tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post1444642434332972529..comments2024-03-25T15:10:13.792+00:00Comments on English Buildings: LincolnPhilip Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04893714514416441572noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-37863462877208840702009-12-24T20:48:29.316+00:002009-12-24T20:48:29.316+00:00Beautiful.Beautiful.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-71533344897896916252009-12-24T09:02:32.993+00:002009-12-24T09:02:32.993+00:00Bucks: I too would like to here 'Spem in Alium...Bucks: I too would like to here 'Spem in Alium' sung in a cathedral. Incidentally, one of the best things I ever went to was a concert with Vaughan WIlliams' Tallis Fantasia played in Gloucester Cathedral, the place for which it was written. A perfect marriage of sound and space.<br /><br />Thanks for all your comments. And Season's Greetings to you all.Philip Wilkinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04893714514416441572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-5520267309195987132009-12-24T01:20:42.734+00:002009-12-24T01:20:42.734+00:00On my miserably unfulfilled wish list for experien...On my miserably unfulfilled wish list for experiences for 2009 is to hear Tallis`s motet "Spem in Alium" sung in a cathedral.I missed a performance of works of Vaughan Williams at Chichester which would have been good too.<br />So I`ll carry these over to 2010.<br />Many thanks for this, and your many other inspirational posts PW ,which have strengthened my resolve,for a decent drive over The Downs,<br />Happy Christmas to you all,not least JD, without whose influence I might not have found out that the sun always shines at Goodwood even when it`s hissing down ! Thanks,Chaps !Bucks Retronauthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13518558456508724139noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-75964399304042609722009-12-23T12:18:42.128+00:002009-12-23T12:18:42.128+00:00Merry Christmas to you and all who visit here.Merry Christmas to you and all who visit here.Thudhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18320037763190473684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-78870096517237476862009-12-22T16:58:53.913+00:002009-12-22T16:58:53.913+00:00Ah, yes, the Brough Superior, the most famous moto...Ah, yes, the Brough Superior, the most famous motor cycle in literary history, and a fine machine by all accounts, though I am no expert in these matters. 'Boanegres' means 'Son of Thunder' or some such, I believe, and being Biblical is a rightly Middle Eastern and noisy name.Philip Wilkinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04893714514416441572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-77344747430159228042009-12-22T16:32:39.469+00:002009-12-22T16:32:39.469+00:00Yes, absolutely! Complete opposites. The passage f...Yes, absolutely! Complete opposites. The passage from The Mint is the conclusion of a wonderfully written description of a fast motorcycle ride on his Brough Superior 'Boanerges'. But I digress...Jon Dudleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09717891707293701969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-7421334810024540002009-12-22T15:26:18.509+00:002009-12-22T15:26:18.509+00:00Jon: Thanks for the quotation from The Mint, which...Jon: Thanks for the quotation from The Mint, which I've not read. Interesting, isn't it, that TEL's view of the cathedral ('frigid perfection') is almost the opposite of DHL's. But then the two of them did have very different, and very personal, ways of looking at the world.Philip Wilkinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04893714514416441572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-49587582435050253392009-12-22T15:07:22.098+00:002009-12-22T15:07:22.098+00:00Another Lawrence, aka Aircraftsman Shaw also menti...Another Lawrence, aka Aircraftsman Shaw also mentions Lincoln Cathedral in 'The Mint' - <br />'I let in the clutch again, and eased Boanerges down the hill along the tram-lines through the dirty streets and up-hill to the aloof cathedral, where it stood in frigid perfection above the cowering close. No message of mercy in Lincoln. Our God is a jealous God: and man's very best offering will fall disdainfully short of worthiness, in the sight of Saint Hugh and his angels.'<br /><br />Unbelievably I've never been to Lincoln, a gap in my experience I intend to remedy next year. From your description the cathedral sounds magnificent. Thank you.Jon Dudleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09717891707293701969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-8183960299956894532009-12-22T05:37:41.095+00:002009-12-22T05:37:41.095+00:00Mr. Wilkinson, great post...wish I could visit Lin...Mr. Wilkinson, great post...wish I could visit Lincoln this Yuletide.<br />Thanks, and a very merry Christmas.Vinogirlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10145696108646897751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-6234079644663047072009-12-21T23:09:12.738+00:002009-12-21T23:09:12.738+00:00I'd quite forgotten about this passage (well, ...I'd quite forgotten about this passage (well, it's more than 30 years since I read The Rainbow), so thank you for reminding me of it. I think Lincoln and Lincolnshire must have meant a lot to Lawrence.The county had the nearest stretch of coast to his native Nottinghamshire, and there are memorable references to the Lincolnshire coast in Sons and Lovers, so it's interesting to find him responding in this fashion, with a similar vigour to the way in which he responded to the natural beauty of the coast. <br /><br />By the way, there's also a Hardy poem that describes Gloucester Cathedral is slightly sexual terms, as you probably know. Curious.Philip Wilkinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04893714514416441572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228081722487474323.post-91667988497841839602009-12-21T22:44:20.126+00:002009-12-21T22:44:20.126+00:00Lincoln Cathedral inspired one of the most extraor...Lincoln Cathedral inspired one of the most extraordinary architectural descriptions in English literature, the visit of recently-married Anna and Will Brangwen to the cathedral in The Rainbow, by the most deeply unfashionable of all the great English writers, D. H. Lawrence. It's a highly-sexualised passage ('the far-off clinching and mating of arches, the leap and thrust of the stone'), describing 'his passionate intercourse with the cathedral'. You'd hardly get away with it today, and in 1915 the book was banned.Neilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18020242863144175965noreply@blogger.com