Elizabeth in Wells, England

Dear Diary, today I am republishing a post from a couple of years ago (has it truly been that long?) about Elizabeth Goudge (1900-1984), the marvelous English author whose works have had such an impact on my inner self since I first discovered her at age twelve.  Over time, when I return from my upcoming week of travels, I may be republishing several other posts about her.  For now, here goes . . . Elizabeth and the Cathedral city of Wells . . .

Moat and Bishop's Palace, Wells, by Walter Crane, 1893

Monday afternoon I grabbed The Joy of the Snow off the shelf and prepared to lose myself in the pages of Elizabeth Goudge's autobiography, written in her early 70s at the urging of friends.  Of the book she says:  . . . this book is hardly an autobiography, it is more an attempt to recapture happy memories and with them some of the joy in places and people that I have known, and to share them. And to share, too, some of the conclusions I have come to about work and life.  Neither will be in the least exciting and so my hope for this book is that it will be a good bedside book, and keep nobody awake. (page 2)

 She begins her story in Wells, England, where her father was Vice-Principal of Wells Cathedral's Theological College, and later promoted to Principal.  A few pages in, as she is describing the two homes their little family of three lived in—first the Tower House where she was born in 1900, and subsequently the Principal's House across the road, where the family moved when she was still a toddler, I set the book aside because . . .

. . . no, it was not putting me to sleep, but . . .

. . . I found myself hungering for an accurate visual image of the placement of these homes and their gardens in relation to the Cathedral.  So, after reading only ten pages . . . I then spent a few hours at the computer rummaging around in Cyberspace to see what I could find.

First, let me share some words from Elizabeth talking about her memories of those places:

I think I am correct in thinking that the garden of the Principal's House was a marvelous one.  It was in those days large and . . . had everything that a garden should have; grass and trees, flowers and vegetables, and it had something which few gardens can boast; a cathedral for one of its walls.  Beside the Cathedral, under an archway, a gate opened into a small graveyard and from there another archway led into the cloisters.  Whenever I liked I could run through the green garth to the cloisters, and I often did.  I liked being there alone and gazing out through the arches at the central square of green grass that seemed to breathe out cool quietness . . .

. . . On the south of our garden a low wall separated us from a peaceful curve of water, a kind of lake, with flowers growing beside it, that stretched out like a friendly arm from the main waterway of the moat.  Beside it was a green watery place . . . an extension of our garden . . . reached through a low gate just the right size for a child . . . Irises grew in the long grass, and enormous blue periwinkles.  I have never seen such periwinkles, not even in Devon.  A country name for them is Joy of the Ground and I loved them dearly; not least because of the fairy brooms that grew in their hearts.  (page 9-10)

Does that not seem like an enchanted place?

Does that not make you wish you could visit and experience something similar?

Well, it's true, you can never go back . . . to the 1900's in Wells,

but with the help of 21st Century technology, 

we can still visit and dream . . .

so here are a few of the things I gleaned in my Cyberspace rummaging session . . .

What Elizabeth calls the Principal's House in her autobiography

is now known as the Rib House (photo source).  

 Adjacent to the Rib House is a self-catering apartment known as The Piggeries.

(From a site touting self-catering establishments in Wells):  The Piggeries is a medieval holiday ‘cottage’ for two, self-contained, in the heart of Wells, a few feet from the Cathedral and the gardens of the Bishop’s Palace. Step back in time. The Piggeries are authentic, rustic and quirky - and in a unique situation, a few yards from the ancient springs. Sit on the patio and hear the choir and the organ in the Cathedral next door. In the garden are free-range chickens.

Sounds like an idyllic spot for a lazy summer's week-long holiday, and the perfect home base from which to explore the city of Wells (yes, I'm dreaming again!).  Wells is known as England's smallest city, with a population of about 12,000, but it has had city designation since 1205.  Evidently that is because it has a cathedral...and by the way, the cathedral's official name is Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew, better known simply as Wells Cathedral.

 In this aerial view of Wells Cathedral, courtesy of wikimedia,
I can orient myself by the cathedral.

Before it I see the two straight rows of the Vicars' Close
with the wide walkway between.

Left of Vicars' Close set in the trees I can see the Tower House.

And above the Tower House (across St. Andrews Street, not visible here)

I see the pale gold facade and red roof of the Principal's House/Rib House.

Behind that, I catch the gleam of the curved "lake" she mentions
 being at the bottom of their garden,

and some of the moat around the Bishop's Palace.

The Musician and I visited Wells, all too briefly, in the summer of 2009.  We toured Glastonbury and Wells in the same day. We walked through that tower gate into the Vicars' Close and along the walkway between the houses.  Little did I know the Tower House was just next door, and the Principal's House across the street.

I wish I had known . . .
I would have gone to take a closer look.

 And in this aerial view, courtesy G**gle *aps, I can look down on it all from the other direction.

Find the octagonal roof of the cathedral's Chapter House.

Across the road above it is the Vicars' Close.

To the right of the Close can be seen just one end of the Tower House.

Come back to the octagonal roof and to the right of it is the Principal's House

with its long green garden stretching down to the curved body of water.

The cathedral cloisters are obvious by their square shape with a big tree in the middle,

and to the right of the cloisters, between the complex of buildings and the cathedral

is the little green area with gravestones.

At the bottom of the picture is the Bishop's Palace.

On our visit in 2009, we walked along the cloisters and out into the little garden and graveyard area.
We peeked through a little window in the garden wall at the water below.  And, of course, we spent quite a while inside the beautiful cathedral itself.  If I ever have the honor of visiting Wells again, I will know my way around and will certainly spend a lot more time there.

By the way, it is possible you have seen bits and pieces of Wells and, like me, did not realize it.  If you want to know more, take a quick look at this site talking about film and television in Wells.

And while you do that, I am going back to my reading of The Joy of the Snow.  When Elizabeth is about 10 or so, the family relocates to Ely Cathedral for her father's new position there . . . perhaps another research session is on the horizon . . . or perhaps not.  We shall see.