Spes Mea Christus

I found the motto  Spes mea Christus above the door of Plewlands House an historic house in South Queensferry near Edinburgh. Directly below it are the initials of the husband and wife for whom the house was built:- Samuel Wilson and Anna Ponton. This is an example of a 'marriage lintel', something that was quite common in Lowland Scottish houses of that period, as of course, were  religious sentiments such as the one above it. 

We have come across spes before; it simply means hope, and the motto means Christ (is) my hope. 

Mente et Manu

Mente et manu is the motto of among other organisations Queensferry High School in the little town of South Queensferry on the South bank of the Firth of Forth. You can take your pick whether to translate it as "by mind and hand" or "with mind and hand", for both prepositions translate the ablative case.

mens, mentis 3rd declension f mind
manus, manus 4th declension f hand

Stet

While working through some paperwork this afternoon, I came across a date which I thought was wrong, so I scored it through. Later when I had got to the bottom of the matter, I realised that the date was actually correct but that some of the other information on the sheet had been entered for the wrong day. So I wrote stet by the scoring through to indicate that the date stood, and the crossing out should be ignored. Only afterwards did it occur to me that what I had written was a Latin subjunctive meaning "Let it stand." Interestingly, stet has its own entry on Wikipedia.

Salvator Britannia?

The main cartoon in today's Daily Telegraph features a portrait of  prime minister Theresa May carrying the legend Salvator Britannia. The basis for this joke is that questions have been raised about the attribution of the picture of Jesus known as Salvator Mundi to Leonardo da Vinci. As this picture sold for US$450 million or £342 million last year that is a fairly big question mark.

There is, however, a mistake in Blower's cartoon - Salvator Britannia means Britain the saviour. The legend should have read Salvator Britanniae, which, of course, means saviour of Britain.

Et In Orcadia Ego

Earlier this week the Daily Telegraph's letters page had the amusing heading 'Et in Orcadia Ego' over a letter concerning why the Orkneys were considered the happiest place to live in the UK. The phrase is, of course, a pun on 'Et in Arcadia Ego'. Perhaps the sub-editor intended to import the sense of mortality which the original phrase carried, or perhaps it was simply the opportunity to create a pun.