Family fortunes - The English Castle

and the closest parallel for this ceiling is
that in the celebrated Long Gallery at nearby
Lanhydrock, which is thought to have been
commissioned in about 1636. in her recent
unpublished study of West Country plasterwork,
Tara Hamling convincingly argues
that the two ceilings are contemporary and
by the same craftsmen. She has also identified
sources for several of the scenes in the
printed illustrations of the Thesaurus
Sacrum Historiarum (antwerp, 1585).
during the tumult of the Civil War, several
members of the Prideaux family acted
in support of Parliament. Nevertheless, an
entry in the parish registers shows that
a peel of welcome was rung for the future
Charles ii when he passed through Padstow
Fig 6 left: A view of the Grenville Room. By family tradition, this interior, together
with paintings by Antonio Verrio (died 1702) and exquisite carvings, was furnished using
materials from the demolition of a 1680s house at Stowe, Cornwall. Fig 7 above: A view
of the great hall, now the dining room. The panelling is a mixture of 16th-century
fragments and restored timber. It was badly damaged by fire in the late 19th century.
Fig 8 below: A detail of the late-16th-century marquetry panelling in the great hall. The
production of luxury joinery in this period was dominated by immigrant craftsmen and
the panelling is likely to have been imported from a city such as Exeter or even London
in 1645. He was on his way to Pendennis
Castle, fleeing the inexorable advance of
the Parliamentarian forces after the disastrous
royalist defeat at Naseby.
The late 17th century apparently did not
witness any substantial alterations to the
house, and, when daniel defoe passed
through the town on his long journey compiling
A Tour Through the Whole Island
of Great Britain (1724), he commented on
‘a very ancient seat of a family of the name
Prideaux who, in Queen elizabeth’s time,
built a very noble seat there, which remains
to this day, tho’ time makes the architect
of it look a little out of fashion’.
The house and its surrounds were, however,
on the eve of transformation (Fig 6),
as we shall discover next week.
The Padstow Obby Oss
The blue hobby horse, shown dancing
in the hall of Prideaux Place with the pre-
sent owner of the house, Peter Prideaux-
Brune, is one of the two Obby Osses
that pass through the streets of Padstow
on May 1 every year to the accompani-
ment of musicians and drummers. The
costume of each one resembles a circular
table top with a fringe of canvas, plus
a small, grotesque face and a tail. The
May Day celebrations begin at midnight
with a capella singing in the streets, first
of the Morning Song and then the Day
Song. These festivities are documented
from the late 18th century onwards,
but their origins are not known.
www.countrylife.co.uk Country Life, June 9, 2010 85