18R 



who probably never wore armour, except that of controversy. The 

 Dragon is Sin and Error; although, if Gibbon's account is true, 

 the sin is as mythical as the armour ; and George's claim to be 

 considered a saint at all is of #ry doubtful kind. 



The figure of Britannia bearing the trident of Neptune seems 

 a more appropriate emblem of our tight litde island, though some- 

 how it has a very pagan look; the figure being as evidently 

 Minerva, as the trident is filched from the sea god. The only bit 

 of Christianity about it is the Union Jack on the shield, which is 

 a combination of the crosses of our various nationahties. We 

 have our national flowers too. The Rose was the emblem of 

 the rival houses of York and Lancaster; and the Thistle, with 

 the proud motto, '■'■nemo me impicne lacessit" has been well and 

 worthily born by the gallant Scots ; but the most poetical and 

 beautiful national emblem is the Shamrock of Ireland, which, as 

 the legend tells us, was used by St. Patrick at a critical moment, 

 as a symbol of the Trinity, to show the hesitating people how 

 nature has combined three in one, and so, by making clear to their 

 minds a seeming impossibility, decided them to adopt the Christian 

 religion. 



I have now completed my sketch of the Symbolic Schools of 

 Art. At their influence on our own times I cannot do more than 

 glance. It is impossible however to over-rate their importance in 

 art teaching. Kept aUve in the monasteries and convents during 

 the dark ages by the influence of the Church, they inspired and 

 developed many of the features of Gothic ornament; for although 

 in its essential features Gothic architecture is pointed and geomet- 

 rical, it preserves all the symbolic elements of the Byzantyne 

 period, combining with them adaptations of natural plants and 

 flowers in endless variety and profusion. 



It is certain that a study of Symbolism is absolutely essential 

 to a right understanding of Mediaeval Architecture, for it furnishes 

 the clue to meanings which otherwise seem hopeless absurdities, 

 and the vagaries of an eccentric or distempered imagination. But 

 these meanings will well repay study. These old monks never did 

 anything without a purpose and a meaning, and they devoted an 



