This is another pub to ‘benefit’ from Greene King’s latest
brand refresh. I have already written about the previous
sign, which (correctly) displayed the arms of the Villiers family, earls of
Clarendon (2nd creation).
As I noted before, this is an appropriate choice of image
because 4th Earl, George Villiers, was not only a
distinguished contemporary politician and diplomat, but a Cambridge man, to
boot!
Come the refresh, though, it seems that these arms weren’t
picturesque or fancy enough, so they went in search of something else, finding
instead the arms of the Hoyles, earls of Clarendon (1st creation).
This earldom has been
extinct since 1753 (long before the pub was built) and, after the future
1st earl, Edward Hyde, was rejected as
undergraduate by Magdalen (as the spelling then was) and ended up at Magdalene
in the Other Place, they have had no connection whatsoever to do with either
the pub or indeed Cambridge as a whole.
And what detailed heraldic research has gone into
representing this blazon? Why, search
the internet and nick something, of course! (Compare the lettering on the
scroll and the 'drop shadow' on the ineschutcheon and the chevrons: this is clearly a reuse of the same image. I did wonder why I could
never get it to look sharp in a photograph; now I know.) St George’s Chapel,
Windsor, eh? I wonder if anyone at GK read the copyright
notice:
“No image or text displayed on
this site may be used without the express permission of the owner. Such
permission should be sought in the first instance in writing from the Dean
& Canons of Windsor, via the Chapter Clerk, who will contact the owner of
any photography in question.”
