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1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
1: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics.
Wells Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Wells, Somerset, England, dedicated to St Andrew the Apostle. It is the seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, whose cathedra it holds as mother church of the Diocese of Bath and Wells. Built as a Roman Catholic cathedral from around 1175 to replace an earlier church on the site since 705, it became an Anglican cathedral when King Henry VIII split from Rome. It is moderately sized for an English cathedral. Its broad west front and large central tower are dominant features. It has been called "unquestionably one of the most beautiful" and "most poetic" of English cathedrals.
Its Gothic architecture is mostly inspired from Early English style of the late 12th to early 13th centuries, lacking the Romanesque work that survives in many other cathedrals. Building began about 1175 at the east end with the choir. Historian John Harvey sees it as Europe's first truly Gothic structure, breaking the last constraints of Romanesque. The stonework of its pointed arcades and fluted piers bears pronounced mouldings and carved capitals in a foliate, "stiff-leaf" style. Its Early English front with 300 sculpted figures is seen as a "supreme triumph of the combined plastic arts in England". The east end retains much ancient stained glass. Unlike many cathedrals of monastic foundation, Wells has many surviving secular buildings linked to its chapter of secular canons, including the Bishop's Palace and the 15th-century residential Vicars' Close It is a Grade I listed building.
The earliest remains of a building on the site are of a late-Roman mausoleum, identified during excavations in 1980. An abbey church was built in Wells in 705 by Aldhelm, first bishop of the newly established Diocese of Sherborne during the reign of King Ine of Wessex. It was dedicated to St Andrew and stood at the site of the cathedral's cloisters, where some excavated remains can be seen. The font in the cathedral's south transept is from this church and is the oldest part of the present building. In 766 Cynewulf, King of Wessex, signed a charter endowing the church with eleven hides of land. In 909 the seat of the diocese was moved from Sherborne to Wells.
The first bishop of Wells was Athelm (909), who crowned King Æthelstan. Athelm and his nephew Dunstan both became Archbishops of Canterbury. During this period a choir of boys was established to sing the liturgy. Wells Cathedral School, which was established to educate these choirboys, dates its foundation to this point. There is, however, some controversy over this. Following the Norman Conquest, John de Villula moved the seat of the bishop from Wells to Bath in 1090. The church at Wells, no longer a cathedral, had a college of secular clergy.
The cathedral is thought to have been conceived and commenced in about 1175 by Reginald Fitz Jocelin, who died in 1191. Although it is clear from its size that from the outset, the church was planned to be the cathedral of the diocese, the seat of the bishop moved between Wells and the abbeys of Glastonbury and Bath, before settling at Wells. In 1197 Reginald's successor, Savaric FitzGeldewin, with the approval of Pope Celestine III, officially moved his seat to Glastonbury Abbey. The title of Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury was used until the Glastonbury claim was abandoned in 1219.
Savaric's successor, Jocelin of Wells, again moved the bishop's seat to Bath Abbey, with the title Bishop of Bath. Jocelin was a brother of Hugh (II) of Lincoln and was present at the signing of the Magna Carta. Jocelin continued the building campaign begun by Reginald and was responsible for the Bishop's Palace, the choristers' school, a grammar school, a hospital for travellers and a chapel. He also had a manor house built at Wookey, near Wells. Jocelin saw the church dedicated in 1239 but, despite much lobbying of the Pope by Jocelin's representatives in Rome, did not live to see cathedral status granted. The delay may have been a result of inaction by Pandulf Verraccio, a Roman ecclesiastical politician, papal legate to England and Bishop of Norwich, who was asked by the Pope to investigate the situation but did not respond. Jocelin died at Wells on 19 November 1242 and was buried in the choir of the cathedral; the memorial brass on his tomb is one of the earliest brasses in England. Following his death the monks of Bath unsuccessfully attempted to regain authority over Wells.
In 1245 the ongoing dispute over the title of the bishop was resolved by a ruling of Pope Innocent IV, who established the title as the "Bishop of Bath and Wells", which it has remained until this day, with Wells as the principal seat of the bishop. Since the 11th century the church has had a chapter of secular clergy, like the cathedrals of Chichester, Hereford, Lincoln and York. The chapter was endowed with 22 prebends (lands from which finance was drawn) and a provost to manage them. On acquiring cathedral status, in common with other such cathedrals, it had four chief clergy, the dean, precentor, chancellor and sacristan, who were responsible for the spiritual and material care of the cathedral.
The building programme, begun by Reginald Fitz Jocelin, Bishop in the 12th century, continued under Jocelin of Wells, who was a canon from 1200, then bishop from 1206. Adam Locke was master mason from about 1192 until 1230. It was designed in the new style with pointed arches, later known as Gothic, which was introduced at about the same time at Canterbury Cathedral. Work was halted between 1209 and 1213 when King John was excommunicated and Jocelin was in exile, but the main parts of the church were complete by the time of the dedication by Jocelin in 1239.
By the time the cathedral, including the chapter house, was finished in 1306, it was already too small for the developing liturgy, and unable to accommodate increasingly grand processions of clergy. John Droxford initiated another phase of building under master mason Thomas of Whitney, during which the central tower was heightened and an eight-sided Lady chapel was added at the east end by 1326. Ralph of Shrewsbury followed, continuing the eastward extension of the choir and retrochoir beyond. He oversaw the building of Vicars' Close and the Vicars' Hall, to give the men who were employed to sing in the choir a secure place to live and dine, away from the town and its temptations. He had an uneasy relationship with the citizens of Wells, partly because of his imposition of taxes, and he surrounded his palace with crenellated walls, a moat and a drawbridge.
John Harewell raised money for the completion of the west front by William Wynford, who was appointed as master mason in 1365. One of the foremost master masons of his time, Wynford worked for the king at Windsor, Winchester Cathedral and New College, Oxford. At Wells, he designed the western towers of which north-west was not built until the following century. In the 14th century, the central piers of the crossing were found to be sinking under the weight of the crossing tower which had been damaged by an earthquake in the previous century. Strainer arches, sometimes described as scissor arches, were inserted by master mason William Joy to brace and stabilise the piers as a unit.
By the reign of Henry VII the cathedral was complete, appearing much as it does today (though the fittings have changed). From 1508 to 1546, the eminent Italian humanist scholar Polydore Vergil was active as the chapter's representative in London. He donated a set of hangings for the choir of the cathedral. While Wells survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries better than the cathedrals of monastic foundation, the abolition of chantries in 1547 resulted in a reduction in its income. Medieval brasses were sold, and a pulpit was placed in the nave for the first time. Between 1551 and 1568, in two periods as dean, William Turner established a herb garden, which was recreated between 2003 and 2010.
Elizabeth I gave the chapter and the Vicars Choral a new charter in 1591, creating a new governing body, consisting of a dean and eight residentiary canons with control over the church estates and authority over its affairs, but no longer entitled to elect the dean (that entitlement thenceforward belonged ultimately to the Crown). The stability brought by the new charter ended with the onset of the Civil War and the execution of Charles I. Local fighting damaged the cathedral's stonework, furniture and windows. The dean, Walter Raleigh, a nephew of the explorer Walter Raleigh, was placed under house arrest after the fall of Bridgwater to the Parliamentarians in 1645, first in the rectory at Chedzoy and then in the deanery at Wells. His jailor, the shoe maker and city constable, David Barrett, caught him writing a letter to his wife. When he refused to surrender it, Barrett ran him through with a sword and he died six weeks later, on 10 October 1646. He was buried in an unmarked grave in the choir before the dean's stall. During the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell no dean was appointed and the cathedral fell into disrepair. The bishop went into retirement and some of the clerics were reduced to performing menial tasks.
In 1661, after Charles II was restored to the throne, Robert Creighton, the king's chaplain in exile, was appointed dean and was bishop for two years before his death in 1672. His brass lectern, given in thanksgiving, can be seen in the cathedral. He donated the nave's great west window at a cost of £140. Following Creighton's appointment as bishop, the post of dean went to Ralph Bathurst, who had been chaplain to the king, president of Trinity College, Oxford and fellow of the Royal Society. During Bathurst's long tenure the cathedral was restored, but in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, Puritan soldiers damaged the west front, tore lead from the roof to make bullets, broke the windows, smashed the organ and furnishings, and for a time stabled their horses in the nave.
