In my previous blog post, I wrote about Miss Mawer sitting on a life-sized, stone lion and that Toby had done detective work to find out where the statue was located. Toby’s methodology was absolutely fascinating – he saw loads of clues in the photo, things that I hadn’t even considered, and he followed their trail
I could see that the lion was very unusual, and nothing like a ‘normal’ lion sculpture. Its features and mane were carved in a strong, distinctive way, and the lion was wearing a coronet. I had no idea that the coronet, and also the decorative symbols around his neck, were actually telling a story. The coronet signifies a duke, while the symbols around his neck show a ‘heraldic label of three points’ which I now know traditionally refers to the heir to a title. There is also a mullet – no not the hairstyle, but a five-pointed star. In heraldry this can show which son of which father was being referred to. Lion statues with this combination of high-status British aristocratic connections are uncommon.
Once Toby explained the heraldry to me, I understood completely as I do have a heraldic connection. Many years ago, I helped to care for an elderly gentleman, Sir Anthony Wagner, who for many years had been the Garter King of Arms, at the College of Arms in London. This is the THE centre for heraldry, arms, and genealogy in the world. Sir Anthony had taught me about lions rampant and other messages depicted in flags, etc, but I hadn’t realised that I could ‘read’ a lion in the same way!
It was very interesting to me how my life was linked to both Miss Mawer and to Sir Anthony and that, in this particular case, the link was a heraldic lion. Miss Mawer was very interested in history, particularly history of the theatre, and history of Ancient Greece, though I don’t know if her knowledge extended to British heraldic symbolism.
In next week’s blog, I will post some information about the history of the lion and why Miss Mawer may have been visiting it.