_Devices on Standards of the Anglo-Saxons._--Can any of your readers
inform me what devices were borne on the standards of the several
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms during the so-called Heptarchy? The _white horse_
is by many supposed to have been the standard of Wessex, and to have
been borne by Alfred; but was not this really the ensign of the Jutish
kingdom of Kent, the county of Kent to this day displaying the white
horse in its armorial bearings? The standard of Wessex is by others said
to have been the _white dragon_; but Thierry supposes that this, like
the contrasted _red dragon_ of Cymbri, was merely a poetical
designation, and seems to infer that the flags of these two contending
people were without any device. Again, it has been thought that a _lion_
was the ensign of Northumbria; in which case we may, perhaps, conclude
that the lions which now grace the shield of the city of York have
descended from Anglo-Saxon times. The memory of the Danish standard of
the _Raven_, described by Asser and other Anglo-Saxon chroniclers, still
remains; but whether, when Northumbria and East Anglia fell under Danish
power, this device supplanted previous Anglo-Saxon devices, is a curious
question for antiquarian research. The famous Norwegian standard--the
Landeyda, or ravager of the world--under which Harold Hardrada triumphed
at Fulford, near York, but to fall a few days later at Stanford Bridge,
is well known; but who can inform us as to the device which it bore?
These early traces of heraldic usage appear to deserve more notice than
I believe they have received.