is a woman's head, helmeted, the hair
dishevelled, the bosom bare, and the throat-latch
down. The manner in which they obtained this
crest was in this wise: The father of Agnes
Hotot quarrelled with Ringsdale, his neighbour,
about some land, and as they could in no wise
come to terms, it was agreed that they should
fight it out, meeting on a strip of neutral ground,
and settling the claim according to their
muscular development. When the day came,
father Hotot was ill in bed, unable to meet his
adversary. Agnes, unwilling that he should
lose his claim or suffer in honour, armed herself
cap-à-pie, mounted her father's horse, and went
to the place of meeting, where she fought so
valiantly that Ringsdale was soon unhorsed.
As he lay on the ground, she loosened the stay
or throat-latch of her helmet, let down her hair,
and bared her neck, to show him that he had
been conquered by a woman. She married a
Dudley in 1395, and gave this memorial crest
to her family. The Lyons of Strathmore have
a lady, too, as a crest, holding in her hand a royal
thistle; granted to them on the occasion of Sir
John Lyon's marriage with the Lady Jane,
daughter of King Robert the Second.

The Moors gave many a coat-armour and
cognisance to our valiant crusaders. In the
year of our Lord 1098, says Leland, "Corborant,
admiral to Soudan of Perce, was fought
with at Antioche, and discomfited by the
Christians. The night cumming on yn the chace of
this bataile, and waxing dark, the Christianes
being four miles from Antioche, God, willing the
saufté of the Cliristiaues, showed a white star
or molette of five pointes on the Christen host,
which to every mannes sighte did lighte and
arrest upon the standard of Albrey de Vere,
there shyning excessively."Wherefore the De
Tere family bore for their arms in the twelfth
century, "Quarterly gules and or, in the first
quarter a star or mullet of five pointes or."
They used this star also as a badge. "The Erle
of Oxford's men had a starre, with streames
both before and behind, on their lyverys."

If the Martins bear an ape for their crest, so
do the Fitzgeralds, Earls of Kildare (Dukes of
Leinster now); with two apes for supporters:
emblems taken from the strange event which
befel the father of John, the first earl, who was
taken out of his cradle by a baboon kept on
the premises for sport, and dandled on the
housetop. The beast, however, meant love not
mischief, and brought the babe down safe, after
having frightened the household into fits; hence
the family took an ape as their crest, and two
apes for their supporters, with "Crom a boo"—
"I will burn," for their motto. The Vaughans
bear "sable; a chevron between two children's
heads coupé at the shoulders argent; their
perukes or; enwrapped about the necks with as
many snakes proper." This is to tell the world
that once a little Vaughan was born with a
snake wreathed round its neck, which you may
believe or not, according to your pleasure.
Maclellan, Lord Kirkcudbright, bears for crest
a right arm, the hand grasping a dagger with a
human head thereon. This he got from a strange
coincidence of might and right. He was the
dispossessed heir of Bombie—an estate which,
for some reason or other, James the Second had
taken from his father—when a band of Irish
marauders came over and ravaged Galloway;
and to the slayer of their chief James promised
the estate and lands of Bombie. Maclellan
went forth on the venture, slew the bandit, and
so came to his own again. Of less rude, if of
less noble, origin are the three combs of the
Ponsonby arms, marking the descent of the
noble holders from the Conqueror's barber; and
of strangely misunderstood origin and import
is the bloody hand of the baronet and his order.
The red hand was simply the sign of the
province of Ulster; and when James the First
created his new order of baronets, and sent them
out to subdue and colonise the province, he gave
them the red hand of the 0'Neils in token of
their conquest.

The Stuarts of Hartley Mauduit bear a lion
rampant, "debruised " by a ragged staff. The
famous ancestor of the family, Sir Alexander,
encountered a lion in the presence of Charles
the Sixth of France; in the fray his sword
broke short, whereupon he tore off a limb of a
tree, and with this ragged staff alone laid the
beast dead at his feet: an act of strength and
courage so pleasing to the king, that he gave
him this "augmentation." The next story is
not so pleasant, telling, as it does, of disgrace,
not of honour. The Davenports of Cheshire
bear a man's head cut off below his shoulders,
with a halter round his neck; a crest borne
ever since the time when a Davenport was taken
prisoner in one of the York and Lancaster
faction fights, and spared execution on condition
that he and all his line should adopt this crest
in memory and in token. Worse than this is the
"demi-negro proper, manacled with a rope,"
which Sir John Hawkins received from Queen
Elizabeth, in honour of his having so usefully
enslaved and manacled the negro. He would
not have much relished the result of his work if
he had lived to see it as it is at the present day,
and would have rather had a white man's hand
breaking the black man's chains, than the rope
and the manacle, as his cognisance. But times
change, and not only we, but moralities change
with them.

Remnants of old classical stories meet us in
heraldry. The arms of the city of Glasgow
figure a salmon holding a ring in his mouth, a
tree with a bird perched thereon, and a big bell
hanging thereto. This assemblage is to
commemorate the story of a lady who had lost her
ring in the river, but whose jealous husband
would hear of nothing but lovers and
love-tokens; whereupon the lady, with many prayers
and tears, did "mean" herself to St. Kentigern
if but he would show her innocence; and St.
Kentigern sent on to the hook of a certain fisherman
a fine fat salmon, which, when the lady's
cook opened to dress it, disclosed the lost ring,
to the complete restoration of the lady's name,
and the repetition of the old classic story of