OUR BORROWED LION

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 34, 8 August 1925, Page 16

OUR BORROWED LION

BRITISH HERALDRY QUESTIONED.

Nothing is sacred in these days, and a recent discussion on the subject of the Wembley lion, the Scots lion, and the lion of Judah has brought an eminent authority into the field with the remark that the English lion is not English at all, but French, states a correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian." It came to us from Aqnitaine, and is merely a reminder of the days when the English kings held large properties in France as Dukes of Aquitaine. • It does not appear that there is any definitely English beast for heraldic purposes. There- was the "Dragon of the great Pendragonship" which was King Arthur's standard, and there were the Lords of the White Horse ("Heathen — the brood by Hengist left") with whom Modred intrigued. The. Anglo-Saxon used the dragon also, though it would hardly do for us in these days when wo are so constantly reminded, in our currency notes, of Sit. George's slaying of the dragon. No doubt there is a touch of humour in the situation when we remember Landseer's polite lions at tlte foot, of a memorial erected to Nelson, the "scourge of the French." But Americans may liko to know that in .■twisting the lion's tail" it is really :i Frnnch lion whose tail suffers, and Scuts can console themselves with Hie thought, that, lion of Judah or no, their lifiij has a kmg gedigree.,