Peeps at Heraldry

Peeps at Heraldry contains 8 full-page illustrations in colour and numerous line drawings in the text. The text says heraldry has its own well-arranged grammar, and grammar, as you know, means fixed rules which are simple guides for writing or speaking a language correctly. The text says people know that a coat of arms means the figure of a shield, marked and coloured in a variety of ways, so as to be distinctive of individuals, families, etc. The text says that in the far-away days of quite another age, heraldry was so closely connected with warlike exploits, and its signs and tokens were so much used on the battle-field to distinguish friends from foes.

The text says that in addition to the ordinaries there are fifteen sub-ordinaries, less important divisions of the shield known in heraldry as the canton, inescutcheon and bordure, among others. The text says the saltire reminds us of how the brave Joan of Arc placed the salcier with her own hands against the fort of Tournelles. The text lists ploughs, harrows, scythes, spades and cartwheels as all typical of husbandry, suggesting agricultural industry on the part of the original bearers.