Coco has been working so hard on her weekly Monday Morning Mews posts, that I decided to give her this week off.
Actually, I had something special I wanted to share with my readers. If you know me or follow this blog, you know about my family’s connection to the historic property, Bacon’s Castle, in Surry County, Virginia. If you’re new to the blog, this link will give you a bit of background. And you can also click on the Bacon’s Castle category on this page to read more posts related to ‘The Castle House’.
Last week, Catherine, one of my second cousins, was visiting from out of town. Her maternal grandmother was my mom’s oldest sister. Catherine and her family toured the Castle during their visit, and asked me to join them.
When I arrived, the site director, who is also well aware of my familial connections, mentioned that, recently, some work had needed to be done on one of the windows in an upstairs bedroom, and that the workers had discovered etching on the window.
As a side note, there are etchings in several of the windows at Bacon’s Castle, most of them names or initials that can be associated with families who have lived there over its 360+ year history.
But, this is a new discovery. And I’m sharing this photo (found online) to help explain why this particular etching had been hidden for so long. This bedroom has been furnished as it would have been when the house was built in 1665. Diamond-shaped leaded casement windows were added to the inside of the original windows during the restoration of the house in the 1970’s, prior to it being opened to the public.
online photo
During our tour, when we were in that bedroom, our guide motioned me over to the window:
I shared this with my friend, Donna, and she had the idea to clean it up a bit.
The top name is Sara Ellis, my mom’s youngest sister, who was born in Bacons Castle (in the house) in 1925. The name below hers is Bill Powell, the man who became her husband four years after our family moved from the house. And of course, the bottom word is LOVE.
This is my mom holding Aunt Sara when she was a toddler.
Aunt Sara, 12 years old, with her sister, Lucille.
When I shared the picture of the etching with Marshall, who was a guide at Bacons Castle for ten years, he was as amazed as I was. He commented that, all those years he was giving tours in that room, he had no idea that etching was on that window.
That old house still holds some secrets.
~These Days Of Mine~
these days of mine 