Canterbury

Boxing Day is celebrated on December the 26th in the UK, and it's a bank holiday. Traditionally it was a day when wealthier Brits gave a box containing gifts, money and/or food to their servants. We packed ourselves into the car and headed to Canterbury, a two hour drive east.

Jet lagged and holiday lagged.

Canterbury was high on my list of places to visit.

Historically, Canterbury Cathedral has been a place of pilgrimage, to visit the tomb of the murdered Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket. Chaucer described the pilgrimage in Canterbury Tales, written in the late 1300s.

As Archbishop, Thomas Becket had conflicts with King Henry II over the rights and privileges of the church.

King Henry II wanted less clerical independence and a weaker connection with Rome, he was able to convince all the higher clergy except Becket.

Six years later in 1170, following lots of excitement including two years of exile in a Cistercian abbey in France, four knights arrived at the Cathedral and asked Thomas to come with them to Winchester to account for himself.

He refused. The knights left the cathedral and retrieved their weapons which they had left outside.

They returned as Thomas Becket was entering the main hall for vespers. Edward Grimm, who was wounded in the attack, wrote an account of the murder.

The sight of Thomas Becket's murder.
Photo from Wikipedia.

Then, with another blow received on the head, he remained firm. But with the third the stricken martyr bent his knees and elbows, offering himself as a living sacrifice, saying in a low voice, "For the name of Jesus and the protection of the church I am ready to embrace death."

It is a gruesome and riveting story.

Two years later there were many stories of miracles associated with Thomas Becket and he was canonized by Pope Alexander III.

The Holy Trinity.

Do not miss the crypt. There is a sculpture "Transport" by Anthony Gormley hanging above the place where Thomas Becket's tomb was located, before being destroyed in the reformation.

It is made from old nails preserved from the cathedral roof restoration. This photo is from Art News website, no photos are allowed in the crypt. Speaking about the sculpture Anthony Gormley said,

“The body is less a thing than a place; a location where things happen. Thought, feeling, memory and anticipation filter through it sometimes staying but mostly passing on, like us in this great cathedral with its centuries of building, adaptation, extension and all the thoughts, feelings and prayers that people have had and transmitted here. Mind and body, church and state are polarities evoked by the life and death of Thomas Becket. We are all the temporary inhabitants of a body, it is our house, instrument and medium; through it all impressions of the world come and from it all our acts, thoughts and feelings are communicated, I hope to have evoked this in the most direct way possible”.

During our visit the boys choir was practicing, filling the huge building and my head with their voices.

Sitting outside the quire, the boys were singing on the other side of the gate.

I was so happy to have William and Anna with us for a while.

Big trees abound in England.

If you don't want to watch this entire video, skip ahead to 2:05 and watch from there.

Firebolts of love from England!

Hartley-Wintney

In early December, Babette and I drove to visit the large village of Hartley-Wintney, Hampshire. It is a gorgeous town with lots of antique shops. We walked around, visited the duck pond, with a thatched duck house...

saw the Mildmay Oaks, about which the Hartley-Wintney parish website describes:

In 1805 Admiral Collingwood, who was in command of the Navy after the battle of Trafalgar, was appealing to landowners to plant oaks: “What I am most anxious about” he wrote “is the plantation of oak in this country. We shall never cease to be a great people while we have ships and we cannot have ships without timber.”
Lady Mildmay, who had become Lady of the Manor in 1786, seems to have responded to his appeal by instructing her steward in Hartley Row to plant out acorns. From these grew the now famous Mildmay or Trafalgar Oaks.
They provide Hartley Wintney with its most impressive and historic feature and are believed to be unique – despite extensive research it has not been possible to find another surviving regimented plantation of Oaks planted in this country at that time.

Babette amidst the Mildmay Oaks.

Hartley-Wintney has the oldest continuously played cricket pitch in the world!

Lunch at the Cricketers.

"Cricket is the greatest thing that God ever created on earth, certainly greater than sex, although sex ísn't bad either." Harold Pinter

And then we happened upon St. Mary's, a 13th century church built on a hill above the village.

I loved it. I love graveyards. I like reminders of our mortality, it brings me back to what I care about most.

nello!

As I walk among the ancient signs of lives lived, I think about the here and now.

I want so badly for this life I have to count.

I think about my children, and their precious gift of now.

What a blessing it is, all this.

Matilda Anne dead and gone at 44.

Winchester

Babette and I drove to an hour south to the beautiful city of Winchester.

Please take a moment to contemplate this parking space...one thing I will NOT miss about the UK. Another dreadful parking fact is that almost every parking lot (car park) is pay parking. This one in Winchester was short term parking, so when we returned after 4 hours and 15 minutes, not realizing the limit was 4 hours, I had to pay £15!! Yosemite Sam could best express my sentiments at that moment.

Winchester is lovely and very walkable, with lots of old buildings and a charming High Street.

Cathedral

Window designed by Edward Burne-Jones, Arts and Crafts Movement.

Grave of Jane Austen.

Blessed hope.

Medieval tiles.

Mural depicting Mary restoring the hand of an innocent man.
Now do you believe, Nin?

Saint Joan of Arc.

We went for lunch at the Wykeham Arms, which is a charming pub, just around the corner. I definitely recommend it if you are visiting without children, because they don't serve them. It is very busy, so make a reservation.

House where Jane Austen died in the arms of her sister Cassandra.

Statue outside the Winchester College, founded in 1382.

Is this not the happiest baby Jesus?

Wall of Winchester Palace.

Alfred the Great,
King of Wessex from 871-899.

Christmas market next to the Cathedral, so much fun!