Gyronny

William St John Hope tells how the partings of a shield gave heraldry its first figures, and this is one of them: “A combination of the lines of a saltire with a quarterly division produced the varied field called gyronny.” Eight lines of partition meet in one point, and the field falls into eight wedges, the gyrons, in two tinctures by turns; here argent and gules. Hope gives no rule for drawing it, so the construction here is our own, and it is exact. A line down the middle, as long as the shield is wide, is given. Its vesica gives the level line through its middle, the point where all the lines will meet, and an opening of half the width, swung about that point, cuts the level line at the feet of the sides. Swings at the same opening about the top of the middle line and about the feet cross at the top corners. The top edge, the sides and the level line make two squares side by side, so the lines of the saltire, drawn from the top corners through the meeting point and on to the flanks, cross the level line at forty five degrees. The flanks are swung at the width, each from the foot of the other side.