Theological, Cultural and Educational Reflections

Sunday 6 September 2015

Today we awoke to blue skies and a gorgeous Summer day in Yorkshire making Autumn wait just a little longer.  We made our way to the 10.30am family eucharist at Ripon Cathedral, the mother church of the Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales.

This is the largest diocese in England and covers huge cities like Leeds, Harrowgate, Bradford, Wakefield and Huddersfield, a total of 2.5 million folk. Today’s service was their monthly “open doors service” deliberately aimed at young families and seekers. They also welcomed back recently baptised children and their families for a welcome and gift from the congregation.

The service was lead by Canon Ruth Hind and the preacher was Canon Elizabeth Sewell. The sermon was based on the Mark 7 reading of Jesus reaching out to the Syro-Phoenician woman…a curious lectionary coincidence considering the refugee avalanche convulsing Europe at this very moment.  Canon Hind gave a brief introduction to the issue and asked the question did Jesus change his mind about his mission when challenged by the Syro-Phoenician woman’s insistent request for help? Canon Hind said no he didn’t but it may be that Jesus adjusted his theology…the idea that Jesus had a developing theology was in itself left hanging somewhat.

This brief introduction was followed by calling the congregation to get up from their seats and visit some of the five prayer centres around the church.  These contained a series of quite confronting refugee situations occurring currently and craft or artistic or symbolic activities designed to force folk to come to terms theologically and practically with current events.  It was an unusual thing to see in a staid middle class congregation but most of the congregation became involved although some stolidly sat it out grimly!

The service had a mix of new and old music, and sometimes new words with old tunes;  a piano and small group was used in the main but the organ was used first and last. It was an impressive service and carried quite a punch with me given the current crisis in Europe. This is now the fourth Sunday cathedral service we have enjoyed (St Paul’s in London; Gulldford Cathedral, St Albans cathedral, and now Ripon Cathedral as well as Holy Trinity Brompton.  All five services have been engaging, energised and challenging as well as all being totally different. It has been an interesting and edifying experience.

The Cathedral is one of England’s most ancient with a C7th Saxon crypt all that is left of the stone church built by Wilfrid in 672, the Norman abbey founded in 1132, Gothic towers built in 1220 and the nave rebuilt in 1502-5. It is a beautifully maintained and elegant cathedral with Victorian stained glass windows at the lower level, clear glass at the top level. The C20th pulpit is marble and metal and sits a little awkwardly.  The stone rood screen has a clear view to the main altar with the ancient quire stalls behind it. Both side chapels have modern make overs, one of them a 1970s “glam” look designed by silversmith Leslie Durbin. The strength of this cathedral it seemed to us is that it also very much the Ripon parish church and it is alive and kicking.

We emerged into the Yorkshire sun and journeyed eastwards through the wonderful northern moors

and beautiful little villages  to the gorgeous coastal town of Whitby at the mouth of the Esk River. The Abbey ruins still stand proud  and high on a beautiful headland in Whitby overlooking the beautiful village of Whitby which is built around the mouth of the Esk River. From the abbey 199 steps above the town you can look down on the village of Whitby, the winding Esk River full of boats, the busy harbour, the sandy foreshore  with folk swimming, the high rolling surf, the narrow heads, the headland beyond and to the south the rollling Yorkshire fields and hills.

The  ancient ruins of Whitby Abbey, destroyed, as was the Fountains Abbey of Ripon,  by Henry V111’s dissolution of the monasteries still stands proudly today.  Whitby as we all learned in ThL Church History was the site ot the first English synod when the British church had to decide between ancient Celtic Christian customs and Western Roman customs led by the Pope’s emissary Augustine (not to be confused with Augustine of Hippo of the Confessions.) As usual Rome won the day and Wilfrid became a bishop and the Celtic Christians retreated to the wilds of Wales  and Ireland and the islands of Skellig off the coast of Ireland.  But the Abbey ruins stand tall and no doubt could tell many stories.

It is a simply stunning sight on a blue sky day! There is also a youth hostel serving light meals and a stunning museum of artifacts.  A lot of the abbey remains and it is an inspiring and powerful sight to behold and also a place of peace and meditation. A new feature is the setting up of a copy of the Borghezi Gladiator (now in the Louvre) statue in the  entrance to Whitby Abbey replacing one that was formerly set up by Hugh Cholmley who developed the old Abbot’s house into an C18th mansion.  No one knows what happened to Cholmley’s model.  Strangely enough alongside this is a touristic mix of Gothic Dracula stuff because apparently Bram Stoker was inspired by Whitby Abbey to create the scene for his Transylvanian hero. Indeed I did see a number of black crows flapping about with the seagulls!

Bronzed gladiator in the entrance to Whitby Abbey replacing the Cholmondly statue that disappeared who knows when. The original is in the Louvres and is frequently copied.

Standing close by the Abbey on the same hill is C12th St Mary’s church surrounded by a vast graveyard which includes an ancient Celtic cross.  The church, unlike many early churches in Britain has not been Gothicized and retains its crowded box pews, galleries, three tiered pulpit and very ancient stone sanctuary. At first it looks like a junk shop being so crowded with furniture but after a while you get the feel of it.

this sanctuary  is the only uncluttered part of  St Mary’s …the rest is out of control and you can see why these churches were cleared out in the C18th.

