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The Heralory of Fish.

[-)

PHeralory of Fish.

NOTICES OF THE PRINCIPAL FAMILIES

BEARING FISH IN THEIR ARMS.

BY

THOMAS MOULE.

< “ Inest sua gratia parvis.”

g

: ILLUSTRATED BY ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD.
LONDON:

: JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW.

a M.DCCC.XLIT.

FFB 11 1963
Gy, ie
FY, at
SLAary of ROA

427749

OE ea eae me

PREFACE.

Tibi res antique laudis et artis
Aggredior. Viren.

THE prevailing desire for information on heraldry
does not appear to have been encouraged by the pro-
duction of books in proportion to the interest the subject
excites, as, amidst the vast range of modern publications
very few indeed are found to relate to heraldry. A
sufficient reason may perhaps be found in the fear of
encountering its boundlessness without the probability
of incurring a serious charge of prolixity, by venturing to
grasp at once the whole of this extensive subject; an-
other more obvious cause preventing the attempt from
being rashly made, is the number of engravings required
for its support and illustration, few publishers being will-
ing to risk the great expense attending this very neces-
sary part of the undertaking. It is not to be denied,
that the research which unfolds the progress of heraldry
in the days of chivalric enterprise, and supplies the
means of tracing its history through the different periods
of time, would prove a most attractive and entertaining
employment of leisure; but the knowledge of its origin,
and of the importance it began to acquire at an early
epoch, its improvement, and its perfection, with all the

vl PREFACE.

circumstances to which heraldry owes its power of pleas-
ing, is only to be found in books very rarely met with in
modern libraries.

The present attempt was suggested by the author’s de-
sire to compress the opinions advanced into a reasonable
compass, and bring within a single volume the various
illustrations required.* Great facility has been afforded
for its prosecution by the liberality of the publisher, and
by the additional satisfaction of having all the drawings
with which the work is embellished, made upon the
wood under the author’s own inspection, by his daugh-
ter, Sophia Barbara Moule, an advantage which will be
best appreciated by those who know the great difficulty
of obtaining heraldic drawings correctly executed, in
which the beauty, in a great measure, depends on the
character of the different periods of art.

In the limited view of heraldry here taken, calculated
rather to excite than gratify curiosity, it has not been
considered merely with reference to the contents of the
shield, or the simple coats of arms, as found on the ban-
ners of the Paladins of Europe.t| The custom of mar-
shalling, in which the arms are blended by family alli-
ances, has been the means of affording some illustrations.
The modes of representing heraldry on the baronial and
municipal seals, exhibiting no want of invention, and
differing from the arrangement on the ancient standards,

* In France, where Heraldry meets with great encouragement, two volumes
have appeared on the fleur-de-lis alone, by M. Rey, in 1837.

+ Those Rolls of Arms which have been printed, forming the best source of
information on English Heraldry, are enumerated in the Rev. J. A. Montagu’s
excellent “Guide to the Study of Heraldry ;” and since that elegant publication
appeared, a MS: collection of the arms and quarterings of the Council of the
Marchers, chiefly of the time of Elizabeth, has been printed, by the Hon. R. H.
Clive, among the “ Documents connected with the History of Ludlow,” 1841. -

PREFACE. Vii

are here shown. The lordly cognizance and the house-
hold badge have both been noticed; these were in con-
stant use from the time of King Richard II. to that of
King Henry VII, when the number of the retainers in-
dicated the greatness of the family.

The most magnificent display of heraldry was afforded
by the splendid ceremonial of the tournament,

Where throngs of knights and barons bold
In weeds of peace high triumphs hold.

The irregular luxuriance of these gorgeous assemblages
gave rise to the tenans, and supporters of arms, addi-
tional appendages of rank requisite to be known; almost
equal splendour was shown in the rich ecclesiastial em-
bellishments used by the higher orders of prelates, and
not less interesting is the monkish rebus, rendered vene-
rable by antiquity.

Another description of illustration is derived from
coins and tokens, the devices on which have an interest
in connexion with the subject. The badges of tenure,
the badges of trade, and of merchants enriched by com-
merce, the marks of printers, and even the signs of inns,
have been found entitled to inquiry. The examples
afforded by this variety of representation furnish models
which may prove useful to the artist who wishes to cul-
tivate, successfully, heraldic embellishments. In a pro-
fessional point of view, the utility of heraldry will be
readily admitted; its devices form evidence, in many
cases, connected with property and honours, and fre-
quently identify or separate persons of the same name
when other means fail—a difficulty constantly occurring.
Its use also, without overrating its claims, soon becomes
apparent to all who wish to attain any proficiency in

Vili PREFACE,

history, where its importance in fixing in the memory
the series and connexion of events proves its value.
The painter will do well to seek the assistance of he-
raldry in his representations of historical subjects; he
who feels its introduction as an accessary to pictorial
effect, need not be told, that chronological accuracy
in armorial design is equally requisite with fidelity of
costume or the correct portraiture of the persons re-
presented. To the architect heraldry affords an un-
limited extent of enrichment in exterior sculpture;
and the judgment of C. Barry, R.A., the architect of
the House of Lords, has admitted it, as an important
feature, in the principal facade of that splendid edifice.
The introduction of arms in windows and pavements
also renders it necessary that the architect should be
acquainted, not only with the rules, but with the pecu-
liar character of the heraldry of different periods. To
the naturalist it is not entirely without interest: the late
illustrious Cuvier added a knowledge of heraldry to his
other pursuits; and the patient investigation of the
swan-marks of antiquity by Mr. Yarrell, in his “ History
of British Birds,” shows considerable attention to the
subject: some of these marks, as the key, the crozier,
and the arrow, on the swans of the Lord Chamberlain,
the Abbot of Swinstead, and of Eton College, bear a
close affinity to the devices of heraldry.

It has been the custom, from the time that heraldry
was first reduced to system, to arrange the variety of
armorial bearings under the natural and artificial figures
of which they are composed; the division of natural his-
tory relating to fish forms but a very small part of the
principal books in use whenever heraldry is required.

PREFACE. ix

Guillim, in his celebrated Display, devotes one chapter*
to skinned and scaled fish, and in another} he treats
of crusted and shelled fish. Nisbet, the herald of Scot-
land, also, in his System,{ describes the heraldry of fish
in general; but both writers are necessarily very brief.
This part of the subject appeared capable of sustaining
a more minute inquiry, without descending into tedious-
ness; there is found to be no want of distinguished names
to give attraction to the particular branch the author has
chosen, in which he has endeavoured to explain the prin-
ciples of early heraldry, which is shown to have been
rather territorial than personal. A greater number of
the various species of fish have been enumerated; the
dolphin, the herring, and the fish of the sea, have afforded
several engravings, but the salmon and trout, with the
pike, barbel, and roach, and the other fish of the rivers,
present the widest field for inquiry; where the illustra-
tions selected for this work are professedly taken from
old examples, the copy has been rigidly followed, and in
the original designs the peculiar characters of the differ-
ent fish are given with the same attempt at accuracy
which the ancient heralds would have practised with the
same opportunities: this feature will not be overlooked -
by the angler, the naturalist, or the antiquary. Although
military service was the principal tenure by which lands
were anciently held, yet the different modes of taking
fish by the spear, the net, or the hook, are shown to have
been indicated in the armorial ensigns of the lords of
manors deriving revenue from the produce of the fishery.
The boats employed in the same service, which were

* Chapter xxii. of his third section. + Chapter xxiii.
{ Chapter vi. of the second part.

». ¢ PREFACE.

at the command of the sovereign in time of war, and
formed the original Navy of Britain, distinguish the en-
signs of the maritime lords, and the corporate bodies
to whom the jurisdiction of the ports was entrusted.

Heraldry partaking largely of allegory, it became ne-
cessary to allude to the mythological and religious em-
blems consisting of fish, as well as to notice the many
compound animals, the fanciful creations of the classical
poets; these conceptions, which excite so much inquiry,
rendered it more difficult to do justice within a small
space to a subject which appeared to merit farther in-
vestigation.

March,
1842.

_

SOM THA HP Ow bo

ILLUSTRATIONS.*

. VIGNETTE, containing the arms of Rosengriin, Dornheim, and Hanf-

stengel, described at page 129
Announcement of a Mermaid e

. Pisces, from the Zodiac of Denderah .

Pisces, from MS. in British Museum
Pisces, from Pavement in Canterbury Cathedral
Arms of Pfreimbt é

. Medal of Vitellius

. Dolphins, from the Loggie of the Veiioan.
. Amphitrite, from an antique gem

10.
. Oporinus’s Mark

. Vesica Piscis, on a seiastiheli at Exeter

. Example of fish hauriant

. Ditto naiant

. Syracusan Coin

. Medal of Brutus ‘ ; ‘ ;

. Ditto, Vespasian : A . : ; ‘
. Byzantine Coin : é

. Courtenay Standard in the time of Henry VIL.

. Arms of Courtenay Bishop of Winchester

. Aldus’s Mark : E
. Pickering’s Mark, including the Arms of Walton and Cotton

Arms of Admiral Lord Hawke

Banner of Dauphiné

Arms of the Dauphin

Arms of Franklin

Arms and Crest of Sir Tidiad Pieik leit: Bart.
Arms of Dolfin of Venice Z
Ditto

. Crest of Lord Godolphin

Arms and Crest of Monypenny ;
Arms and Crest of Sir John Leman

. Arms of Vandeput
. Arms of Bishop Fyshar, from the Pastionent Roll

Page

SCOnnt oak We

* There being so few opportunities for the exercise of female talent, it becomes a plea-
sure to mention that the engravings in this work were, with two or three exceptions,

executed by Mary and ELizaBETH CLINT ; a satisfactory proof of their rising ability.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

. Arms of Fleet :

. Seal of the Dean of Bocking ‘

. Arms of Fryer

. Arms of Bishop James, from setied ee at Oxford
. Arms and Crest of Fitz James

. Ancient carved Oak Panel

. Arms of the Watermen’s Company, with Siupinetihe
. Arms and Supporters of Sir William Burnaby

. Dolphins at sea ; 4

. Arms of Whalley Abbey ;

. Arms of Whalley

. Arms of Vaughan : : ‘ ,
. Harpoon, from Rondelet

. Arms of Lucy :

. Arms of the Duke of Nasiiiecherinnd: K. G.

. Arms and Quarterings of the Earl of Sussex, from glass at Newhall
. Arms of Calder Abbey

. Vane at Charlecote : "
. Arms of Lucy, from stained asia at Chaidoeitie

. Stained glass at Kingsdown Church

. Arms of Brougham, from stained glass at St. ie ea s Church
. Arms of Fontenay de Lue

. Arms of Geddes

. Arms of Gedney

. William Pickering’s Mark

. Arms and Crest of Gascoigne

. Arms of Fishacre

. Arms of Bishop Robinson

. Arms of Garmston

. Banner of John de Bar.

. Seal of the Earl of Warren and fees
. Seal of his Countess, Joan of Bar

. Arms and Mantle of Lorraine

. Stafford Badge

. Arms of Count Graville, K. G.

. Arms of Colston ;

. Arms of Riviere

. Arms and Crest of Karpfen

. Arms of De Blocg

. The Mahi of Mogul

. Arms of Viscount Lake

. Hindu Fish and Lotus

. Arms of Gobyon

. Arms of the Earl of Cananaeh

. Arms of Goujon :

. Arms of Onoltzbach

. Arms of Tenche

SZRRRRERRBERE REE

8l.
. Arms of Breame 6 ; ‘

. Arms of Abbot de la Mare ‘ ; °

. Arms of Chobb . : ‘ . s

. Seal of Thomas Lord de la Roche : ‘

. Murder of St. Thomas 4 Becket, from Abp. Arius seal

. Arms of Tropenell, impaling — from Chalfield Church

. Arms of Roche . , ‘

. Arms of Huyshe ; :

. Crest of Beckford . F é

. Arms of Picton ‘ é ‘
92.
93.
94.
95.
96.
97.
98.
99.

100.

101.

102.

103.

104.

105.

106.

~SSSSSARRSE

107.

108.
109.
110.
111.
112.
113.
114.
115.
116.
117.
118.
119.
120.
121.
122.
123.
124.

125.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Arms and Crest of Sir Fisher Teneh, Bart.

Crest of Fisher of Stafford

Arms of Durneford .

Arms of Chabot, Count of Newhlaut K, G.
Crest of Gurney

Arms of Tubbe, from stains glass a St. Neot’ 8 Chath
Arms of Raoul ; ; ;
Crest of Edridge

Arms of Gradel

Arms of Von Praromon

Arms of Gloucester

Seal of Kingston

Seal of Lostwithiel

Seal of Coleraine

Arms of the Earl O’Neill

Arms of Ord. ‘
Arms and Crest of Lord Womens

Arms and Crest of Sea .

Arms of Way

Arms and Crest of the thas of Salm ;
Arms and Crest of Knight of Gloucester
Arms of Sambrooke j :
Arms of Sevington ; 3
Arms of the See of Chaueow:

Device of the Fish and the Ring

Arms and Crest of Die Proy von Findalatein
Arms of Glynn

Crest of Von Ebnet

The Pheon

Seal of the town of Stafford

The Hungerford Horn

Crest of Penrose

Arms and Crest of Troutheck

Knights mounted ; with their armorial tienda and housings fon a

MS. temp. Henry VI.

Arms of Everhard Duke of Wisteinbensk fin his inbattnionk at

Tubingen

101

102

104
105
106
107
110
lil
112
113
114
115
116
117
117
118
119
120
122
123
124
126
127
128
130
131
131
133
134
135
136

137

139

X1V

126.
127.
128.
129.
130.
131.
132.
133.
134.
135.
136.
137.
138.
139.
140.
141.
142.
143.
144,
145.
146.
147.
148.
149.
150.
151.
152.
153.
154.
155.
156.
157.
158.
159.
160.
161.
162.
163.
164.
165.
166.
167.
168.
169.
170.
171.
172.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Banner of Pfirdt, from the Triumph of Maximilian
Crest of Jane , ; , ‘
Arms of Roten .

Arms of Medville

Arms of Smelt

Arms of Cardinal Bentivenga

Arms of Umbrell

Arms of Proude

Seal of the Borough of Parnpash

Seal of Yarmouth Priory

Southwold Token

Arms of Heringham

Arms of Archbishop eerie

Arms and Crest of Harene

Arms of Cobb :
Arms of Harrington, from a sit by Elstracke
Arms of Militon : : ‘

Seal of Truro

Looe Token

Arms of Bishop Sprat, from Westusinater Abbey
Arms of Sartine : é ;
Arms of Mackerell .

Crest of Haddock

Arms of the Abbey of i ichitien

Crest of Von Eytzing

Arms of Beck

Capital in Canterbury Cathedral

Arms of the Saltfishmongers

Arms of the Stockfishmongers

Arms of the Fishmongers’ Company

Arms of Iceland

Highland Fishing-boat, frees a selpiark in lon,
Seal of Campbell of Craiginch s ‘
Seal of the Barons of Dover

Arms of Habgood

Seal of Wexford

Arms of Hacket

Arms of Whiting

Arms of Caldwell

Arms of Bishop Cheney

Arms of Soles -

Arms and Crest of Turbutt

Crest of Lawrence

Crest of Britwesill .

Arms of Bukens

Arms of Fisher of Scotland

Arms and Crest of Butts

_— ee

ILLUSTRATIONS,

. Arms of Ellis of Treveare

. Crest of Sir John Styell

. Arms of Cardinal Guzman

. Badge of Lord Williams of Thame

. Arms of Foleborne :

. Arms of Stratele

. Arms of Conghurst

. Arms of the town of Lynn .

. Arms of Radford

. Arms of Sturgeon

. Arms of Gesse .

. Arms and Crest of Sir Robert Histand: Bart.

. Arms of Tucker ea

. Arms of Usedom :

. Arms of Ley Earl of Mixikoioagh

. Crest of Die Rietter

. Seal of Sir William Briwere

. Badge of Sir John Wallop, K.G.

. Arms of Prestwich

. Arms and Crest of Die Ristebenles

. Arms of Sir Isaac Heard, Garter oe of Arms .

. Banner of Lord Scales P

. Badge of Goldingham

. Saint James, from the banner in the Royal Armoury at Madrid
. Badge of the Order of Saint James = ;
. Arms of Lord Dacre ; ‘

. Arms and Crest of Von Strachwitz

. Arms of Shelley

. Arms and Crest of Von Melem :

. Arms of Bishop Attwater, from the Parliament Roll
. Arms of Bridger

. Arms of Alstanton .

. Vignette, containing the arms of Bawde,* ja J aeendect od the

crest of the Counts Von Windischgratz f

* Mentioned at page 175. + Page 199. t Page 110.

The Heraldry of Fish.

HERALDRY, in its general application, is the symbol of a
name; and armes parlantes, the admiration of the heralds, and
of general use throughout Europe, were undoubtedly the earliest
devices; none are more ancient than the well-known ensigns of
Castile and Leon. The banner of the feudal lord sometimes
bore the particular produce of the domain, as the pomegranate,
which gave at once the name and arms to the kingdom of
Granada. The mode of tenure was shown by the cups adopted
by the Butlers of Senlis in France, and allusions were made
in the arms of the nobility to other sources of their power
and jurisdiction ; the ancient Counts of Wernigerode, Master
Fishers of the empire of Germany, bore a fish as an ensign of
dignity.*

These marks of honour, admirably adapted to the different
branches of the feudal system, include many forms then familiar
which have now become obsolete; but these specimens of he-
raldry, even in its state of rudeness, are not undeserving of in-
vestigation, as reflecting the manners of the times in which they
were composed.

* Nisbet’s Heraldry.

2 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

The language used in English heraldry is derived from and
partakes much of the old French, the same language which
generally prevailed in the court, the camp, and the convent
during the dynasty of the Norman Kings of England, and even
down to the reign of Edward III. Without the aid of a glossary,
in explanation of many terms now disused, the whole import of
the subject can hardly be comprehended. Distinguished names,
also, naturally give rise to historical associations; and the in-
terest which the allusion is capable of mspiring must conse-
quently be proportionate to the previous knowledge possessed of
more than the leading points of early history.

In the primitive ages learning was not easy of acquisition, and
natural history was almost unknown: from works constructed
upon the models of Pliny, Dioscorides, and Aristotle, the know-
ledge of fish to be obtained is perfectly valueless to the enquirer
of the present day. The Roman author enumerates one hundred
and seventy-six kinds of fish, but it is now well known that
there are not less than two hundred and sixty species of British
fish alone; of these, one cabinet, that of Mr. Yarrell, a persever-
ing naturalist, contains upwards of one hundred and sixty dis-
tinct specimens. Such has been the rapid advance of inform- -
ation in recent times, that in his work on the subject he has been
enabled to describe a greater number by one-fourth than had yet
appeared in any British catalogue of fishes.

It is understood that nearly three-fourths of the earth’s surface
is covered with water, and that the Pacific ocean alone is greater
than the whole dry land of the globe put together.

In the British Museum are now preserved nearly one thousand
five hundred different species of fish; and in the Museum at
Paris, which is considered to be extremely rich in specimens of
the finny tribe, there are not less than five thousand, a number
annually increased by discovery from the vast resources now at
the command of science.

Heralds are not inattentive to naturel history, the whole range
of which is employed by them; but they use the variety of sub-
jects afforded by that delightful study with reference only to
their own particular pursuit, and not always without indulging in
fables. Heraldry also partakes of much, in common with poetry,
which delights in fiction, and both are found important assistants
in the representation of early manners. By this constant refer-
ence to antiquity are the heralds guided in their appropriation —

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 3

of the different species of the animal kingdom, which is pro-
ductive of an arrangement of subjects widely differing from that
of the scientific naturalist, whose theory and classification is
purposely intended for practical use, and for the immediate benefit
of mankind.

Few points of natural history were formerly less known than
fish ; the dolphin and the whale, belonging in modern science
to a class which is yet but imperfectly investigated, were fishes
to the earlier naturalists. The seal, or sea-calf of heraldry,
was also considered a fish, and permitted by the monkish rules
to be eaten on fish-days. The otter, it is true, had a like dis-
tinction, which is noticed by Isaak Walton. The tritons and
mermaids of classical mythology were purely emblematical ;
but, upon not improbable grounds, have been derived from the
amphibious habits of the seal. The last mermaid that engaged
the attention of the naturalists is now known to have been skil-
fully manufactured by a Chinese from the upper parts of a
monkey and the tail of a salmon, for the purpose of deception.

_ This singular creature was brought to Batavia from some of the
neighbouring islands in a perfect state of preservation. The
lower part of the body, enveloped in its scaly covering, was lost
in the natural form of a fish ; but its appearance was little cal-
culated to realize the fanciful idea of an animal famed for its
personal beauty. Bishop Cosin’s account of a whale, also,
stated to have been taken on the coast of Durham in the reign
of Charles II, an ingenious fiction, for a time deceived the

zoologists of the present day.
B2

4 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

Deeply occupied in the advancement of his favourite science,
the enlightened naturalist has not often either time or patience

to investigate the quaint devices of antiquity, or to trace the ©

heraldic badge to its origin, which invariably attract the notice
of the poet and the consideration of the antiquary: to them the
heraldry of early ages is a subject of inexhaustible interest:

The earliest known device of fish, the Zodiacal sign, is em-
blematical of the fishery of the Nile, commencing in the month
of February, about the time when the sun enters Pisces, which
is the best season for fishing, according to Pliny; and of the
great abundance and delicacy of the fish in Egypt all authors
ancient and modern are agreed. |

Modern travellers relate that the walls of the temple of Den-
derah are literally covered with magnificent sculpture and paint-
Ing. The figures representing the Zodiac are on the ceiling of

the portico, and are engraved in the great work on Egypt pub- {

lished by order of the French government.

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The signs of the Zodiac were frequently sculptured on the
exterior of ancient churches, presenting a sort of rural calendar
for the labours of the field each month in the year, which was
of practical use

When in the Zodiac the fish wheel round,
They loose the floods and irrigate the ground.

a

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 5

In his directions to the husbandman for the month of February,
old Tusser says,

To the coast, man, ride, Lent stuff to provide ;
with another couplet in encouragement of the fisherman,

The land doth will, the sea doth wish,
Spare sometimes flesh, and feed off fish.

The Zodiacal signs also appear as an ornament on antique
vases, coins, pavements, &c.; and are painted in bright colours
on the inside of several mummy cases now in the British Mu-
seum. A manuscript in the Cottonian Library * shows the sign
Pisces having a connecting line from the tail of each fish.

NIK
se reseseies 3
243525

The most interesting portions of the sculpture on the porch
of the Virgin, in the cathedral of Notre Dame at Paris, are
the compartments representing the signs of the Zodiac, and the
labours of the different months, all which were originally painted
and gilt. Another curious Zodiac on the porch of the church
of Saint Nicholas, at Civray, in Poitou, is engraved in Willemin’s
“ Monumens Francais.” The Anglo-Norman doorway of Saint
Margaret’s church in Walmgate, York, is enriched with four
mouldings, one of which is sculptured with the signs of the Zo-
diac alternately with the agricultural labours of the months.
They are also carved on one of the porches of Merton College,
Oxford; and the sign Pisces appears on the western doorway
of Iffley church, one of the most beautiful specimens of Anglo-
Norman architecture in the kingdom.

* MS. Tib. B. 5.

6 JHE HERALDRY OF FISH.

At the east end of the cathedral of Canterbury, in a chapel
near Becket’s crown, are considerable remains of a pavement
executed in an early stage of art; the large stones, rudely
inlaid, bear figures of the Zodiacal signs in circular compart-
ments. That of the sign Pisces is here shown.

This pavement attracts the notice of the curious as the only
indication of the once magnificent shrine of Saint Thomas a
Becket, and was probably designed and executed in the reign of
Edward I. during the prelacy of Archbishop Peckham, when
many costly additions were made to this Cathedral under the
direction of Henry Eastry, one of the Priors distinguished for
his taste and liberality, and who is recorded to have enriched
the choir with carvings. The revenues of the convent and
church were then very considerable, and were increased by
treasures which flowed in at the celebration of the festival of
Saint Thomas, an anniversary of the highest splendour, and
to which we are indebted for one of the earliest poems in the
English language, ‘“‘ The Canterbury Tales” of Chaucer.

A solitary modern instance of the application of these em-
blems is at Penrhyn Castle, the seat of the late G. H. Dawkins
Pennant, Esq., a mansion on the site of a palace of one of the
Princes of Wales, erected in a castellated style of architecture,
near Bangor. Two large and beautiful windows in the great
hall contain the signs of the Zodiac, with representations of the
labours of the corresponding months, all of the richest colours, —
painted by Willement in 1835.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 7

One of the signs, Sagittarius, assumed as the heraldic ensign
of King Stephen, is said to be in allusion to the Zodiacal position
of the sun at the time he ascended the throne of England. A
similar reference to the month of February may have influenced
the assumption of arms resembling the sign Pisces, borne by the
town of Pfreimbt in Germany. They are here copied from
Sibmacher’s ‘‘ Wapenbuch,” 1605; the fish and rays are white,
in an azure field, with stars of gold.

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The sign Pisces, according to some of the French heralds, is
composed of dolphins, which Venus placed in the Zodiac; a
dolphin is sculptured at her feet, in the most celebrated statue of
this goddess at Florence, to indicate her origin from the sea: but
the favourite of Venus, amongst fish, was the minnow, one of
the most beautiful in its form and marks.

The dolphin, in the mythology, was sacred to Apollo, and is
represented on a tripod in the reverse of a medal struck in the
reign of Vitellius.*

* Ant. Augustini Numism. Rom, 1654.

8 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

As an emblem of the sea, the dolphins appear in brilliant
colours in the Rose de Mer, or large western window of Amiens
cathedral. The sixteen compartments into which this circular
window is divided, are filled with stained glass, representing
dolphins and sea-shells of several kinds, together with the rebus
and arms of Nicholas de Coquerel, one of the canons of Amiens,
who died in 1465. The dolphin is also introduced in the ara-
besque ornaments of the beautiful stained glass windows of Mou-
lins cathedral.

In allegory, the dolphin was often employed as an emblem of
the sea: it is rudely sculptured on several of the Etruscan sar-
cophagi forming part of the collection of antiques in the British
Museum, and is found painted as an ornament in many apart-
ments of the houses at Pompeii, with little resemblance to the
dolphin of natural history. The same disregard of its true form
is exhibited by the earlier painters, particularly in the celebrated
Loggie of Raphael. The walls of the Vatican, painted by him,
are designed upon the model of classical decorations which he
had discovered in the baths of Titus, where the dolphins had
been introduced, with propriety, as a marine emblem.

Without ascribing to heraldry any positive connection with
classical allegory, it yet appears requisite to notice the badges of
antiquity as the probable prototype of many existing bearings in
coat armour. This view of the subject has not been entirely
overlooked. ‘A discourse of the origin of heraldry, demonstrat-
ing upon what rational foundation the science is established,”
was published in 1672 by Thomas Philipot, a poet and anti-
quary, the son of Somerset Herald. This work refers chiefly to
antique coins and medals, and the symbols impressed upon them.
It is of little use to the heraldic enquirer, as the author has
omitted all allusion to the history of the middle ages, with which
his subject was so closely connected. A few instances are here
given of the dolphin employed as a poetical representation of
the sea, to show the reason of its frequent heraldic application in
the same manner.

a ee ,

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 9

To obtain favour of Amphitrite, who had made a vow of
eternal celibacy, Neptune assumed the form of a dolphin; and
the nymph, as emblematical of her passion for the sea, is always
represented in a car drawn by dolphins, as in the beautiful
antique cornelian formerly in the Earl of Clanbrassil’s cabinet,
and etched by Worlidge, in his Collection of Gems, in 1768.

The ocean was a deity, whose protection was invoked by the
Romans on the occasion of any voyage: he is represented seated
on waves with grapes in his hair and dolphins in his beard. By
the goddess Tethys, whose name is familiar as a poetical expres- .
sion for the sea, he was the father of the Oceanides, who ruled
the tempest. To his son Proteus, Oceanus confided the care of
the fish, or, as Virgil says, translated by Dryden, “to keep his
scaly flocks.”

High o’er the main in watery pomp he rides,
His azure car and finny coursers guides.

Neptune himself, with his classical attributes, or, as the heralds
describe the figure, proper, was made the subject of a grant of
arms, for eminent services at sea, to Admiral Lord Hawke of
Towton, whose signal victory over the French fleet under Ad-
miral Conflans, in November 1759, was obtained during one of
the most violent storms ever witnessed by the oldest seaman.

10 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

By the gallant commander’s intrepid conduct a long prepared
invasion of the enemy was broken and dispelled, in a manner that
brought forcibly to mind the design and fate of the Spanish
Armada; the defeat of which was, at that time, the safety of
England, and the lasting renown of the English navy.*

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An instance of Neptune employed in heraldry had been pre-
viously given in the crest of the family of Monypenny, with
the motto “Imperat equor,” he governs the sea; im allusion
probably to their estate on the coast of Fifeshire. An engraving
of this device will be found in a subsequent page.

The dolphin of the ancients is more particularly famed in the |
story of Arion, the celebrated musician of Lesbos, the melodious
sweetness of whose lyre attracted a number of dolphins round
his ship ; and when afterwards he threw himself into the sea, in
fear of his life, one of them carried him safely on his back to
shore.

* The arms of Lord Hawke of Towton in Yorkshire, are, argent, a cheyron erminois
between three boatswains whistles erect, proper. Crest, on a wreath a hawk rising
proper, charged on the breast with a fleur-de-lis. Supporters, on the dexter side Neptune
crowned, standing upon a dolphin, and bearing in his right hand the trident, all proper;
on the sinister a sea-horse holding an union flag in his dexter paw, proper. Motto, Strike.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. ll

A cinque cento version of this classical fable, encircled with
the heroic motto, “ Invia virtuti nulla est via,” implying that
valour and virtue surmount everything, was adopted in 1560 as
a mark by Oporinus, one of the famous German printers.

In this device, one amongst a number of grotesque and extra-
ordinary ornaments of the early press,

A fiddler on a fish through waves advanced ;
He twang’d his catgut, and the dolphin danced.

John Herbst of Basle, better known by the name of Oporinus,
was highly esteemed in his profession ; he printed none but the
best manuscripts, and published no book which he had not him-
self corrected. Having joined in partnership with Robert Win-
ter, they both, agreeably to the practice of the learned men of
that period, adopted classical names; Herbst assuming that of
Oporinus, a Greek word signifying autumn; and Winter, for
the same reason, took that of Chimerinus, apparently to humour
the lines of Martial’s epigram :

Si daret Autumnus mihi nomen, Oporinus essem.
Horrida si Brumz sidera, Chimerinus.—Ep. ix.

12 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

. There are very few fishes named in the sacred Scriptures,
the most interesting portion of ancient literature; Dag, the
Hebrew for fish, appears to be a general name of aquatic animals.
As the Greek word for fish, Ictis, contained initials emblematical
of Christ, a fish was a very favourite symbol of the early Chris-
tians ; and the vesica piscis, a rough outline of a fish, formed of
two curves meeting in a point at their extremities, was made to
enclose the holy symbol.

E(\[]2

This image was sculptured upon tombs and sepulchral urns,

as well as upon seals and rings, and its form is shown on part of

a pavement found near the conduit in South Street, Exeter, in
September 1833. The same figure is also upon one of the tiles
preserved at Caen in Normandy: both have been engraved in
the Gentleman’s Magazine.

The Virgin in a canopy, or Vesica piscis round which the
four Evangelists are disposed, is not uncommon in the old
churches. It is mentioned in Mr. Hope’s “ Historical Essay on
Architecture,” at Ravenna, where the fish also appears on the
ancient convex marble ambones, or pulpits, which have been in-
serted in the walls of the modern cathedral. On the origin of
this custom the curious may consult Encyclopédie Méthodique
Antiq. tom. ill.

Of all classes of natural history, that of fishes is the most diffi-
cult to divide into orders, as remarked by Cuvier, who devoted
his life to the study of the science. There is, indeed, nothing
- more remarkable than the infinite variety and singularity of the
- figures and shapes of fishes: their forms are considered to be
more extraordinary than those of any other department of the
animal kingdom. |

The attention of heralds was directed merely to the chief
characteristic features of animals, and the most generous and

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 13

noblest qualities belonging to the species are usually described.
Beasts of savage nature are represented in fierce agency: the
lion rampant is a lion prepared for action; the boar is shown
with tusks, and the stag with his proper attire; the horse is
represented in full speed, or courant; the greyhound coursing,
and the deer tripping; but the wolf is described as passant,
agreeably to his natural disposition, moving step by step.

As the symbol of a name, almost all fish have been used in
heraldry ; and in many instances fish have been assumed in arms
in reference to the produce of the estate, giving to the quaint |
device a twofold interest. They are borne upright and extended,
and when feeding are termed devouring; Allumé, when their
eyes are bright, and Pamé, when their mouths are open.

All the terms used in describing their positions are old French.
Hauriant, a word now obsolete, means fish raised upright, in
which manner, with their heads above water, fish refresh them-
selves by sucking in the air; Naiant, from the same ancient
source, denotes the swimming position.

The arrangement of subjects having but very slight reference
to the classification of the naturalist, is adopted to explain the
heraldic application of the several species of fish.

14 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

I.—The DOLPHIN and the WHALE.

II,—The PIKE, LUCE, or GED, and FLYING-FISH.

IlIl.—The BARBEL, CARP, GUDGEON, TENCH, BREAM, ROACH,
DACE, CHUB, MINNOW, and LOACH.

IV.—The CHABOT, GURNARD, MULLET, and PERCH.

V.—The SALMON, TROUT, SMELT, and GRAYLING, with their
enemy the OTTER.

VI.—The HERRING, PILCHARD, and SPRAT.
VII.—The MACKAREL.

VIII.—The HADDOCK, COD, HAKE, LING, WHITING, and BURBOT.

1X.—The SOLE, TURBOT, PLAICE, and FLOUNDER.
X.—The EEL, CONGER, and LAMPREY.
XI.—The STURGEON.
XI1.—The DOG-FISH, SEA LIONS, and other monsters.
XIII.—The SEAL, MERMAID, and TRITON.

XIV.—SHELLFISH.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 15

L.
The Molphin and the @hale.

The dolphin by heralds is considered the chief of fish, as the
lion is of beasts and the eagle of birds; so distinguished pro-
bably from the beauty of its form, and from its being found more
frequently depicted in heraldic bearings than any other particu-
lar species: this arises from the dolphin being used as a general
type of fish, as in the arms of the Fishmongers’ Company, in
which it is conspicuous, and also from its being sometimes as-
sumed in relation to naval affairs.

The heraldic representations of the dolphin are supposed to
be little consonant with truth ; but an apologist is found in one
of the most able and accomplished naturalists of the present
day. Mr. Bell, in his History of the Cetacea, gives a descrip-
tion of its form and colour, which is blackish on the back,
greyish on the sides, and glittering white beneath. After the
fullest particulars of its organization, he says, “ It requires some
stretch of the imagination to identify the blunt round-headed
creature, with its curved back and spiny fins, as it is pictured,
with the straight sharp-beaked animal,” of which a true repre-
sentation is prefixed to his account. But even here, the learned
' author continues, “there are exceptions to this general censure,
and there is no difficulty in at once recognising the common
dolphin in the animal which is represented on the reverse of a
_ Syracusan coin in the British Museum, of which this engraving
is an accurate copy.” * |

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* Bell’s British Quadrupeds, p. 465.

16 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

The naturalist very properly disregards those peculiarities of
outward form, the fins and the tail, so necessary to the dolphin
as an inhabitant of the sea; and, upon a firm principle of or-
ganization, both the dolphin and the whale, fishes in heraldry,
now form under the head of Cetacea a peculiar class of mam-
malia, Ray and Pennant being the last naturalists who admitted
them as fish. 7

Some difference has been attempted to be made between the
dolphin of natural history and the dolphin of poetry, or that
which is depicted in heraldry ; but there is no satisfactory reason
to doubt that one and the same animal or fish is intended. In
the tropical regions numbers will follow and surround a ship
with the most eager delight, and hence has arisen their reputed
attachment to mankind. They are described by mariners as
glistening most beautifully in the sun, and displaying the most
extraordinary agility ; their gambols being accompanied by jets
of water from their nostrils, and their brilliant coats sparkling
and flashing in the sun quite splendidly.*

The dolphin is found on the shores of Great Britain, and
occasionally in the rivers Ribble and Severn. It was employed
on the early Greek coins of Sicily as an emblem of the sea ; and
was subsequently used on the money of the Roman consul,
Caius Marius, the son of a peasant of Arpinum, as a rebus on
his name.

A dolphin surmounting an anchor, represented on one of the —
medals struck during the consulate of Lucius Junius Brutus,
was intended to denote the dominion of the republic of Rome in —
the Mediterranean.+

* See Captain Basil Hall’s Fragments of Voyages.
+ Ant. Augustini Numism. Regum. Imp. Rom, 1654, tab. 5.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 17

Imperial Rome affords an instance of nearly the same device,
on a medal of Vespasian; a dolphin entwining an anchor was
used to indicate the Emperor’s naval superiority. The birth of
Vespasian was not noble, and it was in his advanced age that he
was raised to the throne of the Cesars. In Paradin’s “ Heroical
Devises,” the dolphin and anchor is attributed to Vespasian,
with the motto “ Festina lente,” afterwards used by the Shrop-
shire family of Onslow, as a play upon their name.

Byzantium, from its advantageous position, appeared to have
been formed for the centre and capital of a great monarchy; the
Propontis being renowned for an inexhaustible store of the most
exquisite fish, that were taken in their stated seasons without
_ skill and almost without labour, and the profits of this fishery con-
stituted the principal revenue of the city. The device on the
more ancient coins is a dolphin entwined on the trident, or
sceptre of Neptune.*

A dolphin, one of the ensigns of the Greek empire, is borne by
the Courtenay family as representatives of a branch of that illus-
trious house, which once bore the title of Augustus, and sustained
the honours of the purple as Emperors of Constantinople.

* Gibbon’s Rome, and Ball’s Antiquities of Constantinople.
c

18 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

The Lords of Courtenay in Gatinois, vassals of the crown of
France, were amongst the heroes of the first crusade: a daughter
of Reginald Courtenay formed an alliance with the Sang Royal.
Peter Courtenay, their son, became Emperor of Constantinople in
1217; and his two sons, Robert and Baldwin, successively enjoyed
the same dignity.

Reginald, Lord of Okehampton, descended from the Courte-
nays of France, was the patriarch of the Courtenays, Earls of
Devonshire, who contracted alliances with the noblest families :
their arms, denoting affinity with Godfrey of Bouillon, and the
old Counts of Boulogne, or, three torteauxes, with a label azure,
are heraldically described in the contemporary poem of the Siege
of Carlaverock. The name of Courtenay is found conspicuous in
the original list of the Knights of the Garter; and in the wars of
the Plantagenets the family were adherents of the house of
Lancaster. One of the daughters of King Edward IV. married
William Earl of Devonshire ; and their son, Henry Courtenay,
Marquess of Exeter, a favourite of King Henry the Eighth,
broke a lance with the French monarch on the field of the cloth
of gold. :

Sir William Courtenay of Powderham Castle, a lineal de-
scendant of Hugh, the first Earl of Devonshire, in the same
reign bore on his emblazoned standard dolphins, the device of
dominion, in reference to ‘“‘ the purple of three Emperors.”

i

The standard, four yards in length, differed from a banner in
form: the latter, nearly square, contained the arms, and in this
form the royal standard at Windsor Castle is now made; but
the ancient standard of a knight, long and narrow, and split at

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 19

the end, bore the cross of Saint George, and was also charged
with his badge or crest, and motto, but not with the arms.*

This noble and illustrious family also attained the highest
honour in the church. William Courtenay, the son of Hugh
Earl of Devonshire, by Margaret Bohun, daughter of the Earl of
Hereford, became successively Bishop of Hereford and London,
and in 1381 Archbishop of Canterbury. The college he founded
at Maidstone is a proof of his munificent spirit. Another learned
and accomplished prelate, Peter Courtenay, son of Sir Philip
Courtenay of Powderham, by Elizabeth, daughter of Lord Hun-
gerford, was Bishop of Exeter in 1478, and Bishop of Winchester
in 1487. His arms, environed by the dolphins of Constantinople,
are represented on a compartment of one of the chimney-pieces
in the episcopal palace at Exeter.

This piece of sculpture appears not to have been executed until
after the bishop’s removal to Winchester, as it bears the arms of
that see, a sword between two keys, the united emblems of the
apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, commemorative of the dedication
of Winchester Cathedral.

The knowledge of the history of the house of Courtenay has
been rendered more familiar than that of any other noble family

* Excerpta Historica, 1831, a work of much information respecting the progress of the

arts, including heraldry, and whatever presents characteristic features of former ages.
c2

20 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

by the eloquent narrative of Gibbon. The present nobleman is
the tenth Earl of Devon; but the title was dormant from the
year 1556 till 1831, when it was adjudged by the House of Lords
to William Viscount Courtenay, cousin of the present Earl of
Devon, to whom his lordship succeeded in 1835.*

_ As a well-known symbol of the principal seat of the Greek
empire, the dolphin was adopted as a device by the celebrated
Aldus, the best but. not the earliest printer of Greek, whose works
are known to every scholar: as an original benefactor to the
literature of the age in which he lived, he stood high; and as an
editor he was considered of the first rank. The state of the
manuscripts he prepared for the press required the assistance of
the most learned amongst his contemporaries.

By his son and grandson the business ofa printer was continued
till the death of the latter in 1597 ; and with him ended the glory
of the Aldine press, established in the fifteenth century, the
productions of which are of the highest value both for accuracy
and beauty.

The classical and tasteful device of Aldus, a dolphin entwined
on an anchor, was adopted by Mr. Pickering for his Aldine
edition of the British Poets; with an eye probably to this pro-
phetic distich,

Would you still be safely landed
On the Aldine anchor ride :

Never yet was vessel stranded
With the dolphin by its side.

Mr. Pickering’s device is also shown in an ornamental com-

* Report of Proceedings on the Claim to the Earldom, with notes and an appendix, by —

Sir Harris Nicolas, 1832.
+ Gentleman’s Magazine for 1836.

wee

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 21

partment between the mark of honest Izaak Walton and the
arms of his friend and contemporary Charles Cotton, of Beresford
in Staffordshire, both distitiguished names in piscatory annals.

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cast

This is affixed to his very splendid edition of Walton and
Cotton’s Complete Angler, an indispensable manual, embellished
with illustrations by those eminent artists Stothard and Inskipp.
The mark of Walton in this design appears on the dexter shield,
between the arms of his two wives Fludd and Kenn; and the
arms of Cotton on the sinister shield, between those of his wives
Hutchinson and Russell. Ornaments of this description con-
tribute greatly to the beauty of a book, and the complete device
must be acknowledged to exhibit much spirit and heraldic taste
in the composition.

Heraldry, it may be remarked, is essentially of military ori-
gin; and the ensign under which the feudal vassals assembled
round their lord became the distinctive mark of hereditary sove-
reignty and honour: thus the well-known devices, the wivern of
Milan, the black cross of Genoa, and the lion of St. Mark at
Venice, were borne by the
Banner’d host,

Under spread ensigns marching.

At the very dawn of heraldry the vassals of Dauphiné rallied
under a dolphin, a mark easily descried and one that all under-
stood : the form was of course derived from the classical repre-
sentations, and adopted as symbolical of the name of the pro-
vince. A golden dolphin in an azure field was borne by Andrew
the Dauphin, Count of Viennois, contemporary with King Henry
III. of England, and patriarch of the Dauphins descended from

22 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

the houses of Burgundy and La Tour. It was also borne
by the Dauphins, as they were subsequently styled, Lords of
Auvergne. |

Humbert, Dauphin of Viennois, oppressed by continual war
with his neighbour, Amadeus VI. Count of Savoy, known as the
Green Earl, granted his seignory to Philip of Valois, King of
France, in the year 1349 ; stipulating that the King’s son should
be styled eldest son of France and Dauphin of Viennois, and
always bear the arms of this extensive province.

The Emperor Charles IV. in 1379 visited Charles, the first
who assumed the title of Dauphin; and, waving all pretensions
to the fief, constituted him perpetual Vicar of the Empire im the
Dauphinate. |

In England the word dolphin was used for the French name
of Dauphin, as in the old play of “ King John,” who, it may be
remarked, died more than a hundred years before the title was —
in existence, |

“ Lewis the Dolphin and the heire of France.”

Shakspeare’s subsequent introduction of the Dauphin in the time ~
of King John is amply atoned by his transcendent genius ; but in —
the recent pictorial edition of his plays, the readers are presented —
with a portrait of the Dauphin taken from the Archeologia !
a less pardonable error either of the editor or the antiquary.

After her marriage at Notre Dame in 1558, Mary Queen of
Scots saluted the Dauphin as King of Scotland ; and their mar-
riage was declared by the titles also of “‘ Dolphin and Dolphiness
of France.” A rare gold coin bears the arms of the Dauphin
impaled with the royal arms of Scotland.*

* The coin, in the collection of Dr. William Hunter, was engraved in 1798.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 23

The arms of the Dauphin, son of Louis XIV, the most dis-
tinguished person who bore the title, are under his portrait by H.
Rigaud, which is engraved by Drevet, and are placed on a car-
touche shield environed by the collars of the orders of St. Mi-
chael and the Holy Ghost, and surmounted by the Dauphin’s
coronet, the bows of which are formed by dolphins.

The frontispiece prefixed to the Delphin Classics shows Arion
in the act of springing out of the ship, with a dolphin ready to
receive him ; and bears the motto used by the Dauphin of France,
TRAHITVR. DVLCEDINE . CANTVS. alluding to the reputed fondness of
the dolphin for music. The suggestion of a series of the classics
“In usum Delphini,” made by the Prince’s governor, the Duke
de Montausier, was carried into execution by his preceptors,
Huet and Bossuet; and the device of Arion was not unaptly
adopted, the name of Dauphin signifying equally the Prince and
the fish.

Arion’s preservation was a favourite subject in the spectacles
exhibited upon the water in the days of Queen Elizabeth:
during the visit to Kenilworth, Arion rode upon the back of a
dolphin twenty-four feet in length, which contained in its body

24 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

a rude kind of harmonicon. In one of the plays of later date,*
a cook, boasting of his skill in allegorical embellishment, says,

“ For fish I ‘ll make you a standing lake of white broth,
And pikes shall come ploughing up the plums before them,
Arion on a dolphin playing Lachryme.”

An allusion to this classical subject is again made by the same
dramatists, +

“ May ’t rain above all almanacks, till
The carriers sail, and the King’s fishmonger
Rides, like Arion, upon a trout to London.”

Azure, a man riding on a dolphin and playing on a harp, the
arms of Walterton, or Walterstown, of Scotland, shows the
same subject treated heraldically.

The Dolphin inn, a large house formerly on the eastern side
of Bishopsgate street, was enriched on its front with fleurs-de-lis
and dolphins; and is said, in some descriptions of London, to
have been a residence of the Dauphin of France. More pro-
bably it was prepared for some of the French ambassadors to
England, in compliment to whom the Dolphin inn at South-
ampton, one of the largest in the kingdom, might also have
derived its sign.

When signs were of general use, the dolphin was by no means
uncommon : the Spectator, projected by Addison, was published
daily in 1711 at the Dolphin in Little Britain, then the shop of
the learned bookseller Samuel Buckley, editor of Thuanus, and
of the first daily newspaper, the ‘‘ Daily Courant,” in 1709, and
who also published Sir Richard Steele’s “ Crisis,” with other
political works, in his zeal for the Hanover succession, for
which he was eminently distinguished.

The dolphin is conspicuous in the arms borne by families of
the name of Franklin, as well as the fleur-de-lis in those of the
name of France. Argent, a clump of trees proper ; in the centre
of the branches a fleur-de-lis or ; on a chief wavy azure, three
fleurs-de-lis of the third, are borne by the family of France of
Bostock, on the banks of the river Dane in Cheshire; a grant of
arms evidently intended to typify both the names of person and
estate. Vert, a saltier argent; on a chief or, three fleurs-de-lis
azure, are the arms of the family of France of North Britain.

* The “ Bloody Brother,” by Beaumont and Fletcher.
+ Weber's edition, vol. ii. p. 55.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 25

The recorded miracle of the transmission of the /7s from heaven
to Clovis the first Christian King of France, may be traced to
Louis VII.’s reception of a consecrated flower from Pope Alex-
ander III. This King, who is sometimes called Ludovicus
Florus, bore on his signet a fleur-de-lis, but probably assumed it
in allusion to his name, then usually spelt Loys; one of the
earliest instances of the punning device, and whence France was
poetically termed L’ Empire des Lis.

The Franklin is finely drawn by Chaucer as hospitable and
not unaccomplished : the name implies a freeholder of consider-
able property; and Waterhouse, an heraldic author, says,
“There are many now grown into families called Franklin, who
are men in the county of Middlesex and other parts.” *

Argent, on a bend azure three dolphins of the field; crest, a
dolphin embowed proper, pierced through the sides with two
fishing spears in saltier or, were the armorial ensigns of William
Franklin, Sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1613, and of Sir Richard
Franklin of More Park in the same county, created Baronet by
King Charles IT. in 1660.

Dolphins are also borne in the arms of the family of Franklin
of Maverns in Bedfordshire, one of whom was Sheriff of the
county in 1600. In the church of Bolnhurst, among other
memorials ofthis family, is a monument to Sir John Franklin,
one of the Masters in Chancery, who died in 1707. They after-
wards resided at Great Barford, and one of the branches of the
family at Pavenham, both in the same county.

Argent, on a bend between two lions’ heads erased gules, a
dolphin naiant between as many birds close or: crest, a dolphin’s

* Commentary on Fortescue, 1663.

26 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

head erect argent, between two branches vert, are the armorial
bearings of another family of Franklin of Rainham in Norfolk.

The ancestral family of the celebrated American philosopher,
Benjamin Franklin, were, it is well known, industrious smiths
at Ecton in Northamptonshire, which village his father Josias
left for America in the year 1682.

Azure, a dolphin naiant or; on a chief of the second, three
saltiers gules: crest, an anchor erect sable, entwined by a dol-
phin argent, are the armorial ensigns of the Frankland family,
originally of Hertfordshire, but which was afterwards seated at
Thirsk in Yorkshire. William Frankland, Esq. of Thirkleby,
_ was the father of Sir Henry Frankland, whose son William was
created Baronet by King Charles IT. in 1660.

Sir Thomas Frankland, Postmaster-General in the reign of
Queen Anne, is thus mentioned in Mackay’s “ Characters of the
Courtiers:” ‘“ He is chief of a very good family in Yorkshire,
with a very good estate; his being my Lord Fauconberg’s
nephew, and marrying a grand-daughter of Oliver Cromwell,
first recommended him to King William, who at the Revolution
made him Commissioner of the Excise, and in some years after
Governor of the Post-office. By abundance of application he
understands that office better than any man in England; and,

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 27

notwithstanding we had no intercourse with France last war, he
improved that revenue to ten thousand pounds a year more than
it was in the most flourishing years.” The lineal descendant of
this family, Sir Robert Frankland Russell, Baronet, of Thirkleby
in Yorkshire, acquired Chequers in Buckinghamshire, as repre-
sentative of the Russells of Chippenham in Cambridgeshire, who
were allied to the Protectoral house of Cromwell by frequent
intermarriages. At Chequers the dolphin of the Franklands is
introduced in the armorial enrichments of modern additions from
designs by Mr. E. B. Lamb, architect.

Azure, a bend or, between two dolphins embowed argent, are
the arms of a family of French of Essex; but the noble family
of F'french, who have resided at Castle French in the county of
Galway in Ireland for many generations, bear the dolphin only
as a crest.

The arms, azure, three fleurs-de-lis or, with a dolphin em-
bowed as a crest, were borne by Peter P. Metge, Esq. of Ath-
lumney in the county of Meath, who was related to John Metge,
Esq. formerly M.P. for Dundalk, and Deputy Auditor-General
in the Irish Treasury.

Simplicity is one of the principal characteristics of heraldry,
and a dolphin is frequently borne in reference to the name.
The English family claim Venetian origin, and in a list of the
nobility of Venice the arms of Dolfin are found: per pale,
azure and argent, a dolphin naiant or.

