Fig. 284.
Fig. 285.
Sword.—Is sometimes borne in allusion to St. Paul, as it is in the Arms of the City of London. Unless otherwise described, a straight sword with a cross hilt, an arming sword as it was sometimes called, is understood. Its position—that is to say, the direction of the blade—whether pale, wise or fesswise, and where there are more swords than one, their relative positions and the direction of their points are duly stated.
Trefoil (Fig. 283).—Is always represented with a stalk, as in the example, but the term slipped is always included in the blazon nevertheless. The form of the charge is usually as given, but in rare instances it appears as in Fig. 284, which is from a fifteenth century MS. in the Heralds’ College.
Water Bouget.—This, like the maunche, is an instance of the conventionalization of an actual thing into a shape that bears but remote likeness to the original form. Although there are instances in which its derivation from water carriers, its undoubted origin, is more nearly suggested, its heraldic form was clearly established in the fourteenth century, chiefly in connexion with the family of Bourchier, which furnished so many persons of note to mediaeval history.
CHAPTER XII
Marks of Cadency
Fig. 286.
Fig. 287.