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INTRODUCTION. 
an arrow in the other; emblematical as we 
may suppose of their powers to assist death. 
Emblems in general are ingenious pictures, 
representing one thing to the eye and ano¬ 
ther to the understanding. The rebus, or re¬ 
presentations of names by familiar images 
was invented in Picardy, and imported to us 
by the English residing at Calais. This sym¬ 
bolical mode of describing proper names was 
in great use with the monks of those days, 
who sometimes made the analogy so remote 
as to require interpretation. When any 
name ended in “ ton,” the tun or vessel was 
usually substituted, of which numerous in¬ 
stances are found in stained glass. Thomas 
Compton, abbot of Cirencester in 1480, in a 
window of stained glass which he contributed 
to our lady’s chapel at St. Peter’s in Glou¬ 
cester, has his rebus (a comb and a tun) very 
frequently repeated. John Naileheart, abbot 
of St. Augustines, near Bristol, in 1510, bore 
