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"Mr. Punch's" Book of Arms cover

"Mr. Punch's" Book of Arms

Chapter 24: Viscount Labouchere of Twickenham.
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About This Book

A sequence of humorous mock coats of arms presents parody blazons, crests, supporters, and mottos that lampoon prominent public figures, institutions, and current events of the author's day. Each entry mimics heraldic language while twisting symbols into absurd, ironic descriptions that expose political foibles, journalistic excesses, and imperial pretensions. The work alternates detailed visual description with sharp, often bawdy wordplay, arranging entries like an illustrated armorial interspersed with brief epigrams. Through exaggerated symbolism and mock-formality, it satirizes power, public personalities, and civic ceremonial, inviting readers to view familiar characters and controversies through a comic, barbed heraldic lens.

Viscount Labouchere of Twickenham.

Arms / quarterly / i spotted before a beak several crafty mendicants exposed proper / ij inside a Westminster orle a British lion of rectitude dancette on a charter componee, charged with little games sinister under a cloud proper / iij on a ground party-coloured of revolt a primrose of nobility barred and erased / iiij in a pillory an heraldic pigott displayed in contumely / over all, on an escutcheon the family coat of Baron Taunton. Crest / issuant from a club +National Liberal+, a hawk-eyed lynx rampant in his glory, gorged with a banquet for popularity. Supporters / dexter, a classical figure representing Little England suitably attired, her defences somewhat neglected perhaps, statant on the pale of civilisation / sinister, an elector of Northampton proper. Second Motto / 'Britannia needs no bulwarks—they come too expensive!'