The Romance of Churches, Chapels, but not so much Cathedrals...

St. George's Chapel (inside) and Monument of Princess Charlotte above... St. Bernard's school and the grand staircase above ^

I often wonder why I love churches. I am pretty sure now that it is not some inherent religious desire I visit them and admire them so. It is still a puzzlement but this snippet of a poem I found in a book- "The Romance of Saint George's Chapel, Windsor Castle"-hits the nail on the head.

In the elder days of Art,
Builders wrought with greatest care

Each minute and unseen part;

For the Gods see everywhere.

Let us do our work as well,

Both the unseen and the seen;

Make the house, where Gods may dwell,

Beautiful, entire, and clean.

Well, the book only contains the first stanza, but I looked up the rest and it just captures it perfectly. It is called "The Builders" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It is a rather nice poem, but these are by far the two best stanzas.

St. George's Chapel really does just take your breath away. It is just that history, the adoration and loving care given to this building, a living monument to devotion, faith and hope. What a marvellous thing, eh?

One of the few great things about my secondary school was the 'olde worlde' part of it, the part that used to be an old manor house with its own private chapel attached, the crooked steps up to the history rooms, the terrifyingly steep spiral staircases and the huge, high-ceiling, shuttered windows. The chapel was beautiful, except when it came to the 'whole year gatherings' where we would be forced to sing, both badly and embarrassingly alongside our peers, and kneel, and pray and then get back up again. I am definitely irreverent!!

Hmm... anyhow I am deviating. Apart from the horrors of singing that the walls no doubt still harbour, its the sanctuary, the love and the dedication put into this small section of the building that is breath-taking. Every time I step inside a chapel/church (not so much Cathedral- that seems to be built more with a flair to show off and be impressive but impersonal. However there are some exceptions...) I miss that sense of certainty, of omnipotence of a greater being, that these fellows who built the chapels, who commissioned them. They may not have been devout or stuck to all the rules in the bible but it was a way of life... few said that they didn't believe in anything.

Today, as the news keeps telling us, Britain is falling apart. The ironic thing is they have said this for hundreds of years... On working in the Chapel archives and Chapter Library, the number of tracts, sermons and books I have found on how the Popish threat is sure to ruin the country and how Protestantism is sure to come to a sticky end, and how if we disobey the bible we are going straight to hell. Society would fall down without these rules they thought. It makes me wonder whether they may have been right. I am a keen example of how irreverent a society the British nation is. However it is a depressing route I shall forgo this evening...

I am sure you will be glad of that.

I conclude this "half" blog "half" rant "half" pondering... well maybe that should be in thirds?! with what Blackburne of "The Romance of St George's Chapel" says:

"Let worshippers and sightseers catch the message that rings out from these stones, laid so gracefully and carried up so high; let them take this message home and try to live it out in their lives, in order that that which was once a pious dream may become a reality."

I may not be a believer but surely this is why I wrote my blog? That the comfort, safety, awe and grandeur of the building spoke to me... I guess I must have 'taken the message home' in some form or manner! Hmmm... maybe I won't go to hell after all...

Children, The World's Little Angels and Natural Comedians!

Now I haven't been working at the Castle for all that long, but as far as I can tell, you are always guaranteed a laugh from one of the kids that comes through your room. Now here are a few things I have noticed about children at Windsor Castle that is really endearing, even if naughty...

1) Rope Fun! No matter what the room or exhibit is, the ropes are always the most interesting aspect. They have to run their hands up and down the rope for the entire room or the game is lost. They have to swing at least one rope really hard and look to see if Mummy/Daddy/Warden is paying attention.

2) Grumps and Charmers. You tend to get two types of children. The Grumps and the Charmers. The Grumps are just hilarious as they pout, grumble and stick their little tongues out in defiance. They give you one withering scowl and move on to scowl at someone else too. The Charmers will give you the biggest grin, giggle, gurgle and gasp at you giving them attention and really make your day. Those really will be the heartbreakers when they are older, as cliched as it may sound. However, as a tendency, the Grumps, barring the occasional floor rolling tantrum (see below), are better behaved because they know they haven't charmed you off your feet so will not hasten to sit on a the two hundred year old throne or the three hundred year old chair or rock the unstable old table with a priceless vase on top, as invariably the toddling wee Charmers do! I couldn't but laugh on seeing a little boy cheekily sitting on the chair after sneaking under the ropes whilst I was telling off one of his relatives for using their mobile phone!!

