The characteristic features of one or of both of the united Coats, as I have just shown, being commonly rendered indistinct and uncertain by Dimidiation, that form of marshalling was generally superseded by IMPALEMENT in the course of the third quarter of the fourteenth century. This process, at once simple and effectual, marshals the whole of the husband’s arms on the dexter half of a Shield divided per pale, as No. 28; and the whole of the arms of the wife on the sinister half of it. Such an impaled Shield is borne by a husband and wife during their conjoint lives; and should the wife become a widow, by her the impaled arms are borne during her widowhood charged upon a lozenge. The dexter half only--the husband’s arms--of an impaled Shield is hereditary. Fine examples of Shields that are both impaled and quartered, are preserved in the monuments of EDWARD III. and his Queen PHILIPPA, in the Brass to ALIANORE DE BOHUN, and in the monument to MARGARET BEAUFORT, all in Westminster Abbey. Other fine examples occur on the monument of Earl RICHARD BEAUCHAMP, at Warwick. No. 327, from the Brass to THOMAS, LORD CAMOYS, K.G., and his wife, ELIZABETH MORTIMER (the widow of HENRY HOTSPUR), at Trotton, in Sussex, A.D. 1410, marshals _Camoys_--_arg., on a chief gu. three plates_, impaling _Mortimer_, No. 131. Again, at Warwick, the Brass to Earl THOMAS DE BEAUCHAMP and his Countess, MARGARET FERRERS of Groby, A.D. 1406, has a Shield of _Beauchamp_--_gu., a fesse between six crosslets or_, impaling _Ferrers_--_gu., seven mascles, three three and one, or_. [Illustration: No. 328.--D’Aubigny, impaling Scotland.] It is to be observed that _Bordures_ and _Tressures_, which are not affected by Quartering, are _dimidiated by Impalement_,--that is, that side of both a Bordure and a Tressure which adjoins the line of Impalement is generally removed: thus, one of the small Shields sculptured upon the canopy of the monument of Queen MARY STUART, at Westminster, is charged with _D’Aubigny_ impaling _Scotland_,--that is, _az., three fleurs de lys or, within a bordure gu. charged with eight buckles gold_, impaling No. 138. This Shield, represented in No. 328, has both the bordure on its dexter half, and the tressure on its sinister half, dimidiated by the impalement. There are other excellent examples of this partial dimidiating in the monuments of MARGARET TUDOR and MARGARET BEAUFORT, in the same chapel of Westminster Abbey.