Restoration began again under Thomas Ken who was appointed by the Crown in 1685 and served until 1691. He was one of seven bishops imprisoned for refusing to sign King James II's "Declaration of Indulgence", which would have enabled Catholics to resume positions of political power, but popular support led to their acquittal. Ken refused to take the oath of allegiance to William III and Mary II because James II had not abdicated and with others, known as the Nonjurors, was put out of office. His successor, Richard Kidder, was killed in the Great Storm of 1703 when two chimney stacks on the palace fell on him and his wife, while they were asleep in bed.
By the middle of the 19th century, a major restoration programme was needed. Under Dean Goodenough, the monuments were moved to the cloisters and the remaining medieval paint and whitewash removed in an operation known as "the great scrape". Anthony Salvin took charge of the extensive restoration of the choir. Wooden galleries installed in the 16th century were removed and the stalls were given stone canopies and placed further back within the line of the arcade. The medieval stone pulpitum screen was extended in the centre to support a new organ.
In 1933 the Friends of Wells Cathedral were formed to support the cathedral's chapter in the maintenance of the fabric, life and work of the cathedral. The late 20th century saw an extensive restoration programme, particularly of the west front. The stained glass is currently under restoration, with a programme underway to conserve the large 14th-century Jesse Tree window at the eastern terminal of the choir.
In January 2014, as part of the Bath film festival, the cathedral hosted a special screening of Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ. This provoked some controversy, but the church defended its decision to allow the screening.
In 2021, a contemporary sculpture by Anthony Gormley was unveiled on a temporary plinth outside the cathedral.
Since the 13th century, Wells Cathedral has been the seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells. Its governing body, the chapter, is made up of five clerical canons (the dean, the precentor, the canon chancellor, the canon treasurer, and the archdeacon of Wells) and four lay members: the administrator (chief executive), Keeper of the Fabric, Overseer of the Estate and the chairman of the cathedral shop and catering boards. The current bishop of Bath and Wells is Peter Hancock, who was installed in a service in the cathedral on 7 June 2014. John Davies has been Dean of Wells since 2016.
Employed staff include the organist and master of choristers, head Verger archivist, librarian and the staff of the shop, café and restaurant. The chapter is advised by specialists such as architects, archaeologists and financial analysts.
More than a thousand services are held every year. There are daily services of Matins, Holy Communion and Choral Evensong, as well as major celebrations of Christian festivals such as Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and saints' days. The cathedral is also used for the baptisms, weddings and funerals of those with close connections to it. In July 2009 the cathedral undertook the funeral of Harry Patch, the last British Army veteran of World War I, who died at the age of 111.
Three Sunday services are led by the resident choir in school terms and choral services are sung on weekdays. The cathedral hosts visiting choirs and does outreach work with local schools as part of its Chorister Outreach Project. It is also a venue for musical events such as an annual concert by the Somerset Chamber Choir.
Each year about 150,000 people attend services and another 300,000 visit as tourists. Entry is free, but visitors are encouraged to make a donation towards the annual running costs of around £1.5 million in 2015.
Construction of the cathedral began in about 1175, to the design of an unknown master-mason. Wells is the first cathedral in England to be built, from its foundation, in Gothic style. According to art historian John Harvey, it is the first truly Gothic cathedral in the world, its architects having entirely dispensed with all features that bound the contemporary east end of Canterbury Cathedral and the earlier buildings of France, such as the east end of the Abbey of Saint Denis, to the Romanesque. Unlike these churches, Wells has clustered piers rather than columns and has a gallery of identical pointed arches rather than the typically Romanesque form of paired openings. The style, with its simple lancet arches without tracery and convoluted mouldings, is known as Early English Gothic.
From about 1192 to 1230, Adam Lock, the earliest master-mason at Wells for whom a name is known, continued the transept and nave in the same manner as his predecessor. Lock was also the builder of the north porch, to his own design.
The Early English west front was commenced around 1230 by Thomas Norreys, with building and sculpture continuing for thirty years. Its south-west tower was begun 100 years later and constructed between 1365 and 1395, and the north-west tower between 1425 and 1435, both in the Perpendicular Gothic style to the design of William Wynford, who also filled many of the cathedral's early English lancet windows with delicate tracery.
The undercroft and chapter house were built by unknown architects between 1275 and 1310, the undercroft in the Early English and the chapter house in the Geometric style of Decorated Gothic architecture. In about 1310 work commenced on the Lady Chapel, to the design of Thomas Witney, who also built the central tower from 1315 to 1322 in the Decorated Gothic style. The tower was later braced internally with arches by William Joy. Concurrent with this work, in 1329–45 Joy made alterations and extensions to the choir, joining it to the Lady Chapel with the retrochoir, the latter in the Flowing Decorated style.
Later changes include the Perpendicular vault of the tower and construction of Sugar's Chapel, 1475–1490 by William Smyth. Also, Gothic Revival renovations were made to the choir and pulpitum by Benjamin Ferrey and Anthony Salvin, 1842–1857.
Wells has a total length of 415 feet (126 m). Like Canterbury, Lincoln and Salisbury cathedrals, it has the distinctly English arrangement of two transepts, with the body of the church divided into distinct parts: nave, choir, and retro-choir, beyond which extends the Lady Chapel. The façade is wide, with its towers extending beyond the transepts on either side. There is a large projecting porch on the north side of the nave forming an entry into the cathedral. To the north-east is the large octagonal chapter house, entered from the north choir aisle by a passage and staircase. To the south of the nave is a large cloister, unusual in that the northern range, that adjacent the cathedral, was never built.
In section, the cathedral has the usual arrangement of a large church: a central nave with an aisle on each side, separated by two arcades. The elevation is in three stages, arcade, triforium gallery and clerestory. The nave is 67 feet (20 m) in height, very low compared to the Gothic cathedrals of France. It has a markedly horizontal emphasis, caused by the triforium having a unique form, a series of identical narrow openings, lacking the usual definition of the bays. The triforium is separated from the arcade by a single horizontal string course that runs unbroken the length of the nave. There are no vertical lines linking the three stages, as the shafts supporting the vault rise above the triforium.
The exterior of Wells Cathedral presents a relatively tidy and harmonious appearance since the greater part of the building was executed in a single style, Early English Gothic. This is uncommon among English cathedrals where the exterior usually exhibits a plethora of styles. At Wells, later changes in the Perpendicular style were universally applied, such as filling the Early English lancet windows with simple tracery, the construction of a parapet that encircles the roof, and the addition of pinnacles framing each gable, similar to those around the chapter house and on the west front. At the eastern end there is a proliferation of tracery with repeated motifs in the Reticulated style, a stage between Geometric and Flowing Decorated tracery.
The west front is 100 feet (30 m) high and 147 feet (45 m) wide, and built of Inferior Oolite of the Middle Jurassic period, which came from the Doulting Stone Quarry, about 8 miles (13 km) to the east. According to the architectural historian Alec Clifton-Taylor, it is "one of the great sights of England".
West fronts in general take three distinct forms: those that follow the elevation of the nave and aisles, those that have paired towers at the end of each aisle, framing the nave, and those that screen the form of the building. The west front at Wells has the paired-tower form, unusual in that the towers do not indicate the location of the aisles, but extend well beyond them, screening the dimensions and profile of the building.
The west front rises in three distinct stages, each clearly defined by a horizontal course. This horizontal emphasis is counteracted by six strongly projecting buttresses defining the cross-sectional divisions of nave, aisles and towers, and are highly decorated, each having canopied niches containing the largest statues on the façade.
At the lowest level of the façade is a plain base, contrasting with and stabilising the ornate arcades that rise above it. The base is penetrated by three doors, which are in stark contrast to the often imposing portals of French Gothic cathedrals. The outer two are of domestic proportion and the central door is ornamented only by a central post, quatrefoil and the fine mouldings of the arch.
Above the basement rise two storeys, ornamented with quatrefoils and niches originally holding about four hundred statues, with three hundred surviving until the mid-20th century. Since then, some have been restored or replaced, including the ruined figure of Christ in the gable.
The third stages of the flanking towers were both built in the Perpendicular style of the late 14th century, to the design of William Wynford; that on the north-west was not begun until about 1425. The design maintains the general proportions, and continues the strong projection of the buttresses.
