242 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
HERALD KY : ITS HISTORY AND USE. 
ABSTRACT OF LECTURE BY MR. ARTHUR J. JEWERS, F.S.A. 
(Read 18th January, 1883.) 
After referring to the general ignorance prevailing on the subject 
of Heraldry, and stating that he should not be able to do more 
than give a brief outline of its origin and growth, and a general 
idea of its leading laws, the lecturer spoke of the signs or sym- 
bols used from remote periods of antiquity by nations and clans, 
and traced their use from classic times down to the Norman Con- 
quest, at which time the Bayeaux tapestry shows clearly the devices 
used on shields and pennons, but also shows that then heraldry 
had not been reduced to a science. The absurdity of the claims to 
antiquity in heraldic matters was pointed out and illustrated, and 
the imaginative inventions of early writers exposed. Heraldry was 
defined as the science that treats of armorial ensigns depicted on 
shields, banners, &c, crests, mottoes, the marshalling of divers coats 
on one shield, the law of inheritance in coat armour, and other 
matters therewith appertaining. 
It was not until long after regular and hereditary heraldic devices 
came into general use that crests began to be used. At first they 
were assumed by the great barons as an additional cognizance, being 
worn, as the name implies, on the top of the helmet, and this 
addition soon became general. There was a much greater laxity 
in their adoption than was tolerated in regard to coat armour, yet 
many families continued without this addition to their arms down 
to the middle of the sixteenth century, and later, when we find 
many grants of crests by the official heralds to persons already en- 
titled to arms. A few families still continue unentitled to a crest, 
but there are so few it has become rather a distinction. A local 
example of this is the family of Rashleigh, of Menabilly, near 
Fowey, of which Sir J. Colman Rashleigh, Bart., represents one 
branch. Their arms are Sa. a cross or, between, in the first quarter, 
