"In January there are three, viz. 16. 18. 26. In February there are four, viz. 10. 19. 27. 28. In March there are two, viz. 14. 18. In April there are three, viz. 13. 22. 27. In May there are five, viz. 3. 5. 7. 11. 19. In June there are four, viz. 10. 17. 20. 27. In July there are six, viz. 1. 13. 19. 21. 27. 30. In August there are three, viz. 3. 7. 9. In September there are five, viz. 4. 8. 11. 15. 19. In October there are three, viz. 1. 8. 13. In November there are four, viz. 3. 9. 11. 15. In December there are three, viz. 9. 13. 17." EDWARD PEACOCK. Bottesford, Messingham, Kirton-in-Lindsey. * * * * * ON THE MODERN PRACTICE OF ASSUMING ARMS. "If any person be advanced into an office or dignity of publique administration, be it eyther ecclesiasticall, martiall, or ciuill: so that the same office comprehendeth in it _dignitatem vel dignitatis titulum_, either dignitie or (at the least) a title of dignitye: the Heralde must not refuse to devise to such a publique person, upon his instant request and willingnes to beare the same without reproche, a coate of armes: and thenceforth to matriculate him, with his {51} intermarriages, and issues descending, in the register of the Gentle and Noble." Thus wrote Sir John Ferne in _The Blazon of Gentrie_, printed in the year 1586. So also Coates, in his additions to Gwillim, writing in 1724, says: "For though arms, in their first acceptation, were (as is shewed) taken up at any gentleman's pleasure, yet hath that liberty for many ages been deny'd, and they, by regal authority, made the rewards and ensigns of merit, &c., the gracious favours of princes; no one being, by the law of gentility in England, allowed the bearing thereof, but those that either have them by descent, or grant, or purchase from the body or badge of any prisoner they in open and lawful war had taken." He proceeds to adduce various authorities on this subject, for which I would refer to the Introduction to the last edition of Gwillim's _Heraldry_, p. 16. &c. Porny defines _assumptive arms_ to be-- "Such as are taken up by the caprice or fancy of _upstarts_, who, being advanced to a degree of fortune, assume them without having deserved them by any glorious action. This, indeed (he adds), is _great abuse of heraldry_; but yet so common, and so much tolerated, almost everywhere, that little or no notice is taken of it." This was written in 1765. Archdeacon Nares, in his very amusing _Heraldic Anomalies_, printed in 1823, says: