A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

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OF THE CHEVERON
CHAP, XVII.
OF THE CUEVERON.
THIS honourable Ordinary, the last of the nine, may be said to be made of
the bend dexter-and sinister, issuing from the right and left base points of
the escutcheon, meeting and ending pyramidically in the collar point. The French
say, as Monsieur Baron, that it represents a pair of compasses half open ; and us
Menestrie.r, in his La Science de la Noblesse, " Cheveron est une piece honorable,
" qui represente deux chevrons de charpente assembles, sans aucune division, il de-
" scend du chef vers les extremites de 1'ecu en forme d'un compas a demi-ouvert."
The Cheveron, anciently, as appears by old seals and monuments, reached from
the base to the top of the escutcheon, as fig.
i. PL VII. But in latter times the
top of the cheveron reaches no further than the collar point, as by the following
examples. When the first is met within arms, it is said to be a cheveron transposed,
by the English, and hausse by
the French.
What the cheveron represents, there are different opinions. Gerard Leigh will
have it to represent the head-attire, which in old times the women-priests used to
wear ; for which it is called by some, signum capitale. But how it came into armories
I cannot fancy, since no other herald is of his opinion. The author of
Tresor Heraldique will have a cheveron to represent a horseman's spur ; a better
fancy than Leigh's.
Some derive the word cheveron from chevre, a goat, because it
horns of a goat reversed. The Italians call the cheveron, capriolo ;
stands like the
and some, that
write in Latin, say capriolus
for a cheveron.
Argot de Molina, a Spanish Herald, and others, will have it to represent a
a mechanical instru-
carpenter's rule, for which it is latined norma, as representing
ment. The Spaniards seldom use it in their arms. Mr Peacham, an Englishman,
in his book, is much of this opinion, and observes, that a cheveron is never to be
seen in the armorial ensigns of Kings and Princes, nor as a brisure in the arms ot
their descendants.
Sir JAMES BALFOUR, sometime Lyon King at Arms, in a Manuscript of his, says,
King nor Prince should carry a cheveron, because it touches geometry, and represents
the couple of a house ; neither, says he, should they bear a Ba>\ because
it is jhe baulk of a couple : whether he takes it here for a carpenter's rule, or the
couple of a house, as the English do, I cannot be positive, but it is generally observed,
that the cheveron is seldom or never carried by Kings or Princes.
Menestrier says of the cheveron as of the saltier, and other traverse pieces of
armories, that it may be supposed to be brought from the pieces of timber, which
made up the barriers of tournaments, inclosures of parks, and entries, which are
joined at the upper end, and severed below, like a cheveron. Sylvester Petra
Sancta, in his chapter de Tesserario Cantherio, says, " Ita fit quasi duas institae uno
" nexu jungantur, insistant vero divaricatae cruribus in modum circini, fceciales
" capriolum seu cantherium vocant."
The English generally take the cheveron to represent a pair of barge-couplings,
or rafters, such as carpenters set on the highest part of the house; which is never
complete till these be set up ; and say a. cheveron should be given to those who
have brought any great design to perfection. So that it is the figure of an established
house, as Guillim ; and is latined tignum, which comes from tego to cover :
for upon couplings or top-rafters of a house is laid the covering of the building-.
After this representation and meaning I find our heralds have taken the
cheveron ; for in some of our old books of blazons, I find the cheveron represented
just like the couple of a house ; as in the arms of GORDON Earl of Aboyne, a
younger son of the family of Huntly, where a cheveron is added to the arms of
Gordon, for a difference with ; these words for motto, Slant caetera tigno, to shew
its signification, and his descent from an established house.
Sir George Mackenzie, in his Science of Heraldry, tells us, that the cheveron is
given by heralds, to such as have supplied and relieved their Prince and country :
and thus the HEPBURNS carry gules, on a cheveron argent, two lions pulling at a