(Vol. viii., p. 621.)
The placing of the royal arms in four separate shields in the form of a
cross first occurred upon the medals struck upon the nativity of King
Charles II., anno 1630; and adopted upon the reverse of the coins for the
first time in 1662, upon the issue of what was then termed the improved
milled coin, where the arms are so placed, having the star of the Garter in
the centre; the crowns intersecting the legend, and two crowns interlaced
in each quarter. The shields, as here marshalled, are each surmounted by a
crown; having in the top and bottom shield France and England quarterly,
Ireland on the dexter side (which is the second place), and on the sinister
Scotland.[2] But on the milled money which followed, France and England
being borne separately, that of France, which had been constantly borne in
the first quarter singly until James I., and afterwards in the first place
quarterly with England, is placed in the bottom shield or fourth quarter.
Mr. Leake, in his _Historical Account of English Money_[3], after remarking
that this irregular bearing first appeared upon the nativity medals of
Charles II. in 1630, where the shields are placed in this manner, adds,
that this was no doubt originally owing to the ignorance of the graver, who
knew no other way to place the arms circularly than following each other,
like the titles, unless (as I have heard, says he) that the arms of each
kingdom might fall under the respective title in the legend; and this witty
conceit has ever since prevailed upon the coin, except in some of King
William and Queen Mary's money, where the arms are rightly marshalled in
one shield. That this was owing to the ignorance of the workman, and not
with any design to alter the disposition of the arms, is evident from the
arms upon the great seal, where France is borne quarterly with England, in
the first and fourth quarters, as it was likewise used upon all other
occasions, until the alteration occasioned by the union with Scotland in
1707.
In reference to the arrangement consequent upon the union with Scotland, he
observes that, how proper soever the impaling the arms of the two kingdoms
was in other respects, it appeared with great impropriety upon the money.
The four escocheons in cross had hitherto been marshalled in their circular
order from the _left_, whereby the dexter escocheon was the fourth;
according to which order the united arms, being quartered first and fourth,
would have fallen together; therefore they were placed at the top and
bottom, {60} which indeed was right: but then France by the same rule was
then in the third place, and Ireland in the second; unless to reconcile it
we make a rule contrary to all rule, to take sinister first and dexter
second.
In the coinage of King George I., the representation of the armorial
bearings in four separate shields, as upon the milled money of King Charles
II., was continued. In the uppermost escocheon, England impaling Scotland;
the dexter the arms of his Majesty's electoral dominions; sinister France;
and in the bottom one Ireland, all crowned with the imperial crown of Great
Britain. The marshalling of the four escocheon's in this manner might and
ought to have been objected to by the heralds (has it been brought under
their cognizance?), because it appears by many instances, as well as upon
coins and medals of the emperors and several princes of the entire, that
arms marshalled in this circular form are blazoned, not in the circular
order, but from the dexter and sinister alternately; and thus the emperor
at that time bore eleven escocheons round the imperial eagle. In like
manner, upon the money of Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick, we see the crest
with a circle of eleven escocheons in the same order. The same order is
observed in marshalling the escocheons of the seven provinces of Holland
and there is a coin of the Emperor Ferdinand, another of Gulick, and a
third of Erick, Bishop of Osnaburgh, with four escocheons in cross, and
four sceptres exactly resembling the English coins. That it was not altered
therefore at that time, the mistake being so evident, can be attributed
only to the length of time the error had prevailed; so hard is it to
correct an error in the first instance whereby the arms of his Majesty's
German dominions, which occupy the fourth quarter in the royal arms, do in
fact upon the money occupy the second place; a mistake however so apparent,
as well by the bearing upon other occasions as by the areas of Ireland,
which before occupied the same escocheon, that nothing was meant thereby to
the dishonour of the other arms; but that being now established, it is the
English method of so marshalling arms in cross or circle, or rather that
they have no certain method.
Until the union with Scotland, the dexter was the fourth escocheon; from
that time the bottom one was fourth; now the dexter was again the fourth.
Such is the force of precedent in perpetuating error, that the practice has
prevailed even to the present time and it may be inferred, that fancy and
effect are studied by the engraver before propriety. No valid reason can be
advanced for placing the arms in _separate_ shields after their declared
union under one imperial crown.