HERALDRY 



061 



and engrailed on the inner Hide. A batter- 

 tii<l nun (40) is furnished with an actual ram'H head. 

 A n;i(,-r-fnid;/i-t (41) represent* tin- Im-s in which 

 \\;iii-r wits stored iiji mill curried across t he desert 

 in crusading timrs. Cult i-(t /is (see < ' VI.TI;I >i f ) or 

 i-litraltnifis (42) are military inst rmiients for galling 

 the foot of horse*. Cu^tlis (43) and han-m (44) 

 are not unfrequent, the former very generally 

 triple towered. An ancient QDe-mMtM galley, 

 called a /i/in/i/i(i(l (4.">), is characteristic of tin- West 

 Highlands of Scotland. Of charges ilcrivcil from 

 die-< out- of the most remarkable is the mnnm-h 

 (46), a 12th-century sleeve, borne by the Haatbup 

 family. (.'millions (47) have l>econie famous in 

 Scotland from being Itorne by Bruce's gallant 

 nephew, Randolph or Uanulph, Earl of Moray, and 

 his descendants. The clarion (48) or war-trump 

 is an early English bearing. The cliessroolc (49) 

 or castle in chess is somewhat conventionally 

 drawn. The mil I rind (50) is the iron affixed to 

 the centre of the millstone. 



Like medieval architecture, heraldry attained its 

 greatest beauty and purity in the 13th century and 

 first half of the 14th. From that date its early 

 simplicity was gradually departed from : a variety 

 of charges came to be accumulated in one shield, 

 and there was a growing tendency to pictorialism. 

 Trees are represented issuing out of a mount or 

 little green hillock in base (20), and we have also 

 animals walking on a base i.e. a line cutting 

 off the lower part of the shield. In Wales we have 

 combinations such as a cradle with a child under a 

 tree guarded by a goat, and sometimes in Spain and 

 Italy two animals rampant against a tree, or such 

 scenes as a bloodhound in the act of strangling a 

 boar, or a serpent vorant a child ( 23 ). In the second 

 half of the 18th century the heraldry of England 

 entered on a singularly degraded and debased stage, 

 far beyond the pictorialisms alluded to, shields 

 being loaded with representations of sea-fights, 

 fortresses, and landscapes, with medals and decora- 

 tions granted to the fearer of them, setting all 

 heraldic conventionalities at defiance, and dealing 

 in details hardly discernible on the closest inspec- 

 tion. Such charges were habitually granted by 

 way of chiefs of augmentation to the heroes of the 

 old wars. It is to i>e hoped that the revival of a 

 measure of taste in coat-armour has put an end to 

 them for ever. 



Blazonry. To blazon a coat-of-arms is to describe 

 it in words so precise as to enable any one who has 

 an ordinary knowledge of heraldry to depict it 

 correctly. The following are the principal rules of 

 blazonry. The field must first be named ; it may 

 be of one tincture, or an arrangement of more 

 than one (see ante Parted Fields). The charges 

 follow, beginning with those of most import- 

 ance and nearest the field, their name, number, 

 position, and tincture. An ordinary or a diminu- 

 tive of an ordinary, except it be a chief, bordure, 

 or canton, generally claims the precedence. When 

 the principal charge is not in the centre of the 

 shield, its position must be described, as De Vere, 

 Earl of Oxford (fig. VIII. 1), quarterly gules -and 

 or, in the first quarter a star (mullet) argent. 

 When two or three of the same charge occur, it is 

 understood, unless otherwise specified, that two 

 are placed in pale i.e. one over the other; and 

 three are disposed, two above and one below ; and 

 it is also understood that in case of a fess or a bend 

 between six charges of the same kind, there are 

 three in chief and three in base. In other cases 

 the disposition of the charges must l>e specified, as 

 in bend, in cross, in saltire, in orle; three, two, and 

 one; four, three, two, and one, &c. If the ordinary, 

 which is the principal charge, be itself charged, 

 and there are also other charges in the field, the 

 order of the words of blazon will be understood by 



the following example Wilrnot, Earl of Rochexter 

 (2), argent, on a f CHH gules, between three eaglet*' 

 li-.i'ls erased (table, as many escallops or. An 

 e\.-,-ptioii to tin- rule that an ordinary or ito 

 diminutive is first named, occurs where itdehnmea 

 or surmounts another charge e.g. Abernethy (3), 

 or, a lion rampant gules, surmounted by a ribbon 



4. Graham. 



5. Mar. 

 Fig. VIII. Blazonry. 



6. Chaucer. 



sable. Generally speaking, a chief, bordure, or 

 canton is mentioned last. When a bordure sur- 

 rounds a chief, the bordure is named last of all, 

 the reverse being the case when the chief covers 

 the bordure. A bend may surmount a chief, in 

 which case it is mentioned last. 



Avoidance of repetition is one of the principles of 

 blazonry. When any tincture has to Ite repeated, 

 it is on the second occasion described as of the first, 

 of the second, of the last, or of the field e.g. 

 Graham (4), or, on a chief sable, three escallops of 

 the field. Repetition may also be avoided by 

 naming the tincture only the second time e.g. 

 Mar (5), azure, a bend between six crosslets fitchee 

 or, where the tincture or applies to both bend and 

 crosslets. 



When the field is of a metal and colour separated 

 by any of the lines of partition, and the charge on 

 it is said to be counterchanyed, this means that the 

 part of the charge which is on the metal is of the 

 colour, and vice versa, as in the coat borne by 

 the poet Chaucer (6), per pale, argent and gules, a 

 bend counterchanged. 



Differencing. With the advance of the science of 

 arms it became necessary not only to distinguish 

 different families, but to distinguish the different 

 members and branches of a family from each other 

 and from their chief. The head of the house had 

 alone the right to use the pure paternal coat ; the 

 cadets had to wear it with a brisure or difference. 

 There is great variety in the early brisures. A 

 change of tincture, the substitution of one ordinary 

 for another, the debruising of the paternal coat by 

 a bend, the surrounding the arms with a bordure, 

 uncharged or charged, and the addition of part of 

 the coat of an heiress, were all in use as modes of 

 differencing. The differenced coat became an in- 

 dependent heraldic composition, sufficiently like 

 the original arms to indicate the family to which 

 its owner l>elonged, and also often suggestive of 

 events in the history of the cadet line. 



The name of works of cadency has been given to 

 certain small figures which, by a conventional 

 arrangement, indicate the order* of descent of the 

 different sons of a family. As systematise^ 

 about the reign of Henry VII., and in use in 

 modern English heraldry, the marks of cadency 

 are, the label (1, fig. IX.) for the eldest son, the 

 crescent (2) for the second, the mullet (3) for the 



