CHAPTER III.

Rationale of Heraldic Charges, etc.

[Illustration: (Arms of the See of Chichester)]

"The Formes of the pure celestiall bodies mixt with grosse terrestrials; earthly animals with watery; sauage beasts with tame; whole-footed beasts with diuided; reptiles with things gressible; fowles of prey with home-bred; these again with riuer fowles; aery insecta with earthly; also things naturall with artificiall; arts liberall with mechanicall; military with rusticall; and rusticall with ciuil. Which confused mixture hath not a little discouraged many persons--otherwise well affected to the study of Armory--and impaired the estimation of the profession."

_Guillim._

Dictionaries of the technical terms employed in heraldry are so common, and the elements of the science so well explained in various popular treatises,[83] that it would be impertinent in an essay like the present to go into all the details usually comprised in those useful books of reference. Still it may interest the general reader, and will, I trust, give no offence to adepts in the science, if I offer a few observations on this subject, with illustrations from our old writers, adding some etymological conjectures of my own.

The origin of the expression 'a coat of arms' we have already seen, as also the cause why heraldric ensigns are borne upon a shield. Shields have been made of every imaginable shape according to the taste of the age or the fancy of the bearer, with these two restrictions, that the shields of knights-bannerets must be square, and those of ladies in the form of a lozenge. The most usual, because the most convenient, shape is that which is technically called the _heater_-shield--from its resemblance to the heater of an iron--with some slight variations. Our friend Sylvanus Morgan, whose ingenuity all must admire, in defiance of the oft-quoted proverb:

"=When Adam digged and Eve span, Who was then the Gentleman?="

deduces this shape for men, and that of the lozenge for women, from the _spade_ of Adam, and the _spindle_ of Eve!

[Illustration]

The ground or field of every coat of arms must be either of metal, colour, or fur. The METALS of heraldry are, Or==gold, and argent==silver, and as the shield of war was antiently of metal, either embossed or enamelled, the retention of the two precious metals as the field of an escocheon is easily accounted for. The COLOURS are gules, azure, vert, purpure, sable, tenne, and sanguine. While some of these terms are French; others, though coming to us through that medium, are originally from other languages. GULES, according to Ducange, is _goulis_, _guelle_, _gula_ sive _guella_, the red colour of the mouth or throat of an animal. Mackenzie derives it from the Hebrew _gulude_, a piece of red cloth, or from the Arabic _gule_, a red rose. _Ghul_ in the Persian signifies rose-coloured, and _Ghulistan_ is 'the country of roses.' It is probably one of those importations from the East which the Crusades introduced, both into the elements of armory and the nomenclature of the science. It was sometimes called _vermeil_[84] (vermilion) and _rouget_. An antient knight is represented as bearing a plain red banner without any charge:

"Mais Eurmenions de la Brette La baniere eut _toute rougecte_."[85]

The barbarous term _blodius_ was likewise occasionally used to express this colour.

AZURE==light-blue, is a French corruption of the Arabic word _lazur_ or _lazuli_. The lapis lazuli is a copper ore, very compact and hard, which is found in detached lumps, of an elegant blue colour, and to it the artist is indebted for his beautiful ultra-marine. This colour, still one of the dearest of pigments, was antiently in great request, and called 'beyond-sea azure.'[86] The lapis lazuli is found in Persia, Bucharia, and China.

VERT (French) is light green. This word was applied at an early period "to every thing," says Cowell, "that grows and bears a _green_ leaf within the forest that may cover and hide a deer." Vert and venison, in the vocabulary of woodcraft, were as inseparable as shadow and substance. _To vert_ signified to enter the forest, as in an old song of the thirteenth century:

"Sumer is i-cumen in, Lhude sing cuccu; Groweth sed and bloweth med, And springeth the wde nu. =Sing Cuccu, Cuccu!=

Awe bleteth after lomb, Lhouth after calvé cu, Bulluc sterteth, Bucke VERTETH, =Murie sing Cuccu=," etc.

This colour was antiently called _synople_, and in the Boke of St. Albans _synobylt_, a word which Colombiere derives from the Latin _sinopis_, a dyeing mineral,[87] or from Synople, a town in the Levant, whence a green dye was procured.

Of SABLE the derivation is very uncertain. It seems unlikely to have been taken from the colour of the diminutive animal now known by this name, first, because it would then rank under the category of _furs_; and, secondly, because that animal is far from black. Indeed, the best sable is of a light brown or sand colour. Dallaway quotes a line, however, which might be adduced in support of this derivation:

"Sables, ermines, vair et gris."

Guillim derives it from _sabulum_, gross sand or gravel, but this seems very improbable, although I have nothing better to substitute. It is curious that 'sable' and 'azure' should have been selected from the 'jargon' of heraldry for poetical use, to the exclusion of other similar terms:

"By this the drooping daylight 'gan to fade, And yield his room to sad succeeding night, Who with her _sable_ mantle 'gan to shade The face of earth, and ways of living wight." _Faerie Queen._

"Thus replies Minerva, graceful, with her _azure_ eyes." _Pope._

PURPURE (purple) is not common in English armory: still less so are the _stainant_ or disgraceful colours, TENNY (orange) and MURREY, which Dr. Johnson defines as "darkly red," deriving it through the French _morée_, and the Italian _morello_. The fine cherry designated by this last word is, when ripe, of the exact colour intended by murrey. Bacon says, "Leaves of some trees turn a little _murrey_, or reddish;" and "a waistcoat of _murrey_-coloured satin" occurs in the writings of Arbuthnot.

By these terms were the arms of gentlemen described; but for the arms of nobility they were not sufficiently lofty. These were blazoned by the precious stones, as _topaz_ for yellow, _ruby_ for red, &c. For the arms of princes it was necessary to go a step higher, namely, to the heavenly bodies, _Sol_, _Luna_, _Mars_, &c. Sir John Ferne enumerates several other sets of terms, in all thirteen, which he classifies thus: 1, planets; 2, precious stones; 3, vertues; 4, celestiall signes; 5, months; 6, days of the week; 7, ages of man; 8, flowers; 9, elements; 10, sesons of the yeer; 11, complexions; 12, numbers; 13, mettailes. What would those who are disgusted with the 'jargon' of our science say to such blazon as the following?--

He beareth _Sunday_, a lion rampant _Tuesday_. He beareth _Faith_, a wolf salient _Loyalty_. He beareth _Marigold_, a bear passant, _Blue Lily_, muzzled _White Rose_. He beareth, _Infancy_, three grasshoppers _Virility_. He beareth, _Melancholy_, three asses' heads, _Flegmatique_!

