Inscription a ‘secret message from sect’

A MYSTERIOUS inscription on a British stately home monument is likely to be a secret message from an 18th century Christian sect, Second World War code-breakers said yesterday after spending months attempting to decipher it.

The significance of the sequence of letters on the Shepherd’s Monument at the Shugborough Estate in Staffordshire has baffled visitors for years. The marble tablet, commissioned in 1748, features a carving of a Nicolas Poussin painting with the letters D.O.U.O.S.V.A.V.V.M. underneath.

Now veteran code-breakers from Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, say the code is likely to stand for ‘Jesus (As Deity) Defy’, a message from a sect called the Priory of Sion.