31 May - Salisbury Cathedral and Close

After a wonderful breakfast at a spot called Qudos, we walked across town to Salisbury Cathedral. Our timing was good, as there was a guided tour leaving shortly after our arrival. Our tour guide was a petite woman with a soft-ish voice, but who knew how to lead a tour and always made herself heard. She started with the basics of the history of the Cathedral, which is quite a fascinating story. The original cathedral was in Old Sarum, near the stone circles of Stonehange and Avebury, indicating settlement as far back as 3000 BC. An Iron Age hillfort was erected around 400 BC and the site continued to be occupied during the Roman period. The Saxons took the fort in the 6th century to protect themselves from the Vikings. The Normans constructed a castle, a stone wall, and a cathedral. The first cathedral that was built on the site was struck by lightening and burned to the ground the day after it was consecrated. (And you thought your luck was bad.) Another was built in its place but over time the proximity of the church to the fort, with its rowdy soldiers, led to conflict between the sheriff of Wiltshire and the Bishop of Salisbury who got permission from Rome to build a cathedral at a different site. Legend has it that the bishop was a crack archer and he said that he would fire his arrow in the air and wherever it landed would be the site of the new Cathedral. Well, the new Cathedral is about 3 miles from the old one and nobody is that good a shot. The legend adds that he fired his arrow, it hit a deer and the deer dropped where the Cathedral is now. It's more likely that the cathedral was built on land that was already owned by the Bishop, but everybody likes a good legend, don't they?

This photo from the Salisbury, Wiltshire website shows the mound, the wall and the outline of the old cathedral in the foreground.

The settlement of the city of Salisbury happened at the same time, because artisans and builders were needed for the construction. Homes were built for them and the Cathedral close was developed to house the clergy. The foundation stones were laid in 1220 and the entire Cathedral was completed in 38 years. The cloisters were added in 1240, the Chapter house in 1263 and the tower and spire were completed by 1330.

The Cathedral was built in the Early English Gothic Style.

We started at the west end of the Cathedral with its original doors.

We then moved to the clock. It's quite an odd clock, as it has no hands and you can't really use it to tell time as a bell chimes only upon the hour, driven by the attached ropes.

Near the clock are retired flags of the Wiltshire regiment. Until 1882, regimental colors used to be carried into battle so that troops could find their regiments during the battle. When they are retired, they hang on a rod in the cathedral until they fall apart. At this time a special service is held and they are taken on their pike (pole) and buried in an unmarked grave in sacred ground. The oldest of these is over 200 years old.

Next it's on to the font, which was installed and consecrated in 2008. It's in the form of a water feature and the reflection of the stained glass windows in the water is lovely.

The next feature of the tour was the Cope Chest. It's an enormous semi-circular chest that is used to hold the ceremonial copes (cloaks) which are often elaborately embroidered, often with gold threads. The cope was built in the 1200s and is so heavy that it takes three men to open it. (They didn't specify how many women it takes.)

This is the tomb of Robert Lord Hungerford. I like to think that the dog was meant to keep him company in the afterlife. (Wrong religion for that though, I'm afraid.)

We visited another tomb, that of William Longspee. Longspee was an Anglo-Norman nobleman and the half brother of King John. He was married to Ela, Countess of Salisbury who was very wealthy. When he returned from battle in about 1225, he died mysteriously. It was said that he was poisoned by Hubert de Burgh who hoped to marry his widow. When Longspee's tomb was opened many years later, a rat was found in it. The rat's body contained significant amounts of arsenic, lending credence to the rumor of Longspee's murder. The rat's skull is on display next to Longspee's tomb, so I think we know which side the church comes down on.

We made our way to the east end of the church to the Trinity Chapel. The ceiling is still painted in the original manner. I don't recall but it could be that it was whitewashed during the reformation and then revealed later. The medallions on the ceiling closest to the alter represent the twelve disciples. All the others are medallions of noblemen who donated funds for the building of the cathedral.

