This is Lacock Abbey, which the Book God and I visited at the end of May when on an outing to celebrate our wedding anniversary. The reason I mention it here are the two literary connections which we spotted. One is that the cloisters were used in at least one of the Harry Potter films (it’s difficult to miss this as they understandably make a big thing of it and it certainly excited the children that were there at the same time as us).
The other is a little more interesting. The Abbey is also home to the a museum dedicated to the work of William Henry Fox Talbot, who was a pioneer of early photography. In the museum, as well as the standard exhibits, they had a special exhibition on the work of Julia Margaret Cameron, specifically the photographs she took as an illustration of Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, which I have started to read as part of Becky’s Arthurian challenge. It was a lovely coincidence and the photographs themselves were otherworldly and beautiful.
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June 16, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Nymeth
What a lovely picture. And how great that you got to see the exhibition!
June 17, 2008 at 6:12 am
brideofthebookgod
Nymeth – thank you, it is a lovely place, I took quite a few pictures and had to think quite hard about which one to post.