Earl of Westmoreland here mentioned, might on this occasion give the above device
on his banner. After all, our old minstrel's verses here may have undergone some
corruption; for in another ballad in the same folio manuscript, and apparently written
by the same hand, containing the sequel of this Lord Westmoreland's history, his
banner is thus described, more conformable to his known bearings:
Sett me up my faire dun bull,
Wi' th' gilden hornes, hee beares all soe hye.6.The Halfe-Moone, &c.] The Silver Crescent is a well-known crest or badge of the
Northumberland family, It was probably brought home from some of the Crusades
against the Saracens. In an ancient pedigree in verse, finely illuminated on a roll of
vellum, and written in the reign of Henry VII. (in possession of the family), we have
this fabulous account given of its original. The author begins with accounting for the
name ofGernonorAlgerman, often borne by the Percies; who, he says, were
"... Gernons fyrst named of Brutys bloude of Troy:
Which valliantly fyghtynge in the land of Persè (Persia)
At pointe terrible ayance the miscreants on nyght,
An hevynly mystery was schewyd hym, old bookys reherse;
In hys scheld did schyne a MONE veryfying her lyght,
Which to all the ooste yave a perfytte syght,
To vaynquys his enemys, and to deth them persue:
And therefore thePersès[Percies] the Cressant doth renew."
In the dark ages no family was deemed considerable that did not derive its
descent from the Trojan Brutus; or that was not distinguished by prodigies and
miracles.
- This is quite in character: her majesty would sometimes swear at her nobles, as well
as box their ears.