Salisbury Part 37 (You mean you didn't read the 34 others? Shame on you!)

Now that I've got you looking for the other parts (well, not really, you know me well enough), I'm going to settle myself and do what little I can to show you the inside of Salisbury Cathedral.  And I must emphasize the little.  I could have taken about 400 pictures and then been a bit short in terms of detail.  As it was, I was so busy standing there with my mouth hanging open going "Oh my - oh my" that I almost forgot to take any!

Some simple dimensions for you:



The length of the the Interior:   449 feet (your basic American football field is 100 yards - 300 feet)
Width excluding the transepts (see above): 78 feet
Width with transepts:  204 feet
Height to the ceiling of the nave:  85 feet.  Consider that most homes have 8 foot ceilings and you'll get the general idea, but not the real experience.
Height to the ceiling of the vault:  85 feet excluding the Trinity Chapel.
Height of the Spire:   404 feet.

They're really just numbers until you're there in front of the building staring up, or tripping over the front door (because you're staring up).  And then it hits you like a ton of stone (several tonnes, actually).  And there's nothing to say but "Oh my", very quietly.

The Interior - taking a picture of the entire interior at the same time is, from a practical standpoint, impossible for people like me who do not have a professional camera to rely on.  So, again, I have borrowed from google images.  All I can ask of you is that you imagine 84 feet straight up and how many ever feet you can come up with along the floor. 

  

The second picture was taken standing in the area where the choir practices and looking back the other way.  The first picture is showing the choir area and the lecturn to the left and going up the stairs. No, I didn't climb to the pulpit.  I get air sick, and, besides, it would have been rude. Even for me

Now, once one passes into the relatively dark interior and looks across the nave, one of the first things that is visible is this!

Anyone have an idea as far as what it is?  And no, it's not a better mousetrap (although, given the size, it might be a better moose trap!)

Now, for the faint of heart, suffice it to say that the contraption is a clock. No moose or mice were harmed in the creation of this clock.  Not only that, this is a clock that was made no later than 1386 and in all probability before.  As the sign says, it didn't tell hours and minutes.  It marked the passage of the hour by ringing a bell that was attached to it and is currently located in the Cathedral Roof Space (i.e., it's attached by rope).

The clock works and was running in quite cheery clockish fashion when I took the picture before the sign above.  And, since it does work and given the building date, it is the oldest working clock in existence.

The entire cathedral is a lesson in history  -  from the stained glass windows to the various tombs and memorials, it's possible to read much about the world that saw the church evolve in the words and sculptures in this vast space. 

St. Osmund's remains are interred in Salisbury after having been moved from Old Sarum.  He's been moved about a bit inside the Cathedral but is currently near the Trinity Chapel.  No, you wouldn't be looking at bones.  This is the tomb:




There are tombs of knights and bishops, of children and the prime of life type folk, and there are memorials in stone and precious metal. 

This is Sir John Cheney.  Here's a sign about him.

Here's another perfectly wonderfulbit of sculpture of Giles of Bridport.

And his placard:

with a reflection right in the middle.  Giles of Bridport was consecrated in 1257, died 1262, but in that time founded the college of St. Nicholas de Vaux.  And, oh just for grins - was the Bishop of Salisbury.  Not a bad thing at all.

I don't know who this gentleman is other than that he's a bishop of Salisbury.  However, the sculpture is wonderful and the details priceless for anyone seeking a reference for clothing and decoration in the period.

Each figure has its own musical instrument, and the entire screen is in one of the side chapels (I AM going to go back and make my notes much better the second time!!!!). 

The carvings and the sculptures, inside and out, are not only a treat for the eyes, they're a form of entertainment and information for an age before the printing press and before even remote ancestors of the postal system (rapid maildelivery was lost with the fall of the Roman Empire).

There is glass, old and new and newer yet.  The glass above is quite old.  But not the oldest by far.

There is wood in every form and design, veneered and parqueted, marquetried, carved and shaped. 

From the floors to the ceilings, from nave to side chapels, all around you EVERYWHERE in grand silence, there is time watching you watching it.  And everything....slows....down...because you need that time to breathe and take stock of what you've seen, and of what you know you've missed. 

Quiet example:  in the ceiling below, the vaulting is called Fan Vaulting.  It wasn't known at the time that the cathedral was started.  But here it is used as the centures went on.

And, because this IS the 21st century, and because someone might not believe that there is still room to add and change things in this vastness?:

and

and

Which caused both me and Chris some confusion, but certainly piqued our curiosity. (This picture is from Google Images and is from an Art website from England.  The other two are my poor attempts at image capture).  If you want to see more of the statues, you can check them out in google by putting in Sean Henry - Conflux in Images or on the web spot.)

The name of the exhibit and exhibit it is, is Conflux - A Union of the Sacred and the Anonymous.  The sculptor is Sean Henry.  The statues are painted bronze and vary in sise from less that actual human size to much greater.  And they're in numerous places throughout the cathedral and the grounds. 

And, don't you know?  That's what this house of history and worship is - a meeting of the great whose names are remembered, and the thousands upon thousands of the anonymous who have built and rebuilt, sustained and visited and lived near or remembered from afar.

Not a bad place to visit on a July day.  Not a bad place at all.

OH - and, by the bye (I couldln't take a picture of it), just in passing, I also saw one of the four original Magna Cartas (the document was copied four times and King John signed it four times, there not being carbon paper or copies of the mechanical variety then).  And if you think I'm being blase about writing that?  It's because that many exclamation points and underscorings and capital letters and flourishes might be just a tad much to have to put up with!

Ahem - regaining my control (yup, sure), off I go....until the next wander in England - TREES!