Whilst in Jedburgh we visited the Mary Queen of Scots Museum. A house in which
Mary is believed to have stayed for around 4 weeks when she was seriously ill.
The house
belonged to the Kerr family of nearby Ferniehirst Castle
The most interesting exhibit in my opinion was this
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| Mary's bedroom |
The most interesting exhibit in my opinion was this
The death mask of the queen herself.
The thing that struck me most about this was the fact that it depicts a rather beautiful, serene looking woman as opposed the large nosed, dowdy old lady depicted in portraits.
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| Found here |
My morbid curiosity got me to thinking about this rather macabre but fascinating practice
Whilst taking this photo I was half expecting this to happen
Usually only royalty or eminent members of society were immortalised in death and the cast was then used as part of the funeral service. In the days before photography, it was also used to capture the likeness so that subsequent portraits could be made.
A couple of Google searches brought back some notable immortalisations.
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| Dante |
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| Goethe |
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| Abraham Lincoln |
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| Marie Antoinette |
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| A serene and beautiful John Keats |
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| Alfred Hitchcock, unmistakably |
Thank you for sharing that furtive walk down Macabre Lane with me
If this kind of thing fascinates the hell out of you like it does me I would suggest trying here here and here for some further reading.
Lucy x
