Sunday February 15, 1987

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

Septuagesima

Andrew 23. John and Janette came this afternoon with JPH, Catherine, and Charlotte. Then, Lynn, Dave came at 8, bringing Dad, and stayed until 10:30. They went to sleep at Pool-in-Wharfedale, leaving Dad here. A jolly evening. Lynn chatters aimlessly and is so larger than life. Clemmie woke when we came upstairs.

The Marquess of Hertford last week paid a stiff penalty for ploughing up the remains of a Roman settlement on his estate: £10,000 with £4,914 costs. His forbear the first Earl of Hertford was imprisoned in the Tower by Queen Elizabeth I and brought before the Star Chamber in 1561 for seducing a virgin of the blood royal, and had to pay only £86 more: a fine of £15,000.

The Prime Minister's son, Mark Thatcher, was married to Diane Burgdorf, of Texas, in a St Valentine's Day ceremony at London's Savoy Chapel. 

Here are the heraldic arms of Harold Macmillan, first Earl of Stockton. They were publicly displayed only for the first time on Tuesday, adorning each copy of the order of service for his memorial in Westminster Abbey. Although he delayed applying for a grant of arms until his 91st year, the new peer took a characteristic delight in their preparation by Sir Colin Cole, Garter King of Arms. The two-handed sword of the crest is borrowed from the badge of the Macmillan Clan, with one of th fists clad in mai armour to mark his service in World War 1. Surmounted by an earl's coronet, the arms are taken from those of both Macmillan of Knapp and of the University of Oxford. Three books, reflecting Macmillan's life as a publisher, bear the motto Miseres Discere Succo [I help the disadvantaged to learn]. It is an elegant corruption of the Macmillan Clan motto Miseris Succere Disco [I learn to help the disadvantaged]. The gold background of the upper part of the shield indicates that the family fortune comes from trade, as opposed to green for land or red for military service. For supporters, the new Earl chose a Scottish lion and an American bald eagle, reflecting the ancestry of his parents. The eagle embraces a Scottish thistle, the lion an American juniper. The castellated arch joining two sheets of water comes from the arms of Stockton-on-Tees, but also symbolises the Atlantic Ocean joining Scotland and the United States.

-=-