Bonus Friday Episode: Secret Old Buildings; Trollope; and a Gothic Glossary

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Hello, hello, hello. That sound is the sound of the Trent Church Blackbird. He's commandeering the whole area around Trent Church, the beautiful old medieval church in the on the Dorset Somerset border. He's sitting outside on what looks like a dead tree. That's why all these lovely dead trees are so important. They're used for birds as they're perches as well as everything else. And he's singing his heart out, so I'm just gonna let you here listen to him for a second. We've been here a few times. Well, I've been here lots, but I think I've taken the podcast in here uh three times maybe, and it's because I love it so much, but it's also because I want to have a little bit of a walk because husband and son they forced me out to the pub. They they're there's they're such a pub family, but I'm not I've not been feeling well at all, and rather than just go and sit down, I thought I'd go and get some fresh air. So I'm just having a little walk to the church, and I'm meant to be meeting lovely Hedley Thorne, the aerial photographer, and aerial sort of archaeologist, really, because I'm not sure whether he is actually an archaeologist, but he takes stunning photographs of interesting archaeology from the sky all around the country, really. But he concentrates in the Oxfordshire area, oh gunshot, and I'm meant to be meeting him tomorrow to talk to him about his interests and what got him into it and everything else, but it may might be that we have to move it to Sunday if I'm not feeling any better. But I'm wondering on this rainy English Friday evening, early evening, how you are, what you're up to, and what part of the world you're in. And thank you so much for joining me because this is not a very exciting um podcast to say the least, and it's just me wittering on and introducing, not introducing, but sharing books and literature and everything else with you. But imagine the scene, it's raining, and we're by a medieval church, beautiful church. I'm trying to remember exactly when it was built, and I think we're I think it's the 12th century, but I need to check. And I'm by the Iron Gate, or there's there are many gates, and this is this is the side gate by the south porch. And if I look round, there's a very old house that looks as though it's the same age as the church, and very high. I wonder if it's really old actually, because it's almost got it, almost looks like a Saxon church, it's really tall. It looks like perhaps how interesting actually I've now found myself in this area. I've never been to around the back of the church. It almost looks spooky, like you know. If you watch the program's Midsummer Murders, this is the kind of place that I would now be murdered because I'm surrounded by empty stables, empty barn that would be worth millions and millions if they sold it, because it's huge. I mean, absolutely huge. This so this must have been the village tithe pond because it's huge. I'm so glad I came round here. Really old. You can see it's built of very, very old, ill-assorted, well, it not ill-assorted, beautifully assorted hamstone masonry, but in in areas it's kind of sort of cobbled together in the in a way that shows you it's very old. There are there's another very old building next next to it that looks like it might have been a granary, high thatched roof square, but with a porch that looks like it's been added onto it, and then behind that some more stables. These are all completely empty, and then what looks like a very, very old farmhouse with stone steps leading up to the side of it, and then this building that looks like it's an old Saxon church because it's it's very high, narrow, tiny windows. No, this isn't the chantry, the chantry's around the other side, and this is just amazing, really. I wonder what it is. It's got a ghost window in the side of it. It's it looks like a the sort of place that this whole area could be used in in a film because it's it's so extraordinarily i evocative and eerie, the kind of place you wouldn't want to be when it's dark. Because I'm now right in the middle of this whole complex of buildings, and as I look back, I can see the the west side of the church, I can see the west side of the tower and the steeple rising up with the golden cock on the top or rooster, as Americans probably said because they didn't like the word cock, which is fine, it's not a rude word if you've used as an animal. Actually, I suspect the the building that I was saying is like a Saxon church is in use because as I look round, well no, I it's just there's no well, one of the little windows is open, and around the other side, around the west side of the house, it looks like it's it's sort of been looked after. It's almost as though perhaps it's been divided in two. I'm gonna take I I'm actually gonna video, I've been doing a few videos recently, I just haven't really uploaded them. I'm gonna do a video for you. So if you're listening to this now, go to yeah, go to YouTube and have a look at my it's just Greta on the Maitre and have a look, and you'll see exactly where I'm standing. And if you're a film director of any sort, then you need to come here and uh have some sort of film here, it's just extraordinary. The one that I was saying is like a granary, it looks like it's got the original wooden doors, goodness me, completely untouched. And I mean, nothing I don't think, apart from I can