravings in Sandford's Genealogical History. An engraving at p. 185 in Chauncey's History of Hertford, published in 1700, is especially interesting; it shows a monument, dated 1662, to Hewytt, in Sawbridgeworth Church, where the carver has struggled to avoid the long ugly folds ("cucumbers"), and has introduced very vigorously twisted leaves and hacks which almost approach those conventional Catherine-wheel fireworks as found in book-plates of a later date, say from 1700 to 1720. I would point out that all the armorial engravings in Chauncey's Herts are well worth studying: the mantlings are hacked all over, and extend about four-fifths down the shields in endless small and vigorous twists, the shields themselves being variations of No. 16. Some of the engravings in Plot's Natural History of Oxfordshire, published in 1705, show the same character, also some of those in Atkyn's History of Gloucestershire, published in 1768.
8.—The rebound from this taste led to small mantlings, kept a good deal at the top of the shield, even although there were no supporters, as in a peer's coat of arms, to prevent their downward flow. These occur also when the bases of the shields in Jacobean book-plates are finished off with scroll work, trellis, scales, &c., &c.; the upper part of the shield being ornamented with such smallish mantlings. In Blomefield's Norfolk, 1739, ribbon scrolls extend all round some of the shields in the place of a mantling; while in what is, I suppose, a book-plate, Holland impaling Upton, printed in the pedigrees at the beginning of vol. i, acanthus leaves occur in the base, and break out occasionally, where convenient, from such scrolls, which are arranged round the upper part of the shield. Scrolls are strictly architectural ornaments, and not vegetables. These correspond to the French style called "Bombé," in which curves and undulations of surface in ribbons, &c., were rolled and tossed about for artistic effect. But with our English examples of monuments of the sixteenth century in the same taste (see p. 80), we need not consider that our Jacobean style was borrowed from the French, although that nation, for a full century, ending in 1790, guided the artistic tastes of Europe.
9.—During the Chippendale fashion all martial elements disappear, helmets and mantlings are swept away, and we see the style of Louis XV. borrowed from the prevailing French taste, broken shell-shaped woodwork, rocks, and shell curves (rocaille coquille), hence called "Rococo." It was well enough in the frames of mirrors and furniture, but seems strangely out of place around a cardioid shield of arms, with festoons of flowers and spikes of reeds or grass, while perhaps Cupids or Greek vases on brackets are introduced. Nevertheless, the genius of Chippendale sublimated this into specimens of great beauty. Chippendale's Books of Designs were published in 1759, i vol., folio, and in 1762, i vol., folio.
10.—Mantlings, of course, continued to be shown in grants of arms. We find about 1775 they appear to be smaller again, and confined to the top of the shield, often being carried rather high up on each side of the crest, and frequently ending at the base in two tassels [see a grant 1779, Miscell. Genealogica et Heraldica, second series, vol. iii, p. 41].
11.—This style continued to the beginning of the nineteenth century, when I have observed very light and graceful mantlings thrown about in airy and much hacked foldings, and generally ending in tassels (see a grant 1803, Miscell. Genealogica et Heraldica, original series, vol. ii, p. 20). This character is also seen in many book-plates of this date.
12.—I must now say a few words on the style introduced and skilfully enforced by Robert and James Adam. They, too, adopted from the French, and by their skill and artistic taste developed to great perfection the style of Louis XVI. (1774-90). The rage for this fashion arose in Europe upon the discovery at Pompeii of Roman frescoes preserved in their original colours. The brothers Adam caught the exact spirit of these, and produced heraldic designs, consisting of shell-fluted scrolls, with light and airy festoons of flowers and ribbons, surrounding shields almost invariably Georgian No. 25. The festoons were frequently extended in graceful curves, from pegs, just as we see them in the recovered Roman arabesques, or on the walls of the Petit Trianon. Robert and James Adam published their book in three vols., imp. folio, 1773-1822. For examples of this style see Dugdale's Warwickshire, 1765; Hutchin's Dorset, 1774; Hasted's Kent, 1778; Rudder's Gloucestershire, 1779 (one specimen only); Nichol's Leicestershire, 1795; Shaw's Staffordshire, 1798; Manning and Bray's Surrey, 1804. This long list will show how extremely popular the Adam style continued to be for about thirty years.
13.—As early as 1500, a fan-shaped mantling with rounded base appears; it was formed of an unhacked cloth with many closely folded rays, and occasionally two tassels are attached to the upper corners and hang down as supports on each side of the shield, which stands in the middle—see examples engraved in Herald and Genealogist, vol. viii, p. 247; Archæologia Cantiana, vol. v, p. 248; Miscell. Genealogica et Heraldica, first series, vol. ii, p. 100; &c., &c. This design is continued until after 1700, but seems less closely folded at the later dates, when they are often found in ornamental achievements in pedigrees.
14.—A curious example of a mantling is engraved Herald and Genealogist, vol. viii, p. 254, in which a square sheet or cloth, having no hacking, and attached to the helmet, is folded-in round the edges; through these a cord is passed, ending in two tassels which extend a little below the bottom of the mantle. This portion of the cloth, as well as the back, hangs down straight without any folds. The result is that the shield stands out against the deeply shaded back ground within these folded-in edges, they being in high light. The MS. from which this is taken is dated 1645, and the shield displays the arms of Helsby.