Page:The Grammar of Heraldry, Cussans, 1866.djvu/16

2 We read also, in Virgil, of Aventinus bearing a hydra, which was the device of his father, and of Astur, who bore a silver swan addorsed.

The Roman eagle was probably the first heraldic device seen in Britain, although it is possible that the aborigines may have used distinctive emblems, as is the custom of the American Indians even at the present day.

On the withdrawal of the Roman army, and when the Saxons held rule over our country, each separate kingdom forming the Heptarchy was distinguished by some device. Of these, the White Horse of Kent, which Hengist and Horsa bore on their shields, is a familiar example. Egbert (A.D. 827) is represented to have borne for arms a cross patonce, to which his great-grandson Edward added four martlets, and Edward the Confessor a fifth. It is but right, however, to mention, that these arms ascribed to the Confessor wore not sculptured on his monument in Westminster Abbey until the reign of Edward II.

In the Bayeux tapestry, the shields of the Saxons