A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

294
by When
OF' FOUR-FOOTED BEASTS,
The surname of ROBERTS, or, a lion rampant regardant gules.
And there the name of MORRIS, gules, a lion rampant, regardant QJ ,
LION FASSANT GARDANT, OR LOPAR]>.
THESE terms in blazon are all one, the first used by the English, and the other
the French : a lion is isi represented passing armories, showing a full
face, with two eyes and two ears, he is then called by the English a lion passant
gardant, and by the French a leopard, because all leopards and panthers are so
represented : Those who write on the nature of beasts, say, that the leopard is got
when the lion covereth the pard ; but when the parcl covereth the lioness, then
their fs whelp called a panther. The English, for the honour of their armorial
figures, call them lions passant gardant, which, in that posture, they say, denotes
consideration, and tell us, that their lions are distinguished from leopards and panthers
by their shaggy locks, which cover their necks and shoulders : Though this
may hold in other paintings, yet not in armories ; for all leopards and panthers are
represented with such shaggy locks passant and full-faced, as the learned Italian
Sylvester Petra Sancta, 'in his Tesserae Gentilitiae, cap. 54. after he has treated of
the postures of lions, proceeds to the leopard, and says, " Ducit agmen pardus,
" genere leoni proximus ; nasci enim ex leone & panthera perhibetur : Ideoque
" in coHo & armis est jubatus quasi leo ; in humero deinde quasi panthera est
" maculosus ; peculiariter tamen quod spectat ad ejus delineationem in pictura rei
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tesserariae; solet pardus figurari gradiens atque incedens, semperque est adversa
fronte, ita ut oculo utroque, seu pleno intuitu feratur, caudam praeterea in dorsum
reciprqcat, seu reflectit : Cum leo interim erectus, unoque intuens oculo
pingatur, ac vibrat caudam versus cervices." The first instance of the bearing
of a leopard, among many that this author gives, is that of the Dutchy of Aquitaine,
viz. gules, a leopard or; and a little after that, of the Dutchy of Normandy,
gules, two leopards or, carried by William Duke of Normandy, Conqueror or
England, which he set up for the ensign of that kingdom, and were continued
by his sons and successors, till the reign of Henry II. who married Eleanor, heiress
of Aquitaine, her arms being of the same field, metal, figure and form, with those
of Normandy, joined them together in one shield, which now make the present
ensign of England ; and that these were taken for leopards, and so blazoned, I
have fully evinced in my Essay on the Ancient and Modern Use of Armories, to
which I recommend the curious.
Many great and honourable families in England carry leopards (which the
English heralds call lions passant gardanf), by way of imitation, or concession of.,
and from the Sovereign ; for which see Jacob ImhofF's Historia Genealogica Regum
Pariumque Magnce Britannia, who blazons them leopardos Anglicanos. There
are several families with us, who carry such figures, by our modern heralds blazoned
after the English, lions passant gardant.
The old Earls of ANGUS carried argent, a lion rampant gules ; and especially
GILCHRIST Earl of ANGUS, that eminent soldier, in the reigns of Malcolm and
William, whose brother Bredus got from the last of these Kings, the lands of
Ogilvie in Angus, which lands gave to him and his descendants the surname of
OGILVIE, who carried the same tinctures with his brother the Earl of Angus, but
put the lion in the posture of a leopard, now blazoned argent, a lion passant gardant,
and crowned or, for some special services done to their King.
OGILVIE of that Ilk in Angus was the principal family of the name. These of
this family are to be found witnesses in tbe charters of the Alexanders IL and III.
and were very eminent in the reign of Robert the Bruce ; that King gave to
Patrick Ogilvie of that Ilk the lands of Caithness, which belonged ta Malcom de
Caithness. (Earl of Haddington's Collections.)
The same Patrick Ogilvie of that Ilk and John Ogilvie are witnesses in that
King's charter to the town of Dundee 1325.
Sir Walter Ogilvie of that Ilk, Sheriff of Angus, was killed by Duncan Stewart,
natural son to Alexander Earl of Buchan, in the reigr> of Robert II L.