Zhan Wang, Stainless Steel Scholar's rock (2007)
Monday, Sept 15
With the ceremonies over, we were able to visit the Cathedral as tourists. Bruce was surprised when asked not to take pictures. But there are plenty on line.
From the net, Cuthbert's shrine:
St. Cuthbert, alive and dead, played a important role in the church in England.
Cuthbert was born in 633 in Melrose Scotland. After years as a soldier,, he entered the Melrose monastery. In time, he became master of a new monastery at Ripon. Ripon followed the Roman rite while Cuthbert followed the Celtic, so he returned to Melrose and became prior there.
In 664 was the Synod of Whitby where the Celtic church adopted the Roman rite. Cuthbert was sent to Lindisfarne , a major English monastery on an island off the coast, to implement the transition. In 676, he retired to become a hermit. He returned to active life as bishop of Landisfarne . He died and was buried there.
In 698, his tomb was opened and his body found incorrupt. Following this came miracles and pilgrims and canonization.
In 793 was the first Viking raid. In devastated Landisfarne. Raids continued. In 875, the monks fled with Cuthbert's relics and the famous Landisfarne Gospels. In 883, after wandering from church to church, they settled into a church at Chester-le-Street. When that church was threatened they moved to Ripon.
The myth is that returning to Chester-le-Street, the cart carrying the relics stopped dead and refused to move. The bishop had a vision of St Cuthbert wanting to betaken to Dunholme. Overhearing a conversation about a lost dun cow locating Dunholme, they turned the cart that way and it moved. So they went to Dunholme which is Durham. Alternatively, it is suggested that the Bishop had extensive church land that included Durham.
It is noted also, that Durham is in a very good defensive position, almost surrounded by the River Wear.
Successive churches went up around Cuthbert culminating in the cathedral we see today.
The Durham shrine of St Cuthbert was the most important pilgrimage site in England before the martyrdom of Thomas Beckett.
There is a statue of monks wandering with St. Cuthbert's relics now in front of library:
Durham is certainly one of the most imposing romanesque (or as the English term is, Norman) cathedrals. Most of it was built by the Normans shortly after the conquest. It is ponderous, dense, perhaps a bit intimidating. Arguably, it shows why gothic style came along. In fact, there are a few proto-gothic pointy arches.
The nave:
Compare to St. Denis, the first Gothic cathedral:
Exterior (no buttresses needed):
Durham Cathedral is also the burial place of the Venerable Bede, or at least part of him.
We remember Bede as the 7th-8th century author of The Ecclesiastical History of the English People.
On a lighter note, the Cathedral served as Hogwarts in the first two films.
Incidentally, we saw the mountains behind Hogwarts on out highland tour:
We had lunch in the Undercroft Cafeteria. Quiche. Ham & cheese sandwich.
Durham Castle is on the hill next to the Cathedral. It dates back to the time when the Cathedral was build (1070, et seq.) and has served as the first part of Durham University since 1832.
To be a university in GB, you need to have a charter from the crown and parliament. There were only two universities before Durham. Today there are over 90.
Durham U. has strong ties to Japan. There is a branch of Teikyo University on campus, the Lafcadio Hearn Culture Center. (Hearn had an utterly fascinating life. See, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafcadio_Hearn ).
We ate meat pies from the local bakery in the room and drank our scotch for dinner.
***
Tuesday, September 16
There is a good Oriental Museum here. It has a few very impressive contemporary Japanese ceramic objects:
We also visited the nearby Botanic Garden. Nothing extraordinary. The fuchsia collection was in full bloom:
We had dinner at The Court, a local pub. Shared country pate starter and crispy duck main. Glasses of generic wine. Quite acceptable dinner.
Sept. 17. We took the train to Kings Cross and hired a car to the airport. Stress free and cost effective.
We are staying at the Radisson Blu so we could have dinner at Annayu, the Indian restaurant here. We were pleased that we returned. Scallops, lamb chops, dal, passion fruit posset, creme brulee, Argentine shiraz rose (Callia alta) and rioja (don Jacobo)..
We leave for Sofia very early tomorrow to start our Road Scholar tours of Bulgaria and Romania on Friday. We are hopeful that we will have wifi there.
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