THE ARMS OF DORCHESTER AKD DORSET. 103 



placed in the 2nd and 3rd quarters instead of in the 1st and 4th 

 quarters. Fifthly, the escutcheon is made to incorporate the Arms 

 of Scotland and Ireland. Thus all indication of great antiquity 

 is gone, and the Arms, as they are now used, might be the Arms 

 of a Corporation incorporated in the last century instead of being 

 the Arms of a Corporation which should indicate unmistakeably 

 that they have been borne for a period of at least 500 years. How 

 the change in the Arms has come about, so that the true blazon 

 has been almost lost sight of, is perhaps difficult to fathom. It is 

 clear, however, that Hutchins is largely responsible for the error, 

 for, in the edition of Hutchins' Dorset, published in the last 

 century, the Arms are described as : " Gules, a castle embattled 

 triple-towered arg. on the front a royal shield, quarterly France, 

 England, Scotland, and Ireland." Hutchins evidently had never 

 seen the drawings of the Arms as tricked by William Hervey 

 amongst the Corporation records, otherwise he would not so have 

 described the Royal Shield. In the modern edition of Hutchins 

 the editors have reprinted Hutchins's description of the Arms, and 

 next following his description they have printed the confirmation 

 of William Hervey, but they have omitted either to reproduce his 

 drawing of the Arms or to describe them as drawn by him. 

 Accordingly they have perpetuated the erroneous description of 

 the Borough Arms, though at the same time, by drawing attention 

 to the confirmation of them by William Hervey, they have 

 provided a clue to the real Arms as exemplified by him. In the 

 Heralds College, as I have said, we have it on record that the 

 colour of the field is purple. Mr. Fox-Davies, in his recently- 

 published Book of Public Arms, 1894, gives the Arms of 

 Dorchester from a seal engraved in 1836, with all the stock modem 

 errors : First, the Arms of Modern France ; secondly, the Arms 

 of Scotland and Ireland ; thirdly, the castle standing on a nicely- 

 cropped green lawn ; fourthly, the castle is neatly windowed and 

 loopholed ; and, lastly, the tincture of the shield described in the 

 letterpress as gules instead of purpure. Mr. Fox-Davies prides 

 himself on his accuracy, but he has only tianscribed the errors of 



