Exeter

I know it's been a very long time. I (this is Laura) have actually been to London and back. But I want to catch up on what Mom has sent me for the blog. So here it is:

Exeter is kind of the gateway to Cornwall and it was the furthest we have gone so far. We stayed at a B&B called Raffles with Rick and Sue. When we arrived Rick told us we were going to stay in a “secret room.” He took us upstairs and then down a hallway. He opened a door to another little curvy stairway which took us up to a tiny little room. It was cute and en suite and comfortable for a two-night stay. (Rick makes great scrambled eggs.)

We walked down to the cathedral the next day. Exeter has done a great job modernizing the shopping streets that lead to the cathedral close. The town is surrounded by a Roman wall of which over half is still standing – one of the town’s claims to fame besides the cathedral. Dad and I usually have a routine when visiting cathedral.

We split up for an hour at first and just look at our own pace and then we meet up and make sure that each saw the others favourite things. Some of the quirky misericords jump out at you, a particular sculpture, etc. The cathedral really had a lot going on. Probably the most important was Ghislaine Howard’s Stations of the Cross. She painted them a few years ago and since then they have been touring various cathedrals. They are huge, in black and white, abstract, and very moving. I liked them so much I used them in a fireside talk we had to give and put them into a powerpoint presentation.

I did some research on her and have become a big fan. Another thing I liked was a sculpture of the Mother and Child. I’d seen it online and really had to look for it because it was much smaller than I thought it would be. That didn’t detract from the original impact it had on me. Mary has her legs stretched out, kind of rocking the child. From a certain angle she even looks like a mermaid.

Another neat thing was the “cat hole.” It had been in an old door since the 1500’s. They’ve always had a cat that kept mice out of the north tower. There is a record that shows that the early monks budgeted a penny a week for food for the cat. There were some neat modern sculptures in the chapter house depicting Christ’s life. One thing I keep forgetting is that alot of the stone in and out of the cathedral was painted and there were drawings by some little kids that showed how they would have painted the figures on the exterior west end of the building.

The town has alot of other things to offer – an Almshouse that is very well presented, St. Nicholas’s Priory, and a riverside walk. We went to Eucharist the next day. The choir sang a fun French mass that ranged from bombast to serene Faure-like sections.