Chapter XVII

.

[Illustration: No. 302.--Sixfoil.]

[Illustration: No. 304.--Stafford Knot.]

[Illustration: No. 305.--Stapleton Badge.]

_Staple._ Borne by STAPLETON: No. 305 represents a badge formed of two staples.

_Statant._ Standing.

_Star._ See _Estoile_ and _Mullet_; also a knightly decoration.

_Stirrup._ Borne, with appropriate straps and buckles, by SCUDAMORE, GIFFARD, and a few others.

_Stock._ The stump of a tree.

_Stringed._ As a harp or a bugle-horn; or, suspended by, or fastened with, a string.

_Sun._ When represented shining and surrounded with rays, he has a representation of a human face upon his disc, and is blazoned "_In splendour_." _Sunbeams_, or _Rays_, are borne in blazon, and form an early charge. See _Collar_.

_Supporter._ A figure of whatsoever kind that stands by a Shield of arms, as if _supporting_ or guarding it. Single Supporters occasionally appear, but the general usage is to have a pair of Supporters--one on each side of the _supported_ Shield. They came gradually into use in the course of the fourteenth century, but were not regularly established as accessories of Shields till about 1425, or rather later. At first they were generally alike, being then duplicate representations of the badge, but subsequently the more prevalent custom was that the two Supporters should differ, as in the case of the Royal Supporters, the Lion and the Unicorn, famous in History as in Heraldry. See _Bearer_, _Tenant_, and also