Chapter XII: Part 12

While bearing in mind that the two words have no distinctive force in ancient armory, the student and the herald of modern times may conveniently allow himself to blazon the sharp and saw-toothed line as "indented" and the scolloped line as "engrailed," especially when dealing with the debased armory in which the distinction is held to be a true one and one of the first importance. One error at least he must avoid, and that is the following of the heraldry-book compilers in their use of the word "dancetty." A "dancetty" line, we are told, is a line having fewer and deeper indentures than the line indented. But no dancetty line could make a bolder dash across the shield than do the lines which the old armorists recognized as "indented." In old armory we have fesses dancy--commonly called "dances"--bends dancy, or cheverons dancy; there are no chiefs dancy nor borders dancy, nor are there shields blazoned as parted with a dancy line. Waved lines, battled lines and ragged lines need little explanation that a picture cannot give. The word invecked or invected is sometimes applied by old-fashioned heraldic pedants to engrailed lines; later pedants have given it to a line found in modern grants of arms, an engrailed line reversed. Dove-tailed and urdy lines are mere modernisms. Of the very rare nebuly or clouded line we can only say that the ancient form, which imitated the conventional cloud-bank of the old painters, is now almost forgotten, while the bold "wavy" lines of early armory have the word "nebuly" misapplied to them.

_The Ordinary Charges._--The writers upon armory have given the name of Ordinaries to certain conventional figures commonly charged upon shields. Also they affect to divide these into Honourable Ordinaries and Sub-Ordinaries without explaining the reason for the superior honour of the Saltire or for the subordination of the Quarter. Disregarding such distinctions, we may begin with the description of the "Ordinaries" most commonly to be found.

From the first the Cross was a common bearing on English shields, "Silver a cross gules" being given early to St George, patron of knights and of England, for his arms; and under St George's red cross the English were wont to fight. Our armorial crosses took many shapes, but the "crosses innumerabill" of the Book of St Albans and its successors may be left to the heraldic dictionary makers who have devised them. It is more important to define those forms in use during the middle ages, and to name them accurately after the custom of those who bore them in war, a task which the heraldry books have never as yet attempted with success.

The cross in its simple form needs no definition, but it will be noted that it is sometimes borne "voided" and that in a very few cases it appears as a lesser charge with its ends cut off square, in which case it must be clearly blazoned as "a plain Cross."

Andrew Harcla, the march-warden, whom Edward II. made an earl and
executed as a traitor, bore the arms of St George with a martlet sable
in the quarter.

Crevequer of Kent bore "Gold a voided cross gules."

Newsom (14th century) bore "Azure a fesse silver with three plain
crosses gules."

Next to the plain Cross may be taken the Cross paty, the _croiz patee_ or _pate_ of old rolls of arms. It has several forms, according to the taste of the artist and the age. So, in the 13th and early 14th centuries, its limbs curve out broadly, while at a later date the limbs become more slender and of even breadth, the ends somewhat resembling fleurs-de-lys. Each of these forms has been seized by the heraldic writers as the type of a distinct cross for which a name must be found, none of them, as a rule, being recognized as a cross paty, a word which has its misapplication elsewhere. Thus the books have "cross patonce" for the earlier form, while "cross clechee" and "cross fleurie" serve for the others. But the true identification of the various crosses is of the first importance to the antiquary, since without it descriptions of the arms on early seals or monuments must needs be valueless. Many instances of this need might be cited from the British Museum catalogue of seals, where, for example, the cross paty of Latimer is described twice as a "cross flory," six times as a "cross patonce," but not once by its own name, although there is no better known example of this bearing in England.

Latimer bore "Gules a cross paty gold."

The cross formy follows the lines of the cross paty save that its broadening ends are cut off squarely.

Chetwode bore "Quarterly silver and gules with four crosses formy
countercoloured"--that is to say, the two crosses in the gules are of
silver and the two in the silver of gules.

The cross flory or flowered cross, the "cross with the ends flowered"--_od les boutes floretes_ as some of the old rolls have it--is, like the cross paty, a mark for the misapprehension of writers on armory, who describe some shapes of the cross paty by its name. Playing upon discovered or fancied variants of the word, they bid us mark the distinctions between crosses "fleur-de-lisee," "fleury" and "fleurettee," although each author has his own version of the value which must be given these precious words. But the facts of the medieval practice are clear to those who take their armory from ancient examples and not from phrases plagiarized from the hundredth plagiarist. The flowered cross is one whose limbs end in fleur-de-lys, which spring sometimes from a knop or bud but more frequently issue from the square ends of a cross of the "formy" type.

Swynnerton bore "Silver a flowered cross sable."

The mill-rind, which takes its name from the iron of a mill-stone--_fer de moline_--must be set with the crosses. Some of the old rolls call it _croiz recercele_, from which armorial writers have leaped to imagine a distinct type. Also they call the mill-rind itself a "cross moline" keeping the word mill-rind for a charge having the same origin but of somewhat differing form. Since this charge became common in Tudor armory it is perhaps better that the original mill-rind should be called for distinction a mill-rind cross.

Willoughby bore "Gules a mill-rind cross silver."

The crosslet, cross botonny or cross crosletted, is a cross whose limbs, of even breadth, end as trefoils or treble buds. It is rarely found in medieval examples in the shape--that of a cross with limbs ending in squarely cut plain crosses--which it took during the 16th-century decadence. As the sole charge of a shield it is very rare; otherwise it is one of the commonest of charges.

Brerelegh bore "Silver a crosslet gules."

Within these modest limits we have brought the greater part of that monstrous host of crosses which cumber the dictionaries. A few rare varieties may be noticed.

Dukinfield bore "Silver a voided cross with sharpened ends."

