England - How about York?

This evening I'm in the mood for York....would you like to come along with me?

York was the penultimate stop on our tour. We arrived after several days in the green serenity of the Cotswolds and the Lake District, on a gray and rainy late afternoon.




Photo of Martin from the Rick Steves website

Our intrepid and remarkable Rick Steves tour guide, Martin de Lewandowicz, takes our group on an orientation walk through the quiet streets....it is late and most shops are closed....



...for a quick look at York Minster, which can be seen here looming above us.




Our little group is dwarfed before this amazing stone edifice.



It's a bit like trying to take photos of the Grand Canyon....only looking up instead of down!



We gather before the entrance while Martin provides interesting details....which I did not hear much of (my apologies to you, Martin) because I was too busy looking around in awe at the golden glow of the setting sun washing the scene with light and color as the rain clouds parted. Oh how many more photos I could have taken on this trip, except things moved along so fast at times that it was impossible to stop and capture them.



The golden light illuminates the extravagant, rich detail above the entry...



Adam and Eve in the protection of God's hand....



The following day we tour the inside of York Minster.


Breathtaking and a bit overwhelming...


Looking straight up, those golden bosses in the center of the diamond shapes are five feet across! I was stunned to learn this, because they seem so much smaller; it is impossible to get an accurate perspective.



The ceiling of the chapter house is gorgeous. I share this quote from the York Minster website:

The Chapter House is one of the most beautiful rooms ever created and one you must not miss. Built in the Decorated Gothic style and octagonal in shape, it was begun in 1260 and completed in 1286. Its walls contain some of the Minster's finest carvings, most dating from 1270 to 80.

The Chapter House is still used as a meeting place by the Dean and Chapter today. The statutes which govern the organisation have changed very little since they were first established by Thomas of Bayeux. Each wall contains six seats: to emphasise the equality of all members, no-one can sit centrally.

Detail from the center of the Chapter House ceiling ~ the Lamb of God!



And the floor is elegantly tiled in many patterns. I am assuming those keys in the center of this particular square refer to the keys of the Kingdom that Christ symbolically handed to Saint Peter...



Do you see the cat and mouse? The octagonal walls of the Chapter House are decorated with slender columns interspersed evenly around its circle and the capitals of each column are richly decorated with carvings...each different from the next.



Everywhere one goes in the Minster there are patterns upon patterns upon patterns...



...more detail....



...even 200 or so feet above...



The famous Eastern window is being refurbished....so what we see here is a specially made photograph placed over it on the inside while the work is being done.



As at Bath Abbey, there are memorials along the walls and inset in the floor....I'm not sure why this gentlemen seems to be showing off his naked knee while reclining in otherwise full official regalia beneath some cherubic angels! But what interests me more is the cope chest set before his memorial.



The cope chest is a semi-circular wooden chest bound in iron and decorated with these amazing iron hinges in the shape of dogs....dating to 1290! Wow!

Well....this post is getting a little too long to cope with (speaking of cope...) so I shall leave you here and continue tomorrow with more ....

England - Windows

For a while back in April, or was it May? I was participating in a delightful weekly meme, Window Views, hosted by Mary the Teach. Keeping to a schedule, however, is not my strong point. I've noticed this inconsistency has cropped up since I retired. Perhaps this is because my 34+ years of working life centered around schedules and, having left that life behind, I am now in full rebellion against the tyranny of them! And, I might add, very grateful for the opportunity to indulge in this luxury of schedule avoidance.

Today, however, I'm inspired to jump back into Window Views, at least temporarily. The trip to England provided lots of opportunities for photos of windows. Here, for example, is a view from inside Sam Weller's Public House in Bath, England.

CT and I had spent the morning traipsing about Bath, finding ourselves up the hill at The Royal Crescent, and then The Circus, followed by a visit to the Museum of Costume (aka Fashion Museum) located at the Assembly Rooms (yes, those very Assembly Rooms, you Jane Austen fans!) So, by the time we had navigated ourselves back down the hill, our stomachs were demanding immediate nourishment and thirst slaking. We found this inviting looking pub and ducked inside. The owners were very cheerful and welcoming. CT munched on the jacket potato with baked beans (a new combination of foods for us!) while I enjoyed my chicken & bacon salad. Excellent!


For more window views, visit the blog HERE.

And then we shall see if I can continue this for several more weeks while sharing many more English windows with you!

England - Bath

Bath!