The Venetian nobility, among the most authentic in Europe,
were once so jealous of their Libro d’Oro, the celebrated book of
genealogy, that a proposal to open it during the Candian war,
and admit twenty new members, was indignantly spurned by
Michielli, one of the Elettorali, a descendant of one of the twelve
original families, who exclaimed “ Vender « jigli, ma non mat

28 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

vender la nobilita,” that he would sell his children, but never his
nobility.

Some families of Brescia, Treviso, and other places, were how-
ever subsequently inscribed in the Libro d’Oro, whose only claim
to the honour was the zeal with which they prostrated their
country at the feet of the republic. It is this historical truth
which gives force to the poet’s rebuke—

Thy oligarchy’s Book of Gold
Shut against humble virtue’s name,
But opened wide for slaves who sold

Their native land to thee and shame.
Moore.

In the same list of the nobility of Venice* are the arms of
another family of Dolfin, azure, three dolphins naiant or; the
same arms were also borne by the English family of Dolphin.

/ SEA tS Si
oa pe ae Z

FAR TA
ys
4 ps

Vert, three dolphins naiant in pale or, are the family arms of
Dolphinley ; and, sable, a dolphin hauriant or, those of Dolfin-
ton. A dolphin naiant proper, is borne as a crest by the family
of Browne of Dolphinton in Lanarkshire, in allusion to the name
of their estate.

As a crest, a dolphin embowed was borne by the Earl of

Godolphin, K.G. a nobleman of distinguished abilities, Lord —

High Treasurer to Queen Anne. His immediate progenitors
were distinguished in the cabinet and the field, and for their
loyalty during the civil war: he himself sat in the first parlia-
ment after the Restoration as M.P. for Helston in Cornwall,
whence he rose rapidly into political consequence. The manor
of Godolphin, or Godolian, near Helston, was held by a family

* ArMA GENTILICIA, sive Insignia vera Nobiliad omnium magnificentissime Civitatis

Venetiarum viventium, Anno Domini 1561; a curious manuscript in the library of
Woburn Abbey.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 29

of the same name even before the Conquest, and which originally
bore for arms, argent, three dolphins embowed sable. John
Godolphin was Sheriff of Cornwall in 1504; and at Pengersick
Castle, a seat of the Militon family, erected in the reign. of
Henry VIII, is a chamber painted with proverbs, one of which
is a comparison of an affectionate sovereign to a dolphin, indicating
the kindness received from the house of Godolphin, whence the
Lord of Pengersick married his lady.*

On the death of Francis Lord Godolphin, the last male heir of
this noble race, in 1758, the estates descended to the Duke of
Leeds, grandson of the first Earl of Godolphin. The ancient
family device, a dolphin embowed sable, finned or, is now borne
as a crest by Francis Godolphin Osborne, created Lord Godol-
phin in 1832, the son of Francis Duke of Leeds, by Baroness
Conyers, and brother to the present Duke.

Fg
Z : j *

4

A dolphin, as a marine emblem, is borne as a charge in the
arms of some families, typical of certain jurisdiction over part of
the sea or harbours held under the sovereign. A dolphin naiant
azure, is the crest of the Marquess of Ailsa, a title derived from
an island on the coast of Ayrshire. The noble family of Ken-
nedy possessed large estates in Carrick as early as the reign
of Edward III, and the title of Earl of Cassilis in 1509. At
the tournament held at Eglintoun Castle in 1839, the Earl of
Cassilis bore his family cognisance on his helmet and housings,
and when armed for the tilt was distinguished as the Knight of
the Dolphin.

* Lysons’s Cornwall, from Leland’s Itinerary, vol. iii.

30 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

Argent, a dolphin embowed azure, are the arms of the family
of Monypenny, who quarter the arms of Cathcart, and bear for a
crest, Neptune bestriding a dolphin on the waves, with his trident
in his hand, and holding the reins: over the crest the motto,
Imperat equor. David Monypenny had a grant of Pitmilly,
King’s Barns, on the coast of Fifeshire, from the Prior of
St. Andrews, who was contemporary with Henry III. King of
England. Sir William Monypenny was created a Baron by
King James II. in 1450; but his son Alexander was the last who
held the title. A considerable branch of this family is now
seated at Rolvenden in the Weald of Kent ; and Captain Thomek
Gybbon Monypenny is M.P. for Rye.

Corporations of those towns which have arisen into importance,
and where a successful fishery is established, bear a dolphin on
their.common seal. At Brighton, now the first of fashionable
watering-places, the mackarel season is still of great interest, and
a fish-market is held on the beach. The Steyne, a spacious lawn

|

and promenade, was the spot formerly used by the fishermen for —

drying their nets. The common seal of the town bears two
dolphins embowed within a shield.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 31

The trade of Poole, a sea-port of Dorsetshire, consists chiefly
in the Newfoundland fishery. The arms of the corporation were
probably assumed in reference to the Court of Admiralty, held
there for a particular jurisdiction: barry wavy gules and or, a
dolphin embowed argent ; in chief, three escallops of the second :
the crest, a mermaid holding in her right hand an anchor cabled,
and in her left a mound, the emblem of sovereignty.

A dolphin also forms a charge in the arms of the town of Dun-
kirk, on the North Sea, a place of considerable trade in fish ; and
in the arms of Otranto, a port on the Adriatic, in the dominions
of the King of Naples.

Arms were assumed at an early period by the merchants of
the city of London. King Charles V. allowed arms to the
burgesses of Paris in 1371; but the helmet was for some time
afterwards reserved as a distinction of the gentry of France.

The members of the Fishmongers’ Company seem to have
assumed the dolphin in their arms as an emblem of trade; but
the cod, hake, and ling were the stockfish for which the great
demand existed, and were the principal source of their wealth
and renown.

Sir William Askham, Lord Mayor of London in 1404, bore
gules, a fess or, between three dolphins embowed argent.

Sir John Rainwell, citizen and fishmonger, Lord Mayor in
1426, bore for arms, a chevron between three dolphins em-
bowed.

Sir William Rennington, citizen and fishmonger, the son of
Robert Rennington of Boston in Lincolnshire, and Lord Mayor
in 1500, bore, gyronny of eight, ermine and azure, a dolphin
embowed gules.

Sir William Holleys, Lord Mayor in 1539, bore, sable, on a
bend argent, between a talbot courant in chief, and a dolphin em-
bowed in base of the second, three torteauxes. Other branches
of the Holleys family have the bend charged with roses or an-
nulets gules.

Sir Thomas Curteis, citizen and fishmonger, son of John
Curteis of Enfield in Middlesex, and Lord Mayor in 1557, bore,
barry wavy argent and sable, a chevron or, between three be-
zants; on a chief of the third, two dolphins addorsed between as
many anchors azure.

Sir John Cootes, son of Thomas Cootes of Bierton in Bucking-
hamshire, Lord Mayor in 1542, bore, per pale or and azure, two

32 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

dolphins hauriant, addorsed and counterchanged ; on a chief sable,
a covered cup or, between two dovecotes argent.

Azure, a fess between three dolphins embowed argent ; crest, a
lemon-tree ; were the armorial ensigns of Sir John Leman, a
native of Beccles in Suffolk, where he founded a free school.
He was Lord Mayor in 1616, and on his death in 1632 was
buried in St. Michael’s church, Crooked Lane. This church,
which was demolished in 1831 to form a better approach to
London Bridge, had been rebuilt by John Lovken, a stockfish-
monger, four times Lord Mayor of London in the reign of
Richard II. Sir William Walworth, another renowned fish-
monger, was also a liberal benefactor to this church.

In Fishmongers’ Hall, among the archives is a roll represent-
ing a grand pageant, which was prepared at the charge of that
company to grace the inauguration of Alderman John Leman to
the dignity of Lord Mayor. In this procession-roll is represented
1. The fishing buss. 2. The crowned dolphin. 3. The King of —
the Moors. 4. A lemon-tree, the Lord Mayor's peculiar badge ;
and 5. The bower of Sir William Walworth. A description of
this pageant, entitled ‘“Chrysanaleia, the golden fishing, or
Honours of Fishmongers,” &c. was written by Anthony Munday, —
and has been printed. ‘

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 33

Alderman Leman’s estates, situated in Goodman’s Fields, and
in the counties of Hereford, Huntingdon, and Cambridge, de-
scended to his nephew William Leman Esq. of Northaw in
Hertfordshire, whose son William was created a Baronet by
King Charles II. in 1664. He was Sheriff of the county in
1676; and at his death in 1701 was succeeded by his grandson
Sir William Leman, the last Baronet, who died in 1741.

Sir John Leman, who died at Wakefield in 1839, assumed the
title, but failed in establishing his claim to the estate.

The late Rev. Thomas Leman, of Bath, was of the same family,
and in one of his manuscripts he has given a genealogical account
of its several branches. His fondness for the name was shown
in his own house, where one of the rooms was painted with a
view of Lake Leman. This gentleman was best known by his
careful investigation of the early roads and earth-works of Great
Britain, the details of which, with his topographical collections,
were left at his death in 1826 to the Bath Institution, of which
he was one of the founders.

Or, three dolphins hauriant azure, are the arms of the family
of Vandeput, formerly merchants of London, descended from
Henry Vandeput of Antwerp, who in 1568 came to England in
consequence of the persecution of the Duke of Alva.

A monument in memory of several members of this family was
erected in the church of St. Margaret Pattens, by Sir Peter
Vandeput, in 1686. His son Peter was created a Baronet by
King George I. in 1723, and was father of Sir George Van-
deput, Bart. who contested the city of Westminster in 1748:
he died in 1784; and another distinguished member of this
family, Admiral Sir George Vandeput, died in 1790.

The dolphin, the general emblem of fish, is used in heraldry as

D

34 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

a play upon the names of Fisher and Fish. Azure, a fess wavy or,
between two crescents in chief and a dolphin in base argent,
were the arms of the late John Fish, Esq. of Kempton Park,
Middlesex.

Gules, a dolphin or, and chief ermine, are the arms of the
family of Fisher of Witlingham in Norfolk; that of Fisher of
Kent bears for arms, per fess gules and argent, in chief a dolphin
of the second. Another family of Fisher of Warwickshire bears,
gules, a fess vaire, between two falcons volant in chief, and a
dolphin embowed in base, within a border engrailed argent.

Azure, a dolphin embowed between three ears of wheat or,
were the personal arms of John Fyshar, Bishop of Rochester,
who was the son of a merchant of Beverley in Yorkshire.

This prelate’s arms are sometimes found quartered with an-
other coat relative to fishing; argent, three eel-spears erect sable, on
a chief azure, a lion passant guardant or:* but the above example

is copied from a fac-simile of the Parliament Roll of 1515, pub- —

lished by Mr. Willement,+ in which the arms are impaled with

* Roll of Parliament, 8th of Henry VIII, in the College of Arms.

+ The original is in Mr. Willement’s possession ; and is valuable as affording evidence
of armorial bearings, and as a specimen of heraldic drawing at the beginning of the six-
teenth century. A Procession Roll, in the time of Henry VIII. before the dissolution of
religious houses, is described in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1795 as about a foot wide
and twenty feet long, containing figures of all the Lords of Parliament on horseback,
coloured. This roll in 1774 was in the possession of the Rey. J. Allen, Rector of
Tarporley.

]

a

A

.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 35

those of his see. Rochester Cathedral is dedicated to St. An-
drew, and the bearing has reference to the instrument of his
martyrdom. Bishop Fyshar, a zealous champion of the church
of Rome, was beheaded in 1535: his death was not improbably
hastened by his accepting the title of Cardinal, when the King
enraged said, ‘“‘ Let the Pope send him a hat when he will;
Mother of God, he shall wear it on his shoulders!” As con-
fessor to Margaret Countess of Richmond, Bishop Fyshar was
mainly instrumental in the foundation of St. John’s and Christ’s
Colleges at Cambridge.

The rapidity of fish, which is remarkable, may have suggested
the adoption of the dolphins in the arms of Fleet, granted in
1691: azure, on a bend wavy or, between two dolphins em-
bowed argent, three escallops gules.

The form of the generality of fish is particularly calculated for
swift and easy motion; and they never seem exhausted by fatigue,
or to require repose. It has been remarked, in opposition to the
curved form of the dolphin, that it is not only the straightest fish
that swims, but also the swiftest, and that for this last property
it is indebted to the first.

Sir John Fleet was Lord Mayor in 1692 ; and on his feast-day
their Majesties dined at Guildhall. A drawing of the procession
on this occasion is preserved in the Pepysian library at Magdalen
College, Cambridge ; and the description of the pageant, entitled
“The Triumphs of London,” was printed by Elkanah Settle,
the last of the City Poets.

‘ Azure, three fishes naiant in pale argent, within a border
_ ermine, are the arms of the family of Southflete.
pd 2

36 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

Party per pale gules and sable, six dolphins naiant argent,
are the arms assigned to Bartholomew Iscan, Bishop of Exeter,
one of the luminaries of the English Church; with the motto,
Nil amatum, nisi cognitum. He died in 1184, and was buried
in his own cathedral, where amongst the archives his official seal
is yet preserved. The authority for this very early instance of
bearing arms is weak,* and it is known that arms are sometimes
attributed to ancestors which were in reality first adopted by
descendants. The original arms of the most ancient families
can rarely now be ascertained before the commencement of the
thirteenth century.

The seal of the Dean of Bocking, in the reign of Elizabeth,
furnishes an example of the heraldic dolphin; but the decanal
seals, important ecclesiastical instruments, are not inscribed with
the names of the deans but the office, which, with few excep-
tions, was temporary.

The seal of the Deanery of Hingham in Norfolk bears the
emblem of the patron saint of the parish church, St. Andrew’s
cross raguly ; the seal of the Deanery of Sunning in Berkshire
bears the royal arms in the time of Edward VI.; that of the
Dean of Bocking in Essex, is charged with a shield bearing a
cross between four dolphins naiant, and inscribed siciLtvM . DE-
CANI . DECANATVS . DE. BOCKING . IN. com . Essex .1596. It is en-
graved one half the length of the original.

As the Cathedral Dean had authority over ten prebendaries,
so had the Rural Dean over ten incumbents or parishes, under
a commission from the Bishop of the diocese ; but the particular
jurisdiction of the rural deaneries has been amply illustrated in
the “‘ Horee Decanice Rurales,” by the Rev, W. Dansey, a
work abounding in solid ecclesiastical and antiquarian learning.

* Tsaake’s History of Exeter.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 37

Fryer, an ancient family of Clare in Essex, bore for arms,
sable, a chevron between three dolphins embowed argent ;_possi-
bly in reference to the fry or swarm of fishes.

The sounds and seas, each creek and bay
With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals

Of fish, that with their fins and shining scales
Glide under the green wave.

Francis Fryer of London had a grant of the same arms, with
a canton ermine, in 1572. His descendant, Sir John Fryer,
who had been created a Baronet by King George I. in 1714,
was Lord Mayor in 1721: the title is now extinct, but the arms
are borne as a quartering by the family of Iremonger of Wher-
well in Hampshire.

Sable, on a chevron between three dolphins argent, three
castles triple-towered of the field, were the arms granted in
1602 by Camden as Clarencieux, to John Frear of London, M.D.

Sable, a chevron or, between three dolphins embowed argent,
were the arms of Edmund Leversege of Vallis House, Frome, in
Somersetshire, in the reign of Edward IV. The heiress of the
family married Lionel Seaman, Esq.; and in 1706 the estate

38 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

passed to the Seamans, and the arms were afterwards quartered
by their descendants.

Gules, a chevron between three dolphins embowed proper,
were the arms of the family of Blenerhasset, anciently seated at
a manor of that name on the banks of the Ellen, near Maryport
in Cumberland, and afterwards at Flimby Hall in the same
county. Branches of this family are settled in various parts of
England and in Ireland: the Norfolk branch bears the name of
Bleverhasset ; and in Frense church, amongst other monuments
of the family, is an engraved brass of Sir Thomas Bleverhasset,
who died in 1531, represented in a tabard of his arms quartering
those of the families of Lowdham, Orton, and Keldon.*

Azure, a chevron between three dolphins hauriant argent,
were the arms of Sir George Wynne of Lees Wood in Flint-
shire, created a Baronet by King George II. 9th August 1731.
His crest was a dolphin embowed argent.

In consequence of the assumed fondness of the dolphin for the
society of man, it appears to have been adopted in the arms of
the family of James, the several branches of which bear the
dolphin as a principal charge on the shield, and generally with
the punning motto, J’ayme a jamais, I love everlastingly.

Sable, a dolphin naiant between three cross crosslets or, were
the arms confirmed by Camden to the family of James of Barrow
Court in Somersetshire, who also bore a dolphin for a crest.

The arms of Dr. William James, Bishop of Durham, here
given from a compartment of a large window of the library of
University College, Oxford, were executed by Mr. Willement,
and exhibit the excellence of the glass stainer, not only in the
brilliancy of the colours, but in the facility with which that artist
adapts his designs to the period intended to be illustrated.

When painted glass is introduced, its effect is made to ap-
proach nearer to the ancient specimens by no attempt to con-
ceal the leads. The more ambitious but. less effective system
now generally followed, arises out of a mistaken notion of the
native beauty and of the real capabilities of the art. There is
science as well as. art in the arrangement of a painted window ;
and the science and the art are equally separate from other pro-
vinces of the artist’s dominion.+ ,

* Engraved in Cotman’s Sepulchral Brasses, 1819.

+ This view of the subject is taken by the Rev. G. A. Poole on the Structure and
Decoration of Churches, 1841.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 39

Dr. James was the son of John James of Little On in Stafford-
shire, and was a student of Christchurch: he was elected Master
of University College in 1572, and Bishop of Durham in 1606;
a see which derived privileges from the grant to St. Cuthbert,
the Apostle of the North, by Egfrid King of Northumberland.

In right of this see the Bishop, a Count Palatine, held the Earl-
dom of Sadberg, and, in consequence of this combination of the
ecclesiastical and military state, a sword was presented to the
Bishop at his first entrance to the county by one of his vassals,
who held their lands by military tenure. This peculiarity in the
see of Durham occasioned the armorial bearings to be surmounted
by a plumed mitre: sometimes a helmet was placed under the
mitre, as on the seal of Bishop Hatfield, in the reign of Edward
III., the same ecclesiastic who is represented in West’s picture
of the battle of Nevile’s Cross, where the Bishop defeated the
Scots. Bishops in earlier times often appeared in the field of
battle: Odo, the martial Bishop of Bayeux, was with his bro-
ther, William the Conqueror, at the battle of Hastings.

40 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

The arms of the see of Durham, azure, a cross or, between four
lions rampant argent, are those of King Oswald, the original founder
of the bishopric, and in whose memory they have been retained.
They are impaled with gules, a dolphin embowed argent, between
three cross crosslets or, the paternal arms of Bishop James.

Azure, a dolphin embowed argent, are the arms of the family
of James of Wyke House near Gillingham in Dorsetshire.

Sir Walter James of Langley in Berkshire, created a Baronet
by King George III. in 1791, bore for arms, gules, a dolphin
naiant or, with the motto, J’ayme a jamais. His family, lineally
descended from that of Head, on succeeding to this estate, took
the name of James.

Quarterly, vert and gules, a cross argent, charged with a ship
in full sail proper, between four anchors erect azure; in the first
and fourth quarters a dolphin naiant of the third, between three
cross crosslets or ; in the second and third a lion passant guard-
ant of the last, between three trefoils slipped argent, are the
arms of Sir John Kingston James of Killiney in Ireland, who
was created a Baronet in 1823.

Azure, a dolphin embowed argent, finned or, between three
mullets or, are the arms of the family of Fitz-James of Dorset-
shire and Somersetshire; with a singular crest, which is here
copied from a book of armorial drawings in the reign of Elizabeth.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. Al

The same arms were borne by Dr. Richard Fitz-James, the
son of John Fitz-James of Redlynch in Somersetshire, by Alice
Newburgh heiress of the Barony of Poinz. He was Warden of
Merton College, Oxford, and successively Bishop of Rochester,
Chichester, and London. Ant. Wood says he died in a good
old age in 1522, “after good deeds had trod on his heels even to
Heaven’s gates.” His arms, impaled with those of the see of
Rochester, are sculptured on the inner gatehouse of Merton
College; as Bishop of London, his arms, within an enriched
border of vine leaves, are in one of the windows of Fulham
Palace: and in the Parliament Roll of 1515,* the arms are
quartered with those of Draycot, with a remark that “ the
Bishop of London claimeth to have precedence in sitting before
all other bishops of the province of Canterbury, as Chancellor
episcopal.”

Sable, a dolphin embowed devouring a fish proper, were the
arms of Symonds of Norfolk; the crest of the Ormsby branch
is a dolphin embowed, and over it the motto, Rectus in Curvo.

A portrait of Richard Gwynne of Taliaris in Carmarthenshire,
President of the Society of Sea Sergeants in 1747, bears their
device of a dolphin; it was painted by R. Taylor, and en-
graved by Faber.

Two dolphins hauriant, and entwined saltierwise or, finned
azure, the crest of the family of Upton of Sussex, was granted
in 1569.

One of the names given by the French to the dolphin is
derived from the great projection of its nose, whence it is termed
Bee d@ Oie. A dolphin forms part of the arms of Beck, a family
of foreign extraction. Sir Justus Beck, created a Baronet by
King George I. in 1714, bore for arms, quarterly, Ist. or, a
blackbird proper; 2nd. and 8rd. sable, a mullet or; 4th. azure,
a dolphin hauriant or.

In a stained glass window of the parlour at Newnham Paddox
in Warwickshire, are portraits of several ancestors of the noble
family of Fielding, descended from the house of Hapsburg.
One of this genealogical series, the portrait of Dame Jellys
Russeyl, lady of Sir Everard Fielding, who was created a
Knight of the Bath at the marriage of Prince Arthur in 1501,
presents an instance not very common of the armorial mantle
worn by ladies of rank, and embroidered with her family insignia :

* Noticed at page 34.

42 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

or, a dolphin naiant, and chief azure. In the same compart-
ment of the window the knight is also shown.*

The following specimen, taken from a carving on the oaken
door of a cabinet, is in the possession of an heraldic collector.
It is apparently of French workmanship about the time of
Henry IV; and the arms are well arranged, and executed with
much spirit.

I LULLZ — -

Say Wy 7p
si MK AMD
Fol) :

The only instance of fish being used as heraldic supporters is
afforded by the dolphin, and the earliest example may be found
in the beginning of the sixteenth century. The origin of figures
placed on each side of the shield, which they seem to support,
is derived from the custom at tournaments, or military sports, of
the middle ages. The knights challengers hung their shields of
arms on the barriers, or on trees near the appointed place of just-

* Engraved in Dugdale’s History of Warwickshire, and also in Nichols’s History of
Leicestershire.

1

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 43

ing, to be watched by their henchmen or pages, disguised in the
skins of lions, bears, &c. or attired as Saracens and wild men;
these gave notice who accepted the challenge by touching the
shield. There are more ancient instances of figures standing and
holding a banner of arms, which also probably originated in part
of the pageantry of a tournament.

The Watermen’s Company of London, whose business it is to
row their boats on the river Thames, may be supposed very
ancient ; but it was not incorporated until the reign of Queen
Mary in 1556. The lightermen, who are employed amongst the
shipping, were afterwards united to the company.

Their arms, barry wavy argent and azure, a boat or; on a
chief of the second, a pair of oars saltierways of the third, be-
tween two cushions of the first, are supported by two dolphins
proper: the crest is a hand holding an oar; and their motto is,
Jussu superiorum, being ever at the command of their superiors.

The portrait of one of the distinguished members of this com-
pany, John Taylor the water poet, is in the picture gallery at
Oxford: he had served at the taking of Cadiz under the Earl of
Essex in 1596, and was waterman to King James I. He also
called himself the King’s water poet, and used as a motto, »

Tho’ I deserve not, I desire
The laurel wreath, the poet’s hire.

44 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

One of his very numerous works is entitled, ‘The Dolphin’s
Danger and Deliverance; a Sea-fight in the Gulph of Persia
famously fought by the Dolphin of London against five of the
Turks’ Men-of-war and a Sattie, Jan. 12, 1616.” He wore the
royal badge, and there is extant a whole-length portrait of him
holding an oar. A silver oar is the badge of the maritime ju-
risdiction of the Corporation of London, and is worn by the
Water Bailiff as conservator of the rivers Thames and Medway.

Two dolphins are the supporters of the arms of the ancient
family of Trevelyan of Cornwall, by whom a dolphin was also
used as a badge.

The arms of Admiral Sir William Burnaby, Bart. of Brough-
ton Hall in Oxfordshire, show the dolphins as supporters, in re-
ference, probably, to his professional services by sea.

Argent, two bars gules, in chief a lion passant guardant per
pale of the second and vert: crest, out of a naval crown a demi-
lion rampant guardant or; in the dexter paw a flag gules:
motto, Pro Rege.

Sir William Burnaby, knighted in 1754, was Admiral and
Commander-in-chief at Jamaica, and in the Gulf of Mexico
assisted in settling the colony of Pensacola, He was Sheriff of

+

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 45

Oxfordshire in 1764, and was created a Baronet 31st October
1767.

The arms of the Baron de Vauer, azure, a stag’s head cabossed
or, are supported by two dolphins, each being crested with
three peacocks’ feathers. The dolphin, from the variety and
vividness of its tints, is called “ The Peacock of the Sea.”

The dolphin, when sporting on the surface of the water, de-
ceives the eye and appears curved, as it is always pourtrayed on
ancient coins and in sculpture; and from those acknowledged
faulty representations the heralds adopted the curved form on
shields of arms. The dolphin, also, is destitute of scales, like
all the cetacea; but these are shown in heraldic painting, to give
better effect to its naturally beautiful colours.

“ And, as he darts, the waters blue
Are streaked with gleams of many a hue,
Green, orange, purple, gold.”

LEwIs.

THE WHALE.

Tue natural history of the whale is a subject of difficult attain-
ment to zoologists, and very little information is yet extant
respecting

that sea-beast
Leviathan, which God of all his works
- Created hugest, that swim the ocean stream.

Although the aquatic animals are not so varied in their species
as the terrestrial, they surpass them in size, and their life is

46 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

longer than those of the earth or air. The elephant and ostrich
are small in comparison with the whale, which is the largest fish
the sea contains ; it lives as long as an oak, and no land animal’s
life can be compared to it.* The whale is not classed in natural
history as a fish, from which species it differs in its entire or-
ganization ; but the terms fish and fishery are yet constantly used
to designate the whales taken.

A late Garter King of Arms granted to John Enderby, Esq.
an enterprising merchant of London, who extended the whale
fishery in the Pacific Ocean, a crest, described as a whaling
harpooner in the act of striking a fish, all in proper colours.

A mast of a ship, with its rigging, in a whale’s mouth, is borne
as a crest by the family of Swallow.

The term Fierté is used in French blazonry for the whale
when its teeth, fins, and tail are depicted red. Azure, a whale
argent fierté gules, are the arms of Wahlen, a German family.

Gules, three whales hauriant or, in each mouth a crosier of
the last, were the arms of Whalley Abbey, on the banks of the
Calder in Lancashire.

This monastery was founded in the year 1309 by Henry
Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, for Cistercian monks, and, with the dis-
trict of Blackburnshire, has received ample illustration from the
pen of one of the vicars of Whalley, T. D. Whitaker, LL.D.

Argent, three whales’ heads erased sable, are the arms of the
family of Whaley of Whaley Abbey, in the county of Wicklow ;
a seat erected on the site of Ballykine Abbey, in the Barony of
Arklow, said to have been originally founded by St. Palladius,
the first bishop sent from Rome to Ireland.

Argent, on a chevron between three whales’ heads erased —
sable, as many birds with wings expanded of the first, are the —
arms of the family of Whaley of Dalton in Yorkshire.

* Sturm’s Reflections.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 47

Almost all the early instances of bearing the whale in English
heraldry are what are called canting arms, like that of Tranche-
mer, party per fess gules, and wavy argent and azure, repre-
senting the sea, with a knife or, plunged therein. *

Modern authors on heraldry are accustomed to treat too
slightingly this species of armorial bearing. Menestrier of Lyons,
who wrote the first rational and intelligible treatise on blazonry,
states truly that ‘‘ Armes parlantes” are as ancient as any other
heraldic device. His ‘“* Méthode de Blazon” was after his death
published, with additions to the original work, in 1770.

Argent, three whales’ heads erased sable, with a whale’s head
erased sable, for crest, are the armorial bearings of the family
of Whalley of Lancashire and Nottinghamshire ; some branches
of which bear the motto “ Mirabile in Profundis,” relative to the
arms.

Sir James Whalley Smythe Gardiner, Bart. of Roche Court
in Hampshire, is a descendant of the Lancashire family of
Whalley, which is ancient. Bernard Whalley rebuilt the church
of Billesley, near Stratford on Avon in Warwickshire. Others
of the name are recorded in the heraldic visitations of Notting-
hamshire, and in Thoroton’s History of that county, among
which is the family of Colonel Edward Whalley, Lord Whalley,
one of Oliver Cromwell’s peers.

The Rev. Peter Whalley was of an ancient Northamptonshire
family ; and, as historian of that county, prepared for the press
the manuscripts of John Bridges, Esq. of Barton Segrave, com-
menced about 1719.

* A very curious collection of Armes parlantes is given in Palliot’s Sciences des
Armoires, page 64.

48 . THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

Argent, a chevron between three whales’ heads erased sable,
and crest a whale’s head erect and erased sable, are borne by
one of the branches of the Whalley family : another, ermine, on
a bend sable three whales’ heads erased or.

Per chevron crenellé gules and azure, three whales’ heads
couped argent, are the arms of the family of Wallys or Waleys.

Per pale azure and purpure, three whales’ heads erased or,
each ingulphant of a spear-head argent, were the arms borne by
Sir Hugh Vaughan of Littleton in Middlesex, in the reign of
Henry VIII; and were quartered with azure, a fess or, between
three horses’ heads argent, bridled gules, within a border gobony
argent and vert.

On his standard, which was borne in the field, and was striped
gold and green, was a griffin passant double-queued gules, fretty
or, charged on the neck, breast, and wings with plates, holding
in the dexter fore-claw a sword argent; three whales’ heads
erased and erect or, each ingulphant of a spear-head argent ; and
towards the extremity of the standard two similar whales’
heads.*

‘Some fish with harpoons, some with darts are struck,
Some drawn with nets, some hang upon the hook.”

* Excerpta Historica, page 170.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 49

Il.
The Pike, or Luce, and Flying fish.

Tue Pixs of the fisherman, the tyrant of the river, is the Luce
of heraldry ; a name derived from the old French language Lus,
or from the Latin Lucius: as a charge, it was very early used
by heralds as a pun upon the name of Lucy. Pope Lucius was
in this manner characterized by a comparison to the fish, by
Puttenham,* a poet who lived when quaintness was admired :

Lucius est piscis, rex et tyrannus aquarum,
A quo discordat Lucius iste parum.

The play upon words was not confined to heraldry, but was
used by the most eminent authors, and is to be found in the
sermons of Bishop Andrews, and in the tragedies of Shakspeare.
The immediate source of the heraldic conceit is ascribed to
France, whence the armorial device, allusive to a name, is called
a Rebus of Picardy.

There is no earlier example of fish borne in English heraldry,
than is afforded by the pike, in the arms of the family of Lucy,
which was of Norman extraction, and formerly spelt Lucie.

Richard de Lucie, who had defended the castle of Falaise
against Geffrey of Anjou, was Lord of Diss in Norfolk ; he was
also Sheriff of Essex in the reign of Henry II. and built the
castle of Ongar, some remains of which are to be seen on an
artificial hill, one of the leading peculiarities of a Norman for-
tress.

Sir Richard Lucy, Lord Chief Justice of England, founded
Lesnes priory, near Erith m Kent; and, dying in 1179, was buried
within its walls. Weever, an antiquary, who had seen his tomb
in 1630, states that upon the belt of the figure of the knight, the
fleur-de-lis, the rebus, or name-device of the Lucys, was sculp-
tured in many places.+

The heraldic fleur-de-lis was here figuratively used for a pike
or spear, to the head of which it bears some resemblance ; and
this is more particularly shown in the arms of the family of

* Arte of English Poesie, 1589.
+ Funeral Monuments,

50 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

Cantelupe: gules, a fess vaire between three leopards’ heads
jJessant fleurs-de-lis. The name seems to imply the dividing or
cutting in pieces of the wolf, or other animal; and in the arms
the pike, or fleur-de-lis, is shown thrust through the principal
cantle, the head of the animal, in the manner it would be carried
in triumph after a successful chase. Nicholas Upton, who wrote
in Latin upon heraldry, terms the fleur-de-lis, flos gladioli.
The Boke of St. Alban’s in these very arms blazons “three
floures in manner of swerdis,” considering the fleur-de-lis in this
instance as no other than the ornamental head of a spear or pike.
It is this spirit of allegory which pervades heraldry, and which
formed the very essence of Oriental poetry, the source of the
romantic fictions embodied in sculpture and painting.

Godfrey, the son of Sir Richard Lucy the Chief Justice, was
Bishop of Winchester, and rebuilt the east end of that cathe-
dral, where, on his death in 1204, he was buried at the entrance
of the Lady Chapel. |

Gules, three luces or, were the ancient arms of the baronial
family of Lucy.

These are found recorded in one of the most valuable of
heraldic authorities, a roll of arms of the reign of Henry III.
‘“‘ Geffrey de Lucie, de goules, a trois lucies dor.” This roll,
compiled between the years 1240 and 1245, was printed in 1829
by Sir Harris Nicolas from a copy which had been presented to
the Heralds’ College by Sir William Dugdale. Sir Geffrey Lucy
died in 1283: his son and heir, also named Geffrey, was sum-
moned to parliament in the reign of Edward I, and his descend- —
ants in hereditary succession have continued to enjoy the ho- —
nours of the peerage.

A very ancient shield of the arms of Lucy, in which the fish are —

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 51

white upon a red ground, yet remains within a quatrefoil in one
of the windows of Selby Abbey church, which was formerly
enriched with stained glass of tasteful execution.

Sir Reginald Lucy, by his marriage with the heiress of Fitz-
Duncan, acquired the Honour of Egremont in Cumberland ; his
two daughters married brothers of the Multon family. In
1300 Sir Thomas Lucy, having taken the name of his maternal
grandfather, held the Barony of Egremont ; and Thomas Lord
Lucy, his grandson, held possession of Egremont Castle, the
forest of Copeland, and the Honour of Cockermouth.

Henry, first Earl of Northumberland, of the Percy family,
married the heiress of Anthony Lord Lucy, who died in 1369 ;
and, her large inheritance devolving upon the house of Percy, the
arms of Lucy continue to be borne quarterly by his descendants
with those of Percy.

ra |

In a curious roll of arms in the heraldic library of the late
Rev. Canon Newling, compiled during the lifetime of the Earl of
Northumberland, towards the end of the reign of Richard II,*
are the arms of “Le Conte de Northumberland S‘ de Lucy,”
quarterly, first and fourth or, a lion rampant azure, Percy ; second
and third gules, three luces hauriant, two and one, argent, Lucy.
The present Duke of Northumberland, a Knight of the Garter,
is Earl Perey and Lord Warkworth by creation, and by descent
is Lord Percy, Lucy, Poynings, Fitz-Payne, Bryan, and La-
timer.

* Printed in 1834 by Mr. Willement.
E2

52 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

The original arms of the Percy family, azure, five fusils in fess
or, are still retaied; but the lion rampant, now placed in the
first quarter, is the armorial bearing of the ancient Dukes of
Brabant. When Lady Agnes, the heiress of Percy, married
Josceline of Louvaine, the brother of Alice queen of Henry I,
he assumed the name of Percy, but retamed the old arms of
Brabant, which have been continued by his descendants.

His Grace’s full achievement, in stained glass, is in the window
of University College library, at Oxford.

Algernon Seymour, Duke of Somerset, having inherited part
of the Percy estate from his mother, the heiress of the Earl of
Northumberland, was created in 1749 Earl of Egremont and
Lord Cockermouth, with remainder to Sir Charles Wyndham,
Bart. who, upon the Duke’s death in 1750, became Earl of Egre-
mont, &c. George, the second Earl of that title, died in 1837, pos-
sessed of the castles of Egremont and Cockermouth, the ancient
estate of the Lucys: with the remains of these castles the anti-
quary is well acquainted.

Families descended from the house of Lucy did not fail to
retain the arms of that ancient family amongst the quarterings,
thus forming an heraldic as well as a genealogical record of their
alliance. This practice of marshalling, or disposal of several
arms in one shield, has been used ever since the reign of Edward
III, a monarch who deemed it right to quarter the arms of
France with those of England, in consequence of his hereditary
claims to the sovereignty of that country. An instance is shown
in the arms of Thomas Earl of Sussex, K.G. Lord Chamberlain
to Queen Elizabeth, in stained glass at New Hall, in Essex, one
of the few Tudor mansions which has escaped destruction. This
nobleman of the Ratcliffe family, to use the words of a contem-
porary, was “‘of very ancient and noble lyneage, honoured
through many descents with the tytle of Fitz-Walters,” and
through the Fitz-Walters was descended from the family of
Lucy. The eight quarterings borne by the Earl- include the
arms of the heiress whom his ancestor married, and those arms
conveyed to her posterity by her heirship, arranged according to
priority of descent. In this kind of heraldic display, very com-
mon in the large halls of the nobility, the lead-work mingling
with the brilliant colours of the arms produces a fine effect, such
as few painters, perhaps with the exception of David Roberts,
R.A. have been able to imitate.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 53

Arms, 1, argent, a bend engrailed sable ; Ratcliffe. 2, or, a fess
between two chevrons gules; Fitz-Walter. These are a variation
of the arms of the house of Clare, from whom the Fitz-Walters
descended. 3, argent, a lion rampant sable, crowned or, within
a border azure; Burnell, of Acton Burnell in Shropshire. 4, or,
a saltier engrailed sable; Botetourt, of St. Briavels in Glouces-
tershire. 5, gules, three luces hauriant argent; Lucy. 6, ar-
gent, three bars gules; Multon of Egremont. 7, or, semée of
fleurs-de-lis sable; Mortimer, of Attleborough in Norfolk. 8,
argent, an eagle sable, preying on an infant swaddled gules; Cul-
cheth, an ancient Lancashire family.

The Ratcliffes were descended from William de Radclyffe, in
the reign of Richard I, deriving his name from a cliff of red stone
on his estate ; who, after his marriage with Cecilia de Kirkland,
assumed her arms, argent, a bend engrailed sable.* Radcliff
tower, referred to in the old ballad “‘ The Lady Isabella’s Tra-
gedy,” was founded by James de Radcliff in the reign of Henry
MI;

The arms of the Earl of Sussex with the same quarterings are
sculptured on the monument of his countess in St. Paul’s Chapel,
Westminster Abbey ; and as founder of Sydney Sussex College,
in Cambridge University, her arms were adopted by the Master
and Fellows on their official seal.

The arms of Lucy are also amongst the quarterings borne by

* Whitaker’s History of Whalley, p. 401.

54 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

the family of Lowther, one of great antiquity in Westmoreland,
the head of which is the Earl of Lonsdale, K.G.

When arms were assumed by monastic institutions, they were
generally those of the first founders or principal benefactors.
The arms assigned to Calder Abbey in Cumberland are those of
three great families who had contributed towards its aggrandise-
ment. Argent, three escutcheons : 1, or, a fess between two chey-
rons gules, for Fitz-Walter. 2, gules, three luces hauriant
argent, for Lucy. 3, sable, a fret argent, for Fleming.

The only remains of the former grandeur of this abbey, on the
banks of the river Calder, are the tower of the conventual church
and the tomb of Sir John le Fleming: the tower stands in a
deep secluded valley, the sides of which are adorned with hanging
woods.

One of the most considerable branches of the Baronial house is
that of the Lucys of Charlecote, in Warwickshire, where it has
been seated ever since the reign of Richard I.

From Sir Walter de Charlecote descended William, who
assumed the name of Lucy from his maternal ancestor, and bore
on his seal in the reign of Henry III. three luces hauriant. His
descendant, Sir William Lucy, in the reign of Edward II. bore
arms the same as now used by the family. In the roll of arms
of that period* appears ‘ Sire de Lucy, de goules, crusule
de or, a iij luys de or.”

Sir Thomas Lucy, knighted by Queen Elizabeth, rebuilt the
manor house at Charlecote on the banks of the river Avon, which
winds gracefully through the extensive park. This mansion, a

* Printed by Sir Harris Nicolas in 1829.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 55

noble specimen of domestic architecture, derives interest from
being the work of the reputed prosecutor of Shakspeare, for
which he not only took the liberty of lampooning the Lord of the
Manor in a ballad, but in some scenes of his dramas has intro-
duced much punning about the luces in the arms.

A prevailing feature of ancient architecture was the orna-
mented vanes on standards surmounting the pinnacles of the
gables; on those at Charlecote the arms of Lucy are fancifully
disposed, the three luces being interlaced, between cross crosslets,
and the outer edges pierced in the form of fleurs-de-lis.

The gilded vanes representing small banners bearing the family
badge, when placed upon the chateau, were, according to French
heralds, one of the distinguishing marks of nobility, and were
termed banners, or panonceaux. In the arms of the family of
Vieuxchastel of Brittany they are introduced and _ blazoned,
azure, a chateau argent, girouetté dor.

Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote, in the reign of Elizabeth,
married Constance the heiress of Sir Richard Kingsmill of High
Clere in Hampshire; and from their second son, Sir Richard
Lucy, created a Baronet by King James in 1617, descended the
~ Lucys of Broxbourne in Hertfordshire.

56 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

In the old stained glass windows of the hall at Charlecote is a
series of arms in enriched compartments,

All garlanded with carven imageries
Of fruits and flowers and bunches of knot-grass,

showing the various alliances of the Lucy family, with inserip-
tions beneath them.*

ELIZABETH CLINT.SE

In the old church of Charlecote is an interesting series of
monuments to the memory of different members of the family ;
and in the adjoining parish of Hampton Lucy, in which the
church has been rebuilt, is an altar window, presented by the
rector, the Rey. John Lucy, containing the principal events in
the history of the apostle Peter, the patron saint of fishermen,

* A description of the windows of the hall, library, and drawing-room, is printed in
the Colectanea Topographica, 1837, p. 346, from which it appears that some compart-
ments have been made to agree in style with the older glass, under the direction of Mr.
Willement.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 57

as well as of the parish: below these subjects are the arms of the
Lord of the Manor, and others of the Lucy family connected
with the church, tastefully arranged from the designs of Mr.
Willement.

Amongst the principal ornaments of the ancient churches were
the stained glass windows contributed by wealthy and pious
benefactors ; the beautiful colours of the glass tempered the rays
of the sun, and considerably improved the architectural effect of
the structure. When the windows of churches were enlarged
in their dimensions, they were able to contain richly-tinted glass,
exhibiting the whole-length figures as well as the achievements of
patrons and benefactors enshrined under elaborately ornamented
canopies ; these combinations of ancient art

“In mellow gloom the speaking frame arrayed ;”

and historically traced the access of wealth and power to the
church. More frequently the enrichment consisted simply of the
armorial bearings with the monogram, or rebus on the name of
the founder, as in a border of stained glass yet remaining in one
of the windows of Kingsdown church, near Wrotham in Kent,
to which the family of Lucy were benefactors, here given as a
curious specimen of heraldic drawing ; the ground is red and the
luce or pike white.

™
° =

Tau « | Ri sis
)
«

Arms of patronage, of feudal origin, were borne in order to
show the dependence of vassals on their particular Lords, as in
Cheshire, where the ancient Earls bore garbs on their shield,
the vavasours of that county also bore garbs. The ancient
Earls of Warwick bore a field chequy, and many gentlemen of
Warwickshire retained the same. From the similarity of the
arms of Brougham to that of Lucy, it is not improbable that

58 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

they were assumed in consequence of a connexion with that great
baronial family. Brougham, in Westmoreland, is situated on
the banks of the Lowther, a celebrated trout stream, also famous
for their mortal enemy the pike. This manor was held by Lords
of the same name from the earliest periods, and the Brougham
family have been latterly in entire possession of the estate. There
was a marriage in this family with that of Richmond, heirs of the
family of Vaux, of Catterlin in Cumberland, one of the branches
of the baronial house of Vaux of Gillesland; and the very first
peerage conferred by King William IV.in 1830 was on their de-
scendant, Henry Lord Brougham and Vaux, a nobleman equally
distinguished by his literary and legal talents, and by his exer-
tions as a statesman and orator: his achievement as Lord
Chancellor is painted in Lincoln’s Inn Hall.

The arms of William Brougham, Esq. M.P. are here given
from one of the windows of the new Lady Chapel at St. Saviour’s,
Southwark, in stained glass by Mr. J. H. Nixon, the successful
artist in the competition for the painted windows of the southern
transept of Westminster Abbey church.

The restoration of the Lady Chapel, so highly creditable to
all parties concerned, was commenced in 1832 as a Consistory —
Court for the Diocese of Winchester, and is erected in the early —
pointed style of architecture corresponding with the choir of the —
church, built in the thirteenth century. All the details of the —

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 59

former building have been copied with accuracy, exhibiting a
specimen of flint work almost unique in a modern structure. In
the long elegant triple lancet windows, the glazing is enclosed in
frame work, designed by the architect G. Gwilt, F.S.A. in ac-
cordance with existing examples of the same early period: here
the aid of heraldry has been resorted to as an additional enrich-
ment, and the arms of the principal supporters of the work have
been executed in stained glass.

The same punning propensity which induced the application
of the pike to the name of Lucy in England prevailed in France.
The family of Luc en Vivarets bore for arms, or, a bend azure,
charged with two luces argent; and the arms of the family of
Fontenay de Luc, in Vendéme, according to the same authority,
are blazoned, azure, a luce or pike naiant argent, in chief an
etoile or.*

The etoile is a well-known symbol of the Epiphany; and a ©
fish was employed as a religious emblem by the first Christians.
A single fish has been supposed to represent the employment of
St. Peter; but the fish, evidently intended for luces, in the
ornamental pavement of the Chapterhouse at Westminster may
possibly allude to the early tradition that St. Peter’s church was
first built by King Lucius.

The ged and the pike are synonymous in North Britain,
whence the Scottish family of Ged bear for arms, azure, three
geds, or pikes, hauriant argent. To this play upon the name
Sir Walter Scott alludes with much pleasantry in “ Red Gaunt-
let.” “The heralds,” he says, “who make graven images of

* Palliot, Sciences des Armoires, p. 548.

60 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

fish, fowls, and beasts, assigned the ged for their device and
escutcheon, and hewed it over their chimneys, and placed above
their tombs the fish called a jack, pike, or luce, and in our
tongue a ged.”

Of this family was William Ged, an ingenious printer of
Edinburgh, who employed the stereotype as early as the year
1725: his Memoirs, published by Nichols in 1781, ineluding an
account of his progress in the art, were reprinted at Newcastle
in 1819.”

Geddes, a very ancient family of Tweeddale in North Britain,
bears for arms, gules, an escutcheon between three luces’ heads
couped argent.

— ee ee eS ee oe

a we oN

James Geddes, of Rachan, a gentleman deeply versed in
classical literature, and author of an Essay on the Composition
of the Ancients, died in 1749.

Horsey Mere, on the coast of Norfolk, is mentioned by Camden
as the source of a common expression denoting the best fish of —
this species,

Horsey pike, none like.

This lake is still remarkable for the quality as well as the quan- —
tity of its pike, which continue to haunt the long ranges of
sedges and bulrushes on the banks; but the pike in the rivers —
of Staffordshire are considered to be more beautifully marked —
than those taken elsewhere.

Ramsey Mere, in Huntingdonshire, produces a variety of fish,
of which pike, perch, eels, and bream are most abundant. This
fishery was one of the earliest benefactions to the abbey of Ram-
sey, and not improbably the cause of its foundation by Ailwin, —

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 61

at the intercession of St. Oswald, Archbishop of York, and
Bishop of Worcester. A charter of the time of King Edward
ILI. recites that Ailwin, a kinsman of King Edgar, founded here
a religious house at the instigation of his fisherman Vulsgeat,
who, after an unsuccessful toil in Rames Mere, was warned by
St. Benedict in a vision to catch a quantity of fish, called by the
inhabitants of that part Hacaed, and then to found a monastery
where his bull had torn up the ground, in token of which com-
mission the fisherman’s finger was bent. The church was finished
in five years afterwards, and consecrated A.D. 974: among the
grants of Ailwin, which were many, were the island on which
the abbey stood, and all his fishery at Well. :

Azure, two geds or luces in saltier argent, and for crest two
luces as in the arms, are borne as an heraldic ensign by the family
of Gedney of Hudderley, in Lincolnshire, with reference to the
northern name of ged which is given to the pike. Gedney of
Enderby, in the same county, bears argent, two luces in saltier
azure. The arms of Gedney are among the quarterings of the
family of Ashby in the window of the hall, and carved on
the chimney-pieces of their ancient seat at Quenby in Leicester-
shire.

Gules, three luces naiant, within a border engrailed argent,
are the arms of Pike of London. A family of the same name
was seated at Pike’s Ash, near Martock in Somersetshire, in
_ the reign of Henry VIII. Pyke of Devonshire bears for arms,
_ per pale argent and gules, on a chevron, between three trefoils
_ slipped, a luce naiant, all counterchanged ; and, for crest, a luce
_ naiant or.

The arms of Picke have also an allusion to the name of the

62 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

fish, per chevron wavy argent and vert, in chief two luces chevron-
wise, respecting each other, proper; and in base a hind statant of
the first. Piketon bears, argent, three luces naiant in pale gules ;
and Pikeworth, azure, three luces naiant within a border engrailed
argent.

The play upon the name is more evident in the arms of the
family of Pickering of Aleonbury, in Huntingdonshire, gules, a
luce naiant between three annulets argent; and of the same
punning quality is the ornamental device which is affixed to

Mr. Montagu’s “Guide to the Study of Heraldry,” a most.

interesting introduction to the subject, published by William
Pickering.

So prevailing is the opinion of the inferiority of canting arms,
that it is necessary to repeat that the parody or pun exists not
only in the monkish rebus, “ Like Prior Bolton with his bolt and
tun,” but that the noblest peers in the earliest times are found
to have been equally characterized by simple objects depicted on

their standards having reference to their high-sounding names. .

The broom plant was the well-known device of the Plantagenets.
The Lords Comyn bore a garb or sheaf of cummin or barley:
Corbet, a raven, corbeau. The Arundells were known by the
swallows, hirondelles,* and Heriz by the herison or hedgehog.

* The swallows borne by an ancestor of the family of Arundell, and which his descend-

ants display to this day, are mentioned by Gulielmus Brito, or William the Breton,
author of a Latin poem on the exploits of Philip Augustus :

Hirundele velocior alite, quae dat
Hoc agnomen ei, fert cujus in egide signum.
This is one of the earliest specimens of what are called canting arms, or armes parlantes.

Vide a notice of the rise and progress of English heraldry in the Pictorial History of
England, 1837, vol. i. page 641.

——

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 63

The ancient families of Brooke and Grey assumed the badger,
an animal provincially known by the names of brock or gray,
and with the fox equally regarded as an object of sport.

“To hunt by day the fox, by night the gray.”

The mulberry, in the same spirit of parody, was the chosen
device of the family of Mowbray, founders and benefactors of
Byland Abbey in Yorkshire.

Argent, on a pale sable a demi-luce or; crest, out of a ducal
coronet, a demi-luce or, are the armorial ensigns of the family of

i ae

s
S

Gascoigne of Gawthorp, a place interesting to every lover of
genius and of virtue; for while the long series of the Lords of
Harewood Castle produced nothing but ordinary knights and
barons, who fought, and hunted, and died, Gawthorp was the
patrimonial residence of Chief Justice Gascoigne, and the fa-
vourite retreat of his illustrious descendant, Thomas Earl of
Strafford.*

Sir William Gascoigne, born at Gawthorp Hall, near Leeds

* Whitaker’s History of Leeds, p. 165.