Skirlaw, bishop of Durham (d. 1406), the son of a basket-weaver, bore
"Silver a cross of three upright wattles sable, crossed and interwoven
by three more."

Drury bore "Silver a chief vert with a St Anthony's cross gold between
two golden molets, pierced gules."

Brytton bore "Gold a patriarch's cross set upon three degrees or steps
of gules."

Hurlestone of Cheshire bore "Silver a cross of four ermine tails
sable."

Melton bore "Silver a Toulouse cross gules." By giving this cross a
name from the counts of Toulouse, its best-known bearers, some
elaborate blazonry is spared.

The crosses paty and formy, and more especially the crosslets, are often borne fitchy, that is to say, with the lower limb somewhat lengthened and ending in a point, for which reason the 15th-century writers call these "crosses fixabill." In the 14th-century rolls the word "potent" is sometimes used for these crosses fitchy, the long foot suggesting a potent or staff. From this source modern English armorists derive many of their "crosses potent," whose four arms have the T heads of old-fashioned walking staves.

Howard bore "Silver a bend between six crosslets fitchy gules."

Scott of Congerhurst in Kent bore "Silver a crosslet fitchy sable."

The Saltire is the cross in the form of that on which St Andrew suffered, whence it is borne on the banner of Scotland, and by the Andrew family of Northamptonshire.

Nevile of Raby bore "Gules a saltire silver."

Nicholas Upton, the 15th-century writer on armory, bore "Silver a
saltire sable with the ends couped and five golden rings thereon."

Aynho bore "Sable a saltire silver having the ends flowered between
four leopards gold."

"Mayster Elwett of Yorke chyre" in a 15th-century roll bears "Silver a
saltire of chains sable with a crescent in the chief."

Restwolde bore "Party saltirewise of gules and ermine."

The chief is the upper part of the shield and, marked out by a line of division, it is taken as one of the Ordinaries. Shields with a plain chief and no more are rare in England, but Tichborne of Tichborne has borne since the 13th century "Vair a chief gold." According to the heraldry books the chief should be marked off as a third part of the shield, but its depth varies, being broader when charged with devices and narrower when, itself uncharged, it surmounts a charged field. Fenwick bore "Silver a chief gules with six martlets countercoloured," and in this case the chief would be the half of the shield. Clinging to the belief that the chief must not fill more than a third of the shield, the heraldry books abandon the word in such cases, blazoning them as "party per fesse."

Hastang bore "Azure a chief gules and a lion with a forked tail over
all."

Walter Kingston seals in the 13th century with a shield of "Two rings
or annelets in the chief."

Hilton of Westmoreland bore "Sable three rings gold and two saltires
silver in the chief."

With the chief may be named the Foot, the nether part of the shield marked off as an Ordinary. So rare is this charge that we can cite but one example of it, that of the shield of John of Skipton, who in the 14th century bore "Silver with the foot indented purple and a lion purple." The foot, however, is a recognized bearing in France, whose heralds gave it the name of _champagne_.

The Pale is a broad stripe running the length of the shield. Of a single pale and of three pales there are several old examples. Four red pales in a golden shield were borne by Eleanor of Provence, queen of Henry III.; but the number did not commend itself to English armorists. When the field is divided evenly into six pales it is said to be paly; if into four or eight pales, it is blazoned as paly of that number of pieces. But paly of more or less than six pieces is rarely found.

The Yorkshire house of Gascoigne bore "Silver a pale sable with a
golden conger's head thereon, cut off at the shoulder."

Ferlington bore "Gules three pales vair and a chief gold."

Strelley bore "Paly silver and azure."

Rothinge bore "Paly silver and gules of eight pieces."

When the shield or charge is divided palewise down the middle into two tinctures it is said to be "party." "Party silver and gules" are the arms of the Waldegraves. Bermingham bore "Party silver and sable indented." Caldecote bore "Party silver and azure with a chief gules." Such partings of the field often cut through charges whose colours change about on either side of the parting line. Thus Chaucer the poet bore "Party silver and gules with a bend countercoloured."

The Fesse is a band athwart the shield, filling, according to the rules of the heraldic writers, a third part of it. By ancient use, however, as in the case of the chief and pale, its width varies with the taste of the painter, narrowing when set in a field full of charges and broadening when charges are displayed on itself. When two or three fesses are borne they are commonly called Bars. "Ermine _four_ bars gules" is given as the shield of Sir John Sully, a 14th-century Garter knight, on his stall-plate at Windsor: but the plate belongs to a later generation, and should probably have three bars only. Little bars borne in couples are styled Gemels (twins). The field divided into an even number of bars of alternate colours is said to be barry, barry of six pieces being the normal number. If four or eight divisions be found the number of pieces must be named; but with ten or more divisions the number is unreckoned and "burely" is the word.

Colevile of Bitham bore "Gold a fesse gules."

West bore "Silver a dance (or fesse dancy) sable."

Fauconberg bore "Gold a fesse azure with three pales gules in the
chief."

Cayvile bore "Silver a fesse gules, flowered on both sides."

Devereux bore "Gules a fesse silver with three roundels silver in the
chief."

Chamberlayne of Northamptonshire bore "Gules a fesse and three
scallops gold."

Harcourt bore "Gules two bars gold."

Manners bore "Gold two bars azure and a chief gules."

Wake bore "Gold two bars gules with three roundels gules in the
chief."

Bussy bore "Silver three bars sable."

Badlesmere of Kent bore "Silver a fesse between two gemels gules."

Melsanby bore "Sable two gemels and a chief silver."

Grey bore "Barry of silver and azure."

Fitzalan of Bedale bore "Barry of eight pieces gold and gules."

