13 S 



name was in use and founded upon it. Thus the shield of Mr. Bell is 

 charged with a bell, that of Mr. Lamb with a lamb, of Mr. Caunon 

 with a cannon. Still others were derived from the office or occupation 

 of the individual. As a Mr. Butler may bear three covered cups ; a 

 Forester or Forster would have bugle horns as a badge of his office ; 

 the Fletchers or arrow-makers would preserve the memory of their 

 occupation in the use of pheons or broad arrow heads. It does not 

 appear in any ancient or modern work on the science of heraldry, that 

 in England, at least, a coat of arms was ever obtained by way of pur- 

 chase. The wars were numerous enough, and frequent enough the 

 opportunities for distinguishing oneself on the field of battle or in the 

 thousand critical moments of human life and experience to afford a 

 ground for the bestowment of these family distinctions during the 

 past five hundred years. But the same cannot be said of the continent. 

 It is generally understood that to some extent in the German states and 

 more largely in France and Italy, money has long been able to buy 

 coat armor and in many cases even a title of nobility, irrespective of 

 all other qualifications for that honor. 



It may be remarked that as a rule the simpler the arms the more 

 ancient they are. Crests came into use a considerable time after arms 

 were common, and were never considered an essential part of the 

 family arms. The motto also was a matter of minor importance and 

 could be changed or omitted at will. 



It must always be kept in mind that heraldry in its palmiest days was 

 an exact science. It had its laws and limitations defined with 

 as much precision as Touchstone's codification of the law of "a 

 lie seven times removed." These laws demanded that the strict 

 right of ownership to any given arms should be everywhere respected,, 

 so that no man might use another's arms any more than he could use 

 his clothing or his purse without trespass. They defined the manner 

 of arranging colors and emblems to some extent on general principles 

 — as for instance that color should be put on metal and not on color. 

 They spoke out point blank when they had to define the persons who 

 were to be of the favored number to put themselves under the guard- 

 ianship of a rampant lion or a flying dragon. 



" Gentlemen/' says Guillim, "have their beginning either of blood, 

 as that they are born of worshipful parents; or that they have done 

 something in peace or war whereby they deserve to bear arms, and to 

 be accounted gentlemen. But in these days (1679) he is a gentleman 

 who is commonly so taken. And whosoever studieth the laws of this 

 realm, who studieth in the university, who professeth liberal sciences, 



