Villiers

We were a little early for our ferry, so had time to pay our respects to the Duke of Buckingham, in whose street we had recently lunched (see reference 1), who was murdered nearby and to whom there was a second memorial in Portsmouth Cathedral, also nearby. The first was in Westminster Abbey, as befitted his status as a royal favourite, but somehow his sister had managed to get hold of his liver & lights and have them buried, along with herself, in the cathedral, where we were able to pay our respects. All very macabre - but a custom which survived at least until Hardy, whose ashes were transferred to the Abbey while his heart stayed at home in Dorset. See reference 2.

While the memorial illustrated is noticed for the jingle carved into the bottom half.

Heare beneath this Stone doth lye,
As much Valour as could dye,
Who in his life did vigour give,
To as much Justice could live,
But Death (which ner'e could him dismay)
Unkindly snatcht him hence away.

A naval officer who served under both Protectorate and Restoration. We did not find out whether the suspended model was one of his commands, but we did think of the church of models in Ramsgate of reference 3.

The cathedral also sported a della Robbia tondo, some odd carvings from driftwood from a sculptor alive and well in Yorkshire and a full immersion baptimsal font, one, we were told, of only two in regular churches in the country. Slightly cruciform and about the same size as one of those show off, stand alone ceramic baths that you can buy these days. There was a plug hole somewhere but it was not clear how the thing was filled up; perhaps they ran a hose from the outside tap.

We were also told that the cathedral had been spared by the Luftwaffe during the war, along with a tower in Gosport, as together they made a fine pair of markers for the dockyard. So bright and clean looking because it was looked after, not because it had been rebuilt. But it had been reorganised so that the western half of the church had been made over into a bright and airy community space.

Back at the ferry holding area, we were treated to a demonstration of the putting down of the hood of an elderly BMW convertible, with the owner being part of a group of a dozen or more who between then had no fewer than three such. Must be a popular car in their part of London, from where we assumed that they came. And, to be fair, the way that the hood folded away was rather neat, if prone to jamming on the way. Semi, rather than fully, automatic,

Reference 1: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/the-revenge-of-understudies.html.

Reference 2: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/matters-hardy.html.

Reference 3: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/ramsgate-3.html.