Kintyre Pursuivant kindly agreed to take the place of Lord Lyon King of Arms this evening because Lord Lyon was unwell. The Society was interested to hear M^R George speak of the rôle of the Scottish Heralds as controllers of Emblems and Insignia in the commercial world and as keepers of genealogies and pedigrees for lines of succession in the Scottish peerage in the House of Lords. Kintyre then spoke of state ceremonies with reference to Coronations mentioning that Scottish Heralds had had no rise in salary since 1697! The coronation procedure is known as "Sacring" and new regalia was introduced after the Commonwealth which is still used today. The Archbishop of Canterbury invests his divine authority on the monarch by handing him the orb. (Concerning the Dutch Royal Family, power is invested in the people and part only in the monarchy.) It was pointed out that Heralds and Pursuivants appear in ceremonies eight or nine times a year in Scotland, including the Order of the Thistle, whereas it is only twice in England – the Garter and the Opening of Parliament. Kintyre Pursuivant has taken part in several special occasions of state including the investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969 and a Parliamentary ceremony in Bermuda which was apparently very warm in black velvet court dress! M^R George's talk was illustrated with colourful slides of the important ceremonies down the centuries.

This meeting, the first after our recruitment programme and the meeting which is our Squash for this year, attracted 27; 19 new faces, 15 of whom joined after the talk.