The following shots show the chaos of the boxed pews, the three storied pulpit and the gallery above. It is claimed they could fit 1000 in. I doubt that! The other shots are of “Caedmon’s cross and inscription”.

On a number of occasions on this pilgrimage I have found places of deep peace, thoughtfulness and spirituality. This is one of those places and they are needed!

We returned home to Harrogate via  a different even more beautiful road through the Northern moors, seeing the huge hole of Horcum in the ground at NorthMoor National park…was it a meteorite? This is a quite spectacular depression in fact caused by “spring-sapping” where water wells up and gradually eats away the rock above. It is still continuing and has created a humungous depression which is quite awe-inspiring!

Saturday 5th September 2015

We had a quiet beginning in Harrogate this morning wandering around the interesting shops including the famous “Betty’s” restaurant and tidying up Richard’s haircut. We also fell foul of the local Burrough for failing to correctly display our parking ticket..we have written an appeal letter and hope to beat this rap!

We then set out through the gorgeous valleys, lakes, drystone walls and pink heath of the Yorkshire dales. This is a most beautiful part of England and we have been delighted to be back here after our visit to Castle Howard some years ago. Our goal this time was the village of Haworth, the home of the Bronte family.

Haworth is set on a high hill and is a picturesque village attached to the large town of Keighley. Bronte mania is everywhere naming pubs, coffee shops, and numbers of book and antique shops.

The old school hall built by Patrick to educate his children after the disaster of the death of his young daughters is still in the village and holds some wonderful photographs including the old charabang and buses ( I love old buses) that used to run in the village as well as a photograph of the original church that Patrick Bronte ministered to.

The Parsonage is a small house placed alongside the rebuilt Church of St Michael and All Angels and the graveyard.  After the mansions we have visited with their huge reception and State rooms it was bizarre to be in this “normal” village family home comfortably furnished but with precious little room to move.

Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights made a huge impact on me when I first read it at University.  The rich contrast between the earthy vigorous Earnshaws and the rather effete Lintons, the brooding sombre Yorkshire moors with their gales and wildness, the complex and smouldering character of Heathcliff, the deep and spiritual love relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine with its overtones of spirituality have stayed with me ever since.  I read Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre much later and whilst I found it engrossing it was not life-changing in the way that Wutthering Heights gripped me.  I have not read Anne Bronte’s The Tennant of Wildfell Hall so cannot comment on that novel.

The Bronte sisters were happy in the parsonage supporting their father after the early death of their mother. They worked hard domestically and in the village, but also sewed, painted, wrote poetry, taught as governesses and shared many years of imaginative dreaming of semi historical worlds they had created.  Yet there was also much suffering. Their brother Branwell could not find success in life and died an alcoholic.In addition two of their sisters died very young from TB after ill treatment at a village school (afterward portrayed in a very poor light as Lowood in Charlotte’s Jane Eyre.  The level of disease in the village was high and funerals were a major part of Patrick Bronte’s ministry.  Neither Emily nor Anne married and Charlotte died tragically only a year after her marriage at age 39. Neither Emily nor Anne reached 30.

Although they published their novels under the name Bell it was not long before their true genius became evident and the impact of their writing continues to be felt today. There are deep and true strata running through these novels and they do not avoid the moral incongruities of life. It was a moving experience to be in this quiet house and feel some of their joy and pain. Their lives were short but they were happy and productive and their industry has given deep joy and thought to millions.

Friday 4th September 2015

Today we said farewell to Cambridge and its students and bikes and travelled north on the M1 to York and the city of Harrogate stopping off at the beautiful Georgian home of Harewood on the way.  Harewood is the ancestral home for 300 years of the Lascelles Family and their descendants are still the Earls of Harewood and live in the house today.

Harewood was built in the C17th by architects John Carr and Robert Adam with Adam playing the key role creating a beautifully balanced Georgian Building with ceilings in his typical restrained and delicate style. The furniture is all by Chippendale and designed specifically for the house. The grounds are vintage Capability Brown and the major additions in the C19th by Sir Charles Barry have been very sympathetically aligned with Adam’s original work.

This is a place of wonderful planning with an amazing bird park of rare birds, terraced formal gardens, a glorious deer park and vast lawns, parkland, arboretum and forest, a large lake, children’s playgrounds, a second hand bookshop, tea shops and restaurants, and an early C15th estate church on the property.

The house has a vast art collection including  two works by Turner who came there to paint and works by both Jacobo and Giovanni Bellini.

Harewood holds a massive  collection of fine books especially on art history, theology and gardening spread over four large rooms,

books books and more books at Harewood

There are many unique collections such as Meissen porcelain of a particular period and owls.

A feature of this house is that one of the Lady Lascelles was Mary the third daughter of George V and his wife Mary.   This royal connection is evident in many gatherings at the house and there is a photographic trail of some interest. In particular during World War 1 Mary launched an appeal to send every British soldier and sailor a Christmas gift which was extraordinarily successful and went out to many thousands of English servicemen.

A feature of the house is the purpose designed furniture produced by Chippendale

A defining feature of the house is the ceiling work by Robert Adam. Josiah Wedgwood is said to have been influenced by Adam’s designs in his porcelain work.  Four ceilings below.

The Long Gallery on the right has a stunning art collection on display

We have seen many stately homes on this trip and previously but the uniform excellence of Harewood is hard to beat.  There is a living warmth in the house which is magnified by the presence of the work of many current artists including Jacob Epstein as well as the personal work of the previous Earl who was a film director and manager of events including the Edinburgh Music Festival. Everything is artistically and elegantly presented and nothing is over the top. There is no doubt that the elegance of Chippendale furniture and the calming effects of Adam’s design work make a huge impact on this house.

