|
|
Description:
In the Azzize rolls of 1280 it is recorded that Thomas, the chaplain of Culbone was indited 'for that he had struck Albert of Esshe (Ash) on the head with a hatchet, and so killed him'. This sort of thing doesnt take place in this tiny hamlet today. Long gone are the charcoal burners and the colony of lepers. The small cluster of cottages around the church are nearly all gone. Culbone church is reported to be the smallest in England, the chancel is 13'6" x 10', the nave 21'6" x 12'4". Total length 35ft. It seats about 30 in great discomfort. It nestles in a beautiful little valley about 2miles from Ashley Combe, Porlock Weir, Exmoor. In the year 430 seven monks from the Celtic monastic tradition in Wales arrived in Kitnor with the idea of Christianizing the inhabitants in the area. They came by boat from Wales, landed on the coast, and came to Kitnor along a narrow track that led up from the sea. For nearly four thousand years, K'SH'B'H had been the name by which this valley was known, but, by the time the monks came, this name had been forgotten, and they called it Kitnor, meaning: place of the cave. The monks cleared the centre of the valley of all that had grown up in over three hundred years, and built stone dwellings for themselves in the form of cells, six in a circle around the central cell of the senior monk. This central cell was divided in two, so that there could be a place for communal activity and worship. The monks regarded all their activities as aspects of worship, and they needed no separate chapel; eating, study and teaching, prayer and chanting took place in one room. They also cultivated the land to grow their food. They belonged to an order of monks which no longer exists, or is even known of now. They were not as strictly organized or structured as later monastic orders; each monk had a greater sense of responsibility towards his own individual conscience, which took precedence over the Rules of Obedience towards the Order and group. The senior monk did not exercise the rôle of “superior”, with all the authority devolving upon it, as in later monastic orders. Their way of life differed in some respects from later monastic communities. All the brothers engaged in every activity, whether it was cultivation of the garden, preparation of food, teaching, or periods of meditation and stillness. There was no reading. Study consisted of the recitation of Scripture, preparation for teaching, or silent meditation. There were no set periods for prayer - except on Sunday, and the day was not divided into Offices (as in later times), but all activities throughout the day were preceded by communal prayer, and sometimes chanting or singing. All prayers were formal: there was no place for extemporaneous prayer. The Sacraments also differed from those developed by the later Orders and the Church; even the Holy Eucharist was not celebrated as it was in later times. The breaking of their daily bread was considered to be a sacrament in itself. The principal task of the monks was to teach, and many people came daily to Kitnor to receive instruction of a rudimentary sort in reading and writing, and in Christian doctrine. Sunday was different from the other days of the week, because the usual occupations were not engaged in; there was no teaching, and no work in the garden; but neither was there any special Office or liturgy. Sunday was a day of stillness and meditation, and the same forms of prayer and chanting of the other days, which preceded each change in activity, also punctuated the less active rhythm of Sunday. But there were longer and set periods for prayer on Sunday. From 3,800 B.C. to A.D. 105 - a period of nearly four thousand years - the same teaching had been taught in K'SH'B'H - not consistently, for there were long periods of interruption; but the teaching, when it returned, was always the same. There was no change in the inner structure of the teaching, even after Christ visited K'SH'B'H in A.D. 25. It was fulfilled and spiritualized, for men to learn that spiritual growth did not mean the acquisition of spirituality as an end in itself, but as a preparation to receive a New Birth, through the flame of caring. But with the coming of the Christian monks to Kitnor, a fundamental alteration in the teaching took place, and the original teaching was lost altogether - as far as this particular place was concerned. For the monks who came to Kitnor in 430 knew nothing of the older teaching. They came from a stratum of society and a culture that had been influenced only marginally by the old teaching - only to the extent of it having had a slightly civilizing effect on the people who comprised that segment of society. The monks were ignorant of the principles and truths which had given rise to the culture of whose ethical standards they were vaguely cognizant. The Church as an institution knew about the older teaching only in part, and was ignorant of the real truths underlying it. It saw every manifestation of the older teaching as a challenge to its own newly acquired consciousness of power. And in order to make sure that any power or influence the older teaching might still have was destroyed, it was discredited in every possible way. When one monk died, so another monk was always found to replace him, and the seven-monk community remained in Kitnor for approximately one hundred years. No church was built in Kitnor during the time of this early community, but the monks left behind one relic as material witness of their sojourn there. This was a stone window with two lights, a faintly carved column between them, and a capital in low relief, depicting a boar's head. (There were wild board in the woods in those days.) The head was carved by one of the monks around the year 500, and the window was placed in one of their cells. In 518 the monks finally left Kitnor. It was settled, more or less permanently, by primitive people who had not been influenced by any particular culture. Several families occupied the dwellings which the monks had vacated. They were principally woodsmen, but cultivated the land a little as well. There were about thirty people altogether, living an isolated yet self-contained existence. The people remained in Kitnor approximately thirty years, after which they tired of the place, and moved on elsewhere. From 560 to 635 Kitnor was without inhabitants. About the year 635 the idea was formed of building a church in Kitnor. The project was formulated solely by local priests who desired to obtain more power for the Church locally, and planned to build a number of chapels throughout the area. The first church was built on the site of the present church. (There is no basis of truth in the legend that they first attempted to build the church further up the valley, or elsewhere.) It was a rectangular building of stone, 10 feet wide, 18' 6" long, and 10' 6" high, incorporating nave and chancel in one. The roof was thatched, and there was no spire or tower. The stone window with two lights, whose capital had been carved by a monk many years before, was placed in this first church.
| Status: For Sale |
Reference#: 3181 |
| Condition:
Good |
Year:
19th Century
|
| Country:
UK |
Maker:
English School Circa 1828 |
| Height:
6.00 in. (15.24 cm) |
|
|
Width: 9.00 in. (22.86 cm)
|
|
| Title:
Valley of Culbone, Somerset with the hamlet of Culbone beyond, English School Circa 1828 |
Style:
Traditional |
| Materials:
Watercolor |
|
Dealer Policies: Artware Fineart Policy Details
Dealer Accepts:   
|
My
Basket
