Cathedral Courtyard

Time and again, I come to my favourite place in Leicester, the Cathedral Courtyard. I sit on whichever bench is free and gaze at the fine Gothic architecture. Each time I am here, I notice something new.

Today, I notice that the gateposts at the entrance to the courtyard bear two pinnacles. From an architectural point of view, they are identical. However, Nature has made her mark on them in different ways. The first one bears a fine juicy crown of green moss, like a Pagan king, whilst the second is clasped within the woody fingers of an ivy plant, growing up around it like Nature's armour.

The hexagonal pond near the gravestones shoots clear arcs of water into the air, making me thirsty. Although, these clean streams are belied by the green murkiness from which they shoot forth.

The temperature seems just perfect. It is not so cold that my exhalations form streaming clouds from my nose, and fingers are not so cold that can't grasp my pen. Yet the air still has that slight chill about it which makes the alloy of the bells crisper, bringing out a sharper, cleaner chime. If I look carefully between the slats of the bell tower, I can just see the movement of the bells as they clang sonorously, clappers striking hard against their well-worn interiors.

My eyes travel greedily once again up the Gothic style spire. My sight climbs all sixty-seven metres to where it tapers to the wires of a weather compass. Being an Anglican Cathedral, the spire is relatively plain. I almost think that there is nothing left upon it to captivate me, but no, I am wrong. At the very apex, just underneath the crucifix-shaped weather compass, there appears, through the thick lenses that I need to make me see properly, a three dimensional fleur-de-lis. Each tiny petal carved intricately by the hands of a strong stonemason.

To sit here under this spire in my black overcoat and Bowler hat inspires me with vivid images which must immediately be recorded in Welford Soar's notebook. Does it matter at all, if I reject Anglicanism? I am in awe of the stonemasons who fashioned this fine building. Does it matter if I do not worship the Christian God? Of course it doesn't! Why should it?