Sunday, 14th May, 2023

Today was our last day in Cambridge. Being a Sunday, we had many choices of services to attend. The first one was Matins at Kng's College at 10:30am. The Chapel Choir was joined by the "King's Voices", the college's mixed voice choir. Also0 in attendance were representatives of the University wearinbg a variety of gowns. The music included the Responses by Radcliffe, The "Te Deum" by Stanford in B flat and the anthem "I Love All Beauteous Things" by Judith Weir (the curent Master of the King's Music). The standard of the music was, as expected, excellent.




Followng the Service we went to the Bath House for a roast beef lunch.
Our next visit was St Botolph's Church which dates from the 14th century.








The pelican is a symbol of Christ (it will give its own blood to keep its chick alive if necessary)





The paintings either side of the East window are by Godfrey Gray, dated 1885.  The North side depicts St John and the two Marys at Christ's tomb, and the South side depicts the empty tomb.



The Lectern



Looking from the chancel down the Nave



St George



St Michael



The Annunciation



The Nativity



Jesus with John the Baptist



TheMendan Font Canopy constructed in 1636 and painted in 1637 had been redecorated several times.
In 1977 all later layers of paint were removed and the original paint uncovered and restored.

We then visited "Fitzbilly's" famous for their cinammon buns (and very nice they were too!)




Our next visitation was to Little St Mary's Church, another lovely 14th century building.





The two windows above depict the annunciation. Note Gabriel's lovely peacock-like wings!








These poppyheads were carved in the 20th century.



The Lectern




I'm not sure why this reredos had been removed to the back of the church.



Detail of the reredos above
We returned to King's College Chapel for an organ recital at 2:30pm. The organist was Sarah Baldock, Director of Music at Winchester College. The program was:

    Litanies by J.Alain
    Variations sur un thème de Clément Jannequin by J.Alain
    Toccata and Fugue in F BWV 540 by Bach
    Prélude et Fugue sur le nom d’Alain Op.7 by Duruflé

It was great to hear the chapel organ being given a bit of a work out! Evenson followed at 3:30pm. The music was the Responses by Tomkins, the Chichester Service canticles by Berkeley and the anthem "Evening Hymn" by Balfour Gardiner. The standard was once again wonderful. I particularly enjoyed the anthem (one of my favourites!)

We had considered squeezing in an extra Evensong at  St Botolph's but, as it was a beautiful sunny afternoon, we decided to go to the Cambridge University Botanic Garden instead. It holds a plant collection of over 8,000 plant species from all over the world to facilitate teaching and research and cost us £7.20 each to enter.





A photo of me (and a tree)












These are silver birch trees.


Our last Evensong at Cambridge was at St John's College at 6:30pm. Attending these beautiful services sometimes feels surreal, like one has left the real world, with all its clamour and haste, and gone somewhere else! The singing tonight was amongst the best I have heard anywhere ever. The musc included the Responses by Radcliffe, the Canticles by Watson in E and the anthem "Lo, the Full, Final Sacrifice" by Gerald Finzi. This last piece has difficult harmonies and demands that the choir produce both very soft and very loud tones. All this was achieved seemingly effortlessly. We have been so fortunate to be able to enjoy so much wonderful music during our time at Cambridge. I am very sad to be leaving tomorrow but, needs must!



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