writers) he refers to King Achaius, on the occasion of his celebrated alliance with the Emperor Charlemagne ! The Great Seals of the first four Jameses of Scotland have generally been incorrectly regarded as precisely similar, whereas certain distinctive marks-an annulet, a fleur-de-lis, and a trefoil--were added by James II., III., and IV., respectively; and perhaps these figures may be regarded as something of the same character as the badges or devices associated with the armorial insignia of the English sovereigns. On the privy seal of James IV. (1506), we find a mullet above the shield, a mascle or lozenge at the dexter side of the crown, and a crescent behind the dexter supporter, which is charged with a saltire on the loins. Again, on the Great Seal of Queen Mary, a crowned thistle is placed behind each of the supporters, and the shield surrounded by the collar of that Order; while on that of her son, James VI. (1583), a part of the caparisons of the monarch's charger are embroidered with the same figure.3

On the counter-seal of Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl (1429), is a device resembling a stag "couchant," which, as Mr. Laing conjectures, may have been a family badge ;* and we may mention that a somewhat similar figure was carried as a badge by Richard II. of England, who inherited it from his mother, "The Fair Maid of Kent," the daughter and ultimately sole heiress of Edmund Plantagenet. In alluding to certain devices, of which

1 Laing's Catalogue, Nos. 45, 46, 50, and 51.

2 Ibid. No. 53.

3 Ibid. Nos. 59 and 67; also Plate XIII. fig. 4.

4 Ibid. No. 795; also Plate XI. fig. 6.

HIGHLAND BADGES.

259

the signification was not well known till explanatory legends were applied to them, Nisbet specifies "the caltraps" (cheval-traps) of the Earls of Perth, the salamander of Dundas of that Ilk, and the thistle and rose in the royal achievement issuing out of the compartment, the well-known devices of Scotland and England, united in the person of King James VI. It may certainly be questioned, however, whether the figures in the first two instances can with propriety be regarded either as badges or devices, inasmuch as they are connected with the compartment under the escutcheon, to which we shall afterwards refer. As already indicated, very few of the baronial families of Scotland appear to have adopted any special badges, in the English sense of the term; and when it was necessary to distinguish the persons of their servants or followers, the crest or a portion of the arms seems to have served the purpose a practice still observed by the Duke of Atholl, the Earl of Mansfield, Mr. Trotter of Mortonhall, and a few other Scottish families. Among the Highlanders, however, another species of badge has, in recent times, constituted a mark of clanship, in the shape of a leaf or sprig of a particular tree or shrub (usually an evergreen), which is carried in the bonnet or other portion of the costumethe chief being entitled to wear two eagle's feathers in his bonnet, in addition to the badge. Thus, the badge of the Gordons is ivy, of the Campbells, myrtle, of the Buchanans, birch, of the Camerons, oak, of the Grahams, laurel, of the Murrays, juniper, of the Robertsons, fern

1 System of Heraldry, vol. ii. part iv. p. 25.

260

SUPPORTERS OR BEARERS.

(or bracken), of the Macdonalds, bell-heath, and of the Macgregors, pine.

"She told me, and turned my chilled heart to a stone,

The glory and name of Macgregor was gone :

That the pine which for ages had shed a bright halo,
Afar on the mountains of Highland Glen-falo,
Should wither and fall ere the turn of yon moon,
Smit through by the canker of hated Colquhoun;
That a feast on Macgregors each day should be common,
For years, to the eagles of Lennox and Lomond." 1

Occasionally, the symbol appears to have been changed, and Sir Walter Scott mentions that "the downfall of the Stuarts was supposed to be omened by their having chosen the oak (in lieu of the thistle ?) for their badge of distinction."2

SECTION III.-SUPPORTERS AND COMPARTMENTS.

3

Various opinions are entertained by heraldic writers respecting the origin of SUPPORTERS, which in Scotland were formerly termed Bearers. While some consider that at first they were merely a device of the engraver to fill the void spaces between the triangular shield and the circular border of the seal, others (including Menestrier and Nisbet) trace their adoption to certain ceremonies performed at tournaments, where the knights, on hanging

THEIR SUPPOSED ORIGIN.

261

up their shields, by way of challenge, placed their pages or armour-bearers, grotesquely dressed as wild men, lions, dragons, etc., to watch those who might touch the escutcheon ; and it is concluded that these figures, of which we have numerous examples in both English and Scottish heraldry, were afterwards adopted as armorial supporters. Sir George Mackenzie is of opinion that supporters took their rise from the solemnities attendant upon the creation of the nobility in the olden time, when the person about to be invested with any honour was led before the sovereign "between two of the quality," in remembrance of which occurrence his escutcheon was afterwards supported by any two creatures he might feel disposed to select. We are inclined to give a preference to the first of these conjectures, as indicated by Anstis, in his Aspilogia, in the following terms:-"As to supporters, they were (I take it) the invention of the graver, who, in cutting on seals shields of arms, which were in a triangular form and placed on a circle, finding a vacant place at each side and also at the top of the shield, thought it an ornament to fill up the spaces with vine branches, garbs, trees, flowers, plants, ears of corn, feathers, fretwork, lions, wyverns, or some other animals, according to their fancy."

When supporters are inanimate objects, the escutcheon is said to be cotised--a term derived from the French word côté (a side)-in contradistinction to supported. A curious example of inanimate supporters occurs on the English seal of William, Lord Botreaux (1426), where, on each side of a couché shield exhibiting a

262

POSITION OF SUPPORTERS.

griffin "segreant" and surmounted by a helmet and crest, a buttress is quaintly introduced, in evident allusion to the owner's name.1 A somewhat similar arrangement appears on the Scottish seal of William Ruthven (1396), where a tree growing from a mount is placed on each side of the escutcheon.2

The French draw a distinction between supports and tenans, of which the former hold the upper portion of the shield, while the latter support it from below. Nisbet refers to the lozenge on the seal of Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy (1384) as being supported by four animals, her husband's two supporters (eagles) being placed on the two upper sides of the shield, and those of her father (two lions "sejant ") on the lower sides.3

The position of supporters is very much varied. In the case of couché shields, they are frequently so placed as to appear to be supporting the helmet and crest; but when the escutcheon is carried erect, they are almost always disposed by the sides of it, in accordance with our present practice. When only one is introduced, it is sometimes placed on the dexter, and sometimes on the sinister side of the shield. Sometimes, again, the

rise and antiquity of the fleur-de-lis of France, has sufficiently refuted that story of the toads."—System of Heral dry, i. 335. (See p. 190, note 2, supra.)

2 Plate XI. fig. 7; Laing's Catalogue, No. 708; see also Nos. 236, 238, and 294.

3 System of Heraldry, vol. ii. part iv. p. 31. See also another curious example engraved by Mr. Lower at p. 144 of his Curiosities of Heraldry.