A Complete Guide to Heraldry Part 26

The stag, using the term in its generic sense, under the various names of stag, deer, buck, roebuck, hart, doe, hind, reindeer, springbok, and other varieties, is constantly met with in British armory, as well as in that of other countries.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 379.--Stag lodged.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 380.--Stag trippant.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 381.--Stag courant.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 382.--Stag springing.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 383.--Stag at gaze.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 384.--Stag statant.]

In the specialised varieties, such as the springbok and the reindeer, naturally an attempt is made to follow the natural animal in its salient peculiarities, but as to the remainder, heraldry knows little if any distinction after the following has been properly observed. The stag, which is really the male red deer, has horns which are branched with pointed branches from the bottom to the top; but a buck, which is the fallow deer, has broad and flat palmated horns. Anything in the nature of a stag must be subject to the following terms. If lying down it is termed "lodged" (Fig.

379), if walking it is termed "trippant" (Fig. 380), if running it is termed "courant" (Fig. 381), or "at speed" or "in full chase." It is termed "salient" when springing (Fig. 382), though the term "springing" is sometimes employed, and it is said to be "at gaze" when statant with the head turned to face the spectator (Fig. 383); but it should be noted that a stag may also be "statant" (Fig. 384); and it is not "at gaze" unless the head is turned round. {209} When it is necessary owing to a difference of tincture or for other reasons to refer to the horns, a stag or buck is described as "attired" of such and such a colour, whereas bulls, rams, and goats are said to be "armed."

When the stag is said to be attired of ten or any other number of tynes, it means that there are so many points to its horns. Like other cloven-footed animals, the stag can be unguled of a different colour.

The stag's head is very frequently met with, but it will be almost more frequently found as a stag's head caboshed (Fig. 385). In these cases the head is represented affronte and removed close behind the ears, so that no part of the neck is visible. The stag's head caboshed occurs in the arms of Cavendish and Stanley, and also in the arms of Legge, Earl of Dartmouth.

Figs. 386 and 387 are examples of other heads.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 385.--Stag's head caboshed.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 386.--Stag's head erased.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 387.--Buck's head couped.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 388.--Hind.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 389.--Reindeer.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 390.--Winged stag rampant.]

The attires of a stag are to be found either singly (as in the arms of Boyle) or in the form of a pair attached to the scalp. The crest of Jeune affords an instance of a scalp. The hind or doe (Fig. 388) is sometimes met with, as in the crest of Hatton, whilst a hind's head is the crest of Conran.

The reindeer (Fig. 389) is less usual, but reindeer heads will be found in the arms of Fellows. It, however, appears as a supporter for {210} several English peers. Winged stags (Fig. 390) were the supporters of De Carteret, Earls of Granville, and "a demi-winged stag gules, collared argent," is the crest of Fox of Coalbrookdale, co. Salop.

Much akin to the stag is the antelope, which, unless specified to be an _heraldic_ antelope, or found in a very old coat, is usually represented in the natural form of the animal, and subject to the foregoing rules.

_Heraldic Antelope._--This animal (Figs. 391, 392, and 393) is found in English heraldry more frequently as a supporter than as a charge. As an instance, however, of the latter form may be mentioned the family of Dighton (Lincolnshire): "Per pale argent and gules, an heraldic antelope pa.s.sant counterchanged." It bears little if any relation to the real animal, though there can be but small doubt that the earliest forms originated in an attempt to represent an antelope or an ibex. Since, however, heraldry has found a use for the real antelope, it has been necessary to distinguish it from the creations of the early armorists, which are now known as heraldic antelopes. Examples will be found in the supporters of Lord Carew, in the crest of Moresby, and of Bagnall.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 391.--Heraldic antelope statant.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 392.--The heraldic antelope rampant.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 393.--Heraldic antelope pa.s.sant.]

The difference chiefly consists in the curious head and horns and in the tail, the heraldic antelope being an heraldic tiger, with the feet and legs similar to those of a deer, and with two straight serrated horns.

_Ibex._--This is another form of the natural antelope, but with two saw-edged horns projecting from the forehead.

A curious animal, namely, the sea-stag, is often met with in German heraldry. This is the head, antlers, fore-legs, and the upper part of the body of a stag conjoined to the fish-tail end of a mermaid. {211} The only instance I am aware of in which it occurs in British armory is the case of the arms of Marindin, which were recently matriculated in Lyon Register (Fig. 394). This coat, however, it should be observed, is really of German or perhaps of Swiss origin.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 394.--Armorial bearings of Marindin.]

