444 HERA 
The helmet furnifties alfo the Italian genius of Taffo 
with a nioft affefting and truly pifturefque fcene, when 
he reprefents Tancred running to the neighbouring 
brook, and bringing in his helmet the water of baptifm 
to the expiring Clorinda : 
Poco quindi lontan nel fen del monte 
Scaturia mormorando un picciol rio : 
Egli s’accorfe, e I’elmo empid nel fonte 
E torno mefto al grande ufficio e pio ; 
Tremar fenti la man, rnentre la fronte , 
Non conofciuta ancor fciolfe e fcoprio; 
La vide, la conobbe, e refto fenza 
E voce, e moto: ahi, vifta, ahi, conofcenza. 
We can alfo gather, fromold painted glafs and other 
materials through which the cuftoms and drefs of our- 
anceftors have been preferved to us as to their Ihapes 
and modes, that the helmet was wrought with great 
(kill and perfedtion. The art of damajking, which was 
probably brought into Europe from Afia, as the name 
feems to import, was in as great requeft for the helmet 
as for the reft of the armour ; and the refpeft paid to 
this head-drefs of the chieftain or warrior was fuch, that 
it was carried in folemn pomp at his funeral by a herald 
appointed for that office, and hung with his banner over 
his tomb; or, if a knight, over his ftall for the time 
of his life; a cuftom which has long prevailed, and is 
ftill obfeVved ; as may be feen in St. George’s chapel, 
Windfor; and in Henry VII’s chapel, Weftminfter 
Abbey. 
The helmet is adorned with three principal forts of 
decorations; the mantlings,, the wreath, and the crejl. 
The Mantlings were originally long pieces of lea¬ 
ther, pendent from the wreath, which encircled the top 
of the helmet, and flowed behind, “ the fport of the 
wind.” Thofe pieces, expofed to the hackings of the 
fword, curled and twifted themfelves in all forts of 
ways, which gave origin to what is now called mantlings 
or lambrequins, from the French lambcau. The more the 
lambrequins were hacked and cut in the battle, the 
greaterappeared the glory of the champion :—fince every 
flafh was a proof of the peril and danger he had under¬ 
gone in the engagement. 
The mantlings wer« fometimes lined with fur; and 
from that circumftance arofe the cuftom of painting the 
infide ermine, as it is ftill for the king of England, and 
1 for what the French and other foreign armorifts call the 
ducal mantle, manteau ducal. For a long time they were 
painted gules, lined argent, without any regard' to the 
tinctures of the arms ; but the prefent Garter, and the 
other officers compoflng the Heralds’ College, after deep 
refearches and mature deliberations, decided in chapter , 
that the mantlings fliould be, as well as the, wreath, 
illumined with the twojirjl tinttures named in the blazon of 
the Jhield, unlefs for iome peculiar and well-grounded 
reafon it fliould be differently ordained by Garter and 
the provincial kings of arms. Therefore if a coat of 
arms is defcribed in the patent, azure, a fefs or ; the 
mantlings ought to be the outfide azure, the.infide or ; 
if the coat is argent, three chevronels gules ; the mantlings. 
ought to be, the outlide gules, the infide argent. For it 
mull; be obferved that the metals are always in the 
infide of the mantlings. It is not an eafy talk to anfwer 
why it was fo anciently ; but it appears probable, that 
as leather gilt or filvered would not (land fo long in the 
rain as common pigment; the ancient cuftom, (on which 
the modern regulation is founded,) was to place it in 
the. infide, for that reafon. If the coat is blazoned fr- 
mine a fefs■ fable: the mantlings ought to be argent and 
fable, bee a nfe the furs are never expreffed on the wreath 
or lambrequins, 
Thefe rules are invariable, and have been , kindly 
communicated to us from the fource of all clalficality 
,on this fubjett, from feveral refpedable members 
.of the Heralds’ College, to whom we are efpecially in- 
LDRY. 
debted, fince, (moft of the treatifes on this part of the 
practical fcience of heraldry having laid down ppihci- 
-ples and rules extremely erroneous,) they have given 
us the means of promulgating regularity and truth. 
