The favour with which it was then received by the Press has rendered this revision a grateful task and my acknowledgments are especially due to the writer of the notice which appeared in the Journal of the Archaeological Institute for March, 1852, for the kind spirit in which he called my attention to the deficiencies, as well as for the very high encomium he bestowed upon the general character of the work. The copyright of this book having passed into other hands, and a fresh issue being determined on, I have gladly seized the opportunity of correcting some inadvertencies and typographical errors, supplying omissions, and adding such information as I have gathered during the six years which have elapsed since its first publication. “WHEN I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live tilt I were married,” exclaims Benedict and most assuredly, when I styled myself a Pursuivant of Arms by my own creation, I had little idea that I should so soon have the honour to become one, “de jure et de facto.” I trust you will feel in the perusal of these pages, that, however naturally desirous to prove the truth of my position, I have not wilfully strained a point to bolster up an opinion and that in any strictures upon those writers who have contributed to the mystification and degradation of Arms, I have only been actuated by a sincere desire to uphold the true dignity of the office of Herald, and vindicate a science which I believe has been undervalued because it has not been understood. You are aware I have a theory, and I believe are not quite as satisfied as I am of the soundness of its foundation but I know that we are equally anxious for the establishment of any facts which may tend to elevate the Science of Armory, and render its study as useful as its devices are acknowledged ornamental. For the latter reason also, I have less hesitation in dedicating to you a necessarily imperfect performance, as your experience will dispose you to excuse, at the same time that it may enable you to correct me. Secondly, as one of that body, most competent to judge of the difficulties which beset the study of Heraldic Antiquities, and the real value of the results of such labour. I have much pleasure in inscribing this little volume to you.Ī personal acquaintance of nearly five and twenty years might, of itself have entitled me to the privilege of thus expressing my respect for an able antiquary, and esteem for a worrying man, but as Garter King of Arms, you have a double claim to this trifling tribute, independently of that of private friendship: Firstly, as the principal officer of a Corporation to which my best thanks are due for the courtesy of all, and the assistance of many of its members. LONDON: ROBERT HARDWICKE, 192, PICADILLY. “My attempt is not of presumption to teach (I myself having most need to be taught), but only to the intent that gentlemen who seek to know all good things and would have an entry into this, may not find here a thing expedient, but rather, a poor help thereto.” – Leigh’s accedence of armorie. WHOSE ARMORIAL BEARINGS ARE ENGRAVED OR DESCRIBED.
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