64 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

in Yorkshire, was Chief Justice of the King’s Bench in the
reign of Henry IV, and was celebrated no less for his abilities
than his integrity. His monument, with his effigies and that of
his lady, the heiress of Sir William Mowbray of Kirklington, is
yet remaining in Harewood Church, which surpasses perhaps
every parish church of the county of York in the number and
perfect preservation of the tombs of its Lords. He was the
ancestor of another Sir William Gascoigne of Gawthorp, in the
reign of Henry VII, whose heiress married Thomas Wentworth,
Esq. of Woodhouse, in Yorkshire, from whom descended the
Karl of Strafford in the reign of Charles I, the second Earl of
that title, the Marquess of Rockingham, the Earls Fitz William,
and the Lord Strafford of Harmondsworth.

Another descendant of the same family, Sir John Gascoigne
of Parlington near Wetherby, was created a Baronet by King
Charles I. in 1635. This title became extinct in 1810; but the
estates devolved to Richard Oliver, Esq. who subsequently as-
sumed the name of Gascoigne.

The present Marquess of Salisbury married the heiress of
Bamber Gascoigne, Esq. of Barking in, Essex, and of Childwall
Hall in Lancashire, a descendant of this family through Sir
Crispe Gascoigne, who was Lord Mayor in 1753. His lordship,
after his marriage, used the name of Gascoigne before that of
Cecil and all his titles of honour.

George Gascoigne the poet, who served with honour in the
Low Country wars, was of an Essex family. On his return he
turned his attention to the study of letters, and is known by his
“‘ Princely Pleasures of Kenilworth,” a masque written for the
amusement of Queen Elizabeth, whom he accompanied in her
stately progress in the summer of 1575.

Gascoigne Nightingale, Esq. of Enfield in Middlesex, 1749,
changed his name from Gascoigne, pursuant to the will of Sir
Robert Nightingale, Bart. of Newport Pond, in Essex, and bore
the arms of Nightingale and Gascoigne quarterly.*

The Norfolk family of Lilling bear for arms, gules, three luces
naiant in pale, within a border argent. The family of Oyry
bear, azure, three luces hauriant argent, between as many frets
or; and that of Ostoft, sable, three luces’ heads erased argent.

Ermine, on a bend sable, three luces’ heads erased argent, are

* Warburton’s Middlesex Illustrated, p. 104.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 65

the arms of the family of Gillet, branches of which were seated
at Broadfield in Norfolk, and at Ipswich in Suffolk. The head
only of the fish was shown in the arms of Gillet, possibly as a
play upon the name. The gills on each side of the head are
remarkable in the structure of fish, as by them they perform
their aquatic respiration. Water entering at their mouth is
forced out again at the opening of the gills, and thus maintains
almost a constant stream through them similar to the current of
air in the respiration of animals.

Sable, three luces hauriant argent, are described as the arms
of the family of Fishacre, seated at Combe Fishacre in the parish
of Ipplepen, Devonshire, in the reign of Henry IT.

Of this ancient house were several members of equestrian rank.
Sir Peter Fishacre, who is said to have founded Morleigh church

__ near Totnes, is commemorated by a monument in the chancel.

Richard Fishacre, another of this family, acquired reputation by .
his study of theology, and was the friend of Robert, brother of
Roger Bacon, the wonder of his age: he died in 1248, and was
buried at Oxford. Martin Fishacre was Sheriff of Devonshire
in 1364.

The crest of the family of Garling, a fish’s head erased, per fess
proper, is perhaps intended as a play upon the name, and should
be the Garfish, or sea-pike, found upon the coasts of Europe.
Le Centropome, the Brochet de Mer of Cuvier, which forms an
article of consumption in South America, is a kind of perch,
but is called a sea-pike : the sea-luce of heraldry is the hake, the
Merlucius of the naturalist.

La

66 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

THE FLYING FISH.

Aut fish which shine with brilliant colours, and the flying fish,
to which air and water seem alike, are peculiar to the seas of the
torrid zone.

As typical of his own extraordinary elevation, Dr. Robinson,
who became Bishop of Carlisle in the reign of Elizabeth, ap-
pears to have assumed for his armorial distinction this remark-
able fish, not painted according to its true form, but as it was
then believed: to be, a fish with wings.

Azure, a flying fish in bend argent, on a chief of the second,
a rose between two torteaux: these are impaled with the arms
of his bishopric, argent, a cross sable, charged in the centre with
a mitre or. :

Henry Robinson entered Queen’s College, Oxford, in 1568 as
a servitor. He was consecrated Bishop of Carlisle in 1598, and
died in 1616. A brass plate bearing his portrait, with his arms
and an inscription, was placed on the wall of the chancel in his
own cathedral when he was buried, and another near the altar
of Queen’s College chapel.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 67

This beautiful fish, at the time of Sir Francis Drake’s success-
ful voyage of discovery, for which he was knighted by Queen
Elizabeth, was but little known. ‘“ Nothing,” says his biogra-
pher,* “surprised the crew more than the flying fish, which is
nearly the same size with a herring, and has fins of the length of
his whole body, by the help of which, when he is pursued by the
bonito, and finds himself on the point of being taken, he springs
up into the air, and flies forward as long as his wings continue
wet; when they become dry and stiff, he falls down into the
water and dips them again for a second flight. This unhappy
animal is not only pursued by fishes in his natural element, but
attacked in the air by the don or sparkite, a bird that preys upon
fish.”

Other early instances of this fish borne in heraldry are the Ger-
man families of Von Boltzig of Brunswick, gules, a flying fish in
bend argent, winged or; and Senitz in Silesia, gules, a flying fish
in bend argent.+ Argent, three flying fishes naiant in pale azure,
wings and fins gules, are the arms of the family of Bulamfeck.

Vert, three flying fishes in pale argent, were the arms granted
in 1758 to John Garmston, Esq. of Lincoln.

Miss Stickney, in her very interesting Illustration of the
Poetry of Life, found little to say on fish; two kinds only,
the flying fish and the dolphin, being familiar in the language
of poetry, and conducive to its figurative charm. The former,
in its transient and feeble flight, has been made the subject of
some beautiful lines by Moore: while the dolphin, from the
beauty of its form, and the gorgeous colours which are said to
be produced by its last agonies, is celebrated in the poet’s lay as
an emblem of the glory which shines most conspicuously in the
hour of death.

* Doctor Johnson, I + Sibmacher.
r2

68 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

Ill.
The Barbel, Carp, Gudgeon, Tench, Bream,
and IWoach.

Tue Barser is a large, strong, and very handsome river fish,
so named from the barbs attached to its mouth, which enable
it to search for food, that is obtained near the bottom and im
the deepest parts of the stream. Their beauty and. their abun-
dance, particularly in the rivers Rhine, Elbe, and Weser, have
caused these fish to be much used in foreign heraldry, in which
they are always termed Bars, and are generally depicted em-
bowed. :

As a rebus on the name of their fief, barbel were assumed as
a distinctive mark on the military banners of the ancient Counts
of Bar, a demesne westward of Lorraine, now included in the
department of the Meuse ; their arms are, azure, semée of oti
two barbel endorsed or.

The same arms, but within a border as a mark of difference,
are found amongst those of the English knights in “ The Siege
of Carlaverock,” an heraldic poem composed at the time of the
event, by Walter of Exeter, presenting one of the most faithful

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 69

pictures of the manners of the age in which it was written,
and containing minute details of the siege of a castle in Scotland
by King Edward I. in July 1300. ‘ John de Bar was likewise
there, who in a blue banner crusilly bore two barbels of gold,
with a red border engrailed.” * This knight is supposed to have
been one of the sons of Thibaut Count of Bar. As Henry
Count of Bar, the eldest son, had a few years before married
Eleanor the daughter of King Edward I. of England, it is highly
probable that his brother John would be in the King’s retinue ;
and as his name in the poem follows that of John of Brittany,
the King’s nephew, and afterwards Earl of Richmond, it is
likely that he was attached to the royal person in consequence
of that alliance. In the church of Berwick St. John, in Wilt-
shire, is a tomb with a figure of a knight in mail armour bearing
a shield charged with the arms of Bar, and within a border ;
possibly the very same person, but the conjecture is unsup-
ported by any other evidence than is presented by the armorial
bearings.+

John Earl of Surrey, one of the most powerful barons of Eng-
land, and who stood high in the favour of King Edward III,
married Joan, daughter of Henry Count of Bar.

Lith
His seal, impressed about 1310, bearing a shield chequy, the

* Translated by Sir Harris Nicolas, and printed in 1828.

+ Nicolas’s edition of the Siege of Carlaverock, page 174. The name of this knight
also occurs in the household roll of the Lord Edward, the King’s son, among the Pell
Records, printed by Fred. Devon, Esq. 1837.

70 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

arms of Warren, is ornamented on its sides with the barbel and
cross crosslets of the house of Bar; and also, in allusion to
his descent from Hameline Plantagenet, the son of Geffrey Earl
of Anjou, the shield is surmounted by the lion passant guar-
dant of the house of Plantagenet.*

The seal of Joan of Bar, the Countess of Warren and Sur-
rey, shows, by the various arms upon it, her ancestral honours,
the object of all armorial arrangement. The Countess was the
daughter of Henry Count of Bar and Eleanor daughter of King
Edward I. The Warren arms are placed in a lozenge in the
centre of the seal, and between the arms of Bar.

‘The arms of her mother, a princess of England, are in chief
and in base; and in the smaller compartments into which the
surface of the seal is tastefully divided, are the arms of her
grandmother, Castile and Leon alternately, in direct allusion to
her Spanish descent. This seal, impressed in red wax about
1347, fully illustrates the method pursued by the heralds of dis-
posing various arms, previously to the adoption of quarterings,
or the acca of the whole in one shield according to
modern practice. {

The house of Bar merged into that of Lorraine in consequence

* Watson’s Earls of Warren. + Sandford’s Royal Genealogy, p. 139.

$ On monuments erected before the reign of Edward III. separate coats of arms,
denoting the honourable alliances of the family, are to be observed, as on the tombs of
the Valences, Earls of Pembroke, in Westminster Abbey, which were erected before the
practice of quartering arms was adopted.

ee

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 71

of the marriage of Eleanor, daughter of Henry Count of Bar,
with Rudolph Duke of Lorraine, who was slain at the battle of
Crecy in 1346. Isabel, Duchess of Lorraine and Bar, daughter
of Charles the Brave, the grandson of Rudolph, married René
d’Anjou, King of Naples and Sicily, whose arms, quartering Bar,
are described in a contemporary poem by his King of Arms,
Croissant d’or, the name also of an order of knighthood peculiar
to Naples.

De trois puissans ropaumes sous tymbre coronn¢
Porte en chef en ses armes, le noble Bop Rene’,
Hongrie, et Sicile, Hierusalem aussi,

Ainst que boir poubes em cet eserit tet

Anjou et Bar en pieds, Vuches Ve grand renom,
€t un roial escu sur le tout D’Arragon.*

René d’Anjou, King of Naples, was the father of Marga-
ret, the queen of Henry VI. of England. Her arms in the
windows of Ockwell House in Berkshire, with the motto,
®umble et lotall, are engraved in Lysons’s Berkshire, and in Wil-
lement’s Regal Heraldry. The same, surrounded by a border
vert, are the arms of Queen’s College at Cambridge University,
founded by the Queen.

The house of Lorraine came from the same ancestors as the
house of Hapsburg. Gerard, descended from the Landgraves of
Alsace, was created Duke of Lorraine in 1048 by the Emperor
Henry III. They bore for arms, quarterly, 1st, Hungary, as
descendants of Charles Martel, the father of a line of kings,
whose epithet of Martel, the hammer, was expressive of his
weighty and irresistible strokes when opposed to the Saracens ;
the 2nd quartering Naples; 3rd, Jerusalem; 4th, Arragon; 5th,
Anjou; 6th, Gueldres; 7th, Juliers; and 8th, Bar; the whole
surmounted by the arms of Lorraine, or, on a bend gules, three
alerions argent. The alerion, an eagle without beak or feet, was
assumed as an anagram on the name of Lorraine.

These arms are generally found surrounded by a mantle, bear-

* The three great realms under a crowned crest,
Noble King René bears as chief and best,
Hungary, Sicily, and Jerusalem,

And here you behold the royal stem,
Anjou and Bar, duchies of great renown,
And over all the shield of Arragon.

72 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

ing the same quarterings, one of the earliest instances of the
use of the mantle in heraldry, which, according to Menestrier,
was adopted about 1530.

Stephen, son of Leopold, succeeded his father as Duke of Lor-
raine in 1729. He ceded that duchy to Stanislaus, King of
Poland, and became Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1739. In right
of his wife, Maria Theresa, he had the crowns of Hungary and
Bohemia, and in 1745 was elected Emperor of Germany.

The arms of the kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary consist
of twenty-four quarterings, now belonging to the house of Aus-
tria. One of the quarterings containing fish, gules, two barbel
addorsed or, are the arms of Pfyrt in Suntgau, a fief which
accrued to the Archduke Albert in 1324, in right of his wife
Jane, daughter and heiress of Ulric Count of Pfyrt: this was
one of the six happy marriages of the house of Austria.* The
arms are shown on a banner carried in the splendid representa-
tion of Maximilian’s Triumph by Hans Burgmair.

Azure, two barbel addorsed, and between them a fleur-de-lis
in chief, and another in base or, one of the heraldic badges of
the Stafford family, appears to be composed from the charges in
the arms of Anjou and those of Bar. The representative of a
family assumes the right to use its badge, an appendage of rank,
formerly worn by the retainers of eminent personages on a con-
spicuous part of their dress.

* Anderson’s Royal Genealogies, p. 466.

SEE ll

aad

ee eel ae eee ee

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 73

The house of Stafford descends by ten different marriages from
the royal blood of England and France; and the badge, one of
eighteen, is stained on marble, with the well-known Stafford
knot repeated many times, on the monument of John Paul
Howard, Earl of Stafford, who died in 1762, which is in St.
Edmund’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey.

The knots of silk cord, heraldic ornaments of early use, are
each distinguished by the names of families to which they indi-
vidually belong, as the Stafford knot, the Bourchier knot, Wake’s
knot, and Dacre’s knot.

Azure, two barbel addorsed or, are the arms of the family of
Montbeliard of Bar; their descendants, De Montfaucon, who
took the name of Montbeliard, bore for arms, gules, two barbel -
addorsed or.* Montfaucon de Dampierre, in Franche Comté,
bore gules, two barbel addorsed within a double tressure or.
The family of the learned French antiquary, Bernard de Mont-
faucon, was originally of Gascony, and descended from the
Lords of Montfaucon le Vieux, first barons of the Comté de
Comminges.

Azure, two barbel addorsed between four roses or, were the
heraldic distinction of the ancient Counts of Barby, on the Elbe,
the last of whom died in 1659. These arms were afterwards
quartered by the Electors of Saxony, the Grand Marshals of the
Empire. Barby, after having formed part of Jerome Bonaparte’s
kingdom of Westphalia, was annexed to Prussia in 1815.

* Palliot, Science des Armoiries, page 10.

74: THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

The barbel appears to be a very common bearing in the heral-
dry of the Continent. A few early instances only will be men-
tioned where this fish has been adopted evidently as a play upon
the name of the person.

Azure, semée of cross crosslets fitchy, two barbel addorsed
or, are the arms of the family of Bar de Buranlure; that of
Bartet de Bonneval bears, azure, three barbel in bend sinister or ;
Bardin, azure, three barbel naiant in pale argent; and Barfuse,
gules, on a fess argent two barbel naiant azure.

As an example of the term mal-ordonnés, or false disposition
of the charges in the shield, when one figure is placed above two,
contrary to the usual mode of two in chief and one in base,
Palliot gives the arms of Barbeau in Burgundy ; party per fess
argent and gules, three roses, mal-ordonnées of the last, in chief,
and two barbel chevronwise or, in base.

This fish is very rarely borne singly in armorial ensigns; an
instance is afforded in the arms of Marchin, a Flemish family,
one of whom was in the service of King Charles II. during
his Majesty’s residence in Holland; argent, a barbel gules.

John Gaspar Ferdinand de Marchin, Count of Graville, Mar-
quis of Clairmont d’Antrague, Baron of Dunes, Marchin,
Mezers, and Modane, Captain-General in the service of the King
of Spain, and Lieutenant-General of the forces of King Charles
IT. of England, was elected Knight Companion of the Order of
the Garter at Antwerp in 1658: he was installed in 1661.

—e oe

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 75

Gules, two barbel addorsed or, were the arms of Abel Francois
Poisson, Marquis de Marigny, brother of the celebrated Madame
Pompadour.

Argent, two. barbel respecting each other, sable, are the arms
of the family of Colston, a name sometimes spelt Coulston and
Coulson. The barbel in heraldry being generally represented —
embowed, as well as the dolphin, in careless transcription is
called a dolphin, as in the instance of the benevolent merchant
of Bristol, Edward Colston, in respect to whom the Dolphin
tavern in that city is. said to owe its sign; and tradition asserts
that his crest was assumed from the circumstance of a dolphin
having providentially forced itself into a hole and stopped the
leak of one of his ships at sea. He is known to have been
remarkably successful, having never insured a ship, and having
lost but one. As a great benefactor of the city of Bristol, his
portrait, by Richardson, is preserved in the Merchant Adven-
turers’ Hall; and after his death in 1721, a monument, by Rys-
brach, with an inscription enumerating his public charities, was
erected in All Saints’ Church in the same city.

Argent, two barbel respecting each other, sable, conjoined
with collars and chain pendent or, appear to have been the ori-
ginal arms of the family of Colston, from which many branches
have descended, bearing some variation in their armorial dis-
tinctions.

Argent, three barbel hauriant within a border sable, are the
arms of one of the branches of this family : and argent, a chevron
engrailed gules, between three barbel embowed sable ; crest, an
eagle with wings endorsed or, preying on a barbel, are the arms
of the family of Coulson of St. Ives in Huntingdonshire.

John Charles Wallop, Earl of Portsmouth, in 1763 married
Urania, daughter of Coulson Fellowes, Esq. of Hampstead in

76 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

Middlesex. Their second son, the Hon. Newton Fellowes of
Eggesford in Devonshire, on succeeding to the estates of his
maternal uncle, assumed that name in 1794.

The arms of Coulson, as borne by Sir John Fellowes, created
Baronet by King George I. in 1719, are quarterly, Ist and 4th,
azure, a fess dancettée ermine between three lions’ heads erased
or, murally crowned argent, for Fellowes; 2nd and 3rd, argent,
two barbel hauriant, respecting each other, sable, for Coulson.

Entravaillé is a French term applied to fish when interlaced
in the bars or bendlets crossing the shield. Gules, two bars
wavy azure, with two barbel addorsed or, entravaillés in the bars,
are the arms of the family of Rivitre de St. Denis des Monts,
in Normandy.*

The general colour of the barbel is a greenish brown on the
head and body, which on the sides becomes a yellowish green,
and the fins are tinged with red. There is some difficulty in
appropriating the different species of fish in heraldic bearings ;
but in the following instances barbel appear to be intended,
being a pun on the first syllable of the name of the family.

Gules, a fess between three barbel naiant argent; Barwais.
Vert, three barbel hauriant argent; Bardin. Azure, two barbel
hauriant or; Bare. Gules, three barbel within a border indented
argent; Bernard of Essex. Azure, on a fess argent three barbel
hauriant sable, within a border engrailed of the second ; Bar-
nardes. Argent, on a bend sable, three barbel naiant or; Bures.

* Dictionnaire Heraldique. Paris, 1774.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 77

THE CARP.

Tuere are no ancient instances of this fish in English heraldry,
but it was certainly known here, and is mentioned in “ The
Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle,” the very earliest essay
upon this subject, supposed to have been written in the middle
of the fifteenth century.* The golden carp were introduced
about 1611: the first of that species sent to France, is said
to have been a present to Madame Pompadour.

Carp are found in most of the rivers and lakes of Europe,
more particularly in Prussia and the Austrian empire, where
fresh-water fish are held in much higher estimation for the table
than in this country.

Azure, two carp addorsed argent, are the arms of the family
of Karpfen of Swabia, agreeably to the pictorial manner in which
the names of families were represented in their armorial ensigns.+
Karpfen bears for crest, on a golden coronet, a carp erect argent,
and supporting a buck’s attire azure.

Colombitre, who wrote on the origin of heraldry, when treating
of the arms of Rohan, gules, nine macles or, first used about 1222,
_ says, “‘ Opinions vary about the origin of the macles; some writers

* Printed in 1827, by Pickering, from Wynkyn de Worde’s Boke of St. Alban’s, 1496.
+ Sibmacher’s Wapenbuch, 1605.

78 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

call them mascles, or mashes, and in old manuscripts these figures
are blazoned like the meshes of a net: but having observed that
whatever is remarkable in some countries, has been represented
in arms, I am of opinion that the ancient Lords of Rohan, al-
though descended from the Princes of Brittany, took the macles
because in the duchy of Rohan there are flints which, being cut
in two, this very figure appears on the insides, and also that the
carp in the fish-ponds of the duchy have the same remarkable
mark upon their scales, which, being peculiar to that part of the
country, the Lords Rohan had reason to take those figures for
their armorial distinction, giving them the name of macles or
spots. Some of that house bear the motto, ‘Sine macula macla,’
a mascle without a spot.” *

The carp is a very strong fish, beautiful in its form, and poeti-
cally described as having ‘“‘ scales bedropt with gold. ” In colour
the head is darkest, the body a golden olive, and the belly a
yellowish white. Gules, three carp naiant in pale argent, are the
arms of the family of De Blocg.+

There is a species of fish bearing a strong affinity to the carp —
of England, which is found in Bengal,
Where, by a thousand rivers fed,
Swift Ganges fills his spacious bed.
This fish, the Cyprinus Rohita of the Indian zoologists, is used
as a badge of dignity, under the name of Mahi Maratib, and,
agreeably to eastern parade, is borne in ceremonials upon ele-
phants before the officers of state. The image of the fish is made —
of copper gilt, and is partly enveloped in a mantle of green
brocade. Rae
Mahi is a Persian word meaning a fish generally, and Mahi gir ~
* Dict. Herald. 1725, page 232. + Palliot.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 79

is a fisherman; but the particular species represented on the
banners of the King of Oude is that of a true carp, the Cyprinus
Rohita, considered as the most valuable fish which is found in
_ the fresh-water rivers of the Gangetic provinces, and its beauty
both in form and colour equals its value for the table.*

The Mahi maratib, or dignity of the fish, is said to have
originated with the Mogul dynasty founded by Zingis Khan,
the conqueror of Asia, in 1206. The fish was selected as a
badge from an Oriental legend recorded in the Koran, stating
that Abraham, after sacrificing a goat instead of his son Isaac,
threw the knife into the water, when it struck a fish. A fish
is therefore the only animal eaten by Mahometans without ie
viously having its throat cut.

This dignity or order was revived by one of the Emperors of
Mogul, who was contemporary with Queen Elizabeth, and
was at a recent period conferred upon General Gerard Lake,
after his brilliant successes in the Mahratta war, during the
administration of the Marquess Wellesley. When the General
visited Shah Aulum at the palace of Delhi in September 1803,
he received from the Emperor a Persian title, which may be
translated ‘‘the Victorious in War, the Saviour of the State,
and the Hero of the Land.” The next year he was created Lord
Lake by King George III, and in 1807 was advanced to the
title of Viscount Lake of Delhi and Laswaree, with an augmen-
tation to his paternal arms indicative of his Asiatic honours.
* Hamilton’s Fishes of the Ganges, 1822.

80 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

Sable, a bend between six cross crosslets fitchy argent, on a chief
of the last the fish of Mogul, per pale or and vert, banded vert,
and gules, surmounting the Goog and Ullum, honourable insignia,
in saltier.

The creed in India appears to consider a fish as the saviour of
the world.

“In the whole world of creation
None were seen but these seven sages, Menu, and the Fish.
Years on years, and still unwearied drew that Fish the bark along,
Till at length it came where reared Himavan its loftiest peak.
There at length they came, and smiling thus the Fish addressed the Sage :
‘ Bind thou now thy stately vessel to the peak of Himavan.’
At the Fish’s mandate, quickly to the peak of Himavan
Bound the Sage his bark ; and even to this day that loftiest peak
Bears the name of Naubandhana.” *

The fish, in the Hindu example here shown, are evidently
carp, and are disposed with barbaric fancy in a manner not un-
known to heraldry, a tricorporated fish meeting under one head,

and one eye only seen; the flower is intended for the celebrated
Indian Lotus, the Nilumbium speciosum of the botanist.
* Translation of Sanscrit poetry in the Quarterly Review, 1839.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 81

Azure, three fish conjoined in one head at the fess point, one
tail in dexter chief, another in sinister chief, and the third in
base, argent, are the arms of the Silesian family of Kreckwitz.

Gules, three fish with one head argent, and disposed as the
above, are the arms of Die Hiinder of Franconia.

Gules, three fish, their heads meeting at the fess — argent,
are the arms of Dornheim of Silesia.* |

Gules, three fish conjoined at their tails in triangle or, their
heads sable, are the arms of Bernbach.

THE GUDGEON.

Gupcrons swim in shoals in the rivers Thames, Mersey, Colne,
Kennet, and Avon: the only instances in which these fish are used
in heraldry are in reference to the name, and that from the Latin
Gobio, or the French Goujon.

A Catalogue of the Nobility of England, compiled by Glover,
Somerset Herald in the reign of Elizabeth, being the first printed,
requires to be quoted with caution. The same may be said of
many manuscript lists of early date, well known to the ad-
mirers of heraldry by the name of Barons’ Books. In several
of this latter class is to be found the name of William Gobyon,
Earl of Southampton, whose heirs-general were married to Sir
Stonor, and to Sir George Turpin, knights, in the time
of Edward I.

Quarterly, Ist and 4th or, 2nd and 3rd barry argent, and
gules, all within a border sable, charged with eight gudgeons
fesswise argent are the arms of Gobyon.

Sibmacher’s Wapenbuch.

82 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

Gobions, a manor at North Mims, in Hertfordshire, was held
by a family of the same name as early as the reign of Stephen.

Gobions, in the parish of Toppesfield in Essex, was named
from a knightly family who had large possessions in other parts
of that county. Sir Thomas Gobion was Sheriff of Essex and
Hertfordshire in 1323; and John Gobion was in the list of
the gentry of Essex in 1433.* The manor house of Black
Notley is also called Gobions, from having been in possession of
a family of that name at an early period.

Argent, three gudgeons hauriant, within a border engrailed sa-
ble, are the arms of the ancient family of Gobion, of Waresley
in Huntingdonshire, on the borders of Cambridgeshire. These
arms are borne as one of the quarterings of the Earl of Lanes-
borough, the lineal descendant of John Butler, and Isolda the
daughter and heiress of William Gobion, seated at Waresley, in
the reign of Edward III. |

Arms quarterly, Ist and 4th argent, three covered cups in
bend between two bendlets engrailed sable; for Butler: 2nd,
argent, three gudgeons hauriant, within a border engrailed sable ;
for Gobion : 3rd, per pale or and sable, a chevron between three
escallops, all counterchanged ; for Brinsley of Nottinghamshire.
Mary, the daughter and heiress of Gervase Brinsley in the reign
of Charles I, married Sir Stephen Butler of Belturbet, in Ireland,
the ancestor of the Earl of Lanesborough.

* Fuller’s Worthies, page 342,

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 83

Argent, three gudgeons within a border sable, are the arms of
the family of Gobaud. Azure, billetty two gudgeons addorsed
or, are the arms of Gougeux, a family of Vendéme, which as-
sumed the surname of Rouville, that of an ancient house of
Normandy.*

Azure, two gudgeons in saltier argent, in base water, waved
proper, are the arms of the French family of Goujon; a name
that ranks high in art. John Goujon was one of the most emi-
nent sculptors of the reign of Francis I. ; his relievos have rarely
been surpassed, and from the inimitable spirit and grace which
pervade his works he is termed the Correggio of sculpture.

Water, as shown in the arms of Goujon, is rarely introduced
in English heraldry ; but an undulated line expressive of waves,
and conveying the idea of water, is commonly used.

Rivers that move
In majesty, and the complaining brooks
That make the meadows green,

are equally depicted on the shields of feudal lords where pri-
vilege or potency is necessary to be shown.
Barry wavy argent and azure, are the arms of the family of

* Palliot, Science des Armoiries,
G2

84 THE HERALDRY OF FISH:

Sandford, which derived the name from lands near a passage of
the Isis in Oxfordshire, and whose possessions subsequently fall-.
ing to the Veres, these arms were quartered by the Earls of
Oxford of that name; and by their representatives. |

Gules, two bars wavy or, are the arms of De la Rives the
name-of a family which, as early as the reign of Edward I, was
seated. at Shefford, a passage of the Lambourn, one of the
sources of the Kennet, and like that river abundant with trout,
barbel, and pike. The family of Rivers of River Hill, in Hamp-
shire, bore for arms, azure, two bars indented or, in chief three
bezants with the motto, Secus Rivos aquarum.

Asa boundary, the river becomes of importance to an cute:
and of this the heralds as well as the poets are not unmindful.
Drayton notices

The furious Teme, that on the Cambrian side,
Doth Shropshire as a meare from Hereford divide.

Hotspur, it will be remembered, objects to the division of- his
country by the Trent,

See how this river comes me crankling in,
And cuts me from the best of all my land.*

The passage of water has been so constant a source of dispute
between states and inhabitants that the word river might thence
have been the root of rivalry or contention of any kind.+

Heralds refer the four silver stripes in the arms of Hungary
to the principal rivers of the country, the Drave, the Nyss, the
Save, and the Danube, all abounding with fish. The arms of —
Drummond, or, three bars wavy gules, show Hungarian de- —
scent, the family of the Viscount Strathallan deriving its origin
from Maurice, an’ Hungarian who attended Edgar Atheling —
and his sister Margaret, afterwards Queen of Scotland, to Dum- —
fermlin, and was by King Malcolm III. made Seneschal .of
Lennox.

Water, having reference to some important boundary of the
fief, appears to be indicated by the adoption of barry argent and —
azure, in the arms of the family of Grey, one of the most ancient,
wide-spread, and illustrious in the English peerage, descended —
from that of De Croy, in Picardy, a name having the same deri- —

* Shakespeare, Henry IV. “+ Forsyth’s Italy.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 85

vation as cray and creek, whence also cray fish, and crayer a
small ship for ascending rivers. Some branches of this family
have varied the arms, and others have an anchor for a device
with the word “ Fast ;” but the Earls of Stamford, the Earls
of Wilton, and the Earl De Grey, who is descended from the
Earls and Dukes of Kent, retain the original arms:

A river is represented in foreign shields of arms, flowing as on
the surface of the earth. Vert, three rivers fesswise, argent, are
the arms of the German family of Gilse, of Hesse. Gules, a
river in bend argent are the arms of Lauterbach of the same
country.* ,

Gules, in a river in bend argent, three fish azure, are the. arms
of the imperial town of Onoltzbach.+ .

Gules, a river in fess argent, are the arms of the family of Von
Buren of Saxony.{ Argent on a pale wavy sable, three fish em-
bowed or, are the arms of Swartzac in Switzerland.

The local site of their original barony is indicated in the arms
of the Lords Stourton ; sable, a bend or, between six fountains,
allusive of the six springs from which the river Stour has its
source near Stourton, on the borders of Wiltshire and Somerset-
shire. In the chancel of that church are several monuments of
the Stourton family, of which Sir John, the first peer, was
created Lord Stourton by King Henry VI, in 1448. A similar
origin is assigned for the arms: of the family of Home of Nine-
wells, a branch of that of Home of Tyningham in Haddington-
shire ; vert, a lion rampant argent, within a border or, charged
_ with nine fountains or wells.

* Palliot. + Sibmacher. t Ibid.

86 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

Azure, three fountains, are the arms of the family of Wells of
Hampshire. The arms of Twells, a play upon the name, vert,
on a fess azure, between six wells proper, a bezant, are sculptured
on the tombstone of Matthias Twells in St. Margaret’s Church,
Lynn, of which place he was alderman, and who died in 1676.

A curious ancient custom, illustrative of the importance of
wells, is observed annually at Motcombe, Dorsetshire, where are
four large wells, which supply the town of Shaftesbury with
water. Ifa dance is not performed on the Sunday after Holy-
rood day, and the bailiff of Gillingham have not his due, he
stops the water of the wells of Enmore.

Lord Wells used as a badge a bucket with the chains, in
allusion to the name, as water bougets were used by the Bour-
chiers, Earls of Eu as well as of Essex.

The fountain of heraldry should be depicted by a circle, barry
wavy argent and azure; but some modern grants lose the an-
tique character of the art, as in the arms blazoned, in a land-
scape field a fountain, thereout issuing a palm tree, which were
granted to the family of Franco of St. Katherine Coleman, Lon-
don, 1760.

A whirlpool, heraldically termed a gurges, represents the rapid
motion of water in a circular direction, taking up all the field,
as in. the arms of the baronial family of Gorges, assumed in allu-
sion to the name;_ argent, a gurges azure. These are found
among the quarterings borne by the noble family of Russell,
showing their descent from that of Gorges.* Longford Castle, in
Wiltshire, presenting a singular specimen of architecture in its
plan, was erected on the banks of the Avon by Sir Thomas
Gorges in 1591; he died in 1610, and a monument to his
memory is in Salisbury Cathedral. Sir Edward Gorges, in
1620, was created Lord Dundalk by King James I.

The banks of rivers, and the heights which command them,
almost exclusively monopolize the beauty and compose the cha-
racteristic features of every country. Great cities are seldom
placed but on a river; the castle commanded the passes, and the
abbey always depended on the contiguous stream. Argent, a —
fess wavy gules, cottised of the last, are the arms of the family
of Waterford ; that of Brooksby bears, barry wavy argent, and
sable, a canton gules. Brooksbank of Elland, in Yorkshire, bears —

* Wiffen’s Historical Memoirs of the House of Russell, 1833.

eet

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 87

azure, two bars wavy argent, within a border or; and, argent,
a fess wavy azure, within a border sable, are the arms of Brook-
bank.

The arms of the French family of De Viviers exhibit an in-
stance of the armes parlantes. Vivier is a fish-pond, and their
arms are, argent, three fish-wells vert, filled with water azure.

Gules, three fountains are the arms of Waterhouse of York-
shire; and, sable, three bars wavy, between as many swans
argent, are the arms of Waters of Lenham in Kent.

THE TENCH.

Tue Tencn, a beautiful fish, with small smooth scales tinged
with golden colour, is rarely found in the rivers of England, but
many of the ponds and ornamental waters in pleasure-grounds
abound with tench. Bridges, im his History of Northampton-
shire, says, ““On Mr. Plowden’s estate, who is lord of the manor
of Aston, were two-and-fifty fish-ponds in the time of his an-
cestor Francis Plowden, who used to boast that he had one
weekly to drain throughout the year.” Some still remain, and
there are vestiges of others now disused.

In no other instance but as allusive to the name, is this fish
used in heraldry : among the old German families who bear fish
is that of Von Tanques, whose arms are three tench. Or, three
tench hauriant gules, are the arms of the French family of
Tanche.

Azure, three tench naiant in pale or, were the arms of ——
Tenche, a Marshal in Flanders, according to Palliot.*
* Science des Armoiries, ~

88 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

~The tench, used in English heraldry as a play upon the
name, forms part of the crest of Sir Fisher Tench of Low
Leyton, in Essex, descended from a family of Shropshire, and
created Baronet by King George I. in 1715. After his death
the title became extinct; but his sister and heiress Elizabeth,

married Francis Asty, Esq. of Black Notley, whose daughter |

and heiress Henrietta, became the wife of Christopher Wyvil in
1739, and at his death the estates fell to Sir Marmaduke Asty
Wyvil, Bart. Arms, argent, on a chevron, between three lions’
heads erased gules, a cross crosslet or; for Tench: quartering
azure, a fess counter embattled between three dolphins embowed
or; for Fisher: crest, an arm vested gules, turned up argent,
grasping a tench in the hand.

Heraldry affords modes of illustration which are capable of
infinite variety ; and by the French, our prototypes in the art,
every incident, or singular tradition susceptible of poetical em-
bellishment, or capable of picturesque representation, was adopted
in their plan of armorial composition. The following instance
may be taken as affording some idea of the extent to which their
admiration of armes parlantes was carried.

The word sowci signifies equally marigold, and care or anxiety.
Three marigolds are borne by the family of Lemaitre, azure, trois
soucis d'or, arms assumed in allusion to the proverb, St les valets
ont les peines, le mattre a les soucis, if the vassals have their la-
bour, the lord has his anxiety. One of this ancient family,

—

2 eh eb ee

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 89

Giles Lemaitre, was premier penenny of the parliament of Paris
in 1551.

Punning in the spirit of the age was even introduced into
epitaphs, as in the distich of Ariosto on the Marchese di Pescara,
who commanded the armies of Charles V. in Italy :

Piscator maximus ille !
Nunquid et hic pisces cepit ? non: ergo quid ? Urbes.

The Marchese was husband. of the eminently gifted Vittoria
Colonna, and died. soon after he had won the memorable battle
of Pavia where Francis I. was taken prisoner.

THE BREAM.

Bream are found in almost all the lakes and rivers of Europe
as far northward as Norway. The rivers Trent and Medway are
noted for this particular fish, which is very broad in its form, and
has large scales. The sprightly Waller notices it as

“ A broad bream to please some curious taste.”

On the Continent this fish is in high request; and “ He that
hath bream in his pond may bid his friend welcome,” is a proverb
quoted by Isaak Walton.

Azure, three bream or, are the punning arms of Breame, an
Essex family of some antiquity in that county.

After the dissolution of the Cistercian Abbey at Stratford,
King Henry VIII. granted the manor of East Ham, part of the
monastical estate, to Richard Breame, Esq. who died in 1546,
leaving a son Edward, whose heir, on his decease in 1558, was

90 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

his brother Arthur, whose son and successor, Giles Breame, Esq.
on his death in 1621, left part of his estate for the foundation
and endowment of almshouses and other charitable purposes.
A monument to his memory is im the chancel of East Ham
church.

Gules, three bream hauriant argent, are the arms of De la
Mare the name of an ancient family, which held Fisherton on the
banks of the Avon in Wiltshire.

Geffrey De la Mare, one of the early abbots of Peterborough, ©
bore for arms, azure, three bream bendwise or.

In Warburton’s list of the arms of the gentry of Middlesex
in 1749, are those of William Obreen, Esq. of Tottenham, of —
foreign extraction: per fess, azure and vert, in chief an armed
knight on horseback in full career or, in base a fish naiant of
the third, on waves of the first. 'The Somerset herald has not
described the particular species of this fish, which doubtless was
intended for a bream in allusion to the name. The Earl Mar-
shal expressly commanded Warburton to prove satisfactorily the
right of each person to the arms engraved on his map of Mid-
dlesex, to the Garter King of Arms; he then printed his autho-
rities for all the arms, rather than submit entirely to the arbi-
tration of one “so notoriously remarkable for knowing nothing —
at all of the matter.”* This severe rebuke referred to Anstis, —

* Preface, page 2, of London and Middlesex Illustrated, by John Warburton, Somer-
set Herald, F.R.S.

’ ze
Hy

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 91

the son of the celebrated Garter King of Arms mentioned by
Prior.

Coronets we owe to crowns
And favour to a court’s affection.
By nature we are Adam’s sons,
And sons of Anstis by election.

THE CHUB.

Tus fish is very plentiful in the Wye,°and the rivers of
Wales, and

The Chub, of all fish in the silver Trent,
Invites the angler to the tournament,

is a remark of Captain Richard Franck in his “ Northern Me-
moirs.” It is also found in the Thames and many of the great
riversof England. The chub derives its name from its form, and
is called a skelly in the North on account of its large scales. The
scales of fish, composed of separate leaves placed above each other
in successive layers, probably gave the idea of the scaled cuirass
as defensive armour. Another name for the chub is chevin,
derived from the French chef, the fish having a large head.
Vert, three chub fish hauriant sable, are the arms of Chobb;
and, gules, on a chevron between three chub fish argent, three
shovellers sable, on a chief dancetté of the second three escallops
of the first, are the arms of Chobbe, one of the quarterings borne
by Lord Dormer of Wenge, and copied from a pedigree in his .
lordship’s possession.

The Dormer family, originally of Normandy, were seated at
West Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire, at a very early period.
Geffrey Dormer, about 1440, married Eleanor, the daughter and

92 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

heiress of Thomas Chobbe. At the dissolution of the Abbey of
St. Albans, the Dormers obtained the manor of Wenge or Wing,
and held Ilmer, also in Buckinghamshire, by tenure of the ser-
vice of Marshal of the King’s Falcons; whence are derived
the supporters to their arms, two falcons ; and their crest, a hand
gloved, bearing a falcon on the fist, in allusion to the office,
formerly of considerable importance, when

Barons of old, and Princes high
Lov’d hawking as their lives.

THE ROACH.

Roacn- are abundant in almost -all the rivers of. Europe.
‘‘ Unwary roach the sandy bottoms choose,” is expressive of the
simplicity of this fish, which is termed the water-sheep. Swift
says, ! oh |
If a gudgeon meet a roach
He dare not venture to approach.

This fish in old books of angling is named roche, and is of the
highest antiquity as a charge in heraldry, where it is used by
those families whose appellation De la Roche arose from their
rocky territory. The phrase “sound as a roach,” is derived
from familiarity with the legend of St. Roche, whose media-
tion was implored by persons afflicted with the plague, and a be-
lief which existed that the miraculous intercession of St. Roche
could make all who solicited his aid as “sound” as himself.
The Italian proverb, ‘EK sano come il pesce,” connecting the idea
of health with a fish, has been translated ‘‘ sound as a roach ;”
but the naturalist, who is acquainted with the particular species,
will not admit the truth of the popular idea.

Impressions of seals used during the lifetime of the persons to
whom they belonged, are among the best authorities for armorial
bearings; these evidences deserve an attentive inspection, and
supply an accurate test for determining the particular ensigns
borne at a certain period, when appended to early deeds and
charters of acknowledged authenticity.. An instance of the he-
raldic application of the roach is found on the seal used by
Thomas Lord De La Roche, and affixed to the Barons Letter to

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 93

Pope Boniface VIII. respecting the sovereignty of Scotland
in the year 1301, one of the records preserved in. the Chapter-
house at Westminster.*

Gules, three roach naiant in pale argent, are the arms of the
family of De La Roche, who derived their name from an estate
situated on the verge of St. Bride’s Bay, on the coast of Pem-
brokeshire, The remains of Roche Castle, founded by Adam
De La Roche, about the year 1200, stand upon a very remark-
able insulated rock of considerable height, and exhibit evidences
of its former strength. Adam De La Roche, also founder of the
Benedictine Priory of Pwll, near Milford Haven, was buried in
the church of Llangwm, on the banks of the Cleddy, where his
monument yet remains.

The form of the shield, and the motto used upon seals, are
both supposed to have depended upon the taste of the person to
whom they belonged rather than upon any established principle.
The motto used by the Roche family is one of those punning
allusions to the name which at an early period were very com-
mon, “ Dieu est ma Roche;” and the crest, having the same
intent, is a rock. The usage of crests upon helmets in the camp,
may have been confined to persons of the highest rank;
but at a very early period it certainly was not unusual upon
seals to place figures of animals on the top of the shield, in the
manner of crests; and supporters to the escutcheon were not

* A document well known to the antiquary by the excellent commentary on the seals
prefixed to it by Sir Harris Nicolas in the Archzeologia, vol. xxi.:

94 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

improbably introduced on the seals with the same intention,
merely as an ornament, without being indicative of superior
rank. . Seen

The great possessions of the Lords of Roche Castle, in the
county of Pembroke, fell at length to coheiresses. Ellen, the
eldest daughter of Sir Thomas De La Roche, married Edmund
Lord Ferrers of Chartley, in the reign of Henry VI, whose lineal
representative is the Marquess Townshend,

Elizabeth, the second daughter, married Sir George Longue-
ville of Little Billing, in Northamptonshire, the ancestor of the
Lords Grey De Ruthin and the Viscounts Longueville, whose
representative is the Marchioness of Hastings, Lady Grey de Ru-
thin by descent. The arms of Roche, formerly in one of the
windows of St, David’s Cathedral, are described by Browne
Willis as those of an ancient and considerable family of Pem-
brokeshire.* | .

Sir John Dyve of Bromham, in Bedfordshire, the father of Sir
Lewis Dyve, a distinguished royalist, was descended from the
Lords De La Roche, through the family of Longueville: he died
in 1608, and the arms upon his monument in Bromham church
show his alliances by the quarterings, 1, Dyve; 2, Bray; 3,
Quinton; 4, Seywell; 5, Longueville; 6, Roche; 7, Wylde;
8, Ragon; 9, Widvile; 10, Hastings; 11, Aprice.

The representation of the murder of St. Thomas a Becket,
here copied from the official seal of Thomas Arundel Archbishop
of Canterbury in the reign of Richard I], shows the knight about

_ to slay the martyr, bearing a shield charged with three naiant
fish, as borne by the Roche family. The names of the four

* Survey of the Cathedral of St. David’s, 1715, p. 86.
+ The whole seal is engraved in the Archeeologia, vol. xxvi.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 95

knights recorded in history as the murderers of Archbishop
Becket, are Fitz-Urse, Tracy, Morvile, and Brito; and al-
though the subject has been often represented, no allusion to
one of the Roche family as concerned in the Archbishop’s death
is known.

The eccentric Sir Boyle Roche was a scion of a family of the
name of Roche, Lords of Fermoy in Ireland, who were ennobled
in the reign of Edward II.

Gules, three roach naiant or, within a border engrailed ar-
gent ; crest, on a rock a heron grasping a roach in its dexter
claw, are the armorial ensigns of Sir David Roche of Carass, in
the county of Limerick, and of Barnitick in the county of Clare,
who was created Baronet 28 June 1838, one of the titles incident
to the coronation of her present Majesty.

Sable, three roach naiant in pale argent, are the arms of the
family of De La Roche of Herefordshire.

Azure, three roach naiant argent, within a border or, were the
arms of Walter Roche of Bromham, in Wiltshire, whose daugh-
ter Edith married Harry Tropenell of Chalfield: these are
sculptured on the stone screen of the Tropenell chapel in the

parish church.

The arms of Tropenell, gules, a fess engrailed ermine, between
three griffins’ heads erased argent, in several parts of the house
at Chalfield, are accompanied by a yoke such as was used for
oxen, the family badge, and the motto “‘ Le joug tyra bellement,”
which may be rendered, The yoke drew well, or, The yoke sat
lightly, expressive either of the tenure under which the estate
was held, or of the lord of the manor’s devotion to agricultural
pursuits. There are few more interesting examples of domestic

i

96 THE HERALDRY OF FISH:

architecture in the kingdom than Chalfield House, which was
built by Thomas Tropenell in the reign of Henry VI.*

Sable, three roach naiant argent, are the arms of De Roche
in Cornwall, a family which may be traced from the twelfth cen-
tury, and who derived their name from the natural situation of
their possessions at Roche, where a lofty group of craggy rocks,
rising out of an open heath, forms a conspicuous and striking
object to the surrounding country. Eva, the daughter and
heiress of Sir Richard ‘De Roche, married Sir Ralph Arundell,
who was Sheriff of Cornwall in 1268, and was the ancestor
of the Lords Arundell. of Trerice, and the Lords Arundell of
Wardour; from him W. A.H. Arundell, Esq. of Lifton Park
Sheriff of Devonshire in 1841, is also descended. . :

Another heiress of the funihy of De Roche married Sir William
Blundell about 1357, who afterwards assumed the name and
arms of Roche. His family continued in :possession of the estate
till the reign of Henry VIII, when it terminated in four co-
heiresses, three of whom married into the families of Fortescue,
Penkivil, and Boscawen. Roche, with its picturesque crags, is
now the property of the Earl of Falmouth, who quarters the
arms of Roche with those of Boscawen as typical of this descent:

The family of Roach of Lezant, near Launceston, in Corn-
wall, and of Wellcombe, in Devonshire, bears for arms, =
three roach naiant in pale argent.

Or, a bull passant gules, between three roach hauriant proper,

a chief chequy or and azure, were the arms of Sir William

NTT | See,

\
de \
fi;

Roche, son of John Roche of Wickersley, near Rotherham in
Yorkshire, and Lord Mayor of London in 1540.

* An account of this ancient residence was printed by T. L. Walker in 1837.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 97

Argent, on a bend sable three roach of the field, are the arms
of the family of Huyshe of Sand, in Devonshire ; and were as-
sumed in the reign of Edward III. by Oliver Huyshe of Doni-
ford, in Somersetshire, after his marriage with the daughter and
heiress of Simon Roche.

This family claim descent from the Wentworths of Bocking,
in Essex, who through the Spencers were descended from Joan
of Acres, the daughter of King Edward I. Richard Huyshe,
who lived in the reign of James I, and was distinguished for be-
nevolence, founded the hospital at Taunton, which bears his
arms on the porch. Alexander Huyshe, eminent in literature, ©
assisted Bishop Walton in the publication of the celebrated Po-
lyglott Bible in 1657.

One of the circumstances incident to the revival of literature
was the foundation of the Academy of Florence, which originated
from a society fancifully termed “The Humides,” each member
being known in the community by the name of some particular
fish, or by some appellation relative to water. Grazzini, a poet
of some eminence, the projector of the society, called himself
La Lasca, the roach; other members were distinguished by the
name of some piscatorial occupation.

98 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

A swan, in pride, devouring a perch, is the crest of Sparke, a
Cheshire family ; and a swan devouring a perch is also the crest
borne by the family of Loch of Drylaw, in the county of Edin-
burgh. The substitution of a roach would better agree with the
natural character of the swan, whose food consists chiefly of the
various grasses, with the seeds and roots of plants, growing on
the margin of the water. A swan has been known to seize a
roach, but the prickly fins of the perch might possibly prove its
destruction.

Gules, a chevron engrailed between three roach naiant argent,
on a chief of the second, three herons sable, billed and membered
gules, are the arms of the family of Hobbs of Middlesex, which
bears for crest a demi heron volant sable, billed gules, holding in
the bill a fish argent. Herons were royal game in the days of
falconry. The bill is strong and very sharp, and when seeking
its food on the banks of rivers this bird seizes the fish with great
dexterity.

The crest of the family of Beckford, a heron’s head erased or,
gorged with a collar flory gules, in the beak a fish argent, is one
of those punning allusions to the name, Bec fort, shown to be
frequent in heraldry.

This family is believed to derive its name from the passage of
a beck or stream dividing the counties of Worcester and Glou-
cester near Tewkesbury. Horace William Beckford succeeded as
third Lord Rivers in 1828 ; the present peer, his son, has assumed
the name of Pitt Rivers.

A stork, with a fish in its bill, is the crest of the family of Bat-_

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 99

tie of Wadsworth, near Halifax in Yorkshire. The stork, abun-
dant in Holland and France, is not common in England.

Dace and roach are very similar in appearance, but the former
is comparatively more local than the roach. Dace do not occur
in heraldry, yet being also known by the name of Dare, it is
possible they may be typified in the arms of Dare of Norfolk ;
sable, a chevron argent between three dolphins or, the general
emblem of sea and river fish being here used.

THE MINNOW.

Most of the brooks and rivers of England produce minnows,
beautiful little fish, swimming in shoals on the gravelly bottom
of the stream: they are borne in arms by the family of Picton.
Argent, three minnows, or pinks, in pale gules.

It may be supposed when a number of fish appear as a charge,
those of a small size are intended, as in the arms of Coupir:
azure, a bend engrailed between six fishes hauriant argent.
Minnows are so named in reference to their small size; and on
account of the bright red colour that pervades the under parts of
the fish, they are called pinks, a name by which the salmon of
the first year are also known.

The family of Fisher of Stafford, had a grant of arms in the
reign of James I: or, a kingfisher proper; the crest, a king-
fisher with a fish in its beak.

This splendid little bird, which is found in almost every part
of the globe, sits near the margin of a streamlet.on the watch for
the minnow, or the smaller species of fish, fluttering its wings,
and exposing its brilliant plumage to the sun; or, hovering in
the air, darts unerringly on the fish, and sometimes remains for

H 2

100 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

several seconds under the water before it has gained the object of
its pursuit. The quantity of minnows that a brood of young
kingfishers will consume is quite extraordinary,* and this fish
is, without doubt, intended in the crest of Fisher.

