A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF THE SUB-ORDINARIES. 205
The French use the term fane, or flanquc, when figures are placed on the sides
and flanques of the shield ; and especially when a shield of arms is parted per sal-
tier ; the two sides are called the flanques, as in the blazon or' the arms of the
kingdom of Sicily, d'or a quatre paux tie gueules, jlunque tf argent, u deux aigles de
table, i. e. parted per saltier, above and below or, four pales gules, the two flanques
argent, each charged with an eagle sable ; but here the flanques is no charge nor
figure, but the sides of the field being the triangular areas made by the partition
lines ; so that the French know little or nothing of those as armorial figures ; for
figures, which canton the saltier at the sides, are said to be in Jiunques, as by the
blazons of that figure in the chapter of the Saltier.
OF THE LOZENGE AND LOZENGY, RUSTRE, MASCLE, FUSIL AND FUSILY.
HAVING treated of square, triangular, and conal figures, I proceed now to rbom-
bular ones, as,
The lozenge, a figure that has equal sides and unequal angles, as the quarry of a
glass-window, placed erect point-ways ; the Latins say, lozenga facto; sutti ad modum
lozangiorum in vitreis.
Menestrier says, " Lozange est une figure de quatre pointes, dont deux sont un
" peu plus etendues que les autres, et assisees sur une des pointes. C'est le rhombe
" des mathematiciens, et les quarreaux de vitres ordinaries en ont la figure."
Heralds tell us, that their use in armories came from the pavement of marble
stones, of churches, fine palaces, and houses, cut after the form of lozenges ;
which pavements the French and Italians call loze, and the Spaniards lozas ; and,
when in arms, are taken for marks of honourable descent from some noble house.
Sylvester Petra Sancta says the same, when he treats of lozenges, which he calls,
" Scutulas oxigonias seu acutangulas erectas, & quasi gradiles, referri debere ad
" latericias & antiquas domus olim, viz. nobilium quia vulgus,
&. infamise sortis
" homines, intra humiles casas vel antra inhabitantur."
Some latin them in blazon, lozengias, rbombos, as Uredus ; and rhombulos, as
Camden ; they are said by Sir George Mackenzie to be symbols of exact honesty
and constancy, being figures whose right sides are always highest.
When there is but one lozenge in the field, and that it touches the four sides of
the shield, which is not ordinary with us) it is called a grand lozenge ; and the
field that is seen a vestu, as in the arms of PUTED, in France, azure, a grand
lozenge or, charged with a crescent of the first ; this by Menestrier, d'or vestu
d'azur, au croissant de meme; here the angles of the shield is the vestu, fig. 10.
And in his blazon of the arms of CARRARA, in Venice, " coupe d'argent et
"
d'azur, vestu de 1'un a 1'autre, ou coupe d'argent et d'azur, a une grande
"
lozenge, de 1'un a 1'autre aboutissante aux quatre flancs de 1'ecu," i. e. parted
per fesse, argent and azure, a grand lozenge counter-changed of the same. As
fig. ii.
When the lozenge touches not the sides of the shield, and when more than one
are placed on it, as 2 and i, as in other figures which accompany or charge ordi-
naries, they are only called lozenges ; of which I shall add some examples.
STRANG of Balcaskie, argent, a cheveron- sable, ensigned on the top with
a cross patee azure, between three lozenges of the second. Font's Manuscript.
Fig. 12.
JOHN STRANG, Merchant and Citizen in London, descended of BALCASKJE, carries
the same; but, for difference, makes the cheveron waved ; and, for crest, a
cluster of wine grapes ; with the motto, Dulce quod utile. L. R.
The surname of DALRYMPLE carries, for their armorial figures, lozenges.
There
was an ancient family of this name, in the shire of Ayr, who possessed the barony
of Dalrymple, which John and Roland de Dalrymples did possess ; and their heirs
made over the same to Sir John Kennedy in the year 1378.
There was another family of this name, in the reign of Robert III. designed of
Ingliston, as is evident by an obligation, from James de Dalrymple of Inglis>ton and
Anniston, to Sir Robert Stewart of Durresdier, his superior ; wherein he obliges
himself, and his heirs, not to build a corn-mill in the abovenamed lands, as the
3*