Fig. 133. Part of the seal of Margaret lady Hungerford, with impaled banner held up by a lion.
Fig. 134. Tomb of Lewis Robsart lord Bourchier, K.G. (ob. 1431), in Westminster abbey church, with banners of arms upheld by supporters.
The remark here as to the quarterings, in view of the comments upon them in an earlier page of this book, is interesting, but it is more important to note that both the banner of King Edward IV, and those of the Knights of the Garter in Queen Elizabeth's time, were of similar proportions to those on the Bourchier monument.
The fact is that the heraldic draughtsmen of even this late period were fully as aware as their predecessors of the difficulty of drawing arms in a banner that exceeded the width of a square, and they also appreciated the greater advantage of an area that was narrower than that figure.
The longer form of banner may be tolerated for so simple a combination as the Union Jack, or even for such of its component parts as the cross of St. Andrew or the saltire of St. Patrick, but it is rarely possible so to arrange heraldry upon it as to look well, and even the cross of St. George looks better upright thus