A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF THE SUB-ORDINARIES. 195-
with three roses gules. Lyon Register; crest, a trunk of an oak tree, with a sprig
vert : motto, Tandem. Lyon Register.
WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM of Brownhill, sometime Provost of Ayr, the armorial
figure of Cunninghame, with a rose in chief gules, surmounted of an annulet of
the field : motto, I'irtute comes invidui. Lyon Register.
ADAM CUNNINGHAM, sometime one of the Maeers to the Senator of the '
of Justice, descended of CUNNINGHAM of Drumquhassell, ardent, a shake-fork s/ible.
between three roses gules, and a crescent, for difference. Lyon Register.
THOMAS CUNNINGHAM, Merchant and residenter in Stockholm, SMII to Alexan-
der Cunningham, Bailie of Grail, descended of BARNS, argent, a sJiakefork sable,
within a bordure waved azure, charged with six besants argent ; crest, a mart ,
volant ; with the motto, Prospere qui sedulo. Lyon Register.
CUNNINGHAM of Belton, the armorial figure of the name, accompanied with
three stars, one in chief, and two in the flank , gules.
This figure, as I observed before, is taken for an episcopal pall, and, by some of
our heralds, blazoned a stole ; but by our modern, a stake-fork : Whatever
it goes under with us, it is the same with that of the French pairle,
names
an honourable
ordinary with them ; for it gives a denomination to a partition after its form, ot"
which before : As also, to figures situate after its disposition, which are then said
to be in pairle, as in the armorial bearing of SUNDIL in France, thus blazoned by
Menestrier, de gveules, au trots billettes d'or mists en pairle, i. e. gules., three billets
in pairle or. Plate VIII. fig. 30.
or THE POINT.
THE French give the point
as a proper figure in heraldry ; being a triangular
form, issuing from the base dexter and sinister points of the shield, with the point
towards the centre or collar point, as fig. 31. the arms of ST BLAISE in France,
thus blazoned by Monsieur Baron, d'azur a la d'
pointe 'argent.
We, with the English, would take it for a partition per cheveron, and say parted
per cheveron, azure and argent, which is the same when the point does not go
higher than the centre or collar points.
Which partition, as I observed before, the
French have not ; but, in its place, the point, and if it does go beyond the
collar point, and touch the top of the shield, the French take it then for a partition
of the field, which they call tierce in mantle, of which before. Plate II.
fig. 9.
OF THE GIRON AND GIRONNE.
THE giron is a French word, which signifies the lap: For suppose one sitting,
the knees somewhat assunder, and a traverse line drawn from one knee to the
other, the space within the two knees makes a giron, with the point in gremio :
So all girons are of a triangular or conal form, broad at one end, and sharp at the
other : The first is at the sides of the shield, and the other ends at the navel or
centre point of the shield. They are said to represent triangular pieces
i
of stun1
",
commonly called gussets, placed in garments and womens' smokes, to make them
wide below, and narrow above, as Menestrier, in his La Science de la Noblesse :
" Giron est une piece d'etoffe taille'e en triangle, a qui on a donne le^nom de giron,
" parceque les femmes en portoient ainsi sur le sein que Ton nomme giron de
" gremiitm"
This armorial figure is frequent in armorial bearings in Europe ; and, as others-
and coats of ar-
c
beforementioned, ha its rise in armories, from the robes, gowns,
mour used by the ancients : Menestrier, in. another treatise of his of the Ancient
Use of Arms, chap. iii. of Symbolical Figures, gives examples of girons in the arms
of the family of GIRON, in Spain, of which family are descended the Dukes of
OSSUNA, who carry three girons in their arms ; which, siys he, represent three
triangular pieces of stuff or gussets of the coat armour of Alphonsas \ I. King o:
Spain, who, fighting in the battle, against the Moors, had his horse killed, and, be-