48 THE GENTLE ART OF BLAZON 



Perhaps we vary the scheme by investing in what 

 used to be, but no longer are, the Royal Standards of 

 the individual realms composing the United Kingdom 

 — ignoring the fact that the arms of England, Scotland, 

 and Ireland have no heraldic existence except as 

 quartered with each other, any more than the crosses of 

 St. Andrew, St. Georg^, and St. Patrick have any signifi- 

 cance except as components of the national flag. The 

 solecism is harmless ; but, strictly speaking, the Union 

 flag, and that alone, is all that every British subject is 

 entitled to fly in his own right, unless he has arms and 

 chooses to hoist his own banner or pennon. Now for 

 a few guineas anybody can have his arms done upon 

 bunting twelve feet by four ; but whereas many people 

 feel restrained by characteristic British dislike of 

 swagger from hoisting their rightful banners, let these 

 but reflect how greatly they would contribute to the 

 interest and variety, not only of festive occasions, but 

 of everyday travel through the country, were they to 

 display when at home their proper banners, often of 

 ancient historic association, from the flagstaffs of their 

 mansions. 



Oh but, one will say, the world is too serious and 

 busy to fret itself about obsolete frivolities. The age 

 has gone by when common gravity would tolerate a 

 lady's garter being taken as the emblem of the premier 

 order of knighthood. (By the by, if one may speak 

 from hearsay, it appears that the garter is no longer an 

 article of feminine attire, any more than the nightcap ; 

 and that if the most noble of British brotherhoods had 

 chanced to be founded in the twentieth century instead 



