34 Proceedings of the Royal Physwal Society. 



been unable hitherto to glean anything positive ; but it is 

 worthy of remark that so many families in the north of 

 England bear it upon their escutcheons, while, as will be seen 

 further on, it is so rarely met with across the Border. 



That its use spread rapidly after its first introduction is 

 highly probable. It was in all likelihood first adopted by 

 some one influential family, and its first use was probably as 

 Supporters. The custom of introducing supporters took 

 place somewhere' about the middle of the fourteenth cen- 

 tury,* i.e., long after the date of the stained glass window at 

 Bowness. 



Though many — and,indeed,most — recent writers on heraldry 

 " pooh-pooh " the great antiquity of heraldry, and refuse to 

 go further back than actual proofs take them, I venture to 

 think that there is much well worthy of attention in Mr W. 

 S. Ellis' " Plea for the Antiquity of Heraldry,"-|- which renders 

 the ancient origin of the use of animals in many cases ob- 

 vious, and by circumstantial evidence, traces their descent 

 and use to modern heraldry — as well as in his later and more 

 matured work on the same subject. J 



The Earl of Kilmarnock (surname of Boyd) carried two 

 squirrels as supporters § (Nesbit's " Heraldry," i., 53). Squir- 

 rels occur on the seal of Eobert Boyd, Lord of Kilpont, in 

 1575 (Laing's " Scottish Seals," No. 128). This appears to 

 be unique in Scottish heraldry, and, as the Boyds did not 

 intermarry with other families across the border, the first 



* Mr Seton, advocate, Edinburgh, informs me, in confirmation of this, 

 that, as far as he is aware, "the earliest Scotch example of regular supporters 

 (two lions) is furnished by the seal of David Lindsay, Lord of Crawford (1345) ; 

 but towards the end of the thirteenth century there are a few instances of what 

 may be termed Single Su2)porters, as on the seal of Alexander Stewart, Earl 

 of Menteith, where the escutcheon is placed on the breast of a displayed 

 eagle ;" but he adds, "the middle of the fourteenth century may be regarded 

 as an approximation to the period when they {i.e., supporters) began to be 

 used." 



+ " A Plea for the Antiquity of Heraldry," by William Smith Ellis, Esq., 

 of the Middle Temple, 1853. Specially, in this connection, I would recom- 

 mend a perusal of his concluding remarks at page 20. 



J "Antiquities of Heraldry." 



§ Shield, couche a fess cheque. Crest on a helmet, with mantling issuing 

 from a coronet, a dexter hand with the two last fingers turned down ; Sup- 

 porters, two squirrels {op. cit, p. 28). 



