The monogram, either stencilled or stamped, consisted of a combination of the letters of the person’s name, a fanciful character, or the figure of a cross,[I-18] accompanied with a peculiar kind of flourish, called by French writers on diplomatics _parafe_ or _ruche_. This mode of signing appears to have been common in most nations of Europe during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries; and it was practised by nobles and the higher orders of the clergy, as well as by kings. It continued to be used by the kings of France to the time of Philip III. and by the Spanish monarchs to a much later period. It also appears to have been adopted by some of the Saxon kings of England; and the authors of the “Nouveau Traité de Diplomatique” say that they had seen similar marks produced by a stamp of William the Conqueror, when Duke of Normandy. We have had a recent instance of the use of the _stampilla_, as it is called by diplomatists, in affixing the royal signature. During the illness of George IV. in 1830, a silver stamp, containing a fac-simile of the king’s sign-manual, was executed by Wyon, which was stamped on documents requiring the royal signature, by commissioners, in his Majesty’s presence. A similar stamp was used during the last illness of Henry VIII. for the purpose of affixing the royal signature. The king’s warrant empowering commissioners to use the stamp may be seen in Rymer’s Fœdera, vol. xv. p. 101, anno 1546. It is believed that the warrant which sent the poet Surrey to the scaffold was signed with this stamp, and not with Henry’s own hand. [Footnote I-18: “Triplex cruces exarandi modus: 1. penna sive calamo; 2. lamina interrasili; 3. stampilla sive typo anaglyptico. Laminæ interrasiles ex auro aliove metallo, vel ex ebore etiam confectæ sunt, atque ita perforatæ, ut hiatus, pro re nata, crucium cet. speciem præ se ferrent, per quos velut sulcos, calamus sive penna ducebatur. Stampillæ vero ita sculptæ sunt, ut figuræ superficiem eminerent, quæ deinde atramento tinctæ sunt, chartæque impressæ.”--Gatterer, Elementa Artis Diplomaticæ, § 264, De Staurologia.]