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the Duke of Buckingham of that name, who originally bore for arms, sable, three cinquefoils argent. "He followed King Edward I. in his crusade to the Holy Land, and then and there assumed five escallop shells on a plain cross. I believe," the learned author continues, (be it spoken with loyalty to all kings-of-arms and heralds, their lieutenants in that faculty,) that the will of the bearer was the reason of the bearing; or if at the original assuming of them there was some special cause, yet time hath since cancelled it."

Quarterly, or, and gules, on a bend sable, three escallops argent, are the arms of the Lords Eure, the escallops being an addition to the arms of the house of Clavering, from which the family derives its descent. King Richard I. granted the manor of Eure, or Iver, on the banks of the Colne in Buckinghamshire, to Robert Clavering, whose descendants, taking the name of Eure from this lordship, assumed the escallops as an armorial distinction, and were ancestors of Sir William Eure of Witton Castle, in Durham, created Lord Eure by King Henry VIII., and of the family of Eure of Axholme, in the same county. The arms of Ralph Lord Eure, of Witton and Multon, President of the Council of the Lords Marchers of Wales, quartered with those of Clavering, De Burgh, Fitz Piers, Vescy, Aton, and Vesci, were formerly in the council chamber of Ludlow Castle.⁕

Azure, three escallops or, are the arms of Sir John Pringle, Baronet, the name being a supposed corruption of Pilgrim. One of the sons of the second baronet of this family was Sir John Pringle, President of the Royal Society, who died in 1782, and is buried in Westminster Abbey Church. Argent, three escallops gules, are the arms of the family of Pilgram von Eyb of Nuremberg: and azure, three escallops argent, a chief or, are those of another family of the same name. Or, a pilgrim's scrip azure, charged with an escallop shell crowned argent, are the arms of the family of Romieu of Aries, in Provence.^ A demi-pilgrim is the crest of the family of Walker of Uppingham, in Rutlandshire. Argent, three palmers' staves sable, the heads and rests or, on a chief of the second three escallops of the first, are the arms of the family of Palmer.

The escallop shell is borne as an appropriate crest by the families of Pilgrim and Dishington; its use as a cup, spoon, and

* Documents connected with the History of Ludlow, printed by the Hon. Robert Henry Clive in 1841, p. 205. + Palliot.

dish recommended the shell to the pilgrim, by whom it was constantly worn in the cap or on the cloak. It was also worn by the palmer, who professed poverty and went upon alms to all shrines, differing from the pilgrim, who travelled only to a certain place and at his own charge. Of the latter, Sir Walter Raleigh has given a sketch :

Give me my scallop shell of quiet,

My staff of faith to walk upon;
My scrip of joy, immortal diet,

My bottle of salvation.

The cockle, a smaller shell of a similar kind, is used in the heraldry of Prussia. Barry of four, argent and azure, semee of cockleshells counterchanged, are borne by the Silesian family of Von Strachwitz, which has for crest two wings also charged with cockles.+

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An escallop shell without the ears, denominated a vannet in French heraldry, is rarely borne. Azure, a vannet or, is the armorial distinction of the family of Vannelat, where it is used as a play upon the name.

The escallop shell, a frequent charge in English heraldry, is conspicuous in the arms of the Dukes of Bedford, Marlborough, and Montrose; in the arms of the Earls of Jersey, Spencer, Claren+ Sibmacher's Wapenbuch.

* Remains, 1657.

don, Albemarle, and Bandon; the Marquess Townshend, and Viscount Sidney: it is borne also by the Lords Dacre, Petre, Lyttelton, Auckland, Churchill, Lynedoch, and Lyndhurst; and by the Baronet families of Tancred, Fludyer, Pollen, Wigram, Cotterell, Hudson, Hardy, Morshead, Graham, and Brooke of Great Oakley.

The introduction of shells into military equipments is a custom brought from the East. Cowries, small shells covered with a coat of enamel, are employed in the caparisons of British hussar regiments; the bridles of their horses are ornamented with strings and tufts of them, in imitation of the "camels tufted o'er with Yemen's shells."

