( 363 )
THE SYBILL ARMS AT LITTLE MOTE,
EYNSFORD.
BY GEORGE C. DRUCE.
IN Vol. XXVI. of Archosologia Cantiana there appeared an
article by Mr. E. H. Ernest Hill, A.R.I.B.A., upon the
ancient house known as Little Mote, at Eynsford, part of
which article was devoted to the arms and pedigree of the
Sybill family. These arms appear carved in the two
spandrils of the stone fireplace in the lower room, and are
illustrated by Mr. Hill. They each represent a tiger gazing
at itself in a mirror, its reflection being distinctly visible.
After a reference to various other families who bore this
device upon their coats of arms, Mr. Hill says : " What the
peculiar significance of this coat may be I cannot undertake
to determine, though Gruillim 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 Lookingglasses
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 swiftness of her pursuite.
And thus are many deceived of the substance while they are
much busied about th e shado wes."' The ob j ect of the present
article is in some measure to fill up the gap in Mr. Hill's.
One of the most interesting phases of the study of
Heraldry is to trace the sources of the large number of
animal and bird subjects that were used as crests. Perhaps
the most fruitful in this respect was that important class of
mediaeval MSS. known as the Bestiaries, or Books of Beasts.
The Bestiarium, or Physiologus, as it was termed in its earlier
form, was a kind of religious Natural History book. Many
of them were illustrated. The text accompanying the illus364
THE SYBILL ARMS
tration gives a description of the animal's nature and habits,
often including a fanciful derivation of its name; then follow
quotations from the Bible, either mentioning or apparently
alluding to the animal; and lastly, the whole was employed
to convey some religious or moral lessons to the reader.
There is very considerable variation in the different MSS.,
both in illustration and text, and the symbolism is in some
cases entirely different according to the different schools.
These books were extremely popular in the Middle Ages, and
were widely read, and they afford a key to many animal
devices, whether appearing in ecclesiastical buildings, in
heraldry, or as inn signs. What motives were present
towards the choice of particular animals or birds for knightly
crests must be a matter of conjecture, because, although such
qualities as courage, gentleness, or constancy may have been
expressed or implied in particular animals in the MSS., we
do not find in effect that crests were confined to these, but
obnoxious, beasts were also freely adopted, although they
appear in some instances to have acquired a different signification
heraldically.
Some of the illustrated Bestiaries contain particulars of
from 100 to 120 beasts, birds, and reptiles, and it would be
safer to conclude that the fact that these MSS. were religious
in character was the more powerful motive, without specifying
too exactly the qualifications of the animals themselves.
The " Tiger and Mirror " subject was among those
adopted in heraldry, and by reference to the MSS. we can
ascertain the story. The appended illustration (I.) is reproduced
from MS. Add. 11,283 (B.M.), an English Latin Bestiary
of the thirteenth century, and shews the full details. On
the left is a tiger biting and pawing a mirror, in the centre
a conventional tree, and on the right a hunter on horseback
riding off with the cub. The illustrations in this MS. are
beautifully coloured; the tiger's spots and stripes are well
delineated, the former being painted in blue and white
circles, the latter in blue and red wavy lines, while the
mirror has a blue centre surrounded by white, red, and green
circles, evidently intended to reflect the colours of the tiger.
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AT LITTLE MOTE, EYNSPORD. 36 5
In MS. Harl. 4751 (B.M.) the details are much the same, but
the hunter is armed with a sword. In MS. 12 F. xiii. (B.M.)
the hunter is in mail and surcoat. In MS. Harl. 3244
(B.M.) the tiger is pawing a green mirror, while the hunter
rides off with the cub on a blue horse, holding another
mirror. In MS. 12 C. xix. (B.M.), a Flemish Bestiary, the
tiger is blue with spots of a darker blue, and the hunter
holds a blue cub. He is in a long green tunic with brown
cloak, on a pale yellowish horse with blue and brown saddlecloths.
