Page:A Complete Guide to Heraldry.djvu/194

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
168
A COMPLETE GUIDE TO HERALDRY

are black in the case of the Moor and Saracen, and fair for the Saxon and Englishman.

The old man's head, which, like that of the Saxon and Englishman, is seldom met with, is bald and grey-haired and bearded.

But for all practical purposes these varieties may be all disregarded except the savage's (Fig. 253), the blackamoor's (Fig. 254), and the Saracen's (Fig. 255). Examples of the savage's head will be found in the arms of Eddington of Balbartan ["Azure, three savages' heads couped argent"], in the arms of Gladstone, and in the canting coat of Rochead of Whitsonhill ["Argent, a savage's head erased, distilling drops of blood proper, between three combs azure"]. Moir of Otterburn bears the Moors' heads ["Argent, three negroes' heads couped proper within a bordure counter-indented sable and or"], and Moir of Stonniwood matriculated a somewhat similar coat in which the heads are termed Mauritanian ["Argent, three Mauritanian negroes' heads couped and distilling guttés-de-sang"]. Alderson of Homerton, Middlesex, bears Saracens' heads ["Argent, three Saracens' heads affronté, couped at the shoulders proper, wreathed about the temples of the first and sable"].

Fig. 253.—A savage's head.
Fig. 253.—A savage's head.

Fig. 253.—A savage's head.

Fig. 254.—A blackamoor's head.
Fig. 254.—A blackamoor's head.

Fig. 254.—A blackamoor's head.

Fig. 255.—A Saracen's head.
Fig. 255.—A Saracen's head.

Fig. 255.—A Saracen's head.

The woman's head (Fig. 256) in heraldry is always represented young and beautiful (that is, if the artist is capable of so drawing it), and it is almost invariably found with golden hair. The colour, however, should be blazoned, the term "crined" being used. Five maidens' heads appear upon the arms of the town of Reading, and the crest of Thornhill shows the same figure. The arms of the Mercers' Livery Company ["Gules, a demi-virgin couped below the shoulders, issuing from clouds all proper, vested or, crowned with an Eastern crown of the last, her hair dishevelled, and wreathed round the temples with roses of the second, all within an orle of clouds proper"] and of the Master of the Revels in Scotland ["Argent, a lady rising out of a cloud in the nombril point, richly apparelled, on her head a garland of ivy, holding in her right hand a poinziard crowned, in her left a vizard all proper, standing