[331] In general the arms assigned to a county are those of one of its
chief, or most antient, boroughs. Thus the arms of Sussex are identical
with those of East Grinstead, once the county town; (although within the
last 10 years, for some unexplained reason, the _fictitious_ bearings
ascribed to the South-Saxon kings have been employed as the official arms
of the county.) But the arms of Cornwall are those of its antient feu,
attached to the territory, and not to any particular family.
[332] Morgan's Armilogia, p. 158.
[333] Armories, p. 39.
[334] Sandford's Geneal. Hist. gives Richard, king of the Romans, two
natural sons, viz. Richard de Cornwall, ancestor of the knightly family
commonly called Barons of Burford, and Walter de Cornwall, to whom he gave
lands in Branel. Walter de Cornwall mentioned in the text was probably
descended from the latter.
[335] Nisbet, 37.
[336] It is now in the possession of Mr. Wm. Davey of Lewes. The engraving
(from a drawing by Mr. Wm. Figg,) is of the actual size of the object.
[337] The charges on the shields are conjectured to be, 1, The
lion-rampant of Poictou; 2, The double-headed eagle of the King of the
Romans; and 3, The lion of Poictou, surrounded by the bezantée bordure of
Cornwall, (vide p. 310.) The workmanship is so extremely rude that the
bezants are scarcely perceptible.
[338] A similar example of ancient measures thus guaranteed by Heraldry
exists in the market-place of Aisme, a small town in Piedmont, where a
large marble block is adapted by four excavations of different sizes for
corn measures from half a bushel to two bushels. On the front of this are
two heater shields, apparently of the thirteenth century, with the arms of
Savoy and Val Tarentaise. (Vide p. 32, vol. xviii, N. S. Gent. Mag.)
Transcriber's Notes:
Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
Passages in Gothic font are indicated by =Gothic=.
Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}.
The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these
letters have been replaced with transliterations.
The original text contains letters with diacritical marks that are not
represented in this text version.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Curiosities of Heraldry, by Mark Antony Lower
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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