Leaving Jamestown

Cruising on down the road from Jamestown, we passed through (and ate lunch in) the lovely little town of Williamsburg. They’ve got some fun shops there to look around in; I went into the tie shop just to see what they might have in the way of heraldic ties (since I’m always looking to add to my collection). Alas, the only tie with heraldry in the entire shop had a repeating pattern of the current Royal Arms of Great Britain. As tempting as it was (after all, it would go well with my pair of cufflinks with the same arms on them), I decided to pass. For some reason, there’s only so far I’m willing to go purporting with wearable heraldry to be the Queen of England.

In the same town, however, it’s possible to see a fair bit of heraldry while driving down the street. Williamsburg is home to the College of William and Mary (I recently – April 19, 2010 – posted about their adoption of a new mascot, a griffin), and I am happy to report that they use their 17th Century coat of arms extensively. For example, it appears on all of their signs, from the big sign at the entrance to many of the smaller detached offices to the football stadium.

Alas, that extensive usage does not appear to extend to such things as tee shirts, sweatshirts, and baseball caps. An intensive search of the student bookstore found very few items with the arms on them, the majority having the W&M initials logo, the team name “Tribe”, and/or the griffin mascot. The arms appeared only on some pennants, one hooded sweatshirt, and one tee shirt. Not caring to buy the pennant, and not having much use for a hooded sweatshirt down here in Texas (Dallas is further south than Damascus, Syria!), I opted for the tee shirt, which in addition to the arms says “School of Education”, which I thought was particularly appropriate for me, all things considered.  (After all, not only do I try to "educate" folks about heraldry, but my college degree is in "History/Secondary Education.")