Image: Courtesy Hampshire Archives 106M92W/4
In my blog on 18 April, I took a look at the addition to the Park that was gifted to the City of Winchester by Lord Northbrook in 1894.
An interesting document from the Archives is the thank you he received from the City. It came in the form of a certificate featuring heraldic devices including the Northbrook crest of the time. Probitate et Labore, by Honesty and Labour it reads. The document also shows a view of the Hill including Prospect Cottage, now demolished, which stood on the site.
The elaborate document would have taken a lot me time and effort compared to using a computer graphics application today and I think the aim would be try to impress. How else would the gratitude be shown? I wonder if there ever was a plaque or monument, too? Something more prominent than a document that might end up in the archives might be chosen today.
The certificate reads:
To the Right Honourable Thomas George, Earl of Northbrook, Knight Grand Commander of the Most Exalted Order of the Star of India, Lord Lieutenant of the County of Hampshire, High Steward of the City of Winchester: We, the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Winchester in Council Assembled desire to convey to your Lordship our grateful thanks for the very valuable Gift you have made to the City of a piece of Land on the North West slope of St Giles Hill, together with the Cottage standing thereon. We recognise how greatly the convenience and beauty of the Hill will be enhance by your generosity of which it will for all time be an ever present memorial. Dated 3 May 1894 and signed by Thomas Stopher, Mayor and Walter Bailey, Town Clerk.
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