Notices of the Ellises of England, Scotland, and Ireland, from the conquest to the present time

243
an Elys. But however this may have been the two coats con-
taining escallops before mentioned imply the co-existence and
pre-existence of the original Elys arms, and it is not likely that
these three sprung up at once at the end of the 1 4th century ;
the two differenced coats must have been varied from an ori-
ginal borne temp. Edw. II. and III.
The Crest of the Naked Female must now engage our atten-
tion. Its affinity in origin with the Mekmaid,* and various
(ibid. iv. 258) 1357, Stephen de Selling occurs as a witness ; and John de Sur-
renden, s. of Agnes de Pluckley, mar. Margaret d. and h. of Edmund de Selling.
* Mr. Moule's elegant and interesting volume on the Heraldry of Fish con-
tains the following information and remarks on this device (pp. 210-1 9) : —
Few eyes, says Sir Tho. Brown, have escaped the picture of a mermaid ; Horace's
monster, with woman's head above, and fishy extremities below, answers the shape
of the ancient sirens that attempted on Ulysses.
The sirens were three in number, inhabiting an island off Cape Pelorus (now
called the Faro di Messina, from the lighthouse on its summit) ; these nymphs,
emblematical of the allurements of pleasure, are represented as beautiful women to
the waist, and otherwise formed like fish, deriving their name from the most ob-
vious part of their character, singing. Their melodious voices charmed all who
approached them, till Ulysses, shunning their enticement, passed the dangerous
coast in safety, and the point where the sirens destroyed themselves, was after-
wards known in Sicily as Sirenis.
The mermaid of French Heraldry is called a Siren. Azure a siren with comb
and glass argent, within a bordure indented gules, were the arms of the family of
Poissonier : the heiress of this house marrying into that of Berbissy, an ancient
family of Dijon, the latter assumed the siren as a tenant or supporter to their
own punning arms, azure a brebis or sheep argent, which appeared in the stained-
glass windows of the church of Notre Dame (Palliot) .
The Mermaid of German Heraldry is often represented with two tails : Fenn-
den of Augsburg and Die Better of Nuremberg so bear the mermaid.
As an architectural enrichment, mermaids were a prevailing feature in the middle
ages ; one of the rudely sculptured capitals in the church of Figeau in Languedoc
is composed of mermaids. * * On one of the subsellia in the stalls of Exeter
cathedral is a mermaid holding a fish in each hand ; and another grotesque carving
on the roof of Dulverton church in Somersetshire represents a mermaid holding
her fish-like tail in one hand, and a fish in the other. (Gent. Mag. 1834.) A
chasuble embroidered with mermaids worn by a canon of Poictiers in 1350 is en-
graved on his monumental slab, formerly in the Abbey of St. Genevieve. [Mer-
maids alternately with a floral device constitute the architectural ornaments of the
cornice running round the hall of the fine old Elizabethan mansion of Wakehurst
in Sussex. Vide engravings in vol. of Sussex Arch. Collections.]
The mermaid of the painter is represented as furnished with a mirror and comb
for her hair ; such also was the primitive toilette of the Shepherdess of Torralva,
in her pilgrimage as related by Cervantes ; and these, says Mr. Inglis, I have
myself seen in La Mancha, carried by a young woman, who had little else to
carry. * * *
Du Bee of Vardes, a French family, mentioned by Palliot, have for supporters
to their arms 2 mermaids, each holding a guidon, that on the dexter side, being
charged with the ancient arms of Burgundy, the sinister with the arms of ancient
Champagne. Two mermaids are the supporters of the arms of the Kingdom of
Naples. Two mermaids crowned are used as supporters to the arms of the borough
of Boston, co. Line. ; these were allowed and confirmed to the corporation in 1568.
Favine (Theatre of Honour, 1619) gives an example of a crest borne by the
House of Lusignan, called La Mellusine, a very beautiful siren in a bath or tub,
combing her thick hair over her shoulders, with one hand, with the other hold-
in " a miiTor.