Charges, whether placed on, or in, an ordinary, always incline in the direction of that ordinary. It would, therefore, be incorrect to draw the four billets, in the fourth quarter, in the same manner as the centre one.
The Inescutcheon, or Shield of Pretence, being an extraneous addition or augmentation, and, consequently, the furthest removed from the surface of the shield, is always blazoned last.
In blazoning a shield, in which two or more charges of the same tincture immediately follow each other in the blazon, it is not necessary to mention the tincture, until all the separate charges have been specified. Thus, supposing that in the first quarter of Fig. 175, the chevron and the crosses-crosslet were gules, it would be blazoned as, Argent; a chevron between three crosses-crosslet, gules.
It is a fundamental law of heraldry, that metal should never be placed on metal, or colour on colour.[1] Thus a field azure charged with a lion gules, would be false heraldry. This rule, however, does not apply when charges are blazoned in their natural colours, termed heraldically, proper (ppr.). It would be therefore perfectly admissible to blazon a tree prorer on a field gules.
When the metals are used as colours, they must be expressed as or and argent; but in blazoning an object supposed to be made of one of these metals (such as the chain of the unicorn, the sinister supporter of the Royal arms), the words gold and silver must be used.
- ↑ For an exception to this rule, see the arms of Lane of Stafford in the Appendix.