Also in the Trinity chapel is St. Osmund's tomb. There is no effigy of St. Osmund, rather there are foramina (holes) in the side allowing sick people to reach in and get closer to St. Osmund's body in the belief that this would make them well. Osmund was made a saint in 1457 and a magnificent shrine was built in his honor. this was destroyed during the reformation when the worship of saints was forbidden.

If you were terribly rich, as was the Audley family, you could erect an elaborate private pew within the cathedral. It is said that you could also send proxies to witness the service & report on the sermon so you wouldn't actually have to attend.

Exterior of the Audley pew: Interior of the Audley pew:

On the right side of the eastern end of the cathedral is the tomb of Lady Katherine Grey and Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford. He was a nephew of Jane Seymour, the third wife of Henry VIII, and a first cousin of Edward VI. Katherine was a potential claimant to Elizabeth I's throne, and law established that it was a penal offence for her to marry without notifying the Sovereign. Edward and Katherine did just that but kept their marriage a secret. Katherine became pregnant and when she began to show, she confided in Lord Robert Didley who told Queen Elizabeth. Elizabeth was so furious she sent Katherine to the Tower of London. Edward was fined 15,000 pounds for seducing a virgin of the court and confined to the tower as well. Apparently conjugal visits were arranged because Katherine became pregnant again. Her two sons were declared illegitimate and taken from her. Edward was released from the Tower in 1563. Katherine died in 1568, allegedly of a broken heart. (The cynical view of things is that Elizabeth was worried that since Katherine had a claim to the throne and Edward had money and was a skillful warrior, there was a chance that Katherine would make a bid for the throne, so to stop her, she was sent to prison.) Edward married twice more, but requested that he be buried with Katherine when he died. They rest together in Salisbury Cathedral.

One amusing feature of the cathedral is the bumping stone. This is where the heads of new choristers are bumped against the stone seven times as a sort of hazing ritual/welcome when they join the choir. It's been going on for a very long time because there is now an indentation in the stone. Girls were permitted to join the chorus in 1991. They do not take part in the bumping against the stone; their heads are bumped against a copy of a bible instead.

We were then led out of the Cathedral into the cloisters on our way to the Chapter house. In the center of the cloisters are two trees which were planted there upon the ascension of Queen Victoria.

Chapter houses were used for meetings, called chapters, to conduct the business affairs of the cathedral and to deal with matters for which the church itself would not be appropriate. They are not sited on consecrated ground. The chapter house at Salisbury is decorated with relief carvings of scenes from the bible. There are sculptures of heads underneath the scenes. Our guide (a different guide but, coincidentally, the husband of the first guide) told us that the workers at the cathedral were used as models for the heads.

Our guide pointed out one of the heads who he thought looked as though he had Bell's Palsy or some other such affliction. One of his colleagues told him he had it all wrong. The scene above is of Adam and Eve and the head below is winking knowingly at it.

In the chapter house is displayed one of the four original copies of the Magna Carta. It is kept under glass in a tent to protect it from sunlight. One is allowed to enter the tent to view it, but not allowed to photograph it.

The Magna Carta of 1215 was the first document to put into writing the principle that the king and his government was not above the law. One notable clause, clause 8, said that no widow shall be compelled to marry so long as she wishes to remain without a husband. It may not sound like much but this was groundbreaking stuff and probably the first instance of a woman's rights being codified. There are wonderful displays in the room that ask visitors to think of the legacy of the Magna Carta and how it should be applied in the modern world. People are asked to write suggestions for new clauses and think of human rights in general.

When I ran into that same guide later, he told me an amusing story. No one knew how many copies of the Magna Carta were in existence until a search was done for them in the 1800s. At the conclusion of WWII, Winston Churchill called the Bishop of Lincoln who held one of the copies to say that since the US had been so important an ally, he wanted to give them one of the copies. Lincoln hedged and hawed and said he'd try to find their copy, but didn't know where it was. Lincoln then called the Bishop of Salisbury and told him what Churchill was up to. The bishop told the cathedral librarian who is said to have taken it home and hidden it under his mattress. The guide said that he always looks to see if he can see impressions of the bedsprings.

