Arundel Castle

Inigo Jones vs. Indiana Jones?

The king was conducted to the castle with great pomp, and Fouquet saw him dismount under the portcullis, and say something in the ear of D’Artagnan, who held his stirrup.

The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later

Dumas

In April 2018 it cost twenty pounds to see the interior of Arundel Castle. Extra to see inside the bedrooms. ‘The Collector’ Earl would have been pleased if we bothered because paintings he gathered are still hung there.

When I stayed with my Camino chums in East Wittering, Barry was up for some tourist work and we appreciated the grand castle and fort, still grand even though Cromwell and the Roundheads did their best to smash it. The church was used by them (and their horses) as sanctuary and cover from the rain.

Our cheerful guide’s presentation included a tomb showing a sculpted fallen soldier on the top layer in full regalia and, memento mori, a decomposing wretch on the lower; a handy reminder that death strips even the most regal of any vestments of status.

Inside the corridors and halls of the public side of the building I encountered assorted guides. When I approached and asked them about Thomas Howard, 14th Earl, ‘The Collector’ they insisted on telling me about his father, Philip Howard, who tried to save Mary Queen of Scots and got chucked in the Tower for his efforts. I saw Mary’s golden rosary beads on a red cushion.

I can assure you I had absolutely nothing to do with the 2021 robbery of these precious artefacts.

The Collector (aided by Inigo Jones)

I hate to say this but I don’t think the guides I met knew about The Collector. In fact, they seemed shaky on any facts at all. Even the laminated potted history printed for the tourists to carry about with them had Charles I on the throne from 1600. Of course, we know he was not crowned until 1625. Elizabeth I died in 1603 and James I and VI was responsible for the throne. Missing from the laminate. Why have they blanked James? Because he was Protestant? He was a peacenik? Gay? Scottish? They forgot?

Saint Mary’s chapel filled to the gunnels with Mary and Baby Jesus. Catholic to the bosses.

Most of the place is Victorian, rebuilt long after the Restoration. Hard to imagine the Jacobean.

Some items of heavy carved furniture are evocative and the Earl’s Garden is apparently modelled on a design by Inigo Jones.

Crowns on things

I asked one elderly male guide about Inigo Jones. Could he perhaps point me towards a relic? Some of his work or memories? And the old fellow giggled. I was taken aback. Is there something funny about a seventeenth century architect and theatre designer? Inigo? Oh, no! He thought I was making some bizarre joke about the film character Indiana Jones. Wasn’t I?

And, no, Indiana did not go to Italy with the Earl, as far as I know. Once again this elderly fellow sent me off to look at Mary’s rosary afresh and to see the Staff of Office. It may have belonged to the Earl or perhaps the Duke of Norfolk. It looks like a stick in the paintings, and the ones in the cabinet belonged to a later time.

I am nothing if not obedient. Nice sticks, eh?

The Earl with Staff of Office, wife with compass. Good noses, yes?

It is a big luxurious castle and, as Cromwell’s thugs did their best to destroy it, it’s difficult to know what belongs to what time - apart from the original and very medieval keep built on the motte dating from 1068.

Carried away with Inigo jokes?

I take the thin, dark, twisty corridors and uneven steps as real. The embrasures and thick walls might have been there before the seventeenth century and I believe the Collecting Earl spent most of his time in London and in Italy. He died in Padua. I don’t think Anne meets him at Arundel.

As far as I’m concerned, Anne/Charlotte will certainly meet Inigo Jones not only at Arundel and in London but also other places in England. Poor Anne has to be polite because she finds him rather trying.

You’ll see.

“Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory.”

Indiana Jones