[howley] the old EOYAL COAT OF AlUlS AT PLACEXTÏA 37 



gules, a lion rampant, azure; for Lunenberg, 3rd, (in point) gules, a 

 horse courant, argent, for Westphalia, or Saxony. 



The White Horse is properly the Arms of ^\'estphalia, but is popu- 

 larly known as the " White Horse of Hanover," inasmuch as it was the 

 most prominent charge upon the Arms of Hanover, incorporated into 

 the Eoyal Arms of England by the House of Brunswick, on the accession 

 of George I., 1714. The white horse, however, is of very ancient origin 

 as the Arms of Saxony. It is said that the "white horse " can still be 

 seen carved in the chalk cliffs of Dover by the early Saxons who came 

 over in the Fifth Century under Hengist. 



It was also a cherished symbol in the days of x\lfred the Great. 

 There is a very graphic description of the " Yale of the White Horse, 

 in the Royal County of Berks," in " Tom Brown's School-Days," The 

 author tells how " King Alfred, with his brother Etheldred, having con- 

 quered the Danes in a glorious battle at Ashdown, or Aston, {Z^scendum 

 or Ecsesdunum in the Chronicles) ' when Baeseg, one of the two kings 

 of the heathen, and five of his earls fell down and died, and many thou- 

 sands of the heathen side-by-side in the same place, after which crowning 

 mercy the pious king, that there might never be wanting a sign and 

 memorial to the country-side, carved out on the jSTorthern side of the 

 chalk hill, under the camp, where it is almost precipitous, the 



' Great Saxon White Hokse,' 



which he who will may see from the railway, and which gives its name 

 to the vale over which it has looked these thousand years and more." ^ 



These Arms were borne on the English escutcheon until the Ist 

 of January, 1801, when, on the Parliamentary Union of Great Britain 

 and Ireland, the Arms of France were discarded. The title of King 

 of France, hitherto retained by the English Sovereigns, was also 

 abandoned at this time, and it was ordered that the title of the King 

 f^houlil henceforth be " Georgius Tertius, Dei Gratia, Brittaniarum Eex 

 Fidei Defensor." The King's German titles (which shall be alluded to 

 immediately) were also no longer used. 



The Arms of Scotland were taken from their rather cramped 

 place on the first quarter and restored to the second quarter, 

 replacing the discarded Arms of France. The English lions received 

 full possession of the 1st quarter, the place of honour, and, more than 

 that, they were repeated in full in the 4th quarter, as on the Eoyal 



1 The same author, I'homas Hughes, in his slory of " The Scouring of the 

 Whito Horse," goes more minutely into tlie histor.v of this monument of Saxon 

 times. 



