Wednesday, April 25, 2007

fishmongers hall by london bridge





















Azure three dolphins naiant embowed in pale argent, finned, toothed and crowned or, between two pairs of stockfishes in saltire argent, over the mouth of each fish a crown or, on chief gules three pairs of keys of Saint Peter in saltire or. Out of a wreath argent and sable two cubit arms, the dexter vested or cuffed azure, the sinister vested azure cuffed or, the hand argent holding an imperial crown proper.

MANTLING Gules doubled argent.The mantling shown in the exemplification in the 1575 patent is: Dexter, gules doubled or and sinister, azure doubled argent. Either mantling is admissible. Granted by Sir Thomas Wriothesley, Garter, and Thomas Benolt, Clarenceux, 19th October, 1512.

SUPPORTERS Dexter a merman armed, holding in his right hand a falchion and sustaining with his left hand the helm and timbre, sinister a mermaid holding in her left hand a mirror and supporting the arms with her right hand all proper. Al' worship be to God only. Granted by Robert Cooke, Clarenceux, 17th December, 1575

Monday, April 09, 2007

Friday, April 06, 2007

3bt

Yesterday morning, tiptoeing out to work at three forty-five, I forgot to take my camera. Naturally, I was assailed by beauty.

Driving west along the Chelsea embankment at six, in a clear still morning, the gold of the Battersea peace pagoda was reflected in a vertical yellow band upon the high surface of the smooth river, and beside it was the pale orange reflection of the setting moon, & as I drove further, so the two reflections gently swapped places as the moon's orange reflection, in pursuing me, overtook that of the pagoda.

Later, during a delivery in the precincts of the Chelsea football stadium, I found a long rough wall was being clad in a vinyl poster ... a massive team photo, the players at the centre, their bodies then repeatedly “photoshopped” ad infinitum to right and left, superimposed with the heads of hundreds of their supporters. In front of this larger than life-sized and perpetually silent audience, two coach loads of schoolchildren from France had just arrived, adolescent girls & boys, they had poured out of their confinement with a football & were playing their own beautiful impromptu game of soccer in the sunshine.

As I was going home on the bus, drained of energy after a difficult day, a lively teenage girl got on with a brand new push chair and a brand new baby. Sitting in the next seat, sharply profiled in the late low sunlight, she lifted him in her arms and kissed his tiny face, smaller than my fist, about twenty times, alternately on one cheek and then the other. He accepted the compliment with good grace.

whitehall 1212


legitimizing empire ... more imperialist clichés
















Thursday, April 05, 2007