The Robins of Eltham Palace

There is a statue of a young Greek warrior in Eltham Palace. It's tucked away in such an unremarkable corner of the garden that most people don't even notice it when they walk past. It has the same muscular body and expressionless face as any other Greek statue and the rain has turned the copper of its body green. But if you find out what's behind that seemingly hollow face, you won't forget it in a hurry.

I won't tell you how to find the statue: I believe that my story has enough clues for you to know where to look. But I'll tell you that his name is Perseus. When you find him, the more observant among you will notice that there is a dragon's head laid at his feet, with its tongue lolling out of its mouth and curling on the ground. If you think the dragon's face looks slightly human, you're not wrong: it belonged to a monster that took the form of a woman.

This woman was a terrible monster: she had snakes growing out of her head, and they slithered around her face just like hair blowing in the wind. Anyone that looked at her was instantly turned to stone, and her name was Medusa.

Countless warriors and heroes tried to kill Medusa, but all met the same fate: they turned to stone as soon as they laid eyes on her. Perseus was the cleverest of them all, and the king eventually sent him to destroy the Medusa. He wondered how he could kill her without looking at her. But at last, he invented a cunning plan: he held up a polished shield so that he would only have to look at her reflection.

This way, following her movements mirrored in the shield, Perseus was able to cut off Medusa's head and the kingdom was saved from her terrible murders. If you look at the statue, you can see the sword that killed Medusa and the shield that Perseus is still holding above his head. I bet that if you looked at the other side of that shield you could see Medusa's face burnt into it, with snakes slithering around her face!

The statue of Perseus is quite a scary figure once you've noticed him, because his eyes are hollow. Most people would say it's because they were pecked out by birds. And you know what, those people are not entirely wrong. Last time I was there I noticed something in one of his eye sockets, something that looked terribly like a nest.

It looks like cunning Perseus, good-natured Perseus, let a pair of birds climb through his eye sockets and build a nest inside his head. One eye is kept as the entrance to the nest, and the other has all sorts of small twigs and moss peeking out of it. It is the safest place that any bird could find. Imagine if the nest was on a tree: wind or rain could damage it and a cat could easily climb up and eat the little chicks. But right under the watchful eye of Perseus, there's nothing that could harm the little hatchlings.

There is a legend about Eltham Palace. A legend involving Perseus and the family of robins that live in its head. One night, after the visitors went home, the keepers shut the palace, and all noise died away, the robin family went to sleep inside Perseus's head. It was a spring night, and only one gardener remained. After locking the gate to the gardens, he walked past the Great Hall and saw a silvery glint in the moonlight. He stopped dead in his tracks: there was a snake slithering through the grass, making its way towards the statue, meandering this way and that. Advancing soundlessly, soon it was crawling up the brick wall and began to glide up Perseus's legs.

The gardener was immobile with fear. He just watched as the silvery shape wound its way up the statue, clearly headed towards the eyes and intent on consuming the bird family that night. Up and up the snake went, as if it knew its way, and the gardener wanted to shout a warning but no sound came out. The snake's head now reached the face of Perseus and it silently slithered up towards the eye sockets when something unexpected happened. Perseus suddenly moved his arm and cut the snake in two.

The gardener rubbed at his eyes with disbelief. He stared at the statue but there was nothing remarkable about it. It stood there, holding the sword and the shield above his head, one of his eye sockets filled with twigs, immobile as it had always been.

The gardener did not dare walk past the statue that night and he went back around the Orangery as he left the Palace. The next day in the sunlight he couldn't find the pieces of the snake, but he saw the robin parents flying in and out of the eye socket all day and he could hear the chirping of the little hatchlings inside. Nobody believed him but Palace workers still avoid the silent statue of Perseus after nightfall.

Now you know what lies beyond the hollow facade of Perseus. He may not look like much, but once you know his story, he is sort of hard to forget...