3)The Tantrums. Deary me. We do see a lot of them. And the parents are just as funny. Seeing little children throw themselves on the soft carpets and roll around while incoherently exclaiming some vast wrong been committed by their parents to them. Some will be placated by the soft carpet and the fun of rolling around. Others will have great fun at causing the most noise and attract the most attention as possible whilst their red-faced parents (from both anger and embarrassment) drag said child out of the room.

4) Pushchairs. Now, I never knew that children invested so much emotional value in their pushchairs. This little girl earnestly told me I was to look after her pushchair with particular care. On collecting it with her mother she marched around it making sure everything was as it should be before placing her bottom primly in the seat and giving her mother a solemn nod of OK. Kids have wailed at having their pushchair being put in storage, even if they hadn't even been seated in it!

5) Nudes. Again no matter what else is in the room, excluding of course the ropes as previously mentioned, kids will immediately find the portrait of the lady with her breasts exposed and the cherub on the ceiling with a small willy, resulting in the parents or teachers (internally giggling) red-faced trying to explain that it is artistic/that was how they dressed/they are naughty/because they didn't have clothes, etc.

6) Audio Guides. Audio Guides are both swords, swinging fun and telephones. Kids will have duels with these things jabbing their best friend in the eye, stomach or back with it, smacking their sister in the mouth, their dads in the legs and whacking themselves in the privates. Others talk back to the audio guide asking questions like "Well, where is it then?" Or they comment like "you're lying, I can't see it". Or "Hey, I see it. That's cool, isn't it? What is it? yeah..." The best comment I ever heard is, "The small person in the mobile, Mummy, says we need to press number 12 now." Cute!

7) If there is a puddle, it must be jumped in, even if it splashing rain water up an American man's trouser leg.

8) If you let a three year old child push their own pushchair, it will be pushed down the hill and out of sight with the new china plates you have just bought out of the shop.

9)If there is a most inconvenient place to squat and take a look around the room, it will be right in the middle of where everyone is walking.

10) And finally, if there is something that can be touched, it will be.

Without kids, even the mischievous ones, my day would be long and dull. May I be able to have kids and lots of them when I too am all growed up! :D hee hee... The World's Natural Comedians!

Windsor Castle I

Oh yes, in my spare time not only have I decided to write a blog about my work, but I frequently try and catch people out who may have taken somewhat illicit photographs inside the castle and put them on the internet, which is sadly not a lot... or they have just tagged it wisely from such freaks as me :D anyway telling people off for taking photos is one aspect of my job: acting like the English cultural heritage version of the gestapo!!

Still Antonio Verrio who was employed by Charles II to paint ceilings and such like in Windsor is truly marvellous. Spending many days in rooms darkened to protect such artefacts as painted ceilings I have time to stand and observe. And Admire...

The first caption on the left is the King's drawing room and I think the less impressive of the two captions. The second caption, which is unfortunately misses a great deal of the ceiling off is the best... it is in the Queen's Presence chamber. The room was designed for Catherine de Braganza, the unfortunate wife of Charles II (somewhat of an adulterer installing a mistress downstairs under his bedroom and another in a separate house in the grounds of the castle). The ceiling hosts Catherine in the centre surrounded by an array of classical and biblical figures blurring Greek, Roman and Christian together. We have the red faced devil and winged angels, we have the two-faced Janus and Justice with her sword and scales, and also Zeus with his lighting bolts and Herakles with his lion cloak.

The jollyness of the painting really pleases me. Standing all day today starring at it I finally got asked what on earth it was all about. I stood with an American couple and together we began to piece together a generally overlooked artefact of the castle. Justice, Cerberus the three headed dog being riden by two cherubs, Hera, Aphrodite, etc etc. Of course, it was just a piece of royal propaganda. The aristocratic nobles, who had to wait in the presence chamber for the queen to deign to see them in her audience chamber (the room next door), had in the meantime time to observe the ceiling as I have and been awed by the magnificence of it and hopefully if it worked well, Catherine de Braganza would be awed too; as a spurned wife, no doubt she had a chip on her shoulder and something to prove. Poor lady.

Sometimes it just is worth taking an interest in your work...

Next I will be talking about tapestries!! And for the many that have asked are they paintings.... NO!

"Over and out."