A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

204
OF THE SUB-ORDINARIES.
When the field is not filled with an equal number of piles, the greatest number
is taken for the field, and the lesser number for the charge, as before in the Multi-
plication of the Abstracts of the Honourable Ordinaries ;. as in the bearing of RICHARD
HULSE of Betherden in Kent, argent, three piles, one issuing from the chief, between
two. other transposed from the base sable, Plate IX. fig. 7. ; but, if there
were two from the chief, which would make an equal number, filling the field
equally with metal and colour, the English would blazon them paly pilie of so
many pieces, argent and sable, as they do these, issuing from both sides of the
shield, harry pilie ; which would be more proper to say, so many piles placed bar-
ways, wedged, as it were, one in the other, and reaching quite traverse the shield,,
as fig. 8. which Bara calls pointes en face ; the French, as I observed before, know
nothing of the pile; and would blazon these arms, parti emanche, arg ent and gules,
of eight pieces.
" Emanche'," says Menestrier, " se dit des partitions de 1'ecu, ou les pieces s'en-
" clavent 1'une dans 1'autre, en forme des longs triangles piramidaux," i. e. emanche
is said of the partitions of the shield, whose pieces enter the one in the other, in
long triangular piramidical forms ; so that, when the piles are counter-placed in
pale, fesse, bend-Jexter and sinister, the French say, parti emanche, coupe emanche,
tranche emanche and taille emanche, and the English, paly pilie, barry pilie, bendy
pilie of so many pieces. Mr Gibbon says, the French term emanche cannot be
well etymologized, and therefore cannot latinize it : yet, he offers the latin blazon
of the arms of the territory of Landas of the same form with the figure 8, but of
ten pieces, " Quinse (ex argento) pontis pilas traverse, totidemque,
e minio vicissim
" contrapositae, totum clypeum transeuntes ;" for which the French say, parti
emanche d? argent, et de gueules de dix pieces ; and the English barry pilie of ten,
argent and gules* As for the signification of the word emanche, Menestrier says,
as the girons represent in arms gussets of garments, so do the manches, the sleeves,
narrow below, and wide above towards the shoulders.
OF THE FLANQUE, FLASQUE, AND VOIDER.
THESE are terms of figures treated of by the English,
which are to be found in
their armorial bearings, but very rarely with the French : I have not met with
them as yet in our blazons ; however I shall treat of them briefly here.
Gerard Leigh would make them distinct, and subordinate to one another, but I take
them to be all one ; and the first is only a term used in heraldry. Guillim says,
they are made by an arch-line, drawn somewhat distinct from the corners of the
chief, on both sides, and swelling by degrees to the middle of the escutcheon, and
thence decreasing gradually in the base points. The flasque is lesser than the
flanque, and the voider is the diminutive of both. Spelman will have them to represent
the facings of robes and gowns, and Guillim says, such figures are fit rewards
for learning, and especially for service performed in embassies and the
;
voider, the diminutive of the flasque, a suitable reward for a gentlewoman that has
dutifully served her prince or princess. Some heralds write them flanches.
I shall add two or three examples of these figures in arms, taken out of the
Dictionary of Arms, by Samuel Kent, printed in October 1717.
ALDHAM of Shrimpling in Norfolk, argent, a leopard between two flanches.
ANTONY of Suffolk, argent, a leopard between two flanches sable.
APHENRY of Wales, gules, five plates between two flanches argent, on each a
trefoil of the first.
Mr Gibbon, in his Introduction ad Latinam Blazoniam, latins the flanque and
fiasque, (the first signifying a side, in French) lotus or latusculum ; and from its
form he puts the epithet gibbosum to it and the ; flanch, being the same with the
flanque, are segments of a circular superficies, and latins them, orbiculi segmentum;
as in his blazon of the arms of Sir HENRY HOBART of Blicklinge in Norfolk, " in
"
area nigra stellam octo radiorum auream gerit, inter duo orbiculi segmenta muris
'
armeniae vellere i. impressa," e. sable, a star of eight points, waved or, between
two flanques ermine, as Plate IX. fig. 9.