The biggest surprise for me about Bath was that it is built upon hills. I do love the idea of a hilly town, with gracious stone houses and shops crowded close together and tumbled one above the other along steep and narrow streets winding up and up. I have had dreams of such a place that I have returned to in later dreams...it was years ago, but I can still remember it as clearly as if I had really been there. Elizabeth Goudge describes such a place (Saint Peter's Port on the Isle of Guernsey) in Green Dolphin Street, and also in Island Magic.

The center of Bath, however, with the Abbey and the ancient Roman Baths, is not steep or hilly, but situated along the banks of the River Avon.

The River Avon ~ late one afternoon CT and I strike out on foot and find our way up a hill and down another to the canal. We have been told it can be followed around and back into town. The day is exceedingly warm and humid, the air still, the water like glass....the high banks of the canal rise above us, dense with vivid green in every conceivable hue....even the weeds here are tall and luscious looking, bigger than life! Occasional joggers and bicyclists pass us by on the narrow path.

The photos from this excursion are along the canal, light and color reflected in the still, peaceful water, like a painting. To stay on the water would have been a more pleasant way, but we leave the canal too early, climbing up steps to a busy road above, and have a minor argument about which way to go among all these winding streets crowded with tall buildings of golden stone. I think we should stay on the canal; CT says how can we as we don't know where it's going; I respond that we have been told it returns directly to the center of town (where we want to be)...



....dusty, perspiring, and a bit snippy with irritation, we follow our noses, so to speak, along the streets, walking in what we hope is the correct general direction and eventually do arrive at the plaza outside Bath Abbey. Our irritation forgotten by now, we join the others who are beginning to gather around the square in anticipation of some special music. There is a music festival going on in Bath this week.

Bath Abbey ~ my first abbey/cathedral experience in England.
What a magnificent structure.



Photo courtesy of THIS SITE (click the link to go there).




Lord somebody-or-other is resting right there upon his centuries-old tomb....where worshipers have sat nearby or passed him entering or leaving for all those centuries. It is an odd feeling to stand here and know that those now consigned to history, Jane Austen for instance, could have stood on this same spot and wondered about this gentlemen....or not.

Of course, I looked for Jane Austen everywhere....and in fact, saw her walking around a corner, in a long russet colored gown and straw bonnet! Or was it someone dressed for the part? Yes, I'm sure that must be it; someone no doubt working at the Jane Austen Centre. Sadly, we did not have time to visit, but you can click the link and visit on-line if you are interested.



The abbey walls are literally covered in a hodgepodge of memorial plaques, some ornate...



...some plain....



...many beautifully carved of marble...



...some, like this one, with an oddly ironic accompaniment of modern day conduits for electricity and (perhaps?) water or gas, providing for the needs of today's Bathite (what does one call an inhabitant of Bath??) congregation, needs that one day will end just as James Quin's did. To quote the end of the verse here seen ..."whate'er thy strength of body, force of thought, in Nature's happiest mold however cast, to this complexion thou must come at last."

Life goes on...with or without us...



And, of course, tucked in among the memorials is the requisite list of the those individuals who have overseen the Abbey in all its forms from the earliest beginnings, seen here engraved on gleaming, polished brass. In this case, it all began with women...two Abesses head the list.



Before leaving the Abbey I drew close to one of the stone pillars and pointed the camera straight up, following the fluted lines to the intricate ceiling of graceful interlocking fans, all froth and lace and utterly gorgeous.


And now on to the Roman Baths....

The Roman Baths ~ Early on a fine, sunny morning our entire group tours the Roman Baths; we are the first group to arrive and have the place to ourselves for a while. The Baths are just across the square from the Abbey. The museum provides a fascinating look at Roman times. It is built on several levels, so one climbs down to greet ancient history below ground level.



But first we walk along a gallery overlooking one of the pools below. I happened to glance over the railing to a building across the street and see our reflection in the windows....click, click! We are holding the audio guides and listening as we go.




Photo source HERE

My favorite display is a collection of colorful semiprecious gemstones, each one tiny yet perfectly carved in minute detail with a simple scene like a cow grazing under a tree, or a god, or an animal...intended to be mounted on a ring and used as a signet.

I wish I had taken a photo! The stones I saw were similar to those pictured above, and were discovered in a Roman drain leading from the King's Bath spring many years ago. For the display a few of them are illuminated to reveal the delicate designs cut into the stones. Gazing upon the fine work of these ancient "jewelers" I am enchanted with the minute perfection they created so long ago.



