Looking Again - number 4

I only planned to feature the Eden Benchmarks or Sculptures for Sitting occasionally, as I came upon them. However, I have really got quite interested in them and become a bit obsessive with finding them all. It is fascinating seeing what has happened to them over the ten years or so that they have been in situ.

So here is number four: South Rising.

This is on a path above the River Eden, near Edenhall, Langwathby. The path is called Ladies Walk, as it has been for a long, long time a sheltered path for gentle meandering by the river. So it was a gentle meander that brought us to this sculpture today.

This was the first of the sculptures to be installed in 1996. And therein lies a problem. The sculpture was supposed to reflect the movement of the river and indeed that is what it does. Sitting here in 1996, especially on the lower seat you would have been able to view a beautiful bend in the river, alluded to in the way the two pieces curve towards each other, the lower one representing the river flowing north, the upper one pointing south to the river source.

But . . . fifteen years later and the river cannot be seen at all. The river bank is just to the left of the picture at the edge of the grass. I suppose the thick vegetation that has grown up could be cut down, but that would have to happen over a huge area for the river to be seen properly as it once was.

So . . this made me think. If this has happened in such a short time and the whole point and purpose of the sculpture has really been lost, what will it be like in a hundred years, two hundred years? I also then thought it is no wonder that we often have no idea what the purposes of some ancient monuments were, when the landscape in which they were placed has changed so much over time.