A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF THE PALE. 35
and granted as additions of honour; as the chief, the reward of these actions which
are the product of wit ; the cross, of religious performances; the fesse and bend,
of military exploits ; the chevcron, of politic effects ; and the pale, a sign of autho-
rity. But, not to insist on their significations in general, I shall treat more particularly
of their different significations, representations, and reasons, for which they
are become the fixed figures of some families.
CHAP. IX.
OF THE PALE.
THE Pale is that honourable ordinary which possesses tUe third middle part of
the field perpendicularly, and has divers significations 'and representations
in armorial bearings.
And, first, it is taken and latinised by heralds palus, which signifies a pale of
wood, or stake ; and sometimes, for
palus, ptiludis, which signifies a ditch or channel,
which it is supposed to represent in arms, especially by some towns in Holland
; but more generally for pales of wood, with which cities and camps are for-
tified ; and has been given for an armorial figure to those who have, w r ith skill or
success, impaled a city or camp, or who, with valour, have broken down the impalements
of their enemy's camp or city.
The town of Beauvais in France carries for an armorial figure, a pale, with this
verse to show its signification,
Palus ut hie Jixus constans ^ firma manebo ;
upon account that town stood out always firm for the Kings of France against the.
English. Others tell us, That the pale in this city's arms is relative to its name
Beauvais, which signifies a good way as ; the pale, in the arms of the town of Strata,
represents a way or street, which Strata signifies. And Menestrier tells us, The
town of Fond, upon the way from Rome to Naples, carries argent, a pale gules, to
represent a ditch or channel, which Fond signifies in that country and the ; town
of Dordrecht in Holland, gules, a pale argent, upon the account, and in memory
of an old civil battle which occasioned much slaughter, staining the great street
of that town with blood, and the river, running in the midst thereof, clear, is re-
presented by the white pale.
The pale in the arms of many noble families is frequently taken for a mark of
power or jurisdiction, as the learned Menestrier and other heralds observe, to represent
the paler part of the consular garment, which hangs down before from the
neck to the foot. Bishops, and other dignified churchmen, have likewise such oblong
pieces belonging to their ecclesiastical habits, called episcopal pales, 'stoles, and
tippets, as marks of jurisdiction and authority. The episcopal pale is borne in the
arms of the Arch -Episcopal See ot Canterbury. But to proceed to the form of se-
cular and armorial pale, and its accidental forms.
Plate III. i .
fig. argent, a pale sable, the paternal bearing of the ancient surname
of ERSKINE, the chiefs of which, the Right Honourable the Earls of MARK, Lords
Erskine, &-c. have, for a long time, been in use to quarter these with the arms of
Marr, viz. azure, a bend between six cross croslets, fitched or in ; their achievement,
timbred with crown, helmet, and mantlings befitting their quality, and out
of a wreath of their tinctures ; for crest, a right hand, proper, holding a skein in
pale, argent, hiked and pommelled or: and for motto, Jepenseplus. Which achievement
has been anciently, and of late, surrounded with the collar of the most noble
Order of the Garter, (as Ashmole gives us), and of the most ancient Order of
the Thistle, with the badges of St George and St Andrew pendant thereat, and
supported with two griffins argent, winged, beaked, and armed or. Of the antiquity
of this noble family afterwards.
Several of the armorial bearings of the noble and honourable families of this
surname, descended of the house of Marr, are to be found at die end of this,
chapter.