A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

. b
OF THE PALE.
The pale is subject to the accidental forms of lines which compose it, as to be
invrailed, inverted, indented, nelmle, &c. As, also, the pale is sometimes fitche,
or aiguise, that is, sharp at the point, and, in this form, it aptly represents a pale
of wood fixed in the earth, to fortify camps and towns.
The family of CHANDOS in France and England, one of which name was one of the
first Knights Companions of the noble Order of the Garter, as Ashmole gives us, in
his Institution of that Order, argent, a pale fitched, at the point gules, as fig. 2.
Plate III. ; the French say, a"argent an pale en pied aiguise de gueules; and Syl-
vester Petra Sancta speaking
of the arms of the Sussonii, being argent, three pales
fitche at the foot gules, interdum (says he) bee sublica; Gentilitia cuspidantur in ima
parte. When the pale turns fitche, or sharp gradually, from the top to the point,
then they are called by us and the English,
of which
piles,
afterwards, being one
of the sub-ordinaries.
Plate III. fig. 3. parted per fesse, gules and ermine, a pale counter-changed ot
the same, and on the first three mascles or, used for arms by the name of Esplin.
Such another bearing is that of ROPER of Teynham, an old family in Kentshire,
which was dignified
with the title of Lord I. Teynham, by King James of Great
Britain, thus blazoned by Mr Dale, pursuivant, in his Catalogue of the Nobility of
England, parted per fesse, azure and or, a pale, and three bucks' heads erased, and
counter-changed of the same.
to the accidental forms of lines which com-
The pale,
as I said before, is' subject
pose it ; a few instances I shall here add, as fig. 4. or, a pale ingrailed sable, by the
surname of SAWERS, which, having teeth like a saw, is relative to the name. Sylvester
Petra Sancta gives us another coat of the same kind, which he blazons, sub-
lica furva utrinque striata, in aureo scuti alveola.
Plate III. fig. 5. gules, a pale invected argent, by the name of VECK, as in Homs's
Academy of Armory. And here it may be observed how ingrailing and invecting
lines differ.
As for the other forms the pale is subject to, as nebule, dancette, embattled, &c.
and how they may be charged and accompanied with other figures, in regard the
other ordinaries are subject to the like, and that I will have occasion to speak of
them and their attributes, I shall refer those forms till I come to them ; but shall
here add one singular form, which I have not mentioned before, viz.
Azure, a pale rayoime or, by the name of LIGHTFORD ; the French say, a pale
radiant, or rayonne, so named from the glittering rays and shining beams, like those
of the sun.
Plate III. fig. 6. azure, a pale rayonne or, charged with a lion rampant gules, is
carried by the name of COLEMAN in England.
This ordinary, the is pale, sometimes charged or accompanied with figures,
for
which I shall add the armorial bearing of the Honourable Mr DAVID ERSKINE of
Dun, one of the Senators of the College of Justice, Plate III. fig. 7. argent, on a
pale sable, a sword of the first, point downward, for the surname of DUN, upon the
account that Sir ROBERT ERSKINE of that Ilk, one of the progenitors of the Earls of
MARR, married the heiress of DUN of that Ilk, who carried gules, a sword in pale
argent : Their younger son, in obtaining his mother's inheritance, placed the sword
upon the pale of ERSKINE, for his difference from the principal family. Some of our
old books of painting represent the sword as a cross croslet fitched or, taking it to
be one of these in the arms of the earldom of MARR ; but, in our New Register of
Arms I find them matriculated for DAVID ERSKINE of Dun thus, quarterly first and
Fourth argent, a pale sable for ERSKINE, second and third gules, a sword in pale argent,
hilted and pommelled or, for DUN of that Ilk and for ; crest, a griffin's head
i' rased, holding in its beak a sword bendways, and on the blade of it is for motto,
Jn domino confido. Which arms are supported by two griffins gules, winged and
armed or.
The pale, as is said, possesses the third middle part of the field perpendicularly
from top to bottom, yet it admits of diminutions as to its breadth, the half of it is
called a pallet, and the fourth part of the pallet an endorse or verget.
The pallet, the diminutive of the pale, being a half of its breadth, is latined pa-
lus miniatus, and cannot be called semi-palus or demi-palus, which respects its length ;
for with the English it is always as long as the pale : neither, according to them,