In MS. Ashmole 1511 (Bod.) the details correspond
generally with the above. In MS. Slo. 3544 (B.M.) the
tiger appears alone, with red and green spots. These details
are sufficient to establish the connection with the heraldic
device at Little Mote.
For an explanation of the story we turn to the text of
MS. Add. 11,283, of which I give a full translation: "The
tigress is so called on account of its rapid flight; for this is
the word which the Persians, Greeks, and Medes use for
{ arrow.' Now it is a beast adorned with numerous spots
and wonderful for its courage and swiftness.* And from its
name the river Tigris is called, as that is the most rapid of
all rivers. These (beasts) Hircania especially produces. The
tigress, indeed, when it finds its lair empty and its offspring
carried off, at once follows on the track of the robber, who,
though riding on ever so swift a horse, when he sees that he
is being outstripped by the swiftness of the beast and that
no possible means Of evading it are at hand, has recourse to
a cunning artifice, as follows: When he sees it close to him,
he throws down a sphere of glass. The tigress is deceived
by her own reflection, and believes it to be her offspring.
She checks her flight, desiring to recover her cub. Once
more relaxing her useless gaze she bounds forward to catch
the horseman with all her strength, and under the stimulus
of anger rapidly overtakes the fugitive. Again by throwing
* There is an error on the part of the copyist in the Latin text of this MS.,
which I point out because it falls within the part illustrated. " Variis
distincta mirabilis virtute et velocitate miraclis," should read as in Harl. 4571,
" Variis distincta maculis virtute et veloeitate mirabilis."
366 THE SYBILL ARMS
down another sphere he retards her pursuit, and yet the
memory of the fraud does not drown the instinct of the
mother. She paws her own empty reflection, and crouches
down as if to suckle her cub. Thus misled by her zealous
maternal care, she loses both her offspring and her revenge."
I t will be noticed that beyond the sentiment involved in
the last sentence there is no symbolism here, but it must not
be supposed that the subject was not made use of in that
way, because if we turn to one of the French Bestiaries, that
written by Pierre, a " clerc," early in the thirteenth century
at the instance of "l'eveque Philipon Cuers," who was
Bishop of Beauvais 1175 to 1217, we find it fully developed.
This MS. is in the Picardy dialect, and somewhat difficult to
translate.* The illustrations differ considerably from those
in the English Latin MSS. The hunter is on foot, and carries
two cubs, while the tiger, which has wings, is gazing at a
mirror fixed to a tree, another being below (PLATE III.). In
MS. Harl. 273 (B.M.), a Bestiaire d'Amours in Old French,
the hunter is also on foot, and carries a cub and a mirror.
The text commences : " Une beste est qui est apelee
tigre, cest une maniere de sarpent," and there is no mention
of the river Tigris. A translation runs thus: " There is a
beast which is called tiger; it is a kind of serpent. This
beast is of a nature so courageous and fierce that no living
man dares to approach it. When the beast has young and
the hunters have found out the place where they are, they
obtain possession of them by setting to work in the way you
will now see. The hunters take mirrors and carry them with
them when they go to capture the young of the tiger. Then
they watch until they see the tiger go off and leave its den
and its young; they then seize the cubs, and place the
mirrors in the path just when they leave. The character of
the tiger is such that however angry it may be it is unable
to look in the mirror without its gaze becoming fixed. It
believes then that it is its cub that it sees in the mirror;
it recognizes its figure with great satisfaction, and believes
* The text is given in Cahier and Martin's Melanges oVArchaologie, vol. ii.,
p. X40.
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THE TIGER AND THE MIRROR (III).
From an early thirteenth-century Pieardy Bestiary (Paris).
AT LITTLE MOTE, EYNSEOBD. 367
positively to have found its cub. It delights in admiringthe
beauty of its form to such an extent that it forgets to
pursue those who have taken its young, and stops where it is
as still as a captive beast. It is thus that the hunters get
possession of the cubs."
