46 THE GENTLE ART OF BLAZON 



'the family of Douglas of Cavers, Hereditary Sheriff's 

 of Teviotdale, have long had in their possession an old 

 standard, which they believe to be the very pennon 

 won from Hotspur by the Earl of Douglas, to whom 

 their ancestor was standard-bearer in the expedition 

 [to Otterbourne in 1388].' On the face of it, this 

 cannot be the truth. Without questioning Froissart's 

 word for it that Douglas did encounter Hotspur in 

 single combat before the gates of Newcastle, that he 

 did capture the pennon from his adversary's lance, and 

 that it was to recover that pennon that Percy followed 

 Douglas to Otterbourne, it is clear that this flag is not 

 that pennon. A pennon was a small pointed or forked 

 affair, like that on the weapon of a modern lancer, 

 whereas the Cavers flag remains twelve feet long in its 

 present shortened state. No knight in his senses would 

 have gone into single or any other combat with four 

 yards of silk hanging upon his lance ! Another tradi- 

 tion makes the flag to be Percy's banner captured at 

 Otterbourne; but this also is impossible, first, because 

 it is not a knight's banner, but a standard ; second, 

 because it bears, besides a lion, the cross of St. Andrew 

 next the hoist, and, on the fly, the Douglas heart and 

 stars and the Douglas motto Jamais arreyre. 



Again, a third story, which was accepted, I believe, 

 till lately as the true version by the family of Cavers, 

 identifies the flag as the Douglas standard carried at 

 Otterbourne by Archibald Douglas, founder of the 

 line of Cavers. There are at least two objections fatal 

 to this tradition. First, the lion was no part of the 

 bearings of the Otterbourne Earl of Douglas, and the 