Stutevile bore "Burely of silver and gules."

The Bend is a band traversing the shield aslant, arms with one, two or three bends being common during the middle ages in England. Bendy shields follow the rule of shields paly and barry, but as many as ten pieces have been counted in them. The bend is often accompanied by a narrow bend on either side, these companions being called Cotices. A single narrow bend, struck over all other charges, is the Baston, which during the 13th and 14th centuries was a common difference for the shields of the younger branches of a family, coming in later times to suggest itself as a difference for bastards.

The Bend Sinister, the bend drawn from right to left beginning at the "sinister" corner of the shield, is reckoned in the heraldry books as a separate Ordinary, and has a peculiar significance accorded to it by novelists. Medieval English seals afford a group of examples of Bends Sinister and Bastons Sinister, but there seems no reason for taking them as anything more than cases in which the artist has neglected the common rule.

Mauley bore "Gold a bend sable."

Harley bore "Gold a bend with two cotices sable."

Wallop bore "Silver a bend wavy sable."

Ralegh bore "Gules a bend indented, or engrailed, silver."

Tracy bore "Gold two bends gules with a scallop sable in the chief
between the bends."

Bodrugan bore "Gules three bends sable."

St Philibert bore "Bendy of six pieces, silver and azure."

Bishopsdon bore "Bendy of six pieces, gold and azure, with a quarter
ermine."

Montfort of Whitchurch bore "Bendy of ten pieces gold and azure."

Henry of Lancaster, second son of Edmund Crouchback, bore the arms of
his cousin, the king of England, with the difference of "a baston
azure."

Adam Fraunceys (14th century) bore "Party gold and sable bendwise with
a lion countercoloured." The parting line is here commonly shown as
"sinister."

The Cheveron, a word found In medieval building accounts for the barge-boards of a gable, is an Ordinary whose form is explained by its name. Perhaps the very earliest of English armorial charges, and familiarized by the shield of the great house of Clare, it became exceedingly popular in England. Like the bend and the chief, its width varies in different examples. Likewise its angle varies, being sometimes so acute as to touch the top of the shield, while in post-medieval armory the point is often blunted beyond the right angle. One, two or three cheverons occur in numberless shields, and five cheverons have been found. Also there are some examples of the bearing of cheveronny.

The earls of Gloucester of the house of Clare bore "Gold three
cheverons gules" and the Staffords derived from them their shield of
"Gold a cheveron gules."

Chaworth bore "Azure two cheverons gold."

Peytevyn bore "Cheveronny of ermine and gules."

St Quintin of Yorkshire bore "Gold two cheverons gules and a chief
vair."

Sheffield bore "Ermine a cheveron gules between three sheaves gold."

Cobham of Kent bore "Gules a cheveron gold with three fleurs-de-lys
azure thereon."

Fitzwalter bore "Gold a fesse between two cheverons gules."

Shields parted cheveronwise are common in the 15th century, when they are often blazoned as having chiefs "enty" or grafted. Aston of Cheshire bore "Party sable and silver cheveronwise" or "Silver a chief enty sable."

The Pile or stake (_estache_) is a wedge-shaped figure jutting from the chief to the foot of the shield, its name allied to the pile of the bridge-builder. A single pile is found in the notable arms of Chandos, and the black piles in the ermine shield of Hollis are seen as an example of the bearing of two piles. Three piles are more easily found, and when more than one is represented the points are brought together at the foot. In ancient armory piles in a shield are sometimes reckoned as a variety of pales, and a Basset with three piles on his shield is seen with three pales on his square banner.

Chandos bore "Gold a pile gules."

Bryene bore "Gold three piles azure."

The Quarter is the space of the first quarter of the shield divided crosswise into four parts. As an Ordinary it is an ancient charge and a common one in medieval England, although it has all but disappeared from modern heraldry books, the "Canton," an alleged "diminutive," unknown to early armory, taking its place. Like the other Ordinaries, its size is found to vary with the scheme of the shield's charges, and this has persuaded those armorists who must needs call a narrow bend a "bendlet," to the invention of the "Canton," a word which in the sense of a quarter or small quarter appears for the first time in the latter part of the 15th century. Writers of the 14th century sometimes give it the name of the Cantel, but this word is also applied to the void space on the opposite side of the chief, seen above a bend.

Blencowe bore "Gules a quarter silver."

Basset of Drayton bore "Gold three piles (or pales) gules with a
quarter ermine."

Wydvile bore "Silver a fesse and a quarter gules."

Odingseles bore "Silver a fesse gules with a molet gules in the
quarter."

Robert Dene of Sussex (14th century) bore "Gules a quarter azure
'embelif,' or aslant, and thereon a sleeved arm and hand of silver."

Shields or charges divided crosswise with a downward line and a line athwart are said to be quarterly. An ancient coat of this fashion is that of Say who bore (13th century) "Quarterly gold and gules"--the first and fourth quarters being gold and the second and third red. Ever or Eure bore the same with the addition of "a bend sable with three silver scallops thereon." Phelip, Lord Bardolf, bore "Quarterly gules and silver with an eagle gold in the quarter."

SHIELDS OF ARMS OF "LE ROY DARRABE," "LE ROY DE TARSSE," AND OTHER SOVEREIGNS. MOSTLY MYTHICAL. TAKEN FROM A ROLL OF ARMS MADE BY AN ENGLISH PAINTER IN THE TIME OF HENRY VI.