In the Cathedral Close, one of the old houses is now the property of the National Trust, Mompesson House. If you saw the 1995 film Sense and Sensibility, starring Emma Thompson, you may recognize the interiors. Filming of interior scenes was done at Mompasson because the house was beautiful and dated to the same time period. Of course, Elinor Dashwood's home was in London, but let's not let a little thing like geographical accuracy stand in the way of art.

There has been a house at this location since the 1200s, though the current house is only 300 around years old. (Only.) It was built in the Queen Anne style for Charles Mompesson, an MP for Old Sarum. Though the houses in the close were originally built for the clergy, by the mid-17th century it had become fashionable with the local gentry. Mompesson married Elizabeth Longueville in 1703 but died in 1714. Because women could not own property, her brother, Charles Longueville took over the lease. Ah, I should explain: though houses could be built and owned by individuals, the land under them still belonged to the church. That's where the lease comes in.

Barbara Townsend's family moved into the house in 1843 and she lived there until her death at the age of 96. She was a self-taught artist and spent her days painting watercolors, many of the house, life in the Close and family excursions. It is from her watercolors that we know how the house looked in the 19th century. Upon her death, the Dean and Chapter of Salisbury sold the freehold (land and all) to the Church Commissioners. It was the official home for the Bishop of Salisbury for a short while but he found it unsuitable and it was sold. The "unsuitability" is probably because during Barbara Townsend's time in the house, no improvements were made. In 1952 a London architect, Denis Martineau, bought the house after considerable negotiations. A condition of the sale was that he agree to give the House to the National Trust upon his death. Martineau modernized the house: updating the plumbing, electricity, etc, and adding his "flair". The beautiful plaster ceilings were painted in what can be charitably called "bright colors" but which I would describe as rather garish. When he died in 1975 the Trust was rather shocked to see that he had disposed of all of its furnishings. Left with a blank canvas, the Trust decided to "recreate" the house as it looked in Barbara Townsend's time since they had her extensive collection of watercolors to guide them.

Entry hall:

The house is known for its ornate plasterwork.

In the parlor, there's a table set for a game with cards and elaborate little mother of pearl pieces. If you look more closely, the cards are marked with the names and maps of places in England, with a small notation of the suit and value of the card in the upper left. During Barbara Townsend's time, it was considered unsuitable for women to play cards, and certainly unsuitable for them to bet, so if they were challenged, they could say that they were studying geography and that the markers were keeping track of how many places they had learned.

The dining room:

The cupboard on the right side of the room holds an extensive collection of exquisite hand-blown glasses, a small sample of which is below.

One room was left untouched from Martineau's time in the house. Here is the ceiling of his library. You can see why they were repainted white.

Bedrooms:

My favorite feature upstairs can be seen in this photo of the upstairs sitting room.

If you look through the door, you can see another door at the far side of the adjoining room.

There's another one at the other end of the house. The secret, though, is that behind the door is the wall of the house. The only purpose of the door was to create the illusion that that there were rooms beyond and that the house was massive. Of course, in those day, no one would have had the temerity to ask what was beyond the door, so the homeowner's secret was safe.

There's a beautiful garden, of course, the walls of which have been rebuilt. There is still evidence of the original garden wall here and there.

The tour of Salisbury Cathedral kind of rushes you around without a lot of time for photos, so when Bruce went off to visit pubs, I went back to take more. I was thrilled that I happened upon the organist playing for a service going on in one of the side chapels.

Detail of part of the ceiling:

The Chapel of St. Michael, used as a place of prayer for peace and those caught up in war:

Salisbury Cathedral is paired with a diocese in Sudan and South Sudan. St. Catherine's chapel is a reminder of this partnership. A copy of an ancient Sudanese icon hangs by the alter.

A private event was about to take place in the Cathedral, so the tourists were all ushered out. I wandered around town a bit more then headed down the Endless Street and back to the flat.