So what do we make of this?
Lets look at the picture first. Sir Thomas is seated where the entrance
to the Billiard room now is. He is facing a door leading into a room.
In Shakespeares time we would not expect that door or room to exist
although by the 1690s Charlecote has a painting showing a small
extension in that position. Maybe the artist knew about that extension
and extrapolated it back to Shakespeares time. The floor tiles shown
in the picture are the Florentine tiles present in the hall today. George
ordered them on his trip to Italy and they were laid in the hall in 1844.
In Shakespeares time the hall had large flagstones which were taken
up and reused in the new Victorian kitchen where they can still be seen. |
![]() |
Page
26
|