It must be evident that each artist gave a certain character and style of his own to his work; at the same time the various fashions noted above are found strongly prevailing at the dates given. They were what was approved by the public taste, and any variations only extend to more or less skilful working out. It will be noticed that public taste has several times alternated between sparse and voluminous mantlings. There are indications at the present time which seem to point to a return, within a few years, of the massive convolutions seen during the last quarter of the seventeenth century. * * * * * In ledger stones and monuments from 1650 the characteristics given above are followed until about 1780, when other kinds of decoration--palm branches, festoons, and scrolls--very largely superseded mantlings. IMPORTANT NOTE ON TINCTURE-LINES IN SEALS. My readers would notice at page 52 and again at page 79 that I could not accept the statements that seals so early as 1648-9 could possibly show tincture-lines. I therefore gave my authorities, and showed pretty evidently that I could not, in the face of other _facts_, accept them. Since the writing of those pages, Mr. W. H. St. John Hope has very kindly examined for me the original document preserved among the muniments at the House of Lords, and reports that in _none_ of the seals attached to the death-warrant of Charles I. are the tinctures indicated by lines. It is not for me to explain how so accurate an observer as the late Mr. Planché made such a mistake. I think it is probable that the late Mr. Bouttell followed him and enlarged somewhat. The fact, however, is now definitively settled. I had observed that in those earlier printed books which have copper plates, the invention of Father Silvester de Petra Sancta had been very cautiously and undecidedly adopted. In Spelman's _Aspilogia_ [included in that small folio published by Edward Bysse in 1654, and to which I have frequently referred as containing also the works of Nicholas Upton and John de Bado Aureo] most of the shields have tincture lines; but in some of the copper plates, signs of various planets are given instead of those letters for tinctures which are usually seen in "tricks." NOTE TO PAGE 36. I have no doubt that the curious projecting point to which the attention of the reader has been drawn, was meant as a protection against the "Coup de jarret," that terrible feat of arms which aimed at severing the muscles behind the knee, a spot necessarily covered by leather only, and therefore peculiarly vulnerable. [Illustration] [Illustration] INDEX. SHIELDS FIGURED ON PLATE I, PAGE 11. No. Pages.