The arms are very peculiar ; they may be described in popular language as consisting of three golden lions, on a field of red , whose hinder parts are replaced by the sterns of three silver ships, in a blue sea. These were the arms of Hastings till the year of the Armada, and still are those of the Cinque Ports.
Ships constitute such an appropriate emblem of a port, that there is little doubt the original arms consisted of undivided ships:[1] but the remaining portion of the escutcheon formed , in fact, one half of the Royal Arms of England , from the time of Richard I., who first assumed the three lions, till that of Edward III., who quartered the lions with the lilies of France. This addition to our arms then must have taken place not earlier than 1190, and not later than 1340 ; and we are entitled to assume, that such an honour as that of bearing the royal arms " by dimidiation," could only have been bestowed for some very valiant exploit, and one that must have partaken of a national character , and benefited the whole kingdom.
Now it happens that the battle just described, in which the Cinque Ports are so specially mentioned, and which was fought against such odds, was the only one fought for the protection of England's shores, in all that period of 150 -
- ↑ Since writing the above, Mr. J. C . Savery has pointed out to me that under the figure of Harold , in the Bayeux Tapestry, appear 5 ships, which correspond with the number of the Cinque Ports, of which Harold was one of the earliest wardens. It is a striking corroboration of the suggestion made in the text; and the difference of the numbers is easily accounted for by the supposition which I owe to Mr. Goldsmid , that the 5 ships were reduced to 3 , to make them correspond to the Royal Lions, when that important augmentation was made.
