The Earl of Scarborough's coat of arms shows no quarterings. Here the
field is divided fesswise and charged with three parrots (they are
usually termed popinjays in heraldry). A pelican in her piety is the
crest, whilst we find parrots again with wings inverted as supporters.
These arms are of great antiquity, having been adopted by Sir
Marmaduke Lumley, who derived them from his mother, Lucia, co-heiress
of the ancient house of Thweng in the beginning of the fourteenth
century. Their motto is, "A sound conscience is a wall of brass."
Baron Hawke's achievement hints very plainly at the grand naval feats
performed by the founder of the house, Edward Hawke, the gallant
sailor, who, at the early age of thirty-one, was made Admiral of the
White. His brilliant victory over the French in 1747, when he captured
six large ships of the enemy's line, is matter of history. His arms
are "Arg : a chevron erminois between three pilgrims' staves purple,
the crest, a hawk rising, beaked, belled, and charged on the breast
with fleur-de-lys or ; whilst most appropriately the supporters of
this naval hero's shield are--dexter supporter, Neptune in a sea-green
mantle, crowned with an eastern coronet or, his dexter arm erect,
darting downwards his trident sa : headed silver, resting his sinister
foot on a dolphin, also sable ; sinister supporter, a sea-horse,
sustaining in his fore-fins a banner, arg : the staff broken ppr."
_Motto_, "Strike."
The fifth coat of arms, a very pictorial one, was assumed by the
great astronomer and musician, Sir William Herschel, and serves as our
example of a baronet's armorial bearings.
(You will note that it has no supporters, and that the baronet's
badge, a sinister hand charged on an escutcheon, is placed on the
dexter side of the field.) This coat of arms tells the story of its
bearer's grand discovery of the new planet, Uranus.[3]
[Footnote 3: We strongly advise our readers to refer to "A
Peep at the Heavens" for further information on this point.]
This Herschel achieved with the aid of a telescope of his own
making. And so very properly a telescope[4] with all its apparatus is
represented on the field, whilst the astronomical symbol of Uranus is
charged in the chief. The crest is a demi-terrestrial sphere with
an eagle thereon, wings elevated. _Motto_, "The heavens having been
explored."
[Footnote 4: Sir William Herschel made and erected a telescope
40 feet long at Slough, completing it in 1787.]
So this coat of arms, you see, shows the result of the labours of its
original bearer, along with the telescope which was instrumental in
making the wonderful discovery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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