HERALDRY 



667 



descent from an heiress who has married into the 

 family. Whore there is hut one heiress, her coat 

 OeeniMM the second and third nuarters of the 

 shield, and the paternal arms the nrst and fourth. 

 \V hrii there are more than one, they are marshalled 

 in tin- successive quarters in the order of the inter- 

 marriages. Where more than four coats have to 

 he ni:irs|iallid, the niimher of vertical lines is in- 

 creased, uiid t he divisions, though more than four, 

 ; ill called <|iiarters (5). Where there is an odd 

 number of coats, tlio last quarter is usually filled 

 up hy repeating the first. One of the quarters 

 may itself he quartered, when the heiress was 

 entitled to hear a quartered coat : the shield 

 is then said to he counterqnartered (4), and 

 its primary quarters are called grand quarters. 

 In the course of generations a shield may thus 

 sometimes he inconveniently crowded hy the 

 accumulation of coats, including the coats to 

 which each heiress may, in a similar way, have 

 become entitled ; and in ' Germany sometimes 

 above twenty coats ( generally coats of dominion ) 

 are found marshalled in one escutcheon ; but, in 

 British heraldry, families entitled to a number of 

 quarterings usually select some of the most im- 

 portant. A quartered coat may be surrounded by 

 a bordure (for difference), in which case it is 

 treated as one coat. 



In the heraldry of the Highlands of Scotland, 

 which is not older than the 16th century, a system 

 of quartering prevailed quite irrespective of family 

 alliance, the quarters being changed under different 

 modifications, with figures partly borrowed from 

 the old monumental sculpture of the country, in- 

 cluding the eagle, the fish, the hand with the red 

 cross, and the one-masted galley of Lome. 



The expression ' quarterings ' is sometimes 

 loosely used for descents in cases where there is 

 no right to quarter from representation. The 

 eight or sixteen quarterings which in former days 

 were on the Continent essential for the holder of 

 nearly every public office, which were, till lately, 

 often found ranged round the Scottish funeral 

 escutcheon, and which are still important for 

 many purposes in Germany and Austria, have no 

 reference to representation, but imply purity of 

 blood for four or five generations i.e. that the 

 father and mother, the two grandmothers, the four 

 great-grandmothers, and also, in the case of six- 

 teen quarterings, the eight great-great-grand- 

 mothers, have all been entitled to coat-armour. 



Other modes of marshalling are in use on the 

 Continent, as the division of a shield per sal tire, or 

 into three parts. The marshalling of a coat en 

 pointe, or on a triangular figure issuing from the 

 base of the shield, used to be familiar from the 

 escutcheon of Hanover, borne first in the fourth 

 quarter of our royal achievement, and afterwards 

 en surtout, where we have Brunswick impaled with 

 Liineburg, Saxony in base, and over all the crown 

 of Charlemagne, as belonging to the office of arch- 

 treasurer of the empire. 



External Ornaments. Over and above the shield 

 of arms there are certain accessories in use to be 

 represented along with it, and which together 

 with it constitute an achievement of arms. These 

 include the helmet, the crest, the motto, the 

 mantling, the supporters, and the crown or 

 coronet. 



Before the beginning of the 14th century a 

 helmet began to be placed above shields of 

 arms, the shield being represented in the posi- 

 tion called couchee i.e. suspended from the 

 sinister chief angle. After the couchee attitude 

 was abandoned, the helmet resting on the shield 

 began to vary according to the rank of the bearer, 

 the forms adopted being both unbecoming and 

 fanciful. The following are the forms in use in 



modern British heraldry : ( 1 ) that aiwigned to the 

 sovereign and royal family, which in full faced, of 

 gold, lined with crimson, and with the vwor divided 

 by six projecting bam; (2) the helmet of peer*, 

 exhibited in profile, with five ban*, of which three 

 or four are shown. The helmets of duke* and 



1. Sovereign. 2. Peer. a Knight. 



Fig. XL Helmets. 



4. Enquire. 



marquises are entirely of gold, those of earls, 

 viscounts, and barons of steel, with the bars of 

 gold; (3) the helmet of baronets and knighta, of 

 steel, full faced, with the visor thrown back, and 

 without bars ; ( 4 ) the helmet of esquires and gentle- 

 men, in profile, of steel, and with the visor closed. 

 A helmet is never placed over the arms of any 

 woman except the sovereign. 



The Crest (q.v.) is an ornament of the head rising 

 above the helmet. Crests first appear occasionally 

 on seals and monuments of the 13th century, the 

 earliest being a radiant ornament somewhat like a 

 displayed fan. Originally a special mark of honour 

 worn by heroes of great valour or holding a high 

 military command, the crest became eventually, in 

 English heraldry at least, an inseparable adjunct 

 of the coat-of-arms. An extraordinary number 

 of crests are sometimes accumulated in German 

 achievements, each on its separate helmet. In our 

 modern heraldry the crest is generally placed on a 

 wreath of two pieces of silk or the livery colours 

 i.e. the first metal and first colour of the shield, 

 but occasionally on a cap of maintenance or a 

 ducal coronet. In the achievement of the sovereign 

 the helmet is placed immediately above the shield, 

 the crown rests on the helmet, and the royal crest 

 rises from the crown. In the achievements of 

 peers, on the other hand, the helmet rises from the 

 coronet, which is placed immediately over the 

 shield. 



The motto is placed within an escrol either over 

 the crest or below the shield. It bears in many 

 cases an allusion to the family name or arms, or 

 to the crest. 



The mantling or lambrequin is an appendage 

 hanging down from the helmet and passing behind 

 the escutcheon. It is considered to be derived 

 either from the contoise, an ornamental scarf 

 represented in seals and monuments of the 13th 

 and 14th centuries, or from the military mantle or 

 robe of estate. Its comparatively irregular shape 

 in more modern instances has been explained as 

 indicative of the tattered condition to which it has 

 been reduced in the field of battle. Tassels are 

 sometimes appended, and when treated as a rol>e 

 of estate the tarings of the shield are occasionally 

 repeated on it. In British heraldry the mantling 

 of the sovereign is of gold, lined with ermine ; that 

 of peers of crimson velvet, lined with ermine. 

 Knights and gentlemen have either the livery 

 colours of the shield, or, as the practice is in 

 Scotland, crimson velvet lined with silver. 



The Crown (q.v.), Coronet (q.v.), and J//frr(q.y.) 

 are adjuncts to the shields or those whose dignity 

 or office entitles them to be thus distinguished. 



Supporters. These figures placed on each side of 

 an armorial shield, as it were to support it, were at 

 first purely decorative, generally, however, having 

 allusion to the arms or descent of the bearer ; but 

 they soon came to be considered indicative of his 

 being the head of a family of eminence or dis- 

 tinction. The most usual supporters are animals, 



