JF Ptak Science Books LLC Post 847 Blog Bookstore
And so it came to pass under the vengeful gaze of the restored
Charles II that the nicely-buried Oliver
Cromwell was dug up from his monarchial pit, brought to the light, and then
hanged, and once twice-dead, was beheaded.
To make matters worse for Cromwell, his body was tossed into “a deep pit
under the gallows” and his head displayed on a spike at Westminster Hall. I guess that his eyes at that point would’ve
been happy to see some more comfortable dirt.
I’m just relating that story as part of the impression I got
from this 1824 woodcut of Cromwell’s house at
It is an odd, forbidding scene:
walled, dark, and with several uncomfortable characters, it feels cold
and empty, as empty-looking as a house could be. Perhaps that is a butcher with a slab of meat, and a dry-goods hawker with a wagon-full o fgoods, and a pair of drinkey buddies. Maybe not–but whatever they’re doing and whomever they are, its just a little David-Lynch-odd.
