A SWAN, when he has a ducal coronet on his head, and a chain thrown over his back, is termed a cygnet royal. When a swan's head is borne, it is always blazoned a swan's neck couped, erased, &c.
Birds on wing are said to be volant.
Fist', when placed horizontally, arc termed naiant ; when placed perpendicularly, with the head in chief and tail in base, haurient, i. e. drawing in air ; when bent, they are said to be embowed, (the dolphin is commonly repre sented thus.) When two fish are placed face to face, they are said to be respecting each other ; if back to back, endorsed. Flowers of three leaves are called trefoils, of four quatrefoils, &c. When the human figure is borne clothed, it is termed vested or habited. Thus for a crest, on a wreath, a dexter arm embowed, vested gules, cuffed ar gent, holding in the hand ftroper a rose of the last. This implies the sleeve of the coat to be red turned up with white. Robes, vestments, and habits of all sorts, crowns, sceptres, crosiers, cardinals' hats, gloves, stockings, shoes, brogues, armour for man and horse, all military machines and engines, arms offensive and defensive, rings, jewels, and other ornaments, coins, dice and chess-rooks, all arti cles of husbandry, all tools of trade, and in short almost every thing celestial or terrestrial, from the sun in the fir mament to a carpenter's nail, have been represented in he raldry ; and nothing more frequently than those creatures which have no existence except in the imagination of the poets and romancers : centaurs, unicorns, mermaids, wy verns, (i. e. adder-tailed dragons.) montegres, (i. e. mon sters with the bodies of tygers and the heads of satyrs,) are abundantly to be met with. Nay, in the arms of the elder time, and more particularly in those of churchmen, we daily encounter such combinations of cherubim, seraphim, and angels, (affrontes volants, and with wings displayed,) as, to say the least of them, appear not a little indecorous. As tonishing, they certainly cannot be esteemed, if we take in to our consideration, that they are the works of the same men, who thought that the art of heraldry itself was one of the important secrets transmitted at once viva voce to A dam from his Maker, as being of too great depth and dig nity ever to have been discovered by the mere unassisted intellect of man.
Of Marks of Cadency.
31. The several figures or marks of cadency, which have of later times been used for the differencing and distinction of houses, in order that their degrees of descent may be known, are for the first an ALABEL; for the second a CRES CENT; for the third a MULLET; for the fourth a MAnr LET ;* the fifth an ANNUI.ET ; the sixth a FLEUR-DE-LIS ; the seventh a rose ; the eighth a enoss moLri4E ; and for the ninth a DOUBLE QUATREFOIL. See Plate CCXCII. Figs.
These marks are said to have been invented by modern heralds, in order that coat•armour might descend to pos terity with safety. Certain it is, however, that they are far from answering some at least of the purposes for which they were intended ; for these marks, when painted on a shield of arms, are so small, complicated, and confused, that they are scarcely distinguishable. The ancient heralds adopted a better method. They made choice of more con spicuous brizures, and pitched on the border the bend, and armorial additions, as also changes of the tinctures, and of the position of the charges, as being more intelligible tokens of difference. Thus an old family of Salop, the Corbettes, bore or a raven sable, the second branch took two ravens. the third three, the fourth four, and a still younger branch bore their ravens within a border. It was the most usual method to have these borders of difference composed of the arms of the first marriage, that had esta blished the particular branch of the family which first as sumed such border. The Nlanwarings of Salop bore argent two bars gales. The younger branches went on increasing the number of bars, till one took ten bars. The Warrens originally bore cheque or and azure. But the younger branch took cheque or and azure on a canton gules a Lion rampant argent, being the arms of the mother, a Mowbray. Others took a part of the maternal coat, and added to their father's coat, to shew that it was a younger branch descend ed on the mother's side from such a particular family. At present the above mentioned marks of distinction, label, mullet, &c. are so combined with each other as to difference almost ad infinitum. The (laughter of a house bears her father's mark of cadency, but not any to shew that she is first, second, or third daughter.