The Henson Journals
Wed 13 August 1930
Volume 50, Pages 215 to 216
[215]
Wednesday, August 13th, 1930.
Jack Clayton went off in the course of the morning, pledged to a bewildering cycle of engagements. Peers and I left the Castle at 9.45 p.m., and arrived at Ripon at 11.5 a.m. We went at once to the Cathedral where Peers desired to inspect the vaulting of the Anglo–Saxon crypt, and to see the 10th century walls which had been uncovered in the process of introducing heating pipes. The vaulting was ribbed, a circumstance which appeared extremely important to Peers and Jones (who had joined us at the Cathedral) as throwing new light on Anglo–Saxon methods of building. I was myself much interested at seeing how freely the A.S. builders had utilized Roman material, probably taken from Aldborough. We (i.e. Peers, Jones, Thompson, the contractor, and I) lunched with the Dean very pleasantly: and, afterwards, we returned to the Church in order to see the beautiful Caroline plate (A.D. 1675). The covers to the large patens are astonishing. Neither Peers nor I had seen any like them.
We left Ripon about 2.10 p.m. and motored [216] [symbol] to Richmond, where we made a thorough inspection of the Castle. Peers explained everything with a plenitude of knowledge and a taking enthusiasm which added greatly to the interest of his words. I had not realized that this imposing building is mainly as ancient as 1070 A.D. It shows us the workmanship of the Conqueror's age. Some modern buildings at the entrance were used as prisons for pacifists during the war. [symbol] The walls of the cells are covered with drawings and inscriptions placed on them by the prisoners. These are mainly religious, and some are acutely anti–clerical. One lingers in my memory – "Christ died on the Cross: the Clergy live on it". It has a bitter taste. I urged Peers to have these inscriptions copied before the damp destroys them. After having tea in Richmond, we returned to Auckland, where we arrived around 6 p.m. after a day full of interest. The weather was favourable, but started to rain about 5.30 p.m.