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| Mompesson House, a National Trust property in Salisbury's Cathedral Close |
In Salisbury’s Cathedral Close, a National Trust Queen Anne townhouse is accessible and imaginatively presented. The plasterwork inside Mompesson House is exquisite and I became obsessed with a set of Mezzotints by Thomas Frye – the faces seemed to be real people with real lives and real things to say about Eighteenth Century living. The house has been inhabited since 1701 (until 1975) and the walled garden is tranquil and welcoming.
It took nearly 38 years to build, it has the tallest spire in Britain, Constable’s famous painting of it is worth millions and we went there. Salisbury Cathedral, begun in 1220, five years after the sealing of the Magna Carta, and rising from a grassy estate in the town of Salisbury. It’s currently home to a soaring installation by artist Michael Pendry; this depicts a flight of doves (Les Colombes) made from individually folded doves, the majority by local community groups. As a symbol of peace, hope and new beginnings it was truly breathtaking.
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| Interior Salisbury Cathedral - spot the flight of doves.... Michael Pendry's Les Colombes |
The extraordinary internal walls, the bowed columns, the decorated ceilings, the infinity font, the lovely cloisters, the weird medieval clock, the Prisoners of Conscience window, the intricate quire stalls, the tiny sculptures of Vices and Virtues, the medieval friezes in the Chapter House, the Magna Carta exhibition (yes, one of the surviving copies is there), the model with masons, blacksmiths and artisans at work building the cathedral (with nary a harness or hard hat in sight!) Proper Ken Follett Pillars of the Earth stuff (and, yes, Kingsbridge in the novels was inspired by Salisbury.)
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| Little Gidding panels, the infinity font and Les Colombes |
Little Gidding
The title of this post comes from Little Gidding, T S Eliot’s final poem in The Four Quartets, a masterpiece of yearning. In my (tentative) reading the poem speaks of love; pilgrimage and travelling, real and metaphorical; escaping earth-bound concerns for a better self; confronting regrets, fears and doubt and striving for hope, renewal and authenticity. Only Connect. We need to reflect on who we were, examine who we are and believe who we can be. Somehow the glass panels in Salisbury Cathedral and the soaring doves of Michael Pendry (and the ridiculous optimism of the Magna Carta – what it was, what it is and what it may yet be – somehow synthesised for me on our visit.
We die with the dying:
See, they depart, and we go with them.
We are born with the dead:
See, they return, and bring us with them.
The moment of the rose and the moment of the yew-tree
Are of equal duration…..
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
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