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the heraldic fire-place stood, but I am of opinion that it belonged to the
"Parlour," in whose windows the Sybill alliances were displayed,
and where the family coat would most naturally be carved. That the arms in
the spandrils of the fire-place were painted as well as sculptured is
evident from traces of "gules," which are still visible on the
bodies of the tigers.
The Sybill coat is so curious and unusual that it is worthy of
special mention. The full blazon is "Argent, a tiger statant reguardant
coward gules at a mirror on the ground azure, handled or." The crest is
a mirror as in the arms, and it is always shewn with the reflection of the
tiger’s face upon it, the frame being "or" as well as the
handle. The reflection is quite distinct in the carved examples, and in
drawings also. Tigers are rarely borne in English heraldry. Papworth’s Ordinary
mentions only ten families in whose arms they occur, viz., Bold,
Daniels, Dyot, Ewer, Loane or Lone, Love, Lutwyche, Mabb, O’Halie, and
Stack-poole, in addition to Sybill. Guillim gives another instance almost
identical with that of Sybill, as follows: "He beareth Argent, a Tiger
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passant liegardent, gazing in a mirrour or
Looking-glasse, all
Proper. This Coate-armour standeth in the Chancell of the Church of Thame
in Oxfordshire, Impaled on the sinister side with the Coate-armour
properly pertaining to the Family of de Bardis. Neere to this Escocheon is
placed this inscription: Hadrianus de Bardis Prebendarius istius
Ecclesiae." What the peculiar significance of this coat may be I
cannot undertake to determine, though Guillim is quite equal to the
occasion when he proceeds to tell us: "Some report that those who rob
this beast of her yong use a policy to detaine their Damme from following
them, by casting sundry Looking-glasses in the way, whereat shee useth
long to gaze, whether it be to behold her owne beauty, or because when she
seeth her shape in the Glasse shee thinketh shee seeth one of her yonge
ones, and so they escape the swiftnesse of her pursute. And thus are many
deceived of the substance while they are much busied about the shadowes."
An engraving of the arms occurs in Vol. III. of Archaeologia Cantiana.,
facing
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