JANUARY 29 



All this would have little enough connection with 

 heraldry were it not that out of the craze for stamp- 

 collecting has sprung the far more intelligible (I dare 

 not say intelligent) one of collecting book-plates ; and 

 whereas the majority of book-plates represent the 

 armorial bearings of the owner, a new interest has been 

 awakened in a long-neglected lore. 



The study of heraldry has an advantage over all 

 other systems it is precise and absolutely finite. Pre- 

 cise, though the jargon is archaic for the number 

 of terms is limited and may be mastered in a week. 

 Finite for the rules may be laid to heart in a month 

 or two, and when these are acquired, there is nothing 

 more to learn. The student has added to his store 

 a certain quantity of exact knowledge, which, indeed, 

 may not prove of the slightest service to him in the 

 battle of life, but may be the source of considerable 

 pleasure and information to him in the slack intervals 

 of fighting. Just as no hillside or river bank is dreary 

 to anybody possessed of more than a smattering of 

 botany, and just as every railway cutting or gravel-pit 

 has its story for him who knows something of strati- 

 graphic geology, so he who has stuffed heraldry into a 

 spare corner of his knowledge-box may stroll down 

 Piccadilly and derive more amusement from the panels 

 of carriages than from the shop windows. 



Even should one not care to ' take up ' heraldry 

 seriously, he might easily acquire such a general 

 acquaintance with its purpose and practice as would 

 enable him to avoid that misapplication of terms 

 which is one of the results of prolonged neglect of the 



