Pump and Circumstance

I bid farewell to C this morning after my enjoyable few days in Herefordshire, and headed in the wrong direction home - because I had decided to visit Hereford and its cathedral before turning northwards.

It is not a large cathedral, but it is full of architectural and other gems. I joined a little guided tour (three of us) to get an overview, had a good lunch outside, visited the New Library building opened in 1996 (so after I was last here with J), and walked around the cathedral close. In the New Library is held the Mappa Mundi, the greatest surviving medieval world map, and the ancient Chained Library, the largest in the world. And of course I lit a candle.

The image is a statue of the composer Edward Elgar, leaning on his bicycle and looking at the cathedral. Newly married he and his wife moved to Hereford in 1904. Around that time he also bought his first bicycle, he was a keen cyclist. He used it to indulge one of his other passions. He was keen on football and supported Wolverhampton Wanderers, cycling to and from their ground at Molyneux.

Temporary extras - a short section of the chained library (which contains a significant collection of manuscripts and books, the earliest an 8th century survival), and people inspecting the Mappa Mundi.