They’re not strange, the devices Richard V bears on his banner. They’re impressive. They’re battle colours. Campaigns. They are, respectively, City of London Badged Guide; Clerkenwell and Islington Badged Guide; City of Westminster Badged Guide; Camden Badged Guide; Inland Waterways Badged Guide; London Walks Badged Guide. And needless to say they add up to: Excelsior!* So much for the devices on Richard V’s banner. The huzzahs when he’s on parade tell the same story. You hear it, over and over again, “I’ve lived in London all my life and I never knew that.” And “I pass this way every day and I never noticed that.” Anything to add? Yes. Historian. Primetime. Genius raconteur. Londoner. *The allusion is of course to Longfellow’s great poem Excelsior: “A youth, who bore, ‘mid snow and ice, a banner with the strange device, Excelsior!” For the record, Excelsior the word comes from Latin: higher. it means excellent. It’s often used as a motto. Richard V answers to it.