Bartimaeus

The great weather for our trip down the tidal Trent was followed as predicted by a grey and damp day, so we decided to stay put.  Yesterday was drier with bright spells, but there were threatening clouds for much of the day.  We set off along the Fossdyke Canal, reckoned to be one of the oldest in the country.  There are claims that it dates to Roman times, and documented evidence that it is over 900 years old.

Unfortunately, none of this makes it a particularly exciting canal.  Its modern incarnation is a wide waterway, with high flood defences on both banks obscuring the views of the surrounding countryside.  Clare was quite excited when we saw signs warning us of submerged deer ramps.  These turned out to be periodic piles of rubble extending out from the canal banks.  Sadly, the only deer we saw was one that had not managed to get out of the canal alive.

We reached Saxilby at about noon and found easy visitor moorings.  We topped up on groceries and had an enjoyable lunch at a friendly cafe, but didn’t think there was much more on offer.

We’d been warned that mooring can be tricky in Lincoln but we decided to go and see.  If need be, we’d carry on and find some other way to get there.  As it turned out there was a gap on the visitor moorings that was just long enough for us.  What do you do if you see a space man? Moor in it, man!  By now the day had warmed up considerably so we went to explore the city.

On our way we found High Bridge.  The name doesn’t refer to the clearance under the bridge, which has apparently been controversial for centuries.  Plans to demolish it have been drawn up and rejected a number of times.  We won’t have any difficulty getting Bartimaeus through.  We went up the steps to the High Street and then under the Stone Bow towards the cathedral.

This is not our first time in Lincoln, so we weren’t surprised at how steep the road gets.  When a road has a bannister, you can guess it isn’t going to be easy, and when it’s name is Steep Hill there’s no doubt.  We stopped at one of the shops selling ice cream.  Luckily a small girl in front of us ordered two scoops, so we could see that one scoop each was going to be plenty for us.

We had a look round the cathedral, neither of us can remember going inside on our previous trip.  We happened to walk in just after 4pm.  It turns out that there is a charge for entry between 10am and 4pm, so there was no charge for our short visit.

Today was another grey and damp day, so we decided to visit the Usher Gallery.  Amongst the collection was a view from just along the canal from our mooring.  Some parts of the view are unchanged, but none of the chain restaurants currently lining the north bank are depicted.

In the afternoon we went in to Lincoln Castle.  A very knowledgable member of staff helped us understand the exhibition showing the Magna Carta.  This is one of a number of such documents, it seems the big idea that nobody should be above the law has to be made repeatedly.  The writing was tiny, but the reason I couldn’t read it was that it was in shorthand Latin.

We also toured the Victorian prison that was built inside the grounds.  It was designed to isolate prisoners from each other, thus stopping the spread of criminality between them.  The prison was soon so overcrowded and ill-run that this principle was abandoned.

During our walk around the castle walls, we found that the grounds also contain the Crown Court, and dragons!