It is to the brilliancy of its colours that this little bird is in-
debted for the means of alluring its prey; the fish, attracted
by the brightness and splendour of its appearance, are detained
whilst the wily bird darts upon them. From the similarity of
the means used, it has been suggested that the mode of taking
fish by torchlight may have originated from the practice of the
kingfisher.

Poets cherish the idea of perfect safety which the mariner
attaches to the haleyon days: it is expressed in one of Cowper's
similes :

As calm as the flood
When the peace-loving haleyon deposits her brood.

When the kingfisher is engaged in hatching her young, the sea
is believed to remain so calm that the sailor ventures his bark
on the main with the happy certainty of not being ee to a
storm. Thus an interest is attached to

Halcyons, of all the birds that haunt the main,
Most lov’d and honor’d by the Nereid train.+

THE LOACH.

Tnis fish, nearly the colour of the gudgeon, is wattled like the
barbel, and is to be found in many rivulets; but the upper Avon,

* Yarrell’s History of British Birds.
+ Fawkes’s Translation of Theocritus, seventh Idyl.

q

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 101

which waters the plains of Wiltshire, is more celebrated for its
loach than other streams. On the banks of this river, a little
below Amesbury, is Durneford; and it appears most probable
that the particular produce of the river was alluded to in the
arms of Walter de Durneford, in the reign of Edward III, azure,
three fish naiant in pale argent.

A family of the name of Dernford bear, azure, two fish hauri-
ant or; and another Dernford, azure, three fish, the tails of two
in chief, and the head of one in base or, all meeting in the centre
of the shield or nombril point. |

The introduction of surnames into France and England was
nearly coeval; that is, about the tenth or eleventh century.
The assumption was at first confined to the higher orders of
society ; as a distinction

It was not framed for village churls,
But for high dames and mighty earls.

The most customary source whence names were derived seems
to have been from manors, the lords of which having originally
inserted the preposition de between their christian name and
local denomination, by degrees sunk it, thus forming the surnames
of the present day. The prevalence of this class of names is
accounted for from the vassals and dependants following the
example of their lords, and styling themselves of the castle,
town, or village wherein they resided. Thus arbitrarily assumed,
surnames were changed and altered at the pleasure of the bearer ;
and they can scarcely be said to have been permanently settled
in this country until the era of the Reformation.*

* Remarks on- the Antiquity of Surnames, by J. H. Markland, Esq. F.S.A. in Arche-

ologia, vol. xviii. In the Roll of Battle Abbey, the addition to the christian name is
used,

102 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

IV.
The Chabot, Gurnard, sVullet, and Werch.

Tue Cuazor of heraldry is a species of bullhead found in almost
all the fresh-water streams of Europe from Italy to Sweden.
The fish is remarkable for the large size of its head, and is also
known by the name of the miller’s thumb, which being used as the
gauge of the produce of the mill and to test the quality of the
flour, incessant action produces a form resembling the flattened
head of this fish. The chabot is always borne in pale, the head
being in chief, and the back of the fish shown.

Or, three chabots gules, are the arms of the ancient house of
Chabot. | :

Philip Chabot, Count of Newblanch, and Lord Admiral of
France, was elected a Knight of the Garter at Calais, where a
chapter was held during a second interview between King Henry
VIII. and Francis I. in 1532. Henry, accompanied by the Lady
Anne Boleyn, who had been created Marchioness of Pembroke,
landed at Calais on the 11th of October, where he was honour-

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 103

ably received with a procession; and on the 20th of the same
month the two kings met in a valley near Sandyfield, between
Calais and Boulogne. The ostensible design of this interview
was to concert measures for a joint expedition against the Turks ;
but the real intention was, by alarming the Pope and the Em-
peror, to accelerate King Henry’s divorce.*

Philip, Count of Newblanch, was afterwards installed, 18 May
1533, by proxy, in the stall formerly occupied by Sir Henry
Guldeford, whose collar was, by the King’s command, given to
the Earl of Suffolk, in exchange for that borrowed by the King
from the Earl at Calais, which was delivered to Sir Philip Cha-
bot, the Admiral of France.+

Lady Isabella Charlotte Fitz-Gerald, the daughter of William
Robert Duke of Leinster, married in 1809 Major-General Louis
William Viscount de Chabot, K.C.H. the son of the Count de
Jarnac, who bears the same arms: or, three chabots gules.

Azure, three chabots or, scaled and shaded of the field, with a
crescent in chief of the second, are the arms of the family of
Chabot au Maine;{ and that of Rouxel of Britany bears,
azure, three chabots argent.

THE GURNARD.

Tuts fish, common on the English coast, is borne in heraldry
by an ancient family of the name of Gornay: azure, a bend or,
between three gurnards naiant argent.

There are several species, grey, red, and the piper, which last
is distinguished by the large size of the head, and on this account
the species is named bull-head. The peculiar quaintness of
heraldic composition is not in any instance more forcibly shown
than in the arms of Gorney, where, in extension of the pun, a
bull’s head is used as a charge, im accordance with the common
name of the gurnard. This figurative delineation of the name
exhibits a whimsical turn of thought perfectly in unison with
the literary habits of the Elizabethan period, where the conceit
is often difficult to discover through the veil that is cast over it.

* Original Letters, 1824, vol. ii. p. 22. The notes by Sir Henry Ellis, as well as
the Letters themselyes, are found to throw new light on various passages of English
history.

+ Anstis’s Register of the Order of the Garter. t Palliot.

104 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

Although the heraldic devices are perfectly susceptible of alle-
gorical illustration, yet, by too minute inquiry into the details,
the deficiency of correct taste sometimes found, will dissolve the
charm which captivates; and it must be admitted that the more
fanciful conceptions are not of a nature to be closely scrutinized.

Some branches of the family of Gorney bear for arms, sable,
three bulls’ heads erased argent, a play upon the common name
of the fish, which is varied in other branches of the same family,
who bear, sable, a chevron between three bulls’ heads cabossed
or, the heads in this instance being full-faced without any part
of the neck being visible. Bull is commonly used to express
the large comparative size of any species, as the bull-trout of
Northumberland are said by Walton to be larger than any
found in the southern parts of the kingdom.

The family of Gurney of Norwich bears for arms, argent, a
cross engrailed gules; but their crest exhibits the usual play
upon the name, a gurnard erect upon a chapeau.

John Gurney of that city, in the reign of Charles II, was the
intimate friend and supporter of George Fox, the founder of the
society of Quakers. His descendant, Hudson Gurney, Esq. F.R.S.
Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries, is author of a
poetical translation of Apuleius’s Fable of Cupid and Psyche:
his observations on the Bayeux Tapestry are also printed in the
Archeologia. |

In Cornwall the gurnard is known as the tub fish, and is
borne in heraldry by the family of Tubbe of Trengoffe, in the
parish of Warleggan, near Bodmin: argent, a chevron sable,
between three tub fish hauriant gules: crest, an otter passant,
in his mouth a tub fish; granted in 1571. These arms are
painted in one of the chambers of Court, a mansion at Lanreath,

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 105

near Fowey, formerly the seat of the family of Grylls; they are
also displayed amongst the benefactors of St. Neot’s church,
celebrated for the profusion and beauty of its stained glass.

The windows of this church underwent a complete restoration
at the expence of the Rev. Gervase T. Grylls, of Helston, in 1829.
One contains the history of St. Neot, the pious sacristan of Glas-
tonbury Abbey, in twelve compartments; perhaps the only in-
stance of the legend of a local saint so represented, and one of
the most splendid specimens of stained glass in the kingdom.

_ The hermit’s fish-pond, now remaining in the valley near his
cell, afforded materials for one of the legendary tales represented.

in the window. In this pool there were three fishes, of which - -

Neot had Divine permission to take one, and only one, every day,
with an assurance that the supply should never be diminished.
Being afflicted with a severe indisposition, his disciple Barius one
day caught two fishes, and having boiled one and broiled the
other, placed them before him: “ What hast thou done ?” ex-
claimed Neot ; “lo, the favour of God deserts us; go instantly
and restore these fishes to the water.” While Barius was absent
Neot prostrated himself in earnest prayer, till he returned with
the intelligence that the fishes were disporting in the pool.
Barius again went and took only one fish, of which Neot had no
sooner tasted, than he was restored to perfect health.*

* History of St. Neot’s, in Huntingdonshire, by the Rev. G. C. Gorham, p. 32.

106 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

THE MULLET.

Tue Mutter of English heraldry is not the far-famed fish so
called, but a bearing in form of the rowel of a spur, which is of
very ancient and general adaptation.*

In France, the red mullet, a fish which is common in the
Mediterranean, formed a charge in the arms of the family of
Roujou ; argent, a rouget, or red mullet, in pale. The arms of
the family of Raoul, also an example of this fish, are, azure, a
mullet, with four annulets, three in chief and one in base, argent.

It is evident that the grey mullet is the fish intended to be
represented in some British crests described as a hawk or eagle
preying ona fish. The osprey, or sea-eagle, said to have been
formerly trained for hawking fish, is termed the mullet hawk,
and on this account the bird is represented with a grey mullet in
its claw in Mr. Yarrell’s History of British Birds.

In the title-page of Mr. L. W. Dillwyn’s valuable contri-
butions towards a History of Swansea, 1840, is an engraving
of the ancient seal of the corporation, which is described as a
castle double towered, on each tower a banner, above on a shield
an eagle rising with a fish, the tail end in its mouth. It is, how-
ever, suspected that the bird on the seal is not an osprey, but a
swan, borne in allusion to the name of the town, Swansea, pun-
ning heraldry being common on town seals and in the arms granted
to corporate bodies.

* See the arms of Fitz-James, p. 40,

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 107

The crest of Moult, a fish naiant azure, spotted or, may be
intended for the mullet, or perhaps the smolt, a young salmon.

Crest, on a fish a sparrow-hawk, borne by i would
have been better designated by the osprey.

A hawk perching on a fish is the crest of Grandford ; and that
of Edridge is a hawk on its prey.

The numerous species of the falcon tribe are found in almost
every part of the world, from the frigid to the torrid zone.
The larger birds feed on fish, and seldom devour the whole,
but, like the lions, leave the fragments to other animals.

The family of Hanbowe bears for crest an eagle with wings
expanded and inverted, on a dolphin.

The heraldic mullet has occasioned much disquisition on the
origin of the word, supposed to be derived from molette,
and French heralds admit six points to the star so denomi-
nated. In the earliest rolls of arms it is called a mole, and a
molet, whether pierced or not; and in some of the seals* at-
tached to the Barons’ Letter, the bearing is represented with six
points. On a seal of William Clinton Earl of Huntingdon in
1387, the mullet in the arms has the same number. A change
in the form from six to five points seems to have taken place in
England in the beginning of the fifteenth century; and it is
known that the spur-rowel, to which the mullet is compared, was
never of five points before the time of King Charles I, nor indeed
of six points before that of King Henry VI. Previously the
spur was furnished with a rouelle, or little wheel, sometimes ser-
rated; facts which can be proved by reference to the collection

* Seals attached to the letter from the Barons of England to Pope Boniface VIII. in
the year 1301, engraved by order of the Society of Antiquaries in 1729.

108 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

of ancient armour at Goodrich Court, in Herefordshire, the seat
of Sir Samuel Meyrick.*

The Boke of St. Alban’s+ calls this bearing macula, whence
it has been supposed to represent a meteor rather than a spur-
rowel. Guillim gives another derivation, and says, “‘ others
think that heralds have borrowed this word mullet from a kind
of fish so called, not that which is usually known by that name,
but another, not unlike in shape to the figure used in armoury,
found upon the sands at the ebbing of the sea, and called a five-
finger, but anciently known by the name of mullet.”

The sea-star here alluded to, is mentioned in Bishop Sprat’s
History of the Royal Society.{ It is said that the Admiralty
Court laid a penalty on those engaged in the oyster fishery “‘ who
do not tread under their feet, or throw upon the shore, a fish
called five-finger, resembling a spur-rowel, because that fish gets
into the oyster when they gape and sucks them out.”

Without admitting that the heraldic charge is derived from
the starfish, which it appears once bore the name of mullet, it
may not be improper to mention that its form is shown in the
arms of the noble families of Douglas, Vere, St. John, Ash-

burnham, Bonvile, Sutherland, and in the arms of the episcopal

see of Bangor.

A work on Starfishes was published by John Henry Link,
F.R.S. a naturalist of Leipsic, in 1733; but this class of fish
remained little known in England : recently a History of British
Starfishes, by Mr. E.- Forbes, has proved of extraordinary in-
terest by his mode of treating the subject. In this valuable
addition to Natural History, the figure of the Butthorn, of the
genus Asterias, is found to resemble closely the mullet of English
heraldry.

* Plate LX XX. of the engraved illustrations published by J. Skelton in 1830.
+ Printed in 1486. . % Printed in 1667.

——

— ee ney

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 109

THE PERCH.

Tue Percn, among fish, presents the greatest perfection of
form : its colours are brilliant and striking, and it is second only
to the pike in boldness and voracity.

There is scarcely a river or lake of any extent in Great Britain
where “the bright eyed perch with fins of Tyrian dye,” is not
abundant. In heraldry the perch very rarely is used. One of
the families of the name of Oldfield bears three perches as an
armorial distinction.

The crest representing a swan devouring a perch has been
shown to be contrary to the known habits of that bird: * heralds
are generally careful enough to avoid an anomaly in their de-
signs, but in transcribing the blazon from a painted shield the
particular description of fish might easily be mistaken.

The best artists have not always been employed, but it is
well known that, both in execution and design, considerable
ability has been occasionally exerted in the composition of
heraldic subjects. The arms, carved about the Elizabethan
period, in one of the rooms of Rockingham Castle, in North-
amptonshire, are perhaps the finest specimens extant of masterly
skill in armorial embellishment. In ancient sculpture, accord-
ing to the poets, the representation of fish was most perfect.
Martial has paid an elegant little compliment to the chief of
sculptors :-—

Mark Phidias’ fish, group’d by yon stony brim,
Add but a drop of water, and they swim.

The river Yare, in Norfolk, abounds with the ruffe, a beau-
tiful little fish, which is peculiar to it,+ of the same class and
closely allied to the perch. A fountain charged with a fish in
the crest of Yarrell, is, on account of the name, presumed to be
intended for a type of the Yare, and its peculiar produce,
the ruffe.

The credit of the discovery of the ruffe or pope, with which
Cuvier commences his division of the “ Percoid fishes,” is assigned
to the learned Dr. Caius, or Kaye, physician to Queen Eliza-
beth, who found it first in the river Yare, near Norwich. The
colours of the ruffe are golden green, inclining to olive brown on
the back, and silvery towards the belly.

* Vide p. 98. + History of Yarmouth, 1776.

110 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

In form fish are the most varied beings in the creation; and
fancy can scarcely depict a shape to which a resemblance will
not be found: they are of enormous bulk, or of the most graceful
appearance, but among all, the characteristic. shape of the fish
may be traced. It is also remarked by naturalists that the bony
structure of fish is best exhibited in the skeleton of the perch;
the characters of the different genera are in some measure taken
from the form of the bones in the head, but the lowest rank
in our systems is allotted to fish in the scale of vertebrated
animals.

In the vast range of heraldry the skeletons of fish are assumed
as armorial bearings by families of Germany and Switzerland.
Gules, two skeletons of fish, in saltier argent; with the very
appropriate crest, an otter sejant, are borne by the family of
Gradel, of Borden, in Bavaria.*

The Counts of Windischgratz, of the Bench of Franconia,
quartered with their own paternal arms those of Gradner: gules,
the back-bone of a fish in bend sinister or. The old nobility of
Germany, constituting the Benches, or Colleges of the Counts,
were petty sovereigns, had numerous vassals, and differed little
from the ancient Barons of England.

At an early period architects, as well as heralds, availed them-
selves of the fish skeleton as an ornament: a kind of angular
masonry, called herring-bone work, is one of the discriminat-
ing features of a particular date. In the erection of Castleton,
Colchester, Guildford, and other ancient castles, the Norman
masons showed great ingenuity in laying their materials upon
their edges in such a way as to offer combinations resembling

* Sibmacher’s Wapenbuch, 1605.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 111

the spinous bones of a fish, termed herring-bone work, like
the opus reticulatum of the Romans, and the zigzag meshes of a
fishing-net. In consequence of the productiveness of the Dutch
fishery it is proverbially said that the city of Amsterdam is
founded on herring-bones.

Sable, a skeleton of a fish embowed argent, are the arms of °
Von Praromon, a Swiss family. There is something in the
assumption of a skeleton for an ensign that suggests the idea of
oppression to which the less powerful were subjected. In Swit-
zerland every variety of feudal right was early found and long
preserved: and it is the remark of an elegant historian, that
although the affairs of the Swiss occupy a very small space in
the great chart of European history, in some respects they are
more interesting than the revolutions of mighty kingdoms.*

At the beginning of the seventeenth century an instance of the
spirit and temper with which feudal claims were pursued is found ~
in France. Peter de Bourdeilles (better known by the name of
Brantéme, of which he was Abbot), Lord and Baron of Riche-
mont, Chevalier, Gentleman of the Chamber to King Charles IX.
and Henry III, and Chamberlain to the Duke of Alengon, hav-
ing instituted a law-suit against a citizen for refusing to swear
fealty and homage to him as seigneur; and foreseeing that he
could not live to the end of the suit, bequeathed his wrath by
will to his heirs, ordering them to pursue “‘ ce petit galant, sprung
from a mean family, and whose grandfather had been a notary ;”
thus overwhelming the citizen with his nobility, and leaving him
to be dealt with by his successors.

* Hallam’s Middle Ages,

112 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

7.

The Salmon, Trout, Smelt, and Grapling, twith
thety enemp the Otter.

In no country of the world are the salmon fisheries so exten-
sive, or their value of so much importance as in Great Britain.
The fisheries in the rivers Severn and Wye are noticed in the
Domesday Survey. In the Severn the salmon are of the finest
quality; the river from Shropshire proceeds in its course to
Worcester, thence to Gloucester, below which the estuary as-
sumes the name of the Bristol Channel.

The earliest salmon that comes in season to London is brought
* from the Severn. Gules, three salmon hauriant argent, allusive
to the produce of this river, are borne for arms by a family of
the name of Gloucester.

Another family of the name of Gloucester bears, azure, a fess
argent, in chief two leopards’ faces or, and in base a cane
hauriant of the second.

The manor of Berkeley, one of the largest in the kingdom,
includes the fishery of the Severn; and the Lords Berkeley had
the sole right of salmon fishing. A fishery of considerable extent
belonged to the Abbot of St. Augustine’s at Bristol, a monastery
which was founded by the Lord of Berkeley in the reign of
Stephen.*

* Atkyns’s History of Gloucestershire.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 113

The seal of the Lord of Berkeley, in the reign of Edward ITT,
bears his arms with a merman and mermaid supporting the
shield. On the monument, at Wooton-under-edge, of Thomas
Lord Berkeley, who died in 1417, he is represented in armour,
with a collar of mermaids, denoting his maritime jurisdiction.*

The high value and importance of fisheries was acknowledged
in the earliest periods: in Egypt, those of the river Nile were
free to the public, but the fisheries on the canals connected with
the Nile and the lake Meeris formed part of the hereditary
domains of the crown. These fisheries, it appears, daily paid a
large tribute to the royal treasury during the six months in
which the water flowed through the canal into the lake ; and
during the other six months a smaller sum, forming a branch of
revenue appropriated to the queens of Egypt as pin-money.+

Kingston-upon-Thames, a residence and place of coronation of
several Anglo-Saxon monarchs of England, bears a type of pri-
vilege of fishery upon the town seal.

By charter of Philip and Mary, a fishing weir is held by the
corporation of Kingston in consideration of repairing the bridge,
which was formerly of wood, but has been lately rebuilt with
stone, and the emblems of their privilege, three salmon, are
sculptured over the centre arch.

The river Fowey traverses some of the pleasant parts of Corn-
wall, forming a valley above the town of Lostwithiel, in which
the remains of Restormel Castle are finely surrounded with wood.

* Engraved in Hollis’s Monumental Effigies,
+ Atheneum, 1837, on the arts of the Egyptians.

114 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

The right of fishery in the Fowey belonged to the manor of the
ancient Earls of Cornwall, whose seat was Restormel Castle, and
whose stannary court for the tin mines was in the town. The
seal of Lostwithiel, about the time of King Henry IV, shows the |
castle and the fish, indicative of the feudal rights of the earldom.

In reference to the noted produce of the Tweed, the royal
burgh of Peebles bears for arms, vert, three salmon counter
naiant in pale argent, with the motto, Contra nando incremen-
tum, in allusion to the benefit derived to the town from the pro-
gress of the salmon up the stream to deposit their spawn.

Lanark, a royal burgh on the Clyde, one of the finest rivers of
Scotland, bears two salmon naiant, with other charges, in the
arms of the corporation.

The principal salmon rivers in Scotland are, the Tay, the Don,
the Spey, the Brora, and the Awe; the quantity of fish killed is
immense, no less than fifty thousand salmon are said to have
been taken in the river Tay in the course of one year. <A very
productive salmon fishery at Helmsdale in Sutherlandshire, is
one of the ancient privileges of that earldom ; and on the banks
of this rapid stream are the remains of a tower built by Margaret
Countess of Sutherland in the fifteenth century, one of those
marks of regality of which time has left so few in Great Britain,
even to the most powerful families.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 115

The Lords of the Isles, highland chieftains, descendants of
Somerled, bear arms indicative of the produce of the bays and
creeks in their domain: quarterly, Ist, argent, a lion rampant
gules; 2nd, or, a hand in armour, holding a cross crosslet
fitchy gules; 3rd, or, a lymphad, or fishing vessel, with sails
furled sable; 4th, vert, a salmon naiant argent. The ancient
Lords of the Isles are now represented by the Lord Macdonald,
whose chief seat is at Armidale in the Isle of Skye, one of the
largest of the Hebrides, in which are several rivers containing
abundance of salmon and trout.

Most of the Irish rivers and lakes abound in salmon; the
royal piscary of Banne, in the county of Londonderry, is re-
markably productive. In the year 1776 the salmon fishery on
_ the river Banne proved extraordinarily successful, the take of
one net at one drag was in that season one thousand four hundred
and fifty-two fish, the largest hawl on record.*

The town seal of Coleraine, situated upon the eastern bank of
the lower Banne, shows the fish as an object of importance.

The famous salmon leap on the Banne, at Castle Roe mill, is a
fall of about seven feet, but at low stream only five feet.

The O’Neills, claiming descent from Milesius, are among the
most ancient of the original families of Ireland. Conn O'Neill
the chief, on disclaiming the title of Prince, and submitting to
the English crown, was created Earl of Tyrone, at Greenwich,

* Notes on Nets, a very curious and instructive work upon the subject, by the Hon.

and Rey. Charles Bathurst, LL.D.
12

116 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

by King Henry VIII, in 1543. His son, Matthew O’Neill, in
the same year was created Lord Dungannon, a title derived from
the name of the ancient castle and residence of the lords of
Ulster, the most northerly division of Ireland. It stood on the
banks of one of the tributaries to the Blackwater, a river of the
county of Antrim, famed for its salmon equally with the Erne
and the Banne: the latter river flows into Lough Neagh, the
largest lake in Ireland, and stored with salmon. On its banks
is Shane’s Castle, the seat of General Earl O’Neill, Vice-Admiral
of the coast of Ulster. The arms of this family are, per fess
wavy, the chief argent, charged with a sinister hand gules, the
base water, therein a salmon naiant. !

The red hand of Ireland, the device of the ancient Lords of
Ulster, was granted to baronets, on the institution of the order,
as a symbol of the assistance afforded to King James in sub-
duing the clan O’ Neill, and in the reduction of that province.

Gules, three salmon naiant or, are the arms of Sir Richard
Keane, Baronet, of Cappoquin in the county of Waterford ; the
same arms, surmounted by a chief, on which is a view of a for-
tress, are borne by General the Right Honourable Lord Keane
of Ghusnu, in Affghanistan, G.C.B. and G.C.H.

Ord is a name implying edge or border, of which the Ord of
Caithness, on the border of Sutherlandshire, is a prominent in-
stance. There are several manors called Ord on the banks of
the Tweed, a boundary stream celebrated for salmon; its pro-
duce is typified in the arms of the Ord family of Northumber-
land, from which are descended several considerable branches
besides that of Ord of Fenham.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 117

Sable, three salmon hauriant argent, are the arms of the family
of Ord of Fishburn, in the bishopric of Durham, ancestors of the
late Craven Ord, Esq. of Greenstead Hall in Essex, F.R.S.

The same arms, sable, three salmon hauriant argent, are borne
by Sir John Powlett Orde, Baronet: of this family was Thomas
Orde, Esq. Secretary to the Treasury, who married Jane Mary,
the daughter of Charles Duke of Bolton, and assumed the name
of Powlett on succeeding to the ducal estate. In 1797 he was
created Lord Bolton.

The present nobleman bears the original arms of Powlett:
sable, three swords in pile argent, hilted or, with the addition

118 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

of a canton to show his paternal descent ; argent, charged with
a shield sable, bearing a salmon hauriant. Crest, a falcon rising
or, the breast and each wing charged with an estoile gules, and
gorged with a ducal coronet azure, in the beak a salmon.

The Seigneur Du Bartas, in his Commentary cf the Week of
Creation, notices the ascent of various fish to the rivers in
spring.*

So dainty salmons, chevins thunder-scar’d,
Feast-famous sturgeons, lampreys speckle-starr’d,

In the spring season the rough seas forsake,
And in the rivers thousand pleasures take.

The arms of the family of Sea of Underdown, near Canter-
bury, seem to be derived from the known habits of the salmon :
argent, a salmon hauriant between two flanches azure, each
charged with three bars wavy of the field. Crest, two lobsters’
claws erect gules, each holding a fish argent.

Salmon pass the summer in the sea, or near the mouth of
an estuary, and in winter inhabit fresh water: many provincial
couplets relate the time when the descent of the fish to the sea
takes place; late in June the fry are rarely observed in the
rivers.

The last spring-floods that happen in May,
Carry the salmon fry down to the sea.

* Translated by Sylvester.

ee

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 119

In the months of July and August these very fry, or smolts,
come up as grilses to the same rivers which they left in May,
and in this state they remain until December, when they revisit
the sea, and upon their next return to the fresh waters they
appear as perfect salmon.

As the salmon ascend the rivers their progress forward is not
easily stopped. These fish shoot up the rapids with the velocity
of arrows, and make very wonderful efforts to surmount cascades
and other impediments to their advance by leaping, frequently
clearing an elevation of not less than ten feet, and having gained
the water above pursue their course. It is this property of the
salmon which is alluded to in the arms of the family of Way, a
name implying passage, or power of progression, possessed in so
remarkable a degree by the salmon, which frequent almost every
sea, and traverse the whole length of the largest rivers. There
are several profitable fisheries on the Rhine, which abounds with
salmon; one is near Basle in Switzerland, above four hundred
miles from the sea, an extraordinary run for the fish, which must
pass, in their passage from the North Sea, the cities of Leyden,
Utrecht, Cologne, Coblentz, Mayence, Worms, Manheim, Spire,
and Strasburg.

Azure, three salmon hauriant argent, are the arms of the
family_of Way, of Denham Place, in Buckinghamshire, a family
which came originally from the banks of the Wey, a river of
Dorsetshire, and acquired the manor of Denham by descent.

r

On the monument at Acton, in Middlesex, of J. Raymond
Way, Esq. who died in 1804, the fish are sculptured on the
shield as in the arms of Ord,* being a variation from the original
coat. Gules, a chevron or, between three salmon hauriant
argent, are the arms of the family of Way of Devonshire.

* Vide page 117.

120 | THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

The produce of the river has sometimes given name to the
stream. Braddan, in the Isle of Man, is known as Kirk Salmon,
being situated on a river abounding with that fish two miles from
Douglas, where it falls into the sea and forms the harbour, one
of the best in the Irish Channel. In America the river Salmon
is one of the branches of the Connecticut, the largest river in
New England.

Salm, the German word for salmon, is the name of several
seignories of the empire on the borders of the river Salm, one of
the tributaries of the Moselle. Salmon are here borne as terri-
torial ensigns in reference to the name of the fief. Gules, semée
of cross crosslets or, two salmon addorsed argent, are the arms,
and two salmon addorsed, tails upward, argent, are borne as a
crest by the Princes of Upper Salm, in Lorraine, descended from
the Wildgraves and Rhingraves of Daun and Kyrburg, feudal
titles, which attest the antiquity of German families.

iS

SS SY, (C af
eS Ts 77)
Y —_ Se 74
San qs ]
ON RTA y)

The Wildgraves were Counts of the forest of Ardennes ;
the Rhingraves were Counts of seignories on the banks of the
Rhine, whose territories differing in extent, they equally, within
their demesnes, exercised the rights of sovereignty. In reference
to this feudal constitution of the empire, Charles V. remarked
that in other dominions he was obeyed by subjects, but in Ger-

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 121

many he commanded kings. A similar expression had been
previously applied to Charles Martel, from whom the Carloyinian,
or second race of kings of France, derive their descent.

C’est ce Martel, le Prince de Francois,
Non Roy de nom, mais le maister des Roys.

The Princes of Salm are descended from Philip Otto, who
was made a Prince of the Empire in 1623, and claim alliance
with the royal family of England through the grand-daughter
of Frederic, the Elector Palatine, and the Princess Elizabeth,
daughter of King James I.

The same arms and crest* are borne by the Counts of Lower
Salm, or Salm Reifferschied, lineally descended from Loherus,
Duke of the Moselle, and the Dukes of Limburg, whose ancient
castle at Salm crowns the summit of a hill.

In France salmon are borne in heraldry as a play upon the
personal designation. Sable, fretty argent, on a chief gules a
salmon naiant or, are the arms of Salmon. Another French
family of the same name bear, azure, a chevron or, between three
salmon hauriant.

The name of Salmon is not uncommon in England, and almost
every one of that name, from early periods and entitled to bear
arms, assumed the fish as a family device. John Salmon, Prior
of Ely, afterwards Lord Chancellor to King Edward II. and
Bishop of Norwich, built the episcopal palace about 1320, and
also a chapel at the west end of the cathedral at Norwich.
He died at Folkstone in 1325. Thomas Salmon, Abbot of Cerne _
in Dorsetshire, rebuilt the gatehouse of that abbey in 1509,
which is enriched with his arms, the arms of the abbey, and
with the royal badges of the house of Tudor.

Sable, three salmon hauriant argent, are the arms of the family
of Salmon of Finningley, in Nottinghamshire. The same arms
are upon a monument in the church of Leigh in Essex, in
memory of Robert Salmon, one of the Masters of the Trinity
House, who died in 1641; also on a mural tablet in the chancel
of Wadhurst church in Sussex, in memory of the Rev. Wil-
liam Salmon, who died in 1830. The family of Salmon of
Willaston Hall, Nantwich, in Cheshire, bear the fish gold;
that of Salmon, in Yorkshire, bear the field red and the fish

* Sibmacher’s Wapenbuch, 1605.

122 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

white: and other families of the same name bear only two fish
hauriant.

Thomas Salmon, M.A. Rector of Meppershall in Bedfordshire,
was the father of Thomas, the author of an historical account of
St. George and the Order of the Garter in 1704, and of Natha-
niel Salmon, the historian of Hertfordshire. :

The family of Salmond retains the fish only in the crest, a
salmon naiant or; that of Salmine bears for arms, gules, two
salmon hauriant addorsed argent.

Azure, on a fess or, three roses gules between three salmon
hauriant argent ; crest, an arm erect, vested bendy or and azure,
holding in the hand a demi-fish azure, are the arms of the family
of Knight of the city of Gloucester.

Sable, a chevron ermine between three salmon hauriant argent,
are the arms of the family of Cater of Kempston, in Bedford-
shire, and that of Cater of Papworth Agnes, in Huntingdonshire.

A Cater is a purveyor; and, in allusion to the name, salmon
were possibly chosen for arms, as forming an important part of a
great entertainment. A Roman tessera, bearing two fish in
saltier, an invitation ticket to a feast, is engraved in Montfaucon’s
Antiquities.* Salmon chines boiled, was one of the dishes in the
first course, consisting of fish, at Archbishop Nevile’s dinner.

* Vol. iii.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 123

One dish in each course was the standard; and at a fish feast
to knights, clerks, and esquires, during Lent, in the thirteenth
century, the standard was half a salmon with the chine. Other
dishes at the same feast were, a fresh conger, three fat pikes,
five fat eels, and twenty-seven fat roaches, half a hundred lam-
prouns, and oysters. Sometimes the standard was only an orna-.
ment; St. George, the griffin, &c. are named as standards ; and
it may be remarked that the painted temples decorated with
sweetmeats, which still make their appearance at city feasts,
are the successors to the standard at the tables of our an-
cestors.*

Gules, two salmon hauriant argent, are the arms of the family
of Sammes; and azure, three salmon naiant in pale argent, are
the arms of that of Sambrooke.

Sir Jeremy Sambrooke having married Judith the sister of
Sir Nicholas Vanacker, Baronet, of Erith in Kent, succeeded to
_ the Baronetcy, according to the terms of the patent granted by
King William III. in 1700. His son, Sir Jeremy Sambrooke,
Bart. of Gobions, in Hertfordshire, died in 1754, when the title
became extinct. Several monuments of this family are in the
church of North Mims.

The Earl of Lichfield bears the arms of Sambrooke, azure,
three salmon naiant argent, quartered with those of Anson,
argent, three bends gules, to show his descent from this family.
Sambrooke Adams, Esq. of Sambrooke, in Shropshire, on the
borders of Staffordshire, married Janette, sister of the distin-
guished Admiral Lord Anson; and on the death of his lordship’s
brother Thomas in 1770, their estate devolved to his nephew,

* The daily expences of a person of rank in the thirteenth century, printed by the
Rey. Joseph Hunter, F.S.A. in the Retrospective Review.

124 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

George Anson, Esq. the father of Thomas Viscount Anson,
whose son, Thomas William Viscount Anson, was created Earl
of Lichfield in 1831.

Argent, three fish naiant in pale sable, are the arms of the
family of Welsh; and, gules, two fish in saltier argent, are the
arms of the family of Sevington. These fish are probably in-
tended for sewins, which are slightly dissimilar to salmon, and
are abundant in the streams of the southern part of Wales,
whence they are commonly termed Welsh salmon.*

An offering of fish was claimed and allowed to the Abbot of
St. Peter’s Westminster, for several centuries, on the plea that
St. Peter had granted the tithe of all salmon caught in the
Thames at the time he consecrated the church. The extent of
this claim over the river, made by the abbot on the part of the
convent, was equal to that of the present jurisdiction of the Lord
Mayor, from Yantlet -creek to Staines bridge; and among
many causes assigned for the scarcity of salmon in the Thames in
more modern times, it was believed that the fishermen not having
made their customary offering to St. Peter was the principal.+

In the arms of the city of Glasgow, and in those of the ancient
see, a salmon with a ring in its mouth is'said to record a miracle
of St. Kentigern, the founder. of the see, and the first Bishop of
Glasgow. On the reverse of Bishop Wishart’s seal in the reign
of Edward II, this supposed allusion to the legendary story of
St. Kentigern appears for the first time.t

Some of the early Bishops of Glasgow displayed the figure of

* ‘Hansard’s Trout and Salmon fishing in Wales, p. 18,
+ Brayley’s History of Westminster Abbey.
~ Ancient Burgh Records of Glasgow, 1832.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 125

- a salmon, either on the sides of, or below the shield of arms on

their seals, a circumstance which may be accounted for, with-
- out reference to a miracle, as depicting the produce of the Clyde.
The revenue of the church of Glasgow at the Reformation, in-
cluded one hundred and sixty-eight salmon, arising from the
franchise or fishery in that river.

John Cameron, Lord Privy Seal to King James I. of Scotland,
and Bishop of Glasgow in 1426, bore on his episcopal seal the
figure of St. Kentigern in a tabernacle, below which are his
paternal arms, three bars, having a salmon with a ring in its
mouth on either side of the shield, which is surmounted by the
mitre. The ring is perhaps a type of the annular money current
among the Britons.

The diocese of Glasgow was erected into an Archbishopric in
1491, with Galloway, Argyll, and the Isles as suffragans.
James Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow and Abbot of Dumferm-
line, the uncle of Cardinal Beaton, died Primate of Scotland
in 1539. Many munificent marks of his public spirit and piety
long resisted time, and remained after the cathedral ceremonies
had been deserted for the plain offices of the kirk of Scotland.
On the walls of the Episcopal Palace, or Castle of Glasgow,
were sculptured the arms of Beaton, azure, a fess between three
mascles or, quartered with Balfour, argent, on a chevron sable
an otter’s head erased of the first, and below the shield a salmon
with a ring in its mouth, as represented on the seals of his
predecessors. Another Archbishop Beaton refounded the Scotch
College at Paris in 1603, where, on a monument to his memory,
are his arms, surmounted by the episcopal hat, and beneath the.
shield the fish and ring, the emblem of the see of Glasgow. In
more recent times, Archbishop Cairncross, in 1684, bore the
arms of the see impaled with his paternal coat.

The arms of the city of Glasgow are those of the former see,
argent, on a mount a tree with a bird on a branch to the dexter,
and a bell pendent on the sinister side, the stem of the tree sur-
mounted by a salmon in fess having in its mouth a gold ring.

“The legend of the fish and the ring,” says the Rev. Dr.
Dibdin,* ‘is extant in well nigh every chap-book in Scotland ;
old Spotswood is among the earliest historians who garnished up
the dish from the Latin monastic legends, and Messrs. Smith,

* In a note to his Northern Tour, p. 694.

126 _ THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

M‘Lellan, and Cleland, have not failed to quote his words. They
report of St. Kentigern, that a lady of good place in the country
having lost her ring as she crossed the river Clyde, and her
husband waxing jealous, as if she had bestowed the same on one
of her lovers, she did mean herself unto Kentigern, entreating
his help for the safety of her honour ; and that he, going to the
river after he had used his devotion, willed one who was making
to fish to bring the first that he caught, which was done. In
the mouth of this fish he found the ring, and sending it to the
lady, she was thereby freed of her husband’s suspicion. The
credit of this I believe” (continues the same author) ‘‘ upon the
reporters ; but, however it be, the see and city of Glasgow do
both of them bear in their arms a fish with a ring in its mouth
even to this day.”

The classical tale of Polycrates, related by Herodotus a thou-
sand years before the time of St. Kentigern, is perhaps the
earliest version of the fish and the ring, which has been often
repeated with variations. The ring, Herodotus says, was an
emerald set in gold and beautifully engraved, the work of Theo-
dorus the Samian; and this very ring, Pliny relates, was pre-
served in the Temple of Concord at Rome, to which it was given
by the Emperor Augustus. . The device of the fish and the ring

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 127

is engraved in M. Claude Paradin’s. Heroical Devices as an
emblem of uninterrupted prosperity.*

In the koran of Mahomet the legend of the ring and its re-
covery by means of a fish is introduced. ‘Solomon entrusted
his signet with one of his concubines, which the devil obtained
from her, and sat on the throne in Solomon’s shape. After forty
days the devil departed, and threw the ring into the sea. The
signet was swallowed by a fish, which being caught and given to
Solomon, the ring was found in its belly, and thus he recovered
his kingdom.” +

The singular preservation of a citizen’s ring is recorded at
Newcastle-on-Tyne, which was found in the belly of a salmon
caught in that river.t A well-known monument on the eastern
wall. of Stepney church bears a shield of arms§ which is re-
ferred- to as commemorating a tradition, that the Lady Berry,
in whose memory the monument was erected, was the heroine of
“The cruel Knight, or fortunate Farmer’s Daughter,” a once
popular ballad, the scene of which lies in Yorkshire; it describes
a ring thrown into the river, and restored by means of a fish: .
but the ballad is certainly too old to refer to Lady Berry, who
died in 1696. The monument remains, but so injured by the
weather that the arms are no longer distinct.

Gules, a salmon’s head couped fesswise, with a ring in its
mouth, between three cinquefoils argent, are the arms of the
family of Hamilton of Haggs: crest, a salmon hauriant argent,
with a ring in its mouth.

Gules, three salmon hauriant, with a ring in each of their
mouths argent, are the arms of the family of Sprottie. ||

* Symbola Heroica, 1563, p. 50.

+ Sale’s translation of the Koran, chapter xxxviii. p. 321.

t Vox Piscis, 1627, p. 13.

§ Engraved in Salter’s Angler’s Guide.

|| The Science of Herauldrie, by Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh, 1680

- 128 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

In Germany, where the traditions of the middle ages are
more mingled with historical facts, and embellished in the rela-
tion, than in any other country of Europe, it is not to be won-
dered that the legend of the fish and the ring is found as an
heraldic distinction. The Bavarian family of Die Proy von
Findelstein bear for arms, gules, a cubit arm proceeding from
clouds, and habited azure, grasping a fish in the hand, with
a golden ring in its mouth; and for crest, on a coronet a hand
and fish as in the arms, beneath a tree.*

The Germans, so tenacious of the customs of their ancestors,
may have intended by the ring to refer to the first attempt at
money: rings of gold and silver were formerly used, and are
current even to this day amongst the natives of Guinea.

In German heraldry, fish, as devices, are much more frequently
found, and their positions in the shields are infinitely more varied,
than in the armorial bearings of England. The arms on the
engraved vignette at page 1 were selected from those of ancient.
families in the empire of Germany.+

* Sibmacher’s Wapenbuch.

+ From Sibmacher’s Wapenbuch, 1605, a curious collection, containing the arms
of the empire, of the potentates of the German nation, with their quarterings, crests,
and helmets ; also the arms of other states and places, in number upwards of three thou-
sand. An edition of this work was printed at Nuremberg, by A. Wagenman, in 1630,

—=——

Se

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 129

The centre shield bears, or, on a bend azure, a salmon party
per pale argent and gules; the crest, a willow surmounted by a
salmon in bend, as in the arms. These are the ensigns of the
family of Die Rosengriin of Meissen, in Upper Saxony.

The dexter shield of the vignette bears the arms of the family
of Dornheim of Silesia, gules, three trout, their heads meeting in
the centre of the escutcheon ; the heraldic position of the trout,
seemingly fanciful, is derived from the habits of fish, which are
active and amusing. A naturalist, crossing a brook, saw at the
bottom of the stream the resemblance of a flower, which consisted
of a circular assemblage of minnows, their heads all meeting in a
centre, and their tails diverging at equal distances, which being
elevated above their heads, gave the fish the exact appearance
of a flower half blown; the object that attracted them all was
a dead minnow, which they seemed to be devouring.*

The other shield, azure, three barbel embowed with their
heads to the centre argent, shows the arms of Von Hanfstengel
of Meissen, on the banks of the Elbe, a river abounding with
fish, and in all the features of natural beauty second only to
the Rhine.

The devices of early heraldry were necessarily chosen from
objects familiar to the vassals of the fief; and, in accounting for
the adoption of implements in daily use, their importance must
not be considered with regard to the present state of civilization.

The earliest method of taking fish, that used by the Nimrods
of Egypt, previously to the invention either of hooks or nets,
was by spearing,+ a mode still practised in Scotland, where many
salmon are killed by torchlight, when they ascend to the
stream heads. The leister, or spear with barbed points, is form-
ed like a trident, or with a head resembling the pheon of
heraldry, instruments which are borne in the arms of families
holding a right of fishery in productive rivers. The animated
scenes which occur in the north when persons are engaged in
salmon-hunting, are described by Sir Walter Scott.[ The
hunters chase the fish at full gallop, and strike them with their
barbed spears in the same manner as hunters spearing boars are
represented in old tapestry.

* Yarrell’s History of British Fishes.

+ A sculptured stone, excavated at Chester in 1738, and engraved in Lysons’s his-
tory of the county, as a Roman remain, shows a fisherman with his spear and basket.

t Red Gauntlet.

K

130 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

The salmon are so swift in their own element, that to pursue
and strike them is the task of a good horseman, with a quick
eye and determined hand, with full command both of horse and

weapon.
Le trident de Neptune
Est le sceptre du monde,

is a well-known expression of La Harpe to denote naval supe-
riority: this sceptre, an ensign of sovereignty of greater anti-
quity than the crown, is derived from the triple-toothed fishing-
spear, assumed in heraldry as emblematical of the piscatorial
jurisdiction, included in the privileges of a manor. Carew, the
historian of Cornwall, notices this incident in the family of
Glynn, whose seat is on the banks of the river Fowey :—‘ Mas-
ter Glynn, of Glynn ford, manifesteth by this compound name
the antiquity of his descent, and the ordinary passage there over
the Fowey. The store of salmon which this river affordeth
caused his ancestor to take the fishing-spears for arms.” *

The elder line of the Glynns became extinct in the early part
of the fourteenth century, when the heiress married Sir John
Carminow, of Boconnoc; but a branch, of which was John Glynn,
Esq. Recorder of London, is now possessed of the seat of their
ancestors. The family of Glynn of Helston bears for arms,
argent, three salmon-spears sable. .

That of Shorley, or Chorley, bears, argent, three fishing-
spears gules. The Soap-makers’ Company, incorporated in 1638,
bears for arms, azure, a dolphin naiant between three fishing-
Spears or; and a spear erect, issuing out of water, and sustain-
ing a dolphin, is the crest of the family of Bellismo. That

Survey of Cornwall, 1602.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 131

of Walley bears for arms, argent, three whale-spears, or har-
poons, sable.
In Germany, where feudalism still lingers, the heraldic indi-
cation of piscatory rights is much used. Gules, a fishing-spear
argent, the points upward, is the armorial distinction of the
family of Von Der Gabel, of ancient Thuringia, a province
watered by several productive rivers, the source of manorial
revenue. Argent, a fishing-spear sable; and crest, a salmon
fixed on a spear, were borne by Baron Von Ebnet, of Suabia.*

Another kind of fishing-spear, the pheon, is well known as the
emblem of royalty, and, under the denomination of the broad R.
the abbreviation of Rex or Regina, is the form which is struck
by officers of the Crown, and particularly those belonging to the
Custom House, when making a capture, to denote the regality
or right of possession. It is the regal mark also used on all
nayal stores in the royal dock-yards, &e.

The pheon, the barbed head of a spear, is not used under
that name in French heraldry; at least, it is not mentioned by
Palliot.+ Neither does the pheon occur in the older rolls of
English heraldry ; but, as a charge, was borne, at a very early
period, by the baronial family of Malpas, from which the noble

* Sibmacher’s Wapenbuch, 1605.
+ His “ Perfect Science of Armory” professes to give the armorial index of Lowan

Geliot, an advocate of Burgundy, the most voluminous on the subject.
K 2

132 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

house of Egerton is immediately descended, also by the family —
of Rawdon, ancestors of the Marquess of Hastings. Two pheons
are shown on the seal of Sheffield ; and azure, a pheon argent,
within a border or, charged with eight torteaux, are the arms of
the family of Sharp of Yorkshire and Durham, punning, with
some propriety, on its use in striking the fish.

The pheon differs from the head of an arrow; but in heraldry,
and particularly in the arms of the different branches of the
family of Kemys, it is used as the arrow-head. In the same
manner the dart is often confounded in poetry with the arrow.

Argent, three broad arrows, two and one, bendwise sable ;
crest, a trout naiant, the arms of the family of Corbally of
Ireland, seem to refer rather to the trout-spear than the arrow.

Or, a pheon azure, is the armorial ensign of the noble fa-
mily of Sidney, originally of the maritime county of Sussex.
Sir Philip Sidney, eldest son of Sir Henry Sidney of Pens-
hurst, K.G. was the most accomplished man of his age; and his
brother, Sir Robert Sidney, K.G. created Earl of Leicester by
King James, was the patriarch of seven earls of this illustrious
family, whose present representatives are, Sir John Shelley Sid-
ney, Bart. the Lord De Lisle and Dudley, G.C.H. and the
Lord Strangford, G.C.B. &c.

Sable, a pheon argent, is borne by the family of Nicholls of
Penrose, in Cornwall; and that of Nicholls of Middlesex bears
sable, three pheons shafted rompé argent, the head of the spear
being in this instance shown fixed to a light staff for use. -
Argent, a chevron between three pheons reversed, are the arms
of the family of Sulyard of Haughley, in Suffolk, the point of
the pheon being placed upwards, contrary to the usual mode of
showing the weapon.

Other means of taking salmon are referred to in blazonry:
sable, three salmon hauriant argent, a chief or, are the arms of
Kidson of Bishop’s Wearmouth, in Durham, assumed possibly
from the similarity of name to the kiddle, or weir, made on the
river to catch the fish, and often corrupted to kittle: kettle-nets,
used for the same purpose, might originate the phrase “a kettle
of fish.” The arms of the family of Kydale, or Kendale, are,
argent, a chevron between three dolphins naiant sable ; and the
same are borne by the family of Kendall of Pelyn, in Cornwall.
Ashmole says “ Fish love not old kydles as they do the new.” *

* Theatrum Chemicum, 1652.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 133

THE TROUT.

The trout, a delicate spotted fish, varying in its size, form,
and colour, is found in almost every quarter of the globe. Trout
caught in the river Colne, near Uxbridge, are brought alive to
the London market; but the largest trout in England are found in
the river Hull, a branch of the Humber. On all streams famed
for the production of trout the fisheries are guarded with pecu-
liar care. 3

The town of Stafford, the birth-place of that distinguished
angler, Isaak Walton, is on the Sow, a river noted for the
quality as well as the quantity of its trout and grayling. A
charter from King John confirmed the privileges which had been
held by this town from remote antiquity; and the Corporation
seal, showing the fish in the stream, with the castle on the bank,
alludes to the right of fishing in the Sow.

It is here that this river receives the waters of the Penk,

noticed by Drayton.*
As Sow, which from her spring
At Stafford meeteth Penk, which she along doth bring
To Trent.

The seal of the town of Newcastle, im the same county,
situated on another branch of the river Trent, also bears an
allusion to a franchise or right of fishery. It represents a
castle, and beneath its walls a stream, in which are two fish;

* Polyolbion.

134 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

upon the gatehouse stands the constable with his horn, and his
lieutenant, bearing a partizan. In Berkshire an extensive fishery
on the river Kennet is held by the burgesses of Hungerford,
Their ancient horn of tenure bears the crescent and star, a badge
of the Plantagenets, and the word ®ungerford.

Another horn, of the same size and shape, also preserved in
the town-hall, is inscribed, Hohn: av qaun: Vid’ gibe: and’ grant: the
viall: fishing’ to: Hungerford: tofune: from: elven: stub- to: trish: stil
excepting: somr seberal: mil: pound. Hehosophat- Lucas constable 1634.

The river Kennet, rising on Marlborough Downs, and dividing
Wiltshire from Berkshire, produces a variety of fish, but its
trout have been long celebrated both for size and flavour. One
fish, of the extraordinary weight of seventeen pounds, caught in
the Kennet, was accepted by Queen Charlotte as a present from
Lord Craven.*

In Wordsworth’s poems is a chivalrous legend of the horn of
Egremont Castle: other horns of tenure are, the Pusey and
Borstal horns, those of the forests of Savernake, Wirral, and
Delamere, and Lyulph’s horn at York. Conway Castle, founded
by King Edward I. beautifully situated on the estuary of a river
abounding with excellent trout, is held of the Crown by Owen
Holland at an annual rent, and a dish of fish to the Earl of
Hertford as often as he passes through the town.+

Peterchurch, in Herefordshire, is situated on the river Dore, a
celebrated trout stream, and the figure of a large trout with a
chain round its head is sculptured on the western wall of the
nave of the church, but no tradition assigns the cause of its
position in that place, and no grant of a fishery is recorded.

Certain lands near Helston were held by the service of pro-
viding a fishing-boat, with nets, for the King’s use, in Loo-pool,
when the sovereign should visit Helston. This lake, the most
considerable in Cornwall, is remarkable for a peculiar and excel-

* Lysons’s Berkshire, 1813. + Gough’s Camden’s Britannia, 1789.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 135

lent species of trout. The manor of Truthall, on the borders of
Loo-pool, in Sithney parish, belonged to the Priory of St. John’s.
Bernard Penrose, the last prior, died in 1532. The family of
Penrose of Sithney bore for arms, ermine, on a bend azure three
roses or; the crest, a Loo trout.

