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Stonehenge |
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The next day we visited Stonehenge, walking around it, listening to the audio-guide. When we first visited, 30 years ago, you could walk out and touch the stones. Today's 30 year-old visitor center still seems like a temporary structure. English Heritage has a formidable task in designing a new center, managing the hordes of visitors, in re-routing the highways that pass so close to this, one of humanity's most compelling monuments. |
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There are many white horses in Britain, wherever there is chalk underlying the grass, and particularly in Wiltshire. Uffington is among the oldest, now reckoned to be from about 1000BC. The figure--quite stylized in Uffington's case--is created by scouring the grass and soil down to the chalk and maintaining it that way...over the aeons. |
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Horse head, ground view |
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More |
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The manger, a natural hill at the foot of the figure, unnaturally flattened, where the horse is said to feed at night |
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Back the other way on the Ridgeway is Uffington Castle, the remains of one of the more prominent Iron Age hill forts in the region. |
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Ditch and bank |
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Signpost |
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Contemporary megaliths |
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Wayland's Smithy is an ancient long barrow just a few meters off the Ridgeway |
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Side view |
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Entrance |
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Kerbstones along the side |
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In the afternoon, we drove over to Uffington, the White Horse and Castle, and walked on the Ridgeway, "the Oldest Road." Above, a signpost; the Ridgeway, from, roughly, Avebury to the Thames, has been in use since paleolithic times |
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Vicki |
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Me |
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Parts of the Ridgeway admit automobile traffic; even Tom was impressed... |
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Neolithic dog from Avebury (at the museum) |
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"Our Oldest Companion...this is perhaps the earliest indication of the British obsession with dogs...." Obession. Indeed. I wasn't going to say anything. In three months on this island, on every footpath, trail, track, up and down Ben Nevis and Snowdon, on the beaches, at the landing grounds, in the fields, in the villages...everywhere, we have seen Brits walking their dogs. Most often there appear to be a couple dogs per family, but, often, we have seen a single person walking three or even four dogs. |
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The dogs themselves are exceptionally well- behaved, if perhaps a bit aloof. Well, they are British. Their owners are a bit less well- behaved, sometimes foregoing the injunction to keep their pets on leads, and, less charmingly, to pick up their pets' droppings. The south part of the island is subsiding into the sea, and I strongly suspect the reason is not the movement of tectonic plates, but other movements.... |
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I rest my case |
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The little parish church--part Saxon, then Norman, then late medieval--is of interest |
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Avebury Manor; good to know something was going on here in the last 4000-5000 years |
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One of the better Avebury shops, especially for megalithomaniacs |
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We spent the balance of morning at Avebury, perhaps the greatest of megalithic sites on this island, part of a giant neolithic complex, as I said, that is still being uncovered and reinterpreted. The scale of the circles is unforgettable-- a whole village and thoroughfare lie within--but, even after three previous visits, I had forgotten the great size of the stones. Of course it is impossible to get all of Avebury in the picture--it's hundreds of feet in diameter, the ditch here is 12 feet deep and the bank is 27 feet high... |
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Me by one of the smaller stones |
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Part of the array |
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Vicki by one of the medium-sized ones |
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One of the really huge ones |
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Still more |
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Silbury Hill is about the same age as Avebury, as I recall, maybe 3000BC at its height, all part of a giant, connected "ceremonial" complex. The Hill is still the largest earthen structure in Europe. It has been excavated many times, but nothing has ever been found, except the sarsen stone foundations and frame that underlie it. Humans are not allowed to climb on it. |
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Up closer; sheep's eye view |
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No climbing, humans |
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November 7 was a banner megalithic day. The carpark at Avebury was closed early when we got there, so we drove over to neighboring West Kennet Long Barrow, one of the older neolithic monuments in the area, 3000-4000BC. I walked the quarter mile over to enjoy it alone in the early morning calm. A long barrow--in this case perhaps 150' long--is a chambered tomb, sometimes kerbed, but with huge entrance, interior side and ceiling stones, all big enough for a large person to walk under. An allee couverte, as we'll say in France in a couple weeks. Above, the entrance to the barrow. |
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Cup marks on the big stones |
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Part of the passage-way |
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Exterior view...just a long mound |
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Silbury Hill in the distance |
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Outside the church, the "Penniless Porch" for
beggars; indeed there were some the day we
were there
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Inside, from the original Saxon cathedral, the
baptismal font, made to celebrate 1000AD
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Fashion statement: on the side of the font, hundreds of years
later, someone has tried to re-shape the Romanesque arch
into a Gothic arch
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On one of the pillars, a very famous depiction
of a medieval toothache
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In the 14th century, the southwest pier of the
crossing had subsided four inches, threatening
the whole building; between 1338 and 1348,
this amazing structure, a sort of Gothic figure
eight (alpha and omega?) was added, a sort of
interior buttressing; looking at it for the first
time, one thinks this can't be medieval, it must
be a Victorian or even 20th century addition;
but no, it was completed in the year of the
Black Death, 1348; it worked; and it is strikingly
beautiful, and huge, apart from being completely
different from anthing we have ever seen in a
medieval cathedral
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The buttressing seen from the nave; there are
three of the buttressing figures, the nave, and
both transepts, humongous
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The oldest still functioning cope chest, 1120
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A figure in the chapter house, sticking his
tongue out at the bishop
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Wells Cathedral clock--the oldest complete still-functioning
clock in the world, 1390 (Salisbury's is a bit older, but has no
face and does not do minutes...a clock precursor) |
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It still powers a variety of cathedral bells and
whistles
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As well as, every fifteen minutes (for 600+ years), these
jousting knights, which whirl around for a minute or so
until the third from the left gets un-horsed; it's a hoot to
watch. As I said, if a cathedral can be fun, Wells definitely
is fun.
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