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Coat of arms
WORK IN PROGRESS
Coat of arms
In heraldry, an escutcheon is a shield which forms the main or focal
element in an achievement of arms. The word is used in two related
senses.
The Shield of Douglas is a characteristic example of the gradual development of armorial composition. About A.D. 1290, the Seal of William, Lord Douglas, displays his Shield, No. 155, bearing—Arg., on a chief az. three mullets of the field. Next, upon the field of the Shield of William, Lord Douglas, A.D.1333, there appears, in addition, a human heart gules, as in No. 156. And, finally, the heart is ensigned with a royal crown, as in No. 157, this form appearing as early as 1387.
The
Boar is an animal which, with its parts, will constantly be met with
in British armory (Figs. 353-355). Theoretically there is a
difference between the boar, which is the male of the domestic
animal, and the wild boar, which is the untamed creature of the
woods. Whilst the latter is usually blazoned as a wild boar or
sanglier, the latter is just a boar; but for all practical purposes
no difference whatever is made in heraldic representations of these
varieties, though it may be noted that the crest of Swinton is often
described as a sanglier, as invariably is also the crest of Douglas,
Earl of Morton [" A sanglier sticking between the cleft of an
oak-tree fructed, with a lock holding the clefts together all
proper"]. The boar, like the lion, is usually described as armed and
langued, but this is not necessary when the tusks are represented in
their own colour and when the tongue is gules. It will, however, be
very frequently found that the tusks are or. The "armed," however,
does not include the hoofs, and if these are to be of any colour
different from that of the animal, it must be blazoned "unguled" of
such and such a tincture. Precisely the same distinction occurs in
the heads of boars (Figs. 356-358) that was referred to in bears.
The real difference is this, that whilst the English boar's head has
the neck attached to the head and is couped or erased at the
shoulders, the Scottish boar's head is separated close behind the
ears. No one ever troubled to draw any distinction between the two
for the purposes of blazon, because the English boars' heads were
more usually drawn with the neck, and the boars' heads in Scotland
were drawn couped or erased close. But the boar's head in Welsh
heraldry followed the Scottish and not the English type. Matters
armorial, however, are now cosmopolitan, and one can no longer
ascertain that the crest of Campbell must be Scottish, or that the
crest of any other family must be English; and consequently, though
the terms will not be found employed officially, it is just as well
to distinguish them, because armory can provide means of such
distinction--the true description of an English boar's head being
couped or erased "at the neck," the Scottish term being a boar's
head couped or erased "close."y a boar's head
will be stated to be borne erect; this is then shown with the mouth
pointing upwards. A curious example of this is found in the crest of
Tyrrell: "A boar's head erect argent, in the mouth a peacock's tail
proper."
The coat of arms (above) of the 5th Duke of Buccleuch, is made up of the following heraldic charges:
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