_Drawn by William Gibb._
_Niagara Litho. Co., Buffalo, N. Y._]

With the 15th century came a fashion of dividing the shield into more than four squares, six and nine divisions being often found in arms of that age. The heraldry books, eager to work out problems of blazonry, decide that a shield divided into six squares should be described as "Party per fesse with a pale counterchanged," and one divided into nine squares as bearing "a cross quarter-pierced." It seems a simpler business to follow a 15th-century fashion and to blazon such shields as being of six or nine "pieces." Thus John Garther (15th century) bore "Nine pieces erminees and ermine" and Whitgreave of Staffordshire "Nine pieces of azure and of Stafford's arms, which are gold with a cheveron gules." The Tallow Chandlers of London had a grant in 1456 of "Six pieces azure and silver with three doves in the azure, each with an olive sprig in her beak."

Squared into more than nine squares the shield becomes checky or checkered and the number is not reckoned. Warenne's checker of gold and azure is one of the most ancient coats in England and checkered fields and charges follow in great numbers. Even lions have been borne checkered.

Warenne bore "Checky gold and azure."

Clifford bore the like with "a fesse gules."

Cobham bore "Silver a lion checky gold and sable."

Arderne bore "Ermine a fesse checky gold and gules."

Such charges as this fesse of Arderne's and other checkered fesses, bars, bends, borders and the like, will commonly bear but two rows of squares, or three at the most. The heraldry writers are ready to note that when two rows are used "counter-compony" is the word in place of checky, and "compony-counter-compony" in the case of three rows. It is needless to say that these words have neither practical value nor antiquity to commend them. But bends and bastons, labels, borders and the rest are often coloured with a single row of alternating tinctures. In this case the pieces are said to be "gobony." Thus John Cromwell (14th century) bore "Silver a chief gules with a baston gobony of gold and azure."

The scocheon or shield used as a charge is found among the earliest arms. Itself charged with arms, it served to indicate alliance by blood or by tenure with another house, as in the bearings of St Owen whose shield of "Gules with a cross silver" has a scocheon of Clare in the quarter. In the latter half of the 15th century it plays an important part in the curious marshalling of the arms of great houses and lordships.

Erpingham bore "Vert a scocheon silver with an orle (or border) of
silver martlets."

Davillers bore at the battle of Boroughbridge "Silver three scocheons
gules."

The scocheon was often borne voided or pierced, its field cut away to a narrow border. Especially was this the case in the far North, where the Balliols, who bore such a voided scocheon, were powerful. The voided scocheon is wrongly named in all the heraldry books as an orle, a term which belongs to a number of small charges set round a central charge. Thus the martlets in the shield of Erpingham, already described, may be called an orle of martlets or a border of martlets. This misnaming of the voided scocheon has caused a curious misapprehension of its form, even Dr Woodward, in his _Heraldry, British and Foreign_, describing the "orle" as "a narrow border detached from the edge of the shield." Following this definition modern armorial artists will, in the case of quartered arms, draw the "orle" in a first or second quarter of a quartered shield as a rectangular figure and in a third or fourth quarter as a scalene triangle with one arched side. Thereby the original voided scocheon changes into forms without meaning.

Balliol bore "Gules a voided scocheon silver."

Surtees bore "Ermine with a quarter of the arms of Balliol."

The _Tressure_ or flowered tressure is a figure which is correctly described by Woodward's incorrect description of the orle as cited above, being a narrow inner border of the shield. It is distinguished, however, by the fleurs-de-lys which decorate it, setting off its edges. The double tressure which surrounds the lion in the royal shield of Scotland, and which is borne by many Scottish houses who have served their kings well or mated with their daughters, is carefully described by Scottish heralds as "flowered and counter-flowered," a blazon which is held to mean that the fleurs-de-lys show head and tail in turn from the outer rim of the outer tressure and from the inner rim of the innermost. But this seems to have been no essential matter with medieval armorists and a curious 15th-century enamelled roundel of the arms of Vampage shows that in this English case the flowering takes the more convenient form of allowing all the lily heads to sprout from the outer rim.

Vampage bore "Azure an eagle silver within a flowered tressure
silver."

The king of Scots bore "Gold a lion within a double tressure flowered
and counterflowered gules."

Felton bore "Gules two lions passant within a double tressure flory
silver."

The Border of the shield when marked out in its own tincture is counted as an Ordinary. Plain or charged, it was commonly used as a difference. As the principal charge of a shield it is very rare, so rare that in most cases where it apparently occurs we may, perhaps, be following medieval custom in blazoning the shield as one charged with a scocheon and not with a border. Thus Hondescote bore "Ermine a border gules" or "Gules a scocheon ermine."

Somerville bore "Burely silver and gules and a border azure with
golden martlets."

Paynel bore "Silver two bars sable with a border, or orle, of martlets
gules."

The Flaunches are the flanks of the shield which, cut off by rounded lines, are borne in pairs as Ordinaries. These charges are found in many coats devised by 15th-century armorists. "Ermine two flaunches azure with six golden wheat-ears" was borne by John Greyby of Oxfordshire (15th century).

The Label is a narrow fillet across the upper part of the chief, from which hang three, four, five or more pendants, the pendants being, in most old examples, broader than the fillet. Reckoned with the Ordinaries, it was commonly used as a means of differencing a cadet's shield, and in the heraldry books it has become the accepted difference for an eldest son, although the cadets often bore it in the middle ages. John of Hastings bore in 1300 before Carlaverock "Gold a sleeve (or maunche) gules," while Edmund his brother bore the same arms with a sable label. In modern armory the pendants are all but invariably reduced to three, which, in debased examples, are given a dovetailed form while the ends of the fillet are cut off.

