A rudder sable, the tiller and stays or, is the badge of the Lords Zouche The antique rudder upon which the goddess leans, and the prow of a ship that appears at her feet, distinguish Britannia on the Roman medals; after the Conquest the rudder from the sides of vessels was placed in the centre of the stern. Or, an anchor between three fish naiant azure, are the arms of the family of Habgood.

The seal of the town of Cardigan, on the river Teivy, bears, a ship under sail, with the legend "Anchora spei Cæretic est in te, Domine," the anchor of Cardigan's hope is in thee, O Lord. In the fishery of the Teivy the ancient coracle, a specimen of the original British navigation, continues to be used.

The allegorical figures of Hope, each bearing an anchor, supporters to the arms of the Earl of Hopetoun, were probably assumed in allusion to the name of his family, together with the motto, "At spes non fracta," but hope is not lost.

As Lord High-Admiral, in the reign of Henry VIII, the Earl of Southampton bore the anchor as a cognizance, and it still remains sculptured on the ceiling of the porch at Cowdray House in Sussex, built by him. In 1539 he received the Lady Anne of Cleves at Calais, on which occasion he wore, suspended to a golden chain, a whistle of gold set with precious stones, such as was then used by officers of the highest rank in communicating orders. The whistle is now only worn by the boatswain, but forms part of the arms granted to Admiral Lord Hawke.⁕

New Hampshire, in the United States, has assumed for arms a ship upon the stocks. A similar device is borne by the town of Devonport, which originated in the foundation of a dockyard in the reign of William III, and was named by King George IV. in 1824.

* See page 10.

There is a kind of aptitude in the names of ships, taken from the piscatory tribe which occupies the same region: the Leviathan, the Grampus, the Shark, the Dolphin, the Pike, the Otter, and other inhabitants of the deep, as well as the Nautilus, swim the waters with their synonymous navigators.

The first preachers of the Gospel were fishermen; the original church represented, as nearly as might be, in its form the body of a ship, in allusion to that into which Jesus Christ entered; which was always looked upon as a type of the church; and as by the Apostolical constitutions the Church was to represent the ship of Saint Peter, the centre avenue formed the nave, and preserves the name.

A sign! Beneath the ship we stand!

The inverted vessel's arching side

Forsaken, when the fisher-band

Went forth to track a mightier tide.⁕

In perfect accordance with this emblem of salvation, the seal of the priory of Saint Bartholomew, Smithfield, founded in 1102 by Rahere, a minstrel and favourite of King Henry I, was designed to represent the church in a ship, floating on the waves: it is inscribed, "Credimus ante Deum, provide per Bartholo

meum."

John de Passelaigue—literally, ship's wake—who was Bishop of Beller, in Burgundy, on the frontiers of Savoy, bore for arms, argent, a chevron gules, in chief two hearts charged with the name of Christ, and in base a ship sable, on waves vert, the sails gules.†

Fish have often been made the vehicle of religious instruction; and for this purpose all the fine arts have been put in requisition. Amongst many pictures by the first masters, in which the finny tribe are introduced, that of Saint Anthony of Padua preaching to the fish, may be mentioned. This fine picture, by Salvator Rosa, is in the collection at Althorp House in Northamptonshire; the sermon itself is given in Addison's Travels in Italy.

On the conventual seal of Glastonbury Abbey are represented the figures of Saint Dunstan between Saint Patrick and Saint Benignus; each has his emblem beneath his feet; the last has a party of fish perhaps, adds the historian of the abbey, he also preached to them, as Saint Anthony did.‡

⁕ Ecclesia, a poem, by the Rev. R. S. Hawker, A.M.

+ Palliot.

Warner's History of Glastonbury Abbey, 1826.

A fish furnishing the University of Cambridge with a religious feast was the occasion of a tract, entitled "Vox Piscis," or the Book-fish; containing three treatises which were found in the belly of a codfish in Cambridge market, on Midsummer eve 1626.* This fish is said to have been taken in Lynn deeps, and, after finding a book within it, the fish was carried by the bedel to the vice-chancellor; and coming as it did at the Commencement, the very time when good learning and good cheer were most expected, it was quaintly remarked, that this sea guest had brought his book and his carcass to furnish both.

THE HAKE.

Hakes are so abundant on the southern coast of England that as many as forty thousand are said to have been landed in one day on the shores of Mount's Bay in Cornwall. In Ireland hakes are taken nearly all round the island, and the fishery affords a principal source of employment in Wexford, the great fishing banks on the coast lying immediately off this county.

The mayor's seal of the town of Wexford bears an heraldic illustration of the hake, its peculiar produce: on a fess wavy, between three dolphins embowed, three hakes naiant, with a coronet over each.

⁕ Greatly out of season; cod generally comes into good season in October, and is particularly fine till May.

Galway Bay, on the western coast, is particularly distinguished as the Bay of Hakes, from the vast number of these fish which pursue the herrings into it. Galway, an ancient town on the north-eastern side of this spacious bay, bears on its seal a fishing vessel, having a shield charged with the royal arms affixed to the mast, to denote the regality; the fisheries affording an important source of revenue. The inhabitants were formerly divided into thirteen tribes, each having exclusive commercial privileges, not entirely relinquished. Off the coast of Waterford, also, the hake is abundant, and it is said that a thousand fish have been taken with the line by six men in the course of a single night.

The hake is frequently borne in heraldry in allusion to the name. Sable, semé of cross crosslets fitchy, three hakes hauriant argent, the arms of the family of Hacket of Niton, in the Isle of Wight, are quartered with the arms of Worsley and Pelham by the Earl of Yarborough. Agnes, daughter and heiress of John Hacket, Esq. of Niton, married John Lye, Esq. of Dorsetshire their daughter and heiress, Anne, married Sir James Worsley, Constable of Carisbrook Castle in the reign of Henry VIII.; by which match the manor of Apuldercomb, and other estates in the Isle of Wight, came into the possession of the Worsley family.

Gules, three hakes hauriant argent, are the arms of the ancient family of Hakehed of Ireland.*

*

Another family of Hacket, also of Ireland, bears for arms, azure, three hakes hauriant argent; and, vert, three hakes hauriant argent, are the arms of the family of Doxey, some branches of which bear the fish in the arms or.

⁕Harl. MS. 5866.

Argent, a chevron between three hakes hauriant gules, are the arms of the family of Hake of Devonshire; a part of the country where the fish is abundant. Azure, a dolphin naiant between three cinquefoils argent, are the arms of Hagges of Scotland.

THE WHITING.

The Whiting is a delicate fish, well known, as it is caught in abundance all round the coast of Great Britain, and appears to be the same as the merlyng of antiquity. Merlyng fried, was among the dishes at the coronation of Katherine, queen of Henry V, which consisted entirely of fish.

This fish is only borne in heraldry in reference to the name. A monument in the chancel of the church of Shillingford St. George, on the river Exe in Devonshire, to the memory of the Rev. John Whiting, who died in 1726, bears, three whitings naiant in pale.

Another family of the name of Whiting bears for arms, argent, on a bend sable three whitings. Thomas Whiting was Chester Herald in the reign of Henry VIII, and probably bore the same punning allusion to his name for arms.

There is extant a kind of literary bijou, a catalogue of Friends' books, written by Quakers, published in 1708: this is much commended by Oldys, the bibliographer, who says,