Physiologus says on this subject: " Take care you are
not like the tiger. And Amos the prophet proclaims that
this world is an image of the forest where the tigers abound,
and adjures us to keep watch attentively over our cub, that
is to say, over our soul. For the hunters {i.e., the devil) lie
in wait for us and spy us out. They always have mirrors
ready, if they see a chance to be able to seize our cub. The
mirrors are the elaborate feasts, the great pleasures of the
world that we desire ; fine clothes, horses, beautiful women,
and all the other objects of sin. It is thus that the hunters
produce an image in the mirror that they throw before man.
I t is why every man should consecrate himself to the service
of his Creator, for then no enemy would have any power over
the Soul of man, that is to say, over the cub which he covets."
The symbolism here speaks for itself, and is typical of
what occurs throughout the Bestiary. Sometimes it takes
the form of dogmatic Christian teaching; sometimes it
points the virtues of Christ and his followers, or condemns
his ill-treatment by the Jews and foretells their punishment;
or again is more moral, taking the line that the Devil is
always ready with his wiles and sinners getting into his
clutches will be destroyed. The ingenuity with which the
various characteristics of the animals are turned is marvellous.
The monkey carrying its favourite young one in
front is the Devil carrying off sinners whom he loves to hell;
the peacock's beautiful feathers, on the other hand, denote
the Gentile nations coming to Christ, resplendent with many
virtues through His grace.
The feature about the illustration in the French MS. is
the wings of the tiger. In dealing with this subject le Pere
Cahier says {Melanges d'Archwologie, vol. ii., p. 141) : " Si le
copiste n'a point trahi l'auteur en classant le tigre parmi les
serpents, ce serait le seul serpent non pas & ailes, mais b,
368 THE SYBILL ARMS
quatre pieds, dont nos miniatures offriraient l'exemple.
Cette addition des ailes doit done avoir une autre cause; et
s'expliquerait mieux par 1'expression dont se sert le livre
' de Bestiis' attribue a Hughes de Saint-Victor (p. 438) en
exposant pourquoi cet animal, comme le grand fleuve de la
Perse, a recu un nom qui rappelle le vol d'une fleche. f Tigris
vocata est propter volucrem fugam,' eclairissement philologique
qui aura entraine un ' quiproquo ' zoologique."
This explanation may be sound, but it is a curious
circumstance that whereas the reference to the swiftness of
the river Tigris and the arrow occur in the English Latin
Bestiaries, none of the illustrations in these MSS. that I have
inspected shew the tiger with wings; whereas in the French
MS., where there is no mention of either, the tiger has
wings. It is true the Picardy Bestiary was translated from
the Latin, but from what version it is impossible to say.
I think the artist followed the text, and seeing the tiger
described as "une maniere de sarpent," he gave it wings,
because it was the custom to represent nearly all serpents or
snakes in dragon form, and therefore winged.*
The allusion to the rapidity of the river Tigris came into
the Bestiary from Pliny's Natural History. In Book VI.,
ch. 31, he describes it, and tells us that " when its course
becomes more rapid it assumes the name of Tigris, given to
it on account of its swiftness, that word signifying an arrow
in the Median language." In Lucan's Pharsalia (Book VIII.,
439) there is also an allusion to the swiftness of the Tigris
as opposed to the slow current of the Euphrates. Both
Pliny and Lucan, amongst others, were largely drawn upon
by the writers of the Bestiaries, as their names are frequently
mentioned, and moreover a variety of curious notions appear
that are distinctly traceable to the former. In the case of
the tiger, not only are Ave indebted to Pliny for the allusion
to the river Tigris, but also for the main part of the story.
In Book VIII., ch. 25, he says: "Hyrcania and India produce
the tiger, an animal of tremendous swiftness, a quality
* Spaces were left in the text for the illustrations to be filled in afterwards.
