THE PRINCESS & THE LAMB

The princess is the most visually impressive find to date, representing the best-known episode of the George & Dragon legends. Princess & lamb ('the lamb of God' symbolising Jesus) are rescued from the dragon's jaws, and then the pagan royals convert to Christianity.

As with all our paintings, the princess would have disappeared with Edward VI's 1547 edict to ' . . . destroy all shrines. . . pictures, paintings and all other monuments of feigned miracles. . . so that there remain no memory of the same.'

How much 'memory' remained is a moot point, Roman Catholic practices surviving here as elsewhere. But by the 19th century, as restoration became critical, images began to be rediscovered. In 1883, the Victoria & Albert Museum recorded (belatedly) 71 George & Dragon scenes on British church walls. At Llancarfan, the vicar appealed for restoration funds in 1875. Perhaps he then unearthed the princess, mistaking her for a supposed figure of the Virgin Mary, which he is reported to have whitewashed again, it being too 'Roman Catholic'.