Oxfordshire in 1764, and was created a Baronet 31st October 1767. The arms of the Baron de Vauer, azure, a stag's head cabossed or, are supported by two dolphins, each being crested with three peacocks' feathers. The dolphin, from the variety and vividness of its tints, is called "The Peacock of the Sea." The dolphin, when sporting on the surface of the water, deceives the eye and appears curved, as it is always pourtrayed on ancient coins and in sculpture; and from those acknowledged faulty representations the heralds adopted the curved form on shields of arms. The dolphin, also, is destitute of scales, like all the cetacea; but these are shown in heraldic painting, to give better effect to its naturally beautiful colours. The natural history of the whale is a subject of difficult attainment to zoologists, and very little information is yet extant respecting that sea-beast Leviathan, which God of all his works Created hugest, that swim the ocean stream. Although the aquatic animals are not so varied in their species as the terrestrial, they surpass them in size, and their life is longer than those of the earth or air. The elephant and ostrich are small in comparison with the whale, which is the largest fish the sea contains; it lives as long as an oak, and no land animal's life can be compared to it.⁕ The whale is not classed in natural history as a fish, from which species it differs in its entire organization; but the terms fish and fishery are yet constantly used to designate the whales taken. A late Garter King of Arms granted to John Enderby, Esq. an enterprising merchant of London, who extended the whale fishery in the Pacific Ocean, a crest, described as a whaling harpooner in the act of striking a fish, all in proper colours. A mast of a ship, with its rigging, in a whale's mouth, is borne as a crest by the family of Swallow. The term Fierté is used in French blazonry for the whale when its teeth, fins, and tail are depicted red. Azure, a whale argent fierté gules, are the arms of Wahlen, a German family. Gules, three whales hauriant or, in each mouth a crosier of the last, were the arms of Whalley Abbey, on the banks of the Calder in Lancashire. This monastery was founded in the year 1309 by Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, for Cistercian monks, and, with the district of Blackburnshire, has received ample illustration from the pen of one of the vicars of Whalley, T. D. Whitaker, LL.D. ; Argent, three whales' heads erased sable, are the arms of the family of Whaley of Whaley Abbey, in the county of Wicklow a seat erected on the site of Ballykine Abbey, in the Barony of Arklow, said to have been originally founded by St. Palladius, the first bishop sent from Rome to Ireland. Argent, on a chevron between three whales' heads erased sable, as many birds with wings expanded of the first, are the arms of the family of Whaley of Dalton in Yorkshire. *Sturm's Reflections. Almost all the early instances of bearing the whale in English heraldry are what are called canting arms, like that of Tranchemer, party per fess gules, and wavy argent and azure, representing the sea, with a knife or, plunged therein.⁕ Modern authors on heraldry are accustomed to treat too slightingly this species of armorial bearing. Menestrier of Lyons, who wrote the first rational and intelligible treatise on blazonry, states truly that " Armes parlantes" are as ancient as any other heraldic device. His "Méthode de Blazon " was after his death published, with additions to the original work, in 1770. Argent, three whales' heads erased sable, with a whale's head erased sable, for crest, are the armorial bearings of the family of Whalley of Lancashire and Nottinghamshire; some branches of which bear the motto "Mirabile in Profundis," relative to the arms. Sir James Whalley Smythe Gardiner, Bart, of Roche Court in Hampshire, is a descendant of the Lancashire family of Whalley, which is ancient. Bernard Whalley rebuilt the church of Billesley, near Stratford on Avon in Warwickshire. Others of the name are recorded in the heraldic visitations of Nottinghamshire, and in Thoroton's History of that county, among which is the family of Colonel Edward Whalley, Lord Whalley, one of Oliver Cromwell's peers. The Rev. Peter Whalley was of an ancient Northamptonshire family; and, as historian of that county, prepared for the press the manuscripts of John Bridges, Esq. of Barton Segrave, commenced about 1719. ⁕ A very curious collection of Armes parlantes is given in Palliot's Sciences des Armoires, page 64. Argent, a chevron between three whales' heads erased sable, and crest a whale's head erect and erased sable, are borne by one of the branches of the Whalley family: another, ermine, on a bend sable three whales' heads erased or. Per chevron crenellé gules and azure, three whales' heads couped argent, are the arms of the family of Wallys or Waleys. Per pale azure and purpure, three whales' heads erased or, each ingulphant of a spear-head argent, were the arms borne by Sir Hugh Vaughan of Littleton in Middlesex, in the reign of Henry VIII; and were quartered with azure, a fess or, between three horses' heads argent, bridled gules, within a border gobony argent and vert. On his standard, which was borne in the field, and was striped gold and green, was a griffin passant double-queued gules, fretty or, charged on the neck, breast, and wings with plates, holding in the dexter fore-claw a sword argent; three whales' heads erased and erect or, each ingulphant of a spear-head argent; and towards the extremity of the standard two similar whales' heads.⁕ "Some fish with harpoons, some with darts are struck, II. The Pike, or Luce, and Flying Fish. The Pike of the fisherman, the tyrant of the river, is the Luce of heraldry; a name derived from the old French language Lus, or from the Latin Lucius: as a charge, it was very early used by heralds as a pun upon the name of Lucy. Pope Lucius was in this manner characterized by a comparison to the fish, by Puttenham,* a poet who lived when quaintness was admired : Lucius est piscis, rex et tyrannus aquarum, A quo discordat Lucius iste parum. The play upon words was not confined to heraldry, but was used by the most eminent authors, and is to be found in the sermons of Bishop Andrews, and in the tragedies of Shakspeare. The immediate source of the heraldic conceit is ascribed to France, whence the armorial device, allusive to a name, is called a Rebus of Picardy. There is no earlier example of fish borne in English heraldry, than is afforded by the pike, in the arms of the family of Lucy, which was of Norman extraction, and formerly spelt Lucie. Richard de Lucie, who had defended the castle of Falaise against Geffrey of Anjou, was Lord of Diss in Norfolk; he was also Sheriff of Essex in the reign of Henry II. and built the castle of Ongar, some remains of which are to be seen on an artificial hill, one of the leading peculiarities of a Norman fortress. Sir Richard Lucy, Lord Chief Justice of England, founded Lesnes priory, near Erith in Kent; and, dying in 1179, was buried within its walls. Weever, an antiquary, who had seen his tomb in 1630, states that upon the belt of the figure of the knight, the fleur-de-lis, the rebus, or name-device of the Lucys, was sculptured in many places.† The heraldic fleur-de-lis was here figuratively used for a pike or spear, to the head of which it bears some resemblance; and this is more particularly shown in the arms of the family of * Arte of English Poesie, 1589. Funeral Monuments. E |