The Flags of the World: Their History, Blazonry, and Associations — John Shaqi
The Flags of the World: Their History, Blazonry, and AssociationsHulme, F. Edward (Frederick Edward)
History
The Flags of the World: Their History, Blazonry, and Associations
Hulme, F. Edward (Frederick Edward)
Flags
The statement of the cost of the funeral of Oliver Cromwell is interesting,
as we see therein the divers kinds of flags that graced the ceremony. The
total cost of the affair was over £28,000, and the unhappy undertaker, a
Mr. Rolt, was paid very little, if any, of his bill. The items include "six
gret banners wrought on rich taffaty in oil, and gilt with fine gold," at
£6 each. Five large standards, similarly wrought, at a cost of £10 each;
six dozen {20} pennons, a yard long, at a sovereign each; forty trumpet
banners, at forty shillings apiece; thirty dozen of pennoncelles, a foot
long, at twenty shillings a dozen; and twenty dozen ditto at twelve
shillings the dozen. Poor Rolt!
In "the accompte and reckonyng" for the Lord Mayor's Show of 1617 we find
"payde to Jacob Challoner, painter, for a greate square banner, the
Prince's Armes, the somme of seven pounds." We also find, "More to him for
the new payntyng and guyldyng of ten trumpet banners, for payntyng and
guyldyng of two long pennons of the Lord Maior's armes on callicoe," and
many other items that we need not set down, the total cost of the flag
department being £67 15s. 10d., while for the Lord Mayor's Show of the year
1685 we find that the charge for this item was the handsome sum of £140.
The Pennant, or pendant, is a long narrow flag with pointed end, and
derives its name from the Latin word signifying to hang. Examples of it may
be seen in Figs. 20, 21, 23, 24, 36, 38, 100, 101, 102, and 103, and some
of the flags employed in ship-signalling are also of pennant form. It was
in Tudor times called the streamer. Though such a flag may at times be
found pressed into the service of city pageantry, it is more especially
adapted for use at sea, since the lofty mast, the open space far removed
from telegraph-wires, chimney-pots, and such-like hindrances to its free
course, and the crisp sea-breeze to boldly extend it to its full length,
are all essential to its due display. When we once begin to extend in
length, it is evident that almost anything is possible: the pendant of a
modern man-of-war is some twenty yards long, while its breadth is barely
six inches, and it is evident that such a flag as that would scarcely get a
fair chance in the general "survival of the fittest" in Cheapside. It is
charged at the head with the Cross of St. George. Figs. 26, 27, 74 are
Tudor examples of such pendants, while Fig. 140 is a portion at least of
the pendant flown by colonial vessels on war service, while under the same
necessarily abbreviated conditions may be seen in Fig. 151 the pendant of
the United States Navy, in 157 that of Chili, and in 173 that of Brazil.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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