We drove on from the motor-home show, stopping to over-night in familiar, friendly King's Lynn. Our next stop was Lincoln, in Lincolnshire, much more challenging topography that we didn't want to undertake at the end of the day: it's quite hilly and urban. Parking by the cathedral in Lincoln next morning was indeed a challenge--it sits high on a hill overlooking the city--and we settled for street parking a half mile away. Downhill. We did the cathedral, a shortened version, but were nonetheless pleased with our visit, and moved on. Lincoln Cathedral is held in high regard by some. Ruskin said it was worth any two other British cathedrals. If your expectation is that every cathedral should be a French Gothic, then you'll like Lincoln. It was started late in the 11th century, like all the other Norman edifices. But Lincoln had a series of disasters...a fire, the collapse of a tower, an earthquake (!) that brought the whole building down, another collapse of the crossing, and then the main steeple blown down...perpetual rebuilding made it more a 13th or 14th century cathedral, and hence, Gothic, complete with flying buttress, windows, some height, etc. It's notable for its size, fourth largest in the UK, and for its height,
avec steeple, the tallest building in the world for a time, but not so much anymore. Long story short is that if you want to see a French Gothic, go to France.
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Castle not visited, despite the fact it houses one of the four "original" copies of the
Magna Carta; there were several iterations, of course, as King John kept denying
that he agreed to that, that it was really his signature, that he didn't have his hand
on the Bible, etc.; also omitting the market that featured ostrich eggs, free range
cheese, poacher pork, etc. Maybe it was the altitude... |
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Actually, the main reason we came to see Lincoln was for its west facade, the
largest in England, though not much adorned (no comparison with Wells);
and, actually, it is notable for being a false front; everything beyond the three
arched doors extends beyond the main building |
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| So, with the construction and all, we were losing interested pretty quickly |
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The only remnants of the Romanesque cathedral were these frescoes...Mouth of Hell,
personal favorite |
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Helpful model; shows the false front bit at the top left; or perhaps you could argue
it is cruciform with five transepts, or maybe four a large foot-rest (the west) |
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Knave view; note organ in the rood screen; again; in the C of E, they often explain the
rood screen as dividing between the sacred and civic bits of the building, as opposed to
dividing between priestly doings and knavely doings; never got the Council of
Trent memo from the Papists... |
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Peering further in...at this point, we were wondering whether this puppy was really
worth the 8L required for entrance |
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| Nave elevation |
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| Ceiling |
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| Not funny; we exited through the gift shoppe to tour the exterior and other bits |
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| Central tower |
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| Apparently so grotesque it had to be covered up |
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| Still processing this one |
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| Chapter house; the flying buttresses surely an affectation (don't call me Shirley) |
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| Port bow |
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Vicki ponders the greatness of Alfred "Lord" Tennyson, local
boy done good; and his pooch |
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| Inside the chapter house |
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| Cloister cafe |
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| In the cloister |
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| The main interest of which was the carved wooden bosses |
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| We proceeded on |
