Medieval bathing

Medievalists.com recently had a useful article which demolishes the myths about people not bathing in the middle ages. 

Although medieval accommodation at even the most elite levels could not parallel what is normative now across the western world much of that is recent. Those of us of more mature years will recall a far more Spartan regimen when we were growing up and the often austere chilly bathrooms of other people’s houses. What was available until little more than a century ago who seem to millennials and Generation Z unbelievably primitive, let alone the usages of five or more centuries ago.

Modern cinema and television does not help in most instances, sustaining far far too often an image of the dirty and drab. This is very much an instance of “Presentism” - the belief that anything less that what we take to be normal usage today is irredeemably primitive.

The evidence from the medieval age is considerable and often hiding in plain sight. It might not have been as easy as today but that does not mean that people did not do the best they could with the resources available - which, if truth be told, is all we do now.

The article can be read at Did people in the Middle Ages take baths?

The Treaty of London 1423

December 4th was the 600th anniversary of the Treaty of London between England and Scotland which released King James I to return to his realm after his capture when he was a boy at sea on the way to France by the English in 1406. Having arrived in England as a boy he now returned as a strong-minded ruler modelling himself upon King Henry V as well as being an accomplished poet and accompanied on his return by a new Queen in the person of his new wife Joan Beaufort.

The story of the treaty is set out in an article in The National which can be seen at The history behind treaty that secured the release of a Scottish king

The article has a reproduction of the standard latr sixteenth century of King James I. A much more credible portrait of him appears to exist in the manuscript collection known as the Receuil d’ Arras The online image of it which I only came across recently was very reluctant to download to a mere blogger. However the French edition of Wikipedia has a catalogue of all the portrait drawings which can be accessed at Recueil d'Arras

King James I of Scots

It has been suggested that the drawing is of his son and successor King James II, but there is no suggestion of the prominent facial birthmark, shown on the Ehingen illumination, and which earned the King the Nick-name of ‘James of the Fiery Face’

Image: A Trip Through English History - Receuil d’Arras

St Barbara

December 4th was the feast of St Barbara. She was one of the casualties in 1969 of the purge of the Univeral Calendar in connection with the publication of the 1970 Missal, although her cultus is long established and still popular in significant parts of the Church and of other institutions - not least the military.

The Wikipedia article about her includes a fine selection of images of St Barbara in different mediums and from different eras. It can be seen at Saint Barbara

In 2015 I posted an illustrated version of an article from the Medieval Religion discussion group with many images of St Barbara, indicating how widespread devotion was to her. It can be seen at St Barbara

More images of St Barbara from more recent centuries can be seen on the post from Greeker then the Greeks at Saint Barbara the Great Martyr - Beheaded by her Father 

She is still venerated in the Orthodox Church and there are two, similar, accounts of her Vita from Orthodox parishes in the United States - one at Durham in North Carolina which can be seen at Our Patron Saint

The other is from Fort Worth in Texas and can be viewed at Who was Saint Barbara? — St. Barbara Orthodox Church

The New Liturgical Movement has an article in 2021 about devotion to her which can be seen at The Feast of St Barbara. This draws attention to her being amongst the Fourteen Holy Helpers which doubtless further encouraged devotion to her.

Her patronage of miners and mining is outlined in an article in English from a German website at The_Legend_of_Saint_Barbara

St Barbara as a military patroness, notably to the artillery, is set out by the National Catholic Register at St. Barbara — the Patron Saint of Things That Go Boom

In my post Commemorating St Barbara last year I referenced two of the three Anglican parishes that are under her patronage - the medieval church at Haceby in Lincolnshire and the twentieth century church at Earlsdon in Coventry. There is an online parish history of the latter, which looks to be quite a stately building, at History of St Barbara’s | St Barbara's Church, Earlsdon

The third example is the medieval church at Ashton-under-Hill in Worcestershire. According to the well illustrated account on the Britain Express site the church was under the patronage of St Andrew in the middle ages and only adopted St Barbara in the eighteenth century. The article can be seen at Ashton-under-Hill, St Barbara's Church, History & Photos

