[260] Among the Dugdale MSS. are the following memoranda of Tong, Norroy, made during a visitation of Lancashire, temp. Henry VIII: “John Talbot of Salebury, a verry gentyll Esqwyr, and well worthye to be takyne payne for.” “Sir John Townley of Townley. I sought hym all day rydynge in the wyld contrey, and his reward was ijs, whyche the gwyde had the most part, and I had as evill a jorney as ever I had.” “Sir R. H. Knyght. The said Sir R. H. has put awaye the lady his wyffe, and kepys a concobyne in his howse, by whom he has dyvers children. And by the lady aforsayd he has Leyhall, whych armes he berys quarterde with hys in the furste quarter. He sayd that Master Garter lycensed hym so to do, and he gave Mr. Garter an angell noble, but he gave me nothing, nor made me no good cher, but gave me prowde words.” Certes he was a very naughty and ‘ungentyll Esqwyr.’
[261] It frequently happened in those days, as well as at the present time, that parties used arms for which they had no authority either from grant or antient usage. These were publicly disclaimed by the heralds who made visitation. In a copy of the Visitation of Wiltshire, in 1623, are the names of no less than fifty-four persons so disclaimed at Salisbury. (Montagu’s Guide, p. 21.)
[262] Noble, p. 105. In these heraldric displays the arms of the sovereign generally found a conspicuous place. “The royal arms placed over doors or upon buildings was an antient mode of denoting that they were under the protection of the sovereign. When some troops of a tyrant were ravaging the estates of the Chartreuse de Montrieu, the monks had recourse to the antient remedy. They put up the arms of the king over the gate of the house; but the depredators laughed at it, saying that it might have been efficacious in times past (que cela étoit bon autrefois) and persecuted them with more severity.” (Mem. de Petrarque, quoted by Fosbroke.)
[263] Hist. Coll. Arms, 102.
[264] Ib. 102.
[265] Ib. 107.
[266] Mr. Woodham, in his tract (No. 4 of the publications of the Cambridge Antiq. Soc.) says, “The styles of blazonry admit of classification like those of Gothic Architecture. The bare deviceless ordinaries agree with the sturdy pier and flat buttress of the Norman age; the progress of ornament uniting still with chasteness of design may be called Early English; the fourteenth century exhibits the perfection of both sciences, as displayed in the highest degree of Decoration consistent with purity; and the mannerism of Henry VIII’s time, with its crowded field and accumulated charges, is as essentially Florid and flamboyant as any panelling or tracery in the kingdom.” (p. 11.)
[267] See Chapter XII.
[268] A ‘Society for the Suppression of Duelling,’ lately established, enrols among its members many of the greatest and best men of our times. All success to it!
[269] That the College at this period comprised several officers of unimpeachable integrity cannot be doubted, while it is equally certain (at least, according to popular opinion) that others were less scrupulous. “An herald,” says Butler: