Friday 20 October 2017

A Grand Day out in Salisbury

As you'll have seen from Monday's post, I went to Salisbury on Sunday.  My main purpose in visiting was to go to the Terry Pratchett exhibition but since I was there, I also visited the rest of the museum, and the Cathedral. (I've been before, but I like cathedrals!)

The museum is not large, but it has some rather nice bits and pieces, including a Royal Charter from 1461, with lovely illumination, and the seal of Edward IV, a Roman mosaic, and various artefacts from Stonehenge and the surrounding area.



Then I went into the cathedral, which happens to be hosting an exhibition at present, called Threads Through Revelation, which is an exhibition of embroidery and other textile art, by an artist named Jacqui Parkinson, based on the Book of Revelation.



I enjoyed the art. 





This is part of a panel featuring the four horsemen of the apocalypse. (which made a nice contrast to the Paul Kidby Horsemen, in the Terry Pratchett exhibition)



And a lovely seven headed dragon (part of the same larger panel). I assume that it is a Hellbeast of some kind, but I found it rather appealing...



The cathedral has a beautiful modern font, which acts like a reflecting pool for the nave.

There are also some gorgeous carvings - below is a section of the ceiling of the chantry chapel, which seems to have escaped the worst excesses of the puritans!


There is also a lot of fairly modern stained glass, including this, the 'prisoners of conscience' window (although the photos doesn't really do justice to the colours)


I didn't, on this occasion, visit their copy of Magna Carta, but if you are planning to visit Salisbury, you might wish to know that they have one, which lives in the Chapter House.

After all this culture I took myself to a nice pub for a belated lunch. It was the Haunch of Venison,  which bills itself as the oldest hostelry in Salisbury - the building is mentioned as having been used to house men working on the building of the cathedral spire, in 1320, although I think there have been a few alterations since then! It does have a mummified hand in the snug and some rare Victorian beer pumps, and it served some very nice food!

I enjoyed my day out.

No comments: