I greatly enjoyed talking to the Caledonia Fellowship of the Common Sense Society yesterday in historic Carberry Tower, for long home to the various Lords Elphinstone whose arms appear in various forms throughout the building.

A year ago today, the Scottish Officers of Arms attended a very lovely morning service at St Bartholomew the Great, the day before HM the late Queen's Funeral. Thank you to Marcus Walker

Huge thanks to all who tuned in to my online talk on Tuesday to the Lord Lyon Society. The next one will be by my confrère, Marchmont Herald, in December. Why not join the Society and contribute to the conservation of the Public Register of Arms? lordlyonsociety.org.uk/join/

Happy New Year!

Heraldry and the Blythswood Armorial | Happening in 2 weeks in #Renfrew allevents.in/renfrew/200025… All welcome! Discovered on AllEvents

Happy Birthday to HRH The Duchess of Rothesay.

Happy Feast of St Brigid! Here is the beautifully simple, yet rich in symbol, coat of arms granted to St Brigid's RC Church in Newmains to mark its centenary in 1996 with the reed crosses of the saint and canting symbols for Motherwell, painted by Clare McCrory.

On Leap Day, we remember the Calendar revisions of Pope Gregory XIII. Here is a painting of the Calendar Commission from the Archives of Siena of 1582, with the arms of Trecerchi, Savini, Ugurgieri, Bronconi, Turamini, Spennazzi, Cerretani, De Vecchi, Rocchi, and Bocciardi.

On 20 March 1732, Laura Bassi (1711–1778) became the first woman admitted to the Academy of the Institute for Sciences in Bologna. Here she defends her thesis. #InternationalWomensDay

Hail, Glorious!

Entfernet euch, ihr heitern Sterne.

It was wonderful to be on show with our colleagues from the College of Arms. Thank you all very much.

All Viola-players welcome His Imperial Majesty The Emperor of Japan to Britain. How much more civilised the world would be if more of our leaders played chamber music. thestrad.com/news/japans-ne…

Thank you for posting this. It was a great day. Huge congratulations to HM The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, Lady Black, Lady Kennedy and Sir Geoff Palmer Sir Geoff Palmer ⁩ on their appointment to the Order of the Thistle. It was a privilege to witness their installation.

Glad to see the Hammermen maintaining their heraldry. Dinner this evening.

That's my tiara back in the box for another year.

Still allowed, apparently, as this does not qualify as a 'grande nave'.

Nacchini, San Rocco.

Habemus Papam! We have a Pope! The Cardinals gathered in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel have elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as the 267th Pope, who took the name Pope Leo XIV.

Lovely to play an organ where the case has been painted by Veronese.