We now come to the elements—fire, water, earth, and air, which all occur as charges, but not often, in armorial bearings.
Fire, in the form of flames, is perhaps the most frequent charge. The Baikie family bear flames, whilst we have seen the picture of a church window in Gloucestershire, where a coat of arms is represented with a chevron between three flames of fire. The original bearer of these arms distinguished himself, we were told, by restoring the church after it had been burnt down. Fire often occurs in combination with other charges, such as a phœnix, which always rises out of flames, the salamander,[1] and the fiery sword.
[1:] The salamander was the device of Francis I. of France, and on the occasion of the Field of the Cloth of Gold the French guard bore the salamander embroidered on their uniforms.
Queen Elizabeth chose a phœnix amidst flames as one of her heraldic charges. Macleod, Lord of the Isles of Skye and Lewis, bears "a mountain inflamed"—literally, a volcano—on his shield, thus combining the two elements, earth and fire.
"Etna is like this," says Guillim; "or else this is like Etna."
Water, as we know, is usually represented by roundlets, but the earth may figure in a variety of ways when introduced into heraldry.
In the arms of one King of Spain it took the shape of fifteen islets, whilst one Sir Edward Tydesley charged his field with three mole-hills.
Jewels pure and simple occur very rarely as charges. A single "escarbuncle" was borne by the Empress Maud, daughter of Henry I., as also by the Blounts of Gloucester. Oddly enough, however, mill-stones were held to be very honourable charges, because, as they must always be used in pairs, they symbolized the mutual dependence of one fellow-creature on the other. They were therefore considered the most precious of all other stones.
The family of Milverton bear three mill-stones.