The finished product has been criticised for its lack of pinnacles, and it is probable that the towers were intended to carry spires which were never built. Despite its lack of spires or pinnacles, the architectural historian Banister Fletcher describes it as "the highest development in English Gothic of this type of façade."
The sculptures on the west front at Wells include standing figures, seated figures, half-length angels and narratives in high relief. Many of the figures are life-sized or larger. Together they constitute the finest display of medieval carving in England. The figures and many of the architectural details were painted in bright colours, and the colouring scheme has been deduced from flakes of paint still adhering to some surfaces. The sculptures occupy nine architectural zones stretching horizontally across the entire west front and around the sides and the eastern returns of the towers which extend beyond the aisles. The strongly projecting buttresses have tiers of niches which contain many of the largest figures. Other large figures, including that of Christ, occupy the gable. A single figure stands in one of two later niches high on the northern tower.
In 1851 the archaeologist Charles Robert Cockerell published his analysis of the iconography, numbering the nine sculptural divisions from the lowest to the highest. He defined the theme as "a calendar for unlearned men" illustrating the doctrines and history of the Christian faith, its introduction to Britain and its protection by princes and bishops. He likens the arrangement and iconography to the Te Deum.
According to Cockerell, the side of the façade that is to the south of the central door is the more sacred and the scheme is divided accordingly. The lowest range of niches each contained a standing figure, of which all but four figures on the west front, two on each side, have been destroyed. More have survived on the northern and eastern sides of the north tower. Cockerell speculates that those to the south of the portal represented prophets and patriarchs of the Old Testament while those to the north represented early missionaries to Britain, of which Augustine of Canterbury, St Birinus, and Benedict Biscop are identifiable by their attributes. In the second zone, above each pair of standing figures, is a quatrefoil containing a half-length angel in relief, some of which have survived. Between the gables of the niches are quatrefoils that contain a series of narratives from the Bible, with the Old Testament stories to the south, above the prophets and patriarchs, and those from the New Testament to the north. A horizontal course runs around the west front dividing the architectural storeys at this point.
Above the course, zones four and five, as identified by Cockerell, contain figures which represent the Christian Church in Britain, with the spiritual lords such as bishops, abbots, abbesses and saintly founders of monasteries on the south, while kings, queens and princes occupy the north. Many of the figures survive and many have been identified in the light of their various attributes. There is a hierarchy of size, with the more significant figures larger and enthroned in their niches rather than standing. Immediately beneath the upper course are a series of small niches containing dynamic sculptures of the dead coming forth from their tombs on the Day of Judgement. Although naked, some of the dead are defined as royalty by their crowns and others as bishops by their mitres. Some emerge from their graves with joy and hope, and others with despair.
The niches in the lowest zone of the gable contain nine angels, of which Cockerell identifies Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel. In the next zone are the taller figures of the twelve apostles, some, such as John, Andrew and Bartholomew, clearly identifiable by the attributes that they carry. The uppermost niches of the gable contained the figure of Christ the Judge at the centre, with the Virgin Mary on his right and John the Baptist on his left. The figures all suffered from iconoclasm. A new statue of Jesus was carved for the central niche, but the two side niches now contain cherubim. Christ and the Virgin Mary are also represented by now headless figures in a Coronation of the Virgin in a niche above the central portal. A damaged figure of the Virgin and Christ Child occupies a quatrefoil in the spandrel of the door.
The central tower appears to date from the early 13th century. It was substantially reconstructed in the early 14th century during the remodelling of the east end, necessitating the internal bracing of the piers a decade or so later. In the 14th century the tower was given a timber and lead spire which burnt down in 1439. The exterior was then reworked in the Perpendicular style and given the present parapet and pinnacles. Alec Clifton-Taylor describes it as "outstanding even in Somerset, a county famed for the splendour of its church towers".
The north porch is described by art historian Nikolaus Pevsner as "sumptuously decorated", and intended as the main entrance. Externally it is simple and rectangular with plain side walls. The entrance is a steeply arched portal framed by rich mouldings of eight shafts with stiff-leaf capitals each encircled by an annular moulding at middle height. Those on the left are figurative, containing images representing the martyrdom of St Edmund the Martyr. The walls are lined with deep niches framed by narrow shafts with capitals and annulets like those of the portal. The path to the north porch is lined by four sculptures in Purbeck stone, each by Mary Spencer Watson, representing the symbols of the Evangelists.
The cloisters were built in the late 13th century and largely rebuilt from 1430 to 1508 and have wide openings divided by mullions and transoms, and tracery in the Perpendicular Gothic style. The vault has lierne ribs that form octagons at the centre of each compartment, the joints of each rib having decorative bosses. The eastern range is of two storeys, of which the upper is the library built in the 15th century.
Because Wells Cathedral was secular rather than monastic, cloisters were not a practical necessity. They were omitted from several other secular cathedrals but were built here and at Chichester. Explanations for their construction at these two secular cathedrals range from the processional to the aesthetic. As at Chichester, there is no northern range to the cloisters. In monastic cloisters it was the north range, benefiting most from winter sunlight, that was often used as a scriptorium.
In 1969, when a large chunk of stone fell from a statue near the main door, it became apparent that there was an urgent need for restoration of the west front. Detailed studies of the stonework and of conservation practices were undertaken under the cathedral architect, Alban D. R. Caroe and a restoration committee formed. The methods selected were those devised by Eve and Robert Baker. W. A. (Bert) Wheeler, clerk of works to the cathedral 1935–1978, had previously experimented with washing and surface treatment of architectural carvings on the building and his techniques were among those tried on the statues.
The conservation was carried out between 1974 and 1986, wherever possible using non-invasive procedures such as washing with water and a solution of lime, filling gaps and damaged surfaces with soft mortar to prevent the ingress of water and stabilising statues that were fracturing through corrosion of metal dowels. The surfaces were finished by painting with a thin coat of mortar and silane to resist further erosion and attack by pollutants. The restoration of the façade revealed much paint adhering to the statues and their niches, indicating that it had once been brightly coloured.
The particular character of this Early English interior is dependent on the proportions of the simple lancet arches. It is also dependent on the refinement of the architectural details, in particular the mouldings.
The arcade, which takes the same form in the nave, choir and transepts, is distinguished by the richness of both mouldings and carvings. Each pier of the arcade has a surface enrichment of 24 slender shafts in eight groups of three, rising beyond the capitals to form the deeply undulating mouldings of the arches. The capitals themselves are remarkable for the vitality of the stylised foliage, in a style known as "stiff-leaf". The liveliness contrasts with the formality of the moulded shafts and the smooth unbroken areas of ashlar masonry in the spandrels. Each capital is different, and some contain small figures illustrating narratives.
The vault of the nave rises steeply in a simple quadripartite form, in harmony with the nave arcade. The eastern end of the choir was extended and the whole upper part elaborated in the second quarter of the 14th century by William Joy. The vault has a multiplicity of ribs in a net-like form, which is very different from that of the nave, and is perhaps a recreation in stone of a local type of compartmented wooden roof of which examples remain from the 15th century, including those at St Cuthbert's Church, Wells. The vaults of the aisles of the choir also have a unique pattern.
Until the early 14th century, the interior of the cathedral was in a unified style, but it was to undergo two significant changes, to the tower and to the eastern end. Between 1315 and 1322 the central tower was heightened and topped by a spire, which caused the piers that supported it to show signs of stress. In 1338 the mason William Joy employed an unorthodox solution by inserting low arches topped by inverted arches of similar dimensions, forming scissors-like structures. These arches brace the piers of the crossing on three sides, while the easternmost side is braced by a choir screen. The bracing arches are known as "St Andrew's Cross arches", in a reference to the patron saint of the cathedral. They have been described by Wim Swaan – rightly or wrongly – as "brutally massive" and intrusive in an otherwise restrained interior.
Wells Cathedral has a square east end to the choir, as is usual, and like several other cathedrals including Salisbury and Lichfield, has a lower Lady Chapel projecting at the eastern end, begun by Thomas Witney in about 1310, possibly before the chapter house was completed. The Lady Chapel seems to have begun as a free-standing structure in the form of an elongated octagon, but the plan changed and it was linked to the eastern end by extension of the choir and construction of a second transept or retrochoir east of the choir, probably by William Joy.
