Bolsover: Big, Balls, and Boobs

I was in need of cheering up today after an horrendous visit to the physio yesterday; so Aimo took me to Bolsover Castle.  We had accidentally signed a direct debit to join English Heritage (I'm sure we were just supposed to get a free look around Tintagel Castle); so now we've got it, we need to get our money's worth.  My friend from Worksop knows Bolsover Castle from school trips, but it is new to me.  All I knew about it was Southerners sneered at it's "country bumpkin" classical style.  Actually it is really funny, in a good way.  It cheered me up going around, saying in an imaginary country bumpkin Duke voice: "what I need here is BIG".  BIG gates, BIG windows, BIG doors, BIG balls (over the pediments) BIG balls on Hercules  (over the door).

A BIG Door

A BIG Window

The castle is built in different phases, and it's fun to guess (a bit easy really) which bits were built by the father Charles "Little Castle" Cavendish, and which bits were built by the son William "Big Billy" Cavendish.  The clue is: is it unnecessarily big?

Big Billy then decorated the Little Castle with tasteful paintings, quite a lot of which feature boobs.  There is a whole room devoted to paintings of "girl lesbians kissing", and a room with depictions of the five senses.  Vision is represented by boobs;

Looking at Boobs

Touch is represented by boobs; generally there are a lot of boobs.  He knew what he liked, did Big Billy (big things and boobs).

So it was quite a laugh really.  I hasten to add we weren't laughing at him like nasty Southrons, we were laughing WITH him.  The Little Castle is great in a Shabby Cheek kind of way, well worth a visit.

There was some imagery you may be able to help me with.  In one room there are depictions of the saints.  They have their symbols, e.g. a jar of ointment for Mary Magdalene (well, she was a prostitute), some keys (to the Gates of Heaven) for Peter; but some of the pictures didn't have names.  Who is the saint who carries a cup with a snake in it?  Is it St. Patrick?

Guess the Saint

Saints with chalices of snakes, sounds like a Fleamsy kind of saint.  Actually, it reminds me of The Lair of The White Worm, so he's quite a Ken Russell kind of saint:

The Lair of the White Worm

It's another one of my in German purchases - same deal as last time - Sprachen, Englisch, Bob's your uncle.