see some modern frontings of one of the stables. Nothing looks as though it's been changed from the time when Charles II spent his weeks here hiding from parliamentary capture after the Battle of Worcester when he well would have been dragged back to London and had some kind of some form of trial, wouldn't he? And would he have been executed? We don't know, we'll never know. Right, let me take a video and I'll get back to you in a second. I've taken videos and photos, and I'm now walking back towards the church, and I'm so struck by this place. I mean, it really would be worth millions. So whoever owns it either doesn't mind about money or does mind about money but has so much of it that they don't have to mind this portion of it. But whoever owns it has such a lovely opportunity here because it's so exquisite. The whole thing could be turned into I don't know, a beautiful hotel or something. And actually, as I I I've come out and it's and there's an old slab of something that always looks like a a large tombstone. But the villagers might here must know all about this place because you know it's so near the church, but you know, as I say, it's the first time I've noticed it, and I've come here many a time, so it is tucked away, but still everyone must know about it. I'm just gonna take a picture of the chimney pots. I wish I had Heidi History Mouse or Fiona Chartra or the other people I uh so rapidly follow on Twitter because their their knowledge is such that they would immediately be able to tell me the age of everything. I mean, I I do know from looking at the building that I said looks like a Saxon church that because of its two light windows and the the rubble at the bottom, that I know it's got to be before, well before, I think, but certainly before 1500. But I'm not sure about the rest. It's uh I mean old walls can look much older because once the walls are in place and they deteriorate, once the masonry is in place and they deteriorate, obviously they can they can look much older, obviously. Uh I'm gonna take a few more photos, then I'm gonna probably get summoned back to the pub. But it's certainly a nicer thing to do than to sit in a pub. I I do like pubs, but I sometimes find the whole having to chat, especially when you're not feeling very well a bit much. Hopefully, we won't be out for long, and then I can tuck up for the night because I'm looking forward. I've had this in the diary for a long time. And heads, if you're listening, I'm really excited to meet you. So I'm hoping to hear from you very soon. Right, it's half past six, and the birds are singing their beautiful pre-dusk chorus, and I'm going to go through the oh listen of the sound. Oh my goodness, that just adds to the whole midsummer murders sound, doesn't it? Oh my god. So this is the lovely old west to southwest gate to the church, and my feet are soaked through because I'm wearing nice boots but suede boots, but I shouldn't be wearing them because I I I've just waded through grass to get to the to the old barns, so I'm gonna have to hide my feet now for my husband because he'll be sad with me that I've got these boots wet because he bought them for me, but you know, he knows the kind of wife he married, so ah, this church, this church. One of the things that's hidden here in the behind the church is an actual apse, an old medieval apse, and it's hexagonal, and so it's just to have a little hexagonal apse beautiful perched here on the west side of the church is wonderful because, as we know, the apse became very popular, and as sometimes you find them on the east side, and the altar was in front of them, but this one is on on the west side, and it's tucked away. And so, if you could imagine, I'm now walking behind the actually, it's it's is it octagonal? One, two, three, no, no, hexagonal. I I'm now behind at the very back of the church, behind the apse, and so to my left is that whole farm complex that I was talking about. And tucked away here, right against the west wall, is uh a memorial that looks very new, but I think that's because it's so sheltered, and it says loving memory of David Garrett, who departed this life August 25th, 1875, aged 69 years, and of Mary, wife of the above, who departed this life June the 4th, 1884. So uh 11 years after, age 78, and this is just tucked away beautifully, it's got its own, it's quite it's mounded up, and it's also I wonder if it was chosen well, it will have been chosen, particularly, because not only is it right behind the apse and in view of the steeple, but it's right by a magnificent yew tree that is growing up and over the wall and into the farm complex that I was talking about a minute ago. And as I tuck walk round here, I can see some stones here. And how much the stones have been ah, here we are. There's some stones that have been deliberately put here, and there's one. Well, there's quite a few that have been painted now. So, this you know how churches have things called messy churches where children paint stones. I think that that's what's happened here. There's about can you hear them in my I'm moving them a little bit. So they've got crosses. This one looks like it's got a boat, and so I wonder if they've had a messy church, and then they've put all the stones here to keep them nice. There's an old oyster oyster shell here. It's either that or the Garrett family is still well and thriving, and the family itself have put things here, but I think it's more likely that they've been painted by the local children. And