There is not a great deal more to report on the goings-on of our mission. Last week 33 new missionaries arrived; a smaller number returned home. Our district has added a pair of Chinese-speaking missionaries to work with the large number of Chinese students at universities here. We continue to do a lot of cooking and transporting of young single adults to and from Institute class and activities. One of our young adults returned to Arizona last week after completing a master’s degree in historic building conservation, but before he did so we took him to see a few more historic buildings and sites he would not otherwise have had a chance to see. Ok, we wanted to see them too.
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| Portland Bill Lighthouse |
First, Portland Bill Lighthouse, near Weymouth, which guards a treacherous area of strong currents, said to be the graveyard of many ships. Lighthouses have been there since the early 1700s, though the current one dates only to the early 1900s.
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| Rocks at Portland Bill |
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| No! Don't Climb that Rock. |
Next, Canterbury Cathedral (a little
beyond the mission boundary, with our president’s approval), the one in which Thomas à Beckett was murdered in 1170, and the
“mother church” of all Anglicans. It
cost £8.50 admission to the grounds and cathedral. The brochure says it costs over £18,500/day
to maintain and operate, so we don’t begrudge the admission charge.
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| Canterbury Cathedral |
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| Canterbury Cathedral |
Finally, Battle Abbey, site of the Battle of
Hastings in 1066, in which William the Conqueror defeated Harold II of
England. We had wondered what motivated
William to leave France, which has the Riviera, and invade England, which has
lots of rain. Now we know, thanks to
Wikipedia. It seems that when the English
king Edward the Confessor died childless in 1066, an English aristocrat named Harold
was crowned king, but the king of Norway and William II of Normandy both said
they had been promised the throne (Indeed, Edward’s mother was from Normandy,
and Edward had appointed Normans to positions of authority in his government,
so you can see the Normans’ point).
Harold defeated an invasion by the Norwegian king (who was being helped
by Harold’s own brother), but Harold’s army, though victorious, was weakened by
that battle and was overcome by William, who had landed on the south coast just
3 days after Harold’s victory up north.
Harold was killed in this battle, and William had a church built on the
battle site with its high altar supposedly on the exact spot where Harold
died. The church no longer stands, and
the abbey is mostly ruins; a stone slab marks the reputed spot of Harold’s
death. The Battle of Hastings occurred 6
miles away from Hastings, at what is now a town called Battle. Of course it wasn’t a town then, besides
which calling it the Battle of Battle would be redundant and sound a little silly.
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| Battle Abbey |
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| Battle Abbey Basement |
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| Battle Abbey |
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| Battle Abbey from Stone Slab Marking Site of Harold II's Death |
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| Battle of Hastings Battlefield, with Tractor |
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| Hedgehog |
(2) After seeing our first hedgehog, a shy little prickly thing, we researched the subject and found a BBC website stating, "Hedgehogs are the only British mammal with spines." It’s surprising an editor allowed that. It’s just begging for cynical comments about British politicians.
