[Illustration: No. 394.--At Worcester Cathedral.]
[Illustration: No. 395.--At Peterborough Cathedral.]
[Illustration: No. 396.--At Peterborough Cathedral.]
At the first, either a single Feather was borne, the quill generally transfixing an escroll, as in No. 394, from the monument of Prince ARTHUR TUDOR, in Worcester Cathedral; or, two Feathers were placed side by side, as they also appear upon the same monument. In Seals, or when marshalled with a Shield of Arms, two Feathers are seen to have been placed after the manner of Supporters, one on each side of the composition: in such examples the tips of the Feathers droop severally to the dexter and sinister: in all the early examples also the Feathers droop in the same manner, or they incline slightly towards the spectator. Three Feathers were first grouped together by ARTHUR TUDOR, PRINCE OF WALES, eldest son of HENRY VII., as in Nos. 395 and 396, from Peterborough Cathedral; or with an escroll, as in No. 397, from a miserere in the fine and interesting church at Ludlow. The plume of three Feathers appears to have been encircled with a coronet, for the first time, by Prince EDWARD, afterwards EDWARD VI., but who never was PRINCE OF WALES: No. 398, carved very boldly over the entrance gateway to the Deanery at Peterborough, is a good early example. In No. 399 I give a representation of another early plume of three Ostrich Feathers, as they are carved, with an escroll in place of a coronet, upon the Chantry of Abbot RAMRYGE in the Abbey Church at St. Albans: and again, in No. 400, from the head of a window near the east end of the choir, on the south side, in Exeter Cathedral, the three Feathers are charged upon a Shield _per pale azure and gules_, and this Shield is on a roundle.
[Illustration: No. 397.--In Ludlow Church.]
[Illustration: No. 398.--The Deanery, Peterborough.]
[Illustration: No. 399.--In the Abbey Church of St. Alban.]
[Illustration: No. 400.--In Exeter Cathedral.]
The Ostrich Feathers were borne, as a Badge with his Shield of Arms, upon one Seal of EDWARD III. himself: they were used, as an heraldic device, about the year 1370, by PHILIPPA, his Queen: they appear on some, but not on all, the Seals of the BLACK PRINCE, and they are omitted from some of his Seals after the battle of Cressi (A.D. 1346): and they were also borne, generally with some slight difference, marking Cadency, in all probability by all the other sons of EDWARD III.--certainly by JOHN OF GHENT, Duke of LANCASTER, and by THOMAS OF WOODSTOCK, Duke of GLOUCESTER. They were adopted by RICHARD II., and placed on either side of his crested Helm in the heraldic sculpture of Westminster Hall, as appears in two of these beautiful examples, Nos. 199 and 384: by this Prince the Ostrich Feathers were placed on his first Royal Seal, and they were habitually used for decoration and heraldic display; and they also were formally granted by him, as a mark of especial favour, to be borne as an Augmentation of the highest honour, to his cousin THOMAS MOWBRAY, Duke of NORFOLK. The Ostrich Feathers were borne, in like manner, by the succeeding Princes, both LANCASTRIAN and YORKIST: by at least two of the BEAUFORTS: by the Princes of the House of TUDOR: and by their successors the STUARTS. Thus, it is certain that the Ostrich Feathers were held to be a _Royal Badge_, from the time of their first appearance in the Heraldry of England about the middle of the fourteenth century; and that in that character they were adopted and borne by the successive Sovereigns, and by the Princes, sometimes also by the Princesses (as in the instance of a Seal of MARGARET BEAUFORT, the mother of HENRY VII.), of the Royal Houses, without any other distinction than some slight mark of Cadency, and without the slightest trace of any peculiar association with any one member of the Royal Family. From the time of the accession of the House of Stuart to the Crown of the United Kingdom, however, the coroneted plume of three Ostrich Feathers appears to have been regarded, as it is at this present day, as the special Badge of the Heir to the Throne.