I am just a little shocked at the excess shown by this double gilded gold-leafed vision of King William III, which stands at the eastern end of The Porter’s Garden of Portsmouth Dockyard, just inside the main entrance.

You will be unsurprised to hear that it was sculpted “in the manner of the Caesars” by the sculptor Van Ost and was gifted to the Dockyard by the monarch himself.  William is a bit of a hero around these parts however as he was really responsible for the expansion of Portsmouth Dockyard due to his ongoing wars against Louis XIV of France in the 1690’s.  The Dockyard could certainly use such a Royal supporter today in this political climate.

Contributor and photographer:  Sue Lowry

Portsmouth Dockyard is on twitter @PompeyDockyard and on Facebook/Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

Follow A3Traveller on Twitter:  @A3Traveller and Sue Lowry on Google +, YouTube, Linkedin, Flickr and Pinterest.  I also operate another blog for my company, MagellanPR – http://www.magellanstraits.com.  They can be followed on Twitter:  @MagellanPR, on Google+, on YouTube, on Pinterest and on Facebook.

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