These statues stand around 7-foot-tall and they are believed to represent six muses: art and science and sculpture, painting, architecture, astronomy, geography, and music. They are romantically mysterious in their beginnings.

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And the first known reference to them is from 1769 in John Wallace’s Natural History and Antiquities of Northumberland.

And the first known reference to them is from 1769 in John Wallace’s Natural History and Antiquities of Northumberland. He announces:

‘The main entrance is to the North into a lofty and stately hall above which is a gallery. In the niches of the walls there’s six handsome sculptured female figures representing the sciences with their symbols: astronomy, architecture, sculpture on one side. And on the other: geography, painting and music. The floor of the Hall is black and white marble.’

I love the fact these muses survived enduring the natural force of Northumbrian winters where they were left vulnerable and exposed to human intent like air gun practice and stone throwing. They are fragile and robust at the same time. And they appear to us as ethereal figures from a past which is slowly still revealing itself to us.

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