Friday, March 27, 2009

Winchester Cathedral

We stopped at Winchester to visit the cathedral. It was the day before Easter, and the parish ladies were busy arranging the flowers. John talked with two deaf and gravel-voiced old English gentlewomen who bring a new arrangement to the tomb of Jane Austen every fortnight. They decried the current batch of Austen movies. "They kissed like this--'mmmmumph!'" said one. "Nobody kissed like that in Jane Austen's time! 'Mmmmmumph! Mmmmmumph!' Ridiculous! Why my mother didn't know until her wedding night that babies didn't spring from the navel!" "It's a wonder you were born at all!" cried the other. (1997)

The Austen monument: On the roof:The Gormley statue in the crypt:

The most dramatic moment in the cathedral tour was the turn into the north transept from the gothic style to the Romanesque. Heavy round pillars and arches mount higher and higher, up as far as the perpendicular walls (but of course they didn’t hold up, but tumbled down and were redone in the Gothic mode). God is there, in those arches. God was intended to be there, if he is not now. (2003)

11th C St. Nicholas baptismal font:

Cathedral nave:

There was a fair and Morris dancing competition after our tour of the cathedral (2007):

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