Down below, on level with the pool, I enjoy the play of light upon the worn paving stones. Stones that I imagine could have been laid in place by the Romans when these mineral waters were first being developed into the baths, around 60 AD.




What stories these stones could tell!

But this ends my own story of our visit to Bath, at least for the moment.

Today

Is it 3:30 pm already? I seem to have whittled away the day going through my photos from England from which to make new banners for the blog. And going out for lunch with CT, this being Friday (we recently decided to designate Fridays for a lunch date), followed by more time tooling around in iPhoto and Blogger....

It is 90F at the moment....a lazy, quiet, and very warm Friday! That glass of wine I enjoyed with my lunch at the Italian restaurant has made me a little drowsy...I don't normally drink wine in the middle of the day. So....I am not going to create a new travel post today because I don't want to be sitting in front of this computer till dinnertime...



So I shall leave you with a teaser photo from Bath, and say adieu.

It's time to delve back into my latest reading adventure ~ A House in Fez, by Suzanne Clarke. I'm off to Morocco now; see you tomorrow!

England - London to Bath Part 2

To follow up the previous post....having spent a couple of hours in Oxford, we must move on to Bath, and en route we are stopping at the Uffington white horse, in The Vale of the White Horse, which is about 3000 years old; amazingly, it is still there and has continuously been tended and on display down through the centuries.

In doing a bit of research for this post, I discovered that no less than G. K. Chesterton has written an epic poem called The Ballad of the White Horse that begins:

Before the gods that made the gods
Had seen their sunrise pass,
The White Horse of the White Horse Vale
Was cut out of the grass.

Before the gods that made the gods
Had drunk at dawn their fill,
The White Horse of the White Horse Vale
Was hoary on the hill.

Age beyond age on British land,
Aeons on aeons gone,
Was peace and war in western hills,
And the White Horse looked on.

Climbing up the steep hill and walking up to the horse, it is impossible to see it properly. For an excellent aerial photo click HERE. We walked along the entire length across its back, which you see part of in this photo.

Following is an excerpt from a website dedicated to the Wilshire White Horses (to see more details, click HERE):

The Uffington white horse, one of only four that face to the right, is high on an escarpment of the Berkshire Downs below Whitehorse Hill, a mile and a half south of the village of Uffington, and it looks out over the Vale of the White Horse. Though on the Berkshire Downs, it has been in Oxfordshire since county boundary alterations in the 1970s. It is cut, not on the steepest slope of the hill, but on the much shallower slope near the top, and can only really be viewed well from afar or from above.

This is by far the oldest of all the white horses, and is of an entirely different design to the others. Unlike the solid and more or less naturalistic figures of the other horses, the Uffington white horse is formed from stylized curving lines some ten feet or less wide, and its length of around 365 feet makes it over twice as long as the longest of the Wiltshire horses. Whether it is indeed intended to represent a horse, or some other creature instead, has been debated, but it has certainly been called a horse since at least medieval times. A cartulary of the Abbey of Abingdon from between 1072 and 1084 refers to "the place commonly known as the White Horse Hill" ("locum qui vulgo mons albi equi nuncupatur").

Until 1995 the Uffington white horse was thought to date from the Iron Age. However, in the nineteen-nineties, a new dating technique was developed. This technique, optical stimulated luminescence dating (OSL), can show how long soil has been hidden from sunlight. The lines of the horse consist of trenches dug in the hillside, then filled with chalk. OSL testing of soil from between the lower layers of that chalk shows that it has been buried since between 1400 BC and 600 BC, and probably between 1200 BC and 800 BC, and thus the horse is of Bronze Age origin.

While trying to take photos and avoid sheep droppings at the same time, I follow Alan and CT as we climb up and up rolling green hills, buffeted by the wind...



...I fall behind now and then because I see lovely scenes everywhere that I can't bring myself to pass up....to the right the gentle slopes continue up and up, sheep grazing or resting in the shade of a lone tree...



...and to the left, we look down, down, down into the valley and out across England's beautiful patchwork of fields and towns, and the hazy blue hills on the far horizon.




Be sure to click these photos for a better view. Here we see some of the chalk horse to the right, sheep dotting the slope of the hill before us, and below is the gray ribbon of road we traversed by car to reach this place.




A little higher still, and I use the zoom function to bring closer the road below and the brilliant yellow of the field glowing momentarily in the sun before another cloud casts its shadow upon the scene.



