When any object is represented not in any of these heraldic colours, but as it is in nature, as, for instance, grapes, peacocks, &c. it is then blazoned proper.
Some fanciful heralds, particularly in England, give out a stile, that gentleman's arms alone should be blazoned in the manner above mentioned, those of noblemen by pre cious stones, and those of sovereign princes by planets ; thus, But these niceties seen] to be entirely of a piece with the imaginations of another herald, who insisted on bla zoning by flowers ; as rose, jonquil, &c. or with the ac curate definitions of virtues, &c. signified by particular tinctures, at one period so much in vogue : as or, faith ; argent, innocency ; blue, loyalty, &c. It is sufficient to observe, that not only is all blazoning of arms of diffErent degrees in different manners unknown to the heralds of France, Italy, and Germany ; but that the practice would tend to confound colours with charges, and the things borne with the colours. Moreover, it would render use less the great rule of not putting colour on colour, or- me tal on metal;* for this could not hold, were metals and colours no longer employed or named in certain armories.
Of Furs. Ermine. Vain 23. The use of furs in armories is in all likelihood de rived from the habits and garments of military men and civil magistrates, according to the opinion of Sylvester De Petro Sancto, Nisbet, and others, though a different account of the matter is given by Sir George Mackenzie, The antiquity of their use is proved by the circumstance, that when Innocent III. commanded Conrad Bishop of Wurtzburgh, by way of penance, to go and fight against the Saracens, he particularly forbade him to appear in ermine, vair, or any colour employed in tournaments.
These furs, ERMINE and VA1R, are the principal furs employed in the heraldry of any country, and the only ones known in France or Scotland. Ermine is supposed to
take its name from an animal of the same name, the skin of which has long been considered as a royal and noble ornament. In Great Britain, the different degrees of no bility are distinguished by the number of rows of ermine with which the mantle of the peer is trimmed ; and Me nestrier informs us, that at the coronation of Henry II. of France, for want of true ermines to line his robes, use was made of cloth of silver, spotted with patches of black velvet. This fur is represented in blazoning by a white field powdered with black spots, which spots have the point upward tipped with three ticks of black. (Fig. 15.) Contre ermine is that in which the field is sable, and the spots argent. (Fig. 16.) As for the English furs, erminois field or spots sable; pean field sable spots or ; and erminites field argent, spots sable, with a single hair gules at each ride of the spot, these are unknown in any other country.
Ermine and its kinds have two tinctures. The spots are in place of figures ; and it may therefore form a complete armory of itself, as is the case with the arms of the Duchy of Burgundy. But ermine may also form a field, whereon every charge, either of metal or colour, may be placed ; or it may form itself the charges, and be placed without impropriety upon any shield.
The spots of ermine are of an indefinite number, irre gularly disposed on the shield ; but any certain number of these under ten may be borne after the position of any of the heraldic charges. In this case, they are not to be blazoned ermine. The spots being in truth charges, are called by us ermine spots ; by the French mushetours ; and in the blazon their number and disposition must be ex pressed. The Latins call them macul‘e muris armenie.