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BARNACLES.--A pair of Barnacles erect Gules, ringed and laced Or, was a badge of the family of St. Leger. On the stall-plate of Sir Anthony St. Leger, K. G, in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, his arms are quarterly 1st and 4th Azure, fretté, and a chief Or; 2nd and 3rd Or, three pair of Barnacles Gules. From this last quartering the badge was undoubtedly derived. A pair of Barnacles erect Argent, ringed Or, was the badge of Sir Henry Wiat, of the county of Kent. "St. Louis," says Menestrier, "to preserve the memory of his prizon with the Saracens, made use, as a device, of the instrument wherewith the barbarians fasten the legs of their prisoners; it is on his money. Joinville calls it the Barnacles."

BASKET.-A long Basket with two handles, Vert, was an early crest belonging to Venables. An Eel Basket lying down, per pale Argent and Vert, was the crest of Lord Williams of Thame. A Basket filled with Fish was the crest of the family of Weare of Weare Giffard, in Devon, as it occurs on the seal of William Weare, lord of that manor, in the 13th Hen. IV. 1

BATTERING RAM.-The family of Bertie have sometimes used a Battering Ram proper as their badge, evidently derived from their arms.

BEACON.-King Henry the Fifth occasionally used the device of a Beacon, "signifying," says Sir George Mackenzie, "his sudden and hott alarmes in France;" or, according to another author, "to show that he would be a light and guide to his people, to follow him in all virtue and honour." A Beacon Or was a badge, and is the crest, of Compton. A Lizard, his tail nouée, Vert, ducally collared, and chained to a beacon Or, inflamed proper, was

the badge of Sudley, and appears, from Dugdale's Warwick, p. 703, to have belonged to the family of Belknap.

Sir Francis Bryan, temp. Hen. VIII., used a Standard Gules, semée of Beacons; the motto, "Je tans grace."

A Beacon fixed in a Ton was the canting device, Beck-in-ton, of Beckington, Bishop of Bath and Wells, and remains sculptured in the Court of Lincoln College, Oxford.

BEAR.-The badge of a white Bear appears to have belonged to the earldom of Warwick from a very early date. Rous, in his rhapsodical history of that dignity, carried it as far back as King Arthur and his celebrated round table, at which time, he says, lived Arthgal, the first Earl of Warwick; and that Arth, or Narth, signified in the British language, a bear, from whence the badge. It more probably arose from Urso d'Abtot, whose daughter Emeline, at length his heir, was the wife of Walter de Beauchamp, the ancestor of William Earl of Warwick. On a seal inscribed "Thomæ de Bellocampo Co. Warwick, et D'ni de Gower," in the 45 Edw. III., we find

A drawing of that seal occurs in a valuable MS. by Glover, chiefly containing collections for pedigrees of Devonshire families in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillips, Bart.

his arms supported by two Bears: and again, on the seal of Richard Earl of Warwick, temp. Hen. VI.-Dugdale has noticed a painter's bill of preparations for the voyage of this Richard to Normandy, as lieutenant-general; one item of which is, "for a great streamour for the ship xl. yerdis length and viij. yerdis in brede, with a great bere and griffon holding a ragged staffe." In his will, dated April 1, 1400, he bequeaths to his son Richard, "a bed of silk embroidered with bears.' He died in 1406, and his monument in St. Mary's church, Warwick, was profusely ornamented with his family badge. Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, continued to use the Bear as his badge. It is on a private seal that belonged to him, and which is represented in Fenns' Original Letters. At the battle of Hedgcot, or Banbury, one John Clapham, a servant of the Earl of Warwick, came in with five hundred countrymen, and displaying his lord's banner, on which was painted his white Bear, cried " A Warwick, A Warwick!" and thereby caused such terror in the enemy as to secure the victory. The arms of Dudley, when Earls of Warwick, were supported on the sinister side by a white Bear, collared, lined, and muzzled Or, holding a ragged staff Argent: it was so introduced on the stall-plate of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, K.G., who was therein styled, “Le tres noble et puissant Seigneur John Conte de Warwick, Viscount Lisley, Baron de Somery et Teyes, Seigneur de Dudley, Grand Chamberlain d'Angleterre."