I must confess that, in the course of my heraldric reading, I have never met with blazon of this singular description, but Ferne assures his reader that it may be his fortune "to light upon such phantasticall termes," and he gives an historical and philosophical account of their origin. So recently as the last century the planets and gems were used in royal and noble armory, but of late good taste has limited blazon to the first-mentioned and most simple set of terms in all cases.

[Illustration]

The _furs_ are ermine, ermines, erminois, erminites, pean, vair, and potent counter-potent. They are all said to be indicative of dignity. In armorial painting their effect is very rich. ERMINE, which may be taken as the type of the five first mentioned, is represented by three spots placed triangularly, and three hairs in black upon a white ground. It is intended to represent the black tail of a species of weasel fixed upon the white skin of the animal. Guillim[88] gives a coat, containing six _whole ermines_, as represented in the margin. Sir G. Mackenzie informs us that "the first user of this fur in arms was Brutus, the son of Silvius, who having by accident killed his father, left that unhappie ground, and travelling in Bretaigne in France, fell asleep, and when he awoke he found this little beast upon his shield, and from that time wore a shield ermine!" This fur is said to have been introduced into England by Alan, Earl of Richmond, so created by William the Conqueror. The ermine (_mustela erminea_) is found in all the northern regions of the old continent, and as far southward as Persia and China. It was originally brought into western Europe from Armenia, then called _Ermonie_, whence its name. Chaucer employs _ermin_ for the adjective Armenian. VAIRE is composed of miniature shields of blue and white alternately placed. According to Mackenzie it represents the skin of a small quadruped called _varus_, the back of which is of a bluish grey, and the belly white; and Guillim adds that when the head and feet of the animal are cut off from the skin, the latter resembles the figure of vaire used in heraldry. The costly fur so much spoken of by our old poets under the name of _miniver_ is derived by Dallaway from the French _menu vair_, on account of its smallness and delicacy. The old French _vairon_ signifies anything of two colours, and may possibly be the etymon of _vaire_.

[Illustration: (Temp Edw. I.) Arms of Sackville.]

POTENT-COUNTER-POTENT, literally "crutch-opposite-crutch," resembles the tops of crutches counter-placed. What the origin of this figure may have been does not appear, although the word potent, in the sense of crutch, was common in the days of Chaucer.

"When luste of youth wasted be and spent, Then in his hand he takyth a _potent_."

And again,

"So eld she was that she ne went A foote, but it were by potent." _Romaunt of the Rose._

[Illustration: ("Gules, a bend argent")]

Having thus taken a glance at the field, or ground of the heraldric shield, let us next briefly notice what are called the honourable ordinaries, one or other of which occurs in the great majority of arms, viz., the CHIEF, BEND, BEND-SINISTER, FESSE, PALE, CROSS, SALTIRE, CHEVERON, and PILE. The =chief= is a fifth part of the shield nearest the top; _unde nomen_. In the primitive bearings, which were literally coats, or rather mantles of arms, the chief might be formed by turning the upper part of the garment back in form of a collar, thus exposing the lining, which doubtless was often of a different colour from the mantle itself. A knight who might chance at a tournament to wear a scarlet mantle lined with white, would in this manner acquire as arms, 'Gules, a chief argent.' The =bend= is a stripe passing diagonally across the shield from the dexter corner; (and the =bend-sinister=, the contrary way,) and is, etymologically, the same word with the French _bande_ and Saxon band.[89] This ordinary evidently represents a band or scarf worn over one shoulder, and passing under the opposite arm, and is well exemplified in the white belt worn by a soldier over his red coat. Of a similar origin is the =fesse=, a horizontal stripe across the middle of the shield, which represents a sash or military girdle. The term is evidently derived from the Latin _fascia_, through the French _fasce_. The =pale= is like the fesse, except that its direction is perpendicular. From its name it has been supposed to represent the _pales_, or palisades of a camp, and in support of this origin it has been remarked that, in antient warfare, every soldier was obliged to carry a pale, and to fix it as the lines were drawn for the security of the camp. This hypothesis seems to be one of those _after-thoughts_ with which heraldric theories abound. There is no doubt that most armorial _forms_ existed long before the invention of blazon, and that when it was found necessary to give every figure its distinctive appellation, the real origin of many bearings had been lost sight of, and the names assigned them were those of objects they were _conjectured_ to represent.

It is far more probable that this ordinary originated in the insertion of a perpendicular stripe of a different colour from the mantle itself, an idea which is supported by the fact that the pale occupies in breadth a third of the escocheon. Two breadths of blue cloth divided by one of yellow, would produce a blazonable coat, '_Azure, a pale or_.' When a shield is divided into several horizontal stripes of alternate colours it is called _barry_; when the stripes run perpendicularly it is said to be _paly_; and when they take a diagonal direction it is styled _bendy_. The love of a striking contrast of colours in costume is characteristic of a semi-barbarous state of society, and the shawls and robes of the orientals of the present day afford a good illustration of the origin of these striped bearings.[90] Such vestments were not peculiar to the military, with whom we must always associate the heraldry of the earliest times; for, so lately as the time of Chaucer, they were the favourite fashion of civilians. This author, in his 'Parson's Tale,' makes that worthy ecclesiastic complain of the "sinful costly array of clothing in the embrouding, the disguising, indenting or _barring_, ounding, _paling_, winding or _bending_, and semblable waste of cloth in vanity."[91]

