A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF THE SUB-ORDINARIES. i 99
and azure, so called upon the account that the tinctures of the arms do meet
at the centre of the shield, which the old heralds called the con ; and the Lat:i,s
said, " Fortat arnia contra conata ex duodecim partibus ex auro &- bladio," i.
gironne of twelve pieces, or and gules : Upton, speaking of gironal arms, says,
" Diversi surit nobiles qui portant arma contra conata, quia omnes ipsorum colores
" invechuntur, ad unuin conum, sive ad medium punctum conatuni, quia omne
latum est omnino conatum." The mo-
"corpus triangulum magis longum quam
dern heralds disuse the word coiiatus, which properly signifies one that endeavours
any thing, and use the words cuneus a wedge, and conns, which signifies a geometrical
body, sharp at one end, and broad at the other, which answers to a giron.
We meet with arms of sixteen girons, as these given us by Favin, in his Thea-
tre of Honour, book 3d. page 55. Gironne de gueules & ifermines de seize pieces,
i. e. gironne of sixteen pieces, gules and ermine, carried by John Cheswell, institu-
tor of the Order of St Magdalen, in anno 1614. And Sylvester Petra Sancta gives
us such another bearing by the Eecourti in France, which he thus describes, pinnulee
trigonite sexdecim, jubar argenti atque ostri reciprocantes, i. e. gironne of sixteen
pieces, argent and ~g ides : Bombax-, a herald, gives out, that such gironal arms re-
present winding-stars, and signify that the bearers have been raised and exalted
by their own merits.
The girons are subject to accidental forms, as to be infrailed, nebule and wavey,
of which 1 have given examples in the VII. chap, and I proceed next to
piles, be^
ing figures much of the same form..
OF THE PILE.
IT is an armorial figure more frequent in Britain than in other nations, and hardly
known in France by that name.
It is of a conal form, more oblong than the giron ; its point does not end in the
centre, but proceeds farther into the field, and sometimes to the extremities of the
shield. The English describe it an ordinary composed by a two-fold line, formed
like a long wedge ; and when but one in the field, the great end possesses the
third part of the shield, whereout it issueth, ending taper-ways, near to the opposite
part of the shield, as Plate IX. fig. i. or, a pile ingrailed sable.
The English ascribe to it many significations in arms. As first, Guillim says, it
represents that ancient weapon peculiar to the Romans, called pilum, from which
the pile is latined pila.
Morgan says it is a fit figure to be given to generals and commanders, who have
ordered their army in battle after the form of a wedge, and have obtained victory
by that form. Others again, as the author of the ^book, entitled, The Art of
Heraldry, advances, that the pile represents in armory such pieces of wood which
make all the foundations of buildings and fortifications sure and firm, in marshy
and watery ground ; and that it is a fit symbolical figure for those who have founded
governments and societies ; and upon such an account they tell us, that Edward
III. of England gave the pile to Sir John Chandos for his armorial figure, upon
the account of his valour against the French, and as one of the founders of the most
noble Order of the Garter; This Sir John was well known to the French ; for almost
all their heralds take notice of his arms : And Favin, in his Theatre of Hon-
our, blazons them thus, D' 'argent a un pieu aiguise de gueules, i. e. argent, a pile
fitchc gules, of which before of the Pale. Chap. IX. Plate III. fig. 2.
I take the English pile, and the French pile aiguise to be all one, and represent
the same thing, such as a stake of wood, sharp at the end, with \\hich soldiers forti-
fied their camps ; and engineers, by driving- them into the ground, to make solid
foundations for buildings, commonly called piles ofit'ood: For which the Lut
ay, sub/ids dejixis sustentare : As Sylvester Petra Sancta, for a pile in armories,
says, svblica gentilitia cuspidata in im/i parte: The English pile differs nothing from
the French pale aiguise, but that the one is fitche , or sharp from the top, and the other
turns sharp, but near the foot ; and heralds latin the first, palos cuspidatos, and
the last, palos in imo cuspidatos.