This family became extinct in the elder line by the death of
John Penrose, Esq. in 1744. A branch, settled at Tregethon in
the reign of Elizabeth, still remains. The Rey. Thomas Penrose,
whose early poems were noticed in “ The Pursuits of Literature,”
died in 1779, and was buried at Newbury. Francis Penrose,
M.D. and John Penrose, M.A. of Corpus Christi College, Ox-
ford, were also authors.

The characteristic features of the country are the most usual
source whence the names of places are derived; rivers and hills
retain their British names, and those of manors are almost always
significant: the local name of Trouts in Surrey, another in Corn-
wall, and Trouts dale in Yorkshire, all indicate the prevalence of
trout in their streams.

There is no fish that deviates so much as the trout ; a variety
is even met with in the same river; the salmon-trout, the white-
trout, and the sea-trout, all differ from the great grey-trout of
the lakes. Like the salmon, they make up the stream in the
season, when numbers enter the becks or burns that fall into the
lakes of Cumberland. The trout is fond of those swift clear
streams: where it is well known to anglers

He lifts his silver gills above the flood,
And greedily sucks in th’ unfaithful food.

The Troutbeck of Westmorland, famous for the excellence
and number of its trout, takes its rise on the fells, and rushes
through a picturesque and wooded glen towards Windermere,
the largest of the English lakes: this stream gave name to a
district whence sprang the ancient family of Troutbeck. Their
arms, yet existing among those of numerous benefactors in the
cloisters of Canterbury Cathedral in the reign of Henry IV,
exhibit a tasteful method of disposing the fish as an heraldic

136 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

_ charge, azure, three trout fretted, ¢éte ad la queue, argent; the
crest, a head on a wreath of trout, is from a copy of Glover's

Ordinary of Arms.

In the Troutbeck Chapel of St. Mary’s Church in Chester
were formerly sumptuous monuments in memory of Sir William
Troutbeck, who was slain at the battle of Blore-heath in 1459,
and of his son, Sir Adam Troutbeck, who died in 1512. The
heiresses of this family married into the noblest houses of the
kingdom. Margaret, heiress of Sir Adam Troutbeck of Mobber-
ley, in Cheshire, in the reign of Henry VIII. married Sir John
Talbot of Grafton, in Worcestershire, whose lineal descendant is
the Earl of Shrewsbury. These arms are painted, with those of
other alliances of this illustrious family, on the walls of the Talbot:
Gallery at Alton Towers, near Cheadle in Staffordshire. The
same arms, illustrative of descent, are quartered by the Marquess
of Anglesey, K.G. and are included in the quarterings borne by
Sir Ralph Coningsby of North Mims, in Hertfordshire, described ~
by Peacham as a worthy gentleman, well deserving and beloved
of his country.* The representative of this family was the late
Karl of Essex, who inherited Hampton Court, in Herefordshire;
the principal seat of the Coningsbys.

The institutions of chivalry, of uncertain origin, can be traced
to the eleventh century, and acquired full vigour during the
crusades. With chivalry, the progress of which has been com-
pared to a river, originated those maxims and ceremonials which

* Booke of Blazoning Armes, 1630. + Hurd’s Letters on Chivalry and Romance, 1762.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH: 137

were condensed into a code of laws for the tournament; and
gave importance to all distinctions of rank where the great utility
of heraldry was acknowledged. The knights assumed the most
costly apparel, wearing over their armour a tabard, with their
arms embroidered on it in brilliant colours.

The art of arming with despatch and caution, necessary for
the protection of their persons, demanded much skill and ability.
A beautiful illumination exists of Sir Geffrey Luttrell preparing for
a tournament, in which a lady presents his tilting helmet, and
another holds his emblazoned shield.* A scarcely less inter-
esting document, and one of importance for the illustration of
heraldry, is a Roll of the Kings, Bannerets, and Knights in the
reign of Henry VI. This manuscript commences with King
William the Conqueror, who is represented landing from his
ship, and is followed by all the Kings of England, down to
Henry VI.; the bannerets in their surcoats of arms, with their
banners emblazoned, and the knights mounted on horses with
caparisons bearing their arms, and engaged m apparent combat.

The arms of Troutbeck on the tabard of the knight and on
the housings, here given from this curious manuscript, differ from

* In the Luttrell Psalter, and engraved in Carter’s Ancient Sculpture and Painting,
and in the Vetusta Monumenta.
+ In the British Museum, Harl. MS. 4205.

138 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

the usual method of bearing the fish. Those of Hamme, vert,
two luces endorsed argent, are the arms of a Suffolk family,
assumed from a reference to the Latin hamus, or the French
hamecon, a fish-hook, punning upon the name.

Amongst freshwater fish the trout is acknowledged to be
preeminent in beauty; and, as it is the object of the herald to
show the finest species in his designs, when the particular fish
are not described, trout are presumed to be intended.

The family of Freshwater were formerly seated at Tollesbury,
on the banks of the river Blackwater in Essex; in the church of
which is a memorial brass of Thomas Freshwater, who died in —
1517. The family afterwards resided at Heybridge, higher up
on the same river, and bore for arms, azure, a fess ermine be-
tween two fish argent; crest, two fish in saltier argent, their
tails in chief enfiled with a coronet or.

Azure, five fish hauriant or, three and two, are the arms of
the family of Freshacre; and, gules, three fish in pale between
ten cross crosslets fitchy, are the arms of Ostreche of London.
Azure, a trout in bend argent, speckled gules, between six
mullets of the second, the arms of the French family of Orcival,
are given by Palliot as an instance of the heraldic term mar-
queté, or speckled. Vert, three trout hauriant or, spotted gules,
are the arms of the family of Dogge. That of Osborne of Lon-
don bears, argent, on a bend sable, three trout or.

Germany, watered by many noble rivers, produces abundance
of trout in perfection: this fish is borne in the arms of several
ancient princes of the Empire, and is also more used by families
as an heraldic ensign than in England, where freshwater fish are
in less esteem. Two golden trout depicted on a red banner
was the territorial ensign of the old Counts of Mumpelgard,
or Montbeillard, in Burgundy. Henrica, their heiress, married
Everhard Count of Wirtemberg, in 1397, by which alliance this
fief afterwards became annexed to his dominions.

The Counts of Wirtemberg, the comites or chosen friends of
the Emperor, descended from Conrad, created by Henry IV. in
1110. Ulric, who added considerably to his domain, was made
Standard-bearer of the Empire in 1336. The important seig-
nories of Teck and Heidenheim were subsequently acquired by
Count Everhard VI. founder of the University of Tubingen, who
was created Duke of Wirtemberg and Teck by the Emperor
Maximilian, at the celebrated Diet of Worms in 1495.

The Duke’s arms, environed by the collar of the Order of the

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 139

Golden Fleece, the most ancient collar of knighthood, are on his
tomb in the cathedral of Tubingen.*

Frederic, the Magnanimous, Duke of Wirtemberg, the patri-
arch of the modern Stutgardian, Neustadian and Julian houses,
received the Order of the Garter from King James in 1603. °
The ceremonial of his investment at Stutgard, by Robert Lord
Spencer of Wormleighton, is detailed in Ashmole’s History of
the Order.

In 1797 Prince Frederic William, son of the reigning Duke
of Wirtemberg, married the Princess Royal of England, and
succeeded to the dukedom in the same year. The Duke was
elevated to the Electoral dignity in 1803, and finally proclaimed
King of Wirtemberg 1 Jan. 1806. In the arms of the kingdom
the trout are still borne, showing the territorial acquisition.

* Quarterly, 1. Or, three attires of a stag fesswise and in pale sable, for Wirtemberg
Duchy. 2. Bendy fusilly or and sable, for the seignory of Teck. 3. Azure, the Impe-
rial banner fixed to its staff in bend, for the hereditary office of Standard-bearer. 4,
Gules, two trout addorsed and in pale or, for Montbeillard. The crests are those of Wir-
temberg and Teck : the first for the office of Great Huntsman of the Empire, a hunting-
horn, with estrich feathers in the mouth, in allusion to the right of hawking.

140 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

The arms of the seignory of Pfirdt,* one of the hereditary fiefs
of the house of Austria, are shown on a banner borne by a
cavalier in the Triumph of the Emperor Maximilian.

i

1

Poy rt Paratha ey
ae KD Neo Ac <

Os —_

™~

‘

Ay olde

ms

f AN \

y SS
‘ Ce
RNASE

as

:

RYE Ves

YD
NY

NS
LP,
Ai SaMivnuysayte
My, S Wie

NS

HNN is
LIN
(2

Pg

OT crmeuoeouegy

‘The whole procession, designed by Hans Burgmair, about
1512, is contained in one hundred and twenty-nine subjects, cut
on wood by several engravers. The painter, with a richness of
capacity and perfect knowledge of art, has shown every grade of
rank in this magnificent cavalcade, which is composed of a multi-

* Gules, two trout addorsed or, and crest, a demi-woman between two trout erect,

their tails upward. These arms have been mentioned at page 72, but the fish are
certainly trout, and the name of the fief is here spelt according to the German authority.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 141

tude of figures in dresses of ceremony, groups of horses and men
combined with masterly skill, each in proper action. The picto-
rial effect of this grand work of art is greatly increased by the
careful delineation of the armour and weapons, and not less
by the attention paid to the endless variety of the heraldry on
the tabards and banners of the different counts and officers of
state. Pfirdt being one of those fiefs in which the Emperor
made war, the cavalier bearing this banner is represented in
armour designed after the ancient manner and crowned with a
chaplet of honour. Amongst the heralds in the same procession
is that of Pfirdt, in a tabard of arms, and bearing his baton.

Heraldic composition in Germany was the employment of
highly talented artists, and many other works of that country
might be referred to as affording examples of superior taste.

The Counts of Stolberg, in Sachsen, quartered with their own
paternal arms those of the seignory of Wernigerode, which, with
the castle, accrued to them in 1329; argent, two trout hauriant
and respecting each other gules: arms which are reported to
have been assumed in allusion to the hereditary office of Master
Fishers of the Empire, held by the Counts of Wernigerode.

Azure, a fish in fess argent, and a chief or, are borne by the
French family of Vaillant. Of this name were, John Foi Vail-
lant, the celebrated medallist, and his son, Sebastian Vaillant,
the no less distinguished naturalist. As a crest,-a trout naiant
is borne by the family of Hoddy; and a swan with wings en-
dorsed or rousant, devouring a trout, is the crest of Jane, or
Jeane.

The arms of Oliver, or, a chevron azure between two hurts
in chief, and a trout naiant in base, appear in one of the win-
dows of Armagh Cathedral.

Even the simplest means of taking fish are assumed as armo-
rial bearings, either with a territorial allusion to the situation of
the manor, or as a play upon the family name.

142 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

Fishing is one of the employments depicted on the monuments
of Egypt. The Nile, and the artificial lakes of that interesting
country, afforded a supply, which has not failed in modern times ;
the waters of Menzaleh abound in fish, and the Arabs say,
that the varieties of fish in this lake exceed in number the days
of the year: although this may be deemed an exaggeration, it
is certain, that whatever be the number of their species, the
fishes of this lake multiply infinitely. A kind of trout, still
regarded as a delicacy in Egypt, was preserved in covered
vessels, to save it from being injured by the heat of the sun:
this is shown in a representation of a fisherman taking his store
to market, engraved in Calliaud’s “‘ Researches on the Arts of
Egypt.” *

Angling, as a sport, was highly esteemed among the Romans,
who had their fish-pools and preserves filled with choice fish ;
and it is known that fishing was a favourite amusement of the
Emperor Augustus. In the splendour of his appointments may
have originated the expression of fishing with a golden hook,
and the gorgeous colouring frequently given by poets to the
employment of the angler.

The pleasant’st angling is, to see the fish
Cut with her golden oars the silver stream,
And greedily devour the treacherous barb.

A fisherman with his rod and line, in a boat, from an antique
in the Maffei Collection at Verona, has been engraved,+ and also
a beautiful painting of Venus and Cupid angling, found in the
house of the Tragic poet at Pompeii.t

The sea-bream and the gilthead are the common fish of the
Mediterranean, taken by anglers; the last, called the dorade,
was consecrated to Venus. A species of perch,§ also common in
that sea, is of a brilliant scarlet colour, but with a very strong
spinal fin, and, from the resemblance of this spine to a razor, it is
named le barbier. This fish is held sacred among the divers for
marine productions, and when caught by a hook, it is instantly
relieved by the rest of the shoal cutting the line of the angler
with their sharp spines.

Massaniello, the celebrated fisherman of Naples, whose resist-
ance to the Spanish authority raised him to temporary distine-
tion, and has given him a place in history, was an angler by trade,
and retailed his small fish in the market.

* Copied in the Athenzeum for 1837. + Montfaugon’s Antiquities.
} Sir William Gell’s Pompeiana, vol. ii. § Serranus Anthias of Cuvier.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 143

Emblematically, fish represent silence and watchfulness.
Mute as a fish, is proverbial ; and the practice of anglers involves
a proportionate artifice, in allusion to which Guillim, the herald,
indulges a remark, that, ‘of this trade there are more in the
world than will acknowledge themselves of the Company of
Fishermen.”

In Germany, women in armorial bearings are not uncommon,
although rarely found in the heraldry of England or France.
Azure, a woman, habited in the German fashion, holding two
fish argent, are the arms of the family of Roten, of Aubrach in
Franconia.

Manors situated on the banks of rivers, lakes, or trout-streams,
affording fishing stations, command the finest scenery, combin-
ing often the sublime, beautiful, and picturesque. The power
of waters, says Wordsworth, over the minds of poets has
been acknowledged from the earliest ages; through the “ Flu-
mina amem sylvasque inglorius” of Virgil,* down to the sublime -
apostrophe to the great rivers of the earth by Armstrong, and the
simple ejaculation of Burns.

The Muse, nae poet ever fand her,
Till by himsel’ he learned to wander
Adown some trotting burn’s meander.

M. Soumet, a modern French author, bears arms perfectly in
unison with the poet’s attachment to the trout stream. Azure,
the lyre of Apollo or, on a chief gules a trout naiant. These,
with the arms of his contemporaries, are in the stained glass
windows of the Pavillon Saint James, erected by M. Beauchesne
in the environs of Paris.+

* Georgics, lib. ii.
+ See an interesting description of Le Manoir de Beauchesne in La Presse, April

1841; with the arms of contemporary poets. Sir Walter Scott, with the same feeling:
enriched Abbotsford with the arms of his friends and companions.

144 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

A cubit arm holding a trout, is the crest of the family of
Gibbens, assumed, perhaps, in reference to the French word
gibier, game. The crest of the family of Peat is a hand holding
a fish.

Heraldry aimed chiefly at a simple illustration of the name of
the family, or territorial possessions from which the names were
derived. Fish-hooks, when borne in arms, probably allude to the
chief employment on the estate, near one of those streams, the
importance of which has been shown.

The arms of the family of Bosdon are, argent, a fess between
three fish-hooks sable. Argent, a fess sable, between three fish-
hooks gules, are the arms of Penkerth, a family perhaps origi-
nally of Penketh, on the banks of the Mersey of Lancashire.
Sable, a chevron between three fish-hooks argent, are the arms
of Medville, a name referring to a situation on water, either a

river or a lake.

The motto to the arms of Kilrenny, an ancient fishing town
in Fifeshire, is indicative of the perseverance necessary to the
fisherman. ‘Semper tibi pendeat hamus,” let the hook always
be hung out.

A fish-hook was the cognizance of William Nevile, Lord Fau-
conberg, K.G. which is noticed in some contemporary political
verses, ‘‘ The Fisher has lost his angle hook,” adverting to his
capture by the French when sent ambassador to Normandy
to treat for peace.* By King Edward IV. this nobleman was
created Earl of Kent, and made Lord Admiral of England.

Azure, an angling-hook argent, are the punning arms of the
German family of Angelloch, on the banks of the Rhine.
Hooks, the well-known implements of angling, a later invention
than the trout-spear, were originally of rude form, either of

* Excerpta Historica,

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 145

bone or the hardest wood, exhibiting a striking contrast to the
finely-tempered and polished Limerick hooks of the present day.
The art of angling, now reduced to perfection, owes much to
that amiable enthusiast, Izaak Walton, whose works have made
many disciples besides the Walton and Cotton Club, instituted
in 1817. . Their badge, representing an angler with his attend-
ant, and the motto, ‘‘ Dum capimus, capimur,” is engraved in
Mr. Jesse’s “ Angler’s Rambles.” The Walton Club of New-
castle have assumed an heraldic device, the arms of that town,
impaling argent, three trout naiant counter naiant.

THE SMELT.

The smelt is taken in abundance in the river Humber and on
the coast of Lincolnshire, and is in great request from its delicate
and peculiar flavour; in colour, the back of the fish is pale
green, and the lower part silvery white. Azure, a chevron
between three smelts naiant argent, are the arms of the York-
shire families of Smelt of Kirby Fleetham, near Catterick ; and
of Beverley.

Spiering, the Dutch name for smelt, nearly approaches that
by which this little fish is distinguished in Scotland, the spar-
ling, found in great plenty in the Frith of Forth and the river
Tay. Or, three sparlings, or smelts, hauriant, are the arms of
the family of Sparling of Felton Hall, in Shropshire. ‘* West-
ward for Smelts,” is the title of a book of tales of different fish-
women, as, “ The Fish-wife’s Tale of Brentford,” &c. printed in
1620. Few, if any, smelts are now found in the Thames.

L

146 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

THE GRAYLING.

Tue Grayiine is a species of trout, but it is found that many
rivers abounding with trout do not contain grayling. A certain —
peculiarity of its local distribution in England gave rise to a
supposition that the grayling had been introduced by the monks,
by whom it was held in esteem. Saint Ambrose named the
grayling the flower of fish, from its pleasing colour and agreeable
smell. This fish is presumed to be intended in the arms of
Cardinal Bentivenga, in which the rose is also introduced and
commented upon in these lines to his memory :

Bentivenga sacra est hac purpura amictus ; in unda
Ludentem piscem respice et inde rosas.

He was confessor to Pope Nicholas III. and died in 1289. His
arms, azure, a fish naiant argent, on a chief or, a chevron sable
between two roses,* were surmounted by the cardinal’s hat,
then a novelty, it having been first worn at the interview be-
tween the Pope and Louis IX. of France, at Lyons in 1247.

The supposition that most of the rivers which contain gray-
ling flow near the remains of monasteries is incorrect; as this
fish is not found in the rivers of Kent, Dorsetshire, Devon-

* Ciaconius, Hist. of the Popes, 1679.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 147

shire, or Cornwall, where conventual edifices were formerly nu-
merous. One of the sources of the river Severn is named the
Graylin.

A hand holding a fish, the crest of the family of Grayley, or
Grelley, of Lancashire, is doubtless a play upon the name; also,
the arms of the Kentish family of Graydon, argent, on a chevron
azure, between three otters sable, each devouring a fish, as many
otter-spears or; the crest, a demi-otter devouring a fish: the
motto, ‘‘ Ad escam et usum,” for food and use, alludes, seemingly,
to the employment of the otter for the purpose of catching fish.

In heraldry the graylmg are termed umber-fish, from their
French name ombre; and the punning arms of the family of
Umbrell are argent, three umber-fish naiant.

The general colour of this fish is a bright brown, beautifully
varied with gold and green reflexions in different lights; its
name grayling is supposed to have reference to the gray lines —
along the body of the fish.

THE OTTER.

Guillim mentions a shield of arms in one of the windows of
the hall of New Inn, London, argent, a beaver erect sable,
armed gules, devouring a fish; but, from the known habits of
the beaver, it is presumed that an otter must have been in-
tended. Beavers feed entirely on vegetables; the otter, on the
contrary, lives exclusively on fish, frequenting small streams and
lakes, and in search of its prey swims and dives with peculiar
ease and elegance :

The amphibious monster ranges all the shores,

Darts through the waves, and every haunt explores. :
L

148 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

Three otters passant, in pale, each devouring a fish, the arms
of the family of Proude of Canterbury, are sculptured on the
arched ceiling of the beautiful cloisters of the cathedral in that
city. .

The name of Proude may have the same origin with that
of the Prud-homme, who among fishermen is chosen to preside
over the community.

From the French word Joutre, an otter, this animal was
assumed in the insignia of the family of Luttrell, argent, a fess
between three otters sable, beg the arms ; and an otter devour-
ing a fish, the crest. They were seated at Irnham in Lincoln-
shire, and Robert Luttrell of Imham was summoned to Parlia-
ment in the reign of Edward I. One of the branches inherited
Dunster Castle, in Somersetshire, from the Mohuns; and an-
other obtained the castle and estate of Luttrells-town in Ireland,
from which last branch were descended the Earls of Carhamp-
ton. Otters are also borne in arms by the family of Hartopp,
baronets.

Sable, a chevron vaire, or and gules, between three otters
passant or, are the arms of the family of Lotysham of Somerset-
shire, which bears for crest an otter’s head devouring a fish.

The otter makes incredible havoc among fish, a main induce-
ment to keep up the ancient sport of otter-hunting with hounds
bred for the purpose :

Would you preserve a numerous finny race,
Let your fierce dogs the ravenous otter chase.

In this sport the otter-spears are used; and after the chase
the animal is borne home in triumph. The crest of the family of
Homfray of Wales near Rotherham in Yorkshire, is an otter
passant, wounded in the shoulder; and azure, a dexter hand

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 149

holding on the point of a sword, argent, an otter’s head couped
or, are the arms of the family of Fender.

Ermine, a chevron between three otters’ heads couped sable,
a chief vert, are the arms of the northern family of Otterbourne ;
a name derived from a stream near Hexham, one of the haunts
of the otter, and rendered memorable as the scene of the battle
of Chevy Chase.

Argent, a chevron between three otters’ heads erased sable,
are the original arms of the family of Balfour of Scotland ; and a
castle argent, having on the battlement a woman attired gules,
holding an otter’s head, is the erest of Balfour of Grange.
Argent, three otters’ heads erased gules, are the arms of Ful-
larton of Ayrshire. In the beautiful stained glass windows of
the old manor-house at Ockwells, near Bray, on the banks of
the Thames, are the arms of the family of Norreys, with the
supporters, two otters collared and chained, each devouring a
fish. Two otters argent, were assumed for supporters of the
arms of James Brydges, the princely Duke of Chandos.

The Salters’ Company, incorporated in the year 1530, obtained
subsequently the addition to their arms of supporters, which
are two otters sable bezanty, ducally collared and chained or.
Two otters are also used as supporters to their arms by the
Scottish family of Kinloch, with a mermaid for a crest.*

The sea-dog of heraldry is no other than the male or dog
otter, being a four-footed animal, but is drawn, according to
heraldic fancy, with a broad fin continued down the back from
the head to the tail; the feet webbed, and its whole body, legs, .
and tail covered with scales. In the northern parts of the king-
dom the otters frequent the sea, and are known to extend their
rambles to a considerable distance from the shore. Three sea-
dogs or marine otters are borne in the arms of Fennor of Sussex,
and in the arms of Harry of Cornwall.

Lord Stourton, whose title is derived from a manor watered
by a stream abounding with trout, has for supporters to his arms
two sea-dogs, or otters; and a sea dog’s head is the crest of the
ancient family of Broughton.

* Nisbet.

150 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

VI.
The Herring, BVilchard, and Sprat.

Tue Herrine, a sea fish, derives its name from hairang, an
old French word implying troop or army. The deep seas swarm
with herrings, which usually appear together in large numbers,
and in due season visit the coast of every region of the globe.

Herring fisheries were of importance in the eleventh century
as a source of revenue. Hugh de Montefort’s manors in Suffolk
yielded numerous rents of herrings; the manor of Beccles in
that county, in King Edward the Confessor’s time, yielded thirty
thousand herrings to the abbey of Saint Edmund, and in William
the Conqueror’s time this revenue was increased to sixty thou-
sand herrings.*

Yarmouth has long been the great mart for herrings, and
of the fishery the Barons of the Cinque Ports were the original

lords.+ King John, the great patron of commerce in Norfolk,
having granted the burgesses of Yarmouth a charter, they after-
wards assumed the exclusive right of the fishery for herrings,
and, as indicating this right, the old seal of the borough bears
a fishing-boat, with the herrings in the sea beneath.

* Introduction to Domesday Book, by Sir Henry Ellis. —
+ Lyon’s History of Dover.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 151

Thomas Nash, a Suffolk poet of the time of Queen Elizabeth,
quaintly assumes, in his “ Herring’s Tayle,” that “this fishery
brings more ships to Yarmouth than were assembled at Troy to
fetch back Helen.” The expert and persevering fishermen of
this town are still unrivalled in the herring fishery, which now
employs about two hundred fishing vessels; and the quantity of
herrings cured, red or smoke-dried, is said to have sometimes
amounted to one hundred thousand barrels in a year.

In 1352 the burgesses of Yarmouth granted the College of
St. George at Windsor a last of red herrings, to be delivered
annually ; and in 1671, when King Charles II. visited this town,
the Corporation presented his Majesty with four golden herrings
and a gold chain.

The priory of the Black Friars at Yarmouth, founded about
the year 1270, had some franchise or right of fishery conceded to
the convent. The herrings appear upon the seal of the priory,
which bears also the Virgin Mary, between Saint Dominic and
Saint Nicholas, patrons of the convent and town.

, Ls

FEA NN i
AM ey Ravan

At Heringflete, in Suffolk, was a priory of Austin canons, and
also near Yarmouth was the hospital or college of Heringby,
both very probably supported by the produce of the fishery.

152 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

Azure, three herrings naiant argent, were the original arms of
the borough of Yarmouth: the Corporation at present bear for
arms, party per pale gules and azure, three demi-lions passant
guardant or, conjoined with as many demi-herrings argent.

An Italian, eating a capon on a fast-day, termed it “ pesce
una corte,” a fish from a coop ; but, reversing this expression,
the herring, from its noted mart, is called a Yarmouth capon.

Lowestoft, a town situated on the most easterly point of land
in England, partakes with Yarmouth the trade in the fishery
and curing of herrings: a Lowestoft fisherman’s toast, even dur-
ing the progress of the Reformation, was,

Here ’s to his Holiness the Pope, with his triple crown,

With nine dollars each for every cask in the town ;
the nine dollars having reference to the price at which it was
hoped the herrings would sell per barrel on their arrival in Italy.

The ancient town of Dunwich, on the coast of Suffolk, now
ruined by the encroachments of the sea, had a considerable
herring fishery ; and the seal of Robert, Bailiff of Dunwich in
the year 1218, bears the fish.*

The staple trade of the town of Southwold, in the same
county, was greatly diminished in consequence of the Reform-
ation ; fast-days had ceased to be so frequently observed, and
the demand for herrings had decreased. A token, struck at
Southwold in 1667, bears the fish in allusion to the trade.

The royal burgh of Inverary, at the head of Loch Fyne,
has a considerable herring fishery. It was incorporated by King
Charles I; and the arms of the town are, the waves of the
loch, in which is suspended a sean with five herrings entangled
in it, typical of its chief produce.

The Royal Company of Fishing, established in Scotland by
King Charles II, bore appropriately for arms, azure, two her-
rings in saltier, surmounted by an imperial crown or, with the
motto, ‘‘ Messis ab alto,” Our harvest is from the deep. The great
herring fishery in Scotland was, in reality, founded by the British

* Engraved in Gardner’s History of Dunwich, 1754.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 153

Fishery Society in 1786, for the express purpose of forming sta-
tions in the highlands and islands of North Britain.

The celebrated South Sea Company, established in 1711, for
encouraging the fishery, bears for arms, azure, a globe, on which
are depicted the Straits of Magellan and Cape Horn; on a can-
ton the arms of Great Britain; in the sinister chief point two
herrings in saltier, crowned or: and the crest, a ship in full sail ;
supporters, on the dexter side, Britannia,* and on the sinister, a
fisherman holding in his hand a string of fish.

The colour and form of the herring are beautiful ; the back is
blue, with green and other reflexions when viewed in different
lights; the side and belly of the fish are silvery white. As a
charge in heraldry, the herring is borne in reference to the name
by several families of antiquity.

On the seal of John Heringot of Westwell, im Kent, in the
reign of Henry III. is a shield with a border charged with six
herrings ; azure, three herrings erect, between six cross crosslets
fitchy or, the arms of Heringod of Elmstead, are sculptured on
the ceiling of the cloisters of Canterbury Cathedral ;+ azure,
semée of cross crosslets, six herrings naiant in pale or, are the
arms of Heringod of Icklesham, in Sussex, in the reign of
Henry III.

The German family of Histagh: on the banks of the Rhine,
bear for arms, argent, three herrings in bend azure.t

The arms of the ancient family of Heringham wes show the
herrings, as a play upon the name.

Gules, three herrings hauriant argent, appear in stained glass
amongst the quarterings in the arms of the first Earl of Bed-
* The earliest representation of Britannia, as a tutelar goddess, is to be found upon a

medal of the Emperor Commodus.
+ Willement’s Heraldic Notices. t Palliot.

154 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

ford, K.G. in the windows of the chapel at Chenies in Bucking-
hamshire, showing his descent from Sir John Russell, Speaker
of the House of Commons, the son of Sir John Russell of Kings-
ton, in Dorsetshire, and Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Sir
John Heringham of Chaldon, in the same county, the descendant
of a family seated at Chaldon in the reign of John. Langton
Hering and Heringston, also in Dorsetshire, seem to have de-
rived the name from the same family.

Gules, crusilly, three herrings hauriant argent, were the arms
of Archbishop Herring.

Thomas Herring, the son of the Rev. John Herring, Rector
of Walsoken, in Norfolk, was born in 1691: as chaplain to the
King he attended his Majesty George II. to Cambridge in 1728,
having previously preached against “‘ The Beggar’s Opera.” He
was made Bishop of Bangor in 1737, and Archbishop of York
in 1743: being one of the preachers of the Honourable Society
of Lincoln’s Inn, his arms, as Archbishop of York, are in one
of the stained glass windows of their Hall. In 1747 he was
created Archbishop of Canterbury; and, residing chiefly at
Croydon, his arms, impaling those of the archiepiscopal see,
were placed in the Hall of that palace.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 155

Sable, three herrings hauriant argent, a chief or, were the
arms of Sir Thomas Kytson, Sheriff of London in 1533, who held
estates in the counties of Suffolk, Devon, Dorset, Somerset,
and Nottingham. His daughter, Katherine, married Sir John
Spencer of Wormleighton, in Warwickshire, one of the ancestors
of the Earl Spencer; and the arms of Kytson, typical of this
descent, are quartered in the achievement of that noble family.
Sir Thomas Gage, Baronet, of Hengrave, in Suffolk, is a repre-
sentative, through the noble family of Darcy, of that of Kytson.*
John Gage Rokewode, Esq. F.R.S., the historian of Hengrave,
and son of Sir Thomas Gage, the sixth Baronet, has taken the
name and arms of Rokewode.

Vert, a herring hauriant argent, were the arms of Benjamin
Harenc, Esq. of Foots Cray, Sheriff of Kent in 1777, and his
crest, still playing upon the name, a heron, holding in the bill
a herring.

Argent, on a chevron engrailed between three wolves’ heads
erased sable, a lozenge or, between two herrings of the first,
are the arms of the family of Harries, of Loughton in Essex,
and of Prickwell in Sussex. Azure, a cross flory between six
herrings or, are the arms of the family of Heigham.

* The arms and many seals of the family of Kytson are engrayed in the History of
Hengrave, 1822.

156 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

Cob is a word of many meanings; among others, that of her-
ring. A young fish is called a herring cob: that this was the
case appears from a passage in Jonson’s comedy of “* Every Man
in his Humour,” in which Cob, the water-bearer, punning on
his own name, calls himself “‘ the descendant of a king,” the
herring being known as the king of fish. His ancestor, he says,
was ‘the first red-herrmg broiled in Adam and Eve's kitchen,
and his Cob (that is, his son) was my great, great, mighty great,
grandfather.”

The arms of the family of Cobb of Sandringham, on the coast
of Norfolk, near Lynn, are sable, a chevron argent between
three cob-fish naiant or, a chief of the last. A branch of this
family was seated at Adderbury, in Oxfordshire, in the reign of
Elizabeth, and in the chancel of that church is a monument to
the memory of some of its members.

Thomas Cobb, Esq. of Adderbury was created Baronet by
King Charles IT. in 1662. Sir George Cobb, Bart., who died in
1762, was the last of the family of Adderbury. Another family
of Cobb, of Sharnbrook, in Bedfordshire, bears gules, a chevron
wavy between three cob-fish naiant argent, on a chief of the last
two sea-cobs, or gulls, sable. The arms of the family of Cobb
of Snettisham, in Norfolk, are party per chevron sable and argent,
in chief two sea-cobs respecting each other, and in base a herring
naiant or.* |

* Mackerell’s History of Lynn.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 157

FISHING-NETS.

The nets used in fishing and fowling very frequently formed
part of the heraldic devices assumed as ensigns by the lords of
manors in the early periods of history; instances are given by
Palliot * under the words Réseau, netting, and Rets, a net.

Azure, a bend argent charged with a net gules, were the
arms of Fouet, Seigneur of Dornes and Raiz, the first President
of the Chamber of Accounts at Dijon; and azure, a net or, with
a chief argent, charged with three escallops gules, were the an-
cient arms of Vulcana of Naples.

The ornamental reticulations which are found in shields of
arms are heraldically termed fretty ; but, if the same is composed
of separate pieces, frets; and strewed over the shield, mascles:
these are referred by our own writers on heraldry, Guillim and
Nisbet, to the nets used by the fishermen, which probably sug-
gested the Rete of the gladiators. It is well known to the classi-
cal reader that in the contests of the Retiarii and Mirmillones,
the first, with nets of cord, entangled their opponents, whose
name of Mirmillones, derived from the Greek, arose from the
fish crests by which they were originally distinguished.

The importance of the various nets used in river and sea fish-
ing, by which the different kinds of fish are procured with
facility, was not overlooked ; the larger draught-nets were kept in
the manor-house: a great sean and a less sean were deposited in
one of the galleries at Skipton Castle. The serfs employed as
fishermen, were, in early times, conveyed to a purchaser along
with the fishery when it was sold; the most expert fishermen
on our coasts were then unable to avail themselves of the riches
by which they were surrounded.

Le Fleming, an ancient Cumberland family, bears gules, a fret
argent ; Vernon of Shipbrooke, in Cheshire, argent, a fret sable ;
and gules, a fret or, is the armorial ensign of the Lords Audley,
who use the motto “ Je le tiens.”

Azure, fretty argent, are the arms of the ancient family of
Cave of Stanford, in Leicestershire, with the punning motto
“‘ Cave,” beware the net. These are now borne by the Baroness
Braye, daughter of the late Sir Thomas Cave, Baronet, and
lineal heiress of Lord Braye in the reign of Henry VIII.

* Science des Armoiries.” + Whitaker’s History of Craven.

158 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

Or, fretty azure, are the arms of the Lords Willoughby; and
argent, fretty sable, on a canton gules a chaplet or, those of
the Lords of Irby, in Lincolnshire, now borne by the Lord Bos-
ton. Or, fretty gules, a canton ermine, are the arms of the
family of Noel, of which the Earl of Gainsborough and the Earl
of Lovelace are representatives.

The mascles of heraldry are formed precisely like the meshes
of the nets of the fisherman, and were borne in the arms of the
most ancient and noblest families. Argent, seven mascles con-
joined azure, are the arms of the Lords of Braybrook, in North-
amptonshire, from whom, through the family of Latimer, the
Lords Braybrooke are descended.

Gules, seven mascles conjoined or, are the arms of the families
of Quincy and Ferrers: fishing with a golden net was one of the
luxuries practised by the Emperor Nero.*

Sable, a fret argent, is the armorial distinction of the ancient
Lords of Harrington, a manor and sea-port on the coast of Cum-
berland, where herrings are plentiful: the literal meaning of the
name is herring enclosure.

In the reign of Edward II. Sir John de Harrington was sum-
moned to Parliament as a peer. The baronies of Harrington
and Bonvile became united in the reign of Henry VI. and subse-
quently passed to the family of the Lords Grey of Groby, whose
representative, the Earl of Stamford, bears the arms of Harring-
ton as one of his quarterings to show his lordship’s title to the
barony by descent.

Sable, a fret or, the arms of the Lords Maltravers of Lytchet,
in Dorsetshire, seem to have been assumed in direct allusion to

* Suetonius.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 159

the name, the net being hard to penetrate. These arms are
quartered with those of Howard by the Duke of Norfolk, K.G.,
Lord Maltravers by descent.

The noble family of Netterville of Douth Castle, county of
Meath in Ireland, bear, argent, a cross gules, fretty or, in allu-
sion to the name. Nicholas Netterville was created Viscount
Netterville of Douth by King James in 1622.

Azure, fretty or, a canton of the last, are the arms, and a
salmon naiant the crest, of the family of Willeigh, or Willeley.

The sizes of fishing-nets are little known, those used in the
river Severn are limited in length to seventy-five yards:* the
large and strong nets used in the herring fishery form a kind of
hedge in the sea a mile in length, and those used for mackerel
extend two miles.+

THE PILCHARD.

Tue Picuarn is a fish resembling the herring, but is smaller
and thicker ; its name is derived from Pelézer, a term by which
it was known to the early naturalists.

Mount’s Bay, on the Cornish coast, is one of the chief stations
of the pilchard fishery ; this beautiful bay receives its name from
Saint Michael’s Mount, a singular rock connected with the town
of Marazion by a narrow causeway of pebbles.t Job Militon,
Esq. Governor of Saint Michael’s Mount in the reign of Henry
VIII, built Pengersick Castle, on the banks of Mount’s Bay.

His arms were gules, a chevron or, between three pilchards

* Nash’s History of Worcestershire.

+ Notes on Nets, or the Quincunx, by the Hon. and Rev. C. Bathurst, LL.D.

} Saint Michael is represented on the old seal of Helston holding a shield charged
with the arms of England.

160 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

naiant argent. William Militon, Esq. of Pengersick, his son,
and Sheriff of Cornwall, died in 1565, when the estate passed to
his six sisters, his coheiresses. The same arms, a chevron be-
tween three pilchards, are borne by the family of Millington of
Devonshire. |

Argent, a chevron gules between two roses in chief, and a pil-
chard naiant, are the arms of the ancient family of Roscarrock of
Endellion, a port on the British Channel famed for its pilchard
fishery. The annual fishery on the coast of Cornwall is of great
importance, and a source of wealth to the whole county. The
shoals of pilchards in the autumn are discerned many miles off
by the singular appearance of a red line on the sea a mile long,
and their progress has no parallel in the history of the finny
tribe. They are first seen among the Scilly Islands, thirty miles
from the Land’s End; and the shoals, dividing there, pass up the
northern and southern channels into the creeks and harbours;
and swimming near the surface on the coast, till they arrive at
Bude Haven on the north, and off Plymouth on the south, they,
without apparent cause, plunge into deep water, and are not
- discovered afterwards.

The borough of Truro, incorporated by Queen Elizabeth in
1589, had formerly jurisdiction over Falmouth, a celebrated

—

7

CTi~..

: LRA
eee “
iste es y,

fishing station. The seal of the corporation, rudely designed,
bears a fishing vessel, and in the waves beneath two pilchards,
in allusion to the peculiar produce of Cornwall.

See
“

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 161

Port Looe, at the mouth of the river of the same name, is one
of the fishing stations whence both pilchards and oil are exported
to various ports in the Mediterranean. The seal of the town
represents a fishing vessel with three shields on its side, each
charged with the arms of the family ef Bodrugan, the ancient
lords of the manor. A Looe token, struck in the reign of
Charles II, during a scarcity of copper money, bears the type

of its chief produce, a pilchard, here familiarly termed a Looe
trout. The seal of the town of Fowey, dated 1702, bears a
shield charged with a fishing vessel, the pilchard fishery being
of considerable importance at this port.

THE SPRAT.

Tue Sprar seems only to have been assumed in heraldry in
reference to a name. Argent, a chevron sable, between three
sprats naiant azure, are the arms of the family of Sprat of Dor-
setshire.

The Rev. Thomas Sprat, author of the History of the Royal
Society, was, in the year 1684, made Bishop of Rochester.
M

162 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

His arms are sculptured on the monument, in Westminster
Abbey church, erected to his memory and that of his son, the
Rev. Thomas Sprat, Archdeacon of Rochester. Sable, a fess
between six sprats hauriant or, are the arms of the family of
Sprotton.

Sprats, small sea fish, are found in abundance on the coast of
Suffolk, where they are cured at Aldborough, in almost the same
manner as the herrings at Yarmouth. .

In Scotland these fish are termed garvies, and are taken in
the Forth throughout the whole of the year. Inch Garvie, or
Sprat Island, is in the middle of the Frith, near Queen’s Ferry.
A garvie-fish naiant is the crest of a family of Fisher of Scot-
land: and azure, three garvie-fish naiant in pale argent, within a
border or; crest, a hand holding a garvie-fish, are the armorial
ensigns of the family of Garvine of Scotland.

Or, on a bend azure, three sardines argent, are the arms of the
family of Sartine of France; a name derived from the sardine,
or sprat, of the Mediterranean.

Azure, a bend or, charged with three sardines sable, are the
arms of the Neapolitan family of Quarracino.* The sardine is
the same as the anchovy, a common fish on the coasts of Spain
and France.

* Palliot.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 163

VII.
Che selackerel,

Tue Macxeret, above all fish, exhibits the highest degree of
elegance in form, and is well known by the brilliancy of its
colours: the name is derived from its spotted body, macularius,
and in most of the countries of Europe it is called by a term
referring to its variegated appearance.

These fish are only borne in heraldry in allusion to the name.
Charlton Mackerel, in Somersetshire, obtained its designation
at a very early period. Gules, three mackerel hauriant argent,
are the arms of Mackerell of Norwich, of which family there
are monuments in the church of Saint Stephen in that city.

* Benjamin Mackerell, an industrious antiquary of Norwich,
printed a “ History of King’s Lynn, in Norfolk,” in 1738, and
was the author of several heraldic collections, amongst which was
“ Insignia Armorum,” a manuscript, with drawings of the arms
of all the nobility of England, &c. in 1728.* Per fess azure and
vert, three mackerel naiant in pale, are the arms of the family of
Mackrill.

Argent, on a chevron between three mackerel gules, a rose,
with a chief chequy of the first and second, are the arms of Doc-
tor Macbride, the learned Principal of Magdalen Hall, Oxford.

The three mackerel, often used as a sign in fishing towns,
probably indicate a house of entertainment kept by a fisherman.

* H. Bohn’s Catalogue, 1841.
M 2

164 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

The salmon at Flybridge on the Tweed, and the trout at
Yewsley on the Colne, are signs which in like manner originated
with brothers of the angle. These symbols are not entirely
without interest to the poetical mind ; Swift acknowledges that,
when travelling with the Lord Treasurer Harley, they

Would gravely try to read the lines
Writ underneath the country signs.

An intelligent author, noticing the variety of signs in Germany,
says that “ nature, history, and imagination have alike been
taxed to supply this gallery of emblems; they are adapted to
every fancy and to every age: besides lions and eagles, lambs
and doves, the naturalist will find birds and beasts of every un-
natural colour and form.”* Many old signs of inns are heraldic,
and, in the association with local and historical circumstances,
these manorial cognizances attain a degree of interest. It re-
quires but little knowledge of history to desery the white swan,
the ancient badge of the Clares, at the inn of Clare, and the half-
moon of the Percys at that of Petworth: the peacock of the
Lords de Ros is a sign at Northampton, as well as the goat of
the Russells at Woburn. A very common sign is made still
more familiar by Shakspeare, as

old Nevile’s crest,
The rampant bear chain’d to the ragged staff.

Mackerel are dispersed over the immense surface of the deep,
and approach the shores in all directions, roving along the coast.
At the various fishing towns of the kingdom immense shoals are
collected and caught, and the mackerel season is one of great
bustle and activity. As an article of food this fish must be eaten
very fresh, and on that account is cried by the venders even in
the public streets of the metropolis; the only remaining instance,

it is believed, of the London Cries, which in the time of Queen
Anne issued from

a hundred mouths, a hundred tongues,
And throats of brass inspired with iron lungs ;

cries which the gallant Will Honeycomb+ preferred to the sounds
of larks and nightingales, with all the music of the fields and
woods.

* Turnbull’s Austria. t The Spectator,

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 165

VIII.

The Haddock, Cod, Hake, Ling, GHitinag,
and urbhot.

Tus division of the heraldry appertaining to fish includes the
most valuable sort as an article of commerce, and those which
are universally known. Haddocks are found in shoals on the
coasts of Great Britain, from the Land’s End to the extreme
North. Findhorn, on the Moray Frith, is particularly famed for
its haddocks, which are landed at Leith, and brought to the
Edinburgh market by the women of Fisher-row. A punning
allusion to the name is found in the crest of the family of Had-
dock of Lancashire, a dexter hand holding a haddock.

Captain William Haddock, who was honoured by a gold me-
dal presented by the Parliament for his gallantry in the memo-
rable action with the Dutch fleet in 1653, was the grandfather of -
Admiral Nicholas Haddock.

A popular idea assigns the dark marks on the shoulders of the
haddock to the impression left by Saint Peter with his finger and
thumb when he took the tribute money out of the fish’s mouth
at Capernaum ;* but the haddock certainly does not now exist in
the seas of the country where the miracle was performed, although
it ranges over a considerable space both north and south.

The Dory, called Saint Peter’s fish in several countries of
Europe, contends with the haddock the honour of bearing the
marks of the Apostle’s fingers, an impression transmitted to pos-
terity as a perpetual memorial of the miracle ; the name of Dory
is hence asserted to be derived from the French word adoré,
worshipped. The fishermen of the Adriatic call it iJ Janitore,

* The Gospel of Saint Matthew, chap. xvii.

166 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

the gatekeeper, Saint Peter being well known as a bearer of
the keys of Paradise.

Saint Peter was the first of the followers of Christ to declare
the glories of salvation, and his artless simplicity and humble
character gave effect to his preaching on the minds of the earliest
converts. As this saint is the especial patron of fishermen, and
of fishmongers, the boat used for fishing in the Thames is called
a Peter-boat; and the keys, the emblem of Saint Peter, form
part of the armorial ensigns of the Fishmongers’ Company.

Party per bend, azure and argent, a key and a fish counter-
changed, are the arms of the mitred abbey of Petershausen on
the banks of Lake Constance.

The Pope is commonly represented in the character of Saint
Peter, in the early periods of art, bearing in his hand the keys of
heaven.* The power of the keys assumed by the Pope, and
understood as the privilege of passing judgment on departed
souls, is derived from the metaphorical expression of Christ re-
corded in the Gospel.+

The committal of the keys to Saint Peter forms the subject of
one of the Cartoons by Raffaelle at Hampton Court palace, and
is worked in tapestry on the walls of the Vatican, founded by
Pope Nicholas V, who bore for his personal arms, gules, two
crossed keys or. The keys of Saint Peter are also borne in the
arms of the Archbishopric of York, in those of the Bishopric
of Peterborough, by several of the English and Irish bishopries,
and by Saint Peter’ s College, Cambridge.

* Sometimes the Apostle is represented with two keys in his hand, and at others with

a double key, surmounted by a cross.
+ Saint Matthew, chap. xvi.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. - 167

A haddock embowed, over an episcopal hat, is the crest of the
German Baron von Eytzing.*

The type of the connexion between the dignity of the Church
and the humble employment of Saint Peter is not entirely dis-
regarded by the sovereign pontiff: his signet, the fisherman’s ring,
Vanello del piscatore, represents Saint Peter drawing his nets;
and the celebrated Naviculo di Giotto, in mosaic, over the portal
of Saint Peter’s church at Rome, is designed from the same
subject.

The story of Tobias and the fish, from the Apocrypha, forms
part of the heraldry of the Armenian family of Raphael. The
arms borne by Alexander Raphael, Esq. Sheriff of London in 1834,
are quarterly azure and argent, a cross moline or:+ in the first
quarter a sun in splendour; in the second the Ark on Mount
Ararat; a city at its base, inscribed Naksivan ;{ in the third,
the angel Raphael§ and Tobias on the banks of the Tigris, |
thereon a fish; and in the fourth quarter an anchor in bend,
with the cable entwined or. These arms afford a striking ex-
ample of the false taste often shown in modern heraldic com-
position: here the very rudiments of the art, the principles
which guided the older heralds, and the simplicity of existing
models of early date, are all abandoned for the sake of extrava-
gant novelty, showing more forcibly than any written satire the
decline and corruption of heraldry. The departure from the true
and authentic style of arms painting, equally conspicuous, is

* Sibmacher. + The cross, a brilliant addition to the splendour of the shield,
was made subject to an almost indescribable number of forms, as the chief emblem of
Christianity. t “The word Naksivan is Armenian. Noah settled there when
he left the Ark after the Deluge, and named it from nak, ship, and sivan, rest ; it is
consequently the oldest city in the world.”»—CaALMET. § “ The name of Raphael,
the angel who restored Tobit’s sight by means of the fish, implies Divine remedy.”—
CALMET.

168 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

justly censured by an eminent critic in heraldry.* The charac-
teristics of a rude but contemporary era are violently destroyed,
the vestiges of early art are confused and annihilated; and who,
the same author inquires, would wish to exchange for the more
polished inventions of later times, devices which have been so
long regarded with a kind of religious veneration ?

Some herald painters were undoubtedly men of talent ; Smirke,
Baker, and Catton became members of the Royal Academy.
Baker, celebrated for painting flowers, enveloped the arms of the
nobility in gorgeous wreaths; Catton, who excelled im animals,
painted the arms on the royal carriages in the early part of the
reign of George the Third; and Smirke, distinguished as an
historical painter, enriched the panels of the Lord Mayor’s state
carriage. As an independent profession, herald painting hardly
existed after the year 1790, when Strickland was employed by
Hatchet, the principal coachmaker in Long-acre.

CoD.

Tuer Coprisu generally live in the seas of cold climates, and by
their abundance are important as objects of commerce; they are
taken all round the coast of Great Britain, and on the north and
west of Scotland extensive fisheries are carried on, but the
Dogger Bank cod are the most esteemed.

Sable, a chevron between three codfish naiant argent, are
borne as arms by the family of Codd; and azure, three codfish
naiant in pale argent, are the arms of the family of Beck.

This fish has a lance-shaped body, covered with small scales ;

* Heraldic Inquiries, by the Rey. James Dallaway, 1793.

I

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 169

as it inhabits deep water, its capture is only attempted with
the line “and hook, Each fisher only takes one cod at a time,
and will take from three hundred and fifty to four hundred in
a day; vessels of a hundred and fifty tons’ burthen trading to
Newfoundland bring home upwards of thirty thousand fish, but,
as Lent approaches, the ship will sometimes return with only
half her cargo.

Dried cod, the stockfish of the early ages, formed a very con-
siderable portion of the food of the nation, both during Lent and
on the frequent fast-days enjoined by religion. Besides the pure
spiritual end, a second object, in civil respects, was probably in-
tended, as by the institution of Lent the prosperity of fishermen
was successfully advanced.

The trade of preserving fish appears to have been, from the
very earliest period, more dignified than that of catching them ;
the curers and salters of fish are represented on the monuments
of Egypt as superior in appearance to the fishermen of that
country. The fish of Egypt, as shown in the paintings on the
walls of the Theban palaces,* were divided lengthwise by
a knife not unlike that now used for splitting the codfish at
Newfoundland; but their fish were cured with fossil salt, pro-
cured from the African desert, sea-salt being deemed by the
priests impure.

Home salted and cured fish were in England considered as
superior to foreign, and the latter were forbidden to be imported
in the reign of Elizabeth. The fairs of Sturbridge, Ely, and
St. Ives, noted for the provision of fish, were then much used by |
the inhabitants of London. Dried fish has long been an article
of British commerce, and is chiefly exported to Italy and Spain.

One of the most curious productions of the early poetical lite-
rature of Spain, collected by the industry of Sanchez, is ‘‘ The
Battle of Mr. Carnal with Mrs. Lent,” written by Juan Ruiz, who
flourished about the middle of the fourteenth century. In this
poem, which is not without humour and sprightliness, the beasts
and fish are arrayed in mortal combat, ending in the total dis- |
comfiture of the former: the fish and the holy cause obtain the
victory, and Mr. Carnal is condemned to fast, unless in case of
illness, upon one spare meal of fish a day.t

Previously, the remembrance of the duty of fasting was en-
forced by the means of rude sculptures and pictures, and these

* Caillaud’s Egypt. + Coleccion de Poesias Castellanas, &. Madrid, 1790.
+ Article on Castilian Poetry in the Retrospective Review, vol. vi.

