Rougement Hotel, Exeter

The Rougemont Hotel on Queen Street, Exeter, Devon, England. It was built in 1877-79 and owned by the Devon and Exeter Hotel Company (Limited), but has changed ownership a number of times since.

On the half-landing of the hotel's grand staircase there is a large stained-glass window with two side windows. The large window, known as the Shakespeare Window, contains a scene from Shakespeare's Richard III which contains a reference to Exeter's Rougemont Castle. The quotation, spoken by Richard, is writen underneath the scene:

When last I was at Exeter,
The mayor in courtesy show'd me the castle,
And call'd it Rougemont: at which name I started,
Because a bard of Ireland told me once
I should not live long after I saw Richmond.

Above the scene is the royal escutcheon of the United Kingdom ensigned by the royal crown, and below it are the arms of the diocese of Exeter and Exeter Corporation (now Exeter City Council).

Each of the side windows contains four shields. These are the arms of the directors of the Devon and Exeter Hotel Company at the time the hotel was built:

Shakespeare window

Arms	Subject	Blazon
	Royal arms of the United Kingdom	Quarterly, 1st and 4th, Gules, three lions passant guardant in pale or (England); 2nd, Or, a lion rampant within a double tressure flory counter-flory gules (Scotland); 3rd, Azure, a harp or stringed argent (Ireland).
	Diocese of Exeter	Gules, a sword erect in pale argent, hilted or, surmounted of two keys addorsed in saltire, wards in chief, of the last.
	City of Exeter	Per pale gules and sable, a castle triangular and triple-towered or.

Left window

Image	Arms	Person	Blazon
		F.T. Fulford	Gules, a chevron argent.
		E.M. Snow	Per fess nebuly, three antelopes' heads erased counterchanged, armed or.
		Charles J Follett	Barry of twelve gules and argent, a bend sable, a mullet for difference.
		B C Gidley	Or, a castle sable, a border of the second bezantée.

Right window

image	Arms	Person	Blazon
		John Curzon Moore-Stevens	Quarterly 1st & 4th, Per chevron argent and gules, in chief two falcons rising proper, belled or (Stevens); 2nd and 3rd, Sable, a swan argent membered or within a bordure quarterly or and ermine (Moore). The Moore arms are blazoned from the image. Burke's General Armory gives different variations, e.g. a bordure engrailed.
		Charles Gordon (1817-1878)	Three boars' heads coupled within a double tressure flowered and counter-flowered alternately with roses, thistles and fleurs-de-lys or. These are the arms of the earls of Aberdeen. Charles Gordon was descended from an illegitimate son of the 3rd earl and so not properly entitled to use them. Blazons for the double tressure vary, some omitting the roses or fleurs-de-lys. It is not clear from the image which variation is represented.
		R. Dymond	Argent, five fusils gules, each charged with a fleur-de-lys or, conjoined in fess between three mullets sable, two and one.
		John Drew	Ermine, a lion passant gules.

Sources

• Burke, Sir Bernard. The general armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales ... London: Harrison, 1884.
• Devon and Exeter Gazette, Thursday, 5 Apr 1877. Page 3.
• The Western Times, Friday, 31 Dec 1875. Page 6.
• The Western Times. Wednesday, 19 Mar 1879. Page 3.