Arms divided into two compartments by a horizontal line are said to be _parted per fesse_; when the line is perpendicular, _parted per pale_; and so of the others. Ridiculous as it may seem, our ancestors, from the reign of Edward II to that of Richard II, affected this kind of dress. In a contemporary illumination, John of Gaunt is represented in a long robe divided exactly in half, one side being blue, the other white, the colours of the House of Lancaster. Chaucer's Parson, just now quoted, inveighs against the "wrappings of their hose which are departed of two colours, white and red, white and blue, or black and red," making the wearers seem as though "the fire of St. Anthony or other such mischance had consumed one half of their bodies." "These party-coloured hose," humorously remarks Mr. Planché, "render uncertain the fellowship of the legs, and the common term _a pair_ perfectly inadmissible." But to return to the honourable ordinaries. The =cross=. It would not be difficult to fill a volume with disquisitions upon this bearing, forming, as it does, a prominent feature in the heraldry of all Christendom; but I must content myself with a general view, without entering much into detail. The cross, as the symbol of Christianity, naturally engaged the reverent and affectionate regard of the early Christians, a feeling which lapsed first into superstition, and eventually into idolatry. In those chivalrous but ill-directed efforts of the princes and armies of Christian Europe to gain possession of the Holy Land, the cross was adopted as the sign or mark of the common cause; it floated upon the standard, was embroidered upon the robes, and depicted on the shields of the enthusiastic throng whose campaigns hence took the designation of _Croisades_, or _Crusades_. On subsequent occasions the cross was employed in this general manner, especially when the interests of the church were concerned, as, for instance, at the battle of Lewes in 1264, when the soldiers of the baronial army marked themselves with a white cross for the purpose of distinguishing each other from the king's forces.[92] The plain cross, or cross of St. George, is the most antient form of this bearing; it differed, however, from the form now in use in having the horizontal bar placed higher than the centre of the upright. The alteration was doubtless a matter of convenience to allow the common charges of the field, when any occurred, a more equal space. But the cross has been so modified by the varying tastes of different ages, that Dame Juliana Berners, at a time when armory was comparatively simple, declares that "crossis innumerabull are borne dayli." The principal and most usual varieties of this ordinary are described in the 'Boke of St. Albans.' One of the most interesting forms is the _cross fitchée_, or 'fixibyll,' because being sharpened at the lower end it could be fixed into the ground, like the little crosses in Catholic cemeteries. It probably originated in the cross antiently carried by pilgrims, which answered the purpose of a walking-staff, and served, when occasion required, for the use of devotion. Next to this may be reckoned the _cross patée_, the _cross-crosslet_, the _cross patonce_, and the _cross moline_, called in the Boke a "mylneris cros," "for it is made to the similitude of a certain instrument of yrne in mylnys, the which berith the mylneston."[93] The plain cross _corded_, or entwined with ropes, was borne, according to the same authority, in the "armys of a nobull man, the which was some tyme a crafty man (handicraftsman), a _roper_ as he himself said." These crosses are fully described in the larger treatises on heraldry, together with numerous others. Berry's Encyclopædia Heraldica enumerates no less than THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-FIVE varieties.

[Illustration: Crosslet fitchee patee patonce moline Calvary.]

The =saltire=, popularly called St. Andrew's cross, is formed like two bends crossing each other in the centre of the escocheon. A great variety of opinions has existed as to its origin. Some authors take it for an antient piece of harness attached to the saddle of a horse to enable the rider, _sauter dessous_, to jump down.[94] Others derive it from an instrument used _in saltu_, in the forest, for the purpose of taking wild beasts; but neither of these hypotheses seems very probable. Leigh says, "This in the old tyme, was of y{e} height of a man, and was borne of such as used to scale the walls [_saltare in muros_] of towns. For it was driven full of pinnes necessary to that purpose. And walles of townes were _then_ but lowe as appeared by the walls of Rome, whiche were suche that Remus easelye leaped over them. Witnesseth also the same the citie of Winchester whose walls were overlooked of Colbrande, chieftaine of the Danes, who were slayne by Guye, Erle of Warwike." The =cheveron=, which resembles a pair of rafters, is likewise of very uncertain origin. It has generally been considered as a kind of architectural emblem. Leigh, speaking of a coat containing three cheveronels, or little cheverons, says, "The ancestour of this cote hath builded iij greate houses in one province," and this remark applies with some truth to the Lewkenors of Sussex, who bore similar arms, though whether assumed from such a circumstance I cannot ascertain. The =pile= is a wedge-like figure based upon the edge of the shield, and having its apex inwards. The following etymons have been suggested: 1, _pilum_, Lat. the head of an arrow; the Spaniards and Italians call this ordinary _cuspis_. 2, _pile_, French, a strong pointed timber driven into boggy ground to make a firm foundation. 3, _pied_, French, the foot; in French armory it is called _pieu_. I cannot admit any of these derivations, though perhaps my own etymon may not be deemed less irrelevant, viz. _pellis_, the skin of a beast, whence our English terms pell, pelt, peltry, &c. The skin of a wild beast, deprived of the head and fore legs, and fastened round the neck by the hinder ones, would form a rude garment, such as the hunter would consider an honourable trophy of his skill, and such as the soldier of an unpolished age would by no means despise; and it would resemble, with tolerable exactness, the pile of heraldry. The QUARTER is, as the word implies, a fourth part of the field, differing in tincture from the remainder; and the CANTON, a smaller quadrangular figure in the dexter, or sinister, chief of the escocheon, so called from the French _cantoné_, cornered.

The following figures rank as sub-ordinaries, viz. _Flasques_, _Flanches_, the _Fret_, _Border_, _Orle_, _Tressure_, _Gyron_, &c.

FLASQUES, always borne in pairs, are two pieces hollowed out at each side of the shield: FLANCHES and VOIDERS are modifications of this bearing. The last, says Leigh,[95] "is the reward of a gentlewoman for service by her done to the prince or princess." It is not improbable that it was borrowed from a peculiar fashion in female costume which prevailed temp. Richard II. Chaucer uses the word _voided_ in the sense of removed, made empty, and this is probably the origin of the term.