The Lady Chapel has a vault of complex and somewhat irregular pattern, as the chapel is not symmetrical about both axes. The main ribs are intersected by additional non-supporting, lierne ribs, which in this case form a star-shaped pattern at the apex of the vault. It is one of the earliest lierne vaults in England. There are five large windows, of which four are filled with fragments of medieval glass. The tracery of the windows is in the style known as Reticulated Gothic, having a pattern of a single repeated shape, in this case a trefoil, giving a "reticulate" or net-like appearance.
The retrochoir extends across the east end of the choir and into the east transepts. At its centre the vault is supported by a remarkable structure of angled piers. Two of these are placed as to complete the octagonal shape of the Lady Chapel, a solution described by Francis Bond as "an intuition of Genius". The piers have attached shafts of marble, and, with the vaults that they support, create a vista of great complexity from every angle. The windows of the retrochoir are in the Reticulated style like those of the Lady Chapel, but are fully Flowing Decorated in that the tracery mouldings form ogival curves.
The chapter house was begun in the late 13th century and built in two stages, completed about 1310. It is a two-storeyed structure with the main chamber raised on an undercroft. It is entered from a staircase which divides and turns, one branch leading through the upper storey of Chain Gate to Vicars' Close. The Decorated interior is described by Alec Clifton-Taylor as "architecturally the most beautiful in England". It is octagonal, with its ribbed vault supported on a central column. The column is surrounded by shafts of Purbeck Marble, rising to a single continuous rippling foliate capital of stylised oak leaves and acorns, quite different in character from the Early English stiff-leaf foliage. Above the moulding spring 32 ribs of strong profile, giving an effect generally likened to "a great palm tree". The windows are large with Geometric Decorated tracery that is beginning to show an elongation of form, and ogees in the lesser lights that are characteristic of Flowing Decorated tracery. The tracery lights still contain ancient glass. Beneath the windows are 51 stalls, the canopies of which are enlivened by carvings including many heads carved in a light-hearted manner.
Wells Cathedral contains one of the most substantial collections of medieval stained glass in England, despite damage by Parliamentary troops in 1642 and 1643. The oldest surviving glass dates from the late 13th century and is in two windows on the west side of the chapter-house staircase. Two windows in the south choir aisle are from 1310 to 1320.
The Lady Chapel has five windows, of which four date from 1325 to 1330 and include images of a local saint, Dunstan. The east window was restored to a semblance of its original appearance by Thomas Willement in 1845. The other windows have complete canopies, but the pictorial sections are fragmented.
The east window of the choir is a broad, seven-light window dating from 1340 to 1345. It depicts the Tree of Jesse (the genealogy of Christ) and demonstrates the use of silver staining, a new technique that allowed the artist to paint details on the glass in yellow, as well as black. The combination of yellow and green glass and the application of the bright yellow stain gives the window its popular name, the "Golden Window". It is flanked by two windows each side in the clerestory, with large figures of saints, also dated to 1340–45. In 2010 a major conservation programme was undertaken on the Jesse Tree window.
The panels in the chapel of St Katherine are attributed to Arnold of Nijmegen and date from about 1520. They were acquired from the destroyed church of Saint-Jean, Rouen, with the last panel having been purchased in 1953.
The large triple lancet to the nave west end was glazed at the expense of Dean Creighton at a cost of £140 in 1664. It was repaired in 1813, and the central light was largely replaced to a design by Archibald Keightley Nicholson between 1925 and 1931. The main north and south transept end windows by James Powell and Sons were erected in the early 20th century.
The greater part of the stone carving of Wells Cathedral comprises foliate capitals in the stiff-leaf style. They are found ornamenting the piers of the nave, choir and transepts. Stiff-leaf foliage is highly abstract. Though possibly influenced by carvings of acanthus leaves or vine leaves, it cannot be easily identified with any particular plant. Here the carving of the foliage is varied and vigorous, the springing leaves and deep undercuts casting shadows that contrast with the surface of the piers. In the transepts and towards the crossing in the nave the capitals have many small figurative carvings among the leaves. These include a man with toothache and a series of four scenes depicting the "Wages of Sin" in a narrative of fruit stealers who creep into an orchard and are then beaten by the farmer. Another well-known carving is in the north transept aisle: a foliate corbel, on which climbs a lizard, sometimes identified as a salamander, a symbol of eternal life.
Carvings in the Decorated Gothic style may be found in the eastern end of the buildings, where there are many carved bosses. In the chapter house, the carvings of the 51 stalls include numerous small heads of great variety, many of them smiling or laughing. A well-known figure is the corbel of the dragon-slaying monk in the chapter house stair. The large continuous capital that encircles the central pillar of the chapter house is markedly different in style to the stiff-leaf of the Early English period. In contrast to the bold projections and undercutting of the earlier work, it has a rippling form and is clearly identifiable as grapevine.
The 15th-century cloisters have many small bosses ornamenting the vault. Two in the west cloister, near the gift shop and café, have been called sheela na gigs, i. e. female figures displaying their genitals and variously judged to depict the sin of lust or stem from ancient fertility cults.
Wells Cathedral has one of the finest sets of misericords in Britain. Its clergy has a long tradition of singing or reciting from the Book of Psalms each day, along with the customary daily reading of the Holy Office. In medieval times the clergy assembled in the church eight times daily for the canonical hours. As the greater part of the services was recited while standing, many monastic or collegiate churches fitted stalls whose seats tipped up to provide a ledge for the monk or cleric to lean against. These were "misericords" because their installation was an act of mercy. Misericords typically have a carved figurative bracket beneath the ledge framed by two floral motifs known, in heraldic manner, as "supporters".
The misericords date from 1330 to 1340. They may have been carved under the direction of Master Carpenter John Strode, although his name is not recorded before 1341. He was assisted by Bartholomew Quarter, who is documented from 1343. They originally numbered 90, of which 65 have survived. Sixty-one are installed in the choir, three are displayed in the cathedral, and one is held by the Victoria and Albert Museum. New stalls were ordered when the eastern end of the choir was extended in the early 14th century. The canons complained that they had borne the cost of the rebuilding and ordered the prebendary clerics to pay for their own stalls. When the newly refurbished choir opened in 1339 many misericords were left unfinished, including one-fifth of the surviving 65. Many of the clerics had not paid, having been called to contribute a total sum of £200. The misericords survived better than the other sections of the stalls, which during the Protestant Reformation had their canopies chopped off and galleries inserted above them. One misericord, showing a boy pulling a thorn from his foot, dates from the 17th century. In 1848 came a complete rearrangement of the choir furniture, and 61 of the misericords were reused in the restructured stalls.
The subject matter of the carvings of the central brackets as misericords varies, but many themes recur in different churches. Typically the themes are less unified or directly related to the Bible and Christian theology than small sculptures seen elsewhere within churches, such as bosses. This applies at Wells, where none of the misericord carvings is directly based on a Bible story. The subjects, chosen either by the woodcarver, or perhaps by the one paying for the stall, have no overriding theme. The sole unifying elements are the roundels on each side of the pictorial subject, which all show elaborately carved foliage, in most cases formal and stylised in the later Decorated manner, but with several examples of naturalistic foliage, including roses and bindweed. Many of the subjects carry traditional interpretations. The image of the "Pelican in her Piety" (believed to feed her young on her own blood) is a recognised symbol for Christ's love for the Church. A cat playing with a mouse may represent the Devil snaring a human soul. Other subjects illustrate popular fables or sayings such as "When the fox preaches, look to your geese". Many depict animals, some of which may symbolise a human vice or virtue, or an aspect of faith.
Twenty-seven of the carvings depict animals: rabbits, dogs, a puppy biting a cat, a ewe feeding a lamb, monkeys, lions, bats, and the Early Christian motif of two doves drinking from a ewer. Eighteen have mythological subjects, including mermaids, dragons and wyverns. Five are clearly narrative, such as the Fox and the Geese, and the story of Alexander the Great being raised to Heaven by griffins. There are three heads: a bishop in a mitre, an angel, and a woman wearing a veil over hair arranged in coils over each ear. Eleven carvings show human figures, among which are several of remarkable design, conceived by the artist specifically for their purpose of supporting a shelf. One figure lies beneath the seat, supporting the shelf with a cheek, a hand and a foot. Another sits in a contorted manner supporting the weight on his elbow, while a further figure squats with his knees wide apart and a strained look on his face.
