HONOURS 
305 
could. She cried out at once, “ It is I ”; but without 
in the least allowing that to deter him, he clapped her 
on the head, and said, “ Clap, woman, sit on the 
bench,” as the custom was when anyone was caught, 
and added, “ Those who play, must put up with 
play ”; and afterwards he ceased to play blindman’s 
buff. 
The first public distinction he received was the 
title of Archiater, bestowed in 1747, without his know¬ 
ledge or request. That he should be gratified at this 
mark of appreciation is easily understood, though other 
Professors of Medicine, Rosen amongst them, had 
previously been thus honoured, and soon after, a 
barber-surgeon was distinguished in the same manner; 
but Linne looked upon it as a recognition of his deserts. 
On the other hand, he felt far from pleased at having 
to pay for the title the fee which was annually demanded 
of him. Upon a request he put forward, he was freed 
from this, and later, his previously paid fees were 
returned to him. 
As regards his being dubbed “ Knight of the Polar 
Star ” in 1753, it was certainly in his time a very 
unusual mark of royal grace to any Doctor, Archiater 
or Professor; and was correspondingly appreciated by 
the recipient. His ennoblement was such as was 
frequent at the time when prominent professors found 
a place in the House of Nobles. His turn came in 
November, 1761, when he assumed the change of 
name as “ Von Linne,” though the grant was ante¬ 
dated to August, 1757. Next the question arose as 
to the arms he should bear. Quick in application as 
he always was, he suggested them thus : “ My little 
Linncea in the helmet, but three fields in the shield, 
black, green and red, the three kingdoms of nature, 
and upon it an egg cut in two, or a half-egg to denote 
nature, which is continued and perpetuated in the 
egg.” This design was forwarded to the Governor, 
Baron Daniel Tilas, who, as State Herald, had to 
frame or define such matters, but it was rejected. In 
u 
