Report and Transactions Volume 47 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1915 Excerpt: ... being the supposed devices of the Phoenicians; for though modern criticism has routed the Phoenicians from Cornwall (see Rev. S. Baring-Gould's Cornwall, p. 80, in "Cambridge Series of County Geography"), the belief in their patronage of the metals of that region would seem to be of long standing. Dartmouth, "the only Port in Devon whence tin could be exported," says Mr. Amery, has in its first corporate Seal a King seated in a boat, with dots on the background that may be intended for stars, and a crescent near the dexter side of his head, commemorating--it is suggested--King John's visit and grant of a Mayoralty to Dartmouth in 1214 (D. A. Trans, xii. 574). The next seal has also a king, resembling Edward III, in a boat, with a crescent on one side of his head, and a star on the other. The Seal of Pevensey has a ship with a crescent on the dexter, and star on the sinister side of the mast (Traill, Social England, 367). The Kings Richard I, John, and Henry III are all said to have used a star (? of Bethlehem), resting between the horns of a crescent, as their badge (Heraldic Badges, FoxDavies, 52); and we are told that this was assumed by Richard I in token of his victories over the Turks (Mrs. Palliser's Historic Devices, etc., p. 357), but the explanation does not cover the fact that the Seal of King Stephen (who by the way, was Earl of Moretain and Cornwall before he was crowned) has a seven-pointed star on the dexter side of his head. Pending a more satisfactory elucidation of the devices on the Exeter Seal, let me fall back on the text (1 Cor. xv. 41): "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars," and regard them as symbolising the three dominant powers of the City--the C...