The lion and the unicorn  Were fighting for the crown  The lion beat the unicorn  All around the town.  Some gave them white bread,  And some gave them brown;  Some gave them plum cake  and drummed them out of town. Illustration by Sir John Tenniel, Alice's Adventure In Wonderland,  Lewis Carroll. 1865. Disraeli on the left, Gladstone on the right.   The unicorn and its compliment have regularly been used in heraldic  emblems, or symbolic representations of nations, families, and important  ranks, since the 16th century. In 1603, James VI, King of Scotland,  united the crowns of Scotland and England when he acceded to the English  throne as James I, the anointed successor to Elizabeth I. This joining  of the crowns of two sovereign states required a new Royal coat of arms.  The lion, standing for England, and a unicorn, for Scotland, serve as  supporters, or figures posed to buttress the central shield of the  emblem. King James I endorsed the use of this beastly imagery as it  rep...