An avenue of trees leads to the small church of Saint James in Morpeth 1837.
Edward Close ( of Closebourne, see previous post) promised that if he survived the Spanish Peninsular War he would build a church as an act of thanksgiving. Rightly or wrongly.
(The pulpit is a replica of the thirteenth century lectern in Beaulieu Abbey where Tyrrell had served before his appointment to the Newcastle diocese.)
I noticed a shell motif in the church and the scallop shell of Saint James is associated with the pilgrimage of Santiago de Compostela which ends at the large ornate cathedral of Saint James (the antithesis of that at Morpeth) in which, I read, is the Botafumeiro - a hugh cencer that dispenses thick clouds of incense as it swings. (Maybe it rivals Faultcults Pendulum mentioned here recently). The Botafumeiro is operated by a pulley and manpower and takes 40 kg of charcoal and incense and swings almost to the roof of the transept reaching speeds of 60 km/h !

Morpeth and Spain, our mind has the power to make leaps and bounds but for how long? A new type of search engine - for want of a better word, Wolfram Alpha, aims to make all knowledge immediately accessible to everyone in a new cross-referenced form - as I understand. A wonderful advance but will it spoil all the fun of the chase?