170 ' THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

necessary helps to popular devotion are also to be found in
the enrichments of architecture. A grotesque figure with out-
stretched arms, holding up the fish and the wassail bowl, may
be considered as an appropriate type of the fasts and festivals of
the Church in the eleventh century.

This is shown on one of the capitals in the undercroft, or
crypt, by no means the least interesting part of Canterbury
Cathedral,- the erection of which is attributed to Archbishop
Lanfranc. It was from these rude attempts of art that the
clergy derived the method of instruction in the due observance
of church solemnities long before the invention of printing, and
when manuscript books were not to be obtained but with diff-
culty and at great cost.

It was the general demand for fish at stated seasons, when it
formed the sole article of food, which contributed to the wealth
and importance of the fish-merchants, who, as a guild, acquired
consequence at a very early period in London. In the year
1298, in honour of the return of King Edward I. from his vic-
tory over the Scots, the citizens, every one according to their
craft, proceeded through the city: the mystery of fishmongers
on this occasion assumed the badges of their trade, and had four
sturgeons, gilt, carried on horses; then four salmon of silver on
horses; then forty-six armed knights, riding on horses like luces
of the sea, followed by one in the character of Saint Magnus,
with a thousand horsemen. ‘To this saint the church in New
Fish Street, or Fish-street Hill, was dedicated, and now bears
on its front his statue: he was considered, probably, as the pa-
tron of the fishmarket. Billings-gate, a port for shipping, was
not distinguished as a fishmarket until Parliament, in 1699, made
it a free port for fish.

The earliest charters extant in possession of the Fishmongers’

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 171

Company, by King Edward III, confirm the grants imme-
morially made to them by his predecessors. In 1381, Sir Wil-
liam Walworth, a renowned fishmonger, then Mayor of London,
slew the insurgent Wat Tyler in Smithfield, in the presence of
King Richard II. His dagger is carefully preserved among the
archives of the company, and the event was formerly commemo-
rated in the city pageants during the mayoralty of a fishmonger.
In “ The Triumphs of London,”* performed at the cost of the
Fishmongers, upon the inauguration of Sir Thomas Abney, Lord
Mayor in 1700, a horseman in armour, with a dagger in his
* hand, represented Sir William Walworth; the head of the rebel
Wat Tyler being borne aloft on a pike before him. This was
again displayed in 1740, when another of the Fishmongers’
Company happened to be Lord Mayor.

King Henry VI. united the Stockfishmongers and other
branches of the trade, and incorporated the whole under the
general name of the Fishmongers of London,+ but they were
again separated in the reign of Henry VII.{ The arms of the
Saltfishmongers were gules, three crossed keys saltierwise or, on
a chief azure three dolphins embowed argent.

Their arms appear in stained glass in the western side of the
splendid windows of the north transept of Canterbury Cathedral,
together with the arms of the City of London and those of Thomas
Bernwell, citizen and fishmonger, who was Sheriff in 1435.§

The Stockfishmongers bore for arms, azure, two sea luces in

* Printed for R. Barnham, in Little Britain, 1700.
+ Charter 11 Henry VI. ¢ 21 Henry VII.
§ Willement’s Heraldic Notices.

17% THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

saltier, proper, with coronets over their mouths or: the fish here
intended is the hake, the merlucius of the naturalist, common on
the southern coast of England, large quantities of which are pre-
served, both by salting and drying, for exportation, chiefly to
Spain. The hake is described and figured by Rondelet of Mont-
pelier, and was known to the older naturalists before him.

These companies of merchants, amongst the most important
of the city guilds, had no less than six Halls for the transaction
of business, in regulating the fishery, and registering the men and
crafts employed in it. Two Halls were situated in Old Fish
Street, two in New Fish Street, near London Bridge, and two
in Thames Street. The two companies of Salt and Stockfish-
mongers, both under the patronage of Saint Peter, were united
in 1536, when they obtained a charter from King Henry VIII;
but the company acts at present under the authority of a char-
ter of incorporation, dated 2nd of King James I, to which the
great seal of England is attached.

This company formerly maintained three chaplains, and, be-
sides being benefactors to the churches of Saint Peter, in West
Cheap, and Saint Peter, in Cornhill, the southern aisle of Saint
Michael’s, Crooked Lane, was particularly distinguished as the
Fishmongers’ Chapel, or the Chapel of Saint Peter. The chap-
lains assisted at all their funerals, and the superb ornamental
pall used on these occasions is yet preserved.* It is made
of a rich velvet with a broad fringe, and bears on its sides in
embroidery the figure of Jesus Christ delivering the keys to Saint
Peter, between the arms of the Fishmongers’ Company as now

* It resembles that belonging to the Sadlers’ Company, which is engraved in Mr.
Shaw’s “ Decorations of the Middle Ages,” 1841.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 173

used; at the ends is represented the Apostle Saint Peter in pon-
tificalibus: this is called ‘‘ Walworth’s Pall,” but is evidently of
the time of Henry VIII, when the arms were granted.

The insignia now borne, an amalgamation of the two arms
formerly used, were confirmed to the company by Robert Cooke,
Clarenceux King of Arms in 1575;* the grant of arms was
again confirmed in the year 1634.

The present Hall of the Fishmongers’ Company was rebuilt in
1834; on the staircase is the statue of Walworth, by Peirce,
and in one of the rooms are eight very curious and ancient pic-
tures of fish, in all seasons, containing a hundred different sorts,
but it is not known by whom painted. In the old Hall, de-
stroyed by the fire of London, were arms in the windows of
twenty-two Lord Mayors, of the Fishmongers’ Company, from

* Azure, three dolphins embowed in pale between two pair of sea luces saltierwise
proper, crowned or ; on a chief gules, six keys, in three saltiers, ward ends upwards, of the
second. Crest, two arms supporting an imperial crown. Supporters, a merman and mer-
maid, the first armed, and the latter with a mirror in her left hand. Motto, “ All wor-
ship be to God only.”

174 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

John Lovekin to Sir John Leman; and twenty-eight Lord
Mayors, fishmongers and stockfishmongers, are enumerated by
Strype, from the year 1349 to 1716.* Part of the wealth of
the company is devoted to charitable purposes, and, among
others, to the support of Saint Peter’s Hospital at Newington, in
Surrey, founded in 1618.

The fishermen were incorporated by King James II. in 1687,
but they never arrived at the opulence and distinction of the
fish-merchants. Fish afford an inexhaustible harvest, ripe for
gathering at all seasons of the year, without the labour of tillage,
without expence of seed or manure, and without the payment of .
rent and taxes; yet

Hard is the life the weary fisher finds,
Who trusts his floating mansion to the winds,

Whose daily food the fickle sea maintains,
Unchanging labour and uncertain gains.

Long before the discovery of Newfoundland a very consider-
able fishery for cod was established off the Orkney and Shetland
Islands, but the principal supply for the countries of Europe was
obtained from Iceland and the coasts of Norway. Gules, a
stockfish argent, crowned or, are the appropriate arms of Iceland.

These arms are borne by the kings of Denmark in the royal
achievement, illustrating in the simplest manner the source of a
chief part of their revenue. All the seas of Denmark, of which
the kings assume the sole dominion, are well stored with fish,
and the regality is farmed: the predominance of dried fish in this
country is noticed by the earliest voyagers, “‘ Of Iseland to write
is little nede, save of stockfish.” +

Gules, three fish without heads or, arms quartered by the

* History of London. + Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations &c. 1589.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 175

family of Bawde,* are presumed to be intended for stockfish, an
article of commerce productive of great wealth.

Fishing vessels form a charge in the heraldry of families de-
rived from ancestors who were bound to perform service to the
king on account of their maritime lordships, or in consequence
of the insular position of their fiefs. Small undecked vessels,
containing not more than two or three fishermen, were originally
used on the north-western coasts of Great Britain: the fishermen
were, however, skilful and dexterous in catching the different
species of the finny tribe which abound in the lakes and rivulets
of the Orkneys and the seas around.

Azure, a ship at anchor, her oars in saltier, within a double
tressure counterflory or, are the arms of the Sinclairs, ancient
Earls of Orkney; now borne by their descendant the Earl of
Caithness, Lord Lieutenant of that county. The first Earl of
Caithness, Lord Chancellor of Scotland, was the third Earl of
Orkney, but surrendered that title to the crown when those
islands devolved to King James III. on his marriage with Mar-
garet of Denmark.

Argent, a lymphad, or fishing galley, sable, with pennant gules,
were the arms of the Mac Dougals, ancient Lords of Lorn, in
Argyleshire, bounded by the sea: these arms are now quartered
with those of Campbell by the Duke of Argyll, Marquess of
Lorn, &c. and hereditary Sheriff of Argyleshire ; his grace being
descended from Isabel, daughter and heiress of Lord Lorn, who
married the first Earl of Argyll, and also inherited the estate
of the Mac Dougals.

The lymphad, or galley, which occurs so very frequently in ©
Scottish heraldry, is the Highland fishing boat, one of which is

represented on a sculptured fragment in Iona or Icolmkill, a
celebrated island of the Hebrides.t The original is cut into the

* Bedfordshire Pedigrees.—Lansd. MS. 864. + Macculloch’s Western Islands, 1819.

176 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

stone, nearly in the manner of the Egyptian hieroglyphies, and
the same form was doubtless used by the ancient Greeks in the
construction of those

Sea-wandering barks that o’er the Aigean sail,
With pennants streaming to the northern gale.

A seal of the family of Campbell of Craiginch, where the fish-
ery is a source of considerable revenue, bears a shield gyronny of
eight, hanging on the mast of a vessel.*

A pair of oars in saltier is the crest of the Campbells of Skip-
ness, in the district of Kintyre, assumed with reference to the
situation of their domain on the sea coast; the remains of Skip-
ness Castle are said to be of high antiquity. :

Argent, a ship with her sails furled sable, is the ensign of the
Earldom of Arran, an island on the western coast of North Bri-
tain, and is borne with the arms of his paternal house by the
Duke of Hamilton, K.G., premier peer of Scotland.

Azure, in the base waves vert, a ship in full course or, rigged
gules, are the arms of the family of Craike, a name derived from
Carack, a ship. It was from the nautilus, a shell-fish, and a re-
presentative in miniature of a ship, that the primitive idea of
navigation was acquired: man first

Learnt of the little nautilus to sail,
Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.

The primeval boat may have been an excavated tree, but ves-
* Nisbet’s Heraldry.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 177

sels were soon afterwards formed of small planks: the rigging
of boats on Egyptian monuments proves that they were in-
tended for the river. Some of the boats of the Britons were
sufficient for voyages from Orkney to Ireland; in the western
islands they were built of oak planks, and carried one mast and
sail, with which the intrepid mariners boldly launched into the
ocean, neither intimidated by danger nor subdued by difficulties.

The mode practised by the bold navigators of the stormy
northern ocean of steering their course, before the mariner’s com-
pass was in use, was exceedingly simple. Flok, a Norwegian,
when sailing from Gardarsholme, in Shetland, to Iceland, took
on board some crows; and, after making part of his course, he
threw up a crow, which seeing land astern, flew to it: keeping
his course some time longer, the second crow sent out, seeing no
land, returned to the vessel: the last crow thrown up, seeing
land ahead, immediately flew for it; and Flok, following his
guide, fell in with the eastern part of the island.*

The invention of the mariner’s compass is ascribed to Flavio di
Melfi, a Neapolitan, about the year 1302, and in commemoration
of this discovery, the territory of Principato, where he was born,
assumed the compass for an armorial distinction. The variation
of the compass was unknown till Columbus, in his first voyage,
observed that the needle declined from the meridian as he ad-
vanced across the Atlantic; the dip of the magnetic needle was
discovered by Robert Norman in 1576.

Even at the close of the fifteenth century England possessed
no royal navy; her fleets were hired of the Venetians, Genoese,
and Hanse Towns, or provided by the merchants, and the Cinque
Ports. No ship carried three masts before the year 1488, when
the “‘ Great Harry” was launched, and which appears to have
been the first with that number. In 1515 the “ Henri Grace de
Dieu” was built with port-holes ; previously ships had but one
deck, and by the invention of ports the number of decks was
increased to two, and even three. Queen Elizabeth, being aware
how much the defence of her kingdom depended on its naval
armaments, encouraged every attempt to increase its force and
promote the arts of navigation and commerce.

A ship under reef, drawn round the globe with a cable by a
hand out of the clouds, and over it this motto, ‘“* Auxilio Di-

* Macpherson’s Annals of Commerce 1805.

178 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

vino,” is the crest of the family of Drake of Buckland, in Devon-
shire, heirs and representatives of the celebrated circumnayigator,
Sir Francis Drake, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth on
board his own ship, the Golden Hind, at Deptford, 4 April
1581.

The impressions of the seals belonging to the corporations of
the Cinque Ports, and their dependencies, show the form of the
earliest ship, the tenure by which their privileges were held.
These were, Dover, Hastings, Romney, Sandwich, Feversham,
Hythe, Pevensey, Rye, and Winchilsea. Upon the seal of the
Barons of Dover is a faithful representation of the fishing vessel
of the time of Edward I.

The Barons of the Cinque Ports in the reign of Edward III.
were bound to furnish the King with fifty-seven ships, when
summoned, to go to war. Shoreham, at the mouth of the Adur,
as well as Seaford and Tenterden, bears the fishing vessel, as an
ensign, on the town seal. The same emblem of maritime im-
portance is to be found on the early seals of the ports of Yar-
mouth ‘and Ipswich, of Newport and Newtown in the Isle of
Wight, of Lymington, Lyme, and of Portsmouth. In Wales,
the corporation seals of Haverford West and Beaumaris are also
so distinguished.

The mottos of some towns in Scotland are assumed with a
similar view. Renfrew, the ancient inheritance of the royal

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 179

house of Stuart, and formerly of more consequence as a port,
bears “* Deus gubernat navem,” God steers the vessel; and the
royal burgh of Montrose, one of the best harbours on the eastern
coast, and which gives title to a dukedom, bears as a motto
** Mare ditat, rosa decorat,” the sea enriches and the rose
adorns.

Lordships, or fiefs, situated on the sea-coast possess various
rights of anchorage, salvage, and fishing; not only all kinds of
ships and boats, but their several parts, are consequently found
in the heraldry of lords of maritime manors. Shields of arms are
charged with hulls, stems, sterns, and rudders, masts with their
tops and tackling, sails, oars, cables, and anchors. It is of parts
of a ship also that the naval crown is formed.*

The buoy of a ship, blazoned or, is a cognizance of the Nevilles,
in allusion to the office of Admiral, held by their ancestor under
the Norman kings. The Earl of Abergavenny also quarters
with his paternal arms, or, fretty gules, on a canton per pale
ermine and of the first, a galley sable, for Neville the admiral ;
the charges bearing allusion to the net and the fishing vessel,
pressed into the king’s service on occasion of war.

A ship under full sail was the device of Andrea Doreo, Admi-
ral of Spain, with the motto “ Omnia fortune committo,” I
commit all to fortune. Gules, the hull of a ship, having only a
mast without rigging or, were the arms of the Duke Albertus
de Alasco, of Poland, with the motto, “‘ Deus dabit vela,” God
will give sails.

The stern of the Spanish line-of-battle ship “‘ San José” -
was granted to Admiral Lord Nelson in 1801, after the victory
of the Nile, as a crest, with a motto, said to have been chosen
by the King himself, “‘ Palmam qui meruit ferat,” let him who
merits bear the palm. The stern of his own flag-ship, the Royal
Sovereign, was, in like manner, granted as a crest to Admiral
Lord Collingwood in 1807. Some British admirals have as-
sumed the name of the ship in which they gained their renown,
as a motto, when it happened to convey some other meaning,
as, ‘“* Zealous,” “ Téméraire,” “ Superb,” &c. A ship’s mast, the
top and sail down, was used as a cognizance by René d’Anjou,
the father of Margaret, queen of Henry VI. A mainmast, the
round-top set off with palisadoes or, and a lion issuant sable, is
the crest of the family of Carew of Devonshire.

* See page 44, a naval crown, part of the crest of Admiral Sir William Burnaby, Bart.
N 2

180 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

A rudder sable, the tiller and stays or, is the badge of the
Lords Zouche The antique rudder upon which the goddess
leans, and the prow of a ship that appears at her feet, distin-
guish Britannia on the Roman medals; after the Conquest the
rudder from the sides of vessels was placed in the centre of the
stern. Or, an anchor between three fish naiant azure, are the
arms of the family of Habgood.

The seal of the town of Cardigan, on the river Teivy, bears, a
ship under sail, with the legend “‘ Anchora spei Ceretic est in te,
Domine,” the anchor of Cardigan’s hope is in thee, O Lord. In
the fishery of the Teivy the ancient coracle, a specimen of the
original British navigation, continues to be used.

The allegorical figures of Hope, each bearing an anchor, sup-
porters to the arms of the Earl of Hopetoun, were probably
assumed in allusion to the name of his family, together with the
motto, ‘‘ At spes non fracta,” but hope is not lost.

As Lord High-Admiral, in the reign of Henry VIII, the Earl
of Southampton bore the anchor as a cognizance, and it still
remains sculptured on the ceiling of the porch at Cowdray House
in Sussex, built by him. In 1539 he received the Lady Anne
of Cleves at Calais, on which occasion he wore, suspended to a
golden chain, a whistle of gold set with precious stones, such as
was then used by officers of the highest rank in communicating
orders. The whistle is now only worn by the boatswain, but
forms part of the arms granted to Admiral Lord Hawke.*

New Hampshire, in the United States, has assumed for arms
a ship upon the stocks. A similar device is borne by the town
of Devonport, which originated in the foundation of a dockyard
in the reign of William III, and was named by King George

IV. in 1824.
* See page 10.

ate

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 181

There is a kind of aptitude in the names of ships, taken from
the piscatory tribe which occupies the same region: the Levi-
athan, the Grampus, the Shark, the Dolphin, the Pike, the Otter,
and other inhabitants of the deep, as well as the Nautilus, swim
the waters with their synonymous navigators.

The first preachers of the Gospel were fishermen; the original
church represented, as nearly as might be, in its form the body
of a ship, in allusion to that into which Jesus Christ entered ;
which was always looked upon as a type of the church; and as
by the Apostolical constitutions the Church was to represent the
ship of Saint Peter, the centre avenue formed the nave, and pre-
serves the name.

A sign! Beneath the ship we stand!
The inverted vessel’s arching side
Forsaken, when the fisher-band
Went forth to track a mightier tide.*

In perfect accordance with this emblem of salvation, the seal
of the priory of Saint Bartholomew, Smithfield, founded in 1102
by Rahere, a minstrel and favourite of King Henry I, was de-
signed to represent the church in a ship, floating on the waves:
it is inscribed, “‘ Credimus ante Deum, provide per Bartholo-
meum.” 7

John de Passelaigue—literally, ship’s wake—who was Bishop
of Beller, in Burgundy, on the frontiers of Savoy, bore for arms,
argent, a chevron gules, in chief two hearts charged with the
name of Christ, and in base a ship sable, on waves vert, the sails
gules.+

Fish have often been made the vehicle of religious instruction ;
and for this purpose all the fine arts have been put in requisition.
Amongst many pictures by the first masters, in which the finny
tribe are introduced, that of Saint Anthony of Padua preaching
to the fish, may be mentioned. This fine picture, by Salvator
Rosa, is in the collection at Althorp House in Northampton-
shire ; the sermon itself is given in Addison’s Travels in Italy.

On the conventual seal of Glastonbury Abbey are represented
the figures of Saint Dunstan between Saint Patrick and Saint
Benignus ; each has his emblem beneath his feet; the last has a
party of fish: perhaps, adds the historian of the abbey, he also
preached to them, as Saint Anthony did.t

* Ecclesia, a poem, by the Rev. R. S. Hawker, A.M.
+ Palliot. t Warner’s History of Glastonbury Abbey, 1826.

182 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

A fish furnishing the University of Cambridge with a religious
feast was the occasion of a tract, entitled “‘ Vox Piscis,” or the
Book-fish ; containing three treatises which were found in the
belly of a codfish in Cambridge market, on Midsummer eve
1626.* This fish is said to have been taken in Lynn deeps, and,
after finding a book within it, the fish was carried by the bedel
to the vice-chancellor; and coming as it did at the Commence-
ment, the very time when good learning and good cheer were
most expected, it was quaintly remarked, that this sea guest had
brought his book and his carcass to furnish both.

THE HAKE.

Hakes are so abundant on the southern coast of England that
as many as forty thousand are said to have been landed in one
day on the shores of Mount’s Bay in Cornwall. In Ireland hakes
are taken nearly all round the island, and the fishery affords a
principal source of employment in Wexford, the great fishing
banks on the coast lying immediately off this county.

aii) Ny

i
th

The mayor’s seal of the town of Wexford bears an heraldic
illustration of the hake, its peculiar produce: on a fess wavy,
between three dolphins embowed, three hakes naiant, with a
coronet over each. |

* Greatly out of season ; cod generally comes into good season in October, and is
particularly fine till May.

ee
is

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 183

Galway Bay, on the western coast, is particularly distinguished
as the Bay of Hakes, from the vast number of these fish which
pursue the herrings into it. Galway, an ancient town on the
north-eastern side of this spacious bay, bears on its seal a fishing
vessel, having a shield charged with the royal arms affixed to
the mast, to denote the regality ; the fisheries affording an import-
ant source of revenue. The inhabitants were formerly divided
into thirteen tribes, each having exclusive commercial privileges,
not entirely relinquished. Off the coast of Waterford, also, the
hake is abundant, and it is said that a thousand fish have been
taken with the line by six men in the course of a single night.

The hake is frequently borne in heraldry in allusion to the
name. Sable, semé of cross crosslets fitchy, three hakes hauri-
ant argent, the arms of the family of Hacket of Niton, in the
Isle of Wight, are quartered with the arms of Worsley and Pel-
ham by the Earl of Yarborough. Agnes, daughter and heiress
of John Hacket, Esq. of Niton, married John Lye, Esq. of
Dorsetshire: their daughter and heiress, Anne, married Sir
James Worsley, Constable of Carisbrook Castle in the reign of
Henry VIII.; by which match the manor of Apuldercomb, and
other estates in the Isle of Wight, came into the possession of
the Worsley family.

Gules, three hakes hauriant argent, are the arms of the ancient
family of Hakehed of Ireland.*

Another family of Hacket, also of Ireland, bears for arms,
azure, three hakes hauriant argent ; and, vert, three hakes hau-
riant argent, are the arms of the family of Doxey, some branches
of which bear the fish in the arms or.

* Harl. MS. 5866.

184 THE HERALDRY OF - FISH.

Argent, a chevron between three hakes hauriant gules, are the
arms of the family of Hake of Devonshire ; a part of the country
where the fish is abundant. Azure, a dolphin naiant between
three cinquefoils argent, are the arms of Hagges of Scotland.

THE WHITING.

Tue-Wurrine isa delicate fish, well known, as it is caught in
abundance all round the coast of Great Britain, and appears to
be the same as the merlyng of antiquity. Merlyng fried, was
among the dishes at the coronation of Katherine, queen of
Henry V, which consisted entirely of fish.

This fish is only borne in heraldry in reference to the name.
A monument in the chancel of the church of Shillingford St.
George, on the river Exe in Devonshire, to the memory of the
Rev. John Whiting, who died in 1726, bears, three whitings

naiant in pale.

Another family of the name of Whiting bears for arms, argent,
on a bend sable three whitings. Thomas Whiting was Chester
Herald in the reign of Henry VIII, and probably bore the same
punning allusion to his name for arms.

There is extant a kind of literary bijou, a catalogue of
Friends’ books, written by Quakers, published in 1708: this
is much commended by Oldys, the bibliographer, who says,

DOOR IS bs ee

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 185

‘** Honest John Whiting has in this work borne away the gar-
land, and left it a choice legacy to libraries, and as a looking-
glass even to learned academies.”

Azure, three whitings hauriant argent, and crest, a whiting
hauriant, are the armorial bearings of the family of Whittington.

THE LING.

Tus valuable species of sea-fish was an article of commercial
importance in England as early as the reign of Edward ILI,
when the price was regulated. The ports of Spain are the prin-
cipal markets supplied with salted and dried ling. Argent, on a
fess dancetté azure, three lings’ heads erased or, are the arms of
the family of Caldwell of Staffordshire.

ae
SeeecSs

Few other instances are probably to be found of the appli-
cation of this fish as an heraldic bearing.

THE BURBOT.

Tue Bursor is a species of ling, but lives in fresh water; it is
found in the river Cam, as well as in several rivers of Norfolk,
Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and Durham. The Trent also produces
the burbot.

The habits of the burbot are not unlike those of the eel, and,
from its lurking and hiding itself in holes like the rabbit, it is
called the coney-fish, whence it was doubtless assumed, with the
coney, in the arms of Bishop Cheney, as a pun on his name.
These are here given impaled with those of the see of Gloucester,
created by King Henry VIII. in the year 1542, who endowed

186 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

the bishopric with the revenues of the monastery, founded in
honour of Saint Peter at Gloucester, the church of which he
ordained should be for ever the cathedral of the see. The arms
of the bishopric were composed from the emblem of the patron
saint, azure, two keys in saltier or.

Argent, on a chevron azure, a coney courant between two
burbot or coney-fish hauriant of the field, on a chief chequy
argent and azure, a rose gules, were the arms of Richard Cheney,
Bishop of Gloucester, who died in 1578, and is buried in the
cathedral.

77

TON

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Of
a

In the reign of Edward VI. Richard Cheney was Archdeacon —

of Hereford, but was deprived of his preferment in Queen Mary’s
time for upholding the opinions of Luther. After the accession
of Elizabeth he was made’a prebendary of Westminster, and in
1562 was consecrated Bishop of Gloucester, with liberty to hold
the see of Bristol im commendam.

ge ee ee ee ee ee eee

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 187

IX.
The Sole, Turbot, Place, and Flounder.

Tur Sore inhabits the sandy shores all round England, but
those of the southern and western coasts are much larger and
superior fish. From its delicate taste, the sole is termed “the
partridge of the sea.”

Argent, a chevron gules between three soles hauriant, within
a border engrailed sable, are the arms of the family of Soles of
Brabane, in Cambridgeshire.*

Vert, a chevron between three soles naiant or, are the arms of
Soley of Shropshire. The heiress of a branch of this family
married Randal Holme of Chester, deputy of Norroy King of
Arms, and author of ‘“ The Academy of Armoury,” 1688. The
arms of Soley are sculptured on his monument in Saint Mary’s
Church, Chester, where he was interred in 1700. Per pale or
and gules, a chevron counter-changed between three soles azure
and argent, are the arms of the family of Soley of Worcester-
shire. Gules, three soles naiant argent, are the arms of the
_ family of De Soles.

The whiff or carter of Cornwall is a species of sole, less
esteemed: it keeps on sandy ground, at no great distance from
land, and is caught as often as any of the salt-water flat-fish.
Sable, a chevron ermine, between three carter-fish hauriant ar-
gent, are the arms of the family of Carter of London, assumed
evidently as a play upon the. name.

* Guillim.

188 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

THE TURBOT.

Tue Tursot, one of the best, as well as one of the largest of
the flat-fish, is found on all parts of the coast of Great Britain.
On the shores of Yorkshire and Durham a very considerable fish-
ery for turbot is carried on by the fishermen of Scarborough
and Hartlepool; but preference is generally given to the Dutch,
the finest of which are supposed to be taken on the Flemish
banks. Azure, three turbots argent, finned or, are the arms of
the ancient family of Turbutt of York. There is a monument
in the church of Saint Michael Ouse Bridge for William Turbutt,
who died in 1648; another William Turbutt was Sheriff of
Yorkshire in 1710.

These arms are found also on an engraved brassplate in Felis-
kirk Church, near Thirsk; which bears a Latin inscription in
memory of William Turbutt of Mount Saint John, who died
13 April 1673. Mount Saint John is the site of a preceptory of
the Knights Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem, founded
by Algernon Percy in the beginning of the reign of Henry I.
Argent, three turbots naiant, are the arms of the family of Tar-

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 189

butt of Scotland; and argent, three turbots fretted, are the arms
of Tarbutt of Middlesex.

A turbot naiant azure is the crest of the family of Kidley of
Devonshire; and a demi-turbot erect, tail upwards, gules, is the
crest of the family of Lawrence; and was so borne by the late
Sir Thomas Lawrence, President of the Royal Academy.

Milton has a beautiful sonnet to “‘ Lawrence, of virtuous father
virtuous son.” The father was Henry Lawrence, President of
the council of the Protector, created a peer in 1657. He was
allied to Cromwell, and, after the death of Oliver, proclaimed
Richard Cromwell his successor. He died in 1664, and was
buried in the chapel of Saint Margaret at Stansted le Thele, in
Hertfordshire, where his arms, a cross raguly, impaling those of
Peyton, and the crest, a demi-turbot, are sculptured on his
tomb.

John Lawrence of Ramsey, in Huntingdonshire, in the reign
of Henry VIII, was the ancestor of the family at Saint Ives, in
the same county, of which Sir John Lawrence, the father of the
President of the Council, was knighted at Windsor by King
James I. previously to the coronation. It is from one of the
younger sons of the President that the Lawrence family of
Studley Park, and Hackfall in Yorkshire, are descended.

The Lawrences of Ashton Hall, in Lancashire, are of very

early origin. That estate has passed through heiresses from

them to the Butlers of Raweliff; from the Butlers to the Rat-
cliffs of Wimersley ; and from them to the Gerards of Bromley ;
and Ashton Hall, through the heiress of the last Lord Gerard,
descended to the Duke of Hamilton, K.G., who was created
Duke of Brandon in 1711.

Another branch of the Lawrence family was seated at Hert-
ingfordbury in the reign of Henry VII, and became allied to the
great and illustrious, to the ambitious Dudley, Duke of Nor-
thumberland ; to the Earls of Warwick ; to Lord Guildford Dud-

190 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

ley; the brilliant Leicester; and to Sir Philip Sidney. Lord
Heytesbury, as heir of the Vernons, is the representative of this
branch of the Lawrence family.*

One of the peculiar features of the old city of London was the
number of houses enriched with plaster-work, skilfully modelled
in imitation of foliage, fruit, heads of men, and animals, and
most prominent heraldic insignia. A house of this description
bore on its front the turbot crest and arms of Lawrence, dif-
ferenced by a canton, and was the residence of Sir John Law-
rence, Lord Mayor in 1665: he was the grandson of a Fleming,
who left the Netherlands in the reign of Elizabeth and settled in
Great Saint Helen’s, where Sir John built a mansion not un-
worthy of the Doge of Genoa, “la superba.” The Genoese
nobility do not disdain to follow mercantile pursuits, amd derive
a rich source of revenue from the exports of the city; in early
times, when a nobleman engaged in trade, his nobility was said
to sleep. The Emperors of Germany allowed printers to bear
coat armour in acknowledgment of the importance of the dis-
covery: printing was then practised by many who were of noble
family as well as by eminent ecclesiastics. The solidity of the
anchor used by Aldus corresponds with prudence; the dolphin
was an ancient emblem of swiftness, and its meaning was, that
to work successfully it was necessary to labour without relaxa-
tion, to be deliberate in choice, and quick in execution.

THE BRILL.

Tux Brit, or brett, a fish of the turbot kind, frequenting, like
that fish, sandy bays, as well as deep water, is taken in abun-
dance on the southern coast of England. Azure, three bretts
naiant, are the arms of the family of Bretcock ; and the crest of
the family of Britwesill is a brill naiant.

Naturalists seem to be of opinion that the celebrated turbot of
Ancona, the subject of Juvenal’s satire, was a brill, the Rhombus
* Gentleman’s Magazine for 1815 and 1829, -

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 191

vulgaris of Cuvier. The fish which desired to be caught for the
Emperor’s table was of unequalled size, and quite filled the fish-
erman’s net; nets are certainly used at the beginning of the
season, but in warm weather the fish make for deep water, when
the fishermen have recourse to their many-hooked lines.

THE PLAICE.

Tuesz fish, commonly called Dutch plaice, are taken wherever
lines or nets can be used on the English coast, but the Diamond
ground, off the coast of Sussex, produces the fish most remarkable
for purity of colour and for the brilliancy of their spots, which
are of a bright orange red. English heraldry does not afford an
instance of plaice, but Palliot gives an example in the arms of
the Danish family of Bukens: azure, on a bend argent, three
plaice of the field, in chief an escutcheon cheyrony or and gules.

“‘ The best fish swim near the bottom” is an expression ap-
plicable to the varieties of flat-fish; and it is remarked by the
naturalist that, as birds are seen to occupy very different situa-
tions, some obtaining their food on the ground, others on trees,
and not a few at various degrees of elevation in the air, so are
fish destined to reside in different situations in the water. The
flat-fish are, by their depressed form of body, admirably adapted
to inhabit the lowest position, and where they occupy the least
space among their kindred fish.*

* Yarrell’s British Fishes.

192 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

THE FLOUNDER.

Tis fish is found near the mouths of large rivers and in the
sea all round the coast of Great Britain; it is termed flounder
from its manner of swimming when close to the ground; at Yar-
mouth it is called a butt, and in Scotland, a fluke, on account of
its flattened form. Sable, a fluke argent, is the armorial dis-
tinction of a family of the name of Fisher.

Captain Franck gives a lively description of this fish in his
rambling memoirs of angling, which are full of amusement to
the traveller, the soldier, and the fisherman. By way of a gene-
ral rule, he commences with—

He that intends the flounder to surprise,
Must rise betimes, and fish before sunrise.

‘‘ The flounder is a fish that’s as bold as a buccaneer, of
much more confidence than caution, and is so fond of a worm
that hell go to the banquet though he die at the board. He is
a resolute fish, and struggles stoutly for victory with the angler,
and is more than ordinarily difficult to deal with, by reason of
his build, which is altogether flat, as it were a level. The
flounder delights, I must tell you, to dwell among stones; be-
sides, he’s a great admirer of deeps and ruinous decays, yet as
fond as any fish of moderate streams; and none beyond him,
except the perch, that is more solicitous to rifle into ruins, inso-
much that a man would fancy him an antiquary, considering he —
is so affected with reliques.”*

Under its name of butt the flounder appears in the heraldry of

* Franck’s Northern Memoirs, 1694.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 193

the family of Butts of Dorking, in Surrey, which bears for arms,
argent, a saltier gules, between four ermine spots, on a chief
of the second, three buttfish hauriant of the first: crest, an arm
couped at the elbow and erect,-grasping a buttfish, or flounder.

Argent on a bend sable, three fish of the field, are the arms of
the family of Sankey of Cawdwells, a manor in the parish of
Edlesborough, in Buckinghamshire. Sable, three fish in bend
between two cottises argent, are the arms of the family of Sankey
of Worcestershire. The particular species of fish is not de-
scribed, but it is possible flounders are intended, from the known
preference of the flat-fish to the sandy bottom of the water, and
the slight play upon the name afforded by that circumstance.

194 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

x.
Che Eel, Conger, and Lamprep.

Tue form of the “ fine silver eel,” unlike that of many other

fish, is well known; but the whiteness of the belly is not the —

only mark to know the best fish, the colour of the back should
be of a bright coppery hue. Eels inhabit almost all the rivers,
lakes, and ponds in England, and are found in almost every
part of the world. Being caught with the greatest ease, they
were, in early times, more common as food than other descrip-
tions of fish. Fisheries formed one of the most important sources
of revenue in the Anglo-Norman period of history, and wherever
the produce in kind is mentioned it seems to have consisted chiefly
in eels, herrings, or salmon. The rent in eels appears to have
been paid numerically, and sometimes it was paid by sticks, the
eels being strung on tough willow twigs, every stick bearmg
twenty-five. The revenue produced by mills is variously stated,
sometimes in money and in grain, but occasionally from the fish-
ery in the mill-stream, consisting chiefly of eels.*

Elmore, on the banks of the Severn, near Gloucester, received
its name from the number of eels there taken. Gules, on a chief
or, a dolphin azure, are the arms of the family of Elmore: the

dolphin being used as the emblem of the fishery. The lords of —

manors in the Isle of Ely were entitled to more than a hundred
thousand eels, so productive of this fish were the fens, which
were formerly overflowed with water.

Argent, a chevron engrailed gules, between three eels nowed,
or twisted like a knot, are the arms of the family of Radley of
Yarborough, which is situated on the banks of the Ankholme, a
river celebrated for its production of eels in an old Lincolnshire

proverb—
Ankholme eel and Witham pike,
In all the world there is ne sike.

The eel occurs frequently in English heraldry in reference to
a family name. Argent, three eels naiant in pale, are the arms
of Ellis of Treveare, the most westerly part of Cornwall, an

* Introduction to Domesday Book, by Sir Henry Ellis,

———

ee a

a ge ee ee

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 195

ancient family, of which John Ellis, Esq. late M.P. for Newry,
is a descendant.

Argent, three eels embowed, in pale, sable, are the arms, and
on an eel vert, an eagle displayed, is the crest, of the family of
Eales. Argent, two eels hauriant confronté vert, between two
etoiles gules, are the arms, and an eel naiant vert, is the crest,
of the family of Arneel of Scotland.

Five arrows or, entwined by an eel, are borne as a crest by
the family of Elwes of Stoke, near Clare, on the banks of the
Stour in Suffolk, of which Sir Gervase Elwes was created baronet
in 1660.

A hand gauntleted, grasping an eel, is the crest of the family
of Elleis of Southside, in Scotland, and of that of Ellice of
Clothall, in Hertfordshire. An arm embowed vested azure,
turned up argent, holding in the hand an eel, is the crest of the
family of Enghanes. One of the branches of the house of Bretel,
in France, bears for arms, or, a chevron gules, between three
mullets azure, on a chief of the last an eel argent; other
branches bear on the chief a lamprey or a salmon.*

Azure, a saltier between four eels naiant or, are the arms of
the family of Fleury, of Ireland; and, argent, three eels naiant
in pale azure, are the arms of the family of Ducat, of Scotland.
Or, a fess gules, between an eel naiant in chief azure, and a
lion’s head erased in base gules, are borne by the Scottish family
of Cuthbertson, a variation seemingly from the arms of Cuthbert,
or, a fess gules, in chief a serpent azure, the serpent here being
assumed as an emblem of the name of Cuthbert, which implies
one famed for knowledge:

Quique gerit certum Cuthbert de luce vocamen.
A heron’s head, with an eel in its bill, is the crest of the family

* Palliot.
o 2

196 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

of Mercer of Aldie, in Perthshire, and, with their motto, ‘ Grit
Poul,” is sculptured on the Castle of Aldie, erected in the six-
teenth century. A demi-stork, wings expanded sable, the outside
of the wings argent, holding in the bill an eel azure, was borne
on a wreath argent and vert, by Sir John Styell in the reign of
Henry VIII.*

Two storks, with wings elevated, and an eel in the bill of each, |

are borne as supporters to the arms of the Right Hon. J. Hobart
Caradoc, Lord Howden of Grimston in Yorkshire.

In Boisseau’s Heraldry + several French families are men-
tioned as bearing eels in their arms. Lauzon, azure, three eels
in pale argent, Goulas, gules, three eels two and one argent, on a
chief azure, a lion passant or ; and Buzannal, or, a chevron gules,
in chief two Cornish choughs, and on a chief argent, an eel
naiant.

Anguillaria, an Italian family, noticed by Palliot, bears for
arms, argent, two eels in saltier azure, within a border indented
argent over gules.

Examples of eels in Spanish heraldry are found in the arms
borne by the great Houses of Guzman, Pacheco, and De Lara.
The grandees of Castile, in the earliest age of heraldry, assumed
the Pendon y Caldera, the banner and caldron, as well-known
military badges; the banner as the rallying ensign of command,
showing ability to raise troops, and the caldron, or camp-kettle,
denoting power to feed them: these charges are common in the
oldest heraldry of Spain. The French heralds, in their blazon-
ing, term the caldron chaudiére, and the contents serpents; but,
as the chauditre implies cooking-pot, it is presumed they are
intended for eels. The olla or pipkin of Spain, in which the
national and savoury stew is concocted, is equivalent to the cal-
dron of the Rico Hombre, or rich man.

* Harl. MS. 4632. + Promptuaire Armorial, 1657.

ee)

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 197

Azure, two caldrons or, with eels issuing therefrom, within
a border ermine, are the arms of the illustrious family of Guz-
man, and were so borne by Cardinal Enrique de Guzman de
Haro in 1627.

Argent, two caldrons or, barry indented gules, with six eels
issuing therefrom, three on either side, are the arms of the family
of Pacheco; and, gules, two caldrons or, barry sable, with eight
eels issuing therefrom, are the arms of De Lara.

The very singular arms, resembling eels, of the ancient Abbey
of Whitby, at the mouth of the river Esk in Yorkshire, refer
to antediluvian remains, which are supposed to belong to the
order of molluscous animals, termed by geologists Cephalopoda,
animals in a chambered cell, curved like a coiled eel, and better
known as Ammonites, from a fancied resemblance to the horns
of Jupiter. The arms are blazoned, azure, three snakes encircled
or, as now borne by the town of Whitby.

A weir-basket filled with fish is depicted upon the seal, in
the reign of Henry IV, of William Weare of Weare Gifford, on
the river Torridge, in Devonshire. The punning motto of this
family is ‘“‘ Sumus,” we are.

Many eels are taken in weirs formed on the banks of rivers: in
the Thames, the eel-pot or wicker basket is used in various parts ;
bemg opposed to the stream, the eels are thus intercepted in

198 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

their progress, and become a source of revenue to the lords of
manors possessing the several fisheries.

An eel-pot, per pale argent and vert, the badge of Lord Wil-
liams of Thame, Lord Chamberlain to Queen Mary, is now borne
by the Earl of Abingdon, the representative of Henry Lord
Norris, who married Margaret, the daughter and heiress of Lord
Williams.

ee

A wivern, with wings endorsed gules, standing on a fishweir
devouring a child, and pierced through the neck with an arrow,
is the crest of the family of Venables, Barons of Kinderton in
Cheshire, ancestors of the Lords Vernon of Kinderton.

Per bend azure and vert, a fishweel or willow-basket, in bend
or, are the arms of the family of Wheler; and, argent, a chevron
ermine, between three fishweels, their hoops upward vert, are
the arms of the family of Wylley. Or, a chevron between three
fishweels sable, are the arms of the ancient family of Foleborne.

TTI TLE
Wie

i

The fishweels or weirs are exceedingly picturesque features
of scenery ; when the rivers are high, the overfalls of the water
form a cascade, but at all times they afford a variety to the view,
breaking the line of the river and producing some slight. water-
fall. Fishguard, a town at the mouth of the Gwain, in Pem-
brokeshire, derives its name from the fishgarth or weir in the
river, which is famed for its trout and salmon, as well as eels.
An allusion to the dam or weir is doubtless intended by the

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 199

fish in the arms of the family of Dame, sable, three fish naiant
in pale or; and perhaps also in those of the family of Twicket,
argent, a fess between three fish hauriant gules: the name having
reference to the small passage or wicket, in the weir.

A fishweel or, is the crest of the family of Colland. Gules, an
otter or, springing from a fishweel vert, are the arms of Jugerde
de Beverlak.*

Sable, a chevron between three eel-spears argent, are the arms
of the family of Stratele or Strateley.

Great numbers of eels are taken by means of these long-
handled four-pronged spears, and nowhere is the practice of eel-
spearing more common than at Streatley, on the banks of the
Thames, whence the family probably derived their name. A
pheon or, handled argent, entwined with an eel, is the crest of
the family of Ewer of Luton, in Bedfordshire; and an eel en-
twined round a shafted pheon is the crest of the family of
Granell.

THE CONGER.

Tue Concer, or sea-eel, formerly esteemed for the table, is
found in deep hollows of the rocks on various parts of the west-
ern coast of England: off the French coast are considerable
conger banks, where prodigious quantities are still taken for
maigre days. In the time of King Henry III. Rochelle was
celebrated for its conger eels. The old town seal of Congleton,
in Cheshire, bears a tun floating on waves between two congers
respecting each other, and upon the tun a lion statant; a very
indifferent play upon the name of the town.

* Sibmacher.

200 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

Gules, on a fess argent, between three congers’ or dragons’
heads erased or, as many trefoils slipped sable, are the arms of
the family of Congleton of Northamptonshire. Argent, a chey-
ron between three demi-congers naiant gules, are the arms of the
family of Shambrooke.

Congers acquire a very large size, and are recorded by natu-
ralists to have occasionally measured more than ten feet in length
and eighteen inches in circumference, weighing from eighty to
one hundred and thirty pounds. They are borne in arms by the
family of Conghurst, azure, three congers hauriant argent.

The head of this fish is more frequently found in heraldry.
Sable, three congers’ heads erased and erect argent, are the arms
of Hotoft, an ancient family of Nottinghamshire. Some branches
of the family bear for crest, a conger’s head erect and erased
azure, gorged with a mural coronet or, with chain and ring of
the last.

Argent, a chevron between three congers’ heads erased, are
the arms of the family of Canbrook ; and, per chevron gules and
or, three sea-dragons ducally crowned counterchanged, are the
arms of the family of Easton of Devonshire.

The conger is known to be so voracious as not to spare even
those of its own species; it has the power to crush with its jaws
the strong shells of lobsters and other crustaceous fish. It pos-
sesses great tenacity of life, together with great strength, and
often proves a formidable antagonist to the fisherman, if assailed
in its quarters among the rocks. These characteristics support
the assumption that the conger is the prototype not only of the
wivern, or sea-dragon of English heraldry, but of the poetical
dragon, the dragon of the monkish legends, the representation of
Evil, and the serpent of the romances. It would not be difficult

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 201

to show that the dragon, a leading symbol of heraldry, has the
same source as the Urgunda of the Mexicans, the great serpent
on the Chinese banner, and the sea-snake of the Scandinavians.

The destruction of dragons appears to have been one of the
most common of all miracles in the earlier ages of the Church ;
besides the well-known exploits of Saint George, Saint Michael,
and Saint Margaret, ecclesiastical history abounds in similar
legends. The simple explanation of these, lies in considering the
various victories represented to have been gained over dragons,
as sO many conquests obtained by virtue over vice. Some of
these miracles have another allegorical signification, and are sup-
posed to be intended to typify the confining of rivers within
their proper channels, or limiting the incursions of the sea.

The emblem of St. Margaret, their patron saint, is borne in
the arms of the corporation of the ancient borough of Lynn, in
Norfolk. Azure, three congers’ or dragons’ heads erased and
erect, the jaws of each pierced with a cross crosslet fitchy or,
were the arms of the priory founded by Bishop Herbert de
Losing, in the time of William Rufus; the same as now borne
by the town of Lynn.

Margaret the Virgin, the tutelary saint and especial patroness
of Lynn, is represented on the corporation seal on a dragon,
and wounding it with the cross: the inscription is, “ svn. MARGA-
RETA . TERITVR . DRACO. STAT. CRVCE.L&TA.” The same saint, sub-
duing and trampling upon the dragon, is also represented on the
conventual seals of West Acre Priory, Thetford, and Norwich
Priories, and that of Saint Margaret at Hilburgh, all in the same
county.

202 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

The Order of the Dragon Overthrown, the knighthood of Hun-
gary, was instituted by the Emperor Sigismund in 1418, for the
purpose of engaging the Hungarian nobility in the defence of the
frontiers of that country against the Turks. A dragon was an
ancient ensign of this part of Germany, and, after Trajan’s Dacian
war, was substituted for the eagle of the Romans, and from
them passed as a standard to several European nations. <A dra-
gon was depicted on the banners of the Anglo-Saxon kings of
England, and was so borne by the Milesian kings of Ireland:
during the Crusades it was considered as the symbol of the Bri-
tish nation. . From having been used by Cadwallo, and other
potentates of Wales, it descended to King Henry VII, and by
him the red dragon was assumed as one of the supporters of
the royal arms of England; and Rouge dragon pursuivant was
created. Two dragons argent, were afterwards used by the city
of London in the same manner, but charged on the wing with
the cross of Saint George.

THE LAMPREY.

Azure, on a bend or, three lampreys of the field, are the arms
of the family of Castleton of Suffolk; and, or, three lampreys,
are the arms of the family of Lamprell. The proper colour of
the body of the lamprey is olive brown, spotted on the back
and sides with dark green.

Sable, three lampreys in pale argent, are the arms of the
family of Radford of Dawlish, in Devonshire.

The lamprey is a fish common in some of the rivers on the
southern coast of England, and particularly so in the Severn.
At Worcester, where it is prepared in various ways for the table,

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 203

the lamprey is in high estimation; and it has been a custom
for the citizens of Gloucester annually to present the sovereign
with a lamprey pie. The lamproun, which often occurs in old
accounts of provisions, is supposed to be a different fish from the
lamprey; both are mentioned as provided for Archbishop War-
ham’s installation feast in 1503. The murena of the Romans,
from the Mediterranean, generally translated lamprey, is also a
different fish, more of the eel kind.

The remora, or sucking-fish, common in the Mediterranean,
was well known to the Romans, and is famed for its power over
the vessel of the mariner :—

The sucking-fish beneath, with secret chains
Clung to the keel, the swiftest ship detains.

It is mentioned as borne in arms on the authority of Peacham.*
That quaint writer says, “‘ Of fishes you shall find in armes the
whale, the dolphin, the salmon, the trout, barbel, turbot, her-
ring, roach, remora, and escallop shells;” and adds, that “‘ you
must be very heedful in the blazoning of fishes, by reason of the
variety of their natures.” The arms bearing the remora, alluded
to by Peacham, are not known; but as an emblem of prudence
this fish is used in heraldry. The dexter supporter of the arms
of the Earl Howe is described, in some authorities, as Prudence
habited argent, mantled azure, holding a javelin entwined with a
remora. It is a fish seldom exceeding a foot in length; the tail
and fins are comparatively very small.

* On Blazoning Arms, in the Gentleman’s Exercise, 1630.

204 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

xi.
The Sturgeon:

Tur Srurcxon, a large sea fish, is occasionally caught on the
eastern coast of England, and, when taken near land, is con-
sidered a royal fish, and is sent to the king.

Whatever fish the vulgar fry excell
Belong to Cesar, wheresoe’er they swim,
By their own worth confiscated to him.

In the northern parts of Europe this fish is numerous. A great
sturgeon fishery is at the mouth of the Wolga, in the Caspian
Sea. They are caught in weirs, similar to those used in Scotland
for salmon. Sturgeon are abundant in the Danube, and attain
a large size; but those taken in the Theiss, one of the branches of
that river, are remarkable for fatness and delicate flavour. The
flesh of this fish, when fresh, is very fine, and more like veal than
even turtle. It is of the roe that the caviar, so much prized
at Constantinople, is prepared.

Azure, three sturgeons argent, fretty gules, are the arms of
the family of Sturgney; and, azure, three sturgeons naiant in pale
or, over all fretty gules, are the arms of the family of Sturgeon
of Whepstead, near Bury, in Suffolk, who bear for crest a stur-
geon naiant or, fretty gules.

On the monument of Sir John Spelman, 1545, in Narborough
Church, Norfolk, are inlaid portraits, engraved on brass, of the
knight and his lady: on the lady’s mantle are the arms of Stur-
geon, quartered with those of her own family, Frowick of Gun-—
nesbury, in Middlesex. She is represented kneeling at a prie-
dieu, and over the figures is an engraving of the Resurrection.*

* Engraved in Cotman’s Sepulchral Brasses in Norfolk, 1819.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 205

XI.
The Dog-fish, Sea-lions, and other Monsters.

Tue Doc-risu is a kind of shark, found on the shores of Great
Britain: of this species the white shark is the most terrific to
mankind, being supposed to have a particular desire for human
flesh. The gula of this fish is so wide that a man may be swal-
lowed entire. A shark issuant regardant, swallowing a man, is
the crest of the family of Yeates of Ireland. A shark’s head
regardant, and swallowing a negro, is the crest of the family of
Molton. A very similar crest was granted to that of Garmston,
mentioned at page 67. Sir Brook Watson, Alderman of Lon-
don, created Baronet in 1803, lost his leg from the bite of a
shark in the harbour of Havannah, and assumed for crest, a
demi-triton, grasping a trident and repelling a shark in the act
of seizing its prey. The incident is also commemorated in a pic-
ture by Copley, at Christ’s Hospital. Almost all the species of
shark have received some name resembling hounds, as beagle,
rough-hound, smooth-hound, spotted-dog, and dog-fish, from their
habit of following their prey, or hunting in company or packs.

