TWO altitudinous ears face forwards. Then, they swivel sideways to better absorb the melodious rendering of The First Noel by 200 voices. Eyes the colour of coffee observe the scene: the wool-wrapped congregation, exhaled-breath clouds that linger on the cold December air, the coal-black backdrop, the flickering star-like tealights and the straw on the stone floor.
Biblical scenes such as this one play out throughout the Christian world in the weeks before Christmas. Although St Matthew and St Luke didn’t mention the sheep, the ox and the ass in their Gospels on the birth of Jesus Christ, history-filled in the animal gap. Now, a small number of Britain’s 30,000 donkeys (some 20,000 of which are in private hands, with the rest in sanctuaries) assist in recreating the Christmas story in barns, churches, and cathedrals during Advent.
Equally, the presence of the allegedly intractable, curious, characterful and cuddly creatures—master mimickers with ponylike bodies, cow-like tails, stand-up, zebra-like manes and some of the biggest ears, relatively speaking, in the animal kingdom (developed for cooling the body in the desert) —enhances many a Palm Sunday procession and pet service, as well as lending a traditional feel to glitz-and-glamour public displays, such as London’s New Year’s Day Parade.
Petal, the donkey with the swiveling ears —akin to errant wings, according to G. K. Chesterton in his poem The Donkey—is taking part in a Biblical tableau in a stable in Rudgeway, Gloucestershire, one of 14 sell-out services organized by kindly and welcoming Jean Fooks, a former primary-school teacher and clergyman’s wife.
Denne historien er fra December 11-18, 2019-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra December 11-18, 2019-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
