Old family; or, The Setons of Scotland and America

392
AN OLD FAMILY,
or standing on a Cap of estate, called also of maintenance, or,
briefly, a Cbapeau. There are only three or four families in
the United States which have a strict and inherited right to a
crest-coronet ; but we
generally have the good
taste not to use it, con-
forming rather to the
ARMS OK SETON OF ABERCORN, HART.
more modest practice of
representing our crest
upon a Wreath or Orle,
which, if colored, should
be of the alternate tinc-
tures of the arms. I
will here remark that the words ancient and old, as applied
to family matters, have a somewhat different meaning in
different countries and at different times. There are no an-
cient American families, although there are a few ancient fami-
lies in America. There are old American families — to con-
stitute which, some hereditary distinction and a residence in
this country of at least a century are required. No family
in Europe is called old which has not endured twice as long,
and none is considered ancient which does not go back five
hundred years, so that we may say that ancient and mediaeval
are there synonymous.
The English Dragon, and its Scotch equivalent the
Wyvern, issuing out of a ducal coronet, are among the very
earliest figures borne as crests in those two countries. Both
were connected with the Arthurian legend, and symbolically
with the overthrow of paganism. * A dragon was carried bv
* . . . and on again,
Till yet once more ere set of sun they saw
The Dragon of the great Pendragonship,
That crown'd the state pavilion of the King,
Blaze by the rushing brook or silent well.
— Tennyson: Idylls, "Guinevere."