Argent, three dog-fish in pale sable, are the arms of the family
of Gesse.

Gules, a mallet dog-fish argent, are the arms of the family
of Malvish; * a demi dog-fish sable is the crest of the family
of Meer of Dorsetshire.

* Randle Holme.

206 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

Unnatural animals appear in the heraldry of all nations. Itis —
related that an Austrian nobleman asked an English ambassador _
at Vienna, whose arms presented a griffin, “‘ in what forest that —
beast was met with ?” to which the ambassador readily answered,
‘“‘ the same in which the eagles with two heads are found.”

The monsters found in antique sculpture are generally com-
binations of parts of known animals; the sea-lions and sea-
horses, originating in the superstition of mariners, are embel-
lished by art and fable. The lion and the horse being well
known and familiar animals, the creatures of the water obtained
similar names, whenever a fancied resemblance would appear to
warrant the application of them. Or, on a bend wavy, between
two sea-lions sable, three bucks’ heads caboshed argent, and
crest, a sea-lion supporting an anchor, are the insignia of Sir
Robert Harland, Baronet, of Orwell Park in Suffolk, who is de-

scended from a distinguished naval commander.

A sea-lion sejant, is the crest of the Earl of Thanet, a title
derived from the isle of Thanet, a district on the Kentish coast,
where the inhabitants, partaking of the amphibious character of
the sea-lion, live by sea and land, making the most of both ele-
ments, as farmers and fishermen. The Earl of Thanet, by descent

SO. ae ee ee ee ee ee a! oes

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 207

from the Cliffords, is also lord of the honor of Skipton in Craven.
Two sea-lions argent, guttée de l’armes, were assumed as sup-
porters by the Viscount Falmouth, the title granted to the brave
Admiral Boscawen for his important services in America.

A tower in flames, on its side a sea-lion azure, its paws pressing
against the tower, was granted as a crest to Sir John Thomas
Duckworth, Bart. of Weare, in Devonshire. It was this gallant
admiral who forced the passage of the Dardanelles in 1807.
A sea-lion and anchor was granted as one of the supporters of
the arms of Viscount Bridport, second admiral in command on
the memorable 1st of June 1794.

The lion, the king of beasts, is the type of bold and invincible
courage; and a fanciful animal, the marine lion, is assumed as
the emblem of those qualities, so absolutely necessary to a naval
commander: it is always represented in heraldry with the upper
part of a lion and the tail of a fish. The sculptors of antiquity,
as well as the poets, appear to have had great pleasure in con-
verting lions into aquatic animals: at Rome lions spout water at
several fountains, and on the channels of roofs they are made
to fill an office by no means characteristic of the fiercest of
beasts.

Delphinum sylyvis appingit, fluctibus aprum.

The sea-horse, more common in heraldry than the sea-lion,
is also of classical origin; the horse was closely connected with

_ the history of Neptune, and upon Roman festivals in honour of

the ocean god, led horses, crowned with garlands, formed a prin-
cipal part. Neptune is also represented flying over the surface
of the sea in a chariot formed of a large shell, drawn by winged
horses.

The poets of the northern nations, who delighted in hierogly-
phical personifications, sometimes term a ship the horse of the
ocean, and the savage chief who pursues the flying damsel is
said to traverse the waves on an enchanted steed in some of the
older ballads and popular tales recited by the scalds. In this
manner the classical fable of Andromeda and the sea-monster
may be explained, by the probable fact of her being wooed by
the captain of a ship, who attempted to carry her off, but was
prevented by the interposition of a more favoured lover.

Plutarch admits that the celebrated monster Chimera was
derived from a captain of pirates, whose ship bore the figures of

208 - THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

a lion, a goat, and a dragon. Another explanation is, that it
was a burning mountain of Lycia, the top of which was the
resort of lions, the middle of goats, and the marshy ground at
bottom abounding with serpents. Bellerophon, who first made
his habitation on the mountain, is thus said to have conquered
the Chimera. King Philip II, after his marriage with Queen
Mary of England, assumed as a device, Bellerophon fighting
with the monster, inscribed “ Hine Vigilo,” implying that he
only wanted a favourable time to combat the heresy of this king-
dom.*

Sea-horses, as an emblem of naval dominion, are sculptured on
the front of the Admiralty of England, and are often assumed
as supporters to the arms of noblemen whose honours are derived
from the distinguished success of their ancestors at sea: they
form the supporters of the arms of the towns of Newcastle+ and
Cambridge, and of the Pewterers’ Company in London.

Azure, a chevron between three sea-horses or, are the arms of
the ancient family of Tucker of Milton, in Kent.

A sea-horse forms one of the charges in the arms of the un-
rivalled David Garrick: he was the grandson of a merchant of
France, who settled in England upon the revocation of the edict
' of Nantes, in 1685. Both the sea-horse and dolphin were de-
picted on the standard of Trevellian in the reign of Henry
VIII; } and, argent, a sea-horse rampant, issuing from waves
vert, are the arms of the family of Eckford of Scotland. As
a crest, the sea-horse is borne by the noble families of Brudenel
and Jenkinson, the Earls of Cardigan and Liverpool.

In form the sea-horse of heraldry bears resemblance to the

* Menestrier.

+ The arms of Newcastle are among the embellishments of Mr. Martin’s catalogue of
privately printed books. t Coll. Topog. vol. iii.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 209

hippocampus brevirostris of Cuvier and the early naturalists; two
found on the Hampshire coast are engraved in Mr. Yarrell’s His-
tory of British Fishes.

The griffin, half eagle half lion, of classical origin, is found
upon many basso relievos at Rome: the iron griffins ornaments
of the Strozzi Palace at Florence, wrought in the time of Lorenzo
the Magnificent, are curious specimens of art, and still as sharp
as when they came from Caparra’s smithy.* The sea-griffin, an
imaginative instance of marine zoology, half eagle half fish, ap-
pears in architectural sculpture on a capital of the Anglo-Norman
Church of Iffley, in Oxfordshire,f and is also found in heraldry.
Argent, a marine griffin sable, is the armorial ensign of the family
of Mestich, in Silesia; and a sea-griffin rampant, that of Use-
dom, in Pomerania, an island at the mouth of the Oder, in the
Baltic, belonging to the kingdom of Prussia.

The unicorn is entirely fabulous, like the griffin and chimera:
the long twisted horn which is commonly seen is the weapon of
defence of the sea-unicorn, a fish which possesses two horns,
although they are seldom found perfect, being liable to be de-
stroyed by accidents. The unicorn of heraldry is derived from
the horse armed with a spiked chanfron ; and it is this fictitious
animal with a fish’s tail which is intended in the Prussian arms,
per fess argent and gules, a sea-unicorn counter-changed, borne
by the family of Die Niemptscher; and gules, a fish with the
head of a stag or, is the ensign of the family of Die Pogorsker
und Riiditzky, in Silesia.{

Capricorn, one of the zodiacal signs, having the head of a goat
and the tail of a fish, is represented on the medals of Augustus,
to signify, according to the medallists, his horoscope, from which
the empire was predicted to him at Apollonia.

* Forsyth. + Engraved in Britton’s Architectural Antiquities, vol. y. t Palliot.
Pp

210 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

XIII.
The Seal, sHMermatd, and Triton.

Tuer seal is an amphibious animal, living chiefly in the water,
being provided with two broad fin-like feet for swimming.
Phoce, or Fochia, a seaport of Ionia, received its name from
the seals which abound in its vicinity. The rude state of sci-
ence and the ignorance of the earlier naturalists have already
been mentioned ; the seal was consequently assumed in heraldry
as a fish, though not considered as such by modern zoologists.

The seal frequents the mouth of the Tees, and commits havoc
among the salmon ; it is also found in the river Severn ; a stuffed
seal, long preserved in the hall of Berkeley Castle, was the hero
of many traditional tales of captives devoured by it. Both seals
and porpoises kept their place on the table as late as the begin-
ning of the sixteenth century: there were twelve porpoises and
seals brought for the feast when Archbishop Nevile was en-
throned at York in 1465, and both are mentioned in the account
of Archbishop Warham’s feast in 1503.

Parts of the seal are borne in the heraldry of some ancient
families of Great Britain. Argent, a chevron between three seals’

heads couped sable, were the arms of James Lord Ley, a distin-
guished lawyer, Chief Justice of the Court of King’s Bench, and —
Lord Treasurer of England, in the reign of James I, and who ©
was created Earl of Marlborough by King Charles I.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 211

Or, a seal’s foot erased and erect sable, are the arms of the
family of Beringburgh; and, argent, a chevron between three
seals’ feet erased and erect sable, are the arms of the town of
Yarmouth.*

Among the islands and on the shores of Scotland seals are
plentiful. Broadford, in the Isle of Skye, is situated on the
Streamlet of Seals. Two seals are the supporters of the arms of
Sir Fitz Roy J. G. Maclean, Baronet, whose ancestor, Sir Lach-
lan Maclean of Morvern, in the Isle of Mull, was so created by
King Charles I. in 1632.

Around Juan Fernandez are always seen thousands of seals,
either sitting on the shores of the bays, or going and coming in
the sea, round the island. It is the opinion of an eminent natu-
ralist that the seal was the prototype of the mermaid and triton,
the splendid fictions of the classical poets; its round head and
hand-like feet, he urges, might readily aid the imagination in
forming a creature half human, half fish; no egregious violation
of verisimilitude is required, and the distortion of actual fact
might arise from the result of fear, or, what is more probable,
from the love of the marvellous, natural to superstition.+

The relation of a being half fish and half human, is of the ear-
liest authority; Berosus{ mentions a fish, Oannes, worshipped
in Chaldea, which had the body of a fish with the head and
hands of a man; a compound deity, imagined, probably, in allu-
sion to some stranger who had arrived in a ship, and had in-
structed the people in the arts of civilization. In Canada the
Nibanaba, half human half fish, dwells in the waters of Lake
Superior, according to the fanciful mythology of the Indians.

The accounts of the appearance of mermaids are very nume-
rous; there is testimony enough to establish their former exist-
ence in history, exhibiting instances of the credulity, not of the
weak and illiterate, but of men of learning, the best instructed of
any in the ages in which they lived.

It is very rare that more than one mermaid is reported to
have been seen at a time, but it appears that on the coast of
Ceylon some fishermen, in the year 1560, brought up at one
draught of the net no less than seven mermaids and mermen; of
which fact several Jesuits were witnesses. The physician to the
Viceroy of Goa, who examined them with care, and dissected

* Guillim. + Bell’s British Quadrupeds. t Babylonian Antiquities.
Pp 2

212 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

them, asserted that, internally as well as externally, they were
found conformable to human beings.*

In the museum at Surgeons’ Hall is preserved a fish, which
is classed by the naturalists of the present day among the mam-
malia, a species of that kind which gave rise to the fabulous
stories of the mermaid: it is about eight feet in length, and
bears resemblance to the seal. The fins terminate, internally, in
a structure like the human hand; the breasts are very prominent,
and their situation on the body has led, no doubt, to the popular
belief: in other respects the face of the fish is far from looking
like that of the human race, and the long hair of the mermaid is
entirely wanting. It was brought from Bencoolen, in Sumatra,
in December 1820.+

A form enormous! far unlike the race
Of human birth, in stature or in face.

Advocates for the existence of the mermaid are not wanting in
modern times, and it has been found necessary to show that
such a creature, as it is usually described, must be utterly de-
fenceless in the wide ocean, and consequently the prey of the
shark and every other sea-monster that approached, being with-
out speed to fly or strength to resist. Mermaids could only
exist in the sea, like other defenceless fish, by going in large
shoals, and preserving their race from destruction by their num-
bers; but, if'so, the disputed fact of their existence would long
ago have been cleared up.

‘¢ Few eyes,” says Sir Thomas Browne,{ ‘“‘ have escaped the
picture of a mermaid; Horace’s monster, with woman’s head
above and fishy extremities below, answers the shape of the
ancient syrens that attempted upon Ulysses.” The syrens were
three in number, inhabiting an island off Cape Pelorus: § these
nymphs, emblematical of the allurements of pleasure, are repre-
sented as beautiful women to the waist, and otherwise formed
like fish, deriving their name from the most obvious part of
their character, singing; their melodious voices charmed all
who approached them, till Ulysses, shunning their enticement,
passed the dangerous coast in safety, and the point where the
syrens destroyed themselves was afterwards known in Sicily as
Sirenis.

The mermaid of French heraldry is called a syren. Azure, a

* Hist. de la Compagnie de Jesus.

+ Gent’s. Mag. May 1821. { Enquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors.
§ Now called the Faro di Messina, from the lighthouse on its summit.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 213

syren with comb and glass argent, within a border indented
gules, were the arms of the family of Poissonnier: the heiress
of this house marrying into that of Berbissy, an ancient house of
Dijon, the latter assumed the syren as’a tenant, or supporter, to
their own punning arms, azure, a brebis or sheep argent, which ap-
pear in the stained glass windows of the church of Notre Dame.*

The mermaid of German heraldry is often represented with
two fishy extremities; gules, a mermaid affrontée, holding her
two tails or, and crowned with the same, are the arms of Fenn-
den of Augsburg. The noble family of Die Rietter of Nurem-
berg bears, per fess sable and or, a mermaid holding her two
tails, vested gules, and crowned or; the crest, a mermaid, the
same as in the arms, on a coronet.+

The Nereids attendant on the sea-gods were fifty in number,
young and handsome women, who sat on dolphins’ backs, and
had the power to grant a prosperous voyage and favourable.
return. The mermaid is sometimes confounded with the nereid
by the poets as well as painters.{ The invention of the mer-
maid,—for it must be considered only as fiction —has been pro-
bably owing to a desire of finding analogies and correspondences
in the works of nature. |

As an architectural enrichment mermaids were a prevailing
feature in the middle ages; one of the rudely-sculptured capitals
in the church of Figeau in Languedoc is composed of mer-
maids.§ The ancient sculptors of England were not deficient in
ingenuity, and among other fanciful productions the mermaid
appears to have been a favourite subject. On one of the subsellia

* Palliot. + Sibmacher.
t+ This was the case in a beautiful picture of a mermaid by Henry Howard, R.A. in
1841, to illustrate a passage of Shakspeare. § Engraved in the Voyage Pittoresque.

214 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

in the stalls of Exeter Cathedral is a mermaid holding a fish in
each hand; and another grotesque carving, on the roof of Dul-
verton Church in Somersetshire, represents a mermaid holding
her fishlike tail in one hand and a fish in the other; on her sides
are two fish, one in an ascending and the other in a descending
position.* A chasuble embroidered with mermaids, worn by a
canon of Poictiers in 1350, is engraved on his monumental slab
formerly in the Abbey of St. Genevitve.t

One of the earliest instances in England of the assumption of
the mermaid in heraldry is found on the seal of Sir William Bri-
were or Bruere. This William Briwere was in great favour with

King Richard I, and equally a favourite with King John; he
reaped from the bounty of the two sovereigns a plentiful harvest
of lucrative wardships and valuable grants: besides numerous in-
ferior manors, he obtained the boroughs of Bridgewater and Ches-
terfield, and had licence to build three castles on his estates in —
Hampshire, Somersetshire, and Devonshire; he founded the ab-
beys of Tor, Dunkeswell, and Mottisfont, and died in 1226. The
heiresses of the last Lord Briwere married into the families of
Broase, Wake, Mohun, and Perey. His cousin, William Bri-..
were, was Bishop of Exeter in 1224.

The mermaid of the painter is represented as furnished with a
mirror, and comb for her hair; such also was the primitive
toilette of the Shepherdess ‘Torralva in her pilgrimage, as related
by Cervantes; ‘“‘ and these,” says Mr. Inglis, “ I have myself seen
in La Mancha carried by a young woman, who had little else to
carry.” t

A mermaid is the crest of the Lords Byron of Rochdale, a

* Gent’s. Mag. for 1834.

+ One of the subjects of Mr. Shaw’s Decorations of the Middle Ages.
+ Rambles in the Footsteps of Don Quixote.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 215

family renowned from the Conquest, several of that house having
been mentioned in history. In the reign of Henry VIII, the
Priory of Newstead was granted by that monarch to Sir John
Byron, Constable of Nottingham Castle and Warden of Sherwood
Forest. Another Sir John Byron took part in the battles of
Edgehill and Marston Moor; in the latter his three brothers
also bore a part.

On Marston, with Rupert, ’gainst traitors contending,
Four brothers enrich’d with their blood the bleak field ;
For the rights of a monarch, their country defending,
Till death their attachment to royalty seal’d.

George Gordon Noel, Lord Byron, the celebrated poet, was de-
scended from Admiral Byron, who, in the ship Dolphin, cireum-
navigated the globe.*

A mermaid is the crest of the family of Marbury of Walton,
near Runcorn, in Cheshire, which became possessed of that manor
in the reign of Edward II]. by marriage with the heiress of the
Waltons, its former lords. It is also the crest of the ancient
family of Skeffington, of Skeffington in Leicestershire; and is
borne by its present representatives, Viscount Massareene, Vis-
count Ferrard, and Sir Lumley Skeffington, Baronet.

The Earl of Portsmouth bears a mermaid for a crest; Sir
John Wallop, K. G. in the reign of Henry VIII, a distinguished
admiral of this family, bore a black mermaid with golden hair.

Lord Herbert relates that “ Sir John Wallop burnt divers
ships and one-and-twenty villages, landing many times in despite
of the French, which seemed the more strange, that his soldiers
exceeded not eight hundred men.”+

* Lord Byron, who sacrificed his life in the cause of the Greeks, assumed the arms
and crest of the house of Noel with the motto of Byron, after his marriage.
+ Life of Henry VIII.

216 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

It may be remarked that, however singular a black mermaid
may appear, a black virgin is not uncommon in the churches of
the Continent, and the richest shrine in Bavaria is that of the
Black Virgin of Altoting,

The mermaid, as a crest, is found in heraldry to be almost as
abundant as salmon in the Tay; it is borne caine
a hundred knights,

Approyed in fights, and men of mighty name.

A few instances of note will show the prevalence of this remark-
able combination in heraldry: the form. of the mermaid, that of
a most beautiful woman, has the same poetical origin as the
classical story of Venus Anadyomene, the goddess rising from
the sea, near Cyprus, wafted on shore by Zephyrs, and received
by the Seasons. In this form, but with a fish tail, the mermaid
is borne as a crest by the families of Bonham, Broadhurst, Gar-
nyss, Hastings, Johnson, Lauzun, Mason, Rutherford, Moore of
Wickford in Hampshire, and Newman of Cheltenham: to the
last-named the mermaid crest was granted i in 1611. .

Or, a mermaid with comb and glass, is the armorial distines
tion of the family of Lapp of Wiltshire ; gules, three mermaids:
argent, are the arms of that of Basford; and argent, a mermaid
gules, crined or, holding a mirror and comb of the last, are the
arms of the family of Ellis of Preston, in Lancashire. Gules, a
mermaid argent, comb and glass or, ‘are the arms of Prestwich of
Holme, in Lancashire, the heiress of which family married the
first Lord Ducie of Morton, in Staffordshire.

Du Bee of Vardes, a French family mentioned by Palliot,
have for supporters to their arms two mermaids each holding a
guidon, that on the dexter side being charged with the ancient
arms of Burgundy, the sinister with the arms of ancient Cham-
pagne. ‘Two mermaids are the supporters of the arms of the

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 217

kingdom of Naples. In Great Britain mermaids are assumed as
supporters by the Viscounts Boyne and Hood, the Earls of
Howth and Caledon, and by the heads of the families of Sinclair
of Rosslyn and Scott of Harden. Two mermaids crowned are
used as supporters to the arms of the borough of Boston, in Lin-
colnshire, the key of the associated counties; these were allowed
and confirmed to the corporation in 1568.

The mermaid of heraldry is sometimes found without her usual
attributes; the crest. of the Kentish family of Sepham is a mer-
maid proper, ducally crowned, crined, finned, and comb or, bear-
ing in her left-hand sea-weeds vert; another, on a coronet, hold-
ing in her hands a bottle and glass, is the crest of Van Voorst of
Utrecht. The crest of the family of Thorne, of Melverley in
Shropshire, is a mermaid rising out of a coronet, crined or, with
a dolphin hauriant of the same, devouring her left-hand. An
example is also found in the crest of Die Erstenberger: the
arms of this Austrian family are, bendy fusilly, argent and gules,
three barbel embowed of the last; crest, a mermaid without
arms, and having wings charged with barbel, as in the shield.

Fayvine* gives an example of a crest borne by the House of
Lusignan, called La Mellusine, a very beautiful syren in a bath
or tub, who with one hand combs her thick hair over her shoul-
ders, and with the other holds a mirror. Two mellusines, their

* Theatre of Honour, 1619.

218 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

lower half representing an eel, are also described as the support-
ers of the arms of this illustrious house. These were assumed in
memory of Isabel, the betrothed wife of Hugh de Lusignan,
Count of La March, the Mellusine of the romances, one of the
most celebrated beauties of her time, who was carried off by
King John, and married to him by the Archbishop of Bour-
deaux. The King afterwards brought her to England as his -
Queen, and she was crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury
at Westminster, in the year 1200; after the King’s death she
married Hugh de Lusignan.

As a sign the mermaid is very common in England; the ear-
liest literary club on record, including a cluster of distinguished
poets, was formed by Sir Walter Raleigh at the Mermaid in
Friday-street, about the year 1600, a tavern long celebrated as
the resort of Shakspeare, Jonson, Camden, Selden, and the bene-
volent Alleyn, founder of Dulwich College.

The tritons of the classical mythology possessed the power of
calming the ocean and abating the most violent storms at plea-
sure. Glaucus, one of these sea deities, is celebrated as the
assistant of the Argonauts. The triton, or. merman, is very
rarely seen at sea, differing in that respect from the mermaid, for
an obvious reason, all those who believe they see the latter being
men, fishermen or sailors; were those who live on the sea
women, it is most probable that less would have been related
of mermaids, and more of the mermen. Heraldry presents an
illustration of the triton in the arms assumed by Sir Isaac Heard,
many years Garter King of Arms, with an intended allusion to
his preservation at sea.

Argent, a triton proper, crowned or, his trident sable, issuing
from waves, his left hand grasping the head of a ship’s mast ;
on a chief azure, the arctic polar star of the first, between two
water-bougets of the second. Motto, “ Naufragus in portum.”

- THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 219

Sir Isaac Heard was originally in the royal navy, and when in
the Blandford, off the coast of Guinea, in the year 1750, he was
carried overboard by a tornado, and saved from drowning by his
shipmates.

As a crest, a triton issuant from sedges, and wreathed about
the temples with the same, is borne by Sir Tatton Sykes, Baro-
net, of Sledmere in Yorkshire. A merman, holding in his hand
a hawk’s bell, is the crest of the family of Lany, of Newick in
Leicestershire, and of Cratfield in Suffolk. Two tritons with tri-
dents are the supporters of the arms of Lord Lyttelton, of Frank-
ley m Worcestershire; and a triton is used as the dexter sup-
porter of the arms of the Earl of Sandwich, the first peer of
whose family was a distinguished naval commander in the reign
of Charles II. A triton and mermaid are both assumed as the
supporters of the arms of the family of Campbell of Ardkinlas,
from which is descended the Campbells of Dunoon, Carrick, and
Blytheswood, all in Scotland.

220 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

XIV.
Shellfish.

Amonest the various productions of nature, shellfish claim at-
tention on account of their great variety; the regularity and
delicacy of the shells, and the beauty of their colours, are strik-
ingly curious. Each sea has its own kind, and every part of the
ocean is inhabited by its peculiar tribe of shellfish, which decrease
in size and beauty with their distance from the equator ; those of
the southern region are distinguished by essential characters from
the analogous species in the northern seas. Very few have been
assumed in heraldry, and — those few the escallop holds
pre-eminence.

Gules, six escallop shells argent, are the punning arms of the
baronial family of Scales, or de Eschales, of Middleton Castle,
near Lynn in Norfolk: their crest is also an escallop shell. The
seal of Robert Lord Scales is affixed to the Barons’ letter in
1301; the banner of the same person is described in the heraldic
poem of the Siege of Carlaverock, “the handsome and amiable
Robert de Scales bore red, with shells of silver.”

The barony of Scales was inherited by the male descendants —
of this Lord until the reign of Edward IV. when Anthony Wood- —
vile, son of Karl Rivers, having married the daughter and heiress
of Thomas, seventh Baron, was summoned to parliament as Lord
Scales. He assumed as a cognizance a star charged with an
escallop, to show his affinity to the house of Baux; and also”

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 221

instituted Seales Pursuivant of arms, a kind of heraldic mes-
senger attached to his household. At the death of Anthony
Lord Seales without issue, the barony fell into abeyance between
the daughters of Roger fourth Lord Scales, in which state it still
continues.

Azure, three escallops or, were borne by the baronial family of
Malet of Eye, on the river Waveney, in Suffolk, after the mar-
riage of Sir Baldwin Malet with the heiress of Sir Hamelyn
Deandon. At an earlier period Robert Malet held the office of
Chamberlain of England, and founded a Priory at Eye, dedi-
cated in honour of Saint Peter the Apostle. Besides one hun-
dred and twenty manors in Suffolk which were comprised in the
honour of Eye, he held many lordships in Essex, and granted
the manor of Goldingham to his good knight, Sir Hugh.

The arms of Goldingham are, argent, a bend wavy gules, and
their badge is an oyster dredge.*

Sir Alan de Goldingham was Sheriff of Essex in 1308, and
the estate continued in the possession of his descendants till
‘Christopher Goldingham sold it to Sir Stephen Soame, Lord
Mayor of London in 1559.

The Corporation of Colchester now holds the royalty of the’
river Colne, and grants licences for dredging its bed. The pearls
which are used in heraldry to denote the gradations of rank in
the coronets of peers are the produce of the pinna marina, the
large pearl-oyster of the East Indies.

The escallop is termed the shell of Saint James, as being his
especial cognizance. A stupendous metamorphosis was performed
in the ninth century, (to use the language of Gibbon,) when from
a peaceful fisherman of the Lake Gennesareth the apostle Saint
James was transformed into a valorous knight, who charged at
the head of the Spanish chivalry in battles against the Moors.
The gravest historians have celebrated his exploits; the miracu-
lous shrine of Compostella displayed his power; and the sword

* Harl. MS. 4632.

222 ' ‘THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

of a military order, assisted by the terrors of the Inquisition, was
suffered to remove every objection of profane criticism.*

The great Spanish military order of Santiago de la Espada is
said to have been instituted in memory of the battle of Clavijo,
in which no less than sixty thousand Moors were killed. At this
battle Saint James appeared on a white horse, the housings
charged with escallops, his own particular cognizance, fighting
for the Christians under Ramira King of Leon, in the year 844.
The saint was thus represented in his military character on the
standard of the order used in the army of Ferdinand and Isabella
at the conquest of Granada: the bandera de Santiago now pre-
served in the armoury at Madrid is of the time of Charles V,
and, in addition to the figure of the saint, bears the Emperor's
arms; also Saint Andrew and the cross of Burgundy.

Saint James is here copied from the banner,+ where he is
shown as he appeared on the day of battle, and above him, ~

on the banner, is the Deity, pointing out the proper victims
of Saint James’s wrath.

The city of Compostella, in Gallicia, became the seat of the

* Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
+ Engraved in the Armeria Real de Madrid, 1841.

a Bana,

)
|
.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 223

order of Saint James, from the legend of the real body of the
saint having been discovered there in the eighth century, and
which became almost immediately an object of pilgrimage.
Ships were loaded every year with devotees to his shrine, who
earried out large sums to defray the expences of their journey,
and it appears that the pilgrims, in many instances, united trade
with their devotion.* The peculiar badge of the order of Saint
James is a red cross like a sword, charged with a white escallop
shell; and the motto of the order, “‘ Rubet ensis sanguine Ara-
bum,” red is the sword with the blood of the Moors.

The escallop shell, a beautiful ornament, is used in the enrich-
ments of other orders of knighthood; that of Saint James, in
Holland, while it existed, consisted of a badge and collar formed
of escallop shells. An order of knighthood, denominated the
Ship and Escallop shell, was instituted by Saint Louis, to induce
the nobility of France to accompany him in his expedition to the -
Holy Land, and particularly to engage their assistance in the
works at Aigue Mortes in Languedoc, where the king and his
sons had embarked. The order soon became extinct in France,
but existed for three centuries in Naples and Sicily. The collar
of the order of Saint Michael, founded by Louis XI. in 1476,
was also richly garnished with golden escallops, and bore pendent
the figure of that saint trampling on the dragon.

Argent, three escallops sable, were the arms of Buckenham
Priory, in Norfolk, founded about 1146, by William de Albini
Earl of Arundel, and Queen Adeliza his wife, the widow of
King Henry I. The seal of this ancient Priory bears the figure
of Saint James, as a pilgrim, with the escallop shell in his hat,
a pilgrim’s staff in one hand and a scrip in the other.

* Original Letters, edited by Sir Henry Ellis.

224 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

Gules, three escallops argent, are the arms of the baronial
family of Dacre, a name said to have been assumed by an an-
cestor who had served at the siege of Acre in Palestine.

The arms of Thomas Lord Dacre of Gillsland, who died in

1525, sculptured on his monument in Lanercost Priory Church,*
are supported by the dolphins of Greystoke. The barony of
Dacre of Gillsland, now held by the Earl of Carlisle, K.G., was
originally in the family of Vaux, and descended to the Multons,
the heiress of which married Sir Ralph Dacre, who built Naworth
Castle in the reign of Edward III, where the dolphin badge of
Greystoke} is carved in the hall. The well-known badge of the
family of Dacre, an escallop, united by a knot to a ragged staff,
is an heraldic composition indicative of the office of hereditary
forester of Cumberland.
_ From the Multons of Cockermouth the Lucy family was pa-
ternally descended, and hence Percy’s Cross, as it is called,
an ancient pillar near Wooler, sculptured with luces and other
heraldic devices of the Perey and Lucy families, is supposed to
be a boundary stone of part of the great Lucy estate, which
devolved to the Earl of Northumberland, and not the record of a
battle, as generally surmised.

Dr. Fuller, in his History of the Crusades,} describes the seve-
ral additions to the heraldry of noble families derived from a de-
voted service in Palestine, particularly the introduction of escal-
lop shells, palmers’ scrips, and pilgrims’ staves; and instances,
amongst others, the gallant Sir Ni¢holas de Villiers, ancestor of

* Engraved in the Border Antiquities. :
+ The dolphin also appears in the heraldic enrichments of Greystoke Castle, the seat

of Henry Howard Molyneux, Esq.
} Fifth Book, Chapter xxiv.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 225

the Duke of Buckingham of that name, who originally bore for
arms, sable, three cinquefoils argent. ‘* He followed King Edward
I. in his crusade to the Holy Land, and then and there assumed
five escallop shells on a plain cross. I believe,” the learned author
continues, “‘ (be it spoken with loyalty to all kings-of-arms and
heralds, their lieutenants in that faculty,) that the will of the
bearer was the reason of the bearing ; or if at the original assum-
ing of them there was some special cause, yet time hath since
cancelled it.”

Quarterly, or, and gules, on a bend sable, three escallops argent,
are the arms of the Lords Eure, the escallops being an addition
to the arms of the house of Clavering, from which the family
derives its descent. King Richard I. granted the manor of —
Eure, or Iver, on the banks of the Colne in Buckinghamshire,
to Robert Clavering, whose descendants, taking the name of
Eure from this lordship, assumed the escallops as an armorial
distinction, and were ancestors of Sir William Eure of Witton
Castle, in Durham, created Lord Eure by King Henry VIII.,
and of the family of Eure of Axholme, in the same county.
The arms of Ralph Lord Eure, of Witton and Multon, Presi-
dent of the Council of the Lords Marchers of Wales, quartered
with those of Clavering, De Burgh, Fitz Piers, Vescy, Aton, and
Vesci, were formerly in the council chamber of Ludlow Castle.*

Azure, three escallops or, are the arms of Sir John Pringle,
Baronet, the name being a supposed corruption of Pilgrim. One
. of the sons of the second baronet of this family was Sir John
Pringle, President of the Royal Society, who died in 1782, and is
buried in Westminster Abbey Church. Argent, three escallops
gules, are the arms of the family of Pilgram von Eyb of Nurem-
berg: and azure, three escallops argent, a chief or, are those of
another family of the same name. Or, a pilgrim’s scrip azure,
charged with an escallop shell crowned argent, are the arms of
the family of Romieu of Arles, in Provence.t A demi-pilgrim is
_ the crest of the family of Walker of Uppingham, in Rutlandshire.
Argent, three palmers’ staves sable, the heads and rests or, on
a chief of the second three escallops of the first, are the arms
_ of the family of Palmer.

The escallop shell is borne as an appropriate crest by the
families of Pilgrim and Dishington; its use as a cup, spoon, and |

* Documents connected with the History of Ludlow, printed by the Hon. Robert
Henry Clive in 1841, p. 205, + Palliot.
Q

226 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

dish recommended the shell to the pilgrim, by whom it was con-
stantly worn in the cap or on the cloak. It was also worn by
the palmer, who professed poverty and went upon alms to all
shrines, differing from the pilgrim, who travelled only to a cer-
tain place and at his own charge. Of the latter, Sir Walter
Raleigh has given a sketch: *
Give me my scallop shell of quiet,
My staff of faith to walk upon ;
My scrip of joy, immortal diet,
My bottle of salvation.

The cockle, a smaller shell of a similar kind, is used in the
heraldry of Prussia. Barry of four, argent and azure, semée of
cockleshells counterchanged, are borne by the Silesian family of
Von Strachwitz, which has for crest two wings also charged with
cockles.+

An escallop shell without the ears, denominated a vannet in
French heraldry, is rarely borne. Azure, a vannet or, is the
armorial distinction of the family of Vannelat, where it is used ©
as a play upon the name. |

The escallop shell, a frequent charge in English heraldry, is con-
spicuous in the arms of the Dukes of Bedford, Marlborough, and
Montrose ; in the arms of the Earls of Jersey, Spencer, Claren-

* Remains, 1657. + Sibmacher’s Wapenbuch.

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 227

don, Albemarle, and Bandon; the Marquess Townshend, and
Viscount Sidney: it is borne also by the Lords Dacre, Petre,
Lyttelton, Auckland, Churchill, Lynedoch, and Lyndhurst ; and
by the Baronet families of Tancred, Fludyer, Pollen, Wigram,
Cotterell, Hudson, Hardy, Morshead, Graham, and Brooke of
Great Oakley. ,

The introduction of shells into military equipments is a custom
brought from the East. Cowries, small shells covered with a
coat of enamel, are employed in the caparisons of British hussar
regiments; the bridles of their horses are ornamented with
strings and tufts of them, in imitation of the “ camels tufted o’er
with Yemen’s shells.”

Several sorts of wilks or whelks, turbinated shells, are found
represented on the coins of ancient maritime cities, as Cuma and
Tarentum; this shell appears also on the Tyrian medals. The
purpura buccinum, bearing resemblance to a horn, is known as
the peculiar symbol of the city of Tyre, where it was used in
the process of dyeing the beautiful sea purple long celebrated as
the Tyrian dye, now superseded by the discovery of cochineal.
In heraldry, this shell is borne as a play upon the family name.
Sable, a fess engrailed between three wilks or, are the arms of
Sir John Shelley, Baronet, of Maresfield in Sussex, the repre-
sentative of one of the heiresses of the Barony of Sudeley.

Of the same lineage was Sir Richard Shelley, Prior of the
order of Saint John of Jerusalem, who, in 1561, was ambassador
from the King of Spain to Venice and Persia. The same arms
are also borne by Sir Timothy Shelley, Baronet, of Castle Goring
in Sussex, father of the late Perey Bysshe Shelley, the poet.

Gules, on a chevron between three wilks argent, as many
demi-lions rampant sable, are the arms of the family of Wilkins

228 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

of Kent. Gules, a fess vaire between three wilks or, are the
arms of that of Wilkinson, of Dorrington in Durham. The
family of Wilkinson of Bishop’s Wearmouth bears, gules, a chey-
ron yvaire, or and azure, between three wilks of the second.
Sable, a chevron between three wilks argent, are the arms of the
family of John, some branches of which bear a fess in the arms
instead of the chevron. 4

The lobster, the crab, and the crayfish are borne in heraldry.
The lobster, as an enemy to serpents, was sometimes used as an
emblem of temperance, and two lobsters fighting as an emblem
of sedition. The union of a lobster with the human form, in the
person of a sea-god, is found represented in the house of the
Dioscuri at Pompeii.*

Argent, a lobster gules, is the armorial ensign of the family
of Von Melem of Frankfort; the crest, two wings argent, each
charged with a lobster. ,

The suits of armour, on the principle of the lobster’s shell,
consisting of lamin, being made with overlapping plates, which

* Engraved in Sir William Gell’s Pompeiana, 1832,

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 229

enabled the steel to give way to every motion of the body, were
called Herevisses, from their resemblance to the lobster, by the
French knights of the reign of Henry IV. when these suits were
much used.

The shells of fish are known to vary according to the rough-
ness or smoothness of the sea they live in; Juvenal’s epicure

at first sight could tell
A crab or lobster’s country by its shell.*

Gules, on a bend or, a lobster sable, is the arms of the Spanish
family of Grilla. Another branch of the same noble family bears
gules, on a bend or, three lobsters sable. The history of the
nobility of Spain is marked by a very curious but rare book,
which neither princes nor priests have been able to suppress; it
bears the name of ‘‘ H/ Tizon de Espana,” the brand of Spain,
and its purpose is to trace the pedigrees of the grandees up to
some infidel ancestor, either a Moor or a Jew, destroying by that
means all claim to purity of descent, it bemg a severe reproach to
the hidalgos, that some amongst their ancestors stood on their
legs for baptism, ‘‘ Bautizado en pie,” meaning one who had re-
ceived adult baptism.

Argent, a lobster gules, was the armorial ensign of Cardinal
Nicolas de Cusa, who was of German descent ; he died in 1464.
Azure, a lobster in bend gules, are the arms of the family of Die
Gergelase ; § and argent, two lobster’s claws in saltier gules, those
of the English family of Tregarthick. |

The crayfish, or river lobster, is found in great perfection in
Hungary, where it attains considerable size, and is highly valued
by the gourmands of Vienna; it is asserted that, of all shellfish
which industry brings from the bottom of the sea or the river,
the crayfish is the most delicious.

Barry wavy, argent and gules, three crayfish or, are the arms
of the ancient family of Atwater. Dr. William Attwater was in
1499 Canon of Windsor and Registrar of the order of the Gar-
ter; in 1502 he was Dean of the Chapel Royal; and in 1509
Dean of Salisbury. Cardinal Wolsey, who held him in great
esteem, took his advice in all public business, and procured him
to be his successor in the Bishopric of Lincoln. He was conse-
erated on the 12th Nov. 1514, and dying at Wooburn Palace

* Sat. iv. Dr. Badham’s translation. + Nobleza del Andaluzia, 1588,
¢t Don Leucadio Doblado’s Letters, by J. Blanco White, 1822. § Sibmacher.

230 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

in 1520, was buried in his cathedral, under an intagliated slab
with his portrait. The arms of Bishop Attwater, a variation
from the original coat, were granted in 1509, by Thomas Wri-
othesley, Garter King of Arms, and are here copied from the
Parliament roll of 1515, the sixth year of the reign of King
Henry VIII. Barry wavy, ermine and gules, on a chevron be-
tween three crayfish or, a rose between two lilies gules, stalked
vert, impaled with the arms of the see of Lincoln; gules, two
lions passant guardant in pale or, on a chief azure, the Virgin
Mary with a sceptre, holding the infant Jesus, all or. They
are evidently composed of those of William the Conqueror, in
whose reign the bishopric was established at Lincoln; the arms
having the Virgin Mary, to whom the cathedral is dedicated,
in the chief, or placed above the insignia of the King.

A crayfish vert, is the crest of the family of Dykes, of Dykes-
field in Cumberland, now represented by Fretchville Lawson
Ballantme Dykes, Esq. of Dovenby Hall, near Cockermouth, she-
riff of the county. The crayfish is not uncomnion in the heraldry
of France. Or, three crayfish gules, are the arms of Thiard of
Burgundy ; or, a chevron between three crayfish gules, are those
of Aleschamps. Adewter is a term of blazonry for any inferior
charge in arms placed on the dexter side of the principal; of

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 231

this Palliot gives an instance in the arms of Platen of Saxony—
azure, a crayfish in bend gules, having on the dexter side of the
shield three etoiles argent. |

Prawns are assumed in the heraldry of the family of Atsea of
Herne, in Kent, one of the heiresses of which married Edward
Craford of Mongham: their arms are, barry wavy of six, or and
gules, three prawns naiant in the first and of the second.

The crab, the emblem of inconstancy, appears on a shield of
Francis I, one of the finest specimens of art in the collection of
armour at Goodrich Court ; and according to Sir Samuel Meyrick
the crab was intended as an allusion to the advancing and retro-
grade movements of the English army at Boulogne, under the
celebrated Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk, in 1523. The shield,
the work of Negroli, a Milanese armourer, was presented by the
Parisians to their gallant king after the retreat of the Duke.

A golden crab, one of the cognizances of the Scrope family,
was painted on the portrait of Henry Lord Scrope.* The crab
also appears as a crest on the seals of several members of this
noble family.+

Argent, a chevron engrailed sable, between three crabs gules,
are the arms of the family of Bridger of Warminghurst, in
Sussex, the heiress of which married Sir George Shiffner, Baro-
net, of Combe Place, near Lewes.

Azure, a chevron argent, between two fleurs-de-lis in chief and
a crab in base or, are the arms of the family of Crab of Robs-
law, in Scotland; and argent, a chevron engrailed between three
crabs gules, those of the family of Bythesea of Ightham, in Kent.
* Willement’s Heraldic Notices of Canterbury, 1827.

+ Engraved in the Scrope and Grosvenor Roll, 1832; a document possessing the
highest interest for the descendants of old English families.

232 THE HERALDRY OF FISH.

Another family of Bythesea, formerly of Axbridge in Somerset-
shire, now of Week House, near Trowbridge, bears for arms,
argent, on a chevron engrailed sable, between three crabs, the
claws towards the dexter gules, a Roman fasces erect, surmount-
ing two swords in saltier, and encircled by a chaplet or. A crab
erect.or, is the crest of the Yorkshire family of Danby.

The turtle, or sea-tortoise, is found in heraldry in some few in-
stances. Argent, a chevron between three turtles gules, are the
arms of the family of Ribb; and vert, a turtle passant argent,
is the ensign of that of Gouldie of Scotland.

The assumption of starfish in heraldry has been already men-
tioned in the attempt to assign the origin of the mullet, or five-
finger.* One of this species, the sea-urchin,+ common to the
shores of Great Britain and Ireland, is borne in arms; it va-
ries in its form, being sometimes found almost spherical, and
sometimes much depressed, which has led zoologists to sup-
pose that several species are included under that name. It is
usually of a reddish colour with white spines, which are, in some
instances, tipped with purple. The sea-urchin lives in various
depths of water, and usually congregates in greatest numbers on
a clear sea bottom.

Gules, three sea-urchins in pale argent, are the arms of the
family of Alstowne ; and azure, three sea-urchins argent, those
of Alstanton.

With this the heraldry of fish is naturally concluded; the
variety of examples it affords is by no means exhausted, but
might readily have been carried to a much greater extent, and
should the selection here made induce the reader to pursue the

* At page 107, ante. ++ Echinus sphzera, the sea-egg of the fisherman.

an

THE HERALDRY OF FISH. 233

examination of the subject farther, he will soon find an abundant
field for research. It is almost unnecessary to repeat, that in the
earlier ages of heraldry, where its chief mterest lies, only the
best-known and simplest objects were employed as ensigns on the
banner, like the horse-shoes of Ferrers, or the heames, the badge
of the family of St. John; that the zenith of heraldic splendour
was at a period unenlightened by modern discoveries in natural
history, and as nations became more civilized the importance
of heraldry gradually lessened, excepting as a most interesting
illustration of the manners of the times which produced and
encouraged it, and of the state of the arts in which heraldry was
constantly employed. It is pleasing to its admirers to reflect,
that, however indifferent the presentage may affect to be with
regard to the heraldry of early days, few persons disdain the
honourable distinction conferred by a grant of arms, one of the
necessary consequences of an admission to gentility. The cele-
brated Linnzus is only one amongst many who acquired nobi-
lity by literary and scientific pursuits. The peasant family of
this universal naturalist derived its name from a remarkable lin-
den tree, and it was not till after he had obtained eminence in
the path he had himself chosen that he was enabled to purchase
an estate, and assume the name of Von Linné, with a coat of
arms expressive of the science he cultivated; at the same time
receiving from his sovereign the order of the polar star and a
patent of nobility. After his death, in 1778, this great naturalist
was commemorated by a monument in the cathedral of Upsal,

the ancient seat of the Swedish government. .

INDEX.

oe En desctiting the Uanonry, whore Gi, colour of the fiat Act Santen Me Breer. oF
natural colour is intended.

A.

Axspot Dz ta Marg, 90.
Abbotsford, note, 143.°
Abergavenny, Earl of, 179.
Abingdon, Ear! of, 198.
Acre, siege of, 224. -

Adderbury, monument at, 156.

Adeliza, Queen, 223.

Adexter, an heraldic term, 230.

Admiral, office of, 179.
Admiralty, emblems at, 208.
Aigue Mortes, 223.

Ailsa, Marquess of, 29.
Albemarle, Earl of, 227.

Albertus de Alasco, arms, 179.

Albini, William d’, 223.
Aldborough sprats, 162.
Aldie Castle, 196.

Aldine edition of British Poets, 20.

Aldus’s mark, 20, 190.
Alerions, 71.
Aleschamps, arms, 230.
Alexander IIT, Pope, 25.
Allumé, 13.

Alstanton, arms, 232.
Alstowne, ditto, 232.
Althorp, picture at, 181.
Alton Towers, 136.
Altéting, shrine at, 216.
Alva, Duke of, 33.
Amiens, Rose de Mer, 8.
Ammonites in arms, 197.
Amphitrite, 9.
Anchorage, 179.
Anchovy, the, 162.
Ancona, turbot of, 190.
Andromeda, fable of, 207.
Anello del piscatore, 167.
Angelloch, arms, 144.
Anglesey, Marquess of, 136.
Angling, 142.
Anglo-Saxon banner, 202.
_ Anguillaria, arms, 196.
Anjou, arms, 71.

» badge, 179.
Ankholme eels, 194.
Annular money, 125.
Anson, arms, 123,

Anstis, Garter, 90. ~
Anthony of Padua, Saint, 181.

Antique monsters in sculpture, 206,

Apollo, 7.

Arehbichopric of Glasgow, 125.
Argonauts, 218.

Argyll, Duke of, 175,

Arion, 11, 23.

Armagh Cathedral, aan in, 141.

Armes parlantes, 47.
Armorial mantle, 41.
Arms of Fishmongers, 173.

s» Merchants, 31.

» painting, 167.
Arneel, arms and crest, 195.
Arragon, arms, 71.

Arran, Earldom of, 176.
Arrangement of subjects, 14.
Arundel, Archbishop, 94.

» Earl of, 223.
Arundell device, 62.

% Lords, 96.
Ashburnham, arms, 108.
Ashby family, 61. —
Ashton Hall, 189.
Askham, arms, 31.
Asterias, 108.

Aston, fishponds at, 87.
Aton, 225.
Atsea, arms, 231.
Attwater, Bishop, 230.
Atwater, arms, 229.
Auckland, Lord, 227.
Audley, Lords, 157.
Augustus, Emperor, 142.
Ps medals of, 209.
Austria, house of, 140. -
Auvergne, Lords of, 22.

B.

Bailiff of Dunwich, seal, 152.
Baker, R.A. 168.
Balfour, arms, 125.

» ditto and crest, 149.
Ballykine Abbey, 46.
Bandera de Santiago, 222.
Bandon, Earl of, 227.
Bangor bishopric, arms, 108.

R

bo

236

Banne fishery, 115.
Banner of Bar, 68.

» and caldron, 196.

» of Dauphiné, 22.

» of the Dragon, 202.

» of Pfirdt, 140.

» Of Scales, 220.
Bannerets, Roll of, 137.
Bar, Counts of, 68.

Bar de Buranlure, arms, 74.

» Joan of, seal, 70.
Barbeau, arms, 74.

Barbel, the, 68.
Barbier, Le, 142.
Barby, Counts of, 73.
Bardin, arms, 74, 76.
Bare, ditto, 76.
Barfuse, ditto, 74.
Barnardes, ditto, 76.
Barons’ Books, 81.

3» of Cinque Ports, 150.

» of Dover, seal, 178.

» letter, 98, 220.
Baronets’ badge, 116.
Barry in heraldry, 84.

» wavy, 83.

Bartet, arms, 74.

Bath Institution, MSS. at, 33.
Bartholomew, St. priory of, 181.
Barwais, arms, 76.

Basford, ditto, 216.

Battie, crest, 98.

Baux, house of, 220.

Bawde, family, 175.*

Bay of Hakes, 183.

Bayeux, Bishop of, 39.

Beaton, Archbishop, arms, 125.
Beaumaris, seal, 178.

Beavers, 147.

Bec d’oie, 41.

Beccles, manor, 150.

Beck, arms, 168,

» sir Justus, 41.
Becket, St. Thomas a, 94,
Beckford, crest, 98.
Bedford, Duke of, 226.

» Earl of, 153.
Beller, Bishop of, 181.
Bellerophon, 208.

Bellismo, crest, 130.
Bencoolen, 212.

Bengal fish, 78.

Benignus, Saint, 181.
Bentivenga, Cardinal, 146.
Berbissy, arms, 213.
Beringburgh, arms, 211.
Berkeley Castle, seal at, 210.

» Lords of, 112.

» seal, 118,
Bernard, arms, 76.
Bernbach, ditto, 81.

INDEX.

Bernwell, Thomas, 171.
Berosus, 211.

Berry, Lady, 127.
Billingsgate, 170.

_ Bishops of Glasgow, 124.

Bishopsgate-street, house in, 24,
Black mermaid, a, 215.
Blenerhasset, arms, 38.
Bleverhasset, ditto, 38.
Blundell, family, 96.
Boats of the Britons, 177.
Boatswain’s whistle, 180.
Bocking, seal of Dean of, 36.
Bodrugan, family, 161.
Boke of St. Albans, 50.
Bolnhurst, monuments at, 25,
Bolton, Lord, 117.

» rebus of, 62.
Boltzig, arms, 67.
Bones of fish, 110.
Bonham, crest, 216.
Bonvile, arms, 108.
barony, 158.
Book-fish, the, 182.
Boscawen, family, 96.
Bosdon, arms, 144.
Boston, Lord, 158.

» supporters, 217.
Botetourt, arms, 53.
Boulogne, Counts of, 18.
Boundary rivers, 84,
Bourchier, badge, 86.
Bourdeilles, de, 111.

Boyne, Viscount, 217.
Brabant, Dukes of, arms, 52.
Brand of Spain, 229.
Brandon, Charles, 231.

» Duke of, 189.
Brantoéme, 111]. —
Braybrooke, Lords, 158.
Braye, Baroness, 157.
Bream, the, 89.

Breame, arms, 89.
Brescia, families of, 28.
Bretcock, arms, 190.

_Bretel, house of, 195.

Bridger, arms, 231.
Bridport, Viscount, 207.
Brighton, arms, 30.
Brill, the, 190.
Brinsley, arms, 82.
Bristol, Bishop of, 186.

» monastery at, 112.
Britannia, 153.

m emblem, 180.

British fishery, 153.

» fishes, number of, 2, —

» Museum, specimens of fish in, 2.

Britwesill, crest, 190.
Briwere, Lord, 214.
Broad R, the, 131,

* Arms shown in vignette, p. 233.

INDEX. |

Broadford, N. B. 211.
Broadhurst, crest, 216.
Broase, family, 214.
Brooke, device, 63.

