A Complete Guide to Heraldry Part 21

_Lion rampant._--The animal is here depicted in profile, and erect, resting upon its sinister hind-paw (see Fig. 284). {177}

_Lion rampant guardant._--In this case the head of the lion is turned to face the spectator (Fig. 285).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 277.--Lions. (Drawn by Mr. J. Forbes Nixon.)]

_Lion rampant regardant._--In this case the head is turned completely round, looking backwards (Fig. 286).

_Lion rampant, double-queued._--In this case the lion is represented as {178} having two tails (Fig. 287). These must both be apparent from the base of the tail, otherwise confusion will arise with the next example.

_Lion rampant queue-fourche._--In this case one tail springs from the base, which is divided or "forked" in the centre (Fig. 288). There is no doubt that whilst in modern times and with regard to modern arms this distinction must be adhered to, anciently queue-fourche and double-queued were interchangeable terms.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 278.--Lion pa.s.sant guardant. (By Mr. G. Scruby.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 279.--Lion rampant. (By Mr. G. Scruby.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 280.--Lion rampant and lion statant guardant, by Mr. G.

W. Eve. (From "Decorative Heraldry.")]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 281.--Lion statant, lion pa.s.sant guardant, and lion pa.s.sant regardant, by Mr. G. W. Eve. (From "Decorative Heraldry.")]

_Lion rampant tail nowed._--The tail is here tied in a knot (Fig. 289). It is not a term very frequently met with.

_Lion rampant tail elevated and turned over its head._--The only instances of the existence of this curious variation (Fig. 290) which have come under my own notice occur in the coats of two families of the name {179} of Buxton, the one being obviously a modern grant founded upon the other.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 282.--A lion rampant. (By Miss Helard.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 283.--A lion rampant. (By Miss Helard.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 284.--Lion rampant.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 285.--Lion rampant guardant.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 286.--Lion rampant regardant.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 287.--Lion rampant double queued.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 288.--Lion rampant queue-fourche.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 289.--Lion rampant, tail nowed.]

_Lion rampant with two heads._--This occurs (Fig. 291) in the coat of arms, probably founded on an earlier instance, granted in 1739 to {180} Mason of Greenwich, the arms being: "Per fess ermine and azure, a lion rampant with two heads counterchanged." This curious charge had been adopted by Mason's College in Birmingham, and on the foundation of Birmingham University it was incorporated in its arms.

_Lion rampant guardant bicorporated._--In this case the lion has one head and two bodies. An instance of this curious creature occurs in the arms of Attewater, but I am not aware of any modern instance of its use.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 290.--Lion rampant, tail elevated and turned over its head.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 291.--Lion rampant, with two heads.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 292.--Tricorporate lion.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 293.--Lion coward.]

_Lion Rampant Tricorporate._--In this case three bodies are united in one head (Fig. 292). Both this and the preceding variety are most unusual, but the tricorporate lion occurs in a coat of arms (_temp._ Car. II.) registered in Ulster's Office: "Or, a tricorporate lion rampant, the bodies disposed in the dexter and sinister chief points and in base, all meeting in one head guardant in the fess point sable."

_Lion coward._--In this case the tail of the lion is depressed, pa.s.sing between its hind legs (Fig. 293). The exact.i.tude of this term is to some extent modern. Though a lion cowarded was known in ancient days, there can be no doubt that formerly an artist felt himself quite at liberty to put the tail between the legs if this seemed artistically desirable, without necessarily having interfered with the arms by so doing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 294.--Armorial bearings of Alexander Charles Richards Maitland, Esq.: Or, a lion rampant gules, couped in all his joints of the field, within a double tressure flory and counterflory azure, a bordure engrailed ermine. Mantling gules and or. Crest: upon a wreath of his liveries, a lion sejant erect and affronte gules, holding in his dexter paw a sword proper, hilted and pommelled gold, and in his sinister a fleur-de-lis argent. Motto: "Consilio et animis."]