Several sorts of wilks or whelks, turbinated shells, are found represented on the coins of ancient maritime cities, as Cuma and Tarentum; this shell appears also on the Tyrian medals. The purpura buccinum, bearing resemblance to a horn, is known as the peculiar symbol of the city of Tyre, where it was used in the process of dyeing the beautiful sea purple long celebrated as the Tyrian dye, now superseded by the discovery of cochineal. In heraldry, this shell is borne as a play upon the family name. Sable, a fess engrailed between three wilks or, are the arms of Sir John Shelley, Baronet, of Maresfield in Sussex, the representative of one of the heiresses of the Barony of Sudeley.

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Of the same lineage was Sir Richard Shelley, Prior of the order of Saint John of Jerusalem, who, in 1561, was ambassador from the King of Spain to Venice and Persia. The same arms are also borne by Sir Timothy Shelley, Baronet, of Castle Goring in Sussex, father of the late Percy Bysshe Shelley, the poet.

Gules, on a chevron between three wilks argent, as many demi-lions rampant sable, are the arms of the family of Wilkins

of Kent. Gules, a fess vaire between three wilks or, are the arms of that of Wilkinson, of Dorrington in Durham. The family of Wilkinson of Bishop's Wearmouth bears, gules, a chevron vaire, or and azure, between three wilks of the second. Sable, a chevron between three wilks argent, are the arms of the family of John, some branches of which bear a fess in the arms instead of the chevron.

The lobster, the crab, and the crayfish are borne in heraldry. The lobster, as an enemy to serpents, was sometimes used as an emblem of temperance, and two lobsters fighting as an emblem of sedition. The union of a lobster with the human form, in the person of a sea-god, is found represented in the house of the Dioscuri at Pompeii.⁕

Argent, a lobster gules, is the armorial ensign of the family of Von Melem of Frankfort; the crest, two wings argent, each charged with a lobster.

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The suits of armour, on the principle of the lobster's shell, consisting of laminæ, being made with overlapping plates, which Engraved in Sir William Gell's Pompeiana, 1832.

*

enabled the steel to give way to every motion of the body, were called Ecrevisses, from their resemblance to the lobster, by the French knights of the reign of Henry IV. when these suits were much used.

The shells of fish are known to vary according to the roughness or smoothness of the sea they live in; Juvenal's epicure

at first sight could tell

A crab or lobster's country by its shell.⁕

Gules, on a bend or, a lobster sable, is the arms of the Spanish family of Grilla. Another branch of the same noble family bears gules, on a bend or, three lobsters sable.† The history of the nobility of Spain is marked by a very curious but rare book, which neither princes nor priests have been able to suppress; it bears the name of "El Tizon de España," the brand of Spain, and its purpose is to trace the pedigrees of the grandees up to some infidel ancestor, either a Moor or a Jew, destroying by that means all claim to purity of descent, it being a severe reproach to the hidalgos, that some amongst their ancestors stood on their legs for baptism, "Bautizado en pie," meaning one who had received adult baptism.‡

Argent, a lobster gules, was the armorial ensign of Cardinal Nicolas de Cusa, who was of German descent; he died in 1464. Azure, a lobster in bend gules, are the arms of the family of Die Gergelase; ; and argent, two lobster's claws in saltier gules, those of the English family of Tregarthick.

The crayfish, or river lobster, is found in great perfection in Hungary, where it attains considerable size, and is highly valued by the gourmands of Vienna; it is asserted that, of all shellfish which industry brings from the bottom of the sea or the river, the crayfish is the most delicious.

Barry wavy, argent and gules, three crayfish or, are the arms of the ancient family of Atwater. Dr. William Attwater was in 1499 Canon of Windsor and Registrar of the order of the Garter; in 1502 he was Dean of the Chapel Royal; and in 1509 Dean of Salisbury. Cardinal Wolsey, who held him in great esteem, took his advice in all public business, and procured him to be his successor in the Bishopric of Lincoln. He was consecrated on the 12th Nov. 1514, and dying at Wooburn Palace + Nobleza del Andaluzia, 1588. § Sibmacher.

* Sat. iv. Dr. Badham's translation.

Don Leucadio Doblado's Letters, by J. Blanco White, 1822.

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