[Illustration: No. 323.--Shield of Castile and Leon.]
Should there be _three_ Coats to be quartered, they would severally occupy the first, second, and third quarters of the Shield, in due order, and the first quarter would be repeated in the fourth. In quartering _four_ coats, no repetition would be necessary. If more than four coats would require to be quartered, the Shield would be divided into whatever number of sections might be necessary, as in No. 36, and the required arrangement would be made; should any repetition be necessary, the first quarter is to be repeated in the fourth. This process, whatever the number of the coats thus marshalled (and their number sometimes is very great), is always entitled "_quartering_"; and each of these divisions of a Shield, for the purpose of Marshalling, is distinguished as a "Quarter." Occasionally a _quartered coat_ would have to be marshalled with others. In the "grand quartering" which then takes place, the quartered coat is treated precisely as any other member of the group. See No. 37. For example, the Shield, No. 324 (R. 2), of HENRY, first Earl of NORTHUMBERLAND, is--I. and IV. Grand Quarters,--_first and fourth, or, a lion rampt. az._, for Louvaine, or Percy modern: _second and third, gu., three lucies haurient arg._ (No. 164) for Lucy: II. and III. Grand Quarters,--_az., five fusils conjoined in fesse or_, for Percy ancient.
[Illustration: No. 324.--Shield of Henry, Earl of Northumberland.]
When a Shield to be quartered has a very numerous array of Quarterings, Grand Quartering is seldom adopted; but, in its stead, the new quarterings are marshalled in their proper succession, with the original quarterings of the Shield.
In this Marshalling the first quarter is occupied by the most important quartering, which is determined (without any fixed rule) by the original grant or licence: the other quarterings follow, in the order in which they may have been "brought in" to the composition.
[Illustration: No. 325.--Shield of Mayor of Winchelsea.]
[Illustration: No. 326.--De Valence, dimidiating Claremont Nesle.]
To denote and record ALLIANCE BY MARRIAGE, two distinct Coats were first marshalled upon a single Shield by _Dimidiation_. This process is accomplished in the following manner. The Shield to be charged with the two Coats in union is divided _per pale_, as in No. 28: on the dexter half the corresponding half, or generally somewhat more than that half, of the arms of the husband is marshalled: then, in like manner, the sinister half is charged with the corresponding portion of the arms of the wife. In the Shield, No. 250, from another Seal of Queen MARGARET, _England_ dimidiates _France ancient_, Nos. 187 and 247. This Dimidiation in most cases produces a singular effect; as in No. 325, a Shield from the Seal of the Mayor of Winchelsea, one of the famous Sussex Cinque Ports, which bears _England_ dimidiating _azure, three hulls of ships, in pale, or_: here the dimidiated lions and ships appear to unite for the purpose of forming the most extravagant of compound monsters. The Seal of the Borough of Great Yarmouth substitutes _three herrings_, in allusion to the staple fishery of the port, for the ships, and dimidiates them with the national lions. In the central Shield of the Seal, No. 319, I have shown _De Valence_ dimidiating _De Chastillon_. In No. 326, from the monument of WILLIAM DE VALENCE, _De Valence_ appears dimidiating the French Coat of _Claremont Nesle_--_gu., semée of trefoils, two barbels haurient addorsed or_: the Dimidiation here cuts off and removes one-half of the De Valence martlets and also one of the two barbels of Claremont.