'The prominent or high-relief portions of this frame were not set close to the edges of the escutcheons, but between it and them; an interval of flat-patterned surface nearly always intervened, in which, as upon a wall, the actual shield was embedded. This we shall call the lining of the armorial frame; and we shall find this lining is usually imbricated with a pattern of fish-scales, one upon another, or diapered into lattice-work. The scale-covered or latticed interval of lining is the characteristic of the style. . . . Another step in the external decoration was to add a bracket, distinct from the frame, upon which the shield, in its frame, was supposed to rest. This bracket naturally initiated the decorative art and surface arrangement of the shield-frame.' As a rule, too, an escallop-shell forms the centre of the bracket in Jacobean book-plates. In some instances it is placed in the centre below, but more usually in the centre above; and then in the centre below we have the head of some mythical and uninviting monster. Either as quasi-supporters on the ledges of the bracket, right and left, or on the side ledges of the shield, if the bracket is amalgamated with the frame, are 'things' selected from the following miscellaneous collection--lions; cherubs, male and female; term-figures; busts of fairies, with butterfly wings; angels, generally engaged in trumpet-blowing, etc. The student should notice this escallop-shell, because we shall see it introduced into the style of decoration that succeeded the Jacobean--there it became a shelly border rather than a distinct shell. On the whole, then, the usual ornamentation of a Jacobean book-plate renders it easily recognisable. The decoration is stiff and conventional, displays more solidity than grace, and altogether seems less appropriate to a book-plate than the heavy rolls of mantling, which, as we have seen, surrounded the shield during the prevalence of the preceding style. As for the title 'Jacobean' which has been bestowed upon it, it should be explained that the reference is rather to the style of decoration in vogue in the days of James II. than to anything in the days of James I. Lord De Tabley has pointed out that, as compared with the woodwork preserved in churches of the latter half of the seventeenth century, and as compared with the mouldings on monuments of the same period, a practical identity of decoration cannot fail to strike the antiquary, and his choice of the name 'Jacobean' for this class of book-plates is thus abundantly justified.