Tuesday 10 May 2011

The crux of the matter

The Clarendon Arms, Clarendon Street, Cambridge 
These are the arms of the Villiers family, Baronets since 1619, and from 1776 Earls of Clarendon (2nd creation):
ARMS: Argent on a cross Gules five escallops Or.
CREST: A lion rampant Argent ducally crowned Or.
SUPPORTERS: Two eagles wings endorsed Sable, ducally crowned Or, charged on the breast with a plain cross Or.
MOTTO: Fidei Coticula Crux (The Cross is the touchstone of Faith).
The eagles look more like angry blackbirds to me, but otherwise that’s a pretty accurate representation.
The pub, like the street it’s on, is named in honour of the 4th Earl, George Villiers, a distinguished politician and diplomat – and a Cambridge man, to boot!


Source
Gray, R., and D. Stubbings, Cambridge Street-names: Their origins and associations. Cambridge, CUP 2000


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