The helmet, originally a piece of defensive armor, became in the COUrse.of time one of the usual accompaniments of the shield; and, placed over the arms, it came by its form to mark the rank of the wearer. For these distinctions, which are of compara tively recent (late, and applicable only to British heraldry, see IIELAIET.
The mantling is an embellishment of scroll-work flowing down on both sides of the shield, and originating iu the cointoise, or scarf, wrapped round the body in the days of coat-armor.
From the center of the helmet, within a wreath of two pieces of silk of the first two colors of the armorial bearings, issues the crest, originally a special mark of honor worn only by heroes of great valor, or advanced to a high military command; now an insep arable adjunct of the coat of arms in English, though not in continental heraldry, and often assumed Or changed arbitrarily without proper authority.
The scroll, placed over the crest or below the shield, contains a motto bearing in many cases an allusion to the family name or arms.
Supporters are figures or animals standing on each side of the escutcheon, and seem ing to support it. They were in their origin purely ornamental devices, which only gradually acquired a heraldic character. In England, the right to use supporters is con fined to the royal family, peers, peeresses, and peers by courtesy, knights of the garter, knights grand cross of the Bath, and a very few families whose ancestors bore support ers before their general use was restricted. In Scotland, supporters are also used by the baronets of Nova Scotia and the chiefs of various families.
The crown of the sovereign, the miter of the bishop, and the coronet of the nobility are adjuncts appended to the shield of those whose dignity and office entitle them to that distinction. For a description of the crown of Great Britain and the coronets of the royal family, see article Cnows. Under the articles DUKE, MARQUIS, EARL, VISCOUNT, and BARON, the coronets appropriated to the different ranks of the nobility are described.
The subject of marshaling arms, or arranging various coats in one escutcheon, is explained in a separate article. Here it may suffice to. lay down a few general rules. A. husband is entitled to impale the arms of his wife, i.e., to place them on the same shield. side by side with his own. When the wife is an heiress, the husband bears her arms in an escutcheon of pretense, or sin3,11 escutcheon in the center of his own shield, and the descendants of the heiress may quarter her arms with their paternal coat. A sovereign also quarters the arms of his several states, and feudal arms are sometimes quartered by subjects. An elective king, it is said, may place his hereditary arms on an escutcheon of pretense over the insignia of his dominions.
For information on the details of heraldry, reference is made to the standard works of Guillim, Edmonson, and Nisbet ; and for a more discriminating view of the subject, to such recent treatises as Montag,ue's Heraldry and Planche's Pursuivant of Arms.