DOI Artikel:
Ditchfield, Peter H.: Some old ceilings
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20712#0036
Some Old Ceilings
OLD CEILING FROM WALSINGHAM HOUSE, READING
fathers of York are playing with their ancient city
walls and moats, in order to provide work for the
unemployed, and the old Plummer town at
Newcastle-on-Tyne, one of the few remaining
parts of the old Edwardian wall of the city, is
threatened with destruction.
The “house-breakers” have just pulled down
an old Elizabethan house in the busy town of
Reading. It was known
by the name of Walsing-
ham House, and bore
the arms of Sir Francis
Walsingham, Secretary of
State in the days of
Queen Elizabeth. Tradi-
tion says that during one
of her nine visits to
Reading the Virgin Queen
slept at the house of her
trusty minister. Legendary
lore sometimes serves to
preserve old houses, as in
the case of the Fleet Street
palace, a fine example of a
half-timbered house with a
remarkably good ceiling,
which would have undoubt-
edly been destroyed but for
the fairy-tale of its having
been the palace of Henry
VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey.
18
No sentiment or his-
torical associations or tradi-
tion could save the Read-
ing house, wherein fancy
pictures Queen Bess dining
with Sir Francis, fresh
from his ambassadorship
at Paris, and ready to
impart to his royal mis-
tress the latest stories of
the Duke of Anjou and
the desires of the French
Court for a matrimonial
alliance. Such fancies
vanish with the walls
of Walsingham House 5
but the owners of the
property were anxious to
preserve any objects of
architectural or historic
interest, and these have
been placed in the custody
of the Berks Archaeological
Society. We have not discovered any treasures, any
hidden jewels or jars containing coins. The only
objects really worth preserving were the ceilings.
These have been carefully photographed by Mr.
Walton Adams, and the panels have been cut out and
are now preserved in the Abbey Gate, the head-
quarters of the Berks Society. The accompanying
illustrations show the beauty of their design and the
OLD CEILING FROM WALSINGHAM HOUSE, READING
OLD CEILING FROM WALSINGHAM HOUSE, READING
fathers of York are playing with their ancient city
walls and moats, in order to provide work for the
unemployed, and the old Plummer town at
Newcastle-on-Tyne, one of the few remaining
parts of the old Edwardian wall of the city, is
threatened with destruction.
The “house-breakers” have just pulled down
an old Elizabethan house in the busy town of
Reading. It was known
by the name of Walsing-
ham House, and bore
the arms of Sir Francis
Walsingham, Secretary of
State in the days of
Queen Elizabeth. Tradi-
tion says that during one
of her nine visits to
Reading the Virgin Queen
slept at the house of her
trusty minister. Legendary
lore sometimes serves to
preserve old houses, as in
the case of the Fleet Street
palace, a fine example of a
half-timbered house with a
remarkably good ceiling,
which would have undoubt-
edly been destroyed but for
the fairy-tale of its having
been the palace of Henry
VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey.
18
No sentiment or his-
torical associations or tradi-
tion could save the Read-
ing house, wherein fancy
pictures Queen Bess dining
with Sir Francis, fresh
from his ambassadorship
at Paris, and ready to
impart to his royal mis-
tress the latest stories of
the Duke of Anjou and
the desires of the French
Court for a matrimonial
alliance. Such fancies
vanish with the walls
of Walsingham House 5
but the owners of the
property were anxious to
preserve any objects of
architectural or historic
interest, and these have
been placed in the custody
of the Berks Archaeological
Society. We have not discovered any treasures, any
hidden jewels or jars containing coins. The only
objects really worth preserving were the ceilings.
These have been carefully photographed by Mr.
Walton Adams, and the panels have been cut out and
are now preserved in the Abbey Gate, the head-
quarters of the Berks Society. The accompanying
illustrations show the beauty of their design and the
OLD CEILING FROM WALSINGHAM HOUSE, READING