29th May - Stonehenge and Salisbury

Thursday the six of us jammed into the car that B&P had acquired in the house exchange.  The manufacturer had obviously intended this vehicle for six passengers because the luggage area in the back folded into seating for two.  I'm not sure they intended that all six were full-size adults.  Pam and Catherine accepted the challenge and sat in the wayback.  Loading them kinda took rebuilding the car around them but it worked. To get to Stonehenge from here requires all heavily traveled surface streets - at least through Bath.  Leaving early was both a blessing and a curse.  The curse was that we were right in the middle of the commuter traffic but the blessing was that we arrived at Stonehenge about 9:30.  The parking lot was nearly empty.

Stonehenge viewed from five different directions

Stonehenge is set on fairly flat grassy plain.  The land around Stonehenge has been kept clear of any commercial development except for the minimum necessary for parking and access.  A clever use of the available topography has hidden the parking lot and entrance from view while at the ruins.  Access to the artifact is via a tunnel under the road.  The fee charged not only gives access but also provides a recorded handset that explained as you walked along what you were seeing.  There were no surprises.  We have been exposed to so much information on Stonehenge over the years that the thrill was being there in person.  There was one feature that was totally unexpected - by the time we had finished our tour (~ 1 hour) the parking lots were full and the entrance area jammed with people.  Even the overflow lot was full.  Jonathan had developed an internet friendship with one of the locals (from south of London) and they had determined that the only time the two of them could meet was at Stonehenge.  How Donald was able to come and to find Jonathan in the crowd is one of the miracles of modern communications - cell phones.  We had the time and the opportunity to have a cup of tea that cold, blustery morning at the kiosk while the two of them chatted.  This gave us the opportunity to become acquainted with the local residents wildlife beggars. Unlike the beggars we are used to seeing at our outdoor venues ? squirrels, small birds, seagulls and the like; the beggars here were starlings and jackdaws.  California has an overabundance of starlings but the California variety have mutated to pure black with the multi-colored being fairly rare.  At Stonehenge all the starlings were multicolored and extremely bold - taking food from people's plates.  The feathers reminded Nancy of peacocks - they were so green and blue. The second bird begging at Stonehenge was the jackdaw.  Jackdaws have been showing up at the flat recently but are hard to approach.  A jackdaw looks like a small crow and can be seen bouncing along on lawns in much the same niche as American robins.  What makes the jackdaw different is a gray nape.  This gray collar shows most when the bird is in flight.  We were very impressed when we first spotted these birds but have since learned they are quite common.  They were much more cautious than the starlings but still came quite close.  By begging, the birds came near enough that they could be photographed with our simple digital camera

Nancy took the camera and collected images of local sheep and lambs.  They wandered fairly close to the fence and were knee high in very green fresh grass.  I am assuming that they were very happy but reading sheep facial expression is not one of my things.

We left Stonehenge and moved on, passing Old Sarum with a promise to return if we had time and went on to Salisbury.  By the time we got to Salisbury we were all hungry - so, the first priority was lunch.  Approaching any city for the first time is intimidating, particularly one as old as Salisbury (narrow streets laid out with the randomness of time).  But, we managed to blunder through the obvious tourist parking area and find a "main street" with local businesses.  We looked for and found a pub (this one had a no smoking room) that didn't stink of tobacco and had a very pleasant lunch.  We could see the Cathedral tower from the front of the pub.  So, we fed the parking meter and walked in that direction after lunch.  The city, near the cathedral, is all pre-industrial and as a result the streets are quite narrow.  Many of these types of sections of town in Europe have just gone ahead and converted their streets to "walking streets" - no cars.  Salisbury just lived with its narrow streets.     .

If you look at the picture on the left you can spot the spire of the cathedral above the left side of the street.  As we got closer to the Cathedral, the streets became more congested with shops and surprisingly not all the shops were intended for tourists.  There must be something about crowds that triggers the shopping reflex.

We eventually got to the Cathedral - very impressive.  The spire is claimed to be the tallest in all of England.  The Cathedral dates from 1220 and was built in a record time of 38 years.  In fact, the whole town of Salisbury was laid out and sanctioned by the Church.  Fans of the book "Sarum: The Novel of England" by Edward Rutherfurd are familiar with the relationship between the Cathedral and the city of Salisbury. We arrived just in time for a tour, so J&C and us signed up for it.  B&P took the tour on their last trip to England and elected to stay behind.  The first thing that caught my eye was the pews had been replaced by folding chairs.  The docent straightened that out - at the height of its glory the Cathedral had no places to sit (the only chair in the public part of the Cathedral was the trone reserved for the Bishop.)  The congregation stood.  There was a shelf around the periphery of the Nave such that the infirmed and old could sit or lean, the parishioners stood or kneeled.  (I remember the controversy as a child as to whether the kneeling benches should be padded. - no kneeling benches either.)  I had been shocked and amazed to learn that Shakespearian Theatres had no seats, but at least they had beer.  The second great revelation by the docent was that the Cathedral had been brightly painted - inside, outside and all the statues.  Most people are unaware that the beautiful marble Greek statues were painted - but a church - wow!  The docent was able to point out several areas where signs of the original paint could be seen.  Later in the tour there were areas that had been restored or built new with some of the traditional paintings and decorations.

Everything had been whitewashed - a few of the earlier painting are being restored but there is a long way to go.

Just a hint of what might have been before

So, what happened to the paint?  In a lot of the churches and cathedrals of that era the paint has just faded or peeled away, but in the case of the Salisbury Cathedral it had a lot of help.  In the Civil and religious wars initiated by King Henry VIII one of the casualties was the Cathedral.  In the mid-1600?s the Cathedral was vandalized by the anti-Catholics.  This was the height of the Protestant reformation and the Puritans were in power.  They not only changed the organization structure of religion but attempted to change the physical structure of the churches as well.  The stained glass windows were broken out and replaced with plain glass; the walls and ceilings were whitewashed and much of the artwork stolen or destroyed.  Even the tombs were defaced with the noses of the tomb carvings being broken off.  By the mid-1800?s Gilbert Scott attempted to restore some of the carnage and many have since contributed to the restoration of the Cathedral to its former grandeur

Salisbury's Cloister - there is some evidence that he walkway was glassed in.

1386 bell tower clock - no face, no hands, just sounder the hour

Two other artifacts of note were also housed within the Cathedral.  The first is "Europe's oldest working clock." Built in 1386 the clock was designed to only strike the hours, the clock has no face and was located in a separate bell tower until 1792 - the bells made too much noise during church services and were removed. The second artifact of note was located off of the Cloisters (an exercise area and garden for those cloistered within the Cathedral) in the Chapter House - one of four original copies of the Magna Carta.  What are the odds of seeing two of the four remaining original copies of the Magna Carta within a one- week period?  This copy was quite different than the one we saw at the Lincoln Castle.  The ink was darker and therefore the contrast was greater, and the text was laid out on the paper in what we now call "landscape" vs. the Lincoln's "Portrait" layout. We had pretty well used up the day and had committed to have dinner with Peter and Lesley in Long Ashton at 6:30 PM.  The trip back to Bristol took more time than the morning trip out - more traffic but we did make it to Peter and Lesley's house, more or less on time. What a great

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