Lincoln - Castle and Cathedral

My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this spring, so we booked a cottage near Lincoln so that the whole family could spend some time together, as they wanted that, rather than a big party. 

We were very lucky with the weather, with Easter weekend being gloriously sunny.

We spent one day in Lincoln itself , where we visited the castle. 

It has a long and varied history. The original castle was one of those put up by William the Conqueror, to make the point that he was, in fact, the conqueror, and intended to stay that way. Later, King Stephen was captured here, and the Castle was  in the midst of battles between those loyal to Richard I, and those to King John, and it now holds one of the remaining copies of Magna Carta, (Which was signed in 1215, and has remained in Lincoln ever since, mostly in the Cathedral but more recently in the Castle) and it also saw action during the Civil War, when it was successfully besieged and over run by Parliamentarian forces in 1644.

More recently, in the 1840s, a 'modern' prison was built within the castle walls, and some of the cells remain, as does the chapel, which followed the 'Separate System', where the priosoners were prevented from seeing or contacting one another, so in the chapel each had an individual box, allowing them to see the vicar, but not one another. 

It's a depressing place. 

Although very little of the original castle buildings remain, other than the gate house, the walls remain, and you can walk round them, and from them, see excellent views across the city, to the cathedral and beyond. 

The  West Front of the cathedral is covered with scaffolding at present, but it is still pretty impressive.

The cathedral was another Norman construction, originally completed in 1092, although subsequent fires and earthquakes in the 1100s resulted in lots of rebuilding. Bishop (later Saint) Hugh of Avalon, oversaw the new cathedral in  1192, and it has remained much the same since, albeit with some changes or decor and addition of lots of stained glass.

There is a wonderful vaulted ceiling, and some glorious stained glass, including some beautiful Rose Windows.

There is also modern glass -  the cathedral is home to chapels for each of the 3 services, with appropriate stained glass in each.

Detail from Air Force window

I was glad to have visited. 

Leonardo 500 in Bristol (and some other art)

It's 500 years since Leonard da Vinci died, and as part of recognising that and celebrating his life and genius, the Queen's collection is lending some of her collection of his drawings to 12 museums or galleries around the UK, one of which is the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery,which has been loaned 12 of the pictures, and on Sunday, on a whim, I went to see it .

It is a small exhibit (12 pictures! ) but well worth seeing. You were not allowed to take pictures in the exhibition, but there are photos on the Royal Collection's website (here)

My favourite was a little sketch of cats (and  one random dragon)

After seeing the Leonardos, I looked around the rest of the museum, which has a small section of ancient Egyptian artefacts, including a child's tunic, which is around 1,500 years old!

The tunic was a shroud - apparently ancient Egyptian children mostly went naked, in day to day life.


There is an aeroplane hanging in the main hall - it's a replica of a Bristol Boxkite, which were built in in Biostol between 1910 and 1914 . The replica was one of several built for the making of the film ' Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines'  , in 1965.

The museum also includes a small but well stocked art gallery, with a Gainsborough, Stubbs,a BurneJones, Alma-Tadema and a Damien Hurst.

The Garden Court, Edward Burne Jones

La Belle Dame Sans Merci  - Frnak Dicksee

  

Unconcious Rivals - Alma Tadema

Beautiful Hours - Damien Hurst 

I enjoyed my visit.

I am Ashurbanipal: king of the world, king of Assyria - British Museum

 "King Ashurbanipal of Assyria (r. 669–c. 631 BC) was the most powerful man on earth. He described himself in inscriptions as ‘king of the world’, and his reign from the city of Nineveh (now in northern Iraq) marked the high point of the Assyrian empire, which stretched from the shores of the eastern Mediterranean to the mountains of western Iran."

Is the way the British Museum introduces it's exhibition about Ashurbanipal. I thought it looked interesting when I first saw it advertised, and although it has been running since November, didn't make it until last weekend, which was a week before it closes.Which may be why it was so busy, both the museum as a whole, and the exhibition. Indeed, outside there were queues down the street and round the corner! 

However, once in, I enjoyed the exhibition. Quite a lot of what is in the exhibition is from the museum's own collection although there are other items as well, and it's all been brought together and arranged more or less chronologically, based on the life and reign of King Ashurbanipal.   

Guardian Spirit

We start with guardian spirits, Lion headed men, with eagles feet (which seems a little ungainly, but they're not my supernatural beings)

There are lots of big, stone reliefs, depicting scenes from Assyrian (Court) life, and from the life and reign of King Ashurbanipal. 

King Ashurbainpal catching a lion by the tail

This included a large frieze, depicting a royal lion hunt, including lions being released from cages, and the king grabbing one by the tail!  

Battle Scene

There are also lots of battle scenes, including one with some rather nice camels, and a less pleasant one with scenes of the Assyrians stacking, and cataloguing bows, quivers,and severed heads . . . 

 There were also, as well as the various friezes, other artefacts - little sections of painted wall, the remains of pieces of furniture,   and ceramics.

Painted plaster

The exhibition had a small section relating to cultural cross overs between the Assyrians ad other societies such as the Greeks and Etruscans, and the Egyptians.  

There were, of course, also lots of writings.  King Ashurbanipal created a huge library, and as the Assyrians used clay tablets, when the library was destroyed by fire, these were baked, and  survived, where the papyrus and wax documents which were also common were destroyed.    

Letter and Envelope 

Ashurbanipal ruled  a huge empires, and his civil service (made up mainly  of eunuchs, as the previous system of hereditary posts resulted in  coup attempts as family loyalty and ambition , and the eunuchs would, by definition, not have children and therefore be more likely to stay loyal to the king), developed a postal system, so that messages could be moved quickly though the empire. 

They were sent in clay envelopes, and sealed with a stamp, the seals used to  stamp the 'envelope'  were issued only to the King's  magnates, and meant that the letter would be carried by relays of fast couriers to ensure they travelled quickly, and were accepted as authentic.

Finally,the museum had added some exhibits showing the timeline of cultural and archaeological history - starting with the Biblical depictions of the Assyrians, the Victorians  who excavated the sites, and  modern developments, including the destruction wreaked by ISIS / Daesh , and, more positively, the work and  training of Iraqi conservators trying to repair some of the damage, and preserve war-damaged sites. 

The exhibition as a whole was very interesting,I was glad I'd managed to catch it! It has now finished, but it is worth visiting the museum's Assyrian galleries to see many of the friezes and tablets once they are back in their usual place.

Chained Library Tour, Wells Cathedral

Although Wells is my home town, and I am familiar with most of the Cathedral, I have never visited the library.

Wells Cathedral, West front

It's not generally open,  but they offer tours, for a very limited number of people, from time to time, and back in about January, I booked the tour taking place this weekend.

Wells is, and has always been a 'secular' cathedral, which (perhaps a little disappointingly) doesn't mean that it is a bastion of secularism, but that it was never part of a monastery, (so it never had its own Scriptorium). However, in 1420 its library was founded, and a dedicated library was built above the East cloister, being completed in the 1450s.   

The East Cloister, with Library above

It is a little unusual in that the library is still housed in the same space. When it was first constructed, there were only a small number of books, and they would have been kept in locked chests, or on reading benches, like long lecterns. The Cathedral had around 150 books in 1530, when the monasteries were dissolved and Wells, like the other great cathedrals, lost most of its books and other treasures. (Thomas Cromwell was the Lay Dean of Wells at the time, so presumably knew what they had, making it harder for them to withhold anything!)

The Library, Wells Cathedral

Partly for this reason, the books the Library now holds are almost all printed books, not handwritten manuscripts or illuminated manuscripts.

Over time, the cathedral built up its library, and the current shelving and reading benches were installed between 1661 and 1685. The shelves incorporate metal rods to which the books can be chained. 

Chained Books

It was explained to us that books were typically shelved spine in, even where they were not chained, but this is more important for chained books, as the chain is attached to the outer edge and not to the spine, which is a weaker point on the book. The chains were made from steel which was dipped in linseed oil to prevent rust, and each hand made chain has a swivel, which ensures that the chains don't get twisted as the books are taken on and off the shelves. 

Our guide also explained that the books were originally shelves based on when they were donated, and sometimes in accordance with specific requirements of bequests, which means that the older sections of the library are not arranged by subject matter or by any system such as the Dewey system, and in many cases , particularly with the chained books, these are still in the same places on the shelves as they have been for hundreds of years.

We were shown some of the library's oldest and more important books.

