(The arms of the Duke of Portland afford a good example of a shield bearing a record of such alliances. For in the first and fourth grand quarters quarterly we find the arms of the Bentincks—the original family arms; in the second and third quarterlies the Cavendish arms appear; whilst on the second and third grand quarters the arms of Scott are represented, thus recording the alliance of the house of Bentinck with those of Cavendish and Scott.)
A husband may only add the arms of his wife's family to his own when she is heiress or co-heiress of her own line. He then bears those arms on what is called an "escutcheon of pretence," which he charges on his own family coat. All the sons of an heiress or co-heiress may use their mother's arms after she is dead as quarterings with those of their father, dividing the shield as in Fig. 54 and placing their paternal arms in the first and fourth quarters and their maternal in the second and third.
When three coats of arms are to be represented on a shield, the most important occupies the first and fourth quarters. A familiar example of this is furnished by the royal arms of Great Britain, where we see the lions of England in the first and fourth quarters, the lion rampant of Scotland in the second, and the harp of Ireland in the third.
The Earl of Pembroke, in 1348, was the first subject, so Mr. Hulme tells us, who quartered his arms.
When a great number of quarterings are charged upon the shield, the order in which these quarterings are marshalled[1] or arranged is very important, the original arms being always placed in the upper dexter of the field—that being the most honourable point—and the other arms following in the sequence in which they were introduced into the family coat of arms.
[1:] Marshalling means the art of grouping or arranging various coats of arms on one and the same shield.
SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL.
Arms.—Arg. on mount vert, representation of the 40 ft. reflecting
telescope with its apparatus ppr. on a chief az: the astronomical
symbol of Uranus irradiated or.
Crest.—A demi terrestrial sphere ppr. thereon an eagle,
wings elevated or.
Motto.—Cœlis exploratis.