The Eglinton Tournament

NARRATOR: As a boy, the man on a horse in this painting loved to read stories of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. As a man, Lord Archibald Eglinton has dressed as a knight to joust at his very own tournament. On the 27th of August 1839 at Eglinton Castle in the west of Scotland, thousands gathered to watch him recreate the age of chivalry. The painting shows Lord Eglinton's hopes and dreams for the occasion. The reality was somewhat different, as a Glasgow newspaper reported:

REPORTER 1: Two knights ran towards each other, at a very moderate pace indeed and attempted to poke each other with their poles, mistakenly called lances, in a manner so utterly harmless that a child need scarcely have dreaded the encounter. Not a single knight was unseated, or even made to reel in the saddle.

NARRATOR: In the painting you can see one of the jousting poles and the tents where the knights changed into their armour, and just a hint of rain in the distance. On the first day of the tournament, the clouds were much darker. At noon the skies opened and the spectators in their fine costumes found themselves soaked to the skin and not even able to see very much. The reporter continues:

REPORTER 1: I once caught a glimpse of a horse's tail, and once a hurried view of the end of a lance. Another time I just distinguished, for an instant, the nose of a combatant, and once afterwards obtained a full view of the Marquess of Waterford, who seemed really to enjoy the fun, and to like it all the better for the mud below and the moisture above…