heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

THE
HERALDRY OF
YORK MINSTER.
INTRODUCTION,
rigin, progress, anto Significance of
HAVE no doubt that to many the subject of Heraldry may
appear utterly contemptible; something altogether beneath
the notice of students of any kind, and fit
only to be relegated
to coach-painters, theatrical managers, and undertakers mere
effete mediaeval rubbish, absolutely alien to the lofty intellectualism
and transcendental motives of the nineteenth century.
And nineteenth century Heraldry is, I admit, all this, i.e., the
Heraldry which is simply the indulgence of that ignorant, vulgar
ostentation which is only too prevalent, but which is simply a perversion,
a parody, a burlesque of that with which I have to do.
The conventional "gentleman," in search of his coat-of-arms, enters
one of those many shops in London where " Armorial bearings are found "
and "furnished" at a very small and reasonable charge. He states his
name; the Dictionary of Arms is
produced and consulted, the name and
arms found, copied, and supplied and the ; purchaser having paid the fee
satisfied that because his name is the same as the name
goes away quite
in the book, the arms there stated to belong to that name are his arms,
i.e., that he has a right to bear them. Well, I suppose in this free country
he has the right to do so, if he likes ;
only if that be Heraldry, I should
not have troubled you, my gentle reader, with any remarks thereon, or
given anything more than a very passing glance to the subject. And if
people regarded it simply as a purchase, there would also be an end of it,
and they would use it like any other ornament they may buy. But they
don't; they invest it with an entirely fictitious value, and say, on the
strength of their purchase, " O yes, I am related to So-and-so, because I
bear the same arms." Like the lady in one of DuMaurier's charming
cartoons in Punch, who, when asked to explain the relationship to another
lady, of which she had boasted, naively replied, " We have the same
monogram." And the absurdity of this is increased when it is remembered
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