I am late walking my gaggle of dogs and am trying to hasten back for their breakfast before they begin to investigate the lunch the carparking team has innocently left in open backpacks inside the visitor reception building. Meanwhile, by the path leading to the ticket booth a group of ladies stand together giddy with excitement. ‘Downton Abbey’ is on their bucket list and finally their travel plans and, amazingly, a sunny day, have coincided to bring them here. I can see the mobile phones extended and hear a babble of chatter – “It looks just the same as it does on TV…..”
In their hurry to move towards the Castle, most don’t not even notice the stone sculptures adorning each gate pillar. Weathered with time, the man and woman gaze ahead into the distance. Perhaps they were once patrons here, full of interest in the comings and goings. I am not sure how old they are (is that a polite question?!) but they recall medieval times in terms of their dress and style.
Lacking knowledge I assume they are portraits of two predecessors, sculptures which you can sort of walk around even if they a little two dimensional. However, they are not the only such sculptures at Highclere. Carved into the stone, particularly in the towers, are a number of faces and heads, each different and full of character. They represent both an individual identity and a style which, like the castle, is cast in time.
Rather like gargoyles on a church roof, these heads are placed looking down on us all. Perhaps in the manner of those medieval stonemasons of so long ago, these more modern craftsmen also ensured their own eternity and carved themselves into here? Some of the faces seem to have a crown, others are simply adorned with flowing beards and noble faces.
In both classical antiquity and the Middle Ages, it was generally believed that the soul resided in the head and that as such, it was the centre of each person’s identity. A face communicates human expression, emotion, and character and thus, as a work of art, the sculpted heads are a perpetual remnant of a certain time. Often during times of upheaval and religious unrest, political and religious monuments are deliberately destroyed with heads being separated from their bodies and settings. Yet often it is the heads that survive, maybe out of reverence for the grand monuments to which they once belonged but perhaps because of their innate beauty outside of their original significance.
Taking time out to sit and look, I always find it extraordinary that the faces (and wyverns and grotesques) are carved into the bath stone here at all. Most guests and visitors will never notice them but maybe, they are quite appropriate to the modern-day Castle in that for many, in a way, we too have become a place of “pilgrimage”.
Such has been, and still is, the global attraction of Downton Abbey that Highclere has become part of people’s “wish lists” – somewhere they make long term plans to visit. Downton is a beloved world of modern storytelling blended with real heritage, a world apart. Guests arrive with friends or family or sometimes on their own and there is a palpable excitement to their visit. It is a privilege to be part of it and to see their faces and to share their enthusiasm.
Our faces are “the mirror of the mind, and eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart.” Everyone has their own journey but our experiences make our characters and resilience, just like those faces on the walls.
Instagram