14 HERALDRY. 



vidual possessors, badges consisting of a single figure were 

 employed to designate the family to which such dependants 

 belonged " (page 1 33.) Regarding the selection of badges, the 

 same author says : " Badges . . . are quite arbitrary: if, there- 

 fore, a gentleman has not an hereditary badge, he is at per- 

 fect liberty to devise one for himself, without any fear of 

 incurring the censure of the College of Heralds " (page 333). 



Custom makes many inroads into laws and frequently 

 robs them of their original significance. Should a person 

 decide that present custom and precedent outweigh the fine 

 distinctions that encompassed the science of heraldry, and 

 which, in fact, created the science in establishing marks of 

 differentiation among men, then let such a person, at least, 

 conform to the accepted modern laws governing the subject. 



These laws are here given in an abridged form. 



i. THE MALE MEMBERS of a family inheriting arms may 

 use the coat of arms or the crest, with or without the motto 

 and ribbon. 



Authority : Coussans, page 150, " Paternal arms being by right borne by 

 all sons of a family," etc. 



If the bearer of arms marries a woman whose family is 

 also entitled to bear arms, he may impale the two shields, i. e., 

 combine the two shields in one, the dividing line between 

 them being drawn perpendicularly through the centre of the 

 shield, the charge of the husband's shield occupying the left- 

 hand division. This impaled shield can only be borne by the 

 husband and his wife, or either of them in the event of the 

 other's death. 



Authority : Bou tell, page 223, "The arms, therefore, of husband and 

 wife (when the wife is not an heiress) can only be borne by the husband and 



