QUEER HERALDIC DEVICES

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 115, 17 May 1930, Page 20

QUEER HERALDIC DEVICES

.MANY... PEERS, JEST IN FAMILY AIMS

An English baronet, who was raised >to ;that rank a few.years ago, decided '■£-have an old hat for, his family arms. The arms of. the County of Cornwall consist of five sets of pawnbrokers' balls. The arms of the- Matthias family are three -dice with the sixes uppermost. One British duke, sixteen other peers, and eighteen baronets display scallop shells: on, their shields (says Hayden Church in the "New York Times"). These are just a few of the many iiumours of heraldry, and as likely as not there will be more in the near future. For when, at :the beginning of the year, King George distributed a fresh lot--of honours) he elevated to the peerage six -notable citizens and conferred baronetcies on four more, and almost every time this happens a new coat of arms or cteat come- into being which,:' designedly: or: otherwise, adds one more to the many' chuekleo that are to be derived frpni-n; perusal of Burke . ■■• Debrett; or.vanyV"other roster of the nobility*. >: ■;.;>. .^'v^ .'.:,. ;. t . Up to the present, according to the College- of Arms, none of the... newlycreated noblemen and baronets not already entitled to armorial bearings have decided' what, theirs will be. So we shall, have to wait and Jee whether any of 'them will devise, or have devised for him, a shield or a pair of "supporters,^ or>select a motto to go with theni- halfVsp'amusing or striking as some: of'-thosS already, existing. A pair "of boots, neatly spurred, appears : on' the shield of the former Sir Jesse Boot: (now isaron Trent), and a beehive surrounded by bees, is on that o" Admiral Lord;B.eatty, :whose name, of course} is ■%rbnouncod '' Bee-ty.'' Lord Cromer's shieldihas'a bear's head, muzzled, with a ring in its nose, a play on the family name; Bar-ing. The seven: acorns on the shield of I Sir William Sey^noke recall the roman!tic story of aii' infant, abandoned by his parents, who wa's found in a hollow tree near Sevenoak^,'in Kent, and who carried the ■foundling, name thus given him to the, Lord Mayoralty of Londo ■ and a knighthood.. ,',. These are examples' of ;th\. , so-called "Canting" arms,'which are really pictorial plays on the names of their bearers. Similar plays on surnames have been, the genesis of a; iargo number of armorial bearings—among others the three heads of negroes (blackamoors) of the Blackmores; the three herons of the Herons,. and the oxen, coots, and hazel-leaves :of the Oxenden, • Coote, and Hazelrigg families. The arms of Whalley are three whales' heads, the JJamsdens, three rams' heads; th"» Knightleys display a lance, and the Merry weathers, .have a sun, and three martlets, signifying merry, weather. The Bannermans\display 'a, banner on their shield; tlielCails, three trumpets; the' ;BuJie^s,^^thr^7|coyefeU jsup.ij the 'K's'hers,"'a..kingfisher,,and the Beavors, rrbea'ver. Other families make plays with their names in .their mottoes, many of which are. perfeetlyv shameless puns. One such is that of the 'Weldon''.-'baronets, which is, ii* Latin,"Well done!" Another is" the" Make Haste Slowly" of the earls whose name is pnslpw. The motto of the! Dixie; family; is a double pun1,- "Qiidd'dixildixi": (What I have said, I' have 'said), while that 'of> Yiseount Cross'is ."Beiieve in the Cross." ;; T : he :lat«" Lqid Battersea (formerly Cyiril Flower.) chose for his : motto,

"God careth for tho Flowers"; Lord

Armstrong's motto is "Strong in Arms," and Lord Cranbrook's, "Armed with Hardy '..faith" —a play on the family name "Hardy. Quite a number of newly created noblemen, in recent years, have chosen a heraldic device illustrative of the source of their riches, and it will be interesting to see if any of the latestbatch of peers follows this example. The foundations of the great Astor fortunes were, of course, laid in America by the original John Jacob Astor, who made millions out of ■ the sale of furs; and this fact is recalled by the supporters of Lord Astor's shield—one a North American fur-trapper with a rifle and the other a North American Indian. Similarly,- the . supporters of the shield of Lord Glanusk, whose fortune was made out of coal mines, are a collier holding a pick and a smith armed with a hammer. A lion, proudly rampant, bears ears of barley for Lord Woolavington of, whisky, fame. The arms of Lord Nelson, a descendant of the great naval hero, are appropriately maritime: Exceptionally elaborate, they includo bombs, waves of the sea, a disabled ship, and the stern of a Spanish man-of-war, inscribed "San Joseff." , For some obscure reason that even a College of Arms official confessed himself unable to explain, the shell of the scallop, in the old days, became emblematic of pilgrimages. The consequence is that, as has "been mentioned, no fewer than seventeen English' peers and eighteen baronets carry scallop shells on their arm:: as heraldic charges. Among these arc the Dukes of Montrose and the heads of branches o* the Graham clan! There is quite a lot of amusement to be derived from contemplation of the astonishing jnelnagerio depicted in a book of heraldry. There are lions innumerable —lions rampant, passant, and couchant, and with every expression from ferocity to an amiable imbecility. Four of them are on the shield of Lord Baden-Powell (the B.P. of earlier days); one figures in the arms of Harrow School, whose founder's name was Lyon; and another grasping in its forepaws a "thunderbolt proper," is in the arms recently awarded tt the British Broadcasting Company! Ancl side by side with them are rhinoceroses and leopards, camels and unicorns, monkeys and porcupines, walruses and dolphins, many of them such as never were on sea or land! Hares and rats rub shoulders with mythical creatures.- , - From the heraldic point of view no greater absurdities, exist, than in the devices employed by a large_ number of civic corporations for their . a,rms and shields. Scottish burghs ars ' consideredthe worst offenders by experts, who have pleaded for long that Inyerary,.- in Argyllshire, particularly, should change its arms, which depicts five herrings, either entering or ent ngled in a net. The" most perplexing of all British armß to custodians of heraldic tradition, however, are those of the town of Crewe. This shield, among other things an, illustrated guide to the progress of locomotion, contains, pictures of: Seven horses, .ten men, one woman, a stage coach, a canal boat, a canal, a towing path, a road, two ranges of mountains, and four trees; ■■.'.'-.