Cats and North and South

Early to bed, early to wake up, and just lie there in bed, my head full of Pictish art, North and South, Pusscat's medicinal needs, and a couple of meetings today.

I can't go to Stonedead this year. Our old tom's medical regimen will take a while to get right, and until I've got it sorted in my own head I can't really convey it to a cat sitter. It's going to be more difficult for them, in so much as not mixing the drugs requires a three course breakfast for him, which means a three course breakfast for all the cats, and he eats the most slowly, cue standing over them for a while lest they nick his food. I love my cats very much, but I'm not ready for three of them on laxatives. Hanging out with AS and chums would be fab and it's a shame to miss, but when this routine is settled things will be back to normal.

North and South has been on my mind possibly because I'm remembering Manchester, Gaskell's inspiration for Milton. I remember this rainy but pleasant place, trams in the city centre, Victorian buildings everywhere, clean as you like. I can't imagine Gaskell's town of smoke and soot, machinery and industry, a place where curtains and clothes need constant washing, but any man could make his way to fortune and any woman could refuse to settle for the tiny wages and petty tyrannies of domestic service. Easy to forget that for all the filth and injustice, there was independence, aspiration, a sense of moving forward in these places. The beautiful south with its smocked farm labourers and maids in white pinnies was far less progressive in terms of labour rights, and if there was bad news for your lungs in the north, you could die just as thoroughly of hunger under a hedgerow in the south. Exploitation and abuse were rife in both. John Thornton's a fine example of a hero who might actually exist beyond tearing his hair out for his love, and his mother is a classic of literature, a mighty creation. But lordy, this book was not best served by serialisation, and Charles Dickens, who was a proper on-the-ball editor when insisting the novel be called North and South, should have had the sense to make Gaskell rename the industrial county. Darkshire? Where the hell is Darkshire? Not far from Gloomsbury and Murkton, I bet.

I've been awake since 4. I have no idea what's wrong with me. Manchester, I never understood you,but hey I get you more now. I'm always wise after the event, trouble is it takes years.

Stones and Crows

Returning to the museum, my heart lifted at seeing the beauties of Pictish art; I still love the crescent and broken arrow, which R is convinced is an early depiction of some prototype compass/sextant. That makes more sense to me than the usual interpretation; what tribe takes keenly to the symbolism of a split weapon? Looking at the Z-rods and discs, I'm resisting the temptation to declare that Picts invented the bicycle.



Whatever they mean, they're pretty, like these.





It would have been fine to enter a stone circle surrounded by such designs! Then again, I guess it would depend a lot on why you were there. Old beliefs gave way to Christianity, but they left their mark.



At the top we see the cross and the monks, next we see what the Museum tells us is the Lion of St Mark. It's a fine looking beast, but why St Mark? He was said to cross Europe preaching, but he rested at Venice apparently, so why would his emblem be found on an isle off Scotland?
Then we see this pair and what they are eating.




There's more to this than initial revulsion; to me it points right back to the magic of the head in Celtic folklore, from the Welsh legend of Bran to the dark protagonist of Sueno's Stone. There's more, much more, but again, so much stuff I don't know what to do with it.

The lowest tier's indistiguishable. I don't know if I'm sorry or relieved. The whole thing reminds me of the Twa Corbies ballad.

( Twa Corbies )

The English version is much less cynical, sweeter, though still sad.
( The Three Ravens )

So we see how it is; even Ravens have their own versions of North and South.