By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A. 



153 



was brought into special connexion with Boyton and the Giffards. 



It is quite time that a correction of the long standing mistake 

 respecting these two historical coats should be supplied, for I 

 observe that, in BoutelPs Heraldry, Historical and Popular, it is 

 stated that Sir Alexander Giffard, of Boyton, bears, gu., three lions 

 pass, in pale arg., a label of five points az., charged on each point 

 with two fiears de lis or. An engraving is given of this supposed 

 coat. 1 These fieurs de Us never existed on the sculptured coat, except 

 in the imagination of those who, from want of due heraldic and 

 antiquarian caution, transferred to it the tinctures and details of the 

 painted coat. A smaller mistake has been current respecting the 

 animal at the feet of the knight. This has been otiosely described 

 as an animal which may be either a wild cat or a lion. 2 It is cer- 

 tainly not a lion, or a cat, or a dog, either heraldic, conventional or 

 zoological, but anyone who will observe it attentively, particularly 

 the head, the flat-shaped beaver-like tail, and the wide-spreading 

 aquatic paws, must allow that it is a very realistic representation of 

 an otter. The river Wily flows through the village of Boyton, not 

 far from the Church, and its fisheries are important, even at this 

 day. In former days they were, doubtless, still more considerable. 

 Where fresh- water fish abound there is likely to be found the 

 poaching otter. The heraldic representation of the otter on the 

 monument may have been assumed by the Giffards from the fisheries 

 on their estate, but it also seems probable that the otter, in place of 

 the usual lion or dog, may have been specially represented at the 

 feet of Sir Alexander GifTard, in remembrance of his gallant swim- 

 ming through the river at Massoura, like an otter, not to escape 

 from the enemy, but to make his way to England, to execute the 

 dying commands of his liege lord, William Longespee. 



1 Compare Boutell's Heraldry, p. 225, and No. 503 A., plate lxxx, facing p. 149, 

 3rd ed. ; London, Bentley, 1864. 



2 Wilts Mag., No. iii., Nov. 1854, vol. i., p. 237. In a subsequent paper on 

 the Giffards of Boyton, the Rev. Arthur Fane describes the same*auhnal as " an 

 heraldic beast which has given rise to a strange locaHradition." Ibid, vol. ii., 

 p. 106. 



