A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF THE PALE. 37
can it be charged with any thing, but may be carried between figures. I have not
met with the practice of carrying one pullet alone in a coat of arms, but where
there are frequently two, three, or more together in one field, except in the bear-
ing of the name of Ward, azure, a pullet argent, given us by the author of the Sy-
b. Plate 111.
nopsis of Heraldry, fig.
The endorse, or vet-get, being the fourth part of the pallet ; the first is a term
used by the English, and the latter by the French, which signifies the same thing,
a small rod or branch of a tree, which were usually interwoven With the pales, or
stakes of wood, (in the sense we took them before), to fortify camps and cities ;
wherefore heralds tell us, that an endorse or verget are never to be seen in arms,
but when a pale is between two of them ; tor example, Plate 111. fig. 9. but here
the endorses are made too broad by the engraver.
Argent, a pale ingrailed between two endorses sable, by the name of BELLASYSE,.
thus blazoned by Mr Gibbon, " In parma argentea palum integrum ingrediatum,
" (hoc est in semi lunulas utrinque delineatum), &. duabis hinc hide vacerrulis
" planis ejusdem coloris comitatum." And Jacob Imhoil",
in his Historia Genealogica
Regum Pariumque Magiuv Britannia;, says, " Insignia quibus Bellasysii utun-
" tur, in scuti quadripartiti prima &. ultima areola rubea, cantherium aureum, li-
" liis tribus ejusdem metalli stipartum," (i. e. quarterly in the first and fourth area
gules, a cheveron or, betwixt three flower-de-luces of the last, for Fauconberg ;
but the pursuivant Dale, in his Catalogue of Nobility, gives other tinctures, viz.
argent, a cheveron gules, between three flower-de-luces azure), " in secunda vero,
" & tertia argentea, palum nigrum qucm utrinque taenia, eodem colore tincta co-
" mitatur representant." There was an old family of the name of Bellasyse in Yorkshire,
of which was Henry Bellasyse, who was created Knight Baronet by King
James I. and his son Thomas, for his loyal services, was created a Lord Baron, and
thereafter, in 1642, Viscount Fauconberg; and since, in anno 1699, their familyhas
been honoured with the title of Earl of Fauconberg.
When there are more pales than one in a field, they cannot but lose of their
breadth, and be proportionally smaller according to their number ; whence they
have from the English the diminutive name pallet ; but the French call them al-
ways pales, though they exceed the number of four.
Plate III.
fig. 10. or, three pallets gules, surmounted of a cheveron azure, char-
ged with as many buckles of the first, by the surname of SKIRVING. Thus by-
Monsieur Baron, in his Art du Blason, of such another coat, d'or, a. trois pah gueules, a la cheveron d'azure, charge de trois fermaux ifor brochant sur le tout. It is to be
observed, the French are not so nice as the English blazoners, who will not repeat
one word twice in the blazon of a coat, whereas the French do not stand to repeat
one word twice in one blazon, as trois and or are here twice repeated.
Fig. ii. Plate III. or, three pallets gules, the arms of the town of Mechlin in
the Netherlands ;
thus by Uredus, scutum aureum palo coccineo tripartite exaraturn;
and the arms of the county of Provence being almost the same, he blazons, scutum
aureum quatuor palis miniatis impression, i. e. or, four pallets gules.
The arms of the kingdom of Arragon in Spain, are, or, four pallets gules ; which
the French blazon, d'or, a quatre paiix de gueules. This country was possessed of
old by the Kings of Navarre, till Reimar, natural son of Sanchez the Great, King of
N'avarre, erected it into a kingdom anno 1034, whose arms were then an oak tree,
because that country lies near the Pyrenean forest : But since it was annexed to
Barcelona, by Raymond Berenger Count of Barcelona, who married Petronilla, the
only daughter of Reimar II. and last King of the Arragonian race, about the year
1162, that kingdom has had no other arms since but these of the Counts of Barce-
lona, or, four pallets gules ; which are said to have their rise thus : In the year 873,
Geoffrey le Velon Count of Barcelona returning all bloody from battle, the King
of Spain dipped his four fingers in his blood, and drew with them as many long
lines o'n Geoffrey's shield, which became afterwards his fixed arms ; (we have such
another story of the rise of the arms of the noble family of Keith, Earls Marischals
of Scotland, which are after that same form, of which afterwards), which account
is affirmed by Favin and many other writers ; but Menestrier will have those arrm:
relative, and speaking of the name Barcelona, >uasi barras tongas, i* e. long
bars.
K