modification of tone still remains available. It is sometimes held that arms that were granted at the time when red and white mantlings were usual, and were mentioned in the blazon of the Grant, should now and henceforth be so accompanied, and this would seem to be a case when choice of method would be legitimate. The description in the blazon, usually so binding, is here of little force, for it was in such cases a mere routine phrase which conveyed no distinction of one case from another, and the change of official custom may be taken to have superseded the former rule. Certainly it is not permissible nowadays to colour the mantling without reference to the arms or without warrant from properly transmitted custom. CHAPTER VII Armorial Accessories The armorial shield, and, in a rather less degree, the crest, are in an especial sense essential parts of an heraldic achievement, and have always been considered fully representative of their bearers. Therefore they may be used together, or singly, without the supporters or other accessories to which their owner may be entitled. On the other hand, supporters, though they may be employed without the arms to support badges or monograms, have, in that case, little more than the force of fanciful devices. [Illustration: FIG. 158.--Seal of John de Segrave (_c._ 1300).] [Illustration: FIG. 159.--Seal of Anne Countess of Devon.] [Illustration: FIG. 160.--Seal of Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmoreland.] Supporters were in their origin badges which had acquired permanence by custom in the same way that the arms of the shield had acquired it at an earlier time. Thus, in addition to the regular armorials which so profusely adorned the Seals, certain badges were freely used which from association acquired in many cases a permanence by frequent recurrence equal to that of the arms with which they were associated. In this way lions appear in many of the Great Seals, notably in those of Edward III and in the beautiful seal of Henry IV. Such emblems were placed decoratively in any spaces that were suitable, and in the simpler seals the intervals between the circumscription and the more or less triangular shield within it invited their display, as in Fig. 158, the seal of John de Segrave (c. 1300), which has a garb on either side of the shield. In Fig. 159, the seal of Anne Countess of Devon, lions occupy similar spaces, but with their backs to the shields. The seal of Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, Fig. 160, shows greyhounds, which, though of subordinate proportion, have assumed the regular pose of supporters; while in the splendid seal of Edmond Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, Fig. 161, the finely designed supporting figures have complete heraldic force. Another fine example is that of William Lord Hastings, Fig. 162. The connexion between ancient Badges and the Supporters in present use is easily traced, and, as one instance of many, it will suffice to mention the white lion Badge of Mowbray, which