In posing animals on a shield it must never be forgotten that not only is a pattern being arranged but that it is made with the body and limbs of a supposedly living thing.
Fig. 101 is one of the methods that suggest themselves, and passant lions may be spaced in a similar way (Fig. 102).
Fig. 101.
Fig. 102.
A lion’s claws and tongue, of which he is armed and langued respectively, are gules except when he or the field is of that tincture, and in either of the latter cases he is armed and langued azure, as in the Royal coat of Scotland. This is taken as of course, and need not be mentioned in the blazon, though it very often is.
Demi-lions are usually demi-lions rampant, and in this form they were largely used as crests, which will be discussed later on. They are depicted as severed low down at the loins, and the tail is retained in most cases, though not always. When, as a charge, they are in contact with a line of an ordinary, as though arising from it, they must be described in the blazon as issuant.
Demi-lions passant or passant guardant are of more rare occurrence, the latter generally in conjunction with another object, as in the arms ascribed to the Cinque Ports on the seal of Sandwich (Fig. 103), where the demi-lions are joined to the hulls of ships. This evidently arose from the joining together by dimidiation or halving of two separate coats, viz. the Arms of England with one of local allusion: Az. three hulls of ships Or. By a similar method were evolved the Arms of the city of Chester, wherein the lions of England are conjoined with the wheatsheaves of the Earldom.
