Animal Representations- The Percy Lion

A few months ago Onesmallplanet and I came up with an idea to both do the same theme for a week.  This week we decided to do animal representations.  For my first one I chose the Percy Lion of Alnwick, Northlumberland.

Lions are quite commonly seen animal representations and have a long history.  One of my favourite early lion representations is the Minoan lion gate date 1300-1250 BCE.   Lions are often seen in pairs at gates or entrances as they were believed to be protectors.  Most pairs of lions are mirror images of each other, but I have seen a pair in Salsburg, Austria that are very different from each other.  One of them has a pained expression and the other a venerable grin.  The one with the pained expression is said to have a sore paw, but that is as much information as I can gain from English references.

With so many lion representations I wanted to chose one that was unusual.  Since the Salsburg lions aren't readily available to me I decided on the Percy Lion.  A good excuse for a little trip down to the lovely market town Alnwick.

The Percy Lion is very distinctive with it's poker straight tail and gets it's name from the Percy family who have been very influential in Northumberland for centuries.  There are several representations of Percy in Alnwick, but this one was created in 1733 and adorns the lion bridge over the River Aln near Alnwick Castle.