heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

THE BEND.
AVING now considered the subject of Heraldry generally, I
propose to notice some, at least, of the charges, with the
family histories and national incidents to which they
are the
keys. And first I would call your attention to those portions
of the dress or accoutrements which were originally adopted as
charges sometimes, perhaps, as memorials of a conquered enemy,
;
sometimes as tokens of honour conferred, and sometimes as compliments
to those who had the highest esteem and the tenderest regard
of the warrior.
These charges are many. Let us commence with the Bend.
The bend is a stripe passing diagonally across the shield. When
drawn from the dexter corner or chief to the sinister base, it is termed a
bend dexter ;
when issuing from the sinister instead of the dexter chief,
it is called a bend sinister. It is sometimes imagined that the bend
sinister is the mark of illegitimacy; which is an error arising from confusing
the bend with the baton, which is one-fourth of the bend in width,
and is
couped, or cut off at both ends. As such it is a token of
illegitimacy, and is so used in the third quartering of the arms of the
Duke of Cleveland, which consist of, quarterly; first and fourth quarterly,
France and England second, Scotland ; ; third, Ireland ; charged in the
centre with a sinister baton, ermine and azure, for Fitz-Roy, being the arms
of Charles II. Henry Vane, third Baron Barnard, having married, 1725,
Lady Grace Fitzroy, daughter of Charles, first Duke of Cleveland, son of
Charles II. by Barbara Villiers, daughter and heir of Viscount Grandison.
There is another way of marking the same blemish in the family escutcheon,
viz., by a bordure, which may either be an " augmentation of
honour," as
in the arms of Archbishop Scrope ; or an " abatement of honour," e.g.
the
great family of Beaufort have always borne quarterly France, azure, three
fleurs-de-lis or, and England, gules, three lions passant guardant, all within
a bordure compone argent and azure. This shield may be found in the
eighth window on the south side of the Choir ;
but it has there this peculiarity,
viz., that the "abatement" has been changed into an "augmentation"