Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/419

 9* s. x. NOV. 22, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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arms for the newly built bridge across the river Ness, to shew ' our Saviour on the cross supportec by a dromedary on the dexter and an elephant on the sinister' ; that in the following year, 1686, this instruction was altered to 'a dromedary for the arms, supported by two elephants ' ; but that the correction was intimated too late, and that the stone carved by Smith, as at first instructed, has formec the model for recent representations of the arms.

" That, nevertheless, the second seal of the saic burgh, used in the eighteenth century, shews a camel as the bearing on the shield (Laing's ' Scot- tish Seals/ vol. ii. No. 1225).

" That your petitioners, being the provost, magis- trates, and town council of the royal burgh oi Inverness, are desirous to have ensigns armorial with supporters in an appropriate form, matricu- lated in your lordship's public register as the arms of the said burgh, with such precedence as your lordship may deem proper.

" May it therefore please your lordship," &c.

In accordance with his usual custom, Lyon submitted for consideration by the petitioners a very spirited emblazonment showing the ancient, and in Scottish heraldry unique, bearing of a dromedary with two elephants as supporters. But the burgh fathers would have none of this, and demanded the perpetuation of James Smith's blunder ; and hence it comes that the matriculation of arms, dated 9 February, 1900, assigns the somewhat trite bearings '' Gules, our Lord upon the cross proper," with a dromedary and an elephant as dexter and sinister supporters, both proper. The animals should, of course, be represented rampant ; but on the stone carved oy Smith they are statant, and "support" the shield with their heads.

Some years ago I tried to find an explana- tion of the appearance of these Oriental animals, whether as bearings or supporters, in connexion with the arms of Inverness ; but I then failed to discover anything defi- nite regarding them, save that the traditional account of their origin will not bear inves- tigation. The late Mr. Charles Fraser- Mackintosh, LL.D., in his ' Invernessiana ' (1875), p. 8, says :

" It is recorded by Leslseus, Bishop of Ross, that ' Richard, King of England, furnished an expedition to the Holy Land, and demanded from William [the Lion] a subsidy of ten thousand pounds towards the expedition.' Part of this was contributed by Inver- ness, and in honourable consequence the king granted arms, whereof the supporters are an elephant and a camel, to denote their connection with the East, with our Saviour on the cross in the centre."

As to the grant by William the Lion (1165- 1214), "I must have been told the story," wrote Mr. Fraser-Mackintosh when I asked for his authority, " by some of the burgh

fathers In any case, it is a pious belief

which I should regret were it overthrown,"

Unfortunately, however, this pious belief makes too violent a demand on our credulity, for it is well known that the use of supporters cannot be traced further back than the begin- ning of the fourteenth century. In connexion with the royal arms of Scotland they appear (as two lions, the unicorns being introduced at a later period) for the first time, I believe, on a seal of Margaret, queen of David II., A.D. 1372 (Laing's 'Scottish Seals,' vol. ii. No. 8). Indeed, anything of the nature of a shield requiring supporters is foreign to the earliest stages of municipal devices.

Elephants and eamels are not altogether unknown as supporters. The Lords Oliphant had two elephants proper (an instance of canting heraldry) ; their descendants, Dundas of Arniston and Dundas of Beech wood, retain an elephant as sinister supporter. Among more recent grants we find a single elephant occurring as one of the supporters of the Earl of Powis (dexjer, argent), the Earl of Caledon (sinister, argent), Lord Hampton (dexter, or), and Pollok of Pollok (dexter, proper). Two camels proper are shown in Workman's MS. as the supporters of Edmon- stone of that ilk, afterwards of Ednam ; and the late Sir Kufus Shaw Donkin had a camel as sinister supporter. In several of these examples (notably with the Earl of Powis, the descendant of Olive) it is evident that the intention has been to symbolize an Oriental connexion.

It is thus conceivable that, though the Crusade theory must be abandoned, the In- verness supporters may testify to an " exten- sive trade once carried on between the port of Inverness, and the East" (Laing, vol. ii. p. 217). P. J. ANDERSON.

University Library, Aberdeen.

I suppose that Vert, a crucifix argent, were bhe arms which originally figured in the heraldic device engraven on the seal of this town. The supporters, helm, and crest are

splendid illustration of the absurdities which some public bodies have lately been willing to pay official heralds to "grant." The borough of Cowbridge a few years ago discarded their artistic old seal and paid a arge sum to the Heralds' College for confer- Deck "coat," with helm and crest all complete. Cardiff was delicately admonished by a well- cnown partisan of the College that she ought to go and do likewise ; but I am happy to say she still keeps to the De Clare arms, which she has used for centuries. It does not suit the official heralds to remember that a coat of arms, being a personal distinction, is not x>rne by a corporation. A body corporate
 * ing upon them authority to bear a pinch-