THE BROOM. 23 



ii, une, et di'."* Henry VI., in the fourth year of 

 his reign, had a collar made for himself of the letter 

 S, intertwined with broom-pods ; and in his ward- 

 robe accounts occur, robes worked " cum ramis de 

 brome." 



The motto of James, or as it is more usually 

 written, jamais,"f appears to have been attached to 

 the device of the broom ; perhaps, on account of the 

 evergreen nature of its branchlets, which made it 

 symbolical of eternity. Thus, Menestrier mentions 

 having seen a pall, long preserved in the monastery 

 of the Dominicans, at Poissy, and which had covered 

 the coffin of Madame Marie de France, the sister of 

 Charles II., " semeY' as heralds term it, with sprays 

 of broom, and with the word jamais, in Gothic 

 characters. 



The Highland clan, Forbes, are true Plantagenets, 

 so far as their device goes, as the broom is still their 

 distinctive badge. 



* " Ancient Kalendars and Inventories of the Treasury of 

 the Exchequer," quoted by Mr. Gough Nichols. 



f This is the word usually adopted for the name ; but it 

 may, perhaps, be sometimes put for faimais. The omission 

 of the letter i in the word "aimer" would, at least, be a 

 less violation of orthographical rules, than the spelling of 

 jamais for James. The word jamais is well known to have 

 been adopted as a punning watchword by the Jameses of 

 the House of Stuart ; but the fact can, in no way, bear on 

 its inscription on a jewel given by a French to an earlier 

 English sovereign. It should, however, be added, that an 

 English family of the name of James, yet bears, I believe, 

 the motto "fayme d, jamais" Both James and Jacques are 

 singularly unlike Jacobus. The Italians distinguish Giacomo 

 from Giacopo. 



