Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/484

 386 PROCEEDINGS AT MEETINGS OP quartering it with the family coat of the succeeding earls ; as was occasionally the practice in France and Scotland. " It is remarkable that one of the earliest examples, if not the first, of two coats being borne quarterly by a subject in this country, seems to have occurred in this family of Montacute. Their ancestor, Sir Symon de Montacute, had sealed the Barons' letter in 1301 with his seal and counter- seal ; on the former were the fusils, and on the latter a griffin segreant ; and at Carlaverock he bore only a griffin or on a blue banner and shield ; but the Roll of Bannerets temp. Edward II. attributes to him a quarterly coat thus : ' quartile de argent e de azure ; en les quarters de azure les griffons de or ; en les quarters de argent les daunces de goules.' By On the seals of the above-mentioned earls of this family, given by Mr. J. G. Nichols in his recent paper on the Earldom, the griffins appear only as crests, and as beasts flanking the shield of arms on the counterseal of the father. These earls, or one of them, may nevertheless have thought fit on some occasions to quarter Longspee as the supposed arms of the earldom. apparently a palimpsest, was never really used as originally intended ; whether because the quartering was found to be without right, or for some other cause, must be matter of conjecture. Had the colour been inserted in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, seeing the nature of the charges, some unquestionable trace of it would, I think, have remained under the pitch that was adhering to it : in addition to which it was found as a palimpsest affixed to a slab in Heyford church, Northamptonshire, that bore the following inscription : — %^xC :PauntEir gi'Ut tcp Cll^abcti^* £ia fcmme auii flmen. ffie lo' almcsi tiicu fit m'co. Unfortunately there is no date ; but since it is in French it is not likely to have been engraved much, if any, later than 1400. Now had this escutcheon been first affixed to a monument of one of the distinguished family of Montacute in the latter part of the XlVth century, seeing they continued for some years afterwards (except for a very short time) with little diminution of importance or influence, it is highly improbable that it should have been so soon removed from that tomb to be re-engraved and attached to another of a totally distinct family. " I have confined these remarks to the first two earls of the family of Montacute, because on the death of the second earl without issue he was succeeded by his nephew, who, being the eldest son of the heiress of Monthermer, bore the fusils of Montacute and the eagle of Monthermer quarterly. He attached himself to the fallen fortunes of Richard II., and was executed in 1400 : but his honours were restored to his son in or before 1409, and during the interval there were powerful relatives, who were not likely to suffer the family monuments to be violated with impunity." Mr. Edward Hoaue, of Cork, sent a notice of the singular bronze relic, here represented (of the same size as the original) dug up, July, 1852, at the depth of 4 feet, at the side of a large rock, on the lands of Ballybeg, about a mile from Buttevant, co. Cork. Three bronze celts had been
 * les daunces ' were meant, no doubt, what are elsewhere termed fusils.
 * ' However, there is great reason to think that this escutcheon, which is