Note 1: — Chapter VIII

Fish charges almost always come under the head of "canting heraldry,"1 so that they mostly repeat the name of their bearer, or, at any rate, carry a very direct allusion to it. This is the case with the families of Dolphin, Godolphin, Salmon, Sole (Fig. 48), Herring, Herringham, Bream, Roach, Sprat, Ellis (who bear three eels) and Troutbeck (who have three trouts). These latter are blazoned "fretted in a triangle, tête-à-queue"—literally, "netted head to tail," whilst we are reminded that the old name for pike was luce, when we see pikes borne by the Lucy family. Crabbe of Robslaw bears one crab; the Prawnes, as you would expect, bear prawns; and the Tregarthens of Cornwall have "lobster claws saltire-wise, gules," that last word implying that the luckless owner of those claws had been clearly boiled (Fig. 49)!