By some this form of shield is said to have descended to us from the Amazons, who bore such: others say, from the form of their tombstones! Now we find it to represent the ancient spindle so much used by ladies; and again to be a shield found by the Romans unfit for use, and therefore transferred to the weaker sex, who were "allowed to place their ensigns upon it, with one corner always uppermost." {84} Here are quotations from a few of our writers on the science of Heraldry:-- BURKE, _Encyclop. Herald._ 1844. Queen Victoria bears her arms on a full and complete shield; "for," says the old rhyme-- "Our sagest men of lore define The kingly state as masculine, Paiseant, martial bold and strong, The stay of right, the scourge of wrong; Hence those that England's sceptre wield, Must buckle on broad sword and shield, And o'er the land, and o'er the sea, Maintain her sway triumphantly." This, unfortunately, is only one side of the question: and, though satisfactorily accounting for the shape of the shield of royalty, does not enlighten us on the "origin and meaning" of the lozenge. BARRINGTON, _Display of Heraldry_, 1844:-- "An unmarried daughter bears her father's arms on a lozenge-shaped shield, without any addition or alteration." BERRY, _Encycl. Herald._ 1830:-- "The arms of maidens and widows should be borne in shields of this shape." ROBSON, _British Herald_, 1830:-- "Lozenge, a four-cornered figure, differing from the fusil, being shorter and broader. Plutarch says that in Megara [read Megura], an ancient town of Greece, _the tombstones under which the bodies of Amazons lay_ were of that form: some conjecture this to be the cause why ladies have their arms on lozenges." PORNY, _Elements of Heraldry_, 1795, supposes-- "The lozenge may have been originally a _fusil_, or _fusee_, as the French call it: it is a figure longer than the lozenge, and _signifies a spindle_, which is a woman's instrument." This writer also quotes _Sylvester de Petra Sancta_, who would have this shield to "_represent a cushion_, whereon women used to sit and spin, or do other housewifery." BRYDSON, _Summary View of Heraldry_, 1795:-- "The shields on which armorial bearings are represented are of various forms, as round, oval, or somewhat resembling a heart; which last is the most common form. Excepting sovereigns, women unmarried, or widows, bear their arms on a lozenge shield, which is of a square form, so placed as to have one of its angles upwards, _and is supposed to resemble a distoff_."