2 2 The Poets Beasts. 



" The lion now forgets to thirst for blood : 

 There might you see him sporting in the sun 

 Beside the dreadless kid ; his claws are sheatlied, 

 His teeth are harmless ; custom's force has made 

 His nature as the nature of a lamb ; " 



and that then, blessed as in Montgomery's " Pelican Island," ^ 

 where " nor lion nor tiger shed innocent blood," 



" Tlie steer and lion at one crib shall meet, 

 And harmless serpents lick the Pilgrim's feet." 



The weary Progress will then be over : the chained lions 

 and the loose ones will have no further terrors for Faithful, 

 and the beasts that came along after the pilgrims " at a great 

 padding pace " will have been forgotten by Christian. 



In heraldry it is a more conspicuous beast than even the 

 ordinary familiarity with the armorial lion would lead the 

 uninitiated to suppose, for (as Planche tells us ^) it was 

 once upon a time the only beast thought worthy to be worn 

 on shields and helmets. Thus, kings of England, Scotland, 

 Norway, and Denmark, Princes of Wales and Dukes of 

 Normandy, Counts of Flanders, Earls of Arundel, Lincoln, 

 Eeicester, Shrewsbury, Pembroke, Salisbury, and Hereford, 

 all bore lions — indeed, up to the twelfth century, heraldic 

 zoology begins and ends with the King of Beasts. Later on, 

 the leopard came upon the heraldic field, not only to divide 

 honours with the lion, but to usurp its place. For leopard 

 and lion — notably in the arms of England — are the one and 

 same animal, the difference of attitude alone deciding the 

 nominal species. In other words, "leopard" is used in 

 heraldry, not to represent a specific beast, but only a parti- 

 cular attitude of the lion. Thus lion-leopard means a lion 

 l^assing and seen in profile, while a leoparded-lion means 

 a lion full-faced. For the lion, pure and simple, heraldry 



' " Lion nor tiger here shed innocent blood." — Pelican Island. 

 ' Planch^, " The Pursuivant of Arms : " Chatto & Windus. 