Frontispiece of Foxe's Book of Martyrs

A (chained) 1583 edition of Foxe's Book of Martyrs (I had not appreciated that it was common, at the time, to have a copy of the book on display in parish churches,  as part of the Reformation's propaganda against Catholicism. In this edition, we were shown how, on some of the illustrations, the books had been vandalised to scribble out the face of the Pope!

Michael Drayton's 'Poly-Olbion', 1612

Then there was Michael Drayton's 1612 'Poly-Olbion', an epic poem describing the history and geography of Britain, with illustrations (this one showing the Isle of Lundy, in the bottom  left) 

One extraordinary book held is a copy a life of St John of Damascus, printed in 1512. It is remarkable because of the handwritten notes written in red ink in the margins. The book once belonged to Thomas Cranmer, later Archbishop of Canterbury, who was responsible for the creation of the Book of Common Prayer, the use of English in the liturgy of the Church of England, and who was of course later martyred under Queen Mary, and the handwritten notes have been authenticated as being in his handwriting! 

Thomas Cramner's handwritten notes

It's rather endearing to see that even 500 years ago, bored students were colouring in the 'O's and 'Q's in their text books..

Map of Iceland, Ortelius

There was a copy of Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum which was originally published in 1570  and seen as the first modern atlas. The Cathedral's copy is the English translation, printed in 1606. The picture shows the map of Iceland, complete with sea monsters  around it, and volcanoes on land.

Pliny's Natural History, 1472 

Something I didn't know was that when printed books first started to be produced, they would sometimes be made to look like the older, hand-scribed books, perhaps so they were still seen as equally valid.  One such is the library's copy of Pliny's Naturalis Historiae, printed in Venice in 1472, with the capital letter and decoration added in by hand to the printed text. The book also has it's own story. The book was lost  during the reformation, and then Dean Ralph Bathurst found   it, in a secondhand bookshop, in 1682, and bought it to return to the cathedral! 

Although the library primarily has printed books, we were also shown one of it's few manuscripts, the Hayles Psalter, commissioned under the will of Sir John Huddleston, for Hayles  Abbey in Gloucestershire. The frontispiece shows the Tudor rose of Henry VIII paired (in the left margin) with the Catherine of Aragon's symbol, the pomegranate, and lilies and carnations for the Virgin Mary. The Psalter is dated 1514, although it did not come to Wells until 1863.

Frontispiece of the Hayles Psalter, 1514

 The library also has on display some documents from its own history, such as minutes form the meeting of the Chapter in 1685, recording Dr Richard Busby's gift to 'Beautify the library' (a gift worth around £2M in today's values)

Chapter Minutes, 1685

I found the visit to the library fascinating, and afterwards spent a little time wandering around the cathedral. I tend to forget, between visits, how beautiful it is.

Scissor Arches and Nave

I am particularly fond of the ceilings, in the nave and the lady chapel, and how full of light the cathedral can be.

Lady Chapel Ceiling

As it is approaching Remembrance Sunday, and this year is the centenary of the armistice,the cathedral has installations remembering those  killed, in WWI in particular. The poppies flowing down the Chapter House stairs were, I thought , especially effective.

Chapter House Stairs

In all, a fascinating morning. And a reminder of how much there is to see on my own doorstep, so to speak!

Toronto, or What I did on my Holidays. (Part 1)

Last summer, my friend Lyle got in touch with me to tell me he'd won a holiday through the #CokeSummer promotion Coca Cola were running, and did I fancy a free holiday to Toronto?

Well, there is only one possible answer to that!

We flew out on an early morning flight, which was delayed a couple of hours, and the flight is 7 hours, so we were a little bit tired and slightly spaced out by the time we arrived. Our package was supposed to include airport transfers, and we were indeed met by a very nice car, and friendly driver. Who then proceeded to take us to entirely the wrong hotel, (entirely due to a cock up by the travel agency, who despite having booked the hotel, apparently didn't know where it was) So we had a rather long taxi drive (in a less posh car) back past the airport to the hotel!

Henry Moore outside Art Gallery of Ontario

Once we'd checked in, we found food, then went for a wander to look at downtown Toronto.

We found the Art Gallery of Ontario, and a rather nice Henry Moore outside it, and also found the Roundhouse  what's left of a huge rail depot and turntable, with a selection of railway engines and carriages on display.