Some of the cathedral's fittings and monuments are hundreds of years old. The brass lectern in the Lady Chapel dates from 1661 and has a moulded stand and foliate crest. In the north transept chapel is a 17th-century oak screen with columns, formerly used in cow stalls, with artisan Ionic capitals and cornice, set forward over the chest tomb of John Godelee. There is a bound oak chest from the 14th century, which was used to store the chapter seal and key documents. The bishop's throne dates from 1340, and has a panelled, canted front and stone doorway, and a deep nodding cusped ogee canopy above it, with three-stepped statue niches and pinnacles. The throne was restored by Anthony Salvin around 1850. Opposite the throne is a 19th-century octagonal pulpit on a coved base with panelled sides, and steps up from the north aisle. The round font in the south transept is from the former Saxon cathedral and has an arcade of round-headed arches, on a round plinth. The font cover was made in 1635 and is decorated with the heads of putti. The Chapel of St Martin is a memorial to every Somerset man who fell in World War I.
The monuments and tombs include Gisa, bishop; † 1088; William of Bitton, bishop; † 1274; William of March, bishop; † 1302; John Droxford; † 1329; John Godelee; † 1333; John Middleton, died †1350; Ralph of Shrewsbury, died †; John Harewell, bishop; † 1386; William Bykonyll; † c. 1448; John Bernard; † 1459; Thomas Beckington; † died 1464; John Gunthorpe; † 1498; John Still; † 1607; Robert Creighton; † 1672; Richard Kidder, bishop; † 1703; George Hooper, bishop; † 1727 and Arthur Harvey, bishop; † 1894.
In the north transept is Wells Cathedral clock, an astronomical clock from about 1325 believed to be by Peter Lightfoot, a monk of Glastonbury. Its mechanism, dated between 1386 and 1392, was replaced in the 19th century and the original moved to the Science Museum in London, where it still operates. It is the second oldest surviving clock in England after the Salisbury Cathedral clock.
The clock has its original medieval face. Apart from the time on a 24-hour dial, it shows the motion of the Sun and Moon, the phases of the Moon, and the time since the last new Moon. The astronomical dial presents a geocentric or pre-Copernican view, with the Sun and Moon revolving round a central fixed Earth, like that of the clock at Ottery St Mary. The quarters are chimed by a quarter jack: a small automaton known as Jack Blandifers, who hits two bells with hammers and two with his heels. At the striking of the clock, jousting knights appear above the clock face.
On the outer wall of the transept, opposite Vicars' Hall, is a second clock face of the same clock, placed there just over seventy years after the interior clock and driven by the same mechanism. The second clock face has two quarter jacks (which strike on the quarter-hour) in the form of knights in armour.
In 2010 the official clock-winder retired and was replaced by an electric mechanism.
The first record of an organ at this church dates from 1310. A smaller organ, probably for the Lady Chapel, was installed in 1415. In 1620 an organ built by Thomas Dallam was installed at a cost of £398 1s 5d.
The 1620 organ was destroyed by parliamentary soldiers in 1643. An organ built in 1662 was enlarged in 1786 and again in 1855. In 1909–1910 an organ was built by Harrison & Harrison of Durham, with the best parts of the old organ retained. It has been serviced by the same company ever since.
Since November 1996 the cathedral has also had a portable chamber organ, by the Scottish makers, Lammermuir. It is used regularly to accompany performances of Tudor and baroque music.
The first recorded organist of Wells was Walter Bagele (or Vageler) in 1416. The post of organist or assistant organist has been held by more than 60 people since. Peter Stanley Lyons was Master of Choristers at Wells Cathedral, and Director of Music at Wells Cathedral School in 1954–1960. The choral conductor James William Webb-Jones, father of Lyons's wife Bridget (whom he married in the cathedral), was Headmaster of Wells Cathedral School in 1955–1960. Malcolm Archer was the appointed Organist and Master of the Choristers from 1996 to 2004. Matthew Owens was the appointed organist from 2005 to 2019.
There has been a choir of boy choristers at Wells since 909. Currently there are 18 boy choristers and a similar number of girl choristers, aged from eight to fourteen. The Vicars Choral was formed in the 12th century and the sung liturgy provided by a traditional cathedral choir of men and boys until the formation of an additional choir of girls in 1994. The boys and girls sing alternately with the Vicars Choral and are educated at Wells Cathedral School.
The Vicars Choral currently number twelve men, of whom three are choral scholars. Since 1348 the College of Vicars had its own accommodation in a quadrangle converted in the early 15th century to form Vicar's Close. The Vicars Choral generally perform with the choristers, except on Wednesdays, when they sing alone, allowing them to present a different repertoire, in particular plainsong.
In December 2010 Wells Cathedral Choir was rated by Gramophone magazine as "the highest ranking choir with children in the world". It continues to provide music for the liturgy at Sunday and weekday services. The choir has made many recordings and toured frequently, including performances in Beijing and Hong Kong in 2012. Its repertoire ranges from the choral music of the Renaissance to recently commissioned works.
The Wells Cathedral Chamber Choir is a mixed adult choir of 25 members, formed in 1986 to sing at the midnight service on Christmas Eve, and invited to sing at several other special services. It now sings for about 30 services a year, when the Cathedral Choir is in recess or on tour, and spends one week a year singing as the "choir in residence" at another cathedral. Although primarily liturgical, the choir's repertoire includes other forms of music, as well as performances at engagements such as weddings and funerals.
The cathedral is home to Wells Cathedral Oratorio Society (WCOS), founded in 1896. With around 160 voices, the society gives three concerts a year under the direction of Matthew Owens, Organist and Master of the Choristers at the cathedral. Concerts are normally in early November, December (an annual performance of Handel's Messiah) and late March. It performs with a number of specialist orchestras including: Music for Awhile, Chameleon Arts and La Folia.
The bells at Wells Cathedral are the heaviest ring of ten bells in the world, the tenor bell (the 10th and largest), known as Harewell, weighing 56.25 long hundredweight (2,858 kg). They are hung for full-circle ringing in the English style of change ringing. These bells are now hung in the south-west tower, although some were originally hung in the central tower.
The library above the eastern cloister was built between 1430 and 1508. Its collection is in three parts: early documents housed in the Muniment Room; the collection predating 1800 housed in the Chained Library; and the post-1800 collection housed in the Reading Room. The chapter's earlier collection was destroyed during the Reformation, so that the present library consists chiefly of early printed books, rather than medieval manuscripts. The earlier books in the Chained Library number 2,800 volumes and give an indication of the variety of interests of the members of the cathedral chapter from the Reformation until 1800. The focus of the collection is predominantly theology, but there are volumes on science, medicine, exploration, and languages. Books of particular interest include Pliny's Natural History printed in 1472, an Atlas of the World by Abraham Ortelius, printed in 1606, and a set of the works by Aristotle that once belonged to Erasmus. The library is open to the public at appointed times in the summer and presents a small exhibition of documents and books.
Three early registers of the Dean and Chapter edited by W. H. B. Bird for the Historical Manuscripts Commissioners – Liber Albus I (White Book; R I), Liber Albus II (R III) and Liber Ruber (Red Book; R II, section i) – were published in 1907. They contain with some repetition, a cartulary of possessions of the cathedral, with grants of land back to the 8th century, well before hereditary surnames developed in England, and acts of the Dean and Chapter and surveys of their estates, mostly in Somerset.
Adjacent to the cathedral is a large lawned area, Cathedral Green, with three ancient gateways: Brown's Gatehouse, Penniless Porch and Chain Gate. On the green is the 12th-century Old Deanery, largely rebuilt in the late 15th century by Dean Gunthorpe and remodelled by Dean Bathurst in the late 17th century. No longer the dean's residence, it is used as diocesan offices.
To the south of the cathedral is the moated Bishop's Palace, begun about 1210 by Jocelin of Wells but dating mostly from the 1230s. In the 15th century Thomas Beckington added a north wing, now the bishop's residence. It was restored and extended by Benjamin Ferrey between 1846 and 1854.
To the north of the cathedral and connected to it by the Chain Gate is Vicars' Close, a street planned in the 14th century and claimed to be the oldest purely residential street in Europe, with all but one of its original buildings intact. Buildings in the close include the Vicars Hall and gateway at the south end, and the Vicars Chapel and Library at the north end.
