Fun In Heraldry

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 133, 9 January 1942, Page 2

Fun In Heraldry

‘THERE are many families whose mottoes are really puns on their names. For instance, that of Earl Onslow is "Make haste slowly." Viscount Cross has for his motto "Believe in the Cross," Lord Armstrong’s motto is "Strong in Arms." "The day will come," the Earl of Durham proudly proclaimed long centuries ago, while Lord Carlisle’s motto is a modest one, "I am willing but unable." The designs on some coats of arms are just as amus-

ing. The Onslows have half-a-dozen Cornish choughs parading on theirs; the Ramsdens have three rams’ heads; the Oakes have acorns; the Blackmores have on their shield three negroes’ heads (blackamoors). Lord Armstrong exhibits a blacksmith with a sledge-hammer held in his "strone arms." One shield -- that

support it a mermaid, holding a mirror, on the one side, and on the other, an elephant poised on its hind legs in an attitude of begging. So you see, there’s fun in heraldry, if you look for it — and romance, too. The seven acorns on the shield of Sir William Sevenoke remind us that the original bearer of the name, as an infant, was deserted by his parents. The poor little baby was found in the hollow of a tree near Sevenoaks, in Kent. When this foundling grew up, he went to London, and like Dick Whittington, he became Lord Mayor and was made a Knight.-("Junior Encyclopedia of the Air,’ conducted by "Ebor," 2YA, December 15),