[Illustration]

When a shield is divided into eight acute-angled triangles, by lines drawn perpendicularly, horizontally, and diagonally through the centre, it is blazoned by the phrase '_gyronny_ of eight,' and so of any other number of equal partitions of the same form. If one of these triangles occur singly it is termed a _gyron_. For this term the nomenclature of heraldry is indebted to the Spanish language, in which it means a gore, gusset, or triangular piece of cloth. The family of Giron, subsequently ennobled as Dukes of Ossona, bear three such figures in their arms, from the following circumstance. Alphonso VI, king of Spain, in a battle with the Moors, had his horse killed under him, when, being in great personal danger, he was rescued and remounted by Don Roderico de Cissneres, who, as a memorial of the event, cut three triangular pieces from his sovereign's mantle, which being afterwards exhibited to the king, he bestowed on his valiant follower an adequate reward, and gave him permission to bear three gyrons as his arms. The English family of Gurr, whose surname was probably derived from the village of Gueures, near Dieppe, bear 'gyronny ... and ...' as a 'canting' or allusive coat. Some derive this species of bearing from a kind of patchwork mantle of various colours. Hence, doubtless, also arose that picturesque species of bearing called _chequy_, consisting of alternate squares of different tinctures. Chaucer and Spenser use the word _checkelatoun_; probably in this sense:

"His robe was _cheque-latoun_." _Knight's Tale._

"But in a jacket, quilted richly rare Upon _checklaton_, was he richly dight." _Faerie Queen._

The chequered dress of the Celtic nations, still retained in the Highland plaid or tartan, may, in some way, have originated the chequered coat of heraldry. At all events, this is a more probable source than the chess-board, from which some writers derive it.

Most of the ordinaries have their diminutives, as the bendlet, the pallet, the cheveronel, &c. These are usually bounded by straight lines; but the ordinaries themselves admit of a variety of modifications of outline, as follows: 1. _Indented_, like the teeth of a saw. According to Upton, this line represents the teeth of wild beasts, but Dallaway derives it from a moulding much employed in Saxon architecture. 2. _Crenelle_, or embattled, like the top of a castle, (Lat. _crena_, a notch.) The 'licentia crenellare' of the middle ages was the sovereign's permission to his nobles to embattle or fortify their mansions. 3. _Nebuly_ (nebulosus,) from its resemblance to clouds. 4. _Wavy_, or undulated. 5. _Dancette_, like indented, but larger, and consisting of only three pieces. 6. _Engrailed_, a number of little semi-circles connected in a line, the points of junction being turned outward. Johnson derives this word from the French 'grêle,' hail, marked or indented as with hailstones. And 7. _Invecked_, the same as the last, but reversed.

ROUNDLES are charges, as their name implies, of a circular form. The first idea of bearing them as charges in heraldry may have been suggested by the studs or knobs by which the parts of an actual buckler were strengthened and held together. As soon as blazon was introduced they received distinctive names, according to their tinctures. The bezant (or) was supposed to represent a gold coin, in value about a ducat, struck at Constantinople (Byzantium) in the times of the Crusades. Leigh, however, assigns it a much greater value, and calls it a talent weighing 104 lbs. troy, and worth 3750_l._ "Of these beisaunts you shall rede dyversly in Scripture, as when Salomon had geuen unto Hiram xx cities, he again gave vnto Salomon 120 _beisaunts_ of gold, whereof these toke their first name," ('obeisance?') The _plate_ (argent) was probably some kind of silver coin. The _torteaux_ (red) called in the Boke of S. A. "tortellys, or litill cakys," are said to be emblematical of plenty, and to represent a cake of bread. The modern French 'torteau' is applied more exclusively to a kind of oil-cake of an oblong form used as food for cattle. 'Tortilla,' in Spanish, is a cake compounded of flour and lard. Dame J. Berners says it should be called _wastel_. 'Wastel-brede' is defined in the glossary to Chaucer, as bread made of the finest flour, and derived from the French 'gasteau.' Chaucer represents his Prioresse as keeping small hounds

"that she fedde With rosted flesh, and milk and _wastel brede_." _Prol. Cant. Tales._

_Pommes_ (green), says Dallaway, are berries; but if etymology is worth anything, they must be apples, and such Leigh calls them. _Hurts_ (blue) the same authority considers berries, and most heralds have taken them to be those diminutive things, whortleberries, or as they are called in Sussex, Cornwall, and Devonshire, 'hurts.' But I am rather inclined with Leigh to consider them representations of the 'black and _blue_' contusions resulting from the "clumsy thumps" of war. _Pellets_ or _Ogresses_ (black) are the 'piletta' or leaden knobs forming the heads of blunt arrows for killing deer without injuring the skin.[96] _Golpes_ (purple) are wounds, and when they stand five in a shield may have a religious allusion to the five wounds of Christ. _Oranges_ (tenne) speak for themselves; and _Guzes_, Leigh says, are eyeballs; but as their colour is sanguine, or dull red, this seems unlikely.

The _Annulet_ seems to have been taken from the ring armour, much in use about the period of the Norman Conquest. The _Orle_, or false escocheon, is merely a band going round the shield at a short distance from the edge: it was probably borrowed from an antient mode of ornamenting a shield, serving as a kind of frame to the principal charge. Animals or flowers disposed round the escocheon in the same form, are also termed an orle. The _bordure_, or border, explains itself. Like the orle, it was primarily designed as an ornament. The _lozenge_, derived by Glover from the quarry, or small pane of glass of this shape, Dallaway thinks originated in the diamond-shaped cushions which occur on tombs to support the heads of female effigies, as helmets do those of men. The _mascle_ is taken for the mesh of a net. When many are united the arms are blazoned _masculy_, and then represent a rich network thrown over the armour. At the siege of Carlaverok a certain knight is described as having his armour and vestments 'masculy or and azure:'

"Son harnois et son attire Avoit masclé de or et de azure."

_Billets_ have been conjectured to be representations of oblong camps, but from the name they would seem to be _letters_. They may have been originally assigned to bearers of important despatches. _Guttée_ is the term applied to a field or charge sprinkled over with drops of gold, silver, blood, tears, &c. according to the tincture. This kind of bearing is said to have originated with the Duke of Anjou, King of Sicily, who, after the loss of that island, appeared at a tournament with a black shield sprinkled with drops of water, to represent tears, thus indicating both his grief and his loss.[97] A warrior returning victorious from battle, with his buckler sprinkled with blood, would, in the early days of heraldry, readily have adopted the bearing afterwards called 'guttée de sang.' In those times the besiegers of a fortress were often assailed with boiling pitch, poured by the besieged through the machicolations of the wall constructed for such purposes. Splashes of this pitch falling upon some besieger's shield, in all probability gave the first idea of 'guttée de poix.' The _fusil_ is like the lozenge, but narrower. Whatever the charge may mean, the name is evidently a corruption of the Fr. _fuseau_, a spindle. The _fret_ may have been borrowed from the architectural ornaments of the interior of a roof, or more probably, from a knotted cord. It is sometimes called =Harington's Knot=, though it is not peculiar to the arms of that family, for it was also borne by the baronial races of Echingham, Audley, and Verdon, and by many other families.[98]

My purpose being not to describe all the charges or figures occurring in heraldry, but merely to assign a reasonable origin for those which appear to the uninitiated to have neither propriety nor meaning, I pass by many others, and come to those to which a symbolical sense is more readily attachable, as the heavenly bodies, animals, vegetables, weapons of war, implements of labour, &c. &c. Here I shall merely offer some general remarks, for it is less my object to gratify curiosity on this subject than to excite that attention to it which it really deserves, and therefore I must say, with gentle Dame Julyan, "Bot for to reherce all the signys that be borne in armys it were too long a tarying, nor I can not do hit: _ther be so mony_!"

