2-888-433 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Elizabethan Ceiling at the Red Lion Inn, Barnstaple [Devon] - drawn by Mr. H. H. Sharland, 1850. '...part of an elaborately ornamented and picturesque ceiling...The frames of the four Scripture subjects afford of themselves valuable lessons to various classes of ornamentists; indeed...it will be admitted that this is a choice specimen of old English taste and skill. The date (cut on the little figure seated within one of the pendants) is JVLY, 1629...Lyson, in his "Magna Britannia" (Devon), says, "The Golden Lion...is said to have been a town-house of the Earls of Bath. The arms of the Earl of Bath and other arms are in a large room of this house which has an ornamented ceiling. It was certainly the property and the residence of Sir Nicholas Hooper, Sergeant-at-Law in the reign of Queen Anne, and from whom it passed to the Bassets, and was sold by the late S. Basset, Esq".' From "Illustrated London News", 1850.