the rectangular panel centred with an heraldic shield supported by opposing griffins “en rampant” and surmounted by an helm, the uppermost scroll bearing the motto “MORS POTIOR MACULA” (better death than infamy) above the foliate mantling,

The arms pertain to Sir John Gardiner Nutting 1852-1918 who was High Sherriff of County Dublin before being made baronet in 1903. Research continues into the heraldry that has some anomalous features. It is thought that Nutting, a friend of Edward VII may have had the panel made prior to the Baronetcy being finalised and the arms being granted. This contentious supposition is yet to be confirmed. Chicheley Hall near Newport Pagnell in North Buckinghamshire, has been acquired by The Royal Society for a conference centre. Marcus Binney in The Times described it when it was on the market in 2007: “CHICHELEY HALL is one of the dozen finest and loveliest English country houses that will ever come on the market. Indeed, I am tempted to say it is the most beautiful of them all. Better still, it has belonged only to two families, the Chesters who built it and the Beattys who have owned it since 1952. Today it is in startlingly immaculate condition, thanks to the 2nd Earl Beatty’s widow, Diane Nutting, chairman of the Georgian Group, who has an unerring eye for everything that is prettiest in gardens, planting, decoration and furnishing – and a positively Parisian sense of comfort and chic. The house, which stood in for Bletchley Park in the film of the thrilling story of the Enigma code-breakers, is approached up an avenue of limes, with a delightful octagonal dovecote on the left. Completed in 1725, Chicheley, in Buckinghamshire, is a true original. There is nothing in all English architecture that quite compares with it. It is the creation of England’s greatest master builder, the energetic Francis Smith of Warwick, working with his client Sir John Chester. The construction and craftsmanship, inside and out, are of matchless quality.â€