The Handbook to English Heraldry

tio

f Expression- Blazon- The Shield: its Parts, Points, Division

wn on every breast."

ated Anglo-Norman, habitually spoken at the Court of England in the early heraldic era. After a while, a mixed lang

iptive terms, whether expressed in English or in French (Anglo-Norman), are generally employed with a special heraldic intention and significance. In the earliest Roll of Arms known to be now in existence, which was compiled (as appears from internal evidence) between the years 1240 and 1245, the Nomenclature is the same that is fou

quired, another form of expression is substituted in its stead. Much meaning also is left to be implied and understood, through inference, either based upon certain accepted rules and established heraldic usages for the arrangement of the words and clauses of a sentence, or derived from the natural qualities and characteristic conditions of certain figures and devices: but, nothing is ever left to be inferred when an uncertain inference might possibly be adopted, or that can be understood clearly and with certainty only by means of an explicit statement. Superfluous words and particles of all kinds are altogether omitted. Descriptive epithets follow the nouns to which they refer: as, a red cross is styled a cross gules. The general rules, by which the arrangement of the words in he

ixing the word "for" before the name when it is placed in the same position. Thus, a description of the three lions of England is to be followed by the word-"England"; or, by the formula-"for England." If preferred, with equal consistency the arrangement may be reversed, and the Name, with or

sen," signifying "to blow a blast on a horn" (or, as one eminent German Herald prefers, from the old German word "blaze" or "blasse," "a mark" or "sign"), in Heraldry really denotes either to describe any armorial figure, device, or composition in correct heraldic language; or to represent such figure,

, a Shield continued to be regarded as the most appropriate vehicle for the same display. The Shield, then, which with its armorial devices constitutes a Shield of Arms, always is considered to display its blazonry upon its face or external surface. This blazoned surface of his shield the bearer, when holding it before his person, presents (or would present, were he so to hold it) towards those who confront him. The right and the

he c

Dexte

Dexte

Dexte

Middl

Honou

Fesse

Siniste

Sinis

Sinis

Middl

The

.

yed sometimes alone, and sometimes (having the same signification) preceded by the word "parted" o

No. 29

or Parted per Pale

esse, or Part

r) Per Cross, or Quarterly (the

No. 32

1. Pe

Per Bend

1 and 32 togeth

4. No

. Per

cal lines), a form seldom met with in English Heraldry. Technically this

147); but neither the term per nor parted per is ever employed in this connect

rther divided and

6. No

one of them, quartered: this, which is the subdivision of a part, the quartering of quarters, is compound Quartering: for example, in No. 37, the Shield is first divided into the four primary quarters, severally marked A, B, C, D; then, so far as the quarters A, B, D are concerned, the "simple quartering" is subjected to the process of "compound quartering," and quarters A, D are quarters quarterly, and B is a quarter quarterly of six, while C remains unaffected by the

le right lines and curves, assume the forms th

. A. I

Dan