New lease of life for Temple Newsam’s skyline motto

Other landowners had their mottos and family crests but few curried favour quite so shamelessly as to cast them in stone as an elaborate balustrade.

The 197 letters which span the roofline of the Tudor-Jacobean mansion he made his home have long since been recast in metal, but the weather and deposits from the local bird life have caused Sir Arthur’s words to lose their meaning.

However, a new coat of paint as part of a programme of refurbishments at his old house have brought his homily back to life in all its obsequious majesty.

“All glory and praise be given to God, the father, the son and the holy ghost on high peace on earth good will towards men honour and true allegiance to our gracious king loving affection amongst his subjects health and plenty be within this house,” Sir Arthur had written around the roof of Temple Newsam House in Leeds, after he acquired it. Nowhere in Britain is there a more wordy architectural embellishment, and the words remain one of the mansion’s most recognisable features.

“Having such a lengthy and forceful motto installed on top of the building would have been a powerful statement to the world about the new owner’s piety and loyalty to king and country,” said Adam Toole, curator at Temple Newsam.

Sir Arthur, who had been in and out of the Commons since 1610, had been somewhat lacking in respectability, having over-extended himself in his land purchases and been brought within “measurable distance of complete ruin”, according to one account.

He was notorious in Yorkshire for evading payment and at one stage was on the receiving end of no fewer than 21 lawsuits.

But he was a social climber, having defeated many rivals to win the hand of a suitably wealthy City widow – and by the time he bought Temple Newsam in 1622, he was in a position to extensively rebuild, demolishing three sides of the oldest part of the house and installing two new wings to the north and south, with the inscription uniting them.

“Sir Arthur’s ruthless business dealings meant he didn’t enjoy the best reputation among his peers, so owning a house like Temple Newsam would have been a huge status symbol and he would have wanted the mansion’s appearance to reflect his standing,” Mr Toole said.

“When he took over the house it was somewhat neglected and in need of quite major repairs. Over the next 12 years, he commissioned a series of large scale improvement projects which completely transformed the house, changing it from a four-sided courtyard to the U-shaped configuration we see today.”

A new exhibition on Sir Arthur and Temple Newsam’s history opens there on Saturday.

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James Mitchinson