The Liberty of St Andrew was the historic liberty and parish that encompassed the cathedral and surrounding lands closely associated with it.
The English painter J. M. W. Turner visited Wells in 1795, making sketches of the precinct and a water colour of the west front, now in the Tate gallery. Other artists whose paintings of the cathedral are in national collections are Albert Goodwin, John Syer and Ken Howard.
The cathedral served to inspire Ken Follett's 1989 novel The Pillars of the Earth and with a modified central tower, featured as the fictional Kingsbridge Cathedral at the end of the 2010 television adaptation of that novel. The interior of the cathedral was used for a 2007 Doctor Who episode, "The Lazarus Experiment", while the exterior shots were filmed at Southwark Cathedral.
An account of the damage to the cathedral during the Monmouth Rebellion is included in Arthur Conan Doyle's 1889 historical novel Micah Clarke.
The cathedral provided scenes for the 2019–2020 television series The Spanish Princess.
GIMP 3.2.0-RC2 in Debian Forky
Shot made at night with ISO 6400. Exposition was corrected (highlights to 100%).
Idea was good, shots not, but I was not able to put up with my "home lock-up" and photo inaction. :)
Incredible color on this Lamborghini Murciélago by ItalDesign (Affolter)!
At the Magny-Cours track, during the 2012 GT Days.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
•** My YouTube videos - only the best supercars !!
•** Follow me on Facebook for more car-related stuff & trivia !
© Diana Yakowitz 2010 all rights reserved.
Meadow School, 1888, Belfry
Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519), The Notebooks
Constant learning is the route out of boredom with a few pauses to savor the acquisitions. DY
I will be back latter to comment on your streams!
Just bought this autographed copy
of My story by Julie Couillard - 2008
(former girlfriend of Maxine Bernier)
Maxine Bernier resigned from cabinet in 2008 only hours before Couillard described in a television interview how he had left classified briefing documents for a NATO summit at her Montreal home. After all of this Maxine and noted other
M.Ps trash Julie Couillard about her past. Sad how politicians
take no responsibilty for their mistakes especially having
N.A.T.O confidential documents in their personal possession.
Maxime Bernier resigns over missing documents.
May 26 and 27, 2008 - Maxime Bernier resigned as Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs after learning his ex-girlfriend Julie Couillard would reveal he left sensitive documents at her home.
See story below on YouTube :
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfGcybmQYKs
Also found this interview by George Stroumboulopoulos
questioning Maxine Bernier on his mistake of having confidential documents. Instead of just admitting mistake
he tries to smear his girlfriend again but I give credit to
interviewer for stopping him that she was not the issue.
This is about 7 minutes into the interview. See below
on YouTube.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTjLSHSx6Pg&t=458s
Maxime Bernier PC MP (born January 18, 1963) is a Canadian businessman, lawyer and politician serving as the
Member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Beauce since 2006. He is the founder and current leader of the
People's Party of Canada (PPC).
Prior to entering politics, Bernier held positions in the fields of law, finance and banking. First elected to
the Canadian House of Commons as a Conservative, Bernier served as Minister of Industry, Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism, which later became the Minister of State for Small
Business and Tourism and Agriculture in the cabinet of then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Following the
Conservatives' defeat in the 2015 election, he served as opposition critic for Innovation, Science and Economic
Development in the shadow cabinets of Rona Ambrose and Andrew Scheer, until June 12, 2018.
Bernier ran for the Conservative Party leadership in the 2017 leadership election, and came in a close second
with over 49% of the vote in the 13th round, after leading the eventual winner, Andrew Scheer, in the first 12
rounds. Fifteen months later, in August 2018, Bernier resigned from the Conservative Party to create his own
party, citing disagreements with Scheer's leadership.[1] His new party was named the People's Party of Canada in
September 2018.
Interview Julie Couillard gave in 2008
JULIE COUILLARD TALKS WITH KENNETH WHYTE ABOUT HER DEAL WITH MAXIME BERNIER, HIS DISLOYALTY, AND HER RESPECT FOR
THE PM
OCTOBER 20 2008
'All of a sudden, I'm a biker’s chick, I'm trash. He ran the other way while I drowned.’
INTERVIEW
JULIE COUILLARD TALKS WITH KENNETH WHYTE ABOUT HER DEAL WITH MAXIME BERNIER, HIS DISLOYALTY, AND HER RESPECT FOR
THE PM
I’m going to start at the beginning of your relationship with Mr. Bernier, and that very first meeting that you
two had.
A: Well, it was actually my real estate broker that invited me to a cinq-à-sept. I had mentioned to him a couple
of days prior that the Conservative party had approached me to maybe present myself as an MP, which really took
me by surprise. But to tell you that I ever took this proposition seriously, no. Still, I was curious about it,
and my broker says, we’re all going for supper afterwards and, by the way, a minister is going to be there, and
maybe you’d like to come and pick his brains, basically, about politics and everything to do with becoming 14
an MP. So I said yeah. He mentioned to me it was the ministre de l’industrie—industry minister—Maxime Bernier.
As a joke, my broker said, “He’s pretty cute, and he’s single, so who knows?” That’s how we first met.
Q: In the course of the evening, Mr. Bernier got a bit forward with you.
A: Well, actually, that was at the beginning of the evening. We had just sat down, and he leaned forward and
gave me a little peck on the cheek. And some people will say, “How come you got shocked by that? Because next
time you saw him you guys ended up being intimate on your first official date.” It’s not the same as if you meet
a guy for the first time, you hit it off well, and then it’s officially a date. First of all, my brokers were
there. It was a business meeting. I mean, I was in a
suit. That’s why it was totally out of place.
Q: You took him outside, gave him a lecture, and said you weren’t there as a little helper.
A: Exactly, yeah.
Q: What did you mean by little helper?
A: Well, that was the English translation. I’m not a girl that some company will introduce you to so that,
basically, if you find her cute you can have your way with her. Because there were other young girls, all of a
sudden, that joined our table, that were not businesswomen. They were there just to party. I wanted to make it
clear to Maxime that, you know, you’re a very nice guy, we get along great, and you’re handsome and all, but I’m
calling the shots and nobody else.
Q: It is kind of offensive for somebody to do that at a first meeting. Why not run from him?
A: Well, because he was very apologetic.
Q: So you don’t think he mistook you for a little helper?
A: No, because I can be very blunt. And he was taken aback.
Q: It wasn’t really a business arrangement he proposed when you started to see each other steadily, but it was
kind of a professional arrangement, right?
A: No. Maxime proposed a personal relationship with a condition attached to it. That’s how, really, it was
presented to me. The first offer was if I wanted to become his girlfriend, and if I would be interested enough
to have a serious relationship with him, there were certain strings attached to the fact that he was a
politician and a public figure. [They would have to go out for a year.] Though I was a bit shocked in the sense
that it’s not the most romantic way to ask a girl to go out with you, after his explanation I had to agree with
him. He was a politician, he was a public figure, and it came with the territory.
Q: Right.
A: I put myself in his shoes. Sometimes you do have to compromise because of your work. And at that point in
time, I didn’t anticipate not getting along with Maxime.
Q: In My Story, you describe some behaviour on his part that wasn’t terribly impressive, his temper tantrums,
throwing an iron across the room, and calling you when you’re at official functions with important people,
summoning you from across the room in a rude way.
A: While I’m talking with the wife of our ambassador nonetheless, yes.
Q: And then there’s the fact that you found out [that there were] other women.
A: There’s one specific event that I found out while I was his girlfriend, the rest I found out after I was just
his friend.
Q: There’s a considerable amount of stuff like this in the book about him, and I have trouble seeing what
attracted you two. Did you like him?
A At the beginning I did. A: Well, he’s easygoing, he’s fun, you’ll enjoy a good supper with a good bottle of
wine. And we did have a very strong attraction for one another, and you have to understand that we had a
longdistance relationship. Four days out of the week Maxime was not there. Every other weekend he had his two
daughters. Most probably, if Maxime would have been living where Fm living, after a month or two I would have
said, “You know what, buddy? This is not working out.” It took me six months because he got promoted and he
started travelling a lot, and sometimes I wouldn’t even see him for two to three weeks, so when we finally did
get together it was like our first date all over again. It wasn’t easy for me to realize that he was lacking
depth.
Q: Regarding the men in your life before Maxime Bernier, Gilles Giguère was murdered, and Stéphane Sirois was
fairly high up in a motorcycle gang.