The Church of All Saints was built in 1410 by the Aldburgh family of the former Harewood Castle and contains ancient tombs of the Gascoigne family. It was remodelled in “Gothic style with stained glass windows in 1863. It is still consecrated but it is no longer used on a regular basis.

stone Norman font and tombs of Gascoigne family dating to 1410

Thursday 3 September 2015

Today we ventured into Lord Nelson territory in Norfolk, past majestic Ely Cathedral and crossing not only the River Great Ouse but the River Little Ouse as well as the River Wissey! all lined with family boats and looking sparkling and finally arriving at King’s Lynn. Turning east from Kings Lyn along the Fakenham Road there are three magnificent estates along a 25km length….Sandringham, Houghton Hall and Holkham.  We managed to get into two of them but arrived too late to see the house at Holkham. All three estates had small additional villages within the estates

At our first stop we visited Hougton House,the home of Britain’s first Prime Minister, Robert Walpole and his majestic C18th mansion and gardens.

Charles Bridgeman did the gardens which include vast deer grazing lawns and over 2 miles! of mown parkland with wonderful trees.  The  absolute highlight is a five acre! walled garden containing English roses, topiary, greenhouse, fantastic herbaceous borders, a croquet lawn, sculptures, fountains, follies and the amazing “Waterflame” by Jeppe Heine.  The house was passed to the Cholmondeley family by marriage and the current owner is the eighth Marquess of Cholmondeley. The architects were James Gibbs and Colen Campbell and the interiors by William Kent, a disciple of Inigo Jones.  The significantly remodelled mediaeval St Martin’s church is located in the grounds but some distance and we did not venture in.  A “lightscape” display by James Turrell is a current feature at Houghton.

Unfortunately no photography is permitted inside Houghton Hall  which is a pity because the interior is quite unlike other stately homes we have seen. The walls of the large staircase are covered with grey canvass painted in grissaille style to imitate sculpture i tromp l’oeil style Many of the ceilings are painted and the furnishings are mostly original to the House and functional and “working” rather than works of art for their own sake. A good example is Walpole’s working desk which is located in the most wonderful library.  I was unfortunately unable to photograph this treasure house of books.  On the other hand the State bedrooms had certainly the highest coverings we have seen anywhere and there were significant tapestries covering many walls.  The paintings are the tragedy of Houghton….the whole collection being sold to Catherine the Great and most still residing in St Petersburg.  A massive painting of Catherine the Great hangs in one of the State reception rooms as part of the receipt!  A few have been bought back and the original frames remain but the most of the paintings are copies.  This is a peaceful home with many exotic trees and plants and a most hospitable team of  welcoming guests.

We backtracked from Houghton Hall to the Queen’s personal estate at Sandringham just a few kilometres west of Houghton.

This remarkable estate of 200 000 acres contains one of the most beautiful gardens I have ever had the pleasure of walking in. The tree plantings are quite remarkable and the quality of lawns, lakes, paths and designed gardens is exceptional. The House sits on a site recorded in the Doomsday Book of 1086 but the current house dates from 1870 and it  has survived fire and various additons from various royals. Once again no photography is permitted inside the house so no pics of the inside only the amazing gardens.

The Duke of Edinburgh describes it as “neither a castle or a palace but rather a large country house with an atmosphere of welcome” and I think that is a good description. The family rooms are large and spacious and built for comfort rather than display. Many of the personal collections of various royals from the past are on display (no stamps unfortunately) and the salon has the quality of a Stately home baronial hall with a minstrel balcony. There are books everywhere in beautifully crafted cases and the inevitable collections of arms including a remarkable display of Indian ceremonial knives and daggers given to the Prince of Wales (Edward V11) on a tour of India in the 1880s.

As well as the magnificent gardens the estate includes a museum (containing the childhood cars of the Queen’s children and the first royal Daimler Phaeton), and also the delightful little church of Mary Magdalene in which both Princess Diana and the new Princess Charlotte of Cambridge were baptised. A standout in the church is the silver facing on the pulpit and the communion table donated by a wealthy American to Edward V11.  The round walk back to the carpark from the house is to die for including glimpses of the house from various vantage points and remarkable tree and flower plantings as well as the little church and glimpses of the forest and parklands beyond.

It is easy to see why most of the royals love to come to Sandringham. Remarkably the grounds, shop and tearooms are open to the public throughout the year and the house also for many months throughout the year. Even when the Royals are in residence the public are permitted to wander throughout the grounds except for a relatively small section of the gardens around the house.  Sandringham is memorable in many ways, not least for the 500 staff families  who work hard to keep the estate shipshape and make the working farm run and who are unfailingly polite to the public ( as we found also at Buckingham Palace).

Leaving Sandringham in late afternoon we made a last minute dash for the majestic home of Holkham  in its own village on the seaside just 20 kms from Sandringham. This vast Palladian “pile” was closed by the time we found it but we were able to wander the vast grounds (but not the six and a half acres of walled garden!) and view the outside. The first Earl of Leicester, Thomas Coke commissioned the house in 1718 to house his exceptional collection of (largely Italian) works of art, statues , books and manuscripts.  His descendants still live in the vast estate and it is a busy and dynamic place.  A few photographs of the external appearance  in fading light will have to suffice for this extraordinary palace.

