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Flowers in the Victorian Library at Athelhampton House & Gardens

When you go round Athelhampton House & Gardens, it's always worth looking up. Hidden details feature in almost every ceiling around the house, and the library is no exception.


A white ceiling, decorated in plaster work with a white Tudor rose. The rose is in the centre of the image, in a circle. The central layer has 7 petals, and as does the outer layer. Decoration has been scored into the petals, and each petal is depicted as curling in slightly.

Alfred Carte de Lafontaine refurbished the room in 1893, stripping out the internal walls to create his "Long Gallery," where he could display his antiques. To complement these objects, many of them Tudor and Stuart in origin, he had the room decorated in a suitable style.


Plasterwork decoration from the ceiling. A small rose, with five petals is in the centre of a close up of part of the strapwork on the ceiling. Two leaves are pointing towards it from either side.

The ceiling is heavily decorated in plasterwork, featuring flowers and motifs in a style that would have been very familiar to the Tudor Martyn family who built Athelhampton. The most obvious is the Tudor rose, shown both in large roundels across the ceiling. If you look closer, though, smaller roses can be found in amongst the strapwork lines joining the motifs together.


Three columbine flowers as part of the plaster decoration on the ceiling. They're framed with a thicker line. All three flowers are facing directly towards the viewer, so that they appear far flatter than real columbine flowers. The central one of the three is taller than the other two, which are bending outwards. They're tied together, along with a few of their leaves, with a bow.

Columbine, also known as aquilegia or Grandmother's Bonnet, makes an appearance on the ceiling too. Common in medieval illuminated manuscripts as well as Tudor embroidery patterns, Columbine is also the name of a stock character in Commedia dell'Arte, a type of 16th century theatre that persists still to this day (admittedly in a slightly evolved form) as pantomime. With its stock characters and tropes, Thomas Hardy used it as a framework for his work The Trumpet Major, and Carte de Lafontaine may well have seen a Harlequinade, as it became known, played as an interlude when he was in London


Plaster decoration from the ceiling. Three pomegranates are springing upwards on stems from a central flower. The central one is going straight up, and is taller than the other two which are bending outwards. The left hand one is completely closed, the central one is burst open in the middle to show its seeds, and the right hand one is beginning to burst open on its right hand side. They're surrounded by foliage - leaves of about four different types. Beneath are two stems of leaves and berries extending horizontally left and right.

The pomegranates, which only feature on the sides of the room, were the emblem of Catherine of Aragon. Alfred Carte de Lafontaine may well have been aware of the connection between Sir William Martyn and Catherine. The builder of the Great Hall, William escorted Catherine of Aragon for part of her journey to meet Prince Arthur, when she first arrived in England.


Plaster work decoration from the ceiling of the Victorian Library at Athelhampton, all in white. Three lilies, emerging from the same base. The central one stands straight, and taller than the other two which are bending out sideways. All three lilies are in full bloom, with stamens visible. On each stem, unopened buds are visible - two on each of the side lily stems, and four on the central lily.

The lilies are also seen in Tudor designs, but they also feature in the stained glass in the Green Dining Room at Athelhampton. Perhaps this was a conscious decision of Alfred's, to link the two rooms?


Plaster work decoration on the ceiling of the Victorian Library at Athelhampton. A small roundel, with a tiny daisy like flower in the centre, the petals and centre all circular. From this four bluebells twist out, each one facing towards the edge of the roundel, dividing it into four. Each bluebell stem has two other buds on it, as well as a couple of small leaves. The whole is framed by two narrow concentric circles.

Bluebells, again, feature in Tudor designs, including in embroideries of the time. We know that Alfred had a range of textiles on display in this room in the late 19th century, including embroidered gloves dating to c.1600 (Alfred thought they belonged to Henry VIII, but we now know better), and a bit of (what Alfred thought was) Elizabeth I's petticoat.


Athelhampton House & Gardens is open 7 days a week, all year round, except for a few days over Christmas, for you to come and explore the small details.




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