In Edmondson's "House of Greville," p. 98, is given the copy of a grant to Francis Earl Brooke and Earl of Warwick, the crest" anciently used by the Earls of Warwick, viz. a Bear erect Argent, muzzled Gules, supporting a ragged staff of the first, the same not being the right of any other person;" dated April 2nd, 1760. Bears, holding ragged staves, have since been allowed to the Marquis of Hastings as his supporters.

Favine tells us, from the Chronicle des Ursins, that Louis de Bourbon, after the surprisal of Eampes, in 1411, came out to the King, Charles VI. "well apparelled in a robe of crimson velvet, all embroidered with bears, and according to the device of the Duke of Berry, and he likewise had given it him.”

The supporters of the noble family of Ursins were two Bears proper, muzzled, and rings passing through the nose, Or.

Switzerland was frequently figured by the Bear. Francis the First of France, to his device of the Salamander, added the following lines on the tapestry at Fontainbleau,

"Ursus atrox, Aquilæque leves, et tortilis Anguis,
Cesserunt flammæ jam Salamandra tuæ ;"

alluding to his victories over the Swiss, the Germans, and the Milanese.

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BEAVER'S HEAD.-The Harleian MS. 4686. f. 28 b, describes the crest of" Candishe of Trimley de Grimston Hall, Suff.” as a Beaver's test, collared Sable, garnished and studded Or."

BEE.-A Bee upon a hive, crowned, is one of the devices attributed to Joan d'Arc, with the words "Hæc Virgo Regnum mucrone tuetur.”

"Hist. Geneal. des Comtes de Pontieu." It is scarcely necessary to remark, that a Bee was the favourite device of the Emperor Napoleon. BELLEROPHON.-Philip the Second of Spain is said by Menestrier to have used as a device, after his marriage with Queen Mary, a Bellerophon fighting a monster, with the words, "Hinc vigilo;" to have it understood that he waited a favourable time to combat heresy in this kingdom."

BELT.-Sir Thomas Montgomery, a Knight of the Garter, temp. Edw. IV., used for his badge a belt or girdle Sable, the inside Or, with cords and tassels of the same. Ashmole's MSS. No. 1121.

SPANISH ARMOURY IN THE TOWER.

"But wonder on, till TRUTH makes all things plain."

Mid. Night's Dream.

WE have been favoured with the observations of an intelligent correspondent, suggested by a recent visit to the Tower for the purpose of seeing the new arrangement of the armour made under the direction of the Board of Ordnance. Imbued with a spirit of research into the history and customs of past ages, he appears to have anticipated his visit with considerable delight. The idea of beholding in reality the spoils of the renowned Armada, and the true military costume of the Knights and Esquires of olden times, excited in him the most chivalrous feelings. Satisfied, as doubtless many other individuals are, with the accounts of certain corpulent gentlemen yclep'd " Warders,” delivered with" all the pomp and circumstance" to boot, he was led to suppose that every article preserved there was an unquestionable relic of the age of chivalry. Elated with the acquisition of so much knowledge, our correspondent could not refrain from displaying to his friends his newly acquired learning on ancient armour, when Dr. Meyrick's valuable" Critical Inquiry" on the subject was placed before him. To his confusion he quickly found, that the statements made to him at the Tower were a tissue of falsehoods more barefaced than are uttered at a puppet-show at a country fair. As there are few branches of Antiquarian inquiries so useful for the purposes of historical illustration, we readily insert the communication, in the hope that, if further arrangements are contemplated with respect to that armoury, they may be made under the directions of competent persons. It is a national disgrace that such a fraud should be

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practised under the express authority of Government, and that it should thus sanction what can only be described as a flagrant piece of imposture. This is, however, but a new instance of the justice of the remark, that whatever emanates from, or is in any way dependent upon, the constituted authorities of this country, connected with literature, science, or the arts, is sure to betray the grossest ignorance. These objects, in most other kingdoms of Europe, are peculiarly fostered by the respective governments, whilst in England they are either totally neglected by the Crown, or if nominally encouraged, its protection is ma'nifested in a similar manner to that of a nurse, who suffocates her bantling by her injudicious caresses. Our correspondent shall now speak for himself.

