[262] Noble, p. 105. In these heraldric displays the arms of the sovereign generally found a conspicuous place. "The royal arms placed over doors or upon buildings was an antient mode of denoting that they were under the protection of the sovereign. When some troops of a tyrant were ravaging the estates of the Chartreuse de Montrieu, the monks had recourse to the antient remedy. They put up the arms of the king over the gate of the house; but the depredators laughed at it, saying that it might have been efficacious in times past (que cela étoit bon autrefois) and persecuted them with more severity." (Mem. de Petrarque, quoted by Fosbroke.) [263] Hist. Coll. Arms, 102. [264] Ib. 102. [265] Ib. 107. [266] Mr. Woodham, in his tract (No. 4 of the publications of the Cambridge Antiq. Soc.) says, "The styles of blazonry admit of classification like those of Gothic Architecture. The bare deviceless ordinaries agree with the sturdy pier and flat buttress of the _Norman_ age; the progress of ornament uniting still with chasteness of design may be called _Early English_; the fourteenth century exhibits the perfection of both sciences, as displayed in the highest degree of _Decoration_ consistent with purity; and the mannerism of Henry VIII's time, with its crowded field and accumulated charges, is as essentially _Florid_ and flamboyant as any panelling or tracery in the kingdom." (p. 11.) [267] See Chapter XII. [268] A 'Society for the Suppression of Duelling,' lately established, enrols among its members many of the greatest and best men of our times. All success to it! [269] That the College at this period comprised several officers of unimpeachable integrity cannot be doubted, while it is equally certain (at least, according to popular opinion) that others were less scrupulous. "An herald," says Butler: "An herald Can make a gentleman scarce a year old To be descended of a race Of antient kings in a small space." And, "For a piece of coin, Twist any name into the line." The satire may have been deserved at the time--it was a corrupt age; but I am not sure that the reputation of the College has not suffered, even to our days, from this biting sarcasm, which is as far from the truth, as applied to the learned and respectable body now composing it, as Hudibras is from poetry. [270] Rushworth. [271] In the churchwardens' accounts of Great Marlow are the following entries: "1650, Sept. 29. For defacing of the King's Arms £0 ,, 1 ,, 0. "1651. Paid to the painter for setting up the State's Arms £0 ,, 16 ,, 0." Three years earlier there is an entry of 5s. 'payd the ringers when the king came thorowe the towne!' [272] Dallaway.