Syon House

I travelled over to Hounslow yestermorning to see Syon House, the southern seat of the Dukes of Northumberland. I have been to their northern seat already. Although built in the 1540s on the site of a large, dissolved nunnery, it was redeveloped in the 1760s and clad with new stone and battlements in the 1820s, which really mixes up the styles. It is an eclectic combination of various designs, though it is no less magnificent for it. The insides are palatial and spectacular, just what one might imagine as a country seat belonging to the richest nation’s richest family.

Yet for all the silk wallpaper, famous portraits, classical statues and landscaped grounds, it was the long gallery which grabbed my thoughts. A splendid room in its own right, it was designed for the ladies of the home to promenade after meals while the men enjoyed after dinner drinks and ribald jokes. It was also the place where, in 1553, a reluctant and terrified teenaged girl was informed that she was to be Queen of England, for it was the young, dying king’s wish.

The Duke of Northumberland with members of the Privy Council hoped to use her as a pawn in their struggle to retain power, but Bloody Mary aroused popular support and the young girl was replaced. As well as reigning reluctantly for nine days, Jane Dudley was a fervent protestant and convinced evangelical. She was a martyr for the reformed faith as well as victim to others’ ambition. To stand on the spot where such a gracious young woman’s fate was sealed was rather moving.

The house also boasts a painting of her which may well be the most accurate and contemporary, above, though the proof is lacking. Syon in mid-Tudor times would not have been quite as sumptuous as the Georgian incarnation which currently wows contemporary visitors, though it was certainly grand by sixteenth century standards. After her astonishing elevation here, Jane was shortly committed to the Tower where she would die, though her masked executioner surely dispatched her to a grander mansion in the heavens than anything lounging by the Thames. Whether one occupies the dankest dungeon, the roughest tower block or the prettiest cottage, the Lord Jesus has gone to prepare something far, far better for all who trust in Him! She knew this, of course, as her she placed her head on the rough, wooden block, stretching out her arms to signal readiness to the axeman.

And he sayd vnto his disciples: Let not youre hertes be troubled. Beleve in god and beleve in me.
In my fathers housse are many mansions. If it were not so I wolde have tolde you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And yf I go to prepare a place for you I will come agayne and receave you eve vnto my selfe yt where I am there maye ye be also.
And whither I go ye knowe and ye waye ye knowe.

John 14:1-4, Tyndale's New Testament

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