We see a line of white chalk, part of the white horse, in the foreground at our feet and another bit sloping down the steep hill, and below, beyond a dip at the foot of this slope, is Dragon Hill. Legend has it that Dragon Hill is the place where St. George slew the dragon...I don't know about you, but to me it looks more like some sort of prehistoric site for horrible sacrifices and rituals.



Speaking of ancient pagan rites, the Summer Solstice is just a few weeks away and people are already starting to gather, camping out in the fields, waiting for the upcoming solstice festival. Some an be seen in the field below; there are two white teepees among the other campsites.


Be that as it may, it is time to make our farewells to the White Horse and continue our journey to Bath, about 90 minutes away. At 4:30 we pull up, right on time, in front of the Carfax Hotel.


The Carfax's brochure....we are in Bath!

England - London to Bath

Backtracking a bit on the England trip, for this post I return to our last day with Barbara, spent relaxing, meeting Barbara and Alan's daughter, Jane, and her family and enjoying a traditional English 'roast' complete with Yorkshire pudding. Barbara has shared about it HERE, where she has also posted about our visit to Pilgrim's Hall on the previous afternoon.

There is a pretty sunken garden at Pilgrim's Hall that was glowing in the afternoon sun.

The gracious old house is surrounded on one side by spacious green lawns...


...the resident flock of sheep was being fed their dinner....



As we left there we traveled down quiet, narrow, tree shaded country lanes and stopped to take a look at this pretty stone church...



...where even a small side entrance is graced with an interesting door within a carved stone frame. I don't know, but perhaps this is the door to the bell tower for the bell ringing, as there is a carved bell above the doorway.


Inside the church it was dim and invitingly cool on this very warm Friday afternoon.

* * * * *

On Sunday morning we were up bright and early. CT and I had hired a private tour from a company, Celtic Horizons, well recommended in Rick Steve's guidebook (and CT and I concur with that recommendation). We were being picked up at 8:00 am for our trip from London to Bath. With hugs and kisses all around, we said good bye to our wonderful hosts, Alan and Barbara, with promises to come again one day, and set off....through the center of London, empty and almost hushed on this Sunday morning, and on to....

Oxford University! Our driver (also named Alan) took us on a walking tour of the university. It was exams week, so most of the 38 colleges were closed to visitors; however, Keble College's gate was open and we stepped through that narrow door and the tower gate's cavernous darkness, then out into...



...the quad, a square of green lawn surrounded on four sides by the fabulous brick-faced architecture of the college buildings. Keble College was founded in 1870 and is host to 645 students. Oxford University's overall enrollment is about 20,000 according to their Facts & Figures page.



A close up of the college's church....the brickwork of the buildings surrounding the quad was quite impressive and photographs cannot really do it justice.



On our university wide ramble we also stop briefly at the University Museum of Natural History. CT is contemplating prehistoric life forms....he's 6'4" so that gives you some idea of the gigantic frame of this dinosaur.



Not my photo ~ source HERE
The Natural History Museum is where the famous 1860 Oxford Evolution Debate took place between Thomas Henry Huxley and Samuel Wilberforce.



The former Indian Institute sports an elegant elephant weather vane....which just happened to catch my eye as I was looking up. It turns out be be an interesting little chance encounter, for elephants will play a part several days later in our tour...or one elephant in particular, named Nellie. I think my English readers may be able to guess what I'm hinting at (?); all will be explained in a later post.



Photo by Neville Clarke and found HERE, along with a history of this building. I can only wonder if the elephant's name is Nellie!



There is certainly a lot to look at, up, down and all around. I can't possibly take it all in, but do my best to snap a photo now and then. My impression is that two or three days could easily be spent here to achieve a truly thorough look at the university and its environs...perhaps more. And the word is that Oxford is an excellent shopping town, for the ladies in particular.



We eventually find ourselves on a main street lined with shops, pubs, and more college buildings. Also an old stone church, which we ducked into. There was a service going on, this being Pentecost Sunday morning, and the church was packed. The three of us stood quietly for several minutes behind the last row of tall pews, listening. No photos taken there, obviously.



Further meanderings, all the while being regaled with stories and history about the many fascinating goings on in this illustrious locale, bring us past the Botanic Garden (it is the UK's oldest botanic garden)...

Here's a quote from the Oxford website:

The garden has always held a special place in literature – from hidden gardens to secret doorways, from giant plants to gardens that appear out of nowhere. And the Botanic Garden in Oxford is also strongly connected to literature. It was a favourite spot for the Liddell family to visit (Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland for little Lizzie Liddell); Tolkien often sat there under his favourite tree, the majestic black pine, which looks uncannily like Tree Beard the ‘Tree Ent’; and Pullman set one of the most poignant scenes in ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy on the bench under the witch-hazel, next to the Water Garden.

