THE ARMS OF THE FAIRER

between or betwixt...

Nisbit says, anciently women of noble descent used to bear their fathers' arms on their habits in a lozenge shield, to show their descent; and to join them with those of their husbands, tbey bore them on their habits, such as mantles and kirtles.

The practice is ancient; for in old illuminated books of heraldry and old paintings, great ladies are represented with arms on their mantles and kirtles.

The ancient heralds tell us, when the arms are both on the mantle and kirtle, they are then those of their fathers; and when there are arms on the mantle different from those on the under habit, the kirtle, she is then a wife,

Those on the mantle belong to her husband, who is a cloak to shroud the wife from all violence, and the other on the kirtle belonged to her father, accompanied or accompagnee (an ancient term for the English word between or betwixt), as the ordinaries when placed between small charges.

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THE PAINTED CARRIAGE

showing the distinction...

Mr. Edmondson, in his Complete Body of Heraldry, says, in the year 1760 he proposed to several of the peers, to paint on their carriages their arms placed in mantles of crimson, with their edges thrown back so as to show their doublings and linings, which should be of ermine, and containing a number of rows of ermine spots, equal to those of the guards on their coronation robes, expressing their respective degrees: viz. a baron, two rows; a viscount, two and a half; an earl, three; a marquis, three and a half; a duke, four, etc. This proposal having met with general approbation was carried into execution, and had the desired effect of showing the distinction between the several degrees of our nobility; after which he formed mantles for the knights companions of the several orders, taken from the mantle and robes which they wear at their installations.

THE OX

In the language of olde

is one of the most serviceable Creatures to Man, as being of great Use for the Plow^ whilst living, and excellent Food when kill'd. God himself seems to have valu'd the Oxe, it being reckned one of the most agreeable Sacrifices that were offer'd to him among the Jews. The Egyptians were so fond of this Animal, as to make it one of their Gods by the Name of Apis, whom they Worshipped under the Shape of an Oxe. This Beast is so tractable that tho' it surpasses most others is Strength, yet it quietly submits its Neck to the Yoak, and is led to Labour without any Difficulty, and therefore it is the Emblem of Strength subdu'd, and brought under, for which Reason it is in Armoury a proper Bearing for those who have laid the Yoak upon the Necks of Fierce Nations; and as the Oxe also represents till'd Land, and Pasture, it may be inferr'd, that some of those who took it for their Arms, did it to denote that they were Lords of Corn Fields, and Meadow. Under this Head may be compriz'd Bulls and Cows, the Species being the fame, the only difference between the two first is the Castration, and between the first and the last the Sex. There does not occur any Instance in England at present of this bearing, but in Spain the great House of Borgia, famous for having afforded Pope Alexander the Sixth, and the infamous Cesar Borgia, whose Arms are Or, an Oxe Gules passant on a Tuft of Earth Vert. The Family of Lopes also in Spain, bears Azure, an Oxe couchant Or. In France there are likewise many Families of Note that bear the Qxe, or Parts of it, as also Bulls and Cows.

WHERE DID THE ROMANS GO?

In the third century of the Christian era, when the Roman power was in a declining state, a race of barbarous people from Scythia, and the northern parts of Germany, began to make inroads upon the Empire; and the repeated successes of these rude depredators soon induced others, from the same barren regions, to invade the more congenial and luxuriant countries lying towards the south. The arms of imperial Rome, enfeebled by intestine commotions, were at length unable to protect her dependencies; and the martial youth having been drawn from every nation where Rome exercised jurisdiction, left the countries unprotected, and an easy prey to people inured from infancy to privation, fatigue, and warfare. Thus, immense hordes of Goths, Vandals, Huns, Franks, Lombards, Burgundians, and other northern nations, were enabled to over-run the declining empire, and ultimately to settle themselves in the permanent possession of its territory.

In the early part of the fifth century, the Saxons, a race of people likewise from the north of Germany, were, from a similar cause, enabled to establish themselves in the Isle of Britain; and, soon after this, another race of people from Norway and Jutland (called Normans, or Men from the North), having failed in several attempts to gain a permanent footing in this island, ultimately settled on the opposite shores, and gave the name of Normandy to that part of Gaul which they had conquered.

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