Wednesday 30 May 2012

More royals

The supporters on my mystery coat of arms (I discovered after a bit of investigation of heraldic beasts, where it was sorely tempting to be sidetracked!) are yales, and the arms are those of Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, who founded, and whose arms are used by, both St John's and Christ's Colleges, Cambridge (as are her Tudor rose and portcullis badges). So how does a Cambridge college binding come to be in Somerville? The donor of the book was Mrs Octavia Adler, whose address is given in an old copy of the college register as "Kings and Princes, West Chiltington, Sussex". And there is indeed an 18th century farmhouse called Kings and Princes in West Chiltington - although not even Google can satisfy my curiosity as to how it came by that name! Google can, however, supply the information that her husband Herbert Marcus Adler was an alumnus of St John's College, Cambridge - so I assume he either had his own book bound in a college binding, or acquired the book from the college by some (I hope legitimate!) means.

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