Shugborough inscription

The Shugborough inscription shows ten letters carved in stone – OUOSVAVV above DM – below a relief based on Poussin's painting The Shepherds of Arcadia. The whole sits on a monument with classical columns and arches, surrounded by garden paths and old trees.

Thomas Anson had the monument built between 1748 and 1763, with his brother Admiral George Anson funding the construction. The letters were probably carved as a private tribute or memory whose meaning the family never revealed publicly.

The letters come from a period when British estates built puzzles into their gardens to make visitors think. The text above the relief combines Latin tradition with a kind of secret language popular among aristocratic families at the time.

You reach the stone along paths through Shugborough Hall gardens, with signposts leading to the monument. Guided tours explain theories about the code, but you can also view the letters alone and try your own interpretation.

Even codebreakers from Bletchley Park, who cracked Enigma during World War Two, failed with the letters. More than 200 years after its creation, the text remains one of the biggest puzzles in British garden design.