Wisdom of Gawthorpe

There is much wisdom to be found in our old houses. Gawthorpe Hall in Padiham has about one of its fireplaces:

Feare God

Honor Ye Kinge

Eschewe Evil

and doe good

Seeke peacee

And ensue it

These are sections from Peter’s first epistle (2:17b & 3:11).

Perhaps it was with some irony that the second occupant of the Hall, Richard Shuttleworth, MP for Preston, should have left this house at the head of a column of men to make war in 1643 against the ally of King Charles, the Earl of Derby. Victorious at Read Bridge, Colonel Shuttleworth understood that honouring the King did not mean servile endorsement, and neither did ‘seeking peace’ mean passive acquiescence of every evil. Well might the portraits of Major General Charles Worsley and Mrs Worsley hang this day on the walls of that great house.

Ecclesiastes chapter 3, from the Geneva Bible:

1 To all things there is an appointed time, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

2 A time to be born, and a time to die: a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.

3 A time to slay, and a time to heal: a time to break down, and a time to build.

4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance.

5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones: a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embracing.

6 A time to seek, and a time to lose: a time to keep, and a time to cast away.

7 A time to rent, and a time to sow: a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.

8 A time to love, and a time to hate: a time of war, and a time of peace