Five on Friday

Joining in this week with  Amy at Love Made my Home and Five on Friday.  Click on the link at the bottom of this post to find others who are joining in too.

Five more things from our visit to Lincoln, this time from the cathedral.  Just little snippets of interesting things to find there.

This was the view of the Cathedral from the Castle walls - it looked stunning and I love all the 'higgledy piggledy' roof tops in between.  After we'd been to the castle we visited the cathedral. Below are five things in the Cathedral that it is always interesting to look out for - well for me anyway!

1.  The Lincoln Imp - I always enjoy seeking out the Lincoln Imp, I always think I know where he is but it still takes ages to spot him, he is a mischievous creature and takes great delight in avoiding your eyes.  Here is a - link - to the legend of the imp

2.  The Investigator 
In the seaman's chapel is a model of Matthew Flinders's ship The Investigator in which he sailed in the 1790s to circumnavigate Australia.  It stands under a stained glass window which depicts the Australian/Lincolnshire connection.  In this window you can see Sir Joseph Banks, the botanist who sailed with Captain Cook and George Bass (after whom the Bass Straites were named) who sailed as ship's surgeon with Matthew Flinders.  Also in the window is Matthew Flinders seen anchoring The Investigator at Port Lincoln.  The Museum I worked at in Spalding had, at the time I worked there, a small gallery on the history of Matthew Flinders and I was able, as part of the research we did, to visit the archives and read some of his letters home from his voyages to his parents and to his fiance Ann Chappelle.  They were wonderful, poignant letters written sometimes as if he thought he wouldn't return for in those days travelling such long distances to unknown lands was a dangerous occupation.  George Bass disappeared on one such voyage and according to legend his mother would sit on the balcony of her home on Lindum Hill in the city of Lincoln looking out for his return.

3.  Carvings of King Edward I and his Queen, Eleanor of Castille.  There is a great tale of romance in the story of Edward and Eleanor.  After Queen Eleanor's death in 1290 near Lincoln Edward had twelve crosses built to mark each resting place of her coffin during the lavish funeral procession as it made its way to London.  Her visceral remains are buried in Lincoln Cathedral, her heart at Blackfriars' Church in London and her body in Westminster Abbey. 

4. The Dean's Eye Window

  It dates from the time of a previous restoration and re-building in the time of Hugh of Avalon 1192 -1235.  Called a rose window but also known as a wheel window because its tracery is reminiscent of the spokes of a wheel.

 

5.  Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster. 
The cathedral is the burial place of Katherine Swynford, who died in Lincoln in 1403, mistress then wife of John O'Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.  I remember reading about her in Anya Seaton's book, simply called Katherine, when I was a teenager and being fascinated with her.  Her children with John of Gaunt were the Beauforts, her great grand daughter Margaret was the mother of Henry Tudor (later Henry VII) and her sister Phillipa was married to the poet Geoffrey Chaucer.  Here is a - link - to more about Katherine Swynford.  I've shown a general picture of the interior of the cathedral as the tomb itself was in an area where some school children were having a lesson and I didn't like to take photos nearby.

I will be writing a post about our visit to Lincoln Castle early next week.