Saturday 22 July 2017

Through a glass darkly


In the process of thinking things in and out of existence, some of them get forgotten.

There being no need for a ferry since the bridge was built, they buried the medieval street which runs along the outside edge of the North wall at the back of our house, and now the external windows either side of it face internally onto a restaurant.

Around the same time that the defunct lane became unusable, the fashion for half-drowning cuckolds in the river fell out of favour too, so they dismantled the ducking-stool.

Edinburgh has a forgotten street I am told, but judging from the photos I have seen, it is full of scary actors and tourists these days.

I heard that 'they' have half-buried a luggage trolly in a brick wall somewhere near Kings Cross Station, and for a mere £9.50 you can have your photo taken as you crash your way into Platform 9 3/4 and Diagon Alley.

We all need a bit of mystery and romance in our lives, and my latest bit is this glass roundel which once let light through a late 16th or early 17th century window in a building which I guess has been long forgotten.

I sometimes look through it and expect to see the blurry images of late medieval passers-by on the other side. I couldn't afford John Dee's obsidian mirror.


14 comments:

  1. When I took a photograph of someone with the half buried shopping trolly by Platform 9 3/4, it was free ... I didn't know they charged you for the privilege now.
    When we lived in our 17th century cottage, one of the internal doors was half glazed, 9 panes, with the original wavy glass ..... I saw that cottage for sale a couple of years ago on Rightmove and someone had thrown the door out and replaced it with a new, orange pine half glazed door and the latched door at the bottom of the stairs with a flimsy, cheap, orange pine door !!! It is listed but only the outside ... people should be made to take a test before they buy old houses !!! XXXX

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    1. Maybe I miss-heard about the £9.50. Some people should just be forced to live in a Barratt's home.

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  2. Just after I left school, they decided to modernise the building where I'd lived for the 4 previous years (apparently the oldest continuously occupied building in Europe). When they demolished the wall of my study they found that it had been constructed with hundreds of medieval bottles. If only I'd known that at the time!!!

    It's now on view behind glass.

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  3. My house has got some cracks. I was just looking at them. They appear to be getting bigger.

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    1. Cracks do get bigger with age and the more you stare at them the bigger they appear to get. Don't forget you have more time to stare at walls these days.

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  4. Forgive me but I initially thought you were displaying the plate that goes around and around in my microwave.................

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  5. I was caught up in the whimsy, and then you had the glass, too. Is that an old picture of the side of the restaurant, or a bit of Bath whimsy?

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    1. It's a bit of whimsy I ripped off from the net.

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  6. We gather bits and pieces throughout our lives (I have a piece of stained glass and a slice from the bottom of the pillar in a country mansion long demolished. The glass is let into a door and the slice nicely houses all my walking sticks. I treasure them both.

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    1. I love things that are steeped in history, even if I don't know the details.

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  7. Through a Glass Darkly may refer to: Through a glass, darkly (phrase), a Biblical phrase from 1 Corinthians 13:12. Contents. [hide]. 1 Film; 2 Literature.
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