although I've taken pictures before, I'm going to take a couple of pictures of the apps and post them on Twitter to show you what a wonderful little place this is. And for those of you that enjoy imagining you're in the piece of a churchyard, I'm now going to take you further round to the north of the church to follow my route round because I can hear another it might be the same one, but another blackbird here. And it's such a stunning evening that I mean it's raining and cloudy, but it's mild. The wind has there's no wind, it's obviously dropped, and I can see the blackbird, there it is. And I'm going to just let you enjoy the sound of a very, very old place right in the most exquisite part of England. And no matter what's going on in places around the world, this little part of England, and just on the corner of Europe, facing the Atlantic, is at peace. Aged eighty-three years at rest, and his wife, Martha Morgan Andrews. Morgan almost certainly will have been her maiden name. We don't do that so much these days, but we should bring it back really, is to have as your middle name, your mother's maiden name as a way of carrying it down. And she died uh 1957, so she lived on another twenty six years, but almost certainly didn't marry again, otherwise she probably wouldn't be here with her original husband. I do a lot of geniality as well, so I I get it like you sort of get your eye in for these things. So it's uh I'm now around the back of what I was talking about, saying it was this it's like an old tithe barn. On its east at gable end, it's got a form of decoration which looks like the sort of thing you'd find in a church, and I'm gonna take a photo of it and hope that I might be able to work out what it is. I'm now leaving the uh church, and I've just seen I've got a message from Deer Heads, Wayland Smithy. Perfect, and he will see me then. A lovely, relaxed conversation. I'm looking forward to it. Heads, okay. So that means I can I can get back after this, tuck up, have a good night's sleep, probably publish this as a little bit of a bonus episode, and have a drive probably tomorrow evening up to Oxfordshire, which will be nice actually, because then I can get an early night and look forward to meeting him. I hope you're enjoying these visits to these old places, and I'm certainly enjoying having your company. I wouldn't do it unless people listen, so there we have it. Well, I'd do the visits, but I wouldn't do the recordings. And as I walk up to the pub, there is lovely Kelsey to say hello to. And now, without any segue at all, because that's where we roll, isn't it? Let's go to Barchester Chronicles, sitting in bed with a last minute cup of tea. Do you remember we were introduced to La Signora Madeline Neroni? Okay. La Signora was not without talent and not without a certain sort of industry. She was an indomitable letter writer, and her letters were worth the postage. They were full of wit, mischief, satire, love, latitudinarian philosophy, free religion, and sometimes alas, loose ribaldry. The subject, however, depended entirely on the recipient, and she was prepared to correspond with anyone but moral young ladies or stiff old women. She wrote also a kind of poetry, generally in Italian, and short, desultory sort of literature, and as a modern linguist had really made great proficiency. Such was the lady who had now come to wound the hearts of the men of Barchester. Ethelbert Stanhope was in some respects like his younger sister, but he was less inestimable as a man than she as a woman. His great fault was an entire absence of that principle which should have induced him as the son of a man without fortune to earn his own bread. Many attempts had been made to get him to do so, but these had all been frustrated, not so much by idleness on his part, as by a disinclination to exert himself in any way not to his taste. He had been educated at Eton and had been intended for the church, but had left Cambridge in disgust after a single term, and notified to his father his intention to study for the bar. Preparatory to that he thought it well that he should attend a German university, and consequently went to Leipzig. There he remained two years and brought away Leipzig is a place that my mother grew up in, I think. There he remained two years and brought away a knowledge of German and a taste for the fine arts. He still, however, intended himself for the bar, took chambers, engaged himself to sit at the feet of a learned pundit, and spent a season in London. He there found that all his aptitud inclined him to the life of an artist, and he determined to live by painting. With this object he returned to Milan and had himself rigged out for Rome. As a painter he might have earned his bread, for he wanted only diligence to excel, but when at Rome his mind was carried away by other things. He soon wrote home for money, saying that he had been converted to the Mother Church, that he was already an acolyte of the Jesuits, and that he was about to start with others or to Palestine on a mission for converting Jews. He did go to Judea, but being unable to convert the Jews, was converted by them. He again wrote home to say that Moses was the only giver of perfect laws to the world, that the coming of the true Messiah was at hand, that great things were doing in Palestine, and that he had met one of the family of Sidonia, a most remarkable man, who was now on his way to Western Europe, and whom he had induced to deviate from his route, with the