Author: Indu Sundaresan

Part 1 of the blog post on Stonehenge in England.
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Stonehenge: Standing in Time—Part 1

by Indu Sundaresan August 7, 2018 3 Comments

Let me Tell You a Story:  When an opalescent band streaked over the horizon, twenty minutes before sunrise, the druid in the flowing white beard folded his robes tight around his chest.  Midsummer, he thought, and the nights were still cold.  It had been a long, and tough winter, snowing as late as April, the white not melting until May, leaving the ground hard and unforgiving.  The last harvest had been pitiful, and it was to avoid another that they were assembled here, at this sacred space—the farmers who depended on his word, his wisdom, his magic, his ability to command the Sun God.  Continue Reading

Part 2 of the blog post on Thomas Hardy's house in England, Max Gate.
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Max Gate: The house that Tom built—Part 2

by Indu Sundaresan July 31, 2018 8 Comments

(Part 1 here)

 

A Space to Write: To any writer, perhaps the most important room in the house is the place to write. Hardy had three. In his original plan for the house, the ‘two up, two down,’ his first study was one of the ‘two up’ rooms upstairs, over the drawing room.

Left, Hardy’s First Study, above the drawing room.  Right, Hardy’s Second Study, originally the guest bedroom.

At that time, even though the house was called a ‘two up, two down,’ there was a small guest bedroom behind the master bedroom which was over the original small kitchen on the ground floor. This later became his second study. Continue Reading

Part 1 of the blog post on Thomas Hardy's house in England, Max Gate.
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Max Gate: The house that Tom built—Part 1

by Indu Sundaresan June 27, 2018 11 Comments

Which Thomas Hardy?  Search for ‘Thomas Hardy’ and—apart from our book-related Hardy—two other very interesting results also show up.  One is about the trial of a Thomas Hardy for high treason, and the other about an altarpiece—a reredos—discovered behind the wooden altar in All Saints Church, Windsor, and attributed to a Thomas Hardy.

Thomas Hardy’s reredos in All Saints Church in Windsor. Continue Reading

Part 2 of the blog post on Salisbury Cathedral in England.
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A Church in translation–Salisbury Cathedral—Part 2

by Indu Sundaresan June 18, 2018 1 Comment

(Part 1 here)

The New Cathedral Rises

The first service at Salisbury Cathedral was held in 1225 A.D., when Bishop Richard Poore deemed that enough of the church had been completed.  The next year, in March, the Earl of Sarum, William Longspee, who had been present at the dedication of the foundation (he laid the fourth stone)—died.

He is the first person to be buried in the cathedral.

The effigy of William Longspee, Earl of Sarum, at Salisbury Cathedral.  Source.

Continue Reading

Part 1 of the blog post on Salisbury Cathedral in England.
England , , , ,

A Church in translation–Salisbury Cathedral—Part 1

by Indu Sundaresan June 8, 2018 8 Comments

 

The old Cathedral at Sarum; the new one at Salisbury

Old Sarum; the Salisbury Cathedral that was: 

When the bishop conducted services at the cathedral at Old Sarum during a story, gales raged high and howled strong, snuffing out his voice.

The sparse congregation, huddling together, strained forward to listen as the wind grabbed the words from his mouth and flung them into the uninhabited corners of the building. Rain streamed through the leaky roof, drip-drip-dripping with a clatter onto metal plates strewn around the church to catch the water.

It was cold, it was damp, and the fireplaces threw out a miserly, grudging heat. Continue Reading