St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church, Gosberton
Standing pride of place on the altar in the Lady Chapel is a cast of ‘Virgin and Child’ from a relief made by 15th century Florentine Sculptor Antonio Rossellino. As an aside, the relief is also known by the name ‘Madonna of the Candelabra,’ named for the candelabra festooned with garlands that can be seen behind the figures.
How did such an exquisite piece end up in Gosberton?
This particular cast was in the possession of a Mr. Maurice Hewlett, a Victorian and Edwardian author, quite famous in his day. He was a friend of J. M. Barrie, who named one of the pirates in Peter Pan “Cecco” after Hewlett’s son Francis (Cecco being a variant of the Italian name Francesco or, in English, Francis). He was the brother in law of Mrs. Welby-Everard of Gosberton House. He gifted the cast, which had been in the private chapel at Surrey House, to her in 1916 as a thanks offering for the safe return of his son, Francis Hewlett, a Flight Commander in the Royal Navy, who had gone missing on Christmas Day in 1914 after an attack on Cuxhaven, on the German coast, but who had been safely picked up by a Dutch trawler. Frances had spent some time previously staying at Gosberton House with the Welby-Everards.
Incidentally, when Mr. Hewlett died in 1923, he bequeathed to Mrs. Welby Everard more artworks: A painting, ‘Virgin and Child’ by Neri di Bicci, the Greek tombstone found at Kimairos, and his collection of Tanagra figurines, in the hope she would in turn bequeath the picture to the National Gallery, and the tombstone and figures to the British Museum. He also bequeathed to her his unpublished manuscripts of poems entitled ‘The Wreath’. He clearly held his sister in law in high esteem.