A while back the Liturgical Arts Journal had an article about a German custom of bringing branches of flowering shrubs into homes and watering them to see if they will flower on Christmas Day. It can be seen at Advent Customs: St. Barbara's Branches (Barbarazweige)

St Barbara pray for us

The Elgin marbles

The dispute over the Elgin - or Parthenon - Marbles has been back in the news. I have to say that on my one visit to see them a few years ago I was, to be honest, rather underwhelmed by their appearance. They were smaller than I imagined and more worn than I expected. Given their age and exposure to the  elements and neglect for centuries perhaps that should not have been a surprise, but it was.

In the light of the latest Anglo-Hellenic spat a  friend asked me what I thought about the question of returning the sculptures to Athens. What follows is a slightly amended and extended version of my reply.

I am slightly conflicted on this mattter. Ideally things should stay where they belong or, indeed be returned to their place of origin. Frankly I begrudge the fact that so much ancient, medieval and Renaissance art has been shipped across the Atlantic to galleries there far from its home in Europe. Nevertheless they do feed the minds and souls of those who see them in their new homes.

Lord Elgin certainly saved the sculptures from further dacay, if not indeed destruction for road building materials. He also, ultimately, made them accessible to a wider audience and helped thereby the recovery of interest in Greek art alongside the emergence of a newly independent Greek state.

At the moment the British Museum Act of 1963  formally prevents their repatriation. Were that situation to change then the doors would be open to other claims and the break up of such major collections. That is dangerous to all such institutions.

Yes the Marbles are a product of Greek classical culture, but do they ‘belong’ to Greece or to the Western world which inherited that fundamental cultural deposit? The tradition has been shared, so should the artifacts be as well? In that sense they are different to, for example, the Benin Bronzes or the stray statue from Easter Island.

A further point is where it goes beyond art history to politics. Why, one is tempted to ask, do Greek governments and publicists raise the matter of the Elgin Marbles but not - or not so loudly - go after the Winged Victory of Samothrace in the Louvre for example. Is there more going on here than just a concern for heritage?

I know the Egyptians think in a similar fashion to theGreeks about the bust of Queen Nefertiti that is now on Museum Island in Berlin, notwithstanding debates as to its authenticity.

That too has a political aspect to it.

I have a lot of suspicion about politicians from Greece or Britain, or elsewhere for that matter, striking attitudes with more than an eye to domestic audiences. 

The art looted by the French from Italy after 1799 now adorns the Louvre and ownership was resolved by the 1814 Peace Treaty.  The French would no doubt stridently reject call to return significant works to Italy, which still has à superabundance.

Modern trval makes to easier to see items whether in their original setting or in a museum or gallery hundreds, even thousands, of miles away. That said I do still feel something of the argument that things should be where they were meant to be. 

In short the proper place for the Elgin Marbles not an easy question to answer.

Horbury Church - and more besides

A new book about the eighteenth century Yorkshire architect John Carr prompted Christopher Howse to write in his regular column in the Daily Telegraph about his work, and notably the very impressive church he built in his home village of Horbury, to the west of Wakefield. The tower and spire are quite a landmark in the area. It lies quite close to my home ground although it is not of itself a place I know very well.

The Church of St Peter and St Leonard Horbury by John Carr and built in 1790-94

Image: Wikipedia 

Howse’s article from his ‘Sacred Mysteries’ column can be read at sacred-mysteries-a-country-house-architect-and-his-church/

There is an illustrated online introduction to Carr and his work as an architect at John Carr