Excuse the worse than usual photo…taken on tiptoe peering through the external wall between the bollards!  amazing statue!

Wednesday 2nd September 2015

Today we beetled off eastward to the rolling green landscape of Suffolk to the busy market town of Bury St Edmunds.  Edmund was the C9th  King of East Anglia who was murdered  by opponents and his body dismembered and he was beheaded. Allegedly a wolf guarded his head until supporters came to find him and his body was eventually buried at the town now known as Bury St Edmunds. Today there are wolves everywhere around town and the story is alive and well.

It was market day today and we enjoyed the Autumnal  sunshine wandering the streets and sharing in the Salamanca Hobart like bustle and excitement with buskers everywhere. It is a very smart shopping centre with or without market day and the whole town generates a sense of pride and purpose. The Palladian Corn Exchange was particularly busy with a very popular beer brewing festival in full swing.

The town retains a high sense of history with its ancient abbey ruins dating from 1065 and plundered by Henry VIII’s operatives. Today the ruins form part of a huge and beautifully tendered garden presentation much loved by families.

A Benedictene Abbey existed on the site of Bury St Edmunds from 1065 but was destroyed by Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries. Today only the city gates to the monastery, parts of the old wall  and a few scattered ruins remain but the townsfolk have kept the site in the middle of town and transformed it into a beautiful garden park with stunning summer flowers and playgrounds for children

During the English Reformation work began on not one but three Protestant churches in Bury St Edmunds. One, St Margarets has been demolished.  Two remain, and ironically they stand side by side with only a cemetery in between…St James’ Church was begun in 1503 as a late Gothic design with additions in 1711(new chancel) and the C19th (new roof and another new chancel).  The most radical changes occurred post 1914 when St James was consecrated a Cathedral. Since that time massive changes have occurred the most recent of which include a new quire and crossing (1970), a new cathedral centre and song school ((1990); new Gothic style lantern tower (2005) and new cloisters and transfiguration chapel (2008). Bury St James’ “Gothic” Cathedral is effectively England’s newest Gothic style Cathedral and it is alive and kicking with a lively congregation and a magnificent interior.

Also since the Reformation, St Mary’s church has arisen from the destruction of the Benedictine Abbey of St Edmund. It is larger than St James and the nave at 213 feet is the longest English parish church. Unlike the Cathedral St Mary’s has had few major changes and remains an authentic late Gothic church with wonderful stained glass, the tomb of Mary Tudor, third sister of Henry V111 and an ancient porch dating from 1440 commemorating merchant John Notyygham and his wife Isobel. According to the folk we spoke to both churches have lively congregations, one “High Church” and the other “Low Church”. It is an interesting phenomenon.

We drove on from Bury St Edmunds to the Elizabethan Melford Hall which sits 15kms from the town in the beautiful Village of Melford which indeed also has its own very large parish church.

Melford Hall has been in the Hyde Parker family for the past 300 years and is set in the midst of idyllic Suffolk wool country. The home is run by the National Trust but the family still alive in one wing of the building. It is no treasure house and the charm of this home is that the furniture and fittings are not so totally removed from everyday life although there are some magnificent individual items.

We both felt really at peace in this quiet corner of Suffolk ..not as intense as the tightly knit villages of some other counties and a sense of distance on a sunny day…idyllic England of the poets…. hard to capture  with our camera

A unique feature of this home is the prevailing influence of children’s writer and ecology campaigner Beatrix Potter who was a cousin of the Hyde Parker family.  Here is found the original Jemima Puddleduck  and a large number of original paintings and drawings of Beatrix Potter and her influence is seen in the garden design and other elements of the home. The small villages of Suffolk are enchanting and we drove through many of them today. An English sunny day in the country is difficult to match!

Two more Beatrix Potter paintings of many at Melford Hall

Today we drove three quarters of a kilometre to a city car park and walked our little feet off  all over the ancient university city of Cambridge. Like Bologna, Padua and Oxford, Cambridge can lay claim to being one of Europe’s earliest universities. It is a beautiful city with its university colleges, impressive shopping centre, lovely river and boats and quite stunning Art Gallery, the Fitzwilliam Gallery.  Cambridge has more churches per square foot than any town I have ever been in even Rome!  Cambridge also has the most amazing bookshop Waterstones with four floors of wonderful books to browse in. Like being in Oxford with the martyrs shrine to Latimer and Hughes it is moving to be in Cambridge where so many Christian movements for evangelism came from and so many effective scholars laboured including Simeon, the Cambridge Seven, Lewis who worked at both Oxford and Cambridge and J B Lightfoot.

Cambridge is of course also loaded up with amazing University colleges with their own grounds, lecture theatres, quarters for students and amazing facilities. It is a place where one feels like going back to university for the pure enjoyment of the environment; it is also a place of a thousand bikes per 100metres.

Of course the standout building in Kings College and perhaps in Cambridge is the C15th Chapel of Kings so famous for its choral work especially its annual Christmas Carol service which requires considerable effort to obtain tickets for. It is in many ways a simple Gothic construction based to a degree on the St Chapelle Chapel in Paris with its high straight stained glass windows.  The view is interrupted by the remarkable vault holding the large organ in the centre of the Chapel. The fan vaulting in the ceiling is remarkable as are the highly carved choir stalls. The Communion table is simple and dominated by the large Rubens painting “The Adoration of the Magi” above.  There is a brilliant explanation of the Chapel’s history and political ups and downs  in a side corridor. Of particular interest is the link with the Eton chapel and St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.

