In the strange, arcane world of school mottoes, it’s fitting that the most famous one of all belongs to a fictional school. Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus – ‘Never tickle a sleeping dragon’ – is the motto of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. J.K. Rowling brilliantly realised that children aren’t put off by boarding schools and the ancient rituals that go with them. They’re gripped by these peculiar places, their roots twisting back through the mists of time. And no school custom is as ancient or beguiling as the Latin motto.
My motto, at Westminster School, was Dat deus incrementum – ‘God gives the increase’. It is a motto so attractive that it’s used by eight distinguished institutions, including Tonbridge School and the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers, who are surely interested in growth of a different kind.
Latin, because it’s so ancient,never dates, unlike sentimentsin modish English
Eton’s motto is rather more straightforward: Floreat Etona – ‘May Eton flourish’. Still, for all its simplicity, it uses a nice subjunctive to give the connotation of wanting something to happen. The greatest girls’ school of all, St Trinian’s, ripped off Eton’s motto in the sublime Ronald Searle cartoons: Floreat St Trinian’s.
In the 1954 film The Belles of St Trinian’s, the school had an even better motto: In flagrante delicto – ‘In blazing offence’ or, colloquially, ‘Caught in the act’. The St Trinian’s school song in the film reveals a second call to arms: ‘Let our motto be broadcast: “Get your blow in first!” She who draws the sword last always comes off worst.’
Harrow is so flash that it has two Latin mottoes: Stet fortuna domus – ‘May the fortune of the House stand’; and Donorum dei dispensatio fidelis – ‘The faithful dispensation of the gifts of God’.
Not all school mottoes are in Latin. One of the most famous – ‘Manners Makyth Man’ – belongs to Winchester School. It’s thought that the school’s founder, William of Wykeham, came up with the expression and added it to his coat of arms. It’s also the motto of his other foundation, New College, Oxford – the first college not to have a Latin motto. Come to think of it, I know some pretty rude products of both Winchester and New College. But mottoes can only ever be noble aspirations for the crooked timber of public-school humanity, rather than firm promises.
Not all schools have mottoes, however distinguished. The King’s School, Canterbury – the oldest school in the world, founded in ad 597 – doesn’t have one. Thomas Field, the school’s headmaster from 1886 to 1897, tried to introduce one – Age dum agis (roughly ‘Do while you’re doing’) – but it faded away in the early 20th century. Too arriviste, clearly. And also not very good.
Not long after King’s, Canterbury was founded, schools began to appreciate how a Latin motto added a dose of intellect and class to their reputations. And so King’s School, Rochester – the second-oldest school in the world, founded in ad 604 – came up with the admirably direct Disce aut discede (‘Learn or push off’).
Part of the pleasure of mottoes is that they don’t always quite fit with the ethos of a school. Rugby, which is more famous for muscles than Christianity, has a surprisingly holy motto – Orando laborando (‘By praying and working’) – with a pleasing use of the gerund. Some mottoes are rather more appropriate. Millfield in Somerset, which is renowned for its sportiness rather than its bookishness, has Molire molendo – ‘Achieve by grinding’. It’s also a nice bit of wordplay. A mill – as in Millfield – grinds corn.
Latin is such a concise language, crammed with multiple meanings, that mottoes allow for multiple interpretations. Christ’s College, Finchley, an academy school in north London, has the motto Usque proficiens. The school proudly translates it as ‘Advance all the way’. A satirically minded schoolboy might prefer ‘Just proficient’.
Still, give me Latin any day rather than the dull, flat, English mottoes of modern schools. Michaela Community School, set up by educational pioneer Katharine Birbalsingh, is devoted to teaching at the highest level. Surely the school could have come up with something more sophisticated than the dreary ‘Work Hard, Be Kind’. The great thing about Latin is that it takes dull expressions like this and gives them a pleasing, ancient sheen. How much finer Labor et benignitas sounds – and it isn’t blighted by a comma splice.
And Latin, because it’s so ancient, never dates, unlike sentiments in modish English. Still, you must be careful when it comes to updating Latin grace. I’ve recently been to two colleges, in Oxford and Cambridge, where they are still saying grace to the old Regina rather than the new Rex.
Mottoes don’t have to be in Latin. Any ancient language injects magic. The Godolphin and Latymer School in west London has a Cornish motto, Francha leale toge – ‘Free and loyal art thou’. It chimes with the school’s crest, starring a double-headed white eagle – or, in Cornish, a godolphin.
Schools know the innate value of Latin mottoes. They wouldn’t be as stupid as Arsenal Football Club, who crazily ditched their Latin motto a few years ago. In 1949, Arsenal started stitching Victoria concordia crescit on their strip. No, it doesn’t mean ‘Posh Spice flies Concorde’, but ‘Victory grows out of harmony’. Idiotically, the club dropped the motto from their crest in 2002. Then, in 2011, for their 125th anniversary, they came up with the banal new motto: ‘Forward.’ Since adopting an English motto, Arsenal have never won the Premiership.
Schools know better. The only way forwards is backwards. Vivat the Latin motto.
Harry Mount’s Et Tu, Brute? The Best Latin Lines Ever is out now.
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