Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/8

 NOTES AND QUERIES.

[12 S. V. JAN., 1919.

Dieting my contention that then every member of our Overseas Dominions would be represented in the royal arms as being the direct descendant, heraldical y sneaking, of an English, Scottish, Irish, o? Wefsh man, and as such entitled to share in our royal arms and fly the

a several letters from Welsh

correspondents, one of whom, a Scottish F.S.Ar, writes to me as follows :

'"The attempt to oust the leek as a national emblem in favour of a doubtful daffodil, the nlacin^of a daffodil in the watermark on the new treasury notes, and the idea of quartering the Colonies and India on the arms while the Welsh dragon does not appear, is repulsive to the national pride, and would be resented."

I had suggested in ' N. & Q.' that the red dragon might be adopted as the national emblem of Wales, though one cannot shut one's eves to the fact that it is only the national badge, and not the arms of the country This renewed discussion, however, as to What is the most fitting emblem to represent Wales in the event of any such suggested change in the royal arms being carried into effect, has led me to reconsider the question how Jar the red dragon would bo really appropriate for that purpose. The result of this reconsideration is shown in a further letter to The Mornmg Post of Aug. 28 last, an extract from which I would ask permission to refer to here. After stating Boutell's opinion (' Hera ^ry, His- torical and Popular,' 1864, p. ,524) that the arms of Wales might presumably be held to be represented in the arms o land, I wrote :

" Wales seems long ago to have been divided into North and South, Boutell is again very instructive on this point. He states (p.! 325) that the arms of the Principality of Wales and 4, Gules, a lion passant guardant

Henry VII., bore eparately for the Principality Argent, three lions coward m pale, gules. He adds a note that this last coat is said to have been assigned specifically to North Wales, while ?he arms of South Wales were the above-men- tioned quartered lions rampant. These several bearings are all shown in plate Ix.

" The late Bev. Dr. Woodward, a later but ecraally reliable authority, at p. 237 of vol. i. of his ' Heraldrv, British and Foreign (1896), also gives the before-mentioned quartered lions Dassant guardant as the -arms borne by Llewyllyn JSHSffHfc, Prince of North Wales, but states that -they were still used as the arms of the Principality of Wales.

" According to these authorities, ancient arms for Wales both North and South certainly did exist. Bat which of these three distinct coats should be selected to represent Wales if it presently be decided that she should be repre- sented in any new royal arms ? It will be a curious coincidence if the question should turn out to be the substitution of Welsh lions for English ones ! But from which coat ? Surely, not that of North Wales, as given by Mr. Boutell. The tail of the British lion may often have been twisted in days gone by, but I scarcely think that we can allow that of its Welsh confrere to remain permanently between its legs (i.e., 'coward ')."

And I went on to say that, in face of this evidence of the existence of ancient arms of the -Principality, I could no longer suggest that the red dragon should be promoted from the dignity of a u badge," or a " sup- porter," to an equal share in the royal arms.

I also mentioned that there would seem to be another reason why the red dragon would not, perhaps, be suitable as a com- ponent part of the royal arms. Since the general disuse of the numerous personal badges used by our sovereigns which dates from the time of Queen Anne the royal badges have been more clearly denned, and now consist, as settled under the Sign Manual in 1801, of the rose, the thistle, and the shamrock, for England, Scotland, and Ireland respectively, whilst " a dragon, wings addorsed gules, passant on a mount vert," represents Wales.

My Welsh correspondent has since sent me, a propos of his remarks about the leek, a copy of a very interesting pamphlet upon the question as to which is the proper rational emblem for Wales the leek or the daffodil contributed by Mr. A. E. Hughes to vol. xxvi. of the Cymmrodorion Society's publications (1916), which society had pub- lished some ten years before a paper by Mr. Ivor B. John advocating the claim of the daffodil to that honour.

Mr. Hughes traces the connexion of the leek with Wales from the time of the battle of Crecy (1346), when that flower which abounded on the battle-field was worn by the Welsh in their head-pieces. This pre- supposes, of course, a greater antiquity. ' But," says Mr. Hughes (p. 39), " the Crecy tradition has indeed shown a ten- dency to cling to Court circles until comparatively recent times, but cannot, apparently, boast of such an array of support as the St. David legend."

He also refers to the connexion of the leek with St. David's Day (March 1), and cites evidence that in the time of the Tudor sovereign Henry VIII. the yeomen of the