The Honourable Richard Fitzwilliam, 7th Viscount of Merrion (1745-1816) bequeathed his substantial art collection, library and the substantial sum of 100 000 pounds to provide “a good substantial museum repository” for the collection. The collection has grown through the years and a further generous bequest i 1908 by Charles Brinsley enabled the Gallery to be doubled in size.  The original building has a fine Palladian external appearance and the entry foyer and staircase with the dome is simply stunning.

Everyone sees different things in a Gallery/Museum. The Fitzwilliam is brilliantly curated and the setting is majestic. At the moment there is a “personal treasures” exhibition which includes all of those things that folk of different ages have seen as desirable for their homes since earliest times. In addition there is Ruskin’s contribution of 48 paintings by Turner beautifully displayed and annotated and a very detailed display of English landscape painting and on loan from the V & A the Gilbert collection of jewellery and trinket boxes.  A further highlight is the Rothschild Michelangelo sculptures. Their origin is contested but a powerful defence of their authenticity is mounted with the display and in any case both pieces are stunning.   All of this is in addition to a remarkable art collection of all periods, strong in French impressionism, mediaeval Italian and of course English artists of all periods as well as a large number of bronzes and sculptures of both G E Moore and Jacob Epstein.  This is in addition to very significant holdings of early Greek, Roman and Egyptian artefacts of the highest standard especially the Egyptian sarcophagi and the Greek vases. All in all this is a stunning gallery indeed.  A very personal selection with limited photographic skills is included here….wonderfully curated gallery..needs a week. We gave it two hours!

Monday 31 August

As I sit down to write this blog I can’t help feeling overwhelmed being in Europe at this time of moral crisis occurring over the Asian and African refugee crisis. Hundreds of thousands of folk fleeing war and oppression in Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea and Nigeria are pouring into Greece, Macedonia, Hungary, Italy and Malta and making their way by any means possible to northern Europe, preferably Germany, France, Sweden or Britain. The complexities of the source of these problems is massive …political, historical, economic, international, religious and humanitarian. Britain is already a multi-cultural nation and in the motel industry which we now know well fluent English speakers are running at about 50%.  This is a nation of opportunity but it is struggling under the massive burden of dealing with the numbers.

Visiting stately homes also unveils a microcosm of similar historical changes ..vicious religions persecutions, the civil war with atrocities on both sides, destruction of works of art for all sorts of reasons, divisions between social classes and destructive wars between the nation states that make up the British Isles.  I honour William Morris’s socialist goal to remove all  differences of wealth between people…is it possible? It seems Jesus did not think so. Should we strive to care for those who call upon us? Yes of course..what if the numbers are overwhelming as in Rwanda or Viet-Nam who can cope? …We do what we can.  Should we forego the seemingly trivial….art? stately homes? collections? historical artifacts? literature? Buddhist statues in Afghanistan? Palmyra ruins? No I don’t thinks so. Human artistic, philosophical, literary, political, scientific, musical, historical, aesthetic, architectural, economic, religious, social reformation works are what makes us truly human.  So, stately homes with their treasures do not mean anything in themselves…they are pointers to the deep values and the beauty that is possible in every person…if we have enough of these values and enough heart, determination and faith we can and will solve the refugee crisis as well!

And so to Burghley House!

On the last day of Summer in England it was raining cats, dogs and everything in between so we set off for another warm and dry stately home and found it in Burghley House in the village of Stamford in Northamptonshire on the border with Lincolnshire. Burghley bills itself as the GREATEST Elizabethan house in England but there is so little of the Elizabethan left inside the house that that honour should probably go to Longleat.  Nevertheless if it is just the outside to be considered then Longleat’s severe rather blockish design must yield I think to the exciting towers, domes and spires of Burghley though no doubt many of them are later than Elizabeth 1’s Golden Age also. A claim that is more accurate I think is England’s greatest “treasure house” although here also the upstart  C18th challenger Waddesdon might object.

It doesn’t really matter…Burghley House is a most wonderful place, the home of the Marquesses of Exeter for  eight generations and of the Cecil family of Lords Burghley for over 600 years and built by William Cecil, Lord Burghley and sometime friend and counsellor to Elizabeth 1. Members of the Cecil family still live there. The House is now owned by a charitable trust and only the title Lord Burghley is hereditary not the house and contents so its place is relatively secure providing the trust does its work well. The Cecils have been a key family in English history in many areas and are also responsible for the remarkable Hatfield House closer to London.

Once again we land in the midst of wonderful parklands created by Capability Brown in the C18th but once again also there are formal gardens and fountains, a recreated garden of surprises. Once again there are vast tracts of arboretums, deer forests and in this case remarkable fields and accommodation for horse trials which for three days every year and starting on this coming Thursday,  shuts the Village and surrounding roads for three days. There are three restaurants on the property and for all this week a market food court is operating with many yummy options. In addition there is a substantial museum of ancient Chinese and Japanese porcelain collected by one of the Marquesses and beautifully curated.

