_Mottos on Warming-Pans and Garters._--It seems to have been much the
custom, about two centuries ago, to engrave more or less elaborately the
brass lids of warming-pans with different devices, such as armorial
bearings, &c., in the centre, and with an inscription or a motto
surrounding the device. A friend of the writer has in his possession three
such lids of warming-pans, one of which has engraven on the centre a hart
passant, and above his back a shield, bearing the arms of Devereux, the
whole surrounded by this inscription:--
"THE . EARLE . OF . ESSEX . HIS . ARMES."
Another bears the arms of the commonwealth, (as seen on the coins of the
Protectorate,) encircled with an inscription, thus:--
"ENGLANDS . STATS . ARMES."
The third bears a talbot passant, with the date above its back, 1646, and
the motto round:--
"IN . GOD . IS . ALL . MY . TRUST."
It appears to me that the first two, at least, belonged to _inns_, known by
the respective signs indicated by the mottos, &c.; the first probably in
honour of the Lord-General of the Parliament's army, who was the last
Devereux bearing the title.
That last described affords a curious illustration of a passage cited in
Ellis's _Brand_ (ed. 1849, vol. i. p. 245.), from _The Welsh Levite tossed
in a Blanket_, 1691.
"Our _garters_, bellows, and _warming-pans_ wore godly mottos," &c.
In further illustration, I may mention that the owner of the warming-pans
has in his possession likewise a beautifully manufactured long silk
_garter_, of perhaps about the same date, in which are woven the following
words:--
"LOVE . NOT . THE . WORLD . IN . WHICH . THOU . MUST . NOT . STAY.
BUT . LOVE . THE . TREASURE . THAT . ABIDES . ALWAY."