The heavenly bodies occur frequently in heraldry, and include the Sun, 'in his glory,' or 'eclipsed;' the Moon, 'incressant,' 'in her complement,' 'decressant,' and 'in her detriment,' or eclipse; stars and comets. The _crescent_ was the standard of the Saracens during the crusades, as it is of their successors, the Turks, at this day. As one of the antient laws of chivalry enacted that the vanquisher of a Saracen gentleman should assume his arms, it is not remarkable that the crescent was, in the latter Crusades, often transferred to the Christian shield; although we must reject the notion that the infidels bore regular heraldric devices. It is probable, however, that their bucklers were ornamented in various ways with their national symbol. Several authentic instances of arms with crescents borne by English families from that early date, are to be found. Most of the families of Ellis, of this country, bear a cross with four or more crescents, derived from Sir Archibald Ellis, of Yorkshire, who went to the Holy Land. From a miraculous event said to have happened during the Crusade under Rich. I. to Sir Robert Sackville, the noble descendants of that personage still bear an _estoile_, or star, as their crest.

The ELEMENTS also furnish armorial charges, as flames of fire, rocks, stones, _islands_, thunderbolts, clouds, rainbows, water, and fountains. These last are represented by azure roundles charged with three bars wavy argent. In the arms of Sykes, of Yorkshire, they are called _sykes_--that being a provincialism for little pools or springs. The antient family of Gorges bore a _gurges_, or whirlpool, an unique instance, I believe, of that bearing.

If we derive heraldry from the standards of antient nations, then, undoubtedly, ANIMALS are the very oldest of armorial charges, since those standards almost invariably exhibited some animal as their device. Familiar examples present themselves in the Roman _eagle_ and the Saxon _horse_. Of QUADRUPEDS the lion occupies the first place, and is far more usual than any other animal whatever. The king of beasts is found in the heraldric field in almost every variety of posture, and tinctured with every hue recognized by the laws of blazon. It may be remarked here, that in the early days of heraldry animals were probably borne of their 'proper' or natural colour, but as, in process of time, the use of arms became more common, and the generous qualities of the lion rendered him the object of general regard as an armorial ensign, it became absolutely necessary to vary his attitudes and colours, for the purposes of distinction. The same remark applies, in a greater or less degree, to other animals and objects. As the emblem of courage the lion has been represented and misrepresented in a thousand forms. A well-drawn heraldric lion is a complete caricature of the animal; and hence the ire displayed by the country herald-painter when shown the lions in the Tower is very excusable: "What!" said the honest man, "tell me that's a lion; why I've painted lions rampant and lions passant, and all sorts of lions these five and twenty years, and for sure I ought to know what a lion's like better than all that!"

The circumstance of the royal arms of England containing three lions and those of Scotland one, has rendered this animal a special favourite with British armorists. Leigh and Guillim, particularly, are very minute in their remarks upon him. The French heralds object to the representation of the lion _guardant_, that is, with his face turned full upon the spectator, and declare that this posture is proper to the leopard, "wherein," says Guillim, "they offer great indignity to that _roiall beast_, in that they will not admit him, as saith Upton, to show his full face, the sight whereof doth terrifie and astonish all the beasts of the field, and wherein consisteth his chiefest majesty, '=quia omnia animalia debent depingi et designari in suo ferociore actu=.'" The French still allude derisively to our national charge as only a leopard. That one of these dissimilar animals could be mistaken for the other affords singular evidence of the rudeness with which arms in the middle ages were delineated.

[Illustration: (Lyon rampant. Guillim.)]

The _leopard_, as an heraldric charge, has been treated with more obloquy than he deserves, from the erroneous notion that he was a bigenerous animal, bred between the lion and the female panther. The _bear_ is generally borne muzzled and 'salient,' leaping, or rather jumping, the posture of the animal most familiar to our ancestors, who greatly delighted in his uncouth dancing. The _elephant_, the _wolf_, one of the most elegant of heraldric devices, the _fox_, the _rabbit_, the _squirrel_, the _monkey_, the _beaver_, the _porcupine_, the _cat-a-mountain_, and many other wild animals borne in arms, need no comment.

The _heraldric tiger_ furnishes another proof of the ignorance of our ancestors in the natural history of foreign animals. It is represented thus:

[Illustration]

Among the domestic animals borne in arms are the _horse_, the _ass_, the _camel_, the _bull_, the _ox_, the _greyhound_, the _talbot_ or mastiff, the _ram_, the _lamb_, the _hog_, &c.

The horse, from his associations with chivalry and war, has ever been a favourite charge. The lamb, as commonly represented, with the nimbus round its head and the banner of the cross, is termed a _holy lamb_. The _alant_ or wolf-dog, an extinct species, is of rare occurrence in arms.

"Abouten his char ther wenten white _alauns_, Twenty and mo as gret as any stere, To hunten at the leon or the dere." _Chaucer._

The _alant_ was the supporter of Fynes, Lord Dacre.

Most of the above were probably borne emblematically, but the _stag_, _deer_, _boar_, &c., seem to be trophies of the chase, especially when their heads only occur. The heads and other parts of animals are represented either as _couped_, cut off smoothly, or _erased_, torn off as it were with violence, leaving the place of separation jagged and uneven. The boar's head may have been derived from the old custom of serving up a boar's head at the tables of feudal nobles. This practice is still observed in the hall of Queen's College, Oxford, on Christmas-day, when an antient song or carol, appropriate enough to the ceremony, though not very well befitting the time and the place, is sung. It begins thus:

"The boar's head in hand bear I, Bedeck'd with bays and rosemary, And I pray you, my masters, be merry, Quot estis in convivio. =Caput apri defero Reddens laudes Domino.="

The presentation of a boar's head forms the condition of several feudal tenures in various parts of the country. As an heraldric bearing, and as a sign for inns, it is of very antient date. Of its latter application the far-famed hostelry in Eastcheap affords one among many examples; while its use in armory was familiar to the father of English poesy, who, describing the equipments of Sir Thopas, says,

"His sheld was all of gold so red And therin was a _bore's hed_, A charboncle beside."

