Thoughts of Fripp and Eno’s (No Pussyfooting) come to mind here. Mind you, it took several decades for its genius to grow beyond a few hundred sales - but still an esoteric essential for anyone’s collection, that’s for sure…
Part of a lesser featured work of the Pearl Manuscript (British Library MS Cotton Nero A.x/2) in translation here. Of a more religious nature than Pearl and Gawain, Cleanness still contains the poet’s deep personality, wonderful metre and rich NW Midlands dialect. The whole codex is wonderful!
I saw Metropolis there a few years ago. Quite something!
Stone effigies of an armoured knight and a lady on top of a tomb in Benington church, Hertfordshire. Both figures lie on their backs facing upwards and are shown at prayer. A large candlestick is visible in the background,
Faces of power from long ago fashioned most finely from stone. Here, Sir Edward de Benstede and his wife Joan Thornbury at Benington, Herts. Edward successfully navigated the end of Richard II’s reign to serve under Henry IV. Remarkably, he was around 77 when he died - a grand age. #TombTuesday
Polite question: can someone please tell me who it was that told railway companies that having closed counters with no staff, ticket machines that don’t work, unhelpful security guards who can’t sell tickets and ticket barriers that only work with a valid ticket was EVER a good idea? We need PEOPLE!
Beautiful! Thank you!
And/or - I love the sense of threatening uncertainty in this sign. There’s some implicit bylaw being referred to here and a sense of how people might try to avoid it. Picture the sign writer and those behind the words, gathered to catch out the unwary!
Detail of a foliate capital at the top of a Norman church pillar, lit by sunlight. In the background are wooden pews with poppy head bench ends, and fourteenth century arches.
Have a touch of Romanesque just to make your Monday! Beautifully cut capital on a pillar at St Andrew’s, Spratton, Northamptonshire. The church, incorporating builds from different periods, also features a particularly fine 14th Century effigy of a knight, which I’ll be blogging on shortly.
Castles in the landscape
Magnificent!!!
I think these are the only two examples in Britain. I think the motif is common in France; I have seen them (from memory) on a church door at Loches.
Church font featuring carved mermen at each corner. The font is mounted on circular pillars and stands on its own raised plinth. In the background can be seen arches forming the aisles of the church, plus church pews and tables. Light streams in through windows above.
The magic of mermen made out of stone and settled so far from the sea. Fabulous Romanesque font from the earliest days of St George’s church at Anstey in Hertfordshire - one of many wonders to be seen here. #FontsOnFriday
Wow - I didn’t know such jobs were still available; clearly ideal for someone possessing the sort of pipe-smoking, drink-befuddled languid torpidity redolent of the old British civil service! A trip to the Labour Exchange clearly awaits!
Well that’s funny!!! Not much has changed since the last time I walked Whernside!
Knights in arms, like Amis and Amiloun! Lovely image!
Many thanks for this. You might find some of my blog posts on Sir Gawain (and other northern English romances) of interest. www.mythicalbritain.co.uk/blog
Castles in the landscape
Three graves resembling beds with large gravestones at the heads and smaller ones at the feet, with tubular covers between heads and feet. The graves are situated in green grass next to a flint church wall.
Together in eternal sleep and talking in their dreams.
Three graves in the churchyard at St John the Baptist, Great Amwell, Herts, a very special place nestled on the edge of the Lea valley by an old Saxon spring and in the shadow of what may have been an early earthwork settlement. #TombTuesday
Books with fine bookmarks beautifully made with green men and other great forms!
Thank you! Super castle too!
River scene showing still water next to a small old wooden industrial building resembling a shed. In the background are fields and trees and there is a bright blue sky above.
What starts off in Ware winds up in London. Near this small town the New River begins, drawing water from the Chadwell & Amwell springs to supply water to the city, 28 miles away. Opened in 1613, it was a massive undertaking & even today provides 8% of London’s water. A quiet spot to start the week.
Fantastic! Thank you for sharing this. Books are going well, thank you - hoping to have news of more soon. Watch this space!
These are rather nice!
Decorated Norman arch through which you can see the inside of the church, including a red carpet that the floor and various items of much later church furniture.
This rather special twelfth century arch seen when leaving the Victorian vestry at St Peter’s, Theberton, Suffolk is not where you’d expect to find it- but it’s a nice surprise when you do! #AdoorableThursday
Book jacket for Michael Smith’s translation of King Arthur’s Death (the Alliterative Morte Arthure). The jacket shows a linocut of a knight looking angrily thoughtful; the book is lying on an antique wooden surface.
In the Alliterative Morte Arthure (ca. 1400), King Arthur’s foreign wars see him seemingly destroying his enemies but, with delusional vanity now driving his every move, events turn against him at home. Returning, he loses his friends, his kingdom & his life. Old stories, huh, what can they tell us?
Open landscape with a low mound in the foreground against a backdrop of a lake, distant hills and a vast blue sky. A fenced pathway leads to the mound which contains a chambered cairn.
Upstanding up in Orkney’s isles, Unstan mirrors the mountains. With finds dating back over 5,000 years, this chambered cairn was once bare of turf and decorated with patterned stonework. Although this feature is now hidden, the tomb’s presence in the landscape still makes a statement. #TombTuesday
One of my favourite films!
These are beautiful. Thank you for sharing!
Stone sculpture of a dog at the foot of a medieval lady in a church. His face has a look which seems both curious yet smiling.
I wish you a happy and peaceful Easter with this delightful de la Pole dog and his wonderfully wry expression! What is he thinking, I wonder?
The perfect answer to the toxicity of Agent Orange. #BritsAtTheirBest