| Gorgon's Head Inn |
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Inn in the village of Briar Hill [The Face in the Frost, 66-7]. The exterior of the public house featured a "stone monster with bulging eyes and wrinkled protruding tongue. The marvelously ugly head stood in a niche over the inn door, and it was badly copied on a signboard outside." Upon staring the large stone face, Prospero wants to magically make its tongue go in and out of its mouth. It is here Prospero registers under the alias of Nicholas Archer of Brakspeare.
The next morning the innkeeper blames Prospero for the strange occurrences the night before; to pay his bill, Prospero causally tosses three gold coins over his shoulder. "They shot the length of the room and were imbedded deep in the limestone mantel of the fireplace, where they are to this day. On his way out, for good measure, he crossed the eyes of the stone gorgon [73]."
The name of the inn appears to be influenced by a very real Gorgon's Head in at the Roman Baths in Bath, England. First, recall from mythology that Gorgons ("terrible") were female monsters with sharp fangs and hair of living, venomous snakes. This relief sculpture head, or gorgoneion, is one of the best-known features of the Roman Baths since its discovery during the digging of foundations for the Grand Pump Room in 1790. Like Bellairs's fictional inn, the stone face in Bath appeared in the pediment above an entrance, this one to the shrine of Sulis, the Celtic goddess of healing. Bath is 15-20 miles southeast of Bristol, where Bellairs spent time living and writing The Face in the Frost.
One does have to enjoy the way Bellairs causally mentions the fact that Prospero's coins still exist - "to this day." Wherever the Gorgon’s Head Inn is, one wonders if the inhabitants of that world still question the coins and wonder their story?
also see Guardian of the Sunken Palace.
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| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Baths_(Bath) |
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Gorgon Head, Bath. England
(credit: James Card) |
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