The annexed singular bearing, 'a cup with a boar's head erect,' evidently alludes to some obsolete custom or tenure.

[Illustration]

It may be remarked here that many of the terms of heraldry, when applied to the parts and attitudes of 'beastes of venerie and huntyng,' are identical with the expressions used by learned _chasseurs_ of the 'olden tyme,' and which are fully elucidated by Dame Julyan, Manwood, Blundeville, and other writers on woodcraft and the chase; a _science_, by the way, as systematic in the employment of terms as heraldry itself. This remark applies equally to the technical words in falconry used in describing falcons, hawks, &c., when they occur in armory.

When antient armorists had so far departed from the propriety of nature as to paint swans red and tigers green, it was not difficult to admit still greater monstrosities. Double-headed and double-tailed lions and eagles occur at an early date; but these are nothing when compared with the double and triple-_bodied_ lions figured by Leigh.[99] It would be a mere waste of time to speculate upon the origin of such bearings, which owe their birth to "the rich exuberance of a Gothick fancy"--the fertile source of the chimerical figures noticed in the next chapter.

Among BIRDS, the _eagle_ holds the highest rank. The lyon was the royal beast--this the imperial bird. He is almost uniformly exhibited in front, with expanded wings, and blazoned by the term 'displayed.' The _falcon_, _hawk_, _moor-cock_, _swan_, _cock_, _owl_, _stork_, _raven_, _turkey_, _peacock_, _swallow_, and many others of the winged nation are well known to the most careless observer of armorial ensigns. The _Cornish chough_, a favourite charge, is curiously described by Clarke as "a _fine blue or purple black-bird_, with red beak and legs," and said to be "a noble bearing of antiquity, being accounted the _king of crows_!"

The _pelican_ was believed to feed her young with her own blood, and therefore represented "vulning herself," that is, pecking her breast for a supply of the vital fluid.[100] The wings are usually indorsed or thrown upwards; "but this," says Berry, "is unnecessary in the blazon, as that is the only position in which the pelican is represented in coat-armour." This may be true of modern heraldry, but antiently this bird was borne 'close,' that is, with the wings down. The pelicans in the arms of the family of Pelham, resident at Laughton, co. Sussex, temp. Henry IV, were represented in this manner, as appears from a shield in one of the spandrels of the western door of Laughton church, and from some painted glass in the churches of Waldron and Warbleton. In a carving of the fifteenth century, among the ruins of Robertsbridge Abbey, the pelicans have their wings slightly raised, and in the modern arms of Pelham they are indorsed, as shown below.

[Illustration: Laughton Church.]

[Illustration: Robertsbridge Abbey.]

[Illustration: Modern Arms.]

Fishes, as borne in arms, have recently been made the subject of an able, most interesting, and beautifully illustrated volume.[101] In my _en passant_ survey of the ensigns of armory it will suffice to remark that the _dolphin_ takes the same rank among heraldric fishes as the lion occupies among quadrupeds, and the eagle among birds; after him the _pike_, _salmon_, _barbel_, and _trout_ hold an honourable place, and even the _herring_ and _sprat_ are not deemed too mean for armory. Neither have shell-fish been overlooked: the _escallop_ in particular, from its religious associations, has always been a special favourite.

AMPHIBIA, REPTILES, and INSECTS sometimes occur, particularly _toads_, _serpents_, _adders_, _tortoises_, _scorpions_, _snails_, _grasshoppers_, _spiders_, _ants_, _bees_, and _gad-flies_. It is singular that such despised and noxious creatures as the scorpion and the toad should have been adopted as marks of honour; yet such, in former times, was the taste for _allusive_ arms that the Botreuxes, of Cornwall, relinquished a simple antient coat in favour of one containing three toads, because the word 'botru' in the Cornish language signified a toad!

The HUMAN FIGURE and its parts are employed in many arms. The arms pertaining to the bishopric of Salisbury contain a representation of "our blessed Lady, with her son in her right hand and a sceptre in her left." The arms of the see of Chichester are the most singular to be found in the whole circle of church heraldry. They are blazoned thus: 'Azure, _Prester-John_ hooded, sitting on a tomb-stone; in his sinister hand an open book; his dexter hand extended, with the two fore-fingers erect, all or; _in his mouth_ a sword, fessewise, gules, hilt and pommel or, the point to the sinister.'[102] Prester or Presbyter-John, the person here represented, was a fabulous person of the middle ages, who was imagined to sway the sceptre of a powerful empire _somewhere_ in the East, and who must have been a very long-lived personage, unless he was _reproduced_ from time to time like the phoenix of antiquity. Many writers, during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, make mention of him. Sir John Maundevile describes his territory, which, however, he did not visit. That country, according to his statement, contained rocks of adamant,[103] which attracted all the ships that happened to come near them, until the congeries appeared like a forest, and became a kind of floating island. It also abounded in popinjays or parrots as "plentee as gees," and precious stones large enough to make "plateres, dissches, and cuppes." "Many other marveylles been there," he adds, "so that it were to cumbrous and to long to putten it in scripture of bokes." He describes the Emperor himself as "cristene," and believing "wel in the Fadre, in the Sone, and in the Holy Gost," yet, in some minor points, not quite sound in the faith. As to his imperial state, he possessed 72 provinces, over each of which presided a king; and he had so great an army that he could devote 330,000 men to guard his standards, which were "3 crosses of gold, fyn, grete and hye, fulle of precious stones." It is related of Columbus that he saw on one of the islands of the West Indies, which he then apprehended to be a part of the continent of Asia, a grave and sacred personage whom he at first believed to be Prester-John. This incident serves to show that the existence of this chimerical being was credited even so lately as the close of the fifteenth century, although Roger Bacon, in the thirteenth, doubted many of the tales related of him--"de quo tanta fama solebat esse, et multa falsa dicta sunt et scripta."[104] The best account of him is to be found in the work of Matthew Paris, the monk of St. Albans, who wrote before the year 1250. Marco Polo also mentions him in his travels.[105] Porny places him in Abyssinia under the title of _Preter cham_, or 'prince of the worshippers,' while Heckford[106] considers him a priest and one of the followers of Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople in the fifth century.

