The Handbook to English Heraldry Part 21

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 293.--Quatrefoil.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 294.--The Ragged Staff Badge.]

_Quilled._ Used to blazon the quills of feathers: thus, a blue feather having its quill golden is blazoned--_A feather az., quilled or_.

_Radiant._ Encircled with rays.

_Rayonee._ Formed of Rays.

_Ragulee_, _Raguly_. Serrated, as No. 38, G. A "ragged staff," No. 294, is a part of a stem from which the branches have been cut off roughly.

This "ragged staff," or "_staff ragulee_," is the famous badge of the BEAUCHAMPS, and, derived from them, of the NEVILLES. No. 294 is from the monument of the great Earl, RICHARD DE BEAUCHAMP, K.G., who died in 1439, at Warwick.

_Rampant_, _Rampant Guardant_ and _Reguardant_. Nos. 171, 172; when _reguardant_, the animal looks backward.

_Rebus._ An allusive charge or device. A cask, or _tun_, to represent the final syllable "_ton_" of many surnames, is frequently found. I give a few examples of several varieties of Rebus:--JOHN OXNEY, Canterbury--An eagle (the emblem of _St. John_ the Evangelist, to denote "_John_") standing on an _ox_, charged on its side with the letters _N E_. JOHN WHEATHAMSTEDE, St. Albans--An eagle and an Agnus Dei (the emblems of _St. John_ the Evangelist and _St. John_ the Baptist, to denote "_John_"), and cl.u.s.ters of _ears of wheat_. JOHN RAMRYGE, St.

Albans--A _ram_, gorged with a collar inscribed with the letters _R Y G E_. WOODSTOCK--The stump or _stock of a tree_. Abbot ISLIP, Westminster--A man falling from a tree, exclaiming, "I slip!" and a human _eye_, and a _slip_ (small branch of a tree). WALTER LYHART, Norwich--_A hart_ (stag) _ly_ing down in _water_. An _owl_, with the letters _D O M_ on a scroll in its beak, for BISHOP OLDHAM, at Exeter.

A church ("_kirk_") on a _tun_, with a pastoral staff and the initial R, for Abbot ROBERT KIRTON, No. 295; and a _bird_ on a _tun_, and a _tree_ growing out of a _tun_, for BURTON and ASHTON, all at Peterborough. At Wells, with an initial T, a fire-_beacon_ planted _in_ a _tun_, for Bishop THOMAS BECKYNGTON, No. 296; and at Lullinstone, Kent, in stained gla.s.s, the s.h.i.+eld of Sir JOHN PECHe, A.D. 1522--_Az., a lion rampt.

queue fourchee erm., crowned or_--is encircled by _peach-branches fructed and in foliage, each peach being charged with the letter e_, No.

297; the crest-wreath also is formed of a similar peach-branch.

_Recercelee._ A variety of the heraldic cross: No. 98.

_Reflexed_, _Reflected_. Curved and carried backwards.

_Reguardant._ Looking backwards: see No. 182.

_Rein-deer._ Heraldically drawn with double antlers, one pair erect, the other drooping.

_Respecting._ Face to face--applied to creatures not of a fierce nature.

_Rest._ See _Clarion_, No. 228.

_Ribbon_, _Riband_. A diminutive of a _Bend_.

_Rising_, _Roussant_. About to fly.

_Rompu._ Broken.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 295.--Rebus of Abbot Kirton.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 296.--Rebus of Bishop Beckyngton.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 297.--Arms and Rebus of Sir John Peche.]

_Rose._ Represented in blazon as in Nos. 298, 299, and without leaves.

The five small projecting leaves of the calyx, that radiate about the flower itself, are styled _barbs_, and when they are blazoned "proper"

these barbs are green, as the "seeds" in the centre of the flower are golden. Both the "red rose" of LANCASTER and the "white rose" of YORK, but more especially the latter, are at times surrounded with rays, and each is termed a "_rose-en-soleil_," No. 300. The rose, the emblem of ENGLAND, is generally drawn like the natural flower; or with natural stem, branches, leaves, and buds, but with heraldic rose-flowers. In modern cadency the heraldic rose is the difference of the seventh son.

_Roundle._ See page 72.

_Rustre._ A mascle pierced with a circular opening: No. 144.

_Sable._ The colour black: No. 54.

_Sagittary._ The fabulous centaur, half man and half horse.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Nos. 298, 299.--Heraldic Roses.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 300.--Rose en Soleil.]

_Salamander._ An imaginary being, supposed to live in flames of fire; it is represented sometimes as a kind of lizard, and at other times (as in the crest of Earl DOUGLAS, A.D. 1483) as a quadruped somewhat like a dog, breathing flames.

_Salient._ Leaping or bounding.

_Saltire._ An ordinary, in form a diagonal cross: Nos. 120, 121, 122.

_Saltire-wise_, or _in saltire_. Arranged after the form of a saltire.

_Sanglier._ A wild boar.

_Sans._ Without. "_Sans nombre_," without any number fixed or specified.

_Savage-man_, or _Wood-man_. A wild man, naked except large wreaths of leaves about his head and loins, and carrying a club.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 301.--Crest of Hamilton.]

_Saw_, or _Frame-saw_. Borne as the crest of HAMILTON, Duke of HAMILTON, which is thus blazoned--_Out of a ducal crest-coronet or, an oak-tree fructed and penetrated transversely in the main stem by a frame-saw ppr., the frame gold; above the crest the motto_, "THROUGH!" This device is said to commemorate the escape into Scotland, in 1323, of Sir GILBERT HAMILTON, a reputed ancestor of the present ducal house. At the court of EDWARD II. Sir Gilbert had unadvisedly expressed admiration for ROBERT BRUCE, on which JOHN LE DESPENCER struck him. Despencer fell in single combat the next day, and Hamilton fled, hotly pursued, northward. Near the border the fugitive and a faithful esquire joined some wood-cutters, a.s.sumed their dress, and commenced working with them on an oak, when the pursuers pa.s.sed by. Hamilton, saw in hand, observed his esquire anxiously watching their enemies as they pa.s.sed, and at once recalled his attention to his woodman's duties by the word, "Through!"--thus, at the same time, appearing to consider the cutting down the oak to be far more important than the presence of the strangers. So they pa.s.sed by, and Hamilton followed in safety. This crest does not appear in the Hamilton seals till long after the days of Bruce and his admirer, Sir Gilbert: No. 301.

_Scarpe_, _Escarpe_. A diminutive of a _Bend sinister_.

_Scintillant._ Emitting sparks.

_Seax._ A Saxon sword.

_Seeded._ Having seeds or seed-vessels, as in the centre of an heraldic rose. See Nos. 298-300.

_Segreant._ A term applied to a griffin when rampant.

_Sejant._ Sitting.

_Semee._ Sown broadcast or scattered, without any fixed number, over the field; parts of the charge thus semee appearing at the border-lines of the composition. See Nos. 247, 250, 252.

_Shake-fork._ Resembles the letter Y, but does not extend to the margin of the s.h.i.+eld, and is pointed at its extremities.

_Shamrock._ A trefoil plant or leaf, the badge of IRELAND.

_s.h.i.+eld_, or _Escutcheon_. The s.h.i.+eld of Heraldry is fully described at page 32. See also Nos. 27, 39-49.

_s.h.i.+p._ Sometimes blazoned as a modern vessel, but sometimes also as an ancient galley. See _Lymphad_.