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Sunday, 22 March 2009

Symbolism - The Hind and the Panther

We are accustomed to seeing lions, unicorns and deer (hinds) on samplers, but on early samplers we often see an incongruous spotty feline that is undoubtedly a panther. How on earth, you may ask, did a PANTHER steal into this sampler?

To cut a long story short because I should at some stage catch up with the ironing, the panther symbolizes the Protestant church while the hind symbolizes the Catholic church. There is a famous poem by Dryden - The Hind and the Panther which you can find and read on Google Books. Maybe a friend will read it to you as you iron.......

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