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Wednesday 15 February 2012

The Green Lion


"A bit green, you say..? And you don't mean in a 21st century, eco-positive kind of a way..?  Hmm... I'm trying to rise above it... Anyway, you'd be green if you'd spent the last hundred and forty years lying under a tree."

The lion called Determination (one of the four guardians in the centre of Saltaire, sculpted by Thomas Milnes) is determined not to let a bit of green lichen spoil his majesty.  I wonder if they get scrubbed every now and again - I think they must do.  I don't think he looked nearly as mucky last time I snapped him.

Apologies to anyone who hoped they were going to read a blog post about a pub!

13 comments:

  1. We have a couple of green lions in our garden on either side of the waterfall. They're fake of course but they don't look so bad and they set off the waterfall quite nicely. Yours is very stately.

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  2. I have to say I did think it was going to be a pub but glad it was the lion!
    xxx

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  3. It gives him character. He sure has been there a long time. Funny coincidence is that I have a lion on my post today.

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  4. Una bonita foto de ese león con una pose muy señorial.
    Saludos.-

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  5. Yes, I did expect a pub. Exquisite detail in the sculpture. And I enjoyed the street sign in the background; it sent my imagination soaring. Jim

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  6. How regal he looks! I rather like the mossy green!

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  7. Your apologies are - somewhat grudgingly - accepted. Now you mention it, I can't think of any Green Lions - plenty of Golden Lions, Black Lions, White Lions and even the odd Red Lion, but no Green Lions. We could open a pub and call it the Green Lion (or maybe the The Bloggers Rest)

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  8. Among the topics I don't think about is whether outdoor statues need regular cleaning. One more thing to wake me up at 3 a.m.

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  9. Pictures of fake mucky lions! Whatever next?

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  10. What about the green lion pub in Rainham, Kent. You could take a photo of that someone down there please....

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  11. The interesting fact about the lions in Saltaire, (there are four of them,two out side the college and two guarding Victoria Hall).Is that they were originally sculpted by Thomas Milnes to sit at the four corners of Trafalar Square but on completion proved to be too small and out of scale for that purpose, therefore Titus Salt procured them for his model village whilst Thomas Milnes set about sculpting the lions we see guarding Nelson's column today.

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  12. I've heard that too Siegfried. I think the first bit has some truth in it, as I've said on this blog previously - but Milnes didn't win the contract for Trafalgar Square as the lions there are by Edwin Landseer, I believe.

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  13. I think he is beautiful (in a stately sort of way, that is). ~Lili

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