312 MOTTOES 



Sir Charles Forster, who received a baronetcy in 1874 

 and with it the punning motto, ' Sit fors ter felix ' — 

 May his lot be thrice happy ; but what can be said for 

 the silly platitude of ' Ver non semper viret ' — Spring- 

 tide does not last for ever — ^for the Vernons? How 

 much more inspiring a bold command, such as ' Gang 

 forward!' of the Stirlings, or 'Gang warily' of the 

 more canny Drummonds, who emphasised their ad- 

 vice by setting their shield of arms in a compart- 

 ment strewn with calthrops. ' Boutez en avant ! ' of 

 the Irish Barrys has a fine Donnybrook ring in it. 



It must surely be due to the affected pedantry of 

 eighteenth-century heralds, pursuivants, and clerks 

 that so many of our more recent armorial families 

 are afflicted with mottoes of preposterous inanity. Not 

 that the Earl Marshal himself doth set a very inspiring 

 precedent with his ' Sola virtus invicta,' whether one 

 construes 'virtus' as 'valour' or 'virtue.' But that 

 seems almost fiery alongside of such a Pecksniffian 

 composition as has been inflicted upon Lord de 

 Ramsey. ' Patientia et perseverantia cum magnanimi- 

 tate.' Why omit any of the cardinal virtues from 

 such a proclamation of ruling motives ? Compare that 

 with the manly Huguenot legend borne by Baron de 

 Villiers, Chief Justice of South Africa, 'La main k 

 I'oeuTre ! ' or with the Duke of Hamilton's emphatic 

 ' Through ! ' The science of heraldry, once as exact as 

 it was exacting, ought not to be responsible for label- 

 ling honourable families with copy-book commonplace 

 such as ' Immersabilis est vera virtus ' — True valour is 

 irrepressible (Codrington, Bart.), or 'Sola bona quae 



