Monday, December 29, 2008

heraldry wrongitude

Spotted on a sign near Castle Combe, Wiltshire:

Arms of Scrope; Azure, a bend OrThe shield above depicts the arms of Scrope; its blazon is Azure, a bend Or.

Every heraldry geek knows that the arms of Scrope are azure a bend or (not "argent a bend" - a bend what? besides you don't get metal on metal). You would have thought it would not be beyond the wit of sign-writers to obtain a decent proof-reader...

The reason that every heraldry geek knows this is that there was a
dispute between Scrope and other families (Carminow and Grosvenor) over who had the right to use azure a bend or.

2 comments:

The Silver Eel said...

This is exceptionally geeky, but quite impressive nonetheless. I particularly like the inversion of "on a blue field a gold stripe".

('Glieriba': the unwarranted enthusiasm shown by a non-native speaker employed to produce public information signs.)

Yewtree said...

Yep, I am a geek :)