The Fret, drawn as a voided lozenge interlaced by a slender saltire, is counted an Ordinary. A charge in such a shape is extremely rare in medieval armory, its ancient form when the field is covered by it being a number of bastons--three being the customary number--interlaced by as many more from the sinister side. Although the whole is described as a fret in certain English blazons of the 15th century, the adjective "fretty" is more commonly used. Trussel's fret is remarkable for its bezants at the joints, which stand, doubtless, for the golden nail-heads of the "trellis" suggested by his name. Curwen, Wyvile and other northern houses bearing a fret and a chief have, owing to their fashion of drawing their frets, often seen them changed by the heraldry books into "three cheverons braced or interlaced."

Huddlestone bore "Gules fretty silver."

Trussel bore "Silver fretty gules, the joints bezanty."

Hugh Giffard (14th century) bore "Gules with an engrailed fret of
ermine."

Wyvile bore "Gules fretty vair with a chief gold."

Boxhull bore "Gold a lion azure fretty silver."

Another Ordinary is the Giron or Gyron--a word now commonly mispronounced with a hard "g." It may be defined as the lower half of a quarter which has been divided bendwise. No old example of a single giron can be found to match the figure in the heraldry books. Gironny, or gyronny, is a manner of dividing the field into sections, by lines radiating from a centre point, of which many instances may be given. Most of the earlier examples have some twelve divisions although later armory gives eight as the normal number, as Campbell bears them.

Bassingbourne bore "Gironny of gold and azure of twelve pieces."

William Stoker, who died Lord Mayor of London in 1484, bore "Gironny
of six pieces azure and silver with three popinjays in the silver
pieces."

A pair of girons on either side of a chief were borne in the strange
shield of Mortimer, commonly blazoned as "Barry azure and gold of six
pieces, the chief azure with two pales and two girons gold, a scocheon
silver over all." An early example shows that this shield began as a
plain field with a gobony border.

With the Ordinaries we may take the Roundels or Pellets, disks or balls of various colours. Ancient custom gives the name of a bezant to the golden roundel, and the folly of the heraldic writers has found names for all the others, names which may be disregarded together with the belief that, while bezants and silver roundels, as representing coins, must be pictured with a flat surface, roundels of other hues must needs be shaded by the painter to represent rounded balls. Rings or Annelets were common charges in the North, where Lowthers, Musgraves and many more, differenced the six rings of Vipont by bearing them in various colours.

Burlay of Wharfdale bore "Gules a bezant."

Courtenay, earl of Devon, bore "Gold three roundels gules with a label
azure."

Caraunt bore "Silver three roundels azure, each with three cheverons
gules."

Vipont bore "Gold six annelets gules."

Avenel bore "Silver a fesse and six annelets (_aunels_) gules."

Hawberk of Stapleford bore "Silver a bend sable charged with three
pieces of a mail hawberk, each of three linked rings of gold."

Stourton bore "Sable a bend gold between six fountains." The fountain
is a roundel charged with waves of white and blue.

The Lozenge is linked in the heraldry book with the Fusil. This Fusil is described as a lengthened and sharper lozenge. But it will be understood that the Fusil, other than as part of an engrailed or indented bend, pale or fesse, is not known to true armory. Also it is one of the notable achievements of the English writers on heraldry that they should have allotted to the lozenge, when borne voided, the name of Mascle. This "mascle" is the word of the oldest armorists for the unvoided charge, the voided being sometimes described by them as a lozenge, without further qualifications. Fortunately the difficulty can be solved by following the late 14th-century custom in distinguishing between "lozenges" and "voided lozenges" and by abandoning altogether this misleading word Mascle.

Thomas of Merstone, a clerk, bore on his seal in 1359 "Ermine a
lozenge with a pierced molet thereon."

Braybroke bore "Silver seven voided lozenges gules."

Charles bore "Ermine a chief gules with five golden lozenges.
thereon."

Fitzwilliam bore "Lozengy silver and gules."

Billets are oblong figures set upright. Black billets in the arms of Delves of Cheshire stand for "delves" of earth and the gads of steel in the arms of the London Ironmongers' Company took a somewhat similar form.

Sir Ralph Mounchensy bore in the 14th century "Silver a cheveron
between three billets sable."

Haggerston bore "Azure a bend with cotices silver and three billets
sable on the bend."

With the Billet, the Ordinaries, uncertain as they are in number, may be said to end. But we may here add certain armorial charges which might well have been counted with them.

First of these is the Molet, a word corrupted in modern heraldry to Mullet, a fish-like change with nothing to commend it. This figure is as a star of five or six points, six points being perhaps the commonest form in old examples, although the sixth point is, as a rule, lost during the later period. Medieval armorists are not, it seems, inclined to make any distinction between molets of five and six points, but some families, such as the Harpedens and Asshetons, remained constant to the five-pointed form. It was generally borne pierced with a round hole, and then represents, as its name implies, the rowel of a spur. In ancient rolls of arms the word Rowel is often used, and probably indicated the pierced molet. That the piercing was reckoned an essential difference is shown by a roll of the time of Edward II., in which Sir John of Pabenham bears "Barry azure and silver, with a bend gules and three molets gold thereon," arms which Sir John his son differences by piercing the molets. Beside these names is that of Sir Walter Baa with "Gules a cheveron and three rowels silver," rowels which are shown on seals of this family as pierced molets. Probably an older bearing than the molet, which would be popularized when the rowelled spur began to take the place of the prick-spur, is the Star or Estoile, differing from the molet in that its five or six points are wavy. It is possible that several star bearings of the 13th century were changed in the 14th for molets. The star is not pierced in the fashion of the molet; but, like the molet, it tends to lose its sixth point in armory of the decadence. Suns, sometimes blazoned in old rolls as Sun-rays--_rays de soleil_--are pictured as unpierced molets of many points, which in rare cases are waved.

Harpeden bore "Silver a pierced molet gules."

