Unicorn Hill

Unicorn Hill

"The unicorn was white, with hoofs of silver and graceful horn of pearl. . . .  The glorious thing about him was his eye.  There was a faint bluish furrow down each side of his nose, and this led to the eye sockets, and surrounded them in a pensive shade.  The eyes, circled by this sad and beautiful darkness, were so sorrowful, lonely, gentle and nobly tragic, that they killed all other emotions except love."

The Once and Future King
T.H. White

Salisbury Cathedral

Salisbury Cathedral

Salisbury Cathedral is an elegant Gothic edifice located in Salisbury, about 90 miles southwest of London. Built almost entirely in the 13th century, the cathedral boasts the tallest spire and the largest cloisters in England.

The history of Salisbury Cathedral begins two miles away at Old Sarum, an ancient fortified plateau where a Norman cathedral was built by Bishop St. Osmund in 1075. The sight must have been impressive, but the location proved to be a constant headache due to its exposure to the elements and lack of sufficient water.

Finally, in 1217, Bishop Richard le Poore wrote to the Pope for permission to abandon the site for a better location two miles away, at the confluence of two rivers. The petition was granted and the clergy moved to the new site in 1219.

Construction on Salisbury Cathedral began in the Early English Gothic style in 1220. The work was completed quickly, resulting in a unity of architecture rarely seen in England. Even after Bishop le Poore moved to Durham, the builders adhered to the original design until its completion.

In accordance with common practice, construction began at the east end and worked west. The Chapel of the Holy Trinity and All Saints was completed in 1225, after which the tomb of St. Osmund was moved there from Old Sarum. Next came the choir, transepts and nave, which were complete by 1258, when the cathedral was consecrated. The elaborate west front was finished in 1255, the cloister in 1270 and the chapter house in 1284.

The only major element to be added later was the famous spire, which came along in 1310-33. But its shape matches the cathedral perfectly and is made from the same stone, quarried from Chilmark 12 miles away. The spire was a daring addition, forcing the structure below to carry a dangerous amount of weight (6,500 tons with the tower). Only a multitude of buttresses, bracing arches and iron ties have kept it from collapsing over the centuries.

The rare harmony of Salisbury Cathedral was damaged by the architect James Wyatt in 1789-92, whose "restorations" included removing the 13th-century choir screen, high altar, stained glass windows and detached bell tower, and rearranging the nave's monuments into rows. Another restoration by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1859 attempted to put some of it back together again.

Meditation Garden in the Cloister

Meditation Garden in the Cloister

    Monastic gardens typically had three main gardens: the herber, herb, physic, or infirmary garden which provided medicines for the infirmary, and the orchard and kitchen gardens, which provided food (although many herbal preparations would have been made from plants in these gardens as well). The designers of these gardens often when to particular trouble to make them attractive as well as practical - medieval monks, like modern day gardeners, delighted in the beauty as well as function of plants. Sometimes fruit trees and berry bushes were planted through the graveyard so that the space had twin usefulness and beauty. Latrines could be positioned near the vegetable beds of the kitchen garden not merely to supply the kitchen garden with a ready-made and close source of manure for its soil, but also perhaps to sweeten the monks' journey to and from the latrines.

Monasteries therefore had to supply not only their own food, ales and wines and herbal medicines, but the food and medical treatments for a large number of other people as well. An important part of the monk's duty of care, to their dependents as well as to God, was maintaining the monastic gardens. The gardening duties had become so onerous in some monasteries that by the end of the twelfth centuries the monks had to hire in lay gardeners to help manage their gardens.

Monastic gardens typically had three main gardens: the herber, herb, physic, or infirmary garden which provided medicines for the infirmary, and the orchard and kitchen gardens, which provided food (although many herbal preparations would have been made from plants in these gardens as well). The designers of these gardens often when to particular trouble to make them attractive as well as practical - medieval monks, like modern day gardeners, delighted in the beauty as well as function of plants. Sometimes fruit trees and berry bushes were planted through the graveyard so that the space had twin usefulness and beauty. Latrines could be positioned near the vegetable beds of the kitchen garden not merely to supply the kitchen garden with a ready-made and close source of manure for its soil, but also perhaps to sweeten the monks' journey to and from the latrines. Planting beds were generally very carefully laid out in both the physic garden and the kitchen garden. A typical garden would have at least six beds, perhaps protected by low hazel fences or hurdles, aligned along a central pathway. The physic garden could have twenty beds or more, one bed for each herb. The monks grew cumin, fennel, comfrey, feverfew, yarrow, pimpernel, rosemary, sage, rue, lavender, rose, iris, mint, lovage and pennyroyal among others. What was not grown in the physic garden could be gathered from the wild - along the river meadows and under the hedgerows.

In the kitchen garden the monks would have grown turnips, parsnips, a variety of legumes, onions, leeks, mint, borage, nettle, violets, rocket, endive, wormwood, basil, carnations, melons and mugwort to name only a few.
Also forming an important, if less decorative part, of the monastic garden was the cloister garden (or cloister-garth). While some cloister gardens had shrubs and flowers, most had only a level field of lawn. The simplicity, as well the emerald colour, aided the monks or nuns in their daily spiritual contemplations - the plain green lawn symbolized renewal and everlasting life.

The monastic official who oversaw the gardens was known as the ortolanus. He not only oversaw production in the gardens, but also administered the hiring of staff (if the monastery needed to hire in lay gardeners). One of the perks for the lay gardeners was that, as well as monetary wages, they also often obtained medicinal care, food, gloves and boots for their labour.
In the smaller religious houses, those with only a handful of monks or lay brothers, there were no lay gardeners at all. The monks did all the work, whether in freezing hail or summer sunshine, living and dying by the fruits of their endeavours.