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 THE ANCESTOR 21 I Norman-French ' in which the rolls are written, most of the space is given up to the expression, in somewhat shambling English, of Mr. Foster's contempt for that newer school of antiquaries which is endeavouring to clear the difficulties heaped about the language of blazon. But that the work of such a school is needed is shown by our author having little or nothing to record of the ' quaint Norman-French ' blazon beyond the fact that he ' gives up ' each of the riddles it presents to him. To the vexed question of a reformed blazon Mr. Foster's contribution is found in his spelling of lion with a * y ' and achievement with a second ' t.' A notice follows of the seals of the barons who ' signed [sic] and sealed the famous letter to the Pope (Feb. 12, 1300— i) on his pretensions to the crown of Scotland,' a candidature which has escaped the historians. The seals are described as ' the earliest and most important evidence of the armorials used by the barons of England in the fourteenth century, or perhaps in the thirteenth century,' although as the letter was dated February 12, 1 300-1 the 'perhaps ' shows undue caution. From plaster casts of the seals our author is able to assure us that not only does it seem that many of the seals were engraved by the same hand, but also that they were engraved ' for the very purpose of this sealing,' which goes to show that the engraver was a rapid worker, and that the barons were a patient folk who wrote their letters to the Pope, even those on urgent public affairs, with quiet deliberation. Three only of the barons who are represented on horseback wear crests upon their helms, which persuades Mr. Foster that the wearing of a crest on a helm ' was originally limited to those connected with the blood royal, or of the highest military renown, and was in effect the precursor of a much greater honour, event- uating in the order of the Garter itself — a sentence to take away the breath of less imaginative antiquaries or of those pedants who look for some consecutiveness in an argument. In the margin beside this very sentence is the seal of Walter de Mouncy, who, unnoticed by Mr. Foster, bears a crest on his helm, although probably without Mr. Foster's approval. With a last incoherent jeer at the College of Arms, which by this time may be considered as cowering in its chartered burrow, we approach the body of the book and the dictionary of the rolls of arms. Let it be said that although an index to the ancient rolls of