THE RAM AND GOAT

The ram (Figs. 395 and 396), the consideration of which must of necessity include the sheep (Fig. 397), the Paschal lamb (Fig. 398), and the fleece (Fig. 399), plays no unimportant part in armory. The chief heraldic difference between the ram and the sheep, to some extent, in opposition to the agricultural distinctions, lies in the fact that the ram is always represented with horns and the sheep without. The lamb and the ram are always represented with the natural tail, but the sheep is deprived of it.

A ram can of course be "armed" (_i.e._ with the horns of a different colour) and "unguled," but the latter will seldom be found to be the case.

The ram, the sheep, and the lamb will nearly always be found either pa.s.sant or statant, but a demi-ram is naturally represented in a rampant posture, though in such a case the word "rampant" is not necessary in the blazon.

Occasionally, as in the crest of Marwood, the ram will be found couchant.

As a charge upon a shield the ram will be found in the arms of Sydenham ["Argent, three rams pa.s.sant sable"], and a ram couchant occurs in the arms of Pujolas (granted 1762) ["Per fess wavy azure and argent, in base on a mount vert, a ram couchant sable, armed and unguled or, in chief three doves proper"]. The arms of Ramsey ["Azure, a chevron between three {212} rams pa.s.sant or"] and the arms of Harman ["Sable, a chevron between six rams counter-pa.s.sant two and two argent, armed and unguled or"] are other instances in which rams occur. A sheep occurs in the arms of Sheepshanks ["Azure, a chevron erminois between in chief three roses and in base a sheep pa.s.sant argent. Crest: on a mount vert, a sheep pa.s.sant argent"].

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 395.--Ram statant.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 396.--Ram rampant.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 397.--Sheep pa.s.sant.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 398.--Paschal lamb.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 399.--Fleece.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 400.--Ram's head caboshed.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 401.--Goat pa.s.sant.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 402.--Goat rampant.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 403.--Goat salient.]

The lamb, which is by no means an unusual charge in Welsh coats of arms, is most usually found in the form of a "paschal lamb" (Fig. 398), or some variation evidently founded thereupon.

The fleece--of course originally of great repute as the badge of {213} the Order of the Golden Fleece--has in recent years been frequently employed in the grants of arms to towns or individuals connected with the woollen industry.

The demi-ram and the demi-lamb are to be found as crests, but far more usual are rams' heads, which figure, for example, in the arms of Ramsden, and in the arms of the towns of Huddersfield, and Barrow-in-Furness. The ram's head will sometimes be found caboshed, as in the arms of Ritchie and Roberts.

Perhaps here reference may fittingly be made to the arms granted by Lyon Office in 1812 to Thomas Bonar, co. Kent ["Argent, a saltire and chief azure, the last charged with a dexter hand proper, vested with a shirt-sleeve argent, issuing from the dexter chief point, holding a shoulder of mutton proper to a lion pa.s.sant or, all within a bordure gules"].

_The Goat_ (Figs. 401-403) is very frequently met with in armory. Its positions are pa.s.sant, statant, rampant, and salient. When the horns are of a different colour it is said to be "armed."

OTHER ANIMALS

_The Elephant_ is by no means unusual in heraldry, appearing as a crest, as a charge, and also as a supporter. Nor, strange to say, is its appearance exclusively modern. The elephant's head, however, is much more frequently met with than the entire animal. Heraldry generally finds some way of stereotyping one of its creations as peculiarly its own, and in regard to the elephant, the curious "elephant and castle" (Fig. 404) is an example, this latter object being, of course, simply a derivative of the howdah of Indian life. Few early examples of the elephant omit the castle. The elephant and castle is seen in the arms of Dumbarton and in the crest of Corbet.

A curious practice, the result of pure ignorance, has manifested itself in British armory. As will be explained in the chapter upon crests, a large proportion of German crests are derivatives of the stock basis of two bull's horns, which formed a recognised ornament for a helmet in Viking and other pre-heraldic days. As heraldry found its footing it did not in Germany displace those horns, which in many cases continued alone as the crest or remained as a part of it in the form of additions to other objects. The craze for decoration at an early period seized upon the horns, which carried repet.i.tions of the arms or their tinctures. As time went on the {214} decoration was carried further, and the horns were made with bell-shaped open ends to receive other objects, usually bunches of feathers or flowers. So universal did this custom become that even when nothing was inserted the horns came to be always depicted with these open mouths at their points. But German heraldry now, as has always been the case, simply terms the figures "horns." In course of time German immigrants made application for grants of arms in this country, which, doubtless, were based upon other German arms previously in use, but which, evidence of right not being forthcoming, could not be recorded as borne of right, and needed to be granted with alteration as a new coat. The curious result has been that these horns have been incorporated in some number of English grants, but they have universally been described as elephants' proboscides, and are now always so represented in this country. A case in point is the crest of Verelst, and another is the crest of Allhusen.