A cold misty morning and the plan was to change to the District Line at Wimbledon, but on arrival at the District Line found that it had been withdrawn and we were invited to get a bus to Hammersmith, which we did. Entertaining enough as it took us through an unfamiliar part of west London, with excellent viewing from the top deck. A lot of mist hanging over the river and we could barely see the water.
Onto the tube at Hammersmith, with the entire middle part of our carriage full of large cases belonging to people who had got off aeroplanes at Heathrow. Tubes not designed for this sort of thing, especially when crowded, as this one was.
Out at South Kensington to take our morning snack at an engaging (and illustrated) place called the Brompton Market - engaging in part because it was not too crowded. I think it would have been a bit of a pain if it had of been. Part of the wave of eateries which double as shops, and we wondered whether it was leading or following the wave. See reference 1. My snack consisted of an interesting mince pie (the mince part of which seemed to consist mainly of raisins) and an even more interesting sausage roll (the sausage part of which certainly did include bacon). The roll was served warm and, unlike many other establishments, they managed to serve it without extras, as instructed. No dollops of salad, mayonnaise or anything else. All served in white and blue enamelware pie dishes, small size. Smaller, but otherwise just like the one which we own ourselves and both sets of parents owned before us.
Onto a very crowded V&A, but we were pleased to find that our exhibition was busy but not crowded. An exhibition mainly full of embroidered vestments for the clergy of medieval Europe, mainly made in London, the centre of that trade at the time. Some of it around 700 years old.
I was first struck by the similarities between these vestments and the illuminated books, church carvings and Italian paintings of the same period. With lots, for example, of odd animals being used to fill up odd corners. There was clearly a lot of sharing going on - and I was reminded of the multi-media effects deployed in some of those paintings, some of which can be seen in the National Gallery.
Then struck by the expense of it all, although to be fair it was not all church, that was just the stuff which survived. Then by the thought that, at that time, the proper thing was to wear one's conspicuous consumption, rather than to hang it on a wall. That only came with the rise of the bourgeoisie. For a short time, I had a grip on the names of the various sorts of vestments, most of which had little other function than display. But now, some days later, faded, apart from cope.
Towards the end of the period, an interesting shift away from full on embroidery to appliqué, partly because the Black Death killed off a lot of the embroiderers and partly because of the arrival of fancy cloth from Italy. I notice in passing that the embroiderers were linked to the armourers, evidence that big cheeses in the church were not the only people into display, knights in armour did it too. Even in death, as we had a short, padded surcoat which once hung over the Black Prince's tomb. With the proper technical term for such a mortuary surcoat being an achievement.
Interested in some of the angels having more than one pair of wings, with some senior angels (seraphims) running to three pairs. As it happened, a day or so later I was reading about the evolution of birds from dinosaurs in Scientific American, and learned that during the early part of this process, the proto-birds did indeed have feathers all over the place. I associate now both to the skeletons of dinosaurs turned up in ancient times in what is now Turkey, thus fueling Greek myths about monsters and to the feathery costumes sported by the Aztec aristocracy and nearby people. But I think the feathery fossils mostly come from China and have only been turned up quite recently, so it must have been a lucky guess by the embroiderers.
Out through an unpleasantly noisy but seemingly unavoidable museum shop to take lunch, but failing to find the Joe's noticed at reference 3, settled for the nearby Obicà, which we had clocked at that time, but not tried. See references 2. Where had an excellent lunch, involving quite a lot of Mozzarella, good for BH as she is rather fond of the stuff. I had an excellent pasta, involving a red sauce (ragu), a sauce which they did not feel the need to dose up with chillies, as they do in so many other establishments. Served by a cheerful waiter from Ecuador, here ten years and with a Portuguese wife. He explained that it was not always hot, just because Ecuador was on the equator and if you got up into the hills it could be pleasantly cool, even cold
We had thought to go to the fancy church at Sloane Square noticed at reference 4, but finding the instructions on bus stops impressively comprehensible, took a bus to Clapham Junction instead. Mist still hanging over the river. McEwan bonus at the Raynes Park platform library closed the proceedings.
Reference 1: http://www.bromptonfoodmarket.com/.
Reference 2: http://obica.com/.
Reference 3: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/kensington-1.html.
Reference 4: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/return-visit.html.
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