Christchurch Priory

[poliphilo]

We had a quiet day yesterday. Just pottered around Christchurch then came back to the hotel and put the tennis on- and Ailz did her cross stitch and I edited photos. Christchurch Priory is one of England's greatest churches- mainly Romanesque but with Perpendicular add-ons- and it has a Tree of Jesse which very largely escaped the attention of the little men with hammers.



Also a swoony memorial to Percy and Mary Shelley...

Comments

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

with the *@#% World Cup, Tennis is getting a short shrift here.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

England went out in the first round (thankfully).

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

That's a pretty wonderful Tree of Jesse -- interesting that the trunk leads to a pulpit-like affair rather than branches as in many of the others I know.

That's quite a swoony memorial to Shelley. Are you a fancier of Shelley? If so, you might be interested in this project on Prometheus Unbound, spearheaded by a couple guys from UPenn and including a MOOC (online course) as well as a seminar series and other delights. I heard them present last week and thought I might try it, going so far as to download a copy of the play, but I am finding it heavy going.

https://sites.google.com/site/theunbindingprometheusproject/home

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I had a bit of a thing for Shelley when I was a kid, but it faded. There are things of his I still like a lot- parts of Adonais for instance.

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

That last one looks a lot like that other Mary and that other dead guy.

[negothick.livejournal.com]

Atheist provocateur Percy B. would NOT have liked that monument! Mary is "Memorial Guest of Honor" at this summer's Readercon. That image would have been great for the program book.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's a powerful image, I think- and should be better known.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The sculptor- chappie called Weekes- will have known what he was doing.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

I'm rather fond of that weed-draped drownèd Shelley, especially as when I was last there it was tucked away in a corner of the bookshop... All bookshops should have one.

I think I remember reading that the monument was originally intended for St Peter's in Bournemouth, but they turned it down for being too big/sacrilegious(?)...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

They've moved the bookshop since. And quite right too. Churches often undervalue their possessions.

I did wonder why the monument had ended up in Christchurch- a town neither of the Shelleys had any connection with- so far as I can see.

Bournemouth's loss is Christchurch's gain.