Review of Saturday, Salisbury
I stayed in Salisbury for two nights after two train changes leaving East Grinstead. Thankfully, Lily rode the same train as far as Crawley and she pointed me in the right direction to the train that took me to Woking - one stop. Then another train to Salisbury and a 5 pound taxi to the Alabare Guesthouse. As I found out, it is a little hidden away and when they aren't hosting retreats, they operate as a B&B. The cheapest room is 52.50 - a single with shared bathroom. I'm getting to be an expert at the shared bathroom with carefully timed toilet breaks. There was a TV in the room but I haven't watched anything since I have been here. WiFi in the room is another matter and I was grateful for that. So kind of an uneventful Friday night - I bought a sandwich at Woking so no need to go out. I arrived around 830 pm.
A real English breakfast the next worning - everything but the sausage and beans along with coffee and muesli (my favorite British cereal).
First stop was at first, a little confusing walk to Salisbury Cathedral but not really so far and once you cross the main road (actually via an underpass) you can see the spire
The John Constable painting of Salisbury Cathedral, 1825 "painted as a gesture of appreciation for John Fisher, the Bishop of Salisbury, who commissioned this painting, Constable included the bishop and his wife in the canvas (bottom left). The view depicted in the paintings has changed very little in almost two centuries."
The spire is off and tilting at about 75 cm. but since measurements taken in 1951 and 1970, the tilt has not increased. One can take the stairs upwards. For the next image of the choir, I sat in the fifth seat against the wall for the 5:30 pm Evensong, something I had never attended before. It was marked Gillmore Manor. The singing was beautiful - sort of like a mass but without the bread and wine and with a short reading from the Gospel but lots of singing. Two facing rows of young boys who would have been castrati in Renaissance times and behind them a row of older men (deacons?) who leant their voices to the many religious songs. A lot of standing up and down but no kneeling though there were small padded footstool like kneelers beneath the front part of the choir.
Salisbury Museum - Wessex Collection from Neolithic to more Modern with a Costume gallery and pottery gallery upstairs including a Wedgewood Collection. I found the Neolithic finds the most interesting and amazed by the plethora of pottery and large scale pottery at that. The museum is on one side of Cathedral grounds
A real English breakfast the next worning - everything but the sausage and beans along with coffee and muesli (my favorite British cereal).
First stop was at first, a little confusing walk to Salisbury Cathedral but not really so far and once you cross the main road (actually via an underpass) you can see the spire
The spire is off and tilting at about 75 cm. but since measurements taken in 1951 and 1970, the tilt has not increased. One can take the stairs upwards. For the next image of the choir, I sat in the fifth seat against the wall for the 5:30 pm Evensong, something I had never attended before. It was marked Gillmore Manor. The singing was beautiful - sort of like a mass but without the bread and wine and with a short reading from the Gospel but lots of singing. Two facing rows of young boys who would have been castrati in Renaissance times and behind them a row of older men (deacons?) who leant their voices to the many religious songs. A lot of standing up and down but no kneeling though there were small padded footstool like kneelers beneath the front part of the choir.
Salisbury Museum - Wessex Collection from Neolithic to more Modern with a Costume gallery and pottery gallery upstairs including a Wedgewood Collection. I found the Neolithic finds the most interesting and amazed by the plethora of pottery and large scale pottery at that. The museum is on one side of Cathedral grounds
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