and Heraldic Stone at Warminster" 143 



indicative of rank in the fourteenth century than in later times. 

 Lions are, as we all know, very frequent in coat-armour, but it 

 seems curious that all five compartments of this sculptured stone are 

 leonine in their heraldry. Lions were borne by the Kings of Eng- 

 land before King Edward III., and even before Richard Cceur de 

 Lion, but King Edward III. seems to have given a stimulus to 

 leonine bearings, not only from his natural character and exploits — 

 in allusion to wliich he is called " Invictus Pardus," on his monument 

 in Westminster Abbey — but also from his intercourse with Flemings 

 and Germans, who greatly aflfected lions in their coat-armour. 



Upon the reading of these notes (at an ordinary meeting of the 

 Society of Antiquaries, London), opinions were expressed to the 

 effect that, notwithstanding the similarity of bearing, the coats of 

 four lions could have no reference to Queen Philippa. A. W. Franks, 

 Esq., Director, remarked that, judging from the excellent drawing 

 exhibited, the sculpture must have formed an architectural decoration 

 at some elevation, the shields and bearings being too large for the 

 sides or front of a monument placed on the floor of a Church. 



This conjecture has now been curiously verified. The wall into 

 which this sculptured stone was built for a rough kind of preserva- 

 tion in 1857, was pulled down on the 1st of March, 1879. It then 

 became clear, from the shaping of the back of the stone, and from 

 marks of smoke, that it had originally formed the front or lintel of 

 a chimney-piece, being probably the last vestige of a family mansion 

 which tradition assigns to the same site. Petit, one of the local 

 families, bore a chevron between three lions' faces. The stone is 

 now built into the wall over one of the main entrances of the Bleeck 

 Memorial Hall, at the Athenaeum, Warminster, Wilts. 



The above notes were read when a full-size drawing was exhibited 

 at an ordinary meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, London, 23rd 

 January, 1879, and are reported as above in the Proceedings, but 

 without any illustrative engraving. The annexed reduced autotype 

 plate is here submitted to the readers of the IFiltshire Archmlogical 

 Magazine, with a reprint of the notes, in the hope that the arms, 

 from some local source, may yet be more fully identified and illus- 

 trated by documentary evidence. 



