EARL OF HEREFORD AND ESSEX. 343

I shall tlicrcforc proceed to offer a few remarks upon the objects described in this curious deed. Perhaps the most vaUiahh; passage in it is one which will be most interesting to the herald. T alhule to the evidence it affords of the practice of quartering arms in Enghmd some time before the date of the earUest instance of it extant, and also previously to the date generally received, on the authority of Camden'. Among the objects which the abbot received from John de Tosseburi, was a com'te-pointe"" {qidntepoint) quar- tered {quarteU'^) with the arms of England and Hereford. It is well known that the earliest example of a quartered shield in l^^ugland occurs on the third" great seal of Edward the Third; hence, it has been inferred that the fashion began in his reign. Here we have clear evidence of its existence in 13.22, live years before that monarch's accession. This fact may serve, in some measure, to remove the doubts which have lieen hitherto entertained respecting the genuineness of the quar- tered shield on the curious sepulchral effigy in Winchester cathedral, commonly called the effigy of William de Eoix. An interesting circumstance in connexion with military costume, presents itself in this document ; it is the men- tion of those singular appendages to the shoulders, appro- priately termed ailetfes or alerons. They came into fashion early in the reign of Edward I., although they are not to be seen on any English royal seal before the reign of Edward HI., but they appear on the seal of that sovereign as duke of Aquitaine, in the lifetime of his father. The first mention of ailettes which has been noticed in any document occurs in the roll of articles pm'chased for the tomiiament of Windsor, A.D. 1278, by which we learn that they were formed of leather, lined or covered with cloth called carda, and attached to the shoulders by laces of silk^. A pair of ailettes, garnished and fretted with pearls, occur in the inventory of the effects of Piers Gaveston taken in 131 3i. They were much in fashion both in Erance and Elanders, as shewn by personal seals, sepulchral memorials, and illuminated manuscripts. The little 'prente, with silver leaves and a frontal of cloth of say, destined for the decoration of the basinet, was pro- ' Reinaines, ed. 1629, p. 1,39. Seals of England, especially those of '" Culcitra-puncta : a quilt. Edward III., in the lifth number of " Ecartele. the Arclueological Journal. " U is engraved in Sandford. See also i" Archajol., vol. xvii. ]>. 302. Professor Willis's paper on the Great 'i FiEdera, vol. ii. pt. 1. p. 201.