A Canterbury Tale

Hello everyone! I am terribly sorry about the lapse in writing. I have been running all over creation this week, and have not had a moment of daylight to come over here.

So let me resume-- This would be Monday.
First of all, we got a new teacher on Monday, who arrived while we were in Bath. Our first teacher, who I was quite enjoying, left us this week, and now we are in the care of Dr. Bell, a Dean at Texas Tech, whom I have had before. Evidently, he believes in longer lectures, more complicated field trips, and about twice as much homework. (Lovely.) But we have seen some really cool stuff.

For instance. On Monday, after about two hours or more in our very hot lecture room, (did I tell you they don't have air conditioning over here?), we set out on the train again, this time down into Kent to Canterbury, where we saw the famous Cathedral. This is to the Church of England what Rome is to the Catholics-- this is where the Archbishop is and all. This is also where Thomas Becket was murdered, right in the church (I saw the spot!), by knights from Henry II. (The church and state were having a power struggle.)

The church itself is beautiful, and absolutely huge. It was built in several stages, so it was cool to compare the architecture-- the crypt is Norman medieval, with the round arches and all, then the front of the church is early gothic, (I think), with plain ribbed vaulting and stained glass, of course. The Nave, (where the congregation sits), is later gothic, with intricate vaulting and bigger windows, and it's really tall. But the tower in the middle is the most beautiful of all. It's called the Bell Harry Tower, named after the bell that's in it. (Did you know that all the old bells in these churches have names? If you didn't, you should read The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers.) But looking up at the inside, it's wonderfully carved, with fan vaulting done by the same guy who did the chapel at King's College, Cambridge, which has got to be one of the most beautiful churches in the world (although I haven't been there). It's all just amazing.

And we had the most wonderful tour guide who took us around-- his name was John Jeffries (isn't that perfect?) and he was a little white-haired man whou knew everything about the church. We saw a bunch of famous dead people too, including Edward the Black Prince, which was pretty cool. There isn't a tomb for Becket anymore-- even though people used to come from miles around to see his shrine, (that's why they were going to Caterbury in the Canterbury Tales), somewhere along the way they lost him.

We spent all afternoon going over the cathedral and the ruined monastery that used to go with it, and then most of the people went back home. I, however, and one other classmate stayed another hour to hear the Evensong service, which was done by a visiting choir and was excellent. Then he and I set off for the train station. We had quite an adventure getting home-- we had to change trains once, and wait for a while, because there had been a fire a little ways down the line. And then there were some interesting people on the train with us. . . But I felt like a real Brit, sitting on the station platform, eating an apple and waiting for the train. We eventually got back to Victoria station and home.