Getting to know Sarum
I slept well, and luckily the hotel is very quiet. There's no breakfast here, so I have to go out and find some, and end up at Nuggs, a restaurant nestled into a medieval building (1268). Scrambled eggs, with lox, and toast, along with a side of baked beans, seemed to be in order for the morning. Across the street in the square there is a market, and I wander around seeing what the produce looks like. There are lovely strawberries, varieties of apples that I've never heard of, truffles and black truffle oil, gammon steaks (we would call it ham - is this related to the Spanish jamon, or the French jambon? Anna will know, and I shall have to ask her. There's a lot of everything that's offered here: electric cigarettes, underwear, an amazing country pastry place, old books, charities, and you name it. I run into several choir members and enjoy a chat with them.
It's time for a coffee or something, so I find a lovely pastry shop for a tarte citron and a macchiato. In my general wanderings I meander into St. Thomas à Becket Church which has the most wonderful hammer-beam ceilings. Women are getting ready for a wedding, putting flowers everywhere and making other preparations.
Later, after the wedding is over, changes are rung from the bell-tower for a good hour or so - such is the joy. I make my way over to the Cathedral for the purpose of taking some pictures of the stonework. The building is glowing a light ocher in the sunlight, and it is quite beautiful. The limestone of the Western Front in reacting to the rain has dissolved some of the statuary - you can spot the replacements. The ancient stuff, however, is quite nice.
In addition, an artist has added some modern polychrome sculpture of ordinary people that both contrasts and links to the ancient portrayals. When I was in Seminary, the school was hoping to build a permanent chapel on the campus. The collect of buildings had been designed by Klauder and Day, the Philadelphia firm responsible for the gothic buildings at Princeton. The seminary was proposing to plop down a modern building by Helmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, a renowned modernist group. Many didn't like the proposed building, but I defended it in an editorial in our campus magazine, Seminar. I reasoned that we needed to have something of our time for our worship.
 |
| Rain spout on the Western Front at Salisbury |
And here is the great dilemma with old buildings, such as this one. The nineteenth century has a definite mark in the building - not with the art and architecture of that period, but with its neo-gothic additions or replacements. The cathedral at Salisbury is spotted with many eras and many architectural hands. I got to thinking about the Cathedral at Chartres, where one experiences a truly medieval building, with few additions
 |
| The Labyrinth at Chartres |
The floor has not been modernized there, the chairs scrapping over the ancient labyrinth, and the sidewalls in the ambulatory untouched. There have been additions, but they seem to be relegated to furniture and stuff. At Salisbury, there is a feeling of openness to what ever time had to offer, while Chartres seems more circumspect and pristine.
 |
| Outer wall of the choir at Chartres |
 |
| New Lectern at Chartres |
Lunch at the Red Lion was a "jacket potato" (baked potato with a salad and a dressing for the potato of "Greenland prawns" and a mildly spicy "rose sauce." A nap seemed ripe before I went back to the cathedral for Evensong, where I was privileged to read the First Lesson (I Kings 3:5-12 - Solomon's dream and prayer). The choir sang marvelously, and we all chatted after at supper and later at a pub, where our table talked theology and culture. It was a wonderful day.
 |
| The cloister at Salisbury |
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment