Page:A Complete Guide to Heraldry.djvu/423

Rh rank, it does not seem proper that it should be available for casual and haphazard assumption by a town or city. That being the case, it should be borne in mind that the practice is not permissible in British armory.

The naval coronet (Fig. 658), though but seldom granted now, was very popular at one time. In the latter part of the eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth centuries, naval actions were constantly being fought, and in a large number of cases where the action of the officer in command was worthy of high praise and reward, part of such reward was usually an augmentation of arms. Very frequently it is found that the crest of augmentation issued from a naval coronet. This is, as will be seen, a curious figure composed of the sail and stern of a ship repeated and alternating on the rim of a circlet. Sometimes it is entirely gold, but usually the sails are argent. An instance of such a grant of augmentation will be found in the crest of augmentation for Brisbane and in a crest of augmentation granted to Sir Philip Bowes Broke to commemorate his glorious victory in the Shannon over the American ship Chesapeake.

Any future naval grant of a crest of augmentation would probably mean, that it would be granted issuing out of a naval coronet, but otherwise the privilege is now confined to those grants of arms in which the patentee is of the rank of admiral. Instances of its use will be found in the crests of Schomberg and Farquhar, and in the crest of Dakyns of Derbyshire: "Out of a naval coronet or, a dexter arm embowed proper, holding in the hand a battle-axe argent, round the wrist a ribbon azure." The crest of Dakyns is chiefly memorable for the curious motto which accompanies it; "Strike, Dakyns, the devil's in the hempe," of which no one knows the explanation.

Why a naval crown was recently granted as a badge to a family named Vickers (Plate VIII.) I am still wondering.

The crest of Lord St. Vincent ["Out of a naval coronet or, encircled by a wreath of oak proper, a demi-pegasus argent, maned and hoofed of the first, winged azure, charged on the wing with a fleur-de-lis gold"] is worthy of notice owing to the encircling of the coronet, and in some number of cases the circlet of the coronet has been made use of to carry the name of a captured ship or of a naval engagement.

The Eastern Coronet (Fig. 659) is a plain rim heightened with spikes. Formerly it was granted without restriction, but now, as has