Welcome
to a room that is a time machine – one that can carry us back four hundred
years to the early years of the 1600s (17th century), the era of King James
I of England. During that time England was rebuilt, and the upper classes of
society grew in power and influence.
This was a room in The Grange, the house of the Drewe family, in the county
of Devon in southwestern England. All of the details in the room are symbolic;
each had a meaning that people of the 17th century would have understood, but
may need to be decoded for people today.
Although many of the details and images within the room are intended to encourage
good and moralistic behavior they are not overtly religious. This was a reflection
of England’s Protestant tradition, where images from classical Greece
or Rome replaced those of the saints and other Christian figures to illustrate
moral points.
