JANUARY 26 



sprigged silk ; otherwise I '11 go bail she would not stay 

 long on that rectilinear garden-seat. There is no 

 objection to her sprawling it shows off her shapely 

 figure, trim hose, and dainty slippers ; but what does 

 offend is that the artist, desiring, I suppose, to indicate 

 the damsel's aristocratic connection, has introduced 

 a stone gryphon beside the terrace steps, supporting a 

 shield displaying wholly impossible bearings. There 

 is a cross, as there might well be; only it is not a 

 heraldic cross quartering the escutcheon, but a sepul- 

 chral cross, such as might adorn the outside of a church 

 hymnal ; and there is a bend surcharged upon the cross 

 a bend sinister, too ; that is, crossing the shield dia- 

 gonally from the upper left corner (right as you look 

 at it) to the right flank. Now the bend sinister is 

 one of the rarest of all charges ; not because it is, as 

 commonly supposed, a mark of illegitimacy that is to 

 confuse it with a baton sinister, which is not an honour- 

 able 'ordinary' like the bend but an abatement of 

 honour ; it is rare simply because in ninety-nine cases 

 out of a hundred the bend dexter is displayed. Apart 

 from that, anybody with the slightest knowledge of 

 heraldry will perceive the impossibility of such arms as 

 are here depicted. Heraldry is a Christian science 

 art craft call it what you will: it originated in 

 Christian society, and was codified for the exclusive 

 use of Christian chivalry ; wherefore the cross was ever 

 esteemed the most honourable ordinary, and it would 

 be an unpardonable solecism to surcharge it with an 

 ordinary or inferior honour. The painter of this picture, 

 then, has blundered badly in dabbling with a gentle 



