236 On the Seals of the Bishops of Salisbury. 
The brass contains two shields, one the arms of France (three fleur- 
de-lys) and England quarterly surrounded with the garter, which 
seems to show that our Bishop was Chancellor of the order, though 
I do not find it anywhere noted ; the other his own arms (the cross 
engrailed ermine with crescent in the first quarter) with the motto 
Misericordias domini in eternum cantabo. here is no hint of his being 
acardinal. The shield of the arms of England, like that on Wyvill’s 
seal, marks a change which has just taken place, since it was only 
a few years before Hallam’s death that Henry V. had substituted 
the three fleur-de-lys in the quarterings of France for the field semé 
de fleur-de-lys. I would notice also that while on Wyvill’s seal in 
Edward III’s reign the lions of England are in the first and fourth 
quarters, in this brass (as I believe is usually the case on other 
monuments) the fleur-de-lys occupy those places. I presume that 
this is no mere accident, but the hint of an ambition which was not 
unnatural in the descendant of a line of Norman and Plantagenet 
Kings. I am not aware what explanation is given by heralds of 
the fact that the arms of France are usually put in the principal 
place, and those of England in the subordinate one, on the shields 
of our monarchs. It may suggest, however, the reflection that it 
was fortunate for England that the titie King of France, which 
Henry V. was so nearly making a reality, gradually became less 
and less of a fact under his successor. Had it been otherwise — 
England might have become a province of a great monarchy—but 
a subordinate one, like Scotland or Ireland. 
(26) The seal of Robert Neville, A.D. 1427 (figured also in 
Benson and Hatcher’s History of Salisbury, pl. 1, No. 8) has the 
Trinity above and the coronation of the Virgin in the ceutre, treated 
in an unusual way, our Lord being seated on the dexter side, blessing, 
whilst he crowns her with his left hand. On either side are saints. 
On the dexter side, I believe, St. Thomas of Canterbury ; on the 
sinister, one who is supposed to be St. Osmund. Below are three 
niches, the centre an angel holding the arms of Neville, a saltire, 
with two annulets interlaced in fess as a difference. Angels also 
occupy the right and left niches, unless the sinister is the Blessed 
‘Virgin Mary receiving the annunciation. The figure of the Bishop 
