METHODS OF PARTITION

The field of any coat of arms is the surface colour of the shield, and is supposed to include the area within the limits formed by its outline. There are, as has been already stated, but few coats of a single colour minus a charge to be found in British heraldry. But there 97 are many which consist of a field divided by partition lines only, of which some instances were given on page 69 . A shield may be divided by partition lines running in the direction of almost any "ordinary," in which case the field will be described as "per bend" or "per chevron," . It may be: | Per fe | Fig. | 48 | | Per bend | " | 49 | | Per bend sinister | " | 50 | | Per pale | " | 51 | | Per chevron | " | 52 | | Per cro | " | 53 | | (though it should be noted that the more usual term employed for this is "quarterly") | | Per saltire | Fig. | 54 | But a field cannot be "per pile" or "per chief," because there is no other way of representing these ordinaries. | Fig. 48. —Per fe . | Fig. 49. —Per bend. | Fig. 50. —Per bend sinister. | | Fig. 51. —Per pale. | Fig. 52. —Per chevron. | Fig. 53. —Per cro or quarterly. | A field can be composed of any number of pieces in the form of the ordinaries filling the area of the shield, in which case the field is said to be "barry" (Figs. 55 and 56), "paly" (Fig. 57), "bendy" (Fig. 58), "chevronny" (Fig. 59), ., but the number of pieces must be specified. 98 | Fig. 54. —Per saltire. | Fig. 55. —Barry. | Fig. 56. —Barry nebuly. | | Fig. 57. —Paly. | Fig. 58. —Bendy. | Fig. 59. —Chevronny. | Another method of partition will be found in the fields "checky" (or "chequy") and lozengy; but these divisions, as also the foregoing, will be treated more specifically under the different ordinaries. A field which is party need not nece arily have all its lines of partition the same. This peculiarity, however, seldom occurs except in the case of a field quarterly, the object in coats of this character being to prevent different quarters of one coat of arms being ranked as or taken to be quarterings representing different families. 99