The sixth Marquess Lord David Burghley won the 400 metres at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics and a silver in the relay at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. He was played by Nigel Havers in the film Chariots of Fire running around the quad at Cambridge with full glasses of champagne against Jewish Brit Harold Abrahams.  Apparently the Lord Burghley in 1981 when the film was made refused to participate in the making of the movie because the real Lord David Burghley actually won the quad race within the minute, one of only two men ever to do so and it was with full matchboxes and not champagne glasses and probably about four years later leading up to the 1928 Olympics not the 1924 Olympics in Paris. This is their version of the lack of participation anyway.

There are over 300 paintings in Burghley House..here we have Verrio’s Hell on the ceiling over the “Hell staircase”; six Elizabethan portraits; A school of Cranach portrait of Luther; and a scary painting of the Cyclops interpreted in human terms.

As with Waddesdon, highlights of Burghley House are too many to list.  Although many of the painting masters were sold in earlier years to pay death duties, there are still over 300 magnificent paintings including a portrait of Luther (school of Cranach), the extraordinary ceiling painting of Hell by Antonio Verrio over the “Hell Staircase” and “The Death of Seneca” by Giordano.

Other highlights include exceptional porcelaine collections (pre 1917 Chinese and Japanese and impressive Maiolica; the extraordinary Royal bedrooms in the State rooms; wonderful cabinet furniture and desks, four fireplaces with silver grates and fittings and the second largest silver wine cooler in the world weighing in at 18 stone (second only to one twice as large at the Hermitage in St Petersburg acquired by Catherine the Great; the humungous kitchen; the servants quarters with a 44 bell system; the baronial hall with gallery including a vast library of books; the stunning views of the gardens from every room and so on.

 From left: 18 stone solid silver wine cooler and Richard enjoying yet another amazing library in the Baronial dining Hall

 blue and white Chinese porcelain and an early Chinese screen

 an amazing model of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and Italian maiolica on a table composed of polished volcanic materials from the eruption of Vesuvius

Sculptures and an antique pram in the crypt beneath the Hell staircase

A feature of Burghley is the attention to the beds and bathrooms in the State rooms provided for royal and other guests. There were many such rooms so they clearly had many guests.

It was a joy to see in this massive house a very large chapel permanently set up which is used on special occasions by the Village for worship as well as for services for the staff including weddings and funerals. The Cecils were always Protestant from their Elizabethan beginnings and sympathies but had a tough time during the English civil war because Burghley was occupied by a Royalist garrison and attacked and overrun by Cromwell’s men with much damage to the interior. It is good to see the Chapel maintained as a place for worship.

Sunday 30th August 2015

This morning we checked out of our Premier Inn in Highwycombe, north of London and ventured to ancient St Albans Abbey Church for the 9.30am Family eucharist. It was fantastic to see children running into the church with their parents puffing behind and it was difficult to get a carpark in the next door St Albans’ School carpark.

The very large cathedral was basically full and once the children came back from their learning activities for Communion it was decidedly full and delightfully noisy. The hymns were all oldies but goodies and sung enthusiastically eg Dear Lord and Father of Mankind to the traditional tune..one of my favourite hymns…Good to hear it again and we finished with Charles Wesley’s “Ye Servants of God, Your Master proclaim..”

The sermon by the Dean, the Very Revd John Jeffrey was on the Gospel from Mark 7:1-8 ..Jesus’ dispute with the pharisees over external rules and internal values. He spoke about shame and guilt societies. Shame societies care less about what folk do provided the external stuff is well handled. Guilt societies major on personal responsibility for doing good even if no one is watching. Christian societies have traditionally been guilt societies and it gets a bad press today because of course too much guilt can lead to depression and other psychological illness.

Nevertheless the Dean argued that a sense of guilt is a good thing which provokes our conscience and challenges us to the highest standards whether other folk are aware or not. For, as Jesus argued to the Pharisees it is what comes out of a person’s heart in speech and action that matters, not just keeping up appearances, Christian or otherwise.

We came away from St Alban’s with a sense of excitement for the Christian community there. They have a Christian education leader and an advertised program which included a five week course on Abraham,  another in Intermediate Latin and a third study group on the Greek New Testament!

As for the cathedral building, they are about to celebrate their 900th anniversary from their Norman beginnings so there is an old stone Norman abbey section to which a later Gothic flint covered vast extension has been added.  The stone rood screen in front of the crossing remains and new sanctuary furniture sits in front of it for the family service.

The more traditional 11.00am service meets “on the abbey side” and the organ sits atop both and meets both needs. They have effectively created two separate worship centres and although it could be said that the architectural line from front to back has been permanently interfered with, my view is that it is a triumph of ecclesiology over architectural intention. The ancient Cathedral has adapted to the C21st and is alive and kicking. We came away very encouraged.

After church we journeyed from St Albans across to encounter Waddesdon House the amazing Baroque mansion built for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in 1874 and bequeathed by his descendant James de Rothschild to the National Trust in 1957.  On first sight we felt we were back in the Loire Valley looking at a French Chateau with its turrets and towers and formal gardens and this was certainly Baron Ferdinand’s goal. This is once again a massive house with multiple storeys and many rooms.

Inside, however, the house  is deliberately structured more like an art gallery as the Rothschilds have been serious collectors for generations. Making their money from the English banking system they have, over several generations, build up quite outstanding collections of paintings (English portraits, Dutch masters and some more modern material), one of the world’s largest porcelain collections (mainly Sevres but some significant Meissen), substantial collections of C18th and C17th French furniture, clocks, tapestries and carpets, musical instruments, lace, buttons, a full scale working aviary, fountains, and exhibition spaces for modern art events. Phew! No doubt I missed plenty e.g. all the amazing interior wall panelling no longer required in huge aristocratic hotels and homes in Paris.  Currently a major sculpture exhibition of the work of G E Moore is on view.

