"Amidst our arms as quiet you shall be,
As halcyons brooding on a winter's sea."
"The halcyon," says Willsford, in his Nature's Secrets, p. 134., "at the time of breeding, which is about fourteen days before the winter solstice, foreshews a quiet and tranquil time, as it is observed about the coast of Sicily, from whence the proverb is transported, the halcyon days.">[
Replies.
DOGS IN MONUMENTAL BRASSES.
(Vol. ix., p. 126.)
I may refer Mr. B. H. Alford to the Oxford Manual of Monumental Brasses, p. 56., for an answer to his Query:
"Knights have no peculiar devices besides their arms, unless we are to consider the lions and dogs beneath their feet as emblematical of the virtues of courage, generosity, and fidelity, indispensable to their profession. One or two dogs are often at the feet of the lady. They are probably intended for some favourite animal, as the name is occasionally inscribed," &c.
Neither dog nor lion occurs at the feet of the following knights represented on brasses prior to 1460: