A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

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OF THE FURR ERMINE.
so in adorning sepulchres and libraries. So, by this hardy derivation of Bolton'.,
every spot of ermine in arms stands for a her me, or shadow thereof, turning a shield,
ermine, into a Roman Atrium, which contained the images or statues of the noble
Romans. This derivation, however improbable it may seem, I thought fit to give,
in regard it hath some congruity with the most probable opinion, that armories had
their rise from the Jus Imaginum.
Ermine is represented by a white field powdered or seme of black spots, irregularly
disposed as it were ; which black spots have their points upward, and topped
with three ticks of black, as fig. 8. And when a shield, or field, or figure, is of
this furr, argent and sfible, it is, in the blazon, only
called ermine.
As for its different kinds, or sorts, in armories, they are after the same form, but
of different tinctures : As, if the field be sable, and the spots argent, it is called con-
If the field be or, and the spots sable,
tre en/lint' ; by the English, ermines, fig. 9.
the English call it erminois ; and when the field is black, and the spots or, they
call it And pe.'in. they have another sort which they call erminits ; that is, when
a hair of red, or a little gules, is placed at the sides of the black spots in a white
field. But the last three sorts are rarely to be met with, even in English blazons,
heralds. The French and we use them
being the peculiar inventions of English
not ; and if they occur, they would be blazoned or, seme of spots, sable, or sable
powdered with ermines, or ; and not make use of the w^ords, erminois, pean, and
erminetts, not knowing what they signify.
Ermine, and its kinds, have two tinctures, by what is represented. The spots
are in place of figures, and so make a complete armorial bearing ; and, as such,
ermine has been carried by the Dukes of Bretagne, which we blazon only ermine ;
the French say, d'be i mines ; and the Latins say, scutum Armenia; muris vellere dercriptum.
This duchy was annexed to the kingdom of France by Lewis XII.
marrying Anne, the only daughter and heir of Francis II. and last duke of
Bretagne.
The fields, and figures, or pieces of armories, which are laid upon the field as
charges, frequently with us and other nations, are of this furr ; and, when the field
of the metals or colours before-
is ermine, it may be charged with figures of any
mentioned. And the figures being ermine, may be laid upon fields either of metal
or colour ; because furrs are composed of two tinctures, metal and colour, and so
may either charge, or be charged, without any breach of the rule, Not to place
metal upon metal, nor colour upon colour, of which I shall give some instances,
of carrying ermine as a field and charge.
The family of Soules with us, lords of Liddesdale, anciently carried ermine,
three cheverons,^/^; which I have observed marshalled sometimes in the achievements
of the Douglasses, for the title of that lordship.
The surname of Menzies have the field of their arms ermine; and these also of
the name of Moncrief, M'Culloch, Craigie, and many others, of whom afterwards.
And the family of Hamilton charges the field of their arms, being gules, with three
cinque foils ermine, to shew their descent from the old earls of Leicester in England.
And these of the surname of Telsifer, Cowper, and Mushet, have some of their armorial
figures ermine, to show their descent from Bretagne ; and some of our se-
nators of the College of Justice have assumed the furr ermine as senatorial.
The spots of ermine are many, and of an indefinite number, being irregularly
disposed on the field ; but when a certain number of them, under ten, formally
disposed, and situated after the position of any of the proper figures in heraldry,
then the bearing is not to be blazoned ermine, the spots being charges, and are
ailed with us ermine spots, by the French, moucbetures ; and in the blazon, their
name, number, and disposition are to be expressed.
Gerard Leigh, an old English
herald, in his Accidents of Armories, gives an example of this nature, thus, argent
four queues (i. e. tails) of ermine placed in cross sable ; the moderns call them
'our ermine, spots, or mouchetiires, in cross sable. Henderson of Fordel has on a
< luef of his arms, a crescent between two moucbetures. Hamilton of Innerwick has
Uvo moucbetures on his fesse ;
and Sir George Hamilton of Barnton has on his, che-
veron, argent, a buckle, azure, betwixt two mouchetures, sable. Monsieur Baron,
in his Art Heraldujue, gives us the arms of De Vexin in French, " de gueles au
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croissant $ argent, charge' de cinque moucbetures de sable /' i.e. gules, a cres-