object of calling at the Stanhope Villa. Ethelbert then expressed his hope that his mother and sisters would listen to this wonderful prophet. His father, he knew, could not do so for pecuniary considerations. This Sidonia, however, did not take so strong a fancy to him as another of that family once did to a young English nobleman. At least he provided him with no heaps of gold as large as lions, so that the Judaised Ethelbert was again obliged to draw. to draw on the revenues of the Christian church. It is needless to tell how the father swore that he would send no more money and receive no due, nor how Charlotte declared that Ethelbert could not be left penniless in Jerusalem, and how Lesignora Neroni resolved to have Sidonia at her feet. The money was sent and the Jew did come. The Jew did come, but he was not at all to the taste of La Signora. He was a dirty little old man, and though he had provided no golden lions, he had, it seems, relieved young Stanhope's necessities. He positively refused to leave the villa till he had got a bill from the doctor on his London bankers. Ethelbert did not long remain a Jew. He soon reappeared at the villa without prejudices on the subject of his religion, and with a firm resolve to achieve fame and fortune as a sculptor. He brought with him some models which had originated at Rome and which really gave fair promise that his father was induced to go to further expense in furthering these views. Ethelbert opened an establishment, or rather took lodgings and a workshop at Carrara and there spoilt much marble and made some few pretty images. Since that period now four years ago he had altered between Carara and the villa but his sojourns at the workshop became shorter and shorter and those at the villa longer and longer. Twas no wonder for Carrara is not a spot in which an Englishman would like to dwell. When the family started for England he had resolved not to be left behind, and with the assistance of his elder sister had carried his point against his father's wishes. It was necessary he said that he should come to England for orders, how otherwise was he to bring his profession to account. In personal appearance Ethelbert Stanhope was the most singular of beings. He was certainly very handsome. He had his sister Madeline's eyes without their stare and without their hard cunning cruel firmness. They were also very much lighter and of so light and clear a blue as to make his face remarkable if nothing else did so. On entering a room with him Ethelbert's blue eyes would be the first thing he would see and on leaving it almost the last thing he would forget. His light hair was very long and silky coming down over his coat. His beard had been prepared in holy land and was patriarchal. He never shaved and rarely trimmed it it was glossy, soft, clean and altogether not unprepossessing. It was such that ladies might desire to reel it off and work it into their patterns. In lieu of floss silk, his complexion was fair and almost pink, he was small in height and slender in limb but well made, and his voice was of particular sweetness, actually it says peculiar sweetness. In manner and dress he was equally remarkable. He had none of the mauvaise aunt of an Englishman he required no introduction to make himself agreeable to any person. He habitually addressed strangers, ladies as well as men, without any such formality, and in doing so never seemed to meet with rebuke. His costume cannot be described because it was so various but it was always totally opposed in every principle of colour and construction to the dress of those with whom he for the time consorted. He was habitually addicted to making love to ladies and did so without any scruple of conscience or any idea that such a practice was amiss. He had no heart to touch himself and was literally unaware that humanity was subject to such an infliction. He had not thought much about it, but he had, had he been asked, would have said that ill treating a lady's heart meant injuring her promotion in the world. His principles therefore forbade him to pay attention to a girl if he thought any man was present whom it might suit her to marry. In this manner his good nature frequently interfered with his amusement, but he had no other motive in abstaining from the fullest declarations of love to every girl that pleased his eye. Bertie Stanhope, as he was generally called, was however popular with both sexes, and with Italians as well as English. His circle of acquaintance was very large and embraced people of all sorts. He had no respect for rank and no aversion to those below him. He had lived on familiar terms with English peers, German shopkeepers and Roman priests. All people were nearly alike to him. He was above or rather below all prejudices. No virtue could charm him, no vice shock him. He had about him a natural good manner which seemed to qualify him for the highest circles and yet he was never out of place in the lowest. He had no principle, no regard for others, no self respect, no desire to be other than a drone in the hive, if only he could, as a drone, get what honey was sufficient for him. Of honey in his latter days it may probably be presaged that he will have but short allowance. Such was the family of the Stanhopes who at this period suddenly joined themselves to the ecclesiastical circle of Barchester Close. Any stranger union it would be impossible perhaps to conceive, and it was not as though they all fell down into the cathedral precincts