JANE AUSTEN IS DEAD. THIS IS OLD NEWS but good news! An old joke, too. Actually I like Jane’s novels—the films, too—but the fact remains that her remains are buried in Winchester Cathedral. Rumor has it that only three people attended her funeral.
She's really most sincerely dead
Size matters, the longest nave in the world
Winchester is also the longest cathedral in the world with a nave of 558 feet. Its most prized possession is a 2-volume, illuminated manuscript Bible from the 12th Century. Or what’s left of it—many pages have been removed and kept in private collections.
The Winchester Bible
Walker to the Rescue
You would be right to expect that a cathedral which took 500 years to build would last at least that long. Not Winchester Cathedral, oh-bo-de-oh-do! By 1900 the entire thing was sinking and it took a hard-hat diver, William Walker, six years of 7-hour days working under water to sort out a fix. I am sure that Ms. Austen would have written well of him.
Salisbury Cathedral
I love the arches
View of Salisbury from the Rafters
Salisbury Cloisters
Salisbury Cathedral, on the other hand, was completed in only 38 years and it is every bit as opulent as cathedrals taking ten times as long to construct. I particularly like the way the arches in the nave seem to link and overlap. Salisbury has the tallest church spire in the UK and one of the oldest working clocks in the world. It has no face nor hands, only the hour.
The Magna Carta
The most impressive possession in Salisbury, the one we wanted most to see, is one of the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta. Much like the Bill of Rights, the Magna Carta limited the power that king could exert over the people. Unless the Supreme Court decides otherwise, that is.