Just discovered how to add all these at once…now have to work out captions! Above left is the formal parterre garden  visible from all the formal reception rooms in the house; above right is a small “green dining room” for intimate gatherings. The modern light fitting has cutlery sticking out at all angles but iPhone photography is again defeated. Below is just a tiny sample of bits and pieces that appealed to us.

This extraordinary light fitting has a clock beneath (for telling visitors when to leave?) and a birdcage above (if the conversation flags?)

This elaborate C18th Franch desk makes me think I should update my plywood study desk at Berwick!  The huge Meissen turkey  and the goat to follow are items made to order. We saw six of these at Longleat but unfortunately managed to delete the photos after a rush of blood finding space on the iPhone!

The two vast Guardi  paintings of Venice in this entry hall do not look much but they are actually huge  and would barely fit in a standard tfbv lounge room.  The Goat as above is Meissen

Everything at Waddesdon is over-sized.  I am still some distance from this garden urn which must have required a crane to place it.  It is huge!  The collection is still growing as the Rothschild Foundation is still behind the collection. This evocative painting of a boy making a house of cards is by C18th French artist Jean-Simon Chardin.

These are all Sevres plates and this is a tiny fragment of three large rooms full of Sevres porcelain opened by the Queen in 1993

These are two of the Bakst “Sleeping Beauty” panels which are quite wonderful in a specially designed round room. The poor unfortunates sitting below are, like we were we, exhausted patrons trying to look excited by wonder after wonder.

The house sits high on a hill in Aylesbury with a vast forest and cultivate arboretum surrounding it before you come to the manicured lawns and formal gardens.  It would be a week’s work to view carefully everything this magical place has to offer. We gave it three hours and retreated to Cambridge through some heavy rain for a quiet night.  Our conclusion is that although this house is quite majestic, our preference is for the humble, straightforward and more homely atmosphere of the William Morris country retreat by the Thames in Kelmscott. Too much of a good thing may well be too much of a good thing!

Saturday 29th August 2015

Today we completed our William Morris quest by driving straight back down from Wightwick Manor via the M5 to Gloucestershire to the small village of Kelmscott on the Thames, not far from its source in the Cotswold hills.  Kelmscott Manor was a C17th farm house, outbuildings and gardens which William Morris leased with his wife Jane and his companion/her lover Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1871.

The Morrises were living at their much loved “Red House” in Kent but it was too far from his London business which was taking off.  The scandalous Rossetti/Jane romance was also taking off and it was socially  convenient for Morris to move the whole triangle to Kelmscott. During this difficult period Morris several times spent six months at a time in Iceland. He had learned the language and was interested in the northern sagas as in all mythology. Rossetti eventually left in 1874 never to return.

William Morris never owned the house but after his death and burial in the graveyard at St George’s Jane bought the house and lived there with her daughter May. The house was bequeathed by May Morris to Oxford University with very severe restrictions re change which led to the house and garden falling into serious disrepair. The Society of Antiquaries to whom Oxford passed on the Manor were able to overturn the will and have spent millions restoring the Manor to its original dignity. It is now a place of wonder and delight set in one of the most engaging villages in England.

The area is agricultural and fairly flat (Rossetti complained about how boring a place it was) rather than hugely romantically beautiful like say Stourhead gardens but it is quiet, picturesque and just 2 minutes from the Thames where Morris liked to fish. In 2003 the river flooded and fast work was needed to save the contents of the Manor House.  In the village there are a number of other early village homes and some newer very impressive additions together with the Memorial hall and three cottages all commissioned for the village by Jane and their two daughters. It was quiet, well away from London and a place for lots ot thinking. The memorial hall was officially opened by George Bernard Shaw a century after William Morris’s birth in 1834.

The rambling house has three floors and many outbuildings and the gardens have been beautifully restored after falling into disrepair after the death of May Morris who lived there after William and Jane had passed away.  All of the original furniture  from both the Red House and Kelmscott Manor was sold at the time  but the Society of Antiquaries has managed to find and repurchase many items of furniture as well as a complete collection of William Morris’s writings and the bookcases are filled with books by Ruskin, Scott, Dickens and many others that Morris read voraciously from.

A number of original prints from Burne-Jones are there as well as some very famous Rosetti portraits of Jane Morris. In addition Morris’s large collection of Durer prints is there, a number of significant quilts and tapestries, the original kitchen, paintings including a wonderful Brueghel of a garden, silk hangings and works of Morris from his various sojourns in Iceland.

It is impossible to acknowledge the depth and  complexity of the gifts of William Morris…a craftsman expert in design of every sort, wood, furniture, textiles and fabrics, tiles, painting and tapestries. His writing varies from learned works of ethnography and linguistics to theology and ethics, translations of the Odyssey, Icelandic sagas, the legends of the Nibelungs and accounts of Greek mythology such as Jason and the Argonauts as well as his own mythologies. He wrote poetry, sagas, literary criticism, art theory and history and these are only the areas I am familiar with. Although a child of wealth and well educated he was passionately committed to Christian ethics and the idealistic goal of abolishing the differences between rich and poor in society and these passions led him to join the Socialist Party in England at a time when the gentry were not supposed to be involved in such thing. All of this while maintaining a highly successful London design business.

