Celestial foot warmer.

Visited Newcastle Cathedral, and was taken by these creatures sitting on the end of the tomb of Arthur Thomas Lloyd, 3rd Bishop of Newcastle.  
I had intended to add a picture of Cuthbert Baron Collingwood, who died on the 7th March, 205 years ago, and who has a monument in the cathedral, but what appealed to me most about his monument was not the head - heroic, noble and stoic, but the inscription, part of which is as follows:

He served with great bravery in the action of 1st June, 1794, and bore a most distinguished part in the victory off Cape St. Vincents in 1797.  In the memorable battle of Trafalgar he led the British squadrons into action and pressed forward with his single ship into the midst of the combined fleets of France and Spain on that day after the death of his illustrious commander and friend Lord NELSON.  He held the command of the Mediterranean for nearly five years, during which he never quitted his vessel for a single day.  At length, on the decline of his health, he became anxious to revisit his native land, but having learned that his services could ill be spared in those critical times,  he replied that his life was his country's, and persevered with the discharge of his arduous duties, till worn out with fatigue, he expired at sea on the 7th March, 1810, in the 61st year of his age.


Not long ago, I entered a picture of the Ajax wood, one of the new Trafalgar, woods.  The wood commemorating Collingwood's ship, the Royal Sovereign, is north of the Tyne. 

It did occur to me that Collingwood had all the qualities needed by a conscientious blipper.