664 



HERALDRY 



The dolphin, whom naturalists do not acknow- 

 ledge as a fish, is in heraldry the king of fish, 

 and is very conventionally drawn most usually 

 embowed ( 21 ) i. e. with the body bent. It is best 

 known in this attitude as tbe allusive bearing of 

 the dauphin. The escallop shell ( 22 ) is a favourite 

 charge, naving been the pilgrim's ensign in crusad- 

 ing times. Serpents occur in various attitudes, 

 bowed, erect, &c., and in one famous instance (the 

 coat of the Visconti) vorant (devouring) a child 

 (23). 



Of purely fantastic animals, we have the dragon, 

 griffin, wyvern, cockatrice, unicorn, mermaid, and 

 others. 



i. 2. a. 



Lion rampant. Lion rampant Lion rampant Lion passant, 

 gardant. regardant. 



17. 18. 19. 



Eagle displayed. Two-headed Pelican. 



Eagle. 



20. 



Fish hauriant. 



Man in whole and in his parts also occurs in 

 armory. Argent, a naked man proper, is the coat 

 of the Scottish family of Dalzell, and we have 

 Moors' (generally represented as blackamoors)- 

 heads, Saracens' heads, men's hearts, arms, legs, 

 and hands, also that strange heraldic freak, the 

 three legs conjoined (24), carried in the escutcheon 

 of the Isle of Man. 



To pass to the vegetable kingdom, trees, plants,, 

 leaves, and flowers are all usual heraldic charges. 

 Trees are often eradicated (25), or torn up by the 

 roots, sometimes placed on a mount ( 26 ), and occa- 

 sionally fructrated of a different tincture. Garbs- 

 ( 27 ), representing sheaves of wheat, are well known 



21. 

 Dolphin. 



22. 

 Escallop. 



23. 24. 



Serpent vorant. Legs conjoined. 



33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 



Sun. Crescent. Incres- Decres- Mullet Estoile. 

 cent. cent. (Star). 



46. 



Maunch. 



47. 48. 49. 50. 



Cushion. Clarion. Chessrook.Millrind. 



Fig. VII. Common Charges. 



as the arms of the Earls of Chester, of the Gros- 

 venors, and of the Scottish family of Cumyn. 

 Leaves, as of the laurel, are often borne, like many 

 other charges, in threes (28). A trefoil, with three 

 leaflets and a stalk, is said to be slipped (29); in 

 the quatrefoil and cinque/oil (30) the syllable foil 

 means a petal. The rose (31) has obtained a pro- 

 minence in English heraldry from having been the 

 badge of the rival houses of York and Lancaster, 

 and in the conventional representations of it, it has 

 five petals, barbs between them to represent the 

 calyx, and seeds in the centre. It is generally 

 without a stalk, its tincture being either gnles or 

 argent, and it is usually barbed and seeded proper 

 i.e. the barbs are green, and stamina yellow or 

 gold. But of the floral devices of heraldry the most 

 famous is the fleur-de-lis, generally identified with 

 the iris, adopted as a badge by Louis VII. of France 

 in 1150, and borne by his son in the form of seme 



of fleurs-de-lis (9, fig. V.), which became the royal 

 coat of France, till the flowers were reduced to 

 three in number in the reign of Charles VI. (32). 



Such charges as swords, scimitars, bows, arrows, 

 helmets, battle-axes, horseshoes, mitres, crosiers, 

 &c. explain themselves. The sun surrounded 

 by rays is said to be in his splendour, and gener- 

 ally has a human face (33). A crescent (34), 

 representing the moon, has both horns pointed 

 upwards. If the horns are turned to dexter it is 

 called an increscent ( 35 ) ; if to the sinister a decrescent 

 (36). The five-pointed star (37), in the heraldry 

 both of the Continent and of Scotland, represents 

 the heavenly body so called, though not distinguish- 

 able from the mullet or spur-rowel, except that the 

 latter is sometimes pierced. In modern English 

 heraldry this figure is always styled a mullet, 

 and the estoile (38) or star has six or more 

 wavy points. A pheon (39) is the head of a dart 



