Note 9 — Chapter I · INTRODUCTION.
Reading edition
“Supporters,” as explained in the Glossary at the end, are the animals represented as holding up or supporting the shields of arms of royal and other distinguished personages. They are referred to in an amusing manner by the inimitably comic Dickens, who, in Little Dorrit, puts into the mouth of his by no means pleasant character, Flora Finch, the description of them quoted at the head of the following chapter.