Gentil bore "Gold a chief sable with two molets goles pierced gules."

Grimston bore "Silver a fesse sable and thereon three molets silver
pierced gules."

Ingleby of Yorkshire bore "Sable a star silver."

Sir John de la Haye of Lincolnshire bore "Silver a sun gules."

The Crescent is a charge which has to answer for many idle tales concerning the crusading ancestors of families who bear it. It is commonly borne with both points uppermost, but when representing the waning or the waxing moon--decrescent or increscent--its horns are turned to the sinister or dexter side of the shield.

Peter de Marines (13th century) bore on his seal a shield charged with
a crescent in the chief.

William Gobioun (14th century) bore "A bend between two waxing moons."

Longchamp bore "Ermine three crescents gules, pierced silver."

_Tinctures._--The tinctures or hues of the shield and its charges are seven in number--gold or yellow, silver or white, red, blue, black, green and purple. Medieval custom gave, according to a rule often broken, "gules," "azure" and "sable" as more high-sounding names for the red, blue and black. Green was often named as "vert," and sometimes as "synobill," a word which as "sinople" is used to this day by French armorists. The song of the siege of Carlaverock and other early documents have red, gules or "vermeil," sable or black, azure or blue, but gules, azure, sable and vert came to be recognized as armorists' adjectives, and an early 15th-century romance discards the simple words deliberately, telling us of its hero that

"His shield was black and blue, sanz fable,
Barred of azure and of sable."

But gold and silver served as the armorists' words for yellows and whites until late in the 16th century, when gold and silver made way for "or" and "argent," words which those for whom the interest of armory lies in its liveliest days will not be eager to accept. Likewise the colours of "sanguine" and "tenne" brought in by the pedants to bring the tinctures to the mystical number of nine may be disregarded.

A certain armorial chart of the duchy of Brabant, published in 1600, is the earliest example of the practice whereby later engravers have indicated colours in uncoloured plates by the use of lines and dots. Gold is indicated by a powdering of dots; silver is left plain. Azure is shown by horizontal shading lines; gules by upright lines; sable by cross-hatching of upright and horizontal lines. Diagonal lines from sinister to dexter indicate purple; vert is marked with diagonal lines from dexter to sinister. The practice, in spite of a certain convenience, has been disastrous in its cramping effects on armorial art, especially when applied to seals and coins.

Besides the two "metals" and five "colours," fields and charges are varied by the use of the furs ermine and vair. Ermine is shown by a white field flecked with black ermine tails, and vair by a conventional representation of a fur of small skins sewn in rows, white and blue skins alternately. In the 15th century there was a popular variant of ermine, white tails upon a black field. To this fur the books now give the name of "ermines"--a most unfortunate choice, since ermines is a name used in old documents for the original ermine. "Erminees," which has at least a 15th-century authority, will serve for those who are not content to speak of "sable ermined with silver." Vair, although silver and blue be its normal form, may be made up of gold, silver or ermine, with sable or gules or vert, but in these latter cases the colours must be named in the blazon. To the vairs and ermines of old use the heraldry books have added "erminois," which is a gold field with black ermine fails, "pean," which is "erminois" reversed, and "erminites," which is ermine with a single red hair on either side of each black tail. The vairs, mainly by misunderstanding of the various patterns found in old paintings, have been amplified with "countervair," "potent," "counter-potent" and "vair-en-point," no one of which merits description.

No shield of a plain metal or colour has ever been borne by an Englishman, although the knights at Carlaverock and Falkirk saw Amaneu d'Albret with his banner all of red having no charge thereon. Plain ermine was the shield of the duke of Brittany and no Englishman challenged the bearing. But Beauchamp of Hatch bore simple vair, Ferrers of Derby "Vairy gold and gules," and Ward "Vairy silver and sable." Gresley had "Vairy ermine and gules," and Beche "Vairy silver and gules."

Only one English example has hitherto been discovered of a field covered not with a fur but with overlapping feathers. A 15th-century book of arms gives "Plumetty of gold and purple" for "Mydlam in Coverdale."

Drops of various colours which variegate certain fields and charges are often mistaken for ermine tails when ancient seals are deciphered. A simple example of such spattering is in the shield of Grayndore, who bore "Party ermine and vert, the vert dropped with gold." Sir Richard le Brun (14th century) bore "Azure a silver lion dropped with gules."

A very common variant of charges and fields is the sowing or "powdering" them with a small charge repeated many times. Mortimer of Norfolk bore "gold powdered with fleurs-de-lys sable" and Edward III. quartered for the old arms of France "Azure powdered with fleurs-de-lys gold," such fields being often described as flowered or flory. Golden billets were scattered in Cowdray's red shield, which is blazoned as "Gules billety gold," and bezants in that of Zouche, which is "Gules bezanty with a quarter ermine." The disposition of such charges varied with the users. Zouche as a rule shows ten bezants placed four, three, two and one on his shield, while the old arms of France in the royal coat allows the pattern of flowers to run over the edge, the shield border thus showing halves and tops and stalk ends of the fleurs-de-lys. But the commonest of these powderings is that with crosslets, as in the arms of John la Warr "Gules crusily silver with a silver lion."

