Doe and Hope

Description

The large and fine stuffed and mounted barn owl (Tyto alba) specimen with DOE and Cites certificate, spread-eagled amidst landing upon a distressed Regency period ebonised and gilt wood and gesso harp by Sebastian Erard, maker by special appointment to his Majesty and the royal family.

O thou, who, ’mid the forest trees,
With thy harmonious trembling strain,
Could’st change at once to soothing ease,
My love-sick bosom’s cruel pain:
Thou droop’st in dreary silence now,
With shiver’d frame, and broken string,
While here, unhelp’d, beneath the bough
I sit, and feebly strive to sing.

The moon no more illumes the ground
In night and vapour dies my lay
For with thy sweet and melting sound
Fled, all at once, her silver ray:
O soon, O soon, shall this sad heart,
Which beats so low, and bleeds so free,
O’ercome by its fell load of smart,
Be broke, O ruin’d harp, like thee!

George Borrow (1803-1881)