A Complete Guide to Heraldry Part 39

_Mirrors_ occur almost exclusively in crests and in connection with mermaids, who, as a general rule, are represented as holding one in the dexter hand with a comb in the sinister. Very occasionally, however, mirrors appear as charges, an example being that of the Counts Spiegel zum Desenberg, who bore: "Gules, three round mirrors argent in square frames or."

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 539.--Maunch.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 540.--Gauntlet.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 541.--Morion.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 542.--Mill-rind.]

Symbols connected with the Sacred Pa.s.sion--other than the cross itself--are not of very general use in armory, though there are instances of the _Pa.s.sion-Nails_ being used, as, for example, in the shield of Procter viz.: "Or, three pa.s.sion-nails sable."

_Pelts, or Hides_, occur in the shield of Pilter, and the Fleece has been mentioned under the division of Rams and Sheep.

_Plummets_ (or _Sinkers_ used by masons) form the charges in the arms of Jennings.

An instance of a _Pyramid_ is met with in the crest of Malcolm, Bart., and an _Obelisk_ in that of the town of Todmorden. {294}

The shield of Crookes affords an example of two devices of very rare occurrence, viz. a _Prism_ and a _Radiometer_.

Water, lakes, ships, &c., are constantly met with in armory, but a few instances must suffice. The various methods of heraldically depicting water have been already referred to (pages 88 and 151).

_Three Wells_ figure in the arms of Hodsoll, and a masoned well in that of Camberwell. The shields of Stourton and Mansergh supply instances of heraldic _Fountains_, whilst the arms of Brunner and of Franco contain Fountains of the ordinary kind. A _Tarn_, or _Loch_, occurs in the shield of the family of Tarn, while Lord Loch bears: "Or, a saltire engrailed sable, between in fess two swans in water proper, all within a bordure vert."

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 543.--Lymphad, sail furled.]

The use of _Ships_ may be instanced by the arms of many families, while a _Galley_ or _Lymphad_ (Fig. 543) occurs in the arms of Campbell, Macdonald, Galbraith, Macfie, and numerous other families, and also in the arms of the town of Oban. Another instance of a coat of arms in which a galley appears will be found in the arms recently granted to the burgh of Alloa, while the towns of Wandsworth and Lerwick each afford instances of a _Dragon Ship_.

The _Prow of a Galley_ appears in the arms of Pitcher.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 544.--Rainbow.]

A modern form of ship in the shape of a _Yacht_ may be seen in the arms of Ryde; while two Scottish families afford instances of the use of the _Ark_.

"Argent, an ark on the waters proper, surmounted of a dove azure, bearing in her beak an olive-branch vert," are the arms borne by Gellie of Blackford; and "Argent, an ark in the sea proper, in chief a dove azure, in her beak a branch of olive of the second, within a bordure of the third"

are quoted as the arms of Primrose Gailliez of Chorleywood. Lastly, we may note the appropriate use of a _Steamer_ in the arms of Barrow-in-Furness.

The curious figure of the lion dimidiated with the hulk of a ship which is met with in the arms of several of the towns of the Cinque Ports has been referred to on page 182.

_Clouds_ form part of the arms of Leeson, which are: "Gules, a chief nebuly argent, the rays of the sun issuing therefrom or."

The _Rainbow_ (Fig. 544), though not in itself a distinctly modern charge, for it occurs in the crest of Hope, has been of late very frequently granted as part of a crest. Instances occur in the crest of {295} the family of Pontifex, and again in that of Thurston, and of Wigan. Its use as a part of a crest is to be deprecated, but in these days of complicated armory it might very advantageously be introduced as a charge upon a shield.

An unusual device, the _Thunderbolt_, is the crest of Carnegy. The arms of the German family of Donnersperg very appropriately are: "Sable, three thunderbolts or issuing from a chief nebuly argent, in base a mount of three coupeaux of the second." The arms of the town of Blackpool furnish an instance of a thunderbolt in dangerous conjunction with windmill sails.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 545.--Estoile.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 546.--Mullet (Scottish star).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 547.--Mullet pierced (Scottish spur-revel).]

_Stars_, a very common charge, may be instanced as borne under that name by the Scottish shield of Alston. There has, owing to their similarity, been much confusion between _stars_, _estoiles_, _and mullets_. The difficulty is increased by the fact that no very definite lines have ever been followed officially. In England stars under that name are practically unknown. When the rays are wavy the charge is termed an estoile, but when they are straight the term mullet is used. That being so, these rules follow: that the estoile is never pierced (and from the accepted method of depicting the estoile this would hardly seem very feasible), and that unless the number of points is specified there will be six (see Fig. 545).

Other numbers are quite permissible, but the number of points (more usually in an estoile termed "rays") must be stated. The arm of Hobart, for example, are: "Sable, an estoile of eight rays or, between two flaunches ermine." An estoile of sixteen rays is used by the town of Ilchester, but the arms are not of any authority. Everything with straight points being in England a mullet, it naturally follows that the English practice permits a mullet to be plain (Fig. 546) or pierced (Fig. 547). Mullets are occasionally met with pierced of a colour other than the field they are charged upon. According to the English practice, therefore, the mullet is not represented as pierced unless it is expressly stated to be so. The mullet both in England and {296} Scotland is of five points unless a greater number are specified. But mullets pierced and unpierced of six (Fig. 548) or eight points (Fig. 549) are frequent enough in English armory.

The Scottish practice differs, and it must be admitted that it is more correct than the English, though, strange to say, more complicated. In Scottish armory they have the estoile, the star, and the mullet or the spur-revel. As to the estoile, of course, their practice is similar to the English. But in Scotland a straight-pointed charge is a mullet if it be pierced, and a star if it be not. As a mullet is really the "molette" or rowel of a spur, it certainly could not exist as a fact unpierced.

