heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

INTRODUCTION. 35
" the horns of giants and magicians. Spenser says (Fame Queene, 61, Iviii.)
:
'
Was never wight that heard the shrilling sound
But trembling fear did feel in every veine.' "
At Borstall, in the ancient Bernwood Forest in Bucks, there is
(or was) a famous horn, which Edward the Confessor, who had a royal
one Nigel, a huntsman, who presented the head of
palace at Brill, gave to
a wild boar (" by which the forest was much infested") to the King, and
who was rewarded " with one hyde of arable land and the custody of the
"forest." This horn was in the possession of Sir John Aubrey, with
"wreaths of leather to hang on the neck, and several plates
of brass with
"flower de luces, which were the arms of Lisures, who intruded into the
"state and office during the reign of William the Conqueror. From
" this pretended title one of that family had it certified that, being forester
"of fee to the King, he was by his office obliged to attend him in his
" army, well fitted with horse and arms, his horn hanging about his neck."
Archceologia, vol. iii. p. 17.
At Ripon the horn is
to this day carried before
the mayor, three blasts
of which were sounded
nightly before the mayor's
door at 9 o'clock, and one
afterwards at the Market
Cross. The horn itself
is decorated with silver
badges and with the
insignia
ot trading companies
belonging
town.
to the
In the Museum at York are two very curious horns : one of metal,
until 1839 always
worn, and I believe
blown, by the sheriffs
officer, and a horn of
ivory, which was evidently
used only as
a badge.
Collins, in his Peerage, says of Henry Percy, third Earl of Northumberland
"In 38th Henry VI. he was constituted justice of all forests beyond
" Trent." Longstaffe, in his book, The Old Heraldry of the Percys, mentions
" a bugle-horn, unstrung end to the dexter, mounted with coronal ornaments,"