Salisbury Cathedral: Magna Carta and Tapestry Repairers

We caught our trains (all on time today) to Salisbury where we'll be for the last two nights before flying home.

The Salisbury Cathedral (completed in 1258) is where we spent the afternoon until we could get into our hotel room. The cathedral had several noteworthy things, besides its awe-inspiring and massive construction and the intriguing gargoyles.
1) It houses one of four original copies of the Magna Carta (1219), the document that first specified that everyone, even kings, must obey the law, and guaranteed trial rights and protected people from illegal imprisonment. It has been referred to (e.g. by Nelson Mandela and Eleanor Roosevelt) and used as a model for other documents (our own U.S. Constitution and the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights).

The cathedral has a chapel dedicated to international human rights and to prisoners of conscience around the world.

According to the Cathedral's website "Salisbury Cathedral – like Magna Carta – remains a symbol of resistance to arbitrary authority." It was special and appropriate to be in this place, considering the current state of affairs in our own country.

This is the chapel and a tribute to the work of Amnesty International:
2) The best part of the tour happened when I passed an open door into a back room and saw 2 women hunched over a tapestry. They invited me in and explained that they are the tapestry repairers. I watched while they worked and told me what they were doing. The tapestry/banner is only used a few times in the year. According to woman #1, "It rubs against the rather rotund tummies of the priests and eventually it frays. They use it for their shenanigans." Woman #2 said, "I think you mean liturgy, not shenanigans." Woman #1 laughed and said, "I used to call it their magic, but I was told not to say that."
And finally there is this. Salisbury has street art and graffiti, unlike the last three towns.

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