Albion

In search of the English Imagination in Music, Art, Literature, Culture, History

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St Swithun, Benedictional of Æthelwold

British Library, London

Swithun (or Swithin) was Bishop of Winchester from his consecration on 30 October 852 until his death on 2 July 863

He is also known for the proverb:

St Swithun's day if thou dost rain

For forty days it will remain

St Swithun's day if thou be fair

For forty days 'twill rain nae mare

St Swithin’s Day being the 15th July.

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St John's Gate, Clerkenwell, 1842

John Wykeham Archer

Watercolour

British Museum

24th June - Feast Day of the Birth of John the Baptist. The Knights Hospitaller — whose English headquarters at Clerkenwell in London gave its name to St John’s Gate, which is still standing today — were formally the Knights of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, taking him as their patron. Its modern-day role is as museum of the order of St John through to St John Ambulance, the international first aid charity.

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“I have heard how a man at Weobley Marsh saw a strange creature come into his room one night, " something like a bat." His daughter told me he knew it was one of the witches then living on the Marsh. " But how did he know ?" I asked. " He knocked the thing down with a handkerchief, and if it had been a bat he would have killed it for certain. But he lighted a candle after, and there was nothing there at all. You can't harm them folks."”

From The Folklore And Witchcraft of Herefordshire by Ella Mary Leather,

English folklorist (1874-1928)

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Now Etheldreda shines upon our days,

Shedding the light of grace on all our ways.

Born of a noble and a royal line,

She brings to Christ her King a life more fine.

-- The Venerable Bede

St. Etheldreda, Queen of Northumbria, Abbess of Ely's Double Monastery aka Audrey, Athelthryth, Ethelreda, Edilthride, Ediltrudis, Edeltrude

Feast Day: 23 June

Saint Aethelthryth of Ely from the Benedictional of St. Æthelwold depicted in an illuminated manuscript

British Library, London

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RIP David Hockney (1937-2026)

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Sea Form (Porthmeor), 1958

Barbara Hepworth

Bronze

Seen at Barbara Hepworth in Colour at The Courtauld Gallery, London

Working in bronze marked a turning point in Hepworth's sculptural practice.

It allowed her to immerse herself in colour after a gap of about eight years. Her close collaboration with the Morris Singer Foundry led to the development of a variety of innovative patinas encompassing a wide range of colours, especially greens, and her favourite, a blue-green close to the colour of oxidised copper.

Sea Form (Porthmeor), named after a beach in St Ives, in Cornwall, has a mottled green patina with flecks of white. Its surface has been described as though 'salted from long immersion in seawater'.

Tate: Presented by the artist 1967

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Dented beaker, 300/400

England

Ceramics

Stadthuis, Brugge

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The shrine of Walburga

This reliquary contains the skulls of the English nun St. Walburga (ca. 710-779, Crediton, Wessex ) and her two brothers, Willibald and Winibald.

Seen at BRUSK, Brugge, Belgium

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Jug, 13th century

English red earthenware

Seen at WIDESCREEN, Interwoven worlds of Bruges 900-1550 exhibition at BRUSK, Brugge

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Detail of a decorated jug from Scarborough, end of 13th century-early 14th century

terracotta

Dudzele, collectie Jan Tilleman, seen at WIDESCREEN

Interwoven worlds of Bruges 900-1550 exhibition at BRUSK, Brugge

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St Dunstan Medal

The large medal on a chain is inscribed with an image of St Dunstan himself (born in 909 and died in 988), an Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, a Bishop of Worcester, a Bishop of London, and an Archbishop of Canterbury.

An accomplished musician, jeweler, painter, blacksmith and statesman, he was canonised as a saint in 1029 and is amongst England's most popular saints.

The image shows the devil peeping over his shoulder, a reference to one of the legends about him. The story goes that one day at Glastonbury, he was in his forge working on some metalwork and the devil came up behind him and began to tempt him into evil ways.

Dunstan whipped around and caught the devil's nose with the blacksmithing tongs and held him tightly as he roared and raged. Eventually Dunstan got the devil to promise that he would never come to tempt him or any other monks again.

Another version of the legend is that Dunstan shod the devil in iron so that he would always be heard creeping up behind people. Because of these stories, the smithing tongs are St Dunstan's symbol.

All Hallows By The Tower Museum, London

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Portrait of a Young Woman, c. 1740

William Hogarth

Oil on canvas

Collectie MSK Gent

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excerpt from The Old Vicarage Grantchester

(Cafe des Westens Berlin May 1912)

by Rupert Brooke

Just now the lilac is in bloom,

All before my little room;

And in my flower-beds, I think,

Smile the carnation and the pink;

And down the borders, well I know.

The poppy and the pansy blow. . .

Oh! there the chestnuts, summer through,

Beside the river make for you

Atunnel of green gloom, and sleep

Deeply above; and green and deep

The stream mysterious glides beneath.

Green as a dream and deep as death.

—

Oh, damn! I know it ! And I know

How the May fields all golden show.

And when the day is young and sweet,

Gild gloriously the bare feet

That run to bathe…

Woodcuts by Noel Rooke

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Peter Cushing

English actor

Born 26th May 1913

Still from The Revenge of Frankenstein (1957)

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The Glassblower 1944

Mervyn Peake 1911-68

Oil on canvas

City Art Gallery, Manchester

In the Second World War, Peake was commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee to record the making of cathode ray tubes, used in radar. He went to Chance Brothers' glassworks, in Smethwick, near Birmingham.

Peake was entranced by the glassblowers' grace but saw how hard they worked. He wrote, in his poem The Glassblowers:

It is the ballet of gold sweat. It is

The hidden ballet of the heavy feet

And flickering hands: the dance of men unconscious

Of dancing and the golden wizardries.

Rough clothed, rough headed, drenched with sweat, they are

As poised as floodlit acrobats in air

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Illuminated letter S (for Spiritus domini) circa 1310 to circa 1320 depicting the Holy Spirit descending on the apostles at Pentecost.

from the Sherbrooke Missal

National Library of Wales, MS 15536E

This beautiful Missal made from parchment originates from East Anglia.

It is considered a very important manuscript as it is one of the earliest examples of a Missal of an English source.

Sarum Missals were books produced by the Church during the Middle Ages for celebrating Mass throughout the year

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Villagers and Saints, 1933

SIR STANLEY SPENCER (1891-1959)

Oil on canvas,

University of Hull

Spencer was born in Cookham, Berkshire where he spent most of his life.He was an outstandingly original artist and an isolated and eccentric figure in British art.

Cookham provided him with the context for his highly imaginative religious works

Following his decoration of the Burghclere Chapel (1926-32) and his return to live in Cookham in 1932, Spencer planned a larger project, the decoration of a second chapel-like structure. This was the Church House.

Villagers and Saints is one of a series of paintings for this project which are now scattered in various collections.

They depict heavenly visitations set in the village street of Cookham.