36 THE GENTLE ART OF BLAZON 



gain nothing in honour when diluted, as it were, by 

 conjunction with another. 



There are notable exceptions, of course. The original 

 arms of Douglas in the thirteenth century showed the 

 two lower thirds of the shield plain white, the upper 

 third blue, charged with two, later three, white stars. 

 After the fatal expedition of 'Good Sir James of 

 Douglas ' with the heart of his master, David n. granted 

 the honourable addition of a human heart to be charged 

 upon the white field. As the house of Douglas grew in 

 might and splendour, it was necessary to distinguish 

 between the arms of the different branches, and this was 

 often done by quartering the paternal coat with the 

 arms already assigned to the various earldoms or lord- 

 ships bestowed upon them. Thus the Black Douglas, 

 having inherited the earldom of Mar, quartered the 

 azure shield with golden bend and cross crosslets of 

 that dignity ; the Red Douglas, created Earl of Angus, 

 quartered the hereditary lion of Angus ; Douglas, Lord 

 of Nithsdale, quartered the sable field and argent lion 

 of that lordship, and so on. But all this was done as 

 betokening the increment of honour; no knight ever 

 dreamt of encumbering his shield with bearings which 

 meant nothing but admixture of blood not more noble 

 than his own. 



Again, there could be no simpler or more conspicuous 

 escutcheon than that which bore 'the sable pale of 

 Mar ' a vertical black band down the centre of a white 

 field. But this, the paternal bearing of Erskine, suffers 

 no abatement of honour from being quartered with the 

 ancient arms of the much-disputed earldom of Mar. 