Morris’s  Kelmscott Press set new standards for quality publishing and even facsimilies now fetch huge prices. This is a work of some genius, illustrated by Morris and containing Chaucer, The Romance of the Rose, Boethius and much more besides. Morris was also passionate about authentic arts and crafts, and, like Ruskin, was horrified by the mediocrity of mass produced and repetitive designs compared with unique and crafted art and workmanship produced by those who love their work and were not just compelled to be there. To have his skill in languages, poetic gifts, moral strength and to hold together his workaholic writing, designing, business, political, intellectual and public responsibilities at the same time managing to keep a tempestuous loving marriage and home together in the face of outrageous pressure from Rossetti is an achievement unlikely ever to be repeated.  For me William Morris is a true Renaissance man who elevates everything he touches and who puts his learning to both artistic, practical and moral intent.

For Ann it is William Morris’s skill in textile design, weaving and understanding of materials that has inspired her now fifteen year passion for the time and design intensive art of quilting. She has produced over thirty quilts of varying sizes but her magnum opus to date is the heirloom quilt she made for her niece Sarah Lang, also an artist and a teacher of Art as well as a talented musician and event entrepreneur. The particular challenge of this quilt is that each square of flowers was hand appliquéd and indeed, all of Ann’s quilts have been worked by hand. The design for Sarah’s quilt is based on Jane Morris’s handworked quilt which can be found in Kelmscott Manor (currently for some reason on William Morris’s bed!)  The similarities between the quilts can be clearly seen in the attached photos.

Clearly yesterday’s visit to Wightwick Manor and today’s journey to Kelmscott meant a great deal to both of us.  May and Jane Morris embroidered the following poem around William Morris’s bed canopy as can be seen in the photo above. I think the poem speaks for the man.

Friday 28th August 2015

This morning we left our Premier Inn home in  Chippenham in the southern Cotswolds to drive north to the Midlands to our one night Premier Inn home in Wolverhampton North near Birmingham. Along the way we stopped off at the very ancient Church of the Virgin Mary in Tewkesbury which was a Saxon site in the C9th and  Dominican Abbey prior to the Reformation with the church consecrated in 1121.  The Abbey survived Henry V111’s predations because the town of  Tewksbury paid him off for the sum of 453 pounds  (the cost of the lead and the bells!).

T S Eliot wrote in The Four Quartets,   

You are not here to verify,

instruct yourself,

or inform curiosity

ore carry report.

You are here to kneel where prayer has been been valid

                                     As soon as I walked into Tewkesbury Abbey this is how I felt. In many of the churches we have visited I have found myself “reporting” on this or that or seeking to “instruct myself” about this or that bit of history, art or architecture. Here in Tewkesbury Abbey with its massive round Romanesque columns and simple, stately architecture I felt strongly that people had been praying in this place for a very long time indeed. So here I did pray ..for peace in our troubled world and for peace in my own heart.

The C17th organ in this Abbey today was allegedly played by John Milton. He was someone else who loved beauty and peace and I felt a kindred spirit with him today as yesterday at Stourhead House where Milton was twice honoured in the library.  This church has everything, remarkable painted ceilings, naughty misericords, wonderful roof bosses, a tiny Dominican prayer place, a Raphael painting in the Lady Chapel (Madonna del Posseggio) and some wonderful new stained glass windows. It is indeed a place of prayer and peace.

Travelling on up the M5 we turned off at Wolverhampton to find our place of rest and to explore Wightwick Manor House, the newest house ever bought by the National Trust in 1947 (at which time the house was only fifty years old. ) There has been a house on the site since at least the Doomsday book as it is noted there.  In the 1600s a wooden manor house was built and remains still exist in the Malthouse today.

The current house was built in 1887 by Theodore Mander and his wife Flora and they doubled its size in 1893. Mander was an industry king (industrial paints for vehicles), a politician, Lord Mayor and highly decorated public figure. He was also an aesthete and together with his wife they set to recreate the perfect “Tudor House” (architect Edward Ould) and formal garden down to the last detail complete with tiny set windows in odd places, a secret staircase from the front reception room to an upstairs bedroom if Flora didn’t like the person who came to the front door, a huge baronial hall with a balcony, two large staircases, room after rambling room with large fireplaces and much more besides.

Both the Manders and their son Geoffrey and his wife Rosalie were also strongly influenced by the Arts and Craft movement, and Victorian art in general and were avid collectors of Pre-Raphaelite and Victorian artwork. Each room with one exception is wall papered with William Morris designs and significant artworks are found on every wall (probably the largest Pre-Raphaelite collection in one place in England). Works by Burne-Jones (including Love Among the Ruins), Millais (including the scandalous portrait of Mrs Effie Ruskin painted at the time they fell in love when Millais was staying with the Ruskins in Scotland),  Ford Madox Brown,  and many paintings by Pre-Raphaelite women including Lucy Madox Brown, Evelyn de Morgan (the amazing Flora), Lizzie Saddal, May Morris,  and Marie Spatali Stillman.

In addition the house contains two early and rare copies of the Kelmscote printed Chaucer and there are many fine examples of William De Morgan tiles.  It would take a whole day to explore this house and garden. We gave it three hours and found it to be another very restorative experience, not unlike Stourhead the previous day. The National Trust in Britain has done a brilliant job with both properties.