The Road Goes Ever On

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

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.

Mrs. Pretty's house and mound #2

The mounds as they look now

The ship stretched from one stake to the other, large enough for forty men

The river Deben, which the mounds overlook

Museum exhibit of a burial site

Lavenham

High street in Lavenham

de Vere House; stone, brick, half-timbered

de Vere door moulding detail; hmmmmm...that de Vere? I thought they were from Oxford...

Leaning houses

A really bad case

Lavenham was once an important wool center, but declined after the Reformation. Everything, including war and developers, passed it by. There remain some 300 registered medeival/renaissance buildings, mostly half-timbered types, many about to fall over but for their neighbors leaning back into them.

Wimpole Estate

Wimpole Estate, frontal view

Garden

The Capability Brown garden view, complete with "folly"

We toured just a bit of East Anglia, starting with the Wimpole Estate, one of the great 18th century houses owned by the National Trust. They don't permit pix inside, so all you'll see are the exterior shots. But they're not bad.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

King's Chapel

The big draw in Cambridge, other than the university, is King's Chapel; not a cathedral, just a college chapel, but a major political statement, finished off by Henry VIII; begun a century earlier as a rather different sort of statement

West towers

West windows

What is extraordinary about King's is the fan vaulting, ordered personally by Henry, 2000 tons of it literally hanging from the roofing structure above via a sort of reverse arch system, most extensive in England

Vaulting close-up; capstones weigh a ton each

There is also Rubens' Adoration of the Magi, the altar piece

But the place is mostly about Henry, and His Church

And, look closely, "RA," Regina Anne (as in Boleyn)

Cambridge

We spent the equivalent of a couple days walking, wandering, shoppping, punting, around Cambridge. Nice place. Big-time traffic problems.

Punting on the Cam (punting on the Cam, we
shall go rejoicing, punting on the Cam)

King's Chapel and a bit of Trinity College

A courtyard in Trinity

Darwin house

Famous sundials (Queen's College, I think)

A Bridge of Sighs (so known, locally; something about exams)

St. John's College, the prettiest of them, but, alas, mostly Victorian age

Friday, August 21, 2009

Sallie B

I had no idea what a treat it was to see this aircraft in flight until I spoke with a member of the Sallie B Association who told me she'd logged only 9 minutes airborne in the past year...engine trouble, difficulty of repair in a large 66-year old plane.