And of course,the CN Tower. Which is  very tall, and visible from all over the place!

We also saw (and heard) a peregrine falcon, outside the stadium by the tower.

CNTower

So an interesting start to the trip.  The following morning we started out with a walk down past the Tower, to the lakeside. On the way we found a totem pole, with lots of beautiful sea creatures on it.

Further on, we walked through the remembrance garden (with memorials to Canadians who fought in WW2) and on to Princes Gate at Exhibition Place, erected in 1927. Very imposing.

Princes Gate

We then visited Fort York - there were barracks on the site in the 1790s, with more substantive buildings and fortifications erected in 1811, as relationships between the USA and Britain deteriorated. The current site has some of the original buildings, others which have been reconstructed, and a modern museum and visitor centre.

Fort York

It was very interesting, and several of the buildings were furnished as they would have been in 1812 (with officers getting 2 rooms each, and enlisted men sleeping in quad bunks, with around 30 of them in the same amount of space a single officer would have.

On the way back we wandered into a rather lovely little church, the church of the Holy Trinity (mostly, it must be said, because it has some rather nice little turrets on the outside, and because I like churches) 

Church of the Holy Trinity

It turned out to have a lovely interior, with some gorgeous modern stained glass (apparently it lost the original, 19thC glass down one side of the church in a fire in the 1970s) 

The church was built in the 1840s with a legacy from an Englishwoman who stipulated that the pews must always be free (it was normal practice at the time for them to be rented to parishioners) so anyone, rich or poor, could attend. The church's original congregation included freed slaves, and over time it's also been welcoming to the poor, the homeless, to LGBTQ people - it holds a regular memorial service for homeless people. All in all, a lovely little church with a fascinating history.

We popped into the Eaton Mall which is next door - it's a vast shopping centre (not my favourite kind of place) but pretty appealing as these things go, and home to a gorgeous bit of public art, consisting of a flock of flying geese, suspended in the air at one end of the Mall.

And also visited Nathan Phillips Square, home of City Hall,  an interesting and dramatic bit of architecture in its own right.

City Hall

It was shortly after this that we discovered Craft, a bar / restaurant with over 100 beers on tap, and some pretty tasty food, too.

All this, and only the end of the first full day!

Living with gods - British Museum

Having spent all of Saturday, pretty much, at the theatre, I stayed over night so, before heading home on Sunday morning I decided to visit the British Museum (because I do love the British Museum) and to visit their 'Living with gods: peoples, places and worlds beyond' exhibition. 

One of the first (in every sense!) items in the exhibition is the 'Lion Man', which is around 40,000 years old - it's made from mammoth ivory and it apparently the earliest known example of figurative art, of a being not known in nature, so an early survival of the product of someone's imagination. It's rather lovely, and awe-inspiring that it has survived for so long.

The exhibition then looks at various themes - light, water, air, pilgrimage, birth, coming of age, and death. It's arranged thematically rather than either chronologically or by reference to a specific religious belief. 

However, I found the exhibition rather disappointing after the first exhibit - the ideas being explored seemed to be addressed in a minimal way - and so while I found some of the items individually interesting, the exhibition as a whole doesn't seem very coherent or satisfying. 

So, after I had been around the exhibition, I went to visit some of my favourite parts of the museum. 

I went up to visit the Lewis Chessmen, because I  am extremely fond of them. As you my know, they were made in around 1150-1200, from Walrus ivory.

This chap is a rook, in the form of a Beserker warrior, biting his shield. I learned that for a period in the middle ages monks were forbidden to play chess, although it wasn't entirely clear whether this was due to it being a game of battle strategy, and thus unfit for men of god, or because it could be played by men and women, and thus lead to flirting and the like!

I then took some time to admire the Sutton Hoo treasures, and some of the other Anglo Saxon artifacts.

I loved this beautiful crozier head, and these horses.(which originated in what is now Ukraine, in around 550AD.)

It's fascinating stuff. 

I also paid a visit to the Lycurgus Cup, a Roman survival form the 4th C. It is glass, made from dichroic glass - the glass has small amounts of gold and silver in it which makes it appear either red or green, depending on whether or not light is shining through it!

An enjoyable visit. I like visiting the museum in small sections, so I can focus on whichever part I visit.