A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF THE SUB-ORDINARIES.
arms thus, Un ecu compose de cinque pointes ffor, equipollez a quarte d'azur,
cheque, or and azure, of nine panes. Sometimes the last author is very curt in his
blazons of this kind, and only mentions the square figures (or panes)
that are least
in number, as the arms of GENTILI, one of the twenty -eight noble families in Ge-
noa, (there are severals of this surname in Scotland, especially in Perthshire)
d'azur a quatre pieces d'echiquier d'or, i. e. azure, four pieces of cheque or. In
which blazon it must be understood, that the metal or colour first named, stands
for the field, and that the panes of the first tincture are ot more number than
those of the second : So in all blazons of cheque arms it is to be observed, that
we must begin at the metal or colour, whose pieces are of most number, for then
it is as the field, and the less number as the charge ; as was before observed in
the diminutives of the ordinaries when multiplied in the fiekl. When the pieces
of cheque are of equal number, then we begin with the tincture of the first uppermost
panes, on the right hand.
The above Favm mentions the number of cheque, if there be fifteen of them, as
in his blazon of the arms of ARMILDE in Spain, echequete de huit pieces d? argent
equipolles a sept de gueules, i.e. eight pieces argent equipoles to seven gules : But
in Britain, if they exceed nine, the heralds say only cheque, and to number them
further it is but superfluous.
OF BILLETS AND BILLETTE.
BILLETS are square figures, more long than broad, frequent in arms,
i. e.
as Me-
nestrier, " Billettes sont des billets quarrez longs, fort uses en armories ;" and Syl-
A r
ester Petra Sancta, speaking of them, says, " Quadranguli & longi majus quam
"
lati scutarii lateres etiam ipsi extruunt familiarum nobilium gloriam, atque aedi-
'
ficant seu exornant symbolicas icones earum : So that billets are taken to repre-
sent in armories bricks, for which they are latined, laterculi, or plinthides,
as Im-
hoft, in his Blazon of the Arms of ALLINGTON Lord ALLINGTON in England, Scutum
nigrum, baltheitm argenteum dentibus aspersum & sex plinthidibus stipatum, i. e.
sable, a bend ingrailed betwixt six billets argent.
Sir George Mackenzie, in his Science of Heraldry, takes billets in this sense,
where he tells us, that some families with us have them in their arms, to show their
original was from England, wr here brick-tiles are much used ; but I find few names
with us that carry billets, except that of Callender, which is originally Scots : But,
before I speak of this family, I shall first show what others will have billets to re-
present in armories.
The book Le Trophee tfArms makes bricks to differ from billets, in that they
show their thickness in perspective, which billets do not ; upon which considera-
tion he and others will have billets to represent paper folded up in form of a missive
letter, or scrolls of paper for ; billet, in French, signifies a missive letter, or piece
of paper. Abbe Danet, in his Dictionary, says, billet is a term of blazon which
signifies a sheet of paper and ; Guillim takes them for little bills of paper, made up
more long than broad.
Monsieur Baron and Menestrier will have billets to represent long square pieces
of wood, bringing billet from billus, a club, which comes from an old word billot,
which signified the trunk of a tree more long than broad ; for which the old
heralds- said biHotte, as we now say billette, when they are of an indefinite number
in the field. Mr Gibbon, Blue-Mantle Pursuivant, with Mr Morgan, supposes them
to be billets of wood, as in the arms of COUDRY, gules, ten billets or; which
Gibbon latins thus, " In scuto rubro decem calas aureas, in triqueto positas."
As for the word cala, he is beholden to the old allusive Latin saying, viz. scinde
calas ut caleas. Menestrier likewise tells us, that the square pieces of stuff of
gold or silver, or of other tinctures, which were sewed or embroidered on garments
or furniture of old, were called billets.
The surname of CALLENDER carries sable, a bend betwixt six billets or. This
surname is from the lands and castle of Callendar, anciently called Calloner, (as
some tell us, especially the Dane Vanbassan in his Armories) from a Roman who
founded that castle of Callendar, and called it after his own name Calloner, from