Jonah Window

Earnley is an incident in the largely characterless sprawl of seaside homes along the Sussex coast. Only it has an old church...

13th century....



And the old church contains a rather lovely modern window (dedicated 1987) which was given in memory of the artist Yvonne Hudson Rusbridge. It shows Jonah in the belly of the great fish accompanied by mer-people blowing horns, while above them the Spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters. .



Here's a close up of one of the mermen



And here's Jonah



The window was made by P Soderberg, using Hudson Rusbridge's own designs.

The Chapel At Manhood's End

I did think of putting a NSFW warning on this but then I came to my senses. After all the image is Tudor and it's in a church for pity's sake.

It represents the martyrdom of St Agatha- not a subject often depicted in art- and perhaps you can see why.



It's part of a memorial to John and Agatha Lewis, Lord and Lady of the Manor of Church Norton. St Agatha is here because she's the woman's name saint. The whole monument looks like this...



St Agatha is sort of tucked round the corner on the right- at right angles to the figure of Agatha Lewis kneeling at her prie-dieu. John Lewis is also supported by a saint- in his case a fairly tame St George. We need to suppose that the empty central panel once contained a religious image- probably a crucifixion scene.

Here's a close-up of John in his armour and page-boy haircut.



And now for the bigger picture. The Lewis monument is one of the leading features of the Church of St Peter- otherwise known as the Chapel of St Wilfrid- at Church Norton.  The history is a little complicated. St Wilfrid the Apostle of Sussex built his base- which became a cathedral- on the Manhood peninsular- which is the sticky out bit of land below Chichester which culminates in Selsey Bill.  His building has long since disappeared, but the medieval church probably occupies the same site- because it would, wouldn't it?  St Peter's church used to be a quite big but- what with the nearby harbour silting up and the population moving away- the decision was taken in 1864 to demolish it- very carefully- and rebuild it in the nearby town of Selsey- leaving the chancel behind to serve as the mortuary chapel for a graveyard that was- and is- still open for burials.



And now a shout out to the Kiplingites on my FL. You probably know the poem Eddi's Service which is appended to the story The Conversion of St Wilfrid in Rewards and Fairies. Well this- supposing the sites coincide- is the nearest thing standing to The Chapel at Manhood's End where we can suppose the action to have taken place.

The Novel Of A Dream

I started writing a novel in bed last night- half in a dream and half on the edge of it. The opening went something like this...

I never liked my father- he was a Victorian clergyman of the muscular variety- and we eventually had a falling out. As I remember blows were exchanged. I had a little money laid aside and spent it on a passage to South Africa where- being good with guns, women and horses- I got a job as a carter...

The novel was going to be called Q-  and it would have developed into an adventure story in the style of King Solomon's Mines or Alan Quartermain.