The Coach
© The British Library Board 1998
The coach, which is drawn by five horses, four of which appear on the opposite page (making pages 181 verso and 182 recto the only double-page spread in the Psalter) is improbably sumptuous, with golden eagles painted on its sides, a gold-embossed leather canopy and what appear to be gargoyles at each end. If such a coach ever existed - and it may well have been a figment of the artist's imagination - it could only have belonged to the king. An interesting fact is that, at the time that the Psalter was made, the reigning king, Edward III, had his court in York, and whenever he wished to travel between there and London he would have had to use what was to become the Great North Road - now the A1 - which passed only a few miles to the west of Irnham in Lincolnshire, where Sir Geoffrey had his lands, and where, presumably, the artist worked - which means that he may have seen this very coach.
The Four Queens
At each end of the coach, and seated stiffly at each of the two side openings, are regally dressed women, each wearing a crown. Assuming that this is the royal coach, it is unlikely that four queens ever did travel together in this way. It has been suggested, however (by Michael Camille in his book Mirror in Parchment?) that these might have been the four queens who occupied the throne during Sir Geoffrey's lifetime: Queen Eleanor, Queen Margaret of France, Queen Isabella, and the current queen, Edward III's wife Philippa of Hainault.
Animals
© The British Library Board 1998
This page has some particularly well depicted animals: a dappled horse drawing the coach (one of five, the other four being on the opposite page) and a dog plodding alongside the coach, sniffing the ground. If you look carefully you might just be able to see two other animals: a puppy, which is being presented to the queen at the rear of the coach, and a pet squirrel, nuzzling the cheek of the queen at the front.
Monsters
© The British Library Board 1998
Along the upper-left-hand edge is yet another monster: a pair of blue goat's legs supporting a man's face, above which is a tall orange hood which develops into a bird's head, and from the bottom of which runs a long tail which in turn becomes a pattern of leaves. These monsters, many of them apparently painted by a different artist from the Luttrell Master, appear on almost every page of the Psalter. Their meaning remains a mystery.
Death and the Passing of Time
This page is a particularly puzzling one: what is the meaning of the royal procession? The Latin text above is from Psalm 103:
As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
Psalm 103:15-16
Perhaps the coach is a reminder of death. Kings and queens pass by, only to disappear, like the gold coach which might once have passed by the Luttrell Estates. In the end everyone must face death.