In MS. 12 ]?. xiii. (B.M.) they are only partly completed,
AT LITTLE MOTE, EYNSEORD. 369
which is more especially tested when we deprive it of all its
whelps, which are always very numerous. They are seized
by the hunter, who lies in wait for them, being provided with
the fleetest horse he can possibly obtain, and which he
frequently changes for a fresh one. As soon as the female
finds her lair empty—for the male takes no care whatever of
his offspring—headlong she darts forth, and traces them by
the smell. Her approach is made known by her cries, upon
which the hunter throws down one of the whelps; this she
snatches up with her teeth, and more swiftly even, under
the weight, returns to her lair, then again sets out in
pursuit; and this she continues to do until the hunter has
reached his vessel, while the animal vainly vents her fury
upon the shore."*
There is no indication here for what purpose the cubs
were required, but that there was a demand for tigers in
Pome for show purposes we learn from various sources.
Pliny tells us (Book VIII., ch. 25) that a tame tiger was first
exhibited in the arena by the Emperor Augustus, and that
the Emperor Claudius exhibited four at one time. Martial
also mentions them as being exhibited by Domitian.
I t will be seen that for heraldic purposes only a part of
the subject, the Tiger and the Mirror, was taken. The
Mermaid or Syren affords another instance, the accessories
being dropped. Mr. Hill gives the full blazon of the Sybill
coat as: " Argent, a tiger statant reguardant coward gules
at a mirror on the ground azure, handled or." I append a
drawing of a crest of the fifteenth century, f for which I
am indebted to Mr. Oswald Barron, F.S.A., as it illustrates
the Sybill coat with the exception of the tail " coward," but
I am unfortunately unable to give any particulars of the
family to which it belongs.
The employment in heraldry of these subjects from
the Mediaeval Bestiaries was of less importance than the
influence they had on ecclesiastical architecture. They were
drawn upon extensively for decorative details for doorways,
* Bonn's Trans, t See tail-piece.
YQIt. XXVIII.
370 THE SYBILL ARMS
fonts, bench-ends, misericordes, etc. Some, such as the
mermaid, griffin, or centaur, are plentiful; others, as the
unicorn, asp, or peacock, are scarce. At the present moment
I know of only one example of the Tiger and the Mirror,
upon a misericorde of the fifteenth century at Chester Cathedral,
which, by the kindness of Mr. F. H. Crossley of
Knutsford, I am able to reproduce (II. 1). It agrees very
well with the illustrations in the Latin Bestiaries at the
British Museum, except that the hunter is shewn as a knight
in armour. He carries the cub in his left hand, while he is
in the act of throwing down a mirror with the other. We
have here a good illustration of the composition of the
subject being subordinated to exigencies of space. It would
have been inconvenient for the carver to have made the
hunter upright on account of the ledge, and so he has
adroitly made him bending backwards in the act of dropping
the mirror. The duplication of the tigers, which are more
like dogs, is in the same way due to the need for symmetry.
One of them is pawing the mirror exactly as in the MSS.
I t is to be hoped that more architectural examples will be
forthcoming.
But this does not exhaust the list, for such legendary
subjects were freely used for the ornamentation of such
objects as caskets. An inspection of the ivory caskets in the
Maskell collection at the British Museum shew examples of
the Unicorn legend, the Lai d'Aristote, and Round Table
romances, but I have not noticed the Tiger legend. That it
was used, however, in this way appears from an account of
a small carved wooden casket which was contributed in 1876
by the late Professor Westwood to the Journal of the Royal
Archaeological Institute (vol. xxxiii., p. 400), with illustrations,
one of which the Council of the Society has kindly
allowed me to reproduce. On the bottom appears, among
other subjects, the Tiger and the Mirror. It shews the hunter
on foot carrying the cub, while the tiger gazes at a mirror set
in a tree. Professor Westwood puts the date of this casket
at the end of the thirteenth century. The symbolism of the
casket subjects is usually chivalrous rather than religious,
Photn.1 1.—FROM CHESTER CATHEDRAL. C-P. E. Cramtey.
7>'"1'"-] 2.—FROM LITTLE MOTE, ETXSFORD.
THE TIGER AND THE MIRROR. (II.)
r
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