Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/416

 338 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [Nov., gent, a cross potent between four crosses couped Or." This gives us gold figures charged upon a silver field, or metal upon metal. These were the arms pur- posely devised by the heralds against the rule of blazon for Godfrey of Bouillon, King of Jerusalem, from A. D. 1099 to 1100, in consideration of his disting- uished valor, virtue, and piety, in order that, should future times ask, Why metal upon metal? the answer — on account of his unusual merit in all respects — might redound to the credit of Godfrey. Yet it were hard to make thinking men be- lieve, that this nearly indistinguishable, and therefore, useless ensign, for all leading and rallying purposes, was, or is, a very successful instance of even " apples of gold in pictures of silver," to say nothing *of its palpable armoristic unfitness. Kent, from a manuscript of the Rev. Mr. Bokenham, gives, as the arms of the family of Arando, in Spain, "Argent, a bordure Or entoj-re of rests [or Clar- ions] Azure." Here is a border of gold to a silver shield. Entoyre means charged, with eight inanimate objects, one in each of the four corners, and one on the top, each side, and bottom of the border exactly half way between every corner pair. These blue figures, how- ever, relieve both metals ; so that this is not, like the preceding, a violent case. ■ For armorial bearings of the kind in question, the French use the term, Pour enquirer, meaning, to inquire, or, for inquiry, whence, in English, they are called by Nisbet and others, Arms of Inquiry. The French, also, use the word, Cousu, to signify a piece of another Color or Metal placed upon an Ordinary in defiance of the rule, and, therefore, not appropriately upon the field, but in the nature of a thing sewed on. Even as keen and judicious an author as Kent, confessedly abridging Guil- lim, dissents from the rule, because in- stances of metal on metal, color on color, can be produced from amongst the arms of ancient and noble families, and also, because, " Our neighbors, the French, " do often professedly break through " this pretended rule, by virtue of their " two terms, Cousu and Pour enquirer." Allowing all this, the exception proves the rule ; and all these instances— how- ever complacently produced by their inventors, or adduced by their admirers — are assuredly armoristic failures. Be- fore controverting, it is always best to see, whether we are not committing modern foolishness in questioning an- cient wisdom. In this, as in many other matters, it happens that the intermediate is corrupt, while the primary is pure. The Furs are Ermine ; Counter-Er- mine, or Ermines ; Erminois ; Erminites ; Pean ; Vair ; Counter-Yair ; Yair-in- Point ; Yair-m-Pale ; Yair, ancient ; Potent ; Counter-Potent, or, Potent- Counter-Potent ; "Potent-in- Point, for Meirre, Yairy-Cuppy, or Yairy-Tassy ;" and Potent-in- Pale. Of these, Potent- in-Point is our synonyme for the Fur indifferently signified by either of the three terms following it, by way of help to the memory, — as, in the disposition and tincturing of the figures, it exactly corresponds with Yair-in-Point ; and Po- tent-in-Pale is a suggestion of the writer's, to round up the list, consisting, as it does, of Potent figures arranged and colored in the same manner as the Yair figures of Yair-in-Pale. This will make no confusion, as it cannot hitherto have occurred in any coat. The elder Armorists are not entirely uniform, in the appropriation of the above long-settled terms to the figures and tinctures represented. This, proba- bly, arises from the fact, that, without specially referring to the official rolls at hand, they depended on their memory of the figures. We have consulted many authorities, choosing between them in all cases of doubt ; and feel assured, that our assignment of the figures to the technical name will meet the approba- tion of those best acquainted with the subject. Where old authorities differ,