People say, in a shocked sort of voice, "Do you know that in the Middle Ages you could not find one gentlemen in ten who could sign his name?" That is just as if a mediaeval gentlemen cried out in horror, "Do you know that among the gentlemen of the reign of Edward VII, not one in ten knows how to fly a falcon?" Or, to speak more strictly, it would be like a mediaeval gentlemen expressing astonishment that a modern gentleman could not blazon his coat-of-arms.
Source: Illustrated London News (2 Dec 1905)