"Guess my surprise and shame," he observes, "when a friend placed before me Dr. Meyrick's Critical Inquiry into Ancient Armour. At first I could scarce believe what I read; but on sitting down, with quieter feelings, to compare and reflect, I became sensible that falsehoods are daily and hourly uttered to the thirty thousand people, of all ranks and ages, and countries, who view this exhibition, with the express sanction of the Board of Ordnance. My surprise was not only excited at how such consummate impudence as must have existed when these stories were fabricated, could have ventured to raise its head, but how men of education, of honour so nice that they would feel hurt at discovering even unintentional errors in their own personal communications, should permit, nay, and authorise by their official importance, such a mass of imposition. My vexation was excited at having been one of the dupes of the artifice, and my shame was roused that England should exhibit to foreigners so glaring a piece of charlatanry.

"Is truth worth knowing, or is it not? or will it be said that the exhibition did well enough before, and as long as the humbug was not discovered, it answered all the purpose? This surely cannot be maintained with any thing like seriousness; for why does the Government establish a national repository for the best and undoubted pictures of Italy and Holland, a Royal Academy of Painting, and its individuals patronise the British and other galleries for the benefit of artists, whilst, as an authority for historic subjects, it sanctions the absurd misrepresentations at the Tower; and whilst, with glaring inconsistency, it encourages the education of the people, it suffers them to receive as truths, guaranteed as it were by its authority, the flimsy, contemptible stories which are related at that place?

"But I must not proceed quite so rapidly; for I learnt that his grace the Duke of Wellington, while Master-General of the Ordnance, had applied to Dr. Meyrick to rectify the errors he had demonstrated, and hence I would have suspended my censures, as this seemed to show a disposition to remedy the evil when any one could be found, qualified and willing to effect the change. Better late than never,' is a maxim in which I fully acquiesce; and though this was not done until within the last six months, full three years after the publication of that work, I should not have troubled you with these remarks, had I not lately paid a visit to the Tower. Enthusiastic upon this

subject, I have studied Dr. Meyrick's pages with intense application, and feel in consequence competent

Αγαθους αγαθοις αντεξετάζειν,

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that is, in plain English, to say what's what.' I therefore determined to go and see what he had done, and subject his alterations to 'critical inquiry.' I went accordingly, and passed through the ceremony of being ushered into the warder's lodge, and submitted quietly to be made a quasi prisoner by the portly cicerone reaching down his sword. I walked humbly in his custody, ruminating on the novelties I was destined to behold, till I came, as in the olden time, first to the Spanish Armoury.' What!' exclaimed I, has Dr. Meyrick sanctioned a Spanish armoury? I have heard he has been known to say that there was not one atom in the room which could be considered as any part of the spoils of the Armada, and his writings are evidently to that effect.'Oh! sir, the outside and inside of the building have been repaired, and the whole contents put in order at a great expense. Eh bien, nous verrons, thought I, as I took from my pocket the extracts I had carefully made from his work, determined without the least mercy, suo sibi gladio hunc jugulare,' now that he seemed to be at variance with himself. I entered, and the first objects presented to my view were two hideous busts of the time of Edward VIth carved in wood, and fresh beautified. worthy instructor, and where did they come from?' ‹ What are these, my are the lively portraitures of two ancient warders, one of whom, These, sir, holding the large jug, as you see, was fond of ale; the other, grasping a ham, was equally so of swine's flesh; and the man with the ham fell asleep, and so continued for some weeks; but when he awoke he called out lustily for bacon; so you see him thus represented, and

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And did Dr. Meyrick advise that these half-lengths should grace this entrance, as a hint that those who proceed must swallow ravenously, and have good digestions?' 'I can't tell: that gentleman did a great deal in the Tower: he was constantly here for a great length of time.' • But you have not told me whence came these specimens of art; I don't recollect to have seen them formerly.' they were found underneath the old Horse Armoury.' Oh! sir, their connexion, then, with Spanish armour?' They had been there • What is time out of mind, but are now painted up, and look very smart.' 'Oh! then, I have it ;' but as I said no more to him, I shall here state my inference. The old Horse Armoury was a building of the time of Charles the Second, to which all the armour that could be found at the palace at Greenwich, which had escaped the ravages of the civil commotions, was removed. Now, might not these two figures have been brought with the armour, their original position having been over the doors leading to the buttery and pantry, from the great hall? Let any one look at Halnaker, near the Duke of Richmond's, in Sussex, or at any other of our old mansions, and he will find the same conceit. But I must not forget my worthy guardian in scarlet and gold, who led me up the staircase. The door of the Spanish Armoury opened, and before

See "Critical Inquiry," vel. iii. p. 125.

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