CROMWELL’S HEAD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3891, 5 January 1929, Page 3

CROMWELL’S HEAD.

STILL PRESERVED IN LONDON. A correspondence regarding the facial appearance of Oliver Cromwell, recently ran in the columns of the “Sunday Times,” London, having been initiated by a gentleman who wished particularly to learn the truth about the shape of the Protector’s nose. Later Evelyn L. Few wrote as follow's: “None of your correspondents seem to know that the ‘Embalmed Head of Oliver Cromwell is in existence and in the possession of the family of the late Horace Wilkinson. I have myself seen it on more than one occasion. It is never publicly shown, but as a friend of the Wilkinson family J have taken people to see it from time to time. 'Cromwell's hair never turned white. The brown chestnut hair is- still seen and the growth of beard on the chin, as for the last few months he went in fear of his life and refused to be shaved. All the documents about this relic are with the head, and some time next year I am hoping to be allowed to arrange, for a lecture on the subject, when they will be read in full and pictures pf the head shown. The head fell down from Wcstmin-' ster Hall 25 years after it had been there, and was taken pome by a sentinel. It shows the iron spike on which it had been put, as it broke off below the head. It shows also two cuts where it was hacked off at Tyburn, which lilts in with the historical accounts of the time.”