Categories: uncategorized
Date: 15 August 2005 01:34:18
We spent a few days in Salisbury this week. I went to see someone I have not visited for nearly ten years. And as I rounded a bend on the A36, there she was.
When we were at college we would go, from time to time, to visit this beautiful old lady. I remember the excitement of rounding a bend coming down a hill, and there in the distance she stood, pointing high up into the sky. The cathedral is really something else. She stands on foundations four feet deep. Her spire reaches to 414 ft. Originally she was capped by a tower, but when Lincoln was built they added to her great beauty. The pillars in the transept are of Purbeck marble and when the spire was added they bowed at the top under the weight. We were told once that it is only prayer that keeps her standing.
We decided to go and see if we were in time for Evensong. We had timed it just right, the bell was being rung to call us to worship and as I entered the Close I fell in love all over again. Beauty, not for her sake, not like the rich and famous of today, but beauty pointing to something even more beautiful beyond.
After Evensong was over, we lingered to look around. Amongst her beauty and our memories was something new. A font of sorts, right near the north door. Not a font really, but an art installation being used as one. It was square, with the corners sort of stretched out - I'll post some photos if they're any good when I work out how to! Water was pouring out of the corners and yet the surface was still. It brought to mind all sorts of imagery, water of life, cups overflowing, etc. And in the stillness of the surface the cathedral was reflected, arch upon arch into eternity. I was transfixed.
Eventually we headed back to our hotel. But for those of you who have read Susan Howatch, the images of Starbridge were very powerful, entering the Close was entering a different world with different people, Jon Darrow, Ashworth and Aysgarth. For a little while it all seemed so real.