_Lion couped in all its joints_ is a charge which seems peculiar to the family of Maitland, and it would be interesting to learn to what source its origin can be traced. It is represented with each of its four paws, its head and its tail severed from the body, and removed slightly away therefrom. A Maitland coat of arms exhibiting this peculiarity will be found in Fig. 294. {181}

_Lions rampant combatant_ are so termed when two are depicted in one shield facing each other in the att.i.tude of fighting (Fig. 295).

A very curious and unique instance of a lion rampant occurs in the arms of Williams (matriculated in Lyon Register in 1862, as the second and third quarterings of the arms of Sir James Williams Drummond of Hawthornden, Bt.), the coat in question being: Argent, a lion rampant, the body sable, the head, paws, and tuft of the tail of the field.

_Lion pa.s.sant._--A lion in this position (Fig. 296) is represented in the act of walking, the dexter forepaw being raised, but all three others being upon the ground.

_Lion pa.s.sant guardant._--This (Fig. 297) is the same as the previous position, except that the head is turned to face the spectator. The lions in the quartering for England in the Royal coat of arms are "three lions pa.s.sant guardant in pale."

_Lion of England._--This is "a lion pa.s.sant guardant or," and the term is only employed for a lion of this description when it occurs as or in an honourable augmentation, then being usually represented on a field of gules. A lion pa.s.sant guardant or, is now never granted to any applicant except under a specific Royal Warrant to that effect. It occurs in many augmentations, _e.g._ Wolfe, Camperdown, and many others; and when three lions pa.s.sant guardant in pale or upon a canton gules are granted, as in the arms of Lane (Plate II.), the augmentation is termed a "canton of England."

_Lion pa.s.sant regardant_ is as the lion pa.s.sant, but with the head turned right round looking behind (Fig. 298). A lion is not often met with in this position.

_Lions pa.s.sant dimidiated._--A curious survival of the ancient but now {182} obsolete practice of dimidiation is found in the arms of several English seaport towns. Doubtless all can be traced to the "so-called" arms of the "Cinque Ports," which show three lions pa.s.sant guardant dimidiated with the hulks of three ships. There can be no doubt whatever that this originally came from the dimidiation of two separate coats, viz. the Royal Arms of England (the three lions pa.s.sant guardant), and the other "azure, three ships argent," typical of the Cinque Ports, referring perhaps to the protection of the coasts for which they were liable, or possibly merely to their seaboard position. Whilst Sandwich[13] uses the two separate coats simply dimidiated upon one shield, the arms of Hastings[14] vary slightly, being: "Party per pale gules and azure, a lion pa.s.sant guardant or, between in chief and in base a lion pa.s.sant guardant of the last dimidiated with the hulk of a ship argent." From long usage we have grown accustomed to consider these two conjoined and dimidiated figures as one figure (Fig.

299), and in the recent grant of arms to Ramsgate[15] a figure of this kind was granted as a simple charge.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 295.--Two lions rampant combatant.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 296.--Lion pa.s.sant.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 297.--Lion pa.s.sant guardant.]

The arms of Yarmouth[16] afford another instance of a resulting figure of this cla.s.s, the three lions pa.s.sant guardant of England being here dimidiated with as many herrings naiant.

_Lion statant._--The distinction between a lion pa.s.sant and a lion statant is that the lion statant has all four paws resting upon the {183} ground.

The two forepaws are usually placed together (Fig. 300). Whilst but seldom met with as a charge upon a shield, the lion statant is by no means rare as a crest.

_Lion statant tail extended._--This term is a curious and, seemingly, a purposeless refinement, resulting from the perpetuation in certain cases of one particular method of depicting the crest--originally when a crest a lion was always so drawn--but it cannot be overlooked, because in the crests of both Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, and Percy, Duke of Northumberland, the crest is now stereotyped as a lion in this form (Fig.

301) upon a chapeau.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 298.--Lion pa.s.sant regardant.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 299.--Lion pa.s.sant guard. dimidiated with the hulk of a ship.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 300.--Lion statant.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 301.--Lion statant tail extended.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 302.--Lion statant guardant.]