A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF THE PALE. 3>
Metalh esse, aut Cd'>r in Colore recte possint? says, " Satis t^t res comperta in par-
" mulis colore simul ac metallo, seu virgatis, seu scutulatis, rectc iconem totam
" exarari posse, aut ex colore, aut ex metallo."
Yet some are so nice as to make the charge counter-change to the metal and
colour of the compound fields above, as in the following example :
Fig. 16. Paly of six, or and sable, a bend counter-changed of (he same, by the
French blazon it, palle (for, et de sable,
Lord CALVERT, Baron of : England The
de six pieces, a la btinde brochante de Vun en fautre; and the Latins, sex pahs,
aureos, y atros, cum balteo burneruli in totidem tessulas (c dlctis cohribus subalternatum
commutatis) subdiviso*
The pallets
are subject to accidental forms, as well as the pale ; to be ingrailed,
invected, waved, &-c. I shall add here one example out of the book, intitled,
Synopsis of Heraldry ; argent, three pallets waved gules. There are other forms
and variations of pales, of which I shall add a few instances.
Fig. 17. Paly of lour, azure and argent, counter-changed per fesse. The French
say, contre palle d'azure et $ argent de buit pieces, by the name of JOWAY in France,
as Monsieur Baron. Such another bearing Sylvester Petra Sancta gives, being
paly of six, gules and argent, counter-changed per fesse which he thus ; describes,
"
rather than blazons : Sed pulchre lumen reciprocant dimidii atque obversi pali
"
tesserarii numero sex, nunc punicei argenteique, quae est tessera Rosenbergiorum
" in Franconia."
Fig. 1 8. Plate lii. Paly of six, gules and argent on a chief of the field, as many
crescents all counter-changed. Which blazon is given by Guillim, but he does
not tell us by what family He
it is carried :
tells us, in his Display of Heraldry,
Sect. 8. that arms paly represent strength ; and that the bearing of piles, pales,
bends, bars, and other extracted parts, meaning the diminutives of the ordinaries,
were called of old by heralds, restrial, in respect of their strength and solid substance:
And Sir John Feme, in his Glozy of Generosity, says the same, page 180.
where he also tells us, that if these pieces be diminished, tierced, or voided, they
show weakness. I shall here give an example of pallets voided.
Fig. 19. Plate III. Sinople, three pallets or, voided gules.. Voided is said when
the middle part of figures are cut out, so that the field is seen through the middle
of them, or another tincture in its place ; as in the present example, thus blazoned
by the French, Sinople, a trois paux d'or, vuides et remplies
de gueules* Such arms
as these, whose pieces
are voided, are not so commendable as those that are entire,
by the fore-named heralds ; nor one pallet so commendable in arms as many ;
and far less an endorse or verget, except there be a pale betwixt two of them.
Having treated sufficiently of a pale and its signification in armories, together
with its accidental forms, as ingrailed, &-c. as also of its diminutives, pallets, and
endorses ; and shown by blazons, that we say, a pale, when it. stands alone, as in
the arms of Erskine Earl of Marr ; and how we say, on a pale, when it is charged
with a figure, as in the arms of Erskine of Dun ;
and how we blazon, when a pale
is betwixt, or accompanied with figures : I proceed now to show when to say, in
pale, and pale-ways.
The common charges, such as figures natural and artificial, as I said before, keep
their proper names in blazon but ; they have additional ones, according to their
disposition and position in the field, from the position of the ordinaries, as the
pale, fesse, &-c. When three or more figures are placed or ranged one above another
in the field, after the position of the pale, then they are said to be in : pale
The French /'?/// say, sur I'autre, i. e. one above another, or range en :
pal The
Latins say, in urn pal collocata, or, alter alteri super impositum, as Plate II. fig. 20.
azure, three stars in pale argent, by the name of LAMBOULT in France : And the
royal bearing of England has such a blazon, gules, three lions passant gardant in
pale, or.
Fig. 21. Azure, three salmons naiant in pale, proper, (Tun sur rautre, say the
French), by the name of FISHER. And, azure, three fishes (called Garvin fishes),
naiant, in pale argent, that in the middle looking to the sinister, and the two to
the dexter, by the surname of GARVEY. Mackenzie's Heraldry.
We need not say of fishes, as some, naiant fesse -ways, in pale ; nor of beasts,
passant fesse-ways : For all fishes naiant, and all beasts passant, are fesse-ways-