hitherto unknown and untalked of in such case no amalgamations would have been at all probable between the newcomers and either the Proudy set or the Grantly set, but such was far from being the case. The Stanhopes were all known by name in Barchester, and Barchester was prepared to receive them with open arms. The doctor was one of her prebendaries, one of her rectors, one of her pillars of strength and was, moreover, counted on as a sure ally both by Proudys and Grantley's. He himself was the brother of one peer, and his wife was the sister of another, and both these peers were lords of Whigish tendency, with whom the new bishop had some sort of alliance. This was sufficient to give to Mr Slope high hope that he might enlist doctor Stanhope on his side before his enemies could outmaneuver him. On the other hand the old Dean had many, many years ago, in the days of the doctor's clerical energies, been instrumental in assisting him in his views as to preferment, and many, many years ago, alas, the two doctors Stanhope and Grantly had as young parsons, been joyous together in the common rooms of Oxford. Dr Grantly consequently did not doubt but the newcomer would range himself under his banners. Little did any of them dream of what ingredients the Stanhope family was now composed. And next time it'll be chapter ten and it's page seventy five Mrs Proudy's reception commenced and it starts the Bishop and his wife had only spent three or four days in Barchester on the occasion of their first visit. This is what interests me the most rather than all these descriptions of characters but I know that he feels he has a trollop you know that's his style obviously introducing all the characters so I'm looking forward to the next bit. Alright. Now I'm going to finish today with this bonus episode from with a book called I've read before called Gothic Stonework and it was written a long time ago so I'm able to read it and it was written by Ellis A Davidson and I'm going to the glossary and I'm going to finish by just gently reading some of the items in the glossary and I think it's a kind of almost a meditative thing so I don't know if you're able to get yourself into a relaxed situation or whether you're walking or whatever you're doing but as well as taking in the information maybe allow it, you use it as an opportunity just to completely relax and at the end I will say goodnight. So let's start with hammer beam a beam very frequently used in the principal timbers of gothic roofs to strengthen the framing and to diminish the lateral pressure that falls upon the walls. Each principle has two hammer beams which occupy the situation of a tie beam and in some degree serve the same purpose, but they do not extend across the whole width of the roof. The ends of the hammer beams are often ornamented with heads, shields or foliage and sometimes with figures Piscina or piscina as the plural one or more hollows or niches near the altars which drains to take away the water used in the ablutions at the mass. They seem at first to have been mere cups or small basins, supported on perforated stems placed close to the wall and afterwards to have been recessed therein and covered with niche heads which often contain shelves to serve as ormbries. They were rare in England until the thirteenth century but there is scarcely an altar of later date without one. They frequently take the form of a double niche with a shaft between the arched heads which are often filled with elaborate tracery lantern a turret raised above a roof or tower and very much pierced the better to transmit light. In modern practice this term is generally applied to any raised part in a roof or ceiling containing vertical windows but covered in horizontally Frithstool or Friedstool literally the seat of peace that's another example of the TH being replaced with a D German Friedstuhl peace chair a seat or chair placed near the altar in some churches the last and most sacred refuge for those who claimed the privilege of sanctuary within them and for the violation of which the severest punishment was decreed. They were frequently if not always of stone gargoyle curved terminations to the spouts which conveyed away the water from the gutters and are supposed to be called so from the gurgling noise made by the water passing through them. Sometimes they are perfectly plain but are often carved into figures or animals which are frequently grotesque. These are very commonly represented with open mouths from which the water issues, but in many cases it is conveyed through a leaden sprout either above or below the stone figure groin the angle formed by an intersection of vaults. Most of the vaulted ceilings of the buildings of the Middle Ages are groined and therefore called groin vaults or groined ceilings. During the early part of the Norman style the groins were left perfectly plain, but afterwards they were invariably covered with ribs tabernacle a species of niche or recess in which an image may be placed tabernacle work the rich ornamental tracery forming the canopy etc to a tabernacle it is common in the stalls and screens of cathedrals and in them is generally open or pierced through sedilia the seats near the altar in churches used by the priest and officiating clergy during certain portions of the communion service they are generally three in number and finally sacristy a small chamber attached to churches where the chalices, vestments, books etc were kept by the officer called the sacristan goodnight