The Road Goes Ever On

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

York Minster

What can I say? The York Minster is the largest religious
building north of the Alps. No photo can convey its scale.
Above is a brass model in the yard outside the west doors

Two towers

North side and crossing tower

Nave; we toured on a Sunday afternoon, bells
peeling; later, I thought the giant organ, in a
choir rehearsal, was going to bring the whole
place down

Nave from crossing

The east window facsimile...it is undergoing
renovation, and will be out of view for some
years; it is the largest there is, the size of a
tennis court

West window, formerly largest, until the east

window

South window

South window rose

North window

Crossing ceiling

Choir

Love those Elizabethan memorials

Roster of bishops, starting with Ebarius in 324

Favorite window

And, if the sermon is boring, you can always review your
semaphor

York minster/cathedral is 12th century, the largest north of the Alps, the most and best stained glass in England. We lingered. I went back the next day for pix. ("Minster" derives from "minister/missionary," connoting the church's very long history).

York

York is a very foot-friendly old city

I have put a lot of money into bookstores; at this
one I finally found a bargain: Julian Copes' out-of-print
Modern Antiquarian for 13 quid.

Constantine was at York (don't ask me) when he was named Emperor

Street scene in old York

More sagging half-timber

Porta Principalis Dextra: the old Roman northwest gate;
York is what became of Jorvik, after the Vikings settled
here in the 10th century

Part of the old city wall, Roman in origin

River and wall

Sic transit gloria mondi: centuries ago, an important bridge toll-house;
today, a sandwich shoppe

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Sherwood Forest

"Welcome to Sherwood!"

Welcome to Sherwood

The Major Oak tree; 33 feet in diameter, somewhere between 600 and 1,100 years old, they say

Robyn Hode statue

Note that "the little ones" don't do quite as well on this deal

From Grantham, we continued on north, getting as far as Sherwood Forest, in Nottinghamshire. We could not resist camping in the great forest. Well, the visitor center parking lot. But we did watch the 1938 Adventures of Robin Hood (Errol Flynn, Olivia DeHavilland, Basil Rathbone and Claude Rains as bad guys; music by Korngold). And we kept thinking the Sheriff himself, or one of his deputies, might pay us a visit to tell us there was no over-night parking in the lot.

We spent the next morning walking around the Forest paths, reminiscing about our 1989 visit here with Rebecca and Rachel, how changed the place was. For the better, actually. And then, after a visit to the gift shop, we drove on.

Belten House

From the garden

Great War re-enactors were re-enacting

Belten is another of the Great Houses on display all over the Island. Sadly, or maybe not, the National Trust does not permit interior pix.

Grantham

From Ely, we continued our relentess drive to the north, averaging 22 miles per day, getting as far as Grantham, where we parked for the night on a city street, outside a church. The next morning, Saturday, we went to the market, then toured Belten House, one of the great houses, nearby.

Sir Isaac Newton was born and schooled in Grantham.

I'll bet neither Fermi, nor Bohrs, nor Rutherford, nor any of those other guys has a
shopping center named after him. Mrs. Thatcher also was born in Grantham, and
her house is on display. But she does not have a shopping centre.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Ely Cathedral

Ely Cathedral exterior. There were so many
interesting aspects of this cathedral, I'll spare
you the usual views of rose windows, organs,
screens, etc.The cathedral was begun in the
late 11th century. Ely is northeast of
Cambridge.

Interior; it is a large cathedral. The ceiling is
painted, scenes from the life and background
of Jesus, covering the nave.

There is a maze at the west entrance.

Note the entwined arches, seen throughout the building;

kind of a Celtic allusion?

The abbey was founded by Saint Etheldreda, a 7th century
Anglo-Saxon queen. It became such a popular pilgrimage
site, that the bishop, in the 13th century, decided to add on
a "lady hall" to accommodate the pilgrims. But building the
lady hall undermined the foundation of the crossing, and
the huge tower, right at the center of the building, collapsed.
(Ely is in the Fens, high water table, marshy, even today in
places.) The crossing tower was rebuilt as an octagon, the
only of its kind.

Looking up at octagonal crossing from nave

Looking up into octagon, many stories above

One pretty good window

The lady hall, eventually built in the 14th century,
adjoined the north transept.

Fan vaulting in the Lady Hall

Interior of the lady hall.

The contemporary statue of the Virgin,
unveiled in 2000 (the Prince of Wales was
present), was derived from the Shreck
movies, we think.

Ely Cathedral also houses the national stained glass museum, which we toured...many informative exhibits on history, techniques, interpretation.

Sutton Who?

Sutton Hoo is a major Anglo-Saxon (pre-Viking) ship burial, widely thought to be the burial site of Raedwald, a 7th century king who, according to Bede, united much of England. (A hoo is a high point; also a Seuss character). Although the area was known to be a pre-Christian burial site, the nature and dimensions of Sutton Hoo, along with its treasury, were not discovered until 1939. The excavation was ordered by the landowner, Mrs. Pretty (wife of Col. Pretty)(ISIANMTU), and done primarily by an amateur but fairly accomplished archaeologist. Alas, we were not overwhelmed by the museum, although the walking tour was excellent. Maybe we've seen enough ship burials now. But the Anglo- angle was interesting. The Roman army left Britain in 410, and the void they left was filled in by the Anglo-Saxons (today's Denmark, Holland, north Germany), before the Vikings proper, and well before the Normans.