_Kings_ and _bishops_ occur as charges; but rarely. The heads of Moors and Saracens are more common, and belong to the category of trophies, having originated, for the most part, during the Crusades. The arms of the Welsh family of Vaughan are 'a cheveron between three children's heads ... enwrapped about the necks with as many snakes proper.' "It hath beene reported," saith old Guillim, "that some one of the ancestors of this family was borne with a snake about his necke: _a matter not impossible_, but yet very unprobable!" Besides heads, the armorial shield is sometimes charged with arms and legs, naked, vested, or covered with armour, hands, feet, eyes, hearts, winged and unwinged, &c. The coat of Tremaine exhibits three arms (et tres manus!) and that of the Isle of Man, three legs, as here represented. Of the former, Guillim remarks, "these armes and hands conjoyned and clenched after this manner may signify a treble offer of revenge for some notable injurie." If we might be jocular upon so grave a subject as armory, we should consider the second coat a happy allusion to the geographical position of the island between the three kingdoms of England, Ireland, and Scotland, as if it had run away from all three, and were kicking up its heels in derision of the whole empire![107]

[Illustration]

The VEGETABLE KINGDOM has furnished its full quota of charges. We have whole trees, as the _oak_, _pine_, _pear-tree_, &c.; parts of trees, as _oak-branches_, and _starved_ (_i.e._ dead) _branches_, trunks of trees, generally raguly or knobbed; leaves, as _laurel_, _fig_, _elm_, _woodbine_, _nettle_, and _holly_; fruit, as _pomegranates_, _apples_, _pears_, _pine-apples_, _grapes_, _acorns_, and _nuts_; flowers, as the _rose_, _lily_, _columbine_, _gilliflower_, &c.; corn, as stalks of wheat and rye, and particularly _garbs_ (Fr. gerbes) or wheatsheaves; to which some add _trefoils_, _quatrefoils_, and _cinquefoils_, and the bearing familiar to all in the arms of France, and called the _Fleur-de-lis_.

Respecting the _trefoil_, there can be little doubt, as Mr. Dallaway observes, that it was borrowed from the foliated ornaments of antient coronets, which again were imitations of the natural wreath. The shamrock, which is identical with the trefoil, is the national badge of Ireland. Of the quatre and cinquefoils "almost any conjecture would be weakly supported. Amongst the very early embellishments of Gothic architecture are quatrefoils, at first inserted simply in the heads of windows, between or over the incurvated or elliptical points of the mullions, and afterwards diversified into various ramifications, which were the florid additions to that style."[108] These terms are common to both architecture and heraldry, but from which of the two the other adopted them must remain in doubt.

The non-heraldric reader will be surprised to learn that the identity of the _fleur-de-lis_ with the iris or 'royal lily' has ever been called in question; yet it has been doubted, with much reason, whether an ornamented spear-head or sceptre be not the thing intended. The Boke of S. A. informs us that the arms of the king of France were "certainli sende by an awngell from heuyn, that is to say iij flowris in maner of swerdis in a felde of asure, the wich certan armys ware geuyn to the forsayd kyng of fraunce in sygne of euerlasting trowbull, and that he and his successaries all way with bataill and swereddys (swords) shulde be punyshid!" Those who imagine the bearing to be a play upon the royal name of Loys or Louis decide in favour of the flower. Upton calls it '=flos gladioli=.'[109] Perhaps it was made a flower for the purpose of assimilating it to the English rose; certainly all our associations, historical and poetical, would tell in favour of its being such; and such it was undoubtedly understood to be in the time of Chaucer, who says of Sire Thopas,

"Upon his crest he bare a tour (tower), And therein stiked a _lily flour_."

Leigh seems to entertain no doubt of its belonging to the vegetable kingdom; for in his notice of this charge he particularly describes the flower and the root of the iris. Mr. Montagu, in his recent 'Guide to the Study of Heraldry,' thinks the arguments of M. de Menestrier "in favour of the iris so strong as _almost_ to set the question at rest."[110]

[Illustration]

Those who advocate the spear-head view of the question, bring forward the common heraldric bearing, _a leopard's head jessant de lis_, i. e. thrust through the mouth with a fleur-de-lis, which passes through the skull as represented in the above cut. "There cannot," as Dallaway says, "be a more absurd combination than that of a leopard's head producing a lily, while the idea that it was typical of the triumph after the chase, when the head of the animal was thrust through with a spear and so carried in procession," seems perfectly consistent. Still the query may arise 'how is it that the head of no other animal, the wolf or boar for instance, is found represented in a similar manner?'

The little band surrounding the _pieces_ of which the fleur-de-lis of heraldry is composed is analogous to nothing whatever in the flower, while it does strongly resemble the forril of metal which surrounds the insertion of a spear-head into its staff or pole. After an attentive consideration of both hypotheses, I have no hesitation in affirming that the fleur-de-lis is _not_ the lily. This is shown, not from the occurrence of lilies in their proper shape in some coats, and that of the heraldric _lis_ in others, (for such a variation might have been accidentally made by the incorrect representations of unskilful painters,) but from the fact that both lilies and lis are found in one and the same coat--that of Eton College.[111]

[Illustration]

The Tressure surrounding the lion in the royal arms of Scotland is blazoned 'fleury and counter-fleury,' that is, having fleurs-de-lis springing from it, both on the outer and inner sides. The fabulous account of the tressure is that it was given by Charlemagne to Achaius, king of Scotland in the year 792, in token of alliance and friendship. Nisbet says, "The Tressure Flowerie encompasses the Lyon of Scotland, to show that he should defend the Flower-de-lisses, and _these to continue a defence to the Lion_."[112]

Now, although we must discard this early existence of the Scottish ensigns, it is by no means improbable that the addition of the tressure was made in commemoration of some alliance between the two crowns at a later date. But the _defence_ which a bulwark of lilies could afford the king of beasts would be feeble indeed! Yet, upon the supposition that the fleur-de-lis is intended for a spear-head, such an addition would be exceedingly appropriate, as forming a kind of chevaux-de-frise[113] around the animal.