Horbury parish has a great history as an Anglo-Catholic centre. Very early on in the Tractarian movement it was having celebrations such as a Christmas Midnight Mass. Canon Sharp as incumbent at Horbury was I imagine similar to the  future  Dean Butler at Wantage or Canon Chamberlain at St Thomas’ in Oxford. In the best tradition of Victorian extreme or ‘advanced’ - depending on one’s viewpoint - High Church practice, there was the establishment of a Sisterhood based at St Peter’s Convent, rather like those at Wantage or St Thomas’ in Oxford. This had impressive buildings from the 1860s. The Sisters ran a House of Mercy from 1858. There are online articles about the Community and its buildings at Horbury House of Mercy and at House of Mercy / St Peter's Training School, Horbury, near Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire

There is a reminiscence by Lord Hope, bring a local boy, about his connections with the Sisterhood from New Directions at St Peter’s Convent, Horbury and a piece from the Church Times about its final dissolution as a community in 2020 at ‘I am sad, but it’s the right time’

I must admit to a real sense of loss at seeing yet another religious community go out of existence and to feeling that this is a great loss to the life of both the parish and the wider community in Horbury, just as the loss of the St Thomas’ Community was in that parish in Oxford. This is a problem facing both the Catholic Church and the Anglicans, and a regrettable change.

The hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers” was written in 1865 by one of the parish’s assistant curates, Sabine Baring-Gould, to stimulate the children participating in procession on the long trudge up the hill from the recently established mission room at Horbury Bridge to the mother church built by Carr for the Whitsun parish celebrations.

The Wikipedia account of Baring-Gould, who is more usually associated with his native Devon, can be seen at Sabine Baring-Gould

From the same source there is a history of the hymn at Onward, Christian Soldiers

Wikipedia has an account of the history and character of the village at Horbury

Castle conversions

Somerton Castle in Lincolnshire and Astley Castle in Warwickshire have both recently featured in magazine articles about recent restorations. Neither are, surprisingly, as well known as places of historical as well as architectural interest as they deserve to be.

At Somerton, built in the later thirteenth century by Anthony Bek and which was used as the place of detention for King John II of France after his capture at Poitiers in 1356, the owners have restored the historic building, removed later additions and commissioned excellent new features in accordance with the existing structure. Country Life has an illustrated account at Somerton: The ruined medieval castle transformed into a magical family home

Astley was the home of Elizabeth Woodville as Lady Grey before the death of her husband Sir John Grey at the second battle of St Albans in 1461. Along with Bradgate in Leicestershire it was the centre of the Grey family network in the Midlands. 

Here the present owners The Landmark Trust have created a modern house within the ruined shell of a building which, as I wrote above, like Somerton, does not appear to be as well known as its history might suggest. The description of the completed renovation scheme from House and Garden can be seen at The extraordinary story of a contemporary home built in the ruins of a medieval castle

Gilbert White

The eighteenth century Hampshire clergyman and pioneering naturalist Gilbert White was recently featured in an online article from the Guardian about local initiatives in and around his home parish of Selborne in Hampshire are following in his footstep to respond to changes in the landscape and to seek to restore it. The article can be read at ‘Rude magnificence’ restored: following in the footsteps of pioneering naturalist Gilbert White | Rewilding

Two 2020 articles reflect similar interpretations of his enduring legacy. The first is from Country Life and can be seen at Gilbert White: The naturalist whose poetic but precise words changed how we see the world

The other is from the website of The Pallant in Chichester and can be viewed at Who was Gilbert White and why is he important? | Perspectives

I first became aware of The Natural History of Selborne through my mother and her reading of him. Later in life I was to find that Gilbert White was a fellow Orielensis.

The Wikipedia account of his life and assessment of his contribution to the study of natural history can be seen at Gilbert White

He does indeed appear as a prophetic figure about regarding and appreciating nature on our doorstep and an eminently appropriate voice for the twenty first century to listen to.

Resuming normal service

A note to say my internet and related issues appear to have been resolved thanks to the help of two friends and I intend in coming days to resume my normal* blogging activities.

*  I recall many years ago Chris, a now sadly deceased barman at the Oxford Union, opining as he polished glasses behind the counter when someone was described as apparently normal, “Normal? Nobody normal comes in here.”

Many a word ….