Love seeketh not itself to please, / Nor for itself hath any care, / But for another gives its ease, / And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair. WILLIAM BLAKE Songs Of Experience
Looking back on the softly sloping escarpment of the Lincoln Edge ...
The symbol of the Viking Way is a horned, Viking helmet. (But did you know the Vikings never actually wore horns on their helmets? Yes, folks, it's just another of those myths we all grew up with. Like the one about Father Christmas. Or the one about warts being the mark of the Devil. Or the one about marriages ending happily ever after ...)
Here the Way approaches Lincoln's South Common. Can you see Lincoln's imposing cathedral on the skyline? This cathedral has been the jumping-off point for many a famous and not-so-famous marriage. For my money, it's one of the finest Gothic buildings in Europe ...
I make my way up Lincoln's quaint and cobblestoned Steep Hill ...
... until the glorious, freshly jet-cleaned cathedral comes into view through the Exchequer Gate arch ...
I take a photo of the writhing, bleached-white figures in the stone frieze on the western facade. This scene depicts the Biblical 'Harrowing of Hell' ...
6 comments:
Someone at The White Hart (where we stayed the other week) told me that there are Peregrine Falcons nesting on the cathedral this year.
Yes, I saw one hunting over Waddington, Pat.
Great photos, Robert, and Lincoln appears to be a very charming town. The cathedral is magnificent!
There's a lot of room for jumping off points in this post, Robert.
OK, here's one. My husband dressed up like Brunnhilde for Halloween a couple of years ago for his fourth grade party. Long blonde braids and all. (Grass skirt too.) Sadly, he mistakenly wore a horned Viking helmet. And we thought his costume was so authentic! I'm a stickler for details and authenticity. Well except for the grass skirt.
Now that's a historic downtown! Sorry, we've been laughing at the sign all over North America...
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Lincoln is fine, George, and historic, and all the rest of it - but I think I live too close to appreciate it. My kids - who were brought up in its provincial shadow - have (I think quite rightly) rejected it.
Ruth! This made me smile! Authentic or not, that sounds a cool party. It reminds me of the time I shaved my legs, put on make-up, hitched on a dress, then drove down the M1 motorway to a fancy-dress do. Carmen's aunt was convinced for at least two hours that I was a long-lost female cousin from the Antipodes.
Rachel - 'Downtowns' will always be 'historic', that's for sure, in today's touristic and marketing world. (An interesting challenge how Luton, Skelmersdale or Immingham might be marketed?)
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