THE ANCESTOR 209 Here in a few terse and highly enigmatic lines we have the beginnings of our heraldry set before the Student, and that by Mr. Foster speaking not of his own authority alone but, as the footnote assures us, with the grave authority of 'Jane MacNeal's ' article on ' Heraldry, its Laws and its Humours,' in Munseys Magazine, Mr. Foster's next paragraph deserves quotation at length. Although there is evidence that heraldic bearings were assuming a definite form in the reign of Stephen (1135-54) not a little remarkable that Richard I. is the first English king who is known to have adopted an heraldic bearing. On his great seal (1189) he bore the two lyons for the Duchies of Normandy and of Poictou or Maine. In his second great seal (1198) he added a third lyon for the Duchy of Aquitaine, or, as some say, for Anjou ; this has since been our national arms of dominion ; according to Sir Henry Spelman {AspilogLa, p. 67), the earlier kings of England had marks or tokens painted on their shields, which they altered at pleasure. In this connection it would be interesting to know on what authority, if any, Brooke, York Herald described the Dering Roll as * the names of those Knightes as weare w^ Kinge Richard the firste at the assigge of Aeon or Acresi' 1 191. Now Brooke, York Herald, is dead long syne, and in the appointed place for tabarded penitents he has doubtless purged his error concerning the Acre Roll, so unkindly brought neck and heels into Mr. Foster's interesting disquisition on royal heraldry. But Brooke, York Herald, was a wrangler in grain, and in his own day set many of his adversaries in awkward corners. Could his enlightened shade return we may imagine him countering the story of the Dering Roll by asking Mr. Fos- ter why, in days when information on such matters is poured even from such humble vessels as the litde manuals of popular heraldry, he should be content to hand down a story long since nailed to the counter and already doubted by some of Brooke's contemporaries. Mr. Foster, in effect, proclaims his belief in the legend that the ancient Dukes of Normandy bore one
- lyon ' and ^ the Dukes of Poictou or Maine ' another ' lyon,'
which with one more 'lyon ' for 'Aquitaine or Anjou ' makes three, and our royal arms are accounted for in a fashion which satisfied our ancestors before archaeology began amongst us. But one is inclined to doubt whether Mr. Foster has ever seen the seals which he explains so glibly, for if he has he should surely know that upon the first seal of Richard I. appears a single lion rampant crowded into the visible half of his shield by the primitive convention by which the lion of Flanders is thus represented upon some of the seals of the counts.
