By day nine of our excursion ‘across the pond,’ my mind, feet, (and liver) were feeling the exhausting effects of several early mornings, long days, and short nights spent exploring a beautiful country which was not my own. However, I was still beyond excited to see Canterbury Cathedral and hear Dr. Leonie Hicks speak to us about it’s longstanding history.
The part of that day, and perhaps of the whole trip, which stands out most strikingly in my memory was not of the cathedral itself (as beautiful as it was). When we were given free time to explore the church, I decided to wander outside the nave door in search of the cloisters and the archive library labeled on the map we were given. What I found was a massive open air hallway which opened up on the left to a perfectly picturesque herb garden.
The enclosure was truly something out of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden. Little square plots of parsley, rosemary, thyme, lavender, catnip, and my personal favorite; succulents were scattered about the green space. Each bed was planted around a clump of stone ruin from some long-fallen architectural feature. The area was closed in on the sides adjacent to and opposite from the church by weathered stone walls made up of stout chipped columns and crumbling stone archways. Creeping vines and mossy greenery sprawled down between the uneven stone masonry from the tops of the shrubbery-covered walls. The juxtaposition of nature’s growth over the aged architecture reminded me of J.M.W. Turner’s charming paintings of Tintern Abbey. The thing I will remember most about this sweet solitary moment spent in the cloisters of Canterbury Cathedral is the smell of fresh dew-covered herbs drifting freely around me in the cool, quiet morning air.
-Charlotte Rosvold