145 



''€arig pei'alkg m §ogton CIjur% Milt$'': 



lecokrg of a llissiitg f inh. 



By the Eev. J. Baeon, D.D., F.S.A. 



EN the Church of Boyton, Wilts, are still preserved two in- 

 teresting coats of arms of about A.D. 1300, which, from 

 some general points of resemblance, have always been supposed to 

 be identical, but are, when inspected with heraldic caution, indis- 

 putably distinct, and the achievements of families very diflPerent in 

 name and lineage, although connected in history and the feudal 

 tenure of Boyton. One of these coats, displayed on the shield of 

 the eflBgy which reposes in the easternmost bay of the south or 

 Giffard Chapel, has always been rightly understood to be GiflPard. 

 The three lions passant in pale, borne by that distinguished and 

 historic family, are sculptured in bold relief with much skill and 

 spirit on the large convex and well-pointed shield. A label of five 

 points, a mark of cadency usually distinguishing the eldest son, but 

 sometimes the elder house or branch of a family, is here rendered 

 very instructively, as noted long ago by Sir R. C. Hoare, indicating 

 the original method of wearing the label, which in this case was 

 evidently nothing more than a cord or string o£ silk tied round near 

 the upper part of the shield, and five ends of ribbon depending from 

 it. This feature has been very imperfectly shown in otherwise 

 pleasing and correct drawings which have been made of this re- 

 markable effigy. The string, or cord, or piece of rolled silk which 

 passes across the neck of the uppermost lion, and which is in the 

 sculpture about fin. thick, is in the drawings shown as a band about 

 ]in. broad. The undulations of the sculpture intended to indicate 

 the five points or depending ends of ribbon probably presented 

 difficulties which could be only overcome by special skill in drawing, 

 and from a particular point of view. Sir R. C. Hoare thinks the 

 label may be the distinctive mark of the Giffards of Boyton, as 