A: No, he was not.
Q: No? What was he?
A: While I was with him he was not a biker. He gave back his patch, because that was my condition. I didn’t want
to go out with a biker. After I divorced him he went back into that world and eventually turned into a rat.
Q: You’ve been left heartbroken, broke, and embarrassed by various men in your life. Do you feel you have been
unlucky in love?
A: I’ve had my unlucky strikes, I have to admit. You have to understand that I was put in a position where I had
no choice to write a biography to re-establish the facts and my credibility, and had I written that book at 78,
let’s say, there would have been a lot more happy times. At this point in time in my life I made a choice of
keeping the good business ventures and my happy relationships for me, for the little I had left of my private
life.
Q: So you don’t think you have a habit of picking the wrong guy?
A: Well, I could have a better average.
Q: I get a bit confused about the end of your relationship with Mr. Bernier. It was in December 2007 that you
sort of broke up, but you continued to see one another. You were still more than friends, though.
A: Yes, we were. I had nobody else in my life, so j’ai rendu le pratique agréable, I made what was practical
agreeable. I mentioned to Maxime in December that our relationship was not fulfilling me and that I had no time
to waste, at my age, and I knew that Maxime was not the guy. And to tell you the truth, Maxime agreed that it
was better that we remained good friends, you know? I had given
him my word that I would remain his official girlfriend for a year and, to tell you honestly, though you know
that that person is not the person of your life, you still can grow very attached. I certainly didn’t do it
against my own free will or all those things that people implied, that I was paid to be his escort and whatnot.
That’s totally ridiculous. How many people had an ex that they kept seeing until they met someone else that was
more interesting? I think we have all done it. So all of a sudden, because he’s a minister, there’s this hidden
agenda behind it.
Q: Everybody’s trying to impose a story on your life.
A: It was much simpler than that, and a
1 had this image of George Bush as this cold person. He had a great sense of humour. That totally threw me off.’
lot duller than that, if you ask me.
Q: Well, it’s not very dull.
A: Concerning my relationship with Maxime it was. Yes, fine, I did have a fiancé that got assassinated, but that
was 12 years ago, and yes, I ended up divorcing a guy that used to be a biker before he went out with me, or got
married to me, but that was 10 years ago.
Q: Is that one of the things that was so horrifying for you about this? Because you’ve been working, travelling
in different circles, and holding your own with ambassadors and important people around the world. And then all
of a sudden, you’re reading about yourself in the paper.
A: All of a sudden I’m a biker’s chick and I’m this and I’m that and I’m trash and I’m a whore and I’m possibly
sent by bikers. What
the hell? That’s 10 and 12 years ago, so what does that have to do with anything now?
Q: Was it necessary, in order to re-establish your reputation, to go so deeply into Mr. Bernier’s character
flaws and his misbehaviours?
A: I think that it was. When you have a team of people who work 45 hours a week to portray you and to sell your
image in the media, getting to know the real, true person behind this image can’t be easy. It needed to be done
so that people would understand not his actions, but his inaction in this circus that crashed my life. Some
people will say, “Yeah, well, it’s pretty harsh.” Well, I’m so sorry but his silence was basically sending a
message to the public that he was endorsing everything that was being said. That man knew me, he spent a year
with me, six months as his girlfriend, and I was good enough to remain his very good friend for another six
months, and he still wanted me to stick around to keep accompanying him in all his official functions, so I
couldn’t have been such a vulgar woman and a slut and a this and a that and a biker’s chick. Yet he let all
these things be said about me, and he was the politician, he was the one who had all the tools to stand up and
say, “Listen, now, this is not right.”
Q: In March of this year it broke on TV that the minister is dating a biker chick.
Q: May, sorry, and he went underground.
A: Exactly, he started acting like he never even knew me. Do you honestly think that the media, politicians,
[the general] population would have been the slightest [bit] interested in what Julie Couillard did in her life
10, 11 years ago, 12 years ago? Who gave a damn? Nobody. Everybody became interested. Why? Because I was the
official girlfriend of a federal cabinet minister. He ran the other way waving while I was drowning.
Q: What should he have done?
A: Well, he should have at least straightened out the facts, and right from the get-go he could have stopped
this then and there. He could have said that this is all a cheap way of trying to damage his reputation and
damage the party that was in power, and that it had nothing to do with the real issues of our society today and
it was just cheap politics. He had all the tools and all the people. He knew that the RCMP, the Sûreté du
Québec,
la Communauté urbaine de Montréal, all of them, [that] did investigate me back then, came to the conclusion I
had nothing to do with organized crime aside from the fact that I was seeing people that knew people in that
scene, but on a personal level, and I was not implicated in the criminal activities of any sort. This was just a
cheap attempt to damage our government. That’s all it was!
Q: In the book, Stephen Harper comes off better than pretty much anyone else you encountered in that world. You
were impressed with him.
A: Yes, I was. I have to admit that I do not have the same political views as Mr. Harper but I do have a lot of
respect for the man.
Q: George W. Bush impressed you as well.
A: I had this image of this cold, very restrained person, but he was such a friendly and accessible guy, and
very light and funny. He had a great sense of humour. That totally threw me off.
Q: You say in the book that you thought you let Mr. Bernier off too easily. Is there more to the story that you
haven’t written?
A: The only more would be things that I do not think are of any public interest.
Q: He would, when you were together, complain about Mr. Harper being fat or being controlling. Doesn’t everybody
complain about the boss?
A: Maybe. But Maxime doesn’t have just a job, he’s a politician. That’s very different. He shouldn’t have a
right to disrespect our Prime Minister. And what really pissed me off is that Maxime was a guy that two years
before wasn’t even in politics and there you go, all of a sudden, because of Mr. Harper, he ends up, hey, the
minister of external affairs! Come on! The man might not be perfect, we’re all perfectly unperfect, but you
should respect him for giving you that opportunity.
Q: You answered this question already about the men in your life and your batting average. Do you think it’s the
kind of man you’re attracted to or the kind of man who’s attracted to you?
A: Well, I don’t know. I know for my part my flaws are more that I see a good-looking guy and he’s a good talker
and he’s a lot of fun and he makes me laugh, and then I have a tendency of more dreaming an image of that
person, and then I fall in love with that image, but the guy I’m falling in love with does not even exist.
That’s what I would have to watch out for. And because, I guess, of my looks some men are attracted to me for
the wrong reasons, they stop at what they see instead of seeing deeper than that.
Q: When you were travelling with Mr. Bernier and going to official functions, you did meet some people and you
exchanged business cards on occasion. Did any opportunities or any doors open for you because ofthat?
A: I didn’t really exchange business cards at all, to tell you the truth, when I was with Maxime. I’ve had the
pleasure of saying, “I’ve met our ambassador in Paris.” But I was the spouse of Maxime, that’s why I was there.
Q: Are you working now?
A: Oh, no. My life totally stopped. The seventh of May everything stopped.
Q: What are you going to do now?
A: That’s a very good question. I don’t have an answer. I still have a mortgage to pay, and a car payment and so
on and so forth. I concentrated on re-establishing the facts and reestablishing my credibility because nobody
will have anything to do business-wise with me—which is totally understandable—and I do not believe that the
same career is ever going to pick up again.
Q: Real estate?
A: No, real estate and development. I specialized in a very narrow niche, where you always have to be in contact
with the municipalities, with the provincial, even the federal government. M
Shot with Canon EOS 40D + Tamron 18-200mm
Oh, I love so many of the shots from Paris that I can hardly stop uploading the "old" stuff.
Today is the christmas celebration in my company, and we celebrate in Celle, which is about 3 hours from Berlin.
Shouldnt be a problem, normally. But since the weather is freaking out like hell, its cold as f**k and the freeways are full of traffic jams (the one we have to take about 42km at the moment) it is definitely going to be interesting.
I love exceptional situations, its interesting to see how a big city like berlin reacts to it.
But its more than fucked if you are depending on punctuality.
Cross your fingers plz =)
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Maurice Morning "Maury" Wills (b. October 2, 1932) is a former MLB shortstop and switch-hitter. He played for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1959 to 1966 and in 1969–72, Pittsburgh Pirates from 1967 to 1968, and Montreal Expos in 1969. Wills was an essential component of the Dodgers' championship teams in the mid-1960s, and is credited for reviving the stolen base as part of baseball strategy.
