Page:The Grammar of Heraldry, Cussans, 1866.djvu/78

64 less than nine different marks, which, for various dishonourable acts, were liable to be affixed to the escutcheon. The crimes which merited these abatements were: a knight revoking his challenge; deserting the banner of his sovereign; vainly boasting of martial achievements; ‘demeaning himself not well in battle;’ killing a prisoner with his own hands, when not justified by self-defence; uttering a lie to his sovereign; effeminacy; drunkenness and licentious conduct; acting as a traitor towards his king and country. For this last crime, the most disgraceful of all, the escutcheon was condemned to be borne reversed.

 

By Armes Parlantes are meant armorial bearings which have some fanciful allusion to the name of the possessor. In the records of heraldry are to be found numerous instances of arms of this description. The following are a few examples of armes parlantes, or canting heraldry, as it is sometimes called.

The families of Salmon, Sturgeon, Lucy, Herring, Shelly, Talbot, Wolf, Rabbett, Arundel, and Falconer, bear respectively, salmons, sturgeon, lucies (pike), herrings, whelk-shells, talbots, wolves, rabbits, hirondelles (swallows), and falcons. The Cardingtons bear three wool-cards, and the Harrows, as many implements of that name. See also the arms of Tremayne, in the Appendix.

In the ‘Lay of the Last Minstrel’ we read:— alluding to Baron Cranstoun, whose family crest was a crane holding a stone in his foot.

