Budleigh Past and Present

    A copy, in All Saints' Church East Budleigh, of one of the best known portraits of Sir Walter formerly attributed to Zuccaro but now to the monogrammist 'H' (? Hubbard) and dated 1588. It shows Raleigh in court dress at the height of his favour with Queen Elizabeth I. Raleigh had been appointed Captain of the Guard in 1587   Raleigh does not have a reputation as a peacemaker. Courtier, poet, soldier, explorer, historian he certainly was, and for most of his life, an enemy of Spain. In 1618, after his disastrous second voyage to Guiana resulted in the reinstatement of the death sentence there was jubilation at the Spanish court.     Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Count of Gondomar, a title awarded by King Philip III of Spain in 1617. Image credit: Wikipedia Such was the hatred he inspired there that Count Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador in London, demanded that Raleigh and his crew be hanged in Madrid.    The 2007 film Elizabeth – The Golden Age, d...

Continued from  https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/07/painting-history.html Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, made to commemorate the defeat of the Spanish Armada, depicted in the background, and now in the Collection of Woburn Abbey. Believed formerly to be by the artist George Gower, the painting is one of three versions. The most recently restored is known as the ‘Drake’ version, on display in the Queen’s House, at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich Following on from my suggestion that there might be scenes from local history which deserve to be painted, it was pointed out that this very thing had been done to record the strafing of Budleigh High Street by an enemy aircraft during World War Two.   The painting had been put on public display for Poppy Day and it was featured in the Exmouth Journal of 7 May 2020. Lots more ideas have been suggested, some of them quite fanciful and even bold. But there’s nothing wrong with that. From ...

  Visitors to Fairlynch may be puzzled on seeing this colourful panel in the Museum’s front garden. All will be revealed if they buy their copy of The Times of their Lives, the second in the Heroes of the Jurassic Coast series of adventure stories set in East Devon. The stories are written by pupils of St Peter’s, Drake’s and Otterton primary schools with the help of their teachers and the support of a guest writer. The first of various murals which illustrate scenes in this latest book was featured in an earlier blog post  here This panel in the Museum garden relates to Chapter One, entitled ‘The Fireship’ and was painted by students from Exmouth Community College. Can’t you can just hear and see the “devastating battle cries with boats bursting into flames, wild flames that were swirling and spinning out of control” and the “constant firing of the hurtling cannon balls”?   Sir Francis Drake makes an appearance...