For MantlingSyJee Plate VIII. fig. i, &c. 
Mantlings may be placed on any kind of helmets 
indiferiminately; but we are of opinion that the prefent 
red and white heavy cloaks with which coach-painters 
have for a long time been in the habit of enveloping 
coats of arms, are very unclaffical, and fo incompatible 
with every Scientific rule, that it has been declared, on 
account of the tax affefied on armorial enligns, that they 
had .nothing to do with heraldry. We fhould rather 
recommend the old furcoat, enfigned on the outfide 
with the very arms they encompafs, provided the owner 
of tlie carriage had an objeftion to qlaffical lambrequins’, 
The Wreath, or as the French call it the “ torle,” 
ought to be, without exception to this rule, compofed 
of the firft metal and colour named in the blazon of the 
arms. It is fuppofed to confift of two pieces of ribbons 
of different tinctures, twifted and placed on the helmet, 
the better to fix the ere ft. 
The Crest is the next objefl of our attention. It 
is the moft confpicuous part of the atchievement, and 
claims for that reafon, as well as'for i.ts antiquity, a 
few clear and concife obfervations from our pen. 
In the affeding, epifode quoted above, Homer men¬ 
tions the towering creft on the helmet of HeCtor, whofe 
• high noddmgs terrified the young Aftyanax, and occafi- 
oned his falling ba'ck upon the bofom of his nurfe : 
Tap/?»jcr«s 'p/aAKor rs, loe Aopor tVwiop^airsii'. Iliad vi. 469. 
The babe clung crying to his nurfe’s breaft, 
Scar’d at the dazzling helm, and nodding creft. Pope _ 
By the epithet im-mo^ourvit adorned with horfe-hairs, and by 
the following line in the tenth book of the yEneid, 
/Ere caput fulgens crifaque hirfutus equina; as well as by the 
teftimony of feveral authors, and even by the cuftom 
kept up at this day, we are authorized to affert that 
generally the creft or fummit of the helmet was adorned 
with flowing hairs; and that often they were dyed or 
painted with crimfon. Tiirnus, for inflance, is coh- 
ftantly reprefented in the .ffineid, with a red-coloured 
creft: Rubra cornua crijhz. xii. 89. Tremunt in verticc crijla 
fanguinea. ix. 732. Crijlafque rubentes. ix. 270. This 
creft,or fummit of the helmet, was a kind of ridge ereCted 
there to increafe the height and fierce appearance of the 
combatants; and it was often compofed of feveral 
plates of metal, leffening by degrees, till, behind they 
were even with the furface of the Ihield. The Latin 
word crifia, which means alfo the.comb of a cock, or 
the railed fins of fome fpecies of fifh, defines that ele¬ 
vated part which is feen on the two helmets marked 5 
and 6 , in the Heraldry Plate VIII. and which we have 
inferted here, that we might be the more eaftly under- 
ftood in inveftigating the origin of the creft. This for 
a long time may have been the only ornament of a war¬ 
like chieftain ; but by degrees the Ik fill of the helmet 
admitted of figures engraven or emboffed ; asappears by 
the wolf and child on the head'of Rome, Pi. VIII. fig. 5. 
from a colofial buft in the palace of the Villa Borghefe ; 
and likewife from feveral ancient ftatues of Minerva, 
whofe helmet generally bears an Owl ; as well as from an 
incomparable head of Ajax, taken from a buft.found in 
Adrian’s villa, near Tivoli, which feems to have be¬ 
longed to a ftatue reprefenting him in theadt of defend¬ 
ing tfie body of Patroclus. Here the fight of the centaur 
Neffus with Hercules is moft elegantly exhibited. 
But rhefe reprefentations chafed on the fteel, filver, or 
gold, of the helmet, did not long fatisfy the warrior; 
he added to them a quadruped, a bird, or fome fanciful 
figure, which: made *p art °f the ridge on the top; lee 
fig. 6, in the Heraldry Plate VIII. The head to which 
this helmet belongs, is’fuppofed by antiquarians, to be 
