Familiar Introduction to Heraldry (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Familiar Introduction to Heraldry

A knowledge of Heraldry has been at all times reckoned among the accomplishments of a gentleman, and considered to form at least a graceful, if not a useful adjunct, in every system of liberal education. In the present day, however, when everything which is calculated to throw light upon the customs and habits of thought of our ancestors during the period of the middle ages is sought for with avidity, it has especial claims upon our notice.

If History be indebted for its true exposition to the labours of the antiquary, so is the antiq indebted to the herald for many of the facts which illustrate his narra tive; in marshalling before our view the stirring events of feudal times, the picture which represents the knight would be incomplete without that of the attendant herald, whose duty it was to blazon his arms and give proof of his descent. Nor was the presence of the latter less neces sary in the palace of the sovereign, to arrange the pageantry of princes; or in the battle field of the warrior, to apply the knowledge of his art in the melancholy task of reckon ing the number of the noble dead, and by his sad inventory of their rank, to measure the amount and import of the victory.

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