ABSTRACT
HERALDRY, which is not uncommonly despised as a sham :science, or at best regarded as an ancillary study apart from !l'eal history, has a historical value of its own, if only from :the fact that it was held in high honour for many centuries; .during which it was the chos.en, we may even say the sacred ·symbol of that hierarchy of birth, royal, noble and gentle, 'which distingUIshed the bearer of arms from the trader and ;the churl, and on which all society was based.
