The Curiosities of Heraldry

CHAPTER I.

Fabulous History of Heraldry.

"You had a maister that hath fetched the beginning of Gentry from Adam, and of Knighthood from Olybion."

_Ferne's Blazon of Gentrie._

"Gardons nous de mêler le douteux an certain, et le chimérique avec le vrai."

_Voltaire, Essai sur les Moeurs._

Antiquity has, in a greater or less degree,...