148 



" Earl// Heraldry in Boy ton Church, Wilts." 



passant gardant Or, with a label of five points Azure, each charged 

 with three jleurs de lis Or. 1 



If it be asked, " How did the above-mentioned mistake creep 

 into a work of such authority and general accuracy as the History 

 of Modern Wilts?" we may reply in the words of Sir R. C. Hoare 

 himself, in the preface to the Hundred of Warminster : " The 

 Topographer, if advanced in age (as I am), cannot depend solely 

 upon his own exertions ; he cannot be hie et uhique, but must employ 

 several agents to complete his undertaking/'' 



If it be further asked, " How is it that this inadvertency is not 

 corrected in Mr. Fane's interesting and valuable papers on Boyton 

 Church/ and the family of Giffard?" 3 it may be replied that, although 

 any one may appreciate the difference of the two coats when pointed 

 out, probably no ordinary observer, unacquainted with early heraldry, 

 and who was not already familiar with the coat of Thomas Plan- 

 tagenet, Earl of Lancaster/ would have thought of challenging the 

 statement of Sir R. C. Hoare. 



If an apology for the oversight on the part of Mr. Fane be 

 needed, it may be given likewise in his own words : " I trust my 

 brother archaeologists will accept this my hastily-compiled memoir. 

 Your Secretary will tell you how unwillingly I undertook a task 

 that others could so much better have performed. I will hope 

 another year there will be no possible crevice of our archaeology to 

 be filled by the overtasked and very humble Vicar of a large parish." 5 



It would be out of place here to enter upon any discussion as to 

 the merits or demerits of the said Earl, who was a conspicuous 

 figure in the history of England during a very troublous and critical 



1 Compare Sandford's Genealogical History, pp. 102, 3, 7. The number of the 

 points of the label are varied from five to three, according to space. 



2 Wilts Mag., vol. i., p.p. 237, 8. Mr. Fane not only adopts, unhesitatingly, 

 the confusion of the two coats, but boldly transfers the tinctures and Jleurs de 

 lis from the window to his description of the sculptured coat of the effigy. 



3 Ibid, vol. ii., pp. 100-8. 

 4 The same coat is preserved, in painted glass of about A.D. 1300, at Dorchester, 

 Oxon. See engraving, fig. 6, and description, p. 46, Dorchester Abbey Church ; 

 Oxford, Parker, 1860. 



5 Wilts Mag., vol. ii., p. 108. 



