Ich Dien

[poliphilo]

We stopped on our way home yesterday for a meal at The White Hart in Ampthill. Coaching inn, fine Georgian facade, several ghosts, recently reopened under new management, serious about its food and...

This.



A royalist mural- showing the Prince of Wales' ostrich feathers and motto- "Ich Dien"- flanked on its remaining side by the interwined roses ond thistles of England and Scotland. An interesting surival.

But notice the date- 1646

This is the last year of the English Civil War. Parliament has triumphed and the battles being fought down in the West Country are essentially mopping up operations. The Prince of Wales goes into exile in April, his father is captured by the Scots in May. The mural is an expression of loyalty to a dying cause, a political protest even. I'm thinking it has survived so well because it was covered in whitewash over shortly after completion.

Comments

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

Lovely mural.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Unusual too...

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

Wow!

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I've never seen anything like it, wow. How fascinating.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Remarkable. I also think the colors of the Tudor rose are inverted. Aren't the red petals usually on the outside? Maybe they're not only Royalists but closet Yorkists!

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Good grief! That's quite the casual find indeed! And indeed, remarkably well preserved. Hopefully it's been treated now to help keep it in such fine condition for many more years.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Wow! And note the curtains on either side, ready to conceal or reveal. The curtain would be rung down* for a very long interlude indeed--and go up on a different world.

Nine

*Not that the Stuarts had proscenium theatres...

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

How intriguing! Was the building an inn at the time? Did the remains of some Royalist regiment billet themselves there?