Neptune’s horses keeping guard of Cambridge – since 1575

Summary:

Where did those seahorses on the coat of arms come from, and who made that call? (And what was he smoking’?!?)

In 500 years time, someone stumbling on the footnote of Puffles standing for election back in 2014 may well ask the same question about me.

I can’t say I’m particularly fond of Cambridge’s coat of arms. Mine was one of the last generations at secondary school to wear blazers which bore the coat of arms of the town, and I grew up to hate school and the government ministers behind it for basically starving it and public services generally of much-needed resources. Child of Thatcher and Major, me. Every so often I’ve wondered what a new coat of arms would look like for Cambridge given how the city – and its economy, have changed.

“What came before the seahorses?”

It wasn’t so much a coat of arms, rather a seal for the borough according to Atkinson in Cambridge Described writing in 1897.

Above- the Seal of Cambridge from 1423, in Atkinson 1897. (I seem to have acquired two copies of this book somehow).

The original seal above I think is in the British Museum somewhere. You can see the two angels and a not-very-castle-like structure over the arches representing the bridge, and the river looking like etched flames underneath it.

“So…who brought in the seahorses?”

Turns out it was a former student of St John’s College Cambridge – Robert Cooke, the King-at-Arms. Atkinson says the version brought in by Cooke is inferior to the one before it.

There have been changes over time – should the fore-limbs of Neptune’s horses have hooves or webbed limbs? On more modern versions they are the latter. Should they be expressionless beings or as in this case sticking their tongues out at each other?

Above – from 1888 in the Cambridgeshire Collection shows the two creatures almost in conversation. The knight’s helmet has gone and the castle only has three turrets rather than the four. In the very arty-version at Parkside Pool, the castle has five turrets and the helmet makes a return.

The coat of arms as described

All I hear from the opening sentence is the following from an old Storyteller Christmas story of King John.

“To all and sundry, near and far… F. Christmas in par-tic-cu-larrrrrr!!!!”

So…now you know.

I still haven’t found out any attempts to give the two creatures names by the general public. That plus an activity for the Museum of Cambridge and Kettles Yard to run: Invite local school children to come up with names and their own designs for coats of arms either for Cambridge or for their neighbourhood.