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 calve 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 _moree_,
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. Planche, "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 fitchee_, 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 patee_, 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 Encyclopaedia 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 _cantone_,
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 'grele,' 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 mascle 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. _Guttee_ 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 'guttee 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 'guttee
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-maltale_, 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 Planche'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._]