Randle Holme, book i, p. 6, would have us believe this was "the veritable shape of the Christal shield given by the goddess Minerva to Perseus, to enable him to slay the Gorgon Medusa, and which was after dedicated to Pallas," and this conceit may account for a monster's head introduced in the Great Seal of Charles I., 1640. Grotesque shields, somewhat of this shape, are given to Ancient Britons, as in Speed's _Theatre of Great Britain_, 1676, and in MS. pedigrees of early seventeenth century, for the arms of Welsh princes and early potentates. Randle Holme (_Academy of Armoury_) gives one of these as from the monument of Mahomet, Emperor of Turkey, and another from the monument of Tamerlane, Emperor of Tartaria. * * * * * Nos. 40 and 41 actually do occur frequently in Roman bronzes and monuments, and are reproduced in engravings in Bolton's _Elements of Armories_, 1610, p. 147, &c. Bolton explains that it (41) occurs on the Column to Antoninus at Rome, but later discoveries have shown that this column was really erected to Marcus Aurelius Antoninus in 174 A.D. [Illustration] Nos. 42 and 43 cardioid shields (see the remarks upon 33, 34 and 35).--I think these arose from the decorative scroll-work placed around egg-shaped shields, and especially in late Jacobean and Chippendale times, when they may be found in monuments and book-plates. The earliest mural tablet I have noticed is dated 1699, at Winchester Cathedral. This is engraved _Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica_ for December, 1884, p. 185. The engravings in _Divi Britannici_, noticed under the variations of 35, nearly approach these. * * * * * Instances of pure heart-shaped shields occur in the brass to Willem Wenemaer, slain 1325. This is in the vestibule to the hospital which he founded at Ghent (_Archæological Journal_, vol. vii, p. 287); [Illustration] Also in a monument at St. Margaret's, Hertford, 1691-2, shown in the annexed illustration. This is from _Miscell. Geneal. et Heraldica_, January, 1887, p. 197; and the shape may also be found at later dates. My readers will also refer to that very interesting seal of Richard Basset, about 1145, described at p. 13, and No. 44: it is heart-shaped, greatly lengthened out. A very curious heart-shaped shield, with the point turned round and scrolled, appears in the wooden effigy to one of the family of Oglander in Brading Church, Isle of Wight. This is supposed to be of sixteenth century. It is engraved in the Anastatic Drawing Society's vol. for 1883. A curious instance of the recrudescence of early forms occurs when Sylvanus Morgan, vol. i, p. 27, places the arms of one Gill in a triangular shield, such as we noticed in the thirteenth century, and figured No. 1 in the sheet.