_Trees, Leaves and Flowers._--Sir Stephen Cheyndut, a 13th-century knight, bore an oak tree, the _cheyne_ of his first syllable, while for like reasons a Piriton had a pear tree on his shield. Three pears were borne (_temp._ Edward III.) by Nicholas Stivecle of Huntingdonshire, and about the same date is Applegarth's shield of three red apples in a silver field. Leaves of burdock are in the arms (14th century) of Sir John de Lisle and mulberry leaves in those of Sir Hugh de Morieus. Three roots of trees are given to one Richard Rotour in a 14th-century roll. Malherbe (13th century) bore the "evil herb"--a teazle bush. Pineapples are borne here and there, and it will be noted that armorists have not surrendered this, our ancient word for the "fir-cone," to the foreign _ananas_. Out of the cornfield English armory took the sheaf, three sheaves being on the shield of an earl of Chester early in the 13th century and Sheffield bearing sheaves for a play on his name. For a like reason Peverel's sheaves were sheaves of pepper. Rye bore three ears of rye on a bend, and Graindorge had barley-ears. Flowers are few in this field of armory, although lilies with their stalks and leaves are in the grant of arms to Eton College. Ousethorpe has water flowers, and now and again we find some such strange charges as those in the 15th-century shield of Thomas Porthelyne who bore "Sable a cheveron gules between three 'popyebolles,' or poppy-heads vert."

The fleur-de-lys, a conventional form from the beginnings of armory, might well be taken amongst the "ordinaries." In England as in France it is found in great plenty.

Aguylon bore "Gules a fleur-de-lys silver."

Peyferer bore "Silver three fleur-de-lys sable."

Trefoils are very rarely seen until the 15th century, although Hervey has them, and Gausill, and a Bosville coat seems to have borne them. They have always their stalk left hanging to them. Vincent, Hattecliffe and Massingberd all bore the quatrefoil, while the Bardolfs, and the Quincys, earls of Winchester, had cinqfoils. The old rolls of arms made much confusion between cinqfoils and sixfoils (_quintefoilles e sisfoilles_) and the rose. It is still uncertain how far that confusion extended amongst the families which bore these charges. The cinqfoil and sixfoil, however, are all but invariably pierced in the middle like the spur rowel, and the rose's blunt-edged petals give it definite shape soon after the decorative movement of the Edwardian age began to carve natural buds and flowers in stone and wood.

Hervey bore "Gules a bend silver with three trefoils vert thereon."

Vincent bore "Azure three quatrefoils silver."

Quincy bore "Gules a cinqfoil silver."

Bardolf of Wormegay bore "Gules three cinqfoils silver."

Cosington bore "Azure three roses gold."

Hilton bore "Silver three chaplets or garlands of red roses."

_Beasts and Birds._--The book of natural history as studied in the middle ages lay open at the chapter of the lion, to which royal beast all the noble virtues were set down. What is the oldest armorial seal of a sovereign prince as yet discovered bears the rampant lion of Flanders. In England we know of no royal shield earlier than that first seal of Richard I. which has a like device. A long roll of our old earls, barons and knights wore the lion on their coats--Lacy, Marshal, Fitzalan and Montfort, Percy, Mowbray and Talbot. By custom the royal beast is shown as rampant, touching the ground with but one foot and clawing at the air in noble rage. So far is this the normal attitude of a lion that the adjective "rampant" was often dropped, and we have leave and good authority for blazoning the rampant beast simply as "a lion," leave which a writer on armory may take gladly to the saving of much repetition. In France and Germany this licence has always been the rule, and the modern English herald's blazon of "Gules a lion rampant or" for the arms of Fitzalan, becomes in French _de gueules au lion d'or_ and in German _in Rot ein goldener Loewe_. Other positions must be named with care and the prowling "lion passant" distinguished from the rampant beast, as well as from such rarer shapes as the couchant lion, the lion sleeping, sitting or leaping. Of these the lion passant is the only one commonly encountered. The lion standing with his forepaws together is not a figure for the shield, but for the crest, where he takes this position for greater stableness upon the helm, and the sitting lion is also found rather upon helms than in shields. For a couchant lion or a dormant lion one must search far afield, although there are some medieval instances. The leaping lion is in so few shields that no maker of a heraldry book has, it would appear, discovered an example. In the books this "lion salient" is described as with the hind paws together on the ground and the fore paws together in the air, somewhat after the fashion of a diver's first movement. But examples from seals and monuments of the Felbrigges and the Merks show that the leaping lion differed only from the rampant in that he leans somewhat forward in his eager spring. The compiler of the British Museum catalogue of medieval armorial seals, and others equally unfamiliar with medieval armory, invariably describe this position as "rampant," seeing no distinction from other rampings. As rare as the leaping lion is the lion who looks backward over his shoulder. This position is called "regardant" by modern armorists. The old French blazon calls it _rere regardant or turnaunte le visage arere_, "regardant" alone meaning simply "looking," and therefore we shall describe it more reasonably in plain English as "looking backward." The two-headed lion occurs in a 15th-century coat of Mason, and at the same period a monstrous lion of three bodies and one head is borne, apparently, by a Sharingbury.

THE BEGINNING OF A ROLL OF THE ARMS OF THOSE JOUSTING IN A TOURNAMENT HELD ON THE FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD. BESIDES THE ARMS OF THE KINGS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND ARE TWO COLUMNS OF "CHEQUES," MARKED WITH THE NAMES AND SCORING POINTS OF THE JOUSTERS.

