Hercules Statue
Clough acquired Hercules (by William Brodie) in 1960
(listed Grade II 1971) and drove him on the
back of a pick-up from Aberdeen to
Portmeirion. He was erected in front of the Hercules Hall at the
head of Hercules Steps. Clough knew and admired the works of
William Brodie (1815-1881), son of John Brodie, a ship-master of
Banff. Apprenticed to a plumber, in his spare time Brodie studied
at the Mechanics' Institute, where he amused himself by casting
lead figures of well-known people. He soon attracted the attention
of a Mr. John Hill Burton, who encouraged him to go to Edinburgh in
1847. Here Brodie studied for four years at the Trustees' School of
Design, learning to model on a larger scale. Brodie exhibited at
the Royal Academy, at the Royal Scottish Academy and at the Great
Exhibition of 1851. Hercules was cast about 1863. Clough found him
in Aberdeen from a picture in Country Life; he first saw and
sketched him on 1st February 1960. Clough felt that so conspicuous
a monument should have something to commemorate and so he attached
to its base an inscribed plaque bearing the legend, 'To the Summer
of 1959, in honour of its splendour." He hoped that such applause
might possibly encourage an encore, which eventually it did, in
1971 and again in 1975. The "Nonesuch" plaque to the west side of
the pedestal commemorates Clough's disgust at the cold and wet
Summer of 1973.