30 THE GENTLE ART OF BLAZON 



craft. For instance, he must disabuse his mind of the 

 vulgar employment of the term ' crest ' to signify a 

 coat of arms. The escutcheon or shield, whereon the 

 arms are displayed, is something sacred in a sense that 

 never applied to the crest or supporters, which of old 

 were frequently changed according to the fancy of the 

 bearer. Moreover, while members or branches of a 

 common family were restricted scrupulously to the use 

 of the arms of that family, with proper marks of 

 cadency and difference, or brisurea, variation in the 

 crest has always been readily sanctioned. For example, 

 every branch of the great family of Stewart or Stuart 

 displays as the chief figure in its arms the blue and 

 white fess chequy, indicating common descent from 

 Alan dapifer, Great Steward of Scotland. This well- 

 known bearing dates from early in the thirteenth 

 century, and is supposed to represent the official belt 

 of the Great Steward, the chequers thereon signifying 

 the chess-board upon which primitive Treasury officials 

 kept their accounts. In fact, our modern term 

 'Exchequer' simply represents the old French es- 

 chequier, a chess-board. 



The Stewarts, therefore, wheresoever they ride, may 

 be known by the blue and white chequers on the 

 golden field ; but the animal kingdom has been heavily 

 taxed to supply them with crests. Lions, wyverns, 

 unicorns, doves, pelicans, eagles, human beings there 

 is no end to the variety. The importance which is 

 commonly attributed to the crest is wholly misapplied ; 

 indeed, heraldry had reached its zenith before crests 

 had been thought of in England and Scotland. In the 



