The Handbook to English Heraldry Part 22

_Shoveller._ A species of duck.

_Simple Quartering._ Dividing a shield quarterly, with the quartering of any of the quarters. See _Quartering_.

_Sinister._ The left side. No. 27.

_Sinople._ The colour _vert_ in French Heraldry.

_Sixfoil._ A flower of six leaves: No. 302.

_Slipped._ Having a stalk, as a leaf or branch: No. 309.

_Spear._ The spear or lance is not of common occurrence in blazon; but it appears, with heraldic propriety, in the arms granted in 1596 to the father of the great poet, who bore--_Or, on a bend sa. a spear gold, the head arg._--the arms of SHAKESPEARE, No. 303. (In the woodcut the bend is accidentally shaded for _gules_, instead of _sable_.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 303.--Arms of Shakespeare.]

_Spur._ Not common as an heraldic charge. Before about 1320 the spur had a single point, and was known as the "pryck-spur"; about that time appeared a "rouelle-spur" of simple form; in the middle of the fifteenth century spurs of extravagant length were introduced.

_SS., Collar of._ See _Collar_, and No. 231.

_Stafford-knot._ No. 304.

_Stall-plate._ A plate bearing the arms of a knight and placed in his stall. The stall-plates of the Knights of the GARTER and the BATH are severally placed in the Chapels of ST. GEORGE and of HENRY VII., at Windsor and Westminster. The earliest plates now in existence at Windsor, though many of them bear arms of an earlier date, were executed about 1430.

_Standard._ A long narrow flag, introduced for the purpose of heraldic display, in the time of EDWARD III., but not in general use till a later period. Standards generally had the Cross of ST. GEORGE next the staff, to which succeeded the badge or badges and the motto of the owner. See Chapter XVII.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 302.--Sixfoil.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 304.--Stafford Knot.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 305.--Stapleton Badge.]

_Staple._ Borne by STAPLETON: No. 305 represents a badge formed of two staples.

_Statant._ Standing.

_Star._ See _Estoile_ and _Mullet_; also a knightly decoration.

_Stirrup._ Borne, with appropriate straps and buckles, by SCUDAMORE, GIFFARD, and a few others.

_Stock._ The stump of a tree.

_Stringed._ As a harp or a bugle-horn; or, suspended by, or fastened with, a string.

_Sun._ When represented shining and surrounded with rays, he has a representation of a human face upon his disc, and is blazoned "_In splendour_." _Sunbeams_, or _Rays_, are borne in blazon, and form an early charge. See _Collar_.

_Supporter._ A figure of whatsoever kind that stands by a Shield of arms, as if _supporting_ or guarding it. Single Supporters occasionally appear, but the general usage is to have a pair of Supporters--one on each side of the _supported_ Shield. They came gradually into use in the course of the fourteenth century, but were not regularly established as accessories of Shields till about 1425, or rather later. At first they were generally alike, being then duplicate representations of the badge, but subsequently the more prevalent custom was that the two Supporters should differ, as in the case of the Royal Supporters, the Lion and the Unicorn, famous in History as in Heraldry. See _Bearer_, _Tenant_, and also Chapter XVI.

_Surcoat._ Any garment worn over armour; but especially the long flowing garment worn by knights over their armour until about 1325, when its form was modified by cutting it short in front, and it was distinguished as a _Cyclas_. See _Jupon_.

_Surmounted._ Placed over another.

_Swan._ When blazoned "_proper_," white with black beak and red legs. It is the badge of the BOHUNS, and of their descendants the LANCASTRIAN PLANTAGENETS, the STAFFORDS, and some others. This Swan has his neck encircled with a coronet, from which a chain generally pa.s.ses over his back. By HENRY V., the Swan badge of his mother, MARY DE BOHUN, was borne with the wings expanded.

_Sword._ When borne as a charge, straight in the blade, pointed, and with a cross-guard. All the appointments of the weapon are to be blazoned. It appears, as a spiritual emblem, in several episcopal coats of arms; in the arms of the CITY OF LONDON, No. 306, the first quarter of a Shield of ST. GEORGE (_arg., a cross gu._) is charged with _a sword erect gules_, the emblem of ST. PAUL, the special patron of the English metropolitan city. The sword is also borne in blazon in its military capacity.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 306.--Arms of City of London.]

_Tabard._ A short garment with sleeves, worn in the Tudor era. It has the arms blazoned on the sleeves as well as on the front and back: No.

307, the Tabard of WILLIAM FYNDERNE, Esquire, from his bra.s.s, A.D. 1444, at Childrey in Berkshire: the arms are--_Arg., a chevron between three crosses patee sable_, the ordinary being charged with _an annulet of the field_ "for Difference." A similar garment is the official habit of heralds.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 307.--Tabard; A.D. 1444.]

_Tau_, _Tau-Cross_. A cross formed like the letter T, so called in Greek, No. 93; borne as a charge in the arms of DRURY, TAWKE, and some others: this charge is also called the Cross of ST. ANTHONY: it is sometimes borne on a badge, as in the Bishop's Palace at Exeter. See Chapter XV.

_Templars_, _Knights_. See Chapter XIX.

_Tenent_, _Tenant_. Used by French Heralds to distinguish human figures from animals, as _supporters_.

_Tennee_, or _Tawney_. A deep orange-colour; in use in the Middle Ages as a _livery-colour_.

_Thistle._ The national Badge of SCOTLAND, represented after its national aspect, and tinctured _proper_. JAMES I. of Great Britain, to symbolise the union of the two realms of England and Scotland, compounded a Badge from the _Rose_ of one realm, and the _Thistle_ of the other, united by impalement under a single crown: No. 308. The impaled rose and thistle is borne by the Earl of KINNOULL, repeated eight times upon a bordure.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 308.--Badge of James I.]

_Timbre._ In the early Heraldry of England, this term denotes the true heraldic _crest_: but, in the modern Heraldry of France, the "timbre" is the _Helm_ in an armorial achievement. _Timbred._ Ensigned with a Helm; or, if referring to an early English achievement, with a Crest. It is a term very seldom met with in use.

_Tiercee._ _In tierce_, _Per tierce_. Divided into three equal parts.

_Tinctures._ The two _metals_ and the five _colours_ of Heraldry: Nos.

50-56. See page 40. It was one of the puerile extravagancies of the Heralds of degenerate days to distinguish the Tinctures by the names of the _Planets_ in blazoning the arms of Sovereign Princes, and by the names of _Gems_ in blazoning the arms of n.o.bles.

_Torse._ A crest-wreath.

_Torteau_, plural _torteaux_. A red spherical Roundle: No. 152.

_Tower_, _Turret_. A small castle. _Towered._ Surmounted by towers, as No. 222, which is a "_Castle triple towered_."

_Transposed._ Reversed.

_Trefoil._ A leaf of three conjoined foils, generally borne "slipped,"

as in No. 309.

_Treflee_, or _Botonee_. A variety of the cross: No. 103. _Treflee_ also implies _semee_ of trefoils.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 309.--Trefoil Slipped.]

_Treille_, _Trellis_. See page 71, and No. 150.