This doubtful charge may serve as a turning point between 'things naturall' and 'things artificiall.' Among the latter, crowns, sceptres, orbs, caps of maintenance, mantles of state, and such-like insignia may be first named. According to Dame Julyan Berners, _crowns_ formed part of the arms of King Arthur--"iij dragonys and over that an other sheelde of iij crownys." Mitres, crosiers, &c. occur principally, though not exclusively, in church heraldry. From attention in the first instance to the 'arts liberall' came such charges as books, pens, ink-horns, text-letters, as =A='s, =T='s and =S='s, organ-pipes, hautboys, harps, viols, bells, &c. The 'arts mechanicall' furnish us with implements of agriculture, as ploughs, harrows, scythes, wheels, &c. The _Catherine Wheel_ Dallaway takes for a cogged, or denticulated mill-wheel, with reference to some feudal tenure, but it seems rather ungallant to rob the female saint of the instrument of her passion, while St. Andrew and St. George are allowed to retain theirs in undisturbed possession. Manufactures afford the wool-comb, the spindle, the shuttle, the comb, the hemp-break, &c. Among mechanical implements are included pick-axes, mallets, hammers, plummets, squares, axes, nails, &c. Architecture furnishes towers, walls, bridges, pillars, &c. From the marine we have antient ships, boats, rudders, masts, anchors, and sails. From field-sports come bugle (that is bullock) horns, bows, arrows, pheons or fish-spears, falcons' bells, and lures, fish-hooks, eel-spears, nets of various kinds, and bird-bolts. The bird-bolt was a small blunt arrow, with one, two, or three heads, used with the crossbow for shooting at birds. Hence the adage of '=The fool's Bolt is soon shot=,' applied to the hasty expression or retort of an ignorant babbler. John Heywood versifies the proverb thus:

"A foole's bolte is soone shot, and fleeth oftymes fer; But the foole's bolte and the mark cum few times ner."[114]

From sedentary games are borrowed playing-tables, dice, chess-rooks, &c.

[Illustration]

War has naturally supplied heraldry with a numerous list of charges, as banners, spears, beacons, drums, trumpets, cannons, or chamber-pieces, 'murthering chain-shot,' burning matches (of rope), portcullises, battering-rams, crossbows, swords, sabres, lances, battle-axes, and scaling-ladders; also shields, generally borne in threes, helmets, morions, gauntlets, greaves (leg armour), horse-trappings, bridles, saddles, spurs, horse-shoes, shackles, _cum multis aliis_. Many of these, though disused in modern warfare, will require no explanation, but a few others whose use is less obvious may be added, as _swepes_, _caltraps_, and _water-bowgets_.

The _swepe_, sometimes called a _mangonel_, and as such borne in the canting arms of Magnall, was a war-engine, used for the purpose of hurling stones into a besieged town or fortress; a species of balista.

[Illustration: Murthering chain-shot.]

[Illustration: Caltrap.]

[Illustration: Beacon.]

[Illustration: Swepe.]

In the celebrated lampoon upon Richard, king of the Romans, who was obliged, at the battle of Lewes, to take refuge in a windmill, the following lines occur:

"The Kynge of Alemaigne wende to do full wel, He saisede the mulne for a castel; With hare sharpe swerdes he ground the stel, He wende that the sayles were _mangonel_!"[115]

The _caltrap_ was a cruel contrivance for galling the feet of horses. It was made of iron, and so constructed that, however it might fall, one of its four sharp points should be erect. Numbers of them strewed in the enemy's path served to retard the advance of cavalry, and a retreat was sometimes secured by dropping them in the flight, and thus cutting off the pursuit. Its etymology is uncertain, cheval-trap and _gall_-trap have been suggested with nearly equal claims to probability.

Water-bowgets, or budgets, date from the Crusades, when water had often to be conveyed across the sandy deserts from a great distance. They are represented in various grotesque forms as--

[Illustration]

so that it is a matter of curiosity to know in what manner they were carried. Leigh and others call them _gorges_; but the charge properly known by that name is a whirlpool, as borne in the armes parlantes of the family of Gorges.

The _mullet_, a star-like figure, has been taken to represent the rowel of a spur; but a doubt of this derivation of the charge may be suggested, as the spur of the middle ages had no rowel, but consisted of one sharp spike. Some of the old heralds considered mullets as representations of falling stars--"exhalations inflamed in the aire and stricken back with a cloud"--which, according to Guillim, are sometimes found on the earth like a certain jelly, and assuming the form of the charge. The substance alluded to bears the name of star-jelly. In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1797, are several communications on this subject, in which there is a great contrariety of opinion, some of the writers contending that it is an animal substance, while others consider it a vegetable. As it is usually found in boggy grounds, Dr. Darwin deemed it a mucilage voided by herons after they have eaten frogs, and Pennant attributed it to gulls. The antient alchemists called it the flower of heaven, and imagined that from it they could procure the universal menstruum; but all their researches ended in discovering that by distillation it yielded some phlegm, volatile salt, and empyreumatic oil.[116]

Personal costume, although mixed up with the very earliest of heraldric devices, furnishes scarcely any regular charges. Excepting shoes, caps, and body-armour, the _maunch_ is almost the only one derived from this source. This charge, a familiar example of which occurs in the arms of the noble family of Hastings, represents an antient fashion of sleeve worn soon after the Conquest, but of such an extravagant form that Leigh blazons it a _maunch-maltalé_, a badly-cut sleeve; and certainly the example given by him fully justifies the use of that epithet. The taste for a long pendulous addition to the cuff of the sleeve forms one of the most curious features of the female costume of the twelfth century. According to Brydson, the maunch was a distinguished "favour" bestowed on some knights, being part of the dress of the lady or princess who presented it.

The woodcut (no inappropriate _tail-piece_ for the present chapter) delineates several antient forms of this article. Well may Master Leigh remark, "Of thinges of antiquitee growen out of fashion this is one."

[Illustration: No. 1, Leigh; 3, 4, from Planché's Hist. Brit. Cost.; 2, Arms of Hastings, from the tomb of W. de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, Westminster Abbey.

=Mangys be called in armys a sleue.= _Boke S. A._]