Memorial fountain (detail)

Image: © Lairich Rig Taken: 1 May 2011

This photograph is a close-up view of the fountain that is shown in Image; these details are indistinct unless, as in this case, the angle of the sun's illumination is favourable. The motto appears to read "Fide Fortuna Fortes". The elephant with the "castle" (or tower) on its back features in the Dumbarton arms, which "were registered in the Lyon Office in or about AD 1672. This was the year in which was passed the important Act which confers on the Lyon King of Arms the right to grant arms to 'virtuous and well-deserving persons'"; specifically, the Dumbarton arms are described as follows: "Azure, an elephant passant argent, tusked or, bearing on his back a tower proper". (See Image for another representation.) Their origin is obscure. They are said to "appear upon the burgh seal appended to the document relating to the ransom of David II, son of Robert the Bruce, at the end of his eleven years of captivity dating from the battle of Neville's Cross", that document being dated 1357. [The above details about the Dumbarton arms are from "The Dumbarton coat-of-arms" (1909), by Archibald Macdonald.]

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