David Robinson, Masons Arms Hotel and William Brown
Masons Arms Hotel
Wonders of Nature 3, by William Brown
Tuesday 25th July 2017 was a sad day for us as David Robinson, our Honorary Life President, died at the age of very nearly 90 years. His support of Louth Museum was tremendous, and we will greatly miss him.
But 25th July also marked a new beginning; the Masons Arms Hotel in Louth Cornmarket opened its doors after extensive renovation by Charles Nickerson. The hotel has a beautifully restored restaurant, cocktail bar and ballroom, and bedrooms. On tiles in the restaurant and on a tapestry in the upstairs cocktail bar you can see reproductions of early Victorian coloured drawings, 'Wonders of Nature', by William Brown, the man who painted Louth's panorama from the top of St James' Church. Brown was a Sunday-School teacher and it is likely that he drew these pictures to educate his pupils. As he had no personal experience of the animals he depicted – crocodiles, giraffes, elephants and kangaroos - he probably copied them from illustrated books in Louth's Mechanics Institute.
It was David Robinson who arranged for William Brown's drawings to be displayed in the Masons Arms, but sadly David didn't manage to see them in situ. The Masons Arms is well worth a visit; if you can't then have a look at their Facebook page where you can get a glimpse of Brown's drawings.