PREFACE.
The great objections to which almost every work devoted to the science of Heraldry is open are either unnecessary amplification, or too much conciseness. In the former case, much that is superfluous is introduced (such as the conjectured attributes of the various tinctures and charges), serving rather to confuse than to elucidate, at the same time materially enhancing the price of the volume; while in the latter case many important details are necessarily omitted. In the present treatise I have endeavoured to avoid both extremes, with what success I leave the reader to judge.
Again, it has been the usual custom, hitherto, either to engrave the illustrations on metal or draw them on stone, and to print them on sheets containing a dozen or more, and frequently to bind them together at the end of the book, thus rendering constant reference tedious and irksome. In this volume the diagrams, each duly shaded so as to represent their proper heraldic colours, will be