Wills was an All-Star for five seasons, an All-Star Game MVP, a National League MVP, and a Gold Glove winner for two seasons.
In 1962 he had a season for the ages, breaking Ty Cobb's seemingly invincible 47 year-old ML mark of 96 with a spectacular 104 swipes, enough to run off with the 1962 National League MVP.
MLB debut - June 6, 1959, for the Los Angeles Dodgers
Last MLB appearance - October 4, 1972, for the Los Angeles Dodgers
MLB statistics:
Batting average - .281
Hits - 2,134
Home runs - 20
RBI - 458
Stolen bases - 586
Managerial record 26–56
Winning % - .317
Teams - As player:
Los Angeles Dodgers (1959–1966)
Pittsburgh Pirates (1967–1968)
Montreal Expos (1969)
Los Angeles Dodgers (1969–1972)
As manager:
Seattle Mariners (1980–1981)
Career highlights and awards:
7× All-Star (1961–1963, 1965, 1966)
3× World Series champion (1959, 1963, 1965)
NL MVP (1962)
2× Gold Glove Award (1961, 1962)
6× NL stolen base leader (1960–1965)
Links to all his issued baseball cards - www.tradingcarddb.com/Person.cfm/pid/6329/col/1/yea/0/Mau...
In this shot you can see Roberto (Squadritoro on Flickr) secretely captured while he was shooting a great landscape near Sferro (Catania) during our first shooting hunt. Roberto is a very friendly, smart, good looking man, which likes enjoy his spare time together other friends sharing the photography passion.
The building was derelict, but was the focus of some controversy in the 1980s, when conservationists blamed various governments for inaction in preserving the building. It was finally torn down in 1995.
This the oldest possible building in Margate has now been demolished thanks to the inaction of the Kingborough Council in allowing this to happen despite local opposition to its removal and the loss of a business that had been operating for 29 years.Shame on you Kingborough Council for putting money before Heritage.
By our action or inaction all of us hurt others around us. These candles are lit for those who hurt the most. I'm devastated by the cruel deaths in Newtown, Conneticut. Yet "worldwide 34,000 children under the age of five die daily from hunger and preventable diseases". We probably can't directly do anything to make schools safer. We can, however, do something about hunger, lack of water, and diease in the world if we choose to. And save thousands of lives.
(Sources: Unesco)
This is a photo made on film, developed and printed by me, and then photographed to make it digital. (That's why it has the lovely film grain)
_DSC6661 ps 1280s
Sometimes the city dangles bait. Sometimes, a wise fish ignores that bait; moves on…swims against the stream.
I'm always suspicious of over-promotion of anything. If whatever you're selling is so good, where's the need for all your advertising? Good stuff sells itself. With a few hours to spare before the show, I took the bait. What's this new fish market about?
Sure, the old fish market, apart from being an early adopter of cutting edge auction technology all those years ago, was a bit on the small and inaccessible side. Sure, they built the Fish Market stop on the Dulwich Hill light rail — a.k.a. overblown tram —and that helped. But when the plot plan to redevelop the site of the old tramway powerhouse — The Powerhouse Museum — was scuttled, along with its proponent, I naturally smelled something fishy in the new plan to move the fish market.
All I'd have to do to get there was catch the L1 from Central to the new stop and walk the 400m to the new site; easy! A scheduled tram leaves every 10 minutes; I wouldn't have to wait in Sydney's 30-something°C and dripping wet humidity. The sign disagreed: tree over line, catch the replacement bus. I'll admit to not liking buses. But 10mins until a bus arrived seemed alright…until 45mins later, queued in the sun on baking tarmac, one finally turned up. It only went to the casino, and fro there you could grovel about somewhere in the basement, past the car rental place, to get the tram for the next bit of the journey.
Out in the bush, when a tree falls down, the first Hilux to arrive unsheathes a chainsaw, converts it into chunks that the Hilux can relocate with a snigging chain, then, road open, we move on. In the city, there's the transport people consulting the city council people who form a committee to consider whether anyone heard the tree fall, contract the sign erection people for traffic control in a transparent tender process, conducts chainsaw safety and gender awareness training, fills out safe work method (SWM) statements, then knock off for tea. After tea the experimental AI completion of the SWMs is assessed, by which time, they break for lunch… The city and I aren't always singing from the same hymn sheet.
Anyway, you can see that I got there. You can imagine that it is bigger than the old version, certainly less user friendly with all of those steps — no matter what the architect said — and inside they sell fish, of which most is ruined by having been cooked sometime last week and left in a sloppy mess in something given the grand name of bain marie. What you can't see is that terracing — meant to sit on and contemplate the sadness of this debacle — is that it is surrounded by gull and ibis who have done the inevitable — covered it in bird sh¡t — and made it about as appealing as the horrid muck being sold to the hordes of Chinese tourists who have, like the birds, flocked here for "the experience" — see over-promotion, above. This, I expect, explains the horrendous indoor crowds, and the reluctance to sit out in the Sun, with the birds.
I told you it was fishy.
Ferrari FXX number 31.
While on track at Spa Francorchamps.
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St. Paul, Minnesota
April 20, 2018
Around 1000 students walked out of school and gathered at the Minnesota capitol as part of nationwide protests against politician inaction on preventing gun violence. They called on federal, state, and local government to take actions to reduce gun violence.
2018-04-20 This is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. Give attribution to: Fibonacci Blue
They say that one person can't ever save another, and I believe that's true, I know it is. But I want to speak for the value of action at exactly the right moment. Or is it inaction? I'm not so sure, but there's much more to being a good listener than listening.
The relativity of relatability saves me. We talk until time ticks away, and when it runs dry, we feel as if some likeness was achieved. I don't mean like a portrait on paper or a photographed image, I mean more in the realm of the sighing soul. You let me know all about you, and I'll tell you the same of me. That's what it means to be listening, to be speaking with the same eager reaction as the one who speaks to you. A conversation will far sooner heal your spirit than a blank and open ear. You could talk to yourself and feel better. At least you know what you need.
They say that one person can't ever save another, but when that one person is the only one you've got, their significance is unmatched and not to be underestimated. I've had friends in this life, but only one who was close enough to touch. I mean that in every sense of the word, because the barriers between bodies are like the walls between souls – both aching and necessary. To be reached out and touched is unlike all other sensations, come around to calm and quashing a urge for escape.
At some point you need to step back, and you will want to. For most, it's from a brief exchange, a handshake, a hug. Most embraces are short and silent. Where goes the closeness craved? Children are held for indeterminate time, and lovers are much the same. On a scale of miles to inches, down to not one millimeter at all, we place each of the humans in our lives on a scale away from us.
They say that one person can't ever save another, but I'm not sure if that's true. Perhaps not a salvation from all, but some. My lover, my closest friend, she taught me humanity in her when I only found it in myself. She brought me a canvas to paint my thoughts across, another home for brokenness while the puzzle maker comes along to put it back together – a surface to spread the scene and search for missing pieces. I feel as alone as always, but in the company of a holy soul. I may never be better than I've been, but I've never had more hope. Hold fast.
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Fire Drill Friday protest against inaction on climate change, by the Capitol. Diane Lane getting arrested.
Hope you all have an incredibly blessed 2011!
1. “Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation ... even so does inaction sap the vigour of the mind.” --Leonardo da Vinci, 2. “Kindness is like snow - it beautifies everything it covers”, 3. L*I*L*Y, 4. SPRING has SPRUNG!!!!!, 5. Poinsett Bridge, 6. Little Drummer Baby, 7. Horsepasture River, 8. “It is not the clear-sighted who rule the world. Great achievements are accomplished in a blessed, warm fog.” --Joseph Conrad, 9. “To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” -- Elliott Erwitt, 10. “In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book. I am a writer and I take up my pen to write.” -- Pearl S. Buck, 11. "Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all." - Stanley Horowitz, 12. "Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful." --Norman Vincent Peale
Created with fd's Flickr Toys
Opening reception and performance (at 5pm) for Inaction, a new sculptural and performance-based installation by Brendan Fernandes.
Photography by Rich Marinelli
CLAAS JAGUAR 940 'Dynamic Power' forage harvester
CLAAS AXION 840 with the CLAAS CARGOS 8400 silage wagen
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