Nevertheless it is by no means stringently adhered to in that country, and they make confusion worse confounded by the frequent use of the additional name of "spur-rowel," or "spur-revel" for the pierced mullet. The mullet occurs in the arms of Vere, and was also the badge of that family. The part this badge once played in history is well known. Had the De Veres worn another badge on that fatal day the course of English history might have been changed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 548.--Mullet of six points.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 549.--Mullet of eight points.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 550.--Sun in splendour.]

The six-pointed mullet pierced occurs in the arms of De Clinton.

The _Sun in Splendour_--(Fig. 550) always so blazoned--is never represented without the surrounding rays, but the human face is not essential though usual to its heraldic use. The rays are alternately straight and wavy, indicative of the light and heat we derive therefrom, a typical piece of genuine symbolism. It is a charge in the arms of Hurst, Pearson, and many other families; and a demi-sun issuing in base occurs in the arms of Davies (Plate VI.) and of Westworth. The coat of Warde-Aldam affords an example of the _Rays_ of the sun alone.

A Scottish coat, that of Baillie of Walstoun, has "Azure, the moon in her complement, between nine mullets argent, three, two, three and one." The term "in her complement" signifies that the moon is full, but with the moon no rays are shown, in this of course differing from the sun in splendour.

The face is usually represented in the full moon, {297} and sometimes in the crescent moon, but the crescent moon must not be confused with the ordinary heraldic crescent.

In concluding this cla.s.s of charges, we may fitly do so by an allusion to the shield of Sir William Herschel, with its appropriate though clumsy device of a _Telescope_.

As may be naturally expected, the insignia of sovereignty are of very frequent occurrence in all armories, both English and foreign. Long before the days of heraldry, some form of decoration for the head to indicate rank and power had been in vogue amongst, it is hardly too much to say, all nations on the earth. As in most things, Western nations have borrowed both ideas, and added developments of those ideas, from the East, and in traversing the range of armory, where crowns and coronets appear in modern Western heraldry, we find a large proportion of these devices are studiously and of purpose delineated as being _Eastern_.

With crowns and coronets as symbols of rank I am not now, of course, concerned, but only with those cases which may be cited as supplying examples where the different kinds of crowns appear either as charges on shields, or as forming parts of crests.

Crowns, in heraldry, may be differentiated under the Royal or the Imperial, the Eastern or antique, the Naval, and the Mural, which with the Crowns Celestial, Vallery and Palisado are all known as charges. Modern grants of crowns of Eastern character in connection with valuable service performed in the East by the recipient may be instanced; _e.g._ by the Eastern Crown in the grant to Sir Abraham Roberts, G.C.B., the father of Field-Marshal Earl Roberts, K.G.

In order of antiquity one may best perhaps at the outset allude to the arms borne by the seaport towns of Boston, and of Kingston-on-Hull (or Hull, as the town is usually called), inasmuch as a tradition has it that the three crowns which figure on the shield of each of these towns originate from a recognised device of merchantmen, who, travelling in and trading with the East and likening themselves to the Magi, in their Bethlehem visit, adopted these crowns as the device or badge of their business. The same remarks may apply to the arms of Cologne: "Argent, on a chief gules, three crowns or."

From this fact (if the tradition be one) to the adoption of the same device by the towns to which these merchants traded is not a far step.

One may notice in pa.s.sing that, unlike what from the legend one would expect, these crowns are not of Eastern design, but of a cla.s.s wholly connected with heraldry itself. The legend and device, however, are both much older than these modern minutiae of detail.

The Archbishopric of York has the well-known coat: "Gules, two keys in saltire argent, in chief a regal crown proper." {298}

The reputed arms of St. Etheldreda, who was both Queen, and also Abbess of Ely, find their perpetuation in the arms of that See, which are: "Gules, three ducal (an early form of the Royal) crowns or;" while the recently-created See of St. Alban's affords an example of a celestial crown: "Azure, a saltire or, a sword in pale proper; in chief a celestial crown of the second." The _Celestial Crown_ is to be observed in the arms of the borough of Kensington and as a part of the crest of Dunbar. The See of Bristol bears: "Sable, three open crowns in pale or." The Royal or Imperial Crown occurs in the crest of Eye, while an _Imperial Crown_ occurs in the crests of Robertson, Wolfe, and Lane.

The family of Douglas affords an instance of a crown ensigning a human heart. The arms of Toledo afford another case in point, being: "Azure, a Royal crown or" (the cap being gules).

_Antique Crowns_--as such--appear in the arms of Fraser and also in the arms of Grant.

The crest of the Marquess of Ripon supplies an unusual variation, inasmuch as it issues from a coronet composed of fleurs-de-lis.

The other chief emblem of sovereignty--_the Sceptre_--is occasionally met with, as in the Whitgreave crest of augmentation.

The Marquises of Mun bear the Imperial orb: "Azure, an orb argent, banded, and surmounted by the cross or." The reason for the selection of this particular charge in the grant of arms [Azure, on a fess or, a horse courant gules, between three orbs gold, banded of the third] to Sir H. E.

Moss, of the Empire Theatre in Edinburgh and the London Hippodrome, will be readily guessed.

Under the cla.s.sification of tools and implements the _Pick_ may be noted, this being depicted in the arms of Mawdsley, Moseley, and Pigott, and a pick and shovel in the arms of Hales.

The arms of Crawshay supply an instance of a _Plough_--a charge which also occurs in the arms of Waterlow and the crest of Provand, but is otherwise of very infrequent occurrence.