» of Great Oakley, family, 227.
Brookbank, arms, 86.
Brooksbank, ditto, 86.
Brooksby, ditto, 86.
Brougham, ditto, 58.
Broughton, crest, 149.
Browne, arms, 28.
Brudenell, crest, 208.
Bruere, Lord, 214.

Brutus, medal of, 16.

Bryan, Lord, 51.

Brydges, Duke of Chandos, 149.
Buckenham Priory, 223.
Buckingham, Duke of, 225.
Buckley, Samuel, his sign, 24.
Bukens, arms, 191.

Bulamfeck, arms, 67.

Bull trout, the, 104.

Bull-head, the, 103.

Buoy of a ship, 179.

Burbot, the, 185.

Buren, arms, 85.

Bures, ditto, 76.

Burgesses of Paris, arms allowed to, 31.
Burgmair, Hans, 140.
Burgundy, cross of, 222.

” guidon, 216.
Burnaby, arms, 44.
Burnell, ditto, 53.

Butler, ditto, 82.

Butlers of Senlis, ditto, 1.
Butt-fish, the, 192.
Butthorn, the, 108.

Butts, arms and crest, 193.
Buzannal, arms, 196.
Byland Abbey, 63.

Byron, Admiral, 215.

» Lords, 214.
Bythesea, arms, 231, 232.
Byzantine coin, 17.

C.
Cables, 179.
Cadwallo, ensign of, 202.
Caen, tiles at, 12.

Cairncross, Archbishop, seal of, 125. -
Caithness, Earl of, 175.
Calder Abbey, arms, 54.
Caldron, the, a Spanish ensign, 196.
Caldwell, arms, 185.
Caledon, Earl of, 217.
Calendar, rural, 4.
Cambridge, arms of Queen’s College, 71.
* codfish at, 182.
- supporters of the arms, 208.
~ St. Peter’s College, 166.
Cameron, Bishop, seal of, 125.
Campbell, crest, 176.
» family, 175.
» families, 219,

Campbell, seal, 176.
Canbrook, arms, 200.
Cantelupe, ditto, 50.
Canterbury, Archbishop of, 19.
ms Cathedral, capital at, 170.

” ” crypt at, 170.
pavement at, 6.
Caparra, 209.”
Capital at Canterbury, 170.
Capricorn, 209.

Car of Amphitrite, 9.
Carack, a ship, 176.
Caradoc, Lord Howden, 196.
Cardigan, Earls of, 208.

» seal of, 180.
Cardinal’s hat, 146.
Carew, crest, 179.
Carhampton, Earls of, 148.
Carlaverock, siege of, 68.
Carlisle, Bishop of, 66.

» Earl of, 224.

pe ” fish, the, 187.
Carving, old, 42.
Cassilis, Earl of, 29.
Castile, grandees of, 196.

s and Leon, arms, 1, 70.
Castle French, Ireland, 27.
Castleton, arms, 202.

Cater, ditto, 122.
Cathcart, ditto, 30.
Catton, R.A. 168.
Cave, arms, 157.
Cerne, abbot of, 121.
Ceylon, mermaids at, 211.
Chabot, arms, 102.
» au Maine, ditto, 103.
o.. the, 302,
Chalfield manor, 95.
Chamberlain of England, 221.
Champagne, guidon, 216,
Chandos, Duke of, 149.
ames of the Fishmongers, 172.
-house, Westminster, pavement, 59.
pear 54.
Charles II, King, 151.
V, 222.

” $
» Martel, 71.
Charters of the Fishmongers, 170, 172.
Chasuble, ornament, 214.
Chaudiére, the, 196.
Cheney, arms, 186.
Chenies, glass at, 154.
Chequers in Bucks, arms at, 27,
Chester, Earls of, 57.
s» monuments in St. Mary’s Church
136.
Chevin, the, 91.
Chimera, the, 207.
Chinese serpent, 201.
Chivalry, 136.
Chobb, arms, 91.

238

Chobbe, arms, 91.
Chorley, ditto, 130.
Christ, symbol of, 12.

Christ’s Hospital, picture at, 205.
Chrysanaleia, the golden fishing, 32.

Chub, the, 91.

Church, the, 181.
Churchill, Lord, 227.
Cinque Ports, seals of, 178.
Civray, church of, 5.

Clare, badge of, 164.

» house of, 53.
Clarendon, Earl of, 226.
Classification of the dolphin, 16.
Clavering, house of, 225.
Clavijo, battle of, 222.
Clinton, arms, 107.

Clovis, 25.

Cob, meaning of, 156.

Cobb, arms, 156.

Cobfish, 156.

Cockermouth, honor of, 51.
Lord, 52.

Cockle, the, 226.

Codfish, the, 168.

» at Cambridge, 182.
Codd, arms, 168.

Coin of the Dauphin, 22.

» Marius, 16.

» Syracuse, 15.

» Byzantium, 17.

» Cuma, 227.

» Tarentum, 227,
Colchester, corporation, 221.
Coleraine, seal, 115.
Colland, crest, 199. .
Collar of mermaids, 113.
Collingwood, Lord, 179.
Colston, arms, 75.

Combat of fish, 169.
Company, Fishmongers’, 171.
Compass, discovery of, 177.
Compostella, city of, 222,
Comyn, device, 62.
Coney-fish, the, 185.
Conger, the, 199.
Conghurst, arms, 200.
Congleton, ditto, 200.

me town seal, 199.
Coningsby family, 136.
Constantinople, Emperors of, 17.
Conway Castle, 134.
Conyers, Baroness, 29.
Cootes, arms, 31.
Copley, picture by, 205.
Coquerel, Nicholas de, 8
Coracle, the, 180.
Corbally, arms, 132.
Corbet, device, 62.
Cornwall, Earls of, 114.
Coronation feast of fish, 184.
Coronet of the Dauphin, 23.
Cotterell family, 227.
Cotton, arms, 21.

INDEX.

Coulson, arms, 75.
Coupir, ditto, 99.
Courage, emblem of, 207.
Courtenay, arms, 19.

*» family, 18.
Cowdray, coer at, 180.
Cowries, 227.

Crab, the, 231.

» of Robslaw, arms, 231.
Craford, family, 231.
Craike, arms, 176.

Crayer, 85.

Crayfish, 85, 229.

Crests upon seals, 93,

Crown, the naval, 179.

Crows used in navigation, 177.
Croydon Palace, 154.
Crusades, arms referring to, 224.
Culcheth, arms, 53.

Cuma, coins of, 227.
Cumberland, forester of, 224.
Curers of fish, 169.

Curteis, arms, 31.
Custom-house mark, 131.
Cuthbert, arms, 195.
Cuthbertson, ditto, 195.
Cyprinus Rohita, 78.

D.
Dace, the, 99.
Dacre, badge, 224,

» of Gillsland, K.G., Lord, 224.

» Lord, 227.
Dag, the Hebrew word, 12.
Dagger of Walworth, 171.
Dame, arms, 199.
Danby, crest, 232.
D’Anjou, René, 71, 179.
Darcy family, 155.
Dare, arms, 99.
Dauphin, arms of the, 23.

» coin of, 22.

Dauphiné, banner, 21.
De Blocg, arms, 78.

» Burgh, 225.

» Croy, arms, 84.

» Cusa, Cardinal, 229.

» Eschales family, 220.

» Grey, Earl, 85.

» la Mare, arms, 90.

» la River, ditto, 84.

» la Roche, ditto, 93, 95.

55 la Roche, Lord, 92.

» Lara, arms, 197.

» Lisle, Lord, 132.

» Montfaucon, 73.

» Roche, 96.

» Ros, badge of, 164.

» Soles, arms, 187.

» Viviers, ditto, 87.
Dean of Bocking, 36. .
Deandon, Sir Hamelyn, 221.
Deaneries, 36.

Delphin Classics, 23.

Denderah, Temple of, 4.
Denmark, King of, 174.
Der Gabel, arms, 131.
Dernford, ditto, 101.
Device of the Fish and the Ring, 127.
Devonport, arms, 180.
Devonshire, Earls of, 18.
Diamond ground, the, 191.
Dip of the needle, 177.
Dishington, crest, 225.
Dog-fish, the, 205.
Dogge, arms, 138.

r-bank cod, 168.
Dog-otter, 149.
Dolfin, arms, 27,
Dolfinton, ditto, 28.
Dolphin, the, 15.

» family, 27.

» sign of, 24.
Dolphinley, arms, 28.
Dolphins painted by Raphael, 8.
Dorade, the, 142.

Doreo, device of, 179.
Dormer, Lord, 91.
Dornheim, arms, 129.
Dory, the, 165.
Douglas, arms, 108.
Dover, seal of, 178.
Doxey, arms, 183.
Dragon, the, 200.

» overthrown, order, 202.
Drake, crest, 178.
Draycot, 41.

Dried fish, 169.
Drummond, arms, 84.

Du Bec, supporters, 216.
Ducat, arms, 195.

Ducie, Lord, 216.
Duckworth, Sir J. T. 207.

Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, 189.

Dulverton church, 214.
Dundalk, Lord, 86.

on, Lord, 116.
Dankeswell Abbey, 214.
Dunkirk, arms, 31.
Dunwich, 152.
Durham, Bishop of, 38.
Durneford, arms, 101.
Dutch plaice, 191.
Dykes, arms, 230.
Dyve, ditto, 94.

E.

Eales, arms and crest, 195.
Earl, the Green, 22.

Early instances of arms, 36.
East Ham, 89.

Easton, arms, 200.

Eastry, Prior, 6.

Ebnet, arms, 131.

Eckford, ditto, 208.
Ecrevisse, armour called, 229,
Edgehill, battle of, 215.
Edridge, crest, 107.

INDEX. 239

Edward I, King, 225.
» II, Roll of Arms, 54,

Eel, the, 194.

» pot, a badge, 198.

» spears, 34, 199.
Egerton family, 132.
Eglintoun Castle, tournament at, 29.
Egremont, barony of, 51.
Egypt, fisheries of, 113.
Elettorali of Venice, 27.
Elizabeth, Queen, 177.
Elleis, crest, 195,
Ellice, ditto, 195.
Ellis, arms, 194.

_ of Pr Preston, 216,
Elmore, arms, 194,
Elwes, crest, 195. .
Emblem of fish, 33.

3 Endellion, port of, 160.

Enderby, crest, 46.
Enghanes, crest, 195.
Enmore, wells at, 86.
Entrayaillé, 76.
Erstenberger, arms, 217.
Escallop, the, 220.
Essex, Bourchier, Earls of, 86.
» Earl of, 136.
Etruscan sarcophagi, 8.
Eu, Earls of, 86.
Eure, Lords, 225.
» of Axholme, 225.
Ewer, crest, 199.
Exeter, Bishop of, 19, 36, 214.
>» Cathedral, 214.
8 paving-tile at, 12.
Eye, honor of, 221.
Eytzing, crest, 167.

F.

Fairs noted for fish, 169,
Falcons, 92.
Falmouth, 160.
Earl of, 96.
Fast days, 169.
hate, K.G., Lord, 144.
February, 4
Feliskirk church, 188.
Fellowes, arms, 76.
Fender, ditto, 149.
Fennden, ditto, 213.
Fennor, ditto, 149.
Fermoy, Lords of, 95.
Ferrard, Viscount, 215.
Ferrers, arms, 158, 233.
» of Chartley, 94.
Feudal claims, 111.
» system in Germany, 120,
Feversham, seal of, 178.
F french, crest, 27.
Fielding family, 41.
Fierté, 46,
Figeau, 213.
Fish and Ring, device of, 126.

240

Fish, arms, 34.
» combat, 169.
» feast, 123, 184.
» hooks, 144,
» merchants, 170.

» number of, in British Museum, 2.

» ditto, at Paris, 2.
» of Mogul, 80.
» Offering, 124.
ponds, 87.
Fishatre, arms, 65.
Fisher, arms, 34, 88, 192.
Te Scotland, crest, 162.
» of Stafford, arms, 99.
Fisheries of Egypt, 113.
Fisherton, De la Mere, 90.
Fishery of the Nile, 4.
Fishguard, 198,
Fishing, 142.
» nets, 157.
» Royal Company, 152.
» ‘Spear, 130. .
» Stations, 143.
vessels, 175.
Fishmongers’ Company, 31.

by] 99 71-174.
arms, 173.

”
Fishweel, 198.
Fitz Gerald, Lady Isabella, 103.

» James, arms, 40.

» Piers, 225.

» Walter, arms, 53, 54.

» William family, 64.
Five-finger, the, 108.
Flat-fish, 191.
Flavio di Melfi, 177.
Fleet, arms, 35.
Fleets hired, 177.
Fleming, arms, 54, 157.
Fleur-de-lis, 49.
Fleury, arms, 195.
Flok, the Norwegian, 177.
Florence, academy of, 97.
Flounder, the, 192.
Fludd, arms, 21.
Fludyer family, 227.
Fluke, the, 192.
Flying-fish, the, 66,
Fochia, 210.
Foleborne, arms, 198.
Fontenay de Luc, arms, 59.
Form of fish, 35.
Fortescue family, 96.
Fouet, arms, 157.
Fountain in heraldry, 86.
Fowey, seal of, 161.
France, arms, 24.
Franck’s. Northern Memoirs, 192.
Francis I. shield of, 231.
Franco, arms, 86.
Frankland, ditto, 26.
Franklin, ditto, 25, 26.

” Benjamin, 26,

Freare, arms, 37.

INDEX.

French, arms, 27.

Frense “church, monument in, 38.
Freshacre, arms, 138.
Freshwater, ditto, 138.
Fretty, 157.

Friends’ books, 184.
Frowick family, 204.

Fry of fishes, 37.

Fryer, arms, 37.
Fullarton, arms, 149.
Funeral pall, 172.

Fyne, Loch, herrings, 152.
Fyshar, arms, 34.

G.

Gabel, Von Der, arms, 131.
Gage family, 155.
Gainsborough, Earl of, 158.
Galley, the Highland, 175.
Galway Bay, 183.

» seal of, 183.
Gardiner, arms, 47-
Garfish, the, 65.

Garling, crest, 65.
Garmston, arms, 67.

ye crest, 205.
Garnyss, ditto, 216.
Garrick, David, 208.
Garvie fish, the, 162.
Garvine, arms, 162,
Gascoigne, ditto, 63, 64.
Gawthorp, 63.
Ged, arms, 59.

» the, 59.

Geddes, arms, 60,
Gedney, ditto, 61.
Genoa, cross of, 21.
Genoese nobility, 190.
George, Saint, 201.
Gerard, Lord, 189.
Gergelase, arms, 229.
German signs, 164.
Gesse, arms, 205.
Gibbens, crest, 144.
Gillet, arms, 65.
Gilse, ditto, 85.
Gilthead, the, 142.
Giotto, mosaic by, 167.
Glasgow, arms, 124.
Glastonbury Abbey, seal of, 181.
Glaucus, 218.
Gloucester, arms, 112.

» Bishop of, 186.

Glover’s Catalogue of Nobility, 81.

Glynn, arms, 130.

Gobaud, ditto, 83.

Gobion, ditto, 82.

Gobyon, ditto, 81.

Godfrey of Bouillon, 18.
Godolphin, arms, 28, 29.
Golden carp, 77.
Goldingham, badge, 221.
Goodman’s Fields estate, 33.

Goodrich Court, armour, 108, 231.

Gorges, arms, 86.
Gornay, ditto, 103.
Gorney, ditto, 103.
Gougeux, ditto, 83.
Goujon, ditto, 83.
Goulas, ditto, 196.
Gouldie, ditto, 232.
Gradel, ditto, 111.
Gradner, ditto, 110.

Grandford, crest, 107.
Granell, ditto, 199.
Graville, arms, 74.
Graydon, arms, 147.
Grayley, ditto, 147.
Grayling, the, 146.
Grazzini, 97.

Great Harry, the, 177.

+» St. Helen’s, house in, 190.
Greek boats, 176.

s» empire, 17, 20.
Grelley, crest, 147.

Grey, arms, 84.

» de Ruthin, Lords, 94.

» device, 63.

» of Groby, Lords, 158.
Greystoke, badge, 224.
Griffin, the, 209.

Grilla, arms, 229.

Grylls family, 105.

Gudgeon, the, 81.

Guildford, Dudley, Lord, 189.
Guilds, city, 172.

Gurnard, the, 103.

Gurney family, 104.

Guzman, Cardinal, 197.
Gwynne, Richard, portrait of, 41.

H.

Habgood, arms, 180.
Hacaed, fish so called, 61.
Hacket, arms, 183.
Haddock, crest of, 165.
is the, 165.

Hagges, arms, 184.
Hake, ditto, 184.

» the, 172, 182.
Hakehed, arms, 183.
Hakes, Bay of, 183.
Halcyon days, 100.
Halls of the Fishmongers, 172.
Hamilton, Duke of, 176, 189.

» of Haggs, arms, 127.

Hamme, arms, 138.
Hampton Lucy, church, 56.
Hanbowe, crest, 107.
Hanfstengel, arms, 129.
Hardy family, 227.
Harenc, arms, 155.
Harland, Bart. Sir Robert, 206,
Harries, arms, 155.

INDEX. 241

Harrington, Lords, 158.
Harry, arms, 149.
Hartopp family, 148.
Hastings, crest, 216.
» Marchioness of, 94.
» Marquess of, 132.
seal of, 178.
Hatfield, Bishop, 39.
Hanriant, 13.
Haverfordwest, seal of, 178.
Hawke, Lord, 10.
Hawking fish, 106.
Head family, 40.
Heard, Sir Isaac, 218.
Heigham, arms, 155.
Helmet, a distinction, 31.
Helmsdale, 114,
Helston, 134.

» seal of, 159.
Hengrave, History of, 155.
Henri Grace de Dieu, the, 177.
Henry ITI, Roll of Arms, 50.

» VII, King, 202.

» WIII, Roll of Arms, 34, 230.
Herald painters, 168.
Heraldic dolphin, 15.

‘* signs, 164.

Herbert, Bishop, 201.

oo Lord, 275. 2
Herbst, John, 11.

Hereford, Bishop of, 19.
Heringby College, 151.
Heringflete Priory, 151.
Heringh, arms, 153.
Heringham, ditto, 153.
Heringod, ditto, 153.

Heringot, seal, 153.

Heriz, device, 62.

Heron, the, 98, 155.

Herring, Archbishop, arms, 154.

» cob, 156.

» the, 150.
Herringbone work, 110.
Hertford, Earl of, 134.
Heytesbury, Lord, 190.
Highland fishing-boat, 175.
Hindu symbol, 80.

Hingham deanery, 36.
Hippocampus brevirostris, 209.
Hobbs, arms, 98.

Hoddy, crest, 141.

Holleys, arms, 31.

Holme, Randal, 187.

Homage, 111.

Home of Ninewells, arms, 85.
Homfray, crest, 148.

Honours of Fishmongers, 32.
Hood, Viscount, 217.

Hooks, 144,

Hope, 903g gre of, 180.

» family,

Hopetoun, de ae 180.
Horns of tenure, 134.
Horse, the, 207,

242

Horsey Mere, 60.
Hotoft, arms, 200.

Hounds, sharks named from, 205.

Howard family, 159.
Howden, Lord, 196.
Howe, Earl, 203.
Howth, Earl of, 217.
Hudson family, 227.
Hulls of ships, 179.
Humides, the, 97.
Hiinder, arms, 81.
Hungary, ditto, 84.
Hungerford, horn, 134.
i Lord, 19.
Huntingdon, Earl of, 107.

Huntsman of the Empire, 139.

Hutchinson, arms, 21.
Huyshe, ditto, 97.
Hythe, seal of, 178.

a
Iceland, arms, 174.
Ictis, the Greek word, 12.
Iffley church, 5, 209.
Ilmer, manor, 92,
Inch Garvie, 162.
Inconstancy, emblem of, 231.
Inskipp, 21.

Inyention of the compass, 177.

Inverary, arms, 152.
Tona, sculpture at, 175.
Ipswich, seal of, 178.
Irby, arms, 158.
Iremonger family, 37.
Isabel, Queen, 218.
Iscan, arms, 36.

Isle of Ely, eels in, 194.
Iver, in Bucks, 225.

J.

James, arms, 38—40.

» saint, 221.
Jane, crest, 141.
Jarnac, Count de, 103.
Jeane, crest, 141.
Jenkinson, ditto, 208.
Jersey, Earl of, 226.
Joan of Acres, 97.

45 Bar, seal of, 70.
John, arms, 228.

» King, 150, 218..
Johnson, crest, 216.
Juan Fernandez, 211.
Jugerde, arms, 199.*

K.
Karpfen, arms, 77.

Katherine, Queen of Henry V, 184.

Keane, Lord, 116.
Keldon, 38.
Kemys, arms, 132.
Kendall, ditto, 132.

INDEX.

Kenilworth, visit to, 23.
Kenn, arms, 21.
Kennedy family, 29.
Kent, Dukes of, 85.

» Earl of, 144.
Kentigern, Saint, 124.
Kettle nets, 132.

» of fish, 132.
Keys of St. Peter, 166.
Kiddle, or weir, 132.
Kidley, arms, 189.
Kidson, ditto, 132.
Kilrenny, motto, 144.
Kinderton, Barons of, 198.
King John, play of, 22.

» of the Moors, 32.
Kings, Roll of, 137.
Kingsdown church, 57.
Kingfisher, the, 99.
Kingsmill, 55.
Kingston, seal of, 113.
Kinloch, supporters, 149.
Kirk Salmon, 120.
Kirkland, arms, 53.

Knight of Gloucester, arms, 122.

» of the Dolphin, 29.
Knights, Roll of, 137.
Knots, 73.

Koran, the, 127,
Kreckwitz, arms, 81.
Kydale, ditto, 132.
Kytson, ditto, 155.

L.
La Lasca, 97.
» Mancha, 214.
» March, Count of, 218.
» Tour, house of, 22.
Lady Chapel, St. Saviour’s, 58.
Lake, arms, 80.

» Lord, 79.

» Superior, 211.
Lamprell, arms, 202.
Lamprey, the, 202.
Lamproun, the, 203.
Lanark, arms, 114.
Lanercost Priory, 224.
Lanesborough, Earl of, 82.
Langton Hering, 154.
Language of heraldry, 2.
Lany, crest, 219.

Lapp, arms 216
Latimer family, 158.
pS Lord, 51,
Lauterbach, arms, 85.
Lauzon, ditto, 196.
Lauzun, crest, 216.
Lawrence family, 189.
Le Fleming, arms, 157.
Leeds, Duke of, 29.
Legend of St. James, 223.
*% the ring, 125.

* Shown in vignette, p. 233.

a on ee

INDEX. 243

Leicester, Earls of, 132.
Leigh, monument at, 121.
Leinster, Duke of, 103.
Leister, or spear, 129.
Lemaitre, arms, 88.
Leman, ditto, 32, 33.
Lent, institution of, 169.
Leon, arms of, 70.

» King of, 222.
Lesnes Priory, 49.
Leversege, arms, 37.
Levesque, crest, 107.
Ley, Lord, 210.

_ Libro, d’Oro, 27.
Lichfield, Earl of, 123.
Lilling, arms, 64.
Limburg, Dukes of, 121.
Lincoln, Bishop of, 229.
Ling, the, 185.
Linnzus, 233.
Lion of St. Mark, 21.
Lis, empire des, 25.
Little Britain, sign in, 24.
Liverpool, Earls of, 208.
Loach, the, 100.
Lobster, the, 228.
Loch, crest, 98.
Loggie of Raphael, 8.
London, Bishop of, 19, 41.
» city of, supporters, 202.
» cries, 164.
» Lord Mayors of, 31.
» old city of, 190.
ts, 32, 35.
Longford Castle, 86.
Lonsdale, Earl of, 54.
Loo Pool, 134.
Looe, seal of, 161.
» token, 161.
Lord Admiral, 144.
» High Admiral, 180.

» x Treasurer to Queen Anne, 28.

» Mayors, fishmongers, 173.
Lords Marchers, 225.

» of the Isles, 115.
Lordships, maritime, 179.
Lorn, ancient lords of, 175.

» Marquess of, 175.
Lorraine, arms, 71.
Lostwithiel, seal of, 114.
Lotus of India, 80.
Lotysham, arms, 148.
Louis XI. 223. -

» Saint, 223.

Loutre, the, 148.

Louvaine, Josceline of, 52.
Lovelace, Earl of, 158.

Lovken, John, Lord Mayor, 32.
Lowdham, 38.

Lowestoft, 152.

Lowther family, 54.

Luc en Vivarets, arms, 59.
Luce, the, 49.

Lucy, arms, 50,53, 55.

Lucy family. 56.

» rebus of, 57.
Ludlow Castle, 225.
Lusignan, house of, 217.
Luttrell, arms, 148.

» psalter, 137.
Lyme, seal of, 178.
Lymington, seal of, 178.
Lymphad, the, 175.
Lyndhurst, Lord, 227.
Lynedoch, Lord, 227.
Lynn, arms, 201.

town seal, 201.
Lyttelton, Lord, 219. .

M.

Mac Dougal, arms, 175.
Macbride, ditto, 163.
Macdonald, Lord, 115.
Mackerel, sign, 163.

» the, 163.
Mackerell, arms, 163.
Mackrill, ditto, 163.
Maclean, Sir Fitz Roy, J. G. 211.
Macles, 77.

Madrid, royal armoury, 222.
Maffei Collection, 142.
Magnus, Saint, 170.
Mahi Maratib, 78.
Maidstone, college at, 19.
Mal Ordonnées, 74.
Malet Barony, 221.
Malpas, arms, 131.
Maltravers, Lords, 158.
Malvish, arms, 205.
Mantle, heraldic, 71.
Marbury, crest, 215.
Marchers of Wales, 225.
Marchin, arms, 74.
Margaret d’Anjou, 71.

» Saint, 201.
Marigny, Marquis de, 75.
Marigolds, 88.
Mariner’s compass, 177.
Maritime manors, 179.
Marius, coin of, 16.
Marlborough, Duke of, 226.

Ear! of, 210.

Marqueté, or speckled, 138.
Marshal of the Falcons, 92.
Marshalling arms, 52.
Marston Moor, battle of, 215.
Martel, Charles, 71, 121.
Mary Queen of Scots, 22.
Mascles, 158.
Mason, crest, 216.
Massaniello, 142.
Massareene, Viscount, 215.
Master Fishers of the Empire, 141.
Masts of ships, 179.
Maximilian, triumph of, 140.
Medal of Brutus, 16.

» Vespasian, 17.

244

Medal of Vitellius, 7.
Medals of Tyre, 227.
Medville, arms, 144.
Meer, crest, 205.
Melem, arms, 228.
Mellusine, La, 217.
Menestrier, 47.
Menzaleh, Lake, 142.
Mercer, crest, 195.
Merchants, arms of, 31.
Merlyng, the, 184.
Mermaid, 113, 211.

» manufactured, 3.

» sign, 218.
Merman, the, 218.
Merton College, porch, 5.

a gatehouse, 41.

Mestich, arms, 209.
Metje, ditto, 27.
Michael, Saint, 201, 223.
Michielli of Venice, 27.
Milan, device, 21.
Milesian kings, 202.
Militon, arms, 159.

» family, 29.
Miller’s thumb, the, 102.
Millington, arms, 160.
Minnow, the, 7, 99, 129.
Miracle of the Lis, 25.
Mirmillones, the, 157.
Meeris lake, 113.

Mogul emperor, 79.

» insignia, 80.
Mohun family, 214.
Molton, crest, 205.
Monsters, antique, 206.

Montagu’s Guide to Heraldry, 62.

Montausier, Duke of, 23.

Montbeillard, Counts of, 138, 139.

Montbeliard, arms, 73.
Montfaucon, ditto, 73.
Montrose, Duke of, 226.

» motto of, 179.
Monypenny, arms, 10, 30.
Moore, crest, 216.
Morshead family, 227.
Mortimer, arms, 53.
Moselle, Duke of the, 121.
Motcombe, custom at, 86.
Mottisfont Abbey, 214.
Motto of the Dauphin, 23.
Mottos of admirals, 179.

» seaports, 178.

» upon seals, 93.
Moult, crest, 107.

Mount St. John, 188.
Mount’s Bay, 159.
Mowbray, device, 63.
Mullet hawk, 106.
» Of heraldry, 107.
» the, 106,
Multon, arms, 53.
Multon family, 51.
Multons of Cockermouth, 224.

INDEX.

Mummy cases, painted, 5. —
Mumpelgard, Counts of, 138.
Munday’s Chrysanaleia, 32.
Murena, the, 203.

Murder of Archbishop Becket, 94.
Mute as a fish, 143.

N.
Naiant, 13.
Names of ships, 181.
Naples, arms, 71.

» supporters, 216.
Narburgh church, 204.
Nautilus, the, 176.

Naval crown, 179.

» dominion, emblem of, 208.

» mark, 131.

Nave of a church, 181.
Naviculo di Giotto, 167.
Navigation, primitive, 176.
Negroli, shield by, 231.
Nelson, Lord, 179.

_ Neot, Saint, 105.

Neptune, 10.
Neptune’s trident, 130.
Nereids, the, 213.
Nero, emperor, 158.
Nets, 157.
Netterville, Viscount, 159.
Nevile, Archbishop, 210,
» crest, 164,
» Lord Fauconberg, K.G. 144.
Neville, cognizance, 179.
New Hall, Essex, 52.
» Hampshire, arms, 180.
> Inn, arms at, 147.
Newblanch, Count of, 102.
Newcastle, town of, 208.
2 tradition, 127.
rm under-Lyne, seal, 133.
Newfoundland fish, 169.
Newington hospital, 174.
Newman, crest, 216.
Newnham Paddox, glass at, 41.
Newport, Isle of Wight, seal, 178.
Newstead Priory, 215.
Newtown, Isle of Wight, seal, 178. ~
Nibanaba, the, 211.
Nicholas V, Pope, 166.
Nicholls, arms, 132.
Niemptscher, ditto, 209.
Nightingale, Gascoigne, 64.
Nile, fishery, 4.
Nobility of Genoa, 190.
» Spain, 229.
Pa Venice, 27.
Noel, arms, 158, 215.
Norfolk, Duke of, 159.
Norreys, supporters, 149,
Norris, Lord, 198.
North Mims, monuments at, 123.
Northumberland, Earl of, 51.
Norwich, Bishop of, 121.
Notre Dame, Paris, 5.

INDEX. 245

Notre Dame, glass at, 213. Pearls in heraldry, 221.
Nottingham Castle, 215. Peebles, arms, 114.
Pelham family, 183.

0. Pembroke, Earls of, note, 70.
Oannes, 211. Pengersick Castle, Cornwall, 29, 159.
Oar, silver, a badge, 44. Penkerth, arms, 144.
Oars, in arms, 43, 179. Penkivil family, 96.
Obreen, arms, 90. Penrhyn Castle, 6.
Oceanus, 9. Penrose, arms, 135.
Ockwell, glass at, 71, 149. Perch, the, 109.
Okehampton, Lord of, 18. Percy, arms, 52.
Oldfield, arms, 109. » badge, 164.
Oliver, ditto, 141. » house of, 51, 214.
Ombre, the, 147. Percy’s Cross, 224.
O'Neill, Earl, 116. Pescara, Marchese di, 89.
» family, 115. Peter-boat, the, 166.
Onoltzbach, arms, 85. » Saint, 166.
Onslow, motto, 17. Peterborough, bishopric of, 166.
Oporinus’s mark, 11. Peterchurch, Herefordshire, 134.
Orcival, arms, 138. Petershausen Abbey, 166.
Ord, ditto, 117. Petre, Lord, 227.
ss manors, 116. Pevensey, seal of, 178.
Orde, arms, 117. Pewterers’ Company, 208.
Origin of heraldry, 8. Pfirdt, arms, 140.
Orkney, Earls of, 175. Pfreimbt, ditto, 7.
Orton, arms, 38. Pheon, the, 131.
Osborne, ditto, 138. Philip II, King, 208.
» family, 29. » of Valois, 22.
Osprey, the, 106. Philipot’s Origin of Heraldry, 8
Ostoft, arms, 64. Phoce, 210.
Ostreche, ditto, 138. Picardy, rebus of, 49.
Oswald, King, 40. Picke, arms, 61.
Otranto, arms, 31. ’ Pickering, ditto, 62.
Otter hunting, 148. < William, his mark, 21, 62.
» the, 147. Picton, arms, 99.
Otterbourne, arms, 149. Pictures of fish, 173, 181.
Oude, King of, 79. Pike, arms, 61.
Oxford, Earls of, 84. » the, 49.
Oyry, arms, 64. Piketon, arms, 62.
Oyster dredge, a badge, 221. Pilchard, the, 159. -
» of the East Indies, 221. Pilgram, arms, 225.
Pilgrim, crest, 225.
Pp Pilgrim’s staves, 225.
Pink, the, 99.
Pacheco, arms, 197. Pinna Marina, 221.
Pacific Ocean, 2. Pisces, the zodiacal sign, 4.
Pageants, 32, 35, 170. Plaice, the, 199.
Palatine, Count, 39. Plantagenet device, 62, 134,
Pall, funeral, 172. Plaster-work, 190,
Palmer, arms, 225. Platen, arms, 231.
Palmers’ scrips, 224. Pliny’s Natural History, 2.
Pamé, 13. Pogorsker, arms, 209.
Panel, carved, 42. Pointz Barony, 41.
Panonceaux, 55. Poisson, arms, 75.
Paris, fish in the museum at, 2. Poissonnier, ditto, 213.
Parliament, Roll of Henry VIII, 34, 230. Pollen family, 227.
Partridge of the sea, the, 187. Polycrates, 126.
Passelaigue, arms, 181. Pompeii, lobster at, 228.
Patronage, ditto of, 57. » Picture at, 142.
Pavement at Canterbury, 6. Poole, arms, 31.
a Westminster, 59. Pope, Nicholas V, 166.
Payillon St. James, 143. » or Ruffe, the, 109.
Peacock of the sea, 45. Portsmouth, Earl of, 75, 215.

Pearl oyster, the, 221. » seal of, 178.

246

Postmaster General, time of Queen Anne,

Power of the keys, 166.
Powlett, arms, 117.
Poynings, Lord, 51.
Praromon, arms, 111.
Prawns, 231.
Preaching to fish, 181.
Prestwich, arms, 216.
Primeyal boat, 176.
Principato, arms of, 177.
Pringle, Sir John, 225.
Printers, allowed arms, 190.
Privy seal of St.Bartholomew, 181].
Procession Roll, 32, 34, 35.
Propontis, fish of, 17.
Proteus, 9.
Proude, arms, 148.
Proverbs, painted, 29.
Proy von Findelstein, arms, 128.
Prudence, emblem of, 203.
Prudhomme, the, 148.
Purple dye, 227.
Purpura Buccinum, 227.
Pursuivant Rouge Dragon, 202.
we Scales, 220.

Pwill Priory, 93.
Pyke, arms, 61.

Q.

Quarracino, arms of, 162.
Quartering, arms, 52.

Queen’s College, Cambridge, 71.
Quenby Hall, 61.

Quincy, arms, 158.

R.

Radford, arms, 202.
Radley, ditto, 194.
Rainwell, ditto, 31.
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 218, 226.
Ramira, King of Leon, 222.
Ramsey Abbey, 61.

os mere, 60.
Raoul, arms, 106.
Raphael, arms of, 167.
Raphael’s dolphins, 8.
Rapid motion of fish, 35.
Ratcliff, arms, 53.
Ravenna, pulpits at, 12,
Rawdon family, 132.
Rebus of Lucy, 57.

» Picardy, 49.
Red hand of Ireland, 116,
Regal mark, 131.
Remora, the, 203.
René d’Anjou, arms, 71.

Ps badge, 179.
Renfrew, motto of, 179.
Rennington, arms, 31.
Restormel Castle, 113.
Retiarii, the, 157.

Rhine, fishery, 119.
Rhingrave, 120.

Ribb, arms, 232,

Richard II, Roll of Arms, 51.

INDEX.

Richemont, Baron of, 111.
Richmond family, 58.
Rietter, arms, 213.
Ring, device of the fish and the, 126.
» money, 128.
» the fisherman’s, 167.
Rivers, arms, 84.
» Earl, 220.
» Lord, 98.
Riviere, arms, 76.
Roach of Lezant, ditto, 96.
» the, 92.
Robert of Dunwich, seal, 152.
Roberts, R.A. 52.
Robinson, Bishop, arms, 66.
Roche, Baronets, 95.
» Castle, 93.
» in Cornwall, 96.
» Lords of Fermoy, 95.
» of Bromham, 95.
» Saint, 92.
» seal of Lord de la, 92.
Sir William, arms, 96.

; Rochelle, 199,

Rochester, Bishop of, 34, 161.
Rohan, arms, 77.
Roll of Arms, Edward IT, 54.
* Henry III, 50.
Richard IL, 51.
Roll of Parliament, Henry VIII, 34, 230.
Roman tessera, 122, '
Romieu, arms, 225.
Romney, seal of, 178.
Rose de Mer, Amiens, 8.
Rosengriin, arms, 129.
Roscarrock, ditto, 160.
Roten, ditto, 143.
Rouge Dragon, 202. |
Roujou, arms, 106.
Rouville, ditto, 83.
Rouxel, ditto, 103.
Royal Company of Fishing, 152.
» Navy, 177.
Rudders in arms, 179.
Ruffe, the, 109.
Ruiz, poem by, 169.
Russell, arms, 21.
» crest, 164.
» family, 27, 86.
» Sir Robert Frankland, 27.
Russeyl, arms, 41.
Rutherford, crest, 216.
Rye, seal of, 178.
Sadberg, Earl of, 39.
Sagittarius, 7.
Sails of ships, 179.
Saint Anthony of Padua, 181.
» David’s Cathedral, 94.
» Genevieve Abbey, 214.
» George, 201.
» John, arms, 108.
‘s » badge, 233.
» Margaret, 201.
» Margaret’s church, York, 5.

Saint Mary’s church, Chester, monuments

in, 136.
Michael, 201.
Michael’s Mount, 159.
Neot, History of, 105.
Peter's fish, 165.
» grant, 124.
» History of, 56.

syvys3333 3

E.
-

ury, Marquis of, 64.
fale, Counts of, 121.

s Princes of, 120,

» iver, 120.
Salmine, arms, 122.
Salmon, ditto, 121.

» hunting, 129.
of France, arms, 121.
river, 120.
sign of the, 164.

3333 83

Salmond, arms, 122.
Salters’ Company, 149.

» of fish, 169.
Saltfishmongers, 171.
Salvator Rosa, picture by, 181.
Sambrooke, arms, 123.
Sammes, ditto, 123.
Sandford, ditto, 84.
Sandwich, Earl of, 219.

” seal of, 178.

Sankey, arms, 193.
Sardine, the, 162.
Sartine, arms, 162.
Scales, Lord, 220.

» of carp, 78.

» of chub, 91.

» Pursuivant, 220.

Scotch college, monument at, 125.

Scots, Queen of, 22.

Scott of Harden, 217.

Scriptures, fish named in the, 12.
Scrope, cognizance, 231.
Sculpture, oth 170, 213.

emblem of the, 8.
iffin, 209.

orse, 207.
lion, 206.
serjeant’s, device, 41.
snake, 201.
star, 108.
tortoise, 232.
unicorn, 209,
urchin, 232.
Seal, the, 210.
Seals—

Arundel, Archbishop, 94.
Baronial, 92.

Barons of Dover, 178.
Bocking, Dean of, 36,

SSsyussy 833888

INDEX. 247

Seals—continued °

Brighton, 30.

Briwere, Lord, 214.
Buckenham Priory, 223.
Cairncross, Archbishop, 125.
Cameron, Bishop, 125.
Campbell, 176.
Cardigan, 180.

Cinque Ports, 178.
Coleraine, 115.
Congleton, 199.

De la Roche, 93.

Dover, 178.

Dunwich, Bailiff of, 152.
Feversham, 178.
Fowey, 161.

Galway, 183.

Glasgow Bishops, 125
Glastonbury Abbey, 181.
Hastings, 178. .
Hatfield, Bishop, 39.
Haverford West, 178.
Helston, 159.

Heringot, 153.
Hilburgh Priory, 201.
Hingham Deanery, 36.
Hythe, 178.

Ipswich, 178.

Kingston, 113.

Kytson, 155.

Looe, 161.

Lostwithiel, 114.

Municipal, 178.
Newcastle-under-Lyne, 133.
Newport, Isle of Wight, 178.
Newtown, ditto, 178.
Norwich Priory, 201.
Pevensey, 178.
Portsmouth, 178.
Romney, 178.
Rye, 178.
St. Bartholomew’s Priory, 181.
Sandwich, 178.
Scales, Lord, 220.
Scrope, 231.
Seaford, 178.
Sheffield, 132.
Shoreham, 178..
Stafford, 133.
Sunning Deanery, 36.
Surrey, Countess of, 70.
» Earl of, 69.

Swansea, 106.
Tenterden, 178.
Thetford Priory, 201.
Weare, 197.
West Acre Priory, 201.
Wexford, 182.
Winchilsea, 178.
Yarmouth, 150.

» Priory, 151.

248

Seaman family, 37.
Sedition, emblem of, 228.
Senitz, arms, 67.
Sepham, crest, 217.
Sermon to fish, 181.
Serranus Anthias, 142.

Settle’s Triumphs of London, 35.

Sevington, arms, 124.
Shambrooke, ditto, 200.
Shark, the, 205.

Sharp, arms, 132,
Sheffield, seal of, 132.
Shell of St. James, 221.
Shelley, arms, 227.
Shellfish, 220.

Sherwood Forest, Warden, 215.
Shield, form of, 93.
Shiffner, Sir George, 231.
Ship and escallop, 223.

» of St. Peter, 181.
Ships on seals, 178.

» names, 181.
Shoreham, seal of, 178.
Shrewsbury, Earl of, 136.
Sidney, arms, 132.

» Sussex, college, 53.
» Viscount, 227.
Sign of the Dolphin, 24.
ss Mermaid, 218.
Signs in Germany, 164.

» of inns, 164.

is the zodiac, 4.
Sinclair, arms, 175.

» Of Rosslyn, 217.
Sirenis, 212.
Sizes of nets, 159.
Skeffington, crest, 215.
Skeletons of fish, 110.
Skipness Castle, 176.
Skye, Isle of, 115.
Smelt family, 145.

» the, 145.
Smirke, R.A. 168.
Smolt, the, 107.
Soame, Sir Stephen, 221.
Soapmakers’ Company, 130.
Sole, the, 187.
Soles, arms, 187.
Soley, ditto, 187.
Solomon’s ring, 127.
Somerled, 115.
Souci, or marigold, 88,
Soumet, arms, 143.
Sound as a roach, 92.
South Sea Company, 153.
Southampton, Dolphin inn, 24.
Earl of, 81, 180.

Southflete, arms, 35.
Southwold, token, 152.
Sovereignty, emblem of, 31.
Spain, Brand of, 229.
Spanish heraldry, 196.

» poetry, 169.
Sparke, crest, 98.
Sparling family, 145.

INDEX.

Sparling, the, 145.
Speckled trout, 138.
Spelman, Sir John, 204.
Spencer, Earl, 155.

ine Lord, 139.
Spiering, the, 145.

Sprat, arms, 161.
» Bishop of Rochester, 161.
en 11 Ae

Sprottie, arms, 127.

Sprotton, ditto, 162.

St. John, ditto, 108.

* badge, 233.
Stafford, badge and knot, 72.

a seal of, 133.
Stained glass—

Amiens, 8.

Armagh Cathedral, 141.
Canterbury ditto, 171.
Charlecote, 56.

Chenies, 154.
Fishmongers’ Hall, 173.

_ Hampton Lucy, 56.
Kingsdown, 57.
Lincoln’s Inn, 154.
Moulins, 8.

New Inn, London, 147.

Newhall, 52.

Newnham Paddox, 41.

Notre Dame, 213.

Ockwell House, 71, 149.

Pavillon St.James, 144,

Penrhyn Castle, 6.

Quenby Hall, 61.

St. David’s Cathedral, 94.

St. Neot’s, 105.

St. Saviour’s, 58.

Selby Abbey Church, 51.

University College, 38, 52.
Stamford, Earls of, 85, 158.
Standard at a feast, 123.

RR bearer, 139.

i of Courtenay, 18.

wa of Trevellian, 208.

» of Vaughan, 48.

iy at Windsor Castle, 18.
Starfish, the, 108.

Steering, mode of, 177.
Stephen, King, 7.
Stepney, monument at, 127.
Sterns of ships, 179.
Steyne at Brighton, 30.
Stockfish, 31, 174.
Stockfishmongers, 171.
Stolberg, Counts of, 141.
Stonor, 81.

Stork, the, 98.

Stothard, R.A. 21.
Stourton, arms, 85.

“ Lord, 149.
Strachwitz, arms, 226.
Strafford, Earl of, 63.
Strangford, Lord, 132.
Strateley, arms, 199.
Stratford Abbey, 89.

Strathallan, Viscount, 84.
Streamlet of seals, 211.

Strickland, the herald painter, 168.
Strozzi Palace, 209.

Stuart, royal house of, 179.
Sturgeon, arms, 204.

» the, 204.
Sturgney, arms, 204,
Styell, crest, 196.
Suckingfish, the, 203.
Sudeley, barony of, 227.
Suffolk, Duke of, 231.
Sulyard, arms, 132.
Sunning, deanery, 36.
Supporters, heraldic, 42, 93,
Surgeons’ Hall, a fish at, 212.
Surnames, 101.

Surrey, Earl of, seal, 69.
Sussex, Earl of, 52.
Sutherland, arms, 108.

a Earldom, 114,
Swallow, crest, 46.
Swan, rousant, 141.
icy ap ene, 98.

Swansea, seal, 106.
Swartzac, arms, 85.
Swiftest fish, the, 35.
Sykes, Sir Tatton, 219.
Symonds, arms, 41.
Syracuse, coin of, 15.
Syrens, the, 212.

4
Tabard, 137.
Talbot family, 136.
Tanche, arms, 87.
Tanques, ditto, 97.
Tapestry of the Vatican, 166.
Tarbutt, arms, 188, 189.
Tarentum, coins of, 227.
Taylor, the water poet, 43.
Teck, arms, 139.
Temperance, emblem of, 228.
Tenant, a, 213.
Tench, arms, 88.

a> See, OT.

Tenterden, seal of, 178.
Tenure, horns of, 134.
Territorial names, 101. ~
Tethys, 9.
Thanet, Earl of, 206.
Thiard, arms, 230.
Thorne, crest, 217.
Ticket to a feast, 122.
Tile at Exeter, 12.
Titus, baths of, 8.
Tobias and the fish, 167.
Tollesbury, monument at, 138.
Torr Abbey, 214.
Torralva, the shepherdess, 214.
Tortoise, the sea, 232.

Tournament at Eglintoun Castle, 29.

“a the, 137.
Townshend, Marquis, 94, 227.
Tranchemer, arms, 47.

INDEX.

Treasurer, Lord, 210.
Tregarthick, arms, 229.
Trevellian, standard of, 268.
Trevelyan, 44.
Treviso, families of, 28.
Trident of Neptune, 130.
Tritons, 218.
Triumph of Maximilian, 140
Triumphs of London, the, 35, 171.
Tropenell, arms, 95.
Trout, sign, 164.

» the, 133.
Troutbeck, arms, 136.

me tabard, 137.

” Westmoreland, 135.
Troutsdale, 135.
Truro, seal of, 160.
Truthall, 135.

Tubfish, the, 104.
Tubbe, arms, 104.
Tubingen, monument at, 139.
Tucker, arms, 208.
Turbot of Ancona, 190.
» the, 188.
Turbutt, arms, 188.
Turpin, 81.
Turtle, the, 232.
Twells, arms, 86.
Twickett, ditto, 199.
Tyre, medals of, 227.
Tyrian dye, 227.
Tyrone, Earl of, 115.

Uz.

Ulster, Lords of, 116.
Ulysses, 212.
Umberfish, the, 147.
Umbrell, arms, 148.
Unicorn, the, 209.
Unnatural animals, 206.
Upsal Cathedral, 233.
Upton, crest, 41.

» - Nicholas, 50.
Urchin, the sea, 232.
Urgunda, the, 201.
Usedom, arms, 209.

V.

Vaillant, arms, 141.

Valence, Earls of Pembroke, 70.
Van Voorst, crest, 217.
Vanacker, Sir Nicholas, 123.
Vandeput family, 33.

Vanes, 55.

Vannelat, arms, 226.

Vannet, the, 226.

Variation of the compass, 177.
Vatican, the, 166.

Vauer, Baron, 45.

Vaughan, arms, 48,

Vaux, 58, 224.

Venables, crest, 198.

Venetian nobility, 27.

Venice, lion of, 21. Ss

249

250

Venus, 7.

» Anadyomene, 216,

» fish consecrated to, 142.
Vere, house of, 84, 108.
Vernon, arms, 157.

» Lords, 198.
Verona, antique at, 142.
Vesci, 225.

Vescy, 225.

Vesica piscis, 12.
Vespasian, medal of, 17.
Viennois, Counts of, 21.
Vieuxchastel, arms, 55.

Vignette at page 1, explanation of, 128.

Villiers, Sir Nicholas de, 224,
Vitellius, medal of, 7.

Vivier, 87.

Vox piscis, 182.

Vulcana, arms, 157.

W.
Wahlen, arms, 46.
Wales, ensign of, 202.
Walker, crest, 225.
Walley, arms, 131.
Wallop, Sir John, 215.
- Wallys, arms, 48.
Walterton, ditto, 24.
Walton and Cotton Club, 145.

» Club, Newcastle, 145.

» family, 215.
Walton’s mark, 21.
Walworth, Sir William, 171.

me pall, 173.

a statue, 173.
Warburton’s Arms of Gentry, 90.
Warham, Archbishop, 210.
Warkworth, Lord, 51.
Warren, Earl of, 69.

» Countess of, 70.
Warwick, Earls of, 57, 189.
Water-bailiff’s badge, 44.

» in heraldry, 83.
Waterford, arms, 86.

=f hakes at, 183.
Waterhouse, arms, 87.
Watermen’s Company, 43.
Waters, arms, 87.

Watson, Sir Brook, 205.
Waves in heraldry, 83.
Way, arms, 119.
» of Devonshire, arms, 119.
Weare, seal of, 197.
Weirs on rivers, 197,
Wells, arms, 86.
» badge, 86.
» of Enmore, 86.
Welsh, arms, 124,

» salmon, 124.

Wenge, manor of, 92.
Wentworth family, 64.
Wernigerode, Counts of, 1, 141.

INDEX.

Westminster, Abbot’s claim, 124,
‘~ Chapter-house, 59.

Westward for smelts, 145.
Wexford, seal of 182.
Whale, the, 45.
Whaley, arms, 46.
Whalley Abbey, 46.

» family, 47.
Wheeler, arms, 198,
Whelk, the, 227.
Whiff, the, 187.
Whirlpool i in heraldry, 86.
Whistle, a badge of office, 180.
Whitby, town of, 197.
Whiting, arms, 184.

» the, 184.
Whittington, arms, 185.
Wigram family, 227.
Wildgrave, 120.

Wilk, the, 227.
Wilkins, arms, 227.
Wilkinson, ditto, 228.

‘Willeigh, ditto, 159.

Willeley, ditto, 159.
Williams, Lord, 198. .
Willoughby, Lords, 158.
Wilton, Earls of, 85.
Winchilsea, seal of, 178.
Winchester, Bishop of, 19, 50.
Windischgratz, Counts of, 110.
Windsor Castle, standard at, 18.
Winter, Robert, 11.
Wirtemberg, Counts of, 138.

* King of, 139.
Wishart, Bishop, 124.
Witton Castle, 225.
Women in heraldry, 143.
Woodvile, Lord Scales, 220.
Wooler, pillar near, 224.
Women ae monument at, 113.
Worlidge’s Gems, 9.
Worsley family, 183.
Wylley, arms, 198.
Wynne, ditto, 38.
Wyvil family, 88.

Y.

Yarborough, Earl of, 183.
Yarmouth, arms, 152.
pa priory seal, 151.
a town ditto, 150, 178.
Yarrell, crest, 109.
Yeates, ditto, 205.
Yoke, a badge, 95.
York, Archbishop of, arms, 154, 166.
» porch of St.Margaret’s Church, 5,

Z.

Zingis Khan, 79.
Zodiac, 4.
Zouche, Lord, 180.

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