Not the East minster

 Last Saturday MrsK and I enjoyed a semi-private...

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(only eighty-odd punters, but none of the great unwashed)
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... tour of Westmnster Abbey, conducted by members of the Purcell Club (mostly old choristers from Westminster), punctuated by musical pieces (mostly choral, a capella – appropriately enough...

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(see here for the reason, if you need an explanation [though, as with much else in the world of etymology, it's fairly self-explanatory when you think about it])
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... – but including an organ piece played by the present organ scholar (neither an old-boy nor indeed a boy).

Passing through Dean's Yard I recalled a time in 1979 when  I went with a colleague at OUP (Rchard Brain [RIP] mentioned here), to a Greek Play (in classical Greek)  – a regular production at the time at Westminster School...

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(maybe it still is, though I doubt it, given the lamentable treatment meted out to arts education – especially languages, and more especially classical languages –  by recent governments)

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.... So it's quite possible, given that I was 28 at the time and the choristers on Saturday included some who would have been in their late teens at the time, that one or more of them had been in that production. I was too busy negotiating medieval staircases to do the necessary research though. Besides, as my O-level covered only two texts [only one of which was a drama] I followed very little of the play we saw, and don't even remember its title.

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The last time I mentioned Westminster Abbey was here on the occasion of the coronation of King Charles last year. A big fuss was made at the time about the use of the Augustine Gospels during the ceremony:

Precious Gospels from the Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge requested by King Charles III for the Coronation.

The sixth-century Gospels of Augustine of Canterbury are the oldest surviving illustrated Latin Gospels in the world and the oldest non-archaeological artefact of any kind to have survived in England, continuously owned and in use for 1,400 years. The Gospels were shown to HM the King (then Prince of Wales) when he visited the Parker Library in March 2001. He immediately recognised their importance and has requested that they be carried in his Coronation procession on Saturday 6 May at Westminster Abbey.
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The presence of the Augustine Gospels at the King's Coronation affirms their status as the most precious and important medieval manuscript to survive in England. Their fundamental significance to the nation was recognised when the Gospels were inscribed in 2023 on the UNESCO UK Memory of the World Register.

Shortly after the Coronation I sang with other alumni and the present chapel choir at Corpus, and visited the one-day exhibition:

Display board from the exhibition

Don't miss this rare opportunity to view the Augustine Gospels, part of UNESCO UK Memory of the World Register & processed at the Coronation of Charles III.

The Parker Library at Corpus Christi College is offering members of the public a unique opportunity to view the Gospels of St Augustine at the College Chapel on Monday 19 June 2023. The visiting hours are limited due to the fragility of the manuscript book. Free tickets are booked on a first come, first served basis. 

 

Ever since then (last June) I've been saving up a photo of one of the displays from that exhibition, and only now have I found an opportunity to use it. It's not particularly legible though. And  although I queued for half an hour behind people taking grainy/wobbly pictures of the Actual Thing, I was too cool to capture its soul; in fact I was quite surprised that the snappers were tolerated  at all – especially as there are professionally taken photos on the Parker Library website. And when I had just passed a Keep off the grass sign on the court outside the chapel where the book was displayed I was half-expecting a No photography one.
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I was interested to learn that Edward the Confessor, who completed a church fit for coronations in 1065...

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(Edward himself was the last king to be crowned at Winchester. And every British  monarch since then was crowned at Westminster.)
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...envisaged it as complementary to the East minster – St Paul's, which had been in use as a cathedral since the seventh century. And the Abbey's dedication to St Peter came as news to me.

Among the treasures we saw was the tomb of Edward the Confessor (off limits for the everyday punter):

St  Peter's (Westminster) [Ecclesia Sancti Petri] as it was at the time of Edward's funeral,
as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry

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And the following day, reading The Adventure of English, I learmt that (according to the Bayeux Tapestry) Harold had his coronation in Westminster Abbey on the same day as Edward's funeral...

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I initially doubted my memory of this;  I wondered how a picture could be so specific about time (forgetting my own experience as a language teacher: "on the same day" is not particularly hard to portray). But the book is quite clear:

The tapestry shows Harold being crowned in Westminster Abbey on the very day that Edwards was laid to rest there. 

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 – a trifle hasty, wouldn't you agree ? No wonder William was miffed.

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That's enough for now.

b

Update 2024.02.22.09.45  – Added <inline_ps/>