...see what I mean about illustrious locale and fascinating goings on?

...and we come to green meadows and a river. How lovely to be lazily punting along on this warm and sunny Sunday, quietly serene here in the shade of enormous trees.



Along the way CT and Alan swap teaching stories, having discovered they are both retired English teachers; it soon became obvious that their experiences were eerily similar and it got to be hilariously funny....well, what can I say, two men with lots of Irish ancestry and the attendant gift of the gab....it was pretty amazing.



Christ Church College....of most personal interest to me. For this is where Elizabeth Goudge's father was Regius Professor of Divinity from 1923 until his death in 1938. She talks a bit about their life at Oxford in her autobiography, The Joy of the Snow. (Elizabeth Goudge, for those coming late to this blog, is my favorite author, and you can find out a bit more about her by clicking her name in the blog index in the sidebar.)



Not my photo ~ source HERE
We walked around the perimeter and down another busy street, past the pub, The Eagle and Child, where C.S. Lewis and the Inklings used to meet....but it is time now to move on; we must be in Bath by 4:30 this afternoon.

This post is running on and on so I will close it here and finish the day in a subsequent post....

England - Lake District Gardens

In the big green tour bus, one of our stops for lunch along the way is the Lake District Visitor Centre in Brockhole, on the shore of Windermere.


What a beautiful location! That is the Centre above; it was once someone's home, and is set amidst the prettiest gardens we saw in the Lake District. The grounds were laid out over 100 years ago.




So many plants are blooming; color, color everywhere.



In the cafe CT and I share a sandwich and a piece of apple pie, enjoying some conversation with our fellow travelers, as well as a view of a giant monkey puzzle tree through this pretty window. The gardens beckon, and off we go to explore.



First, a closer look at the monkey puzzle tree...we are to see several of these in this part of the country. If you click the link you may be surprised to discover that this is the national tree of Chile. Yes, it is a native of South America, and a long way from home!



Garden paths wind through green leafy glades, and beautiful blooms in the distance draw us onward.



Other paths meander past graceful meadows of buttercups....



We eventually make our way down to the water....there is the glorious Windermere! The day is cold and cloudy, and threatening rain, but this does not deter the boaters from taking good advantage of the wind.



The swans seem to be enjoying the weather too...



The main problem with an organized tour is that you must get back on the bus; you cannot just take your time and stay an extra hour or two whenever you feel like it. So, after a bit we turn to make our way back to the Centre. The path at this location is bordered by a typical stacked stone wall. In some parts of the country these walls are made of slate; others of igneous rock, and each area has its own particular design. There was a stone wall in Keswick that, as I walked along, I ran my hand, fingernails down, against the stones stacked sideways along the top of the wall; I was surprised! They actually sang in musical tones when my nails struck them!

Martin (our amazing and encyclopaedic tour guide who was there at the time and noticed my delight in these singing stones) told me that xylophones and marimbas can be made of slate or other resonating stones. I believe it! In fact, I did a little research and quickly found THIS site where you can play a virtual stone marimba, also called a "stonaphone" by its designer. Give it a try!

Further research turned up THIS about the Musical Stones of Skiddaw. Well, what do you know....they are right there in Keswick! They can be seen in the museum there, but we chose not to visit the museum. However, if you are interested in such things (I am not especially, except that I find the concept of musical stones somewhat intriguing) HERE is a blog devoted to, you guessed it, musical stones!

After listening to the few samples of "stone music" I could find online I quickly realized, however, that there is only so much you can do with stones...so enough of this!

Back to the Lake District Visitor Centre...



As CT and I made our way along the meandering paths through leafy woods and across flower strewn meadows, we return to the more cultivated gardens. Isn't this an attractive little corner of stone and greenery?


A little farther on and there is a side path that beckons from under the arbor entrance...but we do not take it.


The sun has come out again...the clouds are scudding across the sky above...just in time to highlight what is left of the wisteria blooms in this enchanting little corner....but we do not linger here...




Instead, we find a sheltered bench on the other side of the lawn overlooking the lake beyond the brilliantly colored blooms. We sit, enjoying the view....taking time to just be, and think about the fact that we are really here in England, and celebrating 25 years together....



...as we watch the sailboats flying in the wind down on the lake...
...as time is also flying...
...but we are together...
...and that's the very best thing of all.