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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Nic Wilson

Country diary: Orchids, plums and pine cones – all bursting out of cathedral walls

Sedilia with carved bosses and capitals. Nic Wilson
Carved bosses and capitals in the Lady Chapel. Photograph: Nic Wilson

All’s quiet in the Lady Chapel, sheltered from the bustle of the city by thick limestone walls of Totternhoe clunch, quarried just a few miles north-west in Bedfordshire.

But though I’m aware of being alone in a vast vaulted space, when I look at the stonework, I feel surrounded by the echoes of women who’ve stood here before me and left their legacy on the chapel walls.

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