The New Murrey and Blue blog

As you may know, Richard III’s Book of Hours is housed in the Library of Lambeth Palace, the residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, which is located just across the Thames from the Houses of Parliament. It was put on display for a limited period in the spring and I managed to find time to go and see it ‘in the flesh’ so to speak on April 6th. It was raining when I arrived, just a light drizzle, but I was a little damp when I got into the Lambeth Palace Library. It was a very small exhibition, featuring a few selected documents and historical books. These included a book belonging to Henry VII, which I ignored, of course and the warrant for the execution of Mary Queen of Scots.

These were on display in the same case, which was protected by a heavy folding cover, but this could be removed when viewing the exhibits. I thought it strange that Richard’s Book and the document pertaining to Mary, Queen of Scots were both in the same case as these two have something else in common – Fotheringhay! Richard’s birthplace and the place of execution of Mary.

I stayed for a while drinking in the beauty of the book, once owned, handled and used by Richard himself, and took a few photographs of it and Mary’s warrant.

While I was there I found out that part of the Palace is called Morton‘s Tower!

Afterwards, when I emerged intot he street the sun had come out and I had a nice lunch looking over at the Houses of Parliament before returning home.