_Drawn by William Gibb._
_Niagara Litho. Co., Buffalo, N. Y._]

The lion's companion is the leopard. What might be the true form of this beast was a dark thing to the old armorist, yet knowing from the report of grave travellers that the leopard was begotten in spouse-breach between the lion and the pard, it was felt that his shape would favour his sire's. But nice distinctions of outline, even were they ascertainable, are not to be marked on the tiny seal, or easily expressed by the broad strokes of the shield painter. The leopard was indeed lesser than the lion, but in armory, as in the Noah's arks launched by the old yards, the bear is no bigger than the badger. Then a happy device came to the armorist. He would paint the leopard like the lion at all points. But as the lion looks forward the leopard should look sidelong, showing his whole face. The matter was arranged, and until the end of the middle ages the distinction held and served. The disregarded writers on armory, Nicholas Upton, and his fellows, protested that a lion did not become a leopard by turning his face sidelong, but none who fought in the field under lion and leopard banners heeded this pedantry from cathedral closes. The English king's beasts were leopards in blazon, in ballad and chronicle, and in the mouths of liegeman and enemy. Henry V.'s herald, named from his master's coat, was Leopard Herald; and Napoleon's gazettes never fail to speak of the English leopards. In our own days, those who deal with armory as antiquaries and students of the past will observe the old custom for convenience' sake. Those for whom the interest of heraldry lies in the nonsense-language brewed during post-medieval years may correct the medieval ignorance at their pleasure. The knight who saw the king's banner fly at Falkirk or Crecy tells us that it bore "Gules with three leopards of gold." The modern armorist will shame the uninstructed warrior with "Gules three lions passant gardant in pale or."

As the lion rampant is the normal lion, so the normal leopard is the leopard passant, the adjective being needless. In a few cases only the leopard rises up to ramp in the lion's fashion, and here he must be blazoned without fail as a leopard rampant.

Parts of the lion and the leopard are common charges. Chief of these are the demi-lion and the demi-leopard, beasts complete above their slender middles, even to the upper parts of their lashing tails. Rampant or passant, they follow the customs of the unmaimed brute. Also the heads of lion and leopard are in many shields, and here the armorist of the modern handbooks stumbles by reason of his refusal to regard clearly marked medieval distinctions. The instructed will know a lion's head because it shows but half the face and a leopard's head because it is seen full-face. But the handbooks of heraldry, knowing naught of leopards, must judge by absence or presence of a mane, speaking uncertainly of leopards' faces and lions' heads and faces. Here again the old path is the straighter. The head of a lion, or indeed of any beast, bird or monster, is generally painted as "razed," or torn away with a ragged edge which is pleasantly conventionalized. Less often it is found "couped" or cut off with a sheer line. But the leopard's head is neither razed nor couped, for no neck is shown below it. Likewise the lion's fore leg or paw--"gamb" is the book word--may be borne, razed or coupled. Its normal position is raided upright, although Newdegate seems to have borne "Gules three lions' legs razed silver, the paws downward." With the strange bearing of the lion's whip-like tail cut off at the rump, we may end the list of these oddments.

Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, bore "Gules a lion gold."

Simon de Montfort bore "Gules a silver lion with a forked tail."

Segrave bore "Sable a lion silver crowned gold."

Havering bore "Silver a lion rampant gules with a forked tail, having
a collar azure."

Felbrigge of Felbrigge bore "Gold a leaping lion gules."

Esturmy bore "Silver a lion sable (or purple) looking backward."

Marmion bore "Gules a lion vair."

Mason bore "Silver a two-headed lion gules."

Lovetot bore "Silver a lion parted athwart of sable and gules."

Richard le Jen bore "Vert a lion gold"--the arms of Wakelin of
Arderne--"with a fesse gules on the lion."

Fiennes bore "Azure three lions gold."

Leyburne of Kent bore "Azure six lions silver."

Carew bore "Gold three lions passant sable."

Fotheringhay bore "Silver two lions passant sable, looking backward."

Richard Norton of Waddeworth (1357) sealed with arms of "A lion
dormant."

Lisle bore "Gules a leopard silver crowned gold."

Ludlowe bore "Azure three leopards silver."

Brocas bore "Sable a leopard rampant gold."

John Hardrys of Kent seals in 1372 with arms of "a sitting leopard."

John Northampton, Lord Mayor of London in 1381, bore "Azure a crowned
leopard gold with two bodies rampant against each other."

Newenham bore "Azure three demi-lions silver."

A deed delivered at Lapworth in Warwickshire in 1466 is sealed with
arms of "a molet between three demi-leopards."

Kenton bore "Gules three lions' heads razed sable."

Pole, earl and duke of Suffolk, bore "Azure a fesse between three
leopards' heads gold."

Cantelou bore "Azure three leopards' heads silver with silver
fleurs-de-lys issuing from them."

Wederton bore "Gules a cheveron between three lions' legs razed
silver."

Pynchebek bore "silver three forked tails of lions sable."

The tiger is rarely named in collections of medieval arms. Deep mystery wrapped the shape of him, which was never during the middle ages standardized by artists. A crest upon a 15th-century brass shows him as a lean wolf-like figure, with a dash of the boar, gazing after his vain wont into a looking-glass; and the 16th-century heralds gave him the body of a lion with the head of a wolf, head and body being tufted here and there with thick tufts of hair. But it is noteworthy that the arms of Sir John Norwich, a well-known knight of the 14th century, are blazoned in a roll of that age as "party azure and gules with a tiger rampant ermine." Now this beast in the arms of Norwich has been commonly taken for a lion, and the Norwich family seem in later times to have accepted the lion as their bearing. But a portion of a painted roll of Sir John's day shows on careful examination that his lion has been given two moustache-like tufts to the nose. A copy made about 1600 of another roll gives the same decoration to the Norwich lion, and it is at least possible we have here evidence that the economy of the medieval armorist allowed him to make at small cost his lion, his leopard and his tiger out of a single beast form.

Take away the lions and the leopards, and the other beasts upon medieval shields are a little herd. In most cases they are here to play upon the names of their bearers. Thus Swinburne of Northumberland has the heads of swine in his coat and Bacon has bacon pigs. Three white bears were borne by Barlingham, and a bear ramping on his hind legs is for Barnard. Lovett of Astwell has three running wolves, Videlou three wolves' heads, Colfox three foxes' heads.