HERALDRY AS A HOBBY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 520, 10 June 1949, Page 18

HERALDRY AS A HOBBY

INTELLIGIBLE HERALDRY. By Sir D. Lynch-Robinson, and A. ~Lynch-Robinson. Macdonald, London. English price, 18/-. ‘] HIS lavishly illustrated "and amusingly written compendium suggests the possibility of a hobby of a most alluring kind. Many elderly peopleand some others-take pleasure in coping with difficult crossword puzzles, and that, certainly needs both knowledge and ingenuity. Heraldry is not less exacting; it can provide problems at least as difficult, and incidentally as full of historical interest. It is ever so much cheaper than collecting stamps or coins; it can be pursued ad infinitum without exhausting its possibilities, like chess, with no need for an opponent. Of course one can try one’s hand at carpet slippers. It would not take long to memorise the technical terms and directions in the first few pages of the manual, checking by the illustrations; then borrow or steal an old Burke or Debrett-no matter how ancient.. Among many hundreds of coats there are plenty of simple ones that you could decipher with what you already know, and the descriptions are there to check by. There can be no difficulty in seeing how to proceed on the same lines. Of course, so short a book as this must omit much that can be found elsewhere. There are many very rare charges, the fermail for instance, borne only by Leslie in the United Kingdom, and at most by two families on the Continent in different forms. In time an enthusiast would consult Fox-Davies and Boutell, or that encyclopaedic authority, Rietstap’s Armorial Géneral. But don't suppose that IJntelligible Heraldry is elementary. More than half of it is taken up with all sorts of recondite information connected with heraldry; leading cases-the authors are barristers-dealing with the little-known subject of name change; the technique of jousting; the art of designing and the technique of executing heraldic bookplates; and much of importance to historians. Thus the enormous development in England of marks of cadency throws

light on the differences between English and Continental conceptions of land tenure, inheritance, and nobility. % Let the hobbyhorse once carry the reader into this interesting realm, no lifetime would suffice for the exploration of its byways, and there would be no lack of problems comparable in intricacy with those of chess or, bridge.

G.W.

Z.