Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Catalogue of a Collection of Objects of British Heraldic Art to the End of the Tudor Period
N a year that sees the round world at war, when the peace of Savile Row must be maintained by a navy at sea and by armies in the field, the Burlington Club has gathered together a few rare things which tell of ancient wars. For in war was the beginning of all our heraldry. It belongs now to peace. War-paint is the dingiest hue of the palette. The fighting ships go out of port without any of the old braveries of figure-head and stern-gallery on which carver and painter had done gay work. The scarlet of the king's coat has shrunk to a collar - patch: the banners stand no more with the English battle: the men who fight in the burrowing warfare of trench and sap are clad in the livery of the mud about them. For the last armorial badges we must look closely to those poor 'devices which the button-maker's cramped art has stamped out according to the sealed patterns of the War Office. Very poor and meanly devised are those little regimental badges. Yet something of the potency of the old charm remains with them: pride goes with the swan that was Bohun's swan: a Staffordshire man will do honour to the knot on his cap and collar, the knot that was Stafford's long before the soldier had his first musket. Heraldry belongs to peace. Nevertheless it has the memory of war. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
