©Skeldale House, Blue Willow

the Blue Willow pattern is supposed to have originated from of a Chinese emperor
who lived in a magnificent pagoda under the branches of the large apple tree next to the bridge,
over which droops the famous willow tree. He was also a cruel father to his daughter
whom he had arranged to marry an old but wealthy merchant. The daughter, however,
fell in love with her father's clerk & the star-crossed lovers eloped
and fled by boat across the sea to a cottage on a distant island.
Her enraged father pursued & caught the lovers & was about to have them killed
when the gods transformed them into a pair of turtle doves.