COUPING AND ERASING. 99 straight line, or tearing away so as to leave a jagged edge. Accordingly, it appears from Pont's Ms. that Porteous of Halkshaw carried azure, three stags' heads, 66 couped, argent, attired with ten tynes, or; while the arms of George Porteous of Craiglockart, one of his Majesty's Herald Painters," are thus blazoned in the Lyon Register:-On the same field (azure), a thistle between three bucks' heads, erased, or.2 3. Cadets are also distinguished by altering the posi tion (and occasionally the number) of the charges borne 1 The term " couped" is occasionally applied to the fess, saltire, and other proper heraldic figures, when their extremities do not extend to the sides of the shield; but such charges, at least in English Heraldry, are usually said to be "humetty." 2 In the illustrative cuts, the stags' heads are erroneously represented contourné, i.e., turned to the sinister instead of the dexter. 100 ALTERED POSITION OF CHARGES. in the paternal arms. Thus, the escallops, or shells, which constitute the bearings of the House of Pringle, are carried by one branch of the family on a bend (Torsonce), by another on a saltire (Whytbank), and by a third on a chevron (Haining). Again, the Scotts of Bevelaw and the Leslies of Balquhain converted the bend carried by their respective Chiefs into a fess, without any other addition or alteration, charging the fess with the figures which occupy the bend in the principal arms. Numerous systematic illustrations of this mode of differencing, including the families of Clifford and Cobham, are furnished by writers on English Heraldry. The practice of altering the number of the charges, either by 1 While the Pringles of Whytbank bear five gold escallops on a black saltire, the family of Torwoodlee carry the same number of silver escallops on a blue saltire-the latter charge being engrailed in both cases. The Pringles of Stitchel, on the other hand, do not use any of the ordinaries their bearings being simply azure, three escallops, or. The escallop shell is the well-known badge of a pilgrim, from which word the surname of Pringle has been fan- "Give me my scallop-shell of quiet; My gown of glory (hope's true gage); Towards the middle of the thirteenth century, Pope Alexander IV. prohibited all but pilgrims who were truly noble from assuming escallop shells as armorial ensigns. way VARIATION IN THEIR NUMBER. 101 of diminution or increase, prevails to some extent among the French and other continental nations, but is of very rare occurrence in Scottish Heraldry. In his Jurisprudentia Heroica, Christyn mentions the bearings of the House of Clermont Tallart, in Dauphiny, viz., two silver keys, in saltire, on a red field, adding that the family of Chatto, as a cadet, carried only a single key, in bend. On the other hand, according to Pont, the Scottish family of Sydserf, originally from France, carried argent, a fleur-de-lis, azure; while Sydserf of Ruchlaw appears, from the Lyon Register, to bear three of these charges on a similar field. In like manner, the ancient arms of the Turnbulls of Bedrule, and also of Minto, consisted of a single bull's head, erased, sable; but "of late," to use the language of Nisbet, "those of this name multiply the heads to three." 4. A fourth mode of distinguishing cadets is by quartering other arms with the paternal bearings. This course, although questioned by some heraldic writers on the ground that the principal coat is not bruised, but repeated entire as borne by the head of the family, is admitted by both Nisbet and Mackenzie. The former acknowledges that it is in accordance with the heraldic practice of Scotland and other nations, being "looked upon as a sufficient and regular brisure in the best of our families, and especially by second sons." He adds, however, that “a second brother, though he differences himself by quartering another coat with his paternal, yet he must always continue his father's brisure, he being a younger son of a principal family;" and that "the clearest way to make known the descents of families by arms, is for them to retain the congruent differences of their progenitors, although they quarter with the coats of other families as their own particular difference." Sir George Mackenzie appears to vindicate the practice in question without any qualification. "Those cadets," he "who have their arms quartered with other arms need no difference (i.e., no ordinary mark of cadency), for the quartering or impaling is a sufficient differ says, Sir John Fern classifies quartered arms under three heads, viz., plain quartered, quartered, and quarterlyquartered coats. (1.) A plain-quartered coat is produced by dividing the field into four parts, one coat-ofarms being repeated in the first and fourth quarters, and another in the second and third. This is the proper arrangement of the armorial ensigns of the son of a gentleman by an heiress (in the heraldic sense)-his father's arms occupying the principal position, viz., the first and fourth quarters, and his mother's the second 1 System of Heraldry, vol. ii. part iii. pp. 21, 22. 2 Science of Heraldry, chap. xxi. 66 PLAIN-QUARTERED" COAT. 103 and third. Thus, Mackenzie of Coul charges the first and fourth quarters of his escutcheon with the "Caberfae," or stag's head, which forms the paternal bearing of his clan; the second and third quarters being occupied by a boar's head for Chisholm of Comar, the heiress of which family married the first of the Coul branch. In like manner, the Earl of Mansfield places the principal coat of Murray (three stars within a double tressure) in the first and fourth quarters, while the second and third are charged with three crosses, pattée, in consequence of the marriage of his ancestor, Sir Andrew Murray, to the daughter and heiress of Barclay of Balvaird, towards the beginning of the sixteenth century. Another course, to which Sir George Mackenzie objects, is followed by some cadets who are advanced to dignities, and who, "if they be not obliged to quarter the coat of some heretrix, for a difference take crest or supporters of the family out of which they are descended, and quarter with their paternal coat. As the Viscount of Kingston bears, first and fourth, the arms of Seton (three crescents within a double tressure), in the second and third, argent, a winged dragon, vert, vomiting fire, which dragon is the crest of his elder |