Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/166

138 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [August, as a means of defence on horseback only, made small and light, of bull's hide; sometimes single, sometimes double and tripled. Such was Hector's shield and those of most of the Homeric heroes of the Greek and Trojan wars. In those days, also, were darts or javelins, and lances ; the same were also used by the ancient Britons ; and such exactly are now in use amongst the Arabs and the North American Indians." To this we add, that, according to Catlin's figure, and the specimens we have seen in museums, these round shields of the Western Indians are fringed on about half the circular border with depending feathers, or with scalp- locks, varying gradually from short on the two sides to long in the middle of the fringes, so that, at a little distance, the lower extreme outline of such a shield is oval. We will also add, that the shield of the Bedouin Arab is small, fiat, and circular. Apart from body armor of various kinds, which it both preceded and suc- ceeded, the favorite and most prevalent personal defence of the middle ages was the heater shield, so called from its very close resemblance to the heater of the domestic flat-iron. An equally ex- act resemblance to its external lines is found in the arch-head of a gothic lancet window when turned upside down. This form, with its variations, to be exhibited hereafter, is very agreeable to the eye, though not fully adapted to all the figures of the art of blazon- ing. As the shield of heraldry rep- resents the tilt- ing-shield, and is alwaj's supposed to be placed upon the wearer's breast, depend- ing from his neck, thus leaving both hands free, the left to manage the horse, and the right the lance, it follows, that the ordinary right and left hand are here reversed, the heraldic right being the common left, the armorial left being the usual right. In the course of time, fash- ion, if not improvement, made inroads upon the established order of things : and, while the general outline of the shield became square, a cut was taken out, either near the right or left upper corner, wherein was inserted the grip of the tilting-spear, the vamplate resting against the surrounding surface of the shield, thus enabling the knight, through the momentum of his charger, either to inflict or to sustain a severer blow. This form, however, though occasionally found in sculpture, and often in heraldic books for the sake of variety, never was gener- ally popular, perhaps because it referred to the wants of an exclusive class ; and the other belonged alike to all, who, not merely technically but literally, bore arms. Amid all the adventitious distinc- tions of society — monarch or subject, baron or vassal, gentleman or vulgarian — the most exalted, the most gratifying- praise of another that any one can offer is emphatically to exclaim, " He is a man !" So, it is a noticeable fact, throughout all history, that neither supreme ruler nor head general ever had more desirable or more agreeable praise, than the emphatic exclamation,' " He is a soldier !" From the same influence the service-shield of the soldier is the heraldic-shield of nobles and of kings. The pattern of escutcheon exclusive^ appointed for all women — save queens regnant, who, from their masculine of- fice and responsibility, are provided with the manly shield — and whose out- line, even when most ornamental, is very closely confined to its lines and angles, is the lozenge, or, in the nomencla- ture of the nurs- ery, the sitting- room and the bou- doir, the diamond. There are very few symbols, as well as very few