A Complete Guide to HeraldryFox-Davies, Arthur Charles
History
A Complete Guide to Heraldry
Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles
Heraldry -- Great Britain
_The Whale_ is seldom met with in British armory, one of its few
appearances being in the arms of Whalley, viz.: "Argent, three whales'
heads erased sable." {255}
The crest of an Irish family named Yeates is said to be: "A shark issuant
regardant swallowing a man all proper," and the same device is also
attributed to some number of other families.
Another curious piscine coat of arms is that borne, but still
unmatriculated, by the burgh of Inveraray, namely: "The field is the sea
proper, a net argent suspended to the base from the dexter chief and the
sinister fess points, and in chief two and in base three herrings entangled
in the net."
_Salmon_ are not infrequently met with, but they need no specific
description. They occur in the arms of Peebles,[20] a coat of arms which in
an alternative blazon introduces to one's notice the term "contra-naiant."
The explanation of the quaint and happy conceit of these arms and motto is
that for every fish which goes up the river to spawn two return to the sea.
A salmon on its back figures in the arms of the city of Glasgow, and also
in the arms of Lumsden and Finlay, whilst other instances of salmon occur
in the arms of Blackett-Ord, Sprot, and Winlaw.
_The Herring_ occurs in the arms of Maconochie, the _Roach_ in the arms of
Roche ["Gules, three roaches naiant within a bordure engrailed argent.
Crest: a rock, thereon a stork close, charged on the breast with a torteau,
and holding in his dexter claw a roach proper"], and _Trout_ in the arms of
Troutbeck ["Azure, three trout fretted tête à la queue argent"]. The same
arrangement of three fish occurs upon the seal of Anstruther Wester, but
this design unfortunately has never been matriculated as a coat of arms.
The arms of Iceland present a curious charge, which is included upon the
Royal shield of Denmark. The coat in question is: "Gules, a stockfish
argent, crowned with an open crown or." The stockfish is a dried and cured
cod, split open and with the head removed.
_A Pike_ or _Jack_ is more often termed a "lucy" in English heraldry and a
"ged" in Scottish. Under its various names it occurs in the arms of Lucy,
Lucas, Geddes, and Pyke.
_The Eel_ is sometimes met with, as in the arms of Ellis, and though, as
Woodward states, it is always given a wavy form, the term "ondoyant," which
he uses to express this, has, I believe, no place in an English armorist's
dictionary.
_The Lobster_ and _Crab_ are not unknown to English armory, being
respectively the crests of the families of Dykes and Bridger. The arms of
Bridger are: "Argent, a chevron engrailed sable, between three crabs
gules." Lobster claws are a charge upon the arms of Platt-Higgins. {256}
[Illustration: FIG. 482.--Whelk shell.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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