Coat of Arms
The school crest is a bee because it appears at the top of Sir William’s Coat of Arms and his Seal (for letters etc.) was also a Bee. When the College Arms were granted, they were Sir William’s with the colours reversed. Nowadays a more modern image is used but it is still the same Coat of Arms.
The bee is the origin of the school's motto 'Industria'. Its motif features prominently around the school. Beehives appear over the now-unused East and West doors of the College. A Bee in stone watches over the front of Malcolm House (1880) and the Prep School. A large bee fronts Kimmerghame (1928) and there is an original lead bee in the porch of the Headmaster’s Lodge.
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Famous quotes containing the words coat and/or arms:
“I expect a time when, or rather an integrity by which, a man will get his coat as honestly and as perfectly fitting as a tree its bark. Now our garments are typical of our conformity to the ways of the world, i.e., of the devil, and to some extent react on us and poison us, like that shirt which Hercules put on.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Prepare your hearts for Death’s cold hand! prepare
Your souls for flight, your bodies for the earth;
Prepare your arms for glorious victory;
Prepare your eyes to meet a holy God!
Prepare, prepare!”
—William Blake (1757–1827)