DOBELL of Falmer, co. Sussex, Sable, a _doe_ passant between three _bells_ argent.[156] BULLOCK of London. Bulls' heads. FOSTER of London. Bugle-horns. HAMPSON of Kent. Hemp-breaks. FISHER of Staffordshire. A Kingfisher. CONIE of Huntingdonshire. Coneys. CROWCH.[157] Crosses formée. LANGHORN. Bugle-horns. CANNON of Pembrokeshire. Crest. A cannon. TREHERNE. Three herns. CROSS of Lincolnshire. A cross-crosslet. KNIGHTLEY. A lance.[158] There was a kind of Rebus much in vogue in the fourteenth and following centuries, which, although not regulated by the laws of blazon, possessed somewhat of the heraldric character. Many persons, even those of antient family, who bore regular coats of arms, adopted various figures for the purpose of expressing their names pictorially; for instance, one John Eagleshead gave as his seal an _eagle's head_, surrounded by the motto, "HOC AQUILÆ CAPUT EST, SIGNUMQUE FIGURA JOHANNIS." The Abbot of Ramsay bore, in the same way, _a ram in the sea_, with an appropriate legend. One Harebottle expressed his name by a _hare_ upon a _bottle_; while Islip, abbot of Westminster, represented his by a man slipping out of a tree, and supposed to exclaim, "I slip!" These "painted poesies," as Camden styles them, occur chiefly in painted glass windows, in decorated Gothic architecture, and in the title-pages of early printed books.[159] One of the most singular rebuses I have seen occurs in a window in the chapel at Lullingstone, co. Kent, the seat of Sir P. H. Dyke, Bart. It is that of Sir John Peché. In this instance the arms of the personage are surrounded by a wreath, composed of two branches of a peach tree bearing fruit, every peach being marked with an Old English =e=; Peach-é. It is curious that this device proves the true pronunciation of the name, which was formerly supposed to be Peche. The common rebus, although it did not come into general use until after the introduction of regular heraldry, may boast of a much higher antiquity, for such devices occur as the representatives of names of no less eminence than those of Cicero and Cæsar; not to mention those of celebrated sculptors and mint-masters, who, in the palmiest days of Rome, frequently marked the productions of their genius with a rebus. Taking into consideration the great antiquity of these "name-devices," and their early introduction into the armorial shield, I cannot see any good reason for the strong prejudices which have existed against them in modern times. To me, indeed, they appear not only 'allowable' but 'commendable' armory; for arms, like names, are signs of personality, and therefore those which 'speak to the eye' most intelligibly are preferable to those charges which have in themselves no meaning.[160]