A passage from Shakespeare’s The Tempest graces the walls of the Upper Gallery of Soulton Hall. The lines, spoken by the play’s magician Prospero, are a poignant reminder of impermanence:
You do look, my son, in a moved sort,
As if you were dismay’d: be cheerful, sir.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on
Prospero reflects on the fleeting nature of even the most magnificent structures of of performances.
The inscription also hints at the influence of Neoplatonism, a philosophy that resonated with Sir Rowland Hill, Soulton’s architect. Neoplatonism emphasized the ephemeral nature of the physical world compared to the enduring realm of the spiritual. The quote echoes this sentiment, suggesting that the material world, no matter how grand, will eventually dissolve.
Window in Soulton Hall with the block intersections (it has a quotation from A Midsummer Night’s Dream showing next to it)
Is a bit more going on with this quotation? Beyond the window these words are shown at, there was a theatre the generation be Shakespeare; Soulton Hall was built as a kind of solemn temple. The name “Prospero” itself sparks curiosity: it is as a deliberate choice suggesting a sense of prosperity or flourishing, linked to a teritory in which Rowland Hill was active; both Sir Rowland Hill and Prospero demonstrate a fascination with Renaissance magic, and while Hill’s interest may have been intellectual, the inscription from The Tempest hints at a potential link to the mystical practices explored in the play. A documented event adds another layer of intrigue: Sir Rowland Hill, in a public display mirroring Prospero’s renunciation of magic at the play’s conclusion, is reorded breaking a wand, and boarding a boat just before he dies:
ser Rowland Hyll whent up, and master Hoggys toke ser Rowland Hyll a choppyng kneyf, and one dyd hold a whyt rod, and he with the kneyf cute the rod in sunder a-for all the pepull
Ultimately, the inscription at Soulton Hall invites visitors to contemplate the passage of time, the fragility of material things, and the importance of appreciating art and the beauty and history that surrounds us.
