The arms of the seignory of Pfirdt,⁕ one of the hereditary fiefs of the house of Austria, are shown on a banner borne by a cavalier in the Triumph of the Emperor Maximilian. The whole procession, designed by Hans Burgmair, about 1512, is contained in one hundred and twenty-nine subjects, cut on wood by several engravers. The painter, with a richness of capacity and perfect knowledge of art, has shown every grade of rank in this magnificent cavalcade, which is composed of a multi * Gules, two trout addorsed or, and crest, a demi-woman between two trout erect, their tails upward. These arms have been mentioned at page 72, but the fish are certainly trout, and the name of the fief is here spelt according to the German authority. tude of figures in dresses of ceremony, groups of horses and men combined with masterly skill, each in proper action. The pictorial effect of this grand work of art is greatly increased by the careful delineation of the armour and weapons, and not less by the attention paid to the endless variety of the heraldry on the tabards and banners of the different counts and officers of state. Pfirdt being one of those fiefs in which the Emperor made war, the cavalier bearing this banner is represented in armour designed after the ancient manner and crowned with a chaplet of honour. Amongst the heralds in the same procession is that of Pfirdt, in a tabard of arms, and bearing his baton. Heraldic composition in Germany was the employment of highly talented artists, and many other works of that country might be referred to as affording examples of superior taste. The Counts of Stolberg, in Sachsen, quartered with their own paternal arms those of the seignory of Wernigerode, which, with the castle, accrued to them in 1329; argent, two trout hauriant and respecting each other gules: arms which are reported to have been assumed in allusion to the hereditary office of Master Fishers of the Empire, held by the Counts of Wernigerode. Azure, a fish in fess argent, and a chief or, are borne by the French family of Vaillant. Of this name were, John Foi Vaillant, the celebrated medallist, and his son, Sebastian Vaillant, the no less distinguished naturalist. As a crest, a trout naiant is borne by the family of Hoddy; and a swan with wings endorsed or rousant, devouring a trout, is the crest of Jane, or Jeane. The arms of Oliver, or, a chevron azure between two hurts in chief, and a trout naiant in base, appear in one of the windows of Armagh Cathedral. Even the simplest means of taking fish are assumed as armorial bearings, either with a territorial allusion to the situation of the manor, or as a play upon the family name. Fishing is one of the employments depicted on the monuments of Egypt. The Nile, and the artificial lakes of that interesting country, afforded a supply, which has not failed in modern times; the waters of Menzaleh abound in fish, and the Arabs say, that the varieties of fish in this lake exceed in number the days of the year: although this may be deemed an exaggeration, it is certain, that whatever be the number of their species, the fishes of this lake multiply infinitely. A kind of trout, still regarded as a delicacy in Egypt, was preserved in covered vessels, to save it from being injured by the heat of the sun : this is shown in a representation of a fisherman taking his store to market, engraved in Calliaud's "Researches on the Arts of Egypt." Angling, as a sport, was highly esteemed among the Romans, who had their fish-pools and preserves filled with choice fish; and it is known that fishing was a favourite amusement of the Emperor Augustus. In the splendour of his appointments may have originated the expression of fishing with a golden hook, and the gorgeous colouring frequently given by poets to the employment of the angler. The pleasant'st angling is, to see the fish A fisherman with his rod and line, in a boat, from an antique in the Maffei Collection at Verona, has been engraved,† and also a beautiful painting of Venus and Cupid angling, found in the house of the Tragic poet at Pompeii.‡ The sea-bream and the gilthead are the common fish of the Mediterranean, taken by anglers; the last, called the dorade, was consecrated to Venus. A species of perch,§ also common in that sea, is of a brilliant scarlet colour, but with a very strong spinal fin, and, from the resemblance of this spine to a razor, it is named le barbier. This fish is held sacred among the divers for marine productions, and when caught by a hook, it is instantly relieved by the rest of the shoal cutting the line of the angler with their sharp spines. Massaniello, the celebrated fisherman of Naples, whose resistance to the Spanish authority raised him to temporary distinction, and has given him a place in history, was an angler by trade, and retailed his small fish in the market. * Copied in the Athenæum for 1837. Sir William Gell's Pompeiana, vol. ii. + Montfauçon's Antiquities. Emblematically, fish represent silence and watchfulness. Mute as a fish, is proverbial; and the practice of anglers involves a proportionate artifice, in allusion to which Guillim, the herald, indulges a remark, that, "of this trade there are more in the world than will acknowledge themselves of the Company of Fishermen." In Germany, women in armorial bearings are not uncommon, although rarely found in the heraldry of England or France. Azure, a woman, habited in the German fashion, holding two fish argent, are the arms of the family of Roten, of Aubrach in Franconia. Manors situated on the banks of rivers, lakes, or trout-streams, affording fishing stations, command the finest scenery, combining often the sublime, beautiful, and picturesque. The power of waters, says Wordsworth, over the minds of poets has been acknowledged from the earliest ages; through the “Flumina amem sylvasque inglorius" of Virgil,⁕ down to the sublime apostrophe to the great rivers of the earth by Armstrong, and the simple ejaculation of Burns. The Muse, nae poet ever fend her, Till by himsel' he learned to wander M. Soumet, a modern French author, bears arms perfectly in unison with the poet's attachment to the trout stream. Azure, the lyre of Apollo or, on a chief gules a trout naiant. These, with the arms of his contemporaries, are in the stained glass windows of the Pavilion Saint James, erected by M. Beauchesne in the environs of Paris.+ ⁕ Georgics, lib. ii. + See an interesting description of Le Memoir de Beauchesne in La Presse, April 1841; with the arms of contemporary poets. Sir Walter Scott, with the same feeling, enriched Abbotsford with the arms of his friends and companions. A cubit arm holding a trout, is the crest of the family of Gibbens, assumed, perhaps, in reference to the French word gibier, game. The crest of the family of Peat is a hand holding a fish. Heraldry aimed chiefly at a simple illustration of the name of the family, or territorial possessions from which the names were derived. Fish-hooks, when borne in arms, probably allude to the chief employment on the estate, near one of those streams, the importance of which has been shown. The arms of the family of Bosdon are, argent, a fess between three fish-hooks sable. Argent, a fess sable, between three fishhooks gules, are the arms of Penkerth, a family perhaps originally of Penketh, on the banks of the Mersey of Lancashire. Sable, a chevron between three fish-hooks argent, are the arms of Medville, a name referring to a situation on water, either a river or a lake. The motto to the arms of Kilrenny, an ancient fishing town in Fifeshire, is indicative of the perseverance necessary to the fisherman. Semper tibi pendeat hamus," let the hook always be hung out. 66 A fish-hook was the cognizance of William Nevile, Lord Fauconberg, K. G. which is noticed in some contemporary political verses, "The Fisher has lost his angle hook," adverting to his capture by the French when sent ambassador to Normandy to treat for peace.⁕ By King Edward IV. this nobleman was created Earl of Kent, and made Lord Admiral of England. Azure, an angling-hook argent, are the punning arms of the German family of Angelloch, on the banks of the Rhine. Hooks, the well-known implements of angling, a later invention than the trout-spear, were originally of rude form, either of Excerpta Historica. * |